May 042023
 


Pablo Picasso The first communion 1896 (he was 14-15)

 

Medvedev Urges ‘Physical Removal’ Of Zelensky (RT)
Kremlin Accuses Ukraine Of Trying To Assassinate Putin (RT)
Zelenskyy: Ukraine To Receive Combat Aircraft After Start Of Offensive (Az.)
US in Talks on Establishing Military Bases in Finland (Antiwar)
Russia To Retaliate In Case NATO Uses Finnish Territory – Zakharova (TASS)
The ‘Clash Of Civilizations’ Is Already Underway (Fomenko)
EU Bans Ukraine Grain Exports To Five Members (RT)
RFK Jr Shares Opinion On Key US Mistake With Russia (RT)
RFK Jr Pledges To Pardon Assange (RT)
The US Dollar is Finished (Paul Craig Roberts)
Pepe Escobar: Global De-Dollarization Nearing ‘Crossroads Moment’ (Sputnik)
South American Nations Seek To Avoid Dollar (RT)
Asian Nations Sign Pact To Shift Away From Dollar (RT)
Who Is Winning The Scramble For Africa? (Fazi)
PacWest Craters 60% On Report It Is Seeking Buyers Or Capital Raise (ZH)
God Save Us All: Britain Is About To Get The King It Deserves (Marche)

 

 

 

 

Racist Biden

 

 

 

 

McLuhan

 

 

Gervais

 

 

https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/status/1653654163388088320

‘The Anglo-Saxons have not abandoned their plans to build a unipolar world, they want to destroy or weaken Russia, but do not take into account its power;
‘Experiments to revive neo-Nazi ideology in the West must be harshly suppressed, they lead to a global catastrophe;
‘The situation in the U.S. is becoming turbulent and unmanageable;
‘The U.S. intends to use Ukraine only as a territory with resources and does not seek to preserve it as a state;
‘European politics is in the deepest moral and intellectual decline;
‘The U.S., using NATO mechanisms, in fact, occupied Europe, European officials obediently carry out the military tasks of the alliance;
‘The U.S. has not seen combat on its continent in nearly 160 years, so American elites easily talk about the need to arm themselves and prepare for the resumption of atomic testing;
‘The West continues to steadily increase political, military and economic pressure on Russia;
‘Many U.S. and European citizens feel good about Russia and could become Russian citizens if they wanted to;
Russia continues to uphold traditional values that have been trampled in the U.S., so the number of Americans wishing to move here is only growing;
‘The West uses terrorist and extremist organizations against Russia;
‘The U.S. is not shy about speaking about the use of Russia’s water resources by all nations of the world;
‘EU officials ignore the arguments of professional environmentalists about the benefits of cooperation with Russia in the field of energy.
 

 

 

 

They’re trying to make you believe Russia did this, like Nordstream. I was going to wait and see. And then I read this:

“The Ukrainian postal service has already released a stamp design showing the Kremlin in flames, however, just as they did after the Crimean Bridge bombing last October – also denied by Zelensky and his government.”

Medvedev Urges ‘Physical Removal’ Of Zelensky (RT)

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev drew a comparison between Ukraine and Nazi Germany on Wednesday, after two drones targeted the Kremlin. The vice-chair of the national security council urged Moscow to retaliate against President Vladimir Zelensky. “After today’s terrorist act, there are no options left but the physical removal of Zelensky and his clique,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram. “We don’t need him to sign [their] unconditional surrender. Hitler, as it is known, didn’t sign his either. There will always be someone like Admiral Doenitz to sit in as president,” he added, in reference to the Nazi officer who officially replaced Hitler after he committed suicide in April 1945 and presided over Germany’s capitulation. Medvedev’s ire was provoked by last night’s drone attack on Moscow, which Russia blamed on Ukraine. Two UAVs exploded over the Kremlin and the Russian Senate, with authorities saying they were brought down by air defenses. There were no injuries or reports of damage.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time, working from another residence instead. “We consider this a premeditated terrorist action and an attempt against the Russian president,” the Kremlin said in a statement after the incident, adding that “Russia reserves the right to retaliate in a manner, place and time of its choosing.” City authorities in Moscow and St. Petersburg have already responded by imposing a ban on drone flights. Medvedev was president of Russia between 2008 and 2012, and then prime minister until 2020. Currently, he serves as the deputy chair of the national security council, which is formally chaired by Putin. Despite his prior reputation as a moderate liberal, he has been far more hawkish on Ukraine than the official Kremlin.

Last week, for example, Medvedev advocated “mass destruction of personnel and military equipment”and a “maximum military defeat” of Kiev once the much-hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive begins, arguing that the “Nazi regime in Kiev” must be “completely dismantled” and “former Ukraine”entirely demilitarized. Kiev has officially denied having anything to do with the drones. Zelensky insisted that Ukraine fights on its own territory and has no weapons to reach Moscow. His aide, Mikhail Podoliak, insisted Ukraine was fighting “an exclusively defensive war” and claimed the Kremlin attack was the work of “local resistance forces” in Russia. The Ukrainian postal service has already released a stamp design showing the Kremlin in flames, however, just as they did after the Crimean Bridge bombing last October – also denied by Zelensky and his government.

Read more …

If this had been the White House the US would strike hard.

Kremlin Accuses Ukraine Of Trying To Assassinate Putin (RT)

Russia says it downed two drones that were targeting the Kremlin in Moscow last night and accused Ukraine of attempting to kill President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin said the drones were disabled by special services using electronic radar assets. Mr Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state news agency, adding there was no material damage to buildings. Ukraine says it is making no comment. Unverified footage on Russian social media showed smoke over central Moscow in the early hours of Wednesday. In a statement, the Kremlin said: “Last night, the Kyiv regime attempted to carry out a strike on the Kremlin residence of the President of the Russian Federation with unmanned aerial vehicles.”


It said it regarded this “as a planned terrorist act and an assassination attempt on the president”, and Russia “reserves the right to take retaliatory measures wherever and whenever is deemed necessary”. Mr Putin had not been hurt and his schedule would continue as normal, the statement said. Fragments of the drones had fallen on the Kremlin site but no-one had been hurt, it said. The Kremlin also noted the incident had come shortly before Russia’s 9 May Victory Day parade, which foreign dignitaries were expected to attend. The Ukrainian presidential office told the BBC it was not commenting at this time.

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“But we like your planes…”

Zelenskyy: Ukraine To Receive Combat Aircraft After Start Of Offensive (Az.)

Partners will provide Ukraine with combat aircraft after the start of the offensive of its armed forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a press conference with President of Finland Sauli Niinisto, Report informs referring to UNIAN. The president of Finland noted that the country is ready to provide its own fighter jets to Ukraine. He noted that Finland does not have F-16 aircraft, but there are Hornet fighters, but they are very old, and there are not very many of them. “The Finnish position is geographically significantly different from many European countries and NATO countries… Now we are replacing outdated Hornets with F-35s. These are very large purchase volumes for a country like us,” he said.


At the same time, the president of Finland added that his country could not give Ukraine its Hornets before it received new aircraft, and by that time the Hornets would already be unusable. “But we like your planes…” Zelenskyy replied. He once again stressed that Ukraine needs combat aircraft. Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said in early April that the Ukrainian counteroffensive could begin in the summer.

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NATO on Russia’s borders.

US in Talks on Establishing Military Bases in Finland (Antiwar)

The US and Finland are working out a deal that would allow the US to establish a military presence in the Nordic country, as Helsinki is now a member of NATO. According to Newsweek, Finnish Foreign Ministry official Mikael Antell confirmed the two nations are negotiating a Defense Cooperation Agreement that may allow for the construction of significant military infrastructure on Finnish soil. The potential agreement would not include nuclear weapons, although Finnish officials have previously not ruled out hosting nukes. The US has nuclear weapons stationed in five NATO countries under the alliance’s nuclear sharing program but not in any nations that became members after the end of the Cold War. Antell said the potential DCA “enables troops to enter the country, stay on the ground, the pre-storage of material and possible infrastructure investments through the funds granted by the US Congress to the Pentagon.”


The US and Finland have been in talks on the DCA since last fall, and discussions on the deal took place in Helsinki last week. “The agreement also defines the facilities and areas where the cooperation would be focused,” Antell said. “They are basically military areas and garrisons. In principle, there can be more than one, but the discussions are still open in this regard.” Finland shares an over 800-mile border with Russia, and its ascension into NATO means the region will become further militarized. Moscow has plans to beef up its military presence near the border in western Russia and has said it will take more steps to respond to the expansion of NATO infrastructure in Finland.

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Finland has been warned.

Russia To Retaliate In Case NATO Uses Finnish Territory – Zakharova (TASS)

Russia will be forced to take military-technical and other retaliatory measures if NATO uses Finland’s territory, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “We are closely following NATO’s plans regarding Finland. We confirm that Russia will be forced to take retaliatory measures of both military-technical and other nature to curb threats to our national security that appear in this connection,” the diplomat said at the briefing on Wednesday, commenting on the plans to conclude an agreement allowing the US military to use Finnish territory. The spokeswoman also pointed out that Moscow regarded such plans as Helsinki’s loss of sovereignty. “However, both Finland itself and NATO must realize that pumping Northern Europe with troops will only contribute to growing military and political tensions in this region as well,” Zakharova concluded.

