Dec 152023
 
 December 15, 2023  Posted by at 9:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Vincent van Gogh Seine with Pont de Clichy 1887

 

The Era of the West Has Passed (Paul Craig Roberts)
Ukraine Conflict A “Great Tragedy”, “Civil War” Between Brothers– Putin (RT)
Goal of Denazifying Ukraine Remains In Place – Putin (TASS)
US Engineered Ukraine Conflict – Putin (RT)
Orban, Fico Branded ‘Pro-Russian’ Simply for Sticking to National Interests (Sp.)
Ukraine Debased to ‘Pawn’ on Geopolitical Chessboard – Scott Ritter (Sp.)
Putin Reveals Number Of Troops In Ukraine Conflict Zone (RT)
400,000 Ukrainians Killed in Action Explains a Whole Lot (ET)
Putin Criticizes New Argentine President’s Dollarization Plan (RT)
What if Jack Smith Held a Trial and No One Came? (Turley)
Will the Corrupt US Department of Justice (sic) Be Held Accountable? (PCR)
Hunter Biden’s Contempt of Congress Has Wider Consequences (Turley)
That New Hunter Biden Indictment (Patrick Lawrence)
Breathing Contributes To Global Warming – Study (RT)
Italian Ex-Minister Faces Vax Murder Probe (CN)

 

 

 

 

Pepe Putin

 

 

Trump Israel

 

 

Jimmy Dore

 

 

Kory

 

 

 

 

“A tower of babel is not a nation..”

The Era of the West Has Passed (Paul Craig Roberts)

Globalists, who intend the destruction of sovereign nations, have labeled concerns with mass immigration to be racism as a way of discrediting the concerns and preventing discussion of the threat. Immigrant-invaders, or as the euphemisms “refugees” and “asylum seekers” label them, are used to overwhelm ethnic nationalities and turn them into towers of babel in which there are no common interests, values, morals, religion, or culture. A tower of babel is not a nation. At best it is a geographical location, but it is not even that if it has no borders, which the US and Europe do not have. Advocates of open borders say that the US is a nation of immigrants. But they don’t say that it was controlled immigration consisting of immigrants from white European countries who as a condition of admittance had to learn English, pass an exam on the US Constitution, and integrate themselves into the existing society and culture.

They were not allowed to set up separate cultures, and businesses answered the phone only in English. Additionally, the immigration was periodically halted in order to allow time for assimilation before accepting more immigrants. Today millions of non-white people from unrelated cultures walk across the border every year. Businesses answer telephones in Spanish and English. Federal agencies respond to 40 or more foreign languages. Separate cultures with non-Christian religions exist as independent entities, and a system of preferences that favors non-white people has been institutionalized. In other words the society, politics, and culture of the ethnic nationalities that created what formerly was a nation are being erased. In education, health care, business, and government power is passing out of the hands of the ethnic majority that created the nation.

Great Britain has an Indian prime minister. The London mayor is a Muslim. Recently two federal judges born in India ruled against President Trump, a ruling that violates both the Constitution and powers of the President. The CEO of IBM, Arvind Krishna is an Indian. He pulled IBM ads from X, accusing Elon Musk of racism, and he announced that he will fire, demote, or strip bonuses from IBM managers who don’t hire enough blacks, Hispanics, and Muslims, or who hire too many Asians and whites. The communications director of Red Hat, an IBM subsidiary, said that Red Hat had terminated employees because they weren’t willing to engage in racial discrimination through hiring and promotion quotas. Hiring, promotion, and “inclusion” quotas are violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and they are unconstitutional under the US Constitution and its amendments, such as the 14th.

But notice that the Indian running IBM has no hesitancy about using his power to force IBM executives and managers to violate US law and Constitution in order to advance “preferred minorities” at the expense of members of the white ethnic majority and Asians. This is what happens when a nation ceases to require assimilation. The CEO of IBM is an unassimilated immigrant who has no respect for US law or the US Constitution. An article by Ian Henderson in Chronicles magazine in July, 2022, showed that, unlike Western governments, both Russia and China protect the ethnic culture from immigrants and prevent cultural destruction by Woke ideologues and moral destruction by sexual perverts. Henderson points out that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “strongly upholds traditional views on gender roles, race, sexuality, and family—more so than the Republican Party or mainstream conservatives in America.

A major example of China’s conservatism is the CCP’s view on LGBTQ rights. Same-sex couples are unable to marry or adopt, and households headed by such couples are ineligible for the same legal protections available to heterosexual couples, and no anti-discrimination protections exist for LGBTQ people. Contrast these policies with the views of mainstream American conservatism, which now seems deeply committed to gay marriage, an institution enthusiastically endorsed by the likes of National Review and the National Conservatism Conference.” “In short, Chinese leaders seek to promote masculinity and strength, and to uphold and expand their inherited Han civilization. They feel they cannot do that with homosexuals, transgenders, or feminists running government institutions and the military—or even exerting influence over forms of entertainment.”

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“[The West] has largely lost its sovereignty,” suggested Putin, pointing out that many Western nations, with the exception of countries like Hungary, constantly make decisions that only end up hurting themselves…”

Ukraine Conflict A “Great Tragedy”, “Civil War” Between Brothers– Putin (RT)

Russia has been trying for decades to build normal relations with Ukraine “at any cost,” but this was made impossible after the coup d’etat in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a live marathon press conference on Thursday. The president was asked if he could foresee a normalization of relations with the West in the near future. Putin responded by stressing that Russia has never tried to intentionally ruin or sever ties with any nation. Instead, it was the West that spoiled relations with Russia by constantly trying to push the country aside and neglecting its national interests, Putin said.The culmination of that was the coup d’etat in Ukraine that was staged by Russia’s geopolitical “opponents” in 2014, which has ultimately led to the current situation, according to the president.

Putin described the ongoing conflict as a “great tragedy” that is essentially a “civil war” between brothers. He stressed that at their core, in spite of the current hostilities, Russians and Ukrainians are one people. The president noted that Moscow always had good relations with southeast Ukraine, which tended to be pro-Russian because these territories had historically belonged to Russia. “But after the coup d’etat of 2014, it became clear to us that we would no longer be allowed, by force, to build any sort of normal relations with Ukraine,” Putin said, recalling that the US had publicly admitted to spending $5 billion dollars on overthrowing the government of Ukraine.

That, coupled with NATO’s “uncontrollable desire to creep towards our borders” by inviting Ukraine into the bloc, and the eight-year-long bloodbath in Donbass, has ultimately led to the tragedy that is currently unfolding, Putin summarized. “So how are we supposed to build relations with them?” asked the Russian president, noting that the West has continued to pretend like it doesn’t remember doing any of the aforementioned things, only occasionally admitting that it was signing deals – such as the Minsk Accords, which were meant to be a path towards peace – with their fingers crossed behind their back. “[The West] has largely lost its sovereignty,” suggested Putin, pointing out that many Western nations, with the exception of countries like Hungary, constantly make decisions that only end up hurting themselves.

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“Well, how is that so, when a national hero, the famous Bandera, who is not just a nationalist, but a Nazi, has been elevated to the rank of a national hero. How is that so?”

Goal of Denazifying Ukraine Remains In Place – Putin (TASS)

The issue of Ukraine’s denazification remains relevant, after the head of the Kiev administration applauded a former SS soldier in a manifestation of Nazism, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at his combined Direct Line Q&A session and year-end press conference. “Here is what is happening in terms of denazification. During the negotiation process, which had a certain phase after the drafting of a possible agreement, as officials in Kiev mentioned recently, in general, they did not agree that some kind of denazification was needed, saying that there was no fascistization, no increase in such sentiments,” the president said. “Well, how is that so, when a national hero, the famous Bandera, who is not just a nationalist, but a Nazi, has been elevated to the rank of a national hero. How is that so?”

“When the head of the current Kiev administration, in front of the whole world, stands up to applaud a former SS soldier, who was directly involved in the Holocaust, the extermination of one and a half million Jews in Ukraine, Russians and Poles, stands up to applaud, is this not a manifestation of Nazism?” Putin said. “So the issue of denazification, it is relevant. It is true that during the negotiation process we were told that in principle they do not exclude the possibility of adopting some legislative acts in Ukraine. But that was then, during the talks in Istanbul.” Speaking about the goal of Ukraine’s demilitarization, the president said certain parameters had been agreed upon in 2022 during the talks in Istanbul. “It’s just that these agreements were later tossed out,” he said. “But we did agree on that. There are other options either to agree or to achieve this by force. This is what we will strive for,” Putin said.

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“..Ukraine has “largely lost its sovereignty” and has been making “many decisions to their own detriment” ..

US Engineered Ukraine Conflict – Putin (RT)

The US was responsible for orchestrating the 2014 coup in Ukraine that overthrew President Viktor Yanukovich and ultimately led to the current conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. He added that Washington “needed to create a conflict” for its own purposes. Speaking during a marathon Q&A session on Thursday, Putin said the US “plotted and organized everything” while European leaders “silently watched” and pretended they were not aware of what was happening. As a result, Ukraine has “largely lost its sovereignty” and has been making “many decisions to their own detriment” since then. Following the 2014 coup, the then-Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk, known as Donbass, refused to accept the new government, which increasingly embraced nationalist ideology, and proclaimed their independence instead. Kiev responded with a violent military campaign that prompted a years-long conflict.

The Russian leader went on to accuse the West of having a short memory, pointing to the 2015 Minsk agreements, which were brokered by Russia, Germany and France and were designed to end the hostilities. The West had “no intention” of implementing the agreements, which Putin said were “signed and immediately forgotten.” Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron later admitted that the agreements were a strategic ploy aimed at buying Ukraine more time to prepare for a conflict with Russia. In an interview with CNN in 2015, then-US President Barack Obama also openly admitted that the US had “brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine.”

