Dec 262022
 
 December 26, 2022  Posted by at 10:07 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Saul Leiter Man in straw hat 1955

 

Ukraine War Tolls Death Knell for NATO (Bhadrakuma)r
Putin Says He’s Ready To Negotiate ‘With Everyone Involved’ Over Ukraine (Hill)
Putin “Ready” To Negotiate, But West Wants To “Tear Apart” Russia (ZH)
Only One Nation Benefits From Sanctions On Russia – Minister (RT)
Erdogan Accuses West Of ‘Provocations’ Over Ukraine (RT)
West Issues Ultimatum To Serbia – Media (RT)
Ukraine Hits Airbase 300 Miles Deep into Russia (GR)
GOP Senators Blast McConnell For ‘Arrogance,’ Voter Betrayal (JTN)
Rand Paul Savages DC Elites With Epic “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” (DCE)
Rep. James Comer Calls For Defunding the FBI (DCE)
The Democrats are Now the War Party (Chris Hedges)
Soros Behind Twitter Operation to Shut Down Hunter Biden Laptop Story (BN)
In Post-Soviet Russia, New Years Remains A Bigger Holiday Than Christmas (RT)

 

 

What happened to us?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1607157558690676736

 

 

 

 

Musk


https://twitter.com/i/status/1606852465751629825

 

 

 

 

Stop now

 

 

Never leaves the human body
https://twitter.com/i/status/1606819520110538752

 

 

Control group
https://twitter.com/i/status/1606524791695237123

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..the nuclear triad. It is the main guarantee that our sovereignty and territorial integrity, strategic parity and the general balance of forces in the world are preserved..”

Ukraine War Tolls Death Knell for NATO (Bhadrakuma)r

The defining moment in US President Joe Biden’s press conference at the White House last Wednesday, during President Zelensky’s visit, was his virtual admission that he is constrained in the proxy war in Ukraine, as European allies don’t want a war with Russia. To quote Biden, “Now, you say, ‘Why don’t we just give Ukraine everything there is to give?’ Well, for two reasons. One, there’s an entire Alliance that is critical to stay with Ukraine. And the idea that we would give Ukraine material that is fundamentally different than is already going there would have a prospect of breaking up NATO and breaking up the European Union and the rest of the world… I’ve spent several hundred hours face-to-face with our European allies and the heads of state of those countries, and making the case as to why it was overwhelmingly in their interest that they continue to support Ukraine… They understand it fully, but they’re not looking to go to war with Russia. They’re not looking for a third World War.”

Biden realised at that point that “I probably already said too much” and abruptly ended the press conference. He probably forgot that he was dwelling on the fragility of Western unity. The whole point is that the western commentariat largely forgets that Russia’s core agenda is not about territorial conquest — much as Ukraine is vital to Russian interests — but about NATO expansion. And that has not changed. Every now and then President Putin revisits the fundamental theme that the US consistently aimed to weaken and dismember Russia. As recently as last Wednesday, Putin invoked the Chechen war in the 1990s — “the use of international terrorists in the Caucasus, to finish off Russia and to split the Russian Federation… They [US] claimed to condemn al-Qaeda and other criminals, yet they considered using them on the territory of Russia as acceptable and provided all kinds of assistance to them, including material, information, political and any other support, notably military support, to encourage them to continue fighting against Russia.”

Putin has a phenomenal memory and would have been alluding to Biden’s careful choice of William Burns as his CIA chief. Burns was Moscow Embassy’s point person for Chechnya in the 1990s! Putin has now ordered a nation-wide campaign to root out the vast tentacles that the US intelligence planted on Russian soil for internal subversion. Carnegie, once headed by Burns, has since shut down its Moscow office, and the Russian staff fled to the West! The leitmotif of the expanded meeting of the Board of the Defence Ministry in Moscow on Wednesday, which Putin addressed, was the profound reality that Russia’s confrontation with the US is not going to end with Ukraine war. Putin exhorted the Russian top brass to “carefully analyse” the lessons of Ukraine and Syrian conflicts. Importantly, Putin said, “We will continue maintaining and improving the combat readiness of the nuclear triad. It is the main guarantee that our sovereignty and territorial integrity, strategic parity and the general balance of forces in the world are preserved. This year, the level of modern armaments in the strategic nuclear forces has already exceeded 91 percent. We continue rearming the regiments of our strategic missile forces with modern missile systems with Avangard hypersonic warheads.”

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“..Zelensky has laid out a series of 10 conditions that must be met for peace to be achieved..”

That’s what you do when you’re losing.. You come with conditions.

Putin Says He’s Ready To Negotiate ‘With Everyone Involved’ Over Ukraine (Hill)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he’s ready to negotiate “with everyone involved” in the war with Ukraine. Putin told a Russian news reporter in an interview that aired on Russian media on Sunday that the Kremlin is ready to negotiate but their enemy are the ones refusing to talk. The comments from the Russian leader follow intense Russian shelling on the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Christmas Eve that killed at least 10 people and injured more than 50 others. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Russia as “absolute evil” on Saturday following the deadly strikes, which he said were for “the sake of intimidation and pleasure.” Zelensky and President Biden discussed what a “just peace” would look like when Zelensky visited the United States on Wednesday for his first international trip since the war started in February.


Zelensky has laid out a series of 10 conditions that must be met for peace to be achieved, including total Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory. This would also include a Russian withdrawal from the Crimean Peninsula under the Ukrainian demands. [..] Putin has previously called on Ukraine and the international community to recognize Crimea as part of Russia, which they have been unwilling to do. Putin said in the interview that Russia is defending its national interests and its citizens in the 10-month conflict, The Associated Press reported. But he said Russia is prepared to negotiate “some acceptable outcomes” with all participants in the conflict. Putin called the conflict a war for the first time in a televised news conference on Thursday, saying it is Russia’s goal to end it. He previously only referred to it as a “special military operation.”

Putin direct

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“..we are defending our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people..”

Putin “Ready” To Negotiate, But West Wants To “Tear Apart” Russia (ZH)

In a Sunday interview with Rossiya 1 state television, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country is now ready to negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine. However, he once again pointed the finger at the West for making any dialogue toward an acceptable end to the fighting all but impossible. “We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions, but that is up to them – we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are,” Putin said. “I believe that we are acting in the right direction, we are defending our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people. And we have no other choice but to protect our citizens,” he added. From Moscow’s point of view, a signal of Ukraine’s ‘seriousness’ about talks would likely hinge on Kiev’s willingness to compromise on territorial concessions, especially regarding the Donbas in the east.


Additionally the Ukrainians would likely have to acknowledge Russian control over the Crimea. However, President Zelensky on Wednesday in his speech before Congress pledged “absolute victory” and has of late been vehement in rejecting any talk of letting go of territory as a non-starter, especially as the months-long Ukrainian counteroffensive has met with some significant successes.Also in the interview Putin continued his theme of the US and NATO waging a proxy war using Ukraine as a pawn. He said in the Sunday comments that the West is attempting to “tear apart” Russia. “At the core of it all is the policy of our geopolitical opponents, aiming to tear apart Russia, the historical Russia,” Putin said. “They have always tried to ‘divide and conquer’… Our goal is something else – to unite the Russian people.”

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“..were orchestrated to provide Europe with more expensive liquefied [natural] gas from America.”

Only One Nation Benefits From Sanctions On Russia – Minister (RT)

The sanctions the West has slapped on Russia over the Ukraine conflict are taking a heavy toll on the European economy, while the United States is the only actor profiting from the restrictions, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Saturday. Speaking to Asharq News daily, the minister claimed that Western sanctions had helped the Americans to achieve what they wanted, saying “their supplies of oil and gas to the European market have increased.” Energy shipments from the US, however, have proved costly for Europeans, resulting in skyrocketing inflation and decreased competitive power for European businesses, Siluanov said. According to the minister, both Western sanctions and the blasts that ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in late September “were orchestrated to provide Europe with more expensive liquefied [natural] gas from America.”

“America benefits, Europe loses,” he explained. Moscow has called the sabotage a terrorist attack, claiming that the US stood to benefit the most from the explosions. While Washington has denied any involvement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the incident as a “tremendous opportunity” for Europe to wean itself off of Russian energy. Siluanov went on to admit that sanctions have affected the Russian economy. “But they inflicted on the West no less, and perhaps even more pain,” he said, adding that the sanctions rhetoric has now become routine. The minister noted that the EU price cap on Russian oil “will certainly lead to price and market distortions,” reiterating Moscow’s position that it would not provide crude under contracts conforming to Western-mandated restrictions.

Russian oil companies are rerouting their oil shipments from the West in other directions, the minister said. “We will be looking for new markets, looking for new logistics. It is possible that this would be more expensive,” he stated. Earlier this month, the EU, the G7 countries and Australia introduced a price limit on Russian seaborne oil, set at $60 per barrel. The measure also prohibits Western companies from providing insurance and other services to shipments of Russian crude, unless the cargo is purchased at or below the indicated price. Following the move, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov warned that the restrictions would wreak havoc on global oil markets, while Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was not planning to sell oil to nations supporting the price cap.

