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Debt Rattle June 14 2024

Jun 142024
 
 June 14, 2024  Posted by at 9:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,


René Magritte Mysteries of the horizon (a.k.a. The Masterpiece) 1955

 

 

 

 

 

• West Has Declared ‘War Without Rules’ On Russia – Medvedev (RT)
• Medvedev Urges To Turn Life In West Into ‘Permanent Nightmare’ (TASS)
• Use of F-16s On Russian Territory ‘Not Escalation’ – NATO Chief (RT)
• Biden, Zelensky To Sign 10-Year ‘Arm & Train’ Defense Deal at G7 (ZH)
• Biden Needs More Bloodshed In Europe To Stay In Power – Zakharova (TASS)
• Do The New US Sanctions Mark Russia’s Final Divorce From The Dollar? (Johston)
• Will Average Citizens Pay the Price for G7’s Theft of Russian Funds? (Miles)
• EU Now at a Crossroads: Reform or Self-Destruction (Jay)
• Macron’s Coalition Sees Him as Liability Ahead of Feared Snap Election (Sp.)
• Fine, Penalty For Hungary: 1 Million A Day For Detaining Asylum Seekers (RTL)
• Joe Biden Vows Not To Pardon Hunter (RT)
• WaPo Makes Last Plea to Keep Laptop “Conspiracy Theory” Alive (Turley)
• Musk Wants Ukrainian NGO Designated As Terrorist Group (RT)

 

 

 

 

Alex Tucker Elon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1801444130796515593

 

 

 

 

AOC SCOTUS

 

 

RFK Trump

 

 

Massie Bragg

 

 

Hoax

 

 

Macgregor

 

 

 

 

“Moscow should “obliterate their energy infrastructure, industry, transport, banking and social services. Instil fear over an imminent collapse of all critical infrastructure..”

• West Has Declared ‘War Without Rules’ On Russia – Medvedev (RT)

Moscow should use every opportunity to inflict “maximum damage” on Western nations that have declared a “war without rules” on Russia, former president Dmitry Medvedev has argued.Every weakness of the US and its allies should be exploited to undermine them and obstruct life for their citizens, the Russian official said on Thursday, reacting to the latest round of sanctions announced by Washington earlier this week. ”Are they afraid that we would transfer our arms to the enemies of the Western world? We should send every kind of weapon, except nuclear (for now)!” Medvedev wrote on social media. “Are they afraid of anarchy and crime waves in large cities? We should help disrupt their municipal authorities!”

Russia could trigger a war in space, wage a psychological warfare campaign against Western citizens so that they “tremble under blankets in their cozy homes” and unleash a tsunami of fake news “to turn their life into a never-ending nightmare, in which they cannot distinguish reality from the wildest fiction.” Moscow should “obliterate their energy infrastructure, industry, transport, banking and social services. Instil fear over an imminent collapse of all critical infrastructure,” according to Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chair of the Russian Security Council.

The latest round of American restrictions against Russian entities targets energy, metals and mining as well as the financial sector. Among other things, it has forced the Moscow Stock Exchange to suspend all trade in the US dollar and the euro. The package is one of the biggest since the Ukraine conflict escalated into open hostilities in February 2022, impacting over $100 million in trade between Russia and its foreign partners, according to estimate from the US Department of the Treasury. Medvedev claimed that a campaign of “maximum damage” as outlined in his post was preferable to simply ignoring the Western pressure, and urged Russian citizens to act accordingly.

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“We should try every day to do as much damage as possible to those countries that have imposed these restrictions..“

• Medvedev Urges To Turn Life In West Into ‘Permanent Nightmare’ (TASS)

Russia should get biblical with its response to Western sanctions by turning life in the West into a “permanent nightmare” and inflicting maximum damage on unfriendly countries, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said. “We should try every day to do as much damage as possible to those countries that have imposed these restrictions on our country and all our citizens. Hit them where it hurts,” the official wrote on his Telegram channel. “Do damage everywhere, paralyze the operation of their companies and government agencies. Find vulnerabilities in their critical technologies and attack them mercilessly. Literally destroy their energy, industry, transportation, banking and social services,” he said. “Let’s turn their lives into an ongoing permanent nightmare,” Medvedev concluded, referencing the Old Testament principle of “an eye for an eye.”

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Says who?

• Use of F-16s On Russian Territory ‘Not Escalation’ – NATO Chief (RT)

Ukrainian strikes anywhere inside Russia using Western-donated F-16 aircraft would not be an escalation of the conflict and would not make NATO member states parties to it, according to the military bloc’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. He was asked on Thursday whether restrictions should be imposed on how Kiev can use the US-designed fighter jets. Several European nations intend to provide dozens of the warplanes once Ukraine has pilots and ground infrastructure to fly them. Speaking ahead of a NATO defense ministers’ gathering in Brussels, Stoltenberg said “different allies have different types of restrictions on the use of their weapons,” and welcomed the recent relaxation of these rules by some member states.

Washington reportedly gave Kiev the green light to fire American weapons at targets outside of what the two nations consider Ukrainian territory, allowing strikes inside Russia’s Belgorod Region as part of the fight for the neighboring Kharkov Region. Some other Western nations have also said their weapons can be used in similar ways. Ukraine has the right to defend itself, and this includes “striking legitimate military targets” on the territory of Russia, Stoltenberg declared. “Self-defense is not escalation,” he added. “And we have the right to help Ukraine,” he continued. “By doing that, NATO allies don’t become party to the conflict.” Moscow perceives the entire conflict as part of a US-initiated proxy war against Russia. It considers NATO’s increasing military presence in Ukraine and its intention to eventually bring the nation into the fold as major national security risks.

NATO member states arming Ukraine, providing “mercenaries” to bolster its troops, and helping Kiev to plan and deliver attacks against Russia are de facto participants in the hostilities, senior Russian officials have claimed. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that any attacks using Western weapons deep inside Russia will be retaliated against. Moscow could supply long-range weapons from its own arsenal to third parties, who would then use them against Western military assets, he suggested. Such tit-for-tat escalation could lead to a major disaster for all parties involved, Putin has warned.Andrey Kartapolov, the chairman of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee, said last week that Moscow would consider any bases used by Kiev to fly donated F-16s as legitimate military targets regardless of what country they are located in.

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“..given the pledge is an “executive agreement” and not a formal treaty, it can be undone by future American administrations..”

• Biden, Zelensky To Sign 10-Year ‘Arm & Train’ Defense Deal at G7 (ZH)

As they meet on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Italy, President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are planning to sign a deal for long-term US military assistance for Ukraine. The deal commits Washington to ten years of arming and training the Ukrainian military, and which bolsters the military-industrial complex toward producing more of its own needs for the nation’s armed forces. However, given the pledge is an “executive agreement” and not a formal treaty, it can be undone by future American administrations. CNN previewed of the expected soon to be announced deal, “The US-Ukraine agreement does not make a specific monetary pledge to support Ukraine’s defense, two of the sources familiar with the agreement said.”

“An annex in the agreement will lay out how the Biden administration plans to work with Congress on the implementation of the security commitments, one of the sources said, specifically the long-term funding that will be needed to support Ukraine’s defense,” the report added. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had further previewed Tuesday that the US “will continue to be right up front and clear” at the G7, and that Washington “will take bold steps to show Mr. Putin that time is not on his side and that he cannot outlast us, as we support Ukraine fight for freedom.”

While the big decade-long security pact will provide “consultations” for Kiev in the event of another future Russian attack on Ukraine, there’s nothing in it that legally binds the United States to direct intervention in its behalf in the future. Despite the continued talk out of Brussels of future Ukrainian membership in NATO, European powers continue to line up their own separate defense pacts with Ukraine. NATO still wants to “Trump-proof” its future commitments to Ukraine… “The pledge the US and Ukraine are expected to sign will be similar to the 14 other bilateral agreements Ukraine has already reached with other allies, including the UK, France and Germany,” CNN writes. “The US-Ukraine agreement will be the 15th such deal signed, one of the sources said, and 17 other countries have committed to negotiating similar bilateral security pacts with Ukraine,” the report underscores.

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“..arms supplies to Kiev will become obligatory for all NATO member states and will be coordinated by US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli..”

• Biden Needs More Bloodshed In Europe To Stay In Power – Zakharova (TASS)

The administration of US President Joe Biden needs “to make Europe bleed even harder” to remain in power, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, wrote on her Telegram channel.”Do European Union countries realize that Washington is embroiling them into a direct confrontation with Russia under the NATO flag?” she wrote, commenting on NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s plans to make arms supplies to Kiev obligatory for all NATO members. “The West is hysterically feeding its public with claims of Russia’s alleged imminent aggression against Western countries, and it means only one thing – the Biden administration needs to make Europe bleed even harder to prevent the collapse of its own government and of the US economy.” Earlier, Stoltenberg said that arms supplies to Kiev will become obligatory for all NATO member states and will be coordinated by US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, commander of US European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

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“..once a Russian entity falls under US sanctions it is seen as radioactive elsewhere and other institutions steer clear..”

• Do The New US Sanctions Mark Russia’s Final Divorce From The Dollar? (Johston)

The endless parade of Western sanctions on Russia barely makes the news anymore. But this week the US Treasury did manage to conjure up something that has generated attention. In what may be the most ambitious package since the initial wave back in February 2022, the American authorities greatly increased the scope for applying secondary penalties on foreign financial institutions found working with restricted Russian entities, and placed the Moscow Exchange and its clearing house under blocking sanctions, among other measures. The exchange subsequently announced that it was suspending all settlements in dollars and euros. It’s the latter that is the most interesting and has elicited the most chatter. But, before pursuing this train of thought, let’s dig into the nitty-gritty a little bit and sort out what is actually going to happen to currency trading in Russia.

To trade currencies on the Moscow Exchange, banks and other players send ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ bids to the exchange throughout the day. These buyers and sellers do not trade with each other directly but rather though the exchange’s clearing house, the National Settlement Center (NSC). In the evening, these trades would be settled by the clearing center, which had correspondent accounts in foreign banks for each currency. In other words, currency trading on the exchange involved the participation of foreign banks. It was not an enclosed system such as trading in Russian stocks (where the shares of Russian companies are bought and sold in rubles by investors without the involvement of any foreign entity). It is exactly this ability to clear currency trades that has been taken away by the new sanctions. American correspondent banks will now be barred from carrying out settlements with the NSC. From a technical standpoint, it is actually the sanctions against the NSC – rather than the exchange itself – that are most sensitive.

