Oct 222024
 


Floris van Schooten Still-Life with Glass, Cheese, Butter and Cake 1st half 17th century

 

Musk Fires Back At Der Spiegel Over ‘Enemy No. 2’ Claim (RT)
Surprise, Surprise! (James Howard Kunstler)
Alex Jones Issues Terrifying Post-Election Prediction (VF)
A Citizen Journalist Wins Key Reversal for New Media (Turley)
Court Denies Class Action Status for Lawsuit Against Twitter (ET)
Russian “Restraint” Towards Assassination of Arab Leaders (Helmer)
EU Troops Could Be Deployed To Ukraine – Politico (RT)
Pentagon Pours Cold Water On Claim Of North Korean Troops In Ukraine (ZH)
Medvedev Warns Of ‘Total War’ (RT)
A New World Order In The Making: This BRICS Summit Will Be Special (Behanzin)
Date With Destiny – BRICS Offers Hope in a Time of War (Pepe Escobar)
Fani Willis Laid Groundwork For Prosecuting Trump Before Taking Office (JTN)
Trump Assassination Probe Finds ‘Stunning’ Failures (RT)
The EU Doesn’t Need Moscow To Interfere In Its Democracy (Marsden)
US Interest Payments Top Defense Spending For First Time In History (I&I)
German Doctors Alarmed At Growing Failures Of Antibiotics – Bild (RT)

 

 

 

 

Dark money

MSNBC

Speaker

PA


https://twitter.com/i/status/1848133402559721646

JD

Trump Biden

No tax

Racist

Bronx

DOJ

 

 

 

 

“Donald Trump is probably the current biggest threat to the free world. His buddy Musk [is] at least public enemy number two..”

Musk Fires Back At Der Spiegel Over ‘Enemy No. 2’ Claim (RT)

Elon Musk has hit back at German magazine Der Spiegel, after it branded the billionaire “public enemy No.2” and claimed he is working with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to “decompose liberal democracy.” In response, Musk insisted that he is a staunch defender of democracy. The German outlet published an article on Sunday with a cover depicting a close-up of the tech mogul with Trump’s features emerging through part of his face. The piece noted that the X owner and Tesla CEO has amassed huge economic clout and a prominent media profile. “Within a few years, he [Musk] has not only become the political right-wing hardliner, but also a declared opponent of the liberal democracy in the US. The Troll-in chief has mutated into a political agitator.

“One could say: Donald Trump is probably the current biggest threat to the free world. His buddy Musk [is] at least public enemy number two,” the article said, drawing parallels with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who rose to power thanks in no small part to the support of German industrial moguls. Musk addressed the accusation during a townhall meeting with American voters in Pennsylvania. “I’m like, enemy No. 2 of what? Democracy? I mean I’m pro-democracy. I’m literally trying to uphold the Constitution and ensure we have a free and fair election,” he fired back, drawing cheers from the crowd.

The billionaire added that he would “definitely upgrade… my security” after the article, noting that he is sometimes “shocked” by what he sees from the left. “You know, the level of vitriolic hatred on the left, which is supposed to be tolerant. They claim they are tolerant and yet they are incredibly intolerant and spewing hate.” Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” endorsed Trump after the failed assassination attempt on the former president in July, and has since donated tens of millions of dollars to his campaign. He has repeatedly expressed concern about what he describes as increasing censorship in the US, as well as an overbearing bureaucracy that prevents any meaningful action. Meanwhile, Trump has vowed to create a Musk-led government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government if he returns to the White House.

Read more …

“The left’s ideas have failed and failed spectacularly, and all they have left is cheating.” Elizabeth Nickson.

Surprise, Surprise! (James Howard Kunstler)

Of course, there’s no “pandemic” this time to cover for the trip that the Party of Chaos wants to lay on the country, no excuse for gross and glaring ballot fuckery, for the days of anxious uncertainty following an election. Everybody and his uncle expect a gigantic tantrum to follow November 6 if Mr. Trump somehow overcomes the tide of bogus harvested votes, illegal alien votes, phantom overseas votes, voting machine swapped votes, lost-and-found votes, last-minute rafts of votes, and other products of the Marc Elias election sabotage machine. I am not so sure that the tantrum will materialize. Despite the orgy of Orwellian language inversions you have been subjected to in recent years, and the bending of reality it induced, you will know a real insurrection if you see it. You already know the real reason the Democratic Party went insane: its crime spree against the citizens of this land was so obvious and outrageous that a thousand Beltway bureaucrats are now going crazy in fear of prosecution.

The tantrum everyone expects them to provoke would be a real insurrection and they are liable to find themselves in even deeper trouble for resorting to it. Crime is the whole reason for the Democrats’ desperation. There was no “policy” the past four years, only crime. The Covid operation was a mass murder. The open border was not something that just happened, like a spell of bad weather. It was a colossal racketeering operation. They worked it hard. “Joe Biden” paid dozens of NGO cut-outs to systematically jam more than ten million sketchy interlopers into the country, and then support them lavishly with cash payments when they got here. The political prosecutions of AG Merrick Garland are gauche and lawless. The pervasive censorship by DHS and other agencies is an affront to our constitution. The transgender campaign is a malicious prank against American children (and their parents).

Our CIA may be a party to the fentanyl crisis. The war in Ukraine is a failed resource-grab, unbelievably stupid in inception. “Joe Biden’s” empty treasury is writing trillions in IOUs to stealthily bail out the banks and jack-up the stock market. Everything about our government has become criminal and those responsible for it know they are bound for a reckoning now. Will the Democrats’ Antifa street-army be allowed to terrorize the cities? I expect the remaining cops not de-funded in DC, New York, Chicago, and LA won’t hold back this time, no matter what mayors Muriel Bowser, Eric Adams, Brandon Johnson, and Karen Bass tell them to do. You will instead see the return of something that has been missing for years: a sense of duty to public safety and the common good. Won’t that be a surprise? And there will be nothing that the FBI can do about. It’s one thing to incite a riot among a mob of ordinary middle-aged folks moiling around the US Capitol. It’s another thing to try to subvert the police in carrying out their duties. New heroes will emerge and there will be no ambiguity about what happens.

Black Lives Matter had already been outed as a lowlife money-grubbing hustle. But the Democratic Party may no longer depend on its old “plantation” field-hands to stage mostly peaceful anarchy and arson if the election goes the wrong way for the masters. Forty years of pretending to be an oppositional culture hasn’t worked. It was just minstrelsy updated, when all was said and done. Too many black men are rising up to speak out in support of Donald Trump, and of one America, and of acting like men. They appear to be tired of self-stigmatizing as designated victims in the Woke-Jacobin DEI psychodrama. A new generation of black male leaders is emerging to replace embarrassing con artists like Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson, and Ibram X. Kendi. It’s been a long time coming.

Read more …

“..while the Democrats accuse Trump of planning to use the military on the American people, the government is already making moves to do just that..”

Alex Jones Issues Terrifying Post-Election Prediction (VF)

He forecasts that once Trump becomes president, “Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and all these Islamic hordes that are allied with the left” will “engage in massive civil unrest.” The possibility is certainly real. And this scenario becomes even more terrifying when you realize that Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) is working on a bill to cripple Trump’s ability to respond to civil unrest. Specifically, Blumenthal is introducing legislation to limit unchecked presidential authority under the Insurrection Act ahead of Trump’s forecasted victory. What the bill means, if passed, is that Trump will be severely handicapped in the face of widespread violence and unrest. Blumenthal’s legislation is designed to handcuff the president by requiring approval from Congress before the military can be deployed to deal with domestic threats.

Adding to the possibility of civil unrest, Bill Gates, the man who seems to always financially profit when disaster happens, said in 2022 that America’s “political polarization may bring it all to an end.” He predicted that at some point, “We’re going to have a hung election and a civil war.” The trigger to civil unrest could be the election, of course. However, Alex Jones warned that an incident like the one we saw with George Floyd in 2020 could be exploited again to spark widespread riots. Jones pointed out that while the Democrats accuse Trump of planning to use the military on the American people, the government is already making moves to do just that. Adding to all the things that can go wrong is U.S. Department of Defense Directive 5240.01, which is an absolute nightmare.

What that directive does is that it gives the DoD the power to step in and use lethal force within U.S. borders, even against its own citizens, when it deems lives are at risk. Don’t want to wear a mask? You’re putting lives at risk. Lethal force could technically be used against you. Don’t want to take a vaccine? The same story exists. The potential for abuse is limitless here. The scope of this authority is chilling because the directive specifically states that the decision to use lethal force only needs the Secretary of Defense’s approval. Once lethal force is approved, anything can happen. For years, Alex Jones warned about martial law and domestic military control, and now we’re seeing that terrifying scenario unfold right before our eyes.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1848122086826606881

Read more …

“Only 31 percent express a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media. Adults with no trust at all in the media is greater at 36 percent. In the 1970s, trust in the media ranged from 68 percent to 72 percent.”

A Citizen Journalist Wins Key Reversal for New Media (Turley)

This week, there was a little-noticed order out of the Supreme Court that decided a narrow legal question with much great implications for journalism. The justices tossed a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that barred a lawsuit by Priscilla Villarreal. Known online as La Gordiloca (loosely translated as “the fat, crazy lady”), Villareal is part of a growing number of new media journalists. At a time when the public is rejecting legacy or mainstream media, the case is the latest reminder of a rising force of citizen journalists. Technically, the court instructed the lower courts to review the case in light of the recent decision in Gonzalez v. Trevino. That decision relaxed the standards for citizens suing over retaliatory arrests. Villareal was not just a citizen but a citizen journalist who claimed to be performing the same newsgathering functions as conventional journalists.

