Pablo Picasso Head of a Woman 1946
..gifted to the National Gallery by Picasso in 1946 in recognition of Athens’s resistance to Nazi occupation; he inscribed on the back: “For the Greek people, a tribute from Picasso.”
Tucker leaker
https://twitter.com/i/status/1646673964884713476
Bragg
Video emerges of Alvin Bragg pledging to go after President Trump before Bragg was elected#LiberalCorruption #LiberalHypocrisy pic.twitter.com/tAomqHXrrR
— • ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ ™ • (@4Mischief) April 13, 2023
Greek new year is this weekend. This is a stone’s throw away, last night.
Through the streets of Plaka, this year’s main Easter procession.#Greece #Easter pic.twitter.com/OUpjfpiwCk
— Derek Gatopoulos (@dgatopoulos) April 14, 2023
“The complete and final victory of Ukrainian nationalism will be won only when the Russian empire no longer exists.”
• Poland Receives Zelensky, Prepares Direct Intervention In Ukraine War (WSWS)
In a joint appearance with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in the courtyard of Warsaw’s Royal Castle, Zelensky praised Poland’s role as one of the biggest supporters of the war and called for further arms deliveries. “Is it still far to victory? No!” he declared. He added that one should “just not stop at solidarity. If the fight requires artillery, it must be granted. If victory requires tanks, their thunder must be heard on the front line, and if independence requires an air force, one must not brood over how Russia will react to planes.” Poland is among the first countries to supply fighter jets to Ukraine and now plans to hand over its entire stock of MiG-29 fighter jets to Kiev. Polish President Andrzej Duda announced this after a meeting with Zelensky. He said his country had already delivered eight fighter jets to Ukraine and was currently preparing six more MiG-29s for handover. He said Warsaw will be “in a position in the future to hand over its entire MiG fleet” of about 30 aircraft to the Ukrainian Air Force, “provided the NATO allies agree.”
On Thursday, Berlin approved the Polish government’s request to export MiG-29 fighter jets to Kiev from stocks in the former East Germany. In 2002, the then Social Democratic-Green government had sold 23 fighter jets to Poland, which the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) had taken over from the former East Germany’s National People’s Army. According to Warsaw, the Polish Air Force still has about a dozen of them today, which are now going to the Ukrainian army. The planned Polish arms deliveries are not limited to fighter jets. In Warsaw, the Ukrainian delegation signed further contracts for Polish howitzers, anti-aircraft missiles, troop carriers and wheeled tanks. The arms purchases are to be financed by support funds from the EU and the USA. It was also agreed to set up joint production lines to manufacture 125-mm tank ammunition for the Ukrainian army.
The entire visit was designed to celebrate the close alliance between Warsaw and Kiev. After Duda received him with Poland’s highest military decoration, Zelensky spoke of a “friendship for centuries” between Ukraine and Poland. But historical conflicts still simmer beneath the surface. This summer marks the 80th anniversary of the massacres by Ukrainian nationalists and fascists of an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 Poles in Volhynia and eastern Galicia. The leaders and instigators of the mass murder are glorified by today’s leadership in Kiev. On January 1, 2023, the Ukrainian parliament and military leadership celebrated the 114th birthday of notorious fascist, anti-Semite, and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, whose Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) and its paramilitary wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), played a central role in the Holocaust and war of extermination against the Soviet Union.
The current Ukrainian government sees itself as part of this tradition. Among other things, the Ukrainian parliament published a tweet showing a picture of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in front of Bandera’s likeness, quoting him as saying, “The complete and final victory of Ukrainian nationalism will be won only when the Russian empire no longer exists.” After a public outcry in Poland, the Ukrainian Rada (parliament) was forced to delete the post. But this does not diminish the glorification of Bandera and other fascists in Ukraine. The Zelensky regime spends millions on monuments and renaming streets in honour of Nazi collaborators and neo-fascists.
“Some politicians in Western Europe “want a quick ceasefire almost at any price” he claimed.”
• Failure In Ukraine Could Mark The End Of Western ‘Golden Age’ – Polish PM (RT)
Not everyone in the EU wants to support Ukraine as much as Kiev requires, yet the country’s future is key to Western prosperity, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has insisted. “Failure in Ukraine could be the beginning of the end of the golden age of the West. Ukraine’s victory is a guarantee not only of reconstruction, but of strengthening of our economic power,” the politician declared on Thursday, in a speech hosted by the Atlantic Council, a pro-NATO think-tank. Poland prides itself on being one of the most vocal supporters of Ukraine against Russia. According to Morawiecki, all Western nations want Kiev to prevail, but “not necessarily to the same extent”. Some politicians in Western Europe “want a quick ceasefire almost at any price” he claimed.
