Apr 182023
 
 April 18, 2023  Posted by at 8:53 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , ,


Vincent van Gogh Scène de rue à Montmartre 1887

 

Leaks Spelling the End for Ukraine (Lauria)
Poland Needs Ukraine As Anti-Russian Toolkit – Zakharova (TASS)
American Smart Bombs Are Failing In Ukraine (ZH)
Multipolarity Is About A Fair Redistribution Of Power (Sibal)
It’s All Hotting Up (Macleod)
Anti-Russian Sanctions Harm Developing Nations – Brazil FM
Russia’s Suicide (Gotev)
Pentagon Doesn’t Know How Many Documents Were Leaked – Spokeswoman (RT)
US Carries Out Provocative Course Towards Moscow In Ukraine – Envoy (TASS)
Canada’s State Media Quit Twitter Over Label (RT)
G7 Members Seek To Push Moscow Out Of Nuclear Energy Market (RT)
Russian Researchers Find New Way To Reuse Nuclear Waste (RT)
Call the Exorcist (Kunstler)
‘We’re Going to See a Lot of Bankruptcies’: Former Home Depot CEO (ET)
Cost Of British Food Basics Increases By Up To 80% In A Year (G.)

 

 


Monday evening – more than 280 anti-government rallies across France

 

 

Elon Tucker
https://twitter.com/i/status/1648131075133128709
https://twitter.com/i/status/1648121643439366144

 

 


Prague, Wenceslas square. Czechs want the globalist government to resign.

 

 

Comer
https://twitter.com/i/status/1648073662845820928

 

 

Gaetz
https://twitter.com/i/status/1648083568457859075

 

 

 

 

Bragg

 

 

 

 

Pinocchio, Snow White, and Superman

Pinocchio, Snow White, and Superman are out for a little stroll in town one afternoon enjoying the sunshine. As they walked, they come across a sign: “Beauty contest for the most beautiful woman in the world.” “I am entering!” said Snow White. After half an hour she comes out and they ask her, “Well, how’d ya go?” “I won First Place!,” said Snow White. They continue walking and they see another sign: “Contest for the strongest man in the world.”

“I’m entering” says Superman. After half an hour, he returns and they ask him, “How did you make out?” “I won first place too.” answers Superman. “Did you ever have a doubt?” They continue walking when they see a third sign: “Contest – Who is the greatest liar in the world?” Pinocchio quickly enters the contest. After half an hour he returns with tears in his eyes. “What happened?” they asked. “Who the hell is Anthony Fauci?”

 

 

 

 

“Why would Moscow accept a deal now when Ukraine is at its weakest and Russia is poised to make significant gains on the battlefield?”

Leaks Spelling the End for Ukraine (Lauria)

A Washington Post headline last week was a bombshell for someone who has only been reading about the Ukraine war in The Washington Post and other Western media: “U.S. doubts Ukraine counteroffensive will yield big gains, leaked document says.” The story admits that Western media audiences have been misled about the course of the war, that essentially what mainstream media has been reporting about Ukraine has been a pack of lies: namely that Ukraine is winning the war and is poised to launch an offensive that will lead to a final victory. Instead, the second paragraph of the piece makes clear the leaked documents show the long-planned Ukrainian offensive will fail miserably — “a marked departure from the Biden administration’s public statements about the vitality of Ukraine’s military.”

In other words, U.S. officials have been lying about the state of the war to the public and to reporters who have faithfully reported their every word without a hint of skepticism. The Post said, as if it’s a bad thing, that the leaks will likely “embolden critics who feel the United States and NATO should do more to push for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.” That has begun to happen. Writing in the uber-Establishment Foreign Affairs, former State Department official Richard Haass and Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, write that “it is difficult to feel sanguine about where the war is headed.” In “The West Needs a New Strategy in Ukraine: A Plan for Getting From the Battlefield to the Negotiating Table,” they say:

“The best path forward is a sequenced two-pronged strategy aimed at first bolstering Ukraine’s military capability and then, when the fighting season winds down late this year, ushering Moscow and Kyiv from the battlefield to the negotiating table.” The article does not mention the leaks, though it was published after the disclosures made clear that the Ukrainian offensive, intended to break through Russia’s land bridge to Crimea, would fail. Filled with the usual talk about Ukraine having better “operational skill” than Russia, and that the war will end in a “stalemate,” the piece represents an emerging strategy in the West: namely that before negotiating, Ukraine needs to launch its offensive to gain back some territory, “imposing heavy losses on Russia, foreclosing Moscow’s military options, and increasing its willingness to contemplate a diplomatic settlement.”

But that is a tall order. Moscow would be unlikely to negotiate at the end of the Ukrainian offensive, particularly as the article admits the “Russian military’s numerical superiority” and that Ukraine is “facing growing constraints on both its own manpower and help from abroad.” Moscow was ready to cut a deal with Kiev one month after Russia’s intervention but the West, with its strategy of lengthening the war to weaken Russia, quashed it. Why would Moscow accept a deal now when Ukraine is at its weakest and Russia is poised to make significant gains on the battlefield?

CNN Russia

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“And when the border will be erased and the rest of Ukraine will be absorbed by Warsaw, then no one will talk to the local population at all.”

Poland Needs Ukraine As Anti-Russian Toolkit – Zakharova (TASS)

Ukraine is beneficial for Poland only as a tool of anti-Russian policy, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel on Monday. “Can you imagine, this is how Poland talks to Ukraine, while it still needs it as a subject, as an anti-Russian tool,” she wrote, commenting on the words of Poland’s Minister of Economic Development and Technology Waldemar Buda about the ban on the import of Ukrainian grain, “And when the border will be erased and the rest of Ukraine will be absorbed by Warsaw, then no one will talk to the local population at all.” Zakharova added that such a decision “is very revealing from the point of view of exposing the Westerners’ imaginary concern for the hungry and needy for food.” Earlier, the Polish minister recalled that the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain also concerned its transit to third countries.


Poland and Hungary on April 16 announced a temporary ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine. It will be in effect until June 30. Both countries said they were forced to take this measure because of the lack of response from the European Commission to its demands to provide European aid to Hungarian and Polish farmers who are suffering significant losses due to the overstocking of these countries’ markets with agricultural products from Ukraine. On Friday, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic called for creating a single European mechanism for buying Ukrainian grain and introducing EU customs quotas on agricultural products from Ukraine. On Thursday, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Slovakia imposed a temporary ban on the processing and sale of grain from Ukraine in the country. The ban also applies to flour already produced from it.

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“..Russia is using GPS jamming to interfere with the weapons’ targeting process..”

American Smart Bombs Are Failing In Ukraine (ZH)

American-made smart bombs are failing in Ukraine, based on successful Russian electronic jamming measures, according to a Pentagon document connected to alleged leaker Jack Teixeira. The highly-classified document not only reviews use of effective Russian countermeasures to make the smart bombs ineffective, but also says that in some cases technical problems are resulting in failure to detonate. A Biden administration defense aid program has involved sending the Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) to Ukraine in order to turn unguided bombs into GPS guided “smart bombs” capable of hitting targets over 50 miles away. According to Politico:

“A larger problem is that Russia is using GPS jamming to interfere with the weapons’ targeting process, according to the slide and a separate person familiar with the issue who’s not in the U.S. government. American officials believe Russian jamming is causing the JDAMs, and at times other American weapons such as guided rockets, to miss their mark. “I do think there may be concern that the Russians may be jamming the signal used to direct the JDAMs, which would answer why these munitions are not performing in the manner expected and how they perform in other war zones,” said Mick Mulroy, a former Pentagon official and retired CIA officer.” The document mentions that “1,000 arming lanyards” were approved for Ukrainian forces, suggesting that over 1,000 of the smart bomb kits will be sent.

Far from being the ‘game changer’ that Kiev hoped for, other major US-provided systems are failing as well. The leaked Pentagon documents elsewhere make mention of M270 and HIMARs rockets being thwarted by Russian forces’ GPS jamming tactics. Some documents among the trove of leaks have consistently shown that Ukraine’s military is generally beset by ammunition and weapons shortages, despite the billions in defense aid pledged from the West.

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Kanwal Sibal is a former Indian foreign secretary and former ambassador to Russia, Turkey, Egypt, France and was Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington DC.

