Feb 262024
 
 February 26, 2024  Posted by at 9:51 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Vincent van Gogh Pink peach trees (Souvenir de mauve) 1888

 

Why War Bonds Are Returning in Europe (Luongo)
Surge of “Little Green Men,” and Metal is Poised to Strike (Trader Stef)
Ukraine War: Zelensky Says 31,000 Troops Killed (BBC)
Kiev Demanded Victory Plan From Military With No Resources – Zaluzhny Aid (RT)
Putin Defeated US Plan For Russia – Nuland (RT)
Most Ukraine Aid ‘Goes Right Back’ To US – Nuland (RT)
The Untold Half of the Zaluzhny Story (Snider)
CIA Built “12 Secret Spy Bases” In Ukraine – NYT (ZH)
Xi Isn’t Destroying China’s Economy – He’s Changing It (Fomenko)
EU Must Find ‘Enormous Amount’ Of Money To Face Global Challenges – Draghi
10 Ways A Second Trump Term Could Be More Extreme Than The First (Pol.)
Fani Willis Demands Judge Reject Cellphone Evidence (ZH)
The Show Trial against Julian Assange (Scheidler)
If We Don’t Keep Sending Billions To Ukraine, The War Might End (BBee)

 

 

 

 

Orf

 

 

KSP

 

 

 

 

Mike Benz 3 minutes
https://twitter.com/i/status/1758743460025389427

 

 

AI Tucker Carlson narrating The Lord of the Rings

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent from Tom Luongo. Who, interestingly, seems to put power relations on their head. With the demise of EU industry, we think the US is in charge. But:

“..Europe wants the US to be a vassal after spending itself to death fighting the phantom menace of Putin. Eurobonds are the real story. The rest is just noise..”

Why War Bonds Are Returning in Europe (Luongo)

The fate of these SURE bonds and all future EC bond issuances hangs in the balance here. In fact, the future of the EU itself hangs in the balance. And that’s why I was contacted by Sputnik News yesterday to give my thoughts on this subject. “Eurobonds are the Holy Grail for European integration,” Tom Luongo, financial and geopolitical analyst, told Sputnik. “PM Kallas is telling you what the plan is. The EU’s Achilles’ heel is the euro itself and its lack of central taxing authority.” “Eurobonds, issued through the European Commission, of this type are another way of handing that authority to Brussels, bypassing member state central banks and legislatures,” he added. “If one was cynical, which I am, one would suspect that the EU’s support for the war in Ukraine was mostly driven by this desire to centralize power in Brussels,” Luongo argued. “You start a war in Ukraine by purposefully crossing Russia’s red lines, drive inflation up locally, and empty the military coffers of all the post-WWII weapons and ammunition that is now outdated. (…)

If you are losing, as you are now, you play up the threat of Russia not stopping at Ukraine to justify shifting your domestic spending to a military build-up, issuing Eurobonds to pay for it.” This plan for war bonds was shepherded by the usual suspects for EU militarization, French President Emmanuel Macron and EU President Charles Michel. And I want to stress here that nothing about this project is economic. It is purely political. They will expend whatever political capital they must to force this outcome on the people of Europe. To folks like Macron, Michel, Ursula Von der Leyen and their bosses, European bourgeoisie and proletariats alike are just tax cattle. No wonder they are so against them eating beef. So, let’s connect another couple of dots. Because now it should be obvious that this is why they threatened Hungary’s Viktor Orban with economic devastation for holding up their $50 billion aid package for Ukraine.

They need to keep Ukraine going to justify now spending another $100+ billion to launder into failing French and German banks sitting on massive losses from all the debt they bought during the NIRP (Negative Interest Rate Policy) period. This is just the beginning of their plans for transferring sovereignty out of the hands of the member states and handing it to Brussels. But to sell this to global investors they have to prove to the world they have all the wayward voices under control. Sovereign debt is secured through taxation and the productive capacity of the population. At this point the EU has neither. Now when I think about what all the principle players have been harping about for the past couple of weeks the common theme was NATO uber alles. This was echoed by everyone from President Biden at his latest press conference and Vice President Harris at Munich, to Hillary Clinton, clearly on more than a proof of life tour.

We had Alexei Navalny’s death used to raise money for war. Reports of Russia shooting US satellites out of orbit. Locusts! It never stops with these people. There’s always a convenient Russian or Chinese bogeyman lurking behind every headline. But the underlying theme is to keep the money flowing into NATO. Trump’s comments on standing aside if Putin attacked a NATO country that didn’t pay its way were used by all of them to breathlessly support MOAR NATO. But, in the end, this is just about the exercise of raw power against domestic populations. Putin and his army are no more a threat to Berlin than they are a threat to Kiev at this point. NATO, and the plans to morph it into a global police force under UN control, is the reason for all of this. Europe wants the US to be a vassal after spending itself to death fighting the phantom menace of Putin. Eurobonds are the real story. The rest is just noise.

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“..Those who are using nuclear blackmail against us should know that the wind rose can turn around.”

Surge of “Little Green Men,” and Metal is Poised to Strike (Trader Stef)

Yesterday, NATO’s Secretary General Stoltenberg interviewed with Radio Free Europe and noted in the context of discussing F-16s that Ukraine has the right to self-defense, including “striking legitimate Russian military targets outside Ukraine.” It’s not a coincidence that Stoltenberg expressed that point of view after Ukraine experienced the sudden collapse of Avdiivka that I covered in the “Surge of ‘Little Green Men,’ and Metal is Poised to Strike” Part XVIII and its Twitter thread. Russia has repeatedly expressed that existing international law grants the right to militarily strike a third party or nation state’s infrastructure that provides weapons and/or logistical support to an enemy during war. In the context of the NATO’s proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, that includes striking U.S., NATO members, and allied territory.

It was also made clear that any weapon systems delivered by third parties through Ukraine would be targeted upon identification, which already occurred on numerous occasions using conventional weaponry and hypersonic missiles armed with non-nuclear warheads. Don’t you think the U.S. striking Iran-backed proxies and supply lines in the Middle East that supported Hamas in its war against Israel validates Russia’s legal authority to strike NATO territory? Putin has been exceptionally restrained based on circumstances surrounding the war in Ukraine and the proliferation of legacy media narratives. “Medvedev predicts Apocalypse in event of Russia-NATO war… “Leaders should tell the bitter truth to their voters instead of treating them as brainless idiots. They should explain to them what will really happen instead of repeating the deceitful mantra about readiness for a war with Russia.” – Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, Feb. 2024”

The issue with Ukraine utilizing F-16s to strike Russian troop positions or target inside Russia proper is it no longer has a sovereign airbase capable of supporting F-16s (Col. Douglas Macgregor’s Aug. 2023 analyses). It also lacks the integrated space-based and land-based communications technology required to execute sorties that must be supported by NATO or U.S. AWACS, miscellaneous functions and intelligence from NATO members, and spare parts and supplies support from the U.S. If an attempt is made to buildout a new or existing airfield, Russia will incinerate that location in the same way it already disabled Ukraine’s airbases and air force. That leaves a distinct possibility of F-16s entering the battlespace via a third-party nation. The moment any fighter jets are detected within Ukraine, in its airspace, or approaching the battlefield frontline they will be targeted and destroyed.

That scenario immediately raises the possibility of NATO activating its Article 5 provision for war against Russia, then war will be declared on the collective West by Russia and its strategic allies. Putin openly admits that Russia cannot match NATO’s combined conventional military strength despite its own superior manufacturing base and logistical advantages, so any attack by NATO would be considered an “existential threat.” That opens the door to tactical nuclear weapons being used to blunt the enemy on a battlefield. Where it goes from there depends on the collective West’s response, which will be answered in kind by Russia.

“I would like to remind those who make such statements regarding Russia that our country has different types of weapons as well, and some of them are more modern than the weapons NATO countries have. In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us. This is not a bluff. The citizens of Russia can rest assured that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be defended – I repeat – by all the systems available to us. Those who are using nuclear blackmail against us should know that the wind rose can turn around.” – Putin, Sep. 2023

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Guys like Col. Macgregor and Scott Ritter insist it’s at least 10 times that.

Big Serge on X: “Obviously Zelensky’s new claim that total Ukrainian losses are only 31,000 would seem to be starkly at odds with their December statement that the AFU needs 20,000 replacements per month to keep up with burn.”

Ukraine War: Zelensky Says 31,000 Troops Killed (BBC)

Ukraine’s president says 31,000 soldiers have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began. Volodymyr Zelensky said he would not give the number of wounded as that would help Russian military planning. Typically, Ukrainian officials do not make public the numbers of servicepeople killed in the war. It comes after the defence minister said half of all Western aid for Ukraine has been delayed, costing lives and territory. “At the moment, commitment does not constitute delivery,” Rustam Umerov said in a televised address on Sunday. Ukraine is currently experiencing a variety of setbacks in its mission to drive Russia from its territory. Mr Umerov said that the lack of supplies put Ukraine at a further disadvantage “in the mathematics of war”. “We do everything possible and impossible but without timely supply it harms us,” he said.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius warned in November that plans to deliver a million artillery shells by March would not be met. In January, the European Union (EU) said just over half of these would reach Ukraine by the deadline and that the full promised amount would not be there until the end of 2024. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, blamed a lack of production capacity but Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said allies had been stepping this up. Ukrainian forces have often complained of shortages in their war with Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky said one of the reasons Ukraine’s highly anticipated counter-offensive did not start earlier last year was the lack of weapons. That counter-offensive largely failed – one of a number of setbacks Kyiv has faced after some early successes in repelling Russia after it invaded in February 2022.

Last week, it was announced that troops had withdrawn from the key eastern town of Avdiivka – Moscow’s biggest win in months. Mr Zelensky also blamed this partly on faltering Western weapon supplies. The Biden administration, meanwhile, has said the hold-up in Congress of a $60bn aid package for Ukraine led to the fall of the town. Despite the delay, Ukraine’s prime minister sounded an optimistic note. “We are deeply convinced that the United States will not abandon Ukraine in terms of both financial support and military, armed support,” Denys Shmyal said on Sunday. His comments come after Mr Zelensky pressed members of the G7 – the world’s richest democracies – to increase their “vital support” in order for his country to win the war. “You know perfectly well that we need all this in time, and we count on you,” he said at a virtual meeting.

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When you let a piano playing penis overrule and replace your popular top general…

Kiev Demanded Victory Plan From Military With No Resources – Zaluzhny Aid (RT)

The Ukrainian government wanted the military to figure out how Kiev could defeat Russia but failed to provide data on what resources it had to achieve that goal, an adviser to former Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny has said. In an interview with The New York Times published on Saturday, General Viktor Nazarov offered a glimpse into one of the reasons for the rift between the country’s military and civilian authorities last year. He noted that army officials were troubled by demands from the government in Kiev, which wanted them to draw “a road map for victory without telling them the amount of men, ammunition and reserves they would have to execute any plan.” The general lamented that this was one of the factors the civilian authorities “did not understand or did not want to understand” when they asked the military without any strategic reserves to come up with strategic plans.

Nazarov’s comments echoed the remarks of his ex-boss prior to his sacking. In an opinion piece for CNN earlier this month, Zaluzhny blasted “imperfections of the regulatory framework,” as well as the partial monopolization of the national defense industry, which he said resulted in production bottlenecks and exacerbated dependence on foreign arms shipments. In his November article for the Economist, the ex-top commander also suggested that the conflict was now at “a stalemate,” with both sides having the technological capability to know what the other one is doing, making any advances on the battlefield problematic. Zelensky fired Zaluzhny, who oversaw Ukraine’s botched counteroffensive last year, as well as several other top commanders earlier this month. The Ukrainian president has described the decision as “a reboot,” noting that “some things were not changing over the recent period of time.”

Some media reports, however, suggested that Zelensky wanted to get rid of Zaluzhny as a potential political rival who was popular with the rank and file. Zaluzhny was replaced by General Aleksandr Syrsky, whom Politico described as a “butcher” unpopular with the troops who supposedly resented his willingness to throw them into “fruitless assaults.” Even before Ukraine’s chaotic retreat from the strategic Donbass city of Avdeevka, Syrsky admitted that Kiev was in a “difficult” frontline situation. He has also said that Ukraine has now “transitioned” from offensive actions to strategic defense. However, commenting on the top brass reshuffle, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Moscow did not expect it to have any significant impact on the battlefield.

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The CIA had control of the Kremlin under Yeltsin. They thought they had it made. Then they themselves selected Putin.

Putin Defeated US Plan For Russia – Nuland (RT)

Vladimir Putin’s Russia is “not the Russia that we wanted,” Acting US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has told CNN. Nuland explained that Washington wanted a compliant leader in the Kremlin who would “westernize” the country. “It’s not the Russia that, frankly, we wanted,” Nuland told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday. “We wanted a partner that was going to be westernizing, that was going to be European. But that’s not what Putin has done.” Putin’s predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, enjoyed Washington’s support as he oversaw the rushed privatization of the Russian economy in the 1990s. Yeltsin’s reforms saw the rise of the so-called ‘oligarchs’, who amassed huge fortunes selling Russia’s natural resources to Western buyers, while the majority of the population dealt with declining life expectancy, soaring crime and homicide rates, and the collapse of the ruble.

