John Day
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Dr. D observed:
Assange was arrested for “rape”. All of three women involved said it was consensual. Odd, much? Fully, openly, consensual rape? They booked him on an accessory technicality under a novel interpretation. When that finally was too silly to uphold any longer, he was arrested for a technicality of leaving the warrant of the case that was too silly for any human to uphold. And then in custody, they said “Hold my Beer” and started another novel legal interpretation manyfold sillier than the Swedish one. That the U.S. has jurisdiction over all humans on the planet, wherever they may be born, wherever they may live, whatever they may do at the time. Britain hereby approves of that fact. And the prosecution of this case – which I think is a misdemeanor in U.S. terms, bail-jumping, a foreigner exiting – has put him in solitary for 10 years, and perhaps for life. Before his case is heard.Why would that be odd? They are right now doing the same for many J6 people, but nobody cares about their names because they’re “Americans.” Red Americans are the untouchables. They don’t have names because they’re not even “People”.
170 -130 is 2X the difference between cat and turtle heights.
40 is 2X the difference in heights of cat and turtle.
Cat is 20 cm taller than turtle.
Top of cat = top of turtle + 20
Top of cat to top-of-turtle+20 = height of table (by subtracting cat height from bottom and top marks)
130+20 = height of table = 150 cmWilliam Makis MD, Turbo Brain Cancer Due to University COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates in the United States , Three tragic cases
“I believe this tumor is a direct result of the Covid vaccine, which I never wanted and immediately stopped getting shots of after I was no longer mandated to have it anymore by the school and would not have to worry about facing any consequences such as not being able to set foot on campus anymore if I didn’t have it. If the vaccine wasn’t the cause, I still believe that it may have significantly contributed to what happened.”
Turbo Brain Cancer Due to University COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates in the United States
Celia Farber, FOX 23 Airs 18 Minute Segment Reporting On 18 Year Old Who Died 12 Days After Second Pfizer Shot: “Trista Was A Beautiful, Beautiful Girl, More Full of Life and Joy Than Anybody I’ve Ever Known.” Trista Was 18, And Got The Shots Unbeknownst To Her Parents
https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/fox-23-airs-18-minute-segment-reportingWalter M. Chesnut, An Explanation for Observed SARS-CoV-2 Seizures and why Antibodies Post Exposure May be Severely Damaging the Brain
Blood Brain Barrier disruption and IgG leakage may be a major driving force of COVID neurological pathology.
https://wmcresearch.substack.com/p/an-explanation-for-observed-sarsCharles Hugh Smith investigates the new “broken”, as you may also have done recently. Digital Service Dumpster Fires and Shadow Work
One wonders what we’re paying for via taxes, products and services, when we end up having to do so much of the work ourselves for nothing.
All the work that once was performed by agencies and companies has been offloaded onto the customer. This is called shadow work: work we perform that isn’t paid or even counted as “work,” though it eats up our time and energy, leaving us less leisure and more frayed.
The ever heavier burdens of shadow work are a major reason modern life is increasingly stressful and harried: what was once done for customers as part of the service being paid for is now the customer’s responsibility.
I just spent–or shall we be honest and say “I wasted”– significant time navigating AI chatbots and a smartphone app which is touted as an AI assistant...
..After wasting a frustratingly large amount of time fiddling with the app on my end, I give up and ask to get a callback from the chatbot. A polite rep (based in the Philippines) calls me back, and after hearing my description of the issue, he reports that he sees the source of the problem right away: an update to the gateway’s software did not load properly, and so no amount of restarting would get it to work properly.
One would think the AI app’s troubleshooting script would include a check on whether the gateway’s software was actually functioning or not, but you would be wrong. The app said everything was nominal even when it didn’t work.
https://charleshughsmith.substack.com/p/digital-service-dumpster-fires-and Cuban President backs Lula’s comments on Gaza genocide
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel expressed his solidarity with Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva after he was classified as persona non grata by “Israel for his sincere condemnation of the extermination of the Palestinian population in Gaza.”
Diaz-Canel hailed Lula’s courage, adding “You will always be on the right side of history.”
This comes after the Brazilian President said during an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, “What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide,” detailing that Israeli troops were not fighting “soldiers against soldiers,” but rather a highly prepared army against “women and children.”
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/cuban-president-backs-lula-s-comments-on-gaza-genocide Gideon Levy (paywalled) opinion piece from Haaretz: The World Must Force Peace on Israel
Now is the time for the United States, and in its wake the international community, to make a decision: Will the endless cycle of violence between Israel and the Palestinians continue, or are we going to try to put a stop to it? Will the United States continue to arm Israel and then bemoan the excessive use of these armaments, or is it finally prepared to take real steps, for the first time in its history, to change reality? And above all, will the cruelest Israeli attack on Gaza become the most pointless of all?
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-02-18/ty-article-opinion/.premium/now-peace-by-force/0000018d-b862-dd5e-a59d-fdf2034d0000 Cuba interested in expanding ties with BRICS, Lavrov says
HAVANA, February 19. /TASS/. Havana is interested in expanding ties with BRICS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following talks with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla. “We took note of our Cuban friends’ ongoing and even increasing interest in cooperating with BRICS. As the group’s current chair, Russia will support this attitude. I am confident that other member states will react positively to Cuba’s application for [partner] status in BRICS,” Lavrov pointed out.
https://tass.com/politics/1748725 Meryl Nass MD, with transcript: We CAN Stop the WHO Pandemic Treaty , Part III of Our Interview with Whistleblower Dr. Meryl Nass.
“The number one thing we must do is get the information out there. If the WHO gets its way, it will silence us. We will not be able to push back in the (limited) way we did with the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the time is now to act. While we still can, we must wake up the public. We must spread the word that this is real and it’s happening now.”
https://merylnass.substack.com/p/we-can-stop-the-who-pandemic-treaty
The United States Vetoes Yet Another UN Humanitarian Ceasefire Over Gaza , Is a rival resolution from Washington another trick to protect Israel?
The media were informed that Washington would be presenting its own rival Security Council draft resolution that would call for a temporary ceasefire and which also would advise Israel against launching a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza over Ramadan, which starts on March 10th, due to the fact that more than a million Gazans are trapped in the region with, quite probably, nowhere to go. The resolution calls for a “viable plan” for protecting civilians in Rafah, whatever that is supposed to mean, which Israel will presumably ignore, and it includes no sanctions if Israel refuses to comply. The US indicated that its draft document would be discussed in the UN over the next several weeks or more and might be subject to considerable editing, but it set no time table for initiating the temporary ceasefire apart from “as soon as practicable,” which is where a warning flag went up for me and others.
The resolution gives Israel considerable freedom of action without any bothersome timetable to worry about and “temporary” means it can resume military action when it wishes to do so and there is no threat of possible punishment if Israel does decide to invade Rafah and kills another 30,000 Palestinians while doing so.
It is well known in Washington circles that follow foreign policy and Biden’s wars that the US doesn’t make any moves on the Middle East without complete prior consultation with the Israelis. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has even participated in Israeli War Cabinet meetings. Against those weak but positive moves spelled out in the resolution, there is the fact that Netanyahu and his political allies, long opposed to a two-state solution, have recently repeatedly rejected proposals for any Palestinian sovereign entity which means that the intention is to destroy and/or annex Gaza. Israel is in fact using its formidable lobby and international press/narrative control to work assiduously to isolate the Palestinians by blocking any recognition by individual countries or as a full member at the UN. The greatest effort is inevitably being directed at working to keep the United States under control...
..The United States and some Europeans are recognizing that a Palestinian state with what amounts to full sovereignty will not be allowed due to Israeli resistance and willingness to militarily destroy any such entity, but some leaders are nevertheless hoping to create some sort of “semi-sovereign” disarmed Palestinian government that will be entirely subservient to Israel in every way that matters…
Biden’s impending Gaza proposal also has a domestic political aspect. With Israel’s slaughter of Gazans still continuing, a situation that is enabled by Washington’s unflinching support of Israeli behavior, serious problems as the US is an active participant in a genocide are beginning to surface as the war spreads throughout the Middle East. One presumes that Blinken has finally decided that something must be done to salvage the international reputation of the United States while also undoing damage to Joe Biden’s electoral prospects as American voters increasingly are disgusted by the images of dead and tortured Palestinians that flash on national television screens nightly.
Aware that Netanyahu wants the war to continue until total victory to include opposition to the development of any Palestinian government entity, Blinken has reportedly asked the State Department to conduct a review and “present policy options on possible US and international recognition of a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza”…The United States Vetoes Yet Another UN Humanitarian Ceasefire Over Gaza
Government Media Office: Over 700,000 Palestinians are facing starvation in northern Gaza
The government media office urgently demanded a ceasefire and end to the genocidal war against civilians, children, and women.
“We demand the lifting of the siege and the entry of 10,000 aid trucks within the next two days in an urgent manner, especially into the Gaza and North Gaza governorates, before a human catastrophe occurs.”
https://en.ypagency.net/319510 ‘Israel’ hindering rescue missions to Gaza’s Nasser hospital, WHO says
Since taking over the hospital last week, the IOF has barred access to the complex.
According to the WHO, there are still an estimated 130 sick and injured patients, as well as at least 15 physicians and nurses, within the institution, and the conditions inside are conducive to disease transmission...
..The hospital in Khan Younis, one of the few operational hospitals in the entire region, is now in an “indescribable” state.
The statement described that with the lack of water and electricity, the hospital’s garbage and medical waste are creating the conditions for a “breeding ground for disease.”…
..”The Nasser medical complex is the backbone of healthcare in the southern Gaza Strip. Its ceasing to function is a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian displaced people in Khan Younis and Rafah,” he added...
..The statement further mentioned that the military has transformed the hospital into a “military base” and arrested a significant number of medical personnel following a raid on the compound on Thursday.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel–hindering-rescue-missions-to-gaza-s-nasser-hospitalDay 2 at ICJ hearing: Saudi Arabia condemns Israel’s actions in Palestinian Territories as ‘legally indefensible’
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2463186/middle-eastReally? UK Warns It Could Restrict Arms Sales To Israel If Rafah Offensive Proceeds
Fresh headlines Wednesday say the United Kingdom is mulling restricting arms sales to Israel if it goes ahead with its planned major offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which is packed with over a million Palestinian refugees who’ve been forcibly relocated from other parts of the Strip...
