Mar 232024
 
 March 23, 2024  Posted by at 9:46 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


Edvard Munch Spring in Johan Karl Street 1891

 

Trump: “I Almost Have Five Hundred Million Dollars In Cash” (ZH)
Trump’s Third Act Has Begun. It’s a Beauty. (Scott Adams)
Wake-up Call (James Howard Kunstler)
No Ukraine Talks Because US Threatens Zelensky – Seymour Hersh (Sp.)
Let NATO Troops Enter Ukraine. The War Will End Much Faster Then – Orban (VV)
Russia is at War – Kremlin (RT)
Macron Believes Ukraine Could Fall Soon – Politico (RT)
La Macronnerie of a Failed French President: Ukraine (Jay)
France’s Megalomaniac Macron is Gambling With World Peace (SCF)
EU Eyes ‘Groundbreaking’ Change On Ukraine Arms Funding (RT)
Ukraine Makes Fresh Move To Draft More Soldiers (RT)
Washington In Denial Over Putin’s Victory While Gaming Its Own Elections (Cox)
World Sees Gaza as ‘US Genocide’ Not Just Israel’s (Sp.)
CIA Told DOJ to Stay Away from Kevin Morris in Hunter Biden Probe (Turley)
CIA Protecting Biden by Blocking IRS Interviews – Whistleblower (DeMartino)
Global Population Set To Fall For First Time In 700 Years (MN)

 

 


BREAKING: Shareholders have just voted to let Trump’s company, Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, become a public company, which could earn Trump $4 billion. NOTE: However, if Trump wants to use this money to help with his legal issues in a fraud case by Letitia James, he has to get special permission to sell his shares early. NOTE: Trump’s company will start being traded on the stock market under the symbol “DJT” as soon as next week.

 

 

Letitia

 

 

Vivek

 

 

Lawfare
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770861500103557197

 

 

Cannon

 

 

There’s plenty of money for enhanced border security in the $1.2 Trillion funding package. Just not the US border.

 

 

Stephen Miller

 

 

Watters

 

 

Watters Fani

 

 

Immigration

 

 

Will The Supreme Court Recognize Voter Fraud And Ensure It Doesn’t Happen in 2024?

 

 

 

 

“Letitia James is about to hand Trump a huge victory…… when she seizes Trump Tower, the case is now federal bc Trumps Atty’s are ready to go into Federal Court, claiming his 8th Amendment rights have been violated. Thus putting an immediate freeze on her. Many are wondering why a federal judge hasn’t stepped in…. well the reason is…. she hasn’t acted on her threats yet…. so Trump’s Constitutional rights have yet to be violated.”

Trump: “I Almost Have Five Hundred Million Dollars In Cash” (ZH)

Former President Trump on Friday said on Truth Social that “through hard work, talent, and luck, I currently have almost five hundred million dollars in cash.” The announcement comes as a Monday deadline fast approaches for him to come up with roughly $454 million to stay judgement in his civil fraud case while he appeals. According to Trump, he had intended to use a “substantial amount” of his money in his presidential campaign. “THE OFTEN OVERTURNED POLITICAL HACK JUDGE ON THE RIGGED AND CORRUPT A.G. CASE, WHERE I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG, KNEW THIS, WANTED TO TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME,” President Trump wrote. “THAT’S WHERE AND WHY HE CAME UP WITH THE SHOCKING NUMBER WHICH, COUPLED WITH HIS CRAZY INTEREST DEMAND, IS APPROXIMATELY $454,000,000,” he continued.

As the Epoch Times notes further: “The judgment total was $363 million, but breaks down with about $355 million of that specifically applying to President Trump, $4 million to be recovered from Eric Trump, $4 million to be recovered from Donald Trump Jr., and $1 million to be recovered from former Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg. With the applied 9 percent interest, court filings say the bond comes out to more than $464 million, with a little more than $10 million of that attributed to judgment on Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Mr. Weisselberg. Judgment was entered on Feb. 23, kicking off a 30-day clock to post the massive sum, set to expire on March 25. President Trump, in the post, decried the ruling as an example of “communism in America.” Meanwhile, even the AP found that in 70 years of similar cases involving civil fraud, Trump’s stood out as unique.

President Trump is billions of dollars richer after shareholders in Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) on Friday approved a merger with Trump’s media startup, Truth Social. The long-delayed merger adds roughly $3.5 billion to Trump’s net worth – however the former president won’t be able to sell any shares for at least six months unless the board waives it (or they can back a loan), raising questions over whether he’ll be able to leverage it to secure a $464 million bond in his New York civil fraud case – which his lawyers say is “impossible” to secure due to a lack of cash on hand. If Trump can’t secure the giant sum by Monday, he risks the seizure of assets – which New York has already begun positioning itself to do. Earlier this week, DWAC sued to force its former CEO, Patrick Orlando, to vote his 14.77% shareholding in favor of the merger, despite an ongoing dispute over compensation, Axios and FT report. Orlando was on the shareholder vote call.

“The professional relationship between Mr Orlando and Digital World became strained and has continued to deteriorate such that there is no assurance that Mr Orlando as a current member of our board or as a controlling affiliate of the sponsor will be co-operative,” DWAC warned in a filing last month. Following the merger, DWAC will effectively cease to exist, and will be replaced by TMTG – which will be listed on the Nasdaq. Its board of directors will include Donald Trump Jr. as well as several former members of the Trump White House, the report continues. Former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) will serve as TMTG’s CEO. Meanwhile, and perhaps in anticipation of Trump selling to satisfy the bond, DWAC shares have plummeted on the news to the tune of 8% in early trading.

Beyond Trump’s massive payout from the deal, three hedge funds also stand to make huge profits – Anson Funds, Mangrove Capital Partners and All Blue Capital, which participated in a $50mm convertible debt offering earlier this year after other funds had walked away. They’re sitting on over $400 million in gains as of Thursday’s closing price. “The return will be amazing,” said one person involved in the financing, per FT. “Trump’s advisers have been keeping him on the sidelines . . . they want to get this vote clear with no issues with the government. Then, on Tuesday when it starts trading, it is game on for Trump.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1770991128948420912

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X thread. “Trump turned Leticia James into his best fundraiser..”

Trump’s Third Act Has Begun. It’s a Beauty. (Scott Adams)

Next week, Trump could make over $4 billion when his media company goes public, removing all doubt about his billionaire status. And you can stop asking if he would have been better off putting his inheritance in a savings account in the 70s. I expect Trump to leave a 15% tip for Leticia James and the Democrats because they made his windfall possible by hunting him and censoring him for years. You can call it a bond, not a tip, if you prefer. When the Supreme Court tosses out the unconstitutional fine, Trump gets most of his “tip” back. The Democrats planned to cripple Trump financially so he couldn’t spend as much on the campaign. Trump turned Leticia James into his best fundraiser. Lots of interesting developments lately on the topic of the 2020 election. The Simulation wants at least one of those fresh allegations to be a Kraken.

Trump’s legal maneuvering is likely to keep him eligible for the election. You can fantasize about a heroic Democrat such as Newsom swooping in and replacing Biden, but it’s looking less likely every day. If it had always been the plan, it would have happened by now. Looks like Biden has to stay on the job to keep the Biden Crime Family out of jail. The predictable Democrat Summer Hoax will add some excitement, but it will be forgotten and debunked by November. Trump’s upcoming victory is looking like it will be, as Trump says, “too big to rig.” And by that I mean Democrats will try to rig it anyway and get caught. That will be fun.

The gears of the machine have become visible. We can all see the FBI is rotten and the DOJ is weaponized. We know the border is open intentionally. We know the cartels are working with our government. We know our elections are DESIGNED to not be auditable and there’s only one reason for it. We can see Biden is not in charge. We know the Ukraine war was always about its energy resources and who gets to own them. We know our rising debt is ruinous. We know our experts are liars. We know our pharma and food industries are poisoning us. We know our government is racist. We know the corporate media is essentially owned by Democrats who are controlled by intelligence entities and they are actively brainwashing the population. We know the 1st and 2nd amendments, and X, are under sustained government attack because they are the public’s last defense against the government. But we are not quitters. And the odds do not apply to us.

Trump Ad

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“But fiends got to fiend, and if you try to deprive them of being fiends then you are guilty of “hate.“

Wake-up Call (James Howard Kunstler)

Can you feel it? The tension rising to the red-line? It runs clear through all of Western Civ. We are ruled by governments of fiends. But now, the sun rides higher in the sky. The sap is rising in the northern forests. The earth heaves. The buds swell and blush. Something is in the air. The animals are waking from their long winter sleep. The natives are restless. The two traditional political divisions, liberal and conservative died with Covid. Now there are simply the sane versus the insane. The sane have had enough of being pushed around by the insane. The insane don’t register much of what reality tries to tell them. They have a body of insane ideas to comfort and protect them from the reality’s rigors. To call that body of ideas an “ideology” is way too polite. That the insane call themselves “progressive,” is a signature of their insanity. Progress toward what better state of things? Toward a supremacy of fiends, sadists, degenerates, and morons seizing riches and power by every dishonest means possible outside the rule of law and common decency?

It’s not even suitable to call them “communists.” They lack the necessary idealism for that. They don’t expect to put their shoulders to the wheel with their fellow man. They just want to grab your stuff and then kill you so they don’t have to hear any complaints. The insane do not believe any of the theoretical bullshit they want to force you to swallow. They don’t care about climate change. It’s just a cudgel they use to beat everyone over the head so they can steal your stuff. They don’t care about “democracy.” It’s just a line of bullshit to cover up their election-stealing. Do you suppose that sane people would keep using electronic vote-tabulating machines that were demonstrably connected to the Internet, and thus hackable, if they cared about election integrity? Of course not. They would arrange p.d.q. to junk them and use paper ballots, and only in person at polling places, with “absentee” exceptions only for people out of the country.

The insane do not care about public health. Everything that is known about the Covid-19 vaccinations tells you that they are unsafe and don’t prevent infection or transmission of a flu-like illness that might not even be what it was officially labeled as. Our public health officials in the FDA, the CDC, and in other corners of the Department of health and Human Services, lie about everything they’re responsible for. This week, the CDC (under Director Mandy Cohen) released a 148-page study on myocarditis reactions to mRNA shots. Every word on every page of the document was redacted. The CDC printed countless copies of the report with 148 utterly blank pages, and then proffered them to the news media. How is that not insane? The insane do not care about the rule of law. The conduct of “Lawfare” is the subversion of the law by dishonest means. It is a species of racketeering. And that is why Lawfare rogues such Marc Elias, Norm Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, Mary McCord, Lisa Monaco, Matthew Graves, and Merrick Garland, should be charged under the federal RICO statutes for conspiring to deprive sane citizens of their rights and property in the many cases related to the 1/6/21 riot at the US Capitol.

