Nov 092022
 
 November 9, 2022  Posted by at 9:20 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,


Rembrandt van Rijn Portrait of Rembrandt with gorget 1629

 

Super-States in Core Eurasian Geopolitics (Straight-Bat)
Moscow Suggests How Many Countries Want To Join BRICS (RT)
US and Russia To Hold Nuclear Talks (RT)
Why Does The Western Narrative Sound So Stupid And Unrealistic? (Romatzki)
American Pundits Have Got It Backwards About China (Blankenship)
American Voters Don’t Need Russian Trolls To Tell Them How Bad Things Are (RB)
Russian Oil Exports Surging (RT)
Poland Draws A Line In The Sand With The EU (Remix)
EU ‘Sucking Gas Away’ From Poorer Countries (RT)
What Do You Run On….. (Denninger)
Germany Faces Sharp Drop In Real Income (RT)
Polish Ex-PM Links Low Birth Rates To Women Drinking (RT)
Will You Survive The ‘Tripledemic’? (Mercola)
COVID-19 Conspiracies Are a Gateway to Other Conspiracy Theories (SAlert)

 

 

It didn’t seem useful to address the midterms here and now, given the time it will take to count the votes. But at the same time, the voting sucks almost all of the air out of the media. A strange feeling. Nobody talks about Ukraine today.

What I did gather so far is that there was no Red Wave, and Trump endorsements did poorly. While Ron DeSantis won bigly. Which will lead to some head scratching. But overall, prepare for a lot of speculation and likely court cases. The country is divided like never before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Von Der Leyen is under investigation

 

 

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
~ Dalai Lama

 

 

 

 

“..rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral..”

Super-States in Core Eurasian Geopolitics (Straight-Bat)

I have been deliberating on the question whether core Eurasia could really be treated as the ‘heartland’, control of which is a prerequisite to exercise total control over the world? Before one could sincerely take up the issue for a discussion, he/she must be able to grasp the definition of ‘core Eurasia’. Geologically, ‘Eurasia’ is a tectonic plate that lies under much of Europe and Asia. However, there is no well-defined geographic boundary of ‘core Eurasia’ in international politics. The European (geopolitical) strategists and Asian intellectuals converge on this subject remarkably well — the landmass that lies between Pacific Ocean in the east and river Vistula plus Carpathian mountain range in the west, and between Arctic Ocean in the north to the line joining Arabian Sea coast-Himalayan mountain range-South China Sea coast in the south can be termed as ‘core Eurasia’.

This particular question has a definite answer – ‘core Eurasia’ indeed can be assumed as heartland because of two reasons. Firstly, the countries that dot the entire landscape of core Eurasia are not only home to 25% of the global population currently but has enough arable land, water, and forest resources for a healthy and continuous population growth. Secondly, the entire landmass of core Eurasia hold deposits of minerals, fossil fuels, rare earth, and gems in disproportionately high quantities compared to its share of total surface area of earth. Hence, the human civilization can grow, sustain, and flourish as a stand-alone phenomenon in core Eurasia even if civilizations in other regions of the world fail to sustain – this, in my opinion, is the single most important characteristic of core Eurasia why it may be considered as the ‘heartland’.

Readers who are conversant with the works of geopolitics pundits like Brzezinski will easily conclude that I don’t subscribe to Brzezinski’s thought on this issue which was centred around ‘exercising power to control the world’ as he noted, “The control over Eurasia would almost automatically entails Africa’s subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world’s central continent.”

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More than a dozen. Among them: Algeria, Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Egypt, Afghanistan.

Moscow Suggests How Many Countries Want To Join BRICS (RT)

More than a dozen countries have expressed an interest in joining the BRICS group, which incorporates some of the world’s major emerging economies, as the bloc gains more global standing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday. Speaking at a meeting with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Lavrov indicated that membership of the BRICS bloc is in high demand. “The interest in this global association is very, very high and continues to grow,”he said. He confirmed that “more than a dozen” countries are eager to join, including Algeria, Argentina, and Iran. However, Lavrov continued, before accepting any new members, BRICS intends to reach an agreement on criteria and principles for further potential expansion.


“Given that applications are already being submitted officially, we, of course, expect that harmonization of the criteria and principles for the expansion of BRICS won’t take too long,” he said. BRICS is an international socio-economic and political forum, which incorporates Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It accounts for over 40% of the global population and nearly a quarter of the world’s GDP. The Russian Foreign Minister’s comments come after Algeria applied to become a member of the group, following applications by Iran and Argentina. Algeria’s bid came after Russian President Vladimir Putin called for stronger ties with Middle Eastern and North African countries, arguing that they are playing an “increasingly significant role” in the formation of the “multipolar system of international relations.” The bloc is also expected to consider adding Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Egypt and Afghanistan.

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New START.

US and Russia To Hold Nuclear Talks (RT)

American and Russian diplomats will meet to discuss the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty “in the near future,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Tuesday. Earlier, Bloomberg and Kommersant cited sources to report that a meeting of the Bilateral Consultative Commission (BCC) may soon be held in Egypt. “We have agreed that the BCC will meet in the near future. Under the terms of the New START treaty, the work of the BCC is confidential, but we do hope for a constructive session,” Price said at a press briefing. The US believes in the “transformative power of diplomacy and dialogue” but is “clear-eyed and realistic” about what it can accomplish when it comes to Russia, Price added.

The conversations are “focused on risk-reduction” but Washington wants to ensure that the ability to pass messages back and forth with Moscow “does not atrophy.” “If there is, and it sounds like there will be, a meeting of the BCC, that is a good thing,” Price added, before correcting himself to say that the meeting will definitely happen. While Price would not name the venue for the meeting, Bloomberg mentioned Cairo as the neutral location more acceptable to Russia than Geneva, since Switzerland has joined the US and EU sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine conflict. The New START is the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the US and Russia, set to expire in 2026 unless renewed. The BCC last met in October 2021.

Moscow suspended the inspection regime under the treaty in August, citing Western sanctions that have prevented Russian inspectors from doing their work in the US, thus putting Washington at an unfair advantage. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the inspections would continue once the principle of parity and equality is restored. Inspections had previously been disrupted by lockdowns in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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“They are just towing the line, even selling their souls and reputations just to prevent their cancellation.”

Why Does The Western Narrative Sound So Stupid And Unrealistic? (Romatzki)

Reference is constantly made to WW2 , the Cuban Missile Crises, etc. However that was a different world and era where people and leaders still had Values, Religions was strong, Families were strong, where Integrity, Honour, Patriotism, etc. … had meaning ….. a proper culture. This has all been destroyed. By whom? That is a debatable point, but it did happen. Society has been transformed and the Western Culture has been destroyed. There is now very little left of the original culture of the 1950/1960/1970/1980 and before. The family concept is being destroyed. Fewer Children are born, people marry less, Feminism is pushed, Affirmative actions is pushed, Homosexuality is rampant and encouraged, Gender identity is driven to the absurd.,

Science is destroyed by money, etc. Religion has been destroyed by the introduction of other cultures and religions into society. Inter-race marriages have been promoted and encouraged. And then … Wokeness and Cancel Culture has become dominant. With the loss in a stable anchor, derived from one’s family and culture, who can resist these dominant forces? People have become isolated and vulnerable and easy to manipulate. Integrity is thrown out of the window and now everybody is for himself. Gone are the days were one would stand up for his values and deny a job, money or position. All of it has now become monetised and self preservation is the order of the day. Money has played the corruptible factor.

