Dec 252022
 
 December 25, 2022  Posted by at 10:30 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,


Rembrandt van Rijn The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds 1634

 

Jesus Would Be Branded A “Domestic Terrorist” Today (Whitehead)
Christmas Eve Cold Weather Brings Rolling Blackouts Along East Coast (CTH)
Peace In Ukraine Depends On Washington – Orban (RT)
Only Putin Can End Ukrainian Conflict – Draghi (RT)
US Says Putin Finally “Acknowledging Reality” After 300 Days Of War (ZH)
China Calls US A ‘Direct Threat’ To The World (RT)
US Defense Act Is A ‘Political Provocation’ – China (RT)
Twitter Files Thread: The Spies Who Loved Twitter (Taibbi)
CIA Pushed Twitter To Censor ‘Anti-Ukraine Narratives’ (RT)
US Moving Bioweapons Research Out Of Ukraine – Moscow (RT)
Russia To Divert Gas Away From West – Official (RT)
German Coal Consumption Soars – Bloomberg (RT)
Without a Hope or a Prayer (Turley)
Traitors (Julie Kelly)
GOP Wants Pelosi to Testify Before Jan. 6 Committee (CB)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stone Flynn Zel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..a world that has allowed the life, teachings and crucifixion of Jesus to be drowned out by partisan politics, secularism, materialism and war..”

Jesus Would Be Branded A “Domestic Terrorist” Today (Whitehead)

The Christmas story of a baby born in a manger is a familiar one. The Roman Empire, a police state in its own right, had ordered that a census be conducted. Joseph and his pregnant wife Mary traveled to the little town of Bethlehem so that they could be counted. There being no room for the couple at any of the inns, they stayed in a stable (a barn), where Mary gave birth to a baby boy, Jesus. Warned that the government planned to kill the baby, Jesus’ family fled with him to Egypt until it was safe to return to their native land. Yet what if Jesus had been born 2,000 years later. What if, instead of being born into the Roman police state, Jesus had been born at this moment in time? What kind of reception would Jesus and his family be given? Would we recognize the Christ child’s humanity, let alone his divinity?

Would we treat him any differently than he was treated by the Roman Empire? If his family were forced to flee violence in their native country and sought refuge and asylum within our borders, what sanctuary would we offer them?A singular number of churches across the country have asked those very questions in recent years, and their conclusions were depicted with unnerving accuracy by nativity scenes in which Jesus and his family are separated, segregated and caged in individual chain-link pens, topped by barbed wire fencing. Those nativity scenes were a pointed attempt to remind the modern world that the narrative about the birth of Jesus is one that speaks on multiple fronts to a world that has allowed the life, teachings and crucifixion of Jesus to be drowned out by partisan politics, secularism, materialism and war, all driven by a manipulative shadow government called the Deep State.

The modern-day church has largely shied away from applying Jesus’ teachings to modern problems such as war, poverty, immigration, etc., but thankfully there have been individuals throughout history who ask themselves and the world: what would Jesus do. What would Jesus—the baby born in Bethlehem who grew into an itinerant preacher and revolutionary activist, who not only died challenging the police state of his day (namely, the Roman Empire) but spent his adult life speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo of his day, and pushing back against the abuses of the Roman Empire—do about the injustices of our modern age.

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“..the olden days, when service providers were generally focused on improving the quality of life of their customers..”

Christmas Eve Cold Weather Brings Rolling Blackouts Along East Coast (CTH)

If you visit a local library, you may discover there was a time when the focus of electricity companies was to generate and provide the most dependable, efficient, lowest cost and critical power to customers who need electricity to live. Alas, those were in the olden days, when service providers were generally focused on improving the quality of life of their customers. In the modern era, the horrible carbon emitters, aka customers, have become the parasite to manage. People are now a problematic encumbrance blocking the high-minded climate and financial aspirations of the energy corporations. Heating, cooling and comfort? Get a grip Boomers and GenXer’s, those insufferably selfish indulgences were the priorities of yesteryear.

Yes Alice, as we try to peer through the looking glass, we discover it’s a mirror now. The reflection is the opposite of normal, the reflection is the world of pretending. Say hello to the modern Christmastime when you pray for coal in your stocking. From Pennsylvania and New Jersey, westward to Illinois and Ohio and all the way south into South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and beyond, power companies are turning off the electricity to preserve and equally distribute the minimal amount of energy they are able to generate. This my friends, is the “equitable distribution of misery.” How weird does it feel to see that generational prediction turning into reality?


TENNESSEE – […] The TVA began instructing local power companies to reduce power usage on Friday night, and some have instituted rolling blackouts in some cities such as Nashville, Tennessee. Some local power companies have also started using rolling blackouts after the TVA asked them to reduce power usage. PJM Interconnection, based in Pennsylvania, also asked companies within its system to conserve energy. The company asked residents to turn off non-essential lights, set their thermostats lower than usual, and not use major appliances like dishwashers and laundry machines, the AP reported. PJM covers areas in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C, according to the AP.

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“We are pro-Hungarian. We are on the side of the Hungarians in the Russian-Ukrainian war..”

Peace In Ukraine Depends On Washington – Orban (RT)

The prospects of ending the Ukraine-Russia conflict are in the hands of the US, in its role as Kiev’s main backer, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. “Ukraine can only fight as long as the US supports it with money and weapons,” Orban insisted in an interview with the Magyar Nemzet newspaper on Saturday. “If Americans want peace, there will be peace,” he stressed. Since the conflict in Ukraine broke out in late February, Washington has provided Kiev with billions of dollars in military and financial assistance, as well as with military intelligence. Deliveries of lethal aid have included sophisticated hardware such as HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, M777 howitzers, and combat drones. It was recently announced that the Ukrainian military will also receive Patriot air-defense systems.


Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden welcomed his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky to the White House, and pledged: “we will stay with you for as long as it takes.” Russia has long insisted that a “proxy war” is actually being waged against it in Ukraine by the US and NATO. Orban was also asked how he felt about Hungary being branded “pro-Russian” in the EU over its continued economic cooperation with Russia, criticism of the bloc’s anti-Moscow sanctions, and reluctance to send arms to Kiev. “We are pro-Hungarian. We are on the side of the Hungarians in the Russian-Ukrainian war,” the PM responded. Budapest wants Ukraine to stay sovereign and Russia not to pose a threat to Europe, but believes that severing all economic ties with Moscow goes against the country’s interests, he explained.

