Debt Rattle June 4 2022
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Andy Warhol Queen Elizabeth, Reigning Queens Series 1985 • Putin Says US Decision To Print Money Is Behind Soaring Food Prices (ZH) • Biden: Uk
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 4 2022]“..the smart thing to do today would be to simplify our way of life..”
The process of simplification is well under way as I type this and has been for some time. Find yourself a less complex way of living that suits your particular self and keep looking for less complexity. Less is more if properly visioned.
The only thing that the oppressed seem to learn from being oppressed is, given the chance, how to oppress.Ukraine has been mounting effective counter offensives
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1532997505868255233.html
Overall that have recaptured (Russians abandoned) a lot of territory
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1532836363036413953?s=20&t=MNwC1ErokhmwSctuxwJmMQ
Well equipped reinforcements.
https://twitter.com/Militarylandnet/status/1533016274090999808?s=20&t=9NuN6yCY4g1ybp1pponHZw
The Ukrainians are on track to a million people under arms by no later than the end of July with many/most of them returning combat veterans of six conscript classes in the previous 8-years of fighting. The 8-year conflict took the lives of around 4500 Ukrainian soldiers, 6000 Russian proxy fighters, 500 Russian soldiers and 3000 civilians
Reports on Twitter strongly point to Ukraine being able to turn new NATO kit into combat power very quickly.
Ukraine is in a much better position to sustain a multi-year war than Russia. It has an unlimited line of credit with the West for arms and an utterly committed population.
A deal between Russia and Ukraine is only possible as an extension of an agreement between Russia and the West or as a result of the collapse of Putin’s regime.
“Now that the war is going so abominably for Putin and the prospect of his regaining Kyiv has faded, we are told that Russia is being “humiliated” by its failure and the West’s power. So answer me this: if these proud Russians feel “humiliated” by the historic loss of Ukraine and then feel “humiliated” by Russia’s attempt to regain Ukraine, who is responsible for this lamentable sense of low self-esteem? It ought to be abundantly clear that if anyone is, in fact, “humiliating” Russia, it is the country’s own venal, incompetent and belligerent government.
Rather than indulging this imperial psychodrama, we ought to notice a more telling pattern in the Putin regime’s behaviour, which is that whenever he senses weakness or a lack of resolve on the part of his enemies, it emboldens him. That is why all this spineless chat from Mr Macron and Mr Scholz is so damaging. Have they learnt nothing from Georgia and Crimea, or from Litvinenko and Skripal? Have they not noticed that, whenever the West prevaricates or sells out, Mr Putin’s ambitions only expand? It can hardly be a coincidence that all the countries Moscow has attacked since 1990 are non-Nato members, whereas the Nato members, despite many having been “historically Russia” as Mr Putin put it, have been left alone.”
A lot of mushroom cloud talk coming from Russia recently. Also, don’t think a ceasefire will fly now that Russians appear to be unable to take Severodonetsk and declare full control over Donbas.
https://unherd.com/2022/06/putins-war-is-just-beginning/
[..] He did, however, pay particular attention to the potential for nuclear weapons to intimidate other nations. He published a new doctrine of nuclear threats, known as “Escalate to Deescalate”. The public airing of this doctrine was meant to show that he was seriously considering selective use of nuclear weapons not only inside Ukraine but in future conflicts with Baltic Sea neighbours.
[..] It is amid this context of larger ambitions that the Russian invasion of Ukraine should be assessed. The long list of Russian military failures over the past 100 days are embarrassing, but the objectives remain the same. The growing costs of waging war and the toll on his armies and top officers cannot go on forever. But that doesn’t mean the war is entering its endgame.
For Putin, the next steps seem obvious: unilaterally declare a ceasefire, ease the international interventions on behalf of Ukraine, and provide time to regroup and prepare for a new drive westward through Odesa to Moldova and Transnistria, perhaps next year. If a ceasefire is declared, the world will sigh with relief, stock markets will rebound, worries about world food shortages will diminish, and diplomats will go back to sleep. But the war will only be in hibernation; the action will resume at a later date. After 100 days of war, the battle for Ukraine is only getting started.
Here is how the frontline in Ukraine changed over the past five weeks. Russian progress has been very small, whereas Ukrainians have successfully counterattacked north of Kharkiv and in the Kherson Oblast. pic.twitter.com/r2VUoBxmMg
— Konrad Muzyka – Rochan Consulting (@konrad_muzyka) June 4, 2022
I’m thinking 1939 movies this morning. The Wizard of Oz crossed my mind(short trip, isn’t much to cross).
Thus I pondered being forced to live in a society run by tin men(no heart) and wizards(con men). Plus having to live with scarecrows(no brians) and lions(no courage).
Now if we all put on our ruby slippers and click our heels three times then we can return to normal.
EoinW, maybe things would be different (Should always ask What if?)
We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan’s power to make war.
Chooch, I find that extremely unlikely. It’s also the same talk since Day One until today when Rus owns 20% of a nation the size of Britain. According to these same people they’ve been losing all that time. Strange where every loss leads to controlling new territory.
I’ve been noting now we haven’t had an imminent False Flag report in weeks, no chemical plants, attacks, or suggestions of nuclear strikes. That’s very odd, as they did that every 3 days in Syria for like 10 years and everyone bought it every. single. time. So: disagree. There are no men. The east is about to collapse. We’ll see.
