Aug 012024
 
 August 1, 2024  Posted by at 9:22 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Vincent van Gogh Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey, Arles. Rey disliked his portrait and gave it away 1889

 

Kamala Harris: The Soros candidate? (Suchkov)
Harris Campaign Honeymoon Will Last to Chicago Convention But No Further (Sp.)
New Secret Service Director Announces Changes in Wake of Trump Shooting (ET)
FBI: Trump Shooter May Have Posted Far-Right Comments on Social Media (ZH)
Iran Accuses US Of Complicity In Hamas Chief’s Assassination (RT)
Israel’s Existence In Danger – Trump (RT)
Full-Scale Mideast War Only Way to Shaky Peace – Medvedev (Sp.)
NATO Working On New Russia Strategy – Washington (RT)
Musk Accepts Venezuelan President’s Offer To Fight (RT)
Maduro Asks Supreme Tribunal to Probe Alleged Election Meddling (Sp.)
Russia Legalizes Bitcoin And Crypto For International Trade (BCM)
US Policy Threatening Dollar – Senator (RT)
The Economic Situation of the West (Paul Craig Roberts)

 

 

 

 

Trump ad
https://twitter.com/i/status/1818422195464405089

 

 

Kamala staff

 

 

Vivek Kamala

 

 

ABC

 

 

McConnell

 

 

Boom

 

 

Maldonado

 

 

O’Leary

 

 

Rogan Biden
https://twitter.com/i/status/1818383962659750383

 

 

 

 

“..Soros funding her campaign? Well, all his entities are non-profit, so there’s no shame in taking money from Soros..”

Kamala Harris: The Soros candidate? (Suchkov)

The old joke that a ‘color revolution’ is impossible in the United States because there is no American embassy there no longer seems quite as funny. Especially from anyone who has followed American affairs closely in recent weeks. We’ve had the sudden withdrawal of the incumbent president from the electoral race, hastily organized support for a replacement – who only a few weeks ago was considered an unlikely heir – and the murky story of an assassination attempt on the opposition candidate. Furthermore, as the icing on the cake, the name Soros, a constant presence in all ‘color revolutions,’ has been gaining column inches again. George Soros has long been a household name. But he is now 93 years old and, unlike Biden, he has arranged for the transition of his family business in good time, handing over the major assets to his 38-year-old son Alexander.

The younger man has certainly not been idle. But if his activities abroad are not particularly noteworthy (he continues his father’s work of ‘spreading democracy’ of the Soros kind), Alexander’s vigorous activity inside America has become the object of increased attention against the background of the current election campaign. To show how deeply immersed he is, it suffices to say that the Soros’s, together with the Clintons, were the first to support the replacement of Biden with Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s candidate. Soros Jr. is a frequent presence at the White House – between January 2021 and May 2023 the visitors’ log recorded 20 of his visits. The twenty-first appearance took place on the 31 May. He arrived at the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris in the company of seven major donors to the Democratic Party and a young model named Savannah Huitema. They stayed at Harris’ home from 4pm until midnight.

The details of the conversation have not been revealed. All we know is that they discussed the presidential election. But eight hours in the company of the second most powerful person in the country in the middle of the working week is a lot of time, even for a valued donor. But old friends always have something to talk about. The Soros’s have long been close friends with Harris – George supported Kamala when she was a prosecutor in California. Over the years, from Latin America and the former Soviet Union to the Middle East and Southeast Asia, the Hungarian billionaire has meddled in domestic politics and sponsored changes of government. The US is no exception. But the Americans use a different system, which means that change is better instigated at the county and state level. That’s why Soros’ organisations have invested in local politicians and legislators who are overwhelmingly ‘progressive,’ i.e. on the left of the ideological spectrum.

One of the first to call attention to this practice was the ubiquitous Elon Musk. Discussing Soros’ election funding policy, Musk remarked: “The lowest value for money is a presidential race, then the next lowest value for money is a Senate race, then a Congress. But once you get to sort of city and state district attorneys, the value [is] extremely good.” He pointed to the Hungarian’s tactical insight: “Soros realized that you don’t actually need to change the laws. You just need to change how they’re enforced.” Early in her career, Harris was one of those who Soros thought could apply the law in the right way. It’s not known exactly which of her legal initiatives Soros funded, nor when he began to do so. What is known, however, is that Kamala attended Soros’ flagship conference, Vision 2020, and Soros Sr does not invite unverified people to speak publicly at such an event. In 2020, however, even Soros’ patronage did not help Harris win the Democratic Party’s nomination.

She was left off the presidential shortlist in part because most of her law enforcement initiatives turned out to be highly controversial. In particular, many voters were alarmed by her support for bias training for police officers, initiatives to cut police funding and the Safe Neighborhoods & Schools Act, which would have reduced sentences for a number of previously serious crimes (forgery, counterfeiting) and thefts under $950. The latter caused particular irritation among small shopkeepers, who realized that the thieves they had to deal with would no longer be afraid of the consequences. Many black people were also unhappy. Despite her Jamaican roots, Harris has defended the conviction of African-Americans when there was evidence of their innocence and proof of police misconduct. Perhaps for this reason, one of the most prominent liberal human rights groups, Black Lives Matter, is wary of Harris and has not yet endorsed her nomination.

Kamala’s political biography is full of examples of inconsistent behavior. For example, as district attorney of San Francisco, she opposed the death penalty, but after becoming California’s attorney general, Harris fought to end the moratorium on capital punishment. As a result, Kamala has developed a reputation as someone who possesses two important skills for a modern politician: behind the scenes, she is flexible enough to do what her sponsors want, and in public, she is persuasive enough to justify that decision, even if it means flip-flopping. Indeed, what was a liability for the Democrats in 2020 is being presented as an asset four years later. Now, Harris is a seasoned prosecutor, Trump is a criminal, and the campaign is a public trial. This is the model now being promoted by Democratic political technologists. And the shift from Vice President Kamala to Prosecutor Kamala is a clever move to gloss over Harris’s failures as Biden’s deputy and focus voters’ attention on her merits as a guardian of the law.

“She has prosecuted six ‘sexual predators’. He [Trump] is one. She shut down for-profit colleges that were defrauding Americans. He supported them. He is a puppet of the big banks. As attorney general, she fought America’s biggest banks and forced them to pay homeowners $18 billion,” a campaign video claims. As they say, it’s all about the narrative. Harris’ love affair with the former mayor of San Francisco that launched her career? That’s a young girl thing! Soros funding her campaign? Well, all his entities are non-profit, so there’s no shame in taking money from Soros, unlike another billionaire Peter Thiel, who backs Trump and J.D. Vance!

In July, Alexander Soros announced his engagement to Huma Abedin, 47, a long-time aide to Hillary Clinton, whom she calls her “second daughter”. A practising Muslim with extensive government experience and influential friends in Washington, Abedin has become the ‘bridge’ in the relationship between the Clintons and the Soros’s. “Soros is doing things that erode the fabric of civilization,” warns Elon Musk. Whether Harris is part of this sinister plan or this is just another conspiracy theory by right-wing conservatives, Americans will have to find out, perhaps very soon.

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“Honeymoons are notoriously short. It’s what the word means..”

Harris Campaign Honeymoon Will Last to Chicago Convention But No Further (Sp.)

The current wave of support and mainstream media coverage will carry Vice President Kamala Harris through to the Democratic Party national convention in Chicago next month but it is unlikely to last beyond that, US analysts told Sputnik. President Joe Biden chose Harris as his successor right after announcing that he was withdrawing from the Democratic party nomination for a second four-year term in the White House. Since then, mainstream Democratic leaders, including former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have rallied to Harris’ support. Nevertheless, Harris’ current wave of popularity, which has given her a small thought from the overwhelming boost in national opinion polls, will not last beyond the convention in Chicago, financial columnist and former merchant banker Martin Hutchinson said. “This honeymoon can carry her to the convention – not beyond,” Hutchinson said. “Her honeymoon will last till after the Democratic convention.”

