Dec 132022
 
 December 13, 2022  Posted by at 9:55 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Pablo Picasso Female bust 1943

 

The Alarm Bells Go Off (Kunstler)
Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested In Bahamas After US Files Criminal Charges (CNBC)
SEC Chair Gensler Scrubbed Evidence Of Clinton, Soros And Pelosi Meetings (ZH)
Twitter Trust And Safety Team Found Trump Tweets Did Not Violate Policy (ZH)
The Banning of President Trump by Bari Weiss: Just a Few Rogue Actors (CTH)
Germany Should Do Business With Russia Again – Scholz (RT)
50% Of Ukraine’s Energy Facilities Destroyed – Zelensky (Az.)
Russia Has No Right To Security Guarantees – Poland (RT)
Increased Heart Failure Deaths Linked To Extreme Hot And Cold (CTV)
European Parliament Lawmaker Denies Taking Bribes From Qatar (R.)
Assets of Greek MEP Accused Of Graft Frozen (K.)
Von der Leyen Ducks Questions On Qatar Corruption Scandal (Pol.eu)
Wars – How They Start and End? (Salamah)
The End of Europe: The Sad Conclusion of a Long Historical Cycle (Ugo Bardi)
Biden Faces Growing Pressure To Drop Charges Against Julian Assange (G.)

 

 

 

 

Unicef

 

 

And then you get the coldest night of the year…

 

 

First ever recorded snowball fight (1897)

 

 

 

 

“Everything appears to be veering out-of-control, including thought itself.”

The Alarm Bells Go Off (Kunstler)

Here’s another awful reality (better fasten your seatbelts): What also emerged in the tweet record of Yoel Roth, the company’s chief censor (former “Head of Trust and Safety”), begins to look like a gay mafia assault on the collective American psyche. Having gained official federal government sanction and protection, a statistically tiny homosexual demographic left in charge of the country’s main public forum has been out for revenge against their perceived enemy, political conservatives — Americans disinclined to join the cheerleading for drag queen story hours, “minor-attracted persons,” transsexuals in the military, and other LBGTQ cultural pranks. In the process, that gay mafia running the public dialogue supported every lie that the government, its protector, put out, to keep the Deep State happy and well-fed. Shocking, I’m sure… but there it is.

That means the gay mafia also helped promote the most-deadly psy-op in world history: the Covid-19 scare and the mass “vaccination” crusade that will end up killing many millions world-wide, after destroying the economies of the Western Civ nations. The whole package looks like an attempt to turn the world upside down and inside out. Is it any wonder that so many feel the USA has gone crazy? Of course, these revelations aroused the widespread suspicion that these now-exposed nefarious operators in social media were merely tools for some murky plutocrat elite led by the likes of the WEF, Bill Gates, and George Soros. Could that be the greatest “conspiracy theory” of all? More likely, I hesitate to suggest, all these characters in one way or another are merely tools of history itself, as the world enters the darkest days of a Fourth Turning secular winter.

As T.S. Eliot observed: “Humankind cannot bear too much reality.” Thus, so many sense we live in dangerous times. Everything appears to be veering out-of-control, including thought itself. Disorder incites more disorder. While all this madness is going on in-country, the US government, led by the phantom president “Joe Biden,” continues to prosecute its insane proxy war in Ukraine in order to antagonize Russia. Lately the US has sent drones hundreds of miles inside Russia to blow up military airfields. How is that not an escalation of hostilities, and exactly how far do the American people want their government to take this crazy project?

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SBF could have been arrested, and charges filed, anytime over the past, what has it been, 6 weeks?! But they pick the day before his virtual hearing in Congress. Which now won’t happen.

Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested In Bahamas After US Files Criminal Charges (CNBC)

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by Bahamian authorities Monday evening after the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York shared a sealed indictment with the Bahamian government, setting the stage for extradition and U.S. trial for the onetime crypto billionaire at the heart of the crypto exchange’s collapse. His arrest is the first concrete move by regulators to hold individuals accountable for the multibillion-dollar implosion of FTX last month. Before his arrest was announced, Bankman-Fried had been expected to testify virtually before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, but his attorneys told CNBC that he will not appear.


Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who oversees that committee, said that she was “surprised” at his arrest, and disappointed that Congress would not be able to hear from him on Tuesday. Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said on Twitter that the federal government anticipated moving to “unseal the indictment in the morning.” The charges include wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and money laundering, according to the New York Times, citing a person familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission has initiated a separate set of charges against Bankman-Fried, relating to “violations of our securities laws, which will be filed publicly tomorrow in the Southern District of New York,” enforcement director Gurbir Grewal said in a statement.

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What was SBF going to talk about? His links to Gensler, Ukraine, Democrats?

“The charges include wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and money laundering – NYT”

Securities fraud. Wait, that’s Gensler…

SEC Chair Gensler Scrubbed Evidence Of Clinton, Soros And Pelosi Meetings (ZH)

Sunlight is the best disinfectant – unless you’re Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler – who scrubbed evidence of a meeting with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from his calendar, along with key details of a meeting with Billionaire leftist-operative George Soros. He also concealed September 21 meetings with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and former Bill Clinton White House official-turned-DC consultant, Minyon Moore. Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs executive, Obama administration official, Clinton’s 2016 campaign CFO, and FTX associate, essentially had two calendars. His public calendar showed that on Aug. 7, 2021, he only had a staff meeting, while his private calendar lists a meeting with Hillary Clinton, Fox News reports.

Thirteen days later on Aug. 20, 2021, Gensler’s public calendar does list a meeting with Soros, but the agenda was hidden. His private calendar reveals that the meeting was held to discuss an upcoming WSJ op-ed Soros was planning to write in which he slammed BlackRock for launching investment products for Chinese customers, while also applauding the company’s ESG policies. “Gensler’s private calendar revealing the discrepancies was obtained by the watchdog group Energy Policy Advocates and shared with Fox News Digital. The group was only able to obtain the internal records after filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the SEC. In recent days, around the time Fox News Digital contacted the SEC, the agency updated Gensler’s public calendar to include his meeting with Clinton in August 2021. As recently as Wednesday the public calendar didn’t include the meeting, and archived copies of the webpage from April also list just a meeting with staff. -Fox News ”

When contacted for comment, the SEC initially lied – saying that the Clinton meeting was visible on Gensler’s public calendar. When confronted with screenshots to the contrary, the spokesperson said that the agency updates calendars “from time to time” when inaccuracies are discovered (by watchdog groups?). Gensler also concealed several September 2021 meetings with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Minyon Moore – both of which have been now updated on Gensler’s public calendar. “That even George Soros is calling out progressive darling BlackRock for craven blundering is striking — even if it did carry the requisite, tribal praise for BlackRock’s truly damaging ‘ESG’ (environmental, social and governance) campaigning to impose their shared ‘climate’ agenda on the U.S., an agenda also much to China’s delight,” said Chris Horner, a lawyer representing Energy Policy Advocates. “That it appears Soros received counsel from Gary Gensler on the mega-donor’s call for more SEC powers as a result is truly astonishing.”

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“We must examine Twitter’s complicity in what President-Elect Biden has rightly termed insurrection.”

Twitter Trust And Safety Team Found Trump Tweets Did Not Violate Policy (ZH)

The new drop reveals that Twitter employees did not believe former President Trump had violated Twitter’s policies. “I think we’d have a hard time saying this is incitement,” wrote one staffer in an internal message, adding: “It’s pretty clear he’s saying the ‘American Patriots’ are the ones who voted for him and not the terrorists (we can call them that, right?)…” Another staffer agreed, writing: “Don’t see the incitement angle here.” “I also am not seeing clear or coded incitement in the DJT tweet,” wrote Anika Navaroli, a Twitter policy official. “I’ll respond in the elections channel and say that our team has assessed and found no vios”—or violations—“for the DJT one.”

4. For years, Twitter had resisted calls both internal and external to ban Trump on the grounds that blocking a world leader from the platform or removing their controversial tweets would hide important information that people should be able to see and debate. 5. “Our mission is to provide a forum that enables people to be informed and to engage their leaders directly,” the company wrote in 2019. Twitter’s aim was to “protect the public’s right to hear from their leaders and to hold them to account.” 6. But after January 6, as @mtaibbi and @shellenbergermd have documented, pressure grew, both inside and outside of Twitter, to ban Trump.

7. There were dissenters inside Twitter. “Maybe because I am from China,” said one employee on January 7, “I deeply understand how censorship can destroy the public conversation.” 8. But voices like that one appear to have been a distinct minority within the company. Across Slack channels, many Twitter employees were upset that Trump hadn’t been banned earlier. 9. After January 6, Twitter employees organized to demand their employer ban Trump. “There is a lot of employee advocacy happening,” said one Twitter employee. 10. “We have to do the right thing and ban this account,” said one staffer. It’s “pretty obvious he’s going to try to thread the needle of incitement without violating the rules,” said another.