..Not only has London’s High Court recently dealt with petitions from legal advocacy groups alleging British arms sent to Israel are being used to commit war crimes (petitions which thus far have been rejected), but the UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has just issued a letter to Netanyahu’s office calling for Israel to “stop and think seriously about the repercussions of a military offensive” on Rafah.
Earlier this week Israeli defense officials for the first time said that the offensive would likely be launched by Ramadan, which begins on March 10 this year. The military has said Hamas can avoid this by releasing all of the hostages. At the UN Security Council, the UK abstained from a Tuesday vote on a resolution calling for immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It failed due to veto from the United States.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/uk-warns-it-could-restrict-arms-sales-israel-if-rafah-offensive-proceedsThe Sickness Among Us https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/the-sickness-among-us
Assange ‘too ill’ to attend last chance UK appeal against US extradition
Washington wants the WikiLeaks publisher on its soil where he could face a prison sentence of up to 175 years
“The outrageous part of the UK’s years-long ‘trial’ to condemn Julian Assange to die in an American dungeon is that the victim of his ‘crime’ (journalism) is a state rather than a person–the definition of a political offense, which the US-UK extradition treaty explicitly forbid,” NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said on X (formerly Twitter).
Activists outside the court chanted “US, UK, hands off Assange” and “There is only one decision – no extradition,” among other slogans.
This week’s hearing will decide whether Assange will be allowed to appeal the 2022 decision by the UK government to extradite him to the US. His attorneys have argued that the extradition would amount to punishment for political opinions and violate the European Convention on Human Rights.
https://swentr.site/news/592777-julian-assange-london-hearing/ Tessa Lena interviews financial analyst and former (successful in 2008) hedge fund manager, Alex Krainer, whose articles have always been insightful and intelligent.
Is Putin Evil? A Conversation with Alex Krainer
Alex says Putin is exceptionally honest, as exemplified by his never accepting bribes when he worked as a St. Petersburg bureaucrat. I have seen this reported before.
What I had never seen reported before is Krainer’s explanation of how Russia’s COVID vaccine response with Sputnik-V, the first to market, broke what was intended to be a global (Hi Bill Gates) monopoly of western vaccines and electronic digital passports, transitioning into electronic-only banking and transactions, with social controls on spending and travel, as already seen in China. The Russian early release, at low cost, of Sputnik-V made the WEF cabal choose between including Russia in the plan as a “partner” or shunning Russia, creating parallel arrangements. They shunned Russian cooperation. The monopoly-based digital-vaccine-passport-and-wallet plan failed to progress for lack of monopoly power. This explanation takes a few minutes and starts at 1:19 on the timeline. I like his closing statements in the last 5 minutes, also.
https://tessa.substack.com/p/is-putin-evil-alex-krainerTom Luongo, Why War Bonds Are Returning in Europe
But this is a far more complex and nuanced issue than just making sure the West fights Russia to the last Ukrainian. This is ultimately about shoring up the EU’s fundamental weakness. It is an economic bloc with a common currency whose political authority is mostly powerless to control the value of that currency.
For this reason the EU leadership, nominally Davosian in their agenda, has been working their political machine towards giving the EU Commission that power through bond issuance and a centralized taxing mechanism...
..To folks like Macron, Michel, Ursula Von der Leyen and their bosses, European bourgeoisie and proletariats alike are just tax cattle. No wonder they are so against them eating beef.
So, let’s connect another couple of dots. Because now it should be obvious that this is why they threatened Hungary’s Viktor Orban with economic devastation for holding up their $50 billion aid package for Ukraine.
They need to keep Ukraine going to justify now spending another $100+ billion to launder into failing French and German banks sitting on massive losses from all the debt they bought during the NIRP (Negative Interest Rate Policy) period.
This is just the beginning of their plans for transferring sovereignty out of the hands of the member states and handing it to Brussels. But to sell this to global investors they have to prove to the world they have all the wayward voices under control.
Sovereign debt is secured through taxation and the productive capacity of the population. At this point the EU has neither. Kiev has right to demand return of draft dodgers – UN , Top Ukrainian officials have been urging European countries to extradite men of fighting age
Ukraine has the right to demand the return of male refugees who are evading the draft, UN official Philippe Leclerc has argued. He added that military mobilization in Ukraine does not constitute persecution, meaning legal protection for draftees can theoretically be reviewed.
https://www.rt.com/news/592776-un-ukraine-has-right-mobilize-refugees-abroad/@MPSK: My daughter’s friend, who visited her and the baby last weekend while we were visiting, is about to go on that Star Trek Cruise you mentioned last night.
“Small world”.US Is Lone Veto Of UN Resolution Demanding Ceasefire In Gaza
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-lone-veto-un-resolution-demanding-humanitarian-ceasefire-gazaInterestingly, rumor has it that Zelensky was desperate to hold Avdeevka through his time at the Munich conference, so as not to be humiliated. However, the withdrawal order was only given because the 3rd Brigade (Azov) had already totally countermanded orders and began withdrawing on their own, with other units possibly following. To stave off total collapse of the command, Syrsky was forced to give an official order of withdrawal, but Zelensky is reportedly furious, as per Resident_UA channel:
Our source in the OP said that the Office of the President instructed the General Staff and the Security Council to conduct an investigation in the 3-brigade, which refused to comply with the order and enter Avdeevka in position. On Bankova, they are very angry at Syrsky, who promised to keep the city while Zelensky on a EU tour, but I had to urgently leave the most fortified positions that had been created in Avdeevka for ten years.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-21824-avdeevka-liberated@Michael Reid: I kept searching “Fatah” and “Fattah” and kept finding more meanings:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Fatt%C4%81%E1%B8%A5Peter McCullough MD, Placental and Cord Blood mRNA Detected , Freshly Vaccinated Third Trimester Mother Passes Genetic Code for Spike to Baby
https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/placental-and-cord-blood-mrna-detectedDr. Marian Laderoute, Must be Disinformation (Hearsay) Due to Lack of Substantiating Data
How to Tell IF Media or the Government is Gaslighting You on the COVID-19 Vaccine Risks…Even IF You Are NOT VACCINATED
https://hervk102.substack.com/p/must-be-disinformation-due-to-lackPlastics Cannot Be Recycled and Producers Know This, Report Claims [It takes less energy and pollutes less to make fresh plastic and put old plastic in the landfill. Now what?]
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240217/plastics-cannot-be-recycled-and-producers-know-this-report-claims-1116836370.html Ukraine Used US Chemical Weapons Against Russian Troops – MoD
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on the facts of the use of poisonous substances by the Ukrainian military:
On August 19, 2022, a toxic chemical, an analog of the warfare poisoning agent “Bi-Zet,” was used.
A similar substance was found on January 28, 2024, during operational-search activities in a cache in Melitopol. It was in vials labeled “Biosporin”.
On February 8 and 16, 2023, cases of hydrocyanic acid use with drones were recorded.
On January 31, 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used an unknown toxic chemical that caused burns. Analysis showed the presence of a compound known as anthraquinone.
On December 28, 2023, American-made gas grenades loaded with a substance called “CS” capable of causing skin burns and respiratory paralysis were dropped in the area of Krasny Liman.
On June 15, 2023, a drone carrying a plastic container with a mixture of chloroacetophenone and chloropicrin was used against Russian troops near Rabotino.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240219/russia-recorded-cases-of-ukraine-using-us-chemical-munitions-in-action—mod-1116874393.html When coming across the dead bodies of foreign mercenaries in liberated Avdeyevka, Russian forces discover many of the deceased to be servicemen from NATO countries, State Duma legislator Viktor Vodolatsky said. “We find the corpses of mercenaries in the rubble in Avdeyevka, ‘so-called mercenaries’ because these are soldiers of regular units from Poland, Germany, France and many other NATO countries that send their units here to gain combat experience against Russia,” Vodolatsky told TASS. https://tass.com/politics/1748699
Pentagon Confirms $32M Drone Downed Off Yemen, Same Day UK Tanker Destroyed
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/crew-abandons-cargo-ship-after-houthi-attack-us-mq-9-reaper-downed-rebels Jeffrey Sachs, How the CIA Destabilizes the World Thanks Eleni.
If only the CIA’s rogue operations had been consigned to history as a result of the crimes exposed by the Church Committee, or at the least had brought the CIA under the rule of law and public accountability. But that was not to be.
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/cia-destablizes-the-world Assange Judge Worked For MI6 & Defense Ministry
As with previous judges who have ruled on the WikiLeaks publisher’s case, Justice Jeremy Johnson raises concerns about institutional conflicts of interest.
Justice Jeremy Johnson has also been a specially vetted barrister, cleared by the U.K. authorities to access top-secret information.
Johnson will sit with Dame Victoria Sharp, his senior judge, to decide the fate of the WikiLeaks co-founder. If extradited, Assange faces a maximum sentence of 175 years.
His persecution by the U.S. authorities has been at the behest of Washington’s intelligence and security services, with whom the U.K. has deep relations. Paul Craig Roberts, 2024 Is the Last Year of Free Speech and Democracy in the Western World
Tyranny is easy to establish over peoples who have confidence in their Constitutional rights and integrity of their institutions. The more patriotic the population is, the more susceptible it is to deception and betrayal by government. Try telling patriots what is happening to them, and they will call you a commie for speaking badly about their beloved country. Christian evangelicals have no opposition to the evil that is engulfing us, because they have been brainwashed that they will escape it by being wafted up to Heaven. The growth of evil is actually their escape from a sinful world into Heaven. The more evil, the sooner their escape. For most of the rest, liberal interventionists and hegemonic neoconservatives have taught that America is exceptional and indispensable, so how can anything go wrong.
Combine these awareness-blockers with the fact that uncomfortable truths are a bad news turnoff, and that censorship is being established as a national security matter with the argument that it makes us safe and “protects democracy.” Consequently, the criminalization of truth is rushing ahead.2024 Is the Last Year of Free Speech and Democracy in the Western World
Douglas Murray, the director of the British Free Speech Union, announced a new initiative on Monday aimed at doxing critics of Israel for “hate speech” and keeping them from getting jobs. “Douglas Murray is Director of the British Free Speech Union. He is now going to lead an initiative to have harsher penalties for those accused of hate speech, and bar ‘bigots’ from employment opportunities based on social media posts!” Keith Woods commented on X.
https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=64304 Vice Speaker of the Slovak Parliament Ľuboš Blaha about Navalny’s death: “They better look at what the British and Americans are doing to Julian Assange, who is in custody on the verge of death in this glorious West, which prides itself on freedom of speech and protection of journalists. Let them remember how they remained silent when the American journalist Gonzalo Lira, who criticized Zelensky, recently died in Ukrainian custody. They didn’t even remember about it. And today they will moralize about Navalny’s death.”
https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/status/1759498158575370462 Czech prime minister labels protesting farmers ‘supporters of Moscow’
Hundreds of tractors have blocked downtown Prague as part of demonstrations against EU agriculture policies
On Monday, hundreds of tractors blocked off sections of Prague and disrupted traffic outside the country’s Agriculture Ministry as demonstrators demanded that the EU’s Green Deal, which calls for regulations on the use of certain chemicals and greenhouse gas emissions, be rejected.
