Jun 082023
 
 June 8, 2023  Posted by at 9:32 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Piet Mondriaan Still Life with Gingerpot I 1911/12

 

NATO States May Send Troops To Ukraine – Ex-Chief (RT)
Russia Seeks To Replace ‘Nazi Regime’ In Ukraine – Patrushev (RT)
Russia Wants US To Answer About How Its Weapons Used In Ukraine (TASS)
Russia Calls For International Investigation Into Kakhovka HPP’s Dam Collapse (TASS)
US Media Wages Disinformation Campaign Regarding Kakhovka Dam – Envoy (TASS)
How Does This End Well? (Jim Rickards)
Saudi-Russian Concord Is The Secret Behind OPEC+ (Bhadrakumar)
Trump May Face More Criminal Charges Soon (RT)
RFK Jr.’s Rising Profile Sparks Democratic Jitters (Hill)
Tucker Carlson’s Twitter Debut Goes Mega-Viral (ZH)
Fox Claims Tucker Carlson Violated Contract With Independent Twitter Show (Sp.)
Hunter Biden Could Face Jail for Contempt of Court, Judge Says (ET)
The Emergency State’s Plot to Override the Constitution (Whitehead)
Two Tiers of Justice (Kash Patel)
Snowden Reveals Why He Chose To Stay In Russia (RT)

 

 

 

 

Roger Waters


https://twitter.com/i/status/1666371827160043523

 

 

 

 

O’Looney

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I think the Poles would seriously consider going in and assemble a coalition of the willing if Ukraine doesn’t get anything in Vilnius.”

NATO States May Send Troops To Ukraine – Ex-Chief (RT)

Former NATO secretary general-turned-Ukrainian presidential adviser, Anders Rasmussen, has claimed that some member states may volunteer to send their soldiers to Ukraine, if the country is not offered security assurances on a wide range of issues at an upcoming summit. Rasmussen, who has served as an adviser to Ukrainian presidents Vladimir Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko, said Kiev should be given written guarantees before NATO leaders meet in Vilnius, Lithuania next month, including for Western intelligence-sharing, weapons transfers and joint military training. “If NATO cannot agree on a clear path forward for Ukraine, there is a clear possibility that some countries individually might take action,” he said on Wednesday, according to the Guardian. “I think the Poles would seriously consider going in and assemble a coalition of the willing if Ukraine doesn’t get anything in Vilnius.”

After touring Europe and the United States in recent weeks to help gin up military support for Ukraine, Rasmussen argued that foreign troop deployments would be legal under international law if requested by Kiev. While NATO’s current secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, recently confirmed that some security assurances would be discussed at the summit, he stressed that full guarantees could only be offered to member states. The bloc first pledged to grant Ukraine membership back in 2008, and Kiev formally applied to join last September, but little progress has been made on the issue since. Several NATO members have become increasingly vocal about Ukraine’s future in the bloc, urging other Western countries to outline a clear path to membership. Earlier this week, sub-grouping of Eastern European NATO states known as the ‘Bucharest Nine’ issued a statement urging the bloc to “launch a new political track that will lead to Ukraine’s membership in NATO” at the Vilnius event, as well as a “more robust, multi–year, and comprehensive support package.”


Though Washington has also repeatedly affirmed that Ukraine will someday join the military collective, it has placed greater focus on the current conflict with Russia, hoping to resolve the issue of membership later on. However, US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told the Guardian on Wednesday that officials are now “looking at an array of options to signal that Ukraine is advancing in its relationship with NATO,” though did not specify what that might entail. Zelensky rejected any “substitute for NATO” and reportedly told Western partners that he would not attend the summit in Lithuania in July unless the bloc offers Ukraine “concrete” guarantees or a roadmap to full membership. Russia views NATO’s continued eastward expansion as a threat to its security and has cited member states’ aid to Ukraine as one of the reasons it launched the military operation in the neighboring state in February 2022. Moscow repeatedly said that Ukraine’s neutrality would be one of key conditions for a lasting peace.

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“..Lukashenko stated that Minsk and Moscow’s “only mistake” was failing to resolve the Ukrainian crisis much sooner..”

Russia Seeks To Replace ‘Nazi Regime’ In Ukraine – Patrushev (RT)

There is no war between the peoples of Russia and Ukraine, claimed Russian Security Council chief Nikolay Patrushev, stating that the only “outright aggression” is coming from the US, which is using Ukraine as a tool to wage an undeclared war against Russia. During a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Volfovich, on Wednesday, Patrushev insisted that “Kiev’s Nazi regime,” which was invented by Washington and London, “must be replaced.” He also said Ukraine must be made into a neutral state, noting that the ongoing crisis in the country is not beneficial to anyone except Washington. The security official declared that the US had already “brought the whole of Europe to its knees,” seeking only to maximize benefits for the American economy by weakening the EU, which could have become one of the centers of a multipolar world.

He also noted that the US does not want Russia to be powerful and seeks to either dismember it or liquidate it “in order to have complete reign over the Eurasian territory and pump out resources.” To solve this problem, Patrushev stated that Washington and London have been using the capabilities of NATO and the EU, Ukrainian neo-Nazis and NGOs, and the government in Kiev, which they control. The official added that similar plans were held by the West for Belarus, especially after they unsuccessfully tried to carry out a color revolution in the country in 2020 and failed to install their own puppet government in Minsk via a coup d’etat. Patrushev insisted that Belarus was Russia’s closest ally and strategic partner and that it was vital for the two countries to further deepen their defense cooperation and jointly resist external sanctions and attempts to interfere in internal affairs.


Last week, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated that Minsk and Moscow’s “only mistake” was failing to resolve the Ukrainian crisis much sooner. He suggested that the two countries took too long trying to find a diplomatic solution and should have acted long ago, even before the 2014 Maidan coup in Kiev, which ousted the country’s democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovich. Lukashenko claimed that hostilities were bound to break out sooner or later and that Moscow should have launched its military operation back in 2014-2015 when Ukraine “had neither an army nor resolve.”

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No answer will come.

Russia Wants US To Answer About How Its Weapons Used In Ukraine (TASS)

The US authorities must give a concrete answer as to whether or not they know how American weapons are being used on the territory of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing in comments on the attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. Against the backdrop of the recent attack on the Kakhovka HPP, she pointed to a statement made last December by Ukrainian General Andrey Kovalchuk in an interview with The Washington Post, in which he said that the Ukrainian army had already conducted a test strike from a US HIMARS system on one of the dam’s gates to punch it and see how high the water level of the Dnieper River rises.

“Now, the question for [White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John] Kirby, [White House Press Secretary] Karin Jean-Pierre, all the people who are in charge of communications at the White House. <…> Were you aware of how American weapons, the weapons that are being supplied to Ukraine, are used?” she asked. “That trial tests of a terrorist attack against civilian infrastructure in third countries are being made? These are the questions that we directly pose in the public space before the White House; you must answer them,” she said, adding that the attack on the Kakhovka HPP “is certainly an act of terrorism.”


On Tuesday night, Ukrainian forces delivered a strike on the Kakhovka hydropower plant, presumably from an Olkha multiple launch rocket system (MLRS). The shelling destroyed the hydraulic sluice valves at the HPP’s dam, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. In Novaya Kakhovka, the water level exceeded 12 meters at one point, but is now receding. There are currently 15 population centers in the flood zone; residents of nearby towns and villages are being evacuated. The collapse of the hydro plant’s dam has caused serious environmental damage. Farmlands along the Dnieper River have been washed away, and there is a risk that the North Crimean Canal will become shallow.

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Yeah, like the Nord Stream probe.

Russia Calls For International Investigation Into Kakhovka HPP’s Dam Collapse (TASS)

The situation with the collapse of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant’s dam should become the subject of a worldwide study and investigation, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday. “Naturally, this is no longer the topic of the day or the topic of the week, it has already been put into the historical context – I’m talking about what happened yesterday at the Kakhovka HPP. This really should be a subject of worldwide study, research and investigation,” she said. “The reaction of the West in all such situations is 100% predictable. It is an endless desire to blame Russia for everything that happens, regardless of whether it actually happened or is a figment of the imagination,” the diplomat pointed out. Moreover, the reaction of the West “will always be like this,” she added.


The spokeswoman explained that this is part of the information and psychological warfare and “endless linking of all the negative things that happen in the Western countries, outside and on the periphery with our country, in order to maintain the hysterical attitude of their own population towards the situation around Russia, in Russia in general, and so on.” On Tuesday night, the Ukrainian military delivered a strike on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), presumably from an Olkha MLRS. The shelling destroyed the hydraulic valves at the dam, triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. In Novaya Kakhovka, the water level has already exceeded 12 meters. There are currently 14 settlements in the flooded area, and a total of about 80 villages may be inundated. Residents of nearby settlements are being evacuated, though authorities have said no large-scale evacuations are necessary. The collapse of the plant’s dam has caused serious environmental damage. Farmlands along the Dnieper River have been washed away, and there is a risk that the North Crimean Canal will become shallow.

