Aug 292023
 
 August 29, 2023  Posted by at 8:12 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Gustave Dore Dante before the wall of flames which burn the lustful 1868

 

Why Has Ukraine’s Zelensky Agreed to Hold Elections in 2024? (Sp.)
Does Washington Want to Get Rid of Zelensky? (Sp.)
Zelensky Demands Western Aid To Hold Elections (RT)
Zelensky Admits He Fears Being Abandoned By West (RT)
Ukraine Will Be Like Israel – Zelensky (RT)
West Is Happy To Feed Zelensky’s Fantasies About American F-16s (Bowes)
Kiev Sent 71-Year-old Soldier For NATO Training – FT (RT)
EU Ready For More Expansion Before 2030 – FT (RT)
Republican Congress Leader Slams Biden’s ‘Culture of Corruption’ (Tweedie)
Trump To GOP: Impeach “The BUM” Biden Or “Fade Into Oblivion” (SN)
Trump Rages After Activist Judge Sets Trial For March (ZH)
Trump Trial Date In Federal Jan. 6 Case Set For March 4 (NYP)
All Aboard the Impeachment Express (Jim Kunstler)

 

 

 

 

Newt

 

 

 

 

Tucker Orban

 

 

Scott Ritter

 

 

 

 

WEF

 

 

Same dude
https://twitter.com/i/status/1696263137211924605

 

 

 

 

Lyndsey Graham and Pocahontas went to Kiev last week, and all of a sudden we absolutely must have elections in Ukraine. Where most parties are banned as is most of the media. Does the US seek to consolidate Zelensky’s power, or to get rid of him? Does he want to get out while he can?

I broke up the first article into two pieces.

Why Has Ukraine’s Zelensky Agreed to Hold Elections in 2024? (Sp.)

Zelensky’s words differ greatly from the stance he voiced in May and later, in June, that elections would be possible only when hostilities are over. In mid-August, the Ukrainian president extended martial law for 90 days, until November 15. Normally, the Ukrainian parliamentary elections should have taken place no later than October 29, 2023, and presidential elections early next year. Zelensky’s apparent “change of heart” came after the visit of a bipartisan delegation of American lawmakers led by influential Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on August 23. Graham and his Democratic counterparts, Senators Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren, met Zelensky in Kiev and made it clear to him that he should hold presidential elections in 2024. “We need an election in Ukraine next year. I want to see this country have a free and fair election even while it is under assault,” Graham told reporters during a briefing in Kiev. The GOP senator claimed that Ukraine “has changed” because “in the past it was a very corrupt country,” but now “Ukrainians are not profiting” from US aid.

“And I believe that it is time for Ukraine to take the next step in the development of democracy, namely to hold elections in 2024,” Graham reiterated. It’s not the first time Western leaders have urged the Kiev regime to hold elections: in mid-May, Tiny Kox, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) stated that Ukraine must hold parliamentary and presidential elections despite martial law being in effect. In response, Oleksii Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), told the European body at the time: “I want to stress that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has to realize that we have our own Constitution and our own laws, which we must observe.” Speaking to the Washington Post at the time, Zelensky summed up: “If we have martial law, we cannot have elections. … If there is no martial law, then there will be [elections].”

“Zelensky and his inner circle – Oleksii Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and Coordinator of the Presidential Staff, firmly rejected any request to hold elections,” Dr. Marco Marsili, associate fellow at the Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis and former public official and election observer for the OSCE/ODIHR, told Sputnik. “These people, they do not want to lose power under any circumstances. The World Bank’s recently estimated reconstruction and recovery costs in Ukraine up to US $411 billion (equivalent of €383 billion), 2.6 times the country’s estimated 2022 GDP. An opportunity too good to miss.” “Tiny Kox, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of which Ukraine is a member, hopes that Ukraine will hold presidential and parliamentary elections, as nothing prevents for organizing them, except the Constitution and the government that, by renewing the martial law, creates the legal conditions for suspending the popular vote, according to the fundamental law. The Verkhovna Rada may simply amend the Constitution or introduce an exception in the martial law in order to carry out elections,” the researcher emphasized.

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Zelensky has a competitor, Serhiy Prytula. Who is, you can’t make it up, a Ukrainian actor and stand-up comedian, who belongs to a different oligarch.

Does Washington Want to Get Rid of Zelensky? (Sp.)

It appears that Zelensky was forced to bow down to US congressmen’s insistence on holding the elections even though the timing does not look perfect: the botched Ukrainian counteroffensive and gargantuan losses on the battlefield don’t play into the hands of the Ukrainian incumbent and his entourage. International military observers doubt that the Kiev regime has any chance of tipping the balance in its favor. But that is not all. “Despite the ban of 11 pro-Russian parties, including OPZZh (Opposition Platform-For Life), once the second largest party in the nation and the largest pro-Russian party in the country, Zelensky faces the growing support that Serhiy Prytula is gaining,” said Marsili. “Obviously, in a democratic election there shouldn’t be any parties that are not allowed to participate, like pro-Russian parties. The majority of the population may want a negotiated solution to the conflict – war is never popular, and a travel ban was introduced in Ukraine to avoid the fleeing of conscripts.”

The question then arises as to why the US lawmakers as well as PACE politicians are pushing for elections in Kiev. Some Russian and Ukrainian observers believe that it’s not actually the democratic values that are at play in Ukraine but theearthly and vested interests of Kiev’s Western patrons. Per Russian political observers, the US foreign policy establishment has some sort of “Zelensky fatigue.” The Zelensky cabinet is not easy to deal with; the Ukrainian president is trying to twist Washington’s hand into providing more weapons and money which Team Zelensky is reportedly routinely embezzling. In April, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh cited the CIA’s estimates that Zelensky and his entourage embezzled at least $400 million From US aid in 2022 alone.

In addition, Russian observers suggest that London’s influence on Kiev is still stronger than that of Washington. That’s why US policymakers are seeking to either make Zelensky “more agreeable” given that the elections pose a certain challenge to him or replace him with another political figure altogether. According to the observers, a likely US favorite in the Ukrainian potential presidential race is Serhiy Prytula. Prytula is a Ukrainian actor and stand-up comedian who switched to politics after 2019. He is named as an initiator of the “People’s Bayraktar” project and campaigns to gather money for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Ukrainian press earlier reported that Prytula’s political campaign is a brainchild of Victor Pinchuk, an influential Ukrainian oligarch famous for his longstanding ties to the Clinton political dynasty.

Between 2008 and 2021, Prytula worked for Ukrainian TV channel “Novy Kanal”, the ultimate beneficiary of which is Victor Pinchuk and his wife Olena Franchuk, daughter of the second president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma. Some observers suggest that the way Prytula is still being “advertised” by Pinchuk replicates Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky’s project of bringing comedian Zelensky to power in Ukraine. Some Ukrainian observers, most notably Tatyana Montyan, a Ukrainian lawyer and former politician, appear to hold a different stance: she presumed on her Telegram account that the US foreign policy establishment does not want to get rid of Zelensky in whom they have already invested a lot.

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“I am not asking for anything. I will not conduct an election on credit. Neither will I take money out of [funding for] arms and hand it out for an election..”

Zelensky Demands Western Aid To Hold Elections (RT)

Westerners calling for Ukraine to hold elections during the conflict with Russia should be prepared to pay millions of dollars and “take risks” on the front line to ensure that ballots are legitimate, President Vladimir Zelensky has said. Speaking during a TV interview on Sunday, Zelensky addressed criticism in the West over the suspension of democratic processes in Ukraine and suggested a price tag for holding a presidential election next year. The Ukrainian leader specifically referenced comments by US Senator Lindsey Graham during his visit to Kiev last week. “I asked him: are you prepared to give me five billion?” Zelensky said, describing his conversation with the US politician. Zelensky did not clarify the currency he was referring to, but the value in Ukrainian hryvnia would equate to around $135 million.

The amount would also tally with a recent estimate by the Ukrainian authorities on how much it would cost to hold a presidential election next year. Zelensky further suggested that the level of assistance required may be even higher. “I am not asking for anything. I will not conduct an election on credit. Neither will I take money out of [funding for] arms and hand it out for an election,” the Ukrainian leader insisted. “The most important thing is: let us take risks together then, how else? Observers [of the election] will have to be in the trenches,” he added. Ukraine cannot legally hold elections under martial law. Graham discussed the situation during a press briefing in Kiev, saying: “I want to see this country have a free and fair election even while it is under assault.” Zelensky claimed he had explained the situation to the US senator, who supposedly agreed with his reasoning.

The Republican is a vocal advocate of arming and funding Kiev, and stated last year that with support, Ukraine “will fight to the last person” against Russia, describing it as the right “structural path.” Zelensky said he would not oppose an election, provided that Western nations are willing to extend the necessary funding and risk lives, and if the Ukrainian parliament amends the law accordingly. Ukraine faced accusations that its democratic institutions were being eroded long before hostilities with Russia broke out in February 2022. Zelensky’s government has cracked down on opposition parties and media, claiming the steps were necessary to curb Moscow’s influence inside the country. During his TV interview on Sunday, the Ukrainian leader suggested that criticism over the absence of elections was a ploy to undermine US support for Kiev.

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If he launches attacks inside Russia…

Zelensky Admits He Fears Being Abandoned By West (RT)

Kiev would risk losing international support if its conflict with Moscow spilled over into Russian territory, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has claimed. Russian officials have accused Ukraine of launching numerous “terrorist attacks” inside their country, including on Moscow. In a TV interview on Sunday, Zelensky insisted that Ukraine is prepared for a “long fight” against Russia, provided it could mitigate the level of casualties. When asked by journalist Natalia Moseichuk if the conflict should “move to the territory of Russia,” the Ukrainian leader responded: “That would pose a great risk that we would be left alone.”