The Russian central bank has stated that currency trading will henceforth take place over-the-counter (OTC), meaning in decentralized fashion. But what is important to understand is that this is hardly a radical move – currency markets across the globe are conducted OTC, so this will in a sense merely bring Russia in line with standard practice. Russia was unusual in that currency trading primarily took place on a centralized exchange, whereas generally currencies are traded through a decentralized network of banks, a system much more flexible than relying on an exchange. The New York Stock Exchange, for example, does not host currency trading. Moving to OTC doesn’t mean that currency trading in Russia is going to resemble every other currency market. But it does provide a bit of a context to understand that this shift itself isn’t particularly radical. In fact, Russia is already essentially halfway there. According to the latest report from the Bank of Russia, 58% of currency trading in the country takes place off-exchange.

The central bank will use as its official rate some sort of average based on information obtained each day from banks. The new arrangement will almost certainly be a bit messy, especially at first: spreads will be wider, liquidity lower, transparency reduced, and price discovery in general harder. Transactional costs will be higher, a sensitive point for importers, for example. The market will be more prone to manipulation, and some analysts have posited that different exchange rates could emerge: an official central bank rate, the rates offered by various banks and a black-market, ‘street’ rate. However, on Thursday the Bank of Russia provided assurances that the exchange rate would remain market-driven and unified.

What exactly will happen to the ruble exchange rate remains to be seen, but there are strong grounds to believe that it will not move significantly from current levels. After all, the fundamental supply-demand structure of the market will not change in any dramatic way. The ruble’s exchange rate is determined by supply and demand from foreign trade and not on which platform trading takes place. Early indications are the market will largely shrug off the closure of dollar and euro exchange trading. There is another important angle to consider here. Formally, only American correspondent banks have been barred from working with the NSC. But experience has shown that once a Russian entity falls under US sanctions it is seen as radioactive elsewhere and other institutions steer clear. The increasingly bellicose rhetoric about secondary sanctions emanating from Washington will surely only exacerbate this tendency.

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“[Dedollarization] means the demise of American power, because American power is based on the ability to pay bills by printing money..”

• Will Average Citizens Pay the Price for G7’s Theft of Russian Funds? (Miles)

News of the development emerged Thursday, although the group of Western economies has yet to formally approve the action. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed the reports, drawing a distinction between the expropriation of earned interest and the outright seizure of Russian savings held in European banks. “We are certainly not talking about confiscating these assets,” Meloni claimed at the G7 meeting in Fasano. But the move is nonetheless highly controversial in the precedent it sets, claims analyst Dr. George Szamuely, and may be seen as a prelude to the wholesale theft of the funds. The analyst at the London-based Global Policy Institute joined Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program on Thursday to discuss how the development will harm financially strained Western citizens. “It doesn’t in any way conform to international law,” said Szamuely of the G7’s plan, “and let’s keep in mind this has never been done before.”

“It is customary to freeze accounts of your adversaries during wartime,” the author continued. “It is not customary to then help yourself to that money and put it to whatever uses you want and, in this case, the uses it’s being put to are for Ukraine to buy weapons in order to kill Russians. So Russian money is being used to kill Russians. That is just so beyond outrageous.” The majority of frozen Russian assets at play are held in European banks, noted Szamuely. Leaders across the continent have urged restraint as plans involving Russian funds have been discussed in recent months, fearing repercussions and reputational damage to European financial institutions. Yet, in a striking demonstration of the United States’ power over its NATO allies, Washington eventually prevailed and forced through the plan. The move carries significant risks in its weaponization of the Western financial system, with observers claiming the confiscation will likely convince global financial interests to further decouple out of fear of the safety of their own assets.

“China has a lot of American assets and European assets, and assets around the world,” noted host Angie Wong. “That could be seized at any moment. And the same treatment could be made of them if they don’t play the way the G7 wants them to play.” “Isn’t this going to backfire on the US and some of the G7 leaders?” Wong asked. “Because ultimately that just means you’re not going to get the foreign investments from Russia or China, maybe Saudi Arabia, whoever their next target is going to be.” “I would’ve thought so and I would’ve thought that it would elevate pressure on China, Russia, India, and other countries to set up their own alternative financial systems,” said Szamuely, referring to efforts that are already under way within the BRICS economic bloc.

But the consequences of the loss of dollar hegemony could prove even more disastrous. Observers point out that the trend is already well underway with Russia, China, India and other countries increasingly inking deals to pursue trade denominated in their own currencies. The BRICS bloc has also investigated the possibility of creating its own currency. The dollar’s role as the de facto global reserve currency is so crucial that it has helped drive US foreign policy, with analysts claiming Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s plans to create a gold-backed African currency provided impetus for his Western-backed overthrow.

“[Dedollarization] means the demise of American power, because American power is based on the ability to pay bills by printing money,” noted US economist Paul Craig Roberts. “That would mean a massive US inflation. It’d be a kind of inflation that results from currency collapse. There’s nothing monetary authorities can do about that. Those kinds of inflations are the real inflations, the real deadly ones.”

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“..Ursula von der Leyen represents the old guard and everything which is wrong with the EU: deluded, outdated views run by elitists who believe the only solution to the EU’s power problem is to take more..”

• EU Now at a Crossroads: Reform or Self-Destruction (Jay)

Ursula von der Leyen represents the old guard and everything which is wrong with the EU: deluded, outdated views run by elitists who believe the only solution to the EU’s power problem is to take more

The EU has just experienced a monumental change, following years of failed immigration policies, which has ushered in a massive number of far-right MEPs in the more powerful EU member states. It’s too early to say whether this will make too much of a change to policy decisions at the highest echelons of the European Union but certainly the European Parliament itself is, possibly for the first time ever, going to be an interesting place with now a quarter of all of the 720 MEPs coming from far-right groups. Traditionally most people who voted in EU elections were stalwart supporters of the project and the ethos of one Europe united by a policy of free movement of goods, services and people and, for many, a single currency. The few who voted against the mainstream parties – the main bloc made up of Christian democrats and socialists – were those who wanted to use their vote as a throw-away gesture to send a signal to their own elites that they want change. That protest vote in the past was always very small as the EU elite in Brussels always benefited from a voting system which was tilted in their favour. But no more.

The European Parliament, which most sceptics considered to be a fake assembly whose only real role is to rubber stamp draft legislation from either the powerful European Commission or member states (via the European Council), could now become suddenly relevant to the whole project. For the last five years, there has only been two Irish MEPs to take the floor and tackle the European Commission head on, on its genocide in Gaza or its phoney war in Ukraine. But now something like 180 MEPs will use their two minutes speaking time to tackle the commission on its failed foreign policy, immigration and trade deals with China, for example. The Ukraine war could be a central theme which will probably be a thorn in the side of the European Commission and its chief – whoever that might be as, despite supporting statements from the Christian Democratic group in the European parliament, it is not a certainty that Ursula von der Leyen will return as Commission chief.

If she succeeds and stays on as EU Commission president, she will have a tough time in parliamentary plenary sessions as Europe’s biggest countries – who pay the most into the EU budget – have picked up the most far-right seats. Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National scored the most decisive victory, winning 30 of the country’s 81 seats, and more than double the votes of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renew party. That political slaughter pushed Macron to call a snap election. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy won 24 seats and increased her share of the national vote, and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) came second in Germany and snapped up 15 seats. Presently the AfD doesn’t have a pan-European group to align itself to and, under EU rules, benefit from huge amounts of cash from the EU parliament as it was kicked out of one of the two ‘groups’, prompting fears that it will create one itself and invite others to join it.

In the European parliament both France’s and Italy’s far-right MEPs are in different groups, but in reality, when it comes to voting, for sure there will be a unified policy on most issues which will give them leverage with the European Commission that we have never seen in the short history of the EU. It’s important to note that far-right parties topped the polls in Austria and Hungary, too, with important gains in Spain and Cyprus. All of these countries have one thing in common: real immigration problems which neither the mainstream political groups nor the EU has addressed. But the real issue is the identity and survival of the European Union itself as this shake-up is certainly going to threaten the traditional power structure.. Unlike President Macron who wisely stated to the press that the far-right votes were a message which he is listening to, von der Leyen’s statements were more about fighting the new threat.

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“You won’t see Macron’s face on my campaign posters, I can tell you that..”

• Macron’s Coalition Sees Him as Liability Ahead of Feared Snap Election (Sp.)

French President Emmanuel Macron’s coalition fears that he could drag it down in the polls ahead of the snap legislative election that is itself seen as a disaster in the making, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing lawmakers and party staffers. Macron’s five-party Besoin d’Europe coalition was dealt a staggering blow in the European Parliament elections last week where it won 14.6% of the vote, against the far-right National Rally’s 31.37%. Macron called a snap parliamentary vote in the hope of wresting the initiative back from the right, but his party and coalition members now fear they will be the ones to pay for this mistake. “We are being thrown under the bus for a mistake that belongs to him,” an adviser in Macron’s own Renaissance party told the Politico online newspaper on condition of anonymity. “The more he talks, the more we lose points,” another adviser to a member of the French parliament from Macron’s party said.

Heavyweights in Macron’s coalition have been reportedly urging the president to take a step away from the campaign trail to give them a fighting chance of winning. Francois Bayrou, Macron’s key ally and leader of the Renaissance-allied Modem party, came to the presidential palace on Monday to tell Macron that he “mustn’t get too involved in the campaign,” the news site quoted a centrist lawmaker as saying. Other coalition lawmakers have been reportedly distancing themselves from Macron as they gear up for the first round of the legislative polls, due June 30 “You won’t see Macron’s face on my campaign posters, I can tell you that,” a member of parliament from the president’s coalition told Politico. An official with Macron’s Renaissance parliamentary group accused the 46-year-old of being oblivious to France’s “anti-president” mood.

