Jan 022023
 
 January 2, 2023  Posted by at 10:03 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Edward Hopper Burly Cobb’s House, South Truro 1930-33

 

Drone Attacks Continue On Kyiv And Eastern Ukraine (BBC)
Nancy Pelosi Is Stepping Down As US House Speaker, And Few Will Miss Her (RT)
Twitter’s COVID-19 Censorship Led to Loss of Life – Dr. Scott Atlas (ET)
Fauci Fibbed on the Day Everything Changed (Tucker)
How China Changed Its Zero-COVID Policy to a ‘Zero Non-COVID’ Policy (ET)
States Grand Jury to Hold Big Pharma Accountable for Covid Vaccines (BN)
Elon Musk Says He Is ‘Open’ to Idea of Buying Out Major Media Companies (BN)
In 2023 It Will Be All About The Dollar (Macleod)
USD Exchange Rates Hit Foreign Exchange Reserves (WS)
My Prediction On What 2023 Will Bring (Varoufakis)
1 Year On, EU Alternative To China’s Belt And Road Fails To Deliver (SCMP)
New Year, New Things (Denninger)

 

 

 

 

Free Assange

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Difference between BBC and RT is remarkable.

Drone Attacks Continue On Kyiv And Eastern Ukraine (BBC)

Air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv on Sunday night as the latest wave of drone and missile strikes from Russia continued. An attack which began shortly before midnight targeted critical infrastructure, Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said. One man in Kyiv was injured by debris from a destroyed Russian drone, the capital’s mayor said. The attacks have continued for several days over the New Year period. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Armed Forces said 400 Russian soldiers had been killed in on New Year’s Eve in Makiivka, in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region. In a rare move, pro-Russian authorities admitted to casualties. But Russia refused to confirm the number of deaths, and the BBC is unable to verify this.

It comes after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wished for victory and a “return to normal” for Ukraine in 2023. In a new year address on Russian TV, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would fight to protest its sovereignty and independence. Kyiv’s military issued a warning of the latest attacks just after 01:00 (23:00 GMT) on Monday. “Air attack on Kyiv… Air alert is on in the capital,” it announced on the Telegram social media site. Serhiy Popko, the city’s military administration head, told people to stay in shelters. Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported an explosion in Kyiv’s northeastern Desnyanskyi district and said emergency services were attending. “An injured 19-year-old man was hospitalised in the Desnyanskyi district of the capital,” he said.

Mr Kuleba said the weapons were Iranian-made Shahed drones, adding that they were “targeting critical infrastructure facilities”. “The main thing now is to stay calm and stay in shelters until the alarm is off,” he said. It comes after a barrage of attacks on New Year’s Eve, which killed at least one person in Kyiv. Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for several months, destroying power stations and plunging millions into darkness during the country’s freezing winter.

Read more …

“Yeah, we completely agree with Satan on everything.”

Nancy Pelosi Is Stepping Down As US House Speaker, And Few Will Miss Her (RT)

The 118th United States Congress will be inaugurated on January 3, 2023, ushering in a number of changes, including Republican control of the House of Representatives and an attendant flip of the office of the speaker. That means that long-time Democratic Party leader Nancy Pelosi will have to give up her gavel and hand it over, most likely to Republican leader Kevin McCarthy. This has been Pelosi’s second tenure as speaker, as she served the first time from 2007-2011 and made history during that time by being the first – and so far only – woman to hold that title. Indeed, Pelosi’s record as the third-highest constitutional officer in the US has been historic – but maybe for some reasons that aren’t so savory. For one, the California Democrat is a notorious self-dealer. For instance, Pelosi was one of the most high-profile members of Congress implicated in a five-month corruption investigation by Business Insider.

She is reported to have deep holdings in companies such as Tesla, Disney, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), and Meta (Facebook’s parent company), which she is directly responsible for regulating as a member of Congress. And it should also not be a surprise that she has repeatedly come out against barring members of Congress from trading stocks and other financial assets, even if she did an about face when public pressure mounted. “We are a free-market economy. They (members of Congress) should be able to participate in that (trading),” she told reporters in December 2021. There is actually an argument to be made that indeed members of Congress should be able to engage in such investments. After all, they have to pay two sets of housing costs in their district and in the notoriously expensive Washington, DC area.

They also have to pay all of their own traveling expenses to and from their district. And they have to do all of that, plus probably also have a family, with a salary of $174,000. It’s not all that glamorous when you think about it. But if we look at Pelosi’s net worth of $114,662,521, according to 2018 data by OpenSecrets, then we can see that this argument hardly applies. In fact, if you look at the chart of her individual wealth over the years, you’ll notice that her wealth exponentially increased with her position as speaker. It’s like her power in Congress directly translates to her own personal wealth accumulation – which, I think we can all agree, would be the definition of corruption. Along with being greedy, the outgoing speaker is a devout war hawk. She once told reporters in Damascus in 2007, during George W. Bush’s presidency, that “there is no division on policy between us and President Bush, be it on Israel, Palestine or Syria.” For anyone familiar with Bush’s genocidal Middle East scheme, this is basically like saying, “Yeah, we completely agree with Satan on everything.”

[..] To put in perspective how unpopular Pelosi is, according to Public Policy Polling, a higher share of Americans believe that JFK was killed by a conspiracy (51%) and that Bush intentionally misled the public on Iraq’s WMDs (44%) than like Pelosi, with just a bit less (37%) thinking global warming is a hoax. For the sake of our country, it is to be hoped that the 82-year-old will retire from political life after her term as speaker comes to a close. But unfortunately, as is ever the case with Pelosi, her career might just outstay its welcome and drag on endlessly.

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Atlas was completely silenced by Fauci and Birx. Strange story.

Twitter’s COVID-19 Censorship Led to Loss of Life – Dr. Scott Atlas (ET)

When discussing censorship, there are often “vague implications” on the effects of that restriction. But by censoring medical science and health policy, “you are killing people,” Dr. Scott Atlas firmly stated in an interview that aired on Newsmakers by NTD and The Epoch Times on Dec. 28. “Censorship of the correct science and medical information, during this pandemic, absolutely killed people. It prevented people from making intelligent decisions. It prevented people from making the appropriate use of caution,” Atlas alleged of Twitter censoring doctors such as himself. Furthermore, Atlas charged, Twitter’s censorship was particularly “harmful” and “shocking” because the United States was founded on freedom.

