Dec 072022
 
 December 7, 2022  Posted by at 9:15 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Rembrandt van Rijn Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem 1630

 

Elon Musk Fires Twitter General Counsel James Baker (CTH)
The EU’s Operation Against Musk (Matthieu Buge)
Elon Musk Slams Wikipedia Over ‘Left-wing Bias’ (PM)
Twitter’s “Partner Support Portal” for COVID-19 Related Censorship (AFL)
Are Ukrainians Russians? (Saker)
Ukraine Trying To Drag US Into War – ex-CIA Officer (RT)
A Negotiated End to Fighting in Ukraine (Jeffrey Sachs)
Mosscow Accuses Ukraine Of ‘Nuclear Terrorism’ (RT)
Hungary Raises Alarm Over ‘Critical’ Situation With Fuel Supply (RT)
World Will Still Need Russian Oil – Official (RT)
Private Spying Firm Targets Global Population With Illegal Spyware (GZ)
FTX Crypto Fraudsters Targeted Poor Black Neighborhoods (Shellenberger)
Mask Mandate in Schools Based on Politics Not Evidence (DS)
Soros Bankrolls 253 Groups to Influence Global Media (NB)

 

 

 

 

Comer

 

 


Bob Mankoff, New Yorker, 1981.

 

 

Ron Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


FBI agent Elvis Chan, at the San Francisco field office

 

 

 

 

Baker was scrubbing the Twitter Files before Taibbi and Bari Weiss ever saw them. That’s why the FBI is not mentioned in them.

“Twitter’s former top attorney James Baker was formerly an FBI attorney who passed on fake dirt from the Hillary campaign’s operatives in 2016, alleging a secret online portal from Russia’s Alfa Bank to Trump. Now attempted to shape the “Twitter Files.”

Elon Musk Fires Twitter General Counsel James Baker (CTH)

Yesterday, we speculated publicly the first set of “Twitter Files” released was heavily pre-filtered by internal stakeholders connected to DHS who hold a vested interest in controlling any evidence of Twitter’s former political activity. Knowing there are multiple executives remaining within the company who previously aligned with the intents of government, specifically DHS officials, to control the platform, the prediction was not a stretch. Indeed, it just made common sense. Former FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker, a man of notoriously corrupt disposition, was one of those former government officials who started working for Twitter as general counsel. James Baker (pictured below left) working as a government mechanism for filtration of damaging information was not a leap. Again, just common sense.

Today, as an outcome of internal discoveries that indeed Jim Baker did prefilter internal documents in order to mitigate sunlight and exposure [outline here], Twitter CEO Elon Musk fired legal counsel James Baker. Mr Musk said through his Twitter account, “In light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue, he was exited from Twitter today.” Mr. Musk followed up a question about James Baker being asked to explain himself by saying, “His explanation was …unconvincing.” Matt Taibbi provides the context: ” On Friday, the first installment of the Twitter files was published here. We expected to publish more over the weekend. Many wondered why there was a delay. We can now tell you part of the reason why. On Tuesday, Twitter Deputy General Counsel (and former FBI General Counsel) Jim Baker was fired. Among the reasons? Vetting the first batch of “Twitter Files” – without knowledge of new management.

The process for producing the “Twitter Files” involved delivery to two journalists (Bari Weiss and me) via a lawyer close to new management. However, after the initial batch, things became complicated. Over the weekend, while we both dealt with obstacles to new searches, it was @Bari Weiss who discovered that the person in charge of releasing the files was someone named Jim. When she called to ask “Jim’s” last name, the answer came back: “Jim Baker.” “My jaw hit the floor,” says Weiss. The first batch of files both reporters received was marked, “Spectra Baker Emails.” Baker is a controversial figure. He has been something of a Zelig of FBI controversies dating back to 2016, from the Steele Dossier to the Alfa-Server mess. He resigned in 2018 after an investigation into leaks to the press.

The news that Baker was reviewing the “Twitter files” surprised everyone involved, to say the least. New Twitter chief Elon Musk acted quickly to “exit” Baker Tuesday. Big Picture: The Twitter Files are a threat vector to a bigger story. The DHS, DOJ, FBI and ODNI U.S. government elements who operated with control over the social media platform did so as an outcome of the larger surveillance state. That surveillance state was deployed against Donald Trump in 2016 and everything as an outcome of that failed effort, and the ongoing coverup effort, is what surrounds the current DOJ effort to attack and remove the threat Donald Trump represents.

Fitton Musk

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“Now, they have to limit freedom of speech in order to protect freedom of speech – a logic that can, understandably, leave many people speechless.”

The EU’s Operation Against Musk (Matthieu Buge)

After Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the recent reactions of Brussels’ bureaucrats, it has become clear how far the EU is willing to go in order to preserve its own bubble of political agenda. Just as one needs a special dictionary in order to understand Kant’s work and his own understanding of certain terms and concepts, more and more, one needs a special dictionary to understand the language of the EU. And the first entry to look up is ‘F – Freedom’. Its synonym, ‘liberty’, is the first word in France’s motto. And with the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk and the wish of the billionaire to restore total freedom of speech on the platform, we have a new opportunity to try to decrypt it.

Commenting on the French-US partnership during his speech at the White House on December 1, French President Emmanuel Macron said, “Our two nations are sisters in their fight for freedom.” Words that are quite consistent with the EU’s suddenly emerging rhetoric concerning the freedom of the Chinese people facing the zero-Covid policy of the Chinese Communist Party, the freedom of the Uyghurs in the west of China, the freedom of Russians opposing the Kremlin, the freedom of Iranian women to be like Western women… We could go on forever with this list, because it is constantly changing, adapting itself to the context of geopolitics. As a concept, freedom of speech is really an illusion, as it is ruled, like everything else in the world, by balances of power. The EU proved this hard-to-admit fact to be true when it quickly banned RT and Sputnik after the beginning of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

And there is no doubt that this threadbare concept has been used in geopolitics for ages, establishing amusing if not pathetic double standards. But double standards are not really the issue here. What is at stake is pure logic. Thierry Breton, the commissioner for internal market of the EU, talked to Elon Musk in order to make Brussels’ point clear. And then said: “I welcome Elon Musk’s statements of intent to get Twitter 2.0 ready for the DSA [Digital Services Act]. I am pleased to hear that he has read it carefully and considers it as a sensible approach to implement on a worldwide basis. But let’s also be clear that there is still huge work ahead, as Twitter will have to implement transparent user policies, significantly reinforce content moderation, and protect freedom of speech, tackle disinformation with resolve, and limit targeted advertising.”

Breton should hand every citizen of EU member states some instructions, or a guidebook, to navigate the EU’s logic here. “To reinforce content moderation and protect freedom of speech” is like saying “Let’s have lunch together; you’re free to order whatever I tell you to eat.” These unelected bureaucrats threatened to ban Musk’s newly acquired company in the EU if he refused to comply with their rules, and the mainstream media has found a new way to wage war against those who don’t agree with all their narratives and restrictions: The use of the word ‘absolutist’. While Musk himself wears the label of ‘free speech absolutist’, pundits are using it as a way to pillory those they can’t dismiss as ‘conspiracy theorists’. In this context, ‘absolutist’ rhymes with ‘terrorist’, ‘extremist’, or whatever you can imagine could be a threat.

Famed Toronto Professor Jordan Peterson has repeatedly argued that free speech implies that one should be challenged and even offended, that it is a condition of dialectics and progress. This is pure common sense. No more in Europe. During the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, in order to promote their quarantine politics, some European governments said it was necessary to “limit freedoms in order to protect freedom.” Now, they have to limit freedom of speech in order to protect freedom of speech – a logic that can, understandably, leave many people speechless.

Kash
https://twitter.com/i/status/1600344422314430464

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“If only one version of the facts is allowed then that gives a huge incentive to wealthy and powerful people to seize control of things like Wikipedia in order to shore up their power. And they do that.”