Putin, who first took office in 2000, is widely credited with taming the oligarchs, imposing public order, and reversing the economic and social decline of the 1990s. Putin initially sought friendly relations with the West, telling American journalist Tucker Carlson earlier this month that he asked then-US President Bill Clinton whether Russia could one day join NATO, only to be rejected. Putin nevertheless reached out to Clinton’s successor, George W. Bush, with a proposal that the US, Russia, and Europe jointly create a missile defense system. While Bush’s team initially expressed interest, Putin said that “in the end they just told us to get lost.”

A combination of NATO expansion, American support for jihadist groups in the Caucuses, and Nuland’s orchestration of the coup d’etat in Ukraine in 2014 made it clear that the US and its allies were not interested in cooperation, Putin told Carlson. Nuland told Amanpour that Putin has “destroyed his own country” by intervening in Ukraine, and that the US will “continue to tighten the noose on him,” presumably by supplying Kiev with weapons and imposing additional economic sanctions on Moscow.

However, successive rounds of sanctions have failed to “crater” the Russian economy, as US President Joe Biden predicted they would in 2022. Instead, the International Monetary Fund predicts that Russia’s economy will grow by 2.6% in 2024, while the US’ will expand by 2.1%. Likewise, the unprecedented influx of Western arms failed to rescue Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive from failure. The operation fizzled out in the autumn after Kiev lost around 160,000 men and failed to retake any of its lost territory, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Russian officials have repeatedly said that they are ready to negotiate an end to the conflict, but that Ukraine must accept the loss of its former territories and commit to neutrality.

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How to grow your economy on top of dead bodies..

Most Ukraine Aid ‘Goes Right Back’ To US – Nuland (RT)

Washington spends most of the money allocated as aid for Ukraine on weapons production at home, Acting US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said in an interview with CNN this week. Commenting on the pending aid package which Congress failed to approve before going on winter recess, Nuland said she has “strong confidence” that it will pass, as it addresses America’s own interests. “We have to remember that the bulk of this money is going right back into the US economy, to make weapons, including good-paying jobs in some forty states across the US,” she stated, adding that support for Ukraine in America “is still strong.” Lawmakers in the House of Representatives blocked a bill requested by US President Joe Biden for an aid package for Kiev worth $60 billion, most of which is earmarked for weapons, earlier this month.

They are expected to restart discussions on the package after they reconvene on February 28. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also recently said that roughly 90% of the financial assistance for Ukraine is spent on domestic production of weapons and equipment. At a press conference on December 20, he said additional tranches would “benefit American business, local communities, and strengthen the US defense industrial base.” According to Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks international support for Kiev, Washington allocated nearly €68 billion ($73.7 billion) in aid for Ukraine between January 24, 2022 and January 15, 2024, including roughly €43 billion ($46.6 billion) in military aid. However, Kiev has been increasingly demanding more aid from its Western backers.

Several days ago, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky warned visiting American legislators that Kiev would “lose the war” against Russia without Washington’s assistance, according to US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Russia has criticized the US and other Western states for their military support for Kiev, arguing that it is only dragging out the conflict. According to a recent survey from the Harris Poll and the Quincy Institute, a growing number of Americans do not support US military aid to Kiev unless it is tied to peace talks. Only 22% of respondents said Washington should continue ‘unconditionally’ providing Ukraine with financial assistance, while 48% said new funding must be conditioned on progress toward a diplomatic solution. Around 30% said the US should halt all aid.

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Everything new about Zaluzhny is now censored and silenced.

The Untold Half of the Zaluzhny Story (Snider)

There were probably many reasons why Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky fired Ukraine’s popular commander in chief of the armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhny, on February 8, but one of the biggest seems to have been a disagreement over how to go forward in a war that seemed to have overwhelmingly turned against them. Zelensky spoke of a need for “the same vision of the war,” and Zaluzhny said “a decision was made about the need to change approaches and strategy.” When the war began, Zelensky said that Ukraine “will definitely win” but stressed life over land. “Our land is important, yes, but ultimately it’s just territory.” He said that “Victory is being able to save as many lives as possible. Yes, to save as many lives as possible, because without this nothing would make sense.” But actions speak louder than words. Zelensky began to define victory as the reclamation, not only of land lost during the war, but of Crimea and all of Ukraine’s pre-2014 territory.

Zelensky insisted that Ukraine stay on the offensive. He insisted on moving forward, “Whether it’s by a kilometer or 500 meters, but forward every day.” Zaluzhny saw Zelensky’s strategy of fighting for Bakhmut and Avdiivka at any cost as a strategic disaster that was costing Ukraine too much in weapons and in lives. Zaluzhny argued for preserving lives over forfeitable territory, lest Ukraine lose its land and its army. In General Oleksandr Syrsky, Zelensky found the commander who would execute his vision and carry out his orders. Syrsky fought the Battle of Bakhmut. His performance there, and in other battles, gave him the reputation of a commander who is willing to give orders that lead to little real gain and lots of real loss of life. “Some soldiers say his orders are unreasonable, at times sending men to their obvious deaths,” The Washington Post reports. According to The Economist, he “has a reputation for being willing to engage the enemy, even if the cost in men and machines is high.”

His reported willingness to put “his men in danger to reach his military goals” has earned him the nicknames “Butcher” and General 200, 200 being the code for a soldier’s corpse. Syrsky is also seen as being a commander who is close to Zelensky and who will not question his orders. The replacement of Zaluzhny by Syrsky signals Zelensky’s intent to push ahead with the suicidal war of attrition and fight for every inch of land despite the cost in lives. Aware of the optics of the choice in the public and, perhaps especially in the armed forces, Kiev assuaged the perception of Syrsky as “being indifferent to military casualties.” In his first statement as commander in chief, Syrsky said, “The lives and well-being of our servicemen have always been and remain the main asset of the Ukrainian army.”

But, again, actions speak louder than words. General Syrsky’s first words were about protecting the lives of his men, but his first actions were about fighting for every inch of territory. On February 11, just three days after the change in command, Syrsky ordered the reinforcement and defence of Avdiivka, a strategic town that faced imminent loss to the Russian army and enormous loss of Ukrainian lives. Zaluzhny would have withdrawn his troops, preserved lives and moved the front to more defensible positions. Syrsky deployed the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, one of the best armed and trained and most successful brigades in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It did not go well. It went exactly as Zaluzhny said it would, and Syrsky was forced to respond exactly as Zaluzhny had said they should. But now the response was carried out in disarray instead of in an orderly, planned fashion. Perhaps Zelensky should have stuck with Zaluzhny.

In sending in reinforcements instead of retreating, Syrsky said the “goal of our operation is to exhaust the enemy, inflict maximum losses on him.” The opposite happened. Less than a week later, on February 17, Syrsky announced the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Avdiivka. “Based on the operational situation around Avdiyivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen,” he said, “I decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to defense on more favorable lines…The life of military personnel is the highest value.” That’s exactly what Zaluzhny advised Zelensky to do. But the situation was worse than at first reported. Zaluzhny would have preplanned the retreat and executed it according to a plan. Zelensky and Skysky’s stubbornness turned the already costly loss into a disaster.

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I doubt the NYT piece told Russia anything they didn’t already know.

CIA Built “12 Secret Spy Bases” In Ukraine – NYT (ZH)

On Sunday The New York Times published an explosive and very belated full admission that US intelligence has not only been instrumental in Ukraine wartime decision-making, but has established and financed high tech command-and-control spy centers, and was doing so long prior to the Feb. 24 Russian invasion of two years ago. Among the biggest revelations is that the program was established a decade ago and spans three different American presidents. The Times says the CIA program to modernize Ukraine’s intelligence services has “transformed” the former Soviet state and its capabilities into “Washington’s most important intelligence partners against the Kremlin today.” This has included the agency having secretly trained and equipped Ukrainian intelligence officers spanning back to just after the 2014 Maidan coup events, as well constructing a network of 12 secret bases along the Russian border—work which began eight years ago.

These intelligence bases, from which Russian commanders’ communications can be swept up and Russian spy satellites monitored, are being used launch and track cross-border drone and missile attacks on Russian territory. This means that with the disclosure of the longtime “closely guarded secret” the world just got a big step closer to WW3, given it means the CIA is largely responsible for the effectiveness of the recent spate of attacks which have included direct drone hits on key oil refineries and energy infrastructure. “Without them [the CIA and elite commandoes it’s trained], there would have been no way for us to resist the Russians, or to beat them,” according to Ivan Bakanov, former head of the SBU, which is Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency.

A main source of the NYT revelations—disclosures which might come as no surprise to those never willing to so easily swallow the mainstream ‘official’ narrative of events—is identified as a top intelligence commander named Gen. Serhii Dvoretskiy. Clearly, Kiev and Washington now want world to know of the deep intelligence relationship they tried to conceal for over the past decade. It is perhaps a kind of warning to Moscow at a moment Ukraine’s forces are in retreat: the US is fighting hand in glove with the Ukrainians. And yet the revelations contained in the NY Times report also confirm what President Putin has precisely accused Washington of all along.

[..] Among the most interesting and curious moments of the NYT report is a description of the CIA program’s expanse under the Trump administration. The report suggests that the true scope may have even been hidden from Trump. The Russian hawks in his administration quietly did the ‘dirty work’, we are told: “The election of Trump in November 2016 put the Ukrainians and their CIA partners on edge. Trump praised Putin and dismissed Russia’s role in election interference. He was suspicious of Ukraine and later tried to pressure its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to investigate his Democratic rival, Biden, resulting in Trump’s first impeachment.”

The report then emphasizes, “But whatever Trump said and did, his administration often went in the other direction. This is because Trump had put Russia hawks in key positions, including Mike Pompeo as CIA director and John Bolton as national security adviser.” And further, “They visited Kyiv to underline their full support for the secret partnership, which expanded to include more specialized training programs and the building of additional secret bases.” Given the attempt to place Trump in a negative light (he had to be ‘tiptoed around’…), it will be interesting to see how he and his campaign respond to the report. But more consequential will be the reaction of Putin and the Kremlin in the coming days.

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“..Xi Jinping deliberately set about changing the structure of China’s economy in order to end a growth boom based solely on real estate and debt..”

Xi Isn’t Destroying China’s Economy – He’s Changing It (Fomenko)

If there’s one thoroughly unoriginal strand of thought on China present in the mainstream media today, it is the idea that China’s economy has been wrecked, and that Xi Jinping’s policies are to blame. Such commentary, pushed by every major mainstream outlet on a weekly basis, frequently promotes a narrative of the “end” of China’s rise, often talks about “decline” and squarely places responsibility on Xi Jinping, who supposedly ended the dynamic of an open and prosperous China for increasingly centralized, authoritarian rule and a return to communist fundamentals. Such an article was pushed this week by the editorial board of the Washington Post, in a piece titled “Xi is tanking China’s economy. That’s bad for the US”. The article was hardly original in its premise, stating the above argument pretty much word for word.

When this argument is pushed, it always conveniently ignores the broader context that the world economy is in dire straits, and moreover the more pressing elephant in the room, that American foreign policy has been deliberately detrimental if not outright antagonistic to global economic prospects as a whole. The idea of this narrative is to push the psychological warfare aspect that China is failing in order to dampen the optimism of businesses, undermine the Chinese economy and therefore push US foreign policy goals. This deliberately paints over the geopolitical, economic, and domestic considerations which have all driven a change in China’s own strategy and position. It is easy to denounce the “tyrannical rule of Xi Jinping” in a cliché and blame him for everything that has apparently gone wrong, but more difficult to paint an assessment as to why China’s internal and external environment today is not the same as it was ten years ago.

First, what is always, always ignored is that Xi Jinping deliberately set about changing the structure of China’s economy in order to end a growth boom based solely on real estate and debt. The newspapers love to waffle on about the “real estate crisis” and Evergrande, but can you imagine how big the problem would have been had previous policies been continued and China pushed for obscene 10% growth targets based on an explosion of debt? Xi Jinping ended this and initiated a process of deleveraging which deliberately slowed down China’s economic growth to around 6% when he came to power. Why? Because debt is not a sustainable mechanism and his policy has been literally to push the real estate industry into a managed recession, even if that has short-term repercussions.

Secondly, Xi Jinping’s policy has been to reinvent China’s economy to meet upcoming challenges by transforming it from a low end, export, real estate boom economy, into a high-end technological powerhouse. Instead of investing aimlessly in local government real estate booms, China has redirected state money to building up high-value industries including renewable energy, computing, semiconductors, automobiles, aviation, among other things. It is primarily this bid to become the global technological leader (by default of size) that has triggered the backlash from the US on an economic level and thus the bid to try and cripple China’s technological advance through export controls, which in fact show little evidence of working.

In addition to that, the global economic environment China operates in, has changed. The US has terminated its longstanding policy of open economic integration in favor of protectionism, bloc alignment, and the geopoliticization of supply chains. It has, in turn, created geopolitical conflicts with Russia and China and demanded its allies cut or reduce economic ties to the targeted countries. In doing so, the US has also attacked Beijing on a number of fronts using issues such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong as weapons to smear China’s image, implement sanctions, and of course an all-embracing campaign of negative publicity to create uncertainty and destroy the optimism of China’s rise.