“This kind of censorship was, in my view, unheard of in the United States,” Atlas stated. “It’s reminiscent of everything that we, as a free society and democracy, abhor about countries that are authoritarian, like China, the former USSR and now Russia, North Korea. “This is the kind of censorship that occurs in those countries. And now it’s occurring in our country.” According to Atlas, censorship at the government’s behest isn’t limited to social media and is far more insidious than first imagined. “It’s not simply blocking information. It’s also—being less overt about it—it’s limiting the public’s access to information. It’s impugning people who are speaking correct information,” Atlas said.

In Atlas’s view, there was only one acceptable COVID-19 narrative at the height of the pandemic, and that was the one put forward by those in authority, specifically Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx. Consequently, when other health authority figures, such as Atlas, advanced conflicting information, the above authorities enlisted help from the media to squash that dissent. “Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, etc., went to their friends in the media and undermined people like me. Who, in fact, were saying what was correct, what has been validated as being correct this entire time. “But the reality is, yes, the censorship of science kills people. And it killed people during this pandemic. There’s no doubt about that,” Atlas stated.

Read more …

“..he threw around so much data confetti that a person could have easily believed that he was downplaying the severity to promote calm. His intention was the opposite.”

Fauci Fibbed on the Day Everything Changed (Tucker)

Anthony Fauci is finally gone from his government perch. Let us recall that it was he who set this calamity in motion, squandering his credibility, while taking down public health and much else with it. More than anyone, he bears responsibility, even if he was acting on others’ behalf. That is especially true if he was carrying out a hidden agenda (take your pick of theories). There was already growing political and societal panic on March 11, 2020, when the House Oversight and Reform Committee convened a hearing on the new virus circulating. Fauci was the key witness. The only question on everyone’s mind came down to the most primal fear: am I going to die from this thing, like in the movies?

This was one day before Trump’s announcement of the travel ban from Europe, the UK, and Australia, essentially sealing the borders of the US to an extent never before attempted, thus separating families and loved ones and trapping billions of people in their nation states. It was five days before the evil declaration by all health authorities to immediately shut down all places where people could congregate. These few days will remain a case study in irrationality and crowd madness. Fauci, on the day of his testimony, however, seemed like a paragon of stability. He was calm and clear, nearly bloodness in his tone. The substance of what he said, at the same time, was clearly designed to generate panic and create the conditions for a full lockdown.

He had the countenance of a doctor who was telling the family that a beloved father was terminally ill with 30 days to live. In particular, and in contrast to the testimony prepared by CDC/NIH, Fauci spoke to the severity of the virus. To the average member of Congress, the answer here was crucial because it addressed the only two serious issues: “Am I going to die?” and “Will I be blamed and politically punished if my constituents die?” To this, he responded with what seemed like science but was actually completely wrong, dreadfully wrong, catastrophically wrong. He claimed that we knew for sure that at best Covid was 10 times deadlier than the flu. In fact, he threw around so much data confetti that a person could have easily believed that he was downplaying the severity to promote calm. His intention was the opposite.

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Pushing infection?!

“A local official in Shanghai told The Epoch Times on Dec. 27 that his office had received instructions to do whatever it could to push the city into the COVID peak status.”

How China Changed Its Zero-COVID Policy to a ‘Zero Non-COVID’ Policy (ET)

“Zero non-COVID” is the name that people in China are calling the regime’s new pandemic management policy. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has aggressively pushed the whole country towards an all-COVID-positive state. China’s annual rubber-stamp legislature is usually in session during the month of March. It is widely expected that the coming session will focus on saving China’s economy because it is on the edge of collapse after the three-year long zero-COVID policy. Party leader Xi Jinping is clearly willing to pay any price to reopen the country. Government employees of Chongqing City and Zhejiang Province received notices telling them return to their offices to work even if they have tested positive for COVID-19, as long as their symptoms are mild.

The total population of Chongqing City is more than 31 million, and Zhejiang province more than 57 million. Rumors on the Chinese internet talked about local governments of Chongqing City and Zhejiang Province being criticized by Beijing because these regions were too slow to reach a high percentage of COVID positive patients. A local official in Shanghai told The Epoch Times on Dec. 27 that his office had received instructions to do whatever it could to push the city into the COVID peak status. “Let those who are supposed to become positive become positive, and let those who are supposed to die, die,” said Song Wen (pseudonym). All state-owned media are mute about the current situation in the country, and reports from different government agencies are conflicting.

The Zhejiang Provincial government recorded one million new COVID cases on Dec. 25, while the Chinese national CDC only reported 2,983 new cases in the whole nation for the same day. The regime announced that on Jan. 8, 2023, China will totally reopen travel in and out of the country, which has triggered concern in countries around the globe. Italian officials reported on Dec. 28 that 50 percent of passengers on two flights from China tested positive for COVID. China, a country with a population of more than 1.4 billion, moved from the zero-COVID policy to a zero non-COVID policy within a month. The sudden change has left health experts worldwide feeling uncertain, because the explosion in COVID cases in China may lead to the whole world being exposed to new variants.

The Western media have widely attributed the sudden policy change to the late November White Paper protests against the zero-COVID policy in China. However, according to World Health Organization (WHO) emergencies chief Michael Ryan, the COVID spike in China was not due to the lifting of the government mandated restrictions. Before the policy change, “the disease was spreading intensively because I believe the control measures in themselves were not stopping the disease. And I believe China decided strategically that was not the best option anymore,” Ryan said.

Read more …

Wonder if this can/will carry over into other states. Perhaps not even necessary, depending on what they find.

States Grand Jury to Hold Big Pharma Accountable for Covid Vaccines (BN)

A states grand jury to investigate Big Pharma for civil and criminal wrongdoing related to its COVID-19 mRNA vaccines has been approved by the Supreme Court of Florida. “A statewide grand jury shall be promptly impaneled for a term of twelve calendar months, to run from the date of impanelment, with jurisdiction throughout the State of Florida, to investigate crime, return indictments, make presentments, and otherwise perform all functions of a grand jury with regard to the offenses stated herein,” the court order stated. “The Petitioner, the Honorable Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, has alleged that good and sufficient reason exists and that it is in the public interest to impanel a statewide grand jury, with jurisdiction throughout the State of Florida, to investigate crime, return indictments, make presentments, and otherwise perform all functions of a grand jury with regard to the offenses listed,” the court order continued.