It is, so far, an abiding mystery of contemporary history as to how New York Attorney General Letitia James managed to get away with prosecuting a real estate case against Donald Trump that was no more than victimless business-as-usual between a borrower and his lenders. Ms. James ran for that elected office promising to “get” Mr. Trump on something, anything. That is not how the rule of law works. Under the rule of law, first you determine that there is a crime and then look for who did the crime. Letitia James must be insane and/or pretty stupid. The short-term gain of stealing Mr. Trump’s property under a false color-of-law and creating impediments to his election campaign, will, sooner or later, blow back at her as a matter of malicious prosecution and, plausibly, racketeering as well. (With whom did she conspire to bring this case? We shall find out.) She will eventually be disgraced publicly as her teammate Fani Willis has already been disgraced in Fulton County, Georgia.

I’ll tell you something that all sane people now know but won’t talk about for fear of being crushed by the levers of Lawfare: this looks like a concerted effort by people-of-color to railroad people of non-color. If you think that is a good thing for race relations in our country, then you are insane. Here are a bunch of other things that are insane: Re-litigating the first amendment is insane. It means what it says, and states it plainly. The open border is insane. No credible sovereign polity would allow it. It would be opposed with force, if necessary. Turning children into transsexuals on a wholesale basis is insane, and fiendishly so. Everybody knows that it is not good for the children or for our society as a whole. But fiends got to fiend, and if you try to deprive them of being fiends then you are guilty of “hate.”

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‘No negotiations or settlement or we won’t support your government with the $45 billion in non-military funds [that Ukraine is now receiving annually..'”

No Ukraine Talks Because US Threatens Zelensky – Seymour Hersh (Sp.)

Negotiations on resolving the conflict in Ukraine could have started months ago, but US authorities threatened Vladimir Zelensky with withdrawal of non-military funding, US journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh said in an article on Substack. “We were on the verge of a reasonable negotiation several months ago before Putin’s re-election and Zelensky’s military degradation. The US leaders got wind of the possibility and gave Zelensky the ultimatum-‘No negotiations or settlement or we won’t support your government with the $45 billion in non-military funds [that Ukraine is now receiving annually,'” the source told the journalist. According to Hersh’s information, US intelligence community recognises that “Ukraine has little chance of winning…”

Hersh’s interlocutor also added that US President Joe Biden has staked on confronting the “Russian threat to NATO” and will not change his course under any circumstances, while the end is inevitable. “There is no road to victory for Ukraine, and it will end with Putin as an historical icon in Russia…,” the source concluded. In autumn 2022, Zelensky signed a decree according to which his country will not negotiate with Russia as long as it is led by Vladimir Putin. Russia, for its part, has repeatedly noted its readiness to discuss the settlement of the conflict through diplomatic means. As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasised, the Russia does not see any prerequisites for a peaceful transition of the situation, and sovereignty over the new Russian regions and Crimea is not up for discussion.

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X thread. “And the West will get a lesson for memory that it is bad to fight with Russia..”

Let NATO Troops Enter Ukraine. The War Will End Much Faster Then – Orban (VV)

Viktor Orban: “It’s a strange feeling when you come from Hungary to Brussels. Hungary looks like a completely normal country. We have a calm and rational mindset, and if you come to Brussels and talk to politicians, you will be surprised. There is a military mood, military language, military logic. The leaders talk as if they are waging their own war against Russia. And now they are saying that soldiers should be stationed in Ukraine. It is not clear exactly what they mean, where they should be stationed, with what weapons and for what purposes. But they have already begun to prepare for the fact that in this situation it will be quite natural if Western European countries deploy military posts on the territory of Ukraine, which shocks Hungarians.

Therefore, I felt as if I had entered another galaxy, and we must be careful not to fall into the psychosis of these twenty or so state leaders. [How far are Western leaders willing to go in terms of supporting Ukraine? The most disturbing thing about this whole story is that two or three months ago it was unthinkable, now, two or three months later, it becomes an ordinary event.” That’s what I said – the worse, the better. Ukraine attacked the Belgorod region. Where is Ukraine’s energy sector now? Russia has always needed a good kick in the ass for it to act. So, let NATO troops enter Ukraine. The war will end much faster then. And the West will get a lesson for memory that it is bad to fight with Russia.

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“..Peskov explained that despite the conflict “de facto turning into a war,” legally it remains classified in Russia as a special military operation..”

Russia is at War – Kremlin (RT)

Russia’s military operation in Ukraine has turned into full-fledged war after the West became a participant in the conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with national media published on Friday. Moscow will continue to pursue its goal of ensuring that the Ukrainian military cannot pose a threat to Russian citizens or territory, the spokesman told the Argumenti i Fakty newspaper, noting that the country now has four new federal subjects which must be protected and fully liberated from Kiev’s forces. Peskov stressed that Russia cannot allow the existence on its borders of a state that publicly claims it will seize the Crimean Peninsula as well as Russia’s new territories, referring to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

“We are at war,” Peskov stated, explaining that while the conflict began as a special military operation, as soon as “the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, for us it became a war.” In a phone conversation with journalists later in the day, Peskov explained that despite the conflict “de facto turning into a war,” legally it remains classified in Russia as a special military operation and that nothing has changed in that regard. The Russian Defense Ministry recently reported that since the start of the military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, over 13,000 foreign nationals have taken part in the fighting on the side of Kiev’s forces.

Of these fighters, which Moscow describes as mercenaries, some 5,962 have been “eliminated,” according to the ministry. Most of them came from Poland, Georgia, the US, Canada, the UK, Romania, Germany, and France, it reported. The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, claimed earlier this week that France is preparing its forces for deployment to Ukraine and is allegedly looking to send as many as 2,000 troops to fight for Kiev. French President Emmanuel Macron has hinted in recent weeks at the possible deployment of NATO forces to Ukraine, stating he could not “exclude” this possibility while branding Russia an “adversary.” Moscow has warned that such a step would likely lead to a direct clash between Russian and NATO forces, which, according to President Vladimir Putin, would be “one step shy of a full-scale World War III.”

Katyusha

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“..Marine Le Pen [..] accused the president last week of “hijacking” the Ukraine issue for the sake of domestic electoral politics..”

Macron Believes Ukraine Could Fall Soon – Politico (RT)

French President Emmanuel Macron believes Ukraine might be defeated on the battlefield in short order, the French edition of Politico reported on Wednesday. The outlet’s Playbook section spoke with several members of the president’s party who had attended a working dinner at the Elysee Palace the evening before. While most of the discussion centered on the upcoming European Parliament elections, the Ukraine conflict also came up. “Ukraine could fall very quickly,” one of the outlet’s sources quoted Macron as saying. Macron ramped up his rhetoric about Ukraine a few weeks after a number of French nationals fighting on behalf of Kiev were killed in a Russian missile strike. At a meeting of EU leaders in Paris in late February, he refused to rule out the possibility of a NATO intervention in Ukraine.

Though the idea was quickly rejected by almost all members of the US-led bloc and its secretary-general, Macron doubled down, declaring there would be “no limits” to French support for Kiev and calling Russia an “adversary.” Meanwhile, the French Army’s Chief of Staff Pierre Schill announced that the country’s military was “ready,” presumably for a war. Moscow has strongly condemned Macron’s remarks and cautioned NATO against taking further hostile moves. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the deployment of Western soldiers to Ukraine would make direct conflict with Russia “inevitable.” Marine Le Pen, a prominent member of the opposition National Rally party and Macron’s rival in the 2022 election, accused the president last week of “hijacking” the Ukraine issue for the sake of domestic electoral politics. Polls have shown that the French support helping Kiev with weapons and money, but draw the line at getting involved directly with boots on the ground.

Concerns that Kiev might be losing the war appear to be based on several French military assessments leaked earlier this month to the outlet Marianne. One report, following Kiev’s summer offensive, concluded that Ukraine could not win the conflict by military means. Another described the Battle of Avdeevka as a Ukrainian rout and had the French military “in cold sweat,” according to Marianne. A few days later, the daily Le Monde claimed that Macron’s talk of possibly sending troops dated all the way back to June 2023, when the Ukrainian counteroffensive was just starting. General Schill also told the outlet that Macron’s public statements have been “foremost a political and strategic message” to Russia about France’s “will and commitment,” rather than an actual escalation.

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“Western elites have the technology and well-trained soldiers. What they lack is the stamina and political courage to face the baptism of outrage once body bags start arriving back on home soil..”

La Macronnerie of a Failed French President: Ukraine (Jay)

Just what is Emmanuel Macron thinking with his recent media trysts which have gained the attention of the world? Initially, we thought his statements about sending French troops to Ukraine to fight Russian forces was merely chaf to throw up in the air to distract journalists and a gullible French public. It’s true, it has rattled Germany which promptly replied to Macron, reminding him that EU countries are not “at war with Russia” – a curious statement given that just a week earlier, a leaked audio conversation with German air force chiefs revealed that they wanted to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine so as to hit the Crimean bridge. Of course, now that we all know what the intentions of the Germans were, Scholz has been forced to backpedal and downplay the scandal, sticking to its position of neutrality. But if you think that’s funny, wait until you see what Macron has in store for Old Europe.

Could it be really true that he believes French troops could end up in Ukraine? A quick glance at the actual quote from Le Parisienne interview would suggest the opposite and that he’s hedging his bets, or, as some suspect trying to bait the Americans into wanting to get there first. Is this what the British expression “jumping the gun” really means? “Maybe at some point – I don’t want it, I won’t take the initiative – we will have to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces,” he is quoted as saying. In reality, it seems as though he has been misquoted as there is no story here. Even he is saying on the record that he won’t authorise it. So is he hinting at other western countries taking the lead, perhaps the Poles, Lithuanians and Latvians? Possibly. But in reality, the most likely scenario would be the U.S. biting the bullet and financing a private army made up of various nationalities.

Yet even this initiative would need to be prepared for media and even Russia itself so that the underlying point is clear: this is not a NATO war. Of course, this thinking is fatally flawed as it is based on a premise that Putin wouldn’t dare retaliate against those units of troops who he knows are located in a particular spot, as this could invoke Article V of the NATO treaty itself. Yet any two-bit geopolitical hack who knows Putin, knows this would not stop him as killing western troops – or even better capturing a small number – would mean the end of the West’s intervention. Western elites have the technology and well-trained soldiers. What they lack is the stamina and political courage to face the baptism of outrage once body bags start arriving back on home soil. It may well mean, for Macron, if he were ever to entertain the idea of French troops, that it would or could be African troops from former French colonies enrolled under private contracts as mercenaries.

