Dec 222022
 
 December 22, 2022  Posted by at 9:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


VIncent van Gogh Weeping woman seated on a basket 1883

 

NATO Could Take Out Russia in 3 Days: Congressman (NW)
Biden Explains Why Zelensky Can’t Get Everything He Wants (RT)
Putin Explains What Russia Faces In Ukraine (RT)
Russia Begins Deployment Of New State-of-Art Sarmat ICBM (RT)
Kremlin Reacts To Patriot Missiles For Ukraine (ZH)
Moscow Comments On NATO Presence In Ukraine (RT)
No Evidence Kremlin Is Behind Nord Stream Blasts – WaPo (RT)
The Harder They Come … (Jotwani)
1st Year Of New German Government: ‘Double-Whammy’ Of Double Standards (Az.)
How Musk Averted A $3 Billion Twitter Crash (ZH)
FBI Accuses ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ Of Weaponizing Twitter Files (RT)
Corruption Scandal Hurts EU ‘Credibility’ – European Council President (RT)
Kari Lake Election Challenge Trial Reveals Major Confession (WJ)
Caroline Ellison Throws SBF Under The Bus (ZH)
Ghost Town: ‘The Song Margaret Thatcher Wishes Was Never Released’ (BBC)

 

 

 

 

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Cheney
https://twitter.com/i/status/1605322391357657088

 

 

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With Zelenskyin DC, Putin in Belarus and Medvedev delivering Putin’s message to Xi in Beijing, it’s not hard to see why some people think we’re preparing for something big.

If Kinzinger actually believes what he says, he’s dangerously misguided. If he doesn’t but says it anyway, he dangerously misguides many Americans.

If NATO attacks Russia, its capitals would be destroyed. And it wouldn’t take 3 days.

NATO Could Take Out Russia in 3 Days: Kinzinger (NW)

Representative Adam Kinzinger said on Monday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could take out Russia in only three days. Russian President Vladimir Putin has long taken issue with NATO—a coalition of Western governments including much of Europe and the United States—raising concerns about the West’s expanding sphere of influence in the months leading up to the Ukraine war. Specifically, the Russian leader opposed the possibility of Ukraine joining the organization. Experts have raised concern the Russia-Ukraine war could escalate into a larger conflict with NATO in the nearly 10 months since Putin launched his “special military operation” on the Eastern European country. Should Putin attack a NATO member state, that country can invoke Article 5 of the NATO charter, which states that “an attack against one ally is considered an attack against all allies,” essentially meaning a military response from all members could be initiated.

Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, weighed in on what he believes a NATO-Russia conflict would be like, responding to a tweet questioning why NATO hasn’t defeated Russia yet. “I’m hoping this is a joke. NATO vs Russia would be like a real three day operation,” the GOP lawmaker wrote. Kinzinger has been vocal supporter of Ukraine throughout the conflict. In April, he called out members of his own party for focusing on attacking Disney despite the “genocide going on in Ukraine.””There is a genocide going on in Ukraine and the outrage is over what’s happening at Walt Disney,” Kinzinger said at the time, referring to the battle between Disney and Florida Republicans over the state’s anti-LGBTQ law. “You guys deserve way better.”

While many NATO member states have provided Ukraine with military and humanitarian aid throughout the conflict, they have not become directly involved. The international community largely believes sending their troops into Ukraine would likely lead to an escalation of the war. However, since Ukraine is not a NATO member, Russia’s invasion would not draw a NATO military response.In November, concerns about NATO’s involvement grew after a missile struck a village in Poland—which is part of the coalition—killing two individuals. Reports at first emerged that the missile was produced by Russia, but authorities ultimately ruled that it was accidentally fired by Ukraine in an effort to knock out Russian missile strikes on civilian infrastructure.

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NATO is running out of weapons, as Russia is adding them.

“Doing more would have “the prospect of breaking up NATO, breaking up Europe, and the rest of the world..”

Biden Explains Why Zelensky Can’t Get Everything He Wants (RT)

Giving Kiev all the weapons it wants might break NATO, US President Joe Biden said in a joint appearance with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky in Washington on Wednesday. Biden added he was not worried the delivery of Patriot missiles to Ukraine might escalate tensions with Russia – as Moscow has warned – because they’re “defensive” weapons. Biden and Zelensky answered the questions of four hand-picked reporters after their meeting at the White House. The last one came from a Ukrainian journalist who asked why the West simply doesn’t give Ukraine “all capabilities it needs to liberate all territories.” “His answer is yes,” the US president deadpanned, pointing to Zelensky, who replied “I agree,” to laughter from the gathered press.


Biden then pointed out that the US “dedicated an enormous amount of security assistance to Ukraine” even before hostilities escalated in February – though in his prepared remarks he called the Russian military operation “unprovoked and unjustified.” “We’ve given Ukraine what they needed when they needed to defend themselves,” the US leader insisted, listing hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, and ammunition that Washington and NATO have handed over to Kiev. Doing more would have “the prospect of breaking up NATO, breaking up Europe, and the rest of the world,” Biden said, noting that he’s spent “hundreds” of hours persuading US partners around the globe to help Ukraine, but “they are not looking for a Third World War” by fighting Russia directly. “But I’ve said too much.”

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“Moscow is well aware of the role that NATO is playing in the Ukraine conflict..”

“Russia is facing the “military potential and capabilities of almost all major NATO countries” in Ukraine..”

Putin Explains What Russia Faces In Ukraine (RT)

Moscow is confronted by the military capabilities of “almost all major NATO countries,” the Russian president has said Moscow is well aware of the role that NATO is playing in the Ukraine conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. He urged senior defense officials to carefully analyze the capabilities provided to Kiev by the US-led military bloc. Speaking at an extended meeting of the Board of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Putin said that Russia is facing the “military potential and capabilities of almost all major NATO countries” in Ukraine, adding that this will not stop Moscow from achieving its objectives. He went on to say that “all information about NATO forces [and] the means which are actively being used against us during the special military operation, are well known,” and that all of this should be “carefully analyzed and used” in order to increase the combat capabilities of Russia’s armed forces and security agencies.


He also said that the Russian forces have acquired a great deal of combat experience during the conflict. He called on senior defense officials to “analyze and systemize it in a timely manner” in order to share what has been learned with military personnel. Earlier this month, Putin blasted the West’s policies of shipping weapons to Ukraine and accused the West of fueling “genocide and terror in the Donbass,” saying it is turning Ukraine into “a colony” and “is cynically using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder, a battering ram against Russia.” NATO has claimed that while it supports Ukraine militarily, it is not a party to the conflict. In early December, however, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Washington and NATO of direct involvement in the conflict.

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“..assure guaranteed penetration of any anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system, both now and in the future..”

Russia Begins Deployment Of New State-of-Art Sarmat ICBM (RT)

Russia’s first new silo-based Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) will be deployed into service next year, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting of Russia’s senior defense officials with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. “Successful launches of the new heavy Sarmat missile system during state-run tests made it possible to begin work on its deployment,” Shoigu said. In total, some 22 new strategic nuclear missile launchers, including the silo-based Sarmat, as well as the Avangard and Yars systems, are set to be deployed to the country’s Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) next year, the minister revealed. Putin said that efforts would continue to improve the country’s SMF, adding that “the share of modern types of weapons in [Russia’s] strategic nuclear forces has exceeded 91% this year.”


“We will continue to maintain and improve the combat-readiness of our nuclear triad. This is the main guarantee for preserving our sovereignty and territorial integrity, strategic parity, and the general balance of power in the world,” he stated. The liquid-fueled heavy ICBM was first successfully test-launched back in April. The new system is ultimately set to replace the aging silo-based R-36M2 Voevoda missiles, the backbone of Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrence. Speaking with Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star), the official newspaper of the Russian military, the head of Russia’s SMF, General Sergey Karakaev, said the new missile boasts vastly larger capabilities than its predecessor.“The missile system Sarmat has a wide range of capabilities for deploying various types of combat payloads and is based on principles that assure guaranteed penetration of any anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system, both now and in the future,” Karakaev told the newspaper last week.

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“Weapon supplies (by the U.S.) continue, the assortment of supplied weapons is expanding. All this, of course, leads to an aggravation of the conflict and, in fact, does not bode well for Ukraine..”

Kremlin Reacts To Patriot Missiles For Ukraine (ZH)

In its first reaction to widespread reports that the White House is moving forward with plans to send Patriot anti-air missile defense systems to Ukraine, the Kremlin said the move will only serve to aggravate the conflict and warned against it, while Putin in new remarks teased more advanced Russian weapons to be deployed, including hypersonic missiles. “Weapon supplies (by the U.S.) continue, the assortment of supplied weapons is expanding. All this, of course, leads to an aggravation of the conflict and, in fact, does not bode well for Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. A formal White House announcement confirming that Ukraine will get Patriots is expected Wednesday while Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting with President Biden to discuss the war, and ahead of Zelensky’s expected 7:30pm EST address to Congress.

