Mar 282023
 


René Magritte The song of the storm 1937

 

US Democracy ‘A Facade’ – Patrushev (RT)
Russian Security Chief Calls US World’s Biggest Dictator (TASS)
US Politicians ‘Held Captive By Their Own Propaganda’ – Patrushev (RT)
Russia’s Newest Jets Provide Air Superiority – Ukrainian Official (RT)
The EU Is Losing Relevance In The Emerging New World (Fomenko)
Conscription May Be Intensified In Ukraine (RT)
Ukrainian Refugees Targeted For Sexual Exploitation (RT)
Moscow Mulls Demanding Damages For Nord Stream Blasts (RT)
World Bank: World Economy May Face “Lost Decade” (Az.)
An Eastertime Carol (Kunstler)
Durham Unveils Smoking Gun FBI Text Message, ‘Joint Venture’ Trump Smear (JTN)
Jim Jordan Demands Docs After IRS “Attempt To Intimidate” Matt Taibbi (ZH)
The Worst Model in History: How the Curve was not Flattened (Ugo Bardi)
US Expert Panel to Meet on Adverse Events Caused By COVID-19 Vaccines (ET)
Australia Bears Witness To Vaccine Deaths (Horowitz)
Climate Hysteria and Woke Gobbledegook Are Becoming Inseparable (DS)

 

 

Life expectancy

 

 

Douglas Macgregor: Limited resources and the collapse of Ukraine

 

 

 

 

RESTRICT

 

 

 

 

Yeadon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1640172796797140992
https://twitter.com/i/status/1640045360369356804

 

 

 

 

Toxicity

 

 

 

 

Patrushev:
“Russia is patient and does not intimidate anyone with a military advantage. But it has a modern unique weapon capable of destroying any adversary, including the United States, in the event of a threat to its existence.”

US Democracy ‘A Facade’ – Patrushev (RT)

The US is not really a democracy, nor does it seek to promote democracy in its relations with other nations, contrary to Washington’s claims, senior Russian security official Nikolay Patrushev has said. He made the remarks while commenting on the upcoming ‘Summit for Democracy’ hosted by the US government. Patrushev, who is the secretary of the Russian Security Council, described the US economy as “dependent on corruption and lobbying connections going to the White House and Capitol Hill.” Corporate interests have hijacked the levers of political power in the US and use the country’s international clout to pursue their own agenda, he said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper, to be published in full later today.

Their democracy is a pretty facade for the political system, which serves to hide the neglect of the rights of ordinary Americans. Washington pursues the same approach in the international arena, where it claims to be the champion of democracy but disregards other nations’ sovereignty, Patrushev said. He believes that this “hypocrisy” will be on display at the Summit for Democracy, which will kick off this week in Washington. The event will be “a gathering to support a world order in which Washington wants to play the central role forever. Dissenters will be labeled ‘undemocratic states,’”he predicted. The US, which “appointed itself the dictator of the world, will harass the nations whose sovereignties and democracies were undermined,”by Washington.

The reality is that “Washington has long been a leader in violating the sovereignty of other nations, in the number of wars and conflicts it has unleashed,” the security chief said. He called the nations that support this arrangement “vassals” that are constantly “humiliated” in their abusive relationships with the US. The international event, which is being held for the second time, is meant to promote democracy against what Washington increasingly sees as assertive “authoritarian” states. The US reportedly invited all participants of the first summit, which was held in 2021, including the administration of the self-governed Chinese island of Taiwan. NATO members Hungary and Türkiye were snubbed once again, according to Foreign Policy magazine.

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Patrushev:
“The collapse of the European Union is just around the corner…The United States is ready to fight Russia…to the last European. Even during the Cold War, the Pentagon, at the slightest danger from the USSR, was ready to turn Europe into a radioactive desert.”

Russian Security Chief Calls US World’s Biggest Dictator (TASS)

Washington actually violates the sovereignty of other countries while claiming to support free speech and is the world’s biggest dictator, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta. “While disingenuously talking about freedom of choice, the United States, which has proclaimed itself the world’s biggest dictator, will in fact simply abuse the countries whose sovereignty and democracy it violated,” he said, commenting on the upcoming Summit for Democracy. Patrushev emphasized that this event, which was organized by the White House, “certainly takes place within the framework of the US presidential race that has already begun.” He believes the summit will be “another meeting in favor of the world order, where Washington wants to play a central role indefinitely, and any dissidents can be expected to be labeled as ‘non-democratic states’.”


“Once again, the US will proclaim itself the defender of international law and declare that the rest of the world must follow its rules. The geopolitical opponents will be deliberately falsely accused of war crimes and corruption, but as usual they will turn a blind eye to real acts of genocide and financial fraud committed with the approval of the White House,” Patrushev added. He also believes that promises will be made to feed the hungry and release those wrongly imprisoned. “However, they will remain silent about the fact that about one-fifth of all prisoners in the world are held in US prisons, including those sentenced to multiple life terms. They will zealously support the rights of sexual minorities and impose a ‘green agenda’ on the entire globe, exacerbating the energy crisis in satellite countries,” Patrushev warned.

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“[Russia] saved the US at least twice – during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. But I believe that this time, helping the US to maintain its integrity would be inappropriate..”

US Politicians ‘Held Captive By Their Own Propaganda’ – Patrushev (RT)

US politicians are “held captive by their own propaganda” and still believe that Washington could deliver a fatal nuclear ‘first strike’ against Russia, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, has said. That Cold War-era strategy, however, is nothing but a “dangerous” and “short-sighted” delusion nowadays, Patrushev said in an interview with the newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta published on Monday. “Held captive by their own propaganda, American politicians for some reason remain confident that in the event of a direct conflict with Russia, the US is capable of delivering a preventive missile strike, after which Russia will no longer be able to respond. This is a short-sighted delusion, and a very dangerous one,” Patrushev stated.

The ‘first strike’ strategy dates back to the early days of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the US. Its proponents believe that achieving a certain advantage in nuclear warheads and means of delivery would allow a preemptive strike on an adversary without suffering an equally destructive retaliation. The concept was among the primary reasons behind the Cold War-era arms race, with both sides fearing a first strike at various points. Nowadays, however, Russia possesses state-of-the-art weapons that Patrushev warned are capable of defeating any opponent, should the country’s existence be threatened. “Forgetting the lessons of history, some in the West are already talking about revanche, which will lead to a military victory over Russia,” he stated.

“Russia is patient and does not threaten anyone with its military advantage. But it has modern unique weapons capable of destroying any enemy, including the US, in case of a threat to its existence.” Moreover, Moscow no longer believes it would be “appropriate” to help the US once again defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity should it be threatened, the security official stated. “[Russia] saved the US at least twice – during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. But I believe that this time, helping the US to maintain its integrity would be inappropriate,” Patrushev said.

Lavrov
https://twitter.com/i/status/1640026645334487049

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As “..NATO members appeared to be using the Ukraine crisis to dispose of “old equipment they no longer need.”, Russia issues new jets.

Russia’s Newest Jets Provide Air Superiority – Ukrainian Official (RT)

Russia is increasingly dominating the skies over eastern Ukraine in its conflict with the former Soviet republic because the latest generation of its Su-35 fighter jet has capabilities that Kiev’s forces can’t neutralize, a senior Ukrainian government official has told ABC News. The newest Su-35s are equipped with “very effective radar and long-distance rockets,” enabling them to attack Ukrainian jets and provide air support for Russian ground troops, the unidentified official said in an article posted on Monday. Ukraine “does not have capabilities” to counter this threat, he told ABC. The Kiev regime sees Russian air superiority as a “real risk,” the official added, making its push for more air defense systems from the US “priority No. 1” for Ukraine.

“This is a problem,” another unidentified official said. “What we keep telling the Americans is that in the end, there is no other solution than to give us fighter jets.” He claimed that Russia has 12 times more military aircraft than Ukraine. The latest comments out of Kiev contradict recent claims by Western leaders. Russia’s air power in Ukraine is limited by Kiev’s air defenses, including surface-to-air missiles, one Western official told reporters in a briefing last week. “We’re not seeing a huge change in that situation.” However, the Ukrainian official noted that as Russia replaces older models of aircraft with the latest Su-35, it’s gaining a stronger advantage.

He conceded that with Washington refusing so far to provide fighter jets to Ukraine, there is increasing acceptance in Kiev that the government should focus on trying to get more air defense systems and artillery from the US. The governments of Slovakia and Poland pledged last week to give Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two NATO members appeared to be using the Ukraine crisis to dispose of “old equipment they no longer need.”

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It’s what happens when you only blindly follow.

The EU Is Losing Relevance In The Emerging New World (Fomenko)

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met in Moscow last week, and Western circles predictably responded by accusing Russia of becoming “subservient” or even a “vassal state” to China. MEP Guy Verhofstadt, a Euro-fantasist and former prime minister of Belgium, jeered on Twitter, “Putin’s appalling legacy now includes turning Russia more and more into a Chinese vassal state,” oblivious to the irony of his own words. As the United States took the lead in denouncing China’s peace plan for the Ukraine conflict, publicly setting out the conditions on which it should end, the European Union was nowhere to be seen, or at least had nothing original to say. This makes Verhofstadt’s comments a damning display of lacking self-awareness. Russia and China are setting out their vision for a new multipolar world, while the US struggles against them in seeking to maintain its hegemonic position.

