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Debt Rattle September 12 2022

Sep 122022
 
 September 12, 2022  Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:14 am Finance Tagged with: blackout, climate policy, dollar shortage, grid, intel sharing, mass formation, Trump, WTC


Claude Monet Éretrat sunset 1882-3

 

• Ukraine Suffers Massive Blackout After ‘Russian Strikes’ (RT)
• Ukraine Says It’s Repaired Damaged Power Infrastructure (RT)
• Ukraine Lost Thousands Of Soldiers In Counteroffensive – Moscow (RT)
• Ukraine and US Increased Intel-sharing Prior To Counteroffensive – NYT (RT)
• Is the US Sacrificing Europe to Maintain Global Dominance? (Armstrong)
• Belgium PM Fears “Severe Risk Of Social Unrest”
• Europe To Blame For Electricity Crisis – Former Austrian FM (RT)
• Talks With Ukraine Still On The Table – Russia (RT)
• Climate Policy Is a Much Greater Threat Than Climate Change (Mish)
• US Creates Dollar Shortage As Russia Creates Oil, Gas & Grain Shortage (Peters)
• A Different Take on the Dismissal of the Trump v Clinton Lawsuit (CTH)
• Instagram Fact-checks Trump WTC Photo As ‘Missing Context’ (PM) s
• Mass Formation Hypnosis Disorder (CJ Hopkins)
• ‘Unethical’ and up to 98 Times Worse Than the Disease (ET)

 

 

Ukraine cannot win this war. But it can win peace.

 

 

 

 

Fuellmilch

Dr. R.einer F.uellmich and his dang c.onspiracy t.heories.pic.twitter.com/Q0qD2kvgEi

— NEWSNANCY (@NewsNancy9) September 11, 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tried to find some western sources for this, but they all say this was done in retaliation for Ukraine “successes”, which they can’t prove, and then just lazily cite Zelensky verbatim. And I can’t even remember the last time he said something true. So we’re stuck with RT.

• Ukraine Suffers Massive Blackout After ‘Russian Strikes’ (RT)

Multiple regions of southeastern Ukraine suffered electricity shortages and blackouts late on Sunday. President Vladimir Zelensky has said the cause was missile attacks by Moscow on “critical infrastructure.” Full blackouts have hit Kharkov and Donetsk regions, Zelensky said in a social media post, apparently referring to the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk People’s Republic. Sumy, Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Zaporozhye and Odessa regions have been hit by partial blackouts, according to the president, who blamed the incident on “Russian terrorists.” So, far Moscow has remained silent on the matter, neither confirming nor denying its involvement. Still, the incident has been preceded by a reported launch of multiple cruise missiles from Russian ships positioned in the Black and Caspian Seas.


Footage circulating online shows the aftermath of the purported attacks, with firefighters trying to extinguish flames at what appear to be power plants. Another video, purportedly shot in Poltava, shows a trolleybus that caught fire, apparently due to a power surge in the grid. The blackout has affected the operations of Ukrainian railways, which reported delays across the country. It also brought the subway system in the eastern city of Kharkov to a halt the, footage circulating online purports to show. So, far, emergency services have managed to restore power supply only in Poltava, Sumy and Dnepropetrovsk regions, according to Ukrainian media reports.

Read more …

I think this was just a warning shot, not an attempt to kill the grid. There are ways to do that.

• Ukraine Says It’s Repaired Damaged Power Infrastructure (RT)

Blackouts allegedly caused by Russian strikes on the Ukrainian power grid were partially dealt with overnight, according to President Vladimir Zelensky’s deputy chief-of-staff. In a Telegram post, Kirill Timoshenko reported the full restoration of electricity supplies in the Ukrainian cities of Sumy, Dnepropetrovsk and Poltava. Grid capacity in Kharkov region, which was the scene of a successful Ukrainian counter-offensive last week, was at 80% on Monday morning, according to the official. The Mayor of Kharkov, Igor Terekhov, said on Monday morning that the city’s subway and trolleybus systems were back online and that the water supply would be fully restored during the day. Electric-powered transport was paralysed during the Sunday outage.


Kiev blamed the blackouts in several of its regions on Russian missile attacks targeting power stations and key nodes of the transmission grid. The Russian military has neither confirmed nor denied carrying out such attacks. The purported Russian military action on Sunday followed Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the north of the country. Last week, Kiev forced Russian troops to leave a swath of previously captured territory in Kharkov region. Kiev called it a major success for its military and a harbinger of further victories on the battlefield. Moscow has described the loss of territory as a temporary setback, necessary to win time for regrouping Russian troops.

Read more …

12,000 in 5 days. Over 4,000 killed and another 8,000 injured.

Gonzalo Lira: “Assuming that Dima at Military Summary channel is correct (and I think he is), in these past two weeks of offensives, Ukraine lost +10,000 and another +20,000 wounded.”

As the Russians reportedly mostly just walked away these past few days.

• Ukraine Lost Thousands Of Soldiers In Counteroffensive – Moscow

Ukrainian military casualties in just five days of its counteroffensive exceeded 12,000, Russia’s Defense Ministry has claimed. More than 4,000 Ukrainian troops were killed and another 8,000 injured between September 6 and 10 in the south and east of the country, ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said during a daily briefing on Sunday. According to the official, Russian forces conducted “precision strikes” with missiles and artillery targeting pro-Kiev units in Kharkov region, from where Russian troops retreated earlier as part of what Moscow described as “redeployment.” Russia said its military has destroyed, among other things, numerous command posts and shot down a helicopter over the past few days.

The Defense Ministry also accused the Ukrainian troops of having shelled the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant 26 times since September 1. The Russia-controlled facility located in Ukraine’s southern Zaporozhye region was seized by Russian forces in early March, soon after Moscow launched its military operation. On Sunday, the last working reactor at the plant was switched off. According to a member of the region’s pro-Russian administration, the decision was made due to continued shelling of the plant by Ukraine and damage to the power lines. The constantly changing modes in which the reactors and turbines were forced to operate, because of the attacks, created the risk of an accident, Vladimir Rogov told RIA-Novosti.

Kiev and Moscow have been accusing each other of targeting the power plant and risking a nuclear disaster for several months now. In its Sunday briefing, the Russian Defense Ministry also alleged that the Ukrainian military was deliberately striking “energy infrastructure on liberated territories,” including in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Read more …

They want to advertize direct US involvement?!

• Ukraine and US Increased Intel-sharing Prior To Counteroffensive – NYT (RT)

Ukraine had stepped up intelligence-sharing with the US in preparation for its counteroffensive against the Russian forces in the Kharkov Region, The New York Times reported on Saturday. Despite Washington providing information on Russian command posts, ammunition depots and other targets to Kiev, Ukrainian officials had been reluctant earlier in the conflict to reveal operational plans to their US counterparts, over concerns that this “could highlight weaknesses and discourage continued American support,”the newspaper claimed. But it all changed during the summer as Kiev decided that sharing plans for its counteroffensive would, contrary to previous concerns, prompt Washington to provide Ukraine with even more assistance, unnamed senior US officials told the NYT.

This shift allowed the US to offer “better and more relevant information about Russian weaknesses,” the sources reported. They declined to expand on how much information has been shared between the sides or on how deep the Americans have been involved in the planning of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, the newspaper said. However, one official claimed that the US had“constantly” discussed with Ukraine ways that it could blunt the Russian advance in the east of the country.
The large-scale Ukrainian offensive with the use of weapons supplied by the US and other Western nations started in the north-eastern Kharkov Region on Thursday after Kiev’s attempts to advance in other areas failed.

