Jul 182023
 
 July 18, 2023  Posted by at 9:33 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,


Andy Warhol Sigmund Freud 1980

 

US Not Ready For War With Russia – White House (RT)
US Soldiers Don’t Belong in Ukraine (Ottenberg)
No Military Solution To Ukraine Crisis – China (RT)
No More Security Guarantees For Black Sea Navigation – Russian FM (RT)
Erdogan To Talk Black Sea Grain Deal Resumption With Putin (RT)
EU Snubs Zelensky Over Summit – Spanish Daily (RT)
US Bid to Prolong Ukraine Proxy War Risks Another Quagmire (Sp.)
Yellen Says Ukraine Aid Is the Best Boost for Global Economy (NM)
Jan. 6 Defendant Appeals To Supreme Court (JTN)
Trump Opens Up About Mistakes Made During First Term (ET)
Situational Awareness (Jim Kunstler)
Abominable RFK Jr. Anti-Semitism Accusation a Harbinger of Things to Come (ET)
The Human Cost of Net Zero (Spiked)

 

 

 

 

Putin

 

 

 

 

Macgregor


https://twitter.com/i/status/1680884654172258305

 

 

 

 

Ukr pre2014

 

 

RFK Event 201

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Sullivan said that accepting Ukraine into the alliance now would mean a direct confrontation between the bloc and Russia.”

US Not Ready For War With Russia – White House (RT)

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has stated that Ukraine’s future lies in NATO, but said certain conditions must be met before it can join the alliance, which includes ending its conflict with Russia. In an interview with CBS on Sunday, Sullivan insisted that NATO is committed to accepting Kiev into its ranks despite the lack of a formal invitation or timeline for membership during last week’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. “Ukraine’s future is in NATO. We meant it. That’s not up for negotiation,” Sullivan said. “That’s something that now all 31 allies have committed to,” he added, referring to the final statement released at the end of the summit, in which all members of the alliance pledged to eventually accept Ukraine into the bloc, once a number of conditions are met. Speaking to ABC, Sullivan said that accepting Ukraine into the alliance now would mean a direct confrontation between the bloc and Russia.


“Having Ukraine come into NATO while the war is going on would mean that NATO was at war with Russia, it would mean the United States was at war with Russia. And neither NATO nor the United States were prepared to do that,”he said. Kiev insists that it has already met all of the requirements to join the US-led bloc and has expressed confusion over what more it has to do to qualify for membership. “When will those conditions be met? What are those conditions? Who should formulate them? What are they?” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said in an interview with Radio Free Europe last week. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky lashed out at NATO for failing to meet Kiev’s membership demands and called the lack of a roadmap towards accession “unprecedented and absurd,”saying NATO’s indecisiveness is a sign of weakness.

Ru soldier

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“The worst day in Afghanistan or Iraq is a great day in Ukraine.”

US Soldiers Don’t Belong in Ukraine (Ottenberg)

So how many American soldiers fight in Ukraine? The Biden bunch is careful not to reveal or refer to their presence, mercenary or otherwise, but the question keeps coming to mind. It popped up again June 27, when Russia bombed what the Ukraine press called simply a restaurant in Kramatorsk. However, this supposedly innocuous restaurant was part of a hotel complex that apparently attracted lots of western men of fighting age, specifically American soldiers and others from NATO countries. We know this because eyewitnesses heard them speaking American English and saw their U.S. military tattoos (3rd Ranger Battalion) and the American flags on their helmets. Also, American mercenaries were reported dead in twitter accounts. We also know that this missile attack killed 50 Ukrainian officers and two generals and at least 20 of the westerners, including Americans, proving yet again that one American soldier in Ukraine is one too many.

The problem is that we don’t know how many U.S. soldiers – to say nothing of American mercenaries – are in Ukraine. The Russian ministry of defense estimates that there have been over 900 American mercenaries in Ukraine. Meanwhile Washington remains mum, closely guarding its knowledge of this secret for the obvious reason that not doing so might provoke an open confrontation with Moscow. And since they don’t want a nuclear World War III, the white house and pentagon nurture an intense interest in concealing facts about the U.S. military footprint in Ukraine and their possible encouragement of it. Even if large numbers of American NATO officers were killed there, we, back in the so-called homeland, would doubtless be kept in the dark.

The scraps of news we do get indicate that the fighting goes poorly for U.S. troops. “This is my third war I’ve fought in, and this is by far the worst one,” Troy Offenbecker told the Daily Beast July 1. “You’re getting fucking smashed with artillery, tanks. Last week I had a plane drop a bomb next to us, like 300 meters away. It’s horrifying shit.” The Daily Beast quotes another U.S. soldier, David Bramlette: “The worst day in Afghanistan or Iraq is a great day in Ukraine.” Regarding reconnaissance missions, he said, “if two of them get injured…there’s no helicopter coming to get you…shit can go south really, really frickin’ quickly.” In other words, this is a different enemy, a very competent one, and U.S. soldiers in Ukraine sub rosa could die in large numbers that people back home never hear about.

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“..the official said the Ukraine crisis erupted last year thanks to “expanding military blocs..”

No Military Solution To Ukraine Crisis – China (RT)

Only a political settlement can resolve the conflict in Ukraine, China’s deputy UN envoy has said, urging the international community to seek a peaceful end to the crisis after Beijing advanced its own plan to halt the fighting. Speaking at an open meeting on Ukraine at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Monday, Beijing’s deputy permanent UN representative, Geng Shuang, proposed a four-point framework for future peace efforts, saying the global body should “work together to prevent the situation from getting out of control.” “The evolution of the battlefield situation shows that military means cannot resolve the Ukrainian crisis, and the continuation of the conflict will only bring more suffering to civilians, and may even lead to unpredictable and irreparable situations,” he said.

“No matter how long the crisis lasts, it will eventually be resolved through political means.” The Chinese framework calls for talks between Moscow and Kiev, limiting the potential “spillover effects of the crisis,” addressing humanitarian issues, and guaranteeing “nuclear safety and security” – in particular at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. The deputy UN envoy went on to argue that any solution to the conflict must “uphold a common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security concept.” Though he did not cite the NATO alliance by name, the official said the Ukraine crisis erupted last year thanks to “expanding military blocs,” which “can only bring turmoil and unrest to Europe and the entire world.”

Early this year, China unveiled a 12-point roadmap designed to end the fighting, calling for the resumption of talks and arguing that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations should be upheld. The Chinese government has previously slammed the unilateral sanctions on Moscow, and argued that NATO expansion in Europe is the root of the conflict in Ukraine. The initiative received a positive reception in Moscow, with senior officials in the Kremlin signaling willingness to discuss it further. However, the proposal was soon rejected by Kiev and some of its Western backers, who accused Beijing of supporting Russia’s interests.

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The grain deal met the same fate as Minsk, April 2022: the west doesn’t make good on its part of the deal.

No More Security Guarantees For Black Sea Navigation – Russian FM (RT)

Russia will no longer provide security guarantees for civilian vessels traversing the formerly exempted corridor in the Black Sea, the country’s foreign ministry has announced. Earlier on Monday, the Kremlin stated that it would not extend the Black Sea grain agreement since its own food and fertilizer exports are still being blocked. In a statement released on Monday, the Foreign Ministry said that this latest decision “means the recall of maritime navigation security guarantees, the discontinuation of the maritime humanitarian corridor [and] the reinstatement of the ‘temporarily dangerous area’ regime in the north-western Black Sea.” Russian diplomats went on to accuse Ukraine of using the humanitarian corridor to carry out attacks on Russian targets.

As for the Ukrainian grain shipments that were facilitated by the deal, the ministry claimed that the vast majority of those ended up in Europe, with several countries there allegedly lining their pockets. The statement pointed out that the whole mechanism, which was launched last summer, had ostensibly been designed to help avert famine in poorer nations. According to Moscow, key points in the Russia-UN memorandum, which was signed in lockstep with the Black Sea Initiative, have remained unfulfilled to date. As a result, the ministry explained, Russian bank transactions, insurance and logistics were effectively paralyzed, meaning that Moscow could not sell its own produce and fertilizers on the international market. In one case cited in the statement, a shipment of Russian fertilizers donated free of charge to several African countries was blocked in the EU.

The foreign ministry concluded that in light of all these issues, the agreement no longer makes sense. Moscow has suggested European nations should allow Ukraine to transfer its grain via their territory and potentially face the wrath of local farmers, or take action and address Russia’s grievances. Should this happen, Moscow would be ready to return to the implementation of the agreement, the statement noted. Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov announced the termination of the deal. He also reiterated Russia’s readiness to return to the mechanism; however, he added that this would only happen if its interests were respected. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow would “suspend participation in this deal,” describing the arrangement as a “one-sided game all along.”

Grain deal
https://twitter.com/i/status/1680936741430018049

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Erdogan didn’t keep his word to Putin about the Azov commanders.

Erdogan To Talk Black Sea Grain Deal Resumption With Putin (RT)

Türkiye believes that Russia is interested in continuing the Black Sea grain deal despite Moscow announcing on Monday that it was ending its involvement in the agreement, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed. The arrangement “went down in history as a diplomatic success,” the Turkish leader said during a press conference on Monday. Erdogan insisted that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, wanted the deal to survive, and that the two would soon talk on the phone about a possible way forward. Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the scheme “effectively ceased to be in effect today.” Russia has accused the UN of failing to deliver on its part of the bargain, which included lifting Western economic sanctions hampering Russian exports of foodstuffs and fertilizers.


Unless that changes, Moscow will no longer keep up its end of the deal either, Peskov said. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the UN and Türkiye had been formally notified that Moscow had opted against renewing the grain deal again, resulting in its expiration on Monday. Formally known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the agreement between Moscow and Kiev was mediated by the UN and Türkiye last summer. It allowed Ukrainian grain to be shipped by sea, with merchant ships being inspected to prevent misuse of the arrangement. The deal was touted as a way to alleviate a food price hike in the world’s poorest nations. However, Moscow said that contrary to the deal’s stated goal, European nations were the primary recipients of the shipments.

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Latin American heads of state are not wild about Zelensky.

