Apr 142023
 
 April 14, 2023  Posted by at 9:15 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Jean-Michel Basquiat Warrior 1982

 

US Fanning Ukraine Crisis, Exacerbating Ukrainians’ Suffering – Xinhua (TASS)
CIA Director Concedes US Power Is Waning (RT)
World Faces ‘Most Dangerous Period Of Time In History’ – Trump (RT)
Bolton Touts ‘Grand Strategy’ To Counter Russia and China (RT)
US Military Would Need Conscription to Fight China (ET)
Stalemate Will Force Ukraine To Enact ‘Full Mobilization’ – Media (RT)
Seymour Hersh: The CIA Knows Ukrainian Officials Are Skimming US Aid (Antiwar)
Moscow Urges Washington To Issue Visas To Russian Delegation To UN Events (TASS)
Brazil Rebels Against US Dollar ‘Straitjacket’ (RT)
Frozen Assets To Be Returned To Russia After End Of Conflict (TASS)
UN Seeking To Reconnect Some Russian Banks To SWIFT (RT)
Trump Testifies In New York Business Fraud Case (Az.)
Appeals Court Ruling May Threaten DOJ Position in Dozens of Jan. 6 Cases (ET)
New York Times Is Now Telling Bigger Lies Than Iraq WMDs (Swanson)
Anheuser-Busch Loses $6BN In Six Days After Bud Light Trans Ad Campaign (ZH)

 

 

 

 

RFKjr Milgram

RFK jr autism
https://twitter.com/i/status/1646353148305457155

 

 

 

 

Babies stroke

 

 

Spike sperm
https://twitter.com/i/status/1646520024667148295

 

 

 

 

Rogan Taibbi

 

 

Tucker Musk

 

 

Tucker hot war

DC Draino:
Jack Texeira, the Ukraine Whistleblower, exposed Biden illegally putting US troops in Ukraine w/o Congressional authorization per the War Powers Resolution of 1973, an impeachable offense
His patriotism may end up stopping WW3
He doesn’t deserve jail time
He deserves an award

Pepe Escobar:
Old school Beltway intel source, retired:
Controlled leak.
Internal.
Way, way up – beyond the CIA.
21-year old gamer is a fall guy.
The circus is in town – actually a show that never ends.

 

 

 

 

“..the biggest peacebreaker and troublemaker in today’s world..”

“..It remains to be seen if they have noticed the changes in the Global South and started to reflect on the reasons behind them..”

US Fanning Ukraine Crisis, Exacerbating Ukrainians’ Suffering – Xinhua (TASS)

The United States has been fueling the crisis in Ukraine as it hampers peace there, while inflicting more pain on the Ukrainians, Xinhua said in a commentary on Friday. “As for the Ukraine crisis, the United States is constantly fanning the flame and hindering other countries from promoting talks for peace,” the Chinese news agency said. According to the commentary, leaders of many developing countries believe that by prolonging the crisis, Washington “is exacerbating the Ukrainians’ suffering, and impeding the resolution of other pressing issues facing the international community.” As a result, the international community, especially developing nations, “are more and more vocal in their criticism of the hegemonic and selfish behavior of the United States,” Xinhua maintains. While international peace and stability has been the biggest aspiration for developing countries, the agency argued, “it was made out of reach by the United States – the biggest peacebreaker and troublemaker in today’s world.”


“After the escalation of the Ukraine crisis, US-led Western countries launched severe sanctions against Russia, resulting in a spike of prices of global food, energy and other commodities, which overwhelmed developing countries,” the news agency emphasized. “It is obvious that more and more developing countries are now vocal in their opposition to the various irresponsible actions of the United States, with many refusing to follow the United States in imposing sanctions against Russia,” Xinhua added. “For years, American politicians have been used to pointing fingers at other countries and acting willfully on the international arena. It remains to be seen if they have noticed the changes in the Global South and started to reflect on the reasons behind them,” Xinhua concluded.

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“..Beijing is “not content to only have a seat at the table; it wants to run the table,” while Russia is seeking to “upend the table altogether.”

CIA Director Concedes US Power Is Waning (RT)

The dominant global role of the US can no longer be guaranteed as the country is witnessing a time of change “that comes along a couple of times a century,” CIA Director Bill Burns has claimed. Speaking at the Baker Institute earlier this week, Burns said that although Washington “still has a better hand to play than any of our rivals,” it is “no longer the only big kid on the geopolitical block and our position at the head of the table isn’t guaranteed.” The CIA chief pointed to growing ties between China and Russia, which he argued will present a “formidable challenge” for his agency for years to come. According to Burns, Beijing is “not content to only have a seat at the table; it wants to run the table,” while Russia is seeking to “upend the table altogether.”

Burns, who served as the US ambassador to Moscow under George W. Bush, condemned Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, calling it an act of “brutish aggression.” He claimed the CIA has provided “good intelligence” that has “helped the Ukrainians defend themselves” and cemented “a strong coalition in support of Ukraine.” Burns added that Kiev’s long-anticipated spring offensive would feature “strong material and intelligence support from the US and our allies.” The spy chief claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not serious about negotiations” on a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and suggested that only Ukrainian progress on the battlefield was “likely to shape prospects for diplomacy.”

Russia has repeatedly stated that it is open to peace talks and has blamed Kiev and its Western allies for blocking negotiations. Ukraine has placed a legal ban on any talks with Russia as it seeks to defeat its opponent on the battlefield. Regarding China, Burns insisted that Beijing remains the CIA’s “biggest long-term priority.” He noted that in the last few years, the intelligence agency has doubled the resources it focuses on China, including hiring and training Mandarin speakers and stepping up efforts to compete with Beijing on the world stage. “Managing a crucial and increasingly adversarial relationship with China will be the most significant test for American policy makers for decades to come,” the US official said, arguing that the risk of a conflict over Taiwan will continue to grow.

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“I think it’s much more than infrastructure we’re talking about.”

“..the most dangerous period of time in the history of our country and in the history of the world, right now, and we have an incompetent person at the top.”

World Faces ‘Most Dangerous Period Of Time In History’ – Trump (RT)

The world has been pushed to the brink of total destruction by inept leaders and nuclear weapons that are 500 times as powerful as the atomic bombs that American forces dropped on Japan during World War II, former US president Donald Trump has claimed. “Look, we could end up in World War III over this whole thing,” Trump said in a Fox News interview that was aired on Wednesday night. He added, “I believe it is the most dangerous period of time in history – number one, because we have people on top that are incompetent. That’s number one.” Trump made his comments in the context of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Russian officials have warned that increasing US and NATO involvement in Ukraine, including massive military aid to Kiev, could escalate the crisis into a wider conflict, possibly involving nuclear weapons.

Asked by host Tucker Carlson who was behind last year’s bombing of Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, Trump said it wasn’t Moscow. He implied that Washington was involved in the sabotage, saying, “I don’t want to get our country in trouble, so I won’t answer it.” The former president acknowledged that it was “very dangerous” to blow up the pipelines, adding, “I think most people know who did it.” Asked whether the US put itself at risk of retaliatory strikes on its critical infrastructure, he said, “I think it’s much more than infrastructure we’re talking about.”

Trump also warned that nuclear weapons are the biggest threat facing the world today, and the US and Russian arsenals could cause unprecedented destruction. “All it takes is one madman, and you’re gonna have a problem the likes of which the world has never seen.” Trump, who is currently polling as the leading Republican Party candidate in the 2024 presidential race, blamed current US leadership for heightening the risk of nuclear war with Russia and China. “The most dangerous period of time – because of weaponry, because of nuclear, because of weaponry – the most dangerous period of time in the history of our country and in the history of the world, right now, and we have an incompetent person at the top.

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“Bolton urged Washington to prepare for what happens “after Ukraine wins its war with Russia.”

Bolton Touts ‘Grand Strategy’ To Counter Russia and China (RT)

Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton has urged Washington to implement a new Cold War-style strategy against Russia and China. According to the long-time hawk, the West should cut back on social security to fund military spending, renew testing of nuclear weapons, and provide NATO-like protection to Taiwan. Bolton, who served in the administration of President Donald Trump, described his “grand-strategy” approach to geopolitics in a Wall Street Journal column on Wednesday, urging candidates in the 2024 US presidential election to think in the same terms. The US should have a “contemporary reincarnation” of NSC-68, the top-secret document adopted under President Harry Truman which laid the foundation for militarizing the confrontation with the USSR. Bolton claimed that in the new Cold War, the US and its allies would be pitted against a Chinese-Russian “axis” and “accompanying rogue-state outriders like Iran and North Korea.”