Multipolarity Is About A Fair Redistribution Of Power (Sibal)

Multipolarity is a code word for more equitable power sharing in the world. Although global power, especially economic, has been dispersing in recent years, mainly towards the East, it is still not adequately reflected in decision-making on global issues. The West, led by the US, still dominates international political and financial institutions. It seeks to impose its values and norms on others and uses human rights and democracy as tools to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. It has not given up attempts to bring about regime change in other countries to further its geopolitical agenda. It is currently strengthening or building military alliances and partnerships to maintain its global leadership. It tries to shape narratives at the international level in its favor through the global information networks it controls. The power that the US exerts on all transactions in US dollars, along with the status of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency, arms Washington with a unique weapon for financial domination including its use of sanctions as an instrument to bend countries to its strategic goals.

All of these deficiencies in global governance are epitomized in the unfolding of the conflict in Ukraine. Russia has been subject to a series of sanctions by the West without UN approval. Third countries are pressured to adhere to them under pain of secondary sanctions by the US. Losing access to the US financial markets is a risk that countries want to avoid. With multiple Russian banks arbitrarily excluded from the SWIFT payments system, bank transfer arrangements with Russia have been disrupted, affecting trade exchanges. Russian foreign exchange reserve holdings abroad have been illegally confiscated. Not only has the West broken oil and gas ties with Russia, other countries have been pressed to do so. A price cap on Russian oil has been imposed in a bid to limit Russian earnings from oil sales. The declared goal of these measures is to cause Russia’s economic collapse.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has been blown up to end Germany’s reliance on Russian gas. The property of private Russian individuals has been confiscated without due process of law, which casts doubt on the sanctity of private property in Western countries. Russian media has been banned in violation of Europe’s commitment to freedom of speech as a fundamental value, and Western media has long been propagating narratives demonizing Russia and its President. The essence of multipolarity is multilateralism. However, the structures of multilateralism have not functioned well in the field of international security in particular and have been weakened further with the absence of reforms in the international political and economic institutions. The UN Security Council, the World Bank and the IMF still reflect the world of 1945 in many ways and require a thorough overhaul and modern restructuring.

The UN Security Council needs to be expanded to give more representation to rising developing countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. This is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future with the deepening divisions between the West on one side and Russia and China on the other blocking even further an already difficult consensus from emerging. The expansion of the Security Council, in effect, constitutes a transfer of power at the international level, and this will continue to be resisted by the permanent powers for various reasons. Multilateralism means a willingness to accept the redistribution of global power that has already occurred on the ground, instead of looking for ways to limit its import by strengthening existing alliances and forging new ones, as is being seen today.

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“..if they all joined, the expanded BRICS would have a nominal GDP 30% larger than the United States, represent over 50% of the world population, and control over 60% of global gas reserves.”

Note that the GDP PPP would be well over 50%.

It’s All Hotting Up (Macleod)

Increasing numbers of national governments are abandoning the US sphere of influence. Opportunities from trade with Asia compare favourably with rising currency and banking risks in a dollar-centric world. Against an imploding banking system in long-established financial markets, China’s renminbi looks like a safe haven. Thanks to a savings-driven economy, China’s consumer price inflation remained very low, when those of the western alliance soared. Now we face a credit crunch, as banks struggle to reduce their operational gearing which has become uncomfortably high. Consequently, borrowing rates will be driven higher, taking interest rate control out of central banking hands. Higher interest rates and therefore bond yields due to a credit crunch will escalate the banking crisis, which is only in its early stages.

Consequently, central bank credit will be inflated to prevent the commercial banking network from collapsing and to fund rising government budget deficits. It is the prospect and realisation of these conditions which will lead ultimately to a collapse of fiat currency values, and foreign holders of dollars, euros and sterling are only beginning to understand the danger. In recent weeks, the threat to the dollar’s hegemony has noticeably increased. Like rats deserting a sinking ship, growing numbers of countries are backing off from the dollar in favour of China’s renminbi, and to a lesser extent other emerging market currencies. China has brokered a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and in turn the Saudis are now improving their diplomatic relations with Syria.

It appears that America’s divide-and-rule Middle East policy has been overthrown. Even Mexico is reported to be prepared to accept renminbi in defiance of its northern neighbour’s policies. And Brazil has always been the B in BRICS. Now Argentina has applied to join an expanding BRICS, alongside Algeria, Indonesia, and Iran. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and Afghanistan are also said to be interested, along with other likely contenders for BRICS membership, which includes Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Senegal, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates. All of them had their finance ministers present at the BRICS Expansion Dialogue meeting held last May. And if they all joined, the expanded BRICS would have a nominal GDP 30% larger than the United States, represent over 50% of the world population, and control over 60% of global gas reserves.

Following China’s diplomatic coup over the Middle East, President Macron of France and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, visited President Xi in Beijing last week ostensibly to see if he could persuade the Russians to consider a peace deal over Ukraine. That got nowhere. But the Chinese appear to see France as a more important trade partner than the European Commission. While Macron got the full diplomatic treatment, von der Leyen who recently delivered a hawkish speech over Taiwan was side-lined. Macron’s popularity with China’s leadership is undoubtedly connected with his longstanding policy of promoting diplomatic and trade relations between China and France, with China making substantial investments in France. And it was recently announced that a French exporter of LNG to China even accepted payment in renminbi instead of dollars.

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The only countries not harmed appear to be Russia, India and China.

Anti-Russian Sanctions Harm Developing Nations – Brazil FM

Unilateral economic sanctions imposed on Russia in bypassing the UN Security Council harm developing nations, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said on Monday. “I reiterated to [Russian Foreign] Minister [Sergey] Lavrov Brazil’s position on unilateral sanctions. Apart from not having been coordinated with the UN Security Council, they have negative consequences for economies around the world, especially for developing countries, many of which have not yet recovered from the pandemic,” the top diplomat told a news conference following talks with Sergey Lavrov. The Russian and Brazilian delegations, led by the foreign ministers, held talks on Monday morning at the palace housing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Brazilian capital. Lavrov will be received later by Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The Russian minister will also meet with President Lula’s foreign policy advisor, former Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim.

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And now for something completely different. A Bulgarian voice who claims Russia is losing badly.

Russia’s Suicide (Gotev)

Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine, their Slav and Orthodox neighbour, is possibly only a symptom of a bigger illness. The Russian nation, the centre of a vast empire spanning Eurasia, is self-destructing to an extent unseen in modern history. When the Soviet Union collapsed, I was in my early 30s and naively expected that a modern Russian state, similar to the Western powers such as France, the UK or Germany, would be born from its ashes. As someone who comes from Bulgaria, a satellite country of the former Soviet Union, I knew the weaknesses of the Soviet system they had imposed on the countries of the then Warsaw Pact.

[..] Putin aims to resuscitate the USSR geographically, but what is less obvious is that he has also been replicating its failed economy. Putin’s Russia continued to focus on nuclear missiles that it cannot use, instead of developing the production of consumer goods, the backbone of any modern economy. And even for building missiles, Russia needs imported or smuggled semiconductors and other technologies. According to some reports Russia imports washing machines from the West in order to harvest their chips to build missiles. Unlike China, which not only produces everything a modern economy needs but is even ahead of the West on certain technologies like 5G, Putin’s Russia chose not to develop.

This suicidal policy may be decided by one single person, and we are not aware of a significant political opposition or alternative. What we may be aware of is the risk Russia’s suicide may entail for the rest of the world. Putin’s doctrine says that a world in which there is no Russia should not exist. “Why would we want a world without Russia?” he has famously said. Putin attacked Ukraine not because the latter had the ambition to join NATO, a defensive alliance. He did it because Ukraine, so similar to Russia until recently, has been developing fast and was on its way to becoming the window shop of all the opportunities Russia has missed. So, Putin decided it was better to burn this country to the ground rather than allow such an affront and political risk to his power.

I wrote this text on Orthodox Easter, a sacred holiday during which Russia’s attacks never relented. If this was only about Putin, who hypocritically attended a church service on Easter Sunday, I wouldn’t have used the title “Russia’s suicide’. But what is more shocking is the passive attitude of the Russians, including the vast majority of those living abroad, as I saw some of them enjoying themselves in the West, seemingly impervious to the tragedy their own country had inflicted on Ukraine. We are witnessing an entire nation, despite its rich culture and undisputed contribution to the victory over Fascism in World War II, sleepwalking into self-destruction and committing collective suicide. It is not only tragic to behold, but it’s also a big danger for the entire planet.

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“..some of the files could have been leaked as part of a Western “deception” campaign aimed at downplaying Ukraine’s military capabilities ahead of Kiev’s rumored offensive.”

