Mar 212024
 
 March 21, 2024  Posted by at 9:15 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Govert Flinck Landscape With An Obelisk 1638
Stolen from Gardner Museum March 18 1990, the single largest art theft in the world. Never recovered.

 

The Silver Bullet Against the Barbarian Invasions of the West (Metri)
Why Western Media ‘Coverage’ Of Russia Is Incredibly Dangerous (Diesen)
Ukraine Lost Over 71,000 Troops Since Start of 2024 – Shoigu (Sp.)
Putin Won’t Be Allowed To ‘Dictate Peace Terms’ In Ukraine – Germany (RT)
German Children ‘Must Be Prepared For War’ – Minister (RT)
Slovakia’s PM Fico in EU’s Crosshairs as New ‘Headache’ (Sp.)
Split Over Ukraine Aid Prompts ‘Unprecedented’ Czech-Slovak Rupture (Sp.)
Donetsk, Avdeyevka, Mariupol – on the Road in Electoral Donbass (Pepe Escobar)
Boeing Mulls Sale Of Defense Assets – Bloomberg (RT)
House May Refer January 6 Committee Members for Obstruction (ET)
Can you Slam Wall Street and Still Win an Election? Ask Sherrod Brown (Leopold)
Mexico to Deny Entry to Migrants Deported From Texas Under New SB4 Law (Sp.)
RFK Jr. Destroys His Candidacy With VP Pick? (Roger Simon)
DOJ Mulling Plea Deal For Assange: He Could Finally Walk Free (ZH)

 

 

 

 

Makers and takers

 

 

US Corp
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770234212379193618

 

 

Macgregor
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770459916366442864

 

 

Big guy

 

 

Rapporteur

 

 

 

 

“This new development represented a revolution in the art of war, and an essential part of the West has not yet understood it completely..”

The Silver Bullet Against the Barbarian Invasions of the West (Metri)

On February 13, 2024, the United States Senate approved a U.S. $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel. According to IMF Data, this package represents a higher value than the international reserves of 165 countries. In other words, out of 194 countries with reserves recorded in dollars, only 29 have volumes more significant than the value of the U.S. Senate package. This fact gives an idea of the extravagance of this contribution.

This news, passed on almost ordinarily, reveals two important facts. First, one mentions the extraordinary and disproportionate financing and spending capacity of the United States, used, among other objectives, for the increasing armament of its allies on strategic boards, the promotion of proxy conflicts in regions marked by geopolitical fractures, and, from a longer perspective, the execution of an uninterrupted chronology of wars and military interventions since 1991. Furthermore, this financing and spending capacity also support a broad military structure of global reach with approximately 750 military bases outside its national territory [1].

Regarding this disproportionate financing and spending capacity of the United States, below are some brief observations discussed in depth on other occasions [2]. The position of the U.S. dollar in the international monetary hierarchy and how the world economy began to function after the Cold War have allowed The United States to impose the burden of its violence on the world, mainly due to the role that its public debt plays in the global economic game. It is a system of extortion because, while the world accumulates, with no apparent limit, U.S. Treasuries, Washington carries out a broad agenda of wars and military actions. The current level of indebtedness of the United States federal government is only comparable to that of periods marked by significant war efforts since its federal public debt, measured as a percentage of GDP, has already reached, for example, levels similar to those of the Second World War.

These advantages occur because the absorption of securities issued by the United States has become a necessary policy for other states to act in the exchange markets in defense of their currencies and, thus, protect, at the limit, their autonomy over economic policy instruments. Everything is quite the same for private agents, as having U.S. Treasuries in their portfolios is imperative to deal with the high risks of an intrinsically unstable system. This situation is the core of the United States’ monetary power, much more strategic than the power of financial sanctions itself, whose bases are also the dollar’s position in the international system and widely used by Washington against the targets of its foreign policy.

The second fact related to the news about an aid package for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel concerns the objectives of the United States. The priority is not exactly Kyiv, Taipei, or Tel Aviv per se but the role they play for Washington in the regions where they are. The extraordinary contribution of resources reveals, in practice, the White House’s priority targets, namely Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran. These have long been present in different formulations of the National Security Strategy and Washington’s foreign policy documents.

The central point is that the North Atlantic, particularly the United States, has already been surpassed by Russia in developing strategic weapons, especially hypersonic ones. This new development represented a revolution in the art of war, and an essential part of the West has not yet understood it completely. On the other hand, from an economic point of view, China is already the largest economy in the world, corresponding, in 2023, to 18.82% of world GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP), while the United States, 15.42%. To make matters worse for the West, for more than two decades, Beijing and Moscow have been developing and deepening strategic partnerships in several sensitive fields of international relations: weapons, technology, energy, currency, finance, etc.

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“..it should not be difficult to understand the popularity of Putin. While the 1990s was a golden period for the West, it was a nightmare for Russians. The economy collapsed and society disintegrated with truly horrific consequences..”

Why Western Media ‘Coverage’ Of Russia Is Incredibly Dangerous (Diesen)

Over tens of thousands of years, we have developed the instinct to organise in groups as a source of security. This is the result of evolutionary biology as survival demands that we organise into “us” versus “them”. In-group loyalty is augmented by assigning contrasting identities of the virtuous “us” versus the evil “other”, which helps stop an individual from straying too far from the pack. Yet, human beings are also equipped with reason and thus the ability to assess objective reality independent of their immediate circle. In international relations, it’s imperative to place yourself in the shoes of the opponent. The rationality required to see the world through the perspective of the “other” is vital for reaching mutual understanding, reducing tensions, and pursuing a workable peace. Every successful peace process and reconciliation in history – from Northern Ireland to negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa – has been based on this.

We expect journalists to be objective in their reporting of reality, which is especially important during war. But this seems to be almost impossible, especially during conflicts. When human beings experience external threats, their herd instincts are triggered as society demands group loyalty and we punish those who deviate. The political obedience demanded during war time usually results in the weakening of freedom of speech, the role of journalism, and democracy. So, how can we understand the reasons for President Vladimir Putin’s immense popularity in Russia and his landslide victory? If we use our reason and resist our tribal instincts, it should not be difficult to understand the popularity of Putin. While the 1990s was a golden period for the West, it was a nightmare for Russians. The economy collapsed and society disintegrated with truly horrific consequences.

The country’s security also collapsed, as NATO expansion meant there was no chance to agree an inclusive European security architecture. This had been outlined in the Charter of Paris for a New Europe in 1990 and the OSCE founding documents. A weakened Russia meant that its interests could be ignored, and NATO was able to invade Moscow’s ally Yugoslavia, in violation of international law. When Putin took over the presidency on 31 December 1999, it was commonplace in the West to predict that Russia would share the fate of the Soviet Union. That is eventual collapse. However, Russia has instead become the largest economy in Europe (by PPP), its society has healed from the disastrous 1990s, its military might has been restored, and new international partners have been found in the East and Global South, as evidenced by the growing role of BRICS.

Furthermore, most Russians believe it’s not a good idea to have major disruptions to leadership in the middle of a NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine that is deemed an existential threat. Don’t change horses in midstream as the American proverb, often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, advises. Speaking of the US, the late Mikhail Gorbachev – who was immensely popular there – did not shy away from criticising Putin, when he was still with us. However, he nevertheless argued that Putin “saved Russia from the beginning of a collapse”. Today, any Western journalist repeating this would be immediately branded as a “Putinist” – implying a betrayal of the “us”. Western journalists cannot acknowledge the immense achievements of Russia since 1999 as it could be interpreted as lending legitimacy and signalling support for the “bad” side.

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“..This is almost three times higher than the same period last year..”

Ukraine Lost Over 71,000 Troops Since Start of 2024 – Shoigu (Sp.)

Ukraine has lost more than 71,000 soldiers and over 11,000 units of various weapons since the start of the year, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday. “In general, the losses of the Ukrainian armed forces during this period, that is, since the beginning of this year, exceeded 71,000 people and 11,000 units of various weapons. This is almost three times higher than the same period last year,” Shoigu said at a meeting with senior military. Ukraine has also lost four Abrams tanks, five Leopard tanks, six HIMARS multiple rocket launcher systems and five Patriot complexes, the minister added. The Ukrainian forces have lost 3,501 soldiers killed and injured during the attacks on Russian border settlements in Belgorod and Kursk regions, Shoigu added.

“The most active fighting was conducted in the area of the settlement of Kozinka. All enemy attacks were successfully repelled, it was thrown back outside the Russian territory. At the same time, the losses of the Ukrainian armed forces in the direction of the actions of the groups covering the state border for eight days of hostilities amounted to more than 3,500, or rather 3,501 people, of which 790 were killed,” Shoigu said at the board ministerial meeting. The United States is extremely concerned about the achievements of the Russian armed forces in the special operation zone, the minister said. The United States and its satellites are extremely concerned about the success of the Russian armed forces. It is becoming increasingly difficult for them to justify to the Western community the need for further funding and supplies of weapons and ammunition to the armed forces of Ukraine,” Shoigu said.

Russian air defenses struck down 419 drones and 67 missiles that were launched by Ukrainian troops against Russian targets during the three days of presidential voting, Shoigu said. “The Russian forces strengthened security around government and social infrastructure assets, ramping up air defense capabilities to prevent acts of terrorism. During the election, 419 UAVs and 67 missiles were downed,” Shoigu told a ministerial meeting. The Ukrainian armed forces targeted polling places across Russia during last week’s presidential election with tacit approval of their Western military advisers, Sergei Shoigu said. “They intentionally targeted polling places and government institutions while civilians were present there. Both the command of the Ukrainian armed forces and their Western advisers knew it,” Shoigu told a ministerial meeting in Moscow.

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Well, he sure won’t let YOU dictate them..

Putin Won’t Be Allowed To ‘Dictate Peace Terms’ In Ukraine – Germany (RT)

Germany will not let Russian President Vladimir Putin forcibly alter Ukraine’s borders or impose the terms of peace, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has vowed. “We will not accept a dictated peace at the expense of Ukraine,” Scholz told German lawmakers on Wednesday in Berlin. “Law is stronger than violence.” He added that Putin sought to violate that principle with the launch of Russia’s military operation against Ukraine in February 2022. “We will not let him get away with this,” he said. Scholz insisted that Germany’s backing of Ukraine in the conflict with Moscow will not decrease and that expecting otherwise would be a “miscalculation.”

He reiterated his criticism of Putin’s reelection last weekend for a fifth term as president, saying it showed that “Russia is not strong.” However, as EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell acknowledged in an interview on Wednesday, European allies will be hard-pressed to fill the funding gap if Kiev’s biggest backer, Washington, reduces its support. US President Joe Biden’s administration ran out of funding for Ukraine in January and has struggled to secure congressional approval for over $60 billion in additional military and financial aid. Scholz made his comments as he prepared for an EU summit that is scheduled to begin on Thursday in Brussels.

Major topics of discussion will include efforts to ramp up aid to Ukraine, as well as the bloc’s response to the Israel-Hamas war. Russian forces have made battlefield gains in recent weeks, and US defense chief Lloyd Austin warned on Tuesday that Ukraine’s very survival will be at risk if the West fails to provide more weapons to Kiev. Even as he lobbies allies for more Ukraine aid, Scholz has resisted political pressure to provide Kiev with long-range Taurus missiles, saying that such an escalation could draw Germany into a direct conflict with Russia. Speaking at the Bundestag on Wednesday, he told lawmakers that debate within Germany over the Taurus issue is “nothing short of ridiculous.” He added that the controversy isn’t well understood outside of Germany, saying, “This is embarrassing for us as a country.”

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“We call this Kriegstuchtigkeit – being ready, capable and willing to fight. We are on the right track..”