The Vaccination video forgets Trump. “Vaccines, really great. I did that! Yuge.” Also I was looking for it to morph into “We never said it would stop the spread! Or the disease! Or the Lockdowns. …Those are permanent.” Biden just re-sued to keep masks on flights despite getting bounced out of court in that A) it’s not a law B) it’s such an emergency they waited a moth or two before asking.
Old news. There is no illogic they won’t promote. That’s the POINT. They WANT you to know it, they want you to have to look at it and do it anyway and despair. The plan wouldn’t work if you believed it or didn’t know it.
“[Biden’s] catastrophic results will soon be obvious to even his most die-hard fans.”
No they won’t. Nothing can burst the invisible force field. And Putin needs to take a page from Idiocracy:
“But the English language had deteriorated into a hybrid of hillbilly, valley girl, inner city slang, and various grunts. Joe was able to understand them, but when he spoke in his ordinary voice, he sounded pompous and “faggy”
He needs to say, “Hey fool, this is what happens when you print $10 Trillion dollars. Don’t be a moron or it’ll bite you in the -ss and f—k up your s—t an’ s—t.” Then Americans can understand it. …Enough to fight him over it, but that’d get in inside their brain-pans at least.
Anyway, since they’re illiterate morons, no sense in posting the chart going around: 90% increase in prices = Biden. 10% increase in prices since the war.
“Biden: Ukraine Might Have to Give Russia Land in ‘Negotiated Settlement’ (NYP)”
“Might”? “Ukraine might give”? There is no Ukraine left to give anything. They’re about to cease to exist. Since, like here, some overwhelming portion of their wealth comes from the Hillbilly rebel counties, the Donbass, and the rest of the nation lives off their slavery at the point of a gun. The 51st State. How American of them.
“But it appears to me that at some point along the line, there’s going to have to be a negotiated settlement here,” –Biden
Wot? Wars end with peace treaties??? But I heard if we talked with anyone about peace ever, it was a surrender! That’s what the War lobby told me, using all their un-marked “experts” planted on national TV. People like Austin, come straight from the war companies board of Directors. Like Cheney and George Schultz before him.(Raytheon, Halliburton, Bechtel)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZol2ywFYUQ (WeaponsWeaponsWeapons! For RussiaRussiaRussia!)
As Lira says, they put unbearable pressure on the East, sending everything they had. But they were trapped anyway, since their position was due to their intent to invade and murder Donbas. When that collapses shortly, they will have nothing. “Biden”, or the lack thereof, knows this and wants a negotiation that pretends he hasn’t completely, utterly, and humiliatingly LostLostLost and that they can still salvage endless war, death, and murder in Ukraine, with endless weapons sales and money laundering. Killin’ some Slavic folks. Dead to the last Ukrainian. Ukraine ceases to exist thanks to Biden and the United States “helping”. Helping so much!!!
Wherever our help goes, murder and collapse follows. Just look at the War on Drugs and Poverty! Now we have more than ever, AND whole cities of Americans dying from it. Help!
“In order to increase the welfare of a handful of magnates in the City of London and Wall Street, the governments of the United States and United Kingdom, controlled by big capital, are creating an economic crisis in the world, dooming millions of people in Africa, Asia and Latin America to starvation, “
Can’t argue with that. It’s what those magnates themselves said. They just finished a long meeting in Switzerland saying they intend to use every force at their disposal to do it harder.
“The Ukraine War: a Colloquy (CP) “
The point of the article is that everything Economists say is a made-up lie? We know.
““If we don’t stop this deal, he’ll hand a megaphone to demagogues and extremists, who will cheer him as they incite more hate, harm, and harassment.”
Wot? I thought THEY had the megaphone now as leftist extremists incite hate, harm, and harassment. Like Ethan only yesterday saying “Someone should blow up the NRA conference.” Pretty standard rhetoric, 10,000 examples wouldn’t take me too much time. The news was that he finally got a slap on the wrist for it. Now that WAS new and nearly unprecedented.
“DOJ Declines to Prosecute Former Trump Chief of Staff and Deputy (NBC)”
Amazing framing, their favorite — LIE! –. It presumes they are totally, totally guilty, but they just didn’t feel like prosecuting, although they’re the good guys, and Trump is totally guilty. ‘Cause: reasons. Are they guilty? Or did the DoJ not have a case? The world will never know, but we do know this: If they are Leftists, you are PRESUMED guilty, always, because you are alive and exhale CO2. We only bother with a trial as a generous courtesy to you, because we’re just so magnanimous. If they’re Conservative, they presume you’re Innocent even when we have enough evidence to convict in the public space.
Easy! Any generosity, any compassion, and you’re evicted from the Left. You become “Far-Right” like Chomsky, and near-communists like Brand, and left-of-Bernie Bros like Rogan.
I don’t try to explain it since it makes no sense. I just report it. Like yesterday’s “Spare Me”, if you follow any rule of law, you’re “Far-Right.”
“Telling ourselves that the pace of technological transformation is ever-increasing is just a fun story we like to believe is true.”
In other words, a LIE. We lie to ourselves for fun and amusement, just ‘cause we’re bored. I’m sure this will have no untoward effects.
“adding energy-intensive complexity in a desperate attempt to sustain themselves.”
This is really the trap, and we see it compounded daily. I don’t think anyone has ever added so much more complexity so fast as we have when we should do the #Opposite. Like $40B and two new Federal Departments per month?