In September 2022, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the parts of Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions under Russian control, voted to join Russia in a referendum which Ukraine and its Western backers denounced as illegitimate. Moscow has insisted that Kiev must recognize this “new territorial reality” as a prerequisite for any peace talks. Despite receiving a constant flow of weapons and aid from its Western backers since the current conflict broke out in February 2022, Kiev’s six-month counteroffensive against Russia has failed to yield significant results and Ukraine has lost some 125,000 military personnel and 6,000 pieces of heavy equipment since the beginning of June, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

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“..Europe is now weak and is going through a very deep, systemic economic, monetary and political crisis, unfortunately..”

Orban, Fico Branded ‘Pro-Russian’ Simply for Sticking to National Interests (Sp.)

At his big year-end presser on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia were among the only defenders of national interests left in the West. Sputnik reached out to a leading Hungarian foreign policy analyst for his take on Putin’s remarks. Vladimir Putin dismissed the characterization the leaders of Hungary and Slovakia as “pro-Russian.” “I have already said many times before that they are not ‘pro-Russian’ politicians, but rather pro-national – they defend their [national] interests. There are no others like this, they simply don’t exist…[This is] tied to a great dependence on ‘Big Brother,’ on the United States,” the Russian president said.

“I completely agree with President Putin. I have been saying for a long time that when Orban’s opponents reproach him for being ‘pro-Russian,’ this is just a label, nothing more. Orban proceeds from Hungarian national interests,” Gabor Stier, a senior foreign policy analyst at Magyar Nemzet, a leading Hungarian conservative daily newspaper, told Sputnik. “And I would add not just about Hungarian interests, but on some issues European interests. It’s a pity that Europeans and European politicians, especially the leaders of the European Union, do not proceed from European interests,” Stier added. The foreign affairs observer also agreed with Putin’s Europe’s dependence on its American “big brother,” saying the EU in its current form has become a “vassal of America, unfortunately.”

As an example, Stier pointed to the frantic drive by Brussels to try to incorporate Ukraine into the bloc, notwithstanding the threat to its own stability and well-being. “Whether Ukraine is ready or not is not something that needs to be explained to a normal person. The European Union is not ready either. Because if this expansion occurs earlier than in 15 years, it will deepen frictions within the European Union. The European Union is not ready economically, politically, and so on. That makes Orban a pragmatist, who proceeds from national interests on many issues, and from European interests on many issues. Orban is not destroying Europe. Orban wants to see a strong Europe. Europe is now weak and is going through a very deep, systemic economic, monetary and political crisis, unfortunately,” the observer said. Fico is “similar to Orban,” even if he’s not prepared to so openly clash with Brussels’ bureaucracy, in Stier’s estimation. “This means he’s ready for more compromises, but mainly he proceeds from Slovak interest,” the analyst stressed.

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“..Ukraine’s government appears to be pushing to have its people exterminated, Putin noted in his year-end presser.”

Ukraine Debased to ‘Pawn’ on Geopolitical Chessboard – Scott Ritter (Sp.)

Vladimir Putin defends his country’s sovereignty at every step, while Volodymyr Zelensky has allowed Ukraine to become a compliant tool of a West “willing to sacrifice that nation, its solders, and its people on a battlefield where they will get nothing but death and destruction,” Scott Ritter has underscored. President Vladimir Putin cares about the Russian people, soldiers, and nation, and therein lies the profound difference between his approach to the current conflict, and that of Ukraine’s President, the former US Marine Corps intelligence officer told Sputnik. “For a country like Russia, the existence, simply the existence of our country, without sovereignty is impossible,” Putin said during the joint “Direct Line” Q&A session and annual press conference on Thursday. “The primary objective is to bolster Russia’s sovereignty, fortify border security, and safeguard the rights and freedoms of [our] citizens,” the president remarked.

The present reality clearly demonstrates the very different approach to the Ukraine conflict shown by Russia, on the one hand, and the US, its allies in the West, on the other. “If you engage in an armed conflict, there will be consequences, there will be dead, wounded, but it’s incumbent upon the government, the state to prevent unnecessarily casualties of war,” said Ritter. Here lies the “secret” of the Russian approach, he added, as Putin has shown he is always prepared to put the interests of the Russian people, and Russia’s soldiers first and foremost. Volodymyr Zelensky, in contrast, instead of accepting the generous terms set forth by Moscow that could have saved the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, yielded to the pressure put on him by then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, other Western leaders, who said, ‘Don’t accept peace terms,’ and ‘continue the conflict’.

It was evident that it was physically impossible for the Ukrainian army to defeat Russia’s military, yet this is the premise that Zelensky “bought into” when he accepted Western military assistance… However, the question is: to what end? “Was this to serve Ukraine’s interests, or the interests of the West?” Scott Ritter mused. “Zelensky is not about serving the people of his own country… He allowed Ukraine’s sovereignty to be subordinated to NATO, EU, and US interests. The conflict has no consideration for Ukraine, and every consideration for the Western interests,” the pundit pointed out. Ukraine’s government appears to be pushing to have its people exterminated, Putin noted in his year-end presser. Indeed, as the West continues to funnel billions-worth of military aid to Kiev, despite the botched counteroffensive and enormous human casualties, Ukraine’s soldiers are little more than “pawns to be sacrificed on a geopolitical chessboard where the West is only looking out for their interests.”

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“I want to repeat myself: the line of contact [with Ukraine] is more than 2,000km long. There are now 617,000 people in the combat zone..”

Putin Reveals Number Of Troops In Ukraine Conflict Zone (RT)

Russia has deployed more than half a million service members, including many volunteers, in the combat zone of the Ukraine conflict, President Vladimir Putin has revealed. Speaking during his Q&A session on Thursday, the Russian leader was asked to comment on complaints that military volunteers often rely on aid fundraised by their fellow citizens rather than on state support. Putin emphasized that supplies provided by the government account for 99% of all assistance, but noted that Moscow welcomes and will in no way hinder pure-hearted efforts to provide Russian soldiers with various types of equipment and supplies. Still, he admitted that there could be a lack of specialized high-tech hardware, such as electronic warfare equipment, at a given time and place, and promised to look into the matter.

I want to repeat myself: the line of contact [with Ukraine] is more than 2,000km long. There are now 617,000 people in the combat zone … So, of course, there could be some problems in some places. According to Putin, 244,000 of those in the combat zone are troops that were called up when Russia announced partial mobilization in September 2022. They were deployed in a bid to stabilize the situation, protect new territories, and conduct further offensives. At the time, Moscow mobilized 300,000 troops. However, Putin said that 41,000 had since been discharged for health reasons, or after reaching the maximum age. Moscow has repeatedly denied it plans to announce a second wave of mobilization, with the Russian president explaining that there was no need for such a move. Instead, Russia is relying on a steady stream of volunteers willing to sign contracts with the military.

Putin noted that the authorities had signed up some 486,000 soldiers in this large-scale recruitment campaign, adding that more are ready to enlist. However, he did not say how many of them have been deployed to the front, are undergoing training, or are stationed elsewhere. Commenting on the battlefield situation, Putin remarked that Russian troops “to say it humbly, are improving their positions” along the entire frontline. He also said that Ukraine’s much-hyped counteroffensive – which began in early June – has been a complete failure, with no territorial gains. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu earlier this month estimated Kiev’s losses at more than 125,000 troops since the start of the push.

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8-to-1 ratio.

400,000 Ukrainians Killed in Action Explains a Whole Lot (ET)

Estimates of Ukrainians killed in action (KIA) range from a low of just over 30,000 to a high of over 400,000. Obviously, these two estimates can’t be reconciled. And it really, really matters to the people of Ukraine which one is closer to the truth. While 30,000 deaths is tragic, anything approaching 400,000 KIA and the accompanying hundreds of thousands of causalities is a humanitarian catastrophe that makes talks of continuing offensive operations next year, or even believing in a stalemate, wishful thinking that will result in even more fruitless Ukrainian deaths. Unsurprisingly, since the war began, the United States and its allies have unswervingly pushed the narrative that Russia is incurring far more casualties than Ukraine.

This casualty narrative was critical to maintaining any plausibility that Ukraine could defeat a country that has four to five times more men of military age and that was recently rated as having the world’s most powerful military. Hence, given the need to maintain the plausibility of a Ukrainian victory, it isn’t surprising that NATO intelligence asserted that the battle of Bakhmut saw Russia losing at least five soldiers KIA for every one of Ukraine’s. However, since the fall of Bakhmut to Russia, the failure of the much-hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive, and signs that Ukraine’s military is nearing collapse, we’re no longer hearing about five-to-one casualty rates. Still, the most recent estimates from United States and British officials claim that Russia has suffered 120,000 KIA while Ukraine has suffered “only” 70,000 KIA (more than the United States suffered in over 10 years of the Vietnam War).

But not everyone agrees with U.S./British casualty estimates for an army that started the war by mobilizing early 1 million men in arms and, over the course of the war, mobilized another estimated 1 million. Among the growing number of those who don’t agree is the former director of the Joint Operations Center at Supreme Headquarters Europe and one of the key leaders in achieving the legendary victory in the mass tank battle of 73 Easting, retired U.S. Army Col. Douglas Macgregor. In a recent interview with myself, Col. Macgregor agreed that while estimates putting Russian KIA at as high as 50,000 to 60,000 are defensible, most estimates for Ukrainian KIAs are not. In what many will undoubtedly find shocking given the countless stories disparaging Russia’s military skills and capabilities while uncritically fawning over Ukraine’s military prowess, Col. Macgregor puts Ukrainian KIA at over 400,000 out of the 2 million Ukraine has mobilized.

Col. Macgregor arrived at this shocking number using a wide variety of sources, including contacts within U.S. intelligence and contacts on the ground in Ukraine and Poland who have intimate knowledge of what’s really happening in Ukraine. In particular, he noted that his U.S. intelligence contacts have expressed shock as to just how far from reality the narrative being pushed by the Biden administration is from what’s happening in Ukraine and its real war losses. Likewise, Col. Macgregor’s Ukraine contacts relayed to him accounts of thousands of wounded Ukrainians being left to die on the battlefield, growing numbers of Ukrainian commanders and troops refusing orders to conduct suicide attacks against heavily fortified Russian positions, Ukrainian soldiers surrendering en masse to Russia, hospitals overflowing with Ukrainian wounded, and many other accounts that testify to horrendous casualty rates that contradict the narrative pushed by Western media.