The Polish prime minister believes that Russia’s goal in the conflict is to “destroy Ukraine … so that Ukraine cannot be a base for enhancing the West.” The country’s existence is “crucial to contain Russia,” he added, claiming that “if Russia wins, we will be next.” The Russian leadership stated that its primary goals in Ukraine were to curb a growing threat to national security posed by NATO’s creeping expansion into its neighbor and to stop Kiev’s attacks against the people of Donbass. Morawiecki touted Poland’s centuries-long history of hostilities with Russia as a source of his expertise on the Russian mindset. “Imperialism, colonialism and nationalism is not merely a passing affliction of Moscow’s soul. It lies in its core,” the politician stated. Defending Ukraine has ramifications for other brewing conflicts, particularly the US-China stand-off over Taiwan, Morawiecki reasoned.
While Beijing has strongly protested against Washington’s growing involvement with the self-administered island, US officials claim that China could take Taiwan by force. “You need to support Ukraine if you want Taiwan to stay as it is,” Morawiecki said, criticizing EU politicians, who believe that Taiwan is not within their sphere of influence. “If Ukraine falls, if Ukraine gets conquered, the next day China may attack Taiwan,” he predicted. Beijing’s stated policy is to seek peaceful reunification with the island, but it does not rule out military action to prevent separatism. Morawiecki dismissed the notion of EU strategic autonomy, saying that people promoting it are really pushing the economic bloc into greater dependency on China. “We have to rebuild the world order, renew NATO and restore peace,” he stated, explaining his nation’s vision of the EU’s future.
“..considering Poland’s role as a NATO outpost in Europe, this country is sure to disappear together with its stupid prime minister.”
• Poland Would Not Survive A Russia-NATO war – Medvedev (RT)
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has claimed that Poland would cease to exist if a direct war were to occur between Russia and NATO, regardless of the outcome. He was responding to remarks by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who expressed confidence that the Western alliance would win such a conflict. Morawiecki, who is currently visiting the US, commented on the Ukrainian conflict in an interview with NBC News on Friday. Host Kristen Welker asked whether he was concerned that Ukrainian strikes outside its territory risked “a wider war, drawing Poland… into the conflict.” The prime minister replied that he was not concerned, as it would be “a war between Russia and NATO, and Russia would lose this war very quickly.”
“They believe that fighting with Ukraine they are fighting with the West and fighting with NATO, whereas the fact of the matter is that we are only supporting a brutally invaded country”, Morawiecki said. Medvedev, who serves as deputy chair of Russia’s National Security Council, tweeted in response that he was not so certain about which side would win, “but considering Poland’s role as a NATO outpost in Europe, this country is sure to disappear together with its stupid prime minister.” The Russian official has previously warned against a possible escalation of the Ukraine conflict, which Moscow perceives as a proxy war against it by the US and its allies.
If that were to happen, hostilities could go nuclear, Medvedev believes, and all sides would be catastrophically harmed. The former president has branded European leaders who underestimate this risk as incompetent. Morawiecki is one of the most outspoken critics of Russia and its involvement in Ukraine. He has claimed the country is similar to Nazi Germany in its goals and methods, and accused nations in the EU that do not fully support Ukraine, of appeasing Moscow. During his visit to the US, the Polish leader delivered a speech to the Atlantic Council, a pro-NATO think-tank, in which he reiterated his case for investing in Ukraine. If Kiev loses, he claimed, the West’s “golden age” may end.
“The EU is now paying Ukrainian salaries, pensions and healthcare, allocating “huge sums, which the European economy is missing out on..”
• Ukraine A ‘Non-existent Country’ Financially – Orban (RT)
The EU isn’t going to provide Kiev with funds indefinitely, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned Friday during an interview with a Kossuth radio station. “Effectively, Ukraine is a non-existent country in financial terms,” he declared. “The fall in economic indicators is huge, which is completely understandable due to the war. Obviously, Ukraine can’t finance itself,” the Hungarian leader explained. The EU is now paying Ukrainian salaries, pensions and healthcare, allocating “huge sums, which the European economy is missing out on,” the PM pointed out. He added that this support “can’t continue indefinitely.” According to Orban, the question is whether the West wants to continue sustaining Ukraine.