Kiev insists that it only attacks military targets inside regions that it claims sovereignty over, such as the Crimean Peninsula, and denies conducting strikes on Russian territory. That stance contradicts regular attacks on border regions as well as kamikaze drone raids deeper inside Russia, which Moscow has blamed on Kiev’s forces. The Ukrainian role in launching drone strikes on Russia as well as alleged Western complicity was highlighted in a report by The Economist on Sunday. According to the British news magazine, foreign sponsors provide intelligence to Ukrainian planners, while “Russia cannot lock down the entirety of its vast territory.”

The Ukrainian drone program has no single command but is backed by the government, the article claimed. While the arrangement fosters competition, it also means that “some of the operations targeting Moscow appear to be PR projects designed to bring a prototype to the attention of procurement bosses, rather than having military value,” the outlet reported. Moscow has long warned that by supplying increasingly advanced military capabilities to Kiev, Western nations are dragging themselves deeper into the conflict and risking escalation. Russia perceives the hostilities as part of a larger Western proxy war waged against Moscow. Washington has openly declared that it wants Russia to suffer a “strategic defeat” in the conflict with Ukraine.

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Limitless support.

Ukraine Will Be Like Israel – Zelensky (RT)

The US will provide long-term military aid to Kiev similar to the type of support that Washington extends to Israel, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has claimed. A potential leadership change in the White House would not affect that commitment, the Ukrainian leader insisted. During a TV interview on Sunday, Zelensky outlined the security guarantees that Ukraine is seeking from the US and its allies on its “path to NATO.” Leaders of the US-led military bloc failed to offer Ukraine a roadmap to membership at a summit in Lithuania last month, although G7 nations promised continued assistance. “We will definitely have an Israeli model, the one which has weapons, technologies, training, funding, etc,” Zelensky said.

Israel has been the biggest recipient of US foreign military aid since World War II, although annual allocations for Ukraine have surpassed those offered to West Jerusalem since hostilities between Moscow and Kiev erupted last year. The Middle Eastern nation is not part of NATO, meaning members of the bloc are not legally obliged to come to its defense in the event of attack. Washington, however, has described its commitments to Israeli security as “ironclad.” When asked by interviewer Natalia Moseichuk if Western security guarantees to Ukraine would survive a possible change of leadership in Washington, Zelensky was adamant that they would. “Those are things that are voted for in the [US] Congress,” he said, adding that similar agreements with European countries would likewise be ratified by their national legislatures.

Leadership changes in the US have previously resulted in Washington abandoning international commitments. The administration of former President Donald Trump infamously pulled out of the JCPOA, an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear industry which was widely considered a major diplomatic achievement under Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama. Western media have suggested in recent weeks that the US will not sustain its current level of support for Kiev next year, when Democratic leader Biden will be fighting for a second presidential term. Several Republican candidates have called for aid to Ukraine to be scrapped altogether, or at least reduced and subjected to stronger scrutiny. The list of critics includes Trump, who currently leads the race for the Republican nomination, according to opinion polls.

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“..a conflict only the very foolish could now believe will be won with a handful of 50-year-old fighter jets.”

West Is Happy To Feed Zelensky’s Fantasies About American F-16s (Bowes)

It’s important to pay attention to where information about the reality of the F-16s’ potential deployment comes from. That’s why, when US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair General Mark Milley warned that the planes won’t act as a “magic weapon” for Ukraine, many sober, nonaligned analysts took note. Milley pulled no punches as he tried to pour some cold water on Kiev’s expectations regarding the aging jet. “The Russians have 1,000 fourth-generation fighters,” said the general following a meeting of the multinational Ukraine Defense Contact Group in May. “If you’re gonna contest Russia in the air, you’re gonna need a substantial amount of fourth- and fifth-generation fighters, so if you look at the cost curve and do the analysis, the smartest thing to have done is exactly what we did do, which is provide a significant amount of integrated air defenses to cover the battlespace and deny the Russians the airspace.”

It seems that when a message isn’t playing to the narrative, the message gets conveniently shelved. General Milley’s comments are a sobering reminder of the undeniable battlefield reality, a truth routinely lost on Zelensky and company as the PR prerogative trumps the strategic reality on the ground yet again in Kiev. Interestingly, Milley also addressed the huge costs associated with the provision of the F-16 to Ukraine: “If you look at the F-16, ten F-16s cost a billion dollars, the sustainment cost [is] another billion dollars, so you’re talking about $2 billion for ten aircraft.” He also suggested that if the cash sent to Ukraine so far had been spent on this type of weapon, not on artillery and air defense, Kiev would be in a much worse position than it is today. “There are no magic weapons in war, F-16s are not and neither is anything else,” he said.

Of course, the blunt and, from a Ukrainian point of view, dismal reality is that Ukraine’s dilapidated infrastructure can’t even begin to accommodate these complex jets. Ukraine has no appropriate training facilities on its soil, and a mere eight Ukrainian pilots have begun training in Denmark. More are set to start the process in the US in October, but it would take years of preparation to have adequate pilots in any meaningful numbers. Another fact glossed over by Kiev is that the F-16s, should they ever get as far as Ukraine, will need a lot of ground maintenance infrastructure and highly complex logistical support, all of which would have to be deployed into what is essentially a war zone. No one on the NATO team seems to want to address the minor detail that the Russian Air Force will be hunting both the jets and the infrastructure from day one – another inconvenient reality conveniently ignored.

[..] While it now seems obvious that the actual provision of F-16s to Ukraine is probably nothing more than a far-off mirage, many now see the jet in the context where it actually belongs – as another NATO castoff cynically dumped into Ukraine by Washington’s allies on the promise of higher-tech replacements by a cash-hungry Uncle Sam. But given the dire performance of Western hardware on the battlefield so far, it will surprise no one if the US ultimately cans the entire project rather than suffer the embarrassing, and inevitable, images of burning F-16s joining those of American Bradleys and MaxxPros in the fields of southern and eastern Ukraine. So as the increasingly uneasy architects of this catastrophic conflict finally begin to accept that this all only ends one way, they’re likely to string Kiev along for as long as possible when it comes to the illusive F-16s, just like they’ve been doing with their promises of EU and NATO membership. Let’s not forget, it was those very same hollow promises that set Ukraine on the road to this devastating conflict with Russia, a conflict only the very foolish could now believe will be won with a handful of 50-year-old fighter jets.

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How far off is general mobilization?

Kiev Sent 71-Year-old Soldier For NATO Training – FT (RT)

One of the Ukrainian recruits sent by Kiev to Germany for training in the use of Western weapons in the conflict with Russia was 71 years old, the Financial Times has reported. The elderly man in question had volunteered to join the Ukrainian military, the British outlet reported on Monday. NATO instructors working at a military base near Klietz in northeastern Germany told the FT that they were impressed by the “tremendous motivation” of their Ukrainian trainees. However, they also pointed out that that the age and ability of Kiev’s troops arriving in Europe to learn arms usage “varies widely.” Ukrainian commanders on the front line often prefer to keep their best soldiers in the trenches with them instead of sending them for training abroad, the instructors complained.

Nick Reynolds, a research fellow in land warfare at British defense and security think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told the FT that on many occasions the military training provided by the West has not met Kiev’s expectations. Ukraine wants its troops to exercise with tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and drones, in conditions that match those on the actual battlefield but which can also be risky for the service personnel involved, Reynolds pointed out. However, European nations have low tolerance for training accidents, and this approach “doesn’t mesh well with [Kiev’s] requirements for trainees,” he explained.

One of the German trainers reported that he’s had some tensions with older Ukrainian commanders, who’d received their military education in Soviet times and “think they know better.” But “challenge number one” for the European program to teach the Ukrainian troops to use Western equipment is the lack of interpreters, Martin Bonn, a Dutch brigadier general who is deputy head of the multinational EU training mission, told FT. “The big challenge is the translation of words used in a military or technical context … words no one uses in everyday life,” Bonn said.

Language problems have also reportedly impeded the training of Ukrainian pilots to fly US-designed F-16 fighter jets, a program currently underway in Denmark. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh warned last week that Washington won’t greenlight the transfer of F-16s to Kiev by European countries until the Ukrainian airmen learn to speak English properly. Moscow has repeatedly warned that deliveries of weapons to Ukraine by the US and its European allies only prolongs the fighting and increases the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO. According to Russian officials, the supply of arms and training to Kiev’s troops, as well as intelligence-sharing, means that Western nations are already de-facto parties to the conflict.

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Moldova, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina

EU Ready For More Expansion Before 2030 – FT (RT)

The EU should focus on enlargement as one of its strategic goals in the coming years, European Council President Charles Michel is set to declare, according to the Financial Times. The British daily claims to have obtained an exclusive preview of what the Council chief will propose at a speech in Slovenia on Monday. Michel will reportedly call on the bloc to be ready to add new members by 2030 while “the window of opportunity is open.” “If we want to be credible, we must talk about timing,” Michel’s speech notes say, according to the FT. “As we prepare the EU’s next strategic agenda, we must set ourselves a clear goal… we must be ready, on both sides, by 2030 to enlarge.”

“We must now address enlargement as one of our major challenges. Both for the EU and for its future member states,” the European Council president will supposedly tell attendees at the Bled Strategic Forum, which will include leaders from EU candidate countries such as Moldova, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s expected that EU leaders will hold their next discussion on expansion in early October at a summit in the Spanish city of Granada. However, as noted by the FT, some in the bloc are concerned that going from the current 27 member states to over 30 could put a significant strain on the EU’s budget and complicate agricultural policy, regional aid, and decision-making processes.

In recent years Brussels has officially accepted Ukraine, Moldova and Albania as candidate countries, and launched a debate on whether to allow as many as eight countries to join in the foreseeable future. Since obtaining candidate status last year following the launch of Russia’s military campaign, Ukraine has been pushing the bloc to launch accession talks as soon as possible, preferably before the end of 2023. However, while some EU members – notably Germany – have said they are ready to support Ukraine in its bid to join the bloc, others have stressed that the process could take years, if not decades, as Kiev has yet to meet a number of necessary goals and pass reforms tackling corruption, oligarchs, human rights and the rule of law.

