Oct 052023
 
 October 5, 2023  Posted by at 8:50 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Jan van Eyck Saint Barbara 1437

 

Is McCarthy Saga A Bipartisan Strategy To Quietly End Aid To Ukraine? (Reade)
Apparently, Kevin McCarthy’s Ouster Is Putin’s Fault (Marsden)
Office Purge Follows Ouster Of US House Speaker (RT)
Ukraine Could Reap $200 Billion EU Bonanza – FT (RT)
Ukraine ‘Very Cheap Way’ To Fight Russia – Dutch Defense Minister (RT)
US Funding for Ukraine Gov’t Reportedly to ‘Run Dry by November’ (Sp.)
Ukraine Fatigue Is Worrying NATO Elites (Cunningham)
Tunisia Rejects EU Financial Aid (RT)
Creation of Multipolar World Inevitable, Necessary – Putin (Sp.)
Quoting RT Plays Into Putin’s Hands – Hillary Clinton (RT)
Biden’s “Secret Money Machine” (ZH)
Gagging Trump – Shows Fear (AMAC)
Trump Says Will Testify ‘At The Appropriate Time’ In NY Civil Fraud Trial (RT)
Dianne Feinstein’s Replacement Cranks Her Problems Up To 11 (Blankenship)
Alarming Covid Jab Contamination Shocks Scientists (Mercola)

 

 

 

 

Nap Macgregor

 

 

I was asked for 60 second answers for social media. I was horrified, my style is more discursive. I did my best but thought the result would be bad. But I love this.

 

 

 

 

Tucker Moritz

 

 

Something’s afoot…

 

 

RFK

 

 

 

 

“What is happening to President Donald Trump has never been done in the history of the United States. Liberals, put your anger aside for one moment and read this: The AG couldn’t find a crime, so she’s charging a criminal case covered as a Civil matter. The Judge is working in conjunction with her and they decided Trump is guilty, and the AG has submitted a motion for Summary Judgement.

He doesn’t get to defend himself in court. The gag order doesn’t allow him to defend himself publicly. The Judge decided before the case that he was guilty, and is now attempting to strip his businesses and properties. None of this has been done before. This is one of the biggest abuses of power we’ve ever witnessed as American Citizens. They’ve taken the leading candidate for President of the United States and refuse to give him a fair trial.

Disbarring the Judge and AG isn’t enough. The punishment should be the most severe allowed by the Justice System. If you’re on the left or on the fence or even a conservative and you’re supporting this, you’ve lost your moral compass. Your blind anger is causing you to sit back and watch as this country crumbles. ”

 

 

 

 

“It also conveniently provides Democrats with a scapegoat if the government shuts down and legislation gets stuck, causing further economic harm.”

Is McCarthy Saga A Bipartisan Strategy To Quietly End Aid To Ukraine? (Reade)

For the first time in US history, the speaker of the US House of Representatives has been ousted. Rep. Kevin McCarthy had only graced the speaker seat for nine months before a bold move by Representative Matt Gaetz, a fellow Republican, pushed him out. A few days before the vote to end McCarthy’s leadership, Gaetz had been making rounds on social and legacy media discussing his push to end McCarthy’s short tenure. He accused McCarthy of striking a secret deal with Democrats to allow for aid to Ukraine to be included in the government funding bill to avoid a government shutdown. Gaetz spoke about the debt crisis, McCarthy lying to his own party and lack of desire to investigate US President Joe Biden for corruption as some of the reasons he was leading the call for McCarthy’s removal. When asked what would happen if the Democrats saved McCarthy, Gaetz brashly replied, “…they can have him.”

The Democrats did not save McCarthy. In fact, 208 Democrats and eight Republicans voted to unseat him (only five Republican votes were needed). All this signals that whatever deal McCarthy may have brokered, the chaos is more politically advantageous to the elites and provides much-needed cover for what is actually happening to the country economically. On the surface, this looks like another chapter in the chaotic Congressional saga about the divide between RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) and the America First group in the Republican party. It also conveniently provides Democrats with a scapegoat if the government shuts down and legislation gets stuck, causing further economic harm. However, this may also be the uniparty exit strategy for ending the flow of billions of dollars to Ukraine.

A recent Politico article cited a leak of information that the White House is concerned about the corruption in Ukraine and sustainability of continued funding. Most likely, this was a purposeful leak by intelligence to prepare an off-ramp away from more spending into the bottomless pit that is Kiev. The growing dissent regarding more billions to Ukraine, a country most Americans cannot find on a map, is getting louder. This all happening as the US heads for an election year is another significant factor. However, the actors keep playing their roles in this political theater, welcoming Zelensky’s begging and propping up his propaganda. Biden made a stern, if slightly slurred, statement demanding Congress “stop playing games” and authorize the additional $24 billion he had requested, bringing the total spent on aid to Ukraine to over $137 billion. All this as Biden and other Democrats’ polling numbers are lower than ever, hovering at 30% or worse.

The interim speaker’s first action was to tell Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat and herself a former speaker, to vacate her office in the Capitol building within a week. Allowing a former speaker to keep using their office in the building is a tradition, one that McCarthy apparently hadn’t bucked. Rumors are floating around as to who will be the new speaker. According to the Constitution, it doesn’t technically have to be a sitting member of the House, and there is even talk about nominating Donald Trump for the seat. While the wild days ahead will reveal the new leadership in Congress, perhaps they will also bring about an end to the blank checks for Ukraine.

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“McCarthy has denied the backroom dealing, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck… ”

Apparently, Kevin McCarthy’s Ouster Is Putin’s Fault (Marsden)

In a vote of 216-210, Republicans voted with 208 Democrats in the US House of Representatives to regime-change one of their own — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). McCarthy had tried appeasing the establishment over Ukraine funding while also paying lip-service to the populists to whom he owed his job as House speaker – and has just been rewarded with the honor of being the first dethroned speaker in US history. It’s a victory for the average American — unless you’re an establishment hack, in which case it’s all about Russia. “The Chinese are happy, the Russians are happy, the Iranians are happy. Americans should be mad as hell that these eight people did this to our country,” said Rep. Dan Bacon (R-NE). How dare anyone derail the establishment policies when they’ve made everything so great for the average American.

McCarthy’s supporters accuse opponents within his own party of fundraising off his ouster. If Americans are willing to reward the ouster by donating to those responsible, then it would seem that they aren’t actually “mad as hell” and it’s establishment Republicans who are offside.How fitting is it that the last straw in McCarthy’s case seems to be allegations, evoked by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) that he had gone behind the GOP’s back to the Biden administration to work something out on the continued stream of aid to Ukraine, which had been shamelessly tacked on to the budget legislation that would keep the federal government running for at least another 45 days. The Ukraine funding provision had been the sticking point that had been preventing Republicans from approving the bill until McCarthy stripped it out. But then Gaetz accused McCarthy of making a deal with Biden to revive a vote on yet another round of aid for Ukraine in a separate House vote.

If Biden wanted to take the risk of tacking support for Ukraine on to the bill that he figured that lawmakers would be forced to pass lest the alternative be a shutdown of the whole government, then he should have had to assume the full consequences of that gamble. Let the government shut down because the American president figured that its funding is as important as Ukraine’s – and that paying American bureaucrats would be directly tied to lawmakers’ willingness to keep paying Kiev’s. Then when those who feel that they best represent the growing constituency of American voters who are increasingly against more cash for Kiev as they feel the pinch of their own worsening economic situation brought about by misguided establishment policies reject the two-headed legislative abomination – then let them place the blame squarely in Biden’s lap for even taking the risk of conjuring it up in the first place.

McCarthy has denied the backroom dealing, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck… McCarthy arguably wouldn’t have even been in the job had it not been for promising the populist faction of the GOP – the Freedom Caucus – that he wouldn’t give Ukraine a “blank check.” But he seemed influenced by the criticism of establishment GOP fixtures like Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY). “The idea that the party is now no longer going to support the Ukrainian people. For somebody who has the picture of Ronald Reagan on his wall in his office in the Capitol, the notion that now Kevin McCarthy is going to make himself the leader of the pro-Putin wing of my party is just a stunning thing,” Cheney said in an interview last year.

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“Now that she and other Democrats have caused there to be an immediately preceding speaker, she has removed herself from that office.”

Office Purge Follows Ouster Of US House Speaker (RT)

Two former top Democrats in the US Congress lost their “hideaway offices” on Wednesday, as the acting speaker of the House reassigned them to Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who lost his leadership position on Tuesday in a historic vote. Congressman Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, sent an email within 90 minutes of becoming speaker pro tempore on Tuesday, ordering Representatives Nancy Pelosi to “vacate the space tomorrow,” Axios has revealed. “The office that Pelosi currently occupies is the office of the preceding speaker,” Congressman Garret Graves, a Louisiana Republican, told the outlet. “Now that she and other Democrats have caused there to be an immediately preceding speaker, she has removed herself from that office.”

Graves was referring to the fact that every Democrat present at Tuesday’s session voted with eight of the Republicans to vacate the speakership, making McCarthy the first-ever speaker to be voted out in the 234-year history of the House of Representatives. There are approximately 100 secret offices in the US Capitol complex, mainly used by senators as private spaces for confidential business or personal matters. They are called “hideaways” because they are unlisted in official directories and are marked only with a room number. Pelosi did not actually vote against McCarthy, because she was back in California for the funeral of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. She released a statement on Wednesday denouncing McHenry’s decision as “a sharp departure from tradition.”

“As Speaker, I gave former Speaker [Dennis] Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished,” Pelosi said, further lamenting that she was “unable to retrieve my belongings” due to being out of town. Axios reported that staffers for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, helped evacuate Pelosi’s hideaway office, as well as that of Jeffries’ predecessor, Maryland Democrat Steny Hoyer, also ordered out by McHenry. Pelosi and Hoyer stepped down from leadership posts – but remained members of Congress – after Republicans retook the House in the 2022 midterm elections.

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“All member states will have to pay more to and receive less from the EU budget; many member states who are currently net receivers will become net contributors..”