11. In the early afternoon of January 8, The Washington Post published an open letter signed by over 300 Twitter employees to CEO Jack Dorsey demanding Trump’s ban. “We must examine Twitter’s complicity in what President-Elect Biden has rightly termed insurrection.” 12. But the Twitter staff assigned to evaluate tweets quickly concluded that Trump had *not* violated Twitter’s policies.“I think we’d have a hard time saying this is incitement,” wrote one staffer. 13. “It’s pretty clear he’s saying the ‘American Patriots’ are the ones who voted for him and not the terrorists (we can call them that, right?) from Wednesday.” 14. Another staffer agreed: “Don’t see the incitement angle here.”

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sundance still doesn’t buy it. He wants to see what government officials are involved, not just the Twitter employees..

The Banning of President Trump by Bari Weiss: Just a Few Rogue Actors (CTH)

The fifth installment of the Twitter Files release drops today courtesy of Ms. Bari Weiss. The focus of Ms Weiss was on the decision to ban President Donald Trump from the platform, and her outline walks through the events leading up to the decision to remove him. After a review of internal discussions, slacks and conversations within the social media platform, ultimately the officers within the company decided to protect their view of democracy by removing their biggest ideological opponent. The Twitter executives justified their actions by echo-chambering a belief that President Trump was tweeting “coded messages,” the secret transmission of thoughts that can only be received by those wearing red hats, tuned to a specific psychological frequency.

As Weiss notes: “Less than 90 minutes after Twitter employees had determined that Trump’s tweets were not in violation of Twitter policy, Vijaya Gadde—Twitter’s Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust—asked whether it could, in fact, be “coded incitement to further violence.” President Trump tweeted the term “American Patriots,” which would be viewed by the Twitter ideologues as something akin to “the leader of a terrorist group responsible for violence/deaths comparable to Christchurch shooter or Hitler and on that basis and on the totality of his Tweets, he should be de-platformed.” It did not take long for the narrative to embed as the most senior Twitter regulatory officers assembled. “One hour later, Twitter announces Trump’s permanent suspension “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

The entirety of Twitter File #5 release surrounds this internal Twitter dynamic, carefully avoiding any discussion or sunlight from outside government actors who may have been in direct contact with the senior Twitter team. Indeed, the documents chosen to provide evidence of the debate and decision to remove President Trump are transparently devoid of any inbound government contact to the Twitter organization. Thus, at the end of Ms. Weiss carefully written expose’, she concludes with this:

See, it’s only “a handful of people at a private company“…. Nothing to see here folks, move along, move along. Apparently, DHS, FBI and CISA officials were involved in direct contact with Twitter through their DHS “trusted partnership” portal to get rid of innocuous rebel voices and influence agents like Dan Bongino, Q conspiracy theorists, and various COVID doctors who were providing information against the interests of the government. However, when it came to removing the most powerful voice of President Donald John Trump, there was nothing but static radio silence from the government side of the DHS portal. You getting this? Do you see how this is presented? “A handful of people at a private company,” that’s the story and they are sticking to it. Swear.

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Presumably only after NATO has defeated them.

Germany Should Do Business With Russia Again – Scholz (RT)

Once Russia ends the conflict in Ukraine, it should be given a chance to do business with Germany again, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday. He repeated that Moscow must and will not win, however. A Russian government that ends the hostilities “needs a chance to restart economic cooperation, in another time when this is possible,” Scholz said in Berlin, at the meeting of the Eastern Committee for German Business (OA), a trade association focused on relations with eastern Europe. “Now is not that time.” “At the moment, the relationships we have are being scaled back,” Scholz said, according to the weekly Zeit. The EU is “tightening the sanctions” now, but Russia will remain the largest country on the European continent after the conflict is resolved. “It is therefore very important that we make preparations for this time.”

Scholz described the current conflict as an attempt by President Vladimir Putin to re-create a Russian Empire that is destroying the country’s future instead, and accused Moscow of atrocities against the Ukrainian civilians. Russia must not win “and Russian will not win, either,” he told the business group. Berlin’s determination to ditch Russian energy imports – pushed mainly by Scholz’s Green coalition partners – created troubles for Germany even before the gas deliveries were disrupted by the sabotage on Nord Stream pipelines in September. Germans are now trying to make up the shortages from elsewhere, though unsuccessfully. Earlier this month, Germany’s ambassador in Washington admitted to the economic troubles, but said this was a small price to pay for a “profound transformation” of her country into a remilitarized continental power, more hostile to Russia and closer to the US.

For all of Scholz’s promises to help Ukraine, Kiev has continued to browbeat Berlin about deliveries of tanks and even more artillery. Last week, the chancellor’s predecessor Angela Merkel admitted that the 2014 Minsk agreement was not aimed at resolving the conflict in Donbass, but to “give Ukraine time” to arm against Russia. Putin said he was disappointed by Merkel’s admission and that the trust between Moscow and Berlin was now “almost at zero.”

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Trying to escalate.

50% Of Ukraine’s Energy Facilities Destroyed – Zelensky (Az.)

Missile strikes have destroyed 50% of Ukraine’s energy facilities, the country’s President Vladimir Zelensky said in a call with US President Joe Biden, according to a statement published on the Ukrainian leader’s website on Monday. The Ukrainian leader also highlighted US assistance in restoring Ukraine’s energy grid and hoped that the parties would deepen cooperation on this track. In addition, Zelensky urged Biden to help Kiev establish air defenses.

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Poland wants its part of Ukraine.

Russia Has No Right To Security Guarantees – Poland (RT)

Russia cannot expect security guarantees from other nations, a senior Polish diplomat has said. Calls to address Moscow’s concerns about NATO expansion in Europe have come from former and serving leaders of EU nations, including ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. People should not “let themselves be persuaded … that Russia has the right to expect security guarantees from anyone,” Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski told journalists ahead of a meeting of top diplomats of EU member states, which kicked off in Brussels on Monday. “It’s just a strategic mistake – that kind of consideration. It is not Russia that needs security guarantees today, but Europe needs security guarantees from Russia,” he said, adding that the Polish delegation will call for the harshest sanctions possible on Russia during the ministerial meeting.

Moscow has for years told the US and its allies that the expansion of NATO poses a threat to Russian national security, and warned that by ignoring its objections on issues such as Ukraine’s potential membership in the US-led bloc, Western nations were crossing a red line. A last-ditch attempt to defuse tensions came last year, when Moscow offered an agreement which it said would address this concern. The proposal was rejected, with Western leaders doubling down on NATO’s open-door policy. Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine in February, citing, among other reasons, the bloc’s creeping expansion to the east. While EU nations condemned the move as an act of supposedly unprovoked aggression, some politicians acknowledged that the lack of a European security architecture that would alleviate Russia’s concerns was a major destabilizing factor.

In her first interview after stepping down as chancellor, Merkel said that the failure to build such an arrangement was something “we should think about” when discussing Ukraine. Her successor, Olaf Scholz, said that “we have to go back to the agreements which we had in the past decades and which were the basis for peace and security order in Europe.” He also claimed that Russia broke these arrangements and that there was “no aggression coming from NATO.” Macron argued this month that the US-led bloc needs to prepare an offer of security guarantees for Moscow to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. He said the concerns that “NATO will deploy weapons that will threaten Russia” were understandable.

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Ha! It’s not the vaccines, it’s climate change.

Increased Heart Failure Deaths Linked To Extreme Hot And Cold (CTV)

New research has found extremely hot and cold temperatures increase the risk of death among people with cardiovascular diseases, particularly heart failure. An international study, published Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, looked at more than 32 million cardiovascular deaths over four decades from more than two dozen countries. It found people with heart failure experienced the most additional deaths from extreme temperatures compared to those with other heart conditions. “The decline in cardiovascular death rates since the 1960s is a huge public health success story as cardiologists identified and addressed individual risk factors such as tobacco, physical inactivity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and others,” Dr. Barrak Alahmad, a research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a faculty member at the College of Public Health at Kuwait University, said in a news release.


“The current challenge now is the environment and what climate change might hold for us.” The study used health data, pulled from 567 cities in 27 countries across five continents between 1979 and 2019, through the Multi-Country Multi-City Collaborative Research Network. Researchers compared cardiovascular deaths on the hottest and coldest 2.5 per cent of days for each city with cardiovascular deaths in those same cities on days that had optimal temperatures or when death rates were lowest. The study found that for every 1,000 cardiovascular deaths, extreme hot days accounted for 2.2 additional deaths, while extreme cold days accounted for 9.1 additional deaths.

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Europe has a nice scandal. Allegedly, €600,000 was found in this woman’s father’s home. Cash, in bags.

