Jun 192023
 


Jusepe de Ribera A philosopher holding a mirror 1630

 

Ukrainian Forces May Be Temporarily Pausing Counteroffensive: ISW (RT)
Ukraine Sustains Massive Single-Day Losses – Russian MOD (RT)
NATO Chief Doesn’t Want ‘Frozen Conflict’ In Ukraine (RT)
Kiev Deploys Significant Military Forces Along Border With Belarus – CIS (TASS)
Russia’s Military Operation Virtually Turns Into Russia-West War – Kremlin (TASS)
Putin Does Not Rule Out That Zaluzhny Could Be Outside Ukraine (TASS)
Kremlin Promises Punishment For Threats To Kill Russians (RT)
‘No Chance’ Of Extending Black Sea Grain Deal – Kremlin (RT)
Obscure Results of Blinken’s Talks in Beijing Suggest Lack of Progress (Sp.)
Will Upcoming NATO Summit Launch Forever War In Europe? (Sacks)
Swedish Parliament Can’t Rule Out Russian Attack (RT)
United Nations Planning Digital ID Linked to Bank Accounts (SLAY)
Obama Calls For ‘Digital Fingerprints’ To Fight “Non-Mainstream News” (TPV)
Gang of Criminals Trying Trump – Paul Craig Roberts (USAW)
America on the Brink by David Ray Griffin (Paul Craig Roberts)
For Father’s Day, Hunter Negotiates 12% For The Big Guy (BBee)

 

 

 

 

McGovern

 

 

The last 10 years of the Donbass War. Watch!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1670402271929069570

 

 

 

 

Barry Joe Don

 

 

RFK Gates
https://twitter.com/i/status/1670407776307224578

 

 

The Peter Hotez vs. RFK Jr Charity Debate Pot Is Now Over $2.62 MILLION!!

But Hotez is just a drug pusher. He won’t debate.

Hotez

 

 

 

 

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has emerged as the no. 1 NATO “think tank”. They claim it’s totally normal to take a break in a mass offensive after 2 weeks, in which no gains have been made.

The WSJ is a tad more realistic but not much: “The Armed Forces of Ukraine have suspended the offensive, summing up the results of the past two weeks and analyzing ways to break through Russian lines without huge losses, writes the WSJ. The Armed Forces of Ukraine faced a serious superiority of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the air. Russian aviation was able to strike at the armored columns of NATO equipment and stopped a number of attacks.

Kyiv “maintains an optimistic tone” and says that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have moved forward on a number of fronts. But these advances “do not pose a direct threat to the main lines of defense of Russia, built in a few months in the Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions,” writes the WSJ.

Ukrainian Forces May Be Temporarily Pausing Counteroffensive: ISW (RT)

Ukrainian forces may be temporarily pausing counteroffensive operations to reevaluate their tactics for future operations, Report informs, citing the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW). “Ukraine has not yet committed the majority of its available forces to counteroffensive operations and has not yet launched its main effort. Operational pauses are a common feature of major offensive undertakings, and this pause does not signify the end of Ukraine’s counteroffensive,” said ISW.

Read more …

Here’s the reality of the offensive:

Ukraine Sustains Massive Single-Day Losses – Russian MOD (RT)

Ukrainian military forces have sustained heavy casualties across frontlines during the past 24-hour period, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. Russia’s Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions have seen the most intense fighting, with Kiev losing more than 800 soldiers there alone. “Over the past day, enemy losses in the Southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions amounted to more than 800 Ukrainian servicemen, 20 tanks, four infantry fighting vehicles, [and] 15 armored fighting vehicles,” the military said on Sunday during a daily media briefing, without elaborating on whether its figures for casualties includes those killed and injured or related just to deaths. As well as these setbacks in personnel and equipment, Ukrainian troops also lost two US-made M777 howitzers and several Soviet-made artillery systems, the military added.


The immediate vicinity of Donetsk city has seen intense fighting as well, with Ukrainian forces losing over 200 soldiers on this axis, according to the ministry. The Russian military has destroyed multiple soft and armored vehicles on the outskirts of Donetsk, it also said, as well as two major ammunition stockpiles to the northwest of the city. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has intensified after Kiev launched its long-heralded counteroffensive in early June. Thus far, the Ukrainian military has failed to make any major gains, sustaining heavy losses in the process and losing large amounts of Western-supplied hardware. According to the estimates of Moscow’s military, some 7,500 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded amid the counteroffensive effort.

Putin Patriots
https://twitter.com/i/status/1670498776593702912

Read more …

Stoltenberg wants the slaughter to continue:

NATO Chief Doesn’t Want ‘Frozen Conflict’ In Ukraine (RT)

The ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia should not be paused at the current stage, but rather a just solution must be found, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said. He also expressed confidence that Kiev would one day join the US-led military bloc, adding, however, that this was not an immediate priority. In an interview with Germany’s Welt am Sonntag published on Sunday, Stoltenberg argued that, while “we all want this war to end,” only a “just” peace can endure. “Peace cannot mean freezing the conflict and accepting a deal that is dictated by Russia,” he asserted, adding that “only Ukraine can define the conditions that are acceptable.” Stoltenberg called for “credible” security guarantees for Kiev once the conflict is over, “so that Russia cannot rearm and attack again.”

Asked about the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, Stoltenberg predicted that this would happen at some point in the future. However, he said the current priority is ensuring that “Ukraine prevails as a sovereign and independent state.” He also revealed that current member states are planning to adopt an aid package for Kiev during the alliance’s upcoming summit in Vilnius next month. The goal is to help Ukraine bring its military in line with NATO standards over several years, he explained. Last month, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told TASS news agency that Moscow was “in solidarity” with the West to the extent that the conflict in Ukraine cannot be frozen. He said the only option that Moscow is currently considering is “completing the special military operation,” which means securing Russia’s interests and achieving its goals.

Peskov also expressed skepticism over the possibility of peace talks between the two countries at this point. “It is unlikely that we can talk about real negotiations with any of the representatives of the current Kiev authorities, because there [in Ukraine], any negotiations with the Russian Federation are simply prohibited now,” the Kremlin spokesperson explained. In May, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said any peace talks could not aim to freeze the conflict in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Politico, citing anonymous sources, reported that US President Joe Biden’s administration was considering putting the fighting on hold instead of pushing for Ukraine’s victory. Officials in Washington have reportedly envisaged a situation akin to that in existence between North and South Korea.

Read more …

Keep an eye on this. And think: what troops?

Kiev Deploys Significant Military Forces Along Border With Belarus – CIS (TASS)

The Ukrainian army has deployed a significant military contingent along the border with Belarus and periodically tries to test the defense capability of the Union State. Head of the second department of the CIS countries at the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexey Polishchuk said it in an interview with TASS. “The information that we have and that has been repeatedly voiced in the statements of officials indicates that the Ukrainian army has indeed deployed significant forces along the Belarusian-Ukrainian border, periodically trying to probe the defense capability of the Union State in one way or another,” Polishchuk said.


