Figmund Sreud
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Alberta shut down its fleet of whirligigs because it’s just too cold and blades might just shatter due to materials turning brittle! True…
“One of the first lessons any new engineering student learns in their materials class is “cold brittle behaviour” of materials. When it gets really cold, like -30 C or colder, many materials lose much of their strength and are prone to shattering. This applies to wind turbines as much as it applies to car bumpers.”
Most of Alberta’s wind fleet slowly shut down Thursday night, but not for lack of wind
https://pipelineonline.ca/alta-wind-shutdown-due-to-cold/
Alastair Crooke essay this a.m.:
Gut Feelings Make for Strategic Errors – U.S. Lured Into Battlescape in Gaza, Yemen and Now Iraq
ICJ-Case is HOPELESS for Israel. But Technicalities Might Save It After All.
________________That, currently, is a secondary issue, … or none issue in fact!
For as long as Russia continues to tolerate ( … read: support Israel covertly!), Israel is safe doing what it is doing: … exterminating Palestinians, regardless of court’s ruling! Qualifier, though: … as long as Iran is not overtly attacked by Israel or the U.S. and/or “coalition of the willing”.
But, if Iran is attacked, directly, the situation will change immediately and drastically. Conflict will expand rapidly and gravely, …
… fwiw,
F.S.
Interesting:
Landmark Research Reveals the Origins of Multiple Sclerosis
Scientists found that MS began to spread globally through the migration of livestock herders in Eastern Europe 5,000 years ago.
https://gizmodo.com/multiple-sclerosis-origin-genes-europe-yamnaya-1851160087
Note: My family has been ‘touched’ by MS. My wife is currently at well advanced stage of this horrendous disease.
F.S.
… and here we have a most recent example of what happens when your EV flames up in your attached garage to your adobe, … and how it is all handled by your typical emergency services:
… go, EV-ing! Go, …
F.S.
WSJ.com at your service! Yes, … from my in-Box this a.m.:
Who Are the Houthis? What to Know About the U.S., U.K. Strikes in Yemen
From their perch on the eastern side of the Red Sea, the Yemen-based rebels pose what could be one of the biggest threats to global shipping and, by extension, the world economy.
In recent weeks, the Houthis have launched over two dozen drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping bound for the Suez Canal, what they say is a response to Israel’s war against Hamas. Major shippers are now diverting vessels south around the Cape of Good Hope, adding some 40 days to voyages in what could be a far more damaging disruption than when the Ever Given cargo carrier got wedged in the canal in 2021.
Now, with a U.S.-led coalition launching more than a dozen strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, here is a look at where the Houthis came from, and what they might be hoping to achieve.
The Houthis are among the combatants in Yemen’s long-running civil war.
They are named after religious and political leader Hussein Al-Houthi, who launched an insurgency in the 1990s against what he saw as the corrupt Yemeni government.
He gathered widespread backing among the northern tribes, who, like him, are Zaydis, a branch of Shia Islam that calls on its adherents to stand up against injustice wherever they see it.
Houthi was killed in a battle with Yemeni forces in 2004 at age 45, but the group, now under the leadership of his brother, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, has since gained significant territory in a long-running civil war.
More formally known as Ansar Allah, or Supporters of God, the Houthis are still vying for control of Yemen, the country that lies on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. The Zaydi see themselves as Yemen’s only rightful rulers. The Houthis took control of the capital, San’a, in 2014. But the group also receives funding and military support from Iran, another Shia power, and shares ties to Hezbollah, the Shia political and military group in Lebanon.
The Houthis’ adversaries in the south and east of the country are backed by Iran’s regional rivals, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
That conflict is now largely frozen. But the Houthis have also emerged as a significant player in the conflict now threatening to spread across the Middle East after targeting the shipping lanes in the Red Sea leading to the Suez Canal, particularly the narrow strait of Bab el-Mandeb, or the Gate of Tears.
The Houthis claim they are trying to target vessels with links to Israel. Along with Iran and Hezbollah, they have positioned themselves as part of what Tehran calls the “axis of resistance” toward Israel’s campaign to eradicate the Hamas militant group in Gaza. Like Iran, the Houthis see the destruction of Israel as a fundamental part of their mission, borrowing Tehran’s thinking for their own slogan, “God is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse Upon the Jews, Victory to Islam.”
While a Bahamas-flagged vessel that was boarded in November has ties to an Israeli billionaire, there haven’t been many other Israeli connections among the other attacks.
Security analysts suggest the Houthis are instead trying to create a systemic threat in the pivotal waterway to pressure Israel’s allies to compel it to withdraw from Gaza. The rebels know well the value of economic targets: The Houthis have hit Saudi oil facilities during the civil war.
America had been reluctant to directly confront Iran and its proxies since the start of the war in Gaza, but a U.S.-led coalition launched more than a dozen strikes on Houthi targets early Friday local time, two days after the rebels defied an ultimatum to halt their attacks. The strikes were conducted by the U.S. and U.K. and supported by Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands and were designed to reduce the Houthis’ capability to continue their campaign.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said the strikes targeted radar and air-defense systems along with storage and launch sites for drones and missiles. A U.S. submarine, several destroyers and jet fighters, and part of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group took part, a U.S. defense official said.