Villarreal had alleged that she was arrested for seeking and obtaining nonpublic information from police as a journalist — the identity of a person who had killed himself — and publishing it on Facebook. The Fifth Circuit ruled that the police could claim immunity from the lawsuit she brought, and the justices just set that decision aside. As I discuss in my book, “The Indispensable Right, journalism is in free fall in the U.S. as citizens reject the establishment media as biased and unreliable. For years, journalism schools have taught students that they have to abandon objectivity and neutrality for advocacy. Advocacy journalism is now the norm. Former New York Times writer (and now Howard University journalism professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones has declared that “all journalism is activism.” Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle, similarly announced that “Objectivity has got to go.”

After a series of interviews with more than 75 media leaders, Leonard Downie Jr., former Washington Post executive editor, explained that objectivity is viewed as a trap and reporters “feel it negates many of their own identities, life experiences and cultural contexts, keeping them from pursuing truth in their work.” The response of the public has been to look elsewhere for news. Indeed, the mantra “Let’s Go Brandon!” was embraced by millions as a criticism of the media as much as it was a criticism of President Biden. Recently, the new Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis was brought into the paper to stop a collapsing readership and revenue. He told the staff, “Let’s not sugarcoat it…We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right? I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”

They are, however, reading “the stuff” of figures like La Gordiloca, who is described as “a tattooed one-woman mobile newsroom who, until the coronavirus lockdown, often broadcast live while driving her car.” Her following on Facebook is now larger than her local newspaper. The New York Times described how La Gordiloca “reflects how many people on the border now prefer to get their news.” The paper admitted that she is is a “swearing muckraker who is upending border journalism.” New media journalists are more H.L. Mencken or sometimes even Hunter S. Thompson but they are viewed as more authentic and independent. Millions of Americans now get their news from social media and blogs. Various traditional media outlets have either closed or are fighting for their existence. What they are not doing is seriously questioning their course in adopting advocacy journalism.

Journalism has become a ship of fools who increasingly write for each other rather than the dwindling numbers of actual readers. And they have written off half of the country with their plunge into advocacy journalism. As a consequence, many have come to view mainstream media as a de facto state media. Today, over half of U.S. adults (54 percent) say they get news from social media. Only 27 percent now rely on TV as their first choice with only 6 percent preferring radio and only 5 percent preferring print. The recent polling figures from Gallup show how much harm this generation of editors and reporters has done to the field. Trust in the media is at an all-time low, continuing a consistent decline. Only 31 percent express a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media. Adults with no trust at all in the media is greater at 36 percent. In the 1970s, trust in the media ranged from 68 percent to 72 percent.

Turley

Read more …

He wants a bonus, but: “..the plaintiff had argued against Twitter paying the bonus while he was under employment with the firm..”

Court Denies Class Action Status for Lawsuit Against Twitter (ET)

A California court dismissed class action certification for a lawsuit filed by a former employee that accused Twitter of not paying laid off workers bonuses that were allegedly promised. Mark Schobinger, the plaintiff, was Twitter’s senior director of compensation during 2022–23, a time when the company was in the process of being acquired by Elon Musk, according to an Oct. 16 order issued by the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. At the time, Schobinger was a member of a group of employees eligible to receive annual bonuses in early 2023. However, the company was under no obligation to pay, a fact that is “undisputed” under the terms of the bonus, the order noted. Paying the bonus was “a matter of discretion” for the firm. Schobinger alleged that the company promised employees in April, May, and August of 2022 that it would pay the bonus provided the workers stayed with the firm throughout the acquisition.

The plaintiff claimed he did stay during this phase because of the promise. He filed the lawsuit after not getting paid, and sought class certification. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria denied Schobinger’s motion, noting he is unfit to act as a class representative. The judge pointed out that the plaintiff had argued against Twitter paying the bonus while he was under employment with the firm. In November 2022, months after Twitter’s bonus promise, Schobinger sent a message to the company’s “Head of People Experience,” stating that whether to pay the bonus was purely dependent on the “discretion” of Musk. Schobinger also wrote that he recommended not to pay the bonus. In February 2023, the plaintiff sent a “white paper” to several executives on the issue, stating that “not paying a bonus would be prudent.” Evidence also points to Schobinger telling Musk in a meeting a month earlier that the firm need not pay the bonus, the order stated.

These statements make Schobinger “not an adequate class representative,” Chhabria wrote. “At his deposition, Schobinger offered a convoluted explanation for how he could possibly have believed he was entitled to the bonus while simultaneously advocating that the company not pay it. It seems likely that Schobinger’s explanation is untrue,” the judge said. “But even if he is telling the truth, that’s beside the point for purposes of this motion. Because even if he is telling the truth, his conduct makes him the worst possible candidate to serve as a litigation representative for the other Twitter employees who didn’t get a bonus.” The court also highlighted a major issue with the motion—a “large number” of proposed class members signed arbitration agreements with Twitter, some of which also waived off class action lawsuits against the company.

Read more …

“In Russian diplo-speak, “restraint” means “Russia will not intervene if you do your worst”.

Russian “Restraint” Towards Assassination of Arab Leaders (Helmer)

The Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was murdered on October 20, 2011, and to mark the thirteenth anniversary of his death, the Russian Foreign Ministry received Qaddafi’s daughter, Aisha Qaddafi, in Moscow on Friday. This is the first open meeting in Russia between high-ranking Russian officials and the Qaddafi family. The political significance was buried in the communiqué. “On October 18, the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Mikhail Bogdanov received Libyan public figure and artist Aisha Gaddafi, who is in Moscow in connection with the opening of an exhibition of her paintings at the State Museum of the East. During the conversation, issues of further strengthening historically friendly Russian-Libyan ties in the scientific, cultural and educational spheres were discussed.

At the same time, the Russian side confirmed its unchanged position in support of achieving Libyan national accord in the interests of ensuring the unity, territorial integrity and state sovereignty of Libya.” The official reason for Aisha Qaddafi’s visit to Moscow to open the exhibition of her paintings omitted that the paintings are in memory of her father, brother and other members of her family assassinated by the US and its proxies in Libya. “I show these works for the first time to honour my father and my brother on the anniversary of their deaths,” Qaddafi said in Moscow. “I can tell you that these pictures are painted not with my hand but with my heart.” Assassination of Qaddafi had been a secret US Government policy during the Carter Administration and then an open policy of the Reagan Administration.

Assassination of the Arabs of Palestine, including the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, is the open policy of the current US and Israeli governments. In this context, the unofficial reason for Aisha Qaddafi’s visit to Moscow is that the Russian Foreign Ministry is signaling its opposition to this decades-old US and Israeli policy. The signal also hints through several years of rumour and disinformation at fresh Russian support – that means armed protection – for Saif Qaddafi’s campaign to become the end-of-civil war president of Libya. “If the Libyans choose a strong president,” Saif told the New York Times in 2021, “the only thing is a strong president. That’s it. The Libyans will choose a strong one. Everything will be solved automatically.”

Read more …

“Allegations of Pyongyang supplying soldiers and equipment to Russia were originally raised by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky last week..”

EU Troops Could Be Deployed To Ukraine – Politico (RT)

The EU should return to the idea of putting boots on the ground in Ukraine, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has argued in a statement to Politico. The diplomat insisted that Brussels should revive talks about deploying EU forces in Ukraine in response to reports of North Korean ammunition and soldiers supposedly taking part in the hostilities on the side of Russia. “If information about Russia’s killing squads being equipped with North Korean ammunition and military personnel is confirmed, we have to get back to ‘boots on the ground’ and other ideas proposed by Emmanuel Macron,” Landsbergis told the outlet. Allegations of Pyongyang supplying soldiers and equipment to Russia were originally raised by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky last week and have been seconded by South Korea.

However, neither the US nor NATO has yet been able to confirm any of these reports, while Moscow has dismissed the speculations as a “bogus story.” Meanwhile, Macron’s continued refusal to rule out the potential deployment of French troops to Ukraine has repeatedly been criticized by other EU leaders who have argued that such a move would lead to a serious escalation of the conflict. At the same time, Brussels is reportedly considering the possibility of deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine after the conflict has ended, Politico has said. Washington’s former ambassador to Japan, Kenneth Weinstein, has told the outlet that such a move would show that the EU still has “skin in the game.”

“If there is going to be a DMZ [demilitarized zone] between Ukraine and Russia, my suggestion would be to have it manned by EU troops — not NATO troops, and not U.S. troops,” the former diplomat, who is now chairman to the Hudson Institute, a conservative DC-based think tank, told the outlet. One EU lawmaker, who chose to remain anonymous, has also confirmed to Politico that the question of European peacekeepers in Ukraine “will come up” after the conflict is over. Moscow has repeatedly warned against the deployment of Western forces to Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed that such a move could lead to a “serious conflict in Europe and a global conflict.”

Read more …

“..over the weekend the Pentagon refused to back the reports, with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin explaining that he can’t confirm this narrative..”

Pentagon Pours Cold Water On Claim Of North Korean Troops In Ukraine (ZH)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has of late begun pushing hard new accusations that at least 10,000 North Korean troops are being sent to Ukraine where they will fight on behalf of the Russians. South Korea’s spy agency had also backed Zelensky’s claim, chiming in on Friday to say that at least 1,500 North Korean special forces have already been sent. The spy agency says it has satellite images tracking these movements. But over the weekend the Pentagon refused to back the reports, with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin explaining that he can’t confirm this narrative. “I’ve seen those reports in the media. I can’t confirm those reports at this point in time. This is something that we will certainly continue to investigate,” Austin said Sunday.