Ukraine sees the more advanced anti-air defenses as vital if it hopes to survive the now constant barrage of strikes targeting its national energy infrastructure, which has left millions without power amid freezing temperatures. At one point early this week, some 80% of the Kyiv region was without power, as rolling emergency blackouts continue nation-wide. The Patriot missiles could be a game-changer given they have a maximum range of some 100 miles and are capable of downing ballistic missiles. Zelensky has long demanded that the US and NATO help “close the skies” over Ukraine. Putin for his part in Wednesday statements vowed to see the military operation through until all goals are achieved in Ukraine, also pledging to continue giving the military anything it needs.

Just as headlines of the White House approving Patriots for Ukraine spread internationally, he indicated readiness to deploy the hypersonic Sarmat missile to Ukraine: “He also said Russia needed to take special note of the importance of drones in the 10-month conflict and said Russia’s hypersonic Sarmat missile – dubbed “Satan II” would be ready for deployment in the near future.” For Kiev, Putin’s new threats will only underscore the need to keep the anti-air defenses and longer range missiles flowing from the West. As a Wednesday Reuters headlines reads, Mr. Zelensky is coming to Washington seeking “weapons, weapons, and more weapons.” Meanwhile, given Zelensky’s dramatic D.C. visit is happening during the holidays, mainstream journalists and pundits are unironically encouraging more “Christmas presents” for the Ukrainians…

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Escalate.

Moscow Comments On NATO Presence In Ukraine (RT)

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu pointed to the presence of NATO staff officers and other specialists on the front lines in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, on top of almost $100 billion worth of pledged weapons and supplies from the military bloc countries.“Russia’s armed forces are presently facing allied forces of the West,” Shoigu said on Wednesday at a meeting of the top military commanders in Moscow. “The US and its allies supply the Kiev regime with weapons, train its soldiers, provide intelligence, dispatch advisers and mercenaries, and wage an information and sanctions war against us.” Shoigu said NATO countries have so far expended more than $97 billion on weapons deliveries, in order to make up for what he described as “considerable losses” inflicted on the Ukrainian military by Russian forces.

NATO “staff officers, artillery personnel and other specialists are present in the zone of combat operations,” the defense minister added. More than 500 satellites are working to provide intelligence to the Ukrainian military, of which only 70 are purely military and the rest are dual-purpose, according to Shoigu. Multiple Western officials, from US President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on down, have said that they are backing Ukraine in order to weaken Russia and that Moscow must not be allowed to win – while insisting they are not a party to the conflict. The US military alone has committed $20 billion in “security assistance” to Kiev since February.

While the initial weapons shipments included small arms and portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, NATO countries have since sent Ukraine tanks, fighter jets, drones, rocket and tube artillery, as well as more complex air defenses. Russia has repeatedly warned the US and its allies that such shipments could lead to a direct confrontation between Moscow and NATO, and accused the West of prolonging the conflict and causing needless deaths in Ukraine.

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Regurgitating old folk tales.

No Evidence Kremlin Is Behind Nord Stream Blasts – WaPo (RT)

Several unnamed European officials have privately acknowledged doubts over whether Russia is to blame for the destruction of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, according to the Washington Post. The two gas conduits crossing the Baltic Sea were ruptured by several powerful explosions in late September. In a piece published Wednesday, the paper quoted an anonymous European official as saying, “there is no evidence at this point that Russia was behind the sabotage.” The article said that assessment was shared by 23 diplomatic and intelligence personnel from nine European nations, whom the Post interviewed in recent weeks. Several of the sources expressed the view that Russia was unlikely to be behind the explosions.

Others, however, merely argued that it would likely be impossible to assign responsibility to any one country beyond a reasonable doubt, the paper reported. Some officials cited in the article referred to alleged interceptions of communications between Russian officials and military forces, obtained by US intelligence. According to them, Washington has so far not seen anything indicating Russia’s involvement. Following the attacks on the two pipelines, only one of which was operational, Western governments were quick to point the finger at Moscow. Just four days after the incident, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told the BBC that it “seem[ed]” Russia was to blame.German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, in turn, said in early October that “Russia saying ‘It wasn’t us’ is like saying ‘I’m not the thief.’”

The Ukrainian government described the explosions as a “terrorist attack planned by Russia.” On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov opined that “no one in the European Union is apparently going to objectively investigate” the blasts.In mid-October, the ministry released a statement saying that German, Swedish and Danish authorities had refused to let Moscow participate in their probes despite the latter’s requests. The statement said the Kremlin would view the refusals as proof that the countries “have something to hide or [that] they are covering up the perpetrators of these terrorist attacks.” It also warned that Moscow would “of course, not recognize any ‘pseudo-results’ of such an investigation, unless Russian experts take part in it.”

At the time of the incident, neither Nord Stream 1, nor Nord Stream 2 were pumping Russian gas to Europe. Exports via the older conduit had been halted by Moscow in early September, citing Western sanctions as the reason. Nord Stream 2, though technically ready, had failed to receive permission from German authorities and had never been in operation. While gas supplies from Russia to Europe have dwindled significantly since February 24, several pipelines crossing Belarus, Ukraine and the Black Sea remain in operation.

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Semantics?

The Harder They Come … (Jotwani)

Alastair Crooke is a sage whose thoughtful writings pack vast breadth and depth of understanding of history and geopolitics. His analysis is free of the slightest hint of bias or narrow partisanship – a fact which seems almost incredible given that he worked for the UK Government for a couple of decades. In fact, the sage and his writings testify to a constant and priceless element of western tradition – namely, independent thought. It was therefore as a surprising and rare slip of the pen, that one read the following paragraph in an article written very recently by him: “But … can the West, which has been so deep in denial about both the incredible economic and military transformation that has occurred in Russia since 1998, and in such vehement denial too, of the capacities of the Russian military, simply slide effortlessly into another narrative? Yes, easily. The neocons never look back; they never apologise. They move to the next project …”

Reference in the first sentence is made to “the West”. One has to assume that the reference is to the ruling dispensation – or shall we say regime? – in certain countries, because clearly not every human being in these countries has been in denial about events in Russia since 1998. Later in the paragraph, however, the phrase used in place of “the West” – rather unconsciously, one must assume – is “the neocons”. Is that substitution not hugely surprising? The two phrases do not – cannot! – represent the same slice of human life! Equation of the two was surely unintentional. William Shakespeare, James Clerk Maxwell, Mark Twain, William James – these are just a few illustrious references from the English speaking regions of “the West”. These and many others – including of course Alastair Crooke himself – have not the remotest connection to “the neocons” view of life.

Possibly, “the neocons” are the newest version of the crazies who have always attempted to lord it over “the West” – as indeed over much of the world. Such people are always at the game of deceptively and cruelly acquiring raw power; but surely such wannabe power grabbers do not equate to “the West”. Indeed, that the two were thus equated – even if unintentionally – also proves that “the West” is no longer a meaningful phrase, if indeed it ever was. Of course “the East” and “the South” have already figured that out – as we sense clearly in the winds of change blowing through global political alignments.

Crooke also writes that the neocons do not look back or apologize. No power hungry crazies ever do that. Never. It is as if they drive a vehicle with faulty brakes, no reverse gear and a cracked and dirty windshield. Their judgement clouded by limitless greed for power, they lack understanding of the progress which in fact happens not only in Russia, but all over the world. Their every “next project” is therefore doomed to end worse than the one before. A crash is therefore inevitable, even though it will be denied by ideologues during – and even after – it occurs. What the rest of mankind see clearly as a crash will be written up as a victory, or a major engineered paradigm shift, or some such nonsense.

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“..Berlin handed its energy companies €15 billion to go on a gas shopping spree – resulting in an unprecedented spike in gas prices..”

1st Year Of New German Government: ‘Double-Whammy’ Of Double Standards (Az.)

Few large countries laud their commitment to liberal values like democracy, human rights and the rule of law as much as the world’s fourth-largest economy does, but the first year of the new German government has been a “double-whammy” of double standards, Report informs via Euractiv. “We want to increase the strategic sovereignty of the European Union by making our foreign, security, development and trade policies value-based and based on common European interests,” reads the founding treaty of the incoming government from November 2021. Ukraine quickly felt what the new value-based German government policy amounted to. As more than 100,000 Russian soldiers amassed at their borders and an invasion was imminent, Berlin saw it fit to equip Ukraine with 5,000 helmets while blocking the Baltic states from sending Soviet-era artillery.