Meanwhile, the European Union has been reduced to the status of a mere bench player in it all, and has become effectively irrelevant. The failure of EU countries to stake out their own will and position amidst the larger powers, as well as their total subservience to the US, has made a mockery of the “strategic autonomy” concept once championed by Emmanuel Macron. “Strategic autonomy” is a principle of European integration where the EU should be an actor in a multipolar world, which advocates for its own interests and pursues its own agenda. Supporters of this principle insist that the EU should not blindly follow the will of the US when it comes to every foreign policy issue, but should be proactive and enhance its role on the world stage. Therefore, they should not, as is commonly demanded by Washington, take sides on matters such as a new Cold War with China.

The term gained growing traction during the years of the Trump administration, when Europe’s relations with the US hit a low due to his particular interpretation of the “America first” doctrine. However, the practical reality of “strategic autonomy” is that the EU is not a unitary state, but a loose intergovernmental organization of states which, while seeking to establish common positions on a principle of unity, do not truly have a unified foreign-policy-making mechanism. The intra-institutional politics of the EU are often a messy compromise and battle of wills between different levels of actors, including the states themselves, the European Commission, and the European Parliament. This combines with the reality that “European integration” has been a broken process since 2008. Challenges such as the Eurozone financial crisis, Brexit, Covid-19, and internal conflicts with various states such as Poland have all weakened and fractured the EU.

As a result, the EU has been ill-suited to deal with what is, despite media misdirection, the single most explicit source of foreign influence and interference against it, the US. Washington has multiple channels whereby it exerts control over the EU’s many foreign policy actors. Firstly, it uses a web of government-funded think tanks and associated journalists to control public opinion and steer EU countries towards supporting its objectives. Secondly, the US has an extraordinarily political hold over the former Soviet bloc states to the east of the EU (with the exception of Hungary), which it uses to foment increased antagonism against Russia and China, and therefore undermines the attempts of the bloc’s most “autonomous” and powerful states – Germany and France – to pursue more reconciliatory foreign policies.

1957 CIA doc

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Wow: “..Ukrainian border guard service discouraged draft-dodgers from seeking asylum in the EU, noting in an interview on Monday that if the man had succeeded in his border crossing, “he would have been returned to Ukraine.”

Conscription May Be Intensified In Ukraine (RT)

Ukraine may need to conscript even more people into military service to potentially fight against Belarus, a key ally of President Vladimir Zelensky has told British television. David Arakhamia, an MP who heads the faction of the president’s Servant of the People party in the Ukrainian parliament, spoke of a potential a clash with Belarus during an interview with SkyNews on Monday. He was commenting on Russia’s announcement last week that it would place tactical nuclear weapons at a facility currently being built on Belarusian soil. “I think we are facing a real challenge to have a second front opened,” the Ukrainian lawmaker said. “That would mean a real challenge to get even more people to conscript into the army, because we will need at least eight more brigades to control the frontline.”

However, Arakhamia downplayed his own concerns by saying that much of the border his country shares with Belarus is rough terrain dominated by swamps and forests, which makes it easier to defend. He also acknowledged that despite Kiev perceiving Belarus as “the same aggressor as Russia,” there actually was “no evidence during one year of war … of any Belarussian soldier crossing the Ukrainian border.” Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has allowed the Russian military to use his nation’s territory in its military operation against Ukraine, but repeatedly stressed that Belarusian troops were not participating in it. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the decision to place nuclear weapons in Belarus was a step prompted by the UK’s announcement that it would send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine.

Ukraine is believed to have suffered significant casualties in the conflict with Russia, in part because Kiev has reportedly been sending untrained soldiers to the frontline as it keeps its more experienced troops behind for an expected counter-offensive. Ukrainian military officials have already ramped up their mobilization efforts, according to various media sources. Reports have surfaced of conscription officers conducting raids at places where military-age men congregate, such as markets and even night clubs. Some Ukrainians appear willing to risk their lives to avoid joining the military. Last week, a 23-year-old man drowned while trying to sneak into Romania across the Tisza River. This was reportedly the 14th such fatality this year alone. A spokesman for the Ukrainian border guard service discouraged draft-dodgers from seeking asylum in the EU, noting in an interview on Monday that if the man had succeeded in his border crossing, “he would have been returned to Ukraine.”

DPR

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Lovely.

Ukrainian Refugees Targeted For Sexual Exploitation (RT)

Analysis of search engine traffic has revealed a growing interest in Ukrainian pornography, The Guardian reported on Sunday, citing a Thomson Reuters study. The findings have sparked concern over the increasing sexual exploitation of refugees. According to the outlet, researchers found that views of pornographic videos claiming to show Ukrainian refugees have seen a significant rise in the past six months. The growing interest could be encouraging human traffickers to act more regularly and with greater impunity, Thomson Reuters warned. It called for urgent action to strengthen protection for Ukrainian women and children who are at risk from sexual exploitation. It was noted that evidence of the sex trafficking of Ukrainians appeared long before Moscow launched its military offensive last year.

However, the latest data shows a significant increase in such reports in the past 12 months, while internet searches for terms such as “Ukrainian porn” are at a higher level than ever before, according to the researchers. The Guardian reports that Thomson Reuters is now working with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to raise awareness of the issue. The pair have launched a campaign to encourage the global community to provide Ukrainians with safety information, and to help spot the warning signs of trafficking. The OSCE’s special representative and coordinator for combating human trafficking, Valiant Richey, told The Guardian that “the high demand from men for sexual access to Ukrainian women and girls creates an enormous incentive for traffickers to recruit vulnerable people in order to meet the demand and profit from it.”

“We already found direct evidence of recruitment attempts on chats used by Ukrainians and an increase in the advertisement of Ukrainians online,” he added. According to the UN Refugee Agency, it is estimated that around 8.1 million Ukrainians have fled to Europe since Russia launched its military operation in February 2022. It is believed that around 90% of all Ukrainian refugees are women and children, as Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 are banned from leaving the country.

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The UN Security Council did not accept Russia/China resolution on the establishment of a commission to investigate the sabotage at Nord Stream. The resolution was supported by 3 countries (Russia, China and Brazil), no one voted against, 12 abstained.

Moscow Mulls Demanding Damages For Nord Stream Blasts (RT)

Moscow may insist on compensation for the blasts that ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines last autumn, Dmitry Birichevsky, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department for economic cooperation, said on Monday. Speaking to RIA Novosti, the diplomat said that Russia did not rule out “the possibility of later raising the issue of compensatory damages over the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipelines,” which directly connected Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea. Birichevsky did not say from whom Russia would be demanding payment, nor did he specify in what form or amount it should be.

He noted that after veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh released his bombshell report last month pinning the blame on the US for the sabotage – a claim dismissed in Washington – Russia prepared a resolution urging the UN Security Council to launch an independent international investigation into the matter. However, Birichevsky claimed that “Western countries are actively sabotaging the work on the draft resolution, claiming that the international investigation lacks ‘added value’.” Despite this opposition, Russia would continue to push for a “comprehensive and open international investigation,” he said, stressing that Moscow’s representatives should absolutely take part in the process.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov supported a possible push for compensation. He described the claim as “justified,” arguing that the available data “indicate that… such a terrorist attack against critical infrastructure could not have been staged without the involvement of the state and intelligence services.” In an interview on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he “fully agrees” with Hersh’s conclusions on who orchestrated the blasts. The American journalist alleged that US President Joe Biden ordered the attack because he did not like the German government’s reluctance to send more military support to Ukraine.

Western media, however, has presented another version of events. Earlier this month, the New York Times claimed, citing sources, that a “pro-Ukrainian group” may have been behind the attack on the pipelines while German media reported that a yacht allegedly used in the sabotage belonged to a Polish-based company owned by two Ukrainians. Kremlin Press Secretary Peskov has dismissed those reports as “a coordinated hoax” meant to divert attention from the real culprits behind the blasts.

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China and Russia will be fine.

World Bank: World Economy May Face “Lost Decade” (Az.)

The global economy’s potential growth through the end of the decade has slowed to the weakest in 30 years, the World Bank said, citing fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine, Report informs referring to Bloomberg. Having started the millennium on a faster trajectory, the global economy’s “speed limit” – or the highest long-term rate at which it can grow without triggering inflation – is set to slow between 2022 and 2030 to 2.2% a year, the organization said in a report released on March 27. “A lost decade could be in the making for the global economy,” Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s chief economist and senior vice president for development economics, said in a release accompanying the report.


“The ongoing decline in potential growth has serious implications for the world’s ability to tackle the expanding array of challenges unique to our times – stubborn poverty, diverging incomes, and climate change.”The silver lining of the multilateral development bank’s 550-page report: Potential growth could reach as high as 2.9%, marking an acceleration should policymakers deploy the right plans to boost productivity and labor supply and shore up investment. The World Bank’s latest research is set against the backdrop of a fragile global economy that’s still reeling from Russia’s war in Ukraine and efforts to reopen after the darkest days of the Covid pandemic. Many economies, including China, are facing ongoing demographic crises that have meant a mad scramble for policies to promote more childbearing – or to push back the retirement age, as France has most recently demonstrated.

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“What do you want?” Bragg asks. “Your law license, asshole.”

An Eastertime Carol (Kunstler)

After wolfing down a heartburn-inducing Popeye’s Shrimp Tacklebox Combo for supper, Manhattan District attorney Alvin Bragg retires to his four-poster Sleep Number bed beset with anxiety about the grand jury he has convened for fulfilling his campaign promise to stuff Donald Trump into a state prison cell. From the wall-mounted flat-screen across from his bed, the specter of a of giant rabbit emerges, gaunt and grizzled, draped in chains and weighty padlocks. “Who are you, spirit?” Bragg asks.“I am the ghost of prosecutions past,” it moans. “This night you will be visited by three other spirits: The ghost of what you wish to be, the ghost of what should be, and the ghost of actually what-it-is.” Oh, Gawd,” Bragg groans, his esophagus on fire with acidified hot-sauce residue.

