Jan 292023
 
 January 29, 2023  Posted by at 10:09 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Edward Hopper Cat boat 1922

 

What’s Next? (Helmholtz Smith)
Ex-Polish FM Names Two Major Ukrainian Problems (RT)
Neutrality and Peaceful Multi-Ethnicity (Rosel)
Air Force General Predicts War With China In 2025 (NBC)
NATO Ready For Direct Confrontation With Russia – Official (TASS)
If WWIII Breaks Out, It Won’t Start On Tanks Or Fighter Jets – Medvedev (TASS)
White House Confronted Over Tanks To Ukraine (RT)
Britain ‘Modeling Cyber Strikes’ On Russian Infrastructure – Moscow (RT)
Mozart Group Trains Ukrainians To ‘Kill Russians’ – Founder (RT)
As West, Debt & Stocks Implode, East Gold & Oil Will Explode (Von Greyerz)
Are You Really Against Fossil Fuels? Read This Before You Answer (RCE)
Zuckerberg-Funded “Non-Profit” Gears Up for 2024 Elections (GP)
Bill Gates Trashes Effectiveness of COVID Vaccines (CHD)
Meet Hamilton 68, the New King of Media Fraud (Matt Taibbi)
Responding to Hamilton 68 (Matt Taibbi)

 

 

 

 

Douglas Macgregor – We are co Belligerents

 

 

 

 

“At first, the Germans sent soldiers’ helmets [to Ukraine], saying that they did not want to supply lethal weapons there. Now it’s come to tanks, and there are already talks about planes.” “Step by step, the Germans are drifting towards war,”
– Viktor Orban

 

 

Gonzalo Lira 2023.01.28 The West Has Lost Already

 

 

 

 

Madness

 

 

Ethical Sceptic

 

 

 

 

• Gonzalo: The last numbers I was confident of came from Col. Douglas Macgregor: He reported 157,000 KIA as of a few days ago.
• According to unofficial data circulating online, AFU Chief Valery Zaluzhny reported to the Pentagon and NATO on the number of losses of Ukrainian servicemen. According to the Ukrainian command, the AFU has lost a total of 232,000 killed since the start of the special operation.
• According to the private company Stratfor Forecasting, Ukraine’s losses exceed 305,000 killed.

 

 

 

 

“This grinding away can continue until Ukraine collapses because it is easier for the Russians to let the enemy come to them than go after them.”

What’s Next? (Helmholtz Smith)

I don’t know what the Russians are going to do in Ukraine and neither does anyone else outside of their high command. But there sure have been a lot of wrong predictions. Leaving aside the Western propaganda mill (of which more below), serious observers seem to get the timing wrong. We know the correlation of forces favors Russia but we expect things to happen more quickly. We agree that Moscow was expecting something shorter, less bloody and quicker at the beginning and was probably surprised by the resistance of the Kiev regime and NATO’s unhinged support. Therefore there was a re-examination and the call-up of further forces. Thus far we are in agreement – it’s the timing of the next step that we seem to get wrong.

I’ve been thinking about why this is so and I have come to the following conclusions. By now everybody who is paying attention knows that the Ukraine battlefield is part of a world war in which those who control the US empire are trying to hold onto their dominance. For those outside the NATO propaganda bubble there is general agreement that
1/ Russia is winning both in the Ukraine battlefield and the wider theater.
2/ Time is on Russia’s side.

First the Ukraine battlefield. The first aim in war is to destroy the enemy’s power and that Russia is doing, especially in the Bakhmut slaughterhouse. Kiev is determined to stand and fight here and the Russians are quite happy to let them do so – “artillery conquers and infantry occupies” – and that is what we see here. Slowly slowly the Russian forces advance over mountains of Ukrainian bodies. In the last week or so Russian forces have begun to advance on other fronts too. This grinding away can continue until Ukraine collapses because it is easier for the Russians to let the enemy come to them than go after them. Meanwhile Russian missiles destroy the infrastructure Kiev needs to continue the war. Time and developments favor Russia and there is no incentive to make “big arrow” movements.

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Ukraine went steeply downhill due to corruption.

“..the country had “nuclear plants, an aviation industry, no debt and the most fertile land in the world.”

Ex-Polish FM Names Two Major Ukrainian Problems (RT)

Ukraine was never able to achieve economic prosperity despite having a head start due to widespread graft among officials and delusions of being a significant global player, former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has suggested. In an interview with the magazine Krytyka Polityczna on Friday, Sikorski, who has represented Poland in the EU Parliament since 2019, stated that Ukrainian elites “were simply wasting their time.” In his view, they were “hiding their corruption and delusions of grandeur behind a story” that they were playing some big game with the US, Russia, Europe, and China.

The MEP recalled that after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Ukraine had a huge edge over many other ex-Soviet republics and members of the former Eastern bloc. In particular, he said the country had “nuclear plants, an aviation industry, no debt and the most fertile land in the world.” However, even before Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine last year, the country “had a GDP four times smaller than Poland,” the former minister pointed out, adding that Ukrainians “are now paying dearly for this maneuvering” by the elites. Earlier this week, Sikorski suggested that Warsaw had considered partitioning Ukraine in the first weeks of the conflict. The allegation, however, was vehemently denied by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who accused Sikorski of acting “like a Russian propagandist.”

Once the second-largest economy in the Soviet Union, Ukraine was Europe’s poorest country by per-capita GDP as of 2020. Even before Russia’s military operation in February 2022, a major economic problem facing Ukraine stemmed from a popular revolt and hostilities in industry-heavy Donbass, which were sparked by a Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014. Another major reason Ukraine had become something of an economic backwater, however, is rampant corruption. According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception index, Ukraine ranked 122 out of 180 countries globally as of 2021. The same year, Freedom House, a US government-financed non-profit organization, described graft in Ukraine as “endemic,” noting that the government’s efforts to combat it “have met resistance and experienced setbacks.”

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“For those two diplomats Minsk was not a sham, it was an attempt in good faith to bring peace to Ukraine..”

Neutrality and Peaceful Multi-Ethnicity (Rosel)

Switzerland has been neutral since the year 1815. The great powers at that time guarantied the territorial integrity of Switzerland in the borders of 1815 provided that Switzerland would remian neutral in future conflicts. But even before 1815 the independence of the confederation from the great powers Austria and France was intertwined with its neutrality. Neutrality has been an issue in Switzerland since the latest Ukraine conflict began. A few months back the Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis was considered to be negligent in the matter of neutrality and as a result a referendum is now being prepared by the Swiss People’s Party which will confirm, clarify and strengthen Switzerland’s neutrality. Switzerland is not unique. Austria is also neutral, meaning that it is not a member of NATO, and in this way it avoided being partitioned after World War II as Germany was.

Switzerland is also a multi-ethnic country. Despite its population of only 8 million, there are four cultural groups and four official languages. There is an unofficial custom which parliament always observes when electing a new government: the three main regions must always be represented in the government. All ministers are bilingual. There are no ethnic tensions. If you want to talk about values, think about neutrality and peaceful multi-ethnicity! Switzerland’s last war was in 1848 and it was a very short civil war. It is also said that the neutrality of Switzerland allows it to be an honest broker. Thus many international agencies and summits are hosted in Geneva. Switzerland is a go-between the estranged nations United States and Iran.

The change in government in Kiev in 2014 can be considered to be a coup d’état since the elected government was replaced by a government according to the wishes of the United States, as was evidenced by the leak of an infamous telephone conversation between the US ambassador and the US diplomat (who is now known for her undiplomatic language) Victoria Nuland. The Maidan coup d’état resulted in severe ethnic tensions in a politically fragile country, which at that time had only been a nation state for a total of 28 years including the years from 1917 to 1922. There was for example a massacre in Odessa in which 46 anti-Maidan demonstrators were killed.