The diplomat recalled that under these conditions, since October 2022, additional units of the joint Regional Group of Forces have been deployed in Belarus. “Their task is to serve as a deterrent from invading the territory of the Union State and to minimize the risks of infiltration by sabotage and reconnaissance groups. We proceed from the fact that the Russian and Belarusian means available in the area are sufficient to repel aggression from the territory of Ukraine or neighboring NATO countries,” Polischuk stressed. “We hope that the Kiev regime and their Western curators will have the common sense not to undertake military adventures, the consequences of which for them may be very serious,” he said.

Read more …

“cordon sanitaire”

Russia’s Military Operation Virtually Turns Into Russia-West War – Kremlin (TASS)

Russia’s special military operation started to defend the Donbass region and now it has virtually turned into a war with the collective West, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with RT commenting on the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine. “In fact, the special military operation against Ukraine, against the Kiev regime, was launched to ensure the safety of the people of Donbass. This is correct. Now it is practically a war between Moscow and the collective West,” the Kremlin spokesman said.


Recalling Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement about establishing a “cordon sanitaire” on the territory of Ukraine if the shelling of Russian regions continues, Peskov said that as the range of weapons delivered to Ukraine expands, so will the buffer zone, “that is, the distance that we will have to move Ukrainians away from our territories.”

Read more …

Of course Putin knows where he is. There was a report in early May that Zaluhzny was gravely injured in a Russian attack, that he would live, but couldn’t re-take command. Since then he’s been missing, and no signal someone else has taken over. This is the Ukrainian Army Commander-in-Chief. Who’s in charge now?

As for the chief of the Ukrainian military’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Kirill Budanov, reports say he died.

Putin Does Not Rule Out That Zaluzhny Could Be Outside Ukraine (TASS)

Russian President Vladimir Putin does not rule out that Ukrainian Army Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny could be abroad, Putin said during a conversation with Russian journalists covering the special military operation in Ukraine. “I know. I think I know,” the president said in response to a question about Zaluzhny’s whereabouts. “I think he is abroad. But I could be wrong,” Putin said.


The media first reported Zaluzhny’s serious injury in May. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry denied the information, but Zaluzhny has not been seen in public for a long time and did not attend a NATO committee meeting at the level of chiefs of staff. Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin told reporters earlier that Russia was receiving updates on Zaluzhny’s condition, but wouldn’t disclose any details. Earlier, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar denied speculation that Zaluzhny had been wounded.

Read more …

“The members of parliament in those countries, they should understand to whom they are sending their aid – to de-facto murderers; people who declare their intention to kill..”

Kremlin Promises Punishment For Threats To Kill Russians (RT)

Any persons threatening to kill Russians are enemies who should be and will be punished for doing so, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov has warned. On Sunday, Peskov was asked by channel Rossyia 1 to comment on the words of Mikhail Podoliak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who said last week that Kiev’s long-awaited counteroffensive would be “the most brutal advance with the maximum killing of Russians on this route.” “That’s what our enemies say, and we have to fight them. You can’t threaten the Russians with murder. Russians should punish [them] for this, and we will do so,” the Kremlin spokesperson pointed out. He noted that Podoliak was “not a pioneer” in this regard, as the chief of the Ukrainian military’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Kirill Budanov and members of the country’s Security Council have also “repeatedly talked about their desire to kill as many Russians as possible.”


According to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, the headquarters of GUR in Kiev had been hit by Russian missiles in late May. The Defense Ministry said the successful strike targeted “decision-making centers” in Ukraine “where terrorist attacks on Russian soil were being planned under the guidance of specialists from Western intelligence agencies.” Peskov also said that he wanted the statements about killing Russian citizens made by Podoliak and other Ukrainian officials to be evaluated by Kiev’s foreign backers. “The members of parliament in those countries, they should understand to whom they are sending their aid – to de-facto murderers; people who declare their intention to kill,” he explained.

Read more …

A set-up. Russia will be blamed.

‘No Chance’ Of Extending Black Sea Grain Deal – Kremlin (RT)

The deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea has “no chance” of being extended as things stand at the moment, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has said. Russia has “shown goodwill several times, made concessions” and extended the agreement, but what was promised to Moscow as part of the deal still hasn’t been fulfilled, he said in an interview with Izvestia newspaper on Saturday. “It’s hardly possible to predict some sort of a final decision here, but we can only state that – judging de facto by the status that we now have – this deal has no chance,” Peskov explained. “The deal implies deeds; deeds on the part of the contracting states or organizations. And one part of this deal was done, and the second part, which related to [promises made to] Russia, was never done,” the spokesman claimed.

The deal brokered by the UN and Türkiye was signed in July 2022, providing for the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain though Black Sea corridors in exchange for the US and EU removing obstacles to exports of Russian food products and fertilizers. The West has claimed that it never restricted those items, but Moscow has argued that it still couldn’t supply them to foreign buyers due to shipping, insurance and brokerage sanctions, which were imposed on Moscow over its conflict with Kiev. The initial agreement lasted for 120 days, but was extended several times since then. It’s now set to expire on July 17.

Speaking to a delegation of African leaders in St. Petersburg on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “the supply of Ukrainian grain to world markets doesn’t solve the problems of African countries in need of food.” Despite the West promising that the deal would help the poorest nations, only 3.1% of the shipments of Ukrainian grain have ended up in Africa, with 38.9% of them going to the EU, he explained. Earlier this week, Putin said Moscow “was thinking about exiting this grain deal” because nothing had been done to facilitate Russia’s food and fertilizer exports. He also said safety corridors in the Black Sea had been used by Ukraine to launch naval drones.

Read more …

No red carpet. Bloomberg reports this morning that Xi will see him after all.

Obscure Results of Blinken’s Talks in Beijing Suggest Lack of Progress (Sp.)

The ambiguity surrounding the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing and his talks with Chinese officials there suggests that little progress has been made in terms of Washington’s agenda, the US media reports. Antony Blinken arrived in Beijing on June 18 in what became his first visit to China in his current role and also the first US Secretary of State visit to Beijing since 2018. It took the Biden administration almost six months to put this visit back on the schedule as it was originally set for February. Blinken has already met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who said on Sunday that China-US relations were at their lowest point.

The US media reported on Sunday that the ambiguity following the talks indicates little substantive progress on Blinken’s agenda items, which include concerns over Taiwan, jailed US citizens in China and Beijing’s stance on Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. Blinken and Qin Gang are said to be “inching toward an off-ramp from months of rancor” but Beijing maintains its “stern” stance on key issues.

