Figmund Sreud
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Alastair Crooke writes this a.m.:
Ukraine has served as the solvent to the old order and has become the Albatross hanging around the neck of the Biden Admin: How to spin the looming Ukraine debacle as somehow ‘mission achieved’. Can that be done? Because the escape route of a ceasefire and a frozen line of contact is unacceptable to Moscow. In short, ‘Biden’s war’ cannot continue as it is, but nor can it do ‘other’ without facing humiliation. The myth of American power, NATO competence and the reputation of U.S. weaponry hangs in the balance. […]
… Fireworks are coming for Europe – but slowly. It has already begun (governments are falling); but the U.S. is the vanguard for radical change as the West loses its grip on the meta-narrative of its ‘vision’ being uniquely the paradigm through which the world’s ‘vision’ must be shaped too. A shift that changes everything.
Mike Whitney goes through “The Vilnius Summit Communique”
Mike: “The strident tone of the announcement [communique] is intended to quash any counter-argument or opinion. The author’s approach is rigid and inflexible. Russia is portrayed as a serial offender with whom negotiations are impossible. Thus, diplomacy is reflexively precluded with a wave of the hand. The only way to deal with a war criminal is though military force. That is the underlying message of the Communiqué. Peace talks must be avoided at all cost so that Russia can be dealt a strategic defeat in Ukraine. That remains the primary objective.
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/brzezinskis-warning/
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China’s message to NATO: ’Oh, slither back into the dark slimy pit whence you come!’ Or more precisely:
“NATO must abandon the outdated Cold War mentality and zero-sum mindset, renounce its blind faith in military might and misguided practice of seeking absolute security, halt the dangerous attempt to destabilise Europe and the Asia-Pacific and stop finding pretext for its continuous expansion.”
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Oh, those poor, poor darlings over there, … “The French are eating less foie gras and drinking less red wine. Spaniards are stinting on olive oil. Finns are being urged to use saunas on windy days when energy is less expensive. Across Germany, meat and milk consumption has fallen to the lowest level in three decades, and the once-booming market for organic food has tanked.”
Europeans Are Becoming Poorer. ‘Yes, We’re All Worse Off.’
https://www.wsj.com/articles/europeans-poorer-inflation-economy-255eb629?mod=hp_lead_pos7F.S.
Alastair Crooke:
“With the invention of the West came the invention of Western history – an elevated and exclusive lineage that provided an historical justification for the Western domination.”
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Following writing claims it “examine in detail what happened between the Russian state, the General Staff, the Ministry of Defence and the proprietor of Wagner PMC, Mr Prigozhin.” Interesting…
The March on the Kremlin
https://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-march-on-the-kremlin/F.S.
On a personal note – zerosum
———————————… perhaps germane following article?
“Tara Ghormley has always been an overachiever. She finished at the top of her class in high school, graduated summa cum laude from college and earned top honors in veterinary school. She went on to complete a rigorous training program and build a successful career as a veterinary internal medicine specialist. But in March 2020 she got infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus—just the 24th case in the small, coastal central California town she lived in at the time, near the site of an early outbreak in the COVID pandemic. “I could have done without being first at this,” she says.
Almost three years after apparently clearing the virus from her body, Ghormley is still suffering. She gets exhausted quickly, her heartbeat suddenly races, and she goes through periods where she can’t concentrate or think clearly. […], continues at:
… fwiw,
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Don’t you just love this headline!
“NATO didn’t ‘create incentive’ for Putin to stop Ukraine war”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/12/nato-didnt-create-incentive-for-putin-to-stop-ukraine-war
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Helmer:
THE NATO ULTIMATUM TO UKRAINE – INVITATION TO WIN BY WINTER OR DIE – Tuesday, July 11th, 2023
THE NATO ULTIMATUM TO UKRAINE – INVITATION TO WIN BY WINTER OR DIE
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Not so sure if following was posted here before, … and so, here it goes:
As scientists and clinicians continue to delineate the “long-haul” course of COVID, policy makers and planners must anticipate and prepare for the impact of this new cause of disability, including its implications for federal and private worker’s compensation and disability insurance programs and support services.
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KANIUKAI, Lithuania (Reuters) – NATO has turned Vilnius into a fortress defended by advanced weaponry to protect U.S. President Joe Biden and other alliance leaders meeting next week only 32 km (20 miles) from Lithuania’s razor-wire topped border fence with Russian ally Belarus.
Sixteen NATO allies have sent a total of about 1,000 troops to safeguard the July 11-12 summit, which will take place only 151 km (94 miles) from Russia itself. Many are also providing advanced air defence systems which the Baltic states lack.
