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Debt Rattle September 22 2024

Sep 222024
 
 September 22, 2024  Posted by at 9:05 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  Add comments


René Magritte Golconda 1953

 

• An American Coup? (Neuburger)
• 72 Minutes (Scott Ritter)
• ‘It’s Over For Russia’ – Boris Johnson (RT)
• Has The EU Suddenly Realized How Much It Has Screwed Itself Over? (Marsden)
• EU Leadership Urges Europe To Be Ready To Fight Russia In 6-8 Years (ZH)
• The DEI Trojan Horse Has Undermined US Military (Sp.)
• TikTok Wipes Out Sputnik Accounts (Sp.)
• No One Is Safe: The Global Threat of Israel’s Weaponized Pagers (Sweidan)
• When Vladimir Putin Was Pootie-Poot (Adam Dick)
• All of Europe Does Business With Russia – Hungary (RT)
• Indian State Oil Refiners Seeking Long-term Deals With Russia – Media (RT)
• Harris ‘Too Busy’ To Talk To Media – Adviser (RT)
• Secret Service Allowed ‘Multiple Failures’ Before Trump Shooting – Report (RT)
• America’s Healthcare Dead Last in Rich Nation Rankings (Sp.)
• Words You Can’t Ignore (Max Jones)

 

 

 

 

Tucker Carmela excellent
https://twitter.com/i/status/1837206654711980070

 

 

RFK sued Trump

 

 

Ireland

 

 

Thiel

 

 

Dimon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1837245042056105994

 

 

Mars
https://twitter.com/i/status/1837626546074325240

 

 

India
https://twitter.com/i/status/1837643524600148279

 

 

Maher

 

 

 

 

Easily the prime article/video this weekend. Because it puts everything on its head.

Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell “and critic of America’s wars”, states that the Pentagon has taken over US foreign policy. And that is as stark as it sounds. Wilkerson says that Biden, Harris, Blinken and Jake Sullivan have all been sidelined because the Pentagon doesn’t want to go to war, not in Ukraine and not in Gaza. “No dice”. And they can’t do a thing without the Pentagon.

Judge Nap: “COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Can Ukraine Make It to Nov 5th?”

We have some transcript below, but do watch the whole interview.

• An American Coup? (Neuburger)

In a 30-minute interview with Judge Napolitano on September 18, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell and critic of America’s wars, described a recent event in which Pentagon chief Gen. Lloyd Austin told President Biden that, in Wilkerson’s words, “the Pentagon has taken over, essentially, diplomacy as well as any action, militarily speaking, with regard to both theaters of war,” meaning Ukraine and Israel. Wilkerson added, “And so they’re now in charge.” Austin, according to this telling, listened “to the people in the bowels of the Pentagon who know the truth” and forced the President to back down. Biden was furious, we’re told, but “took that advice.” Except, as Wilkerson tells it, it wasn’t advice, but instruction. “No dice,” as Wilkerson characterized the message, sounds pretty final. This is good news and bad news. The good, U.S. policy is now: To Netanyahu, if you invade Lebanon or attack Iran, you’re on your own. To Zelenskyy, no to long range missiles reaching deep into Russia.

So we and the world are safer, at least for a while. The bad: Is this a coup? Has the military stood up to the President, forced him to change policy? If the answers are yes, we’re on our way once more to revising the Constitution-as-practiced. Both political parties have already confirmed that the Fourth Amendment can be ignored. That’s now the “new normal.” So what’s this encroachment of the Pentagon into foreign policy, if not another “new normal”? Has MacArthur finally won?

Whatever the truth, you won’t see this reported in what people call the “news,” but I doubt Wilkerson’s sources are wrong. At any rate, we’ll know soon enough by the way Zelenskyy and Netanyahu act. Welcome to the future of U.S. foreign policy.

Wilkerson: I think what we’re seeing here is another attempt, because a 100-plane strike didn’t do it, by Netanyahu to provoke Hezbollah to some sort of action that he can then declare is warlike to the extent that he can do what he wants to do with them — even though I’m told with great confidence in the sources that the latest two visits by the Central Command Unified Commander were to tell him [Netanyahu] that we would not be with him in the event of his going to war with Hezbollah that he provoked. Nor will we be with him going to war with Iran that he provoked. And we made it quite clear that we would know if he provoked it.

Napolitano: You’re speaking of General Kurilla [CENTCOM commander since April 2022].

Wilkerson: Yes. Yes.

Napolitano: So Scott Ritter agrees with you, Doug Macgregor says he can’t imagine Austin and Blinkin letting General Kuralla do that. It’s very very interesting. … Is this speculation on your part or is it based on sources?

Wilkerson: It’s based on some pretty reliable sources. And here’s the bigger picture and I hope the others told you this too. Biden’s fury — and you could see it — he was seething when he met with the British Prime Minister.

Napolitano: Yes, yes, we have that clip. He was out of control with anger.

Wilkerson: And what he [had] just been told, apparently, was by the Pentagon, “No dice, Mr President. No dice on Ukraine and no dice on Gaza. We’re in charge now.”

Napolitano: No dice. You’re talking about no dice on the long range missiles reaching deep into Russia, even though Tony Blinkin had intimated all week in Kyiv with his British counterpart that this was happening. And Sir Keir Stormer, the British Prime Minister, had every reason to believe as he’s flying across the Atlantic that Joe Biden’s answer would be yes.

Wilkerson: He was embarrassed. He was embarrassed by the fact — he was pulling out his maps with target data and Biden told him, “Don’t even pull them out. We’re not going to talk about that.” I’ve been told, again by fairly reliable sources, that Blinkin and Sullivan — Blinkin primarily, but Sullivan too — have been sidetracked, and what’s happened is the Pentagon has taken over, essentially, diplomacy as well as any action, militarily speaking, with regard to both theaters of war. And so they’re now in charge. I have to change my evaluation of Secretary Austin if that’s the case, because it means he listened finally to the people in the bowels of the Pentagon who know the truth, and he’s reacting to that, and he’s told the President Biden that, and to Biden’s credit, even though he was furious, he finally took that advice.

Napolitano: Colonel, you once ran the State Department [as Secretary Colin Powell’s chief of staff under George Bush]. How does the Defense Department engage in diplomacy?

Wilkerson: They engage in diplomacy every day. Every day. There are four-stars in the various syncdoms, the regions that they control, the AORs [Areas of Responsibility] [who] are the true U.S. diplomats. And some of them are very good at it. I saw some of them. I worked with some of them who are very good at it, better than any Secretary of State. But it shouldn’t be that way. That’s a parenthetical remark. We shouldn’t have the military leading diplomacy. But we often do. And the Japanese prime minister once told me why to my face. He said, “Larry, when your East Asia and Pacific Assistant Secretary comes out here, he’s not got anything but his briefcase. When the man from Honolulu comes out here, from Camp Smith in Hawaii, he’s towing air wings, submarines, battle groups, Marine amphibious groups, Army divisions. I listened to him. This is the Prime Minister of Japan.

Napolitano: Who told General Kurilla to tell Prime Minister Netanyahu, “If you invade Lebanon, you’re on your own?”

Wilkerson: It was, I think, Austin. But that’s the chain of command. Austin conveyed that message to him [Kurilla]. But I think it was Austin that convinced Biden to give him that command so he could transmit it to Kurilla.

Read more …

“..everything you thought you lived your life for would be dead. And if you survived? To quote Nikita Khrushchev, “The survivors would envy the dead.”

• 72 Minutes (Scott Ritter)

Most Americans approached last weekend thinking about how they would spend the much-anticipated end of the work week with their friends and family. Few realize how close they came to actualizing the scenario so horrifyingly spelled out in Annie Jacobsen’s alarming must-read book, Nuclear War: A Scenario. 72 minutes. That is all it takes to end the world as we know it. That is less time than most movies playing at the local cinema. Most people could not drive to the local home improvement store to buy the materials needed to do the little repairs around the home that usually wait for the weekend. Walk the dogs? Play with the kids? Forget about it. 72 minutes. And everything you thought you lived your life for would be dead. And if you survived? To quote Nikita Khrushchev, “The survivors would envy the dead.”

Ukraine, together with many of its NATO allies, has been asking for permission from the United States, the United Kingdom, and France to be able to employ precision-guided long-range weapons systems provided by these countries against targets deep inside Russia. On Sept. 6, at a meeting of the Ramstein Contact Group, a forum where U.S.-NATO military support to Ukraine is coordinated, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky personally appealed to the group for more weapons support from its Western allies and called on allies to allow Ukraine to use the weapons they provided to strike deeper inside Russia. “We need to have this long-range capability,” Zelensky said, addressing the attendees, who included U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, “not only on the divided territory of Ukraine but also on Russian territory so that Russia is motivated to seek peace. We need to make Russian cities, and even Russian soldiers think about what they need: peace or Putin.”

Secretary Austin, in comments made afterwards, said he didn’t think the use of long-range missiles to strike inside Russia would help end the war, adding that he expected the conflict would be resolved through negotiations. Moreover, Austin noted, Ukraine had its own weapons capable of attacking targets well beyond the range of the British Storm Shadow cruise missile. Despite Austin’s pushback, President Joe Biden appeared to be on track to give Zelensky the green light he was looking for regarding the use of British-provided Storm Shadow cruise missiles and U.S.-provided long-range ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles for strikes on Russian soil. On Sept. 11, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, accompanied by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, visited Ukraine, where they held meetings with Zelensky and his newly appointed foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha.

Blinken and Lammy, however, failed to make the announcement the Ukrainians were waiting with bated breath to hear. Instead, Blinken and Lammy reiterated the full support of their respective nations to Ukraine’s victory, adding that they would adapt their support to meet Ukrainian needs. “The bottom line is this: We want Ukraine to win,” Blinken said after his meeting with Zelensky. The stage was now set for Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, to fly to Washington, D.C., last Friday, where he would meet with Biden and jointly agree to give Ukraine permission to use Storm Shadow and ATACMS against targets inside Russia. Russia has long made it clear that it would view any nation which authorized the use of its weapons to strike Russia as a direct party to the conflict. In comments to the media in Russia last Thursday — one day before the Biden-Starmer meeting at the White House — Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear that any lifting of the restrictions on Ukrainian use of U.S.- and U.K.-provided long-range weapons would change “the very essence of the conflict.” He said:

“This will mean that NATO countries, the United States, European countries are fighting Russia. And if this is the case, then…we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, speaking after Putin’s announcement, noted that the Russian president’s words were “extremely clear” and that they had reached their intended audience — U.S. President Biden. Biden didn’t seem happy about the message. In responding to a question from reporters prior to his meeting with Prime Minister Starmer at the White House about what he thought about Putin’s warning, Biden snapped angrily, “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin.” The evidence suggests otherwise.

Read more …

Update from another planet.

• ‘It’s Over For Russia’ – Boris Johnson (RT)

Russia must understand that “it’s over,” and that Ukraine will not concede any territory for peace, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has argued. For this goal to be achieved, however, Kiev will need long-range weapons, NATO membership, and half a trillion dollars, Johnson added. In an op-ed published in The Spectator on Saturday, Johnson argued that Ukrainian forces still have the “ability to win,” if only the West would cave to every single one of Kiev’s demands. These include, he wrote, permission to strike deep inside Russian territory with Storm Shadow and ATACMS missiles, and immediate invitation to NATO with Article 5 security guarantees, and “half a trillion dollars… or even a trillion.” Disregarding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent warning that enabling long-range strikes would place NATO in a state of war with Russia as “bluster and saber-rattling,” Johnson argued that these steps are necessary to “send the crucial message to the Kremlin.”

