Dec 282023
 
 December 28, 2023  Posted by at 9:11 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Claude Monet Boulevard des Capucines 1873

 

Jack Smith Files Motion to Stop Trump from Raising New J6 Evidence (PB)
Trump Can Remain On Michigan Primary Ballot, State Supreme Court Rules (Pol.)
US Police Bolster Patrols for Colorado Judges Amid Violent Threats (Sp.)
Ramaswamy’s Campaign Stops Spending Money On TV Ads (JTN)
The US Is Preparing For War With China (CP)
Scott Ritter: US Sustainability in Jeopardy as World Turns Against Hegemon (Sp.)
Righting A Wrong: Burying Decades of US-Led Wars (Sweidan)
Zelensky’s News Conference Exposed West’s Fatigue – Zakharova (TASS)
Kiev Cooking Up False Flag Involving Toxic Substances – Zakharova (TASS)
US-Israel Genocide In Gaza Is Bad For French Shipping And Ports (Helmer)
Erdogan Says Netanyahu Literally ‘Hitler’ (RT)
Some Western Countries Say Netanyahu’s ‘End’ Is Near – Erdogan Adviser (Sp.)
Milei Mulls Plan To Force Through Radical Reforms (RT)
The DOJ Took More than Two Years to Answer a FOIA (Martens)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1739689464497418266

 

 

Petchesky

 

 

Torah

 

 

 

 

Ritter

 

 


The global population growth rate peaked 60 years ago and has been largely in sharp decline ever since.

 

 

Ritter

 

 

 

 

” Jack Smith does not want Trump to point out to the jury that a political and selective prosecution is political and selective.”

Jack Smith Files Motion to Stop Trump from Raising New J6 Evidence (PB)

Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a motion Wednesday morning seeking to prevent former President Donald Trump from claiming in his federal case that he was targeted for political prosecution by President Joe Biden as a form of “election interference.” Donald Trump, unironically, stands accused of “election interference” in connection to his legal and constitutionally protected election challenges over the 2020 election. Smith said in his motion that Trump should be barred from “introducing evidence, making arguments, or framing questions to advance a theory of selective or vindictive prosecution.” Judge Chutkan, an anti-Trump jurist who has consistently sided with the state’s prosecution efforts, is expected to fulfill all of Smith’s demands, no matter how contrary to due process or deleterious to the cause of justice.

The excessively constrictive measures would further rein in the speech of the 2024 presidential candidate in the midst of a campaign that has thus far established him as the clear favorite. The absurdity of Smith’s court demands were further illuminated by legal analyst Julie Kelly. “Jack Smith, in likely vain attempt to keep March 4 trial date, filed another pretrial related to what the jury should be allowed to consider. (All pretrial deadlines now on hold),” Kelly wrote on X. “Smith wants to preclude the jury from hearing evidence about Jan 6 in his Jan 6 case; Smith wants to prevent jury from learning about presence of undercover agents; After warnings by govt officials in 2016 and 2020 that malign foreign influences were attempting to interfere in national elections, Smith wants any evidence related to 2020 warnings kept from the jury; Jack Smith does not want Trump to point out to the jury that a political and selective prosecution is political and selective.” Political commentator Alexander Muse reacted to the news.

According to court documents, at least twenty FBI and ATF agents were embedded around the capitol building on January 6. There are multiple videos, among the limited number that have been made public, of undercover police officers on January 6 — some of them even urging the protesters to ‘go to the Capitol.’ A Congressman recently stated there were “at least 200” undercover federal agents in the crowd on January 6; including official FBI agents and human assets. FBI Director Christopher Wray has refused to give the number of federal agents that were in the crowd on January 6 after repeatedly being questioned on the matter. The Biden administration’s Department of Justice will not only turn America’s election process upside-down in the name of ‘stopping Trump,’ but it will corrupt its justice system to the core in order to do so. Even if that means stripping the accused of due process rights. Needless to say, this has nothing to do with “democracy,” and has everything to do with a corrupt ends-justify-the-means mentality that has state actors like Jack Smith stopping at nothing in order to get the desired result: In this case, re-election of a Democratic president.

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“..a list of candidates “generally advocated by the national news media to be potential presidential candidates.”

Trump Can Remain On Michigan Primary Ballot, State Supreme Court Rules (Pol.)

Michigan’s highest court said Wednesday that Donald Trump can appear on the state’s Republican primary ballot, but the court declined to weigh in for now on whether Trump is eligible to run in the general election and serve again as president. The court turned away an appeal from Michigan voters who argue that Trump should be barred from the ballot because of his efforts to subvert the 2020 election and stoke violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The voters cite a provision of the 14th Amendment that, in some circumstances, bars people from holding public office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” Last week, the Colorado Supreme Court became the first court in the country to declare Trump ineligible to run. The Colorado ruling is almost certain to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court soon.

Meanwhile, similar challenges have proceeded in dozens of other states. On Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court essentially punted on the question in the critical swing state, saying in a terse order that it would not take up the issue of Trump’s eligibility now. Earlier this month, a lower court ruled that Michigan’s secretary of state does not have the authority to remove Trump from the primary ballot. The voters challenging Trump’s eligibility — who were backed by the liberal advocacy group Free Speech for People, which has brought similar challenges across the country — tried to appeal that ruling to the Michigan Supreme Court. But the state Supreme Court, which consists of four Democrats and three Republicans, declined to hear the appeal, writing without elaboration that the court was “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court.”

The Michigan Supreme Court’s order does not prevent the voters from contesting Trump’s eligibility to appear on the general election ballot if he wins the Republican nomination. By then, the U.S. Supreme Court may have definitively resolved the issue. One member of the state supreme court dissented from the decision not to hear the appeal now. Justice Elizabeth Welch, a Democrat, said the court should have heard the appeal and formally affirmed the lower court’s conclusion that the Michigan secretary of state could not strip Trump from the primary ballot. Trump celebrated the Michigan Supreme Court’s order on Wednesday. In a post on his social media site, Trump said the case was a “Desperate Democrat attempt to take the leading Candidate” off the ballot.

Michigan has an unusual process to select candidates for the presidential primary ballot. The secretary of state creates a list of candidates “generally advocated by the national news media to be potential presidential candidates.” Political parties may also submit additional candidates, and others can petition to get added.

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“..Other messages called for the justices to be dragged from their homes, hanged and shot..”

US Police Bolster Patrols for Colorado Judges Amid Violent Threats (Sp.)

Colorado’s Denver Police Department announced on Tuesday it was investigating reports of threats of harassment against justices on the Colorado Supreme Court, adding that as a result security detail had been bolstered for the judges. “The Denver Police Department is currently investigating incidents directed at Colorado Supreme Court justices and will continue working with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to thoroughly investigate any reports of threats or harassment,” Denver police said in a statement Tuesday. “Due to the open investigations and safety and privacy considerations, we will not be providing details of these investigations. The Department is providing extra patrols around justice’s residences in Denver and will provide additional safety support if/as requested.”

On Friday, the FBI also said it was investigating threats against the justices, and was working alongside local law enforcement in order to address potential threats of violence. “The FBI is aware of the situation and working with local law enforcement,” said Vikki Migoya, a spokesperson for the FBI Denver Field Office. “We will vigorously pursue investigations of any threat or use of violence committed by someone who uses extremist views to justify their actions regardless of motivation.” The threats of violence follow a 4-3 ruling made last week by the Colorado Supreme Court in which they made the unprecedented ruling to disqualify Trump from the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

“We conclude that because President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Secretary to list President Trump as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot,” the court’s majority wrote in an unsigned opinion. Following their decision, a flood of violent rhetoric descended upon the justices across social media platforms, with many of the messages coming from Trump supporters. The messages included posts which pledged to either maim or even kill the justices. Other messages called for the justices to be dragged from their homes, hanged and shot, said the SITE Intelligence Group. Trump’s campaign has vowed to appeal the ruling to the US Supreme Court, which is dominantly conservative. The Trump camp has blasted the effort as yet another politically-motivated effort to block his chances at serving a second presidential term.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1740029519334093199

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Seems weird that they’re only finding this out now. We’ve all seen how many people watch Tucker Carlson on X vs on Fox.

