Mar 112023
 
 March 11, 2023  Posted by at 9:43 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Edward Hopper The barber shop 1931

 

Banking Rout Rattles Global Markets (RT)
The Real-World Impact Of SVB’s Failure (ZH)
The US Opts For Ham Handed Political Gestures (Larry Johnson)
US Must Pull Troops Out Of Syria, Stop Marauding – China (TASS)
Russia And China Dominate Washington’s Mindset (Gupta)
Moveable Multipolarity in Moscow: Ridin’ the ‘Newcoin’ Train (Escobar)
Pope Francis Sees Countries’ ‘Imperial Interests’ In Ukraine Conflict (TASS)
West Was Seeking Pretext To ‘Get Its Claws Into’ Russia – Lavrov (TASS)
Lavrov: Western Media Version Of Nord Stream Events ‘Incoherent Babble’ (TASS)
CIA Issued Advance Nord Stream Warning To Allies – WSJ (RT)
Everything, All at Once (Kunstler)
Lavrov Likens Protests In Georgia To 2014 Kiev Coup (RT)
Irish MEP Blasts West’s ‘Criminal’ Approach To Ukraine (RT)
Borrell: EU To Increase Financial & Military Support To Ukraine (Az.)
France’s First Lady Fails In Transgender Lawsuit (RT)

 

 

 

 

Nap/Macgregor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arestovich

 

 

 

 

Shaman

 

 

 

 

And nobody saw anything coming?

Banking Rout Rattles Global Markets (RT)

European and Asian stock markets plummeted on Friday, following a rout in US equities amid liquidity concerns in the banking sector. The meltdown was triggered by US bank SVB Financial, known as Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which plunged 60% on Thursday after revealing that it needed to raise more than $2 billion in capital to offset losses from bond sales. The announcement rocked financial stocks, with Euro Stoxx Banks index on Friday on pace for its worst day since June, led by a decline of more than 8% for Deutsche Bank. Societe Generale, HSBC, ING Group and Commerzbank all tumbled more than 5%. Asian stocks suffered their worst day in five months, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index plummeting 3% on losses in heavyweight technology stocks. The Shanghai Composite dropped 1.4%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.67%.

Investors started offloading US bank stocks on Thursday after SVB, a major lender to the tech industry, announced aggressive measures to support its balance sheet. The bank had reportedly been forced to sell all of its available-for-sale bonds at a $1.8 billion loss as its startup clients withdrew deposits. The news, which follows the collapse of the crypto-focused bank Silvergate, led to another wave of deposit withdrawals, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. All of this led to the four largest US banks – JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup – seeing their stock prices lose a cumulative $52 billion in a single day.

SVB, which had a market value of $16.8 billion to end last week, was worth $6.3 billion as of Thursday. “The issues at SVB have been like a cold shower and with the Fed having just countenanced the idea of faster hikes once again, the potential for a very unhappy equity market should the jobs data surprise on the upside is very real indeed,” James Athey, investment director at global investment company Abrdn, told Bloomberg. “It has always been the case that the sort of hikes we have seen from the Fed were going to cause problems somewhere,” he added.

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FDIC guarantees up to $250k. Over 90% of SVB accounts held more than that. “About 37,000 customers accounted for nearly $157 billion or 74% of the bank’s assets with an average account size of over $4 million….at the end of 2022, 87% of the bank’s $173 billion in deposits were uninsured.”

Trying to find some stuff in between all the graphs ad stats. Here’s two threads ZH picked up on:

The Real-World Impact Of SVB’s Failure (ZH)

Brad Hargreaves explains in a brief thread how SVB’s closure & receivership is going to have a massive impact on the tech ecosystem. “SVB was not just a dominant player in tech but were highly integrated in some nontraditional ways. A few things we’ll see in the coming days / weeks… One, SVB was incredibly integrated into the lives of many founders. Not just their startup’s bank & lender, but also provided personal mortgages and other financial services. A whole mess for FDIC (or the eventual buyer) to unwind. Two, any “uninsured” balances at SVB – those above $250K – are in jeopardy. FDIC plans to pay them out “as it sells the assets of SVB”. Lots of startups exclusively banked with SVB as *this was a covenant of their debt*!

CEOs yesterday faced a hard choice: Pull your deposits and go into default on your venture debt or risk losing everything if the bank failed. Many chose to hold tight as SVB’s outright failure seemed outlandish. Now they may not be able to make payroll next week. Unpaid wages pierce the corporate veil, so boards are *incredibly* sensitive to employing workers they may not be able to pay. Expect mass layoffs later today, Monday at latest. And given the weak fundraising environment, a number of startups have been reliant on venture lenders – e.g., SVB – not aggressively pursuing amortization of debt or triggering default for covenant foot faults (e.g., cash balances). How will the FDIC handle this? Mass defaults?

Having run a startup through the GFC, this is the first thing I’ve seen since that is even vaguely reminiscent of that time. Total clusterfuck. One more thing: SVB also offered *wealth management services* to many of its founders. So your corporate lender, corporate bank, personal mortgage lender, and family’s wealth manager is… all one bank, which is now in FDIC receivership. Fun. JPow got his fucking debt crisis alright.”

[..] Garry Tan, the CEO of YCombinator echoes what we said just two days ago, namely that “this is an *extinction level event* for startups and will set startups and innovation back by 10 years or more” and warns that “30% of YC companies exposed through SVB can’t make payroll in the next 30 days.”

“The most important thing the FDIC and the US Government can do right now is *make the receivership as short as possible* There are thousands of US startups that banked at SVB, often as their *sole bank*. $250K per account is not going to last long. The #1 pressing issue for these startups is *payroll* – you can’t have people work if you can’t pay them. This means mass furlough. It might mean thousands of startups die before the FDIC gets through its receivership process and releases the funds. From what I hear, there are venture debt options coming from providers like Brex, but we’re going to need *a lot* of options in order to avoid a mass shutdown of all American startups in the next few weeks.

This is an *extinction level event* for startups and will set startups and innovation back by 10 years or more. BIG TECH will not care about this. They have cash elsewhere. All little startups, tomorrow’s Google’s and Facebooks, will be extinguished if we don’t find a fix. 30% of YC companies exposed through SVB can’t make payroll in the next 30 days. If you or your company are affected, I recommend that you reach out to your local congressman to get this on their radar TODAY. Now.

Pomboy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1634364937072959492

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50 feet is a nice sized boat. But how do you get 6 people to sit and sleep on it, along with tons of equipment?!

The US Opts For Ham Handed Political Gestures (Larry Johnson)

In theory, a covert operation is supposed to be elegant, sophisticated and smart. But that is not the case with the United States these days. Ham-fisted and clumsy are more apt descriptors. Yesterday’s simultaneous release of a new account of who destroyed the Nordstream pipeline in the New York Times, Die Zeit and a London paper placing the blame on shadowy pro-Ukrainians was not a coincidence. This was a coordinated information operation and the media reaction to this news is quite telling. The same news outlets that strenuously ignored Sy Hersh’s explosive, detailed revelation that it was a U.S. operation with help from Norway stumbled over themselves to breathlessly report that an unidentified pro-Ukrainian group was the guilty party.


Bavaria Cruiser 50 – Sailing yacht Andromeda. Image: Spiegel

Die Zeit provided the most hilarity with their fantastic tale of six people on a private yacht carrying out the deed. Looks to me like Die Zeit was channeling a Gilligan’s Island episode. We had Ginger and Mary Ann, accompanied by the Professor, the Skipper, Thurston Howell and Gilligan. They set to sea with a 1000 pounds of high explosive and used their snorkel gear to plant the charge. I bet you it was Ginger and Mary Ann who planted the bomb, of course, was built by the crafty Professor. Take a look at Moon of Alabama’s detailed breakdown of the nonsense:


“No. You do not dive down to 80+ meter for an industrial size job, involving the placement of hundreds of pounds of explosives in eight individual charges on very sturdy pipelines, from a sparsely manned boat. Such deep dives require special gases, special breathing equipment, special training, a decompression chamber for emergencies and lots of well trained people to maintain all that stuff. All three articles neglected to point out that you cannot dive in regular scuba gear to 200 feet in an arctic sea. You need a dry suit (as my friend Mark says, you look like the Stay Puft marshmallow man). That suit requires some specialized support equipment that does not fit on a yacht. This is a desperate, juvenile attempt to shift the blame from the United States. I cannot wait to see what happens when Sy drops a new story on Nordstream.”

A competent intelligence service would have prepared a detailed story that was plausible and contained enough details to create doubt in the minds of those who accepted Sy’s account. Instead of releasing the same skimpy story in three different media outlets on the same day, the release should have been spread out over a few days or a week. This bungled attempt to shift the blame to Ukraine is just one more piece of evidence that America does not have a competent intelligence service.

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China yesterday brokered a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia. China wants the fighting to stop, to safeguard the Belt and Road.

US Must Pull Troops Out Of Syria, Stop Marauding – China (TASS)

China calls on the US to withdraw its troops from Syria and to stop plundering that country, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a news briefing on Friday. “The United States has illegally intervened in military activities related to the Syrian crisis, which has led to the death of a large number of innocent civilians and a serious humanitarian disaster,” Mao said. “We call on the United States to sincerely respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of other countries, and to immediately stop its illegal military presence and marauding in Syria,” she said. Mao called on the US authorities to lift “illegal unilateral sanctions” against Syria and to stop actions that aggravate the humanitarian situation in the country.