“The message is: that’s it. It’s over. You don’t have an empire any more. You don’t have a ‘near abroad’ or a ‘sphere of influence’. You don’t have the right to tell the Ukrainians what to do, any more than we British have the right to tell our former colonies what to do,” he asserted. “It is time for Putin to understand that Russia can have a happy and glorious future, but that like Rome and like Britain, the Russians have decisively joined the ranks of the post-imperial powers, and a good thing, too,” he continued. The West, Johnson argued, “must abandon any idea that the Ukrainians will do a deal” or “trade land for peace.” “We in the West would be mad to try to impose that outcome,” he added. Ironically, Russia and Ukraine reportedly agreed to a peace deal during talks in Istanbul in 2022. The agreement would have involved Ukraine declaring military neutrality, limiting its armed forces, and vowing not to discriminate against ethnic Russians. In return, Moscow would have joined other leading powers in offering Ukraine security guarantees.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky withdrew from the talks at the last moment. According to Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia, former US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, and several Ukrainian media reports, Johnson was instrumental in convincing Zelensky to abandon negotiations. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and the deputy leader of Türkiye’s ruling party, Numan Kurtulmus, have also claimed that several Western states conspired to scupper the deal. Five months after the Istanbul talks, Russia assumed control of four former regions of Ukraine. According to the most recent figures from the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian military has lost nearly half a million men since February 2022, and the Pentagon concluded last year that Ukraine stands little chance of regaining its former territories.

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“..unscrewing everything they screwed up over the past two and a half years through self-inflicted idiocy in the interests of impressing their girlfriend Vladimir Zelensky (aka president of Ukraine).”

• Has The EU Suddenly Realized How Much It Has Screwed Itself Over? (Marsden)

The EU is having a full-blown existential crisis. Someone has really screwed up its economy, and the culprit is conspicuously absent from a new report outlining the carnage. Are there no mirrors in Brussels? Former European Central Bank president and Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, has published a new “economic competitiveness” report after a year of work at the request of unelected ‘Queen’ Ursula von der Leyen’s ‘Royal’ European Commission. And it’s a real page-turner, one of the great mysteries of our times. One is left to breathlessly leaf through the 400-page document looking for a culprit responsible for the massive amount of economic carnage detailed by Draghi. “For the first time since the Cold War we must genuinely fear for our self-preservation,” he told reporters in Brussels. How about starting off by not actively self-sabotaging?

Draghi said that the bloc desperately needs to keep up with China and the US, but has been failing. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the EU readily jumped in to ride shotgun alongside Uncle Sam along regime change highway, but now finds itself kicking dirt on the roadside and wanting to make its own way. “Now conditions have changed,” Draghi said. “World trade is slowing. China is actually slowing very much, but it’s become much less open to us, and actually it’s competing with us in global markets on all accounts. We’ve lost our main supplier of cheap energy, Russia. And now we have to start for our defense again for the first time since the Second World War.” Apparently, the jokers ruling Europe from the big top tent in Brussels are shocked to discover that they’ve been victimized. Who could possibly have done such a thing?

Gotta love the use of the passive there. “Lost” their cheap energy from Russia. Like it just fell out of their pocket like a set of house keys on the way back from the store. Listening to Draghi, you’d also think that the EU hasn’t actually adopted “de-coupling” from China as a strategy, egged on by Washington, which wanted Europe all to itself, before EU officials rebranded it a “de-risking” when they realized how stupid a move it would be to fully alienate China as the bloc’s top trading partner and customer. And now, oh gee, the EU has to start thinking about its own defense again, Draghi said, rather than just using it to shake free some natural resources from all the places with fortuitously-located terrorist problems. The Ukraine conflict has been an equally convenient excuse to make more weapons at taxpayer expense for the EU’s own defense after emptying out the old junk from its closets.

Good thing, too, because making more weapons is about the only real easy answer for improving the economy right now, judging by the dire state of things outlined in this new report. Still, the EU can’t even do the military-industrial racket right. Draghi has pointed out that EU members are basically idiots for buying most of their weapons abroad, with nearly two-thirds coming from the US. Big mystery as to why Washington wants to keep the party going in Ukraine when it’s making bank by drumming up the need to ramp up weapons purchases for EU members under the guise that their former top economic lifeline and energy supplier (Russia) was suddenly a big threat to them. The bonus: making Europe more dependent on the US for pricier gas, too.

The whole report is just loaded with gems, like this one: “If Europe cannot become more productive, we will be forced to choose. We will not be able to become, at once, a leader in new technologies, a beacon of climate responsibility and an independent player on the world stage. We will not be able to finance our social model. We will have to scale back some, if not all, of our ambitions. This is an existential challenge…” Draghi’s going on about all these grand ambitions like leading new tech and being a climate and social icon, while European elites have been yelling at the plebs to turn down the heating and air conditioning to stick it to Putin and cheering mild winters like we’re living in the dark ages. Draghi also said that the EU needs another €800 billion ($890 billion), which is about 4.5% of the entire bloc’s GDP, just to be able to stay globally competitive. And that competitiveness can only be achieved by thoroughly unscrewing everything they screwed up over the past two and a half years through self-inflicted idiocy in the interests of impressing their girlfriend Vladimir Zelensky (aka president of Ukraine).

Read more …

They made some Baltic Lunatic the EU’s new defense commissioner.

• EU Leadership Urges Europe To Be Ready To Fight Russia In 6-8 Years (ZH)

NATO’s tiny Baltic states have continued to be among the most hawkish within the alliance when it comes to ‘confronting Russia’ and making war plans. One Lithuanian official is making headlines for saying that eventual NATO war with Russia is inevitable, and that Europe must begin preparing now. Andrius Kubilius, a former Lithuanian prime minister and the EU’s new defense commissioner, has told Reuters that Europe must prepare to go to war with Russia withing the next six to eight years. “Defense ministers and NATO generals agree that Vladimir Putin could be ready for confrontation with NATO and the EU in 6-8 years,” Kubilius said in his capacity as the European Union’s first-ever Defense Commissioner. “If we take these assessments seriously, then that is the time for us to properly prepare, and it is a short one. This means we have to take quick decisions, and ambitious decisions,” he added.

Kubilius’ appointment is seen as an indicator that the EU is getting more serious about war-spending as a bloc, though EU leadership has no decision-making capacity when it comes to NATO. Apparently he’s unconcerned with the dangers of nuclear-armed confrontation. Russia has said it would deploy nuclear weapons if its territory and population faces existential threat of annihilation. Kubilius described further in his statement, “The European Union won’t have defense plans or military leadership, like NATO does — but the European Union has instruments to get larger financing, which NATO doesn’t.” He has called for a total investment of a gargantuan sum: 500 billion euros in the coming years in order to ramp-up the readiness of European militaries.

European Parliament has recently passed a largely symbolic resolution approving the Zelensky government’s use of long-range weapons to attack inside Russia. The head of Russia’s State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, has responded by saying “What the European Parliament is calling for leads to a world war using nuclear weapons.” Thinks looking bleak: A newly-created EU leadership position and the very first directive issued relates to future war with Russia… Clearly peace is on the minds of few. The only way to avoid escalation leading to nuclear-armed showdown in the heart of Europe is the negotiating table, but both Moscow and Kiev have of late issued statements denying that they are even close to sitting down together to seek settlement or ceasefire.

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Better not get into a fight. Unwinnable.

• The DEI Trojan Horse Has Undermined US Military (Sp.)

The US military is facing what has been characterized as its worst recruitment, morale, and public trust crisis in modern history. Here’s what the Biden administration’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has to do with it. An analysis of a trove of internal documents by The Daily Caller has revealed that the US Air Force has been excluding white male applicants from its popular Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program in favor of minorities. Highlighting the Biden administration’s obsession with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), the prejudice reflects a broader push by Washington’s liberal establishment to turn Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote about not judging people “by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” on its head. Team Biden went to work on DEI and “equity” (not to be confused with “equality”) guidelines for the military immediately after stepping into office, firing off three key executive orders in January 2021, including:

EO 13985: “Advancing Racial Equality and Support for Undeserving Communities Through the Federal Government” (including the military). EO 13988: “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender-Identity or Sexual Orientation.” EO 14004: “Enabling All Qualified Americans to Serve Their Country in Uniform” – aimed at easing transgender individuals’ ability to serve. Together with the June 2021 EO 14035 on “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce,” the trio of directives kicked off a fundamental transformation of the military, sparking a series of bizarre scandals and leading to an unprecedented drop in readiness and morale:

In 2021, the Air Force and Navy faced widespread derision after rolling out maternity flight suits, with Tucker Carlson calling the move a “mockery of the US military,” and highlighting the absurdity of having “pregnant women…fight[ing] our wars.” In June 2023, facing an outcry from conservative lawmakers, the military banned drag shows on base, deeming them “inconsistent with regulations regarding the use of resources,” with DoD spokespeople scrambling to assure that “the Department does not fund drag shows or drag activities.” In October 2023, the advocacy group which won a historic Supreme Court case against race-conscious admissions to US universities brought cases against West Point and the US Naval Academy on grounds of DEI-based bias. The Supreme Court binned the West Point case in February 2024, with the Naval Academy’s affirmative action trial kicking off this past week.

The staggering costs of Pentagon DEI initiatives has also garnered considerable attention and criticism, with spending jumping from $68 million in 2022, to $86.5 million in 2023, and $114.7 million in 2024. The funds provide for things like mandatory diversity training and the hiring of onsite “diversity officers” to ensure compliance with DEI regulations. The Biden Pentagon has been hailed as the most diverse in history, with racial and sexual minorities receiving a host of top jobs, from a proud lesbian tapped to serve as Air Force under secretary, to a transgender assistant secretary of defense, to Lloyd Austin – the Pentagon’s first black chief. But these DEI “milestones” have not exactly helped the military achieve its goals over the past four tumultuous years, with the humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and the Navy’s impotence against the Houthis from January 2024 on showing that more diversity does not mean more won battles.

In fact, the DEI seems to have made things worse, with the military facing an unprecedented “crisis of recruitment, trust, and spending,” as a Newsweek piece recently put it, forcing some observers and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to consider returning the draft, or offering immigrants citizenship in exchange for service amid recruitment numbers dropping between 20-40%, public trust in the military plummeting from 73% in 2019 to 60% today, and morale and readiness described as being among the lowest since World War II. DEI, combined with other Biden policies aimed at the military, including mandatory COVID shots, have been blamed for the crisis.

Read more …

Only one opinion allowed.

• TikTok Wipes Out Sputnik Accounts (Sp.)

The US Department of the Treasury issued a statement on September 4 announcing sanctions against Sputnik’s parent media group Rossiya Segodnya, RIA Novosti, RT, Sputnik, and Ruptly. The sanctions also targeted Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya, and a number of other senior executives. On the morning of September 21, the video-sharing platform TikTok removed the Sputnik International account of the Sputnik news network, just days after the US announced new sanctions targeting Russian media. TikTok has not yet commented on the development.

TikTok, which is part of the Chinese company ByteDance, has been under intense pressure from US authorities in recent months. In April, US President Joe Biden signed into law a bill passed by Congress that would ban TikTok in the United States if it refuses to divest from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance. TikTok and ByteDance have since challenged the measure in court. Earlier this month, the US State Department tightened the operating conditions of Rossiya Segodnya and its subsidiaries, designating them as “foreign missions.”

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“Israel’s actions signal a new level of risk to global trade, where civilian products may be tampered with for political or military advantage. What was once a matter of state-to-state conflict is now a threat to individual households.”

• No One Is Safe: The Global Threat of Israel’s Weaponized Pagers (Sweidan)

Israel’s coordinated attacks on Lebanon, marked by the near-simultaneous explosion of thousands of pager and walkie-talkie devices over two days, resulted in the deaths of at least 37 people, including children, and left thousands severely wounded. This brutal terrorist attack should serve as a dire warning to the world: a stark reminder that the occupation state’s criminal actions know no limits, indiscriminately targeting those who challenge its interests, or those of its western allies. In the wake of this aggression, who can guarantee that Israeli exports to other countries won’t be weaponized in future conflicts? The “pager attack” serves as yet more evidence that Israel poses a global threat, ushering in a dangerous, dystopian new era in which civilians are no longer safe, even in their own homes. When analyzing the pager detonations from a legal standpoint, it becomes clear that Israel’s killing spree in Lebanon this week lies somewhere between a war crime and an act of terrorism.

The legal classification depends on the current state of affairs between Lebanon and Israel. If Lebanon is considered to be at war with Israel, the targeting of civilians — non-combatants — through the bombing of pagers blatantly violates international laws of warfare, including the Geneva Conventions. Article 51 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (1949) strictly prohibits indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and Article 85 lists attacks on civilians as grave breaches that amount to war crimes. In this case, we must identify who qualifies as a “combatant” under international humanitarian law. A combatant is defined as someone under military command, wearing a distinguishable uniform and openly carrying weapons. Without these markers, those targeted in the pager attack are considered civilians under international law. Additionally, the attack violates the principles of distinction and proportionality, fundamental tenets of international humanitarian law.