According to the Monday schedule published by the US State Department, Blinken holds talks with China’s Central Foreign Affairs Office Director Wang Yi on Monday morning. The US State Secretary will then participate in a roundtable with exchange program alumni in Beijing and a separate roundtable with US business leaders. He also plans to meet with employees and families of the US Mission China in Beijing. It is notable, that Blinken’s Monday schedule does not include meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Read more …

“Polish or Ukrainian tails should not wag American dogs into World War III. ”

Will Upcoming NATO Summit Launch Forever War In Europe? (Sacks)

An article in the New York Times on Wednesday claimed that pressure is building on Biden to announce a timetable for Ukrainian membership in NATO at its Vilnius Summit next month. Supposedly Biden is “isolated” among NATO allies in his reluctance to do so, even though that claim is contradicted by the story’s own last paragraph (the one that Noam Chomsky once quipped should be read first), which acknowledges that “others argue more quietly” that NATO membership “could give Mr. Putin more incentive to continue the war, or to escalate it.” Indeed, since Moscow has already declared NATO membership for Ukraine to be completely unacceptable and an existential threat — the prevention of which is one of its chief war aims — a Vilnius Declaration that Ukraine will join NATO when the war ends will effectively ensure that the war goes on forever.

It will also take off the table the West’s central bargaining chip to achieve peace, which is a neutral Ukraine. It’s clear that the “pressure” on Biden is coming from Zelensky and some of the eastern NATO countries, specifically Poland and the Baltic States. Zelensky said two weeks ago that Ukraine would not even attend the Vilnius Summit unless given a firm signal on its eventual membership. Former NATO secretary general Anders Rasmussen, now a consultant to Zelensky, even threatened that “if NATO cannot agree on a clear path forward for Ukraine, there is a clear possibility that some countries individually might take action.” In particular, “the Poles would seriously consider going in,” triggering direct war between NATO and Russia.

The NYT article implies that the current secretary general Jens Stoltenberg agrees with the hardliners on the need for a concrete timetable for Ukraine’s admission into NATO, but he made no such promises during his joint address with President Biden on Tuesday. By Wednesday, Stoltenberg and NATO were making it clear that no specific timeline for Ukraine’s NATO membership would be on the agenda in Vilnius. He reiterated comments from April that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO,” and said there would be agreement from member states on a “multi-year program” to help Ukraine “become fully interoperable with NATO,” but wouldn’t commit to anything more specific than that. Apparently, it’s Zelensky and his allies along the Russian border who are “isolated,” not President Biden. Whatever Stoltenberg’s personal views may be, he knows NATO is divided on the question of admitting Ukraine in the near future.

Even the NYT name-checks three countries – Germany, Hungary, and Turkey – whose leaders would definitely oppose membership at a specific future date. Many more leaders have privately expressed concern, and Biden, to his credit, appears to be one of them. While his overall conduct and rhetoric has been hawkish (and I continue to maintain he could have avoided this war altogether with better diplomacy in the months leading up to it), Biden has been admirably consistent in his desire not to plunge America into direct war with Russia. The threats from Rasmussen underscore how easily a proxy war can turn into a real one in an alliance where all members are pledged to come to the military defense of any one member. The American people may begin to question the wisdom of making new Article 5 guarantees if foreigners like Rassmussen can use existing ones to blackmail the United States into reckless action.

Polish or Ukrainian tails should not wag American dogs into World War III.

Read more …

They smoke good stuff there.

Swedish Parliament Can’t Rule Out Russian Attack (RT)

A Russian attack on Sweden cannot be entirely excluded, Swedish public broadcaster SVT said on Sunday, citing a report prepared by the country’s parliamentary defense committee. “An armed attack against Sweden cannot be ruled out,” the broadcaster cited the document as saying. “Russia has also further lowered its threshold for the use of military force and exhibits a high political and military risk appetite,” the document stated, according to SVT. “Russia’s ability to carry out operations with air forces, naval forces, long-range weapons or nuclear weapons against Sweden remains intact.” The report is due to be presented to the public on Monday. SVT cited an unnamed person who worked on the document as saying that officials intend to send “a clear signal to Russia.”


Last year, Sweden walked away from its long-standing policy of non-alignment and applied to join NATO, citing Russia’s ongoing military operation in Ukraine. The application process has since stalled as Hungary and Türkiye have so far refused to approve the Nordic country’s bid. Sweden announced plans to drastically increase its defense budget earlier this year, and, in April through May, held its largest military exercise in over 25 decades. Stockholm has supplied Kiev with heavy weapons, and pledged to deliver its German-made Leopard 2 tanks and Archer mobile artillery guns. Russia has repeatedly said that military aid to Ukraine makes Western countries de facto direct parties to the conflict. Moscow also stressed that the continuing expansion of NATO would lead to additional escalation, and promised to adopt “countermeasures.”

Read more …

We need enough people to say no. Millions. This is just too tempting for the power hungry.

United Nations Planning Digital ID Linked to Bank Accounts (SLAY)

The United Nations (UN) is planning to introduce a global digital ID system that is linked to individuals’ bank accounts. The plan, which is similar to the system developed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), is outlined in three new policy briefs from the UN titled, “A Global Digital Compact, Reforms to the International Financial Architecture, and The Future of Outer Space Governance.” The goal of the briefs is to advance UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s “vision for the future.” Officially titled “Our Common Agenda,” Guterres’ “vision” should be given the green light in September 2024 during an event dubbed, “The Summit for the Future.” From the report:

“Digital IDs linked with bank or mobile money accounts can improve the delivery of social protection coverage and serve to better reach eligible beneficiaries. Digital technologies may help to reduce leakage, errors and costs in the design of social protection programmes.” Not unlike their unofficial counterparts over at the WEF, the UN also speaks about basically regulating the global digital future. The unelected organization uses phrases such as “international cooperation” and “many stakeholders” who will “advance principles, objectives, and actions” to describe this globalist agenda. The UN describes this goal as “an open, free, secure and human-centered digital future.”

The digital future as envisaged by these groups is going to be quite the opposite of open, free, or human-centric, however. As far as the UN’s “vision” for a future global financial system, it is supposed to be harmonized with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It would be governed by something called “the apex body” that is yet to be set up. The key actors here would be the UN chief, as well as the Group of 20, the Economic and Social Council, and “heads of international financial institutions.” Within this, the UN sees “visions” of “a Global Digital Compact.”

Read more …

“Obama infamously won Politifact’s “Lie of the Year” in 2013 by telling Americans, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it..”

Obama Calls For ‘Digital Fingerprints’ To Fight “Non-Mainstream News” (TPV)

Former President Barack Hussein Obama has called for “digital fingerprints” to be mandatory to help law enforcement agencies target and arrest users who read and share “non-mainstream news” online. In a new interview, Obama said the development of new tracking technology could help identify users who spread “fake news” online. Tracking those users and punishing them would help bolster mainstream news outlets on the internet, Obama argues. Slaynews.com reports: Obama sat down with his former White House senior adviser David Axelrod for a conversation on the latter’s podcast, “The Axe Files,” on CNN Audio. During the interview, Axelrod noted he’s seen “misinformation, disinformation, [and] deepfakes” targeting Obama.