German Children ‘Must Be Prepared For War’ – Minister (RT)

German children should be made to prepare for war to boost “resilience,” Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger stated on Saturday. She said kids should be taught what to do in the event of conflict and suggested introducing “civil defense” drills in schools so that youngsters will be prepared for the years ahead. “Society as a whole must prepare well for crises, from a pandemic to natural disasters to war. Civil defense is immensely important, and it also belongs in schools. The goal must be to strengthen our resilience,” Stark-Watzinger said in an interview with the Funke media group. She also called for a “relaxed relationship” to be fostered between schoolchildren and the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr), suggesting that military officers should visit schools to explain what “the Bundeswehr does for our security.” President of the German Teachers’ Association, Stefan Dull, told Bild last week that the minister’s proposal “makes sense.”

“I expect the federal minister to now seek discussions with the education ministers in the federal states,” he said, adding that a “declaration of intent is not enough – politics lessons now have to teach about the war in Ukraine and the pan-European, even global threat situation.” Stark-Watzinger’s initiative reflects the German government’s policy aimed at making the country “war ready” in the face of a potential Russia-NATO conflict, which could happen within a few years, according to senior German defense officials. In February, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius claimed in an interview with Bloomberg that Russia may attack NATO “in five to eight years.” German chief of defense, General Carsten Breuer, also highlighted the “paramount” importance of making the country’s military ready within the next five years. “We call this Kriegstuchtigkeit – being ready, capable and willing to fight. We are on the right track,” he declared.

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“..opposes sending more arms to Kiev along with Ukrainian membership of NATO. He has called for rebuilding relations with Russia..”

Slovakia’s PM Fico in EU’s Crosshairs as New ‘Headache’ (Sp.)

Ukraine’s patrons in Brussels have Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico in their crosshairs for a host of reasons. Brussels has accused him of taking a page out of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s book, reported POLITICO. Just as Hungary was repeatedly the victim of ‘rule-of-law’ disciplinary proceedings brought by Brussels, there are now calls to treat Slovakia “seriously.” Bratislava might risk losing access to European Union (EU) funds, European Parliament Vice President Martin Hojsík (PS) was cited as saying. The EU withheld over €30 billion in cohesion and recovery funds in December 2022 over alleged violations. Orban insisted in 2023 that Hungary had met all the EU’s requirements and that the funds were being diverted to the Kiev regime. s”It is possible that some of it [the money] is already in Ukraine,” he stated at the time. Budapest’s block on EU funding of Ukrainian war efforts forced Brussels to unlock €10 billion ($11 billion) of the funds to Hungary in December.

But Slovakia’s ruling coalition is the new thorn in Brussels’ side. Officials have suggested resorting to EU fund-freezing, this time with respect to Bratislava. The reported pretext is the shutting-down of the Slovak Special Prosecutor’s Office as part of criminal justice reforms Fico said on Wednesday that officials at the office had abused their authority. According to the publication, Slovak MEP and vice-president of the European Parliament Martin Hojsík urged swift measures from the EU if Fico’s government continues on an “illiberal path.” The rhetoric around Fico echoes Brussels’ narrative against Orban. Like Orban, Fico, who returned to government for the fourth time in 2023, opposes sending more arms to Kiev along with Ukrainian membership of NATO. He has called for rebuilding relations with Russia. Last December Orban vetoed an increase in the EU budget for 2024-2027, including 50 billion euros ($55 billion) in macro-financial aid to Kiev.

While Orban did not veto EU accession talks with Ukraine at the time, he warned that Budapest would have “75 more opportunities” to block this process. The Slovak PM has adopted a similarly adamant position on Ukraine. Fico’s Smer party-led government, elected in September 2023, reversed the country’s stance on the Ukraine crisis in favor of halting military aid to Kiev. Fico, dubbed the “Slovak Orban,” stressed that aiding the Kiev regime only prolongs a conflict that Ukraine has no chance of winning. He has repeatedly warned that Western countries could opt for the “worst solution” in the Ukraine crisis, and reiterated his stance of keeping Slovak troops out of the conflict. Fico was highly critical of recent comments by French President Emmanuel Macron suggesting sending European NATO troops to Ukraine. The proposal was rejected by leaders across the continent, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

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“Earlier in March, Robert Fico stressed that he was “not convinced of the sincerity of the West to achieve peace in Ukraine.”

Split Over Ukraine Aid Prompts ‘Unprecedented’ Czech-Slovak Rupture (Sp.)

Robert Fico rode to his fourth term as prime minister in Slovakia in 2023 on a wave of discontent over EU support for Ukraine in the NATO proxy conflict against Russia. Like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Fico has been against sending weapons to Kiev, and urged for maintaining good relations with Russia. Waning desire to continue propping up the Kiev regime is increasingly becoming a deal breaker in relations between states, government, and politicians. Disagreements over further support for Ukraine have caused an “unprecedented rupture” between the Czech and Slovak governments, The Washington Post has underscored. While the two countries, which emerged after the bifurcation of Czechoslovakia, have maintained warm relations until now, the past month has witnessed a growing split between them, the publication pointed out.

The government in Prague, led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala, is fervidly pro-Kiev, while Slovakia’s PM Robert Fico has been adamantly against sending weapons to Ukraine, Kiev’s potential NATO membership, and sanctions on Russia. There had never been “open rhetorical confrontation” between the two governments until NATO’s proxy conflict against Russia in Ukraine, it was stressed. Prague, which has been overly zealous in its eagerness to provide Ukraine with ammunition, opted for an unprecedented snub earlier in March. It suspended intergovernmental consultations with Bratislava in the wake of a meeting between the Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. Fiala noted at the time that, “it is impossible to conceal the fact that there are significant differences of opinion on some key foreign policy issues.”

In response, Robert Fico openly addressed Fiala in a video posted on social media, where he warned Prague against putting Slovak-Czech relations “in danger.” “We note that the Czech government has decided to jeopardize them because it has an interest in supporting the war in Ukraine, while the Slovak government talks about peace. Your decision will not affect our sovereign policy,” the Slovak prime minister said. Robert Fico’s Smer party-led government, elected in the September 2023 general election, reversed the country’s stance on the Ukraine crisis in favor of stopping military supplies to Kiev. Fico, dubbed the “Slovak Orban” after his Hungarian counterpart, who also opposes confrontation with Russia, stressed that aiding the Kiev regime weakens the Slovak Armed Forces and only prolongs a conflict that Ukraine has no chance of winning.

Earlier in March, Robert Fico stressed that he was “not convinced of the sincerity of the West to achieve peace in Ukraine.” He added in a social media post that “the Western strategy of using the war in Ukraine to weaken Russia economically, militarily and politically is not working.” Fico was also sharply critical of recent comments by French President Emmanuel Macron suggesting the possibility of European troops being sent to Ukraine. The proposal was broadly rejected by leaders throughout the continent, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Fico’s sovereign foreign policy, undeterred by pressure from the West, is similar to the stance adopted by Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Budapest has since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict been consistently calling for a ceasefire and peace negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, and opposed sanctions on Russian energy. In March 2022, Hungary’s parliament banned the delivery of weapons to Ukraine from the country’s soil.

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“Then, it’s on the road to Avdeyevka. Nothing, absolutely nothing prepares us to confront total devastation. In my nearly 40 years as a foreign correspondent, I’ve never seen anything like it – even Iraq..”

Donetsk, Avdeyevka, Mariupol – on the Road in Electoral Donbass (Pepe Escobar)

They have waited 10 long, suffering years to vote in this election. And vote they did, in massive numbers, certifying a landslide reelection for the political leader who brought them back to Mother Russia. VVP may now be widely referred to as Mr. 87%. In Donetsk, turnout was even higher: 88,17%. And no less than 95% voted for him. To follow the Russian electoral process at work in Donbass was a humbling – and illuminating – experience. Graphically, in front of us, the full weight of the collective West’s relentless denigration campaign was instantly gobbled up by the rich black soil of Novorossiya. The impeccable organization, the full transparency of the voting, the enthusiasm by polling station workers and voters alike punctuated the historical gravity of the political moment: at the same time everything was enveloped in an impalpable feeling of silent jubilation.

This was of course a referendum. Donbass represents a microcosm of the solid internal cohesion of Russian citizens around the policies of Team Putin – while at the same time sharing a feeling experienced by the overwhelming majority of the Global South. VVP’s victory was a victory of the Global Majority. And that’s what’s making the puny Global Minority even more apoplectic. With their highest turnout since 1991, Russian voters inflicted a massive strategic defeat to the intellectual pigmies who pass for Western “leadership” – arguably the most mediocre political class of the past 100 years. They voted for a fairer, stable system of international relations; for multipolarity; and for true leadership by civilization-states such as Russia. VVP’s 87% score was followed, by a long shot, by the Communists, with 3.9%. That is quite significant, because these 91% represent a total rejection of the globalist Davos/Great Reset plutocratic “future” envisioned by the 0.001%.

On Election Day Two, at section 198 in downtown Donetsk, not far from Government House, it was possible to fully measure the fluidity and transparency of the system – even as Donetsk was not spared from shelling, in the late afternoon and early evening in the final day of voting. Afterwards, a strategic pit stop in a neighborhood mini-market. Yuri, an activist, was buying a full load of fresh eggs to be transported to the nearly starving civilians who still remain in Avdeyevka. Ten eggs cost the equivalent of a dollar and forty cents. At Yasinovata, very close to Avdeyevka, we visit the MBOU, or school number 7, impeccably rebuilt after non-stop shelling. The director, Ludmilla Leonova, an extraordinary strong woman, takes me on a guide tour of the school and its brand new classrooms for chemistry and biology, a quaint Soviet alphabet decorating the classroom for Russian language. Classes, hopefully, will resume in the Fall.

Close to the school a refugee center for those who have been brought from Avdeyevka has been set up. Everything is spotlessly clean. People are processed, entered into the system, then wait for proper papers. Everyone wants to obtain a Russian passport as soon as possible. For the moment, they stay in dormitories, around 10 people in each room. Some came from Avdeyevka, miraculously, in their own cars: there are a few Ukrainian license plates around. Invariably, the overall expectation is to return to Avdeyevka, when reconstruction starts, to rebuild their lives in their own town. Then, it’s on the road to Avdeyevka. Nothing, absolutely nothing prepares us to confront total devastation. In my nearly 40 years as a foreign correspondent, I’ve never seen anything like it – even Iraq. At the unofficial entry to Avdeyevka, beside the skeleton of a bombed building and the remains of a tank turret, the flags of all military batallions which took part in the liberation flutter in the wind.

Each building in every street is at least partially destroyed. A few remaining residents congregate in a flat to organize the distribution of essential supplies. I find a miraculously preserved icon behind the window of a bombed-out ground floor apartment.

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Aka: Boeing’s in really big trouble.

Boeing Mulls Sale Of Defense Assets – Bloomberg (RT)

Boeing might sell at least two of its defense unit businesses to improve its finances amid mounting safety concerns, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the discussions. The world’s second largest aircraft manufacturer by market capitalization recently hit severe turbulence, with its shares plummeting amid a series of quality control scandals that have resulted in grounded planes and numerous safety checks. Boeing has engaged financial advisers to gauge interest in several of its smaller units, including Digital Receiver Technology and unspecified defense programs under the corporation’s global services division, sources told Bloomberg, adding that efforts have been underway for about a year. The aerospace giant is also reportedly mulling options for divesting its stake in United Launch Alliance (ULA), the rocket-launch joint venture co-owned with Lockheed Martin.