European Parliament Lawmaker Denies Taking Bribes From Qatar (R.)

European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili, a suspect in an investigation into money laundering and corruption at the parliament, has denied receiving money from Qatar, one of her lawyers said in Greece on Tuesday. Kaili, one of 14 vice presidents of the parliament, was among four people arrested and charged in Belgium at the weekend over allegations that Qatar lavished them with cash and gifts to influence decision-making. “Her position is that she is innocent, I can tell you that,” Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, a lawyer representing Kaili in Greece, told Open TV. “She has nothing to do with financing from Qatar, nothing – explicitly and unequivocally. That is her position,” Dimitrakopoulos said. He added that Kaili had “undertaken no commercial activity in her life.” Greece on Monday froze Kaili’s assets in the country. The European Parliament has suspended her from her duties.

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Yes, “one of 14 vice presidents of the parliament..” Wonder what they all get paid.

Assets of Greek MEP Accused Of Graft Frozen (K.)

Greece’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority has issued a general order to freeze, until further notice, all assets that MEP Eva Kaili, 44, and her husband or her immediate family members (parents, siblings) may have in Greece. Kaili, a vice president of the European Parliament, and her husband were among four people arrested on Sunday on charges of corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization. Police carried out raids at 16 houses in and around Brussels and seized €600,000 on Friday as a part of the investigation into a corruption scandal involving Qatar and prominent European politicians, dubbed Qatargate.

The order by the head of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, former Supreme Court deputy prosecutor Haralambos Vourliotis, has already been forwarded to all Greek credit institutions to identify accounts, control movements, existence of safe deposit boxes, possession of other financial products, while at the same time an order was given to all land registry offices to freeze all real estate of the above persons. The move of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, in addition to the broader control, which will be carried out anyway, aims, as sources told Kathimerini, to identify any cash that may be in the possession of the persons under investigation, and to ascertain whether they are products of legitimate origin or bribes.

As this investigation began on Monday morning, a real estate company set up about a month ago by the MEP and her husband in Kolonaki was identified and audited, and its entire activity has been frozen. The authority has also ordered and conducted a check on the assets of Kaili’s father. In the event that incriminating evidence is also found in Greece, Kaili could, in theory at least, request to be tried in Greece, but sources said this is unlikely. Under Belgian law, the charges against the MEP and her husband are punishable by three to five years in prison, while under Greek law the sentences range from15 years and can exceed 20 years, even reaching life sentences in very exceptional cases. However, legal sources have stressed that it is still too early to make assessment as the investigations are still in full swing and no one can predict what will emerge and what will be revealed.

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More Greeks connected to Qatar.

Von der Leyen Ducks Questions On Qatar Corruption Scandal (Pol.eu)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declined to answer questions about her Vice President Margaritis Schinas’ relations with Qatar at a press briefing Monday, triggering fury from the Brussels press corps seeking answers on the biggest corruption scandal to hit the EU in years. The Greek commissioner represented the EU at the opening ceremony of the World Cup last month, and has been criticized by MEPs over his tweets in recent months, lavishing praise on Qatar’s labor reforms. Asked about the Commission’s response to the Qatar corruption scandal engulfing the European Parliament, and in particular the stance of Schinas, von der Leyen was silent on the Greek commissioner.

The decision by deputy European Commission spokesperson Dana Spinant to shut down questions from journalists, sparked a furious reaction from reporters in the room, who called for more answers. “You didn’t answer a single one of the questions,” one reporter shouted as Spinant tried to close a session with reporters. “This is not the way to organize a press conference here,” Spinant responded through a chorus of protest. While von der Leyen did respond to further questions on the scandal, she did not address reporters’ questions about the circumstances surrounding Schinas’ visit to Qatar. Instead, she pointed to a proposal for a new ethics body to police all EU institutions — something she committed to more than three years ago, but which has gained little traction within any of the main institutions.

Referring to the European Commission’s transparency register, a database which lists representatives who carry out activities to influence EU policy and decision-making, she said: “We have one with very clear rules internally in the European Commission. There I think it is time to discuss whether we could not establish this over all for all EU institutions.”

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Borders change all the time.

Wars – How They Start and End? (Salamah)

Most countries have different religions, cultures, customs, values, local laws, practices, and political systems. Not only does changing other countries’ cultures not qualify as fair and just national interests, but also borders on the ridiculous when some countries unilaterally appoint themselves as heaven’s guardian on earth and incorporate such metaphysical concepts into their national interests. Does changing other people into one’s image make them more humane or Godlier? Or does it make them more pliable for exploitation? History confirms that such attempts have never been successful in perpetuating themselves, as evidenced by Alexander’s Hellenistic empire, Great Rome, Genghis Khan, the Golden Horde, the Crusades, the Islamic conquests, etc. – they were all eventually expunged or melded into the cultures that they tried to change, at a huge human and physical cost.

Undoubtedly, an exploiter’s rewards can be attractive in the short term, subject that the infringement or exploitation being successful. But in the longer term, pressure will continue to be exerted to return to the original status, or a semblance of it, and again, at a huge human and physical cost. Defending a country’s national territory is considered a paramount national interest (is also a security objective). Consequently, territorial or border disputes are the most popular reasons for starting wars, especially for smaller nations. But if we dig only skin-deep into the history, we will quickly find that almost no country has, throughout the ages, maintained its theoretical or historical borders – it has always been a continuous ebb and flow of territory usurped or lost, more so in Europe and the ex-colonialized world.

Nevertheless, many falsely justify this as a casus belli, or a rallying call, to regain what they regard as usurped national land. They do this with total disregard to the views and wishes of the current inhabitants of the territories in dispute, thus lending credence to the likelihood that it, in reality, is a camouflage to exploit another nation’s land. The sad part is that these wars regularly flare up despite the presence of the UN and the International Court, which were created, among other things, to adjudicate the validity of such territorial disputes and, unless a gross miscarriage of justice occurs, all grounds for territorial wars are unjustified.

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I know Ugo is Italian. But ignoring the entire Greek civilization is a step too far.

“..On the Southern coast of Europe, a lively network of commercial exchanges emerged, made possible by transportation over the Mediterranean Sea. Out of this network, the Roman Empire was born..”

The End of Europe: The Sad Conclusion of a Long Historical Cycle (Ugo Bardi)

The latest (and perhaps the last) attempt to unify Europe was the European Union. The creators of the Union understood that it was impossible to unify Europe by military means, so they tried to do it in the form of an economic free zone and an elected parliament. It was a bold attempt, but it didn’t work. It could not have worked. The Union faced enormous hostile forces, both internal and external. Britain and France were supposed to be balancing the German power, but when Britain left, in 2020, the Union suffered an economic defeat equivalent to the military one suffered by Germany in the Battle of Britain, in 1940. In both cases, they had tried to absorb Britain into continental Europe, and they had failed.

The defection of Britain left the European Union with Germany dominating it. Just like during WW2, the German government never understood that throwing its weight around was not the way to endear itself with the neighboring states. The result was the growth of anti-European forces all over the continent — the movement called “sovereignty” that aimed to restore the power of nation-states and get rid of the EU bureaucrats. So far, this movement has played only a marginal role in politics, but it has succeeded in making the EU deeply hated by everyone who is not getting their salaries from Brussels. Just as it had happened in 1941, Europe is now engaged in a desperate battle on two different fronts, but the struggle is now mainly economic and cultural, not military: it is a “full spectrum dominance” war.

The struggle is still ongoing, but it seems already clear that Europe is being defeated. Just like Germany had destroyed itself with a military attack on Russia in 1941, the European Union is destroying itself with its economic sanctions against Russia. Effectively, Europe is committing a slow and painful suicide. But that’s how full spectrum dominance works: it destroys enemies from the inside. And now? It was unavoidable that Europe would cease to be an Empire. The human and material resources that had made European dominance possible are not there any longer. But it was not unavoidable that Europe would destroy itself. Europe could have survived and maintained its independence by remaining on good terms with the other Eurasiatic powers, China, Russia, and India,

But, choosing to break the commercial, cultural, and human relations with the rest of Eurasia was not just an economic suicide. It was a cultural and moral suicide. So, what’s going to happen to poor Europe? History, as usual, rhymes: do not forget that in 1945 the official US plan was to destroy the German economy and exterminate most of the German population. Fortunately, the plan was shelved, but could that idea become fashionable again? We cannot exclude this possibility. In any case, an impoverished Europe could go back to something not unlike what it was during the early Middle Ages: depopulated, poor, primitive, a mere appendage of the great Eurasian Continent. And, yet, Europe has rebounded more than once from terrible disasters. It may happen again. Not soon, though.

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The Guardian on Assange again. Feels uncomfortable. Their smear pieces are still up.

