Jun 212023
 


Johannes Vermeer Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window 1657-59

 

Kiev Resorts to ‘Human Wave Attacks’ (Sp.)
How the “Surovkin Line” Works (Zlatko Djuric)
Western Spies Fear Kiev’s Counteroffensive Will Backfire – Moscow (RT)
Possible Ukrainian Attack on Crimea ‘Could Rapidly Spin Out of Control’ (Sp.)
Pentagon Admits That Counteroffensive Will Be Tough For Ukraine (TASS)
Ukraine Plans to Strike at Crimea With Storm Shadow Missiles – Shoigu (Sp.)
Ukrainian Counteroffensive To End In Weeks – Russian MP (RT)
Putin’s Warning On The F-16 – NATO’s Article 5 Is Now For Burning (Helmer)
Beijing Welcomes Expansion of BRICS (Sp.)
Christopher Nolan Dismisses AI ‘Crisis’ (RT)
‘Child of Privilege’: Hunter Biden Dodges Stiffer Charges (Sp.)
Tucker Carlson Savages Bidens Over Hunter’s ‘Slap On The Wrist’ (ZH)
GOP Outraged Over ‘Sweetheart Deal’ Handed to Hunter Biden (Manley)
Hunter Biden, Baby Mama Settle Child Support Dispute (Devine)

 

 

 

 

RFK JFK

 

 

 

 

29 March 2022

 

 

 

 

Tulsi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1671111001541074944

 

 

 

 

‘Human Wave Attacks’ is exactly as scary and insane as it sounds.

“..most of the Kiev regime’s troops who perished in this counteroffensive “died without ever really seeing the enemy..”

Kiev Resorts to ‘Human Wave Attacks’ (Sp.)

While the long-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive has been going on for more than two weeks already, one thing has become increasingly apparent: Kiev’s troops’ have stalled while they continue to suffer heavy casualties, a security analyst told Sputnik. Ukraine essentially continues to be sending all its troops at the Russian defenses, sacrificing hundreds, if not thousands, of Ukrainian soldiers and still failing to produce any result that Zelensky and his NATO sponsors could sell as at least a tactical victory. Speaking to Sputnik, international relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda noted that “there has been essentially no progress by the Kiev regime’s offensive.”

“It is effectively stalled and they continue to take heavy casualties, heavy attrition,” Sleboda said, adding that, in most cases, Ukrainian troops bleed and die “still ten, fifteen kilometers” away from “Russia’s first defensive line.” According to Sleboda, all this fighting is taking place in what he described as the “throwaway zone”: an area before the actual Russian defensive lines, which the Russian troops deemed unsuitable for “static, heavy defenses, defensive lines with trenches and fortifications.” Noting how Institute for the Study of War said in a statement that Ukrainian forces may be temporarily pausing counter offensive operations to reevaluate tactics, the analyst suggested it essentially means that the architects of the counteroffensive realized that their approach is not working.

While he did admit that this statement could be a deception, Sleboda argued that it “largely reflects what we’re seeing,” with Ukrainian forces managing to seize into a “string of farm hamlets” at a cost of “so much blood and steel,” only to find themselves the lowlands, with Russian forces raining rockets and shells upon them from fortified positions located on the high ground. He also stressed that, while resorting to “human wave attacks” allowed Ukrainian forces to drive back some of the Russian screening squads deployed ahead of the actual Russian defensive lines, most of the Kiev regime’s troops who perished in this counteroffensive “died without ever really seeing the enemy,” not to mention that they lost a lot more men than the Russian defenders. On Tuesday, June 20, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Kiev regime forces lost over 400 militants dead during the past 24 hours alone while unsuccessfully attempting to simultaneously advance on several fronts.

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A Twitter thread.

How the “Surovkin Line” Works (Zlatko Djuric)

Since June 4th, the AFU have launched 263 attacks on Russian positions as part of the ongoing counteroffensive. All attacks were repelled, but few understand why the Ukrainian army’s offensive failed at its peak.

What is the “Surovkin Line”?

It is a defensive system, the first layer of which consists of dozens of fortified fire lanes, including extensive minefields and engineering barriers. This line took nearly eight months to construct, and extends several tens of kilometers in depth. It relies on a well-developed transport and logistics network with hubs and rear bases. Short logistics routes allow the Russian Armed Forces to swiftly transfer reserves from one sector to another without compromising combat readiness on the front line. In simpler terms, wherever the need arises to reinforce firepower, it can be done without withdrawing troops from other sectors.

What is unique about it?

The defensive line is supported by a powerful grouping of artillery and air forces, including Ka-52 attack helicopters and ground-attack aircraft equipped with FAB-250/500 guided glide bombs. In the event of a breakthrough by an AFU mechanized group at one of the fire lanes, aviation is capable of supporting ground forces operating in a “carousel” fashion: while helicopters engage ground targets, strike aircraft and bombers reach the launch point, and after hitting their targets, the helicopters reengage, and the cycle repeats. Meanwhile, strikes on the rear areas of the advancing AFU group in Orehovo and Velikaya Novoselka demonstrate that the AFU offensive has limited air defense. Medium- and short-range air defense systems are either deployed deep in the rear or used very sparingly on the frontline. As a result, a significant amount of senior command staff is being destroyed in the rear, which hampers command and control and, consequently, slows down the pace of the offensive.

What is “elastic defense” and how does it work?

Judging by the dynamics of the offensive, the AFU command undoubtedly relied on a swift breakthrough and the transition of the battle to maneuver warfare. For this purpose, a series of strikes across the Line of Contact was planned, including main attacks and several diversions. These strikes were countered by a combination of tactics known as elastic defense and an artillery grouping, enhanced by observation and fire correction means. It is evident that the Russian Armed Forces on the ground are still operating with comparatively small forces, and the maneuvering element, in terms of operational and tactical reserves, has not yet entered the battle.

In the cases of Pyatyhatky in Zaporozhia or Neskuchnoe in the South Donetsk direction, it is clear that Russian forces do not cling to every centimeter of the defensive line in the event of a breakthrough by individual AFU groups. If necessary, they withdraw to reserve positions. The enemy, located then at pre-known coordinates, is subjected to artillery strikes, followed by a counterattack, and the position is returned under the control of the defending forces. Judging by the fact that two weeks after the start of the AFU offensive, they continue to suffer losses from artillery fire, their reconnaissance and counter-battery capabilities are either ineffective or insufficient.

What is the result?

During more than two weeks of the Ukrainian offensive, AFU advances have been observed solely within the gray zone, meaning on territory forward of main Russian defense lines. The AFU has failed to fully seize control of these areas—every attempt to consolidate and expand the bridgehead leads to artillery strikes and air raids, forcing Ukrainian forces to retreat and regroup for a new strike.

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“..Ukrainian statehood itself may be under threat because of the counteroffensive..”

Western Spies Fear Kiev’s Counteroffensive Will Backfire – Moscow (RT)

Western intelligence agencies fear that Ukraine’s counteroffensive could lead to completely opposite results from those expected by Kiev, the head of Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper on Monday. The Russian spy chief claimed that “authoritative members of the US and European intelligence services and military departments don’t rule out that the counteroffensive could lead to directly opposite results” of those expected by Ukraine. Despite supporting the counteroffensive in their public statements, “behind the scenes, many Western military analysts express serious doubts about the success of the Ukrainian adventure,” Naryshkin said during an interview with the outlet. “Without going into details, I’ll say that the tasks announced by the Kiev regime are assessed as unachievable” by foreign experts, he added.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and other officials had earlier stated that the operation should end with Kiev recapturing all territories it lost to Moscow, including Crimea. The concern in Washington and Brussels is that the “death of a significant number of NATO-trained military personnel and destruction of equipment will undermine the combat capability of the Ukrainian army. This, in turn, will negatively affect the stability of the Zelensky regime,” Naryshkin explained. He added that according to a number of Western assessments, Ukrainian statehood itself may be under threat because of the counteroffensive. The head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Aleksey Danilov, claimed during a television appearance on Monday that the counteroffensive has been progressing in line with Kiev’s schedule.