Earlier this year, media reports emerged that ULA had attracted interest from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Any defense sale by Boeing, one of the Pentagon’s prime contractors, would face scrutiny from US regulators as concerns about consolidation among the biggest suppliers are increasing, Bloomberg said. Moreover, antitrust regulators such as Lina Khan, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, have reportedly been critical of Boeing’s monopoly over US civil aircraft production. The plane maker is now facing a wave of safety audits of its 737 MAX 9 in the wake of a near-catastrophic accident on January 5, when an Alaska Airlines flight bound for California from Portland, Oregon, had to turn back after a door panel blew off at 16,000 feet, injuring several of the 171 passengers aboard.

Boeing shares have lost more than 30% since the accident. On Tuesday, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) head Mike Whitaker told Reuters that the manufacturer needed to improve safety culture and address quality control issues before it would be allowed to boost production of the 737 MAX, previously labelled by Boeing as “the safest airplane” on the market. A US safety audit of the manufacturing process of the troubled jet reportedly found dozens of shortcomings, including the use of dish soap and a hotel key card as makeshift tools. It had been previously reported that the FAA identified 97 “non-compliance” issues at Boeing and failed the aircraft maker on 33 out of 89 product audits. The regulator temporarily grounded all 737 MAX 9 jets in the US for safety inspections.

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“..now new information we’re getting is that Liz Cheney ran that committee.”

House May Refer January 6 Committee Members for Obstruction (ET)

The chair of a House subcommittee warned that some members of a controversial Jan. 6 investigatory subcommittee could face charges of hiding and destroying documents Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) said in an interview last week that he may refer former members of the committee to the Department of Justice for prosecution after a report that he commissioned found that its members allegedly hid information from the public. “As far as holding people accountable, yes, they should be,” Mr. Loudermilk told Just the News last week after the report was released, referring to the possibility that committee members will face punishment. “But I think that’s going to be a little ways down the road, because there is so much more information that we need to get. “And we need to build not only this, to get the truth out to the American people, but see just how big this case potentially is for obstructing.”

However, the Georgia lawmaker suggested that there are “other options,” including censuring and ethics referrals. “But also consider there are members of that Select Committee who are no longer members of Congress. So they may fall under a different scenario,” Mr. Loudermilk told the media outlet. “So we do have the tools of members of Congress, but also, active members of Congress have certain protections. So we’ll have to work on that. Because as you talked about earlier, we’re in uncharted territory right now. And so we’re going to have to work through this.” He also said that he believes that Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the now-disbanded Jan. 6 select committee, allowed then-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to make decisions for the panel. “There’s still documents that we need to get hold of. We still don’t have passwords for the encrypted documents,” Mr. Loudermilk said. “It’s amazing that you know, when I asked the former Chairman Bennie Thompson, ‘All I want you to do is give me the passwords.’ He said, ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about.’

“Well, I think it’s coming down to he probably didn’t, because now new information we’re getting is that Liz Cheney ran that committee.” On March 12, a previously undisclosed transcript of the House Jan. 6 Select Committee’s interview with an unnamed Secret Service officer who drove the presidential SUV on Jan. 6 provided new information about outgoing President Donald Trump’s actions that day. That transcript of the driver contradicted key witness Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony—namely her claim that President Trump tried to grab the wheel of his presidential car. President Trump “never grabbed the steering wheel,” the Secret Service agent said, according to a transcript reviewed by The Epoch Times last week. “I didn’t see him lunge to try to get into the front seat at all.”

The testimony was given to the Democrat-dominated select committee convened to investigate the events of Jan. 6, 2021, in the previous Congress, but the transcript wasn’t released by the committee. House Republicans said in the new report that Ms. Hutchinson’s version of the story was false, according to the driver’s testimony. “Despite the driver of the president’s SUV testifying under oath that the Hutchinson story was false, the select committee chose to validate and promote Hutchinson’s version of the story as fact,“ they stated in the report. ”The select committee hid the driver’s full testimony and only favorably mentioned his testimony in its final report, it did not release the full transcript.”

Mr. Thompson said in a statement that his panel explained in 2022 that it had to send some transcripts to the executive branch for review “to protect sensitive information as well as the privacy of witnesses.” He said the panel’s final report “took into account the testimony of all witnesses” and that “all the evidence points to the same conclusion: Donald Trump wanted to join his violent mob as it marched on the Capitol.” In response to the report last week, Ms. Cheney, who lost her Wyoming Republican primary by more than 40 percentage points, suggested on social media platform X that Mr. Loudermilk and others are lying and trying to “cover up what [President Trump] did” on Jan. 6. She also recently wrote that people should instead read her committee’s report.

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“..working people of all shades and colors are much more interested in maintaining their livelihoods than railing against wokeism..”

Can you Slam Wall Street and Still Win an Election? Ask Sherrod Brown (Leopold)

When I recently learned that Senator Sherrod Brown (D, OH) had reissued his 2019 essay, called “Wall Street’s War on Workers: Stock Buybacks,” I was shocked. My new book is called Wall Street’s War on Workers, and also focuses in part on the job-destructive impact of stock buybacks. Who stole what from whom? Senator Brown didn’t know about my book, his essay was written before I started my book, and despite deep research I did not see his essay until two weeks ago. So, I was surprised, but I immediately understood why we both adopted the same big picture framework to understand the economy, and similar language to share our understanding with working people. As a labor educator, I’ve found that the big-picture framework is as important, maybe even more important, than facts and figures.

In our complex world, problems hit working people from all angles — job insecurity, job loss, the high costs of housing, discrimination, kids who can’t afford to move out, and on and on. To make sense of this mosaic, a framework helps hold the pieces together. In our educational program we see clearly that working people are hungry for a coherent explanation that connects the dots. And without a compelling alternative, the pressing need for frameworks can lead towards conspiracy theories. Brown and I are using the Wall Street War on Workers big picture framework for four reasons.

1/ It’s flat out true. Wall Street’s insatiable desire to extract wealth via stock buybacks, leveraged buyouts, hostile takeovers, and the like, are destroying the livelihoods and the well-being of thousands of working people each day in every sector of the economy.
2/ The framework rings true to working people. It’s understandable. It makes sense of their reality. It explains why they, and so many others around them, have gone from one mass layoff to the other. And it explains why they feel so strongly that the system is rigged against them.
3/ The framework breaks through fatalism. The dominant media explanation is that mass layoffs can’t be helped because technological change and globalization are unstoppable forces akin to natural laws. Wall Street’s War on Workers highlights human agency. Laws and regulations were changed to enable Wall Street to kill jobs at will for reasons that have nothing to do with new technology or trade. In the high-tech sector, for example, more than 260,000 workers experienced mass layoffs last year, and another 50,000 are gone so far this year. Almost none of those jobs were lost either due to globalization or new technologies, AI or otherwise.
4/ It’s good politics. Senator Brown wouldn’t be pushing this framework in the middle of a tight reelection campaign unless he believed it could help him deepen his base of support among working people, especially in areas that became increasingly Republican over the past two presidential elections. It’s one thing for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to take on Wall Street in their very liberal states. No one will defeat them. But Brown is using the anti-Wall Street frame to get reelected in Ohio, which has become solidly red. In our labor education courses, working people of all political persuasions find the anti-Wall Street framework very compelling.

Clearly, Brown does not believe that Ohio working people are fixated on anti-wokeness and blinded by racism, homophobia, xenophobia. He understands that working people of all shades and colors are much more interested in maintaining their livelihoods than railing against wokeism. My book provides compelling data that also shows increasing working-class liberalism, not illiberalism, on hot-button issues like immigration, gay rights, and racism. Ohio’s embrace of a constitutional amendment in 2023 that wrote abortion access into the state’s constitution confirms Brown’s intuitions and my findings. It’s one thing, however, for a labor educator to use the “Wall Street’s War on Workers” framework. To keep my job, I don’t have to run against Wall Street’s cash. But Sherrod Brown is taking a risk, maybe a big risk. And he’s not running away from the challenge or being mealy-mouthed about how Wall Street is ripping off the working class.

Read more …

A federal appeals court overruled the Supreme Court?!

Mexico to Deny Entry to Migrants Deported From Texas Under New SB4 Law (Sp.)

The Mexican government does not intend to accept its citizens who will undergo repatriation from Texas under the US state’s new SB4 legislation, the Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretariat said on Wednesday. “Mexico reiterates its legitimate right to protect the rights of its nationals in the United States and to determine its own policies regarding entry into its territory. Mexico recognizes the importance of a uniform migration policy and the bilateral efforts with the United States to ensure that migration is safe, orderly and respectful of human rights, and is not affected by state or local legislative decisions. In this regard, Mexico will not accept, under any circumstances, repatriations by the State of Texas,” the ministry said in a statement published while the law was briefly in effect. The foreign ministry condemned the SB4 law, saying that the legislation is aimed at disrupting migration flow by “criminalizing” the migrants, the ministry said.

“Mexico categorically rejects any measure that allows state or local authorities to exercise immigration control, and to arrest and return nationals or foreigners to Mexican territory. Mexico also questions legal provisions that affect the human rights of the more than 10 million people of Mexican origin who live in Texas, and give rise to hostile environments in which the migrant community is exposed to hate speech, discrimination and racial profiling,” the statement read. Close to 8 million migrants have illegally entered the United States via the southern border since Joe Biden became president in 2021. On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court temporarily granted the state of Texas authority to carry out a state law known as SB4 that allows local authorities to arrest migrants suspected of entering the United States illegally from the southern border and return them to Mexico regardless of their country of origin. Hours after, a federal appeals court froze the law.

Read more …

“..if you’re trying to run an honest broker campaign against corrupt traditional parties, it’s not the best approach. It’s actually a turn-off.”

RFK Jr. Destroys His Candidacy With VP Pick? (Roger Simon)

I interviewed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Epoch TV’s “Roller Coaster” series and also attended one of his birthday parties. In both instances, I liked the man, found him to be intelligent and personable, and also unafraid to take stands against the über-conformist Democratic Party, notably on health care and, to some degree, on the dangers of the Central Intelligence Agency. Although I have been an unabashed Donald Trump supporter since he came down the escalator and continue to be so, I would not have been disappointed, even pleased, had former President Trump chosen Mr. Kennedy as his vice-presidential candidate. Unlikely as it may have been, it could have helped bring our fractured country together. No longer.

If reports are true—and, in that regard, the website name www.kennedyshanahan.com was reportedly registered by one of his campaign operatives on March 13—Mr. Kennedy has chosen attorney Nicole Shanahan as his running mate. I find this bizarre, to say the least, not to mention disappointing. Whatever his intentions, such a ticket would drive this country even further apart because Ms. Shanahan is a self-described “progressive.” But that’s only the tip of a disturbing iceberg I will get to in a minute. Let’s start with this. Mr. Kennedy, of all people, should know that the basic requirement for a vice presidential candidate, now more than ever, is that a person be qualified to assume the presidency at a moment’s notice. We have had disasters in that regard, dodging several bullets, including vice presidents Spiro Agnew, Mike Pence, and (for now, holding one’s breath) Kamala Harris. Mr. Trump has made clear that qualification for the presidency is now his first consideration, as it should be.

What do we know of Ms. Shanahan? Not much, except that she is a philanthropist to largely progressive causes and that she is very rich. She reportedly helped pay for Mr. Kennedy’s Super Bowl ad to the tune of $4 million via a Super PAC. The ad got mixed reviews and ended up with the candidate apologizing to his family. How rich Ms. Shanahan really is is unclear, but it is clear the bulk of her money comes from her divorce from Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google and, depending on the source, the ninth richest man on the planet. RFK Jr.’s campaign had been luffing and needed a boost. He looked to the financial. It’s hard to blame him, because that’s the putrid state of American politics. But if you’re trying to run an honest broker campaign against corrupt traditional parties, it’s not the best approach. It’s actually a turn-off. This is rather sad because of the optimism and excitement he initially engendered.