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“The concept of “globalization” has shifted from being a West-dominated phenomenon, no longer synonymous with “Westernization,” to a more diverse one which the US and collective West realize they no longer control.”

The ‘Clash Of Civilizations’ Is Already Underway (Fomenko)

For the past 400 years or so, Western nations have dominated the world. European empires, as well as the United States, subjugated nations and built colonial states across the globe. This was done primarily for economic reasons, allowing these countries to enrich themselves at the expense of colonies and creating vast commercial empires which were enforced by military power. Such imperialists framed themselves as benevolent guardians who represented a higher form of civilization and values which they were “bringing” to the colonized. Thus, as they spread their empires throughout Africa, Latin America, the Indian subcontinent, Asia, and elsewhere. Westerners also sought to expand their ideology and value systems. It is because of this that “Westernization” and “globalization” have effectively meant the same thing, as the empires of old were the ones that brought the world together through the economic and trading system they created.

But starting in the 20th century, many of the countries which were colonized by the West started to resist their oppressors, and movements for independence and liberation surged. One such movement, of course, was the rise of the Communist Party in China led by Mao Zedong, and every movement he inspired. While the US triumphed in the original Cold War and ushered in a new wave of globalization, styled as Pax-Americana, that era has now come to an end. This is because the world has changed, specifically through the emergence of China as a global power. The concept of “globalization” has shifted from being a West-dominated phenomenon, no longer synonymous with “Westernization,” to a more diverse one which the US and collective West realize they no longer control.

In other words, “globalization” is no longer a one-way road whereby the West imposes its values unilaterally on the rest of the world in conjunction with economic dominance. Countries such as China, as seen through programs such as the Belt and Road Initiative, are able to benefit from it too. This is where the new “clash of civilizations” comes in, precisely because China has gained the ability to challenge the West’s vision for the world on a scale never seen before, and even surpassing that of the former Soviet Union. Contemporary China frames itself as a model within a multipolar order, seeking to reject the Western-centric version which has dominated the world for centuries and allowed these countries to exploit and change others. In doing so, China refuses “Westernization” and positions itself as its own “civilizational pole.”

Of course, it is not alone, and Beijing finds support from many nations that have similarly been “net losers” and subject to colonialism, and who all seek a fairer international system. For example, this has great appeal to countries in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, South Asia and, of course, Russia. Many of these countries see the onslaught of Western values not only as historical threats to their national sovereignty, but also to their own cultural identity. Why, for example, is a country such as the United Arab Emirates, a traditional Western partner, now so pro-China? As a highly conservative Arab state, it views the pursuit of Western liberalism as a threat to its own Islamic values, and sees support in a Chinese state which, even espousing a different ideology, encourages plurality and respect for different civilizations as opposed to Western evangelism.

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And then act like it’s their idea to begin with…

“exceptional and temporary preventive measures on imports” of the four items to “alleviate logistical bottlenecks”

EU Bans Ukraine Grain Exports To Five Members (RT)

The European Union has blocked the import of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed to five member states for at least a month. The measure went into effect on Tuesday evening and is scheduled to expire June 5, unless it is extended. The European Commission announced the “exceptional and temporary preventive measures on imports” of the four items to “alleviate logistical bottlenecks” in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The EU regulation supersedes the state-level bans enacted by some of those governments. Kiev can still use “a common customs transit procedure” to export the grain and seed-oil components to other EU member states or outside the bloc, but cannot sell them to the five “frontline” countries.

Sofia, Budapest, Warsaw and Bratislava had “committed to lift their unilateral measures” on the four items “and any other products coming from Ukraine,” the Commission said. In return the EU will provide “financial support” to their farmers. No number was provided in Tuesday evening’s statement, but media reports last week spoke of a €100 million ($110 million) package. According to the Commission, the measure was enacted to address the concerns of farmers in the five border countries, while upholding the EU’s “strong commitment to support Ukraine and preserve its capabilities to export its grains” described as “critical to feed the world and keep food prices down” in the face of “Russian aggression.” The same justification was invoked last year, when the EU suspended tariffs on imports of Ukrainian agricultural goods.

Kiev has argued that letting Ukraine export its grain via the EU and the Black Sea Initiative would help countries in Africa and Asia dependent on food imports. In practice, the arrangement flooded the EU with cheap raw materials, endangering the livelihoods of farmers in neighboring countries, whose work is highly regulated by Brussels.The EU did not mention any of that in its announcement, however, saying only that the imports resulted in “saturated storage capacities and logistical chains.” Meanwhile, Russian grain and fertilizer remain blocked from reaching the rest of the world, because the US and EU sanctions against Moscow’s shipping industry have closed off all avenues for their transportation. Russia has warned that, unless that part of the Black Sea Initiative is implemented, it will stop participating in the deal.

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“What is the purpose of NATO other than to oppose Russia? If you’re addressing Russia in a hostile way from the beginning, of course their reaction is going to be hostile back..”

RFK Jr Shares Opinion On Key US Mistake With Russia (RT)

Instead of listening to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warnings about “red lines,” the US has repeatedly crossed them, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview published on Wednesday. The Democrat running for US president also said Washington should have either invited Moscow to NATO or dismantled the anti-Russian alliance after the Cold War. “We should have listened to Putin over many years. We made a commitment to Russia, to Gorbachev, that we would not move NATO one inch to the east. Then we went in, and we lied,” Kennedy told the outlet UnHerd. Instead of offering to integrate Russia into the West, as many diplomats urged in 1991, the US expanded NATO to its borders. “What is the purpose of NATO other than to oppose Russia? If you’re addressing Russia in a hostile way from the beginning, of course their reaction is going to be hostile back,” Kennedy said.

He described what happened in Kiev in 2014 as “essentially a coup d’etat” supported by the US, recalling the infamous phone call in which Victoria Nuland was “handpicking a new cabinet” hostile to Moscow. “If Mexico did that and then started killing – they killed 14,000 Russians in Donbass, the Ukrainian government – if Mexico did that to expatriate Americans, we’d invade in a second,” Kennedy said, adding that Putin “repeatedly told us: these are red lines, you’re crossing.” American leaders should be able to “put yourself in the other guy’s shoes,” just like his uncle John F. Kennedy did during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, stepping back from the brink of nuclear war, which all of his advisers were pushing for.

Kennedy condemned the “barbaric and illegal invasion” of Ukraine and called Putin a ‘gangster’, a ‘thug’ and a ‘bully’, but said the conflict needed to be settled quickly, because the US had already “sacrificed 300,000” Ukrainians in battle. While the White House presented aiding Kiev as a humanitarian mission, “every step that we’ve taken has been to enlarge the conflict and to maximize bloodshed,” he said. “Let’s be honest: It’s a US war against Russia, to essentially sacrifice the flower of Ukrainian youth in an abattoir of death and destruction for the geopolitical ambition of the neocons” to see regime change in Moscow, Kennedy said. He added that the people who created the problem weren’t capable of settling it. Asked about his proposed solution, Kennedy said that something like the Minsk accords, agreeing to keep Ukraine out of NATO, and removing nuclear missile launchers from Russia’s borders might work.

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“The America I love doesn’t imprison dissidents.”

RFK Jr Pledges To Pardon Assange (RT)

US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to pardon “brave truth-tellers” including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently being held in a British high security prison as he fights extradition to America. The US “actively persecutes journalists and whistleblowers” instead of championing free speech, Democratic contender Kennedy tweeted on Tuesday. “This isn’t the Soviet Union. The America I love doesn’t imprison dissidents.” The Australian-born Assange is effectively facing a lifetime sentence for his role in the leaks by US military whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Assange was arrested in Britain in 2019 after Ecuador revoked his political asylum, allowing police to enter its embassy in London, where he had been holed up for seven years.

Assange was then sent to Belmarsh prison, a facility ordinarily used to house some of the most dangerous criminals in the UK. Kennedy, who is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election, said he would pardon both Assange and Manning. The latter spent seven years in US custody after leaking troves of classified materials to WikiLeaks in 2010, but had her sentence commuted by then-President Barack Obama in 2017. The US government has accused Assange of encouraging and facilitating Manning and is aiming to extradite him for trial. Assange’s defenders have argued that his trial would set a dangerous precedent, and that his actions were no different from other publishers of classified documents who sought to protect their sources.

Kennedy named a number of “other brave truth-tellers” who deserve similar exoneration, including Edward Snowden, who now resides in Russia. Instead of prosecuting them, the presidential hopeful pledged he would “investigate the corruption and crimes they exposed.” Kennedy is among three people to have formally announced their bids for the Democratic nomination. While incumbent President Joe Biden is the frontrunner, Kennedy is polling at 19%, with author Marianne Williamson trailing at 9%, according to a recent Fox News survey. The Biden administration has said it has no plans to drop the charges against Assange, despite calls by media freedom advocates. Critics have accused Washington of hypocrisy, citing its habit of lecturing other nations over press freedoms.

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“Are You Ready for High Inflation and Collapsing Living Standards?”