When the conflict in Ukraine broke out in 2014 after the troubles on the Maidan square and the violent change of government, Switzerland held the presidency of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe OSCE. Therefore the Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini (called “the facilitator” and praised by Bloomberg) was allowed to work on a ceasefire agreement which resulted in the Minsk I and the Minsk II Protocols, both signed for the OSCE by Tagliavini. She was supported by Swiss President Didier Burkhalter who at that time was President of the OSCE. He cautioned all parties not to pour oil on the fire. For those two diplomats Minsk was not a sham, it was an attempt in good faith to bring peace to Ukraine. Burkhalter retired prematurely from politics two years later.

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“If you are comfortable in your approach to training, then you are not taking enough risk.”

Air Force General Predicts War With China In 2025 (NBC)

A four-star Air Force general sent a memo on Friday to the officers he commands that predicts the U.S. will be at war with China in two years and tells them to get ready to prep by firing “a clip” at a target, and “aim for the head.” In the memo sent Friday and obtained by NBC News, Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command, said, “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me will fight in 2025.” Air Mobility Command has nearly 50,000 service members and nearly 500 planes and is responsible for transport and refueling. Minihan said in the memo that because both Taiwan and the U.S. will have presidential elections in 2024, the U.S. will be “distracted,” and Chinese President Xi Jinping will have an opportunity to move on Taiwan.

He lays out his goals for preparing, including building “a fortified, ready, integrated, and agile Joint Force Maneuver Team ready to fight and win inside the first island chain.” The signed memo is addressed to all air wing commanders in Air Mobility Command and other Air Force operational commanders, and orders them to report all major efforts to prepare for the China fight to Minihan by Feb. 28. During the month of February, he directs all AMC personnel to “fire a clip into a 7-meter target with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality matters most. Aim for the head.” He also orders all personnel to update their records and emergency contacts. In March he directs all AMC personnel to “consider their personal affairs and whether a visit should be scheduled with their servicing base legal office to ensure they are legally ready and prepared.”

Minihan urges them to accept some risk in training. “Run deliberately, not recklessly,” he writes, but later adds, “If you are comfortable in your approach to training, then you are not taking enough risk.” He also provides a window into one capability the U.S. is considering for possible conflict with China — commercial drone swarms. He directs the KC-135 units to prepare for “delivering 100 off-the-shelf size and type UAVs from a single aircraft.”

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Looks like he’s actually saying that NATO is not ready:

“The fact that your enemy has better weapons is not the problem of the enemy. That is your problem..”

NATO Ready For Direct Confrontation With Russia – Official (TASS)

Chair of the NATO Military Committee Rob Bauer said that the US-led bloc is ready for a direct confrontation with Russia in an interview with Portugal’s RTP TV channel. Replying to a question on the matter, he asserted: “We are ready.” That said, he added that NATO is going to respond only if Russia crosses the red line by invading one of NATO member states. The military official stressed that NATO should be better prepared because currently Russia has the military initiative. “The fact that your enemy has better weapons is not the problem of the enemy. That is your problem,” he said. The interview also raised the issue of introducing “a war-time economy but in peace time,” however, Bauer admitted that this process would be difficult.

Chair of the NATO Military Committee Rob Bauer – A doofus
https://twitter.com/i/status/1619357056032710657

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“Then everything will definitely be turned to dust..”

If WWIII Breaks Out, It Won’t Start On Tanks Or Fighter Jets – Medvedev (TASS)

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev has lambasted Western attempts to justify arms deliveries to Kiev as an alleged effort to prevent a world war. “Firstly, defending Ukraine, which nobody needs in Europe, will not save the senile Old World from retribution if anything occurs. Secondly, once the Third World War breaks out, unfortunately it will not be on tanks or even on fighter jets. Then everything will definitely be turned to dust,” Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday. In this post, Medvedev commented, in particular, on Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto’s remarks that the Third World War would erupt if Russian tanks reached Kiev and “the borders of Europe”, and that the weapons sent to Ukraine were meant to stop the escalation. Medvedev equated his remarks to the calls from the United Kingdom to provide Kiev with all the weapons NATO has.

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“What actions will you take to ensure that our military equipment is not falling into the hands of criminal networks, terrorists, or being sold for profit?”

White House Confronted Over Tanks To Ukraine (RT)

Several Republican lawmakers have raised red flags about the decision by the administration of US President Joe Biden to send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. They claim that the move comes at a time when the US is struggling with domestic problems, while the delivery itself is bound to face numerous challenges. In a letter released on Friday, representatives Troy Nehls, Paul Gosar, Eli Crane, and Lauren Boebert demanded answers from Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin about the unprecedented step of sending Ukraine 31 M1 Abrams tanks to help it in its fight against Russia. The lawmakers said they were not elected by the American people “to continually spend their hard-earned money into a conflict halfway around the world” without the ability to properly track the use of military assistance to Ukraine.

They further argued that it is “shameful that the American taxpayer is continuing to subsidize the ongoing Ukraine conflict” while the White House is “turning a blind eye” to the issue of domestic security, particularly the record-high number of illegal crossings at the southern border. The delivery of heavy armor is certain to face logistical challenges, they said, noting that Abrams tanks could be delivered only in several months, while Ukrainian service members will have to undergo lengthy training to learn how to operate the machinery. The letter also noted that Ukraine has a history of being a hotbed for illegal arms trafficking. “What actions will you take to ensure that our military equipment is not falling into the hands of criminal networks, terrorists, or being sold for profit?” the lawmakers asked Biden and Austin.

They also wondered how the Pentagon intended to track the weapons and how the administration would account for the destruction of hardware provided under US military assistance and reimburse American taxpayers. In November, congressional Republicans called for an audit of US government funds appropriated for aid to Ukraine. A month later, however, the initiative was narrowly defeated in the House of Representatives, with Democrats arguing that it would send the wrong signal to Kiev.

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All sides, all the time.

Britain ‘Modeling Cyber Strikes’ On Russian Infrastructure – Moscow (RT)

Britain has been modeling cyberattacks on Russia’s critical infrastructure, the country’s deputy foreign minister, Oleg Syromolotov, said on Saturday. He added that the simulated hacks included energy facilities and were conducted under NATO guidance. The deputy minister stated that attempts to hack Russian government entities by foreign actors have “increased by two to three times” over the course of last year. Syromolotov was reacting to a story published by The Times last month, in which Lt. Gen. Tom Copinger-Symes, the deputy commander of the UK’s strategic command, was quoted as saying the National Cyber Force was seeking to recruit people with Russian degrees.

“The British are systematically using their offensive capabilities to target Russia’s information [sector],” Syromolotov told the TASS news agency. He added that London regularly conducts exercises, including joint NATO drills, simulating attacks on “Russian critical infrastructure.” “They include the modeling of strikes on government entities in the Kaliningrad Region and Moscow’s energy system,” the diplomat said. The Kaliningrad Region is a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea that borders Poland and Lithuania. Syromolotov said that last year Russia was hit by “unprecedented cyberattacks from abroad,” with the majority of intrusions coming from the US and other NATO members, as well as Ukraine. “We have become a target of coordinated aggression involving intelligence services, transnational IT corporations and hacktivists from the collective West and its puppets.”

According to Syromolotov, government services have been targeted the most. The Foreign Ministry has been repeatedly attacked, he said. “Overall, around 50,000 hacker attacks were repulsed last year.” On April 11, 2022, on the eve of Russia’s Cosmonautics Day celebrations, hackers targeted the website of the country’s space agency, Roscosmos, according to its press service. Also last year, intruders gained access to the database of one of the contractors of the Russian national postal service, leaking some internal documents. On Wednesday, cyber attackers briefly hijacked a TV signal in Russia’s Belgorod Region and Crimea and broadcast an excerpt from a speech by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Crimean officials blamed Kiev’s intelligence services for the intrusion.