Read more …

Let’s see it first.

DOJ Mulling Plea Deal For Assange: He Could Finally Walk Free (ZH)

The Biden administration might be looking for a way to bring the 14-year long legal drama centered on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to an end. Britain’s High Court will at some point in the next weeks finally decide whether to extradite him to the United States, but a surprise breaking story from The Wall Street Journal says the US is exploring other alternatives. The Wednesday WSJ report says, “The U.S. Justice Department is considering whether to allow Julian Assange to plead guilty to a reduced charge of mishandling classified information, according to people familiar with the matter, opening the possibility of a deal that would end a lengthy legal saga triggered by one of the biggest classified intelligence leaks in American history.” Ever since Metropolitan Police officers were allowed into the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on April 11, 2019 – where he had been holed up for years, Assange has been in the legal fight of his life while incarcerated at Belmarsh prison. If he’s extradited he’ll likely spend life in prison at the infamous ADX Florence supermax prison in Colorado.

A plea deal means the whole crisis for him and his family could finally come to an acceptable and peaceful end after all of these years. “Justice Department officials and Assange’s lawyers have had preliminary discussions in recent months about what a plea deal could look like, according to people familiar with the matter, a potential softening in a standoff filled with political and legal complexities,” according to details in the WSJ report. “The talks come as Assange has spent some five years behind bars and U.S. prosecutors face diminishing odds that he would serve much more time even if he were convicted stateside.” In February of this year, Assange’s cause received a big boost when his native Australia issued formal request to the US and UK that charges against Julian Assange be dropped. The motion adopted by Australian parliament at that time emphasized “the importance of the UK and USA bringing the matter to a close so that Mr. Assange can return home to his family in Australia.”

Given Australia is a close US ally and member of the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence group, this was a huge win for Assange. It’s very possible that this act alone may have pushed the Biden administration to take a more conciliatory stance. However, the US deep state is still without doubt seeking revenge after years of humiliation and tens of thousands of leaked documents revealed by WikiLeaks which exposed US state secrets and sometimes war crimes. There are still many obstacles to overcome if such a plea deal were to ever become reality, and the clock is ticking, notes WSJ further: The discussions remain in flux and the talks could fizzle. Any deal would require approval at the highest levels of the Justice Department. Barry Pollack, a lawyer for Assange, said he has been given no indication that the department will take a deal. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

The report details, “If prosecutors allow Assange to plead to a U.S. charge of mishandling classified documents—something his lawyers have floated as a possibility—it would be a misdemeanor offense.” And this would be the ideal outcome for Assange and his legal team: “Under such a deal, Assange potentially could enter that plea remotely, without setting foot in the U.S. The time he has spent behind bars in London would count toward any U.S. sentence and he would likely be free to leave prison shortly after any deal was concluded.” Let’s hope that the celebratory day comes soon where Assange can actually walk out of Belmarsh a free man.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Is this where John Cleese got the idea for the Silly Walks department?

 

 

Dubai-New York
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770453666446602547

 

 

 

 

Hippo bite
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770426704382554591

 

 

Turtle
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770524511156253129

 

 

Mates
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770569627879247907

 

 

Zaouli

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle March 21 2024

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 45 total)
  • Author
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  • #155137

    Govert Flinck Landscape With An Obelisk 1638 Stolen from Gardner Museum March 18 1990, the single largest art theft in the world. Never recovered.
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 21 2024]

    #155138
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    German Children ‘Must Be Prepared For War’ – Minister (RT)

    German children should be made to prepare for war to boost “resilience,” Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger stated on Saturday

    . She said kids should be taught what to do in the event of conflict and suggested introducing “civil defense” drills in schools so that youngsters will be prepared for the years ahead. “Society as a whole must prepare well for crises, from a pandemic to natural disasters to war. Civil defense is immensely important, and it also belongs in schools. The goal must be to strengthen our resilience,” Stark-Watzinger said in an interview with the Funke media group. She also called for a “relaxed relationship” to be fostered between schoolchildren and the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr), suggesting that military officers should visit schools to explain what “the Bundeswehr does for our security.” President of the German Teachers’ Association, Stefan Dull, told Bild last week that the minister’s proposal “makes sense.”

    #155139
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    The planet really is insane; surely this signifies the west’s inainity, no?

    #155140
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Speaker Johnson Mulls Inviting Netanyahu To Address Congress After Schumer’s Blistering Words
    Republicans seek show of solidarity for Israel’s sovereignty.”

    Rally round the really important people: The citizens of foreign countries. GOP for me!

    Israel Furious After Canada Votes To Halt Arms Exports To Tel Aviv: undermines Israel’s right to self-defense”

    I didn’t know both giving you a free gun AND helping you hunt the guys down, was a human “right”. I thought you had to do that on your own. Clearly nobody’s stopping you but you’re STILL mad and entitled.

    “Netanyahu Suggests ‘New US-Built Port Could Help Deport Palestinians’

    Aaaaaand there you have it. Predicted and Bingo card in five days.

    “Watch: CBS Reporter Horrified When Black Former Democrats Say They Will Vote Trump: Trump’s support among black voters is up 500% in the past 6 months…”

    There’s only one explanation for this: All Black people are racist.

    “America was IN FACT, a wholly owned corporation until it was dissolved in 2018-19.”

    Maybe. But what does that MEAN? It was a government before, it’s a government now. They behaved badly before, they behave badly now. They trampled the people before, they trample them now. That’s like “Sovereign Citizen” rhetoric or that the IRS amendment is incorrect: So? The Sheriff will come and take you away, which is the only thing that matters. This is the Right’s version of mixing the Map and the Territory.

    Glad to hear it! When will it matter? If it was dissolved, many, many, many years ago…like 7…then when can I expect to see the very first clue? Usually when corporations “Cease to exist” they stop operating in 5 days? 3 months? Too soon?
    Put it this way: Stupid is as Stupid does. The proof is in the pudding. If it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck..

    Now is the EMPHASIS he’s trying to bring up here, real? Probably in the vaguest sense. We know Powell had AmRev2.0 to finally un-link us from British Colonization. And they, London, learned to colonize and extract via banking. Once proven here, they released and converted the rest of empire, e.g. India to the U.S. model. How do we know it’s them? U.S. banking was still entirely merged with and based on LIBOR rates. And the London Gold Fix, although that passed slightly faster. WHO sets the top-down steering committee and Central Planning that can make and break nations by pulling some levers. Set up a billion dollar Soros or erase a Trump at will? These levers. So when U.S. Banking insulates themselves, like surgically dividing a Siamese Twin, then hands off the most central lever of power, LIBOR rates, it matters. …But it hasn’t mattered yet, that will happen and be proven in the next crisis.

    “Children are dying of starvation while the rules-based order is watching and doing nothing.”

    The Rule is: We kill children! As many as we can! Humans are a virus and we hate them, write that we hate them, pass laws that show that we hate them, and both promise to, and actually do, kill as many as we humanly can.

    Can we care about the kids in Ohio? How about Long Island where they’re chopping people up and wandering around without bail? Daughters’ suicide rates have gone up, what, 10x since smartphones? Can we care about their deaths, or don’t they matter?

    A PalestiniTonne of kids are dying each day. An EAST PalestiniTonne.

    “the United States Senate approved a U.S. $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel.”

    Yes, but read your own writing. That’s $30B/pc and may not be in 1 minute but 5 years. That’s not enough to buy a plane. By dividing it, you guarantee to LOSE all three wars, and win none, especially when $2,000 Billion wasn’t enough to defeat 12-year old goat herders with AKs, which we ran away from in shame, having been beaten soundly in utter, disorderly retreat.

    “While the 1990s was a golden period for the West, top 10% apparatchiks it was a nightmare for Russians All Americans including all 90% of counties in FlyoverLand. The economy collapsed and society disintegrated with truly horrific consequences..” Viz, see: “Roger and Me” 1989. Yeah moving from making $60/hr to raising rabbits in a hutch in your living room was a true “Golden Era.” Wow, who didn’t love those times except for 40 states?

    Okay who SPECIFICALLY destroyed and liquidated Russia? NeoLiberal Neocons. Who SPECIFICALLY destroyed 95% of all counties in America, and like 250 million lives? NeoLiberal Neocons. Now why is Putin also popular here, more popular than either candidate? Can’t understand, although “White, Rural Rage” lines it out in great detail and is read by the whole Left.

    “• Ukraine Lost Over 71,000 Troops Since Start of 2024 – Shoigu (Sp.)

    So it was 500,000, and now it’s 600,000.

    “Germany will not let Russian President Vladimir Putin forcibly alter Ukraine’s borders or impose the terms of peace, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has vowed”

    You and whose army? Make Me.

    “German Children ‘Must Be Prepared For War’ – Minister (RT)

    Starting with the Children, the Hitler Youth, meaning they intend to re-attack in six years. If Attacking right now and they would talk to adults, Longer than that and they’d have focused elsewhere. They’re coming for your children. They want them all dead. They write so and act so daily: you just don’t believe them.

    “Civil defense is immensely important, and it also belongs in schools. The goal must be to strengthen our resilience,”

    You are quite correct, and we’ve been saying this since YOU, the self-same people, DISMANTLED every Civil Defense ever made, which was being run at virtually no cost, Free. Now there are no designated shelters, structures, no food, water, blankets, and we are entirely helpless everywhere, even as you talk about “Carrington” “EMP” and “Kim Jong”. Every day in every way you work tirelessly, late into the night, to exhaustion feverishly making us more unready.

    So excuse me if I’m a little skeptical or even suspicious here. Have you booked up even ONE barrel of water yet? No? Have you re-centralized or removed from 24/7 Internet even ONE aspect of critical modern life, let’s say Medical Records? No? GFY. You can’t have my kids. I’M training them. And I am training them to shoot YOU. What was that Napoleon said about how we needed to “figure it out.”?

    Btw, that’s not outrageous or even illegal. That’s written in the first American Documents and the first American law, the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Federalist. I’m the only one following the law while they refuse it.

    ““Earlier in March, Robert Fico stressed that he was “not convinced of the sincerity of the West to achieve peace in Ukraine.”

    Gosh, what tipped him off? Germany vowing to attack in 6 years?

    “a full load of fresh eggs to be transported to the nearly starving civilians who still remain in Avdeyevka. Ten eggs cost the equivalent of a dollar and forty cents.”

    Gosh, WHY can’t we live in Avdiivka? Prices like that are a wonderland compared to here. And also not poisoned.

    “Each building in every street is at least partially destroyed.”

    This is what military masterminds like PCR had in mind for all Ukraine: door to door fighting = door by door shelling. All 600,000km2 worth. How about INSTEAD we sit and drink tea and let the Nazis run face-first into a minefield so that ONLY a few cities like Avdiivka are leveled to moonscape, meaning we don’t have to rebuild the rest of the country, every barn and water tower. More civilians survive? No? Bad idea? Explain to me, Paul?

    “Boeing might sell at least two of its defense unit businesses to improve its finances”

    They can’t do that; then they wouldn’t be a monopoly. And Capitalism = no competition.

    “United Launch Alliance (ULA), the rocket-launch joint venture co-owned with Lockheed Martin.”

    The epitome and apex of monopoly. Yeah we’re sort of pretending there are two companies, but actually we merged them too.

    “[FAA] failed the aircraft maker on 33 out of 89 product audits” …And then nothing happened. 10 years in a row. Because that was “regulation” and “the law.” The point of regulation is to stop YOU, not them. As the SEC with ETH this week. They’ve ALREADY ruled on all the issues in the ETH ETF, but are slow-walking, opposing, and stalling their own arguments. Why? To do press-releases that will jack the market back and forth for BlackRock’s insider trading. The SEC is not only overlooking insider trading, including all Congress’ and buybacks, but are literally CAUSING it. For years. Openly.