EU Snubs Zelensky Over Summit – Spanish Daily (RT)

The European Union ignored Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s requests to be invited to the bloc’s summit with Latin American heads of state and government, Barcelona’s La Vanguardia has reported. Last week, NATO refused to accommodate Kiev’s demands for a clear NATO membership timeline, let alone immediate accession to the US-led military alliance. In its article on Monday, the paper cited anonymous European diplomats as claiming that the European Council’s President, Charles Michel, had decided it would be “better not to invite” the Ukrainian head of state to the meeting of European Union and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) leaders in Brussels.

However, “Ukraine will occupy a prominent place during the leaders’ discussions,” unnamed sources told the Spanish daily ahead of the event, which kicked off on Monday. The unnamed diplomats listed food security as one item that would likely be high on the agenda. According to the outlet, the EU has been pressing for the inclusion of condemnation of Russia’s military campaign against Ukraine in the summit’s final document. However, it is not clear whether this will be the case as there is reportedly no consensus on the issue among Latin American nations. La Vanguardia pointed out that the previous EU-CELAC summit took place back in 2015, with Brussels now busy doubling down on its efforts to woo the Global South.

Last week, NATO fell short of Ukraine’s expectations after the US-led military bloc decided that Kiev would be granted membership at some unspecified point in the future, “when allies agree and conditions are met.” President Zelensky took to social media last Tuesday, slamming the alliance’s “indecisiveness” and “weakness.” “It’s unprecedented and absurd when [a] time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership,” the Ukrainian head of state insisted. Later on, however, Zelensky softened his stance somewhat after the US delegation reportedly became “furious” at his criticisms.

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“Outside this event, war in Ukraine has also taken the glitter off of western weapons and the military industrial complex. For a very high price, it produces inadequate quantities of shoddy goods..”

US Bid to Prolong Ukraine Proxy War Risks Another Quagmire (Sp.)

The Biden administration appears content to prolong the proxy conflict in Ukraine in an effort to weaken Russia, while serving the interests of certain stakeholders in the American establishment, despite the risk of the confrontation turning into another Vietnam or Afghan-style quagmire, experts told Sputnik. At the NATO summit in Vilnius earlier this week, the US and its allies made long-term security commitments to Ukraine while easing alliance admission requirements. However, Kiev was disappointed in not getting an invitation to join NATO as soon as possible, with US President Joe Biden even saying membership is off the table for Ukraine while the conflict with Russia lasts.

“NATO summit proved what was known anyway. The collective West under US leadership wants to destroy Russia without going to war directly but by using Ukrainians as cannon fodder,” American University in Moscow President Edward Lozansky told Sputnik. “Thus we are witnessing a crime that supersedes the atrocities in Vietnam and the Middle East.” However, in previous proxy fights, he added, the US could at least use countering communism or terror as a pretext. “Here we see a policy of provoking, funding, and prolonging the war between the two Christian nations that lived together for over three centuries and who were bounded by close historical, religious, economic, cultural, and family ties under the false flag of preserving a non-existing democracy in the most corrupted state to preserve the geopolitical advantage of the hegemon and its willing vassals,” Lozansky said.

University of Louvain Professor of Political Philosophy Jean Bricmont believes by only pledging more security assistance, NATO allies have made it obvious they do not want to spark a direct war with Russia, which is not good news for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “The mere sending of weapons does not seem to tilt the balance in his favor,” Bricmont suggested. Meanwhile, Bricmont added, developments on the ground in Ukraine and inside Russia have not gone according to plan for the United States, especially as the hoped-for collapse of the Russian economy has not happened and Ukraine’s counteroffensive is failing. “The whole thing has become a very cynical game: using Ukrainians as much and as long as possible in that war, but without any real plan of success,” Bricmont told Sputnik.

“This is likely to end like Vietnam or Afghanistan, but the Americans cannot admit it and cut their losses. So, Ukrainians and Russians will continue to die needlessly.” Lozansky suggested there were other motives driving the White House’s Ukraine policy besides simply trying to counter Russia. “Of course, there was an additional incentive to make money for the military-industrial complex, and, as it turns out, to enrich the Biden family,” Lozansky said. Krainer Analytics Founder Alex Krainer, a Europe-based financial analyst, said while the war may have filled the US defense industry’s pockets, it also undermined many perceptions of its strengths and American’s military prowess. “Outside this event, war in Ukraine has also taken the glitter off of western weapons and the military industrial complex. For a very high price, it produces inadequate quantities of shoddy goods,” Krainer said. “The whole thing has been outed as a con and a paper tiger.”

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Shrooms.

Yellen Says Ukraine Aid Is the Best Boost for Global Economy (NM)

Redoubling support for war-stricken Ukraine is the “single best” way to aid the global economy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday, along with boosting emerging economies and tackling debt distress. Yellen also said on the sidelines of a G20 finance ministers’ summit in India she would “push back” on criticism there was a tradeoff between aid to Ukraine and developing nations. “Ending this war is first and foremost a moral imperative,” she told reporters in Gandhinagar. “But it’s also the single best thing we can do for the global economy.” Yellen also pointed to efforts to tackle debt distress faced by struggling economies, bank reform and a global tax deal, and warned it was “premature” to talk of lifting tariffs on China.


Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both global breadbaskets that together exported almost a quarter of the world’s wheat supply, triggered shockwaves in economies worldwide by sending prices for food and fuel shooting up. Japan’s Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, speaking after a G7 meeting of ministers, “reconfirmed the G7’s unshakeable support” to Ukraine. “We confirmed that Russia-owned assets that are under the G7’s supervision would not be transferred until Russia pays damages to Ukraine,” Suzuki said, adding that Moscow should also “pay long-term reconstruction costs”. Any discussion on Ukraine is awkward for G20 host India, which has not condemned Russia’s invasion but is also part of the Quad grouping alongside Australia, the United States and Japan.

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High time SCOTUS gets involved.

Jan. 6 Defendant Appeals To Supreme Court (JTN)

Jan. 6 defendant Edward Jacob Lang is asking the Supreme Court to hear his challenge against one of the 11 charges he was indicted on – obstruction of an official proceeding – in a case that could upend legal proceedings against hundreds of other defendants indicted on charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. The obstruction charge could be levied against “anyone who attends at a public demonstration gone awry,” attorneys for Lang wrote in an appeal to the Supreme Court last week. The proceeding for which the charge was brought refers to the event where Congress certifies the Electoral College votes to confirm the president.

The charge “is nothing less than the weaponization of the penal code to stifle dissent; it sets a terrifying precedent unworthy of this nation’s history,” Lang’s attorneys also wrote. Lang had filed a motion to dismiss the obstruction charge, which carries a 20-year sentence, before his trial, and the D.C. District court granted this motion. However, an appeals court reversed the lower court’s decision and a motion for a rehearing was denied. Lang’s attorney Norman Pattis told Newsweek that he thinks the Supreme Court could upend the cases of “hundreds of defendants.” “The government misuse and abuse of the federal penal code in the [January 6] cases is shocking,” Pattis also said. His client expects to hear this fall whether the Supreme Court will take up the case.

Lang has been incarcerated for more than 900 days without a trial. He told The Epoch Times that he thinks his appeal could impact the Justice Department’s separate effort to potentially charge former President Donald Trump with obstruction. “I think the timing of this filing is astronomical,” Lang said. “Donald Trump is the political frontrunner for the Republican Party, and while the other bogus charges might easily go away through a plea deal, the obstruction of Congress charge carries prison time. This one would land him in serious hot water with a conviction.”

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How about Bolton, Pompeo?

Trump Opens Up About Mistakes Made During First Term (ET)

President Donald Trump acknowledged that he made mistakes during his first term in office, saying that most issues arose from the people he chose to fill various roles in office. In an interview that aired July 16, Mr. Trump sat down with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo to discuss an array of issues, including whether he thought he made any mistakes during his term. Ms. Bartiromo asked, “If there’s anything that you could look back on in [2016] that you think maybe you want to do differently this time around?” Mr. Trump replied, “The mistake would be people. I mean, I wouldn’t have put a guy like Bill Barr in—he was weak and pathetic,” a reference to his former attorney general, who has spoken out against Mr. Trump since leaving office and has expressed opposition to a second term for the former president.

“I wouldn’t have put Jeff Sessions in,” Mr. Trump said, a reference to another former attorney general with whom Mr. Trump clashed. “There are some people that I wouldn’t have put in. You know, most people were good. But I had some people—we had [former Secretary of Defense Mark] Esper. I didn’t like him. He was incompetent. I thought we had other people I didn’t like.” Ms. Bartiromo replied, “Why did you put them in the job then?” “Because every—look, every president, you put somebody in, you think they’re good,” Mr. Trump said. “But one thing that has happened and I find it very interesting, and this is the way life goes, I put people in—I was there 17 times in Washington, D.C. my whole life. I never stayed overnight. The press actually reported 70 I don’t know if it’s right, but it’s probably pretty right.

“I never stayed overnight. Ever. And then all of a sudden, I’m the President of the United States and it’s like a different society. I was New York and you know, it was a different thing. So I didn’t know people, I became President,” Mr. Trump said, adding later, “I never was involved in that.” “So you didn’t know what to expect?” Ms. Bartiromo asked. “No, no,” Mr. Trump cut in. “I didn’t know the people. I know the people now better than anybody has ever known the people. I know the good ones, the bad ones, the dumb ones, the smart ones.” Mr. Trump was also pressed on whether he had “drained the swamp,” a reference to Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign pledge to root out D.C. bureaucrats and other entrenched establishment figures in the capital city. “You didn’t drain the swamp like you said you would, you didn’t drain the swamp,” Ms. Bartiromo said, a common criticism of the former president by conservative elements in the party who feel he failed to live up to his 2016 campaign promises.

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It’s not the FBI, but people working there. Who?

FBI Tipped Off Biden Team, Secret Service About Plan To Interview Hunter (JTN)

A recently retired FBI supervisory agent told Congress behind closed doors Monday that the bureau tipped off Joe Biden’s team and the Secret Service in late 2020 about a plan to interview Hunter Biden in his criminal tax probe, corroborating allegations from two IRS whistleblowers. The FBI agent, who worked alongside the IRS whistleblowers on the Hunter Biden case when he was assigned to the Wilmington field office, gave his account in a transcribed interview before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, providing fresh evidence of alleged political interference in the treatment of Joe Biden’s son. He corroborated several aspects of the account IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley and a second agent gave Congress last month, including that law enforcement’s plan to conduct a surprise interview in early December 2020 with Hunter Biden about alleged tax crimes was foiled by the tipoff.