I like to think of the Infrastructure as something simple. How about a Church or Chateau? Here you have the palatial Notre Dame, or Highclere Castle, built at a particular time for a particular purpose. It may have been a folly of some rich guy even then. But once it’s built, what do you do next? Let it fall down? That seems a waste.
You are now in the complexity trap, keeping up expensive infrastructure that serves no purpose and has no return. No different for roads and bridges. In America at least, we should narrow the roads by 6 feet or more and save a billion in pavement while increasing the view and the ecology. People would have to drive slower as they are less safe, saving gas. We would rather collapse than unwind back to the roads of 1990, much less the roads of 1920, of which I’m sure we could make them far nicer than they were then, all paved, but narrow, tree covered, often one-lane.
I can stop your bankruptcy in no time, and everyone will like it. They won’t. The world would green and be slow and safe for children again. They are #AntiLife and specifically AntiChildren. EcoPhobia is their religion.
Yesterday’s link:
“The end times pattern is that truth will be revealed in ever-increasing clarity and quantity, creating a wedge that gives every individual the choice to become more righteous or more wicked.”
Yes, that’s The Revealing. “Revelations”.
I guess speaking of, how’s bread going in Finland right now? No bread? Is a quart of wheat 1/10th silver ounce yet?
In the present WWIII, seeing some hazy outlines of Ukraine. They are going to make it permanently not a problem by splitting it into three. Obviously, Russia is taking the whole East. Poland is taking the Northwest. That leaves a tiny state the size of Romania that shouldn’t be able to cause as much trouble. Brzezinski’s and Rand Corporation’s master plan is to use Ukraine as a battering ram to level Russia. Russia just turned their battering ram into a toothpick, never to be used again.
Next problem. What? Like this is hard?
Meanwhile, we’re still bombing civilians in Yemen. No one cares. We opened a new war on black people in Ethiopia. No one cares. We’re occupying Syria and both Israel and Turkey are increasing invasions. No one cares. Sweden is the hand grenade capitol of the world. No one cares. The U.S. is losing 100,000 to opioid overdose a year – an entire American city, in fact some American states – and we’re all broken up about a shooting of eight. No one cares. Chicago has that many deaths every week for decades. Nobody cares. We pay police to solve it, they can’t be arsed, and are more corrupt than the criminals. Nobody cares, or at least they don’t do anything as simple as “reprimand.”
We don’t care because “I Support the Latest Thing”! And the latest thing is which hoodie Zelensky is wearing.
Oh and as Lira says the Ukies will go to Western Europe and never come back. That means more mouths in France, making life hard and giving Russia MORE leverage, and more order and opportunity in NovoRussia.
“Dem Rep. Yells “Spare Me the Bullshit about Constitutional Rights” During Gun Debate”
The Constitution is Federal Law. We know you don’t follow that. You can also change it. There are methods, but no one is trying to change the rules legally and properly. And this is Congress that is both not following the law and not passing legal rules, but only saying “Shut up, shut up, shut up!!!”
So they are saying “I don’t follow the laws, I don’t follow the social contract with the citizens, and I don’t care.” We’ll see how that sells, it’s been going pretty okay so far.
As Cartman would say, “Whatevah, I do what I want!”
Reverse Repos are now a Trillion. …Oh wait, that was last week. TWO Trillion. I’m sure that’s a sign everything is under control, it’s fine.
But we’re not the real hyperinflation country. On purpose. Due to Covid lockdowns. Yet.
“With Turkish PPI Hitting A Shocking 132%, Erdogan Goes After Short-Sellers As Hyperinflation Craters The Lira”Turkey, largest Army in Europe, in charge of the straits and eyeing Greece, I’m not sure how well seated Erdogan is, but I’d use it as an opportunity for Russia to flip this to firm control and solve their money problems. Of course so will the United States. And it’s all intrigue, so don’t expect much. We can’t even tell what level hyperinflation will set off fireworks.
My guess is someone’s already defaulted, but they’re desperately, hopelessly, transparently demanding, commanding, forcing Russia to default although she has all the money, all the gold, hundred billions in hock, and is constantly paying. …So that they can blame the default on her. And therefore the worldwide cascading collapse.
All where you put the blame. Because people can’t be bothered and believe anything known cheats and liars tell them. Then the rest play along.
So Turkey might have collapsed already or caused a collapse in, say, Italy. Heck, England might have collapsed. But like Greek bonds in ‘11, they just get together in a room, say “no we didn’t” and wait for Russia to be at fault. Or not at fault. Who cares? I robbed the bank, do I really care who takes the fall for it so long as it’s not me? No, I do not.
And for Russia, all the weapons are going into Ukie. What you do then is hand money only to your pet terrorist organizations to make sure they buy and stash them worldwide. Then we’re going to pop them up later worldwide and make big mess. It’s the “Three World Wars” plan. At the end, it’s all against all with no order and violence everywhere. Why? Because I paid for it, stupid! Every dollar I make in Twitter, I wreck the company and promote violence and disorder and lose all the money I can for my religion. And the outcome is what? At some point they will cause enormous, unbearable famine, corruption, violence, and disorder that hits every normal person on earth. That can’t last forever, so they will unveil their messiah and savior. Posing him like the Christ, they will then STOP PAYING for murder, disorder, and corruption, and Lo! He’s the Peacemaker! Where he walks, flowers grow!