The news outlet said that polls show that Macron is being perceived as aloof and out of touch. An Elysee staffer was quoted as saying that Macron was so “intoxicated by his own presence” during D-Day celebrations last week that the results of the European elections “hit him hard.” Despite calls from his friends and allies, Macron plans to get heavily involved in the campaign, which his coalition partners reportedly see as a huge risk. He is said to be planning to saturate the media with three appearances per week, starting with a major speech on Wednesday.

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Google translate from Dutch.

• Fine, Penalty For Hungary: 1 Million A Day For Detaining Asylum Seekers (RTL)

Hungary must pay a high fine and a penalty because the EU country continues to lock up asylum seekers, in violation of European rules. The country is ‘deliberately’ evading the right to asylum and that is an ‘unprecedented and extremely serious violation’ of European legislation, the European Court of Justice ruled. The court ruled three and a half years ago that Hungary, which has been pursuing a very strict migration policy for years, is not adhering to the rules. For example, the country does not give rejected asylum seekers the time to await an appeal against their rejection in Hungary. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has not adjusted that policy, the highest European court confirmed after a complaint from the European Commission.

Hungary must therefore pay a fine of 200 million euros. For every day that the government in Budapest continues with the contested policy, it must pay an additional penalty of 1 million. Such a high penalty is rarely imposed by the European Court of Justice. Poland was punished with a penalty of half a million euros three years ago. When that country refused to pay, the European Commission withheld the amount from EU subsidies for Poland.

Hungary is shifting its responsibility to the other EU member states, the court in Luxembourg ruled. “Including its financial responsibility.” The country is ‘seriously undermining the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility.’ Hungary has improved its life on one point after the 2020 verdict. The detention camps on the border with Serbia where the country locked up asylum seekers have been dismantled. Orbán finds the fine and penalty payment ‘scandalous and unacceptable’. Hungary is only defending the borders of the European Union, he says on X. “It seems that illegal migrants are more important to Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens.”

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Sacrificing Hunter to claim the system works for Trump, too?!

• Joe Biden Vows Not To Pardon Hunter (RT)

US President Joe Biden has promised not to pardon his troubled son Hunter Biden, who was recently found guilty of violating federal gun laws. A Delaware jury announced their verdict on Tuesday, several months before the 2024 presidential election where Joe Biden will face former President Donald Trump. “I am satisfied that I’m not going to do anything – I said I’d abide by the jury’s decision. I will do that. And I will not pardon him,” Biden said at a news conference during a G7 meeting in southern Italy. Asked by reporters whether he would commute his son’s sentence, he replied, “No.” The president reaffirmed his support for his son. “I’m extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction. He is one of the brightest, the most decent men I know,” he said.

According to the prosecution, Hunter Biden violated gun laws by failing to disclose his addiction to crack cocaine when he bought a revolver in 2018. Hunter Biden has admitted to struggling with alcohol and drug addiction. His defense team, however, argued that he did not consider himself an addict at the time of purchasing the weapon. Hunter Biden could face up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000, according to CNN. The sentencing date has not been set yet. Last year, the prosecution attempted to reach a plea deal with the younger Biden. The potential deal fell apart, however, after it was criticized by the judge. Republicans and conservative figures have accused Hunter Biden of corruption and influence peddling on his father’s behalf. The Bidens have denied any wrongdoing.

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“We must treat the Hunter Biden leaks as if they were a foreign intelligence operation — even if they probably aren’t.”

• WaPo Makes Last Plea to Keep Laptop “Conspiracy Theory” Alive (Turley)

Across the media, journalists have recognized that the Hunter Biden laptop is authentic and, as established early by American intelligence agencies, not “Russian disinformation.” With the authentication of the laptop in the Delaware trial as “real” and untampered, most media has chosen to walk away with a slightly embarrassed shrug. Not the Washington Post. Its columnist, Philip Bump, was one of the most prominent purveyors of what the U.S. government now calls a “conspiracy theory.” This week, Bump ran another column to assure liberals that they were right all along about the laptop story.In 2021, when media organizations were finally admitting that the laptop was authentic, Bump was still declaring that it was a “conspiracy theory.” Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Bump continued to suggest that “the laptop was seeded by Russian intelligence.”

After Bump had a meltdown in an interview when confronted over past false claims, I wrote a column about the litany of such false claims, including the laptop conspiracy theory. The Post surprised many of us by issuing a statement that they stood by all of Bump’s reporting, including the laptop conspiracy theory. That was in August 2023. Well, Bump is back. In his column, Bump takes after various people calling the media to account for burying this story before and after the election, including myself. In hitting Sean Hannity for a recent segment, Bump makes a common evasion among laptop deniers: “One is that he is conflating the laptop presented as evidence at the trial, the one obtained by the FBI in 2019, with the ‘laptop’ that was the source of the New York Post story.” For those of us who have covered the laptop since the story ran at the New York Post, it is as maddening as it is mendacious.

At the time of the story, some of us noted that the contents of the laptop could be confirmed since these emails and messages involved third parties. Some quickly confirmed the contents as authentic. The Bidens had long been accused of influence peddling and special dealing off of Joe Biden’s positions as senator, vice president, and president. Moreover, as the media was referencing the debunked letter of former intelligence officials on this possible likely Russian disinformation, American intelligence quickly confirmed that there was no such evidence to support that claim.The media ignored the actual intelligence agencies in favor of former intelligence officials who were organized by Biden campaign operatives to release the letter. Biden then cited the letter to refuse to answer questions about his son’s influence peddling and unlawful conduct.

Bump and others used the question over whether the laptop was an authentic copy or a tampered copy to avoid any serious investigation into the underlying emails. Many simply threw up their hands and said “oh well, what can we do.” To this day, the media has shown little interest in the influence peddling operation. Few people seriously argue that the media would have shown the same limited response if these emails tied Trump children to millions in foreign influence peddling schemes. But Bump was not done: “After Hannity lamented the media’s silence on the so-called “critical development,” Turley offered a theory for why that silence had ensued.‘If the laptop is authentic, if those files are real,’ he said, “then you have these detailed accounts of a multimillion-dollar influence-peddling operation run by the Biden family. Those would also be authentic. But the media just simply doesn’t want to go there.’ Except that we already know that many of those files were real, because we got access to them and verified them.

The reason the media ‘doesn’t want to go there’ on breathless claims about a ‘Biden family’ influence-peddling operation is that the material doesn’t prove any such operation. It shows — as has by now been exhaustively explained — work done by Hunter Biden and his Uncle James that involved lots of money but did not demonstrably involve President Biden. The entire point of the House Republican impeachment effort has been to prove Joe Biden’s involvement; they have been unable to do so.” Once again, Bump makes it sound like the Post vigorously and quickly verified the laptop. The belated acknowledgement did not come much later. It was not until March 2022 that the Post finally admitted that the laptop was real, but then did comparably little to pursue the corruption and other unlawful conduct detailed on the laptop.Washington Post columnist Thomas Rid probably was the most honest when he wrote the quiet part out loud by telling the media: “We must treat the Hunter Biden leaks as if they were a foreign intelligence operation — even if they probably aren’t.”

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“..a supposed “ecosystem” of citizens and organizations in the US, whose narratives “echo key messages of Russian propaganda..”

• Musk Wants Ukrainian NGO Designated As Terrorist Group (RT)

A Ukrainian NGO has compiled a database of influential American citizens, who it claims hold positions that ‘mirror’ those of Moscow. One of the blacklisted individuals is billionaire Elon Musk, who has called for the organization to be designated as a terrorist group. The NGO, Texty.org.ua, produced a lengthy report last week, which detailed a supposed “ecosystem” of citizens and organizations in the US, whose narratives “echo key messages of Russian propaganda” regarding the Ukraine conflict. On Wednesday, Republican members of the House Appropriations Committee added a provision to the markup of the State Department’s 2025 budget that bans Texty from receiving US funding. “It’s a good first step. They should be added to the list of sanctioned terrorist organizations,” Musk said on X (formerly Twitter) in reaction to the news.

The prohibition was championed by Representative Jim Banks, who was also targeted by the Ukrainian NGO. He told fellow Republicans that “federal bureaucrats should not support or partner with foreign groups that attempt to intimidate and silence US citizens and lawmakers.” His message alluded to a link between the department and Anatoly Bondarenko, a co-founder of Texty. He is also an instructor for the ‘TechCamp’ program, which provides training to foreign journalists, NGOs, and activists, according to the Conservative Thinker. The group has said its report was a piece of “data journalism,” and described itself as the victim of “an attack on freedom of speech and a display of chauvinism against the citizens of Ukraine. “Our critics believe that we do not have the right to investigate the streams of false information they produce about our country and us, simply because they are US citizens and we are not,” it claimed.

The original report described people on its list as “forces in the US impeding aid to Ukraine,” ranging “from Trumpists to Communists.” Highlighted in the report was the renowned anti-war group CODEPINK, organizations funded by billionaire Charles Koch, popular conservative speaker Jordan Peterson, and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Texty targeted Musk for supposedly allowing “Russian propaganda” on X, which he owns, and sharing with his followers a “highly skeptical view of the United States’ financial support for Ukraine.” Meanwhile, businessman Peter Thiel was accused of investing in Rumble, a free speech video sharing website. Unlike major platforms operated by US tech giants, it allows RT content. The report acknowledged that both entrepreneurs had contributed to Kiev’s war effort against Russia via Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system and Thiel’s Palantir big-data analysis platform, but placed them on its blacklist nevertheless.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Bhakdi

 

 

Hancock

 

 

Duckcat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1801293466665947209

 

 

Ice puppy

 

 

Dog touch

 

 

Tooth
https://twitter.com/i/status/1801305532407353827

 

 

 

 

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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle June 14 2024

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  • June 14, 2024 at 9:00 am #161144
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    René Magritte Mysteries of the horizon (a.k.a. The Masterpiece) 1955           • West Has Declared ‘War Without Rules’ On Rus
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 14 2024]

    June 14, 2024 at 9:56 am #161148
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Joe Biden vows not to pardon his son. Perhaps he will and maybe he won’t, but since Joe Biden is the embodiment of pathological deceit and heartless psychopathy I am sure he will do whichever of the two that he and his strategists consider to be politically expedient. It’s not as though he hasn’t done things like that to his doomed son since the hapless child was born. Can you even imagine what it would be like to have a demon like Joe as your Dad?

