May 302023
 


Vincent van Gogh A Lane near Arles (Side of a Country Lane) 1888

 

Russia Hasn’t Started To ‘Act Seriously’ In Ukraine – Envoy (RT)
Moscow Attacked By Drones – Mayor (RT)
Russia Will Not Negotiate Until It Wins In Ukraine Conflict – Borrell (TASS)
Memorial Service (Jim Kunstler)
Russian Arrest Warrant For Lindsey Graham Over ‘Killing Russians’ Remarks (ZH)
Clumsy Excuses: Russian FM On Claim Graham’s Words Taken Out Of Context (TASS)
Ukraine Posts Longer Video Of Lindsay Graham’s Visit (R.)
Biden, McCarthy Agree on $886 Billion Military Budget (Antiwar)
Believing Impossible Things (Alastair Crooke)
US Obsession With Crushing Russia Has Dismantled Middle East Agenda (Inlakesh)
EU Threatens To Ban Twitter (RT)
Sanctions On Russian Diamonds Put A Million Jobs At Risk (RT)
50 Injured As NATO Troops Clash With Serb Demonstrators (RT)
Trump Campaign Fundraises For Ballot Harvesting Operations (PM)
Zero Young Healthy Individuals Died of COVID-19, Israeli Data Show
John Cleese Holds Line Against Calls to Cancel Scene in Life of Brian (Turley)

 

 

 

 

Bosi

 

 

 

 

Graham/McCain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..sooner or later, of course, this escalation may get a new dimension which we do not need and we do not want..”

Russia Hasn’t Started To ‘Act Seriously’ In Ukraine – Envoy (RT)

The outcome of the Ukraine conflict hinges on whether NATO continues to prop up Kiev with arms shipments, Andrey Kelin, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, said in an interview released on Saturday. Speaking to the BBC, when asked how long he thought it would take for the fighting to cease, Kelin replied that it “depends on the efforts in escalation of war that [are] being undertaken by NATO countries, especially by the UK.” The envoy went on to say that “it is a big idealistic mistake to think that Ukraine may prevail,” adding that Russia is 16 times bigger than Ukraine and possesses enormous resources. He stated further that Moscow “hasn’t… started yet to act very seriously.”

At the same time, Kelin warned that “sooner or later, of course, this escalation may get a new dimension which we do not need and we do not want,” pointing to the UK’s recent decision to send Ukraine long-range missiles and tanks, as well as ongoing deliberations about potential shipments of modern aircraft. However, he did not rule out that the conflict could be settled diplomatically, saying that the two sides “can make peace tomorrow.” On Saturday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said that the Ukraine conflict could be resolved if Kiev were to ditch its ambitions to join NATO and the EU, recognize “new territorial realities” and designate Russian as a state language. However, Mikhail Podoliak, an aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, dismissed the demands, insisting instead that to make peace, Russia must withdraw all its troops from the territory Kiev claims as its own, pay reparations and extradite “war criminals.”

Since the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Western countries have provided Kiev with billions of dollars in security assistance, a policy which Moscow claims makes the military bloc a direct participant in the hostilities. The UK has emerged as one of Ukraine’s most active supporters, having committed £4.6 billion ($5.7 billion) in military aid. Earlier this month, London provided Kiev with long-range Storm Shadow missiles, which were subsequently used by Ukrainian troops to target the civilian population in the Russian city of Lugansk, according to Moscow. In March, the UK announced that it would send Ukraine armor-piercing tank rounds containing depleted uranium, with the Russian Defense Ministry warning that the munitions would cause “irreparable harm” to soldiers and civilians alike.

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Someone wants Kiev flattened.

Moscow Attacked By Drones – Mayor (RT)

Drones attacked the Russian capital on Tuesday morning, damaging several buildings, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has said. Sobyanin ordered the evacuation of residents from the two apartment blocks that were targeted, according to several messages posted on Telegram. Emergency officials told RIA Novosti that two drones struck residential buildings. No information regarding casualties has been provided yet. Sobyanin, citing data from the city medical services, said that no residents of the buildings hit by the aircraft were seriously hurt. He added that two people requested medical assistance at the scene, but no one had to be taken to the hospital.


Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov wrote on Telegram that “several drones” were shot down by air defenses as they were flying towards the city. Telegram channel SHOT posted an unverified video of what it said was the destruction of a drone mid-air. The attack comes after two Ukrainian drones unsuccessfully attempted to strike the Kremlin earlier this month. Moscow accused Kiev of attempting to assassinate Putin and vowed retaliation. Kiev denied responsibility, with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky saying “we don’t attack Putin or Moscow.”

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Borrell handed himself a new job: “the defense minister of the European Union.” Did anyone ask for that?

Russia Will Not Negotiate Until It Wins In Ukraine Conflict – Borrell (TASS)

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrel said he is “not optimistic” about the situation in Ukraine and believes that Russia will not negotiate until it wins in the Ukraine conflict. “I see the clear will of Russia to win in the war,” the European Union foreign policy chief said speaking at an expert forum in Spain’s Barcelona. “Russia will not negotiate until it wins.” “I am not optimistic in my expectations about how this conflict may develop in the summer,” he stated adding that the European Union should “continue building up its military assistance for Ukraine.” Borrell stated earlier in Brussels that while he kept coordinating military assistance to Ukraine from the European Union, he did not feel himself as the EU’s top diplomat, but “the defense minister of the European Union.”.

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“..as our leadership turned more pathological and pathocratic, so did our military endeavors..”

Memorial Service (Jim Kunstler)

An anxious silence falls over the land this Memorial Day as we discern increasingly that those we put in charge of this shape-shifting thing called the public interest are running out of trips to lay on the people. Something grotesque is revealing itself: a bankruptcy not just of money but of national purpose, meaning, and legitimacy. You realize this day, with a breaking heart, that your country has been stolen by psychopaths.Brace for impact. We’re already off the road and now it’s only a matter of how this vehicle comes to a stop in the ditch. Then, it’s a question of how each of us emerges from the smoldering wreckage. The main thing, though, is clear to everyone: What we were riding in is no more. We’re out there stumbling around in the dark, in shock, trying desperately to assess our whereabouts and what has happened to us.

Now, the trouble with being ruled by psychopaths is that they don’t care about other people. They are actually incapable of imagining the lives of others, especially the fact that these others care about each other, and what happens to them. You may have noticed, for instance, that the psychopath Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) went to Ukraine last week and declared, “Russians are dying. We have never spent money so well.” Only a couple of months ago, he called for the assassination of Vladimir Putin. He stopped short of dissing Mr. Putin’s mother. Ukraine, of course, is a lost cause, and it was never a good cause in the first place. Contrary to Lindsay Graham’s untoward utterance, American money has killed far more Ukrainians than Russians. He overlooked [this] unappetizing tidbit because he doesn’t care about the Ukrainians, for whose sake our “folks” in charge supposedly undertook this clusterfuck.

Lindsay Graham also may not have noticed that our country is collapsing and Russia is not. That must be because Lindsay Graham does not care about Americans, either. As for our money, it looks like most of the rest of the world – the nations that still produce things of value – are so turned-off by American pathocracy that they are seeking every way possible to stop using our money in international trade settlements. That money, our dollar, became the world’s reserve currency because our country ended up on top in the previous world war and for the better part of a century afterward dominated the planet militarily. Naturally, as our leadership turned more pathological and pathocratic, so did our military endeavors – until lately they amount to little more than just smashing up other countries to show we can do it.