The principle of distinction mandates that combatants must be differentiated from civilians — a rule clearly ignored in Israel’s attacks, evidenced by the deaths of children. The principle of proportionality prohibits attacks where the harm to civilians is excessive compared to the military advantage gained. In this instance, the minimal military impact pales in comparison to the devastating toll on civilians, including the psychological and moral damage inflicted. Therefore, Israel’s adoption of a strategy of indiscriminate violence during its recent aggression against Lebanon is a war crime. The Guardian notes that half a century after the Second World War, a global treaty — to which Israel is a signatory — came into force, which “prohibited in all circumstances to use booby-traps or other devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects that are specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material.”

However, if we consider that Lebanon is not in a formal state of war with Israel, the aggression falls under a different legal classification: terrorism. According to the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings (1997), Israel’s actions can be categorized as a “terrorist bombing.” The use of civilian devices, like pagers, in non-military zones with the intent to spread fear aligns with the convention’s definition of terrorism, which criminalizes the unlawful use of explosives to target civilians or infrastructure with the intent to intimidate populations or coerce governments.

The UN General Assembly Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism (1994) defines terrorism as any act aimed at causing death or serious bodily harm to civilians for the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or international organization to act. Accordingly, the pager bombings were intended to intimidate the Lebanese and the resistance or force them to make concessions, which is consistent with the definition of terrorism under customary international law. Yesterday, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter condemned the “massive terrorist attack” in Lebanon and Syria, while Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, wrote in a statement that the attack “violates international human rights law, and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law.”

Israel’s pager bombing has also sparked global concerns about the security of international supply chains. If Israel has indeed begun weaponizing civilian devices through third parties in other countries, this raises the terrifying prospect that supply chains once thought to be safe could be compromised at any time. In an interview with India Today TV, a technologist expressed concern that Israel’s actions could lead to similar risks in other countries, creating the possibility of booby-trapped electronics infiltrating homes worldwide. The implications are profound: Israel’s actions signal a new level of risk to global trade, where civilian products may be tampered with for political or military advantage. What was once a matter of state-to-state conflict is now a threat to individual households.

Read more …

In 1990, the CIA were sure Putin was -literally- their man.

• When Vladimir Putin Was Pootie-Poot (Adam Dick)

United Sates President Joe Biden has spent most of his presidency refusing to talk with Russia President Vladimir Putin. This is despite — or maybe because of — the fact that such discourse could have led to an agreement ending the US government’s proxy war against Russia. Instead of talking out a resolution to the fighting, Biden has kept pumping dollars, weapons, and intelligence to the Ukraine government, resulting in a rising death toll and expanding war. Also advanced has been the risk of drawing the US and Russia directly into a war against each other that could go nuclear. Still, Biden will not pick up the phone or fly on a plane to talk things over with the president of Russia. “I have no good reason to talk to Putin right now,” said Biden on July 11, 2024 in response to a reporter’s question at one of Biden’s rare press conferences.

We know Biden loves his vacation time, but, really, isn’t ending the Ukraine War and preventing its further escalation a good enough reason to start chatting with Putin? How about putting in a little effort to give peace a chance? Long, long ago, during the presidency of George W. Bush, a US president not only regularly talked with Putin, including in in-person meetings, he even had an affectionate nickname for the Russia president. For Bush, Putin was Pootie-Poot. How things have changed. Not every American president before Biden had a cute nickname for counterparts among the long line of Russia leaders, and Soviet leaders during the decades when Russia was subsumed in the Soviet Union.

Yet, they all were willing to talk. This includes Ronald Reagan who called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and pushed for increased US military spending to counter what he presented as a Soviet threat. Reagan met with and kept in regular contact with Soviet leader Michail Gorbachev, succeeding in putting in place arms control deals between the nations. Other US presidents, while directly and by proxy militarily countering the “red spread” and “Soviet expansion,” kept in communication with Soviet leaders. They wanted to be dedicated cold warriors while minimizing the risk of outright war between the US and Soviet Union. Biden should give Putin a call. And when Biden makes that call, why not give Putin a nice nickname too? Doing this may run counter to Biden’s nature, but it could be the first step down the path to peace. Unfortunately, there is little indication that seeking peace is even a small component of the Biden administration’s agenda.

Read more …

“The difference between us and the others in general is that we speak honestly and openly about this issue..”

• All of Europe Does Business With Russia – Hungary (RT)

A significant number of companies in the EU continue to discreetly do business with Russia despite the bloc’s sanctions, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said. “Here I would like to disappoint the idealists, as the situation is that everyone in Europe is doing this,” Szijjarto said in Budapest on Friday.“ The difference between us and the others in general is that we speak honestly and openly about this issue. All of Europe does business with the Russians, but some deny this; we don’t need that.” Szijjarto added that Hungary does not agree with the sanctions, but since this is EU policy, Budapest respects them. Hungary typically vetoes specific EU proposals if they seriously harm national interests, he said, adding that developing economic cooperation with Russia is one of those interests.

The EU imposed sanctions on Moscow in 2014, and expanded them after the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. The main targets are high-value sectors of the Russian economy, including energy, finance, and trade. Hungary has long been at odds with the EU over its approach to the Ukraine conflict and its sanctions policy towards Moscow. This makes it difficult for the EU to agree on new restrictions, Euractiv reported in August, citing diplomatic sources. Many experts in both Russia and the West have warned that unilateral sanctions bring more harm to the countries that impose them than to Russia itself. EU officials have also acknowledged that Moscow has been successful in sidestepping the restrictions. In June, Finance Ministry data showed that Russian budget revenues from oil and gas soared by 73.5% in January-May this year, compared to the first five months of 2023.

Read more …

“Long-term deals are expected to help avoid price swings and provide India with steady access to Russian oil at a lower price..”

• Indian State Oil Refiners Seeking Long-term Deals With Russia – Media (RT)

India’s state-owned oil refiners are in talks with Russia about clinching long-term supply deals, the news outlet Business Standard reported this week, citing sources at the country’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Agreements could reportedly be sealed as soon as next April when the new fiscal year starts. India, the world’s third-largest consumer of crude oil, depends on imports for up to 85% of its needs. Russia is India’s top oil supplier, and New Delhi has often noted that Moscow has been instrumental in ensuring the nation’s energy security. Nevertheless, while India’s private refiners already have annual deals for Russian oil supplies, the state companies have tended to buy it in the spot markets, reserving long-term contracts for sources from the Middle East. According to the ministry’s sources, however, the high volatility in spot prices has rendered this arrangement no longer attractive for the state refiners.

Long-term deals are expected to help avoid price swings and provide India with steady access to Russian oil at a lower price. India stepped up purchases of Russian crude in 2022 shortly after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict and the first rounds of Western sanctions on Moscow. New Delhi has taken advantage of the discounts Moscow offered on its oil after the latter effectively lost its traditional buyers in the West. Last month, India even overtook China as the largest buyer of Russian crude. Ramping-up purchases of Russian oil not only helped India bolster its domestic energy security, but made it one of the leading exporters of petrochemicals to Europe. India’s exports of refined oil products to European countries jumped by 2,539 times since 2018, The Print reported earlier this month, citing data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Western states have been pressuring India to stop buying Russian oil, but New Delhi has remained adamant that it would continue to do so. Indian officials have also argued on more than one occasion that the decision to buy Russian oil has helped prevent a global energy crisis. In an interview with RT in July, India’s minister of petroleum and natural gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, stated that without Russian oil on the market, global prices would have hit $250-300 per barrel.

Read more …

Nobody seems to know what she is busy with.

• Harris ‘Too Busy’ To Talk To Media – Adviser (RT)

US Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t given many media interviews because “she’s a very busy person,” one of her campaign advisers, Keisha Lance-Bottoms, has told CNN. Even liberal pundits have criticized Harris for dodging the spotlight. In the two months since she announced her presidential campaign, Harris and running mate Tim Walz have given a total of seven sit-down interviews, while former President Donald Trump and running mate J.D. Vance have given 70 interviews and press conferences, according to a tally compiled by Axios this week. When conversations with partisan allies – for instance Trump’s live chat with X owner Elon Musk – are counted, the former president pulls even further ahead of Harris, who has largely stuck to scripted rallies to reach voters. Asked why Harris is not doing more interviews, Lance-Bottoms told CNN on Friday that “we would love to see her sit down every single day with CNN and do interviews, but it’s that she’s a very busy person.”

“She’s the vice president as well as a candidate,” Lance-Bottoms continued, reiterating that Harris is simply “too busy” to match Trump’s media schedule. Harris has come under fire from the New York Times for avoiding unscripted appearances, while CNN commentator Scott Jennings hammered the vice president on Friday for deliberately avoiding “hostile media.” The night before, Harris spoke at length to TV host Oprah Winfrey, although the interview was friendly and featured a host of Harrris’ celebrity supporters, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Chris Rock, and Ben Stiller. Harris’ campaign believes that “limiting interactions with the press is the right strategy – even if it frustrates reporters,” Axios reported, citing sources close to the campaign. According to a recent New York Times/Siena poll, 31% of voters feel that they don’t know enough about Harris, while only 12% are unsure who Trump is or where he stands on key issues.

Read more …

Too many failures to be failures.

• Secret Service Allowed ‘Multiple Failures’ Before Trump Shooting – Report (RT)

Multiple “operational and communications failures” by the US Secret Service allowed a gunman to open fire on former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in July, an internal review has found. Trump narrowly avoided death while speaking to a crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, when a bullet fired from around 150m away grazed his ear. The gunman, a 21-year-old named Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired from a rooftop that had apparently been left unprotected by the Secret Service, killing one rally goer and injuring two others before he was shot dead by a sniper. In the aftermath of the incident, it emerged that local police had spotted Crooks using a range-finder an hour before he opened fire and passed a photo on to Secret Service agents. The agents noticed the gunman on the roof 20 minutes before the incident, but took no action until the first shots rang out.

In a preliminary report released on Friday, the Secret Service stressed that local police were responsible for securing the roof in question. However, the report stated, the officers covering this building had no contact with the Secret Service. Some information about the shooter relayed by local law enforcement never made it to the Secret Service, the report stated, blaming a lack of radio communication between the various agencies working at the rally site. As a result, information about Crooks’ appearance and movements had to be relayed by chains of phone calls and text messages, it claimed. Shortly before the rally began, Crooks was able to fly a camera-equipped drone over the site without being stopped or questioned. The Secret Service report stated that while the agency deployed a counter-drone team to the site, “there were some technical difficulties” with their equipment.

Regarding the choice of venue, the report stated that a Secret Service team had visited the site beforehand and noted that the line of sight between the rooftop and the stage where Trump spoke could pose a “challenge.” However, “the security measures to alleviate these concerns were not carried out.” The internal investigation is still ongoing, and a final report is expected in the coming weeks. While much of Friday’s summary appeared to pass blame on to local law enforcement, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told reporters that the agency nevertheless needs “a shift in paradigm in how we conduct our protective operations.” Rowe’s predecessor, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned ten days after the shooting. Several other high-ranking agents were placed on leave during the investigation.

Trump survived another attempt on his life earlier this month, when a pro-Ukraine activist aimed a rifle at the former president at one of his golf courses in Florida. Secret Service agents fired several shots at the man and arrested him after he fled the scene. Republican Representative Matt Gaetz claimed earlier this week that some GOP lawmakers believe there is a “mole inside the Secret Service providing information about points of vulnerability” to would-be assassins.

Read more …

“Recent surveys indicate that healthcare is among the top priorities for voters in the November presidential election..”

• America’s Healthcare Dead Last in Rich Nation Rankings (Sp.)

The percentage of Americans able to access quality healthcare hit a new low of 55% in 2024, according to the West Health-Gallup Healthcare Affordability Index. Affordability of healthcare has become one of the top issues ahead of the 2024 US presidential election. The US healthcare system continues to lag far behind other high-income countries, an analysis by the Commonwealth Fund shows. It has retained its dismal ranking since 2004, when the nonprofit launched its surveys. Ten nations, including Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US, were compared on healthcare system aspects such as access, care process, administrative efficiency, equity, and health outcomes. The US showed the worst overall performance despite spending more per capita on healthcare than any other nation (16% of its GDP in 2022).