The agent, whose name wasn’t immediately made public, said the bureau told both Joe Biden’s transition office and the Secret Service, creating a tipoff that thwarted the planned interview. “The night before the interview of Hunter Biden, both Secret Service headquarters and the Biden transition team were tipped off about the planned interview,” Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. said. “On the day of the Hunter Biden interview, federal agents were told to stand by and could not approach Hunter Biden—they had to wait for his call. As a result of the change in plans, IRS and FBI criminal investigators never got to interview Hunter Biden as part of the investigation. “The Justice Department’s efforts to cover up for the Bidens reveals a two-tiered system of justice that sickens the American people,” he added.

In his testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee back in May, Shapley described how the tipoff around Dec. 7-8, 2020, was a major set back for the investigation, and one of several instances in which political favoritism and interference occurred. “I was informed that FBI headquarters had notified Secret Service headquarters and the transition team about the planned actions the following day,” Shapley testified. He said the alert afforded Hunter Biden and his team “an opportunity to obstruct” the investigation. Shapley and his IRS colleague are slated to testify in public for the first time as early as Wednesday before Comer’s panel, and officials told Just the News they hope to release a transcript of the FBI agent’s corroborating testimony in the next few days.

IRS
https://twitter.com/i/status/1681036655178686469

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“..a pharmaceutical industry metastasizing on money the way an aggressive cancer feeds on sugar..”

Situational Awareness (Jim Kunstler)

What if Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche is correct? The [Belgian] virologist said at the outset of the Covid-19 episode in 2020 that vaccinating the world in the midst of an epidemic was insane because it would train the virus to evolve more dangerously while disabling human immune systems. Last week he issued a warning that the world was within weeks of just such a new and deadly immune escape variant outbreak that would bring on a shocking wave of sickness and death among people who received multiple Covid-19 vaccinations. This would happen on top of an already accelerating rise in latent vaccine adverse reactions manifesting as aggressive cancers, blood disorders, cardiac injury, neurological disease, and much, much more.

To this point in the Covid-19 story, Western Civ in general, and the USA in particular, have descended into an epic group psychosis as a result of the managed mind-fuckery induced by their own governments in collusion with a pharmaceutical industry metastasizing on money the way an aggressive cancer feeds on sugar in a human body. Fearful citizens swallowed all manner of unreality foisted on them by means of propaganda and censorship.We still don’t know for sure how, who, and why, exactly, Covid-19 was set loose on the world, and the public health agencies don’t want you to know. Perhaps the worst and most baldly dishonest act was the official suppression of effective treatments with common, safe, anti-virals that could have saved millions of lives. And all just to preserve the vaccine companies’ liability shield from the Emergency Use Authorization. In fact, governments are still militating against the sale and use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, which could be taken prophylactically in anticipation of a new outbreak.

So, if these populations were driven crazy by authorities ginning up their fear and preying on it, what will happen if that fear turns to anger instead? Because that’s exactly what will happen when Americans, and perhaps even Europeans, realize they’ve been subject to history’s biggest homicidal fraud. That anger is going to seek targets, and they are going to find them very easily in their own government officials and also — get this — in the medical establishment that has betrayed its patients so unconscionably. It’s just impossible to say exactly how that will play out on-the-ground. Governments are already falling — Spain, the Netherlands — but these were parliamentary downfalls according to regular political procedure. Our country has no such procedures for changing authority in a time of crisis. Instead, we have a president up to his neck in bribery scandal and executive agency thuggery, and political parties sunk in corruption, and no way to get rid of them except elections many months away — elections which at least half the people don’t believe are honest.

This crisis of bad faith and sickness is happening at the same time that Western Civ enters an equally vicious crisis of economy and finance. America and Europe are broke. All are playing games with their conjoined banking systems and their currencies. All are de-industrializing economies strictly based on industrial production of goods no longer being produced, and pretending to replace them with economies of computer vapor-ware. That can’t work and can only end badly in collapsing standards of living. The past few years, an apparent coalition of global elites, functioning in orgs such as the WEF, the WHO, the EU, the IMF, the central banks, and countless NGOs, along with shadowy intel units and what remains of the old news media, have promoted ever more desperate top-down control programs to prevent a breakdown into wholesale economic and political disorder. Their efforts increasingly tilt into pretense.

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“..this fake news accusation went around the world faster than Churchill’s famous line about the truth and the time it takes to put on your pants.”

Abominable RFK Jr. Anti-Semitism Accusation a Harbinger of Things to Come (ET)

To claim that COVID-19 is the product of a cabal of Chinese and Jews is so ridiculous that it only speaks to what the author wants to believe or, more accurately, wants us to believe Kennedy meant. Which Chinese and which Jews? It’s hard to imagine since Israel was locked down to such a degree it made California look like Florida. Also, Israeli scientists were working around the clock to invent a successful vaccine but got nowhere. If they had been in on the original design, you would think they would have been able to do something, or at least have a leg up. The internet being what it is, this fake news accusation went around the world faster than Churchill’s famous line about the truth and the time it takes to put on your pants.

The lie appeared almost immediately in numerous publications from the Daily Mail to the Daily Beast as if it had to be true that RFK Jr. was anti-Semitic. But Kennedy doesn’t need me to defend him. He’s doing a fine job himself, including demanding a retraction from the Post and an apology from Levine, in his Twitter feed. So what’s actually going on here? This isn’t, in the end, really about anti-Semitism, real or imagined. It was just low-hanging fruit, as the “canary in the coal mine” often is, the first of many—a harbinger of many dastardly smears of the candidate to come.

If there’s one thing the military-industrial complex (endless wars from Iraq to Ukraine) and the health care-industrial complex (Big Pharma, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, et al.) do not want, it’s a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presidency. Big Tech probably isn’t very keen on it, either. It would cost them all incalculable amounts of money, much of it courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer and a complaisant government. Most of all, the current leadership of the Democratic Party—bent on exploiting every so-called progressive policy, no matter how looney, for maximum gain and power—don’t want anyone bringing their party back to sanity, under the leadership of Mr. Kennedy or anyone else. Notable is that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is backing Joe Biden for reelection, not RFK Jr.

And then there’s the CIA, whose antipathy for RFK Jr. should be obvious to all those with even a passing knowledge of the lives and deaths of his father and uncle who wanted that organization splintered in a thousand pieces and cast to the winds. In all, it’s no surprise then that the corporate media, in which we now must include the N.Y. Post of the increasingly untrustworthy Murdoch empire, is now the mouthpiece of anti-RFK Jr. propaganda. More and most probably worse will come. What we are looking at is what we might call the coming ‘The Plot Against Kennedy” after Lee Smith’s best-selling “The Plot Against the President,” which detailed the subversion of Donald J. Trump before and after his presidency by many of the same parties. The similarity between the treatment of Trump by corporate media that was always dishonest and is now, if anything, worse, and the beginnings of the treatment of RFK Jr. is all too obvious.

RFK Townhall

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Zero society.

The Human Cost of Net Zero (Spiked)

Canadian political scientist Vaclav Smil lists cement, steel, plastics and ammonia as the four ingredients that make the modern world possible. For example, modern healthcare systems need enormous amounts of plastic (for everything from flexible tubes to sterile packing), making it yet another crucial ingredient in the wellbeing of humanity. And without steel and cement, nothing could be built – no roads, no houses, no harbours, no airports. Plastics, steel and cement also require fossil fuels for their production. The same goes for modern agriculture. It depends on synthetic fertilisers, which massively increase yields and allow farmers to use smaller areas of arable land. Without these fertilisers, half the current global population would go unfed.

The production of these fertilisers depends on something called the Haber-Bosch process, a method of producing ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen, which was invented in the early 20th century. Given its contribution to feeding the world, Smil has justifiably called it the ‘most momentous technical advance in history’. The problem for those demanding the phasing out of fossil fuels is that the hydrogen required for the production of ammonia, and therefore synthetic fertilisers, is almost entirely derived from fossil fuels. So all of Smil’s building blocks for the modern world are dependent on the very materials that Western elites say they want to keep in the ground. It’s not just fertilisers that require fossil fuels, either. 75% of all farm equipment in the US runs on diesel. It dominates the entire farming supply chain, from planting to harvesting to bringing food to market.

A green optimist might suggest simply replacing all these diesel-powered machines with industrial EVs. Yet to build the batteries for all these EVs would require a massive expansion of energy-intensive mining for metallic minerals, such as cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel. EVs would also require clean electricity sources to charge them. In fact, every step of the proposed energy transition is itself dependent on fossil fuels. You cannot build a wind turbine without lubricants from oil, a concrete foundation and copious amounts of steel. Just as you cannot make solar panels without polysilicon, a component that is immensely energy intensive to produce because it requires temperatures beyond 1,150 degrees Celsius.

The expansion of mining activities needed to build EVs and wind turbines is particularly problematic for the clean-tech crusaders. According to the International Energy Agency: ‘A typical electric car requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car and an onshore wind plant requires nine times more mineral resources than a gas-fired plant. Since 2010, the average amount of minerals needed for a new unit of power generation capacity has increased by 50 per cent as the share of renewables in new investment has risen.’ The mineral-mining sector is also energy intensive, producing a huge amount of carbon emissions. It is already responsible for 38 per cent of total global industrial energy use. This means that even if the electrification of all vehicles were possible, it wouldn’t eliminate carbon emissions. It would just raise them at other points in the supply chain.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Orson

 

 

Chinsa high speed rail

 

 

Magnet

 

 

Birdies
https://twitter.com/i/status/1680905456389361671

 

 

Bobi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1680910054910730240

 

 


Jonathan was born in 1832 in the Seychelles. He has been living in Saint Helena since 1882 and just celebrated his 190th birthday.

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle July 18 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 64 total)
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  • #139294

    Andy Warhol Sigmund Freud 1980   • US Not Ready For War With Russia – White House (RT) • US Soldiers Don’t Belong in Ukraine (Ottenberg) • No Mil
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle July 18 2023]

    #139295
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “DEA Can Now Confiscate the White House As Crack House” –Armstrong

    That’s right! It’s Civil Forfeiture. Who would they give it to? The People?

    Recent notes: As we’ve all been amazed at the acceptance and compliance and lack of intel from people, here’s a note: Really rich people pay consultants all day to keep on top of this stuff. They can be market, political, cultural, all those things that affect their 10-year investment horizon. Apparently, the Covid scam is seeping through to them right now, one level at at time, since there were like 10,000 levels and 10,000 threads – Hoovering money from the poor Juanita up to the Trillionaires was just one of them. And a whole lot of them PAID EXTRA to jump to the front of the line on the Vax.