Elon Musk Slams Wikipedia Over ‘Left-wing Bias’ (PM)

Twitter owner Elon Musk said that Wikipedia has a “non-trivial left-wing bias” after the encyclopedia site marked the article for the “Twitter Files” for deletion. Editors for the site wrote that the article is a “nothing event about another nothing event.” “There’s not really anything here. Even as a stub it suffers from being unsourced in some places and poorly sourced in others, suggesting a lack of notability,” wrote an editor. “It also doesn’t have a clearly defined topic. Is this about an investigation, or is this about a Substack article?” They continue: “While the title suggests the former and the lede suggests the latter, the content of the article is actually about neither. There is no investigation, and the article lacks any notable information about what the self-published article had to offer.”

Musk noted in his tweet that Wikipedia requires the citation of biased “MSM sources” to “confirm” claims. This is not the first time that Wikipedia has apparently worked to protect the Biden regime. This past summer, Wikipedia changed the definition of “recession” on their site to fit the definition given by the Biden White House. Wikipedia then locked the page, preventing people from updating the website. The White House redefined the definition of “Recession” ahead of the summer economic report, which showed that the US had suffered from two consecutive quarters of declining GDP. This was the standard definition, but the White House declared that the definition should be tied more closely to unemployment numbers.

On the Wiki page that provides the definition of a “recession,” a message pops up when an attempt is made to edit the information, reading: “This page is protected to prevent vandalism.” Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, has been vocal in criticizing his creation, saying that it is run by left-leaning editors and that the site is no longer trustworthy. Sanger said that he believes the site is run by teams of Democratic-leaning editors, and that the site lost its neutral nature in 2009. He named topics such as Covid and Hunter Biden as examples of Wikipedia’s bias. “There are a lot of people who would be highly motivated to go in and make the article more politically neutral but they’re not allowed to,” Sanger said. He added, “If only one version of the facts is allowed then that gives a huge incentive to wealthy and powerful people to seize control of things like Wikipedia in order to shore up their power. And they do that.”

Notorious right wingers Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald

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Not just Twitter, all social media.

Twitter’s “Partner Support Portal” for COVID-19 Related Censorship (AFL)

Today, America First Legal (AFL) released the fourth set of shocking documents obtained from litigation against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealing further concrete evidence of collusion between the CDC and social media companies to censor free speech and silence the public square under the government’s label of “misinformation.” This nearly 600-page release of documents contains new appalling information. Among these include the fact that Twitter ran a “Partner Support Portal” for government employees and other “stakeholders” to submit posts that it would remove or flag as “misinformation” on its platform. Documents obtained by AFL show Twitter enrolling one government employee, through their personal Twitter account, into this Portal. We know from other publicly related documents, that Facebook has copied this approach for election-related censorship.


This production also reveals that the U.S. government was actively working to “socially inoculate”–or brainwashing–the public against anything that threatened its narrative. It did so by using aligned Big Tech corporations to monitor and manipulate users for the purposes of censoring unapproved information and pushing government propaganda. For example, Facebook sent written materials to the CDC in which it bragged about censoring more than sixteen million “pieces of content” containing opinions or information the U.S. government wanted suppressed. Finally, the documents reveal the CDC was “collaborating with UNICEF, WHO and IFCN member and leading civil society organization Mafindo” to mitigate “disinformation.” Mafindo is a Facebook third-party fact-checking partner based in Indonesia that is funded by Google.

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The Saker’s deep dive into a complex issue.

Are Ukrainians Russians? (Saker)

Seems like a simple question, but in reality it is immensely complex. I will try to outline a few of the issues, assumptions and implications this question involves. Well, for starters, we might want to ask “what is a Ukrainian?” After all, no such nation or country can be found in history books. But we should not stop here, and we also need to ask “what is a Russian?”. Yes, there was a Russian nation and a Russian country recorded in history books, but does that really help us? French history books used to begin with the sentence “our ancestors the Gauls” which even kids on the French colonies had to learn. Some ridiculed the fact that sub-Saharan Africans or the children of Guadeloupe had to learn that and that was self-evidently ridiculous. But what about metropolis French, those who lived in France proper?

Where their ancestors really Gauls and, if so, how much continuity, if any, is there between Vercingetorix and Macron or the people from ancient Gallic tribes to the modern French? What we often overlook is that nationality is a very modern concept born out of the post 1789 ideology of nationalism. In the more distant past, people built their identity around 1) their place of birth/residence 2) their religion and 3) their ruler. Keeping all that in mind, let’s begin by asking the question “what is a Russian?”. But before we go there, I need to mention another pesky issue: the English word “Russian” can mean one of two things: a member of the Russian ethnic/cultural group, in which case the Russian term is roosskii or a citizen of the Russian Federation, in which case the Russian term would be rossiianin.

For the time being, let’s ignore the second meaning and focus on the ethnic/cultural roosski. To try to find a good definition, let’s being by spelling out what a Russian is not. This is not somebody who speaks Russian. There are plenty of folks out there who speak Russian and who are not Russian. This is not somebody born in Russia, because there are plenty of non-Russians born in Russia. How about somebody born from Russian parents? Here we run into a logical problem: if we define as Russian somebody born of Russian parents without defining what Russian means in the first place, this is a completely circular definition. Also, is Shoigu Russian? This father is an ethnic Tuvan. So 50% Russian max? How about Czar Nicholas II? His ancestry was mostly German and Danish. How about Lenin? He had only 1/4 “Russian” blood (whatever that means)

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Philip Giraldi.

Ukraine Trying To Drag US Into War – ex-CIA Officer (RT)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is looking for ways to get the US and NATO directly involved in the conflict, former CIA officer Philip Giraldi said, pointing to Monday’s drone attack on two airfields inside Russia as an example of such tactics. “This was a clear attempt by Zelensky, in my mind, to escalate the war,” Giraldi told Judge Andrew Napolitano on Monday evening’s episode of the ‘Judging Freedom’ podcast. “He tried to do that with the missile that was misdirected, possibly, and wound up in Poland and killed two people. He even pushed it and said NATO has to intervene now. This could be another attempt to, shall we say, promote an escalation on the part of the Russians that could possibly be construed as a danger to Poland, danger to troops in Poland, that sort of thing. This is the game that’s being played.”

The missile that struck the village of Przewodow last month was quickly identified as Ukrainian, but Zelensky continued to insist otherwise for several days, until both Warsaw and Washington expressed frustration. Napolitano had pointed out that the US currently has around 40,000 troops in Poland. Their presence creates a “high potential for accidents” and misunderstandings, said Giraldi, noting that Russia would know right away if they made a move to cross the border. On Monday morning, two drones attempted to strike the Dyagilevo airfield in Ryazan Region and Engels airfield in Saratov Region, more than 500 kilometers from the nearest Ukrainian-controlled territory. Three Russian servicemen were killed and several more injured, but the attack did not disrupt a strategic aviation strike against Ukrainian logistics later in the day, the defense ministry in Moscow said.

“The whole purpose of this is again political,” Giraldi told Napolitano about the attack. “It’s to escalate the process so that Russia – at least in the hopes of Zelensky and his advisers, many of whom are probably American – does something that is really stupid and provocative in return, and this will provoke the NATO-US reaction that Zelensky wants to see. I am convinced that this is what he’s playing at.” The big question, Giraldi added, is whether the US military and the White House knew of the attack in advance, “and if so, did they approve it?” The US insists it is not a party to the conflict in Ukraine, but President Joe Biden has said he would support Kiev with weapons and money for “as long as it takes” to defeat Russia on the battlefield.

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Putin in 2008: “..If you push NATO enlargement, we retake Crimea.”