The DA falls back into a febrile sleep, but wakens minutes later. The bedroom of his condo has transformed itself into a sunny street scene. He is riding an open limousine down Broadway through a blizzard of tickertape, the sidewalks filled with cheering citizens. Beside him sits a nubile person of the birthing persuasion, with supernaturally large infant-feeding glands, not unlike a certain star of adult films at the center of his brilliant case against the former president. “I am the ghost of what you wish to be,” she says, her breath warm in his ear. “You’re a bigger star now than ever I was in life, and without all the mess.” “Yeah? What’s that up ahead?” he asks. “The steps of City Hall where you will receive your Nobel Peace Prize and be handed the nomination for governor, your stepping stone to the White House.” “We gonna have to change the name of that place,” Bragg grumbles.

Suddenly a box appears on Bragg’s lap. It contains two McDonald’s Sausage, Egg, and Cheese McGriddles® plus an apple fritter and a caramel macchiato. No sooner do his teeth close on that first delicious bite, when the confetti in the air turns to pixels, which dissolve along with the street scene, and then Bragg is back in his bed. Laughter rings across the big room, but with a demonic dissonance. A large white man with a silvery mane of hair and a nose like an Appalachian dulcimer, draped in black judicial robes, sits up behind a lofty bench, wearing a scowl of privilege. “What do you want?” Bragg asks. “Your law license, asshole.”

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Durham’s still around?!

Durham Unveils Smoking Gun FBI Text Message, ‘Joint Venture’ Trump Smear (JTN)

Special Counsel John Durham is revealing new smoking gun evidence, a text message that shows a Clinton campaign lawyer lied to the FBI, while putting the courts on notice he is prepared to show the effort to smear Donald Trump with now-disproven Russia collusion allegations was a “conspiracy.” In a bombshell court filing late Monday night, Durham for the first time suggested Hillary Clinton’s campaign, her researchers and others formed a “joint venture or conspiracy” for the purpose of weaving the collusion story to harm Trump’s election chances and then the start of his presidency.”These parties acted as ‘joint venturer[s]’ and therefore should be ‘considered as co-conspirator[s],'” he wrote.

Durham also revealed he has unearthed a text message showing Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann falsely told the FBI he was not working on behalf of any client when he delivered now-discredited anti-Trump research in the lead-up to the 2016 election. In fact, he was working for the Clinton campaign and another client, prosecutors say. The existence of the text message between Sussmann and then-FBI General Counsel James Baker was revealed in a court filing late Monday night by Durham’s team. Prosecutors said they intend to show Sussmann gave a false story to the FBI but then told the truth about working on behalf of the Clinton campaign when he later testified to Congress.

“Jim – it’s Michael Sussmann. I have something time-sensitive (and sensitive) I need to discuss,” Sussmann texted Baker on Sept. 18, 2016, according to the new court filing. “Do you have availability for a short meeting tomorrow? I’m coming on my own – not on behalf of a client or company – want to help the Bureau. Thanks.” Prosecutors said the text message will become essential evidence at trial to show Sussmann lied to the FBI. “The defendant lied in that meeting, falsely stating to the General Counsel that he was not providing the allegations to the FBI on behalf of any client,” Durham’s motion said. “In fact, the defendant had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including (i) a technology executive (“Tech Executive-1”) at a U.S.-based Internet company (“Internet Company-1″), and (ii) the Clinton Campaign.”

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Some stories are crazier than others.

Jim Jordan Demands Docs After IRS “Attempt To Intimidate” Matt Taibbi (ZH)

It has been eleven years since Lois Lerner presided over (and then apologized for) the IRS targeting of conservatives during the 2012 election. But her “inappropriate… error of judgment” may just have been turned up to ’11’ as during the day when independent journalist Matt Taibbi was in Washington DC delivering testimony to the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on March 9, an IRS agent visited his home in New Jersey, leaving a note demanding he contact the agency within four days.

“Odd” indeed, Mr. Musk. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Mr. Taibbi was told in a call with the agent that both his 2018 and 2021 tax returns had been rejected owing to concerns over identity theft. The journalist has provided House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan’s committee with documentation showing his 2018 return had been electronically accepted, and he says the IRS never notified him or his accountants of a problem after he filed that 2018 return more than four-and-a-half years ago. He says the IRS initially rejected his 2021 return, which he later refiled, and it was rejected again – even though Mr. Taibbi says his accountants refiled it with an IRS-provided pin number. Mr. Taibbi notes that in neither case was the issue “monetary,” and that the IRS owes him a “considerable” sum.

The bigger question on everyone’s minds (most of all Rep. Jordan) is simple – since when did the IRS dispatch agents for surprise house calls? Is this the new $80 billion budget being well spent to ‘send a message’ to a reporter telling the truth? The coincidental timing of this unannounced IRS agent visit prompted Rep. Jordan to write to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, demanding answers: “In light of the hostile reaction to Mr. Taibbi’s reporting among left-wing activists, and the IRS’s history as a tool of government abuse, the IRS’s action could be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate a witness before Congress. We expect your full cooperation with our inquiry.”

Jordan added that “the circumstances… are incredible,” and “demand a careful examination by the Committee to determine whether the visit was a thinly-veiled attempt to influence or intimidate a witness before Congress.” And the committee Chair demanded that the IRS and Treasury provide the following documents and information: 1. All documents and communications referring or relating to the IRS’s field visit to the residence of Matthew Taibbi on March 9, 2023; 2. All documents and communications between or among the IRS, Treasury Department, and any other Executive Branch entity referring or relating to Matthew Taibbi; and 3. All documents and communications sent or received by Revenue Officer [James Nelson] referring or relating to Matthew Taibbi. Yellen and Werfel were given until April 10th to comply with the request.

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Complex systems.

The Worst Model in History: How the Curve was not Flattened (Ugo Bardi)

Multiparameter models of complex systems are mainly tools to interpret the data: they are meant to tell you what’s causing what and how. In the case of climate change, the models tell us that the correlation between temperature and the concentration of greenhouse gases is consistent with a causal relationship according to what we know of atmospheric physics. In other words, they provide evidence that greenhouse gases are “forcing” the climate system to heat up. But you could arrive at this conclusion even without models: just on the basis of known physics and observations. After all, Svante Arrhenius had already arrived at a reasonably correct estimation of the parameters of the system in 1896, without using sophisticated models. Then, suppose the concentration of greenhouse gases continues increasing. In that case, we can expect that temperatures will keep increasing, too, and over a certain level, that’s surely not a good thing for us.


Climate models, incidentally, tend to be optimistic in the sense that they are normally unable to describe the kind of abrupt climate changes that occur in the form of “Seneca Cliffs” which were observed in the remote past. In climate science, they are often called “climate tipping points,” going through one would surely be extremely bad for us. This said, there remains the typical problem of multiparameter models: that of separating the roles of parameters that have similar effects on the system. Climate models might overestimate the role of greenhouse gases and underestimate the cooling effects of the ecosystem’s metabolic processes, as argued, for instance, in this paper by Makarieva et al. In that case, we risk neglecting the role of an important factor in what we are seeing.

So, do we run the risk of making the same mistakes with climate change mitigation that were made with the attempt to flatten the curve during the Covid-19 epidemic? That is, do we risk disrupting the fabric of society for an overestimated risk or for the misattribution of the causes of the problem? I’d say it is unlikely, but we need to keep an open attitude and accept that, with new data, models must change (which is exactly what was not done with the Covid epidemic). The only certain thing is that disasters are unavoidable if complex systems are left to politicians to manage. There are several other areas of modeling that developed features that could be described as “flattening the curve” — perhaps the main one is the series of scenarios presented in the 1972 study, “The Limits to Growth.” One of the proposals, for instance, was to place a cap on industrial production to reduce the exploitation of natural resources.


It is likely that it was never intended as a realistic proposal but rather as an illustration of the features of the model. In any case, there were no global political structures that could have imposed such a rule, and its consequences on the real world would have been unknown and possibly negative or even disastrous. Indeed, if you look at the most recent incarnation of the concepts at the basis of “The Limits to Growth” idea, the 2022 study “Earth4All,” you’ll see that there are no proposals aiming at “flattening” any curve. The proposed interventions are all based on resource allocation, changes in the financial and political structure of society, and more aiming at steering, but not forcing, the system to move in a certain direction. It is an approach pioneered, among others, by one of the authors of the 1972 “The Limits to Growth,” Donella Meadows, with her concept of “leverage points.” We are still learning how to manage complex systems, but we are starting to understand that brutal, top-down actions do not usually work.

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“..if a sponsor doesn’t like what the committee has to say—the conclusions of the committee—… the sponsor can’t prevent the report from being made public,” Stratton said. “This is a very powerful tool that we have.”

US Expert Panel to Meet on Adverse Events Caused By COVID-19 Vaccines (ET)

A group of U.S. experts is set to meet soon as part of a project to determine which adverse events the COVID-19 vaccines cause. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has appointed a committee to review evidence on the relationship between the vaccines and specific adverse events that have occurred after vaccination, including infertility and sudden death. The committee’s process includes establishing methods, reviewing literature, drawing conclusions, and preparing a report. “The committee will make conclusions about the causal association between vaccines and specific adverse events,” the NASEM website states.