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“..it was the Ukrainian presidency’s office itself that was responsible for the editing and circulating of the remarks in the first place.”

Russian Arrest Warrant For Lindsey Graham Over ‘Killing Russians’ Remarks (ZH)

Russia’s Interior Ministry has issued an arrest warrant for South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham after video surfaced of the Republican hawk telling Ukrainian officials that “Russians are dying” due to US military aid and that “it’s the best money we ever spent.” There are claims that the video released of the Friday meeting in Kiev wherein Graham spoke the words to Ukraine’s President Zelensky were edited, however. And yet, it was Zelensky himself that posted the edited clip to his official social media channels. Russia’s Investigative Committee announced the criminal case against Graham as he “declared the financial involvement of the United States is causing the death of Russian citizens.”

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacted to Graham’s provocative statements by saying, “It’s difficult to imagine a greater shame for a country than having such senators” while Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said the Republican Senator is an “old fool. “The arrest warrant and him being placed on a ‘wanted list’ will of course remain largely symbolic, given Graham certainly won’t be traveling to Russian territory or through its airspace anytime in the foreseeable future. On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry responded to reporting from Reuters which said Graham’s remarks were taken out of context: “Reports by Reuters that remarks by US Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican, South Carolina) made during a meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky may have been taken out of context represent clumsy, shameless excuses, a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry made public on Monday said.

“‘It turns out,’ that’s not what Senator Graham said or how he said it. Just like with similar cannibalistic musings by former US President George W. Bush, clumsy, shameful excuses are being bandied about: so, allegedly, the senator’s words were taken out of context, there was some ‘editing’ and so on. Who would have doubted that the politician himself and his spin doctors, such as the top Anglo-Saxon media outlets and news agencies, would, as they say, ‘play dumb.’ What’s next? They will tell us that Lindsey Graham is a product of [artificial intelligence] and doesn’t actually exist?” the Foreign Ministry asked rhetorically. It stressed that this “attempt is doomed to fail.” “It is already impossible to clean oneself [and one’s reputation] from the stain of such remarks, even if they were uttered separately,” the ministry added.” But again, it was the Ukrainian presidency’s office itself that was responsible for the editing and circulating of the remarks in the first place.

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“This entire story with cowardly excuses and ludicrous attempts to absolve Lindsey Graham is yet another blow to the already faded reputation of Reuters and the BBC..”

Clumsy Excuses: Russian FM On Claim Graham’s Words Taken Out Of Context (TASS)

Reports by Reuters that remarks by US Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican, South Carolina) made during a meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky may have been taken out of context represent clumsy, shameless excuses, a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry made public on Monday said. “‘It turns out,’ that’s not what Senator Graham said or how he said it. Just like with similar cannibalistic musings by former US President George W. Bush, clumsy, shameful excuses are being bandied about: so, allegedly, the senator’s words were taken out of context, there was some ‘editing’ and so on. Who would have doubted that the politician himself and his spin doctors, such as the top Anglo-Saxon media outlets and news agencies, would, as they say, ‘play dumb.’

What’s next? They will tell us that Lindsey Graham is a product of [artificial intelligence] and doesn’t actually exist?” the Foreign Ministry asked rhetorically. It stressed that this “attempt is doomed to fail.” “It is already impossible to clean oneself [and one’s reputation] from the stain of such remarks, even if they were uttered separately,” the ministry added. Earlier, at a meeting in Kiev with Zelensky, Graham seemingly linked the fact that “Russians are dying” in the Ukrainian conflict with US aid for Ukraine, saying it is “the best money we’ve ever spent.” The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that this was hardly the first instance of such hateful remarks and that “the senator is not alone.” “The Nazi philosophy of hatred toward Russians is actually what unites the Kiev regime and its American handlers,” the ministry emphasized.

The ministry also stated that widespread popular outrage has forced the Western propaganda machine “with its cogs, such as Reuters and the BBC, who led the campaign to whitewash the [words of the] lawmaker, to initiate a crisis management approach and attempt to reverse the situation.” “This entire story with cowardly excuses and ludicrous attempts to absolve Lindsey Graham is yet another blow to the already faded reputation of Reuters and the BBC, which were left to worm their way of out the mess on behalf of both Washington and Kiev. This is not journalism, but PR agencies carrying out an assignment for the ‘collective West,’” the Russian Foreign Ministry concluded. Earlier, Reuters, having examined a complete recording of Graham’s meeting with the Ukrainian leader, said that the remarks by the US senator may have been taken out of context.

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“There was a time in America that we were this way: fighting to the last person, we were going to be free or die.” WE, Lindsey?

Ukraine Posts Longer Video Of Lindsay Graham’s Visit (R.)

Russia’s interior ministry has put U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham on a wanted list, Russian news agency TASS said on Monday (May 29).In an edited video released by the Ukrainian president’s office of Graham’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday (May 26), Graham was shown saying “the Russians are dying” and then saying U.S. support was the “best money we’ve ever spent”.After Russia criticised the remarks, Ukraine released a full video of the meeting which showed the two remarks were not linked. The longer video clip showed the Ukrainian President praises the United States for military assistance valued at $38 billion, thanking Graham for bipartisan support. Graham responds with: “the best money we’ve ever spent.”


Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced Graham, suggesting his comment on U.S. financial assistance was linked to a later remark that Russians “are dying” in the conflict. But the release by the Ukrainian president’s office of Graham’s complete remarks showed there was no such link.Graham said he was visiting on the 457th day of a war that Russia had assumed would be completed within three days and Graham said Ukrainians resisting the invasion reminded him of “our better selves in America. “There was a time in America that we were this way: fighting to the last person, we were going to be free or die.” “Now you are free,” Zelenskiy responded in the encounter. “And we will be.” Graham replied: “And the Russians are dying.”

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And there’s Graham again..

Biden, McCarthy Agree on $886 Billion Military Budget (Antiwar)

The debt ceiling agreement reached between the White House and House Republicans that was announced Sunday caps military spending at $886 billion for 2024, matching President Biden’s requested budget. Republicans negotiating the debt ceiling deal only sought non-military spending cuts. The $886 billion cap for military spending represents about a 3.3% increase from 2023. The White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) still need to get the debt ceiling agreement passed through Congress. Many hawkish Republicans will likely oppose the deal as they previously blasted Biden’s massive $886 billion request as “inadequate.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) slammed the debt limit deal in an appearance on Fox News on Sunday. “The Biden defense budget was a joke before, and if we adopt it as Republicans, we will be doing a big disservice to the party of Ronald Reagan,” Graham said.


“The biggest winner of the Biden defense budget is China because they’ll have a bigger navy,” Graham added. Hawks in Congress have gotten their way over the past two years as they approved significantly more military spending than what President Biden requested for 2022 and 2023. For 2023, President Biden asked for $813 billion in military spending, but Congress added $45 billion, bringing the finalized National Defense Authorization Act to $858 billion. A similar increase for 2024 could bring the NDAA close to $1 trillion. The US also authorizes other national security spending that is not included in the NDAA. According to analyst Winslow Wheeler, factoring in other types of expenditures on the national security state, including interest on debt and the Veteran Affairs budget, would bring the total defense budget for 2024 to around $1.5 trillion.