On Saturday, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced the withdrawal of its troops from the city of Izyum and some other settlements in the region, saying that these are being regrouped in order “to build up efforts in the Donetsk direction.” During the operation, it added, the military had performed what it called a “number of distracting and demonstration activities imitating the real action of troops.” Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky celebrated the Russian retreat as a victory, but the NYT pointed out that “it is not yet clear how much broad strategic importance those gains [by Kiev] will have.” Moscow has many times warned Washington against providing weapons and sharing intelligence data with Ukraine, saying that the US risked becoming a party to the conflict through such actions.

Read more …

“..they sacrificed their main supplier of energy to save a nation with a GDP of roughly only $200 billion..”

“The war in Ukraine has only promoted capital to rush into the dollar.”

• Is the US Sacrificing Europe to Maintain Global Dominance? (Armstrong)

Vladimir Putin believes that Washington is sacrificing Europe to maintain global dominance. The United States has always been the world police, and the top country that others turn to in times of crisis. America’s post-World War II status left it as the financial capital of the world, and the dollar has remained the world’s reserve currency. Nothing has topped the dollar. Europe attempted to create the European Union in an effort to prevent European conflicts, but it also created the euro to compete against the dollar. I explained various times how their attempts have failed. However, the euro is now beneath the dollar and on the decline. Nations maintain diplomatic relations, but only Schwab wants a one-world government as everyone is competing for global dominance.

Putin claims that the West rushed to place sanctions on Russia. There was indeed a rush to place sanctions on Russia despite Joe Biden himself coming out and admitting sanctions never work. Peace talks were never an option. Returning land or promising to curtail NATO was never an option. Sanctions and threats were immediately imposed. Why? “The pandemic has been replaced by new challenges of a global nature, carrying a threat to the whole world, I’m talking about the sanctions rush in the West and the West’s blatantly aggressive attempts to impose their modus vivendi on other countries, to take away their sovereignty, to submit them to their will,” Putin told delegates at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in the port city of Vladivostok on Russia’s Pacific coast, as reported by CNBC.

It is true that Europe is facing the brunt of these sanctions as they sacrificed their main supplier of energy to save a nation with a GDP of roughly only $200 billion. Europe did not want to allow Ukraine to join the euro, and they had no interest in the country prior to this conflict. The hatred for Russia runs deep in Europe, especially in Germany after Russia took hold of the east after the last World War. The politicians are certainly old enough to remember when Germany was split in two until 1989. There is a reason Russia’s integral support for the axis powers during World War II is diminished in Western history books. Putin went on to say that the standard of living in Europe and overall social and economic stability was “being thrown onto the fire of sanctions.” The United States has been eager to sanction Russia since the war in Syria began. Obama tried but failed to kick Russia out of the SWIFT system in 2014, with Christine Lagarde offering her support. Zelensky, who rand the NYSE bell this week remotely, admitted that he needed America to place harsh sanctions on Russia to accelerate the war.

“So far, I think that the United States of America is the accelerator of the sanction policies and I think they do more than any other country. And this is the way it should be because they are the most powerful country right now. I see the same support with respect to sanctions from the United Kingdom,” Zelensky told reporters at Fox in May. The dollar remains strong and is the last safe haven. The war in Ukraine has only promoted capital to rush into the dollar. So is Europe “being sacrificed in the name of preserving the US dictatorship in global affairs,” as Putin claims? Europe will suffer more than the United States due to these sanctions. In fact, had Biden not eliminated domestic oil production, the US would not be facing an energy crisis at all. One thing is clear – the support to Ukraine is not an act of kindness. The invisible hand is at play.

Read more …

He’s said a few smart things. That won’t make him popular on the other side of Brussels.

• Belgium PM Fears “Severe Risk Of Social Unrest”

“A few weeks like this and the European economy will just go into a full stop…” That is the ominous warning of yet another EU leader who recognizes the needs of his people over the needs to signal virtue towards Ukraine (and against Putin “for the sake of democracy.”) Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo warned that Europe needs to act immediately to address the energy crisis or risk the kind of fundamental economic shutdown that the bloc would struggle to recover from. During an interview with Bloomberg News, De Croo warned: “The risk of that is de-industrialization and severe risk of fundamental social unrest.”

Like a number of other EU leaders, who are rapidly diverging from Brussels bureaucrats on the path forward, the Belgium leader warns against unilateral action against Russia, urging “I honestly do not see any other choice than doing market interventions,” De Croo said. “We don’t get a second chance to prove as 450 million Europeans that we take things in our hands. What you are seeing today is a massive drainage of prosperity out of the European Union.” Specifically, Belgium’s federal government is calling for introducing broad price caps on gas markets rather than just on Russian imports “because Vladimir Putin already said that he would stop selling gas.”

“What you are seeing today is a massive drainage of prosperity out of the European Union,” De Cross concluded. “A cap on Russian gas only is a purely political objective,” Belgium’s energy minister doubled-down on De Croo’s warnings, adding that Belgium “will not agree to this” as it did not “see the added value in that.” On security of supply for gas and electricity this winter, De Croo reassured his people that Belgium will be fine (thought we are unclear how he knows that), but warned that if any European country gets into a situation of blackouts it will be a “gigantic problem for all of us.”

Read more …

“..prices for electricity in the region saw a surge of up to 40% after April 2021, and have now soared nearly 400%..”

• Europe To Blame For Electricity Crisis – Former Austrian FM (RT)

The crisis affecting the electric power industry across Europe started in 2021 and was caused by European policymakers themselves, according to former Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl. “We had a crisis in the electric power industry even before the gas crisis began,” she said on Saturday in an interview with Russian news agency TASS. “That’s the result of the liberalization of the past 15-18 years, and we have been going through this since April 2021, for more than a year so far,” Kneissl added. According to the former foreign minister, the electricity market in Europe is not a classic supply-and-demand market anymore, and is now operating “in accordance with some incomprehensible principles.”

She added that the market had been redirected with a preference for renewable energy, and had turned into a unbalanced one as a result. “The electricity market, despite the role of renewable energy sources, is still highly dependent on gas prices, even when more electricity is generated from renewable sources,” Kneissl said. The former minister stressed that prices for electricity in the region saw a surge of up to 40% after April 2021, and have now soared nearly 400%, inevitably dragging households’ finances down.

“For manufacturers, for the industrial sector, the situation is even worse. There’s already a movement in the UK – it’s not [part of] the EU, but it might spread further – where people are simply boycotting their electricity bills,” she said, noting that the electricity crisis had begun prior to the gas crunch. Kneissl attributed the crisis to the significant reduction in investment in oil and gas projects, explaining that supply was declining while demand remained. “The demand has been growing after the pandemic. It was quite calm during the pandemic for a year and a half,” she said. “And we can still be glad that in China demand remains at a fairly low level, since they are introducing quite a lot of lockdowns,” Kneissl added.

Read more …

“Nobody needs a meeting for the sake of a meeting”: Kremlin press-secretary Dmitry Peskov.

• Talks With Ukraine Still On The Table – Russia (RT)

Moscow is not giving up on the idea of peace talks with Kiev, but the sides need to start negotiations sooner rather than later, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. “We don’t reject the negotiations; we’re not giving up on the negotiations” with Ukraine, Lavrov told the Rossiya 1 channel. “Those who reject them must understand that the longer this process is delayed, the harder it will be to reach an agreement,” he added in an apparent reference to the authorities in Kiev. Lavrov noted that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin earlier voiced the same stance on peace talks. The conflicting sides have not sat down at the negotiating table since talks in Istanbul in late March.

Russia, which initially expressed optimism on the peace process, later accused Kiev of backtracking on the progress achieved in Turkey, saying it had lost trust in the Ukrainian negotiators. Russian officials warned that Moscow’s demands would be more extensive if the talks were to restart. In recent months, Ukraine has been either putting forward terms that Moscow deemed ‘unrealistic’ for the resumption of the negotiations, or said that they can only begin after Russia is defeated on the battlefield. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has also claimed on several occasions that he wanted to discuss the outcome of the conflict directly with President Putin.