    Now because of the unique way this unfolded, there’s no psychological hot point or event to start a flash-fire on this. But that may be far worse: you’ve now (as I’ve said of myself) unleashed a cold, eternal vengeance to get back, get out from under, and so on, with very smart, infinitely-connected people, who have uncountable fortunes at their disposal and nothing but time. They’re not just going to stand up, point fingers, and get shot. They may not know that all their FRIENDS, or which friends, ALSO finally got the real intel and are onboard while they pretend to wear masks. But increasing numbers of these as we go will note their wives, children, grandchildren, their family lines being erased “Suddenly.”

    So you tell me what will happen. They all have to put on a face of denial to each other, as no one knows who’s in or out, but the Queen is Dead. Long live the Queen. Now WHICH Queen have you banked behind, Elizabeth or Mary? Lancaster or York?

    Well, which one killed your children?

    It doesn’t have to be all of them; what if it’s 10% of them? What if it’s 30%? You won’t see anything unless you look very, very carefully. So do. It’s a tidal shift.

    Kunstler says “The past few years, an apparent coalition of global elites, functioning in orgs such as the WEF, the WHO, the EU, the IMF, the central banks, and countless NGOs, along with shadowy intel units and what remains of the old news media, have promoted ever more desperate top-down control programs to prevent a breakdown into wholesale economic and political disorder. Their efforts increasingly tilt into pretense.”

    What would they do? Well for example, I hear that “Sound of Freedom” was blacklisted and hidden in the basement. A bunch of rich guys exactly like this pretended it was all about the money, followed the business line knowing exactly what they were doing and who they were screwing, and forced it to be released in the theatres to mud-f— Hollywood in public. That’s bad enough. But all the OTHER guys watch that Crowdfunded movies cut out Hollywood money, and that they’re so tottering and weak they were unable to stop it OR punish those involved. So pile on, Garth! That’s Iron Man 2:
    “Ivan Vanko: [laughs] If you could make God bleed, people would cease to believe in Him. There will be blood in the water, the sharks will come. All I have to do is sit back and watch as the world consumes you.”

    Just like NATO and Ukraine. You let this happen naturally. If you rush in there, 30,000 men get killed just because you’re impatient and can’t wait. That’s what happens when you have Generals who are not psychopaths, but it’s frustrating. Sometimes you’d prefer a General Grant, but not if it’s YOU in the ranks, as we all are this time.

    “Wray told Congress that Bank of America provided them with a “huge list” of financial records for Americans who used BofA cards around the capitol on January 6th. That’s right: no warrants, no court hearings, just blindly turning over records when the FBI asks.”

    As a complete merger of corporation and state. The “Government” against the People.

    “• US Not Ready For War With Russia – White House (RT)

    That’s odd. The same White House said “We’re in a war” with Russia. That’s why we have to support high gas prices (1) and ““Where’s the concern for the United States in that?” Mr. Carlson asked. “That’s not my concern,” Mr. Pence replied. (2) because the war was more important than life, that is, existential, mobilized ‘total’ war.

    “So how many American soldiers fight in Ukraine?”

    Well that’s odd. I don’t remember Congress issuing a declaration of war. How can American soldiers be there at all?

    “Only a POLITICAL settlement can resolve the conflict in Ukraine,”

    Kind of. They all end in the treaty. But when your opponent is “not agreement capable” then really only a MILITARY settlement can end the conflict in Ukraine. — That’s their choice, which is too late to reverse now. Europe made this existential. Before sanctions and even for some time after, they still could have reversed and had some lower level of normalcy. Now they can’t, I don’t think. It’s not just NATO, it’s the WEF, all European Banks, and all the 20-30 governments who are propped up by the same systems.

    “UN of failing to deliver on its part of the bargain, which included lifting Western economic sanctions”

    Not Agreement Capable. Therefore can only end militarily.

    the whole mechanism, which was launched last summer, had ostensibly been designed to help avert famine in poorer nations.

    This needed to be demonstrated in person, although everybody knew it. This is just diplomacy to do so. It’s hard to be sinking, in a famine or just high prices in Africa (or Portugal) and without seeing this played out, blame Russia and not the EU.

    Alistair referred to the ‘stalled’ battle front in Ukraine and said, what are the wings of the war? Financial, and Russia won that. Diplomatic, and Russia won that. Economic, as in 100 BRIICS nations, and Russia won that. Why would you rush the lines when your opponent is choking out?

    “Ukraine has lost $22 billion!”

    That was what that Ukrainian diplomat interviewed last week was saying. And that is all before BlackRock, when they still can’t really get in an liquidate in Disaster Capitalism.

    “ignored Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s requests to be invited to the bloc’s summit with Latin American heads of state”

    Well I would think so! It’s inappropriate. Latin America is meeting to address THEIR problems, not problems on Mars. Even this article then detracts attention away from the other nations and makes all their lives harder which are hard enough. Shut up and show some respect, we’ve talked about you plenty. As usual, all other nations must die in service to Ukraine.

    “Casualties continue to mount in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, causing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make the decision to call up 3,000 U.S. military reserve soldiers.
    “I need all the forces I command at my disposal,” Zelensky said when announcing the activation of American troops. “These young men and women have been well-trained to defend Ukraine, and now is the time to fulfill their purpose.” – Bbee

    “• Yellen Says Ukraine Aid Is the Best Boost for Global Economy (NM)

    “If we only PAY people to break windows, we all get richer.” — Treasury Sec Yellen

    “President Donald Trump acknowledged that he made mistakes during his first term in office, saying that most issues arose from the people he chose”

    This is in the category “…You had ONE job!” Other than being unable to be President and pick people, he was pretty good.

    “You cannot build a wind turbine without lubricants from oil, a concrete foundation and copious amounts of steel.”

    I can. People do it every day. But not at industrial scale…which we shouldn’t be doing anyway. That’s Centralization when we’re decentralizing and devolving. Look at Paeg on Isle of Skye making them from wood and a Volvo rear end. Not only not USING the stuff, not digging it up, but also all parts are recyclable after.

    …Clearly that is specifically, pointedly, aggressively what they do NOT want from Green Energy. That is the ONLY thing they didn’t put a nickel into, and in fact outlaw, like wood stoves. Anyway, like my article on Cows and Fields, getting around the Haber-Bosch problem, you CAN do these things, but it’s a totally different world where everything must be changed.

    No centralization means no power for them. Even a 2% slip in power would kill them as they couldn’t pay their blackmail.

    Looks like Disney found a way to lose another $100M already, and they’re confused. The name of the character was “Snow White” a German girl renowned in literature and hated by the Queen expressly for her pale complexion. They hired a brown person then unemployed 7 “disabled” people, or dwarves, for which Hollywood is a good choice, but has just very few gigs each year, and Isner wanted to make sure they’d get no jobs this year either.

    For some reason they can’t understand why this approach wasn’t popular and Theme Park sales are plummeting. I want to go see an Ariel from the Sahara, a Mulan played by a man, and Sneezy played by Yao Ming in a world where The Empire™ guys are the heroes, and no one in Marvel™ is.

    You do you. Destroy all you want. We’ll make more. And it’s time for new heroes. I look at how the shows really are a mythology, disconnected from all reality. As the characters are from the 60s, you have beautiful smart, white orphans abused in homes and not instantly adopted, from their Cold War parents(who would be 60), who fight Nazis,(who would be 90) where there are newspaper editors, policemen on the beat, and muscle cars driving deserted highways looking for the Supernatural.

    No. Practically everything in these shows are tropes that are no longer true. Haven’t been true in GENERATIONS. You CAN write shows about Dollar Stores and Nail salons, boarded up America, or blasted ghettos where the houses are falling in within sight of glimmering skyscrapers – in fact it would be good material – but they’re so divorced from reality and lost in delusion to write about and make heroes in the America we actually have never occurs to them. It would be uncomfortable and not in their safe space. So having these guys collapse is a first step in needing to fill the vacuum of creativity they leave behind.

    I don’t mind the Spider Man stuff. But it’s a world of 1963. Or even the X-Man stuff, which reflects the 80s. But it’s untranslatable in a thousand tiny ways. Besides rotary phones, what’s the one most unbelievable thing in the 1979 “Incredible Hulk”? That a guy could just walk into town and get a job. The whole series is based on that.

    #139299
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Comments suspicious, like last night? No additional comments by 8am EST? Is there a tech issue instead?

    And I back-read the comments for Day, again seems like Space weather, everyone is broadly irritated and agitated for no specific reason. “Manners Maketh Man” they say. We disagree with the substance, not the person. And like “Gosh I hope and pray each day we can get up to 600ppm in the plant-friendly zone” and “Israel has 90% vaccinated their own ethnic group” often enough there’s no reason to say the same thing again. They have their opinions. I know them, and I’m tolerant, so that’s all fine with me. Please have more opinions. It’s interesting, it’s what we’re here for, I think.

    Trying to add something new and not be fixated on Ukraine or whatever the news is trying to misdirect us with. So what is that? What’s out there we’re not seeing? Yellen is really President, she’s (and Dimon) the one on the high diplomatic meetings with Xi? We already know, and I can’t tell, so nothing to add, but I’m watching. XRP releases when they book a meeting to impeach Gensler? I’m watching.

    #139300
    Nemowillobserve
    Participant

    Morning D, I found you a born again Powell fan boi.

    So we are to believe the guy with arguably the most powerful post in the world is fighting davos man? I’m sure he really believed the inflation was transitory. He is totally not tightening into a weak economy. It’s not as if the central banksters have repeatedly done this. This is definitely not the big rug pull. Trillion dollar interest payments are no big deal. No possible way this policy increases human suffering.

    #139302
    Nemowillobserve
    Participant
    #139303
    EoinW
    Participant

    I like Kunstler. He’s entertaining to read, honest about what’s going on and tries to see a positive outcome. Now his latest PollyAnna Moment, that the vaxxed would turn their anger on the government and medical establishment lost me. It would be deserved retribution, however it’s not realistic. The vaxxed have sold their soul to the government and medical experts. 100% blind trust. They aren’t going to bite the hand they think feeds them.

    What is far more likely is that authorities will redirect that anger at the unvaxxed. Shoot the messenger? They’ll hate us because we aren’t getting sick and dying. Think Spencer Tracey in the film “Fury”.

