Nov 252022
 
 November 25, 2022  Posted by at 9:34 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Salvador Dali Figure at a window 1925

 

Media Serve the Governors, Not the Governed (Lauria)
Musk Announces Twitter Amnesty (RT)
Musk Says Granting ‘Amnesty’ To Suspended Twitter Accounts (AP)
NATO Doesn’t Supersede the U.S. Constitution (McKnight)
Electric War (Escobar)
Belarus Paints Grim Picture For Ukraine If It Won’t Negotiate (RT)
Pentagon Dodges Ukraine Aid Question (RT)
French Interior Minister Labels Italy Enemy Of France After Migration Row (RMX)
EU Fails To Agree On Gas Price Cap – Hungary (RT)
Estonia Warns It Will Veto EU Price Cap On Russian Oil (RT)
Hungary Faces Pressure To Ratify NATO Expansion (RT)
Oddsmakers Favor DeSantis For 2024 (JTN)
Climate Policy Makes Europe Too Expensive for Low-Cost EV Manufacturing (CTH)
Meta Uncovers US Military-Linked Propaganda Campaign (RT)
You’re Going To Get Robbed (Denninger)

 

 

 

 

Gonzalo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s talk a bit about Twitter and its amnesty policy Elon Musk announced yesterday. Which is basically free speech. Which in turn is something many people feel threatened by. The Constitution itself is a threat to them.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in 1971:“In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy..”

Media Serve the Governors, Not the Governed (Lauria)

In his 1971 opinion in the Pentagon Papers case, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote: “In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government.” That’s what WikiLeaks and Julian Assange have been doing since 2006: censuring governments with governments’ own words pried from secrecy by WikiLeaks’ sources—whistleblowers. In other words, WikiLeaks has been doing the job the U.S. constitution intended the press to do.

One can hardly imagine anyone sitting on today’s U.S. Supreme Court writing such an opinion. Even more troubling is the news media having turned its back on its mission. Today they almost always serve the governors—not the governed. The question is why. Consolidation of media ownership has increased obedience of desperate journalists; entertainment divisions have taken over news departments; and careerist reporters and editors live vicariously through the power of those they cover, rejecting the press’ unique power to hold those officials to account. It comes down ultimately to lifestyles. Men go to war to protect and further their lifestyles. The press cheers them on for residual material betterment and increase in status. Millions of lives erased for lifestyles.

It used to be accepted in television that news departments would lose money and would be supported by the entertainment division. That’s because news was considered a public service. TV newsmen — they were almost all men in those days— were former wire service and newspaper reporters. But greed has put the presenters’ personalities before public service, as entertainment masquerades as news. Newspapers have sacrificed investigative units to maximize profit. Government is the winner. The abdication of the mainstream media of their constitutional responsibility to serve the governed and not the governors has left a void filled for more than a decade by WikiLeaks.

No longer do today’s Daniel Ellsbergs need to take their chances with editors at The New York Times or The Washington Post, or with their reporters spinning the damning information they risk their freedom to get to the public — no matter how disinterested and distracted the public may be. Now the traditional media can be bypassed. WikiLeaks deals in the raw material, that governments hang themselves with. That’s why they want Assange’s head. They lust for revenge and to stop further leaks that threaten their grip on power. That the corporate media has turned on Assange and WikiLeaks reveals their service to the state and how much they prioritize their style of life — disregarding the carnage they help bring about.

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Twitter “amnesty”. RT provides a factual story…

Musk Announces Twitter Amnesty (RT)

Twitter boss Elon Musk has vowed to extend a “general amnesty” to an unspecified number of suspended users, a week after reversing former US President Donald Trump’s lifetime ban from the platform. “The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week,” Musk tweeted on Thanksgiving Day. He added “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” a Latin phrase that means “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” The SpaceX and Tesla CEO launched a Twitter poll on Wednesday, asking if Twitter should “offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?” Out of more than 3.1 million users who took part, 72.4% voted ‘yes’ and 27.6% voted ‘no’.

In a separate message Musk also promised to start freeing and offering up for grabs “vast numbers of handles” that had previously been “consumed” by bots and trolls. Since acquiring Twitter for $44 billion last month, Musk has faced growing criticism for laying off hundreds of employees and reversing the permanent suspensions of multiple notable accounts, including former US President Donald Trump following a similar public vote. While critics claimed that Musk’s actions fuel hate speech, harassment and misinformation, he has rejected accusations he was some kind of “right-wing bogeyman” and insisted that Twitter under his ownership has not banned any leftists, not even for “utter lies.”

It remains to be seen how many users would be eligible for amnesty. This week the platform already reinstated Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose personal Twitter account had been permanently banned since early January 2022 for posting “misinformation” about the Covid-19 pandemic. Musk, however, drew the line at Alex Jones, saying he had “no mercy” for someone who used children’s deaths for clout. Musk had vowed to transform the platform and turn it into a bastion of free speech, saying it was “important to the future of civilization” to have a digital town square where a wide range of beliefs could be discussed.

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…but the MSM, in this case AP, sees enormous threats in free speech. And if free speech equals freedom, we know what they’re afraid of. It reminds me of Sartre’s “L’enfer c’est les autres”, (Hell is -the- other people). In other words, if you honor the priciple of free speech, you welcome hell into your world. That sounds like the opposite of what the founding fathers thought. Hell is other people’s freedom.

Musk Says Granting ‘Amnesty’ To Suspended Twitter Accounts (AP)

New Twitter owner Elon Musk said Thursday that he is granting “amnesty” for suspended accounts, which online safety experts predict will spur a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation. The billionaire’s announcement came after he asked in a poll posted to his timeline to vote on reinstatements for accounts that have not “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.” The yes vote was 72%. “The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted using a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people, the voice of God.” Musk used the same Latin phrase after posting a similar poll last last weekend before reinstating the account of former President Donald Trump, which Twitter had banned for encouraging the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

Trump has said he won’t return to Twitter but has not deleted his account. Such online polls are anything but scientific and can easily be influenced by bots. In the month since Musk took over Twitter, groups that monitor the platform for racist, anti-Semitic and other toxic speech say it’s been on the rise on the world’s de facto public square. That has included a surge in racist abuse of World Cup soccer players that Twitter is allegedly failing to act on. The uptick in harmful content is in large part due to the disorder following Musk’s decision to lay off half the company’s 7,500-person workforce, fire top executives, and then institute a series of ultimatums that prompted hundreds more to quit. Also let go were an untold number of contractors responsible for content moderation.

Among those resigning over a lack of faith in Musk’s willingness to keep Twitter from devolving into a chaos of uncontrolled speech were Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth. Major advertisers have also abandoned the platform. On Oct. 28, the day after he took control, Musk tweeted that no suspended accounts would be reinstated until Twitter formed a “content moderation council” with diverse viewpoints that would consider the cases. On Tuesday, he said he was reneging on that promise because he’d agreed to at the insistence of “a large coalition of political-social activists groups” who later ”broke the deal” by urging that advertisers at least temporarily stop giving Twitter their business.

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More violations of what the founding fathers bestowed upon us. How did all these things become so normal?

NATO Doesn’t Supersede the U.S. Constitution (McKnight)

As our government continues to bumble and stumble at full speed towards World War III, the concept of tripwires and the legal authority of Article 5 become required understanding for the vigilant citizen. Last week the American people received the then-breaking news that a missile had landed in Poland and killed two people.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that this was a purposeful act of war by Russia, and that the West must respond with full kinetic retaliation. He was joined by his amen corner here in the United States, that group of politicians, regime journalists, and paid lobbyists who have sold out their country for the requisite thirty pieces of silver. The War Party immediately jumped into action: this was what they’ve been waiting, praying for. A catalyst to launch the missiles, and sacrifice the world.

Poland, like the United States and nearly all of Europe, is a member of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. (Maybe we should wonder why countries like Poland, Estonia, and Romania are in an “Atlantic” alliance.) A provision of NATO is Article 5, which popular conception treats as a mandatory obligation to go to war when a member of the alliance is attacked. It’s a one way pass into World War III. There were just two things wrong with this narrative. First, as was revealed within forty-eight hours and confirmed by both the Polish government and Biden White House, the missile was Ukrainian, not Russian. Vladimir Putin had not attacked NATO—purposefully or accidentally. Instead, a Ukrainian air defense missile attempting to intercept a Russian strike went off trajectory killed two Poles across the border.

All of a sudden “collective security” was no longer threatened, and no one on cable news was talking about how this required NATO retaliation on Kiev. (Surprised?) Secondly, even if it had been a Russian missile, and even if Vladimir Putin himself had aimed directly at that Polish farm, Article 5 obligates the United States to nothing. The NATO Treaty also has an Article 11, which specifies that the provisions of the alliance will be carried out in accordance with the domestic constitutions and processes of the respective members. That means a majority vote of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on a formal declaration of war. Any member of Congress or news talking head saying Article 5 requires an immediate military response without a debate or vote is either lying or woefully uninformed.

