Nov 082022
 
 November 8, 2022  Posted by at 9:10 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,


Rembrandt van Rijn Self portrait with tousled hair 1629

 

WaPo Awards Biden a “Bottomless Pinocchio” (Turley)
The Pathetic Democratic Pantheon (Victor Davis Hanson)
Biden Administration Privately Asks US Banks To Keep Working With Russia (RT)
US Nuclear Forces Chief Says ‘the Big One Is Coming (Antiwar)
EU Official Reveals How Far Ukraine Is From Membership (RT)
World Is On ‘Highway To Hell’ – UN Chief (RT)
The World Is Racing To Break China’s Rare Earth Dominance (AGMM)
EU and UK Energy Bills Smash Record High (RT)
Medvedev Names Key Reason For Ukraine Conflict (RT)
Are You Ready for the Coming U.S. Government Default? (EP)
How to Beat Propaganda: the Grokking Strategy (Ugo Bardi)
Low Down on the Showdown (Kunstler)
House Republicans Allege ‘Weaponization’ of FBI, DOJ (ET)
Meta Prepares For Large-scale Layoffs (JTN)
The Unforgivable Request for Shamnesty (Buckley)
United Airlines Eliminating Seats As Americans Get Fatter (NYP)

 

 


Siegfried Sassoon

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trump Biden

 

 

 

 

I quit Twitter

 

 

 

 

Macgregor

 

 

 

 

“..despite his history as a serial spreader of disinformation, I would still oppose any effort to ban him from social media or even remove his comments…”

WaPo Awards Biden a “Bottomless Pinocchio” (Turley)

We have been discussing a series of false statements made by President Biden about election law, border agents, Second Amendment, gun capacity, and a variety of personal facts. Now, the Washington Post has awarded President Biden a “bottomless Pinocchio” for his repeating of clearly false facts. For those in the free speech community, it is a highly ironic moment given the President’s recent defense of censorship because citizens need “editors” to tell them what is real and what is not. Indeed, he asked, if we did not censor social media, “how will people know the truth?” President Biden is arguably the most anti-free speech president since John Adams. The President often sounds like the Censor-in-Chief, including claiming that social media companies are “killing people” by not engaging in more robust censorship.

Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler listed various examples of Biden spreading false claims that have been repeatedly and publicly debunked. You draw this rare rebuke if you repeat false statements more than 20 times. That includes his claim on meeting with the Chinese leader: “Folks, I spent a lot of time — more time with Xi Jinping than any other head of state. … I’ve traveled 17,000 miles with him.” The Post also noted how the president claimed that he is responsible for seniors getting an increase in their Social Security checks for the first time in 10 years: “On our watch, for the first time in 10 years, seniors are going to get the biggest increase in their Social Security checks they’ve gotten.” The Post noted “the reason Social Security payments are going up is because Social Security benefits, under a law passed in 1972, are adjusted every year to keep pace with inflation.”

The President has also continued to claim that the Republicans want to end social security, which the Post has previously declared to be false. Despite his own pattern of false statements (some might call it “disinformation”), the President seems most alarmed that the a single social media platform is moving to restore free speech protections. For years, Twitter has joined companies like Facebook in barring or removing dissenting views in some of these same areas like election reforms. Biden warns that the pubic will simply not know what is true without such editing of the material that they are allowed to read. The President could cite his own history of false statements are an example for his call for greater censorship to protect voters. Yet, despite his history as a serial spreader of disinformation, I would still oppose any effort to ban him from social media or even remove his comments. It is false that Republicans want to end social security but others can counter such bad speech with good speech. Readers can discern what is true and false from their sources and their support. As shown by the President himself, the governing principle remains “caveat emptor,” or buyer beware.

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“The Left got their Biden. And yes, he turned over the reins of government to them. And yes, they got their neo-socialism for two years. And yes, they are destroying America as we knew it.”

The Pathetic Democratic Pantheon (Victor Davis Hanson)

What will Biden not lie about? The death of his son, the circumstances in which his first wife died in a car wreck, the fantasy congressional vote on his student-loan forgiveness scheme? The number of states (Joe says, 54, Obama used to swear there are 57)? The very century we are now in? Where he went to college? Joe, our own Walter Mitty, has variously been a semi-truck driver, an arrested South-African street protestor against apartheid, a surrogate Puerto-Rican child, a black college enrollee, a Ciceronian populist orator, a coal miner’s scion, an honors student, a blue-chip collegiate athlete, a defender against inner-city Corn Poppers, and absolutely ignorant about the Biden family syndicate.

Recall that a non compos mentis Biden was nominated solely as the thin veneer to a hard Left agenda whose avatars were unelectable. Biden was to feign being the colorless, stand-in “moderate” who would “unify” the fractured country, tone down the Trump rhetoric, and let the Trump record sort of proceed on autopilot. Then when he played out that part and won, the leftist minders in this Faustian bargain took over to push through, on a one-vote senatorial margin, the most radical left-wing agenda in U.S. history. Biden, however, took his role too seriously. He reverted to the mean-spirited, pre-senile blowhard Joe—the obnoxious messenger thus now making the noxious message even more toxic. A retiring, silenced, good old Joe from Scranton was the script, not a doddering, incoherent, ”get off my lawn” old man shouting for the need of socialist policies that were the exact opposite of his previously supposed convictions.

The Left got their Biden. And yes, he turned over the reins of government to them. And yes, they got their neo-socialism for two years. And yes, they are destroying America as we knew it. But in doing this, the people had the rare occasion to see fully and experience the nihilist Left. And they are now about to express their loathing for what the Left has wrought. The problem with the ossified Democratic Pantheon is that they are of no use to the Left in the midterms because it is their own radical ideology over the past two years that was finally enacted and wrecked the country. And all the shrieks about abortion, semi-fascists, and democracy dying cannot put back together what they shattered.

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Double tongue much?!

Biden Administration Privately Asks US Banks To Keep Working With Russia (RT)

The Biden administration is privately urging leading US banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup to continue doing business with strategic Russian firms despite sanctions imposed on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine, people familiar with the issue told Bloomberg. Such requests have been made by the Treasury and State Departments as the US government is trying to keep pressure on Russia, but at the same time avoid “a global economic catastrophe,” the news agency reported on Monday. Washington has been asking for services such as US dollar settlements, payment transfers, and trade finance for Russian firms exempt from some aspects of the sanctions, including gas giant Gazprom and fertilizer producers Uralkali and PhosAgro, the sources said.

As a result, the largest American banks are currently being “caught in the push-pull” between the Biden administration and Congress, which insists on harsher measures against Moscow. The sanctions prevent US banks from providing services to blacklisted entities and people, with violations punishable with multibillion-dollar fines. Jamie Dimon the CEO of investment bank JPMorgan Chase was reportedly grilled at a congressional hearing in September over his company allegedly using loopholes in the sanctions regime to keep working with Russia. The banker responded by saying that “we are following the instructions of the American government as they asked us to do it.”

When addressed on the matter by Bloomberg, a Treasury spokesman said that it had issued guidance to banks, clarifying that activities in humanitarian aid, energy, and agriculture are authorized. JPMorgan and Citigroup have declined to comment. “Congress needs to understand this – the US government has not imposed a comprehensive embargo with Russia, there’s still pockets of business that are allowed,” Nnedinma Ifudu Nweke, an attorney specializing in US economic sanctions at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, pointed out. The Treasury “will continue to have meetings to educate banks on those pockets of allowable transactions, especially in the humanitarian space,” Nweke added.

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“..Richard had previously warned that the risk of nuclear war with Russia and China is a “real possibility.”

US Nuclear Forces Chief Says ‘the Big One Is Coming (Antiwar)

The commander that oversees US nuclear forces delivered an ominous warning at a naval conference last week by calling the war in Ukraine a “warmup” for the “big one” that is to come. “This Ukraine crisis that we’re in right now, this is just the warmup,” said Navy Adm. Charles Richard, the commander of US Strategic command. “The big one is coming. And it isn’t going to be very long before we’re going to get tested in ways that we haven’t been tested [in] a long time.” Richard’s warning came after the US released its new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which reaffirms that the US doctrine allows for the first use of nuclear weapons. The review says that the purpose of the US nuclear arsenal is to “deter strategic attacks, assure allies and partners, and achieve US objectives if deterrence fails.”