    #139304

    Comments suspicious, like last night? No additional comments by 8am EST? Is there a tech issue instead?

    I hadn’t noticed anything.

    #139305
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Oh, those poor, poor darlings over there, … “The French are eating less foie gras and drinking less red wine. Spaniards are stinting on olive oil. Finns are being urged to use saunas on windy days when energy is less expensive. Across Germany, meat and milk consumption has fallen to the lowest level in three decades, and the once-booming market for organic food has tanked.”

    Europeans Are Becoming Poorer. ‘Yes, We’re All Worse Off.’
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/europeans-poorer-inflation-economy-255eb629?mod=hp_lead_pos7

    F.S.

    #139306
    zerosum
    Participant

    Why Depopulation will happen
    Elites are doing top-down control programs to prevent a breakdown into wholesale economic and political disorder.
    Their efforts increasingly tilt into pretense.
    ———–

    Ukraine is a Mercenary War, Proxy War
    “Here we see a policy of provoking, funding, and prolonging the war between the two Christian nations that lived together for over three centuries and who were bounded by close historical, religious, economic, cultural, and family ties under
    the false flag of preserving a non-existing democracy in the most corrupted state
    to preserve the geopolitical advantage of the hegemon and its willing vassals,” Lozansky said.

    ———-

    The human cost of Net Zero


    The war on fossil fuels is far more dangerous than climate change.
    RALPH SCHOELLHAMMER
    16th July 2023

    A target of Net Zero by 2050 could well be met. But the rapid abandonment of fossil fuels that this demands would inflict misery and hardship on billions of people. (and cause depopulation)

    Western governments’ green hypocrisy is revealing. They posture endlessly about Net Zero and indulge in fantasies about the energy transition. Yet they can’t escape the fact that fossil fuels are integral to their societies’ wellbeing.

    Canadian political scientist Vaclav Smil lists cement, steel, plastics and ammonia as the four ingredients that make the modern world possible.

    The talk of leaving fossil fuels behind is not based in reality. It’s fuelled instead by a mixture of apocalypticism, hypocrisy and sheer wishful thinking.
    ————-
    Drug Wars: Covid-19 and Opioids
    We still don’t know for sure how, who, and why, exactly, Covid-19 was set loose on the world, and the public health agencies don’t want you to know. Perhaps the worst and most baldly dishonest act was the official suppression of effective treatments with common, safe, anti-virals that could have saved millions of lives. And all just to preserve the vaccine companies’ liability shield from the Emergency Use Authorization. In fact, governments are still militating against the sale and use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, which could be taken prophylactically in anticipation of a new outbreak.
    ———-

    #139307
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-odesa-mykolaiv-attacks-1.6909603
    Southern Ukraine port cities targeted in Russian missile and drone attacks

    Ukraine says it intercepted most of the Russian volleys, but Odesa port infrastructure was damaged
    Thomson Reuters · Posted: Jul 18, 2023 3:50

    Russia struck Ukraine’s port of Odesa with missiles and drones on Tuesday, a day after pulling out of a United Nations-backed deal to let Kyiv export grain, and Ukrainian officials said Moscow was attempting to go back on the offensive in the east.

    Russian attacks on Ukraine’s ports followed a pledge by Moscow to retaliate for blasts on Russia’s road bridge to the occupied Crimean peninsula, which was knocked out on Monday by what Moscow said were strikes by Ukrainian seaborne drones.

    #139308
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Powell:

    “We need to stop listening to these comic book depictions. We need to realize there’s nuance, there’s complexity in our relationships, and we need to be able to put ourselves in the shoes of our adversaries” –RFK

    Powell’s job as the head chicken in the Banking Cartel is Protect the Banks. Particularly the NY banks. Not the economy, not the people, not Biden, not inflation, not unemployment, the Banks. And underlying it, the system that they operate and make profits in. One of the only two ways he can do that and one is with with Blarney. The only other way is their sole product, the U.S. Dollar. If the dollar dies, the Fed dies, the cartel dies, and the Banks lose an enormous bulwark of power and influence.

    So there’s your Powell. Now what is Powell doing? Raising rates. For why? To protect the Dollar, as that’s one of only two things they have. Against who? Everyone, but China doesn’t have a currency, the Yuan is barely in use. The only competition to the Dollar is the Euro, no levers he pulls have any effect on BRIICS or the Global South. So on the playing field right now, you have essentially the Euro and the EU, and America and the US Dollar. Powell’s job is to protect the US Dollar and therefore the US, NY, Wall Street BANKS. And no one else except the system they all live in can’t vanish.

    That means his sole adversary is EUROPE. Why is he raising rates? Because real US rates are now 1% (officially). Europe’s rates are now NEGATIVE 4% (officially). He can sit here for 1,000 years, he has plenty of maneuverability and poor but adequate energy and economic production to wait. Europe doesn’t.

    If investment flows abandon Europe – who is making them PAY Germany 4% for the privilege of being in an economy with no energy and no production – and merely tread water buying REITs in Mississippi, then the floodgates will make “America” – that is, the NYSE and New York Banks – “rich” again. By rolling up, eating, digesting, and s—tting out Europe.

    Why do they do this? Because birds fly and sharks swim, but more than that. What are the NY banks? They exist to create BUSINESS loans. And not to Pa’s Diner, but exclusively LARGE business loans. What is the EU, WEF, Davos planning? To have a Central Bank Digital Currency, where the UN/IMF/World government creates all loans and controlls all money DIRECTLY.

    That is to say, Europe’s whole business model is to ERASE THE NY BANKS. To attack and kill the NY Banks. Indeed, to erase all banks altogether. Erase all INDUSTRY altogether, in a centralized Soviet model directed at the top. There’s not only no banks to lend, there are no private CORPORATIONS to lend TO. It is universal Soviet Socialism, by another name, or even that name. That’s their “Emergency” their “Climate” argument that we can do only that, there is no alternative.

    So as the head of the NY Banking cartel, the second most powerful force on the planet, what do you think Powell’s reaction to this Euro plan? The plan specifically to TARGET, then KILL the NY Banks?

    That’s right: KEEP the American business to exist, KEEP the NY banks to exist to make extractive loans to them, and if Europe gets in their way with the Euro, EU, WEF, Davos, or the whole European army and all their nukes, to DESTROY THEM.

    Which is exactly what Powell, NY, and the Pentagon, are very slowly, systemically, methodically doing. Every hour of every day, on the news right in front of you. Does it look like Europe is winning to you? How about the front end of the CBDCs, the Digital IDs? How about economically? How about culturally, worldwide?

    So is Powell our friend, a man of the people? No. But if HE is going to destroy enemy #1, Europe, Davos, World Government, and get hammered in the pug and expose everything and everybody doing it, I’ll let him. If he’s going to keep businesses in America, who want employment and production and competition, I’ll let him. When Davos is dead, we can all turn our guns on NY and Powell and fight amongst ourselves again as we have for 200 years.

    I don’t mind if NY exists. Unlike them, I don’t have a genocidal extermination in mind. However, they need to be brought to heel in the service of the country, or more specifically the People of the country. They are getting taken down 10 pegs right now in their own war. Why stop them? But also, why not see that, when people are evil, they always turn on and are fighting each other and not you?

    #139309
    oxymoron
    Participant

    I wonder if. Bobby the wonder dog got vaxxed?

    #139310
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.rt.com/russia/579886-ukrainian-centers-terrorist-attacks-destroyed/
    18 Jul, 2023 09:15

    Ukrainian naval terror drone bases destroyed – Moscow
    The strikes came in retaliation to the Crimean Bridge attack, which claimed two civilian lives

    #139311
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Dr D. The opening paragraph I’m in agreement with. This is Musk to a degree – his dad is a rabid anti vaxxer and knows things and people but there are more and this tide comes in slow.

    #139312
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://tass.com/politics/1648497
    MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE18 JUL, 05:13
    Russian air defenses destroy 43 Ukrainian military drones over past day
    It is reported that Russian forces destroyed three Ukrainian ammunition depots in the Zaporozhye area over the past day

    #139313
    John Day
    Participant

    TAE Summary last night: WINS with “Janet in the Sky with Dimon”.

    #139314

    So ZH is doing a piece of the Twitter files, and mentions an older NPR article on “the dirty dozen” of mis(dis?)information. Forbes actually gave the names.
    So who are the Disinformation Dozen? Here they are:

    Joseph Mercola
    Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
    Ty and Charlene Bollinger
    Sherri Tenpenny
    Rizza Islam
    Rashid Buttar
    Erin Elizabeth
    Sayer Ji
    Kelly Brogan
    Christiane Northrup
    Ben Tapper
    Kevin Jenkins

    I recognize some of them, but not most. I wonder if they are worth looking into.

    #139315
    John Day
    Participant

    Is Name Calling All You’ve Got? (essay I wrote for “Door To Freedom” new website, not yet posted, but “Young Globl Leaders” essay is) https://doortofreedom.org/

    We all miss polite disagreement these days. It used to be everywhere. Nobody who sought to be taken seriously would stoop to rudeness in public discourse.
    The subtle-dig, and discrete-innuendo were art forms flourished by the most facile debaters. “Touche!” William F. Buckley was that way. I would have dreaded debating him.
    Today Bill Buckley might be quickly dispatched as a wealthy, paternalistic white male graduate of Ivy League Yale University. That kind of labeling has come to be accepted as “other”, as “not one of us” for most people. Calling Buckley that “name” would be an effective debate tactic today, so it would be used.
    How does a rational public debate take place?
    Rational debate is still instrumental and necessary in today’s political arena, despite name-calling interruptions.
    It seems that there is no better choice than patience, forbearance and restraint for a public figure who wishes to engage in public policy discussions.

    Name-callers usually don’t want to discuss public policy. Perhaps their political position is already the status quo, and they just want to silence any citizen or political figure who questions it. They don’t want debate on what pays their bills. That’s a threat.

    We know how threats feel. I don’t want to be polite to people who are threatening me. I want to back them off, maybe shame them. (I don’t usually do it, though.)
    Most of us have learned to restrain our first impulse to lash out, and choose to discuss things sensibly. Lashing out escalates sometimes, and hurts everybody.

    Maintaining a constructive and engaging tone when somebody is calling you unfair names is difficult, but it can be done, and most people who are paying attention will look favorably upon the presenter who is courteous and thoughtful, especially under unfair attack.