And even if the NATO Treaty didn’t have that provision, we’d still rest our argument of Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, the supreme authority of our laws. We are a sovereign nation, and the American people always have a choice on whether or not to go to war. Any international piece of paper trying to say otherwise be damned. Unfortunately, the War Party doesn’t always make that choice easy. They bribe politicians with weapon contract profits, flood the corporate press with propaganda, and instruct the American people that they must either commit to endless war or lose their liberty. They manufacture themselves consent.

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“..a Polish farmer, his footfalls echoing in our collective memory, may have saved the world from WWIII..”

Electric War (Escobar)

Spare a thought to the Polish farmer snapping pics of a missile wreckage – later indicated to belong to a Ukrainian S-300. So a Polish farmer, his footfalls echoing in our collective memory, may have saved the world from WWIII – unleashed via a tawdry plot concocted by Anglo-American “intelligence”.Such tawdriness was compounded by a ridiculous cover-up: the Ukrainians were firing on Russian missiles from a direction that they could not possibly be coming from. That is: Poland. And then the U.S. Secretary of Defense, weapons peddler Lloyd “Raytheon” Austin, sentenced Russia was to blame anyway, because his Kiev vassals were shooting at Russian missiles that should not have been in the air (and they were not). Call it the Pentagon elevating bald lying into a rather shabby art.

The Anglo-American purpose of this racket was to generate a “world crisis” against Russia. It’s been exposed – this time. That does not mean the usual suspects won’t try it again. Soon. The main reason is panic. Collective West intel sees how Moscow is finally mobilizing their army – ready to hit the ground next month – while knocking out Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure as a form of Chinese torture. Those February days of sending only 100,000 troops – and having the DPR and LPR militias plus Wagner commandos and Kadyrov’s Chechens do most of the heavy lifting – are long gone. Overall, Russians and Russophones were facing hordes of Ukrainian military – perhaps as many as 1 million. The “miracle” of it all is that Russians did quite well.

Every military analyst knows the basic rule: an invasion force should number three times the defending force. The Russian Army at the start of the SMO was at a small fraction of that rule. The Russian Armed Forces arguably have a standing army of 1.3 million troops. Surely they could have spared a few tens of thousands more than the initial 100,000. But they did not. It was a political decision. But now SMO is over: this is CTO (Counter-Terrorist Operation) territory. A sequence of terrorist attacks – targeting the Nord Streams, the Crimea Bridge, the Black Sea Fleet – finally demonstrated the inevitability of going beyond a mere “military operation”. And that brings us to Electric War.

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“If they [Kiev] don’t want people to die, and to die in huge numbers … It’s hard, but [the conflict] must be stopped, because the complete destruction of Ukraine will follow..”

Belarus Paints Grim Picture For Ukraine If It Won’t Negotiate (RT)

Ukraine should do its best to end the conflict with Russia, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday, adding that failure to do so would bring about the total collapse of the nation. Commenting on the hostilities in the neighboring country, the Belarusian leader noted that “everything is in Ukraine’s hands now.” “If they [Kiev] don’t want people to die, and to die in huge numbers … It’s hard, but [the conflict] must be stopped, because the complete destruction of Ukraine will follow,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Armenia. Lukashenko added that it is not just “the loss of statehood” that is at stake for Ukraine, but its very existence.

He claimed that the Ukrainian people, who are bearing the brunt of the conflict, would eventually force President Vladimir Zelensky into a diplomatic engagement. “In one or two years, the people will be accusing him: ‘What did you do to start this war?’ According to Lukashenko, the situation will “press the Ukrainian leadership – if it is reasonable – into sitting at the negotiating table.” After Russia launched its military campaign against Ukraine in late February, Belarus hosted several rounds of talks between Moscow and Kiev. At the time, however, these diplomatic efforts failed to garner any results. In October, the Belarusian president claimed that while Minsk takes part in Russia’s military operation, its role is limited.

He said that his country is preventing the conflict from spreading into its territory while making sure that “nobody would shoot Russians in the back from the territory of Belarus.” In late September, he also claimed that the conflict could end “in just a few days” if Western powers were to back a peaceful settlement. This statement was to some extent echoed by Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said last week that the participation of Western nations in dialogue could be a “guiding and reinforcing element.” While Moscow has repeatedly signaled that it is open to negotiations, President Zelensky has set some conditions. They include the “restoration of [Ukraine’s] territorial integrity,” “compensation for all war damage,” and the “punishment of every war criminal.”

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“I am not going to take the question because I’m answering your question.”

Pentagon Dodges Ukraine Aid Question (RT)

The US military has declined to give an exact breakdown for billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine requested by the White House last week, saying it would not discuss funding to replenish domestic arms stocks amid reports of growing shortages. Asked about President Joe Biden’s letter to Congress requesting an additional $37.7 billion in assistance to Kiev, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh refused to offer details. “I would not be able to tell you how much of that… is going back to replenishment,” she told reporters during a Tuesday press conference. “With every security assistance package that we announce, we assess our own readiness and capabilities and also what needs to be replenished.”

Pressed on whether she could take the question back to the Pentagon and provide an answer later, Singh doubled down, insisting: “I am not going to take the question because I’m answering your question.”“I just don’t have a number or a dollar figure for you right now on what that looks like, and I don’t think that’s something that we would broadcast from here,” she reiterated. Though the White House previously said that $21.7 billion of the requested aid would be devoted to both “equipment for Ukraine” and the “replenishment of Department of Defense stocks,” it did not specify how much would go to each. Repeated weapon shipments to Kiev have taken a toll on the domestic stockpile.

Earlier this week, the US Army’s chief of arms acquisition, Doug Bush, said the military was accelerating its process to procure weapons in order to make up for shortages, though Pentagon documents recently seen by the New York Post suggested it will take “multiple years” to resupply the Army. Even as early as March, just weeks after the conflict in Ukraine kicked off, the Defense Department was already scrambling to replenish thousands of shoulder-fired missiles supplied to Kiev. US arms transfers have only increased in the time since, with the Pentagon’s latest fact sheet reporting more than $19 billion in direct military aid approved since February, including over 46,000 anti-armor systems, nearly 200 Howitzers, 38 long-range High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and a litany of other heavy weapons, vehicles and ammunition.

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“She argues that France continues to act like a colonial power, which drives Africans to migrate in the first place.”

French Interior Minister Labels Italy Enemy Of France After Migration Row (RMX)

Following growing tensions between Italy and France over the issue of boat migrants in the Mediterranean, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has resorted to extremely harsh rhetoric, referring to the Italian government as “enemies of France.” Darmanin made the comment in response to a question from a National Rally MP Mathilde Paris during a Q&A session in the French parliament, saying Italy is “attacking France.” Paris was inquiring why the majority of the migrants aboard the Ocean Viking ship, which France allowed to dock, have been released from the administrative center housing them, despite the minister’s previous assurances that “(they) will not be able to leave the administrative center.” Instead of addressing the question, Darmanin claimed she was an “ally” of the “enemies” of France.

“In fact, madam, you are not patriotic if you ally yourself with the enemies who are attacking France at the moment,” Darmanin said in response to a question by Paris. “You are siding with Madam (Giorgia) Meloni and her government who did not respect international law, instead you are attacking French policemen,” he added. The French government is being criticized for taking in the migrants, and a report shows that 26 of the 44 minors taken in have already escaped the migrant center. The language being deployed by Darmanin is sure to add further tension between the two countries, which has been growing ever since Italy rejected taking 234 migrants from the NGO ship Ocean Viking, which had mostly North Africans on board.

Italy argues that it has already accepted 90,000 migrants in 2022 alone, and even after rejecting Ocean Viking, it still allowed three NGO ships to dock and 600 migrants to disembark. Although French President Emmanuel Macron has labeled Meloni “inhumane” for not taking in the Ocean Viking migrants, at the same time, France has now said it is retaliating by not accepting 3,000 migrants from Italy it had promised to take in. Meloni has responded, pointing to France’s CFA franc program, in which France agrees to print money for 14 African countries in exchange for mint fees, which can go as high as 50 percent. She argues that France continues to act like a colonial power, which drives Africans to migrate in the first place.

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Hopeless. They all want different price caps for different reasons.