    June 14, 2024 at 11:09 am #161151
    John Day
    Participant

    @DBS: Our host, RIM can give you my email, or the long-missing alter-ego of Boscohorowits, Robin Morrison can do so.

    June 14, 2024 at 11:10 am #161152
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks to Doc Robinson for finding this update on the diminishing Eisenhower Task Force location last night:

    Aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely (DDG-107) are operating in the Red Sea.

    USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: June 10, 2024
    https://news.usni.org/2024/06/10/usni-news-fleet-and-marine-tracker-june-10-2024

    Another article says the USS Mason left the Red Sea via the Suez Canal on June 7.

    Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG 87) transited the Suez Canal and entered the Mediterranean Sea, June 7, 2024.

    USS Mason Enters the Mediterranean Sea After Seven Months in the Red Sea

    USS Mason Enters the Mediterranean Sea After Seven Months in the Red Sea 

    June 14, 2024 at 11:39 am #161153
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “GOP Lawmakers Seek To Block US Funding For Rebuilding Gaza

    Now there’s an interesting idea. Why would we? Oh yeah: because out bombs leveled it. But if we rebuild it, we profit and control it. Or Israel. But if we don’t it stays flattened. Hey, there’s a great lesson on why you should never have gotten involved in the first place?

    “The Washington Post Makes Last Plea to Keep the Laptop “Conspiracy Theory” Alive

    WaPo thinks the US Government’s legal department is part of a Russian Disinformation wing, who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. RussiaRussiaRussia is running the entire U.S. government, and sinking the President via his son. Yup. That’s totally way easier to believe than the normal, that some guys do drugs and politicians are sometimes self-serving and dishonest.

    ““It’s not a question if congress has jurisdiction over the Supreme Court, it is what power are we going to exercise” AOC

    Great presentation! really finally on point. However, as with most things, she’s a retard and totally wrong, has no idea what she’s talking about, and is embarrassing everyone. I’m sorry you have to have basic competency in both skills, but there we are and it’s not that hard, or didn’t used to be. Supreme Court Ethics crisis? Did I miss something? RBG wanted sex work to be legal, and the age of consent to be 14. And you’re calling a crisis now? USSC required an amendment to outlaw alcohol, but next year no amendment to outlaw drugs, and you’re calling a crisis now?

    …Soooo, what you’re telling me is, you’ve mapped out that you’re about to get slapped in court, because something is about to happen that drags you all there. What? Brunson? Where you all refused oaths of office because you’d already sworn blood oaths to Hydra or the CCP? Otherwise why pick on Justices and try to get them kidnapped and shot, for a flag from 1700, 100 YEARS before even the Revolution? “The flag is the official maritime ensign for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, though the script was removed in 1971” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Tree_Flag How dare he? Everyone knows Massachusetts is a NeoNazi State. Yup, that’s about the level now.

    “would these cases have been tried at all if we weren’t five months away from a presidential election?”

    Meta-Meta context is these two cases are entirely equivalent. Are they?

    “Is Congress’s $17 million sexual misconduct hush money fund campaign finance violations?”

    You need to ask? Yes, of course. But the jurisdiction is the “State” of D.C. entirely run by Congress, so how can Florida sue? Hahahahaha! Forget I asked! Hire Bragg and and he’ll make up something, no problem! “The Law is in My Mouth.”

    “new Trump hoax today: Trump said he doesn’t like Milwaukee.”

    Because Trump is so popular in Milwaukee? And the people who would vote for him believe the media?

    Yes the Early Warning Radar is extremely disturbing. It does say first strike and is IN RUSSIA. They are of course trying to start WWIII as that is the only thing that will save them. They’re going to keep trying.

    “• West Has Declared ‘War Without Rules’ On Russia – Medvedev (RT)

    Kind of. But this means Russia is signaling they are at the next level.

    MacGregor: “The Europeans are scared“. Well F’ing good! It’s about time. You wanted US to go fight this, FOR YOU, so YOU could get all those yummy resources that would stop your collapse for being lazy, selfish, fascist, tyrannical dickweeds. People tried to tell you, you laughed. So here, we’re giving you EXACTLY what you wanted: you win. You’re the boss, tell me where to point this broom in the train station. YOU are the competent, I just take orders.

    NOW you think a war is a bad idea ‘cause you’re like 100 miles away and we’re 6,000? No s—t.

    “Russia could trigger a war in space, wage a psychological warfare campaign against Western citizens so that they “tremble under blankets in their cozy homes”

    Nah, that’s impossible. Because that would be real and we would deny or not understand it. Same as telling a 3-year-old.

    “forced the Moscow Stock Exchange to suspend all trade in the US dollar and the euro.”

    With perfect timing, the world is safe again. As the US$ and Euro collapse, Moscow and half the world are now completely isolated or as isolated as can be arranged. They asked: “We’ve never had a worldwide fiat currency, with a fiat currency collapse. Always before in Weimar, one area collapsed while the nearby nations kept stable currencies.” Challenge Accepted. Problem Solved. WE have the “worldwide” fiat currency. THEY, the BRIICS and entire Global South – most of the world – do not. So thanks almost exclusively to sanctions, THEY will survive and we can re-kick-start by leveraging off them. Okay by me. We would probably do it anyway, figure something out anyway, but I love having several hard backup plans.

    Again WE are the ones arranging this. FOR Moscow, whether they want to or not. WHY? And WHO? Who SPECIFICALLY said to do this – when it totally won’t work as a sanction and is laughable – and do this NOW, not two years ago? Sus much?

    Continuing that MacGregor, just reminding that ALL DONBAS is “Russia”, legally, to them. We are already attacking “All Russia” in what we call “Ukraine.” Belgorod is of course different, we are referring to “1994 border Russia” and Russian behavior agrees: they are very sanguine about it, yes they’re in a war, things get blown up is their attitude. And yes, if UKRAINE were doing this – as their pointless drone attacks – they’re also very fatalistic. Of course that’s a sliding scale as OUR bullets and money and gas are in THEIR cross border attacks, so same thing, right? I’m saying Russia is being EXCEPTIONALLY generous and understanding of military and political reality here. However, since we are already over the line, they are giving us an additional DMZ to cross before the minefield, not placing it 6 inches from the survey flag, but a few meters over where dogs and cats won’t accidentally hit it. That line is with medium range, large-size missiles, into 1994 Russia. Easy to understand. That’s not one, two, maybe three violations all in one. As they’ve said, “Ukraine” is striking exactly nothing. We did not give our satellite intel and operations to Ukraine. These are 100% U.S. men, from orbit to the big boom, not a single Ukrainian anywhere, by definition. Americans won’t get that but courts will.

    “Ukrainian strikes anywhere inside Russia using Western-donated F-16 aircraft would not be an escalation of the conflict and would not make NATO member states parties to it”

    Stoltz better check International Law, pretty sure he’s mistaken on this. We can tell they plan to use the F16 as the trigger because – just like the nuke plants back when – they can’t help themselves but “Signal” it like true narcissistic sociopaths. The “Signaling” is the emotional, POWER part to them, it’s where they get their rocks off by showing they’re better than you, you’re helpless before their 80-pound majesty. Thanks, I guess. Thankfully God created the world so they have to do this and save us all, although sadly we’re such retards we generally disbelieve and ignore psychos when they say it. But IF we had any #Logos, and IF we had any sense, it would be super helpful and protect everyone so easy.

    Anyway, they’ve been “signaling” and tee-hee-ing they’re clever for months about this, playing “hide the salami” about where they are, thinking they’ll just spring an F16 with Moscow Nuke on it, or get Russia to overreact and “Start” a war they can sell back home. They are. By definition. Retards. They are embarrassing, retarded, mentally ill, glue-sniffing morons. No, Russia is NOT going to do that. Your plans are the plans of 5-year-olds, but since you’ve never talked to anyone outside of Harvard you don’t realize how infantile and moronic you sound. To the rest of us. Out here doing “work” in America. You couldn’t take an effective swing on a wino passed out on the street.

    ““..given the pledge is an “executive agreement” and not a formal treaty, it can be undone by future American administrations..”

    Exactly my point. So the SENATE confirmed this treaty? Then it doesn’t exist. We also don’t have the money, so good luck.

    Anyway, Duran, The U.S. finally got Europe on board with the plan NO LAWYER would approve: and we’re talking “Better Call Saul” level lawyers here. So the best they could do, and STILL got refusals from almost everybody, is to steal the INTEREST on the Russian money. $6B, whooptie-do, as the same glue-snorters ALREADY blew $200B and probably more. So it gets better: the PREMISE is, IF Ukraine wins, and IF Russia is completely erased, THEN they will be able to win war reparations in a UN (Western) court. Yeah, the idea of pre-reparations is laughable too, so, so many countries are still barely paying any reparations, like Greece, Poland, etc 100 YEARS later. They just ASSUME they win, then win, then win again. ‘Cause rich kids, amirite? Just like Congressional budget auditors just ASSUME we will grow at 8% compound with no recessions for 50 years and STILL Have a $1T / 100 days deficit. “We Make S—t Up!!”

    No. We all know that, that’s not the good part. What’s REALLY been stopping it is this: The U.S. wants a LOAN, say $100B against a mere $6B in assets. That’s what Trump and the Congress have been up to with the stall, although there are a lot of games at play. A lot of hooks and lines, trying to see who’ll bite. But the U.S. — now leaning Trump, just like Europe is – said “Hey, we’ve got to sell this to the people and you can see how hard. EUROPE needs to CO-SIGN the Ukrainian (illegal, confiscation) loan.”

    Europe was like “Are you f’ing stupid? Only a moron with a death wish would cosign a Ukrainian loan.” That was a month ago.

    …Well son of a bitch, guess what? They got rid of that prosecutor and are signing that loan. As Ukraine is collapsing, right on schedule for the elections.

    Just like WWI and WWII? If they do – and Ukraine is already toast – then Europe becomes our b-tch again. They will have collapsed, and owe us the next cycle, like 50 years. NY/Wall St wins, Europe/Davos loses.

    …And that seems likely. Powell has no pivot. ECB has to cut rates. World capital flows more to the U.S. and Europe is a crater. Euro coup d’etat on the colonies (Us) fail again. And worse than 1812 and 1860, we get more independent from their banking system WHILE they have no oil, gas, or help, and they become Africa while we move into the techonoverse with China.

