Mar 072023
 
 March 7, 2023  Posted by at 10:15 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Roy DeCarava Woman walking above, New York 1950

 

Pentagon Chief Downplays Importance Of Bakhmut (RT)
Zelensky At Odds With Top General – Bild (RT)
Zelensky’s Office Says Zaluzhny Supports Further Battles In Bakhmut (TASS)
About 10,000 Ukrainian Troops Remain In Bakhmut – DPR Advisor (TASS)
Ukraine Sustains Big Losses In Bakhmut – El Pais (TASS)
NATO Estimates Russia Lost 5 Times More Soldiers In Bakhmut Than Ukraine (Az.)
Direct Talks Between Russia, US Needed To Settle Conflict In Ukraine – Hungary (TASS)
Bulgaria Profiteering From Ukraine Conflict (RT)
Norway Earns Record Oil, Gas Revenue After Ukraine War (RT)
Nord Streams’ Fate To Be Decided By Gazprom, Other Shareholders – Kremlin (TASS)
Medvedev Eyes ‘Final Nail’ In Neocolonialism’s Coffin (RT)
A Massive Global Restructuring is Underway (IM)
CNN Boss Ordered Staff Not To Chase Down Covid Lab Leak Theory (Fox)
America’ COVID Response Was Based on Lies (Scott Atlas)
Twitter Insiders: We Can’t Protect Users From Trolling Under Musk (BBC)
Allegorical Intermezzo (Kunstler)
FDA Pledges to ‘Save Lives’ by Policing Online Content (CHD)
Those Pesky Savanna Monkeys and Their Dreams of Gold Hydrogen (Ugo Bardi)
Jan. 6 Footage Shows Capitol Cops Escorting QAnon Shaman To Senate Floor (NYP)

 

 

 

 

Massie

 

 

 

 

 

 

RFKjr

 

 

Crosstalk Pepe

 

 

 

 

Jaishankar

 

 

 

 

There’s a story here. Germany’s BILD Zeitung reports that Ukraine’s military no. 1, Valery Zaluzhny, called for a withdrawal from Bakhmut weeks ago. Other reports say the US wanted such a withdrawal since late January. Zelensky kept refusing. And now the story has become that everyone agrees to stay in Bakhmut, while at the same time downplaying its importance, either militarily or as a symbol.

It’s PR thing now, pure and simple. NATO can blame Zelensky from here on in, and is scot-free. AND: NATO’s not losing, Zelensky is. If only he’d listened, he’s be winning.

Pentagon Chief Downplays Importance Of Bakhmut (RT)

The city of Artyomovsk, or Bakhmut as it is known by Ukraine, is of more symbolic than operational importance, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin claimed on Monday, according to Reuters. The battle for the city – a major stronghold and logistics hub for Kiev’s forces in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) – has continued for months, being described by some as the fiercest in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.Yan Gagin, an adviser to the DPR’s acting head Denis Pushilin, said on Monday that Russian forces have encircled the key city, trapping around 10,000 Ukrainian troops inside. The Pentagon chief, however, said he wouldn’t consider it a strategic setback if Ukrainian troops decide to reposition themselves on new defense lines west of the city. “The fall of [Artyomovsk] won’t necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the tide of this fight,” he said. While acknowledging the possibility of a defeat for Ukraine in Artyomovsk, Austin refused to speculate on whether or when it’ll happen.


German tabloid Bild reported on Monday that the city had become a source of internal conflict between Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces General Valery Zaluzhny. Insiders in Kiev told the outlet that Zaluzhny had called for a withdrawal from the city weeks ago. However, Zelensky’s office said on Monday morning that his top generals supported continuing the defensive operation in Bakhmut. According to Western media reports, the US government has been urging Kiev to pull out of Artyomovsk since late January and to prepare instead for future counter-offensives in other areas. However, Zelensky has insisted the city will fight for as long as possible. Senior Biden administration officials told the Washington Post in late February that the Ukrainian leader “attaches symbolic importance” to the city and fears a setback to morale if it’s captured by Russian forces.

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“US officials have assessed that its loss to Russia would not affect the strategic situation..”

Zelensky At Odds With Top General – Bild (RT)

An internal conflict is underway between Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and General Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, according to government sources cited by Bild on Monday. Kiev insiders told the German tabloid that the military commander called for a withdrawal from a key Donbass city weeks ago. Zaluzhny advised the president to abandon Artyomovsk, known as Bakhmut in Ukraine, rather than keep defending it as Russian troops threatened to take control of the city, the newspaper reported. However the Ukrainian leader declared the city a fortress, and refused to pull troops back.

Russian forces have made notable advances in the fight for Artyomovsk this year. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the private military company Wagner Group, claimed last Friday that it was “de-facto completely surrounded,” with only one road available for possible evacuation. According to US media, Washington has been urging Zelensky to pull out of Artyomovsk and focus on preparing a major counteroffensive for the spring using Western-supplied weapons, but the Ukrainian president fears a morale hit that such a move would cause. The city is part of a 70km Ukrainian defense line created since Kiev initiated the fighting in Donbass in 2014. US officials have assessed that its loss to Russia would not affect the strategic situation.

Bild sources claimed that Ukrainian troops on the ground in Artyomovsk “do not understand why the city is being held” and believe they should have withdrawn a long time ago. Zelensky recently stated that Ukrainian forces would defend it as long as it “remains reasonable” to do so. The German tabloid also noted that Zaluzhny’s popularity for leading the military campaign against Russia makes him a viable challenger to Zelensky in a potential presidential run. The general has not publicly announced any ambition to run for office, but rumors have been circulating in Ukraine for months regarding Zelensky’s concerns over possible competition.

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Seniors and teenagers.

Zelensky’s Office Says Zaluzhny Supports Further Battles In Bakhmut (TASS)

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny, and the commander of the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian armed forces, Alexander Syrsky, have supported further battles in Artyomovsk, a town known in Ukraine as Bakhmut, and efforts to reinforce Ukrainian positions in the town, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s office said on Monday. The statement followed news media reports that Zelensky and Zaluzhny had differences. Zelensky held a meeting of top military officers that, among other things, had an in-depth discussion of the situation in Artyomovsk, and asked Zaluzhny and Syrsky about further plans of Ukrainian forces in the area.

“They [Zaluzhny and Syrsky] spoke in favor of continuing the defense operation and further reinforcement of our positions in Bakhmut,” said the statement that was published on the Ukrainian presidential website.The Bild newspaper earlier reported, citing sources, that the situation around Artyomovsk caused disagreement between Zelensky and Zaluzhny. According to the report, Zaluzhny told Zelensky a few weeks ago that Ukrainian troops needed to be pulled out of Artyomovsk. The Ukrainian president, however, had a fundamentally different view on the issue. Artyomovsk is located in the Kiev-controlled part of the DPR and is an important transportation hub for supplying Ukrainian troops in Donbass.

Fierce fighting has been raging for the town. Denis Pushilin, the interim head of the Donetsk People’s Republic said on February 16 that Russian forces had seized control of all key heights near Artyomovsk. Zelensky said on February 20 that Ukraine would fight for Artyomovsk “while it makes sense.” Additional units continue to be sent to the town. Andrey Marochko, a retired lieutenant-colonel of the People’s Militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic, told TASS that Kiev had sent even underage children to take part in the hostilities. Yan Gagin, an adviser to interim head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, said on Monday that Ukrainian forces in Artyomovsk were trapped just like they were in Debaltsevo in 2015.

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“..Prigozhin said that tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops were fiercely resisting Russian forces in Artyomovsk.”

About 10,000 Ukrainian Troops Remain In Bakhmut – DPR Advisor (TASS)

There are currently some 10,000 Ukrainian servicemen in Artyomovsk, known as Bakhmut in Ukraine, Yan Gagin, who is an advisor to acting leader of Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin, said on Monday. “Quite a large garrison of [Ukrainian troops] is still deployed in Artyomovsk – some 10,000 people or, perhaps, somewhat more. Parts of it have already left the city, and some parts have been attempting to leave it, while our artillery has been trying to hit them,” the expert told Rossya-1 television. Earlier on Monday, Gagin also said that the cauldron in Artymovosk was similar to the one Ukrainian troops got encircled into in 2015. On March 1, founder of the Wagner private military company Yevgeny Prigozhin said that tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops were fiercely resisting Russian forces in Artyomovsk.

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“..the Ukrainian military admits that several of its best-trained army units have been destroyed near Artyomovsk in recent months..”

Ukraine Sustains Big Losses In Bakhmut – El Pais (TASS)

Ukraine’s armed forces have sustained huge losses in Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), despite the fact that several of their best brigades were deployed to the city, Spain’s El Pais reported on Monday. According to the newspaper, on Friday Ukrainian troops blew up two small bridges linking the only Ukraine-controlled access road to Artyomovsk and erected a floating bridge instead. The newspaper also reported that several small groups of Ukrainian soldiers arrived in the city as reinforcements. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the Ukrainian military admits that several of its best-trained army units have been destroyed near Artyomovsk in recent months. Although data on Ukraine’s losses are classified, some officers acknowledge the losses on condition of anonymity. Artyomovsk, a major transport hub used as a logistics center for the Ukrainian army in Donbass, is located in the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic. Fierce fighting continues for control of the city. Acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin said on February 16 that Russian forces had taken control of the high ground around Artyomovsk.

Retreat from Bakhmut

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Guys like Col. Macgregor put the ratio at 8:1, and likely worse. NATO claims 1:5. Oh, sure.

NATO Estimates Russia Lost 5 Times More Soldiers In Bakhmut Than Ukraine (Az.)

NATO intelligence estimates that for every Ukrainian soldier killed defending Bakhmut, Russian forces have lost at least five, a military official with the North Atlantic alliance told CNN on Monday, Report informs. The official cautioned the five to one ratio was an informed estimate based on intelligence.The official spoke to CNN on the condition they remain anonymous because they are not allowed to discuss this intelligence. Despite the favorable ratio, they also said Ukraine was suffering significant losses defending the city. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly claimed they were inflicting heavy losses on Russia as Moscow tried to take Bakhmut.