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Latest: whatever Ukraine does, it’s Russia’s fault by definition.

US Media Wages Disinformation Campaign Regarding Kakhovka Dam – Envoy (TASS)

The US media has launched a targeted campaign regarding the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in an attempt to shift the Ukrainian responsibility on Russia and to ‘whitewash’ the Kiev regime, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov told journalists on Thursday. “There is a targeted disinformation campaign going on in the US media around the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant,” he said. “There are many insinuations about the fact that Russia allegedly has blown up the most important infrastructure facility,” Antonov continued. “Administration officials have framed their rhetoric as if the Russian Federation were in any case responsible for all incidents that occur during the Ukrainian conflict.”

“Such an approach does not stand up to scrutiny. This is another desperate attempt to “whitewash” the Kiev regime, which deliberately shelled the station for many months,” the Russian ambassador stated. According to Antonov, “We have witnessed yet another gross violation of International humanitarian law by Ukraine.””A terrorist attack that led to an ecological disaster, large-scale flooding of settlements and farmland. Endangered the functioning of the North Crimean Canal,” he continued. “Experts have yet to assess the imminent consequences for the cooling circuit of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant as a result of this tragedy.”


“Washington patrons never criticize Kiev. All actions of the regime are approved of, while any strikes, that Russians suffer from, are encouraged,” Antonov noted. “This is a textbook example of an ill-conceived, flawed position that has already caused serious upheavals in the world. However, this is obviously not enough for the United States, and terrorist acts of Ukraine will receive further support.” “According to the American logic, the main idea is not to slow down assistance to Kiev. Ensure its illusory victory. Not only military specialists, but also political technologists are apparently involved in the United States to solve this problem,” the Russian ambassador added.

Dnepro
https://twitter.com/i/status/1666494567388962818

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“..Biden has created a major drag on world trade on top of the other headwinds already facing the global economy..”

How Does This End Well? (Jim Rickards)

[..] many of the most important countries in the world are maintaining a neutral stance and are not supporting U.S. sanctions. These neutral parties include India, China, South Africa, and Brazil, which collectively include almost 40% of the earth’s population. India, China and Brazil are three of the ten largest economies in the world and collectively produce 24% of global GDP. What’s new about the recent sanctions report quoted above is the U.S. is now getting desperate about the failure of sanctions to damage Russia or change Russian behavior in Ukraine. The U.S. has begun imposing what are called secondary boycotts. This means that the sanctions do not target Russia directly, but target countries that do business with Russia and do not follow U.S. orders.

For example, China is reported to be selling semiconductors to Russia even as Brazil sells aircraft and India sells drones. China and India also purchase oil from Russia. It is also reported that South Africa has begun weapons sales to Russia. All of these sales are in violation of U.S. sanctions. Reportedly, the U.S. will begin imposing separate sanctions on China, Brazil, India, and South Africa for not adhering to U.S. sanctions. These new secondary boycott sanctions will not be well-received. China, Brazil, India, and South Africa will not passively absorb the secondary boycotts. They will retaliate in their own way. The tit-for-tax sanctions will not impede Russia at all, but they will lead to a further contraction of world trade, something last seen during the Great Depression.


Biden claims that the sanctions will not end until Russia withdraws entirely from Ukraine, including Crimea. Not only will Russia not withdraw, it continues to make major military and territorial gains. A Ukrainian offensive won’t fundamentally change that reality, unless it somehow manages to overcome very long odds. This means the sanctions will continue indefinitely. It also means Biden has created a major drag on world trade on top of the other headwinds already facing the global economy. Investors will be well-served by allocating assets toward cash, gold, and other hard assets. These will be the real winners as the war in Ukraine drags on.

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“Their potential to be key players in the emerging multipolar world is giving Washington the jitters. ”

Saudi-Russian Concord Is The Secret Behind OPEC+ (Bhadrakumar)

A curious thing happened in Vienna on Sunday just as the 35th Ministerial Meeting of OPEC+ was about to start at its headquarters. Three princely western news organizations – Bloomberg, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal – were barred from entering the OPEC premises. When asked about it, pat came the reply: “This is our house.” Indeed, OPEC officials were left with no option other than an unorthodox way of “mood setting,” given their heightened sensitivity about the wild stories disseminated in the western media about disagreements between Saudi Arabia and Russia, the two high flyers in OPEC+. To be sure, OPEC+ touches raw nerves in Washington even seven years after the group took shape as the brainwave of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS).

The two leaders intended that they would have more control over the global crude oil market. The impetus to realism on the part of Moscow and Riyadh has only grown since 2016, and will crystalize further after the US-led G7 inserted itself into rule making in the world oil market last year, threatening to fragment the entire ecosystem. Neither Russia nor Saudi Arabia can afford a break-up of OPEC+. In fact, had there been no OPEC+ today, there would be an urgent need to create one, as both Moscow and Riyadh have, in different ways, come under US pressure on account of their global pre-eminence as energy producers. Their potential to be key players in the emerging multipolar world is giving Washington the jitters.


Saudi Arabia has formally applied for BRICS membership and sought to join the New Development Bank, the multilateral development bank established by the BRICS states and headquartered in Shanghai, China. In fact, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud was present in Cape Town last week for the BRICS ministerial meeting. On the sidelines, Bin Farhan met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Russian readout underscored the depth and profundity of the current level of relations between the two counties. Saudi Arabia is tiptoeing toward BRICS at a historic juncture when the group is reportedly all set to create its own currency at its forthcoming summit in Durban, South Africa. This, of course, will be a calamitous development for the petrodollar the pillar of the western banking system – and holds the potential to create a new global oil market.

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“Federal prosecutors have notified former President Donald Trump in a letter that he is the target of a criminal investigation..”

Trump May Face More Criminal Charges Soon (RT)

The US Department of Justice has informed ex-President Donald Trump that he is under criminal investigation linked to alleged mishandling of classified material, multiple news outlets reported on Wednesday. Trump’s legal team received a letter from prosecutors this week stating that the former leader is the target of a grand jury probe into whether he illegally retained secret files at his private residence after leaving office in 2021, unnamed sources told CNN, Fox News, Politico and other outlets. The move could indicate that special counsel Jack Smith is preparing to make a charging decision on the case. He was tapped for the role not long after federal agents raided Trump’s Florida estate in August 2022, ultimately turning up thousands of pages of government records, including over 100 classified documents. Around 200 other files were voluntarily handed over by Trump’s attorneys prior to the raid.


Smith has reportedly called in several Trump associates in recent weeks to testify before the grand jury, including one of his lawyers, Evan Corcoran, as well as Taylor Budowich, a former spokesperson, and ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. In an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday, Trump declined to confirm whether he had been notified of the investigation, but said he had not been told that he would be charged. The ex-president has denied all wrongdoing in his handling of documents, and even filed a lawsuit in Florida to contest the materials seized from his Mar-a-Lago residence last year. While the DOJ’s access to the documents was briefly suspended, the government was later authorized to use the files for its investigation following an appeal. DOJ procedures state that “target letters” can be sent to those for whom there is “substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime,” allowing them to testify in their own defense ahead of an indictment. They are often sent not long before charges are handed down.

Trump lawyer


DC_Draino: Signed letter from President Trump on Jan 19, 2021, the day before he left office, declassifying “Crossfire Hurricane” docs showing Obama, Biden, the CIA, DOJ, and FBI spied on him. Now you know why they raided Mar a Lago. To steal back evidence of their crimes.

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How RFK helps the Republicans..

RFK Jr.’s Rising Profile Sparks Democratic Jitters (Hill)

Democrats are growing concerned that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s profile is rising just as President Biden embarks on a challenging campaign to keep the White House out of Republican control. Kennedy, an anti-vaccine proponent who launched a primary bid against Biden this spring, is doing unexpectedly well in some polls and receiving increasing media attention as a result. He has also been on a press tour this week that included a Twitter Spaces discussion with Elon Musk and digital town hall with journalist Michael Smerconish. Democrats widely consider Kennedy to be a problematic fringe candidate who freely spreads conspiracy theories. But his relatively decent poll numbers, as well as his media-ready image as an heir to the famous political dynasty, have caused some to worry he could gain steam and potentially distract from the task of reelecting Biden in 2024.