He named several key points for his proposed strategy, including an immediate increase in military spending to Reagan-era levels, which he claimed should be maintained for the foreseeable future. Bolton also argued that Western nations should cut back on social spending, because “neither the obese welfare state nor massive income-redistribution schemes protect us from foreign adversaries.” In addition, he asserted that the US should upgrade its nuclear stockpiles, which would mean “the inevitable need to resume some underground testing.” Bolton’s plan also advocated the “improvement and expansion” of American military alliances, possibly by making NATO a global organization. This would help “exclude Moscow from regional influence, along with Beijing,” the former official claimed.

The self-governed Chinese island of Taiwan should get “much more military aid” from Western nations, which should “embed Taipei into collective-defense structures,” Bolton also suggested. The recommendation comes despite the Chinese government identifying Taiwanese separatism as a major ‘red line’ which may trigger military action if crossed. Finally, Bolton urged Washington to prepare for what happens “after Ukraine wins its war with Russia.” He claimed that such an outcome could lead to Russia’s fragmentation, and warned that China would then seize some of its territories, providing it with “direct access to the Arctic, including even the Bering Strait, facing Alaska.” Moscow has claimed that the conflict in Ukraine is part of a US proxy war against Russia, and that Washington’s goal is to partition the country. The Russian leadership has argued that this threat leaves it with no other option but to succeed in Ukraine.

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“Our army is too small as constituted to actually prosecute a war with these countries, but it’s large enough that it’s sucking a lot of resources away.”

US Military Would Need Conscription to Fight China (ET)

The U.S. military could not achieve victory in a war with China using its current, all-volunteer force, according to one expert. The United States will thus need to radically transform its force structure to better contend with the emerging threat environment, up to and including by reinstating conscription, said Jonathan Askonas, an assistant professor of Politics at Catholic University of America. “This is a five-alarm fire,” Askonas said during an April 11 discussion with the Hudson Institute think tank. “We’re facing global threats and we have a force structure which we know will not work against those threats. “We basically can’t fight a war larger than Iraq with the all-volunteer force.”

The all-volunteer force has been a staple of U.S. military organization since 1973, when the draft was terminated along with the United States’ direct involvement in the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, Askonas said, the all-volunteer force was proving incapable of generating the number of service members required for a war between great powers, and its burdensome logistical processes were likely to be ineffective in either a conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific theater or supporting European powers against Russia. “We have a Goldilocks problem,” Askonas said. “Our army is too small as constituted to actually prosecute a war with these countries, but it’s large enough that it’s sucking a lot of resources away.”

“We have to be ruthless. We need to adapt our force structure not to hypothetical threats or in some universal Swiss army knife approach, but to the actual threats that we face.” To that end, Askonas suggested that the military should re-adopt a “cadre” system for deploying the military, not dissimilar to that used in World War II. Under such a system, the number of resource-heavy full time service members would be decreased in peacetime in favor of investing in expensive, slow-to-build items like warships.

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There is no stalemate.

Stalemate Will Force Ukraine To Enact ‘Full Mobilization’ – Media (RT)

The US believes that neither Ukraine nor Russia will achieve major gains on the battlefield this year, and that the ensuing stalemate will force Kiev to call up every last available man to fight, according to leaked Pentagon documents cited by the Washington Post. The US Defense Intelligence Agency views both Kiev and Moscow as having “insufficient troops and supplies for effective operations,” and as such predicts that the conflict in Ukraine will drag on into 2024, with both sides achieving only “marginal” territorial gains this year, the newspaper reported on Wednesday. Nevertheless, “negotiations to end the conflict are unlikely,” the agency reportedly wrote in its assessment, which was included in a trove of leaked documents.

The Post and a number of newspapers have published information from some of these documents, while simultaneously helping the government track down the suspected leaker, who was arrested by the FBI on Thursday after the New York Times published his identity. In a protracted conflict with little chance of victory or negotiations, it is Ukraine that will pay the heaviest price, the Pentagon reportedly believes. Such a stalemate will force Kiev to enact the “full mobilization” of its remaining male population, the Post reported, a move that will trigger public “criticism” of Vladimir Zelensky’s government and make “leadership changes more likely.”

The document also gives scenarios in which Ukraine either scores a decisive victory, forcing Russia to escalate or negotiate, or Russia scores a victory that enables it to demand regime change in Kiev. However, the stalemate outcome is reportedly listed as “the most likely scenario.” Kiev’s efforts to conscript civilians into military service have proven unpopular, with numerous videos surfacing showing men being forcibly detained on the streets and press-ganged into service. With Ukrainian lawmakers reportedly considering expanding the draft, many of those already in uniform have been funneled into the encircled Donbass town of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), which they consider no longer worth defending.

Other recently leaked Pentagon documents revealed that, as of February, the US believes Ukraine has suffered up to 131,000 casualties in the conflict thus far, including up to 17,500 killed. Establishing a true body count is difficult, as Ukraine rarely publishes its losses. Last autumn, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put Kiev’s fatalities at 100,000, a claim that was disputed by Kiev and later removed from the EU’s websites. The Post noted that the documents did not specify whether a “leadership change” in Kiev refers to a rotation of political leaders or military brass. Officials in Kiev are reportedly outraged over the leak, which also included information suggesting Ukraine is ill-equipped to mount its long-promised spring counteroffensive.

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“..Burns presented Zelensky with a list of 35 generals and senior government officials whose corruption was known to the CIA. Zelensky responded by dismissing 10 officials..”

“.. Zelensky “has been buying the fuel from Russia, the country with which it, and Washington, are at war, and the Ukrainian president and many in his entourage have been skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments.”

Seymour Hersh: The CIA Knows Ukrainian Officials Are Skimming US Aid (Antiwar)

On Wednesday, Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a report on Substack that alleged the CIA was aware of widespread corruption in Ukraine and the embezzlement of US aid. The report said the Ukrainian government has been using US taxpayer money to purchase diesel from Russia to fuel its military. Hersh said Zelensky “has been buying the fuel from Russia, the country with which it, and Washington, are at war, and the Ukrainian president and many in his entourage have been skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments.” Hersh said according to one estimate by CIA analysts, at least $400 million in funds were embezzled last year. Sources told Hersh that Ukrainian officials are also “competing” to set up front companies for export contracts to private arms dealers around the world.

The issue of corruption was raised during a meeting between CIA Director William Burns and Zelensky in January. An intelligence official with direct knowledge of the meeting told Hersh that Burns delivered a stunning message to Zelensky. Hersh wrote: “The senior generals and government officials in Kiev were angry at what they saw as Zelensky’s greed, so Burns told the Ukrainian president, because ‘he was taking a larger share of the skim money than was going to the generals.’” During the meeting, Burns presented Zelensky with a list of 35 generals and senior government officials whose corruption was known to the CIA. Zelensky responded by dismissing 10 officials who were engaged in flagrant corruption. “The ten he got rid of were brazenly bragging about the money they had—driving around Kiev in their new Mercedes,” the intelligence official said.

Hersh said Zelensky’s “half-hearted response” and the “lack of concern” in the White House angered some US intelligence officials. The intelligence official speaking to Hersh criticized President Biden’s two main foreign policy advisors, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. “They have no experience, judgment, and moral integrity. They just tell lies, make up stories. Diplomatic deniability is something else,” the official said. The official said there was a “total breakdown between the White House leadership and the intelligence community.” The report said the rift started in the fall when the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines were blown up. According to Hersh’s earlier reporting, President Biden ordered the operation that took out the pipelines. “Destroying the Nord Stream pipelines was never discussed, or even known in advance, by the community,” the official said.

The official said there is “no strategy for ending the war” within the Biden administration and offered more scathing criticism of Blinken and Sullivan. “Burns is not the problem,” the official said. “The problem is Biden and his principal lieutenants—Blinken and Sullivan and their court of worshippers—who see those who criticize Zelensky as being pro-Putin. ‘We are against evil. Ukraine will fight ’til the last military shell is gone, and still fight.’ And here’s Biden who is telling America that we’re going to fight as long as it takes.” Hersh’s story comes after a series of leaked top-secret documents from the Pentagon and other government agencies surfaced online. Some of the documents show US war planning for Ukraine and reveal the US doubts Kyiv’s ability to launch a successful counter-offensive, offering a starkly different view of Ukraine’s abilities than what Biden officials have been saying publicly

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Move the UN. Or dissolve it altogether.

