Feb 102023
 
 February 10, 2023  Posted by at 9:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


René Magritte L’avenir (the future) 1936

 

The “Not-Ultimatum” Revisited (Observer R)
Russia Didn’t Start Hostilities In Ukraine, But Tries To End Them – Putin (TASS)
Ukraine Is Taking Care Of Europe – Zelensky (RT)
Zelensky Takes Credit For Derailing Minsk Agreements (RT)
Zelensky Reveals What He Does To Scholz (RT)
Ukraine’s Entry To NATO Would Spell World War – Hungary (TASS)
Much-Hyped Tanks For Ukraine In Short Supply – WSJ (RT)
UK Not Sending Fighter Jets To Ukraine (RT)
Russia-Iran Dump The Dollar And Bust US Sanctions (Escobar)
US Military At European Base Provide GPS-Targeting For Ukrainian Rockets (PM)
EU’s Aid For Ukraine Is Effectively Public Aid For Itself (RMX)
Details Emerge On Chinese ‘Spy Balloon’ – WSJ (RT)
GOP-Led House Panels Shift Gears, Go Full Throttle for Domestic Energy Production (ET)
Sy Hersh and The Way We Live Now (Craig Murray)
Rep. Higgins Tells Twitter Executives to Prepare to be Arrested (TP)

 

 

 

 

Laying the Groundwork For the Loss of Ukraine

 

 

 

 

Hudson

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..Ukraine was not actually in charge of its own destiny, but rather, the war was being controlled by the NATO powers..”

The “Not-Ultimatum” Revisited (Observer R)

Slightly over a year ago, in December 2021, Russia published a proposal for setting up a new security architecture for Europe. Russia also warned of unspecified serious consequences if this proposal was not acted upon. The United States and other Western countries either ignored the Russian offer, or more or less laughed at it. Russia wanted the line of NATO forces moved back to where it was when the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. This meant getting NATO out of the former Eastern European countries, including Ukraine. The Russian proposal was widely termed the “Not-Ultimatum” for ease of discussion, since the Russians were polite about it, but at the same time threatening action. Analysts were busy trying to figure what exactly Russia might do, and offered many different scenarios.

[..] The proposal by Russia for negotiating a new security architecture for Europe was rejected by the US. That was extremely unfortunate for everyone, as it could have prevented the subsequent war in Ukraine. Then, following the Russian SMO, Ukraine and Russia sat down to negotiate in Turkey and came to some sort of agreement. Presumably along the lines of the Minsk Accords. Unfortunately again, this agreement was scuttled when the British Prime Minister flew to Ukraine and had a talk with the officials there. This action indicated that Ukraine was not actually in charge of its own destiny, but rather, the war was being controlled by the NATO powers.

The powers in the West clearly thought that they would come out on top in the war and that this would somehow preserve the US hegemony. Unfortunately yet again, the West guessed wrong and made what will likely be viewed in hindsight as a catastrophic decision. Russia cannot be defeated in a conventional war in Eurasia, and presumably the military experts and intelligence folks in the West should have been aware of this fact. Furthermore, the sanctions against Russia were counterproductive. Russia was already highly self-sufficient and the sanctions greatly sped up import substitution. The dream of a regime change in Russia was likewise a case of hope over reality.

Additionally, by refusing diplomacy, the US turned a problem in Eastern Europe into a de facto WWIII. Now the negotiations over a new security architecture will have to cover the entire globe. This will be a much more difficult undertaking and a problematical outcome for the West. The West is not in a military, nor economic, nor social position to be very successful in negotiations with the East and South. Even having negotiations is problematical, since the East and South view the West as being “not agreement capable.” Thus it will dawn sooner or later on the Western leaders that they bit off more than they could chew.

Read more …

“This is when they started the war. It lasted for eight years and aimed to exterminate the people who live there and feel themselves tied to Russia..”

Russia Didn’t Start Hostilities In Ukraine, But Tries To End Them – Putin (TASS)

Russia did not begin hostilities in Ukraine, but it is trying to stop them, as hostilities have been going on since 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with aviation industry representatives Thursday. “I would like to say it one more time: we did not start any hostilities, we are trying to end them. These hostilities were started by Ukrainian nationalists and those who supported them in 2014, when the coup took place; that is how it all began, the events in Crimea and in Donbass followed after that,” the head of state said.


Putin pointed out that Kiev started the war against Donbass in 2014, and, in violation of all agreements and obligations, effectively blockaded the Donbass regions. “Heavy military vehicles were used against them, major military operations were carried out against them,” the head of state noted. “This is when they started the war. It lasted for eight years and aimed to exterminate the people who live there and feel themselves tied to Russia, Russian culture and the Russian language by blood. How long could we have kept tolerating it?” The President also thanked the participants of the meeting for their support of the special military operation.

Read more …

The images of Europe’s “leaders” are making me sick. They are followers.

Ukraine Is Taking Care Of Europe – Zelensky (RT)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has claimed to EU lawmakers that Moscow poses to a threat to the entire continent. The leader was speaking at the European Parliament on Thursday as part of a tour to rally support and weaponry to prop up Ukraine amid the conflict with Russia. Starting his address with the slogan ‘Glory to Ukraine’, which is commonly associated with World War II-era Nazi collaborators but is widely used in present-day Ukraine, Zelensky reiterated Kiev’s aspirations to join the EU, describing it as “home.” “We want to come home to Europe,” the Ukrainian leader told the assembled lawmakers in Brussels. “I’m here in order to defend our people’s way home.” Zelensky went on to describe Russia as “the most anti-European force” in the world, alleging that Moscow is intent on destroying the “European way of life” for all 27 members of the EU.

“This is our Europe, these are our rules, this is our way of life,” Zelensky added, earning applause from the audience. “Europe will always be, and remain Europe as long as we are together and as long as we take care of our Europe, as we take care of the European way of life.” Joining the EU has been a significant talking point for pro-Western Ukrainian politicians for decades. Yet little to no actual progress had been made along that path prior to hostilities breaking out between Moscow and Kiev last February. The conflict has greatly sped up the accession process, with Ukraine receiving EU candidate status in June. Zelensky’s European tour began a day earlier when he traveled to the UK, meeting the leaders and lawmakers in London. The president inspected the ongoing training of Ukrainian troops on British soil and secured additional support from the UK.

“I am proud that today we will expand that training from soldiers to marines and fighter jet pilots, ensuring Ukraine has a military able to defend its interests well into the future,” said a statement from UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after he met Zelensky. Ukraine has consistently increased its demands for advanced weaponry from the West, including tanks, drones, fighter jets, and longer-range missiles. Kiev has insisted that the hardware is needed to drive Russian forces out of territories that Ukraine claims as its own. Moscow has repeatedly urged the West to stop “pumping” Ukraine with weaponry, maintaining that continuous military aid will only prolong the hostilities, rather than change their ultimate outcome.

Read more …

“Ukraine, Germany, and France “lied to the people of Donbass, as they had a terrible fate planned for them, which Russia prevented..”

Zelensky Takes Credit For Derailing Minsk Agreements (RT)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky personally refused to implement the 2015 Minsk agreements – a roadmap for peace in the east of the country, which was co-sponsored by Germany and France. He made the admission during an interview with Der Spiegel published on Thursday as he continues his tour across Europe. Zelensky said he viewed the agreements as a “concession” on Ukraine’s part, and never once actually sought to implement them. Instead, they were merely used to exchange prisoners with the two breakaway Donbass republics. The president claimed he openly told that to then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Russian President Vladimir Putin back in 2019, with all of them acting “surprised.”

“But as for Minsk as a whole, I told Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel: ‘We cannot implement it like this,’” Zelensky stated. “I told [Putin] the same as the other two. They were surprised and said: ‘If we had known beforehand that you would change the meaning of our meeting, then there would have been problems even before the summit.’” The Minsk agreements, originally brokered in 2014 and further expanded in 2015, envisioned a roadmap for reconciliation between Ukraine and the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The two regions rebelled against the country’s new authorities in the aftermath of the 2014 Maidan coup in Kiev, which ousted democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovich. Ukraine’s failure to implement the agreement, which would have seen the breakaway territories reintegrated with the country but retain a special status, ultimately led to the ongoing conflict.

Since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, multiple politicians have taken credit for the failure of the Minsk agreements, admitting they were merely a ruse to give Ukraine time to build up its military. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko was the first to admit last year that Kiev never intended to abide by them and used the deal to “create powerful armed forces.” Merkel and another original signatory of the Minsk agreements, former French president Francois Hollande, have also since confirmed that this was actually the true goal of the deal.