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And a few actually want peace….

Direct Talks Between Russia, US Needed To Settle Conflict In Ukraine – Hungary (TASS)

Hungary believes the settlement of the armed conflict in Ukraine requires direct talks between Russia and the US, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in the country’s parliament on Monday. “We would welcome direct talks between the US and Russia” on Ukraine, the minister said. He brought up the brief conversation between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of 20 countries in India on March 2. “It would be nice if they had more time to talk. With the few minutes they had, it was quite hard to discuss paths to a lasting settlement [in Ukraine],” Szijjarto said.


He also said that most countries support the establishment of peace in Ukraine as soon as possible.”Peace requires peace talks, and for this to happen we must keep the channels of communication open,” the minister said. Earlier, the Hungarian government has repeatedly stated it believed that in order to resolve the Ukrainian conflict, negotiations should go not only between Ukraine and Russia, but also between Russia and the United States, since Washington provides most political and military support to Kiev.

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Two EU countries profiteer from the war: Bulgaria and Norway.

“Last year alone, at least $1 billion in arms was transferred from Bulgaria to Ukraine, mostly through Poland and Romania..”

Bulgaria Profiteering From Ukraine Conflict (RT)

Bulgarian arms makers exported products worth billions of dollars to Ukraine using third-party countries as intermediaries, EURACTIV revealed in an investigation published on Monday. It had earlier been reported that former prime minister Kiril Petkov claimed credit for the scheme, which circumvented opponents of such transactions in the Bulgarian government. The outlet’s findings indicate that the practice of indirect arms supplies predated the outbreak of Russian-Ukrainian hostilities. However once the conflict escalated in February 2022, Bulgarian manufacturers enjoyed a rapid increase in profits, doubling sales last year. Bulgaria is a major producer of munitions compatible with Soviet-designed weapons, which Ukraine used extensively before the US and its allies supplied it with Western-produced alternatives.

Last year alone, at least $1 billion in arms was transferred from Bulgaria to Ukraine, mostly through Poland and Romania, sources told EURACTIV. No direct arms contracts were signed, the outlet added. The funneling of arms was done through foreign schemes and funded using foreign finance, according to Velizar Shalamanov, the former acting defense minister and a vocal supporter of shipping arms to Ukraine. There is a program with good funding in Great Britain, the United States and Poland. Through this program, the armaments needed for Ukraine are bought, that is, the money is not Ukrainian but British, American, Polish or European. That is why it is bought through other companies,” he told EURACTIV.

The clandestine deliveries were repoerted in January by the German daily Die Welt, which gave credit for the scheme to former Bulgarian prime minister Kiril Petkov and ex-finance minister Asen Vasilev. They are both Harvard University graduates and belong to the same pro-NATO political movement, which they founded together. “We estimate that around a third of the ammunition needed by the Ukrainian Army came from Bulgaria in the early stages of the war,” Petkov said at the time. The prime minister had taken the steps contrary to public opinion, which was overwhelmingly opposed to giving extensive aid to Ukraine, over concerns that their country would be dragged into the conflict, Die Welt reported.

Petkov’s government was backed by a coalition of four parties, and, according to the German paper, he went behind the back of the Socialists – a coalition member that publicly opposed any armament supplies to Ukraine. Petkov lost his position in a no-confidence vote last June. The Bulgarian parliament failed to form a stable government after snap elections in October and is currently preparing for a new national ballot in April. The country approved its first official military aid package to Kiev in December, with President Rumen Radev declining to block the proposal backed by parliament.

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After During Ukraine War.

Norway Earns Record Oil, Gas Revenue After Ukraine War (RT)

The Norwegian state raked in record oil and gas revenues last year after the war in Ukraine sent energy prices soaring, official figures showed Monday, Report informs via Barron’s. Norway earned 1.5 trillion kroner ($140 billion) in revenues from oil and gas, according to estimates by Statistics Norway (SSB). It was “by far the highest ever recorded in the statistics” and almost three times the 498 billion kroner earned in 2021, according to SSB. Norway became Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas in 2022 as Russia cut deliveries and the Scandinavian country increased its own exports. Oslo’s income was buoyed by record high European gas prices over the summer which have since subsided. The exceptional revenues have sometimes earned Norway the label of “war profiteer”, a label that Oslo rejects. Norway has pledged 75 billion kroner in civil and military aid to Ukraine over the next five years (2023-2027), or 15 billion kroner per year.

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“He answered in the negative when asked whether there would be recommendations from the Kremlin to Gazprom on this matter..”

Nord Streams’ Fate To Be Decided By Gazprom, Other Shareholders – Kremlin (TASS)

The decision about the future of the Nord Stream pipelines will be made by Gazprom and other shareholders of the project, and there will be no recommendations from the Kremlin on this matter to the company, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. When asked about the future of Nord Streams, the Kremlin official advised to contact Gazprom, which “is a shareholder in this international project.” “Of course, this is a decision that should be made collectively by all shareholders – this is an international project,” Peskov stressed. He answered in the negative when asked whether there would be recommendations from the Kremlin to Gazprom on this matter. “First of all, you need to contact Gazprom,” the Kremlin spokesman repeated.

Earlier, Reuters reported citing sources that the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines are set to be sealed up and mothballed. On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported unprecedented damage that occurred the day before on three strings of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines. On September 26, 2022, Swedish seismologists registered two explosions on the pipeline routes. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office launched a criminal case based on charges of international terrorism. On February 8, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article, which said, citing sources, that US Navy divers had planted explosive devices under the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines under the cover of the BALTOPS exercise in June 2022, and Norwegians activated the bombs three months later.

According to the journalist, the decision to conduct the operation was made by US President Joe Biden personally, following nine months of discussions with White House security specialists. White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a comment to TASS that Hersh’s account was “utterly false and complete fiction.” At a meeting of G20 Foreign Ministers on March 2, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow will continue to seek a prompt and impartial investigation of sabotage at the gas pipelines. Moscow insists on its participation in this probe, he added. He noted that the call of the Russian Federation to reflect the need for a fair investigation into Nord Stream in the G20 declaration was ignored.

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“As more and more countries “stop fearing Western diktat” and start to assert their national interests more actively, the former colonial powers are bound to lose their hold on the regions they once thought were theirs..”

Medvedev Eyes ‘Final Nail’ In Neocolonialism’s Coffin (RT)

Russia is ready to help the world do away with the vestiges of a Western-dominated colonial past, former president Dmitry Medvedev has claimed. The official argued that as a nation “which has never had any colonies,” Russia is well-placed to take part in this process. In an article published on Monday, Medvedev claimed that “geopolitical turbulence has cut open an abscess of the old problems of our world.” The ex-president and now deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, argued that the “malignant tumor of a colonial past” is a problem that calls for “international surgery.” He noted that the Soviet Union played a major role in dismantling the colonial system of the 20th century. “We, together with other countries, can now drive the final nail in the coffin of the Western world’s neo-colonial aspirations,” Medvedev proclaimed in the piece, posted on the United Russia party website.

As an example, the former president cited Argentina’s decision to renounce a 2016 deal with the UK with respect to the disputed Falkland/Malvinas islands in the South Atlantic, which were at the center of a military conflict in 1982. On Thursday, Argentinian Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero said he had notified his British counterpart, James Cleverly, of the move during a meeting in New Delhi, India, on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Buenos Aires “has proposed to resume negotiations on the question of sovereignty” in compliance with the mandate of the UN General Assembly and the world body’s Committee on Decolonization, Cafiero clarified. Medvedev argued that the decisions to show French troops the door last year by two of France’s former colonies in Africa, the Central African Republic and Mali, fit this pattern too.

Medvedev pointed out, however, that there are still a number of dependent territories around the globe ruled by Western powers such as the UK and France. He expressed skepticism that those nations will willingly relinquish control of the remains of their former empires. As more and more countries “stop fearing Western diktat” and start to assert their national interests more actively, the former colonial powers are bound to lose their hold on the regions they once thought were theirs, he concluded. Following the start of Russia’s military campaign against Ukraine last February and amid fierce confrontation with the West, top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have increasingly advocated the establishment of a “multipolar world” which does not center around the wishes of one single superpower.

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“If everyone thinks that we are guaranteed to win the war, it seems very unlikely.”

Interesting piece of video of Arestovich.

A Massive Global Restructuring is Underway (IM)

We’ve long said that Hungary was going to leave the EU. It is just a question of time. The daily news announced that “hundreds of high-ranking military officers sacked in Hungary”. From the article: “Multiple Hungarian media outlets reported that Hungary’s defense minister sacked hundreds of high-ranking military officers. The people concerned have two months to leave and will get 70 percent of their current salaries as a pension-like allowance even if they continue to work. The minister says the move served the rejuvenation and modernisation of the army. The opposition believes the government fired pro-NATO officers.” To be clear, I don’t know if this is true. But as with most things, you piece together multiple bits of information and a picture forms providing probabilities. It is with these probabilities that we begin to price outcomes and assets accordingly.

Where most probable outcomes coincide with cheap or expensive asset classes is where we find asymmetry. So what we do know is that Hungary has been against the Ukraine war from the get go. Orban has been a thorn in the EU’s side, refusing to bow to ever increasing levels of control and mismanagement. He is extraordinarily popular at home and this has the pointy shoes in Brussels in a tizz. How dare he? The article goes on to explain the mass sacking. “The ministry says this move served the aim to modernise the army and pave the way to the rise of a new officer generation. Media reports about more than a hundred generals, colonels and other high-ranking officers sent away. Meanwhile, the former defence secretary and the Democratic Coalition’s MP, Ágnes Vadai, counted around 170 officers on Thursday. She added the officers sent away were pro-NATO.”