According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, during the years of the Syrian crisis in the country at least 350,000 people have lost their lives to the military conflict, and 14 million are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. The House of Representatives of the US Congress on Wednesday failed to pass a resolution according to which the Washington administration should withdraw all US troops from Syria. The initiative was introduced in February by Republican Matt Gaetz, from Florida. He stressed that Congress had not given permission to use US forces in combat operations on Syrian territory. On March 4, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, visited Syria, where he claimed that the US military presence in the country was of critical importance to the security of both the United States and its allies.

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“The China-Russia axis is the biggest cause for concern for Washington because of “their shared threat perceptions of the US”..”

Russia And China Dominate Washington’s Mindset (Gupta)

A top US intelligence official has expressed concern that the Chinese government – under its powerful President Xi Jinping, who started his historic third term this week – could emerge as the most potent force on the global stage in alliance with Russia to weaken Washington’s influence. Earlier this week, Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence in the administration of US President Joe Biden, appeared before a Senate committee to present the annual threat assessment report. Asia Editor Joydeep Sen Gupta decodes the key pressure points of the report, which identifies Beijing as a ‘near-peer competitor’ in a changing world order, The report dwells on China-Russia bonhomie as one of the high points of the annual review, which seldom gets a makeover from year to year.

Significantly, the section on China is much more elaborate this year than in recent times. It reinforces the Biden administration’s growing focus on Asia’s biggest economy, which is seen as punching above its weight in its bid to challenge the US’ military might. The report makes reference to China’s “capability to directly attempt to alter the rules-based global order in every realm and across multiple regions,” while acknowledging Beijing’s exalted status. The report identifies Beijing as a “near-peer competitor” for its ability to threaten its neighbors (read India). Simultaneously, it takes note of Russia’s “unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine” that “has emerged as a defining characteristic of the current era.” The China-Russia axis is the biggest cause for concern for Washington because of “their shared threat perceptions of the US” in diverse fields largely pertaining to defense and security.

Haines singles out the Ukraine conflict “as a tectonic event that is reshaping Moscow’s relationships with the West and China,” and warns of potential conflict between Russia and the West that may lead to dire consequences. However, the report strikes a contradictory note when it cites Moscow’s dwindling influence because of a “range of constraints,” despite noting its prowess in military, security, malign influence, cyber, and intelligence tools. Russia’s interests in the oil-and-natural resources-rich Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for “military access rights and economic opportunities” at Washington’s expense finds special mention. It also names the Central African Republic, Libya, Mali, and Syria in the Levant, where Russia “will present itself as an indispensable mediator and security partner.”

It predicts that both Russia and Iran will improve their “bilateral economic and defense cooperation” in a bid to circumvent Western sanctions. Similarly, it rings alarm bells regarding Russia’s overtures in Latin America in “countries that Moscow sees as key players or close partners, including Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela” to amplify its influence. “Russia will continue to use energy as a foreign policy tool to try to coerce cooperation and weaken Western unity on Ukraine,” the report says.

The focal point of the report is China’s strengthening of its military and its expanded operations in the Indo-Pacific region, which is being countered by a grouping consisting of the US, Japan, Australia, and India known as the Quad. A substantial part of the report is devoted to the Chinese Communist regime’s efforts to press Taiwan on unification and whether Beijing will attack the island nation. The Chinese military, according to the report, is working towards meeting Xi’s goal – to become powerful enough by 2027 to ward off any US-led intervention in the event of an armed conflict over Taiwan. It warns that China will avoid signing nuclear arms agreements with either the US or Russia because of an inadequate arsenal that needs to be modernized.

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As the west loses itself, the south is taking shape.

Moveable Multipolarity in Moscow: Ridin’ the ‘Newcoin’ Train (Escobar)

[..] please allow me to introduce one such technical blueprint for the newcoin. Let me start by saying that it should be partially (I suggest a share of at least 40% of value) backed by gold, for reasons that will soon become clear. The remaining 60% of the newcoin would be composed of the basket of currencies of the participating countries. Gold would provide the “external money” anchor to the structure and the basket of currencies element would allow the participants to retain their sovereignty and monetary flexibility. There would clearly be a need to create a Central Bank for the newcoin, which would emit new currency. This Central Bank could become a counterparty to cross-swaps, as well as provide clearing functions for the system and enforce the regulations. Any country would be free to join the newcoin on several conditions.

First, the candidate country needs to demonstrate that it has physical unencumbered gold in its domestic storage and pledge a certain amount in exchange for receiving corresponding amount of newcoin (using the 40% ratio mentioned above). Economic equivalent of this initial transaction would be a sale of the gold to the “gold pool” backing the newcoin in exchange for proportional amount of the newcoin backed by the pool. The actual legal form of this transaction is less important, as it is necessary simply to guarantee that the newcoin that is being emitted is always backed by at least 40% in gold. There is no need to even publicly disclose the gold reserves of each country, as long as all participants can be satisfied that sufficient reserves are always present. An annual joint audit and monitoring mechanism may be sufficient.

Second, a candidate country would need to establish a gold price discovery mechanism in its domestic currency. Most likely, one of the participating precious metals exchanges would start physical gold trading in each of the local currencies. This would establish a fair cross-rate for the local currencies using “external money” mechanism to set and adjust them over time. The gold price of the local currencies would drive their value in the basket for the newly-emitted newcoins. Each country would remain sovereign and be free to emit as much of local currency as they choose to, but this would eventually adjust the share of their currency in the newcoin’s value. At the same time, a country would only be able to obtain additional newcoin from the central bank in exchange for a pledge of additional gold. The net result is that the value of each component of newcoin in gold terms would be transparent and fair, which would translate into the transparency of newcoin’s value as well.

Finally, emissions or sales of newcoin by the central bank would be allowed only in exchange for gold for anyone outside the newcoin zone. In other words, the only two ways external parties can obtain large amounts of newcoin is either receiving it in exchange for physical gold or as a payment for goods and services provided. At the same time, the central bank would not be obliged to purchase newcoin in exchange for gold, removing the risk of the “run on the bank.”

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“The pontiff has repeatedly said that his visit to Kiev, on which the Ukrainian authorities have been insisting, is only possible if he is also able to make a trip to Moscow.”

Pope Francis Sees Countries’ ‘Imperial Interests’ In Ukraine Conflict (TASS)

Pope Francis believes that “the imperial interests” of various countries are shining through in the Ukraine conflict, the Vatican News writes, citing the pontiff’s interview for the Italian Swiss Radio and Television. “In a little over a hundred years, there have been three world wars: in 1914-1918, in 1939-1945, and this one, which is a world war. It started in bits and pieces and now no one can say it is not worldwide. The great powers are all caught up in it. The battlefield is Ukraine. Everyone is fighting there,” Pope Francis said, as cited by the Vatican News. “There are imperial interests there, not only of the Russian empire, but of empires elsewhere. It is typical of the empire to put nations in second place,” he added.


The pope confirmed his readiness to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, “an educated man.” Pope Francis noted that right after the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, he went to the Russian Embassy at the Holy See to say that he was willing to go to Moscow if the Russian authorities gave him “a window to negotiate.” “[Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov wrote to me, saying thank you but now is not the time,” Pope Francis said. The pontiff has repeatedly said that his visit to Kiev, on which the Ukrainian authorities have been insisting, is only possible if he is also able to make a trip to Moscow. He previously echoed this sentiment on his way back from an apostolic journey to Africa in early February. The pope said at that time that he was open to meet with the presidents of both Ukraine and Russia. Pope Francis has met with Putin before, with the Russian leader’s last trip to the Vatican taking place in July 2019.

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“..the West is loath to listen to Russia’s criticism of its attempts to “live at the expense of others” in the post-colonial era.”

West Was Seeking Pretext To ‘Get Its Claws Into’ Russia – Lavrov (TASS)

The West was looking for some sort of pretext to “get its claws into” Russia after Moscow had come to be seen as too independent a player in the international arena, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. “[The West] was waiting for a pretext to get its claws into Russia. They were waiting for a chance to do this because they had begun to see Russia as too independent a player, which, if perhaps not building up as much economic power as China or India, was nevertheless among the leading world economies and holds rather weighty moral and political stances in the international arena, advocating from a position of justice on those issues that are of critical importance for the developing countries,” he said in an interview with the “Bolshaya Igra” (“The Great Game”) public affairs program on Russia’s Channel One television. According to the top Russian diplomat, the West is loath to listen to Russia’s criticism of its attempts to “live at the expense of others” in the post-colonial era.

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“We had no plans. They had plans – to abandon Russian gas. They survived the winter, but how much did it cost the government and the taxpayers? They are not very eager to tell..”

Lavrov: Western Media Version Of Nord Stream Events ‘Incoherent Babble’ (TASS)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the latest reports in the Western media about the alleged involvement of a “Ukrainian oligarch” in the explosions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines “incoherent babble.” “When they threw in the last wave of stories in the American and to some extent in the German press regarding a new version [about the causes of the emergency on gas pipelines] – about “the Ukrainian oligarch, who had better confess himself,” [and that they] “did not want to talk about Ukraine’s involvement, because it could spoil German-Ukrainian relations” and all that jazz: this is incoherent babble,” he said. In an interview with “The Great Game” program on Channel One, the Russian top diplomat noted that even if one accepts the rationale about the “Ukrainian fingerprint” mentioned in the media, it will raise some questions in Germany.