“Democrats would be foolish to mock or belittle RFK Jr. Every time we make fun of those who hold fringe positions, we lose,” said Michael Ceraso, a Democratic strategist and former campaign aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The Democratic Party acting smug never works.” Kennedy has indeed stirred up some untapped anger within his own party; Democrats have seen him rise to double digits in several recent polls, leading some establishment figures to acknowledge the parts of his message that may be resonating with voters. A recent Fox News survey placed Kennedy at 16 percent support among registered voters. And a CNN poll released Friday shows him with 20 percent of support among Democratic and Democratic-leaning respondents.


“Take RFK seriously, Biden,” Ceraso said. “If you don’t, we can create a stronger Republican Party that beats us in 2024. Like Bernie did in 2016, RFK has the potential to activate fringe anger if we mock them.” On Monday, the environmental lawyer made a series of unconventional campaign moves that caught the media’s attention. He participated in a SiriusXM-streamed interview with Smerconish, where he called himself an “an evidenced-based person” and doubled down on his nonconformist views on vaccines while defending his candidacy. “It’s not like the Soviet system where the party would, you know, pick the candidates,” he said about his challenge to Biden, arguing that Americans need to see democracy in action.

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“..Twitter as a platform is not in direct competition with Fox..”

Fox Claims Tucker Carlson Violated Contract With Independent Twitter Show (Sp.)

Fox News notified former show host Tucker Carlson that his new independent program published via Twitter violates his contract with the network, US media reported, citing a copy of a letter from Fox to Carlson’s attorneys. On Tuesday, Carlson posted the first episode of an independent program on Twitter, following his departure from Fox News earlier this year. Shortly after posting the premiere, Fox News general counsel Bernard Gugar sent Carlson’s lawyers a letter claiming Carlson is in breach of his contractual agreement with his former employer, the report said. “In connection with such breach and pursuant to the Agreement, Fox expressly reserves all rights and remedies which are available to it at law or equity,” the letter said, as quoted in the report.

Carlson’s legal team objects to Fox’s efforts to block the new program, arguing that Twitter as a platform is not in direct competition with Fox, the report said, citing a source familiar with their thinking. Another source familiar with the matter reportedly said that Fox executives told Carlson that the network intends to keep him sidelined until 2025. Any legal action by Fox would violate Carlson’s First Amendment rights to freedom of speech under the US Constitution, his lawyers reportedly said. “Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds. Now they want to take Tucker Carlson’s right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on current events,” the report quotes Carlson attorney Bryan Freedman as saying in a statement.


Fox News believes it has been working in good faith to reach an amicable agreement with Carlson, another source reportedly said. Carlson has previously claimed that Fox News first violated their contract with him by breaking promises made “intentionally and with reckless disregard for the truth,” according to a letter sent by Carlson’s attorneys. Carlson was reportedly removed from the Fox News lineup as part of a settlement agreement with Dominion Voting Systems.

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“71.6 million views in less than 24 hours..”

Tucker Carlson’s Twitter Debut Goes Mega-Viral (ZH)

Tucker Carlson’s first Twitter broadcast went mega-viral Tuesday night, racking up 71.6 million views in less than 24 hours. During the 10 minute monologue, Carlson slammed Ukraine war mongers, and took the media to task for ignoring the “bombshell of the millennium” in which a government whistleblower revealed that craft developed by non-human intelligence has been recovered by governments around the world. “Nobody knows what’s happening. A small group of people control accesses to all relevant information. And the rest of us don’t know. We’re allowed to yap all we want about racism, but go ahead and talk about something that really matters and see what happens. If you keep it up, they’ll make you be quiet. Trust us. That’s how they maintain control,” said Carlson.

Needless to say, Tucker’s first broadcast knocked it out of the park, further validating Twitter as a legitimate platform for major media (that isn’t “Brought to you by Pfizer” so to speak). For context, Fox News’ 7pm broadcast of Jesse Watters reached 2 million viewers on June 5th, per Mediaite, while the Fox News rotation which has replaced Carlson’s 8pm time slot hit just 1.5 million viewers Monday night. Tucker also seemingly put Twitter owner Elon Musk on notice, saying towards the end of his monologue; “As of today, we’ve come to Twitter, which we hope will be the short-wave radio under the blankets,” adding “We are told there are no gatekeepers here.” “If that turns out to be false, we’ll leave … But in the meantime, we are grateful to be here.”


Meanwhile, rich kid propagandist Taylor Lorenz made an absolute ass of herself trying to criticize Carlson’s views – tweeting “It’s wild to see what a fish out of water he is on the internet: no jump cuts, no background music, no catchy thumbnail or video title. Not sure how he’s going to stack up against even an average streamer or youtuber.” Oh… The losers at Business Insider picked up on Lorenz’s tweet, casting doubt on Carlson’s future, claiming: “-Tucker Carlson is in trouble, if his first livestream is anything to go by. -The first episode of his Twitter stream debut lacked the shine of his Fox News glory days. -Without the chyron and quick cuts, Carlson must now compete with the likes of Alex Jones — and he’s losing.” We think we know what’s going on here…

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Not as long as Joe is the Big Guy..

Hunter Biden Could Face Jail for Contempt of Court, Judge Says (ET)

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, has been ordered to appear in person before an Arkansas judge in July to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt of court, and if the proceedings don’t go his way, he could face time behind bars. The president’s son is facing a child support case in Arkansas in which he was ordered by the presiding judge in May to hand over information on his finances. Attorneys representing Lunden Alexis Roberts, the mother of Hunter Biden’s child, filed a motion on May 18 to hold the president’s son in contempt of court after alleging he had failed to fully answer questions relating to his ability to pay child support. Judge Holly Lodge Meyer issued an order on June 5 (pdf) that Hunter Biden must appear on July 10 at the Independence County Courthouse in Batesville to explain “why he should not be held in contempt.”

In Arkansas, contempt of court is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by fines and jail time. In her order, Meyer said that she would consider “punishment or sanctions” against Hunter Biden, including “incarceration for civil contempt until such time as the defendant fully answers discovery for a period of up to six months” and “incarceration for criminal contempt for a period of up to six months.” Initially, Biden denied that the child was his, but a DNA test confirmed that he is the father. In 2020, the two agreed that Biden would pay an undisclosed amount of child support. Terms of the agreement are sealed because they contain sensitive personal information, including the amount of monthly support and each party’s source of income.

However, Biden later asked the court to review the child support arrangements because his financial situation had changed, leading to the case now being considered before the court. He appeared before Independence County Circuit Court in Batesville on May 1. During that hearing, his attorney said that Biden had been paying $20,000 per month in child support, for a total of up to $750,000 since the support order was signed. At that hearing, the judge ordered Biden to provide information on his income from his artwork, investments, employment, gifts from friends, and other sources. The judge also said she couldn’t rule on the amount of child support because neither side had provided enough information in the discovery process to move forward.

Roberts’s attorneys have complained that the Biden team was dragging its feet in the discovery process and filed a motion on May 18 for Biden to be held in contempt. Clinton Lancaster, a lawyer for Roberts, argued in the motion for contempt that Biden had been ordered to do something but didn’t and that this “is a habit and a game for Mr. Biden.” Lancaster continued that Biden doesn’t want to disclose his income and “says that he is somewhat financially destitute” despite living in an oceanfront home in Malibu and going on foreign trips. During the hearing in early May, the judge said she would press Biden’s legal team to fulfill their commitments in the discovery process. In the June 5 order, she wrote that she was hereby giving Biden notice to appear in person at the Independence County Circuit Court on July 10 and “show cause, if any exists, why he should not be held in contempt.”

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Create an emergency, use the powers.

The Emergency State’s Plot to Override the Constitution (Whitehead)

The seeds of this ongoing madness were sown several decades ago when George W. Bush stealthily issued two presidential directives that granted the president the power to unilaterally declare a national emergency, which is loosely defined as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.“ Comprising the country’s Continuity of Government (COG) plan, these directives (National Security Presidential Directive 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20), which do not need congressional approval, provide a skeletal outline of the actions the president will take in the event of a “national emergency.”

Just what sort of actions the president will take once he declares a national emergency can barely be discerned from the barebones directives. However, one thing is clear: in the event of a national emergency, the COG directives give unchecked executive, legislative and judicial power to the president. The country would then be subjected to martial law by default, and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights would be suspended. Essentially, the president would become a dictator for life. It has happened already. As we have witnessed in recent years, that national emergency can take any form, can be manipulated for any purpose and can be used to justify any end goal—all on the say so of the president.The emergency powers that we know about which presidents might claim during such states of emergency are vast, ranging from imposing martial law and suspending habeas corpus to shutting down all forms of communications, including implementing an internet kill switch, and restricting travel.