Blah blah blah. New scam same as the old scam. CONs are all the same. CONs require gaining someone’s CONfidence, then betraying it. So selling and spreading random weapons is a GOOD thing. And I can guess how many: $40 Billion dollars worth.
Withdraw your credulity. Withdraw your consent. Take your own responsibility.
I feel like it’s time for Raul to do an essay. But no idea on what.
@VA
I know that I’ve often been getting ‘dumped’ by the site after clicking the button for uploading comment. RE your comment on comments, maybe folks are tending gardens and husbanding chickens?A cattle rancher friend in WY told me yesterday that cattle trailers (semi pulled) went from $4/mile to $9/ mile this year. He’s very nervous about hay prices. Heard from management at the local concrete “factory”, part of a chain (of course, who isn’t nowadays) that their fuel costs are up a million dollars this year. Don’t see concrete trucks running on electricity any time soon.
Having no formal military training, and especially at the higher level, was interested in Dr D Rich’s comments about the development of an officer corp the other day. That had never occurred to me and I immediately began to think of the ‘rumors’ of Ukrainian forces by officers as it relates to that observation. But, I’m not there to verify, of course.
The recent Mr. House article by the Critical Theory professor in The Philosophical Salon blew my mind. That combined with the trove at Consciousness of Sheep has kept me, personally, busy. That, and the gardens and chickens, and contemplating ways to simplify…
Still on 1939 films. Bemused that Gone With The Wind is thought of as the typical Hollywood movie. Up to that time, nearly all Hollywood pictures were under 90 minutes long. GWTW is over 3 hours long! That’s typical?
GWTW is more reflective of the grand spectacle movies just over a decade away. The start of the 1950s, when television was claiming its pound of flesh and the foundation of the studio system was beginning to decay. Their decades of success was based on 75 minute features and they were getting beaten by 30 minute tv shows. They respond with 3 hours long movies! Or any other new idea dropped into the Suggestion Box – wide screen colour films, 3D pictures! Holy Complexity Trap! Like a bug tipped on its back, with its legs flailing away. They couldn’t just stick to what they’d done best and weather the storm?
Keeping things simple could have worked if they hadn’t blacklisted half of Hollywood’s writers. Plus they cancel the careers of dozens of actors/actresses. Even run Charles Chaplin out of the country, just in case he was thinking of making another movie. Who needs Chaplin when you can resurrect C.B.DeMille. No one ever need be bored on an Easter Sunday night again!
To make sure what they were doing was right they give best picture awards to The Greatest Show On Earth over Singin’ In The Rain! Sheesh! Really think the tv public is going to buy that kind of PR?
I know this is all a bit thin. Nevertheless, we know what happened to the studio system. Then there’s the gruesome sight of 21st century Hollywood.
Campaign Launched To Stop Musk Buying Twitter (AFP)
If the blood drinking satanist oligarchs can turn on ‘one of their own’ who has billions, how do you think your protestations will go?
How much traction can Sheeple muster?
BahBahBah, have you any wool?Eurotardistan is going to be eviscerated, stripped of it’s industrial base because energy costs will make it noncompetitive on the world stage.
The reason given during the Cold War 1.0 that Russia was evil was that it was Communist.
Communism collapses and the reason given that Russia is evil now is that it won’t let Western blood drinking satanist oligarchs rape and pillage it’s vast natural resources.
Those same Western blood drinking satanist oligarchs raped North and South Americas, and Africa, and the near, middle and Far East for centuries.
So the world overshoot population is bumping up against nature resource depletion.
So Russia is the now the Last Piñata for the Western blood drinking satanist oligarchs to whack with a stick.
Only Russia will whack back.
With the likes of the RS-28 Sarmat
Nicknamed “Satan II”
How appropriate of the insane times we find our collective selves in.
Politics and policy driving the Ukraine project w/ Jacob Dreizin
https://rumble.com/v176syh-politics-and-policy-driving-the-ukraine-project-w-jacob-dreizin-live.html
Dr. D,
Is this that which is extremely unlikely?
“Ukraine is in a much better position to sustain a multi-year war than Russia. It has an unlimited line of credit with the West for arms and an utterly committed population.“
That is the racket.
This is not completely true, but interesting nonetheless.
A map for the day. The point here is to look at the population density of the two regions Russia has captured in this war. They are among the least urbanized regions of Ukraine. What Russia has mainly conquered is a lot of farmland. pic.twitter.com/Jj4lJaZHyV
— Tom Warner (@warnerta) June 4, 2022
Another interesting read from “The Philosophical Salon” yesterday. Though I continue to be mystified as to why this author seems to blind himself to the role of shrinking fossil-fuel reserves in making the global economic system less profitable and less able to provide for people’s real needs.
Around about 1971, the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil would yield 25 barrels of oil. Around about 2001, this yield was down to 10. These days, it is down to 3.5. Once we get to the point where the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil yields just one barrel of oil, fossil fuels will have become an energy sink rather than an energy source, and we will probably arrive at this point no later than 2031. We also need petroleum-fuel driven machines for digging deep into the ground to get what lousy-quality coal is left to extract, so once we reach that 1:1 ratio with petroleum, that will sequester the remaining coal as well as the remaining oil in the ground.