What may have prompted this? Well, I did note this…This guy with the dress sense of a circus clown just resigned. He is — or should I say was — advisor to Zelensky’s chief of staff. A recent article announced that Oleksiy Arestovich resigns as advisor to Zelensky’s office. “Oleksiy Arestovich submitted his resignation from the position of external adviser to the office of the president of Ukraine. “I want to show an example of what civilized behavior is: a fundamental error, then resignation,” he wrote on his social media, attaching a photo of his letter.” After his resignation he went on political analyst Yuri Romanenko’s Youtube channel and had this to say. “I’m an unofficial person already, I can say what I want.” Then having said that, spat this out… “If everyone thinks that we are guaranteed to win the war, it seems very unlikely.”

This is particularly interesting since the former actor (I know right, it’s like the entire cabinet are actors) coined the name. I’d say propagandist but whatever. His job, as far as I can tell, was to run a Youtube channel, which earned him the nickname “Therapist-in-Chief” and was devoted to assuring Ukrainians that the situation was under control, Ukraine had the upper hand, and that the war would be over soon. So basically a professional liar. A Ukrainian version of the BBC and CNN. So as you can see, quite a turnaround for the “everything’s under control” kid. I guess the cocaine dwarf didn’t funnel enough of the Western taxpaying serfs’ money through Europe’s laundromat to him in order to keep up the charade. Or he quite possibly actually fears for his life because at some point a Russian bullet may exit the back of his head. Who knows?

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“CNN bent over backwards to knock down what former President Trump and members of his administration said lending credibility to the lab-leak theory..”

CNN Boss Ordered Staff Not To Chase Down Covid Lab Leak Theory (Fox)

CNN has long referred to itself as “the most trusted name in news” and famously launched its “Facts First” campaign during the Trump era, but like many other outlets, that sentiment fell by the wayside when it came to the COVID lab-leak theory. In recent days, the theory that COVID originated from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been embraced by FBI Director Christopher Wray and a bombshell report indicated that the U.S. Energy Department believes the virus likely started in the lab, a sentiment expressed by top Trump administration officials nearly from the outset. But in the early months of the pandemic, then-CNN president Jeff Zucker would not allow his network to chase down the lab-leak story because he believed it was a “Trump talking point,” according to a well-placed CNN insider.

“People are slowly waking up from the fog,” the insider told Fox News Digital. “It is kind of crazy that we didn’t chase it harder.”Throughout Zucker’s tenure as CNN’s chief, he pulled what was once widely seen as a straight-news organization to an anti-Trump operation. CNN bent over backwards to knock down what former President Trump and members of his administration said lending credibility to the lab-leak theory, as the White House was deemed a nemesis by the network. On March 28, 2020, CNN’s Oliver Darcy published a story headlined, “Here’s how to debunk coronavirus misinformation and conspiracy theories from friends and family,” that offered advice about dealing with pesky loved ones who didn’t believe in mainstream COVID-19 narratives at the time.

“While the coronavirus pandemic has isolated family and friends inside their homes, it has in many cases increased online or over-the-phone communication with loved ones,” Darcy wrote. “But, in some cases, relatives and friends share poor information – whether it is bad science related to how to prevent the virus, debunked rumors about cities being put on lockdown, or conspiracy theories about the origins of Covid-19. While any strain of misinformation is not ideal, misinformation related to a public health crisis has an especially dangerous element to it,” Darcy continued before declaring that “bad information during a public health emergency poses a risk to those who fall victim to it.” Darcy’s admonition came as CNN was one of many mainstream outlets to declare the lab-leak notion utterly preposterous.

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Scott Atlas was an early Fauci/Birx victim.

America’ COVID Response Was Based on Lies (Scott Atlas)

Almost all of America’s leaders have gradually pulled back their COVID mandates, requirements, and closures—even in states like California, which had imposed the most stringent and longest-lasting restrictions on the public. At the same time, the media has been gradually acknowledging the ongoing release of studies that totally refute the purported reasons behind those restrictions. This overt reversal is falsely portrayed as “learned” or “new evidence.” Little acknowledgement of error is to be found. We have seen no public apology for promulgating false information, or for the vilification and delegitimization of policy experts and medical scientists like myself who spoke out correctly about data, standard knowledge about viral infections and pandemics, and fundamental biology.

The historical record is critical. We have seen a macabre Orwellian attempt to rewrite history and to blame the failure of widespread lockdowns on the lockdowns’ critics, alongside absurd denials of officials’ own incessant demands for them. In the Trump administration, Dr. Deborah Birx was formally in charge of the medical side of the White House’s coronavirus task force during the pandemic’s first year. In that capacity, she authored all written federal policy recommendations to governors and states and personally advised each state’s public health officials during official visits, often with Vice President Mike Pence, who oversaw the entire task force. Upon the inauguration of President Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci became chief medical advisor and ran the Biden pandemic response.

We must acknowledge the abject failure of the Birx-Fauci policies. They were enacted, but they failed to stop the dying, failed to stop the infection from spreading, and inflicted massive damage and destruction particularly on lower-income families and on America’s children. More than 1 million American deaths have been attributed to that virus. Even after draconian measures, including school closures, stoppage of non-COVID medical care, business shutdowns, personal restrictions, and then the continuation of many restrictions and mandates in the presence of a vaccine, there was an undeniable failure—over two presidential administrations—to stop cases from rapidly escalating.Numerous experts—including John Ioannidis, David Katz, and myself—called for targeted protection, a safer alternative to widespread lockdowns, in national media beginning in March of 2020. That proposal was rejected. History’s biggest public health policy failure came at the hands of those who recommended the lockdowns and those who implemented them, not those who advised otherwise.

[..] None of us are so naïve as to expect a direct apology from critics at my employer, Stanford University, or in government, academic public health, and the media. But to ensure that this never happens again, government leaders, power-driven officials, and influential academics and advisors often harboring conflicts of interest must be held accountable. Personally, I remain highly skeptical that any government investigation or commission can avoid politicization. Regardless of their intention, all such government-run inquiries will at least be perceived as politically motivated and their conclusions will be rejected outright by many. Those investigations must proceed, though, if only to seek the truth, to teach our children that truth matters, and to remember G.K. Chesterton’s critical lesson that “Right is right, even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong about it.”

Moderna software

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By Marianna Spring – BBC “Disinformation and social media correspondent”.

Saw part of the doc, fell asleep. Disinformation for these people is anything they don’t agree with. They drag out a rape victim and blame her misery on Elon Musk.

Twitter Insiders: We Can’t Protect Users From Trolling Under Musk (BBC)

Twitter insiders have told the BBC that the company is no longer able to protect users from trolling, state-co-ordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation, following lay-offs and changes under owner Elon Musk. Exclusive academic data plus testimony from Twitter users backs up their allegations, suggesting hate is thriving under Mr Musk’s leadership, with trolls emboldened, harassment intensifying and a spike in accounts following misogynistic and abusive profiles. Current and former employees of the company tell BBC Panorama that features intended to protect Twitter users from trolling and harassment are proving difficult to maintain, amid what they describe as a chaotic working environment in which Mr Musk is shadowed by bodyguards at all times. I’ve spoken to dozens, with several going on the record for the first time.

The former head of content design says everyone on her team – which created safety measures such as nudge buttons – has been sacked. She later resigned. Internal research by Twitter suggests those safety measures reduced trolling by 60%. An engineer working for Twitter told me “nobody’s taking care” of this type of work now, likening the platform to a building that seems fine from the outside, but inside is “on fire”. Twitter has not replied to the BBC’s request for comment. My investigation also reveals:

• Concerns that child sexual exploitation is on the rise on Twitter and not being sufficiently raised with law enforcement
• Targeted harassment campaigns aimed at curbing freedom of expression, and foreign influence operations – once removed daily from Twitter – are going “undetected”, according to a recent employee.
• Exclusive data showing how misogynistic online hate targeting me is on the rise since the takeover, and that there has been a 69% increase in new accounts following misogynistic and abusive profiles.
• Rape survivors have been targeted by accounts that have become more active since the takeover, with indications they’ve been reinstated or newly created.

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“My gawd, it’s going to be a long haul, but have a little faith — remember what that is? (It’s the conviction that all of us together stand in some meaningful relation to existence.)”

Allegorical Intermezzo (Kunstler)

The credibility of finance was thrown overboard a long time ago. Capital was sloshing around in the bilges as the ship heaved and pitched in the angry waters, and it had to go somewhere. The next turn will be when you go looking for where it went and you discover to your nauseated chagrin that the capital is just… gone! Through some legerdemain of physics, it disappeared… turned into a kind of anti-matter… fell through a black hole (possibly ripped by that iceberg), or up the smokestacks, like it was never there at all. When that happens, our collective attention finally gets galvanized as by no shock before. When capital is truly gone, transmogrified into a whole lot of nothing, the time for standing by making faces and whining is over.

By the way, this is the way the world ends for the vacuum known as “Joe Biden” and the Party of Chaos he is propped up to represent. Chaos, we will be astounded to learn, is not your friend, is not the solution to anything, least of all a polity that is floundering in lifeboats over cold, dark, deep water a thousand leagues from dry land. What’s more, there are no ships coming to the rescue. Guess why they put oars in the boats. Get set to pull, me hardies! Yes, we’re at sea now, without a compass. Yet the stars sparkle dazzlingly above, and some aboard can actually read what they say and what they point to. If safety and sanity will not find us, maybe we can pull together toward wherever they wait.

My gawd, it’s going to be a long haul, but have a little faith — remember what that is? (It’s the conviction that all of us together stand in some meaningful relation to existence.) Even if you’re too mentally drained to believe it, act as if it is so. Or, in post-modern parlance, fake it till you make it. Didn’t think it would come to this when you signed on to the voyage? I guess so. You were comfortably ensconced one winter night in the mini-McMansion, on the overstuffed sofa, entertained by some Netflix inanity, scarfing down the microwaved cheeze morsels… when the wife said, “Hey, let’s book a cruise!” Seemed like a good idea at the time, which is what everything in the annals of history is and was. And now, look at where you are!