But Moscow’s position has been that the two leaders should only meet to sign concrete agreements, prepared for them by the negotiators. “Nobody needs a meeting for the sake of a meeting,” Kremlin press-secretary Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week. Ukraine launched a major counter-offensive in the north-eastern Kharkov region earlier this week after attempts to advance in other areas failed. On Saturday, Russia withdrew its forces from Izuym and some other settlements in the area, saying that they will be regrouped “to build up efforts in the Donetsk direction.”

Read more …

The people who make the policies don’t know a thing about energy.

• Climate Policy Is a Much Greater Threat Than Climate Change (Mish)

Germany’s decision to scrap its nuclear reactors before having replacement energy is in play. In April, then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson bragged his Energy Security Strategy would “bring clean, affordable, secure power to the people for generations to come.” In the US, California marches on with the blessing of president Biden, preposterous targets for electric cars without having the faintest idea where the minerals and mining for those batteries will come from. The Wall Street Journal comments on the Coming Global Crisis of Climate Policy. A crisis isn’t coming, it’s already here, and obviously so.

“The Federal Reserve, Bank of England and European Central Bank, among others, want to know how global temperature variations a century hence might weigh on Citi’s or Barclays’ or Deutsche Bank’s capital and risk weightings today. The fad is for quantifying, with preposterous faux-precision, the costs of reinsuring flood risks, or fire, or the depressed corporate profits of a dystopian hotter future. Well, if you seek “climate risk” to financial stability, look around you. It has arrived, although in exactly the opposite manner to what our current crop of eco-financiers predicted. Europe’s plight tells a tale that could become all too familiar in the U.S. soon.

The U.K. may be facing a wave of business bankruptcies exceeding anything witnessed during the post-2008 panic and recession. Some 100,000 firms could be forced into insolvency in coming months, bankruptcy consultancy Red Flag Alert warned this week. These are otherwise healthy firms with at least £1 million in annual revenue. Business failures on this scale would dwarf the roughly 65,000 firms of any size that went under from 2008-10. Matters are probably worse in Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy. Some 73% of small and medium-sized enterprises in one survey reported feeling heavy pressure from energy prices, and 10% of those say they believe they face “existential” threats to their businesses over the next six months. And that poll, from the small-business association BMD, is the optimistic one. [..]

Policy decisions by clueless heads of state bow down to Saint Gretta, AOC, and president Biden. They have put in place an inflationary inferno that central bankers do not know how to stop. Even more ridiculous, President Biden, Elizabeth Warren and others want the Fed to take on a third mandate and stress test the economic impact of continued rise in temperature. What needs to be stress tested is the reverse, the inflationary impact of a push for clean energy before battery storage technology exists, grid improvements exist, and whether or not physical metals for all the batteries that will be needed are even available.

Read more …

With the shift into SCO, BRICS et al, who will be hurt most?

• US Creates Dollar Shortage As Russia Creates Oil, Gas & Grain Shortage (Peters)

“We must cut Russia’s revenues which Putin uses to finance this atrocious war,” said European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, discussing a proposal to cap the price of Russian gas. There are no easy solutions to Europe’s energy crisis, just a range of suboptimal outcomes, each of which carries unknown costs in a world growing increasingly uncertain. Making difficult decisions is always hard and subjects all involved to unintended consequences. But in a world trending toward ever greater economic integration the risk of unexpectedly bad outcomes is more muted than in periods of conflict, division, deglobalization. The reason for this (as Zoltan Pozsar pointed out two weeks ago) is a matter of trust.

When we trust that we are all competitors striving for a greater share of a more prosperous common future, the price of misjudgments and misunderstandings is relatively lower than in a world filled with real and perceived adversaries who expect the worst from one another. “We will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil – we will not supply anything,” said Putin in response to Ursula’s statement. In recent years, the possibility that such stark outcomes might manifest were seen by consensus as pure fancy. But those innocent times have passed, perhaps not to return for decades. The Japanese continued to cap government bond yields, intervening in markets to monetize their enormous debts. The yen extended its dramatic losses as markets prepare for another 75bp rate hike from the Fed.

The US is naturally doing what it sees as in its national interest, creating a shortage of dollars, just like Russia is doing in oil and gas, grain, and fertilizer (perhaps someday we will suffer a shortage of Taiwan’s chips). Without an ample and growing supply of dollars, the global economy sputters, markets too. Then things break. In more peaceful times, the Americans rarely adjusted domestic policy to help foreigners until the overseas problem washed ashore here at home. And we are now left to wonder how such decisions will be made in a world without trust.

Read more …

“sundance” argues that Trump’s lawyers expected the case to be dismissed, but filed it anyway, because now everything in it is “on the record”.

• A Different Take on the Dismissal of the Trump v Clinton Lawsuit (CTH)

[..] when I originally read the 108-page lawsuit filed in March, it took me a few moments, and then I realized this was not a lawsuit; this was a legal transfer mechanism created by lawyers to establish a proprietary information silo. Second, because I do not want another ridiculous subpoena from DC simply because they can’t fathom how any outside entity could solve a puzzle without insider assistance. As to the former, I have prayed on it and come to the opinion it’s worth sharing. As to the latter, it’s just another waste of taxpayer funds, but whatever – the truth has no agenda. So, here’s a totally different take on the issues surrounding the Trump -v- Clinton lawsuit, which -from the outset- I always believed was going to be dismissed because suing all of those characters under the auspices of a civil RICO case was never the objective.

However, in the aftermath, the silo created by the lawsuit is also grounded upon attorney-client privilege, a legal countermeasure to a predictable DOJ-NSD lawfare maneuver, which unfolded in the Mar-a-Lago raid and ongoing issues. In March 2022 President Trump filed a civil lawsuit against: Hillary Clinton, Hillary for America Campaign Committee, DNC, DNC Services Corp, Perkins Coie, Michael Sussmann, Marc Elias, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Charles Dolan, Jake Sullivan, John Podesta, Robby Mook, Phillipe Reines as well as Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson, Peter Fritsch, Nellie Ohr, Bruce Ohr, Orbis Business Intelligence, Christopher Steele, Igor Danchenko, Neustar Inc., Rodney Joffe, James Comey Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Kevin Clinesmith and Andrew McCabe.

When I was about one-third of the way through reading the lawsuit, I initially stopped and said to myself this is going to take a lot of documentary evidence to back up the claims in the assertions. Dozens of attachments would be needed and hundreds of citations to the dozens of attachments would be mandatory. Except, they were not there. After reading further, while completely understanding the background material that was being described in the filing, I realized this wasn’t a lawsuit per se’. The 108-pages I was holding in my hands was more akin to legal transfer mechanism from President Trump to lawyers who needed it. The filing was contingent upon a series of documents that would be needed to support the claims within it.

Whoever wrote the lawsuit had obviously reviewed the evidence to support the filing. However, the attachments and citations were missing. That was weird. That’s when I realized the purpose of the lawsuit. In hindsight, things became clear when the DOJ-NSD raided the home of Donald Trump, and suddenly the motive to confiscate the documents that would be the missing lawsuit attachments and citations surfaced. With the manipulative, and I say intentional, “ongoing investigation” angle of the John Durham probe essentially blocking public release of declassified documents showing the efforts of all the lawsuit participants (Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax), President Trump needed a legal way to secure and more importantly share the evidence.

Think of it like the people around Trump wanting to show lawyers the evidence in the documents. However, because of the construct of the lawfare being deployed against Trump, any lawyer would need a *reason* to review the evidence. The Trump -v- Clinton et al lawsuit becomes that ‘reason.’ [..] If the documents seized by the FBI were part of the lawsuit established by President Trump and his legal team via Trump -v- Clinton, then the material seized is all attorney client work product. Lawfully obtained, constitutionally declassified and legally protected material. sThis is where the ‘special master’ will play a key role.