    THAT is the true and only purpose of regulators. No? If they use the entire Federal Budget on lawyers to stop YOU from having freedom, options, owning stuff, using your own money, how are you going to stop them? Only a “good faith” argument and impulse restrains them. Who’s going to make them? Republicans won’t even impeach Hunter Biden who refuses to show up whenever he feels like ‘coz he was busy having lunch with “The f-ing Chinese Spy Head”.

    “• House May Refer January 6 Committee Members for Obstruction (ET)

    They might but they won’t. The know they intentionally tampered with, then deleted evidence, but that’s not a crime. Because: Republicans. More of an obstacle and enemy than even the Democrats are.

    The evidence they tampered with are germaine and open to multiple defendants as a matter of Civil Rights Law. Don’t care: Republicans helping. Prosecution must provide and share all evidence. Don’t care, Republicans are the ones holding all the J6 prisoners. On their watch. Helping. With allies like that, we could remove the Democrats altogether and still be in equal danger. Wot. A. Shock. Nope, never saw that coming. So. Surprised. Muchly Wow.

    “A federal appeals court overruled the Supreme Court?!”

    Uh, yeah, still trying to figure that out. Like Joe Biden, what happens if the USSC rules you can’t student loan and he does it anyway? Changes one word and does it anyway? And the Lower courts? Do it anyway. Clearly no Republican will ever impeach, so why not?

    Democrats didn’t win the field; Republicans abdicated, surrendered it all to them and left. Is it their fault they took it? If I leave my house and throw the keys at you on the way down the street, what are you supposed to think?

    “• RFK Jr. Destroys His Candidacy With VP Pick? (Roger Simon)

    Yes. And I no longer have a clue. Trump people I talk to now are like, “We don’t trust anyone.” That is, they don’t trust TRUMP. MAGA, Republicans, as above. No One. THIS IS A GOOD THING:

    —— You’re not supposed to trust them, they’re not supposed to save you. ——-

    YOU are the government, YOU make them. They, MAGA, are not SUPPOSED to exist. There’s not SUPPOSED to be a Federal level beyond a Navy and a Post Office. All this just drills in, nobody’s coming to save you. You’ll have to save yourself.

    “• DOJ Mulling Plea Deal For Assange: He Could Finally Walk Free (ZH)

    Like I said, why do you take it as a done deal America is worse than London? When has that ever been true? Belmarsh is a Country Club and he’ll be much worse off here? It remains to be seen, but if you want London to ever let him go, you have to pretend you’ll kill him. You’ll have to convince London you think he’s Public Enemy #1 and you’ll hang him for sure. ONLY THEN will they transfer the prisoner.

    Airline: America sure looks small compared to Quebec.

    Phoenix, it turned into a “HereLetMeGoogleThatForYou.com”, complete with fake and many misrepresented photos, but https://wheninyourstate.com/arizona/its-so-hot-right-now-in-arizona-that-people-are-sharing-photos-of-things-melting/

    Some of these are probably real. The Blue car with the side trim off it seems to be the same thing in Italy at 37c. As you know, not very hot, only to the British press that published it. You know living there that even 120F heat alone won’t take out a bumper or a wall. It’s only in the sun. If not, we can take a car part, put it in the oven, and check. Again, anecdotal is me. I am the test, and so is Dr. Day. Decades outside biking let you know what a reasonable baseline is in all conditions. Even in winter if the sun can hit directly, it’s hot. And the color, so I suspect you can see that yourself, but you’ll have to have a strong memory.

    #155141
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Don’t know why I bother to do these, my own sanity I guess:

    “Writer, Woman, Playwright, Spy: How Espionage Influenced Aphra Behn’s Writing:
    She is remembered in history as the first woman to make a living by writing in English, all the way back in the 1600s“ –Literary Hub

    Except for all the women who were spies, wrote for an independent living in the 17th century, there weren’t any women writing or spying in the 17th century. Because they couldn’t have bank accounts for 300 more years.

    Writer, Woman, Playwright, Spy: How Espionage Influenced Aphra Behn’s Writing

    As they say n the article, they can’t be sure because spies don’t go advertising their work, duh. So we are certain this DIDN’T happen more or less all the time. Because Science is always proving a negative like that. But other than Caesar’s whole female families for 400 years, the Borgia’s who include Popes, Sigrid Queen of Denmark and Sweden, Elanor of Aquitaine, Mercy Otis Warren (also a playwright), Harriet Tubman, Mata Hari (miss MacLeod, also divorced at a time there-was-no-divorce), Hedy Lamarr, Virginia Hall, Josephine Baker (also black), Noor Inayat Khan (also Indian), Julia Child (also very tall), There were no women who made their living by writing and intrigue. And certainly no WIFE ever wrote letters for or without their husbands knowledge. Just ask them! They were illiterate, barefoot, and not allowed pens! Slaves! Cattle!

    We all know that, ‘coz, 50’s, right? All those 50s housewives in pink. (Who only just left the factories last year, and whose mothers were ladanum-sucking jazz flappers, shooting .22 rifles at 12 years old, like Annie Oakley and Amelia Erhardt.) Yup yup. And their mothers never broke sod or horses in Nebraska and Wyoming, never sold cows for money, never worked on no farm, never wrote no books. Not Ingalls Wilder, no!

    Nope, Literary Hub. This is an anomaly of all those things that just never happened. “It’s an exception 100% of the time”.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_early-modern_British_women_playwrights

    Jeez, that’s weird: I see +20 woman authors in the 17th century in just this short, official list on Wikipedia. But who can trust Wikipedia?

    Remember kids: “Data isn’t data if if conflicts with my theories.” That’s your dose of sarcasm poisoning for the day.

    #155142
    John Day
    Participant

    “It’s Not About Trump”: American CJ Hopkins, Charged Again in Germany, Describes Global Censorship Effort
    Acquitted on German hate speech charges in January, American playwright CJ Hopkins is being charged again for the same offense. He has a scary message for Americans
    https://www.racket.news/p/its-not-about-trump-american-cj-hopkins

    Thanks Dr. D. I’ll let all-y’all know when my skin starts cringing this year. Not yet.

    #155143
    John Day
    Participant

    Zaouli dance is apparently a mating display of reproductive/general fitness. (Just guessing.)

    #155144
    John Day
    Participant

    Point of Order: War weakens and impairs all those who pass through it and live.
    Avoiding War is “resilient”.
    Preparing children for war is planning for horrible societal dysfunction and pathology.

    #155145
    Michael Reid
    Participant


    U.S. Stands on Cusp of Fascistic Autocracy

    Jeffrey E. Paul discusses the deep history, roots, and trajectory of how it came to be that the United States is now on the verge of becoming a “fascistic autocracy” and one-party state. The origins emanate from 19th century Germany and its autocratic collectivist mindset which permeated American academia and government in the late 1800s. These German authoritarian ideologues were the same who later went on to mentor Hitler and the Nazi regime. The clock is fast running out on the American experiment.

    Jeffrey E. Paul: U.S. Stands on Cusp of Fascistic Autocracy

    #155146
    Germ
    Participant

    lll ➡️ lV

    TVASF

    #155147
    John Day
    Participant

    Germ’s “solution” is better than mine, which is to declare 3 identical matches to “be a match”.
    Hi Germ!
    😀

    #155149
    zerosum
    Participant

    Complexity
    Path to Peace

    https: //strategic-culture.su/news/2024/03/20/silver-bullet-against-barbarian-invasions-of-west-de-dollarization-of-international-system/

    To sum up, it is not difficult to see that the energy that feeds the United States machine of violence in different parts of the world (as such as the militarization in the South China Sea, the hot war in Ukraine, or even the genocide in Gaza) comes from a leading source of supply: the disproportionate financing and spending capacity of the United States, derived from the position of its currency in the global monetary hierarchy and the way the international economic system has been in operation since the end of the Cold War. In this way, the world, by continuing to absorb, without apparent limit, American public debt bonds, finances the violence perpetrated by Washington, however contradictory that may seem.

    Therefore, the de-dollarization of the international system has become a “silver bullet” to dismantle an essential part of this war machine without military confrontation. For this reason, de-dollarization is urgent not only as a first-order geopolitical objective for the so-called Global South but also as an ethical and humanitarian imperative against the barbaric invasions of the West.
    March 20, 2024
    Mauricio METRI
    —————
    Failed Political interferences
    https: //sputnikglobe.com/20240320/ukraines-military-losses-amount-to-over-71000-people-since-start-of-2024—shoigu-1117448767.html

    Russian air defenses struck down 419 drones and 67 missiles that were launched by Ukrainian troops against Russian targets during the three days of presidential voting, Shoigu said.
    The Ukrainian armed forces targeted polling places across Russia during last week’s presidential election with tacit approval of their Western military advisers, Sergei Shoigu said.
    “They intentionally targeted polling places and government institutions while civilians were present there. Both the command of the Ukrainian armed forces and their Western advisers knew it,” Shoigu told a ministerial meeting in Moscow.
    At the same time, the losses of the Ukrainian armed forces in the direction of the actions of the groups covering the state border for eight days of hostilities amounted to more than 3,500, or rather 3,501 people, of which 790 were killed,” Shoigu said at the board ministerial meeting.
    ———-
    blackmail, cohesion, hush money · extortion · shakedown · payoff · tribute.
    https: //sputnikglobe.com/20240320/split-over-ukraine-aid-prompts-unprecedented-czech-slovak-rupture-1117444378.html
    Split Over Ukraine Aid Prompts ‘Unprecedented’ Czech-Slovak Rupture
    ————–
    The people have spoken/voted for peace.

    https: //sputnikglobe.com/20240320/donetsk-avdeyevka-mariupol-on-the-road-in-electoral-donbass-1117443687.html

    Pepe Escobar: Donetsk, Avdeyevka, Mariupol – on the Road in Electoral Donbass

    They have waited 10 long, suffering years to vote in this election. And vote they did, in massive numbers, certifying a landslide reelection for the political leader who brought them back to Mother Russia. VVP may now be widely referred to as Mr. 87%. In Donetsk, turnout was even higher: 88,17%. And no less than 95% voted for him.
    ————–
    “..working people of all shades and colors are much more interested in maintaining their livelihoods/peace than railing against wokeism..”
    Read more …

    ———–
    IV=4
    =======

    #155150
    John Day
    Participant

    Celia Farber:
    Migrant Influencer Tells Other Migrants In Viral Video: “I Found Out That There Is A Law That Says If A House Is Not Inhabited We Can Seize It”
    Worst Part Is The Look In His Eyes. Just Don’t Call It “Communism”
    https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/migrant-influencer-tells-other-migrants

    What distinguishes “capitalism” from “socialism” in a fractional-reserve-lending banking system with “government” creation of money?
    More on that later…

    #155151

    Da-doot, do-doot, do doodle-dee-doot.
    Da-doot, do-doot, do dooo-do.
    Da-doot, do-doot, do doodle-dee- doot.
    Pop! goes the

    That’s about where we are now, hot war-wise.

    Hey, Germ!

    #155152

    Hot world war wise.

    #155153
    zerosum
    Participant

    Do they still teach foreign languages?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals

    #155154
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Gorilla Radio

    Ken Stone and fighting for peace in the Middle East from Canada. John Helmer and Europe’s mental quagmire in the second half.

    https://gradio.substack.com/p/gorilla-radio-with-chris-cook-ken-cec

    F.S.

