Debt Rattle August 4 2022

 

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    Wooden statue of priest and scribe Ka-aper Egypt, ca. 2465-2323 BC (originally plastered and painted )   • Siemens Explains Russian Gas Supply Sh
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle August 4 2022]

    #112797
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Wooden statue of priest and scribe Ka-aper Egypt, ca. 2465-2323 BC (originally plastered and painted )

    Looking at this leaves one aghast; the detail and the eyes; just incredible…and from 3,000 B.C.

    #112798
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    …make that 2,500 B.C.

    #112799
    John Day
    Participant

    https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/explaining-involuntary-reductions

    What if global politics are fitting a bunch of crises to what is happening anyway,to create a narrative to “explain” it to us, when it is all happening for reasons beyond the control of the politicians and their “backers”? Just askin’. I know it’s kind of far-fetched, but I’ve beenmulling it over, and i can even patch something like this together, myself.

    Here, hold my beer; watch this!

    I’ll start with the projections of the oft-maligned 1973 book The Limits To Growth, which used the big computer at MIT, a new scientific discipline of Systems Analysis, and analyzed the growth of human population, industry, and natural resource usage over the 20th century, correlated with estimated reserves of resources, water and forests, and the capacity for waste absorption of the earth’s oceans, air and soils. https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/02/03/where-energy-modeling-goes-wrong/
    A couple of the predictions, if humanity did not change course intentionally (which humanity did not do) were that human population would peak around 2050, but that human industrial production would peak between 2010 and 2020. I think that industrial peak happened in the second half of 2018, myself, along with CO2 output, which closely correlates.
    http://www.ecoglobe.ch/scenarios/e/adx0.htm

    By August 2019, the biggest banks and financial institutions in the world, like Black Rock and Deutsche Bank, could not trust eaach other on overnight loans, backed by US Treasuries, so the Repo-Crisis happened in September. The Fed. took over the repo-window, and started creating $US trillions, which needed some cover. The monetary infusion needed to be really, really big, bigger than 2009, and it needed to go directly to the biggest financial institutions on the planet, and it needed cover, and then it needed hiding.

    Luckily, COVID came along right after that, though there is evidence that it had already leaked from a lab in Ft. Detrick Md. or Wuhan before that.
    In january 2020, China had a crisis with the pandemic, and there was evidence that it had already spread far and wide. Limited test availability and weird testing protocols let the tale of the spread be managed somewhat, but FEAR got dialed up by the media.

    Lockdowns got announced in March 2020, and crashed the real economy, and the stock market, allowing any sum of money to be given to any bank, while suppressing the real economy, so it did not “overheat”. They didn’t stop the virus, but they were very effective at shutting down restaurants, bars and barbershops, while shunting their business to Amazon, which did great. Lockdowns might actually kill people. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9295
    The Chinese have discovered lately that lockdowns for COVID are an effective treatment against runs on insolvent banks, but they don’t address the underlying structural failures. Sigh…

    #112803
    John Day
    Participant

    COVID provided a pretty good cover for governments and banks around the world to do whatever they needed to, to keep control of the societal narrative, but after the ‘vaccines” came out that lost traction. Early treatment had been suppressed, and all of the eggs placed in the vaccine-salvation basket, and all concerns about the coronavirus vaccines had been censored. those concerns were that no effective vaccine had ever been made against a coronavirus, nor did humans naturally mount a reliable long-lasting immunity to coronaviruses and their mutant offspring. All animal models of vaccination in coronavirus research had seen greater deaths among the vaccinated animals, mostly when they got exposed to the actual virus later. the vaccines worked backwards, causing more deaths, just like what seems to now be happening with humans. one mechanism is vaccine-antibody-enhancement-of-viral-pathogenicity. “The vaccines help the virus”. We have seen public health England data for over a year, suggesting higher COVID infections and deaths in the vaccinated after 6 months, and increases in hospitalizations and deaths followed with a little lag. That’s everywhere from israel to New England. Australia is getting hit hard by that lately. Here is a recent article looking at one specific way the vaccines help the virus. https://palexander.substack.com/p/why-is-covid-virus-now-so-infectious

    Steve Kirsch has found survey data that “Vaccines” for COVID kill more than COVID does. Google disallowed his 2 questions to run a Google survey. Basically, “Did anybody in your household die from COVID?” and “Did anyone in your household die from COVID vaccination?”.
    “Nextdoor” didn’t shut him down for a whole 24 hrs, by which time he had 2% COVID deaths, 3% vaccine-deaths and 3% vaccine serious adverse events per household. https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/google-does-not-want-anyone-to-find

    About 22% of people (such as myself, an early-treatment MD, fired for vaccine refusal) have never accepted the official COVID narrative.
    Less than half of “fully vaccinated” Americans are getting a booster. They changed their minds. The societal control narrative needed a diaper-change.