Pentagon Doesn’t Know How Many Documents Were Leaked – Spokeswoman (RT)

The US Department of Defense is still trying to “understand the scope and scale” of a document leak that saw a trove of classified information posted online, a spokeswoman told reporters on Monday. “We’re going to continue to find documents online,” Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said at a briefing. Singh added that the Pentagon does not “have a specific number” of leaked documents identified, and that the “scope and scale” of the leak “is something we’re still assessing.” The documents in question appeared on a Discord server at some point in the last month, before spreading to the wider internet and catching the attention of the mainstream media. The alleged leaker, a 21-year-old airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard named Jack Teixeira, was arrested by the FBI on Thursday after the New York Times published his identity.

Files allegedly leaked by the suspect revealed that US and NATO special forces were active in Ukraine, that Ukrainian casualties were higher than publicly acknowledged by US officials, that Kiev’s forces were low on ammunition, and that the US has spied on its allies throughout the conflict. US officials have dismissed many of the leaked files as fake or doctored. The same media outlets – the New York Times and the Washington Post – that printed the leaker’s identity have continued to publish information from the documents following his arrest. Files from the leak cited by Newsweek on Sunday revealed the purported start date of Ukraine’s forthcoming spring offensive against Russian forces.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has responded to the leak by announcing an internal security review in order to “prevent this kind of incident from happening again,” the closest a top defense official has come to confirming the documents’ authenticity. Previously, the Pentagon would only say that some of the files “appear … similar in format” to its intelligence briefings. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday that Moscow had looked into the leaked documents. Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov suggested that some of the files could have been leaked as part of a Western “deception”campaign aimed at downplaying Ukraine’s military capabilities ahead of Kiev’s rumored offensive.

Rogin Beck

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“[Washington] handed over to the Kiev regime increasingly deadly and long-range systems that have purely offensive, not defensive, purpose..”

US Carries Out Provocative Course Towards Moscow In Ukraine – Envoy (TASS)

US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl effectively admitted Monday that the US Administration carries out a provocative course towards Moscow in Ukraine, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said, commenting on Kahl’s remarks regarding the risks of escalation of the Ukrainian conflict. “The official’s considerations are full of shamelessness, hypocrisy and are saturated with arrogance towards out country. The Pentagon representative said it directly that the US Administration did not restrain itself in any way because of potential escalation risks when shipping weapons to Ukraine. Thus, the American admitted that Washington has been deliberately carrying out a provocative course towards Russia throughout the conflict,” Antonov said, according to the embassy’s press office.

“[Washington] handed over to the Kiev regime increasingly deadly and long-range systems that have purely offensive, not defensive, purpose,” he added. The envoy noted that he does not believe “the military official’s words that the US expressed concerns over the use of US-made weapons for strikes deep inside Russian territory.” “If the US truly took this most important aspect into consideration, it would have immediately thwarted such attempts of Ukrainian radicals. In reality, though, the unprecedented aid and enabling from the [US] Administration only push the agents in Kiev towards new crimes,” Antonov pointed out.

He added that Kahl’s statements are an “eloquent testimony that it was Washington who ‘inspired’ the standoff in Ukraine.” “In its desire to inflict a defeat on us, they forget literally about everything, and, most importantly – about the fate of the Ukrainian people and the risks of a global conflict,” the envoy concluded. Earlier, Kahl said in an interview for Foreign Policy that the US expressed its concerns over the use of weapons, shipped by Washington to Kiev, for strikes on Russian territory, and is not interested in getting directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, as well as in the conflict escalating into World War III. Meanwhile, the Pentagon representative said, the opinion that the US restrains itself on a number of issues due to fear of escalation is wrong.

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“Leader of the opposition Poilievre called on Twitter owner Elon Musk to add the label to the broadcaster..” “Now people know that it is [Canadian PM Justin] Trudeau propaganda, not news.”

Canada’s State Media Quit Twitter Over Label (RT)

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) announced on Monday that it was “pausing” its activity on Twitter after the social media platform labeled it as state-funded, arguing that this somehow impugned their editorial independence. “Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue. That is why we are pausing our activities on Twitter,” the government-funded outlet tweeted. “Twitter can be a powerful tool for our journalists to communicate with Canadians, but it undermines the accuracy and professionalism of the work they do to allow our independence to be falsely described in this way,” CBC spokesperson Leon Mar said on Sunday evening.

“Consequently, we will be pausing our activity on our corporate Twitter account and all CBC and Radio-Canada news-related accounts.” The CBC is a Crown corporation, entirely owned by the Canadian state. In its 2021-22 annual analysis, it reported receiving 1.24 billion ($930 million) Canadian dollars in government funding. However, the outlet insists that its editorial policies are entirely independent of the government and guided only by “public interest.” Mar argued that Twitter’s own policy defines government-funded media as those in which the authorities “may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content,” which is “clearly not the case with CBC/Radio Canada.”

Leader of the opposition Conservative Party Pierre Poilievre reacted to the labeling of CBC by tweeting that “Now people know that it is [Canadian PM Justin] Trudeau propaganda, not news.” Last week, Poilievre called on Twitter owner Elon Musk to add the label to the broadcaster, saying it was needed to protect Canadians against “disinformation and manipulation by state media.” Describing the CBC as government-funded is a fact, the politician said, “and Canadians deserve the facts.” The CBC’s Twitter boycott echoes the actions of two US outlets, the National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Both stopped tweeting last week, in response to being labeled as government-funded.

PBS also insisted that it was entirely editorially independent and produced “trustworthy content that features unbiased reporting.” The outlet could not argue that it didn’t receive government funding, as 31% of its revenue came from federal, state and local authorities, with another 12% coming from regional public broadcasters and universities, also heavily subsidized by the government. Twitter originally rolled out the labeling of outlets in August 2020, tagging Russian and Chinese media as “state-affiliated” but exempting Western outlets such as the BBC and Voice of America (VOA). As documents published after Musk’s takeover showed, the platform was working hand in glove with what several US journalists described as a “censorship-industrial complex” of government agencies and politically motivated NGOs.


Elon Musk: “Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they’re “less than 70% government-funded”, so we corrected the label “

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Sanction No. 823. Great success.

G7 Members Seek To Push Moscow Out Of Nuclear Energy Market (RT)

Five members of the G7 group have formed an alliance aimed at blocking Russia out of the international nuclear energy market. The US, UK, Canada, Japan and France reached the agreement on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in Sapporo, according to a joint statement shared on Sunday by the British government. Under the agreement, the allied countries have vowed to use the respective resources and capabilities of each state’s civilian nuclear energy sectors to “ensure the secure supply of uranium fuel through the development of shared supply chains that isolate Russia.”

The document further states that the five countries have “identified potential areas of collaboration on nuclear fuels to support the stable supply of fuels for the operating reactor fleets of today, enable the development and deployment of fuels for the advanced reactors of tomorrow, and achieve reduced dependence on Russian supply chains.” “Together, today’s G7 commitments deal a blow to Russia, demonstrating the international resolve to isolate Putin further internationally,” the British government said in a press release. British Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps declared that the UK has been “at the very heart of global efforts to support Ukraine” and “defeat Putin,” adding that the latest agreement is “the next vital step, uniting with other countries to show Putin that Russia isn’t welcome anymore.”

The move comes after it was revealed last week that a number of EU countries were also planning to cut their reliance on Russian uranium by turning to Kazakhstan for supplies, according to a Bloomberg report. Russia is considered to be one of the world’s largest uranium producers. However, after Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine over a year ago, a number of countries have been seeking to reduce their dependence on Russian supplies. This includes the US, which is the world’s largest uranium consumer. While Washington has introduced a number of restrictions on Russian energy imports, these sanctions have yet to target uranium, despite pressure from US senators to place an embargo on imports. Meanwhile, experts in the nuclear energy field have warned that any disruption in supplies of Russian uranium would “shake” the market and cause “upward pressure” on prices.

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“..more efficient than expected”, but that’s all.

Russian Researchers Find New Way To Reuse Nuclear Waste (RT)

Russian chemists are researching a method that could improve the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, Moscow State University has reported. The process involves using a compound that readily binds to uranium, but not other heavy metals contained in reactor waste. Spent nuclear fuel rods typically contain amounts of uranium and plutonium which can be extracted and processed into new fuel. Other byproducts of nuclear fission include long-lasting radioactive elements, such as neptunium, americium, and curium. They have their own uses and pose a safety risk if buried with the waste. The nuclear industry uses chemical repossession to extract these actinides – as the elements are collectively known – and other valuable components before spent fuel is sent for long-term storage.

However, the process is relatively complex. The method that Russian scientists are exploring is an alternative to the industry standard and involves an additional phase, during which uranium is removed selectively. Called the GANEX (group actinide extraction) process, it uses a special chemical to extract uranium from nitric acid solutions. Scientists at Moscow State University’s chemistry department have tested an organic compound derived from phenanthroline for its ability to form ionic bonds with uranium. When switching from lab-simulated spent fuel to what industrial repossession deals with, they found it more efficient than expected.

