Mar 302023
 
 March 30, 2023  Posted by at 9:15 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Roy Lichtenstein Woman With Flowered Hat 1963

 

Lies, Nuttery & Craziness Everywhere in America – James Howard Kunstler (USAW)
Musk, Wozniak Call For Pause In Developing ‘More Powerful’ AI Than GPT-4 (ZH)
The Government Is Fomenting Mass Hysteria (Whitehead)
Moscow Outlines Ukraine Peace Demands (RT)
Kremlin Only Sees Military Solution To Ukraine Conflict (RT)
West’s War Against Russia Is Bound To Last – Peskov (TASS)
Ukrainian Army ‘Almost Destroyed’ – Wagner Chief (RT)
Zelensky Explains Why He Won’t Withdraw From Bakhmut (RT)
Zelensky: “If They Stop Helping Us, We Will Not Win” (ZH)
Only 20% Of US Financial Aid For Ukraine Goes To Kiev, Lawmaker Says (TASS)
Kiev Discloses Its Military Spending (RT)
China Is Winning The Diplomatic Struggle Against The US (Fomenko)
Rosneft Announces Major Oil Deal In India (RT)
ASEAN Looking To Dump Dollar And Euro, Use Local Currencies (RT)
Why You Should Destroy Your Smart Phone Now (OffG)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968/status/1641143573578907656

 

 

Reset

 

 

Nap/Macgregor

 

 


Norm McDonald, 2016

 

 

EdDowd

 

 

LNP

 

 

Ron Johnson

 

 

 

 

Jim lays it out very well. Maybe because he’s an avid reader of the Automatic Earth.

Lies, Nuttery & Craziness Everywhere in America – James Howard Kunstler (USAW)

Renowned author and journalist James Howard Kunstler (JHK) has been complaining and pointing out that the American public is told one lie after another by the Lying Legacy Media (LLM), the government and the medical community. This kind of lying, according to JHK, is pure treason by all parties, from the 600 million CV19 bioweapon/vax injections, to the crumbling banking system, to the war in Ukraine. Let’s start with the genocide of the CV19vax. JHK says, “They are pretending that they didn’t cause any damage, and they are ignoring their own assembled statistics, and they don’t want to paint a realistic picture for the American public to see what the consequences were for their vaccination program. . . . I don’t think they can suppress the reality of it that much longer. There are just too many people who know too many people who have been injured or killed by the vaccines.

The basic problem is dishonesty puts you in a place of weakness, and the truth puts you in a position of strength. Eventually, if you are not being honest with yourself and the other people around you, you are going to be found out. . . . They have to keep doubling and tripling down on narratives that are manifestly untrue, and pretty soon I think people are going to be super pissed off about how all this went down.” With the banking crisis, JHK says the lie that everything is under control is going to be exposed too. JHK says, “When you are compelled to liquidate like Silicon Valley Bank, they are liquidating their assets below their supposed value and they become insolvent. I would imagine there is a great deal of damage waiting to express itself out there, and we haven’t seen much action in the derivatives racket so far, and that’s going to be a big deal when that happens because of the completely reckless contracts that are made. . . .

It’s really a bad bet, and the people taking the bet can’t pay off the bet, and the whole thing is really a disaster waiting to happen.” JHK says the so-called reset is going to happen, but not the way Klause Schwab wants it to happen. All will go extremely local, and JHK says, “Social discourse will make it all much worse.” The lies about Ukraine and the losing war started by NATO are summed up by JHK, “In retrospect, we could see why Donald Trump would want to have a phone call with Zelensky over the Biden family activities in Ukraine. . . . The whole Ukraine portfolio is just a big bag of crap. . . . Because of those activities, there is a war against the people, and that includes a war against Donald Trump. They are trying every way possible to shove him off the playing field. . . . I think it is safe to say the U.S. government is not your friend.”

In closing, JHK says, “This is an extremely socially and politically perverse period of history. . . .I grew up in the hippie period. . . .It was quite based compared to the baseless nuttery and lunacy that this country is involved in now. The fact that there has to be any debate about drag queen story hour for children is amazing. . . . That’s okay? Deliberately, demonstrable male imitation of a female. That’s supposed to be good for kids and not scare them? . . . There is a uniform craziness across the culture, and people are being asked to swallow increasingly absurd propositions. That’s where we are now. We are being asked to swallow absurd ideas one after another.”

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“Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth?”

My take is: instead of doing the exact same ourselves?

Musk, Wozniak Call For Pause In Developing ‘More Powerful’ AI Than GPT-4 (ZH)

Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio and others have signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause in developing new AI tools more powerful than GPT-4, the technology released earlier this month by Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI, the Wall Street Journal reports. “Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.” -futureoflife.org

“We’ve reached the point where these systems are smart enough that they can be used in ways that are dangerous for society,” said Bengio, director of the University of Montreal’s Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, adding “And we don’t yet understand.” Their concerns were laid out in a letter titled “Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter,” which was spearheaded by the Future of Life Institute – a nonprofit advised by Musk. “The letter doesn’t call for all AI development to halt, but urges companies to temporarily stop training systems more powerful than GPT-4, the technology released this month by Microsoft Corp.-backed startup OpenAI. That includes the next generation of OpenAI’s technology, GPT-5. OpenAI officials say they haven’t started training GPT-5. In an interview, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company has long given priority to safety in development and spent more than six months doing safety tests on GPT-4 before its launch.” -WSJ

“In some sense, this is preaching to the choir,” said Altman. “We have, I think, been talking about these issues the loudest, with the most intensity, for the longest.” Goldman, meanwhile, says that up to 300 million jobs could be replaced with AI, as “two thirds of occupations could be partially automated by AI.” So-called generative AI creates original content based on human prompts – a technology which has already been implemented in Microsoft’s Bing search engine and other tools. Soon after, Google deployed a rival called Bard. Other companies, including Adobe, Salesforce and Zoom have all introduced advanced AI tools.

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24/7. Who needs AI?

The Government Is Fomenting Mass Hysteria (Whitehead)

We have become guinea pigs in a ruthlessly calculated, carefully orchestrated, chillingly cold-blooded experiment in how to control a population and advance a political agenda without much opposition from the citizenry. This is mind-control in its most sinister form. With alarming regularity, the nation is being subjected to a spate of violence that terrorizes the public, destabilizes the country, and gives the government greater justifications to crack down, lock down, and institute even more authoritarian policies for the so-called sake of national security without many objections from the citizenry. Take this latest shooting in Nashville, Tenn. The 28-year-old shooter (a clearly troubled transgender individual in possession of several military-style weapons) opened fire in a Christian elementary school, killing three children and three adults.

Already, fingers are being pointed and battle lines are being drawn. Those who want safety at all costs are clamoring for more gun control measures (if not at an outright ban on assault weapons for non-military, non-police personnel), widespread mental health screening of the general population, more threat assessments and behavioral sensing warnings, more CCTV cameras with facial recognition capabilities, more “See Something, Say Something” programs aimed at turning Americans into snitches and spies, more metal detectors and whole-body imaging devices at soft targets, more roaming squads of militarized police empowered to do random bag searches, more fusion centers to centralize and disseminate information to law enforcement agencies, and more surveillance of what Americans say and do, where they go, what they buy and how they spend their time.

This is all part of the Deep State’s master plan. Ask yourselves: why are we being bombarded with crises, distractions, fake news and reality TV politics? We’re being conditioned like lab mice to subsist on a steady diet of bread-and-circus politics and an endless spate of crises. Caught up in this “crisis of the now,” the average person has a hard time keeping up with and remembering all of the “events,” manufactured or otherwise, which occur like clockwork in order to keep us distracted, deluded, amused, and insulated from reality. As investigative journalist Mike Adams points out: “This psychological bombardment is waged primarily via the mainstream media which assaults the viewer by the hour with images of violence, war, emotions and conflict. Because the human nervous system is hard wired to focus on immediate threats accompanied by depictions of violence, mainstream media viewers have their attention and mental resources funneled into the never-ending ‘crisis of the NOW’ from which they can never have the mental breathing room to apply logic, reason or historical context.”

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“Moscow will simply not tolerate “an openly anti-Russian state, whatever its borders..”

Moscow Outlines Ukraine Peace Demands (RT)

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin has offered a ten-point list of things the government in Kiev needs to do in order for hostilities to cease. In an interview on Wednesday, Galuzin said the future of Ukraine itself will depend on how soon Kiev and its Western backers come to grips with reality. For Ukraine to bring about peace, its military forces must stand down and the West must halt all deliveries of weapons to Kiev, Galuzin told the outlet RTVI. Several other conditions he listed have been on the table since the hostilities escalated in February 2022, such as Ukraine’s demilitarization and “denazification,” a pledge to never join the EU or NATO, and the affirmation of Kiev’s non-nuclear status. Another was added in October 2022, and involves the recognition of “new territorial realities” – commonly understood to mean the decision of Kherson, Zaporozhye and the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk to join Russia.