One website I read informed me that we use energy from petroleum to extract natural gas, too, though I suppose we could redesign those extraction efforts to use natural gas to extract natural gas. I can’t imagine there will be terribly many exploitable natural gas reserves remaining by 2031, though. (I suppose I could be wrong about that. We’ll find out soon enough, I guess.)
Great find!
Who said, ” The truth will set you free”?
You might change your opinion if you read this presentation.Ukraine War! What Is It Good For? – Transformation – Part 6
POSTED BY: IAIN JUNE 3, 2022A War Built Upon Lies
This is the sanctimonious rhetoric of the West. It is Rapid Response Mechanism hypocrisy and disinformation spread by the wholly compliant Western mainstream media propagandists, led by the farcically named “Trusted News Initiative.” The purpose is to convince an unsuspecting Western public to believe in the Ukrainian cause and support the war. Trust what your government tells you!Related Posts
Ukraine War! What Is It Good For? – Sovereignty – Part 5
Ukraine War! What Is It Good For? – Sovereignty – Part 5
Ukraine War! What Is It Good For? Propaganda (Part 4)
Ukraine War! What Is It Good For? Propaganda (Part 4)
Ukraine War! What Is It Good For? The Nazi Agenda (Part 3)
Ukraine War! What Is It Good For? The Nazi Agenda (Part 3)
Ukraine War! What Is It Good For? The Nationalist Agenda (Part 2)
Ukraine War! What Is It Good For? The Nationalist Agenda (Part 2)
Ukraine War! What Is It Good For? The Historical Background (Part 1)
Ukraine War! What Is It Good For? The Historical Background (Part 1)
Is It Joe Biden’s New World Order?
Is It Joe Biden’s New World Order?@v-arnold maybe lots of folks in the northern hemisphere are taking advantage of springtime. 🤠 we have been planting seeds, pasture prep, clone generation, fixing irritation systems, and plant/field prep.
Spring and early summer is the time for optimism! Mind you as a farmer one almost has to be a perpetual optimist.
Chooch,
Given that you have increased your Ukie friendly posts significantly, perhaps you can provide your bona fides for me to take what you say as more than just Ukranian cheerleading propaganda.
I for instance would like to see how you measure up in knowledge and experience with say Andrei Martyanov.
You of course have the right to your opinion, but imho are going a bit overboard on the propaganda/cheerleading.
“The Complexity Trap” link was shared by one of our commenters about a week ago. It is a great article, and definitely extended my thinking on the subject.
It’s pretty obvious why they chose to bring the hammer down on Peter Navarro while ignoring so many others. He is one of the biggest of Trump cheerleaders out there. His book “In Trump Time” doesn’t contain a single disparaging reference to Trump anywhere within its 200-some pages. For the most part, I wish I had the hours of my life back that I spent reading it. But he does make a number of good points about the way in which the pandemic was administered, the shots and the PCR tests in particular. And he asks one excellent question: Why did we have an Operation Warp Speed for vaccines, but not an Operation Warp Speed for therapeutics, which probably would have yielded results much sooner?
Discussion on the EROEI argument is certainly relevant to the energy situation, and is becoming more common. But what seems to be getting ignored by commentators is consideration of all the other things we depend on combustible fuels for besides producing a heat source to convert.
Plastics are a petroleum by-product. Think of what the total elimination of plastics would mean to modern society. Pharmaceuticals, even the common ones, are derived primarily from petrochemicals. There are no really good substitutes that can be used for either one of these.
Massive amounts of natural gas are used in the Haber-Bosch Process to produce ammonia used for fertilizer. We’ve been doing it this way for around a century now. Going to have to come up with something new. All of a sudden, the climate change evangelists are preaching the merits of “natural” farming methods, completely ignoring their former arguments that going all-organic would not be able to feed the planet because of the drastically reduced yields.
One could argue that if petroleum is in short supply, it might be too valuable to burn.
Something someone said to me yesterday reminded me of something I had forgotten, which is that Ukrainian railways are different than others in Europe. Since it was part of Russia when the rail network was built, its railroads are the same as Russia’s.
The reason this is significant is that Russia uses a wider gauge railroad bed than the rest of the world. This was done intentionally to hamper invaders by making it impossible to use non-Russian rolling stock to bring in men and material from outside. Might make a difference.
@EoinW: “I’m thinking 1939 movies this morning. The Wizard of Oz crossed my mind.”
Phenomenal.
BILDERBERG MEETING: Washington D.C., 2 June – 5 June 2022, Attendees.
… from Canada:
Carney, Mark J. (CAN), Vice Chair, Brookfield Asset Management
Emond, Charles (CAN), CEO, CDPQ
Freeland, Chrystia (CAN), Deputy Prime Minister
Little, Mark (CAN), President and CEO, Suncor Energy Inc.
Lütke, Tobias (CAN), CEO, Shopify
… plus all others listed in following:
https://bilderbergmeetings.org/press/press-release/participants
… fwiw,
F.S.
One view: The world is breaking up into two economic blocks.
The ‘Collective West’ vs. the ROW. (rest of the world.)
For some time there may be some space accorded to the non-aligned? .. > These should get together pronto.
So after the WEF in Davos, here the other block, the SPIEF, St. Petersburg Economic Forum, which will take place 15-18 June.
