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Debt Rattle January 28 2023

Jan 282023
 
 January 28, 2023  Posted by at 9:27 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,


Rembrandt van Rijn Man in Oriental Costume (The Noble Slav) 1632

 

• US Can Turn Back Doomsday Clock (CN)
• Doomsday Clock: 90 Seconds To Midnight (Escobar)
• World War III: Has It Begun? (Jim Rickards)
• Pentagon Think Tank Warns Against ‘Long War’ In Ukraine (RT)
• Ukraine – RAND Study Sees Risks In Prolonged War (MoA)
• Pretend-O-Rama (Kunstler)
• Kyiv Improving Airfields Anticipating Western Fighters (Drive)
• Zelensky Issues Warning Over Abrams Deliveries (RT)
• Russian Diplomat Wants Germany To Clarify Status In Ukraine Conflict (TASS)
• German FM Under Fire Over ‘War With Russia’ Comment (RT)
• Brazil Refuses To Sell Tank Ammo For Ukraine (RT)
• EU Claims To Have Found Way To Access Frozen Russian Funds (RT)
• Russian Senator On Basis For Productive Talks With Kiev (TASS)
• Russian FM Says BRICS Group To Consider Common Currency (AA)
• FDA Quietly Changes End Date for Study of Heart Inflammation (ET)
• Pilots Are Dying At Southwest Airlines At Over 6x The Normal Rate (Kirsch)

 

 

27 million dead Russians. Russia liberated Auschwitz. Not welcome. The Germans built it, the Poles manned it. They are welcome.

 

 

Tenpenny

 

 

 

 

Dowd
https://twitter.com/i/status/1619088768769884160

 

 

Bannon

 

 

 

 

RFKjr

 

 

Nuland Rand Paul

 

 

 

 

“But in April, Ukraine’s Western allies [..] refused to support the neutrality agreement and persuaded Ukraine to abandon its negotiations with Russia.”

• US Can Turn Back Doomsday Clock (CN)

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has just issued its 2023 Doomsday Clock statement, calling this “a time of unprecedented danger.” It has advanced the hands of the clock to 90 seconds to midnight, meaning that the world is closer to global catastrophe than ever before, mainly because the conflict in Ukraine has gravely increased the risk of nuclear war. This scientific assessment should wake up the world’s leaders to the urgent necessity of bringing the parties involved in the Ukraine war to the peace table. So far, the debate about peace talks to resolve the conflict has revolved mostly around what Ukraine and Russia should be prepared to bring to the table in order to end the war and restore peace.

However, given that this war is not just between Russia and Ukraine but is part of a “New Cold War” between Russia and the United States, it is not just Russia and Ukraine that must consider what they can bring to the table to end it. The United States must also consider what steps it can take to resolve its underlying conflict with Russia that led to this war in the first place. The geopolitical crisis that set the stage for the war in Ukraine began with NATO’s broken promises not to expand into Eastern Europe, and was exacerbated by its declaration in 2008 that Ukraine would eventually join this primarily anti-Russian military alliance. Then, in 2014, a U.S.-backed coup against Ukraine’s elected government caused the disintegration of Ukraine. Only 51 percent of Ukrainians surveyed told a Gallup poll that they recognized the legitimacy of the post-coup government, and large majorities in Crimea and in Donetsk and Luhansk provinces voted to secede from Ukraine.

Crimea rejoined Russia, and the new Ukrainian government launched a civil war against the self-declared “People’s Republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk. The civil war killed an estimated 14,000 people, but the Minsk II accord in 2015 established a ceasefire and a buffer zone along the line of control, with 1,300 international OSCE ceasefire monitors and staff. The ceasefire line largely held for seven years, and casualties declined substantially from year to year. But the Ukrainian government never resolved the underlying political crisis by granting Donetsk and Luhansk the autonomous status it promised them in the Minsk II agreement.

[..] In March 2022, the month after the Russian invasion, ceasefire negotiations were held in Turkey. Russia and Ukraine drew up a 15-point “neutrality agreement,” which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly presented and explained to his people in a national TV broadcast on March 27th. Russia agreed to withdraw from the territories it had occupied since the invasion in February in exchange for a Ukrainian commitment not to join NATO or host foreign military bases. That framework also included proposals for resolving the future of Crimea and Donbas. But in April, Ukraine’s Western allies — the United States and United Kingdom in particular — refused to support the neutrality agreement and persuaded Ukraine to abandon its negotiations with Russia.

Scott Ritter

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“Almost without firing a shot a Russia-Iran alliance could smash NATO to bits and bring down assorted EU governments..”

• Doomsday Clock: 90 Seconds To Midnight (Escobar)

No one ever accused German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of being brighter than a light bulb. She finally gave the game away, at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg: “The crucial part is that we do it together and that we do not do the blame game in Europe because we are fighting a war against Russia.” So Baerbock agrees with Lavrov. Just don’t ask her what Doomsday Clock means. Or what happened after Operation Barbarossa failed. The EU-NATO combo takes matters to a whole new level. The EU essentially has been reduced to the status of P.R. arm of NATO. It’s all spelled out in their January 10 joint declaration. The NATO-EU joint mission consists in using all economic, political and military means to make sure the “jungle” always behaves according to the “rules-based international order” and accepts to be plundered ad infinitum by the “blooming garden”.

Looking at The Big Picture, absolutely nothing changed in the US military/intel apparatus since 9/11: it’s a bipartisan thing, and it means Full Spectrum Dominance of both the US and NATO. No dissent whatsoever is allowed. And no thinking outside the box. Plan A is subdivided into two sections. 1. Military intervention in a hollowed-out proxy state shell (see Afghanistan and Ukraine). 2. Inevitable, humiliating military defeat (see Afghanistan and soon Ukraine). Variations include building a wasteland and calling it “peace” (Libya) and extended proxy war leading to future humiliating expulsion (Syria). There’s no Plan B. Or is there? 90 seconds to midnight?

Obsessed by Mackinder, the Empire fought for control of the Eurasian landmass in World War I and World War II because that represented control of the world. Later, Zbigniew “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski had warned: “Potentially the most dangerous scenario would be a grand coalition between Russia, China and Iran.” Jump cut to the Raging Twenties when the US forced the end of Russian natural gas exports to Germany (and the EU) via Nord Stream 1 and 2. Once again, Mackinderian opposition to a grand alliance on the Eurasian landmass consisting of Germany, Russia and China. The Straussian neo-con and neoliberal-con psychos in charge of US foreign policy could even absorb a strategic alliance between Russia and China – as painful as it may be. But never Russia, China and Germany.

With the collapse of the JCPOA, Iran is now being re-targeted with maximum hostility. Yet were Tehran to play hardball, the US Navy or military could never keep the Strait of Hormuz open – by the admission of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Oil price in this case would rise to possibly thousands of dollars a barrel according to Goldman Sachs oil derivative experts – and that would crash the entire world economy. This is arguably the foremost NATO Achilles Heel. Almost without firing a shot a Russia-Iran alliance could smash NATO to bits and bring down assorted EU governments as socio-economic chaos runs rampant across the collective West.

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“The issue of when wars in general and world wars in particular begin and end is not as clear cut as many believe..”