“The moment when America and Europe answer ‘no’ to that question – the war will end,” he stressed. Budapest is also involved in financing the Kiev government through joint EU mechanisms, but despite this, the situation keeps deteriorating for the Hungarian minority in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia Region, the prime minister said. Orban had previously complained about Ukraine mistreating ethnic Hungarians in the country’s western region. In his speech in February, the PM claimed that Hungarian symbols are being brought down in settlements across Transcarpathia, heads of Hungarian language schools are being removed, while “many ethnic Hungarians are dying on the frontline.”
The EU, its member states, and financial institutions have provided more than €50 [$55.3] billion in financial support to Kiev since the outbreak of fighting between Russia and Ukraine more than a year ago, including €12 billion in arms and €30 billion in macro-financial aid. Hungary has supplied humanitarian aid to Kiev, but refused to send arms to President Vladimir Zelensky’s government, unlike many fellow EU members. Budapest has consistently called for a peaceful settlement to the conflict and criticized the sanctions imposed by Brussels on Moscow, arguing that they have failed to achieve their goal and were hurting the EU more than Russia.
“..if a world war breaks out, it will be a nuclear war..”
• US Seeks To Drag Everyone Into Ukrainian Conflict – Orban (TASS)
The United States has not given up on its aim of embroiling everyone it can into the military conflict in Ukraine, but Hungary will remain on the side of peace, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told the Kossuth radio station on Friday. The head of government stressed that the US “has not abandoned its plan to shoehorn everyone into a military alliance,” supplying weapons to Ukraine and supporting continued hostilities. In connection with this, he reiterated that the threat of the Ukrainian conflict morphing into a new world war has been growing with each passing day. “And if a world war breaks out, it will be a nuclear war,” Orban noted. In his opinion, the current escalation of the conflict in Ukraine attests to the fact that the [combatant] countries are literally “inches away from the use of nuclear weapons.” This is precisely why Hungary supports the swiftest possible ceasefire and the commencement of peace talks on settling the Ukrainian conflict, the Hungarian prime minister emphasized.
“By giving money to Ukraine, Nikolenko insisted, the EU “invests first and foremost in its own security..”
• Ukraine Calls Out Orban Over Money (RT)
It is “cynical” of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to criticize the EU funding of Ukraine when Budapest takes money from Brussels as well, the foreign ministry in Kiev said on Friday. Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko also insisted that Ukraine was defending Hungary and the rest of the EU from Russia. Earlier in the day, in an interview with a Hungarian radio station, Orban had described Ukraine as “a non-existent country in financial terms,” entirely dependent on EU and US donations that won’t go on forever. “Another anti-Ukrainian statement,” Nikolenko wrote on Facebook. “It is cynical of the Hungarian leadership to speak on other countries’ financial issues while Hungary itself receives a lot of money from the EU to support its economic stability.”
By giving money to Ukraine, Nikolenko insisted, the EU “invests first and foremost in its own security,” as Ukrainians are defending Europe with their lives from “unprecedented Russian aggression.” Instead, he argued, Orban should be grateful to Ukraine for “a peaceful sky over Budapest and other European cities.” Speaking to the national radio on Friday, Orban pointed out that the EU was currently paying the salaries of Ukrainian public officials, as well as pensions and healthcare expenses, because Kiev’s economy had completely collapsed due to the conflict.
By the most recent estimates, the bloc has provided over €50 ($55.3) billion to Kiev since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022, including €12 billion worth of weapons and another €30 billion in financial aid. This does not include the $113 billion the US Congress had appropriated to prop up Ukraine, of which only about 20% has been cash assistance. “Obviously, Ukraine can’t finance itself,” Orban said, adding that external support “can’t continue indefinitely.” The conflict will end the moment the US and the EU stop funding Kiev, he argued. While Hungary does get billions of euros subsidies from Brussels, the EU is currently withholding a combined €34 billion, including in Covid-19 pandemic recovery funds, demanding that Budapest change the policies the EU disapproves of, most notably on the issues of immigration and LGBT rights.
Could be used as an excuse to leave.