    When I see name-calling happen in politics, I usually think that the name-caller doesn’t have any rationale arguments to favor their position.
    If they did have rational arguments to convince me, they would voice them.
    If I don’t accept the label they seek to apply to their debating-opponent, I wait for their follow-up argument, …. patiently wait for their follow up argument.

    A recent case of this was Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being branded “Antisemitic” for statement he made about genetically selective biological warfare agents.
    Genetically selective infectious weapons have long been desired by the militaries of the world, including the US and Chinese militaries, the specific point Kennedy was making to some friends at his table. He gave the case in point that SARS CoV-2 bound to a specific human bloodstream receptor, ACE-2, which has genetic variants. It was found to bind more strongly to some genetic variants, and make worse infections in those people. Conversely, it bound more weakly to other genetic variants, and killed fewer people whose bodies had those genes. Kennedy referred to scientific papers which found that to be true.

    “COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately. The races that are most immune to COVID-19 are—because of the genetic structure, the genetic differentials among different races, of the receptors, of the ACE-2 receptors—COVID-19 is targeted to attack caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese. We don’t know if it was deliberately targeted or not, but there are papers out there that show the racial and ethnic differential impact of that.”
    Peter McCullough MD is much published in Cardiology and in COVID-19 treatment research. His website examined Kennedy’s statement, found confirmatory medical research papers and hundred of thousand of Google-search results for “Ethnic Susceptibility to COVID-19 ACE-2 Receptor”. That analysis, which finds Kennedy’s sttement to be perfectly factual, is here: https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/media-twists-rfks-remark-at-ny-press

    That’s enough for today. We should all hold our tempers and count-to-three, as we learned in kindergarten. Some damage has probably been done by name calling, and feelings unfairly hurt, even among those of people not called the names. I’m going to avoid name-calling, myself.
    Whenever I see somebody calling names, I’ll think that’s all they have got as an argument, and that “the other person is probably right”, as a friend said today.

    #139316

    EW

    “ The vaxxed have sold their soul to the government and medical experts. 100% blind trust. They aren’t going to bite the hand they think feeds them.“

    Couldn’t agree more. My dear wife is compliant to the core and does the equivalent of “ blah, blah, blah “ should I try to forward a study or contrary view. And I can’t wait until Sat when 6 of our friends finally visit — all hard core compliants as well .

    C’est la vie! …… I guess .

    #139317
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    In 2020 it was said that COVID used ACE2 receptors to infect the body. The Chinese [and Japanese] have the highest number of these with Europeans having the least. As a bioweapon it seems to be aimed at the Chinese. Now we have the ‘furin cleave docking site’ as a point of infection with Europeans being at highest risk!

    This is highly suspicious. It coincides with the idea that the Wuhan lab was DEFINITELY the source and it was a bioweapon aimed at the Europeans, even though there is evidence it was ‘at large’ well before December 2019. Is it science or propaganda?

    #139318
    Noirette
    Participant

    On US not ready for War with Russia. (top post, RT.)

    You bet! The US is skirting a fine line, as we all can see.

    The UKR ‘war’ = > Russia goaded into attacking outside R territory / UKR manipulated into splintering, murderous internal strife, was planned a long time ago.

    Scott Ritter (he seems to be spending 12/24 hours on the intertubes, can be boring…) has a new show out where he looks very serious in suit and tie and adresses history rather than (ostensibly) his own feelings, povs, hopes, etc.

    36 mins, 11 July 2023. https://tinyurl.com/45xdvx4v

    He mentions that Yushenko, Pres. of UKR before Yanukovitch, met an American lady and dumped his (then) wife and children and married her to subsequently honor Bandera, then the ‘failed’ Orange Revolution took place, with Yushenko poisoned by dioxin amongst other events, etc.

    Imho, those who critique the MSM saying that the invasion was not decided in 2022 but was a result of Maidan in 2014 are not going back far enough.

    The US has since forever used and manipulated ‘rebels’ and let’s say ‘infiltration’, ‘corruption’, ‘manipulation’, payment of traitors, dissidents, and more, see the Mujahideen, Al Q (+ all similar), the ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria, not to mention xyz in Israel, Contras in Nicaragua, etc. This history is well known..

    Part 2 Scott TV drama show is published but I haven’t viewed it yet.

    46 mins. https://tinyurl.com/apapwp9n

    #139319
    John Day
    Participant

    Defeating Reality https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/defeating-reality

    Thanks Christine and F.S. for this insightful piece about the limits of propaganda by Alastair Crooke. [Artillery just can’t be ignored, after all.]
    ​ ​Hubris consists in believing that a contrived narrative can, in and of itself, bring victory. It is a fantasy that has swept through the West – most emphatically since the 17th century. Recently, the Daily Telegraph published a ridiculous nine minute video purporting to show that ‘narratives win wars’, and that set-backs in the battlespace are incidentals: What matters is to have a thread of unitary narrative articulated, both vertically and horizontally, throughout the spectrum – from the special forces’ soldier in the field through to the pinnacle of the political apex.​..​
    ..Narrative is now how western élites imagine the world. Whether it is the pandemic emergency, the climate or Ukraine ‘emergencies’ – all are re-defined as ‘wars’. All are ‘wars’ that are to be fought with a unitary imposed narrative of ‘winning’, against which all contrarian opinion is forbidden.
    ​ ​The obvious flaw to this hubris is that it requires you to be at war with reality.​..​
    ​..​Western élites have ‘bet their shirts’ on maximum control of ‘media platforms’, absolute messaging conformity and ruthless repression of protest as their blueprint for a continued hold in power.​ ​Yet, against the odds, the MSM is losing its hold over the U.S. audience.​..
    ​..Ukraine: How do you win an unwinnable war? Well, the élite answer has been through narrative. By insisting against reality that Ukraine is winning, and Russia is ‘cracking’. But such hubris eventually is busted by facts on the ground…
    ..“We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the Alliance when Allies agree and conditions are met … [however] unless Ukraine wins this war, there’s no membership issue to be discussed at all” – Jens Stoltenberg’s statement at Vilnius. Thus, after urging Kiev to throw more (hundreds of thousands) of its men into the jaws of death to justify NATO membership, the latter turns its back on its protégé. It was, after all, an unwinnable war from the beginning.​..​
    ..It is an old, old story that Russia is military weak, politically fragile, and prone to fissure. Conor Gallagher has shown with ample quotes that it was exactly the same story in World War 2, reflecting a similar western underestimation of Russia – combined with a gross overestimation of their own capabilities..​.
    ​..Team Biden needs Russia to accept a ceasefire. And here lies the (the largely overlooked) flaw to that strategy: It simply is not in the Russian interest to ‘freeze’ the situation. Again, the assumption that Putin would ‘jump’ at the western offer of a ceasefire is hubristic thinking: The two adversaries are not frozen in the basic meaning of the term – as in a conflict in which neither side has been able to prevail over the other, and are stuck.
    ​ ​Put simply, whereas Ukraine structurally hovers at the brink of implosion, Russia, by contrast, is fully plenipotent: It has large, fresh forces; it dominates the airspace; and has near domination of the electromagnetic airspace.​..​
    ​..But the amour propre of certain EU leaders puts them at war with reality. They want to continue to feed Ukraine into the grinder – to persist in the fantasy of ‘total win’: “There is no other way than a total win – and to get rid of Putin … We have to take all risks for that. No compromise is possible, no compromise”.​ ​The EU Political Class have made so many disastrous decisions in deference to U.S. strategy – decisions that go directly ​​against Europeans’ own economic and security interests – that they are very afraid.​….
    ​..​It reflects existential fears of an unravelling of the western meta-narrative that will take down both its hegemony, and the western financial structure​..​.
    ​..​In her new book, The West, classical archaeologist Naoíse Mac Sweeney takes issue with the ‘master myth’ by pointing out that it was only “with the expansion of European overseas imperialism over the seventeenth century, that a more coherent idea of the West began to emerge – one being deployed as a conceptual tool to draw the distinction between the type of people who could legitimately be colonised, and those who could legitimately be colonizers”…
    ..The deeper fear of western political leaders therefore – complicit in the knowledge that the ‘Narrative’ is a fiction that we tell ourselves, despite knowing that it is factually false – is that our era has been made increasingly and dangerously contingent on this meta-myth.

    A Bonfire of the Vanities

    ​ The video is mercifully short. Kamala never noticed her (Freudian-slip) “mistake” at all.​
    ​ ​”When President [Joe] Biden and I took office, we set an ambitious goal … to cut our greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050,” Harris told an audience at Coppin State University in Baltimore on Friday.
    ​ ​”When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population, more of our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water,” she continued.
    According to the official transcript, the 58-year-old Vice President meant to say ‘pollution,’ not ‘population.’
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/reduce-population-kamala-harriss-verbal-slip-sparks-outrage

    ​ Door To Freedom is a new website, dedicated to exposing emergent Globalist end runs around human rights in representative democracies and republics.​ Meryl Nass MD is funding the project herself, and (we) the writers are donating journalistic efforts. We are all threatened. Free subscriptions, or choose to donate.
    ​ ​We also want to inform you about the efforts of the W.H.O. to take over management of public health emergencies. The W.H.O. is proposing to govern how pandemics and other public health emergencies are handled in the future. It would prescribe uniform medical treatments and restrictions for all—worldwide.
    ​ ​The way this would be achieved is through 2 new legal documents that are now being negotiated: a Pandemic Treaty and Amendments to its existing International Health Regulations.