Lest we forget, as Russian soldiers were camped out miles from the border, leading German politicians continued to fiercely defend Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia throughout January 2022 – a pipeline designed to bypass Ukraine, deprive the country of gas transit income and further increase Germany’s dependence on the Kremlin. One “should not drag Nord Stream 2 into this conflict”, explained Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht at the time. Aside from Ukraine, when Russia began turning off the gas tap, Berlin handed its energy companies €15 billion to go on a gas shopping spree – resulting in an unprecedented spike in gas prices. In August, Germany’s panicked buying to fill its gas stores sent the price to a level twenty times higher than in January 2021.

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Which part of that would “the agencies” have furnished?

How Musk Averted A $3 Billion Twitter Crash (ZH)

Elon Musk on Tuesday night said that Twitter was on course for $3 billion of negative cashflow before he stepped in and nuked more than half the company. Twitter itself, meanwhile, is operating better than ever – with a significant reduction in bots, and increases in speed. “That is why I spent the last five weeks cutting costs like crazy,” Musk said during a Twitter Spaces event. “This company is like, basically, you are in a plane that is headed toward the ground at high speed with the engines on fire and the controls don’t work.” Since Musk acquired Twitter in October for $44 billion – financing the deal in part with nearly $13 billion of debt and interest payments of $1.5 billion per year, he has set out on a mission to cut costs and revamp the social media giant, which he said was losing $4 million per day as of early November, and was at risk of going bankrupt.

Roughly 5,000 of the company’s 7,500 employees have been fired, with the remaining workers agreeing to a “hardcore” work ethic, Bloomberg reports. Over the weekend Musk conducted a straw poll on Twitter asking people if they wanted him to resign as the company’s top executive. About 58% of respondents said yes and Musk has since confirmed he’d step down once an appropriate replacement was found, for a job he’s said anyone would be “foolish” to take. “In the Twitter Spaces event, Musk painted a dire picture of the company’s finances but suggested that he has managed to avert a total meltdown. -Bloomberg”.

In 2021, Twitter’s costs totaled nearly $5.6 billion, while Musk said the company was on track to spend around $5 billion next year. When combined with the acquisition-tied debt repayments, Twitter would be looking at around $6.5 billion in 2023 expenses had costs not been slashed so drastically. According to Musk, Twitter is now on track to bring in around $3 billion in revenue in 2023 – roughly $2 billion less than the $5.1 billion reported at the end of 2021, while the company has $1 billion in cash on its balance sheet. “I now think that Twitter will, in fact, be okay next year,” Musk continued during the Spaces event, adding that he thinks the company will “roughly” break-even, but that “this will be difficult.”

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“..officials from no fewer than 12 government agencies met with representatives of Twitter, Facebook, and other Big Tech firms weekly..”

FBI Accuses ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ Of Weaponizing Twitter Files (RT)

Correspondence between the FBI and Twitter staff revealing how the agency pressured the platform to suppress certain narratives is not evidence of wrongdoing, the Bureau said in a statement on Wednesday, blaming “conspiracy theorists” for presenting their activities in a nefarious light. The messages turned over to journalists by Twitter CEO Elon Musk over the last two weeks “show nothing more than examples of our tradition, longstanding and ongoing federal government and private sector engagements,” the FBI statement claims. “It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency,” the statement concludes, reminding its critics that “the men and women of the FBI work every day to protect the American public.”

Messages appearing to show FBI agents pressuring Twitter staff to censor legitimate stories like the Hunter Biden ‘laptop from hell’ as foreign influence operations were merely innocuous examples of the FBI “provid[ing] critical information to the private sector in an effort to allow them to protect themselves and their customers,” the Bureau argued. Internal communications among platform employees suggest otherwise.In messages published as part of the Twitter Files, staff repeatedly point out there is “no evidence” to substantiate FBI claims of foreign disinformation and express discomfort with the bureau’s meddling. Twitter’s former policy director observed a “sustained (if uncoordinated) effort by the IC [intelligence community]” to push Twitter to share more information against its own policies, while the FBI ultimately paid Twitter more than $3.5 million in taxpayer dollars to prioritize its censorship requests.

The White House has thus far refused to comment on the Twitter Files, referring reporters to the FBI, and the media establishment have largely ignored them. However, former Republican congressman Ron Paul argued they are proof the FBI colluded with Twitter to deprive Americans of their constitutional right to free speech. A lawsuit filed earlier this year by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana alleges that the FBI was not alone, and that officials from no fewer than 12 government agencies met with representatives of Twitter, Facebook, and other Big Tech firms weekly to decide which narratives and users to censor, with topics ranging from alleged election interference to Covid-19.

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“As many as 60 current and former MEPs may have been involved in the scheme..”

Corruption Scandal Hurts EU ‘Credibility’ – European Council President (RT)

A corruption scandal that led to the arrest of former European Parliament VP Eva Kaili for allegedly taking bribes from Qatar is wrecking the bloc’s credibility at a time when it is already vulnerable, European Council President Charles Michel told Politico on Wednesday.The revelation that MEPs reportedly engaged in illicit lobbying on behalf of the Qatari government in exchange for millions of euros in cash and gifts is “dramatic and damaging for the credibility of the European Union,” Michel said, lamenting that the scandal was “making it even more difficult for us to focus on the economic and energy crises that impact the lives of European citizens right now.”

Michel suggested the bloc must act in order to prevent a repeat performance. “We first need to learn lessons from this and come up with a package of measures to avoid such things – to prevent corruption in the future,” he told Politico, complaining that the aura of impropriety would make his job more difficult.Kaili and her husband Francesco Giorgi were arrested earlier this month by Belgian law enforcement, along with former Italian MEP Antonio Panzeri, whom Giorgi identified as the leader of the bribery ring, and a fourth individual. All have been charged with “participation in a criminal organization, money laundering, and corruption.”

Belgian authorities seized more than €1.5 million in assets from properties linked to the four suspects. As many as 60 current and former MEPs may have been involved in the scheme, according to Italian media reports, with most hailing from the Socialists & Reformers parliamentary group.The European Parliament has temporarily halted all lobbying work related to Qatar, and recently voted to deny representatives from the Gulf state access to its premises while condemning the alleged “foreign interference” in its business. Doha has denied any wrongdoing and warned that the parliament’s “discriminatory” decision could disrupt the supply of energy to the continent, which has recently ramped up its consumption of Qatari natural gas to replace embargoed supply from Russia.

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“Maricopa County admits they do NOT count ballots at vote centers (which is required by State Law).”

Kari Lake Election Challenge Trial Reveals Major Confession (WJ)

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer testified Wednesday during GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s election challenge trial that the individual polling locations did not tally the total number of votes cast in the midterm elections, a seeming violation of state law. Lake attorney Bryan Blehm asked Richer whether the county knew on Election Day the total number of ballots submitted by voters. One of the allegations in Lake’s lawsuit is that the total number of ballots the county reported in the election increased by nearly 25,000 from Nov. 9, the day after the contest, to Nov. 11. That number is significant because it exceeds Katie Hobbs’ approximately 17,000-vote margin of victory over Lake. “On Election Day it would’ve been easy for you to figure out how many ballots you received,” Blehm said to Richer.

He responded, “Well, we had to get them all in and it was quite a process throughout the night.” Blehm interjected, “You can look at the forms and add the numbers. Correct?” “They’re not counted at the individual loading locations,” Richer said. “They are counted when they get back to MCTEC and then they are recounted at Runbeck.” MCTEC is the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in downtown Phoenix and Runbeck is the company the county uses to process and scan ballots. “Does anybody know when those ballots leave the voting centers how many are in the bins?” Blehm asked. “When the early ballots leave the voting centers, no, they are not counted at the voting centers,” Richer answered.

Blehm followed up, “Nobody knows how many [ballots] are in the bins when they arrive at MCTEC. Correct?” “Correct,” Richer said. The Arizona Republican Party tweeted in response, “Maricopa County admits they do NOT count ballots at vote centers (which is required by State Law).” The 2019 Arizona elections procedures manual, which cites state law, requires an audit at each voting location of the total number of ballots cast. The results must be recorded in an official ballot report.The audit even requires accounting for the total amount of ballot stock paper on-site. The ballots cast must then be placed in sealed boxes.

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Next up: the parents.