Ensuring the protection of the Russian language and the rights of Russian-speaking citizens, as well as all other ethnic groups in Ukraine also made Galuzin’s list. Moreover, he said Ukraine needs to reopen the border with Russia and restore the legal framework of relations with Moscow and other ex-Soviet republics, which it renounced following the US-backed coup in 2014. For the first time, Moscow has demanded the lifting of all anti-Russian sanctions and the “withdrawal of claims and termination of prosecutions against Russia, its individuals and legal entities,” presumably including the recent International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants for President Vladimir Putin and the children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. The last demand on Galuzin’s list was for the West to pay for the reconstruction of civilian infrastructure destroyed by Ukraine’s military since 2014.

Ukraine’s peaceful future depends on respecting the rights of its Russian population, restoring friendly relations with all neighbors, and returning to its founding principle of neutral and non-bloc status, enshrined in the 1990 declaration of independence, Galuzin said. “The future of the territories of present-day Ukraine should be determined by the inhabitants of this country themselves,” Galuzin told RTVI, noting that this includes “Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Hungarians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Romanians, Poles, and Greeks.” Moscow will simply not tolerate “an openly anti-Russian state, whatever its borders,” as a neighbor, said Galuzin. “Neither Russia, nor any other state, would accept this from the standpoint of security.” The “peace platform” adopted by the government in Kiev includes Russia’s total withdrawal from all territories Ukraine claims as its own, payment of reparations, and war crimes tribunals for the military and political leadership in Moscow.

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“These are politico-diplomatic or – if politico-diplomatic are currently impossible, and in the case of Ukraine, they are impossible, to our regret – through military means..”

Kremlin Only Sees Military Solution To Ukraine Conflict (RT)

There’s no political or diplomatic solution for the ongoing conflict with Ukraine at the moment, with Moscow seeking to resolve it through military means, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. Speaking to Russian journalists on Wednesday, Peskov reiterated Moscow’s resolve to reach its goals, which were outlined by President Vladimir Putin at the start of the military operation over a year ago. “We have repeatedly said that Russia’s goals … can be achieved in various ways. These are politico-diplomatic or – if politico-diplomatic are currently impossible, and in the case of Ukraine, they are impossible, to our regret – through military means, that is, through the special military operation,” Peskov stated. The spokesman did not provide any estimates on when exactly the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev might end, re-addressing the question to the country’s Defense Ministry.

At the same time, he said the broader conflict – a “hybrid war” between Russia and its adversaries – is likely to drag on for a long time. “This confrontation with hostile states, with the unfriendly countries, this is a hybrid war that they unleashed onto our country, it’ll be there for a long time,” Peskov said. Separately, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin confirmed that the goals of Moscow in the Ukraine operation are unchanged, and reaching them is the only way to achieve a “comprehensive, just and sustainable peace in Ukraine and Europe.” They include a neutral, non-aligned status of Ukraine, Kiev dropping its plans to join NATO and the EU, confirmation of its non-nuclear status, as well as the demilitarization and denazification of the country, he explained in an interview on RTVI on Wednesday.

Apart from that, Kiev and the international community must recognize the new “territorial reality” on the ground, Galuzin stressed, apparently referring to the incorporation of the four former Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye, as well as of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics into Russia following referendums held last September. Moscow has repeatedly expressed its readiness for a diplomatic solution to the ongoing hostilities, blaming the lack of any diplomatic efforts on Kiev and its Western backers, who are seeking to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia. “Washington, European capitals, but first of all, Washington is filled with the desire not to let, under any pretext, [Kiev] enter into peace negotiations. They simply do not let Kiev even think about it,” Peskov said earlier this month.

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“..a hybrid war that they have unleashed against our country – it is bound to last..”

West’s War Against Russia Is Bound To Last – Peskov (TASS)

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia’s struggle with the West is a war in the broad sense and warned that it is bound to last. “If you mean, let’s say, war in a broad context – a confrontation with hostile states, with unfriendly countries, a hybrid war that they have unleashed against our country – it is bound to last. We need to stay firm, confident, self-concentrated and united around the president,” he told a news briefing on Wednesday in response to a question about how long the special military operation might take and if there was any chance it might end this year. As for progress in combat operations, Peskov said, only the authorities concerned, such as the Defense Ministry, were in a position to comment.

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“The Russian army alone will be left on the chessboard, and all other pieces will be removed..”

Ukrainian Army ‘Almost Destroyed’ – Wagner Chief (RT)

The head of the Wagner Group private military company (PMC) Evgeny Prigozhin has described Ukraine’s losses in the battle for the city of Artryomovsk as almost fatal to Kiev’s entire military. The sacrifices made by his force for the sake of Russia were worth it, he added. “As of today, the battle for Bakhmut has almost destroyed the Ukrainian army,” Prigozhin said in a statement on Wednesday, using the name by which Kiev calls the city. The clash also “gave a serious beating to PMC Wagner,” he acknowledged. He called the battle the “general engagement” of the entire conflict and said that in it Wagner troops got pitted against Ukrainian armed forces and “foreign units installed into them.”

A victory by his troops would be “a turning point” and a historic event, securing a Russian victory, Prigozhin predicted. “The Russian army alone will be left on the chessboard, and all other pieces will be removed,” he forecast. “Even if PMC Wagner is destroyed in the Bakhmut meat grinder but takes the Ukrainian army with it … it would mean that we have accomplished our historic mission.” The fight for Artyomovsk has emerged as one of the most intensive and bloody engagements of the armed conflict in Ukraine, with both sides reportedly suffering significant casualties.

Western officials said that the city poses no strategic military value, but Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky pledged to defend it as long as possible after proclaiming the city a fortress. The Ukrainian leader explained his refusal to withdraw in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week. He claimed that if Russia were to capture Artyomovsk, his government would come under international and domestic pressure to seek peace with Moscow. “Our society will feel tired,” he told the news agency of this scenario. “Our society will push me to have compromise with them.”

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“Our society will feel tired [if the Russians gain victory in Bakhmut]” “Our society will push me to have compromise with them.”

Zelensky Explains Why He Won’t Withdraw From Bakhmut (RT)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that if his troops were to surrender the city of Artyomovsk, known as Bakhmut in Ukraine, his government would come under domestic and international pressure to seek peace with Russia. “Our society will feel tired,” he told the Associated Press (AP) in an interview released on Wednesday. “Our society will push me to have compromise with them.” Western officials have described Artyomovsk, the scene of fierce fighting for several months, as lacking in military importance. Behind closed doors, they – along with Zelensky’s own military leadership – have reportedly urged the president to order a withdrawal, so that his forces can focus on preparing a counteroffensive with heavy weapons provided by the US and its allies.

Speaking to AP mostly in English, during what the agency described as a “morale-building journey” by train across Ukraine, Zelensky suggested that Russia would be emboldened if it were to capture Artyomovsk. Russian President Vladimir Putin would “sell this victory to the West, to his society, to China, to Iran,” he predicted. “If he will feel some blood – smell that we are weak – he will push, push, push.” “We can’t lose the steps because the war is a pie – pieces of victories. Small victories, small steps,” Zelensky added. The battle for Artyomovsk, a key logistics hub, has been one of the fiercest and bloodiest in the Ukraine conflict so far. According to media reports, Kiev has lost some of its most experienced troops while holding the city. It has also allegedly been pouring in newly conscripted, untrained soldiers, to shore up the defensive line, leading to significant casualties.

In the interview, Zelensky also complained about his lack of contact with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited Moscow last week. The Ukrainian leader claimed that as president he chose to “unite” the country rather than divide it. Zelensky was elected in 2019 on a promise to end ongoing hostilities in Donbass and reintegrate the then-breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics into a federalized Ukrainian state. However, while in office, he maintained the policy of his predecessor Pyotr Poroshenko by stonewalling the so-called Minsk Agreements. Poroshenko later admitted the accords were used by Kiev to buy time to rebuild its military.

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“The loss of Bakhmut would mean a political defeat, could lead to a general defeat in conflict.”

Zelensky: “If They Stop Helping Us, We Will Not Win” (ZH)

President Volodymyr Zelensky is deeply concerned over ‘Ukraine fatigue’ taking over the West, and especially among the populace of his government’s biggest supporter, funder, and weapons supplier – the United States. “The United States really understands that if they stop helping us, we will not win,” he told the AP in a fresh interview published Wednesday. Waning support has been especially noticeable among Republican voters, according to recent polls, and as we recently reviewed in an article, “The Trump, DeSantis, Tucker Effect: New Polls Show Republicans Increasingly Done With Ukraine.” He issued the words specifically in reference to the still raging battle for the strategic city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. Russian forces have it nearly surrounded, even as Kiev has continued to throw additional manpower and weaponry into the city’s defense at a huge cost and amid mounting casualties.