“Everything is going according to a plan, which had been approved and developed. There are no deviations from it,” Danilov said, adding that only “a limited circle of people know” what this plan actually is. Ukraine launched its long-anticipated offensive in early June, but has so far failed to achieve any significant advances, according to Moscow. Last week, Russia’s Defense Ministry estimated Kiev’s losses since the start of the operation at 7,500. Russian President Vladimir Putin also said that 30% of Ukraine’s Western-supplied military hardware, including a number of German Leopard 2 tanks and US-made Bradley fighting vehicles, had already been destroyed. Kiev has claimed the capture of several small villages as a result of its attacks. However, they appear to be located kilometers away from Russia’s main defensive lines.

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“..what they want to do is try to provoke Russia into taking actions that will then bring NATO into the conflict directly..”

Possible Ukrainian Attack on Crimea ‘Could Rapidly Spin Out of Control’ (Sp.)

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu warned that Ukraine may attempt to use Western-supplied Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles and longer-range HIMARS ground-based rockets to strike Russian facilities in Crimea. His warning came at a meeting of the collegium of the Russian Ministry of Defense on Tuesday. Shoigu said that the use of such weapons outside the zone of the special military operation would induce immediate Russian strikes on “decision-making centers in Ukraine” and would “mean the full involvement of the United States and the United Kingdom in the conflict. Sputnik spoke with two veterans of the US foreign policy apparatus about Shoigu’s report, why Kiev might resort to such actions, and what the Western response is likely to be.

They said Western approval was implied by having helped Kiev plan its counteroffensive and that NATO powers are likely to dismiss Moscow’s warnings as bluster, despite evidence to the contrary. In the end, such a strike will only make a full-blown Russia-NATO war more likely. Earl Rasmussen, an international consultant and retired US Army lieutenant colonel, compared such a potential attack to other “actions of desperation” by Ukraine outside the scope of the conventional military conflict in Donbass. “We had the Kerch Bridge blown up; we had the attempted drone attack on the Kremlin; we’ve got the assassinations; we have the destruction of the dam. These are terrorist actions. These are actions of desperation, I think.”

Rasmussen suggested a threat against Crimea would be aimed at “trying to instill fear of some type in the Russian population” and pressure Moscow to withdraw its forces. “But also obviously, it’s for a public relations perspective as well. I think they’re trying to demonstrate some type of success or positive – from their perspective positive – prior to the NATO meetings coming up in a couple of weeks,” he noted. Meanwhile, Larry Johnson, a retired CIA intelligence officer and former US State Department official, similarly described Ukraine’s position as “a situation of great desperation” and characterized such a potentially audacious strike as an attempt to bring NATO into the conflict directly. “Nothing that they have planned from a military standpoint has worked in terms of their counteroffensive. I think what they want to do is try to provoke Russia into taking actions that will then bring NATO into the conflict directly. So they’re looking for a pretext to create an avenue,” he said.

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The Pentagon should admit they’re losing.

Pentagon Admits That Counteroffensive Will Be Tough For Ukraine (TASS)

The Ukrainian counter-offensive will be tough for the Kiev government’s forces and will entail casualties among their ranks, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh has said. “Our assessments have been pretty clear from the beginning. I think you know, we know as you continue to see the fights that have continued to move to the east, it’s become more of a <…> battle,” she told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday. “We know this is going to be a hard fight. We know this is going to take time. And we are confident that the Ukrainians have what they need.”


“We have accounted for losses. We know there are going to be losses on the battlefield. That’s the unfortunate part of this war,” the spokesperson continued. In her words, the United States has provided Ukraine with the systems and the capabilities that its troops need. “We know this is going to be a tough fight. Of course the Russians are going to adapt as they would have from the beginning of the war,” Singh said. Earlier, Russia said that the armed forces of Ukraine were sustaining heavy losses during their counter-offensive.

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“..the Kiev regime is using a large number of Western weapons and elite military formations, whose members have been trained by NATO specialists..”

And achieving nothing at all…

Ukraine Plans to Strike at Crimea With Storm Shadow Missiles – Shoigu (Sp.)

The Ukrainian armed forces are planning to strike at the territory of Russia, including Crimea, with HIMARS and Storm Shadow cruise missiles, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday.”According to our information, the leadership of the armed forces of Ukraine plans to strike at the territory of Russia, including Crimea, with HIMARS and Storm Shadow missiles,” Shoigu said at a meeting of the collegium of the Ministry of Defense.
The use of Storm Shadow and HIMARS missiles outside the special operation zone will entail immediate strikes on decision-making centers in Ukraine, the minister said. “The use of these missiles outside the zone of the special military operation will mean the full involvement of the United States and the United Kingdom in the conflict,” he added. In early 2023, a British daily reported, citing Ukrainian defense sources, that the Ukrainian military is prepared to use the UK-supplied long-range missiles, such as Storm Shadow, to hit Crimea if these are provided in military aid.


Ukrainian troops have launched a total of 263 attacks on the positions of the Russian armed forces in the Donetsk, South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions since June 4, but all of them have been successfully repelled, Russian Defense Minister said. “Ukrainian troops keep attempting offensive actions in the South Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Donetsk directions. When doing so, the Kiev regime is using a large number of Western weapons and elite military formations, whose members have been trained by NATO specialists. Since June 4, the Ukrainian armed forces have launched 263 attacks on the positions of Russian troops,” he stressed. The Russian defense chief added that Kiev had failed to achieve its goals “thanks to the competent and selfless actions” of Russian troops.

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“The lawmaker claimed that Ukraine had already lost around 20,000 soldiers out of the 40,000 to 50,000 it had reportedly trained for the offensive..”

Ukrainian Counteroffensive To End In Weeks – Russian MP (RT)

Kiev’s forces will exhaust their offensive capabilities in July if the current Ukrainian casualty rate persists, the head of Russia’s State Duma Defense Committee, Andrey Kartapolov, said on Tuesday. Ukrainian troops have lost some 900 soldiers to deaths and injuries over the past 24 hours alone, the colonel general explained. According to Kartapolov, they have also lost nine tanks and dozens of armored vehicles over the same period. “If it continues at this pace, I believe we will finish repelling [this offensive] in three weeks and move on to dynamic actions ourselves,” the MP predicted in an appearance on the ‘Solovyov Live’ show. The lawmaker claimed that Ukraine had already lost around 20,000 soldiers out of the 40,000 to 50,000 it had reportedly trained for the offensive. While he did not name his sources, he claimed the much-awaited Ukrainian operation had largely failed.


“Every tactic they have used has not worked as of now,” he said. Kiev’s troops did not advance further than the Russian forward defense area security zone and did not even reach the first defense line, the MP added. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, over 600 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed over the past 24 hours, as Kiev’s troops continued their attacks on Russian positions. The Ukrainian forces also lost dozens of armored vehicles, as well as a dozen artillery pieces, including at least three US-made M777 howitzers, the ministry revealed in its daily briefing on Tuesday.Kiev’s large-scale offensive began on June 4. Ukrainian troops have suffered heavy losses in the attacks, which have been repelled by Russian forces, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Last week, it said that 7,500 of Kiev’s frontline troops had either been killed or wounded. Russian President Vladimir Putin also said last week that Kiev had lost up to 30% of the heavy equipment supplied to it by the West.

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“.. no matter what NATO member-state flag they are flying, and on what territory they are based..”

Putin’s Warning On The F-16 – NATO’s Article 5 Is Now For Burning (Helmer)

Until June 24 the combined air forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are conducting their largest operation against Russia in the 74-year history of the alliance. The plan has been to disguise F-16 fighter jets as if they are piloted by Ukrainians, and pretend they are launched from Ukrainian territory. In response, Russian artillery, missile and fighter-bomber forces have been disabling and destroying Ukrainian airfields, and every Ukrainian aircraft being flown from them. Then on Friday, President Vladimir Putin dismissed the NATO pretence, warning that if an F-16 threatens to attack a Russian target, it would be “burned”, and so would the launch airbase and supporting aircraft – fuel tankers, electronic countermeasures, command-and-control, and decoys – no matter what NATO member-state flag they are flying, and on what territory they are based.