Moscow Urges Washington To Issue Visas To Russian Delegation To UN Events (TASS)

Moscow urges Washington to immediately issue visas to members of Russia’s delegation to events related to the country’s chairmanship of the UN Security Council, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said. “The request to issue visas for the Russian delegation and the journalists was sent to the US Embassy in Moscow at the end of March. However, not a single entry permission has been granted so far,” the envoy said in a statement, commenting on the issuance of visas to members of the Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “There was an agreement that the Russian media representatives would visit the American diplomatic mission on March 31 to have their visa applications examined. However, the appointment was canceled without any explanation less than one day prior to it. There is still no certainty, although there are only a few days left before the event,” Antonov noted.


“We urge Washington to immediately issue visas for our delegation, as well as for our journalists. Failure to do that is a violation of the United States’ obligations as the host country of the UN headquarters, which impedes appropriate, full-fledged functioning of the World Organization,” the Russian ambassador stressed. “An incomprehensible situation concerning the Minister’s special flight is evolving. The US authorities have not yet sanctioned the arrival of the aircraft. We expect Americans to promptly grant the flight permission without any conditions or restrictions,” Antonov added. The UN secretary general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a briefing on Wednesday that the United Nations expected the US to issue visas to members of Lavrov’s delegation, expected to visit the UN headquarters in late April.

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“Every night I ask myself why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar. Why can’t we do trade based on our own currencies?”

Brazil Rebels Against US Dollar ‘Straitjacket’ (RT)

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has stated that developing nations should move away from the US dollar in favor of their own currencies in order to push back against American dominance over the global financial system. Speaking in Shanghai on Thursday during an official visit to China, Lula said the BRICS group – comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – should look for an alternative currency to the dollar for trade. “Every night I ask myself why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar. Why can’t we do trade based on our own currencies?” he said. “Who was it that decided that the dollar was the currency after the disappearance of the gold standard?”

The leftist leader went on to lament that “everyone depends on just one currency,” referring to the dollar, and proposed “a currency to finance trade relations between Brazil and China, between Brazil and other countries.” Lula kicked off his trip to China with an event to mark the appointment of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as the head of the New Development Bank, also known as the ‘BRICS bank,’ which he said could free emerging economies “from submission to traditional financial institutions, which want to govern us.”

Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad also traveled with the president to China, where he told reporters that Brazil would aim to create trade mechanisms for developing countries to bypass the use of the dollar. “The advantage is to avoid the straitjacket imposed by necessarily having trade operations settled in a currency of a country not involved in the transaction,” he said. Lula’s visit to China comes as Beijing increasingly promotes the use of its own currency, the renminbi, to settle international transactions. Last month, Russia said it had adopted the yuan as one of its primary reserve currencies amid a massive sanctions campaign linked to the conflict in Ukraine, highlighting a gradual shift away from the Western financial system by some major powers.

Trade between China and Brazil has seen a significant boost over the last decade, with more than $150 billion in business recorded last year. Chinese firms have bought up large amounts of minerals and agricultural goods in the South American country, and invested in Brazilian infrastructure. The Brazilian president arrived in China on Wednesday night and will remain there until April 15. After his speech in Shanghai, Lula headed off to Beijing, where he is set to meet with President Xi Jinping on Friday. The two leaders are expected to focus on issues related to trade and foreign policy – such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to develop roads, highways and other infrastructure in foreign countries – according to the Financial Times.

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“..the EU’s legal service has not yet found an answer to a question what to do if the EU loses these funds in a certain situation..”

Frozen Assets To Be Returned To Russia After End Of Conflict (TASS)

Lawyers of the European Commission (EC) have arrived at a conclusion that assets of the Bank of Russia frozen in the EU will have to be returned to Russia after the end of the conflict in Ukraine, Die Welt newspaper said on Thursday, citing an unpublished EC document. Assets of the Bank of Russia cannot be simply transferred to Ukraine, EC experts said. “There is political will but legal barriers are high. The European Commission comes to a sobering conclusion that frozen assets cannot be touched since once upon a time, when the war ends, they will have to be returned to Russia,” the newspaper informed. The next one suggested by the EC is to invest frozen assets of the Bank of Russia in European government bonds and use the interest for payments to Kiev. At the same time, the EU’s legal service has not yet found an answer to a question what to do if the EU loses these funds in a certain situation, the newspaper reported. Actions in such case still need to be clarified, Die Welt said.

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“..According to the Kremlin, only half of the agreement is currently being implemented because not all parties have kept their side of the bargain…”

UN Seeking To Reconnect Some Russian Banks To SWIFT (RT)

The United Nations is discussing bringing some Russian banks back to the SWIFT payment system in order to help keep grain shipments from Ukraine going, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric has said. When asked during a briefing on Wednesday if any progress had been made on Russia’s demands regarding the grain agreement, Dujarric said that UN officials were “trying to doggedly move the process forward.” Moscow warned on Wednesday that the outlook for extending beyond May 18 the grain deal, which ensures the safe export of grain and fertilizer from several Ukrainian Black Sea ports, was “not good.”

The Kremlin has demanded allowing Russian Agricultural Bank to return to SWIFT, permitting Russia to import agricultural machinery, as well as the removal of insurance restrictions, port access for Russian ships and cargo, and an unblocking of the financial activities of Russian fertilizer companies. “Obviously, the fact that a number of Russian financial institutions are not, if not all of them, I’m not sure, are not in the SWIFT system makes things more complicated. And we are in discussions with the people who are responsible for SWIFT and the Europeans and others on that,” Dujarric said.

According to him, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has no authority over SWIFT or over the EU member states that imposed anti-Russia sanctions. “He has no authority over insurance companies, shipping companies. He can’t tell them what to do,” the spokesman stressed, adding that “we’re trying to herd a whole group of people.” While the Western sanctions do not directly target Russian agricultural goods, they affect payments, insurance and shipping. With many Russian banks disconnected from SWIFT, direct settlements for exports have been made difficult. Under the pact, brokered in July last year by the UN and Türkiye, Russia was to receive a sanctions reprieve for its own agricultural goods. However, Moscow has voiced discontent with UN efforts to lift Western restrictions affecting the sector.

According to the Kremlin, only half of the agreement is currently being implemented because not all parties have kept their side of the bargain. In March, Moscow agreed to extend the agreement for 60 days, stressing it would only consider a further extension if the demands in relation to its own exports were met. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the time that the organization would “do everything possible to preserve the integrity” of the deal and make sure that it continued to function. The Black Sea export agreement has reportedly allowed more than 27.5 million tons of food to be shipped out, which, according to the UN, has helped lower food prices across the world.

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Every real estate company makes itself look the best it can. What fraud?

Trump Testifies In New York Business Fraud Case (Az.)

Former US President Donald Trump answered questions Thursday in New York during his second deposition in a civil case accusing him of business fraud, according to Anadolu Agency. The deposition came only a week after Trump’s arraignment on criminal charges in a separate lawsuit. The $250 million lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James last year against the ex-president claims that Trump and his family misled banks and business associates about his net worth and the value of some of his assets. Trump denies any wrongdoing. The questions behind closed doors took nearly seven hours, according to media reports. ”This civil case is ridiculous, just like all of the other Election Interference cases being brought against me,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social ahead of his testimony. Last week, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to his alleged involvement in a scheme to pay “hush money” to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

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Obstruction.

Appeals Court Ruling May Threaten DOJ Position in Dozens of Jan. 6 Cases (ET)

An April 7 decision issued by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals may jeopardize a key legal backing used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, according to attorney Albert Watkins. “What this opinion did do was, it practically begged for other [Jan. 6] cases to be brought up to the Court of Appeals that would permit a more balanced opinion,” Watkins, who has represented four Jan. 6 defendants, including released prisoner Jacob Chansley, told The Epoch Times on April 11. Watkins’s comment came after a three-judge panel at the D.C. Court of Appeals on April 7, struck down a lower court’s ruling in a 2–1 vote, dismissing a federal charge against three Jan. 6 defendants, and rejected the lower court’s reasoning about the scope of the obstruction charge.

