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Debt Rattle June 21 2024

Jun 212024
 
 June 21, 2024  Posted by at 8:48 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , ,


Claude Monet Water lilies 1904

 

• West Could Ditch Zelensky Early Next Year – Putin (RT)
• Zelensky Has No One Left to Turn to, Except Putin (DeMartino)
• Zelensky Bans Another Ukrainian Opposition Party (RT)
• Press Freedom ‘Shrinking’ In Ukraine – Reporters Without Borders (RT)
• Russia Fears a NATO Attack. Here’s Why. (Istomin)
• NATO ‘Moving Into Asia’ – Putin (RT)
• Russia Could Arm North Korea – Putin (RT)
• Western Property Could Be Seized – Zakharova (RT)
• “We Need Icebreakers” – And More Strategic Partnerships (Pepe Escobar)
• ‘Strategic Defeat’ Means End Of Russia – Putin (RT)
• Russia Will ‘Never’ Withdraw Troops – Putin (RT)
• Missouri AG Sues New York State Over Trump Lawfare (ZH)
• No Tax on Tips (RCW)
• UK PM Owns $7 Million Home In California – Politico (RT)
• French First Lady Transgender Libel Case Goes To Trial (RT)
• Key Evidence Missing In Assange Snooping Case (RT)

 

 

 

 

Bannon Trump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1803545732223303793

 

 

Sachs

 

 

Attack mode

 

 

More attack mode

 

 

Omarosa is selling a book

 

 

Tapper 2020
https://twitter.com/i/status/1803795912377942091

 

 

Maldonado

 

 

 

 

“Zelensky remains of use to foreign sponsors only as long as he can enforce policies that will help Kiev prolong hostilities with Russia..”

• West Could Ditch Zelensky Early Next Year – Putin (RT)

Ukraine’s supporters in the West will likely remove Vladimir Zelensky as soon as he outlives his usefulness, after pushing through all the necessary “unpopular decisions,” Russian President Vladimir Putin has predicted. Zelensky remains in power in Ukraine despite his term in office having officially expired on May 20. He opted not to hold a presidential election, citing martial law imposed due to the conflict with Russia. Putin has repeatedly stressed that the Ukrainian constitution does not provide for prolonging a president’s term, and explicitly states that elected lawmakers should retain their powers until a new parliament can be chosen by the Ukrainian people. On Thursday he reiterated, that the country’s laws clearly state that Zelensky’s “train has left” and that presidential power should be transferred to the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada.

“What are we even talking about? The West simply doesn’t want to replace him right now, the time has not come yet. I’ve already said it, but I think it’s obvious to anyone,” the Russian leader said at a press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam. “They will pin all unpopular decisions on him, including lowering the military age, and that’s it, then he will be replaced. I believe it will be sometime in the first half of next year,” he added. Putin echoed analysis shared by the Russian foreign intelligence service (SVR) earlier in the day, which claimed Zelensky will be scapegoated for the country’s inevitable military defeat. “It is becoming increasingly evident that the White House will soon shut down ‘Project Zelensky’,” the SVR stated on Thursday, noting that retired General Valery Zaluzhny, the former top commander of the armed forces, is a likely candidate to replace him.

Last week, Putin noted in a keynote speech on Russian foreign policy that Zelensky remains of use to foreign sponsors only as long as he can enforce policies that will help Kiev prolong hostilities with Russia. The Russian president also said any agreements signed by Zelensky with foreign nations after May 20, such as the recent bilateral ten-year security deal with the US, can be easily discarded by other parties, since he no longer has any legal authority to represent Ukraine.

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“..the armed forces, where they say approval of Zelensky has dropped to 17%…”

• Zelensky Has No One Left to Turn to, Except Putin (DeMartino)

With an increasing number of Ukrainians turning against Volodymyr Zelensky, no chance to win the war and a so-called “international community” abandoning him, Zelensky is finding himself without allies and with no escape from the hell he created for his country. While according to the pro-Ukrainian Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) a small majority of Ukrainians still say they support Zelensky, that number is rapidly dropping, from 77% in September 2023 to just 56% in May. The poll authors, of the dystopian-named MOBILISE Project, speculated that the decrease in popularity could stem from the new mobilization law. “Zelensky’s approval rating fell throughout winter 2023/2024. This fall occurred in tandem with the introduction of new mobilization law,” it noted. It also notes that only 34% of Ukrainians said they support the mobilization law, while 52% disagreed with it. Rumors of an additional mobilization law lowering the age even more are likely to make the situation worse for Zelensky.

Keep in mind that these poll results are the work of the KIIS and MOBILISE, pro-Zelensky-regime organizations. Additionally, a different poll by another pro-Ukrainian organization, the Razumkov Centre, found that 64.5% of Ukrainians stated “You have to be very careful with people” when asked if most people can be trusted. Considering respondents are living in a war-torn country under martial law and full-scale mobilization, it is reasonable to question if every respondent felt safe giving anti-regime answers to pollsters. Nevertheless, the trend is too difficult for even pro-Ukrainian sources to spin convincingly into an endorsement of Zelensky. And the SVR said that the situation is even worse within the armed forces, where they say approval of Zelensky has dropped to 17%.

“[Ukrainians] are without electricity 80% of the day, rolling blackouts major cities… are being bombed. Infrastructure, valuable infrastructure being bombed,” explained documentarian Regis Tremblay on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour. “They’ve lost over 600,000, according to Douglas MacGregor and Scott Ritter, over 600,000 dead with a million wounded who cannot return to the front… This guy is a dead man walking. It’s only a matter of time now before he is no longer useful to the United States and they throw him under the bus.” The United States has a long history of supporting and then abandoning allies once they are no longer useful to them. Just a partial list reveals the grim possibilities that result from accepting US arms. Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Ngo Dinh Diem, all received US arms and all ended up dead at the hands of the US government. “Zelensky is no longer the president of Ukraine. His term ended and now he is an illegal president,” noted Tremblay.

With his military dwindling and dissatisfied, his people turning against him, and his allies shunning him, Zelensky might want to think about what he can do to achieve peace. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out his terms to begin negotiations, while Zelensky’s NATO benefactors rejected it outright; it was an olive branch he should strongly consider grabbing. “We are ready to continue our dialogue with the Ukrainian side. And it doesn’t matter where they take place – in Minsk, Istanbul or Switzerland,” Putin said at a press conference on Thursday while visiting Vietnam. “I do not think that such nihilism [by Ukraine and the West] regarding our proposals will remain forever. For sure, something will change, including our conditions, depending on the situation on the ground,” Putin added.

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There was still one left?

• Zelensky Bans Another Ukrainian Opposition Party (RT)

A Ukrainian court has banned the Nash Krai (Our Land) political party and ordered the seizure of its assets at the request of the Ministry of Justice. The move is the latest in a crackdown on the opposition under Vladimir Zelensky’s administration. A panel of judges from the Eighth Administrative Court of Appeal issued the ruling on Wednesday, according to a statement. “The court satisfied the claims of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine: the activities of the political party Nash Krai were banned; the property, funds and other assets of the party, its regional, city, district organizations, primary cells and other structural units were transferred to the state,” the statement read.

The party was registered in August 2011 as the ‘Bloc Party’ and was renamed ‘Nash Krai’ in 2014. From 2015, the party positioned itself as a “group of local leaders and businessmen” who aimed to avoid political games and intrigue, according to RBK Ukraine. Only three of its members were elected to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) as independents in 2019, but the party gained some 1,694 seats in regional administrations during local elections in 2020. Following the escalation with Russia in February 2022, Zelensky banned major political competition, including Opposition Platform – For Life (OPZZh), the second biggest party in terms of seats in the Verkhovna Rada. He also cracked down on the media, shutting down multiple television channels associated with his political opponents and consolidating nine of the largest TV networks into a single 24-hour state-run broadcast dubbed ‘Telemarathon’.

Zelensky’s presidential term expired on May 20, although he chose not to hold elections under the pretext of martial law imposed after the beginning of the conflict with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has noted the Ukrainian constitution has no provision for prolonging a president’s term in this way. It forbids holding elections during a period of emergency, and explicitly states lawmakers should retain their powers until a new parliament can be elected by the people, Putin said, calling the current Ukrainian political situation a “usurpation of power.”

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A joke.

• Press Freedom ‘Shrinking’ In Ukraine – Reporters Without Borders (RT)

Independent media outlets are being subjected to growing pressure in Ukraine, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has warned. The non-profit group urged the government in Kiev to combat impunity for violent crimes against reporters and to end arbitrary restrictions regarding coverage of the conflict with Russia. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signed a law in 2022 that significantly expanded the government’s media regulation powers, allowing for outlets to be temporarily banned. The legislation came under fire both domestically and in the West at the time. On Wednesday, RSF released a report titled ‘Shrinking press freedom in Ukraine: urgent need to implement a roadmap for the right to information’, which claimed that “political pressure and obstacles are mounting on the Ukrainian media.”

“Since the beginning of 2024, at least five journalists have been under surveillance or threatened because of publications on corruption,” the group estimated. The document details in particular how the threat of forcible enlistment into the Ukrainian armed forces has been used to silence reporters. Moreover, it accused Ukrainian authorities of directly interfering in the work of some media outlets. RSF cited the case of Ukrinform, which had a military representative installed at its helm last month. Around the same time, the existence of ‘stop lists’ of guests banned from being invited on air by the same media outlet was revealed, the report wrote. RSF went on to denounce a decree passed earlier this month that obliged journalists to submit any quotes and interviews with military personnel to a special center for strategic military communications for clearing.

“The pressure, threats and interference must stop… the Ukrainian media landscape remains fragile,” Jeanne Cavelier, head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, emphasized. Citing Ukrainian journalists and monitoring groups, the New York Times reported on Tuesday that the government in Kiev has increasingly been curtailing press freedoms, in a manner that cannot be justified by wartime security needs. According to the article, the authorities in Kiev are trying to ensure that the opposition, especially the party of former president Petro Poroshenko, does not receive positive coverage in the press, and that the government and the military are never criticized. The newspaper claimed that the Ukrainian government has also had “tense relationships” with Western media throughout the conflict, temporarily revoking military press passes for journalists from several outlets, following reports criticizing the military.

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“The belief that their situation will deteriorate over time leads states to take increasingly adventurous steps..”

• Russia Fears a NATO Attack. Here’s Why. (Istomin)

A recent admission by US President Joe Biden is telling: “If we ever let Ukraine fail, mark my words, you will see Poland go, and you will see all these countries along Russia’s actual border negotiate on their own.” Thus, the good old ‘domino theory’ is back in the minds of Western strategists. The growing bitterness of Western countries towards Russia is consistent with the way in which they look at armed conflicts in terms of the logic of preventive war. Rather than linking interstate clashes to aggressive opportunism, this model sees escalation as a product of fears about the future. The belief that their situation will deteriorate over time leads states to take increasingly adventurous steps, up to and including the use of force. Throughout history, major wars have usually been the product of this preemptive logic – the desire to strike before an expected weakening.

For example, the collapse of the continental blockade system led Napoleon to attack Russia. German fears about the prospects for modernization of the Russian army were the trigger for the First World War. A similar dynamic can be seen today in the policy of the West, which has invested considerable resources in confronting Russia. The fact that Moscow doesn’t countenance losing in any way, but, on the contrary, is gradually moving towards achieving its goals, can only lead to frustration on the part of the US and its allies. This does not lead to reconciliation, but to the search for more effective means to hinder Russia. Having failed in its plans to destroy the Russian economy with restrictive measures and to inflict a strategic defeat on Moscow at the hands of Kiev, the West is moving ever closer to the brink of direct military confrontation. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly insensitive to the possible consequences of such a scenario.

Like casino players, the US and its allies are raising the stakes with each successive bet. The growing adventurism is clearly visible in the debate over the deployment of Western troops in Ukraine. Moreover, not only hysterical Western European leaders, but also seemingly more responsible American generals have begun to speak out on the issue. For example, the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Brown, has concluded that the deployment of NATO troops to the country is inevitable. The West’s willingness to take risks is reinforced by its contradictory, if not schizophrenic, view of Russia. Public figures never tire of claiming that Moscow’s potential was greatly overestimated in the past and has been further weakened by the Ukraine operation. At the same time, without being aware of the dissonance, they justify the build-up of their own armed forces on the grounds of an increased Russian threat.