Biden Faces Growing Pressure To Drop Charges Against Julian Assange (G.)

The Biden administration has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal assaults under Donald Trump. The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”. But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used before for publishing classified information.

Whether the US justice department continues to pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to protect the press. Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution. Five major media organizations that relied on his trove of government secrets, including the Guardian and the New York Times, put out an open letter earlier this month saying that his indictment “sets a dangerous precedent” and threatens to undermine the first amendment.

At the same time, officials in Australia, where Assange was born and remains a citizen, met with American counterparts to appeal for his release. “My position is clear and has been made clear to the US administration: that it is time that this matter be brought to a close,” Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told the Australian parliament late last month. In Brazil, meanwhile, President-elect Luis Inácio Lula da Silva demanded an end to what he called the “unjust imprisonment” of Assange after a meeting with WikiLeaks editors lobbying for his freedom. Some of Assange’s defenders, who have attacked his prosecution as a trampling of the first amendment, say they are optimistic that the case may have reached a turning point that could ultimately lead to his freedom.

“This case is hugely significant,” the Columbia University law professor Jameel Jaffer, who runs the Knight First Amendment Institute at the university, said in an interview. “At the end of the day, I find it hard to believe that the Biden administration wants this case to be its press freedom legacy, and it will be its legacy if they continue to pursue it. That will overshadow everything else when it comes to press freedom.” Justice department officials aren’t tipping their hand about where Assange’s prosecution might eventually lead, as he continues to challenge his extradition to the US before a British appeals court. The justice department declined to comment on all the outside calls to drop the case, but one official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Garland “has made clear that he will follow the law wherever it leads”, as he has in other politically charged cases.

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Hot water
https://twitter.com/i/status/1602254557329108993

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle December 13 2022

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  • #123285

    Pablo Picasso Female bust 1943   • The Alarm Bells Go Off (Kunstler) • Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested In Bahamas After US Files Criminal Charges (CNB
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle December 13 2022]

    #123289
    aspnaz
    Participant

    SBF could have been arrested, and charges filed, anytime over the past, what has it been, 6 weeks?!

    The interesting thing about this fraud is that the perpetrators were willing to put their children on the line. These are parents who conspired to commit a fraud and thought, well if someone is to be caught, better my children than me. Kind of shows you what sort of people we are dealing with.

    #123290
    aspnaz
    Participant

    sundance still doesn’t buy it. He wants to see what government officials are involved, not just the Twitter employees..

    Only an idiot would buy into the Twitter files, which is just one of the reasons the MSM is ignoring it. We know all this shite, we know the place was full of Democrats compromising the free speech of their clients, hiding tweets, disabling tweets etc, many of the Democrat clients of Twitter supported that compromise. For God’s sake, we know Trump was banned! We could read the Twitter rules and easily work out that he was banned for political reasons, not because he broke the rules.

    So tell us something new. There is nothing new in the Twitter files, it is the same old stuff that we know will never be prosecuted. Of course, Musk will now seem like a saviour to the right wing fanbois, they will be queuing up to buy Teslas in hordes. It is kind of pathetic, reminds me of the Steve Jobs fanbois. Modern society is so easily manipulated.

    #123291
    aspnaz
    Participant

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reminds me of “Scorpion” Ardern. How did they ever make it through school, and even more surprisingly, make it to the top position in government? The world is upside down.

    #123292
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Everything appears to be veering out-of-control,” –Kunstler

    No, everything is finally veering INTO control. Like when rigged markets collapse and return to honest pricing. They say it “Collapsed”, almost universally “Fell”. Why? Because we almost always inflate prices falsely to make ourselves falsely richer. Then when reality returns, the price falls +90% (historically). That’s BETTER, not WORSE.

    This is the same with the Truth market. LIES are what was making us crazy. It’s no fun to return to the Truth – otherwise we’d do it voluntarily and not fight it – but it restores ORDER, sense, and therefore by definition puts us INTO Control, OUT of anarchy.

    Everybody everywhere is getting kicked by this, until they look up and say “WTF?” Even gold bugs, hard money people and conspiracy theorists are getting kicked more than usual, but also Stock owners (the 1%), 401k and pension owners (the top 10%), and anyone who buys food (the bottom 90% under $30k/yr). Which is good. What minority will the Derp State call on as their allies, “Join us and we’ll pay and protect your ass—ets.” Nobody. Their allies have been cut off. Even among the Yoel Roths.

    Tim Pool had a good take on this, too long as usual. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOpHjCXBB_U

    So Mr. Roth was hired to Twitter as an expert in what? His PhD thesis in using Grindr. Personally. I am not kidding, why would I? There’s no need. And his push with this app and many other texts and public initiatives was that children need to use Grindr. Should be allowed. I mean, they’re doing it anyway, right?

    P.S. Grindr GPS’s a map so you know exactly where the other hook ups are. So it would direct them exactly to your son’s bedroom. Or as he’s equal-opportunity underage sex promoter: your daughter’s. Problem? No! The only problem is anybody’s stopping me and this perfectly logical way for me and my friends to hook up voluntarily with children who equally have the right to hook up any way they want. He had a not-so-secret account on Twitter that outlined it in great detail.

    “Shut up, You’re hired!” And I keep doing it? “I will die on this hill to protect you Mr. Roth!!!” …And then Mr. Roth is nuclear day after day on “Libs of Tiktok” who merely reposts the Mr. Roths of the world in their own words. Things like “I’m a Principal of a $40k private school and I pass out dildos to 12-year-old and watch in glee when I make them spit on them.” I didn’t make you say that. And if you think it’s a good idea, why don’t you admit and defend it proudly? I mean, why the shame if you’re in the right, here?

    48 hours after Musk takes over this is shut off. Guess it wasn’t that hard after all. So…again, who hires, who approves, who protects, who defends, who denies and says you’re crazy and Epstein doesn’t exist? That there are no predators or pedophiles in the world and everyone is happy, helpful, and full of sexual rainbows, unicorns, and love? I mean, you’ve never met a man who’d say stuff just for sex, have you? Certainly I never have. Although that’s what Roth says both on his public and private accounts.

    “Twitter is a crime scene.” And Musk has all the DM’s between Roth and some underage boys. If he believes this is right, why is he mad? I thought y’all were Proud. If you believe it, live it. Don’t hide.

    Speaking of Crime Scene, UK electric prices. I suspect that is not normal, and people are screwing with supply to make side-cash on trading price spikes, like Enron. Since they are the industry, they CREATE the spikes. “Hey Nigel, can you ‘do a little maintenance’ tonight or do I need to pay some soccer hooligans to shoot out a substation? You got it? Thanks pal, tickets to Manchester upcoming.”

    Twitter/DJT:

    As Pool pointed out, any account over 100k or so needs specific authorization direct from the top (board) to ban or affect. So Dorsey, VPs, board of Directors all unanimously approved removing Trump for what their employees called “no reason”.

    We knew that, of course, but this cancels the idiotic attempt to blame the little people and throw them under the bus to save themselves.

    …And this AFTER they hired a whole corporation’s worth of Yoel Roths, they STILL couldn’t get to a point of canceling Cheeto organically, for cause, even as 100% blue-hair, blue-city, blue-state, blue-bloods.

    Private company. Except that every 10th employee was FBI/CIA with a direct line to Congress on speed dial, with their own Twitter portal.

    “Vijaya Gadde—Twitter’s Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust—asked whether it could, in fact, be “coded incitement to further violence.”

    This is the “Russia Adjacent” argument I posted yesterday (this morning). We’re not saying HE posted anything wrong. We’re saying maybe somebody, some time, somewhere on the planet might MISUNDERSTAND his non-statement of non-violence and maybe, somehow, therefore, CAUSE violence.

    Is this a normal legal pursuit? That you might say, “Hey can you get me some eggs from Sainsbury’s” and the DoorDash driver burns down the nearest egg farm? I don’t THINK that’s our normal legal standard, correct me if I’m wrong Mr. Biden, who called 40% of the nation “Terrorists who should be rounded up in boxcars, renditioned and burned alive as fascists.” Right Mrs. Waters? We should “Never leave them alone” yell at them in restaurants, follow them home with duct tape? Perfectly white as angels. God’s work.

    No, this an appalling, almost unprecedented interpretation anywhere in history outside of burning witches for owning a cat and weighing less than a duck.

    Bari Weiss, NY Times apologist, just “a handful of people at a private company“. Protecting them as a RINO II. Powerful people never do bad things, and certainly never help each other in any way.

    This is itself a setup because they are Minions and always follow “The Plan.” Musk knows Weiss will cop out and suck th… but nevermind. The PLAN is for he and Dorsey to titillate news by Tweeting back-and-forth with each other with the storybook tension of Jack going to jail. The PLAN is for Weiss to snuff it and protect the Derp State so that next week we can leak out that Congress/FBI/Biden directly were involved in ordering the “Handful of people” to break all human rights and free speech.

