Apr 012024
 
 April 1, 2024  Posted by at 8:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Caravaggio The Denial of Saint Peter 1610

 

Easter Becomes the Latest Flash Point in American Politics (Turley)
Jack Smith Handed a ‘Blank Check’ to Target Trump, Lawyers Argue (ET)
Jack Smith Seeks to Shield Names of Potential Witnesses in Trump Case (ET)
How America’s Top Spymaster Sees The World Is Rather Disappointing (Amar)
US Congressman Calls For ‘Hiroshima and Nagasaki’ in Gaza and Ukraine (RT)
A Genocide Foretold (Chris Hedges)
UK Govt Lawyers Conclude Israel In Breach Of Humanitarian Law (RT)
Biden Claims Arab States Are Ready to Recognize Israel (Sp.)
Moscow Demands That Kiev Surrender Terrorism Suspects (RT)
US House To Consider Ukraine Aid Bill In April (TASS)
Ukraine Turned Into Afghan Drug Lords Paradise Under Western Watch (Sp.)
Why Russia Didn’t Join NATO (Sp.)
The Assange Hearing Permission Appeal Judgment (Craig Murray)
61 Unexpected PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Found in Food Packaging (SciAm)

 

 


Mr. Fish – Genocide

 

 

Sachs Russia
https://twitter.com/i/status/1774186219703869896

 

 

CCP bridge

 

 

 

 

Habba

 

 

Snowden: “Warren Buffett, the billionaire head of Berkshire Hathaway, will probably go down as the greatest investor in history… Berkshire shares have seen an average annual return of 20.0%…”

Meanwhile:


just some members of congress outperforming the greatest investor in history. we are surely fortunate to be represented by such extraordinary talents

 

 

 

 

Pot and kettle:

“Sadly, it’s unsurprising politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric..”

Easter Becomes the Latest Flash Point in American Politics (Turley)

It often seems like there is nothing left today that is not a battleground over our political and social differences. We can now add Easter. The Biden White House triggered a firestorm by picking Good Friday to announce that Easter Sunday will now be the “Transgender Day of Visibility.” At the same time, families objected to regulations on Easter egg designs, barring children from including any religious imagery or references on this religious holiday. There are even objections to the use of eggs at the annual White House egg roll. Despite the criticism from various politicians, including Speaker Mike Johnson, Jean-Pierre went on X Saturday to reaffirm that Sunday is to be designated as the “Transgender Day of Visibility.” Transgender Visibility Day actually began 15 years ago and many have noted that the overlap with Easter Sunday this year is a coincidence.

President Joe Biden has made no comment on the controversy and issued his Easter proclamation[..] White House spokesperson Andrew Bates did respond on Saturday: “As a Christian who celebrates Easter with Family, President Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American. Sadly, it’s unsurprising politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric. President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit.” In the meantime, the White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll is being called a celebration of “National Guard Families.” The 2024 “Call for Youth Art” flyer states that “Children should depict on an egg template (see Art Submission form) a snapshot of their life – a favorite activity, scenery in your state, your military family, a day-in-your life, etc.” However, under its restrictions list, the flyer noted, “The Submission must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.”

One can understand the desire to bar “Let’s Go Brandon” eggs. Moreover, the Easter egg event has long been treated as open to people of all faiths and background. It has been treated more as a celebration of spring. However, some families have objected that the holiday does have a religious origin and that the bar on any religious references like a cross or other symbols is an affront. As a legal matter, there is no bar on religious displays in such White House events, which have included such symbols in celebrations of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim holidays. On the positive side, the egg roll will involve eggs. PETA has asked the First Lady to substitute potatoes for the eggs. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk objected that:

“Children love animals and would be sad to learn that the eggs used for fun and games at the White House come from tormented hens whose lives are spent in cages that afford them less space than a standard sheet of typing paper. Easter should be a time of renewal and joy for all sentient beings—and that means hens, too.” By having children decorate and roll spuds, Newkirk suggested, the First Lady could remove these little “cholesterol bombs” from the diet of children. Besides, she added, “potatoes are cheaper and healthier than eggs and leave birds in peace.” The head of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) added his own warning to people not to eat whole eggs and to cut back on the sweets to protect their health. However, the Easter Bunny appears to have been vindicated this week in a scientific study that found that eating 12 eggs a week did not increase one’s cholesterol. Indeed, it found possible heart benefits to egg consumption. That proposal was clearly rejected for now.

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“Mr. Smith’s actions as a notionally independent United States attorney are beyond the scope of what the Supreme Court has permitted, and therefore, his actions are unlawful..”

Jack Smith Handed a ‘Blank Check’ to Target Trump, Lawyers Argue (ET)

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump argued in his classified documents case that special prosecutor Jack Smith has been given too many resources while other parts of the Department of Justice haven’t. The former president faces dozens of charges that he allegedly illegally retained classified materials after he left office in 2021. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has sought to delay the trial, while U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has not set a firm date for when it will start. His attorneys earlier this week argued that Mr. Smith’s team was handed “a blank check” that has imperiled the former president’s rights. “To be clear, offering the Special Counsel a blank check has harmed President Trump’s substantial rights, and DOJ [Department of Justice] simply could not have funded the entirety of Jack Smith’s expansive politically motivated witch hunt from an alternative source,” Trump attorney Christopher Kise wrote in court to Judge Cannon earlier this week, adding:

“Since the founding, resource constraints on prosecutors have been regarded as an indispensable guarantee of substantive fairness.” Because there are no constraints, the lawyer wrote that the special counsel’s office can “engage in an unabashed political crusade with zero accountability” against President Trump. Mr. Smith was appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to pursue the classified documents case and the federal election case in Washington. “The Special Counsel’s Office is pursuing two different cases in two jurisdictions in order to maximize interference in the ongoing presidential election,” Mr. Kise wrote. “This tactic is the luxury of a prosecutor facing no resource constraints. And it is far from a forgone conclusion.” The special prosecutor’s team has yet to file a response to the court motion.

Later in the motion, Mr. Kise wrote that other parts of the DOJ have been denied funding, including targeting Big Tech antitrust cases. “In 2019, for example, DOJ was forced to prioritize its antitrust review of Google over Apple because it could not afford to pursue both,” he wrote. Earlier, his attorneys and third parties have argued that Mr. Smith’s appointment by the U.S. attorney general violated the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause, noting that Congress has to approve his team’s expenditures. Last week, a law professor submitted a “friend of the court,” or amicus, brief in the case, arguing that Mr. Smith is not an “officer of the United States” due to how he was appointed.

“Simply being appointed by a department head does not elevate that position to the status of an inferior ‘Officer of the United States.’ Indeed, the mere fact that a person is appointed by the Head of a Department does not make that position an office at all,” Professor Josh Blackman of the South Texas College of Law in Houston wrote, referring to a brief that Mr. Smith had filed in which he described himself as an “inferior officer.” “Instead, precedents … provide that an office must be continuous.” “Mr. Smith’s actions as a notionally independent United States attorney are beyond the scope of what the Supreme Court has permitted, and therefore, his actions are unlawful,” he also wrote.

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“Mr. Smith also wants redacted, in addition to the names of potential government witnesses, “any pronouns revealing their gender..”

Jack Smith Seeks to Shield Names of Potential Witnesses in Trump Case (ET)

Special counsel Jack Smith on March 29 asked a federal judge to approve redactions to filings made by a co-defendant of former President Donald Trump. The briefs submitted by Walt Nauta, the co-defendant, contain information that should not be made public, Mr. Smith told U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. That includes the names of people that government officials may call as witnesses in a trial, the special counsel, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, said. “Witness safety and privacy are paramount pretrial. The limited redactions of the names satisfy the good cause standard established in Chicago Tribune Co. v. Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc., as well as the higher standard requiring a compelling interest for the redactions and the redactions being narrowly tailored,” Mr. Smith said in his request.

The Chicago Tribune case, decided in 2001 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, hinged on a federal rule that enables keeping information secret if there is “good cause” to do so. “Federal courts have superimposed a balancing of interests approach for Rule 26’s good cause requirement,” that ruling stated. “This standard requires the district court to balance the party’s interest in obtaining access against the other party’s interest in keeping the information confidential.” Mr. Smith also wants redacted, in addition to the names of potential government witnesses, “any pronouns revealing their gender,” according to the new filing.

And the special counsel is asking that information about sealed grand jury proceedings be kept secret, including one proceeding that happened before he was appointed. The proposed redactions come after Judge Cannon, who was appointed by President Trump, outlined a schedule for the parties in the case with respect to redactions. The proposals are for two filings from Mr. Nauta—a reply to the government on his assertion that the prosecution of him has been selective and vindictive, and a motion to suppress evidence. Other recent documents from Mr. Nauta and President Trump that have not been placed on the public docket do not require redactions, Mr. Smith said. Those documents include President Trump’s briefs in support of a motion to dismiss the charges based on prosecutorial misconduct and selective and vindictive prosecution.

The actual motions to dismiss based on selective and vindictive prosecution have still not been made available to the public, although Mr. Smith’s team described some of its contents in another recent filing. Prosecutors said that Mr. Nauta in his motion focused on a conversation that his attorney had over coffee with one of the prosecutors. During that discussion, the prosecutor was quoted as saying the government would not “accept anything less than Mr. Nauta’s full cooperation” in exchange for not being charged. Prosecutors say the decision to charge Mr. Nauta after he declined to cooperate does not “amount to vindictiveness as a matter of law.” In a related filing, Mr. Nauta said the government was focused only on himself and another former aide of President Trump while ignoring a “universe of other comparators who, unlike Mr. Nauta, were likewise never prosecuted.”

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Burns is a puppet.

How America’s Top Spymaster Sees The World Is Rather Disappointing (Amar)

There is no doubt that this CIA director is a smart and experienced man principally capable of realism, unlike all too many others in the current American elite. Famously, he warned in 2008, when serving as ambassador to Moscow, that “Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin).” That makes the glaring flaws in this big-picture survey all the more remarkable. Burns is, obviously, correct when he observes that the US – and the world as a whole – is facing a historically rare moment of “profound” change in the global order. And – with one exception which we will return to – it would be unproductive, perhaps even a little churlish, to quibble over his ideologically biased terminology. His mislabeling of Russia as “revanchist,” for instance, has a petty ring to it. “Resurgent” would be a more civil as well as more truthful term, capturing the fact that the country is simply returning to its normal international minimum status (for at least the last three hundred years), namely that of a second-to-none great power.

Yet Burns’ agenda is more important than his terminology. While it may be complex, parts of it are as clear as can be: He is eager (perhaps desperate) to prevent Washington from ending its massive aid for Ukraine – a battle he is likely to lose. In the Middle East, he wants to focus Western aggression on Iran. He may get his will there, but that won’t be a winning strategy because, in part thanks to multipolar trend setters, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, Iran’s escape from the isolation that the US has long imposed on it is already inevitable. Regarding China, Burns’ real target is a competing faction of American hawks, namely those who argue that, bluntly put, Washington should write off its losses in Ukraine and concentrate all its firepower on China. Burns wants to persuade his readers that the US can have both its big fight against China and its proxy war against Russia.