Read more …

Don’t think there’s any doubt that Trump loves NYC.

• Instagram Fact-checks Trump WTC Photo As ‘Missing Context’ (PM)

In honor of the 21st anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Human Events Daily’s Jack Posobiec posted a photo of Donald Trump visiting Ground Zero in 2001. In response to the Instagram post, showing Trump at that horrific scene so many years ago, Instagram posted a “fact-check,” reading: “Missing Context. The same information was reviewed by independent fact-checkers in another post.” Posobiec’s comment was “No one told him to go. He went anyway.” The photo is credited to Getty Images. The fact-check was posted on the photo, despite no claims being made other than that Trump was there. Instagram’s parent Meta’s algorithms appear to be looking to discredit Trump, even when there is nothing to discredit.

Opening up the message brings readers to a fact-check showing two fact checks. Lead Stories says that the conclusion of their fact check is that the post has “missing context,” by which they explain that there is “No evidence that Donald Trump paid hundreds of workers to help with search and rescue after 9/11.” This is a fact check on a photo showing Trump at the site of the terrorist attack in 2001. It made no claims other than that he was there, which he was. A fact-check from Snopes states that their conclusion is that the post is “partly false,” giving as “more information” the question “Was Donald Trump at Ground Zero searching for survivors two days at 9/11 with workers he paid for?” This on a fact-check of a photo which made no additional claims. Snopes’ rating as to whether or not Trump brought employees down to Ground Zero is recorded as “unproven.”

It was years later that a meme, using the same Getty photo, began circulating that was captioned: “2 days after the September 11th attacks Donald Trump was at ground zero with hundreds of workers that he payed for, to help find and identify victims.” Trump visited Ground Zero on September 13, 2001, two days after the attacks. According to The New York Times, Trump had said “Many of those affected were firefighters, police officers and other first responders. And I was down there also, but I’m not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you” at a speaking event years later. Others said he wasn’t there for extended periods of time. Trump said in 2001 that “I have a lot of men down here right now. We have over 100 and we have 125 coming. So we’ll have a couple of hundred people down here.”

He added: “We will be involved in some form helping to reconstruct.” The reconstruction efforts were led by the City of New York, and Larry Silverstein, who was the existing developer of the property. At a 2016 speaking event in Buffalo, NY, Trump said “Everyone who helped clear the rubble — and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit — but I want to tell you: Those people were amazing. Clearing the rubble. Trying to find additional lives. You didn’t know what was going to come down on all of us — and they handled it.” Trump was a private citizen in 2001, a native New Yorker, and a local businessman.

Read more …

CJ Hopkins is not impressed with Mattias Desmet.

• Mass Formation Hypnosis Disorder (CJ Hopkins)

Well, gosh, this is kind of embarrassing. For approximately the last two and a half years, I have been documenting, analyzing, and occasionally satirizing the so-called “New Normal,” i.e., the new, pathologized, official ideology that has been rolled out all across the planet by the global-capitalist ruling classes under the pretext of combating an apocalyptic pandemic … or at least that’s what I thought was going on. As it turns out, I was totally wrong. Apparently, the global-capitalist ruling establishment (or “GloboCap,” as I often refer to the unaccountable, supranational network of global corporations, banks, governments, and non-governmental governing entities that unaccountably govern our world) has not been rolling out a new official ideology, or pathologized form of totalitarianism, or not intentionally in any event.

No one has been methodically gaslighting anyone, or terrorizing anyone with propaganda, or censoring or segregating anyone, or coercing anyone to get needlessly “vaccinated” with any sort of dangerous experimental drugs, or consciously conspiring with anyone to do anything. Everyone has simply been suffering from Mass Formation Hypnosis Disorder! I know, you probably find this hard to believe, especially because I have been making precisely the opposite case for over two years now, but I saw it on the Alex Jones show! Mattias Desmet, a professor from Belgium, and “the world’s leading expert” on this new disorder, explained it all in meticulous detail.

According to Desmet, the way this disorder works is, people feel “lonely and isolated,” which makes them feel angry, but they don’t have anything or anyone to unleash their anger on, so they form a mass and hypnotize each other, and invent a new fanatical ideology that they all fanatically hypnotically believe in, which, at that point, their rulers, who are also hypnotized, have no choice but to go full-totalitarian, and hypnotize everyone even more, because that is what the hypnotized mass demands, so that they can finally unleash their anger on someone, i.e., those who have managed to avoid being hypnotized (one assumes with some special anti-hypnosis technology, but I don’t think Professor Desmet explained that part). And, OK, before you hypnosis deniers start sending me emails denying the power of hypnosis to totally totalitarianize society, listen to Professor Desmet explain how surgeons in Belgium are routinely performing open-heart surgery on hypnotized patients without any anesthetic whatsoever!

They just saw right through their breastbones with a sternum saw, ratchet open their rib cages with a sternal retractor, and start slicing into the patients’ hearts … and these patients don’t even flinch or anything! He has witnessed this with his own two eyes! Or, all right, it seems he hasn’t actually witnessed this with his own two eyes. It seems he was actually just lying when he said that, which he confessed to in a lengthy Facebook post (after people pointed out that he had lied) in which he publicly wondered why he had lied, and then rationalized his lie with various excuses, and posted several misleading links in an attempt to suggest that he hadn’t actually lied, despite the fact that he had just admitted he did, and just generally tried to muddy the waters with a lot of awkward psychobabble.

Read more …

“22,000 to 30,000 Previously Unaffected Young Adults Must be Vaccinated to Prevent Just 1 Hospitalization..”

• ‘Unethical’ and up to 98 Times Worse Than the Disease (ET)

A team of nine experts from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and other top universities has published paradigm-shifting research about the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines and why mandating vaccines for college students is unethical. This 50-page study, which was published on The Social Science Research Network at the end of August, analyzed CDC and industry-sponsored data on vaccine adverse events, and concluded that mandates for COVID-19 boosters for young people may cause 18 to 98 actual serious adverse events for each COVID-19 infection-related hospitalization theoretically prevented. [..] As the study pointed out, students at universities in America, Canada, and Mexico are being told they must have a third dose of the vaccines against COVID-19 or be disenrolled.

Unvaccinated high school students who are just starting college are also being told the COVID-19 vaccines are “mandatory” for attendance. These mandates are widespread. There are currently 15 states which continue to honor philosophical (personal belief) exemptions, and 44 states and Washington, D.C. allow religious exemptions to vaccines. But even in these states, private universities are telling parents they will not accept state-recognized vaccine exemptions. Against a backdrop of confusing and often changing public health recommendations and booster fatigue, the authors of this new paper argue that university booster mandates are unethical. They give five specific reasons for this bold claim:

1) Lack of policymaking transparency. The scientists pointed out that no formal and scientifically rigorous risk-benefit analysis of whether boosters are helpful in preventing severe infections and hospitalizations exists for young adults. 2) Expected harm. A look at the currently available data shows that mandates will result in what the authors call a “net expected harm” to young people. This expected harm will exceed the potential benefit from the boosters. 3) Lack of efficacy. The vaccines have not effectively prevented transmission of COVID-19. Given how poorly they work—the authors call this “modest and transient effectiveness”—the expected harms caused by the boosters likely outweigh any benefits to public health. 4) No recourse for vaccine-injured young adults. Forcing vaccination as a prerequisite to attend college is especially problematic because young people injured by these vaccines will likely not be able to receive compensation for these injuries. 5) Harm to society. Mandates, the authors insisted, ostracize unvaccinated young adults, excluding them from education and university employment opportunities. Coerced vaccination entails “major infringements to free choice of occupation and freedom of association,” the scientists wrote, especially when “mandates are not supported by compelling public health justification.”