Although the higher court’s ruling (pdf) allowed the DOJ’s prosecution of these three specific defendants—Joseph Fischer, Edward Lang, and Garret Miller—to continue, the effect of the higher court’s opinion extends beyond these cases, the attorney said. According to Watkins, this extended effect has to do with the interpretation of language regarding “corrupt” intention in obstruction charges, considering that the DOJ has been using the obstruction charge as an “attractive” legal tool to prosecute Jan. 6 cases and score plea agreements. According to a provision in the statute for obstruction charge (18 U.S. Code Section 1512 2(c)), “Whoever corruptly … obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

A narrowed definition of this provision could hinder the DOJ’s ability to use the charge further and introduce uncertainties in the ongoing trials, the attorney indicated. The DOJ had charged more than 200 Jan. 6 defendants with obstruction-related charges. “It should cause a certain degree of trepidation on the part of the Department of Justice about utilizing—in a very footloose and fancy-free fashion—the obstruction of an official proceeding charge as the count of choice for pleas,” Watkins said. “I will say it was, in many respects, an extraordinary opinion—more time was spent addressing potential issues not before the court than the issues actually before the court.”

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“What in the world would it mean to oppose organized mass murder because it skews right wing?”

New York Times Is Now Telling Bigger Lies Than Iraq WMDs (Swanson)

The New York Times routinely tells bigger lies than the clumsy nonsense it published about weapons in Iraq. Here’s an example. This package of lies is called “Liberals Have a Blind Spot on Defense” but mentions nothing related to defense. It simply pretends that militarism is defensive by applying that word and by lying that “we face simultaneous and growing military threats from Russia and China.” Seriously? Where? The U.S. military budget is more than those of most nations of the world combined. Only 29 nations, out of some 200 on Earth, spend even 1 percent what the U.S. does. Of those 29, a full 26 are U.S. weapons customers. Many of those receive free U.S. weapons and/or training and/or have U.S. bases in their countries.

Only one non-ally, non-weapons customer (albeit a collaborator in bioweapons research labs) spends over 10% what the U.S. does, namely China, which was at 37% of U.S. spending in 2021 and likely about the same now despite the highly horrifying increases widely reported in the U.S. media and on the floor of Congress. (That’s not considering weapons for Ukraine and various other U.S. expenses.) While the U.S. has planted military bases around Russia and China, neither has a military base anywhere near the United States, and neither has threatened the United States. Now, if you don’t want to fill the globe with U.S. weaponry and provoke Russia and China on their borders, the New York Times has some additional lies for you: “Defense spending is about as pure an application of a domestic industrial policy — with thousands of good-paying, high-skilled manufacturing jobs — as any other high-tech sector.”

No, it is not. Just about any other way of spending public dollars, or even not taxing them in the first place, produces more and better jobs. Here’s a doozie: “Liberals also used to be hostile to the military on the assumption that it skewed right wing, but that’s a harder argument to make when the right is complaining about a ‘woke military.’” What in the world would it mean to oppose organized mass murder because it skews right wing? What the hell else could it skew? I oppose militarism because it kills, destroys, damages the Earth, drives homelessness and illness and poverty, prevents global cooperation, tears down the rule of law, prevents self-governance, produces the dumbest pages of the New York Times, fuels bigotry, and militarizes police, and because there are better ways to resolve disputes and to resist the militarism of others. I’m not going to start cheering for mass killings because some general doesn’t hate enough groups.

Then there’s this lie: “The Biden administration touts the size of its $842 billion budget request, and in nominal terms it’s the largest ever. But that fails to account for inflation.” If you look at U.S. military spending according to SIPRI in constant 2021 dollars from 1949 to now (all the years they provide, with their calculation adjusting for inflation), Obama’s 2011 record will probably fall this year. If you look at actual numbers, not adjusting for inflation, Biden has set a new record each year. If you add in the free weapons for Ukraine, then, even adjusting for inflation, the record fell this past year and will probably be broken again in the coming year.

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How to kill a brand.

Anheuser-Busch Loses $6BN In Six Days After Bud Light Trans Ad Campaign (ZH)

After reaching a three-year high of $66.73 per share, Bud Light parent company Anheuser Busch Inbev lost more than $6 billion in market cap since announcing its partnership with 26-year-old transgender ‘influencer’ Dylan Mulvaney on April 2, as bar owners and distributors report a sharp decline in Bud Light sales over the past week. The company’s market cap fell as low as $125.7 billion, down from $132.8 billion six days ago, a drop of more than five-percent. Meanwhile competitor Molson Coors (TAP) saw $350 million added to its market cap over the last week. Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney included custom cans featuring his face and pro-LGBTQ language to commemorate the biological male’s ‘being a woman’ for over a year.


The ad campaign kicked off with naked Mulvaney drinking Bud Light in a bathtub. And while Anheuser-Busch issued a statement in support of Mulvaney, saying it “works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics,” the Daily Wire reports that company executives had no idea about the ad campaign. “No one at the senior level” of the company was aware of Bud Light’s polarizing partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, sources close to the situation claim. The company is also allegedly pausing its marketing efforts and scrambling to implement a more “robust” process for evaluating future influencer partnerships.

“No one at a senior level was aware this was happening,” said one source, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal discussions. “Some low-level marketing staffer who helps manage the hundreds of influencer engagements they do must have thought it was no big deal. Obviously it was, and it’s a shame because they have a well-earned reputation for just being America’s beer — not a political company. It was a mistake.” A second source also claimed that a lower level employee had made the decision to include Mulvaney in the campaign, a move that appears to have cost the company $5 billion in market value. The backlash to the iconic American beer brand has been so intense that a Budweiser distributor in Missouri canceled an event with the company’s famous Clydesdale horses because everything was “still sensitive” over the matter.” -Daily Wire

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Goats on trees
https://twitter.com/i/status/1646533792495206403

 

 


An albino tree is unable to produce chlorophyll & survives by obtaining sugar through neighboring trees’ roots

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle April 14 2023

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  • #133434

    Jean-Michel Basquiat Warrior 1982   • US Fanning Ukraine Crisis, Exacerbating Ukrainians’ Suffering – Xinhua (TASS) • CIA Director Concedes US Po
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 14 2023]

    #133435
    aspnaz
    Participant

    “No one at the senior level” of the company was aware of Bud Light’s polarizing partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, sources close to the situation claim. The company is also allegedly pausing its marketing efforts and scrambling to implement a more “robust” process for evaluating future influencer partnerships.

    And if you believe that then you were born yesterday. Advertising, influencers etc all require budget, and some VP in marketing will be too junior to have that sort of budget. So, someone higher up, someone with the budget, took the decision and put the whole debacle on their cost center. Not a VP, would have to be an MD or department head. But, nice of them to throw some woke idiot under the bus, at least we got one scalp out of the process. I am not redneck enough to drink their piss anyways and I suspect people do drink their piss just to get drunk, not for the amazing flavour, which makes you realise that anyone drinking “lite” beer just to get pissed has an internal cognition problem. Makes you wonder if there is any old crap that people will NOT drink if the marketing is good enough.

    #133436
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Week 13: England Wales Excess Deaths hit 20.9%

    An old Irish saying:

    “The Sun never sets on the British Empire cause the good Lord doesn’t trust the English in the dark”

    Uktardistan has really jumped the shark when it hits 20%+ in excess deaths above historic trend lines and nothing from the public but a big yawn.

    At this point, I guess the English public are just Goats in Trees

    .

    #133437
    Germ
    Participant

    Moron Alert! –

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘I won’t let our eight-year-old son have Covid jab’: BBC presenter’s widower suing AstraZeneca after she died from Covid jab complications reveals why he doesn’t want their boy to be vaccinated

    “The widower of a BBC presenter who died from coronavirus vaccine complications says he was jabbed two times after his wife died…”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11967915/BBC-presenters-widower-suing-AstraZeneca-vaccinated-death-wont-let-son-jabbed.html

    TVASF

    #133438
    aspnaz
    Participant

    No wind day today, no windsurfing, so just completed a home brew – American pale ale – from grain to fermentation in the keg. A lot of work, it was super humid here in Hong Kong, brewing outside is the only option but even then it is hard sweaty work. Hit the OG right on target, thanks to my wife using yoga techniques to squeeze the last drop out of the BIAB bag – difficult to describe. Now waiting for the pressure to build in the keg, should be a good one, five gallons. Nice. Real beer is my thing, not “lite” piss and it doesn’t come with a trannie circus freak.

    #133439
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Satan Worship revives in UK, becomes State religion

    .

    #133441
    Dr. D
    Participant

    In honor of Musk, “Leftists On Twitter Report Disturbing Rise In People They Hate Having Speech” – BBee.

    “ ‘I’m A Victim!’ Yells Trans Activist While Punching Woman In The Face” –BBee.