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“The backing of Kiev has ultimately become one of the main reasons behind Draghi’s downfall..”

Only Putin Can End Ukrainian Conflict – Draghi (RT)

Only Russian President Vladimir Putin is able to end the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev, Italy’s former prime minister Mario Draghi believes. Russia, for its part, has repeatedly said it is open to talks, since negotiations with Kiev in Istanbul fell through in March. “The prospects for peace are difficult even if a lot has changed in the last period: the channels of communication are much more open and China seems to be more active in staging negotiations,” Draghi stated, in an exclusive interview with daily Corriere della Sera published Saturday. He added that it was still only up to the Russian leadership to end its offensive against Ukraine.

During his time in office, Draghi became one of the most vocal proponents of Ukraine in the West, sending in weaponry as well as rallying international support for the country. The backing of Kiev has ultimately become one of the main reasons behind Draghi’s downfall, as a disagreement over arms shipments caused a split in the Five Star Movement party, toppling his coalition government. Still, the former PM stood by his policies, claiming that his strong support of Ukraine has thwarted Russia’s plans, as Moscow has allegedly hoped for “ambiguity” in Rome. “I was aware of the strong past ties between Italy and Moscow, but we could not remain passive in the face of unmotivated aggression and systematic violations of international law and human rights,” Draghi stated.

“However, the Kremlin has so far shown that it does not want peace,” he went on. But it is only President Putin who can put an end to this bloodshed. Amid the ongoing conflict, he said, Moscow has repeatedly signaled readiness to negotiate with Ukraine but any talks must take Russia’s interests into account. Russia has also blamed the lack of any diplomatic effort to end the conflict on Kiev and on its willingness to continue the hostilities.

Moreover, top Ukrainian officials have repeatedly pledged to reconquer the formerly-Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye – which formally joined Russia in early October – as well as Crimea, which has been part of Russia since a 2014 referendum. And Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky has formally ‘banned’ himself from negotiating with the Russian president altogether. The countries were on the verge of striking a peace deal after talks in Istanbul in late March. At that time they inked a proposed agreement, which would have given Ukraine international security guarantees in exchange for neutral status. Kiev pulled out of the talks soon afterwards, with Zelensky claiming that fresh evidence of war crimes allegedly committed by Russian troops had left him no other option. Moscow rejected the accusations, calling the evidence falsified.

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I think he always has recognized reality.

US Says Putin Finally “Acknowledging Reality” After 300 Days Of War (ZH)

The Biden administration has responded to a Thursday speech by Vladimir Putin wherein the Russian leader used the word “war” for the first time to refer to what for ten months he previously only called a “special military operation”. The State Department on Friday called on Putin to keep “acknowledging reality” and to pull his troops from Ukraine. “Since Feb. 24, the United States and rest of the world knew that Putin’s ‘special military operation’ was an unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine. Finally, after 300 days, Putin called the war what it is,” a State Department spokesperson said. “As a next step in acknowledging reality, we urge him to end this war by withdrawing his forces from Ukraine,” the US official added. The statement explained that regardless of Putin’s now apparent shift in terminology, it remains that “Russia’s aggression against its sovereign neighbor has resulted in death, destruction and displacement.”


“The people of Ukraine no doubt find little consolation in Putin stating the obvious, nor do the tens of thousands of Russian families whose relatives have been killed fighting Putin’s war,” the spokesperson said. Putin had said at a Thursday televised news conference: “Our goal is not to spin this flywheel of a military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” adding that “This is what we are striving for.” Putin’s unprecedented word choice of “war” came the day after Ukrainian President Zelensky visited Washington and met with President Biden, and gave an address before Congress, wherein he pledged “absolute victory”. Kremlin officials have throughout the invasion carefully avoided using the term “war” in describing the Ukraine invasion. US policymakers and defense officials have been forecasting a “very extended conflict” which could last “years” – and at the same time there seems little appetite for any level of dialogue or peace talks on either side.

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“either waged wars against other countries or created conflicts, causing massive casualties and displacement of innocent civilians.”

China Calls US A ‘Direct Threat’ To The World (RT)

Washington intentionally hypes up the “China threat” as an exuse to boost its military spending in an effort to maintain its global dominance, the Chinese Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, after President Joe Biden signed the 2023 US National Defense Authorization Act into law. “Facts have proved more than once that the US is the direct threat to the international order and the culprit of the regional turbulence,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Colonel Tan Kefei. The statement went on to claim that in pursuit of its selfish interests, the US on multiple occasions “either waged wars against other countries or created conflicts, causing massive casualties and displacement of innocent civilians.”


The $858-billion US military spending program for fiscal year 2023, which authorized $10 billion in security assistance and fast-tracked weapons procurement for Taiwan, is yet another in a series of provocative moves that “seriously jeopardize the peace and stability in Taiwan Straits and increase the risk of China-US military confrontation.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army further vowed to “resolutely safeguard national reunification and territorial integrity of the country,” warning that Washington has no other choice but to “respect China’s core interests and major concerns.” The island of Taiwan has been self-governed since 1949, but never officially declared independence from Beijing, with China viewing it as part of its territory. Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have been high since the visit of US House speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August. Washington must drop its “old trick of unilateral bullying” that it hands out to Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call earlier this week. “It has not worked with China in the past, nor will it work in the future.”

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“..it would be beneficial for both sides if the US gives up on its “Cold-War and zero-sum mentality”

US Defense Act Is A ‘Political Provocation’ – China (RT)

The US National Defense Authorization Act hypes up the “China threat,” interferes in the country’s internal affairs and attacks the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing said on Saturday. The $858-billion military spending program for fiscal year 2023, signed into law by US President Biden on Friday, is “a serious political provocation against China,” that country’s foreign ministry pointed out in a statement. Beijing “deplores and firmly opposes” the new legislation, it added. The US defense act, which authorized $10 billion in security assistance and fast-tracked weapons procurement for Taiwan, is sending “a gravely wrong signal to ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and severely affects peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” it said. The island of Taiwan has been self-governed since 1949, but never officially declared independence from Beijing, with China viewing it as part of its territory.


Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have been high since the visit of US House speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August. “The US needs to stop seeking to use Taiwan to contain China, stop fudging, distorting and hollowing out the One-China principle, and stop moving even further down the wrong and dangerous path,” the ministry warned. Among other things, the bill also contained an amendment that restricted US government agencies from buying products that contain computer chips made by a specific group of Chinese companies. Beijing has urged Washington to refrain from implementing the “negative China-related sections” in the act or face “strong and resolute” counter-measures. According to the foreign ministry, it would be beneficial for both sides if the US gives up on its “Cold-War and zero-sum mentality” and develops a rational view on relations with China.

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“Twitter had so much contact with so many agencies that executives lost track..”

Twitter Files Thread: The Spies Who Loved Twitter (Taibbi)

After writing quite the pre-Christmas reflection Friday, night, Journalist Matt Taibbi has decided to grace us with a Christmas Eve edition of THE TWITTER FILES – which he says details “Twitter’s relationship to other government agencies – including some that don’t like to see their name in print much.”

2. It didn’t refute allegations. Instead, it decried “conspiracy theorists” publishing “misinformation,” whose “sole aim” is to “discredit the agency.”

3.They must think us unambitious, if our “sole aim” is to discredit the FBI. After all, a whole range of government agencies discredit themselves in the #TwitterFiles. Why stop with one?

4.The files show the FBI acting as doorman to a vast program of social media surveillance and censorship, encompassing agencies across the federal government – from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA.

5.The operation is far bigger than the reported 80 members of the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), which also facilitates requests from a wide array of smaller actors – from local cops to media to state governments.

6.Twitter had so much contact with so many agencies that executives lost track. Is today the DOD, and tomorrow the FBI? Is it the weekly call, or the monthly meeting? It was dizzying.

7.A chief end result was that thousands of official “reports” flowed to Twitter from all over, through the FITF and the FBI’s San Francisco field office.

8.On June 29th, 2020, San Francisco FBI agent Elvis Chan wrote to pair of Twitter execs asking if he could invite an “OGA” to an upcoming conference:

9.OGA, or “Other Government Organization,” can be a euphemism for CIA, according to multiple former intelligence officials and contractors. Chuckles one: “They think it’s mysterious, but it’s just conspicuous.”

10.“Other Government Agency (the place where I worked for 27 years),” says retired CIA officer Ray McGovern.

11. It was an open secret at Twitter that one of its executives was ex-CIA, which is why Chan referred to that executive’s “former employer.”

12.The first Twitter executive abandoned any pretense to stealth and emailed that the employee “used to work for the CIA, so that is Elvis’s question.”

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“..the “government partners” were getting increasingly “aggressive” with their takedown requests..”

CIA Pushed Twitter To Censor ‘Anti-Ukraine Narratives’ (RT)

The CIA, Pentagon and other US intelligence and law enforcement agencies, referred internally as OGA, were getting increasingly “more aggressive” with their takedown requests, effectively pushing the platform to engage in censorship of foreign policy stories that ran against the Washington-approved narrative, the latest trove of Twitter documents reveals.“The files show the FBI acting as doorman to a vast program of social media surveillance and censorship, encompassing agencies across the federal government – from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA,” journalist Matt Taibbi wrote in the Christmas Eve edition of the Twitter Files, released with a blessing from the company’s owner Elon Musk.

Among thousands of censorship requests flowing to Twitter from “Other Government Organizations” through the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, many had nothing to do with purported “foreign meddling” and were linked to purely domestic issues. But when they had, Twitter executives often struggled to validate government claims, and were under constant pressure – but unable to find evidence to blame a foreign actor, Russia in particular. “Found no links to Russia,” an unnamed analyst said in one of the emails, further suggesting he could “brainstorm” to “find a stronger connection.” Former Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth admitted he found “no real matches using the info” in another case. Internal communications show that Twitter had been getting so many requests that its executives lost track and had to improvise a system for prioritizing them.

The execs acknowledged it was “odd” how the feds apparently had dedicated personnel tasked with tailoring their takedown requests to Twitter’s policies for faster processing, but even then the company often struggled to find justification for censorship.“Many people wonder if Internet platforms receive direction from intelligence agencies about moderation of foreign policy news stories. It appears Twitter did, in some cases by way of the FITF/FBI,” Taibi wrote. At least some of these originated at the CIA, according to former agent and whistleblower, John Kiriakou, who said he “recognized the formatting.” The feds sometimes sent massive batches of over 1,000 accounts lined up for “digital execution,” with only a brief explanation of their alleged crimes. On multiple occasions they accused “Russian agents” of directing accounts that highlighted “predominantly anti-Ukraine narratives” or documented “purported rights abuses committed by Ukrainians.”

Another intelligence assessment sent to Twitter claimed that accounts spreading information about “neo-Nazis” in Ukraine were part of a Kremlin-controntrolled propaganda campaign and must be banned. In what Taibbi called a “damning admission,” an unnamed former CIA-turned-Twitter executive once noted that the “government partners” were getting increasingly “aggressive” with their takedown requests. “Due to a lack of technical evidence on our end, I’ve generally left it be, waiting for more evidence,” he said about one account. He further argued that since “BRICS is an inherently Russia-dominated economic organization” it was “always likely” that InfoBRICS was “directed by the Kremlin.” “Our window on that is closing, given that government partners are becoming more aggressive on attribution and reporting on it… I’m going to go ahead with suspension and marking the domain UNSAFE.”

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“made many member-states reflect on the risks posed by cooperation with Washington in the military-biological area..”

US Moving Bioweapons Research Out Of Ukraine – Moscow (RT)

After the operations of US-backed labs were uncovered in Ukraine, the Pentagon has been busy moving its bioweapons research to other countries, the head of Russia’s Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defense Troops has said. “The Pentagon is actively working to transfer its unfinished research projects to the countries in Central Asia and Eastern Europe,” Igor Kirillov insisted during a briefing on Saturday. The Americans have also been boosting cooperation with Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, Kenya and some other nations in the Indo-Pacific and Africa, with “the US Department of Defense being most interested in countries that already possess laboratories with a high level of biocontainment”, he added.

According to the commander, data on illegal operations of US-backed laboratories in Ukraine was presented at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons conference, which took place in Geneva between November 28 and December 16. It included “documentary evidence that work with components of biological weapons and studies of pathogens of especially dangerous and economically significant infections had been carried out on the territory of Ukraine with financial, scientific, technical and personnel support of the US,” he noted. Papers obtained by Russia during its military operation in Ukraine reveal that “military-biological programs” have been performed by such organizations as Mechnikov Anti-Plague Research Institute in Kiev, Institute of Veterinary Medicine in Kharkov and Lviv-based Research Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene, Kirillov said.

