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Debt Rattle October 20 2023

Oct 202023
 
 October 20, 2023  Posted by at 5:32 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,  14 Responses »


Mondriaan Amaryllis 1910

 

• Scott Ritter: US Not Ready for War With Iran (Sp.)
• Israel Plans to Turn Gaza Into ‘Hiroshima’ Without Nukes – Sy Hersh (Sp.)
• The US, Israel Dare Russia, China To Go To War To Save Arab Palestine (Helmer)
• Pepe Escobar: Russia, China Map Out New Economic Order in Beijing (Sp.)
• Israeli Gaza Operation Could Be ‘Mogadishu On Steroids’ – Petraeus (RT)
• Mike Huckabee: Speaker Battle Shows Some Politicians Don’t Want Change (JTN)
• Third Vote for Jim Jordan as Speaker Nominee Friday at 10:00am ET (CTH)
• Iran In The White House (Kanekoa)
• US Shaping Israel’s Ground Campaign Against Hamas – Bloomberg (RT)
• Dem. Billionaire: Trump Foreign Record ‘Pretty Incredible’ In Hindsight (JTN)
• Trump Offers To Visit Israel (RT)
• Health Canada Confirms Undisclosed Presence of DNA Sequence in Pfizer Shot (ET)

 

 

We had some technical glitches today, hope they’re gone now. Danny and Willie are invaluable. But also, as I wrote to John Day earlier, “Don’t you love life, just for all the crazy stuff? Where would we be without chaos?”

Somewhere along the line, some techie changed the “theme” we use. Big deal, because it changes all fonts and spaces and you name it. We’ll be back to “normal” as soon as Danny’s back from his doctor’s appointment.

 

 

 

 

Nap Maersheimer

 

 

Israeli man Where is your brother?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1714724578797515077

 

 

Archbishop

 

 

Hospital

 

 

Al Jazeera

 

 

Channel4

 

 

Nasr

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..trying his best to muster the steely-eyed stare of a man who means business, “if we don’t, who does?” The answer, it seems, is no one.”

• US Not Ready for War With Iran (Scott Ritter)

Generating combat power is one thing. Deploying it in a manner that is logistically sustainable is another. The US was able to deploy some 750,000 troops into the Middle East in 1990-1991 only because it had access to friendly ports and airfields in the region where troops and military material could be offloaded in uncontested fashion. Any general war between Iran and the US would inevitably result in Iran challenging any major US military deployment, which means the airfields and ports that would normally be used to support such a deployment would be under constant Iranian attack. As a result, the US would need to execute a forced entry option into Iran, seizing a major Iranian port city, such as Chah Bahar or Bandar Abbass. This would require a major amphibious effort where the ships containing the landing force would have to run a gauntlet of Iranian missiles that would cripple or destroy the landing force before it got within striking distance of Iran.

In short, the US cannot physically defeat Iran using conventional military power without undergoing a massive mobilization of resources that would be politically unsustainable. This leaves the option of an air campaign. Israel has long advocated for a military strike using air power against Iran. One of the major problems facing Israel is the physical distance between Israel and Iran, which would necessitate the kind of large-scale air-to-air refueling support that only the United States possesses. Israel and the US have carried out joint military training involving the air-to-air refueling of Israeli strike aircraft by US refueling aircraft as part of a training exercise known as “Juniper Oak,” conducted in January 2023. This training also included US bombers and ground forces.

The problem facing the US, however, is that Iran is a huge country which is not conducive to the delivery of a knock-out blow, even if delivered by the combined resources of Israel and the United States. Lindsey Graham’s threat to “knock Iran out of the oil business” may sound good to the opponents of Iran, but it is simply empty rhetoric. If the US and/or Israel were to target Iranian oil infrastructure, Iran would unleash a retaliation which would cripple the oil production infrastructure of the entire Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Such an action would throw the US and global economies into chaos. Moreover, Iran would retain sufficient strike capacity to devastate US military bases in the region and Israeli cities alike. In short, there is no military option available to either Israel or the United States, individually or working in tandem, that can defeat Iran.

In a recent interview, CBS News’ reporter Scott Pelley asked President Biden if the wars in Israel and Ukraine were “more than the United States can take on at the same time.” “We’re the United States of America for God’s sake,” Biden responded, with his trademark bellicosity, “the most powerful nation in the history—not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense. We have the capacity to do this and we have an obligation to. We are the essential nation, to paraphrase the former secretary of state. And,” he concluded, trying his best to muster the steely-eyed stare of a man who means business, “if we don’t, who does?” The answer, it seems, is no one.

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“Gaza City is in the process of being turned into Hiroshima with no nuclear weapons used..”

• Israel Plans to Turn Gaza Into ‘Hiroshima’ Without Nukes – Sy Hersh (Sp.)

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have every intention of staging in the Gaza Strip something similar to the US destruction of the Japanese city of Hiroshima, only without nuclear weapons, American journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in an article on Substack. “Gaza City is in the process of being turned into Hiroshima with no nuclear weapons used,” Hersh cited sources as telling him. Furthermore, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has every intention “to wipe out Hamas,” with little concern for hundreds of thousands of citizens of Gaza that were told to evacuate and move south of the enclave on October 12, underscored Sy Hersh, referencing unnamed intelligence analysts in Washington. Netanyahu formed an emergency unity government a few days ago with ex-military Chief of Staff Benny Gantz to bring his National Unity party into the governing coalition and join the war cabinet including Defense Minster Yoav Gallant.

Israel has vowed to “destroy” the Hamas movement ruling in the Gaza Strip after its attacks on Southern Israel. After calling up a reported 350,000 army reservists — totalling around a tenth of the country’s workforce — since October 7, Israel appeared to be holding back on an invasion. [..] While the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt remains closed, at some point, “American-made bombs in the Israeli arsenal, including those known as “bunker busters,” may be targeted on the underground tunnel systems where Hamas manufactured the weapons and conducted planning for the horrific attacks in southern Israel on October 7,” wrote Hersh. “Under the Israeli plans, there would be no need for a massive ground invasion,” insiders had informed Hersh, while Israeli troops, “would be needed for hunting down those Hamas members underground who choose to surrender.”

However, the orders to the Israeli military, according to a cited official, would be “shoot on sight,” with surrender not an option. “The official told me that the Hamas soldiers who would emerge from the tunnels desperate for food were seen by the Israelis as starving rats who would be met with poisoned food. The fate of the nearly two hundred hostages, most of them Israeli but known also to include a few Americans, was left unsaid,” wrote Sy Hersh. Accordingly, Netanyahu’s plan, as per the official referenced by Hersh, is to ensure that the Israeli Army destroys the Hamas tunnel system, along with every member of the militant group they can hunt down. After that, the remnants of Gaza City would be purportedly barricaded at the southernmost end. Hamas “stragglers” would be tracked down as Israeli soldiers scored every block in the destroyed city.

Sy Hersh also weighed in on the visit paid by US President Joe Biden to Israel on Wednesday. After earlier sending to the eastern Mediterranean near Israel two US Navy carrier strike groups led by the USS Gerald Ford and the USS Dwight D Eisenhower, Biden pledged support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s operation in the Gaza Strip. Recalling Biden’s Sunday interview for US media, where he conceded that while Hamas “must be eliminated entirely,” while adding that there “needs to be a path to a Palestinian state,” Hersh suggested that the latter was “not on Israel’s agenda.” His visit had come a day after an attack on the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in northern Gaza, where locals were sheltering from Israeli airstrikes on the enclave.

On October 17, a deadly attack on the al-Ahli Hospital killed hundreds of people. Palestinian authorities and the Israeli army have since been pointing fingers at one another for the disaster. Hamas said that the missile was launched by the IDF, while Israeli officials put the blame on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. The entire international community was shocked by the catastrophe, with citizens across the globe rallying in support of Palestine and urging for a ceasefire. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that the attack on the hospital is an “act of dehumanization.”

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“The new southern zone will be cordoned off by an Israeli ring of fire, and everything north of the line, including Gaza City will be destroyed, hospitals included.”

• The US, Israel Dare Russia, China To Go To War To Save Arab Palestine (Helmer)

Call it a repeat of the SS ultimatum to the Warsaw Ghetto of April 1943 — evacuate and we’ll give you a small chance of surviving, or stay and we’ll kill you for certain. Following the embrace of President Joseph Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the US has endorsed the Israeli plan to force the evacuation of the Palestinians from Gaza City to designated camps in the south. There Israeli forces will allow convoys of humanitarian aid to enter from Egypt and unload after Israeli forces have inspected the cargoes. The new southern zone will be cordoned off by an Israeli ring of fire, and everything north of the line, including Gaza City will be destroyed, hospitals included.

This formula has been pressed on Egypt, the other Arab states, China, and Russia to accept by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, a Portuguese government retiree, and his deputy for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, a British government retiree. They have emphasized there is no alternative to the destruction of Gaza, and its full absorption into the state of Israel. Reinforcing them, the US has cast its veto of all resolutions proposed in the UN Security Council (UNSC) by Russia, China and the Arab states to create humanitarian corridors under a ceasefire. China is preparing a new UNSC resolution to face the US veto shortly, according to a statement by Zhang Jun during Wednesday’s UNSC debate in New York. In Beijing, President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping discussed between themselves what they plan to do jointly and publicly.

“Over a cup of tea”, Putin told Russian reporters on Wednesday evening, “we talked for another hour and a half, maybe two hours, and discussed some very confidential issues face to face. It was a very productive and informative part of our meeting.” “Informative” in Russian means they were unable to agree to make a public declaration of a Sino-Russian action plan. Instead, Putin announced he is deploying supersonic Kinzhal missiles within range of the US naval and air forces positioned in the eastern Mediterranean and in Jordan. “They have upped and dragged two carrier task forces to the Mediterranean. I want to say – what I am going to say and inform you about is not a threat – that I have instructed the Russian Aerospace Forces to start patrolling the neutral zone over the Black Sea on the permanent basis. Our MiG-31 aircraft carry the Kinzhal systems that, as is common knowledge, have a range of over 1,000 kilometres and can reach speeds of up to Mach 9.”

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Different worlds.

• Pepe Escobar: Russia, China Map Out New Economic Order in Beijing (Sp.)

President Xi announced that participants of the business summit at the Forum clinched new infrastructure deals worth a whopping $97.2 billion. That’s the new paradigm. Compare it with the old Forever Wars paradigm: the White House working on a $100 billion package to fund the Ukraine-Israel wars. The 3-hour-long face to face meeting between Putin and Xi was crucial in more ways than one. It was a graphic illustration of Russia-China co-hosting the drive towards a multipolar world. And of BRI working side by side with the upcoming BRICS 11 (in effect on January 1, as Russia starts its BRICS presidency). Putin, sly as a fox, commented that he could not tell us “everything” he discussed with Xi. What he could say is that they went through “the entire bilateral agenda, a lot of issues there: it’s the economy, finance, political interaction, and joint work on international platforms.”

Additionally, “we discussed in detail the situation in the Middle East as well. I also briefed the president on the situation on the Ukrainian track in detail. All these external factors are common threats (italics mine). They strengthen Russian-Chinese interaction.” China-Russia signed the largest deal in their shared history for the supply of grain; 2.5 trillion rubles for 70 million tons of grain, leguminous and oilseed cargo delivered for 12 years. That completely destroys serial US Think Tankland wet dream scenarios advocating a naval blockade as the key strategy for the containment of China, to starve it of food and raw materials. On the energy front, Xi expected the extended Power of Siberia II, or Russia-Mongolia-China gas pipeline to make “substantial progress” as soon as possible. As much as Putin stressed both Russia and China’s “respect for civilizational diversity” as well as the right of each civilization-state to its own development model, what really stood out was his detailed explanation of connectivity corridors.

Putin stressed how “a North-South corridor is being formed in the European part of Russia – from the Baltic to Iran. Seamless railway communication will be organized there.” That was a direct reference to the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), whose main hubs are Russia, Iran and India. That will interconnect, in the medium and long term, with BRI’s central Eurasian corridors. Putin added that “other sections will pass through Siberia, the Urals and Yamal. The Northern Sea Passage will be built – to the Arctic Ocean. The railway routes will run from central Siberia to the south – to the Indian and Pacific Oceans (…) A corridor will also pass from the Arctic to the south – a railway line from BAM to Yakutia will be built, bridges across the Lena and Amur, highways will be modernized, and deep-sea terminals will be created.”

Putin’s characterization of the Northern Sea Route is particularly crucial: “All these transportation corridors from north to south in the European part of Russia, in Siberia, and in the Far East open up the possibility of directly connecting and integrating the Northern Sea Route with major logistics hubs in the south of our continent, on the coast of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. As far as the Northern Sea Route is concerned, Russia is not just inviting its partners to actively use its transit potential. Let me say more: we invite interested states to participate directly in its development and are ready to provide reliable ice navigation, communication and supply. As early as next year, navigation for ice-class cargo ships along the entire length of the Northern Sea Route will become year-round. The creation of the above-mentioned international and regional logistics and trade routes objectively reflects the profound changes that are taking place in the global economy.”

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“..he doesn’t believe the IDF’s operation could be won quickly, and might even take over a decade.”

• Israeli Gaza Operation Could Be ‘Mogadishu On Steroids’ – Petraeus (RT)

Israel’s conflict with Palestinian militant group Hamas could become even more violent and drag on for years to come if Israeli forces launch a group operation in Gaza, former CIA chief David Petraeus warned in an interview with Politico on Thursday. Speaking on the outlet’s Power Play podcast, the US general, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, claimed that a ground invasion of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “could be Mogadishu on steroids very quickly.” Petraeus was referring to the 1993 incident in which three US Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in the capital of Somalia, leading to a fierce battle between local militants and American forces who attempted to rescue the crash survivors.

The former spy chief suggested that if Hamas turns out to be “as creative in the defense” as they were in the “horrific, barbaric, unspeakable attack” on Israel on October 7, “then you’ll see suicide bombers, you’ll see improvised explosive devices, there will be ambushes, booby traps, and the urban setting, again, could not be more challenging.” Petraeus noted that given his personal experience leading armies engaged in counterinsurgency campaigns, he doesn’t believe the IDF’s operation could be won quickly, and might even take over a decade. “It’s hard for me to imagine a more difficult setting than this particular one, and I was one who commanded forces in a number of major urban operations,” the general told Politico. “You don’t win counterinsurgencies in a year or two. They typically take a decade or more, as we saw in Iraq, as we saw in Afghanistan.”

Additionally, Petraeus stated that Israel already needs to think about how it intends to eventually restore and rebuild Gaza once it considers its battle against Hamas won. Meanwhile, Israel’s former defense chief, Benny Gantz, also admitted on Wednesday that the conflict between Palestinian militants and the IDF is unlikely to end anytime soon, and will probably last “for months,” while rebuilding Gaza could take “years. The latest violent conflict between Hamas and Israel erupted on October 7 when the militant group launched a surprise missile and ground attack into the country. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that his country was at war, vowing massive retaliation. So far, the conflict has claimed the lives of more than 3,700 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis, according to official data.

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The real swamp.

• Mike Huckabee: Speaker Battle Shows Some Politicians Don’t Want Change (JTN)

Former Arkansas GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee says that the ongoing battle regarding the next House speaker demonstrates how some politicians are subject to the donor class and don’t want change in Washington, D.C. “In many ways, it is a power play,” Huckabee said on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast. “Some of it is not ideological, but there is an ideological tinge to it. There are people who want to make sure that Washington does not significantly change. And by change, I’m not talking about from the left to right, the Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives. They don’t want the donor class to lose the power that the donor class has.”

Earlier this month, Rep. Kevin McCarthy R-Calif., was ousted by eight Republicans. Many of them initially opposed McCarthy’s speakership, and cited recent budget negotiations as the reason for ousting him. As of now, the House does not currently have a speaker. Rep. Jim Jordan R-Ohio, has lost two rounds of voting. He decided Thursday not to move forward with his bid and instead threw support behind a proposal to elevate Rep. Patrick McHenry R-N.C., from his post as speaker pro tempore to unelected speaker with the powers of the office for a period of time. “There are many members of Congress that are there because of the donor class,” Huckabee explained.

“They have remained there because of the donor class. They’re in power and they have positions because of the donor class. The last thing they can afford is for there to be a downgrading or even a demise of the donor class.” When asked if those opposing a Jordan speakership are doing so because they are afraid Jordan would actually cut government spending, Huckabee said he wouldn’t be too surprised if that were the reason. “There’s no doubt that that’s a part of it,” he said. “If it’s all about that, I don’t know. But I do think that there are people who fear that there could be a level of transparency that we simply don’t have and haven’t had, in probably forever, where the citizens can know exactly when they watched the votes who voted for what and how did that money actually get used? It’s a messy process.”

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“This internecine professionally Republican stuff has nothing to do with principle centered leadership, and everything to do with self-indulgences and personal affluence.”

• Third Vote for Jim Jordan as Speaker Nominee Friday at 10:00am ET (CTH)

After a lengthy and often combative GOP conference earlier today, Jim Jordan’s office has announced there will be a 3rd vote for House Speaker Friday at 10:00am. “The House will vote Friday at 10 a.m. on a third speaker ballot, according to Jordan’s spokesman.” The UniParty Republicans had earlier floated an interim proposal to grant temporary House Speaker Patrick McHenry with additional authorities which would gain Democratic vote support. The concept was to get the House through a round of funding for Israel and Ukraine aid and avoiding a shutdown, until January. However, that effort fell short as the non UniParty Republicans would not agree to the plan.

(Via Politico) – “[…] Republicans are split. Jordan, for now, isn’t ready to call it quits, and some of his backers are gearing up for trench warfare. “I can tell you, nobody in our conference can get to 217 on two rounds, and three legislative days. So I think he deserves more time,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a Jordan ally, told reporters. “I’m in favor of trying. For Jordan, I would go at least another week.” Yet his opponents insist there is no negotiation to be had that would result in him winning the gavel. They’ve already detailed death threats and intimidation efforts that they say have only hardened their anti-Jordan stance.”

The House GOP Speaker’s race is a system of conniving and positioning for a cushy committee assignment, indulgences from the lobbyist control apparatus, office locations and Machiavellian influence for the best junkets and largest leadership PAC deposits. That’s the truth, the non-pretending truth about the system at work behind the GOPe House Speaker vote. This internecine professionally Republican stuff has nothing to do with principle centered leadership, and everything to do with self-indulgences and personal affluence.

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X thread. Pretty crazy what Patel has to say.

• Iran In The White House (Kanekoa)

Kash Patel highlights the unbelievable connections between three senior Biden intelligence officials—Robert Malley, Ariane Tabatabai, and Maher Bitar—and their associations with Hamas and Iran. On June 29, 2023, Robert Malley was placed on unpaid leave from his role as Joe Biden’s special envoy to Iran, and his security clearance was suspended due to an ongoing investigation into the potential mishandling of classified materials. On September 29, 2023, Semafor reported that Malley was involved in funding, supporting, and directing an Iranian intelligence operation to influence the United States and allied governments, as revealed by a collection of Iranian government emails.

These emails suggested that Malley facilitated the placement of an Iranian agent of influence named Ariane Tabatabai in sensitive positions within the U.S. government, initially at the State Department and later at the Pentagon, where she has been serving as Chief of Staff for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations. On October 16, 2023, Revolver News reported that Maher Bitar, who is Senior Director for Intelligence Programs on Joe Biden’s National Security Council, was also an executive director of the “Students for Justice in Palestine” group that reportedly responded to the recent Hamas terror attack on Israel by organizing a “Day of Resistance” in support of Hamas’ “historic win” against Israel. Bitar was photographed wearing a black and white “keffiyeh,” a symbol of Palestinian nationalism, and standing in front of a sign that reads, “Divest from Israel Apartheid.”

Kash Patel has pointed out that Maher Bitar plays a significant role in determining intelligence prioritization for President Biden, even though there is a photo of him wearing Palestinian attire, calling for the economic and political boycott of Israel. Robert Malley, who recently had his security clearance suspended by the FBI, installed Ariane Tabatabai at the Department of Defense as the Assistant Chief of Staff for the Special Operations Office.Do you know what she did in 2014? “She emailed Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and asked for permission as a U.S. citizen to take a trip on behalf of the US government. This individual is still employed at the DOD.” Unbelievable.

Kash Patel
https://twitter.com/i/status/1715019075653394819

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“..the role and influence of the US in the Israel-Hamas conflict are “deeper and more intense than any exerted by Washington in the past.”

• US Shaping Israel’s Ground Campaign Against Hamas – Bloomberg (RT)

The US is exerting unprecedented influence over Israel’s plans for a ground campaign against Hamas in Gaza, fearing that a massive attack could result in other regional actors joining the conflict, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing sources. According to the news outlet, while early into the conflict, Israel promised “coordinated strikes from the air, sea and land” on Hamas; its military later indicated that the ground operation “might be something different from what you think.” Bloomberg notes that this change in tone came after an unprecedented string of visits to Israel by high-ranking US officials, including President Joe Biden himself. According to three unnamed senior Israeli officials interviewed by the news agency, the role and influence of the US in the Israel-Hamas conflict are “deeper and more intense than any exerted by Washington in the past.”

While the US reportedly wants to see Hamas’ military infrastructure in Gaza destroyed, it seeks to limit civilian casualties in the Palestinian enclave, which is home to over two million Palestinians. In addition, Washington is concerned that Israel’s ground campaign could draw Hezbollah into the conflict; the Lebanon-based Islamist militant group maintains close ties to Iran, the report noted. This could potentially open a second front in the conflict, which could throw the entire region into turmoil and derail the White House’s efforts to stabilize the Middle East by promoting peace between Israel and Arab countries, the article says. While Biden on Friday condemned the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians and signaled that he would ask the US Congress to approve additional security aid for Israel, he cautioned the Middle Eastern country “not to be blinded by rage.”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with his country’s service members stationed near Gaza, telling them to “get organized, be ready” for the offensive. “Whoever sees Gaza from afar now, will see it from the inside,” he said. The conflict between Hamas and Israel erupted on October 7 when the Palestinian militant group launched a surprise missile and ground attack on the country, with hostilities resulting in thousands of dead and injured. In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel to be in a state of “war” and vowed retaliation. According to the latest official data, the fighting has claimed the lives of more than 3,800 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis.

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“So much of the work that happened in that administration turns out to have been right. And that’s what’s so frustrating for me..”

“The work on the border wall, we didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. Turned out it was right.”

• Dem. Billionaire: Trump Foreign Record ‘Pretty Incredible’ In Hindsight (JTN)

Amid ongoing chaos in the Middle East and American involvement in multiple conflicts on the global stage, one Democratic billionaire is reevaluating the Trump administration’s tenure, which notably saw the U.S. enter into no new major wars. Former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya, a Democrat who increasingly leans toward the political right, said that “Trump Derangement Syndrome” has prevented people from honestly evaluation the administration in a recent episode of the All-In Podcast. “What those guys did was pretty incredible, in hindsight,” he said. “To really be able to, like, find long-lasting peace is just a real example for the world.” Palihapitiya cohosts the podcast with his friends. He had previously been critical of the administration, calling him an “an idiot savant, minus the savant” last year, according to the Epoch Times.

The billionaire went on to highlight the Abraham Accords, a landmark diplomatic agreement that saw Israel normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, while paving the way for similar developments with other neighboring nations. Apart from the Trump administration’s international accomplishments, Palihapitiya conceded that Trump’s efforts to build a border wall had largely been vindicated amid a broader surge in illegal crossings. “So much of the work that happened in that administration turns out to have been right. And that’s what’s so frustrating for me,” he said. “The work on the border wall, we didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. Turned out it was right.”

Read more …

Trump and Israel is not a great combination.

• Trump Offers To Visit Israel (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump has said that he may visit Israel in the near future. Trump’s statement came after he harshly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his apparent failure to predict Hamas’ attack on the Jewish state. “I may, I may go,” Trump told reporters outside a courthouse in New York, where he is facing a civil fraud lawsuit. “But I believe in letting them do what they have to do,” Trump continued, “They have to straighten it out. What’s happening in Israel is all of those people dead would have never happened… if I were president.” During his term in the White House, Trump oversaw the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the signing of the Abraham Accords, under which Israel normalized relations with Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Trump often touted his close personal relationship with Netanyahu, and described himself as “history’s most pro-Israel US president.” That relationship has since deteriorated. Speaking to Fox News last week, Trump claimed that Netanyahu “was not prepared” for Hamas’ surprise attack. “He was not prepared, and Israel was not prepared,” Trump said, adding that the Israeli PM “has been hurt very badly because of what’s happened.” At a campaign rally in Florida several days later, Trump said that Israel needs to “straighten out” its intelligence agencies, and that Netanyahu “let us down” by declining to participate in the 2020 airstrike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.

Trump’s comments about a potential trip to Israel came a day after President Joe Biden returned from the country. Biden met with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, where he promised additional military aid to Israel, and cautioned the prime minister not to become “consumed with rage” in responding to the Hamas attack. Israeli warplanes have been striking Gaza for almost two weeks, killing almost 3,800 Palestinians and wounding more than 12,000, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry. At least 1,300 Israelis have been killed in the same period, according to the Israeli military.

Read more …

Open the windows! People have a right to know what they’re dying of.

• Health Canada Confirms Undisclosed Presence of DNA Sequence in Pfizer Shot (ET)

Health Canada has confirmed the presence of a Simian Virus 40 (SV40) DNA sequence in the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, which the manufacturer had not previously disclosed. There is debate among scientists with regards to the significance of the finding, with some saying it has the potential to cause cancer, and others saying it poses little to no threat. “Health Canada expects sponsors to identify any biologically functional DNA sequences within a plasmid (such as an SV40 enhancer) at the time of submission,” the agency said in an email to The Epoch Times. “Although the full DNA sequence of the Pfizer plasmid was provided at the time of initial filing, the sponsor did not specifically identify the SV40 sequence.”