Ramaswamy’s Campaign Stops Spending Money On TV Ads (JTN)

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign is no longer spending money on TV ads and doesn’t have any currently booked, according to an ad tracking firm and the campaign. For the first week of December, Ramaswamy’s campaign spent about $200,000 on TV ads and later on in the month, it dropped to only $6,000 on TV ads, according to NBC News. The campaign stated that money will still be spent on advertising, just not on television. “We are focused on bringing out the voters we’ve identified — best way to reach them is using addressable advertising, mail, text, live calls and doors to communicate with our voters on Vivek’s vision for America, making their plan to caucus and turning them out,” the campaign’s press secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the outlet in an interview.

This change comes less than a month before the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary and the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses. “As you know, this isn’t what most campaigns look like. We have intentionally structured this way so that we have the ability to be nimble and hyper targeted in our ad spending,” McLaughlin also said. Other GOP primary presidential candidates, including former President Donald Trump, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, are still running advertisements on television.

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“It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other.”

The US Is Preparing For War With China (CP)

The Chinese view, based on what they call “Xi Jinping Thought,” is that the US-China association is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. As Chinese President Xi Jinping has explained: “How China and the US get along will determine the future of humanity.” This view is predicated on the acceptance of a high degree of integration between the two countries’ economies. They see this “entwining” as something to be promoted because both countries stand to benefit from each other’s development. Overarching the bilateral relationship from the Chinese perspective is a stance of friendly cooperative relations. A “common prosperity,” they believe, can be built on three principles. First is mutual respect. A critical aspect of that pillar of mutual relations is not crossing the red lines of either of the two global powers. Second is peaceful coexistence. This entails a commitment to manage disagreements through communications and dialogue. And third is win-win cooperation.

For example, increased trade with China boosted the annual purchasing power for US households. That the US and China occupy such dominant positions in the world entails concomitant responsibilities. According to the Chinese, major countries have major responsibilities to humanity. They point out that global problems, such as climate change, cannot be solved without US-China cooperation. Indeed, the US and China together contribute to 40% of the planet’s current greenhouse gas emissions. Beijing contrasts their posture with what they explicitly criticize as the Biden administration’s “zero-sum mentality.” In a zero-sum game, one player’s gain is equivalent to the other’s loss. This differs from the Chinese vision of “win-win” relations based on cooperation for mutual benefit. The Chinese take exception to the US definition of bilateral relations as one of antagonistic “strategic” competition.

The opposing paradigms were displayed at the APEC summit in San Francisco on November 15, where the two world leaders met face-to-face for the first time in two years. We do not know what was discussed in the closed-door meeting. But in a press conference afterward, US President Joe Biden said of the person he had just spent four hours: “Well, look, he’s a dictator in the sense that he is a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that’s based on a form of government totally different than ours.” Even neo-con US Secretary of State Antony Blinken winced at the press conference. His grimace was captured in a video that went viral.

Later that day, Chinese President Xi calmly instructed, as if responding to Biden’s indiscretion, “It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other.” Peaceful coexistence for the Chinese necessitates a tolerance and acceptance of different social systems and modes of being. Xi further commented, “the planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed.” Fortune acknowledged that Xi offered a vision different from what it characterized as Biden’s “winner-take-all” mentality. The business magazine noted that Biden has continued Trump’s tariffs on some Chinese products while tightening export controls and investments in high-tech areas such as advanced chips.

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“The drone technology of today has changed the modern battlefield in every way that the machine gun changed warfare during World War I or the tank changed warfare during World War II.”

Scott Ritter: US Sustainability in Jeopardy as World Turns Against Hegemon (Sp.)

As 2023 comes to a close, the Israel-Palestinian crisis and the Ukrainian conflict are dominating world news, prompting questions as to what next year holds in store for the international community. Sputnik’s Dimitri Simes, Jr. sat down with former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter to sum up the results of the year and discuss how things may pan out in 2024. The Ukrainian military will continue to sustain a strategic defeat in 2024 as it is exhausted in terms of manpower, ammo and arms, according to Sputnik’s interlocutor. It’s up to Moscow and the Russian Armed Forces’ operational tempo whether the conflict will drag on until 2025, as per Ritter. Russia’s special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine has never meant to be a blitzkrieg, the expert stressed, adding that the conflict will end when political and military objectives set by the Russian leadership are accomplished.

Presently, Russia is continuing to “grind” the Ukrainian military and steadily liberate its new territories, thus accomplishing the demilitarization task. When it comes to Moscow’s political goals, it’s important to stamp out the forces behind the 2014 coup d’etat that brought ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazis, including the Azov Battalion, the Svoboda Party and other ideological heirs of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, to power. In the course of the special military operation, Russia has mastered modern warfare, per Sputnik’s interlocutor. “The Ukrainian-Russian conflict has opened up a new chapter in modern warfare,” Ritter stressed. “The drone technology of today has changed the modern battlefield in every way that the machine gun changed warfare during World War I or the tank changed warfare during World War II.

The drones have changed the face of modern warfare, and I think that armies all around the world are going to be studying or should be studying what’s taking place on the battlefield between Ukraine and Russia today.” Ritter rubbished the claims made by US President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that having won the Ukrainian conflict, Russia would proceed to take on NATO member states. Per Ritter, Washington’s rhetoric is “fear-mongering” aimed at justifying further military spending. After accomplishing its goals in Ukraine, Russia will focus on strengthening its military and stepping up the protection of its borders in the West, Arctic and the East, where they are threatened by the US and their NATO allies, according to the military expert.

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“..hegemonic stability theory” vs “balance of power theory..”

Righting A Wrong: Burying Decades of US-Led Wars (Sweidan)

As previously mentioned by The Cradle, “Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip is best understood to be a US-backed one,” one that is being fought to safeguard US influence and interests in West Asia. However, the maneuvering room for Washington’s allies is shrinking dramatically. Unlike the diverse strategic options West Asian countries explored during the Ukraine war, Gaza offers no such latitude. It is fundamentally Washington’s war, demanding collective mobilization to defend the US position. It is also telling that the US-led multination task force, Operation Guardian of Prosperity in the Red Sea, is already facing major set-backs since its recent inception, with some members pulling out and others choosing to remain unnamed.

White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby had to awkwardly caveat the secrecy like this: “There are some countries that have agreed to participate and be part of the operation in the Red Sea, but they have to decide how much they want that to be public. And I’m going to leave it to them so that they can describe it somehow, because not everyone wants to be public.” For example, the role of NATO member Turkiye has transformed into that of an energy transmission station for Israel, while the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan serve as a transit bridge for goods bound for the occupation state that Yemen prevents from passing through the Red Sea. Notably, shipments from Turkiye to Israel surged to 355 after 7 October, with many linked to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and individuals close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, including his son Buraq.

Even Egypt, restricted to allowing aid trucks through the Rafah crossing, could not facilitate aid to Palestinians without US approval. In international relations, there are two main theories that address the relationship between power and the spread of peace. The first is the hegemonic stability theory which posits that the international order is likely to remain stable when one country is the dominant global power. The proponents of this theory believe that the existence of a single hegemon deters all powers in the world and prevents them from spreading tension. However, given the reality that the United States has dominated a conflict-ridden global order for four decades, it can be argued that the presence of the hegemon did not lead to global stability. Rather, the dominant was the major source and catalyst for spreading tension around the world. It is sufficient to look at the distribution of US bases in the world and the proliferation of military agreements signed by Washington to understand how the US consistently provokes rivals and challengers, and creates strife.

The second is the balance of power theory, in which states seek to protect themselves by preventing any country from acquiring enough military power to control all other nations. If one power dominates – such as the United States – the theory predicts that weaker countries will unite in a defense alliance. According to this theory, a balance of power between competing states or alliances raises the cost of tension for everyone and ensures stability in the world. Thus, achieving peace today requires a rise in the level of power among Washington’s rivals, power which will provide the deterrence required to limit the spread of tensions around the world. Increasing the capabilities of Washington’s rivals is now a key requirement for all peaceful peoples and nations. And according to the balance of power theory, uniting against Israel is the most successful way to stabilize West Asia and its environs today.

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“The begging of their Ukrainian underlings is causing ever more irritation in Washington, London and Brussels.”