    WAR! That’s a tried and true control-narrative. we got Ukraine War. Biden came back smiling from his meeting with Putin, shortly before war broke out. Biden kept guaranttying that Russia was going to attack /ukraine in February. He did know the set-up, that Ukrainian troops were massed to finish the genocide in the Donbas in late February if Russia did not intervene. The US had trained and supplied Ukrainian troops since the US-sponsored 2014 coup d’etat in Ukraine put in the new fascist government in Kiev, which failed to honor the 2015 Minsk Accords, to give Russian-speaking Donbas autonomy and to stop shelling them.

    You see how that war has gone for the west. It was supposed to be self-supporting in a way, by collapsing the Russian economy and their will to fight, but like the vaccine-salvation, this war-plan is working-backwards. Americans are not afraid of it, and don’t much support it any more, since “our side”-is-losing. Ukraine has dropped out of the headlines. Russian prestige on the global stage has gone from 3-stars to 5-stars, while US prestige is at 2-stars. Russia is exporting less oil and gas, but getting more money. The Russian Ruble is the strongest it has been in years. Russian weapons are in high demand. Russian diplomacy is trusted…

    As the global energy-based economy grinds ever-downward from its peak in 2018-2019, neither COVID, nor the Ukraine war will suffice as a control narrative for American power elites. It’s an acute disaster in Europe.https://www.rt.com/business/560064-eu-gas-shortage-winter/
    Europe really needs the Russian gas spigots turned back on fully by fall equinox, and even that will still be a deadly winter for Europeans. Germany is importing more than it exports. The jig is about up for the Brussels EU. Orban of Hungary is calling it like he sees it and cannot be shut up, short of assassination. https://www.rt.com/news/560068-orban-eu-hungary-independent/ “Brussels is not our boss We are an independent, sovereign Hungarian nation. We make decisions together. If they’re not good for us, we’ll tell them. If they are not good and we can prevent them, the common decision will not be made.”

    Making Europe use less fossile fuel is part of the plan for the control narrative, but throwing outthe ruling elites is not part of the plan. The WAR needs to be against somebody else, and quickly, so europe can open Nordstream 1 & 2 up and get the gas we need to survive winter. Otherwise people are going to follow Orban-the-Deplorable. “War” with China might be good enough. Neither China nor the Us appears to really want a big war, like against Russia (US) or the US (China).
    The border between China and Taiwan is about 100 miles of ocean, so no blitzkerig. there can be lots of testing of resolve and of defensive and offensive capabilities. there can be cyber-war, trade-war and limited-war. There are some small islands in the strait that can be limited battlefields. The US can pump weapons into Taiwan, or jump right in. The US Congress has legislationintroduced to make Taiwan a more-important ally. The US can put US navy ships in Taiwanese waters and ports ‘by request’, making Taiwan into somthing like Japan. How far along that timeline before China sends the bimbers? The tension could be unbearable.

    The Chinese navy is going to do live fire military drills less than 10 miles from the Taiwanese coast in the next few days, in 3 different places that close.

    #112804
    John Day
    Participant

    Taiwan Policy Act of 2022. Senator Robert Menendez
    Our legislation would reinforce the safety of Taiwan by offering virtually $4.5 billion in safety help over the subsequent 4 years and recognizing Taiwan as a “major non-NATO ally” — a strong designation to facilitate nearer navy and safety ties. It would additionally increase Taiwan’s diplomatic area by its participation in worldwide organizations and in multilateral commerce agreements. The laws would additionally take concrete steps to counter China’s aggressive affect campaigns, impose crippling financial prices if Beijing takes hostile motion towards Taiwan (reminiscent of monetary, banking, visa and different sanctions) and reform American bureaucratic practices to bolster assist for Taiwan’s democratic authorities. In quick, this effort can be the most complete restructuring of U.S. coverage towards Taiwan since the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.