An Irish writer once labelled this sort of thinking as “Russophrenia.” The inconsistency is also evident in the portrayal of Russia as an insatiable expansionist intent on invading its neighbours, combined with a belief in its reverence for Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, which guarantees that NATO members will provide mutual assistance in the event of an attack on one of them. The portrayal of Russia as a ‘paper tiger’ – an aggressive but weak actor – lays the groundwork for pre-emptive escalations to reverse the trends of confrontation unfavorable to the West. And they can be carried out not only in Ukraine. The idea of restricting Moscow’s access to the Baltic Sea, which ignores the inevitable response to threats to Kaliningrad, is evidence of this, and is regularly introduced into Western discussions.

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“..the Chinese Foreign Ministry also denounced NATO as a “walking war machine that causes chaos wherever it goes.”

• NATO ‘Moving Into Asia’ – Putin (RT)

The US-led military bloc is increasingly shifting its focus on the Asia-Pacific, creating security threats not only to all countries in the region, but Russia as well, President Vladimir Putin said in Vietnam a day after signing a strategic partnership treaty with DPRK leader Kim Jong-un. Following a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart To Lam on Thursday, Putin announced that the sides “showed mutual interest in building a reliable and adequate regional security architecture based on the principles of the non-use of force and a peaceful settlement of disputes, in which there will be no place for selective military-political blocs.” “The positions of Russia and Vietnam on these issues largely coincide or are close to each other,” Putin said. At a press conference later in the day, the Russian leader noted that the situation in the world is developing in such a way that requires strengthening cooperation with partners, “especially in those areas that we consider important, including taking into account what is happening in Asia.”

“We see what’s happening in Asia, right? A block system is being put together… NATO is already moving there as if to a permanent place of residence. This, of course, poses a threat to all countries in the region, including the Russian Federation. We are obliged to respond to this and we will do so,” he insisted. Russia reserves the right to provide arms to allies, as the West claims it can arm Ukraine with impunity, and could send long-range weapons to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and other countries, Putin added. Last month, in a thinly veiled reference to NATO and other Western-dominated organizations, Putin warned that the Asia-Pacific region is “no place for closed military and political alliances,” adding that both China and Russia deem the establishment of such blocs as “harmful and counterproductive.”

Back in 2021, the US, UK and Australia established the so-called AUKUS security partnership, which seeks to help Canberra acquire nuclear-powered submarines. Washington is reportedly attempting to fast-track Canada and Japan’s membership. Beijing has condemned the AUKUS pact as an attempt to build an “Asia-Pacific version of NATO,” with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin arguing last year that it is based on a “Cold War mentality which will only motivate an arms race, damage the international nuclear nonproliferation regime, and harm regional stability and peace.” Earlier this year, the Chinese Foreign Ministry also denounced NATO as a “walking war machine that causes chaos wherever it goes.” Beijing has accused NATO of meddling in Asian affairs, saying the bloc is a “terrible monster” and has extended a “black hand” toward the region.

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“We don’t need a first strike..” [..] “Because our return strike is guaranteed to destroy any attacker.”

• Russia Could Arm North Korea – Putin (RT)

Since the West claims it has the right to arm Ukraine with impunity, Russia reserves the same right and might send long-range precision weapons to the DPRK and other countries, President Vladimir Putin has said. Putin spoke with reporters in Hanoi following his meetings with the leadership of Vietnam on Thursday. One of the questions related to his previous suggestion that Moscow could send missiles to the adversaries of the West, in response to the US and its allies greenlighting Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia. ”We do not rule out supplying weapons to other countries, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Putin said. “Let the West think where they might end up.”

Western countries that have supplied long-range and other weapons to Ukraine have said they can’t be held responsible for how Kiev uses them, and insist that it does not make them parties to the conflict, Putin elaborated, adding that Russia therefore reserves the same right for itself. The Russian president also noted that Moscow is considering modifications to its doctrine on the use of atomic weapons, as the West appears to be working on low-yield weapons to lower the nuclear threshold. “We don’t need a first strike,” he said in response to another question. “Because our return strike is guaranteed to destroy any attacker.”

When asked about the peace terms he offered Ukraine last week, Putin said that Russia has always been willing to negotiate, while Kiev and its Western backers sabotaged both the Minsk process and the Istanbul talks. However, the terms he outlined will not be valid forever, Putin cautioned. ”Our terms will change depending on the situation on the ground,” the Russian president said. Putin arrived in Hanoi on Wednesday evening from Pyongyang, where he signed a strategic partnership treaty with DPRK leader Kim Jong-un. His trip to Vietnam has involved the strengthening of bilateral ties with Hanoi, including trade and nuclear energy cooperation.

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Euroclear.

• Western Property Could Be Seized – Zakharova (RT)

Russia has a “wide arsenal” of political and economic countermeasures to respond to the potential confiscation of its sovereign assets, including a tit-for-tat seizure of Western property in Russia, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations agreed at last week’s summit in Apulia, Italy, to use interest from frozen Russian assets to secure a $50 billion loan for Kiev. Zakharova pointed out that Russia has a “significant” amount of Western funds and property under its jurisdiction. “All of it may be subject to Russian retaliatory policy and retaliatory actions. The arsenal of political and economic countermeasures is wide,” she told reporters at a regular press briefing on Wednesday. Russia, however, will not disclose the nature of the retaliatory actions, Zakharova added.

G7 countries have approved in principle a US plan to provide Ukraine with a $50 billion loan issued against frozen Russian assets, to help Kiev buy weapons and rebuild damaged infrastructure. The idea is to use nearly $300 billion in Russian sovereign funds frozen in the West in the wake of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, as the basis for the loan. G7 countries would use profits from the assets to cover the debt interest. Most of the frozen assets are being held in the EU. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said recently that the profits earned from the immobilized Russian assets amounts to around $3-$5 billion per year. The G7 intends to disburse the funds through multiple channels, directing them to Ukraine’s military, general budget, and reconstruction needs. Disagreements, however, remain among the US and its allies as to who will carry the loan risks if Western governments lose control over the Russian assets. Moscow has repeatedly said it will treat any attempt to tap into them as theft, and will retaliate.

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“..the high quality of life in Murmansk..”

• “We Need Icebreakers” – And More Strategic Partnerships (Pepe Escobar)

The St. Petersburg forum offered a wealth of crucial sessions discussing connectivity corridors. One of the key ones was on the Northern Sea Route (NSR) – or, in Chinese terminology, the Arctic Silk Road: the number one future alternative to the Suez canal. With an array of main corporate actors in the room – for instance, from Rosneft, Novatek, Norilsk Nickel – as well as governors and ministers, the stage was set for a comprehensive debate. Top Putin adviser Igor Levitin set the tone: to facilitate seamless container transport, the federal government needs to invest in seaports and icebreakers; a comparison was made – in terms of technological challenge – to the building of the Trans-Siberian railway; and Levitin also stressed the endless expansion possibilities for city hubs such as Murmansk, Archangelsk and Vladivostok. Add to it that the NSR will connect with another fast-growing trans-Eurasia connectivity corridor: the INSTC (International North South Transportation Corridor), whose main actors are BRICS members Russia, Iran and India.

Alexey Chekunkov, minister for development of the Far East and the Arctic, plugged a trial run of the NSR, which costs the same as railway shipping without the bottlenecks. He praised the NSR as a “service” and coined the ultimate motto: “We need icebreakers!” Russia of course will be the leading player in the whole project, benefitting 2.5 million people who live in the North. Sultan Sulayem, CEO of Dubai-based cargo logistics and maritime services powerhouse DP World, confirmed that “the current supply chains are not reliable anymore”, as well as being inefficient; the NSR is “faster, more reliable and cheaper”. From Tokyo to London, the route runs for 24k km; via the NSR, it’s only 13k km. Sulayem is adamant: the NSR is a game-changer and “needs to be implemented now”.

Vladimir Panov, the special representative for the Arctic from Rosatom, confirmed that the Arctic is “a treasure chest”, and the NSR “will unlock it”. Rosatom will have all the necessary infrastructure in place “in five years or so”. He credited the fast pace of developments to the high-level Putin-Xi strategic dialogue – complete with the creation of a Russia-China working group.

Andrey Chibis, the governor of Murmansk, noted that this deep, key port for the NSR – the main container hub in the Arctic – “does not freeze”. He acknowledged the enormity of the logistical challenges – but at the same time that will attract a lot of skilled workers, considering the high quality of life in Murmansk. The building of the NSR indeed can be interpreted as a 21st century, accelerated version of the building of the Trans-Siberian railway in the late 19th/early 20th century. Under the overarching framework of Eurasia integration, the interconnections with other corridors will be endless – from the INSTC to BRI projects part of the Chinese New Silk Roads, the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and ASEAN. In a session focused on the Greater Eurasia Partnership (GEP) Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Pankin praised this concept of Eurasia “without dividing lines, uniting ancient civilizations, transportation corridors and a unified common space of 5 billion people”.

Inevitable connections were drawn – from GEP to the EAEU and the SCO, with the proliferation of multimodal transport and alternative payment systems. Khan Sohail, the deputy secretary-general of the SCO, remarked how virtually “everyday there are new announcements by China” – a long way “since the SCO was established 21 years ago”, then based exclusively on security. Big developments are expected at the SCO summit next month in Astana. Sergey Glazyev, the minister of macroeconomics at the Eurasia Economic Commission, part of the EAEU, praised the EAEU-SCO progressive integration and fast-developing transactions in baskets of national currencies, something “that was unchallengeable 10 years ago”. He admitted that even if GEP has not been formalized yet, facts on the ground are proving that Eurasia can be self-sufficient. GEP may be on the initial stage, but it’s fast advancing the process to “harmonize free trade”.

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1,000 years.

• ‘Strategic Defeat’ Means End Of Russia – Putin (RT)

The West must realize that defeating Russia is not only unlikely, but impossible due to the unity of its people who understand that it would spell the end of the country’s thousand-year history, President Vladimir Putin has argued. Speaking at a press conference in Hanoi following his meetings with the leadership of Vietnam on Thursday, Putin addressed the issue of Western powers “raising the temperature” of the Ukraine conflict through gradual escalation. “Apparently, they expect us to get scared at some point. But at the same time, they also say that they want to achieve a strategic defeat of Russia on the battlefield. What does this mean for Russia? For Russia, this means the end of its statehood. This means the end of the thousand-year history of the Russian state. I think this is understandable for everyone,” Putin noted. And then the question arises: Why should we be afraid? Wouldn’t it be better to go all the way then? This is elementary logic.

Even though Putin repeatedly admitted that any conflict involving the use of nuclear weapons would have dire consequences for humanity, he has maintained that Moscow would be forced to defend itself using all available means if the country’s very existence was at stake. Back in 2018, he famously said that “as a citizen of Russia and the head of the Russian state I must ask myself: Why would we want a world without Russia?” The US and its allies have funneled weapons, ammunition, and equipment to Ukraine over the past two years, while insisting they are not a party to the conflict but want to inflict “a strategic defeat” on Moscow. In recent months, Washington, London, and other NATO members announced they were lifting restrictions on Kiev’s use of their weapons against Russia.

Citing the need to send the West a message, last month the Kremlin ordered the military to carry out drills in deploying non-strategic nuclear weapons. Asked on Thursday whether Russia could change its nuclear doctrine to include a clause on the possibility of launching a pre-emptive nuclear strike, Putin emphasized there was no need for that. “We do not need a preventive strike yet, because the enemy is guaranteed to be destroyed in a retaliatory strike,” he said.

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“..Kiev has an interest in our troops remaining there, because they don’t want to hold elections.”

• Russia Will ‘Never’ Withdraw Troops – Putin (RT)

Ukraine’s demand for the withdrawal of Russian troops is only designed to perpetuate the conflict, because that’s the only way the current Kiev government can stay in power, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Putin was speaking at a press conference in Hanoi following his meetings with the leadership of Vietnam on Thursday. Among other topics, he addressed the Ukraine conflict. “If negotiations are linked to the withdrawal of our troops, about which the Kiev regime dreams, then this will never happen,” Putin told reporters. “Because the Kiev regime does not want to relinquish power, does not want to hold normal elections according to the Ukrainian constitution, they will forever drag out the ceasefire talks,” the Russian president added. “This means that Kiev has an interest in our troops remaining there, because they don’t want to hold elections.”