-> see for some of the content:
https://forumspb.com/en/programme/business-programme/
One article by an E. Slavsquat (don’t know anything about him, was just looking for commentary in eng.) on substack about it, one take, not to agree – it is always hard to interpret these very public long and tiresome meets, there is always a lot of fluff and guff and hopium, plus commercial interests wound in, hiding behind the curtains.
https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/mass-vaccination-and-climate-change?s=r
@Mr. Roboto
I believe the Italian gentleman views things thru a marxist lens so that would explain why he’s not considering energy, but the message is the same despite that. Also with regards to the video you posted, all the more reason to have an investigation into the US healthcare system.
@Noirette: I follow Edward Slavsquat (pseudonym for Riley Waggerman), who lives near Moscow. Among other commentary from the Russian side of things, he makes a strong case for Putin playing along with the WEF agenda, despite appearances to the contrary.
Why does the US have magnitudes more of covid deaths then other countries? Cause they’re killing people on purpose, duh 😉
Chooch: I don’t know, I could be wrong. I don’t think so because then I’d change my mind. There are a lot of throwaway comments, “Ukraine has a committed population”. Do they? The Yukonovich election was “for Russia.” You know, before the illegal coup. So overall the nation is roughly 50-50 then. The only area Russia appears to care about are overwhelming Russian. “The Russians are losing. They’re bogged down. The counterattack is savagely pushing them back.” Then I look at the map and Mariupol is gone, they own 20% of the country and methodically rolled over the whole east down to Odessa, locking in Ukraine and all Europe and in few short weeks will have them by the b—s for all shipping for all of winter. Most Russian troops remain in reserve, they’re not bothering to use many planes or expensive long-range missiles, and all their men are taking weekends and being rotated out for R&R. Strange losing.
Kissinger surrenders publicly, immediately followed by NY Times, NATO, and Biden. (I guess we know the chain of command). Money is sent (for laundering and distribution of weapons to future terrorists), but in actuality few heavy weapons arrive and so appears to be a PR stunt of phony support. When they do arrive there doesn’t seem to be anyone to use them. Videos pop up all over from front line men who don’t have food or bullets and know they will be arrested and imprisoned for posting them. Apparently they prefer prison to fighting. Official news is that they are using only “reserves” who are supposed to be local guards, and have been given 30 minutes training and 10 bullets. Talk about “negotiations” suddenly increases to everyone including NATO commanders.
I dunno, man, strange sort of losing. Strange sort of success for Ukraine, which is about to imminently defeat a Russia that hasn’t even sent in their real Army yet.
Don’t mind posting these things, but I hear them on the dead media already. That’s the media that has been wrong about everything since Clinton was in knee-britches and hasn’t told the truth since 9-10-01. The real story here would be the incredible event that they might actually be right, and NOT LYING for the first time in 21 solid years. That would be front page. I don’t think so though.
We could always make a huge bet on it, and of course I already have.
How do you think the war will end then, since Ukraine is clearly winning? They push Russia out, convert or kill the 50% of ethnic Russians, take Crimea, join NATO, topple Putin and invade Moscow? For a team that’s winning, I don’t hear a lot of discussions about that, and I think we would.
Besides MSN reporting it, the Ukr soldier shortage has gotten so bad that even knuckleheads in Pasadena have heard about it: “More Ukrainian Soldiers Refuse to Fight” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBJOIWyb_As
“Western Media Admits Ukraine Is Losing War”
Which goes with their level of veracity:
“Ukraine Fires Propagandist Who Spread Fake Russian War Crime Stories”
Known to be the most lying, corrupt nation in Europe (really saying something), reported by NYT, NPR, and everyone for years. Immediately, we trust their claims of low casualties, high morale, and great success when possibly telling the truth would collapse their nation in hours.
Sorry they’ll all Dore, but such articles are so universal and easy to find that just happened to be where I was sitting at the time. Like many, the clips he uses are just prints from CNN, NYT, and WaPo.
Pepe Escobar via thesaker.is :
Bilderberg does China“No conspiracy theories about a “secret cabal”, please. This is just a docile, “diverse group of political leaders and experts” having a chat, a laugh, and a bubbly.
F.S.
I’m not alone in viewing this fighting in Europe as a civil war between parts of the Western Empire. Meanwhile the Eastern Empire watches and waits. What for, I’m not sure — maybe for the EU to weaken itself sufficiently so that the Eastern Empire can move in and take over? And would the takeover be done in conjunction with the Russian branch of the Western Empire?
And what would the Eastern Empire find of use in the European peninsula? Small amounts of oil and gas, some coal, no iron ore or bauxite, and lots of hungry mouths to feed.
Here we are, the brilliant human race, squabbling murderously over shrinking baskets of resources, squandering those very resources in the struggle to control them. Terminal stupidity.
Reductio-ad-absurdum:
BBC Changed Victim’s Statement So As Not To ‘Misgender’ Her Trans Rapist; Report
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bbc-changed-victims-statement-so-not-misgender-her-trans-rapist-report@ Dr D
Much appreciation for you words regarding transgender is yesterday.I’ve been reading Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism. The first section endeavors to explain the European antisemitism of the first half of the 20th century. It was very detailed…but the gist of it was this: the Jews were a “different” minority in Europe and some of them gained wealth by aiding and advising the aristocracy for centuries. The aristocracy faltered against the Enlightenment, and the resentment the general masses felt against the oppression of the aristocracy and other power-wielders of the early 20th century was scapegoated onto the Jewish people.