“The compound can ‘grab’ macroscopic amounts of uranium, and each unit of the extraction agent can link with two units of uranium,” researcher Svetlana Gutorova explained. “One of the particles gets attracted to the positively charged cation part of the complex, and the other one to the negatively charged anion part. With smaller concentrations of uranium in model samples, no team has observed this effect before.” The team described their research in a paper published in the Inorganic Chemistry magazine earlier this year, and say the efficiency of the phenanthroline derivative in extracting uranium is on a par with the traditional method. The scientists plan to test similar compounds to see if they could work even more effectively. They hope that a particular chemical could bond exclusively to uranium, and not plutonium, streamlining its reuse in reactors.

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“If, for some reason, it escaped her attention, do you suppose that somebody among her ten-thousand-plus CDC employees might have alerted the director about all this?”

Call the Exorcist (Kunstler)

What more subtle minds are asking these days is: when does this insanity tip over into evil? Especially the insanity evinced in our authority figures. How about when someone positively refutes reality in the act of doing harm, for instance Rochelle Walensky, Director of the CDC. Ms. Walensky is, to this moment, still proffering mRNA Covid-19 “vaccines” for children despite the reality that reams of evidence exist showing these products to be harmful, even deadly — and, in particular, by the previously exacting standards of the CDC’s sister agency, the FDA, which hold that just a few demonstrated injuries will lead to a drug being withdrawn from medical practice. (Ms. Walensky is a medical doctor, by the way.) Is it possible that Ms. Walensky is unacquainted with the genuine news all over the Internet about mRNA injury and death? Rate that hard-to-believe… that is, at odds with reality. If, for some reason, it escaped her attention, do you suppose that somebody among her ten-thousand-plus CDC employees might have alerted the director about all this?


I would suppose so. The unappetizing conclusion is that Rochelle Walensky, in her very important role as a national public health officer, has tripped over the line from insane to evil. As a general rule, human societies give individuals and groups permission to act in certain ways. Is it not obvious, for instance, that the deans and college presidents have issued blanket permission for students (and faculty) to mistreat invited speakers who purvey ideas contrary to the Woke campus consensus? Or that many big city mayors give permission to young people to create mayhem in the streets, steal from retail shops, and even injure or kill other people? Hence, college no longer works to expose young adults to the reality of competing ideas and the public realm in our cities is one big danger zone.

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“It adds to the certainty of uncertainty, what’s going to happen.”

‘We’re Going to See a Lot of Bankruptcies’: Former Home Depot CEO (ET)

Bob Nardelli, the former CEO of Home Depot, is warning about more bankruptcies hitting the U.S. economy, and blames lawmakers for their delay in coming to terms regarding the country’s debt ceiling. “I think we’re going to see a lot of bankruptcies. Like Bed, Bath, and Beyond. We got Walmart not only laying people off but closing stores. We got Accenture laying people off. We got Amazon closing distribution centers. So, I think there’s a tremendous-mixed message,” Nardelli said in an April 14 interview with Fox. At present, the “complexity” of the American economy is “different than anything I have seen in my 52 years.” Nardelli also blamed Congress’ inability to work together to raise the U.S. debt limit as creating a burden on businesses, saying that he is “definitely worried” about the situation.

The former Home Depot CEO says he is seeing “inventory builds” in a lot of public and private businesses. He pointed to the 2007–09 period when the banking meltdown took “everything down.” “I think we’re in a very complex environment. And, of course, this debt issue only adds to that. It adds to the certainty of uncertainty, what’s going to happen.” Bankruptcy filings across the United States rose for the third straight month in March in all major industries. A total of 42,368 new bankruptcies were filed last month, according to data from Epiq Bankruptcy, a provider of U.S. bankruptcy court data, technology, and services. This is 17 percent up from the 36,068 filings in March 2022 and is the highest number of monthly bankruptcy filings since April 2021.

[..] Meanwhile, lending activity by banks suffered the biggest plunge ever in the two weeks ending March 29. Commercial lending in the country declined by $105 billion during this period—the highest since 1973. The collapse in lending was led by declining real estate loans as well as industrial and commercial loans. According to financial analyst Andreas Steno Larsen, tough times are ahead for the American economy. “Evidence is gathering that the SVB-fueled banking stress indeed will turn into a recession, but instead of a fast and rapid liquidity-driven recession, we are rather slow-walking into a credit crunch over summer,” he wrote in an April 9 post.

Read more …

Confusing numbers from the Guardian. 80% in the headline, but..”Year-on-year price increases for all groceries reached an all-time high of 17.5% in the four weeks to 19 March..”

Cost Of British Food Basics Increases By Up To 80% In A Year (G.)

The price of staple foods such as cheddar cheese, white bread and pork sausages has soared by up to 80% in some shops over the past year, in further evidence of how inflation is hitting those on the tightest budgets the hardest. Porridge oats topped the price increase ranking among a basket of British basics measured by the consumer group Which?, with prices up by an average of 35.5% followed by skimmed milk, which was up by 33.6%, and cheddar cheese, which rose by 28.3%. However, an 180g pack of Dragon cheddar cheese in Asda was priced 80% higher than a year before – putting it top of the study’s inflationary list for individual product lines. The same retailer’s own-label cheddar sticks were up by just under 79%. Asda’s budget Just Essentials pork sausages were up by 73%, a similar increase to Tesco’s Woodside Farms best-value pork sausages.

Sue Davies, the head of food policy at Which?, said: “Our latest supermarket food and drink tracker paints a bleak picture for the millions of households already skipping meals of how inflation is impacting prices on supermarket shelves, with the poorest once again feeling the brunt of the cost of living crisis. “While the whole food chain affects prices, supermarkets have the power to do more to support people who are struggling, including ensuring everyone has easy access to basic, affordable food ranges at a store near them, particularly in areas where people are most in need.” The Which? survey reflects a recent trend for price rises in supermarkets’ budget ranges as well as to their regular own-label goods and international brands as retailers pass on cost hikes linked to energy and commodity cost increases.

Such increases appear to confirm fears, raised over a year ago by the food campaigner Jack Monroe, that the poorest are being hit hardest by inflation. Which?’s tracker shows that while supermarket own-label budget items remain the cheapest overall, prices rose 24.8% in March year on year. The price of standard supermarket own brands was up by 20.5% in the same period, while branded goods and premium own brand ranges rose by 13.8%. Year-on-year price increases for all groceries reached an all-time high of 17.5% in the four weeks to 19 March, according to figures from the data firm Kantar.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

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https://twitter.com/i/status/1647972285792284673

 

 

Hammond

 

 

Tom and Jerry
https://twitter.com/i/status/1647994379313770498

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle April 18 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 64 total)
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  • #133664

    Vincent van Gogh Scène de rue à Montmartre 1887   • Leaks Spelling the End for Ukraine (Lauria) • Poland Needs Ukraine As Anti-Russian Toolkit –
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 18 2023]

    #133668
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    WES @ #133645

    Debt Rattle April 17 2023

    Interesting summary you have written. Abandoning the dollar, as desirable as it may be, will create greater problems than it solves. Mainly in assessing the value of commodities and labour. The dollar standard has replaced the gold standard for quite some time, all commodities and labour are now denominated in dollars, destroy the dollar there is no other item to take its place in economic history. The basket of commodities has been in discussion for quite some time also but no universally satisfactory method of determination has been arrived at yet that accounts for everything involved. The replacement of the dollar will increase rather than decrease the problem.
    It may be that the dollar remain the value yardstick until this problem is resolved. All currencies can be measured against the dollar, making easy the relationship between any currency with another. In addition, market agreement on value of any commodity or labour will set the dollar value, not the machinations of the printer of the dollar who becomes insnared in the marked determination and has no easy exchange mechanism to escape the market’s value using dollars as the yard/meter stick.
    YMMV

    #133669
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    WES @ #133645

    Interesting summary you have written. Abandoning the dollar, as desirable as it may be, will create greater problems than it solves. Mainly in assessing the value of commodities and labour. The dollar standard has replaced the gold standard for quite some time, all commodities and labour are now denominated in dollars, destroy the dollar there is no other item to take its place in economic history. The basket of commodities has been in discussion for quite some time also but no universally satisfactory method of determination has been arrived at yet that accounts for everything involved. The replacement of the dollar will increase rather than decrease the problem.
    It may be that the dollar remain the value yardstick until this problem is resolved. All currencies can be measured against the dollar, making easy the relationship between any currency with another. In addition, market agreement on value of any commodity or labour will set the dollar value, not the machinations of the printer of the dollar who becomes insnared in the marked determination and has no easy exchange mechanism to escape the market’s value using dollars as the yard/meter stick.
    YMMV

    Addendum: Attempted to provide a direct link to comment. My bad.