Yet according to documents obtained by the Brennan Center, there may be many more secret powers that presidents may institute in times of so-called crisis without oversight from Congress, the courts, or the public. Remember, these powers do not expire at the end of a president’s term. They remain on the books, just waiting to be used or abused by the next political demagogue. So, too, every action taken by the current occupant of the White House and his predecessors to weaken the system of checks and balances, sidestep the rule of law, and expand the power of the executive branch of government makes us that much more vulnerable to those who would abuse those powers in the future. Although the Constitution invests the President with very specific, limited powers, in recent years, American presidents (Biden, Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, etc.) have claimed the power to completely and almost unilaterally alter the landscape of this country for good or for ill.

The Executive Branch’s willingness to circumvent the Constitution by leaning heavily on the president’s so-called emergency powers constitutes a gross perversion of what limited power the Constitution affords the president. As law professor William P. Marshall explains, “every extraordinary use of power by one President expands the availability of executive branch power for use by future Presidents.” Moreover, it doesn’t even matter whether other presidents have chosen not to take advantage of any particular power, because “it is a President’s action in using power, rather than forsaking its use, that has the precedential significance.”

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“It is government gangsters against everyone else….”

Two Tiers of Justice (Kash Patel)

The elite set of individuals that sit atop our federal agencies have completely weaponized our entire government apparatus. It is no longer a one-off “mistake,” but rather the intentional creation of a two-tier system of justice that has gone unchecked. The resulting impact is a death knell for American faith in all three branches of government. Allow me to preface with one important factor: This is not an indictment of the men and women who are our “boots on the ground.” They remember every day why they signed up to serve. They investigate real crimes, protect the public from acts of terror, and root out rampant corruption. These men and women across the country serving in all agencies remain heroes and are equally as frustrated with the leadership at the top of our federal government.

The two-tier system of justice is not Democrats vs. Republicans. It is anyone who is part of the administrative state and the D.C. beltway versus those who seek to destroy this political demon of the deep state. It is government gangsters against everyone else. When it comes to the U.S. government, there are no coincidences. Anything that masquerades as such is a strategic move to protect the upper echelons from ceding power to the proletariat they once rose from. Whether it’s Russiagate, Impeachment #1, Impeachment #2, Jan. 6 Committee, Hunter’s laptop, classified docs, or an intel letter from 51 of our highest “servants,” they layered this two-tier system of justice by doing the same thing at each level – breaking the law. Illegal surveillance, unlawful congressional overreach, and judicial hustling have joined forces, and the result is a destruction of justice.

Case in point: Christopher Wray, a stunning example when it comes to the dual standard of justice and hypocrisy. Wray violated a congressional subpoena. By doing so, the director of the FBI has continuously broken the law and simultaneously destroyed the leadership reputation of the FBI. The days of justice and accountability within our federal government are fleeting, at best. What if you violated a congressional subpoena, what are the ramifications? No need to wonder, just ask Steven Bannon and Peter Navarro. Don’t count on this DOJ to police its own, especially when the narrative being put forth by the document in question nukes the radical left’s pyramid of Jenga justice.

Yesterday, he had one final out, and showed his true lack of institutional control, or better yet its hijacking. He told Chairman Comer to pound sand, so now Congress must hold the line. Ransack these agencies and departments, and hold those who exploit the two-tier system of justice accountable – every single one of them. For starters, take their money, take their fancy government toys, and take Wray’s government-funded G5 jet. You must produce these critical documents and show them to the world, then do it again and again.

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Chose?!

Snowden Reveals Why He Chose To Stay In Russia (RT)

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has said he had to seek refuge in Russia after exhausting other options for obtaining protection from the US government after his exposure of the spy agency’s illegal mass surveillance program. Other nations either didn’t want to cross Washington or were not confident they could stop Snowden from being kidnapped by a US “blackbag squad,” he said in an interview with journalist Glenn Greenwald on Tuesday. In June 2013, Snowden met with a group of journalists in Hong Kong to disclose the trove of classified materials that he took from the NSA. His plan was then to travel via Moscow to Cuba and later to a Latin American country, which would grant him political asylum. “We had contacts, we had assurances [that] this would probably be our best bet,” he recalled.

Initially he hoped that some European nation, such as Germany or France, would shelter him, but “every diplomat that we talked to in Europe basically said this is not going to work, they’re gonna cave.” By the time Snowden landed in the Russian capital, the US had revoked his passport, effectively trapping him in the airport lounge. While he was there, the US orchestrated the forced landing of a Bolivian government plane carrying then-President Evo Morales, who was returning home from Moscow. The US authorities suspected that Snowden was onboard. “Even the Russians were shocked at the extremity of this conduct,” Greenwald said, referring to a conversation he had with a Russian consul, who recognized his name when the journalist applied for a visa to visit Snowden in Moscow.


The whistleblower came to the conclusion that even if a more powerful nation were to welcome him, “you’ve got to travel over a lot of vassal states on the air path to get there.” “I was out of options. I applied for asylum in Russia. I was granted it and actually I’ve been left alone quite remarkably since then, which is all that I can ask for, given the circumstances,” he suggested. Snowden received Russian citizenship last year. This fact is often brought up by critics, who accuse him of disloyalty to his nation of birth, a notion that Greenwald said he wanted to address. The talk was part of a special ten-year-anniversary reunion, which also featured filmmaker Laura Poitras. She and Greenwald were part of the inner circle that broke the surveillance story.

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Home Forums Debt Rattle June 8 2023

Viewing 39 posts - 1 through 39 (of 39 total)
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  • #136448

    Piet Mondriaan Still Life with Gingerpot I 1911/12   • NATO States May Send Troops To Ukraine – Ex-Chief (RT) • Russia Seeks To Replace ‘Nazi Reg
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 8 2023]

    #136449
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Gingerpot. Is that a description of girlfriends I don’t know about?

    “The propaganda is so intense that the absolutely crazy efforts to demonize Roger Waters as a Nazi now seem like a normal everyday event.”

    Yes. And they still won’t snap out of it. I guess we know what I would do if “if happens here”. Apparently I did resist and was immune but everyone else, friends, family, etc, would march me to the camps.

    And video, note again how these weirdo cult, satanists, basically, instantly attempt to hide behind the Jews to protect themselves, throwing the Jews into the hopper whenever they can, or even before they have to.

    ““I think the Poles would seriously consider going in and assemble a coalition of the willing if Ukraine doesn’t get anything in Vilnius.”

    Schrodinger’s war: they already have. You mean the ones they have, or the MORE ones they have? And U.S. troops, the ones we have and are already there, with equipment, intel, satellites, warships? Or the MORE ones we have in F16s?

    They attack Russia? You mean the ones who used American equipment? Trained in Poland, back-supported by Poland, or the OTHER NATO soldiers? Because, of course, NATOs not involved, although sending men, material, intel, and $200B dollars.

    “Rasmussen argued that foreign troop deployments would be legal under international law if requested by Kiev.”

    Nice. It would probably be LEGAL, however it would make you a LEGAL party to the war.

    ““..Lukashenko stated that Minsk and Moscow’s “only mistake” was failing to resolve the Ukrainian crisis much sooner..”

    Yes, but they couldn’t have. They weren’t ready. Imagine: failing under sanctions. No hypersonics. They took Crimea which was the only safe move then, and in that way actually WON the Maidan Revolution, not lost it.

    “• Russia Calls For International Investigation Into Kakhovka HPP’s Dam Collapse (TASS)

    Suddenly! The sound of crickets. No one wants to know. And NSII, Sweden says they know. But they can’t tell anyone including the owners of the pipeline. I suspect the Bolivians again.

    “• US Media Wages Disinformation Campaign Regarding Kakhovka Dam Everything.
    “• How Does This End Well? (Jim Rickards)

    It doesn’t end at all. It just goes on and on forever without being stopped.

    “All of these sales are in violation of U.S. sanctions.”

    Who? Perhaps neither the author nor the readership can remember that the U.S. has no jurisdiction…anywhere.

    “took shape as the brainwave of Russian President Vladimir Putin and (MbS).”

    Yeah, an Organization of Oil Producing States. Radical: stayed up all night thinking of it. Are you guys high, or just really stupid? And it’s so obvious, neither Putin nor MBS have anything to do with it: local cabbies of both countries would have done it anyway. Master brainwave like blowing up his own dams and pipelines.

    “Trump May Face More Criminal Charges Soon (RT)

    Again, the documents can’t BE classified. Trump looks at them and says “I hereby declassify” and it happens. I’m not sure he’s done this, but since there’s not even a form to sign, I don’t see why not.

    “they raided Mar a Lago. To steal back evidence of their crimes.”

    Yes, and that’s why he stole them. To make them do it. Like, no one’s heard of copies? Everything’s on the servers. KNOWING, politically, strategically, is enough, and the knowing is hidden in your mind. Your next decisions are based on what you already know and can’t be un-known. What do you DO with that knowledge? Punk them to misbehave in public, out of a guilty conscience. Your fight is for the minds of the American PEOPLE, not Comey. Credits, though: it took them a lot longer to jump at the bait this time. Trump had to pretend (I think) to have the nuclear codes or something to make them run in circles like idiots this time. They ARE learning, however slow that may be.