• Ukraine Faces Corruption Investigation By Pentagon Inspector General (Rebel)
The Pentagon’s inspector general is examining the Ukrainian government for corruption in relation to the vast aid received since Russia’s invasion last year. Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch is probing the Ukrainian government for corruption concerning the large amounts of aid provided to the country after Russia’s invasion in the previous year. According to Defense One, Storch has over 20 audits planned and nearly 100 people involved in Ukraine-related oversight, working in collaboration with the State Department and USAID. Storch stated that they are covering a broad range of security assistance. Ukraine has a history of significant corruption issues, which could pose a threat to the nation if they undermine the trust of foreign governments supplying its military with advanced weapons and supplies.
Republicans are increasingly critical of the Biden administration’s aid to Ukraine. The U.S. is the leading supporter of Ukraine in its conflict with Moscow, having committed over $78 billion in military, humanitarian, and economic aid since January 2022, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has referred to the aid packages as a “blank check” lacking strict oversight standards. The Ukrainian government is working to eliminate corruption, but allocating resources to oversight and investigations diverts resources from the war against Russia, a senior official in Storch’s office told Defense One. The source explained that the Ukrainian authorities are fighting both the Russians and internal corruption, with many individuals who would typically combat corruption now engaged in the conflict with Russia.
The Defense Department is aware of Ukraine’s corruption history and views the potential diversion of aid before reaching its intended recipients as a “high risk,” according to the official. Another official noted that the Pentagon is concerned about the theft of weapons systems and other goods being sent to Ukraine. Defense One quoted the official as saying that numerous entities, including foreign nations and criminal groups, are interested in obtaining weapons technology. While the Biden administration continues to express its commitment to supporting Ukraine, reportedly leaked classified documents from the Pentagon indicate that the administration is pessimistic about Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russia. These documents emphasize weaknesses in Ukraine’s military, such as weaponry and air defenses, and predict that the two sides will be in a stalemate for an extended period.
“The Ukrainians are ready to attack. We are ready to repel the blow,” Prigozhin summarized. “No negotiations. Only an honorable battle. And the sooner it starts, the better.”
• Pentagon Leaks Won’t Hurt Ukraine – Prigozhin (RT)
The leaked Pentagon documents contain no strategic revelations that could harm Kiev, and the media attention they received must be an attempt by the West to delay the Ukrainian military’s much-announced “spring offensive,” Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Friday. “The documents by themselves do not pose any strategic danger,”Prigozhin said in a statementposted on social media, describing their published contents as mostly being based on open sources. “However, the leak was widely publicized and immediately after it, statements from sources close to the Pentagon began about the need to delay the offensive announced for April 15 until the summer.”
Commenting on the arrest of the alleged leaker, a 21-year-old Air National Guard member, Prigozhin said he may have been a fool or a dupe, but “if this leak had not happened, it would certainly have been invented.” The documents themselves, he emphasized, contain nothing that would add to the risk of the Ukrainian military should it launch its long-anticipated attack. “It is clear that the military operations on Ukraine’s side are tactically directed by Ukrainian soldiers, but strategically by the so-called Western coalition, run by the UK and the US,” said Prigozhin. He accused the West of “holding back” the Ukrainian military in a “dramatic pause,” after it had been assembled for attack, delaying the offensive that might actually inflict reputational harm on Russia with even a symbolic advance on any front ahead of May 9, the anniversary of the great WWII victory over Nazi Germany.
“The Ukrainians are ready to attack. We are ready to repel the blow,” Prigozhin summarized. “No negotiations. Only an honorable battle. And the sooner it starts, the better.” Founded as the businessman’s side project, Wagner has been involved in heavy fighting in the Donbass, most recently in the storming of Soledar and the battles in and around Artyomovsk, called Bakhmut by the Ukrainians. As of Friday, Wagner and other Russian troops hold most of Artyomovsk, with an estimated 6,000 battered Ukrainian troops attempting to retreat westward to Chasov Yar. Prigozhin has suggested that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky had thrown his best troops and foreign mercenaries into the battle for the Donbass town after receiving a personal challenge from Wagner in December, losing thousands in the “meat grinder” with nothing to show for it.
“Bloomberg alleged that the high hopes prevalent among Ukraine’s backers late last year, after Kiev’s troops managed to regain a large area, have now mostly dissipated..”
