Feb 152023
 
 February 15, 2023  Posted by at 9:50 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Edward Hopper Dawn before Gettysburg 1934

 

Palestine, Ohio Train Wreck: It’s The Dioxin (Coppolino)
Russia Wants UN Probe Into Nord Stream Blasts (RT)
Kiev Readying ‘Great Event’ To Accuse Russia Of Violating Nuclear Safety (TASS)
US Wants to Help Ukraine Retake More Territory Before Negotiating (Antiwar)
US Ambitions Mean Destruction Of Ukraine, Huge Loss Of Life – Zakharova (TASS)
Ban On Access To Bakhmut Prelude To Ukrainian Troop Withdrawal? (TASS)
Stoltenberg Denies NATO Involvement In Conflict With Russia (TASS)
Russia Gives High Marks To Serbia’s Balanced Foreign Policy (TASS)
Snow White and the Wicked Queen (Batiushka)
The Bloody Sore On Humanity’s Conscience (Saker)
Nord Stream Terror Attack: The Plot Thickens (Escobar)
NATO Eyes Fighting Two Wars – Bloomberg (RT)
Snowden Calls UFO Craze A Distraction (RT)
How George Soros’ Propaganda Machine Has Corrupted The Media (Livshitz)
‘World’s First’ Unvaccinated Dating Service Launches in Hawaii (ET)

 

 

 

 

Ohio river
https://twitter.com/i/status/1625327940392067072

 

 

 

 

Is this why the White House is absent?

 

 

Tucker Ohio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It happened on February 3rd. 12 days ago. Without Twitter, would we even ever have known?

I’m not sure what is the most dangerous chemical involved. But the intentional “flaring off” of the whole thing feels crazy.

Will anybody ever live there again?

Palestine, Ohio Train Wreck: It’s The Dioxin (Coppolino)

Most coverage of the train wreck in Palestine, Ohio is missing one word: dioxin. There were reportedly 14 tanker cars full of vinyl chloride, a precursor to polyvinyl chloride — that is, vinyl. Burning vinyl is the most serious source of dioxin in the environment — whether from trash incinerators, house fires or chemical spills. This mess of 14 tanker cars (really, many more, but 14 had vinyl chloride) was then set on fire by the government, apparently to make it easier to clear the railroad tracks. This was the worst possible decision. It has turned many, many miles into no-man’s land. Note that dioxin goes by several other names, including TCDD and is sometimes abbreviated 2,3,7,8. Dibenzofurans, or furans for short, are identical in their toxicity but spoken about less often.

This is not a local issue. This massive plume will spread far and wide, and is being blown by the prevailing winds across Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York State, toward the population centers of the northeastern U.S. And via land and water, the toxins can spread in many directions, via water, soil movement and air (since the prevailing winds are only an average). And the contamination is so serious that even soil tracking will spread significant amounts. What few people remember is how the town of Times Beach, Missouri was evacuated, purchased by the federal government, leveled and had its zip code removed, from far, far less dioxin contamination. It’s now a state park, though I’m not sure who would want to have a picnic there.


[..] Neil Donahue, a professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University in nearby Pittsburgh, said he worries that the burning could have formed dioxins, which are created from burning chlorinated carbon materials. “Vinyl chloride is bad, dioxins are worse as carcinogens and that comes from burning,” Donahue said. Dioxins are a group of persistent environmental pollutants that last in the ground and body for years and have been one of the major environmental problems and controversies in the United States. Dr. Lynn Goldman, dean of George Washington University’s School of Public Health, agrees this is a possible risk, but is more concerned about uncombusted vinyl chloride vapors that could be lurking in the immediate vicinity. “Until there has been a thorough assessment, the soot as well as any other materials should in my opinion be treated as contaminated by vinyl chloride and/or dioxins or other contaminants until proven otherwise,” she said.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1625303244267220992

https://twitter.com/i/status/1625553361641537536

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“..Stoltenberg announced the formation of a new “coordination cell” to work on securing undersea infrastructure..”

Russia Wants UN Probe Into Nord Stream Blasts (RT)

The Russian parliament’s committee for international relations has approved a motion to ask the UN Security Council for an investigation into last September’s explosions on the Baltic Sea pipelines, for which they blame the US. The motion was introduced on Tuesday and is expected to be approved by the State Duma later this week. The proposal describes the blasts as “an act of international terrorism” and a “monstrous sabotage,” calling on the UN to hold accountable both those who gave the order and those who carried it out. The criminal act has threatened the security of all Eurasia, TASS reported, quoting the text of the document. US President Joe Biden’s administration “gave the illegal order and bears full responsibility for the multi-billion-dollar damage to the infrastructure of Russia, Germany, France and the Netherlands,” according to the document.

It describes the pipeline sabotage as inflicting long-term damage to the security, economy and environment of the entire region. The lawmakers are referring to last week’s expose by American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who described how the pipelines were damaged in a joint operation between the US and Norway. US actions require “a thorough international investigation, punishment of those responsible and compensation for the damage caused.” The committee has requested putting their proposal on the agenda of Thursday’s session of the State Duma, where it may be up for a vote. A series of explosions heavily damaged both Nord Stream pipelines, which were built under the Baltic Sea to deliver Russian natural gas to Germany and the rest of the EU.

The blasts happened near the Danish island of Bornholm, in an area where the US Navy and its NATO allies conducted BALTOPS 22 exercises several months prior. Last week, Hersh described how American divers planted the explosives under the cover of the naval exercise, saying they were later activated by a Norwegian patrol airplane. When Hersh asked the US government for comment, it denounced the story as “fiction” and “false.” It has received little to no media attention in the West since. On Monday, NATO’s secretary-general – and former Norwegian prime minister – Jens Stoltenberg announced the formation of a new “coordination cell” to work on securing undersea infrastructure.

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No surprise. They call for a special session, just in time for Russia to be accused.

Kiev Readying ‘Great Event’ To Accuse Russia Of Violating Nuclear Safety (TASS)

Kiev, backed by the US, is preparing a provocation (“a great event”) ahead of the 11th special session of the UN General Assembly to accuse Russia of violating nuclear safety during the special military operation in Ukraine, the Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Kiev regime, supported by the US and European countries, is wrapping up preparations of a major media provocation (“a great event”) to accuse the Russian Federation, ahead of the start of work of the eleventh extraordinary special session of the UN General Assembly on February 22, of allegedly ‘gross violation’ of commitments of the Nuclear Safety Convention during the special military operation,” the statement said.

It also said representatives of the Kiev regime planned to provide some “substantial evidence” to the world community, which will purport to prove that “as a result of actions by Russian servicemen at the Chernobyl NPP and in the exclusion zone in February-April 2022, a radioactive contamination of significant territories of Ukraine took place.” The purpose of the provocation is mainly to create a negative background by forcing countries that didn’t support sanctions against the Russian Federation to vote for the Kiev “peace formula” at the upcoming 11th special session of the UN General Assembly. In addition, Kiev is hoping for further initiatives for the illegal confiscation of Russian assets abroad to “support Ukraine” and the creation of an “international tribunal”.

The special session of the UN General Assembly on Ukraine will begin its work on February 22. According to Paulina Kubiak, a spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly, the request to hold the session came from some Western countries on February 10.

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Crime(a).

US Wants to Help Ukraine Retake More Territory Before Negotiating (Antiwar)

The Washington Post reported on Monday that Biden administration officials say they want to help Ukraine retake as much territory as it can from Russia over the next few months before they sit down at the negotiation table with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The report, which cited unnamed Biden administration officials, said that some “optimists” think Ukraine can stop Russian advances in the east, regain territory in the south, and negotiate a deal by the end of the year. But there are “skeptics” who recognize that Russia has been reinforcing its positions with hundreds of thousands of troops. Russia has been making more gains around the eastern Donetsk city of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian forces have been taking heavy casualties.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia has started its long-awaited offensive, but it’s not clear if Russia has launched a major push or the momentum is just on its side in Bakhmut, where Russian and Ukrainian forces have been locked in battle for months. Ukraine’s Western backers, including those in the Biden administration, think Kyiv has been sinking too many resources in the battle of Bakhmut and want them to focus elsewhere. The Post report said that American military analysts and planners think it’s unrealistic for Ukraine to continue defending Bakhmut and launch a spring counteroffensive in another area. The report said that the Biden administration conveyed to Ukraine that it might not be able to receive the massive amount of assistance Washington has provided indefinitely.