    Cosign that loan, you f-xxxers. Or concede Ukraine, NATO, and all European collateral honestly, I dare you. Reality Bites. Life’s hard but it’s harder if you’re stupid.

    “• Biden Needs More Bloodshed In Europe To Stay In Power – Zakharova (TASS)

    Biden’s not in power now, NOR would the situation in Europe have the slightest effect on American voters. We DGAF what you do, never have, never will. You never cross our mind, ever, if you disappeared, we’d forget. WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO??? Who? He’s talking not the the Euro-Elite, but directly to European VOTERS. The regular people. This is a story they can understand. End the war AND f—k America? Yes!!! Of course it’s more complicated than that, but anything that sells peace I can get behind, because it would take far too long to explain otherwise. Yes, “Get out from under America” (who is being run by Davos in Europe) and stop the war.

    “• Do The New US Sanctions Mark Russia’s Final Divorce From The Dollar? (Johston)

    Yes. And again, part II Duran: We are now sanctioning anyone-who-funds-anything. How? Well “We Make S—t Up” so we “just said” that “Russia is a war economy”. Therefore ALL things in Russia, like CocaCola, help the war effort. ‘Cause we said, just thought it in my mind a second ago. Therefore any BANK who talks to any company, who talks to any OTHER company, who talks to Russia, is sanctioned. Like our FISA warrants and 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, EVERYONE is on that list, then we authorize every one of our friends, and blackmail everyone NOT our friends. Do YOU want to be our friend, Santander? Bob’s Regional Bank of Iowa?

    Okay, so what? No, no, no, this has nothing to do with any of that. We are sanctioning CHINA. This was all created, “We Made S—t Up” to attack all CHINA’S BANKS. All of them. In Huuuuuuuuge numbers. Because we’re broke and are going to steal all their money I’m-sure-they-won’t-mind or do nothin’. We are stealing, re-directing their capital flows here to forestall our utter bankruptcy. Capisce? Got it?

    So opening that war on China, which I’m sure we’ll totally win, being unable to win against 12 Yemenis in a hut. Who sank the Ike, prove me wrong or where is it? Proof of life, the Ike with today’s newspaper?

    Duran: Note THIS IS NOT DENIED. 5 or more days later. Total silence. If it’s fine, surely you would DENY it, right, Mr. US Navy? Heck, you deny things that are true almost daily, but not this? Funny ol’ world, and hiding in the middle of an ocean where you can be seen from space. Everybody knows. Now – I – don’t know, but every NATION knows. ‘Cause Iran has satellites there, and they know. And India too.

    “• Will Average Citizens Pay the Price for G7’s Theft of Russian Funds? (Miles)

    Kind of a trick question. We’ve ALREADY paid, since 1994 or 1974 or whatever. But will pay again? As the dollar drops 8:1? Probably, but is that bad if we get rid of all the parasites who steal 100:1, 8:1 will be a bargain and we’ll be rich again in no time. Just like post-war Germany when they got rid of their parasite.

    ‘..Ursula von der Leyen represents the old guard and everything which is wrong with the EU: deluded, outdated views run by elitists who believe the only solution to the EU’s power problem is to take more..”

    Interesting. She and the EU are BRAND NEW. They just invented it all yesterday. So what do you mean? There’s a real “Old Guard” hiding somewhere that jumps from ship to ship? I thought the EU was created to get rid of all that old corruption and influence, have you been lying to me? I feel so betrayed.

    “• Macron’s Coalition Sees Him as Liability Ahead of Feared Snap Election (Sp.)

    What was Macron thinking? Or his real brains that he uses on loan, Rothschilds Bank? This was so obvious it could be seen from space, NOR was it going to work NOR did anyone else in Europe, much less the U.S. support it. …And we all supported him more than the French People did.

    Is there a textbook on how to do everything wrong he’s been using?

    “The country is ‘deliberately’ evading the right to asylum”

    I sincerely doubt that as “Asylum” is by definition a very rare thing. It’s impossible for even 1% to be true “asylum” and for decades there was essentially zero asylum at all unless you were a Nobel Prize winner. So they’re not “Evading” asylum, they are using it properly according to law and not lying, an unforgivable offense.

    Any fine they give is a pittance, since like here they give $5k per person in cash AND use “free health care” AND encourage a million more applicants. Avoided applicants alone would overcome any fine, and that’s before you factor in crime and collapse of government. Nah, keep your money.

    “• Joe Biden Vows Not To Pardon Hunter (RT)

    Uh, yeah, Odd or what? Explain? And none of us would pardon either, right? Hahahahaaha, no. Of course we would. So they’re up to something, Hunter OD’s and Biden slips out. They all meet in Vanuatu under witness protection. They are using the LEAST crime to get Hunter off the news, and avoid 100,000 counts of Presidential bribery, to say nothing of raping underage prostitutes, although admittedly, that’s in jurisdictions where that may be legal. Picking a crime that seems “Real” and picking a sentence that seems “Just”. Out of a hat, there are so many. So this is all a sales job, to us, the People.

    ““..a supposed “ecosystem” of citizens and organizations in the US, whose narratives “echo key messages of Russian propaganda..”

    Wow, great words. Super cool. Awesome. Um, is any of this TRUE? No? Mueller couldn’t substantiate a single word? Huh.

    Ah, the Korean thing is fun. Now with the internet, I see so many more second-rate comedy which is more like mean, political and not clever. It has to be BECAUSE of this, then this, then this. Cause and Effect. As lunatics with no life experience, they are insulated and their minds never work like that. In the previous cycle, only Canadians were all out comedians because they weren’t mean. Ah the good old days. Now they’re bad or worse, not mean, but the 0,1% political activists. NOTHING is more boring than making everything political, comrade. Buy razors is political now. No one is funny because so few are humanitarians and have generosity.

    June 14, 2024 at 11:42 am #161154
    Dora
    Participant

    AOC is proving to be intellectually vacuous. A young, attractive, intellectually vacuous woman. A nitwit.

    June 14, 2024 at 11:44 am #161155
    John Day
    Participant

    The Fundamental Reason https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/the-fundamental-reason

    Alex Krainer (Do look at the other good parts. I just stole the end), It’s always about the collateral
    The relationship is deliberately obscured, so we must resort to dot-connecting, but consider this “dot”: in 2016, the Chilcot Inquiry into the British role in the Iraq war revealed, among other things, that six months after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a consortium of Western banks led by JP Morgan extended a $2.5 billion loan to “help” Iraq’s economic recovery…
    ​..Not so long ago, Graham was giddy about the Ukraine war and thought that funding it was “the best money we ever spent.” At the time he was gloating that “the Russians are dying,” but in this last interview he mentioned the $10 to $12 trillion in critical minerals three times in under a minute. He doesn’t want Russia or China to have them and somehow he feels that it is up to him, most probably his donors.
    ​ Most importantly, Graham confirms the ultimate reason for war and unwittingly points the finger at the interest groups that are behind it. Wars are about resource wealth (duh!), and there is only one interest group who must secure access to that wealth by the force of arms: the international banking cartel. Their means and their opportunity may be more difficult to establish (though not that difficult), but their motive is crystal clear. Resources like Graham’s “critical minerals,” represent the high quality collateral against which banks can issue loans.​..
    ​..With regards to the 2003 Iraqi loan​ (backed by future oil revenues), it might have been only a coincidence that JPMorgan was also one of the biggest financial backers of the Bush/Cheney 2000 election campaign. At that time, nobody could have predicted that in 2001 we’d witness the 9/11 terror attacks which helped justify the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the attempted capture of their resources. Nobody saw Condoleeza Rice’s “birth pangs of the new Middle East” coming. Most likely however, the whole toxic brew was well in the works long before the events began to take place.
    ​ Incidentally, that same JP Morgan also richly rewarded Sir Tony Blair for his own inestimable contribution to making the 2003 Iraq invasion possible: after the end of his term as Britain’s Prime Minister, JP Morgan hired him as an advisor on a $5 million/year contract.
    ​ For coincidence theorists, none of this should be too troubling since they know that our forces only go abroad to defend democracy, freedom and human rights, especially for women and girls. Of course, they are also there to fight the terrorists: we fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here. And you, dear reader, you are either with us or you are against us. At any rate, remember that we’ve always been at war with Eurasia.​ https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/the-vicky-pollard-administration

    ​Who is really “backing” this “collateral”? G7 Leaders To Use Frozen Russian Assets To Back Next Tranche Of Ukraine Aid https://www.zerohedge.com/political/g7-leaders-use-frozen-russian-assets-back-next-tranche-ukraine-aid

    ​ Alastair Crooke, Israel and the Misjudgement of Reality
    ​ The core tension within the Western-Israeli calculus is that the U.S. and the EU are moving in one direction – back to the failed Oslo approach – whilst polling underscores Jewish electors firmly marching in the other direction.
    ​ A recent survey conducted by the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs shows that since 7 October, 79% of all Jewish respondents oppose the establishment of a Palestinian State on 1967 lines (68% were opposed prior to 7 Oct); 74% are opposed even in exchange for normalisation with Saudi Arabia. And reflective of the internal Israeli divide, “only 24% of left-wing voters support a [Palestinian] State without conditions”.
    ​ In short, as the western institutional leadership clings to the shrinking Israeli secular liberal Left, Israelis as whole (including the young) are moving hard Right. A recent Pew poll shows that 73% of the Israeli public support the military response in Gaza – albeit a third of Israelis complained it had not gone far enough. A plurality of Israelis think Israel should govern the Gaza Strip. And Netanyahu, in the aftermath of the ICC arrest threat, is overtaking Gantz (leader of the National Union) in approval ratings.
    ​ It seems that the ‘western consensus’ prefers not to notice these uncomfortable dynamics.​ https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/06/10/israel-and-misjudgement-of-reality/

    Sacrificing hundreds of innocents in Nuseirat to save others unacceptable, Lavrov says​ ​ https://tass.com/politics/1802249

    June 14, 2024 at 11:45 am #161156
    John Day
    Participant

    Simplicius with news of war in Ukraine and Russian missiles in Cuba: Roundup of Hottest Developments​ https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-61124-roundup-of-hottest-developments