• Ukraine’s EU Backers Are Skeptical Of Counteroffensive – Bloomberg (RT)
Some EU nations supporting Ukraine have started to doubt whether Kiev will be able to recapture large swathes of territory this year, Bloomberg has reported. Even a modest advance would likely result in heavy casualties among Ukrainian personnel and require considerable amounts of ammunition and hardware, the outlet claimed, citing anonymous EU officials. In an article on Friday, Bloomberg alleged that the high hopes prevalent among Ukraine’s backers late last year, after Kiev’s troops managed to regain a large area, have now mostly dissipated. Fewer people in Western capitals are counting on a decisive push in 2023, with the fighting expected to continue well into next year. The news agency quoted unnamed European officials “involved in efforts to support Ukraine’s military” as predicting that a realistic goal for Kiev would be a 30 km (20 mile) advance.
This, if successful, should set the stage for a deeper counteroffensive in 2024, the sources predicted.To support such a push, Ukraine’s Western backers would need to step up their military production capacity, Bloomberg said. According to the outlet, further large-scale deliveries could, however, run into political opposition in some countries. An unnamed European official cited in the report also warned that any such operation would be a costly endeavor, both in terms of manpower and weapons, as Russian forces have had time to dig in, with minefields, ditches, and concrete anti-tank pyramids in place. Nevertheless, several European defense officials have told reporters that the counteroffensive, which the Ukrainian leadership has been hyping up for several months now, is likely to get underway by mid-May.
Strikes may be expected from multiple directions, potentially including diversionary ones, the sources alleged. Speaking to The Hill on Tuesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal suggested that the counteroffensive may actually begin in the summer. He insisted that Western backers were not putting any pressure on Kiev to force it into action without due preparation. The official also called on the West to provide Ukraine with more artillery, ammunition, middle- and long-range missiles, tanks, and fighter jets. On the same day, the Washington Post, citing a trove of recently leaked classified documents, reported that US intelligence did not hold out much hope back in February as to Ukraine’s ability to make significant territorial gains during the anticipated counteroffensive. Among the problems supposedly faced by Kiev at the time were “force generation and sustainment shortfalls.”
” Through his focus on Ukraine, Khan has presided over a massive surge in Western financial support for his office..”
• NATO States Sponsored ICC Prosecutor’s Putin Arrest Warrant (GZ)
Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, stood before a podium on March 3, 2023, and issued an unusual qualifier: “Of course the prosecutor of the ICC does not, whatever affection and regard I may have for my dear friends in Ukraine – has no special affinity to any particular country. We’re not a party to any hostilities.” “We have an affinity to legality,” Khan insisted in British-accented English. “We have an affinity and commitment to the rule of law.” Khan made his declaration of legal independence while headlining the “United for Justice” conference, an event personally organized in Lviv, Ukraine, by President Volodymyr Zelensky. There, he pressed the flesh with Ukraine’s president and conferred with US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who had stopped in to advance the Biden administration’s effort to haul Russian President Vladimir Putin before an international war crimes tribunal.
It was Khan’s fourth visit to Ukraine since the Russian military invaded the country in February 2022. On March 17, 2023, Khan introduced a formal ICC warrant for Putin’s arrest, accusing the Russian president of the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children to a “network of camps” throughout Russia. The warrant arrived days before the 20th anniversary of the NATO invasion of Iraq, a crime directed by US and UK officials whom the ICC has refused to prosecute to this day. As The Grayzone has reported, the ICC’s warrant was inspired by a State Department-funded report that contained no field reporting, no concrete evidence of war crimes, and no proof that Russia was actually targeting Ukrainian youth with a massive deportation campaign. In fact, the investigators acknowledged finding “no documentation of child mistreatment, including sexual or physical violence, among the camps referenced in this report.”
What’s more, the inquiry’s lead author told The Grayzone’s Jeremy Loffredo that “a large amount” of the Russian youth camps his team researched were “primarily cultural education – like, I would say, teddy bear.” Though Khan pledged his absolute independence in his hunt for Putin, he is closely aligned with the same Western governments that are currently engaged in a proxy battle with Russia on the Ukrainian battlefield. Meanwhile, he has stalled the ICC’s case against Israel, frustrating human rights lawyers who represent the victims of grisly violence in the besieged Gaza Strip. Additionally, Khan formally dropped the international court’s case against the US military for its actions in Afghanistan. Through his focus on Ukraine, Khan has presided over a massive surge in Western financial support for his office, with much of the money earmarked for his investigation into Russian officials.