It ranked lowest in both accessibility and healthcare outcomes, with 26 million Americans having no insurance, and a quarter of the working age population underinsured. As inflation fuels costs, over 40% of Americans spent at least $1,000 on healthcare out-of-pocket last year, per the survey. At 77.5 years, US life expectancy is over four years below the 10-country average (the same as sanction-riddled Iran). The US has the highest rates of preventable and treatable deaths for all ages. Over 107,000 people died from overdoses in 2023 amid a raging substance abuse crisis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were 43,000 gun-related deaths in 2023, according to a report by the National Institute of Health Care Management. Recent surveys indicate that healthcare is among the top priorities for voters in the November presidential election.

Read more …

“..children are meant to play, to be loved, to be accepted and protected..”

• Words You Can’t Ignore (Max Jones)

A frightened little girl trembles and screams “in terror after mistaking thunder for an Israeli airstrike.” – Times of Gaza. Most of the people — and especially the children — who survive this genocidal slaughter will forever be traumatized. Children are meant to play, to be loved, to be accepted and protected. The children of Gaza will never get to be children. Most will never get to be adults either. Like this little girl, they will be stuck in the past, unable to experience something as simple as rainfall and thunder. When the rain falls and the thunder booms, their scars will take them back to their terror — the only thing that once separated them from the explosions destroying their homes, the blood and gore of their friends and relatives, and the reality that at any moment they might be killed. I urge you to not look away from this poor girl — look openly enough and you will see yourself. The times you were afraid and no one was there. The times you needed someone to assure you that things would be ok, and no one did. The times you needed to be accepted.

A four-year old girl, Rahaf Ziad Abu Suweirih, died the other day in Gaza when Israeli bombs shelled her home — but the bombs did not kill her. Her little heart stopped, incapable of handling the horrors imposed upon her by Israel’s genocide. As I said above, children are meant to play, to be loved, to be accepted and protected. The children of Gaza will never get to be children. Rahaf Ziad Abu Suweirih’s body knew this so well — and thus, knew that Rahaf should never have experienced the terror, violence, and abandonment that Israel’s genocide forced her to endure — that her tiny heart spared her. Her loved ones will mourn her death. They will try to make sense of the pain they feel, and how anyone could weaponize such hatred against something so innocent. The scars her death left them will remain tender for the rest of their lives. A story true for all the survivors of Gaza. But death is not merely an inducer of pain. It is also a protectorate; a unifier. It reaches up from the deepest depths of the soul to hug the broken human when no one else can.

It takes all the fragments that the tribulations of life shatter and pieces them back together. It is death that can lift a blanket over the abandoned child, or the terrorized adult, and give them permission to rest when the world cannot. This is especially evident in Gaza, where children cannot be children. They have to be survivors. Fighters. Being a child in Gaza only makes easy prey for the hunters playing blood sport. For a child, who again, is only meant to play, to be loved, accepted and protected, this creates a living hell that they have to believe is traversable, either by themselves or the adults they look to for guidance. Of course, no one can navigate the constant and unpredictable patterns of bombs, death and terror. But for the child, what choice do they have between believing the lie that they can control something, or succumbing to death itself? The reality is that Israel creates an uninhabitable space for Gazans, a “labyrinth of death,” that no one could ever survive without the chance of luck.

[..] But protecting one’s self, and one’s children, from the bombs of genocide means denying reality and believing, in one way or another, that you still possess some control of your own fate. To survive, the victims cannot accept that they are effectively “mice in a trap.” They must create different versions of reality in which they can prevail. In other words, they must become multiple people living different fantasies — all to protect their physical self. While these different realities may protect the survivors from death, they will not cease to exist once the war is over. This will send them scrambling in search of the unity that they were forced to abandon. In fleeting moments, they will find places of refuge that unite their broken spirits. These places will tend to the wounds that their traumas left them with “treatments” of comfort and solace.

Yet in time, these places will obscure the unity they at first grant. Whether the survivor finds shelter in the fuzzy feeling of a white opiate, in a bottle of liquor, in a toxic relationship, or any other pathology that detaches them from the pain of reality, the survivor will end up mistakenly believing that they are only complete with the help of the “treatment” that temporarily soothes their pain. This lie will lead them into a new trap: one much harder to see but just as real as the “mice trap” of Gaza. Without realizing it, they will never stop searching for the person that they were never allowed to be, and they will cling to the places that offer the illusion of fulfillment.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

No. 1

 

 

GROK

 

 

Cats

 

 

Blondie
https://twitter.com/i/status/1837430585117045144

 

 

Jenga

 

 

 

 

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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle September 22 2024

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 63 total)
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  • Author
    Posts
  • September 22, 2024 at 9:05 am #169423
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    René Magritte Golconda 1953   • An American Coup? (Neuburger) • 72 Minutes (Scott Ritter) • ‘It’s Over For Russia’ – Boris Johnson (RT) • Has The
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle September 22 2024]

    September 22, 2024 at 10:40 am #169425
    tboc
    Participant

    do you remember reading about that period of time when citizens of the United States thought they had an isolationist foreign policy?

    Well the Round Table Group and the legs under the table have managed to isolate the western world from the balance of humanity.

    1891 Rhodes-Stead began the exceptional, irreplaceable movement. 1905 The Jungle, Sinclair’s expose of an elite mindset was published.

    September 22, 2024 the day the exceptional reached the point where they will not be replaced, they will be isolated. The day that abberant behavior was revealed in it’s true wickedness.

    While the children, above the age of voter registration, are playing make believe in the United States the Guy Fawkes mask has been removed. With it’s own rope around it’s neck the west is about to hang itself and the gun powder rebellion will be put down.

    fade to black with Conway Twitty’s number one hit playing in the background

    September 22, 2024 at 10:50 am #169426
    tboc
    Participant

    hasn’t the world had quite enough of Boris Johnson? Cracker has had more than enough.

    The Third Rome is in ascendancy and Russia’s emmisaries are once again ridiculing the British to their face.

    September 22, 2024 at 11:13 am #169427
    aspnaz
    Participant

    ‘It’s Over For Russia’ – Boris Johnson (RT)

    This is the Boris Johnson who thinks he is Chruchill. The knob with a plastic hat? He is a junior part of the UK’s ex aristocracy, full of shit but a social climber and they can’t remember why. Like most/all Eton graduates, the Johnson is an idiot who is completely out of touch with the real world, it would not matter if he was still a rich kid, like his class mates in Eton, but he is not a rich kid, he has ended up with nothing; nothing in the head, only a name to help him get by. His class mate are part of the moronic trust fund kids club, including people such as the Rothschilds, Russian oligarchs, USA oligarchs, and wannabe popular Asian oligarchs, such as Xi; I understand that he felt a little insecure so sent his children to non-China universities so that they could socialize with the trust fund kids in the west …. doesn’t give you a lot of confidence in Xi, but hey, what else have you got; the Chechen leader buying Teslas like a little girl?

    September 22, 2024 at 11:20 am #169428
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Isreal goes nuclear, but hey, that is okay, it is Israel, they can do whatever they want … Americans and other non-responders are pathetic, but that is okay, I have concluded that I live amoung the pathetic, and that our leaders are trying to murder us, to the best defence is attack; find out where they live, whether it is you local mayor or your senator, go give them a piece of your mind.

    Did you like the way I avoided incinting violence? Good wasn’t it. should keep the EU head-up-arsers happy, as well as the head-up-arsers in Pathetic Britain. All about keeping the retards happy.

    September 22, 2024 at 11:21 am #169429
    Red
    Participant

    “Nobody seems to know what she is busy with.”

    Avoiding the press requires full time effort when you’re job includes talking at them. So, busy with making avoidance plans.

    September 22, 2024 at 11:32 am #169430
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Boris Johnson “thinks he’s Churchill”. You bet he does.

    Ritter thinks he’s Ritter, Lira, Sachs, MacGregor, Sakharov, dissident, journalist, warrior et al

    Why go on?

    “They’re of a type” or “Some people’s kids”.

    Self-referential logic

    1. Formal: “Self-reference is a concept that involves referring to oneself or one’s own attributes, characteristics, or actions.”

    2. Vulgar
    A Circle Jerk: “situation in which a group of people engage in self-indulgent or self-gratifying behavior, especially by reinforcing each other’s views or attitudes”

    September 22, 2024 at 11:42 am #169431
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Magritte: It’s Raining Men.

    Guld
    https://goldprice.org/charts/history/gold_20_year_o_usd_x.png

    Passes $2,600, no interest. Zero news. Target: $3,000. 16% return compounded since 2019.

    Bitcoin, let’s say you bought the peak of 2019 (18): $17,000. It’s now crashed $10k from $70 and is down to $60,000. 21% yoy returns, compounded. Dollar-cost averaging would put this up to 30% yoy.

    “EU Leadership Urges Europe To Be Ready To Fight Russia In 6-8 Years

    Pipe dream. So to speak. If they were right now opening those factories and hiring those people, while stockpiling those warehouses with arms to later deplete for 6 years, maybe. They have nothing even in precursor materials, gas, chemicals, rails, steel…

    That’s actually smart: build a lading port like South Beach in Bremen? LNG terminal in Spain? Russia will just bomb it. There is no distance far enough. This isn’t WWII, you might have noticed, but they didn’t. Build a pipeline? From where? Russian gas via Turkey? Russia will just bomb it.

    The U.S. ; Russia will just bomb us too, except a few things: One, Russia dgaf if U.S. makes stuff if it can’t cross the ocean anyway. …Because Russia will just bomb sink it. Two, like Russia itself, the U.S. has more targets than Russia has bombs unless we go full SatanII nuclear. Hundreds of thousands of pipelines, like a beehive. Which is the same problem with all 5 StormShadow missiles hitting “Deep Russia”. It will have zero effect and is meant only as a nuclear war, to get the U.S. involved. So Russia’s nickel is better spent leveling Europe where its real problem is.

    Tis but one problem: Okay, you need a full-on, multi-million man army then. Kids growing up dreaming of being soldiers. Where’s your officer corps? 6 years? Okay, it will take 6 years to get them into being seasoned Sergeants, Captains, Majors, and they need a THING to do then. Like a task, a mission, a challenge to train on. So you need ONE MILLION of these guys right now, all integrated, all Pan-Europe, interoperable language (English, which is the home language of zero of them). Because you’re going to ADD 5x more men when conscription starts. Right?

    Okay, where you at on this? How ya doin’? You have I dunno, let’s say $50k/yr salary x 1M = $50 Billion. Times 6 years = $300 Billion. Salaries alone, you need some Jeeps, tank trucks, barracks, 1,000 Billion rounds of NATO 9mm/.223 ammunition…

    No one in Europe has a martial position. You made sure of that. No one’s handled a gun from 13. Oh they’re going to hand all the IMMIGRANTS guns in France, 90% Muslim, and they won’t use them on Mademoiselles Macron?

    Six years? No, that’s more like a LIFETIME of work, position, attitude, etc. “But I wrote that I wanted it on a spreadsheet!” A Spreadsheet I tell you! With colors!!!

    Britain planning for winter. BBC on how to live in an unheated room, being promoted: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/cold-weather-what-does-an-unheated-room-do-to-your-body?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us Krainer’s set on UK cutting all heat to the poor for a mere $1B gain they can throw to Ukraine (Who won’t get any of it, it will boomerang into billionaire bond holders).

    Also why there will be mysterious strokes and heart attacks when they do that (Inset, sidebar)

    Back to Russia: so they, Europe, think they fight Russia in 2030 and win. So they kill 200,000 Russians now, knowing it takes 20 years to make a Russian soldier and demographics (mass murder) is their weakness. Okay, good local plan, bad general plan. That’s like the U.S., 1950, fighting ANOTHER full WWII in 1959. Which we were ready for and would have, but.

    In outside news, I guess Joe finally showed up for work after equivalent of 45 year’s paid vacation. He opened the meeting and handed the Presidential Cabinet meeting to Jill Biden, who has no security clearance.