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“.. they understand that the true ‘threats’ to the US derive from its internal divisions, and not from external sources.”

Believing Impossible Things (Alastair Crooke)

The recent G7 summit should be understood as firstly, the shaping of a battlespace in the ‘War of Narratives’ whose principal ‘front’ today is the Team Biden insistence that only one ‘reality’ — the US-led ‘Rules’ ideology (and it alone) – can predominate. And, secondly to underline pointedly that the West is ‘not losing’ in this war against the other ‘reality’. This other reality is the multivalent ‘otherness’ that self-evidently is attracting more and more support around the world. Many in the West are simply unaware of how fast the geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting: The original plate bifurcation (the failed financial war declared on Russia), already has led to a building wave. Anger is growing. People now no longer feel alone in rejecting western hegemony – they “no longer care”.

In just the week that preceded the G7 summit, the Arab League literally ‘went multi-polar’; It quit its former pro-US automaticity. The embrace of President Assad and the Syrian government was both the logical consequence to the secondary tectonic-plate shift set in motion by China with its Saudi-Iranian diplomacy — a revolution which Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) then logically extended to the entire Arab sphere. MbS sealed this ‘break-free’ of US control through having President al-Assad invited to the Summit to symbolise the League’s act of generalised iconoclasm. For the West, it is ontologically impossible to tolerate their reality being disassembled: to see their society and the world split in two. The narrative reality is so embedded via the well-honed effectiveness of MSM messaging however, that politicians have become lazy. They do not have to argue their case, and have no incentive to hold back on untruths either.

The dynamics are exorable: an over-hyped ‘monolithic reality’ evolves into a Manichaean fight to the death. Any backsliding by ‘principals’ could result in the collapse of the Media narrative ‘house of cards’. (This notion of a monolithic reality is not one shared by most other societies who see reality as multi-faceted). Denial becomes endemic. So, we witness a hawkish G7, diverting from the narrative setback (of Bakhmut falling) by the casual embrace of a ploy to supply F-16s to Ukraine; chastising China for not making President Putin ‘back off’ in Ukraine; and using the meeting to set a narrative framework for the coming confrontation with China on trade issues and Taiwan.

One commentator (at the summit) wondered “Am I still in Europe, or in Japan?”, as she listened to rhetoric as though lifted from Von Der Leyen’s earlier speech to the EU. Von de Leyen had crafted the formulation of ‘de-risking’ with China to disguise the creeping EU-China bifurcation in production on the EU Commission factory floor. This remark does however serve to underline how Von der Leyen has become a de facto member of the Biden Team. China angrily responded to the G7 summit allegation that it had become a workshop for “smearing” and slandering China. This extensive narrative-shaping for China confrontation is seen to be necessary by the G7 as the rest of the world does not view China as a genuine ‘threat’ to the US: Rather, they understand that the true ‘threats’ to the US derive from its internal divisions, and not from external sources.

The G7 salience lies not so much with the anti-China narratives launched, but, plainly said, because the entire episode expresses a western hubristic denial, which portends extreme danger in respect to Ukraine. It speaks to the reality that the West — in it’s present mental mode — will be unable to put forward any credible political initiative to end the Ukraine conflict.(Recall that Moscow was badly mauled by the earlier Minsk episode). The G7 language abjures all serious diplomacy, and signals that the imperative remains to stick with the ‘not losing’ mantra:The fall of Bakhmut is no defeat for Kiev, but a Pyrrhic loss for Putin; Ukraine is winning, Putin is losing, was the G7 messaging.

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“After having illegally invaded Iraq [..] it comes off as laughable that the US is now claiming to oppose illegal invasions.”

US Obsession With Crushing Russia Has Dismantled Middle East Agenda (Inlakesh)

As the months pass, blow after blow has been inflicted on US power in the Middle East. In direct opposition to Washington’s agenda, the Syrian Arab Republic was readmitted to the Arab League following a 12-year hiatus, paving the way to end the crisis in Syria, which the US seeks to prolong. China has also entered Middle East politics in a dramatic way, brokering an Iranian-Saudi rapprochement back in March, and this then spurred a wider normalization wave. Although the US attempted to play off the Saudi Arabia-Iran agreement as an acceptable and welcomed move, this has now clearly worked to collapse Washington’s long-term effort towards regional supremacy, which was based on feeding a proxy conflict between the two powers.

Western leaders publicly predicted that Russia’s economy would collapse under sanctions, a result which clearly has not materialized, with the IMF predicting the Russian economy will grow. Similarly, the US “maximum pressure” sanctions that were first introduced against Iran under the Trump administration, were expected to severely hinder the Islamic Republic’s ability to continue its developments in the defense field, but have failed to achieve those goals. Russia is now exporting more oil than it did in 2021, as its relations with China, the primary global competitor to the US, have advanced. Gulf States have also repeatedly let the US down and refrained from yielding to pressure to cut oil production. There is also the example of Algeria, which has become Italy’s largest gas supplier and raked in over $50 billion dollars in oil and gas revenues during 2022 alone, even as it retains close relations with Moscow.

And when it comes to the West’s ban on Russian gold bullion, the UAE, Türkiye and China have reportedly stepped in to fill the gap. However, perhaps the worst blowback against Russia sanctions has been the nullification of previous limits to Moscow-Tehran economic relations. The two nations are already the most sanctioned on earth, so they need not worry about the potential consequences from their trade, which has encouraged further cooperation between them. Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi signed a deal to finance an Iranian railway line as part of a North-South Transport Corridor. The Biden administration has employed hardline propaganda tactics in order to demonize Russia and lionize Ukraine. Although for some Western audiences the arguments set forth may have proven effective, in the global community and especially the Middle East, such rhetoric is tiresome and clearly hypocritical.

After having illegally invaded Iraq, inflicting around a million deaths, over a concoction of factually-challenged conspiracy theories about weapons of mass destruction, it comes off as laughable that the US is now claiming to oppose illegal invasions.

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Musk may accept the challenge: ““This platform is hell bent on being the least untrue source of information..”

EU Threatens To Ban Twitter (RT)

Twitter will be banned across the EU if it fails to abide by the new regulations on fighting disinformation, French Digital Transition and Telecommunications Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday. The warning comes as the European bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is due to fully take effect on August 25. “Disinformation is one of the gravest threats weighing on our democracies,” Barrot told France Info radio. “I hope that Twitter complies with the European rules by August 25. Otherwise, it will no longer be welcome in Europe. Twitter, if it repeatedly doesn’t follow our rules, will be banned from the EU.” The DSA mandates that search engines and large platforms, such as Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok, enact measures to mitigate “disinformation or election manipulation, cyber violence against women, or harms to minors online.”

The European Commission can fine offenders up to 6% of annual worldwide turnover. EU Internal Markets Commissioner Thierry Breton announced last week that Twitter had pulled out of the bloc’s voluntary Code of Practice on Disinformation. “But obligations remain. You can run but you can’t hide,” Breton said, adding that DSA’s terms will be “ready for enforcement” when the compliance deadline expires in August. Billionaire Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter last year, promised to rid the platform of disinformation and hateful content, but also uphold the freedom of speech and offer more transparency. “This platform is hell bent on being the least untrue source of information,” Musk wrote on Twitter in early May.