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Time to do something, McCarthy, talk is cheap.

Republican Congress Leader Slams Biden’s ‘Culture of Corruption’ (Tweedie)

Republican Congress leader Kevin McCarthy has condemned the “culture of corruption” shot through President Joe Biden’s family. In a TV news interview on Sunday, the House of Representatives speaker laid into the Democrat chief over the long list of revelations about how his son Hunter’s foreign business dealings — including alleged influence-peddling — linked back to the former senator and vice-president. “It looks like a culture of corruption that’s been happening within the entire Biden family,” McCarthy charged. “The American public deserves an answer. Who’s lying? What information went on? Who paid and what foreign governments?” The Republican pointed out that Biden’s repeated claim that he had no involvement or even knowledge of his son’s business dealings was now exposed as a lie.

“Only because Republicans took the majority have we found out what President Biden told us when he was running for office is not true,” McCarthy said. “We’ve now found out that not only did he call in to the meetings, he went to dinner. And after the dinner, Hunter Biden got a new Porsche that there was $3.5 million transferred.” The extensive network of graft uncovered so far implicates most of the Biden family, the Republican stressed. “We now found out as he was a sitting vice president, the family created 20 shell companies,” McCarthy noted. “They received 16 or 17 payments from Romania while he was vice president. We now found that the money would flow to nine family members.” The Republican also slammed the Biden administration and the federal agencies under its control for letting Hunter Biden escape a series of indictable charges.

“The special prosecutor David Weiss, actually let the statute of limitations run out on Hunter Biden’s taxes. We found that the FBI actually informed Hunter Biden and the inaugural committee prior to our ability to go and interview him,” McCarthy said. “We also have a DOJ that gave us tried to give a sweetheart deal to Hunter Biden, and the judge said no.” The Congress leader reiterated his threat to begin impeachment proceedings against Biden. “If you look at all the information we’ve been able to gather so far, it is a natural step forward that you would have to go to an impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy stressed. “That provides Congress the apex of legal power to get all the information they need.””We have an attorney general that could have lied to the American public… now named a special prosecutor,” along with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistle-blowers who “have come forward that show that there’s two forms of justice when it comes to America,” he added.

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“McCarthy said the same thing a month ago, but nothing has come of it yet.”

Trump To GOP: Impeach “The BUM” Biden Or “Fade Into Oblivion” (SN)

President Trump issued an ultimatum to Congressional Republicans Sunday, to either impeach Joe Biden or “fade into oblivion.” In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that “well meaning” Republicans in Congress “keep talking about an Impeachment ‘Inquiry’ on Crooked Joe Biden,” but they don’t seem tone doing anything about it. “Look, the guy got bribed, he paid people off, and he wouldn’t give One Billion Dollars to Ukraine unless they ‘got rid of the Prosecutor,” Trump continued. He added, “Biden is a Stone Cold Crook-You don’t need a long INQUIRY to prove it, it’s already proven.”

“These lowlifes Impeached me TWICE (I WON!), and Indicted me FOUR TIMES – For NOTHING!” Trump urged, before demanding “Either IMPEACH the BUM, or fade into OBLIVION. THEY DID IT TO US.” Trump’s comments came after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agains suggested that an impeachment inquiry of Biden could happen soon. In an interview with Fox News, the House Speaker said, “If you look at all the information we have been able to gather so far, it is a natural step forward that you would have to go to an impeachment inquiry.” McCarthy said the same thing a month ago, but nothing has come of it yet.

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12.8 million pages.

Trump Rages After Activist Judge Sets Trial For March (ZH)

Update (1450ET): Trump has responded to the trial date, saying on Truth Social: “Today a biased, Trump Hating Judge gave me only a two month extension, just what our corrupt government wanted, SUPER TUESDAY. I will APPEAL!” Amazing, eh?
* * *
Obama-appointed activist Judge Tanya Chutkan – who’s behind some of the most “extreme sentencing of January 6th defendants” while “openly supporting the violent Black Lives Matter riots of 2020” – has denied a request to move Donald Trump’s federal election-interference trial until after the 2024 US election. Instead, the trial will start March 4, 2024 in what the WSJ framed as ‘seeking a balance’ between prosecutors’ request for a Jan. 2 start date, and Trump’s request to push the trial to April 2026, citing the large volume of evidence they will have to examine, as well as the historic nature of the case. Trump is the first president in US history accused of blocking the peaceful transfer of power to his successor, which his lawyers characterized as “terra incognita.”

“Never in the history of the United States have we seen a case of this magnitude go to trial in four months, and this man’s liberty and life is at stake,” said Trump attorney John Lauro on Monday. “He deserves an adequate representation. He’s no different than any American.” Chutkan, a US District Court judge in the District of Columbia, previously worked at a law firm that represented Fusion GPS, the company that helped orchestrate the Russia collusion hoax targeting former President Donald Trump. During her stint with Boies Schiller Flexner, the Democrat-friendly law firm also reportedly represented Clinton Cabal foot soldier Huma Abedin, the former wife of disgraced Democrat Anthony Weiner. “Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four crimes on August 1st, including conspiring to defraud the U.S., obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring against the rights of voters, per the Journal.

The indictment points to actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters. Trump has denied wrongdoing and accused prosecutors of pursuing him to undermine his bid to return to the White House. One of Smith’s prosecutors, Molly Gaston, acknowledged that the discovery evidence so far amounts to 12.8 million pages, but said most of it had already been turned over to or previously reviewed by the defense. At least 25% of those pages are associated with Trump’s campaign and political-action committee, more than three million came from the U.S. Secret Service, and hundreds of thousands came from publicly available litigation, Gaston said. -WSJ”

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“Deranged Jack Smith & his team of Thugs, who were caught going to the White House just prior to Indicting the 45th President of the United States (an absolute No No!), have been working on this Witch Hunt for almost 3 years, but decided to bring it smack in the middle of Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent’s campaign against him..”

Trump Trial Date In Federal Jan. 6 Case Set For March 4 (NYP)

Former President Donald Trump’s federal trial on charges that he unlawfully tried to remain in power following his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden will begin March 4, a judge here ruled Monday. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan set proceedings to begin one day before Super Tuesday, when Republican voters in 15 states and territories go to the polls to select their choice to be the party’s 2024 presidential candidate. “After considering the parties’ briefs and arguments, I find that a trial beginning on March 4, 2024, would give the defense adequate time to prepare for trial and ensure the public’s interest in seeing this case resolved in a timely manner,” she said. While the trial date was set for two months after the prosecution’s proposed start of Jan. 2, Trump’s presidential campaign argued that the timing still “deprives” Trump of his “right to a fair trial, a seminal bedrock of America.”

“From setting a trial date for the day before ‘Super Tuesday’ to sending a fundraising email the moment of President Trump’s processing in Fulton County, the Biden regime is no longer hiding its nakedly political motivations,” read an unsigned statement from the campaign. The trial in the nation’s capital is set to start three weeks before Trump is due in Manhattan on charges related to payouts to porn star Stormy Daniels – despite both sides in the federal trial estimating they would each need up to six weeks to present their cases. It was not immediately clear Monday whether the Manhattan case would be rescheduled, though Chutkan said she had notified the New York judge, Juan Merchan, of her intention before handing down her ruling.

Trump was indicted in federal court Aug. 1 for allegedly making “knowingly false” claims of voter fraud, signing off on a scheme to submit fraudulent slates of electors to Congress, and sending rioters to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a desperate ploy to remain president. He faces four counts — conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights – and could be sentenced to up to 55 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

“Deranged Jack Smith & his team of Thugs, who were caught going to the White House just prior to Indicting the 45th President of the United States (an absolute No No!), have been working on this Witch Hunt for almost 3 years, but decided to bring it smack in the middle of Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent’s campaign against him,” Trump raged on Truth Social Monday. “Election Interference! Today a biased, Trump Hating Judge gave me only a two month extension, just what our corrupt government wanted, SUPER TUESDAY. I will APPEAL!” The former president’s defense team had pushed for a trial start date in April 2026, with attorney John Lauro charging the feds wanted “a show trial, not a fair trial.” Lauro also argued that he and his team needed to “absorb a gargantuan amount of facts” in discovery before he could provide an effective defense.

Prosecutor Molly Gaston argued in response that more than 60% of 12.8 million pages of discovery came from sources to which the Trump team already had access – including tweets, videos and statements by the former president himself. At one point in the hearing, Lauro spent 15 minutes haranguing Chutkan to grant the April 2026 trial date, punctuating his words by slamming his finger on his lectern. “Let’s take the temperature down a moment here,” Chutkan told Lauro. “I want to know, despite the rhetoric in your response, realistically why you need this time.” “Respectfully, what I’m saying is not rhetoric; it’s in defense of the Constitution and my client,” Lauro replied. “… I am saying without question that we cannot be ready under the circumstances of this case until we have a reasonable amount of time [to review evidence] consistent with justice.”

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“How is it possible that President Obama didn’t know what the Bidens were up to? (The Intel Community can’t be that incompetent.) You see how ugly this thing could get?”

All Aboard the Impeachment Express (Jim Kunstler)

Speaker McCarthy has to form an actual impeachment inquiry committee. (If he tries to demur, there could be a new Speaker of the House in short order.) That committee will entertain witnesses, including figures in Justice Department who have been reluctant to discuss these matters previously. This might entail a Part B of the inquiry: the blatant obstructions of justice by DOJ officials in the long-running case on various charges against Hunter Biden, as supervised by federal attorney in Delaware, now Special Counsel, David Weiss. Mr. Weiss dawdled so strenuously for five years that he let the statute of limitations run out on the major tax evasion charges, while he ignored all the allegations of Hunter’s FARA violations in seeking money from officials of many foreign governments.