A Negotiated End to Fighting in Ukraine (Jeffrey Sachs)

From the beginning — and from before the beginning, from 2021, when Putin made clear what the political issues at stake were — but I happen to know this goes back, in many ways, back to 1990, ’91. I was at that point an adviser to the economic team of President Gorbachev, and then, later, President Yeltsin, and Ukrainian President Kuchma, so I’ve watched this from the start. There have been a few very important political issues at stake. One is the NATO enlargement. I think it is really the dominant issue, but three others are extremely important. Of course, I should say, equally important is Ukraine’s sovereignty as a sovereign country and in need of security arrangements. But NATO as Ukraine’s security doesn’t work. It’s an explosive brew. So, one needs to find, as President Zelensky himself said earlier this year, before backing off from it, that there needed to be a non-NATO way to secure Ukraine.


And there can be. So, that’s another crucial issue, is Ukraine’s sovereignty and security in a non-NATO manner. The third issue that is very consequential is Crimea. Crimea, the peninsula, people can look on the map, the peninsula in the Black Sea, has been the home to Russia’s naval fleet in the Black Sea, and therefore completely consequential for Russia’s economic and foreign policy and military security since 1783. So, this is, from Russia’s point of view, an absolutely core issue. And incidentally, in 2008, when George W. Bush Jr. was very unwisely pushing NATO enlargement, President Putin said specifically to President Bush in Bucharest at the time of the NATO-Russia meeting, that “If you push NATO enlargement, we retake Crimea.” This was already explicit. And the point is that, for Russia, this is vital.

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It’s up to US/NATO to halt this.

Mosscow Accuses Ukraine Of ‘Nuclear Terrorism’ (RT)

Ukraine is resorting to dangerous tactics by deliberately targeting the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant on Russian territory, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has alleged. Earlier, Moscow said it would not accept any security arrangement that would involve handing the facility over to a third party. Addressing senior military officials on Tuesday, Shoigu accused the Ukrainian forces of firing 33 shells at the nuclear power plant over the past two weeks. The defense minister characterized these actions as nothing short of “nuclear terrorism.” According to Shoigu, Kiev is deliberately seeking to make a nuclear disaster at the site seem likely. “Our units are taking all [necessary] measures to ensure the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant’s safety,” Shoigu said.

Moscow has repeatedly made similar allegations against Kiev, with Ukrainian officials consistently denying they have targeted the power plant, and accusing Russia of the same. On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RIA Novosti media outlet that “there can be no talk of any Russian withdrawal or transfer of control over the plant to some third party.” She insisted that the facility is on Russian territory and is fully controlled by the country’s authorities. She went on to say that only Moscow “can ensure the physical and nuclear security” of the plant. Zakharova’s comment came after International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said on Friday that any deal for the protection of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant would involve the withdrawal of Russian weaponry from the premises.

Grossi told Italian journalists that he expects such an agreement will be reached “by the end of the year,” adding that Moscow is “not against an agreement and the principle of plant protection.” The largest nuclear power facility in Europe, the Zaporozhye plant was taken over by Russian forces in early March, days after the Kremlin launched its military operation in Ukraine. This autumn, four formerly Ukrainian territories, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, were incorporated into Russia following referendums. In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree proclaiming Russian ownership over the plant.

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Even though Hungary is already exempted from the price cap.

Hungary Raises Alarm Over ‘Critical’ Situation With Fuel Supply (RT)

The fuel supply situation in Hungary is “critical,” with people queuing up at filling stations across the country due to a sharp surge in demand, the country’s oil and gas group MOL announced on Tuesday. In an email statement, Gyorgy Bacsa, the company’s managing director, said that “panic-buying has started causing shortages” and that the only solution was to create conditions for increased imports. On Monday, MOL reported a shortage of fuel inventories across its entire network of filling stations after many people began stockpiling over the weekend. The company said that a lack of fuel was caused primarily by insufficient imports and a halt of the country’s major refinery due to maintenance. MOL added that it was trying to deliver more products from its processing plant in Slovakia but had “reached the limits of its logistical capacities.”


Earlier, a non-governmental organization called the ‘Association of Independent Petrol Stations’ reported that MOL had not supplied gasoline or diesel fuel to some petrol stations for the third week straight due to supply problems. On Tuesday, Bacsa confirmed to radio Kossuth that “the total capacity of MOL is not enough to meet the needs of the Hungarian market,” adding that about 30% more fuel needs to be imported. The development comes as the EU has introduced a ban on Russian seaborne crude along with a $60 price cap. Hungary, which is heavily dependent on energy supplies from Russia, has been granted an exemption from the price cap scheme. The country is a vocal opponent of Western sanctions and has repeatedly criticized the EU initiative, saying it’s “high time” Brussels realized that measures such as this “hurt the European economy the most.”

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“Global consumption, economic growth in the world must be provided with energy resources..”

World Will Still Need Russian Oil – Official (RT)

Russian oil will still be in high demand despite the latest EU sanctions on the country’s exports, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak said on Tuesday. His statement comes as the EU introduced a ban on Russian seaborne crude along with a $60 price cap. The latter measure has received support from G7 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) and Australia. According to Novak, this type of interference in market instruments will “certainly affect” the work of Russian companies and sales, but Moscow does not see “any tragedy” in this. “Global consumption, economic growth in the world must be provided with energy resources. There is not much oil in the world, and Russian oil has always been and will be in demand. Yes, supply chains will change,” Novak explained.

By imposing a price cap, Western countries will only trigger further energy inflation due to scarce supply, the minister said, adding that Russia views these types of non-market mechanisms as unacceptable. “This can only lead to a global decline in investment and a future shortage of relevant resources. This, in turn, will cause an even greater increase in prices, which we are seeing, including the gas markets, for example, where there was an artificial decision to limit long-term contracts,” Novak said. The official did not rule out a decline in Russian oil production amid the uncertainty following the sanctions, but said that it would not be big, adding that Russia “is doing everything to ensure that the situation is stable.”

The deputy PM noted that Russian oil and gas condensate production rose 2.2% from January to November in annual terms, to 488 million tons. Condensate output in Russia averaged 10.91 million barrels per day in the reported period, according to Reuters’ calculations.

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Nothing personal. It’s just business.

Private Spying Firm Targets Global Population With Illegal Spyware (GZ)

Leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone reveal how a smartphone tracking technology tramples over fundamental data protection tenets and international law, while violating the privacy of citizens across the world without their knowledge or consent. The clandestine tool can transform anyone into a potential person of interest to Western intelligence agencies, and thus a target for recruitment, surveillance, harassment, or worse. It is likely most readers will be unfamiliar with Anomaly 6. Its spartan, single-page website is home to the company’s name, a generic email address, and general location – Fairfax, Virginia, not far from CIA headquarters – but nothing about its services, personnel, or otherwise. By carving through layers of “anonymized” data, this little-known company unearths reams of sensitive information about any individual it chooses anywhere on Earth.

Anomaly 6’s activities amount to a globe-spanning criminal dragnet, the reach of which could well extend further than even that of the CIA and NSA. As we shall see, its founders are extremely wary of media attention, not least because they fear the “legal basis” of their operations “is unlikely to stand-up to scrutiny” given past successful court actions against state spying agencies, such as GCHQ and the NSA. The company, which was founded by a pair of US military intelligence veterans, surreptitiously embeds software development kits, or SDKs, in hundreds of popular smartphone and IoT apps, allowing it to track a user’s movements and much more besides. This data is then analyzed and the results passed on to private sector and governmental clients.

One confirmed customer is US Special Operations Command Africa, which paid Anomaly 6 $589,500 in September 2020 for a “Commercial Telemetry Feed”. In April, The Intercept reported on a leaked Anomaly 6 pitch for new business, in which the company claimed to be able to simultaneously monitor roughly three billion smartphone devices in real-time. To demonstrate its invasive prowess, Anomaly 6 followed the movements of hundreds of Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency employees at once via their smartphones. The anonymous source of the leaked presentation “expressed grave concern” about the legality of the company disclosing “social posts, usernames, and locations of Americans” to US government agencies.