    #155155
    zerosum
    Participant

    Apple being sued for not obeying the “directives” of the gov.
    (Lawyers are gleeful)

    #155156
    Red
    Participant

    Phoenix it’s not about getting a sunburn, it’s a feeling to myself that’s like a tingling on the surface of my skin as the sun hits regardless of ambient temperature. As for sunburn, if I have to work in the sun most of the day I will tan through my tee shirt I’m usually in a white tee, well mostly white except for the paint splatters. This at 45 north, I can’t remember that happening even ten years back. I have had plenty of sunburns over my lifetime but don’t ever recall a physical feeling from the rays, beyond a feeling of warmth such as I’m now noticing. There just seems to be more energy hitting the ground and it’s not infra red.

    #155157
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    re: “That lets the man play Chess and Civilization VI online, making his life much more fun.”

    That is just f#(<ing amazing. Samuel R Delany story, Nova (1968), has some characters wired up to mining equipment, industrial machinery, etc.

    Civ VI is a puke-inducing greenwash. The whole tech tree ushers you in to AGW, and the other NPCs won’t shut up about it. I played 2 games, and just stopped.

    #155158
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Civ 6 is Civilization For Retard Snowflakes. Maybe the chip made him stupid and unable to play a real Civ game like anything 1-5. Preferably, what, Civ II?

    Idunno why nobody just makes a computer version of the original 1980 Civilization board game, except that current-year people would start instantly crying and shitting themselves over a game, like when they pull the Civil War card, lose half their empire, which starts attacking them. That’s just life, buttercup.

    (same people who can’t just roll 3d6 for each stat in D&D and then just play the character they rolled – good way to filter out wokies from your group, who won’t psychologically be able to play through on a character that rolled a 3 for idunno, Dex, Str, or whatever, which would be ACTUAL incorporation of disabilities into D&D – no, it involves having a “battle wheelchair” while being super awesome and special… better than anyone, really)

    I also could not make it through more than 2 games of Civ 6. Went back to Civ 5. Then Civ 3. Then Civ 2.

    Sid Meier’s 1999 Alpha Centauri was far, FAR more palatable and enjoyable with an environmentalist theme.

    #155159
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The world of business & politics, money & power, is SWIFTLY coming to the conclusion that the West (Anglo-Saxon America in particular) is going to lose. That’s a really big change, and I mean really REALLY big, because up until quite recently the sum-total opinion worldwide was that the West held all the cards, and it’s pragmatically foolish to ignore the compelling reality of siding with the winner, and dumping the loser. That discomforting political fact explains about 90% of why countries and blocs were still backing the West even though they actually hated the Anglo-Saxon-American Empire’s guts.

    As various groups and nations become ever more certain that THE WEST IS GOING TO LOSE, those self same nations will do what they have to do if they are in any way capable of doing it. What they are going to do is to side with the winner and dump the loser.

    That shock is yet to be felt, but the ax is falling as we speak and is at best maybe a few months away from our collective neck. The Anglo-Saxon American Great Western Empire of Lies and Murder better prepare to have a lot fewer friends than it thought it had. Even false ones.

    #155160
    zerosum
    Participant

    blackmail, cohesion, hush money · extortion · shakedown · payoff · tribute.
    I have learned new word/ways, tools, that our society uses to steal.
    Ex. Russian assets, Trump assets,

    #155161
    jb-hb
    Participant

    ACTUAL Anglo-Saxon culture:

    –loyalty extends STRONGLY both upward AND downward – loyalty TO your sworn man
    –the greatest king must ask permission even from the lowest free man to enter his home
    –the king is subject to the law
    –you can only be tried by your peers

    “The West” is a weird blob thing that hates Western European Civilization with the heat of a million suns.

    #155162
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @jb-hb re: loyalty, fealty, branches of spirituality

    Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight – This is a translation, but has the original (??) text along-side. It’s quite engaging, but a slog.

    #155163
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Thanks. Bookmarked for later reading.

    I absorbed some of my Anglo-Saxon culture knowledge through Parke Godwin, another bookish Englishman, writing fantasy history for Britain like Tolkien. His books on Arthurian legend: Firelord and Beloved Exile, as well as his Robin Hood books – Sherwood and Robin And The King – are excellent. I especially recommend Firelord. Magical, horrific, wonderful.

    https://archive.org/details/firelord00godw

    So many good fantasy novels have the best times as a fallen beforehand. The Lord Of The Rings has a mostly depopulated middle earth with the Elves not able to oppose evil the way they did in previous ages, a fallen Northern Kingdom, a diminished Gondor, a dispirited Rohan, etc. Narnia books repeatedly start with everything ruined, IN ruins, fallen, before our heroes get to even TRY anything. Firelord is of course in the ruins of the Roman empire, with greatness in the rear view mirror.

    #155164
    tboc
    Participant

    Wes,
    Sun blasts out highest-energy radiation ever recorded, raising questions for solar physics
    News
    By Monisha Ravisetti
    published August 6, 2023
    https://www.space.com/sun-blasts-highest-energy-radiation-ever-recorded-raising-questions-solar-physics

    #155165
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Contrary to standard issue conspiracy theory that the FEMA Camps were built to round up us citizens when the time came, I wonder if FEMA built all that housing for migrants (our replacement population, especially for military and policing jobs), and that using the camps for large scale migrant staging and deployment was the explicit plan all along. If so, it suggests a far longer and much more detail specific planning and preparation than was earlier assumed.

    #155166
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    There probably isn’t a square foot of livable land anywhere in the world that wasn’t at one point in history invaded by a conqueror who displace, killed and subjugated the original inhabitants. We ALL have been born onto stolen land. It’s gone back and forth between these two populations pretty much nonstop for millennia. You may not have personally conquered, displaced or killed anyone, but the dirt you’re standing on and call your own once belonged to someone else who at the time that it was forcibly taken from them felt about their land about the same way that you think and feel about “your own” home now.

    The point is that (through no fault of our own) we’re all here now, so we need to learn how to get along without all this conquering and killing and subjugating stuff. It just doesn’t work.

    #155167
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    /-I

    #155168
    John Day
    Participant

    False Dichotomy https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/false-dichotomy

    Alex Krainer (who grew up in Communist Yugoslavia, has thrived as a hedge-fund manager and financial advisor), Untangling the “socialism” vs. “capitalism” dichotomy
    ​ Few ideological dichotomies polarize opinions as readily and as completely as that between “socialism” and “capitalism.” Those who embrace socialism tend to blame capitalism for everything that’s wrong with our world today. Those who embrace capitalism harbor a seething contempt for socialists, but both camps base their views on ideology with only vague notions about the true nature of either system.
    ​ The “socialists” think of capitalism as a rapacious system of exploitation that favors a few at the detriment of many. There is some truth in that. The “capitalists” think of socialism as a system that gives free stuff to the lazy and undeserving, choking society’s progress. There’s some truth in that too, but having lived in both systems and having experienced the ideological brainwash from both sides, I find neither side convincing.
    ​ Both systems’ ideological foundations amount to marketing, the intellectual gloss on the cover of their respective sales brochures. But the gloss never captures the essence of either system – an omission that is so egregious that it is almost certainly deliberate…
    ​..I’d rejected the Marxist ideology already as a teenager, not because I had any deep understanding of the economic and socio-political issues we faced but because the system wasn’t delivering as advertised… But the more I learned about the “capitalist” system, the more I became convinced that the same seed of doom that made “socialism” unsustainable was also baked into the foundation of the “capitalist” system.
    ​ For starters, in both systems we had the familiar old fiat currency with fractional reserve lending. This one element guarantees the collapse of both systems: over time it reliably corrodes the democratic framework of society, suffocates free market economy, kills entrepreneurship and innovation, and guarantees that government sector of the economy will gradually displace more and more private enterprise. It does this due to an economic effect called the deflationary gap.​..
    ​..[Deflationary Gap explanation paragraphs] …
    ..The system can be balanced either by lowering the supply and prices of goods, by enhancing its total purchasing power, or a combination of both. Lowering prices and production of goods will stabilize the economic system at a low level of economic activity​ [Nixon tried this]. Increasing the purchasing power in the system will stabilize it on a higher level of activity​.
    ​ Left to itself and without intervention, a modern economic system would fall into what we call a self-reinforcing deflationary depression: the deflationary gap would lead to falling prices and output, decline of income and rising unemployment. Furthermore, in recessions and depressions, the level of investment typically declines even more rapidly than savings. To avert this, government intervention is necessary.
    ​ Without government intervention, the economy would stabilize when the level of savings declined to the level of investments which would be at a depression level of activity. This is an anathema in all modern economies, and governments invariably pursue the imperative of economic growth. To generate growth, they must inject new purchasing power into the system. This cannot be done through taxation since taxation doesn’t create new purchasing power: taxes only transfer money from those who earn it to the government.
    ​ This is why governments have no alternative but to continuously engage in deficit spending​ [when money is debt-based​, or mining more gold & silver, or printing more bills], adding debt in excess of their tax receipts. This is why virtually all governments in the world today run budget deficits and chronically grow public debt. In spite of all the incessant talk about balancing the budget, paying down debts or imposing debt ceilings, the debts only keep rising at rates that predictably accelerate over time. It doesn’t matter whether we call the system “socialist” or “capitalist,” they both necessitate an ever growing role of government in the economy​ [when ​economic growth is desired]​.
    ​ Today, in many of the “capitalist” nations, government spending accounts for almost half of the GDP and in some cases significantly more. In the UK, the mothership of capitalism, the government’s share of GDP is 44%. In France it’s over 58%.​…
    ..There’s no point railing against “socialism” and dreaming about a small government, private capital utopia which doesn’t, and cannot exist so long as our economies are based on fiat currencies with fractional reserve lending. Even if we start with zero public debt, the pursuit of economic growth will lead to the same outcomes.​ With fullness of time, the government sector will progressively crowd out private enterprise: it’s a mathematical certainty.​..
    ..With that, we can address the false dichotomy between “socialist” and “capitalist” economies as they’re commonly discussed. Namely, in what we call “capitalist” economies, a larger proportion of government-injected purchasing power flows top-down. In what we call “socialist” economies, it flows bottom-up.
    Capitalist governments splurge their largesse on large private corporations in the form of subsidies and generous government contracts. Socialist governments splurge on social welfare programs like low-cost or free health care, education, generous unemployment benefits and pension plans, and programs that maintain full employment even where jobs couldn’t be justified by private enterprise…
    ..The idea that the state would splurge on the lazy and undeserving free-loaders is understandably revolting. However, all those undeserving free-loaders might also be your customers, so even the hard-core entrepreneurial types benefit if the lazy bums have money to spend.
    The alternative in governments splurging on large corporations is far more dangerous. If purchasing power is distributed bottom up, the decisions about how to spend that purchasing power are up to the ordinary people. As such, they’ll tend to benefit ordinary businesses that produce consumer goods and services: bakers, apparel makers, restaurants, coffee shops, musicians, tour guides, bicycle repairmen, etc.
    By contrast, if the state spends top-down, it runs the moral hazard of determining the winners and losers in the supposedly free market competition. The winners will tend to be those corporations and groups that can “invest” the most in political lobbying efforts. As a result, we get the TBTF banking behemoths, big Ag, big Pharma, big Media, big Tech and a massively bloated military-industrial complex. Ultimately, this favors the emergence of ​”corporatism​”, as Benito Mussolini characterized fascism. Today we prefer the sanitized term, “private-public partnership.”
    ​ These are the musings that get me labelled “communist,” but, whatever. If we want to fix what’s wrong in the world today it is essential that our analysis goes past the handy but misleading labels of “socialism” vs. “capitalism,” or left vs. right, and that we deconstruct our challenges down to their essential building blocks.​.. Labels only perpetuate our problems and make it difficult to transcend the dysfunctional elements in our system and evolve toward better social arrangements.
    https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/untangling-the-socialism-vs-capitalism

    ​ De-dollarization is urgent as an ethical and humanitarian imperative against the barbaric invasions of the West, Mauricio Metri
    ​ To sum up, it is not difficult to see that the energy that feeds the United States machine of violence in different parts of the world (as such as the militarization in the South China Sea, the hot war in Ukraine, or even the genocide in Gaza) comes from a leading source of supply: the disproportionate financing and spending capacity of the United States, derived from the position of its currency in the global monetary hierarchy and the way the international economic system has been in operation since the end of the Cold War. In this way, the world, by continuing to absorb, without apparent limit, American public debt bonds, finances the violence perpetrated by Washington, however contradictory that may seem.
    ​ Therefore, the de-dollarization of the international system has become a “silver bullet” to dismantle an essential part of this war machine without military confrontation. For this reason, de-dollarization is urgent not only as a first-order geopolitical objective for the so-called Global South but also as an ethical and humanitarian imperative against the barbaric invasions of the West.