Caroline Ellison Throws SBF Under The Bus (ZH)

Two weeks ago, when amid reports that the former CEO of Alameda Capital (which as a reminder was ground zero of the FTX implosion after it blew up $8 billion in FTX client funds on trades gone horribly wrong), Caroline Ellison, was spotted in New York just after retaining Clinton superlawyer, Jamie Gorelick of Wilmer Hale, which as readers may recall was the former No. 2 ranking member in the Clinton Justice Department, and in a recent interview, she referred to current AG Merrick Garland as her “wingman”, we asked if Caroline had rolled on Sam Bankman-Fried, who was also her former lover. Fast forward to today when we just got confirmation that Caroline Ellison has fucked Bankman-Fried one final time by indeed rolling on him, and “turning states” in the criminal prosecution of the corpulent “Hairy Plotter”, who commingled and stole the client money in his FTX exchange to fund a series of terrible crypto bets at his personal hedge fund Alameda, fund tens of millions in donations to democrats and buy up prestigious real estate for himself and his “altruistic” progressive lawyer parents.

According to a Manhattan Federal prosecutor, two of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s closest associates have pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to co-operate with US authorities investigating the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange. In other words, they took a plea deal to avoid even more prison time in exchange for serving SBF on a silver platter to the Feds. Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the guilty pleas and criminal charges against Caroline Ellison and Zixiao “Gary” Wang, the low profile co-founder of FTX, in a short video statement. His office had brought eight charges against Bankman-Fried last week.

Ellison pleaded guilty to seven counts, including wire and securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carry a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison, while Wang pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud, with a maximum 50-year sentence. The documents said prosecutors would not oppose bail requests from both defendants under certain conditions, including posting a bond and handing in their travel documents, as they awaited formal sentencing. Concurrently, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed civil lawsuits against the 28-year-old Ellison and 29-year-old Wang, accusing them of fraud.

“As part of their deception, we allege that Caroline Ellison and Sam Bankman-Fried schemed to manipulate the price of FTT, an exchange crypto security token that was integral to FTX, to prop up the value of their house of cards,” said SEC chair Gary Gensler. Furthermore, as CEO of the FTX trading affiliate, Ellison “used FTX’s customer assets to pay Alameda’s debts” and diverted billions of dollars of depositors’ money to the company to fill a hole caused by a crypto market crash in May, the SEC’s complaint alleges.

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”By the end of the week more than 20 towns and cities including London, Nottingham, Wolverhampton, Leeds and Luton had riots of their own. The Specials were providing the soundtrack.”

Ghost Town: ‘The Song Margaret Thatcher Wishes Was Never Released’ (BBC)

July 1981. Riots have broken out around Britain. Charles and Diana are about to marry. And backstage at Top of The Pops, The Specials are falling apart. In a few minutes they will perform their latest hit Ghost Town, which over the years, would come to be regarded as one of the greatest British singles of all time. It was a track which bottled the discord, racial tensions and societal breakdown happening in the UK that summer. There had already been riots in Brixton that April, over the increased use of a new stop-and-search policy, the so-called sus law, which was named Operation Swamp. Police were said to have mounted a campaign of harassment against the black community in south London.

Terry Hall is telling the band that he too has had enough. Worn down by touring, band infighting and struggling to deal with success, he wants out. It is too difficult to be singing about disharmony, while surrounded by it, both inside and outside The Specials. “We knew it was going to end as we were recording it (Ghost Town),” Terry Hall told Front Row in 2019. “It was bizarre. It took about eight months to record. I don’t think there were more than two of us in the studio at any point. Those weren’t good signs really. It finished up with me in a living room in Tottenham singing Ghost Town. It was all over the place. But it was a great way to bow out.” He was 22.

“Talk about zeitgeist. That one song suddenly captured so much,” remembered Specials fan and Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chada in the 2021 BBC Documentary 2 Tone: The Sound of Coventry. “If there is one song Margaret Thatcher wishes never got released, it’s probably Ghost Town,” she added.On 7 July 1981, Radio One announced that Ghost Town had replaced Michael Jackson’s One Day In Your Life at the top of the charts. That same day, newspaper front pages were full of reports about the first ever use of CS gas grenades by the police on mainland Britain, as they struggled to contain the Toxteth Riots. These were sparked by tensions between police and the local community in Liverpool. By the end of the week more than 20 towns and cities including London, Nottingham, Wolverhampton, Leeds and Luton had riots of their own. The Specials were providing the soundtrack.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Xfiles 2016
https://twitter.com/i/status/1605327828039643136

 

 

 

 

Zel TV
https://twitter.com/i/status/1605753306068000768

 

 

Ants and cities

 

 

Eel catfish

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle December 22 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 52 total)
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  • #124075

    VIncent van Gogh Weeping woman seated on a basket 1883   • NATO Could Take Out Russia in 3 Days: Congressman (NW) • Biden Explains Why Zelensky C
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle December 22 2022]

    #124077
    oxymoron
    Participant

    “It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency,”

    There is so much to unpack here – I am not even going to start. I will say that the invented term ‘conspiracy theorist’ is losing all power and meaning and makes them look embarrassingly puerile.

    #124078
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    • NATO Could Take Out Russia in 3 Days: Congressman (NW)

    Seeing this; I broke into a belly laughter…
    Sorry. I couldn’t wait to read the rest before posting my immediate reaction to total ignorance on such a grand scale…………………

    #124079
    That Bloke
    Participant

    Oxy, makes them look embarrassingly puerile or senile? Maybe both.


    Re-work for the covid era:
    “This town aah-ah, is dying from a lockdown”

    #124080
    citizenx
    Participant

    Z Beggar comedian trades battle flag with word salad Kamala and drunken skank Pelosi – surreal

    #124081
    oxymoron
    Participant

    “It is unfortunate that conspiracy theoriststhe FBI and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agencydestroy the country,”
    There fixed it

    #124082
    citizenx
    Participant

    Alien creature claims the numba #1 priority for the United States, according to most Republicans, is giving Billions and Billions to Ukraine. It’s lips are black… is it Gollum, my precious?

    Absolutely disgusting. Uni- Party War Pigs.

    #124083
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    House GOP locates emails, texts showing Pelosi office directly involved in failed Jan. 6 security from Just The News

    But its most explosive revelations involved text and email messages showing that two key staffers in Pelosi’s office attended regular meetings to discuss the security plan for Jan. 6 dating back to early December 2020 and that Pelosi’s top aide even edited some of the plans. Most of those discussions and meetings excluded Republican lawmakers in the House, the report noted.

    ‘Then-House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving—who served on the Capitol Police Board by virtue of his position—succumbed to political pressures from the Office of Speaker Pelosi and House Democrat leadership leading up to January 6, 2021,’ the report said. ‘He coordinated closely with the Speaker and her staff and left Republicans out of important discussions related to security.’

    There is so much to unpack here – I am not even going to start. I will say that the invented term ‘conspiracy theorist’ is losing all power and meaning and makes them look embarrassingly puerile.

    Yes, much the same way the accusation “communist” pretty much became the equivalent of “I hate you” in response to critics of Ronald Reagan’s neo-conservative foreign policy in the early eighties.

    #124084
    citizenx
    Participant

    Joe “what was the second question” Biden plays the Jew Card and also claims Putin is going after orphanages…

    Comedian dick player calls Putin a terrorist…

    Hair sniffer in Chief answers press questions on note cards and drifts off into rambling incomplete sentences. Biden, like Bush Shrub also looks into they souls of eyes as Bush did Putin… and fawns over the beggar midget. Must see it to believe it- warning. It’s grotesque.

    Canada has fallen, as did the Aussies (suck it redneck) and UK…and Western Europe. Will Amuricans rise up and take their own governance back?

    Well, the oppressors are trying to keep me down
    Trying to drive me underground
    And they think that they have got the battle won
    I say forgive them Lord, they know not what they’ve done

    ‘Cause, as sure as the sun will shine
    I’m gonna get my share now, what’s mine
    And then the harder they come
    The harder they fall, one and all

    And I keep on fighting for the things I want
    Though I know that when you’re dead you can’t
    But I’d rather be a free man in my grave
    Than living as a puppet or a slave

    #124085
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Evidence in Nord Stream Sabotage Doesn’t Point to Russia: Washington Post”

    They are kidding, right? I’m sure it was the underwear gnomes. Profit!

    “With winter approaching, it appeared the Kremlin intended to strangle the flow of energy to millions across the continent, an act of “blackmail,”

    “Blackmail”? In order to raise prices…that Russia then cannot deliver on? Um, also blackmail is a thing you DON’T do. I WON’T send this to your wife if you send me money. To punch somebody isn’t blackmail: it’s punching.

    I’ve got a craaaazie idea: ask Sweden, the nation with the pipes and evidence? Maybe they know. WaPo? NOPE.

    “The visit will underscore the United States’ steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes,”

    By claiming we are NOT in the war and providing NOTHING useful. Want an old .38 revolver? I’m your huckleberry. Want a weapon that might change things? Hahahaha you jest. We want dead slavs and an empty Ukraine growing wheat with robotic tractors, shipped to Belgium.