The grand jury probe will have sweeping scope and will include many targets for investigation.Those include: “Individuals, persons, and entities, including, but not limited to, pharmaceutical manufacturers (and their executive officers) and other medical associations or organizations involved in the design, development, clinical testing or investigation, manufacture, marketing, representation, advertising, promotion, labeling, distribution, formulation, packing, sale, purchase, donation, dispensing, prescribing, administration, or use of vaccines purported to prevent COVID-19 infection, symptoms, and transmission.” The grand jury will also investigate “other criminal activity or wrongdoing that the statewide grand jury uncovers during the course of the investigation if it determines that pursuing the criminal activity or wrongdoing is in the best interests of the investigation.”

Read more …

“The legacy media should worry about its reputation,” Musk retorted. “We have only just begun.”

Elon Musk Says He Is ‘Open’ to Idea of Buying Out Major Media Companies (BN)

Billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk is entertaining the idea of buying out top digital media companies. Journalist and media commentator Dave Rubin started a Twitter thread discussing the tremendous influence that Google and YouTube have on the nation’s politics. “Let me get ahead of this one right now…” Rubin tweeted. “I think YouTube’s (and Google’s) manipulation for political purposes is FAR worse than Twitter’s.” “And we might find out as @rumblevideo will get discovery in its lawsuit against Google…” Rubin added. One user suggested Musk should try to buy Substack, which is a subscription-based platform used by many influential journalists.“You would have the information layer with Twitter and the narrative layer. Corporate media would then have specialize on reporting government leaks, from ‘people familiar with the matter,’” the user said.

Musk responded by saying: “I’m open to the idea.” Earlier in December, Musk also suggested he could try to buy Wikipedia, but was informed it was not for sale by its founder Jimmy Wales. The “Twitter Files,” a series of releases on Twitter showing the prior regime’s coordination between Big Tech and U.S. government agencies, has been spearheaded by a number of notable journalists, such as Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Michael Shellenberger. The subsequent Fauci Files and forthcoming Covid Files have additionally spurred independent journalistic accountability that has been denied by corporate media and the U.S. Congress. On Wednesday, Musk dropped a ‘Fauci bomb’ that exposed Twitter’s extreme bias on Covid issues.

“Almost no one seems to realize that the head of bioethics at NIH – the person who is supposed to make sure that Fauci behaves ethically – is his wife,” Musk remarked. “‘Gain-of-function’ in this context is just another way of saying ‘bioweapon’,” Musk added. “Some good nuggets in article. Important to note that Fauci authored 2012 paper arguing for gain-of-function research! Obama wisely put this on pause, but Fauci restarted it.” “Despite these glaring issues, Twitter nonetheless had an internal Slack channel unironically called ‘Fauci Fan Club’,” he added. Dr. Pierry Kory in a Twitter Spaces on Wednesday praised Twitter for providing a forum for physicians and policy critics to discuss the pervasive bias in medicine, which would help correct the “information assymetry” that has been perpetuated by the mainstream media and in medical journals.

Elon Musk also fired a warning shot to the corporate media about his mission to protect free speech and develop a forum for actual journalism. His response came after an attack by Axios reporter Hope King on CNBC, who said that his “reputation is in danger.” “The legacy media should worry about its reputation,” Musk retorted. “We have only just begun.”

Read more …

“Putin [..] probably has a greater influence on the dollar’s future than the US Treasury and the Fed combined.”

In 2023 It Will Be All About The Dollar (Macleod)

One of the factors which supported gold in the final quarter, offsetting moderate ETF liquidation of about 300 tonnes over the year has been central bank demand, which the World Gold Council estimates to have been 364 tonnes by October. Including more recent purchases by China and others adds nearly 300 tonnes. The Chinese purchase was confirmed in recent days by Mark Bristow, CEO of Barrick Gold, the world’s second largest gold mining corporation, who claimed China had bought “tonnes of gold around the high 200-tonnes mark”. Why China has bought this gold, when it has ample bullion additional to its declared reserves, is an interesting question. The answer probably lies with President Xi’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia, where it was agreed that sales of oil would be paid in yuan, replacing the petrodollar with petroyuan.

According to Aljazeera, Saudi exports to China are worth $33.4bn equivalent, while its imports are $31.8bn, so the net surplus is $1.6bn. The official communiqué referred to “levelling up trade, investment and financial cooperation”. We know that China is keen to internationalise its markets, which is what investment and financial cooperation is about. The international section of the Shanghai Gold Exchange will be used by Saudi Arabia for its yuan to gold transactions. It is therefore likely that some of China’s purchase of nearly 300 tonnes in recent weeks will be to provide liquidity to backstop this market. With regard to prospects for next year’s gold price, it should be noted that the major factor will be the fate of the dollar. It appears likely that dollar oil prices will increase in the coming months, while foreign holders of dollars will continue to reduce their dollar exposure, which in the year to October declined by $3.8 trillion.

But a rising interest rate trend leading to falling financial asset values and the petroyuan replacing the petrodollar, events could coalesce into a perfect storm for the dollar. This is not how conventional analysts look at the gold price. They would argue that higher interest rates, if they occur, will drive gold lower. But that is an argument that denies the role of gold as money. Tell that to President Putin, who by cornering global hydrocarbon supplies probably has a greater influence on the dollar’s future than the US Treasury and the Fed combined.

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Still amazed at the strength of the USD in the face of so much opposition.

USD Exchange Rates Hit Foreign Exchange Reserves (WS)

The last three years were complicated for the dominant reserve currency. At first there was the Fed’s $5-trillion money-printing orgy and interest-rate repression. Then there was raging inflation, which the Fed brushed off as “transitory.” Through this period, the dollar fell against other currencies. But then the Fed got religion and began to tighten: since March 2022, it has hiked rates by 425 basis points, accompanied over the past six months by $414 billion in QT so far. As a result, the dollar bounced off and shot higher against other currencies, particularly the euro and the yen – the #2 and #3 reserve currencies.