The lack of effectiveness of the vaccines is a major concern to these researchers. Based on their analysis of the public data provided to the CDC, they estimated that between 22,000 and 30,000 previously uninfected young adults would need to be boosted with an mRNA vaccine to prevent just a single hospitalization. However, this estimate does not take into account the protection conferred by a previous infection. So, the authors insisted, “this should be considered a conservative and optimistic assessment of benefit.” In other words, the mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 are essentially useless. But the documented lack of efficacy is only part of the problem. The researchers further found that per every one COVID-19 hospitalization prevented in young adults who had not previously been infected with COVID-19, the data show that 18 to 98 “serious adverse events” will be caused by the vaccinations themselves. These events include up to three times as many booster-associated myocarditis in young men than hospitalizations prevented, and as many as 3,234 cases of other side effects so serious that they interfere with normal daily activities.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stoltenberg

How they built the proxy army against #Russia: #NATO boss @jensstoltenberg – although #Ukraine is not a #NATO member we have armed and trained them since the #Kiev coup of 2014. pic.twitter.com/R4O12ulGSz

— tim anderson (@timand2037) September 11, 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle September 12 2022

  • This topic has 74 replies, 29 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago by John Day.
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  • September 12, 2022 at 10:05 am #115721
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Claude Monet Éretrat sunset 1882-3

    That has to be one of the most painted and photographed features on the French coast; for good reason…love it all…

    September 12, 2022 at 10:24 am #115722
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    I must say I’m a bit perplexed; and not a little disturbed by all this conspiracy stuff (vaccines/covid virus) regarding intentional population reduction by “the elites” (a term which I despise)…they are not elites but rather the worst of swine…
    What I see is greed by all who can benefit from this , possibly created, covid virus…
    …but, if that is what you are all about; then by all means carry on…sans me…
    I’ll not buy this trope ever…

    September 12, 2022 at 10:59 am #115723
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Last power unit switched off at Zaporozhye nuclear plant”

    Ukraine was refusing to use the power provided by the plant, preferring to sit in the dark. Another attack on their own people, or whoever is left. Okay then.

    “The IAEA has demanded that all attacks on the plant “be stopped immediately,” but” …couldn’t figure out who was doing the attacking.

    I guess we’ll find out if Chooch is right. I suspect not, the number of things that have to be untrue would be unlikely.

    So the Russians have no army and no air support now? NATO has no air in theatre, but it’s because Russia has no superiority there? Russia hasn’t moved their army in, but it’s because they don’t have one back in Moscow? Putin has 80% approval, but it’s because no one supports him and Russia is about to collapse? I heard the lack of support was because he wasn’t hawkish ENOUGH. That he wasn’t sending ENOUGH troops. So in this condition, Russia surrenders? And Putin is put aside but not to enshrine a REAL warhawk, not a placid Euro-lover like Vlad, but an actual dangerous man who will run troops straight to Denmark?

    Okay, suppose Chooch’s analysis is correct. What would that mean? How would Europe act?

    You see it can’t be, because the position of everything else would be different.

    What’s with the hating? Can’t people have different opinions that they substantiate with articles and evidence?

    “Ukraine’s 2nd Largest City Plunged Into Total Darkness As Russia Strikes Key Infrastructure”

    I guess we know why they took down Zap. Both for this attack (general safety) and because Zap wasn’t going to light anything. Ukraine wanted to up the scale of war, so Russia has accommodated them. Yesterday’s article was they cut off several key distribution points.

    This is also a communication to Europe for what they can expect shortly. And while the Yanks laugh, they go dark too, shortly. Maybe from general Cali dumb-headedness, lack of investment and repair, and most likely, the end of parts because credit is about to collapse.

    In any case, Russia won’t like it because now they have to rebuild the plants they just blew up. But, such is war.

    “I think this was just a warning shot, not an attempt to kill the grid.”

    Yes. We have Bono and Blinken, Ben Stiller and BoJo all rotating through Kiev like it’s SNL, not a war at all, in any way, ever. I think they have to express the gravity of their position a little more forcefully. Also, I’ll bet the farm Russia used the blackout to do something we don’t know yet. Not paratrooper Spetsnaz in, but you know what I mean here.

    “Ukraine Lost Thousands of Soldiers in Counteroffensive – Moscow”

    Russia is finally fighting a little bit of war. Using something more advanced than a sharp stick. And as you say, this is them erasing everyone in Ukraine while retreating.

    “Kiev and Moscow have been accusing each other of targeting the power plant and risking a nuclear disaster for several months now.”

    I can’t believe I have to read this sentence, especially from RT. The options here are: Russia is bombing themselves, from inside the base they hold. OR…maybe, just maybe, the only other guy in this war is fighting to hurt them and get in? Maybe…?

    I don’t want to go crazy here, but like the Great Carnac, I’m getting a strange vision about this thing.
    Carnac

    ““The war in Ukraine has only promoted capital to rush into the dollar.” –Armstrong.

    Nope! No motive for murder here! Okay, now review Luongo’s Davos v Nationalists theory.

    “another EU leader who recognizes the needs of his people over the needs to signal virtue towards Ukraine”

    WTF would you virtue signal towards a nobody like Ukraine, the most corrupt nation on earth, center of rape, human trafficking, and money laundering? …No offense. We have Vegas. But really, wtf are they that you “Signal”? We never thought of you before and forget you exist.

    “Belgium will be fine but.. it will be a “gigantic problem for all of us.”

    Um, pick one. I guess like Fauci, no matter what happens now, he’ll be right!

    “ Climate Policy Is a Much Greater Threat Than Climate Change (Mish)”

    Apparently so: look at De Croo! (Article notes him as De Croo, De Cross, and “Dat guyz” in top Journalist, professional copy editor form. Now we know how USA Today posted 47 fake articles with no oversight whatsoever. I trust you, but you don’t even know the guy’s name?)

    Anyway, this is just the Video’s WEF list of “Destabilizing” and “Killing everyone” so we can “Build Back Better”…and without pesky humans.

    “They have put in place an inflationary inferno that central bankers do not know how to stop.”

    Sure they do: Powell is erasing money at $95B/mo. Right now. CHS said Bankers will solve every problem…until the problem is too much money. Because they have only ONE trick. Well, two: they also lie and insider trade.

    “US Creates Dollar Shortage as Russia Creates Oil, Gas & Grain Shortage (Peters)”

    Who will be hurt most? The U.S. has unlimited food and oil. We’re also the core currency and making it stronger. If China or Biden come, we have 400 million guns. I think we’ll be okay.

    But to the opposite point here: Inflation is too much money chasing too few goods. How do you fix it? No, this is not a trick question. Maybe by erasing $95B/mo and producing more stuff? What do I mean? Well geez Johanne, the reason the U.S. had the 50’s was because we destroyed every other factory on planet earth, leaving only the U.S. to buy from. Aaaaaaaand you just helped and blew up every European factory, which won’t recover for 10-20 years. Thanks!

    “sundance” argues that Trump’s lawyers expected the case to be dismissed, but filed it anyway, because now everything in it is “on the record”.

    The Trump faction does a lot of this, to get things into the Federal Register. Although I’m in favor, I’m not sure what advantage that has yet. They constantly accuse, but avoid lawsuits because then they need “Evidence.” This enters the evidence into legal fact. But if you’re not also removing the bad actors, then…?

    Looking another way, how do you restore the country? By breaking the law and shooting people? Or by following the law to the letter and winning anyway, or even because of it? They are taking the long way, the latter path.