    Strangely not a joke or exaggeration. Who knew? Just like men on women’s bathrooms or sports events, I would have said this would almost never happen. First incidence would probably take years. Well… ??? ??? ???

    Is this all just made up for our benefit? Here’s a chart:
    https://i0.wp.com/wilderwealthywise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/LEFTRACE.jpg?resize=1024%2C484&ssl=1Bail

    Huh. Funny ol’ world. Or as the accompanying quote says, “If people were unhappy about the manipulation of the banks and the mortgage-led meltdown of the Great Recession, the answer was simple from the Powers That Be:  “Look, a squirrel!”

    Speaking of finance and manipulation, rumor has it China just mega-liquified their system. For why? Because they’re about to hit Taiwan before America has a chance to make more trouble? Because BoA is about to blow up and take out some derivatives books? Stay tuned…

    Here’s another chart:
    Pic
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FthWMQ-X0AIcqDJ?format=jpg&name=small

    Huh, looks America also “reliquified” and a couple few people seemed to take them up on it. –Not you of course, you vermin peasant unspeakable THING. This is FREE money, only for IMPORTANT people. $79B/wk, $300B a month. Hey remember when they had to ask Congress for a measly $700B and we shut down the phone lines saying “No, that’s too much, it’ll be bank welfare, and a dead end that will only lead to more and endless bailouts, welfare, and mega-yachts.”? Those were the good old days. So, when can I and everyone here expect their written apology for being right?

    “Head Of Slovak Central Bank Convicted Of Bribery, May Go To Jail”

    Van der Lyin’ who took BILLIONS in bribes from Pfizer that killed (millions?) people, walks free. Slovak’s problem was they’re not corrupt ENOUGH. No one could be as corrupt as Europe. …Except the United States, UK, and Canada.

    “UN Seeks Vast New Powers For Global Emergencies — The global emergency protocols would be “triggered automatically” in case of a global crisis, “regardless of the type or nature of the crisis involved,”

    The answer is always more government. More Fascism, more Socialism. Notice they neither know nor care what the problem is! The answer is always the same. Weather? Same. Homelessness. Same. Somebody not as nice as you’d like? Same. Kids acting up? Same. Same Same Same. Same World Order.

    What if I were a doctor and whatever your problem was, I prescribed “Flonase”? What if I prescribed it without looking? What if I prescribed it ahead of time, before you were even sick with anything? You’d think I was crazy and not listen to me right? Right??? (Please say ‘right’)

    “1.25 Million Have ‘Top Secret’ Access In The US”

    Well if 1 in 300 people have access, then that’s CLEARLY “Top Secret”. And DEFINITELY none of them should be Congressmen who could read the papers and have oversight. You know, to stop fraud and tell the voters what’s going on.

    “Way, way up – beyond the CIA.
    21-year old gamer is a fall guy.
    The circus is in town – actually a show that never ends.”

    Except it’s not a circus, it’s a crime. A circus is what happens when say Feinstein makes money on the side using Chinese stock tips. …Not that deadly, justice is just foot-dragged. This guy who’s probably innocent is being sent up for life. Like Assange perhaps, but more like Assange’s sources. Ellsberg, Deep Throat, whoever. I wonder why him, maybe he is related. Certainly they made the whole “Men suck, are all white, hate women, can’t get laid, and are pathetic (while also violent!)” thing. Classic! Or as BBee would say:

    “Least Masculine Society In Human History Decides Masculinity Is A Growing Threat”

    ““..Beijing is “not content to only have a seat at the table; it wants to run the table,” while Russia is seeking to “upend the table altogether.”

    Well, probably, but that’s just “Nations”, since, “Forever”. Get out of the kitchen.

    “World Faces ‘Most Dangerous Period Of Time In History’ – Trump (RT)

    It’s hard to tell. In some ways less, but in other ways all the blocks have been carefully removed. So it certainly deserves the name and discussion.

    ““Bolton urged Washington to prepare for what happens “after Ukraine wins its war with Russia.”

    How is it this guy is still not locked up? I mean in a mental institution. And he’s relatively sane compared to some NeoCons.

    But I heard this week, Brzeziński – who got to see his whole 40 year plan blow up in his face before he died – said that the problem with Crimea was not enough people died. This was his takeaway. MUCH more blood needs to be split, MANY more people need to die in order to both cost Russia and to insure Russia and Ukraine, two Russian-speaking peoples, could never get back together again. That’s a project stretching back to the Pope and the 15thc right? Gosh, he just LOVED Ukrainians, didn’t he?

    Actually, reminds me of the “One solution” problem above. The answer is always more government. But also always more murder. They go together like peanut butter and jelly. Wherever one is, you’ll find the other.

    “US Military Would Need Conscription to Fight China (ET)

    Don’t make me laugh. We couldn’t defeat China with all 300 million men. For one thing, we could never be delivered to the theatre. That puts it back to nuclear exchange for which we need NO men. And who is this guy? I thought on Twitter, “F—k Catholics” was top trending, they are all hateful people who must be rounded up and killed, but a Catholic Professor gets in the news? Huh. Makes me want to go demonstrate my love and lack of bigotry by shooting a 9 year old.

    the ensuing stalemate will force Kiev to call up every last available man to fight,”

    It did, except those are last year’s papers. We already know they are sending 16 and 60 year olds. Fighting to defend Ze’s wife’s right to spend $10,000 on shoes in Paris.

    Okay, suppose they did. Russia just moved 300-500k men. And ONLY THOSE ALREADY TRAINED. So they could move 1-5 MILLION men, and have the internal political support to do it. Where you goin’ with this, Ze? Pentagon? A: They are mentally ill and locked in the control room.

    “• Seymour Hersh: The CIA Knows Ukrainian Officials Are Skimming US Aid (Antiwar)”

    Duh. The “Corruption” is only Ukraine’s in pass-through. The corruption is going TO the CIA and TO the CIA-supporting Congressmen. I wonder what the cut is. 50-50? 80-20? When you cut off Incerlik and F-Stan’s opium, how will the CIA fund itself, treasonously going around Congress? Syria’s few oil wells aren’t enough to fill that hole. Doing new treason every day is expensive, man!

    Failure to do that is a violation of the United States’ obligations as the host country of the UN”

    Oh, it’s against the LAW? Hahahahahahaaha! It breaks all Anglo treaties for no reason but personal amusement? Hahahahaha! Shocking we haven’t broken all those before, I was unaware we actually followed the law anywhere. I mean, look at NYC. Violent felonies up 50%.

    Brasil’s president Lula: “Who decided that the dollar was the currency, after the disappearance of the gold backing?”

    It’s hidden in the phrase “You and whose army?” Is there a single nation bordering Brazil that wasn’t attacked and toppled over this?

    “Lawyers of the European Commission (EC) have arrived at a conclusion that assets of the Bank of Russia frozen in the EU will have to be returned to Russia”

    Aw, and I was going to say “If you lined up all the EU lawyers end to end, they still wouldn’t reach a conclusion.”

    “While the Western sanctions do not directly target Russian agricultural goods,”

    As above, the answer is always murder. Oh…and more government. Or in this case, government seeping into the nooks and crannies of all human activity, everywhere, in all business, in all nations. Complete merger of them, with just a few weirdo cult members directing from the top.

    New York Times Is Now Telling Bigger Lies Than Iraq WMDs (Swanson)

    What’s really at work here is not some article out of the blue. This NYT reflects a deep, robust, air-tight mindset, an entire worldview now supported by the Left. That it is NOT just a paint-on, NOT just partisan, but deep and heartfelt, worthy of total sacrifice is the disturbing part. Sacrifice of themselves, sure, but also all other life on earth. I wish it were just a lie. It’s not like the Right are peaceniks, you know. They just want to stay home.

    Anheuser-Busch Loses $6BN In Six Days After Bud Light Trans Ad Campaign (ZH)”

    May not have brought this up, but Mulvaney isn’t Trans, he just hates and attacks women. This isn’t some kind of slur, go back to his original videos as a failed broadway actor. He says he and a friend of his made up this “part”, this actor’s skit, which is a thing actors do. One of his first videos for that “Part” said, “I’m a woman now, so I bought shoes I couldn’t afford, wrote a 5 page letter I didn’t send, and cried 3 times. How am I doing, ladies?” Yes, that is, he’s MOCKING women, openly. Making fun of them, belittling them, reducing them to the most offensive stereotypes. Blackface for Women.