    “Jill Biden Becomes First Female President” — BBee

    “FBI Says We May Never Know The Motivation Of The Would-Be Trump Assassin Who Was A Biden-Harris Supporter And Donated To Democrats 20 Times” – BBee

    “After Reading Headlines, Pope Sentences Babylon Bee Writers To 7 Trillion Years In Purgatory “ –Bbee
    Served concurrently with Gavin sentencing them to life without parole. Still, Seven Trillion years is the blink of the eye compared to eternity. They got off easy.

    Tucker: “This person is hired to make you feel bad about your country.”

    Right. We’re supposed to demoralize, to despair, give up, say it’s not worth saving, all Americans are stupid, so we stop fighting. Instead of, Well, we’re now one person closing to waking up, saying I’m done with this bulls—t, and doing something about it. So thanks, y’all, if we were following your plan, we’d all have to have given up 30 years ago, the country would have fallen, the evil would have won, but you’d all sit on the couch wearing black berets and being super cool about it. I KNEW it! See? I TOLD you! …Thankfully we Americans are just dumb like that, don’t pay attention, don’t care what you think, and after 30-50-80 years are still fighting them like it’s the first day. And they’re still like, “Why won’t you guys just STOP? Just LOSE already!” https://youtu.be/qTcxhshCElc?t=148

    Nope. Because we ignored all you, we’re still here, all the “Smart people” are gone. Gave up. Ran off like little girls. “Why, Mr. Anderson, WHY do you keep fighting? Do you even know? It’s all without meaning and purpose.”

    …Because we like fighting. Because each day it’s still the Right Thing to do. Because there’s 300 Million of us, but like 3,000 of you. Because we know ourselves and aren’t much affected by your opinion.

    “Today, Ireland woke up to the news that the government has dropped plans to implement hate speech laws.”

    But there’s no democracy, we have no power, and might as well give up. Yes, they will be back, which means after turning the tide, we need to push them back harder and create a trend.

    “Thiel argued that the main reason for halting nuclear power development stems from political and regulatory barriers,”

    Yes, but WHY? This is a hundred-billion industry that somehow did NOT buy the government? When everyone else did and has for like $10k per Senator? Explain? I haven’t figured it out, but I know it was a long Plan, from the highest level, and somehow, for some reason, the nuclear people themselves were in on it. They had too much public participation and regulation and wanted all profit and power themselves? Meh. After they stalled, other things happened and hijacked their initial plans (probably) to destroy all United States economically (probably) and make us look unable and incompetent (probably, but that’s not the ORIGINAL plan, that’s a side, incidental plan).

    And what now? Space-Age world to be installed here, which I don’t favor, but is probably where we’re going? Is nuclear even that, or do we have like Zero-point energy instead, so why bother with radiation?

    Biden: Goes with my theory they’ve been putting you on the whole time. Like with Jill being the President right now. At this point, it’s late, why not let the curtain fall, the Green Man come out? Wear a red hat? They are DEFINITELY setting up for a 25th removal, to put Kamala in a month before as 1st President Vagina. You know, the important things in life.

    “Bill Maher calls out Kamala Harris on never winning a primary, a delegate, or ever actually fixing the border.”

    They needed to get these guys – exactly like this – all on board or else have a Civil War. Have we reached across the aisle and gotten enough of them yet? This goes with the heavy pull to the CENTER over in Trump-land, with RFK’s constant tour bringing it back with normal, non-moronic statesman speak.

    “the Pentagon has taken over US foreign policy. And that is as stark as it sounds.”

    Krainer says the same. Here’s the deal: they had ALWAYS had it taken over. They’re just not going to tell you. They ALWAYS had the nuclear football. They ALWAYS had Biden in hand, staged. Since 2020 – 2024, the whole time. Maybe even before, but “The Plan” was to have a Civil War 2.0, in Military splitting, in government splitting, in the People, splitting, in oligarchs, splitting. You can have a rebellion with just some Maga guys, but you can’t have a war. Wars are fought between Upper Powers, exclusively. Same with voting, dgaf about us the people, what we think or want. Sooooo….here you go, Europe, MI6, CIA, the merged worldwide lettermen: what happens if we DON’T have a Civil War on your Color Revolution command? How about we DON’T fight, shoot our neighbors in the face?

    Everyone here will be super disappointed and call us all p—ies then. What do we have Ur Guns! Fer? Lazy cheeto-dust couch posers! Why don’t YOU go shoot people while – I – sit at this keyboard and mouth off to you?

    The Military has been running this thing THE WHOLE TIME. Can you see that now? “The Coup” from “The Pentagon” didn’t happen yesterday, they let you KNOW a little about that it’s BEEN HAPPENING yesterday. This is the Reveal, not the original action.

    “So what’s this encroachment of the Pentagon into foreign policy, if not another “new normal”? Has MacArthur finally won?”

    Yes, and now do you see the OTHER problem with the Pentagon saying, “Alert!!! ALL AMERICANS!!! We are now hereby under martial law!” Yeah, no, for so, so many reasons. The Military doesn’t WANT to run the country – for a change, and just as General Washington established for us. They want the VICHY OCCUPATION out, WITHOUT blowing the place to tiny bits. That means the Military, even activated, its only goal is to re-take the CIVILIAN government. Put it back on election without so much bribery and fraud, and NOT blow up the US Bond market. They can do that fast – and that’s an option new every day – OR we can do that slow, methodically UN-doing each thing year by year in the same slow, secret way it was installed and captured. So long as they HAVE power, they HAVE the football, does it matter how long it takes? Compared to the risk?

    They picked slow, we can always blow up the whole nation later.

    Here’s the first level of them TELLING YOU they did this all along. There will be more. That they really, really, really REALLY don’t want the precedent of military government, military rule, should be a sign and a relief. We may have that anyway as the upcoming election is suspended. Then Delayed. Then run by the military and overseen by the National Guard.

    “two visits by the Central Command Unified Commander were to tell him [Netanyahu] that we would not be with him in the event of his going to war with Hezbollah”

    Again, what? We let them feed rope upon rope, infinitely. These two services that are controlling “Us”, that is to say, Congress, bought off all sorts of people, are salted into the agencies. We get them nice and Waaaaaaay out on the limb. “We’re right behind you! Honust Injin!!!” Then when Europe is neck-deep, UK is leveraged 100:1 for Ukraine bonds on Russian reparations, it’s like “Oooooopsie! Whoops, just remembered we have the stove on, you’re all on your own.” And DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHH, we have no tanks, shells, planes, or men. You idiots.

    “But, but, Unca’ Sam, we’z startin’ a nuclear war and will be killed!”

    Yeah, good luck with that, hope it works out. THAT is their plan. The WHOLE plan, Europe, Israel, have no OTHER plan. None. WE fight their war or else they die. So they lose and get off our backs. Broke. Shattered. Bankrupt. Erased. Bye.

    72 Minutes: probably not, there are 500 ways that would be stalled. Still, if anyone opens the road for that, someone definitely should write that book about it. And did. And required reading. Luongo had a good interview where they added their people had written a book called “Nineteen Eighty-Three”. And that book was all the people BEFORE “1984” and how they got INTO that mess, as per reflected up to this election. That’s a fantastic idea and should also definitely be written and read.

    I don’t care about AFTER. After is too late. We need to know about the Revolution BEFORE and what to look for, how to stop it. The Glorious Eternal Revolution of IngSoc (English Socialism) on Russian Rev 2.0.

    “Russia must understand that “it’s over,” and that Ukraine will not concede any territory for peace, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has argued.”

    BRITAIN again. Hey, who is this guy again? I thought he was the furry mascot out doing commercials and not Prime Minister or nothin’ that we should listen to him. I don’t pay attention to civilian nobodies, as I’ve been told, only “Authorites” and “Experts”.

    “any more than we British have the right to tell our former colonies what to do,” he asserted.”

    Sounds like the Pentagon agrees with Boris! And also sounds like UK is bankrupt and on the edge of collapse without the war and Russian Reparations, German Versailles 2.0. Awwwwww, too bad, so sad! Is this what happens when you start voluntary wars of aggression?

    • Has The EU Suddenly Realized How Much It Has Screwed Itself Over? (Marsden)

    Uh-huh. They’re so dumb they thought the President was running things. Joe? Hahahahahaha! You whut now?

    Okay, background question: can you see why US/Biden/Pentagon blew up NordStream and why they thought Europe would tolerate and approve it? WE blew up all Europe. Poof. And they sort of had to THANK us and cover for us. WHILE they, Europe, was fighting a war to collapse us, trying to get us into three world wars simultaneously so we’d break up and the Constitution would be erased as an idea. Russia, Israel, and China. We can’t fight even ONE of those wars.

    Sure old buddy, old pal, we’re RIGHT behind you! You go first, we’re totally here.

    The tone of this article is deserved and appropriate. Vitriol and comedy for wtf are you doing? You’re the planet’s biggest joke right now, you make Florida Man look like Einstein.

    • EU Leadership Urges Europe To Be Ready To Fight Russia In 6-8 Years (ZH)

    Marsen covers well why six years is “Land War in Asia” stupid for Europe. They might have ONE factory making imported firing pins by then, and 300 more soldiers. As Ritter was repeating for months, the Vaunted “German forcing in Baltics” was like 300 soldiers. Maybe fully there in 10 years. But these guys had to rob all their tanks, etc from other German units. This is considered good, reasonable, normal, and a sign of “force” and Europe “Winning” over Russia, as Moscow lights up 300 THOUSAND men. WITH tanks.

    Nope. Nothing. No synapses fire off. No sparks. No connection. Return to sender. ” 1 ≠ 1,000 ” means nothing to them in Europe. Numbers! All numbers are equal if I WANT them to be hard enough.

    “• The DEI Trojan Horse Has Undermined US Military (Sp.)

    Only if it comes to a crisis can it be rooted out and reformed. Otherwise it festers on forever. Good.

    “Harris ‘Too Busy’ To Talk To Media – Adviser (RT)

    She’s running for President while Jill, not her, runs cabinet meetings. That’s why she can’t talk to the Press. Why would you want media coverage when running for office?

    “America’s Healthcare Dead Last in Rich Nation Rankings (Sp.)

    Chart that out for me. And that line looks like what and when? When the GOVERNMENT got involved. 1992, 2008. At each point, and 1.0 correlation at each step. Where’s the money going? Where’s my money, Brian?!? Not in healthcare. Not Doctors. In Real estate development, insurance companies, administration. Zero nurses, firing doctors.

    Here’s the good news: there’s like 2x money for the world’s BEST healthcare, if you JUST. STOP. STEALING. And as Marsden says, “Unscrew everything and everybody you screwed.” Then we get $200 billion/yr extra saved to apply to something else.

    There’s nothing wrong. This is all voluntary. We are OCCUPIED and they, the Vichy, are trying to DESTROY us. Like Disney. Like Harley. And like Stellaris, I didn’t get to forward that one, same thing. EUROPE takes over Dodge. So bad they invest in all the cars WE DON’T WANT, and electrics no one in American can use since we drive 300 miles at a pop in like 25 states. Towing a Bobcat. Ford said “Electric cars suck” OUT LOUD! And that they lost $20B on even TRYING to be involved with them. They could have given away 100,000 cars free on a “Ford Loves America” Brand promo instead. Back to Dodge, they have canceled all the cars that sell, ruined all the brands that are American, and screwed all the dealers. BOY THEY HATE MONEY!!! More than Disney hates money! The dealers TOLD THEM the whole time as we always do. They are now losing MORE money canceling the Jeep Cherokee, and in fact maybe Jeep altogether, which is a model of certain sell.

    1) Print money in Europe. 2) Buy America. 3) Ruin and destroy all their companies. 4) Profit!

    It fills the time while you 1) Print money in Europe. 2) Buy American politicians. 3) Ruin and destroy all things American.

    Weinsteins: that’s easy, and what I’ve been telling you. One was a Professor at Evergreen, so was involved in racist prejudice and Nazi extortion tactics, and therefore got on the circuit, although somewhat reluctantly. Eventually, they created a broadcast and “came out” to tell the truth, still being moderate Left, like “normal people” type, although as Truth, keep moving “right” – that is: “not insane” – each year like Joe Rogan, etc.

    His brother is also a scientist and smarter, so they talked and they need content, so he got on the circuit a little, and for a pleasant change, was both good with ideas and not boring, not avoiding all questionable content like UFOs etc, because: why? Hosts like that and the people responded, so he’s on the circuit. That’s how I understand it, only paying attention incidentally.