Zelensky’s News Conference Exposed West’s Fatigue – Zakharova (TASS)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s recent year-end news conference signaled that Kiev lacks confidence about its future and the West has grown tired of Ukraine’s political setbacks, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. “Everyone has seen the Kiev regime’s lack of confidence about its own future amid growing Western fatigue with their failures,” she said at a news conference. “The begging of their Ukrainian underlings is causing ever more irritation in Washington, London and Brussels.” “There is a growing reluctance among ordinary people in Western society to nurture the corrupt regime from their own pockets,” the diplomat went on to say. “The sooner the collective West realizes that the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, which it provoked, is possible only through achieving the goals of the special military operation, the sooner peace will come.”

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“Zelensky and his entire gang do not care about the consequences that their own people will face..”

Kiev Cooking Up False Flag Involving Toxic Substances – Zakharova (TASS)

Kiev is plotting to carry out a false flag operation involving the use of Western-made toxic substances in order to accuse Russia of alleged use of chemical weapons, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing. “There is nothing [in terms of concrete information] about Bucha: no names, no dates of birth, no passport data, they simply don’t exist. There was nothing, because the entire thing was a false flag operation,” she emphasized. “The Kiev regime is plotting something similar this time. They may organize another anti-Russian provocation with the use of Western-made toxic substances in order to launch a new campaign within UN structures and the world media to accuse our country of the alleged deliberate use of chemical weapons,” the diplomat said.

Zakharova pointed out that, according to available information, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is actively involved in the preparation of such a false flag event, and has enlisted the cooperation of the Kiev-based Ukrainian company Realab. “It specializes in the import of chemical reagents and precursors. In October-November 2023, Ukraine purchased in Germany a so-called small batch of triethanolamine and nitrogen-containing sodium compound produced by the US company Honeywell. The company is American, [but is] located in the city of Seltz (Germany),” she added.

At the same time, the spokeswoman noted that triethanolamine is included in the Chemical Annex of the Chemical Weapons Convention and is subject to annual declaration. “This compound is a precursor for the synthesis of a toxic substance with a dermal explosive effect, such as nitrogen mustard gas. Nitrogenous sodium compounds are highly toxic and their striking effect is similar to that of cyanide,” Zakharova stressed. “According to Russian experts, these chemicals may be used by the SBU to produce a chemical agent to carry out a limited act of provocation on the territory controlled by the Kiev regime within the range of our troops,” she said.

According to the diplomat, amid growing world fatigue with the Kiev regime and reductions in financial and military aid from the West, Kiev is sufficiently desperate to take any steps that might put the Ukrainian conflict back in the headlines and at the top of the international agenda. “The regime of [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky continues to eagerly carry out the instructions of its overseas masters to wage war to the last Ukrainian. They do not care at all about the consequences of this false flag operation, just as they did not care at all about the consequences of using the depleted uranium shells that were delivered to the Kiev regime by the UK. Zelensky and his entire gang do not care about the consequences that their own people will face if this very false flag operation [involving highly toxic chemicals] is actually carried out,” Zakharova concluded.

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“Macron shot the messenger..”

US-Israel Genocide In Gaza Is Bad For French Shipping And Ports (Helmer)

The message delivered last week to French President Emanuel Macron was a dramatic one: Never mind Israel throttling the Palestinians, Macron was told, the Houthis and their Arab and Iranian allies are capable of throttling France. Macron shot the messenger. Bernard Émié was fired last Wednesday, December 20, and Nicolas Lerner put in his place. The announcement — the first time there’s been such a switch between the traditionally competing foreign and domestic intelligence chiefs — was made in a tweet by the French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Émié has been the head of France’s foreign intelligence agency, the DGSE (Directorate-General for External Security), since 2017. His replacement is Nicolas Lerner, head of France’s internal security agency, the DGSI (Directorate-General for Internal Security), since 2018. By coincidence on the very same day of Émié’s sacking, Lecornu took a telephone call from Washington.

US Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin told Lecornu “the Red Sea is vital for global commerce, noting that the scale and increasing frequency of these attacks constitute a significant international problem that must be addressed. The United States and France are both making significant contributions to stability in the region and seek further collaboration on bilateral and multilateral solutions. Secretary Austin thanked France for its support to the 44-nation joint statement condemning the Houthis’ illegal attacks on international shipping.” This is the Pentagon “readout”. The meaning is the opposite. France is pulling its naval forces in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden out of Austin’s military operation and of targeting by the US and Israel of Houthi units on the Yemen shore, as well as of the Iranian intelligence vessels, MV Behshad at anchor in the Red Sea, and the MV Saviz in the eastern Indian Ocean (Arabian Sea).

In fact, the elimination of Émié, according to French intelligence sources, signals that US backing for Israel’s genocidal operation against the Gaza Palestinians, and the expansion of the war by the Houthis of Yemen and Hezbollah of Lebanon, are driving French national interest calculations in the opposite direction from the Americans and Israelis. Émié is a former French ambassador to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Algeria, and the French Foreign Ministry’s chief policymaker for the Arab world for several years before he was appointed to run the DGSE in 2017. Lerner, by contrast, has no direct Arab experience. A university classmate of President Macron’s, his career has been limited to police operations in the south of France, Corsica, and Paris, and then in the private office of the Interior Minister as Macron chopped the ministry’s head three times in eighteen months.

The French press are struggling to explain what has happened to the heads of their intelligence services. According to the state press agency AFP and Le Monde, “Emié launched reforms within the DGSE and saw the agency’s budget increase. He is said to have improved relations with the domestic security agency. But many have criticised the DGSE under him for failing to foresee the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and a string of military coups in former French colonies Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.” A rightwing, bank-owned regional newspaper, L’Est Républicain, claims: “Bernard Emié and his successor Nicolas Lerner contributed to improving the often tense relations between the DGSE and the DGSI, the replacement of the former by the latter confirming links described in the intelligence community as very regular and professional.”

Defense Minister Lecornu has been struggling with Macron’s pro-US, pro-Israel, anti-Russian line as the war in Gaza has been escalating. Towards Israel, Lecornu said the week after the Hamas operation began in October, “the bulk of the support we’re providing today is intelligence. The intelligence provided is provided as part of the regular partnership between our two countries. Unfortunately, we have a long history in the fight against terrorism, and our intelligence services have particularly powerful resources and sensors…Iran poses undeniable security challenges, both in its support for Russia in the war in Ukraine and on the issue of nuclear proliferation. Today, the priority is to avoid escalation. Israel has the right to defend itself and its people from these atrocities. However, this response must be proportionate and consistent with the laws of war. We emphasize that no other actor hostile to Israel should seek to take advantage of the situation…There is a very difficult situation in the Gaza Strip. France has nothing to be ashamed of, it has always been one of the most reliable countries in terms of aid and support.”

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“The Israeli military is the “most moral army in the world,” and it is currently battling “the most disgusting and cruel terrorist group in the world..”

Erdogan Says Netanyahu Literally ‘Hitler’ (RT)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is no different from Adolf Hitler, Türkiye’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said, condemning Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Erdogan fired the new diplomatic broadside at Netanyahu on Wednesday when he delivered an opening speech at an award ceremony in Ankara. West Jerusalem now has “Nazi camps” of its own to hold Palestinians in, the president stated, implying the campaign in Gaza was as bad – or even worse – than the Holocaust committed by Nazi Germany. “We’ve seen the Nazi camps of Israel. How does this happen? They used to speak ill about Hitler, but how are you any different than Hitler?” Erdogan stated. They are going to make us miss Hitler. Is what this Netanyahu is doing any less than what Hitler did? It is not.

The only real difference between the late Nazi fuhrer and the Israeli PM is the broad support from the West for Netanyahu and his campaign against Hamas, the Turkish leader claimed. “He is richer than Hitler; he gets the support from the West. All sorts of support comes from the United States. And what did they do with all this support? They killed more than 20,000 Gazans,” he stressed. Türkiye’s president has long sought to portray himself as a protector of Palestinians, repeatedly criticizing Israeli policies. Erdogan drastically ramped up his rhetoric amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which broke out in the aftermath of the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on southern Israel on October 7.

The new remarks, arguably the most hostile ones produced by Erdogan to date, have prompted a response from Netanyahu. Israeli PM dismissed the criticism, pointing fingers at Erdogan’s questionable account and allegations of committing genocide in Türkiye and beyond. “Erdogan, who commits genocide against the Kurds, who holds a world record for imprisoning journalists who oppose his rule, is the last person who can preach morality to us,” Netanyahu stated, falling short of accusing Erdogan of being the true Hitler himself. The Israeli military is the “most moral army in the world,” and it is currently battling “the most disgusting and cruel terrorist group in the world,” Netanyahu added, referring to Hamas.