EU Fails To Agree On Gas Price Cap – Hungary (RT)

EU nations have failed to reach an agreement on imposing a price ceiling on natural gas following a Council of Energy Ministers’ meeting, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday. Ministers from the bloc will discuss the proposed measure further during an extraordinary meeting scheduled on December 13, two days before the Summit of European leaders. “Today we started negotiations on the introduction of a ceiling on gas prices. I can say that these are bad proposals, which also threaten Europe’s energy security,” Szijjarto said. “At the meeting, no decision was made that could meet the objectives of the European Commission,” the minister stated, adding that most member states, including Hungary, see such a step as a misguided intervention with work of the natural gas market.


Szijjarto stressed that Hungary, which is heavily reliant on Russian energy imports, is planning to seek exemptions from any EU price caps on oil and gas supplied under long-term contracts. The EU has proposed introducing a cap when prices on the TTF exchange, Europe’s gas benchmark, reach €275 per megawatt hour and when prices are €58 ($59.53) higher than the LNG reference price for ten consecutive trading days within the two weeks. Both conditions need to be met for the cap to be triggered.

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“It is hoped that the price limit would allow Russian production to remain at pre-sanctions levels, but reduce the country’s oil revenue.”

Estonia Warns It Will Veto EU Price Cap On Russian Oil (RT)

A price cap on Russian oil proposed by the European Commission is too high and may be blocked by Estonia, Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu said on Thursday, as quoted by Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR). The proposal by Brussels to set a limit of between $65 and $70 per barrel on Russian sea-borne oil is insufficient, he stated, arguing that Moscow would make too much revenue at that price. “Estonia finds that the price horizon’s ambition is too low, considering that the EU has also failed to agree on a ninth sanctions package. The cap seems too high,” Reinsalu said at a government press conference, adding that discussions were ongoing.

Earlier, EU energy chief Kadri Simson confirmed that bloc members had failed to reach an agreement on a Russian oil price cap, but said negotiations would continue. Estonia’s warning came after EU leaders had already watered down the proposed cap by weakening some shipping provisions and delaying the implementation of the measure. Under the updated plan seen by Bloomberg, a grace period would apply to crude loaded before December 5, when oil-related sanctions come into effect, and unloaded by January 19. If approved, the measure would ban Western companies from providing insurance, brokerage or financial assistance to vessels loaded with Russian crude, unless the cargo is purchased below an agreed price.

It is hoped that the price limit would allow Russian production to remain at pre-sanctions levels, but reduce the country’s oil revenue. The proposal was reportedly rejected by Poland along with all three Baltic States, which called the cap “too generous” for Russia and pushed for the price ceiling to be imposed at $30 per barrel. Meanwhile, nations with major shipping industries like Greece and Malta insisted the cap should not be below $70. On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would embargo nations that support the proposed price limit on its oil.

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“I would like to underline that the Swedes and the Finns have not lost a single minute of membership because of Hungary,” Orban said..”

Hungary Faces Pressure To Ratify NATO Expansion (RT)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has promised that Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership bids will definitely be among the first items on the agenda when the country’s parliament reconvenes next year, likely around mid-February.“I would like to underline that the Swedes and the Finns have not lost a single minute of membership because of Hungary,” Orban said, as cited by Euronews, adding that the prime ministers of Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia had nudged him to move forward with the process during their meeting on Thursday.

“We have already confirmed to both Finland and Sweden that Hungary supports the membership of these two countries in NATO, and at the first session of next year, Parliament will put this on the agenda,” the Hungarian PM stated, apparently after facing pressure during a Visegrad Group meeting in Slovakia. Last month, Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas said there was a “good chance” the Hungarian parliament would vote before its autumn session ends mid-December. The parliament usually reconvenes in early February. In May, amid Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, Sweden and neighboring Finland broke with their decades-long neutrality stance and formally applied for NATO membership. While the bloc accepted the requests, the Nordic nations’ bids have to be ratified by all 30 member states, and Türkiye and Hungary’s approval is still pending.

Earlier this month, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock rebuked Budapest and Ankara for delaying the ratification process, insisting that there is a “crystal clear basis” for allowing the two Nordic nations to join the military bloc. Hungarian officials have repeatedly stated their support for NATO expansion, and the measure is expected to be easily passed once it comes to the floor. Meanwhile, Ankara is demanding that Stockholm and Helsinki do more to fight “terrorism,” particularly Kurdish groups which are outlawed in Türkiye. Negotiations on the matter are still underway.

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Pence and Buttigieg. What a waste of time.

Oddsmakers Favor DeSantis For 2024 (JTN)

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is the odds-on favorite to win the 2024 presidential election. Betting website Covers.com currently assigns DeSantis a 30.77% chance of winning the 2024 electoral contest, with former President Donald Trump coming in second with 22.22%. President Joe Biden rounds out the top three with 20% while Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom tie for fourth with 6.67% each. Former Vice President Mike Pence and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg each have a 4.35% shot at the nation’s top job. Thus far, only Trump has officially launched his 2024 campaign, though Biden is expected to eventually do so. DeSantis, meanwhile, has declined to fuel speculation about his own potential bid, instead asserting that the GOP should focus on the upcoming Georgia runoff election.

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Want to use less oil? Stop making stuff.

Climate Policy Makes Europe Too Expensive for Low-Cost EV Manufacturing (CTH)

We have been closely monitoring the signs of a global cleaving around the energy sector taking place. Essentially, western governments’ following the “Build Back Better” climate change agenda which stops using coal, oil and gas to power their economic engine, while the rest of the growing economic world continues using the more efficient and traditional forms of energy to power their economies. Within the BBB western group (identified on map in yellow), the logical consequences are increased living costs for those who live in the BBB zone, and increased prices for goods manufactured in the BBB zone. In the zone where traditional low-cost energy resources continue to be developed (grey on map), we would expect to see a lower cost of living and lower costs to create goods. Two divergent economic zones based on two different energy systems.

This potential outcome just seemed to track with the logical conclusion. The yellow zone also represented by the World Economic Forum, and the gray zone also represented by an expanding BRICS alliance. Against this predictable backdrop we have been watching various events unfold, some obvious and some less so. Today, we get an obvious example: NEW DELHI, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Fiat parent Stellantis (STLA.MI) has concluded it can’t currently make affordable electric vehicles (EVs) in Europe and is looking at lower-cost manufacturing in markets such as India, its chief executive told reporters. If India, with its low-cost supplier base, is able to meet the company’s quality and cost targets by the end of 2023, it could open the door to exporting EVs to other markets, said Carlos Tavares, CEO of the group whose brands also include Peugeot and Chrysler.

“So far, Europe is unable to make affordable EVs. So the big opportunity for India would be to be able to sell EV compact cars at an affordable price, protecting profitability,” Tavares told reporters at a media roundtable in India late on Wednesday. Stellantis is investing heavily in EVs and plans to produce dozens in the coming decade, but Tavares warned last month that affordable battery EVs were between five and six years away. On his first visit to India since taking over as Stellantis CEO, he said the company was still working out a plan regarding EV exports from the country and had not yet taken any decisions.”

Normally we would expect to see market forces determining the ultimate economic outcome. Historically, we would not expect government policy that puts their nation at an economic disadvantage. However, in this WEF controlled new western economic normal we see multinational corporations’ making decisions and government leaders creating policy to support the corporations. There is money to be made by corporations within the climate change agenda, and there is money to be made by producing goods with low-cost wages and cheap materials. Eventually, if you keep following this to its natural conclusion, the entire yellow zone becomes a service driven economy.

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What on earth made them go public with this?

“..the Pentagon was forced to launch a “sweeping audit of how it conducts clandestine information warfare,” after a variety of social media accounts, which its operatives used to target foreign audiences in elaborate psychological warfare efforts, were exposed.”

Meta Uncovers US Military-Linked Propaganda Campaign (RT)

Facebook’s parent company Meta has acknowledged the discovery of several clusters of fake accounts and pages believed to be linked to individuals “associated with the US military,” according to the company’s latest adversarial threat report published this week. “Although the people behind this operation attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to individuals associated with the US military,” the company said in a blog post on Tuesday. The influence campaign was discovered earlier this year and in total Meta removed 39 Facebook and 26 Instagram accounts, as well as 16 Pages and two groups, all for violating the policy against “coordinated inauthentic behavior.”

The social media giant admitted that the large-scale operation ran beyond those several dozen accounts and across many other internet platforms, including Twitter, YouTube and Telegram, as well as major Russian social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. It apparently attempted to downplay the discovery by insisting that the “majority of this operation’s posts had little to no engagement from authentic communities” and highlighting similar “deceptive campaigns” by China and Russia. Meta’s acknowledgement substantiates a bombshell investigation by Washington Post that revealed that the Pentagon was forced to launch a “sweeping audit of how it conducts clandestine information warfare,” after a variety of social media accounts, which its operatives used to target foreign audiences in elaborate psychological warfare efforts, were exposed.

