Jul 262023
 
 July 26, 2023  Posted by at 8:20 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Andy Warhol Mick Jagger 1975

 

Glimpses Of An Endgame In Ukraine (Bhadrakumar)
Major Advancements For Russia, Ukraine On Its Last Legs – Macgregor (WF)
Even Strong Western Economies Turn Into Colonies – Zakharova (TASS)
Who Can Give Security Guarantees To Ukraine? (MoA)
IAEA Discovers Anti-Personnel Mines Near Zaporozhye Nuke Plant (TASS)
NATO Countries Using Ukraine to Get Rid of Outdated Weapons (Sp.)
The Polish Response To Putin’s Challenge (Helmer)
Zelensky Associate Was Present at Biden Bribery Meetings (GP)
Biden Claims To Have ‘Ended Cancer’ (RT)
Biden’s Dog Attacks 8 White House Staffers in Cover-Up (Sp.)
Biden Changes Long-Standing Position on Hunter’s Foreign Deals (Turley)
Hunter Biden’s Memoir Became Source of Tax Evasion Evidence (Sp.)
Members and the Media Panic as the Biden Scandal Mounts (Turley)
Twitter Rebrand to ‘X’ Fraught With Permit, Trademark Issues (DeMartino)
Musk: ‘X Will Become Most Valuable Brand on Earth’ (Sp.)

 

 

 

 

RFK Hannity
https://twitter.com/i/status/1684030867264643072
https://twitter.com/i/status/1684017271012995075

 

 

Azov

 

 

 

 

Tucker Ice Cube


https://twitter.com/i/status/1684017033174827008

 

 

 

 

“..Polish leadership’s concern, paradoxically, will be that Donald Trump may not return as president in 2024..”

Glimpses Of An Endgame In Ukraine (Bhadrakumar)

It is one thing that the Russian people are well aware that their country is de facto fighting the NATO in Ukraine. But it is an entirely different matter that the war may dramatically escalate to a war with Poland, a NATO army that the US regards as its most important partner in continental Europe. By dwelling at some length on Polish revanchism, which has a controversial record in modern European history, Putin probably calculated that in Europe, including in Poland, there could be resistance to the machinations that might drag NATO into a continental war with Russia. Equally, Poland must be dithering too. According to Politico, Poland’s military is about 150,000 strong, out of which 30,000 belong to a new territorial defence force who are “weekend soldiers who undergo 16 days of training followed up by refresher courses.”

Again, Poland’s military might doesn’t translate into political influence in Europe because the centrist forces that dominate the EU distrust Warsaw, which is controlled by the nationalist Law and Justice Party whose disregard for democratic norms and the rule of law has damaged Poland’s reputation across the bloc. Above all, Poland has reason to be worried about the reliability of Washington. Going forward, Polish leadership’s concern, paradoxically, will be that Donald Trump may not return as president in 2024. Despite the cooperation with the Pentagon over the Ukraine war, Poland’s current leadership remains distrustful of President Joe Biden — much like Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

On balance, therefore, it stands to reason that the sabre-rattling by Lukashenko and Putin’s lesson on European history can be taken as more of a forewarning to the West with a view to modulate an endgame in Ukraine that is optimal for Russian interests. A dismemberment of Ukraine or an uncontrollable expansion of the war beyond its borders will not be in the Russian interests. But the Kremlin leadership will factor in the contingency that Washington’s follies stemming out of its desperate need to save face from a humiliating defeat in the proxy war, may leave no choice to the Russian forces but to cross the Dnieper and advance all the way to Poland’s border to prevent an occupation of Western Ukraine by the so-called Lublin Triangle, a regional alliance with virulent anti-Russian orientation comprising Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine, formed in July 2020 and promoted by Washington.

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Article is bits and pieces thrown together, but still interesting.

Major Advancements For Russia, Ukraine On Its Last Legs – Macgregor (WF)

The same people driving this war in Eastern Europe and Ukraine are the people dominating the financial markets, dominating media and ultimately shaping policy for our government.. Government by donors. This is entirely a function of people with a lot of money. – Douglas MacGregor Ret. Col. Douglas Macgregor: “[Putin] represents, in the minds of many people around the world, someone who has decided to challenge not just American military and political hegemony, but American and Western financial hegemony.

Macgregor

The World Bank and associated institutions have effectively been puppets for the US… We talk all the time about the Chinese supposedly blackmailing people by lending them lots of money and then holding them accountable. Well, we do the same thing, only we do it in more subtle ways that are actually more damaging to the society, because we’re very intrusive… The bottom line is this is a new era that is coming, and they’ve already got 40 plus nations willing to join this new currency. India, China and Russia, of course, are at the center of this, at the core of it. And this is seen as a rebellion against our financial dominance. That has been so, from their standpoint, certainly destructive in so many ways for so long.”

WAKE UP: If Russia was the aggressor against Ukraine, the situation would be different now, and we would see Russians on the borders of Poland after they destroyed Ukraine, but this did not happen, because the Russians do not want this. – Col. Douglas Macgregor “It’s stupid to threaten Russia with nuclear weapons,” – said Douglas Macgregor, ex-adviser to the head of the Pentagon. “The Russians can flood the Atlantic with their submarines, as well as the Pacific Ocean, where they will be supported by the Chinese Navy..”

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They’re no longer strong.

Even Strong Western Economies Turn Into Colonies – Zakharova (TASS)

Even economically strong and developed Western countries have turned into colonies, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday. “Western countries, even strong and developed economies, have become colonies,” the diplomat noted, addressing a Russian-African women’s forum. “The most interesting thing is that European Union nations and NATO countries have already become neo-colonies. They are economically strong; they have a long history of democratic development, and many have given birth to democratic freedoms in the past. However, today, they are not just dependent, but they are completely subordinate to the will of their metropolis – that is, the Anglo-Saxon world – in terms of the economy, politics and morality.


However, the world is unwilling to follow the old path, get back on the same old track and repeat the same mistakes,” she added. “We are not only fighting for ourselves; we are fighting for the future of the world, deciding whether it will be a free world or we will return to the colonial past,” Zakharova noted. Still, the diplomat pointed out that Russia and Africa weren’t ready to sacrifice freedom for material benefits the way some Western countries did. “Although we appreciate material welfare, there are more important things. Welfare turns against humans when there is no internal freedom, free will, and an understanding of what’s good and bad,” Zakharova emphasized.

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How about Russia?

Who Can Give Security Guarantees To Ukraine? (MoA)

In 2013 the European Union pressed the Ukraine to sign a free trade agreement with it. Russia, which was the biggest trading partner of Ukraine, made a counter offer that was financially better and had less political restrictions attached to it. Then President Victor Yanukovych of Ukraine had to reject the EU agreement. The U.S., together with the German secret service BND, had long standing ties with the right-wing groups in west-Ukraine which had previously cooperated with Nazi Germany and had been attached to the German Nazi-Wehrmacht. The CIA reactivated these groups and instigated a violent color-revolution in Kiev. That revolution led to a civil war as large parts of the ethic Russians in east Ukraine rejected the new regime that had been installed by a west Ukrainian minority.

While the ethnic Russians in Ukraine lost control over most of their original areas they also soon defeated what was left of the Ukraine army. They did so twice. Since 2015 the conflict was stalled. The Minsk agreements, under which Ukraine was supposed to became federalized, were signed, but Ukraine stalled their implementation. Meanwhile the U.S. and Britain used the time to reinstate and rearm the Ukrainian army. By 2021 the Ukraine was ready to attack the People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk. Russia activated its army and warned that it would have to interfere with such plans. The imminent launch of an Ukrainian attack was called off. In early 2022 the U.S. gave the Ukrainians a green light to launch their long planned attack. Russia intervened and the current war started.

The U.S. plans behind the war expected that the pre-coordinated western sanctions that immediately followed would ruin Russia, that Russia would be shunned by the rest of the world and that a military defeat of the Russian army would lead to regime change in Moscow. The Ukraine expected that, after winning a war against its separatists, it would immediately become a member of NATO. Neither of the (totally unrealistic) expectations was met. The Ukraine is now obviously losing the war. It will soon need to sign a capitulation like ceasefire agreement with Russia. But who or what can guarantee that any such agreement will be held up? NATO membership is no longer an option.

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Whose are they?

IAEA Discovers Anti-Personnel Mines Near Zaporozhye Nuke Plant (TASS)

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have observed directional anti-personnel mines on the periphery of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the agency’s Director General Rafael Grossi said. According to him, while inspecting the site on July 23, the IAEA experts saw some mines located in a buffer zone between the site’s internal and external perimeter barriers. The experts reported that the mines were in a restricted area that plant personnel cannot access. No mines were discovered within the site. “As I have reported earlier, the IAEA has been aware of the previous placement of mines outside the site perimeter and also at particular places inside. Our team has raised this specific finding with the plant and they have been told that it is a military decision, and in an area controlled by military,” Grossi said.

According to him, “having such explosives on the site is inconsistent with the IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance.” That said, the IAEA experts concluded that “any detonation of these mines should not affect the site’s nuclear safety and security systems.” On June 22, ahead of Grossi’s visit to Russia, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky accused Russia of plotting a terror attack on the Zaporozhye NPP. He said as much to the United States, Brazil, India, China, European, Middle East and African countries but provided no evidence to back up his allegation.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov refuted these allegations as yet another lie. According to Renat Karchaa, adviser to the CEO of Russian state nuclear power corporation Rosenergoatom, Zelensky’s statements may indicate that Kiev is plotting a terror attack or a strike on the ZNPP in a bid to drag NATO into the conflict. Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on June 23 that Russia was alarmed over Kiev’s repeated allegations that Russian forces were mining the nuclear facility.

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And they don’t produce enough to replace them.

NATO Countries Using Ukraine to Get Rid of Outdated Weapons (Sp.)

NATO countries have been pumping weapons into Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict with Russia, but most of them are outdated and have been mothballed for decades, military expert and former high-ranking NATO artillery officer Pierre Henrot told Sputnik. “NATO countries in fact only send their oldest equipment to Ukraine and take the opportunity to replenish their armament for their armies with new generations of equipment. Examples abound: the Poles, who are the most committed alongside Ukraine, to the point that they are talking about entering western Ukraine themselves, provided very early [on] all their Soviet-era tanks to the Ukrainians and have just received for the Polish army a first contingent of American Abrams tanks, brand new and manufactured for them,” Henrot said.

Other countries have also provided decommissioned equipment, including 88 German Leopard 1 tanks that were withdrawn from arsenals in 2003, and French AMX 10-RC light tanks that were developed in the 1970s and have been decommissioned by the French army as well, the former officer added. “The worst is probably the delivery by France of VAB armoured infantry vehicles (Vehicules de l’Avant Blindes), in a four-wheeled version, which invariably gets bogged down in the autumn mud. Entering service in 1979, it has proven to be a rolling coffin for Ukrainian infantry over the past year,” the expert further explained. Some countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, also sent Ukraine all their Soviet MiG or Sukhoi fighters, he said.

Another problem with such ragtag deliveries is that the spare parts and ammunition for such weapons are often different and incompatible with one another, Henrot pointed out. “It is as if the NATO partners were getting rid of their outdated weapons, already mothballed,” the former officer said. However, some of Western military aid is useful for the Ukrainian military, and of good quality, the expert noted, adding that it is usually equipment for small arms, bulletproof vests and night sight systems, as well as US-made Stingers and Javelins. “Where the Americans provided suitable and effective weapons, it was with the 2,000 portable anti-aircraft Stingers delivered or with the 10,000 Javelin anti-armor weapons provided; formidable weapons in the hands of infantrymen. It is the same for the NLAW [Next Generation Light AntiTank Weapons], a useful weapon on the battlefield,” he stated.