Zelensky described that the capture of Bakhmut will mean that Putin will smell weakness. According to the Ukrainian leader’s words: Speaking with The Associated Press, Zelenskyy said that if Bakhmut were to fall, Putin could “sell this victory to the West, to his society, to China, to Iran,” as leverage to push for a ceasefire deal that would see Ukraine agree to give up territory. “If he will feel some blood — smell that we are weak — he will push, push, push,” Zelensky continued.

“Our society will feel tired” if the Russians gain victory in Bakhmut, he said. “Our society will push me to have compromise with them.” Implicit in these words are perhaps a first-time admission that significant sectors of the Ukrainian population are ready for compromise and peaceful negotiations to end the war. And tellingly, CBS commentary on the AP interview included the following observation: “He appeared acutely aware of the risk that his country could see its vital support from the U.S. and Europe start to slip away as the 13-month war grinds on.” Zelensky: “The loss of Bakhmut would mean a political defeat, could lead to a general defeat in conflict.”

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“..with about 60% of this money being received by the US side itself..”

Only 20% Of US Financial Aid For Ukraine Goes To Kiev, Lawmaker Says (TASS)

Washington hands over only about 20% of financial aid allocated for Ukraine directly to Kiev, with about 60% of this money being received by the US side itself, head of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Michael McCaul said during Committee hearing Wednesday. “Of the $113 billion appropriated across four supplementals, approximately 60% is going to American troops, American workers and modernizing American stockpiles. In fact, only 20% of the funding is going directly to the Ukrainian government in the form of direct budgetary assistance,” the lawmaker said. He pointed out that, when the Republicans gained majority in the House after mid-term elections in November last year, they made it clear that accountability would have key importance for continued aid to Ukraine. The current House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) warned last fall that the Republicans would not allow allocation of unlimited and not thoroughly justified aid to Ukraine.

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“Only 20% Of US Financial Aid For Ukraine Goes To Kiev”, and they still spend $3.5 billion a month on their military?!

Kiev Discloses Its Military Spending (RT)

Ukraine spends 130 billion hryvnia ($3.5 billion) a month on its military, Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko has revealed. The minister, who was meeting with the country’s European Business Association (EBA) on Wednesday, also disclosed that Ukraine’s budget receives 80 billion hryvnias in revenue (almost $2.2 billion) monthly. “The key task is to create conditions for financing the military,” Marchenko reportedly said while disclosing the numbers, according to EBA’s press service. He stressed it’s important to collect the anticipated taxes this year, adding that no major tax changes have been planned. Last week, the Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovnaya Rada, adopted a law on increasing budget spending on defense by more than $14.6 billion.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denis Shmygal had previously specified that the Cabinet of Ministers proposed to allocate additional funds for payments to the military, as well as the purchase of military and special equipment. According to him, the money will be allocated through the support of Western partners. While approving the 2023 draft budget last November, the parliament set aside more than a trillion hryvnias ($31 billion) to the armed forces and national security, which is 43% of all spending, or 18.2% of the country’s GDP. Ukraine’s budget deficit this year is expected to be a record $38 billion. The government plans to cover the deficit using Western foreign aid.

Last month, the US announced $12 billion in additional aid for Kiev, including a $2-billion arms package and $10 billion more to support energy costs and the Ukrainian government’s budget. According to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Washington has provided nearly $50 billion in support since last year, much of it devoted to weapons. Meanwhile, the European Union in February approved another €545 million ($590 million) in military aid to Ukraine, bringing its total support for Kiev’s forces to €3.6 billion ($3.8 billion). Since the beginning of war, the EU and its member states have reportedly provided €50 billion ($54 billion) in direct support to Ukraine.

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“..a potential consequence of China’s strategic partnership with Russia, down the line, could be the weakening of American influence over the EU, which Washington is trying to strengthen by fanning the flames of the Ukraine war..”

China Is Winning The Diplomatic Struggle Against The US (Fomenko)

The past few weeks have seen a comprehensive show of diplomatic force by China. Shortly after Xi Jinping completed a successful trip to Moscow, where he met with Vladimir Putin, Beijing announced it had brokered a deal to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The breakthrough was widely regarded as a blow to US influence in the Middle East. Then China persuaded Honduras to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing, and now high-ranking Western politicians and EU officials, including French president Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen and the Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez, are piling in to visit Beijing.

When viewed as a whole, the last several weeks have seen China enjoy massive diplomatic gains at the expense of the US, pouring freezing water on Washington’s attempts to isolate Beijing ‘Cold War-style’ on the global stage and on a relentless propaganda campaign steeped in negativity and fear-mongering. But in spite of it all, the reality continues to shine through that China is simply too big and too globally significant to isolate, illustrating that Biden’s strategy of creating overlapping multilateral alliances in a bid to contain Beijing, isn’t going to work. China has demonstrated that it is a superpower with the ability to steer global affairs in its own direction, a privilege which the US believed was its own exclusive entitlement. Beijing’s peace proposal for Ukraine and the Saudi-Iran normalisation deal caused a shock to the system in Washington.

Xi’s visit to Moscow in particular has brought a new balance to the dynamic around the Ukraine conflict and jeopardized hubris-led US miscalculations that it can escalate the conflict to the point of forcing a zero-sum outcome in favour of its own strategic objectives. As noted above, European leaders have responded to Xi’s visit, not by turning against China as was hoped, but by intensifying their diplomatic engagement with Beijing and scrambling to remain on board. But what is China’s response going to be? It is reasonable to expect an element of “Then stop siding with the United States against us”. Thus, a potential consequence of China’s strategic partnership with Russia, down the line, could be the weakening of American influence over the EU, which Washington is trying to strengthen by fanning the flames of the Ukraine war. Beijing is thus bringing some much-needed balance to the equation.

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“..oil purchases by New Delhi surged more than 20-fold last year..”

Rosneft Announces Major Oil Deal In India (RT)

Moscow and New Delhi have agreed to “substantially increase” the supply of crude oil to India and diversify its grades, Russian energy major Rosneft announced on Wednesday. A deal was reached with the Indian Oil Company during a trip by Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin to the Asian country, the Russian firm said in a press release on its website. Sechin also met with the heads of some of India’s largest oil and gas companies and discussed wider cooperation in the energy sector, the press release states. Possible trade settlements in national currencies were also on the agenda. Russia has for the first time become one of India’s top five trading partners, with turnover reaching $38.4 billion in 2022, according to statistics from India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, as cited by Rosneft.


Energy accounts for a major portion of bilateral trade. According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak, oil purchases by New Delhi surged more than 20-fold last year. India, the world’s third-largest crude importer, began to boost purchases of Russian oil shortly after the start of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine and the ensuing Western sanctions. New Delhi, which has repeatedly stressed that energy security is its top priority, chose not to succumb to Western pressure and continued to stock up on Russian supplies even after the G7 price cap on Russian oil came into force late last year.

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Local currencies are the future. Backed by gold?!

ASEAN Looking To Dump Dollar And Euro, Use Local Currencies (RT)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is set to discuss dropping the US dollar, euro, yen and pound sterling from transactions and moving to settlements in local currencies, according to the news magazine Tempo. An official meeting of ASEAN finance ministers and central bank governors kicked off on Tuesday in Indonesia. A regional grouping that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its members, ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. “Efforts to reduce dependence on major currencies through the Local Currency Transaction (LCT) scheme will be discussed. This is an extension of the previous Local Currency Settlement (LCS) scheme that has already begun to be implemented between ASEAN members,” said the report.


Tempo specified that a digital cross-border payments system, allowing ASEAN member states to use local currencies in trade, would be expanded further. An agreement on such cooperation was reached between Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand in November 2022. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has urged regional authorities to abandon Visa and Mastercard payment systems and start using credit cards issued by local banks. Moving away from Western payment systems is necessary to protect transactions from “possible geopolitical repercussions,” Widodo said. Board member of the Indonesian Credit Cards Association (AKKI), Dodit Proboyakti, told RIA Novosti that Indonesia would apply the experience of Russia and its Mir payment system in promoting its own domestic financial network.

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“..within the next few years, smartphones will become the digital wallet through which the Bank of England will have complete control over how much, on what and where we spend its Central Bank Digital Currency.”