These policies inevitably have consequences on Beijing, which makes the country feel less secure, more suspicious, and therefore less open to the outside world. That isn’t as much a possible indictment of Xi Jinping as it is a structural reality of politics. The CIA for example, is relentless in trying to strengthen its presence in China, but if China arrests someone or links them to spying, the media will respond by calling Beijing paranoid, insecure and coercive, showing how the narrative will skewer the country no matter what. However, the point still remains that it is more challenging for China to grow in this environment than it was before. New challenges create new policies, and when the mainstream media pretend that Xi is the instigator of all the change and “spoiling” China’s chances, they are simply lying on multiple levels. It is a multifaceted psychological warfare campaign which opts for simple explanations rather than telling you the bigger picture of why China changed.

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“Draghi stressed the necessity to channel European private savings, because “public money will never be enough..”

EU Must Find ‘Enormous Amount’ Of Money To Face Global Challenges – Draghi

The European Union needs to invest an “enormous amount of money in a relatively short time” to deal with the deep challenges the bloc is facing, former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Saturday. Draghi, who has been tasked with producing a high-level report on the EU’s competitiveness, met with EU ministers on Saturday in Ghent, Belgium, to discuss the best way to come up with the needed funds. He presented EU governments with his diagnosis: The three pillars the EU has relied on — energy from Russia, exports from China, and the U.S. defense apparatus — are no longer as solid as before, and on the green and digital transitions alone the EU would have to spend €500 billion a year.

The funding gap between Europe and the United States in terms of investment is equivalent to half a trillion euros a year, and a third of that would be public money, Draghi told the ministers, according to his assistant. All the participants appeared to agree on what needs to change to boost EU competitiveness, from lowering energy prices to reducing regulatory burdens, but divisions emerged when talking about public money. “They made clear that a lot of discussions would be needed in the months to come,” the Draghi aide said, adding that Draghi called for “bold action” on the matter of investments. Draghi stressed the necessity to channel European private savings, because “public money will never be enough,” but he also put on the table options to find funds at the EU level, according to the aide.

The EU could create a new common cash facility, such as debt or loans, or use private partnerships where the European Investment Bank would have a role to play. French President Emmanuel Macron and others support the idea of new common debt. EU Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni has pitched many times the idea of a sort of second Next Generation EU fund, but the proposal has not generated enthusiasm among all countries. Asked about the need for new common funds earlier this month, Germany’s Economy Secretary Sven Giegold told POLITICO: “It’s well known” that the German government is in favor of “increasing the spending path into research and development, climate, innovation and so on, which is certainly needed in global competition. But as you know, at the moment, about 70 percent of the EU budget does not go into these future-oriented sectors.”

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Trump the dictator has become a prominent narrative..

10 Ways A Second Trump Term Could Be More Extreme Than The First (Pol.)

Trump’s campaign has repeatedly dismissed media reports about his potential second-term agenda, saying in a statement in November that policy recommendations from his conservative allies “are certainly appreciated and can be enormously helpful” but “are just that — recommendations.” “Unless a second term priority is articulated by President Trump himself, or is officially communicated by the campaign, it is not authorized in any way,” the statement from campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said. But both supporters and critics of the ex-president predict that a reelected Trump would wage a more focused and aggressive attack on the status quo. This time, they say, he would be far more knowledgeable about the mechanics of wielding executive power. Having placed so many conservatives in federal judgeships, he would face less resistance from the courts. And he would be more determined to place loyalists, not rules-obsessed traditionalists, in senior roles.

Trump’s second term would be “dramatically more comprehensive and more aggressive and more determined to profoundly change the establishment,” said former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who wrote a 2017 book called “Understanding Trump.” The outside proposals drawing so much attention “are worth being aware of,” he said, “because they give you a sense of what it would mean to put Trumpism into effect.” President Joe Biden’s campaign said voters need to be informed about proposals that would “undermine democracy, rip away rights and freedoms, and make Americans’ lives as miserable as humanly possible if Trump is reelected.” “Americans should know the stakes of this election,” Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster said in a statement to POLITICO, “and Trump has made them as clear as day.”

These are among the policy changes that both fans and foes of the former president say people can expect if Trump wins in November: As a candidate, Trump has both claimed credit for the demise of Roe v. Wade and cast himself as a moderate on abortion rights — and he has frustrated anti-abortion groups by refusing to openly embrace or rule out a national ban. Yet those same groups, in collaboration with veterans of Trump’s previous administration, are drafting plans for a sprawling anti-abortion agenda that would all but outlaw the procedure from coast to coast, including in states whose laws or constitutions guarantee reproductive rights. The proposals would go far beyond his first-term anti-abortion policies — which Biden has since lifted — and would lean heavily on executive branch actions, bypassing a stymied Congress.

The prospect terrifies abortion rights supporters, who see a second Trump administration as a threat to all the work they’ve done during the last two years to restore and defend abortion access at the state level. Their reasons for worry grew after The New York Times reported this month that Trump has privately told aides and supporters that he could support a national abortion ban after the 16th week of pregnancy. “We cannot ballot initiative our way out of this fundamental crisis of rights,” said Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, one of many groups bracing for Trump and a Republican Congress to attempt to override state abortion protections. “I have no doubt that they would try to impose a federal abortion ban, restrict birth control, and do lots of things that are way out of step with what people in this country want.”

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From what I understand the system is far more precise than she lets on. It doesn’t place you somewhere in the neighborhood, but at an exact location.

Fani Willis Demands Judge Reject Cellphone Evidence (ZH)

Fulton County DA Fani Willis is reeling after evidence was submitted to the court suggesting that she and special prosecutor Nathan Wade lied about when their romantic relationship began. To recap, Wade and Willis claimed that their relationship began sometime in early 2022 – after Willis hired Wade to help her go after Trump in the Georgia election interference case. Wade’s cell phone records disprove their official story, however. As The Reactionary notes, “Trump’s attorneys were able to obtain, by subpoena to AT&T, Wade’s cell phone records from 1/1/2021 through 11/30/2021. Wade’s location data was analyzed by an investigator hired by the attorneys – an analytical tool which generated geolocation data that pinpointed Wade’s presence at DA Willis’s South Fulton Condo during that time period.

Here are the highlights: • Wade and Willis exchanged “over 2000 voice calls and just under 12,000 texts messages” from January 1, 2021 through November 30, 2021. • Geolocation data indicates Wade was at DA Willis’s condo “at least 35 occasions”. The data revealed he was “stationary” at the condo “and not in transit.” • Wade’s visits to DA Willis’s condo were corroborated by texts and phone calls. According to the report: On November 29, 2021, “following a call from Ms. Willis at 11:32 PM, while the call continued, [Wade’s] phone left the East Cobb area just after midnight and arrived within the geofence located on the Dogwood address [the condo] at 12:43 AM on November 30, 2021. The phone remained there until 4:55 AM.” • On September 11, 2021, Wade arrived at the condo address at approximately 10:45 PM. He left the address at 3:28 AM and arrived at his Marietta residence at 4:05 AM. He then texted DA Willis at 4:20 AM.”

Now, Fani wants the evidence tossed – claiming that some of the data is inadmissible for technical or procedural reasons. Willis argued in a response that the cell phone data fails to “prove anything relevant,” and should be tossed because it contains “both telephone records that have not been admitted into evidence and an affidavit and other documents containing unqualified opinion evidence.” Because of this, Willis argues that the court should exclude the new information, or at least consider her “rebuttal evidence that demonstrates the unreliability of the unqualified opinion evidence improperly introduced by Defendant Trump.” She also claims that the new evidence is inadmissible because the defense counsel provided no written notice of its introduction, no summary of the expert’s testimony, and no information as to the expert’s qualifications. And even if he’s legit, the phone records don’t prove anything.

“The records do nothing more than demonstrate that Special Prosecutor Wade’s telephone was located somewhere within a densely populated multiple-mile radius where various residences, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and other businesses are located,” she wrote, adding that the records may have even been obtained illegally. In a Saturday post to Truth Social, Trump argued that the new evidence shows that Willis is full of shit and should be disqualified. “Based on the fact that District Attorney Fani Willis and her Lover were together long prior to the filing date of their Fake Lawsuit against me and many other innocent people, despite their sworn testimony to the contrary, this case must be determined as OVER and, of no further force or effect,” he wrote. “Among other things, in close coordination and conjunction with the DOJ and White House (numerous 8-hour meetings between the Biden people and them in D.C.!), this case was all about stealing close to $1 Million Dollars for Lover Wade, and Election Interference, whereby a vicious and heinous attack is made on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent.”

Judge Kaplan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1761760801957044394

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Placing Assange in the tradition of Ellsberg and Seymour Hersh.

The Show Trial against Julian Assange (Scheidler)

The revelations of whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and journalists such as Julian Assange have shown that in the shadow of the so-called war on terror, a vast parallel universe has emerged in recent decades that is obsessed with the illegal spying on its own citizens and the arbitrary imprisonment, torture and killing of political opponents. This world is largely beyond democratic control, indeed it is undermining the democratic order from within. However, this development is not entirely new. In 1971, leaks revealed a secret FBI program for spying on, infiltrating and disrupting civil rights and anti-war movements, which became known as COINTELPRO. In the same year, the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers leaked by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, which showed that four successive US administrations had systematically lied to their citizens about the extent and motives of the Vietnam War and the massive war crimes committed by the US military.

In 1974, Seymour Hersh revealed the CIA’s secret programs to assassinate foreign heads of state and the covert operation to spy on hundreds of thousands of opponents of the war, which ran under the code name “Operation CHAOS”. Driven by these reports, the US Congress convened in 1975 the Church Committee, which carried out a comprehensive review of the secret operations and led to greater parliamentary control of the services. Julian Assange is part of this venerable journalistic tradition and has made a decisive contribution to its renewed flourishing. However, there is one important difference to the 1970s: Today, the most important investigative journalist of his generation is openly persecuted, criminalized and deprived of his freedom. When states declare the investigation of crimes to be a crime itself, society enters a dangerous downward spiral, at the end of which new forms of totalitarian rule can emerge. As early as 2012, Assange remarked, at the time with regard to the increasingly comprehensive surveillance technologies: “We have all the ingredients for a turnkey totalitarian state”.

If the US authorities succeed in convicting a journalist for exposing war crimes, this would have another serious consequence. In the future, it would become even more difficult and dangerous to expose the sordid reality of wars, especially those wars that Western governments like to sell as civilizing missions with the help of embedded journalists. If we do not learn the truth about these wars, it becomes much easier to wage them. Truth is the most important instrument of peace. Julian Assange has not yet been extradited and sentenced. Over the years, a remarkable international movement has formed for his release and the defense of press freedom. Many parliamentarians around the world are also raising their voices. The Australian parliament, for example, supported by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, passed a resolution by a large majority calling for Assange’s release. A group of over 80 members of the German parliament have joined in.

However, the German government is still refusing to exert any serious pressure on Joe Biden’s government, which continues to persecute Assange. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who as the Green Party’s candidate for chancellor had spoken out in favor of freeing Assange, has persistently avoided questions on the subject since joining the government. Her ministry has left questions from MPs about the case unanswered for months, only to then make elusive rhetorical excuses. The leading politicians of the governing German coalition, who like to loudly present themselves as the guardians of democracy and the rule of law, must finally take action in this case of political justice and unequivocally demand the release of Julian Assange before it is too late. However, this would require overcoming the cowering attitude towards the godfather in Washington and actually standing up for the much-vaunted values of democracy.

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“This is America. We can’t let this happen..”

If We Don’t Keep Sending Billions To Ukraine, The War Might End (BBee)

Congress issued a dire warning to the American people Friday, sternly reminding voters that if they do not keep sending billions of tax dollars to Ukraine, the war might end. “This is America. We can’t let this happen,” said Senator Chuck Schumer in a press conference. “Our donors at Lockheed Martin, General Dynamic, Teledyne, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Burisma are running out of patience. If we don’t inject their weapon supply chains with fresh cash immediately, Ukraine and Russia might be forced to broker a peace deal.” “I shudder at the thought.”

Foreign policy experts concurred that essential defense contractors and Ukrainian shell companies will run out of money to launder within a few weeks, which might force the hands of Russian and Ukrainian leaders to sign a peace treaty and stop slaughtering each other. “I don’t want to imagine a world where people on the other side of the globe aren’t killing each other with American weapons,” said Secretary of State Blinken. “I urge Congress to put aside their differences and support this endless war. For America.” At publishing time, Republicans had shown willingness to send more funding to Ukraine in exchange for a promise of future conversations to plan potential negotiations to secure the southern border maybe someday.

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Crow

 

 

Bus

 

 

Prince

 

 

Cat bottle

 

 

Monitor

 

 

KIndness

 

 

This intrigues me

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle February 26 2024

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 69 total)
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  • #153509

    Vincent van Gogh Pink peach trees (Souvenir de mauve) 1888   • Why War Bonds Are Returning in Europe (Luongo) • Surge of “Little Green Men,” and
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle February 26 2024]

    #153511
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Gaza

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    #153512
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Awaking Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed

    .

    #153513
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Leadership

    It doesn’t grow on trees

    .

    #153514
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Woke Turing Test

    Alan in his prime

    .

    “With all these new AI tools like ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini coming out it is worth considering how we can pressure test these tools in order to determine their ideological biases. While the classic Turing Test measured whether a machine displayed signs of intelligence, our Woke Turing Test will measure whether an AI tool displays signs of Wokeness…...”