U.S. and British forces previously responded to the Houthi threat by shooting down missiles and drones fired by the group. The U.S. Navy recently sank Houthi boats that had fired on commercial ships.
Russia on Friday requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the strikes. The Houthis, meanwhile, described them as “American-Zionist-British aggression against Yemen,” reporting blasts in San’a in addition to Hodeida, Saada, Dhamar and elsewhere, but said they were undeterred. One official threatened to hit U.S. bases in the region if the U.S. and U.K. strike more targets.
“This is a brutal aggression,” Nasr al-Din Amir, a Houthi official, told The Wall Street Journal. “They will undoubtedly pay its price, and we will not waver in our stance to support the Palestinian people, regardless of the cost.”
Iran on Friday said it condemns the U.S.-led attack, warning that it would add to “insecurity and instability” in the region, Iranian state media reported.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry in a statement called for restraint and expressed “great concern” about the strikes, while emphasizing “the importance of preserving the security and stability of the Red Sea region.”
President Biden, meanwhile, said, “I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.”
The Houthi attacks have disrupted shipping in waters through which 8% of the world’s oil supply traveled, on average, in 2023 and risk raising consumer prices on everything from electronics to coffee. Container volumes through the Suez Canal from mid-December to Jan. 7 fell more than 60% from the same period a year earlier—from 3.3 million boxes to 1.3 million boxes as the result of the ship diversions.
The Suez is used by about one-third of global container cargo and about 30% of freight bound for U.S. East Coast ports, according to Everstream Analytics, a supply-chain risk-management company. The disruption is having an effect in Europe. Tesla plans to halt production at its biggest factory in Europe for two weeks, raising the specter of a new supply-chain crisis for European manufacturers dependent on parts from China and other Asian countries. “The considerably longer transportation times are creating a gap in the supply chains. Due to a lack of components, we are therefore forced to suspend vehicle production in the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg,” Tesla said. Other Europe-based automakers say they haven’t seen any shortages of components as yet, but are closely watching the situation.
Shipping executives said the strikes would prompt shippers to keep away from the Red Sea for now until there is clarity about whether the route is safe or not.
Christopher Long, intelligence director at British maritime-security company Neptune P2P, said, “There will be a period of 24 to 72 hours where shipping will take a hiatus…Longer-term, it will depend on the Houthis” and if Iran resupplies them with drones and missiles.
—This article may be periodically updated.
Write to James Hookway at [email protected]
Copyright 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
F.S.
Psst! This guy thinks we’re early on in a new secular change that will make the coming decade look and feel very different in the economy, markets and society from what we’ve become accustomed to over the past several decades!
F.S.
Crooke
Beneath the gimcrack and baubled veneer, the western meta-narrative “from Plato to NATO, that superior ideas and practices whose origins lie in ancient Greece, and have been transmitted down the ages so that those in the West today, are the lucky inheritors of a superior cultural DNA” has transpired to be nothing more than the faded tinselry of hollow narrative.
Interesting, proverbial techtonic plates are a-shifting! This is now being even acknowledged by CIA shills such as George Friedman, a former STRTFOR founder, … and currently of https://geopoliticalfutures.com/welcome/
F.S.
And so they huff and they puff, … and puff still some more! – from my in-box mid-day today:
U.S.-Led Coalition Warns Houthis to Stop Ship Attacks, from 1 hour ago by Dow Jones
1 hour ago by Dow Jones
By Michael R. Gordon, Gordon Lubold and Nancy A. Youssef
WASHINGTON—The U.S., Britain and key allies issued a final warning to the Houthi Yemeni rebel group Wednesday to cease its attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea or bear the consequences.
“Ongoing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are illegal, unacceptable, and profoundly destabilizing,” says the statement issued by 12 nations. “The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways.”
The U.S. military has prepared options to strike the Iran-backed rebel group, U.S. officials say.
Should the U.S., Britain and other nations use force, potential targets could include launchers for antiship missiles and drones, targeting infrastructure such as coastal radar installations, and storage facilities for munitions. Among the challenges to striking Houthi targets is that many of their weapons systems are mobile, the officials said.
The Biden administration has been cautious about using force, seeking to protect the prospects for a diplomatic resolution to the Yemen conflict and avoid becoming entangled in a tit-for-tat confrontation with Houthis, whom some American officials view as an unpredictable wild card.
Houthi fighters overthrew the Yemeni government in 2014, which led Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to mount a military campaign against the rebels. Months of talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, who are backed by Iran, have produced a road map that the U.S. hopes could lead to resolution of the conflict.
But the conflict between Hamas and Israel has spurred the Houthis to launch missiles and drones at Israel and shipping traffic in the Red Sea.
As of Tuesday, the Houthis have carried out 24 attacks on commercial ships since mid-November, according to the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East. Tensions escalated further last week when Houthi fighters on four small boats fired at U.S. helicopters that came to the rescue of a Singapore-flagged vessel in the Red Sea. The U.S. Navy helicopters returned fire, sinking three of the Houthi boats.
The Houthi attacks have had an effect on the global economy. Most oil tankers and containerships are still avoiding that route and going around Africa. On Tuesday, the Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk said it would avoid the Red Sea route.