As for attempts to “beat back” Russian troops from Kharkov, Putin said that Kiev’s orders to achieve a victory on the battlefield “at all costs” will mean it is Ukraine that will suffer. Kharkov, he said, is a tactical operation, which Ukraine is trying to portray as strategic. When asked about the Western rejection of the peace terms he offered Ukraine last week, Putin said that it was true to form. “I expected just such a reaction, at first,” he said. “What happens later, time will tell. It all depends on how the situation develops on the ground.” Russia has always been willing to negotiate, while Ukraine and its Western backers sabotaged the Minsk process and the Istanbul talks, Putin said, noting that the terms he outlined will not be valid forever.

According to the Russian president, Ukraine has to recognize Russian sovereignty over the entire territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, “as defined by their administrative borders at the time they joined Ukraine [in August 1991].” Kiev must withdraw its military from the four regions and inform Moscow in writing that it no longer plans to join NATO, before any ceasefire talks can begin, Putin said last Friday. Vladimir Zelensky has denounced the proposal as an “ultimatum,” insisting that the only way to end the conflict is based on his “peace formula,” which amounts to a Russian surrender. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that Putin’s offer was not “made in good faith,” and would cost Kiev “significantly more land,” while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called it a “classic land grab” and an attempt to influence the ‘peace conference’ in Switzerland.

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This could have teeth.

• Missouri AG Sues New York State Over Trump Lawfare (ZH)

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey on Thursday announced that he’s suing the State of New York over what he called a “direct attack on our democratic process through unconstitutional lawfare against President Trump.” “We have to fight back against a rogue prosecutor who is trying to take a presidential candidate off the campaign trail,” Bailey posted on X, adding “Stay tuned.” While Bailey didn’t elaborate, last month he accused the Biden DOJ of colluding with prosecutors in various Trump cases, filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in connection with his investigation.

“The investigations and subsequent prosecutions of former President Donald J. Trump appear to have been conducted in coordination with the United States Department of Justice,” Bailey posted in a lengthy thread on X. “This is demonstrated by the move of the third-highest ranking member of the Department of Justice, Matthew Colangelo, to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in order to prosecute President Trump in December 2022,” Bailey continues.What’s more, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg worked hand-in-hand with NY Attorney General Letitia James in pursuing civil litigation against Trump, which he used to campaign on. Is Bailey about to become Trump’s Attorney General?

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” That signal says to lower-income workers across the country, “I understand your struggles, and I’m with you.”

• No Tax on Tips (RCW)

Donald Trump is a master showman and marketer. He demonstrated those skills once again with his proposal to kill the tax on tips. It’s more than shrewd. It’s brilliant. After the hoorays from waiters and other service workers died down, political analysts weighed in. Their conclusion: this is a very smart way to gain an edge in Nevada, where the presidential race is close. That’s certainly true. But Trump’s proposal is much smarter and will have a bigger impact, not because of its impact on tips, as such, but because of the larger signal it sends. That signal says to lower-income workers across the country, “I understand your struggles, and I’m with you.” Trump’s proposal says that loud and clear. It is both a blow to the IRS (who doesn’t like that?) and a tangible demonstration of how the former president connects to everyday working people. That’s a much broader cohort than the folks who rely on tips.

President Biden has emphasized his own connection to working people. He does it every time he calls himself “Scranton Joe,” and says he was raised by every group in town except the Hmong and Aboriginal Australians. (Those groups surely would be included if they had enough voters in swing states.) This contest for the allegiance of the working class is central to American politics and has been since the days of Andrew Jackson. They have been central to the Democratic Party’s coalition since Franklin Roosevelt’s reelection in 1936. FDR solidified the party’s coalition. Every successful Democrat on the national level since then has counted on the working-class vote – and the ones who didn’t (most notably Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and George McGovern in 1972) lost in landslides.

Ronald Reagan, who’d been a New Deal Democrat as a young man mounted a frontal assault against the FDR alliance and launched a long-term shift in the process. Donald Trump has gone further. He has captured that constituency among whites, competes for them among Hispanics, and is eroding it, at least slightly, among black men. That shift in all three groups could have a huge impact in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada, and Arizona. This year’s election may well hinge on them, and even slight changes could alter the outcome. Trump’s challenge to the heart of the old Democratic coalition is part of a larger realignment in American voting patterns. That realignment is obvious in the wealthy suburbs, which have gradually switched from moderate Republican to moderate Democrat. The wedge issue there is the Republican Party’s social conservatism, which alienates more than it resonates in those areas.

The suburbs are up for grabs this year because of weak economic performance, persistent problems with public schools (which are linked to Democrats because of the party’s bond with teachers’ unions), and the Democratic Party’s move much further left. No matter how the suburbs vote this year, though, their longer-term shift is clear. An equally clear shift in the opposite direction is happening in working-class neighborhoods. Chicagoans call them the “bungalow belt.” They were once occupied by immigrants from Eastern Europe. They are now the home of second- and third-generation Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and pilgrims from Central America. Trump is emerging as an unlikely champion of that constituency. He knows they don’t want ideological indoctrination in public schools or control by teachers’ unions instead of parents. They want cheaper energy a lot more than they want electric vehicles, which are too expensive. And they damn sure don’t want some bureaucrat in Bethesda telling them they can’t cook on a gas stove. They recoil at the idea of non-elected officials pushing that agenda down their throats.

Read more …

After the worst election defeat in history he might want to move.

• UK PM Owns $7 Million Home In California – Politico (RT)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak owns a $7.2 million beach home in Santa Monica, California, where his opponents say he could move if he loses the general election next month, Politico reported on Wednesday. The UK Conservative Party is on course for a historic defeat in the upcoming vote, which would end its 14-year run in government, according to three major polls released on Wednesday. The polls predict an all-time low for the Tories and amid indicators that Sunak’s unpopularity has reached record levels. The prime minister called a snap election last month, claiming that his decision to call the vote was primarily motivated by economic factors such as a historic decline in British living standards, a rise in energy costs, and inflation.

The predicted landslide Labour victory has sparked speculation that Sunak could relocate to California if he finds himself “out of the top job,” the outlet said. “The Golden State has become an issue in the election campaign, so much so that ‘sending Sunak to California’ is political shorthand for ousting him from office,” Politico wrote. Sunak’s beach home overlooking the Pacific Ocean is located in a luxury apartment building in an elite area of Santa Monica, the outlet said. The outlet claimed that Sunak’s children would likely enroll in elite schools in the area, “rubbing shoulders with the children of celebrities” if Sunak opts to move straight after the election. The British prime minister has made no secret of his love for California, saying that living in the US had helped shape his mindset as a leader. After studying at Oxford, Sunak took an MBA at Stanford University in California, where he met his wife, Akshata Murty, the daughter of India’s sixth-richest man, and ran a hedge fund in Santa Monica.

US President Joe Biden even joked about Rishi Sunak’s home in California during a meeting in San Diego last year. “I want to welcome you back to California – he’s a Stanford man, and he still has a home here in California. That’s why I’m being very nice to you, maybe you can invite me to your home in California.” Sunak, however, has denied rumors that he is planning a move to California after a potential election defeat, pledging to stay in the UK regardless of the outcome. “It’s simply not true. I mean, it’s just simply not true,” Sunak said in an interview last month. He also dismissed claims that the early election had been arranged to suit his daughters’ schooling in the US.

Read more …

What a story.

• French First Lady Transgender Libel Case Goes To Trial (RT)

Two women have gone on trial for defamation in France after claiming that President Emmauel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, was a man once named “Jean-Michel,” France24 reported on Thursday. Amandine Roy, a self-proclaimed spiritual medium, was questioned in a Paris court on Wednesday, while the second defendant, independent journalist Natacha Rey, cited illness and was absent. In a 2021 interview, Roy quizzed Rey on her YouTube channel, where the journalist aired the theory that Brigitte Macron was actually the transgender identity of her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux. The interview was followed by a social media storm of claims that the French first lady, formerly named Brigitte Trogneux, was Jean-Michel under a new identity. Brigitte Macron filed lawsuits in 2022 after the video was posted, alleging it defamed her, invaded her and her brother’s privacy, and violated her public image.

The judge ruled there was no case for invasion of privacy or violation of image. The public defamation case had been pending since January 2022. Brigitte Macron’s lawyer, Jean Ennochi, is demanding €10,000 ($10,750) in compensation for both the first lady and her brother, according to France24. Neither President Macron nor his wife were present at the proceedings, the network noted. France’s first lady was born Brigitte Marie-Claude Trogneux to a family of chocolatiers from Amiens. She married banker Andre-Louis Auziere in 1974, and the couple had three children together. She met Emmanuel Macron when he was 15 and she was teaching literature at La Providence Jesuit high school in her hometown. She divorced Auziere in 2006 and married Macron – 24 years her junior – in 2007.

Read more …

“..Spanish police had not provided the complete files from a Samsung phone, which Morales apparently used to keep in touch with American intelligence…”

• Key Evidence Missing In Assange Snooping Case (RT)

The Spanish case against a man whose firm allegedly snooped on Julian Assange for the US government has hit a roadblock over key evidence which has reportedly gone missing, according to the El Pais newspaper. The defendant, David Morales, is the owner of UC Global SL – a company hired to provide security at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where the Wikileaks founder was holed up between 2012 and 2019. The company is accused of abusing its position by installing secret recording devices in the building, and reporting confidential details about Assange and his meetings to the CIA. An expose by the newspaper El Pais revealed the arrangement in 2019, leading to the businessman’s arrest.

On Wednesday, the outlet reported that Spanish police had not provided the complete files from a Samsung phone, which Morales apparently used to keep in touch with American intelligence. The absent data includes records of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Proton Mail and Skype communications. The device was seized in September 2019, when police searched Morales’ home in the Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera, and its contents were supposedly copied on the spot. The police provided the Spanish High Court with a derivative Universal Forensic Data Report (UFDR) from the device, but not the complete original Universal Forensic Data Exchange (UFDX), El Pais said.

”It is extremely striking that the police unit has delivered the UFDR and UFDX files from the other devices and has not done so precisely from this one,” the public prosecutor’s office said. Judge Santiago Pedraz has ordered the police Cybercrime Unit to immediately recover the full data from the phone in his presence, and establish who was responsible for the situation. The abridged profile was shared through a cloud service used for storing evidence. Spanish authorities are aware of the importance of the phone records thanks to a protected witness, a former employee of UC Global SL. The UFDR reportedly includes some circumstantial evidence in the form of words recorded by the keyboard app Swiftkey.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Wayans Wade

 

 

SNL

 

 

Elon genuine
https://twitter.com/i/status/1803691601169903906

 

 

X news
https://twitter.com/i/status/1803634740538609717

 

 

Corbyn
https://twitter.com/i/status/1803705328124547222

 

 

Donziger

 

 

Honey
https://twitter.com/i/status/1803758343715959086

 

 

 

 

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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle June 21 2024

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 56 total)
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    Posts
  • June 21, 2024 at 8:48 am #161656
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Claude Monet Water lilies 1904   • West Could Ditch Zelensky Early Next Year – Putin (RT) • Zelensky Has No One Left to Turn to, Except Putin (De
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 21 2024]

    June 21, 2024 at 9:43 am #161659
    tboc
    Participant

    unobtainium is how my friends referred to titanium bicycle components in the 90s

    June 21, 2024 at 10:08 am #161661
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Jun 19 GoldSeek Radio Nugget – Bob Moriarty: Normal Correction Expected for Gold and Silver GS”

    Warning: talented sentiment timer. Crypto is also risk money. People are risk-off and leaving alt coins. Now is gold the same or the opposite? Or both?

    “Head Of German Teachers Association Warns Education System Being Overwhelmed With Migrants:
    Many of whom are illiterate and can’t speak the language…

    So long as we attack the women and children and cause them long-term damage, it’s on! No price is too high.