At the end of Q3, the share of US-dollar-denominated foreign exchange reserves rose to 59.8%, the third quarter in a row of increases, and the highest since Q3 2020, according to the IMF’s new COFER data on reserve currencies. Since the end of 2021, the share of the dollar rose by nearly 1 percentage point. But this increase came off a 26-year low at the end of 2021. Note that this does not include the dollar-denominated assets on the Fed’s balance sheet, but only dollar-denominated assets held by foreign central banks and foreign official institutions.

[..] The euro is the second largest reserve currency. The Eurozone encompasses 19 countries with a population of 340 million people. Over two decades ago, when the euro was being promoted to Europeans, they often talked about “parity” of the euro with the dollar on all levels: as global reserve currency, as trading currency, and as financing currency. This reserve currency parity made progress until the Euro Debt Crisis brought to light the euro’s structural weakness. And that put an end to this parity talk. Since then, the euro has had a share of about 20% of global reserve currencies (in Q3, 19.7%), about as large as all also-rans combined. But it was far below the dollar (black line, red dots in the chart below).

The yen (purple line at the top of the colorful spaghetti at the bottom in the chart) had a share of 5.3%. It became the #3 reserve currency in 2018, when its share surpassed that of the British pound. The British pound, the #4 reserve currency, had a share of 4.6% (blue line just under the yen in the spaghetti). The Chinese renminbi, the #5 reserve currency, dipped to a share of 2.8% in Q3 — only 2.8%, despite the huge size and global interconnection of China’s economy!

Read more …

“..the designed irrelevance of the European Union.”

My Prediction On What 2023 Will Bring (Varoufakis)

This will be the year that Europeans realize the designed irrelevance of the European Union. The quagmire in Ukraine’s killing fields will bring on the realization of the need for a diplomatic process to end the war, but also the realization that the EU is radically incapable of playing any significant role in it. Who will represent Europe in these talks? The EU’s eastern and Nordic governments trust neither Paris nor Berlin – without whom, however, there can be no EU role.


On the economic front, the German mercantilist economic model will remain broken even as inflation abates – with dire repercussions for a eurozone still reliant on German surpluses. Europe’s deepening economic and geopolitical woes will, naturally, reinforce America’s hegemony and, with it, exacerbate its chosen policy of escalating a new cold war with China. Caught up in all this, humanity will be spending another year not investing in the green transition on which our species’ future hinges.

Read more …

Competing with the BRI is just a weird pipe dream. They wanted to do it in a year. China’s been building it for many years.

1 Year On, EU Alternative To China’s Belt And Road Fails To Deliver (SCMP)

In December 2021, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stood on a Brussels podium and confidently announced that the European Union’s new infrastructure drive would be a “true alternative” to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. “We are able to do that. Countries made their experience with the Chinese investments. They need better and different offers,” she said of Global Gateway, a spending drive that promised to mobilise up to €300 billion (US$318 billion) by 2027 for modern infrastructure projects outside the EU. With some blowback forming towards China’s trillion-dollar plan to connect China with the rest of the world after high-profile allegations of “debt-trap diplomacy”, both Europe and the United States were positioning to offer a different model, grounded in democratic norms, transparency of funding, and with sustainable objectives.

But one year on, observers are growing increasingly sceptical about von der Leyen’s claims. So far, Global Gateway has delivered plenty of hype, but little in terms of concrete projects, while confusion reigns in Brussels and beyond about what the initiative actually is. At a hearing in the European Parliament last month, lawmakers pressed officials for details, only to learn that none of the €300 billion would be “new”. “Global Gateway does not bring new financial means – there is no additional money when it comes to the EU level,” said Vincent Grimaud, an acting director in the commission’s department for international partnerships. The statement sparked incredulity from members of the parliament. “There’s no new money. And I’ve always held the view that if there’s no new money, there’s no new policy,” said Barry Andrews, an Irish lawmaker with the centrist Renew group.

“This is a communications exercise. It’s a strategy to put together what was already going to happen and present it as something new. And if our partners are tricked by this, then more fool them.” Hildegard Bentele, a German member from the centre-right European People’s Party, said she had been trying to find German companies who are “part of this adventure”, but had failed to locate any. “If I talk to journalists, journalists are asking me what are these Global Gateway projects? If I go on the website of the European Commission, I do not find it – this is really difficult,” she said. The commission’s efforts to promote the initiative have added to the bemusement. A recent gala event held in the metaverse to explain the Global Gateway concept to 18-35 year olds was lampooned online after just a handful of users logged on – despite the EU forking out €387,000 (US$410,000) to host it.

Read more …

“..the utter failure of the “green energy shift” in the face of real-world tests..”

TVA=Tennessee Valley Authority.

New Year, New Things (Denninger)

So it is January 1st, 2023. Those reading this made it there. That’s good, I think. With that said here’s some “news” on The Ticker itself and my intentions going forward as to focus. You can take it for whatever you think its worth, but this, from my perspective, is the right way to look at things in the world. Of course there is room for plenty of other opinions all over the ‘net and so-called “traditional media” too, so it is what it is. If you remember a big shift occurred during the second Trump impeachment coverage, which I was doing on a daily basis, including most days a podcast. That of course was Covid, which showed up right on the tail end of that. That chapter has run in America and even the “mainstream media” is reporting that (like it or not, politicians) running stories about, for example, Atlantic City and its prospects forward – – and that they’re now returning to their regularly-scheduled debate (like, for instance, can you smoke in a casino?)

We’ve got plenty to talk about, such as, for instance, the utter failure of the “green energy shift” in the face of real-world tests. In a just world people would already be in irons and headed for prison; TVA, for example, was only able to produce 68% of its claimed capacity when all of it was required. WPLN tries to blame this on “natural gas being the bet” but in fact the reality of it is that TVA has shut down what was plenty of coal capacity and they did it on purpose over the space of years without replacing that with known reliable generation. In the summer the peak of demand tends to mostly-track with when the sun is up because its hottest and, while the peak shifts a bit off noon its not at 3:00 AM. In winter it is every time; its coldest when there’s no sun at all and thus the solar generation capacity is always zero at the times of peak demand in winter.