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“How can you explain bombs being dropped on children being treated for cancer?”

Some Western Countries Say Netanyahu’s ‘End’ Is Near – Erdogan Adviser (Sp.)

Several Western countries say “the end” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is near since “the world has already seen” the Jewish state’s “brutality” in actions in the Gaza Strip, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Chief Adviser Akif Cagatay Kilic said Wednesday. Earlier on Wednesday, Erdogan criticized Netanyahu and once again compared him with Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler. The Israeli prime minister, for his part, stated that Erdogan, who “is committing genocide against the Kurds and who holds the world record for imprisoning journalists who oppose his regime, is the last person who can preach morality to us.”

“Netanyahu made a statement today about our president. You are ruthlessly and indiscriminately dropping bombs on people. Some circles do not want to understand the scale of the catastrophe when we talk about genocide. Our president spoke loudly about this in Germany and Greece. While many European capitals remained silent, our president demonstrated his position. Netanyahu is trying to wash the blood off his hands. But the world has already seen it. A permanent ceasefire and peace will only come when peace comes to Gaza. Israel is brutal, its policies are brutality. How can you explain bombs being dropped on children being treated for cancer? Many Western countries say this is the end of the road for Netanyahu,” Kilic stressed in an interview with Turkish broadcaster TRT Haber.

Additionally, the head of the communications department in the Turkish presidential administration, Fahrettin Altun, emphasized that the Israeli prime minister is “the last person to talk about anything related to genocide.” “The Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is the last person to talk about anything related to genocide. He has mastered skills to sell the world, his war crimes against civilians as self-defense. Even though the world fails to stop him, the history will judge him as the war criminal he is… Netanyahu is the last person to talk about our struggle against terrorism,” Altun said on X. Altun also highlighted that Netanyahu is “the last person to talk about morality,” adding that he “cannot lecture anyone about how to conduct counter-terrorism operations because he has no experience in this arena!” The Turkish communications chief further said that the Israeli prime minister “has been on a mission to drive Palestinians out of their lands for the last four decades” and that he has now taken it “to a new level by using the Israeli army to kill civilians in their homes, hospitals and refugee camps.”

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Wonder where this will go.

Milei Mulls Plan To Force Through Radical Reforms (RT)

Newly inaugurated Argentine President Javier Milei is “on the warpath” against the National Congress and could put pressure on the legislature by holding public votes on policy proposals, La Nacion reported on Wednesday. Referring to a major economic reform that his cabinet presented earlier this month, Milei told La Nacion: “If they [the Congress] reject it, I would call for a plebiscite and have them explain to me why they are against the people.” The proposed legislation would impose a two-year state of emergency, deregulate the economy, privatize state property, and alter the national healthcare system, among other changes.

Argentine law allows for both binding and non-binding referendums, termed “public consultations”, although only the National Congress can initiate a binding one. If a non-binding proposal by the executive branch is approved in a plebiscite, the parliament is obliged to consider it. “They cannot accept that they lost, that the population chose something else,” Milei said of the opposition in the National Congress. He claimed some lawmakers were “seeking bribes,” but did not provide details to back up the allegation. One example of a non-binding referendum in Argentina was in 1984, when a vote was called on the government’s plan to resolve a border dispute with Chile. Overwhelming public support subsequently put pressure on the opposition in the Congress.

Milei, a libertarian economist and former MP, was considered a dark horse in Argentina’s presidential election last month. He was voted in on a promise to generate economic growth through radical public spending cuts and liberalization. Argentina is suffering high levels of inflation, which Milei has vowed to address through “shock therapy.” The new president has claimed that opponents of his plans are experiencing “Stockholm syndrome,” and has vowed a harsh crackdown under his government. In the same interview with La Nacion, Milei confirmed that he wants to introduce 20,000 and 50,000 peso bills. The largest note is currently 2,000 pesos, although inflation has wiped much of the value off the national currency over the years. Keeping wads of cash is “torture” for Argentines and “puts a label saying ‘steal here’” on those carrying larger sums, Milei argued.

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Pam Martens and Russ Martens run Wall Street On Parade. This is one crazy story.

The DOJ Took More than Two Years to Answer a FOIA (Martens)

On July 20, 2021 the U.S. Senate voted 56-44 to confirm Kenneth Polite (pronounced Po-leet) to head the most powerful criminal law enforcement office in the United States, the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The vetting of this candidate immediately raised red flags at Wall Street On Parade. Despite Polite owing more than $1.5 million in debts according to his financial disclosure form and public mortgage records; paying over 18 percent interest on an outstanding balance on a credit card; 19.99 percent interest on a personal loan; and then accepting a job where his income was going to be slashed by approximately 77 percent – not one Senator on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked a single question about Polite’s unusual financial obligations during his confirmation hearing on May 26, 2021.

In addition, Polite was coming from the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bochius, which had plenty of red flags itself. Polite was a partner there earning approximately $877,500 in 2020. His job at the Justice Department was to pay less than $200,000 annually. Morgan, Lewis has, for decades, provided legal representation to the Wall Street mega banks. Polite’s financial disclosure form revealed that JPMorgan Chase was one of his clients over the prior 12 months. JPMorgan Chase is a recidivist lawbreaker on Wall Street with an unprecedented five felony counts brought by the Justice Department and admitted to by the bank. Having a recidivist felon that is the largest bank in the United States as a recent client and then moving into the job as a potential prosecutor of that bank is not good optics, so Polite signed an Ethics Agreement (EA) that read in part:

“he will be required to recuse from particular matters involving specific parties involving his former employer or former clients for a period of two years after he is appointed….” During the time that Polite was ostensibly recusing himself from matters involving JPMorgan Chase, the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands brought a civil case in federal court in Manhattan against JPMorgan Chase for “actively participating” in Jeffrey Epstein’s international sex-trafficking ring where Epstein and his wealthy pals were sexually assaulting underage girls. According to documents released in the lawsuit, the bank was alleged to have laundered more than $5 million in hard cash for Epstein over the span of a decade without filing the legally-required Suspicious Activity Reports with law enforcement. In addition, various employees of the bank were making visits to Epstein’s Manhattan mansion where sexual assaults of minors were alleged to have occurred.

The Criminal Division of the Justice Department has yet to bring a criminal case against JPMorgan Chase for either willfully participating in and/or covering up Epstein’s crimes for more than a decade. [..] The number of red flags swirling about Polite’s vetting to become the top criminal cop in the United States and supervise a department of some 1400 prosecutors and staff, prompted Wall Street On Parade to file a Freedom of Information Act request for documents with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on July 26, 2021. We requested “all electronic correspondence from November 6, 2020 through July 20, 2021 that relates to the nomination or confirmation or vetting of Kenneth A. Polite for the position of Assistant Attorney General at the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Li river

 

 

Condor
https://twitter.com/i/status/1739960815313137904

 

 

Elk

 

 

Tortoise

 

 

Sleeping whales
https://twitter.com/i/status/1739985649292415127

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle December 28 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 57 total)
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  • #149269

    Claude Monet Boulevard des Capucines 1873   • Jack Smith Files Motion to Stop Trump from Raising New J6 Evidence (PB) • Trump Can Remain On Michi
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle December 28 2023]

    #149273
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    Anticipating the changes the new year will bring, it is certain to include watching the rate increase in the dollar joining gold (as a barbaric relic). The United States Dollar will become the Oh So Barbaric Artefact.

    #149274
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    Israel has no military (reply to Scot Ritter), it has thugs, commanded by bullies, lead by a cabal of rabid psychopaths pretending they are Jewish. Exterminate Zionism and its adherents; NOW. Zionists created the Israeli State as their own power base and have never relinquished power to Israeli citizens and assassinated the first Prime Minister that deviated from Zionism in attempting to establish peace with the Palestinian people.
    Those are historically supported facts.