[..] Obama then suggested “digital fingerprints” to discern truth from misinformation. “And the need for us, for the general public, I think to be more discriminating consumers of news and information, the need for us to overtime develop technologies to create watermarks or digital fingerprints so we know what is true and what is not true,” he said. “There’s a whole bunch of work that’s going to have to be done there, but in the short term, it’s really going to be up to the American people to kind of say.” Obama and Axelrod went on to say that today many consumers are only viewing information from sources they are predisposed to agree with and will likely believe what they see. “Obviously, we saw that during the vaccination stuff,” added Obama, referring to Covid shots. “So, I am concerned about it.

[..] Last year, Obama announced that his foundation would be launching a new initiative to combat misinformation. Days later, Obama angered conservatives with a speech at Stanford University warning of the dangers of “disinformation.” During the speech, Obama said, “All we see is a constant feed of content where useful factual information and happy diversions, and cat videos flow alongside lies, conspiracy theories, junk science, quackery, white supremacist, racist tracts, misogynist screeds.” Critics were quick to point out that Obama promoted the debunked narrative that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. Obama infamously won Politifact’s “Lie of the Year” in 2013 by telling Americans, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” referring to the Affordable Care Act.

Read more …

“The Department of Justice, which is a gang of criminals, is trying Trump, and they are getting away with it.”

Gang of Criminals Trying Trump – Paul Craig Roberts (USAW)

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (PCR), former Assistant Treasury Secretary and international award-winning journalist, is worried about freedom and liberty. PCR says with the latest arrest and prosecution of President Trump, freedom and liberty is dead in America. PCR explains, “What they do makes it clear they have no claim that they are representatives of justice holding lawbreakers responsible. They are the lawbreakers — they themselves. You go to trial and it’s the criminals who are trying you, and that’s what’s happened in the United States. This is happening to President Trump. This is exactly what is happening to him. The Department of Justice, which is a gang of criminals, is trying Trump, and they are getting away with it.

I can’t predict, but we are going to find out by the next presidential election . . . whether we are a country or not. What’s going to happen? Are people going to wake up and stop this? If this coup stays in place, the United States no longer exists.” PCR says, “What is being done is a lesson is being taught to all future political candidates. If you try to represent the people instead of the elite, we are going to destroy you – period. So, if they succeed in destroying Trump, and if the people permit that and don’t rise up and prevent it, then what you have from now on in the United States is tyranny. If democracy cannot put into office someone who stands for the people who elected that person, then there is no democracy and there is no rule of law.

If you have no rule of law, you have the rule of whoever is in power. In other words, it is the total end of any claim there is any freedom, any civil liberty or any accountability. This is extremely serious. This is an all-out assault. The elite are attempting to completely destroy any accountability that would ever get in the way of their agendas. So, this is only to be the agendas of the elite, and never ever any agenda of the people.” PCR also warns, “The United States is the Constitution. If the Constitution is destroyed, the United States is destroyed. So, if they destroy it, they have destroyed us.” PCR, who was an Assistant Treasury Secretary in the Reagan Administration, also talks about the coming collapse of the U.S dollar and extreme inflation that is not a matter of if but when. It could be sooner than you think.

Read more …

“The inability of America to accept its scaled-down position is leading to nuclear war.”

America on the Brink by David Ray Griffin (Paul Craig Roberts)

David Ray Griffins’s works represent the epitome of Western Civilization. Scholars of his distinction and commitment are no longer possible. The replacement mechanism has been destroyed by the criminalization of Western Civilization and free inquiry. In place of scholars, universities are now homes for Woke ideologues who hate Western Civilization and white people and carry on campaigns against both. Everywhere we see this. Monuments removed. Plaques taken down. Universities denouncing and removing memorabilia of those who founded the universities. The white ethnicities demonized beyond repair as racists, oppressors, exploiters. When I look at the Western World, I see the passing of truth as it leaves going to where? Where does truth go when it is no longer allowed? Does it simply cease to exist? Does it reappear elsewhere? If only I could have had this discussion with David Ray Griffin.

Professor Griffin gave us, if memory serves, 10 books or more about the 9/11 and anthrax deceptions that were used to commit the US to the utter ruin of its reputation with its falsely based wars in the Middle East. In his posthumous book, America on the Brink (Clarity Press, 2023), Griffin notes that America’s neoconservative foreign policy is bringing us to nuclear confrontation with Russia. Griffin points out that the neoconservatives’ notion of American hegemony over the world has origins in the 1845 idea of America’s “manifest destiny.” This destiny spread from the US where it destroyed the Confederacy and the Plains Indians to Mexico, South America, the West Indies, and Canada. In 1850 an American newspaper editor declared that the American empire extended to the “gates of the Chinese empire which must be thrown down.” Moreover, declared the editor, “the American eagle of the republic shall poise itself over the field of Waterloo” and the successor of George Washington must “ascend the chair of universal empire.”

So, Empire is the answer. But is it? When foreign policy is based on bribing and intimidating other countries, diplomacy becomes the application of force. For the United States to impose its hegemony on other countries and to be always at war raises questions whether the United States is a democracy, or whether the soul that the Founding Fathers attempted to implant in the new country was ejected early in its history. The neoconservatives justify US hegemony on the grounds of their claim that the US is “benevolent” and its imperial power is benign. But as David Ray Griffin points out, after Iran, Cuba, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Panama, Iraq, Libya, Yugoslavia, and Ukraine, and, of course Venezuela, Julian Assange, and others, the world sees nothing benevolent or benign in Washington.

Instead, the world sees systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless crimes and has come to regard America as the greatest danger to the world. Indeed, America is seen as the embodiment of evil. This has eroded American leadership and has resulted in other power centers disengaging from the Washington-dominated Western World, leaving Washington with aspirations in excess of its capability. The inability of America to accept its scaled-down position is leading to nuclear war.

Read more …

“I literally handed the FBI a film of myself committing felonies, and not a peep. I don’t know how he does it, that doddering old weirdo!”

For Father’s Day, Hunter Negotiates 12% For The Big Guy (BBee)

In a touching Father’s Day gesture, Hunter Biden has negotiated for twelve percent of incoming bribes from foreign governments to go to his Dad. “It means the world to me,” said an emotional President Biden. “Well, more accurately, it means about $2.3 million in my bank account.” According to White House sources, Hunter wanted to do something extra special this year to show President Biden how much he appreciated being shielded from DOJ investigations. “Dad really came through this year,” said Hunter. “I literally handed the FBI a film of myself committing felonies, and not a peep. I don’t know how he does it, that doddering old weirdo! Anyhow, ‘The Big Guy’ has earned himself an extra two percent of my bribery — er, consulting money.”


Hunter Biden will also reportedly take his father out for a nice Father’s Day lunch at the Han Palace. “It will be nice to have a quiet lunch with just me, Dad, and several high-level members of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Hunter. “I did request they bring in some different waitresses for our lunch though. Last time it was super disappointing – nothing but yellows.” At publishing time, President Biden had declined a Father’s Day call from one of his grandkids, as he wasn’t sure if it was from the one he pretends doesn’t exist.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eagle

 

 

Firebird
https://twitter.com/i/status/1670356102360211456

 

 


The Oxford Electric Bell has been running for 180+ years thanks to a battery that no one knows what it’s made of. The exact composition is unknown, but it is known that they were protected with molten sulfur to isolate them and are believed to be Zamboni cells.