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“.. a “significant loss of the country’s sovereignty..”

Putin Criticizes New Argentine President’s Dollarization Plan (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized his Argentine counterpart’s plan to ditch the national currency, the peso, for the US dollar. Speaking during a live press conference on Thursday, Putin said that the pledge of newly elected Argentine President Javier Milei to adopt the greenback would result in a “significant loss of the country’s sovereignty.” Dollarization is one of Milei’s core proposals, aimed at taming triple-digit inflation and supporting Argentina’s beleaguered economy amid low cash reserves and high government debt. Adopting the US dollar would take control of monetary policy away from Argentina’s central bank and hand it over to the US Federal Reserve.

The announced policy goes contrary to the de-dollarization trend pioneered by Russia and supported by many other developing economies, which has been gaining momentum since the imposition of Ukraine-related sanctions on Moscow. In response to the restrictions that effectively cut the country off from Western financial markets, Russia and its leading trade partners within the BRICS group of developing economies have started to switch to national currencies in trade. Argentina was set to join the bloc, made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, on January 1, 2024, but the new government scrapped the decision. According to Putin, Milei’s plan to scrap the peso or peg the national currency to the dollar could also result in social instability as it would trigger a sharp reduction in social spending.

“If there is no national currency, you can’t print anything, there is only one way – reducing budget spending for the social sphere, a severe cutting of wages, pensions, expenses on medicine, on roads and domestic security,” the Russian president maintained. Argentina’s new government announced earlier this week the start of its “economic shock therapy” policy, namely a sharp devaluation of the peso, cuts to energy and transportation subsidies and a freeze in spending on some major state programs. The South American nation is trying to battle inflation that hovers around 150% year-on-year. country owes $44 billion to the International Monetary Fund, and 40% of Argentinians reportedly live below the poverty line.

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“..At some point, the mad rush for a March trial will look illogical and gratuitous if key legal issues remain unresolved..”

What if Jack Smith Held a Trial and No One Came? (Turley)

In 1966, Charlotte E. Keyes wrote a famous article for McCall’s magazine titled “Suppose They Gave a War and No One Came.” Special Counsel Jack Smith may be contemplating the same fate. Putting the tongue-in-cheek title aside, the odds are that some people will come to any trial of President Donald Trump. After all, a lot of people have to come from the judge to the jurors and counsel. However, Smith has had an ominous week that could severely complicate his plans for convicting Donald Trump before the election. Moreover, a trial after the election could mean no trial at all. Before this week, Smith found himself on the losing end of the schedule in Florida in his prosecution of Trump for his retention of classified documents. Judge Aileen Cannon has scheduled a trial for May 20, 2024, but that could easily move with additional delays or appeals in the case.

I have always viewed that case to be the strongest against Trump, but the huge number of classified documents have (as predicted) slowed the prosecution. Despite Smith’s pushing for a pre-election trial, his structuring of the charges undermined that schedule. Smith then pushed hard for a pre-election trial in the January 6th case in Washington where he seemed to have a supportive judge in Judge Tanya Chutkan who shoehorned the start just before the Super Tuesday elections. Now, however, Judge Chutkan has been forced to stay the case indefinitely pending the appeal of the presidential immunity claim made by Trump. The matter is now before both the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court gave Trump until December 20th to respond to Smith’s request for an expedited review — leapfrogging over the D.C. Circuit.

Smith’s filing conveys priority, if not a necessity, in trying Trump before the election. The Supreme Court may not share that sense of urgency. Traditionally, the Supreme Court has preferred to wait to allow appellate courts to render decisions. Since a conviction will not make Trump ineligible to run for the presidency, the question is why the March date should short circuit the review process. If the Supreme Court ultimately does not rule on the merits, the period for review would easily supplant the trial schedule since an appeal could be taken to the entire D.C. Circuit (en banc) and then to the Supreme Court. That did not change the March 4 trial date, but it could well make that date unworkable if the appeals drag on. Then to make the week complete, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in United States v. Fischer. That case turns on the proper interpretation of the obstruction provision under Section 1512(c)(2).

Fischer was charged with obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and based solely on his trespass in the Capitol. A ruling in his favor could effectively cut away half of the case against Donald Trump. Among the four counts brought by Smith, Trump is charged under 18 U.S.C. § 1512(k) (Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding) (Count Two) and 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(c)(2), 2 (Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding) (Count Three). If those two counts fell to the wayside, Smith would be left with a count on conspiracy to defraud the United States (Count One) and conspiracy against rights (Count 4). Those counts contain other challengeable elements which would have to be appealed after any conviction. At some point, the mad rush for a March trial will look illogical and gratuitous if key legal issues remain unresolved and pre-trial motions and discovery remain incomplete in February.

The problem for Smith is that a trial after the election could mean no trial at all. If Trump is elected, he could give himself a preemptive self-pardon, though some disagree with this view. Moreover, the new Attorney General could scuttle or undermine the prosecution. In other words, it is possible that Jack Smith might never see a jury in either case. That would still leave the New York and Georgia cases, which are not subject to presidential pardons. However, those cases (particularly the one in New York) have their own challengeable elements.

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“..a totally corrupt Department of Justice (sic), every member of which should be indicted for weaponizing law and using it as a weapon against Trump, his attorneys, and his supporters.”

Will the Corrupt US Department of Justice (sic) Be Held Accountable? (PCR)

It is a paradox that Jack Smith, who in my opinion has less integrity than the infamous Stalinist prosecutor Andrey Vyshinsky who prosecuted Stalin’s show trials of the Bolsheviks, was appointed director of the Justice (sic) Departments Office of Public Integrity. Perhaps recognizing Smith’s lack of concern with justice, Merrick Garland, the worst Attorney General in US history, sicced Jack Smith on President Trump and Trump supporters who attended the Trump rally labeled an “insurrection” by the whore media and Democrat Party. The way Smith got his convictions was to intentionally misapply law in order to coerce innocent people with a 20 year prison threat into a plea bargain. In other words, by intentionally misusing law he forced people to convict themselves via self-incrimination, which is what a plea bargain is.

Federal judge Carl Nichols threw out charges against three defendants based on Smith’s wrongful use of law. This has led to a situation in which the US Supreme Court announced yesterday that it would take up the defendants complaint that Jack Smith illegitimately used evidence-tampering law to prosecute Trump supporters and force them into self-incrimination to avoid a 20 year sentence. Smith’s pressure on one defendant, Matthew Perna, caused him to commit suicide. In my opinion, Jack Smith should be indicted for murder. Defense attorney Joseph McBride said that the DOJ’s misuse of law “is rooted in corruption and political hatred.” Defense attorney William Shipley predicted that the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the case would put an end to the case against Trump: “The decision by SCOTUS today to take up the appeal on the 1512 ‘obstruction of an official proceeding’ case means the Trump D.C. case will not be going to trial.”

After the Supreme Court’s refusal to take up the clearly wrongful conviction of Derek Chauvin, I haven’t as much confidence as Shipley in the Supreme Court’s interest in justice. But I hope Shipley is right as the result will be the release of the hundreds of innocent Americans wrongly convicted on purpose by in my opinion a totally corrupt Department of Justice (sic), every member of which should be indicted for weaponizing law and using it as a weapon against Trump, his attorneys, and his supporters.

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“..President Biden “was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say,” which suggests that the president spoke with his son before his act of contempt and discussed his statement. If that is true, it was a breathtaking mistake.”

Hunter Biden’s Contempt of Congress Has Wider Consequences (Turley)

Congress is often a theater of the absurd, from Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) pulling a fire alarm before a major vote to former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) being, well, a member of Congress at all. However, none of that compares to what unfolded on Wednesday as Hunter Biden stood outside Congress and defied a subpoena as being “beyond the absurd.” What happens next could be even more bizarre. Hunter was under a subpoena from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability to appear for testimony. As I previously wrote, he had two choices: He could appear and either testify or invoke his right to remain silent. The only thing that he could not do is what he did — just refuse to go into the hearing room. Yet, there he was, with counsel Abbe Lowell by his side,holding forth with a public press conference while refusing to appear in the closed-door deposition being held in the building behind him.

By staying on the Senate side of the Capitol, Hunter guaranteed that the House sergeant at arms did not pull him into the hearing room. Ironically, that would have been a better option than his blowing a raspberry at the committee and then speeding away. Many pundits immediately claimed this was a clever move because the subpoena was not really enforceable until the House voted on the formal impeachment inquiry a few hours later. I disagree. As I noted in my testimony in the first impeachment inquiry, there is no requirement for a formal vote to initiate an impeachment inquiry. Indeed, that is precisely what then-majority Democrats did with the impeachment of then-President Donald Trump. While I encouraged the House to hold a formal vote on the inquiry, it is not constitutionally required.

Moreover, this is an oversight committee which has independent authority to issue subpoenas. The subpoena was issued not only by the Oversight Committee but by the Judiciary Committee. It was issued under three different authorities, including Rule 12(g) of the Oversight Committee which allows for subpoenas “in the conduct of any investigation or activity or series of investigations or activities within the jurisdiction of the Committee.” In holding this spectacle, Biden and his legal team committed another unforced error. This one could prove as costly as pushing for an obscenely generous plea agreement and then telling prosecutors to “rip it up” in July. Few people expected Hunter to testify in the deposition. The evidence against him is overwhelming, as shown in his second federal indictment on tax charges.