    #149277
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Won’t let me post more than one image at a time, sorry:

    Interest rates break out:
    LongBreak
    https://peakprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Collum35-768×500.png

    Spot check!
    FIBI
    https://peakprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Collum36-1.png

    #149278
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Category: “Not Capitalism”
    “What if Adam Smith was here and we explained…indexation and stuff and how capital is allocated? He would say to us, “And what do you call this?” And we’d say, “We call it capitalism.” He’d burst out laughing because it’s the inverse of capitalism to say we give more capital [only] to the companies with the largest market capitalization.” ~ Russell Napier

    Speaking of free choice and free markets, Cryptos have broken out after being rig pump-n-dumped in the longstanding tradition of breaking charts to cause a generally fake bear cycle. Okay, so if they break bull again, what now? Well, as a free market with true price discovery, we let them rise until, fair market value is discovered….HAAHAHAHAHAHA! No. OF COURSE we never let ANY market of any THING, ANY where, go to free price discovery. A single Truth anywhere would collapse our plans.

    Yet we need a new rig. What is it this time? Well, again, taking a page from the metals market, which also has delivery and can be held at home, they raise the margin requirements 10x a day until the market breaks. (not only happens sometimes, happens EVERY time) No? Okay, how about we shut off all the Coinbase servers “for maintenance”. (also happens every time) No? Coinbase won’t cooperate this early, too obvious? Okay, then their counterpart:

    Banks are now not allowing you to move money FROM your account TO any of the Crypto exchanges. Sure will be hard to have prices go up when there’s no new money inflows ain’t it? …And what’s better, it’s not actually a law, nor is it even actually a rule. It’s what we do these days, it’s-a-rule-that’s-not-a-rule, that is a-private-company-that’s-not-a-private-company and allows no competition. No? “Go start your own bank” as the Twitter trolls used to say. WHY does your bank decide to do this, all at once, one day in December? (They got “the Memo”) Well FRAUD of course! You, wee sad little moron, need our HELP! You’re actually not smart enough to know what you want to do with your own money, and we know you didn’t really want to do that. …Take money out of undercapitalized, collapsing American banks, that is. No. WE KNOW BEST. Now DO WHAT YOU’RE TOLD. Oh and because it’s neither a law nor a rule, “If you’re a pal” we’ll let you do whatever you like. Rules are for “The little people”.

    Hey, shut up and let me lose my own money fair and square, and learn my own hard lessons, alright? For the love of God stop helping before I lose my mind.

    So we got that goin’ for us.
    DaliLama
    https://mediaproxy.salon.com/width/1200/https://media.salon.com/2018/05/caddyshack.jpg

    So again, Capitalism means no markets, no prices, no contracts, no choices, and no competition, right? Gosh that’s what it means to me, that’s what I always read in the textbooks.

    “Financialization is profit growth without labor productivity growth.” ~ Ben Hunt

    #149279
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Moving on with Cullom,
    chart
    https://peakprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Collum50.png

    “Now do you see the problem? I also overtly placed the break at 1994 because of an observation made in my previous analysis that 1994 is the year all market valuations, while high, left orbit.9 If you find some new-fangled valuation metric that doesn’t go back to 1880, just find the valuation in 1994, assume it represents 50% above historic value, and compare it with today. As to why 1994 is some special moment is unclear. Maybe that year’s bond bailout never subsided. Mike Green says that 1994 coincides with the arrival of a tsunami of dumb money coming into the markets.” –Cullom

    He can’t figure this out, but it was actually obvious. This was essentially the start of unlimited market rigging and the end of all price discovery. How, well, “The Committee to Save the World” told you: Larry Summers published a paper that

    IF WE BROKE THE THERMOMETER, no one would know the frogs were boiling.

    That is, ALL WE NEED TO DO IS RIG THE GOLD PRICE. That’s it. Gold Price is the thermometer of inflation and the Bond market, especially with the 70s in recent memory, and the Bond Market runs the Stock markets worldwide. Rig gold, no one gets signals, and Pop! We’re at a “Permanent Plateau” of new Prosperity. Right?

    So a minute later, all the seals on Fort Knox were broken and put back on with duct tape (there are insider audits and books on this) all Canada’s gold was sold to us in their own “Brown’s Bottom” and the Commodities exchange slowly dropped delivery and slowly raised hypothecation to 300:1. …Or as it is today, INFINITY to 1. Clinton printed money on the fiscal side, Greenspan printed money on the financial side, and Old Willie got re-elected. As this money worked through Boom! In a year or two, more or less INSTANTLY, we had the largest stock bubble since Tulips were invented, .Com.

    Then in 1999, that popped as Cisco was ALREADY valued as if they were selling routers for the next FIVE planets in our solar system that needed an internet build out. Greenspan then bailed THAT out, then bailed out the bailout of ’08, and here we are today.

    It worked better than anyone had dreamed, and helped because Wall Street got a hold of the digital plumbing at this time too, and started the stock rigging and front-running we have today, helped by a “Lo! Then a Miracle Happened” as when the market closed in 2001, they swapped the Jersey servers to something that allowed the thousands-fold increase in volume to overwhelm any ACTUAL peasants sending ACTUAL price signals. Now EVERYONE in the whole auction was a plant, a shill, with no real street buyers anywhere. It’s hard to imagine walking into your Publix that EVERY person in there is an actor, and EVERY price is a sham, but on the Internet, that isn’t even difficult and was put in, fake Ptomkin planet, in just a few years.

    Since none of it was real, nothing protected, and under Clinton no SEC or CFTC or FBI anymore, they ALSO lost all the stock certificates, and just started “Making S—t Up” in the CEDE “failures to deliver” at this time. They ALSO started to just “We Make S—t Up!” in Treasury bonds. Sachs had 100 bonds, but who’s to say if we “Hypothecate” them on the side and appear like we have 1,000? These are the side-bets, the “Derivatives” of selling unbacked insurance on insurance that could never possibly be delivered. And that’s it: the very last tether to ANYTHING real. Any of God’s reality anywhere on earth by anyone. And ran for 30 more years. And here we have companies buying every stock share issued to go private and the stock still trades without effect the next day. No one notices or cares this just MIGHT be fraud.

    So THAT was your 1994, Mr. Cullom.

    #149281
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Great! Um, so we have no markets, no prices, no OBJECTS (that is, an actual count of stocks or bonds) no ACTUAL commodities like wheat, copper or pork to deliver, and 300 or 30,000 or 30, TRILLION claims on every object in the nation, in the world. …How do you Unwrap this and fix it? How do you plan to un-ring the bell?

    With a worldwide collapse and failure to deliver FOOD to 8 BILLION people, then a “Three World Wars” of all against all until the richie-riches unveil their new messiah, their savior of the Prince of Light?

    Well you tell me, because nobody knows. I’d say it’s when half the world gets off your fantasy, and because they PRODUCE the things, they can probably figure out prices, markets, and deliveries. They boycott you, ringfence the firebreak, and let you burn down in safety. Then YOU can join THEM, as they have real, functioning markets or some closer version thereof in Shanghai and Moscow and Dubai. The financial world becomes re-tethered to reality and we can start acting like humans again.

    We’ll finish that thought with this:
    Chart
    https://peakprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Collum51.png

    That’s nowhere near the best or highest or most exaggerated chart of how out of line valuations are. When you’re printing a trillion a year, a Billion an HOUR, all things beggar description, and whenever you unmoor economic SYMBOLISM from reality this happens. Fast. We’re clearly and obviously more unmoored from reality than perhaps ever in history and that’s really saying something. Just go outside and ask the first person you meet. Totally unmoored from reality, as if they dropped in like an AI-generated NPC, knowing nothing. Ask about their job, in medical, in retail, in Zoom, or anywhere else and instantly you’ll find nothing they DO, nor the PAY they get for it, make any sense or have any correlation at all.

    That’s all this, all starting with stealing the gold, (And now the crypto) and my perennial fault was to believe that people would be fooled but after a while say “This is nuts!” and bail out for safety. Nope. Crypto-Kidz never saw a fake satoshi they can’t deliver that they didn’t like. FTX didn’t put them off at all. Exchanges similarly setting prices with no underlying trades don’t bother them at all, just as it didn’t bother Sachs, Morgan, or every 401k pension manager for 40 years whose legal duty is to know and find out.

    #149282
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Chartie
    https://peakprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Collum53.jpg

    Hey this wouldn’t be “Printing digits” so I can “Enslave people” and “Steal work” is it?