    Opinion | This Is How the U.S. Will Stand With Taiwan

    ​ That act by Senator menendez does not take the step of recognizing Taiwanese nationality yet, but it could do so, Taiwanese statehood is the modern reality, but it does throw the gauntlet down for war with China right-away. The problem is that China might need a hot war before the us needs a hot war, and of course Taiwan never wants the hot war. The whole world needs Taiwanese chips. this is different from Ukrainian wheat and corn.​

    Still, this war scenario allows for any necessary reduction in global carbon-based economy to be created/explained by the war narrative. Famine control-narrative explanations remain in preliminary stages with arsons and explosions in American food processing plants, fertilizer-embargoes, and government green initiatives against farmers through much of the alnglophone world and Holland. https://thecountersignal.com/new-zealand-burp-tax-on-farmers-livestock/
    War generally leads to famine, and with global supply chains as they are, we have already seen how easily that can be accomplished. it is important to remember that rapidly reducing the resource-depleting and CO2 generating human population of this planet, in a manageable and generally-palatable way is an important task for our shadowy globalist owners. We are overheating the planet by burning THEIR jet fuel, after all.

    That brings us to the new, competitive-global-elite control-narrative, now championed by Russia, China, Shanghai Cooperation organization, and the growing BRICS+++. This control-narrative says that the current neoliberal-capitalist global elites and their $US based global value extraction system, spearheaded by World Bank and IMF loans for things that help imports and hurt locals is The Problem. That’s still not discussing resource limits as a driver of current trends, but it allows a lot of room to improve the match of the control-narrative to “reality”, so it should be less of a strain to the credulity of folks like us, and hungry folks and cold folks.
    This new narrative has a powerful feature to improve reality-matching, which is the massive repudiationof $US debts. That repudiation by debtor countries will massively decrease the magnitude of promises to be paid by future production, payment which can never be performed as real economy shrinks. The ‘financial innovation” of recent decades makes it impossible to discover how much phanton-wealth there is, but that’s one way the current system “creates prosperity”.

    That implies “assigning losses” not just to starving Africans and indians, but to many of those wealthy people who now hold developing world debt, instead. That’s going to please a lot more of the people of the world, and will not necessitate killing as many through starvation. It’s going to be tough for the gated-community and jet-set, but I’m sure they will understand that its the wonders of capitalism going through more growth pains as it becomes more efficient. To further run with that ball, we see that African leaders are now calling for a new system whereby Africans get a leg-up by burning African oil, instead of sending it to “wealthy” countries. that’s pretty bold, and it’s not “green’, but they are claiming that they are so much greener than westerners that westerners should rightly take big cuts so Africans can take some modest increases. Clever argument, eh? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/01/african-nations-set-to-make-the-case-for-big-rise-in-fossil-fuel-output

    #112805
    John Day
    Participant

    The carved wooden statue is a masterpiece, portraying not just life, but an inner light and liveliness. Wonderful that it still exists.

    #112806
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Blake Masters, Other Trump-Backed Candidates Win Key Primaries Tuesday”

    Thanks to millions of dollars from DNC donors. Who picked exclusively non R v Wade candidates. Thanks Nancy!

    “al-Zawahiri Shredded by Blades of Non-Explosive “Flying Ginsu” Missile”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1OVIcXpEdo
    The Mandarin. An Actor they parked out on the balcony waiting for Joe’s bad poll numbers. Boom! Another dead actor.

    Kidding? This guy’s been blown up on schedule like 9 times. He’s like 80 years old. How many times can you run a scam before people go “Hey, dis be sus?” A: There’s no such number. Infinity times. P.S. they say there’s no need for DNA. Trust us: when has the CIA ever lied about shooting people before?

    “German Artillery Donated to Ukraine Is Already Failing after Just Weeks of Use”

    That has all the bad. Germany had to make waves and make enemies to send them. It cost money. It left Germany less defended. Then they were no good. And it’s a international embarrassment to NATO. Makes me pretty happy.

    Meanwhile, Russia is richer than ever while exporting less oil. So maybe it’s true! RussiaRussiaRussia is tampering with elections and running the White House. P.S. there are no “resource constraints”. Russia has all the oil for 50 more years and all you have to do is ask.

    “The electorate appears to want someone on the platform who miraculously rises above their own moral, intellectual and visionary shortcomings.”