Moscow considers these admissions to be evidence that the negotiations were conducted in bad faith and that the Ukrainian government and its backers had always intended for the Minsk agreements to flop and for the Donbass crisis to be resolved by force. Russia claims that its military campaign in Ukraine, launched last February, preempted an offensive planned by Kiev with NATO’s help. Ukraine, Germany, and France “lied to the people of Donbass, as they had a terrible fate planned for them, which Russia prevented,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said back in January. “Germany, France and Ukraine were playing a swindle game with the Minsk agreements. Now is payback time,” he stated at the time.

Coke

Read more …

“..I have to force him to help Ukraine and constantly convince him that this help is not for us, but for the Europeans..”

Zelensky Reveals What He Does To Scholz (RT)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has revealed he keeps needing to “force” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to send arms to Kiev, constantly reminding him the deliveries are purportedly beneficial for the whole of Europe. The president made the revelation in a lengthy interview with Der Spiegel published on Thursday. Germany did a “good job” of delivering Iris-T anti-aircraft systems and ammunition for them last year, Zelensky said, while appearing to admit that Kiev has been actively spying on Berlin. “We have changed our relationship and understanding. We received IRIS-T anti-aircraft systems, for which I am very grateful to Germany. You saved a lot of lives. I told the chancellor: Olaf, listen, we’re short on rockets. I know that you don’t have any more yourself, we also have an intelligence service.

“I know you give us everything you have,” Zelensky stated, adding that Scholz somehow managed to push manufacturers into producing munitions for Iris-T faster. The looming supply of modern tanks to Ukraine has also proved to be a “difficult” issue for Kiev and Berlin, as Scholz was reluctant to do so. Zelensky claimed he has had to constantly remind the chancellor about the purported importance of such support and its alleged value for the whole of Europe. “Now we are yet again in a difficult phase with this debate about the German tanks, it is emotional and complex. I have to force him to help Ukraine and constantly convince him that this help is not for us, but for the Europeans,” Zelensky stated.

Germany has long been reluctant to deliver modern tanks to Kiev, with Scholz giving in to Kiev’s demands on January 25 and pledging to send in 14 Leopard 2 armored vehicles, as well as allowing other European operators of the German-made tanks to re-export them to Ukraine. Apart from that, Berlin also pledged to send in some 187 older Leopard 1 models to Ukraine from its stocks as well.

Zel EU

Read more …

All too obvious. But some want that world war.

Ukraine’s Entry To NATO Would Spell World War – Hungary (TASS)

The Hungarian government does not back Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO and makes Kiev’s potential entry to the EU contingent on protecting the rights of Ukraine’s national minorities, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyas told reporters Thursday. Answering a question regarding Ukraine’s desire to join NATO, he noted that any country can file a membership application. “However, right now, Ukraine’s immediate accession to NATO would mean world war,” Gulyas cautioned. Speaking about the prospects of Ukraine’s EU membership, he underscored that Kiev must ensure progress in protecting the rights of national minorities – particularly, Ukraine’s Hungarians in the Trans-Carpathian Region – if it wants Budapest to endorse its membership application. So far, legislation on education and the national language, adopted in Ukraine, “does not comply with European norms.” “Progress has to be made” on these issues, the Hungarian official emphasized.

Read more …

“The Netherlands and Denmark will not send any of their tanks, but agreed to help Germany fund the purchase and refurbishment of around 100 older Leopard 1 models, which were retired 20 years ago and are currently in various states of disrepair..”

Much-Hyped Tanks For Ukraine In Short Supply – WSJ (RT)

NATO members have developed “sudden misgivings” about sending tanks to Ukraine because they don’t seem to have any to spare, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Finland, which pressured Germany to approve exports of Leopard 2 tanks, may only be able to send “a few” of its own – and most likely not until it formally joins the US-led military bloc. This has left Berlin as the only major supplier of tanks to Kiev, something Chancellor Olaf Scholz had been keen to avoid, the Journal noted. There are more than 2,000 Leopard 2 tanks in the stocks of various European NATO armies, but only Berlin and Warsaw have committed to sending any. Germany and Poland have promised about 14 apiece. Warsaw will also throw in 60 of its modified T-72s, while Berlin is buying up almost 190 decommissioned Leopard 1s for refurbishment, some of which may need to be cannibalized for parts.

In a December interview, Ukraine’s top general asked for 300 tanks right away. Canada has promised four tanks, while Portugal wants to send three. “The fact that there are so few operational battle tanks and that they are so incompatible with each other should be taken as an alarm signal in Europe,” Nico Lange, a former German defense official who is now a senior fellow at the Munich Security Conference, told the Journal. The Netherlands and Denmark will not send any of their tanks, but agreed to help Germany fund the purchase and refurbishment of around 100 older Leopard 1 models, which were retired 20 years ago and are currently in various states of disrepair. Denmark only has 44 Leopards and the Dutch operate 18 that are on lease from Germany, noted Minna Alander of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. Finland faces a different “limitation” due to its own need to protect the country’s long border with Russia, she added.

Finland will be “part of the Leopard 2 cooperation in some way,” an anonymous senior official told the Journal, but declined to give any details. Helsinki has “signaled” it would “most likely” avoid tank deliveries until it officially joins NATO, according to a senior bloc official, likewise unnamed. Even then, it may only be able to spare a few of its 240 operational tanks. The UK has promised 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks, saying they ought to be delivered by the end of March. The US pledged 31 Abrams tanks as well, but getting them to Ukraine might take up to two years. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has already moved on, demanding fighter jets on his trip to London, Paris and Brussels. The US and its allies have spent over $120 billion to prop up the Kiev government over the past year, while insisting they are not a party to the conflict. Moscow has warned them that supplying Ukraine with weapons only prolongs the fighting and risks direct confrontation.

Read more …

Nor France.

UK Not Sending Fighter Jets To Ukraine (RT)

The UK is currently focused on helping Ukraine ensure air cover by providing long-range missiles and drones, rather than the less “realistic” option of sending fighter jets, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on Thursday. Speaking to the BBC, Wallace cautioned that sending aircraft to Kiev could potentially take months, and ruled out any immediate transfers, while saying it would be “more realistic and more productive” to provide Ukraine with aircraft after the conflict with Russia has ended, for long-term security purposes. “This is not a simple case of towing an aircraft to the border,” Wallace told the broadcaster, adding that Britain “knows what Ukraine needs and is very happy to help in many ways” which would not take as long as fighter jet deliveries would.


Wallace dismissed suggestions made by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson that London could provide Kiev with 100 Typhoon warplanes. The defense secretary insisted that he has a duty to ensure the UK and NATO maintain a sufficient number of fighter planes to ensure their own defense. Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky made his first trip to the UK since the fighting broke out between Kiev and Moscow. Ahead of the visit, the UK prime minister’s office announced that Britain would be providing training to Ukrainian pilots on how to operate NATO-standard aircraft. PM Rishi Sunak also committed to expanding the UK’s recruit training program, which has already seen 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers brought to battle readiness in the last six months. The UK now hopes to train an additional 20,000 troops this year.

Read more …

It’s a slow development, but it does continue.

Russia-Iran Dump The Dollar And Bust US Sanctions (Escobar)

The agreement between the Central Banks of Russia and Iran formally signed on 29 January connecting their interbank transfer systems is a game-changer in more ways than one. Technically, from now on 52 Iranian banks already using SEPAM, Iran’s interbank telecom system, are connecting with 106 banks using SPFS, Russia’s equivalent to the western banking messaging system SWIFT. Less than a week before the deal, State Duma Chairman Vyachslav Volodin was in Tehran overseeing the last-minute details, part of a meeting of the Russia-Iran Inter-Parliamentary Commission on Cooperation: he was adamant both nations should quickly increase trade in their own currencies.

Confirming that the share of ruble and rial in mutual settlements already exceeds 60 percent, Volodin ratified the success of “joint use of the Mir and Shetab national payment systems.” Not only does this bypass western sanctions, but it is able to “solve issues related to mutually beneficial cooperation, and increasing trade.” It is quite possible that the ruble will eventually become the main currency in bilateral trade, according to Iran’s ambassador in Moscow, Kazem Jalali: “Now more than 40 percent of trade between our countries is in rubles.” Jalali also confirmed, crucially, that Tehran is in favor of the ruble as the main currency in all regional integration mechanisms. He was referring particularly to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), with which Iran is clinching a free trade deal.

The SEPAM-SPFS agreement starts with a pilot program supervised by Iran’s Shahr Bank and Russia’s VTB Bank. Other lenders will step in once the pilot program gets rid of any possible bugs. The key advantage is that SEPAM and SPFS are immune to the US and western sanctions ruthlessly imposed on Tehran and Moscow. Once the full deal is up and running, all Iranian and Russian banks can be interconnected. It is no wonder the Global South is paying very close attention. This is likely to become a landmark case in bypassing Belgium-based SWIFT – which is essentially controlled by Washington, and on a minor scale, the EU. The success of SEPAM-SPFS will certainly encourage other bilateral or even multilateral deals between states.