“We will continue to try to impress upon them that we can’t do anything and everything forever,” an administration official said. The message to Ukraine is that they face a pivotal moment in the war, and the recent weapons packages and ones that will soon be announced will give them their best chance to turn the tide. The US has recently pledged a series of massive arms packages to Ukraine that include longer-range missiles, Abrams tanks, and Bradley fighting vehicles, although some of the equipment could take years to deliver. The report cited conservative Republicans who have said they want to stop providing aid and the fact that it’s not clear how long Europe can support the war as reasons why the assistance might not continue at these levels. This message comes despite constant pledges from the US and its allies that they will support Ukraine for “as long as it takes.”

“‘As long as it takes’ pertains to the amount of conflict. It doesn’t pertain to the amount of assistance,” the administration official said. There are other signs that the US is thinking about an end game for the war, including recent comments from Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the head of the House Armed Services Committee. Rogers suggested the US and NATO should pressure Ukraine on what victory will look like, which he said should help “drive Putin and Zelensky to the table to end this thing this summer.” Ukrainian officials have maintained their goal is to drive Russia out of all the territory it controls, including Crimea. But officials in the US don’t think taking Crimea is a realistic goal. Any deal that Russia and Ukraine reach in the future would likely involve Kyiv ceding more territory than it would have if an agreement was reached earlier in the war or if the Minsk agreements were implemented before the Russian invasion. The Minsk agreements were drawn up to end the Donbas war and would have involved Kyiv ceding autonomy to separatists in the east, but the region would have remained part of Ukraine.

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“..American neoliberals destroyed Ukraine and are exterminating Ukrainian people..”

US Ambitions Mean Destruction Of Ukraine, Huge Loss Of Life – Zakharova (TASS)

American ambitions have led to enormous fatalities and the annihilation of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday. “The so-called ‘West’s war against Russia until the last Ukrainian.’ American neoliberals destroyed Ukraine and are exterminating Ukrainian people. American hegemonic ambitions lead to colossal victims,” she wrote on her Telegram channel commenting on a statement by one of the White House officials that the US is pushing Kiev to more active combat.

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“..the Ukrainian military cannot secure even areas in the city that had been considered relatively safe before..”

Ban On Access To Bakhmut Prelude To Ukrainian Troop Withdrawal? (TASS)

The ban on civilian and volunteer access to Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine) imposed by Kiev on Monday could be a prelude to a Ukrainian withdrawal from the city, the New York Times reported. According to the newspaper, the decision to ban civilians from entering the city may suggest that the Ukrainian military cannot secure even areas in the city that had been considered relatively safe before, such as districts on the western bank of the Bakhmutka River. The New York Times quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying that the village of Krasnaya Gora, lying north of Artyomovsk, had been taken by Russian troops.


Ukraine’s Klymenko Time news outlet reported on Sunday, citing a Ukrainian commander who goes under the nickname of Madyar, that the military would close access to Artyomovsk for all civilians, including volunteers, starting on Monday. Only those having a special permit will be able to enter the city, the news outlet added. According to it, the ban is needed to guarantee security to civilians.

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And neither is the arms industry.

Stoltenberg Denies NATO Involvement In Conflict With Russia (TASS)

NATO does not consider itself a party to the conflict with Russia but will keep supplying more advanced and heavier weaponry to Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said upon his arrival at a meeting of the bloc’s defense ministers on Tuesday. “Neither NATO nor NATO allies are party to the conflict. What we do as NATO allies and NATO, is to provide support to Ukraine. Ukraine is defending itself. Ukraine has the right to defend itself. And of course, we have the right to help Ukraine uphold the right for self-defense. So NATO and NATO allies are not party to the conflict, but we support Ukraine in the right of self-defense,” the NATO chief said, replying to a corresponding question. The type of weapons supplied to Ukraine “has evolved as the war has evolved,” Stoltenberg said.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1625406892087320581

“In the beginning there was enormous focus on javelins, on anti-tank, light anti-tank weapons, and then we saw the urgent need for artillery and allies started to step up the delivery of advanced modern artillery. Then air defense has been a main focus and now heavy weaponry…,” he said. As Stoltenberg said, “actually since 2014, NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcements of collective defense in a generation, because the war didn’t start in February last year. It started in 2014.” Tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and munitions are now a NATO priority in weaponry deliveries to Ukraine, Stoltenberg said. “So the issue of aircraft is not the most urgent issue now. But it is an ongoing discussion. We have ongoing consultations among allies on the type of systems allies should deliver to Ukraine,” he said. “The urgent need now is to deliver what has always been promised” and this “will be a top issue at the meetings today here at NATO,” Stoltenberg said.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1625404892348137474

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Serbia, Hungary. Expect regime change.

Russia Gives High Marks To Serbia’s Balanced Foreign Policy (TASS)

Russia highly appreciates Belgrade’s balanced foreign policy under complex international circumstances, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a telegram to his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic sent on the occasion of Serbia’s Statehood Day. According to the Serbian leader’s press service, the telegram was presented to Vucic by Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko on Tuesday. “Please accept sincere greetings on the occasion of your country’s national holiday, Statehood Day. Serbia is Russia’s important and reliable partner. We greatly cherish the balanced foreign policy course conducted by Belgrade under the current complex international circumstances.


“We support your efforts directed at defending the country’s territorial integrity and resolving the Kosovo issue. I am confident that the further development of the Russian-Serbian strategic partnership fully corresponds to the interests of our fraternal peoples,” the telegram said. “I sincerely wish you good health and success as well as well-being and prosperity to all Serbian citizens,” the Russian leader said. Statehood Day is marked in Serbia on February 15 and 16 commemorating the First Serbian Uprising (1804-1813) which launched the country’s fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire. Serbia’s first constitution was approved on February 15, 1835.

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Nice parabel.

Snow White and the Wicked Queen (Batiushka)

Now it came to pass that a Prince who was travelling in the mountains with his soldiers happened onto the Kings’ House, where he sought shelter for the night. He saw the coffin with Snow White in it and read what was written on it with golden letters. Then he said to the Three Kings: ‘Let me buy the coffin from you. I will give you anything you want for it’. But the Kings answered: ‘We will not sell it for all the gold in the world’. Then he said, ‘Then give it to me, for I cannot live without being able to see Snow White. I will honour her and respect her as my most cherished one’. When he said this, the good Kings felt sorry for him and gave him the coffin. The Prince had his soldiers carry it away on their shoulders. But then one of them stumbled over a stone and that freed the piece of poisoned apple which had lodged in Snow White’s throat.

At once she coughed it up, opened her eyes, lifted the lid from her coffin, sat up and was alive again. ‘Good heavens, where am I?’ she cried out. The Prince said joyfully: ‘You are with me’. He told her what had happened, and then said: ‘I love you more than anything in the world. Come with me to my castle and we shall be King and Queen’. Snow White fell in love with him and went with him. When they got to the castle, the people were very happy and they invited the whole world to their wedding feast.Now the Wicked Queen in the West was also invited to the wedding feast and when she had arrayed herself in her most beautiful garments, she stood before her mirror and said: ‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who’s the strongest of them all?’ The mirror answered: ‘You, my Queen, are not strong at all, it is true. And the young Queen is much, much stronger than you’.

The Wicked Queen was furious. Not knowing that the young Queen was Snow White, she went to the wedding to try and kill her. But as soon as she saw her, she realised that she was Snow White. And at once the vain heart of the Wicked Queen filled with the deepest dread and she died in a rage of narcissism. So, at last freed from her wickedness, the Kingdom of the West began to make friends with the Three Kings of the North, South and East. Having forgotten the Wicked Queen completely, he became the Fourth King. The whole Family was together again at last. And soon after that the Four Kings took wives and were very happy. As for the King and Queen Snow White, every year on the anniversary of their freedom from wickedness, they would hold a huge ball to which they invited the Four Kings from the Four Kingdoms of the world and all their families. And there they would all make merry and the music and the feasting and the singing and the dancing and the laughing would last until dawn. And so they lived happily ever after.

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“..the Woke ideology is following Dubya’s “you are either with us or with the terrorists“, but on steroids..”

The Bloody Sore On Humanity’s Conscience (Saker)

Each society, each country has at least two foundational bases: an official ideology and a number of foundational myths (and these myths can be very close to the historical truth or not). In the case of the West (roughly Zone A), the official ideology is “western liberal democracy” (itself based on a lionization of capitalism and “free market values”). However, once we look “under the hood”, so to speak, we see that since its birth in the Middle-Ages the foundational myth of the West has been exceptionalism and its inevitable by-product, imperialism. And it does not matter one bit what verbiage this myth has been wrapped it. It can be the demented claims of universal authority the Papacy, or the so-called “universal values” (aka human rights) of Freemasonry, the racial superiority of the Nazis or globalist agenda of the transnational financiers.