Hutchinson pointed out that while Harris has national experience as vice president, her real policies and priorities had yet to be exposed to public scrutiny and success in the race would also depend on whom she chose as her vice-presidential running mate. “Thing to watch is whether she picks a sensible vice president. [Pennsylvania Governor Josh] Shapiro, [Kansas Governor Laura] Kelly, or [North Carolina Governor Roy] Cooper are her best choices, but the Financial Times wants her to pick [Secretary of Transportation Pete] Buttigieg, which would reinforce everyone’s negative view of her,” Hutchinson said. While Harris’ skill as a direct debater might make her a formidable opponent for Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump, her appeal would likely diminish during the prime campaigning season of September and October, Hutchinson said. “I think Trump’s chances remain good though not overwhelming, as air in Harris will slowly deflate in September/October,” Hutchinson added.

California State University Emeritus Professor of Political Affairs Beau Grosscup agreed that Harris was currently benefiting from a wave of adulation that would not last. “Honeymoons are notoriously short. It’s what the word means,” Grosscup said. Nevertheless, Harris brought significant strengths to the Democratic ticket that the aging and obviously infirm Biden had clearly lacked, Grosscup said. “Her prospects against Trump are good. She has solved the age/dementia issue – pointing now to Trump. She should re-rally women/independents on the Dobbs decision [regarding abortion] as Biden left that issue to her,” Grosscup said. The US political landscape unpredictability notwithstanding, Harris’s past record made the flubs and embarrassments inevitable throughout her presidential campaign, Political analyst Charles Ortel said. “Harris is a remarkably undistinguished ‘public servant’ whose track record and policy inclinations are both rash and juvenile,” Ortel said.

Harris’s many allies in the established media would do their best to promote her through the Democratic convention, Ortel added. US constitutional historian and political commentator Dan Lazare recommended election watchers not be misled by the relatively restrained and polite tone of the Harris and Trump campaigns so far. “With something like a hundred days to the election, the process is just getting underway,” Lazare said. “The Harris campaign is indeed in the honeymoon stage, and how much longer it lasts – a few days, a few weeks – is impossible to say. But we can be sure that it will end by some point, and that’s when the real mud wrestling will begin.” Both candidates had yet to reveal their strategies and opening moves but none of the general adulatory coverage of Harris so far had dared to point out the very real drawbacks she suffered from in her professional record, he said.

“Kamala has got a lot of baggage – her law-and-order prosecutor years that are a guaranteed turn-off for liberals, her political shallowness, her demeanor, and that god-awful laugh,” Lazare said. Lazare noted that a major issue for Harris and for most Americans is the US economy. “This a real problem for Harris since if she runs on Bidenomics, she will incur the wrath of all who have been hurt by inflation, that is the entire working-class population, while if she runs away from Bidenomics, she’ll come off as a disloyal opportunist. She’s damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t,” Lazare added.

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Next time they won’t miss.

New Secret Service Director Announces Changes in Wake of Trump Shooting (ET)

The Secret Service is making changes in the wake of the failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, the agency’s new acting director announced on July 30. Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said he had traveled to the site of the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former president was shot, allegedly by a man who fired from the roof of a nearby building.Mr. Rowe said what he saw while lying in a prone position on the roof of that building made him feel “ashamed.” “As a career law enforcement officer, and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured,” he told two U.S. Senate committees on Capitol Hill. “To prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future, I directed our personnel to ensure every event site security plan is thoroughly vetted by multiple experienced supervisors before it is implemented.”

Mr. Rowe said he believed that agents had plenty of time to plan for the rally and called what happened a “failure on multiple levels.” In addition to former President Trump, whose ear was clipped by one of the bullets fired at him, three others were also struck. Former fire chief Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed while trying to protect his wife and daughter, and the other two shooting victims were hospitalized but have since been discharged.

Mr. Rowe assumed the acting director position after Kimberly Cheatle, the presidential appointee who was serving as director, stepped down on July 23 amid calls for her to resign. Ms. Cheatle, in remarks before Congress before she resigned, said the assassination attempt represented the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure in decades.” Echoing that acknowledgment on July 30, Mr. Rowe said he had launched an internal investigation and would hold Secret Service employees accountable if they were found to have violated agency protocols. “They will be held to our table of penalties, which will include up to termination,” he said. As of yet, however, no Secret Service employees have been relieved of duty, which Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned.

“Isn’t the fact that a former president was shot, that a good American is dead, that other Americans were critically wounded—isn’t that enough mission failure for you to say that the person who decided that that building should not be in the security perimeter probably ought to be stepped down?” Mr. Hawley asked during one particularly heated exchange. Mr. Rowe replied that he would prefer to allow the investigation to play out before taking that kind of action. “I will not rush to judgment,” the acting director said, vowing to hold employees accountable “with integrity.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) agreed with Mr. Hawley that accountability would likely require more than just an investigation. “I think we need individual accountability here and people need to be held responsible—in fact, lose their jobs, if necessary—to send a message,” Mr. Graham said.

Sen. John Kennedy

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They couldn’t find any internet presence. Now an account with 700 comments. Get serious.

FBI: Trump Shooter May Have Posted Far-Right Comments on Social Media (ZH)

A top FBI official made a point of testifying that President Trump’s would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks may have espoused far-right extremist viewpoints on an unnamed social media account five years ago, but forgot to mention that Crooks may have shared pro-Biden viewpoints on Gab more recently. Both accounts have not yet been fully verified as belonging to Crooks. FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told senators on Capitol Hill Tuesday that a social media account believed to be Crooks’ appears to have shared antisemitic, anti-immigrant, and “extreme in nature” posts in 2019 and 2020. Crooks would have been 14 to 15-years-old in that time frame. “There were over 700 comments posted from this account,” Abbate testified before a joint Senate Judiciary Committee and Homeland Security Committee hearing entitled “Examination of the Security Failures Leading to the Assassination Attempt on Former President Trump.”

“Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature,” Abbate added. The deputy director said while the FBI was still verifying that the account belonged to Crooks, the Bureau felt it was important to detail the social account’s nature because of the “general absence of other information” establishing Crooks’ “motive and mindset.” GAB CEO Andrew Torba, however, shared plenty of information on X last week about a GAB account the FBI appeared to believe was Crook’s, saying the content of the posts “UNEQUIVOCALLY” reflected a “pro-Biden and in particular pro-Biden immigration policy.” The Gab founder said on July 24, he received an Emergency Disclosure Request (EDR) from the FBI for the Gab account “EpicMicrowave,” and said based on the request, the FBI appeared to believe the account was associated with Crooks.

Torba said “as a courtesy to enforcement,” he would not post the contents of the entire request on social media, but did post the first page on X. Torba said he was unable to confirm that the account in question, which posted a total of nine times on the site, actually belonged to Crooks. The account appeared to only be active for a short period of time in January and February of 2021. “As far as we are aware, the account did not use the site to send any direct messages,” Torba wrote on X. The majority of EpicMicrowave’s posts supported Joe Biden’s policies, particularly, his COVID lockdowns, border policies and executive orders. “To the best of Gab’s knowledge, as of 2021, Crooks was a pro-lockdown, pro-immigration, left-wing Joe Biden supporter,” Torba said.

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Killing a guest on your territory. Unacceptable.

Iran Accuses US Of Complicity In Hamas Chief’s Assassination (RT)

The US bears partial responsibility for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. The Palestinian movement’s chief was assassinated in a missile strike on his residence Tehran earlier in the day. The ministry accused Israel of carrying out the strike, calling it part of the Jewish State’s hunt for Palestinian leaders, and a “terrorist act” targeting Iran’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Haniyeh was in Iran for the inauguration of the country’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. The ministry statement said Tehran reserves the right to “respond appropriately to this aggressive action.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran emphasizes the responsibility of the US government as a supporter and accomplice” of Israel, including in “committing this heinous act of terrorism,” the statement read. According to Tehran, Israel seeks to destabilize the Middle East, and Wednesday’s attack poses a “serious threat” to regional and international peace and stability. Washington has denied any role in the incident. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Singapore-based news network CNA that the US was “not aware of or involved in” the assassination. Israel has not commented on the strike, but national media have claimed, citing unnamed Iranian officials, that the missile that struck Haniyeh’s residence may have been fired from within Iran’s borders. Israel has previously vowed to eliminate the leaders of Hamas.