Read more …

That makes the US a participant.

US Military At European Base Provide GPS-Targeting For Ukrainian Rockets (PM)

The United States has provided Ukraine with HIMARS, which are targeted missile systems, and it turns out the US is also providing Ukraine with the targets at which to launch those missiles. Biden has said the US would fund Ukraine’s war effort “as long as it takes.” A report from the Washington Post states that “Ukrainian officials say that they almost never launch HIMARS rounds without detailed coordinates provided by U.S. military personnel situated elsewhere in Europe.” Those coordinates are either “provided or confirmed” by the US and its NATO allies before Ukraine launches their strikes against Russia, which invaded Ukraine nearly one year ago. That the US was giving over not only the HIMARS but the means by which targets would be ascertained by the Ukraine military was not previously disclosed by the Pentagon.

What this means is that the Pentagon is not only providing weapons and aid, but is actively engaged in making war on Russia. This is not something the Biden administration has been forthcoming about. The Pentagon issued a statement from Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, reading “We have long acknowledged that we share intelligence with Ukraine to assist them in defending their country against Russian aggression, and we have optimized over time how we share information to be able to support their requests and their targeting processes at improved speed and scale. The Ukrainians are responsible for finding targets, prioritizing them and then ultimately deciding which ones to engage. The U.S. does not approve targets, nor are we involved in the selection or engagement of targets.”

Biden has insisted that the US is merely helping Ukraine have the tools to wage war, but actively assisting Ukraine in assessing targets and then attacking those targets is not something that, to the knowledge of the American public, has been approved by Congress. A US official who spoke to WaPo under the condition of anonymity said that the US providing “targeting assistance” increased the ability of Ukraine to launch missiles with accuracy, thereby not wasting their limited amunition. Ukraine uses their own targeting methods for attacks with their own weapons, but when it comes to HIMARS, the “U.S. provides coordinates and precise targeting information solely in an advisory role.”

As to how that process works, it was reported that it goes like this: “Ukrainian military personnel identify targets they want to hit, and in which location, and that information is then sent up to senior commanders, who then relay the request to U.S. partners for more accurate coordinates. The Americans do not always provide the requested coordinates, the official said, in which case the Ukrainian troops do not fire. A third Ukrainian official cited by WaPo “confirmed that targeting all goes through an American installation on NATO soil and described the process as ‘very fast.'”

Read more …

The emptiest gesture so far?! “One of the most important questions is how Ukraine will use the bulbs when it’s suffering power outages as a result of the war?”

EU’s Aid For Ukraine Is Effectively Public Aid For Itself (RMX)

Let there be light! President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has announced that the EU is to deliver 35 million energy-saving LED light bulbs to Ukraine worth €50 million. They will be made available free of charge at post offices across the country. She said that Ukraine should be an inspiration to Europe, with thousands of Ukrainians changing to LED bulbs to work towards cleaner energy. “They are energy-saving, very good,” she says in footage shot during the visit. The EU once again shows it thinks climate change is more important than anything else. The light bulbs are an even more surreal gift than the 5,000 helmets the Germans gave at the start of the war.


One of the most important questions is how Ukraine will use the bulbs when it’s suffering power outages as a result of the war? Finally, we should not have the wool pulled over our eyes. If the EU bought these bulbs from the largest European producers, which come from Germany, the Netherlands, and France, this is nothing more than a way of giving public aid to these companies. Once again, Germany shows its transactional face.

Read more …

Not terribly convincing so far.

Details Emerge On Chinese ‘Spy Balloon’ – WSJ (RT)

The alleged Chinese “spy balloon,” shot down off the coast of South Carolina last weekend, was equipped with advanced surveillance equipment capable of picking up sensitive communications, an unnamed senior State Department official told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The Biden administration is reportedly planning to retaliate. While China has maintained the balloon was a civilian airship that drifted off course while collecting meteorological data, the source claimed its manufacturer had a “direct relationship” with the Chinese military. It was fitted with “large” solar panels to power the extensive instrumentation on board, which allegedly included antennas, sensors and other equipment capable of intercepting communications and gathering other intelligence.

The unnamed official said the US military spent the eight days the alleged spy craft was traversing the continental US gathering information about the device, using high-altitude U2 spy planes. Authorities are also reportedly examining the debris found floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The House and Senate are set to be briefed by military, intelligence and diplomatic officials regarding the balloon on Thursday. The newly declassified information is meant to “justify the US’s impending action” that President Joe Biden is preparing to take against “China’s surveillance program,” the outlet said. Beijing uses similar balloons for surveillance across five continents, administration officials claimed on Wednesday. The Pentagon asserted that China had nearly doubled the size of its satellite fleet between 2018 and 2021 and now had 260 surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance satellites monitoring the globe.

The balloon, which drifted over a nuclear missile site and other sensitive military assets, could have been carrying explosives in its multi-ton payload, US Northern Command Chief General Glen VanHerck told Politico on Monday, adding that several similar Chinese craft have flown over the US before, but the Pentagon somehow missed them. Despite the apparent threat of explosives, the White House has said the military waited to destroy the balloon until it was over water, so as not to imperil any civilians or property with falling debris. Airspace over parts of North and South Carolina was closed, as fighter jets were finally sent to shoot it down on Saturday. China’s Foreign Ministry has demanded the return of what was left of the balloon, reminding Biden on Tuesday that “the airship does not belong to the US – it belongs to China.”

Read more …

Did Biden just say the US needs fossils only for 10 more years? Was he just talking about himself there?

GOP-Led House Panels Shift Gears, Go Full Throttle for Domestic Energy Production (ET)

With Republicans assuming control of the U.S. House of Representatives following the November 2022 midterm elections, the newly installed GOP leadership has been doing just that across the chamber’s 20 standing permanent committees and their 104 subcommittees and select temporary panels. That transitional shift-change has been clearly evident this week in seminal session meetings of the 52-member House Energy and Commerce Committee and its six subcommittees and in the 45-member House Natural Resources Committee and its five subsidiary panels.

During four years of Democratic control, climate change, environmental protection, and “green” energy development were among the primary policy drivers in adopting legislation designed to coax the nation away from reliance on oil and gas, including the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and $740 billion Infrastructure Reduction Act (IRA). Over two days and nearly eight hours of hearings before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Feb. 7 and the House Natural Resource Committee on Feb. 8, Republicans made it clear that many initiatives passed under the Biden administration promoting electric vehicles, carbon capture, green energy, and environmental protection are on the proverbial chopping block.

During the near-six hour House Energy and Commerce Committee meeting, six witnesses testified on a raft of 17 Republican-sponsored measures that proponents argue are key to “restoring American energy dominance.” Among the proposals that will dominate the committee’s and its subsidiary panels’ agendas in the coming months are bills prohibiting restrictions on hydraulic fracking without congressional approval, expanding natural gas exports, repealing the IRA’s Green House Reduction Fund, and amending the Clean Air, Toxic Substances Control, Solid Waste Disposal, and National Gas Tax acts. Within the tranche of proposed legislation on the committee’s “unleashing American energy agenda” are bills calling for permitting reform, promoting development of “critical minerals,” and prohibiting the import of Russian uranium.

In kicking off the day-long hearing, Republicans argued that “unleashing American energy, lowering energy costs, and strengthening supply chains” must be a priority if the United States is to be economically competitive in the 21st century and beyond. “America has been blessed with an abundance of natural resources. We should be working towards developing a predictable regulatory landscape across-the-board that inspires innovation, entrepreneurship, and technological leadership, hydropower, nuclear, fossil energies, wind, solar, and batteries,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said in opening the proceedings.

Read more …

“..Hersh tells the story of the US destruction of the Nordstream pipelines in forensic detail, giving dates, times, method and military units involved..”

When you feel compelled to smear your only left real journalists, you’re in deep.

Sy Hersh and The Way We Live Now (Craig Murray)

It is a clear indicator of the disappearance of freedom from our so-called western democracies, that Sy Hersh, arguably the greatest living journalist, cannot get this monumental revelation on the front of the Washington Post or New York Times, but has to self-publish on the net. Hersh tells the story of the US destruction of the Nordstream pipelines in forensic detail, giving dates, times, method and military units involved. He also outlines the importance of the Norwegian armed forces working alongside the US Navy in the operation. One point Sy does not much stress, but it is worth saying more about, is that Norway and the USA are of course the two countries who have benefitted financially, to an enormous degree, from blowing up the pipeline.