“The burghers will wonder: why do I need this Ukraine at all, if they blow us up, whoever he (the saboteur – TASS) may be – an agent of Kiev, paid for by someone from abroad, or just a lone ranger, why do I need to send Leopards there, why do I need to admit this country into NATO?” Lavrov said. “Yes, now [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz is boasting: “We survived the winter, Russia’s plan did not work.” We had no plans. They had plans – to abandon Russian gas. They survived the winter, but how much did it cost the government and the taxpayers? They are not very eager to tell,” Lavrov said. He also called the coverage of the incident in the Western media frivolous, citing as an example their information about the establishment of a “Ukrainian connection” in the emergencies on the gas pipelines.

“There was information in the Wall Street Journal, if I’m not mistaken, where they said that back in June and July, the CIA warned the secret services of Germany and other European countries about a “Ukrainian trail” for the plot. And in September, after the attack took place, The Times said that a week after the explosion it was established that the trail was Ukrainian. So, in June they warned that there would be [a Ukrainian trace] and in September it was established that it was. Anyway, they look at it in a very juvenile way, not the way an adult should,” he concluded.

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What Lavrov talked about.

CIA Issued Advance Nord Stream Warning To Allies – WSJ (RT)

The CIA warned allies in the EU about a potential attack by a pro-Ukrainian group on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing intelligence officials. According to the report, around June and July of last year, the CIA informed Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and other European agencies that three Ukrainian nationals were trying to rent out ships in states around the Baltic Sea, including Sweden, in preparation to target the pipelines, which were eventually attacked in September. As early as one month after the blasts, CIA Director William Burns and the White House’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, were said to have been considering the possibility that Kiev had orchestrated the sabotage on the route built to deliver Russian gas to Germany.

The report comes after the New York Times cited US officials on Tuesday as saying that an unidentified “pro-Ukrainian group” may have carried out the bombing. The WSJ said this assessment by US intelligence officials “isn’t definitive” and that they claimed they saw “no indication” that the alleged perpetrators had ties to the Ukrainian government. German news organizations reported this week that investigators were looking at a yacht operated by a Polish-based company that was “apparently” owned by two Ukrainians, in a possible connection with the sabotage. The German authorities later confirmed that they had searched the vessel in January, but did not disclose details about any items seized.

The new reports about alleged Ukrainian involvement contradict last month’s investigation by veteran journalist Seymour Hersh, who cited a source as claiming that the bombing was carried out by the US with help from Norway. The US and Ukraine have both denied any involvement, and the White House dismissed Hersh’s claims as “utterly false.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested on Wednesday that the reports about a Ukrainian link were an attempt to divert attention from the real perpetrators and absolve NATO countries. “Obviously, this is a coordinated media hoax campaign,” Peskov said. Moscow has argued that the West is not really interested in a comprehensive international investigation of the incident.

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..But waitagoshdarnminnit!..

Everything, All at Once (Kunstler)

The defining moment of the week was the White House ceremony with Dr. Jill Biden and her side-piece, Tony Blinken, presenting an International Women of Courage award to Ms. Alba Rueda of Argentina, a biological man. But, of course! Kisses all around. Mattias Desmet, author of The Psychology of Totalitarianism, pointed out some time ago that a psychotic political regime would require the people to swallow ever-greater absurdities as things played out in its death-wish drive toward national nullity. But was that little scene more absurd than the regime’s campaign in Ukraine to do… uh, to do what, exactly? To punish Vladimir Putin, or something like that. Or is it nuclear war they’re really after? A war, they’re telling themselves, that we would surely win, as if being a continent-sized ashtray is winning.

Meanwhile, our Intel Community has discovered that it was… well might have been… Ukraine, after all, who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines — with help from some outside parties (namely, America’s Intel Community). But waitagoshdarnminnit! How does that get anybody off-the-hook for the costly caper? NATO supposedly backs Ukraine, right? And Germany is the European leader of NATO, right? So you’re telling me Ukraine blew up a systemically-important asset of a leading country that supports Ukraine? Something doesn’t add up in that-there rebus puzzle. I’ll spare you the mental labor. The US Spook Industrial Complex is just laying another trip on you. And the “you” includes poor bamboozled Germany, led by arguably the biggest sap ever elected by a supposedly advanced nation, Olaf Scholz, whose name will evermore ring through history as a synonym for “chump.”

Sooner or later, one or both of the following must happen: the German people will dump this chump and / or his replacement will find a way to bow out of Germany’s commitment to America’s foolish proxy war against Russia, leading post-haste to the disintegration of NATO, and leaving America’s army of vaccine-injured transsexuals to reconquer the Donbas and Crimea, led by Tony Blinken in an off-the-shoulder cocktail dress. Anyway, by the time that hallucination comes to pass, all the other things that are happening at once will be so vividly in America’s face that the epic sleepwalk of the Walking Woke ends with a jolt like unto a cattle prod upside the brain-pan. For instance, the implosion of our financial markets along with a sudden, shocking expiration of the US dollar as a credible currency. The mighty “woosh” heard from sea to shining sea will be the sound of capital going up in a vapor. The event will halt all that jabber about debt ceilings, budgets, and billions for Ukraine. A nauseated silence spreads across the land. Then, what?

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“A whole range of European nations have much more strict regulations in this field..”

Lavrov Likens Protests In Georgia To 2014 Kiev Coup (RT)

The massive protests Georgia has been facing over the past week closely resemble the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. Backed by external powers, these protests are just another plot attempt, he told the ‘Great Game’ show on Russia’s Channel 1. Over the last week, thousands of people have gathered by the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi in order to protest a bill that would have required individuals and organizations with foreign funding to register as “agents of foreign influence.”The demonstrators hit the streets after the bill, which was introduced by the ‘Georgian Dream’ party, passed its first reading. The protests quickly spiraled out into clashes with the police in which several officers were injured and dozens of demonstrators were detained.

“[That] closely resembles Kiev’s ‘Maidan’ [coup],” Lavrov said, adding that, “There is no doubt that … the bill was nothing but a pretext for essentially launching a coup attempt.” According to the minister, the bill introduced by the Georgian lawmakers “pales” in comparison to how noncommercial organizations are regulated in the US, France, or Israel. The protests in Georgia have been “orchestrated” from abroad, the Russian minister believes, adding that their real goal is to create another “irritating” situation on Russia’s borders. In pursuing its goals, the West is attempting to sacrifice Georgia’s national interests and close economic ties with Russia, he added. Lavrov also blasted the EU over what he called a “hypocritical” stance on the issue. “A whole range of European nations have much more strict regulations in this field,” the minister insisted, adding that EU top diplomat Josep Borrell still claimed “without batting an eye” that the Georgian bill “contradicts European values” and deprives Georgia of the prospect of joining the bloc.

“The hypocrisy is obvious,” the minister added. Earlier this week, Borrell’s office issued a statement that blasted the bill as “incompatible with EU values and standards” and going “against Georgia’s stated objective of joining the European Union.” The statement also warned of “serious repercussions” for relations between Tbilisi and Brussels if the bill was passed. The Russian minister also pointed out the striking differences in how the EU and the US treated the protests in Georgia and Moldova. While backing demonstrations in Tbilisi, Washington and its allies still condemned similar actions in Moldova, which saw months of protests over a surge in cost of living and energy prices, Lavrov said. His words came as Georgian MPs have rejected the controversial bill during the second reading, despite it being previously withdrawn by its authors. The procedure was necessary for it to be officially squashed. The nation’s authorities have also announced they would be releasing all of the people who had been detained during the protests.

Korybko
https://twitter.com/i/status/1633813474139619330

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“The Global South is not on board with helping this proxy war persist, because it makes no sense..”

Irish MEP Blasts West’s ‘Criminal’ Approach To Ukraine (RT)

Irish MEP Mick Wallace has condemned the EU’s continued military support for Kiev, saying Brussels is not taking the option of peace talks seriously and arguing that Ukraine is being “sacrificed” for the geopolitical “obsessions” of the US. During a speech in the European Parliament, a clip from which Wallace posted to Twitter, he insisted that the EU, led by Washington, was refusing to “take the option of Peace seriously” amid the ongoing conflict with Russia. Instead, Wallace said, the EU was standing by and watching “the slaughter and devastation” continue. “The Global South is not on board with helping this proxy war persist, because it makes no sense,” Wallace said, adding that it is “increasingly clear that Ukraine is being sacrificed for the obsessions of the US establishment.”

The Irish MEP said the only people benefiting from the conflict were “weapons manufacturers and Western corporations,” which he claimed were “buying up Ukraine now for a pittance.” “The Russian invasion is criminal, but the manner in which the West has been dealing with this has also been criminal,” he concluded. Russia has repeatedly said it is open to talks with Ukraine if its leaders accept what the Kremlin calls the “reality on the ground,” referring to the status of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, which voted to join Russia in public referendums last autumn. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has floated a ten-point “peace formula” that would require Moscow to withdraw all of its troops from the territory Kiev claims as its own. However, Russia has rejected that proposal as unrealistic.