The farmers have argued that the Brussels’ proposals place a heavy burden on their businesses, making products more expensive and less competitive, especially when compared to non-EU imports, such as those coming from Ukraine.
https://swentr.site/news/592696-czech-farmers-russia-supporters/ Meryl Nass MD, Mike Benz is THE best person in the world to explain how censorship works in the US (and to some extent in Europe). New Tucker C interview.
Proud to say I told my readership about him one year ago. He is still telling the same story, with some more details.
https://merylnass.substack.com/p/mike-benz-is-the-best-person-in-theThat hour long Tucker Carlson interview with Mike Benz, who explains exactly how this censorship is carried out within the government/deep-state apparatus.
Ep. 75 The national security state is the main driver of censorship and election interference in the United States. "What I’m describing is military rule," says Mike Benz. "It’s the inversion of democracy." pic.twitter.com/hDTEjAf89T
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 16, 2024
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has notched a victory in his legal battle against alleged government censorship of statements he made on social media that were critical of the COVID-19 vaccines.
A federal court has granted a preliminary injunction against the White House and other federal defendants in a lawsuit brought by Mr. Kennedy Jr. that accuses the Biden administration of orchestrating a campaign to pressure social media platforms to censor vaccine criticism.
Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued the ruling on Feb. 14, stating that Mr. Kennedy Jr. has demonstrated a strong likelihood of success in proving government infringement on his free speech rights.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/federal-judge-hands-rfk-jr-win-lawsuit-accusing-biden-admin-censoring-covid-19-vaccine-info Gilbert Doctorow outs the Brits (“perfidious Albion”) again:
A news brief in RIA Novosti this morning sets out the claim that the shoot-down over Belgorod oblast (RF) a couple of weeks ago of an IL-76 Russian transport plane was ordered and directed by British advisers to the Kiev regime without the consent of the Kiev military unit responsible for air defense. Just remember that the plane was downed by US made Patriot missiles which are very costly and of which Kiev has a very limited supply. Normally the Patriots would be launched only after approval by top Ukrainian military and political officials. That plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war about to be exchanged for Russian POWs…
..Looking back at the early days of the war, we know full well that the peace treaty which Russian and Ukrainian negotiators initialed in Istanbul in week five of the war was sabotaged by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his visit to Kiev. He urged Zelensky to fight on, with Western assistance, and in this way the UK is responsible for the deaths of half a million Ukrainian males in the fighting ever since…
..But then, as some readers wrote in, how could British forces reach so far into Russia as the remote penal colony in the North where Navalny was being held and carry out his murder? The answer is very simple: they did it by proxy. As we know from occasional news items on fires, explosions and other acts of sabotage being carried out deep inside Russia, the Ukrainian intelligence agencies have many operatives working clandestinely inside the Russian Federation. They are all native Russian speakers, without a hint of some cockney accent, and they can travel anywhere.
https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/after-trt-world-failed-to-post-my The Russian military has made the accusation that NATO troops are actually manning and directly overseeing Ukraine’s advanced anti-air defense systems which were provided by the West. The charge comes after weeks of the Kremlin saying that French mercenaries have been positioned in the city of Kharkiv, which sits across from Belgorod – a Russian border area subject of persistent mortar and rocket attacks.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-says-nato-troops-disguised-mercenaries-control-air-defenses-ukraine Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, threatened on Sunday that Israel will launch an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah if Hamas does not release the remaining Israeli hostages by Ramadan, which begins on March 10 this year.
Gantz: Israel Will Launch Assault on Rafah by Ramadan If Hostages Not Released
The axis of Resistance needs to take out some Israeli missile cruisers and submarines at port or on the seas with precision missiles, while also hitting some nuclear-weapons bunkers nearby and near airfields. Anti-aircraft systems such as S-300, S-400 or S-500 would need to be used to prevent F-16s with nuclear weapons from taking off. Russia world need to say, “we must insist that you don’t launch any ballistic missiles or let any F-16s take off until this calms down a bit”. Russia would have a clear interest in preventing Israeli nuclear retaliation, as would the world, including the US.
The weakening of the Israeli nuclear wild-card would allow actual negotiations towards a two-state solution with 1967 borders to take place. Armed Israeli “settlers” would need to relocate. It is hard to imagine the Israeli military relocating them, but not impossible. Lots of money to hand out would help. Other national armies might deign to wear the blue helmets, such as Turkey. Would Americans, Canadians, Aussies and Brits do that kind of work? They might.
The non-nuclear destruction of a large fraction of Israeli nuclear weapons would allow the rest of the world to align against the Zionist regime, force them to negotiate a face-saving humanitarian management, respecting 1967 borders, equal rights, Palestinian right-of-return to lands stolen in 1948 and 1967, and the dismantling of the apartheid state.”Netanyahu” will definitely be out if he loses militarily. This article presupposes an Israeli victory/genocide.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be able to retain power after the country’s military has concluded its operation against Hamas in Gaza, Ynet media outlet has claimed, citing anonymous sources within his Likud party. Amid mounting calls for early elections, the Israeli leader insisted on Saturday that now is “not the time for politics,” suggesting that the next vote will take place “in a few years.”
https://swentr.site/news/592613-media-netanyahu-lose-office-after-war-likud/ Ralph Nader, Biden & Blinken – Rule of Illegal Power Over Rule of Law
What laws are being violated by the State Department daily as it approves ships and cargo planes full of weapons of mass destruction to be used in Israel’s war crimes and genocide against hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s civilians, mostly children and women?
These are the laws highlighted in the Veterans for Peace letter:
The Foreign Assistance Act, which forbids the provision of assistance to a government which “engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”
Arms Export Control Act, which says countries that receive US military aid can only use weapons for legitimate self-defense and internal security. Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza goes way beyond self-defense and internal security.
The U.S. War Crimes Act, which forbids grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, including wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and unlawful deportation or transfer, perpetrated by the Israeli Occupying Forces.
The Leahy Law, which prohibits the U.S. Government from using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights.
The Genocide Convention Implementation Act, which was enacted to implement U.S. obligations under the Genocide Convention, provides for criminal penalties for individuals who commit or incite others to commit genocide State Department Threatens Congress Over Censorship Programs , Matt Taibbi
A year after its censorship programs were exposed, the Global Engagement Center still insists the public has no right to know how it’s spending taxpayer money
The State Department is so unhappy a newspaper published details about where it’s been spending your taxes, it’s threatened to only show a congressional committee its records in camera until it gets a “better understanding of how the Committee will utilize this sensitive information.” Essentially, Tony Blinken is threatening to take his transparency ball home unless details about what censorship programs he’s sponsoring stop appearing in papers like the Washington Examiner.
A year ago the Examiner published “Disinformation, Inc.”, a series by investigative reporter Gabe Kaminsky describing how the State Department was backing a UK-based agency that creates digital blacklists for disfavored media outlets. Your taxes helped fund the Global Disinformation Index, or GDI, which proudly touts among its services an Orwellian horror called the Dynamic Exclusion List, a digital time-out corner where at least 2,000 websites were put on blast as unsuitable for advertising, “thus disrupting the ad-funded disinformation business model.”
https://www.racket.news/p/state-department-threatens-congressLast November Iran announced the upgraded Fattah-2 hypersonic missile, with a range that can supposedly reach al of “Israel”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) unveiled the new ballistic missile “Fattah 2” equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) warhead…
The fully indigenous missile is equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) warhead, capable of maneuvering at hypersonic speeds ranging between 5 to 20 Mach, equal to about 6,100 and 24,000 kilometers per hour, depending on its design and utility. An HGV warhead allows the ballistic missile to significantly alter its trajectory after launch.
Conventional ballistic missiles follow a predictable ballistic trajectory and are vulnerable to air defense systems. The in-flight maneuverability of HGVs makes them unpredictable, enabling them to effectively evade air defenses.
The first version of the Fattah ballistic missile, with a range of 1,400 kilometers, was unveiled in June. The precision-guided missile features a two-stage solid fuel engine with a maximum speed of Mach 15 (18,522 km/hour) on impact. The missile can bypass and destroy air defense systems, and it possesses excellent maneuverability and stealth ability to pass through radar systems.
https://caspiannews.com/news-detail/iran-reveals-cutting-edge-hypersonic-missile-2023-11-21-0/Newsweek, 3/23/2023 , Did Russian Kinzhal Missile Take Out ‘NATO Command Center’ in Ukraine? (Yes, but they pretend that a Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile shooting 200 meters down the ventilation shaft to destroy a NATO command bunker in western Ukraine was too far fetched to be real. Google doesn’t give me any of the good links to the story.) https://www.newsweek.com/russia-nato-ukraine-command-center-strike-kinzhal-missile-1791805
Is the Iranian Fattah-2 missile as accurate as the Russian Kinzhal? How much sharing did they do on the targeting and guidance systems? Nobody is saying on the internet.
The Axis of resistance has done a lot of consulting in recent weeks. Have they agreed upon concerted action, simultaneous attacks upon the Israeli military if it ramps up the genocide in Rafah and ejects Palestinians into Egypt’s Sinai desert? Netanyahu has less to risk as long as he just starves these families to death and doesn’t trigger a concerted attack by driving them into the walled-area Egypt just constructed. The conservative Israeli move is to starve millions of Palestinians to death, and they hare halfway there. The Axis of Resistance has not been able to get food and supplies in through the Israeli blockade. It would require concerted military intervention to force the issue.
Gaza truce talks ‘unpromising’: Qatar PM , Hamas is reportedly planning to suspend talks until enough humanitarian aid is allowed into the Gaza Strip
A deal “does not appear very close,” Netanyahu said on Saturday. He had previously called Hamas’ terms for an agreement “delusional.”