Why You Should Destroy Your Smart Phone Now (OffG)

In the imminent future, smartphones are the instrument onto which, in the guise of the digital verification of our identity — the Government’s ‘consultation’ on which closed this month — the compliant will upload their biometric data (fingerprints, photograph and DNA swab) to a centralised database to which the 32 public authorities presiding over the UK biosecurity state will have access.=

Under the Digital Economy Act 2017, these public authorities include the Cabinet Office; the Home Office; the Department for Defence; HM Treasury; the Ministry of Justice; the Department for Education; the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; the Department for Work and Pensions; the Department for Communities and Local Government; the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; the Department for Transport; the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs; Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs; all county, district and London councils; the Greater London Authority; the Council of the City of London; all fire and rescue authorities; all police authorities; all education authorities; all gas and electricity authorities; HM Land Registry; and, under Section 35, any other public authority, or private agent providing a service for a public authority, designated for a specific purpose justifying access to that data.

Smartphones are the instrument that will monitor whether their owners are up-to-date with what the UK biosecurity state decides is fully ‘vaccinated’ with whatever our Government and its partners in the pharmaceutical industry decide we must inject into our bodies as a condition of access to the rights of citizenship. Smartphones are the instrument that will monitor and record how many times we leave or enter our 15-minute grazing range currently being implemented by our public authorities to restrict and limit our freedom of movement on the justification of ‘saving the planet’.

Smart phones are the instrument that will track our carbon footprint in order to monitor and control the quantity of meat, dairy products, energy, oil, petrol and other products to which the UK biosecurity state — under the terms of the agreements of Agenda 2030 signed by the UK Government in 2015 — will progressively cut off our access between now and 2030. Smartphones are the means by which our compliance with lockdowns, masking mandates and programmes of gene therapy dictated by the World Health Organization’s Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Treaty and enforced by the UK biosecurity state will be monitored, recorded and enforced by, among other recourses, cutting off our access to the electronic and digital grid. And, within the next few years, smartphones will become the digital wallet through which the Bank of England will have complete control over how much, on what and where we spend its Central Bank Digital Currency.

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Help Joe
https://twitter.com/i/status/1640793491633586177

 

 

 

 

Levitation
https://twitter.com/i/status/1640916068955828224

 

 

Giants

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle March 30 2023

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  • #132337

    Roy Lichtenstein Woman With Flowered Hat 1963   • Lies, Nuttery & Craziness Everywhere in America – James Howard Kunstler (USAW) • Musk, Wozn
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 30 2023]

    #132338
    Germ
    Participant

    Senate votes to end COVID-19 national emergency

    Senate votes to end COVID-19 national emergency

    TVASF (it’s just beginning for them – tick … tock… tick … tock …)

    #132339
    Germ
    Participant

    Medical Malfeasance:

    WHO experts revise Covid-19 vaccine advice, say healthy kids and teens low risk

    “The World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE)recommends additional booster doses of Covid-19 vaccine for high-priority groups such as older people, immunocompromised people of all ages, front-line health workers and pregnant people six or 12 months after their last booster dose.”

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/29/health/who-updates-covid-vaccine-recommendations-intl-hnk/index.html

    “Pregnant people” … WOMEN!

    TVASF

    #132340
    Germ
    Participant

    Vaccine truth versus propaganda

    “We look at how the System rewards people who push the Narrative (safe and effective) with social media traction, significant income and expert status whilst oppressing dissidents. The video is triggered by false claims made by Dr John Campbell in March 2023 that he was revealing worrying data on vaccine LNP concentration in the ovaries, in truth that data was disclosed in June 2021 and he ignored it at the time.”

    TVASF

    #132341
    Germ
    Participant

    16-Year-Old Star Cheerleader at Berkeley High School, Lillia Bartlow, went home from school on Friday, (March 24th) after suffering a migraine. Within hours she died unexpectedly at home. Reported cause of death: unknown.

    A ‘lovely person inside and out’: Berkeley High cheerleader dies unexpectedly

    A ‘lovely person inside and out’: Berkeley High cheerleader dies unexpectedly

    Berkeley Public Schools in California Mandates All Students (12 & Up) Be “Fully Vaccinated” Against Covid-19

    TVASF

    #132342
    Germ
    Participant

    Serious harms of the COVID-19 vaccines: a systematic review

    https://maryannedemasi.substack.com/p/serious-harms-of-the-covid-19-vaccines

    TVASF

    #132343
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Odd, their finally learning something and not arresting Trump seems to have set Team Trump back as well. No new responses from him, no new strategies. Too bad. Naturally it was fun like in Bakhmut for your enemy to walk into your guns and lose every day. It’s when they have a strategy that you’re in danger and need to work. Right now of course, they’ve suspended and waiting to spring a Grand Jury a day before election. Like all these weapons, people actually THINK they work. They’re such cowards that the fear – of any weapon – gets them more than the weapons themselves. I remember the story of Beirut, where Reagan said the offshore battleships can hurl shells the size (or rather weight) of Volkswagens. This worked great right up to the point they fired. Then the people said “These guys can’t hit the side of a barn. Also even a city is enormous and the odds of getting hit is still near zero. Go ahead and shoot.” Negotiations over. Huge hit to the reality. Like: “What U.S. Navy?”

    So the only weapons they have, are the weapons they never use. I’m supposed to be forever scared of all your guns that are empty?

    “AZ Governor’s Press Secretary Resigns Amid Outrage After Calling For Violence Against ‘Transphobes’

    I’m still lost on this. So in the large sense, THEIR shooter, shot OUR people. And yet THEY are the ones calling for revenge? That word may not mean what you think it mean. You have to be a victim, not a mass-murderer, to call for “revenge.” As a mass murderer, it’s just your day job. I was sure I was just mis-hearing this, but it’s persisted.

    Also only people this far from sense and tangible effects could call for a “Day of Rage”. Why? “Rage” is not pleasant to experience. It’s also not strategic. It’s unproductive. So you are going to take time out of your day, feel bad, hold grudges, accomplish nothing, and not promote your cause but actually reverse it? There’s a reason it’s a cardinal sin. It’s dumb, unworking, illogical, expensive, counterproductive, and #AntiLogos.

    Their strategists are usually smart fellows. This has been tried recently and had these very predictable effects. So WHY?

    The only possible conclusion is, it’s not about caring, it’s not about rights, it’s not even about winning. It’s about making a mess for others. Attacking them. Not even your “enemies” ; whoever that is. But to cause chaos to the society generally, with no specific goals or plans at all. It’s a wide-scale military disruption and military action of one society on another they are at war with. And the number of trans sites calling for arming up and killing everyone that even mildly annoys you, without asking questions, without checking, is unusually high and suspiciously sudden. Know what I mean? Yeah, all the “Love and Tolerance” granola-crunching Left, marching for peace and worker’s rights – which even if wrong, they actually believe – definitely reach for gun FIRST, not last, and definitely SHOOT FIRST, gun rights forevah! so they can get the Woke purity test points for being in the moral right by killing 9-year-olds. That’s not a total, 100% reversal over everything ever thought, said, and done by them at all. Totally not opposite to their basis and their psychology. Not Opposite to everything they still for a century, reversed in one week in 2023. Nope, not at all. Nothing strange or suspicious here.

    “A State of Never-Ending Crisis: The Government Is Fomenting Mass Hysteria:
    We have become guinea pigs in a ruthlessly calculated, carefully orchestrated, chillingly cold-blooded experiment in how to control a population…”

    Yeah, something like that. Call me sus. WHOSE government, though? The “government” doesn’t help itself by accomplishing the #Opposite of a government’s functions at home. Those are the actions of Revolutionaries who wish to END present government. Undermine, conquer, and replace it. Whoever could that be?

    Institute even more authoritarian policies for the so-called sake of national security without many objections from the citizenry.”

    Why? What good would it do? The government doesn’t listen to any objection we’ve made in 20 years. The “citizenry” broke their arms and shut down the Capital Switchboard calling their Representatives to stop the ‘08 bailout. They didn’t care in the slightest. Suppose J6 was what they claim: still don’t care about a level of “objection” reaching “violent armed insurrection of the citizenry”, and doubled down on ignoring them instead. TSA has been a joke for 20 years running, was reviewed and missed every bomb that’s ever been test-run, didn’t stop several subsequent attacks, and verifiably have killed 10,000 fliers with X-ray cancer that was well-known. They merely label this “consent” when it’s nothing of the sort. Instead, it shows Americans are stupid, stubborn, and pig-headed and WILL protest for 50 years, but even they are not THAT stupid. Eventually they stop. It’s not consent. It’s the awareness of universal tyranny. …And what happens after that?

    “Moscow will simply not tolerate “an openly anti-Russian state, whatever its borders..”

    Like the “military STYLE weapons” above, they can’t stop giving in to their enemies. Style? As in how they appear? Air-soft toys APPEAR “military-style”, what are you talking about? Why would you concede a point that doesn’t exist? You’re taking the enemy thought – that is: a LIE – into your own castle. As here: Moscow will not “tolerate”? They can’t stop assuming false premises. Russia doesn’t need to “tolerate” anything: they own the field and are going to do exactly whatever they like. They could have erased Ukraine in 5 minutes on 2-22-22, and CHOSE not to. They can end the war today as well. The war will end when-ever and exactly how-ever Russia feels like it. They’re not going to “tolerate” anything, they’re going to do what they want to and we can’t stop them.