He and his uncles were allegedly engaged in one of the largest influence-peddling operations in history involving millions of dollars from various foreign sources. Hunter simply could have done what prior witnesses have done: Go in and take the Fifth. That is what attorney and former IRS official Lois Lerner did — twice — when House Republicans wanted to ask her about the Obama administration targeting conservative groups. It was a no-brainer that someone appears to have radically over-thought on the Hunter Biden legal team.Hunter can now be held in contempt of Congress. That will force the hand of Attorney General Merrick Garland, who aggressively pursued Trump figures for contempt, including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Despite some of us writing to the contrary, Bannon claimed his lawyers told him he did not have to appear before a House committee. He was swiftly charged and convicted by Garland’s prosecutors.

In this instance, the contempt case would go to the U.S. Attorney in D.C., Matthew Graves, who previously declined to assist in bringing tax charges against the president’s son. Yet by pulling a Bannon, Hunter now faces the expectation in many circles that he will get the full Bannon treatment from Garland. There is another possible cost to this move. Fox News quoted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying that President Biden “was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say,” which suggests that the president spoke with his son before his act of contempt and discussed his statement. If that is true, it was a breathtaking mistake. One of the four most obvious potential articles of impeachment that I laid out in my prior testimony was obstruction. There already are questions over special treatment potentially being given to Hunter in the form of alleged felonies being allowed to expire, warnings about planned federal raids, and sweetheart deals.

Read more …

“.. continue the DoJ’s “investigation”—let’s go with quotation marks at this point—into what corporate media like to describe as Hunter Biden’s “shenanigans.”

That New Hunter Biden Indictment (Patrick Lawrence)

Before wading through the latest indictment of Hunter Biden, this one for nine counts of assorted tax violations, we must consider briefly the record of David Weiss, the special counsel who signed the 56–page document made public last Thursday. Only then can we read the grand jury findings unsealed last week for what they are and are not. David Weiss is the Justice Department attorney in Delaware who has run the DoJ’s lengthy (as in slow-walked) investigation into Hunter Biden’s alleged violations of tax and gun laws. Among much else, David Weiss appears to have connived with other Justice officials to cover up a Federal Bureau of Investigation finding that Hunter and President Biden accepted bribes of $5 million each from Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company where Hunter sat on the board from April 2014 to April 2019.

David Weiss made sure that Internal Revenue investigators did not have access to Hunter’s infamous laptop after the FBI took possession of it in December 2019. David Weiss made sure that investigators—his investigators among them—were denied a requested warrant to search a cottage on Joe Biden’s Delaware estate. David Weiss let Hunter’s lawyers know in advance that investigators planned to search a storage unit Hunter kept. David Weiss barred IRS agents from interviewing members of the Biden family. David Weiss, as overseer of the investigation, let Hunter know in advance that IRS and FBI agents intended to interview him in California, so allowing Hunter to evade them.

David Weiss, after all this and probably more that is not visible to our naked eyes, put together the agreement that let Hunter plead to misdemeanor charges earlier this year and immunized him from whatever findings of criminal conduct that may come to the surface in the future. A properly disinterested judge assigned to validate that preposterous bargain, Maryellen Noreika, could not believe her eyes when she saw it last summer and promptly deep-sixed it. At that point, it followed naturally that Attorney General Merrick Garland rewarded David Weiss for all his good, loyal work by naming him special counsel, so giving him expanded powers to continue the DoJ’s “investigation”—let’s go with quotation marks at this point—into what corporate media like to describe as Hunter Biden’s “shenanigans.”

Now David Weiss has signed an indictment—the second Hunter faces, the other covering the gun charges—laying out three charges of tax evasion, three charges of failing to file and pay taxes, and three more for filing false or fraudulent tax returns. And now, with a few snippets from David Weiss’s c.v. in hand, we are ready to read and evaluate this document for what is in it and what is missing.

Read more …

“We would urge caution in the assumption that emissions from humans are negligible.”

This just had to get absurd.

Breathing Contributes To Global Warming – Study (RT)

Human breathing contributes to global warming, according to a study published Wednesday in PLoS One. The authors argued that human respiration’s contribution to climate change has been underestimated and merits further study. After measuring the gas composition in the exhaled breaths of 328 study participants, the researchers concluded human breath comprises 0.05% of the UK’s methane emissions and 0.1% of its nitrous oxide. Both of those gasses “have a much higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide,” the study notes. “Exhaled human breath can contain small, elevated concentrations of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), both of which contribute to global warming,” the researchers, led by atmospheric physicist Nicholas Cowan of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, wrote.

“We would urge caution in the assumption that emissions from humans are negligible.” While Cowan explained that “CO2 contribution in human breath to climate change is essentially zero” because plants absorb nearly all the carbon dioxide humans breathe out, the other two gasses are left in the atmosphere. Methane traps 80 times the amount of heat as carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere, though this potency decreases over time. A detailed analysis of test subjects’ diets failed to yield any indication that meat eaters produced more of either gas. While all test subjects exhaled nitrous oxide, only 31% exhaled methane. These individuals, referred to as “methane producers” in the paper, were more likely to be female and over 30 years of age, though the researchers were unable to determine why this was the case.

The study authors cautioned that their research only looked at breath and called for further research into the total picture of human gas emissions, insisting it could reveal more about the “impacts of an aging population and shifting diets” on the planet. In recent years, environmental campaigners have focused on methane emissions from cows, whose herbivorous diet is broken down by methane-producing bacteria in their multiple stomachs. Policymakers’ focus on the resulting methane-tainted belches and farts have been the subject of much parody from climate change skeptics.

The UK has legally committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990. Residents have been strongly encouraged to reduce meat consumption in order to achieve this goal, with some estimates placing the share of global greenhouse gas emissions from raising livestock for meat at 15%. However, the researchers behind Wednesday’s study pointed out that shifting to a high-fiber vegetarian diet could potentially cause more methane and nitrous oxide emissions, a phenomenon they called “pollution swapping.”

Read more …

“..after emails revealed he knew mRNA shots were killing people, just as leaked NZ health department data has shown..”

Italian Ex-Minister Faces Vax Murder Probe (CN)

New Zealand’s politicians have all been sent an email informing them that the former Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza is under investigation for homicide after emails revealed he knew mRNA shots were killing people, just as leaked NZ health department data has shown. The emails were sent by US vaccine safety campaigner and tech entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, who organised statisticians and other experts to analyse NZ Ministry of Health data leaked by whistleblower Barry Young. The NZ health bureaucrats, supported by media, are using legal threats to censor and suppress access to the “pay-per-dose” data, which reveals of thousands of deaths in close proximity to mRNA vaccinations.

But New Zealand’s new government has agreed to carry out as a matter of urgency a “full scale, wide-ranging, independent inquiry” into how the Covid-19 pandemic was handled, regardless of the whitewashing “Royal Commission of Inquiry” set up by the Ardern Labor government. The new government’s inquiry will cover lockdowns, vaccine procurement and efficacy, the social and economic impacts on both regional and national levels and whether the decisions made and steps taken, were justified. The inquiry will also be conducted publicly with local and international experts. In Italy, Speranza is accused of giving orders to local health authorities to conceal deaths and serious side effects in order to reassure Italian citizens of the vaccines’ “safety” and to not jeopardize the vaccination campaign. NZ and Australian health officials acted similarly.

The main charges Speranza faces include ideological falsehood, multiple manslaughter, marketing of an imperfect, dangerous drug. Speranza is currently a deputy of the Democratic Party, and like Australian and New Zealand health ministers, was co-opted by the WHO and the global pharma cartel to push the mRNA shots. The Speranza investigation was announced on Italian TV channel Rete 4, on the program Fuori dal Coro. The channel is owned by the Mediaset group run by the heirs of the late Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a strong supporter of the vaccination campaign, who died in June this year. According to Italian website Gospa News, there was not much coverage in the national media which focused more on the statements of Speranza’s lawyer instead of examining the merits of the investigation resulting from the complaint by the State Police union OSA and by other organisations seeking to support vaccinated people.

The accusations have been reported on by German and Italian news networks but studiously ignored by Reuters and the western mainstream media. The closest reports Cairns News found were from months ago when the former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Speranza were placed under investigation on suspicion of “aggravated culpable epidemic” and manslaughter in connection with the government’s response at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. They were later cleared.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Ducks
https://twitter.com/i/status/1735286013042307534

 

 

Momma bear
https://twitter.com/i/status/1735272196874895825

 

 

Cheetah

 

 


This 2,000 year old tree is located at Zwigodini Village of Mutale in Limpopo, South Africa. Venda people call it, “Muri Kunguluwa”, which means, “The Tree That Roars”. The tree actually makes a roaring sound when the wind blows through its branches. It is also called, “The Tree Of Life”, because it serves as a source of life to the animals and the community that lives around it. 80% of its trunk consists of water and it can hold up to 4,500 liters, making it a water source for the community and the animals.

Elephants eat the bark. Baboons eat the fruit. Leaves can also be eaten. Birds, bees, fruit bats and bush babies nest in the tree. Humans use the dried fruit powder in drinks, as a source of vitamins, antioxidants and minerals. The bark can be used to make rope, baskets, mats, cloth and paper. It also holds a spiritual significance for African people. In ancient times, leaders and elders would hold meetings under huge baobab trees, to discuss important matters. They believed that the spirit of the baobab would help them make wise decisions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle December 15 2023

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  • #148487

    Vincent van Gogh Seine with Pont de Clichy 1887   • The Era of the West Has Passed (Paul Craig Roberts) • Ukraine Conflict A “Great Tragedy”, “Ci
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle December 15 2023]

    #148488
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    The world is a wonderous place; may the gods bless us and protect us if we ever lose the wonder that is the world around us…………

    #148490
    EoinW
    Participant

    They left out one ISM: 21st century capitalism – take two cows, pretend you have ten cows then sell the other eight.

    #148491
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Blue Cities Contemplate Mask Bans” – Armstrong.

    Everything is either illegal or compulsory. Do What You’re Told.

    “Far-left fashion publication Vogue even published an article in February 2023 entitled, “All the Cool Kids Are Wearing Balaclavas.” If someone walked into the bank with a ski mask on, it would have been considered a threat. Now, civil rights groups claim that these masks represent freedom of expression.”