Ukraine Could Reap $200 Billion EU Bonanza – FT (RT)

Ukraine could receive billions of euros in subsidies from the EU upon the country’s accession to the bloc, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing an internal study by the secretariat of the EU Council. According to the report, Kiev would be entitled to €96.5 billion ($101 billion) in payments from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. Ukraine would also be eligible for €61 billion ($64 billion) in subsidies from the EU’s cohesion funds, dedicated to improving infrastructure in poorer member states. In total, the bloc may have to allocate roughly €186 billion ($195 billion) for Ukraine in the seven years following its entry. The paper notes that this would greatly affect the EU’s agricultural subsidy regime. According to calculations, Ukraine has 41.1 million hectares of utilized agricultural area, and would become the bloc’s largest recipient of subsidies.

This would force a cut in payments for existing recipients by some 20.3% per 1 hectare of farmland. Experts say the changes may be too high a price to admit Ukraine as a member, unless adjustments are made to the EU budget. “These numbers aren’t going to work for anyone. They make clear that root and branch reform of the EU budget and its major policies will be needed if Ukraine is to ever join, or that the entire Ukraine question will have to be dealt with innovatively and outside of existing EU budget structures,” Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group, told the news outlet. The EU Council based its study on the bloc simultaneously accepting nine additional members: Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and six western Balkan states.

According to the analysis, the cost of adding them all to the EU’s existing budget would amount to roughly €256.8 billion ($269 billion). The study warned that the entry of new members would cause a drastic redistribution of funds within the union. For instance, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Cyprus, and Malta would no longer be eligible for cohesion funding. All member states will have to pay more to and receive less from the EU budget; many member states who are currently net receivers will become net contributors, the document stated. It added that whilst for several policies, opportunities may outweigh the costs/risks, the enlargement would bring very significant challenges for the EU budget, which would need to be addressed as soon as possible. According to reports, the EU is ready to start membership negotiations with Ukraine, which could be announced by the end of the year. The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, earlier stated that Ukraine could become a member of the bloc by 2030.

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These people belong in mental institutions. If you call 400,000 deaths “very cheap”, you are retarted.

Ukraine ‘Very Cheap Way’ To Fight Russia – Dutch Defense Minister (RT)

Arming Kiev is a cost-effective way of preventing Moscow from threatening NATO, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren argued on Wednesday at the Warsaw Security Forum. Ollongren was asked whether the US and its allies can continue supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” given the political in-fighting in Washington. “We cannot pretend that we’ll just wait and see how the American elections are going,” she said. “Because they have the same interest, in a way. Of course, supporting Ukraine is a very cheap way to make sure that Russia with this regime is not a threat to the NATO alliance. And it’s vital to continue that support.” “It is very much in our interest to support Ukraine, because they are fighting this war, we are not fighting it,” Ollongren noted, while admitting that NATO had “skin in the game.”

Ollongren explained that she had recently visited the US and that political developments there are cause for concern, but that Western Europeans need to talk with their American colleagues and persuade them to stay the course. “I think that we are capable of a lot, and we have proven that in the past year and a half, and the only thing we have to do is keep it up,” the minister said, adding that the scale of military assistance to Kiev has surprised Ukraine, Russia and even NATO itself. The US and its allies have channeled a large amount of money, weapons, ammunition and supplies to Ukraine since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell revealed earlier this week that the bloc has sent Ukraine €85 billion ($89.8 billion) so far, of which more than €25 billion ($26.4 billion) was military aid.

The most recent estimates of US spending were from the end of July, and amounted to $46.6 billion in military aid, $3.9 billion in humanitarian aid, and about $26.4 billion in loans and cash payments to keep the government in Kiev going. Moscow has repeatedly warned that the deliveries of heavy weapons and other aid are tantamount to direct involvement in the hostilities. Washington and Brussels, however, insist they were not actually a party to the conflict. Russia said foreign arms would not change the course of the fighting and would not deter Moscow from achieving its goals in Ukraine. Russian officials also repeatedly cited NATO’s expansion eastward as one of the root causes of its current conflict with Ukraine and the standoff with the West.

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“..without additional funding, the US will be forced to delay or slash supply of air defense weapons, ammunition, drones, and demolition equipment.”

US Funding for Ukraine Gov’t Reportedly to ‘Run Dry by November’ (Sp.)

Without another abundant infusion of cash from Congress, US funding for Ukraine’s government expenditures will run dry by November, a report citing officials in Washington and Kiev says. Congress passed a temporary funding bill to keep the federal government running until November 17 and dodge a shutdown by leaving out $6 billion for Ukraine. The sum was part of the $24 billion in emergency aid for Kiev requested by President Joe Biden, on top of the over $100 billion in assistance already provided to the regime. While Ukraine’s Finance Ministry has resources to cover the budget needs for October, “beyond November the government could face decisions about what services or salaries to cut, or whether to attempt to borrow,” a Ukrainian official was cited as saying.

The source voiced concerns that ending payments to Ukraine’s government could trigger discontent in the country and “potentially put political pressure on President Volodymyr Zelensky, who would face louder criticism from rival factions.” Meanwhile, one Washington official revealed that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will process an October funds transfer of $1.15 billion through the World Bank program, “assuming Ukraine shows that it has appropriately spent the previous transfer.” Future disbursements are unclear, it was added in the report. After October, the government in Kiev could dip into other funds “earlier than planned,” which would tide them over through November and December, but “without fresh funding the picture turns darker in 2024,” the US report cited a Ukrainian source as saying.

The World Bank’s Public Expenditures for Administrative Capacity Endurance (“PEACE”) program has sent Ukraine $23.4 billion, all told, with $20.2 billion funded by the US and $2 billion from the UK. Since the Ukraine conflict escalated, overall US aid to Ukraine totals $72.8 billion, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the report noted. The debate over economic aid to Ukraine has divided Congress. Republicans who oppose funding for Ukraine have argued the need to put domestic priorities first, instead of sinking cash into NATO’s proxy war with Russia. Ukraine’s botched counteroffensive has added to doubts, along with soaring prices and borrowing costs, economic slowdown, and inflation. An August survey found that 55 percent of Americans thought lawmakers should not authorize additional funding to support Ukraine.

Furthermore, the Pentagon recently issued a warning to Congress, saying it is rapidly running out of funds to replace its weapons stockpile, including artillery, rockets, and missiles, due to the rush to fulfill shipments to Ukraine. In a letter viewed by US media, Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord earlier informed House and Senate leadership that out of the $25.9 billion allocated by Congress to replenish US military stocks provided to Ukraine, only $1.6 billion remains. Long-term funding through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative for Kiev has been entirely depleted, McCord warned, saying that without additional funding, the US will be forced to delay or slash supply of air defense weapons, ammunition, drones, and demolition equipment.

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“All that largesse that is billed to U.S. and European taxpayers has resulted in a slaughter in Europe not seen since the Second World War – and a failed Ukrainian state.”

Ukraine Fatigue Is Worrying NATO Elites (Cunningham)

On both sides of the Atlantic, there is now discernible fatigue and anger among citizens over the bottomless money pit that is NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. The only wonder is that it has taken so long for the Western public to get wise to the scam. The disgraceful adulation of a Nazi war criminal by the whole Canadian parliament in a perverse show of solidarity with Ukraine against Russia has helped focus public attention on the obscenity of the NATO proxy war. All told, since the NATO-induced conflict blew up in February last year, the American and European establishments have thrown up to €200 billion into Ukraine to prop up an odious Nazi-infested regime. All that largesse that is billed to U.S. and European taxpayers has resulted in a slaughter in Europe not seen since the Second World War – and a failed Ukrainian state.

And of course huge profits for the NATO military-industrial complex that bankrolls the elite politicians. Times are changing though. In the United States, the financially conservative Republicans have had enough of the blank checks to the Kiev regime. The U.S. Congress finally showed a modicum of sanity to prevent a government financial shutdown – by dropping military aid to Ukraine. That shows how twisted Washington’s priorities have become when national self-interest has to wrestle with funding for a Nazi regime. And then following the Congressional vote to temporarily end funding for Ukraine, the Kiev regime’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba dared to reprimand American lawmakers: “We are now working with both sides of Congress to make sure that it does not (get) repeated under any circumstances.”

Meanwhile in Europe, Slovakian citizens have voted for a new government to end the military fueling of war in Ukraine. The Smer-SD party led by Robert Fico won the parliamentary elections primarily on the vow to shut off any further weapons supply to the Kiev regime. This week also saw massive protests in Germany against Olaf Scholz’s coalition government over the latter’s abject pro-war policies in Ukraine. German Unity Day on October 3 prompted a mass rally in Berlin denouncing the NATO proxy war in Ukraine and calling for peace negotiations to end the conflict. There were also unprecedented protests across Poland in Warsaw, Lodz and other cities against the PiS government’s slavish implementation of the U.S.-led NATO proxy war in Ukraine.

Faced with millions of Ukrainian refugees and neglect of social needs for Poles, the PiS ruling party has recently threatened to end weapons supply to Kiev – a move less about principle and more about trying to buy votes in the forthcoming election on October 15. Nevertheless, the belated move by the Polish government illustrates the concern among European leaders about growing public disdain over the seemingly endless financial aid allocated to Ukraine. Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, says it is a “worrying” sign that Washington for the first time closed the coffers for Ukraine.

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Rutte and Von Der Leyen flew to Tunisia to make a deal to stop refugee flows to Lampedusa, and turned their backs on it as soon as they got back home.

Tunisia Rejects EU Financial Aid (RT)

Tunisian President Kais Saied has rejected financial aid from the European Union intended to support the country’s budget and address a migration crisis, claiming that the bloc violated agreements signed earlier this year. “Tunisia rejects what the EU announced, not because of the small amount… but because this proposal contradicts the memorandum of understanding signed in July,” Saied said on Monday, according to a statement published by national broadcaster TAP. The EU signed a partnership agreement with Saied in July, pledging more than 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) to the North African country to help its battered economy and curb irregular migration from the Tunisian coast to Europe.

However, the European Commission announced last month that it would disburse 127 million euros ($133 million) in aid to the country, with the majority of the funds earmarked for addressing migration issues, including facilitating the deportation of migrants to their home countries. In response to the EU announcement, Tunisia’s president said on Monday that he would not accept the “small amount” because it “lacks respect.” “Tunisia, which accepts cooperation, does not accept anything that resembles charity or handouts,” Saied was quoted as saying by TAP during a meeting with Nabil Ammar, the country’s minister of foreign affairs and migration. In an interview with RT on Tuesday, international relations researcher Bechir Jouini said Tunisia’s rejection of the EU offer centered on the bloc’s handling of the agreement, which appears to prioritize financial aspects over other considerations.