    ​Andrew Korybko asks, “what if a stored Ukrainian F-16 takes off from Poland and attacks ‘old Russia’?”
    Kiev’s Plan To Store F-16s In NATO States Raises The Risk Of World War III​ https://korybko.substack.com/p/kievs-plan-to-store-f-16s-in-nato

    ​ (Must be in WW-3 before November!) Biden, Zelensky To Sign 10-Year ‘Arm & Train’ Defense Deal at G7​
    ​ As they meet on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Italy, President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are planning to sign a deal for long-term US military assistance for Ukraine.
    ​ The deal commits Washington to ten years of arming and training the Ukrainian military, and which bolsters the military-industrial complex toward producing more of its own needs for the nation’s armed forces. However, given the pledge is an “executive agreement” and not a formal treaty, it can be undone by future American administrations.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-zelensky-sign-10-year-arm-train-military-deal-g7

    ​ BRICS foreign ministers condemn US’ protectionism in trade — Lavrov
    “All the delegations spoke in favor of reforming the existing systems of global governance with a focus on giving the countries of the global South a bigger voice,” the Russian top diplomat said​ https://tass.com/politics/1802245

    ​ Mish Shedlock, Russia to Export Coal to India Via Iran. It’s a 4 Alarm Bells Fire
    ​ Russia has announced plans to export coal to India using Iran’s railways. This announcement was made during the BRICS transport ministers’ meeting at the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF)…
    ​..Biden will have concerns about Russia, Iran, the environment, and the fact that an ally effectively told the US to go to hell.​ The ability of the US to tell the world what to do is ending. In may places, that ability has already ended.​ https://mishtalk.com/economics/russia-to-export-coal-to-india-via-iran-its-a-4-alarm-bells-fire/

    June 14, 2024 at 11:46 am #161157
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Lavrov accuses West of ignoring UN Charter
    ​ The West’s actions often run counter to the principles of the United Nations Charter, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.​.. According to Lavrov, BRICS nations have similar approaches to issues of reforming the system of multilateral institutions, including the UN and its Security Council, as well as on the post-pandemic recovery of the global economy, and the goals of sustainable development approved by the UN General Assembly.​ https://tass.com/politics/1802229

    ​ Thanks Eleni in Athens. Fyodor Lukyanov: Here’s what the results of the European Parliament elections tell us​ , MEPs don’t call the shots, so any real change in the bloc will emerge from domestic upheavals
    ​ The main conclusion is that in the two largest EU countries – France and Germany – the ruling forces no longer enjoy popular support. Macron decided not to delay but to try to reverse the trend immediately, by calling elections with a three-week campaign. Berlin’s right-wing opposition – the CDU/CSU – also called for new elections, but this is highly unlikely.
    ​ Macron is taking a risk, but he is counting on the fact that citizens tend to vote differently in European than in national elections. In the first case, voting is an opportunity to express dissatisfaction with the authorities without risking anything, because the daily life of a European does not depend on what deputies in Brussels and Strasbourg do.
    ​ The second is to elect those who will form the government and on whom, therefore, their pockets depend. In national elections, it’s the managerial experience of the candidates that counts, and so-called populists usually don’t have these skills. As a result, the outcome of national elections is usually more favorable to the mainstream. This was the case under normal and stable conditions, but now we can only dream of those.
    ​ Macron put the Ukrainian issue at the center of his campaign for the European Parliament (to the point of promising direct intervention in the fighting). This didn’t mobilize voters. In Germany, the subject also played an important role, although it wasn’t central. The CDU, which was very successful, is even more pro-Ukrainian than the Social Democrats. However, the success of the Alternative for Germany and Sarah Wagenknecht’s new party shows that this line also has its opponents – both forces oppose arming Ukraine.​ https://www.rt.com/news/599154-european-parliament-elections-results-fl/

    ​ (More colorfully) Pepe Escobar, The Summer of Living Dangerously
    ​ So Le Petit Roi in Paris was predictably crushed in the European polls. He has called parliamentary snap elections, dissolving the Assemblée Nationale in an act of blind, puerile revenge on French citizens, de facto attacking French institutional democracy.
    ​ That doesn’t mean much anyway, because the lineaments of “liberty, equality, fraternity” have long been usurped by a crass oligarchy.
    ​ The second round of these fresh French elections will be on July 7 – nearly coinciding with the British snap elections on July 11, and only a few days before the slow-burning urban catastrophe which will be the Olympics in Paris.
    ​ Paris salons are ablaze with intrigue on why the little Rothschild stooge with a Napoleon complex is throwing all his toys out of the pram now because he’s not getting what he wants.
    ​ After all what he really craves is to become a “War President” – together with the Cadaver in the White House, Starmer in the UK, Rutte in the Netherlands, the Toxic Medusa von der Lugen in Brussels, Tusk in Poland, without having to answer to the French people.​..
    ..Bigger things though are in play. Following the – auspicious – game-changing messages to the Global Majority coming out of the St. Petersburg forum last week, anchored on openness and inclusiveness, the BRICS 10 meeting of Foreign Ministers in Nizhny Novgorod carried the baton early this week.
    ​ Foreign Minister Lavrov stressed three key points:
    ​“The countries of the Global South no longer want to be dependent on the double standards of the West and its whims.”
    ​ “Everyone knows that the BRICS countries already serve as the locomotive of the world economy.”
    “We [at the BRICS FMs meeting] stressed the need for consistent efforts to create a new world order, where the equality of independent states will be the key.”
    ​ Now compare it with the shrinking G7 meeting later this week in Puglia in southern Italy: the same old song, from a “tough new warning” to Chinese banks (“Don’t do business with Russia or else!”) to vociferous threats against the China-Russia strategic partnership.
    ​ And last but not least, extra plotting to skim interest from the massive, frozen/stolen Russian assets with the intent of sending them to country 404; the Toxic Medusa itself announced that country 404 will receive €1.5 billion of the income from stolen Russian assets from the EU in July, 90% of it to buy weapons.​..
    ..By several metrics, Europe is about to implode/explode not with a bang but an agonizing whimper anytime within the next few months. It’s crucial to remember that the snap elections in France and Britain will also coincide with the NATO summit on July 11 – where Russophobia-fueled warmongering will reach paroxysm.
    ​ Among possible scenarios, some kind of false flag to be squarely blamed on Russia should be expected. It could be a Franz Ferdinand moment; a Gulf of Tonkin moment; or even a USS Maine before the American-Spanish war moment.
    ​ The fact remains that the only way these “leaders” across NATOstan plus their lowly MI6 agent in a green sweaty T-shirt in Kiev will survive is by manufacturing a casus belli.
    If indeed that happens, a date can be advanced: between the second week of July and the end of August; and certainly no later than the second week of September.
    October will be too late: too close to the U.S. elections.​..
    ..President Putin, before and during the St. Petersburg forum, elaborated on how “symmetric” Moscow’s response will be to attacks by Kiev using NATOstan missiles – already ongoing.
    ​ There are three NATOstan members which are supplying missiles with a range of 350 km and more: U.S., UK and France.
    So a “symmetric” response would imply Russia providing Global South nations with advanced weaponry – capable of causing serious damage to nodes of the Empire of Bases.
    ​ And here are the top candidates to receive these weapons – as extensively debated not only on Russian TV channels but also in the St. Petersburg forum corridors.
    West Asia: Iran (which already has them); Syria (badly needs them); Yemen; Iraq (would be very helpful to Hashd al-Shaabi) and Libya.
    ​ Central, Northeast, Southeast Asia: Afghanistan, Myanmar (these two were present in St. Petersburg) and North Korea.
    Latin America: Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua (just look at the current Russian foray in the Caribbean).
    ​ Africa: Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Southern Sudan and Zimbabwe (just look at Lavrov’s recent African tour).​..
    ..And that brings us the jolly matter of a Russian naval force hangin’ out in the Caribbean, headed by the hypersonic missile-armed frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the Kazan nuclear submarine…
    ..Well, this naval force is obviously not there to launch WWIII. Martyanov explains that “while both can strike all of the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada, they are there not for that reason. God forbid if it comes to real WWIII there are plenty of Bulavas, Avangards, Sarmats and Yarses to deal with this horrifying business. No, both Gorshkov and Kazan are there to show that they can reach any combat ship or strategic sea lift vessel carrying any military combat set from North America to Europe in case of some nutjob deciding to try to survive a conventional war with Russia in 404.”
    ​ What’s even more intriguing is that after spending time in Havana, the naval force will remain in the Caribbean for a series of exercises – and will be joined by other Russian Navy vessels. They will remain in these waters until the end of The Summer of Living Dangerously. Just in case some nutjob has fancy ideas.​ https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/06/12/the-summer-of-living-dangerously/

    “Pelosi SHOULD Take Responsibility!” J6 Capitol Police Chief Says Speaker’s Staff Blocked Additional Security​ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/pelosi-should-take-responsibility-j6-capitol-police-chief-says-speakers-staff-blocked

    AG Merrick Garland found in contempt of Congress for withholding evidence despite subpoena. Apparently there are concerns that a transcript re Biden was altered​ https://merylnass.substack.com/p/ag-merrick-garland-found-in-contempt

    June 14, 2024 at 11:48 am #161158
    John Day
    Participant

    (Team player) Merrick Garland Ignores Contempt Vote Over Biden ‘Dementia’ Tapes
    ​ “Today’s vote disregards the constitutional separation of powers, the Justice Department’s need to protect its investigations, and the substantial amount of information we have provided to the Committees,” wrote Garland following the vote which made him the third attorney general in US history and fourth sitting cabinet member to be held in contempt of Congress.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/merrick-garland-thinks-hes-judge-dredd-ignores-contempt-vote-over-biden-dementia-tapes

    (“Lies, damned lies and …”) Powell Admits The Biden Admin Is “Overstating” Jobs
    ​ While the Establishment Survey did indeed report that 272K “jobs” were added, this number also included multiple job holders; stripping those out, we get that the actual number of “employed” workers plunged by 408K… which is also why the unemployment rate actually went up to 4.0% for the first time in over three years, despite this marvelous “increase” in payrolls. More importantly, it means that gap between the always upward sloping (and market moving) Establishment Survey – which counts the number of payrolls – and the flatlined Household Survey – which counts the number of actually employed workers – which hasn’t made a new high since late 2023 and is back to where it was last summer, is now a stunning 9 million, the biggest on record.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/fed-chair-powell-admits-biden-admin-overstating-jobs