But as I saw in Somalia in 1993, Western leaders like Clinton had no stomach whatsoever for even a small number of their own being killed or captured. Osama bin Laden watched how Clinton soiled his own pants when just 18 soldiers died in the spectacular U.S. Rangers failure in Mogadishu with an operation which was supposed to take an hour. Black Hawk Down and its implications inspired Bin Laden to bomb both the Dar Es Salam and Nairobi U.S. embassies after seeing how vulnerable the West is fighting terrorism, or merely sticking its nose into other countries problems. All it actually took was Newsweek to run a cover of a U.S. soldier’s body being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu to make Clinton not only pull out of Somalia altogether, but convince the UN itself to leave later in 1995. It also meant that the West would not help hundreds of thousands of victims of the civil war in Rwanda which led to the genocide in 1994. One U.S. soldier. One Newsweek cover.

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“..the French military contingency does not make sense from a military point of view, unless that is, the ulterior objective is to incite escalation..”

France’s Megalomaniac Macron is Gambling With World Peace (SCF)

It is unequivocally clear that if France or any other NATO member deploys combat troops to Ukraine, those troops will be targeted and killed by Russian firepower. In that case, the proxy war in Ukraine becomes an all-out war between the U.S.-led NATO alliance and Russia. That is, World War Three will have started, which in all probability leads inexorably to a nuclear conflagration. Anyone pushing that trajectory is contemptible and criminal. Step up, Monsieur Macron. This narcissistic wannabe Napoleon figure has been pushing the envelope for several weeks now since he hosted a conference on Ukraine in Paris on February 26 when he began publicly toying with the notion of sending NATO troops to Ukraine to combat Russia. This week, Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin claimed that a contingent of 2,000 French military personnel were preparing to enter the Ukraine conflict. France’s military commanders vehemently dismissed the Russian intelligence claim, decrying it as an “irresponsible provocation”.

Just who is being provocative here? The alleged French deployment is consistent with the unhinged and belligerent rhetoric of French President Emmanuel Macron over the past three weeks during which he has been hinting at sending troops and of having “no red lines” to make sure that Russia does not win the war in Ukraine. Macron – like a puerile character – has also taken to goading other European leaders, notably his German counterpart, about not being “cowards” when it comes to supporting Ukraine. Let’s be clear. NATO soldiers and weapons have been in Ukraine since the CIA-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 that installed a Russian-hating NeoNazi regime. The NATO proxy war has been targeting Russia for over a decade and killed more than 10,000 ethnic Russian civilians during a low-intensity war of aggression in formerly Eastern Ukraine. That aggression was finally countered when Russian forces intervened in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. However, the deployment of NATO combat battalions on the ground takes the conflict to the threshold of all-out war.

And Monsieur Macron appears to be willing to go there (while directing from his plush leather armchair in Elysée Palace and swirling a tumbler of vintage whiskey, bien sûr.) Russian President Vladimir Putin has said on several occasions – and most recently as of last week – that if Russia is threatened existentially, even with conventional weapons, then it reserves the right to use nuclear weapons for its defense. Putin warned that nuclear weapons exist to be used. The Russian doctrine for possible nuclear war is well-defined and long-established. Putin is not saber-rattling as the Western media stupidly make out. He is merely reminding potential enemies of the ultimate reality. Given the appalling stakes involved, it may seem bewildering that France’s Macron keeps talking about the possibility of deploying French and other NATO troops to fight in Ukraine. What is driving the French head of state to make such crass allusions?

First of all, it should be noted that such military contingents are crass from an objective military point of view. The deployment of 2,000 French troops would change nothing on the battlefield. They would be destroyed in two days, as American military analyst Scott Ritter points out. The risk is that the casualties inflicted on France would trigger other NATO members to intervene with greater numbers and firepower. That would lead to a spiraling escalation towards all-out nuclear war. As well as France, the Poles and Baltic states appear to be gung-ho about sending combat units. So, the French military contingency does not make sense from a military point of view, unless that is, the ulterior objective is to incite escalation. In other words, the French battle group is deliberately put forward as a sacrificial lamb to act as a tripwire for full NATO mobilization to war.

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“..by circumventing a clause in the bloc’s founding treaty..”

EU Eyes ‘Groundbreaking’ Change On Ukraine Arms Funding (RT)

EU officials are seeking legal advice on how to unlock more military spending for Ukraine by circumventing a clause in the bloc’s founding treaty, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The move would involve bypassing a section of the Treaty on European Union which forbids charging expenditure that has “military or defense implications” to the bloc’s joint budget. Such funding can be directly provided by member states, but individual governments can opt out of paying, even if they don’t vote against the spending itself. The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, has proposed a legal task force to evaluate whether the section in question, Article 41(2), can be circumvented so that it doesn’t prevent Brussels from buying weapons for Ukraine to support it in the conflict with Russia, four people familiar with the matter told the British newspaper. Kiev’s military effort against Russia is currently being funded through the European Peace Facility (EPF), which exists outside of the bloc’s joint budget.

The legal theory is that Article 41(2) should apply only to the EU’s own military programs and not foreign states, the FT reported. If the interpretation is applied, “it would be absolutely groundbreaking,” one source said. Talks, however, are at an early stage and may not end in Kiev’s favor, the newspaper reported. Even if changes are made, member states may challenge them in court. While many EU countries support military assistance for Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia are in opposition. They argue that continued weapons deliveries merely result in more bloodshed, as opposed to a Russian defeat, and stand in the way of possible peace talks. There are also neutral members, such as Austria, which favor non-lethal assistance only. Last year the EU vowed to supply 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine by March 2024, but has failed to deliver on the pledge. Ukrainian officials have complained that assistance from Western donors has been lackluster in both amount and capability.

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“..medical commissions would no longer classify Ukrainian recruits as ‘fit for limited military service’. She argued that “this will make life easier for tens of thousands of people.”

Ukraine Makes Fresh Move To Draft More Soldiers (RT)

Ukrainian recruits deemed ‘fit for limited military service’ could soon be thrown into the thick of the fighting after the nation’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, moved to abolish the term altogether. A bill to that effect was supported by the Rada on Thursday. According to the text, those who have been classified as fit for military service with restrictions would have to undergo a medical examination within the next nine months to determine their new health status, and whether they could be deployed to the front line. Those deemed fit for limited service could only be called up during time of war, and are not supposed to fill frontline positions, being allowed to serve only in support and rear units. The push to change conscription legislation comes amid calls from numerous officials in Kiev that every Ukrainian citizen should serve his country during the conflict with Russia. Commenting on the bill on national TV, Deputy Defense Minister Natalya Kalmykova said that medical commissions would no longer classify Ukrainian recruits as ‘fit for limited military service’. She argued that “this will make life easier for tens of thousands of people.”

“Both the service members and their relatives asked the Defense Ministry and other authorities to resolve this issue. We are very glad that the Verkhovna Rada has supported these changes,” she added. Meanwhile, since late December, Ukrainian lawmakers have been mulling a controversial bill that would lower the minimum conscription age from 27 to 25 to compensate for battlefield losses, with reported plans to call up around 500,000 troops. In early February, the legislation was passed in its first reading after numerous amendments. Later in the month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu estimated Ukraine’s losses at more than 444,000 troops since the start of the conflict in February 2022. On Wednesday, the minister claimed that Kiev’s casualties had reached 71,000 troops this year alone, a figure he said was three times the losses during the same period last year. However, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed in February that Kiev had sustained only 31,000 soldiers killed since the start of the conflict. He did not disclose how many were injured or missing in action.

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“Unlike most Western leaders, Putin is on the side of his own citizens..”

Washington In Denial Over Putin’s Victory While Gaming Its Own Elections (Cox)

America’s legacy media and political ruling class have thrown a predictably massive hissy fit over last weekend’s Russian election, insisting that President Vladimir Putin’s landslide victory was “preordained” and “stage-managed.” Every protest and anti-Putin statement before, during, and after the election was amplified. Every allegation of misconduct was reported with zero scrutiny or skepticism. Washington and its allies decried the results, arguing that the vote wasn’t free or fair. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron went so far as to call it “illegal.” The pearl-clutching over Russia’s vote was the most intense I’ve ever seen over a foreign election. It was so inordinate, in fact, that it reminded me of the nonstop media coverage last month after Russian political activist Alexey Navalny died in a Siberian penal colony.

The same media that showed no concern over the death of US journalist Gonzalo Lira in a Ukrainian jail – after he had been tortured, at American taxpayer expense, for daring to criticize the Kiev regime – huffed and puffed for weeks about the death of a Russian citizen in a Russian prison. Lost in all the hysteria over Putin’s victory is the fact that most of the Russian people like their president. The incumbent won over 87% of the votes, and as even CNN begrudgingly acknowledged before the election, a poll last month showed that Putin had an 86% approval rating. That compares with a 9% approval rating for Navalny, the great Western hope for destabilizing Russia, in a January 2023 poll. And by the way, it also compares with US President Joe Biden’s approval rating of around 38%. As US policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs explained in an interview this week with Russia-hating podcaster Piers Morgan, Putin’s popularity and reelection reflect the will of the Russian people. “It’s part of Russian culture,” said Sachs, who advised the Moscow and Kiev governments after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

“He’s a strong leader. The Russian people expect a strong leader, and we have to deal with a strong leader in Russia.” Therein lies the problem. Team America is unwilling to accept strong leadership of Russia with broad public support. Having failed to cripple Russia or its leadership through the proxy war in Ukraine, the US and its allies are in no mood to accept the political reality in Moscow. The political pouting was so bad in Berlin that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government refused to refer to Putin as Russia’s president. This is the same government that is mulling plans to ban one of Germany’s most popular opposition parties. However, for all the Western criticism of Putin and his policies, it’s not easy to argue that he doesn’t try to represent the interests of the Russian people. Unlike most Western leaders, Putin is on the side of his own citizens. He hit the nail on the head when he said Western attacks were directed not at him, but at “the forces that stand behind me, which seek to strengthen Russia – to improve its sovereignty, defense, and economic independence.”

Read more …

“..he does not think China will ever invest in Israel again. “They see on their own social media networks what you and I are seeing..”

World Sees Gaza as ‘US Genocide’ Not Just Israel’s (Sp.)