Zelensky has been pushing the idea that the ‘enemies’ of the West have formed an axis to fight in Ukraine and ultimately push back NATO. He’s identified them as Russia, Iran, and North Korea. He’s touted this curiously alongside desperate pleas for more urgent funding and weaponry from his Western backers. Kiev has especially sought long-range weapons for use inside Russian territory. As an example of this, Zelensky said in a weekend video address, “Now we have clear evidence that people are being supplied to Russia from North Korea, and these are not just workers for industries, but also military personnel. And we expect a normal, honest, strong reaction from our partners to this.” He followed by emphasizing, “In fact, this is another state joining the war against Ukraine.”

But not even NATO leadership is backing these assertions. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte recently said there’s no evidence of an influx of North Korean troops into the conflict. “At this moment, our official position is that we cannot confirm reports that North Koreans are actively now as soldiers engaged in the war effort,” he stated. Some video clips of unknown context, origin or location have circulated online in the past days, purporting to show North Korean troops being outfitted by Russia’s military before battle. Pundits have described one circulating video as showing a base in Russia’s eastern Primorye region, which shares a small border with North Korea, incredibly far away from front lines in Ukraine.

Read more …

“..there should be a “full-fledged counterweight” to the US, such as during the time of the USSR..”

Medvedev Warns Of ‘Total War’ (RT)

The US must abandon its ambitions of “world domination” or risk a war which could lead to the “complete extermination” of humanity, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned on Monday. According to Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, Washington’s goal is “domination over the Old World, as well as over the rest of the world.” However, this policy is merely leading to the “weakening and humiliation of the West, including Europe” within the framework of the modern multipolar global order, Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel. The official issued the post in the context of the upcoming BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan, which is set to kick off on Tuesday. Medvedev argued that the world needs a balance of powers rather than a dominant one, meaning there should be a “full-fledged counterweight” to the US, such as during the time of the USSR.

The development of BRICS as a global power, as well as the growth of similar regional unions and the comprehensive development of relations with the countries of the Global South, are signs that such a balance is already in the making, Medvedev argued. “After all, the alternative to such a balance of power is a total war leading to the complete extermination of humanity,” the senior official warned. A world without balance in today’s conditions will not last even a decade. If the West does not realize this simple truth, it is the end for everyone. And this is not a situation where the death of some will mean the victory of others. Medvedev was Russian president from 2008 to 2012, before serving as prime minister until 2020. He is well known for his hardline stance on the Ukraine conflict and the West’s sanctions policy against Russia. He has also accused the US of pursuing a “global neocolonialism” agenda.

BRICS, which is widely seen as a rival to the G7 group of countries, is holding its 16th annual summit later this week. Initially founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, it now consists of nine countries, including South Africa, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and the UAE, representing about 46% of the world’s population and over 36% of global GDP, according to estimates by global financial institutions. Many analysts have suggested that the rapid development of the group signals that the Western monopoly over the international system is over, and that the world is firmly headed toward multipolarity.

Read more …

“This summit could mark the beginning of the end of Western supremacy and the emergence of a new era..”

A New World Order In The Making: This BRICS Summit Will Be Special (Behanzin)

The upcoming BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia could mark a turning point in global geopolitical history. Faced with the slow erosion of the Western world order, a new balance is emerging, driven by a coalition that seems increasingly determined to chart its own course. This unique event brings together 24 heads of state from various nations, including iconic figures such as China’s Xi Jinping. The inclusion of Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in this assembly raises major questions about the current dynamics of global governance. Traditionally, the UN has been seen as a bastion of multilateralism, but its alignment with the Western powers is being called into question. This summit in Kazan could be the catalyst for a strategic repositioning, where the UN might seek to navigate between old alliances and emerging trends.

The BRICS are no longer just an economic coalition; they are asserting themselves as a viable alternative to the historical dominance of Western countries. The unipolar world, as we have known it, seems to be giving way to a multipolar era, where several emerging powers are claiming their rightful place in the global decision-making process. The Kazan summit represents an unprecedented opportunity for the BRICS to draw a new map of international cooperation. The heads of state present will discuss a multitude of issues, ranging from the economy to security, including environmental challenges. By forming strategic alliances, this group, which represents over 45% of the world’s population, seeks not only to strengthen its influence but also to offer an alternative platform for developing countries that often feel marginalized within traditional Bretton Woods institutions like the IMF or the World Bank.

These discussions could lead to agreements that, depending on their scope, might redefine the rules of the international economic game. The West, rather than standing on the sidelines, is forced to respond to the growing and increasingly popular BRICS dynamic. Western governments, which often disagree and are divided over their approaches, may be compelled to reassess their relationship with emerging market countries. The current situation is marked by growing tensions, as illustrated by the declining confidence in Western-centered institutions. The stance of NATO and European actors towards the BRICS could become the focus of heated debates, highlighting an inevitable need for adaptation.

By attending this event, Guterres is likely illustrating the UN’s desire to revitalize its role in a changing world. His intervention could underscore the growing importance of South-South dialogue, and exchanges aimed at establishing cooperative partnerships that transcend the usual divides. [..] Multilateralism, as it was conceived after World War II, is facing a period of uncertainty. Established institutions struggle to effectively address contemporary challenges such as climate change, growing inequality, and governance crises. The BRICS summit could offer a new vision of multilateralism, more inclusive and adapted to current realities. This model could create synergies among the countries of the Global South, proposing an alternative to the rigidities of the current Western framework.

The future looks fascinating with the BRICS summit in Kazan. This is not just a series of diplomatic discussions but a laboratory for forging a new global architecture. As the West may witness a redistribution of power in international affairs, the developing countries, represented by the BRICS, are taking the reins of this transformation. This summit could mark the beginning of the end of Western supremacy and the emergence of a new era where the voice of the Global South is finally heard. The events in Kazan thus promise to have lasting repercussions on how we conceive the world order in the decades to come.

Read more …

‘Not an Anti-Western Group, Just a Non-Western Group’

Date With Destiny – BRICS Offers Hope in a Time of War (Pepe Escobar)

This is it. A date with destiny. All set for the most crucial geopolitical/geoeconomic gathering of the year and arguably the decade: the BRICS Summit under the Russian presidency in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, where Sunni Tatars coexist in perfect harmony with Orthodox Christians. All the excruciating work by sherpas and analysts throughout 2024 – supervised by the lead Russian diplomat in charge of BRICS, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov – converged to three final, separate key meetings in Moscow before the summit, grouping BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors, working groups, and the Business Council. All that in a context that is now familiar for the Global Majority. The combined GDP of the current BRICS nations is over $60 trillion, way ahead of the G7; their average growth rate by the end of this year is projected to be 4%, higher than the 3.2% global average; and the bulk of economic growth for the near future will come from BRICS member-nations.

Even before the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was stressing that BRICS is keen to bypass “politicized” Western platforms – a subtle reference to the sanctions tsunami and the weaponization of the US dollar – as BRICS work to create their own, Global Majority-friendly international payments system. The context for what will be decided in Kazan this week is no less than incandescent, as the uncontrolled chaos of the Hegemon’s Forever Wars – from Ukraine to West Asia – has even materially affected the heavy work of BRICS and the necessity to build a new international system of geoeconomic relations practically from scratch. A credible war escalation scenario may have been thwarted by the leak of secret high-level intel to the Five Eyes on the preparations by Israel-US to strike Iran. The strike will eventually happen – with dire consequences – but probably not this week, when it could have been timed to explicitly, and completely, disrupt the summit in Kazan and expel it from global headlines.

The joint statement by the BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors may not sound too adventurous, but the constraints reflect not only caution when facing a dangerous, cornered Hegemon, but internal contradictions among BRICS members. The statement recognizes “the need for a comprehensive reform of the global financial architecture to enhance the voice of developing countries and their representation.” Yet it remains clear the US has less than zero interest in a profound reform of the IMF, the World Bank and the Bretton Woods system. Russia and China, especially, are fully aware that what is needed is a post-Bretton Woods. The statement is more forceful on the BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative, dubbed BCBPI, welcoming “the use of local currencies in international trade” and “the strengthening of banking networks” to enable them. Yet everything for the moment is only “voluntary and non-binding.” Kazan is expected to give the process some edge.

Read more …

“And was there outreach to you to be part of the search committee prior to January 1, 2021?” “Absolutely..”

Fani Willis Laid Groundwork For Prosecuting Trump Before Taking Office (JTN)

House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan on Monday released the transcript of closed-door testimony from Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor hired by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to help manage her office’s Donald Trump election interference case before coming under scrutiny for his romantic-financial relationship with Willis. Wade testified that Willis was planning to prosecute Trump and began discussing a search committee to find a special prosecutor to investigate the former president prior to assuming office in January 2021. The former special prosecutor was also confronted with his own records showing that he met with White House officials, for eight hours on one occasion, though he told investigators he could not recall the details of the meetings.