The regulator said that after scientists Kevin McKernan and Dr. Phillip J. Buckhaults publicly raised the presence of SV40 enhancers in the vaccines earlier this year, “it was possible for Health Canada to confirm the presence of the enhancer based on the plasmid DNA sequence submitted by Pfizer against the published SV40 enhancer sequence.” Both scientists have made waves after discovering plasmid DNA in the mRNA COVID-19 injections, warning it could potentially alter the human genome. However, the two share different degrees of concern about the significance of an SV40 sequence—which is used as an enhancer to drive gene transcription during the vaccine manufacturing process—being present in the shots.

Mr. McKernan, a former researcher and team leader for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Human Genome Project, told The Epoch Times he suspects Pfizer didn’t disclose the presence of the DNA sequence due to the association of SV40 with polio vaccines. He said while there is no evidence the sequence is carcinogenic, he has concerns about its integration into the human genome. The polyomavirus Simian Virus 40, an oncogenic DNA virus, was previously removed from polio vaccines due to concerns about a link to cancers. Polio vaccines used in the late 1950s and early 1960s were found to be contaminated with SV40 as the virus was present in monkey kidney cells that were used to grow the vaccine.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Climate

 

 


Both blocks are the same color. use your finger to cover the middle line. An example of the Cornsweet illusion using shading and gradients to challenge perception, an optical illusion that was described in detail by Tom Cornsweet in the late 1960s

 

 

Cat. Door.

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 18 2023

Oct 182023
 
 October 18, 2023  Posted by at 8:52 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  43 Responses »


Henri Matisse Nu Blue IV 1952

 

• Hospital Bombing A ‘Massacre’ And ‘Genocide’ – Palestinians (RT)
• Arab Leaders Refuse To Meet Biden As Protests Rage Around The World (ZH)
• Jordan FM Says Summit With Biden’s Participation Cancelled (TASS)
• Failure of Biden’s Israel Trip Would be ‘Curse’ on 2024 Election Campaign (Sp.)
• US Opposes Peace as Israel Ethnically Cleanses Palestinians (Norton)
• Israeli Ground Operation In Gaza An ‘Ugly Blot On Humanity’ – Türkiye (TASS)
• How Media Outlets Work With Israel To Control Gaza Narrative (Adley)
• Putin Responds To Biden ‘Put Down’ Comments (RT)
• Why Vladimir Putin’s Visit To Beijing This Week Is So Important (Babaev)
• Trend Toward Mutually Beneficial Cooperation Unstoppable – Xi Jinping (TASS)
• US Must Learn to Respect Other States, Find Compromises – Putin (Sp.)
• Majority Of Americans Believe Both Biden And Trump Committed Crimes (Turley)
• Pfizer May Go Bankrupt, Financial Markets Realize (Chudov)

 

 

Iran FM

 

 

Gaza hospital
https://twitter.com/i/status/1714352506204045320

 

 

NYC last night

 

 

 

 


Mr. Fish: The Obscenity

 

 

Poilievre

 

 

 

 

Trump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1714071667847094541

 

 

 

 

Twitter files

 

 

Schwab
https://twitter.com/i/status/1714363458030850421

 

 

 

 

“People left their homes thinking they were more dangerous and they moved to our schools and hospitals to be safe. And in one minute, all of them have been killed at a hospital.”

• Hospital Bombing A ‘Massacre’ And ‘Genocide’ – Palestinians (RT)

A Palestinian Red Crescent representative on Tuesday described the destruction of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City as a war crime and genocide, while a local doctor called it a massacre. Over 600 people have been reported dead, but it is feared the final death toll may exceed a thousand. “This is genocide. This is a war crime,” Nebal Farsakh of the Red Crescent told Al Jazeera. She explained that in addition to the patients inside, many Palestinian civilians had sought shelter in the hospital compound, after Israel ordered everyone in the north of Gaza to leave. “Those who were in front of the hospital were forced to leave their homes under the evacuation order. They can’t even afford to evacuate to the south. There’s complete destruction of the infrastructure and transportation,” she said, speaking from Ramallah in the West Bank.

“What’s happened is terrible because those people, all of them, are civilians. They fled their homes and reached a place that they believed was safe – a hospital, which according to international law, is a safe place,” Ziad Shehadah, a doctor in Gaza, told AJ. “People left their homes thinking they were more dangerous and they moved to our schools and hospitals to be safe. And in one minute, all of them have been killed at a hospital.” According to Shehadah, the final death toll could easily reach more than 1,000. “It is a massacre,” he added. Al-Ahli hospital is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, an Anglican Christian denomination. Its destruction was denounced by the World Health Organization, Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye, among others.

Israel has denied striking the hospital, however. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “an enemy rocket barrage was carried out towards Israel, which passed through the vicinity of the hospital when it was hit.” “According to intelligence information, from several sources we have, the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is responsible for the failed shooting that hit the hospital,” Hagari added. The same claim was echoed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly afterwards. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh insisted that such “brutality” by Israel confirmed its “defeat” on October 7, and said the US was ultimately to blame. “The US holds the responsibility of the hospital attack because of the cover it gives to the Israeli aggression,” Haniyeh said. He also called for Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up against Israel.

Within minutes of Haniyeh’s statement, a riot broke out in Ramallah, as hundreds of Palestinians protested against President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to meet with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday. Abbas has reportedly canceled those plans since, citing the hospital attack. In nearby Jordan, dozens of protesters attempted to break into the Israeli embassy in Amman, but were dispersed by police. Russia and the United Arab Emirates have called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, to discuss the Gaza hospital attack.

https://twitter.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1714405328387813818

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Street protests literally everywhere in the world.

“There is no point in doing anything at this time other than stopping this war..” “There is no benefit to anyone in holding a summit at this time.”

• Arab Leaders Refuse To Meet Biden As Protests Rage Around The World (ZH)

Update(1820ET): As expected, the fallout from the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital bombing has been swift, with a domino effect of negative consequences both for diplomacy and on the ‘Arab street’. The situation outside the US Embassy in Beirut is deteriorating tonight, with reports of riot police and tear gas being deployed against large crowds waving Hezbollah flags. But more importantly, and just as Air Force One is departing Washington for Israel, the White House has canceled the entire leg of Biden’s trip to Jordan. The confirmation was issued within the same hour that Arab leaders announced they were unwilling to meet with Biden, given the US is Israel’s biggest funder and supporter.

Biden issued a statement “deepest condolences” to victims of Gaza “hospital explosion,” according to the White House official statement: “After consulting with Jordan King Abdullah II & in light of the days of mourning announced by Palestinian Authority President Abbas, President Biden will postpone his travel to Jordan and the planned meeting with these two leaders and Egypt President Sisi. The President sent his deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded.”

So even before arriving in Israel, the Tuesday massacre – which Israel is actually blaming on Palestinian militants (specifically PIJ) – has effectively served to box-in Biden. France’s Macron has just issued a condemnation to boot, saying “nothing can justify targeting civilians” in a statement which appears to place blame squarely on the Israelis. Biden will now also face the pressure to join the chorus of international condemnation. “International humanitarian law is binding on all and must enable the protection of civilian populations. Humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip must be opened up without delay,” the French foreign ministry said in the statement. Here’s what Jordan had to say: “There is no point in doing anything at this time other than stopping this war,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Al Jazeera Arabic early Wednesday morning. “There is no benefit to anyone in holding a summit at this time.”

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No longer feasible. Those days went by rapidly.

• Jordan FM Says Summit With Biden’s Participation Cancelled (TASS)

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the October 18 summit in Amman, expected to be attended by US President Joe Biden, has been cancelled. “We made the decision not to hold the four-party summit in Amman,” the minister said in a comment to Al Jazeera. He said the top-level meeting was cancelled after consultations with other partners – Egypt, the United States and Palestine. “Our decision not to hold the four-party summit was made after consultations with the Palestinian authorities, Cairo and Washington,” Safadi said. Meanwhile, the White House said early on Wednesday that Biden had cancelled his visit to Jordan. “After consulting with King Abdullah II of Jordan and in light of the days of mourning announced by President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, President Biden will postpone his travel to Jordan and the planned meeting with these two leaders and President Sisi of Egypt,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement.

According to the release, the US president “looks forward to consulting in person with these leaders soon, and agreed to remain regularly and directly engaged with each of them over the coming days.” Biden also conveyed his condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza. The summit was scheduled to take place on October 18, in the Jordanian capital of Amman. It was expected to bring together US President Joe Biden, Jordanian King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. A spokesperson for the Fatah movement, led by Abbas, said late on Tuesday that the Palestinian president refused to participate in the talks.

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Failure guaranteed even before his plane touches down.

“Palestine belongs to the great three religions and this is only going to put the Jewish state at stake, at risk, if these kinds of things are going to be done wrongly.”

• Failure of Biden’s Israel Trip Would be ‘Curse’ on 2024 Election Campaign (Sp.)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Tuesday that US President Joe Biden would visit Israel in the coming days as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) prepare to launch a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Speaking in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, Blinken said Biden would “reaffirm the United States’ solidarity with Israel and our ironclad commitment to its security,” and would “receive a comprehensive brief on Israel’s war aims and strategy” as it amasses 350,000 troops to invade Gaza. Having traveled to Israel a day prior, Blinken has pressured the Israeli government to allow humanitarian corridors to open into Gaza, which has been under “complete siege” for more than a week.

The IDF bombing campaign has killed more than 2,800 in Gaza since October 7, when Hamas launched an unprecedented raid into Israeli territory that killed more than 1,300 Israelis in several border settlements near Gaza. Blinken said Biden would oversee implementation of “a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza” without “benefiting” Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip. Riyadh-based political analyst Dr. Ahmed al-Ibrahim told Sputnik on Tuesday that regional trust had waned in Washington’s ability or willingness to mediate the 75-year-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, but noted that the conflict would continue until both sides are willing to make hard choices to satisfy the others’ concerns.

“Traditionally, the United States is the custodian of Israel and they have unlimited support for Israel. Biden wants to show that to the world – that the United States is standing behind Israel at anything that Israel needs and has unconditional support for the Israelis. Of course, let’s not forget that he’s taking this opportunity to position himself [in] the presidential election that’s coming up, so he can get the Jewish votes inside the United States and show that he can turn things in the Middle East and use it in the favor of Israel.” “Definitely, this is going to be held as a kind of campaign for Biden, that he can still solve issues in the Middle East, and he’s going to use it for his campaign,” Dr. Al-Ibrahim said, noting that ”it is very sensitive. It is not uncomplicated, because if he does not do it right, this thing is going to accelerate so much that it will be beyond control. So if Biden doesn’t come with the right formula in order to solve it, it could be a curse on his election in 2024.”

Dr. Al-Ibrahim said that after arriving in Israel, Biden would most likely not attempt to position himself as a mediator in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, but to support Israel as it prepares for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, which the commentator said would be “a big mistake.” “It’s only going to fuel [strife in] the whole Middle East and it’s going to fuel probably 2 billion Muslims and 2.5 billion Christians. Palestine belongs to the great three religions and this is only going to put the Jewish state at stake, at risk, if these kinds of things are going to be done wrongly.”

“We know that Gaza is the most geographically dense location in the world. However, we all agree, Saudi Arabia agreed from before, that Hamas is not the government that should control Gaza. It should be another government, not radical, like Hamas. And this issue needs to be put on the table. If Biden doesn’t balance the situation between the Palestinians and the Israelis, this can be expanded geographically. And it’s a very sensitive issue for the Israelis right now and for the Palestinians to really have a permanent solution and to go back to the two-state solution. This is what basically [Saudi] Prince Mohammed bin Salman has conveyed very strongly to Secretary Blinken,” Dr. Al-Ibrahim said. However, Dr. Al-Ibrahim said that people in the Middle East have “given up” on US policy in the region and “lost trust” that any American politician is actually interested in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Is it incompetency? Is it the strategy? Nobody knows. The Middle East region lives off of conspiracies, these conspiracies are an issue with them. The Palestinian file is very close and dear to the Middle Eastern people and they are looking at the Palestinians and they see that their rights have been taken, and the Israelis are only gaining more land and not giving anything to the Palestinians – no dignities, no land, nothing.” “Everybody blames America in this region for what’s happening, everybody. It’s not necessarily that they have an evil strategy in order to execute things,” he explained. “It’s maybe incompetence. They are looking at the matters in their own country and not getting them right. Look at Iraq, look at Afghanistan, look at Ukraine – look at all these countries. The war starts, and there is no right execution, chaos and hell starts happening in the region.

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“We may be about to see massive ethnic cleansing” – a clear indication that Western capitals know exactly what Israel is doing.”

• US Opposes Peace as Israel Ethnically Cleanses Palestinians (Norton)

The Israeli government is in the process of ethnically cleansing more than 1 million Palestinians, pushing them out of their homes in Gaza. According to senior Israeli officials, the plan of the far-right Benjamin Netanyahu government is to force Palestinians into the desert of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, where they will live in so-called “tent cities”. At the same time, Israel is brutally bombing the besieged Gaza strip – one of the most densely populated areas on Earth. There are even reports that Israel has attacked convoys of Palestinian civilians who were abiding by its evacuation order and fleeing from the north to the south of the 40-kilometer strip. Meanwhile, the United States has adamantly refused to support calls for peace. Instead, the State Department told US diplomats not to mention the phrases “de-escalation/ceasefire”, “end to violence/bloodshed”, and “restoring calm” when discussing Gaza, according to a memo obtained by HuffPost.

[..] According to Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, Israel’s plan is to ethnically cleanse Palestinians and force them into Egypt. Citing an anonymous high level source, Hersh wrote, “I have been told by an Israeli insider that Israel has been trying to convince Qatar, which at the urging of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a long-time financial supporter of Hamas, to join with Egypt in funding a tent city for the million or more refugees awaiting across the border”. This plan was in fact confirmed by Israel’s former deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, who previously served as the Israeli ambassador to the United States and a foreign policy adviser for far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In an interview with Al Jazeera reporter Marc Lamont Hill on 12 October, Ayalon stated:

DANNY AYALON: “This was, this is thought out. It’s not something that we tell them, go to the beaches, go drown yourselves, God forbid, not at all. There is a huge expense, almost endless space in the Sinai desert, just on the other side of Gaza. The idea is – and this is not the first time it will be done – the idea is for them to leave over to the open areas where we and the international community will prepare the infrastructure, you know, tent cities, with food and with water – you know, just like for the refugees of Syria that fled the butchering of Assad a few years ago to Turkey; Turkey received 2 million of them. This is the idea. Now Egypt will have to play ball here, because once the the population is out of sight, then we can go… I’ll tell you in a practical manner what we should do, and what we can do: create, like in the past, in history, a humanitarian corridor. When there is a humanitarian corridor – and we have been discussing this with the United States – then we can guarantee in this corridor that nobody will get hurt. Now, again, I say, there is a way to receive them all on the other side for temporary time, on the Sinai, because what did Hamas turn –

MARC LAMONT HILL: On the other side? Are we talking about Rafah? Are you saying the other side, they go to Egypt? DANNY AYALON: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And Egypt will have to play ball. While Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinians and killing large numbers of civilians, Western governments have showed unflinching support. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen both traveled to Tel Aviv to symbolically back the far-right Netanyahu government. The Financial Times reported that some EU officials are concerned “that the European Commission president could look as if she is endorsing military actions that will cause mass civilian casualties — and that will swiftly be labelled as war crimes”.

An unnamed EU diplomat told the Times, “We may be about to see massive ethnic cleansing” – a clear indication that Western capitals know exactly what Israel is doing. “Our fear is that we’ll pay a heavy price in the global south because of this conflict”, an anonymous EU official confessed to the newspaper. The vast majority of countries in the Global South support the Palestinian people in their struggle against Israeli colonialism. A rare exception is the far-right government in India, whose Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents a vehemently anti-Muslim Hindu-nationalist party, the BJP, which sees Israel’s religious ethnostate as an inspiration and potential model for its own plans for a so-called “Hindu rashtra”.

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The operation looks less likely by the minute. First it was on, then postponed due to bad weather (which was fine), and now the IDF says it’s “still undecided about whether to launch a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip..”

• Israeli Ground Operation In Gaza An ‘Ugly Blot On Humanity’ – Türkiye (TASS)

Israel’s potential launch of a ground military operation in the Gaza Strip would result in the deaths of thousands of innocent people and represent an “ugly blot on humanity,” Omer Celik, a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said on Tuesday. “A potential ground military operation by Israel in the Gaza Strip would lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent people, including women and children,” Turkish television news channel TRT Haber quoted Celik as saying. “It would be a catastrophe and an ugly blot on humanity.” According to the spokesman of the AKP, which is led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can be settled through peaceful methods only. “First of all, the anti-humane bombardments of the Gaza Strip must be stopped and the blockade must be lifted and only then should the parties sit down at the negotiating table to reach a lasting and stable peace,” Celik added.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht announced earlier in the day that Israel was still undecided about whether to launch a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. Israel has announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and has been delivering rocket attacks on Gaza as well as some districts in Lebanon and Syria. According to the latest official data, more than 2,800 Palestinians have been killed since the renewed outbreak of violence, while over 11,200 others have sustained wounds. In Israel, over 1,500 people have lost their lives and over 4,200 have been wounded in clashes, including on the West Bank of the Jordan River.

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And the Guardian fired a cartoonist after 40 years of service.

• How Media Outlets Work With Israel To Control Gaza Narrative (Adley)

This week’s coverage by Western corporate media underlined its inability to hold the world’s 4th largest military to account for war crimes and instead give airtime to Israeli military officials to incite genocide against Palestinians, who are caged like animals in the world’s largest concentration camp. Western corporate journalists cannot report neutrally on Israel/Palestine. And here’s just a few examples as to why: Let’s take The New York Times, for example. Not only has the newspaper constantly supported Israel’s expansionist policies, but it has also directly participated in the dispossession of Palestinians from their homes. The New York Times’ Jerusalem bureau is built on a Palestinian house that belongs to a noted Palestinian writer Ghada Karmi, a survivor of the Nakba.

The Times also often cooperates with Israeli officials. In 2014, for example, it received and obeyed an Israeli gag order to suppress the news that Israel had arrested a Palestinian journalist. From 2008 – 2012, The New York Times Israel bureau chief, Ethan Bronner, was exposed to having his 20-year-old son enlist in the Israeli army while he was actively covering the region for the newspaper. The so-called paper of record never made this public to its readers, raising serious questions of bias and a conflict of interest. The New York Times also fired Gaza photographer Hosam Salem following an intervention from Israel lobby group Honest Reporting. However, the paper had no problem employing Ethan Bronner and others like Isabel Kershner and David Brooks to write about Palestine while all three had offspring fighting in the Israeli military.

In general, the consolidation of corporate media since the 1980s has led to ownership by billionaire oligarchs or gigantic multinational corporations that have a strong stake in preserving the status quo of ensuring forever wars continue, and neither of whom want to see nationalist liberation struggles succeed. The orders come down from up high that news organizations have to support Israel. Axel Springer – a giant German broadcaster that owns Politico – has explicitly told its staff that it is their duty to support Israel and those that don’t should leave. A wave of firings of Arab journalists across Germany underlined this message. The BBC, meanwhile, is the state broadcaster for the United Kingdom, a nation that helped create the state of Israel in 1948. Many of its top foreign affairs journalists go on to work for NATO or big think tanks funded by weapons manufacturers who directly profit from war.

The BBC has been continuously criticized for not providing historical context to the crisis in Gaza and linking it to its own British colonial history of helping create the state of Israel through the Balfour Declaration and providing it with weapons to occupy Palestinian land ever since. American journalists who don’t toe the line on Israel/Palestine are frequently made examples of. CNN fired anchor Marc Lamont Hill for calling for a free Palestine. Katie Halper was fired from The Hill for (accurately) calling Israel an Apartheid state. And The Guardian sacked Nathan J. Robinson after he made a joke mocking US military aid to Israel.

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“.. none of this is going to happen,” because Biden has “already forgotten what he said.” “Dementia is a useful thing,” Medvedev added.

• Putin Responds To Biden ‘Put Down’ Comments (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday addressed the comments made by US President Joe Biden about “putting down” Moscow, suggesting that the octogenarian American politician still has a lot to learn. “You live, you learn. One must learn, and then there won’t be a desire to ‘put down’ anyone, since that leads to problems. One needs to learn to respect others and seek compromise,” Putin said in Beijing, where he is attending the international Belt and Road Forum. The Russian leader was responding to a reporter who had asked for a comment on Biden’s statements, voiced in a ‘60 Minutes’ interview broadcast on Sunday by the US network CBS.

“Imagine what happens if we, in fact, unite all of Europe and Putin is finally put down where he cannot cause the kind of trouble he’s been causing,” Biden told interviewer Scott Pelley at one point, arguing that the US has “enormous opportunities to make it a better world.” Putin’s response was more diplomatic than the reaction of his predecessor Dmitry Medvedev, who currently chairs the Russian security council. Commenting on Biden’s words on Monday, Medvedev thanked the US president for clarifying his mission, but noted that “none of this is going to happen,” because Biden has “already forgotten what he said.” “Dementia is a useful thing,” Medvedev added.

Biden, 81, is the oldest US president to be sworn in. He has been dogged by persistent rumors about his deteriorating physical and mental health, driven by a history of mis-speaking in public. In a CBS poll last month, only 26% of respondents said he was physically and cognitively fit for the job, and only 34% believed he would make it to the end of his second term, if re-elected in 2024. At a campaign event in Pennsylvania in early September, Biden argued that his advanced years were actually an asset, because “the only thing that comes with age is a little bit of wisdom.”

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As the US is setting one part of the world on fire, Xi and Putin build a new world elsewhere.

• Why Vladimir Putin’s Visit To Beijing This Week Is So Important (Babaev)

Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing this week marks the second Russia-China summit this year. This time, the president is paying a visit to his friend and strategic partner, following agreements reached during Xi Jinping’s trip to Moscow in March. At that time, the Chinese leader invited Putin to attend the third forum of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which marks its tenth anniversary. The presence of the Russian leader at the event is especially notable given the occasional view (mostly from the West) that the project has reached a dead end. The scheme, launched by Xi in 2013 to link Chinese goods to European markets via trans-Eurasian land and northern sea routes, is indeed facing a dilemma. By erecting a new “iron curtain” on the borders of Russia and Belarus, Western Europe has fallen into its own trap, depriving itself of low-cost energy sources – the main driver of its economy since the 1970s.

At the same time, Western European countries are also closing off the possibility of importing cheap Chinese goods by land since Russia was the critical link in the ‘One Belt, One Road’ project. Meanwhile, sanctions on the supply of high-tech products to China and the refusal to allow Chinese investment in their markets are also jeopardizing Sino-European trade along the Northern Sea Route. Under these conditions, the BRI is looking for new points of growth, one of which could be fast-growing Russian-Chinese trade and the coupling of the initiative with the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The EAEU and the Belt and Road pairing would be important for Russia in the context of its ‘pivot to the East,’ which is largely complete in exports and imports. China understands that trade with the EAEU is much more reliable than interaction with Western countries, albeit in smaller volumes.

After reaching almost $200 billion last year, trade between the two countries could exceed $300-350 billion in the medium term. The current transport infrastructure is struggling to cope with the growing flow of goods, and new solutions are needed. The leaders of Russia and China will discuss this at the Beijing summit. This could include new railway lines across their common border and through Central Asian countries, as well as pipelines. Given the full capacity of Power of Siberia, many expect Putin’s visit to finalize agreements on the construction of Power of Siberia-2, which will benefit both Russia, which is turning its gas flows eastwards, and China, which is looking for a cheap replacement for dirty coal. Likely, the conversation will also focus on building financial infrastructure.

Both countries are actively developing national digital currencies that could replace modern fiat currencies for settlements within two to three years. This will eliminate sanctions risks in this regard by removing the need for correspondent settlements while significantly automating cross-border payments. At the same time, it is crucial to convince Beijing of the need to allow large Russian banks to enter the Chinese financial system: Sberbank, Alfa Bank, and Gazprombank have already announced their intention to open branches, and the approval of the regulator will help to balance cooperation between the two countries, as Chinese banks have long and fruitfully worked in Russia. Of course, it is also essential for the leaders of Russia and China to discuss political issues, both within the framework of bilateral coordination and in the context of the activities of international organizations.

The expansion of BRICS presents both new opportunities and challenges. The activities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization require long overdue improvements and a transition to a new level of interaction. Putin and Xi may also discuss the implications of the recent summit between China and the Central Asian states, as Beijing’s intention to turn it into a permanent institutional format is unlikely to please Moscow. In any case, it is time for the partners to synchronize their policies and outline new prospects for cooperation. Every meeting between Putin and Xi gives an impetus to the development of economic, scientific, technological, and humanitarian ties. Given that 2024 will be the year of the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our countries, this should be particularly strong.

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“People’s striving for a better life and the aspiration of all countries for common development and prosperity are irresistible..”

• Trend Toward Mutually Beneficial Cooperation Unstoppable – Xi Jinping (TASS)

The historical trend toward peace and mutually beneficial cooperation among countries cannot be stopped, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a reception for the heads of delegations participating in the Belt and Road forum at the Great Hall of the People. “The historical trend toward peace, development and mutually beneficial cooperation cannot be stopped. People’s striving for a better life and the aspiration of all countries for common development and prosperity are irresistible,” the Xinhua news agency quotes him as saying. As he addressed the participants, Xi said that cooperation in the Belt and Road project pursued development goals, was aimed at yielding mutual benefits and carried “a message of hope.”