The takedown of the influence network was initially highlighted by researchers at Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory, which back in August published a report about online networks allegedly pushing “pro-Western,” anti-Russia and other politicized narratives. While the original study did not pin blame for the fake accounts on any particular actors, two officials later told the Post that US CENTCOM – the combatant command which oversees forces in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia – “is among those whose activities are facing scrutiny” for its influence operations. At the time, CENTCOM refused to comment on whether any of the suspicious accounts were created by its personnel or contractors, but one official claimed such behavior would “absolutely be a violation of doctrine and training practices.”

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Death, taxes and getting robbed.

You’re Going To Get Robbed (Denninger)

Read this Twitter thread in full.: Today, we issued a final rule that allows retirement plan investors to take climate change and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into consideration when making investment decisions: Oh really? Did you not just see a prime example of what happens when “ESG” takes over a corporation? Why, you did. It’s called Twitter. Three quarters of the people, all hired with “ESG” in mind, were just fired by Musk who as a private owner has zero obligation to any such so-called “principle.” The various screaming parties in the ESG cult all predicted immediate doom and disaster. No such disaster has occurred; the firm’s only service it provides to the public is running just fine with one quarter of the staffing load — and thus cost — it used to have. If you think Twitter is unique in this regard you’re too stupid to have a retirement and deserve to lose every cent of whatever you claim to be “investing.”

Let’s put this in simple terms: If “ESG” is a net positive for a company then nobody has to exempt anything or make it a separate subject of consideration and in fact doing so is stupid because if it in fact makes the firm more competitive and operating at a lower cost per unit of output it wins all on its own. What the Department of Labor has said by issuing this advisory is that your “retirement plan” can now be disadvantaged to any degree whatsoever, including losing all of it, when (not if) these “ESG” initiatives cause the firms invested in to underperform or fail outright and when that occurs you can’t sue the plan provider for violating their fiduciary responsibility to you as the true owner of the asset.

In other words the Department of Labor is formally admitting that these “ESG” initiatives are not to the benefit of the firm’s operating results and thus are also not to your benefit as an investor. This fact has now become a formal admission by our Federal Government. What’s worse? This “rule” amounts to an admission of collusive price-fixing — albeit indirect — between what are supposed to be competing firms. Under 100+ year old law that is a serious criminal felony. You will get screwed out of trillions of dollars over the coming years as a result of this and you are responsible for that screwing because you have and continue to permit this sort of rank corruption to take place without demanding it stop and backing up that demand with whatever is necessary to eliminate it.

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Steve Kirsch
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Home Forums Debt Rattle November 25 2022

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  • #121806

    Salvador Dali Figure at a window 1925   • Media Serve the Governors, Not the Governed (Lauria) • Musk Announces Twitter Amnesty (RT) • Musk Says
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle November 25 2022]

    #121807
    Germ
    Participant

    @ asnaz

    “Did either of you start an ivermectin distribution center for your towns or do anything else that could be remotely construed as helpful?”

    I don’t need to justify or detail anything I have done during this scamdemic.

    But in this instance, I will tell you that I treated many people with IVM/Azith, as well as obtaining stashes of it for various folks without charge – including our host here at TAE!

    #121808
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    I don’t need to justify or detail anything I have done during this scamdemic.

    Indeed Sir; you do not!
    A hat tip for all you have done; keep on keeping on…………… 😉

    #121809
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    “The proposal by Brussels to set a limit of between $65 and $70 per barrel on Russian sea-borne oil is insufficient, he stated, arguing that Moscow would make too much revenue at that price.”

    Had to double check to make sure I wasn’t reading the “Bee”. Hard to believe anyone can say that out loud with a straight face.

    #121810
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Britain Provides Helicopters to Ukraine for First Time in War”

    Ideal. Now they can blow the crap out of them in a big demonstration to all. And these helicopters are older than Richard Nixon? These choppers are older than more than half the country. That should go just great. Best of all, Britain can no longer deny that they are a direct participant.

    (Sea King is 1969. Nixon was President in 1970. The median age in the U.S. is 39, that is, 1983.)

    I hear the Montgolfier Brothers are free if Britain wants to send dirigibles. They’re supposed to be fighting the LAST war, not the last CENTURY’S war.

    Lira: “Dispiriting”. Yes, that’s my experience. You’ve been written from birth to do these things, think them, use them, so without electricity, you need not only to deal with actual dark and cold, but to re-write most things about yourself. Into a different person. Life re-localizes? Down to a VERY local, like your line-of-sight? Yes, but that also makes it real, tangible. You also re-animalize in several ways. I suppose the poor these days haven’t experienced this, as generally they’ll keep up power, heat, water, and cable for you, and now smart phones. That may not be much, but it’s essentially very different from a tin shack with an outhouse. In many ways the shack is better.

    Economist, “Frozen Out”. “The Economist”is the Rothschild’s Magazine. That’s an interesting cover.

    “One can hardly imagine anyone sitting on today’s U.S. Supreme Court writing such an opinion.”

    Yes, because like Roberts and Kavanaugh, they’re all actually Liberals. Republicans who follow the speed limit and have followed it Leftward for now another 30 years. No? What’s their position on gay marriage? Yes, I don’t see Eisenhower and Billy Graham supporting that. So CLEARLY no one is turning back the clock. Ever. So this writer feels the Supreme Court itself is largely against the Constitution and its principles, which is overwhelmingly true. Like all governments and government employees, they always side with government. Like FISA, with no review and no censure for problems. Suppressing all investigations if problems are found. If they weren’t pro-government, they wouldn’t be chasing and working for them. But the Constitution LIMITS government. It’s not a rule on US, it’s a rule on THEM. It doesn’t GIVE us Rights – those we had all along. It is a business contract law of employee and employer…and WE the People are the Boss.

    ““The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week,”

    The Left boycotted, double-crossed, and refused to join the committees that would control the discussion. They said, “Obey me slimeball, and I’ll sit here in my apartment not working.” …Hey, aren’t you an employee, while telling your boss on the company platform to suck your d—k? How do you think that would go over at the DQ HQ? Not good? Insulting your boss, ordering him around, openly declaring you defy all orders, good for employment? So psychotic the concept doesn’t even register. After they are already fired. And both the firing and severance was Posh! EasyStreet!

    …And there’s the meme going around where Elon asked programmers to stay late and work because: yeah, a lot of problems to be fixed, or things to be changed, that’s for sure. When it was clock-punching, and we saw the video of the gal wandering from latte to yoga studio on the clock, they were half women. When the company needed Overtime, every woman bailed on work. It was 99% men. I don’t know what to say about that. There’s a lot of framing, interpreting, but that’s true over society as well. Something like half of women don’t work but 90% of men do? That’s why they suck, we hate them, and they should probably all be killed. CLEARLY the superior people are the ones who don’t work, and the bad people are the ones who do. “From each according to their ability”…at gunpoint, comrade.

    I was looking for that meme, but this one is funnier:
    Wesnesday

    Anyway, no conclusion on that, needs more review.

    “which online safety experts predict” Well, that’s wrong then. It’ll be the #Opposite. Apparently these “experts” have never been on “The Internet”? There’s nothing on the Internet BUT harassment and misinformation. That’s the POINT of Internet. Why? Because if you go to WalMart and talk to the people, you’ll get nothing but disinformation and harassment there too. Yet here they pass a law that apple trees must give bananas. “The Internet” is an expression of US. …Sadly the government is an even WORSE expression of us, via the natural selection process.

    “Resigning were…Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth.” Who did the #Opposite of everything in his job. BOTH banning innocent people without review AND supporting kiddie pron for years. By shattering Safety, he thereby personally shattered TRUST. So sad he’s gone. Now maybe kids won’t be r….. well this is a family show. Keep it classy, Yoel; maybe NAMBLA has a job for you.

    “Major advertisers have also abandoned the platform.” …Before returning 40 hours later.

    ““content moderation council” later immediately ”broke the deal”

    They spoke, therefore they were lying. Cheating, and destroying. It’s their religion.

    “ NATO Doesn’t Supersede the U.S. Constitution (McKnight)”

    Again with the definitions. Our Rights come from GOD. Our Creator. NATO does not supersede God. Duh. Yet this is exactly what Statists believe. The State is God, before God, replaces God in their minds and actions. Atheism writ large, which is why the first attack, even generations before, was against religion and the Church, BEFORE attacking via the State.

    NATO is not above God. This is their belief, their hubris, and their certain destruction as we see today. God is #Logos, Word and Truth. They believe they are above Reality, Reason, and Truth. Their express and only enemy is merely #Truth, and #Reality. “We’re an Empire now, and we create our own #Reality…” How’s that working out for ya? Tired yet?

    “Any member of Congress or news talking head saying Article 5 requires an immediate military response without a debate or vote is either lying or woefully uninformed.”