At the same time, the Western countries often lack sufficient capacities to produce weapons required by the Ukrainian military, Henrot mentioned. “NATO countries fail to keep up with the production of ammunition for artillery and even for small arms. Again, the variety of calibres is very large; it’s a headache, but above all, there are not enough production chains, and industrialists are reluctant to launch production units for an effort that could stop quite quickly, and they have not received a firm long-term contract from Western governments,” the expert explained. Henrot believes that the recent widely criticized decision of the United States to send cluster bombs to Ukraine is the demonstration of the same problem. “The Americans for their part have almost openly admitted that it was their last ammo in stock and that they have nothing left to deliver,” Henrot concluded.

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“The Polish authorities, who are nurturing their revanchist ambitions, hide the truth from their people. The truth is that the Ukrainian cannon fodder is no longer enough for the West.”

The Polish Response To Putin’s Challenge (Helmer)

[Putin] warned that President Vladimir Zelensky’s regime in Kiev may be contemplating a trade with Poland of the territory around Lvov in exchange for Polish military intervention to support Kiev against Russia: “Today we see that the regime in Kiev is ready to go to any length to save its treacherous hide and to prolong its existence. They do not care for the people of Ukraine or Ukrainian sovereignty or national interests. They are ready to sell anything, including people and land, just like their ideological forefathers led by Petlyura, who signed the so-called secret conventions with Poland in 1920 under which they ceded Galicia and Western Volhynia to Poland in return for military support. Traitors like them are ready now to open the gate to their foreign handlers and to sell Ukraine again.”

“As for the Polish leaders, they probably hope to form a coalition under the NATO umbrella in order to directly intervene in the conflict in Ukraine and to bite off as much as possible, to ‘regain’, as they see it, their historical territories, that is, modern-day Western Ukraine. It is also common knowledge that they dream about Belarusian land.” If that were to happen, Putin said Russia would support a Ukrainian regime replacing Zelensky and opposing the Poles. “The Polish authorities, who are nurturing their revanchist ambitions, hide the truth from their people. The truth is that the Ukrainian cannon fodder is no longer enough for the West. That is why it is planning to use other expendables – Poles, Lithuanians and everyone else they do not care about. I can tell you that this is an extremely dangerous game, and the authors of such plans should think about the consequences.”

The Polish state media have ignored Putin’s historical precedents and the deal-making underway between the Ukrainian military command and its Polish counterpart. The Polish commercial network TVN24, which is owned by the US media corporation Warner Bros. Discovery, broadcast a discussion with a think-tank academic and a retired military intelligence colonel. “‘The Russians are trying to drive a wedge between Poland and Ukraine,’ Agnieszka Legucka, an analyst for Russia at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, said in the Fakty po Faktach [Facts after Facts] programme. ‘Putin has recently been portraying himself as such an expert in history. Anyway, in 2019 he launched attacks on Poland, in particular when it comes to this historical dimension. He accused us of starting World War II,’ she said.

‘And Poland now, especially when it supports Ukraine so much both militarily and humanely, has become one of the countries that is attacked by the Russian authorities directly, including Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev.’ According to the expert, the Russians ‘are trying to drive a wedge between Poland and Ukraine. And the issue of the alleged separation of Ukraine and even Belarus is very eagerly raised by both Russian and Belarusian propaganda,’ she added.”

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“..if that document is true, who wants to believe that President Zelensky and his administration have not used that as leverage over Joe Biden..”

Zelensky Associate Was Present at Biden Bribery Meetings (GP)

Author Peter Schweizer went on with Jesse Watters on Monday night where he proceeded to drop another bomb on the Biden Crime Family. According to Schweizer, who wrote a best-seller “Secret Empires” on the Biden Family crimes, told Jesse that one of Vlodomyr Zelensky’s top officials was sitting in the room when they were discussing bribing the Bidens, Joe and Hunter. Ukrainian President Zelensky has a top official who was sitting in on meetings where they talked about bribing the Bidens. Schweizer suggests Zelensky is using this as leverage over the Biden regime for weapons and billions in US dollars. Peter Schweizer: We’ve been at this since 2018. ** They initially said there were no foreign deals. ** Then they shifted and said there were. There might have been foreign deals, but the Bidens made no money. ** Then it became Joe Biden didn’t know about any of the deals. ** Then it became Joe Biden didn’t participate in any of the deals. ** And now it’s that he was not in business with his son.


Look, the implications for this are huge, Jesse. If you look at that 1023 form that the FBI released, if that document is true, that document reveals that one of the people that was at those meetings that heard the conversations about bribing the Bidens worked for – President Zelensky. Who really wants to believe, if that meeting took place and that document is accurate, that that individual did not go and report to President Zelensky what he heard? And again, if that document is true, who wants to believe that President Zelensky and his administration have not used that as leverage over Joe Biden when it comes to negotiations on Ukraine policy? We may all have to start learning the Ukrainian word for compromise because this is a very clear indication of how this has shaped this administration’s policy towards Ukraine and also towards China. It is also convenient for Zelensky that there is not a team of US auditors in his country tracking where all of this money went.

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“Biden cured cancer in the same way that he marched for civil rights, was arrested trying to see Nelson Mandela, grew up in the black church, was raised in the Puerto Rican community, was a professor at UPenn, built the greatest economy in the world, and never spoke to his son about business..”

Biden Claims To Have ‘Ended Cancer’ (RT)

During a speech on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden seemed to claim that his administration had cured cancer. “I said I’d cure cancer. They looked at me like, ‘Why cancer’? Because no one thinks we can. That’s why. And we can. We ended cancer as we know it,” Biden said during a speech in the East Room of the White House. Biden was scheduled to speak about expanding Americans’ access to mental health care. After the cancer remark, he continued to talk about healthcare for military veterans, which is run by the federal government. The strange claim was quickly noticed by Republicans, who have often accused the 80-year-old Democrat of behaving as if afflicted by dementia. “Biden just told everyone that he cured cancer. I feel like that would have at least gotten a press release,” quipped Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

“Biden cured cancer in the same way that he marched for civil rights, was arrested trying to see Nelson Mandela, grew up in the black church, was raised in the Puerto Rican community, was a professor at UPenn, built the greatest economy in the world, and never spoke to his son about business,” tweeted Texas activist Christian Collins. Those were just some of the claims Biden had made over his 50-year political career that turned out to be tall tales. The longtime Democrat also has a history of misspeaking in public. Just last week, he introduced himself as an artificial intelligence. The week before, in Europe, he urged Russia to “stop attacking Russia.” Earlier this month, he also claimed that Moscow was “losing the war in Iraq.”


Biden’s elder son Beau passed away in 2015 from an aggressive brain cancer, which his father has publicly attributed to “burn pits,” a method used by the US military to dispose of garbage. Beau Biden was reportedly exposed to the toxic pits during his 2008 deployment in Iraq as a military lawyer, and earlier as a contractor in Kosovo. In February 2022, Biden announced a government program to find a cure for cancer, dubbing it a re-launch of the Obama administration’s 2016 ‘Cancer Moonshot’. The new program’s goal was to “reduce the cancer death rate by half within 25 years and improve the lives of people with cancer and cancer survivors,” according to the National Cancer Institute. In March this year, Biden had surgery to remove from his chest a “small skin lesion” that had “basal cell carcinoma,” according to the White House physician.

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I think I count 8 reported cases. In 4 months. Madness.

Biden’s Dog Attacks 8 White House Staffers in Cover-Up (Sp.)

Commander, President Joe Biden’s soon-to-be two-year canine, has been implicated in seven biting assaults within four months, attacking Secret Service and White House personnel, reports have claimed. A series of alarming occurrences featuring Commander have emerged, all of which were kept undisclosed until now. These incidents are reminiscent of attacks associated with Major, whom the White House claimed was handed over to the president’s close acquaintances in 2021 due to his biting spree. On November 3, Commander was at the center of a serious biting incident when he attacked a Secret Service uniformed officer, inflicting injuries on the arm and thigh before the victim was hospitalized.

The details of this incident were brought to public attention when relevant emails were disclosed to the conservative legal organization Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act. In another occurrence, Commander, broke the skin of another Secret Service member’s hand and arm. Additionally, Commander bit a security technician at President Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, the following month. “This is a special sort of craziness and corruption where a president would allow his dog to repeatedly attack and bite Secret Service and White House personnel. And rather than protect its agents, the Secret Service tried to illegally hide documents about the abuse of its agents and officers by the Biden family,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton noted. Reports suggest that Biden doubted the claims about Major attacking a Secret Service agent. Moreover, the White House has not revealed any biting events implicating Commander.

According to the reported emails, agents disclosed a series of incidents that occurred discreetly. On October 3, 2022, near the East Wing garden, Commander “inflicted a ‘friendly soft bite’ on [a Secret Service agent’s] forearm as [he] held the door open,” regardless “no skin was broken from the bite.” On the morning of October 5, 2022, the first recorded incident involved Commander hopping on an emergency response technician on the grounds of the presidential villa and biting their “arm/wrist area.” On November 10, a Secret Service Uniformed Division officer was bitten on the left thigh as First Lady Jill Biden walked Commander in the Kennedy Garden near the East Wing. Media sources reveal that the officer reported experiencing “bruising, tenderness, and pain” in the bite area. On November 14, one other Secret Service officer recounted an incident via email where they had to defend themselves as Commander charged toward them.

The officer described grabbing a black chair they were sitting on, making eye contact with the dog, and backing away to avoid being attacked. On December 11, Commander bit a Secret Service special agent in the Presidential Protective Division. This event transpired after the president yanked Commander’s leash following a movie. The agent reported being double-bitten, first on the arm with a 1.5cm cut and lesions, and a 1cm cut on their hand and thumb sustained from a second bite. On December 16, another Secret Service member was attacked and inflicted with canine bites, as indicated in a workplace injury form available to media sources. “I was walking across the complex, and a dog bit my left arm,” the officer wrote, expressing the wound as “Dog bite, superficial laceration, contusion, soreness, and bruising.”

On 2022’s Christmas Eve, a Secret Service inspector notified colleagues that another officer had been wounded at [undisclosed location] the day before. The inspector’s email cited that nearly every official in the room discussed specific incidents involving the First Family’s dog. On January 2 this year, an agency technical security investigator was the victim of an attack while responding to an alarm at the president’s Wilmington residence, frequently visited during weekends. “Commander squeezed his way through the door and immediately bit/latched onto the lower right side of my back,” the attack victim emailed. “These shocking records raise fundamental questions about President Biden and the Secret Service,” Fitton remarked.

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“The answer remains the same. The president was never in business with his son.”

That’s not “the same”. It is a big change from “I never talked to him about his business”.

Biden Changes Long-Standing Position on Hunter’s Foreign Deals (Turley)

Starting with his campaign for the presidency and continuing until this week, President Joe Biden has maintained one clear and consistent position on his son’s influence peddling schemes. As a virtual mantra, Biden — and the White House staff — have categorically maintained that he had no knowledge of any foreign dealings of his son. That has been proven to be a lie, but Biden continued to maintain the position. Yet, on the eve of the testimony of a key Biden associate, the White House has changed its position. Now the President is only claiming that he was “not in business” with his son.Some of us have written multiple columns over the last four years arguing that the President was clearly and knowingly lying in his denials of knowledge and discussions of these deals. Even when he made the statement, it was clearly untrue but most of the media shrugged and happily walked away.

Then the evidence began to mount. The laptop includes pictures and appointments of Hunter’s foreign business associates with Joe Biden. There is also a recording of Joe Biden discussing a Times report on Dec. 12, 2018, detailing Hunter’s dealings with Ye Jianming, the head of CEFC China Energy Company. He assures his son that “I think you’re clear” after lawyers worked on the New York Times before the story ran. There is also a recording of his uncle James assuring Hunter that he and his father were going to arrange for “safe harbor” for him as his world began to collapse. Then there is the July 30, 2017 Whatsapp message from Hunter Biden to one of his Chinese associates, Henry Zhao, the director of Harvest Fund Management and Communist Party official. Zhao was funneling money to Hunter’s firm BHR Partners. Hunter is quoted as writing:

“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.” Nevertheless, the White House has maintained the total denial . . . until this week before the testimony of Devon Archer. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by Fox News journalist Gillian Turner:

“Chairman James Comer today says that the Oversight Committee has evidence that the president in the past communicated directly with foreign business associates of his son Hunter Biden many times. Curious if the White House and the president still stand behind his comment that he’s never been involved and has never even spoken to his son about his business?” The response from Jean-Pierre was surprising: “So, I’ve been I’ve been asked this question a million times. The answer is not going to change. The answer remains the same. The president was never in business with his son. I just don’t have anything else to add.” It takes an utter contempt for the intelligence of the public to insist that “the answer remains the same” and then give an entirely new answer. However, that is only if most of the public is informed of the contradiction. None of the media in the White House press corp followed up on Turner’s questions when Jean-Pierre immediately moved on.