The US Dollar is Finished (Paul Craig Roberts)

The decision to offshore US manufacturing was an economy-wrecking decision. The goods that Apple, Nike, Levi, and all the others make in China and Asia enter the US as imports when they are marketed in the US. The US, having moved its manufacturing offshore, has little to export to cover the trade deficit resulting from imports. By using their trade surpluses with the US to purchase US Treasuries, foreigners financed the US budget deficit and US wars. As countries increasingly settle their trade imbalances in other currencies, foreign demand for US debt is declining. The consequence is that the supply of dollars is increasing, but the demand for them is falling. This means a drop in the exchange value of the dollar, which means a rise in import prices. The worst inflations are caused by the decline in the exchange rate of a currency. It is an inflation that the central bank cannot fight by throwing people out of work.


This is America’s future, and I don’t mean in ten years. I have been warning of this development, but the presstitute media does not report any facts unfriendly to the official narratives, everyone of which is a lie. The US can hold on for a while longer by having the Japanese, European, and British central banks print their currencies with which to purchase dollars, thus cushioning the dollar’s decline. But the consequence is that these currencies also will fall in value relative to those outside the dollar system. In other words, the plight of the dollar will spread throughout the empire. Wall Street, greedy corporate executives and boards, and incompetent policymakers in Washington offshored US manufacturing and made the US import-dependent. Next they destroyed the dollar as world reserve currency and thereby doomed the dollar to devaluation against other currencies, and this will destroy US power.

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“The combination of aggressive US sanctions policy and reckless government spending have dramatically reduced the greenback’s international appeal.”

Pepe Escobar: Global De-Dollarization Nearing ‘Crossroads Moment’ (Sputnik)

De-dollarization is heading for a breakthrough due to rising global discontent with US ‘casino capitalism’, Pepe Escobar, geopolitical analyst and veteran journalist, told Sputnik News. “It’s a gigantic snowball all over the world. We cannot even keep up with it,” Pepe Escobar said in an interview with the New Rules podcast. “It’s very important what is going to be discussed at the BRICS summit in South Africa. This will probably be the crossroads moment where things are going to then go.” Escobar explained that a growing number of countries in the Global South were doing the math and concluding that the US dollar was not a safe bet. The combination of aggressive US sanctions policy and reckless government spending have dramatically reduced the greenback’s international appeal.

“If you want to analyze the patterns these past two decades, you need to understand the fact that, if you are rich in commodities and if you are a productive capitalist nation and you decide to issue a currency, it will be internationally respected because people will know it’s based on facts, actual provenance, actual wealth,” he said. “That’s contrary to the system that we have now, which I have been calling it ‘casino capitalism’ for years. It’s futures, it’s bets, it’s suppositions. It may go right or wrong. If you lose, you lose it all. The house mostly always wins because the house is the one who prints the currency. It’s backed by nothing, literally, by a country that owes $30 trillion [in national debt] now and it will never be able to repay it.” To make matters even worse, the US Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes has made borrowing in dollars expensive for almost everyone in the world.

Prior to the Fed’s move, Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned in January 2022 that the US raising interest rates could backfire on the global economy and especially on countries with higher levels of dollar-denominated debt. The ongoing US banking crisis threatens to further destabilize international financial markets. No country in the world wants to “catch a cold” when the US economy “sneezes,” as memories of the 2008 financial crisis linger. “They say, ‘look, why do we have to be subjected to this kind of arrangement?’ And of course, before, as we all know, it was ‘the Empire of bases’, over 800 military bases all over the world, ‘the power of the financial markets’, ‘the power of soft culture’, ‘the power of cancel culture’, but the Global South is not intimidated anymore. I think this is the first [time] in this new millennium. We never had this before in the past two and a half centuries, at least,” Escobar said.

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“I made a commitment to my friend Alberto Fernandez that I will do every and any sacrifice so we can help Argentina in this difficult moment.”

South American Nations Seek To Avoid Dollar (RT)

The presidents of Argentina and Brazil have announced plans to continue working on the development of a mechanism allowing them to avoid using the US dollar in bilateral trade. Crisis-hit Argentina is seeking to rebuild its reserves to cover trade costs and future debt repayments as a key component of a major debt deal with international creditors. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Argentinian counterpart Alberto Fernandez were expected this week to reveal the new mechanism allowing Argentine firms to continue trading with Brazil without draining dollars from the country’s reserves. However, the leaders announced following a meeting on Tuesday that the plan still needed to be fine-tuned.

“The meeting was long, difficult and we will carry out many more meetings,” Lula said alongside Fernandez, as quoted by the Associated Press. “I made a commitment to my friend Alberto Fernandez that I will do every and any sacrifice so we can help Argentina in this difficult moment.” The proposed scheme reportedly includes a line of credit to finance Brazilian businesses that export to Argentina, aimed at avoiding the use of US dollars in settlements. According to Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, the two nations are studying possible guarantees in order for Brazil’s government to provide financing.

“They’ve made the decision to help make sure that Brazilian companies continue exporting to Argentina and they had asked us to do some homework, which we have already done, and have to do with the necessary guarantees,” Fernandez said. He added that Economy Ministry officials will be meeting their Brazilian counterparts next week to discuss the details. Earlier this year, Argentina sealed an agreement with China that allows companies in the debt-laden nation to pay for Chinese imports in yuan. Buenos Aires owes $44 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The nation is currently renegotiating the agreement signed with the fund last year to restructure some of its loans.

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Lots of BRICS+ candidates.

Asian Nations Sign Pact To Shift Away From Dollar (RT)

The central banks of South Korea and Indonesia have signed a memorandum of understanding to promote bilateral trade in national currencies, moving away from the US dollar as an intermediary. The step is expected to help South Korean and Indonesian corporations to lower transaction costs and exposure to exchange rate risks, the central banks of the two nations said in a joint statement. The Bank of Indonesia and the Bank of Korea highlighted that they would continue to strengthen collaboration through information-sharing and regular discussions, as the two nations seek to boost financial ties. The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the 26th ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting that kicked off in the South Korean city of Incheon on May 2.


The ASEAN+3 group consists of the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which are joined by China, Japan, and South Korea. Attempts to shift away from the greenback in international trade have been gaining momentum among major economic blocs such as ASEAN and the BRICS group, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The step comes against the backdrop of sweeping sanctions introduced by Western nations against Russia, a major global energy producer and exporter. The head of the Indonesian central bank, Perry Warjiyo, said last month that his nation was implementing a shift away from the dollar with countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, China, and Japan. In March, Brazil and China signed an agreement to trade in their own currencies, dropping the greenback as an intermediary.

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“The West’s appeals for democracy and national independence, on the other hand, are perceived as hypocritical, given its history on the continent.”

Who Is Winning The Scramble For Africa? (Fazi)

Reports of violence breaking out in Africa rarely raise eyebrows in the West these days. Perhaps we feel it has little to do with us, whatever the West’s historical responsibilities for the continent’s problems. But as the recent events in Sudan demonstrate, this is no longer the case. The turmoil unfolding there is of far more importance to us than we might think. While the fighting in Sudan is, on the face of it, little more than a power struggle between the two rival factions that control the country, there is also an important international and geopolitical dimension to the conflict. At its heart is the great powers’ competition for influence over the continent — what has been called the “new scramble for Africa”. Given its vast natural resources, including gold, its agricultural wealth and its geopolitically strategic location, Sudan has long attracted regional and international power plays.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Israel have all been cultivating economic and political ties with the country’s leadership — and its two warlords in particular. One country, however, stands out for its “special relationship” with Sudan: Russia. Putin made sure to cultivate an alliance with the country’s former leader, Omar al-Bashir, deploying the infamous Wagner Group in 2017 to provide him with political and military support. More importantly, that same year, al-Bashir signed a military cooperation agreement with Russia which included allowing the Russians to establish a military base along the Red Sea, ensuring a permanent presence for the Russian Navy in a crucial region and easy access to the Indian Ocean.

Al-Bashir was overthrown in 2019, before the agreement came into play, but Russia maintained good relations with the new administration’s military leaders, especially Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, whose Rapid Support Forces control the country’s gold mines. The transitional military-civilian government confirmed the decision to allow Russia to establish a base in 2020, but backtracked the following year under pressure from the US. However, once the civilian members of government were purged in yet another coup, in 2021, the agreement was revived. Today, there is no indication that the issue of the naval base played a role in the recent outbreak of fighting, nor are any of the major foreign players openly backing either of the two warring factions. But if one side should explicitly align itself with, say, Russia, the conflict could easily turn into another front of the proxy war between the West and Russia, alongside Ukraine, with potentially disastrous consequences for the entire continent.

For Africa is already the stage of the New Great Game of the 21st century — the struggle between Western countries, China and Russia for influence over this immensely resource-rich, young continent predicted to be the next frontier of growth. In this game, Russia is particularly well-positioned. More so than the West, it enjoys strong historical and ideological ties with many African nations. The Soviet Union was the primary ally of several nations on the continent during the Cold War, and supported various anti-colonial and post-colonial movements; many countries are still ruled by parties that were supported by Moscow during their struggles for liberation from colonial or white supremacist rule, including Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC). The West’s appeals for democracy and national independence, on the other hand, are perceived as hypocritical, given its history on the continent. Hence Russia’s argument that the war in Ukraine is actually part of a broader struggle against Western imperialism resonates in Africa, which harbours strong grievances against the West over its colonial and neocolonial practices.