Read more …

‘Easier’ to inform public when there were fewer communication channels..’

FDA Pledges to ‘Save Lives’ by Policing Online Content (CHD)

Since U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf began his second tenure as the agency’s head in February 2022, he has made combating “misinformation” one of his top priorities, arguing it is “a leading cause of preventable death in America now” — though “this cannot be proved,” he said. In an interview [last] Tuesday with The Associated Press (AP), Califf, who also headed the FDA between 2016 and 2017, reiterated his pledge to “save lives” by policing online content. One year into his second tenure as FDA commissioner — and despite waning public trust in the FDA — Califf has launched several FDA initiatives aimed “‘helping the public get the accurate, science-based information they need to use medical products and foods to maintain and improve their health’ in the face of a tsunami of confusing and misleading information.”

In his AP interview, Califf said increasing “distortions and half-truths” about vaccines and other medical treatments are “a leading cause of death in America.” “Almost no one should be dying of COVID in the U.S. today,” he said, adding that people who deny themselves the vaccines “are dying because they’re misinformed.” Combating “misinformation” is one of Califf’s priorities, along with “restructuring the agency’s food safety program and more aggressively deploying FDA scientists to explain vaccine decisions in the media.” When he took the helm last year, Califf called for the FDA to be more proactive in “countering misinformation.” Upon being sworn in last year, he said: “These kinds of distortions and half-truths that find their way into the public domain do enormous harm, both by leading people to behavior that is detrimental to their health and by causing them to eschew interventions that would improve their health. “A purely reactive mode is not appropriate, particularly in this new era of social media.”

Califf said, at the time, that he expected to take about a year to develop a strategy to combat medical “misinformation,” in a process that would involve public meetings. Six months into his term, on Aug. 5, 2022, Califf tweeted: “The distortions and half-truths of misinformation and disinformation pose enormous dangers to the effectiveness of science and to public health itself, through the negative impact it has on individual behavior. “That’s why I’ve made combating misinformation one of my priorities. Providing factual info is the key to helping people make the best informed decisions about their health.” According to Pharma Intelligence, Califf’s interest in targeting so-called “misinformation,” particularly on social media platforms, stems from his previous job at Verily, a life sciences company owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc.

Califf has frequently panned the proliferation of communication channels and platforms for this alleged rise in “misinformation.” Speaking at the TCT 2022 (Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics) conference, Califf said the FDA in the past would make decisions and then employ a system it had in place to directly communicate those decisions to hospitals, health systems, pharmacies, insurers and others. Now, FDA announcements are often met with “faux outrage and lies,” according to Califf, making it difficult for the “average patient to separate the truth from the lies.”

Read more …

“..if hydrogen is available in gaseous form in the ground, the economics suddenly work.” So, the energy problem is solved. Move on, folks, now we can restart economic growth. ”

Those Pesky Savanna Monkeys and Their Dreams of Gold Hydrogen (Ugo Bardi)

By now, you probably heard the story of “Natural Hydrogen,” (or “Gold Hydrogen”), the new source of clean energy that should come for free to us, outgassed from the depths of Earth. In 2020, the idea had been reviewed by Zgonnnik (see also an earlier paper), but the concept is becoming popular after it was described in a lengthy article on “Science” of Feb 17, 2022, and then taken up in an enthusiastic article in the NY times on Feb 27, where Peter Coy defines natural hydrogen as a “Gold Mine of Clean Energy Hiding Under our Feet.” Citing from the “Times” article, “….from an economic point of view, it doesn’t make any sense” to use electricity to produce hydrogen, transport the gas and then extract the energy through combustion or a fuel cell. But if hydrogen is available in gaseous form in the ground, the economics suddenly work.” So, the energy problem is solved. Move on, folks, now we can restart economic growth.

What’s wrong with this idea? Nothing. And everything. There is nothing wrong with finding hydrogen seeping out from the ground. Earth is a huge ball of rock, and it may well be that, somewhere, it contains free hydrogen, maybe even large amounts in comparison with human needs. Unfortunately, everything is wrong with the idea of exploiting that hydrogen as an economic resource. Here, we always stumble on the same problem: most people don’t understand the difference between amount, and concentration. A resource is not a resource if it is not concentrated enough. Actually, it has to be concentrated a lot if extracting it has to make sense in economic terms. Think of the two resources that made our modern world: oil and gas. By a miracle of geology, you can find them concentrated and nearly pure in the structures we call “wells.” Drill a hole into one of these wells, and often oil will flow out by itself in huge gushes.

Sometimes you have to pump it out, but it still remains a miracle that you can have so much of it, and so concentrated. That’s how we could create an entire civilization based on it. It is not always so easy: concentrated mineral resources are very rare in Earth’s crust. The problem is best explained by the example of gold. There are large amounts of it dissolved in seawater: tens of millions of tons. It is a lot of gold, but that’s because there is a lot of seawater. If you look at the concentration, we are talking of something around 0.005 parts per billion (ppb) or, if you prefer, a few parts per trillion. That’s way too low to make extraction feasible, as it was discovered by the German chemist Fritz Haber in the 1920s when he tried to extract gold from the sea to replenish the coffers of the German state, depleted by the Great War. Actually, he had been experimenting with the idea even before the war, but he failed anyway; it was simply impossible. If it is not concentrated enough, it is not a resource.

Read more …

Tucker’s off to a promising start.

Jan. 6 Footage Shows Capitol Cops Escorting QAnon Shaman To Senate Floor (NYP)

Newly revealed surveillance footage from Jan. 6, 2021, shows two Capitol police officers escorting Jacob Chansley, the be-horned so-called “QAnon Shaman” who has come to symbolize the riot, through the halls of the Capitol and to the very door of the US Senate. The footage aired on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show Monday night shows the officers closely following Chansley as he wanders the corridors of the Capitol, bare-chested and wearing face paint and a luxuriant fur hat with Viking horns.“Virtually every moment of his time inside the Capitol was caught on tape,” says Carlson, who was granted exclusive access by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from that day inside and around the Capitol, which has never been seen before by the public. “The tapes show the Capitol police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides.”

Sicknick

At one point, the officers are seen walking Chansley past seven other police officers milling around outside the Senate chamber, who barely give him a second look.Then they escort him to various entrances of the chamber which appear to be locked. Eventually they help him open a door, and he enters the chamber. Chansley, a 33-year-old naval veteran from Arizona, has been jailed for almost four years for “obstructing an official proceeding.” In a jailhouse interview played by Carlson he says: “The one very serious regret that I have [is] believing that when we were waved in by police officers that it was acceptable.” In a statement the Capitol police suggest that one of the officers with Chansley was trying to “de-escalate” the situation because he was outnumbered.


But that does not explain why Chansley, who was unarmed, was able to walk past seven more officers without being apprehended. “Not one of them even tried to slow him down,” says Carlson. He “understood that the Capitol police were his allies. . . . If he was in the act of committing such a grave crime, why didn’t the officers standing right next to him place him under arrest?” And yet in the narrative formed that day by the Democrats and much of the media, “Jacob Chansley became the face of January 6, a dangerous conspiracy theorist dressed in an outlandish costume who led the violent insurrection to overthrow America’s democracy,” says Carlson. McCarthy has been criticized for releasing the footage to Carlson who plans to air five stories based on the footage over two nights which he says “demolishes” the Democratic narrative of January 6.

Tucker video

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rick and Jerry

 

 

 

 

Comorbidities – Foul Play With Death Certificates:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1632551125214699525

 

 

 

 

Thai elephant

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle March 7 2023

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  • #130677

    Roy DeCarava Woman walking above, New York 1950   • Pentagon Chief Downplays Importance Of Bakhmut (RT) • Zelensky At Odds With Top General – Bil
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 7 2023]

    #130678
    Germ
    Participant

    Please make it stop!

    TVASF

    #130679
    Germ
    Participant

    From 2020 to 2022 the world bought 928 billion masks at a cost of $389 billion.
    Well we may have spent nearly $400 billion on masks over the past few years, but at least they were also totally useless.

    ‘More masks than jellyfish’: coronavirus waste ends up in ocean

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/08/more-masks-than-jellyfish-coronavirus-waste-ends-up-in-ocean

    TVASF

    #130681
    Oroboros
    Participant

    China Shows Another Drone Swarm System – 48 Simultaneous Kamikaze Drones

    These drones action as a coordinated unit, a hive mind, and attack a target as a swarm from all directions.

    The Russians are going to ‘test’ these system under real combat conditions and give the Chinese ‘tune-up feedback’ on how well they perform in real action.

    Conduct a little experiment on NATOtard Ukronazis

    #130682
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • Direct Talks Between Russia, US Needed To Settle Conflict In Ukraine – Hungary (TASS)

    Gotta call bullshit on this headline

    In order to have ‘talks’ the Empire of Lies® would have to admit publicly that it ran the war all along, essential admitting it Lied, thus confirming it’s new officially registered trademark name.

    Lies rot the Soul

    Big Lies annihilate the Soul

    .

    #130683
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • Norway Earns Record Oil, Gas Revenue After Ukraine War (RT)

    You can take the Quisling out of Norway, but you can’t take the Nazi out of Norway

    Police mugshot 1945

    .

    #130685
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “SPLC Attorney Among 23 ANTIFA Rioters Arrested On Domestic Terrorism Charges”

    SPLC believes in peace, justice, and of course burning all our enemies alive in a fiery death. Perhaps will will drink from their skulls and hear the lamentations of their women, who knows. Bob in marketing does.