The past two decades or so have, however, seen a very interesting phenomenon: the wholesale abandonment of any “pious” ideology other than the minimal lip-service needed to show a (totally non-existing) loyalty to any values. That is, however, not to say that no ideology currently exists. It does, very much so, but it is one *openly* based on hatred of the “other”. I am talking, of course, of the Woke ideology which is so powerfully expressed by the actions of the “Biden” Administration. The Woke ideology is not different from its predecessors by its underlying hatred of the “other” (all the previous western ideologies were also based on that hatred of the “other”), but by its unapologetic proclamation of this hatred. You could say that the Woke ideology is following Dubya’s “you are either with us or with the terrorists“, but on steroids.

And like all western ideologies, the Woke ideology demands that you not only accept a lie (many lies, in fact), but that you also loudly proclaim it. And, of course, the bigger the lie, the more vociferously it is proclaimed urbi et orbi.Again, this is hardly anything new but, as Hegelian dialectics affirms, quantity can have a quality of its own. We clearly see this today in the post-Christian society all of Zone A lives in: not only are falsehoods proclaimed as “secular dogma”, but the very notion of “truth” has lost any meaning. To repeat, while in the past the rulers of the West did proclaim and even impose ideologies based on lies, today these same rulers have basically retired the very *concept* of “truth” in any other meaning than “in agreement with the official party line/narrative”.

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“..the terror attack planning preceded, by months, not only the SMO..”

It had nothing to do with the SMO. Or Ukraine. It was about Germany. Who are now silent.

Nord Stream Terror Attack: The Plot Thickens (Escobar)

The Special Military Operation (SMO) was launched on February 24, almost a year ago. The Nord Stream 1 and 2 blow up happened on September 26. Hersh assures there were “more than nine months of highly secret back and forth debate inside Washington’s national security community about how to ‘sabotage the pipelines’”. So that confirms that the terror attack planning preceded, by months, not only the SMO but, crucially, the letters sent by Moscow to Washington on December 2022, requesting a serious discussion on “indivisibility of security” involving NATO, Russia and the post-Soviet space. The request was met by a dismissive American non-response response.

While he was writing the story of a terror response to a serious geopolitical issue, it does raise eyebrows that a first-rate pro like Hersh does not even bother to examine the complex geopolitical background. In a nutshell: the ultimate Mackinderian anathema for the U.S. ruling classes – and that’s bipartisan – is a Germany-Russia alliance, extended to China: that would mean the U.S. expelled from Eurasia, and that conditions everything any American government thinks and does in terms of NATO and Russia. Hersh should also have noticed that the timing of the preparation to “sabotage the pipelines” completely blows apart the official United States government narrative, according to which this a collective West effort to help Ukraine against “unprovoked Russian aggression”.

The narrative leaves no doubt that Hersh’s source – if not the journalist himself – supports what is considered a lawful U.S. policy: to fight Russia’s “threat to Western dominance [in Europe].” So what seems a U.S. Navy covert op, according to the narrative, may have been misguided not because of serious geopolitical reasons; but because the attack planning intentionally evaded U.S. law “requiring Congress to be informed”. That’s an extremely parochial interpretation of international relations. Or, to be blunt: that’s an apology of Exceptionalism. And that brings us to what may be the Rosebud in this Orson Welles-worthy saga. Hersh refers to a “secure room on the top floor of the Old Executive Office Building …that was also the home of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board”. This was supposedly the place where the terror attack planning was being discussed.

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“NATO defense ministers will also discuss in Brussels a boost in military spending by member states..”

NATO Eyes Fighting Two Wars – Bloomberg (RT)

NATO is set to adopt a guidance that lays out plans for a scenario in which member states find themselves fighting on the home front and beyond the borders of the alliance at the same time, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. This comes as the US increasingly shifts its priorities to confronting China. The classified document is to be discussed and signed off on by NATO defense ministers during a two-day summit in Brussels that starts on Tuesday, the news outlet reported. Members will be asked to prepare national plans for future military engagements. The guidance will map out ways for NATO to engage in a “high-intensity so-called Article 5 conflict” – defending a NATO nation attacked by a foreign party under the treaty’s mutual defense provision – and “an out-of-area, non-Article 5 event.” The contents of the guideline were revealed to Bloomberg by “people familiar with the matter.”

While NATO bills itself as a defensive alliance, it has an extensive record of engaging in hostilities on foreign soil, including in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and against Libya in 2011. Critics regard the bloc as a tool of US foreign policy that is aligned with Washington’s goals and in rivalry with China and Russia. “The Americans get what they were aiming for,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked in an interview earlier this month, discussing NATO’s increasing reach. “There are military blocs being created against China and Russia in the Asian Pacific region, like AUKUS. There is a drive to drag new members into them.” The ability to fight a two-theater war was at the core of US military planning during the Cold War.

Think tanks and US officials pushed the strategic objective of having a military force strong enough for two simultaneous ground conflicts, arguing for higher Pentagon budgets and against spending cuts. According to Bloomberg’s sources, NATO defense ministers will also discuss in Brussels a boost in military spending by member states. Countries that fail to meet the target of 2% of GDP would be pressured to accept this level as a mandatory floor rather than merely as a recommendation. Such a change may be adopted during a summit of NATO leaders in Vilnius in July, the outlet said. The structure of spending would be pushed towards increased procurement of weapons by European allies, according to the article, since the US “may decide to move some of its assets” from the continent closer to China.

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You don’t say…

Snowden Calls UFO Craze A Distraction (RT)

The media frenzy over “spy balloons” and unidentified flying objects over North America is sadly not about first contact with extraterrestrials, but an engineered panic for political misdirection, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden argued on Monday. “It’s not aliens. I wish it were aliens. But it’s not aliens. It’s just the ol’ engineered panic, an attractive nuisance ensuring [national security] reporters get assigned to investigate balloon bullshit rather than budgets or bombings” such as the Nord Stream, Snowden tweeted. Award-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a story last week describing how the US and Norway blew up the pipelines transporting Russian natural gas to Germany last September. The US government denounced it as false.

Over the next several days, the US military began shooting down “objects” in the sky over North America. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that the US government still doesn’t know who owns the three “objects” brought down over the weekend. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said there was “no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity,” however. Kirby had announced the downing of a “high-altitude object” off the coast of Alaska on Friday. US fighter jets brought down an “unidentified, unmanned object” over Yukon in northwest Canada on Saturday. The third “object” was shot down on Sunday afternoon over Lake Huron, as it approached Michigan. “While authorities don’t yet know what the objects are, they are not a threat,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Monday.

“They do not present a military threat to anyone on the ground. They do however present a risk to civil aviation and potentially an intelligence collection threat. And we’ll get to the bottom of it,” he added. Austin also said the three “objects” were different from the Chinese “spy balloon” the US shot down over South Carolina last week. The aerostat, which Beijing described as a weather balloon blown off-course by the winds, had passed over most of the continental US before it was destroyed by a F-22 fighter jet. The Pentagon’s reluctance to describe the “objects” or show any debris that may have been recovered has fueled speculation about their possible extraterrestrial origin. Space magnate Elon Musk joked about “friends of mine” stopping by.

Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers have expressed frustration at the lack of official explanations by the White House. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who sits on the Homeland Security Committee, demanded the Pentagon and the president “tell us what they know – and what they don’t – immediately.” “What in the world is going on?” wondered fellow Kentuckian and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor. “The administration has still not been able to divulge any meaningful information about what was shot down,” he said, asking if the radar sensitivity may have been turned up after the Chinese balloon incident.

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”..Newsbusters lists Project Syndicate as the biggest propaganda platform funded by the Hungarian..”

How George Soros’ Propaganda Machine Has Corrupted The Media (Livshitz)

A new report from the US-based Newsbusters has exposed a vast web of media and activist organizations, funded with millions of dollars, annually, by the billionaire George Soros. The outlet bills itself as “an online rapid-response vehicle for documenting, exposing, and neutralizing liberal bias in the media.” The extensive global influence of the Hungarian tycoon is well-known, and Soros himself has admitted it on countless occasions – including boasts about his efforts in Ukraine. Soros openly declared his role in promoting the 2014 US-orchestrated Maidan coup in Kiev, stating at the time: “I set up a foundation in Ukraine before Ukraine became independent of Russia [sic]. The foundation has been functioning ever since. And it played an important part in events now.”