He is also engaged in a massive act of CIA boosterism, clearly aiming to increase the clout of the already inordinately powerful state-within-a-state he happens to run himself. And last but not least, the spy-in-chief has unearthed one of the oldest tricks in the subversion and destabilization playbook: Announcing loudly that his CIA is on a recruiting spree in Russia, he seeks to promote a little paranoia in Moscow. Good luck attempting to pull that one on the country that gave us the term “agentura.” Moreover, after the horrific terror attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow, it is fair to assume that Burns regrets having boasted about the CIA expanding its “work” in Russia. Not a good look, not at all. What matters more, though, than his verbal sallies and his intriguingly straightforward, even blunt aims, are three astonishingly crude errors:

First, Burns insists on reading the emerging outcome of the war in Ukraine as a “failure on many levels,” for Russia, revealing its, as he believes, economic, political, and military weakness. Yet, as the acknowledged American economist James K. Galbraith has recently reiterated, the West’s economic war on Russia has backfired. The Russian economy is now stronger, more resilient, and independent of the West than never before. As to the military, Burns for instance, gleefully counts the tanks that Russia has lost and fails to note the ones it is building at a rapid rate not matched anywhere inside NATO. In general, he fails to mention just how worried scores of Western experts have come to be, realizing that Moscow is overseeing a massive and effective expansion of military production. A curious oversight for an intelligence professional. He also seems to miss just how desperate Ukraine’s situation has become on the ground.

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“We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid..”

US Congressman Calls For ‘Hiroshima and Nagasaki’ in Gaza and Ukraine (RT)

Michigan congressman Tim Walberg believes Washington should not waste money on humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza or Ukraine, and instead focus on supporting Israel and Kiev’s war efforts, to achieve “quick” victories. Walberg made his remarks during a meeting with members of the public in Dundee, Michigan last week. In a video posted on social media on March 25, the Republican congressman criticized President Joe Biden’s policies, telling a small audience that the US should better spend Gaza aid money on supporting Israel, which he labeled Washington’s “greatest ally, arguably, anywhere in the world.” “We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick,” Walberg could be heard saying.

“The same should be in Ukraine. Defeat Putin quick. Instead of 80% in Ukraine being used for humanitarian purposes, it should be 80-100% to wipe out Russian forces,” he added. After his statements went viral, Walberg claimed that his words were misreported and misinterpreted, arguing that he was merely speaking metaphorically and did not advocate for the actual use of nuclear weapons. “In a shortened clip, I used a metaphor to convey the need for both Israel and Ukraine to win their wars as swiftly as possible, without putting American troops in harm’s way,” Walberg said in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday. “The use of this metaphor, along with the removal of context, distorted my message, but I fully stand by these beliefs and stand by our allies,” he added, arguing that the quicker these conflicts end, the “fewer innocent lives will be caught in the crossfire.”

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“Every horrifying act of Israel’s genocide has been telegraphed in advance. It has been for decades..”

A Genocide Foretold (Chris Hedges)

There are no surprises in Gaza. Every horrifying act of Israel’s genocide has been telegraphed in advance. It has been for decades. The dispossession of Palestinians of their land is the beating heart of Israel’s settler colonial project. This dispossession has had dramatic historical moments — 1948 and 1967 — when huge parts of historic Palestine were seized and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed. Dispossession has also occurred in increments — the slow-motion theft of land and steady ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The incursion on Oct. 7 into Israel by Hamas and other resistance groups, which left 1,154 Israelis, tourists and migrant workers dead and saw about 240 people taken hostage, gave Israel the pretext for what it has long craved — the total erasure of Palestinians.

Israel has razed 77 percent of healthcare facilities in Gaza, 68 percent of telecommunication infrastructure, nearly all municipal and governmental buildings, commercial, industrial and agricultural centers, almost half of all roads, over 60 percent of Gaza’s 439,000 homes, 68 percent of residential buildings — the bombing of the Al-Taj tower in Gaza City on Oct. 25, killed 101 people, including 44 children and 37 women, and injured hundreds — and obliterated refugee camps. The attack on the Jabalia refugee camp on Oct. 25 killed at least 126 civilians, including 69 children, and injured 280. Israel has damaged or destroyed Gaza’s universities, all of which are now closed, and 60 percent of other educational facilities, including 13 libraries. It has also destroyed at least 195 heritage sites, including 208 mosques, churches, and Gaza’s Central Archives that held 150 years of historical records and documents.

Israel’s warplanes, missiles, drones, tanks, artillery shells and naval guns daily pulverize Gaza — which is only 20 miles long and five miles wide — in a scorched earth campaign unlike anything seen since the war in Vietnam. It has dropped 25,000 tons of explosives — equivalent to two nuclear bombs — on Gaza, many targets selected by Artificial Intelligence. It drops unguided munitions (“dumb bombs”) and 2000-pound “bunker buster” bombs on refugee camps and densely packed urban centers as well as the so-called “safe zones” — 42 percent of Palestinians killed have been in these “safe zones” where they were instructed by Israel to flee. Over 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, forced to find refuge in overcrowded UNRWA shelters, hospital corridors and courtyards, schools, tents or the open air in south Gaza, often living next to fetid pools of raw sewage.

Israel has killed at least 32,705 Palestinians in Gaza, including 13,000 children and 9,000 women. This means Israel is slaughtering as many as 187 people a day including 75 children. It has killed 136 journalists, many, if not most of them deliberately targeted. It has killed 340 doctors, nurses and other health workers — four percent of Gaza’s healthcare personnel. These numbers do not begin to reflect the actual death toll since only those dead registered in morgues and hospitals, most of which no longer function, are counted. The death toll, when those who are missing are counted, is well over 40,000. Doctors are forced to amputate limbs without anesthetic. Those with severe medical conditions — cancer, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease — have died from lack of treatment or will die soon. Over a hundred women give birth every day, with little to no medical care. Miscarriages are up by 300 percent.

Over 90 percent of the Palestinians in Gaza suffer from severe food insecurity with people eating animal feed and grass. Children are dying of starvation. Palestinian writers, academics, scientists and their family members have been tracked and assassinated. Over 75,000 Palestinians have been wounded, many of whom will be crippled for life. “Seventy percent of recorded deaths have consistently been women and children,” writes Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, in her report issued on March 25. “Israel failed to prove that the remaining 30 percent, i.e. adult males, were active Hamas combatants — a necessary condition for them to be lawfully targeted. By early-December, Israel’s security advisors claimed the killing of ‘7,000 terrorists’ in a stage of the campaign when less than 5,000 adult males in total had been identified among the casualties, thus implying that all adult males killed were ‘terrorists.’

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“British authorities, however, have apparently opted to keep the findings out of the public domain..”

UK Govt Lawyers Conclude Israel In Breach Of Humanitarian Law (RT)

Lawyers for the UK government have established Israel has been breaking humanitarian law amid its ongoing conflict in Gaza with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, a senior Tory is claiming, according to leaked audio revealed by the Observer newspaper on Saturday. Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Alicia Kearns, made the remarks earlier this month during a Conservative Party fundraising event. “The Foreign Office has received official legal advice that Israel has broken international humanitarian law but the government has not announced it,” Kearns, a former official with the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence, who has been pressing the government on the matter, said during the event. The legal experts’ assessment effectively makes the UK complicit in the Israeli military’s violations, and defense cooperation should have been severed by London immediately after they produced their evaluation of the situation in Gaza.

“They have not said it, they haven’t stopped arms exports. They have done a few very small sanctions on Israeli settlers and everyone internationally agrees that settlers are illegal, that they shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing, and the ways in which they have continued and the money that’s been put in,” Kearns stated. During the event, Kearns insisted that she, like the UK Foreign Secretary James Cameron, strongly believes in Israel’s right to “self defense,” noting however that there were legal boundaries for exercising it. “The right to self defense has a limit in law. It is not limitless,” she explained, warning that Israel’s approach to handling the escalation may end up putting its own – and Britain’s – long-term security at risk. The authenticity of the recordings obtained by the Observer appears beyond question, given that Kearns has been rather vocal about her position on the matter.

On Saturday, she produced similar remarks as well, once again urging the government to make public its legal assessment of the Israeli actions. “I remain convinced the government has completed its updated assessment on whether Israel is demonstrating a commitment to international humanitarian law, and that it has concluded that Israel is not demonstrating this commitment, which is the legal determination it has to make,” she stated, arguing that “transparency” was absolutely needed to “uphold the international rules-based order.” Israel launched the operation in Gaza following an incursion by Hamas militants into the southern part of the country last October. During the attack, over 1,200 people were killed and scores of hostages were taken into Gaza. The Israeli campaign inflicted heavy damage on the Palestinian enclave, causing widespread destruction and leaving at least 32,000 people dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

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“..Riyadh has repeatedly made it clear that it would not agree to establish relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.”

Biden Claims Arab States Are Ready to Recognize Israel (Sp.)

Speaking at a recent campaign event in New York, US President Joe Biden announced the willingness of Arab nations to recognize the Jewish state, but remained mum on the status of a Palestinian state. “I’ve been working with the Saudis and with all the other Arab countries, including Egypt and Jordan and Qatar. They’re prepared to fully recognize Israel. There has to be a post-Gaza plan, and there has to be a trade to a two-state solution. It doesn’t have to occur today. It has to be a progression and I think we can do that,” Biden said. As for Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom has repeatedly made it clear that it would not agree to establish relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state. The US president’s statement came as the Biden administration “quietly” approved the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel, amid Tel Aviv’s plans to launch a military offensive in southern Gaza that could threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

Biden’s announcement reflects “a longstanding position rather than a novel development,” Dr. Imad Salamey, an associate professor of political science and international affairs at the Lebanese American University, said in an interview with Sputnik. He pointed to the 2002 Arab Summit in Beirut, which “highlighted the collective willingness of Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, to recognize Israel, contingent upon Israel’s recognition of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.” “The crux of the issue remains Israel’s reluctance to acknowledge a Palestinian state as per these terms. This impasse underscores the complexity of achieving peace and mutual recognition in the region,” the political scientist stressed. Salamey also underscored that while publicly calling for peace, the US “continues to affirm its strategic alliance with Israel, as demonstrated by the new supply of bombs and fighter jets.”

In 2002, regional states clinched the Arab Peace Initiative, which stipulates recognizing Israel in return for the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel rejected the proposal. 18 years later, in 2020, Israel signed the Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, normalizing ties. Morocco and Sudan later signed on to the accords. While Washington voiced hope that Saudi Arabia would be the next signatory to the document, Riyadh has repeatedly made it clear that it would not agree to establish relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.

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“..including Kiev’s domestic spy agency boss Vasily Malyuk..”

Moscow Demands That Kiev Surrender Terrorism Suspects (RT)

Moscow has demanded that Ukraine surrender everyone in the country it suspects of terrorism, including Kiev’s domestic spy agency boss Vasily Malyuk, and to immediately stop supporting any related activities such individuals and groups undertake, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday. The ministry said it had officially contacted Kiev with the demands under the UN-adopted International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. The demands include the “immediate arrest and extradition” of all the suspects which Moscow has identified and linked to the recent terrorist attacks against Russia. The deadly attack on the Crocus City Hall, which “shocked the whole world is, by far, not the first terrorist attack endured by our country recently,” the ministry noted.

”The investigations carried out by the competent Russian bodies indicate that the traces of all these crimes lead to Ukraine,” it stressed. Apart from the concert hall attack, which left at least 144 people dead and more than 500 injured, the ministry cited such incidents as the assassination of the military blogger Maksim Fomin (best known by his pen name Vladlen Tatarsky), the deadly bombing of the Crimean Bridge, as well as recent cross-border raids into Belgorod Region and elsewhere which have been attributed by Kiev to the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK). The paramilitary unit, advertised as composed of Russians collaborating with Ukraine, has been designated as a terrorist entity by Moscow.

The ministry did not reveal any of the names of those it has demanded due to their suspected involvement, aside from the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasily Malyuk. The spy boss “cynically admitted on March 25 that Ukraine organized the bombing of the Crimean Bridge in October 2022 and revealed details on the organization of other terrorist attacks in Russia,” it noted. Failing to meet Russia’s demands will constitute a breach of Ukraine’s international obligations with respect to fighting terrorism and “entail its international legal responsibility,” the ministry warned. “Fighting against international terrorism is the responsibility of every state. The Russian side demands that the Kiev regime immediately stop any support for terrorist activities, hand over the perpetrators and compensate for the damage done to the victims,” it stressed.