    #133670
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    “…Rochelle Walensky, in her very important role as a national public health officer, has tripped over the line from insane to evil.”
    -Kunstler

    …he just now noticed.
    God help us as we await The Important People’s personal journey of self-discovery on all matters of importance.

    Also Snow white, Superman, Pinocchio and Fauci joke. I’m approaching the 40th anniversary of this very same observation about Tone Fauci

    #133671
    Just Some Randomer
    Participant

    “…..all commodities and labour are now denominated in dollars, destroy the dollar there is no other item to take its place in economic history.”

    Pretty sure global trade was conducted satisfactorily and on a massive scale prior to Bretton Woods. For thousands of years in fact.

    In terms of more recent history, on 31 December 1998 no transactions in the EU were denominated and valued in EUR and then the next day, they all were. Overnight. One can argue about the structural failings inherent in the design of the Euro system, but nevertheless it is demonstrably possible to change the basic unit of currency used for trade within and between countries very quickly if necessary.

    #133672
    Red
    Participant

    CBC gets over one billion in Canadian dollars but says it isn’t government funded? Well after all it’s just a definition problem isn’t it? From Wiki:
    Management
    As a crown corporation, the CBC operates at arm’s length (autonomously) from the government in its day-to-day business. The corporation is governed by the Broadcasting Act[53] of 1991, under a board of directors and is directly responsible to Parliament through the Department of Canadian Heritage. General management of the organization is in the hands of a president, who is appointed by the Governor General of Canada in Council, on the advice of the Prime Minister.

    According to The Hill Times, a clause in Bill C-60—an omnibus budget implementation bill introduced by the government of Stephen Harper in 2013—”appears to contradict a longstanding arm’s-length relationship between the independent CBC and any government in power”.[55][56] The clause allows the “prime minister’s cabinet to approve salaries, working conditions and collective bargaining positions for the CBC”.[55]

    Does that look arms length to you?

    From 2014 in the Huff Post:
    The Harper government is quietly seizing greater control of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, while a public advocacy group accuses the Tories of stacking the CBC’s board with political allies.

    Bill C-60, the Tories’ budget implementation bill, includes a clause that allows the prime minister’s cabinet to approve salaries, working conditions and collective bargaining positions for the CBC, The Hill Times reports.

    https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/bill-c-60-tories-quietly-taking-control-of-cbc-group-alleges_n_3187821

    #133673
    Dr. D
    Participant

    France: there are no protests. See? Fixed it. And if they do exist it’s all your fault.

    “The Western press has turned 180 degrees and now easily cooperates with the Russians…”

    What the actual? This is a mindset so alien I’m having trouble following it. “Cooperates” by landing there in an airplane and reporting a story? What were they supposed to do? A story that only might be seen as good by some people? Have you ever heard “it’s an ill wind indeed that blows nobody any good”? Yes, the Pinochet dictatorship probably had nice beaches and made great sopas too.

    So when you talk like this, YOU are the maniac. You’re the disturbed, mentally-ill one and I start to look at YOU.

    ““And when the border will be erased and the rest of Ukraine will be absorbed by Warsaw,”

    Maybe, but then NATO gets closer to Moscow again. NATO fails, Poland leaves, or Russia takes out to the border as their security zone. I mean, it’s already empty.

    “..Russia is using GPS jamming to interfere with the weapons’ targeting process..”

    There’s nothing Americans like more than failure. In this case, “single points of failure”. I used to bring this up constantly, but having backups at work is “inefficient”, and “costs money.” More to the point, if they collapse in the same way all the other managers collapse, they will all say together “Nobody could have knowd!”. Nobody could have known that having one orange extension cord, looped over the telephone pole, out in the rain running the whole place might lead to problems and lasting shutdowns someday because…reasons. If we’re all equally crazy together…

    Yeah, if you’re all equally crazy together, the laws of thermodynamics still exist, widgets aren’t made, nothing is sold, and a thing called “time” still exists, which carries your rent date. Good luck with that. On the opposite end, building a little better creates “value” as each item that lasts costs a little less, does a little more, sells a little better, but making everyone happier requires “capital investment” which is “capitalism” and we don’t do that. We mine capitalism until the machines fail, then go put up a tent in the parking lot and rob hobos for money.

    Single point of failure. Don’t know the last time I saw resiliency and redundancy, ‘cause when something breaks I BLAME somebody. It’s not my fault!

    Everyone else says, “I don’t fix things, I BLAME people too! Brother! Sister! Comrade!”

    There’s nothing Comrades hate more than working people.

    “Multipolarity Is About A Fair Redistribution Of Power (Sibal) “

    All you need to know about why they’re against it. Those brown people, they aren’t the “Very Special People” who live in a “Garden” like us. They need our Very Special Help and they’ll never survive without Mommy; if you want to know which mental illness this is.

    “The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has been blown up to end Germany’s reliance on Russian gas.”

    Might want to try again as NS2 was never on, and Germany still “relies” on Russia. They can hold their breath and turn blue but it didn’t change anything. No gas is coming from America and it never will.

    “It’s All Hotting Up (Macleod) “

    All true and yet nothing ever happens. Markets are similar to 1994, 2001, 2014, and 2022.

    “The Russian nation, the centre of a vast empire spanning Eurasia.”

    Um. I already say “whut” and would like more explanation on this point. Are Siberian shamans independent nations that are in servitude right now? Maybe Archangel is an independent city-state like Monaco?

    Yet he says although this state exists already, Putin is trying to resurrect it on TOP of itself. So we’ll have cloned Empires, occupying the same location of time and space? Someone broke in and replaced everything in my apartment with an exact duplicate? Yes, if you want to know which mental illness this is.

    Continue with tropes about Putin’s dictatorship, he wasn’t elected, has no power base, no one supports him…yawn.

    • Pentagon Doesn’t Know How Many Documents Were Leaked – Spokeswoman (RT)
    “Jack Teixeira, was arrested by the FBI on Thursday after the New York Times published his identity.”

    The FBI? I’m sorry, isn’t that Military Police with a military man with military documents? But he was arrested by the office of the President? By the DoJ and the DoJ’s FBI, the most corrupt branch of government we’ve become aware of? NOT because of Pentagon, but because of a “Hot tip” by a private citizen, the NYT? The NY Times who finds or even encourages leaks to report to the people and tell truth to government because “Democracy dies in Darkness”? (they hope.)

    They didn’t know they were missing but want to stop it again. Every 21 year old private has access to Top Secret and far above Top Secret intel, but they’re “Very serious, mister!”

    Uh-huh. Go on. I would stop you for the world.

    “China’s hypersonic glide missiles defeat our aircraft carriers and missile defense systems”

    Yes and we all told them that 30 years ago. So you want to explain a little? Just like we all told them about “that giant sucking sound” that would hollow the United States, halt steel production and eventually make us too weak to produce artillery shells? Yes. WE TOLD YOU. But you see, because you knew, we all knew, the only explanation is, you knew too and YOU LIKED IT. It was all part of “The Plan”. When the U.S. LOSES to China, starting in NoKo, oopsie! We have to give up that Constitution thingie and all your guns! “Did I do that?” — Hillary Clinton. We lost because we are SUPPOSED to lose. That’s the long-agreed “narrative”. That’s “The Plan”. If the U.S. is still around, how are you going to have a ONE world government? Run by the UN out of Davos? Even as occupied as we are, if the U.S. has anything like power, we couldn’t help but clash with the UN’s WEF Agenda 2030 Euro-Government. Therefore the U.S. must be destroyed and made third world. This ain’t rocket science, they just try to MAKE it confusing with a blizzard of lies.

    Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) [quits Twitter]”

    Huh? Like the BBC, they’re literally state media. They may be good or bad, but that’s merely a fact. That they want to die on the hill of denying objective facts this tiny really tells you how deep into lying they are.

    Labeling is literally the SMALLEST action possible is the whole universe. And they go rabid-bat-s—t-nuclear over it. The Right should take a lesson from this about “values” and “Compromise” but they never will because they’re reasonable people with common sense.

    G7 Members Seek To Push Moscow Out Of Nuclear Energy Market (RT)

    I don’t know. After the Sanctions of Steven Seagal, what’s left?