The Israeli premier also vowed that the Rafah operation would commence, despite repeated international warnings over the threat posed to civilians and displaced.
https://thecradle.co/articles/gaza-truce-talks-unpromising-qatar-pm US Threatens to Veto New Gaza Ceasefire Resolution at UN Security Council , The US has vetoed two similar resolutions
The US is threatening to veto a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza at the UN Security Council as the US continues to provide political cover for the Israeli massacre of Palestinians.US Threatens to Veto New Gaza Ceasefire Resolution at UN Security Council
ICJ Hearings to Examine 57 Years of Israeli Occupation of Palestine [If the world would recognize a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders, that would be something to defend. Russia keeps saying ”1967 borders and a 2-state solution” are necessary. Accepting this kind of plan would save-face for Israeli politicians and generals in the face of strikes, sharply reducing their nuclear capabilities.]
“Decades of injustice will finally face scrutiny,” said U.N. human rights official Francesca Albanese ahead of next week’s Hague hearings on the legal consequences of Israel’s illegal occupation.
More than 50 countries are set to participate in next week’s hearings at the International Court of Justice focusing on Israel’s illegal 57-year occupation of Palestine, a forum that follows the Hague tribunal’s finding last month that Israel is “plausibly” committing genocide in occupied Gaza.
The ICJ—also known as the World Court—will hold a week of hearings on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, which dates to the Israeli conquest of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, Syrian Golan Heights, and Egyptian Sinai Peninsula during the 1967 Six-Day War.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israeli-occupation Currently, Israel limits risk of a concerted all-fronts attack by the Axis of Resistance, by not overtly assaulting Rafah refugees and driving them into Egyptian Sinai, but starving them and attriting them with sniper fire and hospital bombings, as disease moves through their crowded and weakened bodies. Israel can say it will militarily assault Rafah, which will keep global attention focused there, but refrain from that action, maintaining tension.
Pondering Potential Peace https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/pondering-potential-peace
Driving to Yoakum and back yesterday, mowing and pulling weeds, gave me well over 8 hours to consider how the 75 year war between “Israel” and the nations of the Levant and Arab world might conclude, perhaps starting this year.
Big Serge’s analysis in “The Age of Zugzwang” was that either “Israel” is defeated militarily as a prelude to a “political solution”, or Israel completes its genocide of Palestinians on the land that Zionists call “Israel”. The nature of the Zionist state of “Israel” does not allow it to compromise, which would involve giving up lands it has taken, and recognizing land rights, human rights and civil rights of native Palestinians. https://bigserge.substack.com/p/the-age-of-zugzwangAlastair Crooke, The Resistance Has a Plan for Israel. But on the Other Side, Fantastical U.S. Stratagems Ensure a Cascading Failure
Nasrallah outlined what is clearly the agreed Axis of resistance’s overarching strategic plan. (There has been a flurry of meetings between senior Axis principals over the last week, across the region, for which Nasrallah is speaking):
“We are committed to fighting Israel until it is off the map. A strong Israel is dangerous to Lebanon; but a deterred Israel, defeated and exhausted, is less of a danger to Lebanon”.
“The national interest of Lebanon, the Palestinians, and the Arab world is that Israel leaves this battle defeated: Therefore, we are committed to Israel’s defeat”.
Put bluntly, the Axis has its vision of the conflict’s outcome. And it is a “deterred, defeated and exhausted” Israeli State. By implication, it is an Israel that has relinquished the Zionist project – one that is reconciled to the notion of living as Jews between the River and the Sea – albeit with rights no different to others living there (i.e. Palestinians). The Israeli plan of genocide, clearing Palestinians off the “land of Israel” has been proceeding in fits and starts in the West Bank area, and seeks a decisive “ethnic cleansing” in ancient Gaza. The cities of Gaza have been destroyed by massive bombing, as have the hospitals and schools. There is no water, fuel or electricity, and aid trucks sit parked for miles in Egypt, starving Palestinians to death, an Israeli success nears completion.
Opinion: I’m an American doctor who went to Gaza. What I saw wasn’t war — it was annihilation
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-02-16/rafah-gaza-hospitals-surgery-israel-bombing-ground-offensive-children Israel acts with such impunity partly because it has nuclear weapons, which it can deliver via F-16 jets, ballistic missiles and submarine launched ballistic missiles. Israel has a military doctrine, the “Samson Option”, which dictates that if the Jewish state of Israel is about to fall in a war, then it will unleash its nuclear arsenal against the world, as far as it can reach. Supposedly, implementing this option was discussed at one point in the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when Egyptian and Syrian forces were gaining ground, early in that conflict.
Israel has long had undue influence in the halls of government and finance of the UK and US, as well, and in the conjoined spy services of CIA, MI-6 and Mossad, but the nuclear warheads must absolutely be dealt with in any “Axis of Resistance” plan for victory.The Israeli navy has 2 large missile corvettes and 6 German Dolphin submarines armed with missiles, which are assumed to be nuclear capable. The Israeli navy is mainly harbored at Haifa, but not only there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Navy
It seems that prior to proceeding with a land war against Israeli forces, an alliance intent on actually defeating the Israeli military would need to disable Israeli nuclear weapons with some kind of first strike. Otherwise, why bother? None of the Axis of Resistance forces have nuclear weapons, so how could that possibly be an option?
Last November Iran announced the upgraded Fattah-2 hypersonic missile, with a range that can supposedly reach al of “Israel”.
The Wuhan Cover-Up by RFK, Jr.: Review and Analysis, Debbie Lerman
Here’s how RFK, Jr. summarizes those effects:
Everyone has now seen that pandemics are another way for the military, intelligence, and public health services to expand their budgets and their power. In 2020, public health, defense, and intelligence agencies weaponized a [Covid-19] pandemic, resulting in unprecedented profits to Big Pharma and the dramatic expansion of the security/surveillance state, including a systemic abandonment of constitutional rights—effectively a coup d’état against liberal democracy globally. Study Finds 80% Of Americans Exposed To Fertility-Lowering Chemicals In Cheerios, Quaker Oats
According to a recent study, four in five Americans tested positive for an agricultural chemical found in several wheat and oat products, including brands like Cheerios and Quaker Oats.
The peer-reviewed study, published in the JESEE journal on Feb. 15, looked at urine samples from American citizens to determine their exposure to chlormequat chloride—a plant growth chemical. Exposure to the chemical can result in lower fertility and harm developing fetuses even at doses below acceptable levels set by regulators. Researchers detected chlormequat in 80 percent of urine samples collected between 2017 and 2023, with “a significant increase in concentrations for samples from 2023.” The chemical was detected in “92 percent of oat-based foods purchased in May 2023, including Quaker Oats and Cheerios,”
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/study-finds-80-americans-exposed-fertility-lowering-chemicals-cheerios-quaker-oatsCaffeine: Blood-Brain Barrier Protection and SARS-CoV-2 Therapeutic Properties
Caffeine’s ability to protect the Blood-Brain Barrier also offers protection against neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
https://wmcresearch.substack.com/p/friday-hope-caffeine-blood-brainA Midwestern Doctor, What Can a Multiple Sclerosis Charity Teach Us About Medical Propaganda?
Reviewing their recent unjust firing of a lifelong 90-year old volunteer in the name of “diversity, equality and inclusion.”
Briefly, this video focuses on Fran, a 90 year-old woman who had spent 60 years of her life continually volunteering for the national Multiple Sclerosis Society and multiple MS supports groups because her (now deceased) husband had MS and had received numerous accolades over the years for her exemplary service. Recently this 90-year-old noticed people were starting to put pronouns after their names, didn’t understand why this was being done and then asked someone to explain it to her (but was confused by the explanation). A few days later she was notified that she needed to leave the organization because she was “not inclusive” and therefore she was violating the Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) standards of the organization.
https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/what-can-a-ms-charity-teach-us-about Meryl Nass MD thinks laughter might be the best medicine… Petite, delicate, grandmotherly Dr. Nass unsheathes her rapier-wit upon the Massachusetts Medical Board, which is attacking her for her prescriptions of “unapproved” antivirals for COVID, though she’s had no license in that state for 25 years, because she might renew it some day.
Meryl’s Pre-Crime in Massachusetts.
It seems there are no coincidences. The universe has an impeccable sense of humor. The part-time ER doctor who was the Maine Board’s expert witness against me was named Dr. Faust. I wondered what the French word “bouton” meant, and the answer was very surprising. Hard to believe. But the Cambridge dictionary insists it is so. It means “zit” in French. If I had a name like that, I’d be a mean son of a gun too.
So, now my lawyers have a fourth “matter” to address. Mr. Bouton spins his wheels. And the citizens of Massachusetts are paying to be protected from a rogue ex-doctor in her seventies who might someday wish to come back to the Commonwealth to prey on them, especially if another pandemic happened and patients seeking care needed to be protected from themselves, since, you know, medicines can kill you!
https://merylnass.substack.com/p/meryls-pre-crime-in-massachusettsYesterday: Withdrawal had to be ordered because disorderly retreats and surrenders, including by Azov battalion were already underway.
Major Victory For Russian Army As Ukraine Forces Flee Eastern City
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/major-victory-russian-army-ukraine-forces-flee-eastern-cityToday, Russia is blowing past Avdiivka, leaving a mass Ukrainian army grave. The fortunate Ukrainians are now Russian POWs. Zelensky is signing-treaties OUTSIDE Ukraine.
Russian Victory In Avdiivka | The Orikhiv Offensive Started. Military Summary 2024.02.17
‘Israel’ behind attack on Iranian gas pipelines, NYT claims
One Western official tells The New York Times the strikes were major and symbolic, but their damage was relatively easy for Iran to repair and caused minimal harm to civilians.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel–behind-attack-on-iranian-gas-pipelines–nyt-claims On Wednesday, the House passed a bill that prohibits the US from opening diplomatic relations with the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad and expands harsh sanctions on Syria to prevent other countries from normalizing with Syria. [Just confiscate all of Saudi Arabia’s dollars! Show ’em who’s boss!]
The Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act passed in a vote of 389-32, demonstrating broad bipartisan support for the economic war against Syria. Only 28 Democrats and four Republicans voted against the bill. The legislation now heads to the Senate.