A 12-point peace plan put forward by China was met with a cool response from the West, with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg saying Beijing does not have “much credibility” in the issue. US State Secretary Antony Blinken, however, admitted that the plan included some “positive elements.” Last week, Wallace also called the September 2022 sabotage of the Russian-German Nord Stream pipelines “a premeditated terrorist attack on critical European infrastructure.” Fellow Irish MEP Clare Daly said it was “jaw-dropping” that the EU was not investigating potential US and Norwegian links to the attack after a report by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh alleged Washington was behind the sabotage.

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Sanctions failed. Here’s what’s next: your money.

Borrell: EU To Increase Financial & Military Support To Ukraine (Az.)

The EU has nearly exhausted its options for punitive measures against Russia and the bloc’s attention needs to shift to financial and military support for Ukraine, the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview, Report informs. “There is not much more to do from the point of view of sanctions, but we can continue to increase financial and military support,” Borrell told EURACTIV in Stockholm, following a meeting of EU defense ministers. “It would be strange that one year after the invasion began, there would be much more options left. We have been using our step-by-step process, and we have been incremental – maybe sometimes too incremental,” he added. Over the past year, the EU has approved 10 rounds of sanctions against Moscow meant to make financing the war more difficult and starve Russia of tech equipment and spare parts for arms to be used against Ukraine.


“But indeed, one year after the invasion, we’re getting to the end of the ladder,” Borrell admitted when asked about the next potential steps the bloc could take in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The answer is always the same – to continue supporting Ukraine. Ukraine needs a lot of money just to keep the machinery working, a state at war has a lot of financial needs – this will require a lot of effort from our side – so sanctions and military support are not everything.”. Borrell said battlefield operations were “up to Ukraine to decide” but Europe’s responsibility “is to support them, also by providing arms and ammunition.”

Read more …

Crazy story competition.

“France’s first lady is actually her own transgender brother..?!

France’s First Lady Fails In Transgender Lawsuit (RT)

A Paris judge has thrown out Brigitte Macron’s case against two women who claimed in a YouTube show that France’s first lady is actually her own transgender brother. President Emmanuel Macron’s wife had a case for public defamation, but not for invasion of privacy and violation of image, the judge ruled. The video, posted on December 10, 2021, advanced a “completely outlandish” theory that Brigitte Macron was actually the trangender identity of her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux. The video received hundreds of thousands of views, and the transgender rumor trended on Twitter for several days. The first lady filed a lawsuit in February 2022, almost two months after the video was posted, claiming it violated her “right to image” and invaded her brother’s privacy.

The hours-long video described the surgeries Macron allegedly underwent, denied she had given birth to three children, and publicized personal information about Trogneux, according to the lawsuit. The video was also said to have used “retouched, enlarged and recolored”photographs. Brigitte Macron’s separate lawsuit against the two women, for public defamation, was actually filed two weeks earlier, on January 31, 2022. That case is still pending. The first lady’s official biography says she was born Brigitte Marie-Claude Trogneux to a family of chocolatiers from Amiens. She married a banker named Andre-Louis Auziere in 1974 and had three children. In 1993, when she was 40 and teaching at La Providence Jesuit high school in Amiens, she met Emmanuel Macron – who was 15 at the time, and a classmate of her daughter Laurence.

Brigitte divorced Auziere in 2006 and married Macron in 2007. She is widely reported to have been key to his victory in the 2017 presidential election. Macron had planned to create an official “first lady” position for Brigitte using the American model, complete with a budget and staff, but changed his mind after popular backlash. The transgender rumor about the first lady appeared ahead of France’s 2022 presidential elections and quickly gained traction online. Macron ended up easily winning re-election.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Capuchin bird

 

 

Robin Hood

 

 


Father and son

 

 

Elephant feet

 

 

Tarantula
https://twitter.com/i/status/1634130152622895108

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle March 11 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 55 total)
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  • #130965

    Edward Hopper The barber shop 1931   • Banking Rout Rattles Global Markets (RT) • The Real-World Impact Of SVB’s Failure (ZH) • The US Opts For H
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 11 2023]

    #130966
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Too much going on, faster and faster. Much is the same-old. It’s like some prank song where you keep adding parts until the song descends into chaos.

    At the moment, that’s long-term rolling over action.
    Dow10
    https://api.wsj.net/api/kaavio/charts/big.chart?nosettings=1&symb=djia&uf=0&type=2&size=2&sid=1643&style=320&freq=2&entitlementtoken=0c33378313484ba9b46b8e24ded87dd6&time=13&rand=1801980038&compidx=&ma=0&maval=9&lf=1&lf2=0&lf3=0&height=335&width=579&mocktick=1

    What’re the odds when the Yield curve is the most inverted ever and price/earnings/sales and every other metric are at highs never seen?

    Example?
    08
    https://assets.sutori.com/user-uploads/image/70760eb6-0bbb-41d0-b4d1-5ccc20d263a2/4e754d4abe00b3667126f90b9317e5ed.gif

    “GOP Presidential Field Rallies Around One Idea: Declare Drug Cartels Terrorists”

    Great Idea! Since we’ve lost the War on Terror™ everywhere it’s been tried, now we can lose to Mexico as well! It will be the Capstone, the Apex of GOP thinking. Remember kids: “We Win Things By Naming Them.” No bullets supplied.

    Article: “Is Georgia Being Slated for Regime Change?”

    A: Is Georgia a nation on planet earth? Then yes. No need to thank to Lindsay Graham and the boyz, helping all nations to a fiery, violent end is really its own reward.

    Banking Rout Rattles Global Markets (RT) “

    SIVB? That’s funny; where did FTX go? And Evergrande? So they have zero effect but a third rate State bank does?

    Noting elsewhere: the Fed hikes until something breaks. Every time. Either Europe or Yellen (same people) need it to be America that cracks, not Europe. Uh-huh. Well Powell has all the money he needs, and he has all the leverage he needs, and the U.S. banks are in the strongest position. — Shocking, I know. But they didn’t spend 14 years since 08 laundering and scrubbing their balance sheet for nothing.

    Okay, let me put it another way: Powell can allow such a fail because over here it can be controlled and endured.

    How about a third? The market still doesn’t believe Powell in the slightest. Dow 30k, no forward on rate predictions, market project no recession ever. The Fed has only two tools: free money, and Blarney. If Blarney has zero effect, Powell must get it to be respected again or the Fed ceases to exist, no longer has power. Apparently that’s going to take more than this!

    Silicon Valley Laptop class will get laid off, stop harassing the rest of us, and have to do real work? Um, Yay?? However will America survive if we have to fix roads and bridges, plant crops instead of clicking a new TikTok add-on? Instead of playing Candy Crush at work?

    “A competent intelligence service would have prepared a detailed story that was plausible and contained enough details to create doubt in the minds of those who accepted Sy’s account.”

    They released exactly the story that Trump would have, if he was running a talking Joe Biden puppet, hanging around taking blame. How? I mean once or twice, sure, but every day?

    China: “They must immediately withdraw from their unprovoked war and illegal occupation of 1/3 of…Syria.” It’s not illegal when we do it! We put “Black Lives Matter” stickers on those cluster bombs, so those kids are not really dead!

    ““The pontiff has repeatedly said that his visit to Kiev, on which the Ukrainian authorities have been insisting, is only possible if he is also able to make a trip to Moscow.”

    They’re not Catholic, they’re Orthodox, so who cares what the Pope says or does? Nobody else in the world either. And the guy we have isn’t even a Pope. Are they also going to invite a Shinto Priest and a South American Shaman? They have as much relevance. What is it with people and Popes? Can they never give up their “Appeal to Authority”?

    “Ukraine blew up a systemically-important asset of a leading country that supports Ukraine?”

    Yes, that’s exactly their argument. Why bother speaking? Facts only confuse me.

    Georgia: We found one nation on the face of the earth that doesn’t want to commit suicide!!! Naturally a world-wide death cult can’t have that. “You must, MUST be bombed into oblivion and cease to exist like your 100x larger neighbor, Ukraine. That’s just common sense. Now chop-chop you brown coolies and get into those ovens! Hunter’s got coke deals to fund.” Love and Diversity.

    Borrell: EU to Increase Financial & Military Support to Ukraine (Az.) “

    Uh-huh. How? And to UKRAINE? Not so France and Germany can back-fill what it at this point a TOTAL lack of army and COMPLETE exposure? The Faroe Islands could conquer Germany right now.

    “In 1993, when she was 40 and teaching at La Providence Jesuit high school in Amiens, she met Emmanuel Macron – who was 15 at the time, and a classmate of her daughter Laurence.”

    They have to do a transgender thing because THIS IS NO LONGER AT ALL DISTURBING FOR THE WEST.

    Nor here either. Hardly a year goes by that some teacher or another in the area resigns without any charges or scandal to marry some student or other they’ve been sleeping with. “You Can’t Judge Me!!” (Or fire you for rape, apparently) “Home of the Free!!!”