In a lengthy interview with the New York Times in October of 2019, Soros explained: “The arc of history doesn’t follow its own course [and] needs to be bent,” and he was “engaged in trying to bend it in the right direction.” The Newsbuster report identifies the hundreds of media, humanitarian, and social justice organizations that Soros funds annually and asserts that his donations allow him to “wield massive power over information in international politics,” and “mold public opinion on practically every continent and in many languages.” Who gets the money? Newsbusters lists Project Syndicate as the biggest propaganda platform funded by the Hungarian. It styles itself as “the world’s opinion page” and has a “global audience” that includes “prominent politicians, policymakers, scholars, business leaders, and civic activists from six continents” and “over 140 heads of state.”

From 2016 – 2020, he funneled at least $1.5 million to the outlet. It actively promoted abortion, criticism of Israel and pushed for global climate lockdowns during this period. The Poynter Institute is also at the top of this list, which Newsbusters condemns as “a global Soros-backed Ministry of Truth.” It received $492,000 during the same period. This money was used to finance Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network, which brings together 100 so-called “fact-checkers”. The network includes the controversial PolitiFact, and actively works with major social media platforms to boost their operations, while censoring alternative voices and opinions. Newsbusters argues that these initiatives in reality serve only to restrict opinions on issues like abortion, transgenderism, and COVID-19. The reports also points out that there is significant academic research to suggest fact-checking does not stop the spread of false information online, raising questions about why so many organizations and wealthy individuals pump huge amounts of money into such entities in the first place.

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Unjected. How much for blood transfusions? Donor organs?

‘World’s First’ Unvaccinated Dating Service Launches in Hawaii (ET)

Nowadays, online dating seems less a game of hit or miss than medical truth or dare, given the deal-breaker question, “Are you vaccinated?” Businesswomen Shelby Thomson and Heather Pyle of Maui, Hawaii, found the online dating game a frustrating experience for the un-jabbed at the height of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in 2021. Faced with discrimination and censorship, many unvaccinated people lost jobs and relationships because they chose to remain unvaccinated. The un-jabbed “didn’t have the option to say they were unvaccinated” to potential online dating partners, Thomson said. “They were only allowed to be vaccinated. And you had to have this badge in your [online] profile.” Too often, the unvaccinated would hear on dating sites, “Swipe left”—move on.

In May 2021, the two business partners, moms, and best friends launched “Unjected,” a dating app for the unvaccinated, on the Google and Apple stores. “We started seeing people wanting to find partners,” Thomson said of their unvaccinated friends. However, soon after the app’s launch, Thomson and Pyle started receiving hate emails, then negative publicity in the media. Apple decided to remove “Unjected” from the app store, claiming it provided medical disinformation. “We tailored everything and played this chess game until it [met] Apple standards,” Thomson recalled. But it still wasn’t enough. “It took us until July 31 to get banned.”

When Google threatened to follow suit, Thomson and Pyle pulled the plug on both media giants, and Unjected.com went live using the web domain host GoDaddy in August 2021. “We decided—OK—the big-tech world is not our friend. They don’t want us to exist in this realm. They’ll always go out of their way to ensure we’re censored or taken down.” Thomson said “Unjected” is more than a dating service for the unvaccinated. It’s also a blood bank database and a fertility bank for the unvaccinated. The dating service alone boasts 110,000 subscriptions in 85 countries and 3,000 to 5,000 new clientele every month, Thomson said.


SB99 in TN is a must-pass bill, requiring labeling on all meat that contains mRNA vaccines. Idaho S.1018 is similiar.

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Assange

 

 

Chickens

 

 

 

 

Rob Roos
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Man and woman

 

 

Blue ringed octopus
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Home Forums Debt Rattle February 15 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 68 total)
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  • #129100

    Edward Hopper Dawn before Gettysburg 1934   • Palestine, Ohio Train Wreck: It’s The Dioxin (Coppolino) • Russia Wants UN Probe Into Nord Stream B
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle February 15 2023]

    #129101
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Mr House. I am a huge fan of Fabio Vighi so thanks so much for posting a link to his latest piece yesterday. If anyone missed it…

    Senile Economics: Bubble Ontology and the Pull of Gravity

    #129102
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    East Palestine getting the Fukushima treatment instead of the COVID attention.

    Skyrocketing morbidity and mortality from tick-borne and other ricketsial diseases throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New York et al are not getting the attention of COVID hysteria. It’s not just Lyme disease, baby. The same tick will often carry other organisms lthat cause far worse diseases such as anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, tularemia, Powassan virus which make Lyme and COVID look like cake walks by comparison.

    Syria/Turkey earthquakes getting the Boxing Day Tsunami treatment because Iraq War and Ukraine SMO disrespectively.

    Their balloons rate fighter jet attention while our balloons warrant appropriate indifference unless Dr. D is bizzee buzzing China again.

    E-7s always lead and order around O-6s, well, because 7 is one more than 6 and my delusion is one of grandiosity to believe or insist otherwise.

    #129103
    tboc
    Participant

    not being flippant, an earnest interrogative from an old man
    What did you think when the Reagan foreign policy included hostilities with Grenada and Thatcher had the Faulkland Islands adventure? What era found their entrance onto the stage and what did you think the exit of the era would bring?
    What is your opinion of unbridled deregulation at this hour compared to your view in 1985?
    consider these rhetorical, the daily conversation should continue without disruption

    #129104
    Germ
    Participant

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1624888679213723648

    ☠️☠️☠️

    TVASF (what’s fucked in German?)

    #129105
    Germ
    Participant

    That this is acceptable speech in USA speaks volumes about that armed lunatic asylum.

    Good to know he’ll be first in line for his next booster.

    TVASF

    #129106
    Germ
    Participant

    A must watch:

    TVASF

    #129107
    Germ
    Participant

    Sharon Stone’s brother dead at 57: Patrick Stone ‘died after sudden cardiac arrest due to heart disease’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11745977/Sharon-Stones-younger-brother-Patrick-dies-suddenly-57-cardiac-arrest.html

    TVASF

    #129108
    Germ
    Participant

    Mindblowing –

    TVASF

    #129109
    Germ
    Participant
    #129110
    oxymoron
    Participant

    The Saker can speak for himself but there are many of us here in the west that reject or ignore the ideologies he speaks of. I am weary of speaking in this way about good people (masses) entrapped or manipulated by Overlords and Parasites. The people are good but the system is shit. Rentier Fascist level shit.

    #129111
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    #129112
    Dr. D
    Participant

    GET OFF YOUR ASS AND DO SOMETHING TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF EAST PALESTINE.”

    Point well taken. Here’s the problem: do what? This may literally be the least-bad solution. However, if so we need to do some things to stop next time. Outlaw this form of shipping, better crash-cars, tell us about your long cleanup efforts and free water for a year.

    So…they told them to wear masks and are handing them out, right? After all this “If just ONE life is saved”. “You killed grandma.” Nope. They told them to go home, it’s safe. As their dog was dead in the yard. Died of coincidence.

    Updated version: “If only 10 Million [flyover] lives are killed, the non-masks will be worth it.”

    This may seem like I’m exaggerating when I talk about utter, seething contempt and double standards and the active murder of all rural, flyover Americans, untermensch, the coolies who exist only to give us stuff and die in a hole. But is it? LOOK at the reaction to Ohio. Not even like trouble: it literally doesn’t exist. Literally don’t care. As it moves from one town – don’t care – to one state – don’t care – to a whole river valley – don’t care – to 10 million people, 5 million of which get water from the Ohio – don’t care – who are the urban, blue cityfolk – don’t care – down to winds blowing it all over 5 states – don’t care – and even into New York. Oh wait! Caring is beginning to register at last. But it’s upstate? All 16M people but not in the NYC metro? Whew! False alarm: don’t care.

    What can you say? And God forbid the coolies, the nation’s untouchables should speak up and say, “Hey, this isn’t right! Ain’t I a woman? Ain’t I a man? Ain’t I a U.S. citizen and equal with equal rights?” You racist, white supremacist, violent, toothless, uneducated, worthless bigot. Who do you think you are?

    The violence of NOT EVEN CARING. As the opposite of love isn’t hate: it’s indifference. Treated like chickens in a battery farm. Cattle in the pen. They exist only to serve me and I think no more on them and am aggressively hostile if forced to for even a moment.