    Fact Check: Trump Existed. “This statement is disputed and probably false.” –Instagram

    “ Mass Formation Hypnosis Disorder (CJ Hopkins)”

    Medical version of “Passive Tense.” People hypnotized and murdered THEMSELVES. For no reason. No one involved. SADs: People “Just died”. No reason, no cause, or somehow-we-know-and-by-coincience-aren’t-curious-about-only-this-and-don’t-look. But about every OTHER death we’re really curious and have autopsies and police involved.

    And: because Doctor, he was lying. Every time his mouth opened.

    As with next two articles on vaccines. …And no one cares, because you’re killing me? Please, stab more!

    September 12, 2022 at 11:56 am #115724
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Policy decisions by clueless heads of state bow down to Saint Gretta, AOC, and president Biden.

    Don’t make me laugh, these people decide nothing.

    September 12, 2022 at 12:08 pm #115725
    aspnaz
    Participant

    According to Desmet

    Anyone with status in academia will also be a total liar and fraud, that is the new normal, but as Piers Corbyn said, they are on a gravy train, that train uses people without principles or self respect.

    September 12, 2022 at 12:55 pm #115726
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Is the US Sacrificing Europe to Maintain Global Dominance?

    Dr. Reiner Fuellmich and his dang conspiracy theories.

    Hey, they’re connected!

    Boy howdy and hot damn!

    Who woulda thought.

    .

    September 12, 2022 at 12:58 pm #115727
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    It is odd that Ukrainian soldiers on the front line complain that they are using old guns with too little ammunition.

    It makes you wonder what is happening with all the vast quantities of shiny new stuff!

    September 12, 2022 at 12:59 pm #115728
    zerosum
    Participant

    Degrowth …Brownouts …. Blackouts ….

    a push for clean energy before battery storage technology exists, grid improvements exist, and whether or not physical metals for all the batteries that will be needed are even available.
    ———-
    (“I got mine, get your own”)

    • US Creates Dollar Shortage As Russia Creates Oil, Gas & Grain Shortage (Peters)
    ———-
    Why are you still there?
    The smart people left a long time ago.

    https://news.yahoo.com/survive-house-without-gas-water-161800625.html
    How to survive in a house without gas, water supply, electricity, cellular reception
    Wed, September 7, 2022

    How? By watching Youtube videos:
    Good luck with that when the networks are down.
    ———-
    Who started
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/russia-retaliates-for-ukrainian-strikes-on-russian-controlled-electricity-networks.html#more
    September 12, 2022
    Russia Retaliates For Ukrainian Strikes On Russian Controlled Electricity Networks
    ———-

    September 12, 2022 at 1:05 pm #115729
    zerosum
    Participant

    It makes you wonder what is happening with all the vast quantities of shiny new stuff!
    1. Selling it to highest bidder
    2. Keeping it for the museums
    3. Rebuilding the inventory stockpile.

    September 12, 2022 at 1:09 pm #115730
    zerosum
    Participant

    Is the US$ going down or is the Euro going up?
    Who cares, you need Russian Ruble.

    September 12, 2022 at 1:39 pm #115731
    kultsommer
    Participant

    We are all self-hypnotized and there is nobody to blame, according to “Mass Formation” article?
    Jabs and boosters, 6-foot distances, targeted closure of small businesses while large boxes allowed to operate…
    all created in some trans-delusional dream in our collective heads?

    “…they all fanatically hypnotically believe in, which, at that point, THEIR RULERS, WHO ARE ALSO HYPNOTIZED, have no choice but to go full-totalitarian, and hypnotize everyone even more, because that is what the hypnotized mass demands, ….”

    Does this make sense to any of you?

    September 12, 2022 at 1:46 pm #115732
    The Markster
    Participant

    Big fan of CJ Hopkins, but just finished Desmet’s book over the weekend and think CJ went off the rails on this one.

    Desmet never argues that the Scamdemic was the result of “mass hypnosis”, or attempts to pathologize the political essence of totalitarianism. Neither does Desmet suggest there is a psych doctor to patient solution for the madness of crowds as CJ suggests he did. The book read to me like a clinical exposition of how and why 50+ years of obscenely-funded, globally-scaled Operation Mockingbird stuff by the Yanks and Her Majesty (RIP darling) have so thoroughly screwed us all beyond repair.

    Or at least until the petrodollar and Anglos get cut back down to size, which God willing won’t be too much longer now.

    September 12, 2022 at 2:18 pm #115733
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    I just bought Desmet’s book, still need to read it. I find it interesting he’s now being denigrated and, shocker, fact checked (lol), etc. What he says in interviews is more in keeping with The Markster’s summary. With the added note that people were first feeling isolated in their lives (hard to argue that considering the past couple decades) and had free-floating anxiety because of that, that couldn’t be pinned to something specific. Until covid … which gave them a place to pin the anxiety and a “cause to fight.” What followed (the battle cry, so to speak) of lockdown, mask, social distancing, vaxx is the result. And also, the “ritual” to prove you’re in the fight, and I don’t think any of us would argue that 6′, one mask, two masks, plastic face shield, hand sanitizer, bleaching groceries, mask standing up/not sitting down in restaurants, etc, etc, can be defined as anything but rituals.

    I’ll stick with Desmet. He’s smart, he seems to care, he makes sense. I haven’t read any of the stuff written in opposition to him. I’m wondering why it’s being done … now.

    September 12, 2022 at 3:09 pm #115734
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Diana Johnstone:

    The European Union is girding for a long war against Russia that appears clearly contrary to European economic interests and social stability. A war that is apparently irrational – as many are – has deep emotional roots and claims ideological justification. Such wars are hard to end because they extend outside the range of rationality. […]

    … continue at:

    The Specter of Germany is Rising

    DIANA JOHNSTONE: The Specter of Germany is Rising

    … anyway, article ends with following paragraph:

    … History may help understand events, but the cult of memory easily becomes the cult of revenge. Revenge is a circle with no end. It uses the past to kill the future. Europe needs clear heads looking to the future, able to understand the present.

    … fwiw,

    F.S.

    September 12, 2022 at 3:12 pm #115735
    TDub
    Participant

    All the recent talk of the ‘success’ of Ukraine’s counteroffensive reminds me of the charge of the light brigade, immortalized by Tennyson. An example of how history rhymes -same opponent and roughly same geography. Will the result be the same?

    Half a league, half a league,
    Half a league onward,
    All in the valley of Death
    Rode the six hundred.
    “Forward, the Light Brigade!
    Charge for the guns!” he said.
    Into the valley of Death
    Rode the six hundred.

    “Forward, the Light Brigade!”
    Was there a man dismayed?
    Not though the soldier knew
    Someone had blundered.
    Theirs not to make reply,
    Theirs not to reason why,
    Theirs but to do and die.
    Into the valley of Death
    Rode the six hundred.

    Cannon to right of them,
    Cannon to left of them,
    Cannon in front of them
    Volleyed and thundered;
    Stormed at with shot and shell,
    Boldly they rode and well,
    Into the jaws of Death,
    Into the mouth of hell
    Rode the six hundred.

    Flashed all their sabres bare,
    Flashed as they turned in air
    Sabring the gunners there,
    Charging an army, while
    All the world wondered.
    Plunged in the battery-smoke
    Right through the line they broke;
    Cossack and Russian
    Reeled from the sabre stroke
    Shattered and sundered.
    Then they rode back, but not
    Not the six hundred.

    Cannon to right of them,
    Cannon to left of them,
    Cannon behind them
    Volleyed and thundered;
    Stormed at with shot and shell,
    While horse and hero fell.
    They that had fought so well
    Came through the jaws of Death,
    Back from the mouth of hell,
    All that was left of them,
    Left of six hundred.

    When can their glory fade?
    O the wild charge they made!
    All the world wondered.
    Honour the charge they made!
    Honour the Light Brigade,
    Noble six hundred!

    September 12, 2022 at 3:21 pm #115736
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    “Big fan of CJ Hopkins, but just finished Desmet’s book over the weekend and think CJ went off the rails on this one.”