    The Internet LOVED it, so he keeps doing the “Part”. What actor wouldn’t? …But that doesn’t make it not Blackface for Women. Just as wearing pants doesn’t make you a man ( I thought we settled this), just as wearing paint doesn’t make you Black (I thought we settled this), wearing lipstick and talking about nails doesn’t make you a woman. It might make you a cross-dresser though. In Dylan’s case, it makes him a deeply offensive person who reduces women everywhere, while also stealing all their paychecks. Nike could have paid that $10,000 to a woman, not a man. Nice going.

    Sorry to have brought it up, since it’s become self-evident that it’s Blackface and although pretty tolerant of people doing Blackface – weird as that is — I’m bored with it.

    –Didn’t post, let me try again.

    #133442
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Spike Protein Replaces Sperm

    Hey, no babies for you!

    Just goats head soup.

    Non-Vaxed dating services will be popping up from here on out in Old Blighty

    You have to submit a health sperm sample to join.

    The Chosen Ones will have the Golden DNA

    The rest will be shooting blanks

    .

    #133443
    Dr. D
    Participant

    And the third pic that put me over the line:

    “You think that “Marx” will take away your retirement. I think that “10 men” will take mine. Whos’ pocket is emptier?”

    Why would I care? I’m against both of them. They’re the same system, one is a merger of corporation and state as Socialism. One is merger of corporation and state as fascism. I don’t know why we even have different words for the same thing. It’s like “Orange” and “Tangerine”: only insiders, using the carefully-taught University definitions of revolutionaries can tell.
    FarOut
    https://i.pinimg.com/236x/ef/38/e6/ef38e6192f68a180329cddca2df402d2–gary-larson-the-far-side.

    #133444
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Empire of Lies® can only create Chaos

    That’s it’s only move

    And ‘doubling down’, that’s it’s only response counter move.

    Very, very predictable opponent.

    Imagine playing a game with someone and you always know their next move.

    Chess

    Poker

    That’s what Russia and China are playing with

    Think they will prevail?

    Knowing the next move each go around

    Yeh, me too.

    The Empire of Lies® San Francisco, 2 am

    Quite the geo-politcal power house

    Watch out for the fearsome ‘drug workers’

    Let the “Century of Humiliation®” begin!

    #133445
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • US Military Would Need Conscription to Fight China

    Hahahahahahahaha!

    It will need a lot more than that

    77% of ‘potential recruits’ (meaning an entire GENERATION of youth) can’t meet the bare minimum requirement for military service because of obesity, drug use, and inability to read and do basic arithmetic.

    Craptistic!

    I’m sure the Flower of Duh’merican Youth can handle any danger with their mighty Grasp of Reality®

    Russian Poseidon is Unstoppable

    Hey, it only generates a 500 meter high wave, surfs up!

    #133446
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Anheuser-Busch Loses $6BN In Six Days After Bud Light Trans Ad Campaign

    The Bud Light-footed brew was piss anyway, but now it provides a channel for the seething enraged anger at Woketardom.

    Well played Anheuser-Busch

    They’ve killed a major brand and turned it into Queer Beer®

    And liar liar pants on fire Senior Management says “they didn’t know about the ad campaign”

    Double Triple WTF!

    I think the built up rage against trans-wokedom is great enough that Bud drinkers will totally kill the brand by never buying it again.

    Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

    Law of the Universe

    Woketards have gone a bridge to far with this stunt. Billions up in smoke.

    Will a massive PR campaign regain the soiled Bud Light brand?

    Well, you are dealing with Duh-mericans, so anything is possible.

    .

    #133448
    tboc
    Participant

    the discussion the last week brings the following to mind:

    ” Most people are alive in an earlier time, but you must be alive in our own time.”
    Marshall McLuhan

    “Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness.” ~ Marshall McLuhan

    being a little slow I might have misunderstood a member here suggesting that “it’s a mystery” is a disingenuous rebuttal with the implication there is no mystery. There is no satisfactory explanation for the Great Wall of Galaxies or the rate of expansion of the physical universe or that the accepted understanding of gravity does not work at the cosmic scale. One of course can just accept “dark matter” and dark energy and be done. No mystery at all. We don’t understand why the accepted model of the physical universe works locally and the Bang Model is losing the predictive capabilities we once believed. No mystery at all, we have named what we do not understand thus there is no mystery.

    abberant human beings will murder to have their way, they will, with malice and aforethought develop systems of exploitation even to the point of destroying infants and children. No ism is needed. Next thing someone here will propose is that the Peloponnesian War was nothing more than communisim and socialism steeped in Marx’s dialect at work. Dunno could a been fascism

    Man Know Thyself – a statement so old none know the exact origin
    Man Know Thyself, “Not no, hell no!” modern western sentiment

    please proceed, a rendezvous with the fantasy of your nobility awaits or “too smart by half”

    #133449
    zerosum
    Participant

    Its working
    COVID Vaccination,
    the mRNA
    excess death hit 20.9%
    ———–
    Secret – Talk peace While preparing for war/to kill
    ———

    #133450
    Germ
    Participant

    Excess Deaths are easing off in the old but not in the young.

    TVASF

    #133451
    chooch
    Participant

    Dr. D, you wrote:

    “Speaking of finance and manipulation, rumor has it China just mega-liquified their system. For why? Because they’re about to hit Taiwan before America has a chance to make more trouble? Because BoA is about to blow up and take out some derivatives books? Stay tuned…”

    Yes, they look to be in the process of re-liquifying their system. To what end? I am still trying to understand Jerome and Janet’s target for real rates. Looks like Fed Funds and CPI have reach parity. During the past 15 years it looks like holding rates real for any length of time caused something to break. So maybe this is an attempt by China to take control of capital markets buy exporting inflation forcing Powell to go Volcker.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/liftoff-imminent-china-injects-record-credit-kickstart-economy

    [..] Bottom line: the 2008 deja vu meter just went off the charts, because while the US is about to sink into a recession with commercial real estate set to fall all off a cliff, it is once again China that is – willingly or otherwise – set to serve as the world’s growth dynamo at a time when the entire developed world is about to max out at the same time.

    This is precisely what happened in 2008 when China unleashed the biggest credit expansion in modern history, sparking not only historic growth spree but also an exponential debt increase that sent China’s debt to over 300% of GDP.

    What happens next? Keep an eye on China’s credit impulse – this most leading indicator of the global reflationary cycle – which is about to rise above its two year highs after which it will again be on its way to new all time highs.

    #133452
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Surprise! Er, … not.

    “For some time, the forecast for the U.S. economy prepared by the staff had featured subdued real GDP growth for this year and some softening in the labor market. Given their assessment of the potential economic effects of the recent banking-sector developments, the staff’s projection at the time of the March meeting included a mild recession starting later this year, with a recovery over the subsequent two years.”

    – per https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomcminutes20230322.htm

    And so the question: When was the last time the FED even mentioned a coming recession in its minutes?

    F.S.

    #133453
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Next thing someone here will propose is that the Peloponnesian War was nothing more than communism and socialism steeped in Marx’s dialect at work. Dunno could a been fascism

    There you go.

    #133454
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Spouse and I finished watching The Power of the Dog last night. I liked watching a film where I was guessing at the ending and the point the story was coming to up until the last few minutes. It was unsettling in some ways, and oddly compelling. I looked up information about the source of the title afterwards, and found one article that framed the film in “woke” context, saying that it was about “toxic masculinity.” There is a huge need these days in public discourse to frame concepts in gendered ways. The behavior of the film’s antagonist reminded me of some of the behaviors of my ex — especially the belittling that he did if others. I am sure that if my mother watched the film, it would remind her of the mother that raised her, who was also verbally abusive. As I watched, I didn’t see the film as being primarily about gender stereotypes, but rather an exploration of abusive relationships. Someone who spends a great deal of time pondering gender stereotypes would likely (as did the author of that article) see it as about gender stereotypes. We view everything in context of our own experience and biases.

    For me, the Western setting was largely irrelevant to the story — it could have been set in many places and eras — as abuse is a problem that is universal to human societies. For someone else, keyed into the traditional Western genre, the setting might be integral to the story.

    ~~~~

    “Marx,” a man long dead who analyzed capitalism and dreamed of a healthier society (just as we do) isn’t taking away anything from anyone. (No more than Christ killed in the Crusades, tortured during The Inquisition, or burned witches during the Salem trials.). There are real, live people living today that are influencing the economic system in such a way that people’s retirement will likely be washed away. It is much more realistic to focus on them, rather on a dead guy.