Wade served on that search committee, which was instated on day one of Willis’ term in January 2021. After an unsuccessful search, Wade was ultimately invited to assume the role himself, which he claimed he reluctantly accepted. “And so the search committee, you said that began when DA Willis took office on January 1, 2021. Is that correct?” investigators asked. “Yes,” Wade replied. “And was there outreach to you to be part of the search committee prior to January 1, 2021?” “Absolutely,” he confirmed, saying the outreach began “Sometime after the election, but prior to her taking office.” The transcript of Wade’s deposition Tuesday was released by Jordan’s committee a week after the interview. The GOP-led committee subpoenaed Wade as part of an investigation into his relationship with Willis. Last year, Willis indicted Trump and 18 codefendants in Georgia over their alleged efforts to challenge the 2020 election results in the state.

Wade resigned from the case in March after a Georgia judge made his stepping aside a condition of allowing Willis to remain on the case after evidence of an improper financial and romantic relationship emerged between them. Wade also failed to recall key details about meetings with White House officials, despite recording them in his invoices to Willis’ office. According to the transcript, Wade billed Willis’ office for an eight hour meeting with White House lawyers. These meetings were reported by Just the News after court documents filed by a Trump codefendant showed Wade recorded an entry for a meeting with the White House Counsel’s office in Athens, Georgia in May 2022.

Though Wade testified that he did not remember the meeting, he told congressional investigators that “the invoice says travel to Athens. So that means to me that I traveled to Athens.” The invoices provided in the suit show at least one more meeting with Biden White House staff, on November 2022, that appears to have taken place in Washington, D.C., though there is no record of a visit by Wade in the White House visitor logs. Willis last week attempted unsuccessfully to block Wade from testifying to the committee on the grounds that it could “improperly divulge confidential information” about her investigation of the former president.

Read more …

Failures?!

Trump Assassination Probe Finds ‘Stunning’ Failures (RT)

The US Congress task force investigating the July 13 attempt on the life of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has confirmed that the Secret Service and local law enforcement did not coordinate properly. Trump was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when a bullet nicked his ear. One rally-goer was killed and two more seriously injured before the Secret Service neutralized the attacker on the roof of a nearby factory. “Put simply, the evidence obtained by the Task Force to date shows the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened,” said the preliminary report published by the bipartisan body on Monday. The 53-page document contained eight main findings, starting with the lack of planning and coordination between the Secret Service and local law enforcement.

The factory roof from which Thomas Crooks opened fire was not included in the security perimeter, despite having “clear sight lines to the stage, and elevated position,” the report said. Local officers posted inside the building did not secure the complex or the roof, believing their job was just “overwatch” of the rally site. The Secret Service and local police had separate command posts and did not have a shared radio channel, the report said. This created gaps in communication which Crooks was able to slip through. A member of Congress with a law enforcement background who investigated the site in early August suggested that the FBI investigators may have destroyed evidence in the case by scrubbing the roof and allowing Crooks’ body to be cremated before the autopsy results were made available.

The Butler County Coroner’s office released the remains to Crooks’ family after the FBI said no additional evidence was necessary, the new report said. According to the autopsy, Crooks died of a single gunshot wound to the head, presumably inflicted by a Secret Service counter-sniper. He managed to fire eight shots prior to that, however, and may have stopped only after a local police officer shot at him. The coroner did not find evidence of alcohol or drugs in Crooks’ blood, but did find traces of antimony, selenium, and lead.

The new report also clarifies that Crooks did not use a ladder to get to the top of the building, but climbed using the outside air conditioning unit. The ladder seen in the photos after the incident was placed there by local police afterward to let investigators access the roof. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned ten days after the Butler shooting. The House of Representatives task force consists of both Republicans and Democrats and has been charged with investigating both the Butler incident and the thwarted ambush at Trump’s Florida golf course in September. Their final report is due December 13, well after the presidential election.

Read more …

“..before Marvel Studios’ costume department comes knocking on the door of the EU clown tent to ask for their capes back..”

The EU Doesn’t Need Moscow To Interfere In Its Democracy (Marsden)

The EU superheroes did it, guys. They stopped Russian President Vladimir Putin from being elected to Brussels. And now they’re telling us all about how they did it, before Marvel Studios’ costume department comes knocking on the door of the EU clown tent to ask for their capes back. The Russians and their “disinformation” didn’t have any impact on the European Elections earlier this year. That’s now the official word from the EU itself. Vera Jourova, the Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, has emerged from an Orwellian novel to announce that “based on currently available information, no major information interference operation capable of disrupting the elections was recorded.” So much for the public freak out that European parliamentarians were having back in April 2024, demanding even more censorship of “Kremlin-backed media outlets” and “disinformation campaigns” in what they qualified as “Kremlin-backed attempts to interfere with and undermine European democratic processes.”

We’re supposed to believe that it’s all because Jourova had embarked on a crackdown, er, “Democracy Tour” to commiserate not just with election officials and authorities, but also with “civil society” NGOs, industry, and media. Surely it has nothing to do with the fact that there wasn’t really much disinformation to begin with and that they’ve been blowing the issue way out of proportion. Jourova herself acknowledged that even the EU’s Digital Media Observatory was only able to find between 4% to 8% of what they qualify as “disinformation” among all articles analyzed between May 2023 and March 2024, and that the figure climbed to just 15% in May 2024, right before the EU’s June election. This means that around EU election time, a whopping 85% of information and analysis floating around in the public domain was EU-approved.

Jourova said that “disinformation narratives followed the topics we expected: there were allegations that the elections are rigged, but mostly topics that trigger a strong emotional impact – the war on Ukraine, the Middle East, false narratives on climate change, and migrants.” We used to call those things topics of debate. But that was before they decided that the agendas Brussels was trying to ram down everyone’s throats across the entire bloc wouldn’t be served by messy democratic dissent. Best to just dismiss, marginalize, or censor opposing information and narratives and be forced to deal with being violently mugged by reality later on issues like Ukraine’s not actually “winning,” regardless of how expensive life has become for EU citizens as a result of the bloc’s suicidal pro-Ukraine policies, and migration being an actual five-alarm problem for the EU as it faces the palpable rise of populism backlash for not doing enough earlier.

And the EU elections are certainly not rigged! The people elect representatives to EU parliament, then a ‘president’ is handpicked behind closed doors and plopped in front of them for a simple yes/no confirmation vote. That person, currently ‘Queen’ Ursula von der Leyen, who has never actually been elected to the EU parliament, then runs a ‘royal’ European Commission of bureaucratic desk jockeys that crafts and dictates policy for the entire bloc. Anyone calling this anything other than a model democratic institution must be a Russian agent.

Read more …

“..interest payments on the national debt. These payments hit $882 billion in FY 2024, the Treasury report says. That’s a 35% jump from last year..”

US Interest Payments Top Defense Spending For First Time In History (I&I)

“SUNNY HOSTIN: Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years? KAMALA HARRIS: There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of — and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.”

On Friday, the Treasury Department released a report showing the kind of impact Harris is talking about. If nothing else does, it should cost her the election. The latest monthly Treasury report shows spending and revenues for the full fiscal year 2024, which ended in September. Among the terrible results: The federal deficit topped $1.8 trillion in 2024 — the third highest in history and eclipsed only by the two COVID-19 panic spending years. That’s not for lack of revenues, which were up by nearly half a trillion dollars this year. Spending under Biden-Harris this fiscal year climbed more than $617 billion – a 10% increase.

But the real shocker is the explosive growth in interest payments on the national debt. These payments hit $882 billion in FY 2024, the Treasury report says. That’s a 35% jump from last year. And it’s $8 billion more than we spent on National Defense. This marks the first time in our nation’s history that interest on the debt has exceeded defense spending. And the gap is on track to rapidly widen – with the government spending $200 billion more in interest than in protecting America from her enemies by 2029. Why the massive run-up in interest costs? Blame Harris’ tie-breaking votes (something for which she routinely brags). Because of them, Biden-Harris added trillions in new spending at a time when the economy had already fully recovered from the COVID-19 panic. That sparked a huge increase in inflation, which in turn drove up interest rates. More debt and higher interest rates meant a sharp increase in the cost of financing that debt.

How do we know Biden and Harris are to blame? Before they took office, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected net interest payments for the next decade, based on the policies that Donald Trump had in place. The CBO said that, had Biden not spent us to the poorhouse, interest payments on the national debt this year would have been only $284 billion. In other words, Harris and her tie-breaking votes are responsible for a 210% increase in interest costs this year alone. What would Kamala Harris do about this terrible state of affairs if she were elected president? No one has bothered to ask her. But we do know that she wants to do exactly what she and Biden have already done: add trillions of dollars of inflationary spending, impose economically ruinous tax hikes, and pile on still more growth-killing regulations. Harris is right about one thing. It is time to turn the page — before it’s too late.

Read more …

“..up to 39 million deaths around the world by 2050 due to antibiotic-resistant pathogens..”

German Doctors Alarmed At Growing Failures Of Antibiotics – Bild (RT)

The world risks going back to the era before the discovery of penicillin, German doctors have cautioned, pointing to the rise in antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Penicillin, discovered in the late 1920s, extended the human lifespan by up to 30 years by countering most bacterial infections, according to the outlet Bild. All of that progress is now reportedly in peril. “We are currently losing the achievements of modern medicine and falling back into the time before the discovery of penicillin,” Mathias Pletz, head of the Paul Ehrlich Society for Infection Therapy, told Bild. “Antibiotics were the greatest achievement of medicine ever,” said Professor Yvonne Mast, a microbiologist and researcher at the Leibniz Institute in Braunschweig. “The fact that more and more resistance is now emerging and new antibiotics are lacking is a major threat.”