    This Palestine was going on for DECADES with joblessness, outsourcing, farming, and opioids. It’s not new. This is the SECOND or THIRD 10M people they’ve killed. There’s no money, hospitals, or water there, but that’s not new. It was already an election issue 30 years ago. 40 years ago. 50 years ago in the Rust Belt and Bethlehem. But killing all those people for my latte was just too attractive. Now, 50 years after crushing my fellow man, it’s like: “What men? I don’t see any men.” This is exactly what Dr. King said in 1960, you Civil Rights worshipers who claim you would be on the front lines, drive across the country for a protest. That you would #Resist and not paste on the badges and man the cattle cars.

    Go put on your blue masks and visit Ohio and tell me all about it.

    When I say the real war is against US, the People, this is what I mean. Did they not just kill more people in Ohio than Ukraine this week? And NO. BODY. CARES. Because they are not “people”, and don’t exist.

    Stoltenberg Denies NATO Involvement In Conflict With Russia (TASS) “

    I’m sorry, WHAT? YOU SANK THE FLAGSHIP. OFFICIALLY. You trained the half a million man army for 8 years. Officially. You gave them $150B in heavy, long range weaponry. Officially.

    I guess you see why they’re “not agreement capable”. With lying like that, no wonder.

    “the foundational myth of the West has been exceptionalism and its inevitable by-product, imperialism.”

    Is that really them, as in really unique in any way? Have you seen China and Japan? Islam in 1100? The great Khan and the Aztecs? It appears to have little to do with Europe.

    [Proclaiming] and basically retired the very *concept* of “truth”

    He’s fishing at something important here, but I don’t think he’s hit it. Same mass psychosis as worldwide, beit in China or Williamsburg?

    ““…the terror attack planning preceded, by months, not only the SMO..”

    Can’t keep track of all the lies. Yes, because WE already knew that, so it doesn’t occur to us but is obvious. Meanwhile, on the outside, it’s a crucial point to communicate to others. …Who also won’t listen, being inside the lie.

    “NATO Eyes Fighting Two Wars – Bloomberg (RT) “

    Maybe they should try fighting one war, since they’re not even doing that. So let me get this straight: you’ve run out of ammunition, in ONE war, that you’re not fighting. So if you run out of ammunition when you’re NOT fighting, is it a concern that you might run out if you DO fight?

    …Talk about lies and why things don’t make sense.

    “a military force strong enough for two simultaneous ground conflicts, arguing for higher Pentagon budgets”

    Good plan, but “higher than what”? As Feynstein said, “The budget deficits are so high, we shouldn’t call them ‘astronomical’ numbers, but ‘economical’ ones.” Exaggerate? Why bother? “Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our own, is still 40,208,000,000,000 km away.” That’s our budget deficit, thanks to a Pentagon that can’t win a war against unarmed goat herders. They sure killed the f– out of Ohio though!

    And you’re moving from a couple, 5k men, to TWO WWII-size armies? Puh-lease. If our $30 Trillion can’t win F-Stan, then it would take $300 Million Septillion to fight two ground wars. Yet somehow people believe it and don’t think this is silly at all. Our leaders are credible and not full of foaming nonsense like a busload of mental patients.

    ““[The objects] do not present a military threat to anyone on the ground.”

    Translation: we don’t know what they are, but we know what they are, their size, intent, capability. Got it? Knowing = not knowing.

    Due to the #EU’s “green” policies, owning a car will be unaffordable to millions of Europeans. “

    That’s okay: YOU will own nothing. Because THEY will own it instead.

    “GOP House Committee on Upcoming Taiwan Trip: “We know that will infuriate the Chinese… But I think it’s incredibly important for us to do that.”

    Ah, RINO diplomacy at its finest.

    Canada Tells NYC To ‘Immediately’ Stop Sending Illegal Aliens

    No comment.

    “Biden Fires Capitol Architect After Inspection Revealed Abuses”

    Even the Federal Architect is long-term corrupt, imagine what the real, important people are like. Remember the cafeteria workers were corrupt, and the the Congressmen wouldn’t pay for their food?

    “Not A Single Student Can Do Math At Grade Level In 53 Illinois Schools…

    Speaking of endless, long term corruption and the people’s non-stop support of it. Discredited yet? Tax protest? Not on your life. We need more government, more helping you heartless wretch pushing grandma down the stairs.

    The other thing from yesterday was Mr. Buttigeig, the man collecting my paycheck, on permanent vacation. So…wow Pete! Union problems! Train failures! Critical for war! Environmental issues far greater than that Tesla you told me to buy! This is like a double-double: transportation secretary, mission-critical, AND Union, AND eco Green New Deal.

    Pete? Calling Pete. Pete? You out there? Only 10 million people counting on you, Mayor Pete, Presidential material.

    Sure enough as we’re neither in Socialism nor Capitalism. The issue is what to do when these magic words are SAID. Either by people who believe in them (College students) or don’t (Nike and the WEF). The point of saying it doesn’t work is for Type A: you’re not helping people but are hurting them badly with your good intent, so please examine your premises, and Type B: you [CEO, WEF, ESG] are all liars, we know it and am warning Type A you aren’t true believers, and not Sharing-Helpers either. Clearly this could work better. It works on some but too few, so although that’s my ethics to tell the truth, the failing is mine. I need a presentation, but what are you supposed to ethically do besides express the truth to those you can non-aggressively reach? Is it ethical to lie to save them? Or to be something I’m not?

    #129113
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Tboc, the first thing to do is to separate what happened from what didn’t. We weren’t clued in that everything said in 1980 was ALSO a lie, although Walter Cronkite gave that NYC press Corps dinner expressing they do exactly what they’re told and the agenda was going well. Followed by Rockefeller saying he could not have had such success without the NYC and U.S. media’s wholehearted support.

    Reagan? Well, let’s see: Reagan’s budgets went UP. Highest in U.S. history, and in just 4 years, like exponential. (the only problem being exponential can go on and get MORE exponential) So obviously he needed all that money to pay ever LESS government, right? Common sense.

    Of course not. They had MORE regulation, not less. Every day budget went up, faster than ever. Every day more federal employees, faster than ever, every day those employees regulated and enforced, faster than ever. On and on without interruption to today. Go look at the U.S. budget deficit chart, which is a good proxy for the number of, or incidents of interference by the Federal Government, into “private” life, into private industry.

    Nor is either an accident. Companies had just cottoned on to he concept of regulatory capture, to innoculate them against liability, and to run their competition out of business, which picked up the pace into a fury, such that now we have uncontested monopolies virtually everywhere – all 100% government enforced as indeed they must be. Naturally, poverty, unemployment, and fatal despair – as shown in drug and suicide numbers – are higher than ever, as is the income disparity. St. Reagan started that.

    Now I can explain why and have before, but it takes a long time. The key point is, “did either of the events you say even happen?”

    And maybe you remember, or run across the jokes of the time. For example: “Did anyone really think the government and budget deficits were too small under Carter?” Such that we CLEARLY needed to double both size of government, its reach, and its expense? (now +10x)? And are we lavishly better off because of it now?

    Yes, you can’t get Conservatives to believe this, but at the least we should mock and make fun of them for it.

    The military issue? Yes, totally silly, offensive, and against all Conservative principles. However, this was Reagan’s focus, and having to sideline a lot of his other goals: he, or rather the White Hats behind him, remaining from the Kennedy/Cuba, CIA-Nixon removals, had to END the Cold War, not WIN it. That was priority to stop the CIA from doing another missile crisis and getting the World War they constantly tried for (3-5 times at that point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-129_(1960) ), as “The Crazies in the Basement” under Reagan: Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the gang, openly fabricating fake numbers on the power and intent of the USSR in order to get the U.S. to kill Russia for “them”. Same “them” as today. Same risk, as you see before you. Russia is no earthly threat, which is why we should nuke them and hand their resources to Europe, finalizing the Unipolar, or if you will, the “One World Government” under the UN and SDR.

    Making stupid invasions of no military worth was to punk the USSR into overspending as we destroyed their economy, specifically the Ruble, using Canada’s gold, Saudi oil, and U.S. wheat to bankrupt them. The plan worked perfectly, did fix things, Unf Pappa “CIA” Bush got in, and after Cheney, Clinton, continued the attack the carcass of Former Russia against every treaty and agreement ever made. That leads directly to today.