The development comes as the conflict between Israel and the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group approaches nine months. Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has repeatedly pledged to destroy Hamas in response to its deadly October 7 raid that claimed the lives of some 1,100 people. More than 200 were taken hostage and held in Gaza. Israel responded to the attack by launching a major military campaign in Gaza that involved heavy bombardments following by a ground operation. Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave since the start of the fighting, according to local authorities.

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Voting for Trump won’t change that.

Israel’s Existence In Danger – Trump (RT)

Donald Trump has urged American Jews to vote for him in the November election, warning that if they fail to do so, Israel could be destroyed by its enemies. The former US president and Republican nominee for the 2024 election was speaking at a fundraiser on Sunday in a New Jersey municipality with a sizable Jewish population. He claimed that the Democrats hate Israel and “largely hate” the Jewish people. “We have to win this election. We need the Jewish people to vote for Trump. If you don’t have Jewish people voting for Republicans… you’re not going to have Israel for very long,” stated Trump. The presidential hopeful also pledged to help Israel win its war against Hamas if elected. Trump reiterated his claim that the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza, would not have happened had he still been in office.

According to surveys by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based think tank, a majority of US Jews have consistently voted for the Democratic Party. However, state-funded Voice of America noted in May that an increasing number have backed the Republicans in recent elections. The Pittsburg Jewish Chronicle cited a survey of New York voters in February showing that 53% of Jewish voters intended to vote for Donald Trump in November. The relationship between the Biden administration and the Israeli government has soured in recent months amid the Jewish state’s offensive in Gaza. US President Joe Biden has warned the Israeli leadership against an all-out assault in the densely populated city of Rafah and said it would be a ‘red line.’ “If they [Israel] go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons,” he stated.

In late April, the Biden administration paused a shipment of munitions that officials expected Israel to use in Rafah. In April, Trump took a dig at Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. “Biden has totally lost control of the Israel situation… Any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat or votes for Biden should have their head examined,” he said. The Jewish State launched its offensive in the Gazan city in early May amid widespread international condemnation. Israel has been the largest recipient of US economic and military aid since its founding in 1948, having received about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance, according to American foreign policy think tank the Council on Foreign Relations. In April, Biden signed into law a $95 billion foreign funding bill that included military aid to Israel.

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We fear.

Full-Scale Mideast War Only Way to Shaky Peace – Medvedev (Sp.)

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev suggested that a full-scale war in the Middle East is the only way to a shaky peace in the region. “The knot in the Middle East is tightening. I regret the loss of innocent lives. They are just hostages of a disgusting state – the United States. Meanwhile, it is clear to everyone that a full-scale war is the only way to a shaky peace in the region,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram. On Wednesday, Palestinian movement Hamas reported the death of its political leader Ismail Haniyeh as a result of an Israeli strike on his residence in Tehran, where he had arrived to participate in the inauguration of Iran’s new president.

The movement blamed Haniyeh’s death on Israel and the United States and said the attack would not be left without a response. Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said he had nothing to comment on the death of the Hamas political chief and Israel’s involvement. Israeli army officials said they do not respond to media reports about Haniyeh’s murder. The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli authorities had instructed ministers not to speak out about Haniyeh’s death. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov called Haniyeh’s death an absolutely unacceptable political assassination that threatens further escalation in the region.

“There is no doubt that Ismail Haniyeh’s killing will have an extremely negative impact on the indirect contacts between Hamas and Israel, which offered a framework for achieving a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on mutually acceptable terms,” the Foreign Ministry Information and Press Department’s Deputy Director Andrey Nastasyin “Russia reiterates its insistent calls on all the parties involved to exercise restraint and avoid any steps that could dramatically worsen the security situation in the region, leading to a large-scale military confrontation,” he added.

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Why? It didn’t work?

NATO Working On New Russia Strategy – Washington (RT)

NATO is developing a new strategy to deal with Russia, US Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien announced on Tuesday during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. O’Brien told the meeting that the US “wants Ukraine to win” and is providing all the materials necessary. He also claimed the “platform” of support for Kiev has strengthened, because the EU has already begun membership negotiations with Ukraine, which O’Brien said will encourage reform within the country. He recalled that the G7 members have agreed to give Kiev the earnings from Russia’s frozen sovereign assets, delivering an anticipated $50 billion this year to spend on defense. The third aspect, O’Brien claimed, is that NATO has said that it would welcome Ukraine into its ranks once Kiev takes the necessary steps towards membership.

Making sure Kiev can “win the war” is “the fastest way to peace” O’Brien suggested, adding that Ukraine has already been seen “making some progress on the battlefield.” “We have, at the same time, strengthened our platform, in particular NATO,” the US official said, adding that the Washington-led bloc is “going to be developing a new strategy toward Russia over the next months” that will aim to “hold our allies together” in future dealings with Moscow. O’Brien also noted that “all the NATO allies agreeing that [China] is the decisive enabler of Russia’s war” would be a “significant step towards improving the platform that we have.”

Russia has repeatedly criticized the West for its ongoing military support for Kiev, arguing that “flooding” Ukraine with weapons only serves to prolong the conflict and leads to more bloodshed without affecting the inevitable outcome of the conflict. Additionally, Moscow has on multiple occasions cited NATO’s continued expansion towards its borders and attempts to bring Ukraine into its ranks as one of the primary reasons for launching its military operation against Kiev in 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed that Ukraine must become a neutral country and drop its plans to join the US-led military bloc in order for any potential peace negotiations to succeed.

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Maduro’s a boxer.

Musk Accepts Venezuelan President’s Offer To Fight (RT)

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has responded to Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro’s challenge to a fight over fraud accusations from Musk, saying he was ready to accept it. The South American nation’s leader, who just won his third term in presidential elections, accused Musk on Monday of trying to disrupt peace and stability in the country, calling the businessman his “new archenemy.” Maduro was responding to Musk’s claims of “major election fraud” by challenging the billionaire to a fight, during an address he made on national television. On Wednesday, when entrepreneur Mario Nawfal asked in a post on X (formerly Twitter): “Who had a Maduro vs Elon Fight on their 2024 Bingo Card?” Musk replied simply writing “I accept.”

In a second reply, the X owner claimed that Maduro “will chicken out.” Nawfal further released a new post, stating that “Elon’s accepted Maduro’s challenge to fight… WHO WOULD WIN?” Musk responded once again, writing: “If I win, he resigns as dictator of Venezuela. If he wins, I give him a free ride to Mars.” The SpaceX chief executive has a history of provoking public figures into fighting. The tech billionaire has long claimed he could win in a fight against the founder of Facebook, fellow tycoon Mark Zuckerberg.

The spat between Musk and Venezuelan leader followed the businessman’s posts on the results of the South American country’s presidential elections. The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela on Sunday declared Maduro the winner of the election, announcing that with 80% of ballots counted, he had secured more than 51% of the vote, compared to 44% for his main rival, Edmundo Gonzales. Maduro will be serving a third consecutive six-year term, having first taken office in 2013 following the death of President Hugo Chavez. In his victory speech, he mocked the opposition, which, he said, “cries fraud” at every election. The Venezuelan president said his reelection would bring peace and stability.

Roger Waters
https://twitter.com/i/status/1818287624626536640

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“Russian Foreign Ministry deputy spokesperson Andrey Nastasyin [..] urged foreign countries to stop using “baseless accusations” to attempt to influence the political situation in Venezuela.”

Maduro Asks Supreme Tribunal to Probe Alleged Election Meddling (Sp.)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro filed a constitutional protection claim on Wednesday with the country’s Supreme Justice Tribunal to investigate an alleged election interference he described as an attempted coup. The presidential election of July 28 saw Maduro win a third term in office. The announcement of the results sparked protests in the capital of Caracas and beyond, with clashes reported between the police and opposition supporters. The Venezuelan government has accused several countries of election meddling. “For the sake of peace in Venezuela, I … filed a claim for constitutional protection … to have the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Justice Tribunal investigate this attack on the electoral process, this attempt at a coup made using the electoral process,” Maduro told reporters.

The president added that he decided to appeal to the court after having faced “psychological warfare in social and mass media.” “Let them interrogate all registered presidential candidates and 38 parties, and find out in detail the nature of those attacks on polling stations, arson and damage to the branches of the electoral council, and cyber attacks,” Maduro said. “I am ready to be summoned and questioned as a presidential candidate and the winner of Sunday’s presidential vote. I throw myself before justice and will obey it.” Russian Foreign Ministry deputy spokesperson Andrey Nastasyin said on Wednesday that Maduro’s victory had been confirmed and urged foreign countries to stop using “baseless accusations” to attempt to influence the political situation in Venezuela.