    Home

    #139320
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ ​Russia Terminates Black Sea Grain Deal, Wheat Prices Spike, As Extent Of Crimea Bridge Terrorist Attack Revealed
    ​ ​Moscow has the two killed in the overnight Crimea Bridge attack involved a Russian family traveling on vacation whose vehicle was destroyed. A statement further alleged assistance to Ukrainian forces by the US and UK.
    ​ ​”This regime [the Ukrainian government] is terrorist and has all the hallmarks of an international organized crime group,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a written statement. “Ukrainian officials and military personnel take those decisions with direct input from American and British special services and politicians. The US and Britain are managing a state-like terrorist structure,” it said.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/russia-terminates-black-sea-grain-deal-wheat-prices-spike-extent-crimea-bridge

    ​ Brian Berletic at Military Summary presents the case that the undersea drone that hit the Crimean bridge came from the Azov Sea side, which was not well defended, since the Azov Sea is under Russian control.​

    Gilbert Doctorow (Thanks Christine) Putin, Prigozhin and the management principle: “work with the hand you are dealt”​​
    ​ ​There has been a lot of talk these past couple of days about the revelation that on 29 June, less than a week after the Wagner Group’s armed mutiny, Vladimir Putin received Yevgeny Prigozhin and 35 of his senior military commanders in the Kremlin for three hours of talks.
    ​ ​How can this be? What is the sense of it? Why would Putin talk to the man he had denounced a few days before as a traitor?
    ​ ​Anyone posing these questions has not been paying much attention to Vladimir Putin’s “people management” record these past twenty-three years. It all follows the principle that you find practiced in many large institutions, both private and public: work with the hand you have been dealt, considering that most everyone under you is good for something. This is the operating principle I saw around me during my four years working for United Parcel Service. It surely is the ruling principle in the United States armed forces.
    ​ ​When he came to power in 2000, Putin was dealt a large contingent of rapacious oligarchs whom he tamed, especially by breaking the back of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s presumptuous political ambitions and sending the troublemaker to a long stay behind bars. Once tamed, the robber barons stayed clear of politics and spent their time developing the broad swathes of the economy that they had come to control, even if they skimmed off unseemly profits for themselves.

    Putin, Prigozhin and the management principle: “work with the hand you are dealt”

    ​Sasha Latypova, Thoughts on the BRICs Currency As the dollar death spiral continues, multi-polar alternatives are being attempted.
    https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-the-brics-currency

    The Dutch people do not want their farming brothers and sisters steamrolled, and have just made that clear in elections.
    ​ ​The Future of Traditional Farming and Healthcare in the Netherlands
    ​ ​The Netherlands has been chosen as a pilot area in the EU to be climate neutral with a transition in protein food and a transformation of healthcare into a telemedicine, data, and AI-driven connected system approach led by Public Private Partnerships. A closure of 55-70 percent of traditional farming is foreseen to be replaced by tech-driven vertical farming, gene-edited crops, edible insects, veganism, 15-minute cities and a CBDC passport covering personal health data.
    ​ ​Citizens will pay for the transition by increasing prices for energy, food, healthcare services, and insurance.

    The Future of Traditional Farming and Healthcare in the Netherlands

    #139321
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Steve Kirsch, ​VAERS data clearly shows that the COVID vaccines are an unmitigated disaster for pregnant women​ ​
    The CDC said the COVID vaccines were perfectly safe for pregnant women. They lied and they continue to lie to the American people.
    ​ ​What I found should alarm everyone on the planet: the absolute number of stillbirths and miscarriages reports associated with the COVID vaccines is literally “off the charts”: 4X higher than for all other vaccines combined.
    ​ ​Because VAERS is around 100X under reported, meaning the COVID vaccines have likely caused an estimated 360,000 excess deaths.
    https://kirschsubstack.com/p/breaking-vaers-data-clearly-shows

    ​ ​In 2021, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — without any evidence of safety — authorized the mRNA shot for pregnant women and anyone 6 months and older, Pfizer suddenly stopped its randomized trial for pregnant women. The vaccine maker has yet to disclose its study data.
    ​ ..Thorp and colleagues published a preprint study that found striking risks to pregnant women who received the shots, along with their unborn babies.
    The outcomes were so dire that the researchers concluded pregnant women should not receive COVID-19 shots until further research is completed.
    ​ ​“A worldwide moratorium on the use of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy is advised until randomized prospective trials document safety in pregnancy and long-term follow-up in offspring,” they explained.
    ​ ​Compared to the flu vaccine, COVID-19 shots were associated with a significant increase in adverse events including:
    Menstrual abnormality
    Miscarriage
    Fetal chromosomal abnormalities
    Fetal malformation
    Fetal cystic hygroma
    Fetal cardiac disorders
    Fetal arrhythmia
    Fetal cardiac arrest
    Fetal vascular mal-perfusion
    Fetal growth abnormalities
    Fetal abnormal surveillance
    Fetal placental thrombosis
    Low amniotic fluid
    Fetal death/stillbirth
    ​ ​The data also revealed a 27-fold higher risk of miscarriage and a more than twofold increased risk of adverse fetal outcomes across six different categories, according to board-certified internist and cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough.

    Why Did Pfizer Halt COVID Vaccine Clinical Trials for Pregnant Women?

    ​ An informative sub 4 minute video. Importantly, as magnetic fields weaken, more high-energy protons and electrons enter Earth’s atmosphere, depleting ozone, and increasing penetration of UV to the planetary surface. This has been a core cause of species extinctions with previous polar excursions and reversals, with magnetic field decay. ​Real Climate Information | Volcanos and Magnetic Pole Shift

    5 more minutes on this: Extinctions on Deck | Why Every Magnetic Flip Hits Hard

    #139322
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    One of the crowning joys of parenthood is experienced when one is surpassed in ability and accomplishment by one’s children.

    I just experienced that, and I feel compelled to share with you what my daughter just observed about the big problem many people now have with criminal leadership and government and her recommendation for what people should do as a solution. Her idea applies for all individuals and nations who find themselves trapped (like most of consider ourselves to be) between the vital need to reform almost all of the leadership and governance institutions they live under and to whom they have ceded virtually ALL of the official power (that they depend on to control virtually everything needed to live) to those very same institutions that need to be swept clean of criminals and reformed.

    We’re like the monkey trying to swing between branches who cannot grab onto the next branch until releasing the first branch, but can’t let go of the first branch because they think it’s the only thing keeping them from falling.

    Her solution? Do something that you absolutely are capable of doing right now and without any other preparation or protection. Concentrate every sparable effort possible upon strengthening anything and everything that connects you to the people and groups that you want to be part of, no matter how small or inconsequential that action might seem at the moment. If it helps even a little then just do it, and then do it some more. There is simply no way you do not benefit from strengthening ties with friends.

    Meanwhile, avoid doomed fights (like gunfights, for example) and all interactions with corrupted governments, institutions and individual oppressors. To the maximum degree possible (like, whenever you CAN) only engage in direct interaction or confrontation with the other side when you have gathered enough collaborative support (from and with friends) to WIN the contest, no matter how small or inconsequential that victory might seem at the moment. Of COURSE you will not avoid all contact or never suffer defeats . . . those are going to happen anyway . . . but there is simply no way that you do not benefit from avoiding avoidable defeats, and grasping every sure victory.

    In this manner the friendly side grows stronger as the harmful side grows weaker, and as the strengthening friendships gain power it further encroaches the enemy’s former territory. There is only ONE way that this dynamic arrangement is going to turn out.

    Do it well enough and there won’t even be that much violence. And in any case, there will CERTAINLY be less destructive violence than would result if everybody just suddenly leaped up from their hiding places, grabbed their torches and pitchforks and stormed the perverted tyrant’s castle this afternoon.

    Steady does it.

    Tell me that ain’t brilliant.

    #139324
    jb-hb
    Participant

    RE: modern myths stuck in the Midcentury era

    Well, a particular segment of the Boomers have stayed in all the positions of power – not just government, but business, culture, everything And unfortunately, while there are PLENTY of Boomers that are NOT ensconced in mainstream boomer zeitgeist, it’s only natural that the ones that ARE in power are the ones most disconnected from reality. Drinking their own coolaid for decades. And so we see the stereotypical “boomer” zeitgeist get played out for way, way longer than you would expect.

    As a genXer, I have felt this way for decades and with increasing severity:

    afasdfs

    One gets the sense, ESPECIALLY starting around 2016, of the Boomer generation (not the whole generation, but the ones entrenched in specific places) desperately trying to indelibly “make its mark”

    And so we see (a segment of) the Boomer generation, in a final, all-encompassing spasm of energy, rebelling against “middle-aged white dudes” one last time — septuagenarians and octogenarians righteously rebelling against THEIR CHILDREN, who don’t give a DAMN if someone is gay or POC or whatever but over whom they superimpose an unreal cartoon version of the Bad Guys of their own youth.

    But GenX was ALWAYS getting that treatment – see all the many, MANY continual “evil/devil child” movie tropes from the 60’s through the 90’s. As soon as our arrival was ANTICIPATED, they were making Rosemary’s Baby, Dameon, etc. So we went from being devil children to devil grunge musicians to devil middle age without ever taking over the establishment.

    And they’re STILL there. Presidents, congresspersons, leaders in business and culture. Biden, Nanci Pelosi, Trump. wtf. And being at the top of all the pyramids even NOW, when Genx is in their 50’s means that a significant portion the GenXers occupying positions of power were picked on Boomer criteria.

    Had they picked their people and then retired 20 years ago, they’d still have had significant influence, but there might have been a generational shakeout in the meantime. New ideas, new solutions etc. If I were to describe stereotypes, I’d say Boomers tend to have an unspoken rule that we MUST communicate to each other in idealistic terms and that the idealism must not be questioned — while GenX tends to be more cynical, sarcastically mouthing idealism in such a way to expose hypocrisy bursting bubbles, perhaps more pragmatic. What could genX have contributed from positions of power occupied by the Boomer generation for the past 20 years? Even 15 or 10? Idunno.

    So I get a sense that this contingent of top-of-the-pyramid boomers that have been drinking their own coolaid for decades, hiring yesmen and yeswomen, have been, for the past 8 years, feverishly – seeing as they abandoned the consolation of religion long ago – building a pyramid to stuff all the things into, stuff all the slaves into and kill to take with them to blast off to the afterlife in space.

    Not consciously, but unconsciously, it looks like that to me. The overwhelmingly exaggerated cartoonified version of their own midcentury heyday, trying to turn the millenials and genz into super exaggerated mini-me’s. They leave behind not beautiful buildings nor useful institutions nor even any new national parks. But by gum, they’ll imprint themselves x100000 onto the young generations to leave their mark, as their “gift” to the future before they go.

    So it seems like it is part of this last gasp of a narrow segment at the top of the pyramid, the Boomers who have been disconnected from reality and drinking their own coolaid for decades on end.

    The fixation on the Midcentury stuff. The cluelessness as to what has changed. The obsession with inverting the midcentury stuff – to properly teach all of us their valuable lessons. One must remember the Boomers were young adults wandering what must have been a very intimidatingly strong and substantial, confident civilization run by the hero generation that defeated fascism. (they yelled “fascist!” at that generation precisely BECAUSE it horrified the generation that defeated fascism more than practically anything else)The midcentury world was the one they lived in, but it wasn’t theirs, which I suspect ties into this last-gasp cultural obsession.