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Erdogan plays his cards.

Erdogan Accuses West Of ‘Provocations’ Over Ukraine (RT)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has praised Türkiye’s role in securing a grain deal between Russia and Ukraine, claiming in a speech on Sunday that unlike Ankara, Western nations did not make any tangible diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict. “Unfortunately, the West has only made provocations and failed to make efforts to be a mediator in the Ukraine-Russia war,” Erdogan said at a youth event in Türkiye’s eastern Erzurum province on Sunday. Türkiye has thus “assumed this mediator role in 2022” and is set to continue its diplomatic efforts next year, building up on the success of the Black Sea corridor created as part of an Istanbul grain deal in July, Erdogan said.

The grain corridor was touted as a way to secure food supplies to the neediest nations as a matter of priority, but Erdogan confirmed Russia’s long-standing concerns, saying on Sunday that some 44 percent of the grain exported from Ukraine went to Europe instead. In the meantime Moscow voiced its readiness to supply African nations with “large volumes” of grain and fertilizers out of its own stocks for free. Ankara adopted a neutral position early in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, refusing to take part in the Western sanctions on Moscow, while continuing its military cooperation with Kiev – including selling a number of Bayraktar attack drones. A preliminary peace agreement was reportedly reached in Istanbul as early as March, but was later rejected by Ukraine under alleged pressure from the West.

The grain deal, touted as a rare victory for diplomacy, was signed in July by representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Türkiye and the UN, with a Joint Coordination Center set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments. In late October, Russia briefly suspended its participation in the agreement, after accusing Kiev of launching a terrorist attack on the Crimea bridge, and drone strikes on ships involved in securing safe passage for agricultural cargo. Moscow ultimately returned to the accord after receiving unspecified “written security guarantees” from Kiev. Last month, Moscow allowed “a technical prolongation” of the deal, but Russian officials have repeatedly voiced concerns that the deal is not meeting its stated goals, and have also insisted that the provisions on lifting the restrictions on Russian agricultural exports were not being fulfilled. The Turkish president expressed hope that the issue of fertilizer exports and Moscow’s other concerns would be resolved through “more intense” negotiations next year.

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Keep on poking…

West Issues Ultimatum To Serbia – Media (RT)

Several Western countries have “sent an ultimatum” to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, demanding that Serbs in the northern part of breakaway Kosovo end their stand-off with local authorities, news website Pink.rs reported on Sunday. The outlet claims that ambassadors of the Quint group, comprising the US, the UK, France, Germany and Italy, are calling for barricades in the region be removed within 24 hours. If Belgrade fails to ensure this, the Western powers will reportedly let Albin Kurti, Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian prime minister, attack local Serbs. Earlier, Kurti warned that the “removal of these barricades cannot exclude casualties.”

Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina flared up earlier this month when Serbs, who make up the majority in the northern part of province, put up barriers to protest against the arrest of a former police officer, accused of attacking a Kosovo law enforcement patrol. After this, Vucic asked NATO’s KFOR peacekeepers for permission to deploy up to 1,000 Serbian troops and police officers in Kosovo, as it is entitled to do under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which put an end to the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia in 1999. However, these plans were resisted by the US, with Gabriel Escobar, the State Department’s special envoy for the region, saying Washington had given Kosovo “very firm security guarantees.”

On Sunday, KFOR said that shots had been fired near a NATO patrol in northern part of Kosovo, close to the roadblocks, adding that there were no casualties. It stopped short of assigning blame. However, Serbian media, citing eyewitnesses, claimed that the incident took place when Kosovo’s special forces attempted to clear barricades near a town of Zubin Potok. With no sign of tensions abating, Milan Mojsilovic, Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, told local media on Sunday that the situation is complex, and requires the presence of the Serbian military along the administrative line which divides Kosovo from the rest of Serbia. NATO took control of Kosovo in 1999, after bombing Serbia on behalf of ethnic Albanian separatists. The province’s provisional government declared independence in 2008, which Belgrade has refused to recognize.

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They’re shot down but still kill.

Ukraine Hits Airbase 300 Miles Deep into Russia (GR)

Ukraine attacked with a drone an airbase in Russia’s Saratov region which lies about 500km (310 miles) northeast of the border with Ukraine. Three Russian military personnel were killed at Engels bomber base Russian news agencies reported, citing the defense ministry. Russian state media agency Tass quotes the defense ministry as saying: “On December 26, at around 01:35 Moscow time (2235 GMT), a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down at low altitude while approaching the Engels military airfield in the Saratov region. “As a result of the fall of the wreckage of the drone, three Russian technical servicemen who were at the airfield were fatally injured.”


Russia accuses Ukraine of carrying out a similar attack on the airfield, home to strategic bombers, on 5 December. In that attack three servicemen were also killed by debris from a downed Ukrainian drone, Moscow said at the time. Two aircraft were lightly damaged. According to Reuters, the twin strikes dealt Russia a major reputational blow and raised questions about why its defenses failed, analysts said, as attention turned to the use of drones in the war between neighbors. Ukraine has never publicly claimed responsibility for attacks in Russia, but has said, however, that such incidents are “karma” for Russia’s invasion. As CNN reported recently Ukraine’s state-owned weapons manufacturer Ukroboronprom has indicated several times in the last few weeks that it is close to finishing work on a new long-range drone.

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“..Unfortunately, our supporters aren’t going to buy it either.”

GOP Senators Blast McConnell For ‘Arrogance,’ Voter Betrayal (JTN)

Conservative GOP senators blasted Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday for shepherding with Democrats a $1.7 trillion year-end spending bill into law over the objections of House Republicans, saying it was an act of “arrogance” that betrayed promises to voters. “Our party leadership turned on Republican voters, turned on the Republican base, turned on most Republican senators,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told “The Cats Roundtable” and host John Catsimitidas on WABC radio in New York. “It has happened before, but this is one too many times. For me, this is the final straw.” Lee called the omnibus spending bill signed into law Friday “the ugliest spending bill on record” and one that signaled “that voters don’t see much of a defining difference with Democrats.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., mocked those of his GOP colleagues who voted for the bill and celebrated its passage. “To declare that a victory, to say that’s a win, that’s like a football team that just lost the game 60 to 0, and they kick a field goal in the waning seconds and say the field goal is a big win,” Johnson told Catsimitidas. “No, we just got our you-know-whats handed to us.” Johnson said that McConnell’s maneuver not only betrayed conservative voters but also undercut House Republicans about to take over in January who had asked for a short-term spending plan. “Unfortunately, the arrogance of our leadership who said, ‘We know better than House members. We’re going to pass this.’ … I’m not buying it,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, our supporters aren’t going to buy it either.”

Other senators took to Twitter to express their disdain for the spending law, warning it will worsen inflation next year. “I voted AGAINST the $1.7 TRILLION spending bill because I promised Florida families I’d fight every day to make Washington work for them,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., tweeted. “This reckless inflation bomb is a disaster for our economy and a slap in the face to Floridians struggling to make ends meet.”

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“The Senators were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of pork danced in their heads. No budget was found, just mischief and debt.”

Rand Paul Savages DC Elites With Epic “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” (DCE)

This Wednesday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) posted a parody of the classic Christmas poem “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” to this social media, this time directed at the Democrat’s omnibus spending bill — which costs America a whopping $1.7 trillion dollars. “Twas the week before Christmas, and through the Senate and House, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The earmarks were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there,” Paul begins.= “The Senators were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of pork danced in their heads. No budget was found, just mischief and debt. While the taxpayers hung their poor heads and wept. When out on the lawn arose such a clatter — Senators sprang from their oxygen. What was the matter?” Paul added. “Away to the window, they flew like a flash, tore open the shutter when they heard the word cash.”

Then Senator Paul decided to name names — and he was genuinely bipartisan here, scorching high spenders on both sides of the aisle! Note: This article may contain commentary reflecting the author’s opinion. This Wednesday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) posted a parody of the classic Christmas poem “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” to this social media, this time directed at the Democrat’s omnibus spending bill — which costs America a whopping $1.7 trillion dollars. “Twas the week before Christmas, and through the Senate and House, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The earmarks were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there,” Paul begins. “The Senators were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of pork danced in their heads. No budget was found, just mischief and debt.

“While the taxpayers hung their poor heads and wept. When out on the lawn arose such a clatter — Senators sprang from their oxygen. What was the matter?” Paul added. “Away to the window, they flew like a flash, tore open the shutter when they heard the word cash.” Then Senator Paul decided to name names — and he was genuinely bipartisan here, scorching high spenders on both sides of the aisle! “With a little old driver so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick. More rapid than eagles. His coursers they came, and he whistled and shouted and called them by name: Now, McConnell! Now, Schumer! Now, Pelosi and Vixen! On Biden! On Stupid! On Dumber and Blitzen! To debt! To bankruptcy! To free money for all”

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“We need to halt everything with the FBI, all funding, until they come forward and explain to Congress exactly what they were doing..”