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“The new law doesn’t lift the existing ban on crypto payments inside the country.”

Russia Legalizes Bitcoin And Crypto For International Trade (BCM)

In a significant legislative move, Russian lawmakers have passed a bill permitting businesses to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in international trade, according to a report by Reuters. This development is part of Russia’s strategy to circumvent Western sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine. The new law, expected to take effect in September, aims to address delays in international payments, particularly with key trading partners like China, India, and the UAE. Central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, a proponent of the law, announced that the first cryptocurrency transactions will occur before the year’s end. The central bank will establish an “experimental” infrastructure for these payments, with further details pending. “The risks of secondary sanctions have grown,” Nabiullina stated. “They make payments for imports difficult, and that concerns a wide range of goods.”

The legislation also includes regulations on cryptocurrency mining and the circulation of other digital assets but maintains the ban on cryptocurrency payments within Russia. The central bank highlighted that payment delays have caused an 8% drop in Russian imports in the second quarter of 2024. Despite efforts to shift to trading partners’ currencies and develop an alternative BRICS payment system, many transactions still rely on dollars and euros via the SWIFT system, risking secondary sanctions. Nabiullina emphasized that these sanctions have complicated import payments, extending supply chains and increasing costs. This decision by Russian lawmakers aims to mitigate the economic challenges posed by sanctions and ensure smoother international trade operations. Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the Duma lower house of parliament, reportedly told lawmakers, “We are taking a historic decision in the financial sphere” by passing this legislation.

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“..in the name of maintaining economic and military security for the US, we have made ourselves vulnerable..”

US Policy Threatening Dollar – Senator (RT)

The White House has created the first real threat to the dollar and its status as the global reserve currency, US Republican Senator Mike Lee has said, in an interview with journalist and political commenter Tucker Carlson. In a two-hour interview published by the former Fox News anchor on his YouTube channel on Tuesday, Lee said that US policies of unilateral sanctions are delegitimizing the so-called rules-based international order that Washington claims to protect. According to the senator, the US authorities have succeeded in uniting Russia, China and Iran, which are significant global economic players, and have to deal with a powerful incentive to get rid of dollars, primarily in energy transactions.

“And, in the meantime, we have really presented the first major threat that you and I have seen in our lifetimes to the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency,” Lee said, stressing that “twenty years ago all oil transactions, no matter where you are in the world,” were conducted in dollars. “It’s starting to not be the case anymore,” he said, warning that this was “very chilling,” because strength of the greenback and its widespread use was what the entire US benefited from to a very significant extent.

The global trend toward countries using their respective national currencies in trade instead of the US dollar gained significant momentum after Russia, one of the world’s top oil producers and exporters, was cut off from the Western financial system and had its foreign reserves frozen in 2022. “So, in the name of protecting the rules based on international order, we’ve weakened it, in the name of maintaining economic and military security for the US, we have made ourselves vulnerable,” Lee concluded. The freezing of Russian sovereign assets in February 2022 was an unprecedented move. A number of experts in the West, including US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, have cautioned against attempting to confiscate these funds, highlighting that this could undermine the dollar, the euro, and the entire global financial system.

Sen. Mike Lee

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“..As other countries cease using the US dollar as their reserves, the large supply of dollars in the world–I recently read that the US national debt is now $35 trillion–is likely to be a supply that exceeds demand..”

The Economic Situation of the West (Paul Craig Roberts)

Once upon a time America had a capitalist economy. Bank deposits were used for loans that expanded productive ability. America produced its own goods and grew its own food. America’s currency was backed by gold and inflation was nonexistent. New technology brought into play by new investment improved the productivity of labor, and living standards rose. Profits were plowed back into improved methods and expanded production. Governments subsidized social infrastructure and education. This lowered the cost of transportation and, thereby, the cost of production and prices, and it provided industry and manufacturing with an educated work force. As an instate resident, my annual tuition at Georgia Tech came to about $450. This highly successful way of running an economy was replaced by an entirely different economy, the one we have today. Who is responsible and how it came about is a story that can be told later but not in this column.

In the current economy bank loans are not made to finance new investment in new plant and equipment. They are made in order to finance the purchase of existing assets. Loans are made to purchase existing companies, load them up with debt, and sell off their assets. Loans are made to finance a buyback of a company’s own stock, thus raising the stock price and resulting in executive and board “performance” bonuses. Loans are made to finance real estate purchases and thereby drive up the values of real estate, thus raising the cost of housing. The new economy is financialized. It lives off of interest on debt and fees, the plunder of public assets via privatization, and exploitation of third world economies via dollar-based bank loans that can only be repaid by the indebted country selling its public assets to its American creditors, usually at rock bottom prices. The new American economy rests on the indebtedness, not the prosperity, of the American population and on the financial coercion of dollar-indebted foreign governments who pay their debts with their country’s assets.

The Federal Reserve destroyed family farms and monopolized food production in agri-business, monopolized the financial system in the hands of the five largest banks, and destroyed the value of the US dollar. This is not a portrait of a successful economy with a future.The Western World, especially the US, has offshored its industrial and manufacturing economy to Asia and Mexico. Offshoring has deprived the American workforce of the incomes associated with the production of the goods that Americans consume. When the goods and services come into the US to be marketed, they come in as imports, thus enlarging the US trade deficit. The reason this exploitative system has been able to continue is that Washington used World War II to make the US dollar the means of international payment, that is, the reserve currency of the central banks of the world. Dollar-denominated debt instruments became the reserves of the world’s central banks.

To be the reserve currency means that the country’s debt is the reserves of all other countries’ central banks. Therefore, an increase in US government debt was not a problem, because it meant an increase in reserves of the world’s central banks. This is why financing the US debt was never a problem. In the 21st century the US government itself has been busy at work destroying this privileged way of financing its ever-growing debt by weaponizing the use of the dollar as reserve currency. The sanctions imposed on Russia and other countries have created a general move away from the use of US Treasury debt as central bank reserves. Washington’s seizure of Russia’s central bank reserves held in dollars told the world that the same could happen to them. Consequently, the use of the US dollar in international payments has fallen from about 90% to a bit less than 50%. With the formation and expansion of BRICS it will fall further.

As other countries cease using the US dollar as their reserves, the large supply of dollars in the world–I recently read that the US national debt is now $35 trillion–is likely to be a supply that exceeds demand. The implication is a fall in the exchange value of the dollar, already confirmed by the rise in gold and silver prices. In the short run, Washington can prevail on the Japanese, UK, and EU central banks to support the dollar by using their currencies to buy dollars. But this rescue operation of the dollar cannot be forever extended. When the time comes that Western central banks are no longer willing to risk the values of their own currencies in support to the US dollar and the gold and silver prices cannot longer be suppressed by the practice of selling naked shorts, America will become a third world country.

This is not a subject that interests many economists. The American economic profession is, in my opinion, a collection of people who, in exchange for grants and consultantships, have embraced the lie that offshoring of “dirty fingernail jobs” will result in higher paid new economy jobs for the work force. After all these years there is still no sign of these promised higher-paying replacement jobs. The same economists have told us that globalism, which makes us dependent on imports, is the wave of the future. The future of an import-dependent economy with a weakening currency is permanent inflation. With robotics and artificial intelligence replacing the human work force while millions of immigrant-invaders enter the country annually, the future is also one of permanent unemployment. The US economy is run by short-run profit maximization. The absence of vision means a bleak future even in the absence of the Great Reset.

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Home Forums Debt Rattle August 1 2024

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  • #165303

    Vincent van Gogh Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey, Arles. Rey disliked his portrait and gave it away 1889   • Kamala Harris: The Soros candidate? (Su
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle August 1 2024]

    #165305
    aspnaz
    Participant

    SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has responded to Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro’s challenge to a fight over fraud accusations from Musk, saying he was ready to accept it.