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And PacWest is not the only bank in trouble.

PacWest Craters 60% On Report It Is Seeking Buyers Or Capital Raise (ZH)

Earlier today, when Jerome Powell openly lied to the American People during the FOMC press conference stating without a hint of irony that the US banking system is “sound and resilient”… …we balked: how could this former lawyer lie so brazenly to the American people, the narrator wondered, when in just the past few weeks we had seen over half a trillion in bank failures, making the current bank failure episode even worse than the global financial crisis? Well, as usual, the narrator was right, because while Powell’s lies were still ringing in our ears, the next regional bank collapse was on its say. Shortly after the close, Bloomberg reported that another regional, California-based bank (of course), PacWest Bancorp., was weighing a range of strategic options, including a sale.

The Beverly Hills-based bank – whose financial conditions it appears has been far worse than the Fed, which just hiked another 25bps, thought – has been working with a financial adviser and has also been considering a breakup or a capital raise, according to Bloomberg sources. While it is open to a sale, the company hasn’t started a formal auction process. According to the report, “an outright sale has been hindered because there aren’t many potential buyers interested in the entire bank, which comprises a community lender called Pacific Western Bank and some commercial and consumer lending businesses, the people said.” And similar to SVB and FRC, “a potential buyer would also have to potentially book a big loss marking down some of its loans, the people said.”

On Tuesday, PacWest tumbled 28% as investors retreated from regional bank stocks following JPMorgan’s deal on Monday for the failed First Republic Bank, a transaction which did nothing to ease concerns about regional bank viability, which was to be perfectly expected since today’s rate hike would only make the regional bank deposit run even bigger, something which was obvious to everyone…… except the Fed!

And sure enough, following the Bloomberg report, PacWest – which had $28 billion in deposits at last check (far less as of this moment) and $44 billion in assets, saw its stock plunge more than 60% after hours… Bear in mind that just a week ago, PacWest shares surged 17% after the midsize lender said deposits stabilized toward the end of March and rose in April. “Importantly, deposits stabilized in the latter part of March and rebounded nicely in April, increasing approximately $700 million subsequent to quarter-end,” President and CEO Paul Taylor said in the release Tonight’s dismal news comes six weeks after PacWest said it had shored up its access to cash by raising $1.4bn via a lending facility from Apollo-backed investment firm Atlas SP Partners.

Read more …

“Say it out loud and try not to snicker: “The coronation of Charles the Third.”

”..you’re waking up in a country where a priest is going to smear oil – vegan oil from Jerusalem – on a rather pinkish, rather broad forehead to signify one man’s status as the Lord’s anointed.”

God Save Us All: Britain Is About To Get The King It Deserves (Marche)

Say it out loud and try not to snicker: “The coronation of Charles the Third.” In a time of post-post-colonialism, of anti-racist iconoclasm, a time in which the very notion of gender as a legitimate distinction is contested, and Christianity has been reduced to a scandal management system with costumes, a 74-year-old British gentleman will ride a fancy carriage to an old church where a few other elderly British gentlemen in gilded dresses will declare him emperor, patriarch and head of state because God says so. You might think you live in a time of truth and reconciliation, or perhaps even, if you’re feeling optimistic, progress. But this week if you’re British or a member of the 56 sovereign states that still, somehow, find themselves in the Commonwealth, you’re waking up in a country where a priest is going to smear oil – vegan oil from Jerusalem – on a rather pinkish, rather broad forehead to signify one man’s status as the Lord’s anointed.

The coronation cannot be described as a popular event. In April, various polls gauging the public mood around Charles’s ascension found that only 15% of the British population were “very interested” in the coronation. In Canada, where I live, the majority of citizens are in favor of severing ties with the monarchy altogether (up to 70% in Quebec). The crown itself seems embarrassed by all the fuss. The coronation ceremony has been curtailed, and will last a little over an hour, we’re promised, as opposed to the three hours allotted for Queen Elizabeth II. For Canada, the absurdity of the coronation is basic: we are not a British colony, but we have a British king. For the British, the national pride supposed to underlie a coronation has been exposed and harried: UK GDP cut by 4%, a lost £100bn a year in output, the pound losing a fifth of its value, all since Brexit. It’s hard to celebrate when inflation is at 10.1% and the Bank of England has to raise interest rates again, especially when it costs £100bn.

As of April, only 34% of Britons still believe that Brexit was the correct decision. And underlying the recognition of their error is a dawning realization of the failure at its root: the British people – not the press, not the politicians – failed to understand their place in the world. Nostalgia and vanity, and ultimately self-deceit, led them into a calamity which seems, at the moment, impossible to recover from. This week, on his fancy carriage ride, Charles will be surrounded by many preposterous objects. He’ll be holding the world’s largest diamond on the end of a stick. He’ll be wearing a hat with a ruby that Henry V wore into battle. He’ll be sitting on a chair over the Stone of Destiny, a stone English kings stole from the Scots almost a millennium ago. The real absurdity will be deeper, for both Canada and Britain. Charles is a symptom of twin identity crises: the man represents us, but it’s hard to think of anyone less representative. I mean, it’s all fun and games, but his face is going to be printed on my money. “God save the king!” I find myself shouting, absurdly.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

James Lindsay

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle May 4 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 43 total)
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  • #134600

    Pablo Picasso The first communion 1896 (he was 14-15)   • Medvedev Urges ‘Physical Removal’ Of Zelensky (RT) • Kremlin Accuses Ukraine Of Trying
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle May 4 2023]

    #134605
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Pablo Picasso The first communion 1896 (he was 14-15)

    Wow, I couldn’t even build a decent go-kart at that age and look at this painting! Some people just put you in your place, their talent is so enormous.

    #134606
    aspnaz
    Participant

    “What is the purpose of NATO other than to oppose Russia? If you’re addressing Russia in a hostile way from the beginning, of course their reaction is going to be hostile back..”

    The ironic thing about the current political changes is that the globalist oligarchs – the WEF backers – need someone to fight. They just do not have the nouse to work out how to live together in peace and harmony, so they will need conflict, yet here they are looking for a new world order where they are in charge and all people are under their control. But they live to fight. What they need to work out who are they going to fight? They need a fight.

    It looks like even if they achieve their one world government, they would simply start fighting each other and end up destroying their creation, in the same way as they ended up destroying the USA and Europe. Some people are just mental and there is nothing you can do about it, they are so caught up in their own stories that they cannot escape into reality and then into happiness. Kind of sad.

    Meanwhile, I brewed a close of “Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA” today, after brewing a clone of their “Sierra Nevada Pale Ale” last month. Wow, did the wort taste good, super bitter and super sweet all at the same time, this is going to be a good one. Soon to be bitter with a decent ABV.

    #134607
    Dr. D
    Participant

    15 Days Finally Ends After 1,141 Days

    Everybody saw this coming. We know that they know that we know they are lying. Yet they are still lying.

    Thankfully the lockdowns worked. …Oh wait. And the pandemic was stopped. …Oh wait. But when it didn’t work anywhere and half the world without them fared far better, they stopped the lockdowns that didn’t work, right? …Oh wait.

    No, Washington Post, The Experts Were The Whole Problem


    “A Record Low 13% Of Eighth Grade Students Are Proficient In History

    Just like this. After the DoE and the competency kept dropping, they reversed course back to what was working, right? 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago? No. Everyone knows that if we used a textbook from 1960, we’d have to re-enact black slavery and use steamships again.

    1 “Ukrainian Oligarch Offered Cash For Anyone Willing To Fly Drone Into Moscow [on May 9]
    2 “Zelensky insists “We didn’t attack Putin.”

    Different question though. Why May 9? That was the day the USSR defeated Germany. So why should Ukraine care? That would be like applying all your efforts to President’s Day, or Armistice Day, Nov 11. I mean, do you hate the Easter Bunny? Don’t like fireworks? Hate huge discount sales?

    No. It’s because the USSR May 9 victory is over NAZI Germany. That’s why it bugs them very personally.

    “there are no options left but the physical removal of Zelensky and his clique,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram. “We don’t need him to sign [their] unconditional surrender.”

    So…WWIII? We’re very disengaged and unworried, like WWI. Worse, Moscow did no immediate actions or retaliations. Cold fire is the worst revenge. Watching, planning, intelligently striking the most effectively. Not emotional at all, or not in that immature, surface way.

    “[Zelensky] He once again stressed that Ukraine needs combat aircraft.”

    To do what? Russian anti-aircraft batteries are without peer. They could most probably take out all the F35s without problem. But that’s not a win: the F35s are taken out by a light rain.

    “The ‘Clash Of Civilizations’ Is Already Underway (Fomenko)”

    Just since 10,000 years ago. History didn’t stop. Like sex, each generation just thinks they invented it.

    “Kennedy is polling at 19%, with author Marianne Williamson trailing at 9%, “

    Somebody pointed out: what is Williamson doing on this list? She has no connections and no experience for office. Now is not a great time for that. So any random gal is better than every Democrat who’s already in office nationwide? Does that demonstrate your talent pool right now? If not, what does it say?