    “NATO Could Take Out Russia in 3 Days: Kinzinger (NW)”

    Well that should really calm things down. What was it about world leaders threatening nuclear war with glee? Miss Truss for one, applauded by British seals. Ar! Ar!

    They need a war. NOW. Powell’s work is biting and the WEF/Davos can’t hold on by their nails much longer.

    Quite obviously Kinzinger is insane. Use your head for 10 seconds: what is “Taking out” mean, that sterile euphemism? Are we planning on occupying 12 time zones the way we couldn’t occupy 10 square blocks in Baghdad? So our “Taking out” means there’s no way Russia could ever get back at us, ever, never again in all history? If we “Take them out” the rest of the world will be happy, applaud, and not join together to destroy us out of basic self-defense?

    All this besides what he’s saying is clearly impossible in 10 different ways. We know every nuclear sub and can destroy it. We have every nuclear Sarmat and can prevent them. We know about torpedo tsunami drones everywhere off the coast, and we have solved the Soviet “dead hand” system. We won’t lose so much as a weather buoy.

    No EMPs will disrupt all systems, the internet won’t go down when they knock out all our satellites – or only 4-5 satellites that then Kessler into all the others worldwide. This internet outage won’t take out our phone and communication system that allows us to ship bread and parts to all humans in our borders.

    Uh. And Huh. Good thing Congress doesn’t run a thing, I guess!!

    Giving Kiev all the weapons it wants might break NATO, US President Joe Biden said”

    Huh? NATO supreme high commander said if Ukraine DOESN’T get all the weapons it wants, it will break NATO. …Sounds like you guys are admitting a loss. You’ve surrendered? Like Kissinger did? Glad to hear it.

    Does anyone else get the idea all $100B isn’t going to Ukraine which can’t field a Toyota, but to the WEF to keep the EU from imploding?

    “Moscow is confronted by the military capabilities of “almost all major NATO countries,” the Russian president has said:

    That’s the opposite of Kinzinger, who says NATO would defeat them in 3 days, implying NATO isn’t there and isn’t fighting.

    “He also said that the Russian forces have acquired a great deal of combat experience during the conflict.”

    Just what I was thinking, and how they’re re-focusing themselves on the artillery-drone methods that work so well so cheaply. They haven’t had to pull out any of their fancy space weapons yet, which likely radically change the field all over again. Arranging a pre-war is Anglo handbook: the Spanish Civil War served that purpose last time. They want to test their new toys, hone new tactics to minimize casualties at everyone else’s expense.

    NATO has claimed that while it supports Ukraine militarily, it is not a party to the conflict.”

    What is a “party to the conflict”? Can we ask a UN court? If you send $100 billion dollars? $1,000 Billion? If you send 500 troops? 5,000? 50,000? Because NATO has already sent 5,000 out of Poland alone.

    If you provide 100% of Military Intel 24/7 including an entire network of global satellites for free? If you blow their pipelines and attack their nuclear airbases? When, exactly?

    “Kremlin Reacts to Patriot Missiles for Ukraine (ZH)”

    My impression was Patriots were the next best thing to having nothing at all. Does anyone have a solid update on their modern capabilities? Also they were accused that Ukraine would immediately use them “offensively,” whatever that means.

    “Mr. Zelensky is coming to Washington seeking “weapons, weapons, and more weapons.”

    Come to think of it, why would he do this? He has no men. Who will use the weapons? NPCs in the Metaverse?

    “Crooke also writes that the neocons do not look back or apologize. No power hungry crazies ever do that. Never. It is as if they drive a vehicle with faulty brakes, no reverse gear and a cracked and dirty windshield.”

    If they’re so bad then who installs them? You just said they lack all support from the people. So they have bad judgment and no tactical sense. They can’t get votes. Yet they’re constantly in power for more than 100 years in a row. This is all a coincidence for us? Bad luck?

    As they’d say in Latin: Qui imperium pupa? Who puppets the puppet? Safe, far away in darkness, so nothing changes at all when Liz Cheney goes away. Policy is identical under Clinton, Bush, Obama (who kept Bush’s cabinet), Trump, and Biden?

    “Lest we forget, as Russian soldiers were camped out miles from the border,”

    Which border? You mean back in Jan 2022 when the Russian Army was in Russia? Remember that? “How DARE they?” “What is the Russian Army doing in EUROPE???” “…Um, Minister? Russia is part of Europe.”

    “Well that’s no excuse! Tell them to move the Russian Army out of Russia and some place safer.”

    Putin: “Your wish is my command. Russian Army no longer in Russia.”

    Anyway, since they can’t think and words have no meaning, they constantly construct sentences and ideas like this. “The baddie bads are bad! Me no like like, me like-like what like!” It’s just plain ol’ “Newspeak”, the language of infants.

    “Elon Musk on Tuesday night said that Twitter was on course for $3 billion of negative cashflow before he stepped in and nuked more than half the company.”

    We covered the lawsuit he’ll shortly make on the fraudulent basis for his purchase. Let’s take the other side: He paid $44B and has lost 2/3rds of it. Of course. But look at where the money came from: unlike us pikers, he doesn’t have $44B in a HSBC savings account. It’s trapped in stock. So he sold $44B (roughly, this is all complex) at the dead top of Tesla’s stock, and moved it sideways into Twitter. Tesla fell 2/3rds anyway. Conclusion? He didn’t lose any money yet, only money he would have lost anyway had he NOT bought it.

    See what I mean? To him so far it may be a wash. Now if only Bezos would have sold at the top and bought Exxon and GE. –But again, unlike us pikers, he can’t. His buying isn’t “stock” it’s a “Takeover” which makes it political, and he’d have to defend his stake against others who would destroy his mere stock purchase to keep control of their own feifdoms.

    “Elon’s doing it wrong” says the worst Tech CEO on planet earth, ever in all history. Hey Bill: call me back when your product functions – at all – and I’m not also being spied on AS WELL AS having to reboot all the time, mostly for security hole patches that should never have been there in the first place. Brrrrr. Dreadful. His product is as if a car made out of sticks, mud, and spiders. I’m sure Elon’s looking for “pro tips”. Elon may not be an engineer and knows nothing about cars, but he IS a software programmer. Unlike you.

    ” FBI Accuses ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ of Weaponizing Twitter Files Telling the Truth” Fixed it. So you’re saying the files we have and own, are NOT the files we have and own? Huh. Interesting argument. Hope it works for you in court.

    “Kari Lake Election Challenge Trial Reveals Major Confession (WJ)”

    They’re still counting. Isn’t it odd for 220 years we could all count before 6am, but now no matter how many weeks pass they can’t accomplish simple addition? And this all started in 2020? I guess the math fairies changed math now. It’s New Math.

    “criminal prosecution of the corpulent “Hairy Plotter”, who commingled and stole the client money in his FTX exchange to fund a series of terrible crypto bets at his personal hedge fund Alameda,”

    Whoa whoa whoa: I’m down with this, but Alameda is ELLISON’S company. She had total daily operations over it. No comingling could happen without her. I’ve been waiting for this “Poor innocent woman never done no wrong” “It’s the big bad man” story, and here it is! That’s why her parents released the “ex-gilfriend” defense last month when it seems to be no more than a slutty hookup. Yup. Women have no free agency, they are but wee helpless children before the awe-inspiring power of men. Potent, virile Manly men like SBF. So she didn’t know a thing. Awwwwwww…. The usual. Didn’t Liz Holmes do this as well? As CEO she didn’t know nothin’ it was that OTHER guy (who did also get convicted) what dun it?

    Pretty sick of this “Women run the world” “Women are better than men” all decade, but then if anything happens they hide and point at the nearest man-object to blame. Pick one. If women are equal in a slightest, this defense shouldn’t occur to anyone. Every woman – and man – hearing it should be offended in the highest and go nuclear on them. Setting back women’s rights faster than Spain.

    Steak: it’s Plant-based food. The cow eats nothing but plants! Just like BeyondBurger and the Cricket factory! Not only that, for only $4.99 you can save a purebred cow from total extinction.

    Ze: Yes, he was an actor hired for the part that was pre-planned and pre-written by Kolomoisky. By CAA? Fully-owned subsidiary of the CIA? Talk about the “same old bastards”! This is exactly how AOC was auditioned, hired, and then placed into Congress by the PAC “Justice Democrats” with the support of background parties we’re not allowed to know. …Not that this is new; this has been going on so long, they didn’t hide it and don’t care that we know it. It’s official reality you can look up for yourself and has been on TV.

    The Visit in Congress, you’re right: it’s an amazing mashup of disgusting and surreal. I can’t even process what I’m seeing.