    Since they are a Wonderwall of denial, the only way to make left/media report it is like this, well-refined by The Donald over the years. It has to always be “Oh no! Those Duke boys won’t get out of it this time!!! We’ve got him!!!”

    “DHS, FBI and CISA officials were involved in direct contact with Twitter through their DHS “trusted partnership” portal to get rid of innocuous rebel voices and influence agents like [everyone] But when it came to removing the most powerful voice of President Donald John Trump, there was nothing but static radio silence from the government side of the DHS portal.” They had no opinion! Trust us.

    Well, the Left and Media (but I repeat myself) make it this way to get anything honest reported – even for 4 consecutive minutes, like yesterday – so this way it is! IDGAF. They’re so stupid as to not realize, who cares? Let them.

    “Ukrainian leader also highlighted US assistance in restoring Ukraine’s energy grid and hoped that the parties would deepen cooperation on this track.”

    YouTube’s dreadful must-autoplay is forcing Fox News. FOX! Ugh. Brrrrrr. But they force-posted I dunno, NBC with a former DefSec non-person/don’t-care who said “Russia is losing SO HARD.” all the usual. With no presented facts but only innuendo and that therefore we’re going to have a nuclear war. Uh-huh. Point? He recommends RE-INDUSTRIALIZING. For military. Ya don’t say? Hey when did you become a core Trump Supporter, Mr. Obama’s-Defense-Secretary? You mean Ukraine substation gear is only made in 1) Russia and 2) China so therefore we are entirely helpless and useless to our allies? And it will take years to reverse this deadly injury? That YOU caused? Huh. Well, let me know when you come out in support of Trump Jr for President, I guess. Oh, AND the wall (in Poland and Israel) AND guns (In Ukraine) AND the NATO payments (from Germany, France, etc).

    “Russia cannot expect security guarantees from other nations, a senior Polish diplomat has said.”

    I should say not! Because Europe – especially the Anglos – are literally incapable of giving them. Merkel just said so yesterday. In which case, Mr. Polish Diplomat, how does the war end? With Kiev taking Moscow all the way out to Vladivostok? Uh-huh.

    These guys are literally insane. They’re like infants. They don’t know geography any better than Miss Truss and proportional sizes even less. Probably the Black Sea is by Japan, which is about as far away as Lviv.

    “ Increased Heart Failure Deaths Linked to Extreme Hot and Cold (CTV)”

    In other news, Climate Change only started last year, in Sept 2021. Never had heat or cold before then. Especially not in Vermont or Australia where very high deaths have been seen. No! They were Mediterranean climates until last year. Don’t you remember?

    “Allegedly, €600,000 was found in this woman’s father’s home. Cash, in bags.”

    I guess they’ll be D.C. mayor shortly then. Except I think that was bags of coke. All Congress (which 100% runs the city of D.C.) was like “I have to get over to his house and be best friends with him RIGHT AWAY!” Not “Golly, that seems to be a dangerous crime, and international embarrassment that our mayor is a hard-core drug dealer.” Thus he was RE-Elected, no problem. Many other Mayors as well, Like Mayor Ford of Toronto.

    Who doesn’t like Drugs? Congress sure does.

    “Assets of Greek MEP Accused of Graft Frozen (K.)”

    Apparently “not a friend” as we only enforce laws on “not friends”. Corruption? In Greece? When did this start? Okay, so why was this person “not-friended” all of a sudden? Will they ever look into a few ten-billion lost via refugee NGOs? Sales of property sent to Germany? Next thing you’ll be telling me Italy is corrupt.

    Biden Faces Growing Pressure to Drop Charges Against Julian Assange (G.)”

    Who was it here that nailed this? Take a bow. As it becomes embarrassing, it becomes “Trump’s fault, “Trump-Era.” …Which is false, remember “Can’t we just drone this guy?” That was Obama/Clinton. With Biden as VP. Now Biden is wildly Pro-journalist, pro free speech which we at the Guardian can tell by… Um… handwaving. Assange charges still firmly in place, Biden FBI outed as canceling journalism at NY Post and canceling free speech worldwide, arresting PARENTS for speaking at LOCAL school boards, etc.

    Okie-dokie, Guardian. Who is ALSO not Free speech, still not retracted/apologized/fired for all their hilariously wrong, embarrassing article hit-jobs on Assange over many, many years.

    …But I believe you now.

    Nope: We were always at war with Estasia. Trump was always the anti-free-speech guy: I mean, look at his Twitter! He was always out to get Assange for…um…trying to end the wars he ended (Syria and F-Stan) and cause the peace he caused (Middle East agreements). Yeah, that’s it!

    “In what’s forecasted to be the first coast-to-coast storm of the season across the Lower 48”

    Otherwise known as “just winter.” Like every year since before we got here. Snow? In Minneapolis? In December??? Climate change! Heart Attacks!!!

    So much FTX news I can’t keep up. SBF declines a subpoena. ZH has the take:

    *BANKMAN-FRIED’S COUNSEL UNWILLING TO ACCEPT SUBPOENA: SENATORS

    “Zerohedge: – Counsel, please deliver this subpoena to your client – No thanks, do you know many bribes our client has given to your political party? – Shit, good point, you are right. We will be on our merry way then. Good day to you sir.”

    This is officially the dumbest banana republic timeline”

    So SBF, son of two of America’s top lawyers (His mother has been Hillary Clinton’s Lawyer) will talk to everyone BUT Congress? Can’t stop talking to NY Times, everyone on Reddit, Twitter, every YouTube channel, but NOT Congress?

    …Well, have to say, if he’s trying to stay away from criminals and frauds, maybe he’s going the right way.

    But usually only morons talk to anyone for anything outside of courtrooms and try not to antagonize the s—t out of the most powerful people in America. Even if they work for you like Mad Maxine said she does.

    “Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested In The Bahamas, Set For ‘Prompt’ Extradition After US Files Charges”

    Would this be why you don’t antagonize essentially the courts when they’re being unprofessionally and very suspiciously nice to you?

    “SEC Chairman Gensler Scrubbed Evidence of Clinton, Soros and Pelosi Meetings: FOIA Lawsuit”

    Maybe it’s his family friend here will help him. I mean: they set it up together. Nope.

    New FTX CEO Admits “Commingling of Assets”, Blasts SBF as “Grossly Inexperienced & Unsophisticated” In Prepared Remarks
    “…never in my career have I seen such an utter failure of corporate controls at every level of an organization…”

    Well his father, a top CA Lawyer and Law Professor at Stanford was FTX’s Lawyer and helped set it up. Funny it would both be so “Inexperienced” and “Unsophisticated” and yet fabulously complex and amazingly sophisticated. Huh. Funny how amateurs can be so lucky to set things up in just the right way for these things to happen.

    For example, FTX is made of 50 Companies. Fifty. Fitty. It’s in three(?) nationalities, I believe? Oh, totally amateur stuff. I do it almost every day.

    At the same time, it was arranged – magically almost – that Alameda would have full visibility of FTX but zero visibility the other way. Huh. That seems difficult to arrange. Did it hurt? SBF says he didn’t know anything about Alameda although he set it up and owned it and the CEO was his girlfriend. Huh.

    The reason for the astonishing lucky, amateur arrangement meant that Alameda would see what FTX was doing, where they were putting money, who was buying, but more obviously, which coins FTX was about to list on the exchange. A coin that gets listed usually has an amazing pop in price. Clear front-running and insider trading.

    Binance, as I said, is barely less crooked than FTX. Weirdly, they just requested an audit. Great! Good timing, tell everyone how they’re okay, not like FTX, nothing to worry about. Except: they gave no audit rules? Huh? They only audited the people’s coins, not their own books. Uh, okay.

    Then the Binance auditor refused to confirm their own audit? Ruh-roh. They don’t even know if all the customer coins are there, to say nothing of CZ’s.

    Okay, then who do we talk to about this? CZ? Maybe. Because the auditor doesn’t know who owns the company or where. China? Shanghai? U.S.? Nobody knows? Um, whut/how? How do you not know what country you list in, what jurisdiction you keep books for, and who to pay taxes to?

    Boy, I am just more reassured than ever! Thanks Binance!

    Hey CZ, have you ever thought about using blockchain and trustless accounting? Everyone could know and no confusion! Just a thought.

    I’m sure this will all work out fine. No red flags here. Ask Blackrock and Sequoia!

    Holiday wishes:

    #123293
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Poland wants its part of Ukraine.

    Well that would be an interesting fight, the trouble-making Poles versus the well armed Russians. Poland would, once again, become a feature of history that is no longer existing in the present. Of course, the real question is whether Russia would want Poland as part of Russia or whether they would just run Poland as a fenced colony and force the citizens to work and pay 50% of their income to Russia. Israel does it, why not Russia.