The German outlet quoted a study that estimated up to 39 million deaths around the world by 2050 due to antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Such infections already account for 35,000 deaths in the EU every year. According to Professor Frank Brunkhorst of the Jena University Hospital, one of the reasons is that doctors overprescribe antibiotics for outpatient procedures. For example, antibiotics are useless against almost all respiratory infections, which are caused by viruses. “Second, many resistant germs are coming to us due to international travel, which is booming again after [Covid],” Brunkhorst said, pointing to resistant strains “especially in countries like Greece, Portugal, Turkiye, but also in India and other Asian countries.” He warned Germans returning from vacations that the germs they bring back could be “life-threatening” to their grandparents.

The medical industry has been slow to develop new antibiotics because the research is too long and too expensive, while the profits are too low, according to Professor Mast. Only 12 new medications have been approved since 2017, she said. Only one in 5,000 substances reaches market maturity, the development period is anywhere from 8-15 years, and R&D costs can range up to $2 billion, according to Mast. She urged more funding for research and faster approvals, noting that China has already overtaken Germany in this field. “It is a huge task for politicians to bring antibiotic production back to Germany and Europe. Today, not a single drug is manufactured here anymore; everything comes from India or China. And we are dependent on it,” said Professor Brunkhorst.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

KY/NC
https://twitter.com/i/status/1848109522230837705

 

 

NC

 

 

Starship

 

 

Summer’s day

 

 

Owls

 

 

Waterfall

 

 

Deep
https://twitter.com/i/status/1848386780409823724

 

 

Rube Goldberg
https://twitter.com/i/status/1848237891765354548

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle October 22 2024

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 55 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #172131

    Floris van Schooten Still-Life with Glass, Cheese, Butter and Cake 1st half 17th century   • Musk Fires Back At Der Spiegel Over ‘Enemy No. 2’ Cl
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle October 22 2024]

    #172135
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Just a reminder that Mark Zuckerberg spent $400 million on the 2020 election. They had no problem with big tech influence on the election until Elon backed Trump.

    Bread and circuses. Nobody has a problem with it, they are all playing their roles.

    #172136
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Donald Trump is probably the current biggest threat to the free world. His buddy Musk [is] at least public enemy number two..

    Kind of agree with this statement, but not to the free world, the USA has not been free for a long time, to prove it try supporting Palestine or try criticising Jews and you will see there is no “free”. Trump and Musk are pulling corporate into government through the front door. RFK Jr is just a role play, some of the nonsense he comes out is plain ridiculous, fairytale land. The money behind Trump and Musk will take over government and the people will be cheering them on. It is sad to see such an obvious coup, but they are taking over a failed state that is only existing because of financial legacy, a legacy that will disappear as soon as the alternatives are ready.

    #172137
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    The Great RFK Jr. Bamboozle Of 2024: A Brief History

    The tl;dr of this horse-pill of an article is that RFK Jr. is a clownish schmuck with no real moral center, and that the vaunted Kennedy legacy doesn’t really deserve to be all that vaunted.

    #172138
    tboc
    Participant

    size of Space X vehicle
    Travel to Cape Canaveral and have a look at the vehicle assembly building.
    How many launches will be necessary to place the infrastructure necessary to bring human beings back from Mars? How many launches will be necessary to place materials required for a stay by human beings on Mars?

    Trump at McDonalds was a stunt.
    Find pictures of FDR in his wheelchair.
    after this experiment let your heart go a flutter again about SpaceX

    Try to reassure me that human beings who are either Roman Catholic or are Islam are going to vote for pedophiles and homosexuals or those who promoted those agendas. The undocumented know the United States well enough to know, take the money and do what you will. All of these recent immigrants know they will be abandoned after the election, they were used in their native lands and they know they will be used here in the United States.

    I hear Steve Miller Band singing about Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue

    the DARPA and CIA programs of remote sensing and viewing are considerably more successful than realized. Talk to anyone one in the US. These are people who are more than plain clairvoyant, To describe the situation in more mundane terms, they just know shit.

    #172139
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Report: Even Dominion Machines Refusing To Vote For Kamala” –BBee

    “Scott Ritter seems to be one step behind events, but maybe he just can’t acknowledge the seismographic data. SCOTT RITTER: Iran’s Bomb Is Real — And It’s Here”

    No, that is categorically false. He is following the data and is very clear on it. I guess that’s what happens when you bother to put yourself out there and actually TRY to do something by going on public radio tours rather than complaining on the internet.

    Key fact: Maybe the seismic signature is like a nuclear test – maybe – however, it’s TEN MILES DOWN. The deepest normal holes are only 5 miles down, and that is already incredibly deep. Now you’re telling me, they stopped building and testing nukes, because they were busy inventing a whole new technology ahead of Exxon Mobil, to dig an extra 5 miles, for what exactly? Okay, fine. Maybe somebody is misreporting this so we can have options. IF Iran DID do this, then Israel has said they HAVE to nuke Iran. If we just report they didn’t, with deniability, then there are choices.

    So part two, Ritter DID say they already had a nuke. Go listen. But it goes like this: a standard Big Boy is 100 year old tech now. They don’t need to run centrifuges, they could have long bought material from anywhere, OR just got a working nuke from Pakistan, NoKo. In 1996 Soviet collapse they could have bought 10 nukes, the West made sure there was no weapons security there for years. So the idea they couldn’t is silly. BUT: Iran has been excruciatingly careful to show via weapons inspection and put out a Fatwa that they do NOT have one. How for both? Well, you make the two or three parts, don’t test or assemble them, and have them sitting around. They don’t technically have a whole, working car. However, we can bolt the two halves of the car together in a week if you make us.

    This is EXACTLY what all of us – you and I – would do in their situation. And that’s exactly what Ritter reported. So Consortium News, you are required to CALL people you’re reporting on, on the “Telephone”, and ask. Or send them a telegram via morse code. Or a letter on parchment with a feather pen. You did not, AND you didn’t bother to listen to the last 10 interviews he gave on it.

    So: HAS that red line been crossed? Show me. And would it MATTER if it had been crossed? And what give you the right to set up ANY red lines, EVER, in other people’s countries? So basically, this is a “We control everything” / ”Do what you’re told” / “Pro Israel talking points” / “We get to decide because you are non-human non-people”. And I get pretty sick of it. So what if Iran did? Go f—k yourself. Did Iran lay a hand on you? Genocide you? They’re in the borders of their own country. Leave them alone and nothing will happen.

    “The possibility that Iran carried out a nuclear test is being discussed at high levels in Tehran”

    Two parts here: one according to “The Cradle” here they did NOT have a confirmed test. So the former article is speculation, not consensus. And also “Iran is discussing with Iran if Iran had a test?” Whut? I mean, the next half of that sentence is “Israeli threats” so maybe Tel Aviv is discussing this, but if I set off a whopper fireworks in my backyard, I’m pretty sure I’d be aware that I did that. I bought them, unwrapped them, lit the fuse and ran. I didn’t forget. …Unless there are two Irans and you’re trying to tell me something. There’s a breakaway Iran in Iran, and the two are at odds. There are a lot of news stories for decades where the only conclusion is this is true, but somebody needs to tell me because otherwise that sentence makes no sense.

    “Paul Craig Roberts, “Nuclear High-Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse”: The United States Has Zero National Security “

    While this is very serious, the results would be incredibly unpredictable and uneven. Our response is also unpredictable and uneven. You see, if you live in CITIES, like all these pin-heads do, then yes, very likely you’re screwed and you’re all going to die. Because you’re morons and easily could have kept the systems viable, but laughed and didn’t, prioritizing gay marriage instead. But if you’re NOT a moron, and immediately move to the farm to work by hand, as WWII England and incredibly likely, then it’s just a refugee suck-fest, no reason to die, in fact it would be good for us, considering. You can’t just drop 1M on the country, but also you almost certainly CAN add two people per house and have them garden the yard.

    ““He, as you know, appears to be not well. And he’s engaged in some really bizarre types of activities”

    Teenage gurl comments from the party of women. “Donny’s like…so…uncool. He didn’t even ask me to the dance.” “Hyuh. Totally.”

    Of COURSE it’s a stunt, and a fun one, although agree mixed messaging with “Make America Healthy”, which only shows they don’t take it too seriously aren’t going to stick a gun up your nose to eat broccoli, and aren’t going to outlaw meat like their competitors. …Who are also fine with McDonalds existing as long as they serve bugs.

    “And that’s what I did. I didn’t need a bill; I just closed the borders.”

    This is true because THERE’S ALREADY A LAW. That’s why the crossers are “Illegals”. Because…follow along with me here…they broke the law.

    “Trump calls out the coup and says Kamala Harris should be investigated for it!”

    Yes, but you need to define terms, and stop going so loosey that it’s parallel to a lie. To “Coup” you’d have to remove Biden. He is not removed. Therefore in the usual A ≠ A #AntiLogos fashion, Biden is BOTH President AND not-President. Right? Just like Pope is also Not-Pope, election is also not-election that was investigated ≠ not-investigated in court. Back and back 10, 20 years since they first discovered this.

    Okay, so Biden then IS the President. …But you all said he’s incompetent and coup’d him, when we say that, you don’t protest. So you’re derelict of duty because now you admitted you KNOW this, and did NOT “coup” (25A) him. And so WHO’S RUNNING THE COUNTRY? Whoever it is, that’s then illegal. It’s Kamala? She’s on the campaign. She LITERALLY can’t do that, VPs have zero legal power. It’s Jill? Also totally illegal? Blinken? Gray area if they’re not signing bills, but Kamala is then admitting she’s derelict of duty again.