    Musk hates it when he doesn’t get the attention that he needs, like a junkie. Remember the Thai cave rescue guy, Elon called him a pedo. That showed you what sort of cunt we are talking about. Then he became best buddies with genocide Netanyahu, just confirming what sort of cunt he is; your friends say a lot about you and my guess is that Elon doesn’t have any real friends, hence his adoption of Netanyahu as his latest BFF.

    #165306
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Yes, definitely Nutsy got permission to attack from the U.S. poodles. Joke’s on him: the U.S. won’t back him, because we can’t. We got nuttin’. So..here we go, Israel ceases to exist.

    “US Will ‘Certainly’ Defend Israel If Attacked By Iran In Wake Of Haniyeh Killing

    Hahahaha! With what? A sternly written letter? We’ll export carpet-bombs of porn? Every warship can be at the bottom of the ocean in 20 minutes. Every base is a sitting duck – already well proven. We can collapse and “cease to exist” like Israel, but I expect we won’t. In an hour we’ll suddenly be “Just another nation” in a multi-polar world. …Thank God.

    “Zelensky Suspends Ukraine’s Foreign Debt Payments Starting Aug 1st

    Blackrock will collapse.

    “Russia Holds 3rd Phase of Tactical Nuclear Drills Same Day Ukraine Receives First F-16s

    Remember they and and possibly are, droned. That is because officially (meaning it is also a lie) there are only two pilots. So only tiny sorties at a time, and then 18 hours rest to do it again. Yeah, that’s like sending them one tank at a time.

    Here’s Epstein’s Minnesota Band camp (actually Michigan) with our ol’ Bill Barr!
    https://nickbryantnyc.com/blog/f/did-jeffrey-epstein-william-barr-attend-interlochen-in-1967

    Yup then was in the law firms that cut Epstein’s deal. I’m sure that’s all totally a coincidence, I mean — I — attended summer camp with rape involved that produced several world leaders, didn’t you? Practically all Congress and every media head too came through Boy Scout Camp #56, right?

    For anyone who cares, there are more videos:
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7uYGxMIqmcc And look for the daily by Martenson.

    That’s why you can’t have a Kennedy assassination with 2,000 Zapruder films. This is a film of the wounded audience, showing the sniper running around, totally upright, 9 seconds. And guess what? At EXACTLY the time one of the cops called and said he was locked out, can you leave your post and come let me in? Wow, amazing coincidence. Also seems unlikely that he was invisible to the sniper team the whole time since he had to cross from one side to the other.

    Other notes, besides that he happened to cross at the happened to minute the cops happened to leave their posts in the upper windows? He seems to have tossed his backpack up previously, climbing up and crossing the roof to reach it. Okay, so where was the gun? When he crosses, there are only 9 seconds before he appears, so I can’t see him zipping, assembling, barrel, stock, scope(s), and bear-crawling. Besides, he wasn’t. He was walking around over the ridgeline fully upright, unconcerned.

    So he knew that this closest possible building was outside Secret Service zone – although 40 cops – and without being above, also knew exactly where the Hercules Team was and their exact line of sight so he could hide behind it. AND that the cops had left their post in the upper windows. Yup! That’s how we know he was a lone shooter! Secret Service had nothin’ to do with it at all!

    Other notes: This may be normal, (Secret Service never bothered to show up to the meetings) but NEVER have open windows in a sniper zone. The other snipers consider them unsafe, so they are always all closed. It seems all the upper windows were open, including one with a spotter or gun sitting there, in the room, on a tripod, they left unguarded at the exact moment of the shooting.

    It also appears Shot 9 was NOT Hercules team, which doesn’t make sense since we can time them on video: they definitely fired. But reportedly It was fired by local cops (sniper grade) on the ground. That’s how far above the ridge his head was. This was proto-released by Butler reports. It was also done almost while he was still firing, so if so, incredible decision and reaction time. It also basically says he was looking right at that roof when it started, which makes sense since the Butler radio must have been non-stop “He’s on the roof (yawn) He’s got a gun (So?)”. So “Secret Service” never took the shot at all? That’s what you’re telling me? They took shot 10, that disturbing one minutes after it was over?

    ““To the best of Gab’s knowledge, as of 2021, Crooks was a pro-lockdown, pro-immigration, left-wing Joe Biden supporter,” Torba said.”

    Chose your own adventure. He was BOTH sides, and he was/wasn’t there, was/wasn’t the shooter, and was/wasn’t coordinating with anyone. In an information-saturated world the only way to hide anything is to throw up chaff. That is, if you want to hide your identity, the only way is to make 20 identities with your name, in 20 states, so no one can identify the real one.

    This relies on LYING. That is, no one who lies is discredited and removed, because they are the ones throwing up chaff. If you remove liars when they lie – which in this case is obstructing justice, tampering with an investigation, etc. — then the air immediately clears and the truth is obvious again. I think we can see that pretty clearly in recent testimony. Put up lies. Defend the liars. No one is responsible, nothing changes., keep throwing up chaff, keep lying.

    Don’t. Stop. Just STOP HELPING. Discredit them, stop cooperating and giving anyone the benefit of the doubt in a false “Appeal to Authority.”

    Harris and Arrests. Yes, and that’s playing softball. She was Waaaaaay worse than that. Joe was for Segregation, “Superpredators” “Busing”, but Kamala literally rounded up innocent black kids, threw them in jail, and then sold their labor to sweatshops and the fire patrol, refusing a Judge’s court order to release them. That is literally slavery. She’s a slave-ship captain on the western coast. Except she didn’t buy them from the (Muslim) natives as war-prisoners, she rounded them up at gunpoint herself.

    Rogan: Finally having the discussion about body doubles. I mean, it’s been generations, so…too soon? It was headline news, like 6 months, can’t kill Saddam since he has 20 body doubles. Btw, Putin hasn’t aged a day in 25 years. Perhaps this is why they can’t kill him? There’s about 30 Putins? Would you do that if you were them? I would.

    Hey, was the guy they convicted the real Saddam anyway? How would you or I know?

    “the name Soros, a constant presence in all ‘color revolutions,’

    So let’s see: Gets a Billion dollars from the Bank of England. Ain’t nobody mad about it. Then takes that money and does political work overthrowing governments England doesn’t like. Huh. Well I do not find that curious at all. Why are we talking about this?

    Bonus question: if Soros is overthrowing government at MI6 direction, and Soros is buying up all American D.A.’s, etc, then…who is the foreign nation, adversary, and violent attacker committing treason again? I mean, thanks to those D.A.s THOUSANDS of Americans have been killed with violence. Squirrel! They wouldn’t do that; they’re our BESTEST friends.

    “• Harris Campaign Honeymoon Will Last to Chicago Convention But No Further (Sp.)

    Perhaps until they point out she’s not a natural born citizen and grew up in Canada, going to college there. (From 12) ...And still didn’t manage to learn any French. It’s just AMAZING! EVERY one of these guys floated for top positions, ALL from, around, crossing, citizens of, the British Commonwealth. Obama, Rubio, Cruz, or India, as Sunak, Ramaswamy, Harris. Well, Americans from here with American parents are all just stupid, I guess. I mean, if they were smart, wouldn’t they had the sense to been born somewhere else? That’s just logic.

    “O’Brien told the meeting that the US “wants Ukraine to win” and is providing all the materials necessary.”

    No they are not, that’s hilarious, and well-known, world-wide, for years. You MIGHT say we provided them everything when we armed and trained their 400,000-man, NATO-Nazi army to ethnically cleanse all Donbas, but since Russia wiped that out in 3 weeks, we’ve provided one tank at a time, and all those sucked. They blew right up, bogged down, and never made it anywhere because of breaking, just like every other tactic or equipment we use.

    “Ukraine has already been seen “making some progress on the battlefield.”

    Crusty is coming. Yes, Russia’s about to fold, Ukraine is winning. There are ton of MI6 sites that report this daily, like Times Radio. As above, every day they’re lying. Every day they’re not discredited and removed. Years and years and years and years in a row. Huh. Why? How?

    Waters: I’m sure Maduro and their government suck. Oh well, that’s their choice, their decision, and their problem. But I guess we’ll never know since us the CIA, MI6 are all screwing around in there, so there’s ever-less chance of finding out what might happen. Hey, is that illegal? Under almost any International Law? Where you’re paying to topple a government and run “Election interference?” By golly it is! Bailiff, arrest this man!