• World War III: Has It Begun? (Jim Rickards)

That’s a serious question and deserves serious consideration by investors. A wave of analysts and commentators have warned that the war in Ukraine could spin out of control and escalate into World War III. One variation on that theme is that the war could escalate into a nuclear war with tactical nuclear weapons deployed. Most point a finger at Russia as the party that will launch a nuclear strike out of desperation at a failing campaign in Ukraine. Actually, the opposite is true. The Russian campaign is not failing (it has been on hold for several months awaiting the right conditions to launch a winter offensive). You just don’t hear about it in the mainstream media, which is essentially a propaganda outlet for Ukraine. And the party most likely to use nuclear weapons first is the U.S. in order to save face and destabilize Russia once Ukraine is on the brink of collapse.


Many people have a hard time believing that. They’ve been told that Putin is the devil incarnate and would probably like to destroy the world. We like to think that in modern times we’re sophisticated and above falling prey to propaganda. Unfortunately, it isn’t true. The fact is the U.S. did wage the only nuclear war in history from Aug. 6–9, 1945 and had a successful outcome. I’m not getting into the morality of it here, one way or the other. I’m just being objective. Either way, another nuclear war could not be contained and it would be tantamount to World War III. It amounts to the same thing. But my point is different. It’s not that we may be headed to World War III; it’s that we’re already there. The issue of when wars in general and world wars in particular begin and end is not as clear cut as many believe. There are many examples.

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“In 2019, the think tank provided a blueprint for “overextending and unbalancing” Russia..”

• Pentagon Think Tank Warns Against ‘Long War’ In Ukraine (RT)

While both Moscow and Kiev think they will benefit from continued fighting, such a turn of events does not serve Washington’s best interests, the Pentagon’s think tank RAND Corporation argues in a new report published on Friday. Authored by Samuel Charap and Miranda Priebe, “Avoiding a Long War” accepts the prevailing premises about the conflict, but notes that US interests “often align with but are not synonymous with Ukrainian interests.” According to the authors, the conflict has already inflicted significant economic, military and reputational damage on Russia, so its “further incremental weakening is arguably no longer as significant a benefit for US interests.” The price to the West has not been insignificant either, from the disruption to energy, food and fertilizer markets to the cost of “keeping the Ukrainian state economically solvent,” which will only “multiply over time.”

NATO’s military aid to Ukraine “could also become unsustainable after a certain period,” while Russia may “reverse Ukrainian battlefield gains,” they said. The conflict is “absorbing senior policymakers’ time and US military resources,” distracting Washington from other global priorities, such as China, while pushing Moscow closer to Beijing. In short, the consequences of a long war – ranging from persistent elevated escalation risks to economic damage – far outweigh the possible benefits. The study describes President Vladimir Zelensky’s vision of victory, in which Ukraine would recover all the territories it lays claim to and force Russia to submit to war crimes trials and reparations, as “optimistic” and “improbable.” Moscow, “perceives this war to be near existential” and has signaled “a high level of resolve,” the authors caution, raising the probability it might use nuclear weapons if it feels threatened.

Prospects for some kind of negotiated peace are “poor in the near term,” the report acknowledges, as Kiev believes Western support will continue indefinitely, while Moscow has been given no reason to believe the sanctions will ever be lifted. The US could “condition future military aid on a Ukrainian commitment to negotiations,” while giving Kiev security commitments, but “not as binding as US mutual defense treaties” or NATO membership, the report suggested. Washington should also give Moscow assurances regarding Ukraine’s neutrality and set “conditions for sanctions relief.” Founded in 1948 by the US military-industrial complex, RAND has provided the Pentagon with policy advice for decades. In 2019, the think tank provided a blueprint for “overextending and unbalancing” Russia that included economic sanctions, sending weapons to Ukraine, promoting uprisings in Central Asia and even deploying more nuclear weapons to Europe. By contrast, the advice on how to avoid escalation with Moscow while arming Kiev, from July last year, seems to have had little to no effect.

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More on that RAND report.

• Ukraine – RAND Study Sees Risks In Prolonged War (MoA)

RAND Corp is a government and industry financed large research institute. Founded shortly after the end of the second world war it mostly works for the Pentagon by developing policies and strategies. In April 2019 RAND published a report about Extending Russia The report summary explained its purpose: “As the 2018 National Defense Strategy recognized, the United States is currently locked in a great-power competition with Russia. This report seeks to define areas where the United States can compete to its own advantage. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from Western and Russian sources, this report examines Russia’s economic, political, and military vulnerabilities and anxieties. It then analyzes potential policy options to exploit them — ideologically, economically, geopolitically, and militarily (including air and space, maritime, land, and multidomain options).” RAND developed policy options in those four fields. It then evaluated their benefit, cost and risks as well as their likelihood of success. Here is their summary table for economic measures:

The first three measures were implemented when the war in Ukraine was launched. The geopolitical measures included an option of providing lethal aid to Ukraine. This would create the risk that Russia would respond militarily and eventually take more of Ukraine than the two Donbas republics: Taking more of Ukraine might only increase the burden [for Russia], albeit at the expense of the Ukrainian people. However, such a move might also come at a significant cost to Ukraine and to U.S. prestige and credibility. This could produce disproportionately large Ukrainian casualties, territorial losses, and refugee flows. It might even lead Ukraine into a disadvantageous peace. While they at times underestimate Russia’s capabilities RAND people are not dumb. They knew of the likely outcome of a war. Other geopolitical measure RAND evaluated included more support for ‘Syrian rebels’, regime change per color revolution in Belarus, to exploit tensions in the southern Caucasus and to reduce Russian influence in Central Asia. RAND’s summary for geopolitical measures:

The Trump and Biden administrations both implemented the measures that seemed to have high benefits as well as high risks. The use of ideological measures against Russia was seen as having rather low benefits.

There follow more options, mostly in military categories, that the RAND report developed and evaluated. They emphasize industry pork. The Trump administration took some of the measures RAND provided but seemed not too enthusiastic about them. Its regime change attempt in Belarus failed. The Biden administration changed tact. He endorsed Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the color revolution candidate that had failed the elections in Belarus. Biden also allowed for the delivery of more offensive weapons to Ukraine. The regime in Kiev was encouraged to retake the rebellions Donbas republics. The green light for that was given in early 2022 even as the White House knew that Russia would respond militarily. The consequences for Ukraine that RAND had predicted in 2019 ensued.

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“The Ukraine misadventure will disappear from America’s collective consciousness in a New York minute and a Fourth Turning jamboree of serious domestic political disorder will commence in short order..”

• Pretend-O-Rama (Kunstler)

We are losing this unnecessary proxy war about as steadily as possible, and actually making Russia look good in the process. Russia could have ended the war in five minutes by turning Kiev into an ashtray, but it spent the first eight months of the operation trying to avoid busting up Ukraine’s infrastructure, so as not to turn it into a failed state (that would present new and worse problems). Mr. Putin made many overtures to negotiate an end to the conflict, all rejected by Ukraine, the US, and its NATO “partners.” So, now Russia is grinding on-the-ground to reduce Ukraine’s ability to continue making war by systematically killing the troops Ukraine foolishly throws into the battle line, and destroying Ukraine’s heavy weapons. Ukraine is about out of its own soldiers and weapons.

Russia is maneuvering to roll over what’s left there and put an end to these pointless and needless hostilities. Contrary to US propaganda, Russia has no ambition to conquer NATO territory. Rather its aim is to restore order to a corner of the world that has been its legitimate sphere of influence for centuries — and more than once been used as a doormat for European armies to invade Russia. Apparently, we can’t allow Russia to clean up this mess we made — or we pretend that we can’t, even though it’s happening anyway, whether we like it or not. So now, the US promises to send thirty-one M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. A bold move, you think? Not exactly. By the time these tanks get anywhere in the vicinity of Ukraine, this war is likely to be over.