Rep. James Comer Calls For Defunding the FBI (DCE)

On Tuesday, Rep. James Comer, who is expected to be the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, spoke to Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo about the recent revelations from the “Twitter Files” about the FBI’s influence in the silencing of the Hunter Biden laptop story in October 2020. When asked about the latest releases of the Twitter files, which outlined the FBI’s cooperation with Twitter to counter “misinformation” and “disinformation” on the social media site, Comer emphasized that the initial discovery proves wrongdoing, but additional investigations will have to be conducted.“Well, it means a lot more evidence of wrongdoing,” he told Bartiromo. “You know, in the beginning, I thought that there were probably two or three rogue employees who were orchestrating this cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop story. But now we know the FBI had a division of at least 80 agents.”

“We also know that the FBI paid Twitter over $3 million for their time, all the time they took over the past couple of years in telling them who to suppress, who to ban,” the congressman explained. “You know, it’s just things that the government has no role in. The FBI was never granted the authority to create any type of disinformation task force that policed the social media sites.” “Now, this we know with Twitter, we’ve heard similar stories from Zuckerberg,” the Kentuckian explained referencing Zuckerberg’s admittance that Facebook deemphasized stories at the request of the FBI. “Who knows what went on at YouTube and Google? This is an agency that’s out of control.”

“And the most frustrating thing for me right now, Maria, is the fact that in this omnibus bill, there’s increased funding for the FBI, plus a $1.75 billion headquarters facility for the FBI,” he explained in reference to the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill currently being considered in the Senate. “We need to halt everything with the FBI, all funding, until they come forward and explain to Congress exactly what they were doing, why they were doing it, and who gave them the authority to do it.”

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“..No weapons system is too costly. No war, no matter how disastrous, goes unfunded. No military budget is too big..”

The Democrats are Now the War Party (Chris Hedges)

The Democrats position themselves as the party of virtue, cloaking their support for the war industry in moral language stretching back to Korea and Vietnam, when President Ngo Dinh Diem was as lionized as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. All the wars they support and fund are “good” wars. All the enemies they fight, the latest being Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, are incarnations of evil. The photo of a beaming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris holding up a signed Ukrainian battle flag behind Zelensky as he addressed Congress was another example of the Democratic Party’s abject subservience to the war machine.

The Democrats, especially with the presidency of Bill Clinton, became shills not only for corporate America but for the weapons manufacturers and the Pentagon. No weapons system is too costly. No war, no matter how disastrous, goes unfunded. No military budget is too big, including the $858 billion in military spending allocated for the current fiscal year, an increase of $45 billion above what the Biden administration requested. The historian Arnold Toynbee cited unchecked militarism as the fatal disease of empires, arguing that they ultimatley commit suicide.

There once was a wing of the Democratic Party that questioned and stood up to the war industry: Senators J. William Fulbright, George McGovern, Gene McCarthy, Mike Gravel, William Proxmire and House member Dennis Kucinich. But that opposition evaporated along with the antiwar movement. When 30 members of the party’s progressive caucus recently issued a call for Biden to negotiate with Putin, they were forced by the party leadership and a warmongering media to back down and rescind their letter. Not that any of them, with the exception of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have voted against the billions of dollars in weaponry sent to Ukraine or the bloated military budget. Rashida Tlaib voted present.

The opposition to the perpetual funding of the war in Ukraine has come primarily from Republicans, 11 in the Senate and 57 in the House, several, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, unhinged conspiracy theorists. Only nine Republicans in the House joined the Democrats in supporting the $1.7 trillion spending bill needed to prevent the government from shutting down, which included approval of $847 billion for the military — the total is boosted to $858 billion when factoring in accounts that don’t fall under the Armed Services committees’ jurisdiction. In the Senate, 29 Republicans opposed the spending bill. The Democrats, including nearly all 100 members of the House Congressional Progressive Caucus, lined up dutifully for endless war.

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DNC, FBI, FTX, Twitter, Soros. Nice.

Soros Behind Twitter Operation to Shut Down Hunter Biden Laptop Story (BN)

First Draft News, a now-defunct nonprofit that left-wing billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations funded, played a key role in Twitter’s preparation to shut down the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, according to internal documents published by author Michael Shellenberger as part of Elon Musk’s “Twitter Files.” The Aspen Institute hosted a September 2020 training exercise for members of the media and social media leaders regarding the handling of hypothetical data leaks which were similar to the Hunter Biden laptop report that broke in October, according to Shellenberger. Claire Wardle, former executive director and co-founder of First Draft News, appeared to be an attendee of the exercise, according to an email published by Shellenberger.

The address that apparently belonged to Wardle was one of multiple recipients in an email to top national security reporters, Facebook’s head of security policy and others, according to Shellenberger. The Open Society Foundations, which left-wing megadonor Soros chairs, once funded First Draft News. The organization shut down in June. “Today we are announcing that First Draft is closing its doors to make way for the next chapter — its mission will continue at the newly launched Information Futures Lab, an initiative from Brown’s School of Public Health,” an announcement from Wardle reads.

The Aspen Institute training exercise, titled “The Burisma Leak,” involved a series of hypothetical leaks during October 2020 showing that Hunter Biden had made more money in his role at Burisma than previously disclosed and had communicated with his father about his work there, Shellenberger reported. The exercise was meant to shape how the media covered the eventual leak of the Hunter Biden laptop story and the way social media platforms carried it. The Aspen Institute, a left-leaning think tank funded by massive philanthropic organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation, runs the Commission on Information Disorder, an anti-disinformation project that’s drawn ire from conservatives for its alleged far-left partisanship. The commission has urged social media platforms to censor accounts it considers misinformation “superspreaders” through demonetization, the removal of what it considers inaccurate posts and penalties for offending users.

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Pretty brilliant history lesson.

In Post-Soviet Russia, New Years Remains A Bigger Holiday Than Christmas (RT)

Present-day Russia is almost the only major Christian country in the world where New Year festivities are more prominent than those of Christmas. While Westerners are unpacking gifts on December 24th, Russians are still immersed in an atmosphere of their upcoming holiday, which, when it comes around, is filled with age-old traditions and lasts almost two weeks. To understand why the New Year has become a special celebration in Russia and what sets it apart from other countries, we must first dive into the history of the holiday. It was only in 1700 that Russia joined the pan-European tradition of celebrating the New Year on January 1, following a decree by Emperor Peter the Great. Before that, Russians had celebrated New Year’s on March 1, when it was time to prepare for the new season of agricultural work.

However, despite the will of the emperor, Russia did not fully synchronize with the rest of Europe – the country at the time functioned according to the old Julian calendar, while most European countries had already switched to the Gregorian one. Therefore, the new year in Russia began 13 days later. This became a key aspect that influenced the modern traditions of New Year celebrations. Thanks to Peter the Great, the New Year moved closer to the main Christian holiday, Christmas. For the next two hundred years, New Year and Christmas celebrations in Russia were a lot like those in Western Europe. The difference was only in the religious form – Russia followed Christian Orthodox canons, while the likes of France and Germany followed Catholic and Protestant ones.

Everything changed with the October Revolution, the overthrow of the emperor, and the creation of the new state – the USSR. The Bolsheviks carried out several reforms in the first years after the revolution that directly affected how Russia celebrates the New Year today, in the 21st century. On January 26, 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars of Russia issued a decree on the transition to the Gregorian calendar. As a result, the country celebrated the start of the year 1919 simultaneously with Western Europe. In 1929, the celebration of Christmas was officially ‘canceled.’ Although by this time the New Year had become a completely independent secular holiday, Christmas was privately celebrated in many homes.

Even in 1924, shortly before Lenin’s death, a Christmas Tree celebration was held for children. But, after 1929, the most important Christian date was erased from the calendar and remained exclusively in the homes of religious people. At the same time, the Orthodox Church did not switch to the Gregorian calendar, and therefore Orthodox Christmas is still celebrated on January 7, not December 25.

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Home Forums Debt Rattle Boxing Day 2022

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  • #124301

    Saul Leiter Man in straw hat 1955   • Ukraine War Tolls Death Knell for NATO (Bhadrakuma)r • Putin Says He’s Ready To Negotiate ‘With Everyone In
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle Boxing Day 2022]

    #124302
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Incredible photograph today.

    Also a croc floats by. Raul – the news may make us clench a fist sometimes or breathe a heavy sigh but some of the shit you put up either side really lifts the mood.

    Also – I think Chris Hedges may be becoming useful again. He has been so admirable for so long then got stuck in the same riff. This riff although similar is shareable and not to be easily argued against in the attempt to educate and enlighten minds.

    #124303
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.” ~ Thomas Sowell

    “Christmas dinner could get awkward for crypto advocates who were adamant about their families investing last year…”

    Hahahaha. Yes. But I guess we’ll see.

    Ritchie Torres: So the officials – in that article referred – literally said they don’t know who did it. But Torres will believe the implication in order to attack another man, rather than what was directly said. This is a good summary of the situation.

    I wonder will the Right ever try tactics that work, or are there no tactics that work? Tucker, like us, is repeating official talking points, in this case WaPo, to make a rational, well-sourced argument which is so generous it is even and only using sourcing believed by the other side. That is, instead of reporting what is happening, and creating their own media on their own side.