Both not only have gained huge export surpluses from the jump in gas prices, but Norway has directly replaced Russian gas to the tune of some $40 billion per year. From 2023 the United States will appear in that list in second place behind Norway, following the opening in the last two months of two new Liquefied Natural Gas terminals in Germany, built to replace Russian gas with US and Qatari supplies. So Russia lost out massively financially from the destruction of Nordstream and who benefited? The USA and Norway, the two countries who blew up the pipeline. But of course, this war is nothing to do with money or hydrocarbons and is all about freedom and democracy… To return to Hersh’s account, particularly interesting are the series of decisions taken to avoid classification of the operation in various ways which would require it to be reported to Congress.

In terms of United States history, this ought to be a big deal. For the Executive to commit what is an act of war without the approval of the Legislature is fundamentally unconstitutional. But that is one of those quaint remnants of democracy that the neo-liberal elite consensus can quietly sidestep nowadays. Hersh sets out the well known background in compelling detail, including the fact that, from Biden down, the Americans effectively announced what they were going to do, openly. But what most worries me about the entire story is the unanimous complicity of the mainstream media in ignoring the completely obvious.

[..] The secret is not that people genuinely believe an outrageous claim. The secret is that people do genuinely believe that they are in a battle of good against evil, and it is necessary to accept the narrative being promoted, in the interests of fighting evil. Don’t question, just follow. If you do question, you are promoting evil. I am sure that is how it works. State and corporate stenographer journalists are actually intelligent individuals. If they thought about it, they would realise that the narrative that Russia blew up its own pipeline is obvious nonsense. But they are convinced it is morally wrong to think about it. Which is why none of them challenged the equally mad claims that Russia was repeatedly shelling its own forces occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, and indeed is why none of them challenged the utterly risible official version of the Skripal story.

Read more …

Pretty crazy hearings.

Rep. Higgins Tells Twitter Executives to Prepare to be Arrested (TP)

On Wednesday, former top executives at Twitter appeared before the House oversight committee to give testimony regarding the social media giant’s management of information related to Joe Biden’s son and interference with the 2020 election. The hearing marks the start of the agenda of the newly-Republican controlled House, highlighting their focus on long-standing claims that major tech companies exhibited a bias against conservatism. At one point during the hearing, Republican Rep. Clay Higgins unleashed on former Twitter execs James Baker, Vijaya Gadde & Yoel Roth, saying that they need to get ready to be arrested. “The bottom line is that the FBI had the Biden crime family laptop for a year,” Higgins said. “They knew it was leaking, they knew it would hurt the Biden campaign.”

“So the FBI used its relationship with Twitter to suppress criminal evidence being revealed about Joe Biden one month before the 2020 election,” he continued. “You ladies and gentlemen interfered with the United States of America 2020 presidential election, knowingly and willingly,” Higgins hammered. “That’s the bad news. It’s going to get worse.” “This is the investigation part, later comes the arrest part, your attorneys are familiar with that,” Higgins said. “I’d like to spend five hours with these ladies and gentlemen doing depositions surely yet to come”.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1623412720199426048

At another point during the hearing, Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene unleashed on former Twitter executive Yoel Roth for allowing child exploitation on Twitter and for advocating for teenagers to use gay hookup act Grinder. “I’m so glad you’ve lost your jobs. Thank God Elon Musk bought Twitter,” she said. “It’s amazing to me Mr. Roth as the head and Trust and Safety at Twitter your ability or should I say inability to remove child porn,” Taylor Greene said. “Now here is something that disgusts me about you. In your doctoral dissertation entitled ‘Gay Data,’ you argued that minors should have access to grinder, an adult male gay hook-up app,” she continued. “Minors. Really?” “You know, Elon Musk took over and he banned 44,000 accounts that were promoting child porn,” Greene added. “You permanently banned my Twitter account, but you allowed child porn all over Twitter.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

FAA
https://twitter.com/i/status/1622316296837660674

 

 

LNP
https://twitter.com/i/status/1623731239239798789

 

 

Clotting
https://twitter.com/i/status/1623751085629267968

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle February 10 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 75 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #128655

    René Magritte L’avenir (the future) 1936   • The “Not-Ultimatum” Revisited (Observer R) • Russia Didn’t Start Hostilities In Ukraine, But Tries T
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle February 10 2023]

    #128656
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    When you’ve accurately predicted the future for 40 years and people still listen to the psychopaths.

    #128657
    Germ
    Participant

    The death vaxx doesn’t work, and they knew it wouldn’t. Start at 30 sec mark.

    TVASF

    #128658
    Germ
    Participant

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1623547643980021761

    Who’s representing the 1000’s of vaxx injured in the UK?
    Nobody.
    Even to speak about it is to risk one’s career in the UK.

    TVASF

    #128659
    Germ
    Participant

    PEDIATRIC DOSE’ OF MRNA JAB FOR HIGH RISK KIDS 6 MTHS TO 4 YEARS AVAILABLE TODAY

    https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/news/pediatric-dose-of-mrna-jab-for-high-risk-kids-6-mths-to-4-years-available-today/

    What parent would inject this rat juice into their healthy child?

    ☠☠☠

    TVASF

    #128660
    Germ
    Participant

    “He died suddenly in his sleep on Sunday night. As far as we all knew, he was in good health. We all are numb.”

    https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/sadness-popular-hull-shopkeeper-ukip-8093992

    TVASF

    #128661
    aspnaz
    Participant

    For those worried about AI chatbots, get a pigeon to protect you … https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/pigeons-smart-brains-can-rival-29159027.

    #128662
    Germ
    Participant

    It’s a twofer’

    There’s a genetic component –

    Father and son die suddenly within four days of each other as ‘shattered’ family pay tribute

    https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/father-son-die-suddenly-within-29113742

    TVASF

    #128663
    Germ
    Participant

    Listen:

    “Pascal Najadi joins me again for an update on his criminal charges against the sitting Swiss President for Abuse of Office regarding the COVID-19 vaccination program, among other things. This story isn’t just about the specifics of these programs but of the general push to usurp local governments by transferring their power to unelected supranational organizations like the EU commission, the WHO, the CDC and the like.”

    Podcast Episode #132 — Pascal Najadi and the Outrage of Government Health Policy

    TVASF

    #128664
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Okay, these stories are five years apart, but is there a limit to how incompetent government can be? Both Spain and NSW, Australia, ordered trains too big for their tunnels. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/07/spain-spends-258m-build-trains-big-tunnels/ and https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/nsws-2-billion-new-trains-are-too-wide-to-get-through-tunnels/news-story/47bd2ee36f43cd3cdd2819078feb6011. Would it be cheaper for tax payers to just burn their tax money or throw it in the sea?

    #128665
    Germ
    Participant

    Denninger’s take of the greatest medical fraud in history and the ongoing global horror show:

    https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=248060

    TVASF

    #128666
    Germ
    Participant

    “Would people have so willingly run to the Covid-19 vaccination centres if they had known they were taking part in a US Department of Defense (DoD) experiment?

    https://nakedemperor.substack.com/p/the-shadowy-line-between-the-dod

    TVASF

    #128667
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Raul – your piece yesterday on India was fantastic, I had not thought that aspect of geo-politics through. There are implications.

    #128668
    Red
    Participant

    Would you like to have a crystal ball? How about the next best thing? For your own glimpse of the near future: https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-risks-report-2023/in-full ,the bastards at the WEF have a way of making their wet dreams come true!
    Page 35 is interesting, as well as, cyber crime page 42,
    “Data-enabled anocracies
    The right to privacy is not absolute; it is traded-off against government surveillance and preventative policing for the purposes of national security.” page 43,

    Food, fuel and cost crises
    exacerbate societal vulnerabilities
    while declining investments in
    human development erode future
    resilience
    Compounding crises are widening their impact across
    societies, hitting the livelihoods of a far broader
    section of the population, and destabilizing more
    economies in the world, than traditionally vulnerable
    communities and fragile states. Building on the most
    severe risks expected to impact in 2023 – including
    “Energy supply crisis”, “Rising inflation” and
    “Food supply crisis” – a global Cost-of-living crisis
    is already being felt. Economic impacts have been
    cushioned by countries that can afford it, but many
    lower-income countries are facing multiple crises:
    debt, climate change and food security. Continued
    supply-side pressures risk turning the current cost-ofliving crisis into a wider humanitarian crisis within the
    next two years in many import-dependent markets.
    Associated social unrest and political instability will
    not be contained to emerging markets, as economic
    pressures continue to hollow out the middle-income
    bracket. Mounting citizen frustration at losses in
    human development and declining social mobility,
    together with a widening gap in values and equality,
    are posing an existential challenge to political systems
    around the world. The election of less centrist leaders
    as well as political polarization between economic
    superpowers over the next two years may also reduce
    space further for collective problem-solving, fracturing
    alliances and leading to a more volatile dynamic.
    With a crunch in public-sector funding and competing
    security concerns, our capacity to absorb the next
    global shock is shrinking. Over the next 10 years,
    fewer countries will have the fiscal headroom to invest
    in future growth, green technologies, education,
    care and health systems. The slow decay of public
    infrastructure and services in both developing and
    advanced markets may be relatively subtle, but
    accumulating impacts will be highly corrosive to the
    strength of human capital and development – a critical
    mitigant to other global risks faced.