He also said that all the successes achieved in implementing this initiative were a collective merit of the governments, businesses and peoples of the participating countries. “In the past 10 years since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, China and its partners have worked together to uphold the spirit of the Silk Road, contribute to global connectivity, to build platforms for international economic cooperation and to give an impetus to global economic growth,” Xi stated, adding that the initiative would create a brighter future for the whole of humanity.

A photo session preceded the meeting. Russian President Vladimir Putin took a place on the right hand-side of the summit’s host Xi Jinping. Before that, immediately upon arrival, the Russian president and the Chinese leader shook hands and exchanged a few remarks. The third Belt and Road forum is taking place in Beijing on October 17 and 18, with over 4,000 participants from more than 140 countries in attendance. Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived as the chief guest of the event. The Belt and Road initiative is a concept Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed in 2013 with the aim to intensify multilateral trade and investment projects with the participation of countries concerned and Chinese and foreign capital. More than 150 states and more than 30 international organizations have already joined it.

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“If they [US] have no other tasks but to build relations with Russia, then in a sense this is not bad..”

• US Must Learn to Respect Other States, Find Compromises – Putin (Sp.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, commenting on a recent remark of US President Joe Biden about the need to “put down” the Russian leader that the United States need to learn to respect others and be able to find compromises, then no one will need to be suppressed. In a recent interview with an American broadcaster, Biden stated that he is sure about running for the second presidential term. “All of Europe and Putin is finally put down where he cannot cause the kind of trouble he’s been causing,” the president claimed when asked to imagine what would happen if the US unites. “They need to learn to respect others and then no one will have to be suppressed. But the desire to suppress someone all the time for some reason or for no reason at all leads to problems. They [US representatives], of course, with their usual brilliance, love and do it well – they smile during protocol events, pat everyone on the shoulder.

But respect for other people, for other countries, for other peoples lies elsewhere, lies in taking into account their interests,” Putin told Pavel Zarubin, a Russian news agency reporter. If the United States has no other tasks than building relations with Russia then it is not bad, Putin said.”I believe that Biden is certainly one of the most experienced politicians in the world as a whole – in terms of time spent in the so-called upper echelons of power. He has been in politics for a long time. Of course, a person is experienced and knows what tasks to set for himself, how to achieve them. If they [US] have no other tasks but to build relations with Russia, then in a sense this is not bad,” Putin said, emphasizeng that Russia’s interests cannot be suppressed, but will have to be respected.

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Views are shifting despite the media.

• Majority Of Americans Believe Both Biden And Trump Committed Crimes (Turley)

We recently discussed a poll showing that 68% of voters believe that President Joe Biden acted either criminally or unethically in connection to the foreign dealings of his son, Hunter Biden. Now a Fox poll has found largely that same response — a majority believes that both Biden and former president Donald Trump have committed criminal acts. It is an extraordinary political and legal moment where the two frontrunners for the presidency are believed to be criminal actors by many voters. The Fox polls shows that 52% of voters believes Trump did something illegal in connection to efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents. Only 23% believe that Trump did not commit criminal acts.

Obviously, the results are driven by the overwhelming view of Democrats (86%) but independents (53%) also think Trump did something illegal. On the Bidens, 52% think Hunter Biden did something illegal in relation to his business dealings in Ukraine and China. That worsening situation is again driven on one side with Republicans. However, there was an 18% shift in independents that should worry the President. Some 40 percent believe that Joe Biden committed crimes. That is close to the 36 percent who shared that view in the earlier poll. What is particularly notable is that 69 percent now believe that Joe Biden acted with criminally or unethically — virtually identical to the other poll.

As I wrote earlier, the most striking aspect of these polls is the disconnect with the mainstream media. Despite overwhelmingly protective coverage for the Bidens, the public is simply not buying it. While both the Democrats and the media have been unrelenting in opposing investigations into the Bidens, the public has long supported such efforts. These consistent polls show that the public is tuning out the media spin on the corruption scandal involving the Bidens. It also shows (with both Trump and Biden) that the same roughly 25% remain constant for both candidates. NB: The headline and two lines were changed to reflect that the view of Joe Biden as a criminal actor has increased but remains under 50 percent. However, 69% now view the President as acting either criminally or unethically.

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“..legal protection granted to Pfizer by the PREP act will cease to protect it if significant fraud on the part of Pfizer is discovered.”

• Pfizer May Go Bankrupt, Financial Markets Realize (Chudov)

The stock market may be waking up to the possibility that Pfizer may go bankrupt due to the upcoming Covid vaccine claims. Many parallels can be drawn between the corporate behaviors of Pfizer and Purdue Pharma, another pharmaceutical concern that dishonestly and aggressively marketed harmful products. Purdue Pharma went bankrupt due to the greed and depravity of its leaders, as their “legal protections” evaporated. The same may happen to Pfizer. Old, experienced vaccine companies like GSK refused to participate in “Covid vaccines” – and we now see why they made the right choice. Take a look at this chart: Pfizer’s stock (PFE) is valued at 25% less than it was five years ago, despite the billions of dollars it received from the sales of COVID vaccines, and the stock market and the pharmaceuticals index having gone up:

At first sight, Pfizer, a worldwide pharmaceutical juggernaut, should not be worth less than before the pandemic. Pfizer’s COVID vaccine made it billions and should have added value to the company, even if future sales of COVID-19-specific products cannot be assured. And yet, PFE has inexorably fallen since last November and is worth 25% less than five years ago, defying the general upside tendencies seen for other pharmaceuticals and the stock market. Since November of 2022, Pfizer has deviated from the trend of the pharmaceuticals index, underperforming by 35%. This can only be explained by the capital markets seeing something uniquely troublesome for Pfizer. This post will explore what it may be.

I am far from the first person suggesting that Pfizer, which aggressively marketed its COVID vaccines and underwrote a worldwide influence operation to mandate its product, may face ruinous liabilities. Ed Dowd, a former asset manager, was one of the first people to realize that. He explained that legal protection granted to Pfizer by the PREP act will cease to protect it if significant fraud on the part of Pfizer is discovered.

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Elephant Seal

 

 

Barracuda
https://twitter.com/i/status/1714220443173798290

 

 


Condor

 

 

Best friends
https://twitter.com/i/status/1714289662834155878

 

 

 

 

Yellow lane

 

 

Strandbeest

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle October 17 2023

Oct 172023
 
 October 17, 2023  Posted by at 8:52 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  42 Responses »


Henri Matisse Sorrow of the King 1952

 

• Pulling the Roof Down on Today’s Paradigm (Alastair Crooke)
• This Way for the Genocide, Ladies and Gentlemen (Chris Hedges)
• US Faces Defeat In Geopolitical War In Gaza (Bhadrakumar)
• Lindsey Graham Threatens To Force Iran ‘Out Of Oil Business’ (RT)
• Survivor Of Hamas Assault: Israeli Army Killed Their Own Civilians (Cradle)
• US Sending 2,000 Marines To Israeli Coast (RT)
• US Military Getting Extremely Weak Due to Ukraine Aid – American General (Sp.)
• Ukraine Is Not A US Ally – Ex-Pentagon Strategist (RT)
• Who Do They Think They’re Kidding? (Kunstler)
• Judge Bars Trump From Making Statements About Court Case (ZH)
• Trump Files Lawsuit in UK Court to Discredit ‘Scandalous’ Steele Dossier (Sp.)
• Don’t Forget Washington’s War Against Julian Assange and Donald Trump (PCR)
• The Republicans Will Not Help Us (PCR)
• Biden Devalues American Citizenship (PCR)

 

 


Spain’s minister for social rights, Ione Belarra, urged the coalition government of her nation to request that the International Criminal Court launch an investigation into war crimes committed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

 

“Colombia has EXPELLED the Israeli ambassador and told the ambassador to “apologize and leave the country.” “If we have to suspend foreign relations with Israel, we will suspend them. We do not support genocides. The president of Colombia will not be insulted.”

 

 

Trump Carson

 

 

 

 

Celente

 

 

 

 

mtracey: “..the US, UK, France, and Japan just voted *against* a UN Security Council resolution on Gaza calling for:
— “An immediate, durable, and fully respected humanitarian ceasefire”
— “Secure release of all hostages”
— “Safe evacuation of civilians”
— “Unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance”

The resolution further emphasizes that both “the Israeli and Palestinian civilian population must be protected,” and “strongly condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorism”.

But, it was drafted by Russia and supported by China – so of course had to be intrinsically Bad.”

 

 

 

 

3 key pledges: “.. the Judaification of al-Aqsa; the founding of the State upon the biblical ‘Land of Israel’ and the ending of secular Basic law – Palestine and the Palestinian people simply are erased..”

• Pulling the Roof Down on Today’s Paradigm (Alastair Crooke)

Today, all eyes are focussed on the widening ‘war’ in the Middle East. Many questions are asked, but the principal one is ‘Why?’ Here, we find the issues are eerily similar. At the end of WW2, the West wanted its European Jews to have a ‘homeland’, and so in 1947, Palestine was peremptorily divided between Jews and Arabs. The predominant narrative in the West has been that the travails and wars that segued from that event – particularly today’s confrontation in Israel/Palestine – result simply from Arab States’ perverse inability to come to terms with the existence of the State of Israel. Many in the West see this as irrational at the least – or as a fundamental cultural flaw, at worst. Well, as was the case in respect to the European post-war military situation, nothing was formally agreed in respect to Jews and Arabs living on the one plot of land.

The 1993 Oslo Accords were an attempt at some agreement, but again everything was vague, and the crucially master security ‘key’ to the whole Accord rested wholly at the discretion of the Israelis. Plainly, this was intended to give Israel maximum room for manoeuvre. More than that, it was intended that Israel should have the strategic ‘edge’ – not just the political ‘edge’, but the U.S. had pledged to ensure that Israel would have the military ‘edge’ over its neighbours too. Put bluntly, the objective of bringing Arab States to accept Israel’s presence was never pursued, or else it was compelled by military and financial measures (Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran). Except in the case of Egypt, through returning the Sanai to Cairo. The current iteration of the ‘Abraham normalisation’ (coming to terms with Israel) however, effectively throws the Palestinians ‘under the bus’ for the sake of Saudi compliance to normalization.

Just as NATO surging forward was intended to put Asia under the U.S. sway, so Greater Israeli’s cultural hegemony in the Middle East – it was believed in U.S. Beltway circles – would place the Middle East under western sway also. What lies behind the present outpouring of Palestinian violent resistance is precisely rooted in a converse understanding to that held in the Beltway. The converse ‘reality’ is that, over the last decade, Israel has been departing further and further away from the foundations on which any sustainable regional peace might have been built. Israel, perversely, has been moving in the opposite direction – striking down the pillars by which a regional rapprochement might have been possible.

Netanyahu, over the last decade, has taken the Israeli electorate far to the Right, leveraging Iran as the Phantasm by which to frighten the public. (It was not always like that: After the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Israel had allied with Iran, against the Arab ‘near neighbourhood’). Netanyahu also propagated ‘the message’ to his electorate that, thanks to the ‘success’ of the Abraham Accords, the world cares ‘zilch’ for the Palestinians. That they are “yesterday’s news”. This performance has distracted the western world from understanding fully what radical ministers in Netanyahu’s government have been planning: One key commitment of Netanyahu’s Cabinet colleagues is to build the Jewish (Third) Temple on Temple Mount, where al-Aqsa Mosque presently stands. Plainly put, this implies a commitment to demolish al-Aqsa and build a Judaic Temple in its stead.

The second key pledge is to found Israel on the biblical ‘Land of Israel’. Again, plainly put, this would dispossess Palestinians in the West Bank; as National Security Minister Ben Gvir made clear, they would face a choice: leave or live under subservience in a Jewish supremacist state. The third is to institute Jewish law (Halakha) in the stead of secular law. This would divest non-Jews in Israel of their legal status. Put together – the Judaification of al-Aqsa; the founding of the State upon the biblical ‘Land of Israel’ and the ending of secular Basic law – Palestine and the Palestinian people simply are erased. Three weeks ago, Netanyahu waved a map of Israel as he gave his address at the UN General Assembly; have a look: Gaza and the Palestinian territories do not appear on it at all. They are erased. The situation is as existential as that.

Read more …

“Gaza is being leveled, flattened, destroyed, reduced to rubble. Hundreds of thousands of its impoverished residents will be killed, wounded or left homeless without food, fuel, water and medical help.”

• This Way for the Genocide, Ladies and Gentlemen (Chris Hedges)

I have been in urban warfare in El Salvador, Iraq, Gaza, Bosnia and Kosovo. Once you fight street by street, apartment block by apartment block, there is only one rule — kill anything that moves. The talk of safe zones, the reassurances of protecting civilians, the promises of “surgical” and “targeted” air strikes, the establishment of “safe” evacuation routes, the fatuous explanation that civilian dead were “caught in the crossfire,” the claim that the homes and apartment buildings bombed into rubble were the abode of terrorists or that errant Hamas rockets were responsible for the destruction of schools and medical clinics, is part of the rhetorical cover to carry out indiscriminate slaughter.

Gaza is such a small area — 25 miles in length and about 5 miles wide — and so densely populated that the only outcome of an Israeli ground and air assault is the mass death of those Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant calls “human animals” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls “human beasts.” Israeli Knesset member Tally Gotliv suggested dropping “doomsday weapons” on Gaza, widely seen as a call for a nuclear strike. Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Friday dismissed calls to protect Palestinian civilians. “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible … this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true,” Herzog said. “They could’ve risen up, they could’ve fought against that evil regime that took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.” He added, “We will break their backbone.”

The demand by Israel that 1.1 million Palestinians — nearly half of Gaza’s population — evacuate northern Gaza, which will become a free fire zone, within 24 hours, ignores the fact that given the overcrowding and sealed borders there is no place for the displaced to go. The north includes Gaza City, the most densely populated part of the strip, with 750,000 residents. It also includes Gaza’s main hospital and the Jabalia and al-Shati refugee camps. Israel, by employing its military machine against an occupied population that does not have mechanized units, an air force, navy, missiles, heavy artillery and command-and-control, not to mention a U.S. commitment to provide a $38 billion military aid package for Israel over the next decade, is not exercising “the right to defend itself.” This is not a war. It is the obliteration of civilians trapped for 16 years in the world’s largest concentration camp.

Gaza is being leveled, flattened, destroyed, reduced to rubble. Hundreds of thousands of its impoverished residents will be killed, wounded or left homeless without food, fuel, water and medical help. Nearly 600 children are already dead. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has been forced to close 14 food distribution centers leaving half a million people without food relief. Gaza’s only power plant has run out of fuel. The United Nations says 12 of its staff have been killed by Israeli air strikes, 21 out of 22 UNRWA health facilities in Gaza have been damaged and hospitals lack basic medicines and supplies. Israel, as it has in the past, will block the dissemination of independent reporting and images once some 360,000 soldiers launch a ground assault. It cut internet service in Gaza on Saturday. The brief glimpses of Israeli atrocities that make it out will be dismissed by Israeli leaders as anomalies or blamed on Hamas.

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The Arab world is gathering together.

• US Faces Defeat In Geopolitical War In Gaza (Bhadrakumar)

One hundred years after the Arab Revolt (1916-1918) against the ruling Ottoman Turks amidst the impending defeat of Germany and the Triple Alliance in World War I, another armed uprising by the Arabs has erupted — this time around, against Israeli occupation, in the backdrop of the looming defeat of the United States and the NATO in Ukraine War — presenting a thrilling spectacle of history repeating unabridged. The Ottoman Empire disintegrated as a result of the Arab Revolt. Israel too will have to vacate its occupied territories and make space for a state of Palestine, which of course, will be a crushing defeat for the US and marks the end of its global dominance, reminiscent of the Battle of Cambrai in Northern France (1918) where Germans — surrounded, exhausted and with disintegrating morale amidst a deteriorating domestic situation — faced the certainty that the war had been lost, and surrendered.

The torrential flow of events through the past week is breathtaking, starting with a phone call made by Iran’s President Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi to the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday to discuss a common strategy toward the situation following the devastating attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, against Israel on October 7. Earlier on Tuesday, in a powerful statement, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had emphasised that “From the military and intelligence aspects, this defeat (by Hamas) is irreparable. It is a devastating earthquake. It is unlikely that the (Israeli) usurping regime will be able to use the help of the West to repair the deep impacts that this incident has left on its ruling structures.”

A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Raisi’s call to the Crown Prince aimed to “support Palestine and prevent the spread of war in the region. The call was good and promising.” Having forged a broad understanding with Saudi Arabia, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held discussion with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, during which he called upon Islamic and Arab countries to extend their support to the Palestinian people, emphasising the urgency of the situation. On Thursday, Amir-Abdollahian embarked on a regional tour to Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Qatar through Saturday to coordinate with the various resistance groups. Notably, he met Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Doha. Amir-Abdollahian told the media that unless Israel stopped its barbaric air strikes on Gaza, an escalation by the Resistance is inevitable and Israel could suffer a “huge earthquake,” as Hezbollah is in a state of readiness to intervene.

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Threatening only Iran is no use. Iran is no longer isolated.

• Lindsey Graham Threatens To Force Iran ‘Out Of Oil Business’ (RT)

US Senator Lindsey Graham has warned Iran that the American military could target its oil industry in response to any escalation in the Middle East. The lawmaker said he would put forward a resolution to this effect, citing concerns that the Tehran-backed Hezbollah could join the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Appearing on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday, Graham described Hezbollah as a “proxy of Iran” and claimed that a “massive attack on Israel” by the Lebanon-based militant group would pose an “existential” threat to the Jewish state. The Republican foreign policy hawk warned that he could introduce a resolution in the Senate “to allow military action by the United States in conjunction with Israel to knock Iran out of the oil business.”

“Iran, if you escalate this war, we’re coming for you,” Graham concluded. Appearing on Al Jazeera on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian cautioned that “it is highly probable that many other fronts will be opened” unless Israel stops striking Gaza. He also urged Muslim nations to support the Palestinian cause, echoing earlier calls by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. On Saturday, Amir-Abdollahian hinted that Hezbollah could strike northern Israel, causing a “huge earthquake.” According to two diplomatic sources cited by Axios, Iran will respond if Israel goes ahead with a ground offensive in Gaza. However, Reuters on Sunday quoted Iranian representatives at the UN as clarifying that “Iran’s armed forces will not engage” unless directly attacked by Israel first.

On Saturday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the deployment of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as well as two guided-missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser to the Eastern Mediterranean, in addition to the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group already in the region. Austin explained that the move was aimed at deterring “any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this war.” sAt the same time, US President Joe Biden has acknowledged that “at this point” there is “no clear evidence” that Tehran helped Hamas carry out its attack on Israel on October 7.

Read more …

She sounds convincing.

• Survivor Of Hamas Assault: Israeli Army Killed Their Own Civilians (Cradle)

A survivor from the Palestinian resistance offensive on Israeli settlements on 7 October says the Israeli army is “undoubtedly” responsible for killing many of their civilians. “They eliminated everyone, including the hostages, because there was very, very heavy crossfire,” 44-year-old mother of three Yasmin Porat told the Haboker Hazeh radio program on Israeli Kan radio last week. When the interviewer asked if Israeli troops were responsible for civilian deaths, Porat said, “Undoubtedly.” Her interview has been scrubbed from the online version of Haboker Hazeh and the Kan website; however, Electronic Intifada procured a copy and translated it from Hebrew. “There are five or six hostages lying on the ground outside. Just like sheep to the slaughter, between the shooting of our commandos and the terrorists,” Porat describes.

Porat says that, before the arrival of Israeli troops, she and other civilians had been held by the Palestinians “for several hours” and treated “humanely.” “They did not abuse us. They treated us very humanely,” Porat said, adding, “They give us something to drink here and there. When they see we are nervous, they calm us down. It was very frightening, but no one treated us violently.” She recalled one Palestinian fighter who spoke Hebrew saying: “Look at me well, were not going to kill you. We want to take you to Gaza. We are not going to kill you. So be calm, you’re not going to die.” “I was calm because I knew nothing would happen to me,” she added.

Furthermore, during a lengthy interview on Israel’s Channel 12, Porat speaks of intense gunfire after Israeli forces arrived and elaborates that, although the resistance fighters were heavily armed, she never saw them shoot captives or threaten them with their guns. She also highlights that the Israeli army announced their arrival at the settlement “with a hail of gunfire,” catching the resistance fighters and their captives by surprise. Her account echoes that of another Israeli settler who spoke with Channel 12 last week about her experience as a prisoner of war (POW) of Hamas. The accounts from survivors stand in stark contrast to the widespread claims found in western media outlets that say Hamas forces did everything from “beheading babies” to torturing and raping settlers.

Salah al-Aruri, Deputy Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, last week addressed claims that resistance fighters were ordered to deliberately kill as many Israeli settlers as possible, telling Al Jazeera TV that fighters from the Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas – were “under strict protocol to not harm civilians.” He also said that after Israel’s Gaza division disintegrated in the face of the Gaza factions, others rushed the border, “causing chaos.” Furthermore, he notes that some of the deaths of Israeli settlers are a result of the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive,’ which is a protocol that allows Israeli soldiers to use overwhelming force to kill one of their own captured soldiers rather than allow them to be taken, prisoner.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1714019234680832369

Read more …

+ 2,000 already there.

• US Sending 2,000 Marines To Israeli Coast (RT)

The Pentagon has sent 2,000 marines and sailors to waters off Israel’s coast as part of a “show of force” in the region, CNN reported, citing unnamed US officials. The move comes amid continued fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants, which has claimed thousands of lives this month. Led by the elite 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the “rapid response force” is headed toward Israel on board the USS Bataan, an amphibious assault ship previously stationed in the Gulf of Oman, officials told the outlet on Monday. They did not specify the unit’s exact destination, or say if it would join two US carrier strike groups parked in the Eastern Mediterranean. The naval deployments are reportedly meant to “send a message of deterrence to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah,” and some of the US warships have recently patrolled waters near the Islamic Republic.

Separately, on Sunday Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered another 2,000 troops to gear up for a potential “medical and logistical support” mission in Israel, according to multiple news agencies. However, Pentagon staffers stressed that the order does not guarantee direct US involvement in the conflict with the Gaza Strip-based militant group Hamas, noting that the White House “does not want to give the impression that American troops could become embroiled in a hot war.” The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the preparations, also stated that the troops would be tasked with “advising and medical support” and “aren’t intended to serve in a combat role.” The 2,000 soldiers are now stationed across a wide area, including in the Middle East and Europe, but have been placed on notice to deploy within 24 hours if needed.

Though officials said the move would be aimed at “forestalling a wider regional war,” the planning comes as some US lawmakers push for direct military action in the Middle East. During a sit-down with CNN last week, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham declared “If there’s an escalation of this war against Israel, I’m blaming Iran, and it is now time to put them on notice.” Asked whether Washington should “bomb Iran,” even without evidence the country aided Hamas’ deadly October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, Graham simply replied: “Yeah.” The surprise rocket and ground assault from Gaza on Israeli cities has triggered weeks of fighting, with the Israel Defense Forces launching retaliatory airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave. Around 1,400 people have been killed in Israel in the latest flare-up, according to local authorities, while Palestinian officials have reported over 2,800 fatalities in Gaza.

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“We [Washington] can’t kid Americans about this. We need to start telling them the truth, which we haven’t been doing in a very long time.”

• US Military Getting Extremely Weak Due to Ukraine Aid – American General (Sp.)

The US has already funneled around $46 billion worth of military assistance to Kiev amid Russia’s repeated warnings that doing so will prolong the conflict in Ukraine. The Biden Administration’s relentless Ukraine aid has plunged the US military into becoming overstretched, which affects the White House’s push to shore up other allies, retired Brigadier General Don Bolduc told an American broadcaster. “I think it’s a wake-up call to the American people that you know during the Biden administration our military has become extremely weak. We’ve become overstretched. Logistically, we could not support really a lot of things that would go on simultaneously in this world,” Bolduc said. He described the situation as “a very serious problem for America and its national security apparatus,” adding he is “very concerned about that.”

According to the retired general, “We [Washington] can’t kid Americans about this. We need to start telling them the truth, which we haven’t been doing in a very long time.” Earlier this month, US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by his own party for cutting a deal with President Joe Biden to continue funding the Kiev regime. This came after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives introduced a bill to extend government funding for 45 days and avoid a shutdown, a document that does not stipulate further assistance to Ukraine. Biden, at the same time, made it clear that the US “will not walk away” from Ukraine as far as aid goes.

America and its allies ramped up their military assistance to Kiev shortly after Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly warned that NATO countries are “playing with fire” by supplying arms to the Kiev regime, which the Kremlin said adds to prolonging the conflict in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, underscored that any cargo with weapons for the Zelensky regime will become a legitimate target for Russian forces.

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“..the number of Americans in favor of giving Ukraine more aid had dropped to 41%, 24 percentage points down from the figure recorded in June..”

• Ukraine Is Not A US Ally – Ex-Pentagon Strategist (RT)

Ukraine has never enjoyed the status of a US ally, meaning that Washington has no obligation to defend it per se, Elbridge Colby has argued. The former official, who now heads The Marathon Initiative, a think-tank, put the leadership in Kiev on the same level as the now-defunct Afghan government, which was overthrown by the Taliban back in 2021. In a message on X (formerly Twitter) published on Saturday, Colby, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development from 2017 till 2018, wrote that “Ukraine was not and is not an ally, and we had never committed to defend it.” He noted that “US alliance credibility wasn’t in play” when Russia launched its military operation against the neighboring state last February.