On Tuesday, four critical care doctors who recently returned from Gaza spoke to the UN. “I saw the most appalling atrocities, and I saw things I never would have expected to have seen in any healthcare setting,” Dr. Nick Maynard said, adding that he saw “mass indiscriminate bombing” and targeting of healthcare workers. Americans do not understand how badly the United States’ reputation has been damaged across the world, which sees Gaza as “a US genocide” and “not just an Israeli genocide,” Mohammad Marandi, a professor of English literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran told Sputnik’s The Critical Hour on Thursday. “It’s revealing the reality of [the US] empire in a way that not even [author of ‘A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn] could do because it’s being done in front of our eyes, it’s being done in front of a global audience. We’ve never seen such a thing before,” Marandi said, adding that he suspects that is why the US is attempting to ban TikTok.

“The United States has lost credibility across the world. I don’t think many Americans understand how bad this has become for the United States. People across the world see this as a US genocide, it’s not just an Israeli genocide.” Co-host Wilmer Leon asked about a recent freeze on Canadian arms shipments to Israel, which Marandi said showed that “public opinion is shifting” but that ultimately “stopping Canadian exports of weapons is nothing.” Marandi said Canada needs to take a much tougher approach. “They sanctioned Syria… they’ve imposed sanctions on Cuba, on Venezuela, on Iran, on Yemen. Why don’t they impose sanctions on Israel? They’re carrying out a holocaust. Why don’t they hit the economy?” Marandi asked, noting that Israel will, unlike Russia, be allowed to participate in the Olympics. “No one takes this seriously. And, of course, the bulk of the weapons come from the United States anyway.”

“In any case, there is no reason to believe that the Canadian government cares about Palestinians, that they oppose the genocide because they’ve done absolutely nothing to stop it,” Marandi added. Ultimately, Marandi believes that Israel has laid the path for its destruction through its actions in Gaza. “I believe that the Israelis have made a fatal mistake and that what they’ve done in Gaza will be the beginning of the end of the Zionist project,” he asserted. “The real catastrophe for the Israeli regime is the fact that it’s been carrying out the genocide for almost six months in front of the world and it has demolished the facade that the regime had created for itself… about it being a democracy… All that is gone now and across the board the regime is despised and the image of the United States has been destroyed.” Marandi noted that he has been to China twice and public opinion there has shifted as well. He noted that he does not think China will ever invest in Israel again. “They see on their own social media networks what you and I are seeing,” he noted.

Read more …

“He’s Hunter’s confidant, art patron, business partner, and his lawyer. Now there is a suggestion that we might have to add CIA asset or protected person..”

CIA Told DOJ to Stay Away from Kevin Morris in Hunter Biden Probe (Turley)

The New York Post has created a stir in Washington with its report that a whistleblower claims that the CIA reportedly blocked federal investigators from interviewing Kevin Morris, the entertainment lawyer who has subsidized the expenses and bought the art of Hunter Biden. (For full disclosure, Morris previously threatened me with a defamation lawsuit over my writing about his representation of Hunter. Fortunately, I have not received any summons from either the courts or the CIA). We will have to wait for more details on the allegations, but the response of the CIA struck me as rather curious. As discussed earlier, the Hollywood lawyer, producer and Democratic donor has emerged as a major figure in the corruption scandal surrounding Hunter Biden. For years, some of us have complained that we are not sure what Morris was at any given moment.

What became clear in the deposition is that Morris does not appear certain himself. He’s Hunter’s confidant, art patron, business partner, and his lawyer. Now there is a suggestion that we might have to add CIA asset or protected person. The unnamed whistleblower told the House Oversight and Judiciary that the “intelligence agency stopped IRS and Justice Department investigators from interviewing Morris in August 2021.” That has led Oversight chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) to demand answers from the CIA on whether two DOJ officials were summoned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. to discourage their interviewing Morris.

Given the allegations of special treatment by the Justice Department (including blocking efforts to interview Hunter or search Biden properties), the allegation is obviously quite serious. One would expect that the CIA would simply say that no such meeting related to the Hunter Biden investigation occurred. Instead, the agency responded that it “does not obstruct investigations.” The spokesman added “CIA does not comment on specific investigations. We can say that CIA cooperates with law enforcement partners and does not obstruct investigations. CIA also fully and routinely cooperates with our oversight committees and will continue to do so.”

Hunter met Morris when he attended a political fundraiser as a major donor. Soon thereafter, he warned Biden associates that Hunter’s unpaid taxes raised political problems during Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential run. He later proceeded to pay off Hunter’s taxes and to subsidize his lavish lifestyle. He also took an apparent lead in planning public campaigns against the critics of the Bidens, reportedly pushing a scorched-earth approach to attack potential witnesses and accusers. Then Morris seemed to take on the role of Hunter’s bank and art patron. He reportedly gave millions to Hunter while insisting that they are loans, not gifts. Most recently, it was revealed that, despite accounts of buyers flocking to buy Hunter’s overpriced art, it was Morris all along who bought most of the pieces. How the CIA would fit into any of this is anyone’s guess.

Read more …

“..why would you have 12 people armed with shotguns and machine guns, raid a doctor’s home in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and four years later never indict him?”

CIA Protecting Biden by Blocking IRS Interviews – Whistleblower (DeMartino)

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jordan and Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman Comer revealed that a whistleblower told them the CIA intervened to prevent the IRS from interviewing Kevin Morris, an associate of Hunter Biden who loaned him millions of dollars, as part of the IRS investigation into the first son’s alleged tax crimes. The CIA said it would not comment on specific cases but added that while it cooperates with other law agencies, it does not interfere with investigations and claims to be fully cooperative with its oversight committees. Jordan and Comer have sent a letter to the CIA requesting more information, but have not yet received a response. They set a deadline for April 4, 2024. If the whistleblower’s testimony is true, it would represent an unprecedented move by the CIA that is tasked with countering foreign threats.

Brad Birkenfeld, a whistleblower who exposed tax fraud and money laundering schemes in the Swiss banking system, told Sputnik’s Political Misfits that the problem is that “so many people are trying to help the Bidens get out of the illegal conduct that they’re doing,” noting that he has himself attempted to provide investigators with information on the Hunter Biden case, but was met hostile response. “I was introduced to Dr. Keith Ablow, [who] was Hunter Biden’s psychiatrist,” Birkenfeld began. “He wanted me to help him with his whistleblowing case.” Birkenfeld says that Ablow told him things about Hunter Biden but that Ablow didn’t show for meetings that Birkenfeld set up for him in Washington. “Then I went to Senator [Charles] Grassley’s (R-IA) office and Senator [Ron] Johnson’s (R-WI) office, and I felt obligated as an American citizen to tell them about the information that [Ablow] had relayed to us,” including Hunter Biden’s involvement with Monkey Island, a Liquified Natural Gas company in Louisiana.

“Two days later, lo and behold, the Drug Enforcement Agency in Boston raided Dr. Keith Ablow’s home,” Birkenfeld continued. “[The DEA] took everything. Now, why would you have 12 people armed with shotguns and machine guns, raid a doctor’s home in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and four years later never indict him?” “Whatever the CIA does,” Birkenfeld added while discussing the CIA’s past, including their support of dictators Augusto Pinochet, Saddam Hussein and Ferdinand Marcos, as well as their alleged efforts to undermine Donald Trump while he served as President. “Whatever the CIA does, this is like Cartoon Network over there in Langley. Yes, they do a job and some people work well. But there’s a lot of idiots over there that should be fired and prosecuted. And that’s the facts.”

Birkenfeld added earlier that Joe Biden -while serving as Vice President- was briefed in defense meetings “about his son interfering in US policies.” That, as of yet, has not been alleged by the committees investigating Hunter Biden but Birkenfeld insisted that it is “not conjecture.” “A lot of people don’t know this yet, but this is exactly what’s going to be coming out,” he asserted. While Democrats have consistently declared that the committees have yet to find any concrete evidence that President Biden committed any crimes, Birkenfeld argues that is because the power centers in Washington continue to obfuscate the case by blocking investigative efforts. “Give us the bank records, give us the credit cards offshore, and we can piece it together. But, once again, the Biden White House is obstructing, the DOJ is obstructing, the FBI is obstructing, the CIA [is] obstructing. So nobody can get the facts.”

Read more …

“..the potential causes of fertility decline, such as plastics and chemical shrinking penises and sperm counts, are relatively ignored..”

“In countries like South Korea and Japan, there are twice as many people dying as there are being born..”

Global Population Set To Fall For First Time In 700 Years (MN)

A major study published in scientific journal The Lancet has found that the global population will start to fall within decades due to vastly reduced fertility rates and may never recover. The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found that by the year 2050, 155 of 204 countries are on course to have birth rates lower than required to sustain the population level. It notes that as of 2021, the “total fertility rate” worldwide was 2.23, hovering only just above the 2.1 children per woman needed to maintain population growth. That figure has fallen from 4.84 in 1950, with researchers predicting it will decrease to 1.83 in 2050 and go as low as 1.59 by 2100. The study notes that by that time only 26 countries will have birth rates that outpace the number of people dying, with “most of the world transitioning into natural population decline”. A fall in population would mark the first time in seven centuries such an occurrence has taken place. The last time it happened was after the Black Death bubonic plague pandemic killed as many as 50 million people in the mid-1300s, reducing the global population from 400 million to 350 million.


Dramatic declines in global fertility rates set to transform global population patterns by 2100

Commenting on the study, it’s co-author Dr Natalia Bhattacharjee said declining fertility rates “will completely reconfigure the global economy and the international balance of power and will necessitate reorganising societies”. Bhattacharjee, lead research scientist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, also noted that a major consequence will be increased immigration from countries where there is still a “baby boom,” such as sub-Saharan Africa, in order to make up workforce shortages in nations with aging populations. Professor Stein Emil Vollset, senior author from IHME, also noted that the world is “facing staggering social change through the 21st century” due to population decline. The findings are exactly what the likes of Elon Musk have been warning of for years, describing population decline as a ‘civilisational threat’ and urging that humanity is literally going to disappear if something is not done to reverse the trend.

While Eco loons rage about ‘moral issues’ with having children, the potential causes of fertility decline, such as plastics and chemical shrinking penises and sperm counts, are relatively ignored. The stark reality is that birth rates globally are collapsing and almost every country is on course to have shrinking populations by the end of the century. In countries like South Korea and Japan, there are twice as many people dying as there are being born. You don’t have to be a mathematic genius to do the calculations on what’s going to happen very soon. These countries are already considering embracing mass migration, with South Korea’s Justice Minister recently declaring the country faces a “demographic catastrophe” and potential extinction otherwise. Despite this horrifying reality, it is now commonplace in modern culture for young people to genuinely believe they need to abandon their human instincts to reproduce, all for the greater good.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

McCullough: Spike proteins from Saliva
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770987637257413092

 

 

FDA loses its war on ivermectin and agrees to remove all social media posts and consumer directives regarding ivermectin and COVID, including its most popular tweet in FDA history.