Thus any solar you put in must be counted as zero in the winter months when things get nasty, because it will either be snowing, icing (both of which wildly cut solar cell output) or at 3:00 AM when there’s no solar radiation available at all. Wind has similar issues; you can fit windmills with heating systems but obviously they require energy and they have both a lower and upper wind limit where they either produce nothing of value or must be intentionally shut down to avoid destruction. Thus you can’t count them as anything other than zero in the winter because you can’t count something that is less than 100% available, with proper maintenance and such, as “there.” We also know that in the face of such nasty weather EVs are worthless too. They’re nice secondary vehicles, basically, but when you must be able to rely on them they’re just not up to the job. People are figuring this out and that will continue; in short how you were sold these cars and light trucks was a lie and worse, the people selling them knew all that as they did the engineering on them.

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Richard Fleming

 

 

 

 

Bernardi WEF

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle January 2 2003

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 46 total)
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  • #124847

    Edward Hopper Burly Cobb’s House, South Truro 1930-33   • Drone Attacks Continue On Kyiv And Eastern Ukraine (BBC) • Nancy Pelosi Is Stepping Dow
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 2 2003]

    #124851
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Denninger is correct to look back to look forward at the ticking of the markets but I think this ‘ole Vax scene has a few more acts left.

    Also Digital certificates via gov ID will be a big one.

    Any votes on what’s “Yuuuuuge” in 2023?

    Neo Bio-weaponry via neo natality fatality

    China ist ze noo Russia?

    I look forward to your prognostications as always

    #124859
    Oroboros
    Participant

    I have very, very little respect for Varoufakis

    I followed Max Keiser and Varoufakis debating back when Greece was being gang raped by Germany and the EU commission.

    Varoufakis sold Greece down the river with his limp wristed positions.

    “This will be the year that Europeans realize the designed irrelevance of the European Union. The quagmire in Ukraine’s killing fields will bring on the realization of the need for a diplomatic process to end the war, but also the realization that the EU is radically incapable of playing any significant role in it.”

    ~Varoufakis

    Russia will NEVER trust the Collective West again in at least a generation.

    Maybe if the mobs in the various Eurotard ‘countries’ (cough,gag,cough) presented Russia with the severed heads of their respective leaders on pikes, well, maybe the Russians would throw Eurotardistan a glance. But short of that bloody gesture, no, Russia will never ‘negotiate’ with the ‘agreement incapable West.’

    Let them descend into violent feral chaos and a Dark Age for a century or two. That might clear Eurotardistan’s fogged brains and twisted consciences.

    “….Caught up in all this, humanity will be spending another year not investing in the green transition on which our species’ future hinges…”

    ~Varoufakis

    Wow, crawl back into your privileged playboy showboat life Yanis and smoke another pipe dream.

    .

    #124860
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Truro is dunes at the tip of Cape Cod.

    “’Radicalized’ Times Square Attacker Was on FBI Watchlist”

    Of course he was. And he was a domestic, southern-talking, bible-thumping white supremacist? Nope, a converted Muslim in Maine. Fail. Don’t worry: the narrative won’t notice.

    “Pelosi was one of the most high-profile members of Congress implicated in a five-month corruption investigation by Business Insider.”

    That must be a dog’s age ago. We haven’t had media in years.

    “It’s like her power in Congress directly translates to her own personal wealth accumulation”

    She has $114M (officially) but is 82. What good does the money do her? Here’s the tip: they need the money to defend from attacks on them and their corruption, all the other people they hurt to get there. So it’s a spiral, a death trap. Not to be envied, it demonstrates idiotic strategy and planning. Very stupid, but sometimes you get in before it occurs to you.

    there is no division on policy between us and President Bush, be it on Israel, Palestine or Syria.”

    Pelosi says there’s a uniparty, the Democrats are not different, and Dore has now been 10 years getting anyone to believe it. The Republicans 30 since Gingrich. Do you think she is lying? Or not lying? The answer is the same.

    BTW read a forwarded Hudson Institute review on what do do with Russia after. https://www.hudson.org/foreign-policy/preparing-final-collapse-soviet-union-dissolution-russian-federation

    Like to do a review, but it’s the same old. And a word soup. It’s not that they think Russia is the USSR, although they do. It’s not that they intend to get in, cause unrest, kill people, fund wars, break them up and steal everything forever, although they do. It’s that as the Neocon mouthpiece, their paradigm is actually an airtight echo chamber that is richly-created at this point. It’s like Game of Thrones fan fiction where all the questions about Cerce’s childhood, what languages they speak and food they eat have been answered. But answered by being entirely fabricated by the fans themselves. So like fiction, every phrase in their White Paper is “authoritarian” “lack of democracy” “dictator” “Violent”, although obviously Russia is a democracy, perhaps more than ours, and is not violent either compared to our top 20 cities, or our 50-year war record. So they just “make s—t up” but because it’s a fan fiction fantasy that looks vaguely similar to real life, they don’t care/can’t tell. Like how Iraq will greet us with flowers. When they don’t, nothing adjusted, carry on. Psychosis.

    But this is the “No division of policy” between D and R, with 200 of 300 members of Congress participating. There’s only a few rebels and they are censored, even if they’re the last remaining anti-war Left.

    “Twitter’s COVID-19 Censorship Led to Loss of Life – Dr. Scott Atlas (ET)”

    Let’s say this another way: Twitter’s Censorship prevented medicine. And as Musk said yesterday, prevented Science. It was directly #AntiScience. It’s exactly as if Thalidomide was discovered and leaked and all the doctors issuing warnings were silenced. That’s not a metaphor, it’s just replacing the name of one drug scandal with another.

    ““..he threw around so much data confetti”

    My point exactly, like chaff used for aircraft defense. You fill the air with shiny tinfoil to baffle the missiles. It’s meant to confuse and distract. Fauci’s confuse and distract was to say everything and its opposite, one at a time as if he believed them.

    In a flip of Pelosi, he’s 80. So he can’t possibly serve enough jail time to matter and we don’t match up the cumulative annoyance with open torture. Sadly, is it better just to expose them, right the country and carry on? Probably. But who wants that, emotionally? Since WE are the government, and WE blew it, WE approved it, WE stomped around and trampled each other, then should the weight of our ire be only on Fauci?

    Con men know you can’t con someone who doesn’t want to be conned. Who isn’t also guilty and participating. If we’re the government, WE need to go to jail. But it seems we’ve already paid for our crime.

    “The Zhejiang Provincial government recorded one million new COVID cases on Dec. 25, while the Chinese national CDC only reported 2,983 new cases”

    Not to be stupid, but do they finally have working tests? And since everyone “has” Covid, if you “get” it a second time – like a common cold – does it matter? You’re essentially immune. A: Don’t care: we’re the Government. Do What You’re Told.