    “TikTok Bans Women’s Rights Ads For Being “Offensive”

    As long as we’re killing all women, we’re happy. Aren’t you? The detail of the case is that clothing advertising that “women exist” “May be offensive.” Could be. But the OTHER people think that your “Women should be run over” clothing is offensive. Then we enforce for our enemies and ignore our friends. Chelsea at the Mean Girls’ Table said.

    “”A Direct Attack On Our Democratic Process”: Missouri AG Sues New York Over Trump Lawfare

    Devolves to States. They’re not angels, but they are a counterweight in separation of powers. The “Separation of powers” means “All powers are busy fighting” and therefore leave the people alone. Good.

    “23 mass public shootings have occurred so far under Biden – a 50% higher annual rate than under Trump…”

    I haven’t been keeping my records, I think I was up to 27 of 32 were Leftists. It got old after a while. But the trans gal info was released, so they protected the shooter and attacked the kids all over again. By attacking and perhaps imprisoning a woman. No price is too high. Wherever women speak, we are there. To shut her up, stuff her in a closet, and tell her get back in the kitchen before you see the pimp hand, b—h. You’re not allowed to know, as a parent. Your kids: “You Didn’t Make That”.

    “We Spent A Billion Dollars Fighting The Houthis… And Lost

    Like Russia, the Houthis aren’t even trying yet. This is just a minor sideline, an amusement when they’re not busy herding goats or banging rocks. It’s like saying the Navy can’t beat “Duck Hunters” or “Orange County Choppers”. …Which they can’t, that’s the truth, but.

    “After 112 days, we are still waiting for the outcome of Donald Trump’s immunity case.”

    Yes but after 4 years they haven’t heard a single case about allegations of election tampering. No court has. As long as we are refusing to look at women’s votes, overturning them, throwing them in a dumpster with cardboard over the windows, our work here is done.

    “Judge Aileen Cannon rejects calls to ‘step aside’ from overseeing President Trump’s classified documents case”

    Why do Democrats hate women so much? Apparently women are unfit to be judges, is that it? Are you saying she should stay home and make sandwiches?

    Omarosa heard a tape. That’s her book? Has she not heard celebrity impersonators on TV? Dana Carvey? People this naive are dangerous. Maybe she should be a reporter.

    2020: “For tens of millions of our fellow Americans, their long national nightmare is over”

    Well that aged badly. Now they’re living in a box. And here, I saw stuff I haven’t seen in ages: a car so old, so rusted, still running, I wanted to give it a medal. I think like a 1998 GM sedan, paint on every panel wrecked. Plus side: No need to roll up the windows! No one’s going to steal it! Very liberating. Then RV’s, bent and brokebacked, with the fancy slider-outer thing? Yeah, all taped shut with aluminum metal tape. Pretty sure this is where people had to give up their houses, were already broke, and are now…homeless. This is their home now, at 58, 78 or whatever. One family at a time destroyed by Biden 2020. Hey, that $200B to Ukraine sure would come in handy about now.

    “Judge Maldonado signed a brief to ban assault weapons but can’t define what one is.”

    So? Do something. “Shall not be infringed”. Your JOB, your PURPOSE In being, is to help Democrats make it seem legal AT ALL to have ANY gun control. You’re helping in a deeper, larger way than they ever could. If you want to fight this – at all – then you go on the OFFENSIVE. Make it all legal. I’m not actually for totally unlimited weapons, but if you want to do something about it you need to PASS A LAW, using a LEGAL PROCESS. Wow, As a lawyer you might have heard. The PROCESS in this case is a 2/3 Constitutional Amendment. Nope. “We Make S—t Up” and Kennedy helps them.

    Who’s actually stopping this? Is like 12 states that backed into “Constitutional Carry” now? Okay, get me the gun/crime stats on those states. Compared to others, and before/after. Because unlike some, I like data/facts/discussion.

    ““..the armed forces, where they say approval of Zelensky has dropped to 17%…”

    Wow, he’s twice as popular as Biden. Want to explain how EVERY politician, every leader, every company has essentially zero support from anyone, yet they keep going forever, undisturbed? Can we get zero support and still “Great Leader”? 8% is clearly not low enough. Someone want to explain how?

    “banned the Nash Krai (Our Land) political party and ordered the seizure of its assets”

    Aha! There was something left to steal. And is “Crackdown” the word you want here? 1) It’s already an Op-Ed word, although OpEd lite. 2) “Crackdown” refers generally to legitimate widely-supported laws, “A crackdown on crime”. As per: Crime. This is straight persecution, which I don’t think is A) Legal at all B) Supported at all. It’s a “Crackdown on Legal people”? People who participate in basic national functions, like being a Party?
    “We cracked down on ambulance drivers”.

    “• Press Freedom ‘Shrinking’ In Ukraine – Reporters Without Borders (RT)

    Was it the 100-page reporter hit list that tipped you off? Or did it take the first 10 reporters on it being killed?

    “Like casino players, the US and its allies are raising the stakes with each successive bet.”

    I forget the name of this strategy, but if you can print money, it will always work. Note that. Nothing stops ‘til you stop the money.

    “Back in 2021, the US, UK and Australia established the so-called AUKUS security partnership, which seeks to help Canberra acquire nuclear-powered submarines.”

    Australia is now nuclear. After 50 years of hard work, so proud. Should have a parade where you toss uranium out of the windows into the street to celebrate.

    “That shift in all three groups could have a huge impact in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada, and Arizona. This year’s election may well hinge on them, and even slight changes could alter the outcome.”

    No, because there’s no election and there won’t be an election. There is? Can I see the audit receipts from 2020? I also heard the 2016 election was rigged, can I see those numbers too? Why not?

    “The British prime minister has made no secret of his love for California, saying that living in the US had helped shape his mindset as a leader.”

    Ah. So like Ursula, Tusk and the other dreadfuls, he’s an American. In quotes “American” as clearly being here taught him nothing, but that’s Stanford for you.

    “She met Emmanuel Macron when he was 15 and she was teaching literature at La Providence Jesuit high school in her hometown. She divorced Auziere in 2006 and married Macron – 24 years her junior – in 2007.”

    Taking the eye off the ball and on Transgender. Which is the whole purpose of Trans. So can we officially, legally call her a pedophile now? “First Pedophile” as a title?

    June 21, 2024 at 12:52 pm #161663
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Zelensky Has No One Left to Turn to, Except Putin (DeMartino)

    And Putin who now considers him a non-entity will simply put a bullet in the back of his brain pan.

    Pretty straight forward.

    .

    June 21, 2024 at 1:02 pm #161664
    Oroboros
    Participant

    “Since the West claims it has the right to arm Ukraine with impunity, Russia reserves the same right and might send long-range precision weapons to the DPRK and other countries… President Putin has said.

    Putin spoke with reporters in Hanoi following his meetings with the leadership of Vietnam on Thursday.”

    Check, Mate

    The Empire of Lies is un-moored from Reality because reality is Truth

    Duh’mericans march to the beat of a demented drummer.

    They have since the end of WWII or more specifically 1947 when the National Security State was born like the Spawn of Satan

    Woketardistan is now the order of the day.

    Truth vs Lies

    .

    June 21, 2024 at 1:37 pm #161665
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Just this week by the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg:

    The increase has also been a boon for U.S. businesses, he noted. “Much of this extra money is spent here in the United States,” he said. Over the last two years, more than two-thirds of European defense acquisitions—over $140 billion worth of contracts—have been made with U.S. firms. “NATO is good for U.S. security, good for U.S. industry, and good for U.S. jobs,” he said.

    One can argue until face turns blue to no avail.

    June 21, 2024 at 1:43 pm #161666
    tboc
    Participant

    there is a video of Elvis performing Viva Las Vegas with only his voice audible on Tik Tok. if you can find the video the tone for your weekend will be set.

    take care

    June 21, 2024 at 2:12 pm #161667
    John Day
    Participant

    @Oroboros: Ray and Dave Davies were supposed to get back together again in 2018 or so as The Kinks. Whatever happened? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRHqs8SffDo

    June 21, 2024 at 2:20 pm #161668
    John Day
    Participant

    @DBS, jb-hb, aspnaz and Dr.D … All-Y’all
    😀
    Here’s “Something Completely Different”:

    A reader on my-very-own-blog left this 1 hour link, which carries a similar thread to The Urantia Book, and makes me think of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, also.
    Friendly aliens established a psychic link with this man, but his main topic is the other aliens, interested in our world, which is toxic to them, but now has infrastructure and technology to provide certain services, if “We” are “willing”… I have cued in to a spot at 22 minutes, with “They are building a new human”, which helps advance their interests, not as “rulers”, but as “advisers-to-rulers (if you know what I mean). The Alien Agenda: https://youtu.be/LqwmKl4HM64?t=1319

    June 21, 2024 at 2:27 pm #161670
    zerosum
    Participant

    BLINDSIDED – Upside-down world.
    PEACE
    The full translation of the DPRK-Russia Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership:.
    Checkmate – PEACE
    —————
    Make it all legal. PASS A LAW.
    ———–
    approval of Zelensky has dropped to 17%…”

    Wow, he’s twice as popular as Biden.
    ———–
    WAR IS NOT PEACE.
    https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_226937.htm#:~:text=On%20Tuesday%2C%20at%20a%20joint,billion%20extra%20in%20defence%20spending.%E2%80%9D

    On Friday (21 June 2024), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrapped up his trip to the United States and Canada, in preparation for the upcoming Summit in Washington D.C. in July.

    During his visit, Mr Stoltenberg unveiled new defence expenditure figures across the Alliance, highlighting the biggest increase in defence spending across European Allies and Canada for decades – up 18 percent this year. He further announced that 23 Allies will invest at least 2 percent of GDP in defence this year. ​

    On Thursday, Mr Stoltenberg met with U.S. National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan. Their discussion focused on strengthening Allied resilience, further boosting transatlantic defence industry and supporting Ukraine for the long term. He also met with Congressman Mike Turner and Congressman Gerry Connolly.

    On Wednesday in Ottawa, Mr Stoltenberg thanked Canada for its many contributions to NATO, and stressed the importance of Allies spending at least 2% of GDP on defence. He met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, and delivered a speech at an event hosted by the NATO Association of Canada and the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association.

    On Tuesday, at a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington D.C., Mr Stoltenberg welcomed an historic improvement in burden sharing within NATO. He outlined that since 2014, Europe and Canada “have added over 640 billion extra in defence spending.” The Secretary General also met with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and members of the Senate NATO Observer Group.

    On Monday, Mr Stoltenberg met with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House where he announced the new defence spending figures and outlined priorities for the upcoming Summit, including urgent support to Ukraine. He also delivered a speech at the Wilson Center, emphasising that keeping Europe safe and NATO strong is in the vital national interest of the United States.

    $140 billion worth of contracts—have been made with U.S. firms. “NATO is good for U.S. security, good for U.S. industry, and good for U.S. jobs,”
    ———–
    Political interference in pictures
    https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/photos_226844.htm
    19 Jun. 2024

    NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at event hosted by the NATO Association of Canada and the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association

    —————

    June 21, 2024 at 2:29 pm #161671
    John Day
    Participant

    @tboc: I ride a “Ti” bike, a vertical-dropout 2002 (or so) custom made Chinese time-trial bike frame with No Derailleur Hanger, I think somebody made a mistake in entering or conveying the order. It was sold to me as a rideable single-speed bike for $335 about 10 years ago, perhaps 1/20th of what a similar new frame might cost with a derailleur-hanger. It had a half-link in the chain, and still the tension could not be made right.
    I bought a special rear hub with an eccentric, to take up chain slack, and aluminum rims I really like, and designed a wheelset, which I would have built if my son would have returned my wheel-building tools, but he wouldn’t, so he built it for me. It’s a lovely, strong, reliable and functional wheelset, probably close to $900 worth, but I still WIN.
    😉

    June 21, 2024 at 2:36 pm #161672
    jb-hb
    Participant

    John Day – when things seem to be particularly absurd, one of my pet scifi theories is that elites, 3 letter angencies, somebody hears from aliens, transdimensional beings, clockwork elves, whoever, they are given a recipe – they go ahead and make the thing, and are screwed, permanently altered.

    It could be a series of recipes – the first one, barely understandable, turns out to be useful. The temptation to use the NEXT recipe they give you becomes too great, that one gets used too… maybe a recipe for immortality or life extension is offered and a 103 year old says what the hell, nothing to lose and that’s the recipe with more to it than was promised.