    How do they do this? You have to reform the money. Or it can’t be stopped. Bonus? Is it illegal to pay $6B to overthrow a government in a violent coup by Nazis who lock civilians in a building and light it on fire while shooting both sides in the crowd? Asking for a friend. If some country took it on themselves to stop that would they be A) the good guys or B) the bad guys?

    “The White House has created the first real threat to the dollar and its status as the global reserve currency, US Republican Senator Mike Lee has said,”

    You’re kidding, right? NIXON did this, in 1971. (actually sort of due to LBJ in Vietnam). REAGAN did this and stamped the no-return in 1981. We’re just playing out the inevitable now, and honestly, like 20 years longer than anyone expected.
    1988
    https://goldbroker.com/media/image/cms/media/images/couverture-the-economist-monnaie-mondiale-2018.jpg

    (1988 – 2018) That means they should have had crippling economic crisis and collapse starting at least 2016 in order to have the justification for launching it, but probably 2008. Huh. Funny coincidence.

    “Once upon a time America had a capitalist economy.”

    Hahahaaha! Maybe. A VERY long time ago. Oligarchs already ran it from 1890, but they suffered other business to still exist until about 1990.

    “use of the US dollar in international payments has fallen from about 90% to a bit less than 50%. With the formation and expansion of BRICS it will fall further.”

    The “Unit” (ugh, name) looks like will be 40% gold, 60% local BRIICS currencies. You can look at that several ways, but it re-injects gold into trade, which is required (you can’t have a collapse of confidence, then replace with more scams by the same people), and also it’s not 100%. It’s not a “Gold Standard”, but despite ignorant people, it never is or was. Even top-level cast-iron “Gold standards” – the middle ages, maybe, or pick your example – are just promissory notes with some gold in chests in the background. Our U.S. gold standard (which should have been silver) was Bills of Credit, 30 days to maturity, which were floated between Mine, factory, shipper, retailer, buyer, all on credit, with a tiny fraction of gold somewhere supporting it all. This is ALWAYS the case. That’s why you can have a Tulip Bubble on a gold standard: PROMISES. The U.S. collapse in 1980 (a reset to Petrodollar, etc) was the same. Gold spiraled from $40 to $880 at which point the US$ was 1:10 backed with gold. That was considered solid, and it stopped. BRIICS are 40%, not 10%.

    #165307
    Dr. D
    Participant

    https://barsoom.substack.com/p/so-were-winning-now-what

    Barsoom, Like the last one, worth reading the whole thing. Reminds me of their comment – and probably literally in “Rule for Radicals” that the Left are all for “Tolerance and diversity” UNTIL they take power. Then no tolerance. The Right can’t understand why someone would act like this. Why someone would lie.

    (Face palm)

    “The tide is turning. The leftoids, be they Democrats, globalists, Xitter cringefluencers, non-binary-trannisaries, or Home Depot sows are losing, or losing their minds.

    They’re so lost right now that even their “leader” has gone missing, removed from office by a statement he almost certainly did not write, probably posted by a social media intern that did not actually work for him. I’m not convinced he either knew that it happened when it did, or for that matter, knows where he is.
    They’re in such shambles that at times I wonder if it’s all a little too easy? But then I remember how incompetence breeds incompetence, and lies breed lies. Mix the two together and you have a powerful cocktail of fuckery that will ultimately come crashing down. And crashing down it is.

    Contrast that with the solid momentum that has been building up on the right for some time now. It’s real momentum, not fake. You can tell the difference. It’s also been compounding on itself, and the difference is night and day. One is weak and fragile, a thin veneer covering up an empty abyss. The other is strong, powerful and raw – with nothing to hide.

    Now, like you, I’m inclined to be wary. They missed with the bullet, but who knows what else they’ve got lined up? But I also want to relish in the victories. If we don’t then not only do we miss the moments worth celebrating, but we become bitter. 

    But I’m also thinking about the future.

    Stage 1: WIN THE FIGHT

    …I’m sure that either they’ve got some other bullshit already planned, or they’re scrambling to figure out what other insanity they can try to pull off before the election….

    It’s also easy when winning to forget what they have done, and continue to do to us. I don’t say this to play the victim, but more to emphasize that we can let compassion get in the way prematurely, when what’s needed is to beat them with the rigid stick of justice and whip them with the sharp thorns of vengeance, to really teach them a lesson.

    This is going to mean that we will come off ‘mean’ – but that’s necessary. Call it vengeance, anger, tough love, or righteous fury. When you have the serpent underneath your boot, you proceed to chop its head off before you step back.

    As Vagrant of Rhodes reminds us in his recent piece Win the Fight:

    The true evil of leftism comes from what it’s using those tactics for – the values, moral proposition, and way of life that they are trying to force the world to adopt. Tactics are not at issue here: what those tactics bring about, is.

    Now is the time to take the initiative. In war – and do not forget that we are in a war for the soul of humanity here – there are winds and momentum at play. The wind is blowing in our favor right now. We have the momentum. Only an absolute idiot, amateur or saboteur would squander it over some perceived meanness – especially towards people who want to see you dead or dying. So if you’re not going to charge with us, get the f–k out of the way, or be trampled alongside the ghouls and goblins.

    There is no space for white-knighting right now. A true warrior understands that part of his job is to slay, and that means he must be cruel. Not wicked, in the sense that he is cruel for the sake of being cruel – but because it is necessary. Necessary to both win, and to make clear what happens if you work towards the destruction of humanity, decency, and beauty. It takes a man of great courage, justice, and compassion to carry the burden of being cruel, and having to live with it later – knowing he had to do it. The sadistic leftoids are not of this kind. They are sadistic on the inside and just want to see people suffer for the sake of it…

    “So what do we do? We focus on what matters. While culture is upstream of both politics and civilization, what’s upstream of culture is virtue. You can think of virtue as a blend of “principle” and “behavior”. Virtues are how you behave and act. They’re different to values, which are states you desire. For example, we value freedom, but in order to achieve it, we must act with the virtue of responsibility. Warrior classes all throughout history have established these codes of virtue and conduct, which essentially separated them from not only the other classes within their tribes, but from savages that could never build lasting civilization. The knights of Christendom established Chivalry, which was a blend of Ancient Roman, Hellenic & Christian values and principles, while the samurai of Japan established Bushido, which was a blend of Shinto and Confucian principles and values – each sharpened by the sword.

    The most interesting thing is that despite the disparate geographies and roots, these different warrior classes converged on essentially the same code.” — Aleksandar Svetski

    “Tradition is not the past, but that which does not pass.” Dominique Venner

    I know I talk too much about morality, values, all abstractions, which is my purpose. I do that because for me, they immediately necessitate ACTION, Virtue. Others are not similarly inclined, cowering to everything while hiding in theoreticals behind a fake religion or morality. Abstractions again, but Faith without works is dead:

    “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

    18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

    Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” James 2:14

    Boy sure looks like a lot of guys couldn’t be bothered to follow their bibles much. Of course I shouldn’t say that, in general the society is so bad that even lukewarm barely-Christians out-help and out-charity the supposed Progressive mass society here. Or does your LGBTQ Bathhouse and Disco have a weekly food bank?

    This goes with missing — and a generation, like 100 years now — “you just need faith”.. Okay, fine, great. And if you had faith WOULD YOU NOT ACT? Your acting is an expression OF the love of God you claim you’ve contacted by being born again. You wouldn’t be able to help yourself, you’d WANT to, not make yourself grudgingly. That’s a lot of why outsiders can’t respect the very obvious hypocrisy of most named “Christians” — it’s abundantly clear they do NOT have that love inside and that IS expressed in their actions to others. Common people may act worse, but at least they don’t CLAIM to be good, enlightened, caring people. …Which is why society is getting sick of and learning to hate Woke people even MORE. They DO claim that, AND hate Christians enough to kill them on sight — very Progressive.

    But going around all this, and ignoring religion, VIRTUE is what you DO, so there’s no question of either hypocrisy or religion. You either DO it, or you don’t. Perhaps this is why the Romans also gravitated toward and focused on it, and not “the Gods” at the later date.