    I presume all the other teachers and administrators are just jealous, or just don’t want to marry the children they’re sleeping with. Who would? Now I have to marry Sister Margaret, my Chemistry teacher? Brrrrrr. But all the other kids were doing it, so…

    …Anyway, this is the state of morality around here. The Church was jsut shuffling priests to new districts and keeping it quiet? Yeah, SO ARE THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. But it’s okay because that’s government. “Nobody knew nothin’.”

    Just following here: On the 22’s. Example: 9/22 British bank run and reversal, 2/22 Bakhmut push and overrun. What’s 3/22 going to be?

    “an atmospheric river moves inland, pounding Northern and Central California with a series of moisture-packed storms. According to the National Weather Service, the mountains will experience “copious amounts of heavy snow,” while the lower elevations will experience “significant rainfall.” 

    Darn that 1,000 year drought! Flooding us AGAIN??? When will this drought ever end?

    Didn’t we just have this in Australia too? 1,000 year drought where the rivers flooded so completely that crocodiles were in the streets? When will people finally believe Global Warming Scientists? Do we have to wait until fish are swimming in the bath?

    Thanks to Science™ which is never paid by nobody of course, all these “record rain” “record snow” areas are ALSO still listed as “Emergency drought” locations. Rain = Drought.

    Darn Science deniers. I just can’t understand why nobody takes The Mister Science seriously anymore.

    #130967
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Reviewing yesterday:

    The CTH theory is correct. I didn’t know people didn’t know it, although I myself didn’t know the details to this level. What is “it” for TAE readers?

    The DNC/Derp State didn’t give a rip about how fake the election was. Because they were never going to allow a legal review. The faker the better. Remember Joe didn’t run, was locked in a closet all year and couldn’t fill a Starbucks? No problem. They had pre-arranged a disruption in the Capital on the day of confirmation of the electors, so that if anyone raised objections – and they would – Congress would evacuate due to “Trump Insurrectionists”.

    Here are the details though: As 100% of all the evil weasels are lawyers, they think like lawyers. So like “having immunity for vaccine injury” they have the FIRST person present and floor standard, boring legal objections to certification, and THAT MINUTE evacuate the whole CITY, declaring an emergency.

    Then when they reconvene (in Congressional terms a few minutes later) not only is everyone remote, locked down, whose cameras can be pulled, but have an armed Pelosi policeman standing next to them and their family “for their protection.” BUT, the “reconvening” session is under direct authority of Pelosi and follows none of the normal Congressional rules, as it’s a “National Emergency”, run by her personally — sort of a “continuity of govt lite” — and no one tables the election objections.

    So the States’, the Representatives’ objections are both tabled, and not tabled. They are both presented, and not presented. So when they go back to the Supreme Court, they can say BOTH “we had no objections” and “we dealt with all the objections.”

    So it is certified, no one stops them, slick as a pig.

    Great! So what’s the problem?

    One: THERE WAS NO EMERGENCY. The bomb never went off, remember? What else? TRUMP WAS MILES AWAY AND STALLED HIS SPEECH BY HALF AN HOUR. By Tooooootal coincidence. Therefore, none of Trump’s people were anywhere near the Capitol yet. What does he say? “When we get over there, it’s a-gonna get wild.”

    But they’re not stupid and never count on others to act. That’s why they needed to hire Shaman-man and escort him through the quiet and orderly building. His appearance can’t be missed in the confusion, and they pull him in whenever that “one minute” of the State’s objections occurs along with his buddies: Mr. Communist hand-tattoo and an entire press corps who WATCHED Shaman be escorted by police and said nothing to the public about it for two years.

    Poof! Mr. Shaman’s fancy dress – like dressin’ up like Injins on the Boston Tea Party – scares the pearl-clutching right off Congress and they evacuate. He stops them from taking that extra muffin in the break room, and. They get the camera shots that – yes, in fact the Congressional floor was evacuated – everyone politely puts down the papers and goes to Applebee’s for dinner. …You know, like terrorists and insurrectionists do.

    Great! Okay, where are we? Oh yes, summed up in this comment on the comment:

    An Interesting Comment From Over At Conservative Treehouse

    Anonymous Conservative Commenter says “If this theory is correct, it again implies our side is so incompetent, weak-willed, cowardly and ineffective that they just took it like a bitch and allowed it to happen. The entire threat was gammas playing word magic and saying “uhm actually I made a new rule that says I win, you lose, so you lose Trump lololololol” and literally NO ONE said “f–k the rules, we’re examining the fraud despite your crying.”

    Uh, yeah. If I were the Supreme Court, I’d laugh this stupid attempt right out of the country. Look, if the motion to review the vote was EVER tabled, it’s still tabled and wasn’t dealt with. If it was never ALLOWED to be tabled, you are ALSO in clear violation. Bye-bye.

    Now that’s easy to SAY, as I remind all the time, it’s not WINNING that’s the problem: it’s not starting an open Civil War that kills 30 million people in 3 months. Having a complex legal tangle when some minority of the people – even 20% — actually believe it doesn’t get us clear of a shooting war.

    And Pelosi’s plan – and Trump’s actions – made her think there would be hot synergy as he commanded the Generals to take and occupy D.C. and its fencing. She still thought so months later. That would have merged nicely with this plan would it not? But that would start their true heart’s desire: an open shooting war, and what next? No Russia problem, no Europe problem, and selling the West Coast to China. It “secedes” as Podesta said, like the last Civil War they tried – and actually the first, the “Revolution” — and states alone are easy pickings.

    But none of that happened, did it? Trump knew, no bomb, no Trump crowd, no generals gave orders, heck as we mock them all day here, no “insurrection” at all. Not even an IN-plausible one.

    Great! Next problem: so how do you get back on track? With the objections?

    Brunson’s Case the Supreme Court was so interested in. This may be why they ignored all others and are hot-line to some rando-citizens on this one. A “Normal” objection wouldn’t work as Derp would play the “Schrodinger’s Objection” card. Brunson ignores that. However, the court may see some detail they are trying to get Brunson to add that they haven’t added yet. Or not. It’s an odd thing. But it DOES get around the whole problem, right?

    Derp hammered their stake in the ground on this ONE location. Brunson just says “People who are slimeball weasels who refuse to uphold the Constitution are in breach of office and must be removed.” We can prove objections existed, weren’t followed, and poof! 200 Congressmen walked out by the bailiff.

    But back to the shooting war: Unless we can seed the ground that the J6 was a load of hot hooey, the common person won’t go along with it. Even with Trump it seems giving Joe his marching orders since it’s hard to see how Joe does anything I wouldn’t have him do. Get 25% unemployment and 15% inflation? Abandon F-Stan? Lose Saudi? Bail out of the Ukraine war? Trip on stairs? Set off Chernobyl and give $150B to foreigners? I can’t see how he could be made to look stupider or less supportable, YMMV.

    So now even the Left won’t support Joe, another 2 years for the common Democrat to notice he’s hostile to Unions, environment, and life itself. (probably not long enough. Nothing can break the hypnosis of the laptop class)

    Now when Tucker slowly demonstrates J6 – AAAAAND Fauci’s Vax – what happens when USSC says “Joe and Nancy suck, remove them”?

    Well the Derp State is still there with 100,000 protesters on command like Tsibli, but hopefully nothing. That’s why it takes this long.

    The last war took between 8 and 20 years. From Otis or Philadelphia to Yorktown. Most of that war was no fighting but Washington simply “not losing”. Same here.

    Today’s news? “Defendant Moves To Dismiss Jan. 6 Case Based On Newly Disclosed Footage, FBI Testimony
    “It establishes that the Senate chamber was never violently breached, and—in fact—was treated respectfully by January 6 protestors…”

    Now you can see why that’s a problem. And you can see why J6 committee spent two years fabricating the opposite reality. If judges start dismissing common trespass cases of guys being escorted by policemen (paid male escorts) then it’s ever-harder to support the rest of it when it hits USSC.

    #130970
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Christ 2024

    Like Christ has stopped/ended any wars: Christ is the main cause of wars. When has Christ solved a problem, look at Israel, the home of Christ, did he solve the Palestinian problem? No. Christ left the Palestinians to suffer under the control of the Christ colleagues, the Jews.

    Only the US Americans believe in this “Christ” shit, we used to get their evangelists (other name for high class beggars) in Africa, people like Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, J Duplantis, Oral Roberts, Katherine Khulman and othres. They would tour the country getting super-poor people to donate money to them and subscirbe to their regualar donation schemes. Oooops, I forgot Billy Graham, the world’s worst beggar. All pieces of shit, I watched all of them, dragged there by my enthusiatic dad, but they were all just trying to get cash in return for you speaking in tongues: idiots. The USA produces some weird shit, evangelists were just a taster, the people we see now are something else. As for Christ in 2024: you really think this will change things or are you having a wank?

    #130971
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Ooops, forgot to mention Oral Roberts, he was another of the beggars … I am sure many more will come to mind, so I will decline to post a new comment for each one I omitted.

    #130972
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I really like this Korybko guy. For one thing, he knows how to turn cogent thoughts and data into sentences that don’t take a semanticist-turned-conman to translate into English. He’s damned near unique!