    We well know that’s true of all of them. Since it requires 30 seconds of reading in plain English, the are also bloodthirsty, reckless, illiterate morons. Never forget.

    But his opinion that “we would declare a war” is so cute I could eat it. That’s the law = we don’t do that. We do the #Opposite.

    “the Ukrainians were firing on Russian missiles from a direction that they could not possibly be coming from.”

    That goes with what I was saying. Apparently we have the radar blip and the missiles weren’t accidental? They immediately went West for no target? That’s why they hit the only standing object withing 20 miles? This needs more confirmation but doesn’t surprise me.

    “an invasion force should number three times the defending force”

    They inverted this by a factor of 6? (that is, 3x over and they were 1/3rd UDF?) And still took four provinces? Yup, they totally suck in the history of war suckage. Can’t figure out why Custer’s Army didn’t prevail against the combined manpower of 5 nations.

    He said something about torture? They’re by-the-book. They are not allowed to destroy civilian targets or infrastructure, only military ones, or in this case, dual-use ones. The power grid was allowed to be on for a year, helping Ukraine immensely. But it also runs the nationwide rail system to move arms and troops. What are you supposed to say? They still minimized casualties amazingly, taking this out. Ukraine literally argued that the LACK of civilian casualties meant Russia was bad at war. Literally. Because they wanted more casualties?

    ““If they [Kiev] don’t want people to die, and to die in huge numbers … “

    They DO want them all to die. Because that’s Joe Biden’s genocide. They already killed 100,000, more than that have left and will never return, and the power out will quickly kill that many more, this time adding the women and children, ol’ Joe is circling back to sniff.

    Please do not do this, although it is already too late.

    “The US military has declined to give an exact breakdown for billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine FTX” Fixed it. We have no idea where any of that money or weapons went, and the Republicans are evil for asking. Next?

    In WWII, we just made Sherman tanks, filled them with money, then put a random address and a postage stamp on them and they went somewhere in the world. Right? How dare you demand we follow rules and laws we already have? Hey is arming random governments and random crime syndicates like those in Finland a felony offense? Nope. A medal for making Sweden the hand-grenade capital. A medal for hardcore war weapons to organized crime in Finland. A medal for ten-thousand guns to the Zeta cartel in Fast and Furious. Medals all around.

    “referring to the Italian government as “enemies of France.”

    One-Europe. United under anti-God, Ursula.

    “have been released from the administrative center housing them, despite the minister’s previous assurances that “(they) will not be able to leave the administrative center.”

    1) They said it.
    2) They were lying.

    You know, I really get tired of saying it, and very tired of it being true. But I don’t see anyone’s behavior altering at all to accept this reality. If they are lying; we know they are lying; they know we know they are lying; and we know they know we know they are lying, is somebody going to start acting like it and not ask Government to “Pass a Law” and save them?

    Anyway, what Darmanin really means is, the French PEOPLE are the enemy of France. Since they agree with the Italian people on this. What is “This”? That immigration has rules. Any rules. Any at all. Everyone follows rules at the heel of the boot except immigrants. Whoops: nope them too. ILLEGAL immigrants. ONLY if illegal. If you’re legal, from Poland or Canada. F U. “The only legal people are the illegal ones”™ That sounds crazy and it is, but this is their express, specific, long-term actions.

    “It is hoped that the price limit would allow Russian production to remain at pre-sanctions levels, but reduce the country’s oil revenue.”

    Yes, we know that’s what they WANT, but they are trying to go Up and Down, both Left and Right at the same time, and so psychotic they can’t understand why that’s not possible. “They” being “the people”, who similarly consent to such insanity.

    “German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock rebuked Budapest and Ankara for delaying the ratification”

    Wasn’t she the one who declared there was no Germany? That she would support Ukraine ahead of Germans for the rest of her life, to the death of every German on earth if necessary? What’s she doing talking about the proper place and procedure of nation states?

    “Oddsmakers Favor DeSantis for 2024 (JTN)”

    Step back from this. Who would approve of ANY of them? DeSantis is lauded, but isn’t he still further Left than the Supreme Court? Supporting lockdowns, etc? That’s the GOP: the “Go over the cliff SLOWLY” Party. As opposed to the Thelma and Louise Party. I hardly think it matters.

    “What on earth made them go public with this?”

    AFTER the election. And seeming with no outside driver.

    Note they did NOT find these accounts when Trump was President. Wouldn’t that be Trump’s evilly-evil government running Meta against 1A, an impeachable offense? No? Had no idea back then but with Joe as President, after 2 years, suddenly they do? That was the same evilly-evil government DNC Congress gave MORE military and secret-agency money too. Not only MORE $$ to Trump and his government than last year, but ten-billions MORE than he asked for. That’s how against Trump they were. Uh-huh, boy-howdy. #Hitler. So we gave him an EXTRA $10B. For free!!!

    “Let’s put this in simple terms: If “ESG” is a net positive for a company then nobody has to exempt anything”

    This is the same as solar or wind. If they worked, they would be cheaper and come into the economy voluntarily. It’s only if they don’t work that government need be involved. So the very fact government wants them is proof that it doesn’t work. If it doesn’t work, and we’re paying someone to install it, isn’t that just fraud and theft?

    He’s not taking this up, but since Exxon and Amazon are “ESG”, the word has no meaning. It means “Our mafia friends”. “We use extortion to force you to give money to our friends, and refuse it to our enemies. Even when that DEFINITELY costs you money.” I.e, the definition of “Extortion.”

    “This “rule” amounts to an admission of collusive price-fixing”

    That’s called “Racketeering” and you get 3x damages in a Civil Suit. As he points out, that’s also Anti-Trust. But those are laws so we do the #Opposite. When it comes to court, judges rule the #Opposite. Because we are #AntiLogos religion, fighting God with every day, in every way, hating him So. Much!!!

    I thought it was against the #Law, to establish a Theocracy. Yet that is what we have with the #AntiLogos, #AntiReality there-are-no-genders I-was-never-born-of-woman citizenry. Suit yourself. You can stop any time you like. Just come back to God. That is, back to your senses, back to your right mind, and the pain will stop. They won’t.

    #121811
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Faces of Evil

    Sam ‘Buttboy’ Bankster-Fraud and his Lords and Masters

    .

    #121812
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Fluturistic

    300 million people in the USA and Bill Gates the vaccine murderer is still alive.

    #121813
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The USA is hyper corrupt, the deep state is killing people and destroying the government, the people are on the internet, pretending it isn’t real.

    #121814
    oxymoron
    Participant

    I feel for Mr Lira – it is miserable when deprivation hits. I have had that sense only socially within the fabric of where I live and with some relative during the bullshit lockdown but regarding electricity etc. I feel we need action not words. He has an important role but reducing our impact isn’t just some fluffy eco trope or virtue signalling – it is real action. Get your own water. Get your own work and wood. Grown some food. Don’t rely on the Oligarchs if you are gunna bitch about the all day. THEY own the electricity because they will murder to secure it. But it is only of use if every one wants to use it.
    I get it – we all use it but demand reduction is leverage and it’s like no one wants leverage. Go for it. REDUCE REUSE RECYLE and make do. A stitch in time saves nine.

    I’m not here to criticise. We make our calls and many are good and some are bad and some are poorly timed and life can be unlucky but please; head in the direction of independence and a share economy or deal with the level of consequences.

    #121815
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Germ said

    I don’t need to justify or detail anything I have done during this scamdemic.

    But you do. If you are to pretend you are better than others then you need to provide a reason that backs up your assertion.

    Good to know you helped someone. Also good to know it was an easy decision not to take the vaccine, it didn’t involve any cost to your responsibilities, such as children.

    #121816
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Because I live in this society, can’t go one click without an example:

    “How Wednesday Addams Birthed a Generation of Cynics”

    How Wednesday Addams Birthed a Generation of Cynics

    Here’s an article that tongue-baths homicide, nihilism, #AntiLife, and (besides the article itself being inaccurate, right from the title) I dunno, among other things, violence, black magic, and casual murder for entertainment.

    They go right for it too: “In Republican terms, ‘family values’…” Go on…fascinating… I think you’ve already said what you mean. Republicans have “Family Values” and you are against Republicans, and therefore against “family” and “values”. Right? Am I missing something here?

    Since those values would be family, life, health, womanhood, childhood, and consequences you very expressly coo over Wednesday for being the express embodiment and #Opposite of those values. That’s why in the author’s opinion and outlook, they are “Good”. Because they are expressly anti-family, anti-life, anti-woman, anti-child, and anti-justice. They promote instead “A child of power”. That is, a nation of children running things, not adults. No? Is that not the basis and controversy of Greta Thunberg? That we should unthinkingly obey children? Eschew and reject maturity and reason? Stop me if I’m wrong here.