    That’s not a “negotiation.” There’s no “Peace Treaty”, because having one requires believing the signers. They are going to dictate any terms to us that they feel like, and we’re going to sit down and eat it in front of them.

    “West’s War Against Russia Is Bound to Last – Peskov (TASS)

    Only if Russia feels like that happening. It can all be over in 30 minutes if they feel like it too. “Letting the war last” is an immense generosity given to us as fellow men.

    “Western officials said that the city poses no strategic military value, but Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky pledged to defend it as long as possible”

    Uh-huh. Psychos. “This tie pin is worthless to me, but I’ll die defending it just to show you what.” Who does that except weak, empty, childish losers? You’re not a man if you get your self-worth from others, from showing THEM. You’re still a child. The opposite interpretation is that it IS valuable, and you’re lying. This is also the defining mark of a child, unwilling to admit realities and confront them openly, give your enemy his due. So there is no interpretation of this statement where Ze is not a childish, hollow, narcissistic, self-serving shell. Even if he were an evil man, he could be respected. This cannot.

    “He stressed it’s important to collect the anticipated taxes this year, adding that no major tax changes have been planned.”

    Taxes on what? No electric for factories, no fields have been planted. People who don’t do work, like governments, have no idea. Go back to your goosestepping and leave me alone.

    “the compliant will upload their biometric data (fingerprints, photograph and DNA swab) to a centralised database to which the 32 public authorities presiding over the UK biosecurity state will have access.”

    You’re thinking about this wrong: how will CRIMINALS use the system? They will move to something, and that will be the economy. The State can provide nothing, so they are not relevant, not the honey pot here. You’re going to be part of the black market if you want anything, so you might as well get started. If everyone’s part of the black market, then that’s just “the market” and the government has no power. Do whatever you want, but like Vichy France, it’s useless, unstable, hated, and will fail. Nigeria doesn’t even have the power of Rhode Island and they sank this plan against these “master planners” without even trying.

    “The top 1% of US taxpayers paid 48% of total US income taxes… the top 10% paid nearly 72%… Meanwhile, the bottom 40% of US income tax filers paid no net income tax at all…”

    Now I ask, does that sound fair? Honest question. 1 in 100 people pay half. Let’s say it’s a summer Boy Scout camp. 100 kids. One kid’s father pays half, nearly the entire camp, all the land, all the rent. A mere 10 fathers pay almost all the rest, all the food, payroll, maintenance, etc. The other 90 kids pay $20 a week, a mere pittance, not even charity. If they reduced affairs only slightly, they could not have to pay at all.

    So shouldn’t only those 10 men vote? What if they don’t wish to pay? What about the other 90? What makes them entitled to come to camp? Shouldn’t they just start another that they themselves own and control? Shouldn’t the ten? Honest questions.

    It is not official, but it it is Karl Rove who said “We create Reality.”

    “Andrew Jackson is often held up as a ‘shining example of decency and honour’”

    Who specifically? I live in America and I’ve never heard that. In fact, all my school textbooks were against him. What a surprise. He’s considered a pretty rough fellow who had a few bright chapters, and that’s outside the textbooks who consider him deplorable without explaining why except that ‘The people liked him.” You know: Democracy. The thing they hate most. Secret fear: THEY are not really the popular girls. Secretly everyone hates them and likes this other guy.

    Mentally-ill, they seek LOVE, the very love they have banished from their hearts then wonder why it’s missing. Diabolic Narcissism, they then HATE whatever shows or has the thing they lack. The thing they lack because they rejected it. Love. “God is Love” doncha know?

    #132344
    Germ
    Participant

    Poor Paul just kept on getting covid even though he was fully jabbed – and the he died “unexpectedly”.
    Oops!

    Paul O’Grady, TV star and comedian, dies ‘unexpectedly’

    https://news.sky.com/story/tv-star-and-comedian-paul-ogrady-has-died-at-the-age-of-67-12844598


    TVASF

    #132345
    EoinW
    Participant

    It’s all OUR fault. We’re happy, contented people. No wonder they need 365 days of rage every year.

    Everyone stop being happy and contented! Stop enjoying life! You’re upsetting the trannies.

    #132346
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Dr D. I think they pay extra tax because THEY don’t earn the extra money from hard work – otherwise cotton-picking slaves would be filthy millionaires. They get the extra money that the 10 percent accrue by using others’ muscles.
    It was that way for kings and it’s that way for the man who owns the baked bean factory and it is that way for Oligarchs.
    There is a reason Aboriginal culture sustained for over 40 thousand years. I repeat – FORTY THOUSAND YEARS. It is because hierarchy was almost completely diminished.
    Let’s get back to tribal law and custom and get rid of this need for that giant sucking sound…

    #132347
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Germ. The “I’d had all the jabs” line is a secret desire for magic. It’s also a childish attempt to not grow up. It is a little disappointing to hear it over and over but I guess you can’t teach dumb.

    Lacking in compassion tonight. So many people are not right in the head. I guess I’m tired of bullshit artists.

    #132348
    Germ
    Participant

    Sing along everybody!

    I’ll Be Mocking You


    TVASF ( ♫♪🎶♩♩♫ )

    #132349
    Germ
    Participant

    Ryan was coerced to take the Pfizer Vaccine to be allowed to enter a rehab facility.
    He ended up with a horrific reaction after just 1 dose.

    “My [rehab] referrals were rejected because I hadn’t had the COVID vaccine and Washington State’s vaccine mandate required it.”

    Twelve hours after the Pfizer he didn’t want: “I was coughing up and throwing up blood, my kidneys were failing, my lungs were partially collapsed and had so much blood pooled in the bottom of them I was diagnosed with pneumonia.”

    Two weeks later – “An X-ray and CT scan found me to have a Bi-lateral Pulmonary Embolism (blood clots in both lungs). One lung was getting 20% of the blood flow and the other pulmonary artery was completely blocked.”

    “My doctor acknowledged that it appeared I’d had a severe hemorrhagic, inflammatory, and possibly septic response to the vaccine, that I’d been the 3rd patient in our region of ~250K people to have such a serious reaction.”

    https://www.gofundme.com/f/ischemic-stroke-vaccine-injury-heart-damage

    TVASF

    #132350
    Germ
    Participant

    It’s every fuckin’ day now.

    Tributes to 25-year-old ex-beauty queen who died suddenly at Michael Owen’s stables

    https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/tributes-25-year-old-ex-26590843

    TVASF

    #132351
    Germ
    Participant

    Pavel Krotov dead at 30: World champion skier suddenly dies of brain haemorrhage

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/21862441/pavel-krotov-dead-skier-brain-haemorrhage/

    TVASF

    #132352
    Germ
    Participant

    999 crews called to ‘sudden’ death on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street

    https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/23422023.999-crews-called-sudden-death-glasgows-sauchiehall-street/

    TVASF

    #132353
    chooch
    Participant

    To your point oxy, I recently read the checkable deposits for the top 10% are 4 trillion higher then 2019 levels. Let’s say say 4% interest and 35% tax rate. That’s still a lot of money for nothing (and your chicks for free)

    #132354
    Germ
    Participant

    Worth a watch:

    Development arc of SARS by Dr. Paul Cottrell

    TVASF

    #132355
    zerosum
    Participant

    Changes is in the air.

    Typing/secretary pool. replaced/gone.
    Slide rules replaced/gone.
    Memorizing/learning replaced with data base.

    Lying/propaganda/disinformation/suppressing reality must be restricted to the governing class and a selected few.

    The ruling class is getting paranoid that the AI products, (chatbots), must have a “watermark” so that the “rifraf” cannot claim product/work that can pass/be claimed to be original work/creation and that the identity of the originator can be identified.

    (ref.: picture of pope and Trump and students writing/passing qualifying tests/exams)

    GPT-4, Microsoft’s Bing search engine and other tools. Soon after, Google deployed a rival called Bard. Other companies, including Adobe, Salesforce and Zoom have all introduced advanced AI tools.
    ———–

    The US is the only state sponsor of terrorism.
    —————————–
    John & Nisha Whitehead
    March 29, 2023

    • The Government Is Fomenting Mass Hysteria (Whitehead)
    https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/a_state_of_never_ending_crisis_the_government_is_fomenting_mass_hysteria

    —————-

    #132356
    Germ
    Participant

    British Indian medic backs legal review of COVID vaccine in South Africa High Court

    “…an association with increasing death from both COVID and non-COVID causes in the vaccinated compared to the unvaccinated.

    British Indian medic backs legal review of COVID vaccine in South Africa High Court

    ☠️☠️☠️

    TVASF (…and Malhotra is a grifter)

    #132357
    John Day
    Participant

    Joe Biden video… Yep.