There’s reason to believe that botching that case was well-coordinated with help from the Biden family DOJ “mole,” one Alexander S. Mackler, who had served as Senator Joe Biden’s press secretary in 2007-08, was campaign manager in 2010 for the Senator’s son, Beau Biden (deceased 2015), when he ran for Delaware Attorney General, and from 2014-16 was Deputy Counsel to Veep Joe Biden. Mr. Mackler was later inserted into the Delaware US attorney’s office as a prosecutor under David Weiss, from August 2016 to May 2019, while Hunter B’s case was under investigation. Did he function as the Bidens’ consigliere? Mr. Mackler was logged-in as a White House visitor five times after “Joe Biden” came to occupy it in 2021. Mr. Mackler is alleged to be currently serving as Chief Deputy Attorney General of Delaware (since 2019), but his name has been scrubbed by the agency’s website.

Perhaps all this will be reserved for the separate impeachments of Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Wray. Bribery, racketeering, and treason may be enough for a presidential impeachment. Would the gravity of an impeachment proceeding override witnesses’ refusal to testify on the grounds of “an ongoing investigation?” How could it not, if those investigations are themselves a subject of the inquiry? Would the mainstream news media ignore the spectacle to suppress it? They can try, and then maybe we’ll get a test of how irrelevant they’ve become. The House will surely televise the proceedings. There are too many other alt.channels that will broadcast impeachment hearings, probably led by X (formerly Twitter).

All of which raises the question: will “Joe Biden” really endure this ordeal? Or will the next thirty days be his window for exiting the scene? He is, after all, a mere prop in a show directed by others. Those others would include Barack Obama, who could easily be dragged into an inquiry about the Biden family’s criminal adventures in global money-grubbbing when Joe was Veep. How is it possible that President Obama didn’t know what the Bidens were up to? (The Intel Community can’t be that incompetent.) You see how ugly this thing could get?

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Home Forums Debt Rattle August 29 2023

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  • #142127

    Gustave Dore Dante before the wall of flames which burn the lustful 1868   • Why Has Ukraine’s Zelensky Agreed to Hold Elections in 2024? (Sp.) •
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle August 29 2023]

    #142129
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Jack Buffington: Deindustrialization, Demographics, & the Need for a New Supply Chain Model

    Dr. Jack Buffington discuses his new book “Reinventing the Supply Chain: A 21st-Century Covenant with America”. There were no supply chains before hydrocarbons and oil has been the lubricant, which allowed the U.S. to become the leader in manufacturing. Fearing the loss of the war machine economy, the U.S. transitioned to a consumer economy. He describes the disastrous effects of deindustrialization and how population decline poses a threat to the supply chain because there are not enough consumers. He explains the effect of Covid and the Ukraine War on the supply chain, what happens to consumption when AI takes over, and says we need a new model of supply chain to account for what needs to happen in the future.

    Jack Buffington: Deindustrialization, Demographics, & the Need for a New Supply Chain Model

    #142130
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “”Just What Our Corrupt Government Wanted”: Trump Rages After Activist Judge Sets Trial For March
    She “lamented” that President Trump “remains free to this day.”

    They were all so dangerous, she was sorry she had to let them go. Oh wait: One guy WASN’T let go and is still in jail. Joe Biden refused bail to the Black Man. Yup! That’s Joe! He’s the Blacks for Trump leader and would be on the campaign trail. Can’t have that! Hands up! Put that superpredator in prison! No buses for you!

    And why all this? Because latest polls say Trump wins already. Can’t be stopped. And why that? Same polls say if Black vote reaches 20% there is no possible path for Democratic victory. So…We’ll just put all the Black people in jail and help them vote right. The way Massah says.

    “Watch: Romney Calls Bottomless Ukraine Aid “The Best National Defense Spending We’ve Ever Done”

    Please never stop talking. This is why we have freedom of speech. Who is he talking TO? ‘Cause it ain’t us. It’s some Rich Men North of Richmond alright, but their name starts with “Raytheon” and “BlackRock”.

    “Biden To Fund New COVID Vaccine “For Everybody… Whether They’ve Gotten It Before Or Not”

    Another vaccine for a variant we don’t have that doesn’t kill anybody.

    “Half of Transgender Prison Inmates Convicted of Sex Crimes: Wisconsin Data

    Tracking down and harming women wherever they are found. Not safe anywhere. Trans people have sexual issues: who knew?

    He’s clearly cognitively disadvantaged… I personally think Obama runs the Administration— not Joe Biden… The depth of corruption is breathtaking.”

    Which is why they’re doing nothing at all about it. Sure, it takes time and care to do Hunter and Joe. But they got 500 officials in the Executive obstructing justice and perjuring themselves, plus Garland specifically and openly breaking the law on special council. So…you didn’t even file on that? Afraid of getting arrested if you ask questions and file legal procedure?

    “None of our leaders are punished for lying. Instead, regular people are punished for telling the truth.”

    As per Jimmy Dore and Pasta were running down the list of people lying vs whistleblowers. Mass murder war crimes, illegal bioweapons lab that not only illegally developed deadly diseases but released them? Many times? (that’s why they were moved offshore to begin with) That = A 60% raise, highest paid federal employee. To report on it? Still in jail. Or shooting civvies from a chopper, or releasing emails that you were taking massive bribes, or…

    …Or filing lawsuits to investigate and stop them.

    The world sure is weird, there’s actually 4-5 Biden body doubles, and as I regularly say, this is well-known and normal. The not “normal” part is putting them on stage. I mean, it’s done but you’re not supposed to. In that case is Biden alive? Well how would we know? Or Kim Jong, or the Queen? It’s all faith when the world is made of bold and wicked breathtaking liars. It only works because people can’t believe and “Daddy would never do that.”

    “I want to see this country have a free and fair election even while it is under assault,” Graham told reporters during a briefing in Kiev.”

    Test case for the U.S.?

    Okay, here’s the latest crazy: Biden is out, the walls are closing in. That means they have to dispose of Harris. (Anyone ask questions why everyone left, right and center takes one look at her and agrees without debate on this?) So you admit his cognitive decline, get Harris, asPrez, then Captain Kneepads and Congress pull Newsome. Then Harris is killed by a white supremacist from Quantico goes off to Ken Lay island, and you’re in. They will get the 500 agents who were never named or arrested because the GOP won’t do their job to go out and fabricate a civil war that isn’t happening.

    But you think the other side doesn’t know that? They have the military most likely, or enough of them, plus all the Dominion records to China off the satellites – they may goose the ballots locally, but they need the data to HQ to know how many to cheat BY. That’s how 5 states shut down within 5 minutes of each other then win only by razor margins. This can be proven in court, but a minority of the country won’t believe any evidence if it doesn’t match their feelz, and will start the civil war they’re avoiding. Civil war would push money to London and Davos wins. Worldwide Tyranny and your boot-face forever.

    Enter Brunson, another chip on the board. Aside from that they weren’t elected, the case says that officials broke or never even took, their oath of office. Why? Who cares, but it’s on record as fact. Therefore they can and should be removed. Like hundreds and hundreds of them. And that being the case, the laws they passed will be vacated too. That includes Joe and Kamala. Poof, Court says go, military walks in, all Congress + Joe bye bye.

    WE hold new elections. IN a Civil War. See? Now what’s with part one? NEWSOME is not in the Case. He’s a State employee, so he can remain President and not be removed if they pull the nuke on this one in Brunson.

    …But again, don’t think they don’t know it, and these things (normally) take time. I suspect if they start, like an avalanche they’ve going to kick Joe, move Capt Cackles, and swear in Newsome in one hour, same way they did for Jekyll Island and the Patriot Act. Before anyone reads, moves, does, the press reports, boom, done. Welcome to the new President you never voted for and didn’t know you were. That’s “Democracy!”

    This is a GOOD thing as it demonstrates to the ignorant thick heads what kind of law we got going on here. But the Good Guys need a decision matrix and a response to each thing, just as they have responded to Podesta’s Pacific secession to Chinese control and civil war setting up rival governments and attempted burning Federal buildings in Portland as your Harper’s Ferry. They have avoided that Civil War so far and it’s going pretty well as each and every day these guys are exposed and discredited with the horse they rode in on (The government, + Science + Medicine …)

    This will happen, or some series of weird, unprecedented events, so be bored by it as it’s all in the script of the WWE WrestleMania superweek. The market will tank when they do, trading may halt, and your bank won’t be open. This is also actually “normal” as per WWI and other panics, but don’t be a fool and have stuff on hand so you don’t go out and drive around in riots.

    Riots? Yeah man, didn’t you notice Macy’s is being flash-mobbed every other day and kids are out burning cars on the weekends? That’s happening NOW. Weekly. Daily. BEFORE anything has happened. Power groups are shutting down highways as “free speech” so expect the Crips to “Shut Down” Chicago’s Skyway and collect “Donations” for their “Climate Cause”. Stay home.

    Depending on who wins (the White Hats, the Black Hats are clearly desperate) you can decide what to do, but don’t toddle down to the middle of a firefight with your cell phone like a millennial. Stay out in the sniper zone at least until you can identify and focus.

    Why? They can’t win the election, and looks like they think they can’t cheat enough either. They’re down to Führerbunker actions now, just like Ukraine, their masters. Kiev is just about to get F16s, just about to open enormous new weapons factories, just about to get a vunderveapon, just about to win. The Reich will live forever, just like Israel. Uh-huh. See 1944.

    “How far off is general mobilization? Kiev Sent 71-Year-old Soldier For NATO Training – FT (RT)

    1944. Eternal Reich of White Supremacy.

    Let’s put this another way: they’re so sure and are in so much control that they will remove Trump from some of the State ballots by the most novel legal theory and astonishing overreach in history. Removed before the case even exists, much less proven in court? Yup, yupper yup yups. From a guy who wasn’t there, and whose people had no weapons nor plans? Double yup, yup x infinity.