The Grayzone can reveal that it’s not just US citizens, but the world’s entire population, in the firing line of Anomaly 6’s unblinking eye. And the company is secretly selling its hyper-invasive wares to a number of foreign governments, militaries and security and intelligence services. One of the most unsettling Anomaly 6 files reviewed by The Grayzone is a case study, demonstrating the company’s ability to track the “movements of individuals in completely denied terrain.” The firm identified 100,000 separate smartphone users who traveled to North Korea over a 14-month period, among them US citizens, “to show the value of our data” for both counterintelligence and source development purposes.

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“The whole strategy was overseen by Bankman-Fried’s father, Joseph Bankman, a Stanford Law professor.”

FTX Crypto Fraudsters Targeted Poor Black Neighborhoods (Shellenberger)

In the spring of 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, made Chicago its U.S. headquarters, drawing the applause of the city’s mayor. “This is a mechanism and a tool to bring traditionally underrepresented and ignored populations into the world of crypto so they can take ownership and control of their own financial destiny,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the opulent, 9,000 square foot FTX headquarters in May. “I think the sky is the limit.” The reason FTX.US chose Chicago was, in part, to use the city to pilot a cash giveaway program aimed at poor African American residents. FTX was essentially contributing to two ”guaranteed basic income” programs, one run by a nonprofit called Equity And Transformation (EAT), and the other by the city.

Ostensibly a charitable exercise, the program, which FTX also ran in Florida, expanded the market for FTX’s app, and appears to have been a crucial part of a public relations and lobbying effort aimed at winning the support of Democrats for FTX’s agenda to effectively regulate itself. Bankman-Fried was the second largest donor to both President Joe Biden in 2020 and to Democrats in 2022, after George Soros. There is abundant evidence that Bankamn-Fried’s donations bought influence. After Bankman-Fried testified in May to a Congressional committee chaired by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), she blew him a kiss. The episode is a cautionary tale about how powerful financial interests use progressive social justice ideology to advance their business interests at the expense of the communities they claim to be helping.

“We, like most nonprofits, are shocked by this because they presented this ‘effective altruism’ model to everyone and seemed to push for racial equity,” said Richard Wallace, the co-founder and executive director of EAT, one of the cash-giveaway initiatives. The whole strategy was overseen by Bankman-Fried’s father, Joseph Bankman, a Stanford Law professor. I am the first to report that Bankman had been working for FTX from the very beginning. “From the start [of FTX], whenever I was useful, I lent a hand,” said Bankman.

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Teacher’s unions.

Mask Mandate in Schools Based on Politics Not Evidence (DS)

IIn October of 2022, however, after repeated FOI challenges by our team and after the DfE had claimed that its paper trail could not be disclosed because to do so would constrain future policymaking processes, DfE officials have now finally provided access to some of their paperwork. Despite heavy redactions across the documents revealed by the DfE, the picture that emerges, and seemingly now confirmed by Matt Hancock’s diaries, is both astounding and deeply concerning. The first notable revelation is that the first time an evaluation of the masks in class policy was provided to the Education Minister, at that time Nadhim Zahawi, appears to have been on December 30th 2021. That is seventeen months after schools had first been advised by his department to require children to wear masks in schools. There was no assessment of harms for masks in schools under Gavin Williamson.

The second notable revelation is that more than one third of the DfE’s evaluation document supporting its briefing to the Minister was given over to concerns about the risk of teaching unions encouraging their teachers to walk out of schools on the insidious grounds that schools had become dangerous places to work. Those concerns were given materially greater airtime in that December 2021 briefing document than the few paragraphs devoted to the risks of harm for schoolchildren. It is evident that the adversarial approach of teaching unions had a material influence on the DfE’s advice to the Minister. The evaluation document notes that mandating the wearing of masks in school “could help reduce the risk of some teachers invoking section 44 of the Employment Rights Act” (a statutory provision that allows employees, exceptionally, to decline to work in materially unsafe conditions), a provision the NEU and Unison had apparently flagged to their members in January 2021.

It also cited surveys recording that 71% of Unison members had reported in March 2021 that masks in class were thought to be “an important safety measure”, and 79% of respondents to a private schools survey around the same time had “noted benefits of wearing face coverings in the classroom”. The deeply troubling implication of this limited and largely redacted paper trail is that policymaking within the DfE was led not by a rational evaluation of scientific evidence or after a weighing-up of actual and potential risks and harms for children against known or perceived benefits. Rather, the motivation for the August 2020 policy appears to have been a direct response to union-led pressures, and perhaps also to incitements from some elements of the mainstream media, who seemed intent on shutting down schools in order to ‘protect’ teachers and other adults. Any harms to children appear to have been of subsidiary importance to making adults feel safe.

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He’s 92 and proves addiction to power is absolute.

Soros Bankrolls 253 Groups to Influence Global Media (NB)

Leftist billionaire George Soros used his charities to build ties with hundreds of media organizations around the world involved in news and activist media. The journalism and activist media groups Soros supports mold public opinion on practically every continent and in many languages. They also insulate him from inquiry because reporters see him as an ally, not a target for investigation. The 92-year-old philanthropist’s multimillion-dollar efforts promoting his bizarre “open society” agenda encompass some of the most radical leftist ideas on abortion, Marxist economics, anti-Americanism, defunding the police, environmental extremism and LGBT fanaticism.


His global media clout is massive. An extensive analysis by MRC Business discovered at least 253 news and activist media organizations across the world financed by Soros’ philanthropic organizations. These groups wield massive power over information in international politics. This report is the first in a three-part series that reveals the extent of the reach Soros wields over international media to influence the world population. Soros once told The New York Times that he was working to “bend” the arc of history “in the right direction.” He means it.

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Lethal vaccination

 

 

 

 

Stossel “Science”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle December 7 2022

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    Rembrandt van Rijn Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem 1630   • Elon Musk Fires Twitter General Counsel James Baker (CTH) • The EU’s
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle December 7 2022]

    #122816
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Surely you jest; we’re suppose to follow this garbage? And then make sense of it?
    Not in my lifetime………….
    Oh, and todays art is awesome…….

    #122817
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Another day of corruption and lies in NATOstan.

    Another day of depletion of resources everywhere.

    Another day of accumulation of pollution everywhere.

    Another day of devaluation of fiat currencies.

    Another day of attacks by governments of NATOstan nations on the citizens of those nations, and attacks by NATOstan nations on other nations.

    Canadian Prepper noted that some of his commenters hoped for it all to be over.

    He reminds everyone that these are the good times, and once it all goes down those not wiped out fairly immediately by the lack of water, lack of food, lack of electricity etc. will be in survival mode.

    I came across a rather nice bicycle yesterday and today went for spare tyres and inner tubes. Also picked up a citrus tree.

    What struck me was the deplorable state of so many of the people I saw. I make no exaggeration when I say that two young women waddling into the store must have been at least 120 kg, i.e. around 60 kg above an appropriate weight.

    There were a few normal-looking people, perhaps and many as 30%. But around 70% were clearly 10-to-60kg overweight. And from what they were buying, it was evident that they were completely clueless about what is happening in the world and what is about to happen -possibly before the end of the year.

    Thankfully, since I no longer do Christmas, so I won’t get caught up in the frantic consumption mode that most of the populace is still trapped in, buying prettily-packaged garbage which is sold at high prices -Christmas being a completely fake festival, fake like everything else in the Empire of Lies, which is soon to become the Empire of Chaos

    For those who missed, check the end of the previous thread for the update on the latest criminality of the totalitarian fascists who are abusing the populace of these isles on a continuous basis

    Even the name of the place is fake, an Anglicised version of a region of Holland. Well maybe not. A region near Holland.

    Perhaps we should start referring to this land mass as The Land of the Long White Cloud -Aotearoa. We’re not even sure that that is genuine. But it is more appropriate that the NZ thing.

    Perhaps we should only use the term New Zealand when talking about the business company (corporation) owned by the City of London and operated from London, with local managers like The Scorpion and Fatguts doing the much of the lying and orchestrating much of the abuse of the populace.