    Welcome to the ……..

    .

    #153515
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Speaking of Woke DEI

    I’m sure MLK would have been all in on this

    You’ve come a long way baby

    .

    #153516
    Oroboros
    Participant

    2015 Obama’s Deputy Sec of State:

    “If you are playing on the military terrain of Ukraine, you’re playing to Russia’s strength because Russia is right next door.

    It has a huge amount of military equipment and military force right there on the border and anything we can do as countries for military support of Ukraine is likely to be matched then DOUBLED, and then TRIPLED and QUADRUPLED by Russia.”

    Period end quote.

    That was said in 2015 by none other than Obama’s Deputy Sec of State Anthony Blinken!

    Yes, that Anthony Blinken

    The present Murderous Guitar Playing Sec of State Blinken

    .

    #153517
    Dr. D
    Participant

    So Obama said and refused. Blinken said and refused. They know, and we know they know. So, what changed? Did it change in August, 2019, “And then a Miracle happened”?

    #153518
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon and others selling out, record high cash. Rates at 40x, Higher than ever in recorded history, while the contrast between stocks and bonds also at record highs.

    I’m sure it’ll all be fine. Buy buy buy. Stocks won’t move when Russia knocks all our F16s out of the air and bombs the Romanian airbase they flew from. Why should they? Nothing else has mattered, why not this too?

    “The Neocon who also is always pushing for war is Fiona Hill. Politico asked: “What happens to the West if Putin wins?” She responded: We’ll be at each others’ throats. There’ll be no way in which this is going to turn out well.”

    YOU will be at each other’s throats, that’s true. But WE won’t be. And I think you being at each other’s throats is the definition of a good time. I could watch you guys kill each other all day. So…there’s that.

    “Ukraine would have the right to attack with F16s on legitimate Targets IN RUSSIA.” — NATO. Feb 22 2024
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-will-have-right-to-strike-with-f-16s-on-legitimate-targets-in-russia-nato-chief/ar-BB1iHuMz?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=135a0a2ab1ed43aaa9224e3d05787b2f&ei=12

    “At first, we would provide F16s only to defend Ukraine. Now, after getting approval on those terms, they use the bail-and-switch routine as NATO now says Ukraine can fly directly into Russia to wage war as they pray for an excuse to start World War III. Even Newsweek has reported NATO grants Ukraine permission to invade Russia, knowing full well that Putin will be forced to respond. This is precisely what NATO wants – it is begging for Putin to PLEASE attack so we can start World War III ASAP. They want to create WWIII before the US election.”–Armstrong

    https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Tribune-POINT_Ukraine_can_win_here_s_how_and_91_more_pages_Personal_Microsoft_Ed.png?resize=768,552

    “Nobody seems ever to ask, what if Russia loses? Medvedev made it very clear:
    “Attempts to restore Russia’s 1991 borders will lead only to one thing – a global war with Western countries with the use of our entire strategic (nuclear) arsenal against Kyiv, Berlin, London, and Washington.”

    There you have it. We can have 1) Nuclear war or 2) a Nuclear war. Any questions?

    “CIA Built “12 Secret Spy Bases” In Ukraine & Waged Shadow War For Last Decade, Bombshell NYT Report Confirms

    Whaaaaaat? Other than the “Of course we did” this is all actually new and specific information. Like, “journalism.”
    I’m reeling, a little disoriented, having not seen it in almost 20 years running. Who’s not, leaking this (I’m sure a hundred thousand people know) but who is over at the CIA posting and permitting their employees – that is the entire NYT staff and all editors – to print it?

    I mean if you want out of Ukraine, now THIS is a way to accomplish that on a schedule. And so “America First” turned the battleship another degree again?

    “Huge NYT admission that Putin was basically right” –Commetary

    Being the NYTimes, which is to say, “Being the Public Relations wing of the CIA”, we have this:
    “Trump praised Putin and dismissed Russia’s role in election interference. He was suspicious of Ukraine and later tried to pressure its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to investigate his Democratic rival, Biden, resulting in Trump’s first impeachment.”

    This is how the lies work. Plausible, we focus on a number of items in that statement and how we should respond. I focus on the statement itself. Let’s translate:

    — Unlike everyone in the US for 20 years, Trump set a baseline of not pointlessly antagonizing Putin, indicating this with some harmless flattery.
    — He correctly assessed that Russia was not involved in the election, and that was ludicrous (Mueller Report), so there was nothing to see there, nothing to be mad at. However, Ukraine is well known to be the most corrupt nation in Europe if not the world (NYT) and a hotbed of Nazi sentiment, so he was “Suspicious” of this country well known to be the most corrupt, for that fact’s own sake, but also because as they chase Trump exclusively on “Corruption” and “He’s a Nazi” terms, because he can’t be related to that. So he’s suspicious of one of the most well-known criminals on earth.
    — He then did NOT pressure Zelensky to investigate – Ukraine’s own investigator, as well as the general media did. Technically, he was just asking ABOUT the widespread media reports.
    — Aaaaand the first and important part: BIDEN WAS NOT TRUMP’S POLITICAL RIVAL. In any way. He was not a Senator, he was not a candidate. At all. No member of his family was a representative or candidate. At all. Biden was already considered far too old – but also too unlikeable – to BE a candidate in the future, a fact that was demonstrated during his empty campaign many months later.
    I mean, unless once you throw your hat in the ring at 25, you can’t be investigated until you die? Which may be the “Political Norms” – i.e. total corruption – but is neither logical nor law.

    ONE paragraph from these guys. Every sentence is a wicked, vicious, deadly lie.

    “”But whatever Trump said and did, his administration often went in the other direction. This is because Trump had put Russia hawks in key positions,

    NYTimes then reports from then, from BEFORE his first day in office, until now – I read one this week – that Trump is a Putin Puppet. “I don’t know what they have on him” Hillary Clinton said. “Had on him that Trump then put key hawks in every position, armed and funded Ukraine aggressively, in the billions, merged our secret services, trained 400,000 troops, and gave them “illegal” Javelin missiles. I guess he works for Putin or something. HRC, NYT says so, right? Attacking Russia = Works for Russia.

    That’s the policy Putin wanted, right? A fully-armed, NATO merged Ukraine? Ethnically cleansing Russian language, religion, and people from a nation the size of Belgium? What more could Putin ask for?

    That’s what I read in the NY Times! Every day. We read this, but ALSO the #Opposite of this reality on every OTHER day of the last 8 years. All things and their Opposites are true. That’s AmericaLogic™, and we hate all those NASCAR Red Hat idiots who don’t “get it”. How uncool.

    Also entirely merged: “From CIA To ‘Trust & Safety’: The Silicon Valley-US Intel Revolving Door Is Bigger Than You Thought

    I don’t know, I think pretty big. Like “Total”. Surprise me. We are a proto fascist state with a complete merger of Corporation and state run by the Gestapo, which is the norm for fascist states, even as they’re being established and consolidated. Totally textbook, average, stupid and boring.

    “Two-thirds of young people would like to live under an explicitly socialist economic system…”

    That is, not a fascist merger of Corporation and State, but to the contrary: Of State and Corporation. That’s the complete #Opposite system!

    “Media Blackout Over Illegal Immigrant Who Murdered GA Student

    They kinda got in trouble in Kansas too, as people instantly said it was a color guy who did the NFL shooting because the police won’t report. Because, in that case, it was in a crowd, somebody saw him right away, they HAD a suspect. Ding ding ding!! Yup, also turned out to be black. Thought someone was lookin’ at him funny, he says.

    Like that guy in London who they DID know what he looked like, suspected who he was, but refused to post it so he got away. Now why do people think only White guys are bad? Can’t understand all this racial division. Where’s it all come from? A: “We just make it up.” Okay, fine, I’m with the part, “Why the heck does anyone believe it?”

    Orfela: I really need to watch his video that adds the “Stalemate” thing of the last four months to the fall of Avdiivka and like 5 other towns this week. That includes the landing base on the Dniepr, which they were letting exist because Ukraine was dumb enough to keep landing men there. I guess Russia got bored and basically took it back because there’s only two Ukrainians left. Robotnya was another, one of the only Ukr victories?

    Speaking of whopping lies, Milgram: Turns out his entire experiment was a fraud, but because it matches our daily experience – colored with nihilistic, post modern Emo that makes us feel cool – nobody bothered to look. So the REAL Milgram Experiment turns out to be we can fool ALL the people, ALL the time, and the smarter, cooler, and more different you think you are – not like those “dumb” people – the EASIER you are fooled. As all good con artists attest. Doctors easiest of all (sorry. They are the smartest, but also were stuck in school and institutions for decades and traditionally have the least street smarts) Milgram was an “expert” after all. A complete, data-fabricating, self-serving fraud, like everyone else at Yale. He didn’t even do it “for the money”. He’s not JUST a whore, he’s a cheap ghetto alley whore.

    “[Luongo puts] power relations on their head. With the demise of EU industry, we think the US is in charge. But:
    “..Europe wants the US to be a vassal after spending itself to death fighting the phantom menace of Putin.”

    The theory works, but now, is it TRUE?

    It would seem, since the EU from birth in 1960, and especially the founding and launch in 2000, all pointed at this ONE thing: consolidation of taxing and it’s Siamese twin, Military power. But they’ve been stymied at every turn. If this is not the issue, why does it keep coming up, and against all narratives, when all the established, public narratives contradict themselves? It sure ain’t for “Democracy”. The EU has shown in Greece and Italy it’s against Equality. It’s not for “The People” as they promote only the interests of corporations. And those corporations are very specific, they are not VW but DeutscheBank. They are anti-industry in a way, and radically pro-starvation and pro-death. With immigration, they are actually radically jihadi, anti”Europe”. These items just a few headlines in the EU being nothing at all what they claim. Nothing.

    So what are they ACTUALLY?

    If you follow which narratives are never crossed, never opposed, they are so very few that they stand out, although they are very quiet about them – another indicator but makes them hard to see. Eurobonds and a pan-Europe military accountable to no one, are two of them.

    Okay, IF this were true – again, we don’t know – we don’t get a lot out of Europe admitting it. However, their opponents will know, having inside intel. How would THEY respond? Are THEY acting like this is true? Naturally, his thesis is that, yes, the US Fed, Wall St, China, and others ARE acting as if this is true, and cutting them off. That’s the best we can guess for now.

    “international law grants the right to militarily strike a third party or nation state’s infrastructure that provides weapons and/or logistical support to an enemy during war.”

    Now I AM being a gadfly, here’s where Russia has screwed themselves. They’ve been painfully careful legally, and that means that Ukraine is not a war. Legally. And you understand their caution as they understand they may have the start WWIII and want the record, very, very clear. As yesterday, Putin will shut down anyone in Russia who claims it’s a real war. And in that, he is correct. IF it were a war, it would have several legal ramifications, but a key one is CERTAIN ESCALATION. However, the opposite is then true: as stated, no War means Russia can NOT bomb these other countries.

    However, be advised the Duma can declare a “War” in six hours; they’ve set the groundwork. And Putin can drop every F16, etc in the meantime because “Emergency Circumstances”. This part is just verbage, but important verbage. …Which means it will be denied and ignored by the West. EUROPE needs a nuclear world war to reset the board and escape with the loot.

    “• Ukraine War: Zelensky Says 31,000 Troops Killed (BBC)

    Well, they’re doing great and don’t need us then! They said they killed 400,000 Russians, at a 10:1 kill ratio. Maybe we should take back the weapons we already gave.

    Western Logic: start with the conclusion, the feelz, and work your way backwards to what needs to be true now. Don’t worry if what must be true today all conflicts. It’s the “Power of Positive Thinking” system of reality. Just “Think”, that is to say, “Lie” and grow rich! All you have to do is “Think” and like God, reality springs into being, fully made.

    Tell me, if someone walked into the ward and claimed this walking reality, would they not be committed? No? Only if they ALSO committed a million mass murders? So, what’s your excuse?

    “The CIA had control of the Kremlin under Yeltsin. They thought they had it made. Then they themselves selected Putin.”

    Yes, and you can still find video of all the Putin-haters gushing over him. Putin da bestest! You da man! Never discredited, reality no longer exists, as per previous sentence above. The entire West is seemingly Psychotic, a complete break from reality, or even the concept that “Reality” of any sort “Exists” at all.

    Reality: a place where everything and its opposite are all true at the same time, and all facts and rules change from minute to minute.

    “• Most Ukraine Aid ‘Goes Right Back’ To US – Nuland (RT)

    Wow, what a credit!

    “she stated, adding that support for Ukraine in America “is still strong.”

    Is it? Abstraction. You mean YOUR America. Among the 1% and the 535 people in D.C. that people in 95% of all counties would round up, arrest, and burn down D.C. as a message. “Strong” support indeed, a rousing cheer of true support, and American have “Strong” feelings about it.

    “Blinken also recently said that roughly 90% of the financial assistance for Ukraine is spent on domestic production of weapons and equipment.”