If the EU wants to address the immigration crisis, Jouini believes it should prioritize genuine investments in African economies over exploiting the continent’s resources. “We are not just demanding money,” he said, arguing that “if there’s no stability, if there’s no growth in Africa, there’s no stability in all of Europe.” Migration has remained a source of disagreement within the EU since 2015, with an influx of migrants fleeing poverty and conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. Member states, including Hungary and Poland, have strongly opposed Brussels’ attempts to compel them to accept and settle migrants. Last month, Italian authorities reported the arrival of thousands of African migrants from Tunisia on the island of Lampedusa, prompting a state of emergency.

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“But I can tell you that such things are done by self-confident adults, uncles and aunts, who, apparently, are not very clever..”

Creation of Multipolar World Inevitable, Necessary – Putin (Sp.)

The creation of a multipolar world, more honest and fair for the majority of people, is inevitable and historically necessary, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated, addressing the Third International Olympiad on Financial Security in the Sirius federal territory near Sochi on Wednesday, October 4. “The process of building a multipolar world order – more democratic, more honest, fair for the majority of mankind – is simply inevitable and historically necessary. This fully applies to the creation of strong economic foundations of such a world order,” Putin stressed. In addition, the Russian president emphasized that those who seize other people’s assets are apparently not exceptionally intelligent. During his speech, Putin spoke about a joint project between a number of central banks in Asia and the Middle East that allows them to issue and exchange digital currencies.

“That is, no third party has any possibility for abuse and for interfering with payments. Including blocking, for example, a transaction, arresting accounts, appropriating someone else’s money or assets. And this, unfortunately, happens in the modern world. These are very young people sitting here. But I can tell you that such things are done by self-confident adults, uncles and aunts, who, apparently, are not very clever, if they commit such erroneous actions that ultimately harm themselves,” the president stressed. Moreover, the world is gradually getting rid of the dictatorship of an economic model where entire regions of the world are driven into bondage and loans, Putin said. “The world is gradually getting rid of the dictatorship of such a financial and economic model, the purpose of which is only to drive into debt, into bondage, turn into economic colonies, deprive entire regions of the world of resources for development,” the president highlighted, adding that “few people will like such a future.”

In addition, Putin emphasized that mutual trust and respect for each other’s interests are extremely important in terms of international economic cooperation. “You are well aware that the financial sphere is now undergoing rapid development of advanced solutions, advanced technologies. This is digital currency, digital financial assets, new payment services and financial settlement models. This includes the use of blockchain technologies, the so-called distributed ledger. I would like to say once again that in this area, especially when it comes to international economic cooperation, mutual trust and respect for the interests of partners and each other’s interests are extremely important,” the president said.

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Unstoppable.

Quoting RT Plays Into Putin’s Hands – Hillary Clinton (RT)

Former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin is “thrilled” by the growing political divide in Washington over aid to Ukraine. She also alleged that the Russian leader “scores points”whenever Americans reference views shared by outlets such as RT. In an interview with PBS’s Geoff Bennett released on Tuesday, the former secretary of state and principal architect of the Russiagate conspiracy theory was asked how she thinks Russia perceives the growing opposition among US lawmakers to funding for Kiev. Clinton suggested that Putin was not only pleased with the rift among American politicians, but was also “fomenting” it in order to “undermine democracy” and “suborn political leaders.” “When I see people parroting Russian talking points that first showed up on Russia Today [RT] or first showed up in a speech from a Russian official, that’s a big point scored for Putin,” Clinton said.

She went on to suggest that despite the “ideological” and “partisan” political divide, the US Congress must work through its issues and ultimately pass legislation that would ensure continued aid for Ukraine. “This fight is our fight,” Clinton claimed, adding that she fails to understand how any Americans can “side” with Putin. “But we have seen it, and we have heard it, and we have to fight against it,”she declared. The former secretary of state’s comments come after the US Congress approved a last-minute 45-day stopgap government funding bill on Saturday that omitted any financial support for Kiev. The vote followed demands from Republican senators for military aid for Ukraine to be dropped from the spending bill, threatening to initiate a government shutdown.

Last week, Clinton also claimed during a speech at the State Department that Putin was personally to blame for NATO’s continued eastward expansion, which she insisted was a consequence of Russian policies. “Too bad, Vladimir. You brought it on yourself,” she said. Moscow responded by arguing that Clinton was well known “for her attempts to turn everything upside down and change concepts.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Western countries have repeatedly refused to discuss any of Russia’s proposals regarding security guarantees. At the same time, NATO has continued to launch “numerous waves” of expansion and has moved its military infrastructure right up to Russia’s borders. “It is absolutely clear what the underlying reasons were for Russia’s special military operation,” Peskov said.

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“According to a wide-ranging new book by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow [..] the Biden family has a second, virtually unknown institute..”

Biden’s “Secret Money Machine” (ZH)

On December 11, 2018, the University of Delaware announced that it was naming its public policy school after Vice President Biden. Emails show that this move was orchestrated by members of UD’s Biden Institute. It was on the day of the announcement that Hunter Biden received a text message from his aunt and former Joe Biden campaign manager, Valerie Owens (who chairs the Biden Institute), crediting him for the deepening partnership with between the Biden family and the university: “Bravo Hunter—UD was your baby and you made sure I was part of it.” The University of Delaware Biden Institute was Hunter’s “baby.” And this was the type of baby the family most certainly was not going to ignore. -Breitbart

What’s more, the UD Biden Institute became home to at least 12 future Biden administration appointees, including soon-to-be senior Biden advisor Mike Donilon and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, while UD President Dennis Assanis would be named to Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. But perhaps most intriguing is that soon after forging its partnership with the Bidens, the University of Delaware (UD) disclosed receiving funds from China. Assanis notably “has deep and long-standing ties to China,” according to Marlow, who reports that in addition to serving as the founding director of the US-China Clean Energy Research Center and Clean Vehicle Consortium (CERC-CVC) since 2003, Assanis has served as both a guest professor and an advisory professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) – which has a partnership with the Chinese military, and which has been identified as the source of cyberattacks on American companies.

And then the Chinese funds start flowing… As Marlow reports; The University of Delaware had never disclosed receiving funds from China until April 2018, when it accepted over $3.2 million for a contract with an unnamed Chinese entity. This came two months after the Penn Biden Center opened its DC office. Then, in December 2018, UD received $1.9 million from an unnamed Chinese entity. In 2019, UD received another $625,000 from China. In 2020, UD initiated three contracts with the Chinese entities and received over $1 million in funds. In sum, UD has received over $6.7 million from unnamed Chinese sources, including a substantial amount from the Chinese government. All these funds started flowing to UD after the Biden Institute was announced and increased immediately after the launch of the Penn Biden Center.

In addition to the obvious pay-for-play implications, the influx of Chinese money is even more alarming in light of UD’s thirty-seven international partnerships with Chinese universities – including several which are involved in the development of Chinese military technology. Concern over UD’s relationship with Chinese entities is such a concern that on Feb. 8, 2022, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) wrote Assanis to ask him to terminate the institution’s academic and research partnership with Xiamen University, an active component of the CCP military-industrial complex, and which allegedly conspired with Huawei to perform corporate espionage against a US semiconductor start-up. According to the report, UD has worked with at least four other universities linked to CCP defense laboratories.

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“..they want him silenced. They fear his use of the 1st Amendment to defend himself. And that…is EXACTLY why we have a 1st Amendment.”

Gagging Trump – Shows Fear (AMAC)

Think hard: Why, after allowing two state and two federal indictments of Donald Trump, each transparently political, would a federal prosecutor seek the rare step of “gagging” a former president, who also happens to be the leading GOP candidate? Only one reason: fear. The reason for this highly unusual step seems deeper than analysts are looking. On one hand, protecting a national security secret might justify a gag order, but there is none here. Jury pools are continuously exposed to public information, thus methodically sifted in “voir dire,” a process that assures jurors selected will be “fair and impartial.” Gagging a defendant is never done for that reason, no matter how well-known the defendant is. See if you can find a case recently, even historically, to silence a defendant protesting his innocence.

Nor is a gag order sought, let alone granted, because a prosecutor fears the defendant will speak publicly about his innocence and try to defend himself or herself to the public. Far from it, defendants are typically told by their own counsel NOT to speak openly since anything said could be used against them by the prosecutor, no matter the allegations. Notably, the federal prosecutor here, Mr. Jack Smith, was previously censured by the US Supreme Court (9-0) for misapplying federal law, specifically for political overreach. Yet, by all indications, here we are again. We have questionable, seemingly political indictments. One is arguably based on evidence pulled in a violation of 4th Amendment guarantees – a “general warrant,” with armed agents swarming the former president’s home. The other appears to mock the 1st Amendment, criminalizing political speech – as never before alleged.

We see in these indictments, paired with two state indictments, the play of politics. Incredibly, briefing schedules sought by prosecutors mirror the presidential primary calendar, making the process – by all appearances and definition – deliberate “election interference.” Ironically, against this backdrop and rather unexpectedly for the White House, Justice, and Democrat prosecutors, Mr. Trump – their target – has rocketed to the top of polls. He has climbed so high that, combining Republican, Independent, and Democrat voters, he would decisively beat Mr. Biden – if the race were today. All this should give Americans pause. It is also embarrassing for Mr. Smith, Mr. Garland, and Mr. Biden, not to mention state political prosecutors. They all have egg on their face, a mess.

So, the answer? Apparently, their latest flash of brilliance is to officially “gag” put a legal towel in the mouth of Mr. Trump. They want to stop him from speaking at all, as his words might “disparage the process” of being prosecuted or persecuted. Like something out of Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland or the former Soviet Union’s definition of due process, the prosecutor’s request is to prevent Mr. Trump from speaking. The irony is too rich and has not escaped Americans on both sides of the aisle. If not for such moments, what perchance is the 1st Amendment for? This order is wild overreach, panic. Traditionally, the reason federal prosecutors do not seek “gag orders” against defendants, whether Al Capone, John Mitchell, or others, is that the credibility of the prosecutor, the credibility of the Justice Department, is presumed to be higher than that of any defendant.