    “Crisis-hit Argentina is seeking to rebuild its reserves”

    Hit. Like an asteroid. Poor wee darlings never did nothin’ wrong. Defaulting every 10 years for the last 100 years for the same failed policies that have made Argentina from the 1st to the 4th world nation had nothing to do with it. Anyway…

    ““The West’s appeals for democracy and national independence, on the other hand, are perceived as hypocritical, given its history on the continent.”

    They mean the North American Continent? Where 20 years ago top Universities already concluded the U.S. was no longer a democracy in any reasonable form?

    PacWest: Already more $$ lost in the banking collapse than all 20 years including ‘08 – and that’s excluding FTX. That may be because very few banks that happened to be large, but we also haven’t got started. Yet, nada, zero, zilch, nothing. Denial ain’t a river. And the Fed is going to pause. You know, before the market capitulates to them and before any reversal or crisis. …Just as NEVER happened in history, ever.

    This is caused by the complete collapse of Commercial RE REITs, etc, which have been since 2020 work from home with definite rock-solid losses unrealized, BUT ALSO the raising of rates cratered all their Tier 1 capital of Treasury bonds, which they are essentially required by law to hold. So are there any assets they do or can hold that offset? Let’s see: Commercial, no. Residential, no. Treasury and cash reserves, no. Causing a deep recession so manufacturing, retail, and stocks fall, no.

    Nope! But there’s no crisis. BuyBuyBuy! — Jim Cramer Literally. He once again said “Buy” 10 minutes before the collapse. I forget if it was Republic or Silicon Valley. Still on TV, an “Expert”, not discredited.

    As said yesterday, it’s not THEM (although it is), it’s US.

    200,000 people like us, 1,000 sites like TAE are correct every day since 2001, yet they listen to who is wrong, every day, instead of who was right. Then cry when their hose is foreclosed with the entire shopping network on credit card inside. What can I say?

    “the British people – not the press, not the politicians – failed to understand their place in the world.”

    Video “Equity: an administered political economy in which shares are adjusted so that citizens are made equal.” And as he said, sound familiar? Now note the language: “Shares”? Trying to sound profitable, capitalistic, freely-traded? “Citizens”? These same people have erased the concept of “citizen” as well as border and the word does never cross their lips, even in court or parliament where legally there is no other word. Yet they voluntarily use it here. As a way of saying “law” and “Us”, not “everyone”.

    This demonstrates that they are International Socialists, unlike their fraternal brothers the National Socialists, aka, the Nazis. But still twins.

    In any case, any and all “equity” is Socialist as anti-meritocratic to the core. From the first breath. That would be fine, but all recorded history says it doesn’t work, never worked, is deeply inequitable, even more than Capitalism if that’s possible, and in the most deadly and furious ways such as equality under the law, and aside from killing 100M people in the 20th century, requires starvation, mass hardship, a deadly war and conflict to remove. I do not wish for any of these things.

    But I guess many, many people do. We get to decide right now.

    #134611
    Oroboros
    Participant

    As we approach May 9

    If you listen to this last message on April 21, 1945 from the blood drinking vermin Goebbels you can hear him lying to the last moment, identical to a scumbag like Blinken.

    Listen not just to the words but to the Tone of his last vomit of lies

    Smells Like Teen Spirit ~Nirvana

    “Load up on guns, bring your friends
    It’s fun to lose and to pretend…

    With the lights out, it’s less dangerous
    Here we are now, entertain us
    I feel stupid and contagious
    Here we are now, entertain us
    A mulatto, an albino
    A mosquito, my libido”

    Here is Goebbels less than two weeks before he becomes dur Fuhrer’s hand picked successor as ‘leader’ of the Third Reich and then on May 1, 1945 he orders his wife Magda to murder his six children and then he shoots Magda then himself.

    The Monsters of the current Neocon Cabal are cut from the exact same cloth as ‘Doctor” Goebbels

    Goebbels Last Speech – 21 April 1945

    This is how the Neonazicon Satanists roll……

    Papers reveal how Goebbels children were killed

    “BERLIN: As the Red Army closed in on Berlin, Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, and his wife, Magda, gathered their six children and made their way to the Fuhrerbunker beneath the bombed-out Chancellery.

    The children were knocked out with morphine by an SS doctor and then had cyanide capsules crushed between their teeth. Afterwards Goebbels shot his wife, then himself.

    .

    ( At the back is Harald Quandt, Magda’s first son from her first marriage.

    Maik Wogersien, a public prosecutor, found an account of the court case in 1959 that included a confession by Dr Helmut Kunz, who helped with the killing of Helga, 12, Hildegard, 11, Helmut, nine, Holdine, eight, Hedwig, six, and Heidrun, four – names starting with H in honour of Hitler.

    In Kunz’s evidence before the Hamm Upper State Court, he said: ”Towards the end of April, Magda came up to me and said, ‘I need your help in the killing of the children.’ I refused her, saying that was not my responsibility.

    ”But Magda Goebbels insisted and shortly afterwards declared to me that it was no longer a request for help but a direct order from Hitler.”

    Kunz was originally a dentist with the SS Death’s Head division but became a trusted friend of Hitler after being wounded in the field and transferred to a desk job in the Chancellery.

    He told the court he escaped the bunker but was tracked down by Magda Goebbels hours later. She said he must return or ”you will be a dead man”.

    On the evening of May 1, 1945, he was forced to carry out his grim duty. ”The children were all in one room. But they were not asleep. ‘Have no fear,’ said Magda Goebbels. ‘The doctor here is going to give you an injection of the sort that all children and soldiers get.’ She left the room. I injected them with morphine – the eldest daughters first, then the son, then the other daughters. It took around 10 minutes.

    ”When the children were off, Magda Goebbels went into the room, the cyanide capsules in her hand. She was in there for several minutes, then stepped out, crying, saying, ‘Doctor, I cannot do it. You must.’

    ”I answered immediately, ‘No, I cannot.’ Then she cried, ‘Well, if you cannot do it, then get Stumpfegger.”’ Dr Ludwig Stumpfegger, a physician close to Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, murdered the children.

    Mr Wogersien said the papers gave a new insight into the last moments of the Goebbels family and into postwar justice. ”They throw light on the mild punishments of Nazis at the time and how the law was opaque, with a judiciary composed of many former Nazi judges. They also show how a mother became so corrupted by Nazism that she would allow this to happen to innocent children.”

    .

    #134612
    Red
    Participant

    Indigenizing Science

    April 2023

    Mark Mercer
    Universities in Canada are encouraging departments and professors to bring indigenous lore, indigenous methods of investigation, and indigenous local knowledge into their classes and research. They want even professors of the hard sciences—physics and chemistry, but especially biology—to expand their horizons to include the ways and results of traditional Native American inquiry.

    There’s a good reason to resist current initiatives to indigenize science and there’s a bad reason. The bad reason is that indigenous science isn’t science. The good reason is that indigenization initiatives are about inclusion, celebration and social justice, not inquiry.

    First, the bad reason.

    https://safs.ca/newsletters/article.php?article=1236

    #134613
    Red
    Participant

    Everything is connected?

    A brief response to a common question after the takeover of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank by the regulators.

    by Richard Werner

    To consider the question whether banks should be allowed to fail, we have to be aware that bank failures have a significant adverse impact on the economy.

    Firstly, there is the impact on the economy, on economic growth and employment. We saw this in the 1930s, when the US Federal Reserve oversee the bankruptcy of ca. 10,000 small banks, this had a devastating impact on the economy. Banks create credit and this is our money supply, because we use Bank Digital Currency. If the banks collapse, the money supply collapses, and thus economic growth declines, unemployment rises and we experience a recession. Of course, the impact is larger, the more banks go bust.

    That leads me to the second point: Banks are network businesses and we experience the problem of ‘contagion’ quickly: As one bank fails, this will have ripple-on effects on other banks. Quickly another bank can fail, and another one etc.

    Thirdly, there is the reputation effect: bank failures result in loss of faith in the financial system. As a result, people will revert to gold or use foreign or private cryptocurrencies. This makes it harder for the central bank to maintain control over the economy and will weaken the efficacy of monetary policy.

    Fourthly, there is the issue of equity and justice. Many ordinary people do not have the time or knowledge to understand the differences between different banks, while everyone mostly still needs a bank account. They can hardly be expected to make an informed assessment of which bank is riskier than another.

    Fifthly, the banking system has one inherent flaw: it is possible for a perfectly good bank with sound assets to get into trouble and to fail, if only a large amount of depositors demand that their deposit claims on the bank are transferred out of the bank. This is why in the US Congress agreed to establish the Federal Reserve: it would step in and lend, as a lender of last resort, to banks hit by a run on deposits. Some of these problems were modified by the introduction of the deposit insurance scheme, but they remain the main five reasons why generally regulators try to avoid bank failures.