“Nearly 15 percent of global seaborne trade passes through the Red Sea, including 8 percent of global grain trade, 12 percent of seaborne-traded oil and 8 percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas trade,” the joint statement read. “International shipping companies continue to reroute their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, adding significant cost and weeks of delay to the delivery of goods, and ultimately jeopardizing the movement of critical food, fuel, and humanitarian assistance throughout the world.”
The U.S. and Britain led the effort to issue a fresh multinational warning to the Houthis. For days, diplomats discussed the text as they sought to broaden the list of the number of nations that were prepared to join it.
The final list of signatories was: the U.S., Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Britain.
An emergency United Nations Security Council meeting on the Houthi threat to shipping in the Red Sea has been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at the request of the U.S., Britain, France and other nations.
The USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier battle group is in the region along with other American naval assets, British ships and ships from other nations.
The Houthis have said their attacks are a response to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and were quick to join the fighting. On Oct. 19, the Houthis launched land-attack cruise missiles and drones at Israel, according to U.S. officials. Those weapons systems were designed by Iran, according to American intelligence.
The USS Carney guided-missile destroyer, which was sailing in the northern Red Sea, shot down several of the cruise missiles, while one was intercepted by Saudi Arabia, according to people familiar with the episode.
The Houthis soon turned their sights to commercial ships, including by using the same kind of ballistic missiles that Iran has provided to the group, U.S. intelligence says. Houthi officials have said they are aiming only at ships linked to Israel, but the Pentagon has tracked attacks on vessels flagged or owned in other countries.
Houthi attacks against international shipping have been carried out by drones, small boats and missiles, “including the first use of anti-ship ballistic missiles against such vessels,” the joint statement noted.
On Tuesday evening, the Houthis launched two missiles that landed in the Red Sea, without causing any damage, U.S. Central Command said. On Wednesday, the Houthis claimed they had targeted a Malta-flagged container ship they said was bound for an Israeli port. The group attacked the ship after its crew “refused to respond to calls from the Yemeni naval forces, including fiery warning messages,” a spokesman for the group said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the U.S. and Houthi reports referred to the same incident.
“The Houthis appeared to be striking maritime targets given that they have failed to strike Israel on land,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank that has highlighted the threat it says Iran poses to the U.S. and its allies. “Iran is using the Houthis to generate economic costs that it hopes will pressure Washington to wind down Jerusalem’s war against Hamas.”
Some U.S. officials have expressed hope that Israel’s plans to lower the intensity of its fighting in Gaza might lead to a reduction of the Houthi attacks on commercial ships and thus ease the pressure on the U.S. and Britain to respond.
The Obama administration carried out cruise missile strikes in 2016 against coastal radar sites in areas controlled by the Houthis, which the Pentagon described at the time as “limited self-defense strikes” after the Houthis fired missiles at a U.S. destroyer.
Iranian state media said Monday that an Iranian destroyer was moving toward the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a key crossing between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
William Mauldin contributed to this article.
Write to Michael R. Gordon at [email protected], Gordon Lubold at [email protected] and Nancy A. Youssef at [email protected]
Copyright 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.Alastair Crooke latest:
Trickery, Humiliation, Death – and the Timeless Hunger for ‘Honour and Glory’
@zerosum – “the narrative is being controlled”
————————————-Yes, agreed. Still, it’s beyond my comprehension to even ponder who is it that is in control of all of this? How is it even possible? Yet is seems that it is, …
F.S., … stumped.
Damn the torpedos! “Intel has chosen to approve an unprecedented investment of $25 billion and to establish its new factory right here in Israel,” Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote in a post on X on Tuesday. […]
… The company confirmed the investment plans on Tuesday.[…]
Intel will build $25 billion chip factory in Israel’s ‘largest investment ever’
… really?
F.S.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/26/tech/intel-israel-investment/index.html
Brilliant Whitney! You have to hear this one out! Here is just one of the commenters comment:
“Imagine if the world had 100 journalists of her caliber. She is so amazing. Brilliant, fun, clever, humble.”
F.S.
From my inBox this a.m. – Wall Street Journal, with its editorials, continues goosing Middle East situation. Reading that with keeping in mind today’s Alastair Crooke’s musings, and I surmise a very turbulent start to 2024. ( … btw, oil price is finally reacting, up ~ 2.75% today, this moment U$75.74/bbl)
Iran Adds to Pressure on U.S. With Nuclear Program Acceleration,
from 59 minutes ago by Dow Jones
59 minutes ago by Dow Jones
By Laurence Norman
Iran has tripled production of nearly weapons-grade uranium in a move likely to deepen its confrontation with the West as Tehran helps allied militias to attack Israel and U.S. forces in the region.
Iran’s decision to triple its production rate of near-weapons-grade uranium marks the collapse of quiet diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran to ease tensions. It comes amid a proliferation of flashpoints between the U.S. and Iran, whose proxies have repeatedly traded fire with U.S. forces in the Middle East since the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7. U.S. and European navies are also shooting down drones launched by the Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea.
The Pentagon said Saturday that a drone launched from Iran struck a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean, signaling a widening risk to shipping after Yemeni rebels started attacking vessels in the Red Sea.
In a report to International Atomic Energy Agency member states, Director-General Rafael Grossi said that agency inspectors had confirmed on Dec. 19 and Dec. 24 an increased production of highly enriched uranium at both of Iran’s main nuclear facilities that the agency said Tehran had started on Nov. 22.