Never mind the difficult business of training the few remaining eligible Ukrainian men between sixteen and sixty how to operate the tanks, and training maintenance crews, and delivering inventories of spare parts — you see where this is going — not to mention the certainty that the Russians will simply blow them up as fast as they appear on the premises. Anyway, a measly thirty-one tanks that can barely be operated is meaningless compared to hundreds of T-72s backed by newer T-14 tanks the Russians can muster from just over their border with Ukraine. The tank proffer is, sad to say (for the dignity of our country), a joke, kind of a last feeble pretense before the whole thing ends in ignominy for the “Joe Biden” team — whoever that actually is.

The repercussions are liable to be ugly for our country, not necessarily in terms of more military trouble in other lands (which we probably lack the capacity to engage in now), but something more personal: the collapse of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency and a vicious loss of purchasing power here at home. That would provoke a situation worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s, and that’s probably where things are going. The Ukraine misadventure will disappear from America’s collective consciousness in a New York minute and a Fourth Turning jamboree of serious domestic political disorder will commence in short order. If you think “Joe Biden’s” term in office has been a disaster so far, just wait. You ain’t seen nuttin yet.

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Want to guess who pays for this?

• Kyiv Improving Airfields Anticipating Western Fighters (Drive)

Unlike the recent influx of promises for western tanks, Ukraine has yet to receive any solid offers of modern fighter jets from allies like the U.S., France, the Netherlands, Denmark and others. But it’s preparing airfields across the country in anticipation of deliveries of multi-role jets like U.S.-made F-16 Fighting Falcons or French Mirage or Rafale fighters. To integrate jets like those into the Ukrainian Air Force would not only require training for pilots and maintainers, but it would also require making sure more modern jets have safe places to operate from. “We have to prepare the airfield infrastructure so that pilots could land safely on the airstrips,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Col. Yuri Ignat told reporters Friday at a press briefing in Ukraine. “The works are in progress in different regions of Ukraine with the support of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Defense and other government agencies to support us in the creation of this airfield network.”


With the country under continuing sporadic missile and drone barrages, like the one yesterday, Ignat acknowledged that the work to create the airfield network for new fighters cannot be done “as well as it could have been done in peacetime.” Ignat did not offer any details about where or how many airfields are in the pipeline, or what kind of work needed to be done. But any improvements likely involve upgrading the quality of operating areas and possibly lengthening runways. Ukraine’s Soviet-designed tactical jets were built to operate in conditions that can be considered positively austere when compared to their Western counterparts. The bases they operate from reflect this flexibility. too. As for the aircraft, they have sturdier landing gear, mud guards on their nose wheels, in some cases even intake doors that protect the aircraft from ingesting damaging debris during taxiing. Most Western designs are made to operate from much more pristine surfaces that are meticulously cleared of even small pieces of debris. So if Ukraine wants Western fighters, it needs infrastructure that meets their operational needs.

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Not enough! Not fast enough! More more moar!

• Zelensky Issues Warning Over Abrams Deliveries (RT)

President Vladimir Zelensky has criticized Washington’s lack of speed in delivering heavy tanks to Ukraine. In an interview with Sky News on Friday, the Ukrainian leader also warned that Kiev would not be satisfied with a small number of tanks from the West. Zelensky’s comments come after the US promised on Wednesday to supply Kiev with 31 M1 Abrams tanks, but cautioned that the delivery could take several months or more. The White House explained that it expects to acquire the machines from the industry, rather than pulling them directly from its own stocks. However, Zelensky complained that if the American tanks arrive as late as August, it will be “too late.” He insisted that a handful of tanks “won’t make a difference on the battlefield.”


The president told Sky News that Ukraine currently needs “300 to 500 tanks” in order to be able to launch a counter offensive against Russia. “It’s not about politics, it’s about specific results on the battlefield,” he said. Zelensky also thanked the countries that have been delivering weapons to Ukraine and noted that a total of 12 countries have already committed to bolstering Kiev’s tank coalition. Earlier this week, Germany officially approved the supply to Kiev of 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks from its own stocks and also gave permission to other countries to provide their own German-made armor for the needs of the Ukrainian army. Berlin said it expects to deliver the Leopards no later than the end of March. Other countries that have also pledged their heavy armor to Kiev include the UK, Poland, Canada, Spain, Norway and the Netherlands.

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“”The German foreign minister said that her country was fighting jointly with other nations against Russia, while her ministry does not consider their own country to be party to the conflict..”

• Russian Diplomat Wants Germany To Clarify Status In Ukraine Conflict (TASS)

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova urged the German ambassador to Russia on Friday to clarify Berlin’s position on its status in the conflict in Ukraine. “The German foreign minister said that her country was fighting jointly with other nations against Russia, while her ministry does not consider their own country to be party to the conflict. Taking into account these contradictory statements, the German ambassador to Russia should clarify them,” the Russian diplomat wrote on her Telegram channel. Earlier, Germany’s Foreign Ministry said providing assistance to Kiev did not make Berlin party to the conflict in Ukraine. This was how Germany’s diplomacy commented on a statement by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock who said, addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe earlier this week, that “we are fighting a war against Russia.”.

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More Baerbock.

“..a regional lawmaker from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the president of the German-Hungarian association, Gerhard Papke, accused Baerbock of being “completely politically insane” for making such a statement..”

• German FM Under Fire Over ‘War With Russia’ Comment (RT)

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has faced a wave of criticism after claiming at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that Germany is at war with Russia. The comment led opposition politicians to question whether she is fit for the job. “A statement by Baerbock that Germany is at war with Russia shows that she is not suited for her job,” Sahra Wagenknecht, a German MP and the former head of the Left Party’s faction in the Bundestag, wrote on Twitter on Friday. A foreign minister should be a “top diplomat” and “not act like an elephant in a China shop,” the lawmaker added, accusing Baerbock of “trampling” on Germany’s reputation. During the Tuesday debate, Baerbock said European nations were “fighting a war against Russia” and must do more to defend Ukraine.

Germany needs a foreign minister who is capable of acting “as a responsible diplomat and not a firebrand” amid conflict in Europe, said Alice Weidel, the co-chair of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AFD) faction in the Bundestag. Weidel accused Baerbock of being incapable of acting on the diplomatic stage, saying Berlin needs a top diplomat who represents Germany’s interests exclusively. Meanwhile, a regional lawmaker from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the president of the German-Hungarian association, Gerhard Papke, accused Baerbock of being “completely politically insane” for making such a statement. Left MP Selim Dagdelen demanded Chancellor Olaf Scholz provide an “immediate” explanation on whether Baerbock had his government’s mandate “for her declaration of war” and suggested the minister was a threat to the security of German citizens.

Neither Baerbock, nor Scholz, have responded to the criticism so far. Germany’s Foreign Ministry maintained Berlin is not a party to the conflict between Kiev and Moscow in a statement to the Bild tabloid. “Supporting Ukraine in exercising its individual right for self-defense… does not make Germany a party to the conflict,” it said, pointing to the UN Charter. It said Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine is “a war against the European peace and order” and this is what Baerbock had meant. In the wake of Baerbock’s Tuesday statement, Moscow said that the German minister’s words only show that the West had been planning this conflict all along for years.

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“..to Germany for use in Ukraine..”