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“[Hunter Biden] was money laundering. He was racketeering. He committed wire fraud. He violated the Mann Act. The list goes on and on and on..”

Hunter’s plea deal covers two years of tax evasion. But “IRS agents saw evidence that the first son was engaged in tax evasion that “stretched back two decades.”

Hunter Biden’s Memoir Became Source of Tax Evasion Evidence (Sp.)

US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent Joseph Ziegler, who was known only as “Whistleblower X” in the Hunter Biden tax case prior to his testimony at the House Oversight Committee last Wednesday, said that some of the alleged tax evasion schemes in which Hunter Biden reportedly engaged in were detailed in his 2021 work, “Beautiful Things: A Memoir.” As per Ziegler, the opus showed that some of the expenses described by Hunter were for personal choices and not corporate benefit. “That’s almost the biggest component of this that I don’t think that the general public understands: You have statements being made in a book that are talking about going out to California, leaving your life and then going to start this new life. Yet, on your tax return you’re essentially stating things that are completely different,” Ziegler told the John Solomon Reports podcast.

The whistleblower said he and IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley, also known as the first IRS whistleblower in Hunter Biden’s case, are gathering more documents to provide to Congress. The trove reportedly includes WhatsApp messages in addition to the one made public from 2017 in which Hunter invoked his father’s name to force his Chinese associate into forking out large sums of money. The whistleblower said there is evidence of US President Joe Biden’s association in the Hunter tax case. Earlier, the president repeatedly denied being related to his son’s business dealing or knowing anything about them. Ziegler told the media outlet that a family friend named Rob Walker told the FBI that then-Vice President Joe Biden attended a meeting with the Chinese executives, and that his son deducted as a business expense a hotel room in father’s name.

Ziegler highlighted his team was prevented from finding out whether Joe Biden actually used the room or was present at the hotel. “But what I think it’s important to know is that that was a deduction that was taken on Hunter’s tax return,” he said. Moreover, per the whistleblower, IRS agents saw evidence that the first son was engaged in tax evasion that “stretched back two decades.” “In my transcript, I talked about certain issues that Hunter had, I think, going back to the early 2000s,” he said.

In June, the younger Biden struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors on two minor tax crimes and a gun case. However, Republican congressmen said they are determined to get to the bottom of Hunter’s alleged crimes. Last week, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer said he expects to file “between six and 10 criminal referrals” with the Justice Department related to Hunter after the congressional probe is completed.
“[Hunter Biden] was money laundering. He was racketeering. He committed wire fraud. He violated the Mann Act. The list goes on and on and on,” Comer alleged.

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Devon Archer is scheduled to testify on Friday. Will that happen? Will he be alive?

Members and the Media Panic as the Biden Scandal Mounts (Turley)

Now, Archer is expected to testify that Joe Biden participated in actual telephone calls with them. That will allow investigators to build further on the foundation Goldman laid. Archer will join other witnesses like Hunter’s business associate Tony Bobulinski, who said that he sat down with Joe Biden to discuss the deals. Bobulinski was instructed by Biden associate James Gilliar not to speak of the former veep’s connection to any transactions. No matter the severity of the revelations, the liberal media calls the investigations a “clown show.” Others have continued to tell the public that there remain no alleged ties from Hunter to President Biden despite emails, pictures and witness testimony. Yet it is becoming harder and harder to avoid these details.

With the possible testimony of Hunter’s business associates, the only hope is that Republicans might be convinced to “move on.” What was most notable about the question to Christie was the reference to the plea bargain. A year ago, I wrote a column on how the political and media establishment would likely use a “scandal implosion” approach as the evidence mounted over the corruption allegations. After the Democrats lost the House, there was a need to cap off the scandal and I suggested that the Justice Department would secure a light plea on a couple tax counts with little or no jail time. Members and the media would then declare the scandal closed and demand that we all “move on.” It is unnerving to see how the response unfolded so precisely as predicted. Members made repeated reference to the plea bargain to avoid further discussion.

Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D.-Md.) was positively irate that “We are doing this all over again for the Hunter Biden show to someone who has pleaded guilty and has taken responsibility for not filing taxes for two years. This is ludicrous. Beam me up, Scotty. There’s no intelligent life down here. None.” He then tore up papers in disgust. Members and the media were literally citing a plea bargain as dispositive, even as two lead investigators were saying it was fixed and politically influenced. Some in the media attacked these two IRS veterans as “so-called whistleblowers” (just as members previously attacked “so called journalists” for discussing censorship records). Others insisted that the allegations were still “unproven” or “unverified” while showing the same lack of interest in establishing the truth. Notably, these same media outlets did wall-to-wall coverage of the false Russian collusion claims in the Steele dossier.

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There’s a lot of X’s out there.

Twitter Rebrand to ‘X’ Fraught With Permit, Trademark Issues (DeMartino)

Later Sunday night, the logo began appearing in place of the social media site’s iconic bird logo for some users on some platforms. While the old Twitter branding remains for some users on some platforms, Musk promised in a Tweet (or an “X”) that the old branding would soon be gone completely. “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk wrote. Musk also changed his profile picture and the profile picture of the official “Twitter” account to the site’s new logo. X.com also now redirects to Twitter.com. X users responded to the delayed signage removal and the rebrand in general with a mix of mocking and indifference, while others took the opportunity to dunk on the city of San Francisco.

At present, there is also a question of whether the “X” branding is even available for Musk to use for social media sites. Both Microsoft and Meta* hold trademarks of “X.” The Meta patent lists the service as potentially “providing interactive websites featuring technology that enable online users to create personal profiles” that users can use “for broadcasting, transmitting, receiving, accessing, viewing, uploading, downloading, sharing, integrating, encoding, decoding, displaying, formatting, organizing, storing, caching, transferring and streaming of data, text, games, game content, digital media, images, music, audio, video and animations.” Another listed use for the Meta trademark of X includes “online social networking services.”

Microsoft’s patent, first filed in 2002, lists “on-line chatrooms” and “electronic bulletin boards” for users to share messages about video games and an online video game storefront. Both patents, particularly the Meta one, which seems related to a social media site, could cause legal problems for Musk, who has been in an online feud with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Musk has threatened to sue Meta for launching an X competitor called “Threads” and the two floated a potential cage fight being aired on Pay-Per-View.

Read more …

“Musk foresees these payment capabilities potentially becoming half of the global financial system.”

Musk: ‘X Will Become Most Valuable Brand on Earth’ (Sp.)

The rebranding of Twitter to “X” was announced over the weekend and near instantly began to face varying hurdles, from potential legal challenges to a barrage of criticism from users thrown off by the platform’s redesign. Some forecasts indicated the change could result in billions’ worth in losses for the firm’s value. Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of companies Tesla and SpaceX, announced his confidence in the success of X social media on Tuesday, vowing that the Twitter rebrand would make the platform the “most valuable brand on Earth.” Musk’s statement came in response to a US media article that estimated the rebranding could potentially decrease Twitter’s value by $4 billion to $20 billion.

Nevertheless, Musk remains undeterred, envisioning “X” as a comprehensive communication platform that also offers robust financial transactions. The potential integration of payment systems into Twitter/X has sparked speculation that users may soon be able to send and receive money directly through the platform. Musk foresees these payment capabilities potentially becoming half of the global financial system. While specific details about the payment systems have not been revealed, Musk emphasized the importance of executing them correctly for the magnum opus of Twitter/X to become a reality, noting his intentions to revolutionize the financial world. Linda Yaccarino, Twitter’s new CEO, has expressed enthusiasm about the transformation and hinted at more changes to come, signaling the company is just getting started.

Under Yaccarino’s leadership, the platform aims to fulfill its immense potential and meet the expectations of fans and critics alike. Since acquiring Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, Musk has embarked on a series of changes to enhance the user experience and drive innovation on the platform. The rebranding to “X” was the latest in a series of moves aimed at revitalizing Twitter and positioning it as a leader in the ever-evolving social media landscape. With popular platforms such as TikTok vying for users’ attention, critics have underscored that the success of Musk’s rebranding strategy will undoubtedly face challenges as the viability of company’s future remains uncertain.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 


Plimer

 

 

Viper
https://twitter.com/i/status/1683884068000215044

 

 

Peacock

 

 

Idolomantis diabolica
https://twitter.com/i/status/1683874828694982657

 

 


The exact moment the sunlight penetrates the wings of a Black and white Jacobin hummingbird revealing a secret of nature that cannot be seen with our eyes. No digital manipulation. IG: christianspencerphoto

 

 

Metallica
https://twitter.com/i/status/1683773227389140992

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle July 26 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 93 total)
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  • #139874

    Andy Warhol Mick Jagger 1975   • Glimpses Of An Endgame In Ukraine (Bhadrakumar) • Major Advancements For Russia, Ukraine On Its Last Legs – Macg
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle July 26 2023]

    #139875
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    What is with the double click on twitter sic? Twitter sic is now dead, shall not be tempted for any twitter sic product or production. Find an alternative.

    #139876

    What is the double click on twitter sic?

    #139880
    aspnaz
    Participant

    From the land of AFKTT, the land of Marxist kiwis … https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/07/26/water-off-florida-hits-spa-pool-temps-may-have-set-world-record/, which says:

    The water temperature on the tip of Florida hit spa pool levels, exceeding 37.8C two days in a row. And meteorologists say that could potentially be the hottest seawater ever measured, although there are some issues with the reading.

    Basically they took the reading in a shallow rock pool then claimed it was ocean temperature? Who are their consultants? AFKTT and Observer? How many of the readers of that headline also read that it was a dodgy reading? I think my first post yesterday was about the climate religion lying, it is endless.

    #139881
    aspnaz
    Participant

    My guess is that Elon Musk could not stand being reminded of the weakness and effeminacy of Jack Dorsey every time he dealt with Twitter. Kill that stupid, weak bird. It is a Dorsey bird, it has pronouns.

    Truth be told, I am completely not believing that jack Dorsey could do anything, I think he was put in place while others did the hard work. He is so wet.

    #139882
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Formerly T-Bear said

    What is with the double click on twitter sic? Twitter sic is now dead, shall not be tempted for any twitter sic product or production. Find an alternative.

    I would have agreed with you, except that Musk caved, he reverted and opened up access for everyone. What is the problem now? Enlighten us. Is Putin hiding in Twitter?

    #139883
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Could Supply Chain Security Take U.S. Firms To Africa?”

    No. We’re not allowed in Africa as we kill everybody there. If they won’t become transgender for us and deserve to die, I guess.

    “Ramaswamy Unveils Plans To Eradicate FBI, Department of Education, Nuclear Regulatory Commission

    Glad he’s around and Republicans are saying something. Most of the Federal Departments are illegal under 10A.

    I guess Biden says he’s making the same statements as ever – unchanging as the Truth – that he DID know all about Hunter’s business dealings and WAS involved in every move. …You remember him saying that, right?

    Other news, remember the Marine that we traded a Russian Arms Trafficker for, who was totally, totally innocent and not related to the CIA or weapons at all? Yeah, he was found fighting for Ukraine, as an American. But Russia was right: they should have let him go since it led to him getting shot instead of resting safe in prison.

    Justin Bans is the same: The American Nazi Intelligence Service. We create, pay, man, arm, and support Nazis. Worldwide it seems. It’s a Democratic value. Apparently we give them escorted police tours to the Rotunda too. According to them, authorized by Nancy Pelosi and no one is investigated and no one’s mad.