    Okay, back to this: So. WE spend the money. WE make the weapons, creating jobs. Great! …And when can we expect to be paid back? Oh wait, WE spent money, then BLEW UP that money, and are NOT expecting to get paid back, by Ukraine or anywhere else? Because WE printed the money? That’s what you’re saying right? “WE” did not SELL the weapons, you just said.
    Hey I’ve got an idea, instead of Printing a Billion, giving out $10 million in paychecks and blowing the rest up on pallets in a common bonfire, we create A BILLION in consumer goods and free housing? Then we’re $990,000,000.00 ahead!

    You just said WE can print the money. You just said we can make stuff. You just said we can give it away. Why can’t we give it away TO OURSELVES instead of only 10% of it? Because: Liberal Math. Numbers don’t exist. Who really knows what a “Two” is. It depends on your skin color and your feelings what “Two” really means and adds up to.

    Okay, and the rest of us? We read that article and now no longer even notice? Because we’ve become equally retarded, like “Brawdo’s got electrolytes” in Idiocracy? This NPR writer at RT doesn’t notice because he doesn’t notice the need to mention it, nor does anyone else, CNN, NBC, Fox, although they would not aspire to the level of “Idiocracy” soundin’ all faggy and talkin’ like a ‘tard n s—t. They’re much MUCH dumber than that and would ignore the subject altogether and call you a poopy-pants for asking, “My foot and your -ss. That’s my argument. How about that, whut?”

    “Zaluzhny argued for preserving lives over forfeitable territory, lest Ukraine lose its land and its army.”

    Translation: Zu is running “A Land War in Asia”, Ze is doing a Western NATO war. That makes sense, we know that, but this is what it looks like on the ground. There are whole ARMIES in Russian history that went out on expedition, marched for months, never saw or met the other army, the land being too big. So the LAND is irrelevant. You have to engage the MEN. Even the weapons are irrelevant, they come and go, trade owners.

    Maybe that makes sense in other view: Ukraine is the first nation of “Europe”. That is, solidly defined nation-states as you get from there to Ireland. So they see themselves as a nation defined by “A Border”, that is, a line on a map. Land. Russia, as Putin just discussed for half an hour as we all fell asleep, thinks of a “nation” in terms of an “Ethnicity”, a nation is an attribution of MIND. In the minds and orientations of men. If guys “In Ukraine” are Russian, then the land is practically, de facto, and logically “Russian”. …As proven by who can TAKE and KEEP it. The first nation that thought of themselves as “Western”, that is, paper + border existing maybe used to be Germany, because it sure ain’t Austria. Czech? Maybe that is the definition of “Western” vs “Eastern” Europe. But that border of Thought is now in Ukraine, many miles East. They are expressing their inner thoughts and beliefs on the battlefield and I guess we see who is right.

    ““..Xi Jinping deliberately set about changing the structure of China’s economy in order to end a growth boom based solely on real estate and debt..”

    It’s pretty dangerous, and painful as we see everywhere. Nvidia is higher than the whole Chinese market? Non-stop crashes and bankruptcies of huge items like “Evergrande”? Yet this is China, they do things differently. I can’t tell well enough. I think he’s out on the line, but it’s going okay and he has the support to make it. That can change. So one week “China will take us over” and the next week, “China is collapsing right now!!” Uh huh. Never discredited. When there’s no “Reality” no one is ever wrong.

    But essentially you have this problem which will overshadow all others: Chinese people work harder with less wasteful foolishness and illusion. They are legacy in size and trend of EVERY important product on earth, from steel to semiconductors. They own every industry, every metric, every school, and have no competition in anything I can think of. That’s like America was, and you can say we made crap stuff, lot of waste 1890-1960, but all better Euro goods in 1910 were just niche market, not relevant. That’s true of us and China now, each taking our turn on the wheel of history.

    So…until someone can displace, um, EVERYTHING, then China has unstoppable prevailing winds. Call me when we have the same number of ports, steel mills and chip manufacturers. Until then, nothing else matters. They’ve got serious problems and may reform, but this can’t be altered.

    “• 10 Ways A Second Trump Term Could Be More Extreme Than The First (Pol.)

    Waiting for him to do anything, the first thing from his first term. He could be a more extreme Russia attacker, I suppose.

    “Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster said in a statement to POLITICO, “and Trump has made them as clear as day.”

    Because: “Journalism”, no facts or examples, only feelz. WHAT is as clear as day, sir? What is the reference to your pronoun “It”? A: “we all know!” We’re the cool kids, it’s so lame of you to ask, loser.

    “has frustrated anti-abortion groups by refusing to openly embrace or rule out a national ban”

    He’s so extreme that he’s a Moderate! That’s real extremism these days!!!

    “The prospect terrifies abortion rights supporters, who see a second Trump administration as a threat”

    Then they are mouth-breathing retards. WHAT is Trump going to, or supposed to do? Have they never watched “I’m Just a Bill” or read Roe V Wade on Wikipedia? The PRESIDENT doesn’t “decide” things. He doesn’t “Make s—t up” you unhelpful retards. CONGRESS had 50 YEARS to pass a law. With 3 DNC supermajorities in that time? Too soon? Taking it away from them, the USSC just said the President CAN’T act on it, because it’s a State’s Rights. That’s not definitive BECAUSE Congress wants a law-by-never-passing-a-law, but that’s law today.

    Every day, every article: WHAT THE F—K ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???

    Cray
    https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/crazy-pills.com_-300×208.jpg

    He’s a Moderate, and worse a CLINTON moderate, very slightly to the Left. He’s pro gun control, pro-federal, and all the other moderate DNC positions from 1960-2010 before they went bat s—t insane launching AmRev 2.0 under Obama to collapse the U.S.
    Yes, that’s preferable right now, and also there’s no risk because that won’t happen in 4th Turning conditions either. But it makes entire articles, all pundits clearly raving Insane. I’ve had my fill of raving insane for the year 2024, or indeed my life.

    “• Xi Isn’t Destroying China’s Economy – He’s Changing It (Fomenko)

    Let’s revise this by saying the same thing of the United States. Suppose Davos doesn’t get AmRev2.0. We will have greatly changed as we normalize and move forward again. When Fed collapses and the EBT cards are shut off, we will instantly sort all the working migrants. from the unworking ones. A low-cost dollar 1:1 Yuan will make us competitive, which cannot be overcome with any action without dropping the “reserve currency” as it were. In that case, house prices will equalize to wages. We will remain in a muddle, between extremes, as we’re seeing already with IVF and is likely to (illegally) persist in gun rights. …We’re unlikely to authorize nuclear weapons and anti-aircraft rockets for example, although they are not prohibited. Everyone will be fine with this.

    You can’t only look at the challenges, all these problems are easily solved. Because they’re all being caused or exaggerated on purpose. With lies. Anyway, WE are not “Destroying” America, our economy, we are “Changing” it. …As a response to Davos/WEF/Socialist attempted world takeover. We wouldn’t have done that, done this, but too late. It’s past tense. So when we win it will be a different country than 1950-2000. 4th Turning. Different 1870 from 1800-1860. Different 1870-1910 to 1920. And so now too. Oh well. I can’t stop it and neither can you.

    “• EU Must Find ‘Enormous Amount’ Of Money To Face Global Challenges – Draghi

    MONEY? What a retard! You have “Money”; you do nothing but print it all day long. What you lack is “Energy” and “Cooperation”, otherwise known as “Colonialization.” He’s saying “We need our MONEY to be accepted and create action and obedience through the world.” The “Money” he needs is “Investment” that is to say, human interest in his projects and human support for their plans and people. China building a bridge in Europe and having an interest in it as it’s paid back.

    “The funding gap between Europe and the United States in terms of investment is equivalent to half a trillion euros a year, “

    To Luongo, the funding due to U.S. reserve currency status is like 40%. In contrast, Europe needs to find 80% of its bond sales. That seems insurmountable in a crisis. Europe dies FIRST, although we may freeze up the day after. But you see, we have oil, mines, manufacturing, cheap electric to restart with and Europe doesn’t.

    “The EU could create a new common cash facility,”

    How? This is Western central: What is ¿“The EU could”? What “EU”? As name-stealers, they swap, bait and switch, change, redefine names and have all definitions a la carte at once. They say kick “Russia out of Europe”, Ukraine is “Joining Europe” Etc. Their own structures have + three-interbaffling levels. There are people in Schengen, the customs Union, in the currency, in the EU, both, neither, and all. Then they turn on and shut off each rule randomly. In short, they are f—-g lunatics. They make the U.S. look honest and well-adjusted, and that’s really saying something. No one would think that was possible if they weren’t over there doing it.

    So what “EU” are you talking about? With a Bank that has no currency, no gold reserves, no taxing power, no common market? THEY are just going to “Print money”? And what will Greece, France, German people say about that? They’ll say “The heck you will” and riot. Past tense.

    The EU’s whole problem is that they CAN’T create a “new common cash facility” as Armstrong told them in 1999. They needed to NOT LIE and pass a real EU with a real referendums, but that would have required not screwing the people to get support and that’s just unthinkable.

    “French President Emmanuel Macron and others support the idea of new common debt”

    Right here. Macron is admitting they don’t have a common debt, nor any means for one. They’re working on it and don’t have a fix yet. Even now. Without a common debt, they can’t “Just Print” anything, although they have found every loophole, legal and illegal, it’s not fixing it.

    “Judge Lewis Kaplan Ruled Donald Trump Was Guilty Of Raping E. Jean Carroll”

    Did people not know this? That one guy “Just said”? No jury trial, which is illegal, Constitutional, and was requested? Yeah, the real problem is there are so many of these, and so many more each day, that we can’t voice and get to them all. That’s what happens when people are “Not arrested.” They commit more crimes, duh. Why ever stop? NY Governor says this is all perfectly fine, she approves, don’t overreact. Every company in NY is leaving, all overseas investment is re-positioning to anyplace resident or held outside NY. But it takes time and won’t be attributed to this as they don’t need retribution.

    “German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who as the Green Party’s candidate for chancellor”

    Nothing is Greener than war. Ask Dresden and Stalingrad. Green paradise.

    Assange Quote: that’s what Craig Murray said yesterday as well. The problem he didn’t consider was that everyone in the whole West are gleeful mass-murdering psychopaths. “Courage” is a big word here, although I would use it too. The “Problem” is that there are so many gleeful mass-murdering psychos that anyone with even 1% of courage would be shot in the face along with every member of their family. So it’s really tactical. It’s not THAT we have courage, it’s HOW we have courage.

    Prince: Maybe it’s because he’s Upper Midwestern. Handsome young fellow tho.

    Kindness: Probably the Upper Midwest.
    Why? Because often you’d be dead before the next car arrives.

    Okay, recap because important: Big insiders selling. Record disconnect between stocks and bond predictions. Ukraine lost, means Europe collapses. They need to start a nuclear war to not be chucked out, held responsible and hung. But when Russia nukes London and DC over those F16s, the Dow will probably go 40,000 right? No risk here, Buy buy buy.

    #153519
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Should have said Metrics, like Price-earnings are at 40x, all time highs. CRE are selling at 50%-80% down already.

    Here: hold this bag. It’ll be just a minute.

    #153520
    Oroboros
    Participant

    You will Own Nothing

    • EU Must Find ‘Enormous Amount’ Of Money To Face Global Challenges – Draghi

    The Euroturds are going to confiscate private savings to build a centralized EU military and control grid.

    Kiss your Euroturd asses Goodbye!

    .

    #153521
    Just Some Randomer
    Participant

    Well…..that’s interesting.

    https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1762107989241078163

    Nalvany ‘Died Suddenly’ of a Blood Clot – says Ukrainian intelligence. Two of my favourite ‘Conspiracy Theories’ unite in a pleasing manner.

    #153522
    John Day
    Participant

    About the 31,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers (1/15 most estimates)

    Dima @ Military Summary channel hypothesizes that “31,000 dead” and 300,000 “demobilized” numbers can be manipulated to demobilize 31,000 soldiers to be recruiters (press gangs) on the streets, already being battle-hardened, while claiming to demobilize 300,000, and while pressing as many men and women into service as can be forcibly conscripted…
    This would be a way to “manage” reality, but reality may intervene at end of March.

    #153523
    John Day
    Participant

    @Just Some Randomer: “Navalny dead from COVID vaccine now up to 2:5 odds on latest news”.

    #153527
    zerosum
    Participant

    Prospective.
    The rest is just noise.

    (Problem with posting.
    You know the trick, remove the space to go to the link)
    1. Over millions of years, all “Life” has been conditioned to survive/adapt to extreme variation of weather/conditions.
    2. Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.
    3. Humanity’s war/genocides/depopulations/activities have minor impact on life on earth.
    4. Humanity’s manipulation of energy will temporarily impact the total energy distribution.
    5. Life is a mechanism for the storage/accumulation/transferring of energy through space and time.
    ————-
    Secrets require lies
    https:// http://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/cia-built-12-secret-spy-bases-ukraine-waged-shadow-war-last-decade-bombshell-nyt

    The disclosure of the longtime “closely guarded secret” the world just got a big step closer to WW3, given it means the CIA is largely responsible for the effectiveness of the recent spate of attacks which have included direct drone hits on key oil refineries and energy infrastructure.