    This method of generous, reasonable argument has had no noticeable effect after 25 years of trying. I think it’s because, thoughtlessly, without looking too much at it, the Right would be persuaded by this and believes therefore the Left must not have heard it properly, or thought it wasn’t sourced by WaPo but by Q-Anon. This is false. They know perfectly well, as NY Times for example, was the major source of how crappy and corrupt Ukraine was for decades, including Nazism, racism, and sucking in corrupt Federal officials for blackmail and money laundering. We’ve essentially always used the other side’s news and data because our case and proof is so clear there’s actually no need to go generate our own. …It’s just that it doesn’t matter.

    Since agreed-on data has no effect, why refer to it? What would you prefer to do instead that works? Note: this has to be an emotional attack. One that causes embarrassment and makes them feel alienated from the group, as it appears to be adherence to the group, the clan, that encourages support despite all even death.

    Oh, takeaway? Apparently Republicans are very stupid. Doing the same thing over and over? Insane even.

    “U.S. Doctors warn the world to stop taking the Covid Vaccines, they are toxic, lethal, ineffective. CDC, FDA misinformation causing death and injury.”

    …Even to death.

    Catastrophic sea level. As I say every day, and point to the proven lies said with equal fervor that were all proven false, every time, every day, all my life. That doesn’t mean it WON’T happen. Unlike the other side, I’m capable of considering that I’m wrong. It just means they now have less than zero credibility. Their official prediction: Sea levels would rise dangerously in ~10 years. “We have only 12 years left.” That was 35 years ago. You made a falsifiable prediction. That thesis was proven false. The Theory is therefore discarded: the literal definition of Science. We the People are doing the Science, the Scientists are making up new excuses about why the experiment they screamed would show us all, has failed. …Along with a bunch of others, like no hurricanes and snow in Miami and Riyadh.

    I think if you had a Science career and did this, your professional reputation would be severely injured. It doesn’t mean we throw you away, expel your tenure, but you’d be taking a non-stop pile of s—t from your peers. Rightfully so. And many have come back from such fiascos to do good work. That is exactly what’s happening now, as the People understand Science and express its values, while we can’t find a dozen Scientists who uphold Science. The rest are a teen mob, desperate to sit with the cool kids, at least so it seems to us.

    Again, when Nascar, beer-case a week lawn-mowers are out-sciencing you at every turn, aren’t you ashamed of yourself yet? Is this what you dreamed of, going to school?

    Again: falsifiable experiment, falsified. Where do we go from here? “I’m the Mommy.” “Do what you’re told!”

    “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Russia as “absolute evil” on Saturday following the deadly strikes, which he said were for “the sake of intimidation and pleasure.”

    Who? Why do we quote coke-snorting comedians who aren’t in charge of anything? Did you get a quote from John Belushi as well?

    Zelensky has laid out a series of 10 conditions that must be met for peace to be achieved, including total Russian withdrawal from [Crimea].”

    Officer: arrest this man! He is negotiating peace that only last week they made a federal crime. I’m not kidding, WHY can he do this again? Because he outlawed every other party and is a dictatorship? Why pass a law then? Entertainment value? Dictatorships don’t follow laws, they do what they like. Which says a lot about America.

    Putin “Ready” to Negotiate, But West Wants to “Tear Apart” Russia (ZH)”

    That’s ridiculous, just because they say that is their goal just about every time they open their mouths, and talk about nuking someone (Miss Truss) the other half, doesn’t mean they’re out to get you. We both DO want you dead, and are at war with you and are NOT at war with you and want peace. See who’s the crazy person now?

    “Only One Nation Benefits From Sanctions On Russia – Minister (RT)”

    Not exactly, Both Russia and America are coming out ahead, which is what you might expect if they are both at war with Davos. However, this could be Europe’s strategy. They believe the world is ending (so to speak) and that society needs the most radical transformation in the history of man. Whoever accomplishes this transformation first, and emerges in their new WEF world will be ahead of the pack and win the game. Therefore “You must own nothing”, and the German middle class needs to be destroyed with all food being controlled in Brussels, which is happening right now.

    Now we know what techno-tyranny they believe is best and puts Kim Il to shame, but that’s not the point right now. They WANT to destroy their continent and rebuild it on what they feel is a better, stronger basis. And to blame others for what they “just had to” do. That’s why we’re all on the same page and Germany “just can’t figure out’ who blew NordStream despite owning the pipes in a warehouse right now. …Like the D.C. bomber talking on his cell phone they didn’t look for for a year.

    Russia has oil, the don’t need to transform. The U.S. probably does, that remains to be seen, but we certainly will collapse if we don’t re-establish ourselves on a stable basis. For us, probably the one we’ve always had: a Federalism with strong(er) states, and broad Human Rights we aspire to but never approach. That’s probably our base state in that other, forgotten part of “Geopolitics”: that is, that the land informs and creates the people. The geography creates the nations, the culture. The U.S. is too large and too various to be centrally controlled. Yet we don’t need to be run under a tyrannical bureaucracy the way China does. We’re just fine if you leave us alone.

    “West Issues Ultimatum to Serbia – Media (RT)”

    It’s the Hitler model: when you’re losing, open another front. Speaking of, how’s the ground freeze in Ukr? I heard it was very moderate weather there so far.

    “December 26, at around 01:35 Moscow time (2235 GMT), a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down at low altitude while approaching the Engels military airfield”

    They attack ONLY nuclear bases and nuclear plants. Crickets from the West. It’s Putin’s fault! Why’s he so belligerent just because we bomb his nuclear bases every week?

    “Our party leadership turned on Republican voters, turned on the Republican base, turned on most Republican senators,”

    Hahahaaha! What are we, 5 years old? They’ve done nothing but that for decades, but certainly since Newt Gingrich in 1994. “Mr. Speaker, just what size majority do we need to do what the America people sent us here for?” “Sit down and shut up. We’re not done giving Clinton everything he wants yet.”

    So, a whole lifetime? And Republican voters learned nothing yet? But that’s on Jimmy Dore each day too: the whole premise of his show is that Democrats will NEVER help the poor, oppressed, or working class, so you need a new party to do that. A Worker’s Party perhaps. And thus spends the majority of his time roasting the DNC for some new betrayal of their ideals and base each day – not hard to find. Just saying this is equal opportunity, as it’s all The Government: Them; against the People, Us. That’s how long cycles go, especially in Republics. But only we can take our power back but not looking to them, withdrawing our consent. The first step of that is honesty, identifying the problem, which is going slowly but progressing.

    “We need to halt everything with the FBI, all funding, until they come forward and explain to Congress exactly what they were doing..”

    Yes, the White Hats tested the FBI, and far too few good men appeared. So they re-positioned not to clean and reform it, but erase and replace it. This is disruptive, but a good thing.

    “The Democrats are Now the War Party (Chris Hedges)”

    Yes but only for 15 years, thanks for noticing. Actually, I can’t let that stand. ALL American wars were started by Democrats except Iraq. Recency bias makes us feel otherwise. But it’s not all bad: they’re also the Party of Slavery and the KKK!

    “such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, unhinged conspiracy theorists.”

    Elon Musk, “Actually, every conspiracy said about Twitter turned out to be true.”

    “ Soros Behind Twitter Operation to Shut Down Hunter Biden Laptop Story (BN)”

    Yeah, yeah, we all know, except when Tucker quotes the NYT, then we suddenly forgot and don’t know again. But why is this guy still alive? Like Kissinger? It reminds me these dinosaurs roaming the earth and won’t leave, never allow children to own and control anything ever again, like Housing in Australia, NZ, and Canada. They’re like Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader combined, like Cheney put on life support with an un-beating heart simply so they can repress and rule a day longer.
    But anyway, that reminds me of the other dottering Dinosaur, “God save the Queen / The fascist regime”, QEII. Nothing is known, and trying to get a read, but I think The super-big structure was that America got it all, we had the knowledge and the leverage, and Trump visited to drop the folder of Steele MI6 files on her desk…but far, far more. Not this trollop for us public nobodies, but the real goods. Things like Powell raising rates to split our banking systems, sink Libor, collapse the UK, which also has no gas or oil to save them.

    The queen – although a shark in a shark tank, with a pedo husband looking and acting like the emperor since his youth, AND a pedo son, best friends with Jimmy Saville, another “conspiracy theory” I’m sure even after long-confirmed by the BBC – the Queen uncharacteristically and embarrassingly actually wants to promote and protect England and her people – I mean in a relative sense to all the other leaders, and considering what she’s surrounded by and can get away with. Props to her I guess, although it’s a sliding scale she’s only on the 90th percentile of being a Bond Villain, that’s 90% better than the rest!

    So in the same way the U.S. has lost our 3rd World War of global domination by Mr. Bush – going for 100 years as McCain said – and we are now retreating to our nationalist borders to survive, she was also cutting a deal to salvage what she could out of the remains of England and position the island to survive as it also had lost its colonies in D.C. and other places. These are very high-level realizations and take a long time to play out. Generations even. 10-20 years. She probably knew their foray into Russia was already lost when Trump took office. But it’s hard to convince the minions 5 levels below of this, and they keep marching regardless.