    “Musk also suggested he could try to buy Wikipedia, but was informed it was not for sale by its founder Jimmy Wales.”

    The other founder said it’s a useless, biased platform now that needs major reform. But Wikipedia has been doing the usual fundraising – fine, no argument – then merely bankrolling the cash. So it’s Wales’ personal multi-million dollar slush fund, money not used to fund Wiki. Why? I guess we don’t know yet, but there’s a similar pattern in Clinton charities, etc. My guess is the “collateral” make him able to borrow “Interest free loans,” both halves of which would be accounting fraud.

    “Fauci authored 2012 paper arguing for gain-of-function research! Obama wisely put this on pause, but Fauci restarted it.”

    Restarted illegally. As a felony. In direct affront and rebellion to Congress.

    “Still amazed at the strength of the USD in the face of so much opposition.”

    It would be interesting if this WAS the US$ blowoff strength. Just being masked by other weaknesses. Seems like something like this doesn’t go out with a whimper, but something we’ll recognize and hasn’t happened yet.

    US$, EUR, Yuan, all going away. Or co-existing with the new. Although each is founded differently, they’re all “national” currencies, and untrustworthy. That’s why you can’t see it on these charts. What if all of the other 100 currencies increase 2% each? China isn’t claiming gold settlement, but if they just HAPPEN to import private-market gold that just HAPPENS to match their import deficit? What can the U.S. say? It’s all a giant coincidence, a thing they like best, as everything in America is a big coincidence.

    “Caught up in all this, humanity will be spending another year not investing in the green transition on which our species’ future hinges.” Really, Varoufakis? After Germany you still say this?

    Be Lyin’ “would be a “true alternative” to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.”

    Where? They can’t even wire up Portugal. And the world has long seen how Europe acts in Africa and Indonesia. They cut down every forest to grow Palm Oil that doesn’t turn the dial on energy use. They’re useless beings. Psychosis. “Shovel Ready”. They think saying the thing IS the thing.

    ““This is a communications exercise.” “A recent gala event held in the metaverse”

    I think that “handful” was less than 50. Like total joke. If they’d held a raffle at the same time they could have given $100K to each guest. (But they probably do anyway.)

    “while the peak shifts a bit off noon its not at 3:00 AM. In winter it is every time”

    Every engineer knew this. Every user knew this. Every Johnny NASCAR told you. They did it anyway.

    What is it that we can’t stop these people and hold them to account? The PMCs are like the House of Lords. BTW there’s no sun in winter even during the day. Because more atmosphere, the angle attenuates the power pretty noticeably.

    Healthiest places: that is quite a grab bag of unrelated factors. Food price x Sunlight chart? Why not add access to Netflix or empanadas? Miles to nearest ski resort? Internet had someone not moving to Maine because of pollution. Okay. But it was the 200-year year pollution? Huh? Back when we used to pollute by dumping fish heads in the Merrimack? There may even be pollution somewhere in Maine, but it’s sparsely populated and shouldn’t be hard to tell. Even in Chernobyl I’m sure there’s a nice little area somewhere. All real estate is local? Your life is specific to you and your habits, where you go, what you like.

    The chart just bashes Russia. And Greenland, I guess. If you’re one of the farms around Amsterdam right now, your life is just like being shelled and forecably removed from Kharkov. You’re arrested for posting online in Stockholm. Shouldn’t that matter?

    #124861
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Some say things can’t go downhill that long.

    Some say it’s amazing how somethings can continue to go downhill

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1465122147383185410

    #124862
    Oroboros
    Participant

    #124863
    zerosum
    Participant

    “New/True definition of Censorship”

    (read slowly to obtain the full implications/impact
    Read the examples presented by TAE)

    Restrict the access to the truth, information or the opinions, or to confuse and distract, to prevent the exposure or hide the errors, hide the stupid/ignorance, hide the criminal activity, or reduce the influence, or hide the wrongdoing/corruption, or fabricate a scenario, hide the lies of the enforcers, administrators, leaders, and influencers to avoid negative kickbacks/accountability/that would tarnish a reputation and to influence/manipulate/coordinates/control societies response.
    ———-
    When will censorship/propaganda/lies about the truth, concerning Ukraine’s killing fields, bring on the realization and activate a diplomatic process to end the war and deaths.?
    ———

    #124864
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Unrestrained Jeffery Sachs:

    #124865
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Crooke:

    Today’s western ideology was fundamentally cast through the radical shift in the relationship between state and traditional society – first promoted during the French revolutionary era. Rousseau is often taken as the icon of ‘liberty’ and ‘individualism’, and remains widely admired. Yet here we already experience that ‘nuancing’ of language that metamorphoses ‘liberty’ into its converse – an anti-political, totalitarian colouring.

    Systems Dynamics Follow Their Own Rules – and Not Groupthink

    #124866
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Because we are so utterly reliant on information which can (we believe) only be obtained from others we are extremely vulnerable (and susceptible) to lies and error. Let me repeat that using different words, because the fact is absolutely key to this essay. If you must have some item of information, and that item is only obtainable by accepting it from someone else, then you are extraordinarily vulnerable to that “someone else”. If the data they give you is false, for any reason whatsoever, then YOU are toast.

    Obviously from this, and this fact too is crucial to my argument, the control of that flow of information is DIRECTLY proportionate to the control of the efficacy of those people’s interactions with each other and their environment. In other words, to control others consists of controlling the information that they take in and send out. What do they accept? What do they reject? What do they assert? What do they deny? What should they DO !? What should they abstain?

    All that chitter chatter among our cohort, and then acting (or not!) based on that chitter chatter (plus a smidgen of our own direct observation) is how we get through the day. EVERY day.

    All of us do this because we must (in order to get through the day alive and well). Some of us do it better than others, and skill levels vary. Therefore it can be said with complete certainty that SOME people do it BEST. Those are the people who “control” the world to whatever extent that it is actually controlled. Once again let me say that again in different words. To whatever degree that a thing as messy as the real world can be controlled at all . . . and that topic is an entire other ferocious debate . . . it is controlled by those who are good at controlling others by means of controlling (by fair means or foul) the flow of information TO and FROM those people.