    What about the argument that rescuing banks means we don’t really have free market capitalism? Well, one could say that in the US free markets were given up with the introduction of the Federal Reserve (and some would argue, the simultaneous introduction of the income tax). As soon as a central bank is introduced, central planning and top-down manipulation of markets have a foothold. According to the Theory of Bureaucracy, what we can next expect is for the bureaucracy to grow, like cancer, and take over ever greater parts of society. Mind you, for much of its history, the US did not have a central bank. Economic growth was higher then…

    Diversity in banking seems to be key. Sadly, the central planners have been reducing the number of banks, and this is the sixth reason why it’s not usually a good idea to let banks fail or even to let them merge: it reduces the number of banks in the economy and with it increases concentration of the banking system. Fewer and bigger banks will lend less and less to small firms, which tends to mean that productive credit creation the produces jobs, prosperity and no inflation, also declines, and credit creation for asset purchases, causing asset bubbles, or credit creation for consumption, causing inflation, become more dominant.

    Ultimately the central planners maximise their power by introducing CBDCs. And that’s where a conflict of interest becomes apparent: Shouldn’t the regulators, as umpires, keep out of the business of banking? Shouldn’t they be prevented from competing against the banks which they regulate? If the umpire in a soccer game suddenly starts to score goals, using the yellow and red card liberally in the process, few would think this was a fair game. Likewise, the central banks should not at the same time be bank regulators and prepare to compete against them via central bank digital currencies.

    It is concerning that for the past decade or so central banks have steadily been working towards the introduction of CBDCs, while at the same time adopting policies that have killed thousands of small banks. In the eurozone, more than 5,000 banks have disappeared since the ECB started business a little over two decades ago. Once CBDCs are introduced, it just takes a bit of bank run, such as in the case of Silicon Valley Bank, and all deposits will be shifted to the central bank, driving banks out of business. Then we will have arrived at the most centralised form of banking: A Soviet-style economy with only one bank. While that may be the dream of any central planner, it is inefficient, does not work, as we have seen in the Soviet Union, and it also crushes the human spirit: Central planners get too much wrong, which is at the very least demotivating and frustrating, but is quickly much worse than that – it easily turns into totalitarianism.

    Considering the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and also Signature Bank on 10 March 2023, what concerns me most is that the bank seems to have been solvent and that Federal Reserve did not seem to have provided the short-term liquidity that a solvent bank should receive from the central bank when there is a bank run. The depositors were largely companies and institutions and not covered by the deposit insurance, which means that a classic bank run could occur. Almost $50bn left in one day on Thursday 9 March 2023, thanks to efficient digital bank technology with which we transfer BDC (bank digital currency), proving once again that there is no problem with the digital money that we have been using for decades. But why did the Fed only provide such liquidity after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had stepped in and closed the bank? Over the weekend, the regulators set up a new bank that took over. Just like in the 1930s, the promised lender of last resort function, on the back of which a reluctant Congress was persuaded to adopt the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 (and a very badly attended Congress, as the vote had barely been announced and was held on 23 December, when most had left for Christmas), was once again not forthcoming in time. The result: An ever more concentrated banking system. And ever more power for the central planners.

    China’s success started when Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1978 and immediately demanded that ideology and politics should be de-emphasised, and economic policies should be adopted that had a record of working well. So he ditched the Soviet-style monobanking system and created thousands of banks, mostly small local banks, lending to small firms.

    Decentralised structures are more resilient and more successful than centralised ones, for one, because central planning crushes the human spirit. Central planners also can never get things right in detail. Decentralised forms of organisation improve motivation and boost creativity. Since money is at the heart of the economy, and banks create it, we need to ensure we have a decentralised banking system consisting of many small banks.

    Should Banks be Allowed to Fail?

    #134614
    Red
    Participant

    “Exceptional times call for exceptional actions.”
    What if these are the exceptional actions?

    Editor’s Note: We believe that, in general, short sellers perform a critical role in U.S. markets – calling attention to corporate corruption and fraud that has been missed by regulators and the media. But the rapidly deteriorating condition of U.S. banks is a function of the unprecedented span of time that the Fed kept interest rates at the zero interest level, forcing banks to make fixed-rate mortgage loans at 3, 4 and 5 percent interest in order to remain competitive. Those loans and their related mortgage-backed securities are now underwater as a result of the Fed raising rates faster than at any time in the last 40 years. Exceptional times call for exceptional actions. President Biden needs to step up to the plate.

    Short Sellers Cratered Silvergate Bank and First Republic; They’re Now Targeting PacWest and Numerous Other Regional Banks

    #134615
    zerosum
    Participant

    Todays message from TAE

    Avoid the lies, the hate and the fear that our leaders try to generate in us, to motivate us to apply their depopulation tools.
    (biological, chemical, famine, war, finance,)

    Nobody listens to what an old man says.

    #134616
    Red
    Participant
    #134617
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The lead up to May 9, 1945 included Mussolini’s execution and subsequent ritual mutilation by a crowd in the Piazzale Loreto.

    The bodies of Mussolini and his whore Clara Petacci along with three other fascists were kicked and spat upon, pelted with vegetables, urinated on, shot at and kicked and Mussolini’s face was disfigured by beatings with bats. A women also emerged from the crowd with a pistol and shot Mussolini’s corpse five times, one for each of her sons who died at the hands of fascists.

    The bodies were then hung upside down from the roof of an Esso gas station.

    The bodies were then stoned from below by civilians.

    Allied forces began arriving in the city during the course of the morning and an American eyewitness described the crowd as “sinister, depraved, out of control”.

    Fascist loyalist Achille Starace was captured and sentenced to death and then taken to the Piazzale Loreto and shown the body of Mussolini, which he saluted just before being shot.

    His body was strung up beside Mussolini’s.

    This is how I sincerely hope the Neonazicons like Blinken, Austin, Garland, Nuland, Nazilensky et al end up, hanging by their heels from a gas station awning, defiled by the mob.

    .

    #134618
    oxymoron
    Participant

    James Lindsay – what a speech. Historic shit right there laying out patterns to details all permaculture and shit.
    Loved it.

    Thanks Rottotillerman for the vaccine dissident substack article yesterday

    #134619
    Armenio Pereira
    Participant

    Religion as the opiate of the masses:

    Organized faith, organized sports, legal/illegal drugs organized distribution: psychotropics for all – to each its own, according to his/her needs.
    Every single human is (intentionally or not) on the prowl for the Universal Painkiller: those of a religious disposition peruse inwards, those of an anthropocentric nature shop around.

    #134620
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Larry Johnson addresses the Kremlin drone strikes

    He makes a very good point.

    “Russia is going to play this to the hilt. Note that it waited almost 24 hours before announcing the attack. However, Putin and his General staff are not going to be driven by emotion. They have a war plan and will continue to follow it until circumstances on the ground require a change.

    Some believe that Russia will now take off the gloves and attack the Ukrainian Executive, Legislative and military headquarters in Kiev. I believe that the Russians are not in a hurry to do this. Why? I believe they have intelligence assets, i.e., human spies, embedded in the Ukrainian General Staff and in Zelensky’s cabinet. Hitting those key Ukrainian government facilities when they are filled with workers would run the risk of destroying critical human sources. Just something to think about….”

    The symbolism of an armed aircraft bombing Moscow before May 9 recalls WWII

    #134621
    John Day
    Participant

    1) Go Bobby!
    2) Go Bobby!
    3) Medvedev plays bad-cop.
    4) Saying it was an assassination attempt goes too far. It was “counting coup” as the Plains Indians used to do, scoring a club-blow on a rival-tribe warrior.
    It was a good symbolic show with the fireworks above the Kremlin.
    Calling it “a Russian false flag” was also going a step too far and is not credible outside the US/NATO-stani sphere.
    5) Stagflation is back, and the old solution was “Industrial Strength Tranquilizer”, as recounted by the Austin Lounge Lizards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk9fc8quDVw (Is there another beer that rhymes with “tranquilizer”, since we are boycotting Bud these days?)

    #134622
    Oroboros
    Participant

    My gut reaction on the Kremlin drone strike is that Nazilensky and goons run this op without really giving the Empire of Lies a heads up.

    The Russians, having superb intel and agents within the Ukronazi network knew it was coming.

    The drones were slow lawnmower engine variety with small warheads and easily detected

    The Russians had anti-aircraft stuff on the roofs many moons ago.

    The Russians thought, hey, this could work to our advantage and let her rip.

    Voila, somethings the Russians didn’t actually plan but knew about and let proceed.

    Ukronaziland get some PR points giving the Russians a black eye while denying any involvement, similar to Nordstream.

    Lather, rinse, repeat in the news cycle.

    The Russian public’s reaction would be like someone flying a drone into our Capitol Dome, kaboom!

    Not the jackass Jan 6th clown show the FBI mafia filth orchestrated, but a real explosion over the Capitol Dome.

    Larry Johnson on why its truly over for Ukraine

    #134623
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ John Day, rhymes with tranquilizer

    Geyser

    Kaiser

    Early Riser

    #134624
    jb-hb
    Participant

    After massive empirical data gathering and the running of multiple scientifically-precise models, our actuaries have been able to determine that it is statistically impossible that multiple Hitler/Downfall Budweiser parody videos have not yet been made nor uploaded.

    Yet no such video comes up in any search.

    Ergo, all the internet megacorps are protecting Budweiser/Anhauser Busch/inBev

    Timothy Gawne, science fiction writer, says that the archives are holy, but the card catalog is divine. All the right information in the world is unhelpful if the search database is corrupt.