    “’The Government Is Trying To Kill Us Now’: Low-Income Americans Fume In Mile-Long Food Lines After Pandemic Benefits End
    “Blair and his wife hop into their truck twice a month at 4 a.m. to ensure they get a few staples at the Hazel Green Food Project’s giveaway. On a recent Friday, they waited nine hours”

    Kentucky has that new shoplifting problem too. And like Portland, Home Depot may have to close all stores because otherwise their new goal is to what? Take from the many to give to the few? Double prices on everyone else and put THEM in poverty?

    One thing’s for sure: we must never have competition, wages…or property rights. Not stealing things would be “Capitalism”, that is, the ability to make and own property, and we can’t have that. We are FOR stealing things! There’s no downside at all and people will never stop making new stuff for us to steal or nothin’.

    And Southern POVERTY Law Center? Crickets. You see, when people are starving, that’s no problem. When they use bad words, now THAT’S a crisis. (unless it’s on White people, then it’s a social good.)

    I’m not kidding about wages either: the Fed allows ALL consequences of easy money: speculation, inflation, direction of attention to idiotic and wasteful things. There’s ONE thing and one thing only that makes them raise rates and cut off the firehose-blasting, printer-go-brrr money train: rising wages. Everyone can get rich – literally everyone – except people who actually do work. That’s a pull-the-rope panic stop. It’s called “inflation” you see. “Inflation expectations.” “Cost push” and all that. Tut tut good sir in Kentucky, we’ve crushed your wages on purpose for 50 years, transferring all that wealth of all 300 million of you TO my friends on Wall Street. Know your place.

    Haven’t posted this in a while as it takes time to develop:
    10year
    https://s43022.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/King-World-News-Ala-III-332023.jpg

    Nothing goes straight up, tested trendline and continues. It’s stalling slightly at the 4% round-number mark.

    Chart of Nazi vote: America is in the color red. Might as well finish the job and put the big swastika on them.

    “The Pentagon and the National Security Agency Ran the Entire Pandemic Response”

    Now there’s a revelation worth having. The others, that J6 was a scam (we all knew before it happened), that we ran the labs, all that – they only ‘admit’ it later after you’ve emotionally cooled off and won’t hang them. Classic narcissist style, abusive husband all the way. I get tired of it because I don’t care about your emotions, your fee-fees. If they committed a crime AND NOW ADMIT IT, then like it or not, we are required by law and custom to arrest and adjudicate them. FEELING GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. So their lying, delaying, slow-walking until you’re not furious shouldn’t work unless you as a person abdicate all duty and responsibility. Yet it always works (or they wouldn’t keep doing it).

    In this time, this revelation, though, we thought we were at the top of the conspiracy with Congress and Pharma only to find out we’re being killed directly by the Pentagon. Hey, is killing a million of your own people on purpose possibly an act of open treason? Asking for a friend.

    Again as I’ve said, this indicates why it wasn’t so easy for Trump or anyone to shut them down. It’s like a third of government actively and intentionally doing this, and we may not know which third, either. What are they supposed to do, start arresting members of the other party just ‘cause? Yeah, I’m sure that’ll go well won’t cause a Civil War or nothin’.

    I don’t think moving the bull’s eye up a level has been fully digested the way I’m putting it, and no surprise as they have not yet accepted and digested even that Pharma knew. …Even as their literal court case is that “We didn’t commit fraud: we delivered exactly the fraud and murder requested and paid for by the Federal Government.” They say that openly in their own major court documents and we’re still having an argument. ‘Cause Americans and everyone in the West are retarded and illiterate I guess?

    The trouble is there’s no easy target, no public names up at the Joint Chief of Staff levels to focus on who authorized a national genocide. Not too hard to get those names though, if anyone wants to.

    “Zelensky kept refusing [Bakhmut]”

    Ummmm, Zelensky’s not in power. He doesn’t control anything. So you want to tell me what’s really going on? They decided and are now throwing Ze under the bus which is why Biden was there the other day?

    Again, my guess is they just needed to hold it until the transfer to another attack and false flag. However, they failed that too, and no surprise with people who take six weeks of meeting to decide about their meetings.

    ““US officials have assessed that its loss to Russia would not affect the strategic situation…”

    Well that’s true. In parallel to the dumbest NASCAR fan knowing, the highest Leftist comedians like Jimmy Dore ALSO know the end of the strategic situation a year ago, 3 days after it stars: it’s going to end any WAY Russia wants, any TIME Russia wants. “But, but the war’s gone on….” Sure pal, sure. RUSSIA COULD HAVE NUKED UKRAINE TO ASHES IN THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES. And all Europe too, btw. So tell me again how they’re not “doing whatever they feel like there” out of the goodness of their hearts. They’ve lost 20,000 good young Russians ON BEHALF of their Ukrainian brothers. Not everyone in Russia thinks that’s a good trade.

    So anyway, yes, nothing that happens on the ground is going to change things a bit. And Russia is holding back because they anticipate NATO and all Europe attacking them en masse, as per usual every 100 years when Europe gets high on their farts and feel the need to be destroyed again. Y’all are BORING.

    Ze video: “There were no other opinions.”

    Uh, yeah, that’s ’cause YOU OUTLAWED THE OTHER DEMOCRATIC PARTIES. AND ran a military purge only last week. “You can have any opinion you want, as long as it’s mine.”

    “tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops were fiercely resisting Russian forces in Artyomovsk.

    They are. And accolades to them for it, it’s amazing. However, it’s tactically idiotic.

    ““..the Ukrainian military admits that several of its best-trained army units have been destroyed”

    Yes, we heard that and it makes sense. You always have some master force, and some human filler around them. The master troops in their case are Nazis, (obviously), but maybe no worse than usual. Point is: those men are in short supply, and not only are they hit hard, they are entirely destroyed; you cannot backfill the Battalion with new (Nazi) men because there’s not enough left of the old…how would you say, “institutional memory” left. And that “collective memory” of a unit 90% killed will be severely traumatized and not healthy to replicate. Some battalions, flags, and numbers are retired for this reason and recede into history. I expect all of Bakhmut will.

    So you only have X, a dozen? real, hard-core, nasty, violent, totally pro-Ukrainian ethnic independence “armies”, Battalions or Divisions in all Ukraine. They’ve already watered down a force of 10k into sub-5k but you’ve lost all of one in Mariupol, maybe more than one. If that leaves peasants with pitchforks who also don’t care, then what? This is just ordinary military stuff, which is why you withdraw and why it’s an outsized loss.

    Here:
    BandofBrothers86sec

    Easy Company meets completely shattered company retreating from Bastogne, Band of Brothers.
    Bastogne was also a small but critical transportation crossroads.

    Video: If you’ve never walked roads that battered, it takes about 3x longer to go 100 yards, all day long. Walking 10 miles is like walking 30 — way outside your range. Of course they also have the option of snipers and mines. Of course the frozen mud is awesome, adding 5lbs per shoe, no place to dry off. Sean Penn wants to go, I’ll buy him a ticket!

    “Last year alone, at least $1 billion in arms was transferred from Bulgaria to Ukraine,”

    I wondered what Bulgaria as up to. Acting like Rhett Butler, I see.

    “We’ve long said that Hungary was going to leave the EU.”

    Why should they? As long as they’re in they can stab the EU daily. Force the EU to kick them out. This is the same plan as Turkey inside NATO. Plus, they get unstoppable inside intel!

    “America’ COVID Response Was Based on Lies (Scott Atlas) “

    Since Scott Atlas was supposed to be the official voice, who were the lies? Like I said back then, so we believe Fauci, because he’s an official authority, but do NOT believe Redfern, Altas, Johns Hopkins, or even Dr. Kory, who are also official authorities. So…how do we decide WHICH appeal to authority we believe? I didn’t get the memo. Did you get the memo? Where does this memo come from that lists who is popular and right, and who’s uncool that we need to underpants during gym?

    P.S. since Fauci, Birx, and others reversed every 100-year protocol the CDC ever made – and were completely wrong as expected – can we expect something to happen, and a new “memo” to appear discrediting them? Nope. Nowadays, failure just PROVES you’re an expert.

    Uh-huh. Anyway, it just proves that’s all a BIG LIE, and the issue is far further up. So don’t settle for the little bone lie. But DO settle for all the little-bone lies to be arrested. If they want to ALSO squeal in the guys above them, I’ll listen.

    “Twitter Insiders: We Can’t Protect Users from Trolling”

    You mean people say mean things on the Internets??? Oh no! When did this start? Shouldn’t we add a “Blocking” function? We did??? 10 years ago??? And getting on AND reading it is all completely voluntary??? Tell me again about your fee-fees and your human rights to never have anything mean ever happen to you.

    “Concerns that child sexual exploitation is on the rise on Twitter”

    Uh, no: the minute it was taken from Roth, they shut down like 100k trafficking sites. So if you mean “If history began the day after that happened, AND the amount is still relatively small”, then yes. And you’re a liar. This is like how all Ukrainian history started in 2-22-22.

    Kunstler: reminds me of the new meme going around, “Transhausen Syndrome”. Look up the term “Munchhausen by proxy” It’s where parents pretend, fabricate, that is LIE that their children are injured, in fact sometimes poisoning or actively injuring them for weird narcissistic reason of self-promotion and profit. And so for trans people! Really teenagers were never, ever unhappy before now, were never confused, it’s all just because of this trans thing and you’re the only one ever! “Shocking Study Shows More Kids Identifying As Members Of World’s Most Celebrated, Popular Group” –BBee. Who knew?

    Why do PARENTS, AUTHORITIES make this up? And while it’s STILL in the doctor’s DSM listing as a disorder. …Or worse, when they know that “Conversion Therapy” doesn’t help and the converted are still depressed and suicidal. But “Conversion Therapy” for me and not for Thee! I guess. It’s only good when I do it!

    Transhausen. Think about it. Then think about why. What do the mentally ill GAIN?