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Mike Johnson’s seat is at stake.

US House To Consider Ukraine Aid Bill In April (TASS)

Republican Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Turner, said on CBS television that House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to put the bill on aid to Ukraine to a vote in April. “The speaker has made it clear that he supports Ukraine both directly to [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky – publicly, he’s made these statements – and to the secretary general of NATO. The speaker has made very clear statements that when we get back [from a recess], it’s the next top agenda, after having just passed all the bills that fund the federal government. I believe this is going to have overwhelming support in Congress, and we’ll put a bill on the president’s desk,” he said in an interview.

Turner was asked whether the current legislation will need to be tweaked to either include loans that Ukraine would have to pay back or incorporate clauses about border security to gain approval. He said, “There already is a significant and very strong support among Republicans.” “As this package moves, certainly there are going to be some discussions, you know, in both the Senate and the House,” he went on to say. “I’ve had discussions about the border itself. And certainly there have been discussions about the manner in which the non-military, humanitarian aid is structured.”. Turner also said that Washington is close to greenlighting supplies of ATACMS ballistic missiles to Ukraine.

“We need to give them longer range weapon systems. The White House has been hesitant to do so. Congress has called for that. President [of Ukraine Vladimir] Zelensky has called for that,” he said. “It’s the ATACMS and I think it’s long range <…> ATACMS. Those I think the administration is on the verge of being willing to provide.” Earlier this week Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Charles Q. Brown held a meeting with the Washington-based Defense Writers Group, of which TASS is a member, where he commented on the prospect of supplying Kiev with ATACMS missiles. When asked whether a transfer of ATACMS missiles from the US to Ukraine would carry an unacceptable risk of escalating the conflict, he said the risk is now not as high as it used to be.

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Smells like CIA. A lot.

Ukraine Turned Into Afghan Drug Lords Paradise Under Western Watch (Sp.)

Under the West’s watch, Ukraine has morphed into a gangsters’ paradise with all sorts of illicit drugs passing through its territory and the domestic production and consumption of synthetic narcotics booming. Back in June 2002, the US Justice Department emphasized Ukraine’s growing importance as a transit point for heroin trafficking largely originating from Afghanistan which went through the Balkan and Northern routes. The US-backed 2014 coup in Ukraine exacerbated the problem and was followed by a spike in corruption, gang crime, and weapons smuggling. The role of Ukraine as a transit point for extremists and illicit drugs to Europe has also increased. In July 2015, Italian MEP Matteo Salvini drew attention to ISIS* sympathizers fighting on the side of the Kiev regime in Donbass in an official letter to the EU leadership.

In 2019 and 2020, British, Polish and Ukrainian investigative journalists revealed that ISIS jihadists originating, in particular, from post-Soviet space used Ukraine as a transit point to and out of the Middle East in the course of the civil war in Syria which started in 2011. Having sustained defeat from the Russian Air Forces in Syria, ISIS started to use Ukraine as a safe haven. Ukraine’s role as a hub for ISIS terrorists could be closely connected with drug trafficking. Establishing a foothold in Afghanistan in 2015, ISIS militants used the Afghan opiate trade as a source of income since at least 2014, according to the Russian Federal Service for Drug Control. “The large-scale transit of Afghan heroin acts as a renewable financial base for the functioning of the Islamic State, which extracts fabulous profits by providing half of the total volume of heroin supplied to Europe through destabilized Iraq and some African countries,” the Russian agency stated on November 26, 2014.

“In 2015, the Afghan branch of ISIS officially declared its establishment,” Andrey Serenko, director of the Analytical Center of Afghanistan policy, told Sputnik. “[ISIS-Khorasan*] emerged from the ruins of some groups of dissatisfied Taliban** fighters whose leaders for some reason did not agree on interests with the Taliban leadership. From the first months of its existence, the Afghan branch of ISIS began to fight for jihad resources. The large Afghan ‘jihad industry’, then, and even now, relies heavily on the drug business. If in Syria and Iraq such sources of economic power of jihad were the illegal trade in petroleum products, then in Afghanistan it was drugs.” “In [Afghanistan’s] provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar [infamous for heroin production – Sputnik], ISIS reached an agreement with the local tribes who joined ISIS and still sympathize with the terror group. Accordingly, in several counties, for example, Achin County, ISIS was able to seize control of laboratories producing heroin,” the expert continued.

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“But in the evening, when we had dinner, he said, ‘you know, I’ve talked to my team, no-no, it’s not possible now.”

Why Russia Didn’t Join NATO (Sp.)

On March 31, 1954, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov shocked his US, French and British counterparts with a diplomatic note expressing Moscow’s readiness to join NATO. If the USSR joined, the note said, “the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would cease to be a closed military grouping of states” and, opening its doors to other European powers, facilitate the creation of “an effective system of collective security in Europe, which would be of utmost importance for strengthening universal peace.” Chewing over the shock Soviet proposal for over a month, Washington eventually responded, sending Moscow a note on May 7, 1954 citing the “unrealistic nature of such a proposal” and stressing that “it contradicts the very principles on which the defense system and security of Western states depend.”

Founded in April 1949, NATO’s official goals centered around “deterring Soviet expansionism” through collective defense for its members, which originally numbered 12 countries. Behind the scenes, the post-war security architecture created by the United States had other goals, including control over European countries’ domestic affairs. As Lord Hastings Ismay, the alliance’s first secretary-general, once famously put it, the purpose of NATO was to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” Before sending the March 1954 note, Soviet diplomats made several other attempts to convey to Washington the USSR’s interest in joining NATO as a mechanism for European collective security. As veteran Soviet diplomat Andrei Gromyko put it in 1951, “if this pact was aimed against the restoration of German aggression, the USSR would join NATO.”

In 1952, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin reportedly told French Ambassador Louis Joxe that if NATO was the peaceful, UN Charter-abiding organization President Charles De Gaulle described it as, the USSR might consider membership. The same year, Stalin sent Western powers a series of diplomatic cables proposing the reunification of Germany as a neutral power in the center of Europe separating the Eastern and Western blocs. Austria became such a country in 1955, with the USSR withdrawing troops in exchange for a commitment from Vienna for neutrality (which, incidentally, it continues to hold this day). In the post-Cold War period, both in the early 1990s and early 2000s, the Russia that emerged from the ashes of the USSR would again express its interest in membership in, or at least partnership with, the Western alliance, in the overarching interests of peace and security in Europe.

President Boris Yeltsin and his first Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, who famously quipped that Russia “has not national interests” apart from abstract “universal human values,” held intense negotiations with the Clinton administration through the early to mid-1990s on the prospects of Russian membership in the Western alliance. Clinton successfully pulled the wool over Yeltsin’s eyes, with the Russian leader swallowing as “brilliant” US assurances that Russia would be treated as an “equal partner,” and begrudgingly accepting the first round of eastward expansion by the alliance to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. After becoming president, Vladimir Putin too decided to probe US intentions vis-à-vis Russia at the dawn of the 21st century, recalling in his recent interview with Tucker Carlson that he had asked Clinton point blank what he thought about the idea of Russia in NATO.

“I became president in 2000. I thought: okay, the Yugoslav issue is over, but we should try to restore relations. Let’s reopen the door that Russia tried to go through…At a meeting here in the Kremlin with the outgoing President Bill Clinton, right here in the next room, I asked him, ‘Bill, do you think if Russia asked to join NATO, do you think it would happen?’ Suddenly, he said ‘you know, it’s interesting, I think so’,” Putin recalled. “But in the evening, when we had dinner, he said, ‘you know, I’ve talked to my team, no-no, it’s not possible now.” “If he had said yes, the process of rapprochement would have commenced, and eventually it might have happened if we had seen some sincere wish on the side of our partners. But it didn’t happen. Well, no means no, okay, fine,” Putin said.

Read more …

“..Those grounds would explicitly gag the defence from ever mentioning again in court inconvenient facts..”

The Assange Hearing Permission Appeal Judgment (Craig Murray)

The latest judgment by the High Court in the Assange case achieved completely the objectives of the UK and US states. Above all, Julian remains in the hell which is Belmarsh maximum security prison. He is now safely there alone and incommunicado, from the authorities’ point of view, for at least several more months. Importantly, the United States has managed to keep him detained without securing his actual appearance in Washington. It is crucial to grasp that the CIA, who are very much controlling the process, do not actually want him to appear there until after their attempt to secure the re-election of Genocide Joe. No matter what your opinion of Donald Trump, there is no doubt the CIA conspired against him during his entire Presidency, beginning with the fake Russiagate scandal and ending with their cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop story. They do not want Trump back.

Biden is politically in deep trouble. Biden’s lifelong political support for Israel has been unwavering to the point of fanaticism. In the process he has collected millions of dollars from the Zionist lobby. That always seemed a source of political strength in the United States, not of weakness. The current genocide in Gaza has changed all those calculations. The sheer evil and viciousness of the Israeli state, the open and undisguised enthusiasm for racist massacre, has achieved the seemingly impossible task of turning much American public opinion against Israel. That is particularly true among key elements of the Democratic base. Young people and ethnic minorities have been shocked that the party they have supported is backing and supplying genocide. The mainstream media have lost control of the narrative, when the truth is so widely available on mobile phones, to the point that the MSM have actually been forced to change course and occasionally tell truths about Israel. That also was unthinkable a few months ago.

Precisely the same groups who are outraged by Biden’s support for genocide are going to be alienated by the attack on a journalist and publisher for revealing true facts about war crimes. Assange is not currently a major public issue in the United States, because he is not currently in the United States. Were he to arrive there in chains, the media coverage would be massive and the issue unavoidable in the presidential election campaign. The extradition proceeding has therefore had to be managed in such a way as to keep Assange locked in a living hell the whole time, without actually achieving the extradition until after the presidential election in November. As the years of hearings have rolled by this has become increasingly difficult for the British state to finesse on behalf of their American masters. In this respect, and only in this respect, Dame Victoria Sharp and Lord Justice Johnson have done brilliantly in their judgment.

Senior British judges do not have to be told what to do. They are closely integrated into a small political establishment that is socially interlinked, defined by membership of institutions, and highly subject to groupthink. Dame Victoria Sharp’s brother Richard arranged an £800,000 personal loan for then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and subsequently became chairman of the BBC despite a complete lack of relevant experience. Lord Justice Johnson as a lawyer represented the intelligence services and the Ministry of Defence. They did not have to be told what to do in this case explicitly, although it was very plain that they entered the two-day hearing process knowing nothing except a briefing they had been given that the crux of the case was the revelation of names of US informants in the Wikileaks material.

The potential danger of an appeal, the granting of which would achieve the United States’ objective of putting the actual extradition back beyond the election date, was that it would allow the airing in public of a great catalogue of war crimes and other illegal activity which had been exposed by Wikileaks. Sharp and Johnson have obviated this danger by adjourning the decision with the possibility of granting an appeal, but only on extremely limited grounds. Those grounds would explicitly gag the defence from ever mentioning again in court inconvenient facts, such as United States war crimes including murder, torture and extraordinary rendition, as well as the plans by the United States to kidnap or assassinate Julian Assange. All of those things are precluded by this judgment from ever being raised again in the extradition hearings. The politically damaging aspect of the case in terms of the Manning revelations and CIA behaviour has been cauterised in the UK.

Read more …

Yikes.