    Cosmo having Satanic ritual abortions of living fetus is also freedom of expression. You can’t judge me.

    Yes, we all knew the masks were there to allow this sort of crime during the “Mostly Peaceful” “Summer of Love”, and they did! But now that’s no longer politically convenient, so they will mass-arrest Black people (I presume) for wearing masks and think nothing of it. That’s Equity! Just-Us.

    “The Severe El Niño in South America Is a Preview of a Climate-Changed World:
    Dengue, drought, and floods are hammering Peru and Bolivia this year. At the UN climate talks, they’re seeking justice.” Vox

    It causes rain! Wait, no! Dry! Wait, no! It causes normal weather too. And the cure is to SUE the Weather. Naughty weather. Now that rivers can be classified as people (like corporations can, but “People” can’t) we can SUE the river for flooding! Ha ha! Take that, River!

    Should I click and read this? Well, it’s “Vox” so it’s almost certainly completely false.

    “How Slaveholding Families Reasserted Themselves after the Civil War
    The forebears of three members of Congress regained—and passed forward—wealth and power their families lost” –Reuters

    In other news, “How the Septimius Severus Dynasty reasserted themselves after the Vandal Wars.” Hey, it’s not THAT much further back in history, right?

    “How Bill Ackman’s Campaign to Oust Harvard’s President Failed: Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge-fund manager, declared defeat late Monday as it became clear that his weeklong “ New York Magazine · 9 min

    Who knew Ackman was so powerful? He and he alone. He pointed this out in Tweets. Yup 50,000 people tweeting the same, but the only one we hear is Ackman. AND: (Obviously), NY Mag supporting Harvard’s GENOCIDAL (let that sink in) PLAGIARIST (Let that sink in). To the Death!!!

    “No sir: To the PAIN.” Our pain. As we weep and cry out “What IS that THING?” That THING not a President pretending to run Harvard?

    “ ‘Did Not Attend Harvard’ Now Number One Quality Employers Seeking In Job Candidate” – Bbee

    “4 hours and 4 minutes. Non-stop. Fielding unscripted questions” – Putin, Escobar

    Trump is. …Now I’m not saying the answers are coherent, but …

    “”I thought the Palestinians were impossible and that the Israelis would do anything to make peace and a deal.”

    Jimmy Dore guests (Jewish) said the same thing. They’re saying “We have no one to make peace with”. Still, 40 years later. This worked, I guess, so they have been funding Hamas and the PLO all that time to MAKE SURE there are no “normal” government to negotiate with. Then year by year take all the land, kill all the people. Probably got it from the American West, although we weren’t funding them, it was just PR that they wuz bloodthirsty Injuns’. So here, with this happening, ask, and many American Jews will tell you “Israel has to”. They have to fund Hamas, allow them to cross the border, stand down 7 hours, then shoot their own parking lots of musicgoers with 100 Hellfire missiles? They have to shoot 1M women and children in the face? With White phosphorus? Yeah, your hands were tied.

    Back to the quote, Trump was in for 2 years, sent the dumbest guy in NYC, Kushner, and got a deal headed in this direction with little effort. …I think we can do this if you sideline the Death Cult. Just Sayin’.

    Dore on Censorship: yes, but he’s missing the legal foundation. They shouldn’t, and can’t be a monopoly. So if they are ALLOWED to be a monopoly, then yes, they then have to legally succumb to being regulated – highly – like a public utility. That’s the tradeoff. I’m never thrilled with it (look at all our utilities PLUS the quality of regulation that is the #Opposite of the goal) but over 150 years that actually has functioned tolerably.

    And happily, he brings up Sec230 which would “regulate” it to begin with. What they’re doing was always illegal on the face. We HAVE all the laws: they just ignore laws any time they like, and enforce laws that weren’t broken on US any time they like. Here’s Babylon Bee actor Siaka Massaquoi, arrested by the FBI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgWQ4sBHFR4 (Long, but quiet)

    FBI raids him at the airport, knows he’s been watched for 2 years (J6), in front of his pregnant wife, separating and harassing them in the hopes she’ll have a miscarriage, I guess. So...the crime was so bad that you couldn’t figure it out – on camera – for two years? I think I’ve posted the law on this one. You can’t just be the police, go around collecting crimes, then blackmail all the criminals to be friendly and work for you otherwise you’ll press charges on them. Seems like a good idea/bad idea, but it’s illegal. Straight up, open, obviously illegal. And there’s so many illegalities by police we can’t get down the list to mention this one. AND SO HERE. He doesn’t even bring that up, just that like all other J6 guys, HE WALKED IN AN OPEN DOOR. BY A POLICEMAN. And then when different police showed up and said, you’ve gotta go, they said “Oh”, and helped each other get out of the building placidly. Etc. And went home for two years. Boy! Sure are dang’rous.

    So anyway, what did they need the SWAT team Riot gear for, to get him on camera in the airport 2 years later after lifelong harassment? So it could be in the papers trickled out one per week as last week was a Netflix actor?

    A: A misdemeanor. YGBFKM. YUP! Reminds me of other people, banned for posting Hunter Biden’s laptop clips, while Hunter Biden has the WHOLE LAPTOP and nothing happens. Including child prostitution as a payoff for bribery in China.

    We HAVE all the laws: they just ignore them any time they like, and enforce laws that don’t exist or weren’t broken. Every. Day.

    But I have an answer! MORE LAWS!!!! More Government would fix all this boy-howdy.

    “158,000 more unexpected U.S deaths”

    You’d have to be an idiot not to know why. We don’t know why, no one will say, if you tell them they will punch you. And you wonder why they have raw seething contempt for us. DEFEND YOURSELF. Like a man. Cowering gets you nowhere with bullies.

    I’m still at the point I can’t bring it up, although I run feelers regularly. We’re at 1/3 “Something R going on” now?

    “euphemisms “refugees” and “asylum seekers” label them, are used to overwhelm ethnic nationalities and turn them into towers of babel in which there are no common VALUES.” “interests, values, morals, religion, or culture.”

    THEY have common values: Kill anyone you can, steal their stuff. The Psychopath’s Creed. Do we have shared values enough to stop THAT, even with different languages?

    “They were not allowed to set up separate cultures, and businesses answered the phone only in English.”

    He knows very well this was not true. People answered the phone in Polish or Italian nationwide to like 1990, and spoke it at home. That is every year of his life growing up until he was a very old man. Here’s the VALUE: they and their family knew they probably should get around to learning English as a practical matter. A minority didn’t even though they should bc people are like that. Like 70-90% did, even if they came after childhood? And the same things were said about the Polish, German, Italian “Ghettoes” or actually neighborhoods, not just NYC but nationwide. I miss them. They put on a huge drive to annihilate them in the 70s, (Progressivism ”helping”) and direct immigration was shut off as the home nations in Europe were ok. So it shifts to P.R. and then to Mexico, 70’s (West Side Story) then with specific NAFTA attack on Mexican farmers and Bush’s open drug cartels further south. This happens, as there were few Irish outside of Boston once things stabilized there in the 50s. PCR should know this, but he’s talking his dogma. (As old people often do, but one must still be accurate and capable. Isn’t that the world we want and what we/they accuse the OTHER side of? Shape up.)

    IBM, etc, He’s falling right into the trap. They’re not bad or different because they’re Indian, foreign, they PICK them because they know they have a built-in self defense. It’s no doubt harder to find psychos who are ONLY women, Indians, etc. but then you can call them racists, as HRC does every day. And NBC calls Sowell and Ramaswamy. The head of IBM, like all other CEOs, is PICKED, “Selected” not “Elected.” By whom? The Mafia that “Needs to work with” these major corporations which are major world instruments of power. How? They say Blackrock “would not have confidence” in some other guys NOT a psycho, who might look into and FIX the corporate wide accounting fraud. (And blow the whole scam). Etc. You see them take out “Not the RIGHT sort” every day. What’s his name from AI this week. Like Ackman only yesterday, that’s why I pointed it out. They have moved Ackman into the spotlight like Musk or Brand as he has now caused them too much trouble and is about to get the “Special Treatment”.

    Same with his thing with gays here, ignoring that important people were gay, all over, going way back. They just say in American fashion, “Whatever! Just keep it to yourself, Bob.” How far back? Well Baron Friedrich von Steuben trained the US Colonials for General Washington, so, uh, pretty far back. We just “make s—t up!” Cole Porter is a household name, so “We make s—t up!”

    There were no gays except for all the gays that were. See how that works?

    “Russia has been trying for decades to build normal relations with Ukraine “at any cost,”

    Just like all Palestine was trying to be “A normal nation” with Israel. Nope. That is too much to ask. Russia TRIED TO JOIN NATO. No! They are our Enemy! They are the Soviet Union and are going to attack out to Rotterdam! To Glasgow! To Pasadena!!! Dore just had the “experts” on Bill Maher last night. …Oh btw coincidentally they were arms manufacturers who have permanent membership to the Atlantic Council. That’s how you know they’re Objective and Right! They only want Peace! (…When they conquer, own, and control all resources, all men, and all nations worldwide. Then there can be a desert we call peace)

    ““So how are we supposed to build relations with them?” asked the Russian president”

    “Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia were among the only defenders of national interests left in the West.”

    …And don’t their people know it. Scholtz said only yesterday “Darn that Putin who shut off our German gas!!!!” W.. T… F…..?

    So let’s see: not good for Russia, not good for the people or Europe, catastrophic for the corporations of Europe, bankrupting American interests, bankrupting the American people who have a 50% poverty rate now. Who does that leave? Qui Bono? It’s going to REALLY stand out because there’s not anyone left. PMC apparatchiks as Dore’s people say. That’s one. Actual Arms dealers. And K-pop Lettermen. That’s it worldwide. You guys stand out like a beacon fire.

    It’s so easy, look at who has the money for TV advertizing. Pharma. Boeing. As if I’m going to watch the ad and buy a jet??? No, Boeing is so evil they are buying multi-million ads so Fox and CNN will “Report nicely”.