“It would be more than irresponsible to have our sky unprotected as Biden and leaders of 40 countries are arriving,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said. […]
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Everything collapses slowly, … and than all of a sudden, … but there is no reason to fret, … “the “West” is composed of “value-based” societies under “the rule of law,” were “equity” and “diversity” and “human rights” are being upheld, where “carbon and nitrogen emissions” are being limited, and where “fake news” and “disinformation” are banned.
https://www.unz.com/article/the-collapse-of-the-west-spring-summer-2023/
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Dr. Campbell’s latest vid, conversation with one of three Danish authors of study (report!) of “vaccine batches with different adverse reactions”
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One most ungrateful ‘Angry Canadian Immigrant’ chimes in on the topic of “Top 5 reasons not to move to Canada | Why Canada is broken”
… it all sounds just about right, … but what do I know? I only immigrated to Canada in 1968, … and the times they are a-changin’ ever since.
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Canadians are ignoring that Canada is at war with Russia. – zerosum
________________________Canada has been in war since forever, in one way or another, … just one random example:
The Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force (French: Corps expéditionnaire sibérien)
Anyway, … more on Canada and NATO:
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_161511.htm
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How can you tell if you are being fed false information?
Easy peasey. Anyone with eyes, ears or fingers can tell. – D Benton Smith
_______________________To make it even easier peaser, related article, educational:
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Department, ICYMI:
Apple Inc. made – last Friday! – a history as a very first company with a market capitalization over U$3 trillion, the latest sign of big tech’s seemingly unstoppable dominance in equity markets!
The company gained 2.3% on latest trading day adding to a rally that’s added more than US$983 billion to its size this year and leaving it roughly a half-trillion dollars above the next-largest company, …
… imagine that!
Plus this=> https://realinvestmentadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/nasdaq-tweet.png
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Latest John Helmer podcast: “War of the Worlds” – 1 July 2023
https://tntradiolive.podbean.com/e/war-of-the-worlds-1-july-2023/
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MSM, most often, spews the darnedest things, … just an example:
For a time, it appeared that a teetering autocrat, Russia’s military and rival militia chiefs might end up in a civil war for control of a nation with a vast nuclear arsenal. Such instability and internal strife in Russia would send geopolitical shockwaves across the globe.
The West truly doesn’t have a side in the internal strife that erupted this weekend. This was a showdown between Prigozhin – whose men are accused of brutal human rights abuses in Ukraine, Syria and Africa – and Putin, who has revived World War II-style horror in Europe, who flouted international law by invading a sovereign neighbor and who faces an arrest warrant for alleged war crimes. Prigozhin also has been no friend to the US – he has admitted to interfering in American elections and pledged to do so again.
The West must now consider the possibility of a Russian political collapse
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/26/politics/wagner-putin-us-ukraine-analysis/index.htmlF.S.
John Helmer’s spin on all of this:
Unconfirmed reports in Moscow indicate he [ Prigozhin ] will leave the country for Africa with one of the Wagner units operating there. His media, communications, and internet networks have been blocked.
FROM PUGACHEV TO LEBED – THE MUZHIK REBELLION FIZZLES OUT WITHOUT BLOODSHED, PRIGOZHIN TO EXILE
FROM PUGACHEV TO LEBED – THE MUZHIK REBELLION FIZZLES OUT WITHOUT BLOODSHED, PRIGOZHIN TO EXILE
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This (failed?) attempt to foment a civil war within Russia had to be engineered and financed from the outside, … directed from the outside, hence there is no end to it any time soon! We now have to await a response from President Putin and his entourage, …
… above said, I sense that there just had to be a not-an-insignificant involvement by CIA in it all, … and if that, indeed, turns out to be the fact, Russia will take its gloves off with a vengeance!
And so: … First, watch out for an aggressive attack on a Russia’s significant and always active “fifth column”. Second, some significant hit(s) on NATO assets located within Ukraine. And ultimately, hits on NATO beyond Ukrainian proper!
Anyway, … I don’t believe that all of this will end well. The Doomsday Clock Time just indexed itself so much closer to midnight: A Timeline of Conflict, Culture, and Change
2 minutes to midnight
The hands that threaten doom
2 minutes to midnight
To kill the unborn in the womb. – Iron Maiden, 1984F.S.
Bizarre. Directly from TASS:
MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. A criminal case over charges of organization of armed mutiny was initiated against Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin after his Telegram channel published his claims that the Russian Defense Ministry hit PMC units with airstrikes and his calls for supporters to rise against the national government.
https://tass.com/russia/1637475
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Joaquin Sorolla Passeggiata sulla spiaggia (Walk on the beach) 1909
______________________________Beautiful, … pleasing all the senses! Mind you, the times they are a-changin’. These days – example:
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Tidbit on El Niño:
Extreme weather expected as El Nino climate pattern returns, US forecaster says
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/el-nino-climate-pattern-is-now-underway-noaa-2023-06-08/F.S.