    #130973
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    With all due respect (and I do highly respect most of your input, when you’re not overwrought) you don’t know very much about the often cited (but rarely accurately represented) Jesus. If you REALLY dig, and separate the sales and marketing hype (both pro and con, and from NUMEROUS heavily vested organized religious “interests”) from the actual historic data, then I think that you . . . yes, even you, hyper skeptic that you seem to be . . . . will have a lot more respect for the guy. Jesus was a good guy, aspnaz, and as wise brave and honest as they come. For real. That’s why even the adulterated version of his message has lasted so long and will continue to do so for as long as there are people to hear it. Once you hear the core message of his advice, you will agree with it, and you will never forget.

    #130974
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The descent into chaos is a real bummer, and messy. Hence the word descent, and the word chaos.

    #130975
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • The Real-World Impact Of SVB’s Failure

    Well the first Schadenfreude is knowing that the Techtard® wokefolks have lost a shitton of there own personal assets.

    Average account at $4 million, FDIC insured limit at 250K.

    Sweet

    The Techtards® never tire of their smarmy zeitgeist of how much smarter they are than all ‘the little people’.

    This must feel like one swift kick to the groin.

    Hahahahaha!

    And the bank calling the cops on depositors showing up at the bank’s front door worried about their wads of cash.

    Hahahaha!

    Oh please can I have my money back, pleaseee!

    .

    #130976
    Oroboros
    Participant

    A nerd and his pet jar

    #130977
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The FDIC to Siliconjob Valley®

    .

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

    #130978
    zerosum
    Participant

    Great selection of reading material, by RIM, for the weekend

    Leverage Lesson

    • Banking Rout Rattles Global Markets (RT)
    deposit withdrawals
    • The Real-World Impact Of SVB’s Failure (ZH)
    “uninsured” balances at SVB – those above $250K – are in jeopardy.
    unable to make payroll next week.
    Expect mass layoffs later today, Monday at latest.
    ———-
    ” threat perceptions of the US”..”
    • US Must Pull Troops Out Of Syria, Stop Marauding – China (TASS)
    • Russia And China Dominate Washington’s Mindset (Gupta)
    Xi’s goal – to become powerful enough by 2027 to ward off any US-led intervention in the event of an armed conflict over Taiwan.
    ———–
    Ukraine is being “sacrificed” for the geopolitical “obsessions” of the US.
    The Irish MEP said the only people benefiting from the conflict were “weapons manufacturers and Western corporations,” which he claimed were “buying up Ukraine now for a pittance.”

    • Irish MEP Blasts West’s ‘Criminal’ Approach To Ukraine (RT)
    ————-
    Sanctions failed. Here’s what’s next: your money.

    • Borrell: EU To Increase Financial & Military Support To Ukraine (Az.)
    —————-
    3,000 delegates voted for Xi Jinping but it doesn’t count.
    Voting only counts when the USA says so. (for, by, of, the people)

    #130979
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Oh how will we as an Empire of Lies® ever live without Techtard® AI censorship, predatory monopoly, boundless hypocrisy, and smug hubristic condescension?

    The Pricks & Twats of Siliconjob Valley® can eat dirt and die, they are the true parasites of modern life.

    I wonder how they will function in the alternate version of Brave New World

    Hey, how’s the Wifi out there in the Death Valley?

    .

    #130980
    boilingfrog
    Participant

    @ Dr D Rich,

    Thank you for taking the time to respond and clarify.

    Between swinging a hammer all day to pay the mortgage, and taking care of the chickens and goats, I find myself unable to do deep dives on every issue. The Turley piece caught my attention, so appreciate the further thoughts I can mix in with my own.

    It’s amazing and humbling the breadth of knowledge, experiences and subjects covered in the comment section at TAE. Wonderful. And from all over the world.

    Another debilitating stroke in a healthy 41 year old just outside “my circle”. The neighbor with three blood clots hanging in…another guy with the gas company still on disability w blood clots in his leg. A friend in town moved her 93 year old mother here, but left her accounts at SVB. These “events” affect us all the way down here in the “hollers” of Appalachia…

    #130982
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    And nobody saw anything coming?
    ————————————-

    Yes! Anyway, … a rant about all of it:

    F.S.

    #130983
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Siliconjob Valley Bank is like a thermobarbic strike on the Techtards®, on an even greater scale than FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried, Shaked and Baked pulled off.

    The Techtards® have once again had their collective knickers pulled down around their ankles in public for all gaze upon in wonder.

    SVB belts it out like a hallelujah chorus, “Run for your life bitches, the sky is falling!”

    #130984
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    The Macron thing was 14 years after they met; there is no reason to assume impropriety. However, it is odd that a 29-year-old man would marry a woman 25 years his senior unless she was extremely wealthy.

    Just got through my second bout of Covid. 29 months after the first time. I decided not to take any analgesics (unless the headache became unbearable) because I wanted to allow my immune system free reign to burn it out with the fever. The fever ranged from 99.5 F to 101.9 F for about 24 hours. I spent most of yesterday falling asleep. Around 11 pm last night the headache was worsening, but I could feel that the fever had broken, so I went ahead and took acetaminophen. Today, I am mostly back to normal. (Some “head cold” symptoms remain.). Annoyingly, true to form, my sense of taste and smell has been affected — breakfast yesterday tasted a lot better than breakfast today. I am grateful for an immune system that can handle a bioweapon. (I am agnostic, so if there is some sort of beneficent power or entity out there that also deserves my thanks, a hat tip that way as well.)

    #130985
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Also…by the time Jacob Chansley gets out of prison, he may be a folk hero.

    #130986
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Apropos of exactly 40 years passed.

    Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps
    General Barrow on Israel and the IDFers

    “Letter from Marine Commandant Barrow to Defense Secretary Weinberger

    The following is the complete text of a letter from General Robert H. Barrow, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. General Barrow sent a copy of the letter to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

    March 14, 1983

    Dear Mr. Secretary:

    I must formally register my deep concern over the two unprovoked incidents in Beirut of this past weekend involving Marines of the Multinational Force and members of the Israeli Defense Forces. I had considered commenting on earlier incidents between Marines and the IDF but corrective measures, which were rapidly implemented in February 1983, appeared to defuse the situation. I can no longer remain silent on this continual problem of provocation from the IDF.

    In addition to the U.S. MNF incidents, I have received information concerning serious harassing incidents by the IDF of U.S. officers attached to the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organization (UNTSO). These particular incidents involved USMC and USA officers in life-threatening situations, replete with verbal degradation of the officers, their uniform and country. Unfortunately, and of greater concern to me, incidents of this nature are the rule, rather than the exception.

    It is evident to me, and the opinion of the U.S. Commanders afloat and ashore, that the incidents between the Marines and the IDF are timed, orchestrated, and executed for obtuse Israeli political purposes. The U.S. has been prompt and forthcoming in defusing previous problems and has established a viable communications procedure between the Marines and IDF. The IDF, however, persist in creating serious incidents.

    I am distinctly proud to have Marines participating both as members of the Multinational Force and with UNTSO under the auspices of the United Nations. It is inconceivable to me why Americans -serving in peacekeeping roles-must be harassed, endangered, and degraded by an ally.

    Previous demarches and diplomatic initiatives have not eliminated difficulties between our Marines and the IDF. Additionally, the expansion of communications links and the use of Liaison Officers will not preclude additional problems, unless the attitude and actions of the Israelis are altered. It is time for firm and strong action, to demonstrate to the Israelis that a role as a peacekeeper does not presume weakness. If anything, the Israelis should respect our efforts in this region.

    Warm personal regards,

    Sincerely,

    R. H. Barrow

    And two brothers, I knew, one a high school rival and his brother an upper class man at USNA.

    https://www.latrobebulletinnews.com/news/local/warriors-rock-concert-features-latrobe-veteran/article_fbfaf4d4-04a2-5323-961d-597cc70ee881.html

    https://archive.triblive.com/news/marine-colonel-retires-with-30-years-of-faithful-service/

    #130987
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Chansley may have been duped by the FBI, but his actions were genuine. If he were duplicitous, (like Ray Epps,) then Chansley would not be in prison.

    #130988
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    “If this theory is correct, it again implies our side is so incompetent, weak-willed, cowardly and ineffective that they just took it like a bitch and allowed it to happen.

    Because the “sides” — no matter what the masses may believe — are not Republican vs. Democrat. They are a “uniparty.” Sure, there are a few legislators from each major political party who are not fully in step with the uniparty. Trump is not fully in step with the uniparty.

    The true sides are The Elites + The Uniparty + The Intelligence Community vs. The People.

    #130990
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Future

    by Leonard

    Things are gonna slide,
    Slide in all directions
    Won’t be nothing
    Nothing you can measure
    Anymore

    #130991
    Oroboros
    Participant

    @phoenixvoice

    Are you an optimist or a pessimist or a realist?

    .

    #130992
    Noirette
    Participant

    The story about Brigitte Macron suing XYZ for defamation, the article from RT, top post, gives the essentials, and is correct.

    The story, the fantasy is, Brigitte Macron is transgender, she is her brother with a new identity, she never had 3 children, and all this kinda-proves the Macron couple are creepy weird, Macron is gay, or was gay, whatever..

    Some self-proclaimed ‘journalist’ – active on social media, Youtube, put the scandal out there. Looking for fame, perhaps, or other (paid), idk.

    The theory became extremely popular, and didn’t die down for a long time. Still quite present, imho.

    Support for the story comes from the fact that Bibi’s brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux, has disappeared, without dying, moving abroad, etc., as far as can be ascertained.