Put differently: This federal prosecutor and Justice Department are afraid. They fear their constitutionally questionable, highly offensive actions will not hold up in public discourse. Pointedly: They think Mr. Trump’s credibility supersedes – is higher than – theirs. Thus, they want him silenced. They fear his use of the 1st Amendment to defend himself. And that…is EXACTLY why we have a 1st Amendment.

Read more …

“The assets are much more valuable as opposed to less valuable than earlier statements.”

Trump Says Will Testify ‘At The Appropriate Time’ In NY Civil Fraud Trial (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will testify as part of an ongoing civil fraud trial that could see his business operations come to a halt in New York, according to Anadolu Agency. Asked if he would take the stand in the non-jury trial, Trump said: “Yes, I will. At the appropriate time I will be. “I think it’s going very well,” Trump said at the New York courthouse where proceedings are taking place. “The assets are much more valuable as opposed to less valuable than earlier statements.” “There was absolutely no fraud,” he added. New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $250 million in damages as part of a lawsuit tied to Trump and his organization’s business practices, alleging that they systemically overvalued their assets to enrich themselves.

Trump, who is voluntarily attending the trial, has alleged that the case is politically motivated and is part of efforts to hamper his 2024 election prospects, and he has sought to discredit the presiding judge as being a “rogue” who is biased against him, and calling James a “racist.” New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the case, ruled in late September that Trump and his company committed repeated acts of fraud for years. Engoron found that Trump and his company deceived banks by submitting “fraudulent valuations” for assets that were then used by himself, his sons and his business to secure better loan and insurance terms. The judge immediately canceled all of Trump and his co-defendants’ business certificates in New York and ordered that they must recommend no more than three potential independent receivers to manage the dissolution of the canceled limited liability companies within 10 days.

Trump’s legal team said they plan to appeal. “For years, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth to enrich himself and cheat the system. We won the foundation of our case last week and proved that his purported net worth has long been rooted in incredible fraud,” James said in a statement Monday. “In this country, there are consequences for this type of persistent fraud, and we look forward to demonstrating the full extent of his fraud and illegality during trial,” she added. Engoron will now rule on six other claims brought by James’ office in the lawsuit. It also seeks a ban on Trump doing business in the state where he made his brand as a high-profile real estate developer.

Read more …

“..it would seem that the Golden State deserved a solid senator that understands its issues. Or at least, compared to the twilight years of Feinstein’s career, just knows where they are at any given moment.”

Dianne Feinstein’s Replacement Cranks Her Problems Up To 11 (Blankenship)

US Senator Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving female senator in American history, passed away on September 29 after a long, trailblazing career in politics. With her death, California Governor Gavin Newsom was entitled to make yet another political appointment, this time promising to fill the role with a black woman. Indeed, the governor delivered – and big time. He appointed a gay black woman named Laphonza Butler. But read the fine print because Newsom never said he would appoint a Californian, as Butler actually resides in Maryland. And what are her credentials? Well, she’s apparently a “veteran organizer” who, after years of union work, was co-opted by Uber to help manage the company’s labor relations at a time when its partners sought full-employment status. She basically helped screw over a bunch of gig workers.

Since 2021, Butler has also served as the president of Emily’s List, a major Democratic Party donor network that helps raise money for women candidates who support abortion rights. The new California senator is a union-buster: check. She can raise money: check. She’s a black lesbian: check, check. (But she’s not from California, as if that matters.) In the Southern United States, we have an endearing term for a politician who settles in a place that they’re not originally from to seek office – “carpetbagger.” While this is a regional term that doesn’t apply with its historical usage, the way people use it today applies. Elected representatives are supposed to have a connection to the locality or state from which they are elected and vote on behalf of that region’s citizens. Having no connection to a place, or never having lived there, necessarily means one has no familiarity with important local issues.

Where I grew up, in Kentucky, we’ve had this happen a few times. Former Republican Governor Matt Bevin was elected in 2015 in a shocking vote that saw Democrats lose the Governor’s Mansion for the first time in nearly a generation. While Bevin’s victory was mainly a repudiation of the national Democratic Party and foreshadowed former President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, he was a businessman from New England who essentially made a vanity run in a backwater state he thought he could win in. In addition to his myriad corruption scandals and his horrible policies for the commonwealth, the fact that he was a “carpetbagger” was a major factor in his defeat to Andy Beshear, the son of Governor Steve Beshear, in 2019. I also worked on congressional hopeful Amy McGrath’s campaign for a spell in 2018, and while she was a Kentucky native, she was a newcomer to the district she sought to win, which was a massive point of contention from locals and a factor in her defeat to Congressman Andy Barr. (I heard people call her a “carpetbagger”all the time when I was knocking on doors.)

So, needless to say, there are certainly a lot of Americans who view obvious political careerism with contempt. Add the fact that Butler is a longtime labor friend-turned-pro-employer stooge, and her token identity as an LGBTQ black woman, and you have a situation where pretty much anyone would agree that her appointment is nothing more than paper-thin corporate identitarianism. Having just endured over 31 years of representation from Feinstein, who was certainly not loved by organized labor or the working class of California (or the US) in general but was heralded as a trailblazer for the act of being a woman, it would seem that the Golden State deserved a solid senator that understands its issues. Or at least, compared to the twilight years of Feinstein’s career, just knows where they are at any given moment.

Alas, it was not to be. While Feinstein represented all of the things wrong with the Democratic Party – vanity, careerism, greed, and a general lack of authenticity – Butler cranks this up to 11. Perhaps, if she can survive a special election in five months and then win re-election six times in a row, she too can be a multi-millionaire through insider training like her predecessor – hell, maybe she can be the first gay black billionaire in Congress. Wouldn’t that be something? Jokes aside, there is far more to so-called public service than just supporting the national party on major issues. A lot of mundane things happen in the halls of Congress, much of which involves supporting one’s district or state on fairly trivial issues that locals appreciate. Given Butler’s lack of familiarity with Californian politics, anything she does will have to be communicated to her from somewhere else, which is just about the last thing people want from their leaders. Politics, in any case, shouldn’t be about such blatant opportunism.

Read more …

“there is a very real hazard” of the dsDNA integrating into a person’s genome and becoming a “permanent fixture of the cell” that can result in autoimmune problems and cancers,,”

Alarming Covid Jab Contamination Shocks Scientists (Mercola)

In early April 2023, microbiologist Kevin McKernan — a former researcher and team leader for the MIT Human Genome project1 — posted a preprint paper2 detailing massive DNA contamination in Pfizer’s and Moderna’s bivalent COVID booster shots. As explained in the abstract: “Several methods were deployed to assess the nucleic acid composition of four expired vials of the Moderna and Pfizer bivalent mRNA vaccines. Two vials from each vendor were evaluated … Multiple assays support DNA contamination that exceeds the European Medicines Agency (EMA) 330ng/mg requirement and the FDAs 10ng/dose requirements …” The highest level of DNA contamination found was 30%, meaning nearly one-third of the content of certain vials was plasmid DNA, the presence of which dramatically increases the likelihood of genomic integration and cancer.

What this means, in plain English, is that the shots could potentially alter your DNA, which is something vaccine makers, health authorities and fact checkers have vehemently denied and written off as “impossible.” Yet here we are, with inconvenient facts staring us in the face yet again. In a May 20, 2023, Substack article,8 McKernan pointed out that regulatory agencies were clearly aware of this problem early on, as Pfizer submitted documents to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) showing sampled lots had a broad range of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) in them. The EMA’s limit for dsDNA is 330 nanograms per milligram (ng/mg), and Pfizer’s data show sampled lots had anywhere from 1 ng/mg to 815 ng/mg of DNA. And, according to McKernan, the EMA’s limit may be too high to begin with, as “lower limits should be applied if the DNA is packaged in transfection ready lipid nanoparticles,” as they are in the shots.

In a sane regulatory environment, this kind of contamination would have resulted in a massive recall, considering the known and suspected dangers of dsDNA contaminants. Yet nothing was done about it. Since McKernan’s paper was posted, others have confirmed the presence of dsDNA contaminants in the COVID shots. To be clear, DNA should not be present in a commercial product that has been made under good manufacturing practices. Obviously, Pfizer and Moderna have not perfected their commercial process, or have taken shortcuts they shouldn’t have. As a result, countless millions have been injected with unnecessarily risky COVID shots. University of South Carolina professor Phillip Buckhaults has since confirmed the presence of dsDNA in the COVID shots. September 13, 2023, he testified10 to this before the South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Ad-Hoc Committee on the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC).

Buckhaults is a molecular biologist and cancer geneticist with extensive experience in DNA sequencing, and initially set out to debunk McKernan’s claims. To his shock, he replicated McKernan’s findings instead. In his testimony, he explained how these DNA contaminants can integrate into your genome and disrupt the function of other genes, either long term or permanently, and may be passed on to offspring for generations. He told the senators he was “alarmed about this DNA being in the vaccine,” as “there is a very real hazard” of the dsDNA integrating into a person’s genome and becoming a “permanent fixture of the cell” that can result in autoimmune problems and cancers.11 Buckhaults suspects high levels of DNA contaminants may also be causing some of the more serious side effects of the jabs, such as lethal cardiac arrest.12 Of the two lots he analyzed, he found between 5 nanograms and 20 ng of plasmid DNA — ranging from one to 200 base pairs long — per 300 microliter dose, and he points out that having a multitude of tiny fragments is far riskier than having one big piece of DNA.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dog tunes
https://twitter.com/i/status/1709528796955574629

 

 

Hyperion

 

 

Octopus
https://twitter.com/i/status/1709451435845276152

 

 

Cat

 

 

Elephant

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle October 5 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 46 total)
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  • #144201

    Jan van Eyck Saint Barbara 1437   • Is McCarthy Saga A Bipartisan Strategy To Quietly End Aid To Ukraine? (Reade) • Apparently, Kevin McCarthy’s
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle October 5 2023]

    #144202
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Jan van Eyck Saint Barbara 1437

    What a magnificient piece of work by van Eyck…astounding in it detail…
    …and the young woman appears to have a very large writting quill in her hand…her left hand I might add…

    #144203
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    We should have listened to those who tried to tell us what a total sheepdog Bernie Sanders is and always has been. I’m so annoyed sometimes this platform doesn’t give me a readily accessible way to change my icon.