    #123294
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Allegedly, €600,000 was found in this woman’s father’s home. Cash, in bags.

    Kind of surprising that the corrupt EU would use corruption to nail one of their own. After all, we all know without any doubt that they are ALL on the take. Obviously this person is no longer one of their own, she obviously didn’t pay 10% to the big guy, so she was sorted. Mind you, the other bags of cash in the other political households are safe, they paid the piper. Of course, von der corruption would not get out of bed for 600k, she is a Pfizer babe, paid in billions.

    #123295
    chooch
    Participant

    Because of zero Covid, is China’s population dry tinder for the next wave of respiratory bugs? Did their vax negatively impact immunity? Will Omicron all of a sudden become deadly? Will they be in the streets demanding mRNA by February?

    [..] On Friday, China confirmed in a press briefing that it would let German nationals receive the BioNTech COVID vaccine, which uses mRNA technology, in exchange for German health authorities on Wednesday approving China’s Sinovac jab for Chinese nationals living in Germany.

    [..] Several Chinese companies are developing mRNA vaccines, but none have made it to final approval. In September, Indonesia—not China—became the first country to approve a Chinese-developed mRNA vaccine, from pharmaceutical company Walvax.

    https://fortune.com/2022/12/12/china-approves-biontech-pfizer-mrna-covid-vaccine-restrictions/amp/

    [..] Why will Covid spread so quickly? China’s population has low immunity to the virus. Due to Beijing’s Covid clampdown, many people haven’t been infected at all. And the government has refused to import effective mRNA vaccines from Western countries, instead relying on domestic jabs. The country’s elderly are especially susceptible: One-third of citizens 60 and over haven’t gotten a third, Omicron-specific shot.

    https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2022/12/12/china-covid

    [..] So the question we have: Why did Beijing ease zero Covid policies when no preparations have been made to meet the coming winter ‘tsunami’ of infections? 

    https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/health-experts-urge-beijing-accelerate-approval-enhanced-covid-jabs-amid-winter-wave

    China’s coming COVID tsunami?

    https://thechinaproject.com/2022/12/08/chinas-coming-covid-tsunami/amp/

    #123296
    Red
    Participant

    This could get interesting:
    I offered in my Substack:

    Sean, if you are so sure you are right about those clots like you said, would you like to bet me $1M? This is a quick way to double your money without risk.

    He accepted on Twitter. This is going to be game changing because it will be the FIRST EVER high stakes debate to resolve an issue that the pro- and anti-vaxxers disagree about. We’ve waited 3 years for a face-to-face discussion and now, thanks to Sean, we are finally going to have it! I am so excited.

    And because I don’t want Sean to accuse me as a grifter, I will let him know up front that the cells don’t lie and it’s impossible for you to win the bet on the clots.

    https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/sean-plunket-wants-a-high-stakes

    #123297
    EoinW
    Participant

    In the wake of rumours of their “vaccines” harming people, what’s the best thing to do? Apparently Trudeau seems to think that promoting medically assisted suicide like some Black Friday Sale will silence any doubts that his government cares about Canadians.

    These people aren’t just the most powerful in western society, they are also the most ignorant.

    Next we have the Poles. No security guarantees for Russia…ever! The Russian military could wipe Poland out in a day. How self destructive can these people be?

    They are all really, really dumb! They’re still wreck everything, however they will not prevail in creating their Brave New World. They couldn’t build anything. That’s why they hate the people who are productive.

    The 99% are partly to blame for our Sodom & Gomorrah moment to come. We let them run everything so that we could simply focus on our own lives. Oops! bad choice there.

    #123298
    John Day
    Participant

    Polemos had a very good analysis on involuntary wealth redistribution last night , following the Tale of Two Narratives, Twitter Edition.
    It is inherently problematic, but wealth exists within the context of a human society, not gold bars held by a loner in the middle of a desert (Twilight Zone: Rip Van Winkle Caper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rip_Van_Winkle_Caper#:~:text=%22The%20Rip%20Van%20Winkle%20Caper,was%20directed%20by%20Justus%20Addiss. )

    Who is an “owner”? How is “ownership” enforced? What if there are multiple valid claims upon a piece of property, having arisen through things like “rehypothecation”? How will claims upon future wealth be settled when the wealth fails to materialize? What is the Fed doing to sort this out or exacerbate it further? Ellen Brown had a very good article, the core of my post yesterday, which went out a bit late. We have to, all of us, find new grounds for cooperation. The old grounds are badly corrupted, yet we still need to cooperate to keep living. https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/assisting-reality

    #123300
    Dora
    Participant

    Increased heart failure deaths linked to extreme hot and cold? mmmm maybe, maybe not.

    #123301
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    (replying to Polemos’ comment from the Tale of Two Narratives post): Well, we don’t exactly “let” the public die. The public does what it does, and consequences follow. I know: I’m public.

    “The road to good intentions is paved with hell.” Bodishattvas walk on gilded splinters.

    ***

    Today’s Yogi tea tag: One who knows how to enjoy life doesn’t need riches.

    Relevant song: Mother Nature’s Recipe

    ***

    Xmas music: Chilly Bethlehem

    #123302
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    HUman social psychology still seems most succinctly summarized with Monkey See, Monkey Do:

    Beijing goes into self-lockdown

    “After mocking for the US for 2 years for its “lay flat” (躺平) policy regarding Covid, Beijing has decided to lay flat. Adios central planning, back to personal responsibility.

    As mentioned in an earlier article, the latest slogan being promoted is a rediscovered nugget of ancient wisdom: “每个人都是自己健康的第一责任人” – i.e. “Everyone is primarily responsible for their own health…. The result? Beijing has turned into a ghost city. The metro is empty. Malls are empty. Streets are empty – unless there is a pharmacy, a PCR test center or a hospital nearby. There huge lines are commonplace.”


    A Beijing subway line on December 12th, 2022

    #123303
    The Markster
    Participant

    The mainstreaming and corporatization of the LGBT+ movement, I have been saying since 2005, will not only lead to ferocious backlash and violence, but eventually it will put us several steps back from where we were before Stonewall in 1969.

    Aligning with big CIA media and corporate political power, like when Scrappy Gay Liberation and Freedom Day marches turned into Absolut- and Subaru-sponsored “Pride” merchandising events in the late 80’s was always a trap. Being mouthy about this over the years has cost me on the social plane for decades, but even that will not save me from the group reprisals and violence coming my way, as Kunstler suggests. Democrats took a desire for belonging and acceptance and used it as a fig leaf for their fascist propaganda machine. I submit that the oligarchs and arms dealers who run this show have been purposely amplifying the tranny, porn and child mutilation stuff since 2016 as an effort to lay the groundwork for their coming about-face.

    Not that seeing the writing on the wall 35 years ago does me any good, or will make it any easier when TSHTF. ☮️

    #123304
    boscohorowitz
    Participant
    #123305
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “The mainstreaming and corporatization of the LGBT+ movement, I have been saying since 2005, will not only lead to ferocious backlash and violence, but eventually it will put us several steps back from where we were before Stonewall in 1969.”

    bosco agrees.

    Something-something abyss-Nietzche-peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat:

    #123306
    boscohorowitz
    Participant
    #123307
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    The Buddha spoke of clinging and how it promotes suffering. I find that we cling to cynical pessimism as much as we cling to credulous hope.

    I’ll take credulous hope. Clinging to either leads to suffering, but hope at least gives you a good buzz before the inevitable hangover.

    Hope on a Rope

    #123308
    zerosum
    Participant

    Winning strategy

    FTX, fusion, buy low, sell high,
    Expansion, complexity, confusion, illusions, repeating makes reality

    black – the absence or complete absorption of visible light/energy/knowledge/information/guidance/secret
    ——–
    perpetrators, will never be prosecuted, to justice
    (my list is too long, A to Z)
    ———–
    Quote:
    So much FTX news I can’t keep up. SBF declines a subpoena.

    So SBF, son of two of America’s top lawyers (His mother has been Hillary Clinton’s Lawyer) will talk to everyone BUT Congress? Can’t stop talking to NY Times, everyone on Reddit, Twitter, every YouTube channel, but NOT Congress?

    Well, his father, a top CA Lawyer and Law Professor at Stanford was FTX’s Lawyer and helped set it up. Funny it would both be so “Inexperienced” and “Unsophisticated” and yet fabulously complex and amazingly sophisticated. Huh. Funny how amateurs can be so lucky to set things up in just the right way for these things to happen.

    ———-
    euthanasia

    Its NOT a discussion about choosing to send your child to war/death/misery or taking opioids.