    Tibetan monks levitate huge stones collectively through horns and chanting > movie confiscated..

    Hmmm …

    #132358
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Hot mic reveals just how much help Joe Biden receives from his handlers..

    Presidementia Pedo Joe’s ‘handlers’ are blood drinking Satanic scum, what did anyone expect from them?

    It’s not that Bidet’s handlers are ‘sub-human’, it more like they are ‘not human’

    Cookies Nuland her coven of Neoconjobs are all hard core Necrophiliacs

    Necrophiliac

    Psychiatry: a person who is sexually excited by or attracted to dead bodies:
    The serial killer was also a known necrophiliac.

    a person who is excited or fascinated by death or killing:
    Those who embrace violence, whether in the form of acts of terrorism or acts of war, are necrophiliacs.

    At least half of Duh-mericans are firmly in the Neoconjob spell and are Vaxed to the Max, brain fogged mentally incompetent sub-adults, incapable of even basic primitive levels logic or ‘common sense’.

    The majority will willingly go along with digital bank slavery currency, the WHO as their Medical Masters, and GMO bug laced food eaten in 15 minute cities in cardboard boxes under bridge abutments.

    The chances of things ‘resolving’ in a civilized fashion is approaching Zero.

    The senile mummified mid-level low rent hoodlum in the White House is the perfect symbol of Duhmerica the not so beautiful anymore.

    Help is not on it’s way.

    .

    #132359
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    If risk is what you call it when you don’t know what’s going to result, what do you call it when you do know?

    #132360
    John Day
    Participant

    Per Dr D:
    “The top 1% of US taxpayers paid 48% of total US income taxes… the top 10% paid nearly 72%… Meanwhile, the bottom 40% of US income tax filers paid no net income tax at all…”
    …”Now I ask, does that sound fair? Honest question. 1 in 100 people pay half. Let’s say it’s a summer Boy Scout camp. 100 kids. One kid’s father pays half, nearly the entire camp, all the land, all the rent. A mere 10 fathers pay almost all the rest, all the food, payroll, maintenance, etc. The other 90 kids pay $20 a week, a mere pittance, not even charity. If they reduced affairs only slightly, they could not have to pay at all.
    So shouldn’t only those 10 men vote?”

    The fallicy contained within is that this is a fair starting point for the analysis. The 40% who appear to work have such little currency or property as to not be income-taxed. Their contributions to the system feed wealth and property to those higher in the food chain, who are income-taxed.
    There are sales-taxes and other forms of rent-collecting “taxes” on the working poor. They live with the constant threat of becoming dispossessed street-people. If they could be squeezed any harder, they would be. It’s been done progressively since 1976. it just breaks the economy to push it farther.
    It IS being tried again, though, to “save the dollar”.

    #132361
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • Musk, Wozniak Call For Pause In Developing ‘More Powerful’ AI Than GPT-4

    Hey:

    How I Learned to Stop Fearing AI and embraced Skynet

    Makes a great T-Shirt design

    Just in time for: Show Your Gang Colors Month

    .

    #132362
    jsnyder62@gmail.com
    Participant

    “The top 1% of US taxpayers paid 48% of total US income taxes… the top 10% paid nearly 72%… Meanwhile, the bottom 40% of US income tax filers paid no net income tax at all…”
    …”Now I ask, does that sound fair?

    Come on, guys, this is selective attention leading to crap analysis.

    It omits the fact that Social Security and Medicare taxes are assessed starting at dollar one of wages and nearly all of which are paid by workers earning less than $160,200 per year (the current cap on wages subject to SS but not Medicare taxes), amount currently to about 36% of FedGov revenues, while personal income taxes amount to about 51% of revenues. Dividends, royalties and capital gains are not subject to SS taxes, only wages (labor), so this is a 15.6% tax escape clause for a favored class in society.

    And by the way, the taxpayer doesn’t get to deduct his SS taxes for purposes of calculating his income taxes, so he / she is taxed twice on the same income, first at a flat tax of about 7.8% and then at his/her income tax bracket.

    If you add in the amount that the bottom 50% are paying as an excise tax off of their wages, they are paying a lot more than nothing, since this all adds up to about 36% of total revenues. And while the employer “pays” about half of the SS taxes, it is a charge against labor factored into what the employer is willing to pay the employee. Oh, and the employer gets to deduct that share of taxes in computing its net taxable income for income tax purposes because it is a business expense. Individuals, of course, cannot deduct their living expenses, so the income tax is much more like a tax on gross income, while the corporate income tax is based on net income after business expenses. Corporate income taxes are about 7% of total revenues.

    So, interesting inquiry, compare total gross revenues made by US corporations with amount paid in US taxes and total personal income of all individual taxpayers and amount paid in taxes, and then see who is paying their “fair” share.

    https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/government-revenue/

    #132363
    zerosum
    Participant

    TVASF
    People who are special are first.
    I’m hidden in the average mass.
    The poor and homeless, with an immune system, will be last and be the inheritor.

    #132365
    Germ
    Participant

    Malhotra (the grifter) spreads some truth bombs in S Africa.
    Shame that folks like him, who were uncritically promoting the death-vaxx from Day 1, are now the go to people telling us of its dangers.

    This ongoing deference to credentialed authority is stunning.

    TVASF

    #132366

    Trump letter:

    Trump

    #132367
    Kassandra
    Participant

    Just got back from a business trip to a major southern city, one of my staff was drugged, taken back to his hotel room, and robbed of everything of value in his hotel room. They also managed to get access to all his accounts. He remembers nothing, just woke up at noon the next day with all his equipment and cards gone. They strangely didn’t take his work computer, and he was unable to log into any of his apple or bank accounts. Since they took over his apple account, they had access to all the accounts on his phone, and drained his of everything. Really scary stuff, obviously a targeted hit by professionals. I’m old now, so had no desire to go out, but now I wish I had just to watch my younger employees. I have no desire to travel any longer, or be in any city.

    On another question, any one familiar with this? https://www.twc.health/pages/new-membership. Anyone participating? They have an interesting supplement https://www.twc.health/collections/covid19/products/long-haul-formula
    I have not been vaccinated, but certainly have been exposed to covid and gotten sick. Lately I’ve wondered if the general anxiety, regular heartburn, and general nervous system issues I’ve felt since the beginning of the pandemic that I just cannot shake might be more than just emotional. Worth a try? Anyone else trying supplements?

    #132368
    Oroboros
    Participant

    At the Duran

    Existential conflict w/ Angelo Giuliano and Brian Berletic (Live)

    The Collective West has extraordinary paranoia over the fact that finally, after centuries of dominance, a power other than Eurotardistan and the Empire of Lies is rising to the top; China

    Russia’s industrial base is bitch slapping the Collective West purple, why didn’t any of the Neoconjob ‘geniuses’ think that one thru. No bad for a ‘gas station masquerading as a country’, eh?

    China’s industrial base is an order of magnitude over Russia’s.

    China, and now Russia, are going to shift world trade to primarily LAND CORRIDORS, on the Eurasian landmass (including land rail to the African Continent) not ocean trade routes where the Empire of Lies navy can bully and phuck around with countries trade.

    .

    #132369
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @JohnDay

    They should take a page from the sales & marketing department and just double the price, then mark that down by 50% and advertise the rip-off as a ” Half Price Sale ! ”

    The way to do that in the Taxation Biz is to just give all of the poor people an extra fifty cents every year, and then charge it straight back by lowering their taxes by a quarter and raising the prices they pay for everything by a dollar. This “progressively apportioned” income tax is meant to reflect the lie of how government is considerate and fair minded in lightening the burden on poor folk by increasing the share paid by the rich.

    Economists, financiers, and garden variety capitalists will throw a lethal quantity of higher mathematics into your face to impair your vision, but don’t let them fool you. The math could not be any simpler.

    For every dollar more that YOU get, your MASTERS get TEN. It’s an exponential thing. Over time the bottom will have proportionately nothing and the top will have proportionately everything.

    Look at the way that the numbers flow. Every unit of pay rise that actually productive people receive is immediately transferred to the “landlord”, and makes him proportionately richer and richer and richer until eventually the owners have, proportionately, ALL of the money. It’s a tidy little math exercise which can be shown in simple form (like I just did) or through extremely complex forms (like the world’s current financial system) . . . . but it is the same patently obvious math exercise in either case.

    All theft is essentially the same: an entity which did not make an item takes that item from the entity who did make it, and does so without fully informed consent or fair compensation. What could be simpler than that?

    This basic crime gets dressed up in costumes so fancy that the eyes and mind are DAZZELED, but it still just nothing but the same old sordid crime, dressed up to look like something else.

    #132370
    Germ
    Participant

    @ Kassandra – TWC are ‘capitalising’ on these supplements.