As I read Arendt’s words I thought about how the Left is championing the causes of the LGBTQ+ community, allying with them in a very visible way, and realized the parallels between this and the relationship between Jewry and the aristocracy of Europe. Most of us don’t have personal access to the Davos crowd, don’t have personal access to bigwigs of the Democratic Party or to Fauci, Walensky, etc. But the LGBTQ+ community has come out of hiding, and they are known. They have no idea that they will be the scapegoats for their highfalutin allies.
I am trying to figure out how to share this with my teenage daughter, to warn her, in a way she will understand. I remember how I thought at age 14 – and I grew up in a much more stable family environment than she has – and I don’t think I could have understood it completely at that age. She was befriended by the LGBTQ+ crowd at age 8, and I suspect that she is trying to figure out what LGBTQ+ identities fit her. She assiduously honors the preferred pronouns of her T and ungendered friends. How do I explain to her that LGBTQ+ pride may shortly turn into a social danger? How do I explain that this idee fixe that gender is a personal choice is *mostly* untrue.
Gender is PRIMARILY a reflection of genetic reality. Yes, sometimes the underlying genes or the genetic expression is unclear. And yes, rarely, the mind is convinced that gender is the opposite of body expression even though it has not been overtly introduced to the concept of gender dysphoria. But these are anomalies, and can be respected as such. It does not serve society as a whole, nor the individuals that comprise society, to invite everyone to consider gender dysphoria as an identity choice, the same way individuals choose a career.
Perhaps that *is* the path to an explanation…because when gender is “just another choice,” it cheapens the existence of those for whom gender dysphoria is not a choice, and disrespects their experience.
Another thought: It does not benefit children to lead them to believe that gender is a personal choice, something to be tried on and taken off like a pair of shoes, when it is innately coded into the genes, reflected in hormones and brainwaves.
I spent sooo long editing these first 2 economics essays for clarity (surgically extracting most of the Marxism for palatability). Picture of gardener making lasagne. https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/thoughts-about-money-and-food?s=w
Pause For Thought: Money Without Value in a Rapidly Disintegrating World
(Edited for clarity. Marxist, Ignores production-costs of fuels & ores, which inhibit real economic growth and suppress wages. Thanks Mr. House)
The acceleration of the “emergency paradigm” since 2020 has a simple yet widely disavowed purpose: to conceal socioeconomic collapse. In today’s metaverse, things are the opposite of what they seem. Inaugurating Davos 2022, IMF director Kristalina Georgieva blamed the pandemic and Putin for the “confluence of calamities” that the world economy is now facing. ..
..The Davos crowd are now hiding behind lies like a bunch of nervous children. While they continue to tell us that the coming slump is the effect of global adversities that took the world by surprise (from Covid-19 to Putin-22), the opposite is true: the tanking economy is the cause of these “misfortunes”… Thus, the enemy is no longer constructed to legitimise the expansion of Empire. Instead, it serves to conceal the bankruptcy of our debt-soaked economy…
..The elementary reason for this course of events is that the closer the system gets to collapse, the more it requires exogenous crises to distract and manipulate populations, while deferring its downfall and laying the ground for its authoritarian changeover.
History tells us that when empires are about to fold, they ossify into oppressive regimes of crisis management. It is no coincidence that our age of serial emergencies began with the bursting of the “dot-com bubble” – the first global market crash. By the end of 2001 most tech-heavy companies had gone bust, and by October 2002 the Nasdaq index had fallen by 77%, exposing the structural frailty of a “new economy” powered by debt, creative finance, and the bleeding of the real economy. Since then, the simulation of growth via financial asset inflation has been shielded by the manufacturing of global threats, duly packaged and sold by corporate media. In truth, the rise of the “new economy” in the late 1990s was less about the internet than the creation of an immense apparatus for the simulation of prosperity, which was supposed to function without the mediation of mass labour. As such, it cleared the way for the neoliberal ideology of “jobless growth”– the illusion, enthusiastically embraced by the left, that a financial-bubble economy could ignite a new capitalist Eldorado. While this illusion has now blown up in our faces, nobody seems to have any desire to acknowledge it.
In fact, since Virus stepped in to raise the emergency bar even higher (before being paused and possibly recharged for future re-deployment) we are back to the same old financial shenanigans. While the West’s brand-new infection is called Russia – not least because of its proven historical record (USSR) – it is crucial to appreciate that the haste of enemy-making and fear-mongering is now desperate, based as it is on the aggressive denial of structural failure…
..The current grotesque overvaluation of all risk assets (stocks, bonds and property) suggests that the elites will continue to use their political playbook to buy more time and postpone the bursting of a debt bubble they began to inflate years before Covid and Putin became favourite scapegoats…
..The technocrats at the helm of the Titanic have more than a hunch that the vessel is accelerating towards the iceberg. Having run out of policy bullets (as in the recent “austerity vs stimulus” debate), they have opted to promote a continuous programme of fear and propaganda in a bid to manage the unmanageable. Crucially, they know what to most of us appears counterintuitive: that the breakdown of our obsolete mode of production can only be delayed through 1) A steady stream of global emergencies, 2) The controlled inflationary demolition of the increasingly unproductive real economy, and 3) The authoritarian makeover of liberal democracy.