    #122818
    oxymoron
    Participant

    When you control the fuel and the food supply you can control the people. CBDC’s will come pretty soon now and become tied to your behaviour around your carbon use. It is tradeable so rich people can use more carbon, ie go where and when they want.
    Me I’m gunna be a weed pushing through the concrete they try to pave over nature with.
    One day they will run out of energy and all the little weeds like me will devour the concrete and we wont know it ever was there…

    You can’t control nature.
    Nature controls you

    #122819
    Germ
    Participant

    #122820
    Oroboros
    Participant

    December 7th, a day of infamy

    when 81 years ago the Japanese bomb the underwater pipeline from Hawaii,

    cutting off all gas supplies to California

    #122821
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The computer generated (from sculptures) portrait of Alexander of Macedonia

    That’s Great!

    .

    #122822
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Dave Collum think’s he looks like he played varsity lacrosse for Yale and works at a Hedge Fund

    #122823
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Forgot: BlackRock is in crisis, refuses Housing Fund withdrawals, and we’re still at the tippy-top. So Blackrock, largest ever, Trillionsssssss under management, has no liquidity. I’m sure it’s nothing.

    Btw, “Trillions” under management? True. Non-stop pushing agendas that lose money? True. But BlackRock itself is only $6B. That’s a 1000:1 ratio?

    “DNC, Media Collude to Suppress Story … about DNC, Media Colluding to Suppress Story” –BBee

    Shapiro pointed out that the fact that all media everywhere suppressed the Hunter story is the real story, as it tells us there is something worth covering up. If it were nothing, wouldn’t they let it run? Make the Right look stupid?

    “We Are Not “Enabling” or “Encouraging” Ukraine To Strike Within Russia: White House: Three long-distance attacks on Russian bases in 24 hours…”

    Oh heavens not involved at all, just those attacks happened the minute NeoCon Victoria Nuland landed.
    “U.S. Bombs Russian Nuclear Base”

    “US Nuclear Submarine ‘Buzzed by Underwater Object’ Traveling ‘Faster than Speed of Sound’: Scientist”

    Russia calling: it’s for you. You and your Sopwith Camel F-35 and 40 year old subs.

    After “DNC, Media Collude to Suppress Story About DNC, Media Colluding To Suppress Story” –BBee

    “Media Declining to Report on Major News Story Unsure Why Americans Going to Alternative Sources For News” –BBee

    “Goldilocks War – Orlov” https://thesaker.is/the-goldilocks-war/ (Biased, but worth reading)

    I would say the same about America. And for the same reason. We are a colony, occupied by a foreign power, and we look and act like it. Lira was doing ex-pat talk about it, how run down all the cities are, but how nice and friendly American (and Canadian) people are. Yes, like the Native Americans before us. WE are nice. And colonized and extracted, beaten daily. And note the cities too, or they wouldn’t look like garbage-strewn collapsing nuclear war zones. (Socialism: a weapon more thorough and devastating than bombs)

    Where’s the money going if we don’t see the money going to, I dunno, King George III or something? Well, the new stealth bomber — that can’t be used since Russia S-400 will blow it up in 30 seconds, and isn’t necessary since we invented this “Missile” and “Drone” thingy — costs $1 Trillion. Maybe we could fix some bridges and stop homelessness with that? Maybe Jimmy gets the GI Joe with the super kung fu grip this year? And pay for a new American city on Mars? This is a Trillion dollars we’re talking about.

    Looked at another way, a weapon so expensive all Russia has to do to bankrupt us and win is blow up just one of them. And also our other non-equipment, like HIMARs at $100k per shell, but it’s less clear and less obvious there. But the F-35 is “Stealth”. Yet they never put it anywhere Russia’s weakest, oldest air defense can reach it! Some stealth that is, because it’s not. Yes, it’s smaller, but when they started – in the 1990s! – Russia just added radar bandwidth that made them mostly visible again. “Here’s $10 bucks: gimmie some bandwidth.” Raytheon paid Congress to not notice this and keep the cost doubled for no effective reason – and the plane far more fragile and harder to repair. And as expected impossible to use.

    “FBI Investigates Gun Attack on North Carolina Power Grid”

    Like the D.C. Bomber, they plan to start looking and asking about it 12 months from now. Thankfully, being the FBI, they don’t know what people, they don’t know the location, and they don’t know what guns. I’m sure Trump will be arrested for it soon.

    “I am requesting former senior @Twitter employees Vijaya Gadde, Yoel Roth, & James Baker to appear before @GOPoversight in the 118th Congress. “

    We plan on giving them a medal.

    “It wasn’t just Twitter that sabotaged the disclosure of Hunter Biden’s corruption. It was Democrats in Congress. It was FBI leadership” Or more accurately, Government/DNC leadership.

    Yes, the FBI lawyer involved in election-rigging in 2016 moved over and did FBI election-rigging at Twitter in 2020. Then started an FBI cover up of FBI election rigging when Elon tried to release the files. …That was only yesterday.

    So…somebody going to be arrested? “We plan on giving them a medal.” And yes, someone will be arrested for the FBI election rigging at Twitter, directed expressly by Congress and the DNC: Trump.

    (Btw, I suspect this is why they kept Baker there, AND released the files on the worst newsday: Friday at 5pm. Now BAKER is the top news, and the FBI, not Twitter and Elon.)

    “FBI agent Elvis Chan” detailing how they were committing 1st level Human Rights violations, in direct suppression of Free Speech.

    “Judicial Watch – Elon” Yes, this is why the Government cannot be allowed to become so large and powerful. They now have influence everywhere, over everything, so obviously they use the influence to help their friends and punish their enemies. And there is no known cure, as you can’t arrest them: for the laws they themselves make? In the courts they themselves own and run? The only cure is to distribute the power so they cannot simply “investigate” everyone, for everything, about rules so broad they apply everywhere. Under a “balance of powers” …which always decays as all three Balances are themselves, “government”.

    P.S. distributing power is also cheaper and easier, both for it’s own sake, and as it removes layers upon layers of corruption overhead.

    As to which side Elon is on: “Billionaires are not your Friends.”

    “Notorious right wingers Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald”

    “Right Wing” “Extremists” are defined as “All humans who speak.” Okay. Should be easy to win elections then. You’re the one who told me I was a Republican and should vote that way when I was still just following Bill Clinton’s Election Platform.

    “For the time being, let’s ignore the second meaning and focus on the ethnic/cultural roosski. To try to find a good definition, let’s being by spelling out what a Russian is not. This is not somebody who speaks Russian. There are plenty of folks out there who speak Russian and who are not Russian. This is not somebody born in Russia, because there are plenty of non-Russians born in Russia. How about somebody born from Russian parents?”

    This is my problem of defining “Racism”. What “race” are you talking about? What is it? Clearly, you’re just making stuff up that is essentially irrational, illogical, and doesn’t really exist, then trying to apply a hazy cloud in a highly precise and definite way.

    Maybe it’s more like Scientific Accuracy, or rounding to significant digit, a type of scaling problem. They take racism – or “Russianism” – to be accurate to 0.001 digits every day, while the actual accuracy of the idea is like 1,000 – Rounding to the nearest thousand, not thousandth. Since both sort of exist, and look similar, it makes sense the two could be conflated as both “Real” while an enormous, planet-sized error was being made.

    “Ukraine Trying to Drag US into War – ex-CIA Officer (RT)”

    Maybe? So “Ukraine” broke every treaty since 1990 as NATO expanded to their borders? Then Ukraine said “F—k the EU” and created their own coup? When 51% of Ukrainians had voted the other way? Then amassed an army and borrowed their own weapons from Germany and the U.S.?

    …Err, maybe not. Maybe NATO, or some slice thereof, was trying to drag NATO into war, using Ukraine as a location. Or since NATO got no Army, they, Europe was was dragging/forcing the UNITED STATES into the war on their behalf. And are still doing so now. That makes a little bit more sense.