    They are combining a mix of easily obtainable supplements into a single capsule.
    You can obtain all of them from a local herbalist or even Amazon!

    FYI – I take the following daily:

    Selenium 100 µg
    Black Seed Oil 1000 mg
    Zinc 40 mg
    Quercetin 800 mg
    Vit C 3000 mg
    Vit D 8000 IU
    Vit K2 200 µg
    Black Elderberry 6000mg
    NAC 1200 mg
    Tumeric (with black pepper) 3000mg
    Garlic Pearls
    Melatonin 3mg at night

    And I still take IVM 36mg weekly as 1 in 17 Brits currently has Covid!
    It’s also an effective anti-carcinogenic .

    I rattle when I walk!

    #132371
    John Day
    Participant

    @Kassandra: I looked at the link for the “incredible parallel healthcare system”.
    “Incredible” means “not credible”, though it is often misused these days.

    Sorry your subordinate got date-drugged and identity-money-smartphone robbed.

    🙁

    #132372
    John Day
    Participant

    “Free To Follow Orders” is up. (Weird when Trump is the “Straight-Man”)
    https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/free-to-follow-orders

    Andrew Korybko presents this case that the US deep state is driving the longstanding tension between Israeli factions into open, sustained confrontation. I had thought that it was the opportunistic Netanyahu aligning with the far right Jewish Nationalists in a power play to remove the checks on his power.
    The US-Backed Color Revolution In Israel Just Reached Crisis Proportions
    https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-us-backed-color-revolution-in

    ​No news stories on this for 24 hours. What’s up?
    ​ Despite Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to delay the planned judicial reforms that have so destabilised Israeli society, the country’s crisis of democracy is far from over.
    Protests at Netanyahu’s plan, which have rocked Israel for weeks, redoubled in intensity last weekend after Netanyahu sacked his Likud colleague and defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for calling on him to freeze the reform.
    Within hours Netanyahu announced that the plan would be delayed until May. But he ignored advice from the US president, Joe Biden, to “walk away” from the judicial overhaul, insisting he doesn’t make decisions based on pressure from abroad.
    The government’s plans to weaken the powers of Israel’s supreme court have been savaged by opponents as a major attack on the checks and balances within Israel’s unwritten constitutional system – an attack in democracy itself…
    ..Netanyahu has blamed everyone but himself for delaying the judicial reforms. Listening to him announce the pause, it wasn’t the provocative nature of the changes that his far-right government wanted to steam-roller through the Knesset (parliament) that was to blame for the protests. Rather it was what he called “a minority of extremists that are willing to tear our country to shreds … escorting us to civil war and calling for refusal of army service, which is a terrible crime”.​..
    ​..The speech had been delayed from the morning as the prime minister first needed to secure his coalition’s support. The ultra-Orthodox parties had already fallen behind Netanyahu, but it was his far-right flank that proved more difficult.
    ​ I​n the end, Bezelal Smotrich, the finance minister and leader of the Religious Zionist party caved in, realising that his resignation could end the coalition and with it the far-right’s first taste of power. National security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Jewish Power Party, held out for more: the creation of a national guard under his command, something many have described as a “private militia”.​ [Wolfsangel or swastika insignia?]
    https://theconversation.com/israel-protests-netanyahu-delays-judicial-reforms-over-fears-of-civil-war-but-deep-fault-lines-threaten-future-of-democracy-202787

    Strikes Cripple France’s Fuel Supply​ (It is feeling like 1968 to me. Remember 1968?)
    https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Strikes-Cripple-Frances-Fuel-Supply.html

    France Buys 65,000 Tons Of LNG From China In First Ever Yuan-Denominated Trade
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/france-buys-65000-tons-lng-china-first-ever-yuan-denominated-trade

    #132373
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ ​Hungary and Poland have both voted against the European Commission’s new proposal to extend a regulation that requires a 15 percent reduction in the use of natural gas from member states, said Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó at the EU Energy Council in Brussels on Tuesday.
    ​ ​According to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Szijjártó said at a press conference at the summit that the European Commission has come up with a proposal that would again require a reduction in natural gas consumption instead of pursuing more worthwhile goals like investing in infrastructure.
    ​ ​Such a regulation was already adopted last year despite Hungarian and Polish opposition, but this one poses a greater threat to Europe’s economy. The previous reduction was during the winter period.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/hungary-poland-reject-extremely-dangerous-eu-natgas-cutback-extension

    ​ ​This week Honduras delivered a shock to Taiwan and its powerful backer Washington, as the Honduran government ordered Taiwan to vacate its embassy in the country within 30 days. As Reuters underscored in its biting headline Tuesday, Taiwan was told to ‘pack up and leave’ Honduras after ties severed. Adding insult to injury, driving President Xiomara Castro’s decision are efforts to gain more Chinese investment and jobs, at a moment diplomatic ties have been formally established with Beijing.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-gloats-after-honduras-tells-taiwan-pack-leave-embassy

    ​ ​TUCKER CARLSON: This is about introducing flat out totalitarianism​
    ​B​ut election interference from TikTok is totally unacceptable. OK. But in reality, and you should know this, if you’re opposed to TikTok as we are, This bill isn’t really about banning TikTok. It’s never about what they say it is.
    ​ ​Instead, this bill would give enormous and terrifying new powers to the federal government to punish American citizens and regulate how they communicate with one another. For example, the bill would regulate “certain transactions between persons in the United States and foreign adversaries.” Now, what’s a foreign adversary and who gets to decide? The secretary of commerce and the department and the DNI, not the Congress, get to decide what foreign adversaries are. Well, that ought to trip a switch in your brain and then the transactions with foreign adversaries would include “any acquisition, importation, transfer, installation, dealing in or use of any information and communications technology, product or service, including ongoing activities such as mandated services, data transmission, software updates, repairs, or the provision of data hosting services.” Well, that’s pretty broad.
    ​ ​Under this bill, if you engage in any of that with a so-called foreign adversary as determined by, in this case, the Biden administration, that would allow the Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimando, and the director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, to decide whether you’re acting in the “interest of a foreign adversary.”
    ​ ​Again, that’s another term that the executive branch, the secretary of commerce, gets to define without the interference of Congress. So, if the Biden administration decides that you’re doing this, then the secretary of commerce can then enforce “any mitigation measure to address any risk arising from any covered transaction with any person or with respect to any property subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.” Oh, these covered transactions can involve “current past or potential future transactions” and the mitigation measures include, but are not limited to, throwing American citizens in prison for 20 years.
    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-introducing-flat-out-totalitarianism-system

    RESTRICT Act Is Orwellian Censorship Grab Disguised As Anti-TikTok Legislation​ (Abbreviated version)
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/restrict-act-orwellian-censorship-grab-disguised-anti-tiktok-legislation

    ​ In Britain, and envisioned for everyone, everywhere…
    ​ Smartphones, under the two years of lockdown, were the instrument onto which the COVID-faithful downloaded the software applications (or app) that connected them to the Test and Trace tracking programme that identified and recorded their location, movements, associations and personal contacts.
    ​ ​In the imminent future, smartphones are the instrument onto which, in the guise of the digital verification of our identity — the Government’s ‘consultation’ on which closed this month — the compliant will upload their biometric data (fingerprints, photograph and DNA swab) to a centralised database to which the 32 public authorities presiding over the UK biosecurity state will have access.​..
    ..Smartphones are the instrument that will monitor whether their owners are up-to-date with what the UK biosecurity state decides is fully ‘vaccinated’ with whatever our Government and its partners in the pharmaceutical industry decide we must inject into our bodies as a condition of access to the rights of citizenship.
    ​ ​Smartphones are the instrument that will monitor and record how many times we leave or enter our 15-minute grazing range currently being implemented by our public authorities to restrict and limit our freedom of movement on the justification of ‘saving the planet’.
    ​ ​Smart phones are the instrument that will track our carbon footprint in order to monitor and control the quantity of meat, dairy products, energy, oil, petrol and other products to which the UK biosecurity state — under the terms of the agreements of Agenda 2030 signed by the UK Government in 2015 — will progressively cut off our access between now and 2030.
    ​ ​Smartphones are the means by which our compliance with lockdowns, masking mandates and programmes of gene therapy dictated by the World Health Organization’s Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Treaty and enforced by the UK biosecurity state will be monitored, recorded and enforced by, among other recourses, cutting off our access to the electronic and digital grid.
    ​ ​And, within the next few years, smartphones will become the digital wallet through which the Bank of England will have complete control over how much, on what and where we spend its Central Bank Digital Currency​…
    ..Smartphones, therefore, are the technology of our enslavement, and the fact that, knowing all this as more and more of us do, we still — still — won’t discard them, shows how addicted we are to this technology, how deep it has penetrated into our psychology, and in effect into our biology.​..
    ..The truth is, we don’t programme smartphones and we don’t use them. They programme us, they change how we use them. They use us.​..
    ..A smartphone is not a tool. It is not a ‘convenience’. It is biotechnology, and the fact that it isn’t yet implanted into our bodies doesn’t mean it hasn’t already become a part of us — and a part of us you have just demonstrated you are ready to sacrifice your freedom to rather than discard.​//
    ..Compliance with the UK programme of gene therapy was not — as was claimed by those who willingly complied — a personal and individual choice to be ‘vaccinated’ against a deadly virus, and therefore none of the business of those who opposed the national programme. It was, and is, an act of collective obedience that created the consensus with which the non-compliant were and are socially ostracised, demonised in the media as murderers, fired from our jobs and treated under newly-made laws as citizens without rights and freedoms, prisoners in our own country and homes.
    ​ ​In the same way, using a smart phone is not an individual choice — whether chosen freely or out of habit or addiction; it is a collective act of compliance that is creating the digital camp in which all of us will one day be imprisoned. Only when millions of us stop using the instruments of our enslavement will we escape this camp.
    ​https://off-guardian.org/2023/03/29/why-you-should-destroy-your-smart-phone-now/