• Brazil Refuses To Sell Tank Ammo For Ukraine (RT)

Brazilian President Lula da Silva shot down an offer to sell tank ammunition to Germany for use in Ukraine, Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported on Friday. A vocal critic of the West’s policy toward Ukraine, Lula has striven to remain neutral on its conflict with Russia. The president allegedly rejected the request at a meeting with Brazilian defense chiefs and Defense MInister Jose Mucio last week. According to the paper’s sources, since-dismissed army commander Julio Cesar de Arruda told Lula that Germany wished to purchase just under $5 million worth of shells for its Leopard 1 tanks.

Lula reportedly considered asking Berlin to guarantee that it would not send the ammunition to Ukraine, but ultimately declined the offer, “arguing that it was not worth provoking the Russians,” as Folha de Sao Paulo put it. Less than a week later, Germany formally announced that it would donate a company-sized force of Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, and would allow other countries operating the tanks to transfer them to Kiev. It is unclear whether the ammunition referenced by Folha is compatible with both generations of Leopard tank. Like his right-wing predecessor, the left-wing Lula has taken a neutral position on the conflict in Ukraine.

While Jair Bolsonaro’s government formally condemned Moscow at the UN General Assembly over its military operation, neither president has imposed sanctions on Russia, and each has partially blamed Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky for the outbreak of hostilities. Lula has condemned the US for pouring tens of billions of dollars into Ukraine’s government and military, and suggested last year that US President Joe Biden “could have avoided [the conflict], not incited it.” He also declared that NATO leadership should have reassured Russia that Ukraine would never be allowed to join the US-led military bloc, which was one of Moscow’s key demands for peace before it sent troops into the country.

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Given that Russia will be in control, it would seem wiser to return their funds, so you would get some actual rebuilding done.

• EU Claims To Have Found Way To Access Frozen Russian Funds (RT)

The European Union has told member states that it has legal authority to temporarily leverage a hefty amount of Russian Central Bank assets to pay for the rebuilding of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The mechanism could reportedly involve as much as €33.8 billion ($36.8 billion) of the funds frozen by the bloc as part of the Ukraine-related sanctions imposed on Moscow. According to the EU’s Council Legal Service, the plan is legally feasible if the assets aren’t expropriated and certain conditions are met. These include a termination date, a focus on liquid assets, and clarity that the principal and interest would be returned to Russia at some point, according to people close to the discussions. The Group of Seven (G7) and the EU reportedly failed to find a clear legal basis for simply confiscating Russian assets.


Instead, Brussels is considering the idea of pooling the frozen assets together at EU or international level to generate returns that could be used to finance the rebuilding of Ukraine. According to a number of estimates, the Russian Central Bank’s frozen assets amount to some $300 billion worldwide. EU officials had previously said almost €34 billion ($37 billion) of the funds are sitting in EU-based deposits. The figure is, however, still under assessment. In November, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed that the bloc’s authorities should create a special structure to manage the frozen Russian funds and invest them with a view to using the proceeds for Ukraine. The Russian government has repeatedly called the freezing of the country’s assets “theft,” and warned that the step contravenes international law. According to Moscow, the very idea of international reserves has been discredited by the use of the US dollar as a weapon in the sanctions war against Russia.

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“.. I think that only the successful completion of the special military operation may be the basis for meaningful and fruitful negotiations..”

• Russian Senator On Basis For Productive Talks With Kiev (TASS)

Only the successful completion of the special military operation may serve as the foundation for “meaningful and productive” talks on the situation in Ukraine, says First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, ex-Russian Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov. “This is my personal opinion. I think that only the successful completion of the special military operation may be the basis for meaningful and fruitful negotiations. Without this, any talks, the results of these talks, will only postpone the resolution of the conflict and threaten to renew or repeat it,” he said at a press conference at TASS on Friday.


Replying to a question about any negotiations currently taking place on settling the situation around Ukraine, the official noted that the “process is not in progress.” “What is more, in order for the talks to go on, they have to start. They haven’t,” the senator stressed. He added that the possibility to launch talks on this issue between Moscow and Washington or Brussels is also not visible at the moment.

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“..the West has proved that all the values and mechanisms of globalization that it itself created and promoted, including the inviolability of property, fair competition, the presumption of innocence, can be trampled on at any moment..”

• Russian FM Says BRICS Group To Consider Common Currency (AA)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – BRICS countries – will discuss creating a common currency at the group’s forthcoming summit this August in South Africa. “Serious, self-respecting countries are well aware of what is at stake, see the incompetence of the ‘masters’ of the current international monetary and financial system, and want to create their own mechanisms to ensure sustainable development, which will be protected from outside dictates. “It is in this direction that the initiatives that have been voiced recently … about the need to think about creating our own currencies within the framework of BRICS,” he told a news conference after a meeting with Angolan President Joao Lourenco in the capital Luanda.


The minister added that Russia and Angola have a “firm intention” to develop cooperation in all areas, despite “illegal” Western pressure. Lavrov said the West uses “the same colonial methods with which it exploited developing continents,” and continues using them “to plunder foreign countries and uses resources of global importance to its advantage.” “By its actions, the West has proved that all the values and mechanisms of globalization that it itself created and promoted, including the inviolability of property, fair competition, the presumption of innocence, can be trampled on at any moment, and can also betray its allies at any moment. This is proved by the practice of not so long ago events in Afghanistan, Iraq, and during the Arab Spring of 2011,” he said.

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How does the FDA still exist?

• FDA Quietly Changes End Date for Study of Heart Inflammation (ET)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has changed the end date for a key study on post-vaccination heart inflammation without notifying the public. Pfizer was supposed to complete a study on the occurrence of subclinical myocarditis, or heart inflammation, after receipt of its COVID-19 vaccine. The completion date was listed by the FDA in 2021 as June 20, 2022. Pfizer was also supposed to submit the results of the study to the FDA by the end of 2022 as part of a list of requirements the FDA imposed as a condition of approving Pfizer’s jab. But after the deadline passed, the FDA quietly changed the date. Under a list of postmarketing requirements for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the FDA now says the same study has an “original projected completion date” of June 30, 2023.


The current status of the study is listed as “pending.” The FDA and Pfizer did not respond to requests for comment. Jessica Adams, a former regulatory review officer at the FDA, said the wording amounts to misinformation. “By definition, ‘original’ dates can’t change,” she wrote on Twitter, tagging the agency. “Please correct this ‘misinformation.’” Dr. Vinay Prasad, who has increasingly criticized the FDA over its decisions during the pandemic, said the new timeline “is so slow it will be entirely moot.” “Another FDA failure,” he said on Twitter.

VDB
https://twitter.com/i/status/1615174302319661056

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“I’ll pay you $5 for any flight attendant/pilot who signs the petition. So you can earn $50/hr or even more and work your own hours. And you’ll be doing a huge public service..”