    Nazis, Nazis everywhere! Oh noes! White Supremacists are the top threat to America (which is why we arm, fund, man, and tour them, just like we gave Trump an EXTRA $6B for the police state departments. ‘Coz he’s Hitler.)

    “There’s no penalty for lying. You only get in trouble for telling the Truth.”

    This is how you know what orientation your culture has taken. Is it #Logos, for reason, logic, order, or is it for #AntiLogos, for chaos, madness, death, disorder? We are a violently #AntiLogos society. Or put another way, against #Christ, which is the #Logos, and violently against the Christ Consciousness with the principles of Truth, order, law, honestly, forbearance, and forgiveness. That is to say, #AntiChrist. We are given over unrestrained to the spirit of #AntiChrist and proudly. All of these positive values are the most hated elements in our world, and the people who promote any of them, the most persecuted. That’s what they mean by there’s no penalty for lying. But both these guys, and millions of other heroes, tell the truth every day anyway.

    Anyway, they make it easy. If they said it, they’re lying. If anyone is being persecuted, they’re telling the truth.

    “the war may dramatically escalate to a war with Poland,”

    This is being set up now. Now IF Poland goes in, and NATO doesn’t activate Article 5 – and they don’t have to, each country has that choice – is THAT enough to break NATO? Because apparently nothing else is.

    “Above all, Poland has reason to be worried about the reliability of Washington.”

    I’d say so. Has there been a time in Polish history that the Anglos did NOT double-cross them and get them all killed? Like maybe before 1400AD that happened once?

    “formed in July 2020 and promoted by Washington.”

    You mean “formed by Washington and attended by Lublin.”

    Background question: How are MacGregor and Ritter still able to talk out there all day? Who’s protecting them? Is it just because they’re not a White House Chef?

    Continuing: “but they are completely subordinate to the will of their metropolis – that is, the Anglo-Saxon world”

    Putin said the same thing. They carefully add “Saxon” though, and that’s Saxe-Coburg, Germany. Which is the line of London, House of “Windsor”, a made-up name. Perfect for the liars and Name-Stealers.

    “• Who Can Give Security Guarantees To Ukraine? (MoA)”

    More background question: What is a “security guarantee”? Minsk was guaranteed by 5(?) nations but nobody cared and nobody did anything. So what’s it worth? The Paper it’s Written on like all contracts.

    “Russia made a counter offer that was financially better and had less political restrictions attached to it.”

    So I guess the EU should have stolen less and given Ukraine more? It would have saved a lot of money and trouble for them? Possibly their complete collapse? But they were too desperate, rapacious, and greedy? A lot like wages. “No one will work! I can’t find employees!” “Have you tried raising your rates?” A: “???????” Wages? No. Of course not. That would be Capitalism and we don’t do that.

    “But who or what can guarantee that any such agreement will be held up?”

    Um. By whom? Ukraine will be totally defeated and sign an unconditional surrender. What’s to “hold up?” It’s only if Russia surrenders and the West thinks they’ll double cross them does this sentence make any sense. Russia has no need to. Ukraine is vacant and all Ukrainians are dead, and certainly all the Nazis. Russia can repopulate the whole area with nothing but pro-Putin Russians. That’s not even like Northern Ireland. It’s like landing in Plymouth. 99 & 44/100th % of all the former occupants are dead. It’s literally empty land, unoccupied territory.

    As we’ve said since the beginning, what can they do then? A: Anything they want. It will end whenever they feel like, however they wish it to. I remember Chooch and Red disagreeing, but we were correct again, and it wasn’t hard to figure. They just grew up in the Cold War and still had Persistence of Vision from too much schoolroom propaganda. THEIR nations were always the evil ones. THEIR governments. And THEIR people who always approved. Khrushchev and PolPot aren’t a rounding error to the death toll of the Anglosphere. 100 democratic governments violently toppled just for an opener.

    “IAEA Discovers Anti-Personnel Mines Near Zaporozhye Nuke Plant (TASS)”

    I’m a little lost here: keeping people from just walking into the Nuclear plant is a BAD thing? Or do they think 2 ounces of anti-personnel mines are going to blow the dome off the world’s largest nuclear plant? Explain.

    A: We’re Signaling. Can’t you see us signaling? We’re giving you orders. Like Ice Cube why aren’t you following them? Don’t you know who I am?

    “NATO Countries Using Ukraine to Get Rid of Outdated Weapons (Sp.) “

    Notes out there: Russia had capacity to make 88 new tanks per year plus like 190 conversions. That was before the war. The conversions were so extensive they got the latest optics, latest guns, and latest engines. All the guns and engines are identical to the new ones, so they all inter-operate, with repair knowledge and parts. Comparing to 5 nation’s wildly different equipment, repairs, crews, parts, and munitions. As said, NATO equipment or situation is so bad sending it actually PREVENTS Ukraine from winning. The more we send, the further from winning they get. But beyond that, all our stuff like the Javelins, fail right out of the box. Try that in your Private Ryan. No one notices. No one fixes it. Because they’re pledged their souls and sacred honor to the delusion. The Father of Lies.

    “to ‘regain’, as they see it, their historical territories, that is, modern-day Western Ukraine”

    That’s weird. I heard Ukraine’s borders under Khrushchev were sacrosanct and we always supported the USSR in every possible way. But the Borders are NOT sacrosanct? They can be just changed at any time by anyone?

    “Anyway, in 2019 he launched attacks on Poland”

    Russia invaded NATO? Wow, the U.S. media really IS bad. I totally missed this! …Unless she’s just lying, of course. With every word. From the moment she gains consciousness in the morning, until she falls asleep at night. Nothing but lies, fantasies, psychoses, all the way down, every minute with every one.

    Speaking of, this is one of the most psychotic, fantastical, removed-from-reality, just-make-stuff-up articles I’ve read in a while, so skip it:

    “Putin’s Fear of Strong Generals Is as Old as Russia Itself:
    Prigozhin’s rise and fall…”

    Putin’s Fear of Strong Generals Is as Old as Russia Itself

    Um, Foreign Policy? Prigozhin isn’t a General. He’s a caterer, a hot dog vendor. Learn the difference.

    Rephrasing: “Putin’s Fear of Sausage Vendors Is as Old as Russia Itself.” Someday, when reality re-exists and matters again….

    As per “I just write it all like a Netflix script and therefore it becomes true” they then launch on an outsider’s, wikipedia, cliff-notes view of all Russia’s former leaders. Which has no point and illuminates nothing. Russia’s leaders all sucked! They were all terrible you see! That’s why they kicked Europe’s ass 25 times are are kicking it again right now! Can’t you see my lists? The Script says right here you’re the designated Bad Guy and you fall down on page 12. And then we win! Yay us! Us rich brats who never did a thing in our lives except watch TV! Yup, Vlad, that’s how it’s gonna be. Where you goin’??? I’m talking to you!

    “We ended cancer as we know it,”

    Well that’s true enough. They caused a 100x increase in cancer, appearing instantly as Stage IV, all from a totally different cause. So it’s certainly “not like we ever knew it before” just like Yellen promised “You’d never see another Recession” in your lifetime. Because you’re dead. Correct again!

    “sparked speculation that users may soon be able to send and receive money directly through the platform. Musk foresees these payment capabilities potentially becoming half of the global financial system.”

    Probably on Dogecoin. That’s less crazy than it seems. He’s not an engineer. He can’t make cars or rockets. But he IS a programmer that developed PayPal, which like Dorsey, was taken over and got away from them.

    Minneapolis, 1906. They are completely correct. It has been gradually warming since the last minimum in 1600AD. Wait: That’s odd. I don’t think we were burning 100,000 years of coal in 1601 when this started. Because the CO2 would have to START it, it couldn’t just pitch in 1/3rd of the way through or your theory makes no sense.

    That was at the same time there were no seashells on earth. You know: Science!™

    #139884
    aspnaz
    Participant

    It was alive when you bought it

    Umm, barely, it was poisoned and it had an FBI arm up its arse. That’s no way to live.

    #139885
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Other news, remember the Marine that we traded a Russian Arms Trafficker for, who was totally, totally innocent and not related to the CIA or weapons at all? Yeah, he was found fighting for Ukraine, as an American. But Russia was right: they should have let him go since it led to him getting shot instead of resting safe in prison.

    Hilarious, Putin is on a lucky streak, everything is turning to gold. Which means everything Biden is turning to shit, but we knew that anyway.

    #139886
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    July 26, 2023 at 9:36 am#139876REPLY
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer

    The double click on twitter sic (blue bird died) begins with a click and nothing happens, click again the video begins. Twitter sic no longer will be click bait.

    #139887
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Poland, a NATO army that the US regards as its most important partner in continental Europe

    Running out of stupid people, but they still got the Brits.

    #139888
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Dr D said

    Probably on Dogecoin. That’s less crazy than it seems. He’s not an engineer. He can’t make cars or rockets. But he IS a programmer that developed PayPal, which like Dorsey, was taken over and got away from them.

    Ha ha, that is hilarious. Musk a programmer? Where did you dig up that shit? I know he has a huge PR show around him, but he is now posing as some sort of software engineer, the CEO from X.com who was replaced due to finance by Peter Thiel. Elon is pure businessman, he has always been business man, Daddy had a lot of money for Elon to throw around, so why would be even pretend to be a programmer, if it were not for street cred. I think your view of Elon Musk – which is remarkably similar to people who think Bill Gates was a programmer – means you have swallowed the Elon PR machine bullshit.

    #139890
    EoinW
    Participant

    NATO is not running out of stupid people. They did a poll a couple of years ago. A real poll where people used their bodies to answer. 80% confirmed they are stupid, in every NATO country.

    It’s too bad that such people are pretty useless. Even worse, they’re lazy cowards. Good luck getting them to travel halfway across the globe(or Europe). They’ll need more funds for the PR Department to make that sale.

    At least the Poles and Baltic minnows are close at hand. That’s convenient.

    #139891

    Background question: How are MacGregor and Ritter still able to talk out there all day? Who’s protecting them? Is it just because they’re not a White House Chef?

    1st: They are respected military guys. 2nd: They have so far only been on small channels. Wait till Tucker Carlson gets a hold of them.

    #139892
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Time to buy myself a thermometer. The local meteorology department in Hong Kong is sometimes a bit dodgy. My local weather station is 300m from my house, so I expect the weather to be similar. I first noticed problems when then reported ridiculous wind speed, for example, 25 kph, I go onto my roof and there is nothing. I go to the beach, nothing. Are they simply recording the highest speed gust in the last 20 minutes? Surely not. So where is this 25 kph, then 20 minutes later the site reports it is back down to zero. As a windsurfer, people conning me into thinking there is wind is not funny.

    The same has been happening with their temperature reports recently. It is blue sky weather here in HK, so we do not get many, if any, clouds but humidity is constant at 95%, which is totally normal. Well, the other day the temperature rises, reaches a peak and levels off, then in the space of 15 minutes it has leapt 2C. How the hell did that happen, especially at 16:00 in the afternoon? Did the sun just get stronger or was someone welding something next to the thermometer, or maybe it was an invisible cloud of CO2. Now I am totally suspicious.

    I have no conclusion on whether they are deliberately lying, whether they are incompetent or whether they have budget constraints. We all know that any department that helps the people is often under budgetary pressure, but that is not normally true in HK, the government ain’t bad over here. Anyway, I do not have enough info to make that call.

    The temperatures are normal for this time of year – the weather guys provide data from the past 30 years to compare against, very useful, and this week’s temperatures we have one above 50% day, one below 50% day and the rest are in the range of 50% of days of the same date over the past 30 years.

    One reason that I am not panicking about warming, it ain’t happening in Hong Kong, although two years ago was freezing in January, the coldest I have known it over here. Anyway, I have decided to get a thermometer, to see if I can work out what is happening. My grandad had a thermometer and one of those air pressure thingys, I will follow in his footsteps, more fun than a new tinfoil hat.

    #139893
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Biden’s Dog Attacks 8 White House Staffers in Cover-Up

    NeoConJobs© are rabid dogs that need to be put down.