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“Why do we train guys? It isn’t simply to defend themselves, it’s to kill the enemy.”

Mozart Group Trains Ukrainians To ‘Kill Russians’ – Founder (RT)

Despite its professed humanitarian mission in Ukraine, the Mozart Group is a private military company training Ukrainian soldiers to kill Russians, its founder and CEO told RT’s Afshin Rattansi on Saturday’s episode of ‘Going Underground.’ Founded by US citizens Andrew Milburn and Andrew Bain last March, the Mozart Group has been described as the Western answer to the Wagner Group – the Russian private military company currently fighting the Kiev forces for control of the key Donbass city of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine). Speaking to Rattansi, Milburn was keen to dispel any comparison between Mozart and Wagner. He told the RT host that his group’s mission is “purely humanitarian,” and that Mozart’s members primarily work to supply and evacuate civilians living near the front lines.

However, the group’s other mission is the training of Ukrainian soldiers, which often takes place “very close to the front line,” Milburn, a former US Marine Corps commander, said. “Sadly in this war – in any war actually – the more of the adversary you take off the playing field, or kill, the less the danger is to your own guys,” he said. “Why do we train guys? It isn’t simply to defend themselves, it’s to kill the enemy.” “Everything we’re doing is exactly within the parameters of NATO policy,” he continued. “The West is providing Ukraine with lethal weapons that kill Russians. Why are they doing that? It’s to kill Russians.” “When we train soldiers that is their goal. It’s why we teach them how to operate their weapons.”

While Mozart survives on private donations, Milburn has previously called for “funding from Western governments,” asking Newsweek last month, “What the hell is stopping the US, or UK, or European Union governments from reaching out and saying ‘Let us help you?’” Milburn is currently embroiled in a legal dispute with Bain, who accused the retired commander of violating US arms trafficking regulations and seeking to expand Mozart’s training operations into Armenia. The suit also accused Milburn of embezzling money donated to the organization, orchestrating the burglary of humanitarian supplies in Ukraine, sexually harassing a female co-worker, and bribing Ukrainian military leaders. Milburn in turn accused Bain of seeking money from the Mozart Group, and claimed that Bain is “heavily invested in Russia,” which he denies.

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“Before the Western Ponzi scheme comes to an end, these three nations will virtually hold 100% of their own debt. At that point, the bonds will be worthless and interest rates will have reached infinity. Not a pretty prospect!”

As West, Debt & Stocks Implode, East Gold & Oil Will Explode (Von Greyerz)

“The risk of over-tightening by the European Central Bank is nothing less than catastrophic” says Prof Kenneth Rogoff . At Davos he also said: “Italy is extremely vulnerable. But this could pop anywhere. Global debt has gone up massively since the pandemic: public debt, corporate debt, everything.” Rogoff believes that it is a miracle that the world averted a financial crisis in 2022, but the odds of a major accident are shortening as the delayed effects of past tightening feed through. As Rogoff said: “We were very fortunate that we didn’t have a global systemic event in 2022, and we can count our blessings for that, but rates are still going higher and the risk keeps rising.” But lurking in the murkiness is also the global financial assets/liabilities which is almost $500 trillion including the shadow banking system at 46% of the total. The shadow banking sector includes pension funds, hedge funds and other financial institutions which are largely unregulated.

Shadow banking is not subject to the normal mark-to-market rules. Thus no one knows what the real position or losses are. This means that central banks are in the dark when it comes to evaluation of the real risks of the system. Clearly, I am not the only one harping on about the catastrophic global debt/liability situation. And no one knows the extent of total global derivatives. But if they have grown in line with debt and also with the shadow banking system, they could easily be in excess of $3 quadrillion.

Cultures don’t die overnight, but the US has been in decline since at least the Vietnam war in the 1960s. Interestingly, the US has not had a real Budget surplus since the early 1930s with a handful of years of exception. But when you, like the US, live on borrowed time and borrowed money, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up appearances. In 1971, the pressures on the US economy and currency became too great. Thus Nixon closed the Gold Window with the dollar having lost over 98% in real terms since then. This is of course a total catastrophe and a guarantee that the remaining 2% fall to ZERO will come in the near term future, whether it takes 5 or 10 years for the dollar to reach oblivion. Remember that the final 2% is 100% from today!


The US, EU and Japan have now reached the stage when no one wants their debt. So sovereign debt of these nations is no longer a question of “passing the parcel” but keeping the parcel. When every third party holder of these debts is a seller, who will buy? These three countries will end up holding their own debt. Japan already holds over 50% of its debt. Before the Western Ponzi scheme comes to an end, these three nations will virtually hold 100% of their own debt. At that point, the bonds will be worthless and interest rates will have reached infinity. Not a pretty prospect!

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Why Just Stop Oil is a pretty dumb statement.

Are You Really Against Fossil Fuels? Read This Before You Answer (RCE)

It is easy for anyone to say that they are against fossil fuels. Opposition to coal, oil and natural gas is fashionable and will prompt heads to nod and even hands to applaud in most places. But are people aware of the extent to which their lives are dependent on fossil fuels? Do they know that more than 90 percent of things used in their everyday lives are derived from fossil fuels? From your toothbrush to your car tire, a majority of the things you use today has been made possible because of fossil fuels. Shoes, refrigerators, washing machines, coffee makers, furniture, pens, eating utensils, eyeglasses, commodes, medical gear, camping equipment, and the list goes on and on.


Consider the computer or the phone from which you are reading this article. They are made of glass, metal, plastic, lithium and silicon – all of which require fossil fuels to mine, process or manufacture. While some are chemical derivatives of fossil fuels, all depend one way or another on their combustion for electricity generation, process heat or transportation. You wouldn’t have the iPhone, Android or MacBook without fossil fuels. Imagine the irony of typing out “end oil” from a phone that is made from fossil fuels! Or supporting climate activism by relaying video that was recorded with a camera made from fossil fuels! Of course, this sort of irony is displayed regularly and missed constantly. In short, the most fundamental necessities – and the most cherished conveniences – of daily life are products dependent on the use of fossil fuels.

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“Twenty-four states have enacted bans or restrictions on private funding of local election offices. But the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence has been working to ingratiate itself with local offices.“

Zuckerberg-Funded “Non-Profit” Gears Up for 2024 Elections (GP)

The Zuckerberg-funded group the Center for Tech and Civic Life that gave out $420 million to election offices in 2020 is doing the same in 2024. Through the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, they are funneling $80 million in election grants to local election offices. A report from election integrity watchdogs Honest Elections Project, John Locke Foundation, and Florida’s Foundation for Government Accountability issued a warned that the Alliance “is focused on systematically reshaping election offices and pushing progressive voting policies.”

Epoch Times reported: Election integrity watchdogs, including Virginia-based Honest Elections Project (HEP), North Carolina’s John Locke Foundation, and Florida’s Foundation for Government Accountability, are again raising the alarm about CTCL—this time, a year before the election rather than months after—claiming its Alliance is a front for boosting Democratic turnout, especially in Democratic strongholds within swing states. “No matter what it claims to be, the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence is nothing more than a dark money-fueled scheme to push liberal voting policies and influence election administration in key states,” HEP Executive Director Jason Snead told The Epoch Times.