 

 

Shark
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770998255851036861

 

 

Fish

 

 

Elephant
https://twitter.com/i/status/1771065184980742232
https://twitter.com/i/status/1771160969823027645

 

 

How?

 

 


Find “A”

 

 

Queen of the night

 

 

 

 

Deep-Sea Ghost Shark

 

 

Lion up close

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle March 23 2024

Viewing 38 posts - 1 through 38 (of 38 total)
  • Author
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  • #155319

    Edvard Munch Spring in Johan Karl Street 1891   • Trump: “I Almost Have Five Hundred Million Dollars In Cash” (ZH) • Trump’s Third Act Has Begun.
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 23 2024]

    #155321
    oxymoron
    Participant

    “A” is right in the middle. How does that make me a genius? I just located a letter that was different to the others – except the Z of course.
    Who decides what makes you a genius? People are wierd.

    Re the Moscow attack – adding to Belgorod – I don’t think Vlad will get drawn in. He is not that emotional and politics will not hurt him now after the election. Steady.
    Also the Bankers want lots and lots and lots of weapons made, purchased and also people killed and houses and land to become available so let’s not rush this wildfire of human misery and suffering.
    Europe is next though. They love it. all those nationalities and venom – ruling class, religion, border disputes and ancient hurts. Also history shows most of them can’t resist a bloodbath – looking at you Germany which btw is winning the fascist state award over there at the moment as CJ Hopkins and many others will attest.
    Yep – Armstrong and Nenner are looking like horses to bet on.

    Personally I’m doomsday prepping a little more each day. My brand new woodburning stove (7.5 thousand aud)with 8 kW water jacket to get installed now I have constructed my 5 m tower to hold the hot water via thermosiphon. It is sexy and can’t wait to light the fire in winter (coming soon) and know my trees are making warmth and hot water in copper!
    Damn it nice to be cosy while watching the world turn.

    #155324
    poppie
    Participant

    IQ is relative. We all think we are 100 (special cases noted). Which answers the question “who decides”. There are some absolutes. Unintended consequence is the inverse of IQ. Censorship is the proverse. Our example is those persons for whom everything is going wrong and they want you to shut up. They are probably also that special case that thinks they are a genius.

    #155326
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    A: Horizontal row 13 counting down, right in the middle!

    #155327
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Okay, two year anniversary of Ukraine.

    “That the insane call themselves “progressive,” is a signature of their insanity. Progress toward what better state of things? Toward a supremacy of fiends, sadists, degenerates, and morons seizing riches and power by every dishonest means possible outside the rule of law and common decency? It’s not even suitable to call them “communists.” They lack the necessary idealism for that. They don’t expect to put their shoulders to the wheel with their fellow man. They just want to grab your stuff and then kill you so they don’t have to hear any complaints.” — Kunstler

    “The insane do not believe any of the theoretical bullshit they want to force you to swallow.”

    “US Intelligence Says It Knew ISIS-K Was Planning Terror Attack On Moscow

    Yes well since ISIS is the CIA, we built and control them, no surprise, right? How long do you think Russia’s going to put up with direct attacks on Moscow before they bomb NY? And it won’t be NY, it’ll be some secret unknown, denied sub base in the Pacific or something.

    “Doctors score win, forcing FDA to remove statements about ivermectin.

    A mere million deaths later. So we’re taking down the government for misinformation, right? Ban them.

    “’Gender Science’ Was Merely Ideology All Along: Why did it take so long?”

    Because they amputated and sterilized a whole city’s worth of (white) children. That’s a win. We’re going to take them down for misinformation, right?

    “Our Country Is Being Poisoned”: [80,000] Overdose Deaths Catapult Fentanyl As Major Voter Topic In Presidential Race

    So…tripled? The Chinese have studied the Opium Wars well.

    Pic

    “she is using her office to avoid paying a $3 million loan while protecting a group that overly-inflated their property values.”

    Ding! Ding! Ding! …The world’s biggest, longest-running coincidence theory strikes again! But nobody knewd nothin’. Not in gossipy NYC where private eyes are a dime a dozen. Okay, they spanked Fani before this. Why wait until now to know what everybody Knewd? Again, you have to MAKE the billionaires of NY understand. And act. They have to TAKE his property, or at least make it real to them. I guess not unexpectedly, Trump didn’t really want to lost Trump Tower for real. Oh well. A little short of being a patriot to no one’s surprise.

    “She should be disbarred.”

    Just one of so many, many reasons. I think running on taking down a man without a crime is the foremost. That’s the gold standard of “Politicizing” your office.

    “Judge Cannon seal the prosecution’s fate before the trial even begins.”

    Right on schedule. And there are five more levels, I’m most after “He’s not a Special Prosecutor to begin with.” His every minute is illegal. Same with the J6 COmmittee that jail Navarro. There are rules. If the committee follows no rules, they’re not a committee: they’re a social club.

    “From now until November, this is the four-step plan.”

    Yes, it’s the famous YouTube clip of Nancy Pelosi describing it as “The Wrap Up Smear.” I create a rumor, blackmail Buzzfeed into printing it, which is then picked up by WaPo, who then asks Congress, which means “this is a real thing” and refer to the FBI who open an investigation into the-thing-I-just-made-up, who then, as James vowed each day on the campaign trail, she will discover, prosecute, and fabricate if necessary.

    Wow, when they said “High” I thought like, “It was just obvious.” Instead, HE CONFESSES TO A FELONY IN COURT. Okay, you do you. Thanks, I guess. Saves us needing policemen if they come off the street and confess to crimes on videotape. Please do more, I could save the budget.

    ““Letitia James is about to hand Trump a huge victory…”

    Which one? There are 10 more reasons this wouldn’t stand. NY is making a spectacle they won’t recover from for generations, and I for one am glad. So when NYC collapses, both by population, and morally, then NY becomes a “Rural” state like, dunno, Iowa or something, which HAS a Blue city, collapsing in crime, drugs, racism, and misery, but can’t outvote the Rural hats and therefore spread it to everyone else. What happens if NY loses, I dunno, 2M and the state votes Red? Which like so many it’s always on the edge of? (MI and IL come to mind.) The anchor and the 28 electoral votes go Republican – or whoever is left then. And is a crater from space as a bad example to others, like Bud Light.

    “President Trump is billions of dollars richer after shareholders in Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) on Friday approved a merger”

    Right on schedule, with the world’s largest coincidence theory. Hey if this stuff keeps happening, then who’s in charge? Because it doesn’t look like the bad guys are controlling it. If they were, they’d put up obstacles to these predictable logic-trees. This pattern is just alarming and informing everyone without proceeding to win.

    “If they try to seize Trump’s assets there will be a bloodbath.”

    If only. We can only dream. This would activate the 80% of wealthy Americans, and take it out of a internecine battle of two wings of the Secret State no one cares about. Or trampling the People which they REALLY don’t care about.

    ““Trump turned Leticia James into his best fundraiser..”

    In the world’s largest coincidence theory.

    “”The establishment is acting like a cornered dog that knows it’s about to be slaughtered”

    That’s funny: I thought “They” control everything, we should just give up. I thought “They” were winning.

    “but US authorities threatened Vladimir Zelensky with withdrawal of non-military funding,”

    WHO? Who specifically? There is no “US Authorities” that have a Vulcan hive-mind meld. Are there “US Authorities” who do the #Opposite? Doubtless. So why don’t you mention them? Clearly you must suspect who this PARTICULAR authority is, so tell us.

    “The most disturbing thing about this whole story is that two or three months ago it was unthinkable, now, two or three months later, it becomes an ordinary event.”

    But Orban! We’ve always been at war with Westasia. Everybody knows that!

    ““..Peskov explained that despite the conflict “de facto turning into a war,” legally it remains classified in Russia as a special military operation..”

    This news had me very worried since they’ve been very legal and clear, turning into a war means “A War”, but his statement is unchanged and what we already knew: no War is declared yet.

    ““..Marine Le Pen [..] accused the president last week of “hijacking” the Ukraine issue for the sake of domestic electoral politics..”
    • Macron Believes Ukraine Could Fall Soon – Politico (RT)

    Nah, he doesn’t care a thing about France. Never has. If every Frenchman died, he’d throw a party. What’s happening is (Yet third Krainer interview, with Luongo, https://odysee.com/@cryptorich:e/TALEXG-MAR-2024:3 ) is Macron is core Euro, EU as “United States of Europe” and the Capital technocrats, ruling the shattered planet, boot on the face of humanity, forever. Iterations out from UN > EU > ESG > War Bonds is Ukraine, failing in both collateral AND proving Europe is run by a bunch of witless spankmonkeys. I’m not going to buy $1T in new bonds AND have all my existing EuroBonds vaporized by a bunch of halfwits who can’t even beat Romania. Or maybe I will for 20% interest rates, where both China and America run over you.

    If that happens, UN > EU > All EU suckups and vile Nazis, people-trampling authoritarians are going to be taken off the field in a box. …Or maybe more like a bucket. That’s what he’s most scared about, and why it’s worth murdering every Frenchman to delay it an hour. Too bad so sad. If you don’t want to leave in a bucket, don’t start a death match with 200 million pissed off Franks.

    “declaring there would be “no limits” to French support for Kiev and calling Russia an “adversary.”

    O Rly? Looks like neither you, your people, nor your generals will allow you to send even as few meaningless number as 2,000 men there, so get stuffed. Looks like they set a “Limit”. The limit is ZERO. Zero men is the limit.

    ““Western elites have the technology and well-trained soldiers.”

    God. No wonder we totally failed. We were doing DEI training while running our rifles on Windows11. It’s a miracle we weren’t all killed before now. …But I’ll call tech support and get this .223 out in 10 or 12 days after I mail it into to the home IT office via FedEx.

    “What they lack is the stamina and political courage to face the baptism of outrage once body bags start arriving back on home soil..”

    Oh DO we? You just put 90,000 men in body bags and destroyed all of Ohio and it looks like we’re coming for you. It’s the courage and stamina to tolerate ANY number of body bags, and the only question is: for what? To get rid of the elite no number is too high. Now take a 1975 Scotti Camper around all 50 states and ASK. I think you’ll find we haven’t got started and our will is immeasurable.

    “All it actually took was Newsweek to run a cover of a U.S. soldier’s body being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu to make Clinton not only pull out of Somalia altogether, but convince the UN itself to leave later in 1995.”

    Hahahahaha! Oh my sweet, summer child. You actually believe that the media is independent and a reflection of the people? In 1995? Wow, what’s that like? No, CLINTON decided HE was leaving for his own strategy and TOLD Newsweek to run it or else. Newsweek, as the Press Office of the CIA Derp State, did their one job and collected their weekly paycheck. Change my mind.