    While the lengthy NYT report is full of fresh revelations and confirmation of just how deeply the CIA has always been involved in Ukraine, below are seven of the biggest, (secrets), contained in the story…

    Description of secret spy bunker
    Elite commando force
    Ukraine transformed into an “intelligence-gathering hub”
    Huge NYT admission that Putin was basically right
    2014 Coup… and Crimea
    a program called ‘Operation Goldfish’
    A stunning admission: “Tiptoeing Around Trump”

    (behinnd a paywall)
    https:// http://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/world/europe/cia-ukraine-intelligence-russia-war.html
    ———
    https:// twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1761787987187097896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1761787987187097896%7Ctwgr%5E3cdf56f032b73b973f9a250459a469d2d7ca7d81%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fcia-built-12-secret-spy-bases-ukraine-waged-shadow-war-last-decade-bombshell-nyt
    8:19 AM · Feb 25, 2024 759.2K Views
    ————–

    #153528
    zerosum
    Participant

    “..Xi Jinping deliberately set about changing the structure of China’s economy in order to end a growth boom based solely on real estate and debt..”

    • Xi Isn’t Destroying China’s Economy – He’s Changing It (Fomenko)

    https:// swentr.site/news/593120-xi-china-economy-destroy/
    Such an article was pushed this week by the editorial board of the Washington Post, in a piece titled “Xi is tanking China’s economy. That’s bad for the US”. The article was hardly original in its premise, (behind a paywall)
    https:// http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/21/china-economy-demographics-us-china-trade/ )
    ————-
    What happened – What is good for CIA is not good for Assange
    https:// scheerpost.com/2024/02/26/the-show-trial-against-julian-assange/
    The Show Trial against Julian Assange
    by EDITOR February 26, 2024
    By Fabian Scheidler / Substack

    As a journalist, Julian Assange has published hundreds of thousands of files documenting war crimes committed by the USA and its allies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo and elsewhere. The authenticity of the documents is beyond question. However, none of the perpetrators have been brought to justice or convicted. In contrast, the messenger has been incarcerated in a high-security prison in London for five years with life-threatening health problems, having previously spent seven years locked up in the Ecuadorian embassy. He has been charged with no crime in the UK, in any EU country or in his home country of Australia. The only reason for his grueling deprivation of liberty is that the US government has initiated extradition proceedings accusing the journalist Assange of espionage, invoking a law dating back more than a hundred years to the First World War: the Espionage Act.
    ———–
    Peace, Stop the money, CIA must Force the hands of Russian and Ukrainian leaders to sign a peace treaty and stop slaughtering each other.
    ———–

    #153529
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Navalny dead from COVID vaccine

    As my childhood minister often said, “The Lord works in Mysterious ways”

    Hahahahahaha

    Manage Reality strikes again!

    .

    #153530
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    About those CIA bases in Ukraine.

    Even America’s closest friends (such as they are) have to admit this is a bad look.

    So, does that mean Russia didn’t “invade” anyone, but was clearly defending itself from unprovoked military aggression?

    I suppose that means the anti-Russia sanctions have to be dropped, and the hundreds of Billion in “frozen assets” have be thawed out and returned to owner.

    I have no idea how they’re going to unkill all those soldiers, women and children, but that’s a question for another day, isn’t it? Pray that the day comes quickly because that’s a question that warrants some justice.

    #153532
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    Aaron Bushnell.

    Integrity. Purpose. Courage. -> Align. In the action of spontaneous combustion.

    In to the LIGHT.
    Dear ONE.

    My eyes are on you. Standing. YOU are LOVED.

    Aaron Bushnell Burned Himself Alive To Make You Turn Your Eyes To Gaza

    #153534
    DarkMatter
    Participant
    #153535
    John Day
    Participant

    Diversity Is Legitimacy https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/diversity-is-legitimacy

    ​ The Real Problem at Yale Is Not Free Speech​ , Natalia Dashan August 5, 2019
    ​ When I saw him, he was outside Payne Whitney. Nothing about the tall, gray façade suggests it is the university gym, unless there is a new trend of contractors housing athletics departments in Gothic cathedrals. You wouldn’t guess by looking at the frosted glass panes and arches that the third floor hosts the world’s largest suspended indoor swimming pool. It is a work of art, like the rest of Yale’s buildings.
    Marcus was smoking by a bench, his face jaundiced from three packs that day. This is atypical for Yale students—most abstain from smoking. There was no reason for him to smoke so much, just as there was no reason for me to ride around campus on a blue Razor scooter. But Yale students tend to have such quirks. His suit-jacket was dusty and smelled of sweat—he didn’t mind lifting weights in a dress shirt and trousers if that meant more time to read Nietzsche alone at the bar.
    When I hugged him, he felt skeletal. I asked if he had eaten today. He assured me that his earthly requirements were limited—no need for anything other than alcohol and cigarettes. “I can buy you a sandwich.” He refused. I insisted. A nice one. Bacon and egg. Or steak and cheese. I was testy now. “GHeav is right there. I’ll be back in six minutes.”
    He turned his face towards me, warm with friendliness—and with one sentence, he changed our relationship forever.
    “You know I’m rich, right?”
    “What?”
    “You know I have a trust fund, right? I can buy my own sandwich if I wanted it.”
    This is the moment when after three years of friendship, Marcus sat down and told me his life story. His cottages in Norway. Sneaking into the family study. Learning about the cost of hardwoods and hearing his boorish, critical father sulk in 5-star hotel rooms.
    Marcus did not act this way out of anxiety, grief, stress, or because he had nobody to tell him his habits will kill him. He lived as a starving writer not out of necessity, but for the aesthetic. Out of some desire to imitate the Bohemian 19th century writers. Out of artistry. Style. Intentional choice.
    In terms of income at Yale, I was in the bottom 2%. And the people to whom I extended my generosity did not need it, whatsoever. This is mildly entertaining, but not the point. This is not a story about me, or about Marcus, or about our amusing adventures at Yale.
    This is a story about an institution and an elite that have lost themselves…
    ..Over the past decade, elite colleges have been staging grounds for what Matthew Yglesias has termed the Great Awokening. Dozens of scandals have illustrated a stifling new ideological orthodoxy that is trickling down into the rest of society through HR departments, corporations, churches, foundations, and activist organizations. The nation is becoming polarized and its parts disconnected. The right is evil, and the left is stupid. Or is it the other way around?
    The campus “free speech” debate is just a side-effect. So are debates about “diversity” and “inclusion.” The real problems run much deeper. The real problems start with Marcus and me, and the masks we wear for each other…
    ..The story of how I ended up at Yale is not typical. Yale’s tuition costs $50,000 per year, but if a student’s parents earn less than $60,000, they can attend virtually for free. This means that for the poorer subset of American society, Yale is not just cheaper than the state school, but cheaper than community college. Through the magic of the universe, I figured this out, and I wanted to go. I wanted to leave my small town, and I had the SAT score to try.
    Based on statistics from the class of 2013, approximately 2% of students hailed from the lowest income quintile, while 69% came from the top 20%. How did those poor students fare after graduation? Around 2% of students at Yale move from the bottom to the top quintile. In other words, nearly all of them. You show up poor, and you leave rich. Going to an Ivy League school may be the fastest way to join the upper class.
    But this low number of 2% surprised me because when I was at Yale, everybody kept talking about how broke they were.
    “Want to go out for brunch?” “I can’t—I’m so broke.” This was a common line. Sometimes the conversations had a more accusatory tone. “Wow, you took a taxi to the airport? I always take the subway.”…
    ..What is the point of this new ideology? This ideology is filled with inconsistencies and contradictions, because it is not really about ideological rigor. Among other things, it is an elaborate containment system for the theoretical and practical discontent generated by the failures of the system, an absolution from guilt, and a new form of class signaling. Before, to signal you were in the fashionable and powerful crowd, you would show off your country-club membership, refined manners, or Gucci handbags. Now, you show how woke you are. To reinforce their new form of structural power, people dismiss the idea that they even have the older, more legible forms of status. They find any reverse-privilege points they can, and if they are cis-white-men, they pose as allies. On an institutional level, the old ways of legitimizing power are gone, and the new motto is this: diversity is legitimacy.​..
    ..There is a deep comedy to this sort of signaling. Only around 2% of the student body was in the bottom 20% of American society, and yet extremely wealthy Singaporean students who had spent just a few years in America marched in the street and referred to themselves as “people of color.” People’s experiences were ignored when they volunteered information that countered the main narrative, because the surface-level debate wasn’t the point. The point was to signal that you were with the program. Only a select and secret group of student “leaders”—who were already savvy enough to engage comfortably with hierarchy—were invited in to chat with administrators.
    Shouting from the rooftops that “They aren’t doing enough!” is much easier than following any traditional system of elite social norms and duties, let alone carefully re-engineering that system to reestablish order in a time of growing crisis.
    Western elites are not comfortable with their place in society and the responsibilities that come with it, and realize that there are deep structural problems with the old systems of coordination. But lacking the capacity for an orderly restructuring, or even a diagnosis of problems and needs, we dive deeper into a chaotic ideological mode of coordination that sweeps away the old structures.
    When you live with this mindset, what you end up with is not an establishment where a woke upper class rallies and advocates for the rights of minorities, the poor, and underprivileged groups. What you have is a blind and self-righteous upper class that becomes structurally unable to take coordinated responsibility. You get stuck in an ideological mode of coordination, where no one can speak the truth to correct collective mistakes and overreaches without losing position…
    ..Let’s take down the Man. They say this in front of their PowerPoints. They clink champagne glasses. Let’s take down the Man! But there is no real spirit of revolution in these words. It is all in the language they understand—polite and clean, because it isn’t really real. It is a performative spectacle about their own morale and guilt.
    If you were the ruler while everything was burning around you, and you didn’t know what to do, what would you do? You would deny that you are in charge. And you would recuperate the growing discontented masses into your own power base, so that things stay comfortable for you…
    ..The capacity to really think through what an alternative should look like, and create one, is so rare as to be effectively nonexistent. Instead, idealists are forced to take the easy way of just going along with dominant ideological narratives of what it means to do good. They feel guilty about their wealth and privileges, and feel that they won’t be doing their part unless they do something very altruistic, and the idealistic ideologies reinforce these feelings. So they go overboard, and rush headlong into whatever they are supposed to do. They purport to speak for and be allied with underprivileged groups. They get their professors fired for minor infractions. They frantically tear down whatever vestiges of the old institutions and hierarchies that they can, and conspicuously feel guilty about the rest.
    These are the people who buy clothes from Salvation Army and decline your Sunday brunch invitation because it’s too expensive, sometimes with the implication that they are saving their money to donate to more effective causes, if they aren’t pretending not to have it. They are the people who might attack or cut off their friends for ideological reasons. They discharge their personal responsibility by sacrificing everything outside of their distant mission, including friendships and social fabric…
    ..But ultimately, by going along with the narratives of an ideology that can efficiently capture these impulses, but has no structural ability to deliver on its promises, it just diverts more energy from what a normal benevolent elite should be doing…
    ..Now we can begin to understand the real problem at Yale. It is not free speech—and it is not non-inclusivity. The standards of reality, and the standards of morality not based solely on being woke, are ousted. That’s because the conventional standards of elite morality, based on responsible use of power—actually responsible, not just a convenient feeling of doing good—are much harder, and based on the very self-consciousness that everyone is trying to avoid…
    ..Yale is having an existential crisis. Students are taught to break the system, but Yale doesn’t even want to teach them what the original system is, what it was for, or how to productively replace it. The university is so lacking in vision that it doesn’t even know what the ideal student looks like, or what it wants to teach them…
    ..Students are demanding more mental health resources. A new wellness space was created with bean-bag chairs and colored walls. But the real sources of unhappiness are more systemic. They are rooted in uncertainty about the future.
    If Yale students are uncertain about the future and their role in it, what does that say about the rest of society? …
    ..Yale will not be replaced any time soon. Its worldwide brand recognition is worth trillions. And Yale’s role as an institution older than the Republic is important. It is the preserver of cultural knowledge. While Stanford can produce entrepreneurs, it still falls to Yale to produce the bulk of Supreme Court justices.
    ..Current Yale administrators have a sense of self-preservation for themselves and their corporation, but not for what made them great in the first place. They are quick to appease students, when they go along with the new zeitgeist, as if students and the latest wokeness were the preservers of cultural knowledge. This is the key to understanding why beloved faculty members can end up purged, against all public sentiment. Whether out of ideological commitment or hard-nosed realpolitik, these apparatchik administrators, bolstered by a minority of students, have effectively outmaneuvered their rivals. In doing so, they have also accelerated the tearing down of Yale’s institutional legacy and undermined its historical mission.
    If they were confronting a university and student body with a powerful commitment to that mission, things might be different. But they aren’t…
    ..The same vacuum of awareness crops up again and again, influencing both people and institutions, until they are unable to even grasp the potential of their position. Without doing that, rebuilding a shared set of goals around which to coordinate on a large scale will remain impossible.
    Yale is supposed to be using its power and reputation to set standards for excellence, but instead it is abandoning its responsibilities and getting embroiled in controversy after controversy. Yale is not special in this regard—other colleges are also often embroiled in controversies. But the controversies of top colleges matter most because they determine what is acceptable for everybody else.
    And what’s happening at Yale reflects a crisis in America’s broader governing class…
    https://letter.palladiummag.com/p/the-real-problem-at-yale-is-not-free