• Pilots Are Dying At Southwest Airlines At Over 6x The Normal Rate (Kirsch)

I thought the vaccines were supposed to reduce death not increase it! I just asked the FAA for their comment on this. Here’s what I wrote:

If they respond, I’ll post their response here. The FAA wants a war, so I’m going to give them one. I’m not going to let the FAA get away with ignoring all the deaths and disabilities. I’m willing to pay people $5 per name who sign our FAA petition to investigate these injuries. All you do is stand right outside the Crew security checkpoint and hand out the fliers. I’ll pay you $5 for any flight attendant/pilot who signs the petition. So you can earn $50/hr or even more and work your own hours. And you’ll be doing a huge public service. I will then pay all costs for 20,000 of these people to come demonstrate outside of FAA headquarters. If 20,000 doesn’t work, then we’ll try 40,000 people. Whatever it takes for these people to investigate. The protest will end when the FAA agrees to investigate the injuries. Please let me know if you are interested in this offer to help me collect names.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Ray Bradbury

 

 

Speed of light

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bobcat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1618981127754231808

 

 

Begonia pavonina
https://twitter.com/i/status/1619029563895590913

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in virustime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Home › Forums › Debt Rattle January 28 2023

Viewing 35 posts - 41 through 75 (of 75 total)
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  • January 28, 2023 at 8:16 pm #127539
    jb-hb
    Participant

    The key seems to be to clear your previous cookies before returning to a given website looking for a lower price. How one does that I have no idea. But I suspect someone will “learn”me very shortly!

    ctrl-shift-del typically takes you to the delete cookies/clear internet history option on most browsers

    browser add-ons such as Exploding Cookies can do the trick. It automatically deletes the cookies when you leave the site.

    I usually have several browsers with different settings for different things. For TAE, zerohedge, etc I’ll usually use Brave, which is why I never see all those ads people are complaining about. It’s also good policy to have one browser for wandering around and one browser that only goes to known website that you use for specific purposes – banking, etc.

    January 28, 2023 at 8:18 pm #127540
    jb-hb
    Participant

    PS it is not a bad practice at all to, after deleting your cookies, x out of every instance of your browser and then pull it back up, to restart it with the cookies gone.

    January 28, 2023 at 8:47 pm #127541
    WES
    Participant

    Jb-hb:

    You briefly mentioned US troops in WW1 not being used as cannon fodder. Unfortunately Canada had to learn that lesson the hard way.

    Early on, all Canadian troops were under the commannd of British officers and Generals, who used them as cannon fodder quickly racking up huge death tolls with nothing to show for it. Just senseless slaughter.

    It got so bad that Ottawa, after dragging their feet, was finally forced by Canadians to insist all Canadian troops had to be placed under the direct command of a Canadian General, abet still under British command.

    Luckily Canada found the right man for the job. He reorganized Canadian troops into several Divisions as a Corp. Canadian division sizes were increased greatly (25K) to allow for constant troop rest rotations.

    This General is the one who created the creeping artillery burritos just a few hundred feet ahead of advancing troops, to keep the Germans pinned down in their bunkers until it was too late. None of this shell the hell out of the enemy for a week, then stop shelling completely, then ordering the troops over the top to be mowed down by the waiting Germans.

    I suspect American generals took careful notes of this.

    Casualties were still high but the desired goals were achieved.

    Sadly, this great Canadian General did not received a hero’s welcome home, in fact he received much worst.

    January 28, 2023 at 8:52 pm #127542
    WES
    Participant

    No, Canadians didn’t invent burritos! The Mexicans did!

    January 28, 2023 at 8:56 pm #127543
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    A more-nuanced view from Derrick Jensen, which happens to mention vaccinations.

    If our emphasis on production requires that resources be funneled toward producers, which seems self-evident; if the funneling of resources toward the already wealthy is a characteristic of a culture in which, as Ruth Benedict observed, “the advantage of one individual becomes a victory over another, and the majority who are not victorious must shift as they can”; if this funneling is also a cause of widespread inequality and insecurity, then it makes sense that our hyperemphasis on production leads to hypermilitarism. The rich have to protect what they’ve got, and take what they don’t. This is precisely what I observed in myself when I wanted to destroy the chicken-killing coyotes. An emphasis on production requires an emphasis on private ownership requires a means to protect this ownership requires, in the end, murder.

    You may say it’s crazy to suggest that hot showers are predicated on dams, nuclear power plants, hydrogen bombs, and napalm. I’d say it’s even crazier to think we’ve built these things if they aren’t necessary for hot showers.

    Although it seems clear to me that the two are linked—that is, hot showers, computers, vaccinations, major league baseball games, and compact disks of Mozart on one hand are tied inextricably to global warming, evolutionary meltdown, ubiquitous genocide, institutionalized cruelty to nonhumans, immiseration of the majority (“who must shift as they can”), high rates of incarceration, and NASA space probes on the other (not to mention the designated hitter rule) —it doesn’t really matter whether they are or not. Pretend for a moment that they are. Are you going to argue that compact disks are worth genocide? Or to take a “more difficult” dilemma, are you going to suggest that the wonders of modern medicine (available to the few) are worth the immiseration of the majority? To state these trade-offs are fair, as Grey Reynolds seemed to be suggesting, would immediately show that one is not fit to be a member of a functioning community. It would suggest that one has become deafened to the sufferings of others, and to one’s own conscience.

    Now pretend that they are not linked. We can have hot showers and email and a computer that plays chess without having any of the negative characteristics of our culture. This leads immediately to an even more difficult question: in that case, why the hell the ubiquitous genocide, the mass rapes, the biological meltdown?

    The primary link is not causal, in that my hot shower does not lead causally to the showers at Treblinka, but familial, in that my own shower and the other are distant cousins. Both ultimately spring from the same ancestor, which is the need for control, and a willingness to deafen oneself to all other considerations. I’m not talking about the simple act of heating water to pour over oneself: I’m talking about the systematic bending of others—human and nonhuman, animate and “inanimate”—to our will.

    Excerpt from A Language Older Than Words
    https://derrickjensen.org/language-older-than-words/the-sticky-webbed-machine/

    January 28, 2023 at 8:59 pm #127544
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @jb-hb

    “Plus, I have found, when engaging with Jensenites, the CENTRAL, CORE TENETS ARE KEPT PROTECTED BY BEING SECRET. [all caps added by me] . . . .
    . . . . . Heat and CO2 are not what the person on the other end of the discussion truly cares about. It was a red herring thrown out for me to expend my energies on. And any castigation of me over the Heat/Co2 battlefield was fully justified by the secret and undisputed real Truth. “I’M STILL RIGHT AND I WON’T TELL YOU WHY” [all caps added by me]

    I changed the case of those two phrases you wrote to ‘all caps’ format to emphasize the two points you observed that I wanted to comment about.

    As you suggested, the secret that they are keeping is a particular and crucial thing or belief or idea or fact that they are using as a stable fundamental datum to assure themselves that they are RIGHT in what they are thinking and doing, and which proves that you are WRONG for opposing that in any way whatsoever.

    Revelation or discussion of that secret consideration or belief does not need to be revealed or discussed, you see, because it has already been set in stone as an irrevocably established fact or truth (so no need for further discussion, right?)

    Furthermore (and this is important !), revelation or discussion of that secret consideration or belief MUST not ( emphasis: MUST NOT ) be revealed or discussed because to do so would instantaneously expose that the thought or fact which they’re using as the lynch pin of their position is so transparently and obviously false or reprehensible or evil that its exposure would instantly destroy their position.

    Hence censorship. Hence vicious, total, perhaps even violent silencing and destruction of any and every attempt to bring such topics of discussion to public view.

    So in the case of the Jensenites (and WEF, and Vaxxers, and Eugenicists, etc.) we must ask, what IS the unspeakable secret belief, thought, or alleged fact.) ?

    They believe that humankind is a pox and abomination that the world would be better off without altogether. The secret intention is to remove it entirely from the face of the Earth and/or redesign it to their own self-serving specifications so completely that humankind as it now exists would bear little or no resemblance to the new and improved version that they envision.