“The work of the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence is ‘Zuck Bucks 2.0,’” John Locke Foundation Civitas Center for Public Integrity Director Dr. Andy Jackson said, claiming in a statement that the Alliance is a vehicle “for the private funding of elections by left-wing donors.” Snead and Jackson collaborated in producing a Jan. 19 Zuck Bucks 2.0 report that claims CTCL’s Alliance “is focused on systematically reshaping election offices and pushing progressive voting policies,” adding, “How state and local governments respond will have ramifications for free and fair elections in 2024 and beyond.” An investigation from House Republicans found that less than 1% of the funds were spent on personal protective equipment. Twenty-four states have banned or restricted private funding for local election offices.

Fox News reported:” CTCL issued about $400 million in grants during the 2020 election to fund a variety of work and equipment. That included ballot drop boxes, voting equipment, additional manpower, protective gear for poll workers and public education campaigns on new voting methods, among other expenses.… House Republicans found in an investigation that less than 1% of the funds were spent on personal protective equipment. Instead, the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence appears to be another effort by Zuckerberg and CTCL to influence local election operations, according to critics. “The work of the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence is Zuck Bucks 2.0, which is why they avoided states that have instituted bans on the private funding of election administration,” Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity, said in a statement. Twenty-four states have enacted bans or restrictions on private funding of local election offices. But the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence has been working to ingratiate itself with local offices.“ The GOP needs to stop this!

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“He invested $55 million in BioNTech back in 2019 and it’s now worth north of $550 million.

Bill Gates Trashes Effectiveness of COVID Vaccines (CHD)

Bill Gates, long recognized as one of the world’s foremost proponents of vaccines, raised some eyebrows at a recent talk in Australia when he admitted there are “problems” with current COVID-19 vaccines. Speaking at Australia’s Lowy Institute as part of a talk entitled “Preparing for Global Challenges: In Conversation with Bill Gates,” the Microsoft founder made the following admission: “We also need to fix the three problems of [COVID-19] vaccines. The current vaccines are not infection-blocking. They’re not broad, so when new variants come up you lose protection, and they have very short duration, particularly in the people who matter, which are old people.” Such statements came as a surprise to some in light of Gates’ longstanding support of — and investments in — vaccine manufacturers and organizations promoting global vaccination.

However, they were the latest in a string of developments in recent weeks that have increasingly called the COVID-19 vaccines, in particular, into question. Several analysts and commentators were critical of Gates — but not due to disagreement with the statements he made in Australia. Instead, they argued that he had previously heavily invested in mRNA vaccines at the same time he encouraged a global COVID-19 vaccination campaign and supported mandatory vaccination. Speaking Jan. 25 on The Hill TV’s “Rising,” co-hosts Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave addressed Gates’ statements. Soave initially agreed at face value with Gates’ criticism of current mRNA vaccines, saying: “He really nails it on the issues that we’re having: the short duration of protection, not a significant discernable impact on the transmission of cases … not a massive benefit for a lot of otherwise healthy and younger people.”

However, Soave — who on Jan. 19 revealed “Facebook files” indicating the CDC significantly influenced content moderation and censorship on the platform pertaining to COVID-19 vaccines — then pointed out Gates’ prior investments that contributed to the development of mRNA vaccine technology. Soave said, “Bill Gates was a major proponent of mRNA technology … he was an investor in BioNTech, which developed the mRNA vaccine for Pfizer.” “We were just doing some digging,” continued Soave, “[and] we saw that he sold a lot of those shares at … how much profit was that?” “10x,” replied Gray. “He invested $55 million in BioNTech back in 2019 and it’s now worth north of $550 million. He sold some stock … at the end of last year, I believe it was, with the share price over $300, which represented a huge gain for him over when he invested.”

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“No evidence to support the statement that the dashboard is a finger on the pulse of Russian information ops.” “Hardly evidence of a massive influence campaign.”

Meet Hamilton 68, the New King of Media Fraud (Matt Taibbi)

If one goes by volume alone, this oft-cited neoliberal think-tank that spawned hundreds of fraudulent headlines and TV news segments may go down as the single greatest case of media fabulism in American history. Virtually every major news organization in America is implicated, including NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and the Washington Post. Mother Jones alone did at least 14 stories pegged to the group’s “research.” Even fact-checking sites like Politifact and Snopes cited Hamilton 68 as a source. Hamilton 68 was and is a computerized “dashboard” designed to be used by reporters and academics to measure “Russian disinformation.” It was the brainchild of former FBI agent (and current MSNBC “disinformation expert”) Clint Watts, and backed by the German Marshall Fund and the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan think-tank. The latter’s advisory panel includes former acting CIA chief Michael Morell, former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, former Hillary for America chair John Podesta, and onetime Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol.

The Twitter Files expose Hamilton 68 as a sham: The secret ingredient in Hamilton 68’s analytic method was a list of 644 accounts supposedly linked “to Russian influence activities online.” It was hidden from the public, but Twitter was in a unique position to recreate Hamilton’s sample by analyzing its Application Program Interface (API) requests, which is how they first “reverse-engineered” Hamilton’s list in late 2017. The company was concerned enough about the proliferation of news stories linked to Hamilton 68 that it also ordered a forensic analysis. Note the second page below lists many of the different types of shadow-banning techniques that existed at Twitter even in 2017, buttressing the “Twitter’s Secret Blacklist” thread by Bari Weiss last month. Here you see categories ranging from “Trends Blacklist” to “Search Blacklist” to “NSFW High Precision.” Twitter was checking to see how many of Hamilton’s accounts were spammy, phony, or bot-like. Note that out of 644 accounts, just 36 were registered in Russia, and many of those were associated with RT.

Examining further, Twitter execs were shocked. The accounts Hamilton 68 claimed were linked to “Russian influence activities online” were not only overwhelmingly English-language (86%), but mostly “legitimate people,” largely in the U.S., Canada, and Britain. Grasping right away that Twitter might be implicated in a moral outrage, they wrote that these account-holders “need to know they’ve been unilaterally labeled Russian stooges without evidence or recourse.” Other comments in internal company emails: “These accounts are neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots.” “No evidence to support the statement that the dashboard is a finger on the pulse of Russian information ops.” “Hardly evidence of a massive influence campaign.”

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“I genuinely wanted to hear an innocent explanation if they had one. They still said nothing. Only after the story blew up online yesterday did they put out an explanation.”

Responding to Hamilton 68 (Matt Taibbi)

Days before yesterday’s Twitter Files report about Hamilton 68, I wrote the public relations officers of both of the sites’ parent organizations, the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) and the German Marshall Fund (GMF). I told them I was in possession of the Hamilton 68 list, which purported to track “Russian influence activities.” I said I had a slew of internal Twitter documents that among other things identified their project as “bullshit.” Toward the end I added: Given the sheer quantity of news stories sourced to Hamilton 68, this has to go down as one of the great media frauds of all time. Unless you have an explanation for how and why hundreds of non-Russians like Dennis Michael Lynch, Patrick Hennigsen, Joe Lauria, and [I inserted the name of a San Diego school board member] came to be on this list, there’s no other conclusion.

I hope you will treat this matter with respect and answer this query. My story is going to identify not just people like Clint Watts but members of the ASD advisory board as party to this. The story eventually published, “Move Over, Jayson Blair: Meet Hamilton 68, The New King of Media Fraud,” was based on email assessments of Twitter executives like Yoel Roth and Nick Pickles, the forensic analysis Roth had done in 2017 and which was excerpted yesterday, and interviews with people on the list. These elements — especially the interviews — made for a pretty ironclad case that the much-ballyhooed Hamilton 68 “dashboard” was a sham, that took real opinions of real people and falsely declared them part of a “network” of “Russian influence activities.”