Those files also mentioned three Pentagon contractors and seven high-ranking officials of the US Department of Defense, he added. The full text of a report by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) on its work in Ukraine, seen by the Russian military, contained data, “confirming the conduct of exercises and training activities with pathogens of especially dangerous infections” in Ukraine, Kirillov said. When the Pentagon released this report to the public, 80% of its content had been redacted, he pointed out. According to the Russian commander, the head of the American delegation at the conference declined to respond to Russia’s accusations of violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) by his country.

“Such a stance by the US and its blocking of any initiatives to resume work on the verification mechanism of the CWC once again confirms that Washington has something to hide, and that ensuring transparency in terms of compliance with the convention doesn’t play into the hands of the Americans,” he said. However, the report by Russia didn’t go unnoticed by other countries and “made many member-states reflect on the risks posed by cooperation with Washington in the military-biological area,” Kirillov stressed. The Russian military has been gradually releasing materials on the work of the US-backed biolabs in Ukraine since March. Washington has denied Mocsow’s bioweapons claims, calling them disinformation and a conspiracy theory used by Russia to justify its military operation.

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“..our gas is in demand, it is cheap, we have large reserves, and we will develop these areas..”

Russia To Divert Gas Away From West – Official (RT)

Russian gas is still in high demand in the EU despite the bloc’s latest sanctions on the country’s energy exports, but Moscow intends to divert trade flows elsewhere, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak said on Friday. In an interview with the Russia24 channel, he noted that European “colleagues are constantly asking us to increase supplies” via existing infrastructure such as the TurkStream or Blue Stream pipelines and the Ukrainian gas transportation system, adding that the European market remains relevant for Russia. But, given the current “political mood” in the EU to curb its dependence on Russian gas, Moscow is looking at other markets to redirect supplies, the official noted. “Because our gas is in demand, it is cheap, we have large reserves, and we will develop these areas,” he added.


Russia will diversify trade flows by boosting liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies and pipeline gas deliveries to China, making Asia one of its key directions, Novak said, adding that the country has beefed up LNG production more than threefold. “If earlier only 11 million tons [of LNG] were produced in Russia, today there are already four plants operating, with a total capacity of 36 million tons,” the minister stressed. In the next three or four years Russia is set to boost LNG production to 60 million tons and then bring the figure up to 100 million tons annually, Novak projected. He also reminded his interviewer that along with growing supplies via the Power of Siberia pipeline, Russia and China have an agreement to build gas infrastructure with a capacity to deliver an additional ten billion cubic meters annually.

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No gas? No problem!

German Coal Consumption Soars – Bloomberg (RT)

Energy shortages and surging power prices have pushed Germany to boost coal use despite the country’s commitment to fighting climate change, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. To keep the lights on, Europe’s largest economy is now burning coal at the fastest pace in at least six years, despite the government’s ambitions to phase out the fossil fuel. According to Bloomberg, Germany will be one of the few countries to increase coal imports next year. Facing the dilemma of whether to cut carbon emissions or guarantee energy security in the country, Germany opted for the latter and reopened a number of coal plants. The International Energy Agency said in a recent report that most countries are using “a limited amount of coal power capacity” and “only in Germany, with 10 gigawatts, is the reversal at a significant scale.”

Coal consumption in the country has surged at times this month, bringing it to pollution levels comparable to those in South Africa and India, Bloomberg said, citing Electricity Maps data. According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the country now produces more than one third of its electricity from coal-fired plants. Power generation using coal was up 13.3% in the third quarter compared to the previous year, data shows. “Coal is coming back as a baseload generator,” founder and director of Perret Associates energy consultancy Guillaume Perret said, adding that the commodity will be less seasonal than it has been “with more coal-burning in summer, spring and autumn, as long as coal remains so much in the money versus gas and there remains a gas shortage.”

While the deficit of natural gas in Germany is one reason for reviving coal, another is the growing demand in France, where power generation was disrupted by nuclear reactor outages. This year, Germany may become a net exporter of electricity to France for the first time since at least 1990, according to Destatis. It is likely that Germany will have to suspend the government’s planned closure of the most polluting power plants by at least nine months and keep them operational until the end of 2024, Perret said.

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Thought police.

Without a Hope or a Prayer (Turley)

This week, the arrest of British Catholic woman for ‘praying’ outside an abortion clinic has attracted international attention. However, the jailing of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, director of anti-abortion group March for Life UK, is neither surprising nor particularly rare as a denial of free speech in Great Britain. While this form of “protest” is uncommon as the basis for an arrest, free speech has been in a free fall in the UK for years. It is also a cautionary tale for those in the United States, which is facing arguably the largest anti-free speech movement in its history.Pictures from Birmingham show Vaughan-Spruce, 45, simply standing near the abortion clinic silently praying when an officer confronts her. She was not blocking access or displaying any protest signs or material.

Nevertheless, she was arrested, jailed, interrogated, and ultimately charged with four counts of violating the abortion clinic “buffer zone.” According to reports, the West Midlands Police officer asked her “are you praying?” She responded “I might be praying in my head, but not out loud.” That was it. She was arrested for praying “in her head” near an abortion clinic.A recent order from September 7 made clear that praying near an abortion clinic is now a criminal act in the country. The Birmingham City Council order says that prohibited acts includes “but is not limited to graphic, verbal or written means, prayer or counselling.”Various individuals heralded the arrest. Dr. John Michael Leslie went on Twitter to declare “No, you’re in violation of it you repeatedly harass women going to a Family Planning Clinic who might be asking for Abortion Advice.

“Praying in her head” is the spin from her supporters.”However, legally, that is itself a dangerous pin. She was not arrested for past conduct but her current conduct, which was praying in her head.Another poster objected that “It’s so obvious she’s martyring herself in the glare of the public as a way of publicising her beliefs, she knowingly went into that area to get arrested. You must think we’re all crackers.” Indeed, though “crackers” does not quite capture the free speech crisis in the UK. This is not the first thought crime prosecuted in the country.

Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maindhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire. While most of us find Brock’s views repellent and hateful, they were confined to his head and his room. Yet, Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement: “I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”

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“..hire almost 100 temporary government lawyers to help prosecute January 6 protesters, a caseload now nearing 1,000 Americans with promises to add another 1,000 more..”