The increase took Iran’s production of 60% enriched uranium back to the rate of nine kilograms a month, where it stood early this year, before Tehran curbed work on the most dangerous part of its nuclear program.
Iran is the only country in the world that isn’t a declared nuclear power currently producing 60% enriched uranium, which can be converted to weapons-grade material within days. U.S. officials have said it would take Iran less than two weeks to convert enough 60% material into a form that could be used in a nuclear weapon.
Experts say Iran already has a sufficient stock of highly enriched uranium to fuel three weapons.
Iran says its nuclear program is for purely peaceful civilian use. U.S. officials have said in recent months that they have no evidence Tehran is currently working on completing its ability to build a nuclear weapon.
In its confidential report to member states, the agency also said that Iran had also linked its centrifuges again in a way that would allow it to start producing weapons-grade material even faster, a move likely to deepen concerns that Tehran is considering stepping over the 90% weapons grade threshold.
The agency said that Iran had connected up two sets of advanced centrifuges using so-called modified sub-headers. The agency discovered in January that Tehran had previously produced a small amount of 83% highly enriched uranium, a level just shy of weapons grade.
U.S. and European officials have warned that if Iran produces weapons-grade material, it would spark a crisis that could prompt a sharp escalation in economic and diplomatic pressure on Tehran. Israel has warned it could take military action against Iran if Tehran starts producing uranium enriched to 90%.
After a series of indirect talks in Oman in the spring, where the hosts played go-between for senior U.S. and Iranian officials, Tehran and Washington floated steps the U.S. hoped would reduce tensions and avoid a crisis ahead of U.S. elections in November.
The diplomacy took place because of the collapse of negotiations in the summer of 2022 on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted broad international sanctions on Iran in exchange for tight but temporary restrictions on its nuclear work.
U.S. officials sketched out several steps they hoped Iran would take. They included a prisoner swap that took place in September, a halt to firings by Iranian proxies at U.S. forces in the region, and a curbing of Iran’s nuclear program, in particular a sharp reduction or pause in Tehran’s production of highly enriched uranium. Iran began throttling back in June.
In exchange, the U.S. was prepared to give Iran access to billions of dollars trapped under U.S. sanctions. Washington also sent signals it wouldn’t sharpen its enforcement of oil sanctions on Iran and would be open to resuming talks about Tehran’s nuclear program.
Further indirect negotiations were scheduled to take place in Oman in mid-October but the U.S. canceled them after Tehran came out in support of the Hamas terrorist attack of Oct. 7, which Israel says killed more than 1,200 people.
The U.S. mission to the IAEA in Vienna didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iran’s nuclear-program acceleration adds another potential flashpoint between Tehran and Washington at a time of heightened volatility across the region over Israel’s conflict in Gaza, which authorities in the Hamas-controlled Strip say has cost more than 20,000 lives.
There have been almost daily attacks by Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria against U.S. forces. On Monday, the U.S. said it struck three drone facilities used by a Shiite militant group and other groups in Iraq in response to a series of attacks by the groups on American positions in Iraq and Syria, including an attack Monday in northern Iraq, in which three U.S. troops were wounded, including one critically.
The U.S. has sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the eastern Mediterranean, followed by a nuclear submarine, to bolster deterrence against Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful militia, in a bid to prevent a conflict between Israel and Lebanon. More recently, it created a special naval task force in the Red Sea to deal with broadening attacks against commercial shipping from Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen.
Iran also continues to aid Russia in its war with Ukraine, part of a growing axis between Iran and Washington’s top international foes.
The breadth of Iran-linked provocations in the region and beyond has led to a sharper debate in the Biden administration over how to approach Tehran in the coming months if the Gaza conflict dies down, U.S. officials say.
While parts of the administration still favor finding diplomatic solutions to ease the range of tensions, officials say there are louder voices than previously arguing that the breadth of Tehran’s militia-linked capabilities has reached an unprecedented level and that it needs to be tackled.
Write to Laurence Norman at [email protected]Jesus, Gaza, and the Murder of Useless People
https://www.unz.com/article/jesus-gaza-and-the-murder-of-useless-people/… The different stories of his birth, told by Mathew and Luke in the New Testament, which are the bases for Christmas, are not filled with sugar plum fairies and sleighs filled with useless, unnecessary consumer goods.[…]
… Mathew and Luke’s birth narratives are replicated again and again throughout history, presently and most conspicuously in Gaza and the West Bank, as the massacre of the innocents continues under today’s King Herod, Benjamin Netanyahu, the client king of Washington, not Rome, while U.S. politicians, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who claims to be a defender of children and opposed to U.S. war policies, support this genocide with rhetorical justifications that the Trappist monk Thomas Merton called the unspeakable:
It is the void that contradicts everything that is spoken even before the words are said; the void that gets into the language of public and official declarations at the very moment when they are pronounced, and makes them ring dead with the hollowness of the abyss. It is the void out of which Eichmann drew the punctilious exactitude of his obedience . . .
Israel Paying a Heavy Price for Its Crimes
https://kevinbarrett.substack.com/p/israel-paying-a-heavy-price-for-its
Following will most likely ring a bell for Dr. Day!
Postcards from the End of [the] America[n Empire]
California COVID Nurse exposes deadly COVID-19 Hospital Protocols (Remdesivir), and flood of COVID-19 Vaccine Injuries
http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2023/12/california-covid-nurse-exposes-deadly.html
F.S.