    #165308
    aspnaz
    Participant

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-york-decouples-student-standardized-test-scores-teacher-evaluations

    In reality this died at least a decade ago; if you were a teacher in the in crowd, then you would get a good rating regardless of the kids you sent to the mines. If you were a teacher trying to do his/her best, they you would be discriminated against and eventually thrown out of school. Shit floats to the top; no different in education.

    #165309
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Is it just me or did AI die very quickly? It has become a kind of joke, where people looking for stupid answers will go to AI, then we can all take the piss out of AI. Maybe that is AI’s role in the future, to be the class dunce.

    #165311
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #165312
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #165313
    Oroboros
    Participant

    He’s still The Commander in Chief?

    Of what???

    #165314
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Snipers….the new super heroes.

    A person can tell the author’s position by appeals to expertise when none are needed and absolutely no one asked for them.

      “…was also done almost while he was still firing, so if so, incredible decision and reaction time.”


      Once again, snipers hide unless they don’t.
      Again, whatever the snipers duty,((( pathological schizoids or psychopaths incapable OF regret, remorse or PTSD))), rather whatever you think their duty is, their sole focus is the image in the scope.
      To hell with this ‘field of view’.
      These guys were slow as hell.
      You can become obsessed with an object, image within the scope’s “visual field” which then effectively narrows the visual field to the point the operator becomes blind and oblivious to the most important object or activity within their responsibility.
      Under ordinary stress, even the best operators fail to see it.

      The sexy sniper flinched, recoiled, flinched, lifted his weapon and tripod AND tellingly distrusted his monocular, telescopic gaze and traded it for a preferred binocular scan and wider view.

      Why?

      26 seconds is not credible or creditable when that is the sniper’s only job.

      Beta blockers sublingual steady the hands and nerves. Golfers know it. Surgeons know it.

    #165315
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #165316
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #165317
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Hahahahahaha!

    What a bunch of turds in the punch bowl

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTv7aNZboAAriAT?format=jpg&name=900×900

    #165318
    Oroboros
    Participant

    <img src="Hahahahahaha! What a bunch of turds in the punch bowl https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTv7aNZboAAriAT?format=jpg&name=900×900&#8243; alt=”.” />

    #165319
    Oroboros
    Participant

    third time is the trick to shake the Woke curse

    .

    #165320
    zerosum
    Participant

    Can the FBI or anyone else create/invent comments that can be attributed to you?
    Can your comment or history of comments be made to vanish?

    • FBI: Trump Shooter May Have Posted Far-Right Comments on Social Media (ZH)
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-evidence-refutes-fbi-testimony-trump-shooter-far-right-anti-immigrant
    by Tyler Durden
    Wednesday, Jul 31, 2024 – 08:25 AM
    Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

    “FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told senators on Capitol Hill Tuesday that a social media account believed to be Crooks’ appears to have shared antisemitic, anti-immigrant, and “extreme in nature” posts in 2019 and 2020. Crooks would have been 14 to 15-years-old in that time frame.
    ———–

    Are you being shunned/ignored? On purpose? or accidently?

    Are your Comments Not Showing up on Posts or Pages for everyone?
    Since you have an opinion that you want to share, that you think that it is important enough to share.
    Are you sure that anyone/everyone can hear/see what you are saying on the comment page?

    Web master tools

    https://hostiper.com/fix-wordpress-comments-not-showing-on-posts-or-pages/
    Fixing WordPress Comments Not Showing on Posts or Pages
    ———–
    ??? DID YOU SEE THIS POST ???
    ———–

    #165323
    jb-hb
    Participant

    The SS sniper jerks back in surprise from his scope….

    because he WAS looking at “the sniper” and shots rang out, yet no shots were fired from “The Sniper” while he was looking directly AT him – wtf, shots? I was looking right AT the guy…

    Or he makes a big dumb show of being surprised and repositioning to delay a response after SEEING him fire?

    The real shooter started firing FIRST, thus the surprise at the dummy not firing?

    They were wise to the attempt and had somebody ready to shoot – to create the sounds of shots – before the real shooter could start shooting? And they had a standing plan of what to do if shots are heard? (duck down, apply blood pack?)

    So, real assassination attempt therefore genuine righteous reaction and real evidence to investigate BUT, with application of virtual judo, applying just a little bit of “energy” of ones’ own to do the flip? Enemy provides almost all the energy when they take a run at you?

    #165324
    jb-hb
    Participant

    While culture is upstream of both politics and civilization, what’s upstream of culture is virtue

    I’m reading The 6 Pillars of Self Esteem – the author makes a point about the Self Esteem fad that started in the 80’s. Everyone obsessed over the individual as volition-less, as totally acted upon. As a victim of unfair treatment leading to a kind of fate, unalterable, or perhaps alterable with decades of psychotherapy.

    The author points out the acts of volition are stronger and more important – to act and live with integrity is to build up – as a consequence of justifying self esteem. And to act, with volition, without or against integrity is to, unavoidably, damage ones’ own self esteem.

    The Current Thing of – I shall use the cheat codes! These fools, chained by meaningless arbitrary civility! I shall Hold Them To Their Rules while playing the game on God mode! Then we shall reach a new Year Zero and reality will be re-written in my image!

    …is to horribly, horribly attack ones’ own self esteem. And so we see a plague of Cluster-B behavior in our current age. And who would want such a reality re-written in the image of such people.

    The greater man-o-sphere – from Red Pill to Neo-Stoic – is bound by one common thread – seeking to re-discover and re-establish virtue, at least in oneself if it cannot be seen, found, established anywhere else. Scattered, atomized, the human response is to start picking up the pieces.

    Women are the unhappiest they’ve ever been. And they’ve been and are being carpet-bombed with the taking-away of virtue – virtue bad, virtue=slavery, virtue = Low Status. No wonder they are having a very hard time under the assault.

    Actual genuine self esteem is what all the unhappy individuals in our society desperately need and in turn is what our society desperately needs. Like everything, we’re beset with an oppositeworld “self esteem” that destroys self esteem, sells everything that degrades it as desirable.

    Altruism – Not-YOU. For any single person. For EVERY single person. And there’s no people without persons. Year Zero. No people! Perfect!

    #165325
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    A true crisis is that name we use to describe what it feels like just before you are forced by circumstances to discover what really matters to you. When push comes to shove, that’s when you will know and the evidence of that belief will be absolutely undeniable.

    #165326
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Big Tech is an old lion that has lost most of its teeth to rot, decay, and too many sugary drinks. It threatens to overwhelm and overpower all who stand in its way, but if you look at his private checkbook you’ll find that he’s broke and being chased by creditors. He ain’t no threat to anyone but himself, and he’s dumping assets now at fire-sale prices just to stay out of debtors’ prison.

    Don’t look at the window dressing. Look in the garbage can in his overgrown and neglected trash-dump backyard. He’s on the skids man. He won’t be chasing you. You be chasing HIM!

    #165327
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    I love that old trope from the movies where the good guy has just narrowly escaped death by shooting the thug who just tried to kill him. Our Good Guy rolls the fast expiring bad guy over and asks him, “Who are you working for?”

    Good question.

    Who are you working for?

    #165328
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #165329
    WES
    Participant

    Ukraine:

    First F-16s now in Ukraine.
    Romaine trained about 50 pilots but only 3 passed!
    Rest gaining weight and lost physical fitness by drinking too much!
    The failures were the smart ones!
    The dumb ones passed!
    US creating F-16 drones as backup plan?

    Financial attrition:
    Debt moratorium declared.
    Exports down/imports up.
    Remittances to Ukraine from Ukrainians living abroad have fallen about 15%.
    Mobile communication companies are having trouble recharging their backup systems due to increased power outages.
    Ukrainian electrical grid 2 or 3 missiles away from collapse.

    Foriegn money to Ukraine is closely tracking mobilization success.
    The Ukrainian elites are paid by the amount of cannon fodder raised.
    $250 USD reward to police per new recruit.
    Foriegn money amounts to about $2500 per Ukrainian recruit – half the cost of an arty shell!
    My, how the value of Ukrainian cannon fodder has fallen!

    But Ukrainian elites are still making millions, so war won’t end anytime soon.
    Still lots of cannon fodder yet to be sold by the Ukrainian elites!
    It is still a war to the last Ukrainian.
    A war bankers love.