    Ritter: “Media is standing by and applauding an open genocide of millions”

    Yes, that’s what that fake money above, counterfeiting, fabricating 100 more bonds out of each bond, 1,000 more stocks out of each stock, then use that money to buy or kill every reporter on earth if necessary. And of course every Congressman, who are way cheaper.

    “Jack Smith Files Motion to Stop Trump from Raising New J6 Evidence (PB)

    Um, I don’t think you can stop the accused from “Raising a defense” with just a legal “motion”, sir. Well, Mr. Plum was dead, in the Library, and after the police handing off, we found the Candlestick! In Colonel Mustard’s Room! Nope, can’t bring this evidence to light, although everybody knows it. Guess although we know you’re innocent, you’ll just have to go to jail anyway.

    Puh-lease. No, that is never going to happen. You’ll be so discredited, you’ll lose more than it’s worth. You notice every time you discredit yourself, your ship gets lower in the water and Trump gets more popular, right? Trump is literally running on the Jack Smith platform and sent him a Christmas card in thanks. (too hard to dig up the Tweet)

    “FBI Director Christopher Wray has refused to give the number of federal agents that were in the crowd on January 6 after repeatedly being questioned on the matter.”

    And then the Republican Congressmen rolled up the pants above the knees, got on the floor and…oh nevermind. How as Director do you just “I prefer not to” to Congress, your boss, who pays you? How about this: no money until you put the records on my desk. America is unsafe? Well that’s not MY fault, put the J6 records on my desk and we’ll restore all the money you want. It’s YOU, the FIBI that are stopping your OWN funding by refusing a very simple request.

    They won’t. That’s what Republicans are for!

    Soros Funds:

    Say, if only there were a name for working with foreign nationals to overthrow your own government. Or if someone had written it down somewhere like the Constitution. If only, then we would know what to do about it.

    ““The drone technology of today has changed the modern battlefield in every way that the machine gun changed warfare during World War I or the tank changed warfare during World War II.”

    I’ve been saying this for years, but like the machine gun, we’re now way past the horizon. It’s not a gatlin or two in a lab somewhere but everywhere, and each Russian has their own personal drone up front. Each Houthi can have one too. Can we jsut cut to the end WITHOUT drowning 5,000 Sailors? Can we? Thanks.

    ““Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip is best understood to be a US-backed one,”

    Yes but we’re going to collapse from it and go home. They have, we have, no support at home and none abroad. Even France won’t side with us on anything.

    “U.S. Military presence”? They look like sitting ducks to me. 2,000 men isn’t enough to hold anything, it’s just a target. Like all our military, it was built to intimidate goatherds and Zulus, and will collapse if challenged by anyone. We were holding that end with irrational escalation, but we now have no shells and the ships are each a liability, not an asset. Turn them into tin cans 10 years ago as I suggested and start something new, you needed the lead time, now wasted.

    Since we’ll be home, we won’t need the ships, and since we’ll be home, Israel will have no interest in bribing and hijacking us. America First. Too bad, so sad. I guess Klaus and Lionel will have to use their OWN army for a change.

    ““Zelensky and his entire gang do not care about the consequences that their own people will face..”

    What clued you in, the half a million dead or the shelling of 15,000 kids before then?

    “Argentina is suffering high levels of inflation, which Milei has vowed to address through “shock therapy.”

    Similarly:
    Pic
    https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1493-1/B4B/D03/B5/%7BB4BD03B5-4093-45EA-8914-A40FAA9E2EAA%7DImg400.jpg
    He’s using the exact same words. But he has a different plan. Right.

    This is by definition Neo-Liberalism and gosh I thought that Clinton NeoLiberalism was the dead #Opposite of Libertarianism, but call me wrong, I guess. Now it’s all the same and one happy family according to the press. THis is what happens when “Words have no meaning.” Both! Neither! Aiiiii!

    “The DOJ Took More than Two Years to Answer a FOIA (Martens)

    That IS one crazy story: I mean, they answered AT ALL???

    “JPMorgan Chase for either willfully participating in and/or covering up Epstein’s crimes for more than a decade.”

    Weren’t they Madoff’s only banker all that time too, or was that everybody else? That’s how you know when we have Capitalism, is when there is no rule of law. Theft is sanctioned, and there are no private property rights.

    “Zionists created the Israeli State as their own power base”

    For the Christmas season, what do you get for the guy who has everything? Well their own COUNTRY of course! And so it was with Balfour, they were tired of living high out of trouble in the shadows, and wanted all the problems and spotlights owning your own nation and people can bring. Your wish is my command, Baron Lionel Walter. Here you go. Now outed and can’t hide, with all the headaches and no money, well it was a good run, you’ve brought your family and the whole scam into the light for us all, and for that we thank you very much indeed.

    #149286
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Piecing together world politics has always been open to different techniques and strategies

    “Imagine all of our lives are like our own individual jigsaw puzzles.

    As we’re going through life, we’re just slowly piecing it together, bit by bit, based on experiences and lessons that we’ve learned, until we get the best picture…”

    – D Sloss

    .

    #149287
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Marching to the beat of a different drummer

    #149289
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #149290
    Oroboros
    Participant

    More ‘extreme’ weather patterns

    My head is spinning

    .

    #149291
    Oroboros
    Participant

    And when the ‘narrative’ isn’t going your way…….

    Just lie with charts

    .

    #149292
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Lying with Headlines, the ‘go to’ playbook of the Satanists

    .

    Nazilensky’s Beard in action

    .

    #149295
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Does anyone know if Scott Ritter Marine Intel One recognizes ‘co-opt’ as a genuine word?

    ‘Co-opt(ed)’ is so much cleaner than acquisitive projective identification but not nearly as poorly misunderstood.

    Aggrieved, I sense, is Today’s Theme.

    Ros Petchesky and Scott Ritter appear to have one thing in common. By virtue of being virtually on this blog today, neither have/has been impoverished, silenced, deplatformed, blacklisted, disappeared and eliminated.

    #149296
    davidveale
    Participant

    @Oroboros — I would hope that you understand that the number of heat deaths vs cold deaths is completely irrelevant to the issue of CO2 emissions. To get some relevance out of this subject, you would have to examine the trends in heat vs. cold deaths over a long time period, and even then the data would be largely irrelevant due to complicating factors such as heating and cooling systems in homes and buildings, or the increasing availability of inexpensive clothing to ward off the cold.

    Considering that the human body is 98.6 degrees and the planetary average temperature is something like 55, the fact that death by cold exceeds death from heat (and always has) should be no surprise whatsoever. As a matter of fact, hypothermia was the *leading* cause of death among those over 65 in the US until the advent of social security in the 30s.

    If you’d like to challenge yourself with some statistics that point to increasing CO2 having the potential to ending life as we know it, check out what happens when CO2 dissolves in water, particularly with regards to the effects of the resulting pH on the base of the marine food chain.

    #149298
    zerosum
    Participant

    “How China and the US get along will determine the future of humanity. – Chinese President Xi Jinping

    • The US Is Preparing For War With China (CP)
    Read more …Read more …
    ——-
    “The drone technology of today has changed the modern battlefield in every way that the machine gun changed warfare during World War I or the tank changed warfare during World War II.” –
    • Scott Ritter: US Sustainability in Jeopardy as World Turns Against Hegemon (Sp.)
    Read more …
    ———-
    New/Old Democracy in action
    • Milei Mulls Plan To Force Through Radical Reforms (RT)
    Read more …
    ———-

    #149299
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The US is preparing to start a war with China, but if you look any closer than that you might also notice, at the same time, that the US is NOT preparing to fight or win a war with China.

    This is for the same reason that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. The old dog is not preparing to live. It is preparing to die..

    #149300
    Red
    Participant

    @dr-d-rich
    “By virtue of being virtually on this blog today, neither have/has been impoverished, silenced, deplatformed, blacklisted, disappeared and eliminated.”

    Fascinating isn’t it! Almost like controlled opposition, but seems weird just the same. All others that were questioning the sanity have been deplatformed. Why not these guys? Or more to the point why not Ritter? He would have had to sign a NDA I’m sure so has yet to violate that? If there isn’t more to this this meets the eye……. well blow me dry and call me dusty.