At the same time, earlier this month Twitter fulfilled the Turkish government’s request to restrict access to some accounts in the weeks leading up to the presidential and general election in the country. Musk defended this decision by saying that he wanted to avoid Twitter getting shut down entirely in Türkiye. “We can’t go beyond the laws of a country … If we have a choice of either our people [going] to prison or we comply with the laws, we will comply with the laws,” Musk told the BBC last month.

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“The Indian diamond industry cuts and polishes nine out of ten diamonds in the world at a processing hub in Surat..”

Sanctions On Russian Diamonds Put A Million Jobs At Risk (RT)

Restrictions on exports of Russian diamonds that the G7 countries have been considering for over a year pose a threat to India’s polishing industry, the Economic Times reports. The Indian diamond industry cuts and polishes nine out of ten diamonds in the world at a processing hub in Surat, the outlet said. A potential embargo is weighing heavily on Surat’s more than 4,000 diamond processing companies, which employ at least a million craftsmen, polishers, and traders, according to industry experts. The town of Surat imports at least 35% of its gems from Russia’s mining giant Alrosa, which accounts for 30% of global rough diamond output.

“If the sanctions continue, then there will be a lot of uncertainty in the employment of one million workers,” said the chairman of the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, Vipul Shah. Russia’s diamond trade has so far avoided sanctions due to resistance from major importers such as Belgium, which is home to the world’s biggest diamond trading hub in Antwerp. The Belgian government has repeatedly blocked the EU’s embargo plans, warning that the move could cost thousands of jobs. At the recent G7 summit in Japan, leaders pledged to restrict trade in “diamonds mined, processed or produced in Russia” in an effort to further cut Moscow’s revenues.

In a joint statement, the group of wealthy nations said it would curb the $4.5 billion Russian diamond trade, including by using high-tech methods of tracing. “We are awaiting a proper understanding of how the sanctions will be executed, since there is no way to trace the origin of rough gems right now,” Shah said. Meanwhile, supplies of rough diamonds have been shrinking since Western sanctions disconnected Russia from the SWIFT international financial processing network last year. Indian exports of cut and polished diamonds have also slumped as US and EU firms shunned buying diamonds sourced from Russia.

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“The Serb population of these four towns boycotted elections in April in which four ethnic Albanian mayors won with a turnout of less than 4%..”

50 Injured As NATO Troops Clash With Serb Demonstrators (RT)

NATO forces attacked a group of demonstrators in the majority-Serb town of Zvecan in Kosovo, RT Balkan reported on Monday. Stun grenades and tear gas were deployed, and around 50 people were injured. Serb demonstrators staged a sit-down protest outside municipal buildings in Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic on Monday morning, preventing ethnic Albanian officials from taking office after elections boycotted by the Serb population as illegitimate. Kosovo police officers arrived on the scene in Zvecan, backed up by members of NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR). The heavily-armored NATO troops surrounded the demonstrators, who refused to disperse, RT Balkan’s journalist on the scene reported. KFOR then threw stun grenades and tear gas into the crowd, provoking a riot.

The Serb demonstrators pelted rocks at the NATO troops, and received baton strikes and rubber bullets in return. Fifty people went to a hospital in nearby Mitrovica, and two were admitted to the emergency room. 25 KFOR soldiers were injured in the melee, Italy’s ANSA news agency said. 11 of those reportedly hurt were Italians. The protesters broke up shortly after the clashes, vowing to return and continue their demonstration on Tuesday. The latest flareup in tensions began when local mayors in four majority Serb towns in northern Kosovo resigned last year after authorities in Pristina announced plans to force residents to switch their Serbian identity documents for Kosovo-issued ones. The Serb population of these four towns boycotted elections in April in which four ethnic Albanian mayors won with a turnout of less than 4%. Nevertheless, the government in Pristina treated the votes as legitimate and the mayors were installed on Friday amid fierce opposition from the Serbs, who view the debacle as a naked power grab aimed at driving them from the breakaway province.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008 with the support of the US and many of its NATO allies. Kosovo was historically a province of Serbia, and Belgrade – along with many world governments – does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state. While NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and a number of Kosovo’s Western backers have urged Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leader, Albin Kurti, to de-escalate the situation in the north of the province, he has apparently not heeded their warnings. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday that Kurti “longs and dreams of being a [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky.” Due to the clashes, Serbia placed its army on high alert, moving some units closer to the region’s border. Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said that “it is clear that terror against the Serb community in Kosovo is happening.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1663290819564953604

https://twitter.com/i/status/1663298598615011328

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“..where it’s legal..”

Trump Campaign Fundraises For Ballot Harvesting Operations (PM)

The Trump campaign has announced that it is looking to beat Democrat ballot harvesting in states across the country, specifically taking aim at operations funded by billionaire George Soros. “We recently alerted you that a Soros-linked Super PAC has begun targeting 6 battleground states with a $75 MILLION spending blitz to buy Crooked Joe the White House,” a Thursday campaign fundraising email read, according to the Washington Times. “But there’s something important we want to add…some of those states have legalized BALLOT HARVESTING,” the email added, highlighting Soros-linked efforts in the battleground of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

“At the beginning of the year, President Trump made a major announcement that our campaign would ballot harvest in the states where it’s legal to counter the Left’s schemes,” the email added, asking for financial contributions to the Trump campaign’s Ballot Harvesting Fund. Ballot harvesting refers to the act of a person other than the voter turning in a ballot, usually a mail-in ballot. While Republicans have previously disavowed the practice and pushed for it to be eliminated, Trump earlier this year stated that he would embrace it in states where it’s legal in order to fight back against the Democrats. Many pundits have also called for the GOP to get on board and fight fire with fire, instead of letting the Democrats undertake the practice with no pushback.

In February, a fundraising email stated, “The radical Democrats have used ballot harvesting to cancel out YOUR vote and walk away with elections that they NEVER should have won. But I’m doing something HUGE to fight back.” He continued: “Our path forward is to MASTER the Democrats’ own game of harvesting ballots in every state we can. But that also means we need to start laying the foundation for victory RIGHT NOW.” Trump echoed the sentiment in March, telling the crowd at CPAC, “We will become masters at ballot harvesting.” “We have to beat the Democrats at their own game, and we’ll do it legally. The agenda I’ve laid out today will end America’s destruction.”

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Now let’s see the excess deaths stats.

Zero Young Healthy Individuals Died of COVID-19, Israeli Data Show (ET)

Zero healthy individuals under the age of 50 have died of COVID-19 in Israel, according to newly released data. “Zero deceased of 18–49 years of age with no underlying morbidities,” the Israel Ministry of Health (MOH) said in response to a formal request from an attorney. Officials noted that the statement only applies to COVID-19 deaths where the MOH conducted an epidemiological investigation and had received information about the underlying diseases. “Zero is a very, very clear number, and cannot be subject to interpretation,” Yoav Yehezkelli, a specialist in internal medicine and medical management, and former lecturer in the Department of Emergency and Disaster Management at Tel Aviv University in Israel, told The Epoch Times.