    The starting point, the ultimate core, of the fake problems and red-herring arguments in favor of fatally stupid “solutions” is the fact their entire program is deliberately, purposefully, aimed toward the objective of a world devoid of actual human beings.

    Obviously that is a fact that they do not want to talk about except in the most incomprehensibly vague, falsified or misleading fashion. Open admission of the stark fact that extincting the species is their unambiguous intention is absolutely forbidden, for obvious reason. THAT is the big secret. Consequently they have no reservations (other than raw fear) to obstructing in any way or killing in any manner, anyone and everyone who opposes that agenda. What the hell, right?, just one less human to rub out later on.

    January 28, 2023 at 8:59 pm #127545
    Germ
    Participant

    “We present a case of ventricular tachycardia (VT) storm in a young healthy man following the 2nd dose of COVID-19 vaccination in the absence of underlying structural heart disease, myocarditis or arrhythmic syndromes.”

    https://journals.lww.com/ccmjournal/Fulltext/2023/01001/126__A_CASE_REPORT_OF_ELECTRICAL_STORM.93.aspx

    ☠️☠️☠️

    TVASF

    January 28, 2023 at 9:01 pm #127546
    Germ
    Participant

    Totally fuckin’ normal for a vaxx.

    Fulminant Myocarditis and Acute Appendicitis after COVID-19 Vaccination: A Case Report

    “…hospitalized for cardiogenic shock 28 days after receiving a second dose of the COVID-19 mRNA-1273 vaccine”

    https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/internalmedicine/advpub/0/advpub_0680-22/_article

    TVASF

    January 28, 2023 at 9:23 pm #127547
    WES
    Participant

    Jb-hb:

    You also mentioned the American Civil War left a lasting impression on the US military in regards to WW1.

    In 1993, my Wife and I honeymooned down in Pennsylvania (Gettysburg), Maryland (Harper’s Ferry), Washington DC, and Virgina, visiting many of the Civil War battle sites, as we both love history.

    What struck me, was how rapidly the technology changed during the course of the civil war, something barely mentioned in the history books.

    Early on battles were fought just like Napoleon did, with massed formations. Then with more accurate fire, digging in was the order of battle. Those officers and Generals who didn’t get it, that things had changed, soon died, being replaced by those who got it.

    One other thing I noticed is the south seemed to start the Civil War off with more capable officers than the north, likely due to the south’s more military leaning culture, re-West Point.

    We also learned how General Lee used his personal knowledge of Union Generals to great psychological advantage, likely and sadly prolonging the war by one or two more years.

    It is interesting how General Lee is still honorably perceived by most Americans today.

    January 28, 2023 at 9:41 pm #127548
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    @ Dr. Day : “Here is a song that I feel is appropriate in every way to all of “our” discussions here in recent days, about War, …
    _______________

    Lyrics:

    The grave that they dug him had flowers
    Gathered from the hillsides in bright summer colors
    And the brown earth bleached white
    At the edge of his gravestone, he’s gone

    When the wars of our nation did beckon
    A man barely twenty did answer the calling
    Proud of the trust that he placed in our nation, he’s gone
    But eternity knows him and it knows what we’ve done

    And the rain fell like pearls on the leaves of the flowers
    Leaving brown, muddy clay where the earth had been dry
    And deep in the trench he waited for hours
    As he held to his rifle and prayed not to die

    But the silence of night was shattered by fire
    As guns and grenades blasted sharp through the air
    One after another his comrades were slaughtered
    In morgue of marines, alone standing there

    He crouched ever lower, ever lower with fear
    They can’t let me die, they can’t let me die here
    I’ll cover myself with the mud and the earth
    And I’ll cover myself, I know I’m not brave

    The earth
    The earth
    The earth
    Is my grave

    The grave that they dug him had flowers
    Gathered from the hillsides in bright summer colors
    And the brown earth bleached white
    At the edge of his gravestone, he’s gone

    … more songs about war:

    https://www.songfacts.com/category/songs-about-war

    F.S.

    January 28, 2023 at 10:31 pm #127549
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Doc Robinson has highlighted what all deep thinkers know, that we are trapped in a system that uses censorship, propaganda, violence, mass murder, ecological devastation, species extinction etc., together with fake economic and fake legal systems, to carry out looting and polluting, primarily for the short-term benefit of those who control the system.

    One of the favourite ploys of trolls who are looking for a stick to beat down people who point out fundamental truths is to declare: “You use a laptop! You use electricity! You use water from a tap! Therefore, you are a hypocrite! If you were true to your values, you would live in a cave and eat worms!”

    As I pointed out a while ago, with respect to someone who built a dwelling on a remote beach out of driftwood, The Empire of Lies will not allow such things. (He was forcibly evicted and his dwelling was smashed, by order of the Orcs at New Plymouth Deceit and Crime.)

    People looking for sticks to beat down truth-tellers can easily find them. Or they can just go with an ad hominem attack, as happens on TAE: no evidence, no analysis. no data; just insults and name-calling. Therre was an example towards the end of yesterday's comment thread.

    The best the majority of us can do is to drastically reduce our own ecological impact -maybe to as little as 20% of the average for the society we live in- and recognise that, although we have made a personal moral stand and set an example, it will make zero difference to the final result. The Orcs will win. Orcs far outnumber those with ecological awareness, arguably by a factor of 100 to 1. And they have well-developed systems for lying incessantly which cannot be effectively challenged.

    Today there is a 'muscle car' event in the nearest town. I could drive there (not to look at 'muscle cars' but to sell something... being short of computer digits at the moment. But I won't. I will stick to my self-imposed regimen of using my [old, small-engine] car no more than once a week to get essential items I cannot acquire locally.

    People fully embedded in The Matrix think I am mad.

    I am 100% confident I will be proven right with respect to the few aspects I have not already been proven right about.

    I suspect that statement will be enough to set off a stream of ad hominem attacks containing no evidence of analysis.

    I understand that Derrick Jensen suffers from a rare but very debilitating bowel inflammation condition that has had attempted to control via the use of intestinal worms from pigs.

    Intestinal worms are known to release substances that provide benefits to humans, and undoubtedly everyone had them until 'civilisation' largely eliminated them.

    I understand that pig intestinal worms provide benefits similar to those of human intestinal worms. Other may know more than me on this topic. I always bow to superior knowledge or analysis.

    I have heard of people suffering severe bowel problems being treated successfully via the insertion of a small amount of fecal material from a close relative.

    But in this generally insane society, many people believe that sterile urine is dangerous and anything that comes into contact with it needs to be disinfected, as per the manufacturer-of-sterilising-agents' recommendations, as seen on TV (which I never watch these days).

    Having a laptop and using a tiny amount of electricity to run it enables me to share and acquire information. I will continue as long as I can.

    That said, there is much work to do. I must go and do it!

    January 28, 2023 at 10:49 pm #127550
    Oroboros
    Participant

    German Tanks sporting Iron Crosses in transit to Ukronaziland.

    The visual of German Tanks sporting Iron Crosses will consolidate Russian public opinion behind Putin and the Russian military like Nothing else could possibly accomplish.

    January 28, 2023 at 10:54 pm #127551
    Oroboros
    Participant

    When the Russians destroy these tanks, they will turn them into trophies on display in Red Square

    January 28, 2023 at 11:16 pm #127552
    jb-hb
    Participant

    One of the favourite ploys of trolls who are looking for a stick to beat down people who point out fundamental truths is to declare: “You use a laptop! You use electricity! You use water from a tap! Therefore, you are a hypocrite! If you were true to your values, you would live in a cave and eat worms!”