Money and wokeness has become the driving forces of the population. Cancel Culture and Social media have become the tools. Given the facts above, who can then NOT understand why the Western Commentators spew the fake news and ridiculous narratives? In my assessment I believe it is Selfish Interests, Lack of strong Values, Money, Fear of being Cancelled and a lack of proper Information derived from reality, that drives the Western commentators to create such “devoid of reality” narratives. They are just towing the line, even selling their souls and reputations just to prevent their cancellation.

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“The US is the most cartoonishly nationalistic country in the history of our species..”

American Pundits Have Got It Backwards About China (Blankenship)

In recent years, but notably in the wake of the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) 20th National Congress that just concluded at the end of October, Western writers have rushed to accuse Beijing of becoming anti-Western. This is seen in several examples by Western writers, such as the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos or a quintessential China-blaming piece recently published by the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman. In his article, titled “How China Lost America,” Friedman says that there are four trends in China that have soured the US-China relationship: market manipulation, hyper-nationalism, aggressive foreign policy and Beijing’s “zero-Covid” policy. But he does not elaborate these points to any convincible degree and fails to acknowledge the extent to which Washington’s own policies are to blame for China’s perceived turn from the West.

First of all, a lot of what is called intellectual property theft (which Friedman mentions in his piece) is just ordinary intellectual diffusion. The FBI started an entire ‘China Initiative’ to investigate such instances in top US universities and companies – and it came up almost completely empty-handed to the point that it had to be shut down for devolving into a vehicle for anti-Asian racism. This also doesn’t even acknowledge the extent of the US’ own market manipulation, namely through the sheer influence that its multinationals have in creating trade and economic policy, or its promiscuous use of unilateral sanctions. The US also routinely violates its World Trade Organization (WTO) duties in its trade war against Beijing. The organization even allowedChina to impose duties on $645 million worth of imports over US trade malpractice in January.

For an American to call China hyper-nationalist is laughable. The US is the most cartoonishly nationalistic country in the history of our species: children in most public schools are required to swear a ‘pledge of allegiance’ to the flag every morning, Americans only know one language on average and the American flag is draped everywhere in the country. Chinese people are, on balance, much less chauvinistic and more open-minded. Likewise, it’s hard to take insinuations of Beijing’s supposed “aggressive” foreign policy seriously either. The People’s Republic of China has never started a war since its inception and has not been involved in a proxy war in decades. Compare that to the fact that the US has been at war for nearly every single year of its existence since 1776. It is actually America’s aggressive foreign policy that is prompting resistance from Beijing.

Finally, on the zero-Covid point, this is just sensible policy. Virtually every country in the world has caved into public pressure to relax Covid-related restrictions. That’s fairly understandable because of how ineffective they were in most countries. But that doesn’t change the fact that Covid-19 is an extremely deadly and debilitating disease that is continuing to kill many people and leave many more disabled. If one could choose to eliminate Covid-19 from society, then why wouldn’t they? Thankfully, China has effectively used its technology to do just this – and it works. A January report by Citigroup, based on three surveys conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce China, the EU Chamber of Commerce China and the Japan External Trade Organization, found that China is their favorite investment destination. Among the top reasons listed was the country’s supply-chain resilience and the effectiveness of its Covid-19 controls.

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Robert Bridge, published on RT and only RT. So for those who can’t access RT, the whole article.

American Voters Don’t Need Russian Trolls To Tell Them How Bad Things Are (RB)

As US voters head to the polls for the much-anticipated Midterms, talk of Russian trolls monkeying with US democracy is back in the news. But does the country really need Russia’s help in “stoking anger” among the electorate? If the hyper-liberal New York Times can be taken at face value just two days before an epic election, Russia’s underground army of trolls is, once again, attempting to seed the minds of malleable US voters to the Kremlin’s advantage. If those charges sounded outlandish in 2016, when the Democrats accused Russian ‘influencers’ of denying Hillary Clinton the presidency, they seem doubly so today. The Times reported that the goal of the reactivated Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg is to “stoke anger among conservative voters and to undermine trust in the American electoral system.

”Judging by the looks of things, the Russians are a bit late to the party. It would be hard to name another period in US politics when the level of anger and distrust has been so extreme, and that is something the Russian trolls, despite their supposed superhuman abilities, can’t take credit for. Take inflation, for example, the single most pressing issue among US voters. It doesn’t require any sort of Russian mind-bending operation to inform Americans that the economic situation is deteriorating before their eyes, and has been ever since Biden entered office. They only need to look at their food and utility bills each month, and the price at the gas pump, to feel fury for what the Biden administration has done to the economy in a shockingly short period of time. Any effort to blame these negative sentiments on “the Russians” is just another way of the Democrats saying that soaring prices is “disinformation”and unworthy of your attention.

The Times mentions another point of contention among US voters, particularly the Republicans, and that is the blank-check powers that have been awarded to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Citing the work of “cybersecurity researchers,” the article alleges that the Russian influence campaign “appears intended to undermine the Biden administration’s extensive military assistance to Ukraine.”Again, here is an issue that has already been undermined by the Republicans ever since the Democrats commenced with their proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, a massively hazardous venture where no expense is considered too great. On this point, the Democrats are able to claim, much like in 2016, that the Russians and the Republicans are working in collusion, this time against Kiev. The Russians are anxious to see US military spending on Ukraine come to an end as all of those sophisticated weapons are only prolonging the conflict.

Meanwhile, some of the Republicans campaigned on promises to terminate funding to the Zelensky regime and divert those billions of dollars to national security projects, like fortifying their own border and fighting crime. It would be a mistake to think that Americans are not acutely aware of the issues now dividing the country. Every day, social media users can see for themselves everything they need to know about crime, inflation, transgender issues, and the border, to name just a few of the hot-button issues dividing the country. To suggest that Russian trolls are required to “stoke conservative anger” is to grossly underestimate the political intelligence of the average US voter, who appears better informed than ever before. The fact is, the Democrats are afraid of being wiped out in a landslide come Tuesday. Conjuring up the ghost of Russia interference at the 11th hour reveals their insecurity and will provide them some partial excuse in the event of a blowout.

With regards to these latest accusations of election interference, Moscow is understandably losing its patience. It requires either a certain lack of self-awareness, or an astonishing excess of arrogance, for the United States to lecture any country on the question of meddling. After all, in the case of Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election, we’re talking about a mere $150,000 spent on several thousand Facebook ads, many of which had no political message whatsoever. When it is considered that US presidential elections have turned into multi-billion-dollar pageants, with no expense spared on campaign attack ads, it is hard to imagine that Russia’s severely limited campaign had any effect whatsoever (it needs emphasis that not even Facebook is entirely sure where the posts originated from. Alex Stamos, Facebook’s chief security officer, would only say they “likely operated out of Russia”).

Now compare that to the way the United States “meddles” in the affairs of foreign countries, like Ukraine. In November 2013, after the government of President Viktor Yanukovich opted in favor of closer ties with Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union instead of the EU, protests broke out in the country. How did the United States respond? Not with internet trolls, that’s for sure. It dispatched high-ranking US officials to Kiev, like Senator John McCain and Assistant US Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, where they agitated the masses against the democratically elected government. On the question of who would ultimately govern the splintered country, Nuland was overheard in a phone call with the US ambassador to Ukraine handpicking the eligible candidates.