    Food, fuel and cost crises
    exacerbate societal vulnerabilities
    while declining investments in
    human development erode future
    resilience
    Compounding crises are widening their impact across
    societies, hitting the livelihoods of a far broader
    section of the population, and destabilizing more
    economies in the world, than traditionally vulnerable
    communities and fragile states. Building on the most
    severe risks expected to impact in 2023 – including
    “Energy supply crisis”, “Rising inflation” and
    “Food supply crisis” – a global Cost-of-living crisis
    is already being felt. Economic impacts have been
    cushioned by countries that can afford it, but many
    lower-income countries are facing multiple crises:
    debt, climate change and food security. Continued
    supply-side pressures risk turning the current cost-ofliving crisis into a wider humanitarian crisis within the
    next two years in many import-dependent markets.
    Associated social unrest and political instability will
    not be contained to emerging markets, as economic
    pressures continue to hollow out the middle-income
    bracket. Mounting citizen frustration at losses in
    human development and declining social mobility,
    together with a widening gap in values and equality,
    are posing an existential challenge to political systems
    around the world. The election of less centrist leaders
    as well as political polarization between economic
    superpowers over the next two years may also reduce
    space further for collective problem-solving, fracturing
    alliances and leading to a more volatile dynamic.
    With a crunch in public-sector funding and competing
    security concerns, our capacity to absorb the next
    global shock is shrinking. Over the next 10 years,
    fewer countries will have the fiscal headroom to invest
    in future growth, green technologies, education,
    care and health systems. The slow decay of public
    infrastructure and services in both developing and
    advanced markets may be relatively subtle, but
    accumulating impacts will be highly corrosive to the
    strength of human capital and development – a critical
    mitigant to other global risks faced.

    #128669

    Raul – your piece yesterday on India was fantastic

    I didn’t write it, Korybko did.

    #128670
    Germ
    Participant

    The Death Vax ™ – the Gift That Keeps Giving

    Incidence and outcomes of splanchnic vein thrombosis after diagnosis of COVID‑19 or COVID‑19 vaccination: a systematic review and meta‑analysis

    “Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and COVID-19 vaccination may cause splanchnic vein thrombosis (SVT), which is potentially fatal …

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9676885/pdf/11239_2022_Article_2732.pdf

    Go ahead, shoot this rat juice into your kids!

    TVASF

    #128671
    Germ
    Participant

    USA! USA! USA!

    “Minuteman III test launch showcases readiness of U.S. nuclear force’s safe, effective deterrent”

    https://www.afgsc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3289352/minuteman-iii-test-launch-showcases-readiness-of-us-nuclear-forces-safe-effecti/

    Safe, Effective !!

    What an utter fuckin’ madhouse .

    #128672
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Peter Zeihan: 2023, Last Stand of the Russians: Witness the Epic Collapse of the Russian Empire” Da fuq? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A79uneUEfjM Well, there’s a lot of this out there.

    “Russia says there will be consequences for U.S. after Nord Stream blasts report”

    Ah. Can’t get Russia to give us a Pearl Harbor, so need to antagonize them again to take a swing. Want them to blow up like our LNG terminal or something. Problem is, Russia is patient.

    “These plans foresee counter strikes against U.S military installations in Europe and in the Continental United States using hypersonic missiles. The panelist calls for this threat of counter strikes in Europe and the US to be made public and explicit,”

    What I was saying. I don’t know if it gets there, but I believe their side is waiting for them to attack (the Bidens), and our side is waiting for the people to say WTF, knock it off already (the Trumps). If people generally are into it, what can I say, I guess we deserve to get nuked, can’t save them from themselves, but I hope the White Hats can depose them before it goes too far. Unless the support is pretty overwhelming, it would lead to Civil War, so if you’re sad about why they’re not moving, that’s why. Why get 3-4 D.C. bases filled with traitors nuked when you can go mano e mano and level all 90 cities over 250k?

    Be very careful of your actions here. They need overwhelming popular support, while the other side is trying feverishly for division.

    Speaking of Civil War, FBI memo saying all Catholics are White Supremacists. Why not? Everything else is, including all the Black People are. Where did the FBI get that? They get their orders from and obey NGO’s now – political and paid – and cut-pasted the SPLC.

    “Additionally, by refusing diplomacy, the US turned a problem in Eastern Europe into a de facto WWIII. Now the negotiations over a new security architecture will have to cover the entire globe. This will be a much more difficult undertaking and a problematical outcome for the West. The West is not in a military, nor economic, nor social position to be very successful in negotiations with the East and South. Even having negotiations is problematical, since the East and South view the West as being “not agreement capable.” Thus it will dawn sooner or later on the Western leaders that they bit off more than they could chew.”

    Defeat comes in many forms. The U.S. is coming down and no longer an empire. This is overwhelmingly in line with our internal desires and the White Hats, this is what we want, everyone but a tiny slice of NeoCon/NeoLibs pirating our ship for the WEF.

    So think of it as “losing” or not as “losing” but as becoming one of other countries like Brazil, but perhaps with a unstable history of loans and agreements, like Argentina, that will need special proofs and consideration for a while.

    Next question: without Us as their free bully and wandering army, what is the WEF going to do? Raise their own? They can’t raise 10 tanks. And end their health care continent-wide to pay for it?

    “Ukraine Is Taking Care of Europe – Zelensky (RT)”

    Classic exercise in their method of lying. Ukraine, which is in Europe, is joining “Europe”, which they’re already in. Russia, which is in Europe, is a threat to Europe, a thing which they are. Being in Europe, and European for 400 years, they are “not Europe.” “Europe” as a word now means 1, 2, 3 things, perhaps opposite things, who knows? Words mean whatever I say they do, and just then I changed the definition again without telling you. “Europe” now means emotion. No wait: the economy. “History”: nope, “Psychology.” It means whatever you project into it, whatever makes you happy and to “Do what I say.”

    “This is our Europe, these are our rules”

    Which rules? All the nations in Europe disagree. “Zelensky’s European tour began a day earlier when he traveled to the UK,” UK isn’t in “Europe” anymore, they just “Brexit”. Right? Britain, which is in Europe, is no longer in Europe. See what I mean?

    ““I know you give us everything you have,” Zelensky stated,”

    Well sure. He has all of Scholz’s money laundering records, and the files of everyone around him. He can make Scholz wear a leash and walk on all fours, which would be appropriate and hilarious.

    “I have to force him to help Ukraine and constantly convince him that this help is not for us, but for the Europeans,”

    #Helping! Helping so much! #Helping with 25M refugees #Helping themselves to our food. Anymore #Help and no one in all Europe would have heat or food at all! Thanks Vlad, you’re a pal.

    “Hungary‘s Orban didn‘t applaud to Zelensky – Viktor has balls”

    Huh? As bad as all that? Having opinions = War and attacks? You need to leave “Europe” right away. Question would be Which one? I think they just defined “Europe” as 6 different things only this morning.

    “All too obvious. But some want that world war.”

    Yes, and yes, but in that case, who’s stopping them? Why hasn’t it been done already and from the beginning? Clearly there is an opposition force nearly equal to themselves. There are no White Hats but the Black Hats are hog-tied and can’t move forward anywhere. Got it. The Seen and the Unseen.

    “There are more than 2,000 Leopard 2 tanks in the stocks of various European NATO armies,”

    That’s about 1 month’s worth. Or am I mistaken on how fast they vanished after 2-22-22?

    actively assisting Ukraine in assessing targets and then attacking those targets is not something that, to the knowledge of the American public, has been approved by Congress”

    No, it was approved by Raytheon™, our real Congress. Besides, when was the last time we had an act of war? Is anyone left alive who was an adult then?

    “how Ukraine will use the bulbs when it’s suffering power outages”

    Ukraine is the most digital nation on earth. They have a complete digital government, digital initiatives, just go look at the ads on YouTube. They were very proud of their all-digital currency, all-digital ID, tracking, …now with no power!

    Looking for that, found this: ““Russia & China, Together at Last”: Historian Al McCoy Predicts Ukraine War to Birth New World Order” –Democracy Now

    “using high-altitude U2 spy planes.”

    The whut? The U2 is like 75 years old, older than the B-52, 1955. You’re sure you don’t mean a different plane? 75 years before 1940 is 1865. What planes did they have then?

    “similar Chinese craft have flown over the US before, but the Pentagon somehow missed them.”