    This is what I was saying: there are so many podcasts with so much content that there is a constant need for guests and if you call you can probably get on one. Call. It isn’t like a giant Jewish conspiracy stopping you, or white people, or black people, or whatever. It’s YOU. Call up, get on, and stop whining these invisible people you’ve never met are controlling everything when really it’s just you and the phone. I see this all the time.

    The Secret International Conspiracy isn’t stopping you from promotion to the fry machine. Stop back stabbing each other.

    September 22, 2024 at 11:54 am #169432
    Oroboros
    Participant

    @John Day

    The “Wisdom Check” comment was itself a test question on Karma. You passed with flying colors! ;>)

    September 22, 2024 at 11:55 am #169433
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    (cont.)

    Board of Directors
    Corporate Governance

    There’s no better practical definition of the Psychopath or Malignant Narcissist supported by a group of wingmen, flying monkeys bleeding off credit, notoriety and profit for no tangible benefit to the company.

    At Boeing, they’re the 2 MBAs by way of Lindenwood College

    Case in point the great, late success story that is BA, Boeing displays 2 alums of Lindenwood University on its Board of Directors. What are the chances?
    Is it not a circle jerk?
    What possibly “constructive” could a Lindenwood MBA and her sidekick Chief Sustainability Officer contribute to the engineering, manufacturing, flight profile and “sustainability” of a 737 MAX?

    September 22, 2024 at 11:55 am #169434
    Oroboros
    Participant

    ..

    September 22, 2024 at 11:57 am #169435
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Reverse Psychology Double Jujitsu Half-Caf Cinnamon Foam Move

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 11:58 am #169436
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 12:00 pm #169437
    Oroboros
    Participant

    A Country of Nillionaires is Upon Us

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 12:07 pm #169438
    Oroboros
    Participant

    A Significant Portion of Project De-Population® is Degrading the Food Supply

    First to shorten lives but just as important, enrich Big Pharma and Big Sick Care Industrial Complex to strip away all the Sheeple’s assets before they die in poverty.

    Mission Accomplished!

    .

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 12:13 pm #169439
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 12:19 pm #169440
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Another Significant Portion of Project De-Population® is “Feminism”

    We’re on Iteration number 4 heading to the Final Cliff of No. 5

    .

    .

    And “Feminism’s” kissing cousin Transgenderism?

    Well, that to is a bit of a Klug……

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 12:21 pm #169441
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 12:22 pm #169442
    oxymoron
    Participant

    shit man. a bit of truth telling or at least a little bit of wriggling going on at the mo.Jamie Dimon telling Europe to get fucked by way of championing US work and innovation, Super Mario types a too bad so sad report from his yacht in the mediterranean, the US openly admitting it is run by American Muscle in the form of a pentagon shaped thingy.
    Wow almost like shit is going to get more insane. People can see the drop off the edge of the cliff and don’t like them rocks it seems. Car going fast though.

    Oh and Israel is still a terrorist organisation of the highest possible order.

    September 22, 2024 at 12:23 pm #169443
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 12:35 pm #169445
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Trumps comment about no 1 across all charts is fake news. classic not like a narc to think they were more important or noticed than they actually are.
    https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/

    didn’t make anywhere near the top 10.
    I don’t know what charts they are using.. Anyone American here that can show me these ole’ charts…

    September 22, 2024 at 12:39 pm #169446
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Oroboros that awake and aware meme! I did a gig last night and let rip all my anti gov covid tin hat free speech raving and after it was done – well a few didn’t want much to do with me (sold some of my honey though which was ace) but I got a few of those EXACT looks.
    A guy who lost his whole company to mandates said he felt seen and heard which was great. I know it’s a bit tough for the people who egged on the gov and want to forget but for the jabbed and unjabbed alike who suffered the bullshit the silence does not wash.

    September 22, 2024 at 1:08 pm #169447
    SeaBirds
    Participant

    Neuberger
    Fascinating. Will this lead to the Empire of Lies admitting defeat to a superior foe? Surely the fallout could be immense.

    Marsden
    “unscrewing everything they screwed up over the past two and a half years through self-inflicted idiocy in the interests of impressing their girlfriend Vladimir Zelensky (aka president of Ukraine).”

    ‘Self-inflicted idiocy’ in following the dictats of their Washington masters.

    Boris Johnson
    Still paying the silver-tongued liar to spin his web of deceit over the unsuspecting public. Already a very wealthy man, money is all that matters to this popinjay, and he gets paid handsomely every time he opens his mouth.

    Prison cats
    Great idea. Thanks for this one, from all of us who adore cats.

    September 22, 2024 at 1:17 pm #169448
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 1:19 pm #169449
    Oroboros
    Participant

    A Significant Portion of Project De-Population® is “Climate Change”

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 1:40 pm #169450
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • An American Coup?

    Putting the Duh in Duh’merica

    There is no President

    Hasn’t been the past four years

    It’s a “Steering Committee” of pathological NeoConJobs with their hands up Pedo Jo-jo anus.

    The Pentagram has finally realized that Russia has whipped their asses in Ukronaziland, de-militarized NATO/ZATO and will in fact NUKE Duh’merica if it launches long range missiles into Russia.

    Duh yet again.

    .

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 1:42 pm #169451
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Smoking is Smokin’

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 1:45 pm #169452
    Oroboros
    Participant

    A Country Worth Having

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 1:49 pm #169453
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    September 22, 2024 at 2:18 pm #169455
    zerosum
    Participant

    Pentagon: it wasn’t advice, but instruction.
    They are not listening.

    1. To Netanyahu, stop the Genocide, and if you invade Lebanon or attack Iran, you’re on your own.
    When analyzing the pager detonations from a legal standpoint, it becomes clear that Israel’s killing spree in Lebanon this week lies somewhere between a war crime and an act of terrorism.
    Israel Unleashes Hell On South Lebanon With Giant Mystery Bomb As War Escalates
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/idf-says-180-targets-eliminated-southern-lebanon-us-lauds-good-outcome-beirut-strike
    Footage appears to show one of the largest Israel has ever dropped…

    2. To Zelenskyy, no to long range missiles reaching deep into Russia.
    Disregarding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent warning that enabling long-range strikes would place NATO in a state of war with Russia.

    Ukraine, (NATO SPECIAL OPERATORS), Scores More Large Hits On Russian Ammo Storage Depots
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-scores-more-large-hits-russian-ammo-storage-depots
    Ukrainian army says overnight it took out one of the three largest ammunition storage bases in Russia.

    https://sputnikglobe.com/20240921/russia-hits-ukrainian-military-energy-facilities—mod-1120234595.html
    MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Russian armed forces launched a coordinated attack on energy facilities supplying the Ukrainian defense industry, as well as on drone production lines and clusters of Ukrainian manpower and military equipment overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

    —————


    “Now conditions have changed,” Draghi said. “World trade is slowing.”

    The Ukraine conflict has been an equally convenient excuse to make more weapons at taxpayer expense for the EU’s own defense after emptying out the old junk from its closets.

    The whole report is just loaded with gems, like this one: “If Europe cannot become more productive, we will be forced to choose.
    We will not be able to become, at once, a leader in new technologies, a beacon of climate responsibility and an independent player on the world stage.
    We will not be able to finance our social model.
    We will have to scale back some, if not all, of our ambitions.
    This is an existential challenge…”

    https://commission.europa.eu/topics/strengthening-european-competitiveness/eu-competitiveness-looking-ahead_en
    The future of European competitiveness: Report by Mario Draghi
    ————
    Harris spoke, (delivered “a word salad”), at length to TV host Oprah Winfrey, although the interview was friendly and featured a host of Harrris’ celebrity supporters, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts, Chris Rock, and Ben Stiller.
    ————-

    September 22, 2024 at 2:46 pm #169458
    John Day
    Participant

    @Oxymoron: When the Generals Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqP61lGsXOM

    September 22, 2024 at 2:48 pm #169459
    John Day
    Participant

    Fifth Branch Of Government https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/fifth-branch-of-government

    Just pointing out that it is only possible to deny physical reality for a little while. Germany Needs New Natural Gas Capacity to Meet Its Coal Phase-Out Target​
    ​ Germany, which last year closed all its remaining nuclear power plants – is now seeking to balance the generation and transmission systems with new gas power plants. But these plants need to be ready to be converted to hydrogen at some point between 2035 and 2040, the economy ministry has said.
    ​ The country has also decided to accelerate the coal phase-out to 2030, from an earlier planned date of 2038, but Europe’s largest economy reactivated some mothballed coal-fired power plants in the previous two winters after Russian natural gas supply to Germany ceased.
    ​ Uniper, which continues to run several coal-fired power plants in Germany, cannot shut these down right now because it needs gas-fired capacity to replace them and ensure system stability.​ https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Germany-Needs-New-Natural-Gas-Capacity-to-Meet-Its-Coal-Phase-Out-Target.html

    ​ What is the economic difference between Trump and “Harris” economic policies?
    ​Trump says he’ll pump more oil at lower prices to goose all aspects of the economy, pulling that future-oil into the present, which should work in “the present​.
    ​ “Harris” does not elucidate, but current elite trajectory is to place more and more tight-spots of economic control through rent​-collection into all parts of the economy, with every smart-phone being ideal, once only smartphones can be used to buy groceries and pay bills, and each can be micro-managed algorithmically by global financiers and intelligence agencies in “consortium”. ​Comply or scrounge dumpsters until you die in winter.
    ​ I “believe” in peak-oil, and that it already happened, and I also believe there has been a lot of Arctic oil discovered under ​Jimmy Carter and capped-off, and that Russia recently discovered a lot of Antarctic oil, but that those resources are to be exploited under a very different global economic regime, which has not yet been “agreed-upon” at the elite level.
    ​ Trump threatens to goose the economy against “consensus”, basically in concert with the “enemy team”, from the view of neoliberal ​globalist finance, which has long extracted blood from western economies faster than they can make it. The “consensus” is to shrink all the consumer-economies and consumer/productive human-herds gradually, boiling those frogs, while telling them it’s all fine and preventing any comments to the contrary.
    ​ We can all see the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in this plan, but it keeps the parasitic elites in place on the top of the anemic economic bags of bones, another weakness over time…
    ​ The economy which is more robust NOW has a military advantage over a more anemic economy NOW. Russia points this out, as does China. Trump plans to goose the US economy, which can clearly be done. The parasites’ long planning for a gradual step-down of resource-burn will be thwarted.
    ​ It’s not a bad concept, but a bad mechanism, secretly killing and starving most people, in order to keep pampering a few sociopaths. It is a dead-end for our species.
    ​ What’s a good-mechanism? There’s the catch. We have an apex-predator global economy, managed by eating grazing (farming) herds. “Don’t be the slowest zebra.” But technology can take out billions of zebras over a decade, without even blowing up farms, factories and oil-wells now, a formidable mass-apex-predation paradigm.
    ​ Learn to listen to your conscience and follow it in your difficult daily actions and decisions…
    That’s it. That’s all I’ve got, except to grow vegetables, ride a bike and be a friend and family member.
    You can’t see the second step until you take the first step.