    ​ Yale Reinstituting Standardized Tests For Admission
    ​I​t was reported last week that Yale is once again instituting standardized tests for admission after years of keeping them optional for “DEI” reasons.
    ​ The university’s undergraduate admissions dean announced a change in their student selection process amidst ongoing debate over the efficacy of traditional tests. Critics argue these exams don’t fully capture a student’s potential, suggesting high school GPAs as a more accurate measure. The move, seen as a step towards fairness for disadvantaged students, aligns Yale with institutions like Harvard, MIT, and Dartmouth, which have already adjusted their admissions policies, according to The Daily Mail.​…
    ..”Simply put, students with higher scores have been more likely to have higher Yale GPAs, and test scores are the single greatest predictor of a student’s performance in Yale courses in every model we have constructed,” he said.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/yale-reinstituting-standardized-tests-admission

    #153536
    John Day
    Participant

    UN, West just watching Israeli crimes in Gaza for 140 days: Turkish President Erdogan
    Even UN Security Council does not and cannot call for an immediate cease-fire, says Recep Tayyip Erdogan
    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/un-west-just-watching-israeli-crimes-in-gaza-for-140-days-turkish-president-erdogan/3146702

    Sexual abuse and beatings: A Palestinian mother’s ordeal in Israeli custody
    A woman abducted by Israeli forces from a school in Gaza recalls her harrowing experience in detention
    “They asked me many questions about my family, my husband and my siblings,” Hussain recalled.
    “The soldiers kept threatening to hurt my children, shouting at me that if I don’t tell the truth, they will torture and kill my kids.​”
    “They kept asking about my brothers and sisters. One of my brothers is a lawyer and two others are professors and one is a doctor and one barber. They are working people, they have no connection to anything else. They kept insisting that they were ‘activists’, and when I asked what they meant, they said I knew the answer.
    “During the interrogations, they tied me to a chair and a female soldier stood next to me, kicking me and shoving me with her weapon to answer properly.​”
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sexual-abuse-and-beatings-palestinian-mothers-ordeal-israeli-custody

    How Israeli settlers are exploiting Gaza conflict to seize more Palestinian land in the West Bank
    https://www.arabnews.com/node/2466026/middle-east

    ​ Gaza faces famine as Israel blocks aid, breaching food rights treaties
    ​ Early treaties by international organizations include the right to food among fundamental human rights, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 recognizing it as a basic human right. The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 1966 further guaranteed the right to freedom from hunger, making it the most comprehensive treaty addressing the right to food.
    ​ A report highlighted that the framework for realizing the right to food obligates parties to take necessary measures to provide food and alleviate hunger, particularly in emergencies. International instruments mandate countries to ensure food provision and sustainability, allowing access through all means and providing healthy food to all groups without discrimination.
    ​ The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also noted that numerous provisions of international humanitarian law pertain to providing food in armed conflict situations. Prohibitions include starving civilians as a means of warfare or combat, as well as depriving populations of food sources and supplies.
    https://www.jordannews.jo/Section-20/Middle-East/Gaza-faces-famine-as-Israel-blocks-aid-breaching-food-rights-treaties-34458

    Aaron Burned Himself To Make Us Look At Gaza
    An active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, in apparent protest of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which he described as a “genocide.”
    The burn victim, who identified himself in video of the incident as 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell, reportedly succumbed to his injuries on Sunday night.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/02/aaron-burned-himself-to-make-us-look-at-gaza.html#more

    #153537
    John Day
    Participant

    Aaron

    Thich

    #153538
    John Day
    Participant

    ​June 11, 1963, in front of the US Embassy in Saigon, Thích Quảng Đức burned himself to death, in peaceful protest.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c

    Former Prime Minister Urges Israelis To ‘Besiege The Knesset’ To Oust Netanyahu
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/former-prime-minister-urges-israelis-besiege-knesset-oust-netanyahu

    ​ The Christian Zionist view from last Thursday: No, Virginia, Trump Has Not Lost A Step​ , Roger L. Simon
    ​ I was in the audience of two thousand plus at Nashville’s Opryland on Feb. 22 when Mr. Trump addressed the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) for more than an hour and a half with nary a stumble, consulting a teleprompter or extemporizing as he wished.​ He was also wittier than anyone on late night television…
    ​..Mr. Trump delivered a speech that was, in part, what many of us had heard before but skewed slightly to emphasize his Christianity and, probably consequently, his deep-seated love and defense of Israel.​ He stated he “fought harder for Christians than any president has done before.”​…
    ..Mr. Trump’s evolution has led him to affirm his religious faith emphatically as he did that night with statements like “Our allegiance is to our Creator. They [the Democrats] don’t get that.” Or: “They can’t stand we don’t answer to bureaucrats in Washington. We answer to God in Heaven.”…
    ​..Who did accompany him, the sole person he invited to join him on stage—he often invites many—was his former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.
    ​ Mr. Friedman was greeted with utmost warmth and applause by an audience largely of evangelicals who are known as the greatest friends of Israel, not only in our country but arguably anywhere. (There were also a few religious Jews I spotted in the audience wearing their yarmulkes.)​ Mr. Friedman saluted his former boss, saying, “Mr. President, you are the greatest friend Israel ever had.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/no-virginia-trump-has-not-lost-step

    Former Democrat lawmaker endorses Trump for US president​ , Tulsi Gabbard has been listed among the leading Republican candidate’s possible running mates
    https://www.rt.com/news/593028-tulsi-gabbard-cpac/

    ​ Why Possible Trump VP Pick Tulsi Gabbard Is Visiting Mar-a-Lago Soon
    ​ Ms. Bryan asserts: the former Hawaii congresswoman’s March 7 appearance at the ritzy resort in Palm Beach, Florida, is unrelated to President Trump’s big announcement involving Ms. Gabbard and others.
    ​ On Feb. 20, President Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, revealed at a Fox News town hall in Greenville, S.C., that Ms. Gabbard, a former Democrat, had made his “short list” of possible running mates.
    ​ Long before that revelation, Ms. Bryan had been in contact with Ms. Gabbard about serving as a guest speaker for the group’s annual gala.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-possible-trump-vp-pick-tulsi-gabbard-visiting-mar-lago-soon

    #153539
    John Day
    Participant

    CIA Built “12 Secret Spy Bases” In Ukraine & Waged Shadow War For Last Decade, Bombshell NYT Report Confirms​ (Not just bioweapon labs.)
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/cia-built-12-secret-spy-bases-ukraine-waged-shadow-war-last-decade-bombshell-nyt

    ​At the 2 year mark of the Special Military Operation, Ukraine has burned through 2 or 3 NATO-trained & equipped armies, extinguishing about 450,000 Ukrainian human lives, and most of the available loose military equipment and ammunition in Europe, the US, and even some from Israel. Funding has been cut off since early December. Morale is so low that exhausted Ukrainian soldiers are fleeing or surrendering, rather than fighting. The 1200 km line of contact is crumbling wherever Russian forces advance. Ukrainian (Patriot missiles and such) air defenses have been so degraded that Russian planes can rain down the huge 1000# to 3000# “FABs”, fuel air bombs, remotely-targeted with satellite guidance and glide-wing kits. The Ukrainian army is not able to set up new defensive lines or hold defensive lines under devastating attack. The month of mud will soon arrive, but Russian FABs and long range artillery will not be impaired, nor will precision Russian missiles and drones. Zelensky’s presidency ends at the end of March. He says he will remain in office, due to the emergency. Many think he will not, but will have to accept blame. A successor may negotiate peace with Russia.
    ​ Avdeevka Denouement: Russian Momentum Turning Point
    https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/avdeevka-denouement-russian-momentum

    ​ “Like A Warzone”: Farmers Surround EU Headquarters Building
    ​ The mephitis of manure, melting tires and malodorous teargas pervaded downtown Brussels this Monday morning as angry farmers encircled the European Union’s headquarters. This protest coincides with a meeting of the bloc’s agriculture ministers. The farmers are expressing their anger over the EU’s disastrous green policies.
    Hundreds of Belgian farmers on tractors clogged roadways around the European Council building. Videos posted on X show the chaotic scenes…
    ​ “There is a clear problem with the reduction of the import tariffs for Ukraine and massive imports of grain and poultry which depresses the prices,” said Guillaume Van Binst, secretary general of the Federation of Young Farmers. Guillaume added: “The measures proposed by the commission are very weak and it is more passing the hot potato to member states.” …
    ..EU leaders are scrambling to defuse this ticking timebomb of social unrest spreading across the bloc. They are taking steps to reduce red tape and delay some green rules. “It can always go more quickly, But we’re already working faster than usually.” David Clarinval, Belgium’s agriculture minister, told reporters Monday. Clarinval said, “One can understand the anger of the farmers. One can also understand that some are in a difficult situation. But aggression has never been a source of solutions.”​ (Oh, Really?)
    ​https://www.zerohedge.com/political/things-are-heating-farmers-surround-eu-headquarters-building

    ​ EU must find ‘enormous amount’ of money to face global challenges, ​(​former Goldman Sachs banker, Mario) Draghi says
    ​ He presented EU governments with his diagnosis: The three pillars the EU has relied on — energy from Russia, exports from China, and the U.S. defense apparatus — are no longer as solid as before, and on the green and digital transitions alone the EU would have to spend €500 billion a year. The funding gap between Europe and the United States in terms of investment is equivalent to half a trillion euros a year, and a third of that would be public money…
    ​..Draghi called for “bold action” on the matter of investments.​.. Draghi stressed the necessity to channel European private savings, because “public money will never be enough,” but he also put on the table options to find funds at the EU level, according to the aide.​ (“Find” funds?)
    ​ The EU could create a new common cash facility, such as debt or loans, or use private partnerships where the European Investment Bank would have a role to play. ​(Rothschild banker) French President Emmanuel Macron and others support the idea of new common debt.
    https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-must-find-enormous-amount-of-money-to-face-global-challenges-draghi-says/

    Crisis Can’t Be Solved in Few Hours, Macron Tells Enraged Farmers Who Stormed Agri-Fair in Paris
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20240224/crisis-cant-be-solved-in-few-hours-macron-tells-enraged-farmers-who-stormed-agri-fair-in-paris-1116951605.html

    #153540
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Subsidies differ dramatically by country, but all subsidies support global corporate agribusiness. Producers Vs Consumers: Who Do Ag Subsidies Support?
    ​ Indian farmer protests restarted in early 2024 as talks on the producers’ demands to set more legally binding minimum support prices for agricultural products have broken down.
    ​ The borders of city state and capital Delhi have been fortified but farmers from surrounding areas seem determined to push past the barricades this week armed with heavy equipment, supplies and masks to fend off tear gas deployed by police. Ahead of the presidential elections in April and May, farmers once again want to make their grievances heard.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/producers-vs-consumers-who-do-ag-subsidies-support

    ​ Xi isn’t destroying China’s economy – he’s changing it​
    Xi Jinping deliberately set about changing the structure of China’s economy in order to end a growth boom based solely on real estate and debt. The newspapers love to waffle on about the “real estate crisis” and Evergrande, but can you imagine how big the problem would have been had previous policies been continued and China pushed for obscene 10% growth targets based on an explosion of debt? Xi Jinping ended this and initiated a process of deleveraging which deliberately slowed down China’s economic growth to around 6% when he came to power. Why? Because debt is not a sustainable mechanism and his policy has been literally to push the real estate industry into a managed recession, even if that has short-term repercussions.
    ​ Secondly, Xi Jinping’s policy has been to reinvent China’s economy to meet upcoming challenges by transforming it from a low end, export, real estate boom economy, into a high-end technological powerhouse. Instead of investing aimlessly in local government real estate booms, China has redirected state money to building up high-value industries including renewable energy, computing, semiconductors, automobiles, aviation, among other things. It is primarily this bid to become the global technological leader (by default of size) that has triggered the backlash from the US on an economic level and thus the bid to try and cripple China’s technological advance through export controls, which in fact show little evidence of working.
    ​ In addition to that, the global economic environment China operates in, has changed. The US has terminated its longstanding policy of open economic integration in favor of protectionism, bloc alignment, and the geopoliticization of supply chains. It has, in turn, created geopolitical conflicts with Russia and China and demanded its allies cut or reduce economic ties to the targeted countries…
    ​..The CIA for example, is relentless in trying to strengthen its presence in China, but if China arrests someone or links them to spying, the media will respond by calling Beijing paranoid, insecure and coercive, showing how the narrative will skewer the country no matter what. However, the point still remains that it is more challenging for China to grow in this environment than it was before.
    https://swentr.site/news/593120-xi-china-economy-destroy/

    ​Meryl Nass MD explains Globalist Government via the WHO clearly and succinctly in a 15 minute monologue , Interviews I did at CPAC
    Veronika Kyrylenko, editor of The New American interviewed me again. 16 minutes. (I had a cold). This is a very good summary of what the WHO is trying to do.
    Cue​ in to 1:18, when ​Dr. Nass starts explaining​. (Sorry if you get commercials despite my efforts.) https://thenewamerican.com/video/dr-meryl-nass-who-and-the-great-reset/

    ​Dr Nass with (incessantly brilliant conversationalist) Russel Brand and Andrew Brigden. All express themselves well, Nass and Brigden more succinctly. 1:07 (long).
    Russell Brand interviewed Andrew Bridgen and me about the WHO–the show dropped yesterday​ (sorry, commercials)

    ​ Peter McCullough MD , Springer Nature Cureus Journal of Medical Science Violates Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Guidelines
    Publisher Retracts Valid, High Quality, and Widely Read Cureus Paper Calling for Halt in COVID-19 Vaccination
    ​ The paper called for a halt in COVID-19 mass vaccination based on a valid evaluation of the evidence. It topped >330,000 views/reads/downloads in a month as compared to an average Cureus-promoted paper which has only ~2700 in a year.
    https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/breaking-springer-nature-cureus-journal

    #153541
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Hasbro Reports $1,060,000,000 Loss in Q4

    Did you make a bunch of action figures that are destined only for a landfill? Then made a bagillion more? And then double quadruple downed on that? Marvel and Star Wars related action figures by any chance? Yes you did.