    #144204
    Just Some Randomer
    Participant

    So, my young (mid 40’s), very fit and hitherto healthy brother in law has just been diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma out of nowhere. Starts an aggressive course of Chemo today.

    One of my wife’s friends (a staunch anti-vaxer) dared to hint at a connection – this was not well received at all. I have decided to maintain a diplomatic silence on the subject – discretion being the better part of valour and so on.

    #144205
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Apologies if posted already Chris martenson not coming to terms with lying as a rewards based system

    #144206
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “H3N8 Avian Flu Virus Has Strong Transmission Potential With Risk Of Major Outbreak

    So it exists in theory but not in the real world. Right. I bring it up because the “H3N” virus for chickens? Really?

    “In light of the surge in illegal immigration, Mayorkas found that there exists an “acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas.”
    No, this is not Babylon Bee.”

    Whut? I guess sending them to NYC and Martha’s Vineyard worked after all.

    “Hunter Biden To Mount 2nd Amendment Defense Against Gun Charges

    Democrats are Pro-Wall and Pro-Gun? Okay, you win.

    “Gagging Trump… Shows Fear
    “RNC Threatens To Ban Ramaswamy, Christie From Next GOP Debate For ‘Unsanctioned Dialogue’

    So the DNC bans Trump. The RNC bans everybody else. …Seems like some Rich men north of Richmond against everybody else. Now this is like the last NY Billionaire Capitalist, FDR, went up there and started smashing heads to force the wealthy to cut a deal with the people (or die in a violent revolution). They literally ran a coup on FDR. Same thing here.

    Jimmy Dore was running Gaetz, with sadness as that was exactly what he told the squad to do to get medicare for all. Oh wait: he wasn’t asking for M4A, merely a VOTE on Medicare for All. The squad caved for nothing and remains caved today. Anyway, Gaetz was haranguing Congress for working for the LOBBYISTS and DONORS and not the people, the constituents of their districts. THEY BOOED HIM. Congress openly booed someone who said “Hey maybe you should keep it down about bribery?” Nope! We want to be on camera on CSPAN openly supporting corporate money over the voters of my town.

    Dore brought this up in contrast. His shows have gravitated political, since that’s the subject no one can talk about in comedy. Plus Covid, with the show “Covid Lies are Funny”. When he says lobbyists and donors should be removed from Congress in every city in America, every person stands up and applauds. THAT’S how far the gap is right now between Richmond and everybody else. 180°. Like, we’ll fight and kill you in defense of our bribery and sleep like a baby, you terrorist creep who wants to eat. “I’ve been shot 7 times in my home, I don’t have any baby formula, Blah, Blah Blah. Me, Me, Me.” Did you ever stop and think about what HUNTER is up against, having $300,000 wired from China to his father’s Beach house? Show some compassion here, you cretins.

    “• Apparently, Kevin McCarthy’s Ouster Is Putin’s Fault (Marsden)

    Like Dore, the 5 things Gaetz was able to push where just NORMAL behavior. Just NORMAL, average things we should all do. In this case, Single Issue Budget bills. Yes to the military, No to the military. Yes to the wall, No to the wall. Yes to Ukraine, No to Ukraine. Easy. Like M4A, we’ve given up on trying to get your vote. We just want there to BE a vote.

    Couldn’t do it. And they’re attacking him for “Ruining every political norm” like Trump did. Yeah! That’s because CORRUPTION is the “Political norm”.

    “As Speaker, I gave former Speaker [Dennis] Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished,”

    “Political Norm”? It’s an OFFICE. We’re all dying in the streets over here, so get a grip about your corner office.

    Among other reversals: “ADL Folds, Agrees To Advertise On X

    The ADL doesn’t make or DO anything. Yet they never run out of millions in money. How like the rest of the economy. Make toothpaste or bacon, no ads, barely getting by. Never made a single useful thing in your life? In fact go around destroying every useful thing like Romney and Toys R Us? Endless cash.

    “I Make. Nothing. I Do. Nothing. I OWN.” — Gekko, Wall Street.

    “Ukraine ‘Very Cheap Way’ To Fight Russia – Dutch Defense Minister (RT)

    Yes, and the $200B in visible costs don’t look very cheap either. We’re probably 4x or 10x that in petrol prices over the economy.

    “A way to make sure Russia is not a threat to the NATO alliance.”

    What do you even mean by this? They are mentally ill and see the existence of other beings as a foundational “Threat”. As “I am God”, then “All things must be me.” They must obey me, be part of me, be my Ego.

    Was Russia planning on invading? No? Then What argument do you have about…anything? We’re 4-5 meta-levels beyond that in thinking. We assumed that was true decades ago and have built whole nations on that assumption, it can’t BE removed. Back to the simple, HOW was Russia a threat? How? As you say, they are the size of Holland or Italy. They are a “gas station.” None of their weapons work, their generals are corrupt, and they’ll collapse in 6 weeks on the Ruble. How are they a “threat”? What “Threat” was ever Iraq? Syria? Libya? Sudan? Panama? Vietnam?

    Question as if if doesn’t exist. Does not compute. Just carry on. “’Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” — Churchill.

    “Quoting RT Plays Into Putin’s Hands – Hillary Clinton (RT)

    Hillary? How is Russia a threat to us? Since they’re nobody, why would we care if we play into their hands or not? Nothing could be less relevant to me or 300M other Americans. I’m sorry you hallucinate monsters under your bed and Putin is out to get you. It must be bad. But the rest of us don’t have scary hallucinations of non-reality like that. Lay off the sauce.

    “• US Funding for Ukraine Gov’t Reportedly to ‘Run Dry by November’ (Sp.)”

    Actually speaking of, Gaetz said “Congress hasn’t passed a real budget since I was in High School.” I’m hazy on this, but at least in this case, it’s a “Continuing Resolution” which means “We keep the status quo” and change and discuss nothing, ever. That allows these “other” rules, rules-lite. Non-rules. Because following the rules, they can’t pass a budget, it would require discussions and “Changes”. And nothing will ever happen again.

    That’s against the rules. This is against the rules. And why bother? The Pentagon can just find $6B anytime they want and do it without Congress at all as they did again last month. Like Rome, due to corruption it was all abdicated to Caesar, in his role as “Dictator”, the Senate being nothing but a bunch of corrupt patricians and oligarchs sucking off the people until they begged the Visigoths to come in and fix it.

    “A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in times of emergency.” –Wiki

    An “Emergency”. Like 9-11 or the WHO.

    “Dictatorships are often characterized by some of the following: suspension of elections and civil liberties; proclamation of a state of emergency; rule by decree; repression of political opponents; not abiding by the procedures of the rule of law; … Dictatorships are often one-party or dominant-party states.” — Wiki

    So the definition of the word itself in English demonstrates what happens. As Napoleon said, “Nothing lasts quite so long as the ‘temporary’.”

    “California Governor Gavin Newsom was entitled to make yet another political appointment, this time promising to fill the role with a black woman.”

    Because he’s a racist and can only see the color of her skin. In complete opposition of MLK and everything he stood for. Very proud. And she’s a “Woman”? How DARE you??? And she’s NOT FROM CALIFORNIA, to represent the people of California. …In opposition to the Founding Fathers and everything they stood for, and also opposition to the people of California and everything they stand for.

    ““there is a very real hazard” of the dsDNA integrating into a person’s genome and becoming a “permanent fixture of the cell” that can result in autoimmune problems and cancers,,”

    I don’t have any scientific understanding of this but am very skeptical. Sell me on if this can happen or not. Or is it like, “Flood the zone” and “Hope something happens on accident”. That I agree is always possible.

    #144207
    oxymoron
    Participant

    I hope anyone here looking for a job in America isn’t white. Check these stats.

    https://open.substack.com/pub/barsoom/p/if-no-ones-hiring-white-guys-what?r=nv8me&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

    #144208
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    @JSR: Human nature being what it is, most people are not going to take kindly to being told that they stood in line to be poisoned, even if that is the truth.

    #144209
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    One does NOT cure a rabid dog, you eliminate it quickly.

    The judge, prosecuting attorney and the state attorney general persecuting Former President Donald Trump are legally rabid. Do what is necessary, summarily, officially. Stop the further spread of disease.

    Was population reduction not desired? This has a utilitarian outcome.

    #144210
    Just Some Randomer
    Participant

    The wheels seem to be coming off everywhere at the same time these days, politically, financially, energetically, diplomatically, demographically…

    I ‘ve been assiduously following and learning about all of these fields since before the last GFC and I flatter myself to imagine that I have developed a reasonable feel for what is going on and how things may develop. In one word I would describe where we are right now as ‘Perilous’.

    ‘The Big One’ financial crash feels so close I can almost touch it…….

    If we get though the end of 2023 without a catastrophe kicking off in the financial markets I will be incredulous.

    #144212
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Oxymoron’s critical reading skills were honed to a fine edge.
    What a find that perfectly represents the tenor and tone of our time OR how professional liars lie.

    First the quotes that Oxy’s reference relays:

    God bless the Chinese
    “Chinese journalist asks the committee this question. “With the mRNA, we don’t know the long term effect yet. Do we have any concern over that?” Hear the answers from Professor Sandberg and Professor Olle Kampe. “The mRNA given is very transient” “The amount of side effects noted to date is extremely limited, so I don’t think it’s a major concern” “Well it can’t be integrated into the nucleus, into the DNA, and that’s a safety precaution.” “The effects noted are mostly myocarditis and pericarditis, mainly affecting young males, but that normally resolves without any long term effects”

    Obviously Kampe and Sandberg do not know. Kinda reminds of the end scene in Se7en where Kevin Spacey’s character John Doe tells the unsuspecting but recently widowed Detective David Mills played by Bradd Pitt that “Ahh, He (they) doesn’t know” David’s recently deceased young wife played by Gwyneth Paltrow was pregnant

    However, in our mRNA Nobel case, the femme non-fatale is very much alive AND we should believe her when she disputes Sandberg’s and Kampe’s defense of her selection as Nobel co-laureate.

    Katalin Karikó said

    I didn’t have a research team when I was doing the key work. “I am so unlikely a person to win the Nobel Prize,” she says, noting that she did the biochemistry experiments with her own hands.