While their work is funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the sponsors will not be able to examine the report before it is published to the public, Kathleen Stratton, a NASEM official, said during a recent meeting. “What that means is that if a sponsor doesn’t like what the committee has to say—the conclusions of the committee—… the sponsor can’t prevent the report from being made public,” Stratton said. “This is a very powerful tool that we have.” Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, a CDC official, told panel members recently that the CDC would help members locate studies and data from the agency. “We very much value your expertise and your independence. We look forward to working with you, look forward to seeing the results of your findings,” he said.

The upcoming meeting will be held on March 27 and March 31, the latter of which will include time for public comments. The rest of the two-day meeting will be held behind closed doors. The panel already met on Jan. 25 and Feb. 1. “Your conclusions will help inform injury compensation recommendations and decisions when assessing whether specific adverse events are causally associated with vaccines,” Dr. George Reed Grimes, the official in charge of the HHS Division of Injury Compensation Programs, told panel members during the meeting. The report is slated to be published in March 2024.

Read more …

“Australia is experiencing worse excess mortality than at any point in 80 years, while neighboring New Zealand is experiencing the worst mortality since the Spanish flu.”

Australia Bears Witness To Vaccine Deaths (Horowitz)

Despite everything we know about the deadly and ineffective nature of the COVID shots, our government recommends four booster doses for people as young as 6 months old. The shots have even been added to the child immunization schedule. Yet there is no protest whatsoever from the GOP establishment, including the biggest voice among them – Donald J. Trump. Just how radical is this? Even Australia – the poster child for COVID fascism – now only recommends the shots for the elderly and those with health risks. Perhaps it’s because the excess deaths down under have become too big to ignore. Australia is experiencing worse excess mortality than at any point in 80 years, while neighboring New Zealand is experiencing the worst mortality since the Spanish flu.


Officials won’t openly acknowledge the likely cause, but their policy changes regarding boosters clearly demonstrate a quiet walk-back of the needle idol. The latest booster advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) only recommends new doses for those over 65 and those “at risk,” while recommending against the shots for children. Moreover, as our government continues to completely deny any risk in the shots, the government of Western Australia’s Department of Health recently revealed that its own safety monitoring showed that there is a 24 times greater risk of adverse events following the COVID shots than other vaccines. This was in 2021 before the boosters, when the excess deaths really accelerated in Australia. It would be nice to see the total numbers, but those 2021 numbers were hidden for over a year as officials pushed the boosters.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., we still have a total blackout from Republicans, including from Donald Trump, who not only falsely said the vaccines saved millions, but completely denied the existence of any risk. “I have had absolutely no side effects,” he coldly noted in an interview. Even the Australian Department of Health conceded, “Adolescents and younger adults have a lower age-related risk of severe COVID-19, and a comparatively higher risk of myocarditis following vaccination.” Who would have thought the top GOP leaders would be to the left of Australia? Obviously, the media is trying to cover up the pandemic of deaths in Australia by suggesting it has nothing to do with the shots. Of course, the Associated Press’ fact-check team, in their infinite wisdom, have concluded that the surge in deaths must be because of COVID itself.


But that is a self-indictment of the vaccine. How could Australians experience almost all of their COVID deaths AFTER the vaccine and boosters? We were all told that the vaccine itself was supposedly 95% effective against hospitalizations and deaths, if not against transmission. Yet a new preprint study estimates that Aussie excess deaths in 2021 were seven times higher than during the pre-vaccine pandemic year of 2020 and an unfathomable 19 times higher in 2022. That was the year of mild Omicron, and everyone was boosted. Checkmate.

Read more …

“Net Zero is becoming the dividing line in the age-old battle between Right and Left, Free markets and Socialism, Cavaliers and Roundheads..”

Climate Hysteria and Woke Gobbledegook Are Becoming Inseparable (DS)

One of Britain’s leading climate ‘experts’, Professor Kevin Anderson, has provided a valuable insight into the increasingly bizarre demands that surround the promotion of the collectivist Net Zero political project. Writing in the Conversation, he argues for Net Zero within 12 years, complete with a refit of U.K. housing stock, a withdrawal of all combustion engine cars in favour of expanded public transport, electrification of industry, the roll out of ‘zero-carbon’ energy, and the banning of all fossil fuel production. To achieve his aims, Anderson suggests mobilisation on the scale of the post-war European reconstruction Marshall Plan. Others might suggest his crackpot schemes will leave the country facing a similar scale of destruction, ruin and poverty to that caused by the Luftwaffe.

Anderson is currently a Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester and he has plenty of form when it comes to extremist claims and calls for widespread rationing. As early as 2010, he was calling on politicians to consider a rationing system “similar to the one introduced during the last time of crisis in the 1930s and 40s”. He also suggested a limit on electricity “so people are forced to turn the heating down”, and a limit on goods that require a lot of energy to manufacture. On a practical level, Anderson’s latest calls for radical societal restructuring under the guise of a ‘climate emergency’ are plainly ridiculous. Retrofitting Britain’s well-ventilated housing and industrial stock along with installing heat pumps would cost around £3 trillion, according to a paper published last year by the technology professor Michael Kelly – equivalent, it should be noted, to Britain’s annual GDP.

That, of course, is before we’ve factored in the cost of Anderson’s other plans such as retrofitting the entire industrial and transport infrastructure, all within the next 12 years. In its more sane moments, even Extinction Rebellion might be proud of such an ambitious plan. Collectivist economic solutions alongside the ubiquitous woke dogma are increasingly dominating debate around climate change. This blatantly political agenda is said to be dictated by ‘the Science’ which its advocates then refuse to discuss, a ruse used to disguise the paucity of evidence that humans control the climate thermostat. Net Zero is becoming the dividing line in the age-old battle between Right and Left, Free markets and Socialism, Cavaliers and Roundheads. In the U.S. the issue is rapidly becoming yet another fight between the Republicans and the Democrats. Similar trends are likely in the U.K. and Europe as Net Zero starts wreaking economic and social havoc.

Read more …

 

 

JFK Secret Society

 

 

Frequency+Bowie
https://twitter.com/i/status/1640042545416925185

 

 

Sinatra

 

 

 

 

The Mandelbulb is a 3-dimensional fractal that can be constructed as a Mandelbrot set in 4 dimensions using quaternions and bicomplex numbers. This is one spotted in the wild

 

 


The marvelous spatuletail gets its name from the male’s two longest tail feathers, which can be controlled independently and play a major role in the hummingbird’s courtship displays

 

 

Shark feeding frenzy

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle March 28 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 59 total)
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  • #132217

    René Magritte The song of the storm 1937   • US Democracy ‘A Facade’ – Patrushev (RT) • Russian Security Chief Calls US World’s Biggest Dictator
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 28 2023]

    #132218
    Germ
    Participant

    Icke -UK’s Jones

    @paulotik0tok

    Replying to @BatMon882 David Icke take on the World… #pov #neverforget #davidicke #matrix #illuminati

    ♬ Suspense, horror, piano and music box – takaya

    #132219
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Nashville Shooter and the Publics Heinous Discourse

    Styxhexenhammer666 tees off on the Nashville shooter and the predictable disintegration and politicization of what passes as intelligent discourse.

    I love that his appearance is a drole troll on hippies, very funny

    #132221
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “EU Threatens More Sanctions If Russia Stations Tactical Nuclear Weapons In Belarus”

    You are literally kidding me, right?

    Oh well if it’s SANCTIONS, Russia will definitely surrender. I mean, how could they not after the Steven Seagal sanctions? Good thing they’re not allies with half the world’s GDP, ‘cause WHEW! That would be bad.

    14 Legged killer squid. So if we go YET ANOTHER place we have no business being, 15,000 miles away and 2 miles deep, we can get our comeuppance.

    “Vaccinating During a Pandemic.

    Always wrong, against their own 100-year rules. They know this, tested it, printed it, recommended it, repeated it for 50 years, so why did they deny and contradict their own Science? Just “One day in May?” Do they just hate medicine that much?

    “When safety testing is skipped…”

    Everyone just loved Trump so much, they mainlined his juice into their veins…

    “US Democracy ‘A Facade’ – Patrushev (RT)

    Patrushey should just really quote Jimmy Carter, Harvard, and Columbia on this subject. It’s been well-established by the highest sources.

    ““vassals” that are constantly “humiliated” in their abusive relationships with the US.”

    The nationalists are against this constant, war, abuse, and violence, which is why they are the enemy and we hates them for ever and ever.

    “US politicians are “held captive by their own propaganda” and still believe that Washington could deliver a fatal nuclear ‘first strike’ against Russia”

    They are the few, unfortunately they’re burrowed in all over the place.

    He claimed that Russia has 12 times more military aircraft than Ukraine.”

    Ukraine has zero, so what’s zero times infinity?

    “NATO members appeared to be using the Ukraine crisis to dispose of “old equipment they no longer need.”

    They are slowly eliminating Ukraine and handing it to Russia.

    • The EU Is Losing Relevance In The Emerging New World (Fomenko)
    “It’s what happens when you only blindly follow.”

    They blindly follow because free speech and open debate is dead. They hate and oppress all the Western values that caused their success, including love. And its associates marriage and children. We’re going to win using hate, isolation, and oppression. Yeah, that always works.

    Ukraine may need to conscript even more people into military service to potentially fight against Belarus,”

    We’re fighting Belarus now? Says who? Who decided?

    “The resolution was supported by 3 countries (Russia, China and Brazil), no one voted against, 12 abstained.”