    He tried to do that with the missile that was misdirected, possibly, and wound up in Poland and killed two people”

    …That was supposed to blow up that fertilizer depot. “Thank God for that one Polish farmer” they said, “Who took pictures immediately so everyone knew the missile was Ukrainian.” That wasn’t supposed to happen if it hit the fertilizer bomb.

    So now, after non-stop bombing nuclear power plants, Ukraine/USUK are bombing Russian nuclear bases. Comments, Redneck? This is equivalent to Russia taking out the grid with 80 missiles and killing only 8 people? “You don’t have to be a weatherman…”

    “And there can be. So, that’s another crucial issue, is Ukraine’s sovereignty and security in a non-NATO manner.”

    I believe they already signed that treaty years ago, in Turkey. NATO broke it, and Ukraine, who vowed to get nuclear weapons. “Not Agreement Capable.”

    “To demonstrate its invasive prowess, Anomaly 6 followed the movements of hundreds of Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency employees at once via their smartphones.”

    Yes, anything we can do, China can do. Remember they tracked all the CIA black sites using “FitBit” data? Yet they are both so arrogant, or perhaps so racist, they think they are the only humans who are able to click “Sort database”. Um, no you glue-sniffing crayon munchers, EVERYONE can click “Sort database.” You are not a special snowflake. You have put your entire nation at risk, the dumbest guy in the room told you so, and you still won’t stop.

    If so, and IF they won’t stop even for national security, who is THEY? A group that profits and succeeds by it even if the Pentagon, CIA, fall? People and organizations that can afford this data that you can’t? “Armies” don’t work for “Nations” anymore: that’s last-century thinking.

    “Mask Mandate in Schools Based on Politics Not Evidence (DS)”

    They specifically ran, then released the official CDC experiment on this, August 2021. Science and data had no effect on humans or the CDC’s behavior. Because they are not #Science, they are an #AntiScience Religion. Follow the Science that Follows the Money. Also shows the Teachers are highly irrational, and not Scientific in the slightest. That’s why we hire them! They have no knowledge.

    “The 92-year-old philanthropist’s multimillion-dollar efforts promoting his bizarre “open society” agenda encompass some of the most radical leftist ideas on abortion, Marxist economics, anti-Americanism, defunding the police, environmental extremism and LGBT fanaticism.”

    Quite a grab-bag. A lot of them clash very strongly, like LGB and Islam. What do all these different initiatives have singularly in common? Divide and Conquer? Or Replace the State with corporations and private money?

    #122824
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Progress is Our Most Important Product

    The trillion dollar F-35 ‘Lardbucket‘ can NOT fly at speeds above the sound barrier (Mach 1) because as an official statement from the Military Industrial Mafia says, “it damages the airframe”

    Wow, a trillion$ ‘fighter’ that can’t even takeoff with the full compliment of munitions it was design for and can’t fly faster than sound.

    The Legendary F-100 Super Sabre: America’s First Supersonic Jet (October 1954)

    https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/legendary-f-100-super-sabre-americas-first-supersonic-jet-183289

    It cost $664,000 (approximate) back in the day and actual flew faster than the current F-35 Lardbucket

    .
    .

    #122825
    Germ
    Participant

    Your baby now belongs to us!

    “A baby who urgently needs heart surgery has been placed under guardianship of the High Court until completion of his surgery and post-operative recovery.

    Te Whatu Ora asked the High Court to take over guardianship of the baby, whose operation had been delayed because his parents did not want doctors to use blood from anyone who had the Covid-19 vaccine.”

    The service does not make a distinction between vaccinated and unvaccinated donors and has said there was no extra risk posed.

    “Haematologist and transfusion medicine specialist Dr Jim Faed said there was no evidence of any risk associated with blood from a person who has been vaccinated against Covid-19.

    Any vaccine in the blood was broken down quickly after the injection, he said.”

    No wonder the medical profession is now so distrusted.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/480297/high-court-takes-guardianship-of-sick-baby-at-the-centre-of-dispute-over-donor-blood

    #122826
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Earlier, a non-governmental organization called the ‘Association of Independent Petrol Stations’ reported that MOL had not supplied gasoline or diesel fuel to some petrol stations for the third week straight due to supply problems.

    WEF ensuring that Hungary fails despite government attempts to save the economy.

    #122827
    Germ
    Participant

    BMJ – British Medical Journal

    “Conclusions – Our estimate shows that university COVID-19 vaccine mandates are likely to cause net expected harms to young healthy adults …”

    https://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2022/12/05/jme-2022-108449

    #122828
    Germ
    Participant

    Nate Hagens had Art Berman explaining how everything is running on diesel, very good listening.

    #122829
    Oroboros
    Participant

    “US Nuclear Submarine ‘Buzzed by Underwater Object’ Traveling ‘Faster than Speed of Sound’: Scientist”

    The F-35 Lardbucket can’t even FLY through the air faster than the mystery object whizzing by the Empire of Lies 20th century sub.

    I smell defeat in the air.

    .

    #122830
    Germ
    Participant

    Man of the Year

    #122831
    Germ
    Participant

    Inflation

    #122832
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Gee, thanks, Cucklanta!

    Democratic Senator Warnock wins Georgia runoff against Walker

    (Significant because this gives the Biden Democratic Party an outright majority in the Senate instead of the “tie majority” they had previously.)

    #122833
    zerosum
    Participant

    Modern Warfare need electricity to recharge batteries

    1. radio communications

    2. “Eye in the sky” (Drones of different classes Mavic 3 combo, M30T, Enterprise,)

    3. Cell phones

    4. Thermal Night Vision Binoculars

    5. targeting spotter

    #122834
    zerosum
    Participant

    My way or the highway
    Gov. are shaking in their boots.
    Conspiracies of “coup d’etat” are everywhere.
    Pre-emptive actions to neutralize oppositions.

    #122835
    Henry
    Participant

    With reference to the FRED graph of “Liabilities and Capital”:

    1. Did the Fed lose money the SNB swap?
    2. Or

    3. Could this be the Fed bailing out the UK Pension program?

    Just wondering?

    #122836
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Any country that is not already energetically addressing every aspect of the full spectrum its of its Defense Force’s capabilities has already lost the current fight by a country mile. It takes TIME and RESOURCES to gear up for military confrontation. Those who are not already producing at near maximum would be better advised at this time to concentrate on minimizing political and financial losses when interacting with the winner in the very near future. That would include all of NATO, incidentally, and not a minority of the current “neutrals”.

    It is not a comfortable feeling, but reality (as has been pointed out many times) doesn’t seem to care all that much about people’s feelings.

    #122837
    Germ
    Participant

    Association between vitamin D supplementation and COVID-19 infection and mortality

    ” …vitamin D3 and vitamin D2 supplementation reduced the associated risk of COVID-19 infection by 20% and 28%,…”

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-24053-4

    #122838
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    zerosum

    You don’t understand. The NATOstan military-industrial complex is on the brink of releasing onto the battlefield a wide range of solar-powered tanks, solar-powered missiles, solar-powered aircraft, and clean-green hydrogen-powered artillery systems that will ensure success in NATO’s war to acquire control over Russia’s oilfields.

    Other developments in Criminal-clown-world include the first crop of potatoes grown on Mars and the first cruise ship to sail across the Seas of the Moon.

    The dawn chorus has started (5:12 am). I’m pretty sure the birds I can hear are real.

    #122839
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Though I suppose given how close that race in Georgia was (Warnock won by less than one percent), I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that the Democrat Party’s post-Trump cheating-machine put this race just barely in the bag for them.