The NPR says the US “would only consider the use of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its Allies or partners.” The NPR was released with the 2022 National Defense Strategy that names China as the “most comprehensive and serious challenge” to the US and describes Russia as an “acute threat.” The document, as with the previous 2018 National Defense Strategy, makes clear that the US military is preparing for future conflicts with both China and Russia. As the head of STRATCOM, Richard had previously warned that the risk of nuclear war with Russia and China is a “real possibility.” He said last year that the US military must “shift its principal assumption from ‘nuclear employment is not possible’ to ‘nuclear employment is a very real possibility,’ and act to meet and deter that reality.”

The Nuclear Posture Review calls for the modernization of the nuclear triad, which could cost up to $1.5 trillion, and keeping tensions high with Russia and China helps justify the massive price tag. Richard said last week that the US needs to put more resources into competing with China’s military. Congress is looking to spend big on arming Taiwan, with a plan to give the island $10 billion in military aid included in the Senate’s version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. While done in the name of deterrence, China’s actions and rhetoric make it clear that more US support for Taiwan will make war in the region more likely.

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Ukrainian membership is EU suicide. The only sensible voice here:

“Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova [..] wrote on Telegram that Ukraine’s accession will take “as long as the collapse of the EU.”

EU Official Reveals How Far Ukraine Is From Membership (RT)

Ukraine’s accession to the European Union will take several years, the European commissioner for enlargement and neighborhood policy said on Sunday. In an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Oliver Varhelyi said Kiev needs to do “extensive work” to prepare for “participation in the EU internal market and in many other important policy areas.” The commissioner predicted that “the entire preparations for accession will most likely take longer than a year or two.” Varhelyi also stressed that the accession criteria for Ukraine are the same as for any other candidate country. However, Olga Stefanishina, Ukraine’s European Integration Minister, told Welt: “Ukraine is not an ordinary candidate for accession.”

Stefanishina noted that Ukraine started integration reforms under EU supervision before it was granted accession status, and argued that the country can “proceed faster” in its membership bid, especially considering that some of its neighbors and the Baltic countries “have already signaled that quick accession is possible.” On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in response to Varhelyi’s remarks, wrote on Telegram that Ukraine’s accession will take “as long as the collapse of the EU.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier described the EU’s decision to provide Ukraine with candidate status “a part of the geopolitical gambit against Russia.”

Ukraine applied to join the 27-nation bloc shortly after Moscow launched its military offensive in late February. In June, Brussels granted Kiev EU candidate status, the first step in the accession process, and stressed that the country must continue structural reforms, fight corruption and reduce “the persistent influence of oligarchs.” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo made it clear at the time that granting Ukraine EU candidate status was an important “symbolic message” in support of Kiev amid its conflict with Russia. Actual EU membership, however, is still “many years” away, and the country must first meet European standards, he said.

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Climate change AC/DC style. Time to kick the UN out of the discussion. What they propose will simply kill off societies and economies.

World Is On ‘Highway To Hell’ – UN Chief (RT)

“Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” Guterres told delegates gathered to discuss how to combat change amid an ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and rising global inflation and energy shortages. Guterres insisted that the world’s richest and poorest counties must form a pact to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels, singling out China and the United States as two countries that have a “particular responsibility to join efforts to make this pact a reality.” “Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible,” Guterres said, proclaiming that “we are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”


The UN chief’s warnings were seconded by former US vice president Al Gore, who also emphasized the need to end the reliance on fossil fuels. “We must see the so-called ‘dash for gas’ for what it really is: A dash down a bridge to nowhere, leaving the countries of the world facing climate chaos and billions in stranded assets, especially here in Africa,” he said. Guterres also pointed out that the world must achieve net zero emissions by 2050 if the signatories of the 2015 Paris Climate agreement wish to achieve their long-term goal of keeping global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Last week, notorious teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg suggested battling climate change by eliminating capitalism, which she said was defined by “colonialism, imperialism, oppression and genocide by the so-called global North.”

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Too late. Even if it were doable.

The World Is Racing To Break China’s Rare Earth Dominance (AGMM)

For the past couple of months, MetalMiner frequently posted about the world’s dependence on China for raw materials used to make rare earth magnets. Aside from the US, countries like Japan, South Korea, Italy, and the Netherlands heavily rely on Chinese rare earth imports. It’s clear why. China boasts extensive rare earth reserves. As the world increases its demand for such products, China managed to develope a powerful monopoly on the global market. So, to prevent China from wielding too much geopolitical power in rare earth trading, it’s becoming crucial to find alternative sources. It’s true that most of the world’s rare earth processing takes place in China. However, many raw rare earth materials are actually extracted from other parts of the globe.

Common sources include Myanmar (Burma), the US, Canada, and Australia. And with demand for rare earth magnets expected to double by 2030, tapping into these supplies has become more important than ever. Fortunately, many nations continue to ramp up their own rare earth production. In Japan, miners have gone to impressive lengths to compete against China in the global rare earth magnet marketplace. In fact, researchers recently explored beneath the Pacific Ocean (right outside of the Ogasawara islands) at a depth of 6,000 meters to excavate materials for rare earth magnets. The Japanese government plans to start excavating these raw rare earth materials as early as April of 2023.

Japan isn’t alone. Australia, another nation abundant in raw materials for rare earth magnets, continues to step up its rare earth mining game. Arafura, a mining project located in Central Australia, recently announced plans to increase investments in its mining endeavors. Many of these take place in the hottest, most sun-parched areas of the nation. But according to Arafura it’s worth it. Apparently, the company sees a huge opportunity due to the large amounts of neodymium and praseodymium located in the region. These elements are frequently used in producing rare earth magnets. Currently, the company claims their mines could satisfy up to 5% of the world’s demand.

Whitney Webb

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Peace talks can prevent this.

EU and UK Energy Bills Smash Record High (RT)

The average retail gas price across the EU and the UK doubled in October compared to the previous month, when it amounted to €0.18 per kilowatt-hour, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing data from energy consultancy VaasaETT. Electricity costs for consumers have reportedly soared 67% to €0.36 per kilowatt-hour. The surge occurred despite EU governments’ latest attempts to protect households against spiraling energy prices by providing billions in subsidies. EU leaders have pledged more than €550 billion over the past year to help businesses and households tackle the energy crisis. According to Philip Lewis, chief executive officer at VaasaETT, it’s likely household bills would have been even higher if it were not for the financial aid.


On a monthly basis, the average unit rate for electricity reportedly increased 3.4% in October, while that for gas grew by 2.5%. The biggest monthly gains were recorded in Dublin, Ireland, where power rates climbed 44%, while the average gas price in Rome surged 97%. “If we were essentially to have the crisis more or less lasting for another whole year, or more than a year, that cost, of those measures for these governments, is going to be enormous,” Lewis said, as quoted by media. “Eventually customers will forget that those prices are not real prices – they will take them as the norm and then it becomes essentially impossible to remove them,” he added. The EU and Britain are facing a sharp rise in energy prices and record inflation amid anti-Russia sanctions and a policy of abandoning Russian fuel. The situation is expected to lead to energy rationing and shortages across Western Europe.

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Nukes. “Ukraine’s threat to resume its nuclear program..”

Medvedev Names Key Reason For Ukraine Conflict (RT)

Ukraine’s threat to resume its nuclear program was one of the key reasons that forced Russia to launch its military operation in late February, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday. Writing on the Russian social media network Vkontakte, he argued that the Ukrainian authorities are now “crying bitterly” over their decision to relinquish the nuclear arsenal they inherited after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kiev made this decision after caving in to “harsh pressure of their current masters in Washington,” Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, stated. He added that all Ukrainian presidents – from the late Leonid Kravchuk to the incumbent Vladimir Zelensky – described the step as a forced one.

However, according to the official, Kiev has made clear that it “would be diabolically happy” to use nukes against Russia and “their own citizens”. “They have been dropping explicit hints about this, threatening to resume the nuclear program. And that was one of the reasons for conducting the special military operation,” he insisted. Medvedev also drew a sharp contract between Ukraine and South Africa, the first country with a nuclear arsenal to voluntarily give it up. He noted that after the collapse of the apartheid regime, the nation’s new democratic authorities “took a responsible and sovereign stance towards their people, neighboring countries and the entire world community”. “And today they do not regret the choice made 30 years ago, they are proud of it and show the way for others by their example,” he added.