The ICC’s issuance of Putin’s arrest warrant happened to coincide with a major donor’s conference for the court in London, England. The ICC prosecutor’s political entanglements do not stop there. Celebrity lawyer Amal Clooney has worked as a special advisor to Khan’s office while simultaneously counseling the Ukrainian government on its initiative to target Russian officials with prosecution, either by the ICC or another international body. Clooney has also served as a special liaison to the British Foreign Secretary. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that after two decades of unremitting hostile relations with the ICC, official Washington is suddenly warming up to the court, and is endeared by its top prosecutor.
Broken record.
• Nuland Issues Threat Over Russian Assets (RT)
The American authorities are in discussions about using the Russian central bank assets frozen by the West to rebuild Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, has said. When the conflict between Kiev and Moscow ends, Washington plans a massive reconstruction program for Ukraine aimed not only at rebuilding its cities, towns, and villages, but also at providing the country with a powerful military, “greener” energy infrastructure and stronger government institutions that would be “better hardened against corruption,” Nuland said during a speech at the US-Ukraine Partnership Forum in Washington on Thursday. The reconstruction of Ukraine would cost at least $411 billion over a ten-year period, according to conservative estimates of the World Bank, she said.
“Among other things, we are working to ensure that Russia helps pay for all that it has broken,” the State Department official pointed out. She said that thanks to the support of Congress, the US Department of Justice has been granted new authority to use “illicit assets seized from Russian oligarchs” to help rebuild Ukraine. “In February, we announced the first tranche of $5.4 million under this authority, with more announcements to come,” Nuland said. She also stressed that “discussions are ongoing about the estimated $300 billion of Russian central bank assets that we and our allies have frozen” in connection to the reconstruction of Ukraine.
On Thursday, however, German newspaper Die Welt reported – after viewing unpublished internal documents by the European Commission – that Brussels had come to the conclusion that it would eventually have to return the frozen central bank reserves. This could happen after the conflict in Ukraine ends, according to the outlet. The foreign reserves of the Russian central bank were seized by the US and the EU shortly after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine last February. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the move as “plain theft,” accusing the West of “returning to bandit, wild capitalism from the times of the Gold Rush” in the 19th century.
Nuland
This is Victoria Nuland a couple of days ago — the individual most responsible for the complete destruction of the Ukraine nation.https://t.co/7USIRADPMo
— Gonzalo Lira (@GonzaloLira1968) April 14, 2023
“..every penny you spend, every tax dollar you generate, every bond sale you allow to have a “full faith and credit” behind is an act of support of said war..”
• Now, The Difficult Choice (Denninger)
The alleged “leaker” of classified US defense information, which I remind you not only provided details about the Ukraine situation but also stated that we had actual uniformed troops in the nation, has been arrested. There were plenty of folks who claimed over the last few days that these documents were not genuine; that is, they were a hoax — or propaganda, if you prefer, put forward by Russia to make it look like we had troops in Ukraine when in fact we did not. By arresting the “leaker” we have admitted the documents are factual. This is a problem; it is quite-arguable we have actually entered the Russia-Ukraine war. For real. You need to think long and hard about that, because from this point forward it is your decision whether you permit this administration – and by extension the military that is under civilian control of the Executive – to do this.
Unlike many nations the military in the United States is under civilian control and said control resides solely in the Executive, with the President as Commander in Chief. All the denials, all the arm-waving, that’s all over now. This is now our war, and we, the people are the ones who decide. Whatever you think about Putin or Russia generally, or for that matter Ukraine, we are now in that war, the opponent has nuclear weapons, and we, right here in America, are now subject to whatever Russia decides to do with regards to a combating nation in said war, including to us as the civilian population. Do not kid yourself as to what this means. Choosing to do nothing is consent; every penny you spend, every tax dollar you generate, every bond sale you allow to have a “full faith and credit” behind is an act of support of said war; no war is ever prosecuted without both men and money and this is no longer an abstract discussion.
“..Larry Johnson says the leak was done for a specific purpose, namely to shove “Joe Biden” out of the White House..”
• Disorder is the Order of the Day (Kunstler)
The mysterious “Joe Biden” regime, in its brief two-plus years of service, has proven especially adept at creating fiascos. Are they aiming for the gold ring in this Ukraine gambit, that is, nuclear war? People seriously wonder. Or is something else going on? Blogger and ex-CIA agent) Larry Johnson says the leak was done for a specific purpose, namely to shove “Joe Biden” out of the White House. Yes, our Deep State is at it again. Why, because “Joe Biden” can no longer be trusted to even pretend he’s chief executive. (Well, maybe they shouldn’t have installed him in the first place.)