    Did you buy Wizards of the Coast, which is Magic The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons amongst other things? And then went full woketard?

    Did you dream of making D&D a purely in-smartphone game with in-app purchases? Like, making D&D the OPPOSITE of D&D. You’re going to have to climb into that same pod you eat bugs in if you want to play D&D, you filthy racist customer swine? We’ve got your D&D and there’s nothing you can do about it….

    …except play one of a bagillion other RPG’s just thinking of a few old ones – Bifrost (1977), Runequest (1978), Rolemaster (1980) Palladium (1983), Warhammer (1983), Elfquest (1984) GURPS (1986)

    And of course this is far from exhaustive. And all the actions of Wizards of the Coast (like making GenCon woke) has been for years has just driven people into a million new variants. Nothing stops people from making new games, buying old books.

    It’s a losing battle because people play in groups of 3-10 scattered across a bewildering array of game systems now. How do you track down all those books and dice? Are you going to take over ALL the dice manufacturers, book publishers? I guess? Send people to infiltrate and ruin every 4 person gaming group? How? Can you maintain a 1/4 activist population in the RPG world and at what cost and/or success rate?

    You bought a business based on tiny splinter groups voluntarily associating with each other, choosing their own rules, modifying them as they see fit, and doing their own thing without worrying about anybody else. And you hate everything about all of that. It’s the antithesis of everything you believe in.

    Since anyone can make RPG games, dice, paper, pencils, and friends, how do you even make D&D a real business? Well, by knowing, interacting with, and liking your customers, liking the stuff they are into. Making stuff that delights them more than anybody else. Which again is the antithesis of everything you believe in.

    Like, idunno, if Hitler in a different timeline had all the same sentiments and ideas, but ended up just being a guy running a not all that successful small sausage shop, and he’d inquire “Are there lots of Jews living in this apartment complex.” oh yes tons. So he signs the lease, moves in, and is like “Ah fuck, vermin everywhere why oh why god!??!” Finds another apartment complex when his lease is up, verifies it has the same attributes he is trying to get away from, signs the lease, moves in. Ah fuck why does this happen to me? Stop punching yourself man and just fuck off somewhere you won’t be perpetually agitated. No, you don’t get it.

    #153542
    zerosum
    Participant


    Ex-CIA: US Pentagon TERRIFIED Over New Russia Strike Plan On Ukraine

    #153543
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Ukronaziland

    .

    Russia is like my favorite hot sauce, here’s to Nazilensky!

    .

    #153544
    jb-hb
    Participant

    For that matter, pull up any mainstream comic book pdf from the 70’s or 80’s. The entire comic book is clearly intended to delight the reader (unlike current year corporate comic books) then check the advertisements in those old comic books – just an absolute cornucopia of people simply attempting to delight children any way they could.

    Amazing to behold in this day and age, because children aren’t FOR that anymore, are they? Children are FOR “us.” …which is the definition of an abusive psychological relationship with a child, when the children are assumed to exist for the purpose of fulfilling the adults’ needs.

    Which makes me think of decades of hearing boomers telling me over and over again “YOU’RE going to have to Change The World, YOU’RE going to have to Save The World” uh, what do YOU do? “I Raise Awareness. In You. That YOU have to do this stuff to fulfil me. And so we get stuff like an entire generation of Journalists who think Journalism is for “Change”

    Why can’t things be for themselves? Does Ukraine HAVE to be a remote-operated waldo of 3 letter agencies on the other side of the planet? A meatsuit wearing a bunch of CIA headquarters? Does everything on the planet have to be leveraged so that nothing is for itself?

    Leveraging is, of course, getting all the hammers to be used as screwdrivers so we can have even moar screwdrivers. Then just cast about – if hammers could be screwdrivers, heck, what COULDN’T be a screwdriver? Hell, once all the files, drill bits, waffle irons, rubber chickens, and rain galoshes have become screwdrivers, screwdrivers will have full spectrum dominance! Everything will be awesome!

    Chuang Tzu’s lesson about the useless tree comes to mind. But wait if could LEVERAGE the useless tree… Or if I just TOLD my boss I successfully leveraged even a useless tree…

    #153545
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/senator-expended-readiness-threatened
    U.S. Senator Warns Decades’ Worth of Weapons Production Expended on Ukraine War: Readiness of American Units Threatened
    Military Watch Magazine Editorial Staff
    February-24th-2024

    Senator Vance further elaborated regarding his position: “It is absurd for the U.S. to devote so many resources, so much attention, and so much time to a border conflict six thousand miles away while out own U.S. southern border is wide open.” “We now no longer have the weapons in store to actually prosecute our own national security. Let’s focus on our own problems,” he added. With the bulk of attendees at Munich coming from European states, which have been the strongest state lobbyists for greater American financing and arms transfers for the Ukrainian war effort rather than less of it, the senator’s comments were likely to be far from welcome. Countries in Europe have shown willingness to take increasingly extreme measures to sustain a Ukrainian combat capacity, an example being a decision by the government of Denmark less than a week before Senator Vance’s statement to provide the entirety of its artillery stockpiles to the Ukrainian Army as aid, leaving the country with no artillery whatsoever.

    READ MORE …

    #153546
    zerosum
    Participant

    Read all about what Russia says

    https://sputnikglobe.com/20240226/leaked-details-on-cia-ops-in-ukraine-signal-end-is-near-for-kiev-agency-vet-1116996822.html
    Leaked Details on CIA Ops in Ukraine Signal ‘End is Near’ for Kiev: Agency Vet
    4 hours ago
    The New York Times published a major expose on Sunday about the Central Intelligence Agency’s operations in Ukraine, providing details on the creation of a dozen clandestine intel forward operating bases near Russia’s borders. Sputnik reached out to former CIA officer Larry Johnson to help separate the wheat from the chaff in the report.
    Russia’s Foreign Ministry has dissected Sunday’s NYT story on the CIA’s operations in Ukraine, challenging the newspaper’s assertion that Western intel services’ active involvement in the country began only after the February 2014 Euromaidan coup.

    #153547
    zerosum
    Participant

    Did you know about ….
    Near Odessa, the partisans derailed another train with Western weapons!

    Partisan resistance is gaining momentum in Ukraine, which is doing everything possible to help the speedy arrival of Russia and the complete destruction of the Ukrainian fascists.

    The population is intimidated, the Nazis are running around with weapons all over Ukraine and threatening people. However, the underground activity is alive and gaining strength.

    The Partisans of Ukraine:
    “We are the Ukrainian people, we decide when and where to bring justice to Zelensky, his clique and the oligarchs who are robbing our country,” the published appeal says

    #153548
    zerosum
    Participant

    Another analysis of NYT article (Judge Nap, Larry Johnson mocks the NYT piece as chock full of lies

    #153549
    zerosum
    Participant

    Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.

    Scientists Confirm Underwater Mountains Harbor Abundant Life Off Chile’s Coast


    Scientists Confirm Underwater Mountains Harbor Abundant Life Off Chile’s Coast
    An international team explores vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems and sees more than 100 species never-before observed by scientists.

    Video and photos available here.
    https://schmidtocean.photoshelter.com/galleries/C0000QszlkoaNkKU/G0000ISlDmCQILdA/Seamounts-of-SE-Pacific-FKt240108-Press-Release
    ———–

    #153555
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Yesterday’s Cambodia equals Today’s The Ukraine….

    …well, on anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and DoD-policy-approved methamphetamines. Yeah, look up the latter.

      On Sunday The New York Times published an explosive and very belated full admission that US intelligence has not only been instrumental in Ukraine wartime decision-making, but has established and financed high tech command-and-control spy centers, and was doing so long prior to the Feb. 24 Russian invasion of two years ago.
      Among the biggest revelations is that the program was established a decade ago and spans three different American presidents.

    I can’t wait for Ritter’s, Gabbard’s and McGregor’s analysis(es) to explicate those facts for the unwashed masses…and to Donald Trump.

    As I related in my personal conversation with Dick Deadeye Cheney, he, Dick, congratulated me for helping defeat Soviet-era Russia in 1991’s Desert Storm. Mindboggling.

    Btw, have any of you regaled a President or King of any country with tales of yesteryear, hugged it out while the king/President cried and provided an autograph upon the king’s/President’s demand?

    #153567
    John Day
    Participant

    According to Jane, a police officer showed up pointing a gun at the man’s burning body; I guess that’s just what American cops do when they aren’t sure what to do. Someone who was actually trying to save the man reportedly yelled “I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers!”

    This just might be the most American thing I have ever heard of. It’s more American than the fake bald eagle cries they put in Hollywood movies. It’s more American than monster trucks and mass shootings. You simply cannot fit more America into a single incident than a man dying a horrifying death in protest of war crimes while a first responder screams at cops to stop pointing their guns at him and go get fire extinguishers. If you were to pick a single moment in history to sum up the essence and expression of the US empire, that would be it.
    https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-most-american-thing-that-has-335

    #153568
    zerosum
    Participant

    My opinion
    Canada and the other countries that signed, “The security agreement with Ukraine” will go and occupy/seize their designated areas of Ukraine to protected from occupation/attacks from Russia.

    (payback for all the free stuff given to Ukraine)
    (protection from seizure of assets by Russia bough by blackrock)
    ( setting up of boundaries for peace talk/cease fire)

    #153569
    bpeptide
    Participant

    IMO, I do not think Putin had Nalvany killed. It was either natural causes (from poor prison health) or killed via Western intelligence agent.

    The Ukraine intelligence officer, Budanov, recent statement about the natural cause of Nalvany death, plus the surprising NYT publication of the article revealing the extent of the CIA Ukraine project plus the actual death of Nalvany are all part of the next phase of the conflict. Since Ukraine is losing & is at a very weak military defensive position, CIA is sending message and a warning to Putin that Western Intelligence is very embedded over there (even in Russia), so be very careful how you proceed in Ukraine.

    #153570
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    When people see that doing some particular thing is no longer in their best interests, they will usually at least try to stop doing it. By the same token, when people like the results that they’re getting then they tend to continue with business as usual. Here’s the rule of thumb: if it keeps working for you then keep doing it, and if it stops working for then stop doing it. Brilliantly deep stuff.

    Along those same lines, it’s a seriously big clue when people ratchet up doing something with wild enthusiasm at great expense (regardless that it appears to be an ENORMOUS STUPIDLY MISTAKE) that the reason they’re doing so is that from their point of view the action is neither stupid NOR a mistake. It’s a big win. The “dumb” action is yielding PRECISELY the desired result, so count on the perpetrators to stay the course.

    You can call them morons and present clear factual evidence until you’re blue in the face (and you’d be right, as well as blue-faced) but all that the alleged morons will do in response is play dumb in public, and laugh their asses off in private, because they WANT the “failed” results that you’re complaining about and calling stupid. It doesn’t look stupid to them. Far from it.

    Let’s take for example an action that is as apparently and obviously insane as manipulating a weak force (like NATO/Ukraine) into goading Russia into a war that Russia would prefer to avoid, despite the certain knowledge that Russia can whip the ass of any external threat and hand any invader their heads back on a platter. Hell, man. That’s their BRAND. That’s what Russia has been doing for at least a thousand years and they’ve become REALLY good at it. Best in the world, by actual statistic and historical record. Pipsqueal Ukraine picking a fight with Mighty Mom Russia looks idiotic! Everybody in the world tells them so, but to no avail. It seems to make no sense at all, but that’s only because you’re looking at it like a sane person would

    Is there a different way to look at it that makes any kind of sense at all? Well, the answer is, Cui Bono? So-called dumb mistakes don’t look like mistakes to the guy who thinks that he is benefiting.

    Who made money? Who gained Power? Did anyone suffer punishment or loss, and if so, whom? Is there any remaining resource or potential asset left in the debacle from which personal benefit might be extracted?

    For example. Let’s say someone wants to rule over an American slave state like a tyrant. Is the United States today closer or further away from a tyrannically authoritarian policed state regime than it was 10 years ago?

    How might that be engineered? Would the good old “Create A Problem and then Present A Preconceived Solution” gambit work as well as it usually does?

    Well, I would hazard the guess that the current FUBAR situation (that has benefited quite a few criminals quite a lot of money and power) was justified and materially accelerated by successfully goading Russian into a war (that Russia was trying to avoid) so that Russia! Russia! Russia! could be presented as a terrifying “threat to our Democracy!” and used to generate billions in war profits and trillions in authoritarian state controls that would not have been accepted under any other circumstances. To the insane that looks like a GREAT deal, such a good deal that they want to do it all over again.

    It’s not a simple game. It’s a very very complex game, and it IS going to end. But first it must collapse.

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