    I think the movie Species had humanity going ahead and building a recipe they got in a radio transmission. There’s a Vonnegut-esque novel I read in the 90’s called Why Do Birds in which a Nyarlathotep-like guy gets humanity to build a giant device they do not understand, on the premise that a disaster is coming to the Earth, aliens are trying to help by giving them these plans. The giant incomprehensible thing they build destroys the Earth.

    Nyarlathotep himself is sort of in that vein.

    June 21, 2024 at 2:40 pm #161673
    zerosum
    Participant

    What PEACE SOUNDS LIKE

    http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/74348
    Vladimir Putin and President of Vietnam To Lam’s statements to the media
    June 20, 2024

    President Vladimir Putin and I have held talks that were quite a success. We exchanged views in an open and sincere manner on the cooperation between our countries in multiple aspects and also discussed international and regional matters of mutual interest for developing our two countries, as well as promoting peace, cooperation and development across the region. This was the spirit that guided our efforts to agree on the main vectors and principles for further reinforcing the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and the Russian Federation.

    We also agreed to step up our cooperation based on the principles of equality, mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs. Guided by the core principles of the UN Charter, we will not join any unions or sign treaties with any third countries which could be detrimental to our respective independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. We will not target any third countries either. Our mission is to promote regional and global peace and cooperation.

    Regarding political relations, we agreed to step up our regular contacts and reinforce our political trust. We will step up our contacts at the party level, between our states, governments, parliaments, as well as between our ministries and agencies, while also promoting youth contacts.

    Economic cooperation is one of the main pillars of our comprehensive strategic partnership. We agreed on the need to make full use of the Vietnam-EAEU Free Trade Agreement.

    We also agreed to work together to overcome the challenges stemming from the international environment. We will expand our trade and bilateral investment, achieve better performance when undertaking cooperation projects in energy and gas in order to create a favourable environment for our businesses and enable them to work together in keeping with international law, including the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea.

    We also agreed to explore opportunities for stepping up our cooperation on new energy sources and clean energy, as well as facilitate the green transition and sustainable development. We will also step up our cooperation in the defence and security sectors in order to combine our efforts in countering new and traditional threats to peace in keeping with international law.

    We agreed to expand our cooperation in education, research, technology, innovation and vocational training. By the same token, we are committed to having more cooperation in culture, arts, tourism, facilitating people-to-people ties and youth contacts in order to reinforce our mutual trust and friendship. We also agreed to create a favourable environment for the people of Vietnam in Russia and for Russians in Vietnam so that they benefit from stable and comfortable working and living conditions and build a genuine bridge of friendship between our two countries.

    As for international and regional matters, we advocate a democratic and transparent world order with the UN Charter serving as its foundation, including the principle of non-use of force and the threat of force and resolving disputes by peaceful means. We also stand for building an inclusive and open trade system with the WTO at its core. We also stand for equal and indivisible security cooperation architecture in the Asia-Pacific Region with ASEAN playing a central role in it, and rooted in international law. We will promote international integration, including within APEC, the G20, the ASEAN Dialogue and the EAEU. We also welcome Russia's cooperation with the Greater Mekong Subregion, which contributes to peace, stability and prosperity.

    As for the East Sea (South China Sea), we stand for ensuring the freedom and safety of navigation and air traffic, for resolving all disputes by peaceful means, and against using force or the threat of force. We also advocate carrying out the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties and for adopting a Code of Conduct without delay, in a substantive and effective manner and in keeping with international law.

    Comrade President Vladimir Putin, journalists.

    Today, we will be adopting a Joint Statement on further strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the ministries and agencies of our countries. We also signed many cooperation agreements in education, research, justice and sports. This will help us develop the legal framework for stepping up our practical and fruitful ties.

    I am certain that our relations will grow even stronger considering the success of President Putin's visit to Vietnam, as well as the commitment by the leaders and the people of our countries, their ministries and agencies to delivering on this vision.

    I will now pass the floor to President Putin.

    President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Comrade To Lam! Friends, ladies and gentlemen.

    First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Comrade Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, to you, Comrade To Lam, as well as to the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Comrade Pham Minh Chinh, and to all our Vietnamese friends for organising our state visit, for your hospitality, for the warm and cordial welcome we have received. When I say warm, I mean not only the weather outside but also the friendly and genial welcome that the Russian delegation has been given by the people of Hanoi. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincerest greetings and best wishes to them.

    I would like to say that Russia places great emphasis on further strengthening the Russian-Vietnamese comprehensive, longstanding and friendly relations, our strategic partnership. Our ties continue to expand and progress in the spirit of equality, mutual respect and consideration of each other’s interests.

    Our countries are linked by a strong bond of shared history. Next year will mark 75 years of diplomatic relations between Russia and Vietnam. As is widely known, the Soviet Union did a lot to support the young Vietnamese statehood, assisting in the development of economic facilities and infrastructure, helping Vietnam with personnel training and improving the country’s defence capabilities.

    Also, a few days ago, it was 30 years since the signing of the Treaty on Foundations of Friendly Relations between the two countries. This underlying document opened up vast opportunities to strengthen and develop the whole range of bilateral ties, giving them a powerful impetus and increasing their dynamics. And today, Comrade President and I have adopted a statement that supports the principles of the Russian-Vietnamese comprehensive strategic partnership and announces new guidelines for our joint work in the future.

    I fully agree that the talks that just ended were held in a constructive and businesslike atmosphere. We have had an extensive discussion on the key areas of bilateral cooperation, and touched upon the most pressing international and regional issues.

    Naturally, we dedicated considerable time to discussing mutual trade and investment. Last year, bilateral trade increased by 8 percent. The upward trend continued in the first quarter of this year, with Russian-Vietnamese trade growing by more than a third compared to the same period in 2023.

    In this context, I would like to mention the tangible benefits our friends have derived from the Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union. Enacted in 2016, it has since then vastly promoted growth in Russian-Vietnamese trade through favourable conditions for access of goods and services to each other’s markets, also fostering investment, technology exchange and innovation.

    Equally important is that our countries are consistently pursuing the transition to settlements in national currencies and striving to create sustainable channels of cooperation in lending activities and banking. Last year, transactions in Russian rubles and Vietnamese dong accounted for over 40 percent of bilateral trade volume, and in the first quarter of this year, this figure rose to nearly 60 percent.

    The joint Vietnamese-Russian Bank plays a crucial role in servicing foreign trade transactions between our countries, successfully operating in the Vietnamese market for nearly 20 years. The bank shows positive growth in its key indicators, consistently offering a broad array of financial and credit services to clients from both Vietnam and Russia.

    The strategic point of our bilateral cooperation is the energy sector. Over the decades, the Vietsovpetro joint venture has extracted approximately 250 million tonnes of oil from oil and gas fields in Vietnam. Simultaneously, the Petrovietnam Corporation has been operating in the Nenets Autonomous Area of Russia since 2008, braving the challenging conditions of the Far North to extract around 35 million tonnes of oil.

    A Russian-Vietnamese enterprise currently produces gas motor fuel in Vietnam. Additionally, Russian companies are prepared to participate as investors and suppliers in large-scale projects utilising liquefied natural gas.

    Russia and Vietnam have excellent opportunities for cooperation in renewable energy. Vietnam’s master plan for developing the nation’s energy grid already includes a joint Russia-Vietnam project for the construction of offshore wind power generation facilities in the province of Binh Thuan with a total capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

    I want to note that Russian specialists contributed to the design and construction of energy facilities in Vietnam, which collectively generate more than a third of the country’s current hydropower capacity. Our company, RusHydro, plans to participate in the renovation of hydroelectric power plants along Vietnamese rivers to increase their efficiency.

    Another promising area for expanding bilateral cooperation is nuclear energy. Discussions include plans for Rosatom to construct a centre for nuclear science and technology in Vietnam, along with the training of Vietnamese nuclear specialists at specialised universities in Russia.

    Cooperation in the industrial sector is making strides. In Da Nang, a joint Russian-Vietnamese enterprise is involved in assembling Gazel cargo and passenger minibuses. Last year, this facility assembled 1,150 units of equipment, including buses and vans, some of which were exported to Laos and the Philippines.

    We consider our cooperation on the Vladivostok – Ho Chi Minh City maritime transport corridor, a large-scale infrastructure project, to be highly promising. Since its opening in 2022, this corridor has facilitated regular cargo shipments with container ships operating on a weekly basis.

    Our bilateral partnership in agriculture is progressing: mutual supplies of agricultural products are growing, and their range is expanding. Vietnam’s TH Group is building milk processing plants in several Russian regions, including the Kaluga Region and Primorye Territory. The first stage of a cattle-breeding complex for 6,000 dairy cattle began operation in the Moscow Region last year.

    Russia-Vietnam cooperation in culture and education is vibrant and strong. Over the past decades, tens of thousands of Vietnamese professionals have received training or upgraded their skills in Russia. Several thousand have earned academic degrees.

    Currently, more than 3,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from Vietnam are studying in Russian universities. Speaking of academic exchanges, I must mention the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Science and Technology Research Centre in Vietnam, where Russian and Vietnamese specialists have been successfully conducting joint research for years. The centre’s projects span highly important areas, such as ecology and nature protection, medicine, combating infectious diseases and epidemics.

    It has become a good tradition to hold cross culture days on a regular basis. These events help Russians and Vietnamese to learn more about each other’s history, customs and everyday life. The next Vietnam Culture Days in Russia will be held soon, between July 1 and 7, in Moscow and St Petersburg. Russian and Vietnamese film weeks, art exhibitions, photo displays, music and dance performances have been highly successful in both countries.

    Tourism is also on the rise. Many Russians visit Vietnamese resorts, which is noticeably facilitated by direct flights between our two countries. I would like to note that last year, we launched flights to Vietnam from Irkutsk, and this year, regular flights between Moscow and Ho Chi Minh City.

    Naturally, we also considered a number of issues on the regional agenda and touched upon current international matters. I would like to emphasise that Russia's and Vietnam's respective stances on these issues are largely in accord or closely aligned. Our countries remain committed to the principles of the rule of international law, sovereignty, and non-interference in countries' domestic affairs. They coordinate their efforts on key international platforms, including the UN, as well as within the Russia-ASEAN dialogue and at summits in East Asia.

    During our discussion on the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, we expressed mutual interest in building a strong and reliable security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region based on the principles of the non-use of force and peaceful settlement of disputes, with no room for closed military-political blocs.

    In conclusion, I would like to once again thank Comrade President and all our Vietnamese friends for their hospitality and substantive talks. This visit will undoubtedly contribute to the further development of the Russian-Vietnamese partnership across the board.

    Thank you for your attention.

    June 21, 2024 at 2:51 pm #161674
    zerosum
    Participant


    Ukrainians Attacked Oil Storage Facilities | Putin’s Last Warning | Military Summary For 2024.06.21

    Military Summary
    ————

    June 21, 2024 at 3:04 pm #161675
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Woketardistan is now the order of the day. FINE

    For the “That’s a turkey” guy – response #1: “Of course, that’s what lefty commie is.”
    But for the “Lia Thomas is the woman” – response #2: “No fucking way!”

    Bit selective, aren’t we?

    Speaking of Left would Jimmy Dore, a rare voice of reason out there but bit too “Left” for my taste, have said “That’s a turkey”?

    June 21, 2024 at 3:42 pm #161677
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Technically, Karl Marx did not say that in socialism the government was to own the means of production, he said that the workers were to own the means of production. He also didn’t advocate for government control, in general, he said that for the revolution that he predicted that government would play a role.

    This comes off to an outsider as er… not forthcomingly completely honest, when taken in context of the past 175 years. And I think Marx said something here and there about The State taking over the means of production. I hope you can see how non-converts have problems looking at this from the outside.

    But you had other things to say and you’ve said other things in the past – thoughtful, nuanced things that gave me a lot to chew on and I thank you for that.

    But where were all the Communists disavowing and denouncing the USSR, CCCP, Cuba, etc? Right from the start, surely. All those worker’s groups, internationalist socialists who, when the USSR made the Ribbentrop pact, were isolationist and pacifist, but after Operation Barbarossa, turned interventionist and pro war – as supportive members of the internationalist collective of course. As opposed to a spontaneous flowering of communist sentiment denouncing.