On the remote chance Hamilton 68 had inside information legitimizing the linking of Dennis Michael Lynch, David Horowitz, and @TrumpDyke to “Russian influence activities,” I not only reached out to Hamilton’s creators, but when they were quiet, threw a tantrum on Twitter, tagging every member of the ASD advisory board in an effort to hear from them pre-publication. I genuinely wanted to hear an innocent explanation if they had one. They still said nothing. Only after the story blew up online yesterday did they put out an explanation.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elon Mars
https://twitter.com/i/status/1619140353743015936

 

 

 

 

Musk landing

 

 


This 1974 photograph shows the freshly excavated pit with 2,000-year-old terracotta warriors still showing the original color scheme before the rapid deterioration that made them as we know them today

 

 

Mandarin duck

 

 


The sabertooth longhorn beetle is one of the largest beetles reaching a length of up to 17.7 cm. Its larval stage can last up to 10 years, while its adult phase is likely to last no more than a few months

 

 

Odd couple
https://twitter.com/i/status/1619316157235986432

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle January 29 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)
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  • #127583

    Edward Hopper Cat boat 1922   • What’s Next? (Helmholtz Smith) • Ex-Polish FM Names Two Major Ukrainian Problems (RT) • Neutrality and Peaceful M
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 29 2023]

    #127585
    aspnaz
    Participant

    “What actions will you take to ensure that our military equipment is not falling into the hands of criminal networks, terrorists, or being sold for profit?”

    Afghanistan has so much US military equipment that the Ukraine stock will make a difference? I doubt it, the USA do not care about their equipment, the job is to steal all the way to the bank.

    #127587
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    A Tale of Two Presidents: Biden vs. Trump

    * Biden is a Great President and Trump was an Awful President

    – Biden
    Appointed a diverse cabinet
    Signed executive orders addressing systemic racism and discrimination
    Passed the infrastructure bill to repair roads and bridges and improve internet access
    Reduced the deficit
    Led NATO in its support of Ukraine and opposition to Vladimir Putin
    Lowered the child poverty rate by increasing the tax credit for children
    Launched a program to protect earth from killer asteroids
    Officially recognized Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915
    Sidelined the court-packing movement of the left
    Stepped up US support for Taiwan
    Announced a historic trilateral security agreement with Australia and Britain to counter Chinese hegemony
    Accelerate Covid vaccine delivery at home an abroad
    Improved the American economy by championing competition and reining in the power of big business which helped create millions of jobs
    Gave Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices and made the price of things like insulin and hearing aids cheaper
    Attacked hunger and fostered better nutrition in the US
    Funded opioid recovery programs
    Eliminated the statute of limitations for child sex abuse
    Tried to reform student loans
    Issued important cybersecurity regulations
    Chose humanity over politics when getting Brittney Griner released

    -Trump
    Colluded with the Russians to get elected in 2016
    Appointed unqualified family members to important positions in his administration
    Tried to ban TikTok
    Withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Accords
    Increased the deficit every year of his presidency
    Approved the Keystone Pipeline through native lands
    Disallowed transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice
    Attacked John McCain as a loser
    Ended curbs on auto emissions
    Cracked down on legal immigrants
    Impeded regulation against toxic chemicals
    Shrank the food safety net so that over 700K Americans lost their access to food stamps
    Suggested vaccines cause autism
    Accused Barack Obama of spying on his campaign
    Cut corporate taxes to the lowest level since 1939
    Oversaw the longest government shutdown in US history
    Acted as a racist and xenophobe when he implemented a travel ban from Muslim countries, blamed the Chinese for Covid, separated families at the US border, tried to build a wall between the US and Mexico and gave racist speeches
    Tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act which would have left millions without healthcare
    Inadequately responded to Covid, downplaying the dangers
    Use his influence as president to try to get Ukraine to provide damaging narratives about his political opponent
    Challenged the outcome of the 2020 election undermining democratic institutions and the public’s trust in elections which led to the events of January 6th and the deaths of 5 people

    * Trump was a Great President and Biden is an Awful President

    – Trump
    Negotiated three Arab-Israeli peace accords
    Fostered a strong economy and stock market by signing into to law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and other policies
    Started the Space Force
    Attempted the first Defense Department wide audit
    Cracked down on unwanted robo-calls
    Attempted to build a wall on the border with Mexico to stop illegal immigration
    Helped American farmers with billions of dollars in aid
    Tried to fix health technology by removing rules blocking the sharing of medical information
    Rescinded rules for federal contractors that protected them from sexual harassment claims
    Made it easier to prosecute financial crimes like money laundering
    Renegotiated trade deals with Mexico, Canada and China which benefitted American workers and businesses
    Appointed three Supreme Court justices and many other conservative judges to federal courts leading to pro-Constitutional decisions like the overturning of Roe
    Passed the VA MISSION Act which improved healthcare access and services for veterans
    Oversaw the defeat of the Islamic State’s territorial caliphate in Syria and Iraq
    Kept us out of war
    Signed executive orders and laws combating human trafficking

    -Biden
    Opened the borders to illegal immigrants
    Discharged thousands of troops for refusing the Covid vaccine
    Opposed efforts to stop biological males from competing in women’s sports
    Lied about border patrol agents whipping migrants
    Claimed that January 6th rioters were a bigger threat to democracy than Confederates in the Civil War
    Described terrorism from white supremacy as the most lethal threat to the US
    Oversaw the disastrous withdrawal of American troops for Afghanistan
    Mis-handled the response to Covid mandating vaccines and dividing the nation on the basis of vaccination status
    Supported lockdowns and other pandemic polices which damaged the supply chain and the world economy
    Supported violent protesters instead of the police during the BLM riots
    Lied about Hunter’s laptop saying it was Russain disinformation
    Stated that election reform in the new Jim Crow
    Suppressed first amendment rights by influencing policies of social media outlets
    Supported the war in Ukraine and vilified Russia as our enemy
    Blocked American energy production
    Illegally attempted to forgive student loans
    Printed massive amounts of money causing massive inflation

    #127588
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Once the second-largest economy in the Soviet Union, Ukraine was Europe’s poorest country by per-capita GDP as of 2020.”

    Note the advantages, resources, and legacy talents listed they started with. So that can only happen due to corruption and extraction. As Congo, one of the world’s richest nations, vs Japan, one of the poorest. What is the difference? PROPERTY RIGHTS. That is, the law is functional and fair, ie. not “Corrupt”. That’s what “Corruption” generally means: it means stealing other people’s stuff, it means no property rights.

    “Switzerland has been neutral since the year 1815.”

    Not anymore. They have demonstrated remarkable non-neutrality in Ukraine and can no longer be a broker for peace, or even money. How low did you go when Turkey is now considered more credible? Stop immediately: we noticed.

    “• Air Force General Predicts War with China in 2025 (NBC)”

    It will be the world’s shortest war. We’d have to air-lift 100% of everything 5,000 miles to theatre.

    China is the size of the United States. Are we planning on occupying it? They can’t even occupy Cleveland. The police and National Guard are being beaten by cross-dressers in Atlanta.

    “NATO is going to respond only if Russia crosses the red line by invading one of NATO member states.”

    Really? Because that’s not what sending tanks, mid-range missiles, sinking the flagship and blow up their pipeline says. Sounds to me like it wasn’t Russia that crossed the Red Line.

    “once the Third World War breaks out, … Then everything will definitely be turned to dust,”

    Yes, but that’s reality, and the West is incapable of comprehending that. They think this is “Call of Duty”.

    “ • White House Confronted over Tanks to Ukraine (RT)”

    You mean the tanks that Biden said would start WWIII? Those tanks? Well at least unlike Hillary, he didn’t promise to start WWIII BEFORE being elected. Like Bush he said he wouldn’t.

    Speaking of:
    What fresh hell is this? The mere 31 Abrams they are sending to start WWIII don’t have any armor?