    Don’t worry: Milley said he would call Xi directly if any were noticed or might be shot down.

    “China’s Foreign Ministry has demanded the return of what was left of the balloon, reminding Biden on Tuesday that “the airship does not belong to the US – it belongs to China.”

    Hahahahaha! You so funny!

    “This is the investigation part, later comes the arrest part,”

    Wake me when somebody does something. Also it’s a hard case to make, that an independent company can have no opinions on Presidents. Papers have been biased since Hamiton-Burr, and probably it was the NY Post that time too. Thanks to dreadful autoplay I was forced to listen to some of this. What nobody asked them? Where’s your Section 230? That makes you a publisher, and therefore all your protections are revoked. Apparently that is not their strategy, since they were completely mum, to this, the most obvious path. Open it up and let the market shark them to pieces.

    Pilots: Science is now when we have no arguments, no discussions, and provide no data. Science is “Do What You’re Told” High Priest O’Malley said so now pull down your pants.

    I’m always too optimistic, but the body has an amazing ability to clear and heal itself. Not always, not everyone, but you’ll see it in stats. So is the shot a permanent death sentence? No, AND there are probably things one can do, like being an ex-smoker. However, and that is why, they demand/push for boosters, because they know it’s not deadly enough.

    “Who’s representing the 1000’s of vaxx injured in the UK?”

    Look at it the other way: if they’re not getting representation, who is? Corporations, specifically pharmaceuticals. “Corporations are people” and Pharma are the only people with a vote.

    ““Would people have so willingly run to the Covid-19 vaccination centres if they had known they were taking part in a US Department of Defense (DoD) experiment?”

    Yes, they would. Probably moreso. Explains how they had the vax and patents before the disease though. And Ron Paul is still the idiot with the weird theories. Pfizer and Jamie Dimon are my best friend and lover and I let them sleep with my kids. Perfectly innocent, they pinky-promised me.

    #128673
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Well, there are these YouTubers known as “Sam & Colby” whose channel I regularly watch. Colby is 26 and had to have a testicle that had cancer removed. Because these young men do a lot of traveling to make their video content, and also live in Los Angeles like many YouTubers, I have to think that they are Covid-vaxxed and -boosted.

    Colby is going to be alright, at least for now (my understanding is that a prosthetic “testicle” is inserted to replace the removed one, for cosmetic purposes), but this really is one of those things that makes what’s happening right now feel personal and visceral. I am at the point now where I can’t even bring myself to be angry about it, all I can feel is this numb malaise. Normally, I’m opposed to capital punishment, but the criminals who inflicted this medical treatment on society should seriously swing from the gallows for what they have done.

    #128674
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Col Doug Macgregor was talking about the New Army Russia has amassed as a result of the deliberate threat to its security.

    He stated that it is currently at about 700,000 men and a will be a PERMANENT fixture going into the future.

    It’s not just to deal with the Empire of Lies® Ukronazi scum, it will be a part of the Russia culture going forward as far as the eye can see.

    Russian K thru 12 education always had a bit of preparing the young to have useful talents before leaving High School. This will be accelerated from here on out.

    While the Empire of Lies® indoctrinates their young in trans-gender studies, the Russians will turn out mechanics from HS ‘shop class’ at 18 that can fix a tank, not use the correct pronouns.

    The Empire of Lies® is such a sad pitiful little pack of losers.

    .

    #128675
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Karine Jean-Pierre preparing to ‘brief’ the White House Presstitutes

    .

    .

    #128676
    Red
    Participant

    It hasn’t dawned on us yet that technological civilization was wholly unsustainable from the get go. It was never designed, nor evolved to last.

    ‘There must be technological solution to all this! Human ingenuity knows no boundaries!’ — goes the usual retort to such claims. Overshoot in general and resource depletion in particular however is not a problem to be solved, but a predicament with an outcome. Neither nuclear nor renewables or hydrogen fusion can save a civilization whose whole existence is based on an endless flow of minerals and the consumption of Earth’s biosphere on a finite planet. It would be a logical fallacy to think so. Overshooting the natural carrying capacity of the planet and then relying on a set of technologies based on finite materials for survival is not a solution, but a recipe for disaster. We’ve put our species on life support and now we think that we have found a way around our death ‘problem’ — we just have to keep on trying.

    https://thehonestsorcerer.medium.com/is-there-an-off-ramp-for-civilization-a87ff10cf962

    #128677
    zerosum
    Participant

    Russia wanted the line of NATO forces moved back to where it was when the Warsaw Pact was dissolved.
    What forces? Missiles that can go around the world?

    Russia cannot be defeated in a conventional war in Eurasia.
    Troops in Trenches against drones with heat/night vision and sound detectors that can be linked to make accurate distance missile strikes

    “Ukraine’s immediate accession to NATO would mean world war,” Gulyas cautioned.
    Why do our leaders act like they don’t care or don’t want peace with Russia?

    “Ukraine, Germany, and France “lied to the people of Donbass, as they had a terrible fate planned for them, which Russia prevented..”
    Our leaders are liars.

    the “U.S. provides coordinates and precise targeting information solely in an advisory role.
    ”that targeting all goes through an American installation on NATO soil and described the process as ‘very fast

    Therefore, that means we are not “at war” with Russia.

    “..Hersh tells the story of the US destruction of the Nordstream pipelines in forensic detail, giving dates, times, method and military units involved..”
    When you feel compelled to smear your only left real journalists, you’re in deep.

    Yesterday is gone. Don’t question, just follow.

    #128678
    jb-hb
    Participant

    ALL life on Earth CONSTANTLY “consumes” the resources of The Biosphere and always has.

    And not in balance, which is readily apparent looking at any number of scientific data points.

    The Biosphere does not exist in balance

    The Planet does not exist in balance

    Life does not exist in balance.

    The Biosphere itself is continually and repeatedly consuming resources and experiencing overshoot.

    There is no balance to be disrupted. Life, The Planet, and The Biosphere have disrupted any perceived balance innumerable times IN ABSCENCE OF humanity.

    #128679
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Thank you, Red, for the Medium article. My most recent forays along learning to do with less would be a rocket stove that is sturdy enough for a cast iron pan and setting up the outdoor washing machine to discharge it’s water onto a garden area that I recently put Brussels sprouts seedling into. I find it enjoyable to find simple, low-tech ways to meet my needs.

    ~~~~~~~~~~

    My dad sometimes sends me WSJ artcles that would usually be behind a paywall. One yesterday is titled “I Tried Microsoft’s New AI-Powered Bing. Search Will Never Be the Same.”

    Excerpt:
    I asked: “Can you recap the biggest winners of the 2023 Grammys?” The results page gave me the usual answers on the left. But the bigger trick? On the right, Bing’s chatbot typed out the answer, with a bulleted list of winners and a mention of Beyoncé’s most-Grammys-ever record. The answer also contained clickable citations, noting the source of the listed information.

    The chat feature surfaces clickable citations, so you know where AI got its information.

    I followed up: “Do you know if Beyoncé is touring?” Bing’s chatbot told me plainly that the North American leg of the Renaissance Tour starts in July. The information appears to be accurate—at least, according to Google.

    I asked Bing if it would buy me a ticket. It apologized and said it didn’t have money. “I’m just a chat mode of Bing search,” it said, “not an assistant.”

    Impressive, yes, but also slower than a typical search. It took the AI about a minute to type out the Grammy winners. There is a “Stop Responding” button if you don’t want to wait for the bot to finish. You can adjust your query for brevity, asking it to “limit your answer to 100 words.

    The new Bing is based on an improved OpenAI model that’s more accurate and relevant than what’s currently in its ChatGPT software. More important, it now has Bing’s vast knowledge of the world and internet.

    How nice — a more intuitive interface. Yes, in some situations this will make the internet more accessible — I think about the elderly people that I help with technology and the elementary age students issued laptops by teachers who barely know how to use the laptops themselves, teachers who have no time to even look at the district’s mandated technology curriculum, let alone teach it.

    But more sinister applications abound. This is a wet dream for those hell-bent on controlling the populace through gas-lighting. How often does *anyone* actually check a reference? Chatbots can be so easily programmed to only communicate a narrative preferred by TPTB — and the key is to “dumb people down” so that they do not have access to the information required to understand something on their own. It is the ultimate circus in the “bread and circuses” routine by the elites. During medieval time power resided in the Catholic Church — they were, literally, the “king-makers” of Europe. What spurred on the Reformation, Martin Luther, Calvin, and somewhat later the Enlightenment and withering away of feudalism? Oh, yeah…the Gutenberg press, enabling the Bible to be printed and widely disseminated, leading to more people learning to read, and reading the Bible, and the Catholic Church no longer having a monopoly on God’s word. Today, the “king-makers” are a small group of elites that through corporate control move the power levers of nations and Supra-national entities. And they know that to preserve their power they must distract and dumb the people down with circuses ( — the bread is getting too dear, they are trying to use their circuses to get the populace to substitute bugs. Even Caesar knew *that* wouldn’t work…. ).