    And if he’s not on the ballot, — in even ONE state — there’s no election. Just like Armstrong said. We have a Stalin x Saddam election with ONE candidate running. Congratulations hard heads, “can you hear me now?” This is why they positioned in RFK to cover this contingency.

    It needs to be BIG, historic, unprecedented, or not only will they not learn anything, the American people won’t even notice. But “notice” this: it’s all under control. These sides have already planned and scenarioed all their scripts, but it’s the Big Script Club and you’re not in it.

    “Zelensky has a competitor, Serhiy Prytula. Who is, you can’t make it up, a Ukrainian actor and stand-up comedian, who belongs to a different oligarch.”

    That tells us about the election there: they won’t stop – they’ll all be hung, and by “they” I mean Davos — they need to shake up the board and take a new approach.

    “That stance contradicts regular attacks on border regions as well as kamikaze drone raids deeper inside Russia,”

    That’s perfectly simple: Russia bombed THEMSELVES, just like all those other pipelines, dams, and nuclear plants. Russia bombs themselves so often they barely have time for anything else. The Russians: who can understand their funny Asian ways?

    “EU Ready For More Expansion Before 2030 – FT (RT)

    All colonial empires must eat more hypothecates or die. They are a cancer, evil by design and that relentless fact illustrates it. Like Rome, there must be eternal war unceasing, while Triffin requires disaster and poverty at home.

    • Trump To GOP: Impeach “The BUM” Biden or “Fade Into Oblivion” (SN)

    Like most of you, I hope they choose “Oblivion”. It’s far too nice to offer them redemption, as if they wanted it, they would have acted on it years ago. Ah, the problems of being the Good Guys.

    Trump is the first president in US history accused of blocking the peaceful transfer of power to his successor,”

    …By asking questions, filing paperwork and NOT calling the military nor any of his supporters’ 400 million guns. I mean, Obviously, right?

    “We MUST depend on the police peacefully and willingly opening the 2,000 pound Columbus doors and escorting us all through the coup and open rebellion…” –FreedomToons

    ““How is it possible that President Obama didn’t know what the Bidens were up to?”

    Kunstler is snappy, but he finally gets a clue here. Now get another one and it’s not “Obama” running anything, but a team, a cartel, a religious theocracy.

    Dawki: This is actually a hazard. Believe it or not, if you’re paddling in clear water, you can get disoriented, confused and panicked and think you must have flipped and are under the water. Then people flip their boat and actually get under the water. Very strange.

    Note for environmentalists: clear water is also dead water. There’s nothing to eat, it’s a desert ecosystem, not that muddy water like the Thames is magic or anything.

    #142133
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Lyndsey Graham and Pocahontas went to Kiev last week, and all of a sudden we absolutely must have elections in Ukraine.

    Speaking to a white guy here in Hong Kong, he thinks it is essential “we” fight the Ukraine war as we are fighting for democracy. This is a man who has elected to live in Hong Kong over the past 30 years, living in a country that has no democracy, yet he feels it is essential that the Ukrainians die for democracy.

    Everybody is happy to let someone else die for their ideals, very few people have the balls or the conviction to die themselves.

    #142134
    jb-hb
    Participant

    “99% of Covid Deaths not primarily caused by the virus” You keep saying “Covid Deaths” and I don’t think you know what it means.

    Okay, so I’m not 80, not a fatass, not epileptic or diabetic or anything. The AVERAGE taking all the various sick overmedicated drug using aged americans is what, 98% chance I will beat covid? So for me it was always what, 99.5%, being generous to the alarmists?

    And of that 0.5% likelihood I was going to “die of Covid,” only 0.05% would have been death due to Covid?

    And the 98% effective vaccination, that was a part of lowering the threat of death from Covid down 98% to 99.5%?

    So then of the 1.5% better chance it was going to give me “against Covid,” 99% of that Covid death it would save me from wasn’t Covid, so actually it was making my chances 0.015% better, if I had taken it?

    #142135
    John Day
    Participant

    Conspiring To Live https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/conspiring-to-live

    Danny Haiphong: Pepe Escobar and Michael Hudson Join on BRICS Plus Six, Ukraine, and the Multipolar World Economy! (Read it all.)
    DANNY HAIPHONG: So I wanted to ask you then, because, you know, we touched a little bit on why BRICS didn’t come out with an independent currency that could almost be used as a reserve. Do you think that this is ever going to be possible or is it even necessary? What is your take on it?
    MICHAEL HUDSON: It’s not even within sight at the present point. A currency has to be issued by a government, a sovereign government, and all the BRICS would have to be part of the same country to issue their own currency. And there’s nothing like that on the site. There are different governments with different purposes. This talk of a BRICS currency is very confused.
    I tried to give the quote from President Putin because he used the correct term, a means of settlement among central banks for the balance of payments, imbalances of trade and investment. It’s paper gold…
    ..Michael Hudson: And certainly what Russia and China can do is saying, look, you have not got what the Western economies, oil companies have promised. You can say you’ve been guilty of violating the laws. We are nullifying your contract because of your bad behavior. And there have been a number of books you can go on my Web site. And I’ve talked about their bad behavior. Simply asking for that.
    There’s another thing that the global South countries can do. And that is that while the United States can say, well, you have to pay reparations if you take the oil. And if you, under the international laws, if you pass a law that costs money for a corporation, the government can be sued and give all the money back to the corporation. So you have to pay all of the cleanup costs because you were dumb enough to sign the contract because we said we’ll shoot you if you don’t sign the contract. All of this can just be simply repudiated.
    And I think that was the question that you wanted me to talk about before. What really can the BRICS countries do playing hardball? Well, one thing they can do.
    The press has talked about, you know, how much wealth and reserves do the BRICS countries have? Well, naturally, you count their gold is a large part of their reserves. But where is this gold?
    Much of their gold is not in their own countries. It’s in the New York Federal Reserve Bank in the basement. It’s in the Bank of England. And for African countries, it’s in the Bank of France. They can ask for their gold back.
    Right now, this gold is being held hostage from them. If they just ask for the gold back, send the airplanes, give it back.
    Germany tried to do that a few years ago. They said, well, can’t you begin to give us the gold that we moved there after, you know, when the world was more dangerous?
    And the U.S. said, oh, I’m sorry, we can’t. We’ve already done something with the gold. There’s a legal problem and are giving it to you. And they haven’t even given Germany the gold.
    So let’s say the BRICS country, number one, asked for their gold. And if the United States and England and France do not return their gold, then they can take compensation, including all of the foreign investments in their countries.
    They can do another thing, especially the African countries. They can say, well, we BRICS countries are speaking for Africa. We have the majority. You’ve stolen our gold.
    Our gold was what Libya’s President Qaddafi had. You took all the, what, $8 billion, however much, the billions of dollars of gold they took, just like they took the $8 billion of Afghanistan’s gold.
    Say, give us back the gold that you’ve taken. You cannot expect us to pay our foreign dollar debts if you have come and seized our gold and will not even give us our gold back. That would be the most obvious.
    It does not take a revolution. It doesn’t take a change in law. They can do that within the existing system. It’s our gold. We’re a sovereign country. We want it in our country.
    We’re going to have to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. So when you give us the gold, you can’t send your troops in and do what you did in Libya and simply grab it all back for yourself and say, ha-ha, finders keepers.
    I think this is an element of the financial future that nobody has talked about.
    https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/08/danny-haiphong-pepe-escobar-and-michael-hudson-join-on-brics-plus-six-ukraine-and-the-multipolar-world-econo
    my.html

    ​Pepe Escobar, also worth reading for detailed information: ‘Welcome to the BRICS 11’
    https://new.thecradle.co/articles/welcome-to-the-brics-11

    Friend Or Foe? How BRICS Partners View China
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/friend-or-foe-how-brics-partners-view-china

    ​ The Biden administration has been aware since last year that Saudi border guards were slaughtering African migrants on Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen but kept quiet about the killings, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
    ​ Sources told the Times that American diplomats were made aware of the news last fall, around the time the US was publicly condemning Riyadh for agreeing to OPEC+ oil production cuts. The administration did not make any public comments about the reported killings.
    ​ The administration received more details about the atrocities in December 2022 when the UN presented information about Saudi forces shooting, shelling, and abusing Ethiopian migrants at the border, but the US still kept quiet.