    I know who can do the job.

    Load them all into an APC in Ukronaziland

    Let the Russians do the rest

    #139894
    John Day
    Participant

    What Time It Is (thinking of Saturday In The Park by Chicago)
    https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/what-time-it-is

    A good interview with Maria Bartiromo. Kennedy gets to talk, and is treated politely; invited back…
    “We Need A Real Investigation” Of Biden Bribery & Burisma; RFK Jr Says Mainstream Media Criticizing Him More Than Trump
    ​ He went on to comment on a Harvard-Harris poll on July 21, saying that he has the highest favorability rating than any other presidential hopeful in 2024.
    ​“So, somehow, the American people are hearing what I’m saying. I don’t know whether it’s through the podcasts or through social media,” Mr. Kennedy said.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/we-need-real-investigation-biden-bribery-burisma-rfk-jr-says-mainstream-media-criticizing

    Hunter Biden put then-VP dad Joe on the phone with business associates at least 2 dozen times, ex-partner Devon Archer to testify
    https://nypost.com/2023/07/23/hunter-biden-put-then-vp-dad-joe-on-the-phone-with-business-associates-at-least-2-dozen-times-ex-partner-devon-archer-to-testify/

    ​ RFK Jr. Maintains Highest Favorability Rating Among Presidential Candidates In New Poll
    ​ Days after a House hearing on censorship that saw Democrats attempt to prevent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from testifying, a new Harvard-Harris poll showed that he has a higher favorability rating than any other presidential candidate.
    ​ Mr. Kennedy has a net favorable rating of 47 percent and a net unfavorable mark of 26 percent according to the survey, which was released on July 23 and conducted from July 19 to July 20 among 2,068 registered voters (pdf).​ ​ [The poll was taken before​/during the censorship hearing. How’s he doing now?]
    ​ Poll respondents said that former President Donald Trump has a favorability rating of 45 percent compared to a 49 percent unfavorability number. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has a 40 percent favorable rating and 37 percent unfavorable, and President Joe Biden has 39 percent favorable and 53 percent unfavorable rating, also lagging behind Mr. Kennedy.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rfk-jr-maintains-highest-favorability-rating-among-presidential-candidates-new-poll

    ​ Alastair Crooke, Counter-Revolution – ‘Do you know what time it is?’
    ​ To be blunt, both the U.S. and Europe have stalked brazenly into traps of their own making. Caught in the lies and deceit woven around a claimed inheritance of superior cultural DNA, (vouchsafing, it is said, almost certain victory), the West is awakening to a fast-approaching disaster to which there are no easy solutions.​..
    ..The coming devastation is not just centred around the failed Ukraine offensive and NATO’s weak showing…
    ​..In the U.S., the run-up to momentous elections is underway. The Democrats are in a fix: The party has long since turned its back on its old blue-collar constituency, engaging instead with an urban ‘creative class’ in an exalted, world-shaping ‘social engineering’ project of moral redress, in alliance with Silicon Valley and the Permanent Nomenklatura. But that experiment has run off into the weeds, becoming ever more extreme and absurd. Push-back is building…
    ​..Either way – Biden staying or going – there is no ready solution to the Party’s conundrum of a non-performing, non-platform…
    ​..Heavy ‘lawfare’ artillery is intended to break the Trump defences and drive him off the field, whilst an attrition of disclosures of Biden family malfeasance are intended wear down and implode the Biden bubble. The Democratic Establishment is spooked too by the flanking manoeuvre of the R. F. Kennedy candidature, which is snowballing rapidly…
    ​..Put simply, the Democratic wokish ideology of historical redress is separating the U.S. into two nations living in one land.​..
    ..Ukraine has served as the solvent to the old order and has become the Albatross hanging around the neck of the Biden Admin: How to spin the looming Ukraine debacle as somehow ‘mission achieved’. Can that be done? Because the escape route of a ceasefire and a frozen line of contact is unacceptable to Moscow. In short, ‘Biden’s war’ cannot continue as it is, but nor can it do ‘other’ without facing humiliation. The myth of American power, NATO competence and the reputation of U.S. weaponry hangs in the balance.
    ​ The economic narrative (‘everything is fine’) is poised, for somewhat unconnected reasons, to turn sour too. Debt – finally – is becoming the sword suspended above the economy’s neck.​..
    ​..Faced with many questions – and no solutions – the mood amongst sectors of the electorate is driving a radical and increasingly iconoclastic mood. A counter-revolutionary spirit, perhaps. It is too early to say whether it will sweep a majority, but it may – for the radicalism is coming from the two wings: GOP grassroots and the Kennedy ‘camp’…​ [I personally see the “Spirit of ’76” revisiting our land.​ Not “counter-revolution”, but the same thing again.]
    ​..One strain of GOP voters separates conservative leaders into two camps: those who “know what time it is” and those who don’t. That is the catchphrase on the Right that has become increasingly important to a significant wing of the Party who see a country weakened and corrupted by ideology; who hold that there is almost nothing left to ‘conserve’. Overturning the existing post-American order, and re-establishing America’s ancient principles in practice, is advocated as a sort of counter-revolution – and the only road forward.
    That aphorism for ‘knowing what time of day it is’ refers to an emerging sense of urgency and appetite for sweeping action, not dragging and dull academic debates among more populist-minded conservatives. “The premise is that the struggle against wokish cultural power is existential, and that extreme tactics that would shock an older generation of conservatives need to be the norm”.
    In fact, if a leader is not shocking in his conduct and proposals, he or she probably “doesn’t know what time it is”…
    ​..”When you realize this, what looks at first like a hodgepodge of different ideas seems more unified. Covid health policy, disgust about Jan. 6, the Pentagon budget, immigration, support for Ukraine, promoting racial diversity, trans rights — these are all issues that enjoy a measure of élite bipartisan consensus. But for the Tucker Carlson wing – Republicans who embrace these things simply – don’t know what time it is”, Politico explains.​
    ​ What is salient in this formulation is that just as unreserved support for Covid regulatory practices was a ‘marker’ of ‘correct-think’ in pandemic time, so support for Ukraine is defined as ‘a marker’ of correct liberal-think (and being in the Team) in the post-pandemic era.​..
    ..However, as American fireworks illuminate the political sky, resonance in Europe is almost certain. Europeans share the distrust for their élites and the Brussels technocracy in the same fashion as the Carlson-Kennedy constituencies.
    The Euro-élites disdain the people. Ordinary Europeans know that their rulers regard them with contempt – and know that their élites know it too…
    ..Fireworks are coming for Europe – but slowly. It has already begun (governments are falling); but the U.S. is the vanguard for radical change as the West loses its grip on the meta-narrative of its ‘vision’ being uniquely the paradigm through which the world’s ‘vision’ must be shaped too. A shift that changes everything.​ [“Lies and deceit” are not standing up well to realities like heavy artillery any more.]
    https://www.sott.net/article/482712-Counter-Revolution-Do-you-know-what-time-it-is

    #139895
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” Becomes No. 2 Hit​ [That’ll larn ​’em better!]
    ​ Country Music Television (CMT) pulled his video from the air without explanation, after it had already aired for three days.
    ​ The controversy caused a backlash among music fans, who then rushed to hear Mr. Aldean’s song, as streams and downloads of his hit exploded last week.
    ​ Audio and video streams from Mr. Aldean’s song have since risen from 987,000 to 11.7 million, a 999 percent increase, a week after the music video was released, Luminate told FOX Business.
    ​ Before Mr. Aldean released the music video, the song had sold only 1,000 downloads, but it has since sold 228,000, according to Luminate.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jason-aldeans-try-small-town-becomes-no-2-hit

    ​ Pepe Escobar packs in a lot of news. Don’t look for the new Gold-BRICS currency this year. BRICS problems, BRI solutions
    ​ As the BRICS approach the most important summit in their history on August 22-24 in Johannesburg, South Africa, some fundamentals need to be observed.
    ​ The top three BRICS cooperation platforms are politics and security, finance and the economy, and culture. So the notion that a new BRICS gold-backed reserve currency will be announced at the South Africa summit is spurious.
    ​ What is in progress, as confirmed by BRICS sherpas, is the R5: a new common payment system. The sherpas are only in the preliminary stages of discussing a new reserve currency which could be gold or commodities-based. The discussions within the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), led by Sergey Glazyev, by comparison, are way more advanced.
    ​ The order of priorities is to get R5 rolling. All current BRICS currencies start with an “R”: renminbi (yuan), ruble, real, rupee, and rand. R5 will allow current members to increase mutual trade by bypassing the US dollar and reducing their US dollar reserves.​..
    ..Chinese trade with BRI nations increased 9.8 percent in the first half of 2023 – compared to the same period last year. That contrasts sharply with the 4.7 percent overall contraction of trade between China and the collective west: Down with the EU by 4.9 percent, and down with the US by 14.5 percent.
    ​ Chinese trade with Russia, meanwhile, alongside exports to South Africa and Singapore, raised exponentially by 78​ percent. As an example, late last week, a Chinese cargo set sail from St. Petersburg loaded with fertilizers, chemicals, and paper products. It will cross the Arctic and arrive in Shanghai in early August…
    ..The Arctic Silk Road, from now on, will be increasingly strategic. The Chinese can keep it open at least from July to October every year. And as a bonus, a warming Arctic allows better access to oil/gas resources​…
    ​.. On the Russian front, all eyes are on the 7,200 km-long, multimodal International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) – which alarms the collective west as a de facto replacement of the Suez Canal. The INSTC cuts shipping costs by about 50 percent and saves up to 20 days of travel compared to the Suez route. INSTC trade – via ship, rail, and roads linking Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, India, and Central Asia – should triple over the next seven years…
    .​.The Trans-Afghan ​Railway will emerge as a follow-up to something very important that happened last week, when ​Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan signed a joint protocol to connect the Uzbek and Pakistani networks via Mazar-i-Sharif and Logar in Afghanistan.
    Welcome to the UAP railway – which could be hailed not only as a BRI but also as a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) project – where Tashkent and Islamabad are full members, and Kabul is an observer….
    ..The Uzbeks estimate that the 760 km-long railway will reduce travel time by five days and costs by at least 40 percent. The project could be finished by 2027.
    The subsequent 573 km-long Trans-Afghan Railway has already got its road map: it’s bound to connect the intersection of Central and South Asia to ports on the Arabian Sea.​..
    ..Every investor from Jeddah to Hong Kong knows that Beijing is aiming to turn the Greater Bay Area into a prime global tech center, centered in Shenzhen, with Hong Kong playing the role of privileged global finance hub and Macau as the cultural hub.
    ​ The Greater Bay Area, not by accident, is a key BRI plank. As a whole, the nine cities in Guangdong, plus Hong Kong and Macau (more than 80 million people, 10 percent of Chinese GDP), will be configured as an astonishing first-class economic powerhouse by 2035, largely overtaking Tokyo Bay, the New York Metro Area, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
    ​ With Saudi Arabia aiming to become a full member of both BRI and SCO, Beijing and Riyadh will turbo-charge their tech cooperation on top of energy and infrastructure.
    ​ All eyes on South Africa next month are on how BRICS will work to solve its internal issues while organizing the expansion to BRICS+. Who will get to join the club? Saudi Arabia? UAE? Iran? Kazakhstan? Algeria?
    https://new.thecradle.co/articles/brics-problems-bri-solutions

    ​ More than 40 countries have shown an interest in joining BRICS, Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s ambassador-at-large responsible for ties with the economic alliance and Asian countries, has said.
    ​ The diplomat told reporters in Johannesburg on Thursday that 22 countries have formally applied to join the group, while “an equal number” of states “have been informally asking about becoming BRICS​ members”.
    https://www.azerbaycan24.com/en/more-than-40-countries-willing-to-join-brics-official/