    Maybe the best thing is for Socialists-Communists to be loyal to their particular nationality or ethnicity, since everybody can’t understand everybody else’s cultures, wants, needs, and risks running roughshod in ANY Internationalist setup. Families work on essentially this reasoning… so… Nationalist Communism. Nationalist So— er… Dissavow, dissavow!!!!

    In my experience, Socialists-Marxists-Communists are very actively vocal. Do not mind being outspoken with great regularity. Comment sections, forums, etc are typically easy to join online and for decades I’ve interacted with or read the words of many self-avowed socialists, marxists, and communists and none of them, zero, crusaded against state ownership of the means of production. Or to stop socialistic State run programs. Never ever seen that. And considering that they ARE crusading constantly, you’d think that would make it in there with some unavoidably noticeable PROMINIENCE somewhere.

    I acknowledge, all THAT is said about just a piece of what you had to say. I like the things you’re saying and have said over the years – I agree there are other means of trying to be cooperative and that they are positive – everything from co-ops to mutual insurance companies.

    It rankles that Communists don’t seem to realize that a lot of the cultural norms, ways of doing things that they want to smash To Make It Fair are hard-won over millenia, specifically ways of imperfect beings cooperating imperfectly. We’ve got these functioning methods of cooperation and the communists attack those saying “NO! You have to cooperate!” Even our use of currency is our attempt at cooperation.

    I absolutely agree with Marxists that Capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction.

    But if you look at the track record of imperfect capitalism, limping along as it may, it worked well enough that even in the 1800’s, the Communists had to throw up their hands, admit Capitalism was doing the better job – delivering the goods and satisfying the proletariat so that they had to come up with a weird quasi theology to dehumanize the proles as a cope – and later, toss the entire proletariat aside in disgust and work on fashioning a new one out of margin-people. (at their expense as the new patsy, rube, shill, victim…)

    You don’t have to take MY word for it, just look at Marx and Engels grappling with:

    Historicity isn’t working. All “inevitable conditions” are now in place and the workers are not rising up. Oh that’s because Capitalism delivers the goods. Says Engels.

    (not just objects, but family dinners, t-ball in the park, PTA meetings, pasta dinners in the church basement. Religion and years of plenty and tremendous sureties and the exact relation that existed between the classes. …a whole-souled sentimental equipment going back further than you could remember. Christmas, and postcards of the Crown Prince and his fiancée, and little cafés in Valence and beer gardens in Unter den Linden and weddings at the mairie, and going to the Derby, and your grandfather’s whiskers. …and country deacons bowling and marraines in Marseilles and girls seduced in the back lanes of Wurtemburg and Westphalia — the ACTUAL goods the proles care about)

    ….THEREFORE we have determined they are in matrix pods of untruth capitalism which makes them Human Animals who we don’t need to be decent to, reason with, or anything. Come to think of it, I’ve decided WE are Beyond Good And Evil and all that decency, virtue, and Being A Good Faith Agent is beneath us, for scum only. Just part of the matrix. (can’t we instead start with the proles and the proles values being the ruling-measure of reality, goals vis a vis reality?)

    I’m not pissed at the Marxism that conspiracy freaks imagine under their beds and doesn’t exist. I’m not pissed at the Marxism that theoretically COULD exist and could be kinder, gentler, totally voluntary, and effective. Nor the Marxism that exists somewhere in tiny, benevolent bits eking its existence out there in anonymity. I’m not even pissed at the Marxism sitting in front of my face I can see with my own eyes. I’m pissed at the Marxism I’ve had my face continually, quite forcefully rubbed in for the past 8 years.

    Sargon just wanted to play video games. I just wanted to do my call center worker thing, geek out on Dr Who and Star Wars, go to the library every once in a while, listen to NPR and vote for gay marriage and pot legalization and limited well-managed targeted socialistic policies (ha!) stuff like that. But no.

    June 21, 2024 at 4:48 pm #161679
    John Day
    Participant

    @Zerosum: Thank you for the joint Russian and Vietnamese statements above.

    June 21, 2024 at 4:50 pm #161680
    John Day
    Participant

    @jb-hb: Things DO “seem to be particularly absurd”, but that is a smoke-screen, ‘innit?

    June 21, 2024 at 4:55 pm #161681
    John Day
    Participant

    Appeals Court Denies Steve Bannon’s Emergency Bid To Avoid Prison
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/appeals-court-denies-steve-bannons-emergency-bid-avoid-prison

    June 21, 2024 at 5:20 pm #161688
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    June 21, 2024 at 5:26 pm #161689
    John Day
    Participant

    Japan Times (aw shucks): A sensational story about the Israeli prime minister’s “psychiatrist” has exploded online, but it was AI-generated, originating on one of hundreds of websites researchers warn are churning out tech-enabled fiction masquerading as news. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/03/11/world/politics/news-sites-ai-fake-stories/

    June 21, 2024 at 5:33 pm #161690
    Oroboros
    Participant

    I remember when ‘smart’ phones showed up to replace flip phones.

    If you only had a flip phone, your social status sank like a rock.

    I remember people telling me of people at work who got passed over for promotions because they showed up at a business meeting and were the only ones with a flip phone. Very un-hip

    But now in irony of ironies, not have to carry a cell phone is becoming the new status symbol.

    Only ‘the little sheeple’ have to carry a cell, it’s really a personal tracking device meant as the primary means of imposing a social credit score, a brainwashing time waster and all around peeping tom part of the Matrix’s eyes and ears.

    .

    I’m sure his personal assistant has one

    June 21, 2024 at 5:55 pm #161691
    Oroboros
    Participant

    @JohnDay

    “but it was AI-generated…”

    See, here’s the deal

    The Trust Horizon© has been permanently damaged by The Empire of Lies

    It’s staring at you, it’s actually in the name itself.

    There will be no way to discern truth with AI generated media, like none….

    There is no trust in an empire that only knows lies and can’t even remember which lies it told to itself and others that contradict the previous lies.

    It becomes a hell-hole hall of mirrors leading to insanity and then the total breakdown of the social order.

    Duh’merica is on rails for it’s rendezvous with Destiny.

    The Vanishing Point of all empires.

    Totally happened, fur sure…

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/Ql8ALJqZ7wMV/

    June 21, 2024 at 5:56 pm #161692
    Oroboros
    Participant

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/Ql8ALJqZ7wMV/

    June 21, 2024 at 5:58 pm #161693
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Terminator Combat Comin’ Up

    Rostec for the first time showed tests of the Impulse-M combat robot

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/gv7Ag1XRayDm/

    June 21, 2024 at 6:27 pm #161694
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Real suddenly, “my” Twitter/X is filling up with anti-Trump “tweets”. This is a prepared campaign. Lots of senders, multiple topics, telling.

    June 21, 2024 at 6:34 pm #161695
    WES
    Participant

    As Dr. D says, there won’t be an US election in November 2024 just like there wasn’t an election in 2020.
    The reason is because the election will be decided by ballots not votes.

    If elections were decided by votes, then they wouldn’t allow you to vote.
    Since the election is decided by ballots, you are allowed to vote!

    After you vote, then the required number of ballots are counted until the right candidate wins.

    You need to understand the difference between votes and ballots.

    June 21, 2024 at 6:46 pm #161696
    jb-hb
    Participant

    US Bans Kaspersky Antivirus Software, Citing Russian Influence
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-bans-kaspersky-antivirus-software-citing-russian-influence

    “Kaspersky will generally no longer be able to, among other activities, sell its software within the United States or provide updates to software already in use,”

    “Kaspersky has broad access to, and administrative privileges over, customer information through the provision of cybersecurity and anti-virus software. Kaspersky employees could potentially transfer U.S. customer data to Russia, where it would be accessible to the Russian Government under Russian law,”

    If the RUSSIAN government wants to spy on me, uh… have at it? They have no jurisdiction, assets, to persecute me for whatever they find there.

    All government agencies stopped using Kaspersky years ago, so no worries there.

    Meanwhile all domestic tech is riddled with backdoors and spyware – if you’re going to have spyware, be spied on someone with no access to you, I suppose?

    Of course the real objection being Kaspersky actually does what it says it is supposed to do?

    To minimize the fallout resulting from banning Kaspersky software, the Commerce Department will allow the company to continue certain operations in the country until 12:00 a.m. ET on Sept. 29, 2024.

    To minimize _____(?) Kaspersky is banned with a 2 month margin before the elections. Or the not-elections or whatever the fuck.

    June 21, 2024 at 7:20 pm #161697
    John Day
    Participant

    “Ruh-roh” … “Everything Is Frozen”: Third-Day Of Cyberattack Leaves 15,000 Auto Dealerships Crippled https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/everything-frozen-third-day-cyberattack-leaves-15000-auto-dealerships-crippled

    June 21, 2024 at 7:21 pm #161698
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    Upsidaisium – Rocky & Bullwinkle, one of their finest runs

    June 21, 2024 at 7:29 pm #161699
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @tboc re: ti

    Drillium was the other highly prized material of the ’90s bike scene.

    June 21, 2024 at 8:10 pm #161700
    John Day
    Participant

    Different Day https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/different-day

    Gilbert Doctorow, Nothing to worry about? South Korea sounds the alarm
    What a difference a day makes. Yesterday’s Financial Times informed readers about the red carpet that was rolled out for Vladimir Putin at his various stops in and around the North Korean capital during his two-day stay there. They spoke of the Russian folk songs which local artists performed in Putin’s honor. They mentioned that various state to state agreements were signed but said almost nothing about the contents.
    ​ Today the FT has taken a very different approach to Putin’s visit in a feature article entitled “Japan and South Korea sound alarm over Putin-Kim military pact.” Lo and behold, Seoul has read the text of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that North Korea issued and discovered that it contains: “a pledge to deploy ‘all means at its disposal without delay’ to provide ‘military and other assistance’ in the event that one of the signatories was invaded or in a state of war.”
    ​ The FT goes on to cite the South Korea’s foreign ministry’s expression of regret over the strategic partnership: “ …co-operation between Russia and North Korea ‘should not undermine regional peace and stability’” Seoul warns “that their co-operation on military technology would violate UN Security Council resolutions.”​ Those resolutions, by the way, are up for renewal in the not-too-distant future, and Putin has said from Pyongyang that Russia will veto any extensions.​..
    ​..For some time, Russia’s chattering classes have speculated about possibilities for enlisting some of North Korea’s one million man army to help their forces in the ground war in Ukraine. Now, under conditions of the newly signed military alliance with Pyongyang, these same Russians are saying that should NATO forces enter Ukraine to join the fight against them, as Emmanuel Macron has been urging, then Russia may invite 50,000 or more North Koreans to lend a hand to their cause. Moreover, they note that the North Koreans have some very impressive artillery pieces to bring with them to the fight.
    ​ If that kind of talk on Russian television is being ignored by the military attaché in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow I would be very surprised.
    ​ In closing, I mention that the fuss raised by Seoul over the Russian-North Korean military alliance was the subject of a 10-minute interview I gave to Iran’s Press TV this morning.​ The link is here: https://www.urmedium.net/c/presstv/129882