    “cut their reliance on Russian uranium by turning to Kazakhstan for supplies”

    But the guy above said Kazakhstan was the “Russian Empire.” Can’t anyone get their story straight?

    Kunstler reminded me of this quote today:

    “Upton Sinclair, a miserable Leftist himself, said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” He sniffed around the problem, but didn’t realize that the same problem existed with his beloved Leftism, but his book sales depended on him not understanding that.”

    Speaking of that, The Bud Light controversy burns unabated. Bud Light was not only attacking women, not only paying not women but men, but also specifically targeting children in advertising as Dylan’s whole audience is people under the drinking age, which is what the (female) Ad executive specifically said. Stay classy, Busch! Never stop. Anyway, so Don Jr tells the adoring Trump cult to knock it off, Busch is a huge donor, so accept the insulting non-apology that only illustrates they think you’re a moron, have no respect for you, and actually fear the 1% of fire-bombing, 9-year-old-killing Trans Mob more.

    The Trump cult told Trump to go f— himself. Some cult! Yet again. Same as with vaccines and everything else. It’s almost like they’re not a cult and won’t do anything he asks. How can you HAVE a cult with no center, no “Source” of knowledge down-from-the-mountain?

    So A-B, in good style, creates a “F—k yeah, 9-11” ad that’s supposed to…what? …Yes, again, work because all American people are redneck morons who are beneath contempt. They’ll drink and swallow anything! …If you want to know what mental illness A-B has. This is the patriotic version of Gillette’s (failed) attempt at recovery after saying “F– you, all men are hateful, racist bigots who should be rounded up and shot against the wall when the revolution comes”, where they put out an “Apology” ad made of Blonde, Blue-eyed, Nazi poster-models. Um…whut? No. No, Gillette I THINK YOU MISSED THE POINT. THEY thought that all America was a racist, bigoted, Nazi culture and THAT is what they got wrong. No. That’s if anything more insulting than the original “Of course all real women have beards and shave their face, you’re-just-crazy” ad.

    I can’t believe I have to use words on this, but here we are.

    Yeah, no one liked the “Dylan is a gay Clydesdale, 9-11, 9-11” ad, and nobody listens to Trump or Trump Jr. “Clue phone: it’s for you.”

    Like other politicians, if Trump does what they say, he gets votes. If not, he gets the boot. Was it supposed to be something else? Get a grip.

    “We’re Going to See a Lot of Bankruptcies’: Former Home Depot CEO (ET)”

    Yet nothing ever happens. For example, Fund-owned commercial RE reporting is coming in. All bad. Bank HQs, being relisted at ½ to 1/3 of the original ask. No buyers. All NYC is vacant, no tenants. Crime up 50%. Nothing happens. 1 in 10 cars are being stolen in Chicago while kids roam the streets by the 100’s smashing things. The DNC Mayor hears about it and says “We can’t be racist against Black kids, we have to let them smash!” Mayor? Who said they were Black? Did they have to be black? Why do YOU think they had to be Black? We never used the word “Black” and were actually talking about the “Smashing” part.

    Nothing happens.

    “Cost of British Food Basics Increases by Up to 80% In a Year (G.)

    All the food you need is in Kiev. They have eggs and wheat, no problem. Plus we pay for their pensions, free health care, public transit….

    “Khoisan”

    They look healthy enough to be in the military. So what are they and the Amish doing that the rest of America isn’t? If we know, as we did in 1940, why don’t we spend a sub-1% of our budget promoting child nutrition and child activity and health? Is it because we’re supposed to lose? As arranged probably before 1990?

    “Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” –Eisenhower

    Or battle when you’ve sharpened pencils and snorted glue at Yale. I hear the highest glue parties are in Kiev right now.

    #133674
    Oroboros
    Participant

    “….if they all joined, the expanded BRICS would have a nominal GDP 30% larger than the United States, represent over 50% of the world population, and control over 60% of global gas reserves.”

    If this is so, how then do you think 50% of the globe will still want to use the Control Grid of the Dollar to Dominate their trade and economies?

    BRICS will accelerate de-dollarization

    Can’t have it both ways

    #133675
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Come on Dr. D….you know the difference between Da Guard and Active Duty.

    Again…this kid did NOT possess the requisite NEED TO KNOW.

    #133676
    aspnaz
    Participant

    A Washington Post headline last week was a bombshell for someone who has only been reading about the Ukraine war in The Washington Post and other Western media

    It is sad that a large chunk of humanity still clings to the apron strings of shit bags like Bezos. It is as if the world is full of three completely different sub-species: the billionaires, their mentally retarded slaves and then there are the people who look at the billionaires and their mentally retarded slaves and wish for the day that they will become extinct. You know which group you are in.

    #133677
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Putin aims to resuscitate the USSR geographically, but what is less obvious is that he has also been replicating its failed economy.

    Written by one of the mentally retarded slaves. When will these people realise that trying to persuade us that left is right and right is left does not change the reality that right is right and left is left. All it does is to make us realise that the author is a moron being incentivised to write an article that tells us he is a moron. Why do they do this? Because they are mentally retarded, the author is the sort of mental retard that the billionaires like to hire, just look at the WEF lineup of politicians: straight out of the asylum.

    #133678
    aspnaz
    Participant

    “Now people know that it is [Canadian PM Justin] Trudeau propaganda, not news.”

    If they didn’t already know that by now then this won’t change anything: Once retarded, always retarded.

    #133679
    Henry
    Participant

    For this article, when I refer to Eurocurrency, I’m not referring to the Euro(€). Since 1950 bank accounts that were denominated in a foreign currency had “euro” attached to the front of their names, for example:

    • Offshore Dollar = “Eurodollar”
    • Offshore Guilder = “Euroguilder”
    • Offshore Yen = “Euroyen”
    • Offshore Euro = “Euroeuro”

    Since a currency is only valid within its legal jurisdiction, the euro/offshore versions are just claims on the original. Therefore, Eurodollars are not dollars; they are just claims on dollars.

    The US Dollar has NEVER been the global reserve currency. From about 1950, the Eurodollar has expanded to become the actual reserve currency, and the US Dollar just happens to be “pegged” to the Eurodollar.

    The Eurocurrency system is now the focal point of the international market for short-term and intermediate-term credits. It carries out the following primary functions:

    • Clearing for international payments
    • Hedging forward against exchange risk
    • Commercial banks in each country accept deposits from locals and foreigners, but only in that country’s currency. This system can then offer short-term loans for trade finance purposes.

    For example, Japanese banks accept Yen deposits and make Yen loans, American banks accept dollar deposits and make dollar loans, and so on. To finance foreign trade for their customers, these commercial banks can quickly obtain spot or forward foreign exchange in the international interbank market or draw on balances of foreign currency held with correspondent banks abroad.

    Before the 1950’s international trade was dominated by traditional foreign exchange banking, which handled letters of credit and the exchange of currency “A” for currency “B.”

    Due to historical reasons, the Eurocurrency banking system primarily resides in the City (aka the City of London). An essential fact to understand is the City of London (the one square mile) is a separate legal entity from London proper.

    During the 1960’s traditional foreign-exchange banking coexisted with the emerging Eurocurrency offshore market:

    • Traditional foreign-exchange banks face stringent regulations
    • Offshore Eurocurrency banks are lightly regulated, if regulated at all, depending on the jurisdiction

    Therefore, on an international scale, offshore unregulated financial markets compete with onshore regulated ones. Today, offshore Eurocurrency Banking, primarily located in the City, dominates global trade.

    For the Unipolar world to exist, it needs the Eurocurrency System. CBDC is about bringing “Eurocurrencies” in from offshore and legitimizing them as legal tender.

    The Multipolar world wants to revert to traditional foreign exchange banking.

    The euro/offshore system is based on debt, its lifeblood. The debt market’s depth, size, and liquidity drive the actual valuation between currencies within this system.

    The traditional system valued the following when comparing currency areas:

    • Goods – things a county makes.
    • Services – Services offered by a county.
    • Commodities – basic materials.
    • The monetary base – precious metals, foreign currency reserves, etc.

    We are at a tipping point today. The world will either fall forward into a brave new world of a single global currency based on the euro/offshore/debt system, or it will pull back and return to a traditional system based on goods, services, commodities, and the monetary base.

    #133680
    Henry
    Participant

    There is no magic in pricing in the dollar. Ultimately, any businessman and their customers only care about the currency they need to pay taxes. For import/export merchants, what matters are the following:

    • Clearing for international payments
    • Hedging forward against exchange risk
    • Letters of credit

    I don’t think the Renminbi will not “replace” the dollar; China does not want to have the City of London to have the privilege to generate as much CNY as they wish. CNY will be used as a pricing mechanism, and settlement will be in local currency.