    #149301
    jb-hb
    Participant

    If you’d like to challenge yourself with some statistics that point to increasing CO2 having the potential to ending life as we know it, check out what happens when CO2 dissolves in water,

    So we all burned up hundreds of millions of years ago. We’re all dead ghosts discussing a world we never got to see. You never existed, but here you are wringing your hands over CO2 levels many orders of magnitude lower than we’ve had already

    No sir. You cannot be here arguing for CO2. Your distant ancestors died millions of years ago without issue. The were CO2-cels.

    https://imgs.search.brave.com/HTMXvcDfu9e83hd_tRu1YB78xvJ0w5V0FBw18gdPkxg/rs:fit:860:0:0/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly91cGxv/YWQud2lraW1lZGlh/Lm9yZy93aWtpcGVk/aWEvY29tbW9ucy83/Lzc2L1BoYW5lcm96/b2ljX0NhcmJvbl9E/aW94aWRlLnBuZw

    #149302
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    My complaint about movies is similar to my complaint about main stream media (or any other institutionally top-down-organized system of control.) In a movie the “camera” tells you where to look and what you’re supposed to see there.

    I prefer to look where I want to, and see what I can see.

    #149303
    davidveale
    Participant

    @jb-hb — I did not say “an end to all life” as you’re implying, but rather an end to life as we know it. Marine life is adapted to the conditions which have been relatively stable (at least in terms of pH and temperature) for millions of years. Change those conditions (such as the significant drop in pH we’re now witnessing as atmospheric CO2 goes from 280 to 420ppm), and you’ll see an end to many forms of marine life to which we’re accustomed.

    Will there be new, different forms of life which are just as tasty/useful/fascinating? Sure — but the changes we’ve created will not be stabilizing for many centuries, so the only visible effect for those now living will be a dramatic dieoff. I’ve you’ve been paying attention to the marine world, you won’t be surprised by the fact that we’re witnessing exactly that (50% dieoff in plankton, massive dieoffs of seabirds in north Pacific and Atlantic, collapse of the Yukon salmon runs, collapse of oyster beds on the Oregon coast…).

    The CO2 levels which were in existence 100s of millions of years ago did not support the types of life which humans have depended upon for our 150k year existence, simply put.

    This isn’t some world of predictions and (inaccurate) modeling. This is happening now, at this moment.

    #149305
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    The threats against the Colorado Supreme Court justices could very easily be “mini false flags” — instigated by the FBI to discredit those who follow Trump.

    #149306
    jb-hb
    Participant

    davidveale it’s clear you want to hide behind linguistic vagueness, darting out to imply doom and disaster, retreating to say “I never said that” anytime science comes into the picture.

    This is a tiresome, endless process in which you declare that you never have to be wrong about anything but always get to be the holy one lecturing us on our moral shame for CO2.

    So you’re a cowardly liar who has thought of a great, tiresome way of lying. This method is WHOLLY dependent on civility. You’re here as a bad faith actor with a bowl out, continually dependent on charity. And this is your “strategy”

    For example, you imply that we have gone from 280 to 420ppm in our lifetimes, which would be an alarming 66% increase and you will say “I never said that” having been challenged on it.

    I can just as easily say we’re going from 1200ppm to 423ppm.

    (you’d be DEAD if atmosphere was ever 280 in your lifetime – so go be a silent dead ghost somewhere then)

    So your program is one of driveling out implied claims, context-less statements, and anecdotes, only to retreat at every scientific reply and then continue to spew out more.

    Make your actual specific claims and defend them then. I’ll stop treating you like a bad faith actor if you stop acting like one.

    “Marine life is adapted to the conditions which have been relatively stable (at least in terms of pH and temperature) for millions of years.”

    Oh I’m so, so sorry davdveale, not only can’t you talk because you’re dead, were never born, but you cannot talk about your marine life adapted to stable conditions because in your universe they died millions of years ago from unstable CO2 conditions. They were never born, just like you.

    https://climatediscussionnexus.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Temp_CO2-600-million-years-768x531.png

    #149307
    davidveale
    Participant

    @jb-hb — I don’t make personal attacks, or call someone a liar when they disagree with me, and would appreciate the same courtesy. I’ve clearly triggered an emotionally charged response, which was not my intent. I do, however, like to point out flaws in reasoning where I see them.

    “For example, you imply that we have gone from 280 to 420ppm in our lifetimes, which would be an alarming 66% increase and you will say “I never said that” having been challenged on it.”

    I did not imply that 280ppm was “within our lifetimes”. That’s the commonly accepted level at the start of the industrial era, and the level that has persisted for most of the existence of the human species until we started to industrialize. The range of CO2 which has existed during the majority of human existence is approx 180-280ppm.

    We are clearly not physically adapted to higher levels, and show demonstrable cognitive decline as levels rise beyond the levels we’re accustomed to (this has been tested and is not mere speculation). I think that has far more relevance than your comparisons from hundreds of millions of years ago, when life was very different from today, and nothing at all like the species that we co-evolved with.

    #149308
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    The term “capitalism” is also very muddy.
    Does it refer to the “really existing” economy as it is now? Or, perhaps, it better describes the really existing economy in the US in the 1950s? 1920s? 1890s? 1830s? 1790s? England’s economy in 1700?
    Is capitalism only an economy that well-fits Adam Smith’s writings? Or a figment of the imagination of a self-avowed libertarian? Is it what Milei is aiming for?
    Is the US economy currently accurately described as “capitalism?”
    What *is* this thing we call capitalism?
    Is it “free markets?”
    Is it lack of any governmental regulation?
    Caveat emptor?
    Is it the ability to use money (capital) to generate more money?
    Is it defined by the relationship between the employer and the employee? Or by who “owns the means of production?” (Is this analysis relevant in a world where most back-breaking labor is performed by machines powered by fossil fuels?)
    Can capitalism exist outside of the economy of a town or small city? Or does it metastasize into something that is “not capitalism” when humans attempt to scale it up?
    Is it still “capitalism” when we declare capitalism to be the “only” viable economic system, and then announce that whatever the US economy (substitute the name of any other nation that refers to its economy in this way) looks like, that the economy is, by circular definition, “capitalist?”

    Words have meanings independently of themselves. Words can free us and words can bind us. Words and their definitions and usage mold our thoughts, and our thoughts are the impetus for our actions. Actions of individuals aggregate and become our cultures and societies.

    #149309
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    @Red

    Neither Ritter nor Ros are particularly beguiling…. …..either.

    Someone pays Ritter and they’re probably the same Someone who deplatformed and demonetized Anglin into obscurity.

    I am reminded of the opposite of Portia’s speech “The quality of mercy is not strain’d it droppeth like the gentle rain”.
    You’ll know the quality of the unmerciful because there will be no remit, no relief from the obliteration and recriminations that Ros/Ritter have been spared, mercifully.

    Ros’s singular quality is easy enough to discern.
    What is Ritter’s? Is he a made man?

    #149310
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The eggheads and their ilk on this site (and I know you’re out there, you lurkers you!) will probably recognize the scientific jargon or term called “frame of reference”. You will also know that use and misuse of frame-of-reference is one of the slickest and most often used tricks in the book, both for sussing out difficult problems [Einstein springs to mind] and for perpetrating horrendous crimes against humanity [as with Pope Francis for timely example].

    Basically it is the principle that statements of fact which that are plainly true within a certain frame of reference are often completely (even absurdly or fatally) false within a DIFFERENT “frame of reference”. Example: During work a flight attendant will often push the drinks cart down the aisle at a sedate one-fourth (or so) miles per hour. That’s perfectly and obviously true . . . . within that frame of reference. However, if the aircraft at that moment in its flight encounters a cloud-hidden mountain peak it will become immediately apparent to all involved that within a DIFFERENT frame of reference the speed of one fourth miles per hour is tragically false.

    I bring all of this up because there has been and increasingly happens to be a little too much of this kind of switcheroo logic going on here at our beloved TAE comments section. Now, any of us (all of us actually, myself included) can accidentally make the mistake and commit that error. Small harm done, usually. BUT… SOMETIMES… the mistake is knowingly and intentionally used as a ploy for nefarious purposes, so I’m just putting those DELIBERATE offenders on notice. I will catch you at it, I will call you out and I will not be kind.