    I for one believe a biochemist doesn’t possess the manual dexterity to manipulate mRNA alone and she says she was alone.
    I find it unsurprising a dude named (((Sandberg))) stepped in to take credit too. I await Celticbiker and aspnaz opinion

    #144213
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Van van Eyck’s Saint Barbara looks like Alice in Wonderland

    Mortgages
    Mort Gages = Death Measurement

    Housing market set to implode, the interest rates will keep rising.

    Tall Paul Volcker got the Prime to 21.5% before he relented

    They’re at 7.88% now, It’s a Long Way to Tipperary……

    Dig the angle they are currently rocketing up at, it’s a Nose Bleed angle, no sign of letting up.

    .

    #144214
    zerosum
    Participant

    Bankers are laughing all the way to the bank.

    It’s not tax $. It’s all loans $, printed $.

    Diverted from Ukraine to USA, $25.9 billion, $1.6 billion remains to be diverted.
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20231004/us-funding-for-ukraine-govt-reportedly-to-run-dry-by-november–1113908455.html

    Comptroller Michael McCord earlier informed House and Senate leadership that out of the $25.9 billion allocated by
    Congress to replenish US military stocks provided to Ukraine, only $1.6 billion remains.

    ————

    Ukraine Fatigue Is Worrying NATO Elites – and So They Should Be

    On both sides of the Atlantic, there is now discernible fatigue and anger among citizens over the bottomless money pit that is NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine against Russia.

    The only wonder is that it has taken so long for the Western public to get wise to the scam.

    The disgraceful adulation of a Nazi war criminal by the whole Canadian parliament in a perverse show of solidarity with Ukraine against Russia has helped focus public attention on the obscenity of the NATO proxy war.

    All told, since the NATO-induced conflict blew up in February last year, the American and European establishments have thrown up to €200 billion into Ukraine to prop up an odious Nazi-infested regime.

    All that largesse that is billed to U.S. and European taxpayers has resulted in a slaughter in Europe not seen since the Second World War – and a failed Ukrainian state.

    And of course huge profits for the NATO military-industrial complex that bankrolls the elite politicians.

    ————-

    #144215
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The removeal of McCArthy is a a power puzzle piece in the Line of Succession should Pedo Jo-Joe fall again and really crack his skull open, opening the door for the Cackle Queen to become King [gender change alert]

    This can not pass

    The Cackle Queen must go first

    She goes, Pedo Jo-Joe burst into flames, House Leader takes over

    #144216
    Bishko
    Participant

    “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
    
― Alexander Fraser Tytler

    We need to be reminded of this from time to time. We can easily see where we are on this trajectory. Selfishness => Apathy => Dependence S.A.D. Bondage is next. Grim times indeed.

    #144217
    TDub
    Participant

    Bishko – I think we are further along the timeline. In the U.S. (and much of the west), I would say we reached apathy in the 2000’s. No real push back against the Iraq war, little support for movements like Occupy Wallstreet or against the fraud and self-dealing of the 2008 financial collapse and bailout. A greater share of populations on are some form of government assistance and have been for generations in certain segments. As far as bondage, in the US there are debt slaves of many types. Student loans and medical debt are two of the bigger one.

    Just my opinion, but perhaps its optimistic as we are closer to a spiritual awakening

    #144218
    jb-hb
    Participant

    “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses”

    This is delayed-reaction propaganda from the Argead royal family of Macedonia composed by Aristotle.

    Aristotle was in the pay of the royal family, who felt threatened by the democracies of Greece.

    Actual republican and democratic institutions were ruined by the RICH, by the ELITES. The ELITES realized that they could control corporations, governments, and our various institutions to give benefits to themselves at the expense of all the other people and the ruination of the institutions.

    If democracy is destroying the country, why are all the votes and elections sham votes and elections? We disconnect the cause from the effect and then blame it anyway, eh?

    #144219
    jb-hb
    Participant

    You saw how batshit the elites went when a SINGLE election did not go their way in 2016. They had to #resist with all their might, couldn’t even just wait for the next election.

    Sincerely quoting a guy who is paraphrasing Aristotle’s paid propaganda work for the Argeads is a little like being a French farmer and getting blown up by a buried WW1 shell while plowing. You weren’t the target, but here you are, getting hit dead center somehow.

    #144220
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @CelticBiker

    I was in a divebar today, about 230 ET the commie fema signal went off, every retard there started punchin buttons on their jewphone. “

    With the possible exception of the beer delivery man EVERYBODY in a divebar at 2:30 in the afternoon is a retard (at best), so why were you in there “punchin the buttons on your jewphone” ? This kind of behavior also raises the question about why you, of all people, have and use a “jewphone” in the first place.

    Are you one of the guys tasked with nurturing indiscriminate hatred for ALL Jews, as cover for the real criminals so that they can slip out he back door while all the murdering is going on (again!)?

    You’re not a very good toady, Celtic. Too ham fisted and monotone.

    #144221
    Noirette
    Participant

    John Day thanks for keeping us up with Simplicius etc. You posted,

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/swiss-writer-sentenced-60-days-jail-calling-journalist-fat-lesbian

    Alain Soral, F + CH national, has been condemned about 20 times in France for ‘anti-semitism’ and other ‘speech’, ‘incitement to hatred’ etc. violations. (No physical violence). After many court cases, appeals, costing a bomb, etc. he moved to CH, to escape prison in F.

    The Swiss case has been complicated as all such cases are. Imho the ‘speech’ veered between ‘insult’ (e.g. “you are a fat lesbian pig” is merely an insult in Swiss law) and incitement to hatred (“you are a … and all your kind deserves being locked up, sent away or worse”) which can fall under ‘incitement to hatred’, which btw is a very new law in CH (2020.)

    CH resisted implementing such laws for a long time. This is the first time the law has lead to a condemnation. (! – Soral is perceived as a horrid evil creature, an internal enemy of France, etc.) Of course this is all BS and dancing around.

    Soral used to be a darling of the F intellegentsia, is an intellectual who has published several books, dabbled in film, regularly appeared on MSM TV, etc. Politcally, he has been a Communist AND a National Front supporter, i.e. refuses to embrace the neo-liberal center. …wiki in Eng gives some flavor:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Soral

    an extract:

    — In his book, Vers la féminisation? Démontage d’un complot antidémocratique, Alain Soral argues that women have always worked (in trade or agriculture, for example), and that housewives were mis-sold the idea of having their own careers by neoliberal capitalists. To him, feminism was invented by rich women and results in poor women working double “8 hours in the home and 8 hours at work” and would be better off just working in the home. Soral distinguishes two types of feminism: that of the “flippées” (“freaked-outs”), and that of the “pétasses” (“bitches”). Soral claims that the most problematic inequality is not between men and women, but between rich and poor, and that feminists, who generally come from the upper classes of society, attempt to distract attention from this struggle.

    His ‘group’ is called – Egalité et Réconciliation – hugely popular.

    Now this may seem like trivial local news from vassal countries to Americans, but it is very emblematic of what is going on around the world. ‘Law – fare’ on trivial issues is used to silence and eliminate adversaries.

    #144222
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    Addendum to # 144209

    Maintaining silence by those sitting on h the high benches throughout the various states over the conduct of New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s egregious malfeasance on the bench, a summary judgment having no crime followed by a gagging order, concerning Former President Donald Trump will be the key act that will bring down the house of cards the legal system has become, and no king, even heavenly, will be able to rebuild a judicial edifice to replace it, the trust will be forever gone from the state. Could well be the ‘tipping’ moment for the existence of the courts themselves. The law of the street and might will follow.

    #144223
    citizenx
    Participant

    What this means, in plain English, is that the shots could potentially alter your DNA, which is something vaccine makers, health authorities and fact checkers have vehemently denied and written off as “impossible.” Yet here we are, with inconvenient facts staring us in the face yet again.

    Contami-nation aside, it’s not like reverse transcription, a known scientific fact and reality, that Rna can communicate to Dna – is a possible impossibility. Not in retarded Liberal “follow and trust the science” land. A Nation contaminated.

    One of my wife’s friends (a staunch anti-vaxer) dared to hint at a connection – this was not well received at all. I have decided to maintain a diplomatic silence on the subject – discretion being the better part of valour and so on.

    Just because Liberals hate truth- does not mean they are immune to it. Truth will set you free.

    Personally- I say rub their faces in their own pile of bullshit, the same bullshit they were trying to ram down our throats. I watched what they did, said and how they behaved. Fuck em.

    Remember this ?

    CDC Ends COVID-19 Vaccination Cards

    Considered a controversial relic of the pandemic era, the white cards once determined who could and could not participate in society, such as by barring or allowing entry to businesses, schools, and workplaces, based on whether someone had received the COVID-19 jab or not.

    Or have a JOB. Liberal cult scum supported this, encouraged this, acted on this- and now you want to protect them from the truth and their own disgusting behavior? If they DID NOT speak out against the mandates- they were in collusion with them. I watched it all go down right in front of me with my own eyes.

    The same Liberal scum who wish to silence you, disarm you and control you?

    I can’t feel this way much longer
    Expecting to survive
    With all these hidden innuendoes
    Just waiting to arrive

    It’s such a wavy midnight
    And you slip into insane
    Electric angel rock and roller
    I hear what you’re playing

    It’s an orangy sky
    Always it’s some other guy
    It’s just a broken lullaby

    Bye bye love
    Bye bye love

    Substitution mass confusion
    Clouds inside your head
    Involving all my energies
    Until you visited

    With your eyes of porcelain and of blue
    They shock me into sense
    You think you’re so illustrious
    You call yourself intense

    It’s an orangy sky
    Always it’s some other guy
    It’s just a broken lullaby

    Bye bye love
    Bye goodbye love

    ….

    Maybe, just maybe- if people had more courage, were forthright and honest- WE would not be in this mess of silence.

    #144224
    Mr. House
    Participant

    “Student loans and medical debt are two of the bigger one.”

    Lets not start skewing words to mean things that they dont. I’d term it more like indentured servitude. Nobody puts a gun to your head and forces you to do this. Remember when #Metoo came about, and all these people start coming out of the wood work complaining about what they had to do to live their privileged lives? They made a choice, i know a lot of people here and elsewhere don’t like to think of it that way, but we all make a choice. The devil doesn’t get your soul by telling you how shitty hell is 😉

    #144225
    Just Some Randomer
    Participant

    @ Citizenx Don’t get me wrong, my wife and I are not vaxxed either but the upside to me of rubbing her face in the fact that her brother was a willing accessory in his own (potentially) early death is meagre.