    The Silver Bullet Against the Barbarian Invasions of the West: De-Dollarization of the International System

    #155169
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Pepe Escobar: Donetsk, Avdeyevka, Mariupol – on the Road in Electoral Donbass
    ​ At Yasinovata, very close to Avdeyevka, we visit the MBOU, or school number 7, impeccably rebuilt after non-stop shelling. The director, Ludmilla Leonova, an extraordinary strong woman, takes me on a guided tour of the school and its brand new classrooms for chemistry and biology, a quaint Soviet alphabet decorating the classroom for Russian language. Classes, hopefully, will resume in the Fall.
    ​ Close to the school a refugee center for those who have been brought from Avdeyevka has been set up. Everything is spotlessly clean. People are processed, entered into the system, then wait for proper papers. Everyone wants to obtain a Russian passport as soon as possible.
    ​ For the moment, they stay in dormitories, around 10 people in each room. Some came from Avdeyevka, miraculously, in their own cars: there are a few Ukrainian license plates around. Invariably, the overall expectation is to return to Avdeyevka, when reconstruction starts, to rebuild their lives in their own town.
    ​ Then, it’s on the road to Avdeyevka. Nothing, absolutely nothing prepares us to confront total devastation. In my nearly 40 years as a foreign correspondent, I’ve never seen anything like it – even Iraq. At the unofficial entry to Avdeyevka, beside the skeleton of a bombed building and the remains of a tank turret, the flags of all military battalions which took part in the liberation flutter in the wind.
    ​ FPVs loiter overheard – detected by a handheld device, and our military escort is on full alert. We find out that as we enter a ground floor apartment which is being kept as a sort of mini food depot – housing donations from Yasinovata or from the military – that very same room, in the morning, had been converted into a polling station. That’s where the very few remaining Avdeyevka residents actually voted.
    ​ A nearly blind man with his dog explains why he can’t leave: he lives in the same street, and his apartment is still functional – even though he has no water or electricity. He explains how the Ukrainians were occupying each apartment block – with residents turned into refugees or hostages in the basements – and then, pressed by the Russians, relocated to nearby schools and hospitals until finally fleeing.
    ​ The basements are a nightmare. Virtually no light. The temperature is at least 10 degrees Celsius lower than at street level. It’s impossible to imagine how they survived. Another resident nonchalantly strolls by in his bicycle, surrounded by derelict concrete skeletons. The loud booms – mostly outgoing – are incessant.
    ​ Then, standing amidst total devastation, a vision: the elegant silhouette of the Church of Mary Magdalen, immaculately preserved. Dmitry, the caretaker, takes me around; it’s a beautiful church, the paintings on the roof still gleaming under the pale sunlight, a gorgeous chandelier and the inner chamber virtually intact.
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20240320/donetsk-avdeyevka-mariupol-on-the-road-in-electoral-donbass-1117443687.html

    John Helmer, WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR THE UKRAINIAN “SANITARY ZONE” TO BE SANITARY?
    In his election victory speech on Sunday night, President Vladimir Putin has accepted the 87% Russian voter mandate to finish the war by securing the Novorussian territories east of the Dnieper River, and converting western Ukraine into “a certain sanitary zone in today’s territories subordinated to the Kiev regime.”
    In military terms, this zone extends westward from the Dnieper to the full 500-kilometre range of NATO missiles supplied to the Ukrainian forces; and to the 900-km range of the drones in the current Ukrainian inventory. With direct flight distance from Odessa to Lvov at 630 kms, and between Kharkov and Lvov of 975 kms, this means that all of the “territories subordinated to the Kiev regime” will become a sanitary zone, demilitarized to the Polish Border… “I do not exclude that, bearing in mind the tragic events taking place today, we will be forced at some point – when we deem it appropriate — to create a certain sanitary zone in today’s territories subordinated to the Kiev regime.” The president did not specify how soon is “appropriate”, or how deep the demilitarized or sanitary zone will be, except that in calculating the depth and taking Russian control of it, the range of weapons includes “first of all, of course, [weapons] of foreign production.” …
    ​..Now, with the conclusion of the election, Russian military bloggers have begun to voice open criticism of the performance of the military in preventing drone and missile attacks from striking civilians in Belgorod, as well as oil refinery targets up to 900 kms from the border.​..
    ​..Military sources in Moscow have been discreetly acknowledging that the decisions on how far the Russian military operation should extend westwards were postponed during the election campaign. During this time, the sources have also been warning, the Ukrainians were able to construct extensive surface fortifications and command-and-control bunkers north of Chernigov facing an expected offensive drive of Russian forces toward Kiev; and around Odessa to block a Russian offensive in the south. These lines are reportedly manned by fresh and well-supplied Ukrainian reserves, who are being held out of the meat-grinder battles along the line of contact, like Bakhmut and Avdeyevka.
    ​ Threats to reinforce these new fortified lines with a French-led “coalition” have come from President Emmanuel Macron. In parallel, detailed planning by the German Luftwaffe, backed by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, of long-range Taurus missile attacks, launched from aircraft based outside the Ukraine, has become public knowledge.
    In response, a well-informed Moscow source believes the parameters of Russian strategy are becoming clearer “now that Putin is waving the green flag. It’s clear, for example, that although there will not be battles inside cities like Odessa, Kharkov, and Kiev, there cannot be a military outcome for the General Staff and the Kremlin which will allow terrorism against Russia forever from inside those cities, or from whatever remains of the Ukraine. So there must be regime change in Kiev– and a form of Russian occupation that will be ​surprising.”
    ​ “I am not ready to talk about what, how, and when,” Putin said on Sunday. Likewise, no Russian military source is ready. There is, however, frustration at the delay in the operational decision-making.

    WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR THE UKRAINIAN “SANITARY ZONE” TO BE SANITARY?

    ​ Putin responds to Ukraine attacking Russia: ‘We have our plans’
    ​ Speaking about attacks “on civilian infrastructure and on all other objects of this type,” Putin said that Russia could respond in kind, but would not do so.
    “We have our own views and plans on this matter. We will follow what we have planned,” Putin said.
    ​ At a meeting with trusted officials in the Kremlin on March 20, Putin said that the authorities would work to “increase the security of residents” of regions bordering Ukraine and promised that all those affected by Ukrainian strikes, including entrepreneurs who lost their property, would receive support.​ “Of course, we will do everything to support people,” Putin said. At the same time, he called the methods of ensuring security difficult.
    https://english.pravda.ru/news/hotspots/159191-putin-ukraine-shelling/

    ​ Paris can send up to 20 thousand military personnel with aviation and artillery to Ukraine​ [French convoys reportedly spotted moving north through Romania.]
    ​ The introduction of troops of the French Foreign Legion into Ukraine could interfere with a possible operation of units of Russia and Belarus to advance through the western Ukrainian regions into Transnistria.
    ​ Also alarming are the words of French Army Colonel Vincent Arbaretier on the LCI TV channel that the number of military personnel being transferred to Ukraine could reach 20 thousand people. It is expected that the group will deploy in the Odessa region, on the right bank of the Dnieper and along the border of Ukraine with Belarus.
    https://en.topcor.ru/45549-parizh-mozhet-vvesti-na-ukrainu-do-20-tys-voennosluzhaschih-s-aviaciej-i-artilleriej.html

    ​ Washington expects to transfer Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems from Japan to Kyiv, as the US’s own arsenal is depleted of new supplies. Military Watch Magazine writes about the acute shortage of air defense systems in Ukraine after a series of defeats of various air defense systems by Russian missiles.
    ​ MW reports that Tokyo approved the transfer of Patriot air defense systems and missiles to the United States for their subsequent transfer to Ukraine, despite a warning from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
    https://en.topcor.ru/45579-mw-tokio-peredast-vashingtonu-svoi-zrk-patriot-dlja-otpravki-na-ukrainu-poskolku-arsenaly-ssha-istoscheny.html

    #155170
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Split Over Ukraine Aid Prompts ‘Unprecedented’ Czech-Slovak Rupture
    Robert Fico rode to his fourth term as prime minister in Slovakia in 2023 on a wave of discontent over EU support for Ukraine in the NATO proxy conflict against Russia. Like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Fico has been against sending weapons to Kiev, and urged for maintaining good relations with Russia.​..
    ​..The government in Prague, led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala, is fervidly pro-Kiev, while Slovakia’s PM Robert Fico has been adamantly against sending weapons to Ukraine, Kiev’s potential NATO membership, and sanctions on Russia.
    ​ There had never been “open rhetorical confrontation” between the two governments until NATO’s proxy conflict against Russia in Ukraine, it was stressed.
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20240320/split-over-ukraine-aid-prompts-unprecedented-czech-slovak-rupture-1117444378.html

    ​ German children ‘must be prepared for war’ – minister
    Military officers should visit schools to build “relaxed” relations with students, Bettina Stark-Watzinger has suggested
    https://swentr.site/news/594550-germany-chidren-prepare-war/

    ​ In the West, Israel never initiates violence, it only ‘retaliates’
    ​ One of the remarkable things about western support for settler-colonialism in Palestine is its insistence that the Zionist act of colonisation is legitimate and does not constitute aggression against the indigenous Palestinians.
    ​ On the other hand, it views the resistance that the Palestinians mount against settler-colonialism as illegitimate.
    ​ This is why the massive repression that Jewish colonists visit upon the Palestinian natives is invariably identified by Israel, western governments, think tanks, and the obsequious western press as “retaliations” or “reprisals”.
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/west-israel-never-initiates-violence-it-only-retaliates

    ​ ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 167: Israel has killed over 100 aid workers in Gaza in the last week
    Israel has killed over 100 aid workers in Gaza over the past week as its military siege of al-Shifa Hospital continues. Meanwhile, the Netanyahu government continues planning for an invasion of Rafah.
    ​https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-167-israel-has-killed-over-100-aid-workers-in-gaza-in-the-last-week/

    ​ The real reason Israel stormed al-Shifa Hospital yet again​
    Israel’s latest attack on al-Shifa Hospital and the successful delivery of food aid to northern Gaza are connected. Here’s how.
    ​ People flocking to the UNRWA warehouse in Jabalia refugee camp to receive the aid stood in uncharacteristically orderly lines and patiently waited for the handouts of flour, rice, and other foodstuffs. Many could be seen cheering once the aid arrived, a scene captured by Al Jazeera’s coverage.
    ​ But what few people know is that this successful delivery of sorely needed food aid to northern Gaza is what led the Israeli army to launch its deadly raid on al-Shifa Hospital the next day.
    ​ The connection between these two events can only be explained by understanding who Israel was targeting in the raid — the now-martyred Faiq Mabhouh.
    ​ Mabhouh was the Director of Operations of the Gaza police force, a part of the Gaza government’s civilian administration. Unlike Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, Mabhouh did not operate clandestinely at the start of the war, because he didn’t have to — he was in charge of civil law enforcement. Hamas released a statement after his death confirming that he “engaged in purely civil and humanitarian activity.”​…
    ..The true significance of the attack lies not in its desire to empty northern Gaza’s largest civilian refuge, which houses 30,000 people, but in foiling Faiq Mabhouh’s pivotal role in coordinating the delivery of humanitarian aid to starving civilians in Gaza while restoring a semblance of social order to the north.