    12 nations have no interest in knowing. That’s odd. So there’s a major International Criminal running around, which has extremely high-level talents and is willing to use them against civilian infrastructure, but they have no interesting in discovering who these people are. Right. Any Mayor or Policeman would do the same.

    World Bank: World Economy May Face “Lost Decade” (Az.)

    Yes, but only since 1999. Oh wait, is that more than a decade?

    “Jim Jordan Demands Docs After IRS “Attempt to Intimidate” Matt Taibbi (ZH)

    The IRS “exists” therefore they lie, fabricate evidence, and oppress the people. It’s what governments do. (If they don’t live with the fear of God in them every second of their lives.)

    And yes, essentially that’s witness tampering.

    “The Worst Model in History: How the Curve was Not Flattened (Ugo Bardi)

    I’m lost as to why anyone would care if the earth warmed. It’s been 6 degrees warmer and was far better off, manyfold the plants and animals of now. It had 9x the CO2 for millennia and never had a runaway effect. I think we can put that nonsense to bed now before we all die of solving a problem we don’t have. Cultures worldwide flourish when the temperature is higher. They quickly collapse if it’s even slightly lower. I guess we know which of they two they desire. The answer is murder. …Just skip the question, who cares? I already know the answer is murder.

    While their work is funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) … the sponsor can’t prevent the report from being made public,”

    You are kidding me, right? Who pays the piper picks the tune“. …Oh but not with these saints and angels, they would never. They would definitely have Pfizer yank all funding and be suddenly unemployed instead.

    “Australia Bears Witness To Vaccine Deaths (Horowitz)”

    It can only be the vaccine.

    “he argues for Net Zero within 12 years, complete with a refit of U.K. housing stock, a withdrawal of all combustion engine cars in favour of expanded public transport, electrification of industry, the roll out of ‘zero-carbon’ energy, and the banning of all fossil fuel production.”

    …So he’s called for the immediate death of 40M people. Immediate, like start the camps, the bodies will pile up in a mere 10 years. Sadly, that’s not a surprise, they recommend murdering every human they can find more or less hourly. As I say to the Ukraine boosters: “If you want it so much, here’s a gun.” Real solutions start at home.

    Equal the Luftwaffe? You are kidding, right? Germany barely touched Britain, they’re just hysterical liars who like making up stories. More like leave Britain in the state of the Dresden bombings. Or worse: Detroit.

    Of course the sad part is, it wouldn’t matter even if CO2 caused warming. For one thing their solution would kill 3-5x as many people, and 100 years faster. The other is, if they did 100% of their goals, it would have net-ZERO effect: All the emissions are in China, India, etc, who DGAF. It WOULD, however, make you the planet’s juiciest target for an immediate foreign occupation, and all the rapes, murders therein. #Winning! I say do it. Britain can cease to exist on the planet in a fortnight. Why stop them?

    AFKTT: Man I wish you were young enough to take a $10,000 bet on that. Even $1,000 at 10-to-1, but alas, it will take quite some time to prove or disprove the thesis. Sometimes life isn’t fair.

    Rich, I don’t know either one of them. They were both in the military during the period in question. They weren’t put in Leavenworth, so clearly they followed orders. That’s it, the only relevance. What would “reformed” even mean? Everyone here is so eager to take offense here, myself foremost.

    No wonder everyone is Black Pilled, we’re going up against the world’s greatest Empire with almost no one on our side, but we’re going to make no allies, talk only with people exactly like us, and associate with no bad men, not even the pawn broker down the hall, or mildly salty public figures, but CERTAINLY no one who as ever raised his hand in anger. We shall remain entirely pure, our purity rings intact, knowing for certain we lost by Doing the Right Thing™. I mean for real?

    Who do you think is IN a rebellion, an insurrection? BAD people. Thieves, traffickers, fist fighters, people who like to make things go boom. People who SELL guns, who therefore sell drugs, who are therefore nowhere near true believers. And certainly not church mice. Why did John Hancock own a warship? To drink tea off the poop deck?

    I love these lunatics. I think they’re the best. Nothing’s better than people coming up with crazed ideas you never thought of and never would. However, they are a bit dangerous and also exhausting.

    Haven’t seen TAE Summary. We scare him away?

    #132222
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Now 25 of 30 of the last Mass Shooters were Leftists?

    Don’t worry: they’ll never notice. Reality is but a distant dream.

    #132223
    Redneck
    Participant

    Rollo has lived in the US and Russia. He supports Putin and Russia but is not a sheeple like these other tools. The two Alex’s and Ritter , Gonzo etc. Tells it like is , he is a Russian speaker and claims to live in Russia.the US.

    #132224
    Redneck
    Participant
    #132225
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Sergey Lavrov is in deed a legend

    Speaks the truth even in English colloquial!

    Tony Winken Blinken the Nod is incoherent even in his native tongue!

    Hahahahaha!

    What a Putz

    Blinken couldn’t carry Lavrov’s jockstrap

    .

    #132226
    Alexander Carpenter
    Participant

    Since we are now including more faith-based Carbon Cult nonsense from Ugo Bardi (another otherwise-astute observer), I will once again remind us of this “curriculum” for reviewing the state of what is so ambitiously, and so undeservedly, called “climate science.” After giving this admittedly snarky screed an honest study, and attending a sufficiency of its links, no person with any scientific competence or integrity (or even common sense) could maintain that this nascent science has any legitimate basis to make any sweeping statements about climate-change, especially those with public-policy implications. In fact one might conclude that this politicized “science” is from scratch a policy and agenda driver.
    For whom, exactly, is unclear, as unclear as the pretend science itself. No facile answers here, folks, move along, now…

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vrpxs5olpserhx/Do%20You%20%22Believe%22%20in%20Climate%20Change%3F.docx?dl=0

    #132227
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • Russia’s Newest Jets Provide Air Superiority

    Russia has already destroyed 408 Ukronazi jets and 283 helicopters

    The Ukronazis ‘airforce’ is a bad joke.

    Any aircraft the West supplies them is Russian training target practice.

    The Empire of Lies and it’s Eurotard Concubine Tarts have a fraction of the industrial base capacity as Russia and China, which are now ‘an item’ in the news.

    Even the BRICS can out compete the G7 across the board.

    Russia has 12 time zones worth of resources, the Empire of Lies has played out dried up fracking ponzi gas wells as ‘game changing’ energy resources.

    Grace under pressure is always good for a laugh

    .

    #132228
    chooch
    Participant

    If there was a “Fauci Award”, I think I know who A. Carpenter would nominate.

    #132229
    John Day
    Participant

    Bibi Netanyahu already got legislation passed that makes it harder to depose him, without having to scuttle the Supreme Court. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2023-03-27/bibi-already-got-what-he-wanted

    Picture Bibi’s face here, and Israel is “the bomb”, of course:
    Bibi forever

    #132230
    John Day
    Participant

    How much testosterone does it take to become Rambo in a school you hated a dozen years ago?
    “T” is addictive…

    #132231
    Oroboros
    Participant

    New Zealand and Australia experience record excess deaths

    Explained in one word

    Faucism

    .

    .

    #132232
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Russians are saying so many sensible things about America, things sensible Americans say about America’s business class and politicians, that it’s hard to keep up.

    “There are so many p*ssies surrounding your presidential campaign on both side, that I prefer not to comment about it”
    _Lavrov

    As entertaining as it is and the host was titillated too, I put odds on it being deep faked by Palantir’s boys from ch……

    #132233
    John Day
    Participant

    The creeping oligarchic power-struggle positioning for 2024 edges away from Clinton-Podesta a little more today:
    “Special Counsel John Durham is revealing new smoking gun evidence, a text message that shows a Clinton campaign lawyer lied to the FBI, while putting the courts on notice he is prepared to show the effort to smear Donald Trump with now-disproven Russia collusion allegations was a “conspiracy.” In a bombshell court filing late Monday night, Durham for the first time suggested Hillary Clinton’s campaign, her researchers and others formed a “joint venture or conspiracy” for the purpose of weaving the collusion story to harm Trump’s election chances and then the start of his presidency.”These parties acted as ‘joint venturer[s]’ and therefore should be ‘considered as co-conspirator[s],’” he wrote.”

    Trump/Netanyahu consolidating in US and Israel, but the whole structure shakes in the wind.

    #132234
    Alexander Carpenter
    Participant

    And for those folks who might seek to look deeper into the failures of our current science paradigm, and what to do about them (and other failures, of identification and affiliation, of individual and collective responsibility, and of sanity itself), I offer this draft Epistemological Engineering, an overview of what is the largest-context most-fundamental challenge facing our civilization these days: how to think and know about the real world instead of believe in arbitrary subsets of it. In other words, how to develop and apply a complexity-aware paradigm instead of the algorithm-bound “standard-narrative” post-Modern paradigm. This is a major challenge, with much riding on its engagement and resolution:

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/8vnz3ml5z730mds/Epistemological%20Engineering.docx?dl=0

    And considering a different (yet related and parallel) paradigm shift about human nature itself (as indicated by human behavior), here’s a tidbit about that mysterious notion, “algorithmic behavior,” to dispel another set of largely nonsensical beliefs such as tabula rasa and even (sort-of) free will. Enjoy these potential liberations…

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7e8qg9vxac9nkm/Human%20Behavioral%20Algorithms.docx?dl=0

    And if you can’t, then suffer on.

    #132235
    zerosum
    Participant

    MY STORY.

    The Kiev regime, President Vladimir Zelensk

    Ethnic cleansing, hatred of or discrimination against a person or persons based on their race.

    Racissm the belief that certain races of people are by birth are superior to others

    Exploitation, taking advantage of someone or a group of people in order to profit from them or otherwise benefit oneself.