    I remember being able to find scientific papers, news articles etc on the not a vax in the 2020-2021 time frame. I searched fairly recently to take another look – slews of websites are absent from search results. I should have bookmarked some of that stuff. Or printed it to pdf. Why I didn’t get ahead of that, idunno. Head in the sand. My subconscious insisted on presumed normalcy whatever I was consciously aware of I suppose.

    2 possibilities –

    1. Rollout of something begins with testing on unimportant stuff, eventually being deployed to important stuff after proof of concept?

    2. Rollout of something, having been used on the important stuff, eventually extends to everything, even silly petty things, because once you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail?

    #134625
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I’m happy to hear about jb-hb’s one-man mission to be at least one man.

    Today the pits, tomorrow…

    Quoting John Steinbeck from The SHort Reign of Pippin IV:

    The. king went back to his original, disguise, which was him-
    self. Dressed in his corduroy jacket and ‘espadrilles, he took to
    riding a motor scooter about the country. After two falls he.
    added a crash helmet to his costume.

    One day lie scooted to the little town of Gambais, famous for
    its perfect if partly ruined Chateau de Neuville. Pippin ate his
    lunch beside the overgrown moat of the chateau. Re watched
    an elderly man feeling about in the reedy water of the moat with
    a long-tined rake. –

    The old mart made contact with a hard and heavy object, and
    dragged it up the bank. It was a mossy bust of Pan, horned and

    garlanded. Only when the ancient struggled to lift Pan to a
    granite pedestal on the moat’s edge did the king get up and

    59

    move to help him. The two of them heaved the heavy statue up
    on its base, and then thev stood back and regarded it, wiping
    their green and slippery fingers on their trousers.

    “I like it facing a little more east,” the old man said. The two
    of them edged it around. Pippin – with his handkerchief wiped
    the crusted Panic face until the feral lips and the sly, lecherous
    eyes were visible.

    “How did lie get in the moat?” the king asked.

    “Oh, someone pushed him in. They always do, sometimes
    two or three times a year.”

    “But why?”

    The old man raised his shoulders and spread his hands. “Who
    knows?” he said. “There’s people that push things in the moat.
    Pretty hard work too. There’s just people that push things in the
    moat. See those other stands along there? There’s a marble vase
    and a baby with a shell and a Leda in the water down there.”

    The king asked gently, “Are you the owner here?”

    “No, I’m not. I live hereabouts.”

    “Then why do you puli them out?”

    The old man looked puzzled — searched for an answer. “Why
    — f ‘ don’t know. I guess there’s people that pull things out —
    that’s what they do. I guess I’m one of that kind.”

    The king stared at the green, slimy Pan.

    The old man said helplessly, “I guess there’s people that do
    different things, and,” he added, as though he had just discovered
    it, “I guess that’s how. things get done.” *

    “Good or bad?” the ‘king asked.

    “I don’t understand,” said the old man helplessly. “There’s
    just people — just what people do.”

    Thanx for the welcome. But I’ll be extremely scarce for the most part. Internet chatter is bad for your health but addictions are hard to kill.

    “After massive empirical data gathering and the running of multiple scientifically-precise models, our actuaries have been able to determine that it is statistically impossible that multiple Hitler/Downfall Budweiser parody videos have not yet been made nor uploaded.

    “Yet no such video comes up in any search.

    Ergo, all the internet megacorps are protecting Budweiser/Anhauser Busch/inBev”

    I don’t think so:

    Youtubudweiser

    I think that Hitler parodies are just out of vogue. They milked it to death.

    And for too much fun:

    Swingsville

    #134626
    jb-hb
    Participant

    hahaha A universe of shitposters, a month of time, ubiquitous technology to achieve it, perfect comedic material – In this universe, it is not figuratively but literally IMPOSSIBLE that a Downfall parody for Budweiser does not exist.

    Godwin’s Law. The one immutable truth on the internet, surely.

    From somewhere, fringey types on bitchute and Anne Barnhardt can find hilarious covid/vax memes, but if I look VERY diligently for them via image search on any standard search engine, just brute forcing my way through scores of search results pages – it is as if they do not exist. Try it and see.

    Humor seems to get more algo downranking attention in this regard than anything else. That frog with a rainbow wig for instance.

    #134627
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    Religion as the opiate of the masses:

    A wise man once said, “It is a blessing to be born into a religion, but a curse to die in one.”

    What does this mean? Firstly, that religion, at its roots, is not a bad thing. It is a moral training ground designed to awaken and strengthen the higher faculties. This is the blessing. Unfortunately, religion is also a business and a social control system that heavily indoctrinates its membership. Like fly paper, once you become indoctrinated, you are psychologically “stuck” in that belief system, often for the remainder of your life. Most religions insist they have an exclusive claim on truth, then go on to psychologically “box in” their members using the carrot and stick, heaven and hell, technique of control. Very few have the courage to risk their “salvation” by breaking out of this box.

    This is where the curse comes in. Because world religions are only the training ground, a spiritual kindergarten. They are not the end in themselves, but only the beginning of the journey. At some point, those that are drawn to a higher life, “I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly”, drawn to a greater understanding, a brighter light than the darkness of the world, they must break free of the psychological prison that their respective religion has put them in. Only then, can they leave spiritual kindergarten behind and continue their development.

    #134628
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    I highly recommend that everyone watch the James Lindsay video in its entirety. For years now I’ve suspected that the woke phenomenon, especially the BLM movement with its summer of rage antics, had all the trappings of a Maoist style cultural revolution. James Lindsay lays it all out for clear observation, like a Marxist tupperware party.

    #134629
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Damn. James Lindsay sums up in less than 30 minutes what it took me around 2-3 years to figure out. WELL worth the time.

    #134630
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Hitler ‘Downfall’ Parodies Removed From YouTube

    Hitler parody videos latest copyright fight

    “On Tuesday, the clips on YouTube, many of which had been watched by hundreds of thousands, even millions, began disappearing from the site. Constantin Films, the company that owns the rights to the film, asked for them to be removed, and YouTube complied.

    “Martin Moszkowicz, head of film and TV at Constantin films in Munich, said the company had been fighting copyright infringement for years. Jewish organizations have also complained about the tastefulness of the clips, he said.

    “When does parody stop? It is a very complicated issue,” Moszkowicz said. “So we are taking a simple approach: Take them all down. We’ve been doing it for years now. The important thing is to protect our copyright. We are very proud of the film.””

    Geez. No wonder I don’t hang around chatsites anymore. Don’t we have anything better to do than count silly coup?

    Go find a statue to reset and stop worrying about the fate of the galaxy, awreddy.

    Also: Dolfy reacts to the Kremlin drone attack

    In summation:

    Hitler Again?

    Meanwhile, Anheuser-Busch: Go Woke, Go Broke? Not Likely

    It’s a fucking commercial for the world’s shittiest major brand beer, just another consumer shitshow, not part of some grand diabolical scheme..

    #134631
    jb-hb
    Participant

    And yet I CAN find Downfall parodies. Just not on that recent subject.

    “not part of some grand diabolical scheme..”

    Keep telling yourself, like a child – it was only the wind, it was just a bad dream.

    Or try having a listen to the James Lindsey vid embedded in today’s TAE.

    #134632
    zerosum
    Participant

    Nobody listens to what an old man says.
    Trying to shoot down the drone with explosive anti air shells would bring even more damage to Moscow than what the 2 drones did.

    #134633
    John Day
    Participant

    1) Thank You Doc Robinson. (I actually had not tried very hard.)

    2) Who needs expensive courts of law when we have AOC?
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/aoc-and-nyc-mayor-adams-giant-spat-over-death-michael-jackson-impersonator-subway-choking

    #134634
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Well this is interesting:

    #134635
    Autonomous Unit
    Participant

    Hitler bud parody up for 47 minutes

    #134636
    John Day
    Participant

    Ukrainian Drone Bombs Kremlin Flagpole is up https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/ukrainian-drone-bombe-kremlin-flagpole

    Andrew Korybko via The Automatic Earth: (I think that it was just propaganda-grandstanding to send little drones to hit the Kremlin, a slap to Russia’s face.)
    Russia blamed Ukraine for Tuesday night’s attempted assassination of President Putin after two drones attacked the Kremlin but were disabled by the security services before they harmed anyone. Kiev rejected the accusation and lied that the incident was a false flag per the innuendo pushed by Zelensky’s spokesman Nikiforov and senior advisor Podolyak. US Secretary of State Blinken echoed their claims by advising to “take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.”
    The Kremlin​’s​ predictably declared right to retaliate “anywhere and anytime it deems necessary” guaranteed that neither of those two would admit to any knowledge of the attack, but it wasn’t foreseen that they’d both collude in concocting a false flag conspiracy theory…
    ..Considering that few are expected to fall for this fake news, it can therefore be interpreted as them provoking the Kremlin by way of mockery since nobody in their right mind would ever believe this. They both seem convinced that Russia won’t overwhelmingly or at least reciprocally respond to this assassination attempt,
    but patriots hope that it’ll finally surprise them.