Once again, the United States proved that there are rules for itself and rules for the rest of the world, and increasingly it is the American people who must pay the price for that supreme arrogance.

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Seaborne, that is.

Russian Oil Exports Surging (RT)

Shipments of Russian seaborne crude surged to 3.6 million barrels per day last week, reaching the highest since early June, while the less volatile four-week average is the highest since August, Bloomberg reported on Monday. A total of 34 tankers were loaded with some 25.2 million barrels of Russian crude oil in the week to November 4, according to vessel-tracking data and port agent reports, as quoted by the media. That’s up by 3.2 million barrels. The exports were ramped up more than a month before the EU sanctions, supported by the G7 nations and Australia, kick in on December 5. The penalties will see Western companies banned from providing insurance and other services to vessels loaded with Russian crude, unless the cargo is purchased below a yet-to-be-agreed price cap.


The biggest increase, in both volume and percentage terms, was reportedly recorded in shipments from the Arctic terminal of Murmansk. Cargoes carrying Russian oil are becoming more cagey about their destinations, according to Bloomberg. The agency noted a big jump in vessels showing their next destination as Port Said or the Suez Canal, and a drop in the volume on tankers indicating that they’re headed to India. The media highlighted that many more ships carrying crude are leaving Russian ports without signaling a final port of discharge. Russia’s revenues from crude-export duty reportedly rose by $16 million to $149 million in the seven days to November 4, with the four-week average income also increasing, gaining $6 million to $134 million.

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“The National Recovery Fund for Poland involves €24 billion in grants and €11.5 billion in loans, but it is just one type of fund that Poland has yet to receive from Brussels.”

Poland Draws A Line In The Sand With The EU (Remix)

The Polish government says it will make no further concessions to the European Union in order to unlock tens of billions in EU funding, arguing that Poland has fulfilled all its obligations and Brussels owes them the money. “Poland fulfilled all conditions set by the European Commission regarding the payment of the Recovery Funds it is due,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said. He added that “he does not intend to answer any comments from Brussels on the matter.” Brussels, for its part, has threatened Poland with catastrophic funding cuts totaling up to €110 billion; this would hobble the Polish economy, which has suffered due to the global economic downturn, inflation, and the refugee crisis from Ukraine.

In an interview for the conservative Sieci, Duda admitted that he does not believe that trying to fulfill the expectations of “the other side” could bring any results. “I believe that a lot of good will was showcased from the Polish side,” he stated. “And we know very well that there is a group from Poland there that has a policy of contradicting the basic interests of the Polish state and is content when Poland is being harmed by Brussels,” said Poland’s president. He also mentioned the liberal-left representatives who “have seats in the European Commission and want to change the ruling party in Poland at all costs.” According to the latest statements of the Polish authorities, Poland has still not sent a request for a payment of the Recovery Funds to Brussels.

Meanwhile, information has appeared in the public space that the Commission confirmed that Warsaw has fulfilled 15 out of 20 milestones necessary for the payments of the first tranche of funds. The National Recovery Fund for Poland involves €24 billion in grants and €11.5 billion in loans, but it is just one type of fund that Poland has yet to receive from Brussels. In June, the European Commission finally accepted the Polish plan, however, it made the payment of the funds dependent on the fulfillment of the so-called milestones. In the case of Poland, those milestones concern mostly the judicial system. Brussels does not recognize that Poland fulfilled its obligations, so the payment of the National Recovery Fund remains frozen.

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“We are borrowing other people’s energy supplies,” Vitol Group Chief Executive Officer Russell Hardy told the media. “It’s not a great thing.”

EU ‘Sucking Gas Away’ From Poorer Countries (RT)

The EU energy crisis is inevitably leading to energy poverty in developing countries, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday citing an energy analyst at Credit Suisse. “Europe is sucking gas away from other countries whatever the cost,” Saul Kavonic told the media. Despite soaring energy bills, the EU is expected to survive the upcoming heating season, as the bloc members have purchased enough oil and natural gas. However, this comes with a high price tag for the world’s poorest nations that have been cut off from the gas market due to Europe’s ravenous demand. Emerging market countries are reportedly at serious risk of being unable to meet their energy needs. Factory shutdowns, more frequent and longer-lasting power shortages, as well as social unrests are the most likely consequences due to the energy security challenges.

Exporters across Qatar and the US are accepting bids from European buyers seeking to purchase as much fuel as possible to fill their storages. That leaves developing countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand unable to compete on price with Germany and other bigger economies. “We are borrowing other people’s energy supplies,” Vitol Group Chief Executive Officer Russell Hardy told the media. “It’s not a great thing.” According to traders cited by Bloomberg, soaring prices prompted some suppliers to South Asia to simply cancel long-scheduled deliveries in favor of better yields elsewhere. “Suppliers don’t need to focus on securing their LNG to low affordability markets,” Raghav Mathur, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie said, adding that the higher prices they can get on the spot market more than make up for whatever penalties they might pay for shirking planned shipments.

“LNG will belong first to the ‘developed,’ with the leftovers for the ‘developing.’”the expert said, adding that this dynamic is likely to hold for years. The European Union is struggling with an energy crisis as a result of the reduction of imports from Russia. Earlier, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that it took the bloc eight months to replace two-thirds of Russian gas supplies. She added that the EU had significantly diversified the range of foreign suppliers, but that had “been costly.”

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“Biden claims inflation is not his fault and he’s bringing it down by spending more deficit money. This is mathematically impossible, incidentally.”

What Do You Run On….. (Denninger)

…. when you have nothing to run on? Let’s just be straight here, ok — neither party, when you get down to it, has anything to run on. But: When you’re in the left seat, and the plane crashes, its your fault. That’s just how the cookie crumbles. Just as an example the “authorities” won’t release the surveillance or body camera tapes from the Paul Pelosi assault. Why not? The only reason not to is that what’s there renders irrevocably false the story told thus far. In what way? I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. If the footage documents the affidavit “as told” then there’s no reason not to release it as it will cement the case not only in court but in public opinion as well. Therefore it clearly doesn’t. Biden claims inflation is not his fault and he’s bringing it down by spending more deficit money. This is mathematically impossible, incidentally.

He either doesn’t know this or he’s lying. It matters not which it is; he ran on and promoted blowing more money around so he has no place to hide. Biden told us all that if you took the Covid shots you would not get covid. He said that conclusively. He lied; his top advisor, Birx, has stated in public she knew this was not true before he took office. Therefore either he hired her and is responsible or she told him and he deliberately lied. Either way: He’s in the left seat, he had opportunity to not lie, thus he owns it. On Biden’s watch Ukraine and Russia went to war. Biden has poured tens of billions of dollars and weapons not only in munitions into Ukraine he’s paying the salaries of their people with our money. The total at this point is well over $100 billion, which is a quite-material part of the fiscal deficit.