    Nothing to worry about? South Korea sounds the alarm

    ​ Putin’s very long day: Simplicius, SITREP 6/20/24: Putin Signs Defense Partnership in Historic Pyongyang Trip
    ​ The visit comes directly after Russia intimated a mirror response to the West for its arming of Ukraine with advanced weaponry that can strike Russian territory. Not surprisingly, Putin’s visit was highlighted by a signing of a weighty ‘strategic document’ which included the implied possibility of Russia arming North Korea with its own stable of advanced weaponry…
    ​ Documents signed by the leaders of the DPRK and the Russian Federation:
    Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between the Russian Federation and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea;
    ​ Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on the construction of a border road bridge over the Tumannaya River;​ [This new bridge, higher than the old bridge, will allow Chinese ship​s to pass through to the Sea of Japan and back. Important!]
    ​ Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on cooperation in the field of health, medical education and science.
    ​ Agreement on a comprehensive strategic partnership between the Russian Federation and the DPRK provides for assistance in the event of aggression against one of the participants, Putin​…
    ..Beyond the perfunctory pledges for cooperation in various civil fields, Russia and NK intend to construct a new road bridge at their border to better facilitate inter-state travel, as well as the big one: a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’ for assistance in the event of aggression.​ [Lets Chinese ships through, too!]​ …
    ​..There is the obvious fact that this represents an immediate signaling by Putin that he wasn’t bluffing when he said there would be retaliation for crossing of the red lines. The most serious, and under-looked, aspect of this is the implied tit-for-tat potential for facilitating North Korea’s ability to strike the U.S. in nuclear fashion.​..
    ..One suggestion making the rounds is the potential to supply the Russian Army with North Korea’s devastating KN-25 600mm MLRS system, which is basically the NK version of an ATACMS…
    ..Grossly-out-produced in a war-of-attrition… The Western commentariat continues to center their entire future victory hopes on the fact that the West is allegedly “increasing production”, which they desperately tie into the narrative that a year or so in the future the combined manufacturing powers of Europe and the U.S. will match or overtake Russia and it will be game over for Putin.
    ​ The problem this, as the below Korean excerpt shows, Russia is not only increasing production itself in line with the West, and arguably even faster, but Russia’s allies have massive manufacturing capacities for key munitions that dwarf anything the West will be capable of in the next decade or more.​..
    ..Seoul has detected at least 10,000 shipping containers being sent from North Korea to Russia, potentially holding up to 4.8 million artillery shells, South Korean Defence Minister Shin Won-sik told Bloomberg…
    ..Russia is going to be covered for the long term, and in fact its industrialists are already looking ahead to a post war future in line with Putin and Belousov’s initiative to integrate the war economy into the development of the civilian one.​..
    ..Zelensky, for one, remains upbeat and appears to believe he has an inexhaustible supply of men…
    https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-62024-putin-signs-defense

    ​ As Putin visits, Vietnam says will boost ties with Russia for global peace​
    Russian president says strengthening strategic partnership with Vietnam is one of his country’s priorities.
    ..Vietnam was “very keen to make … Putin feel welcome but at the same time they do have strong relationships with China and the US they want to protect”.
    ​ The Russian leader concluded a defence pact with North Korea a day earlier. But in Vietnam, he only signed deals to further cooperation on education, science and technology, energy, climate change and health.
    ​ “Weapons will be discussed but not those going to Russia but those coming into Vietnam,” Cheng said. “The Vietnam military is still very heavily reliant on Russian-made arms, but they found it increasingly difficult to get them, particularly since the war in Ukraine started.”​…
    ​..Meanwhile, Russia is important to Vietnam for two reasons, Giang said: It is the biggest supplier of military equipment to the Southeast Asian nation, and Russian oil exploration technologies help maintain its sovereignty claims in the contested South China Sea.
    ​ “Russia is signaling that it is not isolated in Asia despite the Ukraine war, and Vietnam is reinforcing a key traditional relationship even as it also diversifies ties with newer partners,” Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow with the Wilson Center’s Asia Program, told AP.​ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/20/as-putin-visits-vietnam-says-will-boost-ties-with-russia-for-global-peace

    June 21, 2024 at 8:11 pm #161701
    John Day
    Participant

    “Republicans​” passed it, too … “Insane”: Senate Dems Blasted For Adding Women To Draft​ See image from 2016 below.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/insane-senate-dems-blasted-adding-women-draft
    her turn
    ​ The Japan Times: A sensational story about the Israeli prime minister’s “psychiatrist” has exploded online, but it was AI-generated, originating on one of hundreds of websites researchers warn are churning out tech-enabled fiction masquerading as news. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/03/11/world/politics/news-sites-ai-fake-stories/

    ​ UN: Israeli Authorities Responsible for Crimes Against Humanity
    A United Nations inquiry into the Israeli onslaught in Gaza found officials in Tel Aviv were culpable for myriad war crimes
    ​ Navi Pillay, chairperson of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, announced her findings to the UNSC on Wednesday, stating the commission had concluded that “Israeli authorities are responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.”
    ​ She explained that those crimes include “extermination, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, murder or willful killing using starvation as a method of War, forcible transfer, gender persecution, sexual and gender-based violence amounting to torture and cruel or inhuman treatment.”
    ​ The commission noted that Hamas has committed similar crimes throughout the latest conflict.​ https://news.antiwar.com/2024/06/19/un-israeli-authorities-responsible-for-crimes-against-humanity/

    ​ IDF Report Found Multiple Cases of Friendly Fire Deaths on Oct 7
    ​ A review by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) set to be released this summer will conclude that Israeli soldiers killed many of their own people on October 7, Israeli media reported. The inquiry is expected to identify multiple failures of the IDF during the Hamas rampage in southern Israel.
    ​ According to Israel’s Channel 12 News, the IDF report due to be released in mid-July found “many casualties due to our forces firing on our forces.” Tel Aviv has been accused of ordering its soldiers to kill hostages rather than allow Hamas to use them in negotiations, a policy long known as the ‘Hannibal Directive​’…
    ​..While Tel Aviv has denied that the Hannibal Directive was put into effect and insists it is no longer used, evidence has emerged of Israeli forces firing on homes knowing civilians were inside. One incident in Kibbutz Be’eri left 12 Israeli civilians dead.
    ​ There are multiple probes investigating the IDF’s actions on October 7, though one Israeli government-led inquiry was shut down by the country’s top court this week amid objections from the IDF and a number of senior officials.​ https://news.antiwar.com/2024/06/20/idf-report-found-multiple-cases-of-friendly-fire-deaths-on-oct-7/

    June 21, 2024 at 8:13 pm #161702
    John Day
    Participant

    US Tells Lebanon It Will Support Israeli Attack on Hezbollah
    Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said the militant group is ready for full-blown conflict with Tel Aviv, but would prefer to avoid a war.​ [If only they had Russian missiles…]
    ​ Deputy assistant to the US president Amos… Hochstein bluntly warned that the US plans to support an Israeli attack should the two sides fail to deescalate tensions. The US envoy added that Tel Aviv expects to significantly scale back its military operations in Gaza in around five weeks, saying the break could allow a new round of talks with Hezbollah even if no ceasefire deal is reached with Hamas. However, Hochstein also stated that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would shift “full focus” to Israel’s northern border following the Gaza pause, with the goal of pushing the Hezbollah away from Israeli soil. https://news.antiwar.com/2024/06/19/us-tells-lebanon-it-will-support-israeli-attack-on-hezbollah/

    Moon of Alabama, Hizbullah Ready To Defeat Israel
    ​ On October 8, a day after Hamas attacked Israel, the Lebanese Hizbullah joined the fray. It sent missiles towards military installations in north Israel. 80,000 Israeli settler living in the north fled from their homes. They are still sitting in hotels around Israel and are waiting for the return of quietness to that front.
    ​ Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah had announced that the current northern tit-for-tat campaign between Hizbullah and Israeli forces would continue until a permanent ceasefire is agreed upon in Gaza.
    ​ But the radicals in charge of Israeli policies do not want a ceasefire in Gaza. They want to eradicate Hamas and as much of the Gazan population as possible. A ceasefire would prevent them from doing so.
    ​ On the other hand there is pressure from northern settlers who want to return to their homes. But without a ceasefire in Gaza the low level conflict in Israel’s north and southern Lebanon is bound to continue.
    ​ Instead of working towards a ceasefire in Gaza the Israeli military and government are planning to invade southern Lebanon and to occupy it up to the Litani river…
    ​..In a speech on Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah doubled down on military action saying Hezbollah has “a complete bank of targets”, against Israel that include in the Mediterranean.
    ​ “The enemy should expect us on land, sea and air, and we will fight without restraints, rules or limits,” he said.
    ​ Hizbullah published a 9 minutes long drone video which showed military and economic targets around the Israeli harbor city of Haifa. That multiple Hizbullah drones could fly over Israel without being bothered by air defenses is a huge loss of face for the Israeli military.
    ​ The members of the resistance axis, Hizbullah in Lebanon, Shia groups in Syria, Iraqi militia and the Houthi in Yemen, are ready to fight. Even without attacking Iran, the main power behind the resistance, Israel and the U.S. are likely to lose such a war.
    ​ Without a chance to win they would of course, as usual, escalate the war most likely towards Iran, potentially Turkey, and elsewhere. Where it would go from there is unpredictable.​
    ​ Why they would even launch such an avoidable war is beyond me.​ [Gamble on crisis today, instead of slow demographic death​ of colonial settler-state?]​ https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/06/hizbullah-ready-to-defeat-israel.html#more

    ​ Nasrallah Says ‘No Place’ Safe, Even Threatens Cyprus, If Israel Invades Lebanon​ [What kind of missile range is that?]
    ​ “Storming the Galilee is a possibility that remains present within the framework of any war that the occupation may launch against Lebanon,” Hezbollah’s Secretary-General continued.
    ​ And that’s when he for the first time of the conflict which began in wake of Oct.7 issued a warning against Cyprus, given that the Greek-speaking island-nation currently has a bilateral defense cooperation agreement with Israel.
    ​ “Opening Cypriot airports and bases to the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon would mean that the Cypriot government is part of the war, and the resistance will deal with it as part of the war,” Nasrallah said.
    ​ He further warned that targets in the Mediterranean would also come under attack. In 2006 the Israeli Navy’s INS Hanit warship suffered a direct hit from a Hezbollah anti-ship missile (likely made by Iran), killing four soldiers.
    ​ His fresh words are also being interpreted by Israeli media to say gas fields in the Mediterranean and energy platforms could also be attacked:
    Israel “knows that what also awaits it in the Mediterranean is very big,” Nasrallah added, without elaborating, possibly insinuating the group could attack its offshore gas rigs.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nasrallah-says-no-place-safe-even-threatens-cyrus-if-israel-invades-lebanon

    ​ Russia may potentially launch a strike from Syria targeting a British military base in Cyprus. This assertion was made by Andrey Klintsevich in an interview with “Tsargrad,” as reported by the Russian outlet Gazeta.ru.​ https://bulgarianmilitary.com/2024/06/19/russia-might-strike-a-uk-base-in-cyprus-from-syria-klintsevich/

    ​(Real or theatrical?) White House Fuming, Cancels Meeting With Israelis, After Netanyahu’s Public Scolding​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/white-house-fuming-cancels-meeting-israelis-after-netanyahus-public-scolding

    June 21, 2024 at 8:14 pm #161703
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Breaking News – Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has been summoned to the Vatican to be Excommunicated by Red Pope Francis.
    ​ “The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has informed me, with a simple email, of the initiation of an extrajudicial penal trial against me, with the accusation of having committed the crime of schism and charging me of having denied the legitimacy of “Pope Francis” of having broken communion “with Him” and of having rejected the Second Vatican Council. I have been summoned to the Palace of the Holy Office on June 20, in person or represented by a canon lawyer. I assume that the sentence has already been prepared, given that it is an extrajudicial process.
    ​ I regard the accusations against me as an honor. I believe that the very wording of the charges confirms the theses that I have repeatedly defended in my various addresses. It is no coincidence that the accusation against me concerns the questioning of the legitimacy of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and the rejection of Vatican II: the Council represents the ideological, theological, moral, and liturgical cancer of which the Bergoglian “synodal church” is the necessary metastasis.​” https://joehoft.com/breaking-exclusive-archbishop-carlo-maria-vigano-summoned-to-vatican-to-be-excommunicated/