    The US is not really a democracy, nor does it seek to promote democracy

    Washington wants to play a central role indefinitely, and any dissidents can be expected to be labeled as ‘non-democratic states’.”

    Western media, however, has presented another version of events.

    Washington uses a web of government-funded think tanks and associated journalists to control public opinion and steer EU countries towards supporting its objectives.

    CIA document from 1957 shows US’s long-standing plans to use Ukraine to undermine USSR and Russia.

    AIchat and AIdraw can twist the truth

    #132236
    Alexander Carpenter
    Participant

    chooch: If there was a “Fauci Award”, I think I know who A. Carpenter would nominate.

    I’m thinking that you mean AFKTT, but that’s just a guess. And no, as far as I can tell, Fauci seems to be a socio- and psycho-pathic liar (compounded by hypocrisy and corruption — and/or maybe a fanatical adherent to some pernicious/evil ideology or agenda), while AFKTT seems to be “merely” neurotic in clinging to anomalous arbitrary beliefs and posturing to “rationalize” them.
    The best thing we can do for ourselves is challenge, in a systematic and responsible way, our beliefs. First, and perhaps most difficult, is to recognize them as such, for they usually masquerade as identity-myth-confirming knowledge. Then, well, check out the Epistemological Engineering doc for the rest…

    #132237
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    @Dr. D

    “Take offense” …..I’ll let the my attorney reply. “misplaced characterization”

    My observation IS your’s, D. Everybody is at everyone else’s throat. To me it looks pretty damn Borderline, that is, the collective insanity reached another unforeseen level.
    However, being MacGregor’s contemporary, having been in the same combat action? as MacGregor and Ritter I don’t see how y’all don’t see it with those two guys as “it’s” so obvious.

    So, my intent was neither provocative nor rhetorical. Their words today don’t match their deeds. So, my question remains. How have you reconciled Ritter and Macgregor?

    The best proscription is to ignore them as it with other people labeled borderline, narcissist and antisocial except that’s the precise moment one feels their wrath….triggered by impending abandonment.

    #132238
    those darned kids
    Participant

    if there was a “fauci award”, i know who mr. fauci would nominate.

    #132239
    jb-hb
    Participant

    …while AFKTT seems to be “merely” neurotic in clinging to anomalous arbitrary beliefs and posturing to “rationalize” them.

    Hardly.

    First, it’s in his name “A Few Know The Truth”

    He subscribes to a belief – he has stated himself – that people living in civilization are zombies, not “real people,” but being one of the few who can SEE, he is one of the few REAL people, REAL humans, one of the few who accesses REAL reality, while you and I do not.

    He published a whole Jensenite manifesto – he studiously avoided answering my questions on whether he agrees with jensen, even denied being a fan of Jenson – right before I said ok, I shall go ahead and deconstruct him publicly. THEN he jumped in and started arguing for it. Shortly thereafter I discovered he had published an entire Jensenite manifesto. One which he has adhered to rather strictly in everthing he’s said.

    Jensinitism is just current year marxism/deconstructionism/critical theory devaluation and demoralization ported over to environmentalism and the doom-o-sphere

    “False Consciousness” held by workers within Capitalism can be ported into “White Consciousness” within “White Supremacy” can be ported over to “Patriarchal Consciousness” within the “Patriarchy” can be ported over to “Trans Phobia” within the “cisgendered normative society”

    ….can be ported over to “civilizational consciousness” within “civilization”

    In all cases, the method is to admit, explain as LITTLE AS POSSIBLE about one’s beliefs, agenda, etc while hammering over and over with unchanging talking points. (REAL people, having a discussion between each other, try to make clear and explain their beliefs, not hide them)

    In any of the re-brandings for subcategories, the same tactics are alinsky rules, there shall be no conversation, critical theory, tear down, disrupt, demoralize, devalue. In practice, it has the same observable behavior as a classic malignant narcissist.

    The sad new twist to Marxism – instead of reviewing the failures and travesties of the 20th century and coming up with something cool and better – is to turn it into a Mystery School in which only the Few Who Know are real people.

    There Shall Be No Discussion because you aren’t even really conscious, a person, you’re a FALSE consciousness. You live in capitalism/patriarchy/cisgender normativity/civilization, all your inputs are a lie, therefore your consciousness is a lie.

    A discussion with you is not only undesired, but impossible. You’d have to be a real person. All that can be done with you is to take everything away from you – everything constituting the matrix pod of lies you are trapped in – and keep hitting you with repetitive talking points to train you, like a dumb animal, and demoralize you.

    See why references to valid science, logical arguments, logical questions, only get the same reaction despite months of interaction? And this is an illustration of the whole movement.

    #132240
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    It’s funny how many questions are answered within the questions themselves. And it’s tragic, too, which I suppose is what make’s it funny. (you must either laugh or cry.)

    For example, we look at Anthony Fauci in total bewilderment, and have to ask ourselves the question, “What sort of man would deliberately kill millions of people with poisonous medicines just to make a few lousy millions of dollars and feel like a big shot?”

    Well, the answer to the question is within the wording of the question. Simply say it without the punctuation mark or the feeling of interrogative bewonderment. That man (Anthony Fauci) is the sort of man who would deliberately kill millions of people with poisonous medicines just to make a few million dollars and feel like a big shot.

    He sure doesn’t look especially diabolical, and the fact is that he is is not. He is simply a guy who could do certain sub-par sciencey shit AND was able and willing to deliberately kill millions of people with poisonous medicines just to make a few lousy millions of dollars and feel like a big shot. In a sense, that was his job description according to his employers’ wishes.

    And if you think Fauci is bad, just imagine the guy he works for. Now THAT guy (Fauci’s boss, whoever it is) is so bad that he’s willing to do things even Fauci would not be willing to do (that’s what makes him mob boss instead of an underling like Tony the Science.)

    Our so-called civilization is structured, from top to bottom, in a sort of “reverse” hierarchy of moral red-lines. To move up in the hierarchy of power one must cross (downward) the red-line of how evil and destructive will be the consequences of doing whatever they’re asked or expected to do or go along with.

    Want the power of leadership of a country? Well then, in addition to all of the other requirements, one must be able and willing to go to war to kill as many people as necessary to ensure the continuity of one’s own country in times of existential crisis. Probably going to have to imprison or execute a bunch of other problems too, along the way, or you won’t be leader of that country for very long.

    There you have it. The built-in moral dilemma of any and every existential crisis. What is one willing to do to get what one needs to survive and go on?

    The institutions of this world are comprised (from bottom to top) of those persons able and willing to do whatever it takes . . . . up to a self-imposed “red line”, beyond which they will not go. A loan shark, for example, is willing to break your legs if you don’t pay off your “vig” in time, but he isn’t willing to kill you. The boss that the loan shark works for, however, IS willing to kill , and willing to kill the loan shark, too, which is why the boss is the boss and the loan shark works for him instead of the other way around.

    At the bottom of these institutions are workers willing to simply “do their job” of following orders if that’s what it takes to keep their jobs, regardless of the consequences of following those orders, and regardless of the criminal intent or negligence that exists higher up that institutional food chain. The intent would be impotent if the workers didn’t follow harmful orders.

    If that looks like a situation where there is plenty of blame to go around, then you would be right about that. There is, because the blame has to (and does) extend ALL the way down to each and every person who complies with an ultimately harmful order, suggestion or advice. There are no exceptions.

    Last time I looked the people doing that sort of thing was all of us, and for that reason I think it’s time that all of us more carefully reexamined our “red lines” of moral responsibility to determine more explicitly just what we’re willing to do or tolerate in order to keep the peace enough to get by and go on living to an acceptable standard of living.

    But do begin by realizing that people who harm people for personal gain are criminals who have already demonstrated what sort of people they are. So you can at least stop asking that particular rhetorical question for the time being.

    We are striving for balance, aren’t we? Well, that’s a delicate thing, balance, and it pretty obviously needs an adjustment of some kind right about now, and I’m pretty sure that means us.

    #132242
    chooch
    Participant

    Hilarious tdk.

    #132243
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    So you met the guy on the left in a bar a struck up a pleasant conversation.

    You talk about the weather, the price of bread, good hiking trails in the area, nice fishing spots, the pretty waitress, etc…

    Then the conversation comes around to occupations.

    You say you’re retired now but that you worked in construction and architecture and did a little teaching on the side.

    Your new acquaintance casually remarks that he does medical experiments on concentration camp inmates. He says it’s interesting work but long hours.

    You ask his name and he says Josef to his friends, but at work he is simply Dr Mengele.

    The banality of evil

    He seemed interesting and nice enough at the beginning.

    So it goes

    #132244
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Certainly surprising that no matter how many hundred times I bring up, “This will kill literally everybody, including YOU, your children, and everybody you know”, so “Maybe we should look into the validity, veracity, or even sanity of people who say such things” it always falls on deaf ears, as if it weren’t spoken.

    My assumption therefore was that THIS IS THE POINT. The deepest, most secret, heartfelt wish is to murder everyone and everything everywhere, but I could be mistaken.

    Like others of that sort, words spoken by the rebels, the serfs, the poor, the other tribe, the people over hill, the “other”, the poor benighted hovels of the subhumans we conquer and deign to teach better in our great beneficence, well, they’re not words at all. Just animal grunts, worth nothing, ignored. Just as the British in India. Hear nothing, engage in nothing, learn nothing. Just as all humans are worth nothing, ignored, wiped out, paved over. Only the Secret, Special humans who all know each other’s secret code phrases are worthy of time and attention. The others? As Sheridan on the Sioux Wars: “Nits Make Lice.” Kill them all.