“The F-16 will also burn, there is no doubt,” Putin said in St. Petersburg on June 16. “But if they are located at air bases outside Ukraine, and used in combat operations, we will have to look at how to hit and where to hit those means that are used in combat operations against us. This is a serious danger of NATO’s further involvement in this armed conflict.” When the president and commander-in-chief announces “we will have to look at how to hit”, he means the General Staff have already assembled the operational intelligence and readied plans of attack with three minutes to launch; that is, against targets in Poland, Romania, Moldova, and possibly further west across the Czech and German borders. In the president’s phrase “those means that are used in combat operations against us”, Putin also intends to identify airborne targets, manned and unmanned, over the Black, Baltic, and Barents Seas.

Never before has NATO’s collective defence proviso Article Five been explicitly challenged by the Kremlin. In practice, by describing the agreement of the NATO members that “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all”, the NATO wording does no more than require each of the NATO members to take “forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary.” . What is happening is that by aiming their display of NATO airpower at the Kremlin, US and German commanders in their Ramstein bunkers have provoked Putin to call their bluff: he is now aiming directly at the Poles, Romanians and Germans, telling them to “deem” whether war with Russia is “necessary”. “Well, the Poles,” added Putin, “okay, they have their own goals, they sleep and see the return of Western Ukraine. And, apparently, they are gradually coming to this.”

In parallel, the US has escalated to nuclear weapons by flying two US Air Force (USAF) B-1B bombers from the UK Fairford airbase, refuelling in Germany, transiting Poland and Romania, to a point in the Black Sea off the Crimean coast and the Sevastopol naval base, where the aircraft transponders were turned off from public view. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Polish President Andrzej Duda have been also been trying to disguise Article Five by negotiating between themselves — they told the press last week — “what sort of security guarantees they would provide [the Ukraine] once the war ends… ‘Our support will last as long as it is needed’, Macron said. ‘We must ensure that Russia will not only not win this unfortunate campaign but also can never repeat it.’”

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The conference is next month.

Beijing Welcomes Expansion of BRICS (Sp.)

China welcomes more countries joining BRICS, because the bloc is committed to strengthening the representation and voice of emerging and developing countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Tuesday, a day after Bangladesh confirmed that it had applied for membership. “China is committed to advancing the expansion process. We welcome as many like-minded partners as possible to join the BRICS family as soon as possible,” Ning said at a briefing, commenting on Bangladesh’s application.


She said that the expansion of the bloc is a political consensus of the five BRICS countries.”The BRICS countries are an important platform for cooperation between emerging and developing countries. They have always been committed to defending multipolarity, actively promoting global governance reform, and strengthening the representation and voice of emerging and developing countries,” Ning added. On Monday, Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen confirmed that his country had officially applied to join the BRICS bloc made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

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“The biggest danger of AI is that we attribute these godlike characteristics to it and therefore let ourselves off the hook..”

Christopher Nolan Dismisses AI ‘Crisis’ (RT)

Oscar-nominated director Christopher Nolan has said in an interview that the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has only received such frenzied media attention because it represents a threat to journalists’ careers. In an interview with Wired magazine published on Tuesday, the British-American filmmaker said that the potential dangers of AI have been apparent for quite some time, particularly in militaristic contexts. But with the development of easy-to-use chatbots like ChatGPT or Google Bard, Nolan says that the media has leaned into alarmism because the technology poses an existential threat to their livelihoods. “The growth of AI in terms of weapons systems and the problems that it is going to create have been very apparent for a lot of years,” Nolan told the magazine.

“Few journalists bothered to write about it. Now that there’s a chatbot that can write an article for a local newspaper, suddenly it’s a crisis.” The public release of ChatGPT last year incited a widespread public debate about the uses – and potential dangers – of ‘generative’ AI technology, which combs through vast quantities of online data and presents content to users in a ‘human-like’ fashion. Its supporters have pointed to AI’s efficacy in performing various tasks, such as academic research, while critics point to the type of Doomsday scenarios put forth by Skynet in the movie ‘Terminator 2’; something that Nolan will no doubt be familiar with. But while Nolan is keen to dismiss the media glare as being somewhat self-serving, he admits that the biggest threat isn’t posed by AI itself, but rather by how humanity adapts to it.

“The biggest danger of AI is that we attribute these godlike characteristics to it and therefore let ourselves off the hook,” he said. “We have to view it as a tool. The person who wields it still has to maintain responsibility for wielding that tool.” He continued: “If we accord AI the status of a human being, the way at some point legally we did with corporations, then yes, we’re going to have huge problems.” It is these potentially ‘huge problems’ which have been traversing the media for the past several months. In May, Geoffrey Hinton, widely-considered to be one of the ‘godfathers’ of AI technology, resigned from his post at Google and undertook a media campaign to warn of its dangers. Big Tech thought-leaders like Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak were among several industry figures who co-signed a letter which, in part, called for aggressive regulation of the AI sector.

But while Artificial Intelligence could present opportunities to filmmakers to achieve effects previously limited only by the boundaries of their own imaginations, Nolan says he is happy to watch from the sidelines. “I’m, you know, very much the old analog fusty filmmaker,” he said. “I shoot on film.”

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“..the DoJ under Attorney General Merrick Garland “has become a Praetorian guard, a protectorate for the Biden family..”

‘Child of Privilege’: Hunter Biden Dodges Stiffer Charges (Sp.)

The US Department of Justice announced on Tuesday it had filed charges against Hunter Biden, an international businessman and the son of US President Joe Biden, related to refusing to pay income tax and illegal possession of a firearm. Biden has entered a plea deal on the charges, which could put him in jail for up to 15 years. However, experts told Sputnik that the prodigal son admitted to far worse crimes that those he is being tried for, but that the DoJ is refusing to file them against him. Marc Little, a conservative political commentator and executive director of CURE America Action, suggested that “perhaps the DoJ is attempting to rehabilitate its ‘zero” credibility before their unprecedented political trial against former President Donald Trump begins.”

“Hunter’s now-alleged involvement in international bribery and corruption will be ignored while the DoJ wages war on the current president’s political opponent,” he said. “With what appears to be a plea deal and a slap on the wrist to the president’s son, and no indictment for the many crimes committed by Hillary Clinton and numerous FBI brass in the infamous Russia Hoax, it is clear [that] the DoJ has its sights set on anyone who they cannot control. After all, it is clear the Intelligence State in the US exerts more biased power than anyone ever truly realized – until now.” Tyler Nixon, a political analyst and attorney for Donald Trump’s former campaign adviser Roger Stone compared the situation to that of Al Capone, who was ultimately jailed on tax evasion charges despite his widely known history of ordering hits on rival gangsters.

“Frankly, this is [a] disgrace for the justice system,” Nixon told Sputnik. “It doesn’t surprise me at all.” “The tax charges are used to get someone who was involved in a massive corruption off lightly. I’ve known Hunter Biden for pretty much since I was a young man, when we were children. It is sad to see that he was then involved in such corruption and frankly, just selling [his] country out to some of the worst actors around the world. This is just kind of a negotiated slap on the wrist. And it leaves off the table all of the most serious crimes involving money laundering, involving influence peddling, involving the sale of his father’s office and capitalizing on what I consider borderline treason,” he said.

Nixon said Hunter Biden escaped much stiffer gun charges that have landed others in prison for many years because “he’s a child of privilege.” “I would be shocked if he saw the inside of a prison cell at any point. They’ve softballed this, they’ve got him in a diversion program, early diversion, which [is why] he doesn’t have a criminal record as far as we know.” “I don’t think he should be treated differently by the system, either more harshly or less harshly based on what he’s done. However, the whole thing is the epitome of hypocrisy. His father is the biggest, probably the most virulent drug warrior still alive, who escalated the penalties for drug possession and all sorts of drug offenses in the 1980s and 90s and even into the early 2000s, to a point that thousands, hundreds of thousands, if not even approaching millions of Americans had their lives destroyed for mere possession of different sorts of controlled substances, thanks to Joe Biden.”