    “Socialism,” as a word and as a concept preceded Marx.

    To Marx and his contemporaries, “socialism” was an economic system, not a political system. Yes, Marx suggested that a change to a socialist economic system would include government involvement….because governments are always involved in the economic system du jour, just as they are in capitalism, in slavery, in feudalism, etc.

    The “Democrat” who championed socialism the most in the US was the long-time independent, Bernie Sanders. We can all see how much power his embrace of “Democratic socialism” gained him in the Democratic Party. (Oh, wait…by giving up on his bid for the presidential nomination he got some little tidbits…pretty minuscule ones.). Gosh, darn, those capitalism-loving Democrats are so obsessed with socialism that the Party leadership expects us to just *know* that they unabashedly support something that they never publicly embrace.

    What is happening is that the term “socialism” and the name “Marx” is being set up as a “straw man” or “scapegoat,” are loaded up with definitions of things that are hated, and then burned in effigy. After all of this, those who did the burning scratch their heads trying to figure out how it is that the tyranny still exists, how did “socialism” and “Marx” survive, yet again? Yeah….because the problem is tyranny expressed as totalitarianism…tyranny is endemic to humanity (which is tragic, but compassion is also endemic.). “Socialism” has meant so many things to so many people that it has come to compass both human compassion and human tyranny — but it was birthed from human compassion. Therefore, the term is muddy and unclear.

    As a term, “totalitarian” is clear and tends to mean approximately the same thing from person to person.

    #133455
    Noirette
    Participant

    re. prev. thread. On Scott Ritter discussing J. Biden’s statements after the ‘summit’ in Geneva (what was said there is still not known, other topic), vid.

    — Back to the past —> Here Biden slags off Ritter for being against the ‘Iraq War’ – final line..

    “It is above your pay grade” – w. v. nasty smirks. Ritter stays impassive / nothing else is shown by the cam.

    April 2002 https://www.bitchute.com/video/PC9uGFIcaWmk/

    Germ, thx for the updates though they are horribly depressing.

    I always wondered how, why, re. COV19, Bojo’s (let it rip) and Trump’s (natural immunity, Ivermectin, etc.) original attitudes were flipped.

    After the op, whatever it was, Bojo was obfuscatory and bombastic (as usual) – Trump went all out with the WARP SPEED, USA BEST meme (as usual.) I supposed that both had been told the virus was a bio-weapon and extraordinary ‘measures’ were needed. – WAR ! ! etc. (Not a great expl, but maybe playing some role..)

    Eugyppius has a v. interesting post about that, March 2003:

    https://www.eugyppius.com/p/the-origins-of-virus-panic-and-the

    Re. Covid, “From the Belly of the Beast” by M. Setty is ++ on the ground reporting,

    I attended the 23rd World Vaccine Congress in Washington DC. This is what I saw and heard…

    https://madhavasetty.substack.com/p/from-the-belly-of-the-beast

    #133456
    Oroboros
    Participant

    At least he didn’t say, “suck my tongue”

    Bizarre Freak Biden Says Let’s Go Out and ‘lick the world’

    #133457

    Squirrels, squirrels everywhere- and not a chance to think.

    #133458
    jb-hb
    Participant

    What’s so great about civilization?

    #133459
    jb-hb
    Participant

    (it’s a song about how things have gone evil, wrong – a longing to bring the good and the right back – as symbolized by the new tyrant vs the return of the good and rightful king) I’m mashing up a few different translations, but it gives the gist

    My dashing darling is my hero
    My dashing darling is my Caesar
    I have had neither sleep nor good fortune
    Since my dashing darling went far away

    I am perpetually worried every day
    Wailing heavily and shedding tears
    Since my lively boy was released from me
    And there is no word of him, alas

    The pleasure of the cheerful cuckoo at noon is gone
    The affable nobility are not bothered with sport
    The learned and the cultured are worried and sad
    Since the lively lad was taken from me

    He is like Young Aonghus
    Like Lughaidh Mac Chéin of the great blows
    Like Cú Raoi, great son of Dáire of the gold
    Leader of Éire strong in pursuit

    Like Conall Cearnach who breached defences
    Like worthy fair haired Feargas Mac Róigh
    Like Conchubhar venerable son of Nás of the tradition
    The pleasant chieftain of the musical [Fenian] Branch

    Noble, proud young horseman,
    Youth without gloom, of pleasant countenance,
    A swift-moving fist, nimble in a fight,
    Slaying the enemy and smiting the strong.

    Let a strain be played on musical harps,
    And let many quarts be filled on the table,
    With high spirit, without fault, without gloom,
    That my lion may receive long life and health.

    Gallant darling for a while under sorrow,
    And ireland completely under black cloacks,
    I have found neither rest nor fortune
    Since my gallant darling went far away

    #133460
    citizenx
    Participant

    FJB-

    Let’s go lick the World

    Sniff it first pedo Joe? Did you shower with adolescent boys as well Joe?

    If you’re going to San Francisco
    Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
    If you’re going to San Francisco
    You’re gonna meet some gentle people there

    For those who come to San Francisco
    Summertime will be a love-in there
    In the streets of San Francisco
    Gentle people with flowers in their hair

    All across the nation
    Such a strange vibration
    Hmm, people in motion
    There’s a whole generation with a new explanation
    People in motion, people in motion

    For those who come to San Francisco
    Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
    If you come to San Francisco
    Summertime will be a love-in there

    Fond memories of SF back in the day… Haight Ashbury, Warfield shows, SF peaceful happy vibe… now utterly destroyed by Democrat filth, just like Portland which was a great city, and Seattle. Liberal Democrat POLITICAL bs f’d it all up.

    All liberal shit holes now, ridden with crime, homeless, garbage everywhere, mentally ill militant rainbow tards… The Entire West Coast f’d up by Liberals, beautiful Natural geography squandered by their ‘progressive policies’.

    Can’t imagine I’d ever go back to SF or P-town, trying to gtfo of Seattle. Perhaps if you lived here then vs now you’d understand the justified contempt for these vile political creatures.

    #133461
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Russians have a saying that the Empire of Lies Abrams tank “is a poor copy of a German Leopard tank.”

    Hahahaha

    It is no match whatsoever for a Russian T-90

    Russians make weapons to kill

    The Empire of Lies makes weapons to sell.

    Russia’s Premiere Anti-Radar SEAD/DEAD Missile: KH-31PD

    Cost effectively designed to kill any air defense radar system on the planet

    “Designed for performance, not profit.”

    #133462
    jb-hb
    Participant

    citizenx – interesting. In my teens and 20’s, I gravitated towards the weirdos, the people on the margins, the freaks, the people with weird ideas be the political, economic, spiritual, etc. I had a friend who would introduce me as “a BAD longhair” because I didn’t do drugs, drink to excess, or any of the other stuff.

    I just liked the margins. Like a scifi universe, be it Dune, Foundation, Star Wars. You’ve got your inner worlds – civilization – and then you’ve got your Outer Rim of some kind. Adventure, danger, surprise, chaos, weirdness, anarchy, all of that. The cantina in A New Hope. Really cool.

    But you don’t generally dream of EVERYWHERE becoming the Outer Rim. The whole POINT of the outer rim is that THAT is what it is. I never felt a need to demolish the “core,” the “inner worlds.” Although if the “core” came up with a plan to liquidate the Outer Rim, bulldoze it to plant a million identical strip malls, surely I would be against that too.

    I was determined to be a jeans and tshirt guy my whole life – “trust no enterprise that requires new clothes,” Emerson – but I look around while I am in line at the grocery or wherever – we’ve ALL become slobs! THAT wasn’t what I wanted. I look at the public spaces – the Commons – and see The Outer Rim everywhere – I valued the margins as much as anyone, but I didn’t want THAT either.

    The Flower Power Generation could only do what they did in a safe, high trust society. They could only not degenerate due to their upbringing in such a society – even if they SAID they rejected it.