The post came in response to an assertion by another X user, who claimed that the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan had emboldened Russia to start its military action less than six months later. In a previous thread of messages, Colby defended the position that the “debacle of the Afghanistan withdrawal” had damaged America’s credibility to a lesser extent than some contend. The former top Pentagon staffer went on to argue that the US kept standing by its real allies in Europe and Asia, while the Afghan government was somewhat dispensable. “Our relationship with our established allies was different than with Afghanistan and the threat posed by China or Russia greater than the Taliban,” he wrote, adding that it is for this reason that “NATO and our NE Asian alliances didn’t collapse. Nor did our opponents assault them.”

Last Wednesday, commenting on the impasse in the US Congress following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy earlier this month, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby warned that while Washington would “keep that aid going as long as we can,” it is “not going to be indefinite.” A growing number of Republican lawmakers have been voicing skepticism over the continuation of US aid for Ukraine. The issue lay at the heart of McCarthy’s removal, as some fellow GOP congress members suspected he had cut a secret deal with the administration of President Joe Biden to approve more funding for Kiev. Meanwhile, an opinion poll by Reuters-Ipsos published earlier this month indicated that the number of Americans in favor of giving Ukraine more aid had dropped to 41%, 24 percentage points down from the figure recorded in June. The survey showed that the trend was noticeable both among Democrats and Republicans.

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“In this particular case, it led to putting “Joe Biden,” with his handlers and movers, in a position to destroy the country, and they are getting it done.”

• Who Do They Think They’re Kidding? (Kunstler)

Since the FBI has been so preoccupied the duration of the “Joe Biden” regime tracking down every native-born living soul who attended the 1/6/21 riot at the US Capitol, instead of using the agency’s assets to monitor alien networking, you have to wonder why Mr. Wray even bothers to comment on the current situation. He can only embarrass (or incriminate) himself more deeply. One thing for sure is not happening: any effort by Mr. Mayorkas and his 260,000 employees to make the US/Mexico border any less porous. If it hadn’t occurred them yet, they might consider closing down the US-funded United Nations operation in Central America (with help from several international NGOs) that is running way-stations to transport aliens north to our border in hundred-plus bus fleets at a time, taking every possible advantage to accelerate the flow. I guess we’ll just have to stand by and see what happens.

Speaking of mind-blowing bullshit, emanating from a different pseudopod of the DC blob, former CIA Director Leon Panetta chimed in with Fox News’s Bret Baier last week to declare he still thinks that Hunter Biden’s laptop was a Russian dis-info operation. Mr. Panetta was a co-signer of the notorious letter from 50 other former US Intel bigwigs in October, 2020, a few weeks before the election, organized by former Acting CIA Director Mike Morell to gaslight voters after The New York Post published the existence of the Laptop from Hell and some of its sordid contents tending to incriminate the Biden family for foreign influence-peddling.

As with so many blobsters infesting government and its nether regions, Leon Panetta likes to demonstrate that his contempt for the people of this land is boundless. He can’t possibly believe what he is saying. Everyone from the FBI to The New York Times has declared Hunter’s laptop authentic. Therefore, Leon Panetta is either a fool, a lying scoundrel, or insane. This kind of self-satisfied dishonor is a new thing in the USA, at least at the colossal scale it has achieved the past decade. In 2023 it is the order-of-the-day. In this particular case, it led to putting “Joe Biden,” with his handlers and movers, in a position to destroy the country, and they are getting it done.

Yet, events are still in motion, and decades are happening in days now. We’ll learn this week whether escalation of the war involving Israel and its enemies can be averted without giving Hamas a pass on consequences for its recent murder spree. We’ll learn whether a meaningful opposition against the Party of Chaos can organize around a new House speaker. We’ll learn whether that same assembly can begin the process of laying out a president’s crimes for all in the nation to see, including the sizeable cohort of citizens who relish official lying and being lied to.

Read more …

“..he does not have the right to say and do exactly what he pleases..”

Let’s check with the Constitution, shall we?

• Judge Bars Trump From Making Statements About Court Case (ZH)

Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ruled on Monday that former President Trump cannot make comments regarding his ongoing case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith regarding Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. According to the ruling, Trump is barred from making statements about witnesses, testimony, court staff, or Special Counsel Jack Smith. The decision comes after Smith requested as “narrowly tailored” gag order in September in order to limit what the former president can say about the case. Smith argued that Trump’s public remarks threatened to “undermine confidence in the criminal justice system and prejudice the jury pool.”

Trump’s lawyers argued that the gag order would violate Trump’s First Amendment rights, and “unconstitutionally silence” him during his bid for presidency in 2024. Chutkan said that Trump must “follow the conditions of release,” and that “he does not have the right to say and do exactly what he pleases,” to which Trump attorney John Lauro agreed, CNN reported earlier. Of note, Chutkan is an Obama appointee who was formerly a partner at liberal law firm Boies Schiller & Flexner (BSF). BSF attorney Karen Dunn notably prepped Hillary Clinton for debates in 2016, and worked in the Obama White House. Another BSF attorney, Dawn Smalls, was John Podesta’s assistant.

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“Steele has insisted his dossier has not been discredited and claims its “main tenets continue to hold up well,” although he admits he cannot provide evidence for the outlined claims.”

• Trump Files Lawsuit in UK Court to Discredit ‘Scandalous’ Steele Dossier (Sp.)

Former US President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit in a UK court against the company behind the infamous Steele Dossier, which included a variety of sensational claims targeting the then-presidential candidate during the 2016 US election. The dossier, created by the company founded by former British spy Christopher Steele at the behest of the Hillary Clinton campaign, was published by US media days before Trump’s inauguration. It made unsubstantiated and salacious allegations about the soon-to-be US president and was the basis for much of the so-called “Russiagate” controversy that hung over his presidency. Much of the document was contradicted by the Mueller and Horowitz reports, with the Durham report criticizing the FBI for leaning on the dossier in its investigations into Trump when it couldn’t corroborate anything in the report. It is now largely accepted to be a discredited document by most major media outlets.

Hugh Tomlinson, Trump’s lawyer working on the recent legal case, has said Orbis Business Intelligence – the company founded by Christopher Steele and the creator of the document, violated Trump’s data protection rights causing “personal and reputational damage and distress.” A lawyer for Orbis has called for the case to be dismissed, arguing the report was never meant to be made public and was published without authorization. They further argue it is too late to make a claim. Tomlinson says people still believe the false allegations in the report, and that Trump plans to vindicate himself by proving the allegations false in court. “Until there is such a judgment, I continue to suffer damage and distress as a result of people wrongfully believing that the data in the dossier is accurate,” the former US president wrote in his witness statement.

The Steele Dossier included salacious and at-times bizarre claims about Trump, including the infamous “pee tape,” and that the Russian government had been collaborating with Trump when he was the host of a reality TV show. It also accused Trump of bribery, among other crimes. Steele has insisted his dossier has not been discredited and claims its “main tenets continue to hold up well,” although he admits he cannot provide evidence for the outlined claims. Trump previously tried to sue Steele, Clinton and her advisers and top FBI officials for allegedly working together to concoct the Russiagate conspiracy; however, that case was thrown out. By 2020, a British judge ordered Steele to pay $23,000 in damages to a Russian bank that was falsely named in the dossier. The judge presiding over the latest legal filing has indicated that she would rule at an undetermined date if the case can move forward after hearing arguments in London’s High Court.

Read more …

When Paul Craig Roberts (PCR) gets angry, he writes 3 pieces in one day…

“On top of the stress of the job as President of the US, Trump simultaneously endured Russiagate accusations, two impeachments, strippergate charges, insurrection charges, document gate charges, rape charges, and now faces 4 separate felony trials while he campaigns for reelection..”

“In the Midst of the Wars Against Russia and Palestine, …”

• Don’t Forget Washington’s War Against Julian Assange and Donald Trump (PCR)

One war is not over and another bloody one has started. War is the history of the 21st century, and Washington is behind them all–Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, South Ossetia, Yeman, Ukraine, Palestine. All the while Washington proceeds with its murders of Julian Assange and Donald Trump. Assange has been imprisoned for a decade in one form or another. He has spent recent years in solitary confinement, despite never being tried or convicted. The British who gave the world habeas corpus have denied the protection of law to Assange. An utterly corrupt media has falsely presented Assange as a traitor to America, a ridiculous charge as he is not an American citizen.

How can a non-citizen be a traitor to a country? Habeas corpus prevents a ruler from holding a person in prison without due process of law. But Assange has been held indefinitely without presentation of evidence against him. He is held on Washington’s demand alone. As Washington has no evidence against Assange, this is Washington’s way of killing him. Washington is relying on the stress from years of frustration from being denied due process to kill Assange. It is nothing but an act of vengeance because Wikileaks published leaked documents that embarrassed Washington.

Donald Trump is also being murdered. Again, Washington is relying on stress. Trump is 77 years old. On top of the stress of the job as President of the US, Trump simultaneously endured Russiagate accusations, two impeachments, strippergate charges, insurrection charges, document gate charges, rape charges, and now faces 4 separate felony trials while he campaigns for reelection, and a crooked Democrat court has convicted him on the false charge that he overstated the value of his real estate holdings and is attempting to confiscate his properties. All of this is likely also stressing his marriage and his relationship with his daughter. The Republicans in Congress are part of the one party state and do not support their own President.

Trump is a man who has been pounded unjustly for 7 years with the worst yet to come. Clearly, Washington having no evidence against him is relying on a stroke or heart attack induced by the stress that Washington is applying. The intention of the massive persecution of Donald Trump is to teach all future presidential candidates that they will be destroyed if they go against the Establishment’s agendas, try to give government back to the people or to normalize relations with an enemy that the military/security complex needs in order to remain profitable. This extraordinary demonstration of power against the American people goes unnoticed, which reinforces my question: Do the American people have enough intelligence to survive?

Read more …

“If they fail to elect Trump President in the next election, they will have committed themselves and all future Americans into tyranny, or, perhaps, civil war..”

• The Republicans Will Not Help Us (PCR)

All that differentiates Republicans from Democrats is that Republicans are not anti-white Americans determined to turn a white nation into a tower of babel. Republicans don’t do much to prevent the destruction of white America, but it is not the driving motivation of their politics. With no ideology or principle other than self-gain, the Republican Party is a weak force to stand against the Democrats’ program of “multiculturalism” in order to rectify “white racism.” “Patriotism” and campaign donations from the military/security complex insure that Republicans are for war–all wars. Not even the neoconservatives are more vociferous supporters of war than Nikki Haley, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio. Almost every Republican in Congress subordinates America’s interests and morality to Israel’s demands.

Even Republican presidential contender Ron DeSantis calls for Israel not to hold back in the destruction of Hamas, which, of course, means Palestine, and orders Florida to Assist Israel. So not only the federal government in Washington but also state governments are rushing to Israel’s support in the destruction of Palestine. This pandering to Israel is standard procedure for American politicians. DeSantis sees only Israeli deaths, not Palestinian ones. He thinks that in the past Israel hasn’t used enough force against Palestinians. DeSantis was a good governor. He stood up for the normal moral people in Florida against Woke ideologues intending to brainwash Florida’s children that they are white racists and born into the wrong body, and he prevented mandated Covid jabs, lockdowns, and masks.

If he had come out in support of Trump, he would have been the vice presidential nominee and a future president. Now he, like Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Rinos, has alienated the majority of Republican voters by coming out against Trump. He is now accusing Trump of being anti-semitic. It was Trump who broke from the world and served Israel by moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The Rinos prevent Republicans from having principled leaders. Once Jim Jordan secured the nomination for Speaker of the House, the Rinos quickly pushed forward a non-entity as a rival. Now the Rinos by cooperating with Democrats can block the election of an effective Republican leader who is principled and would try to shape the Republican Party into more of an opposition party instead of the go-along-get-along entity that it is. The Republican Party is an extremely weak force.

The party stands aside as their President is falsely accused and prosecuted and as Trump appointees, such as General Flynn, and lawyers who defend Trump are falsely accused and indicted. Even the lawyers who are defending the falsely indicted 18 Trump attorneys are feeling pressure. The Republican Party is doing nothing to prevent the kangaroo trials of the few principled Republicans who exist. As the Republican Party will do nothing, the problem is in the hands of the American people. If they fail to elect Trump President in the next election, they will have committed themselves and all future Americans into tyranny, or, perhaps, civil war. The American people have been failing in their duty to protect their liberty for many years, due in part to patriotic blindness that sees enemies only abroad and never at home. Can we have any confidence that Americans will wake up, perceive the real threat, which is not Russia, China, Iran, and Hamas, and arouse themselves to the task of holding on to their liberty?

Read more …

“The person twice elected president is considered a threat to America but not the occupation of the US by immigrant-invaders who do not in any way share the history, culture, or belief system of Americans.”

• Biden Devalues American Citizenship (PCR)

President Biden is a traitor to the United States. He is doing everything possible to make illegal immigrant-invaders identical in their rights to US citizens. The Biden regime has sued Elon Musk’s SpaceX for hiring Americans instead of immigrant-invaders. The Biden regime has extended the protection of US law to illegal immigrant-invaders. Last Thursday the Biden Justice (sic) Department and Biden Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told banks that refusal to lend money to immigrant-invaders amounts to illegal discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin and thereby constitutes grounds for federal action against the offending financial institution. The Biden regime gives Federal ID cards to illegal immigrants and releases them into the population. The Federal ID provides the illegals with access to benefits, housing, transportation, jobs, and bank loans.

Once they are on payrolls, they pay Social Security and Medicare tax and become eligible for these benefits. The presstitutes lie for the Biden regime, claiming it is not really an official ID, only something to help the Department of Homeland Security keep check on those who might pose a security risk. I remember when they said Social Security numbers could not be used for identification purposes. My original card says: ‘Not For Identification Purposes.” Today your Social Security number is your identification. You cannot do anything without it. You tell me, what is the difference between an illegal immigrant-invader and an American citizen? You might think that the only remaining difference is the right to vote, but the Democrats already vote illegal immigrants, and NY City permits illegals to vote on local matters.

We now have a Somali immigrant-invader, Ilhan Omar, elected to the US Congress. Somali immigrant-invaders have been elected to American city councils, school boards and to the Minnesota state legislature. The Somali immigrants to the US were the direct result of Washington’s military intervention in Somalia. The Muslin immigrants to the US from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya are also the direct consequence of Washington’s wars against those countries. It seems that Washington goes to war for the purpose of flooding America with refugees, people of color who have preferential legal standing in US law. What we are experiencing is the first time in human history that a government intentionally destroyed the ethnic basis of a country. Nothing is done to stop the constant march across the border from Mexico of people from numerous countries. Open borders is the Biden regime’s immigration policy.

Allegedly, these many millions of immigrant-invaders are refugees from political persecution in their own countries. Perhaps a few are, but this excuse is used for the intentional overrunning of a white nation, because the Democrats got a law passed that says the US has to accept refugees from political persecution. The Refugee Act of 1980 resulted from Democrat President Johnson’s Vietnam War. The Carter Administration sponsored the Act. The law changed the definition of “refugee” to a person with a “well-founded fear of persecution.” In other words, people who took Washington’s side in a war that Washington lost, as in Vietnam, had to be rescued by being brought to America. Ever since, anyone from all over the world, as long as they are not white, can walk in to America unopposed. Who knows whether they have a “well-founded fear of persecution.”

Every white American should understand that “their” government has betrayed them. The Biden Regime that allows the US to be overrun with immigrant-invaders has declared President Trump and his 85 million members of the electorate to be dangerous domestic terrorists. The FBI has created a new division to monitor these “domestic extremists who constitute the greatest threat to the United States.” Consider what this means. The person twice elected president is considered a threat to America but not the occupation of the US by immigrant-invaders who do not in any way share the history, culture, or belief system of Americans.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Skull And bones
https://twitter.com/i/status/1713929464646672405

 

 

Macaw
https://twitter.com/i/status/1713868274352411122

 

 

Tongue

 

 

 

 

Fungi

 

 

Gecko
https://twitter.com/i/status/1713923345589096650

 

 

Umbrella

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 16 2023

Oct 162023
 
 October 16, 2023  Posted by at 9:06 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  32 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Nude, Green Leaves and Bust 1932

 

• Israel Wants to Flatten Gaza; Egypt, Qatar to Handle Refugees – Sy Hersh (Sp.)
• One Of The Possible Scenarios Of Further Escalation In The Middle East (Dugin)
• Hezbollah Says ‘Prepared’ for Action Against Israel When Time Comes (AAA)
• Slouching Towards the Final Solution (Pepe Escobar)
• Biden Speaks On Hamas, Israel, Iran, Corridors and Ukraine (Sp.)
• ‘Injustice’ Against Palestinians Can’t Continue – China (RT)
• China Offered ‘Realistic Basis’ For Ukraine Peace Talks – Putin (RT)
• Russia In Relations With West Prepares For War, But Wants Peace – Putin (TASS)
• Putin: ‘Rules-Based Order’ Merely A Cover For Colonialism (RT)
• Trump’s Strategic Delays Risk Upending Federal Trials (Sp.)
• 68% Believe Joe Biden Acted Illegally or Unethically in Hunter’s Deals (Turley)
• Do White People Have Enough Intelligence to Survive? (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Only 2% of Americans Have Received New COVID Vaccine: CDC (ET)

 

 

 

 

Nap Maersheimer

 

 

Rabbi

 

 

 

 

Finkelstein
https://twitter.com/i/status/1713293124112380106

 

 

 

 

Shahid Bolsen: Message to the Israeli people

 

 

Draft
https://twitter.com/i/status/1713490835562528862

 

 

 

 

Macgregor: It is inconceivable that the Israeli’s had NO ready forces positioned in the South or the North to deal with potential violence on the anniversary of 1973. For Israel, this is deadly serious. If Hezbollah sits this out, the IDF will systematically crush Gaza. However, serious attacks from Southern Lebanon will stretch the IDF ground force to the limit. “Egypt will be unable to sit it out. Jordan may fall apart under the pressure of internal unrest. In short, the world could change dramatically.”

 

 

 

 

“..the Israeli planners don’t trust their infantry,” with the journalist clarifying that the Israeli leadership is concerned about their soldiers’ potential “disastrous lack of combat experience.”

“This was a carefully planned operation, and Hamas knew exactly what the Israeli reaction would be. Urban warfare is awful..”

• Israel Wants to Flatten Gaza; Egypt, Qatar to Handle Refugees – Sy Hersh (Sp.)

In the days that followed the Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, Israeli forces kept pounding the Gaza Strip with airstrikes in preparation for a ground assault against the densely-populated Palestinian enclave. Israeli authorities have also instructed the Gaza Strip’s civilian population via airdropped leaflets to effectively abandon their homes and evacuate south to the border crossing with Egypt. While it remains to be seen whether Egypt would be willing to accommodate thousands of Palestinian refugees that might participate in this veritable exodus, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claims citing an Israeli insider that Tel Aviv is trying to convince Qatar to “join with Egypt in funding a tent city for the million or more refugees awaiting across the border.” According to Hersh, the Israeli insider told him that “it’s not a done deal” and that both Qatar and Egypt were warned that the Palestinian refugees would have to “go back to Gaza” in lieu of what the journalist described as a landing site.

“The Israeli hope is that Qatar and Egypt will take the refugee crisis off its hands,” Hersh surmised. The Israeli insider also admitted that his country essentially took a page from the US’ playbook with this plan for Palestinian refugee relocation, referring to the so-called Strategic Hamlet Program from the Vietnam War era. Under the auspices of said program authorized by John F. Kennedy’s administration, Vietnamese civilians living in contested areas were forcibly relocated to housing built in the South Vietnam-controlled areas. “Their deserted lands were then declared to be Free Fire Zones where all who stayed could be targeted by American troops,” Hersh added, referring to the Vietnam War era program. The plan for the relocation of Palestinian civilians would essentially ensure that “at least the people would not all be killed,” the Israeli insider said, claiming that Hamas wants to keep some civilians within the Gaza Strip to use them as “human shields.”

Once the civilian population of the Gaza Strip gets evicted and flees, Israel intends to launch a full-scale bombing campaign that would result in the destruction of the city, if Hersh’s revelations are to be believed. First, the Israeli Air Force would wipe out the “remaining structures in Gaza City.” Then, Israeli aircraft would start dropping US-made 5,000-pound bunker buster bombs in the “flattened areas” of the Gaza Strip in order to destroy the Hamas’ underground facilities hidden deep beneath the enclave. An Israeli insider told Hersh that the “current Israeli war planners” believe such munitions – “upgraded version of JDAMs (Joint Direct Attack Munitions) with larger warheads” – would be able to penetrate up to 50 meters deep before exploding and “killing all within one-half mile.” After the bunker busters do their job, Israeli infantry forces would move in to conduct mop-up operations.

One Israeli Defense Force veteran, however, told Hersh that “the Israeli planners don’t trust their infantry,” with the journalist clarifying that the Israeli leadership is concerned about their soldiers’ potential “disastrous lack of combat experience.” The Israeli planners thus seem reluctant to immediately send IDF forces into the Gaza Strip to engage in urban combat with Hamas militants, and seek to first flatten the city before commencing ground operations there. Meanwhile, a former European intelligence official expressed his skepticism about the Israeli plan, telling Hersh that “a city in rubble is just as dangerous as at any time” and that “the talk of JDAMS is the talk of people who don’t know what to do.” The official argued that Hamas’ tunnels are situated so deep underground they can withstand the attacks with JDAMs. “This was a carefully planned operation, and Hamas knew exactly what the Israeli reaction would be. Urban warfare is awful,” Hersh’s European source said.

Read more …

X thread.

“The path to building the Third Temple is cleared. But… a billion Muslims, of whom 50 million (officially) are in Europe, start an uprising now in the West itself. Civil war erupts in Europe.”

• One Of The Possible Scenarios Of Further Escalation In The Middle East (Dugin)

Let us try to describe one of the possible scenarios of further escalation in the Middle East. The Palestinian uprising begins in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Mahmoud Abbas cannot contain the situation, and seeing Israel carrying out a full-blown genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians launch an all-out revolt. The IDF continues to massacre civilians in the Gaza Strip. There are growing protests around the world against Western pro-American liberal elites standing unanimously in favor of Israel. Hezbollah gets involved and crowds of Arabs from Jordan break through the cordons at the border. The U.S. launches preemptive strikes against Iran, which is increasingly involved in the conflict, and Iran strikes back against Israel. Syria enters the war, attacking the Golan Heights.

There is a rapid mobilization of the entire Islamic world. Pro-American Islamic states – Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar etc. – are being forced to join the confrontation on the side of the Palestinians. They are joined by Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia. The story of the Taliban sending troops to the Middle East from fake news becomes reality. The black banners of Khorassan are hoisted over the world. Problems between Salafists and traditionalists, including Shiites, fade into the background. The great jihad of the Islamic world against the West and Israel is beginning. Russia takes first a neutral position, but does not rush to support Israel, as it is at war in Ukraine with the West, which in turn is completely on Israel’s side. At some point in the uprising in East Jerusalem, Palestinians proclaim the need to cordon off the Al-Aqsa Mosque for protection from the IDF.

Al-Aqsa Mosque was mentionned in the beginning of the uprising in the Gaza Strip — Al-Aqsa Flood. Israel, in the course of fighting armed Palestinian militias and in self-defense, launches a rocket attack on the mosque. It collapses. The path to building the Third Temple is cleared. But… a billion Muslims, of whom 50 million (officially) are in Europe, start an uprising now in the West itself. Civil war erupts in Europe. Some Europeans are on the side of LGBT, Soros and Atlanticist elites, and some make an alliance with Muslims (on the model of Alain Soral) and join the anti-liberal Revolution. The US uses tactical nuclear weapons against Iran. Russia launches a tactical nuclear strike against Ukraine, which seeks to cling to the West at any cost and provokes Moscow in every possible way. World War III erupts with the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

Russia finally makes up its mind and sides with the Muslims. American dispensationalists realize that the hour has come. Russia is attacking — albeit indirectly — Israel. Gog is here. In the Russian vision, the West is under direct rule of Antichrist. Many world leaders die, new ones with far more radical beliefs appear. China attacks Taiwan, distracting the U.S. and NATO to a new target. India refrains from the direct support the US is counting on. The evening of history ceases to be languid. Feminists, gay activists and environmentalists demand an end to it all, but no one listens to them. The West is forced to fight against everyone in the name of some goal it can no longer articulate – all the old theses about “human rights”, “civil society” and other incantations have disappeared in the harsh reality of the coming total death. Elon Musk admits that he has completely stopped understanding what is happening. Israel is beginning, under blows from all sides, to build the Third Temple. Only Moshiach can save the situation… This is where the text of the predictive analysis (prophecy) abruptly ends.

Read more …

“So far, Hezbollah has made limited moves in the war, but analysts believe it may be forced to open a new front if Israel launches a ground attack on Gaza.”

• Hezbollah Says ‘Prepared’ for Action Against Israel When Time Comes (AAA)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it would be fully prepared to take action against Israel to support the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip when the time is right. During a solidarity rally in Beirut, Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said: “We, as Hezbollah, are contributing to the confrontation and will (continue) to contribute to it within our vision and plan.” “We are fully prepared, and when the time comes for action, we will take it,” he said, adding: “We will contribute to the confrontation within our plan… when the time comes for any action, we will carry it out.” Outreach by “major countries, Arab countries, and envoys from the United Nations, directly and indirectly, asking us not to interfere in the battle, will not affect us,” he said, adding: “Hezbollah knows its duties.”