Under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine surrendered its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in exchange for promises from the US, Britain and Russia that they would “provide assistance” to the country in case of aggression. The three states also vowed not to attack Ukraine themselves. However, Russian officials have repeatedly stated that this document was undermined by NATO’s eastward expansion, which threatened Moscow’s vital security interests. Moreover, prior to the start of the Ukraine conflict in late February, Zelenksy signaled that Kiev could give up its decades-old pledge to be a non-nuclear nation and reverse the decision it took to give up its atomic weapons.

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“Income taxes, budget deficits, the national debt. These are all real things the average person of moderate means and mental capacity can grasp a hold of, should they care to.”

Are You Ready for the Coming U.S. Government Default? (EP)

Will there be a pivot, pause, or no pivot? This is the wrong question to be asking. The reality is the major stock market indexes have much farther to fall before the bear market is over, regardless of if the Fed pivots anytime soon. If you recall, the Fed began cutting interest rates in September of 2007. Yet the stock market didn’t bottom out until March of 2009. Similarly, the Fed began cutting interest rates in January of 2001. Still, the stock market didn’t bottom out until October of 2002. Thus, using these two most recent bear markets as a guide, once the Fed finally begins cutting interest rates, which would come after inflation has begun to abate and a period of interest rate pause, the stock market will continue to fall for another 18 to 22 months.

In other words, this bear market may not bottom out until well into 2025. What’s more, the entire dollar based financial system will likely blow up sometime beforehand. How’s that for a grim outlook? Investors, as you can see, are incredibly twisted up by the Fed’s money games, and how they’ve enhanced the peaks and valleys of the stock market. As for workers and voters, many don’t have a clue as to the ramifications for the real, Main Street economy. Here’s why… Fiscal policy, as opposed to monetary policy, is more readily understood by workers and voters. Income taxes, budget deficits, the national debt. These are all real things the average person of moderate means and mental capacity can grasp a hold of, should they care to.

The effects of zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) or quantitative easing (QE), however, are less apparent to the casual observer. Politicians may make superficial remarks about consumer price inflation if they think it will score points with voters. But actual currency debasement policies are rarely mentioned.

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Ugo sent a mail: “Mentioning your blog in this post!”

“The Greeks killed Socrates because he was “corrupting the youth” by teaching them to think for themselves.”

And yes, that is what I try to do. Only, I don’t corrupt only the youth. I think bigger.

How to Beat Propaganda: the Grokking Strategy (Ugo Bardi)

Things change completely when you become a professional. At that stage, you must learn to consult many sources and sift good information from the bad. As a good professional, you listen to everybody and trust nobody. We can describe this attitude by the term “grokking,” invented by sci-fi author Robert Anson Heinlein to indicate the kind of in-depth understanding that professionals have of their field. In Heinlein’s fictional Mars, “to grok” also means “to drink.” You assimilate knowledge just like you assimilate the water you drink. [..] Universities don’t teach you how to grok. Probably, it is because the old saying is true: nothing worth learning can be taught. At least, not in the traditional way. Even good professionals often are completely naive when they leave their specialized field and are exposed to propaganda. Yet, it is not impossible to learn how to grok. It is a recursive affair: you must grok how to grok!

Nowadays, with a tsunami of propaganda submerging all of us, I am discovering that many people I know use the same grokking strategy. Typically, we avoid TV and mainstream media, and we use aggregators, feed readers, and similar ways to access multiple sources. Many people seem to have developed this learning strategy by themselves. Not long ago, my good friend Anastassia showed me how she does it: she has hundreds of telegram channels she follows. She clicks on the titles of posts that seem interesting to her, reading them if they turn out to be really interesting. She doesn’t trust any of them, but she listens to all of them. I have a feeling that there is some correlation between this style of learning and the fact that she is among the brightest persons I know.

Personally, I tend to use feed readers rather than Telegram (I described the method in a previous post), but it is the same idea. In addition, some blogs and sites are structured as aggregators and they will do a good job for you by linking to other sites and sources (a good one that I follow is Raul Ilargi’s “Automatic Earth.”). In any case, you want to be in control of what you receive: so, no Facebook, no Twitter, nothing like that, even search engines are biased. You don’t want others to decide what you see. You listen to everyone, and you trust no one. You want to be in control of the information you receive.

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“..damning information about FBI crimes continues to leak out of the woodwork via whistleblowers, while the agency behaves more and more like an American Gestapo.”

Low Down on the Showdown (Kunstler)

One obvious agent is George Soros, whose many NGOs operate at the fine-grained local level to elect district attorneys who won’t enforce the criminal statutes and state secretaries of state who won’t enforce election laws. Mr. Soros is also deeply implicated, through his Atlantic Council org, in the years-long program to destabilize Ukraine and light the fire for a completely avoidable world war. At least part of the time, George Soros lives in the US. Why his activities are not under investigation by the US Department of Justice probably answers your questions about his hidden influence at the higher levels of government. Bill Gates, the Microsoft tycoon, circulates at the center of the evil nexus where US public health shakes hands with the drug companies.

His money appears to be entangled in the biolab projects around the world engaged in weaponizing disease and then profiting from alleged “vaccines” to defeat it. The Covid-19 project went badly awry, especially the “vaccine” part. He’s been vocal about reducing the world’s population and now appears to have succeeded in helping to prompt a weird medical genocide. Other supporting outside players range from the barely plausible Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum, which has implanted leaders and managers all over Western Civ inculcated in his Great Reset effort to wreck what’s left of industrial society and its cultural armature; to shadowy figures in European banking chattered about but never identified; to the CCP, which has gotten huge benefits from its relatively penny-ante investments in the Biden Family.

On the domestic scene, where covering-up skeins of manifold crimes sets the political tone, Christopher Wray of the FBI must lead the pack of paper-hangers. Under his leadership, beginning in 2017, the agency carried out most of its RussiaGate crimes against a sitting president and did absolutely nothing to investigate the blatant ballot fraud of 2020 that sealed the deal. Even under the shelter of “Joe Biden,” who Mr. Wray helped elect, and the stooge AG, Merrick Garland, damning information about FBI crimes continues to leak out of the woodwork via whistleblowers, while the agency behaves more and more like an American Gestapo.

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“..FBI leadership is pressuring line agents to reclassify cases as domestic violent extremism even if the matter does not meet the criteria. ”That’s no mistake, Republicans assert..”

House Republicans Allege ‘Weaponization’ of FBI, DOJ (ET)

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 4 released a more than 1,000-page report that details whistleblower disclosures about the alleged politicization of federal law enforcement. Specifically, the report focuses on the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Attorney General Merrick Garland and the FBI under Director Christopher Wray. Garland, Republicans said, has been “a willing participant of the Biden Administration’s weaponization of law enforcement.” The FBI too, Republicans assert, “has abused its law-enforcement authorities for apparently political purposes.”Republicans proceeded to cite a list of incidents and whistleblower reports showing how deeply rooted they say the politicization of federal law enforcement has become.

One of the most significant findings of the report showed that the FBI has been encouraging its agents to artificially inflate the number of domestic violent extremism (DVE) incidents. For years, Democrats—including President Joe Biden—have claimed that DVE is one of the greatest threats to U.S. national security. Specifically, Democrats have blamed conservatives and “white supremacists” for most such incidents. During the 116th Congress, Democrats even went so far as to propose legislation that would substantially bolster DOJ resources to combat DVE. “White supremacists and other far-right-wing extremists are the most significant domestic terrorism threat facing the United States,” the bill states.According to official FBI numbers, this could very well be taken to be the case. However, the Republicans’ report indicates that Americans may have some reason to pause before accepting the FBI’s numbers on DVE events.

Whistleblowers, Republicans say, “have described how FBI leadership is pressuring line agents to reclassify cases as domestic violent extremism even if the matter does not meet the criteria. ”That’s no mistake, Republicans assert, but instead a targeted effort by federal law enforcement to bolster Democrats’ claims about the threat posed by DVE. “At a time when the Biden Administration maintains that DVE is the ‘greatest threat’ facing the United States, the FBI appears to be complicit in artificially creating the Administration’s political narrative,” the lawmakers wrote.Whistleblowers have reported an environment that pressures agents to rack up DVE case counts. “One whistleblower explained that because agents are not finding enough DVE cases, they are encouraged and incentivized to reclassify matters as DVE cases even though there is minimal, circumstantial evidence to support the reclassification,” the report says.