    The disgusting dog’s breakfast that such a state of affairs causes is the reason that MOST people, the vast vast majority, choose to opt out of the lying dog fight just as much as they can. They choose to devote AS LITTLE TIME AND ATTENTION POSSIBLE to the cesspool which develops in and around the control centers of society, the so-called “Halls of Power” and snake pits of crime.

    I understand their attitude . . . BUT! . . . . I feel obligated to inform them that the CONSEQUENCE of opting out of that shit storm is that such an opt-out automatically results in being even more dependent on other people to know what is really going on so that they can report it to you, and thus more vulnerable to them being mistaken or deliberately deceitful.

    Here’s my point: our flow of information is being seriously fucked with by the BEST liars, who have had entire lifetimes devoted to mastering those skills and devising time tested means of collaboration between each other for mutual benefit.

    The task is straightforward. Find them or fail.

    #124867
    zerosum
    Participant

    our flow of information
    New years day conversation with two 20 year olds university student

    Q.: Who do you think is winning the war? Ukraine/Russia?
    A.: Dhuuu
    (Note: It’s that age group being killed in Ukraine)

    Q.: What do you think, China, ended Covid zero
    A.: Dhuuu

    Q.: Did you hear about Freedom convoy? Emergency Act?
    A: Yah. That was in Ottawa.

    Q.: What about inflation?
    A.: Hummm. We each got a great new action computer game. What about you?

    Communication failure

    #124869
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    @D Benton Smith: Find them or fail.
    ____________________

    For the individual, all is dependent on assertion and honest appraisal. Trouble is the assertion comes before discovery for vast! Most assert by innate, immediate feelz!

    #124870
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    When do economists get things right?

    When reporting past events. And then not always so.

    When did The Economist get things right?

    Same answer.

    #124871
    John Day
    Participant

    @Dr.D: That Hudson Institute article about the imminent collapse of Russia was included in the latest from The Ethical Skeptic, as an example of the deeply entrenched neocon viewpoint, which seems to be so very distant from the model of reality many of us here have, from the information we see.
    No model is “reality”, of course.
    https://theethicalskeptic.com/

    #124872
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    ‘It comes after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wished for victory and a “return to normal” for Ukraine in 2023.’

    I too wish for victory -by the Russian Federation. Like many other people, I am more than thoroughly sick of the fascists of Kiev and their fascists sponsors in London, Washington, Ottawa, Canberra, Wellington and Brussels.

    And a return to normal for Ukraine in 2023 is underway –normal being no access to electricity.

    I don’t wish for that, as such, for the rest of the world, but it is inevitable, so we might as well prepare for it by not buying an electric car or by not upgrading electrical appliances..

    Not that I have sufficient access to digital fiat currency (which is rapidly being devalued by the managers) to upgrade anyway.

    Since ‘the actors’ continue to acquire enormous short-term benefits from their staged performances, they will continue to perform.

    “Show me the money.”

    “How would you like to be paid? Digital fiat currency? Property? Gold?”

    “Yes please.”

    “Which?”

    “All of them”

    #124873
    John Day
    Participant

    The lady who was arrested for “praying in her head” near a UK abortion clinic, in an “exclusion zone”, created to prevent the intimidation of clinic employees, presents an interesting way to dissect the law.

    The clinic was closed. She was alone and stood silently until questioned by police.
    “Praying” was conceived in one way when it was included among public acts which could intimidate employees, but standing alone silently was not what was envisioned. Standing alone silently, thinking prayerful thoughts, is either standing alone silently, or it is a crime-of-undisclosed-thoughts, which were later disclosed under intimidating police interrogation.

    My fairly brief search reveals that the media has dropped this story. I cannot find the current specifics of the charges. This is really, truly worth following as a “test case”.

    #124874
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Out of curiosity, I clicked on a weather information website for the place I live and came across the following, under the heading ‘Activities for a cloudy day’:

    ‘The relaxed rural town of Amberley is primarily a service centre for local farms and wine growers, but it’s also home to some of the area’s best cafes and craft shops.

    There are mountain views to the north and south, with Amberley Beach just a minute down the road. The beach has a seemingly endless coastline and is an excellent place for a stroll.

    Visitors also enjoy Amberley for its country pursuits, which include horse riding, wine tasting, surfcasting, fly fishing, farm visits and garden tours. The Amberley Beach golf course delivers sweeping views of the sea.’

    The writers of this neuro-linguistic programming crap neglected to mention that the road to the golf course was washed out a few months ago by a combination of sea level rise and an unprecedented storm, and to get there from Amberley in ‘just a minute’ one would have to travel at around 300 km an hour.

    Nor does the writer of this crap mention that there is often a very strong, cold, easterly wind at Amberly Beach. One has to be inland and protected by trees to not be affected by it. Which I am.

    I mention this because it is the kind of garbage The Empire of Lies churns out on a continuous basis.

    #124875
    Kimo
    Participant

    It would be interesting if this WAS the US$ blowoff strength. Just being masked by other weaknesses. Seems like something like this doesn’t go out with a whimper, but something we’ll recognize and hasn’t happened yet.
    Could be:
    •a mechanism, unrecognized now, but that becomes immediately obvious, in a “yeah, duh” moment.
    •a avalanche, where a single grain falling triggers a mass panic, the timing of which is necessarily imprecise or otherwise managed by intentional disturbance.
    The first point interests me… where in theory liquid assets can be protected by calculation. In this Catch 22 world, both points fall to the rule, once generally recognized, it’s priced in. That said, I ask: is there a soul somewhere, watching a line on a graph, that knows when & what to do?

    #124876
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    In Oceania, independent thought is Thoughtcrime. And it is a punishable offence.

    Winston recognised that to keep a diary and record his thoughts was a crime against Ingsoc, punishable by Big Brother. But knowing that, he did it anyway. And was punished.

    Free Julian Assange?

    “Maybe. But only after we have completely broken him.”

    #124877
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    After a period of relative quiet, the war on the actual battle zone and surrounding regions is intensifying. Much will be decided in January 2023.

    #124878
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    What is correct and good does not need god or religion, it exists within us. It seems to me that god is truth and truth exists.

    #124879
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    The task is straightforward. Find them or fail.

    #124880
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #124881
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    It is my assertion (based upon a multitude of factors I won’t dive back into), that the “leaders” that are being cast as movers & shakers (ie villains) within The Empire of Lies are in fact representing a vast swath of humanity that have & will consent to their insane ideological action(s).