    Harris ‘too busy’ to talk to media – adviser​, Avoiding the press is reportedly a key strategy of the vice president’s campaign​ https://swentr.site/news/604443-kamala-harris-avoiding-media/

    ​ It’s more than this; it’s the “Great Reset”​ WW-3 is the preferred context. An Unprecedented Monetary Destruction Is Coming
    ​ The trillions of dollars accumulated in debt will lead to an unprecedented wave of central bank easing, which will continue to include negative real rates and even direct debt monetization. However, they need an excuse to present themselves as the solution to the problem they created. A recession or a significant slowdown will be the trigger to implement the plan to destroy the purchasing power of currencies. However, this time inflation is already evident and persistent.​..
    ​ How can governments implement currency destruction when citizens are already upset about high prices? First, they need to silence you. Second, eliminate your options to run away from the currency. Thirdly, enforce the expropriation with the motto, “You may have nothing, but you will find happiness.”​ https://mises.org/mises-wire/unprecedented-monetary-destruction-coming

    ​Alex Krainer wonders: Was there a palace coup at the White House? Antony Blinken’s foreign policy conduct has been a textbook recipe for a mutiny in the military ranks.
    The events have taken a very strange turn in Washington DC this month. Britain’s new cabinet has made it a priority to escalate the West’s proxy war against Russia and to bring the U.S. and other allies onboard by hook or by crook. Part of the agenda was enabling the Ukrainians to strike at Russia with western supplied long-range precision missiles. This wouldn’t be a new thing exactly, but the escalation they are gunning for is quite substantial, involving possibly even nuclear weapons.
    ​ The groundwork for this escalation was being prepared for months. In March this year, the Biden administration approved a new “Nuclear Employment Guidance” in preparation to fight and “win” a three-front nuclear war against Russia, China and North Korea. They followed up with plans to deploy long-range nuclear missiles in Germany and Holland. The preparations were being coordinated between the Neocons in the Biden administration, led by the Secretary of State Antony Blinken, NATO and the members of​ British ​cabinets, both under ​(not war) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and under the new (war) PM Keir Starmer…
    ​..On July 9, his fifth day on the job Keir Starmer flew to Washington for the NATO summit and a meeting with president Biden. On July 16, Starmer’s government published the new “Strategic Defense Review” – a “root and branch” revision of UK’s defence, so that it is “secure at home and strong abroad for decades to come.” Of course, all these ambitious initiatives ultimately depend on the special relationship itself. Without it, Britain would be punching way, way above its weight.
    ​ Trump-proofing the “special relationship”
    ​ In terms of military power, the UK is pretty much a lightweight with a handicap, so securing the American protection was top priority. Accordingly, the Mutual Defense Agreement (MDA) between the U.S. and Great Britain needed an urgent upgrade. The agreement was last renewed in 2014 and was set to expire on 31 December 2024. The new major upgrade was formulated by the British government in July of this year: it would make the MDA indefinite, turning it into a de-facto treaty. The idea was to Trump-proof the Agreement in case the DNC fails to steal the presidential elections again this November. The treaty also joins the two nations’ nuclear programs.​
    ​..Malcolm Chalmers, the deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), was jubilant about the new Mutual Defense Agreement, seeing it as a diplomatic win for the UK: “It is good news for the UK that it doesn’t need to worry about a future US administration using a future renewal [of the MDA] as leverage.” How clever! Now we can stir the pot around the world and if things get ugly, the Americans have to come to our rescue. This is a good position from which to manipulate the U.S. into fighting Britain’s ​(City of London’s?) wars of choice.​..
    ..On 10 September, US State Secretary Antony Blinken came to London to meet with his British counterpart David Lammy and the day after they both went to visit Kiev together. On the occasion, Blinken and Lammy almost certainly finalized the plan to commit both nations to aiding Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with western-supplied long range precision missiles. Only two days later, the Prime Minister Starmer flew to Washington again to meet with President Biden, ostensibly to “discuss” the events in Ukraine among other things.
    ​ Something went wrong in Washington
    ​ Now, the Prime Minister wouldn’t normally travel and meet with his U.S. counterpart just to “discuss” things.​.. In fact, according to British government sources, the decisions had already been made, and Sir Keir brought all the paperwork with him. However, the signing ceremony never took place and neither did the joint press conference. Something went wrong​.
    ​ It appears that the U.S. military leadership took Vladimir Putin’s warning about this escalation seriously…
    …​”This would mean that NATO, US and the European countries, the United States are at war with Russia. If that is the case, then bearing in mind the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will take appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be posed to us.”
    ​ According to some sources, Putin’s warning was reinforced through back-channel communications between the Russian military leadership and their American counterparts who understand that they were being pushed over the edge of total war. In response, it seems that the American military leadership took over the conduct of the US foreign policy, both in terms of military and diplomatic affairs. State Secretary Blinken and his merry band of Neocons appear to have been sidelined…
    ..The change in leadership could also be felt in the Middle East. General Michael E. Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command visited Israel last week (the second time in a week’s interval), apparently also to announce a new policy. Allegedly, he informed the Israelis that if they provoke a war against Hezbollah or against Iran, the U.S. will not come to their aid: they’re on their own.
    ​ The palace coup at the White House wasn’t officially announced and it almost certainly won’t be. We will probably only know of these changes with time, by observing the pattern of events. If the U.S. policy really changes course in a substantive way, this would corroborate that the coup did indeed take place. This may seem inconceivable, but it shouldn’t be. Secretary Blinken has been conducting a truly insane​* foreign policy, inflicting massive damage to the United States in material, strategic as well as reputational terms. Such conduct would unavoidably provoke disapproval and opposition within the ranks of the American defense and foreign policy establishments.​ https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/was-there-a-palace-coup-at-the-white​ *Quite “sane” if destruction of 2 strong nations is the objective

    September 22, 2024 at 2:49 pm #169460
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Thomas Neubrger, An American Coup? ‘No dice, Mr President. No dice on Ukraine and no dice on Gaza. We’re in charge now.
    Napolitano: No dice. You’re talking about no dice on the long range missiles reaching deep into Russia, even though Tony Blinkin had intimated all week in Kyiv with his British counterpart that this was happening. And Sir Keir Stormer, the British Prime Minister, had every reason to believe as he’s flying across the Atlantic that Joe Biden’s answer would be yes.
    ​ Wilkerson: He was embarrassed. He was embarrassed by the fact — he was pulling out his maps with target data and Biden told him, “Don’t even pull them out. We’re not going to talk about that.”
    ​ I’ve been told, again by fairly reliable sources, that Blinkin and Sullivan — Blinkin primarily, but Sullivan too — have been sidetracked, and what’s happened is the Pentagon has taken over, essentially, diplomacy as well as any action, militarily speaking, with regard to both theaters of war.
    ​ And so they’re now in charge.
    I have to change my evaluation of Secretary Austin if that’s the case, because it means he listened finally to the people in the bowels of the Pentagon who know the truth, and he’s reacting to that, and he’s told the President Biden that, and to Biden’s credit, even though he was furious, he finally took that advice.
    ​ Napolitano: Colonel, you once ran the State Department [as Secretary Colin Powell’s chief of staff under George Bush]. How does the Defense Department engage in diplomacy?
    ​ Wilkerson: They engage in diplomacy every day. Every day. There are four-stars in the various syncdoms, the regions that they control, the AORs [Areas of Responsibility] [who] are the true U.S. diplomats. And some of them are very good at it. I saw some of them. I worked with some of them who are very good at it, better than any Secretary of State.
    ​ But it shouldn’t be that way. That’s a parenthetical remark. We shouldn’t have the military leading diplomacy. But we often do.​ https://neuburger.substack.com/p/an-american-coup

    ​ ‘It’s over for Russia’ – ex-UK PM​, Boris Johnson has argued that Russia must be forced to accept defeat, even if doing so costs a trillion dollars
    ​ Russia must understand that “it’s over,” and that Ukraine will not concede any territory for peace, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has argued. For this goal to be achieved, however, Kiev will need long-range weapons, NATO membership, and half a trillion dollars, Johnson added.
    ​ In an op-ed published in The Spectator on Saturday, Johnson argued that Ukrainian forces still have the “ability to win,” if only the West would cave to every single one of Kiev’s demands. These include, he wrote, permission to strike deep inside Russian territory with Storm Shadow and ATACMS missiles, and immediate invitation to NATO with Article 5 security guarantees, and “half a trillion dollars… or even a trillion.”​ https://swentr.site/russia/604441-boris-johnson-over-russia/

    ​ Israel Unleashes Hell On South Lebanon With Giant Mystery Bomb As War Escalates
    Al Jazeera correspondents have confirmed that “Israel’s military launched 400 attacks on Lebanon on Saturday and Hezbollah fired rockets at the Ramat David base near the city of Haifa, in their largest exchange of fire since the war on Gaza began.”
    ​ Another indicator of the escalation is that Israel is apparently beginning use much bigger bombs compared to much of the past nearly year of internecine fighting. The below widely circulating footage shows a large flash and skyscraper-size fireball, resulting in some viewers speculating it was likely a heavy bunker-buster bomb, or possibly even a tactical nuke of some sort. Whatever it was, there’s never been anything like it used on Lebanon (that we know about).​ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/idf-says-180-targets-eliminated-southern-lebanon-us-lauds-good-outcome-beirut-strike

    Terrorist… Attack on communication devices in Lebanon violates international law, could be war crime: UN human rights chief​ https://www.arabnews.com/node/2572196/middle-east

    US to delay military aid to Ukraine – CNN​ The Pentagon doesn’t have enough weapons in stock to keep up with Kiev’s demands, a report says​ https://swentr.site/news/604406-us-upcoming-aid-shortages-cnn/

    September 22, 2024 at 2:49 pm #169461
    Noirette
    Participant

    Prev. posts on Switz.

    = Ban on joining milit. NATO exercises = from RT

    https://tinyurl.com/4w43ukw2

    This is a serious development, very worrisome, and highly indicative of a voluntary abandonment of neutrality.

    = CH to expel hundreds of Russian Scientists =

    https://swentr.site/news/604402-switzerland-expel-russian-scientists/

    This is about CERN (Centre Européen de Recherche Nucléaire), which is geographically in CH and France, but is administered in CH. It is an International Organisation, and run by a ‘Council’ of its members. It’s decision to stop collaboration with Russia (which took a long time to be voted, implemented, following the ‘invasion’ of UKR, and in any case is only partial, as some collab. will not only continue via JINR, but will be expanded..see link in F, for ex.) A 2/3 majority is needed to exclude some x entity, and that was reached.

    https://tinyurl.com/5n8w64pe

    In eng. – a mealy-mouthed communiqué from March 2022.

    https://home.cern/news/news/cern/cern-council-responds-russian-invasion-ukraine

    It has nothing to do with the CH Gvmt. which could, potentially, close CERN down, in the same way that NY State? / the Fed. US Gvmt. could force the UN headquarters in NY to close.

    Scientist published many screeds about their oppo to such measures. Russians are ‘top’ in Nuke Research (see similarly Space Explor./ in collab. with the USA), and Russia / CH have had v.good relations for a long time. Plus, Russia contributed large dollaris amounts to CERN. Result: CERN is now ‘missing’ about 40 million CHF to ‘update’ existing structures, etc., it has been weakened, etc.

    The “400” (inflated no. imho) employees will not be ‘expelled’. Some will loose their jobs, have their ‘contract’ terminated, and will go on to be hired elsewhere, bang off. Some will have to leave as they have no new ‘job’ and were under ‘temp’ status, and be hired right back in Russia/Belarus, etc. Some will get unemployment pay, spouse works in CH or F, want to stay, get a new job. Some will be re-hired at CERN under a different ‘contract, umbrella.’ Some will use their 2nd passport to fall out of R stats. Some will retire…etc. Such events are not that unusual.

    CH gave up its neutrality when it imposed sanctions (outside of UN mandated ones) on Russia, Feb. 2022.

    Yes CH is an insignificant postage stamp country, but wherever one is, it is important to understand what is really going on.