    #122840
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    This gem from Charles Hugh Smith was written in 2008 and republished in 2021:

    The Art of Survival, Taoism and the Warring States

    https://www.oftwominds.com/blogmar21/survival-taoism3-21.html

    #122841
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I feel these may be the finest Post-Modern Era Xmas lyrics written:

    They said there’ll be snow at Christmas
    They said there’ll be peace on earth
    But instead it just kept on raining
    A veil of tears for the virgin birth
    I remember one Christmas morning
    A winter’s light and a distant choir
    And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell
    And their eyes full of tinsel and fire
    They sold me a dream of Christmas
    They sold me a silent night
    And they told me a fairy story
    ‘Till I believed in the Israelite
    And I believed in father Christmas
    And I looked to the sky with excited eyes
    ‘Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
    And I saw him and through his disguise
    I wish you a hopeful Christmas
    I wish you a brave new year
    All anguish, pain and sadness
    Leave your heart and let your road be clear
    They said there’ll be snow at Christmas
    They said there’ll be peace on earth
    Hallelujah, Noel be it heaven or hell
    The Christmas we get we deserve

    I invite you to investigate the story of their writing. Pete Sinfield had a remarkable childhood, and grew up to be a first-rate poet

    ***

    I appreciate more and more zerosum’s unique tangent of approach to things.

    ***

    Not to take away from the prowess of a (presumably) Russian torpedo, I’ll note that the speed of sound underwater is 3,000 mph, so there are no shock wave issues traveling underwater at, say, 800 mph, a little over Mach 1.

    That said, googling the quote, I find that “Nuclear submarine ‘buzzed by underwater object travelling faster than speed of sound…The incredibly encounter – which took place in the late 1990s – has come to light after a scientist on board decided to speak to a YouTube channel and reveal his terrifying experience”.

    A late 1990s time frame files this event under ‘UFO’ not ‘Russian/American arms race’.

    While the “lardbucket” is indeed lardful, its primary purpose was not to fly fast itself but to cast broad detailed and accurate radio maps by which to launch very fast and accurate missiles and so forth. Flying real fast heats up an airplane’s surface until it glows hot and emits all kinds of electromagnetic signals that make a jet easier for enemy air surveillance to detect. Of course, the lardsters sold it as being all purpose including supersonic maneuvering but that’s what lardsters do.

    Said primary purpose seems meaningless to me in today’s satellite-saturated skies with advanced anti-missile systems able to knock out anything that the USA launches.

    ***

    As for Zelensky being a NATO puppet: I believe that is a one-sided metaphor. I see Zelensky’s relationship with USNATO more as a tar-baby relationship. Zelensky surely has mega kompromat on Biden/Billary/u-name-it, which is probably why he hasn’t been taken out by Natostani missiles. (Why hasn’t Russia done this? Not their fight, I suppose. Russia has a very clearly defined military agenda whose successful fulfillment without imperial mission creep will make it Good King Wenceslas of the World after the Fight for Ukraine is a) lost and b) no longer serves the current USA regime’s political interests. Russia is doing on a geopolitical total war scale what the WWII Nazi General Rommel said was the primary reason that his battle plans – good or bad – were executed to well:” “First, I tell them what I am going to tell them. Then I tell them. Then I tell them what I told them.”

    Russia has been telling USA and the world since 2015 what it was going to do (if we didn’t stop savaging them and the world in general). Now it’s doing it, which is very telling, yes? When the dust has settled, it will tell us what it has done and what that means.

    The world will trust Russia. The world will very officially no longer trust USA. Russia will have the most of what everyone wants, and we will have the least. Russia will have at least half a plan, and we will have maybe half an ass left for someone to kick.

    ***

    As for wiki left-wing bias: be careful what you wish to be canceled. Especially careful should be those who revile cancel culture (as i do, for example) You’d miss wiki overall very much if it were gone. This seems increasingly likely since they now berg for money several times a week rather than 2-3 times a year.

    Other than current news, wiki is an excellent free source of highly useful info without which we’d be in the informational Dark Ages, wiki being virtually the only real encyclopedia left. I suppose that Elon has considered purchasing wiki. An info campaign against it would further its financial distress and improve his chances of wiki accepting a purchase offer from The One M(o)us(e)keteer.

    ***

    Today’s Yogi tea tag soundbite: Your greatest strength is love.

    Relevant song: L’amour

    ***

    The Xmas music never stops: A winter’s light and a distant choir, and the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell, and their eyes full of tinsel and fire

    ***

    Partridge/pear tree:

    #122842
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Life.Better.Dog.

    #122843
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Standby for cheap and secure energy supply!

    The United States and the UK announced on Wednesday a new energy partnership in which they will work together to bring global energy prices down and boost energy security.

    Under the ‘UK-US Energy Security and Affordability Partnership’, the two allies will look to reduce global dependence on Russian energy exports, stabilize energy markets, and increase collaboration on energy efficiency, nuclear, and renewables, the UK government said today.

    Senior officials from the UK government and the White House will lead the new UK-US Joint Action Group, which will work to cut global reliance on Russian energy sources, advance renewables and green hydrogen use, and promote civil nuclear energy. […]

    U.S., UK Launch Partnership To Boost Energy Security And Lower Prices

    https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-UK-Launch-Partnership-To-Boost-Energy-Security-And-Lower-Prices.html

    F.S.

    #122844
    Germ
    Participant
    #122845
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    WHy do I love and revere Xmas so much? Because it’s the one time of year in which one can give a good damn just for the sake of giving a good damn without requiring a specific cause celebre’. Oh, we loony humanoids of course fight over it, insisting it align with our preferred celebrated cause, be it Jesus Is the Reason for the Season or snuggly PJs and mulled egg nog, but at the end of it all, we’re all reduced to, “Well, it’s XMAS!!!” and that can mean anything to anyone anymore.

    What Christmas means…
    …is anyone’s guess. What Santa Claus
    And caribou might share in cause
    With three wise men in turbanned gauze
    Or Mary’s child, or Rome’s tax laws

    Is none too clear but filled with good.
    How crucifix and manger wood,

    Or desert palm and evergreen
    Can somehow altogether mean
    A wished-for-world of pure intent
    Where all the best is what is spent

    Is moot. No less, it’s nice to know,
    That Arab sand and winter snow
    Can form mosaics in the mind
    Of all we dream that’s good & kind.

    Those shepeherds out there with their sheep
    Who, wakened from their frigid sleep
    By angel song and quasar light
    Are those I envy most that night.

    The star placed on a crucified tree
    To grace our potlatch spending spree

    Can only shine and share its light:
    It’s what stars do, it has the right.
    To give us wonder and delight
    As day succumbs to winter night.
    Robin Morrison, 1995

    #122846
    Oroboros
    Participant

    from bosco:

    “…The world will trust Russia. The world will very officially no longer trust USA. Russia will have the most of what everyone wants, and we will have the least. Russia will have at least half a plan, and we will have maybe half an ass left for someone to kick….”

    Putin, being trained through and through as a lawyer, has proceeded according to some, with a maddeningly controlled restraint vis-à-vis Ukronaziland and it’s Main Pimp, the Empire of Lies.

    Damn, he is a patient dude.

    .

    Nazilensky is indeed having his beauty pageant ground up in the sausage factory of ‘Never Fight a Land War with Russia in Eurasia’.

    The latest Ukronazi drone strike against Russian airbases just proves that the Russians are not omnipotent and have a few Holes in Their Bucket.

    I have confidence the Russians will learn from their mistake, unlike the Empire of Lies, which couldn’t find it’s own ass with both hands.

    #122847
    Germ
    Participant

    Z

    #122848
    Noirette
    Participant

    Top post, Jeffrey Sachs: https://bit.ly/3P7LiVL

    JS is Chief of the UN Sustainable Development Group, and advisor to Gutteres (UN head) for some matters economic. Idk what position, what influence he wields. So, anything coming from his mouth or pen cannot be trusted (ask afewk.) Rightio.

    Some high-up figures, perhaps Macron in first place, others, note JS quotes Macron amply, are calling for negotiations re. the US-Nato — Russia proxy war in Ukr.

    JS, quotes: “There is no military way out” – “A disaster for everybody, a threat to the whole world.”

    At heart, those calling for ‘diplomacy’, ending the killing in towns and fields, and sitting down at the table, whether sincere or not, are peace-washing their images: We tried, we wanted, we did out best, etc.