    “• FDA Pledges to ‘Save Lives’ by Policing Online Content (CHD) “

    How is this illegal? Let me count the ways… This is the same “helping” above, where everyone is your Mommy, and you are but a wee helpless infant, sucking her teat. The FDA now for “Medical” reasons needs to censor (1A), without trial or evidence (4A) and the FDA, CDC, and WHO need to take your guns (2A) while poisoning 10 million people with dioxins is safe as water to the FDA, CDC, and WHO – not a problem at all! It’s those registered AR-15s, of which statistical zero are involved in crimes, that are the real health pandemic! Have we ever lied!!! I mean, except about everything?

    As last year, All Federal Agencies DO whatever it is they are NOT authorized for, and DON’T DO whatever it is they ARE mandated for. That’s just Common Sense. For instance, the President is both the Judge AND the legislature, but absolutely does NOT execute the will of Congress and enforce the borders. The Judiciary passes all our laws, while Congress … well nobody’s yet figured out WHAT they do. Play the part of the People in asking questions no one will answer and demanding things that the government employees refuse to provide, then never using the purse to cut them off and arrest them.

    Anyway: WHO, CDC now the law-passing gun-control agencies. Also censorship. Also finance. Also all contract law. Also all treaties. Also all tracking. Also all housing. Also all wealth distribution. Aw heck, just let them control everything without a vote, I guess!

    Anyway, as Meme-posted earlier, all the misinformation so far is directly from the FDA. 100% of all medical statements so far have been wrong.

    “Those Pesky Savanna Monkeys and Their Dreams of Gold Hydrogen (Ugo Bardi) “

    Perfect! Step one: Invent vaporware. Step Two: ??? Step Three: Profit! There’s also sunlight falling everywhere in 100x energies compared to hydrogen and that isn’t profitable either.

    “A resource is not a resource if it is not concentrated enough.”

    Bingo. Soft, diffuse sunlight isn’t used because it is widespread. It’s not concentrated. Although concentrating it is RELATIVELY EASY, like the reflective mirrors to the sodium tower, only a few acres, it STILL can’t pay for itself, its own infrastructure. And that’s because it’s diffuse. Sunlight is constantly on the edge, and that’s probably a reason, as we, all life, live at that same cusp of entropy and negentropy from the sun.

    Hydrogen is 1000x worse. Let’s just start from #1, hydrogen can’t be stored as being lightest and smallest, it leaks from all containers while also ionicly destroying them, tearing them apart. It’s toxic, explosive, suffocating, hazardous material. Suppose it DID pour out of the ground like Perrier: that doesn’t matter when you can’t bottle, store, or transport it. Dummy.

    “• Jan. 6 Footage Shows Capitol Cops Escorting QAnon Shaman To Senate Floor (NYP)

    Oh good. We all knew this was true. And his pals with all the communist tattoos? And the whole press corps moving with them?

    “the officers are seen walking Chansley past seven other police officers”

    That’s odd. They didn’t ask??? Didn’t say, “Hey Karl, whatcha doin’?” Yes, that’s because IT WAS ALL PLANNED. The only reason they wouldn’t ask is because they already knew.

    Okay, next question: since he was clearly planned, arranged, and escorted expressly FOR this, why is Chansley in jail and who put him there? Do police usually imprison other police and their own employees?

    “Risk from the unvaccinated”. Yup, they’re still at it. Totally illogical. Doesn’t mean a thing.

    “Covid as cause of death” Yup, still at it! No one will arrest the lies. And with +90% false reported it STILL was only 0.03%.

    Masks: wasted money AND polluted the oceans? Shut up and take my money, it was all worthwhile!

    #130687
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Gotta love Medvedev

    “Russia is ready to help the world do away with the vestiges of a Western-dominated colonial past, as Russia “which has never had any colonies…”

    Well the Empire of Lies has over 800 military bases around the world acting as defacto colonies, Step-in Fetch-its® for Duh-merica the Brave.

    “…The ex-president and now deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, argued that the “malignant tumor of a colonial past” is a problem that calls for “international surgery….”

    The Empire of Lies®
    truly is a malignant tumor, literally and figuratively.

    The Financial Mafia lies, the Military Mafia lies, the Media Mafia, the Big Pharma Mafia, the Medical Mafia

    “Nice country you got here, too bad if it burnt down some night…”

    Ya seen one mafia, you seen them all…

    “Russia, together with other countries, can now drive the final nail in the coffin of the Western world’s neo-colonial aspirations,”

    Medvedev’s breathtaking World Cup penalty style kick to the Neocon’s gonads

    Ouch

    .

    #130688
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #130689
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Quote from Zinn. Not that it’s wrong, but in general, Zinn lied about everything in order to paint an falsely dim view of America. Just as previously historians (or their Middle-school versions anyway) presented a falsely positive view.

    https://thefederalist.com/2020/02/08/debunking-left-wing-historian-howard-zinn-is-like-shooting-fish-in-a-barrel/

    Basically it’s okay to lie about, misframe, cherry-pick, and quote without checking facts, because then we can destroy the United States and end the principles of the Enlightenment, and all Rights of Man in service of Communism. The Ends Justify the Means, my friend! If you are doing Good, that is, “Communism” literally any act you do from that moment forward is authorized, justified, and good™.

    So…it’s a Religion. Of 100 million deaths in the 20th century.

    Ah, lots of fun, lots of fun. Who wouldn’t want more of it?

    #130690
    Red
    Participant

    DrD: Transhausen. Think about it. Then think about why. What do the mentally ill GAIN?
    Case study: Greta T. and her parents.

    On the sticky subject of climate I’m one who has followed the “science” on warming since the late ’70s and as such have learned to hate models. No argument from me on the idea that the system is shifting and our pollution sinks are full to over flowing. How much they are contributing to the current noticeable changes is still not proven beyond modelling reference. The weakening magnetic field goes further to explaining it as we are experiencing it in the present. The only reason I even bring this seemingly contentious issue up is because the CBC has been running a commercial for saving wetlands as a good way to store CO2. Another total scam due to the fact that wetlands are the source of 22% of global CH4 emissions as well as a large contributor of N2O. Methane (CH4) is considered anywhere between 25 times and 200 times as powerful greenhouse gas compared to CO2. Those multiples for CO2 are dependent on the timeline study i.e. multiples for the first five years in the atmosphere or one hundred years.The higher multiples for the shorter timespan. Nitros oxide (N2O) has a potential of 300 times. They are also running a commercial about where to go for information and what disinformation is! You can imagine what that looks like.

    #130691
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Howard Zinn is featured in The Architects of Woke

    The Great Grand Daddy of Woke-tards

    .

    Also an interesting read:

    A Former Communist Examines Zinn’s Communism

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/aside-from-that-he-was-also-a-red

    The Architects of Woke all 10 Parts of the Series

    #130692
    Red
    Participant

    Ben goes into AI here a bit. He has a new rumble channel so he can discuss stuff that may be an issue on youtube. For the daily update on the suns activity it is still on you tube @ suspicious observers.
    For the link below I have removed the (.) from between rumble and com.
    https://rumblecom/v2bz0mw-bad-news-in-nature-and-society.html

    #130693
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    “’The Government Is Trying To Kill Us Now’: Low-Income Americans Fume In Mile-Long Food Lines After Pandemic Benefits End
    “Blair and his wife hop into their truck twice a month at 4 a.m. to ensure they get a few staples at the Hazel Green Food Project’s giveaway. On a recent Friday, they waited nine hours”

    When reporters want to jerk at readers’ heart-strings or when non-profits serving the poor want to open purse-strings, they can always find some poor soul that is stressed out by food acquisition. It isn’t difficult to do. The article doesn’t explain how the SNAP system works, so the average person who has never been on SNAP has no idea. For that matter, many people who *have* been on SNAP have no idea. Probably most people on SNAP have not read their state’s policy handbook regarding SNAP certification and eligibility — most don’t know that such a manual exists. One year my business had a small profit, which passed through to my personal taxes so that I could enjoy the privilege of being taxed for it. The ninnies at the Dept of Economic Security told me that it had to be counted as personal income, even though I had not taken a distribution. I appealed. The judge was completely ignorant of the federal tax code regarding my business entity type, and ignorant of his state’s policy manual regarding SNAP, and ignorant of the federal code that governs SNAP eligibility. The judge also was not interested in being educated about these things by the person who initiated the appeal, so I lost the appeal, even though my position was, technically, correct. Fortunately, the sum in question was very small. (I have noticed that since then, DES workers checking SNAP eligibility now follow a rubric that correctly looks at my business, and I haven’t had that problem since.)

    As far as the Hazel Green project, it probably supplies food pantry boxes (a federally subsidized program, including only shelf-stable foods with a specific nutritional profile,) and adds to it perishables and extra non-perishable food items donated locally. The perishables are “ugly” produce and items near, at, or past their “best by” dates. My guess is that Hazel Green is likely in a rural area, which means that it serves a large geographic area, which is the reason why “Blair and his wife” drive so far and wait for so long. In large cities, there are places handing out food boxes and perishable foods every day with minimal wait (15 minutes to an hour.). The wait has more to do with the choice of living in rural America.

    #130694
    kultsommer
    Participant

    ‘More masks than jellyfish’: coronavirus waste ends up in ocean

    I In his arguments with AFKTT, jb-hb had stated that:
    “Human existence and activities are nature.”
    Something to that effect.

    #130695
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Dr D: Quote from Zinn…
    Just because one doesn’t agree with someone’s ideological viewpoint, doesn’t mean that the other individual is corrupt or evil, etc.
    Zinn did serve the principles of The Enlightenment — and so do you.
    If we are going to overcome the WEFfer cabal, we need to stop getting up on our ideological high horses and shooting arrows at everyone who doesn’t have an identical horse. That, essentially, is exactly what we criticize the Woke Folks of doing. Zinn pointed out elements of US history that many would like to ignore. (Gee whiz — his book People’s History…. would be considered mis-/dis-/malinformation in the current political climate.). Ignoring history causes people to repeat mistakes. To overcome the “New Normal” we need to come together as disparate folks with disparate ideologies and find common ground against our oppressors. C’mon — you know this. Zinn pointed out oppression — just like you do. Just because Zinn self-identified as a “liberal” and many pushing the WEFfer agenda today self-identify as “liberals” does not mean that Zinn was pushing “The Great Reset” that we are currently embroiled in. Liberal is a “liberal” word and means different things in different contexts. (Quite likely, many of the US Founding Fathers would have been comfortable self-identifying as “liberal.”)
    United we stand — divided we fall.