    Its a about a personal choice.
    it should be a discussion about helping/assisting/ medically assisted suicide/death/end of life/going to heaven/ending pain/suffering/ending reproduction/ending dependency/helplessness
    ———

    #123309
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Kunstler is on fire today!

    Hot/cold causing heart trouble
    Uh…you mean, hearts are more likely to fail when under stress? Well, sure, but that isn’t the underlying cause, it’s the tip of the iceberg. Healthy hearts don’t fail under conditions a few degrees hotter or colder than usual. This will be spun by pop-sci to get people to double-down on so-called plans to reduce climate change in order to reduce sudden deaths, all the while pushing endless vaxes to “keep everyone safe.”
    I read a book a couple of weeks ago (Dopamine Nation) that was talking about overcoming addiction, written by a psychiatrist (one who actually does psychotherapy, go figure.) One of the treatments that worked for some addicts was taking cold showers and/or ice baths. It invigorated the system, released natural dopamine giving a natural high, and allowed them to function without giving into their addiction. The author’s clients doing this did not suffer any cardiac event. (Of course, this was likely before the C jabs.).
    This is “science” on a fishing expedition while ignoring the elephant dangerously weighing down the boat.

    #123310
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    eugyppius sure wastes a lot of brainwork and bandwidth (not to mention my precious time) explaining all of his reasons for abandoning reason and deciding to ignore the documented evidence and go with the mainstream narrative of “The multiple simultaneous lockstep death marches you’re being murdered with these days are all purely coincidental. Human frailty, ya know?”

    Someone going to all that effort to persuade himself and others to NOT open their eyes to see what’s right in front of them punching them in the face, just naturally makes me curious about what the fuck they’re so afraid of.

    #123311
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    I was at an open mic last night. One person asked, “Who was raised in the north, where there is a *real* winter?” Several hands raised up. He continued: “They don’t call them snowstorms any more: they are ‘snow events.’ Since when did it become news that there is snow in winter?”
    “And, they have names,” a woman called out.
    Naming storms used to be reserved for tropical storms, which have a penchant for becoming dangerous. Snowstorms are not terribly dangerous — as long as one is home (or another place capable of keeping the storm out) and snug with sufficient heat, food, supplies and no reason to venture out until the storm passes. Naming winter storms makes them more psychologically significant.

    #123312
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Only another 7 days to go till the genuine summer/winter solstice (depending on your hemisphere).

    Only another 11 days to go till the entirely fake Christmas extravaganza, which in recent times has been morphed by commercial interests into a binge of ostentatious overconsumption and destruction, with accompanying depression, suicide, family violence and death on the roads. Maybe not so much ostentatious overconsumption this year.

    After the entirely fake Christmas extravaganza come the entirely fake New Year extravaganza. accompanied by a similar round of overconsumption, depression, suicide, family violence and death on the roads.

    The genuine New Year commenced the third week of June in this part of the world. And now the fruits of the land are arriving.

    Cultural conditioning is a very powerful force, often used by evil people for evil purposes. But since evil infested the ‘corridors of power’ in NATOstan countries long ago and has established a stranglehold over the minds of large swathes of the populations of NATOstan countries, it’s damned hard to break its grasp. That’s why so many of us eagerly await the deNazification of Ukraine, the demilitarisation of NATOstan (via weapons depletion) and the fall of the fascists who have sponsored or participated in the repeated attacks on Russia.

    One consoling thought is that the death toll from actual military engagements in WW3 is unlikely to compete with the death tolls incurred in WW1 and WW2. Unless someone decides to think the ‘unthinkable’ and do the ‘unthinkable’.

    On the other hand, the death tolls from fake vaccine jabbing, obesity followed by starvation, freezing to death, dehydration and heat stroke, and civil disorder over the next few years will undoubtedly exceed the combined death tolls incurred in WW1 and WW2.

    Here’s an interesting fact for those who are following the accelerating demise of industrial agriculture and the accelerating demise of distribution of electricity: not only is the level of Lake Mead the lowest ever for this time of year since it commenced filling after the blocking of the by-pass tunnel adjacent to the Hoover Dam, but it has also fallen for the first time ever at this time of year. (downward kink in the black line)

    Probably mean nothing.

    http://graphs.water-data.com/lakemead/

    #123313
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Marketer
    The mainstreaming and corporatization of the LGBT+ movement, I have been saying since 2005, will not only lead to ferocious backlash and violence, but eventually it will put us several steps back from where we were before Stonewall in 1969.
    I agree. Society can tolerate and co-exist with those who live non-mainstream lifestyles. Society can see those who follow such lifestyles as good people who do some innocuous, odd things. (Like Mormons and their funny underwear, Jehovah’s Witnesses who don’t celebrate birthdays and holidays, etc.) But when the fringe starts taking over the levers of power and communication and begins attempting to remake the status quo in their own image? (Drag queens lauded for reading sexualized stories about drag queens to pre-schoolers??). That is going too far, and stepping dramatically over the line.

    #123314
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    ‘euthanasia

    Its NOT a discussion about choosing to send your child to war/death/misery or taking opioids.

    Its a about a personal choice.
    it should be a discussion about helping/assisting/ medically assisted suicide/death/end of life/going to heaven/ending pain/suffering/ending reproduction/ending dependency/helplessness’

    Soylent Green, but without the processing of bodies into ‘food biscuits’.

    “Let them eat insects. And if there are no insects, let them eat cardboard. And when that runs out, let them eat grass if there is any.”

    #123315
    Noirette
    Participant

    re. prev. TAE describes an US vs. THEM narrative.

    Idk about the Twitter Files, so, a general take.

    For sure there was censorship / triaging of twits by IT types at Twatter, in support of ‘Dem.’ narratives – pol stances – aims – cover-ups – agendas – trends to be encouraged – etc. Including ‘boosting’ (sic) x y z ‘facts.’

    Now typcial now of IT, in the US first, as an ex. Profess. middle-class, middle-manag. types, who must find things to do, for good pay. They band together in a quasi-cult like atmosphere. In-group fervor substitutes for any reasonable actions, including the survival of the company and their jobs, which then take second place. Under semi-control by some political factions, how the money circulates, idk.

    I suppose Musk tried, is trying, to wrest control, change the mindset, culture, structure – hierarchy – control mechs.. some supression or censorship is by now unavoidable, choices must be made. Free speech has always been for the ones, not the others, and never for all without restrictions.

    I read that Twatter had 7.5 K employees (see link.) My imagination which may be quite wrong is that to run a Twat thingie, maybe 1- 2 K ppl are needed. (Outside of watching posts by humans, not algos, and censoring / boosting, so maybe one can hire a bunch to do that..) So it all looks like a groupie party, a kind of jamboree of the ‘virtual’ economy, extracting as much as possible via ads, data licensing, and/or, plus, getting funding from outside parties (i.e. non-commercial inputs.) At some point the inputs diminish, die off, other opinions, propaganda, etc. get a grip… ??

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/272140/employees-of-twitter/

    #123316
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Duran hosts Brian Berletic and Gonzalo Lira (Live)

    #123317
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Douglas Macgregor

    Coming attraction: Massive Russian offensives on three axis Storm Ukraine

    #123318
    zerosum
    Participant

    Drone warriors
    “Cadets not only train, but also directly help in battle. From myself, I will say that it is impossible to win this war without UAVs, as well as without talented operators who must take into account the cloud of factors: weather conditions, the work of electronic warfare (both their own and enemy), be able to quickly and clearly formulate the coordinates of the enemy’s positions.

    In addition, different operators have their own goals. Someone needs to identify the movement, someone needs to assess the situation around the allied positions. Well, someone from the copter gets directly into the open hatch of the armor.”

    #123319
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Global Poll Finds 4 In 10 People Believe Climate Change Is Natural
    Zerohedge Link

    top zerohedge comment:
    “The other 6 took the jab!”

    Why will humans stopping their activities stop a warm-up off of an ice age?

    Did it stop all the other warm-ups from all the other ice ages in the past millions of years?

    …because humans were totally refraining from industrial activity all those many other times, and the world still warmed up.

    Could simply continuing industrial civilization stop an ice age? No? Why would that be?

    #123320
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Bold post with interesting/fresh framing from Polemos last eve. This line of reasoning on the “great work of rebuilding themselves/ourselves” and “own your karma” deserves further discussion.

    “All that liquid milked or squeezed from their assets, given to the same people now clotting away with poor choices, won’t change that, won’t heal them, won’t ease their suffering, but might prolong it, might further blind and hobble them, will further prevent them from the great work of rebuilding themselves into better people. They are not children, nor have they chosen wise gods. They have to own their karma. In living my life, I have daily to own mine and embrace the justice of what I chose, over lifetimes of refusing to learn from this indifferent merry-go-round: genuine love is genuine disentanglement from coercing an end.”