    In fact, I’d go so far as to accuse a large portion of the “American” electorate as fully cognizant & approving of fraudulent elections, and worse 😕

    In effect, what normal, sane & spiritually-based (at some level) people are chafing against is nothing short of generations of deluded, uneducated & toxic CULTure, which has propagated “their” “leaders” & global trends, who are *now* in *open* enmity with The Loving, Healing, Creative Power of The Infinite

    When ludicrous agitprop/events happen like RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA!, unleashing of bio-attacks, wide open borders, blatant media/social media misinfo campaigns, attacking Russia via Ukraine, 2020/2022 “election” fraud happen et al., on an constant linear basis, one can should not rule-out that a majority of humanity is in approval ~ It can’t be blamed on apathy at this point 😕

    The Master Class’ efforts over the last 30+ years have created the fertile ground of EG0ic perception in The West where up is down, left is right, lies are truth, a scenario that has manifested in widespread CULTure of Collective EG0ic Madness (*neocon* *neolib/woke* et al.), buying even the most farcical of .GOV/.CORPse pronouncements + misdeeds, hook-line-and-sinker!

    No one *knows* how or when the end of current Mass Formation Psychosis will end, perhaps it won’t for decades, but for those that identify with it’s machinations, the investment is almost irreversible…

    The remnant like most of us on TAE & elsewhere (gen boomers or older) want to assign blame to a small cadre of sociopaths & psychopaths, but that *now* has risen to the point of risible thinking & behavior 😕

    2023 will be a continuation of the horrific trends of the last 20+ years, do try to enjoy the ride…

    #124882
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    So, as I went about placing food outside for the local stray/feral felines in my proximity (abandoned by dark, soul dead “people”), a thought occurred to me:

    What if the current batch of demented, no shame & anything goes “leadership” is done with the “useful idiots”, fully conscious of their constituents inability to discern *danger*, thus unleashed the *kill* shots to unburden themselves of the “useless eaters/energy wasters”, cognizant they would follow most any of “their” apparatchiks instructions into the grave?

    And right as I was having that seemingly external malevolent awareness, someone a block or two over started blasting The Purge Siren at such a high volume that only a locomotive horn would suffice 😕

    Case made, sad reality apparent…

    #124883
    Redneck
    Participant

    #124884
    Redneck
    Participant

    #124885
    Redneck
    Participant

    #124886
    Redneck
    Participant

    #124887
    Redneck
    Participant

    #124888
    Redneck
    Participant

    #124889
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @Redneck

    And your point is?

    #124890
    oxymoron
    Participant

    I think the dead russian oligarch thing is a western media spin because unless they all died on the same day why oh why is the western media – (soooo many articles in every western country on this right now) all commenting on this in unison?

    Not saying people are not dead just had no idea that western journalists had such high levels oh hive mind/esp.
    The timing is total LOCKSTEP and also strangely none of it violating community guidelines of being censored or questioned.

    My bullshit detector is like razor sharp these days

    #124891

    I’ll wait for germ to comment on Damar Hamlin.

    #124892
    Dr. D
    Participant

    I had the same thought: I’m 50-50 that it’s the West killing them. Fill me in on what you think is happening, as it’s inide baseball and no doubt complex. And very certainly Litvinenko was NOT killed by Putin or the KGB. It was the dumbest story anyone had ever heard until the Skripal story came out. Then the Brits swallowed that one too.

    MI6 didn’t even try to make it plausible, nor care. I’m not saying they did it, the top suspect is a different Russian oligarch (exactly the guys Putin is killing) but they didn’t bother with any lipstick on the pig before trotting her out as proof of RussiaRussiaRussia. Because they had already planned the war back then and were setting up the early stage.

    So…who’s killing rich Russians? Any ideas? If it anything like America, and it is, the suspects are absolutely everyone, as everyone hates them, from Madam speaker right down to the janitor, and no one is sorry to see their nation’s oligarchs come to bad ends.

    #124893
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Four Easy Guidelines For A Longer Life

    Avoid open windows.
    Never work for (or even near) the Clinton’s.
    Make sure your prison cell’s Security Cam is working.
    Don’t commit treason in Russia.

    #124894
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Look it could be Putin, but everyone knows that at the end of the USSR a lot of ex KGB interests were divided up Ostensibly a dash for cash and assets but American interests don’t penetrate as well into a place with 12 time zones and a language difficult to move through undetected. If it was Putin it is because probably we are entering a hot war now or soon and resources and critical assets that Oligarchs own would be put against the interests of Russian unity so who knows but war creates different rules and an open economy can be dangerous for a short time so there is that.

    I just think unless the Western media have solid evidence of specific stories/actions the SHUT THE FUCK UP.

    You. Are. Boring.
    Because you lie all the time and don’t state your agenda in your articles – you are just an manufacturing consent machine.
    So whatevz

    #124895
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Sorry about the poor writing skills. I need to work on my punctuation – hard to keep up with the calibre here.

    #124896
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Not that it matters much but the weather here today was almost the opposite of that of predicted in the forecast.

    They said, mostly cloudy and cool

    Actually, it was mostly clear skies and hot.

    A trivial fact about Airstrip Five. 50 years ago about 20% of the population lived in or near Orcland and there were working farms within 20km of the CBD. Now about 45% of the population on Airstrip Five lives in or near Orcland and all the best potato-growing land has been assigned to housing and shopping malls.

    As far as the actors who pretend to manage the business i.e.. The Scorpion, Fatguts and ‘Sir Ashley’ -are concerned, controlling the mood of populaces of Orcland and Boot-City is the prime concern: hence free fast-food vouchers with every jab of The Scorpion’s stinger.

    Haven’t heard anything from Candy Floss -literally bright pink hair- who recommended that the public not wear masks, and then a month of so recommended that the public do wear masks.

    The script writers must have been having a bad day.

    Now, I suspect the scriptwriters are having a bad year, what with the ‘heroic Ukraine’ narrative falling apart, the ‘safe and effective’ narrative falling apart, and the economy falling apart.

    Last week there were just a few packs of eggs in the local supermarket; this week none.

    “So it goes.”

    #124897
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Candy Floss -literally bright pink hair- who recommended that the public not wear masks, and then a month or so later recommended that the public do wear masks.

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