    Anyway, that’s what the meeting was, and as a courtesy all this would be mostly delayed until her death. Some Prince Andrew stuff she certainly knew about and we released anyway to make our point, etc, but mostly holding action as the U.S. drifted on in inertia, still boating over many English chess pieces in our way.

    So here we are. 100 year old, “The Queen is Dead.” The White Hats started pulling levers like releasing Epstein’s flight list. Charles III is being called a pedo and egged in the streets. No one respects him and he doesn’t run anything.

    The City of London, having no counterweight in the Queen, gallops forward with the idiotic losing plans they were blaming her for and…losing. Losing in Russia. Losing the People, etc. Truss is voted in, City of London Bankers vote her right back out and install their own as dictator for life. Okay man, good luck: England has seen this show before, of London vs Everyone, including Robin Hood and King John. Spoiler: London “loses”. “London’s” home country is the Ukraine it is revealed, and perhaps always has been.

    Right now, London is feverishly trying to re-join with WEF/Davos, and Un-Brexit without being too obvious about it, in a panic to trample and keep up with killing as many as the EU. At the same time, as said elsewhere, all Euro-Banking is going down, and that means London banking goes down too no doubt, nowhere to hide. As said, the combo of Powell/NY and Putin/Russia is attacking and crushing them on all sides. As Queenie knew, only re-nationalizing would save England from this, but she can’t stop Charles and that will happen later on. As London is nearly their world headquarters, some level of this would always have to happen. Without her, it’s worse and more messy than ever. Charles may be a useless, child-screwing fascist, but he can still make quite a mess in his ineffectiveness.

    Not like he runs things anyway as we see worldwide, what started all this with Soros being 199 years old, but even he’s just a waterboy for someone. Who?

    “Present-day Russia is almost the only major Christian country in the world where New Year festivities are more prominent than those of Christmas.”

    Strange headline. Like “favorite cereals of red-haired people”. Huh? New Year’s is the largest holiday in Asia and probably worldwide. Russia is and always has been, half-Asian. It’s the most expected thing in the world, especially as the remaining 10 real Christians, in all the no-longer-Christian nations (see how that has no meaning anymore either?) say every year that Christmas was never in December, and Easter is the real holiday to support.

    I don’t understand the calendar thing here either. The year doesn’t start or end anywhere. There’s no finish line in space the planet crosses. So for historical reasons the planet – including the West, but all of Asia especially – counts the “New” year as being a few days after the Winter solstice as they are in the northern hemisphere. Why a few days and not 22nd? Who knows? But not like it matters a bit. You can pick July 7th and be equally accurate as it’s entirely arbitrary. Same with which month, which is misnamed, DECA-cember, #10, but that hardly matters any more than there’s no Thor, so the naming of Thor’s Day is arbitrary too and we don’t bother about that. You could name it by moons, but the moons are no less arbitrary and would throw out your “what moon does winter start in” in no time, like 2 years it would already be no use.

    So the calendar we have, with picking an arbitrary New Year we have, is equally arbitrary as anything else. And therefore equally valid as anything else. Let’s pick Canada Day for the 1st of the Year, I could care less. The seasons go on unaccounting of any names of Man.

    So I appreciate the Russian form, but it’s not that strange. The U.S. was down on Christmas and up on Easter for centuries I think it didn’t flip until almost 1900. As Christ wasn’t born on December, but we don’t know what day it actually was (Sept 11??) it makes practical sense to both pick a random day for the story and to make Easter the greater holiday. …But as I said, no Christians in the West, there are no Christian nations and haven’t been in 50 years, so there you are. Proof in the Christmas Pudding. If they are ever Christian again you’ll be able to tell by the demotion of Christmas — especially shopping as there were no Wise Men at the Manger either — and the year’s major holiday being Easter again.

    Away in the manger. I probably said this last year, but there’s a lot in the Bible – most of it – we don’t understand. WHY is it important they were traveling for snap census? WHY does tit matter they were in a stable (a barn)? Was a barn considered that bad at that time, or was it fairly normal overflow? Did they overpay for it? And no wise men, they were a long way after, although it points out that Mary wasn’t a nobody, remember her cousin Liz and husband were high priests of Israel, that is, not poor, not nobodies, pretty far up the food chain. The Wise man came from Iran, now they may be thinking that Israel is going to have a coup, that is, to politically toss the old dreadfuls like Herod, and if you could get the right alignment of forces, set up a new King or even throw off Rome in that area, so this affects Iran directly in a big way. They may have been thinking that, and there is some speculation Mary’s mother had been in Iran and their lineage, so that King was just keeping track of various eligibles to the throne. —But like 1-3 years later, as I said.

    But why in a “manger”? To us, that just means he’s a poor guy, an immigrant, on the down-low, we feel for that. But I just pointed out he wasn’t poor on the downlow, or no more than any other Palestinian. His close family contained high priests. Yes it’s funny for a “King” to do this, just as it’s funny for a king to burn the local housewife’s biscuits while she’s out milking the cow(Alfred). But that’s US. The writers didn’t put it in there for US – they didn’t know us – they wrote it in there for THEM. And it’s using a lot of valuable space that was better used for what Josh was doing from 8yo to 33yo. So why add it?

    The point of getting around to it, was that Joshua that the Greeks call Jesus, was born and laid in a COFFIN. The mangers of the time were solid stone square cutouts. For reason we don’t need to get into, this keeps ground parasites out of the sheep feed. So the metaphor they were trying to communicate using all this space was prophetic: Joshua was born, from the very first moment, to die for our sins. Which is yet another complication, in that he didn’t “Die for our sins” but to rend the veil and re-open the direct path between man and heaven. The one that had been shut after the Garden, and could only be pried open with constant animal sacrifices since then. – Don’t ask me why: magical, too complicated. Y’all claim to be Christians but aren’t because you don’t believe in magic which is its very foundation.

    But he was laid in a manger as his first act because although it appeared he was born to be King, and throw off the Romans, he was actually born to die, and to throw off a far greater, more vital oppression – that of the separation between man and God.

    MangerPic

    All you have to do is ask. Knock and keep knocking. Ask and keep asking. Things might seem stupid, so maybe you should ask about them from people who know rather than just getting more arrogant in our ignorance? Christianity may be true or false, but is not so simple or intuitive to understand.

    #124304
    Oroboros
    Participant

    “We need to halt everything with the FBI, all funding, until they come forward and explain to Congress exactly what they were doing..”

    Rep. James Comer Calls For Defunding the FBI (DCE)

    FBI ‘undercover’ thugs BEFORE insertion as ‘agent provocateurs’

    .

    FBI ‘undercover’ thugs AFTER insertion as ‘agent provocateurs’

    .

    #124305
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #124306

    Just ask ChatGBT. I’ve been wondering what’s going on at goggle, which has been returning curious responses to my queries. Looking for a person’s bio, and I get recipes. Looking for something about planets, and the sidebar tells me about aphids. As the commenters from seeking alpha say- garbage in, garbage out. Hey- ChatGBT even writes bad poetry, and I know something about that!
    We are doooooomed, DOOOOMED, I tell you!

    #124307
    John Day
    Participant

    At the end of 12/23/22 comments, Polemos closed an essay about not being trapped in the control-narrative with this:
    “So, you cannot win a war by refusing to fight it, much less a Total War by limiting where you exchange fire. You must unthink that the goal of living is to win wars. The Dream Machine stays on because we’re not yet through with the War Machine, because we’re not not yet through with Power. And he’s not yet through with us.”

    Slowly trying to catch-up…

    #124308
    Red
    Participant

    https://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html

    Will 2023 Be “Just an Average Recession in an Average Year” or Will It Be Transformational?
    December 26, 2022

    It shouldn’t surprise us if 2023 turns out to be atypical and disruptively transformational in ways few believe possible.

    It seems expectations about 2023 cleave neatly into two camps: the dominant mainstream view is that 2023 will be economically difficult due to a mild recession, but this will be nothing more than a run-of-the-mill recession.

    Inflation will likely moderate but remain higher than recent averages. Everything else–politics, social issues, entertainment, fashion, social media, etc.–will continue on whatever path it is currently on.

    In other words, 2023 will be much like any other year.

    The implicit assumption in the mainstream view is that historical cycles are figments of fevered imaginations. The flow of human history is entirely contingent and follows no pattern or cycle.

    The much smaller “outlier” camp sees the potential for a disruptive transformational year.

    Those of us who conclude cycles are based on the ebb-and-flow dynamics of credit, energy and human nature and are therefore not just real but consequential despite their predictive imprecision see 2023 as a potential pivot in cycles which entered a new phase in the 2020-2021 time frame.

    This cyclical shift isn’t a result of Covid or the response to Covid. It’s the result of diminishing returns and the exhaustion of the dynamics which powered the previous era: hyper-financialization, hyper-globalization and low-cost, abundant energy.

    In terms of human nature, confidence and complacency rise and fall, euphoric greed and panicky fear ebb and flow and as Peter Turchin has demonstrated, order and disorder take turns as reasons to cooperate decay into reasons not to cooperate.