“Why were all the extreme measures of school closures, vaccination of children, and lockdowns needed?” he added. The information was sparked by a freedom of information request filed by attorney Ori Xabi, who has been filing several such requests as he seeks to obtain information from the MOH regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 policies. Xabi asked to know the average age of people who died of COVID-19, segmented by vaccination status at the time of death; how many COVID-19 patients with no underlying morbidities under the age of 50 died; and the annual number of cardiac arrest cases between 2018 to 2022. According to the MOH response, the average age of vaccinated COVID-19 patients who died was 80.2 years. The average for the unvaccinated was 77.4 years.

The MOH emphasized that the data they have about the underlying diseases of patients is partial since it relies on information provided by the patients or their relatives, if they chose to do so. And then, only in cases in which the MOH conducted an epidemiological investigation. Therefore “the available information does not necessarily reflect the health status of the patient” the MOH wrote adding that they do not have access to the patients’ medical records. It is not clear why the MOH responded to Xabi’s request using only cases where the MOH had conducted an epidemiological investigation, and which was limited to deceased patients where the families had cooperated, since in 2020 the MOH told the Israeli Knesset—the Israeli parliament—that they use an intelligence system that provides the MOH with extensive information about deceased patients that included “underlying diseases.”

Read more …

“..These comedy giants are set upon by an Army of Lilliputians who have contributed little to culture beyond chilling artists and writers into obedient silence..”

John Cleese Holds Line Against Calls to Cancel Scene in Life of Brian (Turley)

We have previously discussed how comedians have been objecting that woke activists are killing comedy. The complaint is that a group of perpetually pissed off, humorless people are remaking the world in their own image. It began with college campuses where comedians are now saying are dead as venues since you cannot safely make any joke that insults any group other than white straight males or Christians or conservatives. Others have objected to hate speech laws limiting comedians, particularly after some comedians have been prosecuted for “malicious communications” or insulting groups or religious figures. Six out of ten students view offensive jokes as hate speech. This week, however, activists appear to have met their match in a legend of comedy who has opposed the cutting of a scene from the movie The Life of Brian. No, activists are not upset with the endless jokes about Italians, Christians, and Jews. It is the scene involving a man who wants to become a women and have a child. John Cleese is refusing to yield.

In The Life of Brian, the scene involves “Stan” who announces that he wants to be a woman named Loretta and have babies. Activists objected that it made fun of transgender people and demanded that it be cut from the film. The scene shows Stan declaring “I want to be a woman… It’s my right as a man. I want to have babies… It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.” After Cleese’s protest, the character snaps, “Don’t you oppress me!” Some reported that Cleese had agreed to cut the scene. However, Cleese tweeted out a correction of the “misreporting.” What is interesting is that Rob Reiner is reportedly working on the reboot. Reiner is known as someone who is a champion of the left in Hollywood. This may be an inauspicious start for the reboot effort. Cleese is not alone in raising this alarm. Comedians including Chris Rock blamed the range of “unfunny TV shows” on the fact that “everybody’s scared to make a move”. Ricky Gervais objected that the BBC is now paralyzed in fear of offending anyone. Jennifer Saunders that people now “talk themselves out of stuff now because everything is sensitive.”

The same complaint has been made in the age of woke advertising that funny commercials seem increasingly rare as opposed to corporate virtue signaling. The director of the classic comedy Airplane! observed that humor is being squeezed out of Hollywood and the movie today would have virtually every joke removed. David Zucker called it the “death of creativity.” They are now set upon by a legion of humorless people who seek to reduce the world to their own narrow range of acceptable levity or irony. These comedy giants are set upon by an Army of Lilliputians who have contributed little to culture beyond chilling artists and writers into obedient silence or compulsive comedy criteria. Of course, Cleese could always use the line from Bryan’s mother: “He’s a very naughty boy! Now, piss off!”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wynnum
https://twitter.com/i/status/1662997866917564417

 

 

CO2

 

 

Turtle
https://twitter.com/i/status/1663220517732597766

 

 

Pheasant

 

 

 

 

Woow

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle May 30 2023

Viewing 21 posts - 1 through 21 (of 21 total)
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  • #135965

    Vincent van Gogh A Lane near Arles (Side of a Country Lane) 1888   • Russia Hasn’t Started To ‘Act Seriously’ In Ukraine – Envoy (RT) • Moscow At
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle May 30 2023]

    #135967
    Red
    Participant

    Models! Ha ha our lives are being run by AI for sum time now and they have yet to get it right.

    After decades of experience proving that economists are wrong and that central bankers are the wrongest of all, how seriously should we take the latest IMF claims that the UK economy will avoid a recession? After all, even the establishment media have been keen to point out that the IMF appears to suffer from some pretty intense mood swings these days:

    “The UK economy is expected to avoid a recession this year, the International Monetary Fund has said, after it sharply upgraded its growth forecast. It now expects the UK to grow by 0.4% in 2023, whereas last month it forecast the economy would contract by 0.3%.”

    Ralph Schoellhammer at UnHerd points to the inconvenient truth that even in the current crisis alone, the IMF has built up a long list of erroneous forecasts. Moreover, much of the latest one – which points only to a growth rate that would be little more than a rounding error – is based on an optimistic understanding of the recent fall in gas prices following an exceptionally warm winter in the Northern hemisphere… taking no account of the warning from Saudi Arabian and Qatari energy ministers that Europe faces gas shortages and even higher gas prices. Indeed, what the IMF have given us is more likely a pseudo-forecast designed, like someone whistling in the dark, to keep our spirits up:

    “A cautious observer would assume that the IMF wanted to increase economic confidence through a more upbeat outlook, which is understandable. Yet if experience is any guide, the next revision won’t be far away.”

    In this, the IMF are far from unique. Western central bankers have been predicting “soft landings” and even no landing at all in recent months, even as they pursue interest rate rises which are – by definition – intended to generate the very recession that they keep pretending will not happen. It is notable, for example, that the apparent apology by Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill, for telling Brits that they were just going to have to accept being poorer, was for the way he said it rather than the intention behind his comment. As Bank Governor Andrew Bailey put it: “[His] choice of words was not right.”

    Put simply, the central bankers are currently walking a tightrope between generating a managed recession – something they have never achieved – while maintaining sufficient public/political/business confidence to avoid it spiralling – 2008-style – into a full-blown economic collapse. Hence, the very last thing anyone wants is to have the Chief Economist wander off the reservation and tell everyone that they’re about to lose their shirts… and a lot more besides.

    Insofar as their predecessors were attempting the same trick – and for much the same reasons – between 2006 and 2008, why on Earth would anybody trust them. After all, it is not as if we didn’t learn in the aftermath of that crash that the models that the economists use are so ungrounded in reality as to be positively dangerous… or – far worse – that the economists had no idea what money is or how it springs into existence. And while this latter has been partially fixed this time around, not one of them has the first idea how the international Eurodollar system operates to generate even more currency than domestic banks do via a similar process of issuing loans.

    Might there, perhaps, be far better predictors of a coming recession than the clearly unreliable models used by economists? Certainly, the proprietary data available to the big corporate investors have proved reliable every time. And their collective response can be found in the inverted yields on government bonds which – for the first time in history – have been simultaneously inverted across the western states. Only once, in the mid-1960s, has a yield curve inversion not been followed by a recession. And even this can be misleading, because the 1960s inversion was followed by an eight-point fall in GDP.