    #130696
    zerosum
    Participant

    Civil War, Genocide, white supremacy neo-nazism
    The city of Artyomovsk, or Bakhmut – a major stronghold and logistics hub for Ukraine forces in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) – has continued for years, ( since 2014), being described by some as the fiercest in the conflict, (civil), between Donetsk, (Russia), and Ukraine.
    The city is part of a 70km Ukrainian defense line created since Kiev initiated the fighting in Donbass in 2014.
    It is an important transportation hub for supplying Ukrainian troops in Donbass.

    ————-
    Disinformation, is anything that the gov. don’t agree with.
    Easier’ to inform/control the public/sheep when there were fewer communication channels.

    ——————-

    People tell lies on the internet
    People say mean things on the Internet
    ———————

    Social/economic/political system
    elitist/supremacy – by the people, for the people, of the people

    ——————

    #130697
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Weight of Russian Manpower is Crushing Ukrainians

    Douglas Macgregor interview starts at 4:15 mark

    Nazilensky …..has lost all his seasons soldiers and is now shoveling seniors and boys into the meatgrinder…

    #130698
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    CBC News has now “debunked” the warnings about dioxins from the Ohio train fire being transported into Canada by the wind. (WES in Ontario still has cause for concern, though.)

    Experts debunk social media posts warning about Ohio train pollution
    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ohio-train-derailment-ontario-quebec-debunk-plume-1.6768128

    According to a release from the agency, the map is designed to simulate the direction and dispersion of particles through the atmosphere. Importantly, it does not show pollution levels near the ground where people live and breathe.

    While this is technically correct, in that the map doesn’t show pollution levels near the ground, it does show the distribution of unidentified particles at ground level (zero meters) up to 10,000 meters.

    The only scientific expert identified and quoted in the CBC story is Philip Jessop, a professor at Queen’s University. Jessop addressed the risks from phosgene, while dismissing the risks from dioxins, which he says “mainly poses a health threat by contaminating food close to where it’s released and is too heavy to have crossed the Great Lakes through the air.

    However, this peer-reviewed study (below) found that most PCDD/F [dioxins] emissions can be transported beyond 100 km. (How far beyond 100 km is presumably disclosed behind a paywall). The article cites three other studies which estimated that the dioxins can travel up to 1000 km, 1900 km, and 810 km.

    We conducted model simulations of the atmospheric fate and transport of PCDD/F to assess the fraction of emitted PCDD/F that would deposit within 100 km from the source. We considered eight major categories of PCDD/F emission sources and six different locations, to cover a wide range of source characteristics, PCDD/F congener profiles and particle size distributions, meteorological conditions and terrain configurations. These results suggest that for sources that have tall stacks and/or high plume rise (e.g., copper smelters, cement kilns, sinter plants), only a small fraction of PCDD/F emissions is deposited locally (typically, less than 10% within 100 km). Other source categories such as municipal solid waste incinerators, medical waste incinerators and diesel trucks lead to a greater fraction of PCDD/F being deposited locally; nevertheless, the majority of their PCDD/F emissions tends to be transported beyond 100 km.

    Atmospheric fate and transport of dioxins: local impacts
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0045653500005592

    So why would the “expert” quoted by CBC News make such a dismissive statement about the dangers of the dioxins travelling to Canada?

    #130699
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I’m about to speak sternly to Mr Bardi, so if you are of delicate disposition about the slaughtering of sacred cows I suggest that you turn away.

    What Ugo reveals about himself when he disparages all of humanity by comparing it to “Savanna Monkeys” is the terrified arrogance characteristically displayed by the not quite bright, and the thoroughly terrified. They are afraid because to them the Universe is a very fearful place that they don’t understand at all, and within which they feel as vulnerable and at risk as lambs in a slaughterhouse.

    They live in constant fear that this enormously powerful Universe might randomly twitch and rub them out at any moment, about which they themselves (as individual narcissists) are completely incapable of doing anything about . They are so totally incompetent at DOING the things that are required to survive that the only way they can get them is to steal such skills, products and practical wisdoms from the folks that actually do have them. And I’m not just talking about the practical capabilities and competences such as gardening and small engine repair. There are other and equally important skills such as thought, wisdom and ideal governance, of which the omniplegic elitists also know nothing. The victims of these thefts, by the way, are the very same ones that the narcissists revile, disdain, slur and disparage so freely, without the slightest thought that such expressed hatred might itself be the worst “hate crime” of them all.

    Maybe the most galling thing about these pretentious self proclaimed brainiacs is that they don’t actually know what the fuck they’re talking about, but they do reckon that they can pretend to know more about it than you do, and are thereby justified in bamboozling you with all sorts of scary bullshit propaganda, fear mongering and gaslighting all of which is intended to “prove” that they’re smarter than you are, and for that reason have the authority to boss you around and take your stuff .

    That authority, by the way, includes the authority to tell you to drop dead. Why? Well because, in their authoritative and superior opinion, you are getting in their way and blocking the view of their imagined perfectly peopleless world. They don’t want your disgusting existence cluttering up their garden. The fact that you might disagree with any of their disagreeable proclamations is just more proof that your ideas are so far beneath contempt that they’re not even worth being legal to think, much less say out loud.

    So Bardi calls us “Savanna Monkeys” thinking himself so very academically clever as to reference Darwin without mentioning the name, blissfully oblivious to Darwin’s ancient theory being long since discredited by non-theoretical nuclear biology, or that the Savanna hypothesis is as extinct as the boney fragments that it was speculatively based on. That’s okay, though, because simulated erudition wasn’t the real point of the exercise, anyway.

    The intended point was to label you as a worthless monkey, and a pitifully inadequately “evolved” monkey at that, thereby justifying the act of killing you off because you are not REALLY the child of God. How could you possibly be the product of a divine intelligence? They dismiss the very notion as being a “quaint” and “superstitious” idea so unworthy of adult consideration that it need not even be explicitly denied, and so typical of the “primitive” sub-human mind. So, case closed on whether or not humanity is worth anything. So no, in the view of Bardi and his atheistically fellow numbskulls, you are not the incomprehensibly elegant masterwork of the conscious Creator of the Universe. You’re just “population overshoot.”

    He doesn’t know that his theories are self-serving lies, see? He truly does NOT understand that his materialistic hooha is absolutely false and tragically misguided toward a suicidal objective. Because he is an idiot hiding behind arrogance (that final refuge of the profoundly stupid). Because he is scared shitless of a world in which he feels absolutely powerless to survive if he can’t steal it from those who are NOT incompetent fakers.

    I’ve got nothing against logic, reasoning and the scientific method. But God save us from the certified ignoramuses who think that any of those pursuits have got ANYTHING to do with pretending to know something that you just plain DON’T.

    #130700
    Red
    Participant

    Dr.R: So why would the “expert” quoted by CBC News make such a dismissive statement about the dangers of the dioxins travelling to Canada?

    Beats me. Seems most of his knowledge is outside this area so maybe that’s it. According to his bio from
    https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Philip-Jessop

    Philip G Jessop is the Canada Research Chair in Green Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Queen’s University. His current research includes CO2-switchable materials and applications of CO2 in biomass conversion. He also serves as Executive Research Director at Forward Water Technologies and the Chair of the Editorial Board at the journal Green Chemistry. His video series, entitled “Which is Greener?”, is available on the web and on TikTok.
    Skills and Expertise
    Green Chemistry
    Synthesis
    Carbon Dioxide
    Homogeneous Catalysis
    Organometallics
    Inorganic Chemistry
    Coordination Chemistry
    Catalyst
    Catalysis
    Organic Synthesis

    #130701
    Noirette
    Participant

    ON THE AIR inteviews Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations for the Russian Federation.

    In-Depth: History of Ukrainian Nationalists, aka “Nazis in Ukraine”

    part 1.

    2 more parts follow on. Each is about 20 mins.

    An easy listen re. history of Ukraine.

    (me) “Nazism” is today specifically ascribed to Hitler and his minions, National Socialism that oppresses, Jews in concentration camps, etc. Yet… ‘ethnic’ ‘racial’ ‘cultural’ ‘religious’ hate of ‘the outgroup’ has been a fixture of many régimes throughout history, used to fire up ppl for thousands of years…

    (I am not defending Hitler. Half of my family died on the Allied side in WW2.)

    #130702
    Noirette
    Participant

    here link to part 1

    #130703
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Maybe the most galling thing about these pretentious self proclaimed brainiacs is that they don’t actually know what the fuck they’re talking about,

    Not a word to disapprove what Bardi had written other than disseminating the “wisdom” highlighted in bold, which reveals that mindless hatred goes beyond and is not triggered by the writings in this particular article only.
    It is well documented as wide brush seething hatred for anything intellectual, “bookish” or “theoretical” that plagues the country.