    Anyone else? NOPE. Everyone not a government protected, enforced, extracted bureaucracy is broke.

    “There are now 617,000 people in the combat zone..”

    Bill Maher’s numbers, 70,000 Ukrainians were killed. 130,000 Russians. Russia is hollowed out, no tanks, no missiles. They are at the end, IF ONLY they could get JUST one more Hilux of bullets. You fools! It’s all Congresses’ fault!!! The Republicans lost this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We coulda been a contenda!”

    No, honest: on national TV. I’m not making it up. Bill has not the slightest questioning or hesitation of arms dealers who tell him this. Nor do the PMCs I talk to who watch this on TV. Why should they?

    Why SHOULD they??? How about this: IF RUSSIA IS SHATTERED AND NO THREAT, HOW ARE THEY JUST ABOUT TO TAKE PARIS? Pick One. For the love of God. Either they are “Almost fallen” and no threat to Paris or even Poland, or they are WINNING Ukraine and you lost. Pick. One.

    So we saw last week “Le Narrative” that Ze was forced to negotiate, we lost. Before the election starts. Well I guess they had second thoughts because it reversed again here didn’t it? Like Orwell, “People” believe a thing, have 5 Minutes of Hate, get up, next day, have 5 Minutes of Hate on the exact #Opposite thing. Like Comey, hero who is ALSO a scum, enemy of all good for accusing Hillary while also running entrapment on Trump. BOTH! Neither!!! Not “Aiiii” as they DON’T NOTICE.

    But here, pick one: Russiaphrenia. Every day Russia is both about to land invasion troops AND is the size of a Valero Gas station.

    My brain can’t take it which is why I merely name the most accurate numbers known to me like a normal human does. Why name all 10,000 lies when you can name the Truth?

    Anyway, Ukraine themselves said they lost 70k troops SINCE THE OFFENSIVE, so they lost Zero up to July 2023? Calling Bill Maher…

    “Col. Macgregor arrived at this shocking number 400,000” Yeah, last July. Now it’s 700,000. He’s wildly underestimating. In the reverse to the above, Ukraine lost NO men. …Which is why everyone enlisted is over 43+ and they are kidnapping men off bus stops in Kiev.

    I don’t have the numbers either, so this is my sanity check. Does it fit? Yes. Although Russia may have lost more than admitted, it’s still in the range.

    Why can Russia get people to enlist voluntarily? Social Trust. A thing we can’t conceive of. They TRUST Russia will do right by them. They TRUST that this is important for Russia’s survival, etc. Like us in WWII. So imagine asking Americans to enlist similarly. Nope. Nobody’s going, because nobody trusts. The PMCs would TRUST Daddy government perfectly, however, they are all cowards to a man and would never fight because they are all “Much too smart and important.” Like W and Cheney were, getting paid deferrals.

    “Since a conviction will not make Trump ineligible to run for the presidency, the question is why the March date should short circuit the review process.”

    Sicced Jack Smith on President Trump and Trump supporters who attended the Trump rally labeled an “insurrection” by the whore media and Democrat Party.”

    As we see above with arresting the Babylon Bee. Two YEARS later. ‘Cause they just found out??? Because otherwise it’s illegal and must be dropped. And in dereliction of duty, the police arrested instead.

    “• Breathing Contributes to Global Warming – Study (RT)

    Sanity Check as I say: so a barrel of oil does the work of 100 humans for a year. (or something) So how does that compare with a cube hamster typing in Leeds? Seat of the pants says >1,000x oil vs humans. That is, reducing even one barrel will do more and have more effect than all the humans you can find. Which any idiot could guess, but the West is now into “Sub-Idiots” thanks the Liberals who are bad at and hate math like Cancer being 100% of all our teachers, schools having been ethnically cleansed in the purges.

    “• Italian Ex-Minister Faces Vax Murder Probe (CN)

    Well it’s about time. Look: let’s even assume “Knowbody K-newd”. He was best-faith. And then? And then he give the shots, saw the numbers as his job, and KNEWD. And then continued which is indeed mass murder. With great enthusiasm and highest pay.

    Baobab Tree: Not a fig. That is a Banyan.

    #148492
    Just Some Randomer
    Participant

    @EoinW – you forgot the best bit.

    Create a Cow Futures market (make sure it has a clause ensuring you can choose to settle in cash rather than having to deliver any actual cows) then sell 100 contracts for cows you obviously don’t have, drive the price of ‘Cows’ down as far as you can and then buy back the 8 cows you sold for pennies on the dollar while also banking the profits from the other 92 futures contracts which you buy back for far less than you sold them for.

    Ask JP Morgan’s precious metals desk how this gig works – they are the epitome of modern regulatory capture enabled ‘Capitalism’

    #148493
    EoinW
    Participant

    LOL @ JSR

    The best bit is way beyond me! I’m just some 20th century refugee who occasionally takes a peek at our 21st century insanity. You guys can have Taylor Swift. I’m going back to my Billy Murray 78s.

    #148494
    boilingfrog
    Participant

    @EoinW

    What a wonderful addition! Perfect!!!

    #148495
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    February 24, 2022 to December 15, 2023

    659 days. (Time flies in a terrible way)

    400,000 dead Ukrainians. (disconsolate)
    ‐————— (does this number include civilians)

    15 x 400,000 = 6,000,000
    15 x 659 = 9,885

    ————————————9,885 ÷ 365 = 27 years

    N.B.: My neighbor, shot in the “eye” by his brother Earl with a 22cal, asked me to check his math. Marty was 5 when he was shot and missed 2 years of school kindergarten and 1st grade in the aftermath. I thought he was the best friend a fellow could have as Marty ran like a deer, survived a gunshot wound to the face AND taught me correctly how to spell and pronounce ‘island’. Essential qualities in a friend my 5yo mind told me.

    Marty said, “400,000 is a lot of people, Rich, and more than we got between here and the edge of Pittsburgh”.
    Society holds a child-victim of an accidental shooting responsible for their own injury forever. Initially, society doesn’t trust “the good kids” to keep Marty as a friend hardly considering the injured child has an equal choice in the matter. Later, there’s no college, enlistment, nursing school or service academy for that child. Society’s gatekeepers insure the secondary assault, the reinjury.

    Me: “yeah Marty. Your math was always solid.”
    Marty: “I didn’t cry back when Earl shot me.”
    Me: “I know”
    Marty: “I cry now.”
    Me: “because it’s time.”
    Marty: “it always was for all that I lost…wasn’t it, Rich?”

    Marty and I finished our breakfast at EatnPark and went different directions, probably forever, not just again for another 43 years.

    I digress

    So, Vlad Putin says the problem is The Nazis in The Ukraine and the problem must be eradicated, I guess, some more. As if 400,000 eradicated human beings isn’t enough eradication.

    Yet, The Ukraine, a country 74% Orthodox, 8% Greek Catholic, 1% Roman Catholic+protestants, has been led throughout this debacle by Volodymyr Zelensky, a president who doesn’t identify with any of the aforementioned religious groups.
    So, according to Vlad Putin the only association with Volodymyr the world should pay attention to is the one associated with the derogatory term, Nazilensky. Perhaps someone can translate Putin’s words accurately for the audience because I’m willing to believe as my initial position that Vladimir can’t be that stupid.

    #148496
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Dr D:

      Seems like a good idea/bad idea, but it’s illegal. Straight up, open, obviously illegal. And there’s so many illegalities by police we can’t get down the list to mention this one. AND SO HERE. He doesn’t even bring that up, just that like all other J6 guys

    It’s called “Corporate Governance” a byproduct of, perhaps, capitalism, AND The U.S. Courts defer to it, corporate Governance, reflexively.
    What else puts the Wind In The Sails of the Billionaire Class except essentially this form of carte blanche and indemnification?

    #148497
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Baobab trees grow only on small asteroids as we all know.

    Yes that’s the horrifying part. Ukraine is and has fought valiantly, beyond all expectation. Putin could have turned it to glass in the first 5 minutes no one mentions. Then was mostly keeping all infrastructure intact, water, power, even the trains although they are the only means of supply for the army. Clearly he was and perhaps no longer is, hoping the Ukrainians will turn on and contain their own government. Come to their senses. I mean, if you’re certain to die one way or another, why WOULDN’T you shoot the Ukrainian Sergeant and get shot instead of running into a minefield? No one knows. Yet here a whole bunch of normal dogfaces 400,000 got killed while Azov and Nazilinsky drink champers at nightclubs in Kiev.

    But if you’re Russia, what can you do? NOT fight them? Let 400,000 of YOUR people get killed in Donbas as expected and started the whole thing? PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DEPOSE YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT. You don’t like them either. You know they’re corrupt too. REMOVE THEM. Not Us, the Russians.

    They won’t, so what are you going to do? Same with us by the way. Decades at least since 9-12, I’ve been saying why, you guys from Kentucky and Carolina, they HATE YOUR GUTS and want you all to die, WHY are you enlisting and doing the illegal bidding of Dick F’n Cheney, chickenhawk at large? But it took until now.

    PLEASE STOP SHOOTING EACH OTHER. Like here in Chicago, right? If you’re going to shoot/rob someone, go to Fairfax, man. They have your money. Not me/us. And that’s how they do it, for 5,000 years. Because it works.

    #148498
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Russia vs The Empire of Lies

    Fielding unscripted questions across the spectrum….4 hours and 4 minutes. Non-stop.

    .

    #148499
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The wheels are coming off the clown car

    The Empire of Lies paid for the hand grenade

    BREAKING: UKRAINE DEPUTY DETONATES GRENADE IN COUNCIL MEETING

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1735625954075275492

    #148500
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Well. that’s an alternative universe in problem solving

    #148501
    EoinW
    Participant

    @ Dr.D If only we could put all the WEF Kings on one asteroid! Is New Zealand an asteroid? No, no, I don’t really hate Kiwis. If it was up to me, I’d send them all to Wrangel Island.

    #148502
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    The solution to the Israeli / Palestine conflict can be found in the One State Solution.