    As David Hackett Fischer demonstrated in The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History, systemic increases in price–what we call inflation–sow the seeds of economic, social and political disunity, conflict and collapse.

    In his book The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, Thomas Homer-Dixon proposes a cyclical dynamic powered by the relative costs and rewards of participation in the status quo:

    Once the costs exceed the rewards, people lose the incentive to support the status quo with their labor and participation. They drift away (what I term opting out) or reduce their effort to align with the diminished rewards and opportunities to advance their own interests.

    The Russian economist Kondratieff famously observed how credit cycles between expansion and contraction, and this cycle powers economic expansion or contraction.

    The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter outlines a dynamic in which the advantages of adding complexity to a social / economic system are substantial at the beginning but as the returns from additional complexity diminish, the costs eventually outweigh any gains and the system decays.

    The success of adding complexity is institutionalized by the status quo, which then clings to this strategy even as the returns on adding complexity become negative and thus destructive.

    I call this “doing more of what’s failed.”

    Other systems analysts (Donella Meadows et al.) have illuminated the nonlinear character of systemic transformations. Ugo Bardi calls this “The Seneca Cliff”: systems which expanded slowly and steadily can decay and collapse quite suddenly and violently, surprising everyone who took the previous stability as permanent.

    Systems follow their own rules, and so unlike politics, our opinions don’t change the results.

    All of these dynamics are (in my analysis) clearly visible in the global status quo. The rational conclusion is the risks of disruption, disorder and conflict as things decay and fall apart are relatively high.

    While some trends and conflicts can last for decades (the Thirty Years War in Europe, the Cold War between the US and the USSR), diminishing returns on status quo “solutions” that no longer work as anticipated tend to unravel on the periphery which then spreads quickly to the core.

    Those economies and societies which are hidebound / centralized politically and economically are brittle because they lack the systemic means to adapt quickly and successfully to diminishing returns and seismic shifts in price and the availability of essentials.

    Brittle systems that lack the structural means to adapt decay and collapse. This is scale-invariant, which means this is equally true of households, small businesses, global enterprises, nations and empires.

    There are many such brittle systems in the global status quo, and to expect all of them to remain stable as diminishing returns start yielding negative returns (i.e. cost more than they produce in gains) and scarcities drive prices higher than the bottom 90% can afford as inflation reduces the purchasing power of their earnings–this expectation is based on a confidence that past trends are essentially permanent and every system in the world today will adapt successfully to scarcity, disorder and the reversal of financialization and globalization.

    Maybe this will be the case, but given all the dynamics that are so readily visible, it would be prudent to consider the potential for dominoes falling on the periphery (i.e. in “places that don’t matter”) will soon be toppling dominoes in the core centers of power and control.

    In my analysis, the dominant dynamic is always natural selection. Our opinions and projections don’t change anything. What divides the systems that endure and become stronger and those that decay and collapse is their evolutionary vigor, which is a function of decentralized competition, transparency, sharing of information and experimentation that is rewarded rather than punished.

    I cover these dynamics in my book Global Crisis, National Renewal: A (Revolutionary) Grand Strategy for the United States.

    Simply put: systems that view dissent and disorderly churn as threats will decay and collapse because the most powerful forces of adaptability are dissent and disorderly churn.

    It shouldn’t surprise us if 2023 turns out to be atypical and disruptively transformational in ways few believe possible.

    #124309
    John Day
    Participant

    Dr.D wrote:
    “England has seen this show before, of London vs Everyone, including Robin Hood and King John. Spoiler: London “loses”. “London’s” home country is the Ukraine it is revealed, and perhaps always has been.”
    Ya’mean “Khazars”, Bro?

    #124310
    John Day
    Participant

    Also Dr. D posted a picture of a carved stone “manger” and explained it as the image of a sarcophagus, a forew=shadowing, perhaps inserted in the library of Alexandria a century after the crucifixion. Interesting imagery, to which I had not been introduced until just now.

    Bad space weather hits hard and strips away our shields, shaking our spaceship this decade?
    Is that what the elites know Dr. D, or is it just “Seneca’s Cliff” as the cheap oil supply drops hard and the financial system collapses.

    I can’t tell. Both?

    #124311
    John Day
    Participant

    The Bhadrakumar piece above is very insightful, about the US trying to tear Russia down for useful body-parts. India, Russia, Greece and Turkey are all capable of dealing with “Byzantine” levels of complexity, while still moving forward. Bhadrakumar is a former Indian diplomat. This is one of his better pieces of work.

    #124312
    zerosum
    Participant

    Time to wake up.
    Time to do the right thing.
    The mediator role was formed with the forming of the United Nation.

    https://www.un.org/en/our-work/maintain-international-peace-and-security
    Maintain International Peace and Security
    Peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet

    The UN accomplishes this by working to prevent conflict, helping parties in conflict make peace, deploying peacekeepers, and creating the conditions to allow peace to hold and flourish. These activities often overlap and should reinforce one another, to be effective.

    Under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Security Council can take enforcement measures to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such measures range from economic sanctions to international military action. The Council also establishes UN Peacekeeping Operations and Special Political Missions.
    ———–
    Truth:
    War is a destroyer of everything
    $1.7 TRILLION gone up in smoke
    What goes up comes will come down, kills and destroys.
    Even, the debris from a downed drone can kill and destroy.
    ——–
    It’s worth repeating

    “The Senators were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of pork danced in their heads. No budget was found, just mischief and debt.”

    • Rand Paul Savages DC Elites With Epic “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” (DCE)

    ———–

    Rand Paul Savages the Washington Elites With Epic “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” Parody


    Rand Paul Savages the Washington Elites With Epic “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” Parody
    —————-

    https://www.kusi.com/rand-paul-night-before-christmas-parody-slams-omnibus-spending-bill/
    Rand Paul ‘Night Before Christmas’ parody slams omnibus spending bill
    Posted: December 22, 2022 KUSI Newsroom
    ———-

    #124313
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Dr D: “But why is this guy still alive? Like Kissinger? It reminds me these dinosaurs roaming the earth and won’t leave, never allow children to own and control anything ever again …”

    The “children” need to get off their asses and do something. Blathering on every day on Twitter, FB, and Tiktok does not equate with *doing something*.

    Can’t blame everything on the *establishment old folks*. Some of the blame lands squarely on the shoulders of the 20s, 30s, and 40 year olds who are too lazy to take action.

    I’m getting pretty old, but I’m damned tired of seeing 80 year olds sitting around deciding things for the rest of us. When I mention it to young people, they shrug. They share blame for the situation and it’s time to stop absolving them by placing all the blame on boomers (not to mention, didn’t notice any of these young people whining and complaining when mom and pop were buying each of them a TV for their bedrooms when they were growing up … just saying …).

    #124314
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Idk, oxy, about this: “Also – I think Chris Hedges may be becoming useful again”

    First he needs to give up this kind of judgement: “such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, unhinged conspiracy theorist”

    I’ve watched Greene in several longish interviews. That’s not who she is. She’s intelligent and passionate. That she calls it likes she sees it (whether right or wrong) does not make her a conspiracy theorist.

    If Chris Hedges can get beyond his arrogant, elitist attitude I’ll consider reading him again.

    #124315
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Helmer:

    “The new concept is the neutering bomb. This has been designed to destroy the minds of Americans, Germans, other Europeans, British, Canadians and Australians, but leave them at work to keep paying their taxes, voting for their members of parliament, and paying subscriptions to keep reading newspapers and magazines which warn against suspecting this scheme of things is a grand fraud and a big lie.”

    THE NEUTERING BOMB PARALYSES MILLIONS OF MINDS FASTER THAN NOVICHOK, LEAVES HANDS FREE

    THE NEUTERING BOMB PARALYSES MILLIONS OF MINDS FASTER THAN NOVICHOK, LEAVES HANDS FREE

    F.S.

    #124316
    Dora
    Participant

    @ John Day.

    About bad space weather, here’s a provocative youtube about space weather. I don’t know if this is something creating a real human effect or not, but it’s an interesting idea, outside the box thinking.

    #124317
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ red
    The success of adding complexity is institutionalized by the status quo, which then clings to this strategy even as the returns on adding complexity become negative and thus destructive.

    I call this “doing more of what’s failed.”

    I rephrase, in a few words, ” Limit to growth”
    ————
    https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/chatgpt-what-is-openai-s-chatbot-and-what-is-it-used-for-1.6200591
    Updated Dec. 19, 2022 7:12 a.m. PST
    Published Dec. 19, 2022 6:24 a.m. PST

    The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in emerging technologies continues to advance rapidly. San Francisco-based OpenAI made its latest creation, the ChatGPT chatbot, available for free public testing on Nov. 30. A chatbot is a software application designed to mimic human-like conversation based on user prompts/(questions).