    US Knew Saudis Were Slaughtering African Migrants at Border But Kept Quiet

    #142136
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ BRICS nations just want what is theirs, and that spells doom for the Western hegemony
    ​ Economic interests will likely help the expanded bloc iron out long-standing feuds within​
    Richard D. Wolff, noted American economist, public intellectual, and radio host. This professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a visiting professor in the graduate program in international affairs at the New School…“Every Global South country now has two options, not one, in securing development loans, grants, investments, and trading partners. The two (the West and BRICS) will compete to secure contracts and deals. This change is momentous as it alters the global economic status quo in place since 1945.”
    ​ In the longer run, according to Wolff, the rise of BRICS marks the further decline of the US empire and thus of US capitalism that significantly depends on that empire. “The US declining global economic footprint, the decline of the US dollar as a central bank reserve holding, the decline of the dollar as the global trading, investment and loan currency – these are all signs and symptoms of the reduced US role,” he states. Wolff shares the view of several other economists who contend that the US experience now is what the British empire and British capitalism suffered in the century before 1945. The consequences of US decline are already visible domestically in a strange and dangerous domestic civil splitting, the bizarre politics of Trump, and the resurgence of white supremacy, he avers.​ [See story below regarding “white supremacy” and Trump.]
    ​ Again, nobody disputes that there are differences of opinion within BRICS. For its part, India seeks an enhanced multipolarity in the world, but it doesn’t want the forum to become overly anti-West to the extent that it becomes a platform for China’s one-upmanship. New Delhi wants greater economic cooperation among non-Western countries. It doesn’t however relish the prospects of BRICS+ championing a China-first policy that hurts its military and trade cooperations with the West. India wants it to be a non-Western entity, but not rabidly anti-West. For India, this distinction is crucial.
    https://www.rt.com/india/581914-brics-west-hegemony-end/

    Trump gets street-cred. Oops!
    Considering how Democrats take black support for granted and routinely label Trump a racist and white supremacist, imagine the utter consternation they’re feeling as they witness a social media eruption of black sympathy for Trump over an arrest that, for many blacks, parallels the mistreatment they perceive blacks have received in the American criminal justice system.
    The first sign of trouble came when people calling themselves “Blacks for Trump” and “Niggas for Trump” posted themselves near the infamous Fulton County Jail on Atlanta’s Rice Street.
    Then we saw blacks lining the street to cheer on the former president’s motorcade and shouting “Free Trump!”
    The on-scene displays in Georgia were just a precursor to a social media wave of black Trump 2024 enthusiasm that’s still rolling. “Trump is a brother now…I’m sorry, you go to jail in Zone 6 Atlanta, you a brotha,” says this man. “Straight up. They f**ked up. Niggas like niggas that went to jail. They believe in that sh*t. We trust that.”
    “Every real nigga got to go to jail at least one time,” says this man, who also warns that Democrats have “f**ked up” and will now face vengeance from a future President Trump. “You think he aint gonna spin the block?”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/more-you-indict-more-we-unite-black-social-media-erupts-trump

    It is a global Ponzi-scheme. The Federal Reserve needs to keep the rich people and TTF financial institutions invested in $US assets. To do that, the Fed has to offer a real return on investment, both in $US assets and in Treasury debt, which means raising interest rates enough to keep global financial elites in $US, which maintains the value of the $US. Raising interest rates hurts small businesses and people with debts. It hurts the US debt service, by raising it. It cannot bring down inflation by choking the economy this time, because inflation is being caused by a reduction in goods, more than the increase in money. The global economy can’t produce as much because (redefined) “oil” production is down from the late 2018 peak. Oil is the master-resource.
    Meanwhile the US Federal Government is spending a lot into the economy to juice it in specific sectors and with transfer payments. This seems contradictory, but they are both just trying to keep the global finance game in play, because a lot of things will crash and faith will be broken when it crashes. (The US would mostly prefer China or the Euro to crash first. Russia would have been better, but that scheme failed.)
    Peter Schiff: Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole Speech Was Full Of Holes
    Last year, Fed economists even admitted the central bank can’t rein in price inflation with monetary policy alone. But Peter said Powell is too big of a wimp to call out the Biden administration.
    You can’t ignore fiscal policy when you’re running monetary policy. You can’t say, ‘Hey, there’s a separation here and I don’t want to interfere with what Congress is doing.’ No! He’s got to interfere. In fact, he’s paid to interfere. The idea that there is an independent Fed — it’s supposed to be independent from Congress, not the other way around. It’s not that the Fed is not supposed to point out when Congress is doing something wrong or the president. No, that is the job of the Fed chairman. If Congress is running these big deficits, and it’s creating a problem for inflation, if it’s creating a problem for the Fed and the public, the Fed chairman is supposed to call them out. The Fed chairman is supposed to say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to cut spending. You’ve got to bring down these deficits.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/peter-schiff-jerome-powells-jackson-hole-speech-was-full-holes

    Paul Craig Roberts, Realistically, How Strong is America?
    ​ America’s weakness is overlooked by investment analysts. Having offshored manufacturing, the US is import-dependent, and having weaponized the dollar Washington is causing foreign central banks to stop holding dollars as reserves. The consequence is that the US has a rising issuance of debt to finance trade and budget deficits, but a declining supply of customers for that debt. Either the Federal Reserve has to monetize the debt or interest rates will rise.
    ​ Note also that it appears there will be in about 4 months a large expansion of BRICS. Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join.

    Realistically, How Strong Is America?

    Charles Hugh Smith, The AirBnB Bubble Popping Will Pop the Housing Bubble
    This is how bubbles collapse: the “vital few” 4% sell at whatever the market will bear, pushing prices down, and the 64% awaken to the rapidly narrowing window for locking in bubble capital gains.
    https://charleshughsmith.substack.com/p/the-airbnb-bubble-popping-will-pop

    #142137
    jb-hb
    Participant

    And of that 0.5% likelihood I was going to “die of Covid,” only 0.05% would have been death due to Covid?

    Miscalculation due to sheer incredulity. Correction:

    And of that 0.5% likelihood I was going to “die of Covid,” only 0.005% would have been death due to Covid?

    #142138
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ John Maynard Keynes was brilliant, but “Keynsians” are mostly one-trick-ponies. In his day there were plenty of natural resources of all kinds, and people willing to work, but factories and cities had been destroyed. Massive fiscal stimulus was appropriate to get everybody back to work producing and rebuilding after WW-1 and WW-2. Now there is less of all resources except humans, and there has long been misallocation of capital. Resources like oil are in terminal decline. Keynes would be advising long term investment in durable goods and equipment which would serve for many decades in the future of reduced fuel and production. He would probably also advise massive write-downs of debts that can never be paid, and might often be counterproductive to the needs of societies going forward. “Debt Jubilee”.(I would personally favor the transfer to American citizens at low cost of the massive collection of assets like mortgages, now held by the Fed. They should be dispersed to individuals who want to live in the house first, then to small rental landlords, not financial institutions and large corporations.)
    ​ Putting “Paid” to Keynesian Fallacies
    ​ Introducing gold into the trading system will expose the main fallacy of Keynesian economics: the elevation of aggregate demand to prominence in a nation’s economy rather than production—the only means of satisfying the demand in the first place. Jean-Baptiste Say showed that production is required in order to enjoy the benefits of consumption. Instead, Keynes shunned Say’s law in his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in order to hide his theory’s internal contradictions. Keynes elevated the concept of “aggregate demand” over production, while Jean-Baptiste Say shows that production is required in order to enjoy the benefits of consumption.
    ​ On the face of it, it is hard to believe that anyone would believe that production either isn’t required for consumption or that it magically appears. Yet, this rather upside-down theory appealed to politicians for obvious reasons—it gave them carte blanche to spend, all with money created out of thin air by the central bank. Rather than economize and prioritize spending that was absolutely necessary for the benefit of the entire nation, politicians were told by Keynes that it was their duty to spend, even if it was only to pay people to dig holes and others to fill those holes back up.​..
    ​..The new international trade settlement system will require settlement in gold.​ (Or a BRICS+ agreed “paper gold”, as above.)
    https://mises.org/wire/gold-will-destroy-keynesian-fallacies

    ​Moon of Alabama, Thanks Christine.
    ​ The strategic advantage is clearly on the Russian side:
    ​ Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, the military architect of German unification and one of history’s most famed soldiers, would instantly grasp the state of affairs in this summer of Ukrainian discontent. After Kiev and its Western backers hyped the prospects for the spring counteroffensive against Russia, the counteroffensive has posted fitful progress to date. Moltke would ascribe the disappointing results to the fact that the Ukrainian military confronts a foe waging the strongest form of warfare.
    ​ Strategic offense coupled with tactical defense.
    ​ Moltke lays out the logic succinctly: “The tactical defense is the stronger [form of war], the strategic offensive the more effective form—and the only one that leads to the goal.” In other words, the contender that seizes or occupies some object or parcel of territory, then defends it tactically, primes itself for strategic and ultimately political success. In colloquial terms: grab something and hold it, and dare your enemy to come and take it back while fighting at a daunting disadvantage. For the German sage, in short, waging offense through defense blazes a path to triumph.
    ​ Advantage: Russia.
    ​ Tactical defense is what Russia has been doing over the last months. It has ground down the attacking Ukrainian forces by all means available to it. When they are done with it the Russian forces will launch their strategic offensive campaign. They are then likely to rapidly progress through thinned out Ukrainian lines.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/08/ukraine-sitrep-us-to-prolong-its-proxy-war.html#more

    Prigozhin Death Confirmed By DNA Tests, Kremlin Announces
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/prigozhin-death-confirmed-dna-tests-kremlin-announces

    #142139
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Disobey and Live – Maui Fire Barricades
    ​ Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said that the barricades were intended to prevent residents from coming into contact with over 30 downed power poles. Yet, they prevented the public from accessing Highway 30. Pelletier insists that the barricades were merely a suggestion, but first-hand reports state that people were forbidden to leave. Those who disobeyed and bypassed the barricades narrowly survived.
    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/08/25/disobey-and-live-maui-fire-barricades/

    ​ Why Did the Maui PD Block Exits from Lahaina?
    ​ Investigating a disturbing piece of the Lahaina Fire puzzle.
    ​ Multiple witnesses have stated that the patrol officers made seemingly credible statements that they themselves did not know the rationale for the order to block off this street. All they seemed to know is that they had received the order to do so.​..
    ​..Yesterday I learned through an excellent contact that members of the local, Hawaiian community know the patrol officers (who are also from the community) and do not want to throw these men under the bus. This raises the question: who in the Maui PD issued this puzzling order to these patrol officers, and why?
    https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/why-did-the-maui-pd-block-exits-from

    ​ Sasha Latypova’s blog: Was weaponized GIS used in Lahaina?​ Click-and-destroy program for “sustainable redevelopment”​
    This information is from an anonymous contributor. It describes the evidence from the GIS (Geographic Information System) of extreme precision and selectivity of the Lahaina fire. It also points to the plans of potentially moving all low-income residents off their properties and into a concentration camp, ahem, a 15-minute city.​..
    ​..What’s most interesting about looking at the aerial imagery, is that amongst the destruction are various structures still standing with green grass & green trees, nearly right up to edge or property line. Looking at GIS data & street view some don’t make sense, as a few have all wood construction! In other cases, condo complexes that appear to be of concrete construction, completely destroyed.
    https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/was-weaponized-gis-used-in-lahaina