The bill was introduced as a reaction to Arab countries repairing relations with the Assad government and Syria being brought back into the Arab league.House Passes Bill To Work Against Countries Normalizing With Syria
(Hey, Who remembers French Indochina?) Lavrov calls for ending colonial dependence of 17 territories
Moscow is hosting the first Forum of Supporters for the Fight against Modern Neo-Colonialist Practices, which was organized by Russia’s ruling United Russia party. The forum is being attended by around 400 delegates representing leading political forces from African, Asian, CIS, Middle East, Latin American, and European countries, who will discuss ways to counter interference into sovereign affairs of states, destructive neocolonial practices, as well as issues of independence in political, financial, economic, information and other spheres. https://tass.com/politics/1747555Egypt ditching US dollar – diplomats , The North African nation has announced plans to use national currencies for trade with BRICS partners
https://www.rt.com/africa/592558-egypt-dedollarization-trade-brics/
Netanyahu Defiant After Biden Phone Call, Rejects Push For Palestinian State
Following a Thursday phone call with US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is again pushing back against the intensifying international pressure ahead of Israel’s planned ground assault on Rafah, which contains over a million refugees with nowhere to go.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/netanyahu-defiant-after-biden-phone-call-rejects-push-palestinian-stateNetanyahu rejects international pressure for Palestinian state
Israel will not be pressured into accepting a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, following a Washington Post report that Israel’s main ally the United States was moving plans to establish a Palestinian state.
“Israel categorically rejects international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians,” said Netanyahu, in a statement published following a call with US President Joe Biden. “Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2461101/middle-eastBig Serge quote from yesterday: “Ultimately, foreign observers must understand that the Israeli-Arab conflict is practically predestined by the peculiar nature of the Israeli state. As both an Eschatological Garrison state and a Settler-Colonial enterprise, Israel is unable to relate normally with the Palestinians (who do not have a state at all), and the only way out of the jam is either an Israeli strategic defeat or the shattering of Gaza.”
https://bigserge.substack.com/p/the-age-of-zugzwangThey are posturing. They don’t want to be in Bibi’s shoes, where they would have to take the blame for ordering the same unsuccessful war crimes Bib is now ordering.
Gantz, Eisenkot threaten Netanyahu to dissolve Israeli War Cabinet
Israeli War Cabinet members former Security Minister Benny Gantz and former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot threatened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the dissolution of the War Cabinet on Friday evening.
According to public Israeli broadcaster KAN, Gantz and Eisenkot issued their threat during a meeting held on Thursday, where they informed Netanyahu of their stance if he continues to make significant decisions without consulting them regarding the Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip.
They expressed their displeasure with Netanyahu’s decision not to send another delegation to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, for the prisoner swap negotiations, emphasizing that in this case, “the War Cabinet is becoming unnecessary.”
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gantz–eisenkot-threaten-netanyahu-to-dissolve-israeli-war-cICC prosecutor threatens Israel with more LEGAL ACTION if it does not stop killing Palestinians in Rafah
https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-02-16-icc-prosecutor-threatens-israel-action-rafah-killing-civilians.html‘Israel’ committed 2,503 massacres in Gaza since Oct. 7: Media Office
The Government Media Office in Gaza says the number of Gazans martyred or missing in the Israeli aggression has reached 35,775.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel–committed-2-503-massacres-in-gaza-since-oct–7–medSouth Africa: “Israel” violates decisions of International Court of Justice
https://en.ypagency.net/319083Top UN court rejects South Africa request for more Gaza measures
The UN’s top court Friday rejected South Africa’s request to put more legal pressure on Israel to halt a threatened offensive against the Gaza city of Rafah, saying it was “bound to comply with existing measures.” More than half of Gaza’s 2.4 million population have sought shelter there from Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2461431/worldWar on Gaza: Patients die at hospital as France warns Israel against ‘catastrophic’ Rafah attack
Israel’s foreign minister says it is coordinating with Egypt over fears of a refugee influx into Sinai
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-crisis-nasser-hospital-france-warns-israel-against-catastrophic-rafah-operationRussian Media Thrilled By Biden’s LNG “Gift” To Putin , This week, President Vladimir Putin praised President Joe Biden as a more experienced and predictable president than Donald Trump, hoping the 81yo president “with a poor memory” wins a second term.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russian-media-thrilled-bidens-lng-gift-putin(Pravda is f—ing with the American political machine and having fun doing it.) Putin wants Biden to stay in power to cause US empire to fall
Putin prefers Biden because he is ruining America from within
https://english.pravda.ru/world/158969-putin_biden_trump/Charles Hugh Smith looks at an important aspect of the global rent-extracting economic system. The U.S. Housing Market: Rent-Serfs and Artificial Scarcity
Unleash the powers of unlimited credit and excess capital on a limited, essential resource such as shelter and this is what we end up with: artificial scarcity, rent-serfs and half-vacant neighborhoods owned by absentee landlords.
https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-us-housing-market-rent-serfs-and.htmlTeachers Sue Gavin Newsom Over Policy Forcing Them to Lie About Student’s Transgender Status to Parents
Texas To Build Military “Base Camp” On Mexico Border To House 1,800 Soldiers
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Friday announced that the Lone Star State will build a military base along the Rio Grand at the border city of Eagle Pass.
Spanning 80-acres, “Forward Operating Base Eagle” will house upwards of 1,800 Texas National Guard soldiers supporting Operation Lone Star, and will be expandable to house 2,300. Texas Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer said the camp will have 300 beds by mid-April, and will add another 300 beds every month after that.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/texas-build-military-base-camp-near-mexico-border-house-1800-soldiersComing To A Head https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/coming-to-a-head
When societal change is suppressed for a long time, it comes very suddenly when the blocking measures finally fail. It looks to me like 2024 is shaping up as one of those years, a year like 1968. 1968 saw the paradigm shift of American attitudes from support to rejection of the Vietnam War, the assassinations of pacifists Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and the effective resignation of Lyndon Johnson from the US presidency, in the face of vast popular rejection of his war policies.
In the spring of 1968 French student revolt brought the French economy to a standstill and unseated the government. The wartime policies of WW-2, and remnants of colonialism, had been rejected as a mode of routine governance.
Colonialism was progressively rejected in the post WW-2 era, and its successor, global financial neocolonialism is now being resisted in the world, as it also becomes weakened by its own erosive nature of value-extraction, which degrades economic productivity wherever it holds sway.
The neoliberal, neocolonial global financial capitalist system, facilitated by covert regulatory-capture of governments, degrades the economic periphery first, and also degrades the core governments and economies, the seats of global empire.
Whatever regional economy degrades to the point of crumbling or collapsing is then bankrupted and stripped of productive assets. Remaining local production centers are taken for pennies on the dollar as payment for loans in-arrears, by global capital-consortia. The global “capital” is conveniently created by global capital centers, such as in New York and London, not through actual creation of physical goods and services. This cycles productive enterprise into creating “shareholder value”, which is stripped away, rather than being re-invested into productive infrastructure like factories, roads, railroads and powerplants.
These same forms of financial asset-stripping, leave productive citizens and businesses destitute, and still in debt in the core economies, like the US, UK, Germany and France, after the periphery is looted. This process is already well advanced.
Competing systems have arisen along the lines of nationally directed economies, such as that of the US in the early 20th century, Germany before and after the wars, and Japan. Russia and China have taken up economic nationalism in their own post-collapse periods, still ongoing. This model is very appealing to financially colonized countries in the “global south”. India is notably struggling between forces of economic nationalism and global financial neoliberalism. Turkey is in a similar position, leaning towards nationalism, but embattled. Iran is eager to excel within the anti-colonialist BRICS+ consortium, as it becomes more active and assertive in global trade.
International financiers still need to keep the productive citizens and businesses of the world in adversarial relations to each other, and compliant with global capital, in order to retain their control of their corrosive system of wealth extraction. Their “money is still good” at this moment in time, so bribes and dividends can be paid by the money-pool in their global Ponzi scheme.
How long before that financial bubble from 2008 pops for the final time? This year? How early in the year? Can you predict the trigger? I can’t. Derivatives are part of it, though.Ellen Brown, Fixing Derivatives Time Bomb
The “protected class” is granted “safe harbor” only because their bets are so risky that to let them fail could crash the economy. But why let them bet at all?
This is a sequel to a Jan. 15 article titled “Could a Derivatives Crisis Trigger Another 2008-Like Banking Collapse?”, discussing the threat of a 2024 “black swan” event that could pop the derivatives bubble. That bubble is now over ten times the GDP of the world and is so interconnected and fragile that an unanticipated crisis could trigger the collapse not just of the bubble but of the economy. To avoid that result, in the event of the bankruptcy of a major financial institution, derivative claimants are put first in line to grab the assets—not just the deposits of customers but their stocks and bonds. This is made possible by the Uniform Commercial Code, under which all assets held by brokers, banks and “central clearing parties” have been “dematerialized” into fungible pools and are held in “street name.” …
..Why not just shut down the casino? Prof. Stout’s suggested solution is for Congress to return to the pre-2000 rule under which speculative derivative bets were not enforceable in court. That would include reversing the “superpriority” privileges in the Bankruptcy Act of 2005 and the Dodd-Frank Act. But it won’t be a quick fix, as Wall Street and our divided Congress can be expected to put up a protracted fight….
,,(Professor Lubin’s) proposed solution is for Congress to make legislative provision for nationalizing any bankrupt exchange, brokerage or Central Clearing Counterparty before it fails. This is something to which our gridlocked Congress might agree…
..Another alternative that not only could work but could fix Congress’s budget problems at the same time is to impose a 0.1% tax on all financial transactions…
..There are other possible solutions to customer title concerns. There is no longer a need for the archaic practice of holding all securitized assets in the street name of Cede & Co… The states of Delaware and Wyoming have explored maintaining corporate lists of stockholders on a state-run blockchain; but predictably, the measures were opposed. The practice of holding assets in street name has proven very lucrative for the DTCC’s member brokers and banks, as it facilitates short selling and the “rehypothecation” of collateral...
..”The good news is, this “great taking” can be stopped at the state level. Americans don’t need to count on a divided Congress to get the job done. Because the UCC is state law, state lawmakers can take concrete steps to restore the property rights of their constituents and protect them in the event of a financial crisis.
On Monday, South Dakota legislators introduced a bill that would do just that. The legislation would ensure that individual investors have priority over securities held by brokerage firms and other intermediaries.