    #124086
    aspnaz
    Participant

    A corruption scandal that led to the arrest of former European Parliament VP Eva Kaili for allegedly taking bribes from Qatar is wrecking the bloc’s credibility at a time when it is already vulnerable, European Council President Charles Michel told Politico on Wednesday.

    Maybe start with Ursula von Hitler, try to discover how many millions in how many bags of cash she received for buying way too many doses of the unproven Pfizer vaccine. You know, the crime sitting there that you are all trying to ignore. All this talk of “we must fix ourselves” is total crap if you don’t go after the crook at the top. Until then, you are all just criminal politicians frightened of Ursula’s owner.

    #124087

    Here’s to the men who lay down their arms
    When they, though defeated, still have some humanity.
    Here’s to the men who sign treaties and say:
    Let’s just go home- put an end to insanity.

    The rhetoric of war and peace is tricky, isn’t it?

    #124088
    zerosum
    Participant

    Echo post
    Semantics?
    For who!!!! beyond a reasonable doubt

    Democracy, the will of the people, freedom, liberty, constitutional right to free speech, vote/elect the elitists to operate the social/economic systems for us, the people

    a sage whose thoughtful writings pack vast breadth and depth of understanding of history and geopolitics. His analysis is free of the slightest hint of bias or narrow partisanship

    • The Harder They Come … (Jotwani)

    ———-
    Ukraine is graveyard of military hardware.

    Constant barrage of strikes targeting its national energy infrastructure, which has left millions without power amid freezing temperatures, and left only unlivable rubble .
    ( hypersonic missile, drones, artillery,)

    • Moscow Comments On NATO Presence In Ukraine (RT)

    —————-
    Correspondence between the FBI and Twitter staff revealing how the agency pressured the platform to suppress certain narratives is not evidence of wrongdoing.
    “show nothing more than examples of our tradition, longstanding and ongoing federal government and private sector engagements,” the FBI statement claims.

    ——————

    “..officials from no fewer than 12 government agencies met with representatives of Twitter, Facebook, and other Big Tech firms weekly..”

    • FBI Accuses ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ Of Weaponizing Twitter Files (RT)

    ————-
    • How Musk Averted A $3 Billion Twitter Crash (ZH)

    —————–
    Joint meeting of congress for the Ukraine beggar comedian
    Now, I know what it’s like to be made to feel that I’m “cheering for the underdog”, “wrong team”.
    ———-

    #124089
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.rt.com/news/568732-kremlin-comments-biden-zelensky-meeting/
    Kremlin assesses Zelensky-Biden meeting
    Spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, insists both leaders are reluctant to address Moscow’s concerns

    The Kremlin spokesperson went on to lament the fact that the US president had failed to warn his Ukrainian colleague against shelling residential areas in Donbass. He also said that neither side called for peace.

    According to Peskov, the US is continuing to wage war against Russia indirectly, “to the last Ukrainian.”

    #124090

    Is there a way to determine if you have been “spiked” without your knowledge?

    On a different note: it’s -12F here, with 6 inches of new, fluffy snow. Winds are predicted to gust to 40mph later in the day.
    I’m boiling some water now to preform the ritual (Ilargi posted some videos of it a few days back) of flinging it into the air to make more snow!
    I have also put my wool rugs outside to sterilize them of wool munchers, and I’ve opened the closet windows to kill them, there, as well.
    It’s brutally beautiful.

    #124091
    zerosum
    Participant

    Mother Earth has joined the war.
    Mother Earth is using winter in the Ukrainian war.

    #124092
    boilingfrog
    Participant

    Watching President Zelensky present last night, and the PBS discussion afterward, reminded me of a high school football game pep rally.

    Except, the people present (a) had no kids in the game, (b) had none of their own money ‘invested’.

    Surreal and twisted somehow

    #124093
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • Russia Begins Deployment Of New State-of-Art Sarmat ICBM (RT)

    God bless the Russians for maintaining a sense of humor in naming their Dooms Day weapons systems.

    Sending the Satan II towards the Empire of Lies® and the blood drinking neo-conjob cabal of Satanists is rich irony indeed.

    Bon Appétit!

    .

    #124095
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Soon to be Ex-loser Rep Adam Kinzinger has much in common with his strip club manager buttbuddy Nazilensky, who recently, in a cokewhore induced episode of Deranged Paranoid Delusions in Grandeur (DPDG) ‘challenged’ Putin to a Mano a Mano© cage fight to the death!

    Hahahaha!

    No really, Nazilensky is actually losing his mind in public speeches now.

    Putin being a life long devotee of Kudo would have a enjoyable time of finishing off a cokehead who plays piano duets naked with his penis on TV ‘talent’ shows.

    Nazilensky and Kinzinger could even try to tag team Putin and he would still kick both their pathetic asses.

    We’ve reached the Zenith of the Absurd (ZTA) with strip club boy shaking down Presidementia Pedo Joe for more laundering money for Ukronaziland’s hellscape vision of ‘freedom & democracy’.

    Our present current state of affairs in this 3rd decade of the 21st century is due in no small part to Edward Bernays, Sigmund Fraud‘s nephew, and his publishing of his first tome in the glorification of modern propaganda Crystallizing Public Opinion in 1923.

    Hey, we’re coming up on it’s 100th birthday, perfectly coinciding with the Empire of Lies® concluding it’s very own, tah-dah….

    Century of Humiliation

    Ready to start that 2nd Century of Humiliation in the Empire of Lies® kids???

    Boy howdy am I

    Ho, Ho, Ho Merry Christmas

    .

    #124096
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Alexander Mercouris described Nazilensky’s Congress speech as:

    “A phalanx of cliches crawling across a page…”

    hahahaha!

    Stop, your killing me!

    #124097
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    A CHRISTMAS CAROL SUNG IN THREE-PART HARMONY BY GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT, FUTURE AND PAST

    Present
    Still, Santa is the icon that stole Christmas away from the rowdy boys and horny habits of Saturnalian Xmas, with married people in cross-dress committing adultery in the backroom or alley, or, often enough, in the street – if the hooch be stout enough and the snow sufficiently soft – and gave it to the children and their families and, alas, the heavy players on the board of directors at Disney, Wal-Mart, Mattel et al.

    Santa and his creator/followers like Clement Moore (who wrote “The Night Before Christmas”), and Mel Torme (who co-authored “The Christmas Song”), made it clear that Christmas ain’t shit without the wee ones. Excuse my Saxonish; ‘shit’ is an old Saxon peasant term for, well, you know, but I feel just as strongly about children all snug in their beds with sugarplum fairies dancing in their heads as do you. Despite all the peace in our time in this North American land, it is still not such an easy time for kids and most of us are fairly inadequate as parents although our children love us anyway, and if that ain’t the miracle of Christmas or Chanukah or Kwanzaa or Saturnalia or…then my name’s Jimmy Stewart and I’m jumping off that bridge after all, dammit.

    How come every time an angel gets its wings some clown rings MY doorbell singing “Frosty The Snowman” off key? I mean, it’s Christmas after all and I’ve got presents to wrap and kids going psycho under the influence of sugar, chocolate and 3-D commercials for toys that make “Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots” look like hugathons. (“…and may the best robot reclaim its battered inner child from its vanquished opponent in MORTAL COMBAT!!!!! Die sucker…!”)

    It is then, as the children race around the tree on Christmas morn, firing toy phasers which imitate the sights and sounds of real weapons of the future, weapons which will someday paralyze the enemy with migraine mindrays that not only consume the enemy with pain but also fill them with the desire to sacrifice their children, thereby hastening war’s end and returning us to the good old days of Cronus and offerings of severed heads and whatever those little clay dolls stood in for…it is then one realizes that you can take the boy out of the senseless revelry but you can’t take the senseless revelry out of the boy.

    Future
    Did anyone catch that TV special a few years back, Santa Versus The Abominable Snowmen, (or men in Abominable Snowman suits)? Featuring an high tech battle much like the second Star Wars movie wherein gigantic walking war tanks fought in the snow fields of some forlorn, frozen planet, it almost seemed like a bit of Wotan or Marduk returning to do battle with the forces of Chaos (which still run rampant during the Holidaze). “Only xx shopping days till Xmas” sounds a little like a countdown to Armageddon. Come to think of it, if there’s a guy tough enough to battle the demons of solsticial darkness, it would be a guy who lives in the North Pole. A guy who can fire toys down chimneys like so many smartbombs is just the guy to lob one down the hatch of those perennial death stars, Zrvan cum Cronus cum Saturnus.