    ​ Meryl Nass MD, Robert Fico attempted assassination timeline, May 10-June 5, 2024
    May 10, 2024—Slovakia refuses pandemic treaty and IHR amendments despite a meeting with Tedros to convince Slovakia otherwise​…
    May 15, 2024—Slovakian PM Fico shot at very close range by multiple bullets by a former security guard and writer​…
    May 16, 2024—The Atlantic Council just one day later tells us five things we need to know about the attempted assassination, attempting to gain quick control of the narrative…​ Showing no sympathy to the victim, who was at that time on death’s door, the Atlantic Council worries how the shooting will be used by Fico’s party to quell opposition. They also spin the shooting as due to “hate politics” (lone nut) rather than a political hit​…
    June 5, 2024—Mr. Fico posted a pre-recorded speech and said it would be a “minor miracle” but he hopes to be back at work in about a month. He was able to leave the hospital on May 30 and is receiving outpatient treatment.​.. Mr. Fico said that “an activist of the Slovak opposition” had attempted to assassinate him because of his political views, describing the gunman as “a messenger of evil and political hatred.” Opposition parties have denied any connection to the shooting.​ “I have no reason to believe this was an attack by a lone madman,” he said.​ https://merylnass.substack.com/p/robert-fico-attempted-assassination

    ​ The Destruction of Julian Assange, Jacob G. Hornberger​
    ​ Last month, a British court gave Julian Assange permission to continue opposing the U.S. government’s attempts to extradite him to the United States to stand trial for violating the World War I Espionage Act. In truth, what U.S. officials are really targeting him for is that Assange, as head of WikiLeaks, had the audacity to reveal war crimes and other dark-side activities of the U.S. national-security state…
    ..Keep in mind that the Assange prosecution has much more to it than just inflicting harm on Assange. U.S. officials know that they have to send everyone else a message: “The secrecy surrounding our war crimes and dark-side actives is sacrosanct. Don’t ever even think of doing what Assange did. If you do, we will do to you what we have done to him. We will finish you. Even if you are ultimately acquitted, you will be an utterly destroyed individual at the end of the process.”
    ​ Thus, U.S. officials couldn’t care less about Assange’s latest judicial “victory.” They know that British officials will keep him rotting in their jail system until his appeals are finally resolved, if ever. Ideally, from the perspective of U.S. officials, Assange will die during the pendency of his forever appeals, in which case the destruction of his life and his subsequent death in prison will have served its purpose with its message to everyone else: “Don’t ever mess with us or we will do to you what we did to Assange.”​ https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/06/jacob-hornberger/the-destruction-of-julian-assange/

    ​ The Ethical Skeptic, a Systems Analyst by specialty, explains his analysis of data in detail and at length, how he avoided data=processing pitfalls, which attract many paid analysts with a specific point their patrons need delivered. Here is where he arrived:
    ​ USA Full Covid-19 Mortality Accountability – 1,256,200 Manmade US Deaths
    ​ The chart below shows the total impact of our poor decision making as a society, in terms of total mortality, and compares that mortality to the various wars and conflicts our nation has suffered. Of key note inside this death tally are the 688,600 deaths inside the Vaccine/Sudden/Long Covid tally. 95% of this metric resulted from the impact of the mRNA vaccine itself, with the remaining 5% attributable to primarily Long Covid.
    ​ Speaking with an actuary (40 years experience) at one of the largest insurance companies in the world saying the Mortality Statistics are being dramatically underreported and the actual numbers could be 10 times higher. The number of deaths by drug overdoses, suicides, homicides, traffic accidents, aggressive cancers (including colon cancers as young as 15), blood clots, myocarditis, enlarged hearts, strokes have dramatically increased since 2022.

    The State of Things Pandemic – Week 22 2024

    June 14, 2024 at 11:50 am #161159
    John Day
    Participant

    extra vaccine deaths

    Walter M. Chesnut, Confirmation of My 2021 Hypothesis that the Spike Protein Induces Accelerated Aging
    A paper published June 9th confirms the findings. This is an incredible danger of repeated exposure to the Spike Protein.​ https://wmcresearch.substack.com/p/confirmation-of-my-2021-hypothesis-e61

    ​ It seems that suicide rate goes up by 8-9 times after gender-reassignment surgery in teens. Gender Confusion in the young appears to have a lot of overlap with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. It’s different in midlife. Doctors, Medical Groups Call For Focus On Mental Health In Gender-Confused Children https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/doctors-medical-groups-call-focus-mental-health-gender-confused-children

    June 14, 2024 at 11:59 am #161161
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ-JdVEyU9M

    Funny? Sort of. But you need to be better than that. Hit the next level.

    June 14, 2024 at 12:25 pm #161162
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Medvedev Urges To Turn Life In West Into ‘Permanent Nightmare’

    Doesn’t need much more than a good shove at this point

    Look at Duh’merica Big Shitties

    ‘Permanent Nightmare’ comes to mind

    Come to L.A. they said, it would be fun they said

    June 14, 2024 at 12:35 pm #161163
    Oroboros
    Participant

    I just loved the title:

    Pathology and the Ivy League

    Jordan Peterson and Victor Hanson discuss the state of Ivy League universities, the rise of administrative exploitation, and the cost of our institutions losing credibility.

    The ‘ivy leagues’ are a cesspool of pseudo-intellectualism

    .

    June 14, 2024 at 12:39 pm #161164
    tboc
    Participant

    remember at the outset of the SMO in Ukraine one of the big western positions was Russia could not compete on the media narrative front?

    ” Moscow should “obliterate their energy infrastructure, industry, transport, banking and social services. Instil fear over an imminent collapse of all critical infrastructure,” – Medvedev

    what do you think the response will be to this? Is everything on Mr. Medvedev’s list part of the train wreck currently underway in the US? Will the current power brokers alter the current path or double down on maintaining dominance? Will less be contributed to the permanent war and more allocated to repairing and rebuilding infrastructure?

    Plant a single thought in the minds of a society and the leadership of a nation and allow them to accelerate their own demise as more resources are diverted away from critical infrastructure to maintaining and increasing control over wealth in the name of countering an implied threat.

    make your assessment – Stoltenberg and Austin or Gerasimov and Shoigu, Medvedev or Obama

    June 14, 2024 at 12:41 pm #161165
    tboc
    Participant

    Trouble Every Day
    [Verse 1]
    Well I’m about to get upset from watchin’ my TV
    Checkin’ out the news until my eyeballs fail to see
    I mean to say that every day is just another rotten mess
    And when it’s gonna change, my friend, is anybody’s guess

    [Chorus]
    So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’, hopin’ for the best
    Even think I’ll go to prayin’ every time I hear ’em sayin’
    That there’s no way to delay that trouble comin’ every day
    No way to delay that trouble comin’ every day – Zappa 1965

    June 14, 2024 at 1:39 pm #161168
    tboc
    Participant

    how many ways can one say we are lying to ourselves?
    how many time does it need to be said?

    chemical weapons used in the Korean Conflict – c’mon man, no way
    a naturally occuring virus – well thats what the experts say
    someone who supports Israel is going to save the world – please hand me my flying pigs net

    who cares about someone’s short pole fishing trips? Oh yeah, enquiring minds want to know
    who cares about lead in childrens drinking water? not someone who cares about short pole fishing trips
    a Hush Fund here and a Hush Fund there and before you know it short pole fishing does not exist.

    BREAKING NEWS!!!:
    “over harvesting of snapper in the murky waters of a national capitol continues unabated”
    Lets go to our reporter, Barely Buxom, on the scene:
    “Dip, Authorities say there is no reason for concern as Betty White has assured us “Those things can take a beating”. back to you pencil neck pinhead!

    all reference to Timex watches has been omitted in a effort to maintain propriety

    June 14, 2024 at 1:48 pm #161169
    my parents said know
    Participant

    The thing that I remember most from Deagel was the line (later removed) that people would die “from a type of suicide”- not overt, but rather through a loss of interest in life; because of desperation and despair.
    The more 5 billion people hear that they are going to die sooner rather than later from the shots, the more likely they will have a devil-may-care attitude towards all-out war, even nuclear war.

    June 14, 2024 at 2:23 pm #161170
    jb-hb
    Participant

    ““It’s not a question if congress has jurisdiction over the Supreme Court, it is what power are we going to exercise” AOC

    As if she thought it would be brilliant to quote the new Disney Star Wars disaster The Acolyte, made by Harvey Weinstein’s personal secretary…

    “This isn’t about Good or Bad. It’s about Power and who is allowed to use it.”

    Straight out of Alinsky

    1:14

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtytYWhg2mc

    We used to have humble moisture farmers and little hobbits and children visiting their uncle over the summer that pluck up their courage and do what they can with the little power they have because of good/bad. But now we “should” do both fiction and politics only based on power. Alinsky. Giving us rules for building stable not totally insane societies that can totally build things and maintain things and people can be happy sometimes, well, not right now, maybe later, trust us. Not a total killjoy or anything. Thanks, assholes.

    June 14, 2024 at 2:25 pm #161171
    zerosum
    Participant

    How to end the Ukraine war
    How to get peace In Ukraine

    • West Has Declared ‘War Without Rules’ On Russia – Medvedev (RT)

    War “maximum damage,”
    https://swentr.site/russia/599204-medvedev-maximum-damage-west/

    “Moscow should “obliterate their energy infrastructure, industry, transport, banking and social services. Instill fear over an imminent collapse of all critical infrastructure..”

    ————–

    June 14, 2024 at 2:54 pm #161172
    my parents said know
    Participant

    What you don’t know can hurt you,
    More than you can ever understand.
    Because when I’m in charge of all the data,
    I’m the one who holds the winning hand.

    June 14, 2024 at 3:03 pm #161173
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Today, the print edition of the WSJ ran an article titled “Yemeni Rebels Tie Up U.S. Navy in the Red Sea”.

    Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Iran-backed Houthi rebels have lobbed missiles, drones and other weapons at commercial vessels and warships nearly every day. Although most of the weapons have been shot down, at least 77 cargo ships have been hit, and one British-owned ship carrying 20,000 tons of fertilizer aboard was sunk.

    “Largely ineffective” reminds me of “mostly peaceful” or “safe and effective”:

    Though largely ineffective, the Houthi attacks have been able to disrupt shipping and keep the U.S. and its allies tied down, frustrating the Navy’s decades-old mission of keeping open the region’s critical sea lanes.

    The US Navy says it already shot about $1 billion of ammo in the process.

    The Navy says it has spent about $1 billion on munitions used in defending the Red Sea, conducting more than 450 strikes and intercepting more than 200 drones and missiles since November when the attacks began.

    The “U.S. defense industrial base” apparently can’t keep up with the demand:

    U.S. officials worry that the conflict is simply not sustainable for the U.S. defense industrial base, already strained by the demands for weaponry from Ukraine and Israel.

    “Their supply of weapons from Iran is cheap and highly sustainable, but ours is expensive, our supply chains are crunched, and our logistics tails are long,” said Emily Harding of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “We are playing whack a mole and they are playing a long game.”

    How an Iranian-Backed Militia Ties Down U.S. Naval Forces in Red Sea
    Yemen’s Houthis have launched hundreds of attacks, and American military officials see no end in sight.
    By Gordon Lubold
    June 12, 2024 11:00 pm ET
    Appeared in the Jun 14, 2024 , print edition as ‘Yemeni Rebels Tie Up U.S. Navy in the Red Sea’
    (behind a paywall)

    June 14, 2024 at 3:26 pm #161174
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Counterfeit Titanium Found In Some Boeing And Airbus Jets

    “Some recently manufactured Boeing and Airbus jets have components made from titanium that was sold using fake documentation… …The investigation comes after a parts supplier found small holes in the material from corrosion“

    Corrosion? Then why are you referring to it as “Titanium that was sold using fake documentation” as opposed to: Not-Titanium™?

    “…being investigated by Spirit AeroSystems”

    Investigated BY? Don’t you mean BEING INVESTIGATED? No??!?!?

    I have other additional questions….
    https://imgs.search.brave.com/2lkk8M4pI61C6jR2Dz36p48giEaLW3sjRrGzX77qnmA/rs:fit:860:0:0/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly9jbG91/ZGZyb250LXVzLWVh/c3QtMi5pbWFnZXMu/YXJjcHVibGlzaGlu/Zy5jb20vcmV1dGVy/cy9RNE1LQ0lRWVNO/TkxMRldFNllPQzJF/Tk1FUS5qcGc
    https://imgs.search.brave.com/cIGRYiQOHAGNUB5llvfVxzucazbfNHz7l5iVj5cqOjY/rs:fit:860:0:0/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly9pLmlu/c2lkZXIuY29tLzVk/YmIwMzhlNjk1YjU4/MjFjODQzNjcwOD93/aWR0aD03MDA

    June 14, 2024 at 3:28 pm #161175
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    It’s not the catchiest American folk song, and it’s musicality will make your teeth hurt, but it is so agonizingly APPROPRIATE that we should make it the National Anthem.

    Sing along.

    There’s A Hole In The Bucket

    There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
    There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza,
    There’s a hole.

    Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
    Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, fix it.

    With what should I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
    With what should I fix it, dear Liza, with what?

    With a straw, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
    With a straw, dear Henry, dear Henry, with a straw.

    But the straw is too long, dear Liza, dear Liza,
    The straw is too long, dear Liza, too long.

    Then cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
    Then cut it dear Henry, dear Henry, cut it!

    With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
    With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, with what?

    With an ax, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
    With an ax, dear Henry, an ax.

    But the ax is too dull, dear Liza, dear Liza,
    The ax is too dull, dear Liza, too dull.

    Then, sharpen it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
    Then sharpen it dear Henry, dear Henry, sharpen it!

    With what should I sharpen it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
    With what should I sharpen, dear Liza, with what?

    With a stone, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
    With a stone, dear Henry, dear Henry, a stone.

    But the stone is too dry, dear Liza, dear Liza,
    The stone is too dry, dear Liza, too dry.

    Then wet it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
    Then wet it dear Henry, dear Henry, wet it.

    With what should I wet it, dear Liza, dear Liza,
    With what should I wet it, dear Liza, with what?

    With water, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
    With water, dear Henry, dear Henry, with water.

    But how shall I get it?, dear Liza, dear Liza,
    But how shall I get it?, dear Liza, with what?

    In the bucket, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
    In the bucket, dear Henry, dear Henry, in the bucket!

    But there’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
    There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole.
    There’s a hole.

    June 14, 2024 at 4:45 pm #161178
    Dr. D
    Participant

    UN-Titanium, of course.

    Un-cola
    https://img.ifunny.co/images/3c6099cfe66bb8d474a618c571838d5306df34883acc9bb5e5eaa660d27a529d_1.jpg

    June 14, 2024 at 4:55 pm #161179
    those darned kids
    Participant

    i think they are changing mr. biden’s “medications” to make him look even worse than he is.

    he looks like he’s been “roofied”.

    June 14, 2024 at 4:56 pm #161180
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    I expected some kudos for the Paul Simon video. But no. You guys! 🙂

    I’m in a 100+F heatwave now. Makes work challenging. Life itself, even… It’s only early June…

    June 14, 2024 at 5:12 pm #161181
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Joe Biden Vows Not To Pardon Hunter

    Maybe he’s not lying this time, if his handlers are planning to have Kamala Harris pardon Hunter.

    June 14, 2024 at 5:18 pm #161182
    zerosum
    Participant

    Losing means winning
    Winning means losing

    June 14, 2024 at 5:19 pm #161183
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Dennis Kucinich warns of the automatic draft registration coming soon to every male aged 18-26 in the US (including non-citizens).

    Our government is planning a big draft, conscripting millions of young Americans for an even bigger war!

    I call to your attention a Democratic amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was slipped into the almost trillion-dollar Pentagon war spending bill, by voice vote, in the House Armed Services committee.

    The Democratic Amendment to H.R. 8070, the National Defense Authorization (NDAA) reads:

    Section 531. Selective Service System: Automatic Registration. SEC. 3. (a)(1) “Except as otherwise provided in this title, every male citizen of the United States, and every other male person residing in the United States, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, shall be automatically registered under this Act by the Director of the Selective Service System.”

    This amendment is in the NDAA legislation and there is no pending amendment to strip it from the bill. So, when the NDAA passes, as early as this week, Congress will have taken steps to make automatic conscription the law of the land…

    The new law will automatically register all males between the ages of 18 and 26. Selective Service will notify in writing every young American male that they have been registered and will prescribe regulations which can require the registrant to provide “date of birth, address, social security account number, phone number and email address….”

    There are members of Congress who advocate that young women also be included in any draft, which could bring to 32 million the number of Americans of draft-eligible age.

    https://scheerpost.com/2024/06/14/dennis-kucinich-america-prepares-for-global-war-and-restarts-the-draft-for-18-26-year-olds/

    June 14, 2024 at 5:47 pm #161184
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    A country so worthless that the only way to get brave young men to protect it is to FORCE them into being (and serving) as slaves-in-uniform, is a country that stopped being a nation a long time ago.

    June 14, 2024 at 6:10 pm #161185
    morongobill
    Participant

    If Newsome is the nominee, this should be played by the Republican campaign.

    June 14, 2024 at 6:15 pm #161186
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Russia is getting 30K per month military volunteers X 12 = 360,000 per year

    They are beginning to understand how utterly Evil the West is.

    The Empire of Lies Military Mafia serve the interests of goons and thieves, not the US population.

    Duh’merican Army recruiting poster:

    .

    June 14, 2024 at 6:17 pm #161187
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    June 14, 2024 at 6:18 pm #161188
    zerosum
    Participant

    If you qualify for service, you’re helping ensure a secure future for your community and the United States of America.
    https://www.defensenews.com/news/pentagon-congress/2024/05/23/lawmakers-move-to-automate-selective-service-registration-for-all-men/
    Lawmakers move to automate Selective Service registration for all men
    Wednesday, May 22, 2024

    https://www.sss.gov/
    Federal Law requires nearly all male US citizens and male immigrants, (to train an army of mercenaries), 18 through 25, register with Selective Service.
    ———–

    June 14, 2024 at 6:20 pm #161189
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    June 14, 2024 at 6:29 pm #161190
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    False-Flag

    June 14, 2024 at 6:35 pm #161191
    zerosum
    Participant

    Can the american people read sputnik?
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20240614/scott-ritter-west-has-to-decide-whether-it-wants-peace-after-putins-ukraine-proposal-1118954410.html
    Scott Ritter: West Has to Decide Whether It Wants Peace After Putin’s Ukraine Proposal
    The military veteran pointed out that the Russian president has also made it clear that if the proposals are snubbed, the military confrontation will continue and the future requirements for peace could be very different.

    ———–
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20240614/ex-pentagon-analyst-ukraine-should-heed-russias-new-proposal-to-avoid-further-losses-1118962853.html
    Ex-Pentagon Analyst: Ukraine Should Heed Russia’s New Proposal to Avoid Further Losses

    Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 14 made yet another proposal to settle the Ukrainian conflict, signaling that Moscow is ready to negotiate a peace agreement if the Kiev regime pulls out from the Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, which joined Russia in the result of referendums, and renounces its intent to join NATO.
    ———–

    June 14, 2024 at 7:48 pm #161192
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    Farley-Putin

    June 14, 2024 at 8:26 pm #161199
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I wonder if Lindsey Graham has any conscious understanding of the meaning of his own words. He just said, in an extremely public and official setting, that the compelling reason that the United States needed to take all of Russia’s natural resources was that if we didn’t go in and take them then the Russians were going use those trillions of dollars worth of their own property for their own benefit.

    It’s been a while since I’ve heard it explained so plainly. If I don’t steal that guys wallet at gunpoint then that guy is going to go off and spend that money on himself! Horrors! He is practically certain to use it to become so strong that I can’t rob him any more!

    Thank’s Lindsey. Couldn’t have done a better job of writing your confession if I had composed it myself.

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