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“Meta had added more than 27,000 employees in 2020 and 2021 and added over 15,000 more during the first nine months of this year..”

Meta Prepares For Large-scale Layoffs (JTN)

Facebook parent company Meta is reportedly planning to lay off thousands of employees as soon as Wednesday after experiencing rapid growth during the pandemic. Meta, which had more than 87,000 employees in September, has already told workers to cancel nonessential travel starting this week, according to The Wall Street Journal. The workforce reduction would be the first large layoffs in the company’s history. A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment, but pointed to CEO Mark Zuckerburg’s statement that the company would “focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas.”


He said during an earnings call late last month that “we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.” Meta was already planning to cut expenses by at least 10% over the next several months, the Journal reported in September. Meta had added more than 27,000 employees in 2020 and 2021 and added over 15,000 more during the first nine months of this year. Since the beginning of 2022, however, Meta’s stock has fallen more than 70%.

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“It was good for woke adults who want to remain children, it was good for the national security-industrial complex, it was good for hiding behind, it was good for expanding societal power. It was not good for people.”

The Unforgivable Request for Shamnesty (Buckley)

The actions taken by Dr. Emily Oster – who had the astonishing temerity to write the “Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty” piece – and her many many over-credentialed, under-educated power mad brethren over the past 30 months cannot be given a pass. What happened during the pandemic was obviously more than a one-off drunken party moment. Having tee many martoonis does not compare to the whirlwind of destruction the COVID reaction caused. Massive educational degradation. Economic devastation, by both the lockdowns and now the continuing fiscal nightmare plaguing the nation caused by continuing federal over-reaction. The critical damage to the development of children’s social skills through hyper-masking and fear-mongering.

The obliteration of the public’s trust in institutions due to their incompetence and deceitfulness during the pandemic. The massive erosion of civil liberties. The direct hardships caused by vaccination mandates, etc. under the false claim of helping one’s neighbor. The explosion of the growth of Wall Street built on the destruction of Main Street. The clear separation of society into two camps – those who could easily prosper during the pandemic and those whose lives were completely upended. The demonization of anyone daring to ask even basic questions about the efficacy of the response, be it the vaccines themselves, the closure of public schools, the origin of the virus, or the absurdity of the useless public theater that made up much of the program. The fissures created throughout society and the harm caused by guillotined relationships amongst family and friends.

The slanders and career chaos endured by prominent actual experts (see the Great Barrington Declaration) and just plain reasonable people like Jennifer Sey for daring to offer different approaches, approaches – such as focusing on the most vulnerable – that had been tested and succeeded before. And still a million people died. And now Oster asks if everyone would just please move on and forget about it? Oster kept her job. Oster got famous. The pandemic was good for Oster. The pandemic was also good for bureaucrats, multi-nationals, putative experts, the mindless media, and internet scolds. It was good for woke adults who want to remain children, it was good for the national security-industrial complex, it was good for hiding behind, it was good for expanding societal power. It was not good for people.

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They don’t take these decisions lightly.

United Airlines Eliminating Seats As Americans Get Fatter (NYP)

United Airlines’ flights are shaping up to most comfortable coach seating in awhile.Between this month and April 30 of next year, the airline will block off up to six seats on its fleet of Boeing 757s, a company spokesperson told the “Live and Let’s Fly” blog.The decision was based on numbers gathered from the Federal Aviation Administration that indicated the average winter weight of female passengers — including their carry-on items — increased from 150 pounds in 2019 to 184 pounds in 2022. Meanwhile, the average male passenger’s winter weight went up, from 190 pounds to 205 pounds, over the same time frame.“The temporary change is a result of the increased average customer winter weights as prescribed by the FAA,” a United spokesperson said of the temporary change.


“To be compliant with the current B757 weight and balance requirements, United will block specific seats between November 1 and April, 30 2023,” it ended. Blocked-off spots will always be middle seats in rows 16 to 40 to equally distribute passengers’ weight on every flight, an official told the blog. A laminated sign will be placed on each seat that is off-limits. Passengers’ physical bodies aren’t the only contributing factor to the uptick in weight. The FAA calculated that people are stuffing more in their carry-on bags — which are not weighed in the United States — thus increasing the overall heft of the cargo. Seasonal items, such as winter coats, are also considered during the colder months. “Live and Let’s Fly” also noted that this policy was in effect last winter and was lifted by spring.

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Home Forums Debt Rattle November 8 2022

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  • #120483

    Rembrandt van Rijn Self portrait with tousled hair 1629   • WaPo Awards Biden a “Bottomless Pinocchio” (Turley) • The Pathetic Democratic Pantheo
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle November 8 2022]

    #120484
    aspnaz
    Participant

    It is squirming season: Twitter progressives are squirming, Bezos’ WaPo is squirming, Zelensky is squirming, the UN chief (Mr Forgettable) is squirming, Biden is squirming, Pelosi is squirming, Zuck is squirming …. so much squirming and here I am at home having a beer. Looks as though people are losing their nerves, as if they are getting ready for something big to hit the fan.

    #120485
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The decision was based on numbers gathered from the Federal Aviation Administration that indicated the average winter weight of female passengers — including their carry-on items — increased from 150 pounds in 2019 to 184 pounds in 2022. Meanwhile, the average male passenger’s winter weight went up, from 190 pounds to 205 pounds, over the same time frame.

    Next week they will give up more seats for the extra fuel tanks needed to transport all that soggy flab around the skies …. ooops, but where will they fill them? Talk about aerial polution.

    #120486
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Yes Raul, the aggregator that you present including the additional information and discussion around related, (and sometimes not so much) material is a great way to sift through the crap and not get caught. It is a bullshit filter and I love you for it.
    I would also add the substack mail lists for me personally – the long form etc. My favourite read today although a little dark is – https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/board-certified-obstetrician-cries?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=583200&post_id=83095432&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email

    #120487
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Working out is deeply fatphobic

    That is why I go to the beach, to look like the tomato people.

    #120488
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “This election is not going to be accepted. It’s so over the top, what are you going to do with the next one?”

    “The United States won’t exist after 2032, and maybe 2028-29.”

    How do we redesign a government from scratch? This is being destroyed. Republics always end in absolute corruption.” – Martin Armstrong.

    “Bill Maher, John Oliver fear ‘absolute chaos’ if election deniers win” –CNN

    I agree. They won in 2016 and it’s been hell. And that 2000 Supreme Court. Deniers. Absolute chaos. Started a World war in fact. McCain promised us our war of aggression would last 100 years, and we’d still be there, 10,000 miles from home, shooting at sand.

    “Judge Seals Autopsy Reports of Uvalde Mass Shooting Victims”

    I always seal public documents the people paid for after a police scandal when I have nothing to hide. That’s Transparency 101.

    “A credibility trap is when the managerial functions of a society have been sufficiently compromised by corruption so that the leadership and the professional class cannot reform, or even honestly admit and address, the problems of the corrupted system without implicating a broad swath of a powerful elite, including themselves.

    The moneyed interests and their enablers tolerate the corruption because they have profited from it, and would like to continue to do so. Discipline and silence is maintained by various forms of soft financial rewards and career and social coercion.”

    “Richard’s warning came after the US released its new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which reaffirms that the US doctrine allows for the first use of nuclear weapons.”

    “”A credibility trap is when the managerial functions of a society have been sufficiently compromised by corruption so that the leadership and the professional class cannot reform, or even honestly admit and address, the problems of the corrupted system”

    And for us, we know they are corrupted, incapable of honesty or reform, and therefore our admonishments and demands, any actions even stringent or violent ones, will fall on deaf ears. …But we will be blamed for doing nothing.

    Because we always blame the poor and powerless, not the rich and connected. Well, she was asking for it, I guess, wearing that gunny sack dress and covered in dirt from the factory. Not my fault she came on to me.

    “2022 National Defense Strategy that names China as the “most comprehensive and serious challenge” to the US and describes Russia as an “acute threat.”