    The Macrons have not spoken about Jean-Mi and he has not come forward. If you see signs in F protests, *Où est Jean-Michel?* that is the reference.

    The story is nonsense as records show Brigitte had 3 children, they are all alive, etc. No alternate ‘mother’ of those 3 can be identified, though some attempts were made. (Her first husband, a banker, died recently.)

    The establishment media, including tabloids and some ‘alt’ news, who publish ‘allowed’ gossip, rumors, even very scuzzy stuff, not denied or only occasionally so in a ‘fake’ outraged way, were appalled that an unknown provincial b*tch and the internet could garner so much attention, stealing it from them and affecting their revenues..

    The Macrons are very tight with the pic-MSM (Paris-Match and the like, who blatantly worked to get Macron elected) and this was surely a jab at the MSM, showing amateurs to be serious competition in clicks, hype, internet buzz. Forcing the MSM to treat it, as everyone is talking about it. ..

    MSM https://bit.ly/3ldPd8Z – see pic, J-M is the small boy on the left

    Brigitte sueing is a sign of weakness of the F Gvmt. Who advised her to do it idk, why Macron allowed it idk. Bad move.

    This is just one minor example of why “W” Gvmts. are desperate to crack down on the internet, going for disguised censorship under a ‘safety’ rubric, scaring ppl about fake news, porn, harm to children, etc. (See the UK.)

    #130993
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Luckily none of the money is real, so the huge losses incurred by SVB are just fictional. The Fed can ‘print’ money faster than any bank or hi-tech company can lose it, since the whole caboodle is just a huge abstract construction.

    Confidence is also abstract construction. But when that’s gone it is somewhat harder for the Fed and the other criminal organisations that constitute finance and government to ‘print’ than to ‘print’ fictional money.

    George the Scrub and his side-kick Maul-some standing outside the Whiter-than-white House in 2008: “You need to give us $760 billion, for purposes we cannot define at this moment, otherwise the American economy will collapse and there will be mass unemployment and widespread suffering.”

    Without energy, nothing happens.

    With too much energy, too much happens.

    #130994
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    The last time the US seriously meddled in Georgia, via its puppet Shonky-villain, Georgian military forces ended up invading two separatist regions to the north and killing Russians.

    Russia was highly displeased and sent sufficient military forces to deal the Georgian invaders and take over the country. From memory it took about two weeks, once the Russian got moving. Shony-villain fled, of course. I cannot remember whether it was to Florida or Brussels.

    Having sorted the military aspect, the Russians then removed all the military equipment that could be removed and blew up anything too large to remove.

    For me, that signaled the end of American military might, since the US did nothing in response. That was 2008.

    I really am surprised the US fascists would try again. Absolute desperation, I guess. Repeat what has already failed spectacularly.

    Monday (Tuesday, Airstrip Five time) will be very ‘interesting’, now that Ponzi is visibly failing in a spectacular manner yet again.

    #130996
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    “In those days collapses took a lot longer.”

    #130997
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    “We’ve got to get out of this [crazy] western system.”

    #130998
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The China brokered deal between Saudi Arabian and Iran is huge

    The Russians also contributed greatly to this Big Win. Most Excellent!

    Iran behind the scenes has agree not to pursue nuclear weapons as part of the deal. Most Excellent!

    This isolates Israel and removes their kvetching about Iran being a threat with nukes. Most Excellent!

    Isolates the Empire of Lies® in the Middle East further and diminishes it’s influence generally. Most Excellent!

    China and Russia are diplomatically going to get the Big Win for sealing a deal between Turkey and Syria. Most Excellent!

    This will leave The Empire of Lies® and it’s regional Toadies and it’s thieving, underhanded troops in NE Syria on very thin ice and in danger. Most Excellent!

    The Saudis and Iran will join BRICS, further kicking the dollar in the gonads. Most Excellent!

    The war in Yemen will wind down. Most Excellent!

    Trade throughout the region will grow immensely, without the criminal Collective Colonial West extorting a piece of the pie. Most Excellent!

    The Chinese know how to do diplomacy! Most Excellent!

    The Empire of Lies® doesn’t, it only knows how to issue ultimatums and warnings and lecturing about ‘human rights’ and gender pronouns and fake climate change and the Majority of the countries in the world are sick of it. Most Excellent!

    To counter the Chinese ‘threat’, words of wisdom from our Supreme Leader:

    .

    #130999
    John Day
    Participant

    “Controlling The Channels” is up https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/controlling-the-channels

    ​ ​Tessa (Fights Robots) Lena, The primary goals of the internet have always been surveillance and control. Today, it is merely following its original design.
    Story at a glance:
    Amid attacks on the First Amendment, Missouri v. Biden could be one of the most important civil rights lawsuits of our times
    While today’s obnoxious surveillance and censorship are new, they are a feature of the Internet, not a bug
    Internet (originally ARPANET) was born out of a Pentagon surveillance and counterinsurgency project
    It was implemented by ARPA, a DoD research agency that we know as DARPA
    Now, let’s go down the rabbit hole. To me, it’s funny and not funny to think about the interwoven Russian doll of state and corporate mob-like control — even under the best of political conditions — and certainly under the conditions we face today. You peel one layer of domination — and instead of the true freedom you were craving, you find another.
    You painstakingly peel the next one, hoping for freedom this time, but then you discover yet another layer of domination, under a different logo. It’s like when the Soviet Union finally crashed when I was a kid, and — on its ruins — the children of the communist leaders became the oligarchic leaders of the land.
    And so, in our good hearts, we hope that state authorities will protect us from excessive corporate greed, and we hope that free market will protect us from the state boot — but then we look closely, and we realize that we were born into a world run by a collection of mobs — state and corporate mobs of different kinds — and that we are very lucky citizens when we are not in the crossfires of mob wars and can go about our daily lives without being stomped.
    To me, this realistic observation was a moment of great humility and existential clarity. This is how this world is right now…
    ..The Internet came out of a 1960s Pentagon project called ARPANET. ARPANET was a counterinsurgency, communications, and surveillance project developed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and based on the idea of “Great Intergalactic Network,” a futuristic-sounding term coined by J. C. R. Licklider, nicknamed “Lick.” Lick was an American psychologist and computer scientist and one of the “founding fathers” of interactive computing.
    We all know ARPA as DARPA, the creepy DoD agency behind the Operation Warp Speed. ARPA was originally formed in response to the shock of being “beaten” by the USSR in space after the USSR launched its Sputnik in 1957.
    https://takecontrol.substack.com/p/internet-surveillance-and-censorship

    ​ ​BREAKING – House Votes 419-0 on a Limited Hangout Bill that Requires Director of National Intelligence to Declassify All Information on the Origins of COVID. The bill now requires Biden’s signature.​
    https://www.2ndsmartestguyintheworld.com/p/breaking-house-votes-419-0-on-a-limited
    Thanks Luc, but will they look at what happened at Ft. Detrick Md. in the summer of 20​1​9? Probably not that.
    https://www.johndayblog.com/2021/06/fort-detrick.html

    #131000
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ ​Mediated By China Iran And Saudi Arabia Restore Ties – There Are Winners And Losers
    Congrats to China for nudging this deal forward and making it possible.​ ​
    ​ ​The winners are:
    Iran, which will now be even more able to break through the sanctions wall the U.S. has put up around it.
    Saudi Arabia, which now will likely be able to end its disastrous and costly war on Yemen.
    China, for outplaying the U.S. State Department by achieving this.
    Iraq, Syria, Yemen as they will become more peaceful as the two middle powers influencing policies on their grounds end their rivalry.
    ​ ​The losers are:
    Israel, because the chances for its attempts to get the U.S. into a war with Iran are now diminished. Its hoped for coalition with the Saudis will not come into being.
    The U.S. for having been outplayed on its traditional ‘home grounds’ in the Middle East.
    Anti-Iran hawks everywhere.
    The Emirates for losing at least some of the sanction busting trade with Iran to Saudi Arabia.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/03/mediated-by-china-iran-and-saudi-arabia-restore-ties-there-are-winners-and-losers.html#more

    ​ More about India’s pivot in global trade and finance, from Tom Luongo, looking at George Soros attacking Narendra Modi for not playing the game. Thanks Eleni.​
    India: The Next Front in the War on the BRICS
    ​ ​This brings me back to India as the wildcard. Modi’s journey from a guy with one foot on two islands (East v. West) to planting his feet firmly with the East has been an interesting and vital one.
    ​ ​If we’ve learned nothing else over the past year of war in Ukraine it is that most of the world is unphased by threats by the US by the countries I’ve just discussed. Iran clearly doesn’t care. China understands that if Russia falls militarily, China is next. Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC+ understand who their future trade partners really are.
    ​ ​This is why India is now in the crosshairs of Davos. They are the last major power in the region left to stymie Asian integration.
    ​ ​Reports circulated the same weekend as the Munich Security Conference that none other than George Soros was behind the attacks on PM Modi through a report from Hindenberg Research. They targeted one of Modi’s big financial supporters, Guatam Adani.