    And I thought the useless signaling and illogic of the West had reached a high tide. Not yet I guess. So…tanks without armor. And perhaps without shells. (as international dirty bombs, a nuclear attack on Russian territory). What does Russia have in mind for a tank with no armor?

    “Marker,” a new robo-tank, will be able to ‘destroy Western tanks, including American Abrams and German Leopards.’ 

    Rogozin explained the robot tank automatically recognizes and attacks Ukrainian equipment, including NATO tanks, all because of its artificial intelligence system and machine learning technology. 
    “The combat version of the Marker robot has an electronic catalog in the control system that contains images of targets both in the visible and in the infrared range,” he said.
    The director of the Air Defense Museum, retired colonel Yuri Knutov, told Lenta.Ru, a Russian newspaper, “the robot can thus identify NATO-made tanks” and will be “armed with a machine gun and an anti-tank missile with a range of up to about six kilometers.” 

    So they really are testing new weapons. We are sending harmless, unarmed drones for Russia to practice fire on. Russians killed = zero.

    Oh and “F the EU” Nuland essentially said we blew up NordStream II. Mystery solved. Because, as the German Minister said, “We’re all at war with Russia.” Can’t these guys ever shut up?

    Britain ‘Modeling Cyber Strikes’ on Russian Infrastructure – Moscow (RT) “

    They are high. As far as I can tell one of these two countries is run completely via the internet with wi-fi attached substations, power plants and controls. The other is Russia, which isn’t, and being “backward” still does a lot/most things manually, off the grid, by having a guy drive out to the substation in a truck. Are you planning on hacking his Kamaz? Controlling his sneakers?

    I’m not saying Britain can’t hack stuff and make a mess, surely they can, but Britain is 100x more vulnerable to each attack they open a front on. Cell phones, gas lines, power grids, internets, airports… Why would you attack where you yourself are weak? Also why wouldn’t you harden your home front when you are clearly planning an aggressive war against an equal power for decades?

    They haven’t the brains of a sea slug, and history is not kind to such glue-sniffing, nepotistic, trust-fund retards. Soros and Murdock and Bush kids: lookin’ at you.

    “Mozart Group Trains Ukrainians to ‘Kill Russians’ – Founder (RT)”

    Yes, but to be fair, all NGOs, like Democracy Now and Amnesty International, Sans Fronteirs and the ADL/ACLU exist to kill people. Killing people is good, don’t you know.

    “Zuckerberg-Funded “Non-Profit” Gears Up for 2024 Elections (GP)”

    NGOs that kill people. They are starting a U.S. Civil War as we speak. One far more deadly than the 20,000 killed per afternoon 200 years ago. That’s #Love. And #Caring. #AllLivesMatter. Oh wait: don’t they hate that phrase and anyone who says or thinks it is their enemy?

    #127595
    Dr. D
    Participant

    (Cut as blocked for too many links)

    Deep Green Resistance, the authors Lierre Keith, Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay state that civilization, particularly industrial civilization, is fundamentally unsustainable”

    Sounds like Marx. In that he’s not wrong: it is unstable AND unsustainable. And choosing paper over plastic and driving a Prius is NOT enough. In fact it’s an insult, development and increasing GDP by another name. But after that everything he says goes off the rails.

    As I said, he should talk to more Sci-fi people. I’m sure I read dozens of successful prospective ecological cultures in Issac Asimov’s Science Fiction Anthology (and girly pinup) Magazine.

    Maybe this is part of the Cult of Progress, that scion or twin of the belief in Evolution, that we’re on a direct line from mud slime to the stars. (Aka a religion) It’s called “teleology”. And when you believe in teleology, you get the reverse, the totally, completely WRONG notion that going into the past is a straight line into violence, poverty, and neanderthals. Forgetting that the top performers of the 1920s were gay black men and women. Hey, what was that about rights? About non-acceptance? That it only runs in one direction? Women the same, it comes and goes. High in the 20s, low in the 50s, high and low in the Middle Ages, high and low in the Viking ages, high and low in the Roman ages. So what is this with straight line history?

    And Rome, boy were those guys straight-line less capable than us AND more intolerant of gays and other cultures than 1970 or what? Wait: not? Then how do we have straight-line evolution and progress from the oppressive “Christians” the oppressive “Romans” the oppressive, backward “Fill in the blank totally uneducated stereotype whipping boy here.” China? More educated. Mayans? More educated. African Empires? More educated. Hey, how far back in history are we going here?

    What was this?
    Pic
    https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/043/459/wyecover.jpg

    #127596
    Dr. D
    Participant

    How far back are we going? How about Rome’s Barbegal mills for a lark? 5 tones of flour a day for enough bread for 40,000 people in Arles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbegal_aqueduct_and_mills The size of General Mills in Minnesota. There’s probably far larger all over but they’re most likely buried under a city like Naples, where you can tour the whole Roman city that still down there, 50 feet below. You know, Roman noodle bars, Roman dry cleaning, Roman supermarkets, Roman tourist trinkets from Asia, Russia, and Scotland, Roman beer. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=undergroun+naples&iax=images&ia=images
    Roman Aquifers 10-40 stories high. Roman waterworks 100 miles long.

    NotDenmark
    https://www.italytravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/trivoli-garden.jpg

    #127597
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Tivoli Gardens and Hadrian’s Villa.
    Garden
    https://books.google.com/books?id=k_1GAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
    Entire book on extensive gardens in Rome.

    10,000 sq ft mansions with heated, tiled floors in YORKSHIRE.

    Just some goofing off. Can’t you see how primitive they were and wore mud and sticks? Ate bugs and bark?

    #127598
    Dr. D
    Participant

    How about Greece, which was said to be even higher? They had steam-powered robots and antikytheria machines: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0to4RXv4_jDU2

    Sitting around in marble pillars and open gardens all day ‘cause that had that eating thing covered. Traveling 1,000 miles on a “Bus” on a lark. Remember Jonah and the Whale from Jaffa to Tarshish? A one-way ticket window on the Mediterranean Express from Tel Aviv to Cornwall or Spain? Yeah, they did that all the time; ask an archeologist.

    Where am I going? Because they believe in Progress, they believe the only way to go backward is to go back to eating mud, chasing mammoths and living in caves. BECAUSE THEY’RE IGNORANT. Completely retarded. Now you’d think a schmartz guy like Jensen and 10,000 of his professorial ilk might run across some of this while they’re quoting Jared Diamond and Spengler. While they’re social-justicing about Africa being equal. About the lost wonders of the “in tune with the earth” Mayans and Toltecs. Nope. To them history is a straight line. Because they are so INTENSELY, PAINFULLY ignorant. The only way to go back is a straight line in exclusively Western history. Teleology. One that somehow alsoignores Greece and Rome??? Despite that nearly every other culture on earth was more in balance than ours, and quite often more accepting, more open, more “progressive” the only way to get into tune is to leapfrog OVER all that history, with golden cities popping up in China, the Silk Road, Sheba, Ashanti, Olmec, Machu Picchu, Ur, Babylon, Varanasi, Kailashnash, Khajuraho, Horyuji, (Feel free to Google Image all these names)

    #127599
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Kailasa
    Pillars

    1200 Years Old Temple That Was Carved Out Of One Rock

    But OTHER than that, we have NO CHOICE but to live in caves, chase mammoths and eat mud. Anything else is just impossible. I mean, what have the Romans ever done for us?

    See how these two are intertwined? Not fluent in WEIRDo, when somebody says “The past” I think, gosh, the tribes here seemed to have a far better time of it, if we had their ethos and our technology we could probably create a “Wakanda” or something. At least an Athens or Kyoto. I mean, they didn’t have fossil fuels, right? And the estimated population numbers in the Amazon gardens and (Aztec) Mexico city keep doubling every few years. Now up to millions, 10-100x the size of London over the same eras. Same in Africa, same in China.