    Just as Socialism and the workers, actually. Kill all the workers. Only then will they learn. And fight. So only by killing them can they not be killed. Very simple, don’t you see?

    #132245
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    #132246
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Actually, this week’s example was Yale Economist suggesting that all of Japan could solve their looming demographic problem if only all the old people would kill and disembowel themselves. For their own good, of course!

    Luckily the reason this is making the rounds is that it actually roused some revulsion and protest among a very few. Okay, um, could have babies? But also “Disembowel”? Like just dying, maybe refusing to get that super-extra lifesaving procedure not enough? HAS to be Seppuku, according to Yale. Only the most grisly death imaginable will satisfy them.

    I read it but it didn’t even occur to me because I read this all the time, especially in Canada, and when I bring it up, people felt I was being alarmist. So I’m glad there is still a level somewhere.

    So, is this what happens when people are too long removed from their emotions?

    #132247
    zerosum
    Participant

    I reserve the right to change my mind/opinions/interpretation.
    (However, Don’t expect me to agree with you. )

    #132248
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    I see that the CO2-Induced Planetary Meltdown deniers are seeking to dominate TAE.

    No knowledge.

    No data.

    No analysis.

    No logic.

    No coherent explanations for anything.

    Just promotion of fake narratives, lies and ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK.

    They would do really well at Pfizer or NATO or the US State Department.

    #132249
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Privation – no light, no heat. Locked away, not allowed to go out, have friends, normal family events (such as the lockdowns, 15 minute cities) forced to eat bugs and poop. you should have never been for x, y, and z reasons. Humiliated, shamed, twisted. It puts the lotion in the basket or it gets the hose.

    The entire WEF agenda is essentially what the psycho kidnapper does to the kid he kept in his basement for 10 years.

    It’s as if, being rich globe-trotters presents them with more problems. Were they a lowly supervisor working in a call center, an abusive step-father lording over a single family, they could establish misery in a bay of cubicles or household and call themselves king of infinite space. But because the bounds of their world ARE the world, they have quite a lot of work cut out to expand themselves to fill their bubble.

    Their illusion is that feelings, sensations of grandiosity tell them their plans are grand. But anytime they TELL their plans, the plans are super lame and nobody wants them.

    My least favorite architect is Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The Federal Center and IBM Plaza in Chicago, for instance. Awful black monoliths. His architecture brought no value of its own. It was only grandiose in the sense of wiping out value.

    Consider Farnsworth House. Life-threateningly hot in the summer, life threateningly cold in the winter. Literally unlivable. Placed – on purpose – in an area known to flood frequently, at the architect’s insistence, to fulfil his vision. Despite other sites on the same property being available that would not flood.

    The project began because a lady wanted a cheap cottage for weekend getaways. Before too long, he had her “making a real, serious commitment” (way, way more $$$ than she had intended) to “art” and “architecture,” etc Predictably, he went way over budget repeatedly, despite his client’s desperate repeated pleas, slandered her, and sued her for even more money.

    A featureless, aesthetically vacant white and glass box. A house not meant for humans, the making of which consumed years of life and the finances OF a human being who just wanted a little place in the country.

    It’s not THAT hard to make modern architecture work, though! You just have to not be an abusive, dishonest psycho.

    Consider the works of John Lautner – delightfully made for humans to live in. Many of these delightful houses built for little people – ON BUDGET – before the rich discovered him and got him making amazing weird mansions (Seen in James Bond, The Great Lebowski, etc) Playful, unique, warm and welcoming.

    https://www.youtube.com/@SuperJobbel/videos

    Meanwhile Mies’s main achievement is how many people he can demoralize driving by 860–880 Lake Shore Drive. Forcing me to see that thing is a little bit like forcing me to eat a grasshopper.

    #132250
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    It’s good to see Douglas Macgregor publicly state what some of us have been saying for more than 20 years.

    I got vilified for stating that obvious truth, too.

    None so blind as those who choose not to see.

    If one is vehemently vilified one can be fairly certain one is on the right track.

    I was vilified by many -including members of the local bridge club, staff at Hurunui Deceit and Crime (District Council) and my nutty neighbour- for not accepting the government’s lies about Covid and ‘vaccines’.

    I’d rather be vilified than wrong.

    #132251
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Internet dropping out 20 times an hour is a bugger. But no Inernet at all would be worse.

    Coming to everyone in the not-too-distant future.

    #132252
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Afewknowthetruth, you still haven’t even explained why you believe Planetary Meltdown will occur soon and suddenly, caused by CO2, despite science showing us that both temperatures and CO2 have been far, far higher than the levels you are saying spell total doom. After my asking you specifically, countless times, for months.

    You haven’t explained, certainly on a scientific basis, why you don’t believe in massive amounts of scientific geological data regarding the ice age cycle. You haven’t explained why you are an Ice Age Denier

    You can’t explain why you have specifically stated 7-8 billion need to die ASAP; it’s, as you have said, “the most merciful thing,” yet are somehow outraged by an injection given to billions that is sterilizing and killing people. Why wouldn’t you say whoever is responsible is doing god’s work?

    You can’t even square the circle of stating that all civilization, agriculture and everything that followed is a horrible mistake that if you could you would undo retroactively (denying billions the chance of having EVER existed), that the natural state of humans is naked in the jungle …but when it is pointed out that you are using a computer, the internet, the ALPHABET, you exclaim how useful it is to you and how mean it is for others to suggest you be denied it — no, that’s YOU dude.

    You’ve pointed out that people living within civilization – the “zombies” those who aren’t “real people” (I’m quoting you verbatim) cannot see reality and would fight to defend civilization because they are living in it, thus, in a sense, the enemy. (this is EXACTLY Engel’s, Marcuse’s, etc explanation of the Working class being blind and defending capitalism. You put it EXACTLY the same, just rebranded for Climate Meltdown)

    If people living within civilization ie those who defend it are blind, not real people, but YOU live in civilization and fight tooth and nail at the barest suggestion that you give it up….

    Then aren’t YOU blind? Aren’t you blind unless you exit the Matrix pod? Would YOU trust the evaluation of something coming from a zombie, a not real person, deterministically controlled to defend The System it is in? How can you trust your own judgment, defending civilization, your use of all its things as you are? By the definition of your own belief. (initiates – those FEW who know The Truth are exempt? is that it?

    See? Plenty of analysis. Ask again and you can get even more.

    #132253
    John Day
    Participant

    D Benton Smith was delving into hierarchical bureaucracy and the diffusion and transmission of responsibility for evil within the hierarchy. jb-hb has thoughts on it. Dr D sees it killing and killing because that is the solution to all of those problems caused by all those other people.
    Joe Stalin quoth, “no man, no problem”.

    So that gets me to thinking, that it feels different to somebody within a bureaucracy. It feels like one is just doing what is necessary to support the tribe, and it’s not that much, after all, not compared to …

    Bureaucracies are created by somebody, the “Great Founder” https://samoburja.com/gft/

    The bureaucracy is designed to remove all individual initiative, except some minimum, which is tightly contained to one specific function per person, in order to carry out the purpose of the founder. No one person is in a position to change the organizational structure, which carries out the organizational imperative. It’s a job, even at the “top”, excluding the founder. The founder ages and dies.
    Werner Von Baun WAS NASA. What is NASA now? What was NASA (really) in 1969? Reports vary…
    After the founder dies, any bureaucracy drifts towards a prime directive of self-perpetuation and growth. Everybody keeps their job and gets raises for good-compliance.

    Military bureaucracies have to get people to do “wet work”. They conscript young men, rn them through a bunch of training to make habitual responses pertinent to battle, then put them in battle. Sometimes they just put them into the battle without the training, like the Russian-speaking conscripts getting sent to Bakhmut to get killed by Russians.
    The people who excel at wet work are a different breed, the “dogs of war”. “Bad people”, per Dr D.

    So the purpose of bureaucracy is to make evil banal, so anybody can do it, and the fundamental drive eventually becomes that of helping the (bureacratic) “tribe” survive, which is a fundamental human drive. Everything is banal, not just evil. jb-hb found solace in actually helping another person despite having to carry out the orders from above.
    I used to really like being a doctor, because I had a unique position of being able to help people within certain boundaries, which kind of sat there, like no-money.
    Bureaucracy found that the ideal bureaucrat is a computer program, which could control any meat-puppet if it were set up properly.