Interesting article by a Jew, Russian Jew, … now residing in Sweden. Traveling world a lot. Difficult to decipher. Prolific writer in the past, not so now. At one point and another suggested in his writings that he was – once – a member of Knesset, but kicked out out of it not long after, … that he is a son of one of the past prime ministers. He claims to “love” Palestinian people, … is proponent of “One State Solution” – Israel annexing West Bank and Gaza.
Anyway, … the article, it’s dated December 3, 2023 … large snip up front:
Gaza and Muslim Immigration to Europe
https://www.unz.com/ishamir/gaza-and-muslim-immigration-to-europe/We are trying our best to figure out – why is Jewry so keen to import as many Muslims to Europe and USA as possible, and at the same time prepare the Gaza genocide? Do they do it out of sheer idealism? Out of compassion (hard to believe)? Or out of silliness? Could it be that this calculating people didn’t take into account that Muslims might react to genocide against Palestinians? Granted, Europeans and Americans did their fair share of protesting, but Jews knew they could shut down the Goyim any time they wanted simply by uttering the magic Jewish spell “Holocaust – Auschwitz”.
Yet Jews understand better than anyone that their “fellow Semites” from the Middle East have not accepted the yoke of Holocaust Guilt. Jews are more aware than anyone that Muslims still chafe over the fact that their Palestinian brothers have been kept in an “open air concentration camp” for the last 50 years. So how can we explain the apparent tactical error when the ADL and other Jewish organizations twisted the arms of European and American leaders to accept hordes of fighting age Muslims just before an Israeli incursion into Gaza? Surely no! They do not make such mistakes!
When on Friday in Dublin a Muslim émigré from Algeria stabbed an Irish family and incited an anti-Muslim pogrom, we finally got the missing piece of this puzzle. I was waiting for “the rest of the story”, and it was unveiled at a crucial point in the drama – just as Dublin demonstrated en masse against the brutal murder of Gaza children, just when the Irish parliament threatened to expel the Israel ambassador, just as reports of anti-Semitism reached new highs. Just then it seemed that the Jews were beset from all sides, and that the whole world was against them. Of course, in every good story the darkest tidings come just before the dawn.
Jews are professional victims. They are good at it. They are willing to play the bad guy, but only in stories where Jewry is eventually vindicated and expendable Jews martyred. Jewish leaders believe that revenge is best served cold. […]
F.S.
Wow amazing
_________________Not really, vertical of the frame changes, … magic, sleight of hand, trick.
It’s a safe bet if you hide behind a cartoon of green chicken!
Peak Cheap Oil is a Myth
https://substack.com/home/post/p-139990248?source=queue
F.S.
Who knew? Jake Sullivan and Fareed Zakaria recently wrote lead-essays in Foreign Policy, Washington’s Nr. 1 Grand-Strategy magazine.
F.S.
John Helmer today:
Aside: Helmer mentions Karl Marx and his view of religion. The most accurate translation of Marx’s words on this subject I ever run across is following: “Religion is the opium of the people. It is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of our soulless conditions.”, … so you know.
F.S.
… err, my last post is not what I intended. The time is nigh, … to eliminate alien species
F.S., … stands corrected!
“Settler colonial states have a terminal shelf life. Israel is no exception.” – Chris Hedges
An invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, economic damage. They rarely eliminate natives. The time is nigh, …
F.S.
From my in-Box today on one of many criminal enterprises [ Pfizer Inc. *]
Pfizer Falters
Pfizer, one of the developers of the Covid vaccine, was one of the market’s favorite stocks in 2021. From its March 2020 lows to its 2021 peak, the stock appreciated nearly fivefold. Since then, it has been consistently falling. It now resides below the 2020 trough and at levels last seen ten years ago. So what went wrong?For starters, demand for the vaccine is down sharply. It is estimated, per the CDC, that only 17% of people over the age of 18 have taken the latest booster shot. For 2024, the company estimates $8 billion in vaccine and Paxlovid sales. Consider that in 2022, the two products generated over $100 billion in sales. The second chart below, courtesy of the WSJ, shows vaccine sales have fallen off a cliff.
Pfizer executives made a bad bet. They grossly overestimated the profit potential of the vaccine and Paxlovid. Therefore, research toward new and existing drugs with future revenue potential was underfunded. Consequently, the company is on a $3.5 billion cost-cutting effort, including layoffs and reduced research investments.
https://realinvestmentadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/pfe-pfizer.png
https://realinvestmentadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/pfizer-vaccine-sales.png
*) Definition at: https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/criminal-enterprise#:~:text=Criminal%20enterprise%20means%20a%20group,scope%20of%20individual%20criminal%20incidents.
F.S.
Alastair Crooke essay this a.m.:
… ending of:
The Resistance understands and can see it all: How does Israel get out of this? Overthrowing Bibi? That won’t do it. It’s too late. The stopper is off; the genies and the demons are out.
If the ‘front’ remains co-ordinated, proceeds by consensus; eschews any Pavlovian over-reaction to events that might plunge the region into an all-out war, then:
‘They can wait at leisure, whilst (Netanyahu) labours’ – and errs (Sun Tzu).