    Lawmakers Pass Key Part Of Netanyahu’s Sweeping Judicial Overhaul As Protesters Seek To Blockade Knesset
    ​ Following almost 30 weeks of some of the largest protests Israel has seen in its history, Israeli lawmakers on Monday passed a key part of the Netanyahu government’s ultra-controversial overhaul plan which will see the independent judiciary severely weakened.
    ​ It is being widely called the biggest and most far-reaching shake-up to the Israeli system, and the judiciary in particular, since 1948. The ‘Reasonableness bill’ passed with 64 votes in favor and 0 against, given that opposition members of the Knesset boycotted the final vote in protest, as raging demonstrators took over streets, in many cases blocking roadways and city centers across the country. Protesters tried to blockade the Knesset building itself.
    ​ The Reasonableness bill gets its name from the legislation in effect stripping the Israeli Supreme Court’s ability to declare government decisions unreasonable, which critics say so severely erodes checks and balances that it will lead to a Netanyahu coalition “dictatorship”.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/knesset-passes-key-part-netanyahus-sweeping-judicial-overhaul-hundreds-thousands-rage

    #139896
    John Day
    Participant

    Gilbert Doctorow, The Coming Russian Polish War
    ​ From Russian talk shows of the past several days, it is easy to understand the Kremlin’s reading of the present proxy war in and around Ukraine: Washington sees that the Ukrainian counter-offensive is a complete failure that has cost tens of thousands of lives among the Ukrainian armed forces and has seen the destruction of a large part of the Western equipment delivered to Ukraine over the past months. Instead of suing for peace, Washington seeks to open a ‘second front,’ using Poland for this purpose.​
    ​ One possible Russian response to any move against Belarus has also been discussed on air: to seize the Suwalki corridor that connects Kaliningrad to Belarus across Polish territory.. Taking control of that corridor would have the effect of isolating the Baltic States from Poland and thereby put their security at peril.
    ​ The inescapable conclusion from the latest news is that Washington’s incendiary policies and continuing escalation of the conflict cannot secure Russia’s defeat. On the contrary, they may well lead to the total collapse of the NATO alliance once its military value is disproven in a way that cannot be talked away or papered over by the most creative propagandists in DC.

    The coming Russian -Polish war

    ​ Gilbert Doctorow, Russian military experts on the current state of the war
    ..As I have indicated in past essays, the more serious Russian news programs such as Sixty Minutes and Evening with Vladimir Solovyov also give the microphone to military experts from among Duma committee chairmen and others who actually bear responsibility and accountability for the war effort and are not just talking heads…
    ​..I have in mind the spectacular Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure in Odessa, in Nikolaev and yesterday in a river port of the Danube estuary just across from the Romanian border. These attacks are described by official Russian military sources as “revenge attacks” for the damage inflicted on one of the roadways of the Crimean bridge by Ukrainian surface drones that exploded under bridge supports.
    ​ Of course, that is just Public Relations talk to satisfy the Russian public and overwhelm local outrage at the failure to defend what is, finally, vulnerable infrastructure. No, the reason for the Russian destruction of the Ukrainian port facilities day after day lies elsewhere. The missile strikes were not so much intended to inflict pain on the Ukrainians as to avert what could be naval battles on the Black Sea and a quantum jump in risks of total war…
    ..Let us remember that when Vladimir Putin announced that the grain deal with Turkey and the United Nations would expire on 18 July, the RF Ministry of Defense announced that any vessels headed towards Ukrainian ports ostensibly to receive export grain would henceforth be considered as carriers of arms to Ukraine and were fair game for destruction by Russian forces.
    ​ Immediately after this Ukrainian President Zelensky went on air with his proposal to Turkey that the grain exports by sea continue without Russian participation. The safety of the vessels would be assured by Turkish and other NATO naval convoys. In the context of Erdogan’s latest turn to the U.S. and away from Russia, it appeared that Ankara was prepared to strike a deal with Zelensky. If that were done, then the chances of naval battles between Russian and NATO vessels in the Black Sea would have soared.
    ​ And so the Russians decided to destroy the Ukrainian port facilities active in the grain trade and so to preempt the dangers in view. Erdogan was compelled to draw back from any agreement with Zelensky on resumption of the grain corridor mission.​..
    ..It is interesting to note that notwithstanding vicious American propaganda against the Russian pull-out from the grain deal, the leaders of Africa have not gone for the bait. Today all 47 African leaders are assembling in Russia for highest level strategic talks and deal-making with their Russian counterparts. The Russians are offering free of cost grain to the poorest countries and contracts for grain supply to the others at normal commercial terms. The certainty of supply is assured by what the Russians say will be their biggest grain harvest ever during this season.

    Russian military experts on the current state of the war

    #139897
    John Day
    Participant

    Pandemics R-Us , Lots of information, if you want to look. This is officially “the Decade of Vaccines”. It’s biowarfare on us, because we are still ok with it.
    ​ Pandemic 2025: US Creates Permanent New Pandemic Agency for Decade of Vaccines.”Catastrophic Contagion” Simulation
    Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy
    The US has created a permanent new pandemic agency called the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy in anticipation of future pandemics and the Decade of Vaccines. President Joe Biden has appointed a retired Air Force general to take charge of spearheading the project.

    Pandemic 2025: US Creates Permanent New Pandemic Agency for Decade of Vaccines.”Catastrophic Contagion” Simulation

    ​ Meryl Nass MD with focused perspective:
    ​ USG announces new Pandemic Preparedness and Response office: is it a health program or a military program?
    Does PPR plan to use the military’s OTA authority AGAIN to bypass the FDA and vaccinate us with untested junk that turned out to be poison, like it did for COVID?
    https://merylnass.substack.com/p/usg-announces-new-pandemic-preparedness

    ​Sasha Latypova details yet another detrimental side effect of the injectable bioweapons.
    Persistent Damage to the Gut Microbiome After Covid-19 mRNA Injection
    https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/persistent-damage-to-the-gut-microbiome

    ​ A Midwestern Doctor, What Can The Smallpox Vaccine Disaster Teach Us About Spike Protein Injuries?
    ​ Reviewing the critical but largely forgotten lessons from early pioneers in medicine
    ​ As our species has technologically advanced, we seem to have replaced a high rate of often deadly infectious disease for an ever-growing epidemic of chronic neurological and autoimmune conditions alongside a continual increase in all forms of cancer. As best as I can tell, this trend began 150-200 years ago at the same time the variolation and then smallpox vaccination were introduced (the widespread use of mercury in medicine may have also played a key role too).
    ​ In addition to many written accounts supporting this theory, I’ve spoken with numerous doctors who observed a gradual but continual worsening of health in the population over the course of their careers. In many cases, those doctors told me they asked their mentors if they too had observed the same thing, and indeed, they had (and in a few cases found their mentors had heard same thing when they asked their own mentors).
    ​ Ultimately, I’ve been able to trace this trend back to approximately 150 years ago, and observed that while the increase is typically gradual, it periodically has large spikes. One classic example occurred when Fauci brokered a 1986 deal to give vaccine manufacturers immunity from vaccine injuries, and thus incentivized a large number of unsafe vaccines being added to the childhood immunization schedule.
    https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/what-can-the-smallpox-vaccine-disaster

    #139898
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://sputnikglobe.com/20230725/nato-countries-using-ukraine-to-get-rid-of-outdated-weapons-1112139639.html
    NATO Countries Using Ukraine to Get Rid of Outdated Weapons
    Another problem with such ragtag deliveries is that the spare parts and ammunition for such weapons are often different and incompatible with one another, Henrot pointed out.
    ———
    According to Schweizer, who wrote a best-seller “Secret Empires” on the Biden Family crimes, Bribery, leverage, compromised, blackmail.

    BREAKING UPDATE: Zelensky Associate Was Present at Biden Bribery Meetings – Then Went to Work for President Zelensky Who Now Is Holding Blackmail Information Against Joe Biden (VIDEO)


    BREAKING UPDATE: Zelensky Associate Was Present at Biden Bribery Meetings – Then Went to Work for President Zelensky Who Now Is Holding Blackmail Information Against Joe Biden (VIDEO)
    By Jim Hoft Jul. 24, 2023 8:40 pm 698 Comments
    ———–
    Denile
    • Hunter Biden’s Memoir Became Source of Tax Evasion Evidence (Sp.)
    Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer said he expects to file “between six and 10 criminal referrals” with the Justice Department related to Hunter after the congressional probe is completed.
    “[Hunter Biden] was money laundering. He was racketeering. He committed wire fraud. He violated the Mann Act. The list goes on and on and on,” Comer alleged.

    • Members and the Media Panic as the Biden Scandal Mounts (Turley)

    No matter the severity of the revelations, the liberal media calls the investigations a “clown show.” Others have continued to tell the public that there remain no alleged ties from Hunter to President Biden despite emails, pictures and witness testimony. Yet it is becoming harder and harder to avoid these details.

    Some in the media attacked these two IRS veterans as “so-called whistleblowers” (just as members previously attacked “so called journalists” for discussing censorship records). Others insisted that the allegations were still “unproven” or “unverified” while showing the same lack of interest in establishing the truth. Notably, these same media outlets did wall-to-wall coverage of the false Russian collusion claims in the Steele dossier.
    ————-
    A helper for GERM
    Elon Musk
    @elonmusk

    We cannot ascribe everything to the vaccine, but, by the same token, we cannot ascribe nothing.

    Myocarditis is a known side-effect. The only question is whether it is rare or common.

    7:50 AM · Jul 25, 2023 3.9M Views 4.8K replies 4,381 Retweets1,407 Quotes 23.4K Likes 580 Bookmarks
    ———–

    #139899
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Aspnaz’s coffee seems to be working well this morning , lots of astute one liners and one particularly interesting observation about erroneous data coming from the typical “Consumer Grade” weather reports being promulgated over the main stream media outlets there in Hong Kong. Interesting. I have recently noticed the same thing on with our weather channels here in eastern Missouri. They are ALWAYS significantly wrong about stuff that’s forecast to happen within hours and days, and then revise the forecast back towards real conditions as the exact present moment approaches. This “corrected at the last possible moment” behavior is so extremely consistent that I have come to believe that it is both intentional and purposeful.

    My working hypothesis is that they are cooking the numbers and fudging the algorithms that predict near-term future weather (and especially so for the radar animation of storm and rain cell movement) , with the long term purpose of “building a case” for constructing dire climate change scenarios & scary stories for local viewers everywhere.

    It’s amazing what computers allow you to do with numbers, especially when people have come to believe that the numbers spewed out by computers are as good as the real thing when it comes to describing reality.

    #139900
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Ya know, the Luddites told us what would happen as a consequence of mechanization of human work. That’s why they got cancelled (they were murdered en masse, actually, and survivors transported to penal colonies). The name is still a derogatory term, and people still ridicule the movement, but were they wrong?

    Now the neo-Luddites are telling us the same thing about robotics (digitalization, tokenization,
    computerization, surveillance and “Big Data”) . That’s why they’re being cancelled. People ridicule them. But are they wrong?

    I maintain that using mechanism to perform tasks that humans can do better (like think, understand and judge) is worse than a slippery slope. It’s a laundry chute, to total individual incompetence.

    #139901
    tboc
    Participant

    Western Culture is mired in the sixteenth century and everyone who is anyone is joyfully and righteously constrained by the Enlightenment.
    Western minds are not stupid they are trained. Want to see many western humans go Pavlov’s Dog? Say “This is an exclusive one time offer that has the potential for extremely high profitability, get in on the ground floor”. Watch the salivating start.

    300,000 humans sacrificed to Mammon and people are pissed off about Twitter. The cold blooded murder at Nagasaki, the Cold War with Mackinder then the Grand Chessboard, the constant dunn of hate toward anyone even suggesting that Might does not make Right are deemed to be a sign of sophistication. The jokes about the Poles being dumb told by humans that believe they are indispensible and have a manifest destiny to rule the globe.

    best not to even start in on the deference to authority: “Just a few words so our audience will be sufficiently bamboozled”. “Well Billy Bob I have more letters after my name than a transexual wearing a rainbow tutu, combat boots and a MAGA cap”. “It is well known you are an expert in your field”. “That is correct William Robert I am a has been drip under pressure”! ” I am sure our audience appreciates that”.