    The forward price swaps could be handled through the Shanghai Futures Exchange, and because of the stability of the CNY, this will not be difficult.

    #133681
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    In Episode #57, Season 247 of “History Can’t Repeat Itself!”….

    I give you *becoz he’s old) ohn Day’s “take” on the parallel affairs…

    Moorer-Radnor VS Milley?-Teixiera

    I’m sure great minds already recalled this almost identical piece of history a la The Moorer-Radford Affair or Spying on a U.S. president, as in a supposedly “reviled” officeholder, Richard M. Nixon.

    Perhaps,
    Teixeira = Radford
    Trove/Tranche = NSC files
    Milley? = Moorer
    General = Admiral
    Flag equals Flag

    Nevertheless, here it is, a summation.

    “Yeoman Radford eventually admitted to having stolen classified documents from the National Security Council.”

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/…

    #133682
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    I give you (becoz he’s old) John Day’s “take” on the parallel affairs…

    #133683
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    JSR #133671

    In terms of more recent history, on 31 December 1998 no transactions in the EU were denominated and valued in EUR and then the next day, they all were. Overnight.

    Each country in the original Eurozone had arranged an exchange rate with the € (Euro) which automatically set the exchange rate between money values in the member countries in terms of Euros. That is just what i NOT going on while the dollar is being displaced, and was just exactly the point being made. No principle to establish exchange is being followed outside bilateral treaty that effects no other exchange rate. Plus the continuity of economic history will be broken. This will not end well.

    One can argue about the structural failings inherent in the design of the Euro system, but nevertheless it is demonstrably possible to change the basic unit of currency used for trade within and between countries very quickly if necessary.

    Disclaimer: Was living in European Union at the time; experienced the change. That “overnight” event took nearly a decade to accomplish, and there were still problems. The point being made does not address “structural failings inherent in the design of the Euro system” but the maintenance of commodity value parity while doing so, something that is not being either addressed or considered by the commentariat. Again what is being created is a break in the history of economic continuity, never experienced before at a universal scale and no current economic theology can provide answers or tools to work out a solution. There be dragons here, (the way is uncharted).

    #133684

    John Day- check out this page with the paths of the annular eclipse of this year and the total eclipse of next year. Looks like you wouldn’t have to go far (less than a 2 hr drive) to see them both, you lucky dog.

    #133685
    Henry
    Participant

    T-Bear, I often wonder how much of an illusion the € (Euro) is:

    • All the original central banks still exist.
    • There is no standard debt instrument, and Target2 appears out of balance.

    The € (Euro) seems flawed strangely; it is a poor imitation of the “Euro/Offshore” I described in my post above. The current Euro/Offshore system is organic and arose from the ground up. The € (Euro) seems to have been designed by committee and greedy bearcats, honestly if the “Euro/Offshore” shrinks, I think the € (Euro) will die on the vine, the all of the old currencies will remerge and be branded something like:

    • Italian € (Euro)
    • German € (Euro)
    • Irish € (Euro)
    • Etc.

    What do you think?

    #133686
    John Day
    Participant

    Russelinbibs posted this late last night, and I have often had the same thought.

    “The whole woke/trans thing seems to have one pretty recognisable goal: sterilisation.
    What is more interesting is that looking through the history of various cultures and civilisations this seems to show up at pretty regularly at a certain point in the urban populations. China is the most notable example with the Eunuchs, but homosexuality and other practice non child producing sexual preferences seem to take off in these decadent phases in all cultures.
    The question then, relates to whether anyone is actually in control of this agenda, or it simply is an emergent property of civilisations which reach a certain urban population density and the associated lack of real world stimulations and feedback. There is that famous experiment with mice in which when given the same conditions they exhibited similar behaviour to that we are seeing in the urban west.”

    #133687
    John Day
    Participant

    @MPSK: Yes, my sister inn LA has been making plans for next year’s eclips in Texas for years. She does that kind of thing.
    Here’s the spot I came up with. I’ll attend if I can’t come up with a good excuse.
    https://www.kerrvilletexascvb.com/business/stonehenge-ii

    #133688
    Michael Reid
    Participant


    While we know that lockdowns were deadly, masks don’t work, “social distancing” was grounded on no “science,” and gloves are no defense against an airborne pathogen (assuming such a pathogen existed, or exists), and that “it” did not leap out of a big bowl of bat soup, just by chance, and then shut down the world; and now we also know—and even Gates and Fauci have conceded it (albeit confusingly, as usual)—that those “vaccines” could not “stop the virus,” so that forcing them on everybody in the world, including children (and everybody’s pets), really wasn’t such a hot idea.

    https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/how-team-fauci-forged-the-hivaids

    #133689
    John Day
    Participant

    @Dr.D Rich: This link should work, and the lowest rank takes the blame is how the military always works.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorer-Radford_Affair#:~:text=Yeoman%20Radford%20eventually%20admitted%20to,Welander%20and%20Admiral%20Rembrandt%20C.

    #133690
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks Henry for 133679:
    “We are at a tipping point today. The world will either fall forward into a brave new world of a single global currency based on the euro/offshore/debt system, or it will pull back and return to a traditional system based on goods, services, commodities, and the monetary base.”

    #133691
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    That is one clueless cat. I have one big, fluffy cat that would do the same. I have a second, more petite, gray, very affectionate-with-humans cat that in the time of that short video would have had that young rat in it’s mouth and in less than five minutes there would be nothing left of the rat, as it would be devoured.

    It’s interesting….
    When not supplied with food by humans, cats become efficient hunters — if they do not hunt efficiently, they die.
    Some cats, like my gray one, become capable hunters even when fed by humans, even though he was not raised by a mama cat, not trained to hunt. (He was with the mama cat for no more than 10 weeks, if that.)

    It is similar, with us humans. Many, if we don’t need to develop skills, will fail to develop them. (My teens don’t know their own cellphone numbers. Before smartphones, most people had many phone numbers memorized.) There are some who will develop the skills any way, for various reasons.

    #133692
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    @John Day

    Thanks for fixing the link.

    #133693
    jb-hb
    Participant

    There’s a supposed military otaku on Youtube called LaserPig. If you watch stuff about military history or hardware, he will pop up in your feed. Inevitably. I’ve found his views to be dumb and ill informed. The T34 was a bad tank, for instance. Objectively, observably an effective tank, complimented copiously by people on the other side.

    Anyway, he (in a collaborative video) gave a summary of Ukraine yesterday that says:
    –the Russians are running out of/ran out of tanks
    –the Russians have run out of/ran out of, awhile ago, artillery ammunition
    –The Russians are losing men at a 7:1 ratio to Ukraine
    –The Russians have horrible logistics/supply issues compared to Ukraine
    –Bakhmut is of NO strategic importance
    –Ukraine has been hanging onto Bakhmut because they have such an incredibly favorable casualty rate (Background, picture of a Stalingrad movie DVD box)
    –The Russian doctrine going into the war was to use massed static 100mm artillery (like, their military doctrine was literally identical to the last months of WW2/1945 when they had like an artillery piece for every 5 meters of front or something?)
    –Russian artillery is horribly inaccurate (picture of farm fields sparsely pocked all over with shell holes)
    –Ukraine will most likely launch at least 2 simultaneous offensives, one of which will cross the lower Dnieper on a broad front, crush all resistance, isolate, and then take Crimea.

    To illustrate the Russians having run out of ammunition, he showed a picture of an opened ammunition box holding fused-together horribly rusted shells. He says Russia is down to pulling 1950’s shells out of storage.

    I always had a vague hinky feeling about him when I watched his videos, like there’s something not quite right about him, or like he styles himself a military otaku without being truly interested in the subject somehow? Compare to idunno, Drachinifel, TIK, The Chieftan, hell, Admiral Jingles.

    Anyway it was delightful taking a brief dive into oppositeland last night, I was laughing uncontrollably half the time. And I guess it’s interesting to see what MSM people think is going on. Comments were all glowingly complimentary of his “efforts.” They provided a helpful list of “trustworthy news sources” people should use.

    #133694
    Mr. House
    Participant

    I believe lazerpig has an intel background, or so i’d heard around the time he did a roundtable with gonzolo lira.

    #133695
    zerosum
    Participant

    I’m going to concentrate on a few things.

    #133696
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Ukraine=covid: lies

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/18/public-pessimism-on-the-economy-hits-a-new-high-cnbc-survey-shows.html

    Lowest unemployment rate ever, but everyone thinks the economy sucks? What makes you think most economic statistics are just a pile of shit like covid statistics?