    “• France’s Megalomaniac Macron is Gambling With World Peace (SCF)

    Is he? Because Every other nation can just say “No” to Article 5 and indeed all of NATO. Oh they signed a treaty? MAKE ME. What are you going to do, repossess Portugal? Oh so all NATO is busy in Ukraine, has no shells, but they’re ALSO going to ride out the border of Lisbon and start shelling? Boy, that’ll cause unity! Gosh you guys are So. Darn. Cute!

    “As well as France, the Poles and Baltic states appear to be gung-ho about sending combat units.”

    Oh if you mean the #Opposite of that, then yes. The Polish PEOPLE refuse, the French PEOPLE refuse – and half the generals too. So suppose one dimwitted PM says, “Fire!” Then what? He goes away. You can’t fight a war with zero home support, the government topples instead, and topples instantly. They already hate Tusk and booted him once. Nobody even knows who Sunak is. Macron is already hated and if there were an election wouldn’t make 1%. Who do they think they are? If you’re going to MAKE me pick up a rifle and get shot anyway, why wouldn’t I shoot YOU instead and save myself a long walk?

    This is what happens when you’re too smart for your own good. You can’t see how very simple things are. Con artists can only think in circles. Neo Con Artists.

    ““..by circumventing a clause in the bloc’s founding treaty..”

    That is, by lying, cheating, and stealing. …In service of Murdering. So…how well do you expect the international coalition to operate after you do that? With everyone loving and trusting you more than before?

    “• Ukraine Makes Fresh Move To Draft More Soldiers (RT)

    Speaking of saving myself a long walk. Now you know why the population should be armed. If they won’t let you be legally armed, then be illegally armed. …Everyone else is.

    ““..why would you have 12 people armed with shotguns and machine guns, raid a doctor’s home in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and four years later never indict him?”

    A crime was committed and we didn’t prosecute. That is a crime. You can’t just voluntarily prosecute whenever you get the hankering. Just like if there’s a dead body, the police can’t say, “Well, I don’t feel like it this month, do whatever you want.”

    “• Global Population Set To Fall For First Time In 700 Years (MN)

    But, but, Science!™ But But, my multi-trillion dollar handout to solve this! …Yeah, we know. Books were already written about these demographics in like 2000. Looks like they were right but more of it. Surprise! (To no one. To no one who does “Science” and is “Literate”)

    So, we’re all saved? All the article say we’re now happy, right? It’s a good thing?

    No? To have population RISE is bad, a catastrophe, but to have it FALL is also a catastrophe? No pleasing you people.

    Numbers: Don’t outsmart yourself, it’s “6”. The number that goes in a triangle is “6”.

    Speaking of: “A” is right there in the title. How many do you need?

    #155328
    aspnaz
    Participant

    https://www.swentr.site/russia/594774-simonyan-video-suspected-terrorist-interrogation/

    So they have retarded explanations for their terrorism, that makes sense, you would hardly expect them to admit anything, which means it is time to torture the fuckers. This guys says he took 5k to do this job, the problem with that explanation is that they are paying 1k per day to be a mercenary in Ukraine, so why is he doing this shit? Doesn’t make sense. He could have gone on the front lines and be sending home a healthy packet every week, instead he sacrifices himself for 5k. Bullshit.

    #155329
    John Day
    Participant

    “12”, (or possibly “18” depending upon how one reads the order, as multiplying the number by the one above it. What about 9=90, though?), or multiplying the number by the next integer greater than itself.

    A in the middle takes careful scanning of rows, not intellect. It is flattery. I am not a “genius”.

    #155330
    aspnaz
    Participant

    FDA

    Fucking dumb assholes.

    #155331
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    ? = 13

    #155332
    zerosum
    Participant

    My efforts to help bring news to TAE
    Follow the trail of bread crumbs
    Update your info from

    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/03/media-snippets-related-to-the-crocus-city-hall-attack.html#more
    March 23, 2024
    Media Snippets Related To The Crocus City Hall Attack
    ——-
    Some cut & copy
    ISIS is the creation of USA and Mossad.
    The fact that the terrorists were racing toward the Ukrainian border when caught, is a very UNPLEASANT fact for Ukraine.
    I think that this time ukraine really did cross Russia’s red line.
    ————
    https://t.me/mnogonazi/15492
    Up-to-date updates on the terrorist attack in Crocus:

    — 93 people have died so far. 41 of them were identified.

    – 11 people involved in the terrorist attack were detained, including four who directly attacked Crocus.

    “Among the detainees are two 19-year-old twin brothers: Rivojidin and Muhammadsobir Faizov. The latter, during the arrest, shot at the security forces. He was wounded (last photo), operated on in intensive care and is already being interrogated.

    “The perpetrators planned to escape from the Russian Federation to Ukraine through a forest in the Bryansk region. They were detained by officers of the Border Guard Service of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

    “Thanks to the drones, it was possible to detect one of the terrorists heading to the Ukrainian border.

    “In total, about 300 Russian security forces and military officers combed the area. All 4 Wahhabis were taken alive.
    ————–
    https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI5rmQPZGgk
    Who Is Behind The Bloody Terrorist Attack In Moscow? Military Summary And Analysis For 2024.03.23
    ———–
    Foreign mercenaries
    https:/ /thecradle.co/articles/hundreds-of-al-qaeda-militants-arrive-in-ukraine-from-syria
    Hundreds of Al-Qaeda militants arrive in Ukraine from Syria
    The Al-Qaeda militants arrived just days after Russian intelligence warned that Washington was providing them with training for the fight in Ukraine
    MAR 8, 2022
    ————
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20240323/this-is-not-isis—rossiya-segodnya-editor-in-chief-on-moscow-concert-hall-attack-1117508480.html
    This Is Not ISIS – Rossiya Segodnya Editor-in-Chief on Moscow Concert Hall Attack
    ———–
    The truth will eventually come out
    ———–

    #155334
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    I found the fish intriguing. It looks like it must be a Goliath tigerfish.

    #155335
    John Day
    Participant

    Bipartisan US agrees to starve Palestinians to death with cover of Moscow terrorist attack.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/swamp-wins-senate-approves-12-trillion-spending-bill-narrowly-averting-govt-shutdown

    The legislation provides 75% of the federal government funding for the coming six months. It includes measures to increase military salaries, eliminate funding to the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees, and enhance security along the southern border.

    #155336
    jb-hb
    Participant

    270,000 dead to Fentanol since 2015?

    I kind of don’t get it. Don’t you run out of people wanting to TAKE the drug? Where do all these people come from? If it kills too fast, don’t you essentially burn out the drug culture – no one to induct more people? Who volunteers to take some and why?

    I saw a thing a couple days ago estimating deaths of despair if you put suicide, drug overdoses, alcoholism related deaths etc in America are at around 200,000/year???

    80,000/year from a single drug is like a fairly significant war. 58,000 total US dead in Vietnam.

    An explanation I keep coming across is that Fentanyl is put into all the other drugs – meth, cocaine, pot, everything. “They” lace all the other drugs with it.

    But you are killing your customers. What gives? And… they are killing their customers, why are you stepping up to the bar for your own helping? Can you not find some pot seeds and potting soil instead?

    #155337
    Dora
    Participant

    Math test.

    3 = 18

    #155338
    Bam_Man
    Participant

    Math Test
    ? = 13

    #155339
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Daily dose of pure insanity: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/long-covid-problem-world-moving-on-1234988684/

    Bioethicist trying not to be pejorative about Covid. Great! Problem: every part of her paradigm conflicts. She’s like the poster child of bio-insanity. Covid was real, doctors are great…except ALSO no doctor believes Long Covid symptoms, the medical system ALSO ignores, rejects, defunds (and therefore presumably kills) everyone. Look they can’t BOTH be heroes AND be louts. They can’t BOTH be totally on the ball, earnest, and true and ALSO be lazy, indifferent, and unhelpful. Pick one. The whole article dances in that space, which is essentially abused-children-covering-for-abusive-adult-alcoholics. Not a flicker of self-awareness, nor a flicker of “Hey, what should we do about it?” As fully realized adults and strong, empowered womyn, yo. Nope. I’m reporting it’s broken. Don’t know why, Not gonna do anything about it. Thot you should know. Somebody else’s responsibility. Somebody else’s fault.

    Clipping through some nearby links, this is nowhere NEAR the craziest, most unhinged thing on Rolling Stone. Like every third article is a fact-free, jaw-dropping hit piece by the Mean Girls’ Table now locked in an airtight control booth smelling each other’s farts. Why? As Ms. Yuko above points out, millions of people are living under a tarp, dying. And you have a thousand inches to dedicate to ragging on one 2nd string football player? Like that’s the top story by length this month? https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/aaron-rodgers-nfl-jeffrey-epstein-jimmy-kimmel-covid-pat-mcafee-conspiracy-theories-1234946453/
    A guy none of has heard of, never cared about, never WILL care about, and has no power at all, thinks stuff. Oh Noes. Stop Americans “Thinking Stuff”. Because always before football quarterbacks were well known for their deep, insightful, well-researched opinions and their wide receivership of Nobel Prizes.

    As Kunstler says, all of it is an indicator that America is insane. Or…Actually…just this tiny, insignificant cadre of Ivy School grads numbering about 100,000 are completely insane, a number easily institutionalized for our safety if need be. The rest of America is not suffering any such delusions, thanks.

    #155340
    zerosum
    Participant


    US Senate passes $1.2 trillion budget, averting government shutdown

    But the measure did not include funding for mostly military aid to Ukraine, Taiwan or Israel, which are included in a different Senate-passed bill that the Republican-led House of Representatives has ignored.
    (Watch for the under the table work arounds)

    The bill also eliminates US funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) – which provides vital services on the ground to Palestinians in Gaza and across the Middle East – until March 2025.

    The agency lost millions of dollars in international support, led by the US, following allegations by Israel that some of its staff in the Gaza Strip were involved in the October 7 Hamas-led attacks.

    #155341
    Dora
    Participant

    90 / 9 = 10,

    9 x (10) = 90
    8 x 9 = 72
    7 x 8 = 56
    6 x 7 = 42
    3 x 6 = 18

    ? = 18

    #155342
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    f(x) = x(x+1)

    f(3) = 3(3+1) = 12

    #155343
    Noirette
    Participant

    On Gaza -> several top posts.

    The Two-State-Solution has been touted for more than 50 yrs., nothing was ever done to implement it, it is just showy look-good, look pious, fair, etc. proposal.

    Clamoring for it now is just more of the same tired BS.