    USuk (poodle EU, NATO) has clarioned that Russia must give up Crimea, the Donbass, all ‘occupied’ lands. This hard line has held fast for now, *ensuring* that no negotiations can be engaged in from the Russian side, as they cannot ever give up Crimea and some parts of East Ukr. Macron and the like ignore that or pretend to do so. So the war goes on.

    Oroboros, Alexander looks very like Macron.

    #122849
    Just Some Randomer
    Participant

    @Germ #122847

    What a shame that Time didn’t select this image for their notorious ‘Person of the Year’ cover. You should have seen the alternative pictures they considered for their 1938 Hitler edition.

    #122850
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    A Beautiful Thing… not the “singing” that so bemuses the audience, but the relationship tween man and dog and the mystery of what happens between them, a thing that can only be real, not codified into the abstractions of language and meaning.

    ***

    “…the Russians are not omnipotent…”

    I wasn’t aware that anyone suggested or believed they were, including the overwhelming majority of Russians. I am quite sure that they expected that there would be counter-strikes and some of them would hit.

    I don’t see any “maddeningly controlled restraint” on Russia’s part. They’re systematically turning Ukraine into a winter unterland. Their economy is on a major roll from all this nonsense. I see them just following their plan, adjusting where necessary because any good plan acknowledges that reality isn’t in on anyone’s plans.

    I just see a war; one side deliberately fighting to win, the other side fighting to lose both deliberately and because it has no other choice.

    The health status of Russia’s population, however, looks as bad as, say, USA/Canada/EU/ AUstralia/NZ. THis fact may prove to be more influential on Russian and global affairs than this martial Ukranonsense.

    #122851
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Yesssssss!!!! Zelensky becomes Time’s Man of the Year. Joining Hitler and Stalin. But also Biden, Merkel, Zuck, and Greta.

    Shouldn’t be long now.

    In similar world, “What Would Happen If Russia and the US Went to War?” – Infographics.

    Comedy Gold! Short answer: Everything the U.S. does is good and right and works, everything Russia does is stupid and wrong and fails. Therefore, like any good video game, we win! And take no casualties, Russia doesn’t bomb, sink, or nuke anything, anywhere, by anybody in the whole wide world. Nope: they stick strictly to theatre and American-ordained tactics. Just like Gen. Ripper in the U.S.-Iraq war games…oh wait: Ripper cleaned the clock of the U.S. in 12 hours, demonstrating the U.S. was useless, pathetic, and would be sent packing by Iraq. My bad.

    The whole channel (YouTube now makes you want to claw your eyeballs out by auto-playing no matter what you do, choosing only Derp State-approved materials, and even started up a STOPPED player and making it play an hour later, on autoplay) so the whole channel has non-stop, on loop forever videos about how everything Russia does is stupid and they’re losing. In fact, never in history has Murphy ever visited America, not once! Ukraine will be in Moscow by Jan 1, as Russia collapses from the weight of their low morale and lack of patriotism. No joke!

    The interesting part is, I THINK this is the ear-wash D.C. and the entire West goes to sleep with. F-35 greatest fighter ever! U.S. whips them in logistics and moves the entire U.S. Army and 1,000 75-ton Abrams across an ocean and another continent to Kiev, while Russia fail in logistics that has zero miles because “they use trains.”

    I’d say it’s Comedy Gold because it aged so gracefully, but the interesting part is that the West continues to say and believe all the same things. I haven’t heard such self-pleasuring glad-handing since CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin on a Zoom call yesterday.

    But as they orgasmically fantasize, they also inform Russia about their every infantile plan. Key one repeated is that Russia will run out of high-tech missiles so that the West can invade with impunity (and also to attack the F out of Kaliningrad). Um, guys? Russia can watch YouTube too, you know. So they both are very careful not to run out, to shelter their planes for the upcoming Western invasion after London believes they have used all the brown people Slavs as appropriate cannon fodder, and can attack a hollow force. This is why they’re so apoplectic about Russia NOT doing a Schwarzkopf on Kiev. Their job is like the A-Team, to shoot bullets wildly and miss everything, OUR job is to hit “Up Up, Left Arrow, Down” and win. Just like I did for my test scores at Yale! So obviously Putin is cheating.

    Also a real roll call and roster of every propaganda word and method, from Putin being a “Crazy Dictator” for being elected, while Ze, outlawing opposition parties and jailing them, is “Fighting for Democracy.” But also that using civilian goods on the ground is a sign of “Courageous resolve” by Ukraine, but “Pathetic corruption and poor planning” by Russia.

    As said before, they HONESTLY BELIEVE that Russia is the USSR in 1979. Literally. Time has not moved for them, nothing has ever happened since then. Now I know all our leaders are like 90 years old and grew up with Pennyfarthing Velocipedes, but really. And also that it’s 1979 in America and we have manufacturing as accurate and reliable as AMC Motors at our disposal.

    Really, most are long (~20min) but really worth the time.

    If you’re not done giggling with hysteria at their presentations, read the comments. All from yesterday, all saying “Wow, this aged like fine wine! It’s clear Russia already lost and retreated to Novosiibirsk in TikTok tears (Leave Brittney Alone!) in dread fear of Ukraine’s LGBT shock troops.

    Where does it end?

    #122852
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    We often ask ‘Are they that stupid or that evil’? concerning various persons in higher power. That question’s two option form basic poles of much conspiracy theory discussion: one side thinks that TPTB have Final Solution plans and the means to execute (;) ) them; the other side thinks it’s a matter of incompetent deranged greed, most of it in the form of what Raul calls “little managers”. I obviously lean to the latter but would not be all that surprised if it was the former. Any contention I experience with ardent True Believers of the ‘Final Solution by TPTB’ is not what they believe but the tendency of that camp to insist they are right, period, and those who don’t believe them are naive credulous fools unwilling to face the alleged facts… although the facts that would prove them right are never supplied any more than I can prove that it’s mostly a “little managers” phenomenon.

    My problem with the Final Solutionist True Believers is the same one I have with fundamentalist Xtians who insist that they “KNOW their God is Real” and it is my fault for not believing, if only I’d open my heart, some day I’ll see that They Are Right. But these remarks are just indulgent prelude to comments on a remark I saw: “The increasing unseriousness in the comments sections here on the Darpanet is one of the few things presently worthy of comment.”

    I read such things and feel compelled to wonder: Is it that clueless paranoia or is it just another bot sowing some weird kind of incohesion? The main goal being, like all such bots, to either spread disinformation or encourage combative contentiousness and suspicion among commenters?

    I just don’t get it. Oh, I’ve questioned the genuineness of a few posters here. I have no prob with that. In this online medium, it’s not undue caution to entertain or ask such questions. Call me a bot and I feel kinda cool:

    But to make it virtually one’s entire form of commentary outside of sharings that would certainly qualify as “unserious” in terms of geopolitical discussions and ruminations on the overall human condition… that’s strange. Strange enough to trigger my personal “uncanny valley”sense toward such posters.

    Life in the 21st Century involves some very strange magic. (One of the few ELO songs I enjoy.)

    #122853
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “It’s clear Russia already lost and retreated to Novosibirsk in TikTok tears (Leave Brittney Alone!) in dread fear of Ukraine’s LGBT shock troops.”

    Now that was a good one. I have to crossbreed it and imagine Ukraine’s LGBT shock troops wearing holographic glasses showing TikTok screens of the infamous Leave Britney Alone video while chanting that very slogan. That’s some seriously good absurdist comedy.

    Ukrainian recruitment agent. Chris Crocker of LBAlone fame all grown up.

    Oh yes, almost forgot: these are vewwy vewwy seweeyuss times. Nobody laugh. We will now observe 5 minutes of silence for Britney, Chris Crocker, any anyone/thing not serious to be taken seriously while we laugh at them.

    #122854
    zerosum
    Participant

    Bullshit
    Protests – save our planet

    Meeting should be in Mariupol Ukraine
    https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/wildlife-plants-species/biodiversity/cop15.html
    UN Biodiversity Conference: COP15 in Montréal

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