    The irony here is that the AUTHOR is the one bringing these mores to the table. Things such as “Every woman needs a man”. THEY are the ones who have internalized them, and as an outside reader I really marvel how on earth she internalized them so absolutely, and where on earth she imports them from. It’s as if all these Leftists were raised in 1952, with Poodle dresses and Church on Sundays. Instead of, as it no doubt was, all that was completely dead a generation before they were born. I see this elsewhere with “The CHRISTIANS” are after… (Insert ‘The Latest Cause’ here) Gays, Blacks, drinking, trees…random word. Dude. THERE ARE NO CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA. They’re like 3% of the population. There are more people who believe in Sasquatch. They don’t control Jack. That’s why it’s so jaw-dropping this people what don’t exist

    ARE CONTROLLING YOUR MIND.

    They’re living rent-free inside HER. No wonder she’s so mad! It’s like worrying what the Underpants Gnomes would say and what they would do to you. THERE ARE NO UNDERPANTS GNOMES. You live in Brooklyn, you’d have to drive 3 hours to FIND a Christian. …Or a Republican. I’m just beside myself about how unreachable they are in this state. How do you politely introduce that “The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” isn’t really running a world-wide secret conspiracy that controls Chicago? Trust me? It’s a put-on similar to the “Church of the Sub-genius”, and somehow you didn’t get that it was a joke?

    So again, ** I ** didn’t say every young girl needs a boy. ** I ** didn’t say everyone’s walking around in a cheerful “Stepford Wives” June Cleaver reality. ** She ** walks around with that, and when she talks, it comes out as her baseline and foundational paradigm. Of universal reality of all life-on-earth-since-the-beginning. It’s only because this incredible, un-natural, proveable un-real reality exists for her that she must rebel so forcefully against this by going full Anti-family, anti-woman, anti-life, pro-murder, anti-justice..

    Because of this, she misses the other essential reality: The REAL Addam’s Family WAS written in ** 1938 ** (yes, generations before the 60s, although we could start there) and “The Addamses are a satirical inversion of the ideal 20th-century American family” –Wiki. The JOKE is that they are the #Opposite of what is, and what can work. That’s not an instruction manual. Like “1984” and “Idiocracy”. She totally misses this essential context and point, and therefore wants the #Opposite of everything that is likely to function to be widely installed society-wide. We only print and promote it if it’s the #Opposite. Like all girls can beat up all men with movie kung-fu, and all black Americans before 1870 were nuclear physicists. The new one being all people occupying Victorian London were people of color.

    She literally quotes “Rebel Without a Cause” as if that America is relevant, predominant, and surrounding her today. In a world with universal porn and face tattoos.

    “Values never ascribes Wednesday’s outlook to cop-outs like loneliness …her appetite for chaos needs no excuse. “She’s at that age when a girl has one thing on her mind,”
    “Boys?”
    “Homicide,” Wednesday answers.

    Homocide, really? “truthfully, I can no longer remember a time when I wasn’t casually talking to people about how much we all wanted an asteroid to take us, now.” — Jezebel Author. Yeah, I can see why! Have you thought about trying something different? Actually rebellious? Part of such a tiny minority you barely exist? Like, but not limited to, being a Christian?

    But not to leave on a low note in these article reviews, there was a wonderful series that perfectly captured the real Addams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlIAhjRwOIE

    Of course seeing this, Hollywood immediately put a cease-and-desist on fan fiction instead of immediately hiring Melissa Hunter and making a TONNE of money for YEARS doing exactly what she told them and what the people wanted. Because Melissa understands what Jezebel doesn’t: Wednesday is funny because it’s a joke. Re-read that sentence if you have to. It’s a #Joke because she is the #Opposite of what is, and what can be. That is, as the first novels claimed, “art once served to educate and edify,” And by “Edify” they meant be a Moral tale, leading people to correct behavior that works, even if by hyperbolic and amusing bad examples. Mr. Collins for example. Or in hyperbolic, barely-believable form, Emily Alford, professional writer, L.A.

    #121817
    Germ
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    “If you are to pretend you are better than others…”

    What on earth are you talking about?
    You are making quite baseless assumptions, insinuations and accusations.

    You have absolutely no idea what price I may have paid in order to remain unvaxxed , or how easy a decision it was to make. You have no idea what my financial, business, emotional or interpersonal costs have been.
    None, zip, nada.

    But one, albeit relatively small cost, is that I am unable to join my wife and son this Christmas at the dinner table in the USA. Unvaxxed foreigners are still denied entry.

    Meanwhile, the death vaxxed, with their greater susceptibility to Covid infection, higher viral load when infected, and wrecked immune systems, are at liberty to travel as they please spreading disease and driving new variants.
    THEY truly are the Covid superspreaders. What a hoot!

    I shall remain home in the UK alone – festive, indeed.

    None of us here are better than any others.
    But the vaxxxed, those that actually received a dose of mRNA, yes – they are fucked.
    Tick, tock, tick, tock ……

    Oh yeah – FUCK YOU!

    #121818
    Germ
    Participant

    And aspnaz, seeing as you mentioned children, I’m sure my son would have some choice words for you.

    He has paid a heavy price to remain the only unvaxxed student in his year at senior school.

    But, it has been a terrific education for him.
    Among other things this scamdemic has taught him is, to hold his ground and to respond to your sort with a FUCK YOU!

    I couldn’t be more proud of him.

    #121819
    EoinW
    Participant

    What’s with this idea the Polish farmer prevented WW3? He took a photo of the missile. The only reason any of us saw that photo is because the western media reported on it. Who controls MSM content? The US government. Therefore it was the USA which prevented WW3 because it has no stomach for fighting the Russians. They’ve already passed on fighting Iran or Venezuela. Who’s left? Saudi Arabia?

    You know it has to be a slam dunk war. Otherwise the MIC puts its entire racket at risk. Anyone for Christmas in Mecca?

    #121820
    EoinW
    Participant

    @ aspnaz

    Do you really think you’ll accomplish anything positive by picking covid fights here?

    I guess I’m bad because I wore a mask to keep my job. I sure wasn’t happy about wearing one but what would I have accomplished losing my job on a matter of principle? My ego isn’t so large that I think: “I’ll refuse then everyone will follow my example!”

    We’re not the cowards, living in denial and following all orders. We’ve all been forced to do what we can to help. For most of us it’s using whatever means we have to expose the lies. I have 75 FB friends and over 60 of them have done an excellent job of ignoring my facts/opinions for over 2 years. Can’t help people who won’t help themselves.

    Yet if I changed the mind of one person, perhaps convinced them not to vaccinate their children, then I did some good. Even showing likeminded people they are not isolated and alone helps.

    When Trudeau came to town I’d didn’t grab a sharp kitchen knife and go meet him. I’m at a loss to figure out how anyone can fix this mass insanity by ruining their life. Yet you get this logic from some that if you don’t take a gun and go fight these criminals then it’s your own fault the crimes are happening.

    The Covid Cultist aren’t the only ones out of touch with reality.

    #121821
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    As I understand it : Russian oil production costs 10 dollars/barrel. The oil companies keep 25 dollars a barrel and all the other money goes to fund the Russian government.

    #121822
    aspnaz
    Participant

    @Dr D Emily Alford states at the bottom of her piece of garbage “A new iteration of the Addams family, Wednesday, premieres November 23 on Netflix.” I think that is all we need to know. The opinions or evaluations or judgements or interpretations of Ms Alford are all about selling Netfix. I generally don’t watch Netflix – the occasional exception being driven by my wife – so I am totally diconnected from Ms Alford’s world. I feel that is a good thing.

    #121823
    aspnaz
    Participant

    @Germ Thanks for your explanation of what you have been through and I sincerely hope you see your family in the near future.

    Living in China, many people that I know took the vaccine because here in HK you are not allowed to go to the office if you are not vaxxed. In the past you used to have the option of taking tests, but now you get vaxxed or you cannot work. I am able to have reasonable conversations with these people and they explain that they did not want to take it, but what else can they do. They remain my friends. You, Germ, are happy to blame the people who get vaxxed, but most of those people do it because they have no choice. You obviously had a choice, so you can be a smarmy git about it, the rest of us do not neccessarily have that choice. I am lucky, I have enough resources to not work. It sounds to me as though you are pissed off with the vocal element – the preachers – among your fellow citizens, not with the vaccinated as a whole. Maybe the problem is that you are surrounded by people who feel they are entitled to tell you what to do. I am not surrounded by those sorts of people, I still have most of my friends, including one who had heart surgery two weeks ago, yes, he’s vaxxed and willing to admit that yes, maybe it was the vax. I hope he gets better and does not suffer any more than has happened already.