On Friday, over a thousand participants joined Beirut’s southern suburbs’ rally to support Gaza, carrying Palestinian flags and solidarity banners. Najwa Ali, a Palestinian refugee born in Beirut 57 years ago, participated in the solidarity rally. “I have never seen Palestine, but when I go back one day, it will be with my head held high, without an Israeli soldier telling me where to go or what to do,” she told AFP. She indicated that the Israelis attacked and expelled her ancestors from Palestine in 1948, asserting that “blood will not stop flowing until we regain Palestine.” Fatima, 25, stresses that the Lebanese will not push towards war, but it will break out if Israel invades Gaza.

Hundreds gathered in various cities and villages across Lebanon and Palestinian refugee camps to support Gaza and protest the Israeli atrocities. So far, Hezbollah has made limited moves in the war, but analysts believe it may be forced to open a new front if Israel launches a ground attack on Gaza. Israel has been targeting Lebanese areas daily, and Hezbollah has targeted Israeli sites in a disputed border area since Sunday. Despite the exchange of bombings that raised the tension at the border, Hezbollah’s direct intervention remains limited. A balance of deterrence has prevailed between the two sides since the 2006 war, which left more than 1,200 dead on the Lebanese side, mostly civilians, and 160 dead on the Israeli side, mainly from the military.

Read more …

“..my stepfather survived Auschwitz, Dachau and Majdanek”. Impressive, that’s three concentration camps in a row. The secretary is obviously oblivious to the fact that the USSR liberated all three.”

• Slouching Towards the Final Solution (Pepe Escobar)

It’s by now confirmed that Egyptian intel warned their Israeli counterparts only 3 days before Al-Aqsa Flood that something “big” was coming from Hamas. Tel Aviv, its multi-billion dollar security apparatus and the IDF, “the strongest army in the world”, chose to ignore it. That configures two key vectors. 1) Tel Aviv get its “Pearl Harbor” pretext to implement a remixed “war on terror” plus a sort of Final Solution to the “Gaza problem” (already in effect). 2) The Hegemon abruptly changes the narrative away from the incoming, inevitable, cosmic joint humiliation of the White House and NATO in the steppes of Novorossiya – a strategic defeat that configures the previous humiliation in Afghanistan as a masked ball in Disneyland. The total blockade of “human animals” (copyright Israeli Defense Ministry) in Gaza, in fact a civilian population of 2.3 million, has been imposed this past Monday. No food, no water, no fuel, no essential commodities.

That’s a war crime and a crime against humanity, thrashing the four basic principles of the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) – everything duly applauded or at best completely ignored by NATOstan and its assorted oligarch-controlled mainstream media. Christians, Muslims, Jews and other ethnic groups lived peacefully in Palestine for centuries until the imposition of the racist Zionist Project – complete with all the Divide and Rule attributes of settler colonialism. The Nakba is an old memory of 75 years ago. We are now way beyond apartheid – and entering total exclusion and expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland. In January 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu himself stressed, “the Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the Land of Israel.”

Now, the IDF sent no less than an order to the UN to completely evacuate all residents of northern Gaza – 1.1 million people – to southern Gaza, close to Rafah, the only border crossing with Egypt. This forced mass deportation of civilians would be the prelude to raze all of northern Gaza to the ground, coupled with expulsion and confiscation of ancestral Palestinian land – edging closer to a Zionist Final Solution. Netanyahu, a sociopath with a proven track record, can only get away with serial war crimes because of total support by the White House, the “Biden” combo and the State Department – not to mention inconsequential EU vassals. We just witnessed a U.S. Secretary of State – a low-IQ functionary out of his depth on every single issue – going to Israel to support collective punishment “as a Jew as well”.

He said his grandfather “fled pogroms in Russia” (that was in 1904). Then came the direct – Nazi – connection to “my stepfather survived Auschwitz, Dachau and Majdanek”. Impressive, that’s three concentration camps in a row. The secretary is obviously oblivious to the fact that the USSR liberated all three. Then came the connection Russia-Nazis-Hamas. At least it’s all clear. [..] With Russia we reach heavy metal territory. Earlier this week, Israel’s ambassador to Russia, Alexander Ben Zvi, was finally received, after several attempts by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. It was Israel who practically begged for a meeting. Bogdanov cut to the chase, bluntly: Ben Zvi was warned that the IDF plan to literally destroy Gaza, expel the indigenous population and practice the ethnic cleansing of those “human animals” was “fraught with the most devastating consequences for the humanitarian situation in the region.”

That advances a quite possible scenario – whose consequences can be equally devastating: Moscow – in collaboration with Ankara – launching a Global South-supported blockade-busting operation against Israel. It’s no secret – apart from the modus operandi – that Putin and Erdogan have discussed a possible Turkish humanitarian naval convoy to Gaza, which would be protected from an Israeli attack by the Russian Navy out of its Tartous base in Syria and the Russian air Force out of Hmeimim. That would raise the stakes to unforeseen levels.

Read more …

“Israel is going after a group of people who have engaged in barbarism that is as consequential as the Holocaust.”

• Biden Speaks On Hamas, Israel, Iran, Corridors and Ukraine (Sp.)

Asked whether there should be a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, US President Joe Biden said in an interview for CBS that Israel has to go after Hamas and called them a “bunch of cowards.” “Israel is going after a group of people who have engaged in barbarism that is as consequential as the Holocaust. And so, I think Israel has to respond. They have to go after Hamas. Hamas is a bunch of cowards. They’re hiding behind the civilians,” Biden said. Gaza is a small, densely populated 140.9 square meter area with over 2 million people. Travel in and out of Gaza is heavily controlled by Israeli forces. Biden emphasized that Hamas needs to be “eliminated entirely.” Biden also said that he is in talks with Egypt and Israel about the establishment of a humanitarian corridor in the area.

“We’re also talking to Egyptians whether there is an outlet to get these children and women out of that area at this moment. But it’s hard,” Biden said in the interview. The US President also responded “yes” when asked if he supported humanitarian aid being sent to Gaza, something Israel has been blocking, including food, water and electricity, though Israel announced on Sunday that some water services had been turned back on. At least 13 Americans have been missing since Hamas’ attack, and 30 Americans have been confirmed dead. Biden said that the US is trying every avenue they have to see its remaining citizens returned safely but would not provide details. The interviewer noted that Biden had called the missing Americans’ families and spoke to them on Zoom.

While Biden consistently stressed throughout the interview that the United States supports Israel in their fight against Hamas, he suggested that they do not attempt to occupy Gaza. “I think it’d be a big mistake. Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that … It would be a mistake … for Israel to occupy … Gaza again,” Biden said. Biden added that he does not think committing American troops will be necessary in the conflict. The President stressed that he still supports a two-state solution in the area, which has long been the official US policy, but said that right now is not the time to press for it. He also said that the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia is not dead because of the conflict. “The Saudis, and the Emiratis, and other Arab nations understand that their security and stability is enhanced if there’s normalization of relations with Israel,” Biden said. “It’s just going to take time to get done.”

Biden also addressed the conflict in Ukraine, saying that the United States can handle both it and Israel at the same time. “We’re the United States of America for God’s sake, the most powerful nation in the history– not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense.” The United States has provided at least $111 billion to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s special operation. Earlier this month, an additional $24 billion in aid was blocked by a group of House Republicans. That debate resulted in the ousting of House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Congress is now frozen until a new speaker is elected. The White House has continued to ask Congress for aid for both Ukraine and Israel. When asked if the situation in Congress threatens world security, Biden responded “yes,” putting the blame on “MAGA Republicans.”

Read more …

China’s voice will become louder.

“The Jewish nation is no longer homeless in the world, but when will the Palestinian nation return to its home?”

• ‘Injustice’ Against Palestinians Can’t Continue – China (RT)

Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that China will continue to stand on the side of international law, peace and justice, condemning all acts of violence against civilians in Israel’s war with Hamas. The unprecedented militant raid claimed over 1,300 lives and prompted Israel to declare war, with hundreds of Palestinians now dying in retaliatory strikes on Gaza every day. “China condemns all acts that harm civilians and opposes any violation of international law,” China’s top diplomat said, as he met with the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, in Beijing on Friday. Wang Yi said that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “rapidly deteriorating” and already “critical.”

However, China’s top diplomat insisted that the “root cause of this question lies in the long delay in realizing the dream of an independent State of Palestine and the failure to redress the historical injustice suffered by the Palestinian people.” “Israel has the right to statehood, so does Palestine,” Wang Yi stated. “The Israelis have obtained the safeguards for survival, but who will care about the survival of the Palestinians? The Jewish nation is no longer homeless in the world, but when will the Palestinian nation return to its home?” “There is no shortage of injustices in the world, but the injustice to Palestine has dragged on for over half a century. The sufferings that plagued generations must not continue. ”

Beijing said that the top priority is to “stop the fighting as soon as possible” to “prevent it from spreading endlessly,” and “make every effort to ensure the safety of civilians, open up a humanitarian rescue and assistance passage as quickly as possible.” The international community, including the United Nations, should “play its due role in resolving” the crisis, while the sides of the conflict should “stay calm and exercise restraint, take an objective and just position, and work for de-escalation.” The only answer to the decades-old conflict is the “two-state solution and an independent State of Palestine,” Wang Yi insisted, expressing hope that this way “Palestine and Israel could coexist in peace and how the Arabs and Jews could live in harmony.”

Read more …

“Russia’s special military operation is not the start of a war, it is an attempt to stop it.”

• China Offered ‘Realistic Basis’ For Ukraine Peace Talks – Putin (RT)

Russia is grateful to China for its proposals on ways to end the Ukrainian crisis, but the government in Kiev keeps rejecting any constructive talks while stubbornly seeking Russia’s defeat on the battleground and suffering “enormous” losses in its failed counteroffensive, President Vladimir Putin has said. “We are aware, of course, of the proposals of our Chinese friends… I think they are quite realistic, at least they could be the basis for peace agreements. But, unfortunately, the opposing side is unwilling to conduct any negotiations,” Putin said in an interview with the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) network that was aired on Monday. Moscow and Kiev have not sat down at the negotiating table since talks in Istanbul in late March 2022, a month after the outbreak of the conflict.

Russia, which initially expressed optimism on the peace process, later accused Ukraine of backtracking on all progress achieved in Türkiye, saying it had lost trust in Kiev’s negotiators. Putin recalled how as soon as the Russian troops moved away from Kiev under that preliminary memorandum, Ukraine “immediately threw all these agreements into the dustbin,” and “announced that they would seek Russia’s defeat and victory on the battlefield, Russia’s strategic defeat.” “How is it possible to negotiate if they do not want to do so and have also issued a legal document that forbids these negotiations?” Putin wondered, insisting that Moscow was open for talks back then, and is “ready” now, but it was up to Kiev to declare they are ready for constructive negotiations.

The 12-point peace roadmap released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry early this year involves a range of measures, from a ceasefire and peace talks to abandoning “Cold War mentality” and sanctions, while promoting global stability and international supply chains. Welcomed by Moscow, the roadmap was received poorly by Ukraine and its Western backers, who continue to push Kiev’s own so-called “peace formula” which demands Russia to unconditionally withdraw to its pre-2014 borders, pay reparations, and submit to war crimes tribunals.

In the latest interview, the Russian leader reiterated that the entire conflict stems from Moscow’s legitimate security concerns over the creeping NATO expansion, and its announcement in 2008 that Ukraine was “expected” to join the US-led military bloc, long before the Western-backed “coup d’état” in Kiev in 2014. “And so, year after year, year after year, the situation escalated… With the hands of the Kiev regime, [Western powers] launched hostilities in south-eastern Ukraine, in the Donbas, and conducted these hostilities for eight years, killing women and children. No one in the West paid any attention to this or pretended not to,” Putin said. “Russia’s special military operation is not the start of a war, it is an attempt to stop it.”

Putin Xi

Read more …

“”I don’t think these are healthy thoughts that came to the minds of healthy people..”

• Russia In Relations With West Prepares For War, But Wants Peace – Putin (TASS)

Russia in its relations with West follows the old adage to prepare for war if it wants peace, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Rossiya 1 television. He was responding to a request from the host of the television program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin.” to comment on a recent recommendation by a US Congress panel for the US to prepare for possible simultaneous wars with Russia and China that could include the engagement of nuclear weapons. “I don’t think these are healthy thoughts that came to the minds of healthy people, because to say that the US is preparing for war with Russia, well… We are all preparing for war because we follow the well-known ancient principle: If you want peace, prepare for war. But we act on the assumption that we want peace,” Putin said.

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“..no one has ever written them, and no one has ever agreed to them with anyone. How can we talk about order based on rules that no one has seen?”

• Putin: ‘Rules-Based Order’ Merely A Cover For Colonialism (RT)

The Western-promoted “rules-based order” is merely a cover for colonialism, as the presumed rules have never been agreed-on by anyone and are ever-shifting from one case to another, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. The president made the remarks in an exclusive interview with state-run broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) that was aired on Monday. “Have you ever seen these rules? No, because no one has ever written them, and no one has ever agreed to them with anyone. How can we talk about order based on rules that no one has seen?” Putin stated. While such a situation definitely looks “from the point of common sense” as “nonsense,” it’s extremely beneficial for the proponents of the said “rules-based order,” the president explained.

“If no one has ever seen these rules, it means that those who talk about this themselves come up with these rules from case to case in a way that suits their own interests. This is the essence of the colonial approach,” Putin noted. Colonialism has always been based on supremacist ideas, segregating people into different “classes.” “Colonial countries have always believed themselves to be first-class people. After all, they always said that they bring enlightenment to their colonies, that they are civilized people and bring the benefits of civilization to other peoples, who are considered to be second-class,” Putin stressed. The colonial mindset remains strong, he noted, with all the US talk of its “exceptionalism,” for instance, stemming precisely from it.

“That is, when they say that they are exceptional in the United States, it means that there are other people, people of some other second class. How else can we perceive this? These are the rudiments of the colonial mindset, nothing else,” he added. The approach exhibited by Russia and China is entirely different from that shown by the West, with Moscow and Beijing both believing that treating all nations equally is the cornerstone of the emerging multipolar world and the basis of cooperation between the two nations themselves, Putin stressed. “We proceed from the fact that all people are equal, everyone has the same rights, the rights and freedoms of one country and one people end where the rights and freedoms of another person or of an entire state start. This is how a multipolar world should gradually be born,” the president explained.

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“Trump’s attorneys have been clear in their intent to prevent these trials from taking place before the election..”

• Trump’s Strategic Delays Risk Upending Federal Trials (Sp.)

Former President Donald Trump has adopted a deliberate strategy of seeking incremental delays in his federal trials, potentially jeopardizing their timelines and impacting the broader political landscape.Legal expert Ankush Khardori, a former federal prosecutor, describes this approach as an incremental strategy. While some of Trump’s motions have been on technical matters, related to how classified information is handled in trial, the aggregate effect could potentially delay these cases significantly. “This is sort of an incremental strategy; you don’t expect to win all at once. Over time, the aggregate effect can be to push things out,” Khardori told US media. One key element of Trump’s recent motions revolves around the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which governs the handling of classified evidence in trials.

Trump’s team has requested delays in meeting CIPA deadlines, arguing that the government is rushing the process. They claim the government’s delays in sharing certain documents, primarily due to their classified nature, have justified their requests. However, prosecutors contend that these delays only warrant minor extensions. The core of the dispute centers on Section 4 of CIPA, which deals with redacting or summarizing classified evidence as a protective measure before sharing it. Trump’s team wants to postpone what former CIA attorney Brian Greer refers to as the “first substantive stage” of CIPA by three months, while the government emphasizes the need for an orderly process. In addition to schedule-related motions, Trump has sought to dismiss all charges in the election interference case, arguing immunity from prosecution based on his official duties.

This motion may ultimately reach the Supreme Court. Prosecutors have urged the judge to compel Trump’s team to formally assert their defense in court rather than on the airwaves, which they argue could lead to substantial disruptions and delays. Experts believe that Trump’s incremental approach might be most effective in Florida, where the trial is set for May, approaching the convention season and potentially influencing the election. Trump’s attorneys have been clear in their intent to prevent these trials from taking place before the election, indicating their hopes for potential future developments if Trump were to regain office. The strategic delays by Trump’s legal team pose a significant challenge to the federal trials, with the potential to reshape their timelines and consequences, ultimately impacting the broader legal and political landscape.

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“..Only 30% of American adults believe Biden has “not done anything wrong”..

• 68% Believe Joe Biden Acted Illegally or Unethically in Hunter’s Deals (Turley)

A new AP-NORC poll is out and, consistent with earlier polling results, shows that there remains a disconnect between the media coverage and public opinion over the Biden corruption scandal. Despite the continued dismissal or downplaying of the scandal by many in the media, a massive 68 percent of Americans believe that President Biden acted either illegally or unethically in his involvement in his son’s foreign dealings. The largest group (36%) believe that the president has done something illegal. The second largest group (33%) believed Biden has done something unethical. Only 30% of American adults believe Biden has “not done anything wrong” as he has repeatedly claimed. It seems like the same 30% has remained supportive on every issue for Biden — the same unchanging support that we have found at the extremes of every poll for both Biden and Trump.

Notably, however, 40% of Democrats now believe Biden has done something illegal or unethical in his handling of his son’s business dealings. The percentage is overwhelming among Republicans at 96%. What should worry Biden is that 74% of the key independent vote believes that he has done something illegal or unethical. What is most striking about these polls is that the public has reached these conclusions despite a media that is overwhelmingly protective of the President. Most major media outlets downplayed or ignored the Hunter Biden laptop story while adopting ever-changing narratives to excuse the President’s role. Just this week, the Boston Globe ran a story titled “Attacking Biden, GOP tries to have it both ways; He’s old and feeble — and a master criminal?” Of course, you do not have to be a genius to engage in influence peddling. You just need to be corrupt. Menendez was no Brainiac in taking cash and cars from foreign sources.

Moreover, one of Hunter Biden’s corrupt clients reportedly viewed him as dumber than his dog but still gave him millions. The labyrinth of shell companies and accounts were set up by others, not the President or his son. Despite the media running cover for the Bidens for years, the public is just not buying it. Indeed, they are not buying the media. The Washington Post recently acknowledged that it will lose $100 million and announced a new round of layoffs or buyouts. CEO Patty Stonesifer blamed the continuing loss of readers and revenues on being “overly optimistic” about its growth in readership, subscriptions and ads for the past two years. There is a continued effort at failing media outlets to blame their losses on everything other than their embrace of advocacy journalism and writing off half of the country with its strident political bias.

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“Bloomberg news reported last month that the S&P 100 corporations hired 300,000 employees, 94% of whom are blacks, and 6% are white.”

• Do White People Have Enough Intelligence to Survive? (Paul Craig Roberts)

This is a valid question. White ethnicities once had the confidence and self-belief to colonize the Americas, Africa, and parts of Asia. Today they accept colonization of themselves by their former colonial subjects. White ethnic nations are disappearing. Within themselves massive, unassimilable third world immigrant-invaders are turning them into towers of babel. The disappearance of European nations is sped along by their loss of sovereignty to the European Union (EU). In place of Germany, France, Italy, and the other historic ethnicities, there is a European Union with one central bank and a common currency. The German mark, French franc, and Italian lira no longer exist and neither does the sovereignty of European countries over their monetary policy. The white West has been turned against itself by decades of demonization by its own intellectuals and college professors.

Taught that they are racist colonialist exploiters of people of color, white ethnicities lack the confidence to defend their own borders. White confidence in the US suffers additionally from being taught that America is the country responsible for slavery and that the US Constitution is a racist document that protects white privilege. As the young are rebellious against the status quo, they are susceptible to these messages that destroy the confidence and self-belief of white Americans, many of whom have become advocates for the people of color who are displacing them. The displacement is far advanced. Since the 1960s people of color in the US have had racial privileges that white people do not have to preferential treatment in university admissions, employment, and promotion. This is a violation of the 14th Amendment, but no attorney general or member of the judiciary has done anything to restore equality under the law.

American corporations with largely white executives and boards have publicly announced that it is their current policy to hire and promote blacks and not whites. The Pentagon has announced that promotions of whites are on hold due to its preference for black promotions. If corporations and the Pentagon announced that they were hiring and promoting by race that favored white people, the Department of Justice (sic) would bring lawsuits against them. Effectively, White Americans now are second class citizens in a two-tiered legal system in which equality before the law no longer exists. The impact on white employment from racial discrimination against them is enormous. Bloomberg news reported last month that the S&P 100 corporations hired 300,000 employees, 94% of whom are blacks, and 6% are white.

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“These vaccines will prevent severe disease for COVID-19,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease, told reporters. There’s no evidence that’s true..”

• Only 2% of Americans Have Received New COVID Vaccine: CDC (ET)

About 2 percent of all Americans have received the updated COVID-19 booster shot after it was authorized and recommended by federal health officials several weeks ago, according to updated data provided by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). More than 7 million Americans have taken the updated shot, which is authorized for people aged 6 months and older, said an HHS spokesman. That’s approximately 2 percent of all Americans. “COVID-19 vaccine distribution, which has shifted to the private market, is a lot different than it was last year when the government was distributing them,” said a spokesperson for HHS about the vaccination data. It added that the agency is “directly with manufacturers and distributors to ensure that the vaccines are getting to” various locations.

The statement added that 91 percent of Americans aged 12 years and older “can access the vaccine within 5 miles of where they live,” adding that 14 million updated boosters for COVID-19 have been shipped to pharmacies and other locations. The vaccine was approved about a month ago by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it was recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shortly thereafter. It came as some people reported that it’s difficult to find doses of the new vaccines at local pharmacies and doctors. Jen Kates, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said on X in September that her vaccine appointment was canceled due to a lack of supply.

The 7 million figure is up since Oct. 6 when Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the CDC, told reporters that 4 million had received the new vaccines. The HHS said Thursday that the latest updated vaccinate rate is about the same as the initial bivalent booster shot when it was rolled out in 2022. However, demand for the 2022 booster vaccine was similarly low, according to CDC data. Data has shown that about 17 percent of the U.S. population got that previous updated shot, or around 56.5 million people.

The updated vaccines were meant to target the COVID-19 XBB.1.5 variant, which was spreading across the United States when companies like Moderna and Pfizer came up with the new version. Observational data for the bivalent vaccines, or the previous versions, found weak initial effectiveness that quickly waned. CDC officials made unsupported claims during the briefing, part of a trend for the agency. “These vaccines will prevent severe disease for COVID-19,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease, told reporters. There’s no evidence that’s true.

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Stella

 

 

Olympics
https://twitter.com/i/status/1713378637397782831

 

 


69,460 European cities that are home to at least 1000 people. Map by @datavizstefan

 

 

Canary

 

 

Manatee
https://twitter.com/i/status/1713628499297063230

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 15 2023

Oct 152023
 
 October 15, 2023  Posted by at 8:45 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  32 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn Old Man Seated 1631

 

• Iran Warns Israel Escalation in Gaza Conflict Threatens Regional War (Sp.)
• UN Warns Of Mass Ethnic Cleansing As Refugee Shelters Overflow (RT)
• Palestinian President Rejects Eviction From Gaza (RT)
• Hamas Says It Appreciates Putin’s Stance On Gaza Settlement (TASS)
• Russia Can Play Crucial Role In Middle East Settlement – Hamas Official (TASS)
• White Flag In A Black Hole – Is Russian Neutrality A Force Or A Trade? (Helmer)
• Putin Weighs In On EU-Ukraine Accord (RT)
• Ex-Zelensky Aide Calls For New Government In Ukraine (RT)
• Zelensky Gags Media On Corruption – Editor-in-Chief (RT)
• Only 15% of Kiev Preschoolers ‘Actively Speak’ Ukrainian – NGO (RT)
• New Evidence May Destroy Biden’s Defense In Classified Documents Case (Turley)
• How About Hunter? DOJ Adds FARA Charge to Menendez Prosecution (Turley)
• Swiss Magazine ‘Spied On’ For Hosting Scott Ritter (RT)
• Poison Control (Iris Figueroa)

 

 

 

 

Rogan

 

 

MSNBC

 

 

Already the most deadly time in Gaza.

 

 

Trump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1712895938279494073

 

 

Panetta

 

 

“Various scenarios are emerging, including the possibility of military and non-military measures being taken against the Gaza Strip comparable to the siege of Leningrad during World War II,” Putin said. “We understand what that entails. In my opinion, this is unacceptable. More than two million people live there.”

 

 

 

 

“..he emphasized that Iran has “red lines” and would respond if Israel continues its military operation, particularly if it proceeds with a ground offensive in Gaza.”

“In light of the continued aggression, war crimes and blockade of the Gaza Strip, the opening of new fronts remains feasible..”

• Iran Warns Israel Escalation in Gaza Conflict Threatens Regional War (Sp.)

Iran expressed its desire to avoid exacerbating the situation in the Hamas-Israel war but made it clear that it may need to intervene if Israel’s military operation in Gaza continues, reports US media quoting diplomatic sources. The situation is of significant international concern as the conflict between Hamas and Israel holds the potential to escalate into a regional war if Iran becomes directly or indirectly involved. The warning sent by Iran to Israel through the UN coincides with the US’ efforts to deter Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah or others from entering the conflict, claims US media. The US has deployed an aircraft carrier group and fighter jets to the region to reinforce its stance.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held a meeting with UN envoy to the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, in Beirut, reports US media quoting diplomatic sources. During this meeting, Wennesland implored Amir-Abdollahian to help prevent the conflict from spilling over into the broader Middle East region. In response, the Iranian foreign minister conveyed Iran’s reluctance to see the situation evolve into a regional war. He also expressed Iran’s willingness to aid in the release of civilians held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. However, he emphasized that Iran has “red lines” and would respond if Israel continues its military operation, particularly if it proceeds with a ground offensive in Gaza.