They Can Wait at Leisure, Whilst Netanyahu Labours – and Errs
The World has changed, … we transitioned from Marxist World [ labor/capitalism] to Leninist World [ political violence ] – Michael Every, Global Strategist at Rabobank, Singapore. He explains this starting at about 33:20 point, … but, is worth to hear him out right through.
F.S.
The article is worth a lot to the uninformed/propagandas feeder.
____________________________________Well, … yes! It’s from Wall Street, … Wall Street heavenly promotes “buy and hold” investment strategies. That’s the whole intent of these articles: … buy and hold mutual funds, stocks, ETFs, etc, … brokerage firms collect fees regardless of what happens in the markets.
Anyway, Wall Street analysts’ real clients are multi-million and billion-dollar investment banking transactions such as public offerings, mergers, acquisitions, bond offerings.
In reality, it’s all much like a pyramid scheme – all the players above you are making their money, … from you! Wall Street needs you!
Best,
F.S.
More WSJ articles in my in-box, … fwiw
Zelensky Pleads for Support, Putin Gains Momentum, from 2 hours ago by Dow Jones
2 hours ago by Dow Jones
By Matthew Luxmoore and Ian Lovett
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spent this week pleading for help. He jetted from Argentina to Washington to Norway, petitioning Western officials to get stalled aid packages over the line—so far without success.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to press on with his invasion of Ukraine, trumpeting his country’s economic resilience against Western sanctions aimed at destroying its ability to fight.
“There will be peace when we achieve our goals,” Putin said during a four-hour press conference on Thursday. “As for the goals, they are unchanged.”
Nearly two years into the war, Putin’s gamble that Russia can outlast Kyiv’s Western backers appears to be paying off.
Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive failed to achieve a breakthrough. A battlefield stalemate has set in, and Western leaders who last year promised to support Kyiv as long as necessary are now struggling to muster the votes to supply more arms.
The European Union on Thursday agreed to start membership talks with Ukraine in a major political victory for Zelensky, but the negotiations will take years and it is unclear when they will start. The bloc failed to agree on a long-term package of budget support for the country.
In the U.S., a $110 billion aid package failed to pass Congress last week, while Hungary on Thursday blocked an EU package for Ukraine worth more than $50 billion. Ukrainian forces, which are heavily dependent on Western arms, are now running low on ammunition.
Russia’s military, bolstered by 300,000 mobilized troops, has held the line in Ukraine’s south and east and thwarted Kyiv’s attempts to use sophisticated Western weapons to smash through its defensive lines.
Without a continued supply of weapons from the West, Kyiv has little chance of retaking the 20% of its territory currently occupied by Russian forces, and could struggle to prevent Moscow seizing more ground.
“They’re getting everything as freebies,” Putin said of Ukraine at the annual press conference, cracking jokes as he fielded questions from reporters and ordinary Russians. “But these freebies can run out at some point, and it looks like they’re already starting to run out.”
Unencumbered by free elections—Russia’s main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, is in prison serving sentences amounting to more than 30 years—Putin has framed the war in Ukraine as an existential struggle against the West.
He has placed Russia’s economy on a war footing. Military spending has fueled much of its economic growth and helped it weather the impact of Western sanctions. Next year, Putin’s government plans to raise military spending by more than two-thirds to a post-Soviet record of over $100 billion, according to data from Russia’s Ministry of Finance.
“He’s turned the tide, in his view,” said Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official and presidential adviser on Russia. “He didn’t win in the early bouts of the tournament but now he’s turning it and his opponents are being intimidated and weakened.”
Hill described the current moment, with deadlock in the U.S. over aid to Ukraine and Putin emboldened by the West’s reluctance to shore up a key ally, as “a critical decision point not just for Ukraine and Russia but for America’s role in the world.”
Since Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive, questions in Western capitals about how long they can keep funding Ukraine have grown louder.
In Washington this week, Zelensky met with President Biden, as well as Congressional leaders from both parties. But he left empty-handed. The U.S. has thus far provided about half of all military aid to Ukraine, but Republicans insist that any additional aid must be paired with increased funding for security at the U.S. border.
“He’s trying to make up through his negotiating skills for what he didn’t achieve on the battlefield, which is where I think this is being determined,” said Paul Bracken, a political-science professor at Yale University. He said he believed the U.S. would continue to fund Ukraine, but that additional aid packages would be politically challenging, “with presidents fighting with Congress about the amount of money.”
Zelensky’s reception was a stark reversal from a year earlier, when he arrived in Washington to a hero’s welcome and received standing ovations from both parties’ lawmakers. Bolstered by Western arms, Ukraine had taken back half the territory occupied by Russia since its full-scale invasion. An influx of Western armored vehicles in the spring fueled hopes on both sides of the Atlantic that Ukraine would dislodge the Russians.
Even after the counteroffensive stalled, Zelensky has largely continued with his upbeat message, casting Ukraine as a democratic bulwark against a wider Russian threat and insisting that his troops can reclaim all the territory Moscow has gained.
“Europe won’t see any benefit if Moscow receives a pass from Brussels in the form of negativity towards Ukraine,” Zelensky said to EU leaders on Thursday. “Putin will surely use this against you.”