    I get mad at the Marxists because I trusted them MORE. I saw them as the ones working the problem. Only to have them decide the working class are their enemy. And instead of coming up with something awesome and new after the debacles of the 20th century, instead of making something FOR humans, something that recognizes human nature, it’s gone off the rails. There’s no dictum that ONLY tradition works. It’s just that it’s been beta-tested for thousands of years, worked the kinks out by sheer trial and error, evolution. There’s no particular reason Marxism couldn’t, in their new 21st century iteration, have taken that into account. Maybe next time

    #133465
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I would like to over simplify a description of the war that’s going on because things are getting so high speed complicated. It’s important that the essence of its identity and nature of the conflict is not completely lost in the growing tangle of propaganda, misdirection and outright lies that are not just increasing by the minute but which also stretch back quite a long way into the past

    The most visible expression of this war (at the moment) is of course the shooting war in Ukraine between the United States and Russia. With the “leak” of the Top Secret (and Above Top Secret) military documents recently we can finally skip the long winded cute talk and and just call it like it is: the US-Russian War. Notice that I said “the most visible expression” of the war, because despite the fact that the gunfire is in Ukraine, the whole war is being waged across the whole globe and involves every type of competition for every type of power between and within every nation. In this particular war there can’t be (and are no) neutral parties among the nations. Everyone either wants to keep things the pretty much the same, or else they want big changes and soon. There is no third choice. Even if all we want is some middle ground that the majority can tolerate we’re still going to have to fight to get there.

    So, it has always been inevitable that the current crop of so-called Great Powers come to blows, and NOT just because they are the big dogs in a small room. There is a more basic reason. They are coming to blows because they are manifestations of the two primal forces in human society. One of those forces manifests itself as all of the activities which must be done in order to maintain values and traditions (call it “Culture”). These are interactively worked on and more or less consensually arrived at, over enormous stretches of time, in a particular geographical region. And the other force is the one that opposes such efforts and intents.

    For these reasons the “second force” manifests as the exact opposite of the first one, by seeking to change (NOT maintain) each and every one of the old traditions and values sought and defended arduously and persistently by normal human beings. The vast majority of humankind work all day every day to achieve the things and circumstances that they have come to value according to their own cultural traditions and personal experience. It’s what they want, so its what they work to get.

    Those items which are cherished so deeply and dearly that they are called Cultural values have to begin with one’s own sense of autonomous conscious identity. Consequently, that value would also have to encompass the sovereign control of decision making authority that springs from it. These values might include one’s own natural biological identity as well, or one’s truly earned or personally created possessions and ownerships. It would certainly include the sanctity and value of Life, especially human life. And let us not forget the most senior item of all. There is the question (and answer) of where all of this world came from in the first place. There simply has to be (and is) some sort of source-of-all-sources, the so called God mystery, for lack of a better word. A culture includes that question and its answer. All of those, (and many more) are collectively called Culture. Over the course of time people figure out and decide what their culture is. Even the debate about what the culture should be is contained within the confines of the culture actually is.

    If you are fortunate enough to have one (a culture) and want to keep it then such core values are called YOUR culture. If someone is trying to take any of those indispensable things away (i.e. take your culture away) or make such important things impossible to accomplish, then they are the enemy of both you and your culture. The purpose of that enemy of our very existence, indeed their sole reason for being, is DEFINED by our culture, in that it is dedicated to the item-by-item erasure of it. The enemy has no culture of its own beyond that quintessential contrariness. From the perspective of our values, the enemy does indeed worship evil because evil objectives (i.e. the annhilation and erase of everything that we think of as worthy of attainment) is the only thing that they want.

    Not too hard to imagine how fucked up it can (and does) get to be with that kind of a game plan. Castrated males simulating women and calling for the mutilation and perversion of healthy children is a hint of where this can go. So is genocide.

    So, yeah. The traditional world is slugging it out with the Woke Cabal. Big surprise. The Cabal is getting its ass kicked (again). Also no big surprise, although I’m not ashamed to say that at times I’ve found it to be scary as Hell itself.

    Defend your culture! Defend your values! And defend your relationship to the Creator of the Universe as best you can (acknowledging the Creators’ existence in a position quite senior to your own is a good start.)

    #133466
    aspnaz
    Participant

    phoenixvoice said

    What is happening is that the term “socialism” and the name “Marx” is being set up as a “straw man” or “scapegoat,” are loaded up with definitions of things that are hated, and then burned in effigy.

    The USA government has recently outlawed old style light bulbs, now you have to buy LED bulbs, and is talking about outlawing gas heaters. Is this capitalism? No, capitalism is driven by markets. This is the USSR creeping in the back door. How can you consider a government so involved in peoples’ everyday lives, taking choices away from people, as anything other than socialist? Next they will be telling you where you can live and who you can meet, what vaxxes you need to have to be part of their society and how and when you can spend your hard earned cash, travel restrictions etc. All aspects of society are now being controlled by government and they are reaching out to control more of your life. Maybe you call it something other than “socialism”, but looks like socialism to me. They are creating the all-powerful government to control everything, and you know who will own that government? Yes, the rich folks, same as always. That is why the rich like socialism, they get to decide what you buy, what regulations you have to follow, whether you can eat real eggs or have to eat insects, whether you have to buy healthcare from them with your taxes etc. Extreme socialism is the same as imprisonment.

    #133467
    aspnaz
    Participant

    DBS said

    There simply has to be (and is) some sort of source-of-all-sources, the so called God mystery, for lack of a better word. A culture includes that question and its answer.

    Really. So what is the Chinese culture answer to the God mystery?

    #133468
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    Really. So what is the Chinese culture answer to the God mystery?”

    Yes, really. As I understand it (though I’m certainly no scholar on the topic) the Soviet and Maoist Communists made quite a big deal out of their enforced attempt to erase the “opiate of the people” [religious beliefs of all flavors], and failed to do anything but drive it underground and make it difficult to talk about in public. Didn’t work. People still wonder where the world came from, what their role in it should be, and how does it come to be that consciousness exists in living creatures but not in materialistic machinery. Falun Gong sure opened some eyes on the other side of the Great Wall, and this side, too.

    #133469
    John Day
    Participant

    @DBS: Thanks for the thoughtfulness. “God” does not need to be a personification, which might be like an ant personifyng me as an ant, limited usefulness as a model.
    One of the complains (from Islam) is that Buddhism is “atheistic”, which is sort of true, but not in the USA-American sense. To me, the west has had a lot of problems which could be fed by the image of a stern and angry “God-the-father”, because a lot of people know THAT aspect of a father, arguably more than Love, iin many cases.
    One might have trouble conceptualizing the Love of not-a-person-as-we-know-people, but that might be well balanced by the absence of that negative fervor to kill-the-unbelievers.

    I think that wondering how the world came to be sort of levels the playing field between us and ants.
    We can’t get there with what we’ve got. We have really limited processing capacity and can only experience 4 dimensions. A few of us can do higher math and physics, but only a very few, it’s really abstract, they don’t fully comprehend it, and everybody else mis-understands it.

    Avoiding the global Trotskyist imperative for constant revolution (Hi , Mr. Soros; Mr. Schwab.) is to live in culture, rather than to live tearing it down.
    Beyond culture, we all have things we KNOW to be true, which we should never disavow under duress.

    #133470
    aspnaz
    Participant

    @DBS I think you will find that Chinese culture escaped to Taiwan. It is alive and well in Taiwan. The CCP did try to eradicate all superior intelligence in mainland China, but lots of it escaped. Mainland Chinese believe that Beijing is the pinnacle of Chinese culture, but you will find much more real Chinese culture in Taiwan. Obviously Taiwan cannot seriously compete with Beijing, so the new “official” Chinese culture is a zombie culture, but the real Chinese culture created through history still exists. Contemplating the creation of the universe, that is not their style: they worry about things that they can control or influence, not abstract notions of a creator, of God etc.

    #133471
    aspnaz
    Participant

    @DBS I should add that the USA is trying to replace traditional Chinese culture in Taiwan with the woke, green disease created in the USA. Kids in school are now taught that the USA is where it is at, that the USA is the cool place to be, that their culture is superior. As a result you now see Chinese kids in Taiwan trying to be black, wearing the basketball attire and dreadlocks of the weak minded. It is very sad, but that is progress in the progressive world. No doubt the homeless and beggars on the streets will soon be part of the Taiwan environment.

    #133472
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #133473
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #133474
    Oroboros
    Participant

    I’ve always wanted to repurpose a service dog

    .

    #133475
    Oroboros
    Participant

    A Message from Empire of Lies Attorney General his Honorable Buttplug Merrick Garland

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1646601234059501568

    #133476
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Jaguars are nothing to fuck around with

    #133478
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Climate change is caused by lying government fabricating the data? Nah, that must be wrong.

    https://joannenova.com.au/2023/04/is-climate-change-really-caused-by-electronic-thermometers-the-bom-dont-want-australians-to-see-the-data/

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