    #121824
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Well, having watched ample exchange of a heated nature (which heat tends to bring the truth to the surface like a boiling broth), I feel compelled to say:

    I am sorry, Germ, for thinking you harbored malicious feelings. The fact that your style of expression struck many of us as accusative and schadenfreudist (amazingly, that really is a word) means little when your overall content and context speak very much otherwise.

    I apologize and, fwiw, I believe you.

    Tell ’em to stick it where the sun keeps shining through pouring rain

    #121825
    aspnaz
    Participant

    EoinW said

    Do you really think you’ll accomplish anything positive by picking covid fights here?

    I will defend my friends and try to make their rehabilitation easy. About six months ago, a friend of mine was shouting at me outside a bar, telling me to stop talking about the dangers of the vax. Two weeks ago he had surgery, yesterday I met up with him and he admitted it could have been the vax that caused his problem. I am happy to continue to be his friend, we all make mistakes and I have known him for over 10 years, so why would I abandon him because he made a mistake? Sure, he shouted at me, but he was sure he was right, I can handle that. People make mistakes, big mistakes, and as their friends you owe them the grace to deal with their mistakes. As for the people who gave me dirty looks in the subway, told me to put on a mask etc, I can forgive them, they were afraid. As for the people who organised all of this, who didn’t do their professional jobs to keep us safe from unsafe vaccines: lock them up. To answer your question of whether I will accomplish anything positive, I doubt it but I prefer to feel that I am trying.

    #121826
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “When Trudeau came to town I’d didn’t grab a sharp kitchen knife and go meet him. I’m at a loss to figure out how anyone can fix this mass insanity by ruining their life. Yet you get this logic from some that if you don’t take a gun and go fight these criminals then it’s your own fault the crimes are happening.”

    What to do, what to do? Believing we can fix it is the problem, Believing we can’t fix it is the problem.

    We can’t stop trying to fix it (make things better); we can’t start trying hard enough to actually succeed — if that’s possible in the first place.

    We can’t stop believing we’re fucked; we can’t stop believing we’ll find our way through.

    Flowers

    Still we grieve
    Still we haunt
    Here in this garden of bones

    We cant run
    No we wont flee
    This is our garden of bones

    Keep belief
    and sow the seeds
    Grow in this garden of bones

    Hall of souls
    Who fell asleep
    Wake in this garden of light

    Ghosts of those who lie beneath
    Rise from your slumber and weep

    Feel the pain of what is lost
    Break from the soil and your sleep

    Whet the axe and raise the shield
    Bite in the darkness and reap

    Fall upon like ocean waves
    Drown the decay and deceit

    Inwidsorge þe we ær drugon
    Swyð-ferhð
    Hæf þa gefælsod

    (Evil sorrow which we have endured
    strong hearted have now been cleansed)

    Eallhwít hæþstapa eftarisen
    Eallhwít stagga eftarisen

    (All white heath stalker rise again
    All white stag rise again)

    SIng that song loud in the shower once a day and no microbe will dare even look down your throat. I think that DocJD should include regular loud singing, however badly, especially in the steamy shower, as part of keeping pathogens* at bay. *(including nosy neighbors)

    #121827
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Dr D:
    This is the same as solar or wind. If they worked, they would be cheaper and come into the economy voluntarily. It’s only if they don’t work that government need be involved. So the very fact government wants them is proof that it doesn’t work. If it doesn’t work, and we’re paying someone to install it, isn’t that just fraud and theft?
    Technically, internal combustion vehicles were also subsidized by government decades ago. In Phoenix, AZ, the streetcar rail was torn out by government, and countless roads paved, to facilitate autos. Without streetcars, the people were more inclined to purchase autos.

    The stupid part is how people expect solar/wind to directly compete or supersede fossil fuel use in *all* areas. There is a reason why satellites and the International Space Station primarily use solar PV for their electrical needs!

    #121828
    zerosum
    Participant

    It’s my story and I’m sticking by it
    https://genius.com/Frederick-loewe-i-remember-it-well-lyrics
    I Remember It Well

    #121829
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    My teen nephew is finally recovering after weeks of illness with the flu, RSV, and pneumonia.
    Wait — a TEEN was very sick with RSV?
    Yes.
    That sister told her teens that they should pray and make their own decision about whether or not to get the Covid vaccine. Fortunately, by the time they came to jab her younger kids she had been exposed to enough information about the C vax dangers that she chose not to vax them. (I think I may have had a part in that.)

    I watched Died Suddenly. That was my first introduction to the idea that there is a clear signal of death + presence of amyloid-protein strings in veins and arteries occurring 5/6 months after the initial jab. My now 90-year-old friend and client suffered a “mini stroke” six months after her first 2-dose series vax in late June 2021. When I expressed concern that it was related to the vax, she pushed the thought away, citing that it was impossible because “that was six months earlier” and proceeded to go out and get boosted. In July of that year, a younger client (around age 60) experienced blood clots in his leg, and his now-wife had some sort of sudden swelling in her brain that affected her vision.

    #121830
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.rt.com/russia/566935-they-robbed-ukraine/
    24 Nov, 2022
    Bye-bye, Kiev, hello Cote d’Azur: As Westerners send aid, here’s how Ukraine’s corrupt elites are profiting from the conflict
    Officials and oligarchs have diverted much of the financial support sent to Kiev

    #121831
    jb-hb
    Participant

    When I refused the jab which does not vaccinate and lost my job, it was because I recognized a duty to not comply. REGARDLESS of whether anyone “goes along” with me.

    For those who took it and persecuted those who did not, ie those who WENT ALONG… of COURSE, to do it if nobody would go along did not compute. Integral to their psychology.

    #121832
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Nobody needs to provide personal details, as if they were on trial, to someone else’s judgment, to justify some expression of their bitterness towards the compliant. Especially considering the behavior for YEARS of many of the compliant.

    Those who went along bolstered destruction of nation, institutions, culture, freedom, families, friendships, as well as the murder of tens of millions and the injury of billions.

    Moreover, FOR WHAT?

    For the ability to travel. For the ability to socially mingle and shop freely. To keep a job.

    But of course it was those complying that were the very ones putting these things at stake. If no one complied, or enough people didn’t, NONE of these things would be at risk.

    If you want to morally equivocate, say that the people with contempt for the compliance that led to all the wrongs that happened AND ARE STILL HAPPENING is just as bad as the pro injection which does not vaccinate people hoping to dance on the graves of people who did not comply, then state YOUR case rather than pretending you can put someone else on trial for feelings – rather justified feelings. The burden is on you. Go for it.

    #121833
    kultsommer
    Participant

    @ citizenx – carry-on from yesterday
    “It’s called courage, principles, discernment, and intelligence combined with basic logic and common sense…”
    Absolutely!
    Nice list that has been manifested in this jab-no-jab saga, for the most part, only in the RIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES(!!!) that “heroes” for some reason do not want to disclose, while pumping their chests.
    Have you watched “Died Suddenly” or any other video related to Vaxx injuries? Not a single person, especially in the latter that were more close and personal, look “dumb” or “covid-cultist” to me. How one can possibly wish to anybody else of what had happened to them??? I was talking in the name of those people who, I suspect, had to do what they had to do – to put it bluntly.
    Vaxx-pushers and evil behind are in entirely different league.
    Even the Naomi Wolf admitted that she may had been “much less vocal” if it wasn’t for her partner who provides sufficient financial comfort, which I think is brave thing to reveal. What ever we collectively can possibly do has to start on the footing of truth and not on useless virtual posturing and even more less on “ha-ha-stupid” finger pointing to just about ANYBODY.

    #121834
    jb-hb
    Participant

    what is this “did what they had to do”?

    #121835
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Alex Jones Is Innocent

    Alex Jones Is Innocent

    #121836
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “I Remember It Well”: that made my day.

    ***

    “This is the same as solar or wind. If they worked, they would be cheaper and come into the economy voluntarily. It’s only if they don’t work that government need be involved. So the very fact government wants them is proof that it doesn’t work. If it doesn’t work, and we’re paying someone to install it, isn’t that just fraud and theft?”

    Putting aside that the majority of all business has always been based on a kaleidoscope variety of frauds and theft, I echo what phoenixvoice said:

    “Technically, internal combustion vehicles were also subsidized by government decades ago. In Phoenix, AZ, the streetcar rail was torn out by government, and countless roads paved, to facilitate autos. Without streetcars, the people were more inclined to purchase autos.”

    The fraud and theft happens whether a technology or paradigm actually work; a technology or paradigm of itself works whether or not it is used for corrupt reasons; things don’t come into the market voluntarily. They have to be marketed and sold, and trade/barter/salesmanship are well known to require a steady supply of bullshit to corner their markets, which always happens as soon as two trade routes intersect.