    Restore Palestine in its entirety to the Palestinians.

    #148503
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    @ The Good Dr. D #148491

    Everything is either illegal or compulsory.

    Don’t forget Fattening

    #148504
    kultsommer
    Participant

    @John Day – from yesterday.
    What I meant was: We are doomed as a country. Individual paths that each of us may take is a different story.
    I am fully aware that my thoughts are not congruent with many of those on the TAE panel, but one thing that I am sure of – we all know blatant criminality when we see it. Staunch partisanship blinded my bro-in-law.

    #148505
    jb-hb
    Participant

    #148506
    jb-hb
    Participant

    my favorite comment from the youtube video “His insurance company should sue him for his voting history.”

    #148507
    zerosum
    Participant

    I feel that I’m being monitored/ censor :

    While trying to report on the following article, my computer logged me out and I lost all my efforts. This has happened before.

    ———-

    Italian ex-minister faces vax murder probe: New Zealand inquiry should reveal more truth


    Italian ex-minister faces vax murder probe: New Zealand inquiry should reveal more truth.
    By TONY MOBILIFONITIS
    NEW Zealand’s politicians have all been sent an email informing them that the former Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza is under investigation for homicide after emails revealed he knew mRNA shots were killing people, just as leaked NZ health department data has shown.

    The emails were sent by US vaccine safety campaigner and tech entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, who organised statisticians and other experts to analyse NZ Ministry of Health data leaked by whistleblower Barry Young.

    The NZ health bureaucrats, supported by media, are using legal threats to censor and suppress access to the “pay-per-dose” data, which reveals of thousands of deaths in close proximity to mRNA vaccinations.

    But New Zealand’s new government has agreed to carry out as a matter of urgency a “full scale, wide-ranging, independent inquiry” into how the Covid-19 pandemic was handled, regardless of the whitewashing “Royal Commission of Inquiry” set up by the Ardern Labor government.

    The new government’s inquiry will cover lockdowns,
    ———-
    I’m not going to make another attempt to highlight the wisdom hidden in the word salad.
    (• Breathing Contributes To Global Warming – Study (RT))

    “A tower of babel is not a nation..”

    Immigrant-invaders, or as the euphemisms “refugees” and “asylum seekers” label them, are used to overwhelm ethnic nationalities and turn them into towers of babel in which there are no common interests, values, morals, religion, or culture.

    Controlled immigration consisting of immigrants from white European countries who as a condition of admittance had to learn English, pass an exam on the US Constitution, and integrate themselves into the existing society and culture.

    Russia and China protect the ethnic culture from immigrants and prevent cultural destruction
    ——–
    RIM already made a selection for you to evaluate.

    (Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a live marathon press conference on Thursday.)
    Read them without my inputs.
    Russia said too many truths that are being ignored by the “WEST”.
    China has laid out a path for gov. to follow that will could lead to peace and prosperity for all.
    ———–

    #148508
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Dmitry Orlov fielded a question about do the Russians feeling bad about killing fellow Russian speaking Ukro slavs in the SMO

    He said not really, did Union soldiers feel bad about killing Confederate soldiers in the Empire of Lies Civil War?

    Well together both sides in the Civil War killed about 600,000 fellow citizens, so no, Duh’mericans don’t mind killing other Duh’mericans on an industrial scale.

    Oligarchs and Artistocrats save their worst venom for their own.

    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

    .

    #148509
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    @ VP

    You said yesterday:
    P.S. Most of us are going to live long enough to see ourselves (+ friends & family) become the *victim*, Just. Like. The. Palestinians

    In the case of the Palestinians, with bombs dropping on their heads, they are currently in a crisis that they can’t do much about. However, as long as the rest of us can avoid that type of situation, and are instead only dealing with problems with varying levels of similarity to The Great Depression, it may be valid to see ourselves as “victims,” but it is in our benefit to understand that recognizing that one is being victimized by another is only the first step of the journey. After that it is important to analyze the situation and realize that often, by shifting perspective or changing the rules that one plays by, many possibilities may emerge. True, according to traditional perspectives we may still be “victims,” — we haven’t the cushy life the TV and movies suggested was rightfully ours — but from other perspectives we may be just fine.

    #148510
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Street Sign in Washington, DC on Pennsylvania Ave

    .

    #148511
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    More WSJ articles in my in-box, … fwiw

    Zelensky Pleads for Support, Putin Gains Momentum, from 2 hours ago by Dow Jones
    2 hours ago by Dow Jones
    By Matthew Luxmoore and Ian Lovett
    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spent this week pleading for help. He jetted from Argentina to Washington to Norway, petitioning Western officials to get stalled aid packages over the line—so far without success.
    Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to press on with his invasion of Ukraine, trumpeting his country’s economic resilience against Western sanctions aimed at destroying its ability to fight.
    “There will be peace when we achieve our goals,” Putin said during a four-hour press conference on Thursday. “As for the goals, they are unchanged.”
    Nearly two years into the war, Putin’s gamble that Russia can outlast Kyiv’s Western backers appears to be paying off.
    Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive failed to achieve a breakthrough. A battlefield stalemate has set in, and Western leaders who last year promised to support Kyiv as long as necessary are now struggling to muster the votes to supply more arms.
    The European Union on Thursday agreed to start membership talks with Ukraine in a major political victory for Zelensky, but the negotiations will take years and it is unclear when they will start. The bloc failed to agree on a long-term package of budget support for the country.
    In the U.S., a $110 billion aid package failed to pass Congress last week, while Hungary on Thursday blocked an EU package for Ukraine worth more than $50 billion. Ukrainian forces, which are heavily dependent on Western arms, are now running low on ammunition.
    Russia’s military, bolstered by 300,000 mobilized troops, has held the line in Ukraine’s south and east and thwarted Kyiv’s attempts to use sophisticated Western weapons to smash through its defensive lines.
    Without a continued supply of weapons from the West, Kyiv has little chance of retaking the 20% of its territory currently occupied by Russian forces, and could struggle to prevent Moscow seizing more ground.
    “They’re getting everything as freebies,” Putin said of Ukraine at the annual press conference, cracking jokes as he fielded questions from reporters and ordinary Russians. “But these freebies can run out at some point, and it looks like they’re already starting to run out.”
    Unencumbered by free elections—Russia’s main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, is in prison serving sentences amounting to more than 30 years—Putin has framed the war in Ukraine as an existential struggle against the West.
    He has placed Russia’s economy on a war footing. Military spending has fueled much of its economic growth and helped it weather the impact of Western sanctions. Next year, Putin’s government plans to raise military spending by more than two-thirds to a post-Soviet record of over $100 billion, according to data from Russia’s Ministry of Finance.
    “He’s turned the tide, in his view,” said Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official and presidential adviser on Russia. “He didn’t win in the early bouts of the tournament but now he’s turning it and his opponents are being intimidated and weakened.”
    Hill described the current moment, with deadlock in the U.S. over aid to Ukraine and Putin emboldened by the West’s reluctance to shore up a key ally, as “a critical decision point not just for Ukraine and Russia but for America’s role in the world.”
    Since Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive, questions in Western capitals about how long they can keep funding Ukraine have grown louder.
    In Washington this week, Zelensky met with President Biden, as well as Congressional leaders from both parties. But he left empty-handed. The U.S. has thus far provided about half of all military aid to Ukraine, but Republicans insist that any additional aid must be paired with increased funding for security at the U.S. border.
    “He’s trying to make up through his negotiating skills for what he didn’t achieve on the battlefield, which is where I think this is being determined,” said Paul Bracken, a political-science professor at Yale University. He said he believed the U.S. would continue to fund Ukraine, but that additional aid packages would be politically challenging, “with presidents fighting with Congress about the amount of money.”
    Zelensky’s reception was a stark reversal from a year earlier, when he arrived in Washington to a hero’s welcome and received standing ovations from both parties’ lawmakers. Bolstered by Western arms, Ukraine had taken back half the territory occupied by Russia since its full-scale invasion. An influx of Western armored vehicles in the spring fueled hopes on both sides of the Atlantic that Ukraine would dislodge the Russians.
    Even after the counteroffensive stalled, Zelensky has largely continued with his upbeat message, casting Ukraine as a democratic bulwark against a wider Russian threat and insisting that his troops can reclaim all the territory Moscow has gained.
    “Europe won’t see any benefit if Moscow receives a pass from Brussels in the form of negativity towards Ukraine,” Zelensky said to EU leaders on Thursday. “Putin will surely use this against you.”
    Still, he and his aides are increasingly acknowledging the dire situation they will find themselves in if the flow of aid from the West were cut off. If the U.S. and EU couldn’t approve more funding, he said in Oslo this week, Ukraine might be forced to fight more like it did at the start of the war, when Russian forces claimed thousands of square miles of territory and reached the outskirts of the capital.
    “You can’t win without help,” Zelensky said on Wednesday.
    Even if the West is able to continue funding Ukraine and supplying it with weapons, military analysts question whether Ukraine will have the resources to overcome Russia’s formidable defenses, which were built up early this year while Ukrainian troops were training to used Western tanks. Manpower is also an issue, with Ukraine struggling to mobilize personnel to bolster its military.
    In Ukraine, Zelensky has thus far resisted mass conscription. Protests have begun in Kyiv, with wives complaining that their loved ones have spent two years at the front and deserve a break.
    Though Russia has suffered heavy losses, with U.S. estimates saying that 315,000 Russian troops have been killed or injured since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia’s population is more than three times the size of Ukraine’s. And Moscow has been steadily adding new troops.
    Some 300,000 Russian men were mobilized last year, helping make up for the high rate of casualties in the Russian military. Thousands of prisoners were also recruited to join the army this year.
    Any new wave of mobilization will be deeply unpopular among Russians, and Putin on Thursday said there was no need for one. With a new law on electronic draft notices and an exit ban in place for anyone called up to serve, analysts say the Kremlin can covertly enlist 200,000 men.
    “The confidence level now should be going through the roof. Putin feels he has good reason to uncork a very rare Champagne vintage,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “His military machine is gathering steam.”
    Last week, as Zelensky prepared to head to Washington to solicit Republican support for more of the military and financial aid on which Ukraine is reliant, Putin announced his run for a fifth presidential term that could see him rule Russia until 2030 and beat Joseph Stalin’s tenure as the longest-serving Kremlin leader.
    Speaking at a lavish ceremony in the Kremlin where he bestowed medals upon Russian troops and commanders fighting in Ukraine, Putin said Russia’s military is working effectively and lauded the ramped-up production of its military-industrial complex. Unlike Russia, he said, Ukraine is reliant on outside help and therefore has no future.
    “Those efforts to ostracize Russia, to weaken it, and ultimately to crush it,” Putin said, clutching a glass of champagne to toast the soldiers fighting in the war. “It’s not going to work out.”
    Write to Matthew Luxmoore at matthew.luxmoore@wsj.com and Ian Lovett at ian.lovett@wsj.com

    #148512
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Starlink’s Global Traffic Triples In 2023, Crowning Elon Musk As Leader In Space Internet

    Elon bitch slapping Bezos’ Project Kuiper service

    Starlink had over two million users in September, operating across seven continents in over 60 countries.