    Cultural icons are ever changing. If Santa doesn’t watch out he’ll become too naughty and not nice enough and George Lucas will do a leveraged buyout of Santa’s franchise. Instead of Santa, we’ll have a digitally animated Obie Wan Kanobi, (the ‘dead’ spectral version who talks in Luke Skywalker’s head at critical junctures), starring as a new Xmas hero who saves the world from a man in a Grinch Vader suit. Christmas could become the intergalactic special effects extravaganza that Disney, Mattel, and Wal-Mart must surely desire: “Jolly Old Saint Obie Wan, lend your ears this way, Don’t you miss a single word the TV made me say; Suzy wants a droid that talks, or a cloned white horse; Jimmy wants a lightsabre ‘cause he trusts in force…”

    Currently, Christmas as THE prime solsticial festival seems inflated beyond its effective spiritual carrying capacity. Magic, redemption, divinity, destiny – along with material craving – are big, even bigger than ever, but no longer so centered about Christmas (and Christianity?) as they were in, say, 1946 when It’s A Wonderful Life hit the theatres, or 1947, when Miracle on 34th Street was released. If anything, Santa and Christmas seem to be hearkening back towards earlier times. ‘Old Father Christmas’ is resurgent even as Hollywood and Madison Avenue make Santa over into a high-tech superhero. (Superman, too, had his ‘Fortress of Solitude’ near the North Pole.)

    Currently the retrospective focus seems to be on the Victorian era, when ‘modern’ Christmas fully crystallized, with medieval ambiences appearing in the background tapestry, but I suspect Old Man Saturn is primping for a comeback bid. Considering an ancient god to be the kind of guy who has everything and is, therefore, a bear to Xmas shop for, I recommend a visit to the local candles & ceramics shop.

    Even so, it is a time of great beauty, joy and wonder. It has to be. The days grow short as the nights grow long and the frost bears down while the slush slings up. We couldn’t survive these days without our magical ministrations.

    “To face unafraid, the plans that we’ve made, walking in a winter wonderland”…now there’s an incantation to get one through to spring.

    Past
    “God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing ye dismay.” I can hear an ancestor of Andy Griffith singing that to a crowd of one-drink-too-many Yorkshire Christmas revelers, two or three centuries back, as he pours them all a draft of the barkeep’s finest while never letting on to the water in the mix or the blunderbuss under the bar loaded with peppercorns and rocksalt.

    “Remember Christ our Sa-ay-vyor was born on Christmas Day.” He sings badly, so horribly awful that the men break out in laughter. The bad boys at the bar lighten up and before long are singing “Good King Wenceslas” and “Greensleeves” and then, from over in the corner, far from the fire, where the mead’s warmth vies with the door’s draft, a strong if sloppy baritone sings out the words to a strange Noel they’ve never heard before: “Oh Holy Night, the stars are brightly shi-i-ning, this is the night of our dear Savior’s birth…”

    As the boys nod and relax to the tune, Andy picks it up, loud and awful, like my Uncle Gayle trying to sing “I Pagliacci” or your Aunt Mimi attempting suicide by Streisand karaoke. Everyone takes courage from his tunelessness and joins in.

    Several are soon asleep. The older or simply wiser spread straw for the snorers and droolers, asking neither Sheriff Andy’s nor the taverner’s permission but nodding respectfully to signal the quiescence of the night’s revels. Gathering around the fire, they quietly sing tunes going back a thousand years, venturing a little two-and-three-part-harmony and throwing Andy a diesucker glare when he dares to join in, but allowing him a few sly grins when he just hums along. He’s had himself a few now that trouble seems unlikely.

    The taverner, a wise businessman, leaves a gallon of warm mulled cider as one for the road for those venturing home tonight. He places a donations jar prominently on the firemantle, marked “For Goode Will and Good Olde Wylliaume”, Wylliaume being the taverner’s name. He’s had a hard time keeping his Christmas losses down to a survivable hardship; Christmas revelers expect and demand a taverner to pretty much give the house away during Yuletide. In the spirit of requisite giving, he’s served mostly watered-down swill but he’s a good fellow and wishes them well enough on their journeys homeward. The mulled cider he has left out is spiked with an half gallon of true applejack from, he was told, the orchards of Brittany. Goode shyte, that stuff.

    He shuffles bedward. He’ll have to wake up early to quicken the fire and clean out the slop pails before someone wakes up to the stink and loses the rest of their Christmas cookies. He’ll put sausage and bread out for the lads along with a pint per man’s share of Old Hairdog Ciderjack, reckoned strong and sweet enough to light their way home where they’ll spend Christmas Day in glorious recovery in an era when coffee was a mysterious wonder drug found only in London’s priciest establishments.

    So, as the church bells toll your head apart announcing Christ’s Mass, ask not for whom the bell tolls, oy vey, it tolls for thee. Shyte. Get thine arse up and down to church with thy wife and kids, for aren’t ye a good fellow? Who would give their child a rooty-toot-toot or rummy-tum-tum under those circumstances?

    Dark days. Long nights. These are the times to count your blessings, head by tousled head by tinselled headache. Whether one celebrates the Christchild of Bethlehem or Claus of Toyland, solstice time in America has been made into a National Children’s Holiday, unofficially but in sooth, and however maudlin and platitudinous it may sound – especially with a word like ‘platitudinous’ stuck in your gob like a stone in a blanket – magic is obtained thereby. And magic is a very good thing.Robin Morrison, 1997

    ***

    Cold winter, Xmas music: Heart of Ice

    ***

    No Yogi tea tag today. Whiskey in my coffee instead:

    Sometimes I think the moonlight is my friend…

    #124098
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Misquoting Carlin: “It’s a freak show. And if you live on Airstrip One, Two, Three, Four or Airstrip Five, you’ve got a seat in the front row.”

    The Empire of Lies is putting on bigger and better freaks as time goes by. An imposter who pretends he’s English. A walking suit that can mumble. A clown whose is the son of a clown. A nonentity psychopath who cannot come up with anything to match “They’re throwing their own children to the sharks.” (Howard). An actress who does real Scorpion and Frog performances.

    The Cheese Lady: “I’m ready to push the nuclear [war] button. And thanks for the allowance for the rest of my life. I quite enjoyed being prime minister for a few weeks, standing up and making idiotic pronouncements. And the more idiotic the things I said were, the more the other actors applauded.”

    What comes next? Plywood, cardboard and canvas weapons systems? “Oh, we’ve already done that trick.”

    “We could raise interest rates.”

    “Or lower them.’

    “How about we raise interest rates this month and lower them next month.”

    “Yeah. And cut taxes for high our friends, so the money can ‘trickle down’ to the idiots who vote for us.”

    #124099
    zerosum
    Participant

    It’s winter in BC
    It’s a -13 cold
    It’s white
    It’s windy
    I wish I was in Mexico.

    #124100
    zerosum
    Participant

    In 2023, I’m expecting Poland and Hungry, on behalf of the U.N., as a cease fire, amnesty, to move 10,000 peacekeepers into some key regions to protects and aid those regions of Ukraine so that Russia will not invade those portions. Kiev will be protected by the patriots.

    #124101
    Noirette
    Participant

    There is only in fine, one vital question.

    Will the USA agree to, and find its place in, what is now called a ‘multipolar world’ ?

    How, when, in function of what, could, would, the US come to submit to such an arrangement? I. e:

    > The USA as no longer a dominating power, merely one country amongst many, with similar, not too different, clout, influence, kudos, commercial control, on par with for ex., Germany, China, Italy, Iran, Brazil, South Africa (etc.)

    > With international relations (commerce, rules of war, and more) subject to some kind of international arbitrage (some kind of Intl. Body, Court)

    > Implying that the USA gives up military dominance / threats / etc.

    Sounds very unlikely, right?

    Apparently nobody is optimistic about the USA bowing down, retreating gracefully…

    Russia, China, in first place, have figured, judged, that the US will not give up its dominant position, at any cost, will never negotiate, so it is Do or Die. (What tht leads to horrific..)

    #124102
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    bosco

    I enjoyed that. But for a truly surreal experience, try this:

    ‘Even so, it is a time of great beauty, joy and wonder. It has to be. The days grow short as the nights grow long and the frost bears down while the slush slings up.’

    with the Sun high in the sky and 30oC heat.

    There’s nothing quite like people living on Airstrip Four and Airstrip Five pretending they’re in England in the nineteenth century, long before it fully morphed into Airstrip One, and pretending to the accompaniment of Chinese-made nick-nacks.

    #124103
    zerosum
    Participant

    More than half of US House Republicans snubbed Zelensky’s speech – media
    A total of 127 GOP lawmakers chose to snub the Ukrainian president, a tally by The Hill says
    FTX can no longer deliver the cash

    #124104
    Red
    Participant

    Is there an end to this shit show?