    I felt the same after reading CJ’s latest. I couldn’t help thinking that CJ was frustrated with Prof Desmet for not going further with his theory by assigning cause to the globalist agenda, and therefore decided to put some pressure on him: “You know more than what you are saying, Desmet, grow a pair and cough it up.”

    I haven’t taken the time to follow Prof Desmet as closely as others have over the past year, but from what I’ve seen, he has really tightened up his message and doesn’t stray far from his area of expertise. In recent interviews, when interviewers try to lead him into topics that other writers like CJ and Luogo are comfortable with, Desmet flatly refuses and immediately retreats back to the narrow framework of his theory.

    I’m not sure why. Possibly to maintain his credibility within the academic community? To avoid being ‘cancelled’ before he has a chance to make his mark? Other threats?

    September 12, 2022 at 3:35 pm #115737
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.rt.com/russia/562628-russia-ukraine-strike-ammo/
    12 Sep, 2022 12:57

    Huge Ukrainian ammunition stockpile destroyed – Moscow
    A strike has eliminated 45,000 tons of ammunition in southern Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed
    The statement also claimed Kiev’s losses as “more than 300 Ukrainian service members killed and up to 1,000 wounded” in the last 24 hours in this area.
    According to the statement, Russia conducted a strike on the nationalist unit Kraken, the 113rd Brigade of Territorial Defense and the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, killing up to 250 service members and eliminating more than 20 military vehicles.

    September 12, 2022 at 3:40 pm #115738
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Maxwell, it’s hard to say what goes on behind the scenes, and we can’t hope to get in someone else’s head (despite the number of people who seem to live in Putin’s head … surprised the guy has room for a brain in there).

    I get the feeling Desmet stays in his lane because that’s what he has studied, researched, and feels confident speaking about. Maybe more people need to stay in their lanes.

    Btw, Desmet talks about what motivates the “leader/elites/etc” (whichever obnoxious term you prefer). He says that although they don’t believe the narrative they’re spouting, they do believe the “idealism.” (I take that to mean … saving the climate, fighting for Ukraine’s democracy, etc., etc.)

    September 12, 2022 at 4:04 pm #115739
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Mattias Desmet
    …is overwhelmed by the notoriety that he is receiving, and it is going to his head. Or, more likely, inflating the truth is something that he has always done. He is not a prophet..but does offer some cogent analysis.
    (1) he creates a framework (“hypnosis”) that explains how/why individuals that are in no way connected to the WEF, the WHO, Clinton/Obama/Biden, etc., have “drunk the koolaid” and are behaving in bizarre ways. (Such as: apparently an older gentleman in my former choir has been frequently removing his mask during choir practice. The man next to him is becoming very disgruntled by this, trying to “hold his breath” whenever he notices it. Oh, how these stringent, performative practices fray human connections that are supposedly nurtured by this spiritual community….)
    (2) Totalitarian power structures operate according to an ideology that is at odds with the ideologies that we are familiar with. This is why it becomes difficult to predict how leaders in totalitarian structures will behave and what they will do, making it a challenge to counter them.

    “Hypnosis” is an altered sense of reality. Equating totalitarian ideology with hypnosis is helpful, because then we can more easily “think outside of the box” of our common ideologies.

    Unfortunately, simply believing that the WEFfers are “just like you and me,” with greed as their primary motivation is not going to adequately capture the motivating ideology.

    Have any of you seen the Netflix film Don’t Look Up? The film suggests that most humans are so hopelessly mired in mundanities and useless shenanigans that they are incapable of adequately responding to an existential threat and mounting an effective countermeasure. Ultimately, the “good” characters come together for a peaceful communal meal (a “last supper”) as armegeddon destroys them. Not a lot of US based films are tragedies — this one is, full of hubris. The main character is WEFfer darling Leonardo DiCaprio. I suspect that the WEFfers and their ilk have convinced themselves that it is their duty, as the elites, to preserve a small slice of humanity and civilization against an imminent Armageddon. It is their “Noble Lie.” The machinery that will lead to the destruction of humanity is already in motion—they cannot stop it—all they can do is save themselves and several more to serve them. With that sort of framework, “the ends justify the means”—because the ends (massive human death) are already “written in the stars.” (Just like it was fated that the inhabitants of Jericho and the rest of Palestine were to be swept away by the Children of Israel in the Old Testament. The former inhabitants of Palestine were “iniquitous” and the Israelite god had given Joshua and his warriors a mandate (“manifest destiny”) to slaughter them all.)

    I’ve been watching the most recent season of Cobra Kai with a couple of my kids. John Silver is the arch-enemy in the current season, and the new Japanese karate master on the scene, Chozen, suggests that to defeat Silver they must “think like the enemy.” While we certainly don’t want to think so much like the enemy that we becomethe enemy (staying grounded in one’s own reality is crucial) it is very difficult to adequately respond to an enemy that cannot be fathomed, whose moves cannot be anticipated.

    I remember how dumbfounded I felt the day that I realized that one of the best ways to figure out what my ex was doing was to listen to all of the accusations he made of me. The accusations were completely unfounded, but when I operated from the point of view that the accusations were projections onto me of his own behaviors, desires, and thoughts—it was like I had been given the blueprints for his twisted mind. His behaviors suddenly made sense. When I understood him, it became possible to start extricating myself from the situation.

    September 12, 2022 at 4:09 pm #115740
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    phoenix: Don’t Look Up is good. I watched it twice just to see what I missed the first time while I was laughing.

    September 12, 2022 at 4:18 pm #115741
    willem
    Participant

    According to the Military Summary channel, Russia hit the Ukraine electrical supply to stop the trains, which in Ukraine are apparently all-electric. Stopping the trains halts all rail-based troop and equipment movements.

    https://rumble.com/v1jqrf0-ukraine.military-summary-and-analysis-of-strikes-against-critical-infrastru.html

    September 12, 2022 at 4:27 pm #115742
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Don’t Look Up has a lot of food for thought
    Focus on what is important in life, for tomorrow we die and there is nothing we can do about it.
    People that are running around very busily doing Very Important Things, but are inept and ultimately accomplish nothing.
    It dethrones humans as important actors in the world. Man vs. Nature, and Nature wins. Man is seen as impotent.
    The existential threat is not “manmade climate change” but rather a celestial body that humanity has nothing to do with.

    This movie came from my burgeoning terror about the climate crisis and the fact that we live in a society that tends to place it as the fourth or fifth news story, or in some cases even deny that it’s happening, and how horrifying that is, but at the same time preposterously funny.[14]

    — Adam McKay, writer, director, and producer of Don’t Look Up
    After Vice was released, David Sirota asked Adam McKay to use his “superpowers of humor and writing” to create a climate change movie that would be different from the Mad Max-type post-apocalyptic films that had previously been released.[15] In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, McKay described how he and Sirota came up with the premise of Don’t Look Up while discussing the existential threat of climate change and their frustration over the lack of media coverage it was receiving:

    I started talking to a lot of [climate] scientists. I kept looking for good news, and I never got it. Everything I was hearing was worse than what I was hearing on the mainstream media. So I was talking to [David Sirota], and we were both just like, “can you believe that this isn’t being covered in the media? That it’s being pushed to the end of the story? That there’s no headlines?” And Sirota just offhandedly said, “it’s like a comet is heading to Earth and it’s going to destroy us all and no one cares.” And I was like, “that’s the idea!”

    But the film was created out of concerns about humanity as a powerful actor in the world, creating the seeds of its own destruction. Which are we? Powerful or impotent? Bits of both?

    September 12, 2022 at 4:34 pm #115743
    Bill7
    Participant

    I tend to agree with Hopkins here that there’s no need for a new theory for what been accepted by many since early 2020; Hopkin’s explanation is simpler, while fitting the facts better (imo). There are quite a number of interesting comments below his article, I think.