    ​ Samo Burja, from 8/19/2020 Reform Is Driven by Rising Elites [Do consider Vladimir Putin in this light. He effectively came up through the ranks from “nowhere”.]
    Formal Positions as Stepping Stones
    ​ Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, makes a good example of an elite whose power derived primarily from a formal position within a strategically relevant institution. While in office, Greenspan regularly made media statements that affected the economy by influencing market confidence, a tactic known as strategic communication management. This power was greatly enhanced by the fact that he had economists on speed dial to help select the right talking points. He also had direct access to government officials and top business leaders, and so could influence them personally and directly. And all that’s not even counting the direct political power over economic policy that he possessed.
    ​ But Greenspan’s public influence cannot be taken at face value. He has admitted that his remarks to reporters were sometimes intentionally nonsensical; his press conferences were mere efforts to look accountable, without any intention to impart real information. This illustrates a distinction between the formal reality, and the actual reality. The formal reality is that the Fed chairman is holding a press conference to inform you about the state of the economy. Acting under this assumption, journalists will disseminate his remarks whether or not they personally believe him to be speaking in good faith. The actual reality is one where the press conference has to be held as a matter of course, but where accurate information on the state of the economy couldn’t be shared while retaining the position.
    ​ This is characteristic of modern Western elites, selected for their ability to advance a narrative, or, at the very least, obscure challenges to it. What looks like idiocy or confusion can often be tactical, especially in a “transparent” and televisual era where something has to be said.
    ..Elites hold preponderant influence over society, but are not necessarily fully coordinated. There can be stray individuals, incomplete networks, or mutually competing networks that might have imperfect information about each other, possibly leading to elite conflict. A rising elite that has put in the legwork to study existing elites can be very helpful in filling in gaps of this sort by spotting elites with complementary abilities or connections. Elites may also have preferences for or aversions to working with people of certain types of personality, style, or areas of interest. These may not be easy to discern at first, so a rising elite must watch carefully for patterns. This incentive for rising elites to create greater coordination does in fact produce more coordination, thus allowing elites to spend more time cooperating and less time battling each other, with positive results for society as a whole.
    ​ The inner workings of elite networks, whether existing or rising, are often opaque, but ripple throughout society. Only by coming to understand, empathize with, and analyze these inner workings, and by understanding these dynamics of elite behavior and strategy, can we make sense of society at all—and by engaging its real dynamics, reshape it.​ https://letter.palladiummag.com/p/reform-is-driven-by-rising-elites

    ​ A reader has sent this, and after viewing it entirely, I present it for your consideration, starting at a point where the question is raised: “How is the intervention operating here?”
    “The Alien Agenda” | Marshall Vian Summers Interview​ https://youtu.be/LqwmKl4HM64?t=1321

    ​ Air Force vets testify UFOs have turned off nuclear warheads & shot test missiles out of sky at US bases
    Pentagon investigators have recently interviewed multiple veterans about their experiences allegedly witnessing UFOs tampering with American military equipment, including the nuclear arsenal.
    A pair of Air Force vets testified to the U.S. military’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) about their encounters.
    ​ Robert Salas, who was a US Air Force ICBM launch officer, told the Pentagon he witnessed “an orange flying disc” disarm 10 nuclear warheads at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana in 1967.
    ​ The other Air Force officer, Dr. Robert Jacobs, showed AARO a 35mm film reportedly showing a UFO shooting a test missile out of the sky in 1964 on a U.S. base.
    ​ Salas, who is now 82 years old, was happy to finally have the government reach out, telling Daily Mail, “I’ve been wanting to tell a government agency my story for over 50 years. It was a great big relief.”
    ​ Following his interview with AARO, a representative sent Salas a letter thanking him and telling him, “I’m hopeful the collective contributions of patriots like you and the current level of government interest and investment will provide answers to the questions the citizens of our country have demanded for such a long time.”
    ​ Jacobs was part of a team operating telescopic cameras to film test missile launches at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base in the 1960s.
    In 1964, a flying object was allegedly filmed flying into the frame shooting a warhead with “a beam of light.”
    ​ He told Daily Mail, “Now remember, all this stuff is flying at several thousand miles an hour. So this thing fires a beam of light at the warhead, hits it, and then it moves up… fires another beam of light… goes down and fires another beam of light, and then flies out the way it came in. And the warhead tumbles out of space.”
    ​ “The object, the points of light that we saw, the warhead and so forth, were traveling through subspace about 60 miles straight up,” Jacobs added. “And they were going somewhere in the neighborhood of 11,000 to 14,000 miles an hour when this UFO caught up to them, flew in, flew around them, and flew back out.”​ https://www.veteranstoday.news/2023-02-22-air-force-vets-ufos-turned-off-nuclear-warheads.html

    ​ Meryl Nass MD, via Door To Freedom: Recap On The World Health Organization And The Pandemic Preparedness Agenda – Newsletter
    ​ The World Health organization held its annual meeting of member states the final week of May. In addition to its usual business, the WHO attempted to finalize major amendments to its existing International Health Regulations and pass a new Pandemic Treaty. Some people said this was the most important business the WHO conducted since its formation in 1948.
    ​ Under the guise of “equity,” it was claimed that these two documents would guarantee poor nations the products they might need during a future global pandemic. But under pressure from pharmaceutical companies, whose share prices had fallen after COVID, and unwillingness from the richer nations to foot the bill, no drafts of either document actually included such guarantees. Poorer nations were only offered 10% of pharma production for free, and 10% at a low price. They were expected to pay full price for the rest. ​ As part of this deal, all nations were to agree to a variety of conditions designated as necessary for “pandemic preparedness,” many to be identified by committees that did not yet exist. The cost of compliance was unknown, while vague promises to help poorer countries meet these demands never got into the specifics in any drafts.
    ​ Attempts to water down both documents were made during the final days before and even during the meeting, but no general agreement could be obtained. Finally, at the eleventh hour (as often happens) an agreement was reached to give the Pandemic Treaty negotiations another year, with some new negotiators to be brought in. A set of amendments to the International Health Regulations were passed, but the heart of the document had been defanged: while the WHO Director-General would be allowed to declare public health emergencies, he would not accrue special powers as a result; he would not be able to order nations to pass laws; he could not issue lockdowns, mandates, etc. The details are below.​ https://doortofreedom.org/recap-on-the-world-health-organization-and-the-pandemic-preparedness-agenda-newsletter/

    June 21, 2024 at 8:15 pm #161704
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Peter McCullough MD, Febrile Seizure Risk after Vaccination in Children One to Five Months of Age
    CDC Study Confirms Early Combination Vaccination is the Problem
    The results are alarming because compared to a control period of which febrile seizures could have occurred due to other causes of fever, there was nearly a fourfold increased risk of this potentially catastrophic event with combination vaccination given very early in life. https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/febrile-seizure-risk-after-vaccination

    Peter McCullough MD, BREAKING Publication: COVID-19 Vaccines: A Risk Factor for Cerebral Thrombotic Syndromes
    Unacceptable Hazard for Blood Clots to the Brain
    ​ The vast majority of events reported to VAERS are made by doctors and other healthcare providers who have determined the vaccine is the cause of the problem. Compared to influenza vaccines given over 34 years, COVID-19 vaccines in 36 months of use had over 1000-fold increased risk of most blood clot events, and compared to all vaccines combined administered over 34 years, this risk remained at over 200-times greater with COVID-19 vaccination.
    ​ “There are 5137 cerebral thromboembolism AEs reported in the 3 years (36 months) after COVID-19 vaccines compared to 52 AEs for the influenza vaccines over the past 34 years (408 months) and 282 AEs for all other vaccines (excluding COVID-19) over the past 34 years (408 months).​” https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/breaking-publication-covid-19-vaccines

    ​ Investigative Journalist, John Leake (US/China joint-military-virus got out.) Origins of COVID: A Historic Senate Showdown
    Dr. Robert Garry dogged in making himself look ridiculous; Drs. Stephen Quay and Richard Ebright set the record straight; Congress persists in blaming fictitious “lack of transparency” in China.​ https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/origins-of-covid-a-historic-senate

    ​ Airborne Rabies has killed 2 human visitors to a densely populated bat cave. How would it fare, aerosolized in a subway?
    The Gain-of-Function Experiment That Could ‘Eliminate Humans From the Face of the Earth’
    ​ Frio Cave has a darker history that visitors websites don’t mention. More than fifty years ago, two humans contracted rabies while spelunking there.
    ​ That humans would get infected with rabies while visiting a bat-infested cave isn’t altogether surprising. Bats are a reservoir for the terrifying disease – 99% fatal to humans once symptoms – like hyperactivity, hallucinations, seizures, and fear of water – develop. A simple bite from one of the millions of bats could have transmitted a lyssavirus that triggers rabies. However, in this instance, the spelunkers apparently weren’t bitten. Rather, it seems they caught the virus from the air itself.
    ​ A team of scientists subsequently investigated. They found that rabies virus could be transmitted to animals housed in empty cages within the cave, apparently just via the atmosphere itself.​..
    ..Two Italian scientists wrote in a 2021 article, “Even single amino acid mutations in the proteins of Rabies virus can considerably alter its biological characteristics, for example increasing its pathogenicity and viral spread in humans, thus making the mutated virus a tangible menace for the entire mankind.”
    ​ Another possible route for this to occur would be through a “gain-of-function” experiment, in which researchers employ gene-editing to tweak the rabies virus, making it evade current vaccines and endowing it with the ability to spread through the air like measles or influenza…
    ​..Paul Offit, a professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine, commented on the potential to augment rabies through gain-of-function in a recent Substack post.
    ​ “In the absence of an effective vaccine, it could eliminate humans from the face of the earth. The good news is that no one has tried to make rabies virus more contagious. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not possible or that no one would be willing to try.”​ https://realclearwire.com/blog/2024/06/15/the_gain-of-function_experiment_that_could_eliminate_humans_from_the_face_of_the_earth_1037458.html

    June 21, 2024 at 8:16 pm #161705
    John Day
    Participant

    Where to be before and after the earth shifts her rotational axis, should that occur. Safe Zones and Disaster Zones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpILRrxCMiw

    Why so much solar storm depleting the ionosphere last month? They were nowhere near as strong as many prior coronal mass ejections from the sun. Weakening magnetic field. A new scientific paper. Unprecedented Solar Storm Effect – Bad News for Earth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDcEIhdqTQw

    Best Foot Forward (featuring my Palestine bike jersey, which I have been wearing all year)
    best foot

    June 21, 2024 at 10:45 pm #161709
    Celticbiker
    Participant

    JewSA brought back the draft so they can shove young Americans into their WW3 meatgrinder. They’ll be as dead and gone as the youth of Ukraine. A country emptied out, bought up by Blackrock. Just as dead as the WW2 boys or WW1 boys.. White people killin each other for fiuckin jew bamkers. Shit looks grim, to be honest…a whole nation, mindfucked by school and tv, looking to Orangejesus to save them, a jew owned traitor. We’re all Palestinians now. Their horror will soon be our horror. Who controls your money, your media, your laws? Wake up goyim, they want you dead.

    June 21, 2024 at 10:45 pm #161710
    Celticbiker
    Participant

    JewSA brought back the draft so they can shove young Americans into their WW3 meatgrinder. They’ll be as dead and gone as the youth of Ukraine. A country emptied out, bought up by Blackrock. Just as dead as the WW2 boys or WW1 boys.. White people killin each other for fiuckin jew bamkers. Shit looks grim, to be honest…a whole nation, mindfucked by school and tv, looking to Orangejesus to save them, a jew owned traitor. We’re all Palestinians now. Their horror will soon be our horror. Who controls your money, your media, your laws? Wake up goyim, they want you dead.

    June 21, 2024 at 10:49 pm #161711
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13556445/joe-biden-legal-counter-fight-election-dropout.html

    How conservatives could make it very hard for Democrats to replace Biden on the 2024 ballot if he has a disastrous debate or steps aside
    By MORGAN PHILLIPS,
    PUBLISHED: 17:37 EDT, 21 June 2024

    We have concluded that the process for substitution and withdrawal is very complicated. We will remain vigilant that appropriate election integrity procedures are followed.’

    If Joe Biden were to withdraw at any point before the Democratic National Convention, it would be up to the delegates at the DNC to pick a new nominee. But from there, they can expect legal challenges from Republicans looking to prevent any other Democratic nominee from getting on the ballot in certain states.

    The Heritage Oversight project has set their sights on three contentious swing states where they believe taking Biden off the Democratic ticket would not allow anyone else to replace him: Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin.

    Wisconsin does not allow withdrawal from the ballot for any reason besides death.

    In Nevada, no changes can be made to the ballot after 5 p.m. on the fourth Friday in June of an election year or ‘a nominee dies or is adjudicated insane or mentally incompetent.’

    If Biden were to withdraw less than 60 days before the election Georgia his name will remain on the ballot but no votes will be counted.

    In Texas, the two party’s nominees have until the 74th day before the election to withdraw from the ballot. Some states, like South Carolina, do not allow candidates to withdraw for political reasons.

    ————

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