    ​ Commercial pilots who flew over Maui “fire” day of incident being CENSORED: Was it a DEW attack?​
    But what about the censorship of commercial pilots who saw firsthand what happened – or more importantly, what may not have actually happened – that fateful day?
    ​ An investigation into the reports that commercial pilots normally file concerning things they see or encounter during a flight has found that a shocking 30 percent, at least, of all PIREPs (pilot reports) filed with air traffic control (ATC) from Kahului Airport (OGG) in the center of Maui are missing, which begs the question: why?
    ​ According to Maui County, the Lahaina “fire” – the reason for “fire” being in quotes will become clearer as you read the rest of this story – started on the morning of August 8 and was declared 100 percent contained shortly before 9 a.m. the very same day.
    https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-08-25-commercial-pilots-maui-fire-censored-dew-conspiracy.html

    #142140
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Meryl Nass MD , This scares the ****out of me.
    A German court has sentenced one of its own judges to prison for ruling against the government’s mask mandates.
    https://merylnass.substack.com/p/this-scares-the-out-of-me

    Look, it’s not from mandatory COVID vaccines they got. These guys have been hiding all of their medical problems for years!
    See, it was a set-up already, even though it didn’t kick-in until 2021. (Some of these ex-military pilots even have PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSES!)
    Hundreds of US Airline Pilots Suspected of Being Unfit to Fly
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20230827/hundreds-of-us-airline-pilots-suspected-of-being-unfit-to-fly—reports-1112931728.html

    ​Peter McCullough MD , BREAKING–Clinical Rationale for SARS-CoV-2 Base Spike Protein Detoxification in Post COVID-19 and Vaccine Injury Syndromes , Publication of Baseline Protocol for Those Suffering from Long-COVID and Post-Acute Sequelae after COVID-19 Vaccination
    ​ We searched the literature for all available sources of evidence for products that can aid the human body in breaking down and catabolizing the Spike protein. We found two compounds, nattokinase and bromelain. Both of which additionally have fibrinolytic properties which are advantageous in the prothrombotic milieu induced by the persistent Spike protein. Curcumin was added for its anti-inflammatory properties in the setting of post-COVID and vaccine patients. The main safety caveats are bleeding and allergic reactions, both of which are manageable. It is our experience that both nattokinase and bromelain can be used in addition to antiplatelet and anticoagulant drugs with physician monitoring.
    ​ The empiric regimen can be continued for 3-12 months or more and be guided by clinical observation:
    -Nattokinase 2000 FU (100) mg orally twice a day without food
    -Bromelain 500 mg orally once a day without food
    -Curcumin 500 mg orally twice a day (nano, liposomal, or with piperine additive suggested)
    https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/breaking-clinical-rationale-for-sars

    #142142
    jb-hb
    Participant

    weird – well, “weird” – that the stuff that did well against covid also is what helps detox the not a vax.

    Interesting that my covid crock pot concoction was in the general ball park of correct – I was just searching for stuff a person could eat that parasites don’t like – going on the general impression that anti-parasite stuff seems to do well against covid for some reason

    Pineapple skin (Bromelain – sort o)
    Pineapple core (Bromelain – sort o)
    Ginger
    Tumeric (Curcumin – sort o)
    Grapefruit skin (Quinine – sort of)
    Lemon skin(Quinine – sort of)

    Simmer low in crock pot for about 4 hours. Strain, make ice cubes for later use.

    My plan was to drink a bunch of that and periodically eat a few garlic cloves daily if I got sick. Throw in a few antioxidants at it like alpha lipoic acid. and vit D3 + K2 obviously.

    Went to an indoor rock concert during a spike of covid panic as delta was still around and omicron was in play. Hundreds of people shouting, singing, being generally excited in an enclosed space, saw 2 mask wearers. Not a sniffle. Never had a reason to take the ice cubes out of the freezer.

    #142143
    zerosum
    Participant

    • Why Has Ukraine’s Zelensky Agreed to Hold Elections in 2024? (Sp.)

    1. Because he will include all of the 41 million on the voters list as per the last census
    2. Because he will include all the xpats on the voters list
    3. Because voting poling stations will receive only mail-in ballots
    4. He will count all the ballots

    #142145
    Noirette
    Participant

    Xi’ speech at BRICS.

    .. at the Closing Ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum 2023, which was read out by Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.

    Following is the full text of the speech:

    Enhancing Solidarity and Cooperation To Overcome Risks and Challenges And Jointly Build a Better World
    (….)
    Ten years ago here in South Africa, we BRICS leaders witnessed the birth of the BRICS Business Council. Since then, the Council has stayed true to its founding mission. It has seized opportunities to deepen cooperation, contributing to economic and social development of BRICS countries and helping sustain global economic growth.
    Right now, changes in the world, in our times and in history are unfolding in ways like never before, bringing human society to a critical juncture.

    Should we pursue cooperation and integration, or just succumb to division and confrontation? Should we work together to maintain peace and stability, or just sleepwalk into the abyss of a new Cold War? Should we embrace prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, or allow hegemonic and bullying acts to throw us into depression? Should we deepen mutual trust through exchanges and mutual learning, or allow hubris and prejudice to blind conscience?

    The course of history will be shaped by the choices we make. (…)

    At BRICS: The most inspiring speech: Xi Jinping

    Rightio…this all sounds optimistic and ‘we hold a winning hand’..

    #142146
    citizenx
    Participant

    Freud would have a field day…as his nephew Bernays went to town.

    Mask me, gag me, lock me down, inject me again and again and again and again….forever and ever.

    Govern me harder Daddy Govt, punish me and keep me safe, punish them too…sniff me harder Brandon, harder. Tell me what to do Daddy govt, please bring back the masks, and injections and lock downs, test me harder Daddy. Make me do it and show me you care Daddy….protect me harder.

    Watch: Canadian Activists Demanding Return Of Mask Mandates Attack Counter Protester
    The covid cult is still out there, desperate for a return to the days of lockdowns and restrictions and in Canada they appear to be highly militant.

    So, why continue to support the mask mandates to the point of violence? Because the masks became more than a safety tool. They became a signal of ideological virtue, a uniform for the political left. The masks were also a signal of submission to state controls, and for a period of a couple years maskers were like an army, an extension of state power, and they loved it. They could easily identify their “enemies” merely by looking for a missing mask, thereby applying mob pressure to force those people to conform. It doesn’t matter to them that the masks offer little-to-zero protection, that was not their true purpose anyway.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/watch-canadian-activists-demanding-return-mask-mandates-attack-counter-protester

    Liberal retards and useless Republicans. Why the fuck would you follow either of them anywhere?

    #142147

    “…Tiny Kox, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)…”
    Hmmmm.

    #142148
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Taibbi: YouTube Demonetizes Montage Of Election-Denying Dems Under “Dangerous Organizations” Policy

    Youtube: “we think it violates our violent criminal organizations policy.”

    Response: “As you will see if you click now, the above video, as I argued to Google, could not possibly be violative of any “misinformation” guideline, as it was comprised entirely of “real, un-altered clips of public figures making public comments.””

    People are complaining youtube is biased, youtube is unfair, youtube is anti free speech, youtube is acting as a publisher not a platform etc but they are missing the point, I think.

    Behind the scenes, there is an EXISTING CATEGORY labeled “violent criminal organization,” of which, the qualifying definition includes an individual posting an entirely factual video that is unfavorable to Dems or favorable to Trump. It’s like they got all their secret lists going, tried to start a civil war, and when nobody cooperated because they’re actually basic decent human beings, they just moved forward with The Plan anyway? They were SUPPOSED to be violent criminals by now?

    #142149
    John Day
    Participant

    @Noirette, re: Xi speech: These are not true binary choices Xi presents. They are good rhetoric, but he is telling people to “move forward through trusting China”. He cajoles them to take the side of China against the western empire, but he pretends not to do that.

    “Should we pursue cooperation and integration, or just succumb to division and confrontation?
    Should we work together to maintain peace and stability, or just sleepwalk into the abyss of a new Cold War?
    Should we embrace prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, or allow hegemonic and bullying acts to throw us into depression?
    Should we deepen mutual trust through exchanges and mutual learning, or allow hubris and prejudice to blind conscience?”

    #142150
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    “Think of money as a claim on human time. It’s like stored life or energy.”

    The Graveyard of Empires: The Top Investments as the World Order Collapses

    The Graveyard of Empires: The Top Investments as the World Order Collapses

    #142151
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Tucker and Orban Bitch Slapping and Pistol Whipping Pedo Joe and the Deep Dipshit State

    #142152
    Oroboros
    Participant

    I wonder how the judge’s head would look on a stick?

    .

    #142153
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #142154
    Oroboros
    Participant
    #142155
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #142156
    Susan C
    Participant

    nnnn

    #142157
    Susan C
    Participant

    msmm

    #142158
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #142159
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    All of us humans are EXACTLY alike in at least one respect, regardless of how rich or poor, strong or weak, good or bad, smart or stupid or anything else that we happen to be.

    That point of identical characteristic is that when we do not know something that we need to know then we will turn to others to get that information. We cannot (practically speaking) find out all by ourselves alone because even if you TRIED to get it yourself you would quickly discover that “finding out for yourself” still comes down to accepting information from others because NO ONE knows everything. This unavoidable necessity of getting vital information that we need but don’t have, from other people who we think do have it, immediately brings the TRUST factor into strong play. Who does a person think actually will have and share the true info that’s needed? In other words, who do we TRUST ?