    However, Reagan’s plan to play tough, spend the USSR and go around back to bankrupt them to stop WWIII did work. Nothing lasts forever, and now it’s our turn to go after the same “Crazies in the Basement” (now in the White House) and stop WWIII again.

    Reagan: greatest spender, greatest regulator in the history of the United States.

    #129114
    Red
    Participant

    Aseem is very good at explaining how we got here and is working hard to reverse what is going on.

    https:
    //rumble.com/v29g0zm-interview-with-dr.-aseem-malhotra-viva-frei-live.html

    #129115
    aspnaz
    Participant

    New York Times sues EU over von der Leyen’s Pfizer texts

    But we all know that Pfizer and NYT are in bed together, so this must be the NYT helping to destroy the EU, knowing that Pfizer’s Bourla is safe and protected in the USA – the texts won’t damage him or Pfizer – but von der Hitler could be wiped out by the texts. This just goes to show that the NYT is just another tool to be used by the oligarch gangs and their Jewish overlords.

    #129116
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The ban on civilian and volunteer access to Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine) imposed by Kiev on Monday could be a prelude to a Ukrainian withdrawal from the city, the New York Times reported.

    Probably a prelude to them mining the city with the idea of letting the Russians retake the city and blow themselves up on the mines. Typical “Boy Scouts” war being waged by the Ukraine army which appears to have no success at all, ever.

    #129117
    John Day
    Participant

    @WES: Yes, I really designed this house around the 2-cook kitchen.
    I worked a lot in commercial kitchens in college, at the co-ops where I lived, serving 50-100 students meals, and mainly at the hospital where I later did my internship and fellowship.
    Jenny, my wife, learned cooking in her Mom’s small kitchen. Our styles are very different. Sometimes she and “the girls” make tamales for a day or two. We have that capacity, and for canning, and for parties, and it’s just a nice, comfortable, open space for 2 people working with knives.
    The other sink and counter is just out of the right of the picture. Either cooking/prepping space has commanding views within the house and out of the large windows above the sinks.
    2 cook kitchen

    #129118

    [paraphrase] Hiding something under what awful things they are willing to admit….YES!

    “The Rape of the Mind” is available here.

    #129119
    John Day
    Participant

    “How can you be in two places at once, when you’re not anywhere at all?” Firesign Theater
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Can_You_Be_in_Two_Places_at_Once_When_You%27re_Not_Anywhere_at_All#:~:text=Edit-,How%20Can%20You%20Be%20in%20Two%20Places%20at%20Once%20When,July%201969%20by%20Columbia%20Records.

    NATO Eyes Fighting Two Wars Life Imitates Firesign Theater (again)

    #129120
    zerosum
    Participant

    One of the reasons that so many mfg were moved to China.

    East Palestine, Ohio, Vinyl chloride has contaminated the Ohio river,

    • Palestine, Ohio Train Wreck: It’s The Dioxin (Coppolino)
    ————
    FIRST! Set your goals.
    Investigate who are the LIARS

    Assange
    C19/vaccines/excess mortality
    Hunter’s laptop
    WAR/NATO/Ukraine – Jens Stoltenbergs admits again
    Expensive balloons

    • Russia Wants UN Probe Into Nord Stream Blasts (RT)
    • Kiev Readying ‘Great Event’ To Accuse Russia Of Violating Nuclear Safety (TASS)
    • Stoltenberg Denies NATO Involvement In Conflict With Russia (TASS)
    • How George Soros’ Propaganda Machine Has Corrupted The Media (Livshitz)

    —————-

    #129122
    jb-hb
    Participant

    1
    “governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control”
    from the 1989 article:
    “we can expect more ferocious storms, hurricanes, wind shear, dust erosion.″
    “there is time to act, but there is no time to waste.”
    2
    3
    4
    5

    some amusing zerohedge comments

    2010 there won’t be Bangkok anymore.

    In January 2020 at Glacier National Park they had to remove signs that told visitors the glaciers would be gone by 2020.

    Call me when condos in Miami Beach start going for 50 grand.

    Anybody remember when the prospect of rising tides stopped Obama from buying a waterfront mansion on Martha’s Vineyard?

    Me neither.

    I’m as confident in the Climate Change computer models as I am in the Covid-19 computer models.

    It’s all political and a massive grift, just like Coronamania. The biggest tell is the global response to the US’s blowing up of the Nordstream pipelines, one of the biggest environmental disasters in history. Where’s Algor? Where’s John Kerry? Where’s little Greta? Where’s the outrage from the Biden cabal?

    CRICKETS

    a net increase of 0.002% (in words: zero point zero zero two percent) carbon dioxide is supposedly driving man-made “global warming”?

    You would have to ask “why now?”.

    It has been both warmer in the past, and greater CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere in the past. Much greater. 10x greater CO2 concentrations. In fact CO2 has been declining for millions of years.

    So why would there be “tipping points” now, and not then?

    Does anyone believe a college or scientific group has received a grant in the last 40 yrs to DISPROVE climate change? We get the “science” we pay for…just like covid. Rather than “deniers” being funded…or even allowed to be heard, they are punished, defamed, deplatformed and most have their professional lives destroyed… for science.

    #129123
    Germ
    Participant

    Multiply this conversation hundreds of millions of times across the world.

    https://twitter.com/Risemelbourne/status/1625689344744001537

    TVASF

    #129124
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    @ oxymoron
    I am weary of speaking in this way about good people (masses) entrapped or manipulated by Overlords and Parasites. The people are good but the system is shit. Rentier Fascist level shit.

    You speak for so many, me included.
    My spouse is discovering that those he works with — well-paid banquet servers at fine hotels — tend to have not taken the jab. (It probably helps that they were still largely not employed as banquet servers during the big vax campaign, and since the work is highly seasonal, many have supplementary sources of income, side-businesses, side-hustles, etc.). My spouse has always had fringe ideas, and coworkers often saw his ideas as a little loony. Now, he says, some of them are starting to listen to him as he suggests to invest in precious metals, set aside food, prepare for hard times, etc. One he directed to me to provide advice for container gardening on an apartment balcony.

    The mass of the people are not evil or even stupid for the most part. The people are deluded — entranced by bread and circuses and glamoury from propaganda campaigns. But but by bit people are waking up. Immiseration causes this…and the ecological disaster in East Palestine will speed up the process in the US. And since the people are not stupid, when they figure out what is going on they will be very, very angry and many of them have the intelligence necessary to realize that the means to address this corruption is not violence, but rather by using the legal apparatus that already exists. (Which is why the elites are trying to remove the access of the people to those legal means as rapidly as they can.)

    #129125
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @JohnDay

    Two cooks. One kitchen. Both cooks armed with knives. You are a brave brave man.

    #129126
    zerosum
    Participant

    If you have not decided ,,,,, Get more info … Read this …
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/02/the-buildup-to-war-in-ukraine-february-15-2022.html#more
    The Buildup To War In Ukraine – February 15 2022
    ———

    #129127
    zerosum
    Participant

    Ps.
    The Buildup To War In Ukraine – February 15 2022

    Since The Canadian gov.,(Trudeau, Freeland), have been involve in the Build Up to War then they don’t need to read the truth …. they are lying about it and their participation.
    ———

    #129128
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    The Party that controls Oceania is not at war with Eurasia.

    The Party that controls Oceania is not at war with Eastasia.

    The Party that controls Oceania is not at war with Nature.

    The Party that controls Oceania is not at war with the Proles.

    The Party that controls Oceania is not at war with the Laws of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.

    The Ministry of Truth tells me every day that Eurasia attacked Oceania and that Putin is an evil dictator who mut be stopped before he takes over the world.

    The Ministry of Truth tells me that we in Oceania are headed for a Better, Brighter Future via electric cars and synthetic food and genetic engineering of humans. So it must be true.

    And if I don’t believe it, there are people from The Ministry of Love who will take me to Room 101, to help me adjust my erroneous thinking and do a better job of loving Big Brother.

    #129129
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    • Palestine, Ohio Train Wreck: It’s The Dioxin (Coppolino)

    Yes, burning PVC or vinyl chloride is really bad news, since if it’s burned somewhere other than at a specially designed incinerator, the incomplete combustion will create dioxin, furans, etc.

    Dioxins are called persistent organic pollutants (POPs), meaning they take a long time to break down once they are in the environment. Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune system, and can interfere with hormones.

    https://www.epa.gov/dioxin/learn-about-dioxin

    Looking for some information about why the vinyl choloride monomer (VCM) was being transported by rail like that in the first place, instead of it being turned into stable PVC at its origin site, I found some related comments on reddit (r/ChemicalEngineering) which seem to be deleted now, but are still cached.