    The real reason Israel stormed al-Shifa Hospital yet again

    #155171
    John Day
    Participant

    The United States had submitted a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-submits-draft-resolution-calling-immediate-ceasefire-gaza-blinken

    ​ A top Israeli official was quoted in Bloomberg as saying the military is going to invade Rafah and defeat Hamas “even if the entire world turns on Israel, including the United States.” Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, issued the words in a podcast interview.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-invade-rafah-no-matter-what-us-says-top-official

    ​ A group of more than 100 Democratic donors sent a letter to President Biden this week warning him that his “unconditional support” for the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza could cost him the election to former President Trump.
    ​ The letter said that likely Biden voters “are now questioning whether the Democratic Party shares their values. If they stay home or vote for a third-party candidate, there is the very real danger that President Biden will be defeated in November.”
    ​ The New York Times obtained the letter and said a handful of its signatories had donated six-figure sums to President Biden’s 2020 and 2024 campaigns.

    Biden Donors Warn ‘Unconditional Support’ for Israel Could Cost Election

    ​ Politically invisible genocide? Anti-UNRWA funding agreement on track to become law
    The United States would decrease money for UNRWA as part of a budget agreement that is expected to become law soon, sources familiar reported to The New York Times.
    ​ The ban, which is part of a major budget plan negotiated by legislators and the White House and anticipated to pass Congress this weekend, would result in a deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars for UNRWA.
    ​ UNRWA offers educational, healthcare, and humanitarian assistance to approximately 5.7 million registered Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. The United States, “Israel’s” staunch ally and its main backer in the genocide in Gaza, has been the largest contributor to UNRWA’s $1.4 billion annual budget.
    https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/anti-unrwa-funding-agreement-on-track-to-become-law–nyt

    #155172
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ “It’s Not About Trump”: American CJ Hopkins, Charged Again in Germany, Describes Global Censorship Effort​ , Matt Taibbi
    Acquitted on German hate speech charges in January, American playwright CJ Hopkins is being charged again for the same offense.
    ​ “I’m looking at things like the Supreme Court case from a non-U.S. perspective. I’m outside of it. I’m watching the legislation that’s getting rolled out in Ireland and the UK and what’s happening to me here and what’s going on in the States, and it’s so obviously much broader than just a red-blue political story in the US. This is happening throughout the Western democratic countries.
    ​ I’m just desperate to get that across to people. I think it’s so easy for people to get locked into what’s going on in their own country and not see the bigger picture.​”
    https://www.racket.news/p/its-not-about-trump-american-cj-hopkins

    ​ FBI Has To Face Lawsuit Over ‘No-Fly List:’ Supreme Court
    The FBI must face a lawsuit filed by a Muslim man who has since been removed from the bureau’s “no-fly list,” the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on March 19.
    ​ “The government has failed to demonstrate that this case is moot,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a unanimous ruling.​ “While the government’s representation that it will not relist Mr. Fikre may mean that his past conduct is not enough to warrant relisting, that does not speak to whether the government might relist him if he engages in the same or similar conduct in the future,” he added later.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-has-face-lawsuit-over-no-fly-list-supreme-court

    ​ This case focuses on at least COVID medical treatment trials of hydroxychloroquine, employing doses far above the usual, known to be potentially fatal, and they were.
    Can Scientific Misconduct Be Criminally Prosecuted?​ Pierre Kory MD
    ​ MP Andrew Bridgen is convening a group of experts to present evidence of criminal corruption during Covid to the Royal Police. I want a seat at that table. Oxford’s trial authors should be nervous.
    https://pierrekorymedicalmusings.com/p/can-scientific-misconduct-be-criminally

    ​ Steve Kirsch, US geriatric practice reports that COVID vaccines increased mortality by nearly 5X
    We were told that the COVID vaccine saves lives. But I haven’t found a single medical practice where that was true. I did, however, find a medical practice with a 5X mortality increase!!
    https://kirschsubstack.com/p/us-geriatric-practice-reports-that

    ​ He’s not guilty. Julian Assange is a hero. DOJ Mulling Plea Deal For Assange: WikiLeaks Founder Could Finally Walk Free
    ​ The Wednesday WSJ report says, “The U.S. Justice Department is considering whether to allow Julian Assange to plead guilty to a reduced charge of mishandling classified information, according to people familiar with the matter, opening the possibility of a deal that would end a lengthy legal saga triggered by one of the biggest classified intelligence leaks in American history.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doj-mulling-plea-deal-assange-wikileaks-founder-could-finally-walk-free

    #155200
    Dr. D
    Participant

    https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/untangling-the-socialism-vs-capitalism
    That’s fascinating and at least a good argument, but it’s entirely wrong.

    ​ Left to itself and without intervention, a modern economic system would fall into what we call a self-reinforcing deflationary depression: the deflationary gap would lead to falling prices and output, decline of income and rising unemployment.”

    What intervention would he mean? “We” do something more than “We” do? To have an intervention you have to have a system…and a committee of master controllers, outside the system. All powerful and all knowing. Philosopher kings in fact. That’s ME. — I – am smarter, wiser, and stronger than the entire system combined. That’s why I get jam, yachts, and your daughters, and you don’t. ‘Cause you just WORKED and Created them. So how dare you?

    “taxation doesn’t create new purchasing power: taxes only transfer money from those who earn it to the government.
    This is why governments have no alternative but to continuously engage in deficit spending”

    You JUST SAID that stealing money in taxes is not a solution. I didn’t say that: YOU said that. And partially because they are not all-knowing philosopher kings who know what best to do everywhere, but ALSO because they’re not ADDING wealth, they’re removing it.

    But if you remove wealth using INFLATION it’s good, but removing wealth with taxation is bad.

    Okay, cut through all this. Were there any steady state economies in human history? Yes, most. For thousands of years at a pop. But they don’t have fiat basis, nor expensive central planners running it all while taking vacations to Vanuatu.

    “This is why virtually all governments in the world today run budget deficits and chronically grow public debt.”

    Golly gee I didn’t WANT to buy those new solid gold door handles for the Palace Elysee, or 10 new 5-star chefs, but it was for the Public Good! You understand… And we jsut HAD to go in debt for them! Debt + You = Bad. Debt + Me = Good!

    “It doesn’t matter whether we call the system “socialist” or “capitalist,” they both necessitate an ever growing role of government in the economy”

    No, that is LITERALLY the #Opposite of Capitalism. You need government to enforce safety and property disputes. After that, how do they expand? How? Regulating fairie dust and moonbeams? No, by interfering in the economy to make winners and losers. That is to say, crushing competition and ending free markets. “The government controls the means of production.”

    “Today, in many of the “capitalist” nations, government spending accounts for almost half of the GDP “

    Yeah, I know: that’s why they’re not Capitalist, as I say at the top of my lungs. They are a hybrid, which he mentions above, a hybrid of oligarchs, just like Socialism, but they’re so, so far away from the foundational requirements of Capitalism, they can’t reasonably be called so. Just as modern China cannot possibly be defined as “Communist.”

    “.There’s no point railing against “socialism” and dreaming about a small government, private capital utopia which doesn’t, and cannot exist so long as our economies are based on fiat currencies with fractional reserve lending.”

    Um yeah, that’s exactly everybody’s point. But fiat currencies with GOVERNMENT backstopped fractional lending are BOTH not Capitalist. It’s being a “Little Pregnant”. They are “Controlling the means of production”, interfering in eveyr private contract between every person in their jurisdiction. Rigging every contract made — just a little — is the DEFINITION of “Not free market.”

    “Even if we start with zero public debt, the pursuit of economic growth will lead to the same outcomes.​ With fullness of time, the government sector will progressively crowd out private enterprise: it’s a mathematical certainty.​..”
    “There’s no point railing against “socialism”

    No, it is not. Because we can stop it whenever we like. Is there human action, human will involved? Then it’s not “mathematical” in the slightest. It’s voluntary. Don’t do it. Un-sign the law and dispense with it. Now if you’re saying there are certain evil people who will MURDER you to prevent the loss of your power, that’s a different issue. …Which is also entirely un-mathematical, and deeply un-inevitable. That’s like saying “Taking drugs is inevitable.” No, it’s not: Don’t do it.

    “However, all those undeserving free-loaders might also be your customers, so even the hard-core entrepreneurial types benefit if the lazy bums have money to spend.”

    That’s odd: WHY don’t they have money? Do they do “work”? Really? They work like slaves, worse than ever? AND their jobs were stolen with 0% loans that bought capital equipment? And their work was stolen via inflation and prices rose via inflation – both from government, thus not “Capitalism” — and that’s why they’re bums who need the dole to make rent? Gee, what was a house, a car, a meal, a wage in 1810, 1910, 1950, and 2010? If a car still cost $300 think I could afford one? If it doesn’t cost that, who moved my cheese? Ford Motor company? No: GOVERNMENT. The reason THEY need to give the dole is because THEY stole all the money in the first place. THEY didn’t make wealth, they transferred it. Make THEM stop by erasing fiat, and poof! It vanishes again. Like every other time in history.

    …But human will and human choices don’t exist. They are not options. TINA. “It’s inevitable, Mr. Anderson.”

    “if the state spends top-down, it runs the moral hazard of determining the winners and losers in the supposedly free market competition.”

    He says himself right there: it’s LITERALLY no longer free-market and therefore LITERALLY no longer Capitalism. It’s not a
    “hazard”: doing that is the definition of ending competition, and any reasonable claim to it, or yourself as a free or “capitalist” country. I’m sorry people are so delusional they call England the “Mothership of Capitalism” but some people believe they are a horse, and some think they are made of beetles, or are Jesus Christ, and they are all also definitionally insane humans as well. Sorry to hear Krainer is one of them, seems a smart fellow, but a smart fellow using entirely erroneous, shifting definitions, one moment to the next. THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY.

    Anyway, does the “Socialist” side LOOK like everyone is getting rich? That every time the dole increases, Poverty in the U.S. DROPS, and new Volvos are sold? No? ??? That’s odd, why not? That’s literally what he’s saying here. We’re spending far in excess of $8,000 for every man woman and child in the U.S. I’m sure that’s gone up 10x while poverty has risen faster. How can that be? Doesn’t it seem like if you just didn’t steal it in the first place, to say nothing of wasting +50% in administration, then the median wage of like $20,000 at poverty, would become a median wage of $28,000, of the lower middle class? Hey! Isn’t that exactly where we came from? In 1950, above? Huh. Weird.

    So the $8,000 stolen is? Exactly as he says in one definition before he reverses it again: that Government doesn’t make wealth, it takes it. “Incendium gloria culpam, etcetera, etcetera…”,

    incendium gloria culpam, etcetera, etcetera...

    #155201
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Wear a MAGA hat, get pre-dawn raided at home and killed by multiple gunshots to the head. https://www.kark.com/crime/family-of-bryan-malinowski-releases-statement-after-his-death/

    #155202
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Who Prevails?

    Leaders

    .

    Cartoon Characters

    .

    #155203
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Ever wonder what the inside of an Abrams tank looks like?

    Russian special forces reached the destroyed Abrams tank near the village of Berdychi

    #155204
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Nima and Dmitry Orlov

    Kicking the shit out of NATO

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