    #132254
    John Day
    Participant

    “Fragmenting Dollar Empire” is up https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/fragmenting-dollar-empire

    Sasha Latypova presents On US Dollar and Debt, reviewing the workings of the vast fake-reality which is composed, in order to maintain the imperial system of wealth extraction through lending US dollars at low interest “loosely”, then “tightening” with high interest rates, to gobble up factories, farms, mines and oil wells across the world. This cycling of deer-corn and hunting-season is on top of the steady return of lending fiat money at interest. [Notably, the “going direct” actually began in September 2019, “before” COVID, even before Event 201, when around a $US trillion got injected into the repo crisis, because JPM, BoA, Goldman, Deutsche Bank and BlackRock couldn’t trust each other overnight any more. They knew…]
    ​ ​Why a “Plandemic” Was a Convenient Method to Prop Up Failing US Currency in the Global Context
    ​ ​As previously described, the US was piling on debt that was becoming unsustainable for the economy as well as for the reserve currency status of the US dollar. Traditional measures of stimulating the economy, such as interest rate decreases, were no longer possible as interest rates had already hit rock bottom by 2019. At this point, clever central bankers and Blackrock had determined that going ‘direct’ to stimulate the economy, strengthen the dollar, and increase inflation to reduce the debt burden were the only solution to all of their problems. However, some external event was needed in order to be able to justify these unusual steps.
    ​ ​As the pandemic was declared, the US went all-in on the going ‘direct’ approach.
    https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/the-story-of-us-debt

    ​ ​US congressmen game out war with China in 2025​ (Thanks Christine. China knew this timeline in 2017, and it was already a few years old.)
    ​ ​At the Republican Party policy retreat in Orlando, Florida, retired US Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery oversaw a simulated war with China that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans and the potential sinking of US aircraft carriers.
    ​ ​While the exercise was presented as a defensive response on the part of the United States to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, the US is systematically working to provoke a conflict with China by ending the one-China policy, arming Taiwan and expanding the presence of US troops on the island.
    https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/03/24/tliu-m24.html

    ​ Indian Punchline, Bhadrakumar, Thanks Eleni. Russia’s answer to DU from British tanks is to even the old score of the US arming NATO countries with American nuclear warheads. Bhadrakumar thinks the UK might have a specific motive for its provocation.
    ​ ​Moscow calls out US’ rules-based order in Europe
    ​ ​Why is Britain behaving like an outlier? Britain appears to be creating conditions in Europe to justify the basing of nuclear-armed US bombers at Lakenheath in Suffolk, which were removed in 1991 in line with the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty.

    Moscow calls out US’ rules-based order in Europe

    ​Poland suddenly cancels the transfer of 28 Mig 29s to Ukraine. What underlies that decision.?
    The Mig 29 is a capable and versatile early 1980s Soviet fighter jet.​ Will Poland need them soon?
    https://avia-pro.net/news/v-polshe-otkazalis-peredavat-ukraine-svoi-istrebiteli-mig-29

    #132255
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Mexico sees this as a good moment to openly refuse to capitulate to Washington. This is like 1937, when Mexican President Cardenas (a military general) nationalized the railways and oilfields, just ahead of WW-2, while FDR’s America was secretly preparing to join it.​ Is this presaging the US/China war?
    ​ ​President Joe Biden’s administration has reportedly opted to escalate a trade dispute with Mexico, making plans to demand that its neighbor to the south opens up its power and oil markets to US suppliers or face an arbitration and the threat of retaliatory tariffs…
    ..At issue is Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s decision to roll back reforms aimed at opening Mexican energy markets to outside competitors – allegedly in violation of the 2018 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USCMA), a trade deal that requires the countries to curtail protections of state-owned enterprises…
    ..The White House had held off on pushing forward with the trade dispute, trying to avoid an escalation of tensions as Biden sought Mexico’s help in addressing an illegal immigration crisis and drug trafficking, Reuters said. Relations between the two governments have deteriorated in recent months. Just last week, Lopez Obrador blasted US officials as “liars” after Biden’s administration accused Mexico of human rights abuses. “That’s just how they are,” he said. The US believes “it’s the government of the world.”
    https://www.rt.com/news/573706-us-mexico-energy-trade-row-escalates/

    ​ Bibi Netanyahu is such a wily weasel… Thanks Christine.
    ​ While backing off of the controversial judicial reforms may be seen as a chink in the armor of Netanyahu that was once thought to be impermeable, a deeper examination into the recent on-goings in the Knesset proves the contrary. Veiled beneath the spectacle of civil unrest, Israel’s legislature recently passed a law which dramatically limits the circumstances in which the nation’s prime minister can be deposed. The new law may further insulate the embattled prime minister who only just reclaimed his title for the sixth time following an ouster not even two years ago.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2023-03-27/bibi-already-got-what-he-wanted

    ​ The United States Embassy in Jerusalem has told Americans to “Leave Israel Immediately.” The country of Israel is descending rapidly into what some have called “Civil War.”
    ​ ​Unions have gone on strike. The airports have all shut down. Restaurants, banks, shopping malls, have all joined in a national strike against proposed changes to the government that would basically gut the Judiciary of Israel.
    ​ ​Members of the Israeli military are openly DESERTING after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu FIRED the Defense Minister for opposing judicial reforms.
    ​ ​Former Prime Minister Ehud Barack says Netanyahu and his “gang” are “acting insane and bringing civil war to the country.”
    ​ ​Israel’s Counsel General in New York has resigned.
    ​ ​For almost a whole week, hundreds-of-thousands of protestors have taken to the streets in every major city of the country.
    ​ ​There are now open calls from the far right inside Israel, for people to “take up arms” against left-wingers in the country.
    https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/u-s-embassy-to-americans-leave-israel-immediately

    M. K. BHADRAKUMAR​ ​US is stirring up the Syrian cauldron​ Thanks Eleni​ ​​ [Israel sure could use a quick war next door to forestall civil war at home.]
    Saudi Arabia has established an air bridge with Syria to send relief supplies for those affected by the devastating earthquake in February.
    The backdrop is that the normalisation of relations between Syria and its estranged Arab neighbours has accelerated. It must be particularly galling for Washington that these regional states used to be active participants in the US-led regime change project to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The Saudi-Iranian rapprochement badly isolates the US and Israel.
    From such a perspective, it stands to reason that the US is once again stirring up the Syrian cauldron…
    ..Israel too is a stakeholder in keeping Syria unstable and weak. In the Israeli narrative, Iran-backed militia groups are increasing their capability in Syria in the last two years and continued US occupation of Syria is vital for balancing these groups. Israel is paranoid that a strong government in Damascus will inevitably start challenging its illegal occupation of Golan Heights. (The source of critical water for Israeli agriculture.) …
    ..Syria is an exception as a battleground against “terrorism.” The US is vastly experienced in using extremist groups as geopolitical tools.
    The US’ real intention could be to confront Iran on Syrian soil — something that Israel has been espousing — taking advantage of Russia’s preoccupations in Ukraine. The Russian-Iranian axis annoys Washington profoundly.
    The spectre that is haunting Washington is that the stabilisation of Syria following Assad’s normalisation with the Arab countries and with Turkiye will inexorably coalesce into a Syrian settlement that completely marginalises the “collective West.”
    In retrospect, the unannounced visit by General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff to northern Syria in early March falls into perspective. Milley told reporters traveling with him that the nearly eight-year-old US deployment to Syria is still worth the risk!

    US is stirring up the Syrian cauldron

    ​No, no, it really is an even-break this time. Go ahead!​
    BioNTech comes to Jerusalem: Mayor Moshe Lion announces new mRNA vaccine center
    Israeli govt signs agreement with BioNTech to build R&D center for mRNA-based vaccines in Jerusalem.
    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/369031

    #132256
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Yeah, but Pfizer never claimed their product would not cause excess deaths; never claimed that, and never studied it…​
    ​ ​We were all told that the vaccine itself was supposedly 95% effective against hospitalizations and deaths, if not against transmission. Yet a new preprint study estimates that Aussie excess deaths in 2021 were seven times higher than during the pre-vaccine pandemic year of 2020 and an unfathomable 19 times higher in 2022. That was the year of mild Omicron, and everyone was boosted. Checkmate.
    https://www.conservativereview.com/horowitz-australia-bears-witness-to-vaccine-deaths-2659660313.html

    ​Gardening definitely helps, too, partly by improving your microbiome. This meta analysis looked at over 1000 review papers.
    ​Study Confirms Physical Exercise Should Be First Choice For Mental Health Treatment
    ​ ​Anxiety is the most common problem—and seems to be becoming more pronounced among children and younger adults—while depression poses the greatest burden to normal life function.
    ​ ​The Australian researchers discovered that exercise provided the best results when used for treating depression. More specifically, exercise was 150 percent more effective than pharmaceuticals or Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
    ​ ​It was also better than psychological consultation or “talk therapy.” In fact, exercise was shown to reduce depressive symptoms by 42 to 60 percent, whereas talk therapy and pharmaceuticals only reduced symptoms between 22 percent and 37 percent.
    ​ ​Exercise was shown to be the best treatment for both anxiety and depression, even though pharmaceuticals are the most commonly recommended treatment for both.
    ​ ​Every kind of exercise worked.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/study-confirms-physical-exercise-should-be-first-choice-mental-health-treatment

    #132257
    John Day
    Participant

    @Dr D Rich: Lavrov has a brilliant sense of humor, absolutely brilliant. He strikes it all perfectly. “English is not my mother tongue. I prefer not to sound … indecent. There are so many ‘pussies’ surrounding both sides of your presidential elections that I prefer not to tak about it.”

    This nails his condition of being a non-native speaker, a diplomat, a polite and reserved man, and technically he chooses to “not comment” on the “pussies” that he was so heavily baited with. Yes, the middle aged “intellectual” interviewer was “titillated”. She blushes and giggles girlishly, “I didn’t expect that.”

    The guy is brilliant. Gotta have an IQ of around 170 to pull that shit off in real time, hesitantly, with a completely straight face and humble demeanor… Sun Tzu would be rolling on the floor laughing.

    #132258
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    “Their democracy is a pretty facade for the political system, which serves to hide the neglect of the rights of ordinary Americans.”
    Nikolay Patrushev, Secretary of the Russia Security Council

    This statement, this very reasonable construct spoken by a Russian and that tip John Day non-native speaker of American English IS the most obvious thing about our country’s political system.
    Yet, this sentiment is anathema in these United States
    However, this idea which fills my waking moments is uncomfortably if ever spoken here evincing a weird form of deliberate denial.
    Why do all the Russians seem more insightful and more reasonable than our leaders?

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