    In a similar manner, business surveys are likely to be more accurate, as they tell us what is happening today, and what steps business managers are taking in response. Purchasing Managers surveys – which have been lacklustre at best in the last year – pointed to a big decline in new orders, which we now see in falling global demand for both manufactured goods and raw commodities.

    Closer to home, a recent ACAS/YouGov survey has found that a third of UK businesses expect to lay-off workers over the coming year:

    “The poll revealed that two in five (41%) large businesses are likely to make redundancies and one in five (20%) small and medium sized (SME) businesses said that were likely to do so.”

    While the lower figure for small businesses may appear to give grounds for optimism, they may rather reflect the inability of a small business to lose workers without rendering the business itself unworkable. That is, these businesses are more likely to go into administration or be bankrupted.

    Unfortunately, one of the things driving central bank optimism over the likely impact of interest rate rises is that we have not experienced widespread unemployment… yet. But this points to one of humanity’s fundamental evolutionary flaws – we cannot process time. Unemployment doesn’t rise immediately after an interest rate rise, but only after a long process of adjustment which may involve businesses seeking to absorb additional costs and/or pass them on to consumers, cutting workers’ hours, and even converting previous employment into self-employment. There is also the confounding impact of fixed-interest loans, which mean that it is only when a loan comes up for renewal after two or three years – as is also common with mortgages – that the full impact of rate rises has to be managed… one reason why it was foolish of the central banks to raise rates as quickly as they have done.

    There are though, even less likely – but arguably more grounded – places to look to find the earliest signs of an impending crisis. My own example of this was on the evening of 31 December 2007. The large number of additional revellers on New Years Eve in the early years of the century caused pubs in the UK to develop a ticketing system – enforced by hired security – which favoured their regular customers… fair enough. Although it meant that those of us only visiting for the holiday struggled to find a pub that wasn’t overcrowded or guarded by bouncers. On 31 December 2007, it all changed. The pubs were almost empty, and on more than one occasion the bouncers happily steered us into the pub.

    To put this into economic terms, going out on New Year’s Eve is a very discretionary activity. And so, large numbers of pubs and restaurants having to turn people away due to overcrowding is a pretty sure sign of a booming economy – people have more than enough disposable cash. By the end of 2007 though, after two years of rising energy prices, and the knock-on impact on general prices, together with a series of interest rate rises, the disposable cash had dried up. And yet the official data at the time pointed to a still thriving economy. People hadn’t stopped spending; they had merely adapted – spending more on essentials and less on discretionary items. And then, as now, unemployment was nowhere to be seen. But just nine months later, we were in the grip of a banking collapse which threatened to crash the entire global economy.

    Nor is spending on beer and curry the only real-world indicator of bad times ahead. As early as last summer, workers in US strip clubs began to notice a big fall in spending, with one strip club manager reporting that “customers are handing out more fivers than $20 bills these days.” This prompted some media interest in “the stripper index” as a better predictor of the state of the economy than any model dreamed up by an economist. And, as Wilfred Chan at the Guardian reported in February, stripping is not the only real-world activity immediately sensitive to changes in the economy:

    “A more contemporary indicator might be found in online dating apps, which also perform well during downturns. During recessions people stay at home more; they don’t want to pay and go to bars… That appears to be the case again today. In November 2022, Match Group, which owns Tinder and Hinge, reported a 2% increase in paying subscribers across its brands, with a 7% jump for Tinder alone.

    “Recently on social media, some people have pointed to other new indicators, like the number of people giving up on their blond-dyed hair, nicknamed ‘recession brunettes.’ Maintaining a high-quality salon dye treatment can cost as much as $200 a month – a tough ask when money’s tight…

    “But some indicators could be even more mundane. The economist and software executive Tony Nash tells me he opened the fridge at his shared office this week and realized there was no room to put his tuna fish sandwich. That was a far cry from a few months ago, when the office was nearly as full, but the fridge was luxuriously empty. He had started bringing his own lunches a few months earlier to save money, and if his workmates were now doing the same, he wonders, could the office fridge’s occupancy be a recession indicator?”

    At the seedier ends of what is euphemistically referred to as the sex industry, there are growing signs of a big economic downturn ahead. As Lauren Crosby Medlicott at the Metro reported earlier this year:

    “With much of the UK in financial turmoil, there is barely an industry that hasn’t been affected by the cost-of-living crisis – and that includes sex workers. That’s why a new grassroots coalition of sex worker-led organisations, Hookers Against Hardship, is raising awareness and demanding change regarding their specific experiences…

    “‘The cost-of-living crisis is having a terrible effect on sex workers,’ explains Niki Adams, of the campaign group English Collective of Prostitutes, which recorded a 30% jump last year in the number of callers seeking support for starting sex work…”

    In the recession of the early 1980s – long before the internet and mobile phones – prostitution was far more visible on the streets of every city’s red light district. And while street prostitution persists, in the internet age, most prostitution goes on out of sight via websites like Adultwork. As Alexandra Heal and Anna Gross at the Financial Times explained last December:

    “Five of the 23 sex workers interviewed say they returned to the sector in 2022 after years away from it and that rising living costs wholly or partly influenced their move. It is widely accepted that most sex workers are women, although male sex work has risen in recent years with the rise of casual selling on platforms such as Grindr and Instagram.

    “An FT analysis of all 21,000 UK escort profiles on the prominent site Adultwork.com suggests three times as many people joined this year as in 2019…”

    The important point about all of these indicators, from sex work to shampoo, is that they are leading. They point to real things which are changing here and now. In contrast, much of the data used by economists and central bankers are backward-looking, and only pick up the impact of these real-world changes long after the economy has passed a point of no-return.

    Perhaps if Andrew Bailey and Huw Pill could be persuaded to pay a visit to their local strip club, or at least drop in at the Bank of England’s admin department to check how many packed lunches are in the office fridge, they might be a little less gung-ho about jacking up interest rates and a little less confident in the – inevitably wrong – predictions being made by the economists.

    Hidden in plain sight

    #135968
    Just Some Randomer
    Participant

    Oh No! A super-healthy fitness instructor and model who was also a frontline nurse during Covid and therefore presumable super-vaxxed.

    https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/tributes-pour-in-after-death-of-limerick-model-and-frontline-nurse-judy-fitzgerald-32/a1701996844.html

    “Ms Fitzgerald, of Mulcair Road, Raheen Heights and Finnitstown, Adare, Co Limerick, “passed away unexpectedly on 27th May 2023” read an obituary posted online.”

    Completely normal.

    #135969
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “US Building New Base in Northern Syria , The construction demonstrates that the US has no plans to leave Syria”

    Must always mention in the same breath that it is on top of the pipeline route. To Europe. To they are all in on it.

    “doctors could be accused of spreading misinformation if they provided advice evidence contrary to the official information.”

    That is to say, “Science”. And “Medicine”.

    “The former commander of the Australian special forces,”

    I’m sure that means he doesn’t know anything. Just like when every leader, every whistleblower, every insider, every President tells you the same. But they, like Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, and Trump, have access to intel you can’t dream of, tells you directly on TV this is happening…well, they’re only joking! YOU, little person working at Peebles stocking shelves, actually know much better what is happening or isn’t, right?