Still, he and his aides are increasingly acknowledging the dire situation they will find themselves in if the flow of aid from the West were cut off. If the U.S. and EU couldn’t approve more funding, he said in Oslo this week, Ukraine might be forced to fight more like it did at the start of the war, when Russian forces claimed thousands of square miles of territory and reached the outskirts of the capital.
“You can’t win without help,” Zelensky said on Wednesday.
Even if the West is able to continue funding Ukraine and supplying it with weapons, military analysts question whether Ukraine will have the resources to overcome Russia’s formidable defenses, which were built up early this year while Ukrainian troops were training to used Western tanks. Manpower is also an issue, with Ukraine struggling to mobilize personnel to bolster its military.
In Ukraine, Zelensky has thus far resisted mass conscription. Protests have begun in Kyiv, with wives complaining that their loved ones have spent two years at the front and deserve a break.
Though Russia has suffered heavy losses, with U.S. estimates saying that 315,000 Russian troops have been killed or injured since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia’s population is more than three times the size of Ukraine’s. And Moscow has been steadily adding new troops.
Some 300,000 Russian men were mobilized last year, helping make up for the high rate of casualties in the Russian military. Thousands of prisoners were also recruited to join the army this year.
Any new wave of mobilization will be deeply unpopular among Russians, and Putin on Thursday said there was no need for one. With a new law on electronic draft notices and an exit ban in place for anyone called up to serve, analysts say the Kremlin can covertly enlist 200,000 men.
“The confidence level now should be going through the roof. Putin feels he has good reason to uncork a very rare Champagne vintage,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “His military machine is gathering steam.”
Last week, as Zelensky prepared to head to Washington to solicit Republican support for more of the military and financial aid on which Ukraine is reliant, Putin announced his run for a fifth presidential term that could see him rule Russia until 2030 and beat Joseph Stalin’s tenure as the longest-serving Kremlin leader.
Speaking at a lavish ceremony in the Kremlin where he bestowed medals upon Russian troops and commanders fighting in Ukraine, Putin said Russia’s military is working effectively and lauded the ramped-up production of its military-industrial complex. Unlike Russia, he said, Ukraine is reliant on outside help and therefore has no future.
“Those efforts to ostracize Russia, to weaken it, and ultimately to crush it,” Putin said, clutching a glass of champagne to toast the soldiers fighting in the war. “It’s not going to work out.”
Write to Matthew Luxmoore at [email protected] and Ian Lovett at [email protected]@zerosum – Glad you showed it.
___________________No trouble at all… I get bombarded by similar stuff pretty well daily! It’s one part of my double-life: TAE-type environs and TD/Financial-type of environs. And so when such blatant, deliberate misinformation surfaces from behind paywalls of MSM, … I become compelled to share it, …
Anyway, my situation: … in my situation, I just have to participate in financial world, I have no other choice – my family’s continued well being depends very much on financial needs ( … care of MS-stricken family member – very expensive and time consuming). That’s one side.
The other side? Reality. Maintenance of sound mind! That’s where I get my relieve. Discovery of what’s really going on, … acknowledgement of it.
Best,
F.S.
Post-Fed harangue, rainbows and unicorns in “The Markets!”, … and never mind wars, killing children. Santa delivers! Yes, …
F.S.
What a surprise? My TD WeBroker account sent me this article – in its entirety. It’s WSJ piece, … and so I’m pasting it here:
“Putin Vows to Push On With Ukraine War, from 1 hour ago by Dow Jones
1 hour ago by Dow Jones
By Ann M. Simmons
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to press on with his war in Ukraine during an end-of-year audience in which he showed no sign of seeking a swift conclusion to the devastating conflict, saying there would only be peace once Russia had achieved its goals.
For the first time since launching the war, Putin fielded questions from the international media and ordinary Russians for more than four hours on Thursday, in a stage-managed event that cast the president as listening to his people, spotlighted Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and sought to present Russia as resilient to the impacts of the conflict.
Putin trumpeted Russia’s economic resilience to stringent Western sanctions and vaunted Moscow’s commitment to the conflict amid U.S. infighting over tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine.
“There will be peace when we achieve our goals. As for the goals, they are unchanged,” Putin said. These are “denazification, demilitarization of Ukraine and its neutral status,” he said during the combined news conference and citizen phone-in event. The Russian president has repeatedly and falsely accused the government in Kyiv of being influenced by neo-Nazis.
Putin’s bellicose remarks suggest little likelihood of an end to the war he began in February 2022 and that he has depicted as an existential struggle with the West. Ukraine’s allies had hoped earlier this year that its forces would retake some of the 20% of Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, forcing Moscow to negotiate a settlement, but the counteroffensive failed to make significant gains.
“As for demilitarization, if they don’t want to come to an agreement, well then we are forced to take other measures, including military ones,” Putin said, referring to the government in Kyiv.
The Russian leader now appears to be hunkering down for the long haul in Ukraine just as Western support for Kyiv’s defense against Moscow faces new hurdles.
A sweeping foreign-aid measure providing $110.5 billion for Ukraine, Israel and other global hot spots was blocked by Republicans earlier this month and is now enmeshed in U.S. domestic politics.
Meanwhile, in Europe, a $54-billion package of aid is at the center of acrimony over the bloc’s approach to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s struggle to secure funding in the U.S. and Europe is throwing into question the West’s long-term commitment to supporting Kyiv. By contrast, Putin has signaled that he intends to fight in Ukraine for possibly years to come and appears prepared to wait for Western resolve to weaken.