    Also: any thoughts on Desmet’s claim re open heart surgery?

    September 12, 2022 at 4:51 pm #115744
    Bill7
    Participant

    This article brings up in a very limited way a topic that’s not scrutinized nearly enough in these times. I don’t
    accept many of the author’s premises, but it’s a start.

    Fog of War, Military and Economic

    September 12, 2022 at 4:56 pm #115745
    Dora
    Participant

    From the department of “There’s an app for that.”

    FDA tells Americans to ‘install’ booster update

    https://unherd.com/thepost/fda-tells-americans-to-install-booster-update/

    Um… no. (Looks like there’s no end to the pharma booster/update regime.)

    September 12, 2022 at 5:02 pm #115746
    Noirette
    Participant

    aspnaz and others, 🙂 – light relief…

    Greta T. singing and boucing along, all jolly jolly,

    You can shove your climate crisis up your arse..

    September 12, 2022 at 5:15 pm #115747
    Dora
    Participant

    “My government turned me into an ‘anti-vaxxer’
    A government power grab created the anti-vax movement”

    My government turned me into an ‘anti-vaxxer’

    September 12, 2022 at 5:18 pm #115748
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Don’t Look Up might have been created in reaction to climate change, but it can be applied to oh so many things in our lives. That’s what makes it so funny.

    September 12, 2022 at 5:34 pm #115749
    willem
    Participant

    The media and political tidal waves of celebration following the latest Ukrainian moves reveals something for those who see through today’s headlines.

    If Ukraine had really been kicking Russian butt all this time as these people would have us believe, there would be nothing particularly abnormal about this latest “offensive”. The fact that they are so effusive is an open admission that they have had precious little to celebrate up until now.

    September 12, 2022 at 5:39 pm #115750
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    When I was very a little kid (like 5 or so) I started sneaking into the room where the grownups were talking and just listen to what they were talking about. I learned a lot. Got caught a few times early on and unceremoniously evicted from the room with firm instructions to not come back, but that didn’t even slow me down. I just upgraded and refined my “trade craft” skills on sneaking in and hiding better.

    At first I looked on adults as gods. They seemed to know everything. As years progressed I learned that they definitely did NOT know everything. More listening revealed, quite to my surprise, that the things that they did not know tended to be the same things. There were some things (always the same things) that the big people did not know or understand. Aha! I thought to myself, on the deepest subconcious level, (In other words, I didn’t articulate the thought. It was far far too fundamental and primitive to be put into mere words in the mind of a child.) . . . . . THAT is what I want to know! I want to know THOSE things, the tough ones that stump everybody.

    And I’m still at it and I’m still using that wonderful strategy that has served me so well for all of these many many years. I sneak into the room where the grownups are talking and I listen and learn from what they’re talking about.

    It’s what I’ve been doing here, on TAE, for the past 9 years. (Jeez! Is that some kind of confession? It sure feels like one somehow.)

    Anyway, I’ve noticed that the topics being talked about now are like so many of the others I’ve eavesdropped in the past three quarters of a century. The room has hit an impasse. It has run smack into one of those things that stump pretty near everybody (except the most spiritually enlightened, who are viewed with such alarm by the general public that few pay them heed except to avoid them.) Here’s why they can’t get no respect: the answer is so profoundly simple that when articulated it sounds TOO simple (unless you’ve given it a GREAT DEAL of thought.)

    I’m not going to pitch that curving heat today, although I probably will in the near future.

    For today I wanna stick to just ONE item. It is this “Cabal” , “Conspiracy”, thing. It’s this “who’s calling who a nutter?”, thing.

    Why say it again? I mean, y’all know my position and much of my rationale, so why nag?

    Well, it’s like Reiner said, if you start with the a seriously erroneous assumption then you are going to make seriously wrong mistakes. This is a life & death situation. Mistakes can be fatal. The fatalities are mounting exponentially.

    Therefore, to reiterate : yes of course there is a Cabal. And yes, of course it is secretively conspiratorial, and also yes of course it is trying to homicidally reduce population by more than 90%. To believe otherwise in the face of overwhelming evidence is to make a fatal mistake.

    How could there even BE hierarchy of power without there being a TOP to the hierarchy? And how could that top last through a single day by being ANYTHING other than secretive and conspiratorial? (not to even mention ruthlessly violent).

    In the final analysis, we are met in a physically Holy War, but our weapons of choice, which will return the greatest victory with the minimum loss of life, are factual TRUTH, and unconditional LOVE. Never lose sight of the penultimate fact that each and every living thing in this world is the object of the “overwhelming, never ending, reckless love” of the One, God, Creator of the universe. Time to repay some of it back. Acknowledge what the all encompassing awareness of God/Universe has voluntarily subjected itself to and poignantly experienced on your behalf, for no good reason . . . except love. Treat his beloved with respect.

    September 12, 2022 at 6:25 pm #115751
    my parents said know
    Participant

    War narratives need martyrs, and that “salient” looks like it will supply that.

    September 12, 2022 at 6:35 pm #115752
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    DBS: “Therefore, to reiterate : yes of course there is a Cabal. And yes, of course it is secretively conspiratorial, and also yes of course it is trying to homicidally reduce population by more than 90%. To believe otherwise in the face of overwhelming evidence is to make a fatal mistake.”

    I had trouble believing this for a long while. I thought covid and the follow-on jabs were about greed, money, with the usual players. This far along, with the boosters now being pushed despite the insane level of death and disability already from the jabs (not to mention, public admission by public health that jabs do not prevent infection or transmission) … well, I’ve changed my mind.

    Something is going on. People who have spent time and effort researching have a much better idea of the intricacies of this than I ever will. But, sadly, I do think this latest (no early treatment, remdesivir, respirators, no family in the hospital, vaxxes, etc.) is a population reduction exercise. The lock downs were a way to buy time to keep global finance stumbling along. It’s like watching a train wreck in the slowest motion possible. Painful.

    September 12, 2022 at 6:48 pm #115753
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @upstateNYer ” It’s like watching a train wreck in the slowest motion possible. Painful.”

    Yeah, and made all the more mesmerizing by the fact that we are ON the train.

    September 12, 2022 at 7:01 pm #115754
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    DBS: “Yeah, and made all the more mesmerizing by the fact that we are ON the train.”

    Not me. Going to buy an electric car. 😉

    September 12, 2022 at 7:06 pm #115755
    Bill7
    Participant

    Nice job over there, flora.

    😉

    September 12, 2022 at 7:08 pm #115756
    zerosum
    Participant

    Not me. I already got an ebike.

    September 12, 2022 at 7:09 pm #115757
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The obsession of the young with their own image (low self-esteem) has manifested in the ubiquitous kultural phenomenon of “selfies”.

    For every occasion, special or not.

    .

    Even the photos of what they’re eating is a form of ‘selfie’, an extension of their snowflake uniqueness.

    They’re called ‘selfies’ because ‘narcissties‘ is too hard for them to spell.

    .

    September 12, 2022 at 7:15 pm #115758
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    zerosum in for the win. 😉

    September 12, 2022 at 7:37 pm #115759
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    The latest from the Military Summary channel is fascinating. 150,000 free forces fighting 1,000,000 army [controlled by fascists.]

    (Damn that kiwisaver website I get directed to when I click on ‘submit, kiwisaver is yet another scam that is on the way to oblivion)

    September 12, 2022 at 7:45 pm #115760
    my parents said know
    Participant

    Why would people who were tourists of each other’s nations one moment decide to kill each other the next?
    Why would family members turn on each other? How do disagreements turn friends into enemies?Why would politics morph into war?
    Why is it so easy to create “us” vs “them”?

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