    …Talk about hubris.

    That Trojan horse Cartoon can’t be right: McCarthy still has his pants up.

    Target/Trans:

    “Trans people will always exist”. I guess? And yet: who cares? I can assure you, exactly NO ONE stays awake nights worrying about that. That was never the point. At all. And they’re so “Socially Intelligent” it’s the DAY JOB to know advertising, markets, etc, that they haven’t the faintest idea what people are mad about with Dylan n’ stuff? Newsflash: it’s not that he’s trans, it’s not that he’s gay. NO ONE CARES. So go back to your room and think really hard about what you’ve done. Maybe a dim bulb will go on sometime.

    What I was thinking and what brought this up though, was the realization they can’t get the race war started. Even after 60 years of keeping it warm with Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and literal CIA/FBI paid operatives such as BLM (we have the leaked check stubs now), even with 100% of the media, even with PAYING thousands of protesters to show up from Craigslist, they got nothing, and NOW is when they need it. They’ve got some generalized chaos, sure, but not enough and also no direction and goals to use, AND no white backlash to use. They need power, motion, momentum, to steer the ship or it’s adrift in the tide — don’t care whose. They don’t have this necessary tool to control the revolution…even after causing it, buying it with money. And, Herr Docktor?

    THAT IS WHY THEY MOVED TO TRANS. Heck, they couldn’t even get the gay community to shoot people since this is the most gay-tolerant society in like 10 centuries. The top people like Brandon Straka ARE gay. We’ve got gay (trans) whistleblowers, and a President who openly approves of gay marriage and no one cares. So THAT’S a bust. Total zero. The Social Engineers lost again, got nothing, can’t control things which are just happening out there, without them, and eventually will run them the f—k over, ruining their present power and paychecks. No more Epstein Island for you! Then how are you going to rape my daughter at Minnesota Band Camp? Sadness, sadness everywhere.

    And? Herr Docktor? This is what they’re reduced to. So THEY added the “T” to “LGB – T — “ since I don’t remember there being a committee about it, nobody asked us, nobody voted. Just one day: There it was! “Trans”, a logical premise that ERASES gayness, gay rights, right there AS gay rights. Poof! Document opens: Lie appears. Paid for LAVISHLY….ENDLESSLY. Why? …Just as “P” is being added everywhere, for Pedo, right now. As if Gay people want to be brothered up to pedos and that will go well and safely for them, W. T. F.??? Gay groups actively stand up and say “Um no,” and are immediately attacked by the NY Times. Whhhhhyyy???

    Anyway, you can see in all these ad campaigns – Newsom for example – that if TRANS people aren’t blown on the streets by every passing CIS person, then “You’re Next!!!!!!!!!!!!” “This is what they want!!!!” he says. What do they want, exactly? Spell it out, I’m a little stupid. Well if you don’t give free health care and hand jobs to Trans people, all the gay people will be killllllllllledddd! What? What the actual? No.

    “And not just the Gay people,” Newsome continues, “but all the women and black people too!!!!!” This is Target!!

    Okay, Gavin, let me get this straight, because I’m having trouble hearing through all the drugs you’ve been smoking: If we don’t allow guillotines saying “Homophobe Harvest” and “Hail Satan” on the shelves of Target, the next step is Target will outlaw and stop selling…Womens Clothes? Are you for actual real right now? You’re not high?

    …THEN they’re going to stop selling and outlaw BLACK clothes for people…whatever THEY are?

    Then the GOP is going to round up all the WOMEN into…help me here, you’re being vague…cattle cars and concentration camps, including all the HIGHLY ARMED Southern Conservative women?

    Are you High, or just really stupid? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZeewlhHPJg

    So the best they can do – the BEST – as everyone IN America is ALREADY bi-tri-racial, everyone IN America already knows and are friends/family with gay people, is to create a Trans thing, out of nothing, sub 1%, then tie on with baling wire and duct tape like a 49% of the population or something as “Oh I dunno, if trans can’t (insert some mouth-words here) then some of y’all as well.”

    Let me guess this isn’t going to work. And why I had such a hard time even figuring out what they were up to, because, sir, IT IS STUPID. Even American people aren’t stupid enough for this Stupid. This is Newsom-level Stupid. This is “Starting a Land War in Asia” stupid. …Oh, wait… Maybe “Arming Taiwan with nuclear weapons” stupid. …Oh, wait.

    But that’s what they’re up to. Look at the very precise verbage they’re using, seen quite neatly over at Target. Weirdo people and their weirdo religion … of stupid. The Church of the Endless Stupid.

    “Borrell handed himself a new job: “the defense minister of the European Union.”

    Like they needed Americans to be disarmed when they opened all our prisons and let rapists free, the EU needed a pan-Euro army by now. Like here, over in Europe the people said “No.” They have no army, no way to get one, so they lost. Because they’re losers.

    Instead, Borrell PRETENDS he’s the (non)head of an army they don’t have! An “Army of One”, except he won’t go.

    ““There was a time in America that we were this way: fighting to the last person, we were going to be free or die.”

    Yes, but we Americans fight to the last person…against the GOVERNMENT. Not against like, German-speakers or something. Or what you do: fighting to the last person, to KILL the last OTHER person. All against All, leaving you on top, eating Wagu beef flown in on your private jet, in peace.

    “• Biden, McCarthy Agree on $886 Billion Military Budget (Antiwar)

    Anything else you need to know?

    “• US Obsession With Crushing Russia Has Dismantled Middle East Agenda (Inlakesh)

    Gee, if we had a President who brokered major Middle Eastern Peace deals, we could have got ahead of this, couldn’t we?

    Now if only we had someone, even years ago, who would pass tariffs that would return manufacturing and jobs to black and low-income workers, we wouldn’t be entirely helpless before Russia.

    ““Disinformation Facts is one of the gravest threats weighing on our democracies,” Barrot told France Info “ Fixed it. If I told you the Truth, you wouldn’t do what I want. The decision was clear. I wanted your stuff and you wouldn’t give it to me. Like your daughters.

    “John Cleese Holds Line Against Calls to Cancel Scene in Life of Brian (Turley)

    Where’s he going to keep the fetus, in a BOX???” I’ll retract the joke when you can answer the question.

    CO2: I bet they are waaaay off on the CO2 numbers and a huge number comes out of volcanoes we are only now realizing exist. “Are they seriously proposing”? Yes. Yes they are. They are seriously proposing killing all your kids, and in fact have done so already. And you helped.

    Gymnastics: People still finding whole new horizons to break open. Before the 4 minute mile, before Parkour, before standing backflips, they said none of this could be done. No one even THOUGHT of it being done. Yet do it a little, and it’s easy. There are “Age of Aquarius” reasons for that I won’t get into.

    Now…about growing that food and leaving your neighbors alone… Possible as the 4-minute mile?

    #135970
    Basseterre Kitona
    Participant

    The former commander of the Australian special forces, Ricardo Bosi, made a sensational statement: “Ukraine has been the center of globalists for decades … The CIA has been working in Ukraine for 70 years” pic.twitter.com/i5brJS2t3i

    — Spriter (@Spriter99880) May 29, 2023

    What most people do not understand is that the entire Eastern Europe / Russian operations of the CIA were built off of the legacy of the Germans eastern intelligence operations at the conclusion of WWII (also approximately the same time as CIA establishment). Look into Reinhard Gehlen and his Fremde Heere Ost organization including both pre-war and post-war activities.