    I say this all the time. Remove their power altogether and push decisions to the lowest possible level: YOU. YOU are in charge. YOU are responsible. Why would a leader (or officer) be better than the people who put him there? Wouldn’t he be worse? And how would he get anything good done over the will of the people?

    “We’re on the edge of Holodomor.” Voluntary. Arranged and engineered. We have the food and resources, it’s distribution that’s stopped, along with some easily-cured infrastructure. Like the last one, and under the same Maniacal Socialists as Stalin.

    “The simplest solution would be to put the Nord Stream 2 pipeline into operation.”

    Ahhhhh. Is THIS what they’re all up to? That makes sense now. The U.S. has too much blackmail, pressure, etc. but if all of Germany and the German people are a tidal wave of support for it, Germany can say “It’s not our fault! Everyone can see it’s just unsupportable!” If so, hand well-played dragging it out this long without revealing. Wondering why we haven’t heard from German industry.

    So if/when this happens, Germany unites East and MacKinder is dead for 100 years. Slowly, yes, but occurring.

    “ US Is ‘Directly Involved’ in Ukraine War – Russia (Antiwar)”

    They’ve been saying this since the beginning, or since 2014 when we were directly involved in “F-ing the EU” and paying for the coup, hiring the snipers to shoot both sides, and supporting the Nazis burning people alive in Odessa. The only people not listening to this is us, I guess, while our President himself says “We’re in a war”, Congress says we’re in a war, they send war-sized money for the war…but we’re not in a war that we’re in but we’re not.

    It is indeed difficult to talk to the mentally ill. Americans, that is. Driven stark raving mad with nonsense force-fed from birth. P.S. men and women also don’t exist, but they exist so men are bad and women must be protected, that is, whenever they are not the same, except being different.

    “General Merrick Garland is causing tremendous damage to the Presidency.”

    Yes but that’s the point. When governments are conflicted, politicized, discredited they will also not be supported and defended by the people. Who steps into the gap except corporations? Who are now larger, more powerful, and if possible, even less accountable? Supra-national? World government, in fact, similar to the PPP with their own “taxation” (monopoly) and courts? (arbitration agreements)

    DOD ‘Wiped’ Phones of Senior Trump Officials, Jan. 6 Communications (ET)”

    Is everyone crazy? YOUR PHONE CALLS DON’T LIVE ON THE PHONE. They live in the NSA data records of the cell towers. That’s true of Comey, but also true of Trump. Are they, and everyone, really that dumb? “Wiped the phone” …get out of here with that stuff. Don’t most cell carriers also archive a large amount of it like Apple does, as Hunter just realized when they hacked his Apple password and downloaded his lifetime backup records?

    “Elites Prepare to Drop Hunter Biden in a “Controlled Demolition” (Turley)”

    When Hunter does crack beside his Black-imprisoning 1994 Crime Bill father, it’s a GOOD thing. He’s a man of the people. Don’t download a copy of it because the idea that illegal acts perhaps with children on it means that the idea it could be used as Presidential leverage is of course laughable. Vote Blue, and please donate at this critical time (so we can send the money to far-right, anti-abortion seditious MAGA candidates).

    “ German Mask Mandates for Those Who Refuse a 4th Dose in the Fall (Eugyp)”

    There’s a real sparring going on. The people have to achieve critical mass all at once in order for their organic response, resistance, and general strike to have traction and succeed. The engineers need to constantly antagonize the people in general without them reaching that critical threshold. So, like organized torture, basically. Every day after day. They love it.

    Dutch farmers: really demonstrates how those are go-anywhere machines easily able to crush police cars, APCs, water cannons, tanks…

    “The monetary infusion needed to be really, really big, bigger than 2009, and it needed to go directly to the biggest financial institutions on the planet, and it needed cover, and then it needed hiding.”

    But what do you do with the “money”? Wouldn’t you then buy up all U.S. property at $30k per house above any retail ask if you’re BlackRock? Locking out all young people and in fact all citizens from “owning nothing” forever? Wouldn’t you buy every U.S. stock and therefore every Board of Directors if you’re Vanguard? 1) Print money out of thin air. 2) Buy up the country who foolishly gave you that power. 3) Go golfing. With a Senator carrying your bags. Then fly to St. James with his 12 year old daughter.

    “They didn’t stop the virus, but they were very effective at shutting down restaurants, bars and barbershops,” …to stop “inflation”. Which worked.