    …None of it discussed.

    ChillPill
    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LAI8BCJtof8/VCHf_fREEQI/AAAAAAAADsg/Pqi-ozlo6WQ/s1600/crazy-pills.png

    The people are so dumb they don’t know that and don’t ask the right questions, and you’re not helping.

    “Adding to all the things that can go wrong is U.S. Department of Defense Directive 5240.01, which is an absolute nightmare.
    What that directive does is that it gives the DoD the power to step in and use lethal force within U.S. borders, even against its own citizens”

    Case in point. Hey I didn’t know we ran the country on “Directives” some guy made up in his typewriter and not by “Passing Laws” with Congress and the Presidential signature. This is all new to me.

    Apparently we’re now below the level of “Schoolhouse Rock” and don’t know what “just a bill is”? Yes, of course, because we hear the same thing about “Executive Orders” which also have zero force of law. Well, if I ask you just to do something, and you do it voluntarily, although it’s not your job and I can’t make you, am I to blame? You’re volunteering Federal time for all these Voluntary, extra-legal actions, how are you getting your actual Federal job done?

    Yes, there is more to it with Posse Comitatus, but IIRC Obama lifted that decades ago, no one noticed and nothing has happened.

    Same with the “Brunson” case: these guys never took an oath of office, may not have been elected, but if the secretary comes in, there’s an impostor in the chair and does everything he says, well, who’s to blame? I was just sitting here, not my fault you’re all idiots for obeying me.

    A dozen Trump articles, but we’re not having an election, and he’s not getting in in any usual way. He’s a mascot and doesn’t matter.

    Elon, Der Spiegel

    Well, they put all speakers and journalists in prison in good German tradition, so… Very proud and pleased to be attacked by them. If they weren’t, you’re doing something wrong.

    “Allegations of Pyongyang supplying soldiers and equipment to Russia were originally raised by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky last week..”

    So two nations supplied each other? Be still my heart. We get our uniforms from China, right? So China “supplied” us. Bomb China.

    Whaaaaaaaatttt??? And Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy? Why, what, with North Koreans? Kazakhstan is reportedly an independent nation, with Chechnya and they supply huge troops. No comments. “We Make S—t Up” Look at him!! He has a banana!” Um…yes, bananas aren’t…illegal, or strange, or…?

    Maybe finally I can understand what this is with the next line: “The EU should return to the idea of putting boots on the ground in Ukraine,”

    Ah. So IF NoKo cross-trains troops like they have probably 80 years, THEN the EU can personally invade all Ukraine and fight Russia. They added allies right? They started the world war. Right? Go ahead, I’ll watch.

    ““If there is going to be a DMZ [demilitarized zone] between Ukraine and Russia, my suggestion would be to have it manned by EU troops”

    There’s not going to be. This is how many years behind they are. So, we’re heading on three years, no NATO, no Nukes in Ukraine. And they’re FINALLY up to: Well what if they’re only in 2/3rds of the West, right up to Kiev, but not in Kherson?

    No Means No. NO you’re not going to put NATO in MOST of Ukraine, barring a few towns. Jesus Christ. They fought an entire war for this, threatening at all times to go nuclear. Nope, Denial is the strongest force field + invisibility shield known to man.

    Okay, you’re going to send the troops to enforce a 1,000-mile DMZ. Fine. WHAT troops? With WHAT armor? You don’t have enough men to have them stand around with a coffee cup in a t-shirt, much less arm them. You have no weapons and no training. What are you going to do, send a guy with a steak knife in a Citroen? (A: Yes.)

    Okay, so many level of lies I can’t keep up here. WHY would they do this? Oh, the first staff sergeant that trips in the DMZ they’ll call Article 5 and demand the United States fight it for them. They’ll sit in t-shirts with a coffee cup at home and watch us pay for it. N.O.P.E. YOu fools: you think America is Infinity + Infinity and can fight Infinity wars for you always, no questions, never asked, never checked. You’re like the wife with the checkbook.

    “The former special prosecutor was also confronted with his own records showing that he met with White House officials, for eight hours on one occasion, though he told investigators he could not recall the details of the meetings.”

    Yeah, I remember the last time I toured the White House, was there all day, invited back several times, talked to the President all day.

    …Oh wait, I don’t remember any of it. Not a word. You know, so many people, so many little league meetings, people I meet in the Dentist’s office, who can keep track of Presidents and Presidential meetings? Didn’t leave an impression.

    ““the invoice says travel to Athens. So that means to me that I traveled to Athens.”

    Also doesn’t remember if all Georgia nominated him to be Special Position of Special Prosecutor, with special pay and special duties, no longer doing his regular job. I mean, when I work at Taco Bell, President comes in, tells me I’m to be “Special Projects” guy, gives me a whole secret team in and secret base with a secret phone, like “Chuck” and you know, I’m like “Again???” You all just did this last time when I worked at Olive Garden! So…it’s all a blur, your honor. So many presidents have paid me for so many special prosecutions I can’t remember them all.

    LeviBreaks
    https://tvpre.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Chuck.jpg

    Yup! Totally plausible. And that alibi is not incriminating at all.

    Speaking of Chuck, Levi actually took a “resistance”, “Brave” stand in Hollywood and came out for Trump at the Freedom Rally. That is, all the other actors are like, “I’m so brave and fighting I sided with 99% of everyone, risking nothing, Wow!” Chuck was like, “I’m for RFK, and RFK went for Trump, so here I am at this rally, speaking up like a normal America with choices.”

    Boy the bar has gotten really low, and people still won’t dare cross it.

    Btw, Shazam was great, and ShazamII was underrated. Now IF you want to do a “diveristy”, Love, multicultural movie and not be a retard, this is the way to do it. There is a PREMISE, not that Queen Elizabeth is now black like all English people and Victorians especially are. Same with “Wrinkle in Time” There was no compelling reason Meg had to be one way or another if she played the part. So in Shazam, he’s a foster kid of like six foster kids. Therefore, mixed household. Which isn’t living on diversity, it’s living on their problems. Problems = Drama to be overcome, not Mary Sue born perfection ‘cause: Skin color. Fun script as the Shazam universe isn’t too serious.

    Also: Acktually, the Shazamverse ALWAYS had this, with Shazam girl, boy, dog (not kidding) all at once, going way back. Always been canon, not different, so this makes perfect sense.

    “The US Congress task force investigating the July 13 attempt on the life of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has confirmed that the Secret Service and local law enforcement did not coordinate properly.”

    Boy! So glad we got THAT out of the way. Whew. Back to your regular program…

    “This created gaps in communication which Crooks was able to slip through.”

    Hahahahaha! Oh wait: You’re not kidding? That wasn’t a joke?

    “single gunshot wound to the head, presumably inflicted by a Secret Service counter-sniper. He managed to fire eight shots prior to that, however, and may have stopped only after a local police officer shot at him.

    May? Might? Two months later and you haven’t even figured out and confirmed the SHOT? Maybe he wasn’t shot at all then. Aliens shot him, I guess. My story is as official as yours.

    • US Interest Payments Top Defense Spending For First Time In History (I&I)

    Joke’s on you: the interest payments are FOR the Defense spending. Net-net true. Only way we can pay twice so we grabbed it.

    Now thanks to them stealing $6-$10,000 per person we had to go out and make that money AGAIN to fill a trunk at WalMart for North Carolina. So we did it.

    And what all you smart, helpful people saying we should do instead? Shoot somebody? Get a ticket, I’m sure you’ll have no trouble getting a gun when you get here, just fly into Chicago. You’re welcome to help out. Oh, when it’s YOU you suddenly are fresh out of ideas and just realized your mommy’s calling? Alright then, leave it to us: we’ll both push these guys out AND save North Carolina AGAINST the government’s wishes. You just go ahead and watch and criticize, sounds about right.

    What I heard yesterday, with Cullom, “If you think somebody should do something, then that “somebody’ is you.” You, buddy. Get your -ss out there.

    This is what people who’ve never worked don’t realize. Don’t deal with money, capitalism is stupid, d#$% Capitalists. See that shipping hay in from Tennessee? Yeah, that ain’t free, buddy. The Hay may be free, but that’s a really expensive truck burning $100 bills of diesel in no time and has dollar per mile costs on repairs, wearing out. So that’s now REALLY expensive hay they’re donating to you. Thousands of dollars. Tens of thousands.

    Oh wait: I meant to say the hay isn’t free either. Unless you think a tractor, with a baler, all cost nothing, no diesel, no parts, didn’t cost nothing to buy that equipment, nothing to pay $6,000 in taxes for the field every year. Those are called “Costs”. It’s a way of saying “Reality exists” and are not in Marx’s academic fantasy he waves away with word by not looking at it. We account that using “money”. So $30,000 in hay equipment sitting around, the barn to store it in, baseline, PLUS gas and repairs for every minute run? Not to mention somebody having breakfast, stuffs his arm in a baler?

    Well, that’s “Capital”. Capital costs, investments, expenditures. We’ll just use a scythe. Oh WILL you now? And who pays 50 guys for three days to hay the same and NOT get it into bale form? So you’re going to put on what is essentially a wedding party, with a buffet table for 50, tents and cabins, just so we can get a little hay? Ye olde fashioned way? Doesn’t that sound “Expensive”? Like: with money? You can erase the “Money” but the food, equipment, time, still exists. Waving it away doesn’t make reality go away. I had a math problem, so I outlawed math, all better. I had a gravity problem, so I outlawed gravity, no problem.