Wennesland, in turn, relayed Iran’s message to Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and other officials. The meeting between Amir-Abdollahian and Wennesland focused on diplomatic efforts to secure the release of hostages, de-escalation, and the prevention of a broader conflict in the region. In a briefing with reporters in Beirut, Amir-Abdollahian, who had previously met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, called on Israel to cease its actions against Gaza’s civilians, warning that time was running out. He also alluded to potential scenarios prepared by Hezbollah and the consequences they could bring, mentioning that any actions by the resistance would have a significant impact on Israel.

“In light of the continued aggression, war crimes and blockade of the Gaza Strip, the opening of new fronts remains feasible,” the minister told Lebanese broadcaster. The conflict, which began on October 7, has resulted in ongoing heavy bombardments in the Gaza Strip by Israel in response to a prior attack by Hamas. Violence has also escalated along the Israel-Lebanon border and in the West Bank.

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“..The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Saturday that its shelters in Gaza “are not safe anymore..”

• UN Warns Of Mass Ethnic Cleansing As Refugee Shelters Overflow (RT)

Palestinians in Gaza face mass ethnic cleansing as Israel orders half the population of the densely populated strip to evacuate amid continued aerial bombardment and dwindling resources on the ground, UN human rights experts warned on Saturday. “In the name of self-defense, Israel is seeking to justify what would amount to ethnic cleansing,” UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said, noting that “Israel has already carried out mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under the fog of war.” “There is a grave danger that what we are witnessing may be a repeat of the 1948 Nakba, and the 1967 Naksa, yet on a larger scale,” she warned, referring to Israel’s mass expulsions of at least 1 million Palestinians from their homes and land in 1947-48 and 1967. “The international community must do everything to stop this from happening again.”

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Saturday that its shelters in Gaza “are not safe anymore,” adding that the area’s 2.3 million residents were rapidly running out of water. Israel shut off electricity to Gaza following Hamas’ attack last Saturday, compounding the humanitarian crisis in the territory, which has been under an illegal blockade since 2007. The UN on Friday warned that Israel’s evacuation order targeting the 1.1 million Palestinians living in northern Gaza would create a “humanitarian catastrophe” amount to a certain “death sentence” for the sick and hospitalized, given the hospital system is already barely operational and several have been bombed. “Moving more than one million people across a densely populated warzone to a place with no food, water, or accommodation, when the entire territory is under siege, is extremely dangerous – and in some cases, simply not possible,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Friday ahead of a meeting with the Security Council.

Urging the government to rescind the order, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons Paula Gaviria Betancur explained that “forcible population transfers constitute a crime against humanity, and collective punishment is prohibited under international humanitarian law.” On Thursday, Israel ordered the population of northern Gaza to move to the south within 24 hours, after which it launched a ground invasion of the north to “clear” it. The entire territory remains blockaded, with the exit via Egypt closed since Tuesday due to ongoing Israeli airstrikes. Following Hamas’ attack on Israel last weekend, which left some 1,200 Israelis dead, Israel has targeted Gaza with the most intense bombing campaign in its history, killing upwards of 1,900 Palestinians and injuring over 7,600 more, according to the UN. Over 423,000 people have been displaced in the last week.

Corridor

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“..Biden spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pledging further material support to the Israel Defense Forces and telling the PM that “unity and determination” were needed to achieve Israel’s combat goals..”

“The resulting Israeli bombing campaign – the heaviest in Gaza’s history – has killed upwards of 1,900 Palestinians and displaced over 430,000 inhabitants of the densely-populated territory..”

• Palestinian President Rejects Eviction From Gaza (RT)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas categorically rejected the removal of Gaza’s inhabitants from their land in a phone call with US President Joe Biden on Saturday, Abbas’ office confirmed in a statement. Biden pledged to support the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to bring much-needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, according to a White House summary of the call. The US president also claimed his administration has been working with the UN, Egypt, Jordan, and Israel “to ensure humanitarian supplies reach civilians in Gaza,” according to the summary, though Israel itself has pledged no electricity, water, or food will enter Gaza until the hostages taken by Hamas last Saturday are returned.

Abbas also told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that he “rejects the forced displacement” of Palestinians from Gaza, warning the American diplomat during a meeting on Friday in Amman that going along with Israel’s evacuation order for north Gaza would amount to a “second Nakba” – a reference to Israel’s removal of 750,000 Palestinians from their land by force from 1947 to 1948. Also on Saturday, Biden spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pledging further material support to the Israel Defense Forces and telling the PM that “unity and determination” were needed to achieve Israel’s combat goals. Netanyahu thanked his American counterpart, according to a statement from his office.

Washington has repeatedly pledged to back Israel’s massive retaliation for Hamas’ attack last weekend, which left at least 1,300 Israelis dead. The resulting Israeli bombing campaign – the heaviest in Gaza’s history – has killed upwards of 1,900 Palestinians and displaced over 430,000 inhabitants of the densely-populated territory. Israel ordered the 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to evacuate on Thursday. The order has come under fire from the UN and other international human rights observers, who argue it constitutes aggravated ethnic cleansing. Washington and many of its European allies, however, insist Israel’s actions are justifiable self-defense.

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“..He also noted that in the event of a ground operation in Gaza, civilian casualties would be unacceptable..”

• Hamas Says It Appreciates Putin’s Stance On Gaza Settlement (TASS)

The Palestinian Hamas movement appreciates the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s efforts to settle the situation in the Gaza Strip, according to the group’s statement published on its Telegram channel. “Hamas appreciates Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position on the ongoing Zionist aggression against our people and the fact that he does not accept the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the stoppage of humanitarian aid and the attack on unarmed civilians. We also affirm that we welcome Russia’s tireless efforts to stop the systematic and barbaric Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.

Earlier, the Russian leader said that Israel has been subjected to a brutal attack, but the settlement of the conflict is possible only through the establishment of an independent Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital. He also noted that in the event of a ground operation in Gaza, civilian casualties would be unacceptable. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, for his part, pointed out that the forced evacuation of Gaza residents was a violation of human rights. He added that the exchange of blows between Israel and Palestine should stop. Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the radical Palestinian Hamas movement staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. Israel has announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip as it has been delivering rocket attacks on Gaza as well as some districts in Lebanon and Syria. According to the latest official data, more than 1,900 Palestinians have been killed since the renewed outbreak of violence, while over 7,700 others have suffered wounds. In Israel, over 1,500 people have lost their lives and roughly 4,000 have been wounded in clashes, including on the West Bank of the Jordan River.

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“The Hamas movement has a high level of trust in Russia and its President Vladimir Putin..”

• Russia Can Play Crucial Role In Middle East Settlement – Hamas Official (TASS)

The Palestinian movement Hamas believes that Russia is capable of playing a key role to put an end to the military escalation in the Middle East, which was triggered by Israeli aggression, Ali Baraka, head of Hamas National Relations Abroad, told TASS. “The Hamas movement has a high level of trust in Russia and its President Vladimir Putin, so we will welcome Russian mediation in resolving the conflict,” he said. “We are interested in ending the civilians’ suffering, caused by Israel’s bombing and brutal blockade of the Gaza Strip, as soon as possible.” The senior Hamas official said that the movement’s leadership was in constant contact with Moscow.

“We are ready for possible meetings with Russian diplomats in one of the Arab countries and we welcome their efforts,” he said. According to the Hamas representative, the Palestinians highly appreciate Putin’s stance. “We follow the Russian leader’s statements in which he assesses regional developments,” Baraka said. “We view Russia as a power that stands up for international law and seeks justice for the oppressed.” He said that “for the Palestinians, Russia’s voice in their defense and Moscow’s demands to stop aggression, lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip and resume humanitarian aid deliveries are crucial.”.

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John Helmer thinks Russia should be more pro-active.. Be careful what you wish for.

• White Flag In A Black Hole – Is Russian Neutrality A Force Or A Trade? (Helmer)

The first Moscow newspaper analysis has appeared of Russia’s current position towards Israel and Palestine. It supports President Vladimir Putin’s public endorsement of the two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians. Entitled “Why Russia remains neutral in the conflict in the Middle East”, Vzglyad, the Moscow security strategy publication, posted the piece late on Friday evening, October 13. It added an opinion poll for its readers with a single question, “should Russia recognise Hamas as a terrorist organisation? The new analysis and conclusion are in contrast to Vzglyad’s call six months ago for Russia to reorient its position towards the Arab side. This is also a marked change of editorial line in the prevailing silence in Moscow: there has been no Security Council meeting since October 3; no State Duma debate; no national opinion polling of public attitudes.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is the one in which Israel is destroying the remnants of the Palestine state territories of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, and replaces that two-state solution with a single state; that is the Israeli one in which about 7 million Jews restrict about 2 million Arabs in bantustans administered according to an apartheid regime. The rules of this Jewish-based order have been fixed in Israel’s constitutional amendment enacted in 2018 as the “Basic Law: Israel – the Nation State of the Jewish People”, and ratified by the Israeli Supreme Court in 2021. This adopts the single- state solution expanding territorially by resettlement of the Palestinian territories “as a national value”; and in parallel, combating international opposition to the process by Israeli state operations to “preserve the cultural, historical and religious heritage of the Jewish People among Jews in the Diaspora.”

By equating Jewish ethnicity and religious faith with nationality of the Israeli state, this constitution eliminates Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim rights with the formula, “the exercise of the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish People.” The corollary is that any Palestinian exercise of the right to self-determination on the expanding Jewish national territory is illegal, anti-Semitic, and terrorist. Internationally, it is the policy of Israel and its allies to make support for or discussion of Palestinian right to self-determination a thought and speech crime. In Russian politics, this is the one international conflict on which President Vladimir Putin has said so much since the start of his term, and done so little – this has been to advocate the two-state solution in public while in private to impose a do-nothing, say-catchword line on diplomats and military officials, and the state media.

The gap between the Kremlin and the General Staff and Defense Ministry became visible in September 2018 after the Israel Air Force caused the shoot-down in Syria of a Russian Ilyushin-20M electronic reconnaissance aircraft, and the killing of all fifteen crewmen on board. At that time the Russian military expressed a loss of confidence which had not been seen in public since President Boris Yeltsin countermanded orders for Russian military support of Serbia under NATO bombing between March and June 1999, and dismissed Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov on the US demand. In the present fighting between Palestinian, Arab and Israeli forces, the options for Russian action are numerous; the public debate over what the options should be has been nugatory. There have been no national opinion polls; no State Duma debate; no meeting of the Security Council since October 3.

An initial statement by Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church was carefully balanced between Palestine and Israel, referring to the “military conflict” between the two sides, not a unilateral act of terrorism. “Peaceful coexistence” between the religious communities, Kirill said, has a “religious dimension” and requires a “just peace”. In context, this was a tilt against Israel. The Church’s Department for External Church Relations issued the statement on October 7; there has been nothing since. As a bellwether of Russian security analysts, Vzglyad’s decision to publish a report of expert assessments on “the advantages of Russia’s neutrality in the conflict in the Middle East” is unusual. Vzglyad’s publishing record shows what the new report is not. Strategically, Russia is being obliged by the US and NATO alliance to fight an all-forces war in Europe, and commit small forces in separate conflicts in Syria; Transdnistria and Moldova; Azerbaijan and Armenia; with the possibility of engagement in the Kosovo fight against Serbia.

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“..The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement essentially envisaged the death of all Ukrainian industry..” ..“we now see exactly that there’s nothing left there already.”

• Putin Weighs In On EU-Ukraine Accord (RT)

The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement essentially envisaged the death of all Ukrainian industry, Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed. The ratification of the accord was put on hold in late 2013 by then-President Viktor Yanukovich, which sparked the Maidan coup that led to his overthrow. The new Ukrainian government signed the agreement in 2014. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Putin said: “If you read what the EU proposed to Ukraine, this is what is apparently being realized now – this was tantamount to the destruction of all key industries that the Soviet Ukraine once prided itself on.” The president added that “we now see exactly that there’s nothing left there already.” According to Putin, Yanukovich was weighing Kiev’s options and simply postponed the ratification of the agreement with the EU in 2013.

In an interview with Politico late last month, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal said Kiev expects full EU membership within two years, and will not settle for anything less. He cited the “huge price” his country has paid to join the bloc. Shmigal went on to pledge that Ukraine will “not be bringing problems” to the EU, but will be a helpful addition. Speaking at a press conference following a summit of EU leaders in the Spanish city of Granada last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the process of accession for any aspiring nation should be strictly “merit-based,” with certain “milestones that have to be achieved” first. The joint declaration adopted by the member states calls on Ukraine and other hopefuls to “step up their reform efforts, notably in the area of rule of law.”

European Council President Charles Michel said the EU should be ready to expand by 2030. However, this timeframe apparently did not sit well with all member states. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte insisted that “it’s not a question of when countries are ready; it’s a question of whether countries are ready.” Joining the EU has been among the key stated objectives of pro-West Ukrainian politicians for decades. Kiev had not achieved much progress on this path prior to February 2022, when Moscow launched its military operation in the country. The conflict appears to have re-invigorated the process, with top officials repeatedly demanding membership due to Ukraine’s perceived role in defending the EU from an allegedly looming Russian invasion.

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Pretty sure Arestovich has something on Zelensky (I’d put my money on corruption). He’s the only voice “allowed” this type of criticism.

“..Ukraine, by contrast, “suppresses business, civil liberties and political competitors, quarrels with neighbors and key partners, and encourages corruption.”

• Ex-Zelensky Aide Calls For New Government In Ukraine (RT)

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed, its troops have built no defensive lines, and President Vladimir Zelensky has allowed corruption and incompetence to flourish, former adviser Aleksey Arestovich said on Saturday. New elections are the only way out of the impasse, he argued. Zelensky’s focus on defending the Donbass city of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine) at all costs earlier this year drained men and resources that could have been sent south to participate in the summer counteroffensive against Russian forces, Arestovich wrote on Telegram. With weather conditions deteriorating, the counteroffensive has now halted. The four-month operation cost Ukraine 90,000 men (according to Russian figures), and resulted in extremely minimal territorial gains for Kiev.

Ukraine has achieved “nothing,”and Russian troops have switched to offensive operations along the entire front, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, told the UN Security Council on Friday. With the roles reversed and the Ukrainians now defending, Arestovich noted that the Ukrainian military has not constructed defensive fortifications like those set up by Russia before the Ukrainian offensive. “Such structures would dramatically increase the combat stability of our troops, inflict even greater losses on the Russians, reduce the load on our forces and allow some of them to be redirected to offensive areas,” he wrote, adding that “this was not done, and this is our second strategic mistake.” Away from the battlefield, Arestovich said Russia is increasing its defense spending, stepping up the production of armaments, and reaching out to its friends and partners in the Global South.

Ukraine, by contrast, “suppresses business, civil liberties and political competitors, quarrels with neighbors and key partners, and encourages corruption.” “Our leadership, in my assessment, exhausted the limits of its competence a long time ago,” he wrote. In order to pull the country out of its current “dead end,” he urged Zelensky’s government to abandon its earlier decision not to hold elections until after the conflict, and accept that its goal of retaking Crimea and restoring Ukraine’s 1991 borders will not happen, despite the “blood, sweat, and tears” of the Ukrainian people. Although Arestovich was initially optimistic about the counteroffensive’s chances of success, he has offered a series of increasingly grim predictions of the country’s future in recent months. He predicted in August that an invasion of Crimea would cost 200,000 Ukrainian lives, and forecast in September that the conflict could drag on until 2035.

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“..the president told reporters to “remain silent until victory.” “If we remain silent, there will be no victory,” the editor-in-chief said..”

• Zelensky Gags Media On Corruption – Editor-in-Chief (RT)

President Vladimir Zelensky has allegedly ordered Ukrainian journalists to avoid bringing up the topic of corruption instead of reporting it to the authorities, the editor-in-chief of the Zerkalo Nedeli (‘Mirror of the Week’) news outlet has claimed. Speaking at the National Media Talk 2023, Yulia Mostovaya said that she had learned of Zelensky’s demand from colleagues who had attended an off-the-record meeting with him. The president reportedly made the request after the Ukrainian press published reports about inflated food prices paid by the country’s armed forces. According to Ukrainian media reports, including Zerkalo Nedeli, the Defense Ministry had been buying food and clothing for its service members at prices two to three times higher than the market price.

For example, the ministry paid up to 17 hryvnia ($0.47) for a single egg and 22 hryvnia ($0.60) for a kilogram of potatoes, while the average prices for those goods at stores in Kiev at the time were about 7 hryvnia ($0.19) and 8 hryvnia ($0.22), respectively. Mostovaya stated that Zelensky’s request to avoid the topic of corruption in media publications was something the Ukrainian press may have considered if Zelensky had presented it in a “balanced manner” and explained that reporting on such issues could affect Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities. “We would accept these conditions if the president had said: ‘Here is a person. Here’s his phone number. If you have substantiated facts, please provide them to this person, he will immediately pick up the phone. And give us a week to respond. If there is no reaction within a week, send it to print.’”

However, no such proposal was put forward by Zelensky, Mostovaya claimed, noting that instead the president told reporters to “remain silent until victory.” “If we remain silent, there will be no victory,” the editor-in-chief said. The issue of corruption in Ukraine has repeatedly been brought up by journalists and officials, both within the country and in the West. Last week, the former president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, stated that Ukraine will likely be unable to join the EU anytime soon because it is “corrupt at all levels of society.” He also urged Brussels not to make any “false promises” to the Ukrainian people who are already “up to their neck in suffering.” Ukraine has for years been seen as among the most corrupt countries in Europe and was ranked 116th out of 180 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index for 2022.

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Almost entirely a Russian-speaking country. Language is not easy to replace. It takes a long time.

• Only 15% of Kiev Preschoolers ‘Actively Speak’ Ukrainian – NGO (RT)

Only some 15% of preschoolers in Kiev are “actively using” Ukrainian, according to a survey conducted by Spilnomova, an NGO with the declared goal of “studying and changing the language situation” in the country. The results of the survey were revealed by Spilnomova’s founder, Andrey Kovalyov, in an interview with the outlet Texty.org.ua, published on Tuesday. Around 20% of preschoolers turned out not to speak Ukrainian at all, using Russian in daily life instead. The rest of the preschoolers are using a mix of Russian and Ukrainian, the survey found. Kovalyov did not discuss the exact methodology used to arrive at the findings. The language situation appears to vary from one kindergarten to another, depending on whether the institution is making an active Ukraininzation effort, as well as on the efforts of the parents.

sBut since the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, more parents have started using Ukrainian while speaking to their children, Kovalyov said. “There are kindergartens that constantly remind parents about this. And they have a higher percentage of children who use Ukrainian. But, unfortunately, such institutions are a minority. For the most part, kindergartens simply do not have any policy on this topic. They usually do nothing,” he stated. The situation with use of Ukrainian language is no better – and, apparently, even worse – among teenagers, according to the activist. While the city’s schools are teaching children in Ukrainian, the language policy appears to have little to no effect on actual real-life use, Kovalyov said.

“That is, we have a very peculiar situation. On the one hand, we see preschoolers in the Russian language environment, on the other hand, no changes are visible in the school environment.” “For example, only 10% of memes used by Kiev teenagers are in Ukrainian, 90% are in Russian or English. Here the question arises: can a child be creative with a language that is not dominant for him?” Despite efforts at promoting the official tongue, Ukrainian schools at present only enable children to learn it “passively,” effectively like any other language taught there, according to Kovalyov. Given that the language issue is “highly politicized” in the country, education officials appear to be afraid of actually doing something about it, opting to wait until it “somehow resolves itself,” he said.

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“..Biden’s counsel and associates conducted repeated searches and declared repeatedly that no further classified documents were found. That was repeatedly found to be untrue.”

• New Evidence May Destroy Biden’s Defense In Classified Documents Case (Turley)

This week, the House Oversight Committee released a new timeline on the discovery of classified documents in various locations associated with Biden. From the outset, many of us flagged problems with the account that had been given by Biden, who insisted that he had no knowledge or involvement in the removal or use of the documents. The most glaring problem is that, after they were removed at the end of his term as vice president, the documents were repeatedly moved and divided up. Some were found in the Penn Center office used by Biden in Washington, D.C. Others were found in his garage and reportedly in his library. Biden made clear from the beginning that he expected the investigation to be perfunctory and brief. He publicly declared that he has “no regrets” over his own conduct and told the public that the documents investigation would soon peter out when it determined that “there is no ‘there’ there.”

Now, however, it appears that a critical claim by the White House in the scandal may not only be false, but was knowingly false at the time it was made. The White House and Biden’s counsel have long maintained that, as soon as documents were discovered in the D.C. office, they notified the national archives. Many asked why they did not call the FBI, but the White House has at least maintained that, unlike Trump, they took immediate action to notify authorities.However, it now appears that this was not true. One of the closest aides to Biden and a close friend to Hunter Biden is Annie Tomasini. She referred to Hunter as her “brother” and signed off messages with “LY” or “love you.” Tomasini was once a senior aide to Joe Biden and, according to the Oversight Committee, inspected the classified material on March 18, 2021, two months after Biden took office — nearly 20 months before they were said to be found by the Biden team.

The committee now alleges that the White House “omitted months of communications, planning, and coordinating among multiple White House officials, [Kathy] Chung, Penn Biden Center employees, and President Biden’s personal attorneys to retrieve the boxes containing classified materials. The timeline also omitted multiple visits from at least five White House employees, including Dana Remus, Anthony Bernal, Ashley Williams, Annie Tomasini, and an unknown staffer.” If true, the evidence demolishes the timeline long maintained by the Biden team. That could have an immediate impact on both the criminal and impeachment investigations. The timeline has been a critical distinction drawn by the White House in distinguishing this matter from the Trump indictment, in which Smith charged the former president with 37 counts, including retaining classified information, obstructing justice and making false statements, and other charges.

Biden insisted that he was entirely “surprised” by the discovery of the documents in Nov. 2021. He echoed the narrative of both his lawyers and the media at large: “And they did what they should have done,” he said. “They immediately called the Archives — immediately called the Archives, turned them over to the Archives, and I was briefed about this discovery.” In reality, Biden’s counsel and associates conducted repeated searches and declared repeatedly that no further classified documents were found. That was repeatedly found to be untrue. Moreover, the concern is that Biden’s lawyers, in the course of these private searches, may have consolidated material and contaminated the scene by the time FBI agents conducted their searches. This includes changing how documents were originally stored and whether classified markings were visible to anyone working around the Biden home or garage.

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“They remain similar in every way except the charges.”

• How About Hunter? DOJ Adds FARA Charge to Menendez Prosecution (Turley)

The Justice Department this week hit Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) with a superseding indictment including a new but all-too-familiar charge: being an unregistered foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). I cannot recall another sitting member of Congress being criminally charged as a foreign agent. Yet even if this is the first such case, the charge has been freely used by the Justice Department in all but one case: Hunter Biden. The indictment accuses Menendez of being a foreign agent on behalf of Egypt. Also charged under the law is Menendez’s wife, Nadine, and Egyptian American businessman Wael Hana. After they discussed various foreign policy priorities at one dinner, Nadine is quoted as asking her Egyptian counterparts, “What else can the love of my life do for you?”

The government alleges that the couple agreed to have Menendez “use his power and authority to facilitate such sales and financing to Egypt.” In addition to other benefits, the government alleges that Hana promised to put Nadine on the payroll of his company in a “low-or-no-show job.” The indictment further alleges that the senator disclosed “nonpublic information about the United States’s provision of military aid to Egypt” during a dinner with Hana in 2018. It also claims that the senator “secretly edited and ghost-wrote” a letter “on behalf of Egypt” trying to convince other senators to release a hold on $300 million in aid to the country. The inclusion of the FARA charge against Menendez, his wife and his associate only highlights the absence of any such charge against President Biden’s son Hunter.

For years, some of us have raised the glaring contradiction in how the Justice Department has approached the Hunter Biden case with its treatment of past defendants like Donald Trump associate Paul Manafort. The Justice Department has been quick to indictment Manafort and others on FARA charges, but continues to prevaricate over such a charge for the president’s son. Indeed, when Menendez was charged, I wrote about the striking similarities in the cases, including the gifts and benefits showered on both men. They remain similar in every way except the charges.

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“..with Moscow allegedly making use of Swiss “media, opinion leaders, politicians, and topics like neutrality” to exert pressure on the country and influence local opinions in favor of Russia.”

• Swiss Magazine ‘Spied On’ For Hosting Scott Ritter (RT)

The Swiss weekly magazine Die Weltwoche claims it has obtained a confidential document from the Swiss Intelligence Service (NDB), said to be proof it was spied on by the authorities. The bombshell revelation was made by the outlet on Wednesday. The two-page document claims the magazine “provides a platform for a Russian influence actor,” as NDB described former US intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector, Scott Ritter. The magazine hosted Ritter for a lengthy interview in late September. Among other things, the NDB raised concerns over Ritter’s contributions to RT as well as other local media in which he discussed the benefits of Swiss neutrality, which some would argue the country has laid aside amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

According to the Swiss intel service, the articles penned by the former American military officer are designed to influence the “Western information space.” The NDB claimed Ritter has been spreading “Russian propaganda and disinformation,” as well as “hate speech.” The former US officer also attended a public event in Switzerland in late September, which the spy agency characterized as dedicated to dissemination of “Russian propaganda.” The NDB assessment concludes that Switzerland has been subjected to complex Russian influence activities, with Moscow allegedly making use of Swiss “media, opinion leaders, politicians, and topics like neutrality” to exert pressure on the country and influence local opinions in favor of Russia.