    Divorce is expensive.

    #144226
    aspnaz
    Participant

    oxymoron said

    I hope anyone here looking for a job in America isn’t white. Check these stats.

    The Jews running the ESG program at BlackRock hate the whites, the whites that gave them their apartheid Israel. The Jews use their twisted morality to destroy the USA and that means destroy the people who built the USA, the whites; turn them into second class plebs, Palestinians. Same is happening in Europe. The whites are a powerful force, the Jews know that, so they are focusing on destroying the whites and raising the rest, giving the money to the rest so that they have the power to turn the USA into Africa.

    Look at the number of Jews in congress, very happy to watch the USA burn down. RFK jr is another Jew supporter – a rabid Zionist – and he will also let the USA burn, none of the whites in congress can maintain their positions without the support of the Jews. They have you by the balls.

    #144227
    TDub
    Participant

    @Mr House. No disagreement on that front, though I would argue that the current level of indentured servitude is a feature not a bug. And in the theme from Bishko’s quote, its all part of the cycle driving more power into fewer hands.

    #144228
    aspnaz
    Participant

    TDub said

    @Mr House. No disagreement on that front, though I would argue that the current level of indentured servitude is a feature not a bug. And in the theme from Bishko’s quote, its all part of the cycle driving more power into fewer hands.

    Definitely a feature, not a bug. Given the increase in productivity from technology, added to the increase in productivity from women joining the workforce, what are all these people doing? We all survived in the past when only men were working, the men managed to make everything that was needed and standards of living steadily improved.

    Now we have all these workers and what are they doing? The production gains through technology are still there, but somehow the production gains through human effort must have declined. I suspect that the main reason that people are paid less these days is because people are much less productive than they used to be, added to which the managerial class now annoint themselves as kings, skimming very large salaries off the top of the company accounts with the blessing of their friends in BlackRock.

    People have become even more enslaved which is why the focus of corporations employee management has moved from KPIs that used to include job skills training, productivity, mentoring etc to the new KPIs which include skills such as diversity, LGBTQ contributions, minority rights support etc. The corporations are not interested in training you to be better at your job, they are interested in making you a brainwashed slave. They will then continue to fund you as long as you adhere to the brainwashing and do the small amount of basically simply work required of you.

    All of this is driven by the availability of money, in that credit is available to corporations that further the enslavement of the people while less/no credit is available to people trying to build new small businesses. People like Elon Musk are trying to innovate, so obviously he is not in this system, his success is built primarily on the deduced fact that he has access to a substantial line of credit, the sort of line of credit that other companies have to earn through ESG. Where that line of credit came from is debateable, but I suspect that he was originally funded by a bunch of oligarchs for their private wealth investment.

    #144229
    aspnaz
    Participant

    DBS said

    With the possible exception of the beer delivery man EVERYBODY in a divebar at 2:30 in the afternoon is a retard (at best), so why were you in there “punchin the buttons on your jewphone” ? This kind of behavior also raises the question about why you, of all people, have and use a “jewphone” in the first place.

    Wow, judge, jury and executioner. You should line up a role as judge at a Trump trial.

    #144230
    Oroboros
    Participant

    No. 2 in Russia says:

    Medvedev Says There Will Be No Negotiations or Minsk 3 With Ukraine

    That’s right, ZERO chance for any negotiations.

    Just like the Russian Duma Head guy said the other day, either total unconditional surrender and capitulation to Russia’s term or Ukronaziland will CEASE TO EXIST.

    That a pretty clear signal.

    That is what we called an “eat shit or die” comment when I was a teenager.

    So please, let’s not waste anymore brain cells or time at TAE on articles or speculation about ‘negotiations’ regarding Russia and Ukronaziland.

    Not gonna happen.

    #144231
    Celticbiker
    Participant

    I dont have a jewphone, D Benton, you fuckin dumbass, I was talking about everyone else around me.

    #144232
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @aspnaz

    Wow, judge, jury and executioner. You should line up a role as judge at a Trump trial.”

    What the hell are you even talking about?
    Judge? Jury? Executioner? How do any of the words that you wrote relate to any of the words or sentences that I wrote?

    Please reread your “comment” (?) until you can make sense of it, and then kindly (or unkindly, as you prefer) please tell me what the hell you were trying to say, other than the fact that you hate me (I got that part). It’s a tough assignment, I know, but try.

    Think of me as Jewish, if that helps get you crazy enough to spit it out in language plain and simple enough that ordinary English speakers can figure it out.

    #144233
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Three direct hits in a row on advancing Ukronazi Western Trailer Trash vehicles.

    Ka-boomKa-boomKa-boom

    And…..they’re gone……

    #144234
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @CelticBiker.

    I’m sorry, biker boy, but you’re the one who said it. You reported that all of the retards in the divebar at 2:30 in the afternoon were punching the buttons on their “Jewphones”. Since you were in a divebar at 2:30 in the afternoon on a working day that pretty much proves beyond reasonable doubt that you are either a retard or seriously alcoholic, or both. So, you’re telling me that you were the only retard in there who didn’t have a jewphone? My apologies again, but you did say that EVERY retard was doing it, which …. ya know ….. would have to include you.

    #144235
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Ukronaziland claiming they will build hundreds of new factories to produce war material to fight Russia.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

    You and whose army?

    Ukrainian Factory in Kherson

    #144236
    Oroboros
    Participant

    #144237
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Another Terrorist Saboteur Captured in Russia by FSB – Why Do They Always Have This Flag on Them?

    Curious, an odd mixed metaphor of junk

    “In Saratov, a Jewish fascist was detained, who collaborated with the SBU and intended to go to the terrorists from the Sect of Freedom of Russia.

    During the search, they found a weapon, the flag of Israel, the cap of the Third Reich and Zionite literature.”

    #144238
    John Day
    Participant

    Elite Crisis Playbook https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/elite-crisis-playbook

    My efforts today are prompted by the review, which Christine sent me, of a Peter Turchine book, “There Will Be Blood”, which asserts that the civilizational crisis within the US is underway, and is not avoidable, but might be addressed by reforms and lead to less than 30 years of civil war, or it might not be well addressed, or might be addressed in ways that prevent societal harmonization and stabilization. The destabilizing factors which have led to this have been in play a long time, since the early 1980s.
    It is notable that the recurring structure of American government is that of Oligarchy, particularly Oligarchy of the Wealthy, a Plutocracy, which is one of the less inherently stable forms of government. That structure was mitigated during and after WW-2, and some would say under the administration of FDR, but it is debatable.
    ​ “Turchin’s predictions are clear, and his prescribed remedies are equally so, and are simple (to explain conceptually, if not to implement politically). The United States must turn off the ‘wealth pump’; it must raise the relative wage and keep it raised, and it must make housing and healthcare more affordable and accessible to greater numbers; to counter elite overproduction and alleviate immiseration, it must make regular, non-elite work pay, and accord those doing such work dignity and esteem. Reforms that accomplish any of these goals will be concrete and recognisable.”
    https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1xt9k875

    The derivation and logic of Turchin’s work delves into historical eras of political instability over the past 10,000 years. This discipline is called “Cliodynamics” after the Greek goddess of history. This is anthropological analysis, and Turchin transposes the analysis into a mathematical model, called the “Selfish Elite Model”, which is used to calculate a “Political Stress Indicator”.
    Within these models there are important actors, the Elites (who “tax” and reduce economic output), the Commoners (productive citizens), the State (which manages the economy in the primary interest of elites, or even an elite faction, and secondarily or sometimes equally in the interests of Commoners), and the Environment (which can be seen to include, oil, coal, pollution, weather, agricultural crop yields and aquifer resources, to name a few components). Non productive citizens factor indirectly in several ways.
    Going through the math of the Political Stress Indicator equations, it is apparent that the factors all multiply and divide together, which is not hard to comprehend.
    There is one factor which shows twice in the multiplication in different forms, and therefore affects political instability as the square of itself. This is basically the Gini coefficient, which describes relative income inequality, with higher values expressing more income inequality. This factors into Elite instability and also into Commoner instability, which multiply by each other, and also multiply by government instability.
    Government Instability is worsened when debt is high compared to economic output, and is worse when government is not trusted (not trustworthy, erratic payments).
    Elite instability arises from too many elites, especially younger elites without jobs. Elite instability might be the best group to look at, since elites exert disproportionate agency in societies. The Gini coefficient plays into this because elites are not “productive” members of society, but limit the industrious output of society by taking their “pay”. This drives down the economic production of the economy (GDP), and drives down Commoner wealth. Reducing GDP increases government Debt to GDP, which destabilizes government.
    Increasing Government Debt: GDP ratio and “immiserating” Commoners are processes that destabilize a country slowly and structurally, and predispose to a crisis, which is typically sparked by specific events and interventions.
    When the number of Elites, or aspiring Elites, groomed for Elite roles, rises above the number of good-paying-jobs for those Elites, a class of disaffected Elites exists. Competition between Elite factions is typically very destabilizing to a national economy. Consider the Bolshevik and French Revolutions.
    When good paying jobs exist for truck drivers, carpenters, welders and plumbers, fewer young adults will pursue elite livelihoods, such as Law. When “immiseration” has removed non-elite options for good livelihood, the number of Elites and Aspiring Elites grows until they are in stressful competition, which creates a group of Counter Elites, with winners and losers, such has become the case in the US.
    Government jobs have traditionally employed various elites in law and management, as well as technical experts. As Government regulations increase, Elite jobs are created in business and industry to comply, but they still extract a “tax” upon production, in order to fund Government and fund Elite incomes.
    It can be seen that as long as there are government jobs, “compliance” jobs, and “management” jobs for these trained Elites, they can be placated. Government can borrow money to fund these jobs, which increases the Government Debt to GDP ratio, structurally destabilizing Government. All of this increases the “tax” load on productive-economy, which shrinks productive-economy, which is the support system for the country, providing for all human needs.
    Commoners, the productive workers in society, are destabilized by “immiseration”, which is the stress of not being able to securely meet their needs and the needs of their families. This is clearly worsened by low wages, which are the consequence of Elite “taxation” of the economy to provide Elite income (such as wages, “capital gains” and other “unearned income”). Young adults facing this seek Elite careers, which may not exist for the number of aspirants, creating unemployed Lawyers (Jacobins come to mind).
    Another destabilizing demographic is represented in 20-30 year olds within a society. This demographic is more prone to destabilization, and further prone to destabilization if urban.
    The higher the percentage of the population living in urban areas, the more destabilizing. Those with an income of zero will be most unstable.
    A critical mass of disaffected urban dwellers, particularly young adults at the core, can quickly form riotous mobs. There would typically be something to precipitate this, sometimes including intervention by an elite faction seeking political gain or advantage. Sometimes a weakening state will reduce support for the Coercive Apparatus of the Police and Military, intentionally or unintentionally, such as reducing pay, numbers or morale. The Coercive Apparatus is particularly instrumental against Counter Elites, identifying them, then imprisoning, killing or exiling them. At a critical moment, the transition of loyalty of the Coercive Apparatus manifests as a coup d’etat, which may succeed or fail.
    Reduction of environmental support is further destabilizing, as in the case of a fuel shortage, food shortage, water shortage, external embargo of goods, or a price-shock, as with devaluation of the local currency.
    Positive environmental support for a government may exist in the center of an empire, where wealth from tributary states comes in to support Elite and administrative jobs in government, and supply fuel, food and other goods at low cost to Commoners and Elites. The withdrawal of this environmental support is a shock to the country.
    Multiple examples of triggering events for violent revolt are explored, but they presuppose the chronic stressors noted above, or people will have more invested in their jobs than in revolution. People who have energy, nothing to look forward to, and little to lose are inclined to revolution.
    When a government loses popular support after a long period of societal stress, it tends to be a rapid cascade of loss, like the paradigm shifts in the US and France in 1968. One reason for this cascading loss of support for a government is that Commoners and Elites tend to hide their growing dissatisfaction until they see a large enough group displaying the same dissatisfaction, that they can decide to openly join it.
    The higher the Reputation of the new group, and the higher the perceived Moral Integrity of the group, the more likely disaffected Elites and Commoners will be to join it.
    The analysis of the Post Soviet history of Ukraine is most instructive, but it must be read with the knowledge that one of the authors of this 2017 paper, Sergey Gavnilets, was funded by the US Army. Views unfavorable to the Army and Covert State Apparatus would presumably be presented in a veiled fashion, if at all.
    ​ Linking “Micro” to “Macro” Models of State Breakdown to Improve Methods for Political Forecasting​ 2017​, Turchin, Peter;Gavrilets, Sergey;Goldstone, Jack A.
    https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1xt9k875