    Within a week of ChatGPT being unveiled, over a million users had tried to make the tool talk, according to Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI.
    OpenAI, a research and development firm, was founded as a nonprofit in 2015 by Silicon Valley investor Sam Altman and billionaire Elon Musk and attracted funding from several others, including venture capitalist Peter Thiel. In 2019, the group created a related for-profit entity to take in outside investment.
    OpenAI has acknowledged the tool’s tendency to respond with “plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers,” an issue it considers challenging to fix.
    AI technology can also perpetuate societal biases like those around race, gender and culture. Tech giants including Alphabet Inc’s Google and Amazon.com have previously acknowledged that some of their projects that experimented with AI were “ethically dicey” and had limitations. At several companies, humans had to step in and fix AI

    https://chat.openai.com/auth/login
    ——-

    #124318
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Russia expects the US to roll back NATO’s expansion, as promised to the Soviet leadership in 1989.
    – M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
    _______________________

    I disagree with Badrakumar somewhat. Russia offered a compromise to the U.S., already. Officially. Thrice, … That is, for the U.S. to roll back NATO’s expansion as promised. That’s the red line, … and that’s the red line that is not going to be compromised any further. Period, …

    F.S., … watching this whole situation with fear and wonder!

    #124319
    irwin
    Participant

    It looks like the 2020 photo was taken at low tide.

    #124320
    Noirette
    Participant

    On Chris Hedges. The Dems are now the War Party.

    Hedges is a 9/11 denier, that is, he endorses the official story / won’t talk about that topic at all, as many others..

    He himself is a part of the war-mongering machine while cloaking himself in pretensions, penning lofty analysis, heh.

    (I didn’t read the whole article, so there is that..I can’t stand that type of calculated smarmy pseudo-expert-intellecutalism…)

    In the US, the War Party is whatever party is in ‘power.’

    One party objects, very mildly, to the ‘Wars’ the other party instigates / supports / funds.

    For ex. the Dems on occasion objected to the Iraq War (bombing another country to oblivion, killing children..) because it was Bush instigated. Later they more or less shut up.

    At present we see that US support for Ukraine fighting Russia in a proxy war is hyped up by a Dem effort, the Repubs are looking a tad edgy, I read that some of them didn’t join a standing ovation for Zelensky at his show in front of Congress, and that some are demanding some ‘accounting’ of the billions sent to Ukr.

    It is all political theatre designed to keep ppl guessing, uncertain, thus, joining, admiring one or another pol, faction, being staunch partisans for their tribe / side / leader, etc. And calculated to allow a very narrow window for ppl to express anti-war opinions.

    #124321
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    It looks like the 2020 photo was taken at low tide.
    ________________________

    Tidal range at Battery Park, NY, is ~6.26 ft., … fwiw.

    F.S.

    #124322
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    Twitter Files:

    Why did Jim Baker get his bloomers in a twist over such a positive and reassuring statement from President Trump, while Yoel Roth at Twitter was scratching his head thinking, “What’s the big deal?”?

    It’s because Jimmy-boy was on the inside of the Covid plandemic and Yoel was on the outside. The goal in October 2020 was to ramp up the Covid fear campaign and stampede the herd toward the Gene Therapy rollout due to arrive a couple months from then. This is the reason why FBI plant Jim Baker took such umbrage at Trump’s “Don’t be afraid of Covid” statement, and wanted it scrubbed.

    Trump Tweet

    #124323
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    [Hedges] himself is a part of the war-mongering machine while cloaking himself in pretensions, penning lofty analysis, heh.
    ________________

    Hedges is a fink! Most unpleasant, … contemptible. Yes!

    F.S.

    #124324
    Dora
    Participant

    The Twitter Files. New thread from David Zweig.

    #124325
    The Markster
    Participant

    Agreed with UpstateNYer and Noirette on Hedges. First piece of his o have read in a long time, and the same partisan dig on Greene stuck in my craw, too. Hedges is an unrepentant Russiagate and has never retracted his nauseatingly obvious lies on that topic. Hedges swallowed the Antifa-BLM propaganda whole cloth and demonized innocent US counter-protesters like Aaron J. Danielson, who was shot dead in Portland blocks away from any protest for wearing a US flag graphic on his shirt.

    Chris Hedges is the NY Times on a time delay. Even in 2003 during the last hurrah of anti-war sentiment in this country, he was an establishment cheerleader selling fancy watch ads, big pharma drugs and uptown real estate. Nothing since has changed.

    #124326
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Canadian “independent” journo’s latest screed on COVID:

    Ten COVID Facts Health Officials Dangerously Downplay
    We should be rallied to defend ourselves and our kids. Our leaders offer timid silence.

    https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/12/21/Ten-Downplayed-COVID-Facts/

    Note: it’s also worthy to peek at commentariat to that article!

    F.S.

    #124327
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    This is what catastrophic sea level rise looks like:

    And if you live on a low-lying Pacific Island (or any other low-lying island) there is no higher ground to move to.

    Interestingly, one of the most populated states of Airstrip Two has the same problem, as does a large portion of Airstrip One.

    The reality of massive sea level rise (of the order of 7 metres when the ice on Greenland melts) does not deter agents of The Empire of Lies from issuing building permits for constructions close to current sea level on Airstrip Five: got to keep the fake money system going for just a little longer, whatever the real-world future costs.

    #124328
    John Day
    Participant

    So right 1) and also so wrong 2), Polish PM (Meloni beware!)

    1) “We do not believe in a superstate of 27 EU member states. We want a return of a union of homelands,” underlined the Polish prime minister.
    Morawiecki pointed out that Europe has to choose between an authentic solidarity of equal states, or a model of a single superstate in which “decisions will be made in a couple of the largest capitals, disregarding other countries.”

    2) Referring to Russian aggression in Ukraine, Morawiecki pointed out that the Ukraine war will end only with the defeat of Vladimir Putin.
    “We have warned that Russia’s colonial ambitions are a threat to eastern European countries and the entire EU,” said Morawiecki, adding that Europe must do everything to aid Ukraine, as the fall of Kyiv would open the way for Russia to conquer Europe.

    #124329
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    A Tale of Two Americas

    * The Progressive America
    – Conservatives are ruining America. Their principles are opposed to what the founding fathers would want for this country.
    – Conservatives are mostly white heterosexuals and hate non-whites and LGBTQ peoples. They need to be replaced as the majority.
    – Conservatives are wrecking the lives of men and women everywhere. They limit the family to their narrow definition. They hate and subjugate women. They mistreat children. Because of conservatives other countries no longer respect us.
    – Conservatives believe in religious fairy tales and use that belief to control the masses.
    – Conservatives are anti-science and their anti-vaccine stance has cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Their rejection of universal coverage is ruining health care.
    – Conservatives are climate-change deniers and are responsible for the destruction of the environment.
    – Conservatives don’t believe in the democratic process and falsely accuse Progressives of interfering in elections. They want to limit those who can vote to in person paper ballots.
    – Conservatives are trying to undermine government institutions like the FBI by spread lies and disinformation about them. The supreme court has taken a turn for the worse in destroying rights and the underlying principles in the constitution.
    – Conservatives demonize big tech and the media and are mass purveyors of disinformation. It’s lies, lies, lies with them.
    – Conservatives irrationally love Russia and Putin. Progressives stand with Ukraine as they battle for their rights and democracy. Zelensky is a great man.
    – Donald Trump is surely the worst, most soulless and destructive president ever. Even with his faults Joe Biden is 1000X better.
    – Conservatives believe violence is justified when it supports their cause. At their core they are power-hungry psychopaths. The progressive states and communities would be better off without the conservative states and communities.

    * The Conservative America
    – Progressives are ruining America. Their principles are opposed to what the founding fathers would want for this country.
    – Progressives hate white heterosexuals and are trying to replace them with immigrants and to convince young people to become LGBTQ.
    – Progressives are wrecking the lives of men and woman. They are destroying the family. Progressives hate the unborn. They mistreat children. Because of progressives other countries no longer respect us.
    – Progressives have rejected a belief in God and use satanic doctrines to control the masses.
    – Progressives are anti-science and their pro-vaccine, anti-early treatment stance has cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Their attempt at universal coverage is ruining health care.
    – Progressives believe in the climate-change hoax and are responsible for the destruction of the economy.
    – Progressives have subverted the democratic process and elections by over-printing and harvesting mail-in ballots.
    – Progressives have taken over many government institutions like the FBI and use them for political ends. The supreme court has take a turn for the better in protecting the underlying principles in the constitution.
    – Progressives control the media through large corporations and are mass purveyors of disinformation. It’s lies, lies, lies with them.
    – Progressives irrationally hate Russia and Putin. They prefer Ukraine to the US and do nothing to secure US rights and democracy. Zelensky is a con man.
    – Joe Biden is surely the worst, most soulless and destructive president ever. Even with his faults Donald Trump was 1000X better.
    – Progressives believe violence is justified when it supports their cause. At their core they are power-hungry psychopaths. Conservative states and communities would be better off without the progressive states and communities.

    #124330
    John Day
    Participant

    Yes I agree that Chris Hedges sold out on 9/11 and some other topics. He is trying to re-integrate as an honest journalist, while staying within a certain Overton’s Window. He’s not succeeding, is he?