Larry also reminds us that, conveniently, an Obama-era whistleblower named Mike McCormick, who accompanied Veep Joe Biden’s delegation to Ukraine in 2014, has stepped forward to detail Biden family grifting operations there, with the help of then-aide (now National Security Advisor) Jake Sullivan. It’s like somebody is laying out a case for impeachment — or resignation. One really off-the-wall theory floating “out there” has Veep Kamala Harris being induced to take Diane Feinstein’s senate seat (DF, 89, is very ill), and “Joe Biden” then appointing Barack Obama to be Veep — with BHO stepping back into the White House when “JB” exits (or gets exited). Note, the XXII Amendment only prohibits a person from being “elected” president more than twice. No mention of appointment. Now there’s a real Catch-22!
The blogger who styles himself as “Sundance” at the excellent Conservative Tree House website has another theory. He writes, The Leak Was the Op, saying its purpose was to help get the Restrict Act passed. This loathsome legislation, pimped by Senate Intel Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA), would essentially allow the government to censor everything and anything on the Internet, including blogs and comments on blogs and all websites generally — that is, the entire Alt Media. Senator Warner, you might recall (if you followed the immensely tangled story) was one of the prime movers behind the RussiaGate hoax. What a daisy he is!
“We all should be preppers now.”
• Global Monetary Experiment Ends in a Bloodbath – John Rubino (USAW)
Analyst and financial writer John Rubino said in February, “We are in a debt and death spiral” that will force dramatic changes on the world. It was a direct hit because in March, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) tanked, and the FDIC and the U.S. Treasury were forced to basically back-stop the entire banking system. The financial problems are far from over as Rubino explains, “Basically, interest rates have been artificially low for a decade . . . . In that time, crazy numbers of office buildings went up and were financed at really low rates. . . . Now, office vacancy rates are spiking, which means office building are not profitable anymore. The debts they have at 2% to 3% now have to be rolled over at 5%, 6% or 7%. This means an already unprofitable office building is going to be even more unprofitable because of rising interest rates.
Now, they want to sell this office space, and the price cuts that have to be done to get a deal done is 30% to 50% . . . . Some are down by 80%. . . . Local and regional banks already had their troubles last month but are going to have bigger troubles when all these building turn out to be not worth nearly as much as we thought they were. This paper is in pension funds. . . . they are going to go into crisis. So, real estate is liable to be the catalyst in crisis in several other sectors. . . . The government is going to have to let it burn and have a 1930’s style depression, or bail out everybody in sight. . . at the cost of rising inflation and the dollar tanking.” Rubino says, “There is no fix. . . . There is no way to refill these buildings. There is no way to refinance them without going bankrupt. . . . Sometime this year we are going to drop back into negative growth, and it’s going to be a bloodbath. There is no solution, and these guys see it coming and they have no idea what to do about it. . . .
This is the sector we want to watch and will be the catalyst for the next big crisis. . . .The next bailout crates a lot of new dollars, and that pushes down the dollar, and then, we are in the death spiral where there is no fix. That is out there waiting to happen, a bailout so huge that it terrifies holders of the currency and Treasury bonds. Then it’s game over. . . . This is just a question of when people figure this out. That really is our situation right now.” In closing, Rubino says, “This is a much bigger story than what happens to the dollar as the reserve currency. This is the end of a global monetary experiment that is going to go out with a very fiery end. This is not going to be fun to watch.” Rubino advises people to get tangible assets such as food, water, tools, gold, silver, a car title and a garden, to name a few. Rubino says, “We all should be preppers now.”
Coal is “accounting for over 31% of power supplies”. Green success.
• Germany Shutting Down Its Last Nuclear Reactors (RT)
Germany’s government has confirmed plans to go through with the shutdown of the country’s last remaining nuclear power plants this weekend, cutting off a key source of energy despite the loss of Russian natural gas amid the Ukraine crisis. The last three reactors – Emsland in northwest Germany and Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 in the south – will be idled for good on Saturday, completing a phaseout of nuclear power that began in 2002 and was accelerated after Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011. The shutdown order had been extended from the end of last year to April 15 amid concerns over a potential winter energy crisis, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz ruled out seeking another extension. Germany’s nuclear power industry accounted for about 30% of the country’s power supplies in the late 1990s. With all but three reactors closed, the plants generated 6% of German electricity last year.