    September 22, 2024 at 2:50 pm #169462
    John Day
    Participant

    ​What long range weapons were used? Cruise missiles? Whose? Ukraine Scores More Large Hits On Russian Ammo Storage Depots https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-scores-more-large-hits-russian-ammo-storage-depots

    ​ Simplicius, Ukraine Allies Squeezed by Weapons Drought as Clock Ticks
    Ukraine’s fate continues to be hinged on ostensibly allowing “deep strikes” in order to lance the war’s final ‘taboo’ in involving NATO directly against Russia.​..
    ​..Zelensky will give the US his “victory plan” in order to receive a refusal and then begin negotiations with Russia.
    This is the opinion of the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yuri Lutsenko, which is why Kyiv constantly places responsibility for the situation at the front on its allies.
    ​ “The entire propaganda machine of the President’s Office constantly hammers into the heads of Ukrainians that we have problems only because the US does not want to give us permission for long-range missiles JASSM, ATACMS, Storm Shadow / Scalp,” writes Lutsenko.
    ​ “But this is a lie that will (not) lead to victory. At least because the Russian Air Transport Agency has already gone beyond the A​TACMS coverage area. Therefore, it will not stop attacks, KABs, and ballistics.”
    Lutsenko believes that Zelensky is acting according to the following plan:
    1. We submit to the US a new mega-list of demands for weapons and money.
    2. We receive polite doubts that this will change the course of the war and lead us to the borders of 1991.
    3. We declare that we have been abandoned and we have no other choice but to return to the Peace Forums with the participation of Russia.
    4. During the negotiations we receive demands from Putin in the style of Istanbul.
    5. We declare that this is the subject of a referendum and that a ceasefire is needed for this.
    6. We sign a ceasefire.
    7. We take the pose of the president of the world and hold presidential elections. Preferably – without lifting martial law, so that democracy does not interfere, and the TCC controls the polling stations.
    ​ Lutsenko called it a “cynical show” that is “easily read by both Ukrainian political leaders and our allies.”
    https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-92024-ukraine-allies-squeezed

    ​ Europe’s authoritarian, unelected ruler, Ursula von der Leyen, in a growing dispute with NATO leadership
    In his farewell event on Thursday hosted by the German Marshal Fund in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg came as close to denouncing European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen as you can in Euro-speak before journalists whom he knew would be weighing his every word.
    ​ As The Financial Times put it, Stoltenberg made ‘blunt remarks’ as he condemned the build-up of competences, personnel and budgets for EU command structures and planned rapid response force, fearing that this will divert resources from NATO.
    See “N​ATO chief warns EU against setting up ‘competing’ force” by Henry Foy in yesterday’s FT.
    ​ If this is what Stoltenberg is saying in public, you can well imagine that the NATO-EU fight for the lead role in Europe’s defense is running at a fever pitch behind closed doors. It is a contest that has been gathering force for a good many months now…
    ​..Foy’s article on von der Leyen is generally complimentary, calling out that ‘she’s the hardest working’ person in the EU institutions. He acknowledges that critics say she ‘routinely overstretches her powers and bypasses proper due process.’ But he grants her that in the spirit of ‘you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.’ So he concludes what is supposed to be a well-rounded appreciation of von der Leyen, saying that ‘admirers, including many EU leaders, revere her ability to get things done by cutting through the byzantine layers of European bureaucracy.’ It is entirely fitting that Foy avoids calling this approach what it might otherwise be called: authoritarian.
    ​ What is missing from this piece of seemingly balanced journalism from the FT is what we opened this essay with: von der Leyen’s ongoing duplication of NATO functions. This is self-aggrandizing as it expands her powers. It is also changing the European Union from a peace project, as it was originally conceived, into a war project. In this regard, all the instruments that von der Leyen has deployed to ensure her degree of control over the Commission that Foy describes also infuse the Commission and the EU Institutions more generally with the war agenda of the New Europe (as Donald Rumsfeld described the former Warsaw Pact countries) that is directed against Russia. Here we find the unifying mission of both EU and NATO institutions.
    ​ One of the obvious ways that von der Leyen intends to control the EU is through her closest coordination with the commissioners drawn from the Baltic States and extending into the other member states of Eastern Europe. These commissioners are all, by definition, much easier for the Commission president to dominate than are commissioners put up by the large member states like France, Italy and Germany. They have been given heavy responsibility portfolios out of all proportion to the political, economic, demographic weight of the countries they represent. This is why the utterly shallow prime minister of Estonia, which has a population of 1.3 million, was chosen by von der Leyen to head the key portfolio of foreign relations as the EU’’s spokesperson to the world.​..
    ​..Of course, Kaja Kallas, who herself had been a contender to succeed Stoltenberg at NATO, was and is one of the most aggressive Russophobes in the EU. Several weeks ago, the lady said that the objective of the EU should be “to bring Russia to its knees” by inflicting a humiliating defeat on the Kremlin in its war on Ukraine…
    ​..For those of us who have been around for a while and knew the EU institutions when they were erected by men of great stature like Jacques Delors, it is painful to see how the project has been reduced to a War Project by people of much lower moral standing and vision for the future.​ https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2024/09/21/europes-authoritarian-unelected-ruler-ursula-von-der-leyen-in-a-growing-dispute-with-nato-leadership/

    ​How about resuming Russian natural gas imports next year, instead? EU Leadership Urges Europe To Be Ready To Fight Russia In 6-8 Years https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/eu-leadership-urges-europe-be-ready-fight-russia-6-8-years

    Estonia signals readiness to preemptively strike Russia to defend NATO
    During an interview with the Estonian public broadcaster ERR, Estonian General Vahur Karus has stated that Estonia is ready to strike Russian territory if Moscow shows signs of preparing for an attack on NATO.​ “Our capability to neutralize the enemy on its own territory is crucial,” General Karus emphasized, pointing to a new strategy where waiting to be attacked first is no longer an option.​ https://www.uawire.org/estonia-signals-readiness-to-preemptively-strike-russia-to-defend-nato#

    September 22, 2024 at 2:51 pm #169463
    John Day
    Participant

    Switzerland to expel hundreds of Russian scientists – The CERN research center will end cooperation with Moscow on December 1, the journal Nature has reported​ https://swentr.site/news/604402-switzerland-expel-russian-scientists/

    EU to raise €35 billion loan for Ukraine using Russia’s frozen assets, von der Leyen says​ https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/09/20/eu-to-raise-35-billion-loan-for-ukraine-using-russias-frozen-assets-von-der-leyen-says

    ​ European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen is traveling to war-ravaged Ukraine on Friday with the promise of 160 million euros ($180 million) in fresh energy funds to get the nation through the winter.​ Von der Leyen told reporters that 100 million euros ($112 million) of the funds would come the proceeds of the Russian assets held in the EU because of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. “It is only right that Russia pays for the destruction it caused,” she said.​ https://apnews.com/article/eu-russia-ukraine-energy-war-2b9ef02f93993c9e2f4acf5bed079aba

    ​Eugyppius, “Help! My child is becoming right wing!”: Leading Berlin newspaper provides “tips for democratic parents” who are forced to deal with “undemocratic children” https://www.eugyppius.com/p/help-my-child-is-becoming-right-wing

    ​ Charges filed against UC Irvine students and professors who took part in protests
    ​ The Orange County District Attorney’s office announced misdemeanor charges Wednesday against 10 people, including a professor and lecturer. They have been charged with failing to follow dispersal orders at UC Irvine when police attempted to clear a student encampment calling for an end to Israel’s war in Gaza.
    ​ Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said that the Special Prosecutions Unit spent months reviewing evidence before moving forward with charges.
    “The right to peaceful assembly is a constitutional right and we encourage protestors to exercise their right to peaceful assembly on any issue,” Spitzer said when he announced the charges. “However, criminal activity which transcends peaceful assembly will not be tolerated.”​ https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/charges-filed-against-uc-irvine-students-and-professors-who-took-part-in-protests

    September 22, 2024 at 2:52 pm #169464
    John Day
    Participant

    Glenn Diesen, BRICS Develops a Multipolar Economic Architecture​, The Meeting in Kazan Will Respond to the West’s Economic Suicide
    Unlike the bloc politics of the hegemonic system that relies on dividing the world into dependent allies versus weakened adversaries, BRICS uses economic connectivity to mitigate and resolve political disputes. Thus, the members include China and India, Saudi Arabia and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia. After the Second World War, the Europeans attempted to follow the same model of seeking security with other member by putting Germany and France in the same club. These days are long gone, as security is now security against non-members that has converted the European peace project into an aggressive peacetime alliance. When the US abandons the goal of defeating China, Russia and other adversaries, the BRICS club could also be used to accommodate Western powers into the multipolar international economic architecture.​ https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/brics-develops-a-multipolar-economic

    ​ Jim Kunstler calls it “insane”, like Alex Krainer did. Mad to the Max
    “I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for the press to have a consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is.” — Hillary Clinton
    If anything like civil war ignites in this country, the sides will not be the political Red and the Blue but the sane and the insane. Now it happens, unfortunately, that the insane are driving the engine of government. They have been at war with the people of this land for years, depriving them of livelihoods, stuffing them into prison, breaking the social contract, wrecking the country’s relations with the rest of the world, and belaboring the peoples’ minds with one insulting absurdity after another.
    They comprise a bizarre coalition of the permanent bureaucracy, the Democratic Party, and the news media. The permanent bureaucracy includes its own machine for making war on citizens: the intel blob, whose tentacles reach into other agencies: Homeland Security, the State Department, the so-called Justice Department, the Pentagon, the myriad Public Health offices, and the shadowy clique that stands-in for a disabled president in the White House.
    ​ You can tell they are insane because they are driven by a single motivation: to remain in power for no other purpose than to escape responsibility for their many crimes against the people.​ https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/p/mad-to-the-max

    Ryan Routh, The Man Who Tried to Assassinate Donald Trump, Wrote a Book That Sounds Like it Was Written by A “CIA Asset”?​ ​ https://www.globalresearch.ca/ryan-routh-book-sounds-written-cia/5868342

    ​ Meryl Nass MD, Entire state of Georgia ordered to hand count PAPER BALLOTS on election day!
    A big step toward a clean election. NYT unhappy. There would be machine ballots and paper ballots. Let’s hope the twain shall meet.​ https://merylnass.substack.com/p/entire-state-of-georgia-ordered-to

    For-Profit US Healthcare System—Once Again—Ranks Dead Last Among Its Peers​ https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-healthcare-system

    September 22, 2024 at 2:53 pm #169465
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Very effective cost-containment, the repetitive and persistent threat of non-payment for services. Therapy patients stop treatment after ‘pre-payment reviews’ swell https://clearhealthcosts.com/blog/2024/09/therapy-patients-stop-treatment-after-pre-payment-reviews-swell/

    Matt Stoller, Up to a Quarter of Rental Inflation Is Due to Price-Fixing
    From 2020-2024, rent prices spiked by a third. How much of that is due to collusion by corporate landlords and a software coordinator? And where is the Fed?
    ​ And that brings me back to the Antitrust Division’s lawsuit against RealPage. Is this case more than an (alleged) price-fixing conspiracy? Could it point to a broader problem in the economy?
    ​ Let’s start with what this firm actually did. RealPage allegedly encouraged excess rental prices in a number of ways. First, it collected sensitive information about the market and let its clients know what everyone else was charging. Second, it explicitly encouraged rent hikes through default settings in its software, and by having its RealPage “pricing advisors” harass employees of clients until they raised rents. As one unnamed landlord put it, “I always liked this product because your algorithm uses proprietary data from other subscribers to suggest rents and term. That’s classic price fixing.” And finally, it hosted in-person meetings where its clients would talk with one another about raising prices.​ https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/up-to-a-quarter-of-rental-inflation

    ​ WaPo journalists cited a new study about Earth’s global surface temperatures over the last 485 million years. In 2023, Earth’s average temperature reached 58.96 F (14.98 C), well below the average 96.8 degrees F (36 degrees Celsius) the study showed around 100 million years ago. The trend shows Earth’s temperatures have been sliding for 50 million years.​ https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/msm-journos-inadvertently-reveal-shocking-truth-about-global-warming

    ​ Using GPT-4 to generate 100 words consumes up to 3 bottles of water — AI data centers also raise power and water bills for nearby residents
    Net-zero emission goals went out the window with AI.​ https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/using-gpt-4-to-generate-100-words-consumes-up-to-3-bottles-of-water-ai-data-centers-also-raise-power-and-water-bills-for-nearby-residents

    ​ Peter McCullough MD, Manuscript: Banoun, Analysis of Beyfortus® (Nirsevimab) Immunization Campaign: Effectiveness, Biases, and ADE Risks in RSV Prevention
    Acute RSV Infection and Death after Monoclonal Antibody Infusion Suggest Product Backfires in Some Babies Due to Antibody-Dependent Enhancement​ https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/breaking-manuscript-banoun-analysis

    September 22, 2024 at 2:55 pm #169466
    John Day
    Participant

    Browse presentation topic summaries and biographies of presenters: Attack on Food and Farmers and How To Fight Back https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/chd-tv/browse-all/attack-on-food-and-farmers-and-how-to-fight-back-collection/

    Biological Intelligence (pictured with peppers, blinking in morning sun, after finishing lawn-mowing)
    peppers

    September 22, 2024 at 3:39 pm #169470
    zerosum
    Participant

    Why is Hillary Clinton being allowed, by CNN, Fareed Zakara, and main stream media, to spew her hatred against Trump?

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