    “is doing unexpectedly well”

    A high profile Kennedy, lifelong politician and handsome, well-spoken democratic lawyer? Yeah, totally “Unexpected”. …To journalists who can’t finish a single sentence without lying. Unexpected to who? Sitting here I can’t think of a stupid example to present: unexpected to dead men? Jimmy Hoffa and Rasputin? Literally, who?

    “the environmental lawyer made a series of unconventional campaign moves that caught the media’s attention.”

    You mean he talked to people? Who saw that coming?

    Democrats widely consider Kennedy to be a problematic fringe candidate who freely spreads conspiracy theories.”

    Do they now? Since he’s probably higher than Biden, what do they think of Biden’s theories? If he’s near the front-runner, how can he also be “fringe”? Marianne Williams is not considered fringe and got on the stage. RFK is 20x more popular.

    Or the actual point here: Who defines the “fringe”? This is why “Hill” journaists lose their minds. THEY want to be the mean girls’ club, and when we don’t cry, it drives them mental.

    “• Fox Claims Tucker Carlson Violated Contract With Independent Twitter Show (Sp.)

    Of course they did. That was the whole point of not firing him, and continuing to pay him. However, Tucker can also tie them up in lawsuits with THEIR money, because, what else is money for? I don’t see Tucker as a guy who wants his yacht and needs to keep a company intact to hand to an idiot son. He would want his reputation intact, and if he blows 99% of his fortune on it, his reputation will greatly increase.

    PS. Tucker’s Twitter ALONE is larger than all Fox News. And has no overhead.

    “• Hunter Biden Could Face Jail for Contempt of Court, Judge Says (ET)

    So much with this. A judge merely doing her job? Unheard of. $20k/mo? He can’t both launder millions with his art and say he has no income. Discovery reveals bad things. Dragging your feet with a child means the child has no money: what will it help to die now so you have money in your 20s and not at 5yo? Nice going Daddy, now she can also tell how much you love her.

    “Bush stealthily issued two presidential directives that granted the president the power to unilaterally declare a national emergency,”

    I don’t know why they do this: are they illiterate, or just stupid? BOTH WERE ILLEGAL. It doesn’t become legal because you thought it up in your mind, wrote it on a napkin. I’m pretty sure even Congress passing it wouldn’t make it legal, and we’re miles from that.

    Docktor’s comment: SO???

    “Yet according to documents obtained by the Brennan Center, there may be many more secret powers that presidents may institute in times of so-called crisis”

    WHICH ARE ALSO ILLEGAL.

    “The Executive Branch’s willingness to circumvent the Constitution”

    …ARE ILLEGAL. Why do people never approach the Constitution for what it is? Federal Law.

    Bores me. If they don’t want to follow very obvious, apparently easy to read law, despite the law they claim having never been passed anywhere or even admitted, I got nothing for you. They’re just criminals following nothing at all and you let them into the control room then do whatever they say for no reason whatsoever except you like losing.

    ““It is government gangsters against everyone else….” • Two Tiers of Justice (Kash Patel)

    We didn’t escape history: it’s always the Government vs the People.

    “Initially he hoped that some European nation, such as Germany or France, would shelter him”

    Russia is a European nation, look it up. And why not Russia? You preferred Iceland? Slovakia? So it’s anywhere on the planet but Russia then? Good show.

    #136450
    poppie
    Participant

    Automatic Earth is a favorite read. Your comments a favorite Automatic Earth.

    #136451
    WES
    Participant

    I have been wondering how the war in the Ukraine that the US started ends.

    I read comments seeking ideas. The real problem is that no one particular person or source has all the answers but if you read enough different comments and collect various ideas, you can sometimes come up with a more complete picture.

    By now most of us have figured out that the US tried to setup things in the Ukraine so when Russia finally did intervene, that Russia would become embroiled in a losing war it could never win.

    The US hoped a goaded Russia would enter the Ukraine in a big way using maneuver warfare and quickly crush the Ukrainian army. Then a long insurgency war would happen, like the 1945 to 1955 insurgency. Russia hasn’t forgotten.

    We all know Russia went small. Going big was never an option for Russia. A fatal US neocon error.

    Russia didn’t intially attack the Ukrainian’s Donetsk Magnot line, as the US had planned for. Instead it attacked north and south using maneuver tactics before quickly switching to a defensive posture and a war of attrition.

    Instead of going for territory, Russia elected to destroy the Ukrainian army instead. This completely upset carefully laid US plans on how the war was to be fought. Plans only a country that hasn’t fought a combined arms land war since 1944-5 (these US soldiers are long dead), could possibly conceive as their virtual reality.

    We currently see the corrupt puppet Ukrainian government is busy selling everything in the Ukraine they can to Blackrock and other US companies, for pennies on the dollar. Winners don’t do that!

    Expect the US to order Nato soldiers to volunteer in the Ukraine soon. The Ukraine will invite them!

    So how can Russia end this war? Only when the Ukrainian people know they are totally beat and are too exhausted to continue fighting. That condition is the only realistic way to avoid an insurgency after the war ends. There is no other way. The Ukrainian people must want to rid themselves of their Nazi problem first!

    Once the Ukraine reaches this bottom, of total despair, only then will the Ukrainian people reject their foreign owners claims over them. Expect once Ukraine defaults on it’s US debt, the Ukraine will be sanctioned by the US, just like Afghanistan.

    I think we are a few years shy of any of this happening. And Russia knows this.

    #136452
    WES
    Participant

    I should comment on the smoke from Quebec’s forest fires.

    Due to strong north winds, the smoke was quite thick at the family’s 1000 island cottage on the St. Lawrence River. I have never before experienced smoke like this in my entire life. Yesterday evening we drove home to just north of Toronto. There was no smoke when we arrived home.

    That this smoke has reached Washington DC is hilarious in my opinion. Couldn’t happen to a bunch of nicer woke people!

    Note: I see Raul’s box article is featured on ZH this morning just as I had hoped it would!

    #136454
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Empire of Lies Gangster Nation Edition

    Now you can get charged as an employee for trying to stop shoplifting

    Sweet

    Is the shoplifting thing a ‘safety value’ kludge stop gap to stall the major blowup rioting for when the whole system goes into cardiac arrest?

    .

    #136455
    Clueless Honky
    Participant

    Maybe you already saw the news on the IGg4 antibody imbalance that results from the jabs. It was published as a pre-print months ago. It was finally fully published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Vaccines on May 17th, 2023.

    The journal Vaccines’ article: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/5/991

    Clueless Honky blog interpretation: https://cluelesshonky.substack.com/p/admittance

    Check it out.
    We’re at a tipping point now with the cultural conversation if this can be published in a peer reviewed scientific journal.

    #136456
    Oroboros
    Participant

    And who could forget this craptastic ‘solution’ to climate change from 2019?

    It’s appeal just grows with age.

    Scientist Suggests ‘Eating Human Meat’ to Tackle Climate Change

    At least someone is thinking outside Schrödinger’s Box

    .

    “A Swedish scientist has suggested eating human flesh to tackle climate change at a Stockholm summit, according to reports.

    In the 1973 dystopian film Soylent Green, the world is so overpopulated that dead bodies are sold as food.

    But Swedish researcher Magnus Söderlund believes this could be a genuine solution to climate change and asserts we must “awaken the idea” of eating human flesh in the future…..”

    Sweet

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/scientist-suggests-eating-human-meat-to-tackle-climate-change-a4230561.html

    #136457
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Correlation ≠ Causation

    Schrödinger’sDuck

    .

    #136459
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Another example of climate change

    .

    #136460
    zerosum
    Participant

    This morning, because I found it so important, I’m motivate in/to Highlighting only One of what RIM found

    “We follow government policy”
    Ignored
    Don’t want to know
    Don’t want to acknowledge
    Birth rate down
    Death rate up
    Depopulation


    ————-

    #136461
    Dora
    Participant

    NATO countries sending their own country’s troops to Ukraine? I think that has a high likelihood of bringing down the NATO countries’ EU sitting governments at the next elections, or breaking up NATO, or breaking up the EU. Hubris.

    #136462
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Just like “Hitler’s rant in the bunker”, “missing chapter” of Art of war can be easily employed and can go forever.
    I used it in my early comments on zerohedge which did not win me many friends from the “gong-ho-America-first” patriotic audience at the time.
    Follow up to “WTF happened in 1971” from day or so ago:

    https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2023/06/06/the-atlantic-magazine-feds-use-migration-to-cut-wages/

    Easily explained, by some, that Lenin’s tactic was used to impoverish population as to bring in “bellowed system” to the country.