    And again, I’m not saying all boomers nor even most. But these top of the pyramid weirdos disconnected from reality, drinking their own coolaid, surrounded by the yesmen they picked for 30 years looking down the barrel of their own mortality.

    A GOOD fairly recent movie – The Peanut Butter Falcon. Sane. Not drunk on outdated idealism. Both literally and symbolically more aware of current day conditions of places and people, realistic heroism vs fake, etc.

    #139325
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    mpsk:

    Sayer Ji (his wife is Kelly Brogan) is the founder of Green Med Info dot com – a site directed at exploring health and wellness/well-being across many fronts. As a member, I have additional access to the science collected on numerous subjects – and find the information collected there to be helpful.

    It was their position(s) on Covid that got them on the list. Plus: their support for natural healing strategies and supplements also makes them a target.

    LOVE to Healers.

    #139326
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Twitter caught a worm to eat

    .

    #139327
    Noirette
    Participant

    4 days ago. Sky news. 20 mins.

    Ukraine War: Irish fighter ‘Rambo’ describes ‘terrifying’ Russian tank chase.

    Annoucer mentions hundreds and thousands of foreign fighters…

    #139328
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    jb-hb: re: “boomer” zeitgeist gets played out for way, way longer than you would expect.

    Some boomers (those you describe as “at the top of the pyramid”) gave up their distrust of The Man/the system (driven by war/Vietnam, Watergate, burning rivers, DDT, nukes to name a few) for the promise of prosperity (money, status, degrees, comforts, things) – and in the end, became the system itself. Not just the gatekeepers! They are so completely integrated that they can not see anything but themselves as the center of the universe. Note that the Greatest Generation (their parents) were the ultimate ass-kickers/can-doers and had the GREATEST OF EXPECTATIONS for their kids. With the internet coming on-line, boomers had the tools to git’er done big-time. They built things and gave themselves full credit for it too!!! Conveniently “forgetting” where they came from and how they got there….which is the key to why they can’t let go.

    LOVE to the QUESTIONERS

    #139329
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Biden’s SAVE Student Loan Relief Measure Another Way Of Canceling Debt, Critics Say
    “I’m not going to stop fighting to deliver borrowers what they need, particularly those at the bottom end of the economic scale,” Mr. Biden said in a White House address on June 30.
    “So, we need to find a new way. And we’re moving as fast as we can.”

    “forgiveness” = take money from people who did not make unwise borrowing decisions and give it to banks, to prevent the consequences of making unwise loans from affecting those banks.

    Here’s my proposed solution to student loans.

    Re-legalize bankruptcy. Currently, bankruptcy does not make student debt go away. Debtor’s prison is just the entire world. There is no exit strategy.

    How to deal with onerous debt goes way, way back. The ROMAN REPUBLIC had bankruptcy law thousands of years ago. The embryonic state of Israel already had Jubilee many thousands of years ago.

    Mr. Biden said in a White House address on June 30.
    “So, we need to find a new way. And we’re moving as fast as we can.”

    We have NO NEED to figure out what to do with onerous debt as if from scratch. We do not need to scratch our heads thinking “but shouldn’t the borrowers be affected in some way for their bad behavior? Shouldn’t the LENDERS be affected in some way for making unwise loans?

    As soon as bankruptcy affects student loans, we’ll find that EVERY overburdened person can lay their burden down AND suffer some consequences AND learn a valuable lesson AND move on to better things

    Additionally, we’ll see educational institutions magically stop obsessing over political ideology and stop offering degrees in useless subjects. And stop making luxury dorms and other facilities.

    I think colleges and universities should be made into banks. Each educational institution should be the sole lender to pay for its educational services. The loans should be non transferrable. (no packaging them and selling them off to a scandanavian retirement fund) Retirement/pension for administrators and teachers should depend solely on repayment of these loans. These should be non transferrable (cannot leave and convert them into 401k, IRA, Roth IRA, etc – the pension/retirement funds you built up while in Education are stuck in bonds made of your own educational employer’s student loans) Teachers should have to bank with their educational institution (I sure hope your school-bank is doing what it needs to remain financially solvent…)

    Our colleges and universities were turned into seminaries. This does not result in beneficial economic activity, thus, the loans were not good investments and cannot be paid off by the students.

    “Student Loan Forgiveness” is state financial sponsorship of ideological-religious seminaries. Gotta keep the money going to this stuff no matter what.

    #139330
    Germ
    Participant

    Very, Very Not Good


    TVASSF

    #139331
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    There’s an old coarse joke that, “Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.” What makes the joke funny is that it is true. You can say the exact same thing about conspiracy theories. Everybody has one (at least).

    Ho, hum. Another conspiracy theory. They come and they go, big deal. So why listen to any of them? Isn’t it worse than a waste of time? Well, no, actually. It is most certainly NOT a “waste of time”. On the complete contrary. That’s because forming, having and acting upon opinions and theories is pretty much the only thing that everybody does all day long, once they’ve covered the basics of eating, sleeping, screwing, and keeping up with the chaos induced by their children and other environmental distractions. If you don’t know what other people are opining and theorizing about then you don’t really know very much about what they’re actually up to. And you CERTAINLY don’t know anything at all about what they’re really thinking.

    If you want to eat and sleep and wake up alive in the morning then you damn well better be damn good at keeping track of other people’s opinions and theories, not to mention having a bunch of your own.

    You have conspiracy theories (and opinions) about your opponents and they have opinions (and conspiracy theories) about you.

    If you’re not paranoid enough to be FULLY aware of what both camps are thinking then you’re not going to last very long. The funny thing about it is that the guys who LOSE that ability to be aware of what BOTH sides are opining and conspiracy theorizing about, is going to be the FIRST guy to go blind, panic and LOSE.

    Knowing as much as you can about all of those opinions and theories SERIOUSLY impacts your ability to make the right call and do the right action so that you don’t wake up broke or dead (usually both.)

    The above phenomena is a big part of what I see going around me, in the “big picture” sense of the word. It doesn’t exactly open a flood-gate of detailed solutions, but it DOES tend to have a stabilizing effect on my heart and mind so that I can better concentrate on what I need to do next.

    #139332
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Some boomers (those you describe as “at the top of the pyramid”) gave up their distrust of The Man/the system

    I hear ya, and I hope I’ve made clear I am not saying this is the character OF the boomer generation, but that the official “boomer zeitgeist” may be quite at odds with everyday, decent, ordinary boomers

    My point is precisely that these elite countercultural-zeitgeist boomers BECAME the man, but did NOT give up the axe they had to grind

    …because even NOW, they are rebelling against Middle Aged White Dudes (their juniors now, by what, 25-40 years?) and the Midcentury World (its institutions, technologies, culture, etc – already gone)

    What’s analogous? My Great Uncle Freddie, who fought in The Battle of the Bulge, wakes up with Alzheimer’s in a medical facility in the 90’s. Best guess as to what is happening to him is the Nazis captured him. But he’s not in a government position, running an NGO, or at the head of a giant corporation, not shoveling billions at different activities in mortality-angst.

    I was just looking at the inside jacket of Chicago II. That band made some great music. But they have this silly message:

    “With this album, we dedicate ourselves, our futures and our energies to the people of the revolution. And the revolution in all of its forms.”

    And then they did a lot of coke, did disco, re-did their homes with white walls and white carpet, filled it with glass and chrome coffee tables and bookcases, and made Chicago 17.

    They were hallucinating when they were young and cognizant! Same hallucination now, but cartoonified. How much worse it must be how at this stage, with mortality approaching, the utopia not established, and knowing they got a bit sidetracked in self indulgence for a few decades there. Oops, didn’t quite dedicate ourselves, our energies, our futures that much after all. So we’ll defeat the midcentury world and middle aged white dudes NOW – while we still can.

    #139333
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    DBS: your daughter knows how to SHINE.

    “Do something that you absolutely are capable of doing right now and without any other preparation or protection. Concentrate every sparable effort possible upon strengthening anything and everything that connects you to the people and groups that you want to be part of, no matter how small or inconsequential that action might seem at the moment. If it helps even a little then just do it, and then do it some more. There is simply no way you do not benefit from strengthening ties with friends.”

    Yes. Do it with care – with great LOVE and a sharp, informed, focused mind. Make it a habit. All will BE well.

    LOVE to the LIGHT WORKERS.

    #139334
    zerosum
    Participant

    Too expensive to use in war
    https://www.therichest.com/the-biggest/top-10-most-expensive-modern-battle-tanks/
    Top 10 Modern Battle Tanks By Price
    10. ZTZ-99 (China) – $2.6 Million

    1. the most expensive tank in the world.
    AMX-56 Leclerc (France) – $12.6 Million

    #139335
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Guess that album cover dedication sounded good at the time. Money/power/fame corrupts – over time. No time or need to reflect, revisit or recant.

    Who didn’t sell out? Help me out with this list – if you can. Are they ALL dead?

    1. John Lennon
    2. JFK
    3.

    LOVE to the COURAGEOUS

    #139336
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Last post, I promise.

    Find yourself some wings my Friends!

    LOVE and thanks to Ilargi.

    #139337
    zerosum
    Participant

    The price of WAR
    https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-destroys-35-russian-tanks-single-day-kyiv-forces-1722950
    Ukraine, which regularly provides updates on Russian military losses, said on Facebook that since Vladimir Putin’s war began on February 24, Russia has lost 1,637 tanks, including 35 in a single day.

    The Russian military has also lost 36,900 military personnel, 3,811 armored combat vehicles, 828 artillery systems, 247 multiple rocket launchers, 107 air defense systems, 217 aircraft, 669 operational-tactical UAVs, 15 warships and boats, 2,685 vehicles and tankers, and 187 helicopters, according to Ukraine’s combat losses update, posted by the general staff of the country’s armed forces.

    https://tass.com/politics/1648497
    In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 455 Ukrainian warplanes, 242 combat helicopters, 5,090 unmanned aerial vehicles, 426 surface-to-air missile systems, 10,740 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,139 multiple rocket launchers, 5,504 field artillery guns and mortars and 11,735 special military motor vehicles since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, the general reported.

    #139338
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Make good choices over time – and you will have yourself some mighty WINGS.

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