Charts of the Week
https://www.macrobond.com/charts-of-the-week/currency-volatility-blue-chip-and-el-nino
… scroll down to:
As El Niño returns, watch out for damage section, … and see chart displaying “world economic costs connected to extreme weather, especially part from ~1990 and since.
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Alastair Crooke today:
“[T]he paradox: It is already obvious that to continue doing what western élites are doing in Ukraine touches on the definition of madness (to keep on repeating the same thing, matched only by the conviction that ‘next time’ the outcome will be different). The question that ‘hangs’ is the impossibility of ‘doing anything other’.”
An Unfolding Tragedy: The Impossibility of Doing ‘Anything Other’
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“Climate change should be a relatively straight-forward discussion. Either you believe that warming is because of human activity or not. The arguments pro and con haven’t changed much over recent decades although new data emboldens all sides to insist that they are right. […]
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLIMATE CHANGE
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… via Dr. John Campbell:
Did lockdowns work? The verdict on Covid restrictions – 5 June 2023F.S.
On AI: A Voice Of Reason
Today’s things they’re calling AI, particularly the generative AIs – these are literally just B.S. generators, they have no verified content in them, and the results totally unreliable.
The notion we’re going to apply these to things like search… it’s going to result in one bad outcome after another.
The guys at OpenAI [the company behind ChatGPT] are trying to create the illusion that what they’re doing is inevitable. Yet there is no way to monetize this other than surveillance capitalism – [monetizing user data] – and we know from social media how much harm that causes.
What you’re looking at is a battle between the OpenAI guys trying to create this sense of inevitability, and market saying, “Wait a minute guys, interest rates are now 5%, it costs a half a billion dollars in parts [the cost of Nvidia’s AI Chips] to do each training session. That’s too high in a 5% interest-rate environment when you have a business with no obvious business model.”
[Using chatbots] you have to do fact-checking on a search engine, that literally defeats the purpose of a search engine. That isn’t progress.
AI has enormous potential… the trick is you need to change the incentives. Executives who lead these projects have an incentive to protect the people who use it and ensure that the content produces accurate results. Until you see those things driving the industry, the products will suck.
Source: https://herbgreenberg.substack.com/p/ai-hits-mania-phase
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Following is via ConsortiumNews – Patrick Lawrence:
Lennart Meri Lecture 2023 by Fiona Hill
https://lmc.icds.ee/lennart-meri-lecture-by-fiona-hill/You may want to read it first, … or just skip it and read Patrick’s take on it at:
Deaf, but Not Blind to US Decline
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Fantastic news out of Alberta, Canada.
——————————Meaningless event, … Canada’s Federal Government runs the show, … provincial not so! Just a proverbial foaming on part of junior politicos!
Anyway, UCP was in power during the pandemic ( this was just re-election of the same tyrants) and my freedom was restricted severely back than and my family members who were vaccinated, … their freedoms were infringement upon just about as mine, … fwiw
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Alastair Crooke today:
The recent G7 summit should be understood as firstly, the shaping of a battlespace in the ‘War of Narratives’ whose principal ‘front’ today is the Team Biden insistence that only one ‘reality’ — the US-led ‘Rules’ ideology (and it alone) – can predominate. And, secondly to underline pointedly that the West is ‘not losing’ in this war against the other ‘reality’. This other reality is the multivalent ‘otherness’ that self-evidently is attracting more and more support around the world.
Many in the West are simply unaware of how fast the geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting: The original plate bifurcation (the failed financial war declared on Russia), already has led to a building wave. Anger is growing. People now no longer feel alone in rejecting western hegemony – they “no longer care”. […]
… continues at:
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Re NATO exercise called “Air Defender 23”, …
[aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford] Described as the largest aircraft carrier in the world, the vessel will stay in the Norwegian capital until Tuesday. It is then expected to take part in drills with the Norwegian armed forces, reportedly in the Arctic.
US aircraft carrier arrives in NATO member Norway, to take part in drills
https://o.canada.com/pmn/news-pmn/us-aircraft-carrier-arrives-in-nato-member-norwayVid of the arrival:
I did some random browsing today into previously of no real interest, and one “rabbit hole” led me to this page, … TheRANDblog:
F-16s Will Bolster Ukraine’s Fighting Force
https://www.rand.org/blog/2023/05/f-16s-will-bolster-ukraines-fighting-force.html… interesting reading!
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