61 Unexpected PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Found in Food Packaging (SciAm)

Food packaging from around the world contains at least 68 “forever chemicals” that can seep into what we eat, a new study finds. And 61 of them are not even supposed to be used in such products. This kind of packaging may include coated paper wrappers, plastic containers and aluminum foil. Scientists behind the paper say it’s not clear why the latter chemicals, which are not on lists of those authorized for use in food containers, are in such packaging. “It’s very hard to explain where they come from,” says the study’s senior author Birgit Geueke, senior scientific officer at the nonprofit Food Packaging Forum Foundation in Zurich. That’s especially concerning because her team was only able to find data on potential hazards for 57 percent of the chemicals the researchers found in food packaging.

The study, published on Tuesday in Environmental Science & Technology, focused on a class of chemicals called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). For decades, these substances have been used in a wide range of consumer products, from cookware to pesticides to cosmetics, because of their ability to repel water and grease. PFASs are sometimes called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down readily in the environment or in the body. That’s because their characteristic carbon-fluorine bond—part of what makes them so useful in the first place—is one of the strongest in nature. PFASs have been found in human blood and breast milk, drinking water, soil and other startling places around the world. In March 2023 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a drinking water standard for six PFAS compounds.

Exposure to some of the most studied PFASs has been associated with cancer, reproductive problems and lessened responses to vaccines. “There’s an incredible body of scientific evidence linking these chemicals to health harms,” says David Andrews, a chemist and toxicologist at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization, who was not involved with the new study. The paper adds to recently growing concerns about the prevalence of PFASs—and about an overall dearth of knowledge as to what chemicals are found in many everyday products. “Food packaging may not be the only way we are exposed to PFAS, but food packaging could contribute” to these exposures, Geueke says.

She and her team found a mismatch between what they detected in actual products and a database of chemicals assembled by compiling information on PFAS that regulatory agencies (including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) have authorized for use in food packaging, and PFAS that industrial manufacturers have listed for use in food packaging. About 140 PFASs are known to be used in food packaging, but only seven of the 68 chemicals in the study were on this list. Geueke says it’s unclear how or why the other 61 chemicals turned up. Andrews suggests that it’s possible that unknown impurities emerged during the manufacturing of the authorized chemicals or that the authorized PFASs degrade over time. This class of chemicals includes many long-chain molecules, and they can break into shorter chains that are simply different types of PFASs.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Skunk

 

 

Babies
https://twitter.com/i/status/1774336548865024294

 

 

Mom dog
https://twitter.com/i/status/1774156744651854012

 

 

Lion dachs

 

 

5 days

 

 

Snow angels

 

 

Polar bear walrus
https://twitter.com/i/status/1774406767977316815

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle April 1 2024

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  • #155938

    Caravaggio The Denial of Saint Peter 1610   • Easter Becomes the Latest Flash Point in American Politics (Turley) • Jack Smith Handed a ‘Blank Ch
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 1 2024]

    #155939
    SeaBirds
    Participant

    Interesting from RT this Easter Monday:

    ‘Central state leader invited to BRICs summit. Vucic has said he could attend the group’s gathering planned for Russia in October.’
    Ursula may have to try a little harder with her attempts to bring Serbia into the fold.

    RIM: Amazing paintings for Easter. And thanks Dr D for your commentaries.
    St. Peter:
    So brilliantly Caravaggio portrays the lie, the womans bold-faced treachery, and the uniformed thug…

    #155940
    Dr. D
    Participant

    AprilFoolsApril Fool’s

    More rain in Southern California. Where is that 2,000 years of desert Science promised? Darn it, now there’s more food and crops than ever! Enough rain to fill the water system you promised would all die. If this keeps up the whole planet will be green and lush forever.

    I guess I don’t have to ask why I’m reading this:

    “84 Years Ago, Hitler Invaded Poland. Here’s How It Happened.
    Looking back at Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, which marked the start of World War II.” Vox

    “As we rethink the nature of the Neanderthals, we could also learn something about our own humanity” The Guardian.
    Let me guess: We suck and should all be killed, and Neanderthals are great, loving matriarchy, and lived in an earth Utopia of love and harmony…even though we’ve never met one. Nope. It’s a screen on racism,colonialism, and therefore, Marxism. Well, everything is. All animal, vegetable, and mineral, in all time, space and reality. For true believers, God, that is Marx, is everywhere, looking down and judging everyone. (Whispering “Kill…kill…”)

    It’s also an article where he hates Science, and all Scientists. Okay, not ALL Scientists: every Scientist that agrees with us, is clever and right, and all the ones who were popular last year but now DON’T agree with us, are stupid, backward, and wrong. So like the Covid articles (Rolling Stone) Science is both awesome, active, savior AND an indifferent, unfeeling monster. Both (yawn). Neither (yawn). Aieieieieie…zzzzzzzzzzz. No one notices.

    “White House Approves Transfer To Israel Of More Bombs & Jets Worth Billions

    Totally not supporting genocide at all. I mean the UN just voted a binding (Legal) resolution.

    “PBS Segment Claims Trump Wants To “Purge” Gay People From America

    Yup, first pro-gay-marriage President. (Obama was Civil Union) I guess they now expect every candidate to do the opposite once elected like Obama and Biden have?

    Mr. Fish: Why is the FIST, the symbol of Communism, like AntiFa? Was they symbol of the lead pipes and Guillotine taken? Hand on your heart, your hat off, too gay?

    CCP – Baltimore.

    Well that’s just a lot of accusation and literally no evidence, not even a supposition that makes more sense. Also he’s saying “anything can be hacked” well that’s dumb to the point of being reckless. Can my 2000 Silverado be hacked? It has a car computer. Not really. It’s still mostly mechanical underneath, and has no access ports to talk to the computer when it’s in motion. Yet it can be messed with by like microwaving it with massive military-grade rayguns I’m sure. And what difference would carrying my cell phone on a plane make? Dumb, like “Are there any thought processes here?” Clearly although the highest things can be hacked, the highest secret tools – and a lot of time – might have to be used. They don’t have infinity hackers sitting around. If your password is “1234” like if you’re a German General or John Podesta, then maybe.

    Anyway, when you start with no facts, lead to hysteria, then point at starting a war with a pre-designated enemy, I’m going to have to ignore you for now. Yeah, I know there’s a cadre trying to war us with China, just like a different one hijacked the big retarded trust fund bully US to attack Russia. Apparently that’s our fate. But we don’t have to just accept it.

    “just some members of congress outperforming the greatest investor in history. we are surely fortunate to be represented by such extraordinary talents”

    Year after year. Decade after decade. And it’s never enough. Hey, what’s 25% compounded? A: Probably still not enough for Nancy Pelosi to make $100M on a $100k salary. What was that California Rep who went from $60K to $30 Million in two years?

    “families objected to regulations on Easter egg designs, barring children from including any religious imagery or references on this religious holiday.”

    You mean when they outlawed worship and Idols of Ishtar, Isis, Ashtarte? Goddess of love and sex? Yeah, eggs and bunnies are not a Christian symbol, you retards, they’re a SEX symbol, watered down for fun. These pagans should be PRO egg-roll-in-the-hay. (with kids). Are they going to outlaw Horus, Osiris, and Ba’al now? Maybe Thor for good measure. The stupid, the stupid. We already live in Idiocracy, my foot and your -ss and s–t.

    “tormented hens whose lives are spent in cages that afford them less space than a standard sheet of typing paper.”

    Then get the eggs from somewhere else. I hear Salatin isn’t that far away. All events in the universe means “Somebody else has to do all the work to change for me.” I mean, you don’t change yourself when you’re already perfect, amirite?

    “In 2019, for example, DOJ was forced to prioritize its antitrust review of Google over Apple because it could not afford to pursue both,”

    Boy I sure am glad there are regulators! Who choose whoever paid less in lobbying money to prosecute! Well obviously: we didn’t have the money to regulate both! Anyway, more interested in how Jack neither was, nor can, be appointed as a “Special Prosecutor”. He’s an imposter. The Jussie Smollet of Prosecutors.

    “The Chicago Tribune case, decided in 2001 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, hinged on a federal rule that enables keeping information secret if there is “good cause” to do so.”

    And the “Good Cause” is because we feel like it. We keep everything more secret than the Star Chamber and can’t tell you why! Trust us.

    ““British authorities, however, have apparently opted to keep the findings out of the public domain..”

    In real democracies, everything is secret but you don’t know why. The perfect voting public is one that is informed on exactly nothing. Then we make them vote and blame them! Is that not perfect passive-aggressive narcissism I don’t know what is.

    “Walberg claimed that his words were misreported and misinterpreted, arguing that he was merely speaking metaphorically and did not advocate for the actual use of nuclear weapons.”

    Yeah, that’s not the problem, bub. It was more the “I support all genocides / Let’s start WWIII today” thing.

    ““Every horrifying act of Israel’s genocide has been telegraphed in advance. It has been for decades..”

    Not just “telegraphed.” Certainly every month of my life have been actual murders and injustices, one direction only, for decades. We all said the exact same thing. What are you doing? This is illegal. Why are you supporting this? And this strategy can only end in ruin. And Lo! Here we are, just like we all said. Again. And our bridges and ports are collapsing because you sapped all our money to do it. …Just like we told you not to.

    By the way, there were also no “Dominoes of Democracy”, Panama was not going to invade us, Serbia was not improved, we did not have to “Fight them there instead of here”, no “Mushroom clouds”, the Patriot Act did not make us safer, nor did “Arab” have a “Spring” nor has Iran got a bomb after being 10 months away from it for 35 years. Subprime was not contained. We were right about all of those too.

    “• Biden Claims Arab States Are Ready to Recognize Israel (Sp.)

    Sure, just like Russia and Ukraine are ready to make peace: if one of them surrenders unconditionally. That’s always true.

    “Moscow has demanded that Ukraine surrender everyone in the country it suspects of terrorism, including Kiev’s domestic spy agency boss Vasily Malyuk,”

    Just like that.

    The spy boss “cynically admitted on March 25 that Ukraine organized the bombing of the Crimean Bridge in October 2022”

    And so did German Generals. Who said British Generals were way out ahead of them. When do we get to them?

    “Mike Johnson’s seat is at stake.”

    One can only hope.

    ““..Those grounds would explicitly gag the defence from ever mentioning again in court inconvenient facts..”

    Similar to the Trump trial. The Prosecution has already typed up what you’re allowed to say, and they need you to read it in court for the cameras. That’s the trial! Totally fair in a country with a 99% conviction rate.

    #155941
    John Day
    Participant

    Did The US First Catch Wind Of The Crocus Terrorist Attack By Spying On Kiev?
    By
    Andrew Korybko

    Did The US First Catch Wind Of The Crocus Terrorist Attack By Spying On Kiev?


    It’s unclear what those members of the US IC that spoke to the NYT were thinking when they told that outlet to report that their services withheld details of the then-impending Crocus terrorist attack from Russia in order to not betray their sources and methods, but the larger narrative context within which this pivotal detail entered the global discourse casts more aspersions on Ukraine. It seems increasingly obvious that Kiev was involved, and it’s likely only a matter of time before a smoking gun is found.

    #155942
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Just the Resurrection and I’ll leave it for now.

    They discuss a bit where Jesus is semi-transparent, as we hear of Taoist masters who ascend to heaven, but them without being killed first. This is related to the apparitions of ghosts in the town, also not like decomposed corpses, but seeming to be the original people, even after many years. Also perhaps not fully solid, and not treading on the ground. Zombie Apocalypse!!!

    Mary comes to understand what happened at the tomb and there’re no cell phones. Where is he? So she starts with nearby Cavalry, meeting him before quite getting there. There is quite a discussion of blood I don’t understand. This runs thousands of years in every word, song, and text: The BLOOD of Christ. The NAILS of Christ. His SACRED Blood. Why? And why for the animal sacrifices before him? It makes no technical sense, nevertheless, I can’t from here say that about a billion people are wrong. “Life is in the Blood” they say, and clearly we need to understand more about that. — We don’t actually know what “life” or “Consciousness” is. — But it is discussed here as all the BLOOD, the trail of his blood gotten everywhere, the mountain, the tomb, the water, seems indicated and elevated somehow. There are theories as the blood is also zero-point communication, so you may want to look into that.