By what authority? Well, Congress appears to be ok with it, aren’t they? Indeed. Who controls Congress? Uh huh. Oh, spending more money than you take in causes inflation? Well, prosecuting this war over there is part of it then, on purpose. Again, sit in the left seat, you’re responsible when there’s a smoking hole in the ground and nothing larger than a quarter can be identified. There have been a couple of million people streaming into our nation illegally over the last two years. Inflationary? You bet. What’s worse? The guy who is accused of attacking Pelosi is here illegally and has been for years. How many others have been victimized by criminals who were here illegally? Remember “A Girl in Iowa” anyone? Sit in the left seat, it’s your problem, especially when you sue, as Biden has done, to block Arizona and others from sealing said border.

Biden has declared war on carbon-based fuels. Refiners are closing and have on his watch and will not restart because he has made clear that any investment in them is a zero. It is his expressed intent to destroy said investment so nobody will make it. Do you light $100 bills on fire for fun? Neither does anyone else, so if you think gas or diesel prices are coming down on a durable basis exactly how when there is no increase in refining capacity coming online to meet demand? You can’t build an electric car without carbon-based fuels and in fact to build and operate one requires more carbon-based fuel than just refining and burning the gasoline. This is fact and yet Biden does not care if you get screwed.

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Germany faces many problems. A drop in income is not the worst.

Germany Faces Sharp Drop In Real Income (RT)

The German economy is expected to lose billions of euros by the end of 2023 due to skyrocketing energy prices, the Ifo Center for Macroeconomics said in a report published on Tuesday. According to the forecast, real income loss will reach €110 billion ($110 billion) during the 2021-2023 period, which equals 3% of Germany’s annual economic output. “The only time this figure was higher was during the second oil crisis of 1979-81, when the loss in economic output was 4%,” said Timo Wollmershaeuser, senior economist at Ifo. The surge in energy prices is expected to take a heavy toll on the German economy this year, with an anticipated €64 billion loss, or 1.8% of the country’s output.


The estimated loss for 2021 exceeded €35 billion, and a €9 billion drop is expected for 2023, according to Ifo. German citizens will continue to feel the impact of the energy crisis over the next few years with a drop in real incomes, Wollmershaeuser warned, adding that losing Russia as the main energy supplier will result in long-term high oil and gas prices. He also predicted that Germany will not wean itself off energy imports “overnight” as the country has long been dependent on external supplies. In late October, Ifo predicted that the German economy would contract by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. According to an Economy Ministry forecast, Germany will see growth of 1.4% this year and a 0.4% slump next year.

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Stunning.

Polish Ex-PM Links Low Birth Rates To Women Drinking (RT)

The leader of Poland’s ruling conservative Law and Justice Party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has claimed that women are choosing not to have children because they drink too much. The former prime minister made the remarks on Saturday during a trip to Elk, a city in northeastern Poland. Reflecting on the country’s low birth rate, Kaczynski said “cultural factors”contribute to a woman’s decisions on childbearing, and “it is sometimes necessary to say bitter things openly.” “If, for example, it is maintained that, until the age of 25, young women drink as much as men of their age, there will be no children,” Kaczynski said. “Remember that a man, in order to become an alcoholic, has to drink excessively for 20 years on average… while a woman has to do it for only two years.” “I say this seriously,” the conservative politician stated, adding that he knew a doctor who “managed to cure a third of his male alcoholic patients, but no women.”


“I really am a sincere supporter of women’s equality, but I’m not in favor of women pretending to be men and men pretending to be women because it is something completely different,”Kaczynski said. “This is a typical statement from a patriarchal grandpa during a traditional Polish wedding,” said Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, a legislator from the New Left party, dismissing Kaczynski’s words as “foolish.” Her fellow MP Urszula Paslawska said she does not know “whether to laugh or to cry.” Another New Left lawmaker, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bak, argued that alcohol affects the fertility of both men and women. “In order to have children, other issues need to be solved, and Kaczynski is silent on them,” she said. “There is a shortage of two million housing units in Poland, so young people have to live with their parents.” She added that women, including mothers, need better protection in their jobs and in the labor market.

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RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] is the flavor of the day for Big Pharma.

Will You Survive The ‘Tripledemic’? (Mercola)

As predicted, “health experts” are starting to call for voluntary indoor masking again,(11) even though all the evidence garnered over the past three years confirms what we already knew in 2020, which is that face masks do nothing to stop viral infections. And, as before, in the absence of actual scientific evidence the narrative focuses instead on virtue. Masking up is said to be a way to protect everyone,(12) so just “do your part” and wear it, even though, in reality, it protects no one. The same goes for vaccination. Both the flu vaccine and the COVID shots are proven ineffective, yet the recommendation(13) to get them continues. And this season, you’re expected to get both! The fact that RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] is now being highlighted as a severe risk is understandable in light of the fact that the first-ever RSV vaccines are now in the pipeline.

According to CNN,(14) four different RSV shots are “nearing review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration” and more than a dozen others are in trials. This includes a “long-acting injection” specifically for babies, to be given “right after birth” to protect them from RSV “for as long as six months.” If that’s not a perfect example of how the media tries to change the perception of the basic meaning of a term, I don’t know what is. Six months is hardly long-acting! Historically, most vaccines have at least offered antibody-only “protection” for years, not months. Please recognize all vaccines fail to use cellular immunity to protect you, which is far more important than humoral antibody protection. This extremely short duration of antibody-only protection appears to be a hallmark of mRNA technology however, and indeed, at least some of these new RSV shots are mRNA based.

Moderna has announced it is working on an mRNA jab for RSV, which is scheduled for release in 2023.(15) They’re also working on a combination mRNA jab for COVID, RSV and the flu. (Ultimately, Moderna wants to create an annual mRNA shot that covers all of the top 10 viruses that result in hospitalizations each year.[16]) Janssen is also working on an RSV shot using an adenovirus vector, the same technology used in its COVID shot, while Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are testing “protein subunit” RSV vaccines for pregnant women and seniors.(17) According to Forbes,(18) Pfizer announced November 1, 2022, that it is ready to seek FDA authorization for its RSV vaccine. In clinical trials this shot was given to pregnant mothers and the efficacy was measured not by whether it prevented RSV, but by severity of the infection in hospitalized babies during their first months of life.(19)

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Pretend science. What insane nonsense.

COVID-19 Conspiracies Are a Gateway to Other Conspiracy Theories (SAlert)

Thinking that the COVID-19 pandemic is in some way a hoax could serve as a ‘gateway’ for individuals to engage with more complex conspiracy theories, claim a team of researchers from Ohio State University in the US. According to a recent analysis of two longitudinal studies that tracked participant beliefs in various theories, mistrust in expertise over real-world events can quickly bloom into a general acceptance of conspiracy theories that aren’t supported by robust evidence. The technical term here is conspiracist ideation, which measures someone’s confidence in explanations of events that rely on the power of groups to manipulate outcomes to an unlikely, if not near impossible degree.

For the study’s purpose, the researchers considered conspiracy theories to be beliefs that aren’t supported by any evidence – and which are actually contradicted by the evidence that does exist. These can be anything from believing the Moon landing was staged to thinking that legitimate elections are rigged. In the case of COVID-19, conspiracy theories include the idea that the pandemic was largely exaggerated by the government or the media, and the belief that the virus was released on purpose by a particular agency for sinister means. “It’s speculative, but it appears that once people adopt one conspiracy belief, it promotes distrust in institutions more generally – it could be government, science, the media, whatever,” says psychologist Russell Fazio, from The Ohio State University.