    #133697
    jb-hb
    Participant

    I believe lazerpig has an intel background, or so i’d heard around the time he did a roundtable with gonzolo lira.

    lol I don’t really understand why he gets as much play as he does. I’d much rather hear from The War Nerd, who I might disagree with but has some depth of knowledge, real and original reasons for his takes on things. And he has that genx weary, sardonic, cynical humor down pat while Lazerpig is a hyper kid “lookatmee!”

    Mostly LazerPig seems to want me to know that he is gay and likes to make quips like “Throw me to the wolves and I will come back pregnant!!!” That’s fine dude, truly okay with me, but you just said 5 amazing fever-dream irrealities in a row just now. But you said it with sass so go on and you do you I guess.

    Lol but he comes off vaguely like the people who invaded D&D and grandma’s knitting circle without a lot of apparent interest in the things.

    lol anyway, I am so so sorry for Gonzolo Lira.

    #133698
    Noirette
    Participant

    Thank you Henry for putting this together, in 3 posts up top. Excellent.

    #133699
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    Henry #’s 133680, 133685

    Having lived in the Euro Zone (EZ) of the European Union (EU) since the inception of the Euro (€) as a currency, it serves quite well as a currency. It is NOT a legal tender in the EZ unless a state has enacted legislation making it so in that state, but in most states it is the functioning medium of exchange /currency. When the € was introduced it was given value at an agreed upon rate of exchange with each member’s national currency to the €. Germany was IIRC about 2 DM, Spain around 166 Pasetas, Irish Pound (Punt) exchanged about 1.27€ per, the only currency trading at less that 1 per €. Values and prices were transformed into € bu the agreed upon exchange rate so the € did not establish either value or price but assumed the established number through that specific exchange rate. The € took nearly a decade from inception to coin in the pocket – some quick change, that. What’s the problem with the €, I do not understand.

    I highly recommend going to the comment on yesterday’s Debt Rattle and study one of the most astute comments made here on the site. I can only trust my answer measures equally. Those having been educated in the current theology will not have either the background or the information to solve the economic problems the world is now facing. A link will be put in a separate comment below.

    #133700
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “Mostly LazerPig seems to want me to know that he is gay”

    And that is why the algorithm promotes him. Youtube doesn’t show you what you want to see unless you search for it, it shows you what it wants you to see.

    #133701
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    @133699
    Link to referred commentary Debt Rattle 17 April 2023 #133645

    #133702
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    And the ones in the middle (the NON retards and the NON billionaires) continue to send their money and their compliance to the retards who forward it to the billionaires (thus making them billionaires), who return the favor by giving the retards swell paying jobs with lots of official authority over the people who keep sending up the money and compliance.

    So, who are the real retards?

    #133704
    Red
    Participant

    I put the following here begrudgingly as I wish no part of the debate that it is sure to start. However I think it points to a larger set of problems we here at TAE seem to understand. That is the lies that are told by the supposed leaders and swallowed whole. The amount of codswallop we have to wade through to get any sense of what is actually going on is becoming unsurmountable!

    The entire world appears enthralled with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its periodic edicts. The pretension is that this is a “scientific” organization employing scientific methodology to forecast risks of global warming. It isn’t.

    Reviewing the latest IPCC Report, one is struck by how far-ranging this global Panel now ventures—into “social sciences,” economics, politics, and (of course) social justice. Notable is the wide range of supposed disciplines brought to bear on the single issue of greenhouse gasses, while other contributing causes of environmental harm—especially chemical pollution—are comprehensively sidestepped.

    Most open minds are receptive to the possibility that human activity could warm the globe: the question is how much, and what harm (if any) that will cause. This is where science could be very useful. Scientific inquiry should then focus on two very complex issues:

    1) causation (establishing that CO2 and other gasses cause climate change), and

    2) prediction (how much such change, if established, will impact the environment over time). Those who cannot accurately predict the weather for next week, now feign prophetic clarity for 2100 A.D.

    There does not appear to be an Intergovernmental Panel on Chemical Pollution. Why is that? Species are disappearing due to chemical contaminants. Human sperm counts are plummeting, cancers rising, and endocrine disruptors may be impacting gender biologically. Rachel Carson exposed these problems in 1962, in her ground-breaking book Silent Spring. Six decades later, the entire world is mesmerized by the IPCC like some newfound Papal order. As for the chemicals …crickets.

    The IPCC has strayed so far from science that it is properly defined as a political and not a scientific entity. The latest IPCC Report reveals this single-lens bias in favor of the climate-change cult through the prism of expanding disciplines while narrowing focus: more and more bunk studies are being used to label all things horrible as caused by greenhouse gasses.

    Seas are being emptied of fish, species are dying, and the culprit is ever carbon.

    Do scientists not consider the consequences of chemical pollution any more, or predict where the world will be if no brakes are applied to the generation of yet more man-made pollutants?

    The question becomes downright eerie when the IPCC instead advocates for more chemical applications to the ecosystem as a solution to greenhouse gas warming: a climate-sensitive diet is now to be “balanced” by plants, to save the world from cows.

    Globalists have found that they can weaponize poor people to help them get richer, cry globalist crocodile tears for crocodiles, weep for bees, and rescue humanity from cows—by culling them. Greenhouse gasses are not the sole threat to food and fauna. Everything about the latest IPCC document reeks of fraud.

    Where is the concern for BPA, phthalates, PFOAs, or neonicotinoids in the IPCC pronouncements?

    How can “science” ignore these profound threats to the ecosystem and humans while using carbon dioxide to hone in on wealth disparity, social justice, and human fears of climate change?

    More, the proposed solutions of a plant-based diet depend on the industrial chemical polluters who happily count themselves members of the World Economic Forum and peddle their chemical wares as salvific of all climate-change ills.

    The IPCC scientific “standards”
    Scientifically speaking, the IPCC Report does not obscure that it is speculative in its predictions:

    Exposing the Climate Racket: The Latest IPCC Report

    #133705
    Red
    Participant

    Here is the link to the long version of the report, if so inclined. 85 pages, I’ve squirrelled away for rainy day humour.

    https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SYR_LongerReport.pdf

    #133706
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Trans movement seems a useful foil to cover up chemical pollution – endocrine inhibitors, hormone mimickers, etc. People are getting polluted. No, they are becoming increasingly vibrant™!

    If they were serious, they’d take a hard look at debt-based currency. That’s inevitable Greek tragedy like fate. Fiddle with as many policies as you want, but continually trying to pay off ever-increasing debt when there literally isn’t and cannot be enough currency to do so demands continual growth COMBINED with malinvestment. Growth including population growth.

    Suppression of failure, bankruptcy, and jubilee makes it worse. More growth is needed to back the papering-over AND the more you pervert the system, the more malinvestment you get, thus making the growth less effective as you go.

    If every person shrieking about CO2, DIE, and ESG concentrated on shrieking about debt based currency, they’d do a LOT more towards saving the planet.

    WHATEVER we try, so long as debt based currency is the basis for our lives, it won’t work. We’ll all keep trying to not fall off that treadmill. And it’s like the WEF type folks want to mess with absolutely everything BUT that. Like, we cannot have a LITTLE jubilee in 2001, nor 2007, nor anytime, THEREFORE it follows that we have to have a Great Reset. BECAUSE we refuse healthy resets that wipe out the malinvestment that causes…. pollution in exchange for useless awful crap and things being more screwed up!

    #133707
    Red
    Participant

    249,898 views Apr 17, 2023 #redacted #claytonmorris #natalimorris
    The United Nations says that we should decriminalize all sex and drug-related activity in the name of human rights, including sex with minors. Oh and they want you to be able to poop on the street. Is this progress?

    This comes from a United Nations organization called UNAIDS in [a report](https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/p…) released on March 8 to honor Women’s Day. It is sort of a best practice suggestion for international communities on how to police “”conduct associated with sex, reproduction, HIV, drug use, homelessness and poverty.”” The basic suggestion is: you don’t.

    This is a strange document but the strangest is Principle 16 which suggests no age limit for consensual sex. It also suggests no criminal penalties for sex work, buying or selling, and no criminal consequences for people who make money by other people’s sex work. We used to call these pimps. Do we still?

    The report further suggests decriminalizing all drug use and drug possession as well as leaving homeless people where they are to poop in the street.

    And your right to live in places where people do not do drugs, poop on sidewalks, sell other people for sex, and have sex with minors? You don’t have that right apparently. It sure does seem like the UN is in favor of social collapse, doesn’t it?

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