    #130704
    Red
    Participant

    Doc R after reading some of his papers it would seem he spends most of his time trying to extract valuable fibre from liquified solids for an alternative fuel source. The works I’ve just perused look at getting more of the desired molecules for fuel from things such as wood fibre and algae. As well as more of the desired molecules out of other source materials for places like big pharma using CO2 in various forms for the solvent. No sign of any study or work on aerosols or their dispersement. You may need to get out your copy of “chemistry for dummies” if you want to follow this abstract from one of the papers:

    Astaxanthin (ASX) is a carotenoid with several applications in the food and pharmaceutical fields which is recognised as having a higher physiological and commercial value when it is biologically rather than chemically sourced. This work experimentally investigates the bio-fractionation of biomass of the Paracoccus carotinifaciens bacterium by extraction with the switchable hydrophilicity solvent N,N-dimethyl cyclohexylamine (DMCHA) to obtain ASX and related carotenoids in separate form. This is done by means of a sequential process carried out in a single apparatus. DMCHA gave an extraction yield in terms of equivalent ASX extracted per unit mass of processed dry microbial biomass (62.5 %) higher than acetone (48 %) and ethanol (14 %). After the DMCHA was washed from the extract with carbonated water, 88.2 % of the extracted ASX was recovered. The possibility of extracting carotenoids with recycled solvent with a minor (-7.7%) efficiency drop was also demonstrated, as was the lower energy footprint of DMCHA-based than competing volatile solvent-based extraction processes.

    #130705
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ Red, thanks for the background on the “expert”.

    I’m no expert, but a couple minutes of online searching for journal articles on the subject gave me enough information to doubt such a definitive and sweeping pronouncement by the so-called “expert”.

    #130706
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @kultsommer

    Admittedly, this isn’t the first time that I have had to roll my eyes at what Ugo Bardi has written, but this forum is hardly the proper venue for point by point peer review of the rest of his brilliantly written but factually lacking wrong conclusions drawn from massive data. It is enough, in this particular case, to note that his disparagingly intended equation of miraculously refined human beings with “savanna monkeys”, is enough bull shit for one sitting.

    Yes, I hold Mr Bardi’s academic accomplishments in low regard, but only because he is so dead wrong about such big things. To imply that my criticism of his faulty work is somehow indicative of “…seething hatred for anything intellectual, “bookish” or “theoretical”. . . is going a bit far. Let’s try for a description that comes closer to my actual feeling, such as, “visceral contempt”.

    #130707
    kultsommer
    Participant

    @Noriette
    Beginning of the video brought memories of 1994 Winter Olympic games, figure skating contest where on American side there was that great idea of winning by braking the knee cap of the rival, while true winner was Russian Oksana Baiul,
    I believe that most of us remember that dark blotch in the history of US sport.
    BTW, before the games Oksana practiced in the ring with semi-melted ice, given the state that Russia was at the time.

    #130708
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Since I am logged
    @DBS
    Your contra-argument to his article is…….?

    #130709
    zerosum
    Participant

    Zelensky’s decision to hold Bakhmut/Artyomovsk
    1. It’s too later. cannot retreat.
    2. Losing that means that it’s the fault of USA for not giving him more ammunitions and bigger guns.
    3. With NATO’s help we have fortified since 2014.
    4. We need more help

    #130710
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Aside from all the blatant lying and deceitful fabrications of The Empire of Lies with respect to Ukraine and Jan 6th and Covid and ‘Climate Emergency’ scams run by governments in conjunction with the UNIPCC that make matters worse etc., we are witnessing and experiencing the breakdown of the system at the local level by way of inability of people to purchase items that had previously taken for granted.

    A friend who had health problems relating to diet experienced an improvement in health by eliminating certain foods and eating more of others. One of his staples is (was?) kumara.

    He noted that the price of 1 kilo of kumara was $13 yesterday -which effectively makes one of his staples unaffordable. The price until recently was around $4 a kilo.

    One of the reasons for the sudden surge in price is the devastation of large areas of kumara grounds that are a result of climate chaos triggered by atmospheric CO2 being approximately 50% above the historic pre-industrial level (420 ppm versus 280 ppm), amongst other things.

    As Red has noted, it is not only CO2; CH4 and N2O and a multitude of other gases in the atmosphere contribute to the overheating. Indeed, methane in the atmosphere is approaching three times the pre-industrial level (2000 ppb versus 750 ppb). Although its concentration is seemingly very low, in practice its effect is dramatic, since its multiplier is up to 300 times CO2, depending on the rate of conversion of CH4 to CO2 via the OH radical system in the atmosphere. Worst of all, as the overheating continues, we must expect water vapour (not a primary driver of overheating but a very important secondary driver) to incease in effect.

    Of course, the anti-science brigade will declare that a gas [methane] that is’ ‘only 2000 ppb cannot possibly have any effect’. It’s a bit like saying that 20 ppm H2S won’t kill you. Or that crushing and grinding a castor seed with your teeth won’t kill you.

    In addition to the climate chaos effect, the price of kumara is obviously affected by the devaluation of the Kiwi dollar by the central bank and the general increase in the price of imported fuels, very noticeably diesel, which the entire system runs on.

    I stopped buying such things a while ago but noticed that the cheapest low-sugar fizzy drinks that were $1 for a 1.25 bottle litre a year ago went from $1.20 to $1.30 this week. That is 30% annual ‘inflation’ -devaluation of fiat money.

    I also noticed yesterday (at Bunnings) that the yard cart I bought for $148 18 months ago is now $200. That’s about 33% ‘inflation’ in 18 months.

    Back to the supermarket experience: there were actually cartons of eggs for sale; not many, and at about $3 more than 6 months ago, i.e. 40 or 50% ‘inflation’.

    In order to mask the lack of eggs, the supermarket staff were busy filling the empty bay with…..wait for it!…chocolate rabbits!

    Hollow, of course, and covered in shiny aluminium foil, and in an oversize cardboard box.

    The dumbed-down, lied-to masses have to be persuaded to part with their fiat money via the fake Easter orgy of overconsumption of crap, just as I, as a child, was trained to do.

    Such is Life at the End of Empire on the Planet of the Maniacs.

    But I won’t complain, just observe and report, because I know it’s far worse on other ‘Airstrips’ in the Empire of Lies.

    “Where were you born?”

    “Airstrip One.”

    Where do you live?”

    “Airstrip Five.”

    #130711
    Germ
    Participant

    A good listen:

    WILLIAM ROBINSON: HOW COVID-19 WILL LEAD TO A GLOBAL CAPITALIST POLICE STATE
    The coronavirus pandemic is thriving under capitalism, and in the process creating conditions for an even more repressive system to emerge.

    William Robinson: How COVID-19 will lead to a global capitalist police state

    TVASF

    #130712
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @kultsommer

    “Your contra-argument to his article is…….?”

    First, of course, (and to be redundant yet again) is his presumptive and unsupported pejorative dismissal of the human race as “savanna monkeys”, which clearly implies that both homo sapiens AND Australopithecus are in some unspecified (and thus inarguable) way less than worthy examples of what it takes to qualify as a life form that’s worthy of being seen as having some worth.

    First off, let’s not skip over the fact that on a strictly biologically factual basis such an assumption is just flat assed WRONG and devoid of supportive facts or reasoning. Both life forms are SUPERB examples of advanced organisms which out-competed ALL of the other life forms in their contemporary environment to achieve the position of “Top-O’-The Food-Chain” at a certain point in time. Maintaining that position is a challenge, of course, and there are no future guarantees, but that is always the case regardless of how or why a species managed to get there. The point is that they DID get there. That achievement is no small feat, and deserves at least acknowledgment (even though as a self-loathing people hater Bardi cannot seem to bring himself to show actual appreciation.)

    Secondly, and on the other hand, if neither species is worthy of respect then why give a damn about whether either of them survives or not? You simply cannot have it both ways at once. Either humankind deserves to be what it is, in which case it should be should shown great respect and greater care. Or it does NOT deserve to exist, in which case we should immediately assist each other in dropping dead so that worthier life forms (or barren rocks) can get on with the business of being whatever Earth will be when the people are all gone.

    That’s my real beef with pseudo-intellectuals like Bardi. They speak with forked tongue because they “think” with forked brain, if you could even call it real thinking at all. It’s more like just seething hatred dressed up in fancy jargon.

    #130714
    Curlene48
    Participant

    Posting this here as a follow-up of a conversation from yesterday …

    D Benton Smith … Okay, you are correct in that I misread your statement. Thanks for clarifying.
    I certainly agree that most people of my ethnic group are completely WRONG-HEADED apologists for Israel, and thereby help perpetuate its racist and heinous crimes against humanity. They hide behind accusations of “anti-Semitism” whenever confronted with the reality of Israel’s criminality.
    However, slinging the word “Jew” around as an insult (as in “Fauci the Jew”, which our esteemed colleague wrote a few days ago) doesn’t help any argument except the for one that the Empire of Lies, Israel, and the world-wide oligarchy wish to make.
    I read this blog for the information that Ilargi brings to light, and I find it incredibly valuable.

    #130715
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    US spies say ‘pro-Ukrainian group’ bombed Nord Stream – NYT
    Anonymous agents cited unspecified intelligence to deny US responsibility for the pipeline attack

    From RT. “Pro-Ukrainian group”, you don’t suppose it would be the White House, U.S. State Department, U.S. Department of War by any chance?

    #130716
    zerosum
    Participant

    Canadian Hearing ….. Weather balloon …. China spy balloon ….

    Q.: When, What, How, Who
    Answer: Dhuuu, Hummm, Its a secret, don’t know

    #130717
    kultsommer
    Participant

    @DBS

    …..Or it does NOT deserve to exist, in which case we should immediately assist each other in dropping dead……

    Where that came from? Elite acknowledged the resource / energy / garbage problem and wants to do that, not the guy who sees the same problem and is sounding the alarm.
    This excerpt from his article should concern you more than “monkeys in savanna”:

    ….Peter Coy defines natural hydrogen as a “Gold Mine of Clean Energy Hiding Under our Feet…..

    #130718
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Oh, and I am not an expert of the topic,but you are.
    So, for the third time, enlighten me on where is he wrong?

    #130719
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @phoenix: “… we need to stop getting up on our ideological high horses and shooting arrows at everyone who doesn’t have an identical horse.”

    Yes.

    #130720
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ Germ thank you for the link

    The social fabric is disintegrating

    William Robinson: How COVID-19 will lead to a global capitalist police state

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