“Once you start viewing events through that distrustful lens, it’s very easy to adopt additional conspiracy theories.” Two different studies were the focus of the analysis. The first queried 107 participants about their beliefs in June 2020. In December of that year, a second study looked at how individuals who considered COVID-19 to be a hoax progressed in their conspiracist ideation. Statistical analysis showed that those who believed the SARS-CoV-2 virus was deliberately released or that the severity of the COVID-19 outbreaks was exaggerated were also more likely to distrust the official results of the 2020 US election. What’s more, members of the ‘conspiracy minded’ group also tended to show an increase in conspiratorial thinking between June and December.

The second study used publicly available data from 1,037 participants, surveyed between March 2020 and December 2020. Again, belief that the pandemic was a hoax predicted a rise in conspiracist ideation over the course of the year. “If you read interviews or forums frequented by conspiracy theorists, you see a phenomenon where people tend to go down the rabbit hole after something happens in their life that triggers general interest in conspiracy theories,” says psychologist Javier Granados Samayoa, from The Ohio State University. “With COVID-19, there was this large event that people could not control, so how could they make sense of it? One way is by adhering to conspiracy theories.”

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Home Forums Debt Rattle November 9 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 87 total)
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  • #120551

    Rembrandt van Rijn Portrait of Rembrandt with gorget 1629   • Super-States in Core Eurasian Geopolitics (Straight-Bat) • Moscow Suggests How Many
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle November 9 2022]

    #120556
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Bloomberg mentioned Cairo as the neutral location more acceptable to Russia than Geneva, since Switzerland has joined the US and EU sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine conflict.

    Sadly Switzerland – land ot total weirdos including men in shorts in sub-zero temperatures and yes, I have lived there and in Baden-Wurttemberg (German but honarary Swiss) in the past – decided to capitulate on the old privacy and US tax investigations. They still do banking, they still house Davos, they still help non-US citizens evade tax, they still make watches (yawn), so I wonder what their new role in the world will be as their banking secrecy and international neutrality are compromised.

    #120557
    teri
    Participant

    It’s “toe the line” (or “toeing the line”). It means to obey authority, to follow the rules set forth by others. “Tow the line” would mean to pull something.

    #120558
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Truly surrealistic…a brain damaged person, who can hardly read/think, beat Dr. Oz in the home of the Continental Congress 😕

    The Deep State War Against Trump Is a War Against the World

    #120559
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    There is nothing more boring than the fake elections that take place in NATOstan nations because the result is determined long before anyone makes a mark on a piece of paper or presses a button on a voting machine.

    The winner is always the bankster-corporate-fascist party because all mainstream parties are bankster-corporate-fascist parties and they are the only ones allowed gain access to the lever of power by the bankster-corporate fascists who control the system.

    Whichever party wins, the fundamental polices will be more or less exactly the same. more of the same. It’s certainly been that way in NZ since Norman Kirk was assassinated -oops, died in mysterious circumstances in 1974.

    So the choice is simply a matter of which snout/snouts will be in the public feeding trough.

    The Scorpion has ensured that the path of destruction in NZ that she/it has pursued since becoming PM will continue unabated by reappointing Adrian Orr as governor of the NZ central bank for the next five years.

    The National Party pretends to be outraged by this.

    There’s talk of the Scorpion losing popularity and not being re-elected.

    The Scorpion could not care less. She/it has made a fortune ($25 million to $30 million since being sponsored into position. She/it can either take up a preordained position at the UN, or hang around the political scene in NZ and pretend to be opposed to National, should they be ‘elected’.

    It’s all theatre, and not even entertaining anymore.

    The real action is in Ukraine, where the fascists are getting desperate.

    Much more interesting for me than the fake politics is the origin of the word airport, which was first used by the Supermarine Company of Woolston, Southampton, England, where one of the first overseas passenger services originated (complementing the passenger services of the big passenger lines operating huge ocean liners).

    I was always intrigued by the name Supermarine as in Supermarine Spitfire, which was designed and developed at the Woolston factory.

    Supermarine was a play on the word submarine, submarines travelling under the water; float planes operated on and above the water.

    Supermarine Spitfires are credited with having given the Luftwaffe such a bloody nose they turned the tide of WW2 at a crucial point. History would have been very different if Britain had not held Germany at bay. It would have taken Russia somewhat longer to win the war,

    My parents spoke of the air-raids they endured in 1949-41, living just a couple of miles further up the River Itchen, as the Germans repeatedly attacked the Supermarine factory and the port of Southampton.

    Southampton was so pummeled, it did not recover until the 1960s and bomb sites were a notable feature of the town when I grew up.

    People living in America really do not know what war is.

    Maybe that why so many of them like it

    I was just thinking. Overseas air travel commenced about 100 years ago, and it very much looks like it will be largely phased out within five years

    By the way, the Romans regarded one of eastern the banks of River Itchen as a favourable spot to establish a colony.

    .

    .

    #120560
    Dr. D
    Participant

    So begins election month(s)?

    And I wonder: has my vote been discarded yet? What? I thought this is something everyone agreed on! Russia CLEARLY is deciding all U.S. elections, right?

    “Trump Calls For Action Over ‘Complete Voter Integrity Disaster’ At Polls: People are showing up to Vote only to be told, “sorry, you have already voted…”

    Well, that’s Russia, so we need to investigate and arrest these Russian agents, right?

    Actually no. The Left says it’s the fault of Black men and White women. …I didn’t ask. I already had my punchcard of nonsense full up for the day. So it’s … your … fault? You are the party of these two groups, right? What did you do to piss them off so much?

    “New York Concealed Carry Law Ruled Unconstitutional Again”

    As yesterday, Republicans keep getting laws and judgments saying certain acts are illegal. Democrats keep doing them anyway, year after year. No one goes to jail. Oh wait:

    “Court Orders Release of ‘True The Vote’ Leaders From Jail”

    People who ASK QUESTIONS go to jail. Forever, as these two, like Armstrong, were given life sentences “For contempt”. Um…I think that’s not legal? To get life sentences without a jury or appeal? When they get out of jail, their accusers simply accuse them and send them to jail again for something new. I’m sorry; when does this stop? When do you stop playing pattycake with people killing you, your children, your community, your country, your rights, and sending you to jail with $1M legal fees? …If it’s the GOP then never, I guess.

    And if history is to be believed, so it will be in NY. Again, gun laws are illegal by BOTH their State, AND the Federal constitutions. They ignore them daily and have for 100 years. Hey guys: there’s a PROCESS. If you want to do this the LEAST you could do is amend the STATE constitution and PRETEND it’s legal. Nope. They would lose as their vast Upstate would veto it, and so they break the law every day for 100 years instead. Every Governor, every Representative. Every Policeman. Every Sheriff. “What is Law?” as Pontius Pilot would say. “There is no Law in them.”

    BTC drop with another (fake) exchange going down. Hopefully this is the plunge I’m looking for. Minutia, but you know what’s in the news no one is talking about? Hey how about that Elon Musk takeover, eh?

    And?

    Hey, how about how Jack Dorsey got off the chain and took his company back for free speech, even though it took a few years cringing under the pimp hand of the bad guys?

    And?