    So we are at war with both of them, and China is supposed to abandon Russia here so they can get picked off one by one? These guys are seriously not smart. “Hear ye, Hear ye: We will be attacking the left flank with 9,531 men at 10:05 in the morning.”

    “the risk of nuclear war with Russia and China is a “real possibility.”

    Really? Who would start it when ONLY the U.S. has first-strike protocol and ONLY the U.S. is meddling with troops 10,000 miles from home? i.e. “Passive tense; therefore a lie.”

    “Brussels granted Kiev EU candidate status, the first step in the accession process, and stressed that the country must continue structural reforms, fight corruption and reduce “the persistent influence of oligarchs.”

    Again, they are going to join the EU ahead of Turkey? Really? And the “influence of oligarchs”? Europe is run by nothing but unelected, and now unknowable oligarchs, that’s why the non-democratic, non-parliment “Student council” EU exists. What he means is “EU oligarchs will chop up and devour the Ukrainian Oligarchs.” Because they’re broke. That’s why they cut usage with a fake test pandemic, because they’re broke, then refused to pay, because they’re broke.

    “ World Is on ‘Highway to Hell’ – UN Chief (RT)”

    Funny I thought that was because you at the UN approved of every U.S. NATO war and war crime. Then fund the open lying about WMDs and chemical attacks, as well as defending labs of biological warfare. That’s quite a list. If JimmyBobby down the street had one in his pole barn, you’d be 20 kinds of upset. But $50B in guns, no serial numbers, no tracking, being sold person-to-person without a background check? No Problem!

    ““Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” Guterres told delegates”

    We were cooperating pretty good until you came along. Supporting war and war crimes in 20 ways as above.

    “singling out China and the United States as two countries that have a “particular responsibility”

    The U.S. has dropped their CO2 useage more than anybody. Ah, but you see is has nothing to do with climate or ecology, it ONLY has to do with POWER. Under these rules, the U.S. and China transfer their power to where? Oh, to Europe! Wot a coincidence! Europe has no power so they are, and must, cause the power of others to be destroyed so we can all have an equal playing field.

    Um: No. GFY. Homey Don’t Play Dat.

    There is NOTHING the Americans want more than to erase the UN from the face of the earth. It’s a big symbol of contention between actual Americans, and the paper-thin Global ruling class on the coasts.

    “The UN chief’s warnings were seconded by former US vice president Al Gore”

    Speaking of big fat symbols and bones of contention: Al Gore! The man with 5,000 sq ft houses and flies all year long on private jets! Soaking up a pre-positioned fortune of tax dollars in Green Investments so he can buy MORE 5,000 sq ft houses at sea level. #Fascism. As a corporate-merged #Eco-fascist!

    …Instead of fixing the water in Flint, and insulating poor people’s houses. He really is “a dash down the road to nowhere.” A man and a plan with no future.

    “notorious teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg suggested battling climate change by eliminating capitalism,”

    Oh yes, I see how much more environmental China is. How environmental the USSR was. Definitely want to erase Sweden (Who asked “please do not say we are Socialist! We are Capitalist with social institutions!”) Someone I think on Timcast said that you have to understand if we go into a war – any war – or economic hardship even, the environment and climate will instantly become the LAST thing on our priority list. Dead last. Never get to it. Heck, we’ll have plastic garbage blowing around the streets and into rivers immediately. Along with our public sewage as the plants close shortly for chlorine and diesel. You’ve never SEEN bad environment until you install real WEF Socialism.

    But why would they care? Party members live in palatial Dachas and drive their chauffeurs, just like now.

    “colonialism, imperialism, oppression and genocide by the so-called global North.”

    Continuing her unhinged, racist rant, Greta says no other race or culture ever had colonies, empires, oppressed or killed anyone. They were too weak, helpless and stupid to do that compared the the Europeans. “Noble Savages” in fact. Little Jungle Children, living in perfect harmony with nature and not creating Africa-wide slave empires that filled entire ships on the coast for centuries. Cutting the beating hearts out of live human sacrifices. Converting continents at the point of a sword. Genociding every tribe within 500 miles of them. …Or say conquering all of Asia on horseback, including much of Europe right out to Poland and Hungary.

    Nope, conquering entire continents and cutting beating hearts out of children is a GOOD thing if they do it. Greta is part of a master race, a Garden even, of people who are naturally superior in every way and can only find limits via their own internal choice. Not by the superiority of arms and minds of the other 7B humans. That is unthinkable. Because then Europeans wouldn’t be the master race, and she and Sweden wouldn’t be the sum total of perfection in humanity.

    Literally, this is not considered racist. This is perfect, appropriate parlour conversation with any professor in the West. Check yourself. You guys wrote, then burned, all those books on “The wonders of Eugenics” too. And tortured your children into speech impediments only last week. It’s a “Garden” alright. And they’re the mental Vegetables.

    “ The World Is Racing to Break China’s Rare Earth Dominance (AGMM)”

    Speaking of being unbelievably anti-environmental. The U.S. also has huge rare-earth mines. They are sitting, waiting to go. However, the EPA is bankrupting everyone involved by refusing to let them open, and has been for 25 years. That’s “Capitalism”! The Government [controls] the Means of Production. Ours are run much cleaner, but then we wouldn’t be murdering Yellow people and poisoning their rivers for all eternity, and it’s oh-so Green and Tolerant to murder THEM instead of making money doing it far better. But when you’re the Master race, like Greta, YOU decide these things because those non-Garden people are too stupid to decide for themselves.

    “ EU and UK Energy Bills Smash Record High (RT)”

    And as said, they are desperate to drag us into their hellscape.

    “In other words, this bear market may not bottom out until well into 2025.”

    And as Armstrong said, there may not be a United States as we know it then. That may be a different problem, needing differing tactics.

    “ Low Down on the Showdown (Kunstler)”

    Another month, now election day, and nothing happens.

    “House Republicans Allege ‘Weaponization’ of FBI, DOJ (ET)”

    And then did nothing about it. Does this mean the real lines of power no longer pass into Congress? Where are the REAL lines of power in that case?

    “Meta had added more than 27,000 employees in 2020 and 2021 and added over 15,000 more during the first nine months of this year..”

    That is ultra-idiotic management. You couldn’t have trained that many people to push the Kurig button in that time, much less accomplish useful, practical work. You need a basis of people, processes and culture to integrate the new hires into. So he hires them, pays them to take gender training, fill out their emergency cards, then fires them. What is this? A non-unemployment rate plan? It’s not #Capitalism, because such idiocy can only exist when they print money and hand it to utter insider-failure like Meta. Bankruptcy = Capitalism. No bankruptcy, no capitalism

    “The Unforgivable Request for Shamnesty (Buckley)”

    It’s not a request for amnesty. I have no idea what it is in their fevered minds devoid of reality, but not that. “Amnesty” means we have have crimes, reviewed crimes, and there was a thing that exists to give amnesty for. Also that someone was guilty, or accused, and someone was innocent, victimized, and oppressed. She has none of these, or they are #Opposite. Weren’t PMC Karens like her, the real victims here? Others have pointed out, you need to be sorry, and stop doing the bad behavior, and none of that is happening either. The FDA, and the same group, just continue forward.

    …Handing over robbery note to teller, while holding bomb detonator… “Is it too soon to ask for amnesty?”

    Yes. Too soon. Like you’re literally unhinged mentally ill, mentally not-present, non compos mentis. But we forgave and promoted the Weathermen to positions of power and acclaim in Congress so never give up on your dreams, I guess.

    “• United Airlines Eliminating Seats as Americans Get Fatter (NYP)”

    Since everyone is math and reality illiterate, I see this every day. Meta hires 15,000 people then fired half of them. That means they’re LARGER, not smaller. Used car prices are collapsing, biggest one-month drop EVER. However, they DOUBLED in just one year and are 90% higher than 2019. Here, airlines have been shaving inches off of seat size for DECADES. I don’t know how normal people can fit it’s gotten so bad. And when they’ve gone too far and give an inch back, it’s our fault because we’re “too fat” (and stupid).

    Compare U.S. seats to world planes, like Emirates or Singapore? I don’t think they’re known to be fat there.

    We also have the worst airports, and the most failing security anywhere on earth. Thanks to Chertov, we’ve killed 50x more of them with cancer in their x-ray scanners than died in 911. Applause all around especially for profits. …Which are not profits, they are direct transfers from government to corporate billionaires. #Fascism.