[..] Nixon noted that, when it comes to his business activities, federal prosecutors have had more than half a decade to investigate a “mountain of evidence” brought forth, including by his former business partner, Tony Bobulinski. Instead, the DoJ under Attorney General Merrick Garland “has become a Praetorian guard, a protectorate for the Biden family,” he said. “And there’s no chance that any of these serious crimes” Hunter Biden has made a plea deal on “have [anything] to do with his father,” Nixon noted.

Blinken Xi

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“If you didn’t know what a virtuous person Hunter Biden was you might think it looked a lot like money laundering..”

Tucker Carlson Savages Bidens Over Hunter’s ‘Slap On The Wrist’ (ZH)

“Donald Trump had an idea, ‘they’ll hit Hunter with something small to make their strike on me look fair.’ Trump wrote that about two weeks ago,” said Carlson. “And it turned out, those were prescient words. This morning, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to pretty much nothing. Biden pleaded to two misdemeanor tax evasion charges and then entered a diversion on a federal gun charge. That’s it. As far as Merrick Garland’s justice department is concerned, Hunter Biden is done. There was no pre-dawn raid carried live simultaneously on CNN, there was no perp walk, no handcuffs, no press conference.” “Above all, there was no felony. Hunter Biden who broke federal gun laws can still carry a gun. It’s like it all never happened,” Carlson continued.

According to the Washington Post, Hunter, 53, is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges of failure to pay in 2017 and 2018, for a combined tax liability of roughly $1.2 million. He’ll also admit to illegally possessing a weapon after his 2018 purchase of a handgun – which will likely result in a ‘diversion program’ which would result in the removal of the gun charge if all of the program’s conditions are met. The former Fox News host also noted how the White House has dismissed the investigations as politically motivated and irrelevant to Joe Biden’s presidency. He also questioned Hunter’s source of income – highlighting his art sales and book deal, which Carlson implied could be tied to money laundering and influence peddling.

“If you didn’t know what a virtuous person Hunter Biden was you might think it looked a lot like money laundering,” said Carlson, referring to an interview he gave to ABC in 2019. “Two years after that interview, Hunter Biden was selling prints of his art — and to be clear, just the prints, not the art itself – but effectively photocopies of it for seventy five thousand dollars a pop!” “Apparently Hunter Biden moved five of these Repros in just days. That’s $375,000 in less than a week for signed copies of your fake art. “As for the paintings themselves, childish self-indulgent blots, those sold for half a million dollars a piece. So the question is; who bought them and why? It’d be interesting to know, there’s a story there for sure, but of course we have no right to know.”

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Outrage my a**. Comer and the House Oversight Committee have lots to work with.

GOP Outraged Over ‘Sweetheart Deal’ Handed to Hunter Biden (Manley)

Amongst Republican outrage, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) addressed the plea deal on tax charges Hunter Biden has agreed to. The US president’s son has also reached a diversion agreement with the Department of Justice related to unlawful possession of a weapon. House and Senate Republicans responded on Tuesday to Hunter Biden’s decision to plead guilty to three federal charges, with remarks on the settled plea deal ranging between outrage and vows for investigation to not go impeded. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the announced plea deal wouldn’t have any effect on the lower chamber’s investigation into an alleged bribery scheme between President Joe Biden, his son, and a Ukrainian energy executive.

“Now this does nothing to our investigation,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday morning. “It actually should enhance our investigation because the DOJ should not be able to withhold any information now saying that there’s a pending investigation. They should be able to provide [House Oversight Committee] Chairman [James] Comer [R-KY.] with any information that he requires.” On Tuesday, Hunter pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor offenses related to federal income tax filings. He was also charged with a felony firearm offense which he will avoid prosecution for thanks to him agreeing to enter a pretrial diversion agreement. His plea deal agreement follows a nearly six-year investigation.

David Weiss, a US attorney in Delaware, said Hunter did not pay federal income taxes for either 2017 or 2018, even as he owed more than $100,000 in taxes for each year. His office reportedly adds that Hunter possessed a firearm in 2018 despite being an unlawful user of, and an addict of controlled substances, and knowing the fact. Republicans and other critics of the White House have hit out at what they see as a double standard for the president’s family, as compared to former President Donald Trump’s legal troubles. “It continues to show the two-tier system in America,” McCarthy said of Hunter’s plea deal with the DOJ. “If you are the president’s leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. But if you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal.”

Watters

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Child support from $20,000 to $5,000 per month. Jonathan Turley says they also agreed the girl will not use the Biden name.

Hunter Biden, Baby Mama Settle Child Support Dispute (Devine)

Hunter Biden and his baby mama have privately settled their child support dispute in Arkansas, according to a source close to the first son. Lunden Roberts, 32, the mother of Hunter’s long-unacknowledged 4-year-old daughter, agreed to her $20,000 monthly child support payments being slashed after she showed up in person to his deposition in Little Rock last week. Roberts’ lawyer, Clint Lancaster, told The Post late Thursday that final terms were still to be determined and declined to confirm that his client had agreed to a reduced monthly payment of $5,000. “The case is sealed, and these are financial terms that should never be disclosed,” he said, warning that leaks about details of the settlement would derail talks and end up with Hunter back in an Arkansas court on July 11.

“It was significant that Lunden was there” at Hunter’s deposition last week, Lancaster added. “I believe that settlement is important to Hunter Biden [but] we have concerns that Hunter would use [the settlement] as a means to promote some agenda of his … There’s always more that goes on in settlement negotiations than people realize.” Hunter, 53, initially denied paternity of Navy Joan Roberts, but a DNA test in 2019 proved he was the child’s father. He applied last year to a Batesville, Ark., court to reduce his child support payments, citing reduced circumstances, but turned heads by flying into town in a friend’s private jet. “Lunden is a great mom and little Navy is going be fine,” said Lancaster. “The kid has lots of love on the maternal side of the family in Batesville. They are a very, very close family. They adore her and are always going to support her … But I think everybody is disappointed that there’s not more contact [with the Biden family].

“It’s not lost on anybody that Jill Biden wrote a children’s book and [dedicated it] to her grandchildren,” the lawyer went on. “She could have kept it at that, but she named every child except Navy. “They hung stockings for the dog at Christmas but not for Navy. That is one of the saddest things.” During contentious legal arguments, Lancaster asked the case judge to jail the president’s son for contempt after he failed to produce all the financial documents they demanded to prove his newfound poverty. Roberts met Hunter in 2017 at strip club Mpire in Washington, DC, where she danced under the stage name “Dallas” while studying at college. She was placed on the Biden scion’s company payroll for nine months during an affair conducted while Hunter was also in a relationship with his widowed sister-in-law, Hallie.

In his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” Hunter claimed he had “no recollection of our encounter.” President Biden and first lady Jill Biden never have acknowledged their seventh grandchild. News of the settlement came on the same day federal prosecutors in Delaware said Hunter had agreed to plead guilty to federal tax charges as part of a deal with the Justice Department that will likely keep him out of jail. As part of the deal, Biden’s son will plead guilty to misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax for 2017 and 2018, as well as enter a pre-trial diversion on a felony gun possession charge. The charges brought against Hunter – which were condemned by Republicans as a slap on the wrist — were the outcome of a five-year investigation that largely focused on money he received from overseas business interests.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Pebbles

 

 

 

 


The Oriental dwarf kingfisher is a small, red and yellow kingfisher, averaging 13 cm (5.1 in) in length, yellow underparts with glowing bluish-black upperparts

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle June 21 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 71 total)
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  • #137426

    Johannes Vermeer Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window 1657-59   • Kiev Resorts to ‘Human Wave Attacks’ (Sp.) • How the “Surovkin Line” Works (
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 21 2023]

    #137428
    Red
    Participant

    Powered by a strong EU? A few assumptions there, me thinks. What say you?