    @Dora
    : Thanks for that specific Suspicious Observers Ben Davidson video from 4 months ago. He has done so very many short videos that it is almost impossible to find a particular needle in such a pile of needles. I have watched a fair amount of his “disaster playlist” and NASA videos on some of these astrophysics topics. This video, early on, gets into how much the Earth’s magnetic field has weakened, which has not been broadly announced since 2010, and was a lot lower than anticipated. He includes some obscure interim results from 2015, which I can no longer find in print on the internet. The 2020 magnetic field strength data was eagerly awaited, but has been kept secret, and the 2015 data hidden-away somewhere.

    Feel free to share other unusually good videos from Ben Davidson.
    People find fault with his style and his personality traits, and accuse him of making an idol of himself as a primary goal, discounting anything he says, which is a mistake.
    What he says is well founded. I keep listening and watching for him to make some gross error.
    Ben appears to be working on himself, on his own ego, lately, which is a good thing to do.
    Don’t wait for perfection. Assess his hypothesis about the galactic electromagnetic wave sheet approaching again being the cause of periodic terrestrial magnetic field collapses, polar shifts, and space-weather catastrophes.

    #124331
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    And if you live on a low-lying Pacific Island (or any other low-lying island) there is no higher ground to move to.
    _____________________________

    Well, … if wish to talk to someone in the U.S. about sea level raise, just ask a question, … or three, of this guy:

    His name Is Richard (Rocko), … he is a long, long time resident of Florida Keys – residence on Cudjoe Key, works in Key West (bouncer at the local strip joint). Ask him about sea level rise! Go, …

    F.S.

    #124332
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    I see that he fiction of there being a difference between Democrats and Republicans is still being promoted.

    That’s like the fiction that there is a difference between Labour and Conservative.

    Or the fiction of there being a difference between Labour and National.

    Or the fiction that ‘Green’ parties care about the environment.

    ‘Big Brother’ owns them all.

    War is Peace.

    Freedom is Slavery

    and most important of all –Ignorance is Strength.

    Sure, ‘Big Brother’ allows a tiny portion of the political establishment to offer slightly different perspectives just to make it look as though there is ‘opposition’ but anyone with a brain that functions properly can see straight through the lies.

    That’s probably why ‘Big Brother’ has been so keen to force death jabs and brain-deadeners onto the populaces of the various Airstrips.

    Mentioning brain-deadeners, an acquaintance has become very concerned about the effects of electromagnetic radiation on human brains and nervous systems. She currently lives in a wooden structure just over 100 metres from a recently-installed cellphone tower and suspects the deterioration in her health she has experienced could be linked to radiation emitted by that tower (not jabbed, so definitely not that).

    The above video ha got me thinking a bit more about all this stuff.

    We know that the Earth’s magnetic field has collapsed and reformed thousands of times, and that life has gone on during those collapses and reformations. The bodies of organisms are battlegrounds, in which the effects of external forces -whether other organisms or radiation- are constantly repaired. Death comes when the repairing processes cannot keep up with the damage done.

    Humans (and all other life forms) are living in the most toxic, most radiation-infested environments to have prevailed on this planet in hundreds of millions of years. And the ‘controllers’ want to increase the level of toxicity and the level of radiation in order to protect and promote their various Ponzi schemes.

    The important feature of radiation is that it follows and inverse square law. Doubling the distance from the source equates to one quarter the strength. Doubling the distance again equates to one sixteenth the strength. I live about 800 metres from the previously-mentioned tower, and in a brick house with an iron roof. Most electromagnetic radiation does not pass through metal and is attenuated by brick etc..

    We are not hearing any news with respect to the health toll for people living in Iraq who were subjected to ‘depleted uranium’ a couple of decades ago. Did all the deformed babies die? Is there a higher incidence of cancer in the population that survived the onslaught of The Empire of Lies?

    Arre ‘depleted uranium’ weapons now being utilised in Ukraine? By the Russians? By NATO?

    We do know that ‘depleted uranium’ isn’t depleted at all -just another lie from The Empire of Lies- it’s just that is it low in content of the most unstable isotopes, used up in the nuclear reactor that generated power from them before the mix became ‘depleted’. maybe that’s not a total lie by The Empire of Lies because if there is less than there was, I supposed it has become depleted, even if a complex system of ‘enrichment’ was needed to boost the most radioactive content to make it suitable for use in a nuclear reactor.

    ‘Depleted uranium’ was responsible for the rapid elimination of Iraq’s military capabilities because uranium is heavy, and when alloyed, is extremely hard. Heavy and hard: ideal for piercing the hardened steel of armoured vehicles and other ‘tough’ targets.

    And if you are a weapons manufacturer, you really do not care in the least what the longstanding consequences of the use of your profit-making scheme might be. Or at home, as long as it’s not the boss’s home. Quoting Carlin: “I don’t mind taking a little radiation if it means I can get a job.”

    What do others think?

    Or do they prefer not to think?

    There sure is a lot of fighting in and around the nuclear facility on the bank of a certain river in a certain country.

    #124333
    zerosum
    Participant

    Reporting: Underground warfare?
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/north-carolina-substation-attack-raises-security-concerns-us-electric-rcna60428
    North Carolina substation attack raises security concerns for U.S. electric grid
    Outside of weather, suspected and confirmed physical attacks on electric grid infrastructure were the largest cause of electrical disturbance events since 2014, according to NBC News’ analysis of public Energy Department reports.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/who-purposely-sabotaging-power-plants-all-over-america
    Who Is Purposely Sabotaging Power Plants All Over America?

    Who Is Purposely Sabotaging Power Plants All Over America?


    December 8, 2022 by Michael

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/three-power-substations-attacked-washington-state-christmas-day
    Three Power Substations Attacked In Washington State On Christmas Day

    Two of the power substations were operated by Tacoma Public Utilities and one by Puget Sound Energy. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said all three were attacked, but there are no “motives or if this was a coordinated attack on the power systems.”
    The Tacoma substation attacks follow “deliberate attacks” on two power substations in North Carolina early this month. Duke Energy personnel found bullet holes in transformers.

    We’ve asked the question of who is intentionally sabotaging the US power grid. In the first eight months of the year, there were 106 attacks on the electrical grid, the highest number ever recorded in a single year.

    #124334
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    @Dr. John Day, … re Poland.
    ______________________

    As a key NATO ally that shares a 332-mile border with Ukraine, Poland has been quietly bracing for the worst, … and most opportune times! Yes.

    – Poland has been the main destination for U.S. troops, U.S. arms arriving in Eastern Europe since, well, … since joining NATO.

    – Poland’s hate for Russia is beyond any outsiders imagination, … and love for anything and everything ‘Murican!

    – Poland knows that the denazification of Poland will become the next step on Russian pallet, … as soon as Ukraine finally succumbs.

    Consequently, Poland will do everything and anything to prolong Russia – Ukraine conflict, in order to continue convincing the U.S. to go after Russia together with Poland, … plus any other “willings coerced to join ( Hi, there! Canada, …) now and for the last time; finally!

    Those are the facts in Poland, … all you have to do is talk to anyone stopped on Polish streets to be convinced!

    Pity Poland, …

    F.S.

    #124335
    zerosum
    Participant

    Russia pay attention to a cheaper way of doing it.

    Duke Energy personnel found bullet holes in transformers.

    #124336
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    ‘Yes I agree that Chris Hedges sold out on 9/11 and some other topics.’

    The events of 9/11 are a kind of litmus test for whether a person has a logical brain or not and whether they prepared to think outside the idiotic narratives delivered by ‘the controllers’.

    Attempting to mention the truth about 9/11 -the ‘official’ narrative being mathematically impossible, chemically impossible, physically impossible- is a good litmus test for the authenticity of a website or communication system and the people running that website or communication system.

    I still have the sign I made for the freedom convoy of around a year ago.

    LIES

    CENSORSHIP

    CONTROL

    ADERN

    Substitute the name of your local tyrant if living on a different Airstrip.

    #124337
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    John Day: “Yes I agree that Chris Hedges sold out on 9/11 and some other topics. He is trying to re-integrate as an honest journalist, while staying within a certain Overton’s Window. He’s not succeeding, is he?”

    Nope. He’s a one-trick pony. Applies the same perspective to each situation he encounters. Doesn’t matter who is involved and why.

    #124338
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Tyrant interviewed in the Ukrainian Backery:

    A Year-End Interview with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (2022)

    F.S.

    #124339
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    omg. Can’t even bother to capitalize those letters at this point.

    Sea level rise!!!… and …. ?

    Low lying islands. Low lying coastal areas. Low lying whatever. It’s exhausting trying to keep up with the click bait.

    Lack of petro, lack of nat gas, lack of coal, lack of wind turbines, lack of solar farms, lack of whatever.

    Give it a rest. Living day-to-day is tough enough without fretting over whether the tide is “in or out” in a flipping pic.

    People don’t like the periodic flooding where they live? Then move.

    Isn’t that what we’ve all been told for decades? Your job moved overseas? Learn to code.

    #124340
    John Day
    Participant

    On Christmas Eve, Germ wrote
    “They know exactly what they’re doing.
    It’s a cull of the weak – the weak bodied and the weak minded.”

    But I’m not sure “they” do know what they are doing.
    Their intentions may be different from the outcomes their actions will produce.

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