    ISR territory, which has no fixed Int’l borders btw, is incredibly small. Anyone who has been there knows this.. how such a postage stamp ‘non’ country could be divided is moot..

    Dividing that minuscule land into two states, or ethnic held territories in an odd patchwork, with one state of the 2 state solution, Palestine, and the other being Jewish, solves nothing. It would just exaberate the conflict, keeps it going, institutionalise the hatred, encourage violent escalation. There would still be one ‘group’ (no matter what patchwork land they lived on) dominating another.

    #155344

    I got nothing on the triangles- I agree that 6 works as well as anything.
    …6×7=42, 5×6=30, 4×5=20, 3×4=12, 2×3=6, 1×2=2
    Or what Maxwell Quest wrote.

    Here in the land of lakes, people say muskies are scary.

    #155345
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Subtracting the bottom right number from the sum of the other two numbers gives 13 for the triangle puzzle.

    #155346
    zerosum
    Participant

    Yanky going home

    America’s $280 Million Military Mission in Niger Ends in Failure


    America’s $280 Million Military Mission in Niger Ends in Failure

    Air Base 201 in Niger was the U.S. Air Force’s largest construction project in history: a massive drone center that cost American taxpayers $280 million.
    The U.S. presence in Niger, unknown to most Americans, has been a mess for years. In 2017, the Islamic State ambushed and killed four U.S. Green Berets. The U.S. military reprimanded several commanders for improperly preparing the troops and lying about their mission. In 2022, local bandits robbed a van carrying $40,000 in American taxpayer money, meant to pay local employees, in broad daylight just outside Air Base 201.

    Many West African countries are former French colonies, and France has also used counterterrorism missions to retain its influence over the region it calls “Françafrique.”

    Resentment over the American and French presence boiled over in 2020, when West Africa began to suffer a series of military coups, bringing anti-Western governments to power. Ironically, many of the coup plotters—including the Nigerien officers—had also received U.S. military training before turning against their American backers.

    #155347
    Dora
    Participant

    In the triangle puzzle

    ? = 13

    Two math puzzles both using “?” as the unsolved variable makes the answers in comments a little confusing without noting which puzzle is being solved.

    #155348
    zerosum
    Participant

    Is this part of the french invasion?

    Foreign servicemen injured in Ukraine were urgently transferred to Poland, which means that a precise “arrival” took place.

    The medical plane of the Polish Air Force took off from Rzeszów and landed on the territory of the 33rd transport aviation base in Powidz.

    A medical C-130, quite rare in these parts, took off from the territory of the main base, where all shipments of weapons and mercenaries to Ukraine come from, and also where they are transported if they are injured.

    #155349
    Celticbiker
    Participant

    What happened to Edvard to go from Johan Karl St. to the Scream? Kunstler pleads it’s insanity because he cannot, will not face jew machinations., made plausible by money from nothing. 100 years of planning is not insane, it’s deliberate. None of it happened by accident. The Fed, Depression, Weimar, World Wars, UN, JFK, Fake moon missions, 911, Ukraine, Gaza, endless wheels of misery till you finally get people to line up, voluntarily, for a shot that kills them. It only seems insane if you refuse to face up to the perpetrators. People would rather be robbed blind, incapacitated and murdered, than be considered antisemite. Now that, that is fuckin insane.

    #155351

    Blockchain of Custody; Linear Reality-
    Where dost Thou live in Completion?
    All of Thy data conveys immortality:
    Deity! Thou art Accretion!

    Whales may be sharks,
    And some poems are snarks.

    Doc R- Sure enough!
    6 6 6 and 13.

    #155354
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    A major study published in scientific journal The Lancet has found that the global population will start to fall within decades due to vastly reduced fertility rates and may never recover. The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found that by the year 2050, 155 of 204 countries are on course to have birth rates lower than required to sustain the population level

    Just too silly.

    We assume the study completely ignored peaking and decline of oil extraction, abrupt climate change, the insect apocalypse, wars to maintain/acquire control of resources etc. .

    Much more likely is a decline in world population commencing around 2030, perhaps before.

    #155355
    John Day
    Participant

    Systemic Jeopardy https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/systemic-jeopardy

    Systemic jeopardy , THE COMING FINANCIAL CRASH​ , Surplus Energy Economics
    One question, above all others, has dominated our recent discussions here. This is the issue of whether the financial system will fracture as the underlying “real” or material economy inflects from growth into contraction.
    Has some kind of chaotic reset – either contractionary or hyperinflationary – become inevitable? Are we – to put it colloquially – heading into a re-run of the Wall Street crash and the ensuing Great Depression?
    The answer is that we are. Only two outcomes remain possible. One is a cascade of defaults and asset price crashes, and the other is a full-on resort to money-creation, resulting in an uncontrollable surge in inflation.
    The likelihood is that the latter will be tried, but will fail to prevent the former.​..
    ​..This doesn’t just mean that households will have to get by without various non-essentials hitherto taken very largely for granted. It also means that they will find it increasingly hard to ‘keep up the payments’ on everything from secured and unsecured credit to subscriptions and staged-payment purchases.
    ​ In an economy shaped by energy, there’s no bottomless well of household financial resources, and any attempt to create one using ultra-loose monetary policies can only lead to the hyper-inflationary destruction of the purchasing power value of money.
    ​ The outlook for the material and financial economies is quite clear, and is pictured in Fig. 2.
    ​ Structurally, the departure of the “financial economy” (of money, transactions and credit) from the underlying “real economy” (of material products and services) has introduced enormous disequilibrium pressure into the system (Fig. 2C), pressure that has been rising even as the aggregates of debt and broader liability exposure have been escalating (Fig. 2D).
    economy
    ​..Within our general understanding of economic and financial causation, two big questions remain to be answered. First, what’s going to happen to domestic and international politics as the public, previously promised perpetual material betterment, awakes to the reality of deteriorating prosperity, narrowing choices and worsening insecurity?
    ​ Second, can the financial system, in its present form, survive the inflexion of the material economy from growth into contraction? The short answer to this question is that it can’t, and the task ahead is to redesign the financial system for a smaller, supportive role in a shrinking economy.
    ​ The political issue requires a discussion all to itself, but we can already see popular dissatisfaction finding voice in the rise of authoritarian populism…
    ..We’ll have to go through a GFCII event, this time on a scale that no amount of monetary gimmickry can buy off. Then we’ll have to build a new financial system, just as individual countries have been compelled to do after the hyperinflationary destruction of their currencies.

    #273: Systemic jeopardy

    ​ Gilbert Doctorow has news and an opinion. Update on the ‘Crocus City Hall’ massacre
    The death toll has risen sharply from first news last night. It now stands at 143 and may go still higher. Most of the victims apparently died from gunshot wounds. Some died from asphyxiation linked to smoke from the fire on the premises which the attackers lit with incendiary devices. The event under attack was a rock concert that was about to begin and many of those killed were children and adolescents, a fact which, rightly or wrongly, Russians consider particularly heinous…
    ​..We know that 11 of those responsible were apprehended, including the four who committed the murders in the auditorium. They were caught in a forest of the Bryansk province, following a car chase and exchange of gunfire with law enforcement officers when they tried to evade a roadside control. They were driving their Renault car in the direction of the Ukrainian border.
    ​ We are told that several at least are citizens of the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan, although Tajik authorities deny that their people were involved. Representatives of the Islamic State terrorist organization have claimed responsibility, although that by itself says nothing about ultimate directions from Ukraine.
    ​ One of the terrorists revealed under police interrogation that they were paid 500,000 rubles for the attack, amounting to a paltry $5,000. Another 500,000 was to be paid later, following the attack, but it is safe to assume that the paymasters never expected that half to be paid out.
    ​ Vladimir Putin’s address to the nation was calm and non-accusatory with respect to the puppet masters behind the atrocity…..“Putin: there is information about the preparation of an escape window for the murderers on the Ukrainian side”​…
    ​ Otherwise, Putin’s opening words were of comfort to the bereaved and relatives of those wounded. We know from other sources that the Moscow and Moscow regional authorities have announced compensation to be paid to all victims and their relatives…​..Tomorrow has been declared a national day of mourning in Russia. The Culture Ministry has cancelled all events involving large gatherings of people and cities across Russia have declared heightened security measures. Indeed the situation at the Crocus City Hall was exceedingly lax: there were no armed guards. The security people had only wooden clubs, not firearms, and they apparently were in their quarters when they were tracked down by the assailants and murdered first before they proceeded to the auditorium.
    ​..Let there be no confusion here: the tragedy yesterday is a turning point in the war. I remain persuaded that it was an American sanctioned or directed provocation intended to elicit the violent response that I mentioned in my last essay – a Russian strike on Kiev with intent to decapitate the Zelensky regime.
    https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/update-on-the-crocus-city-hall-massacre

    ​ US Intelligence Says It Knew ISIS-K Was Planning Terror Attack On Moscow
    ​ The initial reports that ISIS has claimed responsibility for the terror attack in Moscow appeared rumor at first, and has still been subject of widespread scrutiny and debate, however, US media and government officials are saying that the Islamic State (or ISIS-K) statement is authentic. “A branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility on Friday for the attack in Moscow that killed at least 40 people and injured about 100 others, and U.S. officials confirmed the claim shortly afterward,” The New York Times writes late in the day.
    ​ What’s more is that US intelligence knew there was to be an imminent attack on Moscow: “The United States collected intelligence in March that Islamic State-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, the branch of the group based in Afghanistan, had been planning an attack on Moscow, according to officials. ISIS members have been active in Russia, one U.S. official said,” according to more from NYT.
    ​ The Kremlin had earlier in the day demanded answers of Washington explaining why the US Embassy in Moscow issued an alert earlier this month for all US nationals to avoid public venues and be extra vigilant.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/mass-shooting-attack-explosions-moscows-largest-concert-hall-reports

    #155356
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Swamp Wins: Senate Approves $1.2 Trillion Spending Bill, Narrowly Averting Gov’t Shutdown
    ​ The legislation provides 75% of the federal government funding for the coming six months. It includes measures to increase military salaries, eliminate funding to the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees, and enhance security along the southern border.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/swamp-wins-senate-approves-12-trillion-spending-bill-narrowly-averting-govt-shutdown

    World Sees Gaza as ‘US Genocide’ Not Just Israel’s
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20240322/the-world-sees-gaza-as-us-genocide-not-just-israels-1117481136.html