    #132375
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Deactivating the Russian links with a space between “dot” and “com” to get them to upload…

    ​It’s a war for the dollar—and the big banks. The rest of us better hold on tight.​ , ​By James K. Galbraith
    ​ ​So why did the Federal Reserve invert the yield curve? To fight inflation? To kill jobs and stall wages? If so, the stupidity—or the economistic groupthink—is shocking. Most price increases have already faded from the economy (for now). Though job growth is strong, wage increases lag prices: Real wages have fallen. The Fed obviously operates in total disregard of its full-employment mandate—nothing new in that—and indifference even to the textbook logic of labor markets. Why is that? Among specialists, opinions differ on how smart top officers of the Federal Reserve actually are. Personally, I vote for dishonest over stupid.
    ​ ​The Fed works—as a wise Republican monetarist told me many years ago—for the biggest banks. The big banks are not the friends of smaller banks, even if they scramble to help out when the smaller ones are in danger. And the big banks, which operate across the globe, depend on the God-almighty dollar. The Fed raises interest rates, first and foremost, to defend the dollar. Paul Volcker in 1981 raised interest rates to the skies and established a dollar-based world system that is now beginning—just beginning—to unravel. I believe that this, above all, lies at the heart of the inverted yield curve. SVB and the US regional and community banks are only the beginning of the consequences.
    ​ ​What happens next? Obviously, Europe and Japan must match US rate increases and deposit guarantees, and as all those interest rates rise, a global slump will follow. If they don’t follow suit—and perhaps even if they do—hot money will flow massively out of European and other foreign banks, notably Japan, and out of commodities, such as oil and copper. The money will flow into the United States. Into the money market funds and the biggest banks. Enhanced swap lines—to keep dollars available to foreign central banks—were trotted out on Sunday. They signal that the dollar is still boss.
    https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/svb-collapse-fed-causes-bailout/

    ​ ​Russia’s deputy foreign minister has listed the steps Kiev must take before hostilities can end​.
    ​​ ​For Ukraine to bring about peace, its military forces must stand down and the West must halt all deliveries of weapons to Kiev, Galuzin told the outlet RTVI.
    ​ ​Several other conditions he listed have been on the table since the hostilities escalated in February 2022, such as Ukraine’s demilitarization and “denazification,” a pledge to never join the EU or NATO, and the affirmation of Kiev’s non-nuclear status. Another was added in October 2022, and involves the recognition of “new territorial realities” – commonly understood to mean the decision of Kherson, Zaporozhye and the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk to join Russia.
    ​ ​Ensuring the protection of the Russian language and the rights of Russian-speaking citizens, as well as all other ethnic groups in Ukraine also made Galuzin’s list.
    https://www.rt. com/russia/573822-ukraine-peace-conditions-galuzin/

    ​ Nobody can tell where that 20% goes after that, either.​
    ​ ​Washington hands over only about 20% of financial aid allocated for Ukraine directly to Kiev, with about 60% of this money being received by the US side itself, head of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Michael McCaul said during Committee hearing Wednesday.
    ​ ​”Of the $113 billion appropriated across four supplementals, approximately 60% is going to American troops, American workers and modernizing American stockpiles. In fact, only 20% of the funding is going directly to the Ukrainian government in the form of direct budgetary assistance,” the lawmaker said.
    https://tass. com/world/1596247

    Ecological Data Point to COVID-19 Vaccines as a Determinant of Increased All-Cause Mortality
    Countries Must Urgently Merge Vaccine Administration and Death Databases​, ​Peter A. McCullough, MD
    ​ ​The biggest global news story in 2021, 2022, and now in 2023 is that people around the world are dying in ever great numbers as the pandemic winds down. This is just the opposite of what was expected since COVID-19 mortality was largely in the elderly and those with many medical problems, the viral illness should have had a “culling” effect leaving 2022 and now 2023 to have decreased mortality.
    ​ ​Multiple sources of data suggest the swell in mortality occurring is not just among the elderly. Edward Dowd’s book “Cause Unknown”: The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 & 2022 numerous sources of insurance data are cited suggesting death claims among working age persons are skyrocketing.
    ​ ​Aarstad et al have published an ecological analysis demonstrating that deaths tracked with increased COVID-19 vaccination rates.
    https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/ecological-data-point-to-covid-19

    #132376
    John Day
    Participant

    ​The United States has a census counted population of 332 million. Thus, if even a small percentage of these people are injured or killed from COVID-19 vaccines, it’s still a frightful number.
    ​ ​Consider that 58,000 men were killed in ten years of fighting in Vietnam. This was just a tiny percentage of the 100 million American men counted in the 1968 census, but it was still a huge number of men to die in their early twenties.
    ​ ​Yesterday, former BlackRock portfolio manager Ed Dowd and his analysts at the research firm, Phinance Technologies, published a report on the cost of the COVID-19 vaccine program in the United States for the year 2022….​ ​26.6 million injuries; 1.36 million disabilities; 300,000 excess deaths. Note that this death count in one year is 5.2 times the number of [American]​ men killed in ten years of combat in Vietnam.
    ​ ​Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this state of affairs is that most Americans don’t know it’s happening. Every day, young people are dying from heart attacks, strokes, and seizures caused by COVID-19 vaccines.
    https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/ed-dowds-grim-accounting

    ​ Meryl Nass MD, ​I cite 4 papers (2 by USG scientists) which showed in 2004, 2005 and 2014 that repurposed drugs could kill SARS-1 and MERS at usual safe doses. This should have prevented the EUAs for COVID vaccines
    https://merylnass.substack.com/p/my-story-became-chapter-3-in-robert

    ​ ​A new report estimates that 26.6 million people were injured, 1.36 million disabled, and 300,000 excess deaths can be attributed to COVID-19 vaccine damages in 2022 alone, which cost the economy nearly $150 billion.​ (same report)​
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bombshell-vax-analysis-finds-147-billion-economic-damage-tens-millions-injured-or-disabled

    Pierre Kory MD, ..Policymakers must recognize that snap crisis decisions can leave people hurt. No one expects a perfect public response, but there must be safety net for those who get caught up in the single-minded approach. Consider vaccine associated enhanced disease (VAED), the ghastly scenario where a vaccine not only fails to prevent transmission but creates a more serious illness in a vaccinated person than one who is unvaccinated.
    According to the CDC’s “V-safe” safety monitoring system, 33% of people who received a COVID vaccine experienced severe adverse effects, and 7.7% have required hospitalization. I have never in my career prescribed any medicine or administered any therapy which even came close to a 1% risk of requiring medical attention as a result of that therapy. This risk of a treatment is unprecedented in the history of modern medicine.
    https://dailycaller.com/2023/03/21/pierre-kory-here-are-three-unforgettable-lessons-from-the-covid-pandemic/

    ​ ​The Decades of Evidence That Antidepressants Cause Mass Shootings​ , A Midwestern Doctor​​
    ​ ​As we have seen with the vaccines, almost no social cost can keep a lucrative pharmaceutical off the market
    https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/the-decades-of-evidence-that-antidepressants

    #132377
    John Day
    Participant

    @Kassandra:
    Here is the FLCCC post-vaccine treatment information: https://covid19criticalcare.com/treatment-protocols/i-recover/

    and their Long COVID section, which is more for doctors evaluating patients: https://covid19criticalcare.com/treatment-protocols/i-recover-long-covid-treatment/

    I think Germ could add B-complex to what he is taking. Certainly take Vitamin-D, K2 (his dose is good), fresh vegetables, and a diet low in processed foods. Avoid sweet drinks and charred/smoked meats.

    #132378
    morongobill
    Participant

    Germ, how many pills a day a nd does it give you stomach distress?

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