    Hey, how about how both Musk and Dorsey come from PAYPAL. Or in Dorsey’s case, SQUARE, or “Block”.

    And?

    Do I have to spell it out? This has nothing to do with Twitter. Twitter is a loss-leader, it’s practically un-monetizable. They’ve been trying to sell it for years and nobody wanted it because it’s a garbage heap that burns cash like a dumpster fire. The only thing keeping it going is free cash from the Derp State. So we have all the DMs from Twitter, between government, Derp State, and Leftist activists, spokesmen and actors. Now THAT has cash value: It’s worldwide blackmail. Or if you’re a White Hat it’s “Hey maybe you should shut up now and not make trouble after illegally selling blue checkmarks at $15,000 a pop for four years.” AND the actors who bought them are ALSO pissed off they could have got it for $8, and are easily outed as accessories to blackmail and extortion racket by paying it. I.e., they are NOT morally superior but status-grubbing criminals who’ll do anything for a click.

    …But that won’t really fly unless you want to go full-mafia, like the Derp State was. What both Elon AND Dorsey always wanted was a PRIVATE PAYMENT SYSTEM, going around the banks. And PayPal is now the #anti-system, even WORSE than the banks. And Dorsey is also pissed off at being both their slave and their fall guy for 5 years, after the Derp State board got over on him.

    So: two top tech payment guys “start” a new communications company, that day one has a $44B market cap, and between 70 and 400 Million users (active vs inactive). They are complete billionaires and complete private owners, reporting to almost no one. They own the servers so Amazon WS can’t shut them off. And they own the compromat so the Usual Suspects can’t f’ with them.

    And while Twitter moves 280 characters, Crypto only needs 40 x2 to transmit. And become the new “PayPal” and “Square” … where these guys really got their money. And as the Supreme Court says: “Money is Speech”. Ask any Canadian trucker.

    Don’t be distracted by Musk’s money-burning non-cars, his exploding space flights, or Dorsey’s time-suck with demented text addicts. They are MONEY men, not engineers. And they’re both free speech hackers, going way back.

    But I guess we’ll all find out what’s hidden in plain sight. “If the media reports it, it’s a lie.” And if the Media does NOT report it? This most obvious thing? Thousands of articles, cities worth of pixels lit up over this, and not once. No? Huh. I’ll have to do it myself then.

    “the Commission confirmed that Warsaw has fulfilled 15 out of 20 milestones necessary for the payments of the first tranche of funds.”

    And one of the remaining five is to erase all their judges and courts. They have to become as rainbow limp and morally upstanding as the Narco-state in Amsterdam, stealing 1,000 year land from farmers for condos. Um. No. These are not the “European Values” we were looking for.

    “EU ‘Sucking Gas Away’ from Poorer Countries (RT)”

    There’s no “borrowing” for zero-use items, that is a lie. I don’t “Borrow” your food for 6 months and expect you to be alive after. You can only “borrow” things that aren’t being used right now. In addition, the U.S. put ANOTHER illegal military base of aggressive invasion on top of the Syrian pipeline route. The UN Cheers! Yay U.S.! You’re so awesome, moral, and caring! Love Bombs all around! Biden, the party of peace and anti war protestors…a generation ago, and pro-war every day since.

    “He said that conclusively. He lied; his top advisor, Birx, has stated in public she knew this was not true”

    Yes but nobody cares. When my guy lies it’s not a lie. It’s um…look! Russia!

    “wear it, even though, in reality, it protects no one. The same goes for vaccination. Both the flu vaccine and the COVID shots are proven ineffective, yet the recommendation(13) to get them continues.”

    When my guy lies… I love it! Harder, Daddy!

    “claim a team of researchers from Ohio State University” … Who never read the data. On 8 mice. Or Pfizer execs under oath. Or former Pfizer VPs. Or Dr. Birx’s book. But they’re from Ohio, so illiterate boobs, I guess?

    Am I NOT supposed to believe Dr. Birx, Pfizer Execs, official research papers, and Fauci and Biden getting the disease on camera? Now THAT seems like an implausible conspiracy theory.

    “Reality is what I SAY it is.” “Which is to be Master; that is all.”

    “There is a shortage of two million housing units in Poland, so young people have to live with their parents.”

    Meanwhile, Russia is paying parents for kids. Might be the only place on earth you’re not SEVERELY punished for it.

    #120561
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Thinking that the COVID-19 pandemic is in some way a hoax could serve as a ‘gateway’ for individuals to engage with more complex conspiracy theories, claim a team of researchers from Ohio State University in the US.

    Introductions like that remind me of Captain Scarlet, where every episode he saved the world. This time it is from conspiracy theorists that the intellectuals, who would never admit to have spoken to a conspiracy theorist, given that they are professionals, so naturally unthinking liberals, but they heard someone say something about this on the metro so they wrote a paper and the boss is going to publish it. God it is pathetic, how useless do you have to be to work for, be dependent on, these clowns.

    #120562
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Umberto Eco Makes a List of the 14 Common Features of Fascism

    Umberto Eco, Italian. Definition of Fascism to him c1990.

    The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”
    1. The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”
    2. The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”
    3. Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”
    4. Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”
    5. Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”
    6. The obsession with a plot. “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.”
    7. The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”
    8. Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”
    9. Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”
    10. Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”
    11. Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”
    12. Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”
    13. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”

    It’s a different list than I use, more focused on the social minutia I would consider local and not “Ur-Fascism”. On the other hand, he ignores both the history and the very word “Fascism” – a bundle united – and their success. With his list many running South American Spanish cultures have many features of fascism, which seems clearly in error. Posting for thought and discussion.

    #120563
    Oroboros
    Participant

    A secret meeting was held between US Attorney General Merrick Garland, a criminal himself holding the highest ‘law enforcement’ position in the Empire of Lies, and former Congress Critter Tulsi Gabbard.

    Little is known about what was said during the closed door tête-à-tête other than some Justice Department employees down the hall hearing Garland screaming repeatedly at the top of his tinny little voice, STFU!

    But a secret photo has leaked from the Joe Show Regime showing the conclusion of said ‘meeting’.

    The Presidementia’s staff were concerned that Tulsi was ‘Harshing their Mellow®’ (HTM) by talking trash about Old Creepy Joe running the country into the ground and enriching his countless sycophants.

    Garland schooled her on that point.

    .

    #120564
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Veracious Poet said

    Truly surrealistic…a brain damaged person, who can hardly read/think, beat Dr. Oz in the home of the Continental Congress

    Good job all these people voted, given that the USA cannot be bothered to put in place an honest voting system so obviously just does not care what the voters think and want to make it easy for them to cheat the vote: a little cheating every couple of years gives them millions in bribes and the rest. How else will these losers ever make any money?

    Who is fucking dumb enough to go voting? By voting you just told them their system is valid, worth your time to go vote, your participation signals your acceptance of the result.

    FFS. People really annoy me, they are so dumb. I need a dog.

    #120565
    aspnaz
    Participant

    AFKTT said

    Supermarine Spitfires are credited with having given the Luftwaffe such a bloody nose they turned the tide of WW2 at a crucial point. History would have been very different if Britain had not held Germany at bay.

    Ahh, the winners’ version of the war, reminds me of Escape From Colditz: the Brits won the war you know, nobody else did much to help, the Russians just did some marching in Eastern Europe but the Brits saved them. It was the Brits, without them we would all be Nazis.