The document did not go into any specifics about how exactly media and local opinion leaders allegedly ended up under the sway of Russia, the magazine noted. The publication itself was targeted by the service simply “because it stands for neutrality rather than taking sides in the Ukraine conflict,” Die Weltwoche suggested. The outlet questioned how “surveillance of a media organization aligns with constitutional press freedom” as well as how an apparent intervention into domestic politics ended up within the competence of the NDB. “Apparently, the Ukraine conflict has transformed our country back into a surveillance state, which was supposedly overcome with a significant effort in the early 1990s,” Die Weltwoche concluded.

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X thread.

• Poison Control (Iris Figueroa)

“I gathered all vaccine ingredients into a list and contacted Poison Control. After intros and such, and asking to speak with someone tenured and knowledgeable, this is the gist of that conversation.

Me: My question to you is how are these ingredients categorized? As benign or poison? (I ran a few ingredients, formaldehyde, Tween 80, mercury, aluminum, phenoxyethanol, potassium phosphate, sodium phosphate, sorbitol, etc.)

He: Well, that’s quite a list… But I’d have to easily say that they’re all toxic to humans… Used in fertilizers… Pesticides… To stop the heart… To preserve a dead body… They’re registered with us in different categories, but pretty much poisons. Why?

Me: If I were deliberately to feed or inject my child with these ingredients often, as a schedule, obviously I’d put my daughter in harm’s way… But what would legally happen to me?

He: Odd question… But you’d likely be charged with criminal negligence… perhaps with intent to kill… and of course child abuse… Your child would be taken away from you… Do you know of someone’s who’s doing this to their child? This is criminal…

Me: An industry… These are the ingredients used in vaccines… With binding agents to make sure the body won’t flush these out… To keep the antibody levels up indefinitely…

The man was beside himself. He asked if I would email him all this information. He wanted to share it with his adult kids who are parents. He was horrified and felt awful he didn’t know… his kids are vaccinated and they have health issues…”

Here are just SOME vaccine ingredients present in routine vaccines:

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Anteater

 

 

 

 

Hognose

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 11 2023

Oct 112023
 
 October 11, 2023  Posted by at 8:47 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  35 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Self portrait 1972

 

• US Support for Israel May Set Off Total Middle East Upheaval – Ex-Envoy (Sp.)
• The War Has Started (Illaik)
• The Israel-Palestine War Is Washington’s Fault (Inlakesh)
• US Funding May be Diverted From Ukraine to Israel (Sp.)
• Zelensky Blames Putin For Hamas Attack On Israel (HE)
• Khamenei Distances Iran From Hamas Operation (ZH)
• Saudi Arabia Expresses ‘Unwavering’ Support For Palestine (RT)
• The Civilization Of The Antichrist (Alexander Dugin)
• Special Counsel Hur May Prove the Ultimate Punchline in Washington (Turley)
• Washington Moving ‘Illegal’ Bioresearch Operations To Africa – Moscow (RT)
• EU Issues Ultimatum To Elon Musk (RT)
• Finland-Estonia Undersea Pipeline In Baltic “Deliberately Damaged” (ZH)
• The US Is On The Verge Of Becoming A Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)

 

 

In what is only typical, I’ve seen stories about 40 beheaded babies everywhere. That is Putin eats babies territory. Don’t touch it. Reality is bad enough.

“Throughout the fake “Hamas beheaded 40 children” psyop, there wasn’t a single image of one of the supposed beheaded babies, no images of them when they were alive, no names nor ages, and no parents family members or came forward to say their child had been beheaded. It was all based on unverified claims and “beliefs” from the Israeli military.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blevins

 

 

 

 

Macgregor

 

 

Mental gymnastics”

More mental gymnastics:

@Thom_Hartmann Oct 8: “Hamas apparently knew how to get around Israel’s Iron Dome defenses. They probably learned this from Iran. Iran almost certainly got the information from Russia. And who gave it to Russia? Sure looks like it was Donald Trump, at the request of Putin..”

 

 

Rabbi

 

 

 

 

Pepe Escobar: “Israel bombed to smithereens St. Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza: built 1,616 years ago, the third oldest church in the world.”

 

 

 

 

“The Israeli-US “pipedream” fostered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that relations with Saudi Arabia are going to normalize is now also “gone” for the foreseeable future..”

• US Support for Israel May Set Off Total Middle East Upheaval – Ex-Envoy (Sp.)

The United States will support Israel in all actions it takes against Hamas in Gaza after the killing of over 1,000 Israelis in Saturday’s incursion, but this will set off an anti-US wave across the Middle East and the wider Muslim world, former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman told Sputnik. Israel formally declared a state of war on Sunday, a day after Hamas invaded Israeli territory and committed the greatest slaughter of civilians in the 75 year history of the Jewish state. On Monday, Israel put the Gaza Strip under full blockade, with no food, gas or electricity supplies. Both Israel and Palestine have so far reported hundreds of dead and thousands of injured as a result of the escalation.

“The United States will support Israel reflexively but this will set off a much wider anti-US reaction across the Middle East and the wider Muslim world,” Freeman, who also served as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the Clinton administration, said in an interview. The crisis is unlikely to be confined to Israel and Gaza and will metastasize to other neighboring countries, Freeman warned. “The geopolitical dangers could very well rapidly spread to Lebanon and Syria,” he said. The Israeli-US “pipedream” fostered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that relations with Saudi Arabia are going to normalize is now also “gone” for the foreseeable future, Freeman believes. The Biden administration itself appears to have been caught off guard by the ferocious suddenness and success of Hamas’ invasion, Freeman suggested. “National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan last week made the truly idiotic claim that the Middle East region had reached a reassuring level of stability,” he said.

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“.. the Americans sent messages to the Resistance Axis – specifically Iran and Hezbollah – saying, essentially: “We don’t want this to escalate. We want and need stability on the Lebanese border with Israel. We are urging you not to interfere in this war.”

• The War Has Started (Illaik)

Hamas did not coordinate its military operation with any of its Resistance Axis allies. It also did not plan to achieve the stunning results that were soon to follow. The Qassam Brigades’ immediate goal was only to destroy Israeli army positions around the Gaza Strip and capture as many soldiers as possible, which they could later exchange for the thousands of Palestinian captives in Israeli prisons. But the Palestinian resistance forces were taken by surprise at the laxity of the occupation army. Contrary to expectations, they stumbled upon security vacuums and poorly guarded military sites in which a large number of enemy soldiers and officers were fast asleep. It was this unexpected opportunity that prodded the Palestinian fighters to reach for bigger gains.

Hamas’ military leadership planned to carry out this operation in complete secrecy. Just weeks earlier, their fighters had conducted military maneuvers/exercises that were observed by the Israelis. But Tel Aviv’s rather complacent intelligence assessment had been that “Hamas is training for what it does not dare to do.” The Israelis, in short, thought that Hamas was merely flexing in order to gain financial concessions for Gaza. No actual operation was ever expected by Israel’s military brass. The veil of secrecy over the operation also extended to the Hamas fighters who carried out the attack. Sources close to Hamas say that their cadres believed, until the morning of the operation, that they were assembling for a training exercise, not for the real thing.

Very few knew details of the comprehensive attack plan. Even Hamas’ allies in Lebanon and Iran learned of the operation at zero o’clock and not a moment before, according to well-informed sources in the Resistance Axis. Even for this axis, the Hamas operation went beyond all possible expectations. Although true that many of the Hamas tactics employed are shared among the Axis’ fighters in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen, the innovation in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation was the signature of the Al-Qassam Brigades, and particularly its brilliant leader Muhammad Deif. The operation was coordinated with remarkable professionalism: accurate and detailed intelligence was amassed, high-level training exercises organized, secrecy was paramount, and superior coordination was established between the myriad drones, paratroopers, and vast majority of Hamas fighters who crossed into the occupation state, through tunnels and above ground.

Al Qassam also planned to target Israeli communications towers and all military sites surrounding Gaza. From a military perspective, this was a near-perfect operation that led to the destruction of all the facilities of the Israeli army’s “Gaza Division” and the annihilation of entire Israeli brigades. For Israel, this was a total humiliation – something it had never experienced before, even in the devastating 1973 Arab-Israeli war. With the support of the collective west, Israel is now assembling a plan to restore its deterrence. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood didn’t only affect the Israelis – it has also endangered western deterrence throughout West Asia and the Arab world. The decline in Israel’s deterrent capacity correlates directly with the weakening of western hegemony in the region.

While Israel has been scurrying around to mobilize its troops and equipment for a counterattack, the Americans sent messages to the Resistance Axis – specifically Iran and Hezbollah – saying, essentially: “We don’t want this to escalate. We want and need stability on the Lebanese border with Israel. We are urging you not to interfere in this war.” The messages were sent on 7 October, as events unfolded, and through more than one medium. Hezbollah’s response was seen on the ground the very next morning, when it bombed Israeli army positions in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms. This was a warning message, which was clarified further by Hezbollah’s Executive Council Chief Hashem Safi Al-Din when he said: “We will not remain neutral in this battle.” Neither will Washington, which immediately announced $8 billion in aid to Israel, and sent an aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The US cannot afford for Israel to take more losses, but how far will they go to deter Tel Aviv’s adversaries?

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“..Biden has abandoned the idea of reviving the Iran nuclear deal and of ending the war in Yemen. He also decided to try and inflict a death blow on the Palestinian cause for statehood.”

• The Israel-Palestine War Is Washington’s Fault (Inlakesh)

The Declaration of Principles, the first agreement in the Oslo Accords, was signed on the White House lawn over 30 years ago. The accords were supposed to solve the conflict in a span of five years, but failed due to America’s inability to function as a truly neutral peace broker. During the administration of US President Donald Trump, Washington abandoned the two-state solution altogether, through the pursuance of normalization deals between Arab nations and Israel. The issue of Palestinian statehood, which the UN agrees should be solved through a two-state solution, was sidelined as a non-issue and the one bargaining chip possessed by the Palestinians, Arab-Israeli normalization, began to be taken off of the table.

How did the Palestinian political parties respond to normalization in 2018? They overwhelmingly chose non-violent struggle, including in Gaza, where Hamas endorsed the ‘Great March of Return’, a mass protest movement which lasted around a year. Most of the protesters were peaceful, but it was the relatively small groups of Palestinians committing sabotage and anti-Israeli aggression at the border fence that made the news. In response, Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinians and injured almost 10,000. On the Israeli side, there was not a single dead soldier or civilian, while Israeli snipers targeted women, children, journalists, disabled people, and medical workers, according to a UN human rights report on the demonstrations. How did the US react to hundreds of thousands of unarmed Palestinian protesters marching on the separation fence between Gaza and Israel? It ignored them and continued to pursue Arab-Israeli normalization.

Under the Biden administration, the two-state solution was also sidelined and the plight of Palestinians was ignored as insignificant. Instead of seeking a solution to the violence which has been steadily escalating to levels not seen in 20 years, during the course of the past two years – especially in the West Bank – Biden has chosen to look the other way and has pursued Saudi-Israeli normalization instead. A deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel would also have the potential to collapse the Iranian-Saudi rapprochement, brokered earlier this year by China, in addition to potentially dragging Washington into an open confrontation with Yemen. Instead of seeking to fulfill the foreign policy pledges made at the start of his term in office, Biden has abandoned the idea of reviving the Iran nuclear deal and of ending the war in Yemen. He also decided to try and inflict a death blow on the Palestinian cause for statehood.

What Hamas just did from Gaza would never have happened if the US had pursued a somewhat rational approach to the region. It could even have been prevented if the US had presented a political plan to de-escalate rising tensions in the occupied territories. Instead, the American government decided to overlook the armed groups in Gaza while attempting to completely dismantle their cause. And all of this for what? A fancy photo op that Biden can use to steer the Democratic Party to victory in the presidential election in 2024, by claiming that he brought peace to the Middle East.

Due to the current conflict, normalization doesn’t seem to be on the table anytime soon anyway, which would mean Hamas’ offensive has not only dealt a blow to Israel, but also to the US. Now that Israel is at war with Gaza, what is the US doing? It is condemning one side, while arming Israel and greenlighting any action it takes. Initially, Washington even refused to urge a ceasefire, in contrast to the push for one from Moscow and Beijing. The White House refuses to acknowledge its role in creating the current violence and carries on with the exact same rhetoric and policy decisions that led to the horrifying war we see today.

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“The Republicans especially and the American people, frankly, have had enough of Ukraine..”

• US Funding May be Diverted From Ukraine to Israel (Sp.)

The White House is seeking to attach Ukraine funding to the urgent package for Israel, in a hope that it will help circumvent House Republicans’ opposition to further assistance to Kiev, according to the US mainstream press. House Republicans have signaled strong support to Israel and speeded up efforts to elect a new House speaker. For its part, the White House has reportedly decided to capitalize on the momentum and pair urgent funds to Tel Aviv with a Ukraine military package. Biden officials are said to have held talks with top House and Senate figures to secure additional military supplies for Israel. Per the US press, the request could come to the US Congress as early as next week. “The funding is probably going to be diverted more to Israel,” Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the US Secretary of Defense, told Sputnik.

“And I think the American people see that the Ukrainians just were not able to muster a counteroffensive and billions of dollars were expended and nothing to show for it. So Europeans are thinking the same way. And as we approach a winter which promises to be much more severe than in previous years, they’re going to be looking more inward in the European countries to their needs that are critical needs to survive. So I think in terms of US funding, first of all, nothing is going to get passed because we can’t get a House speaker and the House cannot take up anything unless and until it has a permanent House speaker.” It is unclear how big the Israeli package would be. However, per Maloof, Israel’s lobby in DC appears to be much stronger than the Ukrainian one.

Prior to the Israeli-Hamas war, the Biden administration was considering seeking a $100 billion package for Ukraine. However, some Freedom Caucus Republicans have already signaled they are against merging Israel and Ukraine aid in one bill. “They shouldn’t be tied together. I will not vote to fund Ukraine,” GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia told the US press. “I think the White House proposal will be D.O.A. or dead on arrival unless the House and the Senate are in some kind of a mood whereby they give a bulk of stuff to funding to Israel and maybe a very small token portion to Ukraine. But I don’t know that. The Republicans especially and the American people, frankly, have had enough of Ukraine,” Maloof said. [..] Maloof suspects that the Israel-Hamas conflict could “explode into something much, much larger than just between Israel and the Palestinians.” “So we may be dealing with at least two conflicts at once,” he said, adding that the US is concurrently poking China over the Taiwan Island. It appears the US could easily outstretch itself.

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“..helping Russia in destroying freedom in Europe..” Sounds a bit desperate.. How would that get you your funding back anyway?

• Zelensky Blames Putin For Hamas Attack On Israel (HE)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a video on Monday blaming the attacks on Israel by Hamas on Russia and Vladimir Putin. The attacks have resulted in a war between the IDF and Middle Eastern terrorist organizations, mostly taking place in and around the Gaza Strip. He posted the video to X, with the caption: “We have data very clearly proving that Russia is interested in inciting war in the Middle East. So that a new source of pain and suffering would erode global unity and exacerbate cleavages and controversies, helping Russia in destroying freedom in Europe. We can see Russian propagandists gloating. We can see Moscow’s Iranian friends openly extending a helping hand to those who attacked Israel.

All of this represents a much greater threat than the world is currently aware of. The world wars of the past were triggered by local aggressions. We know how to counter this threat. We have already prepared the necessary steps. And our primary goal is to protect the need for maximum global unity.” Zelensky stated, “We see Moscow’s Iranian friends openly supporting those who attacked Israel… “We are preparing the appropriate steps. And most importantly, we are defending the need for maximum unity in the world,” he claimed. “I am grateful to all the leaders and states who are now fully aware of the danger and are ready to work together to keep the situation under control to give the obvious sponsors of terror from broader interference,” he continued, seemingly referencing Russia.

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“Lebanon is not yet a war zone. However, it’s an area of operation. But it seems it’s also a space for both sides to exchange messages..”

• Khamenei Distances Iran From Hamas Operation (ZH)

The Israeli army has reportedly issued an order for citizens to evacuate the Metula settlement, which lies just along the northern border with Lebanon. This after a salvo of some 15 rockets was fired from southern Lebanon in a suspected Hezbollah operation. “In response to the launches identified from Lebanese territory toward Israeli territory, IDF soldiers are currently responding with artillery fire,” regional sources report. The IDF said it intercepted several of them, while most landed in open fields. Things are steadily escalating there: “A senior Israeli officer was killed in a confrontation with militants on the frontier with Lebanon on Monday, Israel’s military has confirmed. The [Israeli] military said troops and aircraft killed two “terrorist infiltrators” who had crossed into Israeli territory. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed that they were its members. Later, at least three militants from Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement were killed as the military attacked sites in Lebanon in response to mortar fire.”

Still, both Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have thus far narrowly avoided a spiral into all-out war at the Israel-Lebanon border. “What’s happening here seems to be a kind of contained tension. Lebanon is not yet a war zone. However, it’s an area of operation. But it seems it’s also a space for both sides to exchange messages,” an Al Jazeera’s correspondent, Ali Hashem, has observed. Iran, meanwhile, has been on the defensive after major US media, especially the Wall Street Journal, cited US sources who alleged Tehran supported, funded and helped plan Hamas’ deadly rampage across southern Israel on Saturday. There’s speculation that the Iranians fear Israel’s Netanyahu government could begin targeting sites inside Iran. A regional source reports Tuesday on the unprecedented softening of rhetoric from Iran’s leadership, related to Hamas and Israel as follows:

“Iran’s supreme leader has strongly rejected any involvement in the Hamas movement’s surprise attack on Israel. The public maneuvering, which involved Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strikingly repeating his rejection of an Iranian role three times in a 90-second span, follows controversial claims in US media that Tehran helped plan the Oct. 7 blitz. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a high-ranking Iranian source told Amwaj.media that Khamenei’s remarks—his first since the Hamas offensive—may have been sparked by “him seeing the direction of the Israeli public diplomacy campaign.” Rejecting concerns of an impending Israeli attack as Khamenei’s underlying motive, the source said the supreme leader’s comments are “pre-emptive” as opposed to reactive.”

Addressing the rare decision by Khamenei to be so vocal in his rejection of an Iranian role in the Palestinian blitz, a second senior source in Tehran told Amwaj.media, “Give me one reason why he should do otherwise.” Also speaking anonymously given the sensitivity of the matter, he continued, “Why should one give them the perfect justification they need for an attack?” At the same time, the source dismissed the notion that being so explicit in rejecting a role in the Hamas attack indicates a sense of weakness on the part of Iran.

The Pentagon has meanwhile warned both Iran and Hezbollah against jumping into the conflict in a fresh statement: “The senior US official said Iran, Hezbollah and other groups backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “should think twice” before joining in the war. “Iran-backed adversaries like Lebanese Hezbollah should not question the commitment of the US government to support the defense of Israel,” the official added. “We believe that the folks in the region understand what those capabilities are,” the White House’s National Security Council coordinator John Kirby, a former US Navy rear admiral, told reporters Monday evening. This as the following just came across the news wires: “US MAY DEPLOY A SECOND AIRCRAFT CARRIER NEAR ISRAEL: WSJ”

Read more …

The US tried to use the Saudi-Israel talks to tear apart the Muslim world. But Russia/China just brought Saudi and Iran together.

• Saudi Arabia Expresses ‘Unwavering’ Support For Palestine (RT)

Saudi Arabia continues to support the “legitimate rights” of Palestinians, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a phone call on Monday, Saudi media reported. The latest escalation in Gaza, which broke out after a surprise attack on Israel by the Hamas militant group over the weekend, poses a threat to security and stability in the entire Middle East, the crown prince said, according to the Saudi Gazette. The kingdom plans to take “proactive efforts” and collaborate with international and regional powers to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from spilling over to other parts of the Middle East, bin Salman said, adding that his nation is also seeking to bring a “swift end” to the hostilities.

He further emphasized the importance of humanitarian law and refraining from targeting civilians, while insisting that Saudi Arabia stands by the Palestinians in their pursuit of a “dignified life… [the] realization of their hopes and aspirations,” as well as a “lasting peace,” according to the Saudi Gazette. Bin Salman also discussed the situation in Gaza with Jordanian King Abdullah bin Al-Hussein and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Both conversations were largely focused on preserving regional stability and preventing the conflict from spreading, the outlet reported. Riyadh’s statements came amid the latest flareup of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, following a massive attack on Israel by the Gaza-based Hamas militant group. Militants fired thousands of rockets at Israel and launched a cross-border raid over the weekend.

More than 900 Israelis, including over 100 military personnel, died in the initial attack and follow-up clashes, Israeli authorities said. Israel responded with a massive bombing campaign against Gaza, also announcing a total blockade of the exclave, cutting it off from fuel, water, and food supplies. The Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 510 Palestinians had been killed and 2,751 injured in Israeli air raids as of Monday. The UN said on Tuesday it would launch an investigation into war crimes committed during the latest escalation, adding that it was in possession of “clear evidence” of violations by both sides. On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Israel and the Palestinian militants to refrain from further violence, and offered Ankara’s services as a mediator in any potential peace talks. He also said that his nation could facilitate a prisoner exchange if requested.

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“Muslims were not enemies of Ukraine and allies of Russia (with the exception of eschatologically awakened Iran and Syria), but now they will be..”

• The Civilization Of The Antichrist (Alexander Dugin)

The escalation of Israel’s war with Palestine will undoubtedly consolidate the Islamic world. Conservatives in the West are again talking about defending the ‘Judeo-Christian civilization in the face of Muslims’, and the radical ideology of Hamas provides them with a convenient excuse for this. However, a society of deep atheism, materialism and legalization of all kinds of perversions, which has long since abandoned traditional theology and values (and orientations), cannot be considered either Christian or Jewish. If the West, as it is now, supports Israel, it is seriously guilty of something. After all, if the devil’s civilization is on your side, then you have done something wrong.

There is no such thing as a Judeo-Christian world, it just doesn’t make sense. The Islamic world, on the contrary, exists and in it, the traditions are still strong. It turns out that it is not the Judeo-Christians against the Muslims, but the Muslims against the satanic culture, against Dajjal. Biden’s idea of combining the theme of support for Ukraine with support for Israel, only underlines this: the West is always on the side of those who submit to its hegemony and serve it. Muslims were not enemies of Ukraine and allies of Russia (with the exception of eschatologically awakened Iran and Syria), but now they will be. Russia is the pole of a multipolar world. Islam is the pole of a multipolar world. Both poles oppose the West’s desperate attempts to save unipolarism and its global dominance at any cost, even at the cost of a world war.

The Palestinian conflict with Israel was not the frontline of a conflict of civilizations. Now it is. Just as the tensions between Russia and Ukraine were regional in character until the Nazis in Kiev were supported by the West, the war in Ukraine has become the frontline of a global confrontation between multipolarity and unipolarity. The scope of this confrontation is growing. The situation is becoming more and more sinister. Already, billions of people on the planet are convinced that the collective West and its allies are absolute evil and the civilization of the Antichrist. Democrats, globalists and neoconservatives are leading humanity straight into the abyss. Which, strictly speaking, is what demons are supposed to do.

Read more …

Hur’s job appears to be ‘under the carpet sweeper’.

• Special Counsel Hur May Prove the Ultimate Punchline in Washington (Turley)

A neutron and Special Counsel Robert Hur walk into a bar and order two drinks. When Hur asks how much they owe, the bartender responds, “come on, for you guys, you know there’s never a charge.” Unfortunately, for the prosecutor tasked with investigating President Joe Biden, it may not prove a laughing matter. In many ways, Hur is the neutron prosecutor. He may have spent two days interviewing Biden on the discovery of classified material going back decades in various offices and home locations. But we already know that the Justice Department has long maintained a policy against the charging of a sitting president. There are no such problems for Hur’s colleague. Jack Smith was appointed to investigate former President Donald Trump. He is the ultimate proton prosecutor. Smith has aggressively pursued Trump in two different jurisdictions with a long litany of charges, including alleged criminal conduct tied to his removal and retention of classified material.

In comparison, Hur appeared to disappear. There was no word of any grand jury or the issuance of subpoenas. His interview this week was the sign of life for a prosecutor who seemed headed for milk cartons. I have long disagreed with the Justice Department policy as without foundation in the Constitution. There is no question that the best course in dealing with a felonious president is to first remove the president from office through the impeachment process and then indict the former president in the wake of the Senate conviction. However, even the Justice Department admitted in reaching this policy during the Clinton administration that “[n]either the text nor the history of the Constitution” is “dispositive” on this question.

It simply rendered an internal opinion against indictments of a sitting president as a matter of “considerations of constitutional structure.” That is particularly a problem in what could be a strong case. We still do not know whether fingerprints were taken off the documents found in various locations associated with the President. Unlike Smith’s investigation, there have been no strategic leaks from Hur’s investigation. On its face, the President claims that he had no knowledge of these documents appears dubious at best. Some classified material reportedly goes back to Biden’s time as a senator — material that he would have had to remove from a sensitive compartmented information facility or secure room on Capitol Hill. More importantly, the documents from the Obama Administration were removed when Biden left as vice president. They were then divided and repeatedly moved to different locations.

That suggests not just knowledge but a purpose. Why were they divided and some documents were found in his garage and possibly his library? If Hur found fingerprints that contradict Biden’s statements, he could face not just some of the same charges brought against Trump but also possible false statement or obstruction charges. Notably, Biden used counsel to conduct searches and (as in the Trump case) additional classified materials were found after the Biden team said that they had finished their searches. There are serious questions over whether, in allowing uncleared counsel to search through these documents, evidence may have been lost in how they were stored or appeared in locations like the garage. Hur can bring charges against third parties, who would not be barred from indictment under the DOJ policy. But what does Hur then do if he has evidence against the President himself? He could wait to see if Biden does not run for reelection or loses in 2024.