    That’s what happens when:

    “The moneyed interests and their enablers tolerate the corruption because they have profited from it, and would like to continue to do so.”

    That’s why we will NEVER stop killing people, while providing no measurable security. Only #Government can afford to fail on this scale. And only because of the money system.

    #120489
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Dr D said

    “A credibility trap is when the managerial functions of a society have been sufficiently compromised by corruption so that the leadership and the professional class cannot reform, or even honestly admit and address, the problems of the corrupted system without implicating a broad swath of a powerful elite, including themselves.

    How can you say that when my corporate wall street education includes this slide https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021, which tells me that all the darkies, yellow people, muslim people …. okay, it tells me that everybody apart from the west are totally bad and corrupt, the non-western people are the bad guys. Who should I believe, you or the totally credilble Bidens and their progressive professional liberals?

    #120490
    kultsommer
    Participant

    “The LEFT got their Biden. And yes, he turned over the reins of government to them. And yes, they got their NEO-SOCIALISM for two years. And yes, THEY are destroying America as we knew it.”

    Where are the multinational Corps, who had the rains in their hands all along BTW, in this construct? Are they, God forbid, “The Left”?
    By now I learned, at least, not to spill my morning coffee through the nose.

    #120491
    zerosum
    Participant

    In the news:
    30 reason not to be in politics
    Wet snow this morning
    Lots of people getting help

    Vancouver’s social safety net costing $5B per year: VPD-commissioned report


    Vancouver’s social safety net costing $5B per year: VPD-commissioned report

    Global News has obtained a summary of a confidential report commissioned by the Vancouver police showing stunning spending on social services in the Downtown Eastside. It states five billion dollars is being spent in Vancouver and the housing and drug situation seems to be getting worse. Rumina Daya has the details.
    ————
    Election Lies
    Forecast: It’s a dead heat
    ——–
    Election deniers are 100% D & R

    #120492
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Mundane sign of wheels coming off:
    Huge delay in announcing the winning numbers of the 1.9 bil POWERball last night, while “the results” are still on hold.

    #120493
    adrian144
    Participant

    heh. medvedev on SA:
    He noted that after the collapse of the apartheid regime, the nation’s new democratic authorities “took a responsible and sovereign stance towards their people, neighboring countries and the entire world community”.

    no
    *before* the end of the regime, they took their nukes apart cos they didn’t want to bequeath them to the anc

    #120494
    Bill7
    Participant

    It was very clever for our tiny, corrupt ruling class to use the ‘Democratic’ party to implement their dark plans on the rest of us. I’m curious just how much mayhem they’ll be able to inflict, especially starting with today’s “election”. That speech Mister Biden gave in Philadelphia was well-planned in its elements, I think.

    #120495
    citizenx
    Participant

    Chooch and Redneck should get a room – glad they found each other.

    lol, a camo tent will do for them both.

    Tucker refers to them as “obedient little throne sniffing servants to the (war) party in power”. Ah the smell of napalm in the morning…smells like a Biden/Ukr victory fresh off the throne. One day this war will be over, and they’ll cheer the Empires next bowel movement.

    They remind me of Mailers ‘Naked and the Dead’ novel. The two of them sharing a tent together.
    Choo choo- “hey Redneck, Russia is bad right”?
    Redneck- “very bad”
    Choo- “Putin is bad right”?
    Redneck- “very bad”

    Choo choo- “Redneck, show me how bad they are, cmon give it to me, give me your two minutes of hate….”
    Redneck- “ok, your turn now choo choo, show me how bad Putin is….” and on it goes. They are adorable together.

    Keep your combat boots on boys, You smug-faced cowards with kindling eyes. 🙂

    Fortunately time and truth have a remarkable way of weeding them out. Right Deflatulance? Maybe its 3rd booster shut it up for good. Maybe deflationista moved on to lick another throne, because they never admit they were wrong, about anything. Inverting the truth is their specialty.

    I had choice words for deflatulance, ad hominen you bet. Bidens throne sniffers deserve worse than uncivil comments. Chooch and Redneck- ass klowns for clown world Empire. Keep your boots on bois, how fast can you two run?

    Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free
    Dizzy with eternity
    Paint it with a skin of sky, brush in some clouds and sea
    Call it home for you and me
    A peaceful place, or so it looks from space
    A closer look reveals the human race
    Full of hope, full of grace, is the human face
    But afraid we may lay our home to waste

    There’s a fear down here we can’t forget
    Hasn’t got a name just yet
    Always awake, always around
    Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down
    Ashes, ashes, all fall down

    Now watch as the ball revolves and the night-time falls
    And again the hunt begins and again the blood wind calls
    By and by, again, the morning sun will rise
    But the darkness never goes from some men’s eyes

    It strolls the sidewalk and it rolls the streets
    Staking turf, dividing up meat
    Nightmare spook, piece of heat
    It’s you and me, you and me

    Commissars and pinstripe bosses roll the dice
    Anyway they fall, guess who gets to pay the price?
    Money green, or proletarian gray
    Selling guns instead of food today
    So the kids they dance and shake their bones
    And the politicians throwing stones
    Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down
    Ashes, ashes, all fall down

    Heartless powers try to tell us what to think
    If the spirit’s sleeping then the flesh is ink
    History’s page will be neatly carved in stone
    The future’s here, we are it, we are on our own

    If the game is lost, then we’re all the same
    No one left to place or take the blame
    We will leave this place an empty stone
    Or that shining ball of blue we call our home

    So the kids, they dance, they shake their bones
    And the politicians throwing stones
    Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down
    Ashes, ashes, all fall down

    Shipping powders back and forth
    Singing black goes south and white comes north
    And the whole world full of petty wars
    Singing I got mine and you got yours
    While the current fashions set the pace
    Lose your step, fall out of grace
    The radical, he rant and rage
    Singing someone got to turn the page
    And the rich man in his summer home
    Singing just leave well enough alone
    But his pants are down, his cover’s blown
    And the politicians throwing stones
    So the kids, they dance, they shake their bones
    ‘Cause it’s all too clear we’re on our own
    Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down
    Ashes, ashes, all fall down

    Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free
    It’s dizzying, the possibilities

    #120496
    zerosum
    Participant

    Why you like to read TAE

    Why does the Western Narrative sound so stupid and unrealistic?


    Why does the Western Narrative sound so stupid and unrealistic?
    8927 Views November 08, 2022 10 Comments
    by Detlef Romatzki for the Saker blog

    #120497
    WES
    Participant

    US mid-term election rigging is running overtime today, as dirty voter digits are sent overseas to be laundered, before being returned to the US nice and clean!

    Deep State globalism at it’s finest!

    #120498
    morongobill
    Participant

    That was a sad little poem, 105 years later young men are still in the trenches.

    #120499
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    @ Dr D and Ilargi: you always find the nuggets. Am grateful, and a better person for the experience. Walking the talk is my way of giving back.

    @ Bill 7: “It was very clever for our tiny, corrupt ruling class to use the ‘Democratic’ party to implement their dark plans on the rest of us.” Yes! And now more of the same from the ‘Republican’ party who will win big tonight.

    A beautiful pen and ink piece – Rembrandt van Rijn Self portrait with tousled hair 1629. I always look at self-portraits as an artist’s “study”. A very personal work in progress, a progression, as the lineup of self-portraits over the years is revealing. They (the portraits) become a “study” for the viewer if you want it. He did this one at 23 years of age. Perhaps coming to terms with his portly physique? Cat lovers may find more tracks here; intentional or not, they are fun + intriguing.

    Today’s Calvin is a gem. Frame 3 is the NOW that Eckhart Tolle so brilliantly advocates for. It is the center, a place of peace, balance. Frame 4 shows how we surrender the center, losing the joy of the present moment as our minds/ego pull us away into the future (teevee/social media = sugar). Oh how to stay centered? How to integrate the essential essence of pure presence (frame 3) in daily living?

    “Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free. It’s dizzying, the possibilities”

    LOVE to Wisdom Seekers.

    #120500
    WES
    Participant

    Susmarie 108:

    How is your new wood fired boiler project coming along?

    Looks like old man winter is lurking just around the corner.

    This weekend is it for me at the island cottage. Freezing night time temperatures will freeze the water works since we aren’t winterized.