    India: The Next Front in the War on the BRICS

    ​ The War for the Dollar is Over, Part 2 , Tom Luongo
    ​ More than a decade ago I looked at the responses to President Obama cutting Iran out of the SWIFT system as the beginning of the end of the petrodollar system. The goal was to take Iran out of the global oil markets by shutting Iran out from the dominant dollar payment system.
    Out of necessity Iran opened up trade with its major export partners, most notably India, in something other than dollars. India and Iran started up a ‘goods for oil’ trade, or as Bloomberg called it at the time, “Junk for Oil.”
    The stick of sanctions created a new market for pricing Iranian oil and a way around the monopoly of US dollar oil trading. India, struggling with massive current account deficits because of their high energy import bill, welcomed the trade as a way to lessen the pressure on the rupee.
    Iran needed goods. They worked out some barter trade and the first shallow cuts into the petrodollar system were made.
    Turkey eventually joined the fray, seeing the opportunity to act as a middle man by accepting gold into its banks from Iran’s customers and settling up with Iran in dollars or whatever…
    ​..​Every time the US went to the sanctions well to coerce conformity, the more “star systems slipped through its fingers,” to quote Princess Leia. While we joke today about never ‘going full retard,’ this is just another way of saying that you should never threaten to nuke someone either.
    ​ ​Trump went sanctions nuclear on Iran in 2018. He failed.
    ​ ​“Biden” and Davos went nuclear on Russia in 2022, going further than even Trump. And they failed even harder.​..
    ​..Powell can see the de-dollarization writing on the wall and he knows now is the time to slow down that trend and find a way to make the dollar more trustworthy​..
    ​.​.​But ‘the help’ are no longer helpless in the face of a big bully US dollar. They have a plan and they are executing it. That plan clearly involves the return of gold as the asset to balance the trade books to rebuild global trust

    The War for the Dollar is Over Part II: The Fly or the Windshield?

    ​ Andrew Korybko has a follow-up article on India’s diversification away from the $US in trade, particularly energy trades. Energy intermediation , refining and repackaging have been a growth industry for India in the last year. India’s methods are readily applicable to other “developing countries”.
    ​https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2023/03/india-takes-a-leading-role-in-de-dollarization/#post-130995

    #131002
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ ​Record Bank Run Drained A Quarter, Or $42BN, Of SVB’s Deposits In Hours, Leaving It With Negative $1BN In Cash
    ​ ​Despite the bank being in sound financial condition prior to March 9, 2023, “investors and depositors reacted by initiating withdrawals of $42 billion in deposits from the Bank on March 9, 2023, causing a run on the Bank.”
    ​ ​As a result of this furious drain, as of the close of business on Thursday, March 9, “the bank had a negative cash balance of approximately $958 million.” https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/record-bank-run-drained-quarter-or-42-billion-svbs-deposits-hours-leaving-it-negative-1bn

    ​”Worst Since Lehman”: Banks Break The World Again
    ​ ​SVB’s collapse – the second biggest US bank failure in history – dominated any reaction to this morning’s mixed bag from the BLS (hotter than expected earnings growth, rising unemployment (especially for Latinos), better than expected payrolls gains).
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/worst-lehman-banks-break-world-again

    ​ Charles Hugh Smith has this about the Silicon Valley Bank bankruptcy.
    ​ Now Silicon Valley Bank has collapsed, at least in part due to doomed tech start-ups withdrawing their remaining cash to fund their last-ditch survival as the entire start-up space faces an “extinction event,” as future funding from SPACs, venture capital firms and banks dries up.
    A Silicon Valley insider called me yesterday to report that the failure of SVB was very likely to trigger a severe stock market downturn, as this indicated a decline in both Financials and Tech, the two sectors that have led every Bull Market since the 1980s (and arguably, since the 1960s).
    The consensus among financial analysts holds that the Federal Reserve will quickly reverse course and drop interest rates and restart monetary stimulus (QE). I have argued that the assumption that the Fed will once again “save the stock market” is a misreading of the situation, which is now entirely different from 2000 and 2008-09.
    I explained my rationale in What If the Whole Point Is to End “The Fed Put”?
    http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2023/03/what-if-whole-point-is-to-end-fed-put.html
    In essence, the Fed must refuse to “save the stock market” to eliminate a very destructive moral hazard, i.e. stock market gamblers have been rewarded for taking hugely risky bets because they have been assured the Fed will always rescue the markets.

    Pepe Escobar has a piece about what a hypothetical “newcoin” for international trade would look like functionally, and what the constraints would be.
    ​”​The new currency should be able to become an “external money” storage of capital and reserves down the road, not just a settlement unit.​”​
    This would be a trade currency only between participating nations, 40% backed by gold, which countries would purchase initially with their own unencumbered physical gold reserves, after allowing their own national currencies to establish a trading equilibrium with gold.
    Following that, the “newcoin” would be backed 40% by gold and 60% by a basket of the national currencies of the participating countries, allowing those countries flexibility with their creation of currency, but having the leash that their currency would decline against the “newcoin”. There could also be further draws upon their national gold reserves in some scenarios
    This would apply gold-discipline to the trade and fiscal policies of participating countries. It would effectively be a more sophisticated and flexible gold standard, but with firm limits. The statement above implies a fixed value, that this would be a gold-like store of value, not merely a currency for transactional settlements.
    Escobar did not likely make this up. He is being given very good information, without attributing it to his sources.
    There is a picture of Putin and Xi. They are presumably going to discuss peace talks in Ukraine next week, when they meet in Moscow.
    Will they have good news about peace? Ukraine is integral to belt-and-road trade logistics.
    Will they have “newcoin” news?

    Moveable Multipolarity in Moscow: Ridin’ the ‘Newcoin’ Train

    Meryl Nass MD cross posts this from David Bell, What the WHO Is Actually Proposing
    ​ Briefly, there are 2 parts, a treaty “update” and new legislation for national funding of the WHO program. Both are compulsory, not voluntary, and there is no mechanism for democratic checks and balances at any level, merely compulsory compliance with technocratic decisions, expressed as mandates, which have very broad flexibility for the head technocrat. This is technocratic tyranny.​
    There is a percent-adoption barrier at the UN/WHO, which must be met for these to be adopted. If not specifically rejected in 6 months by a country, then it is presumed to have accepted the treaty change, and will be expected to comply financially, and when prescribed any action, such as lockdown.
    Restrictions on free-speech opposition to mandates are specified as a condition which is expected at baseline in any participating countries.
    https://merylnass.substack.com/p/what-the-who-is-actually-proposing

    #131003
    John Day
    Participant

    Preparing Your Kitchen Garden is a 21 minute video presentation by myself, provided last week to Children’s Health Defense, as part of their Attack on Food Symposium. Food Security begins at home.
    There are links to blog posts containing all of the information discussed.
    https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/chd-tv/events/the-attack-on-food-symposium/attack-on-food-john/
    The flexible succession-rotation gardening plans are here:
    https://www.johndayblog.com/2016/07/liberty-garden-central-texas-climate.html

    #131004
    John Day
    Participant

    @Phoenixvoice:
    I am glad that you are convalescing quickly.
    Your use of acetaminophen was conservative and appropriate.
    I presume you keep your vitamin-D level in a good range.

    #131005
    John Day
    Participant

    @Dr D Rich: And the letter you copy above was written about 6 years after the merciless USS Liberty attack by the Israeli Air Force. Supposedly the Israeli pilots radiod to the command that this was an American ship with a large flag, and their orders must be mistaken, but they were ordered to proceed with strafing, missile and torpedo attacks. They did. LBJ “wanted that S.O.B. at the bottom of the ocean”, as later quoted. He forbade USN aviator support for a half hour. The Liberty just didn’t sink.
    This was reportedly a botched false-flag, which was to have given a cause for the US to attack Egypt with nuclear weapons.
    The problem was that Israel had obliterated the Egyptian air force before the Liberty could arrive, having attacked a few days early.
    It became implausible that the Egyptians had done it, and Liberty survivors (oops, they were supposed to be dead) clearly saw that Israeli planes attacked and strafed them for an extended period of time.

    #131006
    John Day
    Participant

    @D Benton Smith: I may be mistaken, but my impression is that Aspnaz’s dad was an Anglican minister or priest of some standing, and outside of the UK. I’m sure to be corrected if I am wrong.

    My maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother were both children of clerics, and neither was favorably influenced by that, not towards organized religion. It seems to have driven them both to seek truth somewhat outside of the teachings they grew up with.

    #131007
    John Day
    Participant

    “Christ” is a Hebrew form of the word denoting anointing with oil, a ceremony of reverence and honor. this was traditionally done to statues of Apollo in the temples of Apollo. I have seen that it was sometimes a sexual anointing.

    I learned this something close to 30 years ago, and it always grabbed me differently when George Bush would crush the word “Christ” in his mouth as he forcefully emphasized it.

    #131008
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Tucker talks about how the NSA hacked his encrypted text app

    #131009
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    @ oroboros
    I don’t typically feel like placing myself into boxes. I usually find that after a while they don’t fit.

    #131010
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    My brother-in-law works for SVB. Or…he did. He hasnt had confirmation, but he fully expects to be officially unemployed by Monday. He has a wife and five kids, ages 17 down to 5. My sister is a stay-at-home mom. Fortunately, they had saved up a nice sum to do an addition on their house but hadn’t yet found a contractor, so they have savings. I suspect that there are going to be a lot of out of work bankers looking for work.

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