It would also alter jurisdictional provisions so that cases are determined in the state of the individual investor, rather than the state of the broker, custodian or clearing corporation. This would ensure that individual investors are able to rely on the laws of their local state.”Pepe Escobar, Axis of Resistance: from Donbass to Gaza
The resistance in Donbas and Gaza share an essential common vision: overthrowing the unipolar hegemon that has quashed their national aspirations.
NATO’s cosmic humiliation-in-progress in the steppes of Novorossiya is mirrored by the Anglo–American–Zionist combo sleepwalking into a larger conflagration throughout West Asia – frantically insisting they don’t want war while bombing every Axis of Resistance vector except Iran (they can’t, because the Pentagon gamed all scenarios, and they all spell out doom).
Scratch the veneer of who’s in power in Kiev and Tel Aviv, and who pulls their strings, and you will find the same puppet masters controlling Ukraine, Israel, the US, the UK, and nearly all NATO members...
..The Axis of Resistance “swarm” in West Asia has barely started and still carries a slew of military and economic cards yet to come into play. The Slavic Axis of Resistance has been fighting nonstop for two years – and only now are they starting to glimpse a possible light, linked to the fall of Adveevka, at the end of the (muddy) tunnel.
The resistance war is a global one, played out – so far – in only two battlefields. But their state supporters are formidable players on today’s global chessboard and are slowly racking up victories in their respective domains. All while the enemy, the Hegemon, is in economic free-fall, lacks domestic mandates for its wars, and offers zero solutions.
https://thecradle.co/articles/axis-of-resistance-from-donbass-to-gaza The “United” States are being divided in every possible way, before being asset-stripped. It is not that hard to comprehend.
How Progressive Policies Are Designed For Civilizational Suicide
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/how-progressive-policies-are-designed-civilizational-suicideFarmers are smarter than lawyers think. Farmers do winter chores before spring planting. Spain and France: Farmers’ protests continue
In Spain, highways, ports and the border with France were blocked – French farmers carried out coordinated actions in front of government buildings – and took down the EU flag.
https://transition–news-org.translate.goog/spanien-und-frankreich-bauernproteste-halten-an?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wappDigging in the dirt, out in the sunshine, to plant and cultivate vegetables is also very good, supporting a healthy, antidepressant gut microbiome.
New Study Finds Exercise Twice As Effective At Treating Depression As Anti-Depressant Drugs (and won’t make you want to shoot up a school or church)
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/new-study-finds-exercise-twice-effective-treating-depression-anti-depressant-drugsELECTRIC WEATHER | Where, Why and How 2:30 minutes on how air movement with charged particles carries electric current which creates and responds to magnetic fields.
The 3 minute case for the next turn of our ever-changing planetary weather being a cold one. Recent evidence. Cold Climate Bomb is Coming
Weeks After US Journalist Dies In Ukrainian Custody, Biden Uses Navalny’s Death To Push For More Russian War Funding
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russian-opposition-leader-alexey-navalny-dies-jail Gilbert Doctorow, Death of Aleksei Navalny: the Brits did it!
The Financial Times confirmed that Navalny had indeed died and set out the comments of leading Western statesmen condemning what they considered to be the latest murder by Vladimir Putin of prominent activists who oppose his rule. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, European Council President Charles Michel and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were among those who already had spoken before microphones and were reading from the same anti-Putin script.
In short, what happened in the West this afternoon was a new campaign to vilify Vladimir Putin on the world stage based on a death which was, if I may quote former British PM Theresa May, ‘highly likely’ to have been perpetrated by British Intelligence for this very purpose...
..Why would Putin want to murder Navalny, when the man is now largely forgotten within Russia. Navalny is yesterday’s news and his ‘anti-corruption’ campaign is irrelevant to Russians in the midst of an existential struggle with the Collective West that is being fought on the territory of Ukraine? However, the murder of Navalny clearly serves the interests of that same Collective West as an intended antidote to the major Soft Power coup of the Carlson Tucker interview with Vladimir Putin just a week ago…
..Russian doctors at the prison colony were said to have spent half an hour today trying to revive Navalny, but in vain. He is just one more case of collateral damage in the British secret war on Russia
Time was, in the days of Tony Blair, we spoke of the British as the ‘lap dogs’ of Bush. Today it would be more appropriate to say that the British have become the Hound of the Baskervilles, ahead of and likely outside the control of Washington.“This Is Scary”: Soros Prepares Takeover Of 200 Radio Stations Ahead Of US Presidential Election
America’s second-largest radio broadcaster could soon emerge from bankruptcy with a new shareholder: Soros Fund Management.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/scary-soros-prepares-takeover-200-radio-stations-ahead-us-presidential-election Phil sent this 24 minute video of (officially disgraced) US Government bioweapons expert David Martin speaking about the WHO and global crime syndicate decades of preparation to launch the COVID bioweapon and the profitable “vaccine” bioweapon-countermeasure, which they openly documented the development of. If you want to cut to the chase, it is found after 16:00, up to the end at 24:00 minutes. (This is not the European Parliament talk.) DR DAVID MARTIN MINCES NO WORDS
Meryl Nass MD, Trump spent $10 billion on US depopulation: Catherine Austin Fitts/ Mark Crispin Miller’s Substack
In an interview with Greg Hunter from USA Watchdog, Catherine Austin Fitts has said that “No matter who is president, they will allow bioweapons to kill Americans without hesitation.” She also argues that the former president Donald Trump is either a knowing participant in the Covid bioweapon operation, or he is grossly incompetent not to understand what’s happening, which Fitts claims is highly unlikely.
https://merylnass.substack.com/p/trump-spent-10-billion-on-us-depopulation Also on our Mother Planet. Thanks Red. Geomagnetic Extinction: A Paramount Science Disagreement
One of the most strongly divisive and imminently important issues in science is whether the known geomagnetic excursions of the last 100,000 years are coincident with major climate changes and loss of species.
The field is utterly divided, and a resolution is not only academically desirable, but evidence suggests that earth’s magnetic field is entering excursion again now, and if this geomagnetic secular variation presents a biosphere problem, the focus and discourse of various fields need a dramatic shift, now...
..Our electrified society, air travel, communications and more have all developed in an age where earth’s magnetic field was much stronger than it will be during the zenith of this excursion event. We now have more than the climate, radiation, food-chain disruption and solar-geomagnetic biology connections to consider in this upcoming event- we are at risk of losing our modern, electrified society.
It is a common misconception that earth’s last major magnetic event was the famous Laschamp excursion 42,000 years ago, but the Mono Lake, Lake Mungo, and Gothenburg magnetic excursions occurred more recently, along with a minor event known as “Hilina Pali”, and one earlier in the timeline that shows up in Vostok corings. These events are fast-flips, rapid reversals, and these occur in a cycle of ~12,000 years. Gothenburg was ~12,000 to 13,000 years ago, and earth’s field is performing the excursion again- right on time.
Looking ahead to the next round of academic studies on this topic, it is imperative that the field give appropriate treatment to all the potential biosphere stresses invoked by a weakening magnetic field and shifting magnetic pole position.
This includes (1) the loss of ozone and climate changes, (2) the radiation effect from both extra UV and galactic cosmic rays – on the entire food chain, (3) the navigational disruption to species caused by the magnetic change, (4) the geomagnetic interrelationship with critical biological processes, and (5) the dependence of modern society on electricity, and the increased vulnerability of these systems to both cosmic rays and solar flares while earth has a weaker planetary magnetic shield. House Intel Chair Accused of Disclosing National Security ‘Threat’ to Get Ukraine Aid Passed
US officials later told the media that the “unspecified threat was related to Russian space capabilities and a plan to develop a nuclear weapon that can target satellites. For their part, Russia dismissed the claim and said the US was “making up malicious stories.”House Intel Chair Accused of Disclosing National Security ‘Threat’ to Get Ukraine Aid Passed
Simplicius, Planetary Scare: Russian Doomsday Space Weapon Steals Headlines of Avdeevka Collapse [It’s hard to keep up with Adveevka. See below.]
..This could be a potential new escalation on Russia’s behalf to draw a final red line and issue the implied threat that if you continue meddling and harming us with these assets, we will consider wiping out your entire space-based ISR assets.
Of course, the problem with such an approach—if we’re talking about the nuclear/EMP-style option, at least—is it would indiscriminately wipe out everything in sight, including friendly and allied space assets. But I agree with one analyst who said that China likely wouldn’t mind trading a few of its own destroyed satellites in exchange for seeing the entire fleet of U.S./NATO assets go up in smoke.
Such a weapon could truly be a ‘hand of god’ that totally erases the Empire’s most crucial capabilities, instantaneously blinding it in every theater all over the world, allowing Iran, Yemen, North Korea, China, and anyone else to run rampant. I said before that Russia knows how to fight blind—hundreds of videos attest to its artillerymen, for instance, using Bussols and other scopes to accurately hit targets day in and out, while NATO relies primarily on satellite-guided GPS for almost everything...
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/planetary-scare-russian-doomsday This morning: Avdeevka has been cut in half by Russian forces. Russians offered surrender last night. Ukrainians are abandoning positions to regroup in the 9th quarter to evacuate. Azov reserve forces got to Avdeevka, saw it was hell, and withdrew to the next town against orders, leaving Ukrainian forces no way out, except to cross muddy fields under Russian fire, with 20% survival prospects. Attempts To Escape From The Encirclement Turned Out To Be A Disaster. Military Summary For 2024.2.16
This Afternoon: There is no way out for Ukrainian forces, who have been hit by 300 precision FABs (fuel air bombs) in the past 24 hours, and cannot hope to survive crossing muddy fields under heavy Russian fire tonight. The political decision must be made for something like 6000+ Ukrainian troops to surrender or die pointlessly.