    #120501
    The Markster
    Participant

    Thanks, for that Sassoon poem, a great find. A Russophile from a young age, mostly from my love of classical ballet, my heart breaks watching how the original sin of Hillary’s Russiagate Hoax is grinding up the innocent men and boys of Ukraine.

    TAE is my first stop every morning, and tv news alongside NYT etc. was turned off for good on Friday November 8, 2020. And today, finally, I will put my money where my mouth is and make a donation to this site.

    God bless the peacemakers. Thank you Raul!

    #120502
    Noirette
    Participant

    I goog this poem by Robert Graves on Safari,
    the screen is filled with ads for Extra Virgin Olive oil,
    outdoor benches, sexy underwear, kayaks, more… heh…

    To you who’d read my songs of War
    
And only hear of blood and fame, 

    I’ll say (you’ve heard it said before)
    
’War’s Hell! ‘ and if you doubt the same,
    
Today I found in Mametz Wood
    
A certain cure for lust of blood: 



    Where, propped against a shattered trunk, 

    In a great mess of things unclean, 

    Sat a dead Boche; he scowled and stunk
    
With clothes and face a sodden green, 

    Big-bellied, spectacled, crop-haired, 

    Dribbling black blood from nose and beard.

    ——————-

    WarTearsOrg – afaik..? is a serious R. site, has some Eng. trans, listing the Ukr. dead..have a look…

    https://wartears.org/en/posts/about/

    #120503
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Ukraine Seizes 5 Major Companies from Billionaire Oligarchs for ‘Wartime Needs’”

    As said yesterday. Europe is broke. Can’t even pay the gas bill. So they are stealing Ukrainian oligarchs.

    “Poland Draws Line In The Sand With EU: “We Fulfilled Requirements, And We Are Owed The Funds,” Says President”

    The EU is broke and refuses to pay Poland. Or Hungary. They’d not pay the others but buying off the countries is the way they buy their support, because the population doesn’t support them.

    Speaking of populations not supporting them, PA says it’s all a “Red mirage”. Counting the votes could take “weeks”. Huh. Never has before. Every other state can do it, even back in 1790. Maybe you just keep counting until your guy wins? Then stop immediately? No backsies! No matter what happens we can not, and will not, look into it.

    Lawsuit before: There is no crime!

    Lawsuit during: There’s no time!

    Lawsuit after: It’s too late to change anything!

    20% of Maricopa county’s machines have trouble. I’m sure it’s nothing, this is perfectly normal and we shouldn’t go to paper ballots or anything.

    “Pipes so excited for today’s election they just might burst!” –BBee.

    Gold straight up, 2nd time in a row. You may need to be an insider to follow this. First, there’s what they call the “$20 Rule”. Gold is never allowed to rise more than $20 a day. NEVER. Any rise it capped at $20 to the penny. Like all rules, they have exceptions, but this is the rule over DECADES.

    Gold has now risen FORTY dollars a day. Exactly. To the penny. Twice in a row, so this seems to mean a new rule regime in town.

    Second, gold DROPS on a straight line. At the slowest volume of the 24h day, so as to get the WORST possible sale price, someone who wishes to lose infinite money drops, I dunno, $6B in sales in 60 seconds on the market, 6am EST. Gold then rises in a normal fashion, working its way back up using normal chart peaks and valleys until the next waterfall worst-price moment.

    Today’s double $40 rise is straight UP in the market. The Opposite. Now this isn’t a straight up yet, run the stops, change all the trading rules until we win rise, but again, it marks a new rule regime change.

    The U.S. is the top money laundering location, and money sheltering location, ahead of Panama. Top states, NV and Delaware. …But not if you’re an American. If you’re from here, and not illegal, GFY, 85,000 new tax agents for you. It’s illegal trust funds and charities that those 85k employees never ask about.

    #120504
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Old Creepy Joe finally came out to give a press conference without his pants.

    Hence the Bottomless Pinocchio reference.

    Pedo Presidementia® started young.

    .

    #120505
    Redneck
    Participant

    “Chooch and Redneck should get a room – glad they found each other.”
    AAWWWWW! So sweet of you to think of us.

    #120506
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Last night there was an eclipse of the Moon. The Earth’s shadow passed across the face of the Moon.

    Such events are very rare, but infinitely more common that ‘elections’ in NATOstan nations that are not rigged.

    When a president who is neither a Democrat nor a Republican is elected, we will know that an election has taken place. When representatives in the houses are neither Republican nor Democrat, we will know an election has taken place.

    Till then, it’s all theatre.

    #120507
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    A quick summary of international tensions and the intensifying shitstorm:

    #120508
    jb-hb
    Participant

    I drop off my paper ballot day-of, rather than early, because I figure it forces them to expend more resources to disenfranchise me that way. They Cloward-Piven me, so I Cloward-Piven them.

    Anyway, about Joe Biden’s total mental incapacity There are actually TWO possibilities:

    1.) Joe actually IS that mentally gone. His many absurd behaviors are entirely real and his handlers and his wife keep pushing him out there to do it, PARTICULARLY in a way that allows it to happen.

    2.) Joe is faking it. At least to some degree.

    When Reagan had lost his mind, did we see this? Did Reagan call out to dead people, wander aimlessly, babble randomly? NO. He was never ALLOWED TO. His staff and his wife made absolutely sure of that.

    So what is the DIFFERENCE between Joe faking it and it being real???

    Either way, someone is VERY PURPOSELY creating this absolutely over the top insane picture of a mentally gone president. Considering this, I find #1 to actually be the less plausible of the two. Don’t you?

    Where is the First Lady? …the person we never hear referred to as the First Lady, but as Doctor Jill? Where’s the Doctor? Is the wife REALLY so out of it that she has ZERO impulse to protect her husband and/or no idea how? When Nancy Reagan was able to lock things down essentially perfectly for years? How plausible is that?

    Biden’s HANDLERS have no idea how to stage-manage the president in such a way that continual gaffes and disturbingly strange incidents don’t perpetually happen? Instead, they compulsively push him out in front of crowds unassisted? Continually?

    Which is really more plausible? That they WANT this out there or that they DON’T? We should not speak of a Biden Mental Problem but of the Biden Mental Problem Narrative, because even if it is true, surely it is also theatre.

    Because the act of putting him out there continually, frequently, is an act of theatre. In which case he’s just as likely to be faking it as not.

    The purposes of theatre do not require that he actually be senile, and his presence in the public eye as senile IS purely theatre.

    #120509
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Let’s do some further mental arithmetic regarding a Continually Publicly Displayed Mentally Gone Joe Biden (C.P.D.M.G.J.B.) Stand in his handlers’ shoes for a moment.

    You could decrease his appearances, give him various forms of help to get through limited appearances, use other officials to speak on various subjects on his behalf while he stands there, etc. BUT YOU DON’T. So you either can’t stop punching yourself, or you want this.

    If your desire, for whatever reason, was to project the image of a senile president, would you want an ACTUALLY senile man that is president babbling ACTUALLY senile-random things? You want to project the IMAGE OF a senile president but ALSO have him actually going up in front of hot mics, live stages and video, and say things you CANNOT CONTROL?

    I would think, only if he is completely out of the loop, not president in any conceivable way, incapable of saying anything you didn’t want him to say. But he’s been a politician for decades. If he wasn’t so senile 2 or 4 years ago, are there things he could say that you wouldn’t want him to say?

    Would you seriously want to play Russian roulette over and over again with this guy’s mouth?

    Enthusiastically and overtly by continually pushing him up on stages and in front of microphones?

    #120510
    John Day
    Participant

    @jb-hb: This might be the best performance the owners can get from “Joe Biden”, and they might be planning to cut him loose while he carries the blame for what is about to happen.
    There are “nootropic” drugs, “smart pills” of various sorts. They may be doing the best 15 minute tune-up they can on “Joe” and then walking him offstage.
    He sure won’t be able to testify against anybody.

    The rumor is that Obama is operating the Biden-drone.

    #120511
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Bill7:

    It was very clever for our tiny, corrupt ruling class to use the ‘Democratic’ party to implement their dark plans on the rest of us.

    Just in case you weren’t aware, America’s tiny, corrupt ruling class was much, MUCH smaller 30 years ago when I became aware of their CULTure, now everyone wants to be a billionaire influencer now!