    Based on the EU Global Health Strategy and WHO Global strategy on digital health, the initiative follows the 30 November 2022 agreement between Commissioner Kyriakides and Dr Tedros to enhance strategic cooperation on global health issues. This further bolsters a robust multilateral system with WHO at its core, powered by a strong EU.

    https://www.who.int/news/item/05-06-2023-the-european-commission-and-who-launch-landmark-digital-health-initiative-to-strengthen-global-health-security

    #137429
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Johannes Vermeer Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window 1657-59

    The elephant in the room is the dick hanging above her head. Daddy was a pedophile? Well, if daddy wasn’t a pedophile, he will be very angry to discover that his son’s member features in Bill Gates’ porn library.

    #137430
    Red
    Participant

    Not sure how to take this article, however I do see iVerify being much the same as Prop-or-not.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/06/19/un-unveils-automated-fact-checking-tool-to-counter-disinformation-and-hate-speech/

    #137431
    Red
    Participant

    Conclusion

    Almost four years have passed since the Highlevel Panel on Digital Cooperation published its
    report. More than two years have passed since the
    release of my Road Map for Digital Cooperation
    and Our Common Agenda, which outlined options
    for practical action to advance digital cooperation. The High-level Advisory Board on Effective
    Multilateralism has offered important new ideas.
    The time for talking about the need for digital
    cooperation has long passed. We need to focus
    on how we make this a reality. We need to act now,
    and with speed, if we are to recover the potential
    of digital technologies for the equitable and sustainable development that is slipping away from
    us and the planetary crisis that confronts us. We
    must work together if we are to restore the trust
    that unconsidered, irresponsible or malicious
    use of digital technologies has damaged in and
    among societies, the private sector and States.
    Furthermore, we must commit to sustained
    follow-up and review, so that agreed principles
    and priorities are translated into practice and we
    do not retreat into siloed debates.
    The ideas set out in the present policy brief are
    neither exclusive nor exhaustive. They can, however, provide a basis for discussion and debate in
    the consultations on the Global Digital Compact
    that are currently under way. The United Nations
    system stands ready to assist, at the deliberations in the Summit of the Future, in considering
    those ideas and in exploring new ideas. Whatever
    directions we take, they must be towards concrete and meaningful multi-stakeholder action if
    we are not to leave our planet, our people and our
    humanity behind.

    https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/our-common-agenda-policy-brief-gobal-digi-compact-en.pdf

    #137432
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Pic
    https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Greta.6.21.Warning-600×386.jpg

    Whoops. Wrong again. For the 30th year in a row. Step 1) Create a slush fund. Step 2) Create a reason for the slush fund. Step 3) Profit.

    Dow not looking too good. https://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickchart/quickchart.asp?symb=djia&insttype=&freq=2&show=&time=13 (10 year Dow) No where near the high, and trying VERY hard to break up and firmly, completely capped at the lower high. Like 20 times. Forever. Like a year. So if it goes, watch out below. Of course caution if it breaks up too. Although the U.S. is a wreck, it could rise on sheer hyperinflation like all the other banana republics. (It’s nice to call us a “Republic,” even in accusation and jest. We haven’t been a Republic for 100 years.)

    If we collapse, it’ll also be a giant megaphone formation, with a low waaaaay down there. 20K again, easy? Adjusting for inflation, is that a Dow 10,000?

    “BlackRock Recruiter Claims Senators Can Be ‘Bought’ For $10k, War ‘Good For Business’: O’Keefe

    I told you. They’re such cheap wh—s that I could take out a HELOC and buy one. The return-on-investment would be 100:1, higher than any honest work. However, I don’t deal with import/export or regulation much.

    This was the whole POINT of regulation. To get in the middle and be a tollbooth to dispense regulation for money. But I have a solution: More regulation! More government! We’ll get out Gensler and put in another guy from Rand and Yale, that’ll fix’er. We’ll have the media oversee them, they can be bought much, much cheaper.

    “Western Countries Have Sent Broken Weapons To Ukraine: NYT

    NYT comes out on the side of Ukraine, not America. Which is appropriate since that’s the true capital of the world, and the NY Times’ owners. In reality, both we and them are so corrupt, who could tell? Pretty sure it’s 50-50. The U.S. this morning just “Forgot” they had another $6 Billion dollars. Their accounting was so bad $6B appears and disappears on the books all the time! No one blinks, instead of firing everybody in that dept up to Milley. Yeah, who would you replace them with, even as special auditor? Standard and Poors? Target? There are no honest Americans around, or certainly are very hard to find.

    “Qatar Ready To Ink New 27-Year Gas Deal With China

    Well Qatar has a quarter-century of gas to blow without blinking. That certainly suggests they have an actual 50-75 years. We’re saved!!! Front page news!

    You know what’s even better? Europe doesn’t want any. Great! More for me!!! All the cool kids sit in the dark and eat bugs now, don’t you know?

    “Today’s Democratic Party has led us to the brink of nuclear war. The party is led by cowardly warmongers who are firmly in the grips of the military industrial complex, and don’t know or care about the cost of war, or who pays the price.” — Tulsi

    Why do they hate women, people of color, and strong female role models so much? Is it because she’s also pretty?

    Anyway, no the point is – and no sense saying it since no one will believe you – they actually, actively, passionately WANT to kill 2-5 billion people. Maybe 7.5Billion, including you of course, who knows. We normal people always imply they’re careless and it’s an accident from greed (and capitalism). No. This is the GOAL, they’ve written and published the goal 10,000 times, and it’s going pretty well.

    “Kiev Resorts to ‘Human Wave Attacks’ (Sp.) “

    Reality check: 400 isn’t actually a lot. Not to diminish this, their death, and the pointlessness of it. But we can kill 400,000 in about 10 minutes, so…

    Western intelligence agencies fear that Ukraine’s counteroffensive could lead to completely opposite results from those expected by Kiev,”

    Of course! We’ve lived in #OppositeLand quite a while now. That’s what happens when you really internalize #AntiLogos.

    ..what they want to do is try to provoke Russia into taking actions that will then bring NATO into the conflict directly..”

    Yes. And to foray into Russia with nuclear F16s to do the same. Although at this point Europe is so sapped it’s doubtful if they could anyway. I wouldn’t test it though, sounds like a trap. One little Russia may have the factories of a Germany or Italy, but there is still Spain, Portugal, England, Denmark, Belgium, France… Since they’re already shooting French women in the face, Macron would be elated to round them up and do human wave attacks on St. Pete.

    ““The use of these missiles outside the zone of the special military operation will mean the full involvement of the United States and the United Kingdom in the conflict,” he added.

    Obviously, that’s always been true. What he’s doing is telling them Russia will now ACT like it’s true.

    “Ukrainian Counteroffensive To End In Weeks – Russian MP (RT)

    Counteroffensive went so well, they decided to take a break already. That’s how these things work, doncha know? We landed at Normandy, got a town, then took a vacation on our success for 9 months.

    “Putin’s Warning On The F-16 – NATO’s Article 5 Is Now For Burning (Helmer) “

    For this, and Hal Turner who warns nuclear WWIII is 4 days away https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/first-tangible-sign-that-nato-exercise-may-go-to-live-war-with-russia-in-4-days

    Armstrong’s model showed all the U.S. failure, the failure in our elections, etc, but does not show WWIII for some time yet, like next year. …As if that’s any consolation. Because if it shows it, it’s nearly certain to happen.

    ““The biggest danger of AI is that we attribute these godlike characteristics to it and therefore let ourselves off the hook..”

    I think we had a commenter saying this. The POINT of AI is: “I create garbage in, that like Climate Models, will put out the answer I want (Socialism, power, more slush funds) regardless of what data you put in.” Then, like “democracy” everyone just complies and says, “Well, the majority said!”. In this case, “Well, Computer said!” …When 100% of us all work jobs where the computer has never been right once in a single working day since we were hired. How this works, and how the answer is “More computers” I can’t figure out.