    Yet our ONLY option is to reverse into London, first 1800, then 1600, then 10AD then to mud huts and goat skins. Although Greeks were partying in marble gardens even 5,000 years earlier, and Gobekli Tepe 5,000 years before that. But we just CAN’T. Don’t you understand?

    #127601
    Dr. D
    Participant

    What a waste of imagination.

    Do you see why I get so frustrated with their straight-line thinking and closed-minded zealotry? Okay, you want to go back 5,000 years? Sold. Make it like Greece or Thailand, hanging around in Star Trek togas with a wine Mai tai in a blown glass goblet. Rich cities, sculptors, architects, fruit markets, not a fossil fuel in sight. You know why we “Just Can’t”? “There Is No Alternative” it’s either the stars on SpaceX or back to caves? Because these guys are SO dumb. It MUST be pain, punishment. Calvin’s new Protestantism of Ecology said so. Where did they air drop this from, ‘cause it ain’t in history.

    It never occurred to them to read a book or ask anybody. WE are the greatest, most progressed people ever, and you will have no peoples before me. No one ever did, thought or built anything before 1964. Anything different from that one Jetson UniFuture™ just has to be Collapse™, McCarthy’s On the Road. TINA: There Is No Alternative. (For deeply, woefully, inexperienced and uneducated people who won’t ask.)

    Can we at least TALK about having something nice now?

    Wrote on this yesterday as well.

    #127606
    zerosum
    Participant

    OPPPS! …. my mistake…… My comment, were put in the wrong place.

    Words of wisdom.
    Live and let live.

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

    • What’s Next? (Helmholtz Smith)
    28 January 2023 by HELMHOLTZ SMITH 128 Comments
    ————-
    Changed his mind
    • Bill Gates Trashes Effectiveness of COVID Vaccines (CHD)

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

    #127607
    John Day
    Participant

    Oopsies on Dr. D’s birthday.
    He implied it was in 1954, from which I calculated his ae as 68-69.
    I accidentally typed in my own year of birth, 1958.
    Yep, I’m just 64, going on 65, not 68 or 69.
    I was thinking to include that, but I left it off, until now…

    Who is “most intelligent”?
    Intelligence is the ability to be effective in a certain setting. Chimps are highly intelligent in the jungle, where I would eventually die. Octopi are really, really smart in the water.

    Whoever receives value from a commenter or a post receives that value. That person’s receipt of value defines that situation of intelligence in the transfer of useful conceptual framework for the information we are all steeped in recently.

    It’s the same as beauty being in the eye of the beholder, as we experience with the art photos.

    #127608
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ Dr. D
    Great rant. Loved it.
    I would not go back.
    The odds would be that it would be MY energy that would be used to create those wonders of those societies for the elites to enjoy.
    I think that I’ve got it better. No pain.

    #127609
    Germ
    Participant

    “The recommendation is that future COVID-19 vaccines should be interchangeable: no matter whether you’re getting your first dose or a booster, the vaccines would all have the same formulation targeting the same viral strain or strains, regardless of the manufacturer. The vote was unanimous: 21-0.”

    https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/01/26/1151810765/fda-committee-votes-to-roll-out-new-covid-vaccination-strategy

    ☠️☠️

    TVASF

    #127610
    Germ
    Participant

    Fatal heart attacks have surged in Australia. Here’s why

    hey presto we get an increase of cardiovascular events.” – Hey presto – That’s Science!!

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/fatal-heart-attacks-have-surged-in-australia-here-s-why-20230117-p5cd22.html

    Never the death vaxx. NEVER. EVER!

    TVASF

    #127611
    Germ
    Participant

    Here’s why – dummies!

    A CASE REPORT OF ELECTRICAL STORM POST-COVID-19 VACCINATION

    “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

    #127612
    Germ
    Participant

    Or this:

    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

    #127613
    Germ
    Participant

    A must listen:

    TVASF

    #127614
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    So the situation in Ukraine seems to be that Russia has no choice but to go on winning until it has won, and the US NATO gang has no option other than losing.

    #127615
    tboc
    Participant

    Dr. D a little thought for today. Government employment by state and district ranges from a low of 10% to the high in D.C of 25%. Did not derive a mean by calculation i will just use 17.5% for example. Each employee in the government sector has a ripple in the environment. Statista has a daily interaction per connected individual of 4785 per day by 2025. I admit i roll my eyes at that number but that would suffice for an upper bound in the ripple. In each case the standard of living of communities with a larger percentage of government employment will have more incentive to maintain the status quo. Upton Sinclair was pretty forward in his assessment of men keeping their job.

    #127616
    Oroboros
    Participant

    On ‘war’ (cough, gag, cough) with Russia

    “..They can’t even occupy Cleveland. The police and National Guard are being beaten by cross-dressers in Atlanta….”

    Hey, I use to live in Cleveland

    Burn on Big River Burn On

    #127617
    Noirette
    Participant

    What’s next, by Helmholtz Smith at top post.

    This grinding away can continue until Ukraine collapses because it is easier for the Russians to let the enemy come to them than go after them. Meanwhile Russian missiles destroy the infrastructure Kiev needs to continue the war. Time and developments favor Russia and there is no incentive to make “big arrow” movements.

    Right on. Nothing more is needed than to let the “W” send in useless arms to Ukr. ( .. > training for operation, logistics, long term capacities, etc. all moot), thus ‘disarming’ NATO countries slowly, including abetting them in killing ppl… to the last Ukrainian!

    The Russians have perfect rationales for the endless massacre in Ukr.. defending ‘ethnics’ against “W” Agression..

    The result of this proxy war will be the total destruction of Ukraine and its ppl, which nobody cares about.

    Except. Tangentially, such as the Russians for the inhabitants of the Donbass (ostensibly..) and perhaps some Corps and vultures who would like to exploit the land and would prefer some kind of rapid ‘peace’ to be able to move in and get biz going.

    #127618
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    It is starting to look like the D-Day Clock has closed to 45 seconds to midnight since it was last reset. Without careful considerations being made, the world is about to experience a more profound change than that experienced in the entry days of World War I, where six empires either expired or were severely damaged beyond repair. The collective West need heed history if it is to survive, the hand it holds wins nothing, and as per usual, those playing the hand should stay away from any poker table to preserve their fortunes. Empire, so Nineteenth Century.

    #127619
    Oroboros
    Participant

    A picture is worth a thousand words

    .

    .

    #127620
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #127621
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #127622
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    Pharma Profits

    #127623
    Noirette
    Participant

    On Are you really against fossil fuels, read this.

    -> at top post. https://bit.ly/3WUzoRG

    The “W” or in F. l’Occident (Usuk, poodle EU, and occupied Japan, + other) has become mired in, and dependent on, a Rovian screed, either hopefully (the innocents) or cynically, claiming, we make our own reality.

    Performatives, aka declarations about what is (as wished, or supposed to be), which ignore reality on the ground, have become not only common but a staple prop. ploy.

    #127624
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Big Brother’s war on Eurasia is already lost. But it is existential for Big Brother, so Big Brother will force Oceania to fight on.

    Meanwhile, on the home-front, Big Brother’s war on Proles of Oceania and Big Brother’s War on the Future also continue. Those are wars Big Brother will win. Already has, in fact.

    Bad as the latest round of catastrophe caused by overheated seas and oceans, caused by highly elevated atmospheric CO2 (up by around 50% from pre-industrial level) is, it is just the start.