    Yeah, we bale hay because it’s CHEAPER than getting 50 men together all week, which means that “capital’ is a net BENEFIT, allowing us to do more with less. That’s why we do it, it’s self-financing and self-amortizing, self-liquidating. We can more accurately measure and account all this by using MONEY as our measurement system, and roughly the “Cost” is equal to the parts, men, hours, food, diesel it takes to get that hay 200 miles. So can you see how it’s really expensive now, and why? That $100,000 truck is on the road and whose $100,000? Ain’t the government’s, they dgaf.

    Now my horses in Kentucky can’t eat because I shipped my hay to Carolina. Right? That’s a cost. Because “Reality Exists.”

    #172140
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “he USA has not been free for a long time, to prove it try supporting Palestine or try criticising Jews and you will see there is no “free”.

    You criticize them all day and so do I. Huh. Funny how that works.

    Same as saying all politicians are the same, there’s no democracy. That’s funny: looks like IN GERMANY, which is waaaaaay gone authoritarian, Schulz is terrified and pivoting like a windsock to save the election on the AfD/draft for Russia proposal. Soo….apparently there is SOME Democracy somewheres or he wouldn’t bother. Feurher Starmer is arresting everyone he can find because his Democracy is doing so well. If they already won, if none of it matters, why does this exist? There’d be no resistance, as you say. No one is awake, there’s no fight.

    …Yet they’re both fighting for their lives, when there’s no enemy, we all gave up, right?

    Well, carry on doing what it’s impossible to do and that nobody’s doing: criticizing everybody you feel like and having nothing happen to you, and so will I.

    …But I won’t lie about it. So you didn’t notice…YOU…exist? You didn’t notice you were criticizing WHILE you were criticizing? When you go out in the morning, are you aware you go out in the morning and like, put your pants on and stuff?

    “The tl;dr of this horse-pill of an article is that RFK Jr. is a clownish schmuck with no real moral center, and that the vaunted Kennedy legacy doesn’t really deserve to be all that vaunted.”

    IS he though? Does he? “A guy said.” Wow, okay then, a lifelong lawyer suing the crap out of drug and environmental companies, what you been doing the last 20 years? Watching Netflix?

    Yeah and in the above we just re-pointed that Carter called for the Secret assassination of world leaders, no UN, no trial. So no wonderful, peace-loving Carter. (duh) You go sit in the chair, ACT, and tell me how it goes, okay? “Well I was sitting here on my couch and said ‘Why can’t you just catch the ball’ you bums!!” Go do it. Write me a letter. Tell me all about it.

    Speaking of, the latest bottom-of-the-barrel smear on RFK, is he was sexting a girlfriend of his and said he wanted to make her pregnant. Wow. So…over the top. SEX-ting. As in: Sex. Yes, that sex, honest. Well, with a record like that, never be President now! If only he said he’d kill an at-birth baby he’d be fine. HOW DARE HE? Ladies: SEX-ting your boyfriend, he says he wants you to have his children, shocking, out of left field? Or what? I mean who has sex thinking pregnancy might be related? That’s just crazy and disturbing, whut.

    Yup, that’s where we are now. ALL humans, in ALL recorded history, in ALL nations, of ALL cultures who ever were, even up to 2001, would say we are completely insane, disturbed, deranged, pointless, feckless retards. And they’d all be right.

    #172141
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    .
    .
    ..

    #172142
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .
    .
    .
    .

    #172143
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #172144
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Happy Halloween!
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    Pedo Jo-jo Poop Pants

    Stage Left

    .

    #172145
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #172146
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Another Happy Halloween!

    Two in one morning!
    .
    .
    .

    #172147
    Oroboros
    Participant

    For the Big Halloween Party this year I’m goin’ as a Woketard!
    .
    .
    .

    #172148
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Public Enemy Number One

    .

    #172149
    Oroboros
    Participant

    More Halloween Joy

    .
    .
    .
    .

    #172150
    Oroboros
    Participant

    More Costume Possibilities

    .


    Woke College Grads, a Dime a Dozen just like donut holes!

    .

    #172151
    oxymoron
    Participant

    So the Appalachians. The devastation is heavily congested in waterways. In a MASSIVE catchment. So you know
    2+2 = 4.
    Rain and catchment plus annual and seasonal variability (plus weather modification). The problem with non-indigenous cultures is they have not had the long time lessons. Like – go there. Fish there. Hunt there. Drink there. Do not build your house there.
    This stuff is covered in Mollisons Designers manual. In fire country do not build on steep slopes at the top of a hill.
    Anyway – they will work it out but why oh why do pioneers never ask the brownies? Hey should we build a road next to a creek in a huge fucking gorge? Ah No says every Native American Indian ever.
    Happened here on the Murrumbidgee River. Whole town swept away after the black fellas told em not to. But sheep like grass and farmers like sheep and bankers like farmers to pay em back and easy choices make short lives.
    I feel for them. I wanted to live at the top of my hill for the view. But I thought about the future self in 70 km h winds on a 50 Celsius day and went – nah I’ll suffer not having views to keep the peace.

    #172152
    Oroboros
    Participant

    @oxymoron

    Well said.

    It’s too bad stupidity isn’t painful up front.

    Banks lending mortgage money to flush down the crapper creek.

    The Duh’merican landscape is littered with jaw-dropping mis-locations of critical infrastructure as well as building and homes.

    Condo’s like Hilton Head located on barrier islands.

    The phrase “barrier island” not so much even registering a 15 watt nite-lite’s worth of recognition of possible danger…..

    .
    .
    Duh’merica, this one’s for you….
    .
    .
    .

    #172153
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Anatomy of a pew made me cry with laughter Oroboros.

    #172154
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Empire of Lies has Titanic Infrastructure Issues

    Sob……

    .

    #172155
    oxymoron
    Participant

    I wasn’t trying to be overtly critical and like Dr D said recently reality exists like make your cost/benefit risk analysis work for you. I for example have a magnificent Eucalyptus Macrocarpa in the north west zone of my house. If it fell under high wids the house is safe the car port is fucked. I can live with that so the tree stays. If the house was in the danger that tree is gone – as is every single understory tree that is native. THEY ALL BURN LIKE TAR BARRELS. Plums and peaches and quinces etc do not so they get to be there.
    If you want to live in peace make the judgement call and work. Don’t think – do. Thinking will get you killed doing will get you another day.

    #172156
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Grey Box.
    Such a hard bastard. When I chop oak it feels like creamy butter under my wood splitter

    https://www.fobif.org.au/admin/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/grey-box-pages-1-21.jpg

    #172158
    jb-hb
    Participant

    “I am prepared to go to extreme lengths, such as shaking my head sadly and proclaiming my love of Israel while watching events unfold if they do not adapt.”

    Okay, now that is clear, you are willing to see Israel disintegrate and disappear. So when you say “Israel has a right to defend itself”, what does that mean?

    It will be Israel’s problem to figure out what “defend itself” means in a post unlimited free shit era, not mine. It is up to Israel to decide whether to disintegrate and disappear. This will rely, not on browbeating Americans, but doing things (and not doing things) related to causality in the real world.

    Are you just stating the obvious, that everybody has a right to defend themselves?

    They may need to consider that time and memory and physical reality exists, taking that into account in their “defensive” moves. That would be their concern, though.

    So Israel and the Palestinians have a right to defend themselves? So you are happy that Oct 7th was the Palestinians defending themselves?

    Maybe it’s just not my concern to formulate feelings of happiness and unhappiness about every single thing that happens anywhere in the world.

    I did ask a Republican friend of mine, how can Israel be “under attack” inside someone else’s territory? Be it Palestine, Syria, Lebanon…doesn’t Israel have SOME responsibility to have an awareness of when they are inside or outside their own country?

    He argued well, they won that territory through war so it is fair.

    Well, ok then fella, it’s fair for others to win territory from Israel then, isn’t it?

    So he said “from the river to the sea, palestine will be free” means genocide.

    I asked – why couldn’t it mean one man one vote, all people living in the territory dominated by Israeli military having equal citizenship rights? Wouldn’t it be free then too?

    He said, but then Israel would cease to exist.

    I asked – how do you mean? All the people would still be there, LESS of them would be dying, there’d be a government, armed forces, etc.

    He said it would cease to be Jewish – So I asked if nationalist ethno-religious states are a good thing and he wouldn’t answer.

    #172159
    zerosum
    Participant

    Look
    Building an inclusive world

    BRICS 20 SUMMIT 24

    https://brics-russia2024.ru/en/calendar/
    https://brics-russia2024.ru/en/media/photo/4-ya-vstrecha-zamestiteley-ministrov-finansov-i-upravlyayushchikh-tsentralnymi-bankami-stran-briks/

    https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/
    21 October 2024 13:23
    Press release on a briefing by the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman on October 23, 2024
    https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1976944/

    https://brics-russia2024.ru/en/news/
    (Translators included)
    ———-

    #172160
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Just like a dead whale on the shores of North Duh’merica

    Pressto-chango!

    How to rid the Global Majority of the Empire of Lies

    Exploding Whale 50th Anniversary

    #172161
    tboc
    Participant

    “..interest payments on the national debt. These payments hit $882 billion in FY 2024, the Treasury report says. That’s a 35% jump from last year..”