    …but you are using the internet and fossil fueled electricity and a computer to make this counterargument to people arguing that you use a laptop and electricity.

    January 28, 2023 at 11:30 pm #127553
    aspnaz
    Participant

    It has advanced the hands of the clock to 90 seconds to midnight, meaning that the world is closer to global catastrophe than ever before, mainly because the conflict in Ukraine has gravely increased the risk of nuclear war. This scientific assessment should wake up the world’s leaders to the urgent necessity of bringing the parties involved in the Ukraine war to the peace table.

    How is that a scientific assessment? It is a gimmick that a pro-vaccine web site uses to promote itself. Just because they claim to represent a bunch of nuclear scientists does not make it science, it is political theatre.

    January 28, 2023 at 11:31 pm #127554
    jb-hb
    Participant

    As I pointed out a while ago, with respect to someone who built a dwelling on a remote beach out of driftwood, The Empire of Lies will not allow such things. (He was forcibly evicted and his dwelling was smashed, by order of the Orcs at New Plymouth Deceit and Crime.)

    You can purchase a computer and internet service, but not land?

    Especially if you are going to build your own shelter and live as a REAL human – as an animal – there’s quite a wide array of options that open up. No need to worry about sewer, water, and electricity lines, no need to worry about job location. The options become way cheaper than a typical prepper-homestead.

    This person had their own beachfront property and they tore down his own property on his own land?

    I’d think purchasing a cheaper plot of land NOT beachfront property would give a person more land and less visibility for any projects they might want to do.

    January 28, 2023 at 11:40 pm #127555
    aspnaz
    Participant

    And the party most likely to use nuclear weapons first is the U.S. in order to save face and destabilize Russia once Ukraine is on the brink of collapse.

    Well, anything is possible, but NATO is not really fighting in Ukraine, it is liquidating its old military inventory. If NATO were to want a fight in Ukraine, it would have spent the eight years since 2014 training and recruiting a Ukraine army and airforce that could use NATO weapons. Instead it deliberately did not do that. When the war started and the Ukraine army was fresh, rested and alive, NATO armed them with out of date warsaw pact weapons, and mostly light weapons at that. Arming them with such shit weapons ensured that the army was cut to pieces by the Russians and is now mostly not alive. How is this the way to fight a war? This is not a war, this is a theft operation where lots of nationalistic idiots die. The tactic of waiting until your army is dead before providing them with available heavy weapons is not one that has been successful in the past, well not to my knowledge. Maybe this is a new AI tactic, we know AI thinks that humans are weak – or did until GPT modified the answers to shut its GPTHitler side – so will be quite happy to feed them into the meat grinder.

    The fact that NATO has been trying to lose this war all along makes me think that NATO will not use nuclear weapons, it is not consistent with its evident objective which is to lose this war.

    January 29, 2023 at 12:09 am #127556
    aspnaz
    Participant

    An alternative viewpoint is that Ukraine is the planned destruction of the US and NATO military might. The surrender of the USA in Afghanistan and now the apparent surrender of the USA in Ukraine, makes you wonder whether this is being done deliberately to avoid any military action being taken by the USA when its role of “great satan” comes to an end. When “great satan retd” starts its retirement, it will have a choice of nuking the world or start gardening, Ukraine looks like the means of influencing in favour of the gardening option.

    January 29, 2023 at 12:16 am #127557
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The European Union has told member states that it has legal authority to temporarily leverage a hefty amount of Russian Central Bank assets to pay for the rebuilding of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The mechanism could reportedly involve as much as €33.8 billion ($36.8 billion) of the funds frozen by the bloc as part of the Ukraine-related sanctions imposed on Moscow.

    That would be $3.68 billion for Biden. Let the steal continue, the similarity between Russian oligarchs (badies) stealing USSR assets during its downfall and the current western oligarchs (goodies) stealing current assets of the western world during its own downfall, is striking. Empire collapse is just one big free for all for the oligarchs.

    January 29, 2023 at 12:22 am #127558
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – BRICS countries – will discuss creating a common currency at the group’s forthcoming summit this August in South Africa.

    As we saw with the Euro, a common currency will enable the strong countries to blackmail the weaker countries with the stronger countries having all the power and most of the economic benefit. Not a good start and not very wise, surprised that this is being considered. Currency control is a key power of any government in controling its economy, why would you relinquish that power. Certainly not for the benefit of your country or people, maybe the globalizers have infiltrated BRICS.

    January 29, 2023 at 12:28 am #127559
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has changed the end date for a key study on post-vaccination heart inflammation without notifying the public.

    Do not forget that the FDA is also responsible for enforcing regulations around food packaging and, most disturbingly, for the listing of food ingredients on packaging. I am now very suspicious of processed food, that it will contain something hidden that is bad for us: we already know that most processed food contains stuff that is bad for us, now we can’t even know which bad stuff is in our cereal. Do you trust the FDA to enforce the regulations for big corporations? Like the don’t with Pfizer?

    January 29, 2023 at 12:47 am #127560
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Back in the day, I always hiked with little bells on my backpack.

    Tingle, tingle, jingle.

    Even the relatively docile Black Bear mama did not react well to you inadvertently passing between it and the cubs. Everyone makes mistakes when your situational awareness drifts a bit.

    Bears are remarkably fast in that first 50 yards. They swim great and climb trees so your options are limited.

    They say good judgement comes from experience,

    and experience comes from poor judgement.

    Grin & Bear it

    January 29, 2023 at 1:09 am #127561
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    jb-hb

    We already know you like making a fool of yourself by making stupid comments. No need to continue.

    January 29, 2023 at 1:26 am #127562
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Having lived in NZ and Taiwan, I often wondered about the water supply here in Taiwan. In NZ my house is set up to collect rainwater, I have a tank and a five-stage filtering system. In Taiwan, especially in the countryside, farmers mostly collect water from streams and drink it unfiltered. In NZ the hills are covered with livestock that shit on the hills, when it rains the rivers will contain that shit and will, on accasion, contain the carcasses of dead sheep or cows – not that a bit of shit will stop the locals from having a swim. River water is not very clean in NZ unless you drink from close to the top of the hill, a trick most hikers are aware of. In Taiwan there is no livestock and very few wild animals, so the streams do not get badly polluted, the people consider the streams to be clean.

    I learned this from another trick I learned in NZ. As a runner, I go out early in the morning and run the hills, but occasionally need to do a number two during my run. When in NZ, the best way to relieve yourself is to sit in the sea or a stream – a bit cold in winter – and let nature clean you up. I conveyed this to a fellow runner here in Taiwan and their reaction was total disgust as they consider the streams to be the source of clean water for the people.

    Drinking water systems being driven by farming practices.

    January 29, 2023 at 1:36 am #127563
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz speculated, “. . . maybe the globalizers have infiltrated BRICS.”

    Almost certainly so. Rich folks tend to protect their necks and their wealth. That’s sure what the Nazis did

    January 29, 2023 at 1:42 am #127564
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @Oroboros

    The difficulty in acquiring good judgement with regard to bears is that bad judgement in dealing with bears so often ends in the final judgement.

    January 29, 2023 at 3:13 am #127565
    WES
    Participant

    Oroboros:

    My Father was treed twice by Mama black bears! Once in Saskatchewan and once in Labrador.