    Total bullshit history. Go read some real accounts of the war in local museums, you will find that the British Nazis don’t have the manpower to burn down the local museums so there is some actual truth lying around.

    #120566
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Dr D said

    Hey, how about how both Musk and Dorsey come from PAYPAL. Or in Dorsey’s case, SQUARE, or “Block”.

    Buying paypal is one thing, but there are so many Chinese payment companies that anything that happens in the USA is totally irrelevant. The USA is decades behind the Chinese. For example, AliPay, LinePay, etc so Musk adds TwitterPay. Are you telling me that Musk is now going to be copying the Chinese? This is a total non event.

    #120567

    “A massively unpopular President, record inflation, a border in shambles, and yet…we’re just barely going to take the House?”

    It used to be normal for a ruling party to lose 50-60 seats in the midterms. Today, very few change sides, though the reasons to do so are glaringly obvious. That paints the picture of US politics. And media. Walking talking dead.

    #120568
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Sorry, should have added an educational link … https://www.adchina.io/chinese-payment-app/.

    #120569
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Dr D said

    “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”

    What is modern depravity? Is seen by whom? This is a totally stupid statement and would have prevented me from reading the rest were it not for Dr D doing the posting. Umberto Eco is much better at fiction, he writes weird books – although very profitable – but really should stop pretending to have anything to add to politics.

    #120570
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    November 9, 2022 at 12:12 pm#120567REPLY

    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    “A massively unpopular President, record inflation, a border in shambles, and yet…we’re just barely going to take the House?”

    It used to be normal for a ruling party to lose 50-60 seats in the midterms. Today, very few change sides, though the reasons to do so are glaringly obvious. That paints the picture of US politics. And media. Walking talking dead.

    It shocks me into a catatonic state from which I barely regain some form of sanity; or what?
    Nobody is actually doing anything…nobody…
    May the gods of reason please intervene…

    #120571
    Kassandra
    Participant

    Truly surrealistic…a brain damaged person, who can hardly read/think, beat Dr. Oz in the home of the Continental Congress 😕

    I feel the same. I am a regular reader of the comments section at Marginal Revolution so I can have some sort of understanding of the minds that would vote in such a way https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/11/the-election-results.html?commentID=160525251

    MR is full of the “smart people”, reading it is like doing anthropological research.

    #120572
    Dora
    Participant

    Edward Dowd:
    “They don’t. It’s statistically impossible. Fraud is happening. ”
    https://gettr.com/post/p1xijtpa02e

    #120574
    Dora
    Participant
    #120576
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Tulsi, God bless her hart.

    I do not question or judge her choice to be in the army.
    Lieutenant Colonel is relatively high-ranking position to be just retired at her age, so I assume that she is still under the Army reserve umbrella? Unless, US army officers coming of the conveyor belt are disposable at any age?
    Isn’t she required to “cut the crap” and answer the call, unconditionally, to the “sound of trumpets”?

    #120577

    “…at least some of these new RSV shots are mRNA based.” Yay! The lipid nanopaticles are on the house!

    Adding more yeast to the dough increases the size of the loaf, but won’t increase the number of calories in the bread.

    Apparently the garden needs water and the jungle can go thirsty.

    #120578
    jb-hb
    Participant

    With COVID-19, there was this large event that people could not control, so how could they make sense of it? One way is by adhering to conspiracy theories.

    I noticed, in the religious exemption request for the shot which does not vaccinate, they wanted documentation that I was following orders from some religious authority figure

    when I explained that their requirement that I must be blindly following SOMEONE’S orders was itself against my beliefs and then explained how their requirement was against my beliefs, they replied that I had sent no documentation. They meant no VALID documentation, as they clearly recognized I had sent them …something. 18 pages of it. But I had sent “no documentation”

    for people for whom actual critical thought, logic, science, skepticism, free will, are not a thing, they can only imagine “conspiracy theory” being explained as ADHERENCE TO something as opposed to breaking away from something.

    You can send them 18 pages of well-considered rational explanation that you have honed over many hours to be as logical and concise as possible, and they will respond that you have said nothing – does not compute. You did not adhere to anything. You were not following anyone’s orders. Therefore you “make no sense” and have “said nothing”

    With COVID-19, there was this large event that people could not control, so how could they make sense of it?

    The concept that people DID make some sense of it does not compute.

    Probably based on an underlying concept that people cannot know or understand anything and only do things because of how they were influenced. A disbelief in human consciousness as the baseline belief.

    #120579
    John Day
    Participant

    @Teri: Yeah, “Toe The Line” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_the_line

    Department of Kiss & Tell: “Grok Truth not propaganda” Ugo Bardi also reads my blog. 🙂

    America has not hit bottom and despaired/capitulated yet, so no change yet, just pre-positioning, I think.
    The soonest the bottom could be hit seems like 2024, but 2028 would be more fitting to historical trends.
    As I have opined before, the appealing uni-party move is to blame it all on senile Joe Biden, let Trump in for another 4 years of probably blame, but manage chapter-11 bankruptcy, then do something else…
    It’s dangerous to hope, but I hope for a bottom in 2023-2024. It looks like loss of global-reserve-currency-status will be the blood-splattered-wall.
    Optimistic-John

    #120580
    chooch
    Participant

    Current buzz hitting telegram channels.

    The Russians will withdraw from Kherson city and the west bank of the Dnipro.

    #120581
    WES
    Participant

    RINO Mitch is very pleased with his election counting results.

    Now we know why joe and the Dems were not worried about the election.

    They knew the electiin results before the voters even voted!

    #120582
    WES
    Participant

    Susmarie 108:

    Good to hear you are almost ready for winter!

    Nobody will know how messy your wood pile is because you will soon be burning the evidence!

    #120583
    jb-hb
    Participant

    The midterm results are hilarious.

    OF COURSE Americans love runaway inflation, not being able to afford a home, unemployment, weird fascist medical regimes that destroy lives, families, societies and cancel everything that is fun, demented presidents, brain-damaged senators, the threat of nuclear war, the inability to speak freely, sending billions and billions of dollars overseas while not spending billions to rebuild the small businesses that were destroyed by the policies they love, not spending billions to stop repeated shipments of enough fentanyl to kill the entire country, not spending billions to fix the mounting homeless or crime problems, not spending billions to fix the crumbling infrastructure.

    Sure, makes sense. You just have to realize the demographics of America have changed. You just don’t have the same political concerns or blocs in America anymore. Just look at that pie chart. See that huge pie slice of People Who Love Punching Themselves In The Face Continually has now reached a size to swing any election? You just have to understand a modern electorate.

    Historically, Americans would vote for The Other Party when things become intolerable. Even when that isn’t really a solution. But not this time kids. Maybe next time.

    #120584
    chooch
    Participant

    #120585
    oldandtired
    Participant

    Truly surrealistic…a brain damaged person, who can hardly read/think, beat Dr. Oz in the home of the Continental Congress 😕

    I believe Fetterman, a trust fund baby, was complaining that Dr. Oz had earned too much money in his life?