    Just for fun:
    https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2024/03/11/fact-sheet-the-presidents-budget-for-fiscal-year-2025/
    https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2024/03/11/fact-sheet-the-presidents-budget-lowers-costs-for-the-american-people/

    There is an increase in calls for some type of test to determine one’s qualification to vote.
    1. Who writes the test is of more importance than who takes the test.
    2. The majority of those calling for such tests could not pass a test i wrote.
    3. I WOULD not pass a test written by those who wrote those two fact sheets referenced above. I might very well know the answer being solicited, i just would not supply the answer requested.

    Increase the budget of every federal agency an average of 4%, reduced taxes on all incomes under $400 thousand, increase existing subsidies and entitlements across the board
    Reduce the deficit
    Lower costs to the citizens of the US

    i admit i could not pass an arithmetic test written by those doing math at the Federal level.
    i admit i would fail if asked “What was the best commercial during last year’s Superbowl. Not a clue.

    Merrick Garland: You show me the state attempting to exercise state’s rights and I will find the criminals.
    Bring that shit home madafaka

    Don’t show me the weapons of mass destruction we gonna kill that madafaka. This vial contains enough bullshit to blow any sense of morality out of the Milky Way Galaxy. (powell colon)

    Gonna sell Libyan oil and not use the petro-dollar?
    Make that unlubed dildo of consequence edgy. (killery clingtone)

    guess it’s just me; Mr. Trump serving freedom fries at McDonalds to show his touch for the common man and RFK Jr. campaigning for a healthy America; a small mind and the hobgoblin of consitency

    tabla rasa the – state of the moon and the US electorate on November 1, 2024.

    #172163
    zerosum
    Participant

    Putin meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at BRICS Summit: LIVE UPDATES
    https://swentr.site/russia/606060-russia-brics-summit-kazan/
    22 Oct, 2024 05:21

    Around 20,000 delegates from over 30 countries are expected to attend the three-day international forum in Kazan
    ————-

    21 Oct, 2024 10:00

    • Musk Fires Back At Der Spiegel Over ‘Enemy No. 2’ Claim (RT)

    The X owner has said he is “shocked” at the level of vitriol from the left
    https://swentr.site/news/606013-musk-spiegel-enemy-trump/
    ( who is #1)
    ———-
    (If Trump wins)
    • Surprise, Surprise! (James Howard Kunstler)

    If Mr. Trump somehow, (WINS), overcomes the tide of bogus harvested votes, illegal alien votes, phantom overseas votes, voting machine swapped votes, lost-and-found votes, last-minute rafts of votes, and other products of the Marc Elias election sabotage machine.

    You will know a real insurrection if you see it.
    You already know the real reason the Democratic Party went insane: its crime spree against the citizens of this land was so obvious and outrageous that a thousand Beltway bureaucrats are now going crazy in fear of prosecution.
    ———–
    “..while the Democrats accuse Trump of planning to use the military on the American people, the government is already making moves to do just that..”

    (If Trump wins)
    • Alex Jones Issues Terrifying Post-Election Prediction (VF)

    U.S. Department of Defense Directive 5240.01, which is an absolute nightmare.
    https://www.esd.whs.mil/portals/54/documents/dd/issuances/dodd/524001p.pdf

    What that directive does is that it gives the DoD the power to step in and use lethal force within U.S. borders, even against its own citizens, when it deems lives are at risk. Don’t want to wear a mask? You’re putting lives at risk. Lethal force could technically be used against you. Don’t want to take a vaccine? The same story exists. The potential for abuse is limitless here. The scope of this authority is chilling because the directive specifically states that the decision to use lethal force only needs the Secretary of Defense’s approval.
    ———-
    It’s too late for a solution that will not change/destroy our societies/civilizations.
    • US Interest Payments Top Defense Spending For First Time In History (I&I)
    ———

    #172164
    tboc
    Participant

    3087 words for some obscure purpose
    501 words in defense of personal inanity masquerading as moral and intellectual superiority

    3588 words

    would it be considered a protest too much for a peccable solivagant wag to take a scripturient cacozealous pundit skilled in the art of murmuration to task for filipendulous pronouncement that never reaches acnestis?

    only The Shadow knows

    587 words today

    #172165
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Hit piece on RFK Jr

    Here’s the thing: I’ve been aware of RFK Jr for around 25 years. The more I found out about him, the more media appearances (of all types) that I saw, the more that he wrote that I read, the more my respect grew. Then he ran for president.

    Trump: I’ve been aware of him for about 40 years. His style always got on my nerves. He wrote a book about 20 or 25 years ago — which I read — outlining his political views, and what his positions would be if he ran for president. I liked much of what he said, but not all of it. I found his demeanor in The Apprentice overbearing. In 2016 I didn’t like him for president — I liked Hilary Clinton less, and voted 3rd party. In 2020 I voted 3rd party. I *still* do not like Trump’s bombastic style, but I am impressed with the group of people that he is gathering to advise him and work with him, I find that he comes across as respecting the office of US president, and that he has a good relationship with his kids and grandkids. The family relationships are important — they say a great deal about who a person is, and their values.

    #172166
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    @oxy re: ask brownie

    Santa Fe Grade – OOPS!!!

    This area is now largely wetlands wildlife preserves, with many duck hunting camps built with the same ‘disposable’ philosophy as Denninger documents re: Florida beach houses.

    #172171
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/10/election-musings.html#comments

    Election Musings
    The current presidential election cycle is the least attractive I have ever watched.

    Donald Trump is doing his usual talk giving promises which no one believes he will keep.

    Kamala Harris is as disagreeable as many have feared. She is basically an empty vessel with a tendency to authoritarianism. The vessel is ready to be filled with whatever new war project the neo-conservatives – see Liz Cheney – are planning for.

    Biden was and is clearly beyond the point of pursuing another presidency. Moving him aside was the best thing the Democrats could do. Offering Harris as a replacement – without any campaign, vote or legitimization – was the worst thing they could do. They will rue this mistake.

    My hunch is that Trump will win the election. What policies will follow will largely depend on the people he will select to run the show. He had previously chosen people who were opposing and sabotaging his policies. He lacked the authority and/or will to rein them in. I do not believe that he has learned from it.

    Whoever may win the presidency will anyway not make a big difference.

    I expect the new president to double down on the anti-Russian project in Ukraine and on support for the genocide the Zionist are committed to finish. The U.S. will continue to be bogged down in Europe and west-Asia. The ‘pivot to Asia’ to counter China’s rise will continue to stall. The economic standing of the U.S. will continue to deteriorate.

    This is good news for China, Russia, the BRICS project and those involved in it. As the old world order continues to drag itself down the new one gains time and space to evolve from it.

    Posted by b on October 22, 2024

    #172172
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    RussiaGate just really pissed me off with its affected neo-McCarthyism and total disingenuousness long before I decided to vote for Trump, should he run again, in later 2021. So someone who embraced RussiaGate in 2017 and then less than four years later embraced Trump, is never going to be someone who I look to for trustworthiness.

    #172173
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    But, if I am going to vote for Trump this time, I suppose I should give RFK Jr. credit, at the very least, for making it easier for His Orangeness to win.

    #172174
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Somewhere on an island paradise somewhere

    Bite me suckers!

    .

    #172175
    Oroboros
    Participant

    After Trump’s McDonald’s high five score

    .

    #172176
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Better than a Dumb Blonde Joke

    #172177
    thomasjkenney
    Participant

    Brain Drain continues: Several Linux Kernel Driver Maintainers Removed Due To Their Association To Russia

    Quietly merged into this week’s Linux 6.12-rc4 kernel was a patch that removes a number of kernel maintainers from being noted in the official MAINTAINERS file that recognizes all of the driver and subsystem maintainers.

    This includes the maintainer of the Acer Aspire 1 EC driver, Cirrus Logic CLPS711X ARM architecture, Baikal-T1 PVT hardware monitor driver, Libata PATA drivers, libata SATA AHCI Synopsys DWC controller drivers, ASCOT2E media drivers, MIPS Baikal-T1 platform driver, NTB IDT driver, PPTP driver, Renesas R-Car SATA driver, Renesas Super-H Ethernet Driver, and the UFS file-system. Just the maintainer entries are being removed and not the actual drivers themselves.

    This is just dropping Russian maintainers from the kernel but isn’t clear if patches from them will be accepted moving forward. Similarly, the driver code remains within the kernel — including for Russian hardware such as around the Baikal CPUs from Russia’s Baikal Electronics. So right now it appears to be little more than just not officially recognizing any formal kernel maintainers that are Russian.

    Keep the work, because it is sorely needed, but don’t give credit…how fucking petty can you get? The band often breaks up after those kinda shenanigans.

    #172189
    aspnaz
    Participant

    thomasjkenney said

    Brain Drain continues: Several Linux Kernel Driver Maintainers Removed Due To Their Association To Russia

    Quietly merged into this week’s Linux 6.12-rc4 kernel was a patch that removes a number of kernel maintainers from being noted in the official MAINTAINERS file that recognizes all of the driver and subsystem maintainers.

    At least there are alternative kernels and you can be sure that the Russians and Chinese have their own kernels when using the GNU distribution. After all, the kernel is a tiny, tiny part of any distribution, but with the likes of Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and Intel involved in Linux kernel development in the past, who knows what government shite is in there. That woke politics is at work on the Linux kernel is no surprise, the hard work is not done on the kernel, the hard work is done on the distribution. Linux is a misnomer.

    #172190
    zerosum
    Participant

    One more look. What will democrats do if Trump wins.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/will-democrats-accept-results-2024-presidential-election
    Will Democrats Accept The Results Of The 2024 Presidential Election?

    Will Democrats Accept the Results of the 2024 Presidential Election?

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 55 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.