Fossil fuels are filling the void. With Russian gas imports cut off, output from coal-fired plants rose 8% last year, accounting for over 31% of power supplies. Germany also is ramping up imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), including cargoes from the US. The country plans to boost its LNG import capacity more than fivefold by 2030, to nearly 71 million tons annually. Scholz has warned that Germany will need to install four to five new wind turbines each day over the next few years to meet its power-supply needs. That would be about triple last year’s pace of 1.5 per day. Renewable energy sources currently account for 46% of power supplies. While environmentalists have pressed to keep Scholz’s government on course with the nuclear phaseout, most Germans oppose the move.
A poll released on Friday by public broadcaster ARD showed that 59% of Germans believe the government’s decision to abandon atomic power was wrong, while 34% agree with the policy. Two-thirds of respondents who want to keep the reactors running said they’re concerned that energy prices will rise when nuclear power supplies are lost. “Politicians need to adjust to changed circumstances, and I accuse the government of not doing that at all,” opposition party lawmaker Albert Stegemann told the Associated Press. “The nuclear phase-out by April 15, that’s this Saturday, is a done deal,” the chancellor’s spokesperson said earlier this week. Environment Minister Steffi Lemke defended the decision, saying the safety risks of nuclear power “can’t be controlled, even in a high-tech country like Germany.”
“Drugs that are capable of targeting iron storage or preventing proliferation may therefore be successful in treating both malaria and COVID-19..”
• Contentious COVID-19 Drugs Are All Antimalarial (ET)
The COVID-19 recommendations hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and now artemisinin all have one thing in common: They are antimalarial drugs or have such properties. Yet studies suggest that this may not be a mere coincidence; malaria and COVID-19 may be more similar than people may realize. From the outset, malaria and COVID-19 are very distinct diseases. Malaria is a parasitic disease. An infection starts when an individual is bitten by a mosquito carrying a parasite from the Plasmodium genus. Upon infection, the parasite first goes to the liver and multiplies in liver cells. Then it migrates to the bloodstream, invades and proliferates in red blood cells, and causes these cells to expand and burst. Common malaria symptoms such as fever, chills, and sweating occur during the blood-stage infection. Complications include anemia, and on rare occasions, cerebral malaria, liver failure, fluid buildup in the lungs, and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
COVID-19, on the other hand, is a viral disease. Infection occurs primarily through the inhalation of contaminated droplets. The virus invades the body through the nasal cavities, entering the upper and then lower respiratory tracts. Inflammation of the lungs ensues as the body’s immune cells fight off the infection. The person’s oxygen levels start dropping as inflammation worsens in the advent of a cytokine storm, and the lungs become damaged. Some of the virus can also go into the bloodstream and invade other organs, causing systemic inflammation and damage. While one mainly affects blood cells and the other primarily affects the lungs, both diseases are characterized by a strong inflammatory response early in the infection, according to a 2022 paper in Frontiers in Immunology.
Symptoms-wise, both infections from malaria and COVID-19 can lead to fever, fatigue, shortness of breath, diarrhea, and muscle pain. If inflammation is prolonged, the body will experience a significant increase in cytokines, and individuals can become severely injured or even die. The two diseases are also similar in that they both sequester iron, use the same receptors in their pathogenesis, and even share similar structures in their proteins. Both the Plasmodium parasite and the SARS-CoV-2 virus require iron to proliferate. Therefore, both the parasite and the virus need to store iron inside the ferritin protein within infected cells. High or increased levels of ferritin are therefore an indication of severe disease and inflammation. Drugs that are capable of targeting iron storage or preventing proliferation may therefore be successful in treating both malaria and COVID-19.
Flying cycle
Fusha Sakai created this flying cycle, an authentic human-powered aircraft propelled by pedaling.
[site: https://t.co/lbfyo0Plis]
[more video: https://t.co/9FEm1rDffy]pic.twitter.com/W3z6xlg5Ph— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 14, 2023
Images that produce an illusory motion when scrolling or moving are caused by small, involuntary eye movements generating a ghost image on our retina to overlap with the image on the page
Pilots
https://twitter.com/i/status/1646978853292724225
Attack
https://twitter.com/i/status/1646633570838913025
Humpback
Richard Sidey is a wildlife filmmaker based in Wanaka, New Zealand. This is a footage of a close encounter he had with a humpback whale in Antarctica
[source: https://t.co/rXkGAwzNKC]
[site: https://t.co/gHyGvKAeyC]pic.twitter.com/hyX5t3I6Rz— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 14, 2023
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