    “I believe that there will be ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don’t think it will be based on the color of the skin.” ~ Malcolm X

    How much time have MacGregor or Ritter spent in Ukraine at the front in the last six months? Why are they still talking? It’s an inside job. Their talk is profitable, has no value, it is profitable. “better job with higher wages expenses paid and a car, but I’m on TV here locally, I can’t quit I’m a star” Roger Miller

    #139902
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    We’ve all heard the old aphoristic translation from ancient texts that sagely proclaims “As Above, So Below” . It’s a great starting point for a whole slew of interesting conversations about deeply important questions, but there’s one thing about it that I’ve never heard anyone else talk about.

    But before getting in to that one should first of all, clearly state the accepted wisdom of what the phrase even means to say. In other words, what is the meaning of the statement, “As Above, So Below”?

    Just Google it. What you’ll find is something like this : “Above, So Below: Meaning & Usage
    The phrase ‘as above, so below’ is an ancient quote to describe the idea that what happens in a higher realm or plane of existence also happens in a lower realm. It comes from an ancient piece of writing called the Emerald Tablet.”

    Like I said earlier, that notion has been the topic of a countless myriad conversation, research, debate and academic treatises. There have literally trillions of words thunk, spoken and inscribed concerning that subject.

    But to the best of my knowledge NOBODY has considered the possibility that the phrase is meant to be taken as not just true, and not just LITERALLY true, but indeed as being ALWAYS true. In other words, no matter where one is on the ladder, what exists above is going to be like what exists below. Go upward a rung or ten rungs or a thousand , and it is still simply true that “As above, So below” (metaphorically speaking, of course).

    I’m reminded of Socrates’ advice to, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

    Indeed, and it is the SAME battle that you’re fighting, but possibly from a position either above or below where you happen to be at the moment.

    #139903
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Ask me anything. I will either answer truthfully or plead the 5th, but I will NOT deliberately bamboozle you under any circumstances. Ever. Same rule that I demand of myself.

    #139904
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Being “saved” is a direction, not a condition.

    #139905
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Why is the West becoming so increasingly #@%#$ed up? In multiple arenas?

    Dr D from yesterday:

    AFKTT doesn’t MAKE CO2 true with his religious math. Why would you be bothered he IMAGINES the world is ending? Let him imagine in peace.

    This portrays a scenario that simply is not happening. This is not reality. This is a shared hallucination.

    Back when I took some business courses in college, Japan was used as a sort of case study to explain how, when doing business in foreign countries, you need to take into account different cultures.

    For instance, a movie is being made in Japan and they need extras. They interview a ton of people, ask a whole bunch of questions “You can come on X date X time? You WILL show up?” Everything checks out. Shooting day comes, no extras show up. WTF is with these people?

    It turned out that there was an intrinsic, basic rule of politeness the Japanese were following in response to the way Westerners were asking questions. Westerners did not take account of it in structuring their questions and for the Japanese, it was so intrinsic, they didn’t even think to point it out.

    So, as part of business education, we point at other cultures, their inscrutable hidden rules, and – quite rightly – admonish that we be aware. But it isn’t just the East that has inscrutable iron laws, followed, but not perceived. The West and particularly America have equally iron laws, unspoken, socially enforced, never consciously discussed or analyzed.

    These rules are enforced even on PERCEPTION — this is why multiple forum members jumped in to regulate me – and I admit, I created that situation with some premeditation, to SHOW rather than just tell. It was a bit of a psychological strain for me to do it this way. Against my own baseline cultural norms. (there was one other reason I did it, which I’ll get to if it becomes relevant) I disliked doing it.

    Another Japan story

    A fellow high school student was a foreign exchange student over the summer. To Japan. Per Western norms, to be ingratiating and affectionate, she admired a hundreds year old mask hanging on the wall of her host’s home. We try to be nice that way in the West. Even if a person is screwed up, a jerk, whatever, we will try to find SOMETHING to compliment them on. Their hair, their shirt, a good quip or a sense of humor, the color they chose to paint their accent wall in, ANYTHING. We’ll try to find SOMETHING to overtly admire to the person.

    Unfortunately, in Japan, this meant they needed to give her the priceless mask, so they did. She tried to get out of it, but there was clearly no escape. She was heartbroken at taking this priceless heirloom out of their home and family. She told the story – in tears – in our Asian Studies class. Our teacher explained what she needed to do next: ABSOLUTELY do not send the gift back. Definitely don’t do nothing. You must, if you want to not be a jerk, find something of equal monetary, aesthetic, and historical value and gift them with it.

    So what is our ironclad cultural norm, blind spot? It’s the basis of classical liberalism. It’s what makes our society and civilization so incredibly strong, adaptive, beneficial.

    You watched me do it with AFKTT during that 3-4 month period where I really, honestly tried to understand the Climate Meltdown worldview. I kept saying “I am no better than you” and various encouraging things. Even though I actually AM better. I feel VERY uncomfortable typing the previous sentence. See? We’re like the Japanese.

    We in Western civilization believe DEEPLY in a particular kind of equality. We believe in standards. We believe that everyone can rise to meet THOSE standards – of being GOOD people. Deeply.

    So when someone is NOT being good, is NOT playing fair, is being deceitful, nasty, destructive, we reach out and say – you are my equal. Typically, cognitive dissonance between how they are ACTUALLY behaving and the compliment. The instinctive human reaction is then to measure up to the standards they were complimented on.

    Doing the opposite – condemnation – is generally forbidden. Just plain BAD.

    As De Toqueville said, America is a machine for making Americans and all you need to do to be an American is to WANT to be.

    So people come to the West because not only politics but the good life in every respect is downstream from culture. And they aren’t quite ready to fit in, measure up. And we compliment them. And then they respond by measuring up. And then they absorb the cultural regulation and do likewise. It is a gentle, kind, subtle way to keep things on a high level.

    Think back on AFKTT’s time here. Practically everyone else, no matter how acrimonious the interaction, HAS reached out across the gulf. Found SOMETHING to compliment, some gesture, has followed the unwritten cultural rules – even me – but not AFKTT, not in all the hundreds of thousands of words typed.

    Because, as he revealed incontrovertibly himself, he subscribes to deconstructionist, postmodernist, Marxist critical theory – using topics like Ukraine and The Not A Vax to gain street cred, in-group authority, only to concentrate on using Fake Environmentalism to demoralize, corrode.

    When Winston is sent to room 101 and is told to believe 2 + 2 = 5, is the person telling him this DELUDED? Does Winston just need to follow the unwritten Western cultural rules and let them, sadly, be misguided, and call on them to be better in the inscrutable Western way?

    When Captain Picard is captured by the Cardassians and they want him to say and believe that there are 5 lights, are the Cardassians misguided? Deluded? Is there a BELIEF they have that is wrong and just need to change in light of judicious study of reality?

    What IS 2 + 2 = 5? NOT delusion. NOT a belief.

    2+2=5 is a thing that I do …TO YOU.

    An unspoken rule in Western culture is that “It’s just words”

    But children raised by Malignant Narcissists are hurt without the parent laying a finger on them – WITH WORDS.

    Perfectly healthy adults, if they end up in a relationship with a Malignant Narcissist, can acquire a full blown case of CPTSD from a year relationship without a finger being laid upon them. WITH WORDS.

    AFKTT is running 2+2=5 on everyone here incessantly.

    And yet we all require each other to believe
    1.) We’re no better than AFKTT – he’s just as good as us
    2.) It’s just words
    3.) It’s just a mistaken belief

    no, he is, to the fullest extent that he can, running 2+2=5 on you — and 2+2=5 isn’t AT ALL a mistaken belief, “just words” certainly ISN’T what happens to Winston or Captain Picard, and he is revealed as DEEPLY not as good as you by running it over and over again — IMPLACABLY and unchangingly I might add for years.

    When I started to say things along this line, multiple people jumped in. We all saw it. It is deeply uncomfortable for us all. It was uncomfortable for me just now typing it. VERY.

    He isn’t a dude that is confused by a faulty climate change belief. He posted a manifesto from a critical theory marxist fake environmentalist. He’s deeply imbued in a totally foreign culture antithetical to yours, partially designed specifically to BE corrosive to and take advantage of your most basic premises.

    We insist that he IS just misguided, to regulate our society and social norms. It may be perceived by HIM as a weakness and those following its rules to be rubes, chumps, but it is a basic agreed social contract. It is survival. It is REALITY.

    I am saying he is functioning totally OUTSIDE of those norms, is very purposely for YEARS attempting to both take advantage of those norms and corrode them. He is not misguided. He is TARGETED. He isn’t even really concerned about the Environment AND YOU KNOW IT but you deny it and say it’s “just” that. But you know it isn’t. You do.

    So people, have some faith in your own values. RECOGNIZE when someone is OUTSIDE OF and not accidentally, not misguidedly, but fully aware and actively against them, determined to take full advantage of them, contemptuous of you FOR them while YOU continue to deploy them in maintaining respect for this fellow human being.

    Understand that your inscrutable Western cultural norms, the underlying basis for our powerful classical liberalism is something he is COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF in every sense. And start treating him… ACCURATELY instead of responding to a shared superimposed cultural hallucination.

    When he runs 2+2=5, he is NOT engaging in ANYTHING inside of our culture.

    #139906
    jb-hb
    Participant

    When a creature has developed into one thing, he will choose death rather than change into his opposite

    From Frank Herbert’s Dune

    Duke Leto has an admirable code of honor and life. He ends up in an elaborate sociopolitical trap. He dies and his entire line is just barely not wiped out because he does not want to change – his code, his actions, his perceptions, his particular appreciation of meaning in reality, really.

    When God hath ordained a creature to die in a particular place, He causeth that creature’s wants to direct him to that place.

    Also from Dune

    #139907
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    White House dog bites
    What turns my head is the idea that with all of that money, influence, and power that the white house inhabitants can’t seem to acquire a dog that has been sufficiently trained to occupy a home that is forever being frequented by people with whom the dog is not acquainted. This seems to be very basic to the understanding of how dogs view the world. Every time someone new comes to my home I know that I must introduce my mid-sized dog, and ensure that the dog knows that this person is accepted by me, so that he, too, accepts the individual. He isn’t prone to biting anyone (except houseflies, whom he swallows,) but the slim possibility is there when someone new walks through the door, and I’m aware of this. People who are neither going to take the time to train and get to know their own dog, nor going to pay for someone else to train the dog, should not keep dogs.

    #139908
    Germ
    Participant


    TVASSF

    #139909
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-weather/2020/08/11/officially-phoenix-hottest-summer-record-since-1895/3350290001/

    Basically, we have not had the highest summer temps this year — nothing over 119F yet — but it seems that there is obligation to push the climate change narrative. So, instead they comb the data for data sets that show that this year is the hottest thing yet, and craft an article around it:

    The average maximum temperature this summer has been 107.9 degrees. Runners-up are 107.6 degrees in both 1989 and 1978.
    The average temperature this summer has been 96 degrees. Runners-up are 95.4 degrees in 2016 and 95.3 degrees in 2006.
    The average minimum temperature this summer has been 84.2 degrees, tied with the same temperature in 2006 and followed by 83.7 degrees in 2016.

    The article, towards the end, does have the honesty to bring up the urban heat island effect, which affects Phoenix temperatures in a major way. It doesn’t mention that we have been on an upswing from the little ice ages since the 1600s (nod to Dr D — I didn’t remember the century for this off the top of my head), nor that temperatures in Phoenix have only been recorded since 1895 (no idea when temps began to be recorded for the rest of the state), which means we have no more than 130 years data to look at. Yes, that is longer than a human lifespan, but it isn’t surprising that there would be trend lines that we would see — our records don’t stretch back far enough to give us sufficient perspective. Trend lines are interesting…but they are not shocking — the data set isn’t all that long.