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in virustime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle June 19 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 58 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #137237

    Jusepe de Ribera A philosopher holding a mirror 1630   • Ukrainian Forces May Be Temporarily Pausing Counteroffensive: ISW (RT) • Ukraine Sustain
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 19 2023]

    #137238
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Ed Dowd at, The Freedom Conference. “WWIII: the Early Years.”

    At least they haven’t lost their sense of humor.

    Speaking of sense of humor,
    Q: “How many feminists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”
    A: “That’s not funny.”

    When you’ve become remembered primarily for shrill nagging, scolding and active hatred of fun, something’s gone wrong. (Obviously this joke is old as we’re like 100x feminism right now).

    More like: Q: “How many Wokesters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”
    A: “You’re under arrest.”

    “The US wants to get rid of Volodymyr Zelensky”

    So? He was never running anything anyway. At a minimum Kolomoisky was. Really Kolomoisky was just the Capo that got this one chess piece installed.

    “• Ukrainian Forces May Be Temporarily Pausing Counteroffensive: ISW (RT) “

    Lot of danger as NATOs only option appears to be a nuclear first-strike. Or similar. It was always in “The Plan”, they’re just moving the Plan up a little bit. Like, shoes first, then pants.

    “Russian Air Superiority”? Russia hasn’t even lifted a pinky on their air force yet. For one reason, NATO gets to learn all their tactics and equipment for free if they just march out and display.

    Speaking of, Ukraine learns from Russia learning to throw mines behind them: Ukraine has drones drop – something I forget – explosives into the minefields to pre-clear them. Well NOW you’re talking! Too bad you already lost 5 years worth of Bradleys BEFORE realizing that.

    ““so that Russia cannot rearm and attack again.”

    Uh…whut? So in your universe Russia is completely disarmed because of the war? That they didn’t lose?

    “Russia’s special military operation started to defend the Donbass region and now it has virtually turned into a war with the collective West,”

    And note because of Putin’s approach, all Russia now realizes that, is very serious, and is generally behind him, agreeing with the previously-far-reaching accusation that this was an “Existential threat.” He can now ask far more sacrifice of Russians. The West can now ask far less.

    • Obscure Results of Blinken’s Talks in Beijing Suggest Lack of Progress (Sp.)

    See Bill Gates but not Blinken. I guess we know who’s important and who’s running things.

    ““Digital IDs linked with bank or mobile money accounts can improve the delivery of social protection coverage and serve to better reach eligible beneficiaries. Digital technologies may help to reduce leakage, errors and costs in the design”
    We need this so muchly, I have no idea what they’re saying here. Solving a problem we don’t have and nobody wants. First creating a non-problem right out in public, THEN claiming to solve the problem we don’t have, that nobody wants.
    “Former President Barack Hussein Obama has called for “digital fingerprints” to be mandatory to help law enforcement agencies target and arrest users who read and share”

    Wow. Hey, would that be illegal under the 1A? And 4A? And like 100 other “A”s? Besides, we’ll use proxies and distributed networks, and there is a blockchain one already. Or worse: we’ll go meat space and you’ll have nothing.

    #137239
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Could Israel be coordinating the American Jews to ensure that the Ukrainians lose in Ukraine, are they working to assist Russia and China? Why did NATO always hold back arms to ensure that Ukraine could not actually damage Russia? They had eight years to prepare and did nothing. Is this Israel changing allegiances, in the same way that Saudi changed allegiances, are they helping Russia by controlling the US government and Democrat party to benefit Russia? Israel will be toast when the USA goes down, don’t tell me that they are not aware of that and doing something about it.

    They have been too quiet during this war – sure, they are thieving, but old habits die hard – so they are up to something.

    Just a thought.

    #137240
    chooch
    Participant

    aspnaz,

    Lots of empty space in this puzzle. Kinda odd that CelticBiker was chumming chew for quite awhile before the commentariat took the bait and then didn’t join the discussion.

    #137241
    aspnaz
    Participant

    CelticBiker was kind of odd – one trick pony.

    #137242
    aspnaz
    Participant

    But being odd is what qualifies you to post on here …. look around!

    #137243
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • Ukraine Sustains Massive Single-Day Losses – Russian MOD

    To call it an ‘offensive’ is well, offensive

    The Collective West® is a Lying Sack of Shit©

    The ‘offensive’ was the Charge of the Tard Brigade©

    War is industrial production, NOT boutique sub-par weapons systems designed for profits not performance.

    The Empire of Lies® beating up on third world powers (and always cut & run losing in the last 75 years) doesn’t qualify as anything but gross incompetence and Cowardliness

    Another angle of the kamikaze tank packed with 6 tons of explosives Russia ran as an experiment on the Ukronazi ‘offensive’

    Drone tanks with enough explosive to mimic a tactical nuke.

    Interesting idea, the future of war is drones: land, sea, air & space.

    Only an industrial power like Russia can produce enough munitions to put a weapon like this into mass production.

    Watch and weep Eurotardistan, you’re next.


    .

    #137244
    Oroboros
    Participant

    When a kamikaze tanks detonated with 12,000 lbs of ultra high explosives, it was like a mega hand grenade, not just a shock-wave killing machine

    #137245
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I turned 4 years old in 1960. As a kid who grew up with television, I have this impression that there was a relationship between how close kids sat to the TV and how dull or bright they were. Seems like the slower kids got nearly nose close to the screen while most of us sat at more like a body-length distance.

    Any body else remember anything like that? Or is it just Smart Kid vanity looking backward through a dull scratched 67 year old rear-view mirror?

    ***

    On das chewden: sure, Jews are up to their share of no-goodness. Lots of people/groups are. Let’s say for sake of argument that chews are the worst, that they are the singular cabal running all other cabals. That doesn’t mean that us sitting around talking how bad those chews allegedly are does any one any good, even by the venting of fear, anger, and frustration. (Some venting only fans the flames, jah?) It doesn’t do shit except promote mean-spiritedness, from what I’ve seen. It’s very difficult to distinguish these rants from mere old school bigotry. While there may actually be no bigotry involved, it LOOKS that way to many people reading this site, I’m sure. And that, in turn, makes them LESS likely to ponder singular evil cabals and such — assuming that something productive like that is part of the goal in kike-griping, which mostly works against the attempt to make people confront das chewden — assuming, again, that something productive like that is your aim.

    Let’s also suppose that, for sake of argument, my utterances are as specious and hypocritical and misinformed and malignly intended as many seem to feel, that my head is cracked yadi ya. Again: exactly what are you brave warriors accomplishing with this observation?

    Why not just put me in a bag of kosher chewish shake’n’bake mix, blend it all together, and fry it in contempt and condemnation?