Traitors (Julie Kelly)

Zelenskyy, always in character, couldn’t even manage to wear a proper suit. His attire, of course, didn’t matter as long as his costume had lots of pockets. Zelenskyy is set to receive $47 billion more in U.S. tax dollars when those same slobbering lawmakers pass a $1.7 trillion government spending bill this month—bringing Zelenskyy’s total grab to $100 billion and counting. The omnibus package itself is one insult after another to the American people. As Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) detailed in a December 20 tweet thread, generous funding to secure the borders of other countries is included in the bill with little more than crumbs to protect our southern border, now dangerously wide open to human smugglers and drug runners. Billions more will be spent to promote gender equity, fight “structural racism,” expand access to abortion, and construct buildings and parks named after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, retiring Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ark.) and former First Lady Michelle Obama among others.

Perhaps the most outrageous provision in the bill is a hefty budget hike for the Department of Justice. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who spends the majority of his time and resources targeting Donald Trump, his associates, and his supporters, will receive a nearly 10 percent raise next year, bringing the Justice Department’s annual budget to $38.7 billion. More than $212 million is earmarked to hire almost 100 temporary government lawyers to help prosecute January 6 protesters, a caseload now nearing 1,000 Americans with promises to add another 1,000 more. The Federal Bureau of Investigations will get $569 million more next year as that agency’s budget exceeds $11 billion for the first time. Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray have made it clear by word and deed that the imaginary threat of “domestic violent extremists,” i.e., those who dare to criticize the regime will remain their top priority.

This means more predawn FBI raids of Capitol “trespassers,” more indefinite incarceration for those awaiting trial, more prison sentences for nonviolent offenses, more misery, and more destruction of Constitutional rights. And that’s just fine with the overwhelming majority of Republicans in Washington who’ve been silent in the face of this unprecedented form of government retaliation against Trump supporters. In fact, outgoing Senator Roy Blunt (R-Miss.) explained that the Justice Department really needed the big funding boost. “I’ve always been for prosecuting anybody who violated the law on January the 6th,” Blunt told NBC News this week. “And there are, like, 800 cases already. So I can’t imagine that they don’t need some extra money.”

The FBI, particularly in light of recent revelations of the bureau’s collusion with Big Tech to suppress coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop and criticism of mail-in voting, should be dismantled and defunded, not rewarded for its interference in two presidential elections among other malfeasance. Nor should the agency receive $375 million in capital funding to build a shiny new headquarters in either Virginia or Maryland as the bill also provides.But that didn’t stop 18 Republican senators, including McConnell and two-time presidential loser Mitt Romney, from voting to pass the omnibus bill on Thursday. Another “yes” vote was from Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the former chair of the Senate Judiciary who promised for years to “get to the bottom” of numerous Justice Department scandals.

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“The reason there wasn’t a proper security presence on that day goes right to the speaker’s staff and the speaker’s office..”

GOP Wants Pelosi to Testify Before Jan. 6 Committee (CB)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will be forced to relinquish her gavel to Republicans early next month after the GOP won a majority in the chamber during the midterm elections last month. But a pair of GOP lawmakers want her to answer some questions — presumably under oath — before a committee she created ostensibly to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol Building. “The reason there wasn’t a proper security presence on that day goes right to the speaker’s staff and the speaker’s office,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Just the News Wednesday after the release of the House Republicans’ report detailing the security failures that led to the breach of the Capitol. “As you go back and look at the communications, there’s this pattern that develops where the Sergeant of Arms is meeting with Pelosi’s staff,” Jordan, the incoming House Judiciary Committee chairman, noted further.

“Many of those meetings, Republican staff wasn’t allowed to be there, but they had this pattern where everything had to run through her office, her staff, before the Sergeant of Arms could make a decision.” In a separate interview with the outlet, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) said that the National Guard was delayed in arriving at the Capitol on Jan. 6 because then-Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving was waiting to hear from Pelosi on the matter. “It’s almost like there were individuals within the current administration that wanted this to happen,” Nehls said. “All the intelligence was there, and what did they have? What did they have? They had bicycle racks. … A bicycle rack couldn’t keep your cat in your yard.” The two lawmakers are among five House Republicans who released the GOP report, which offered substantially more detail about events that day and leading up to it than have been noted or released by Pelosi’s Democrat-run committee.


Nehls made reference to some texts from Irving corroborating accounts that some U.S. Capitol Police officers ushered protesters into the Capitol Building, noting: “The American people aren’t hearing any of this from the sham [Jan. 6] committee.” The Texas lawmaker also said that a former D.C. National Guard commander told him that had Guard troops been deployed when police asked for assistance on Jan. 4, the riot would have “never, ever happened.” “And Nancy Pelosi. You do have questions you need to answer … Nancy, we’ll get you, and we’ll fly you back from Italy once you’re the ambassador,” Nehls said, making reference to earlier reports that President Biden will offer the U.S. Ambassador to Italy post to Pelosi, who is 82. The GOP report, in addition to Pelosi and her staff, also cited the USCP Intelligence and Interagency Coordination Division for ignoring or refusing to act on intelligence indicating there was a need for greater security due to politics, bureaucracy, and the “misplaced priorities of their leadership.”

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Home Forums Debt Rattle Christmas Day 2022

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  • #124238

    Rembrandt van Rijn The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds 1634   • Jesus Would Be Branded A “Domestic Terrorist” Today (Whitehead) • Christmas Eve
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle Christmas Day 2022]

    #124239
    Germ
    Participant

    Happy Crimble to one and all on this finest of blogs.

    #124240
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    I know it is traditional to call the 25th of December Christmas but for me it is the fourth day after the summer solstice, and the time for real celebration was six months ago, when the Southern Hemisphere New Year commenced and the sun started to appear earlier in the morning.

    Next up in the fake official calendar (which calls the twelfth month the tenth) is the fake new year, which is called New Year by the fake controllers of NATOstan countries, and so everyone else does too.

    Mind control is a powerful thing indeed, allowing all sorts of crazy distortions of reality to be declared correct and official.

    As a not-so-amusing aside, what did the scorpion say to the frog shortly before stabbing the frog in the back? “You can trust me. I would never stab you in the back.”

    What did The Scorpion say to the gullible sheep before stabbing them in the back? “Get vaccinated. The vaccines are safe and effective and are the best way for you to protect yourself and those you love.”