    Debunking Kiev & Blinken’s Latest Lie

    ​ ​Moon ofAlabama (German) figures that the Zelensky regime is exiting stage left…
    ​ ​I agree with Bhadrakumar that there will be no knee-jerk reaction from Moscow. But public opinion in Russia demands that there will be payback for the attack and against anyone involved in it.
    ​ ​Putin’s hands are tied beyond a point when the country is in rage and demanding retribution, as evident from the comments by former Russian President and current Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev: “After today’s terrorist attack, there are no options left except for the physical elimination of Zelensky and his clique.”
    ​ ​That Zelenski fled to Finland, then to the Netherlands and Germany after the drones hit the Kremlin is a sure sign of his complicity in the act.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/05/zelenskis-regime-is-finished.html#more

    ​ Gilbert Doctorow is back in St.Petersburg ​and reads the public sentiment.
    ​ ​The talk show Evening with Vladimir Solovyov was less subtle. The host opened by reminding his audience of what Dmitry Medvedev, former President and head of the Russian Security Council said earlier in the day: that Ukraine is now a terrorist state, that there is no longer any justification for negotiating with Zelensky and that the Kiev regime must be destroyed.
    ​For those who think that Solovyov and Medvedev were just sounding off and have no credibility, I point out that the Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma, yesterday also called for the destruction of the decision-making bodies in Ukraine, which means, of course, the presidential administration first of all.
    ​ ​While American and European newscasters opine over whether all this spells an escalation of the war, I will say with almost certainty that it does. It is hard to imagine that Vladimir Putin will be able or will even want to remain calm and restrained in the face of the latest U.S.-Kiev provocations. If his position is at risk in this war, it is from Russia’s super patriots.​ (Revenge is a dish, best served cold. Putin will not be ​provoked.)​ Thanks Christine.​
    Russia’s coming revenge attack on Ukraine for the attempted assassination of Putin

    ​(Serbian military analyst) Aleks composed this update on the Ukrainian counteroffensive just before the drone attack on the Kremlin. Is anything really different?
    ​Operational update 4 , Black Mountain Analysis
    The Ukrainian Counteroffensive
    https://bmanalysis.substack.com/p/operational-update-4

    #134637
    John Day
    Participant

    Gilbert Doctorow describes his journey back to St. Petersburg from Brussels in careful detail, for those considering travel, and describes his life as a resident there, fluent in Russian, particularly his grocery shopping experiences and conversations with familiar people. Thanks Christine.
    St Petersburg Travel Notes – Part One

    Easy decision, and bound to be enjoyable. Syria joins the trend, ditches US dollar for yuan
    https://www.cryptopolitan.com/syria-joins-trend-ditches-us-dollar-for-yuan/

    Kennedy shares opinion on key US mistake with Russia​ ,​ Washington has lied and ignored Moscow’s “red lines​”,​ the presidential candidate has said
    https://www.rt.com/news/575721-rfk-russia-ukraine-conflict/

    ​ ​JPMorgan Chase, Officially the Riskiest Bank in the U.S., Is Allowed by Federal Regulators to Buy First Republic Bank​
    ​The Bank Holding Company Act, a federal law, prohibits banks that control “more than 10 percent of the total amount of deposits of insured depository institutions in the United States” to purchase another bank.
    ​ ​According to its call report to federal regulators, as of December 31, 2022, JPMorgan Chase held $2.01 trillion in deposits in domestic offices and $426 billion in deposits in foreign offices, for a total of $2.4 trillion. According to the FDIC, as of December 31, 2022, there was a total of $17.7 trillion in domestic deposits in all U.S. banks and savings associations. That means that JPMorgan Chase held 11.36 percent of total U.S. domestic deposits, well in excess of the 10 percent cap, and should have been ineligible to buy yet another bank and become even more systemically dangerous.

    JPMorgan Chase, Officially the Riskiest Bank in the U.S., Is Allowed by Federal Regulators to Buy First Republic Bank

    #134638
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    But I thank jb-hb for that exchange. Followed by a nap after some pranayama with a parrot snoozing under my pendleton, I thought of my annoyance, of the passion we sling in general around these fora, railings against the working of diabolical humanity especially machiavellian cabals, and I think, “Why? We know we can’t fix it. It’s just another habit we’ve acquired, this one a sort of cognitive repetitive stress injury from post-modern cultures incessant barrage of mediated jive, compounded information overload, just one more incessant twitch we’ve acquired, that prevents us from simply being happy, which is so easy to do unless you’re currently starving, being tortured, etc…. why make ourselves unhappy?”

    What a tortured lot we are. Homo saps in general but uniquely we hyper-cognitives whose very existence is a form of what the Kafkaesque government in Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading said one Cincinnatus was guilty of: gnostical turpitude.

    U.cayn’t.fix.it. You can only let go, moment by moment, of the insane delusion that you/we can, breath deep the holy fire of life, and smile for what some might call no reason at all but one recognizes as being caused by the simple presemnce of the dearest thing in the cosmos: oneself.

    The haunting beauty of a love song lost amidst the shrill sounds of commercial exploitation.

    Where to? No Matter: Fly

    Dr. D has numerously said that we do it to stay sane, but I feel that pounding your head against the wall, to provide temporary external cranial distraction from the painful mentation within, is not endurable in the long run. All that broken glass inside our heads only makes things worse when we shake it around like this.

    Contemporary Xtian rock, with autotuned vocals and the usual chord changes and culture-pandering pop stylings, is not my thing but these youong Xtian punks know a few things, they do, after being raised by freaks like us in the disastrous world we’ve made:

    Who would I be if I were happy?

    Hey, I not only pray to God, I often sleep with a stuffed plush gorilla named Thad. And two dogs. EVen a wife. The parrot sleeps in the cage at night lest she be crushed, otherwise she’d be in the pile too.

    It was a good day when you/we wuz bawn

    #134639
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    But we’ve quietly churning out some of the best young musicians the planet has ever known:

    The H word

    #134640
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    jb-hb: you don’t stop picking that thing you’re gonna get brain gangrene. Let it go, son. Marry some girl dumb enough to tolerate you (well, it worked for me…;) ), and keep on cleaning up parks to free your soul. And for Almighty Dog’s sake, stop thinking you understand WHAT’S GOING ON. This is reality, not a video game you can crack if you get enough cheats/codes.

    WGO? 1

    WGO 2

    #134641
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    @john-day

    “May the Fourth be with you”, VP Gary.

    “Men being hopelessy unconscious” is a nihilistic summation.
    We do our daily work, with or without hope.
    Hope was that Obama jingle.
    Hope was the last curse out of Pandora’s box.

    Carry on, then…

    Pigeon-holing Jung’s 20th century statement with a failed 19th century EG0 fondling ideiology (nihilism), regarding my application of Jung’s specific experiential conclusion(s) to the 21st century reality of spiritual rebellion (evil), regarding restoration of spiritual sanity (good), well, I thought that was beneath you John 😐

    Such pastiche is the realm of the intellectually dishonest, or perhaps a fool, dullard, or worse…

    In my statement, Well, it appears that a singular Age Of Enlightenment was about *all* humanity could *hope* for…, one could replace *hope* with wish/long/fight, ie pragmatically realize, given the limits of human nature, to escape self-induced trances and/or Collective EG0ic Madness (as exhibited by *all* evidence over recorded history)…

    To point, I *now* fully understand that conditions which manifested the Age Of Enlightenment , in the 18th century, probably will never be replicated for humanity, allowing the tyranny of *evil* to run unopposed, as is clearly *now* the case.

    If you don’t want/long/*hope* for a better outcome for innocent humanity, which at present is thrashing about in a nonstop state-of-war, greed, vanity & hubris, well then I pity you, my friend…

    Presently it seems those that *should* be awake/enlightened “leaders” are trapped in a reactionary *loop*, combining conventions of EG0ic ideation with *hopeless* focus/obsession on *The Problem* (EVIL), unaware, ignoring of scoffing at *The Solution* (GOOD), never escaping the “EG0 Complex”, with most devolving into the “Shadow Complex” (as Jung defined), which precludes an environment where the Loving, Healing, Creative Power of The Infinite could restore Spiritual Sanity within enough *men* to actually turn the tide…

    The only right and legitimate way to such an experience is, that it happens to you in reality and it can only happen to you when you walk on a path, which leads you to a higher understanding.

    You might be led to that *goal* by an act of grace or through a personal and honest contact with friends, or through a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism

    I am strongly convinced that the evil principle prevailing in this world, leads the unrecognized spiritual need into perdition, if it is not counteracted either by a real religious insight or by the protective wall of human community.

    An ordinary man, not protected by an action from above and isolated in society cannot resist the power of evil, which is called very aptly the Devil. But the use of such words arouse so many mistakes that one can only keep aloof from them as much as possible ~ Carl Jung (In his last year)

    EOT.

    #134642
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    #134643
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Thanks Christine.

    #134644
    zerosum
    Participant

    Next level.
    Evading defenses and leaving a paintball proof as a trophy.

    #134645
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    For Oroboros (shock content/pics more recent than WWII), John Day (in case you didn’t know, this is the new, *new* thing in Tejas) & of course Madameski (no, we haven’t forgot who you are):

    https://humanevents.com/2023/05/03/tayler-hansen-what-i-learned-about-child-grooming-in-america-after-a-year-of-covering-all-ages-drag-shows

    I have to *stop* now, it’s *all* too *hopeless* 😐

    #134647
    Veracious Poet
    Participant
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