    Owning my karma is my life…daily living/experience informs me that genuine LOVE exists/lives in the PRESENT moment – where “the rising sun” and “play of cats”, is found (the road to Oasis anyone?).

    Disentanglement with the past or future – is the process/action of owning karma. This process of disentanglement is on-going, daily. You look at the results, the impact you are having on self and others. The instruments of karma – mind (memories and dreams), Heart (emotions and feelings), and hands (actions and inaction) come into play. You sort it out by using the same instruments.

    In the end, we all do what we do, don’t we?

    LOVE to All.

    #123321
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    America borrows (from nowhere) 5 trillion dollars, pretends to “make” and “spend” that money 4 times over during the next 12 months, and calls that a GDP of 20 Trillion.

    #123322
    jb-hb
    Participant

    An interesting comment from the article I referenced:

    “For 500 million years after the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, temperatures were higher than today, and CO2 was TRIPLE today’s level.

    Before the Late Paleozoic Ice Age the only life were invertebrates, and single celled organisms.

    But after the Late Paleozoic all plants and animals, Dinosaurs and eventually we developed.

    Then 2.5 Million Years ago the Earth Cooled into the current, and on-going, Quaternary Ice Age. Sometimes, in the Quaternary, it warms and ice temprarily retreats in an Interglacial, due mainly to Milankovich cycles of the Earth’s orbit. Today is part of the 40th Inter-Glacial.

    Today’s Interglacial is unusually long.

    The ENTIRETY of the Global Warming edifice rests on the idea that permanently emerging from the Quaternary Ice Age is less desirable than returning to another glaciation.

    That is the ENTIRETY of the point climate science has made.

    TOTALLY IRRESPECTIVE of how warming was achieved is the question whether it would be better for life to be warmer with more CO2 or whether it would be better for life if it were colder with less CO2.

    And fossil evidence UNEQUIVOCALLY says that if you are a plant, or anything in the same food chain as plants, then warmer with more CO2 is better.”

    #123323
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I try not to be demanding which is why I often stoop to nagging. Besides, lacking a baseball bat interface, demanding online doesn’t work unless one can successfully bludgeon someone’s ego into submission with just the right mirror of awkward self-discovery.

    I have a major complaint to voice toward you major complainers.

    Can we stop being a drag all the time? Can we stop wallowing in the horror of it all long enough to take a bath? Maybe a bath of smiles or mutual encouragement? Guy who runs this site, Raul, whom I wouldn’t personally socially engage with, not even with a frozen rope, is nonetheless a major mensch who lives in a homeland not too far behind Ukraine in being miserabilized into ever more desperate circumstances, who caters to our incessant bitching and bickering because it sometimes squeezes shekels into his drachma account to help keep the lights on here and feed some street folk grateful to have a tent to call their own. Also because he too feels a need to commune with people who grasp the harshness of our times.

    It’s his home. We just hang out here.

    Can we get the kind of valuable info Germ provides without being told that not only is the sky falling, it’s falling especially hard rain on the fucking vaxxed who are so fucking fucked?

    Can we back off at least a bit from the Daily Hate of (insert currently fading global parasite/cabal thereof)?

    Can we not call stupid imbeciles those who do not believe as we do ?

    Can we stop spending and wasting your energy and ours on despising Nations X, Y, Z for being a little worse than us? Or insufficiently better? Or…

    (Uh, Bill7, you just keep doing whatever it is you’re… uh, doing.)

    Y’all are not cute when you do it; rather, you look kinda Klaus Gates Schwabbian and sound like Bill Gates doing voiceover for a bugfood-for-humans commercial aimed at Genzie vegans with a ton of guilt to feed: “After all the innocent animals you’ve eaten, don’t you think it’s time you atoned for your sins? Crickets: sure they’re animals not plants — but they’re too dumb to know the difference. Cr-ICK-ets!”

    It’s like Trump Derangement Syndrome on VAIDS steroids. Bad Men BAD! BAD!!!!!! BBBBBAAAAADDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jeez. You’d think that they’re killer robots… with laser eyes… not fucked-up psychotic human beings lost in their crazy shit hoping they don’t end up like Hitler in the bunker busting his teeth with a cyanide cap.

    Bad to the Bone

    Humans do evil; it’s a fact. Sometimes the how and why of their evil aligns with a commentator’s favorite model of human sociopolitical reality. Great. Let me congratulate you all around:
    Yes, you were right.
    Yes, you are right.
    Yes you’ve been telling us and everyone’s invisible friend the Hidden Truth since you first learned to eat read a cereal box.

    But you’re still being a major.fucking.drag, and that’s a drag, you know?

    If we can see through all the viced-out and vaxxed-up plans of minion mice and mutant men as they gang agley, maybe we’re brilliant enough to notice that we’re still here, and still require sufficient reason to carry on to make it worth carrying on, especially when just plain old carrying one looks less and less possible? Ask the children of the homeless that Raul and friends feed.

    There was a movie decades ago, a for-TV thing, I believe, where a character says, “Someone needs to just live. Along with the people trying to save the planet, right wrongs, all that, someone needs to just try and live. Decently, even well, if possible. But LIVE, dammit. So we don’t forget how, so we don’t forget what we’re fighting for and are left with only fighting.” (words to that effect; all I remember is “Someone needs to just live”, and his hand grabbing a bunch of grapes)

    Human Touch

    #123324
    Noirette
    Participant

    T. Meyssan offers up a view to make sense of the World Situation, making some historical comparisons along the way.

    His take, summary: ‘Radical’ and ‘powerful’ forces will join together independently of whatever rivalry, hate, etc. is promulgated in ‘their’ populations.

    Ex. Italy, Germany and Japan, the Axis powers. Fascism, Nazism, and “Hakkō ichiu” amalgamated, joined together.

    https://www.voltairenet.org/article218494.html

    How that is relevant for today, plus other points, see link.

    #123325
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Advice toward what might be done about the wickedness of it all, along with some jollity, some joy for joy’s sake, an respite between the constant hellfire sermons where we can maybe dig some good gospel music or a decent potluck with fried chicken and banana pudding (Southern thing). Hell, we could even share meatloaf recipes! Like right here, right now, or at least the week after Xmas when you get some free time… oh wait. Xmas IS that time. Huh.

    I’m Not Gonna Tell You Again…

    I don’t want to set the world on fire. I don’t want to make you change your mind about nuttin. I’m WAYY-yyyy too radical for that. I just want to see you smile.
    Every Morning When I Wake Up I’m Still Dreaming…

    Don’t make me sick Old Man Xmas on you:


    “Lucky I don’t have a lawn, kid, or I’d kick you off it.”

    Warning: this could be considered a bot trap, a kind of soulistical Turing test..

    #123327
    chooch
    Participant

    Hey Phoenix,

    Four chords to be a star.

    #123328
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Which way do you think temperature will irresistibly head in the future?

    null

    and by “coming off an ice age” I mean the little one in the 1800’s

    Little Ice Age

    https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-long-can-we-expect-present-interglacial-period-last

    How long can we expect the present Interglacial period to last?
    No one knows for sure. In the Devils Hole, Nevada paleoclimate record, the last four interglacials lasted over ~20,000 years with the warmest portion being a relatively stable period of 10,000 to 15,000 years duration. This is consistent with what is seen in the Vostok ice core from Antarctica and several records of sea level high stands. These data suggest that an equally long duration should be inferred for the current interglacial period as well. Work in progress on Devils Hole data for the period 60,000 to 5,000 years ago indicates that current interglacial temperature conditions may have already persisted for 17,000 years.

    Whether looking at the shorter or longer term temperature wobbles, I haven’t been convinced the forces causing those wobbles are weaker than human activity.

    And the downward cycles seem to last for about 100,000 years – and look where we are (top graph) We’re going to be able to stop that, will we?

    Stopping it for the purpose of… going ahead with a new glacial period?!?!? Uh, why?

    What was the reason we were hand wringing, educating, and informing? Was it our concern for humanity? How does re-glaciation help humanity? Assuming we could even stop it with our activity.

    Glaciation 2

    We might start a massive downward temperature trend today or it could take a few thousand years. So let’s Stop Oil Now, so we can freeze right now and not miss it?

    If the next 75,000-100,000 years are likely to be increasingly MUCH COLDER, why worry about warming it up? we are, on a geological time scale, an instant away from another ice age. Look at the chart. What IF there’s a warming effect. Look at where we are headed.

    #123329
    jb-hb
    Participant

    …and funny, those times we see on the chart where temps are almost 10 degrees warmer than now

    We all know as Established Science that getting warmer is an irresistible runaway feedback loop that leads to the end of absolutely everything. So we should be seeing the Earth turning into Venus as of 340,000 years ago and 125,000 years ago at the very least.

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