    Of course, although I refer to The Scorpion, there are, in fact, millions of scorpions infesting all of the Airstrips that comprise Oceania. Like creatures from a Dr Who story, the scorpions have some kind of cloaking device that conceals their true identities and creates the impression amongst the unobservant and gullible that they are human beings.

    This war on society, engaged in by the scorpions and constantly ramped up to ever higher levels, has clearly reached a crucial period, that time when those who still cannot see the wood for the trees either wake from their corporate-media-induced slumbering or get annihilated.

    I see little sign of the proles waking from their corporate-media-induced slumbering.

    I guess everything will have to be made substantially worse before the proles do wake up. Hence, I still keep an eye on world events and trends but am very focused on personal projects relating to the meltdown of society.

    Here is an ‘amusing’ piece of Orwellianism, coming from the Office of the Auditor General:

    ‘Putting integrity at the core of how public organisations operate’

    High standards of public sector governance and accountability are essential to healthy democracies at both a national and local level. They enable the effective and efficient use of public resources in the wide range of agencies that make up the public sector.

    Governance

    Governance is the system by which an organisation or project is directed and controlled.

    Management involves putting those decisions into practice.

    Every governing body needs to:

    have a clear purpose and to stay focused on it;
    have clear roles and responsibilities that separate governance and management;
    lead by setting a constructive tone;
    involve the right people;
    invest in effective relationships built on trust and respect;
    be clear about accountabilities and transparent about performance against them
    manage risk effectively; and
    ensure that you have good information, systems, and controls.’

    https://oag.parliament.nz/good-practice/integrity/integrity-framework

    My personal level of faith in anything ‘official’ has now reached rock bottom, i.e zero.

    I may write to the Auditor General and point out that absolutely nothing that the management of Airstrip Five says or does complies with reality, let alone complying with ‘good governance’; indeed it is all fraud. But with ‘everything’ falling apart, such a report is now low on my priority list.

    #124241
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Another poster objected that “It’s so obvious she’s martyring herself in the glare of the public as a way of publicising her beliefs, she knowingly went into that area to get arrested. You must think we’re all crackers.”

    I emigrated from the UK more than twenty years ago and the reason was that I could no longer stand living with those people. The person who claims he is not “crackers” is showing off his ability to see through the protest regarding her beliefs, what he doesn’t see is that she is protesting government censorship of her commonly held beliefs. Some would argue that they are beliefs based on the CofE religion, the official state religion. Yes, the person is obviously crackers, but not in the way he thinks, he is too stupid to understand that he is supporting government tyranny and why it hurts everybody in the country. Not going back to the UK, the people are still as horrendous as ever.

    #124242
    Germ
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    Haha – I returned the UK after 20+ years in N. Cali.

    Leaving here soon though.
    Devon’s been a great 10 year Chapter.

    Off to Mexico 🇲🇽 !!

    #124243
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Tennis star, Novak Djokovic, set a new high-water mark in sports by being banned for not doing drugs. Djokovic says he will skip all events that require vaccination.”

    “”It is 20° in Memphis, TN & we are stuck in what is now a 6 hour “rolling blackout”… on Christmas Eve.
    Because of left-wing “climate change” lies & hysteria, necessary nat gas infrastructure needed…”

    Couldn’t be better. Never stop. This is exactly what the doctor ordered. Least amount of people dying in a world war that has the most dangerous weapons ever known.

    “Yes Alice, as we try to peer through the looking glass, we discover it’s a mirror now. The reflection is the opposite of normal,”

    This is the key element. Evil – or Satan’s evil at least – is a minion. It has no imagination, no creativity. As the top guy doesn’t report to anyone, who’s his minion, what’s his “Plan”? Therefore, his Plan is God’s Plan. The #Opposite of what God, #Logos wants. If God wants it, he wants the #Opposite.
    That’s how, strangely and pathetically, Satan’s highest aspiration is to be a monkey and ape God, but in reverse. What a waste. I thought you were a rebel, man! And here we’re all stuck with the same old s—t, except it doesn’t work.

    That’s what we have here. Anyone have another explanation? Because if they were just taking money it wouldn’t be a mirrorverse. It would just be graft where they have nice homes, boats, and parts of the city to live in. Instead, we have their cities being covered in human s—t and their McHomes are pathetic. So ugly if I owned one I’d burn it down and replace it with something decent. No imagination. No creativity. No love. It’s the ultimate trap.

    But think about that. Why mirrorverse? Because it’s not a mistake and it’s not a fraud: it’s a RELIGION.

    “But it is only President Putin who can put an end to this bloodshed.”

    Can it be any more clear? We have a war. With at least two sides. But only one side is responsible and only one side can surrender. That’s #Logic.

    There’s not much to say to that. Since we’ve heard only that since we were born, we now find it reasonable, it sounds normal to us. Life is, when we get our way. Or else it gets the weapons hose again.

    “US Says Putin Finally “Acknowledging Reality” after 300 Days of War (ZH)”

    Not sure of the change here, which one would think has to be intentional. And the U.S. is always projecting, 100% of the time. It’s their #Religion, their psychology, as above. They can’t create things. They are only chimps, imitating things or smashing them. So they only project what they are doing onto the #Other. That’s all they’re capable of. Sure, some of us might have been normal once, but it’s astonishing at this point, with a lifetime of examples that they still can’t recognize Narcissists and their same-old playbook when it’s the same for ages. Any narcissist: it’s about me. Whatever I say about the other guy, it’s about me.

    U.S. finally “Recognizing reality” after 300 days. We’re in a war, not a local action, not a proxy. Russia must topple NATO and the war-party in the United States. That’s alright: the War Party wasn’t legitimately elected and commits impeachable crimes hourly. We’re removing them too.

    “China Calls US a ‘Direct Threat’ to the World (RT)”

    No no no. A “Threat” is a thing that might happen. The U.S. already attacked 20 countries this century and have toppled 100 democratic nations in the last 100. Officially.

    “US Defense Act Is a ‘Political Provocation’ – China (RT)”

    They are opening a second front. What choice does China have? So when we start this war, the U.S. will have 5 fronts going. What was that about not fighting a two-front war?

    “CIA Pushed Twitter to Censor ‘Anti-Ukraine Narratives’ (RT)”

    Because Ukraine is the most important nation on earth, and the Ukrainian people are the most important people on earth. We do whatever they say. We give them whatever they want. We fight whoever they tell us to. We get #Nuked if necessary.