    I’ll answer my question: because it still won’t any good to eat and now you’ve just stunk up the house.

    No Kvetching Zone

    ***

    Me, I had a pre-dawn epiphany: about all I can do positive in this life is encourage kindness and praise it when I see it. All the rest at best is mere kvetching and distracting myself from what joy may avail; at worst it foments bloodshed.

    ***

    Israeli quietude at present owes a lot, I think, to the fact that the Big Boys are brawling and it is wise that they keep their heads low.

    Russia is now the Big Dog for any evil cabalist to try and infiltrate and thereby coopt.

    ***

    “Why did NATO always hold back arms to ensure that Ukraine could not actually damage Russia?”

    Two considerations:

    a) in 2014, Russia showed the world by its intervention in Syria, that USA no longer was in charge, no longer held a monopoly on this superpower thing.

    b) Ukraine was perhaps never intended nor expected to win in the first place. Why arm a fall guy to the teeth? He might turn against you.

    #137246
    zerosum
    Participant

    Depopulation Actions/Motivators in the USA
    mass shoot, gun violence, political assassination, “think tank”, lying, reality, lack of common sense, opioid, exstream weather, inflation, De-dollarization, undocumented immigrants, carpetbaggers, printing money, sanctions
    —————-
    “misinformation, disinformation, [and] deepfakes”

    Obama Calls for ‘Digital Fingerprints’ So Police Can Arrest People Who Share ‘Non-Mainstream News’


    ———–
    If you try to represent the people instead of the elite, we are going to destroy you

    Gang of Criminals Trying Trump – Dr. Paul Craig Roberts


    ———-
    War news – Boots on the ground
    Russia throw mines behind Ukraine advances:
    Ukraine has drones drop explosives into the minefields to pre-clear them.
    ———–

    #137247
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Modern Young White Liberal Feminist Women In a Nutshell

    Razor sharp intellect in a fully realized philosophical framework, topped with pink cherry, smooch, smooch

    #137248
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Digital bank accounts/IDs will crush themselves. Those doors swing both ways. AN other example of overreach in this Age of Max Overreach.

    #137249

    With wondering eyes we all followed the lead as we shuffled our way down the hall.
    So now we’re imprisoned, but that’s what we get for not keeping our eyes on the ball.

    #137250
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I think much human energy is spent trying to accept or hide from how ghastly we are. Why else (for one example) would a major world religion center on a divine scapegoat taking the blame for our horrifying sins on a planetary scale over thousands of years?

    #137251
    Oroboros
    Participant
    #137252
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Why Israel, why not the USA? … https://www.rt.com/business/578247-intel-invest-billions-israel-factory/. Looks like a bunch of people have second passports and are planning to leave the sinking ship.

    #137253
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Bosco from yesterday:

    Blacks weren’t much affected by white hippy freak-dancing. They kept on practicing cool dance moves

    Exactly how they were portrayed in the gig-story that I posted. Audience got it right away and responded. I remember that impression of “Asian” featuring some dance-karate kicks was bit of stretch, but all-in-all it was a god gig and we had a good time.
    A-Carpenter is missing the point of the “wide brush” approach to observation.
    BTW
    When one feels down vintage (preferably) boogie-dance videos are great cure.

    #137254
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    .

    #137255
    Red
    Participant

    Oroboros “Modern Young White Liberal Feminist Women In a Nutshell” in the natural world brightly coloured fauna tends to be poisonous!

    #137256
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Tommy Podcast of Dr. Robert Malone dope slapping Peter Hotez, autistic wanker monkey groomed to replace Fauci as a fully lubricated Gates’ Buttboy©

    #137257
    Oroboros
    Participant

    #137258
    Oroboros
    Participant

    funny, Rumble links don’t appear as text stream when you paste them into the comment window

    I can’t just paste the link

    Maybe without the ‘colon’ at the beginning and the period missing from html at the end

    Let’s see

    https//rumble.com/v2v17f9-audiovideo-fixed-rogan-hotez-dr.-robert-malone-tpc-1258html

    Another ‘tard’ feature of WordPress

    #137260
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    #137261
    boscohorowitz
    Participant
    #137262
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    The missing colon worked. Not WordPress’s fault. Bad HTML is bad HTML.

    #137263
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    DC is not pushing gay pride. It’s following the gay pride media bubble to try and be au courant., doing so way too late to make it worth the trouble. COnsidering that comix in general push this core ideal: triumphant violence is THE answer, I don’t see a p[roblem with some mutant dude slipping another mutant dude the tongue. Ho-hum, even. Purple hair is already hitting the passé mark.

    ***

    “When one feels down vintage (preferably) boogie-dance videos are great cure.”

    I’m too old and stiff to do it anywhere but in my mind, but thanx for reminding me to tink happy tawts! 🙂

    #137264
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I think much human energy is spent trying to accept or hide from how ghastly we are. Why else (for one example) would a major world religion center on a divine scapegoat taking the blame for our horrifying sins on a planetary scale over thousands of years?”

    Oh, I dunno, maybe because He told them to do it that way because it would work so well . . . . and right under the noses of the “church hierarchy” , let’s face it, it’s a totally BRILLIANT marketing device for ensuring that at least SOME part of the core message would both survive and be broadly disseminated by the corrupt organization hierarchy who are only interested in their own wealth and power through the wealth and power of their “church”.

    Brilliant. Just BRILLIANT. One might even say, Divine.

    #137265
    boscohorowitz
    Participant
    #137266
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Caitlin Johnstone offers thoughts on “the problem”. If we all can’t/don’t agree that there is one, including the definition of what “the problem” is/who is responsible, then the exercise to do something – craft plans/solutions, is futile. Feeding more failure/defeat into the mix and reinforcing our inability to make things better.

    “So much of modern political life consists of the ruling class tricking the public into trading away things the ruling class values in exchange for things the ruling class does not value. ”

    “It’s a pretty well-established fact by now that free will doesn’t exist nearly to the extent that most religions, philosophies and judicial systems pretend it does. Our minds are very hackable and propaganda is very effective. If you don’t get this, you don’t understand the problem.”

    “The amount of energy the western empire has poured into killing all leftist and antiwar movement is staggering, but people just think the acid wore off and the hippies turned into yuppies and the Reagan administration happened on its own. It didn’t. They had to work hard at that….

    The revolution didn’t organically fizzle out, it was actively strangled to death. And what’s left in its place is this defeatist attitude where people want a healthy society but believe it can’t be attained, so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We COINTELPRO ourselves now.”

    More in the post linked below.

    LOVE to Bosco for this:

    “Me, I had a pre-dawn epiphany: about all I can do positive in this life is encourage kindness and praise it when I see it. All the rest at best is mere kvetching and distracting myself from what joy may avail…”. Sounds like a good idea/plan! Stay with it, friend. GRACE in action is beautiful – and powerful.