    #165330
    John Day
    Participant

    “This Is Unjust!” Female Boxer Quits Olympic Match, Melts Down In Tears After ‘Biological Male’ Brutalizes Her In 46 Seconds https://www.zerohedge.com/political/unjust-female-boxer-quits-olympic-match-melts-down-tears-after-biological-male-brutalizes

    #165331
    Dr. D
    Participant

    ““This Is Unjust!” Female Boxer Quits Olympic Match, Melts Down In Tears After ‘Biological Male’ Brutalizes Her In 46 Seconds”

    I’d say it’s about time, but each individual woman is not ALL women. She may have been against this all along, and probably was. However, this is what it takes for women (as a collective) to collectively say no, which they’ve been refusing to do, to buck social pressure and do the obvious because it isn’t popular. I know that’s a weakness, and it’s one they have for a good reason, perhaps it’s a character trait rather than a flaw. Just as nurses being compassionate means the abuse them personally and over work conditions knowing they’ll just take it. Or say macho men, whose weakness is perhaps being TOO hard, and not talking enough — each aspect has plusses and minuses. But to me any sensible woman — and there’s a lot of them around here, or used to be — will tell you to GFY, that’s b—–t. Now GTFO before we throw you out. THAT is what a real American woman would, and should do, and the kind we respect. That they haven’t has not been very commending to them. I think I have the word right. They would also therefore allow their sons and daughters to be similarly abused for foolish reasons, and likewise their men, although they would defend themselves alone (of course, with zero support).

    It’s a truly sorry state, but if that’s what it takes, keep going until they get the message and turn.

    …Same with all this other stuff, and that’s why it seems a total set-up to me. All engineered to un-engineer the social engineers by going too far.

    #165332
    Oroboros
    Participant

    @Wes

    Just listened to the latest live stream of The Duran

    US/EU privately admit they lost Ukraine proxy war w/Levan Gudadze (Live)

    The question arose, “Who pays Ukronaziland’s debts, who guarantees their loans?”

    They all agreed that the all the land and what’s left of the infrastructure of Eastern Ukraine is the ‘collateral’ backing the Western loans.

    Hahahahahahaha!

    Stop yur killin’ me!

    But it’s so true, Blackrock et al will essential own whatever is left of eastern Ukronaziland lock, stock and barrel AFTER the Poles, Hungarians and Romanians grab their historic claims.

    Ukronaziland will cease to exist as a country and instead just become nothing more than a wholly owned corporate subsidiary.

    Life can certainly be a bitch at times.

    #165333
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Property Apocalypse continues unabated

    The Duh’merican Dream is unraveling

    Starting in commercial real estate, then migrating to the McMansion crowd.

    Wish I had several million to play around with

    Gird Your Loins

    .

    #165334
    Oroboros
    Participant

    This is 135 W 50th St in NYC.

    In 2006, this building sold for $332 million.

    Yesterday it sold for $8.5 million at auction.

    #165335
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #165336
    Dr. D
    Participant

    There was one — there is too much to be seen — that there are muzzle flashes in the LOWER windows.

    So we have here, in a broad guess that seems to be getting thinner, that Crooks was sent to get the Secret Service to call it of, by doing everything imaginable to raise suspicion. Like, if USSS is going to go forward AFTER THIS??? …There’s literally no helping them. Let the chips fall. As he picked VP tomorrow, they tried anyway. Somehow — and I still need to double check body cams bc the Yearick photo isn’t being supported by someone walking up the roof and showing me this not-Crooks person — there is a shooter on the roof. We can guess this is Yearick, Trump team knows it, this is the sting they are going to run on Secret Service and the Derpiest Derp State. Because if you go up there — and I don’t care if everybody is supposed to know — you’re still likely to get shot. Really, really, really likely. And he was. Roof-boy was shot the f– up, blew his hair clean behind him, as all witnesses say.

    Aaaand then something else. Just as they were setting the sting, the REAL shooter, Mr. 1-3, pops open the lower (upper?? nah) window and takes the REAL shot. Who is a REAL pro.

    When those shots go off, Roof-boy goes, “Oh s–t!” And starts firing wildly. What did Mr. 4-9 hit? It really seems like we have all three bullets on the first volley, with the first sound signature, the one with the close echoes. They hit Trump (maybe, probably) the guy in the UPPER stands, the railing, the hydraulic hose, the Competore, and the third victim. At least two of those are in different locations. And the 5 middle shots? Hmmmm….I don’t see them. Where are they? You can fire into a packed crowd with ARR15 and hit no one else? Huh.

    SOMEBODY shoots the real shooter? Don’t know yet. He may have stopped because Yearick was shooting. Time to escape, you get one go, you know how it is. Cheeto is already surrounded. F it, we’ll shoot him again next week.

    So fitting the story here, Sniper Hercules is supposed to “LIHOP” but as said, goes, “WT – A – F???” and starts looking for shooter 2. Snaps back, takes the shot. There’s a way, way late shot too. Is that somebody — water tower boy? — knocking out the real shooter?

    A lot of pieces, and the pieces make sense, every piece point at Secret Service Shot Trump. Every one. Not on accident, on purpose. Didn’t let it happen, arranged, planned, and paid for it to definitely happen. That’s a certainty, I have no evidence that indicates otherwise. It’s just some silly details to clean up about exact locations.

    Somebody have an uncensored Roof video that shows who he is? They know that “for our protection” they pixel out all the details. This is known all beforehand. Also know that the distances for a clear cell-phone vid. Easy to find. A blurry photo of some guy with hair are all the same.

    Like 912, or what it taught me from that: I DON’T NEED TO KNOW. I can tell what happened by the fact your story doesn’t gel. Sure, I’d love to get all the details, it’s fun and a puzzle, but it doesn’t matter and I can act like a General (more a Colonel or Major) and give competent orders without knowing the middle names of everyone who’s my enemy, where every man is stationed, and what they’re wearing. It’s enough to know “They’re over there” and “they are doing this.” Go shoot them in the face, with abandon. You have my full blessing. No quarter: turn over every rock, blow up every bunker, and tell me what you find.

    #165337
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #165338
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #165339
    Dr. D
    Participant

    …And they’re both corporate clowns!

    #165340
    Dr. D
    Participant

    135 W 50th St = South of Central Park, between MOMA and Time’s Square. That is, should be very good rent district.

    #165341
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Woketurds are pissing on women, in public, as Ritual Humiliation

    And they are turning their collective cheeks and virtually asking for another bitch slap but……

    Tina: Please Ick, I’d like another but this time can you put a little more Stank on it!

    The vast majority of women not only don’t support females athletes, they don’t even watch women’s sports, like single numbers.

    There are world class awesome females athletes in hockey, basketball, soccar, baseball etc…

    Women in general and “feminists’ in particular could care less.

    So now when trans men are kicking the snot out of female athletes: Crickets
    \
    Ho-hum

    We need to fight for more DEI hires

    Screw the women who actually deserve the best for actually being the best

    #165342
    zerosum
    Participant

    GTV Live now
    Nasarallah. English


    #165343
    zerosum
    Participant

    No bombs need to fly.
    War by other means…..
    Iran can retaliate by shutting down the straight of Hormuz
    Turkey can shut the oil to Israel pipeline.
    Apply Gaza example.
    Every US base can be under siege. (nothing in, nothing out)
    No shots need be fired.
    Their economies will grind to a halt and inflation will spiral out of control.
    “Yankie go home.”

    #165351
    zerosum
    Participant

    Advances training courses for politicians

    How to take credit from your workers
    How to pass the blame to someone else

    #165352
    Celticbiker
    Participant

    They’re gonna send your kids, or grandkids to go kill Iranians. Will that wake you the fuck up? No different than Ukranian kids, Palestinian kids, dead ,gone, or fucked up beyond comprehension. What will it take for shitforbrain intellectuals to see the jew monster? The money, the media, the puppet show Potemtkin village of constant bullshit and lies, yall get so engrossed in? How many dead will it take to see 2+2=4?

    #165353
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Massachusetts will soon replace “mother” with “person who gave birth” and “father” with “other parent” on birth certificates

    Culture is “Up Stream” from politics

    In Duh’merica©, Satan is “Up Stream” from Culture

    Surprise Mofos!

    .

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