    #136464
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Superb early Mondrian today. Long way from this to, three decades later, paintings of straight line grids and colored fields in three primary colors.

    #136465
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Scientist Suggests ‘Eating Human Meat’ to Tackle Climate Change
    Hunh, what?
    Life imitating art again?
    Soylent Green

    #136466

    Superb early Mondrian today. Long way from this to, three decades later, paintings of straight line grids and colored fields in three primary colors.

    Mondriaan only found his unique voice (the grids) when he went to New York. He could always paint.

    #136467

    What a fine piece of writing yesterday, RIM!

    About the fires…check out the smoke map and tell me how so many well-spaced, random fires get started over such an enormous area. Lightning can’t possibly be the only explanation.
    I’ve never seen “wild”fires distribute themselves like this.

    #136468
    kultsommer
    Participant

    ,,,,He could always paint.

    ????
    That’s what I thought too, RIM.

    #136469

    Dutchsinse covers the fires and smoke.

    #136470
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Do I believe in extraterrestrial aliens interacting with Earth?

    Hmm! That’s an intriguing (and therefore good) question, and to be as fully honest as I can be I would have to say that I do not yet quite fully believe in “space aliens”, but since I’m being as fully honest as I’m capable of being I have to qualify that answer by adding that I don’t quite disbelieve in them either, and that there is strong (but not yet fully compelling) evidence that “We are not alone”. I have to admit that I’m strongly intrigued by the possibility.

    Which makes it such a damned good question. Yes indeed. A very VERY good question.

    #136471
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Here’s a thought. The only way for the Earth to become a nice place to live is for a whole bunch of bad people to stop being bad and start being good. There’s just no other way. After all, it’s not as though all of those bad people could just stop existing in an instant, like “Poof, they’re gone!” So they ARE going to go on existing until further notice, and that means a long long time. There’s no way around it. Even if you tried to kill them all off physically, such a dirty dumb deed would take quite some time and effort, and in the meanwhile the bad people would go on existing (and probably RE-sisting, too. Count on it.)

    So, in other words, the only way Earth becomes a nice place to live is after a WHOLE bunch of bad people change their minds and start being good. As in, rehabilitate themselves.

    That could take some time, and quite a bit of annoyance and embarrassment.

    What a thought.

    #136472
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    … via Dr. John Campbell:
    Did lockdowns work? The verdict on Covid restrictions – 5 June 2023

    Publications

    F.S.

    #136473
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Perhaps had she’d been adorned with a “clapper bell” the guards would have kept the mandated 6 foot social distance. Notice too, the enlightened members of the court/tribunal did their very best for this lovely girl along with all the nurses and doctors still employed by that nominal healthcare organization.

    Choked to death by hospital guards, for wearing a Covid mask too low

    An aside: the following is exactly the opposite of gaslighting

    “If the US wishes to be considered an authority on democracy and human rights, it ought to come clean about the killings of President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.”

    #136474

    Duthsinse was using a totally cool website that’s out of College of duPage.
    This is what God made the internets for. 🙂

    #136475
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    * In support of Ukraine NATO to change name to North Atlantic Zelensky Initiative

    * Lockdowns worked. The vaccines worked. Masks worked. You just need to understand the goal

    #136478

    Oroboros- you’re a hoot!

    It was either an eagle or an osprey that dropped a 3 pound walleye on our roof. It had gotten a little ripe by the time I found it.

    TAE- Well said.

    Here’s a link. It makes you think.
    You click some more- your brain gets sore.
    What happens next is you get vexed,
    And that’s the way you spend your day.
    Now go outside and play!

    Golly, I luvs all youz guyz.

    #136479
    zerosum
    Participant

    “We follow government policy”

    In other words

    Work to rule (or get fired)
    Quiet Quitting ( if you do more than your job, You will not get recognized, Unless you fuck up)

    Ignored all the lies, bull shit, truth
    Don’t want to know
    Don’t want to acknowledge
    Birth rate down
    Death rate up
    Depopulation
    Irrelevant to the objectives

    #136480
    John Day
    Participant

    The Same In Theory https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/the-same-in-theory

    Surplus Energy Economics , Of theory and practice
    ​ ​Here, then, is what we know about the ‘two economies’.
    ​ ​The ‘real economy’ is an energy system, and is defined as the use, in the present, of energy to supply products and services of value. The factors that determine the size of the real economy at any given time are the supply, value and cost of energy. Activity made possible by energy includes the construction of productive capacity, infrastructure, and facilities such as homes, hospitals and schools.
    ​ ​The ‘financial economy’ consists of monetary claims, of which some are exercised in the present, whilst others are set aside for the future. The financial system comprises an aggregation of forward claims, whose viability depends on the delivery capacity of the real (energy) economy of the future.
    ​ ​As remarked earlier, when creating these claims, we don’t assess their viability by enquiring into the probable size of the real economy of the future. We simply assume that the economy, defined financially, must carry on expanding.
    ​ ​On this basis, we have constructed a financial system that prioritises innovation over sustainability. Now that the ‘real’ economy has stopped growing, we’re about to discover that we have innovated our way to a systemic crisis.
    ​ ​The SEEDS model uses many techniques and metrics to interpret and describe the ‘two economies’ of energy and money, and some of the most important are summarised in the following charts.
    ​ ​The ‘financial economy’, represented by reported GDP, has carried on growing, largely because the transactional activity recorded as GDP has been inflated artificially by the breakneck creation of ever greater future claims (Fig. 1A). In other words, we’ve been flattering perceived flow by adding to the stock of liabilities, and then turning a blind eye to the linkage between the two.
    ​ ​Largely out of sight, the ‘real economy’ has been decelerating towards contraction (1B). This has happened because, through the process of depletion, the ECoEs – the Energy Costs of Energy – of fossil fuels have been rising relentlessly, reducing the amount of prosperity obtained from each unit of energy consumed.
    ​ ​Accordingly, a severe disequilibrium has emerged between the real and the financial economies (1C).
    ​ ​It’s only when we recognize that the eventually tendency must be towards equilibrium between the two economies – and apply the measured magnitude of disequilibrium to the current scale of forward liabilities (1D) – that we become aware of the inevitable destabilization of the financial system.​..​
    ..The energy-intensive nature of so many necessities implies that, as the real costs of essentials rise, there will be a leveraged decline in the affordability of discretionary (non-essential) products and services.
    Inevitably, we’re going to try to stave off these realities using financial gimmickry. This could be characterised by the suppliers of non-essential products and services trying to bolster their sales by providing credit to their customers.

    #257: Of theory and practice

    I think that those who control economic movements in our world (presumably because they understand them well, and can profit from that understanding, as well as manipulation) see the divergence between real economy and financial economy. One of the main drivers of WW-2 was the arrangements for debt repayment after WW-1. They were impossible. There are many details to that, but they were not only physically impossible, but financially impossible. Germany could not get the $US to pay to France and England, which they owed to the US (and the Federal Reserve banks) No country with $US would buy German goods. Germany was forced to borrow $US at low interest, which persistent low interest primed the world for the 1929 financial crash.
    Hitler was lauded at first, as he was repudiating German debt, which was necessary to re-synchronize physical and financial economies on a global scale, however the social movement the Nazis set in motion needed more. It was a militarized growth-engine.
    “This time” needs to be “different”, since there is not the capacity for rapid growth of real-economy after the desolation of war.
    The financial and power elites are having to work a problem they have never faced in our modern history.
    They need human populations to follow orders, and they are inclined to use fear as a motivation. (I think a wholesome shared-purpose, based upon honest and open assessment would work better this time.)
    The driving assumption of any scheme the current power/financial elites may support is that they remain in power, controlling the levers and extracting the economic surplus, as they see fit.
    It would help them pay the bills if most retirees and welfare recipients died, of course. This would need to happen in the context of full societal compliance, all of which Hitler accomplished, but we see how that was done.
    Classes of people were dehumanized, dispossessed and exterminated as less-than-human. This was expanded to include Slavic Russians, and that is where it failed.
    There was a world war, or several overlapping imperial world-wars. The system of power and ownership was maintained, though the seat of the financial empire continued to shift. London > NY + London.
    Importantly, for the winners,the power elites needed to make social contracts with the people, in order to prevail.
    Those WW-2 social contracts have now been defaulted upon.
    Any ruling coalition will need to strike new social contracts, which must be palatable to societies.
    A ruling coalition (as in the UK, or the US) which lies to society, and seeks to impose austerity and mysterious deaths, will lose control to a rival ruling-coalition which enlists the goodwill and trust of society.That must be done honestly, and with wealth-sharing.
    That’s what history shows.