    Anyway, as Mary meets Jesus, he’s at the head of a hoard of “resurrected” bodies, who also seems perhaps not physical? Perhaps translucent still? Perhaps led out of “hell” which is not in our tradition but is out there and is in Eastern Orthodox, for instance? However we know later he’s physical and can be touched. It’s specific. There seems to be a certain veil and confusion over this part, both in the Scriptures and in most visions. People seem to be in several places, the orders are reversed, people are alive and not, physical and not. Sort of like a big, messy dream-state, like the physical world is not taking on hard Physics just then, but has a mental state, then hardens up again into rules later. I bring this up as I have the same effect myself, trying to list it in order, my mind also wants to go “Oh, whatever.” and just snap to the highlights, exactly as a dream state and not waking logic. I think others do too as preachers seem likewise to go around it, cut to the end after giving us six weeks on one choice of word in “Malachai” or something. NOW? At the important part? Now you’re at a loss for words and handwave “whatever”?

    Now here you’ve got what is considered the best remote viewing on this have the same effect.

    Same here where Anne sees something like a serpent? Dragon? Dragon-man? Appear and Christ put him down again? As in “Crush the head of the serpent”. See what I mean by dream-like. Then Jesus is solid? Not solid? And comes up out of the earth again, while an “Angel” comes “down from heaven” and tosses the tomb’s door to one side like a feather and sits on it. The police are guarding it, as reported, for obvious reasons, so Cassius sees this, goes inside, then goes off to tell Pilot. Also that the tomb is empty, although he’s RIGHT THERE when the door was first opened.

    There is a statement though out of order that he “reunited with his body” so the two become into one, and the body he carries around later is wounded, though not injured (somehow. Forget the pain, what about the obvious bleeding?) where his hands have holes big enough to put your finger through, yet not in trouble at all. Again, the “hands” not the wrists which is obvious to carry the weight, and would seem to be indicated by the Shroud of Turin. Again with the dream-like state, he tells her “many things” (which I have forgotten) and then “Disappeared.” Really? Where? How? You mean like, “walked away”? “I was stunned and I blinked”? “On a bus?” What? Doesn’t say. No description is more reliable, which makes them suspect, or at least unhelpfully difficult to understand. We’re supposed to just go “Wow! …Magic…”

    Since it was the Sabbath, Nicodemus and Arimethea hadn’t been there and didn’t know the tomb was guarded. He were trying to arrange the burial, with herbs and perfumes and such.

    In chronology, Mary is not with Nick, OR with Magdalene, who then goes up with someone called “Salome”. They see the unconscious guards and empty tomb as well. So they all sort of collect at the “Garden” the tomb is in, trying to find the men and Apostles. She talks to two “Angels” seemingly unaware they were angels, or if they aren’t Roman soldiers, what are they, Tomb valets? This happens when people are in shock, they start wandering around in a daze.

    Strangely, and not knowing why, She runs into Jesus here, who got himself a hat and a shovel. And oddly, tells her for technical reason she shouldn’t touch him yet as “I am not ascended to my father.” Meaning…? He isn’t going to “Ascend” for like 2 weeks, and actually encourages other people to touch him, later. Just not right after “The event.” All this actually only takes a few minutes, Anne says. Which makes sense. Once you throw the rock to one side and Cassius goes to get reinforcements, the clock is ticking.

    About 3pm Peter and John then arrive at the tomb, and again, they either don’t see “the angels” or don’t recognize them. She suggests like Mary, they were seen but the strangeness of it doesn’t sink in for them. The Guards then wake up and, rattled, and also as they were to “Guard the tomb” which seems “too late” wander off into town, no doubt to report once they gather their senses. I mean, if the enemy overruns your position, like a gate or something, you go report, right?

    Now we don’t know who is where, but when they all meet in a house (Probably Nicodemus?) several of the Apostles say they’ve all ready seen him too. That’s not very unusual: they are all clearly like half a mile from each other our wouldn’t have time to get there. It’s not like Jesus is popping up and “disappearing” in all four corners of Jerusalem. Still, it’s odd they would be separated enough NOT to see, then all in one place a moment later. I mean, when Peter goes up to the tomb, wouldn’t 10 others go with? If Thad goes, then the same? So they’re all each going, but all unaware of the others all going?

    Unfortunately the account stops here, before we have like ALL relevant people in one place and Jesus addressing them all.
    And again, this part AFTER, is like the 30 missing years we would all love/need to have really long, detailed accounts about. Like last words? Last explanations? That part runs here, as he lights up from within, as in “En-LIGHT-enment.”

    This has been reported elsewhere in the world with other Gurus. As it is reported, it is our data set and body of evidence and you don’t just chuck it out without checking.

    There are a number of problems here, as the Jewish prophesies of the “Messiah” are perhaps that of the Jewish nation getting a new King. That’s what “messiah” means and why they didn’t recognize him. I mean, some king, right? “If you’re the Messiah,save yourself” they said. Fair enough. And King? Okay, metaphorically, maybe. Then the OTHER prophesy, which would not normally be related is to Undo the “Fall of Man” in the Garden of Eden where it seems Humans had little access to Heaven, God, and the Supernatural for a while. “God and Man are reconciled”. Okaaaay, but how?

    And this conflicts with our modern view, that seems to be stated here by the Apostles, that “He took the sins of the world upon him” which is yet a third, relatively distinct problem. That’s what the “Scape Goat” and “Sacrificial Lamb” IS, in Jewish heritage terms, but like are you fooling God with this? Why does THAT work? And if so, why does THIS work? And why for everyone?

    …You see that goes back to the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man, and why “The Veil” the separation between God and man is split. Man can now see God directly again, without a Temple intermediary. This is the key pivot from then to this day as well, that some feel you have the “Inner Light” (Quakers, but also mystics) of Gnosticism, while others require a “Catholic” (or 3rd Baptist of West Gopherville) Church. You can tell my view on it: obviously humans have an Inner Light, however badly, and with work can become more connected to God, or even work themselves in the other direction.

    This would seem to be supported by what happened after: Although it seemed to take an unusually long time, like 100 years, the former Temple system collapsed and “Wasn’t working.” Or at the least, the Christian-direct method seemed to be “working better.” Because we’re all super-cool today and believe nothing – even, or especially the Wiccan or pagans – “We all know” the temples were all Bulls—t and every person who was alive before me was a senseless moron to believe it. Because I, 18 year old Chelsea, from Brown U, — and wiccan witch pagan — say so as I am the sum total of all human knowledge. Wait so you DO WITCHCRAFT, and your express avowed belief is that MAGIC ISN’T REAL? The Gods aren’t real?

    Both. Neither. Ai ai, aye yi yi. Yes. Yes, denizens of 1984, that is EXACTLY what they believe. So The Roman Gods were all bulls—t. And therefore the Christian Gods are all bulls—t. Everything is bulls—t but my ego. That’s Science™!

    Just for a second, take the opposite view that everyone on planet earth before you were born was not a senseless moron, wasting all their time for 5,000 years. And that the Temple system was doing…something. In fact, the Jewish temple is NEARLY IDENTICAL to the Pagan, Roman, heck, the Mayan Temples. Then, worldwide over the next 100-400 years, they all died out worldwide, having been around for millennia.

    WHY?

    No one evangelized to the Mayan and Toltec that we know of. And when actual Christianity finally reaches the ends of the earth like Norway in 400AD, it conquers Thor and Odin? The squishy, non-data handwaving on this is “The Catholic Church” CRUSHED all opposition, with Million man armies! Burned all Women and LBTGSMQ++ people like cordwood! Billions died!!!

    …blah blah. The Catholic Church didn’t do dick. First, it didn’t exist as we know it yet, second, they weren’t “Sending troops” to Olso and Ireland. Just some hairy weirdo in burlap. Yet clearly they were doing something that worked BETTER than the Wodan they already had. So? What was it?

    Well I don’t know either, but THEIR theory is pure shite. They seemed to have this “Spiritualism” that had “Power” however you define it. Lions, healing, whatever. The Pagans who used to have that seemingly no longer did. Again, translation: NOT ALL HUMANS BEFORE YOU WERE BORN WERE STUPID. They are smart enough in aggregate to adhere to whatever “Works”. They don’t have free wi-fi, 200 pairs of shoes, and a trust fund to fool around like we do. They aren’t going to sacrifice their only food source for the lols.

    It would APPEAR, in the biggest loosy-goosey sense, that after 30AD, all the ways and religions that had “worked”, no longer seemed to “work” for most people. Why?

    And for that matter, it seems to be happening again today. The Christianity that appeared to have “Worked” for 2,000 years seems to have lost its magical power. At the end of Pisces and into Aquarius. Although we have no “Christ” that we know of. Oddly, that seems also to have rent the veil to the Spirit world even more than before, and psychics and seers are a dime a dozen, even if Chelea from Brown still gets a Runic tattoo that says she’s super special and different, and not bourgy and boring at all.

    Anyway, if it’s nothing, why is the other side, these super-duper, ultra maximum “Singularity” God-is-the-Machine materialists fight it so hard? Why is their whole system a word-for-word imitation and port-over of Christian theology? Seems odd. Yeah, I’m a trillionaire so I now spend all my time – with 5,000 of my friends – fighting Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and all those other things that don’t exist. Nope. Only this one: Christianity, the Blood of Christ (yet to be explained) and the direct connection to God. Only care about this ONE.

    And the only LOCATION that has literal endless money worldwide, of all Trillionaires combined is ONE. Not the beaches of Rio, not the Tower of London, not the mouth of the Yang-tse or Mt. Fuji: only ONE. That is the “Dome of the Rock” and the Temple, 12 feet from where this happened.

    ‘Cause it don’t mean nothin’ of course. That’s why this ONE and ONLY ONE place is the nexus point for all rich people worldwide, or at least more than half of them. Because they’re all totally stupid and superstitious and don’t know what they’re doing that way. While I, Chelsea from Brown, born yesterday, knowing nothing, are super smart so “It’s obviously not the one thing.”

    …Just like Covid. We have a 6 Sigma in death rates, everyone, all leaders, nations, corporations snap to lock step to say “It’s not the one thing.” Yeah, that would be totally crazy to think, when you all have never agreed on anything, never worked together on anything before, never coordinated, never pitched the last dollar of your last fortune and your sacred Honor on “The One Thing” that The One Thing means anything right? I’m just seeing things. And we ALSO all know not to ask. Because we’re super smart that way using Memo-Telepathy!

    Now carry on about your business and don’t worry about Gaza and pushing the PLO out of East Jerusalem so the Temple can be built. Don’t mean nothin.’ Superstitions n’ stuff.

    #155943
    zerosum
    Participant

    Understanding the manipulators/gov./boss,/leaders

    key terminology, metaphor, lies, secret

    flaws, experts, oversight, loss control of the narrative

    aggression, war, defeat, kill, genocide, ethnic cleansing, depopulation
    ———-

    Peace, depletion, bubble
    ———
    Debt, forced labor
    ———-
    the Covid psyop
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/did-covid-psyop-fail

    Did the Covid Psyop Fail?


    Todd Hayen
    https://www.shrewviews.com/archive?sort=top
    ———-

    #155944
    Dora
    Participant

    The CCP and the bridge. Those over-excited Chinese media people are engaging in some pretty wild psyops. See something really bad happen, claim credit for causing it, puff up the image of their country’s power and abilities. “I heard, I was told, someone said to me….” Sounds like Laura.

    We need a rumor control for accounts of this accident.