    They don’t care what s—t they have to tell you to have you comply, the dumber the better. “AI” is as good an excuse as any. And no one can cross check us; isn’t that nice? Just like being an Aztec priest. 10,000 hearts a year and no one complains or asks questions. Like us!!!

    Can’t go on enough about Hunter, but we should run Biden’s 1994 video about how “Any possession” will land drug users in “Jail” … if they’re black, under his crime bill … put it on loop in Time’s Square. No one will care, but it’ll make me feel better.

    “• GOP Outraged Over ‘Sweetheart Deal’ Handed to Hunter Biden (Manley)

    Confidence must fall. The center cannot hold, nor should it.

    with a bank that’s so dirty, it got shut down for money laundering.”

    Someone was revisiting Silicon Valley Bank, now like FTX , down the memory hole, never happened. They were like “13 people were holding over a BILLION dollars per account, uninsured. Why would you do that?”

    Why indeed? Since they’re not stupid. Maybe because the bank was giving them something no other bank could and this was the price of admission? That is to say: massive, unprecedented, open, money laundering? Okay. So it’s DNC money laundering out of Ukraine, then what happened?

    Powell’s NY Fed closed them down without comment and shut them off. Not a word, not a ripple. Davos’ prybar taken out of bad hands. …Amongst other effects.

    Where did Swiss bank go? The EU wasn’t even in the room. Closed down for massive, embarrassing (Ukraine) money laundering. Another Davos/Nazi conduit, shut off. Sure, who likes NY to win, or for JPM not to fail on their market rigging or whatever, but can we compromise to restoring law and sovereignty? Would that be enough?

    #137433
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Start the day with some mild madness in Duh’merica

    .

    .

    #137434
    kultsommer
    Participant
    #137435
    zerosum
    Participant

    All quiet on the news front. Titanic-adventure-sub with millionaires still missing
    ——

    The US Department of Justice announced on Tuesday it had filed charges against Hunter Biden, refusing to pay income tax and illegal possession of a firearm.

    Biden has entered a plea deal on the charges, which could put him in jail for up to 15 years.

    However, experts told Sputnik that the prodigal son admitted to far worse crimes that those he is being tried for, but that the DoJ is refusing to file them against him.

    https://sputnikglobe.com/20230620/child-of-privilege-hunter-biden-dodges-stiffer-charges-despite-admitting-to-serious-crimes-1111343610.html

    “But even if they did bring it, I guarantee you that Joe Biden would issue a blanket pardon to his son. He may still do so, just to cover the bases before whenever he leaves office,” Nixon said.
    ———

    #137436
    Germ
    Participant

    What a hoot this gibbering homunculus is.


    TVASSF (from the horse’s mouth)

    #137438
    Germ
    Participant
    #137439

    The first rule of power: kill the good guys.

    John Day over at The Slog.

    #137440
    John Day
    Participant

    Good, thoughtful explorations of the nature of existence in comments last night.
    Short night.
    Take a siesta today.
    🙂

    #137441
    John Day
    Participant

    MPSK noticed that JAW liked my recent post and re-posted it.

    #137442
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I don’t usually comment about the artwork Raul posts to the wite, I like it all, but in the case of Vermeer painting the girl reading a letter there is something so special that I’ve just got to say something.

    There is a term in the visual arts called “gesture” which is one of those really hard to nail down definitions that are critically important to the art form, and yet nearly impossible to describe. It means the portrayal of the subject so that it displays the dynamic inner tensions and vectors of motion and mass that are in the REAL thing. Gesture is not about photo-realism. It’s about evoking the fundamentals of dimensionality, and can be accomplished (by Masters) with a squiggly line or a brash splash of a single stroke of paint.

    Anyway, the quality of gesture in the Vermeer painting is just absolute stunning. The way she stands, bends her head and grips the letter is so evocative of the real that it’s as though he captured actual life and displayed it on a canvas.

    #137443
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    GISFOS

    ***

    Nice to see JD get some kudos. He not only sacrificed a career, he lost countless patients-as-friends who in turn lost a doctor-as-friend.

    Love those Wise Old Owl eyebrows and how his wife looks like she’s fully recovered from her health challenges. Downright radiant, she r.

    ***

    In our new digs, I rapidly became patron/ friend to a local crow couple raising chicks.

    We had a freakish hail storm three days ago. 1 inch hail. Raised welts where it hit.

    I didn’t see the crows next day. I worried. Two days after, the storm they showed up as I walked the dog, landing in a tree above and cawing gleefully.

    ‘ We survived! Thanx for the corn bread. What happened to the ever lovin sky!?!?!’

    Seems they hid under shelter for a day, terrified to come out?

    I’m so happy they’re still with us. That hail coulda crippled/ killed them with ease. Delightful couple. ALWAYS together, never solo.

    Footage

    ***

    Classic but lesser known MOdern Era composer:

    Alexander Tansman

    ***

    We’ll see lots more of this. Not just from general anomie, but strategic power. Can’t afford the rent? Kick in the doors. Copycats see the news story and follow suit. Property values fall, so does rent. Affordable hovels at last!

    Developer pulls out of Portland after four decades: ‘What does a property owner do?’

    #137444
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I echo the praise for the Vermeer. From an article John Updike wrote when I was wee:

    “”For my own money, Jay, the French are the people to beat. We have four Degas ballet dancers in our living room in Chicago, and I could sit and look at one of them for hours. I think it’s wonderful, the feeling for balance the man had.”

    “Yeah, but don’t Degas’s paintings always remind you of colored drawings? For actually looking at things in terms of paint, for the lucid eye, I think Vermeer makes Degas look sick.”

    Uncle Quin said nothing, and my father, after an anxious glance across the table, said, “That’s the way he and his mother talk all the time. It’s all beyond me. I can’t understand a thing they say.””

    #137445
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    My. TAE Summary was on a roll yesterday. I laughed often reading his latest.

    #137446
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The reason that the bad guys are compelled to show and tell you what they’re doing and intend to do is that by you allowing them do that action, without consequential restraint or punishment, is demonstration and proof that you find it acceptable. Really!? Well, you accepted it didn’t you? That’s proof that you find it acceptable, and since it is acceptable then I’m going to keep on doing it.

    #137447
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks for kind comments.. Your Next Move https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/your-next-move

    China Plans Military Base In Cuba In Response To US Support For Taiwan
    US intelligence and the WSJ are catching on and belatedly acknowledging this crucial factor…
    ​ ​”Some intelligence officials say that Beijing sees its actions in Cuba as a geographical response to the U.S. relationship with Taiwan: The U.S. invests heavily in arming and training the self-governing island that sits off mainland China and that Beijing sees as its own,” WSJ writes. “The Journal reported that the U.S. has deployed more than 100 troops to Taiwan to train its defense forces.”
    ​ ​And additionally, the report spells out the following:
    Taiwan is roughly 100 miles from mainland China, about the same distance Cuba is from Florida. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-seeks-military-base-cuba-response-us-bolstering-taiwan-us-officials-admit

    ​Great, we’ll draw China into a war in Cuba and bleed them to death!​ Or is this the legendary “ability of Joe to f**k things up”?