    #149311
    Alexander Carpenter
    Participant

    Just note that davidveale’s continued errors (to be charitable) are mostly because he fails (probably lacking sufficient depth of understanding of science) to distinguish between correlation and causality.
    When I am feeling kind, I call what he does “correlation grandiosity,” which inflates a trivial linear-cause-and-effect factoid into a general complex-system-wide Truth — and also fails to distinguish reductionist in vitro situations from complex in vivo situations (a variation on that same theme).
    When I’m not, I simply recognize moronic complacency corrupted by tribal pressures and compounded by intellectual and moral cowardice, all masquerading as humble “reasonableness” hiding behind covert (and hypocritical) ideological rigidity and an inability to actually experience from the ground of their own integrity.
    There are so many like doofuses like this, it has become almost effortless to recognize them. Maybe it’s time they got honest (or tried a different style of systematic lying, which may include self-deception). They might even attempt to learn what really drives that dread “climate change,” but that is probably asking too much (although many others are actively engaged in that endeavor, with increasing success).
    It may be productive to try to find one that is halfway sane, and ask if they can identify how and why they have sold out — and provide them 12-Step-like moral support as they grapple with their demons.

    #149312
    Alexander Carpenter
    Participant

    Yes, a twitchy mouse-click bounce, compounded by no immediate acknowledgement of submission with a caution to wait for it to show up.
    Sorry…

    You moderators (robot or human) can delete this little note…

    #149314
    davidveale
    Participant

    @Alexander Carpenter:

    “Just note that davidveale’s continued errors…”

    Are you up for a genuine and cordial discussion or would you prefer to call people names when they offend your worldview?

    Please pick one of my errors and we can take it from there. If I’m in error, I’d love to know how/where, and you would be doing me a favor by correcting me.

    #149315
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    So I see that the US is sending American troops to Europe. Wouldn’t it be a lot simpler to just have them report straight to the graveyard? You’d sure save a lot of time and expense, not to mention that it is ultimately more merciful in the long run and doesn’t scar their souls by making them murder babies on the way there.
    Better yet, why not just pop those soldiers up to Canada where there are plenty of euthanasia clinics standing ready, willing and able to accommodate their needs with minimal fuss or muss.

    #149317
    jb-hb
    Participant

    @jb-hb — I don’t make personal attacks, or call someone a liar when they disagree with me, and would appreciate the same courtesy

    Discussion is civility. Intrinsic to this is earnest forthrightness. I said you wouldn’t do this and that you’d demand to nevertheless be shielded BY civility – and here we are.

    I did not imply that 280ppm was “within our lifetimes”.

    I told you that you would say that and you did. You see, I gave the summary of your simulacrum-of-argument/discussion at the start, so people know what to watch for and recognize from the start. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

    We are clearly not physically adapted to higher levels, and show demonstrable cognitive decline as levels rise beyond the levels we’re accustomed to

    That’s hilarious that, by your own number that we are HEADED FOR, 420ppm, which is 0.0420% of the atmosphere – ie four hudredths of a percent, ie 4/10,000 you think this will impair cognitive function.

    AFKKT, the king of ppm CO2 said we were doomed due to a 0.000374% change change in CO2. (a 37/10,000,000 change)

    With human generated CO2 change constituting 4% of that change, 0.00001496% (1 / 6,684,491) causing, in your words:

    …the only visible effect for those now living will be a dramatic dieoff 50% dieoff in plankton, massive dieoffs of seabirds in north Pacific and Atlantic, collapse of the Yukon salmon runs, collapse of oyster beds on the Oregon coast… …This isn’t some world of predictions and (inaccurate) modeling. This is happening now, at this moment.

    The cognition-decreasing CO2… is it in the room with you right now?

    #149318
    zerosum
    Participant

    Peace will have a better chance of winning if the United States went home and stopped meddling everywhere.

    #149319

    We live backwards in time.

    We sense the world and act in kind,
    Much faster than we blink an eye-
    And set the memories in mind,
    If references can make the tie.

    If they cannot, we’ve still reacted
    Just as we were programmed to-
    The memory will be redacted:
    “That was what I meant to do.”

    #149320
    davidveale
    Participant

    The change in CO2 is not
    ” 0.000374% change change in CO2. (a 37/10,000,000 change)”.

    The change is 420-280 = 140. 140/280 = .5, or a 50% increase. Gotta watch what your denominator is. The proportion of a component to the whole is rarely indicative of the the component’s effect, as is the case with things like hormones, or cyanide in the human body, or… atmospheric CO2. BTW, we’re not “headed for” 420ppm — we’re already there.

    I think it’s quite likely that current CO2 levels are having an effect on human cognitive function, as evidenced by what’s happening worldwide over the last few years. However, I have not seen tests demonstrating this. At 1000ppm, the measured cognitive decline was 20% though.

    I think your numbers suggesting that human generated CO2 is a mere 4% of the increase in CO2 are willfully exclusionary. Does that include the massive quantity of CO2 released through agricultural tillage (and the resulting oxidation of soil’s organic matter)? Somehow I suspect not, but I’d be interested to see your reference if you have one. I don’t imagine you scrutinized it before parading it around.

    #149321

    DBS- #149315.
    Spot on.

    #149322

    zerosum- #149318
    Also spot on.

    #149323
    jb-hb
    Participant

    The change is 420-280 = 140. 140/280 = .5, or a 50% increase.

    Ohhh, so your point is that CO2 levels come and go, which we can do little about, we can bear witness to the changes though?

    No one’s fault, no need for action? Was THAT it?

    No, you’re talking about human caused global warming, using that figure to make your point. So you’re implying as hard as you can that humanity caused a 50% increase in CO2.

    This is supposed to be a supporting argument for your side and you are very clearly NOT entering into good faith discussion or argument at all, instead opting to be a lying coward. Obviously. And next you will say “I never said that…”

    Thank you for your continued cooperation

    At 1000ppm, the measured cognitive decline was 20% though.

    But the figures are being cited by climate activists (anyone can google search it and see- I checked before my last post, read the “studies” and THEN posted so that you would reply with exactly the above) …climate activists who have been lying liars for decades. Putting their thermometers in the middle of parking lots and blacktop rooves etc. Telling us CO2 is warming things only to tell us cooling is ALSO CO2 doom and so on.

    Besides that, you’re citing experiments of piping CO2 into a mask or an airtight room while IMPLYING that this would be what happens in the real world. Forgetting plants use CO2 and plants make oxygen. You’re not making some isolated “if JUST CO2 were more, then ____” as an amusing anecdote. You’re using a “study” that DOES NOT take the biosphere (or even OXYGEN) into account to make claims on what will happen in the biosphere. (I never said that…)

    Why do the “scientific” CO2 arguments always obfuscate, evade, and ditch science if it threatens the CO2? The CO2 is more important than science (just like the notavax)

    I think your numbers suggesting that human generated CO2 is a mere 4% of the increase in CO2 are willfully exclusionary. Does that include the massive quantity of CO2 released through agricultural tillage

    I don’t know, did you take into account individual volcanoes in the news releasing 30 years of industrial civilization’s worth of CO2 in a single go? Did you take into account the thousands of volcanoes worldwide spewing out CO2 continually? More being discovered under the ice in Antarctica and under the sea doing same? I think you’re being willfully exclusionary.

    Were the cowboys that killed off all the millions and millions of buffalos just Climate Saviors then? Or Buffalo are natural, therefore holy, but cows are for humans, therefore profane. You’re a science guy?

    You’re implying really hard that I am somehow being unorthodox or radical? Unscientific? While you claim humans have caused a 50% atmospheric increase in CO2.

    Look, YOURS is the belief that humans are creating so much CO2 it will cause catastrophe. Various scientific assumptions combined with years of busted lying – lying models, lying data, failed predictions. You already died 15 years ago from human caused CO2 increase, after all.

    And of course YOURS is the belief that, due to human activity bringing catastrophe, we must act now – actions which must be forced on humanity and will cause a worldwide Holodomor amongst other things. YOU’RE the one arguing for what is super-radical. Yet you imply in cowardly disingenuous fashion that you stand in orthodoxy and I’m being a loose cannon.

    And still, you can’t state your case and defend it. It’s just this. As predicted.

    #149324
    jb-hb
    Participant

    At 1000ppm, the measured cognitive decline was 20% though

    I might add, you’ve been generally saying things like “it’s happening now!” and citing 420ppm as already causing catastrophe right before ALSO warning us of CO2 Cognitive Doom

    ….of course, WITHOUT saying the first part: “If CO2 went up by another 580ppm to 1000ppm from 420ppm ie an increase to 238% of current levels, then…”

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