    #128680
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    jb-hb

    Homeostasis
    It is one of the hallmarks of life forms.

    A state of equilibrium, as in an organism or cell, maintained by self-regulating processes.
    The ability and tendency of certain systems to maintain a relatively constant internal state in spite of changes in external conditions; this ability is achieved by the presence of feedback mechanisms which can adjust the state of the system to compensate for changes in the state caused by the external environment. It is exemplified in homeothermal biological systems, such as animals which maintain relatively constant blood temperature and composition in spite of variations in external temperature or the composition of the food ingested.
    The ability of a system or livingorganism to adjust its internalenvironment to maintain a stable equilibrium; such as the ability of warm-blooded animals to maintain a constant temperature.

    #128681
    Germ
    Participant

    Dmitry Orlov on Russia not needing the West

    Dmitry Orlov on Russia not needing the West

    #128682
    zerosum
    Participant

    Chatbots can be so easily programmed to only communicate a narrative preferred by TPTB
    The path to truth, the path to critical thinking.
    A program is needed to compare what all the different Chatbots are saying.

    #128683
    Noirette
    Participant

    I read this today on Paul Craig Roberts’ Blog:

    Accountability for the mRNA “vaccine” Murders Has Begun

    The US Presstitutes Will Suppress these Reports from Switzerland and Thailand

    The Swiss President and the Minister of Health are under investigation, indictment, and prosecution by the Swiss Attorney General for Covid Crimes involving lying about the vaccine effectiveness and safety.

    Thailand is convening war crime tribunals to nullify Pfizer Contracts.

    https://bit.ly/40MSFrm

    #128684
    jb-hb
    Participant

    phoenixvoice – haha yeah, slightly chagrined, I was thinking of homeostasis after I clicked the submit button.

    But The Balance gets cited so often as a given that we must always agree to and can apply to any situation. It’s become religious/superstitious in nature. And an unspoken bedrock – just assumed that all must acknowledge it, one of those “something else”s that make real discussion difficult.

    Homeostasis is a real thing. “The Balance” as used in conversation isn’t.

    I mean, one reason we admire Dinosaurs so much is what a good run they had. Especially compared to ourselves. But even with Dinosaurs, nothing lasts. (…except birds)

    One day there won’t be humans. Yep. Will it be for “disrupting The Balance?” No.

    Imagine being pregnant and being berated for not having all resources required for the child’s first 18 years already piled up somewhere.

    Or berating a swallow or a badger or a right whale mother for not having all the resources already stacked up for their offspring.

    That’s not how life works. It kind of works on hope, doesn’t it? They have their babies on the faith that they will have the wherewithal to take care of them as they go.

    So we can’t see how humanity has all the resources stacked up that it needs to go on indefinitely. Yes, agreed. Definitely we can’t. And that’s how all life works forever. All those badgers and swallows and whales and stuff.

    I’m still a bit of a Peak Oiler – I could argue that oil peaked in 2005, even. But having drilled down into the underlying thinking behind various bits of the doomosphere, I’m actually starting to say yknow what, we might be alright. This coming from someone who went the full distance on all that stuff. oldevai.ca, dieoff.com, LATOC, the oil drum, Kondratieff winter, debt-based fiat currency and quadrillions in derivatives etc etc. I’m, not a noob.

    But like last friday, my overly long drill-down on Climate Change/Climate Meltdown/Climate Extinction/Global Warming/Overshoot — the base-level programming for the ideas turned out to be NOT scientific at all! It pervades all the “reasoning” all the way up the pyramid. So at long last I’ve been thinking yknow what, maybe it’s worth it and maybe we’ll be ok after all – maybe.

    #128686
    Noirette
    Participant

    Following on. Summary of the sit. in Switz.

    The Covid law was voted in, Sept. 2020, by the National Assembly. (Previous to it emergency measures were used.) It is extraordinarily long, which is against Swiss principles, and covers all kind of topics – sanitary measures (vax pass, organisation of hospitals, etc.), financial measures, compensation for workers, emergency actions like closing borders, refusing foreignors, etc., etc.

    Giving the gist here – there are many tech details involved…It went to a popular vote (referendum) in June 2021. The result was 60% for the law, 40% against (abstention: 40%.) It is commonly believed the vote FOR was due to the financial compensations (unemployment pay, bail-out of small biz, family allowance, free tests, etc. etc.) which the law stipulated. Had it been voted down, the compensations would have stopped the next day.

    It was modified in March 2021 (notably to strengthen and keep the ‘vax pass,’ imho) and lead to *another* referendum. The ppl voted in Nov. 2021, again, FOR the law, that is, basically, for the actions of the Federal Council. This time, 62% for, 38% against, with less abstentions (35%)

    The law had an expiry date of 31 Dec. 2022. In Dec. 2022 Parliament voted to extend important parts of it to 30 June 2024. (Vax pass, track and trace, promoting new meds, and such, etc. were kept, financial compensations, free tests, and more was abandoned.) A THIRD referendum IS being prepared.
    ——————-
    In May 2021 several associations and a few individuals filed a criminal complaint against the Swiss Task Force (in charge of the ‘plandemic’) The Justices declared it hmm I’m missing the legal word, not actionable? legitimate? receivable?… Appeals followed, were lost, the case died.
    ———————
    In Dec. 2021 a Criminal complaint was lodged against the Fed. Councillor in charge of Health during 2021, Alain Berset. He is now, from Jan 2023, the President of the Federal Council. Article is in F. The video, which features the plaintiff explaining his actions, is in English.

    Plainte contre Berset: Najadi nous dit…

    The first 27 minutes explains it all. In the next section he says that 70% of ppl are vaccinated, this is correct, 30% are unvaxxed.

    He has a Youtube channel, there are some other interviews, eng., german.

    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Pascal+Najadi

    This complaint has been received and will see its day in court.

    Germ posts about him too, see above.
    ——————————
    July 2022. A criminal complaint by a lawyer, Kruse, representing 6 vax-damaged individuals, is lodged against SwissMedic, the Gvmt. Org. in charge of certifying meds, their controls, etc. in eng:

    https://www.swissmedic.ch/swissmedic/en/home.html

    The complaint is more than 250 pages long. The persons targetted are 3 people in SwissMedic and 5 Drs. in the main hospital in Berne.

    Idk where that is at for the mo.

    #128688

    So if the US maintains that the Russians blew up their own pipeline, wouldn’t a “thank-you” be in order? (semi /s)

    #128689
    zerosum
    Participant

    Homeostasis is a real thing. “The Balance” as used in conversation isn’t.
    the tendency towards a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes.

    I cannot change my changing environment. Therefore, I must try to learn/understand/adapt and survive in our changing local conditions.

    #128690
    zerosum
    Participant

    So if the US maintains that the Russians blew up their own pipeline, wouldn’t a “thank-you” be in order?
    This morning news, Russia is going to cut back its production, therefore, achieving the USA objective.

    #128691
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Maybe I can re-state this a different way.

    I think the most important thing I said was how we don’t berate mother swallows and badgers and right whales for not having all the resources they will need for their babies stacked up somewhere, that this isn’t how life works.

    Just to recap from last friday, when you drill down far enough, you get a belief that says

    —I am special. I have access to my own reality and your reality
    —YOU on the other hand, do not have access to reality, not even your own
    —I’m one of the few REAL people and you’re a fake person, not a real person
    —you shouldn’t be or have ever been. anything you value or know should have never been. shame pervades you and everything that brought you value

    you drill down far enough and that’s what you come to, where it is comingfrom. and extrapolate – it’s also the end result of all details presented! So cut out the massive material in the middle. The beginning and end are identical.

    And it pervades all the New Thinking. There’s versions for economics, environment, gender, race, etc. Strip out the middle part and it’s the same beginning and ending in every case. So it isn’t just that it starts and ends in the same place, but that it’s the same across different subject matters, regardless OF subject matter.

    The New Thinking does not come from a sober, judicious reflection on reality. It starts from something outside it and works from there. So cut out all the middle stuff. That’s just leverage to maneuver you to the starting point.

    To me, it reads like a Narcissist compulsively interrupting someone else’s parasympathetic state.

    Do you begrudge the swallow mother not having the entire track of her babies’ life planned out? Then no one should begrudge you, your people, your civilization, your species either – nothing in nature ever worked that way.

    as she’s said in other videos, if the Narc notices you doing something you like or even just being okay, this is not acceptable. You can’t be doing things feeling ok nor sitting at your ease. You can’t happy nor too angry.