    ​ ​Two Tiers of Justice​ , Kash Patel
    ​The two-tier system of justice is not Democrats vs. Republicans. It is anyone who is part of the administrative state and the D.C. beltway versus those who seek to destroy this political demon of the deep state. It is government gangsters against everyone else. When it comes to the U.S. government, there are no coincidences. Anything that masquerades as such is a strategic move to protect the upper echelons from ceding power to the proletariat they once rose from.
    https://www.realclearwire.com/articles/2023/06/07/two_tiers_of_justice_149324.html

    ​ ​FBI Folds, Releases Biden ‘Bribery’ Document To House Oversight, Averting Contempt Vote
    ​ ​But by late Wednesday, the committee announced that the FBI has decided to produce some documents— including the FD-1023 form Comer had been after—and that the committee’s business meeting on Thursday to vote on holding Wray in contempt was now scrapped.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-folds-releases-biden-document-house-oversight-averting-contempt-vote

    Meryl Nass MD, Why Countries Must Leave the World Health Organization. (Much edited. There is also a video.)
    ​ (​The term “One Health” was first coined by EcoHealth Alliance,2 the group that subcontracted risky gain-of-function research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the lab from which SARS-CoV-2 emerged.​)
    One Health is the culmination of a grand global plan that places human health, animal health, environmental concerns, food, travel, housing and everything else under a single umbrella, and the WHO is being set up as the central decision-maker and overseer of it all​.​
    ​ ​ One Health is based on the premise that a broad range of aspects of life and the environment can impact health and therefore fall under the “potential” to cause harm. The One Health agenda includes medicine, food and agriculture, communications, economics, civil society, global trade and commerce, research, noncommunicable disease, mental health, land use, disease surveillance and much more
    ​ ​Behind the scenes, One Health partnerships have already been formed in countries around the world. The One Health network was built and expanded in the U.S. primarily by cutting public health funding. One Health then stepped in with funding but, of course, recipients of One Health grants had to embrace the concept and push it out to others​.​
    One Health is also baked into the proposed amendments to the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), which the World Health Assembly (WHA) is scheduled to vote on in May 2024. This is how the WHO will gain the authority to dictate how we live our lives.​..​
    ​ ..In hindsight, it’s easy to see that the globalists’ plan to concentrate power has been in the works for decades, and the playbook is always the same: “Give us more power so we can protect you and keep you safe.” Alas, every time we give them more power, we find ourselves both less safe and less free.​..​
    ​ ​Countries that treasure individual freedom and respect bodily autonomy have only one choice: Exit the World Health Organization​.
    ​https://merylnass.substack.com/p/why-countries-must-leave-the-world

    #136481
    John Day
    Participant

    Rule by Decree: The Emergency State’s Plot to Override the Constitution​ (Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney began revision of​ ​ “​C​ontinuity of Government” plans under Jerry Ford, and resumed under Reagan/Bush. They were activated on 9/11/01​ with VP Cheney in the driver’s seat​.)
    ​The seeds of this ongoing madness were sown several decades ago when George W. Bush stealthily issued two presidential directives that granted the president the power to unilaterally declare a national emergency, which is loosely defined as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.“ Comprising the country’s Continuity of Government (COG) plan, these directives (National Security Presidential Directive 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20), which do not need congressional approval, provide a skeletal outline of the actions the president will take in the event of a “national emergency.”
    ​ ​Just what sort of actions the president will take once he declares a national emergency can barely be discerned from the barebones directives. However, one thing is clear: in the event of a national emergency, the COG directives give unchecked executive, legislative and judicial power to the president. The country would then be subjected to martial law by default, and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights would be suspended.​..
    ​…​All of the imperial powers amassed by Obama, Bush, Trump and now Biden—to kill American citizens without due process, to detain suspects (including American citizens) indefinitely, to strip Americans of their citizenship rights, to carry out mass surveillance on Americans without probable cause, to wage wars without congressional authorization, to suspend laws during wartime, to disregard laws with which he might disagree, to conduct secret wars and convene secret courts, to sanction torture, to sidestep the legislatures and courts with executive orders and signing statements, to direct the military to operate beyond the reach of the law, to establish a standing army on American soil, to operate a shadow government, to declare national emergencies for any manipulated reason, and to act as a dictator and a tyrant, above the law and beyond any real accountability—have become a permanent part of the president’s toolbox of terror.
    https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/rule_by_decree_the_emergency_states_plot_to_override_the_constitution

    Alex Berenson , ​ Why the Covid vaccine myocarditis deaths in South Korea matter so much
    ​ ​Yesterday, I focused on the study’s details. In the paper, researchers in South Korea reported finding 12 mRNA-driven myocarditis deaths in young adults, a figure that translates into up to 500 similar deaths globally.
    ​ ​Those deaths are obviously important.
    But an even more vital takeaway from the paper is that doctors aren’t even properly reporting the best-known complication from the mRNA jabs. Not even when it occurs mere days after vaccination. Not even when it kills healthy young adults.
    ​ ​Eight of those 12 fatalities were initially misclassified as sudden cardiac deaths, with no mRNA myocarditis link. They were properly classified only after autopsies performed under a special Korean program.
    ​ ​So physicians can’t even count fatal cases of myocarditis, which has been highlighted as an mRNA complication for two years. How can we trust them to report other potential serious or fatal side effects, ones that occur in older people or haven’t received as much attention or both?
    https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/update-why-the-covid-vaccine-myocarditis

    Thanks Oxymoron in Oz. Walter M.Chesnut:
    An Urgent Warning: The Spike Protein Expressed On The Cell Surface Causes “Transplant Rejection” Of The Entire Body – Long COVID ,
    Every Organ Expressing Spike Is Attacked As If It Were Transplanted Due To The Expression Of A Foreign Non-Self Protein On Cell Surfaces
    https://wmcresearch.substack.com/p/an-urgent-warning-the-spike-protein

    WHO Adopts European-Style COVID-19 Vaccine Passports As Part Of New Global Digital Health Certificate
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/who-adopts-european-style-covid-19-vaccine-passports-part-new-global-digital-health

    #136482
    John Day
    Participant

    More from Dr.Nass:
    RFK Jr. tells Musk he wants to permanently seal the US-Mexico border; links mass shootings to pharmaceutical drugs; wants to end GOF worldwide
    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined Elon Musk, venture capitalist David Sacks, former Democratic lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard, and others for a Twitter Spaces interview Monday to discuss many of the issues he reckons should be at the forefront of the political debate going into the 2024 presidential election.
    https://merylnass.substack.com/p/rfk-jr-tells-musk-he-wants-to-permanently

    Ed Curtain (Sirhan Sirhan was just a hypnotized patsy, not an assassin. Bobby Jr. is fully aware of this. Bobby Kennedy opposed the Vietnam War.)
    The Assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy: Questions, Hints and Allegations

    The Assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy: Questions, Hints and Allegations

    Instagram Reinstates RFK Jr.’s Account After He Questions The Ban On Twitter
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/instagram-reinstates-rfk-jrs-account-after-he-questions-ban-twitter

    Meta’s Instagram Facilitated Massive Pedophile Network
    A comprehensive investigation by the Wall Street Journal and the Stanford Internet Observatory reveals that Meta-owned Instagram has been home to an organized and massive network of pedophiles.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cheese-pizza-metas-instagram-facilitated-massive-pedophile-network

    #136483
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ ​ Tucker Carlson’s first Twitter broadcast went mega-viral Tuesday night, racking up 71.6 million views in less than 24 hours.
    During the 10 minute monologue, Carlson slammed Ukraine war mongers, and took the media to task for ignoring the “bombshell of the millennium” in which a government whistleblower revealed that craft developed by non-human intelligence has been recovered by governments around the world.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/tucker-carlsons-twitter-debut-goes-mega-viral-crushes-ratings-while-taylor-lorenz-makes

    Fox News notified former show host Tucker Carlson that his new independent program published via Twitter violates his contract with the network, US media reported, citing a copy of a letter from Fox to Carlson’s attorneys… “In connection with such breach and pursuant to the Agreement, Fox expressly reserves all rights and remedies which are available to it at law or equity,” the letter said, as quoted in the report.
    ..Carlson’s legal team objects to Fox’s efforts to block the new program, arguing that Twitter as a platform is not in direct competition with Fox, the report said, citing a source familiar with their thinking. Another source familiar with the matter reportedly said that Fox executives told Carlson that the network intends to keep him sidelined until 2025. Any legal action by Fox would violate Carlson’s First Amendment rights to freedom of speech under the US Constitution, his lawyers reportedly said…
    ..Carlson was reportedly removed from the Fox News lineup as part of a settlement agreement with Dominion Voting Systems.
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20230608/reports-fox-claims-tucker-carlson-violated-contract-by-airing-independent-twitter-show-1110994478.html