    Our Systems Reward Dysfunction And Destruction: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

    #137267
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    If you have the ability to think, to really persevere and THINK, then you would never do anything that is bad because to do anything bad on purpose is just so would be gob smackingly STUPID. Would you demolish your thumb with a hammer, KNOWING IN ADAVANCE how bad it would feel and the irreparable damage it would do to you? Well, that’s how stupid doing bad things is. It’s sort of why we call them “bad”, ya know?

    Can it be said more plainly and simply than that?

    Yes, we err. We err quite a lot, actually, but there’s one good thing about people who err, and that’s the fact that they know they have erred. They know the error was bad. They know that their error resulted in an unwanted bad effect, so they regret it, and try to fix it and do better next time. They strive in the direction of good as best they can (which is sometimes quite lacking.)

    That isn’t all that great, but it sure is a big damn leap from people who do bad things, on purpose, knowing the horribleness of the result, and yet still WANTING that result.

    We call them “bad guys”, which is remarkably fitting, when you come to think about it.

    #137268
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Martyrdom definitely has market/message power. I just might even believe that it is perhaps the only significantly effective way of “speaking truth to power”

    Pilate: “What is truth?”

    Jesus:

    Hilariously, I had always remembered it as Jesus saying ‘What is truth?’ not PIlate. It sounds way too cool a thing for Pontius to say. I am going to believe that the original Pilate utterance meant something like “Is that so?”

    Original:

    37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then?
    Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
    37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
    Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
    38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

    Yeah, I like my version better.

    #137269
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    How to “encourage” kindness?

    BE KIND/KINDNESS with/in every thought, word, deed.

    Then: Be still. KINDNESS will come to you.

    Praise be the gifts that are present for the praising.

    Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

    (May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all).

    #137270
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @Red re: “in the natural world brightly coloured fauna tends to be poisonous!”

    Red next to black, friend of Jack.
    Red next to yellow, kill a fellow!

    #137271
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “We call them “bad guys”, which is remarkably fitting, when you come to think about it.”

    I don’t call “them” anything, but when I see someone doing bad to another, I physically intervene to stop it. I don’t stand around taking cellcam shots and spreading the word on the internet that “these are bad men”.

    A picture may be worth a 1000 words, but an action is worth a 1000 pictures.

    I suspect that the conspiracy theory types of JC’s time didn’t much care for him telling them to stop whining about Caesar and start praying to God… even though that might well get them stoned or crucified or at least lose their right to vote.

    Meanwhile, in the People’s Liberational Echo Chamber: Action… and CUT!

    ***

    We obviously won’t bring the fight to them, and that’s fine with me. I’ve won every fight when I was wronged (didn’t start it), and lost every fight that I started (whether I was “in the right”. For me pacifism is not non-violence, pacifism is finishing nasty unfinished business started by someone else.

    I just get annoyed by all the boot camp barracks bitching around here as we wait for the inevitable: at some point, they will bring the fight to us, and we will discover if we are minions or villains (vassal villeins who disobey law and custom, and take the law into their own hands).

    Me, I’m no messiah. If I’m going to martyr myself, it will be to try and protect those immediately around me right here right now. Which may also have been part of JC’s motivation to let Himself be crucified rather than rally his posse for a short-term but extremely Pyhrric victory.

    Incidentally, on Xtian magic: Jesus on the cross asks God why he has been abandoned. But three days later, Jesus rolls that stone and is a free reanimated incarnate god thingie. It’s like no one can cross that scaryass divide except on their own.

    You know, Buddha was all about the bodhisattvas, always reincarnating. Maybe they made a virtue of inevitability: maybe they weren’t able to cross that scary-ass divide most religions posit as the defining membrane between reality and beyond. Maybe, maybe, maybe Jeebus really WAS the first human entity to “conquer death” and not have to reincarnate. Like Buddha said: “The biggest mistake is you think you have time.” Or, for that matter, believing we have to live as long as possible. Maybe it really is true that only the good die young.

    #137272
    Red
    Participant

    @thomasjkenney:
    Coral and King
    Not all are poisonous! Enough though to make one cautious.

    #137273
    Red
    Participant

    @susmarie108
    Thanks for the Caitland Johnstone link.

    #137274
    Red
    Participant

    Those of us who spend a bit too much time in front of a screen have likely noticed that we are in the middle of a marketing barrage in which the “tech” corporations are rushing out what they laughingly call “artificial intelligence” in an attempt to mop up the last few million dollars from the terminally gullible before the global economy goes the way of the Dodo. Like everything which has been developed since the first internet page was written, AI – which in reality is just unthinking predictive copyright-scraping – is presented as a world changing technology. And it isn’t just the kind of fanboys who told us that we would all be using cryptocurrency and taking rides in self-driving cars who have bought the hype.

    Aided by the tech corporations themselves, there is a growing audience in the more conspiratorial-minded corners of social media, who believe that SkyNet has already been activated and that it will only be a matter of months before the robots take over and begin the inevitable cull of humanity… something that the older members of those communities have been sure was just about to happen ever since someone showed them the first Betamax video player.

    But why would the tech corporations encourage this belief? Beside the obvious desire to fleece the kind of people who can’t understand why that Nigerian prince never sent them the money, the main reason seems to be to head off state regulation. As with the owners of the social media companies a few years ago, the AI tech firms want to reassure the politicians that self-regulation is better than governments passing laws.

    And yet the very reluctance of the politicians to get involved fuels another version of conspiracy… the road to Herr Schwab’s kleptocratic version of fully automated luxury communism. This is the so-called forth industrial revolution, which encompasses the internet of things, AI, and the metaverse (aka web 3.0) which will usher in the nirvana of the singularity where we will own nothing and be happy. Critics – of which there is a growing number – see it more as a digital prison in which we are all controlled by Chinese-style social credit algorithms and oppressive programable central bank digital currencies.

    With a few notable exceptions, what nobody – particularly in the establishment media – is pointing out is that it is bullshit. Those AI platforms that are being heavily trailed in your social media feed – by one of the most intense affiliate marketing efforts ever seen – turn out to be very poor quality. While the adverts likely had a lot of post-production editing, the version you get to try – at a cost – churns out videos that don’t lip-sync using robotic voices no better than Microsoft and Amazon are already offering at a more competitive rate.

    This is not to suggest that the AI platforms can’t do anything useful. Some of the artwork people have been creating is impressive. And with some careful prompting, it is possible to produce a passable essay or product description. ChatGPT is also a more effective research assistant than Google or Yahoo! search engines alone – although, as with the internet in general, you still have to triple check everything you read. But beware, Big Tech corporations like Google and Amazon had already developed AI-detection algorithms ahead of release of the latest batch of platforms – so attempting to replace human effort with AI may result in your website being downlisted or your publishing account being deleted. And if you are a student hoping to have AI write your essays for you, bear in mind that this may well get you expelled from your university.