    The explanation given was that most PVC manufacturing sites make the VCM themselves before turning it into PVC, but there are still a few PVC manufacturing sites which get their VCM supply by rail.

    Question on reddit r/Chemical Engineering:
    While all this is true, it does not answer the original question of why the VCM was being shipped and not polymerized at the site where it was created. Having studied this process a good bit in school, I was taught you want to store as little VCM as possible and turn it into PVC ASAP.

    Reply:
    This is the case for most PVC producers. Basically the whole chlorine chain, starting from brine and ending up with PVC (along with chlorine, caustic, VCM and other smaller streams). However, there are a few sites in US, mostly built in the 60s/70s, that are only PVC manufacturing that rely on VCM supply via rail. I worked at one of those sites for a little over 7 years. Every drop of VCM that plant has processed has been provided via rail since then. That particular site was picked for a PVC plant due to cheaper and easy access to “good” water and lower labor costs. What was true when plant was built is still true today, good profit even with relying on rail.

    Another comment, about preventing such disasters:
    Think of it like a flare. In the industry, if an overpressurized vessel didn’t have a safety valve dumping the excess material causing overpressure to the flare system which burns it gradually, the vessel would explode. Similarly, here, instead of letting it explode by itself, they lit it on fire.

    That being said, IMO, it was a complete BS move that has absolutely ruined the lives of people and animals. We’re going to get a ton of cancer cases out of that place. They are downplaying it in the media because big business owns it but this is a Chernobyl-level event. It’s complete BS that they aren’t reporting the severity of it properly. Chickens ten miles away are dying in their coups. If I was the EPA, I’d shut that rail company down and liquidate all their assets to pay for all the damage and havoc that has been caused, most of which we are yet to see.

    From a safety point of view, I have the following recommendations:

    Rails should be inspected and should have security measures to make them tamper-proof. No one should be able to derail a train accidentally or on purpose.

    All throughout the rail lines and all the cities that the rail goes through should have fire departments who are knowledgeable about what is going through their city and how to neutralize it. The rail companies should pay for the chemicals required to neutralize the hazardous chemicals.

    Rail operators should also know how to handle those chemicals safely. The safety datasheets of those chemicals should be made available to all concerned parties.

    Toyota has a hydrogen tank that needs an armor-piercing round to damage it. It doesn’t get damaged in an accident. Maybe we need to use that type of MOC if it works well with the chemicals being handled.

    A train just doesn’t derail on its own. But that’s a political topic for some other time. Be careful about who you elect.

    #129130
    Red
    Participant

    @jb-hb
    “I’m as confident in the Climate Change computer models as I am in the Covid-19 computer models.”
    I’m with you there. Having followed the science for 4 decades the changes I’ve witnessed in the weather patterns, and there are changes over my lifetime, aren’t explained by the warming version. The weakening magnetic field goes further to explaining than CO2 levels.

    #129131
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Some of today’s offering from The Ministry of Shit:

    ‘Hasta la vista, baby: Russia just lost one of its most advanced weapons systems’

    ‘How rich is the Bush dynasty today?’

    ‘Anne Hathaway: “that makes me extremely sad”

    ‘Prince Harry wants to meet with Charles, William before heading to King’s coronation

    ‘In pictures: Princess Anne visits Beehive bunker amid Cyclone Gabrielle response’

    #129132

    “A train just doesn’t derail on its own.”
    That clip of the sparking and fire under the bed of one of the cars (from CBS) was interesting- people suggested bad bearings, but they could say it was debris placed negligently or maliciously on the tracks.
    I’m so far gone I think immediately of “15 minute cities”, conveniently created by the need to keep everybody away from train tracks wherever they are.

    #129133
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    In case you missed it yesterday. Chemical explosions and mass poisonings.

    #129134
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_211689.htm
    Pre-ministerial press conference
    by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of the meetings of NATO Defence Ministers
    Last updated: 14 Feb. 2023
    ——
    Stoltenburg, speaking for NATO, said yesterday that the war in Ukraine began in 2014.

    Lorne Cook, AP: The Associated Press. The war is coming up to virtually it’s one year mark, and I wonder if you have any thoughts on how that’s changed NATO and in particular your job, and is this a job that you want to keep doing as we come into the next summit in Vilnius.
    NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg:
    In one way, it has not changed NATO. It has just demonstrated the importance of NATO and how important it has been. Actually since 2014, NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcements of collective defense in a generation, because the war didn’t start in February last year. It started in 2014
    . And that triggered a big adaptation of our Alliance with higher readiness of forces, with more presence in eastern part of the Alliance, with more exercises.

    And also, for the first time in many, many years, all Allies started to increase defense spending. So fundamentally, it hasn’t changed NATO. It has only demonstrated the importance of Allies standing together, both in providing support to Ukraine, but also in protecting each other, ensuring that the war doesn’t escalate beyond Ukraine. And when we decided on the morning of the invasion to increase our presence, then we were able to build on the increased presence we have already implemented over the last years.

    We decided the battlegroups in 2016. And we actually increased our presence also in the months ahead of the invasion because the invasion was no surprise. This was an invasion we knew was coming and therefore we were prepared when it happened. For me, it is extremely important to focus on my task as Secretary General in demanding and challenging times for the Alliance and that’s what I have to say about that.

    #129135
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Did someone say phosgene gas?
    Ahhhhhh, the smell of musty hay in fields of, well, musty hay.
    You don’t have to be a chemist by training as some on this board declare, physicians with rare education in nuclear biological and chemical exposure medicine or educated in the military’s NBC (it seems they the military lumped ’em all together) warfare wing, USUHS/Ft Dietrick to know never burn “plastics’ or roast marshmallows around the burning exotic composites on modern aircraft

    Then again:
    Y’all and Dr. D could talk for hours about Agent Orange, dioxin, Zumwalt’s decision to deploy Agent Orange on one particular victim his son, and the fact that a very special company defoliated most of the powerlines in and around East Palestine and throughout western Pennsylvania each summer for years? decades? during the Vietnam War. AND none of the 7 people on my small street in this smaller town of 400 were included in the Agent Orange settlement let alone did a Stanford or Harvard academic ever draw an association. As Dr. D would express, just where in the f*ck did Asplundh get the f*cking idea to spray defoliant domestically on white deplorable American citizens except from the likes of fellow USNA alumnus Zumwalt and those special religious zealot shits at Stanford, you know, the bail guarantors of Sam Bankman-Fried.

    I insist that I AM the clear-cut winner of Dr. D versus John Day Run-On-Sentence-of-the-Month award.

    In closing, I present Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail guarantors courtesy Zhedge.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/bankman-frieds-bail-guarantors-revealed

    #129136
    Red
    Participant

    @afewknowthetruth
    I was thinking this when I heard about them having their very own Bhopal. It will however take quite some time to accumulate the same death toll that Bhopal had in the first hours! I’m optimistic however, that they will hit their target what ever that is! Cannon fodder we is.
    From wiki:

    The Bhopal disaster or Bhopal gas tragedy was a chemical accident on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Considered the world’s worst industrial disaster,[1] over 500,000 people in the small towns around the plant were exposed to the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate (MIC).[2] Estimates vary on the death toll, with the official number of immediate deaths being 2,259. In 2008, the Government of Madhya Pradesh paid compensation to the family members of 3,787 victims killed in the gas release, and to 574,366 injured victims.[3] A government affidavit in 2006 stated that the leak caused 558,125 injuries, including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.[4] Others estimate that 8,000 died within two weeks, and another 8,000 or more have since died from gas-related diseases.[5]

    Of course Dow Chemical was the owner along with other partners, (India .gov). Dow of course ended up sold off which stopped the payouts from growing. You know best business practices and all that.

    #129137
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    It’s not that hard to put a targeted government leader into an information bubble so that the only things they get to hear are the things that you want them to hear. Thus Zelenskyy can be made to believe that he will become rich and powerful, or that Ukraine can join NATO, whip Russia, and is winning the war.

    It’s not enough to just bribe them or convince them. You must control the flow of information that reaches them, too. Our clandestine services have no equal in that department. They could stand there with chocolate smeared all over their face and persuade their own mother that it wasn’t them who ate the candy.

    Remember this, fellow paranoids, the psy op being run is of the highest possible expertise, financing, technology & psychological sophistication because it is being played for ALL of the marbles, and failure would very likely be fatal.