    ​ Matt ​Taibbi: Does Anyone Believe American Propaganda Anymore?
    ​ ​The Kakhovka dam just exploded in Ukraine, flooding a huge territory and causing another insane ecological disaster.
    ​ ​Russia and Ukraine spent yesterday trading accusations, while the U.S. leaked it was “leaning towards Russia as the culprit of the attack.”
    ​ ​The synchronicity was uncanny, with the media’s dam freakout coming exactly as public panic about the previous lunatic infrastructure attack came full circle, moving from certainty Russia blew up the Nord Stream pipeline to belated claims we knew all along Ukraine did it. It’s as if officials want the world to take American intelligence assessments more as Gilbert Gottfried routines than truth.
    ​ ​At 10:52 a.m. yesterday, the Washington Post published an exclusive called, “U.S. had intelligence of detailed Ukrainian plan to attack Nord Stream pipeline.”
    ​ ​The story contended the United States learned from a “European intelligence service” in June, 2022 that Ukraine was planning a “covert attack” on Nord Stream, using divers who “reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces,” General Valery Zaluzhny.
    ​ ​Apparently, U.S. and European allies knew about the Ukrainian plan and were impotent to stop a move they worried “risked a severe Russian response.”
    The only people in the country who didn’t roll eyes or laugh at these latest anonymous contortions were reporters.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taibbi-does-anyone-believe-american-propaganda-anymore

    ​ ​Soros predicts Ukrainian victory in counterattack, says Russia is a ‘paper tiger’
    ​ ​American oligarch of Hungarian origin George Soros believes Ukraine will win the war, and it will be a “positive shock” for global relations. The billionaire made the predictions in a new column in Project Syndicate, which is partly funded by his own Open Society Foundations.
    ​ ​In the column, Soros borrows a term from U.S. economic historian Adam Tooze, writing of a “polycrisis” in the world and pointing to the meteoric rise of artificial intelligence, climate change and the war in Ukraine.​..
    ​..​“There will be general elections in the United States in 2024 – and, most likely, in the United Kingdom as well – and AI will undoubtedly play an important role, one which is unlikely to be anything but dangerous. AI is very good at producing disinformation and deep fakes and there will be many malicious actors. What can we do about that? I don’t have the answer, but I hope this issue will receive the attention it deserves.”

    Soros predicts Ukrainian victory in counterattack, says Russia is a ‘paper tiger’

    ​ Christine sends this from Gilbert Doctorow Where oh Where is Chinese Support for Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine?
    There are no indications that China has supplied any military hardware to Russia. Perhaps they have shipped some dual use microchips, but that is not clear. What we can see is that they substantially raised their purchases of Russian oil. But they have taken the big discounts that Russia was obliged to give to any and all buyers following imposition of Western sanctions on its hydrocarbons. So it is an open question of who was doing whom favors in that domain.
    There is reason to believe that the real test of China’s readiness to help Russia in what is now effectively a war with the whole of NATO will come in the next two weeks or so.
    In a rather alarmist article issued on 21 May, John Helmer, a Russia expert and blogger living in Moscow for decades, tells us that the Air Defender 23 exercises that begin on 12 June may be used by Washington and its NATO allies to cover and protect what will be called raids by Ukrainian piloted F16s into the Donbas and perhaps further into the Russian Federation itself. This daring and perhaps very violent “exercise” would be a provocation inviting Russian counter attack on the bases in Germany and elsewhere in NATO member states from which the attacking aircraft took off. And there you have it, the casus belli for WWIII.

    Where, oh where is Chinese support for Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine?

    #136485
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    Rule by Decree

    Some excerpts from Why tyranny could be the inevitable outcome of democracy

    Plato, one of the earliest thinkers and writers about democracy, predicted that letting people govern themselves would eventually lead the masses to support the rule of tyrants.

    What went wrong in Athens?

    In classical Athens, the birthplace of democracy, the democratic assembly was an arena filled with rhetoric unconstrained by any commitment to facts or truth. So far, so familiar.

    Aristotle and his students had not yet formalized the basic concepts and principles of logic, so those who sought influence learned from sophists, teachers of rhetoric who focused on controlling the audience’s emotions rather than influencing their logical thinking.

    There lay the trap: Power belonged to anyone who could harness the collective will of the citizens directly by appealing to their emotions rather than using evidence and facts to change their minds.

    Misleading speech is the essential element of despots, because despots need the support of the people. Demagogues’ manipulation of the Athenian people left a legacy of instability, bloodshed and genocidal warfare, described in Thucydides’ history.

    #136486
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    Smoke from fires: now you know what many in south-east Australia went through in 2019-20. Dreadful. I used the time to find air leaking into the house, literally sniffing them out, and sealing them off.

    Now it seems quite likely that El Niño will return in a few months’ time. There’s been plenty of regrowth because of good rains aver the past few years. Everyone is worried.

    But The System does not care. Profits and growth are all that matter. Labour and capital are the only factors that exist. The environment has no exonomic function, hence it does not exist and can be ignored.

    #136487
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “But The System does not care. Profits and growth are all that matter. Labor and capital are the only factors that exist. The environment has no economic function, hence it does not exist and can be ignored.”

    I like this. It states the obvious without demanding there be villains to throw poo at. The System. The human condition. Life in the late Holocene. The great big unavoidable everything. God doing standup for an audience too terrified to laugh.

    Here is some guitar:

    High Numbers

    ***

    If we knew what to do to make it better even a little, what would we do? All I’ve accomplished that wasn’t a net fiasco was to ask someone if I could help. It usually works better when I stop pretending that I Know Best. But that pretension is very enduring.

    Meanwhile, the Holocene epoch comes to a close. Morally, I am greatly relieved. Ego-physically, I am terrified. The two meet me in the middle and contrive sordid deals to save my soul like Roman soldiers casting lots for Jesus’ garments.

    But I remember coming off the line, young and strong, ages ago. Eighteen: the slingshot years Gotta admit: the human condition is one exhilarating ride.

    “…bright in the flower, sad in the fruit…”

    #136488
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    “It no longer matters who is right. It matters how we get out of this situation”

    F.S.

    #136489
    WES
    Participant

    It is amazing how the US is nicely wrecking the Ukraine by arming it.

    Then to help complete the wrecking job, the US controlled IMF is financially killing off the little people of Ukraine, by forcing the Ukraine government to cut all payments such as pensions, etc while raising the cost of electricity, heating fuels, and gasoline.

    A page right out of the Nazi playbook! It was German Bankers following right on the heels of the Panzers, that did more damage to a conquered country than the Panzers ever did. People tend to forget this important fact of war.

    #136490
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Uninformed, stupid people are blind to the dire consequences of policies and actions founded on ignorance and stupidity.

    Therefore, the march along the path of slow (or in some cases, rapid) self-annihilation will continue.

    I was shocked to discover that someone who is well informed about fake jabs and fake Ukraine narratives and fake ‘green’ narratives churned out by the totalitarian police states that constitute ‘Oceania’/NATOstan had no idea who Roger Waters is nor any idea what ‘The Wall’ was, or what its message was.

    Never underestimate the lack of knowledge and lack of understanding of those around you. Never underestimate the stupidity of people around you. Albert Einstein and George Carlin spoke wisely about stupid people.

    And, of course, propaganda works. Thats why the totalitarian fascists persist with it.

    And if propaganda does start to fail, there is always censorship to fall back on, along with totally corrupt ‘justice’ systems.

    Many decades ago, Huxley and Orwell told us what to expect.

    Sadly, the vast majority of proles in ‘Oceania’/NATOstan have no idea who Huxley and Orwell were.

    Anyway, we are now in the world that Huxley and Orwell wrote about all those decades ago.

    The Age of Consequences arrived a decade or so ago, on all fronts. But the fascist police states of ‘Oceania’/NATOstan have been able to stagger on for a decade, using propaganda and censorship as their prime tools. Nate obviously still doesn’t get it. Jonathan Swift got it 300 years ago.

    I suspect most people will start to get it by the end of this year.

    Without energy, nothing happens.

    A fucked-up environment does not support life-as-we-know-it.

    Industrial humans and banksters have only three-quarters fucked-up the environment. There’s still that last quarter to be degraded/destroyed. They’re working hard to wreck that last quarter. And they’ll succeed because that have the courts, the security forces, the utterly corrupt governments and the uninformed masses on their side.

    #136491
    zerosum
    Participant

    “Many decades ago, Huxley and Orwell told us what to expect.”

    I was too young/innocent/etc. to comprehend/understand the messages.

    #136492
    Celticbiker
    Participant

    What the jew is doing to Ukraine is now coming to every western White nation. They want you dead.For the love of Christ, wake up.

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