Russia has reoriented its economy to sustain the war, greatly increasing military spending at the expense of civilian production.
Kyiv and many European governments believe Putin is waiting to see who wins next year’s U.S. presidential election, in the expectation that if Donald Trump is returned to office he would cut back or end aid for Ukraine.
Putin said a total of 486,000 volunteers had been recruited for military service in Russia to date and as many as 244,000 mobilized soldiers were currently fighting in Ukraine. In all, Putin said 617,000 Russian troops were on the front lines in Ukraine. He added that as of today there was no need for a further mobilization—a concern raised by citizens in the phone-in following last year’s call up of some 300,000 reservists.
The war in Ukraine has devastated Russia’s military, according to a newly declassified U.S. intelligence assessment shared with Congress. According to that intelligence, 315,000 Russian personnel have been killed or injured since Russia invaded in February 2022, or about 87% of Moscow’s prewar force of 360,000.
Ukrainian units have gone on the defensive, digging in along the eastern and southern front lines as winter slows fighting and Kyiv seeks to preserve manpower and equipment pending news on further Western aid. Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the construction of a network of defensive fortifications aimed at holding back Russian forces that are pressing an advance in the east.
Millions of Russians submitted questions in advance of Thursday’s event, according to the two television anchors who joined Putin at the podium inside the auditorium, where audience members hoisted placards indicating the theme of their concerns, home region, or their news outlet.
The last time Putin met the press in 2021, the focus fell on clues about his intentions as he amassed tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border. At the time, Putin denied seeking a conflict with the West and defended what he called his country’s need to protect itself against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s attempts to encroach on its doorstep.
Putin typically holds the news conference and live public question and answer session separately but canceled both stage-managed events last year. Russia analysts said doing so allowed the president to avoid the Russian people as the military’s offensive in Ukraine was largely floundering and the conflict had stretched for months longer than the Kremlin’s forecast.
This year, the atmospherics have shifted amid Ukraine’s slowing advance on the battlefield, tens of billions of dollars in aid for Kyiv’s defense against Russia at an impasse in the U.S., and the Russian economy proving resilient to sanctions.
In power as president or prime minister since 1999, Putin has cast himself as the only leader who can safeguard Russia’s independence in what he has described as an existential confrontation with the West, convincing Russians that the fight with Ukraine is a broader war with the U.S.-led NATO.
Sanctions have failed to bring Russia’s economy to its knees. Despite shortages in Russia’s labor market, profits from oil sales have allowed Putin to continue to dish out large subsidies to citizens, particularly to those fighting at the front and their families.
“There is enough for us not only to feel confident, but to move forward,” Putin said, adding that Russia’s gross domestic product is expected to grow by 3.5% by the end of the year. “This is a good indicator, it means that we have recovered from last year’s decline” in which the economy contracted by 2.1%, he said. However, Putin cautioned that annual inflation could approach 8% in Russia this year.
Russia retains strong and influential partners, mostly notably China. In October, Beijing rolled out the red carpet for the Russian leader and both countries, at odds with the U.S., used the moment to play up their solidarity and deepening economic and political ties. On Thursday, Putin called the level of cooperation between Russia and China unprecedented, noting that trade turnover was expected to exceed $200 billion this year.
The Russian leader has also sought to strengthen support from several developing nations, including in Africa, working to persuade them that the war in Ukraine hasn’t compromised the Kremlin’s ability to provide them military and political support. At the United Nations, African countries have been split on whether to support or abstain on various resolutions condemning Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
Earlier this month, Putin met with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other top regional leaders, with Russian diplomats portraying the warm welcome he received as a decisive rebuttal of the U.S.’s attempts to isolate the Russian leader over his war in Ukraine.
An aborted rebellion in June by mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin presented the most serious challenge to Putin’s hold on power, but the Kremlin leader moved quickly to dispel any uncertainty at home over his authority. With his most prominent political opponents jailed or living in exile, Putin faces no serious rival in the presidential election, scheduled for March 14. Prigozhin died in a plane crash in August.
Despite failing to quickly conquer Ukraine, Putin has also sought to show Russians that their country remains a military powerhouse, largely by boasting about Russia’s nuclear capability and stoking tensions over the possible use of nuclear weapons. In recent months, he has raised the alert level of the country’s nuclear forces, announced stationing tactical nuclear missiles in neighboring ally Belarus and revoked Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
Write to Ann M. Simmons at [email protected]
@ ezlxa1949 – A bit more on sulfur.
___________There is a number of meanings regarding Smelling Sulfur, … just a short listing:
Sulfur is often associated with the devil or with hell. Sulfur can also be a sign of purification or cleansing, and be a symbol of transformation. The smell of sulfur can also be a sign that someone has been cursed.
There is more, … the scent of sulfur also indicates the presence of angels or other spiritual beings, or the smell of sulfur may be a warning from your guardian angel, … or spirit guide about someone or something evil nearby.
Anyway, I watched the vid, saw the haze filling the area, … seeing presence of Sulfur in the air was the first thing that came up into my mind! [ As I recall from my olden past – ‘50s and ‘60s – we Poles never had much love for Jews. Today, … Poland, I suspect, is not much different. I could be wrong, … ]
F.S.