    All our people are killed, our states fall. – Don’t Care! You’re untermensch. As top racists, in a nation of declared, official racists, all other races exist only to be killed in the service of Ukraine. That’s you. In USUK, Canada, Oz, and NZ. But they’ve killed every Pole before too and are killing Germans and Dutch now.

    The only aggression is against Ukraine. The only defense is for Ukraine. On Twitter and everywhere else. Because our own people are co-racists. This slice of Ukraine literally believe they are the children of the angels, and choose people who share their heritage. So when they say Sláva Ukrayíni! They are pledging fealty to their #racism and lineage. As the children of the angels. …The Fallen Angels.
    This is why it’s a cult #Religion and has to be dealt with differently.

    This is not a secret, people, you can read it in most history books.

    Actually, speaking of narcissists, mirrors, projection, and lack of creativity, I saw a bumper sticker “Get over it. He lost. And you’re in a Cult.” A – Mazing. After 6 years of this, no self-awareness. Repeating the EXACT thing the Right has said, channeling Q-Anon, right down to the word choice. …And AS a people who STILL think Trump was installed by Putin, who’s under their bed like Santa Claus, or like demons of anger and lust. (you have to know former religious people to understand this is literally true.)

    Imitation. Monkeys. Mirror world. No creativity. No self awareness. No self preservation. Minions. They have canceled their Inner Light.

    “US Moving Bioweapons Research out of Ukraine – Moscow (RT)”

    Pack up the research but don’t take the scientists. Compartmentalization. I was watching some show like “24” where they invade the lab and say “Is that all of it?” Scientist/inventor: “Yes.” Hahahahaha! Well in THIS lab. You have no idea what other labs your boss is also funding, friend. You think you’re a unique and special snowflake, the only guy who ever used Crispr. You’re not. Your another diploma mill from Columbia, a dime a dozen, a cheap whore.

    Good thing about it in Ukraine is that Russia will have utterly infiltrated them and will know everything going on. Losing that by moving to new labs with new vetting, new people, is a BAD thing. It’s dangerous and makes them/us blind.

    Worse, since they believe in a golden bloodline and want all other races killed, – you know, Hitler’s “Master Race” thing? With the “Aryans” from that part of the world? With enough time and work they can probably succeed in a weapon that will kill the rest of us that are actual humans with actual empathy. They already said this, in that “Religion is a mental illness” we can fix with drugs and vaccines. Never feel bad about that nasty conscience again! Wot a relief! A world with no shame, what could be better?

    “That was it. She was arrested for praying “in her head” near an abortion clinic.”

    Thoughtcrime. Your internal psychological states are not yours. They are owned and controlled by the state. They tyranny knows no bounds, it extends to #All, the universe, again in a petty imitation of God himself. They claim this space. Forgetting, I guess, that God doesn’t CONTROL everything everywhere. That’s one of our complaints about him, that he allows #FreeWill.

    So translation: what is “Praying”? She was “Thinking”, Thoughts, in her head. She had feelings. She was not worshiping the State, but something other. That is arrestable, imprisonable #Crime. And You’re Next.

    You can stop this. You’ll have to anyway as no one can live in those conditions. No one is safe, not even billionaires. So you might as well start now when it’s easy.

    “The Birmingham City Council order says that prohibited acts includes “but is not limited to graphic, verbal or written means, prayer or counselling.”

    The written law literally outlaws prayer. …But only Christian prayer. Others are all fine. Hail Satan! Say, would this be against the higher law, and centuries of British law, which includes even a long, strained tolerance of Catholics?

    So modern Britain is more intolerant than The Protestant Revolution, more Intolerant than the Vatican, more intolerant than the Inquisition, burning witches. And we all approve. Well, we get what we get then.

    Oh, P.S., this is the same as the FBI’s, DoJ’s “Conspiracy”. A crime that may or may not have been thought of but was never acted upon. You know, like when on pay day you think you might need to rob a bank to get a Happy Meal at McDonald’s. You THOUGHT it.

    “GOP Wants Pelosi to Testify Before Jan. 6 Committee (CB)”

    In concept, she had total control over all D.C. security citywide. She is also on camera stating she expected this to happen hours before. Why haven’t we asked her already?

    “Nancy, we’ll get you, and we’ll fly you back from Italy once you’re the ambassador,”
    Oh so Italy is the important place with the upcoming skullduggery and coups as Ursula be lyin’ said. Thanks for the heads up.

    So according to that map, Sweden and England hate children the most of anyone on earth. That makes sense.

    Box Jellyfish. How alien. They may be the most intelligent creatures on the planet, how would we know? They don’t use radio, you see, therefore they are nobodies. Meaningless. They don’t exist. If they don’t use radio they’re not people, just like everyone before 1880 were nobodies, meaningless, and should probably have been killed. Well, we were putting this off-ramp where your planet was, and all I see are non-radio using animals, so bulldoze away, I guess.

    #124244
    Germ
    Participant

    Faithless singer Maxi Jazz dies peacefully in his sleep as tributes pour in for star

    “died peacefully in his sleep”

    Totally Fuckin’ Normal !!

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/breaking-faithless-singer-maxi-jazz-28774168

    Quackzine! Quackzinated!!
    https://t.me/robinmg/25489

    Happy Fucking Christmas !

    TVASF
    ☠☠☠

    #124245
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Tooth Fairy Angel Christmas Tree

    All pulled from the mouths of Santa’s Elves!

    Ho, Ho, Ho

    .

    #124246
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Jurassic Holiday Tree

    .

    #124248
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Tribute Tree collected from those extra sharp turns on the highway off ramp

    Happy Fossil Fuel Christmas!

    .

    #124249
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Vegas Blackjack Tree

    Hit me again!

    .

    #124250
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    What Dr. D said about radio this fine Christmas day got me to thinking about how peculiar are the things that we choose to use as criteria for judging the value of other people. And before even getting started on that I would first like to draw everyone’s attention to the fact that the very act of judging the value of others is, in itself, an act of pure narcissism to start with, because the word “value” in this question is PRESUMED to mean “what is their value to ME ?”

    Getting back to the “radio” thing, it’s as good of a criterion as many other things (one could as easily use other technological achievements of collective humankind as well. For examples, “manned space flight”, or “controlled nuclear fission” or even “mastery of DNA.”