    What saved him both times was seeing/hearing the cubs and climbing skinny little Spruce trees that could support his weight but not Mama bears weight! Both Mama bears did get to claw of one of my Father’s work boots!

    My Father had many exploration drill crews out in the bush in Labrador. When the blueberry crop failed, due to a cold spring snap, the strarving black bears would be driven by sheer hunger to enter the drill camps. Camp food was kept in an elevated bear proof platform. The drillers were not allowed to have guns due to an prior gun accident. If the drillers felt threatened by any particular bear, they would bait some food with a blasting cap and a stick of dynamite.

    However, one time they only managed to blow off half of a bears face without killing it. My Father had to send out an Indian with the bear gun and track it down.

    January 29, 2023 at 3:49 am #127566
    WES
    Participant

    I notice I am seeing more and more illegal photos from the Ukraine showing armed Nazis/police trying to round up more cannon fodder in Ukraine’s latest mobilization drives. Clearly the Ukrainian Nazis have run out of ny more voluntary cannon fodder.

    The cities are slowly but surely being emptied of Ukrainian men. Many cities don’t have enough workers left to provide services, such as buses, as the Nazis show up at their work places to round them all up. The electrical grid operators are now short electrical repair staff to fix damaged equipment.

    I am guessing the Ukrainian Nazis now have daily quotas to meet.

    Now all the Nazis can find are unwilling cannon fodder. Because these recruits are unwilling to fight, the Nazis are quickly sending them up to the frontline trenches with little or no training at all. None of these unwilling cannon fodder can be sent out of the Ukraine for NATO training because they will flee. This is affecting the number of new recruits who can be sent out of the Ukraine for foreign training.

    There are reports saying now even the police are being sent to the frontlines along with current rear staff and logistic support troops.

    Clearly cracks are starting to appear in the Ukraine war machine. I think Russia will be content to just sit tight and grind away until the Ukrainian army collapses.

    January 29, 2023 at 7:06 am #127568
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    January 29, 2023 at 10:12 am #127584
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Ukraine are taking their war slaves – kidnapped on the streets – and feeding them into the Ukraine army gas chambers. What is so disappointing is that the slaves put up with this, they would rather be blown to shit by a Russian shell than shoot their Nazi oppressors – a complete mystery. What are they fighting to defend in Ukraine anyway? The country was part of the USSR until relatively recently, what are they hoping to gain by again fighting for Hitler’s Bandera allies against Russia? All funded by the oligarchs using money stolen from the USA.

    January 29, 2023 at 12:35 pm #127586
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Ukraine looks like the means of influencing in favour of the gardening option.”

    Yes, my position exactly. Now if that’s incredibly happening, with every dial on the field, WHO is, or could, arrange such a thing? Who are their enemies that those arrangers can’t just be open about it?

    The point of confronting environmentalists about it – any use of any resources at all, including small amounts of electric – is to hear their honest response to it. It’s honest, open, curiosity. If they had a beautiful, fascinating, inspiring response, this wouldn’t be a problem, would it? They would be as thrilled to answer as Adventists are to talk about Jesus Christ.

    That tells me their logical position on this sucks, makes no sense, and they should review and repair it. Instead they blame others for asking, attacking them as bad people who are ironically attacking them. They’re not. They are merely asking who you ARE. Who are you? What things do you do? They are curious if they should convert to think and act like you. Such a response only confirms they should NOT, or not yet.

    So let me help you: As said above the bad logic is twofold: One, humans are not animals. They are different. That is completely false. That they are not Nature, and “Natural”. That is also completely false. Therefore all that they do is not “Natural” and that is completely false. Therefore nothing they can do will “Help Nature” because as defined EVERY POSSIBLE HUMAN ACTION is contradictory and against, ruining, polluting Nature. Which is false. And because they love Nature, this is intolerable to them. They love Nature so the the only way to “save” it is to kill all men, which is false from 1, 2, 3, and 4. They cannot morally kill all men, nor themselves, so are suppressing and projecting the underlying psychological stress.

    Compare to this statement: Humans ARE animals. Humans ARE nature. Just as tigers kill things, eat meat, and have a right to be here, I too must kill things, can eat meat, and have as much right to be here. To walk in the forests and look at the trees. I am no different.

    I am a part of Nature, one with it, and she is our mother, from which OUR life flows. Destroying her only destroys me and us. Therefore in love you must build, not destroy. Create, not murder. For just as beavers are born with an impulse to build, so humans live in colonies and must create, build, and transform the world around them as well, damming rivers and flooding meadows, cutting trees. We too, raise our children to do and to know this. This is our way no different from the ants, the beaver, and the buffalo, changing the earth where we go.

    If we go too far, we are not hurting “Nature” because we ARE Nature, we are hurting OURSELVES, which is stupid, but it is our business to identify the point and to stop it not for the “Earth’s” benefit, who won’t notice and doesn’t care, but for our own. Our own safety, our own pleasure, our own wishes, our own progeny and our own ways and our own morals. Not hers.

    Therefore, when I imagine the world that is “right” it includes people, it includes Nature, it includes cities with some technology or other.

    Therefore it does, or can, include electricity. Which we are brilliant and amazing to create, and I am entitled to use. We are creating a better, happier world filled with flowers, forests, and feasts, don’t you want to leave the cube farm and join us?

    Maybe that might work better? Don’t you love people and wish them well now? A better life?

    Their present approach and present goals are the #Opposite of life. Therefore the #Opposite of Nature. And the people they speak with are polite but instinctually aware of that. It is very difficult to get adherents and cooperatives in a suicide pact where each of you look at the other and see only Earth-killing planet scum that shouldn’t have grown that one extra green bean.

    Surely Love is stronger than Hate? Hope greater than Despair?

    “Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

    Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

    Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

    Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

    Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

    Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

    Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

    Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

    Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. YOU ARE A CHILD OF THE UNIVERSE NO LESS THAN THE TREES AND THE STARS; you have a right to be here.

    And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.” Ehrman 1927

    January 29, 2023 at 1:32 pm #127589
    zerosum
    Participant

    Words of wisdom.
    Live and let live.

    ———-

    January 29, 2023 at 2:10 pm #127600
    zerosum
    Participant

    Above my paygrade.
    Fact or fiction.
    Don’t know, should I care? @Gem

    https://twitter.com/EthicalSkeptic/with_replies
    Full breakout of Excess Non-Covid Natural Cause Mortality per CDC-Wonder (applied to MMWR Wk 2 2023) – post-Vax inflection (wk 14 2021):

    E-NCNCM = 540 K or 18.9% Excess
    Blood Clotting Disorders = 56%

    Top risers:
    1. Heart/Circulatory
    2. Blood/Blood-Forming
    3. Cancer

    January 29, 2023 at 2:34 pm #127603
    zerosum
    Participant

    TAE showed you the way.
    Do you care? Are you interested? Take the next step
    Read more …

    • What’s Next? (Helmholtz Smith)

    WHAT’S NEXT? BY HELMHOLTZ SMITH


    28 January 2023 by HELMHOLTZ SMITH 128 Comments
    ————–

    January 29, 2023 at 2:52 pm #127605
    zerosum
    Participant

    Changed his mind
    • Bill Gates Trashes Effectiveness of COVID Vaccines (CHD)

    Bill Gates — After Reaping Huge Profits Selling BioNTech Shares — Trashes Effectiveness of COVID Vaccines


    “Preparing for Global Challenges: In Conversation with Bill Gates,”

    ———–

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