    ‘Blatant Provocation’: China Lashes Back After Biden Labels Xi A Dictator

    On Wednesday China lashed back at US President Joe Biden for his earlier referring to Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a dictator. The timing of Biden’s Tuesday night remarks, issued at a fundraiser, were especially awkward given he had just dispatched Secretary of State Blinken for a two day visit to China where he met with Xi.
    ​ ​”That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened,” Biden said while speaking on recent tensions at the California event, and while referring to the Chinese spy balloon shootdown in early February.
    ​ ​The irony, obvious and yet perhaps lost on Biden, is that Blinken’s trip was a desperate attempt of administration to rescue spiraling US-China relations, and with Biden’s one single “dictator” comment these efforts have likely come to nothing. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/blatant-provocation-china-lashes-back-after-biden-labels-xi-dictator

    ​Hey, Cuba would be a great addition to BRICS!​

    Beijing Welcomes Expansion of BRICS https://sputnikglobe.com/20230620/beijing-welcomes-expansion-of-brics-1111324709.html

    ​Moon of Alabama (gloating?)​ U.S. Admits Defeat In War On Russia And China

    Confronted with the realities of life the Biden administration has in the last days acknowledged defeat in two on its most egregious and delusional foreign policy games.
    The Ukrainian counter-offensive has failed. Its army is getting slaughtered on the battlefield. The ‘counteroffensive’ of the ‘NATO trained’ Ukrainian brigades has made no real progress on any front. The high level of losses of men and material make it impossible that it will ever again regain the initiative…

    ​..​After more than 20 years of pursuing that aim the U.S. threw the towel:
    ​ ​President Biden on Saturday said he won’t make it easier for Ukraine to join NATO, adding that the country at war with Russia has to meet the requirements to be a member.​..

    ​..​The much hyped counter-offensive has indeed become a death trap for the U.S. EU and NATO.
    ​ ​The other U.S. defeat was acknowledged by U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at the end of his trip to Bejing:
    ​ ​The United States will not support Taiwan breaking away from China, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said, amid a series of confusing statements by Joe Biden on the issue.
    ‘We do not support Taiwan independence,’ America’s top diplomat said in Beijing after meeting with Chinese president Xi Jingping. https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/06/us-admits-defeat-in-war-on-russia-and-china.html#more

    #137448
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Everybody says Russia will push westward to the Polish border, but Putin does not say that. A lot of Ukrainian units have mass surrendered in the past week. I think​ Putin would like the killing to stop.
    Putin Says A Political Solution Is Still Possible
    ​ ​President Putin believes that the odds favor at least freezing the Line of Contact (LOC) through a ceasefire, if not outright ending the conflict by reviving last year’s now-defunct draft tre​n slaves.​aty with Ukraine, albeit with amendments reflecting the new ground reality of Kiev having lost four more regions. There’s even the chance that a creative diplomatic-legal solution can be found for making the LOC the new international border without violating the Russian Constitution’s prohibition on ceding territory.

    Putin Says A Political Solution Is Still Possible

    ​If you make it to the field hospital alive they harvest your good organs and cremate your remains.​ Fresh organs are better business than slaves.
    Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Kiev regime is rapidly turning the country into a global hub of human organ trafficking
    https://tass.com/russia/1633129

    Scott Ritter: Ukrainian Counteroffensive’s Second Week Ends in Failure
    ​T​he counteroffensive gambit has failed. While there is still considerable combat strength left in the Ukrainian military, including more than 75% of the NATO-trained and -equipped 60,000-strong cohort Ukraine had assembled in the past eight months, fundamentally flawed assumptions about the quality of the force on which Ukraine and its NATO allies had placed their collective hopes for victory over Russia have been exposed. In short, Ukraine lacks the military capacity to overcome Russian defenses.​..​
    ​ ​Ukraine’s most elite assault brigades, equipped with the latest Western military technology, failed to advance out of what Russian defensive doctrine calls the “cover” line of defense—the buffer that is designed to channel and disrupt an attacking force prior to reaching the “main” line of defense.​..
    ​ This short-sighted posture will result in the inevitable military collapse of Ukraine, probably sometime between late summer/early fall of this year. When this happens, NATO will be left scrambling to construct some sort of face-saving mechanism to salvage its weakened geopolitical position vis-à-vis Russia. What that will look like is unknown at this time. But one thing is for certain—because NATO refuses to consider an off-ramp from the Ukrainian conflict today, there will be no future for Ukraine tomorrow. NATO political pride will be the downfall and destruction of the Ukrainian nation, its military, and its people.
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20230617/scott-ritter-ukrainian-counteroffensives-second-week-ends-in-failure-1111243899.html

    #137449
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Of course the reason that you accepted the behavior was because of your belief in some lie. Indeed that belie was a major factor in your calculations and decision about whether to accept it or not. Some politician says he will lower your taxes so you vote him in and he raises your taxes. Whose fault is that?

    To that bad guys that doesn’t matter or count. Telling a lie is usually not technically “illegal”, and even then the law says its legal until proven to the contrary it in a court of law. They reckon that it’s YOUR responsibility to do your due diligence on incoming information to see if it’s true or not. If you don’t choose or manage to do so then that’s YOUR problem and responsibility, not theirs. What matters is that you DID accept it, and it is therefore acceptable. All legal and everything until proven otherwise . . . and good luck with proving that in the Courts that the bad guys own.

    #137450
    John Day
    Participant

    ​This is a cringeworthy four and a half minutes. I’ve never seen Bobby Kennedy Jr. this uncomfortable.
    He says things like “Palestinian-occupied Israeli territories”.​
    It’s better to speak the truth than to get elected, Bobby
    Kennedy denies Zionist deliberate ethnic cleansing of Palestinians
    Interviewed by Glenn Greenwald, Kennedy twists and perverts reality
    https://beeley.substack.com/p/kennedy-denies-zionist-deliberate

    Pentagon program hunts those who ‘embarrass’ its generals – Intercept​
    A new system is capable of pinpointing the ‘exact location’ of anyone who could cause reputational damage to its charges
    https://www.rt.com/news/578211-pentagon-social-media-reputation-protection/

    ​ ​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.
    “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.

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

    ​ ​NH Democratic Party Freaks Out As RFK Jr To Speak At Libertarian Festival
    ​ ​On its Facebook page, the Free State Project called the letter the “best endorsement yet! Thanks, Chairman.” Kennedy flatly rejected the plea within two hours of it being posted to Twitter by the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
    ​ ​Referring to the national party’s announcement that it has no intention to hold primary debates, Kennedy tweeted, “The Democratic Party Bosses who promote censorship, who have stripped New Hampshire of its rightful First in the Nation primary status, who have shut down debate, who refuse to campaign in New Hampshire, are in no position to tell me who to talk to.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nh-democratic-party-freaks-out-rfk-jr-speak-libertarian-festival
    ​ ​
    YouTubewill not allow users to hear what it considers harmful thoughts.
    ​ ​On Sunday, both Kennedy and podcast host Jordan Peterson tweeted that they were the latest to be censored by the company. Kennedy tweeted: “What do you think… Should social media platforms censor presidential candidates? My conversation with [Peterson] was deleted by [YouTube].”
    ​ ​He added: “Luckily you can watch it here on [Twitter] (thank you [Elon Musk]).”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/youtube-censors-robert-f-kennedy-jr

    #137451
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Tim’s Vermeer

    A documentary of Vermeer produced for Sony by Penn & Teller Films

    #137452
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Tucker Carlson savaged the Biden family on Tuesday, hours after it was announced that Hunter Biden would receive a slap on the wrist – and would only be required to plead guilty to simple tax crimes and a gun charge, despite what many would say is obvious evidence that he’s been acting as a foreign agent.
    ​ ​Carlson noted how none of the charges have to do with influence peddling – including Hunter’s alleged role as an international bag man for the Biden family (alleged, of course), which included a $10 million payment from Burisma to Hunter and Joe Biden, according to an FBI source.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/tucker-carlson-savages-bidens-over-hunters-slap-wrist-tax-gun-crimes

    ​ ​While Hunter will receive no more than two years of probation, Trump was charged with 37 counts for allegedly mishandling over 300 classified documents found in his Mar-a-Lago home following an FBI raid.
    ​ ​”Hunter Biden is getting away with a slap on the wrist when growing evidence uncovered by the House Oversight Committee reveals the Bidens engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery,” tweeted House Oversight Committee Rep. James Comer (R-KY).
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hunter-biden-plead-guilty-tax-crimes-admit-gun-charge