    “The vaccines help the virus”. Yes, and the only other action besides lockdown that is adequately deflationary is mass death. Birth is inflationary, death is deflationary. Demographics is destiny.

    So in that narrative, the 2019 bond collapse story continues on as they add or remove lockdowns according to the regional death rate. That’s why they look random to us, because they are response to inflation, not to medicine.

    “War generally leads to famine,” …but not as much as the Pale Green Horseman, the Green New Deal does! Famine follows immediately wherever Socialism is tried. We are now Socialist, with the same top-down bureaucratic Soviet elites, and now we have the same miasma and lack of production, no distribution, centralized allocation that can’t transport goods, and a palatially-wealthy elite removed from it all and shopping in Switzerland. Want to end famine? Start price discovery and stop meddling. We’ll have it fixed in 12 months. Napoleon showed this. Germany after the war.

    ….Since there’s nothing broken to begin with. Note: we were feeding all 8B humans only last year or two. We were wasting half the food in the U.S. while doing it. So we’re not “Suddenly unable” to, and we do not have “resource constraints”. Not anywhere yet anyway. If I can walk to the kitchen but then shoot my foot off and can’t, am constrained and unable to walk to the kitchen, it’s not the kitchen’s fault. It’s not my foot’s fault. It’s my fault. I voluntarily and for no rational reason did this thing.

    …Except to kill people. I didn’t shoot MY foot off: I shot YOUR foot off. And now YOU can’t go to the kitchen and eat while I still can, and do, and watch your funny, funny tears. Eating bon-bons and filet mignon watching it on CCTV.

    #112807
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Empire of Lies practicing diplomacy

    .

    #112808
    Oroboros
    Participant

    A cautionary tale regarding Neo-tards

    .

    #112817

    Failing weapons: I have always hoped that nukes are just the same as any weapon built and maintained by a corrupt society- they would either fail or fittingly explode at the launch site.

    That scribe’s face is compelling. In a time when reading and writing were the jealously guarded privilege of the elite, the scribe was in the PMC. :0 (I think they often ended up pulling the strings of the rulers.)
    Reading and writing created the echo chambers of crumbling ancient empires. The tiny cult of the literate ignored the groans of the masses.

    #112818
    zerosum
    Participant

    Breaking news
    UK is training 30,000 troops.
    Canada has agreed to join the training effort in the UK
    (Will those troops become the peacekeepers or the underground force after Russia imposes a cease fire?)
    • Russia Ready For Peace On Own Terms – Kremlin (RT)

    ———-
    Too bad … Schroeder is not the decision maker
    • German Ex-Chancellor Offers Solution To EU Energy Crisis (RT)

    ….. with both Nord Stream pipelines there would be no supply problem for German industry and German households.” he said. Otherwise, “you have to bear the consequences. And they will be huge in Germany, too,” Schroeder warned.
    ———
    Shortages are happening everywhere
    decision makers
    skilled workers,
    water,
    gas stations,
    trained soldiers
    functioning war machines
    politicians/gov. working for voters
    ———-
    Learning is achieved by repetition/memorizing

    @ my parents said know
    Failing weapons: I have always hoped that nukes are just the same as any weapon built and maintained by a corrupt society- they would either fail or fittingly explode at the launch site.

    That scribe’s face is compelling. In a time when reading and writing were the jealously guarded privilege of the elite, the scribe was in the PMC. :0 (I think they often ended up pulling the strings of the rulers.)
    Reading and writing created the echo chambers of crumbling ancient empires. The tiny cult of the literate ignored the groans of the masses.

    ———

    #112819
    Bill7
    Participant

    ‘Nancy Pelosi, Taiwan & yet another fake binary Why do we continue to partake of the geopolitical pantomime?’:

    Nancy Pelosi, Taiwan & yet another fake binary

    A good question, I think.

    #112820
    Bill7
    Participant

    Gas Turbines go AWOL? “Missing Documents” impede their delivery?
    Mr. Scholz makes a special trip to
    “inspect” one, and says “yep, there it is!”.

    Christ on a crutch, people: these stories
    are not even *meant* to be believable by those who daily create them, and yet..

    #112821
    Oroboros
    Participant

    PrioritiesPrioritiesPriorities

    RussiaRussiaRussia get a 1% interest from the Sheeple People in July

    The “Environment’ gets a whopping 3% public concern.

    However, Kim Kardashian’s G-String Exposure Was Met With Disapproval so I guess that makes a difference in As the World Turns

    .