    ‘The extraordinary flood event Auckland experienced on the night of January 27, the eve of the city’s anniversary weekend, was caused by rainfall that was literally off the chart.

    Over 24 hours, 249mm of rain fell – well above the previous record of 161.8mm. A state of emergency was declared late in the evening.

    It has taken a terrible toll on Aucklanders, with three people confirmed dead and one more missing. Damage to houses, cars, roads and infrastructure will run into many millions of dollars.

    Watching the images roll into social media on Friday evening, I thought to myself that I’ve seen these kinds of pictures before. But usually they’re from North America or Asia, or maybe Europe. But this was New Zealand’s largest city. Nowhere is safe from extreme weather these days.’

    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-auckland-floods-are-a-sign-of-things-to-come

    Needless to say, the scams Big Brother is operating -carbon trading, electric cars, ‘renewable energy’ etc.- all make matters worse. Indeed, everything Big Brother does makes matters worse. But Big Brother is not going to stop. The plan is: more of the same. More lies; more fraud, more propaganda; more censorship, more tyranny; more death and destruction. It’s called ‘freedom and democracy’ and ‘kindness’.

    Interestingly, and not unsurprisingly, now that The Scorpion has left the office, Crazy Chipmunk is attempting to distance himself from policies he fully endorsed as a co-conspirator in The Scorpion’s ‘team’.

    Sleepy Camel is still asleep. Will probably remain asleep until replaced. Then it will take a rest and collect its bonus. And take another rest -a bit like the Harris thing on Airstrip Two.

    Nowhere is safe from the predations of Big Brother. But some places are safer than others.

    #127625
    Kassandra
    Participant

    I don’t really know what to think about any of this. Is anyone else totally confused? You all seem so confident and sure of yourselves. I like Derrick Jensen, he has an incredible mind, although I don’t agree with everything he says, and yes, I also think he’s a bit of a hypocrite, as are we all! I hate that I’m not only typing on this laptop, but my whole existence is made possible working in the tech world, as a complete Luddite at heart! The situation drives me crazy.

    I also go back and forth between a total doomster terrified of climate change, and someone the thinks so much of it is bullshit. Is anyone else on here just trying to live a “normal” life, while doing little things just in case? I’m so conflicted. This winter project is finishing a room in the basement as a music room/bedroom. Last summer was so hot for a bit we could barely sleep upstairs, yet the basement was 70 degrees when it was 105 outside. So live for today, prep for a possible tomorrow? Put in raised beds, haul in compost, outfit the house for livability without electricity? And maybe it’s all for nothing, because if things do go full on “the road” people will not let you just be.

    Then, the vaccines. I still don’t know what to believe.

    Maybe the answer really is getting rid of this thing on my lap.

    #127626
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    For the benefit of Americans not used to modern units of measurement, that is nearly ten inches of rain in 24 hours. One inch = 2.54 mm.

    That’s what superheated oceans do: supercharge the air with moisture. And then down it comes!.

    #127627
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    ‘Put in raised beds, haul in compost, outfit the house for livability without electricity?’

    Preparing for life without electricity is wise.

    Raised beds are overrated and can be downright counterproductive in places that get long, dry periods.

    The great Russian horticulturalist whose name I cannot recall at this moment recommends sunken beds in locations prone to hot winds and extended periods of drought. Kurdyumov?

    I have put in sunken beds (did so before reading his book) because this region is prone to hot, dry winds.

    Raised beds are only for poor draining clay subsoil and a very wet climate.

    #127628
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Powered and backed by an extensive military industrial capacity

    Far more mobilized under the surface than Eurotardistan can muster.

    #127629
    WES
    Participant

    AFKTT :

    Yes 10 inches is a lot of rain over 24 hours but in the Congo they often get that in just 10 minutes several times a day during the rainy season!

    #127632
    Germ
    Participant

    @ Kassandra – “Then, the vaccines. I still don’t know what to believe.”

    With all respect K. – if, as a reader of TAE, at this point in the experiment you still have any doubts at all about the death vaxx, any doubts at all, then I am at a complete loss.

    #127633
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    WES

    Indeed, there are many places that get more rain. But they are not covered in concrete and asphalt that prevents it soaking into the ground and do not have infrastructure built in places where water naturally collects.

    The saboteurs of Orcland were repeatedly warned this would happen -and took no notice (of course). The Ponzi scheme that has been running for decades had to be kept going. Every unsuitable bit of land gets built on, fully endorsed by the Deceit and Crime organisations that claim to be in control. Well, they are in control -of the lying and thieving and avoidance of responsibility!

    What is really interesting is the rapid departure of people who can leave to places that are not as dysfunctional as Orcland. Many have arrived here in North Canterbury in recent times.

    What will be left will be poor people with no money, no skills and no possibility of getting out the ghetto.

    #127634
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Pakistan looks to be the next major player to go under.

    Worst floods ever; rapidly devaluing currency; saboteurs as government; looting by the IMF about to take place.

    #127635
    davidveale
    Participant

    @Afewknowthetruth — I completely agree with your assessment of the situation with regards to what to believe or what to do.

    As for me, I spent the majority of the last 15 years trying to reduce my own carbon footprint because I believe that was imperative. Started growing my own food, farming with horses because we could power them directly from the farm, and running a small dairy in hopes of having income after an economic crash. I built an outhouse so I didn’t have to use electricity to pump water for flushing our toilet. I bought and used an Amish buggy in anticipation of getting rid of our cars. Cooked and heated exclusively with wood cut on our farm, and never installed AC in a place where *every* other house has it.

    Circa 2018, I went through a major shift. At that point, the Seattle area (where I grew up) had shifted such that they were blanketed in smoke for weeks each summer, while a mass dieoff of sea life in the Gulf of Alaska commenced. The ubiquitous starfish of Puget Sound died off. The pines on my farm all died off in an unprecedented drought year. To me, the alarm bells were ringing loud and clear.

    Despite all this, I had to argue with a family member to take the train instead of flying to visit me (I know — both are bad for CO2 emissions, but the train is a slight improvement, and less likely to be used due to the convenience cost). I realized that if this (educated and intelligent) family member refused to recognize the writing on the wall, that the vast majority would be the same. It also follows that if the vast majority is unable to make the necessary changes, my own efforts would not amount to any difference whatsoever.

    So I gave up. Stopped working so hard (about 30 hours a week on top of a 40hr job). Decided that I should just enjoy the time we have left. Instead of putting up hay on my “vacation” time, I go canoeing in Minnesota. I drive a few hundred miles to get there. I even told my family member that they can fly (or drive individual Hummers for all I care) all they want, if they wish to visit.

    With regards to the vax… I was unable to prevent everyone in my family from getting it, aside from my son. My wife is boosted. I showed her Dolores Cahill’s claim that most of the vaxxed would be dead within 10 years just before she went and did it, but to no avail. Now I just hope for time together that can be enjoyed, even if it will be limited. I try not to get too wrapped up in it. Afterall, I was wrong (on timing, at least) with peak oil and climate change, so perhaps my take on the vax is also wrong?

    And then this year I was diagnosed with cancer. Perhaps there’s a correlation with releasing all my concerns, or losing what was once a powerful driving force in my life.

    I’m not really sure what the takeaway is here. Perhaps it’s not to get too wrapped up in your hopes and dreams. As my father-in-law once said, “We’re all just along for the ride”.

    #127637
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ davidveale and all the other survivors

    Remember, appreciate, the experiences, enjoy, the memories of the good old days.
    https://www.motherearthnews.com/
    Mother Earth News

    #127640
    davidveale
    Participant

    Correction to my previous post… I realize now that @Kassandra is the one making the argument I related to. AFKTT is often the one to express climate concerns, so I apparently transposed the two commenters. Apologies for the mixup!

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