    ​ ​BlackRock Recruiter Claims Senators Can Be ‘Bought’ For $10k, War ‘Good For Business’: O’Keefe
    ​ ​The undercover chaps and lasses at James O’Keefe’s new undercover media venture have done it again – this time tricking a BlackRock recruiter into making several damning admissions.
    ​ ​In a series of covertly-recorded meetings, recruiter Serge Varlay describes how BlackRock – the world’s largest asset manager – is able to “run the world,” and that it’s easier to pull off shenanigans when “people aren’t thinking about it.”
    ​ ​According to Varlay, US Senators can be ‘bought’ for as little as $10k.
    “The senators…are f***ing cheap – you got 10 grand, you can buy a senator,” he remarked.
    ​ “​You can take this big f*** ton of money and buy people, I work for a company called BlackRock…It’s not who is the president it’s who is controlling the wallet of the president. You could buy your candidates. First, there is the senators these guys are fuckin cheap. Got 10 grand you can buy a senator I’ll give you 500k right now It doesn’t matter who wins they’re in my pocket.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/blackrock-recruiter-claims-senators-can-be-bought-10k-war-good-business-okeefe

    If vaccines don’t cause autism, then how do you explain all this evidence?​ , Steve Kirsch​
    We see an odds ratio of 5 when comparing autism in vaxxed vs. unvaxxed in MULTIPLE studies. The before:after odds are even more extraordinary. How can we ignore all this evidence?
    https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/if-vaccines-dont-cause-autism-then#poll-79773

    #137453
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Here’s an example:
    Obama said you could keep your doctor and health care plan.
    He immediately inacted laws that took away your doctor and health plan.
    Did he tell a knowing and calculated lie?
    Yes he did.
    Does he care if everybody knows that?
    No he doesn’t.
    Why not?
    Because he got what he wanted. He took away your doctor and health plan (thus profitably tightening the grip of control over you), you accepted all of it, and he was rewarded with a second term in office rather than punished. What more could he want or hope for, another cash bonus with kisses? Well he probably got that, too, so he has no reason to give a damn what it is that you think you know.

    #137454
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    JMG latest


    Naomi Wolf, one of the few journalists who responded to the Covid-19 phenomenon by doing what journalists are theoretically supposed to do and asking hard questions about the party line pushed by government and corporate flacks, has continued to follow that shocking act of independent thought into wider territories. It’s been quite something to watch.

    Beyond Thaumatophobia, Part One: A Door Into Springtime

    #137455
    zerosum
    Participant

    counteroffensive
    According to

    Ukrainians Go For Broke. Military Summary And Analysis For 2023.06.21

    There seem to be a build up to give another try to “break through” the lines of Russian defenses

    #137457
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @MichaelReed

    Thanks for the link. What a wonderful read, like scarfing down huge scoops of my favorite ice cream. Not much doubt about which side of the dichotomy I fall on. Thanks again.

    #137458
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “It’s better to speak the truth than to get elected, Bobby”

    Everyone lies. EVERYone.

    Choosing when to lie and what about is about as good as we get.

    As a recovered junkie, BobbyJ surely knows how dangerous lies are. Put you in a backroom with a needle in your arm before you can stop. You could see how much he hated it. I think BobbyJ will show us some interesting things yet. He may not rise above the blatant moral compromise he’s making. Odds are against him, imo.

    But at least it’s political theater that I can watch as if it it just might matter at some point. Say what one will about BobbyJ’s sincerity etc., he mos def has major skin in the game, including his own.

    ***

    “Everybody says Russia will push westward to the Polish border, but Putin does not say that”

    Why would he want to inherit a failed nation, especially after bombing it to bits? Russia has a depopulation problem, now exacerbated by its foolish submission to the covid nightmare. So does Ukraine. For human purposes, land without enough people to work/hold/protect it is just a burden.

    Putin/Russia ARE willing to absorb Ukraine into the fold, but only on Russia’s terms, and at this point, Ukraine couldn’t meet those terms even if it wanted to.

    ***

    It’s in the bag. Shaman power!

    #137459

    Someone’s got ambition.
    Someone wants some power.
    Take him to a party.
    Ply him for an hour.
    Bring him some young girly-
    Head’s all swirly-whirly.
    Tape the situation,
    Pad his reputation.
    Now you’ve got a crony-
    Pocket sized and phony.

    #137460
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    * Global warming will liquefy slush funds

    * For only $250K you too can have an authentic Titanic steerage experience

    * The misdemeanor charges will vaccinate Hunter Biden against felony indictments
    – “If you are vaccinated you can return to your previous lifestyle while those not vaccinated may experience severe illness and death” – The Big Guy

    * Obama: “The digital watermark will guarantee info authenticity similar to the guarantee of value from a watermark on paper money”

    * Hotez California
    – Relax said the vaxx man, we are programmed to inject
    – You can check out any time you want but you will still be wrecked

    #137461
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @TAEsummary

    re: “Hotez California”

    Very catchy. Keep that kind of stuff up and you’ll be giving @MyParentsKnow a run for his money as Rhymer Laureate around here.

    #137462

    DBS- on the Vermeer- yes, gesture! The letter is not good news, imo. Her posture is deflated; the brow we can see is arched in her otherwise passive face.
    Cupid is a very recent restoration- RIM put the unrestored picture up a while back. He is not an appealing putto. Militant, too old and large…
    WikiP says a Polish buyer of this painting thought it was a Rembrandt. Gads!

    #137463
    John Day
    Participant

    The girls with the letter is completely engrossed.
    This intensity without a clear emotional thrust otherwise makes the painting riveting.

    You Just Can’t Tell.

    🙂

    #137464
    userzeroid
    Participant

    Where is Gonzalo Lira?

    #137465
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Hotez California
    – Relax said the vaxx man, we are programmed to inject
    – You can check out any time you want but you will still be wreckedinfect.

    Tasty nit I picked there. Yum. Originally, I just felt that “you will still be wrecked” was a tad clunky for TAE Sum’s usual concise elegance. But then, I realized that the alteration was more correct. I know of many people multiply vaxxed who are in fine shape two years later, who could catch a covid variant tomorrow and spread it around just swell. Just as the vax doesn’t work reliably to protect from covid, it also doesn’t reliably produce harsh side effects.

    As disturbingly misguided and/or corrupt and/or insane Monsieur Hotez may be, there may be hope for him yet. Maybe if he loses that bow tie. Hey! It worked for this guy:

    And his bow tie had polka dots. While he wore a plaid jacket. A seemingly hopeless case. But he got his head bashed by a professional comedian (Jon Stewart), and it turned some kind of light on?

    #137466
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Meanwhile, I think this is something to watch:

    Ignoring Russia’s demographic crisis would be ill-advised

    I’m curious what effect on Russia’s cooperation with the WHO (via its native “Faucists — a Faucian deal) might come from this growing, effectively populist, awareness might.

    #137467
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    (reading a bit on Carlton’s departue from FOX):

    “In his private communications to a colleague, Carlson called Powell an exceptionally vulgar and denigrating term for a woman.”

    ‘an exceptionally vulgar and denigrating term for a woman’ is a LOT of letters for a 4-letter word, and there’s nothing wrong with the word ‘cunt’. It’s another word for ‘vagina’, and vaginas are lovely things. In a culture in which ‘fuck you’ is an insult based on the concept of rape, of unwanted sex), I am amused by the hysteria focused on cunt (a very insulting term, btw, associating women with insanity via the Greek word for uterus, hystera).

    Wadda buncha dumb cunts!

    Q: What is wrong with the previous sentence?
    A: Not the word cunt but its malicious intent.

    But then, we endure the nonsensical concept of hate crime, which itself I could handle but only if we also made it a crime to hate, period. What’s another stupid law among a zillion? But hate sells almost as well as sex, so hate is functionally encouraged even as we blabber mouth-noises against it.

    Blibbering Humdingers

    Don’t you just hate hate?

    Maybe JC was on to something when He said, “Love thine enemies?” (lest you become like them?)

    #137468
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    effectively populist, awareness might.’

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