    #155945
    Red
    Participant

    Does the Fate of US Arms in Ukraine Create Pause for Thought Ahead War with China?
    Brian Berletic

    #155946
    John Day
    Participant

    Gnosticism was a very broad tent, destroyed by the Roman Church, but some texts were buried near Nag Hamadi, Egypt, to protect them, and they were discovered after WW-2.
    One of these was a teaching of St. Valentine, the Tripartite Tractate: http://gnosis.org/naghamm/tripart.htm
    Cyd Ropp Ph.D. has a Gnostic Substack. You can listen to, or read, or both, her Easter post here:
    Gnostic Easter–We Are Risen https://cydropp.substack.com/p/gnostic-easter-we-are-risen

    #155947
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    The Gnostic explanation reminds me of Ancient Greek mythology and The Lord of the Rings.

    Eggs…if we didn’t eat hen eggs, then most, (if not all,) hens would not be alive. The reason to keep hens was first for the eggs, second for meat. Having said that, hens are delightful, (if somewhat dim-witted,) birds, and it is a sorry thing when creatures are tormented in life for their eggs and meat. However, quite frankly, we live in a system where cost is everything, and it costs less to torment chickens for their eggs and meat than to provide them with sufficient space for an enjoyable life.

    CCP/bridge
    Doesn’t seem right to me. The CCP may very well have a capacity that approaches what is described, but squandering it in that manner and revealing it’s hand doesn’t strike me as something that the CCP would do right now. I suspect that this was some sort of attack. However, it is interesting that no one has come forward to claim responsibility. This suggests that the aim was to cripple US infrastructure, but *not* to rile up the American people. Cui bono? Whom does it most serve that US infrastructure be compromised in this way and that has the capacity to pull it off? Similar to the Nordstrom pipeline — destroying it was clearly in line with US desires to get Europe off of cheap Russian natural gas. Whose efforts are best served by the destruction of this bridge?

    #155948
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    I agree with phoenixvoice: maybe the Dali really did run by accident into the bridge. That’s a possibility too.

    Accident or not, what are we, the little people, going to do about it? What CAN we do about it? Nothing except to ride out whatever consequences ensue.

    And when it comes to Easter, what on earth do eggs and rabbits have to do with Christ’s death and resurrection? Are they merely poignant symbols of resurrection and new life, or are they borrowings from pagan sources? If the latter, then should we have done that? Do restrictions on Easter (Ishtar) eggs really matter?

    #155949
    Dora
    Participant

    @ phoenixvoice

    “This suggests that the aim was to cripple US infrastructure, but *not* to rile up the American people. Cui bono? Whom does it most serve that US infrastructure be compromised in this way and that has the capacity to pull it off?”

    At the moment I’m going with the US business sectors profits above all else, meaning reduce costs to the bare minimum with all that entails, and the US government since Reagan declaring regulations of business is bad and government expenditures at all levels – federal, state, and local – must be cut in order to pay for the big tax cuts we’re pushing through. “Shrink government so small it can be drowned in a bathtub.” I remember that slogan. Now our highway and bridge and railroad and potable water infrastructures, to name a few, are hollowed out like a Jenga tower toward the end of the game, when the Jenga tower falls down.

    Why? To increase profits. Who benefits? Wall Street and the very wealthy and the politicians they support with their, ahem, donations.

    #155950
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    A few minutes later… pondering the various wars, rumours of wars, and preparations for wars around the globe,the wastage of resources of all kinds is huge, colossal, enormous – and seemingly endless.

    For all the good that this expenditure and activity is doing, we may as well be throwing all of our treasure and resources into the bottom of the sea.

    I declare that the entire human project is in an utter mess and disarray. For all our cleverness and resoucefulness and hard work and sleepless nights, for all our piety and wit, we have FAILED.

    Sad in the extreme.

    #155951
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    It’s as though the Easter Islanders had waged war over who got to consume the last tree.

    (By the way, it was disease introduced by the invading Europeans that put paid to the Easter Islanders.)

    #155952
    Dora
    Participant

    Infrastructure requires maintenance. Maintenance costs money. Maintenance is put off as long as possible for the past many decades of “profit above all else” economics. Maintenance is put off until something breaks: Detroit water pipes, East Palestine railroad lines, now the Baltimore bridge, and quite possibly the electrical and engine systems on the MV Dali ship itself. (Investigation will reveal the answers.)

    #155953
    John Day
    Participant

    @Phoenixvoice: Thanks for looking at that Gnostic site, and maybe the Tripartite Tractate.
    I suspect the bridge downing is likely an attack by one elite group to send a message to another elite group, but I obviously don’t know.

    #155961
    SeaBirds
    Participant

    NZ
    The NZ Herald, (MSM), has condescended (no doubt due to plummeting ad revenues) to print a full page advert, placed at undoubtedly great cost by Voices for Freedom, – inviting those with vaccine injuries to come forward with their stories.
    This guy stuck it to a pharmacy window, where covid vaccines are still offered to the unsuspecting public. Please, please wake up, guys!

    covid-guerilla-advertising

    #155963
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The head of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) added his own warning to people not to eat whole eggs and to cut back on the sweets to protect their health.

    NHS has said lots of things about diet over the years, with the benefit of time they have almost all been proven to be false. I eat two eggs every day for breakfast and I will continue to do so as they provide lots of beneficial nutrients. I will assume this message is for the morons who swallowed their “Safe and effective” vaccine bullshit and the parents coping with children damaged by the NHS childhood vaccine schedules.

    #155964
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Remember that the destruction of Russia by handing its economy to the (((oligarchs))) is one of the greatest crimes in world history, and constitutes just another step in the campaign being waged for over 100 years, invisibly, by the (((People of the Genocides))).
    Guess who?:

    Prof. Jeffrey Sachs reputation under repair at of all places, The Unz Review. Go figure.

    Over 300 women, children & men slaughtered. Many zip-tied & executed, some flattened by tanks, burned, or hacked into pieces by missiles, skeletal remains & body parts everywhere
    Guess who?:

    Israelis/Jews and, if you’re going say American soldiers were involved then name names so their lives can be ruined for being monsters. Prosecute under the UCMJ later.

    Marines?

    #155965
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “”I Didn’t Do That”: Biden Reportedly Has No Idea He Issued ‘Trans Day Of Visibility’ Proclamation

    Actually, he didn’t. He’s unaware of everything.

    “My constituents caught me.” “Just say it wasn’t you.”

    #155966
    Antidote
    Participant

    @Dr D

    Epic analysis of the story. My idea is that even though its flawed in so many technical ways, its a good story. I like the protagonist. I would hang out with him, perhaps I have. I smoked some weed and drank a beer with a guy a while back, a scientist, a biologist, an evolutionist. Knarlyist atheist I have ever known…….yet his social contract is the most christ like I have ever encountered. Go figure.

    #155967
    John Day
    Participant

    Siege By Electricity https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/siege-by-electricity

    The Honest Sorcerer , Dodging The Gator – What Can Be Done? [The elites already have plans which involve massive, preemptive culling of “useless eaters”.]
    Humanity is in overshoot, and a major correction is already underway, something which will only accelerate even further. A runaway energy crisis, together with resource depletion, climate change and ecosystems collapse will upend centuries of growth and prosperity. But what does that mean on an individual level? Is there any way to course correct? If not, what are the possible ways of adaptation?
    The world economy faces a runaway energy crisis, not seen by most commentators. The energy needed to extract the next unit of both oil and minerals increases exponentially due to rich depleted deposits being replaced with ever poorer quality ones. Since energy is the economy, not money, an exponential rise in this area will eventually make further expansion impossible, and lead to a relentless decline. Something, which cannot be stopped, nor financed without bankrupting the economy.
    In the meantime, both investors and politicians act as if energy were just a cost item, and its supply could expand without any hurdles.
    We are clearly approaching a civilizational tipping point, and there is nothing anyone in power can do about this. The entire process is driven by physics and geology, not wishful thinking and clever humans supposedly inventing their way out of this mess…
    ..Keeping up a good spirit, a positive can-do attitude and a strong will needed to soldier on, however, will be your biggest and most important assets. Don’t wait for the government, the “Market”, Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy to take care of you: they will be busy taking care of themselves. We are entering a centuries long era of flux and uncertainty, a time of troubles as the Chinese called these periods in their own history. That is not to say that our numbers will not dwindle, but a birth crisis together with deaths of despair and a lack of adequate healthcare will reduce population below unrecognizable levels — even without major wars or a famine.
    The sooner you accept such periods as perfectly normal, the sooner you can move on towards practical steps in everyday life, and will be able to accept the economic realities of a civilization in decline. Collapse is a feature of human civilization, a common trait with all complex systems. Something, which is entirely due to a natural cause, overshoot, and all its symptom predicaments: resource depletion, a net energy crisis, political upheaval, climate change, ecosystem degradation and so on.
    https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/dodging-the-gator-what-can-be-done

    Gilbert Doctorow, Update on the Crocus terror attack [War teaches the best students how to live without regular electricity. Poor students don’t live.]
    Russian security officials are expanding upon their claims that Ukraine financed and directed the terror attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue. Sunday evening’s edition of News of the Week hosted by Dmitry Kiselyov pointed to crypto currency payments and other financial channels which were used by the Ukrainians, as the latest results of interrogations and further arrests have revealed. A substantial success reward is said to have awaited the assailants upon arrival in Kiev.
    Meanwhile various Western media outlets including Deutsche Welle tell us the Kremlin has demanded the hand-over of the head of Kiev’s Security Service (SSB), brigadier general Vasyl Malyuk on charges of directing terrorist attacks in Russia. To be sure, Malyuk himself has claimed responsibility for the 2022 bombing of the Kerch (Crimea) bridge. But we may now assume that the Russians have evidence to hold him to account for directing the Crocus City Hall atrocity…
    ..However, we need not speculate about what may come next. De facto, Russia’s current offensive against Ukraine has escalated to a new, vastly more threatening level. There are daily punishing aerial bombing and missile attacks on military command centers across Ukraine, on training centers, on concentrations of foreign mercenaries. And then there is a new dimension to the destruction of Ukraine’s electricity network…
    ..By contrast what is now going on is Russian destruction of power generating stations. Replacing them will be a matter of years, not months.
    Very much to the point, the mayor of Kharkiv yesterday remarked to the press that the city’s power supplies have been utterly destroyed. This development corresponds very nicely to the calls that were made on the Evening with Vladimir Solovyov talk show last week for Kharkiv’s inhabitants to be sent packing in their cars headed west ahead of the city being razed to the ground. The intent was to end once and for all the missiles and artillery shells that Kharkiv has been sending daily into the neighboring Belgorod region of Russia to kill civilians in the greatest numbers possible. Kharkiv may not yet be razed, but it certainly is on the way to becoming uninhabitable.