Half Of Avdiivka Was Captured.1000s Of Soldiers Were Trapped. Military Summary 2024.2.16
Essay by Mike Whitney, “Over a Million Palestinians Are About to Be Forced From Gaza into Egypt at Gunpoint”
The IDF’s recent airstrikes on civilian areas in Rafah mark the beginning of the final phase of Israel’s massive ethnic cleansing project. On Monday, Israel bombed a number of locations where Palestinian refugees were huddled in tents after fleeing Israel’s onslaught in the North. Videos of the destruction appeared on a number of Twitter-sites which showed a deeply-cratered wasteland in the middle of makeshift encampments. Not surprisingly, women and children made up the bulk of the casualties with no evidence of Hamas to be found anywhere. According to a witness at the site, body parts and carnage were strewn across the landscape. This is from an article at the World Socialist Web Site: “Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment of Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, on Sunday night into Monday morning, killing over 100 people. As the sun came up, the world was horrified by images of the mangled bodies of children, in a chilling demonstration of what is to come in the weeks ahead.”
https://anthonyjhall.substack.com/p/we-should-all-feel-ashamed-of-ourselvesEgypt Erects 8-Square-Mile Walled Enclosure In Sinai Desert For Rafah Refugee Spillover
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/egypt-erects-8-square-mile-walled-enclosure-sinai-desert-rafah-refugee-spillover Moon of Alabama, (Lebanese Hezbollah leader, Sayyed) Nasrallah Responds To Israeli Attack On Civilians In Lebanon
We absolutely do not tolerate any harm to civilians, and it is imperative that the enemy realizes they have crossed a red line in this regard
Since October 7, there has been immense global pressure to prevent the southern front from opening up to support Gaza. The enemy’s tactic, through targeting civilians, is to coerce the resistance into halting its actions., the enemy should anticipate this response.
The enemy will pay the price in blood for shedding the blood of our women and children in Nabatieh, Al-Suwanah, and elsewhere...
..It is essential for Americans and Zionists to understand that in Palestine, they are confronting a people who will not retreat, regardless of the sacrifices or challenges they face.
The Lebanese resistance possesses powerful and precise missile capabilities, enabling its reach from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat...
..The Israeli goal was to displace Palestinians from occupied Palestine, relocating the people of the West Bank to Jordan, those of Gaza to Egypt, and those of the 1980s to Lebanon. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood exposed this long-standing Israeli objective of establishing a purely Jewish state extending from the sea to the river.
The project of establishing a purely Jewish state not only targets Palestinians but also poses a threat to Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon.
In memory of our martyred leaders, we reaffirm the efficacy of popular resistance as a viable option…
..Seventy-one percent of Israelis believe Israel should conduct a large-scale military operation against Lebanon to deter Hezbollah, a recent poll has shown.
The survey was conducted by the Israeli Maariv newspaper amid worsening cross-border violence between the Israeli army and the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. A growing number of Israelis, especially those who evacuated their homes in the north, have urged their government to take decisive action against Hezbollah and push them away from the frontier, even if that means a land invasion.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/02/nasrallah-responds-to-israeli-attack-on-civilians-in-lebanon.html#moreUS Scholars to President Biden: You Must Act Now to Prevent Genocide in Gaza
Academics Across America Demand Immediate Ceasefire, Restoration of Humanitarian Aid, and a Just Resolution in Israel-PalestineUS Scholars to President Biden: You Must Act Now to Prevent Genocide in Gaza
Zugzwang Again https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/zugzwang-again
Big Serge represents physical realities of military capability and industrial capability clearly and in context.
The Age of Zugzwang , The Merciless Grip of Geostrategic Logic
Zugzwang (a German word that literally means “move compulsion”) refers to any situation in chess where a player is forced to make a move that weakens his position, such as a king that is backed into a corner to escape from check – each time he moves out of check, he moves himself closer to checkmate. More simply put, Zugzwang refers to a situation where there are no good moves available, but it is your turn…
..I would like to argue that, despite these many powerful emotional-religious currents, much of the Israeli-Arab conflict can be understood in fairly mundane geopolitical terms…
..First, Israel is an Eschatological Garrison State. This is a particular form of state which perceives itself as a sort of redoubt against the end of all things, and accordingly becomes highly militarized and highly willing to dispense military force. Israel is not the only such state to have existed in history, but it is the only obvious one extant today.
A historical comparison may help explain. In 1453, when the Ottoman Empire at last overran Constantinople and brought an end to the millennia-old Roman imperium, early medieval Russia found itself in a unique position. With the fall of the Byzantines (and the previous schism with western papal Christianity), Russia was now the only Orthodox Christian power remaining in the world. This fact created a sense of world-historic religious siege. Surrounded on all sides by Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Turko-Mongol Khanates, Russia became a prototypical Eschatological Garrison State, with a high degree of cooperation between Church and State and an extraordinary level of military mobilization…
..Israel is the only Jewish state in the world, founded in the shadow of Auschwitz, besieged on all sides by states with which it has fought several wars. Whether this justifies the kinetic aspects of Israeli foreign policy is not the point. The simple fact is that this is Israel’s innate self conception. It is an eschatological redoubt for a Jewish population that sees itself as having nowhere else to go…
..However, the Eschatological-Garrison nature of the state is not the only way in which Israel is abnormal. It is also quite unusual in that it is a Settler-Colonial State in the 21st century. Israel maintains hundreds of settlements in soft-annexed territories like the West Bank, which are home to half a million Jews. These settlements constitute an effort to demographically strangulate and assimilate Palestinian lands, and cannot be described as anything other than settler-colonialism…
..Thus, Israel unfolds according to unique geopolitical logic because it is a unique state, having both an Eschatological-Garrison and a Settler-Colonial nature. The viability of the Israeli project depends on the ability of the IDF to maintain powerful deterrence and protect Israeli settlements and settlers from attack. This fact creates a sense of asymmetric vulnerability for Israel… A security asymmetry exists in Israel because the IDF needs to maintain massive full-spectrum overmatch over its adversaries, both in conventional war against state actors *and* a preclusive defense that can effectively filter against low intensity non-state actors. Israel’s security situation has been built on the back of overwhelming victories over surrounding Arab states – the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and so forth, but it also needs to constantly filter and defend against low intensity attacks. The viability of Israel’s settler project is guaranteed only by IDF overmatch and the threat of punitive attacks…
..Rome was able to secure the borders of an enormous empire for centuries with shockingly low force generation by maintaining the threat of overmatch, and reliably (we might say excessively) punishing those who either invaded or rebelled. In the case of the 1st Century Jews, their temple was destroyed, much of Jerusalem was wrecked, and their leadership was devastated and scattered.
Ironically, Israel now finds itself in a situation similar to their former Roman overlords, needing to maintain full spectrum overmatch and the political will to wield their power punitively in order to sustain deterrence and protect their settler project…
..That is why, on October 7, Israel found itself in Zugzwang. It had to move, but the only move available was a massively destructive invasion of the Gaza Strip, because Israeli strategic logic dictates an asymmetric response. Hamas’s attack necessarily triggered a ground invasion and concordant air campaign with the ostensible goals of eliminating the organization, despite the obvious certainty that would cause mass casualties in Gaza and abnormally high losses among the IDF…
..Ultimately, I have always believed that there is no durable solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict short of military victory for one side or the other. Neither a two-state nor a one-state solution is viable given the current construction of the Israeli state and its ideological content. A one-state solution (which gives citizenship to Palestinians within the Israeli polity) is unlikely to satisfy anyone, but would be particularly abhorrent to the Israelis who would correctly perceive it as the de-facto surrender of their state via demographic overwhelming. A two-state solution would require an Israeli strategic retreat from its settlements. In short, any of the potential diplomatic arrangements constitute Israeli strategic defeat, and can only come about once Israel has actually suffered such a strategic defeat on the battlefield…
..Ultimately, foreign observers must understand that the Israeli-Arab conflict is practically predestined by the peculiar nature of the Israeli state. As both an Eschatological Garrison state and a Settler-Colonial enterprise, Israel is unable to relate normally with the Palestinians (who do not have a state at all), and the only way out of the jam is either an Israeli strategic defeat or the shattering of Gaza…
..Concurrent with the collapse of the temporary stable state in Israel, the United States faces an unraveling of its position across the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria. This, perhaps even moreso than the Israeli predicament, represents an idealized example of geopolitical zugzwang.
To begin, one must understand the strategic logic of American strategic deployments. America has made generous use of a strategic deterrence tool colloquially known as the Tripwire Force. This represents an undersized, forward deployed force located in potential conflict zones with an eye to deterring war by signaling a commitment to respond. The classic example of the tripwire force was America’s minuscule deployment in Berlin during the cold war…
..On the whole, the tripwire force is a useful and well established tool in strategic deterrence, utilized by both the United States and the Soviet Union (as in its deployments in Cuba) throughout the cold war. Today, the United States adopts a similar strategy in the middle east, in relation to Iran…
..The American strategic goal, in a few words, is to conduct area denial and prevent Iranian hegemony in the middle east. This, in turn, is an extension of the broader American grand strategy, which is to prevent the preeminent or potential regional hegemons from consolidating positions of domination in their regions: Russia and Germany in Europe, China in East Asia, Iran in the Middle East. The geopolitical story of the modern world is one of triple containment by the United States, using an array of regional satellites, proxies, and forward deployments. Because Iran is the only state in the Middle East with the potential to become a regional hegemon, it is the object of American containment. America’s lingering deployments in places like Iraq and Syria therefore ought to be understood primarily as efforts to disrupt Iranian influence and offer forward deployment to combat Iranian militias… They can be understood as a form of tripwire force that also has limited operational value.
Unfortunately, the United States has discovered the limits of these skeletal forward deployments. The American presence across the region is too small to credibly deter attack, but large enough to invite it…
..The standard American reprisal for attacks on its facilities and personnel – air strikes – have little deterrent value against irregular combatants who are both willing to take casualties and mentally acclimated to a long struggle of strategic attrition and survival. Iran and its proxies have long time horizons that are resistant to short, sharp rebukes.
Furthermore, Iran and its allies thrive in conditions of governmental disorder, inuring them to America’s capacity to smash up states (creating what I call trashcanistans). Creating a trashcanistan can be strategically useful in many circumstances – by intentionally creating a failed state, a vacuum of disorder can be created on the enemy’s doorstep. In the right circumstances, this is a potent lever for creating geostrategic area denial. In Iran’s case however, failed (or at least, destabilized centers) create vacuums for which Iran is the most natural fill. This is why America’s geopolitical shooting spree across the Middle East has coincided with decades of steady growth in Iranian influence…
..American bases have endured relentless rocketry attack by Iranian proxies (attacks that have killed American soldiers), and the Ansar Allah movement (the Houthis) continue to obstruct shipping in the Red Sea despite a limited air campaign. In a geostrategic environment where deterrence is no longer credible, tripwire forces (like the American bases at Al-Tanf and Tower 22) cease to become deterrents at all, and become mere targets… After decades of wars across the Middle East, Americans are simply habituated to hearing about casualties in places that they have never heard of and do not care about. Thus, as both a geostrategic and a domestic-political instrument, the tripwire is busted…
..This is why those voices calling for war with Iran, as deranged and dangerous as they may be, are actually keyed in on a crucial aspect of America’s strategic calculus. Limited measures no longer suffice to intimidate, which may leave nothing in the stable except the full measure.