    #139910
    Germ
    Participant

    Sex-specific differences in myocardial injury incidence after COVID-19 mRNA-1273 Booster Vaccination

    “Among 777 participants, median age 37 years, 69.5% women, 40 participants (5.1% [95%CI, 3.7%–7.0%]) had elevated hs-cTnT concentration on day 3 and mRNA-1273 vaccine-associated myocardial injury was adjudicated in 22 participants (2.8% [95%CI, 1.7%–4.3%]). Twenty cases occurred in women (3.7% [95%CI, 2.3%–5.7%]), two in men (0.8% [95%CI, 0.1%–3.0%]).”

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejhf.2978

    Holy fuck – 69.5% of women had elevated troponin levels!

    ☠☠☠

    TVASSF (they fucking are)

    #139911
    jb-hb
    Participant

    “Do you realize you have made the same KIND of argument, your numbers change EVERY TIME?”
    jb-jb
    If you were paying any attention at all, you’d notice that the dates change.

    He expects onlookers to believe that this could logically explain a variation in “increased CO2” claims ranging from 3.74% to 0.93% as applied to a one year change

    (3.74%/0.93%) x 100 = a 402% variation in claimed “scientific” CO2 increases – various claims in that range claimed in a SINGLE DAY by AFKTT

    He has no shame whatsoever and thus no self-respect. Such cultural norms as shame and self respect are anethema to his nihilistic creed which is specifically derivitive OF your own values dear viewer, only tailored to be opposite of, a denial of, corrosive TO, your own values – on purpose.

    Jul. 24, 2023 422.17 ppm (0.042217%)
    Jul. 23, 2022 418.43 ppm (0.041843%)

    0.042217% – 0.041843% = 0.000374% change

    … but human-generated CO2 accounts for 4% of the earth’s atmospheric CO2

    So 0.000374% x 0.04 = 0.00001496%

    less than two HUNDRED thousandths OF one percent change by humans

    …and FOR THIS, AFKTT believes:

    It would be better if everything and everyone you ever knew never existed. Everything you ever took joy in, everything you ever hoped for, everything you ever valued. It would be better if you and everything you valued never were, but it would at least be better if you and 7 billion could be dead now at the very least”

    because of a 0.00001496% change in CO2?

    We are of course, taking his ppm figures at face value for the sake of argument, despite the fact that less than a week ago, he was crowing the “hottest climate ever” lies that we know are based on measuring hot ground instead of historical air temperatures – for the purpose OF lying to us about temeratures

    Yet he never ever retracts, never apologizes. Because of how HONEST he is?

    BTW, Climate Meltdowners are even worse than you think. They deny the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

    Per the 2nd law of thermodynamics, increased CO2 would actually COOL the earth. AFKTT is such a Science Guy, he knows why, right?

    #139912
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    DBS
    I maintain that using mechanism to perform tasks that humans can do better (like think, understand and judge) is worse than a slippery slope. It’s a laundry chute, to total individual incompetence.

    It is more than that. A machine can create music that is technically “perfect.” However, this can never supplant the effects on an individual from the discipline of learning to create music that approaches “perfection.” Nor can it replicate the results on human society that come from humans that have trained themselves in music.

    Other disciplines work this way as well, be they carpentry, auto mechanics, drafting, writing, etc. Machines are good at relieving humans from repetitive motions that can wear down and wear out our biological hardware. Machines can substitute for situations where learning must occur in gestalt with other humans when competent others are not readily available. (Such as learning to jam to music by playing with recorded music.). They can relieve us from repetitive thought processes that we have already mastered, enabling us to move on to a next level. But when machines are used to free us from learning and experiencing physical and mental disciplines, we become lax, we never fully mature, we skip over important developmental stages and fall short of our human potential.

    #139913
    Germ
    Participant

    Correction – it meant that 5.1 per cent had elevated troponin levels and 2.8per cent had myocardial injury.

    TVASSF (indeed)

    #139914
    Dr. D
    Participant

    I presume If he’s not a programmer either you’re saying Elon is then good for nothing?

    “So when someone is NOT being good, is NOT playing fair, is being deceitful, nasty, destructive, we reach out and say – you are my equal.
    Doing the opposite – condemnation – is generally forbidden. Just plain BAD.”

    Wow, I don’t have this knowledge or impulse AT ALL. Never occurred to me to lie, since that’s almost universally unhelpful. Doesn’t anyone watch Sitcoms? They always lie every episode, and always get caught. That’s why Americans are so honest, I think.

    Since that’s the case, when AFKTT uses words, I say he’s mistaken, or even a stubborn unpleasant dum-dum. …Then forget all about it. Because I have no actionable steps concerning him. The only moral platform is to express my opinion in a direct and possibly even persuasive way. I can deduce the motivations and internal space but can’t confirm it. They’re his. We don’t arrest and confine IDEAS, we arrest and prosecute ACTION. Even knowing that when someone talks, their action is seldom far behind.

    Personally, I’m familiar with such things as I said in the Prepper world, and it’s a mental illness of a sort, a mild kind. Is there anyone without one? Does O’Brien think 2+2=5? No. But after he’s done with Winston, Winston actually DOES believe that. And as with Climate. And why? The same reasons: pure, intentional, ceaseless, psychological torture.* Which is why he’s also constantly alarmed, unpleasant, etc, he’s got a thorn in his foot, but thinks he doesn’t. That splinter – of pure lies — is making him mad. But I expect the torture – or the resulting position of construction of his psychology – has him actually PROTECTING the splinter, the way your finger grows around it, but around it painfully. You know THAT is the issue and keep messing with it, pointing at it, but don’t know why. What are you going to do, deny it? Cut your finger off? No, silly, we CARE about you: extract the foreign object that is not true and not supposed to be there.

    To do as you have you must ATTRIBUTE intentional malice, an internal state of being I can’t observe. Now there’s little difference in practice between someone of intentional malice and someone just lost in delusion. Yet as they say: while in practice, there is a difference.

    I don’t think it’s intentional at all, nor with 99% of people. But they’ll round me up and happily kill me just the same. Now you’ve attributed anti-life and a suicidal death cult to him. But now this is the same: if it’s INTENTIONAL, don’t you have to round up and kill HIM? Like the Socialists do? Fair’s fair and that’s only logical, right?

    Or you could take my point of view and persuade them instead. Take the sliver out and live pain free.

    Yes, Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” uses all 100 Satanic tricks to abuse good men for being good. Good men win anyway, and like a con, mostly you can’t be taken advantage of if you H O L D F A S T to the Good and don’t compromise and find temptation. What is that whole book? “For man does not live by bread alone?” “‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ …And then the devil left Him.

    The “good men” fall for this s—t because they’re weak, lazy, and don’t Hold Fast. They want Mercy, but not Justice. They want accolades, but not duty. So when bad-faith actors appear, they just keep engaging. When the law is broken – but only a little – they “let it slide.” Alinsky and his Satanic-welcoming Socialist brotherhood count on this. And they win, as nobody’s perfect. Yet they don’t count on their own side being all tangled up, stupid, lazy, selfish, chaotic, and back stabbing each other all the time, which is their weakness.

    My Army is going to have a weakness. So I’d rather it were that they were too good, too willing to accommodate, and too zealous in defending Justice.

    This personal case? I don’t have to engage, I don’t have to accommodate, and I often don’t. I barely tweak his nose to let him know I’m still here, and his plan is still stupid and unscientific in every way, and that basically everybody knows it. ‘Cause I have things to do. But I hope one day – and the days are running out – something will get through and he’ll start to wonder about the pain, the splinter, and how if everyone who ever gave him this data is a liar, every thermometer is broken, all in the same direction, then maybe everyone’s been had.

    Maybe. He hasn’t committed any crimes in my jurisdiction, so he’s free to walk around and speak. That’s how it goes.

    * It’s a textbook specific intentional torture and psychological breakdown procedure to make people agree with a thing they know is false. Which is why they force us to confirm trangender/no gender, or masks, for instance. It’s literally torture, and somewhere up the line, someone literally knows this and what they’re doing. Since it’s society-wide, it is therefore torture of women and children for which we will neither forget nor forgive. But “people” aren’t stupid. It’s not an “accident.” It’s criminal assault.

    “When God hath ordained a creature to die in a particular place, He causeth that creature’s wants to direct him to that place.”

    There’s a Russian saying he probably got that from. It’s something like: “You can’t drown a hanged man.”

    #139915
    Germ
    Participant

    1 in 35!

    ☠️☠️☠️

    TVASSF

    #139916
    jb-hb
    Participant

    pure, intentional, ceaseless, psychological torture.

    …which is what is ACTUALLY happening when AFKTT puts words to digital ink here. It is NOT an event that fits in the category of discussion. And this is a discussion forum of sorts.

    all 100 Satanic tricks to abuse good men for being good

    Yes, exactly that, yes. Essentially “satanic” in a way even an atheist really should bring themselves to apprehend unless they have a death wish. However one finds a way to conceive of it and fit it into their worldview, unless they think NOTHING can be wrong and NOTHING can be contemptible, vital to apprehend. If one is atheist, all the MORE reason to believe goodness must be relentlessly emergent from actual reality. From where else, unless goodness isn’t actually good?

    I think it is important to consciously know and say it

    We know this because THEY TELL US. This is like asking why Hitler did the things he did and omg no one could imagine how bad it would be — but he TOLD EVERYONE in a book beforehand.

    They TELL US all the way to the deep, core level of how they conceive of reality, what their values are. A kind of derivative photo negative of our own values – which arise from being in the real world and being living human beings. Thus anti life, anti human consciousness, anti reality – satanic, if you want a single word for it. (this, coming from an atheist fwiw)

    What does Satan do – deny God and all his Works? And what is God, even from an atheist perspective? It would be much easier for nothing to exist than for something to exist. So wtf is all this existence and why am I a conscious being then? wtf. Say all you want, but like Galileo said, Still It Moves.

    Deep down at its core, the current year deconstructionist postmodernist neomarxist hermetic gnostics – for lack of a better term – say emphatically “No it does not!” and set up a whole system on that inversion.

    Which, after 4 months of Augean Stables labour, I revealed through successive peeling back of onion layers. And surely, I did not peel back the last ones. But peeled back enough.

    But THEY TELL US it is for being corrosive targeted AT values that address basic reality and facilitate civil society.

    My Army is going to have a weakness. So I’d rather it were that they were too good

    One point I am trying to make is that Western Civilization has more than one tool in the toolbox. We may have forgotten the ability to make antibodies against invading, malicious microbes, but they must be there. We don’t ONLY have civility as a hammer for every nail.

    Whackjobs trying to saw off the wing of the airplane they are on at 40,000 feet THINK that the antibody-response will be to be as awful as they are, thus “revealing” how right they were about humanity, reality, etc. But we should not accept this false dialectical premise.

    But there IS an appropriate although dormant antibody response. One that is moral. I think we need to rediscover it and USE it. I intend to feel my way towards it.

    I kind of felt you’d be making the reply you did and I thank you for it – I threw what I threw up against the wall HOPING someone would give me a counterargument. Engagement with you is never, in my personal experience and as a 3rd party observer, never a waste, so thank you. I felt – being, as I am, inside the same culture and sharing the same basic values – reassured, strengthened, cheered by your response.

    #139917
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @phoenixvoice re: “…from repetitive motions that can wear down and wear out our biological hardware.”

    Aye. Our software also. Fatigue and stultification, neuroses.

    I have a tangential reply to DBS: The Luddites simply tried to follow a different path. Theirs, with less complexity, wasn’t vulnerable to warpage in the way ours is. It is, of course, vulnerable to asteroid strikes (queue Niven quote). If human labor is the yardstick, it’s pretty dang hard to be dishonest about daily life.

    As the Dune quote re: type of being suggests to me, a life is a sculpted thing and cannot be easily changed, attempts at which may cause structural damage. Much of our core being is developed in parallel with our physical being, in youth. I grew up consuming optimistic SciFi and learning to use some spectacular machines. It’s difficult for me to accept that some Big Problems do not have solutions, or at least solutions that can be pertinent to humans or biological life in general.

    It leaves me wondering if all those ‘ADHD victims’ we’ve been drugging are actually new humans capable of handling the next order of complexity, and we’re just too dumb or too scared to let them run.

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