    #112822
    Mr. House
    Participant

    Better round table today, actually talking about things now that the shrew isn’t on

    #112823
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Regarding the wooden statue…
    I am amazed and impressed by the detail — I had no idea that there were artisans 4500 years ago capable of this skill — accurate portrayal in physical media.
    As a child and teen I was inducted into the “cult of progress” by both public education and religious training. I believed that humans were gaining in abilities and philosophy over time. The older I get the more I learn that “there is no new thing under the sun” — humans are humans, now, a few generations back, and millennia ago. All that has changed are details of technology.

    #112824
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    China is reportedly doing a lot of military flyovers of the heavily fortified Jinmen Islands. The islands belong to Taiwan, and the heavy fortifications are compliments of the good old USA. If Taiwan becomes a sovereign nation then the fortifications can house ANY damned weapon system that Taiwan or it’s uncle, Sam, want to put there.

    Now check out precisely where the Jinmen Islands are. Surprise! Go ahead. Pull up Google Maps and check it out. Absa-friggin-lutely amazing.

    For comparison, how would America feel about Russia staging nukes on Staten Island, NY? For defensive purposes only, you understand.

    #112825
    Polder Dweller
    Participant

    ID and driving licence in digital wallet being rolled out in Greece, I suppose you’re aware of this, Raúl?

    https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/07/28/greece-digital-wallet-driving-license/

    #112826
    Armenio Pereira
    Participant

    “Morality is doing what is right regardless of what everyone else is doing.” (my emphasis)

    Good everyone seems to know what short term doing what is right is all about, because long term doing what is right can proof to be – if one lives long enough – an entirely different concept altogether.

    #112827
    Bill7
    Participant

    Why have People-oriented leaders (like Sanders and Corbyn, in anglo-world) been
    so consistently ineffectual and apparently hapless? I’m thinking especially of the false charges of “anti-semitism” leveled against the latter.

    And why do they never, ever significantly
    fight back?

    odd.

    #112828
    Bill7
    Participant

    ‘Fearless commentary on finance, economics, politics and power’ over at NC:

    The Story Behind ‘Star Trek’ Actress Nichelle Nichols’ Iconic Interracial Kiss

    heh.

    #112829
    Armenio Pereira
    Participant

    “Morality is doing what is right regardless of what everyone else is doing.” (my emphasis)

    Good everyone seems to know what short term doing what is right is all about, because long term doing what is right can prove to be – if one lives long enough – an entirely different concept altogether.

    #112830
    John Day
    Participant

    D Benton Smith pointed out the location of Jinmin/Kinmen islands, very close to mainland China.
    They were separated from the mainland by the Chinese Civil war. they were not deeded to japan in 1895, as was Formosa. they benefit from Chinese tourism and transit between mainland and Taiwan. They were military outposts until the mid 1990s, and contested in cross strait warfare several times. The local people strongly politically identify with Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang party, but want good relations with the mainland.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinmen
    “The people of Kinmen see themselves as Kinmenese, Mínnánrén/Mǐnnánrén (people of Southern Fujian), or Chinese, but not so much as Taiwanese.[10][58] Kinmen’s strong Chinese identity was forged during the period of the ROC’s military confrontation with the People’s Republic of China (1949–1992) when Kinmen was under military administration.[10] In the 1980s, as the militarization decreased and martial law was ended on Taiwan, the Taiwan independence movement and efforts in de-Sinicization grew in strength on Taiwan.[10] To Kinmenese, however, these developments were viewed with concern and there was a feeling that “Taiwan didn’t identify with Kinmen”.[10] Many worried that Taiwanese de jure independence from China would lead to the severing of ties with Kinmen.[10] These concerns play a strong role in Kinmenese politics as well.[10] Legally speaking, Kinmenese people are not Taiwanese either and have a unique identity from that of the Taiwanese. ‘Taiwanization’ is sometimes perceived as a threat to the cultural identity of the Kinmenese people.[59]”

    #112831
    John Day
    Participant

    China can keep pushing and testing and pushing and testing around Taiwan, exhausting Taiwan militarily, with embargoes, and with cyber attacks. What role will the US play as Taiwan is gradually worn out?
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ballistic-missiles-soar-over-taiwan-hundreds-pla-fighters-breach-airspace-5-day-drills

    #112834
    FinalGravity
    Participant

    Gravity is today’s algorithm.