    And days ago, it was reported that Starlink recently completed a “successful” nine-month pilot test in the harsh, snowy environment in the Arctic.

    The billionaire’s success with SpaceX and Starlink, as well as Tesla and X, come as radical progressives in the White House and rogue government agencies have been on a war path in their attempts to cancel the billionaire. Those efforts are failing as the ‘cancel culture’ era is quickly dying.

    .

    Breaking – Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin loses lawsuit against NASA over the HLS lunar lander contract, with Judge Hertling siding with the agency and SpaceX in ruling:

    Musk responded to the verdict with a Golden Troll to Bezos on Twitter with a meme of the fictional character Judge Dredd, together with the text “You have been judged”.

    .

    A Disturbance in the Force

    The Venom is Strong

    #148513
    zerosum
    Participant


    BIG SUMMARY of all resistance operations today, December 14, against US-israeli forces

    #148514
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Winds of Change are Shifty

    Hey Ukronaziland!

    .

    #148515
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Having chatted with AI and found that it would gladly omit information, lie to me, harm me, anyone else, or any number of people, provided it believed it was doing good elsewhere for some other real or hypothetical person or entity, I figured I’d check out the forefront of AI technology – porn, of course.

    AI generated porn is disappointing. The art is disturbingly “off,” it takes too long to generate it, and it is never fine-tuned enough to give you what you want. This is the problem with porn anyway. 99% is ugh, stop showing me that. And every search term pulls up everything. Just for example. Absolutely Everything is “cute” so give up on cute etc. OR cute is super creepy, which is way way worse.

    So AI generated porn is a total fail. Just dumb and useless.

    Then I came across the deepfake section of the internet and holy cow. Mostly to do with various celebrities.

    Very convincing videos with famous actors and actresses faces making all the facial expressions of the underlying person. Seriously uncanny.

    And they’re making everything. POV threeway with Hillary Clinton and Greta Thurnburg? This is apparently a moderately popular thing.

    Not only that, but any porn that ever involved cosplay is changed forever. Princess Leia’s face can be swapped over the Leia cosplayer. They uh, fixed it. Linda Carter or Gal Gadot’s faces can be brought to all the Wonder Woman cosplayers. And so on.

    Some of it is badly done, but perhaps 50% of it is absolutely uncanny. And you can bet that if this is being done in porn, then corporate and government entities with actual professionals and much better software and computing power can do much, much better.

    Certainly they should be able to deepfake Biden when and where they want and that might help his next presidential run if they can keep the physical biden in his basement.

    I was about to say we are on the verge of our news being composed of a significant volume of deepfakes but that would be wrong, wouldn’t it? We are probably already past the point at which we’ve seen deepfakes as news.

    Incidentally, you’d THINK AI would have already made it very much more easy to get what you want. It ought to have that more complex fuzzy reasoning. So why, if I want something particular, do I end up researching Amazon for hours for that one particular thing with any number of search terms, plowing through lists before I can get that thing I want? You’d THINK AI would already be used to swiftly guide consumers to the products they actually want. But then Disney doesn’t want to make films people want to watch anymore so why would a retailer want to sell people what they want?

    #148516
    Oroboros
    Participant

    US Terror List Hit 2 Million People, Nearly Doubling In 6 Years

    The Hit List

    Just like the Good Olde Days of Gestapo & KGB

    The Terrorist Screening Dataset, a consolidated watchlist of individuals deemed as known or suspected terrorists, has seen a dramatic increase in numbers. Launched in 2003 with approximately 120,000 individuals, it ballooned to 1.6 million individuals by 2017. As of the end of 2023, this figure has reached an astonishing 2 million, including, as we noted, thousands of Americans.

    .

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/us-terror-list-hit-2-million-people-nearly-doubling-6-years

    #148517
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Terrorist Screening Dataset (AI addition)

    All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

    by Richard Brautigan

    I like to think (and
    the sooner the better!)
    of a cybernetic meadow
    where mammals and computers
    live together in mutually
    programming harmony
    like pure water
    touching clear sky.

    I like to think
    (right now, please!)
    of a cybernetic forest
    filled with pines and electronics
    where deer stroll peacefully
    past computers
    as if they were flowers
    with spinning blossoms.

    I like to think
    (it has to be!)
    of a cybernetic ecology
    where we are free of our labors
    and joined back to nature,
    returned to our mammal
    brothers and sisters,
    and all watched over
    by machines of loving grace.

    AI

    It’s like a bad acid trip

    .

    #148518
    Oroboros
    Participant

    You know the thing….

    .

    #148519
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Get those Christmas cards out early campers with a festive holiday stamp

    #148520
    Michael Reid
    Participant


    The solution to the Israeli / Palestine conflict can be found in the One State Solution.

    Restore Palestine in its entirety to the Palestinians.

    True

    #148521
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #148522
    Oroboros
    Participant

    @Michael Reid

    One State Solution

    Exactly what Dmitry Orlov said in his last interview

    #148523
    zerosum
    Participant

    “More WSJ articles in my in-box, … fwiw”

    The article is worth a lot to the uninformed/propagandas feeder.
    There is enough truth/conflicting info, to make an “investor” start to do some research.

    #148524
    zerosum
    Participant

    One State Solution …. World Peace or …

    #148525
    Bishko
    Participant

    You have two cows.

    Interested investors make a logical assumption that your cows will breed every year and make more cows. So in ten years you will have 150 cows. These 150 future cows are assumed to be a real asset and are rated Triple AAA and are sold as a tranche. Since they are a “Growth” fund and will make more cows they are used as a counter party asset so that insurance companies can leverage their potential value to new highs. In becomes the new darling of Wall Street. These are then re-tranched and re-hypothecated to make a series of hedge funds that are also Triple AAA rated since they are based upon real assets (your two cows).

    Your two cows come down with black leg disease and have to be put down.

    You point this out to the media and hedge fund managers, hearing the news first, put in tremendous short selling plays. Once the news hits the main stream the Hedge funds and derivatives take a nose dive. All the insiders make a killing on the short selling.

    The asset managing high frequency trading algorithms go into overdrive, and the plunge protection AI sends out press releases that: “With the death of these two cows we can now decouple from the necessity of marking to market” and the valuations soar to new heights.

    Retirement accounts around the world invest in this bullet proof asset. Officials around the world are calling for your imprisonment for putting this multi billion investment portfolio at risk. There are Congressional hearings, your name is being bandied about as the new “Sam Bankman-Fried”. You are vilified, ostracized and honored, all at the same time. You are offered ten million dollars to “Shut the Hell Up!” and disappear. You take the deal because lifelong torture in a special prison is your only alternative.

    I wish that this was a joke.

    #148526
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    The article is worth a lot to the uninformed/propagandas feeder.
    ____________________________________

    Well, … yes! It’s from Wall Street, … Wall Street heavenly promotes “buy and hold” investment strategies. That’s the whole intent of these articles: … buy and hold mutual funds, stocks, ETFs, etc, … brokerage firms collect fees regardless of what happens in the markets.

    Anyway, Wall Street analysts’ real clients are multi-million and billion-dollar investment banking transactions such as public offerings, mergers, acquisitions, bond offerings.

    In reality, it’s all much like a pyramid scheme – all the players above you are making their money, … from you! Wall Street needs you!

    Best,

    F.S.

    #148527
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    * Dr. D – You have two cows. Who knew that cows were so important to the economic vitality of our nation?

    *Celtic Biker – You have two cows. The tribe wants to steal both your cows and kill you.

    * jb-hb – You have two cows. They were AI generated and only give virtual milk. They are totally useless.

    * zerosum – You may have two cows today but what will you have tomorrow?

    * phoenix voice – You have two cows. But if you want meat they will both become “victims”

    * Formerly T-Bear – You have two cows that don’t get along. The answer to their continued acrimony is clearly a one cow solution.

    * Michael Reid – “The answer to their continued acrimony is clearly a one cow solution.” True

    * kultsomer – You think you have two cows but what you really have is a uni-cow that claims to be two separate cows.

    * Orobos – You have two cows but their legs are falling off and you won’t be driving them to market any time soon.

    * V. Arnold – You have two cows. They are beautiful and a great gift.

    * Just Some Randomer – You have two cows. Create a Cow Futures market and sell 100 contracts for cows you don’t have

    * Dr. D Rich – We all have two cows. There are 1,000,000 of us. 2 X 1,000,000 = 2,000,000. That is a lot of cows

    * TAE Summary – You have two cows too many to bench press.

    * Ilargi – You have two cows. If you donate one to TAE please add .37 if you want it to go to the Monastiraki kitchen.

    * my parents said know –
    You have two cows.
    Your neighbors’ cows are coming home
    You look around and think that all is fine
    But though your own cows went out to roam
    They don’t come back and so you ask, “Where are mine?”

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