    The globalist technocrats are intent on monopolizing the entire food supply. They already have a monopoly on grains and have made headway in genetically engineered (GE) seafood. The next targets include lab-grown meats and dairy substitutes
    Biomilq, made from cultured breast tissue, will be marketed as a breast milk substitute
    The company Helaina is working on creating glycoproteins “identical to those found in breast milk.” Those proteins can then be added to a variety of infant formulas, seniors’ nutrition and, eventually, all sorts of foods
    The justification for creating synthetic milk substitutes is, of course, preventing and reversing “climate change.” That’s the justification used to sell virtually all fake foods. In reality, however, they will perpetuate and worsen adverse effects on the environment
    Lab-created foods are ultraprocessed and therefore qualify as junk food. Fake meat and dairy cannot replace the complex mix of nutrients found in grass fed beef and dairy, and it’s likely that consuming ultraprocessed meat and milk alternatives may lead to many of the same health issues that are caused by a processed food diet
    The starting ingredients in fermented synthetic biology products are cheap sugars derived from GE corn and soy. All GE crops are grown in environmentally destructive monocultures, and use loads of herbicides such as glyphosate, pesticides like neonicotinoids and synthetic fertilizers. As a result, they’re loaded with chemical residues that end up in the final product

    https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2022/12/22/biomilq-fake-milk.

    #124105
    Red
    Participant

    It’s definitely “It’s New Math.” err Doctor. They could count millions of votes in one commercial break for talent shows! But months for an election? Theatre? They don’t “do” math anymore they just say numbers, no actual counting because no one knows how to count much less add or subtract. Multiply, divide? Huh? Whatzat?

    #124106
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Since we seem to have reached the modern-day equivalent of June/July 1914 or July/August of 1939, it would pay everyone with a brain that still functions properly to make their final preparations for what will be -for most people- the shittiest year in human history.

    Nate highlights many aspects of the rapidly escalating shitstorm in his latest video:

    #124107
    Red
    Participant

    There were a few comments in email and on Resilience about the potential for the wealthy to create havens where they can continue to live as they do now while the rest of us fall into chaos. I’m pretty sure the wealthy would like us to think that this is possible so they can use it as a scare tactic to keep us beholden to them. Make just enough of us believe that we’ll be included in the safety net to keep all of us from abandoning them… Some of the more delusional may actually believe it themselves. There are indisputably many who are buying up bunkers and islands with the objective of building a compound in which to ride out the worst of the messes.
    But… reality?
    …………………………………………..
    So, let’s just agree that no compounds are going to be possible without this full flow of stuff all around the globe. All the stuff that goes into maintaining a compound is dependent on energy. Moreover, all that stuff is dependent on human labor — which is not going to be had for money (which won’t be much of a thing) or love (because nobody loves these assholes…). But… if they want to delude themselves into believing that a compound will work, that they can escape the disasters they’ve created, I think maybe we just let them. Let the billionaires go off to their fitting ends. Maybe we can think more clearly without all the noise and stress they generate.

    The Daily

    #124108

    George Mc, a commenter over at OffG, directed me to this piece on substack. Here’s a quote:

    “There are many parallels between gender identity theory and religion. The idea of an internal sense of self that is divorced from the body is akin to the idea of a soul. Pride month and other ‘holy days’ are quasi-religious celebrations with people demonstrating belief by draping flags over buildings and in windows, changing business logos to rainbow colours, and participating in public festivities. The new priestly caste could be said to be made up of the representatives of LGBTI+ groups who often have a direct ear to the government and deem pronouncements on directions that should be taken at government level.

    Gender identity proponents use mantras, slogans and chants that sometimes sound like ritual incantations. People are expected to publicly affirm belief by announcing pronouns and by using pronouns in email signatures and in social media bios. Gender transition has parallels with the religious idea of being born again, or of reincarnation. There is a hierarchical type of caste system with tiers based on levels of privilege and oppression or victimhood.”

    #124109
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    * Adam Kinzinger: Three days to flatten the Russians; If we start today the troops will be home for Christmas; You can plan on me

    * A friend who ended up high in the US gov’t says the secret to success is to kiss up and piss down; Zelensky before congress is the perfect example; Congress doing the kissing, Zelenskly doing the pissing; Zelensky behind the presidential lectern says it all

    * Calling Mitch McConnell a douchebag is an insult to douchebags; From the sound of Zelensky speaking Ukrainian they probably have a term that describes him better; The number one priority for the uni-party is to wreck the country and the entire world if possible

    * Nancy on J6: Never let a good insurrection go to waste

    * Don’t let the freaks run the show

    * Where will the US fit in a multi-polar world? What does the bully do after high school?

    * Prediction: 2023 will be the worst year in human history, beating out
    1) The world wide famine cause by a year of no sun due to a volcano in Iceland in 536
    2) The black plague in 1350
    3) The continuing depression and start of WW2 in 1939
    Lock, load and buckle up
    Note: The asteroid strike in 65,000,000 BC doesn’t count because there were no humans

    * No group is an eco-system
    Entire of itself
    Every man is a cog in the machine
    A part of the global engine

    Any man’s displacement diminishes me,
    Because I am dependent on the supply chain
    And therefore never ask for whom the shit hits the fan;
    It hits for thee

    #124110
    Redneck
    Participant

    “Formally, the law does establish a ban on the forced collection of biometrics and the right of a citizen to refuse.
    However, according to many experts, this right is supplemented by another right – the right of the state not to provide any services to a person without submitting biometrics. This technology has already been tested in the case of formally “voluntary” COVID vaccination, without which people were suspended from work without pay.”

    https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/russias-biometric-nightmare?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    If NATO attacks Russia, its capitals would be destroyed. And it wouldn’t take 3 days.

    and Russia’s cities , all two of them will remain unscathed?

    Remember how the Russian army was going to run through Ukraine in three weeks?

    #124111
    That Bloke
    Participant

    Your friendly neighbourhood eco-dictatorship:

    #124112
    Bill7
    Participant

    Commenter flora provided this link to Bertram Gross’s fine 1980 book ‘Friendly Fascism’:
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R215XVDWQDLO4R/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl

    I’d argue though that the fascism is not so friendly these days. It’s a good book, with the plan well-datailed.

    “what’s a book?”

    #124113
    Redneck
    Participant

    8. One Twitter official who spoke to me said he feels deceived by the covert shift. Still, many emails from throughout 2020 show that high-level Twitter executives were well aware of DoD’s vast network of fake accounts & covert propaganda and did not suspend the accounts.
    9. For example, Twitter lawyer Jim Baker mused in a July 2020 email, about an upcoming DoD meeting, that the Pentagon used “poor tradecraft” in setting up its network, and were seeking strategies for not exposing the accounts that are “linked to each other or to DoD or the USG.”
    10. Stacia Cardille, another Twitter attorney, replied that the Pentagon wanted a SCIF & may want to retroactively classify its social media activities “to obfuscate their activity in this space, and that this may represent an overclassification to avoid embarrassment.”

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1605292454261182464.html

    #124114
    Redneck
    Participant

    Musk picked this moron?

    #124115
    WES
    Participant

    Regarding FTX and SBF crimes.

    This is a classic case where government prosecutors are under tremendous political pressure to ensure there is no political fall out by burying this crime out of public view.
    The criminals know this too.
    That is why they behaved the way they did.
    There will be no public trials.
    This is the best interests of all parties involved.
    We have seen this movie before.

    #124116
    zerosum
    Participant

    This is how you find peace/death
    As part of the new package of military assistance to Ukraine, the US government has transferred and planned to supply the following types of equipment and weapons:

    ▪️On the Presidential Arms Transfer Program (PDA) (already paid for inventory transfer)
    ➖one battery of Patriot air defense systems and ammunition
    ➖ammunition for HIMARS
    ➖500 units of 155-mm high-precision shells
    ➖ten 120-mm mortars and ten thousand mines to them
    ➖ten 82 mm mortars
    ➖ten 60 mm mortars
    ➖37 heavy duty MRAP Cougar
    ➖120 cars HMMWV
    ➖six armoured general-purpose trucks
    ➖HARM anti-radar missiles
    ➖JDAM high-precision guided bomb kits
    ➖more than 2.7 thousand grenade launchers and small arms
    ➖Claymore anti-personnel mines
    ➖night vision devices and optics
    ➖tactical secure communication systems
    ➖Body armor

    ▪️On the Initiative to Promote the Security of Ukraine (USAI)
    ➖45,000 152 mm artillery shells
    ➖20,000 122 mm artillery shells
    ➖50 thousand 122-mm rockets for MLRS BM-21 “Grad”
    ➖100,000 125 mm tank ammunition
    ➖SATCOM terminals and services
    ➖Funding Training, Maintenance
    (10% for the big guy)

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