    Just ask Zuck!

    Just ask all the dreamers playing Powerball, unawares that it’s just another rigged game (Ow! My Balls) 😆

    SusMarie:

    Today’s Calvin is a gem. Frame 3 is the NOW that Eckhart Tolle so brilliantly advocates for. It is the center, a place of peace, balance. Frame 4 shows how we surrender the center, losing the joy of the present moment as our minds/ego pull us away into the future (teevee/social media = sugar). Oh how to stay centered? How to integrate the essential essence of pure presence (frame 3) in daily living?

    I start by focusing on my breathing, then transcend into prayerful meditation…

    When I started this practice, I’d get about 4 breaths before my EG0 would freak-out & use some guise to divert from my true center 😉

    Noirette:

    I goog this poem by Robert Graves on Safari,
    the screen is filled with ads for Extra Virgin Olive oil,
    outdoor benches, sexy underwear, kayaks, more… heh…

    Haven’t you ever heard of Firefox + AdBlock + ?

    I also use Ghostery + NoScript to block spamware scripts, never have allowed Fakebook, da twits et al. to capture my traffic 🙂

    Dr. Diablo:

    Gold straight up, 2nd time in a row. You may need to be an insider to follow this. First, there’s what they call the “$20 Rule”. Gold is never allowed to rise more than $20 a day. NEVER. Any rise it capped at $20 to the penny. Like all rules, they have exceptions, but this is the rule over DECADES.

    Bear trap?

    Today’s double $40 rise is straight UP in the market. The Opposite. Now this isn’t a straight up yet, run the stops, change all the trading rules until we win rise, but again, it marks a new rule regime change.

    Sounds like a few of the gambler peeps have sussed-out that the equities/bond market charade is headed for trouble ~ No worries, most of them will be head-faked (Bear/Bull traps) into buying-the-dip due to FOMO OCD pathology, realizing in shock that Au/Ag isn’t a casino game like Fraudster Street…

    Of course with the BRICS+++ starting to move out of fiat unicorn & rainbows usury notes (aka digital fairy dust), that is also probably a variable affecting *SAFE HARBOR* flight too 🙂

    Not to worry, in addition to owning/running *ALL* the code that runs ALL significant trading platforms, the NY/London banksters have F15 & nukes at their disposal 😉

    Now back to your regularly scheduled TAE fearporn, rants, raves, warmongering, hate east/west junk dump/spam fest 😆
    EOT

    #120512
    Bill7
    Participant

    Pushing voters into the ‘Republican’ half of the duopoly will be of no benefit to the great majority of the citizenry I think,
    other than as a temporary feelgood measure. It’s just that I’m impressed by our rulers’ foresight in making the citizenry
    detest the nominally people’s party. As WJC said, back when: “where they gonna go?”

    Perception Management (from so many sources)- it seems to me- is easily carrying the day.
    We’ll see over a little bit of time.

    #120513
    Dora
    Participant

    McCullough.

    Department of Defense Driving Mass Vaccination While FDA and Vaccine Companies are Powerless to Stop It
    https://www.americaoutloud.com/department-of-defense-driving-mass-vaccination-while-fda-and-vaccine-companies-are-powerless-to-stop-it/

    #120514
    Bill7
    Participant

    maybe commenter flora will post a few thoughts at another site. I don’t know, but will hope for them.

    #120515
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    WES: “How is your new wood-fired outdoor furnace to boiler project coming along?”

    All 1,600 pounds of her is snugly nested on a custom pad. The guys have the trench from the unit to the house dug and the double wide insulated PEX line and electrical are laid inside it – but not yet buried. Engineering to determine heat ex changer need and placement, pump, and tie in to boiler just finished – a roadmap for plumber. Holdup on plumber as all the old experts up here are aging-out. The most highly recommended guy in town is slammed with 2 house projects before me. Have a new guy (trained by the experts) coming here shortly. Maybe another couple of weeks before the unit can be fired up and I cut the propane usage to near zero. My woodpile is not as pretty and compact as Michael Reid’s – but getting there.

    You are being funny again John to Day: “The rumor is that Obama is operating the Biden-drone.”

    VP/Gary: Good guidance. Breath-work is the key to managing the ego and transcending worldly obstacles. WE come into this life gasping for air (in breath) and leave on a release sigh/puff (out breath). Ever wonder about the middle…access to Calvin frame 3???

    LOVE to Askers and Answerers of Questions.

    #120516
    jb-hb
    Participant

    @John Day

    This might be the best performance the owners can get from “Joe Biden”, and they might be planning to cut him loose while he carries the blame for what is about to happen.
    There are “nootropic” drugs, “smart pills” of various sorts. They may be doing the best 15 minute tune-up they can on “Joe” and then walking him offstage.
    He sure won’t be able to testify against anybody.

    ok yes but…. imagine one of the more whimsical villains in the Batman universe announcing he is going to drug the corrupt Mayor of Gotham to the gills with Truth Serum just before he steps onstage for a huge live press conference.

    How quickly would that Mayor be eliminated by the Gotham Mob before he could speak?

    Okay Biden won’t TESTIFY to anything, surely not, but he could blab virtually anything while up on that stage — if he’s really that mentally deficient. If he really can’t tell who is dead or alive, where his son died, what careers he’s had in the past, etc.

    I’d think there’d be at least as many parties interested in his demise as there were in JFK’s. If he is really mentally gone and speaking LIVE on video constantly… considering all the pies he has had his fingers in over the years, then why isn’t he dead?

    Personally, I want him to keep on going for the full term. It’s like the biggest ever real life performance art absurdist piece. Not just his behavior in his role, but everything surrounding it, the multiple uncertain conclusions one could logically draw, behavior of everyone around him. It’s all rather fantastic.

    #120517
    jb-hb
    Participant

    “This might be the best performance the owners can get from ‘Joe Biden'”

    And again, I would assume this is as good a performance as you could have gotten out of Ronald Reagan. But we never saw a circus like this with Ronald Reagan when HIS mind was gone.

    This is the best performance we can get from Biden’s HANDLERS, is it? Are his handlers, and his handlers’ handlers, all equally disabled by dementia?

    #120518
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Dr D said

    “Ukraine Seizes 5 Major Companies from Billionaire Oligarchs for ‘Wartime Needs’”

    As said yesterday. Europe is broke. Can’t even pay the gas bill. So they are stealing Ukrainian oligarchs.

    More likely that Ze has been instructed by the oligarchs to seize the companies and the Ze government will then compensate the oligarchs with way more cash than the war-torn companies are now worth. One way to prevent your war damaging your investments.

    #120519
    aspnaz
    Participant

    jb-hb said

    Joe is faking it. At least to some degree.

    Not something I had considered, but now you mention it it makes a lot of sense.

    #120520
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    #120521
    jb-hb
    Participant

    My point isn’t even that Joe is faking it.

    My point is that, if we can conceivably see Joe faking it as the more rational explanation, then we are REALLY out into weird/awful territory.

    Like in Dune, if your Mentat can only compute super weird conclusions from available data, something is very, very wrong. In the Dune series, it’s the point at which the Mentat gets mad, turns to his boss, and asks, essentially “Dude, why are you #%^ing with me?”

    Like, if I try to “compute” what is going on with Joe, I theorize:

    1. He’s faking it
    2. He’s so debilitated, all parties have agreed, after medical analysis, that he poses no harm blabbing up on a stage on live TV (NO chance a brain cell manages to fire and he mentions some filthy deal publicly? He’s a certified, total vegetable with metaphysical-level certitude?)
    3. Some scifi area 51 DARPA/CIA solution has been applied that they know DEFINITELY makes him safe
    4. The senile guy on stage is a double/fake/actor that never knew any secrets to divulge
    5. His handlers, the people his handlers work for, and his wife can’t stop continually punching themselves in the face, only able to briefly pause to gasp “this is the best performance we can get from Joe” before resuming continual self-face-punching

    If this was Dune, this would be the moment your Mentat starts raging incoherently and trashing the room like Citizen Kane or Kate Winslet in Titanic.

    #120522
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Meanwhile, down south in the industrial fake-food/big pharma death products hollow-cost (fka Land of the Freaks, Home of the Knave)…

    Enjoy! 😆

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