And so, America faces Zugzwang. As yet it appears that the traditional American toolbox has little to no deterrent value, and American bases around the region appear to be more like targets than tripwires…
..America soon faces the prospect of a difficult choice, between strategic retreat or escalation. In either case, a skeletal tripwire deployment in the region becomes obsolete, and America must either get out or go in deeper. This is why there are now alarms flashing in the foreign policy blob, who fear an American withdrawal from Syria, alongside ever more deranged calls to “bomb Iran.” That’s Zugzwang: two bad choices…
..America faces Zugzwang in Ukraine. It can choose to go all-in, but this means both selling a disruptive breakneck rearmament to the American public in peacetime, *and* gambling on a faltering piece in Kiev (which is now facing a command shakeup and yet another shattered defensive stronghold in Avdiivka). Strategic retreat in the form of abandoning Kiev may make the most sense from a pure cost-benefit perspective, but there are undoubtedly prestige factors at play. Walking away from Ukraine entirely and simply leaving it to be steamrolled would be seen, and rightfully so, as a Russian strategic victory over the United States.
https://bigserge.substack.com/p/the-age-of-zugzwangCelia Farber, “There Is A Massacre Unfolding, Right Now, In Nasser Hospital In Khan Younis. Masses of Patients, Children, Men and Women Are Being Slain Indiscriminately.” Footage From Inside Hospital Surpasses All Imaginable Horrors, As Patients Try To Escape Besieged Hospital, Amidst Screams, Machine Gunfire, TOTAL Chaos https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/there-is-a-massacre-unfolding-right
War on Gaza: Biden slammed over failure to help US nationals abducted by Israel , Hashem Alagha, Borak Alagha and their father Ahmed were taken by Israeli forces in Khan Younis last week, and their family says the US has not done enough to secure their release
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-palestinian-americans-criticise-biden-inaction-abducted-family@jb-hb: Same Shit, different millennium.
;-(Gilbert Doctorow, Death of Aleksei Navalny: the Brits did it!
https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/death-of-aleksei-navalny-the-britsJohn Helmer, THE LATEST MI6 OPERATION AGAINST RUSSIA — A SPY ALONE IS SPY BALONEY
THE LATEST MI6 OPERATION AGAINST RUSSIA — A SPY ALONE IS SPY BALONEY
@jb-hb: Kat Lindley MD explains the French criminal statute which will facilitate hard time for dissing mRNA injections.
France: any criticism of mRNA platform punishable with up to 3 years imprisonment and 45,000 euros.
“Article 4 is central to the new law, which was first deleted but then reinstated. This creates a new criminal offense and criminalizes the “ request to stop or refrain from… https://t.co/EYsM51yNMC pic.twitter.com/QlAyYYS6K3
— Dr. Kat Lindley (@KLVeritas) February 15, 2024
Thanks Red: https://principia-scientific.com/geomagnetic-extinction-a-paramount-science-disagreement/
Maybe Russian space nukes could help us step down from our GPS and Starlink habits?
What about the grid?
😮@Thomasjkenne, from last night: Bike ride, Grateful Dead, reflection & meditations on life.
Good! Carry-on!
🙂 EPA’s Final Witnesses Concede Fluoride’s Harm, Admit to Flaws in Key Study as Trial Closes
A risk assessor for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency admitted fluoride is neurotoxic at relatively low levels and the agency’s key expert on fluoride’s neurotoxicity conceded flaws in his own study as the landmark fluoride trial drew to a close.EPA’s Final Witnesses Concede Fluoride’s Harm, Admit to Flaws in Key Study as Trial Closes
NIH in Early 2022 Abruptly Stopped Responding to People Injured by COVID Shots
Documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit reveal officials at the National Institutes of Health corresponded with people injured by the COVID-19 vaccines throughout 2021, even launching a study only to pull the plug on it before finishing and reporting on it.NIH in Early 2022 Abruptly Stopped Responding to People Injured by COVID Shots
WHO Exhibiting Signs of ‘Desperation’ as New Zealand, Iran Reject Amendments to International Health Regulations
New Zealand and up to three other countries have rejected controversial amendments, proposed in 2022 by the Biden administration to the World Health Organization’s 2005 International Health Regulations.
“In May 2022, the WHA voted to adopt the amendment to Article 59 of the IHR (and consequently other articles), which reduces the timeframe for future amendments to come into force from 24 to 12 months. Consequently, the period to reject or reserve future amendments was reduced from 18 months to 10 months,” Murfitt said.
For states that did not reject the amendments by Dec. 1, 2023, “the amendment comes into force in May 2024 by way of ‘tacit acceptance,’” Murfitt added.
Recent statements by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also suggest a growing unease with the progress of negotiations and the likelihood of reaching an agreement on the proposed 2023 IHR amendments and “pandemic agreement” by this year’s WHA, scheduled for May 27-June 1.
Others, including Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), warned during a Feb. 5 press conference that the proposed instruments pose a fundamental threat to national sovereignty, including that of the U.S. Meryl Nass MD, her medical license suspended for treating COVID patients with antivirals like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, has been taking her message about the WHO becoming a super-sovereign entity if the IHR (international health regulation) amendments are passed, which mandate massive yearly funding, and national compliance if a pandemic or other health emergency is declared by WHO Director Tedros or some appointed successor. The Pandemic Treaty amendments might simply be signed by “Joe Biden” without senatorial debate, since a “Pandemic Treaty” already exists, but this would give the WHO supranational powers without legal recourse.
Lawfare goes wild. I have not had a medical license in Massachusetts for 25 years. But now Massachusetts wants to initiate disciplinary action against me, because… Quoting from their letter: “This Board has the authority to discipline a physician who has been disciplined in another jurisdiction”
https://merylnass.substack.com/p/lawfare-goes-wild-i-have-not-had Biden must be removed – US state’s attorney general
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has called on US Vice President Kamala Harris to declare Joe Biden physically unable to perform his duties as president. The demand was issued in a letter sent to Harris on Tuesday.
https://www.rt.com/news/592438-harris-remove-joe-biden/ Most Americans believe Biden and Trump too old to be president
According to the poll, which was conducted last week and involved a representative sample of 528 US voters, 86% of respondents said Biden should not run for a second term because of his age. Of that number, 27% believed only Biden – who is already the oldest US president in history – is too elderly, while 59% insisted that both he and former President Trump are too old. The Republican frontrunner was considered to be too old to run by 62% of respondents.
https://www.rt.com/news/592311-biden-trump-too-old/ Inside the chaos of Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s campaign: How 14 members of staff have quit his longshot bid for president and more are ‘fleeing’ over ‘lavish’ spending and ‘amateurish’ leadership
Campaign complaints center on campaign manager Amaryllis Fox Kennedy and communication director Del Bigtree
The campaign is struggling to get RFK Jr.’s name on the 2024 ballot in every state
One resignation letter complains of a ‘cavalier, and out of touch’ operation
Sources close to the campaign blame campaign manager Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, the candidate’s daughter-in-law, and the campaign’s communication director Del Bigtree for mismanaging the campaign, according to a report from Mediaite. “There is no one with any political experience and it shows,’ one source close to the campaign told the outlet...
..Fox Kennedy (still CIA?) replaced former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (non-Zionist peacenik) as the campaign manager in October (after Bobby tacitly supported genocide), shortly after RFK Jr. decided to end his challenge to President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination and run for president as an Independent.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13083157/robert-f-kennedy-jr-campaign-chaos-staffers-quit.html Exactly a week after a failed attempt, the House has impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, under whose tenure more than 10 million illegal immigrants have entered the US – doubling the existing population of migrants.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/house-impeaches-mayorkas-historic-voteFree Part 2: https://public.substack.com/p/us-government-is-hiding-documents
Former US President Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric regarding NATO is a continuation of his policy as the head of state, former US National Security Advisor John Bolton said, adding that Trump had come close to withdrawing the United States from the alliance back in 2018.
On Saturday, Trump said that during his presidency, the leader of an unspecified NATO nation had asked him whether Washington would protect that or other countries in the event of a possible attack by Russia, if they do not meet their defense spending obligations. Trump responded he would not and would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want,” stressing that NATO members “got to pay.”
“At the NATO summit in 2018, he came very close to withdrawing from NATO right there at the summit. So each of these comments, as he makes them now over six years, to me simply reinforces that the notion of withdrawing from NATO is very serious with him,” Bolton told Politico on Tuesday.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240214/trump-almost-withdrew-us-from-nato-in-2018—former-national-security-adviser-1116773227.html House Speaker Says Requested Meeting With Biden About US Border Security, White House Rejected
“I’ve been requesting a meeting with the president for weeks now, a month. I’ve been asking to sit down with the president to talk about the border and talk about national security, and that meeting has not been granted,” Johnson said during a press conference. Johnson said he will continue to insist on a meeting, adding that it is a “problem” if the Speaker of the House cannot sit down with the president.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240214/house-speaker-says-requested-meeting-with-biden-about-us-border-security-white-house-rejected-1116782752.html Ex-Biden Business Associate Throws the President under the Bus: ‘The Family Business Was Joe Biden, Period’
Tony Bobulinski, who worked with Hunter Biden and brother James, testified that Joe Biden was “the Brand” which enabled the door to be opened for massive salaries, bonuses, and board positions in China and Ukraine.
“I want to be crystal clear,” he said. “From my direct personal experience and what I have subsequently come to learn, it is clear to me that Joe Biden was ‘the Brand’ being sold by the Biden family.” “It’s hard to fathom who the big guy could be but Joe Biden. So we’ve known about this,” independent journalist Dr. Jim Kavanaugh told Sputnik’s The Critical Hour on Wednesday. “[Bobulinski] confirms that the big guy is Biden, which means […] [Joe] Biden was getting paid from his son’s activities with [these Chinese businesses].” This, combined with the President’s cognitive problems that have become “impossible to deny” will cause him to step aside before this November’s Presidential elections.
“He’s not going to be the Democratic nominee,” Kavanaugh asserted, adding that the only question left is “How much longer is he going to last as president?”
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240215/bidens-dual-big-guy-memory-scandals-will-end-his-presidency-1116789506.html