    What to do? What to do?
    What is best that we do?
    Rage at the few who are evil,
    Or cheer those who hold strong and true?

    Stare at the entrancing pyre,
    Or water the ground where you are?
    Curse at the gathering darkness,
    Or notice how brightly it stars!

    And now, a glimpse into the pancultural codification of narcissism as a universally admired and adored human trait:

    But it’s for a worthy cause…

    Not sayin them boyz cayn’t sang. But the guy on the left at 1:28 says it all with his eyes.

    The One True Only Narcissist

    #121837
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    The Covid scam: “The [NZ] politicians all know, and they are keeping it going.” -Liz Gunn Counterspin Media.

    https://theinfowar.tv/watch?id=6379896da4be324da6aa41bf

    #121838
    jb-hb
    Participant

    I’ll try to define “what they had to do” then…

    First, I’ll reiterate that it was BECAUSE OF COMPLIANCE that anyone’s anything was at stake. Compliance was THE CAUSE.

    My understanding of what has happened 2020-2022 is one as old as human storytelling.

    Some decent guy, maybe has a family, is doing his own thing, working hard, not bugging anyone and along comes something bad. Maybe barbarians, brigands, an invading army. Maybe a greedy governmental official or rich man.

    They steal your movable property. They root around and try to find your hidden property. They steal your land. They force you to flee – by ruining your harvest, cutting you off from water, blocking you from transport, the ability to do your trade, whatever. A powerful, legitimately immoral force comes in and ruins everything you had going on. Maybe even wastefully. (evil that is to stupid to even properly profit!)

    This is how great-grandfather ends up leaving his destroyed successful farm, business, or trade in the old country and ends up moving to America where he learns a new language and new humble trade in his 50’s. Because, to sum up, barbarians rode in and destroyed the family farm. This happens. History rolls over you in this way and you’re just the poor guy who was working hard not bugging anybody left with smoking ruins.

    That’s what the forces were that swooped in ending many of the normal functions of human life and injecting poison. One of these historical things that rolls over the peasants and burns their productive nice little humble farm down in the process.

    So bad people are coming to burn your farm down and steal your cow. Yes exactly.

    There wasn’t an ALTERNATIVE. It was NOT a question of the peasant kneeling to a new lord and being spared to go about his business, paying his taxes to the new guy same as the old guy. There was no option to bow to a new religion and carry on. There was NO CHOICE OF THAT TYPE. There was no option given to submit in such a way.

    The option was – we burn your farm down OR we poison you and you give us support for poisoning everyone else and burning down everyone else’s farm.

    Look I’m sorry if barbarians come burn down your farm and you have to run to America to start over in your 50’s selling pencils on a street corner, but they REALLY ARE barbarians/invaders burning down your family farm.

    For the people taking the shot, it seems to me for many it was kind of an incantation intended to transport them sideways into a world where relatively comfortable normalcy continues. The Secret. “Manifesting Reality.”

    But I will lose my house? But I will go hungry? But Jr will have to quit college? But xyz thing will be missed out on? YES that is what happens when barbarians, invaders, or other plunderers show up, uninvited, to steal what they can and burn everything else down. And?

    Nobody is going to be a good provider with myocardis or any other number of diseases. Certainly being dead makes you a bad provider.

    I don’t even say there’s a moral obligation to actively fight. If you’ve got a family to care for, perhaps there’s a moral obligation to flee. My family fled the Bolsheviks with good reason. They didn’t actively fight them. But they didn’t JOIN them.

    the only way taking the shot makes any sense is as a magic spell to be able to say “this isn’t happening” but it was and is.

    I don’t feel the same vicious “that’s what you get!” that others feel. But when I think of those who complied, I feel ill. I feel sick to my stomach. Because of their credulity, incuriosity, and obedience. Whatever they didn’t know, they knew quite a lot. They knew compliance was what was powering everything happening. They knew they’d been lied to via every respected institution for the previous 6 years, on some level they knew this. ENOUGH people knew this to have non compliance stop it if they had only made their actions congruent with what they didn’t want to know.

    What they “had to do” that they REALLY did was to say “this isn’t happening” and having said that, decided to have the farm not get burned down, support the barbarians, and take an injection of… (blank out. this isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.)

    I did consider getting a fake shot. A very real option. Fire up the ol Tor browser and find a solution. Or just ask the $18/hr non doctor in the tent – “Do you like money?” waggle a $500 wad of $20’s and point at the needle and then the trash can.

    But faking compliance would have supported everything going on as much as real compliance. So I didn’t. I could not pretend that the horde of horses standing there in my ruined fields in front of my burning buildings wasn’t actually there. I could not bring myself to ignore their existence, what they were doing, or the help I would be giving them.

    #121839
    Oroboros
    Participant

    HAHA! RINO Kinzinger Loses It, Threatens VIOLENCE After a Cartoon Cat Triggers Him To Issue Threat

    Catturd2 strikes again

    RINOS really suck but this ex CONGRESS critter picking a fight with a cartoon Catturd is precious beyond words.

    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Kinzinger++Catturd2&&view=detail&mid=CFBF49F50B831BDD5FB7CFBF49F50B831BDD5FB7&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DKinzinger%2B%2BCatturd2%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

    #121840
    Oroboros
    Participant

    #121841

    I am exhausted and burnt out reading the recaps, the comments and the redirects.
    So, what the hell- how about a new topic? A CSPAN caller directed me to a site here, which scrolls through student loan “stories”. They are stunning. Sen.”Joe Biden” proudly did this.
    I’m still poring through Matthew Crawford’s FTX write-up (with long redirects, which I usually read…).
    My head hurts. (I haven’t even begun reading today’s comments, and now I’ve got a new Whitney Webb article, and I have only just begun her new 2v book.)
    So now I’m going for a walk. It’s sunny and 42F.

    #121842
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    I no longer ride with Germ.

    #121843
    citizenx
    Participant

    @kultsommer

    Have you watched “Died Suddenly” or any other video related to Vaxx injuries?

    Yes I sure have. Actually posted a link to it here at TAE on Nov 21, post #121582. I’ve spent the last 3 yrs studying all things Cvd. Have you made any comments as to the destructive nature of the lock downs and forced vax mandates on those who chose not to get vaxxed?

    How about the elderly who died alone separated from their loved ones due to social distance lock down nonsense? Or the divisive nature of the politicizing propaganda?

    But now you advocate a pity party for the vax injured? The onus is on the vax pushers and their virtue signaling minions- not on the resistors.

    What ever we collectively can possibly do has to start on the footing of truth and not on useless virtual posturing and even more less on “ha-ha-stupid” finger pointing to just about ANYBODY.

    Yes truth. There is nothing useless in critiquing and assessing what went down the last 3 yrs and the policies they are still pushing. Never forget and never again right? Never again can only be prevented by paying attention to wtf happened.

    Side note- I’m also at ground zero, Wa state, first cvd US case, longest locked down, surrounded by virtue signalling Libtards who are now paying a heavy price for their arrogance, shaming, discrimination, ‘following the science’, and ignorance. I tried to discuss and question all of it- for that they hated me, ridiculed me, and tried to break me- the cult needs to be eviscerated. For the good of society and humanity.

    #121844
    jb-hb
    Participant

    lol wtf is it with objecting to Germ’s tone to this extent? HE isn’t injecting anyone, pressuring anyone, ostracizing anyone, blocking anyone from social or economic activity. He’s just understandably angered and embittered.

    And it seems to me, the thing he returns to again and again, is that for people who preferred to blank out and say this can’t be happening, the very people who made all of this possible, the chickens are increasingly coming home to roost. Their comfort-seeking fugue state will be rendered temporary by reality. It was an IMMORAL mental state to put themselves in.

    Yeah it isn’t classy, but hell man, it’s all still happening RIGHT NOW

    Like how is his real and justified anger and embitterment over real actual bad things and bad PEOPLE even a problem, really?

    Let me ask you this Germ – what about people who realized their mistake after the fact. What about people who regret the shot, regret going along, and are now refusing boosters and won’t go along with new lockdowns? Same attitude towards those people? Or different and if so, how?

    Like, I don’t see how people going along with malevolence in a netflix/prozac/soy infused haze are ok but someone angry at them isn’t.

    #121845
    zerosum
    Participant

    Two stories that the West don’t hear

    On Ukrainian ‘Refugees’


    On Ukrainian ‘Refugees’
    3041 Views
    November 25, 2022
    ——–
    https://www.rt.com/russia/566935-they-robbed-ukraine/
    24 Nov, 2022
    Bye-bye, Kiev, hello Cote d’Azur: As Westerners send aid, here’s how Ukraine’s corrupt elites are profiting from the conflict
    Officials and oligarchs have diverted much of the financial support sent to Kiev

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