    For the most part though, the most widespread use of the latest tech will be to make an already piss-poor consumer experience even worse, as everyone from your local pizza delivery firm to your nearest doctors’ surgery will be employing some spotty eighteen year old to upgrade their website so they can replace their human receptionist with an AI-powered bot which can do everything other than let you order a pizza or book an appointment. Either that, or someone will develop an AI version of Uber or Deliveroo in which impoverished gig workers get to pay a fee to access work which pays less than the Minimum Wage. And when the internet crashes – as it inevitably will – even the most basic interactions which used to take place human to human will be beyond us, because the analogue versions of those things will have been put out of business.

    More interesting than this for the present moment though, is that the narrative itself is based upon a widely-accepted misunderstanding of technological progress which renders the current shittyness of any technology irrelevant. This is a point well made by Dan Olsen in a video essay about the much-hyped “Metaverse” titled The future is a dead mall. No matter how bad the technology currently is:

    It’s just a prototype
    It will improve
    It is inevitable.
    It is exactly the same story that the corporations have been using to sell us – to name just a few – nuclear fusion, solar roadways, hyperloops, electric haulage trucks, peak oil demand, and the green new deal. It might be crap today… but if you could just bung us another $100 billion or so, we guarantee it will be better in future. And just remember, it is inevitable… the big tech corporations, the Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum say so. Worse still, since both establishment media journalists and politicians have been having a decades-long out of body experience, nobody with the power of decision seems capable of looking out of a window at the decaying heart of the real world.

    In the UK, a generation has grown up not knowing what an NHS dentist is – and a new generation looks set to put the fairy tale about seeing a doctor face-to-face alongside Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. Meanwhile, our roads are falling apart –to the point that even Versailles-on-Thames became briefly interested. And a growing number of our bridges are having weight and speed limits imposed in an attempt to stop them falling down. Elsewhere, the people who actually know how to make things work – and who know that the politicians’ vision of the future can’t work – are resigned to taking the money and keeping their heads down. And so, it is only at the point at which some over-paid CEO attempts to put fantasy into practice that, for example, it turns out that the electricity grid cannot accommodate the volume of intermittent electricity generation being proposed.

    In the end though, all of this is irrelevant. Because no matter how spectacular the promised tech fails, so long as we remain convinced that the techno-utopian future is inevitable, then exponential improvement is surely just weeks away. And since few of us are prepared to gaze into the abyss of a future in which the energy required to make things work becomes so expensive that nothing does anymore, I guess that we’ll just have to put up with the same old story being repeated over and over… It’s just a prototype, It will improve, It is inevitable.

    This story is getting old

    #137275
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Being human comes at a high price. The price is that to be human requires being stupid. It’s part of the contract. It has been alleged that it’s possible to cheat the system by eschewing the human brain and looking behind the curtain to easily acquire sufficient knowledge, wisdom and capacity for anything. But if it were possible to so then at that point one would no longer be “just human” anymore. So it is still the case that being “just” human [i.e. brain allowed, God and telepathy not allowed) comes at the price of being a dumbbell.

    But don’t worry. The solution is a no brainer (pun intended). It is to stop limiting yourself to the highly restricted and obstructed input/ouput capabilities of that human/body/persona that you’re running, which you have been cleverly misled to believe is you. We win this thing on the spiritual side, by using what we got: AWARENESS, which will lead immediately to capability and action. But first, awareness. Follow your own best estimates to become aware of as much as you can of what you think you should be aware of, then share the results with others, and just keep on doing that until you know it is time for capable action. We’ll all know when that is, and it sure feels like it’s not that far away.

    Seems like that’s what we’ve been doing, and that it’s working. It’s going to go a LOT faster before it slows down, and we’re going to be required to change a lot of things in our “world view” just to keep up with an abbreviated report of the events as they unfold. “Unfold”, hah! More like thermonuclear explosion.

    #137276
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Incidentally, we all know that one catches more flies with honey than vinegar, right?

    A similar phenomenon is this: when a person (for example, moi) owns himself entirely as I do, not requiring validation from others to maintain his personal beliefs and states, insulting criticism soon follows. Almost always. Even or especially among alt-types, I don’t step out of line in the approved manner.

    But that just makes a fellow like me stand even taller.

    It is possible to disagree without insisting the other is wrong. It is, in fact, possible to agree with oneself, believe what one believes, without requiring those who believe otherwise to be therefore wrong. It’s called ‘science’, i.e. ‘to the best of my knowledge and understanding’.

    Getting people to agree with you does not require proving the other guy wrong. (Ask any successful manipulating psychopath.) Getting other people to agree with you doesn’t prove the other guy wrong either. Getting people to agree with you is just getting people to agree with you.

    I like it when people agree with me. I like it when they disagree with me. The former is 90% ego kibble and 10% a reward for due diligence. The latter is 90% about the opportunity it provides to do that much more due diligence and make sure that I am not a fool for agreeing with myself, and 10% possibly learning something new. (It happens.).

    When people disagree with me disagreeably (standard mode), I don’t like it a bit. 100% barf-on-shoes. I think we’re all that way. I have for quite some time experimented exhaustively with how people who disagree disagreeably deal with people disagreeing with them disagreeably. It’s beyond quixotic, but sometimes, quite rarely, I draw real sparks of genuine dialog from this.

    What kind of disagreement is disagreeable? Any kind that frames itself by “I disagree/you’re wrong”, when really they are just looking at the topic from a different perspective. One can share one’s different perspective without framing it by what doesn’t fit your perspective. One can instead share that differing perspective with a simple ‘here’s how it looks to me’. This incudes hard data. A simple ‘per my reading/understand/whatever of topic x, I see…’

    Maybe it’s a cultural thing, this tendency to define ourselves by how we differ from others than by our similarities. It is very much in me, too, and it is the.very.devil, not just of dialog but all things relational. But I like to think I try to define my views at least as much by commonalities as by differences, and to point out distinctions that truly make a difference. Oh, I like to pick nits, but that’s regarding aesthetics, cuz everyone knows that (insert choice) is the greatest guitarist/singer ever! and those who disagree are obviously poopoodoodoocacaheads. 😉

    ***

    One other thing. Regarding the germ infection of negative attitudes toward the victims of what many believe is a planned genocide, all that Never Forger/Never Forgive jive, he does exactly what pro-vaxxers did to us: demonize the other. Not only does an eye for an eye leave everyone blind, but when both camps are demonized, where are the angels? What room is there for them? For angelic behavior?

    Promoting vengeance is promoting vengeance, and while that perspective might not share well with some, it is nonetheless another perspective on this perpetual blame game where the most important task ios to find the witches and burn them.

    ***

    Tweedle-Dee!

    #137277
    WES
    Participant

    With a bounty on each leopard tank killed, no Ukrainian now wants to drive or hitch a ride on a leopard tank to the front!
    Ukrainian Leopard crews are now actively sabotaging their leopard tanks to avoid the 100% suicide trip to the front!
    It is much safer to drive an old Soviet era tank since the leopard tank gets all the attention but not in a good way!
    Unintended consequences nobody thought about!

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 58 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.