    As crazy as it sounds, the American intelligence apparatus has significant Nazi roots in Eastern Europe and—once that is understood—then much of the current affairs in Ukraine make perfect sense.

    #135971
    zerosum
    Participant

    Twitter should be banned for distributing information. Hahahaha

    (Contrary to Lindsay Graham’s untoward utterance, American money has killed far more Ukrainians than Russians.)

    Graham on video in Ukraine 7 years ago telling them “It’s time to go on the offense against Russia and promising US weapons” and now recently saying “Russians are dying, it’s the best money we’ve ever spent”, lets you know that the US plan was always to hurt Russia, not help Ukraine
    Last edited
    6:48 AM · May 29, 2023
    ·31.8K Views

    https://twitter.com/blackintheempir/status/1663180585928368128?cxt=HHwWgICx2cr75pQuAAAA
    ————

    #135972
    oxymoron
    Participant

    There’s a lyric in one of my Rap’s – “smash small biz then need the state…” Target and Budd and all the rest going down is another chess move just like the business closures. It is an inside job. They want to Build Back Better. There are just too many collapsees – fertiliser factories, Nord pipes, Sally’s garden cafe – you name it. Amish are getting harassed by Govt. etc.
    They want full-blown dependence so they can cut losses and then manage – fourth industrial revolution is actually a demo job.
    There is no way this is just herd mentality in advertising. No one hates money that much.

    #135973
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Oh shit I went to Wynnum High School! Crazy what you find on TAE. Mom moved us out of low-income govt housing when I was 10 and got us to Moreton Bay. Beautiful place to spend those years.

    Also thanks for the AI overdub for the turtle video – the most I’ve laughed in minutes.

    #135975
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    John Rubino interview – latest:

    F.S.

    #135976
    Dora
    Participant

    Jay Bhattacharya

    #135977
    zerosum
    Participant

    I assume that Russia knows where the Ukrainian leaderships are located, ( their offices), during the daytime and that during the night, they are sleeping in bunkers. Therefore, it is logical that missiles attacks would be done during the daytime.

    #135978
    John Day
    Participant

    @Zerosum: Thanks for posting this Ukraine war update last night: https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-52923-kiev-rocked-as-new-satellite

    @Dr.D: We drove very close to Marlin,Texas Saturday. (85% non-grads). My wife, Jenny (School Librarian) looked up the stats. Something like 71% of households did not have internet, and about 63% did not have a computer. It’s a rural town of about6400in East Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlin,_Texas
    It might be an ok place.

    #135979
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://sputnikglobe.com/20230530/putin-confirms-russian-strike-on-ukrainian-military-intel-hq-in-kiev-1110796241.html
    Putin Confirms Russian Strike on Ukrainian Military Intel HQ in Kiev

    Earlier, Ukrainian media reported that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense had been hit in an overnight Russian missile strike. The strike followed a series of threats by senior Main Intelligence Directorate officials to “kill Russians” around the world.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that Russia carried out an attack on the headquarters of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry in Kiev.

    “Since the start of the special military operation, the Russian Armed Forces are striking Ukraine, but using high-precision weapons. They are targeting military infrastructure, arms depots and other targets that could be used for military action,” Putin said, speaking to a reporter at an economic exhibition on Tuesday.

    “We’ve already mentioned that we can strike decision-making centers and headquarters. Obviously, the Military Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s headquarters is also such a target. And in response, as you are well aware, the Kiev regime chose a different path, a path to try to intimidate Russia and its citizens, to try to target residential buildings. It is an obvious indicator of terrorist activity,” Putin said, referring to Tuesday morning’s attempted drone attack on the Russian capital.

    #135980
    kultsommer
    Participant

    John Rubino interview
    Financiers are the only ones that deliver grave news with ear to ear smile.

    Kosovo – 43 years old saga:
    Right after the Tito’s death in May of 1980, Kosovar Albanians “discovered” that they’ve been oppressed and decided to express that with numerous massive strikes and disobedience of all sorts. Break-up of Yugoslavia was their moment when they did armed provocations against the Serbs knowing that there will be a response and used that as an excuse to call “literal uncle” Sam for help. Serbian ally Russia, at the time of NATO overtake was weak and on life support itself to intervene other than short and symbolic hold of Pristina airport. The rest was, as saying goes, a history.

    #135981
    kultsommer
    Participant

    CONSENT FACTORY, INC. – C. J.Hopkins
    Excerpt from the article link that brings memories of dealing with Dr D and jb-hb and few others in the comment section:

    A lot of these folks don’t see it that way, because they do not want to face the fact that what they are resisting is global capitalism, so they call it other names like “crony capitalism,” “corporatism,” or “cultural Marxism.” I don’t really care what they call it, except when they call it “communism,” which just makes them sounds extremely silly.

    I could not have said it better, especially that last sentence.

    The New Normal Left

    One more think to add. Have “those two” ever notice that China in regular talk is simply China, however when the country is to put into really negative connotation it is always referred as communist China.
    All coming from a “would-be friendly associate” apparently overtook by the commies?

    #135982
    zerosum
    Participant

    Sergey Lavrov calls the desire of Ukraine nazis, genocide. I call it depopulation?

    https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1873164/
    Answer to a media question at a joint news conference between Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation of the Republic of Burundi Ahmed Shingiro following talks
    1045-30-05-2023

    #135983
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Fantastic news out of Alberta, Canada.
    ——————————

    Meaningless event, … Canada’s Federal Government runs the show, … provincial not so! Just a proverbial foaming on part of junior politicos!

    Anyway, UCP was in power during the pandemic ( this was just re-election of the same tyrants) and my freedom was restricted severely back than and my family members who were vaccinated, … their freedoms were infringement upon just about as mine, … fwiw

    F.S.

    #135984
    Celticbiker
    Participant

    How, in the name of Christ, can people not see or understand who is behind this destruction? Wale up Goyim, the chew wants you dead. Your children are being murdered. Personally, I’m tired of going to funerals…what will it take for people to open their eyes? Who can you not criticize? This is who owns you. The chew is evil, demonic and pshychopathic, that is the world you now are in. Take a real good look around at the kosher nightmare . Do you want to be buried in a box or a slave to the cheworldorder?

    #135985
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Following is via ConsortiumNews – Patrick Lawrence:

    Lennart Meri Lecture 2023 by Fiona Hill
    https://lmc.icds.ee/lennart-meri-lecture-by-fiona-hill/

    You may want to read it first, … or just skip it and read Patrick’s take on it at:

    Deaf, but Not Blind to US Decline

    PATRICK LAWRENCE: Deaf, but Not Blind to US Decline

    F.S.

    #136005
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ Figmund Sreud

    Patrick Lawrence is Wrong

    Blind or stupid are not the explanations we are looking for. Deafness and denial are.

    The MSM and elites are lying, misdirecting, and ignoring the observations of the bloggers.

    #136991
    Brenda8345
    Participant

    This is truly shocking and hot news. I have heard about the situation between Russia and Ukraine and feel that war is really scary. It’s a crime for the people. donkey kong

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