    #120586
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Researchers performing mental gymnastics and purportedly unaware of it:

    researchers considered conspiracy theories to be beliefs that aren’t supported by any evidence – and which are actually contradicted by the evidence that does exist. These can be anything from believing the Moon landing was staged to thinking that legitimate elections are rigged

    -> there IS evidence that the moon landings were staged
    -> there IS evidence that “legitimate elections” are rigged (never mind the oxymoron present in that statement

    (Which means that, according to the study, neither qualify as “conspiracy theories.” Oh, you mean “evidence that really exists” is code for “officially recognized evidence” — because we aren’t supposed to recognize evidence that isn’t part of the narrative.)

    There is also evidence to the contrary.

    Evidence that is contradictory suggests that the truth is more nuanced than the mainstream narrative allows.
    That is supposedly one of the bases for scientific inquiry — to figure out why reality/truth is more complex than our models suggest.

    #120587
    John Day
    Participant

    Election trends and rumors:
    Senate stagnant with slight Dem. majority due to VP Kamala Harris deciding vote.
    House: Probably small Rep. majority.
    Contested votes here and there.
    Republicans ahead some in governorships.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/republicans-see-gains-midterms-red-wave-hopes-fade-democrats-outperform
    Stagnation for 2 more years.
    As with the stock market, bad news is good news going forward (Epimenidis : “All Cretans are liars”.)

    #120588
    John Day
    Participant

    @Phoenixvoice: You read Stranger-In-A-Strange-Land, too?
    Grok.

    #120589
    DarkMatter
    Participant

    It’s “toe the line” (or “toeing the line”). It means to obey authority, to follow the rules set forth by others. “Tow the line” would mean to pull something.

    Toe the line may mean “obey authority” now (language changes), but it used to mean to get ready to compete. I heard it on the Daniel Boone show in the 1960’s. Two men disagreed (one was Boone I think) and a line was drawn in the dirt and the men were told to “toe the line” where they stood and fought until one could no longer stand at the line and fight which made the other the winner, kind of a trial by combat. Google says it originally meant to move to the starting line of a race which is similar, but I like the Daniel Boone metaphor better.

    #120590
    jb-hb
    Participant

    If I understand correctly, the Biden admin’s midterm results are better than both Obama and Clinton midterms?

    #120591
    Noirette
    Participant

    re. twitter from June Slater, up top. “V de Leyen under investigation”…

    Ursula von der L.’s husband was a low – or medium-level wheel in the bio-pharma sphere. Gained higher status I guess since Wifey rose to power! *Heiko von der Leyen.* (See wiki, etc. Idk anything particular about him.)

    It has been clear for a long time that V der L was in cahoots with Big Pharma, note she, and the EU Com. are unelected, it is a buddy-buddy pick yr friends kind of scene. She was prev. Def. Min. of Germany, heavily disapproved of, and then ‘kicked sideways and upstairs to be the Head of the EU Commission.

    There was a similar ‘essai’ in France, re. Swine Flu, 2009. The Health Min. Roselyne Bachelot (originally a pharmacist!) ordered XYZ – huge nos. of vaxes from various Cos. but the State surveillance and Regs. held up and after about under 30 vax deaths, the vax was banned, and Bachelot quit / was forced out. This exercise provided a lot of info, imho, for the next try, Covid 19.

    I’m guessing – purely hypothetical – that Big Pharma undertstood that the corruption of the WHO (which has been going on for a long time, 20 years at least), was the way to go. The WHO could declare ‘a pandemic’ of world scope, and overide National Gvmts. Advisory for vax application, etc. would be part of the package..

    #120592
    John Day
    Participant

    What if he really just wants to talk about freeing-money?
    Even worse?
    German Politicians Move To Block Musk From Restoring Free Speech Protections On Twitter
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/german-politicians-move-block-musk-restoring-free-speech-protections-twitter

    #120593
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    @ John Day
    Yes, read Stranger… and several of the sequels a dozen years back.

    Ah…and it looks like my day just became busier and I will have to peruse TAE comments later.

    #120594
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    We talk a lot about East vs West of late. Concerning that, I like this:

    “Russian culture has much to offer us. The Russians know the darker side of humanity, but they also understand the extraordinary capacity of the human soul for sacrifice and love, and they have the ability to accept both sides of man with greater equanimity than we in the West. They know how to take a long view, something we have all but forgotten in our anxious desire for immediate gratification.”

    Land of the Firebird, 1980, Suzanna Massie

    ***

    Ah, VP’s straw-clutch obsession with his deliberately self-misinformed concept of my relationship with gender and social dress norms.

    Sorry, VP. I ain’t putting out for some pampered princess daughter of the Ming in your mind. I choose fire (if only to light this reefer in front of me). Since I genuinely am veracious (and fairly poetic as well), I’ll seriously note that you’re deeply suffering inside, and that thing won’t heal if you don’t stop picking at it.

    Why are we here? Dr. D often says it is to maintain our sanity. I think he’s close except in his assertion that any of us are sane. Ah, sanity, that mysterious human concept whereby we judge our interpretation of reality to be superior to someone else’s, apparently because we lack sufficient pride in being whatever God(t) made us, and so we therefore feel the need to dismiss someone else as being cuckoo in order to convince ourselves that the bats in our belfry know for whom the bells truly toll.

    I feel sorry for VP but I also feel sorry for me, and you, and that funny-looking chap in the corner with the hunting cap. Everyone is suffering. Maybe if VP stopped projecting (insert possessive pronoun of choice) suffering onto others, some healing might commence.

    fgh

    But it’s hard to let go. If I should publicly say that I hope your suffering eases, that can only sound condescending in this setting, but the truth is like that, and the truth is I wish you healing, VP. I smack you a bit when I feel the mood, because you are to me an extremely obnoxious muddle of self-deluding narcissistically self-imprisoned bullshit braggadocio, but I also pray for you (as well as for po po pitiful me) because, well, we’re all suffering.

    But so long as you feel disposed to throw your particular flavor of self-glorifying animosity around, I will periodically succumb to the temptation to remind you that not everyone believes your bullshit… beginning with that face you see in the mirror.

    Plus, you hit like a girl. I call you a deceitful hack and the best you can come back with is that I, like most males, look funny in a dress? Especially an itty bitty doll dress worn over my face to supposedly protect me from toxic nano-bugs?

    vb

    We could bounce our silly ass egos off each other all day if we chose to, VP. But fomenting schadenfreude in ourselves and pain in others will only keep picking our respective wounds.

    Here’s my Rx, VP: stop publicly telling people how much better you are than them and you won’t experience so much public ridicule from folks like me.

    Oh. I almost forgot. Part of my established online persona is sharing songs cuz I succumb to the delusion that I have great taste in music:
    Cross-Dresser Blues She wears cowboy clothes pretty good for a girl, though.

    I go now to enter the apartment of someone freshly diagnosed with covid. I doggy-sit her pooch on her workdays. I intend to inhale deeply and touch all the physical surfaces that I can without appearing too acquisitive. Keep my immune system strong even if it kills me like a runaway vakzine running wild down a government forced giveaway program.

    P.S. The RVWilliams was most excellent. This, neither choral nor classical, is my counterpoint.

    Why yes, I’m bored. Why do you ask?

    #120595
    boscohorowitz
    Participant
    #120596
    Bishko
    Participant

    If the United States of America could somehow join with the BRICS nations leaving our Government and it’s handlers behind……. Just wondering.

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