    Well, without putting too fine of a point on it, we trust the people who we believe are “better” than we are regarding something or in some other important way. (maybe they’re a savvy street fighter and we need their advice on hiring a good a body guard.) More frequently , and especially in this culture at this time, people tend to “look up to”, and follow the opinions of, people who are extremely rich, world famous and/or politically powerful. To be all three at once is a “hat trick” which virtually guarantees that entire swaths of the population are going to turn to that person as someone whose statements are accepted as gospel by their fan club. If that fan club is itself extremely rich, famous and powerful then the club can be pretty damned small and still have a tremendous impact on the nature of the information that filters down from on high.

    Depending on the nature of the information we need (for example cooking or medicine) we will seek a data source who we think knows a lot more about it than we do. We think of them in that way (as being our “betters” about something) because they have demonstrated to our satisfaction over a long enough period of time that their knowledge is consistently “better” than our knowledge.

    The other way to garner rough estimates about what is (or should be) happening is to look around at the rest of the herd. What is everybody ELSE doing? Whatever they’re doing, then if I do that too everything should be okay. Nine times out of ten that works great. Most of the time following the herd works beneficially for all, is culturally unifying, and extremely efficient. It saves trillions of hours of time that we don’t have to spare. It’s that TENTH time that gets ya! (that time when the herd and the trusted sources are WRONG.)

    But that’s usually no super-big deal because, in the final analysis, MOST things aren’t very important to begin with. They are often a worthwhile deal, but they are very seldom a BIG deal. Some things matter a lot, and other things don’t. For important things, however, when it really DOES matter, then we look for the teachers and advisers who we trust about IMPORTANT stuff. We turn to the same people that we turn to for our other important stuff such as sustenance, safety and security. That works fine too, unless those people have disconnected themselves from us and now consider themselves to be “different” than us. And not just different, but better as well.

    Like I said, who it is that we search for (and believe) in our search for good information depends on the type of info that we need. There are a lot of different types, but they can be roughly divided into three general categories.

    Let’s call the FIRST category those things we’re interested in on a purely and only self determined basis. No one tells you that you must be or do or have whatever it happens to be. You engage in these activities and pastimes just because you want to and it ain’t nobody’s business but your own.

    Then there is the SECOND category, which is comprised of the things that you know you’re just going to have to do in order to get along well and have a good life. You could neglect these things if you chose to, but that would be stupid because you know that the result would be if you neglected it (for examples: poverty or lack of friends). Whatever the known or suspected consequence, it would be something that you really wouldn’t like , and so you voluntarily choose to do the right thing and get the positive result instead (for examples: wealth and friendship).

    Finally there is the THIRD category. The one that nobody likes. These are the things that one is forcefully compelled to do, under threat of mandatory material punishment (for examples: fines, imprisonment, violent treatment or even death). Like I said, nobody likes “Category Three” except the jailer, the goon and the hangman, and even they are careful to not wind up on the wrong side of the arrangement. This fact largely explains why they opted to be jailers, hangmen and hired thugs rather than money-less saints and heroes.

    I reckon that by now you have recognized that the three general “categories” are not actually hard-edged categories at all. They are more like arbitrarily defined general positions along an infinitely graduated scale. A scale that runs from completely voluntary at one end, to totally mandatory at the other end. And I must say that as “categories”go, they can also be so frustratingly complicated and “fuzzy” that they can be almost impossible to recognize as such, as I am sure we have all experienced. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this essay the three divisions are rudimentarily accurate and focused enough to serve the purpose, so I will stick with them for now.

    Unfortunately, we humans spend most of our time dealing with life as it happens to us in the dangerous no-mans-land of shifty, teeter-tottering on the contentious border BETWEEN Voluntary Action/Belief and Mandatory Action/Belief. The big question is about WHERE does that “fuzzy difference” [between “doing stuff because one wants to” versus “doing things because one was FORCED TO”, under threat of material punishment] turn into a sharply drawn thin red line?

    Do you see how this all relates to the crucial question of, “Who do we turn to for TRUSTED sources of information?”

    I hope that you do see that close relationship , because this choice is one of the two or three most important choices that we ever face in life.

    To state the question clearly, “Who does a person turn to for TRUSTED information on important issues?” If the person turns to their “employer” or other work-related associates in an organized hierarchy(financial, social or otherwise) who they also depend on for the necessities of life (like money, food, shelter, protection, etc.), then that person IS going to be lied to because the layers ABOVE the person in the hierarchy are going to serve THEMSELVES before (and better) than they will serve the person.

    That sort of deceitful duplicity can only be accomplished by LYING, and/or FORCE (or threat of force).

    The information being passed DOWN through the nested levels of authoritative control will ALWAYS be falsified to a degree that is at the very least SUFFICIENT to assure that the interests of the higher ups are benefited more and better than the interests of the lower down. Otherwise the hierarchy would not even exist because if no one is FORCIBLY ruling over ANYONE ( the “-archy” part of hierarchy) then, by definition, it is not a hierarchy in the first place.

    Hierarchic control can ONLY exist when ENFORCEABLE ORDERS (that is, orders that are mandated, upon threat of material punishment) can be given to underlings who MUST obey.

    Long story short, trusting those who issue ENFORCEABLE orders is very close to being as stupid as it’s possible to get, because no matter how persuasively an enforcer tries to convince that it IS in your best interests to obey their command, you know for a FACT that it is NOT. Asserting that it’s good for you when it is in fact bad for you, is simply a lie. The plain truth is that the mandated order is the exact opposite of good for you. It’s for the benefit of the one giving the violently enforced order, to YOUR detriment. Period. Full stop. Otherwise they would not have given the order. Furthermore, the self-serving lie was given and enforced for THAT purpose, the purpose of serving benefit the order giver at your expense.

    If you are not the one who gave the order then the only way you are not screwed is if the order giver truly does have your best interests truly at heart. I know only one such case.

    When I look around this so-called civilization what I see is a WHOLE bunch of people who are turning to the sources of their income (mostly money) as also the sources for their trustworthy information. This is both extremely unwise, and a rather extreme understatement.

    To put it a different way, when employed people need to know who and what to believe they typically turn to their friends and employers for the answer. Horribly, pretty much every one of the people they live with and associate with are people who are doing the same damned thing. Accepting, relaying and DOING bad things for pay (which pay is, itself, a lie because the pay IS NOT WORTH what they promise that it’s worth. More often than not the “pay” is worth even LESS than nothing.

    In the described manner the entire ship of fools are following self-destructive orders in exchange for a stupidly believed LIE that their paycheck is actually worth what they’re doing for it. (for example, the lie is told to the Nursing Assistant that the paycheck….. which the nurse totally depends for virtually ALL vital food, shelter and general wherewithal……. is worth more than the life of the kid who they just killed with a Pfizer jab.) What a self-actualizing cluster fuck.

    Of course the nursing assistant doesn’t THINK that giving the poison injection constituted a Capital Crime of hired murder, because he/she only believes the things that their employers and comrades tell them, and the only things that they tell them are the self-serving lies that are coming down the chain of command as orders for what they MUST do, upon pain of material punishment for disobedience.

    Getting back to where this essay started, we all turn to those we trust for the information we depend on for survival. Do not trust ANY of the information that comes from anyone who supports mandatory orders backed by force. The information will always and only serve THEM, not you, and they will lie about that purpose every step of the way, all the way to the point that you are kicked out of the club altogether and treated thereafter as a worthless impediment

    The one saving grace of THAT is that once kicked out and trodden down people tend to stop associating with and listening to the psychotic ravings from inside the echo chamber.

    Trust only those who actually care about you. Connect with them. Care for them. Put their interests on at least an equal footing as your own, because that’s what THEY are doing for you. They are actually caring about how you are actually doing, and that intentional connectedness is the only thing really worth having. What do I mean by “connection”. I mean to actually give a damn. It’s not a physical thing done for material gain. It is a spiritual thing with no ulterior motive whatsoever. Call it unconditional love. Connection is the manifestation of it. It’s a piece of God, if you will, so ultimately, that connection is not just the only ting worth having. It is the only thing that IS.

    The first thing that an mal-intentioned enforcer will attempt (other than tell you a pack of lies) is to DISCONNECT you from everybody who might provide the support needed to defend yourself from the wholesale lying, starting with the ones who already are. Divide and conquer by cutting the links to existing or potential support. One very effective way to disconnect people from each other is physical separation, and another is to prevent and forbid them from telling each other the information they need to survive and flourish. And yet another way is to insist that to continue getting stuff from the liar one must disconnect from (or even harm) the truthful and caring people (and Supreme Being) that one is currently connecting with.

    It’s not difficult to understand why the evil ones do everything they can to cause that disconnect and induce such stupidly destructive bad behavior. So don’t do it. Connect instead and care. You CAN do that, and it is highly recommended that you do.

    #142162
    Susan C
    Participant

    Apologies for the above nonsense posts. I’d attemted to leave a comment earlier that I’d found a new link to Strategic Culture and was blocked by the unexpected comment potection software.

    Anyway, in case it hasn’t already been found and reported by someone on TAE
    the new address for Strategic Culture is on an ‘su’ domain rather than ‘org’.
    https://strategic-culture.su/

    This editorial describing what happened is well worth a read is called Cyberattack on This Journal… Proving Truth Is the First Casualty of War

    I’ll try to be more patient in future.

    #142163
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Susan C

    Thank you for the Strategic Culture link; I missed them; happy they are back…

    #142190
    Noirette
    Participant

    Yes, John Day, that is also why I wrote Rightio! .. case closed / end sarc.

    I saw one title of an article describing the position, aims, of China, as
    For Economic Growth and Sustainable Development

    (can’t find the link, search doesn’t turn it up) – typical for sure.

    The two terms used to promote policies supposedly in harmony with them are contradictory. (Imho.) Both are buzz-word concepts that were coined in the West, ‘economic growth’ is a shoddy concept not well defined (means more exploitation of ressources for one..) and as for ‘sustainable devp’ it is a propaganda feel-good term used to promote investment / state support for certain industries / processes / products to the detriment of others, in shadowy back-room deals.

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