    Underestimate that at your own peril.

    #129138
    Bishko
    Participant

    CO2 hobgoblin…

    Even though Mars has less than 1% of Earth’s atmospheric pressure, it has more than 13 times the CO2 in it’s atmosphere than Earth does (950,000 PPM @ 0.006 atm vs 415 PPM @1 atm). Average temperature is minus 81 degrees F, compared to Earth’s average of 57 degrees. This is due almost entirely to the weaker sunlight that Mars receives, 44% of Earth’s. Heat is not stored in the CO2 for very long. As described before, spectral drain holes allow it to flow away into the sky.

    #129139
    Bishko
    Participant

    Regarding East Palestine.

    If they didn’t ignite the Vinyl Chloride leak, they would have had thousands of dead people and livestock. The ignition destroys a huge amount of the VC and lifts the byproducts into the sky where they can be diluted before it impinges on people. Less lethal than leaving it alone at the derailment. Kind of like Chemotherapy, “We have to almost kill you to save you.” Lighting the leak probably destroyed well over 90% of the VC.

    500 parts per million in air (0.05%) can be anesthetic in its action. Knocks you out, then, laying on the ground, you die. The vapor is just over twice the weight of air so it would form an expanding ground level blanket that would kill everyone in it’s path. The plume would roll on for many miles in unpredictable ways. Vehicles driven into the plume would stall leaving the people inside the plume with no way to get out unless they could sprint for 200 yards without breathing and with their eyes closed. As the plume engulfed your house, and you were “sheltering in place”, enough would seep inside to take you out. Going up onto the roof may save you, maybe. A tall tree would be better.

    Also, this dense creeping plume would be exceedingly explosive. Once it encountered an ignition source it would have flashed back causing a tremendous explosion, destroying everything near the plume and setting many fires everywhere.

    Standard hazmat protocol says to leave a VC fire to burn because putting it out generates a huge danger of re-ignition and explosion with catastrophic results.

    Uncontrolled burning makes many chemical species. Some inert, many very reactive and deadly. Hydrochloric Acid is not toxic, but it is corrosive. Your stomach uses HCL to digest your food. Calculating the amount of Dioxin that is generated in this fire is a difficult exercise prone to errors. I would suspect that this uncontrolled burn has generated a few ounces (maybe) to a few pounds (unlikely) of Dioxin of which there are many different isomers of differing activities and carcinogenic effects. Estimates of downstream and down wind cancer activities is a Thesis level effort. Quick work by water and air sampling analysis can help to elucidate these risks.

    Many people, livestock and wildlife will have shortened lives due to this exposure event.

    If this was a planned event, then what can I say? If it was accidental, then the “experts” will have their say. But with all the money pinching going on and all the Railroad contract disputes it is no mystery how “deferred maintenance” of “curtailed or cursory inspections” could cause this.

    Putting new, severe restrictions on the quality of the transport tankers will drive the price of PVC to new heights and many companies will be put out of business and many more people will be unable to afford the products.

    The people who decided to light the leak had many variables to think of. They could estimate the life cost of leaving the leak alone and the danger of a “flash back” event. But once they lit the plume, the other non-leaking tankers come into the picture. Will they ignite as well? A very tough call, and maybe a career ending one. But it probably saved many lives. The shortened life of others, including very distant people, will be stirred into the mix in the months ahead.

    One can make an argument than everyone who uses PVC is complicit in this event. Since we buy PVC pipe or products that contain PVC we are contributing to the industry as a whole. The fact that companies are cost cutting to try to maintain market share in this new de-industrial future is a truism. Cost cutting will always lead to corner-cutting and something will always go wrong. Sometimes in very bad ways. East Palestine is just one of many coming to a theatre near you.

    #129141
    John Day
    Participant

    “Necessities Of Life” is up https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/necessities-of-life

    Surplus Energy Economics, Dr. Tim Morgan’s blog, has part 3 in a series explaining “Prosperity” as the economic output remaining after all of the essential needs of sustaining the economy have been met, which is a lot like my “disposable” income after bills, taxes, rent and food. We know that when food, rent and gas prices go up, we are poorer, less prosperous. There are multiple drivers of this. Fuel cost, the “Energy Cost of Energy” is a big one. When gasoline is $6/gallon , everybody feels poorer. The rest of the economy declines, because people have to buy gasoline first. This is pervasive in the economy, but not as apparent. It is why the Biden Administration can sell oil from the strategic petroleum reserve to goose the economy, and its political fortunes, but won’t pay to refill it, which would raise the price of oil/energy and depress the economy.
    “Economics” looks at financial flows, which are assumed to reflect real, physical economy, but fail to actually do that, because they assume that any physical input, like oil, can be substituted-for by some other input, completely dependent upon the monetary price. This has worked in an era where it was possible to drill more oil wells and mine more coal, at a low price, but it does not work when the price of oil can double or triple in a few months, which keeps the economy from growing. These limits of oil supply now appear to be fixed. Saudi Arabia can’t just pump more.
    Economies can only afford to pay so much for energy before they begin contracting as the price exceeds that. The currently prominent economic theory assumes permanent growth, because anything that runs low can be replaced for a price, but we find that the price of oil going above $80/bbl seems to suppress the economy, because what’s left as “prosperity” is needed to fund the non-essential parts of economy, like restaurants, pedicures and vacations.
    Here is a graph of Energy, Economic Output, Prosperity and Prosperity per capita for the world:
    ECoE
    You see how different this is from the purely financial figures which are always reported, but more like what we experience in our lives. Most of us in the advanced economies were more prosperous 20 years ago. There have been lots of events which were blamed, but the trend has been the trend in advanced countries, which support complexities of bureaucracy in government, business, regulation, finance, social and environmental services. China took on a lot of western manufacturing because it could burn dirty coal, pay lower wages, pollute more, and supported lower regulatory, social service and environmental-protection costs.
    Declining prosperity per capita in advanced economies has been “hidden” to some degree by focusing on financial indicators like stock-market prices, which have continued to rise with financial support from cheap credit, but which are in contrast to the actual decline in value of companies as profits decline from increased costs of raw materials and labor, because laborers have to be paid more to buy their own necessities of life, also.
    Increased borrowing with lower interest rates only works until interest rates become negative in real terms, then sudden loss of monetary purchasing power occurs, and this inflation destroys trust in the economy. Trust is as essential as energy to an economy. “Inflation Expectations” are the inverse of trust, and are now being addressed, which is painful. They were addressed from the early 1980s on by reducing the cost of labor, first by reducing the strength of collective bargaining in advanced economies, then by moving manufacturing to developing economies, with very low wages and benefits for workers.
    prosperity
    We can see that prosperity per capita in western countries began to fall about 20 years ago, and prosperity per capita in China is now also in decline, as is global prosperity per capita. Notably, but not graphed, Russian prosperity per capita is still rising, and may rise for even a few more years.
    The upshot of this is that everybody has to pay more of what they make for food, rent and fuel, and has less to spend on everything else. Many people are losing their homes in the US, because they can’t sustain rent costs. Landlords have high taxes, compliance and maintenance costs, which is the cost of fuel and the cost of complexity. A lot of complexity cost is in the profit-taking structure of financial capitalism, which is also imposed on countries like Cuba and Venezuela, which do not subscribe to financial capitalism, through economic and military sanctions. Those countries are now known for having been forced to focus on food, housing, medicine and the minimal essentials of life for a long time. All accounts are that it causes constant anxiety, hardship and suffering. Blame is variously placed.
    A lot of the complexity cost in advanced societies is bureaucracy in general, which tends to grow, whether governmental or private. There are always good reasons, and everybody learns to protect their job in their bureaucracy, but that becomes the main point after awhile. Every ne protocol or procedure adds complexity expense. Every expansion adds not just size, but also complexity, which reduces the work-output of the bureaucracy per $US or other input.
    Reducing bureaucracy is very hard to do. It usually happens through collapse of systems, like the collapse of the USSR. The Russian population declined by 10% in 10 years, as retirees had no income; starved and froze to death. Everybody suffered as the economic life-support system failed. I may be getting into Dr. Morgan’s next essay here, but we all need to consider what form the collapse of bureaucratic institutions in federal, state and local government, and many businesses will affect us. Many of us will lose our jobs, but will still be expected to pay rent and utilities and to buy food and fuel to live. What then?
    #248: The Surplus Energy Economy, part 3

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