    ​ The West’s Reckoning? Dr. Michael Brenner
    ​ Western leaders are experiencing two stunning events: defeat in Ukraine, and genocide in Palestine. The first is humiliating, the other shameful. Yet, they feel no humiliation or shame. Their actions show vividly that those sentiments are alien to them…
    ..Clues for these abnormalities are provided by their most recent responses as deteriorating conditions tighten the vise – on emotions, on prevailing policies, on domestic political worries, on ginger egos. Those responses fall under the category of panic behavior. Deep down, they are scared, fearful, and agitated. Biden et al in Washington, Macron, Schulz, Sunak, Stoltenberg, von der Leyen. They lack the courage of their stated convictions or the courage to face reality squarely. The blunt truth is that they have contrived to get themselves, and their countries, in a quandary from which there is no escape conforming to their current self-defined interests and emotional engagement…​
    ..French President Emmanuel Macon’s proposed plan to station military personnel from NATO members within Ukraine to serve as a tripwire. Arrayed as a cordon around Kharkov, Odessa, and Kiev they are meant to deter advancing Russian forces from moving on those cities for fear of killing Western soldiers – thereby risking a direct confrontation with the Alliance…
    ..There already are thousands of Westerners bolstering the Ukrainian armed forces. Roughly 4 – 5,000 Americans have been performing critical operational functions from the outset. The presence of a majority predates by several years the onset of hostilities 2 years ago. That contingent was augmented by a supplementary group of 1,700 last summer which was a corps of logistic experts advertised as mandated to seek out and eradicate corruption in the black-marketing of pilfered supplies. The Pentagon people are sown through the Ukrainian military from headquarters planning units to advisers in the field, to technicians and Special Forces…
    ..The principal lesson to be drawn from this overview is that the positioning of European troops at key sites as human hostages is not wholly original. Their presence has not deterred Russia from attacking them in the field or, as in the French case, hunting them down in their residences…
    ​..Insofar as the violent ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians is concerned, it is fair to say that the Western government’s complicity via its arming and unqualified backing for Israel’s gruesome actions constitutes grotesque behavior. To single out individual elements among individual governments is superfluous. The entire episode is grotesque. So it is seen by nearly the entire world outside the countries of the collective West…
    ​..There are actions that manifestly represent a clear and future danger of an expanding war in Europe…
    ​..Taken together, the actions of Western leaders – supported by their nations’ political elites – are indicative of a behavior pattern that has parted ways with reality. They derive deductively from dogmas unsubstantiated by objective fact…
    ​..Back to the ingredients of panic. We noted fear – of both the identifiable and the unknown, and sub-conscious feelings of insecurity… opening opportunities for willful persons or factions who harbor audacious objectives of remaking the world’s geo-political space according to American hegemonic specifications. To that end, our leaders manipulate and exploit conditions of emotional disorientation and political conformity. The outstanding example is the so-called ‘neo-cons’ in Washington (who number Joe Biden as a comrade-in-arms) who have crafted a network of like-minded true believers in London, Paris, Berlin, and at both ends of Brussels.
    ​ What of the puzzle we noted as to the near complete absence of feelings of guilt or shame – especially over Gaza, of being humiliated in the eyes of the world? In conditions of nihilism, matters of conscience are moot. The implicit rejection of norms, rules, and laws frees the individual self to do whatever impulses or ideas, or selfish interests impel it. With the superego dissolved, there is no felt obligation to judge oneself about any external or abstract standard. Narcissistic tendencies flourish. A similar psychology obviates the requirement for experiencing shame. That is something that can only exist if we subjectively are part of a social grouping wherein personal status, and sense of worth, depend on how others view us and whether they grant us respect. In the absence of such a communal identity, with its attendant sensitivity to its opinion, shame can exist only in the perverse form of regret that one has been unable to meet the demanding, all-consuming need for self-gratification. That applies to nations as well as their individual leaders.

    The West’s Reckoning?

    ​ Russian servicemen to kill all French soldiers in Ukraine — senior lawmaker
    Pyotr Tolstoy pointed out that 147 out of 367 French mercenaries who arrived in Ukraine earlier have been eliminated
    https://tass.com/politics/1762957

    ​ Andrew Korybko, Analyzing The Kremlin Spokesman’s Unprecedented Description Of The Ukrainian Conflict As A War​
    This should be seen as the Kremlin’s clearest signal yet that it’ll respond to the scenario of a conventional Western intervention by striking those opposing forces in line with the international laws governing this form of conflict.​..
    ​..Returning to Peskov’s rhetorical shift, the best that it could therefore do is prompt the West to back off from its plans, after which the warring parties could rely on Indian mediation to manage this latest phase of their security dilemma. If the West misinterprets his words as a “bluff” and still goes through with what Macron talked about, especially without India mediating to share each side’s red lines and how they’ll react in various scenarios, then the risk of World War III by miscalculation will be higher than ever.​ https://korybko.substack.com/p/analyzing-the-kremlin-spokesmans

    #155358
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Aleks at Black Mtn. Analysis interviews Alex Krainer, discussing Economics And Empires
    They cover a lot of ground, and efficiently so. The video is an hour long. Stop when it gets dull. 🙂
    https://bmanalysis.substack.com/p/economics-and-empires-with-alex-krainer

    Mike Benz (5 min): Hunter Biden was advancing a CIA project in Ukraine to swing the natural gas market towards NATO & that’s why he’s untouchable.

    CIA Protecting Biden by Blocking IRS Interviews, Says Former Whistleblower​ [Including dramatic SWAT intervention on Hunter’s Psychiatrist to ransack his house.]
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20240323/cia-protecting-biden-by-blocking-irs-interviews-says-former-whistleblower-1117505321.html

    ​ FDA Settles Ivermectin Case, Agrees To Remove Controversial ‘Stop It’ Post
    “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fda-settles-ivermectin-case-agrees-remove-controversial-stop-it-post

    ​ Pierre Kory MD, The FDA Settled With Us Because They Knew They Were Going To Lose
    ​ After 4 years of catastrophic health agency tyranny, physicians finally score a legal victory. I think the FDA settled because their Pharma masters were terrified of discovery. Here is the backstory.
    https://pierrekorymedicalmusings.com/p/the-fda-settled-with-us-because-they

    #155359
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ The Hertz Meltdown Reveals Scale Of The EV Debacle
    ​ CEO of Hertz Stephen Scherr has been booted out due to a vast purchase of an EV fleet that consumers didn’t even want to rent. The company has now been forced to sell them at a deep discount and in a market where consumers are not particularly interested.
    ​ Looking back, however, Scherr’s decision to bet everything on an EV boom was a disaster that was highly praised at the time. Only last year, the company bragged: “This morning, [Hertz] was recognized by The White House for our efforts to expand access to electric vehicles across the country. Demand for EV rentals is growing and we’re here to help our customers electrify their travels.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hertz-meltdown-reveals-scale-ev-debacle

    #155360
    WES
    Participant

    My Father used to complain about how stupid the government was, but then would say “Thank God They Are So Stupid”!
    Fani and James.
    I rest my case.

    They have thrown the kitchen sink at Trump and he is still sortta standing.
    Trump has at least revealed how crooked the deep state’s government is.
    But they are not quite finished yet with making an example of Trump.
    There is more Lawfare and crooked judges waiting.
    They need to make sure we know and never forget, who is the boss.
    Each of us lessor souls would have already been crushed and dead.

    I still don’t believe Trump will ever be elected President.
    The clue is the neocon’s decision to openly up the escalation in Ukraine.
    The RINOs in the House have already decided to pass the Ukrainian Aid bill.
    The deep state has no intention of giving back control of the government.

    The deep state rigged the 2020 election to save “their” America.
    So far they have done a great job in “not” saving “their” America.
    Having to run the government, they have been reduced to being the “government”!
    Once you are reduced to being the government, you reveal for all to see, your stupidity!
    Since we can’t stop you, carry on you being you!
    As Dr. D would say, just take my money and my vote!

    Covid Vaccines:
    First, it was Queen Elisabeth.
    Second, it is King Charles.
    Third, it is Kate Middleton.
    King William will rule without a Queen.
    The Reign of Turbo Cancer.

    #155361
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Marandi noted that he has been to China twice and public opinion there has shifted as well. He noted that he does not think China will ever invest in Israel again. “They see on their own social media networks what you and I are seeing,” he noted.

    I would agree with this; many Chinese people have mentioned to me how astonished they are that such bad things are happening, and these are people who survived the cultural revolution.

    I met a Chinese person here who’s daughter met some Israeli students when she was abroad, the Israeli students were completely supportive of the genocide, the daughter was so taken aback that she recounted the conversation to her parents. The parent then asked me why I thought the Israelis were so supportive of genocide, my explanation was that the children had bad parents who have brought them up to be haters of the Palestinians who see Palestinians as lesser humans. I passed my judgement that the world would be a better place without Israel and the Israelis.

    #155374
    WES
    Participant

    I would like to draw your attention to the EU Brussel’s continuing efforts to gain the powers of direct taxation of EU citizens to fund the war in Ukraine.

    First, it was seizing Rusian Central Bank assets to pay for the war in Ukraine.

    Second, it was seizing the interest from the seized Russian Central Bank assets to pay for the war in Ukraine.

    Both of these ideas have run into stiff resistance at the BIS, the central bank’s international central bank.
    If this were to happen, then the BIS would fail.
    Likely a bridge too far for bankers to accept.
    The BIS was the banker’s first step toward one world government.
    I doubt bankers would sacrifice the BIS for funding the Ukraine war.

    Thirdly, EU Brussels is trying to use tge Ukrainian war to create an emergency crisis so they can grab direct taxation powers. This involves using Macron to help create this crisis situation.

    Fourthly, the EU Brussels are trying to reinterpret Article 41(2) as only applying to EU countries but not to a foriegn non -EU country like Ukraine.

    Fifthly, who knows what EU Brussels will try next???
    Farmers spraying mannuer on EU?
    But they won’t quit trying!

    Remember for EU Brussels, their survival depends upon gaining direct taxation powers so they can borrow money by issuing bonds.

    They are desperate!
    They are willing to kill you to get this power!

    #155375
    WES
    Participant

    I should also point out that the EU Brussels politicians are not elected but appointed, so they are responsible to no one!

    As one German said, it seems like the EU is the dumping grounds for each country’s most incompetent politicians!

    #155376
    WES
    Participant

    The Hertz EV crisis is just the tip of the iceberg!

    Three Chinese EV makers are currently spending billions on constructing new plants in Mexico as a result of bribes to Biden to push the EV mandate.
    Mary Bara CEO of GM, a Biden supporter, bet the company on EVs too.
    GM may go bankrupt again, jeopardizing all of GM’s current employee retirement pensions.

    We haven’t seen all of the EV casualties yet!

    #155377
    zerosum
    Participant

    If you can’t afford to buy an e-car or to operate it, then you will have the poor man option, of buying an e-scooter, or an e-bike.

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