    Update on the Crocus terror attack

    John Helmer, HOW THE ELECTRIC WAR IS REDRAWING THE UKRAINE MAP – IN BLACK
    The electric war, which in its first phase commenced in September 2022, has now entered its second and final phase – final, that is, for the Ukraine.This is strategic; war has never been fought like this in Europe. The US and NATO general staffs and politicians have been taken by complete surprise. “The Ukrainians are building Maginot and Siegfried lines according to the instructions of their foreign advisers,” according to a Moscow analyst, “as if the Russian offensive will be men, artillery and tanks running across the landscape towards Kiev. But they won’t have to. The offensive against Ukrainian electricity cannot be stopped at these lines.”
    Without effective defence for its power generating plants, distribution hubs, and grid lines, the Kiev regime’s power is being stopped across the country; the major Novorussian cities in the east – Odessa, Kharkov, Dniepropetrovsk – are being blacked out and their populations forced to evacuate; the warmaking resupplies of the NATO allies are being cut off at borders which are now exposed to reversal of electricity surges threatening the plants and grids of southern Poland, Romania and Moldova. Even European and American money for President Vladimir Zelensky’s regime needs electricity to move…
    ..“Even if the French/NATO plan a deployment in the Ukraine, what will they be deploying to?” the military engineer adds. “If the current Russian plan of attack is causing swings of 300+ volts, it’s not even safe to plug in a cell phone. We can safely assume that all manner of appliances and other expensive electrical or electronic equipment has been destroyed in the affected areas. Indeed, even if the power engineers manage to get the power back on, millions of light fixtures, especially the electronic/LED variety, are burned out. Diagnostic equipment (medical and technical), process instruments, programmable logic controllers, power supplies, inverters, frequency drives, bank machines, computerized checkout, refrigeration equipment, are burned up”…
    ..The Ukrainian media and press releases from the DTEK utility confirm the vulnerability, especially as the country approaches the June-July period of maximum summer power consumption. Rolling blackouts are being imposed, then lifted, then reimposed, according to the announcements to domestic consumers. This means that the utilities and repair engineers are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the pace of the attacks.
    In Kharkov, for example, the current rolling blackouts of four hours or more mean that food will be spoiling in refrigerators, telephones will be dead, the internet will be down, and services will seize up. Once the liquid fuel stocks dwindle – these are also under parallel attack – the emergency generators will stop running, such food as there is will rot in the grocery stores.
    This is a type of siege by electricity. The Kiev regime will be unable to reinforce or resupply the eastern cities, and there will be no Russian ground advance; no Mariupol, Bakhmut or Avdeyevka battles; no electricity until capitulation.
    The military sources on whom the milbloggers rely also warn: “Yes, the damage is more than serious,” according to Rozhin, “but you should not accept on faith all the statements of the enemy about the damage received, since it is beneficial for him to overestimate the damage and foster the impression on our side that the work has been done and so we will not finish off those targets which have already received serious damage, but can be restored.”
    The electric war is an operation to bypass the cities which the Ukrainians and their US and NATO military staffs believe will soon be targets for direct Russian attack…
    ..A western military source believes, like Russian sources, that the Russian General Staff will make no direct city attacks and will leapfrog over or bypass the new fortifications…
    ..A western military observer agrees. “My read is that the General Staff are deploying to tie down NATO and Ukrainian forces west of the Dnieper; assembling a credible force to dissuade any NATO move to threaten Kaliningrad; ensuring Belarussian territory is secure from the kind of raids we’ve seen in the Belgorod region.” They are also signaling what the Americans and French can’t admit in public that NATO forces are so weak in terms of manpower, equipment, ammunition, airpower, and capacity to engage that the Russian and Belarussian forces have the capacity to choose and dominate the field on a full spectrum basis whenever they choose.”
    “The strategy”, the western military source again, “is to draw more of the NATO forces into the zones which are rapidly becoming de-electrified where they will soon be cut off from resupply or escape. The loss of electricity in Kharkov is already pitting the Ukrainian and foreign staff bunkers and troops in position against the city’s citizens for access to power, light, everything. It’s becoming an ungovernable situation. That’s the strategy.”
    “The unspoken Russian advice is for the French, Poles, etc., to stick to posturing and grandstanding unless they have large reserves of body bags and candles laid up.”

    HOW THE ELECTRIC WAR IS REDRAWING THE UKRAINE MAP – IN BLACK

    #155969
    John Day
    Participant

    Simplicius agrees with Jacques Baud, Jacques Baud and the Russian Way of War [Americans think the enemy thinks as they would think…]
    But it’s in the cumulative sense of the armed forces as a whole, living, breathing organism, we can say without too much exaggeration that in the current historical frame, Russia appears to much better grasp the most fundamental and important precepts of winning real wars compared to the West. We see this categorically demonstrated, for example, in the Russian vision of warfare consistently winning out and being proven superior over the approach of the West in the SMO.
    For instance, the West’s philosophy of concentrating on prestige, precision systems for ‘surgical’ victories has now undoubtedly been trumped by Russia’s revival of the conventional ‘mass production war’.
    https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/jacques-baud-and-the-russian-way

    Brian Berletic, Does the Fate of US Arms in Ukraine Create Pause for Thought Ahead War with China? [If you can’t beat them…]
    Even as Russia’s military industrial base is outcompeting the collective West, China’s industrial base is larger still. Any difficulties the US is having outproducing Russia in terms of military equipment and ammunition will pale in comparison to China’s military industrial output.
    Together with the fact that any potential conflict the US seeks to provoke with China will take place in the Asia-Pacific region, thousands of kilometers away from US shores, and considering the extensive nature of the networks required to support US military technology on the battlefield, the idea of Washington fighting and winning any armed conflict against China appears particularly and increasingly absurd.
    Even if Washington’s strategy is to subordinate China not with the threat of fighting and winning a war against China in the Asia-Pacific region, but to hold peace and stability in the region hostage by threatening war regardless of its outcome, the US finds itself in a difficult and increasingly weak position year-by-year.
    Current US foreign policy is predicated on the premise, “might makes right.” However, the US is clearly no longer “the mightest.” As it provokes conflicts around the globe directly or by proxy, it risks suffering severe consequences its previous advantages in terms of military power had protected it against decades ago.
    Continuing to pursue an unsustainable policy like this will end in disaster for Washington and for the American people. However, the US could always pivot toward a policy of coexistence and cooperation, built on mutual respect for other nations like Russia and China as well as the primacy of national sovereignty of all nations.
    https://journal-neo.su/2024/03/12/does-the-fate-of-us-arms-in-ukraine-create-pause-for-thought-ahead-war-with-china/

    ​ Israel has been creating “kill zones” in the Gaza Strip in areas where the Israeli military is operating, and anyone who enters will get shot even if they’re unarmed civilians, Haaretz reported on Sunday.
    ​ The report said anyone killed in a designated kill zone is labeled a “terrorist” even if they “never held a gun in their lives,” and they are “often civilians whose only crime was to cross an invisible line drawn by the IDF.”
    ​ One Israeli reservist who was recently in north Gaza said the “feeling we had was that there weren’t really rules of engagement there.”
    ​ Other sources in the IDF told Haaretz that Israel’s claim that 9,000 out of the 32,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza are “terrorists” is not valid. “In practice, a terrorist is anyone the IDF has killed in the areas in which its forces operate,” an Israeli reserve officer said.

    Israel Creates ‘Kill Zones’ in Gaza Where Anyone Who Enters Gets Shot

    UNICEF: World watches as children of Gaza face horrors of hunger, murder
    https://en.ypagency.net/322296

    ​ Also “hostages” to the ICJ, I believe: ‘Israel’ detained over 7,895 Palestinians in West Bank since Oct. 7
    There have been 4,430 administrative detention orders issued against Palestinians, including new and renewed orders for children and women.
    https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel–detained-over-7-895-palestinians-in-west-bank-since

    #155970
    John Day
    Participant

    ​The UNRWA has always kept all of the records of what Palestinian families had the right to return to what homes and villages.
    Israel suggests UN dissolve UNRWA​
    Israel has suggested the United Nations dissolve the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and transfer its employees to another agency, The Guardian said, citing its sources.
    ​ Thus, Israel suggests that UNRWA employees be transferred to the World Food Program or a new organization that would be established to distribute food aid in Gaza, the sources said.
    ​ According to the newspaper, the proposal was handed over to UN officials in Israel by Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi late last week.
    https://tass.com/world/1768379

    ​ Israel ready to operate in Rafah — Netanyahu
    Speaking at a news conference, he vowed that Israel is doing its best to deliver humanitarian aid to Rafah and the Israel Defense Forces is ready to evacuate civilians from this city
    https://tass.com/world/1768363

    ​ White House Approves Transfer To Israel Of More Bombs & Jets Worth Billions
    ​ The Washington Post has revealed, even amid public criticism from US officials over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s intent to soon send ground troops into Rafah, which is expected to result in humanitarian disaster in the refugee-packed southern city.
    ​ This package is to include 25 F-35 fighter jets, sources told the Post, and additionally the highly controversial 2,000-pound bombs which have been known to kill indiscriminately in Gaza when deployed by the Israeli air force.
    ​ “The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and State Department officials familiar with the matter,” the report indicates.
    ​ “The 2,000-pound bombs have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza,” WaPo continues. “These officials, like some others, spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because recent authorizations have not been disclosed publicly.”
    ​ The 2,000 pound bombs have been flagged by human rights monitors as behind much of the soaring Palestinian casualties, given they can demolish entire city blocks and produce craters over 40 feet wide.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/white-house-approves-transfer-israel-more-bombs-jets-worth-billions

    ​ The evidence of breaking American law by supplying weapons for war crimes is thoroughly documented here, but
    Can’t Impeach-Prosecute Joe Biden for Illegally Continuing to Supply Bombs Dropped on Homes in Gaza

    Can’t Impeach-Prosecute Joe Biden for Illegally Continuing to Supply Bombs Dropped on Homes in Gaza

    Attacking the Iranian Embassy in Syria is a provocative escalation against Iran and Syria.
    Multiple IRGC Generals Reported Killed In Israeli Attack On Iranian Embassy In Syria
    ​ Tehran is vowing a “harsh” response to the Israeli attack on its embassy and consulate earlier in the day, which killed at least five to eight people, reportedly including IRGC leaders. Iran’s foreign minister slammed it as “a violation of all international obligations and conventions” while the Syrian government denounced it as a “terrorist attack”.
    ​ Iran’s Ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari was not injured in the attack, which appeared to have occurred at the moment a high level meeting was taking place. Iranian state media has since confirmed the death of Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the elite Quds Force of the IRGC. There are further indicators that two more top IRGC commanders may be among the slain.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iranian-embassy-syria-targeted-large-israeli-airstrikes-major-escalation

    #155971
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that 107 patients are trapped in Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Strip, including 30 disabled patients, along with 60 medical staff, without water, without electricity, and without medicine.
    ​ The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed, in a brief press statement, that the Israeli occupation has thwarted all attempts to evacuate these patients through international institutions.
    ​ The ministry warned that the lives of patients were in grave danger and called for urgent action to save their lives.
    https://en.ypagency.net/322245

    ​ Israeli occupation forces confiscate about 27,000 dunums ​[27 square kilometers] of Palestinian land
    ​ The Israeli occupation authorities seized 27,000 dunums of Palestinian land, including 15,000 dunums, under the name of amending the boundaries of natural reserves in Jericho and the Jordan Valley…
    ​..The “Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission” (CWRC) explained in a report issued on Saturday on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of Earth Day and half a year after the aggression launched by the occupying Zionist entity against the Gaza Strip that the area of Palestinian territory controlled by the occupying entity and subject to many occupation measures amounted to 2,380 km2, equivalent to 42% of the total territory of the West Bank and 69% of all areas classified as (C), which are areas subject to occupation military rule.
    https://en.ypagency.net/322249

    ​ (How many skins hath this onion?) Israel wants multi-national security force in Gaza
    The troops would reportedly take charge of maintaining law and order in the region and escorting humanitarian aid convoys​.
    ​ According to the report, the idea came from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who voiced it during his visit to Washington earlier this week.
    ​ The proposal envisages a contingent of troops from Arab countries being deployed to Gaza for a limited transition period. The force would be charged with escorting and helping facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries and generally maintaining law and order in the enclave. They are also expected to help establish an alternative governing body in Gaza, one of the sources said.​..
    ​..However, an unnamed Arab official from one of the countries reportedly involved in the talks said it is unlikely that foreign troops would be deployed to the region until the hostilities end. A US official added that the move would require an official invitation from the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and would only come in the context of a two-state solution. This, the source noted, makes the initiative unlikely in the near-term due to Israel’s opposition to recognizing Palestine as a separate state.
    ​ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the idea of creating a Palestinian state after the war. He also criticized the UN Security Council resolution passed earlier this week, which demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying that the decision undermined Israel’s efforts to free the Israelis held by Hamas.
    https://www.rt.com/news/595155-gaza-israel-international-force/