    What one chooses to use as a benchmark of advancement makes very little difference. One standard serves as well as any other. The point I want to make though, and what makes the whole damned exercise so FUNNY, is that regardless of the standard chosen, the pathetic fact is that NO ONE meets it. Absolutely nobody, not one person on the whole entire earth could come within a country parsec of living up to that standard or meeting that criterion.

    Starting from scratch, NOBODY could design or build a radio, or an airplane, atom bomb or living cell. Not even close, because it takes millions of people working in close and coordinated collaboration for many many years to do ANY of those things.

    So, does that mean we fail our own “value-standard test” and are about to get bulldozed?

    #124251
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The college ‘Dirty Laundry’ tree

    Hey, improvise with what you got

    .

    #124252
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Way Too Much Weed tree

    .

    #124253
    Red
    Participant

    Never trust a billionaire.

    #124254
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Medical Exam Christmas tree

    Bend over please!

    Utterly ridiculous!

    .

    #124255
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Go bananas tree

    This one comes with a couple of hidden surprise tarantulas!

    .

    #124256
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Everyone has their way of coping with Christmas crisis

    .

    #124257
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Barbie horror glitter head tree

    You know, like, ah, merry something

    .

    #124258
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Retro Pierced Tongue Bath Tree

    Run for your life……

    .

    #124259
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Nice

    .

    #124260
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Scare the Kids Off Your Front Lawn Hipster Tree

    .

    #124261
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Book Nerd whimsical attempt at holiday cheer

    .

    #124262
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Resigned Too My Fate Zoloft Tree

    .

    #124263
    zerosum
    Participant

    Try peace,
    Again, try using the United Nations

    Armistice, truce, ceasefire, peacekeepers,

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations
    The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.[2] It is the world’s largest and most familiar international organization.
    Its missions have consisted primarily of unarmed military observers and lightly armed troops with primarily monitoring, reporting and confidence-building roles.
    The UN, after approval by the Security Council, sends peacekeepers to regions where armed conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities. Since the UN does not maintain its own military, peacekeeping forces are voluntarily provided by member states. These soldiers are sometimes nicknamed “Blue Helmets” for their distinctive gear.[139][140] Peacekeeping forces as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.
    ——-

    #124265

    Thanks Oroboros!
    As my nephew says: “Have a Christmas!”

    #124267
    greco
    Participant

    (111 x n ) / (3 x n) = 111 / 3 = 37
    The beauty of algebra

    #124268
    willem
    Participant

    “CIA Pushed Twitter to Censor ‘Anti-Ukraine Narratives’”

    This revelation gives us the open confirmation we needed that government censorship is not about SCIENCE, as was asserted during the rollout of the jabs. It is a broadly-based attempt to simply propagandize the public into adopting the government line. There is no “science” about one’s opinion of US support for Ukraine—you either think it’s good, or you don’t.

    “US Says Putin Finally “Acknowledging Reality” after 300 Days of War (ZH)”

    I’d say that Putin has exercised remarkable restraint in waiting so long to publicly acknowledge what Russia certainly knew long ago to be true.

    #124269
    Autonomous Unit
    Participant

    The Calvin and Hobbes cartoon (believe in Santa to get presents) is an example of Pascal’s Wager:

    “Pascal argues that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.), whereas if God does exist, he stands to receive infinite gains (as represented by eternity in Heaven) and avoid infinite losses (an eternity in Hell)”

    #124270
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I have a question for Pascal.

    Which view of existence is more fundamentally true, that there are existing things to be aware of, or that there is awareness of things existing?

    Getting it right is pretty important.

    #124271
    zerosum
    Participant
    #124272
    Alexander Carpenter
    Participant

    DBS: Being able to distinguish sophistries is pretty important, too.

    #124273
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Thank you Oroboros, for the selection of room brighteners, some very edible, other not so. In the gloom of a midwinter evening, in some cases without electricity, room brighteners surely have a place.

    One glaringly obvious omission is the Warmongers Tree, which consists of the hardware necessary to kill other humans by the truckload -rifles, machine guns, flame throwers etc. with hand grenades as baubles -a celebration of the power of semi-stable nitrogen compounds to revert to more stable nitrogen compounds and expand at a phenomenal rate in the process.

    Yes, we do have a major nitrogen problem. But it’s not the nitrogen problem the Empire of Lies pretends is the major nitrogen problem.

    I’ve been wondering where the chemical plant necessary to convert natural gas into ammonia and thence into weapons-grade nitric acid are these days. Which nation is most profiting from the production of high explosives? China? That’s where most of the chemical plants ae these days.

    We do know there was a lot of heavy industry in the Russian-speaking regions formally known as Donbas is what was eastern Ukraine. Presumably whoever controls those regions has considerable access to the gear required to make weapons of war.

    It may be a bit like using oil to fight wars over the control of oil reservoirs, which Airstrip One began doing in 1914, and which Airstrip Two perfected in recent times.

    You know the end is near when Airstrip Two can no longer provide military cover for the looting exercise it is currently engaged in in Syria.

    #124274
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    A note on the severe distortion of the Jet Stream due to superheating of the Arctic region and the wild fluctuations of temperature being experienced across Airstrip Two and Airstrip Three at the moment.

    Wild Winter Weather

    The image on the right shows a forecast of very low temperatures over North America with a temperature of -40 °C / °F highlighted (green circle at center) for December 23, 2022 14:00 UTC…..

    https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/

    One may wonder at what point people will begin to regret the orgy of consumption of resources and the generation of humungous quantities of pollutants that have characterised living arrangements in the Empire of Lies over approximately seven decades.

    #124275
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Very wise words from Nate.

    #124276
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #124277
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @AlexanderCarpenter re: “DBS: Being able to distinguish sophistries is pretty important, too.”

    That’s too subtle for me. Please clarify.

    #124278
    Oroboros
    Participant

    A fervent Christmas Wish, from the big guy:

    .

    #124279
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Zeitgeist Christmas

    Starring the world’s favorite intellectuals

    Hey, don’t over think the holiday!

    .

    #124280
    Susan C
    Participant

    I’m a bit confused about the ‘airstrip’ numbers. If the basis is Orwell’s ‘1984’ then I understand airstrip 1 to mean the UK. That would mean the others might all relate to the 5 Eye countries – UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, but what is the order if this is the case?

    I come here every day and appreciate reading the links Illargi posts and I often read through the comments. This appears to be one of those circumstances where the in-crowd is talking to each other only.

    Happy Christmas to All
    and Best Wishes for the New Year!
    🎄☀️💖☀️🎄

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