    Today is Gravity’s algorithm.

    #112835
    Bill7
    Participant

    Yes, “shrew” is a good fit, though I think I like “harpy” even better.

    Don’t ask me about my email interaction
    with that person, after I posted a slightly anti-Monsanto link on that site..

    #112836
    Bill7
    Participant

    It’s interesting to note what entities and narratives one is not allowed to criticize.

    #112837
    Bill7
    Participant

    Quite a bit of good stuff from Dr. D today, I think.

    #112838
    citizenx
    Participant

    Biden responds to Brittney Griner verdict
    US president calls basketball star “wrongfully detained” and demands Russia release her “immediately”

    “It’s unacceptable, and I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates,”

    Hey Joe, Where you going with that gun in your hand?
    Hey Joe, I bet you wish you had Snowden locked up permanently for exposing your Govt crimes?
    Hey Joe, Assange?

    why Ali refused to serve in the murderous Vietnam War

    “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”

    Civil Unrest ->
    Civil Disobedience->

    Civil War

    Fuck the Evil Empire

    #112839
    Bill7
    Participant

    I’ve been reading a number of obits of musician’s I’ve admired lately- here is William Steinberg’s, which doesn’t really do him justice, I think:

    He was apparently considered a B-list kind of guy by contemporaries, but I really like his straightfoward, heart-not-on-sleeve interpretations of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony (twice-recorded; once in mono for Capitol, later in stereo for Command), and the live Missa Solemnis (now on ICA, in stereo).

    #112840
    Bill7
    Participant

    deleted..

    #112841
    Bill7
    Participant

    “Who do you think you’re talking to? I lie for a living! I’m the undisputed heavyweight champion of liars.. and what you’re selling me is Weak.”

    -Jonathan (Ed Quinn) in ‘The Neighbor’, 2007.

    applications abound..

    #112842
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    The solution to the rapidly-burgeoning energy crisis and rapidly-burgeoning food crisis is obvious: stay home and grow vegetables. Planting fruit trees helps too. So does riding a bicycle. Or walking.

    The problem for people living in ‘advanced’ nations is that the government doesn’t want people to stay home and grow vegetables and fruit: it wants them to get on planes and spend money that is created out of thin air in faraway places. And remain on the debt-slave/work-slave treadmill.

    And then it tells its debt-slaves that it is going to solve the environmental crisis and energy crisis by subsidising electric cars that are extraordinarily energy-intensive to construct and which run on electricity generated via burning fossil fuels at an overall efficiency of about 35%.

    They think we are stupid.

    Sadly, the bulk of the populace of ‘advanced nations’ is stupid. 🙁

    But when they have been sufficiently screwed over by their own governments, even the incredibly stupid might wake up. 🙂

    #112843
    kultsommer
    Participant

    My inbox is full of GOP-creatures begging for $$$$, not realizing that I am through with politician’s attention/discard game.
    Linh Dinh in his article that I received today had this included in:

    Egyptian and Roman portrait sculpture transcends line that separating living flesh and art medium. Later works in the history, even by by the giants and no matter how “detailed”, does not relive one from impression that he or she is still looking at.the sculpture, albeit great creation of art.
    Sculpture is a rare guest on this site. Glad to see it. Also, ahem (drawing the arc in the sand with the toe), artist in the XX century made sculptures too. THAT would steer some waters in here.

    #112844
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    The Military Summary channel is focused on positions and fates of the military of course, but he mentions that the Russians have discovered evidence in eastern Ukraine of the Americans having created Covid and having spread it. Also monkeypox.

    Since the Americans…whoops…Ukrainians…have been fortifying the region to west of Donetsk for 8 years, progress is slow.

    Unverified at the moment is the suggestion that the Americans….whoops…Ukrainians deliberately attacked civilians attending a funeral.

    #112845
    Bill7
    Participant

    What was the phase Columbo used to use?
    Was it “oh, just one more thing”? Correction is most welcome!

    My “one more thing” is the siloing apparent on the few websites that still
    have comments sections.
    Ten years ago, say, you’d see one commenter’s name on a number of sites, and be able to infer this and that over time. Now, that almost
    never happens: commenters are specific to one site- with very rare exception.

    ’tis curious..

    #112846
    zerosum
    Participant

    All I hear is that a “Reset” is for the post-democratic world
    What is going to happen to every other political systems?

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