    ​ Sanaa Health Ministry: Over 830,000 children under 5 dead due to Saudi-led blockade
    The Ministry of Public Health and Population in Sanaa affirmed on Saturday that over 830,000 children under the age of five have died due to complications and repercussions of the US-Saudi blockade over the past nine years in Yemen.
    https://en.ypagency.net/322283

    ​ (​Police crowd control training in Israel​ at work?) Victoria White Files $2 Million Suit For Police Using ‘Excessive’ Force In Jan. 6 Beating
    ​ A Minnesota woman beaten by police in the Lower West Terrace tunnel at the U.S. Capitol has filed a $2 million civil suit for being repeatedly struck in the head and slammed into a concrete wall on Jan. 6, 2021.
    ​ Victoria Charity White, 42, of Rochester, Minnesota, alleges at least two Metropolitan Police Department officers unlawfully used “deadly force” by repeatedly striking her head and face with steel riot batons and fists at about 4 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.
    ​ The complaint—filed on March 27 by Washington attorney Paul Kamenar—names MPD Commander Jason Bagshaw and MPD Officer Neil McAllister, and alleges other unnamed officers took part in the beatings.
    ​ It alleges violations of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S. Code § 1983. It is an amended version of a suit Ms. White filed representing herself in January.
    ​ “The defendants willfully and unlawfully seized plaintiff by means of objectively unreasonable, excessive, and indeed, deadly force that shocks the conscience, thereby unreasonably restraining and depriving plaintiff of her freedom and inflicting physical and mental harm and anguish,” read the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.
    ​ “Because of the senseless and unlawful beating she received at the hands of the defendants and the other MPD officers, Ms. White suffered great physical, traumatic, and emotional harm that day and continues to suffer to this day, particularly the traumatic and emotional harm,” Mr. Kamenar wrote in the lawsuit.
    ​ Mr. Bagshaw, the suit alleges: “Repeatedly struck an unarmed and defenseless White about her head, face, shoulders, and upper body with a metal baton and his fists.”​ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/victoria-white-files-2-million-suit-police-using-excessive-force-jan-6-beating

    #155972
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ “I Didn’t Do That”: Biden Reportedly Has No Idea He Issued ‘Trans Day Of Visibility’ Proclamation
    ​ “I didn’t do that,” Biden reportedly said when asked about the proclamation, RealClear Politics’ Philip Wegmann reports.
    When asked about Speaker Johnson’s claim that he had, Biden replied, “he’s thoroughly uninformed.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/i-didnt-do-biden-reportedly-has-no-idea-he-issued-trans-day-visibility-proclamation

    Biden Budget Shells Out $320 Million On Border Walls… For Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, And Tunisia
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-budget-shells-out-320-million-border-walls-oman-lebanon-jordan-egypt-and-tunisia

    ​ High Pressure Gas Pipeline Halts Salvage of MV Dali​ , by Captain John Konrad (gCaptain)
    Salvage efforts to remove the MV Dali from Baltimore’s Key Bridge were delayed indefinitely yesterday after a high-pressure subsea natural gas pipeline was discovered under the wreckage.

    High Pressure Gas Pipeline Halts Salvage of MV Dali

    MV Dali and the Francis Scott Key Bridge | March 31 Update & Who Pays for the Salvage?

    #155973
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Peter McCullough MD, COVID-19 Vaccine Myocarditis Not Healing > 1 Year after Diagnosis
    Serial MRI Study Finds 47% Cases Do Not Resolve
    https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/covid-19-vaccine-myocarditis-not

    ​ [Pfizer mRNA ​COVID “vaccine” recipient, I hear​; the same day as Princess Kate.] King Charles III Has Pancreatic Cancer; Only Two Years to Live​
    ​ According to the In Touch story, “King Charles is much sicker than the palace lets on and simply isn’t up to the job of running his fractious family, the crown’s business interests and fulfilling the daily duties of the monarchy,” the member of the royal inner circle revealed in early March. “His cancer is eating him alive. He’s very frail. The situation is desperate.”
    ​ While the “In Touch” story reports King Charles may have “two years to live” Google Search engine reports the Life Expectancy for Pancreatic Cancer is as follows:
    Survival for all stages of pancreatic cancer around 25 in every 100 (around 25%) survive their cancer for 1 year or more after they are diagnosed. More than 5 out of every 100 (more than 5%) survive their cancer for 5 years or more.
    https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/component/content/article/report-king-charles-iii-has-pancreatic-cancer-only-two-years-to-live?catid=17&Itemid=220

    ​ ‘FDA Is Not a Physician’: Dr. Paul Marik Weighs in on Ivermectin Settlement
    ​ Referring to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ September 2023 ruling that the FDA exceeded its authority, Marik said the judge in that case told the FDA that “you are not a physician. You’re not in a position to dictate how physicians practice medicine.”
    ​ Marik said that while the FDA has the power and the regulatory authority to regulate drugs, it is not in a position to influence how doctors behave. “Essentially, that’s what the case was about.”
    ​ According to the plaintiffs, the FDA influenced the narrative regarding ivermectin through various statements, publications and social media posts.
    This content included an infamous August 2021 tweet stating, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,” which linked to an FDA webpage, “Why you should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19.”

    ‘FDA Is Not a Physician’: Dr. Paul Marik Weighs in on Ivermectin Settlement

    #155974
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Meryl Nass MD, In 2006, the US federal government told the WHO that in areas where the states had jurisdiction, the federal government could not enforce IHR obligations on them. Time to tell the states!
    https://merylnass.substack.com/p/in-2006-the-us-federal-government

    More from Dr. Nass, Summary of the Evidence: Why States Can Assert that the WHO Has No Authority Over Them
    This is a compilation of the important info I have been dropping as individual tidbits over the past few days
    https://merylnass.substack.com/p/summary-of-the-evidence-why-states

    ​ Dr. Nass points out simple, bald falsehoods again and again:
    One hundred globalist flunkies (including has-been politicians) signed a totally misleading letter about the pandemic treaty last week.
    I set the record straight.​ My comments on the letter are in italics. A preponderance of signers are from former Soviet countries.
    https://merylnass.substack.com/p/one-hundred-globalist-flunkies-including

    ​ Kids Especially at Risk: 3 of 4 Athletes Test Positive for PFAS After Playing on Artificial Turf
    According to the EPA, PFAS exposure is particularly concerning for young children, who are more susceptible due to their developing bodies and at risk for higher levels of exposure than adults. PFAS, which continue to accumulate in the human body, pose long-term health risks.

    Kids Especially at Risk: 3 of 4 Athletes Test Positive for PFAS After Playing on Artificial Turf

    #155975
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Being “christ like”
    Being a good human being

    #155976
    Dr. D
    Participant

    The Social Engineers, There-Is-No-Alternative guys are winning all over.

    HOW are we in overshoot? I know that seems self-evident, but. Okay, FIRST we have 10 MILLION extra people who have fine homes in great weather where they just came from. Wow! 10 Million free houses, ready to be sold to the Kids! If you love F-Stan, Ecuador, send them home. Why do you hate Ecuador so much????

    Then, as I say but never gets through, ALL of Gary Indiana, Detroit, Muncie, Cleveland, are FALLING INTO FOREST. Golly: sure sounds like there’s a lot of houses out there! Millions and millions. Houses coast to coast are literally rotting in, falling down, sinking back. OH! But there’s a HOUSING SHORTAGE! There’s TOO MANY people! We should kill them all! “There Is No Alternative”.

    Yeah, if you’re in one of the 12 Blessed Cities of the Hunger games, housing IS in shortage. YOU caused that. On purpose when we told you for 6,000 days not to. AND when you rolled up Gary Indiana, now you have a 2x water system for a 1x population, so it costs too much. Meanwhile you’ve got a 2x water system for a 10x population in NYC. Wow! Sounds like in practical engineering terms, you’d better send some of those “Overpopulation” back to the frontiers of Indiana. Where there’s plenty of water, lawn, chickens, and houses falling in for back taxes.

    Oh and there are 10M Cottages, BnB, 2nd homes for Boomers. Last I checked.

    More? BlackRock is keeping ANOTHER 10M houses off market in like 20 ways. Non-foreclosure, investment, building town houses, empty commercial. There is water lines and meters on every one of them, unused. Every one has a driveway, parking lot, place for hydroponics and an apple tree. Okay, that’s 50 million houses right there. I haven’t cracked a book yet.

    Oh but THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE. We are all going to die. Ai ai ai ai ai. Ai! They’re like “I’m starving”. HAVE YOU LOOKED IN THE CUPBOARD? No. I sit in the high chair and don’t eat unless the food is lifted to my lips like Mr. Creosote. OF COURSE I haven’t looked or asked anyone.

    This of course is the same for Climate Change, which I don’t believe in, or Hydrocarbons, which they keep signing 1B person, 50-year contracts on for pipelines, monthly. Let me get this straight: they’re building a $100B pipeline, but don’t expect anything to be inside it. Kind of like Keynes’ “Burying bottles and digging them up again” project. Riiiiiight. We’z all out of oil, that’s why we keep building pipes and tankers!

    Now this guy may be in England and probably is, but that’s no different. HOW many people have immigrated? (To the second most miserable country on planet earth?) Great! Then like me, I’m going to get on a jet, go around, and buy YOUR house, back on the sunny Kenyan Coast. Where there’s endless oil being pumped right now. You can have Glasgow, it’s yours. You Win!

    What am I saying? Well somebody just LEFT a house in Ecuador, Venezuela, didn’t they? Their house is cheap, isn’t it? It has water and power? Okay, you take the house in Trenton, Jersey. You can have it. I’ll live on the shores of Costa Rica.

    Where’s the problem except everyone is an idiot and doesn’t want to “Work”?

    The problems are made up, I know. What surprises me is when smart guys like this then somehow don’t check, don’t run into information about how it’s all fabricated, made up, and a handful of shovels can transform the desert in 5 years. Emotionally they like problems, not solutions. Like Ukraine. It’s a problem. And the solution is as simple as inevitable. The only thing stopping it from being a wonderland is stubbornness and sheer force of will.

    #155977
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Looks like CIA Director Burns has drunk his own Kool-Aid, believes his own hype, and is all-in on the Death Cult agenda of double-down-until-dead. How unfortunate, considering CIA is running the asylum’s day-to-day business as well as it’s long range business plan.

    What a wasted effort. An outfit like that doesn’t even NEED a long range plan. At least nothing further out in time than the services of a good funeral parlor

    #156033
    Noirette
    Participant

    Jeffrey Sachs: It’s part of the U.S. long-term strategy dating back to the late 1970s to pay and arm jihadists to attack Russia… (top post)

    Switzerland has mercenaries for sale. France has a Foreign Legion. The USA manages a smorgasbord of groups, ‘Islamist’ (heh, 9/11 was done by Islamists supposedly…), given to hard violence, terrorist attacks, labelled variously, Al Quaida, Al Nusra, ISIS, Daesh, moderate rebels (Obama, re. Syria), and so on. All proxies, paid for, armed, organised, by the US (.. > USuk-isr), most often thru intermediaries of various kinds who rake in a modest but fair ? %. Guessing, about 10.

    The funding is always conditioned (I reckon) and can be swapped around. From the Mujahideen in Afgh. (late 70’s, fighting the Russians) to the recent ‘terrorist’ attack on a concert hall in Moscow suburbs (Crocus), according to the US-W, a “Daesh / ISIS” attack, we see, plus ca change plus c’est la même chose…

    D. Rich yes J. Sachs seems to have been re-habilitated. I was very suspicious, heh, whatever, as they say.

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