    You end up learning the only thing that IS okay is to sit there in a mildly sullen, passive state unless the Narc is in the mood for something in particular. I think, if we backtrack to the base-level programming for these concepts, we find the end is in the beginning and the beginning is in the end. Instead of running around in the weeds, one can do a quick calculation of – is the endpoint me sitting passive and sullen, avoiding a parasympathetic state?

    #128692

    Got a mail today from [email protected]:

    Hello,

    I’m an administrator from chatgpt.pro, I see that someone on your website illegally posted our website link and comments, which has a bad influence on us, and also generated spam on your website. Can you delete this content? Thank you so much!

    Link: https://www.theautomaticearth.com/forums/reply/126309/

    That link points to a Jan 19(!) comment from zerosum, which says:

    jb-hb
    I agree.
    Thanks for the round up on GPTchat
    ChatGPT: The Most Advanced AI Chatbot in 2022
    3. Isn’t it interesting how in every human field, the AI we are shown is comfortingly at the level of a decent college student or beginner-level professional?
    So a first key takeaway is that its output is GOOD ENOUGH.

    I know a high school teacher who is using it.
    I expect that soon, Q&A from users/buyers/complaints/help will be, if not yet, be done by GPTchat and replace receptionist from call centers.

    I gather this is part of a longer thread in that day’s Comments about ChatGPT which I did not read.

    But to label our commenters’ input “spam” is something else. They expect not to be discussed, or only in positive terms, or it’s spam? It’s not even spammy, let alone spam. “illegally posted our website link”. Excuse me? Maybe it’s just a fake mail?!

    #128693
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The Government (and I’m talking here about the ENTIRE government, not just the big shots) which is a WHOLE lot of people inextricably hooked into government in one way or another, are in a serious bind. And by “serious bind” I mean to say that they are in a REAL pickle like we ain’t never seen before.

    They have borrowed an absurd amount of money over the years and centuries in order to obtain and retain their positions of power over people. The sum is quite large, the interest and bribery rates are quite high, and SOME of the more powerful lenders are now asking for more interest and bribe than the government is able to pay without borrowing more money ( LOTS more money). That leaves them now with two, and ONLY two, possible choices : they must either pay back the loans or NOT pay back the loans (including bribes, interest and mature notes.)

    If they pay back the loans they are screwed because the loans amount to more than they have (or will ever have) which would leave them with nothing or less than nothing.

    If they do NOT pay back the loans then they are screwed because no one will trust them at all, or for anything, EVER . . . . because everyone will irrefutably know them as the guys who don’t repay loans or keep promises. That puts them OUT of business (at the very least) and possibly even IN prison or AT the end of a rope (more likely).

    So if they pay they’re damned and if they don’t pay they’re daamned, and they are being watched VERY carefully by tough smart people who don’t trust them at all and are on high alert for further shifty tricks, which are fully expected.

    The only way they’ve managed to last this long is because they’ve been able to borrow or steal enough more money from fresh suckers to keep paying off the bribes and “interest” (etc.) necessary to keep the existing “loans” from being called due (i.e. if that happens then they CAN’T pay, so Game Over).

    Their big problem now is that there aren’t enough fresh suckers with anything left to lend or give up.. They could drain the old suckers to death and beyond and there STILL would not be enough to pay off or pay back even the tiny number of POWERFUL people who want their money back (not to even mentions the immeasurable hordes of smaller folks with various “notes” and obligations to collect as due and payable NOW.

    Talk about a terminal case of “damned if you do and damned if you don’t”. Sure wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.

    #128694
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Random musings:

    Our time here is precious. All of it.

    Inner Wisdom is a mostly untapped, unexplored resource. It is not the same as hope and faith. It appears that we are born with it; access requires discernment/practice/commitment to discover/uncover it – and to apply this Wisdom in daily life/living. Perhaps this is the engine of creativity/ingenuity; if we bring Inner Wisdom to light, what is possible?

    This creation is in constant motion; everything under the sun is in one state of change or another – be it birth, growth, decay, death. The cycle of life is what it is, it is here and now. We can’t escape the impact yet we can control our response (if you want it).

    Some say you must go/get BEYOND the creation (the body/mind (ego)/emotions (desires and attachments) to access Inner Wisdom. Sometimes Inner Wisdom breaks through in whispers or shouts. In words or not. What do you say?

    Be Here Now = The Balance. It is momentary for most and permanent for few.

    What was your reaction to today’s art selection? Did you smell bread baking and then move into The Future to take a bite of that crispy loaf? Did the open space on the table invite you add a glass of red wine, grapes, and cheese? Or were you pulled outside to the dark night and stars? Or???

    LOVE to Seekers. LOVE to All.

    #128695
    Dr. D
    Participant

    You asked for an elaboration, so here you are:

    Jews like who? Like Kunstler? Like Ben Shapiro? Like the Hasids? Like Trump and the kids? They all have either free speech or actual principles so they’re all getting smacked by DeBlasio. It’s the non-Jews, the non-practicing, etc that drag it out when useful, the closet it up when it isn’t. Annoying people are always louder, make demands, and stand for nothing. That’s not a Jewish thing, that’s all over the Left. But elsewhere too. We’re just in a cycle where it’s the Left doing that not the Right, cycles back to the Right again 40 years from now.

    So again, paint the annoying ones who are going to get backlash, and try not to backlash the ones who were never making trouble to begin with. That’s just like everybody else. And yes, it’s frustrating to me too, as the bennies are so sweet to claim victimhood right now, the proportion of people doing it is even higher than ever and perhaps higher than other groups (how would you measure?). But I said the same thing about how backlash could set gay rights – or women in the workplace – back 40 years if they’re not careful.

    What am I supposed to do? Hold a grudge against my dentist and the local realtor? “Damn you, and your cost-effective medical care, you should stop denting right now! Go back where you came from which is, um, well, and me an American who should go back to, um, well…”

    The only important thing here is people are not groups. Just because I am a member of some birth group or geographical group doesn’t mean I agree with them, support them, or have anything in common with them. Obviously. So when we turn around to be like “Why are – insert group here – like that?” Yes, we say such things because: demographics, but you can’t convict any individual on the bad actions of his group. And thank God for that, with me being an American.

    Still, as I’ve said, if you don’t agree or think there’s backlash coming, you need to speak up like Gays Against Pedophiles, or like Jimmy Dore and the People’s Party. Or like, um, Ron Paul? The single Republican against the (Iraq) war? Actual Rabbis – like other people of actual religion and actual principle – are against this abuse of free speech and in fact encourage open discussion as the rabbinic way. –And that’s unlike most Pastors. But like other people of actual religion and principle they are a stiff minority.

    The majority of almost EVERY group right now is immoral, unprincipled, and tramples whoever they can. That isn’t limited to Jews, or the Left, or Americans: look at all of Europe. Look at the Chinese. It’s human nature if not channeled and restrained with hard work and criticism.

    Again, multiple definitions same word: What portion of “Jews” are practicing, not “racial/Ethnic”? 24%. What portion in Israel? 24%. To me, you’re not really “Jewish” if you’re not practicing, and the same with Christians. That’s like saying because (part of) your family came from Switzerland, you must make watches. 1st: not everyone IN Switzerland makes watches nor ever did, 2nd: That informs nothing about years thereafter, or totally different individuals. Same here.

    So if it’s not the orthodox/religious ones, and it’s not the ethnic/racial ones, then who are the ones who are being annoying? The annoying ones? What a tautology, thanks. When you line up the individuals you mean, can you group them for me in a way that doesn’t fail 76% of the time? Good dentists are hard to find.

    #128696
    jb-hb
    Participant

    lol when did anyone even post their website link? I’d be curious if they are saying that posting their website address is illegal, the comments ABOUT GPT are illegal, or both?

    If you take my own comments, my point is that GPT is an indicator of where things are going and how much BETTER the AI must be that is in use right now by corp/gov/ngo entities. A wakeup call based on how good GPT chat really is.

    Huh. The email didn’t get sent until after yesterday, when there was discussion on GPT’s programmed bias? Numerous youtube videos show demonstrations of it, dunno why a comment about it would get the ball rolling.

    Why don’t they just post whatever counterarguments, information, corrections, whatever they would like right here? I’d be very interested to hear them out. They could have participated in the discussion at any time!

    Geez, do it today. Why not? Presumably GPT can do it FOR them, so how much effort would it even take?

    P.S., my time and energies WOULD have been entirely consumed with menial call center work, had heavy-handed censoring types not directly caused my totally unnecessary unemployment. I was a good worker, giving good value, which was thrown away for nothing. The end result apparently being that I am saying things the censors don’t want, things I would not have had time nor energy for but for the censors?

    Go ahead and lift the damn blacklist if you want me to shut up. 150+ applications at this point, I think. 2 interviews.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 75 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.