..Crucially, they also recognise that the breakdown must happen as the planned demolition of the current model, which would allow them to retain and even strengthen their position of power within the impending neo-feudal capitalist normal. Food and energy rationing, mass immiseration, social credit, and monetary control via digital currency, have long been baked into the capitalist pie of the future. Arguably, this scenario is already part of our collective imagination…
.. We have a free-falling economy whose predicament is barely concealed by its debt addiction and astronomical “everything bubbles”. And there is the voyeuristic spectacle of daily massacres, intentionally deprived of any meaningful sociohistorical context and fuelled by one-sided propaganda. Joining the dots means understanding that the purpose of the Ukrainian emergency is to keep the money printer switched on while blaming Putin for worldwide economic downturn. The war serves the opposite aim of what we are told: not to defend Ukraine but to prolong the conflict and nourish inflation in a bid to defuse cataclysmic risk in the debt market, which would spread like wildfire across the whole financial sector…
..The sad truth is that “Putin’s war” (like the “war on Covid”) delays the popping of the “everything bubble”, which is why Ukraine is sacrificed to the altar of a protracted massacre for freedom & democracy. The real aim is not to help Ukrainians (nor, for that matter, to destroy Russia) but to exorcise the recurring nightmare of the “Lehman shock”, which today would plunge us into chaos, wiping out the thin veneer of monetary affluence that prevents us from staring into the abyss…
..The bottom line is that if Central Bank monetary injections were to end, a rapid increase in key interest rates would threaten a market crash, with defaults across the globe. So, either everyone plays according to the script, or the whole show is cancelled, and the system with it…
..The inflation genie that escaped the Covid bottle is now blamed on Putin, including its “apocalyptic” effect on the poor. However, it originates in the creation of immense amounts of “money without value” (i.e., money that is not “covered” by real accumulation) which by flowing into the real economy inevitably devalues the money medium itself…
..It is common for empires to suffer a slow and painful death, as they deny the cause of their implosion. The fall of the US-led capitalist world started over half a century ago, and has been delayed only by waves of fake prosperity fuelled by money (debt) creation, which have benefitted a small elite while burdening the masses with colossal debts and immiseration. Over the last 50 years, US Federal debt has experienced a 75-fold increase (from $400 billion to $30 trillion), while total US debt (private and public) has now passed the $90 trillion mark (53-fold increase). As most currencies have been linked to the dollar since WWII, their devaluation is also inevitable. For over half a century the US has been gradually destroying its hegemonic dollar and related currencies while initiating unprovoked “military operations” abroad. Any temporary illusion of prosperity was bought with war, debt, and printing fake money…
..Capital’s global crisis now appears in the form of a new bout of stagflation (stagnant economy with rising inflation), which evokes memories of the 1970s. Current supply bottlenecks and price explosion of raw materials and energy is reminiscent of the oil price shock of 1973, when OPEC cut down on its output in response to the Yom Kippur War…
..Since the 1980s, global debt has been rising much faster than world economic output. Global debt needs to be contextualised: it feeds the fundamental delusion that financial speculation anticipates future capital valorisation, which however must be moved further and further into the future as it is not matched by corresponding valorisation in the real economy. Today’s financial capitalism is the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy, a mechanism based on the creation of ever-increasing amounts of insubstantial money to compensate for rapidly vanishing surplus-value…
..It is no surprise that the 1990s ended with the formation of the aforementioned first global bubble (the dot.com or Internet bubble). This was followed by the financial crash of 2008, the answer to which was the implementation of QE programmes, i.e. more of the same: monetary expansion through Central Bank buying up securities and other assets. Then, the capitalist contradiction reappeared in the form of the European sovereign debt crisis (2009-12) and as a potentially devastating liquidity trap in the Autumn of 2019 (US repo market crisis), which officially inaugurated the era of “emergency capitalism”. The pandemic was used as a global shield for money printing and borrowing at unprecedented levels: under Covid, the Fed printed more fiat money in one year than in all combined QE programmes since 2008…
.. Over the past 40 years, after each turbulence interest rates were lowered further to allow fresh liquidity to flood financial markets. However, since 2008 even zero interest rates were no longer sufficient, which is why Central Banks have pulled Quantitative Easing out of their magician’s hat, literally turning into waste dumps for the financial markets… The downhill slide of the devaluation avalanche that began in autumn 2008 in now unstoppable. Somehow, the world still believes that Central Banks will solve a debt crisis by printing more money…
..Central Banks continue to drink-drive towards the precipice. Whichever move they make, they lose. If they hike rates significantly and manage to reduce their balance sheet (Quantitative Tightening), the debt bubble will pop, with catastrophic consequences – a possibility anticipated by the rising Credit Default Swaps (CDS) index, i.e., insurance contracts against debt default. If, however, they turn to Quantitative Easing again, inflation will soar at an even faster pace. The choice is between a deflationary debt crisis and stagflation. Both are worse. Stabilising this scenario is virtually impossible…
..The grand finale – a biblical crash beyond our wildest imagination, ignited by the explosion of the debt market hyper-bubble – is currently being postponed through the inflationary thumping of the real economy. This means that the “misery index” (combination of inflation and unemployment rate) will grow even further. Central Banks can tame inflation only in words: they know that any tightening of monetary policy is hostage to the opposite necessity to continue to monetise public and private debt, which means creating money out of nowhere.Pause for Thought: Money without Value in a Rapidly Disintegrating World
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