    ​ A History of Possible Futures: Multipath Forecasting of Social Breakdown, Recovery, and Resilience​ 2018​ , Turchin, Peter;Witoszek, Nina;Thurner, Stefan;Garcia, David;Griffin, Roger;Hoyer, Daniel;Midttun, Atle;Bennett, James;Myrum Næss, Knut;Gavrilets, Sergey
    [Funding was provided through US Army Research, Office of Naval Intelligence, and National Institute for Mathematical and Biological ​Synthesis (NSF) Grants​, and others.]
    ​ Recent years have seen major political crises throughout the world, and foreign policy analysts nearly universally expect to see rising tensions within (and between) countries in the next 5–20 years. Being able to predict future crises and to assess the resilience of different countries to various shocks is of foremost importance in averting the potentially huge human costs of state collapse and civil war. The premise of this paper is that a transdisciplinary approach to forecasting social breakdown, recovery, and resilience is entirely feasible, as a result of recent breakthroughs in statistical analysis of large-scale historical data, the qualitative insights of historical and semiotic investigations, and agent-based models that translate between micro-dynamics of interacting individuals and the collective macro-level events emerging from these interactions. Our goal is to construct a series of probabilistic scenarios of social breakdown and recovery, based on historical crises and outcomes, which can aid the analysis of potential outcomes of future crises. We call this approach—similar in spirit to ensemble forecasting in weather prediction—multipath forecasting (MPF). This paper aims to set out the methodological premises and basic stages envisaged to realize this goal within a transdisciplinary research collaboration: first, the statistical analysis of a massive database of past instances of crisis to determine how actual outcomes (the severity of disruption and violence, the speed of resolution) depend on inputs (economic, political, and cultural factors); second, the encoding of these analytical insights into probabilistic, empirically informed computational models of societal breakdown and recovery—the MPF engine; third, testing the MPF engine to “predict” the trajectories and outcomes of another set of past social upheavals, which were not used in building the model. This “historical retrodiction” is an innovation that will allow us to further refine the MPF technology. Ultimately our vision is to use MPF to help write what we call “a history of possible futures,” in which the near- and medium-term paths of societies are probabilistically forecast.​ [I ​personally suspect this model is being tested and refined in real time as we progress, thanks to deep-state “weaponization.]
    https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0g05k07v

    #144239
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Feeling the Fucking Burn NATO=NAZIS

    NATO Forced to Salute Russian Anthem After Russian Forces Won 1st Place Int’l Shooting Championship

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

    “Phenomenal footage! Military men from different countries of the world (including NATO) salute during the Russian national anthem.

    The Russian Armed Forces team took first place in the medal standings at the World Military Shooting Championships in Rio de Janeiro. And climbed to the top step of the podium wearing the Russian uniform with the Russian flag and singing the Russian anthem.”

    #144240
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Peter Turchin gave a lecture in late 2019, predicting instability in the US in the 2020s, of which I cannot locate a recording or transcript.
    The 19 slides are illustrative of all the points made above.

    A History of the Near Future: What history tells us about our Age of Discord

    Let me point out slide #15, summarizing the book: “The Great Leveler” (Death), which asserts that:
    “Inequality can decrease only by major, violent shocks: Mass-mobilization Warfare, Transformative Revolution, State-Failure/Collapse, Lethal Pandemic”
    (I suspect that American elites might see this as a list of ​tactical-options, through which they might devise ​strategies to maintain ​their control of society.)
    https://peterturchin.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/MPF2019.pdf

    This article about Gladstone and Turchin’s model draws from a June 2020 interview with Professor Gladstone as the divisive stress of the November elections between Trump and Biden loomed. The author said the model predicted “civil war”, but Professor Gladstone specifically refuted that assertion in the interview. A lot of political flavoring is apparent here, perhaps foreshadowing of events to come, and events which did not ever manifest, like the staged January 2021 “insurrection” by polite Trump supporters.
    ​ In the early 1990s, when Bill Clinton was in the White House and the United States looked unshakeable, the administration appointed Jack Goldstone to study how states fail. They meant other states; not the US. Few expected that his model would later predict their country’s collapse.​ [Sounds like CIA funded regime-change research to me.]
    ​ In an unpublished paper submitted for peer review, Professor Goldstone, who is a sociologist, and Peter Turchin, an expert on the mathematical modelling of historical societies, have concluded that the US is “headed for another civil war”.
    ​ The conditions for civil violence, they say, are the worst since the 19th century — in particular the years leading up to the start of the American Civil War in 1861.
    ​ The reason for this are trends that began in the 1980s, “with regard to inequality, selfish elites, and polarisation that have crippled the ability of the US government to mount an effective response to the pandemic disease,” they write.
    ​ This has also “hampered our ability to deliver an inclusive economic relief policy, and exacerbated the tensions over racial injustice.”​ …
    ​..Professor Goldstone is a leading authority on the study of revolutions and long-term social change at George Mason University. The model developed by him and Peter Turchin tracks such data as the ratio of median workers’ wages to GDP per capita, life expectancy, average heights, and the number of new millionaires. It also measures political polarisation or the degree of overlap between the parties.
    ​ Applied to US history, it ‘predicts’ the 1861 Civil War and the unrest of the 1930s — a time of Jim Crow segregation, Gilded Age inequality, and fascism.
    Stress points

    Ten years ago, Professor Turchin pointed his model towards the future, and made an uncannily accurate prediction. Just like in the 1850s, crisis indicators were rising, he wrote in the journal Nature. They could be a reliable indicator of looming instability and “look set to peak in the years around 2020,” he wrote.

    The Political Stress Index combines three crisis indicators: declining living standards, increasing intra-elite competition/conflict, and the weakening of the state. Growing PSI indicates likelihood of political violence. The Well-being Index indicates greater equality, greater elite consensus, and a stronger, more legitimate state.
    https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/model-predicting-united-states-disorder-now-points-to-civil-war/12365280

    #144241
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Charles Hugh Smith, May 19, 2020 Our Fate Is Sealed, Vaccines Won’t Matter: Four Long Cycles Align
    Supercyle crash
    https://www.oftwominds.com/blogmay20/cycles5-20.html

    Spartacus Podcast 13
    ​ Why don’t I support military service? Because, quite simply, we don’t have a democracy. We have a spookocracy. Our government is run by spooks. Spooks choose our political candidates, and spooks decide our military targets, and the goal is never to protect average citizens or enhance our national security, but to consolidate more power in the hands of supranational institutions led by unelected, spook-picked puppets. When you enlist for military service, you are agreeing to kill people on behalf of—and potentially die in the service of—this viscerally disgusting and illegitimate form of government, which has, as its goal, the abolition of the nation-state and its replacement with a globe-spanning human cattle farm.
    ​ Michael J. Glennon put it best in his book, National Security and Double Government. There are two bodies of government in the US; the Madisonian institutions, consisting of the office of the President, Congress, and the other legitimate, surface-level aspects of government, where people’s vote still seems to have some sort of influence, at least at a glance, and then, there’s the Trumanite network, which consists of all the unelected national security goons in military, intelligence, diplomatic, and law enforcement agencies, as well as their Deep State contractor, NGO, and supranational buddies, whose appointment is not in any way subject to a vote or any democratic or legal processes whatsoever, and who actually call the shots and write the foreign policies that presidents and congressmen absent-mindedly rubber-stamp.
    ​ This is very much like how organized crime works. Organized crime rings always have fronts that appear to be legitimate businesses on the surface. Restaurants, bars, nightclubs, betting shops, payday lenders, and so on. When you go into the basements of these establishments, it’s a bunch of people in Tyvek suits cooking methamphetamine. The US Government is exactly the same way.
    https://iceni.substack.com/p/spartacast-13#details

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