He could ask for a reconsideration of the policy, which was poorly supported during the Clinton Administration as a rationale for blocking any indictment for perjury by the Office of Legal Counsel. Absent such moves, the public may face the glaring contradiction of proton and neutron prosecutors where Smith pursues a former president with abandon while Hur is left with investigating with no possibility of an immediate charge. It is the type of question that Attorney General Merrick Garland should be eager to answer. Indeed, it should have been clarified at the outset with the mandate given to Hur. Garland, however, has maintained a position as a virtual spectator, disavowing any role in the ongoing investigations. He is neither neutron nor a proton. He is literally without mass. So the question is whether Hur can get anything other than free drinks in Washington. The answer to that question may prove to be the best punchline of all.

Read more …

There’s Metabiota again. Hunter Biden.

• Washington Moving ‘Illegal’ Bioresearch Operations To Africa – Moscow (RT)

The US is transferring dual-purpose biological research activities to Africa, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Monday, citing Pentagon documents. According to Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who leads the Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops of the Russian Armed Forces, the move is in response to Moscow’s efforts to expose Washington’s illegal military-biological operations. He also cited the worsening “epidemic situation near biosites in the European region.” “The documents at our disposal confirm the activities of key Pentagon contractors on the African continent – in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Uganda, and South Africa. Customers on the part of the US government are the DTRA [Defense Threat Reduction Agency], the National Security Agency, and the US Department of State,” Kirillov added.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the US of plotting biological warfare against it and other countries. Last year, Russian UN representative Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council that Moscow had discovered at least 30 Ukrainian laboratories engaged in disease research, including anthrax and cholera, funded and supervised by the US. In May, State Duma Deputy Speaker Irina Yarovaya expressed concern over Washington’s interest in biological weapons, describing it as a highly concealed and unpredictable form of mass destruction that could become a global issue. The US has denied the claims. On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry reiterated its previous concerns about “unauthorized” sample collection by Metabiota, which it referred to as a “key Pentagon contractor” during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

According to the chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops, the company’s lack of transparency, which prompted concerns from the World Health Organization, resulted in the illegal export of live Ebola virus samples to the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infections. “Predictable deterioration of the disease situation near American biosites is forcing the governments of many African states to take another look at the necessity and expediency of co-operation with the United States. For example, in 2022, Metabiota operations in Africa were terminated because the company’s illegal practices raised too many questions at the level of national governments,” Kirillov claimed.

The San Francisco-based Metabiota was a partner in the $200 million USAID-funded ‘Predict’ epidemiological research project, which concluded in 2019. Several reports, including one by the Associated Press in 2016, claimed that during the 2014 Ebola outbreak the company made a series of “costly” mistakes in its efforts to combat the disease in Sierra Leone. Metabiota employees contributed to flawed laboratory results, disrupted collaborations, and put people at risk of the deadly virus, according to the outlet, which cited leaked documents and interviews with international health responders.

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“..list the violations you allude to on X, so that the public can see them.”

“Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports.”

• EU Issues Ultimatum To Elon Musk (RT)

A top European Union official has demanded a crackdown on “disinformation” on X (formery Twitter), warning that the bloc would take action against site owner Elon Musk if he allowed “terrorist content” to circulate on his platform. In an “urgent letter” addressed to Musk on Tuesday, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton recalled the “very precise obligations” set out under the bloc’s internet regulation laws. He urged for stricter enforcement on X, claiming there had been a deluge of false information related to ongoing fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants. “Following the terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, we have indications that your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU,” he said, adding that when X receives “notices of illegal content,” it must “be timely, diligent and objective in taking action and removing the relevant content.”

While Breton offered no examples of “violent and terrorist content” making the rounds on the platform, he went on to state that “public media and civil society organizations” had reported numerous cases of “fake and manipulated images,” including “repurposed” photos from unrelated conflicts and “footage that actually originated from video games.” The official said he expected a “prompt, accurate and complete response” from Musk’s team within 24 hours, and warned that “penalties can be imposed” if EU authorities find that X is not complying with the bloc’s primary internet regulation, the Digital Services Act (DSA). Musk later reacted to the letter in a social media post, asking Breton to “list the violations you allude to on X, so that the public can see them.” He added that “Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports.”

Breton declined to cite any particular cases of misinformation, instead stating that Musk is “well aware of your users’ – and authorities’ – reports on fake content and glorification of violence.” Under the DSA, websites and search engines can be fined up to 6% of their global turnover if they are found in violation of the rules. However, while the law will not be fully enforced until early 2024, sites designated as “very large online platforms” – or those with more than 45 million monthly users, such as X – were expected to meet the requirements starting in August. The violent flare-up in Israel erupted over the weekend, after Hamas – the Palestinian group that governs Gaza – sent waves of commandos and rockets into Israeli towns. The Israel Defense Forces have retaliated with heavy airstrikes on Gaza, which have continued into Tuesday night. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed on all sides of the conflict since Saturday, according to local officials, with thousands more injured.

Read more …

Finland has asked NATO to investigate. With a straight face.

• Finland-Estonia Undersea Pipeline In Baltic “Deliberately Damaged” (ZH)

Months after famed journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh revealed the US blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea in September 2022 during a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise, yet another undersea gas pipeline, this time, connecting Finland and Estonia has allegedly come under attack. Gasgrid Finland and Elering, the Finnish and Estonian gas system operators, detected an “unusual” leak in the 77-kilometer (48-mile) interconnector in the early morning hours on Sunday. “Based on observations, it was suspected that the offshore pipeline between Finland and Estonia was leaking,” Gasgrid Finland said in a statement. “The valves in the offshore pipeline are now closed and the leak is thus stopped.”

ERR News reported that the Estonian Navy started surveying the pipeline with its equipment on Monday, while the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service will also be involved in the investigation. While the Finnish operator gave no reason for the suspected leak on Monday, Finnish officials, one day later, have now said their investigation of the leak will be on the premise of sabotage. “FINNISH DAILY ILTALEHTI, SWEDISH PUBLIC RADIO, CITING FINNISH GOVERNMENT SOURCES: ESTONIA-FINLAND SUBSEA GAS PIPELINE HAS BEEN DELIBERATELY DAMAGED” … queue Western media outlets who will likely place blame on Moscow – just as they did after the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream undersea pipeline that once connected Germany with cheap natural gas from Russia.

In early 2023, journalist Seymour Hersh published a bombshell report as his first Substack post that the US blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise. Last month, on the first anniversary of the bombing, he posted an article titled “A Year of Lying About Nord Stream, deals with motive. What was the United States’ motive?” His sources said told him: “Biden administration blew up the pipelines but the action had little to do with winning or stopping the war in Ukraine. It resulted from fears in the White House that Germany would waver and turn on the flow of Russia gas—and that Germany and then NATO, for economic reasons, would fall under the sway of Russia and its extensive and inexpensive natural resources. And thus followed the ultimate fear: that America would lose its long-standing primacy in Western Europe.”

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Interview. “..the US has no journalists, only propagandists, and the rule of law has been discarded. The United States is on the verge of becoming a tyranny. That is the American political crisis.”

• The US Is On The Verge Of Becoming A Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)

There are currently no legal proceedings against the Biden family. The US Department of Justice and the FBI have instead protected both Biden and his son despite the massive evidence in their hands, such as the incriminating information on Hunter Biden’s laptop and the classified national security documents dating from his days as Vice President found in Joe Biden’s homes, car, garage, and storage places. The legal charges brought against Trump are like all the others since 2016–Russiagate, impeachments, document gate, stripper gate, January 6 Insurrection. They have no basis in reality or in law. They are brought by Trump-hating black prosecutors in New York state, New York city, and Fulton County, Georgia, and are nonsensical on their face.

Trump and his co-defendants have to pay attention to the charges, because the prosecutors are known enemies of Trump and his supporters, the judges are Democrats who don’t want Trump as president, and the trials will be held in Democrat jurisdictions where the juries will be Democrat and largely black. There is no outcry against this legal atrocity from the legal profession, the law schools, the bar associations, and very little from Congress. So we face the possibility that Trump can be falsely convicted and forced to spend the rest of his life in appealing the convictions. How the American people will take this I do not know. It might make them very angry and unwilling to accept the use of law as a weapon against Trump and the traditional American electorate. On the other hand, the people might conclude that their country has been lost and nothing can be done, give up, and submit to the rule of unaccountable power.

Everywhere the people see the political use of law for punishment by every federal department in the Biden Regime. Mike Lindell, a Trump donor, has been slapped with five audits by the Internal Revenue Service. Lawyers cannot defend Trump without being punished. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York, has been slapped by the IRS with a tax and penalty bill of $550,000 and a lien on his home. Elon Musk is being investigated by the US Security and Exchange Commission for his purchase of Twitter. Democrats hate Musk, because he revealed that the FBI had secretly forced Twitter to censor all who disagreed with the Biden Regime’s narratives. The list is long. I will define for you American’s political crisis. The belief system has collapsed.

The elites no longer believe in the Constitution that defines the country. Students in law schools and journalism schools are taught that the US Constitution is a racist document and an instrument of white oppression of people of color. They are taught that the Constitution stands in the way of “social progress,” by which they mean the use of law not as a shield of rights but as a weapon for coerced change based on ideological beliefs and commitments. What it boils down to is this: In America you are no longer innocent until proven guilty. You are guilty because you are white, or because you are a Trump supporter. No other evidence is necessary. The Democrats have put 1,000 Trump supporters in prison because they attended a rally for Trump.

Traditionally, American liberals based their demands for reforms not on appeals to good will but on denunciation of existing society. This made it easy for the Cultural Marxists to march through the institutions and discredit Western civilization and the institutions that embody it. Today in American universities no student ever hears anything affirmatory about his country. Instead, they learn that it is something that must be reconstructed. Journalism students learn that objectivity is no longer the purpose of reporting and that news is a weapon to be used to remake society. Law students learn that law is not a protector of rights but a weapon to be wielded to revolutionize society. Consequently, the US has no journalists, only propagandists, and the rule of law has been discarded. The United States is on the verge of becoming a tyranny. That is the American political crisis.

Read more …

 

 

 

 


“Tigger is quite big enough,” said Piglet.
“He isn’t REALLY very big.”
“Well, he SEEMS so.”
Pooh was thoughtful when he heard this, and then murmured:
“Whatever his weight in pounds, shillings, and ounces,
He always seems bigger because of his bounces.” A.A.Milne

 

 

Lids

 

 

 

 

Leopard
https://twitter.com/i/status/1711988297596018975

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 9 2023

Oct 092023
 
 October 9, 2023  Posted by at 8:55 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  66 Responses »


Edgar Degas A la mer 1863

 

• Israel’s Massive Intelligence Failure (Scott Ritter)
• The West’s Hypocrisy Towards Gaza’s Breakout Is Stomach-Turning (Cook)
• Palestinians Speak the Language of Violence Israel Taught Them (Chris Hedges)
• Republicans Point Fingers in Wake of Crisis in Israel (Sp.)
• Iran Denies Helping Hamas Plot Attack On Israel (RT)
• The Insane Foreign Policy of America’s Satanic Neocons (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Will There Be a 2024 Presidential Election? (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Ukrainians Desert En Masse Due to Rising Casualties, Mental Fatigue (Sp.)
• Military Solution To Ukraine Conflict Unlikely – Italian Defense Minister (RT)
• Ukraine Admits Repeated Failures To Capture Europe’s Largest Nuclear Plant (RT)
• Americans Get Poorer As Washington Throws Cash At Ukraine And Migrants (Bridge)
• Blue States Turn On Biden Over Border Crisis (ET)
• Judge Hands Trump a Win in DC Election Case (ET)
• The Father of Facebook Doesn’t Understand Social Media Anymore (RM)

 

 

 

 

Reagan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pepe Escobar: 1. Bibi showing his ‘New Middle East’ map at the UN completely erasing Palestine. 2. Serial provocations at Al-Aqsa, including a storming by hundreds of Israeli settlers. Al-Aqsa is a definitive red line – for Palestinians, for the Arab world, and for the lands of Islam. Yet there’s WAY more. The dead giveaway is the Israeli rhetoric of a ‘Pearl Harbor’. Everyone knows what it means. Project Ukraine is dead. So the Masters of the Universe need a new war (“on terror”) to set West Asia on fire.

Peaceful West Asia means reconstruction for Syria, redevelopment for Iraq and Lebanon, Iran and Saudi Arabia as part of BRICS 11, the Russia-China strategic partnership respected and engaged all across West Asia. The Northern Sea Route is already in effect, directly undermining the Suez Canal. One of the key themes discussed at Valdai at the highest level was de-dollarization. All of the above is anathema for the usual suspects. Mossad and IDF caught by surprise is childish fantasy. They knew it was coming. The question now is whether Hezbollah will be coming to town.

 

 

 

 

Israel intel has so much info, they developed an AI model to interpret it. Hamas found out about it.

“Hamas was able to generate a veritable Ghost in the Machine..”

• Israel’s Massive Intelligence Failure (Scott Ritter)

[..] perhaps the largest source of the Israeli intelligence failure regarding Hamas was the over reliance Israel put on intelligence collection and analysis itself. Gaza and Hamas have been a thorn in the side of Israel for years, and as such have attracted the overwhelming attention of the Israeli intelligence and security services. Israel has perfected the art of human intelligence against the Hamas target, with a proven track record of placing agents deep inside the Hamas decision-making hierarchy. Unit 8200 likewise has spent billions of dollars creating intelligence collection capabilities which vacuum up every piece of digital data coming out of Gaza — cell phone calls, e-mails, and SMS texting. Gaza is the most photographed place on the planet, and between satellite imagery, drones, and CCTV, every square meter of Gaza is estimated to be imaged every 10 minutes.

This amount of data is overwhelming for standard analysis techniques relying on the human mind. To compensate for this, Israel developed a huge artificial intelligence (AI) capability which it then weaponized against Hamas in the short but deadly 11-day conflict with Hamas in 2021, named Guardian of the Walls. Unit 8200 developed several unique algorithms which used immense databases derived from years of raw intelligence data collected from every possible source of information. Building upon concepts of machine learning and algorithm-driven warfare that have been at the forefront of Israeli military research and development for decades, Israeli intelligence was able to use AI to not only select targets, but also to anticipate Hamas actions. This ability to predict the future, so to speak, helped shape Israeli assessments about Hamas’s intent in the lead up to the 2023 Yom Kippur attacks.

Israel’s fatal mistake was to openly brag about the role AI played in Operation Guardian of the Walls. Hamas was apparently able to take control of the flow of information being collected by Israel. There has been much speculation about Hamas “going dark” regarding cell phone and computer usage to deny Israel the data that is contained in those means of communication. But “going dark” would have, by itself, been an intelligence indicator, one that AI would have certainly picked up. Instead, it’s highly probable that Hamas maintained an elaborate communications deception plan, maintaining a level of communications sufficient in quantity and quality to avoid being singled out by AI — and by Israeli analysts deviating from the norm.

In the same way, Hamas would likely have maintained its physical profile of movement and activity to keep the Israeli AI algorithms satisfied that nothing strange was afoot. This also meant any activity — such as training related to paragliding or amphibious operations — that might be detected and flagged by Israeli AI was done to avoid detection. The Israelis had become prisoners of their own successes in intelligence collection. [..] Denied the benefit of the contrarian approach to analysis put in place in the aftermath of the Agranat Commission, Israel set itself up for failure by not imagining a scenario where Hamas would capitalize upon the Israeli over-reliance on AI, corrupting the algorithms in a way that blinded the computers, and their human programmers, to Hamas’ true intention and capability. Hamas was able to generate a veritable Ghost in the Machine, corrupting Israeli AI and setting up the Israeli people and military for one of the most tragic chapters in the history of the Israeli nation.

Read more …

Very much a black and white issue, as I read the views.

• The West’s Hypocrisy Towards Gaza’s Breakout Is Stomach-Turning (Cook)

The current outpouring of sympathy for Israel should make anyone with half a heart wretch. Not because it is not awful that Israeli civilians are dying and suffering in such large numbers. But because Palestinian civilians in Gaza have faced repeated rampages from Israel decade after decade, producing far more suffering, but have never elicited a fraction of the concern currently being expressed by western politicians or publics. The West’s hypocrisy over Palestinian fighters killing and wounding hundreds of Israelis and holding dozens more hostage in communities surrounding and inside besieged Gaza is stark indeed. This is the first time Palestinians, caged in the coastal enclave, have managed to inflict a significant strike against Israel vaguely comparable to the savagery Palestinians in Gaza have faced repeatedly since they were entombed in a cage more than 15 years ago, when Israel began its blockade by land, sea and air in 2007.

Western media are calling the jailbreak and attack by Palestinians from Gaza “unprecedented” – and the most dismal intelligence failing by Israel since it was caught off-guard during the Yom Kippur War exactly 50 years ago. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Hamas, which nominally runs the open-air prison of Gaza, of starting “a cruel and evil war”. But the truth is that the Palestinians have “started” nothing. They have managed, after so much struggle, to find a way to hurt their tormentor. Inevitably for the Palestinians, as Netanyahu also observed, “the price will be heavy” – especially for civilians. Israel will inflict on the prisoners the severest punishment for their impudence. Watch how little sympathy and concern there will be from the West for the many Palestinian men, women and children who are killed once again by Israel. Their immense suffering will be obscured, and justified, by the term “Israeli retaliation”.

All the current analysis focusing on Israel’s intelligence “blunders” distracts from the real lesson of these rapidly evolving events. No one really cared while Gaza’s Palestinans were subjected to a blockade imposed by Israel that denied them the essentials of life. The few dozen Israelis being held hostage by Hamas fighters pale in comparison with the two million Palestinians held hostage by Israel in an open-air prison for nearly two decades. No one really cared when it emerged that Gaza’s Palestinians had been put on a “starvation diet” by Israel – only limited food was allowed in, calculated to keep the population barely fed. No one really cared when Israel bombed the coastal enclave every few years, killing many hundreds of Palestinian civilians each time. Israel simply called it “mowing the lawn”. The destruction of vast areas of Gaza, what Israeli generals boasted of as returning the enclave to the Stone Age, was formalised as a military strategy known as the “Dahiya doctrine”.

No one really cared when Israeli snipers targeted nurses, youngsters and people in wheelchairs who came out to protest against their imprisonment by Israel. Many thousands were left as amputees after those snipers received orders to shoot the protesters indiscriminately in the legs or ankles. Western concern at the deaths of Israeli civilians at the hands of Palestinian fighters is hard to stomach. Have not many hundreds of Palestinian children died over the past 15 years in Israel’s repeated bombing campaigns on Gaza? Did their lives not count as much as Israeli lives – and if not, why not? After so much indifference for so long, it is difficult to hear the sudden horror from western governments and media because Palestinians have finally found a way – mirroring Israel’s inhumane, decades-long policy – to fight back effectively. This moment rips off the mask and lays bare the undisguised racism that masquerades as moral concern in western capitals.

Read more …

“..Regimes implanted and maintained by violence engender violence..”

• Palestinians Speak the Language of Violence Israel Taught Them (Chris Hedges)

The indiscriminate shootings of Israelis by Hamas and other Palestinian resistance organizations, the kidnapping of civilians, the barrage of rockets into Israel, drone attacks on a variety of targets from tanks to automated machine gun nests, are the familiar language of the Israeli occupier. Israel has spoken this blood-soaked language of violence to the Palestinians since Zionist militias seized more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, destroyed some 530 Palestinian villages and cities and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in more than 70 massacres. Some 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed between 1947 and 1949 to create the state of Israel in 1948. Israel’s response to these armed incursions will be a genocidal assault on Gaza. Israel will kill dozens of Palestinians for every Israeli killed.

Hundreds of Palestinians have already died in Israel air assaults since the launch of “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” on Saturday morning, which left 700 Israelis dead. Prime Minister Netanyahu warned Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday to “leave now,” because Israel is going to “turn all Hamas hiding places into rubble.” But where are Palestinians in Gaza supposed to go? Israel and Egypt blockade the land borders. There is no exit by air or sea, which are controlled by Israel. The collective retribution against innocents is a familiar tactic employed by colonial rulers. We used it against Native Americans and later in the Philippines and Vietnam. The Germans used it against the Herero and Namaqua in Namibia. The British in Kenya and Malaya. The Nazis used it in the areas they occupied in the Soviet Union, Eastern and Central Europe. Israel follows the same playbook. Death for death. Atrocity for atrocity. But it is always the occupier who initiates this macabre dance and trades piles of corpses for higher piles of corpses.

This is not to defend the war crimes by either side. It is not to rejoice in the attacks. I have seen enough violence in the Israeli occupied territories, where I covered the conflict for seven years, to loathe violence. But this is the familiar denouement to all settler-colonial projects. Regimes implanted and maintained by violence engender violence. The Haitian war of liberation. The Mau Mau in Kenya. The African National Congress in South Africa. These uprisings do not always succeed, but they follow familiar patterns. The Palestinians, like all colonized people, have a right to armed resistance under international law. Israel never had any interest in an equitable settlement with the Palestinians. It built an apartheid state and has steadily absorbed larger and larger tracts of Palestinian land in a slow motion campaign of ethnic cleansing. It turned Gaza in 2007 into the world’s largest open air prison.

What does Israel, or the world community, expect? How can you trap 2.3 million people in Gaza, half of whom are unemployed, in one of the most densely populated spots on the planet for 16 years, reduce the lives of its residents, half of whom are children, to a subsistence level, deprive them of basic medical supplies, food, water and electricity, use attack aircraft, artillery, mechanized units, missiles, naval guns and infantry units to randomly slaughter unarmed civilians and not expect a violent response?

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“What happened this weekend was an unprovoked invasion by Hamas into Israel.”

• Republicans Point Fingers in Wake of Crisis in Israel (Sp.)

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley blamed the Biden administration for their dealmaking with Iran while other GOP contenders exchanged blows over America’s role on the world stage. Republicans’ intra-party feud over American foreign policy intensified Sunday with various candidates for the party’s presidential nomination exchanging views about the country’s role in international affairs. Former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley appeared on US television to denounce the Biden Administration’s diplomatic engagement with Iran, a common refrain among Republicans in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israel Saturday. “I actually think it was irresponsible for Secretary Blinken to say that the $6 billion doesn’t weigh in here,” said Haley, referring to frozen Iranian funds the Biden administration released in exchange for five detained American citizens.

“Hamas knows and Iran knows they’re moving money around as we speak, because they know $6 billion is going to be released.” “You saw that when those planes full of cash sent by Obama to Iran… What happened was those funds were sent to Hezbollah in Lebanon. They were sent to Hamas in Gaza. They were sent to the Houthis in Yemen. They go and spread terrorism every time they get a dollar.” Republicans have criticized diplomatic efforts between the United States and Iran since the Obama administration, when Joe Biden served as vice president. The US has sanctioned the Middle Eastern country since the hostage crisis at the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979. More recently, the Biden administration released frozen Iranian funds in a prisoner swap deal with the country. The deal stipulated the $6 billion could only be used for humanitarian purposes.

But Republicans have pointed out the fungible nature of the assets, arguing the deal frees up resources for Iran to fund terrorist groups. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) echoed Haley’s remarks on the X social media platform Sunday, claiming “Biden’s negotiation funded the attack.” Meanwhile, former US Vice President Mike Pence joined Haley on the neoconservative wing of his party, finding fault with other Republicans’ calls for foreign policy restraint. “This is what happens when we have leading voices like Donald Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis signaling retreat from America’s role as leader of the free world,” said Pence on Sunday, referring to the growing opposition towards sending funds to Ukraine within his party. “What happened this weekend was an unprovoked invasion by Hamas into Israel.”

Foreign policy has emerged as a major debate for Republicans as some leaders within the US political party have called for a return to the muscular approach of the George W. Bush administration. Former US president and 2024 contender Donald Trump became known as a critic of US foreign policy, famously calling the country’s invasion of Iraq “a big, fat mistake.” But the former Republican president has also advocated for improved relations with Russia and has claimed he has a “good relationship” with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The United States devotes more money to defense spending than the next 10 countries combined while funding more than 700 military bases around the world.

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They deny and admit at the same time.

• Iran Denies Helping Hamas Plot Attack On Israel (RT)

Tehran has denied accusations that it helped Palestinian militants to plan the surprise attack on Israel that was launched on Saturday morning. “The decisions made by the Palestinian resistance are fiercely autonomous and unwaveringly aligned with the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people,” Iran’s mission to the UN said in a statement to the media. “We are not involved in Palestine’s response, as it is taken solely by Palestine itself.” On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal cited several sources, including unnamed members of the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups, as saying that officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had helped to plan the attack on Israel since August. It also “gave the green light” for the operation at a meeting in Beirut, Lebanon last Monday. Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas spokesman, told the BBC that the militants had “direct backing” from Iran.

However, Ali Baraka, another Hamas official, insisted in an interview with NBC News that Tehran had not been notified about ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’beforehand. “It was a surprise to everyone, including Iran,” he said. Although US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the White House had not yet seen evidence of Tehran’s involvement, some Israeli and American officials accused the Islamic Republic of colluding with Hamas. The Palestinian militants and allied groups carried out a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza, simultaneously firing rockets and dispatching troops to infiltrate Israeli settlements. The Israeli government responded by declaring war on Hamas and carrying out airstrikes on Gaza. Iran has endorsed the assault and urged other Muslim countries to back the Palestinians against Israel. More than 700 Israelis and at least 436 Palestinians have been killed since Saturday.

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“..convinced the Kremlin that the West intends Russia’s destruction..”

• The Insane Foreign Policy of America’s Satanic Neocons (Paul Craig Roberts)

We are on the verge of nuclear annihilation. Every agreement made during the 20th century to reduce the risk of nuclear war has been abandoned by Washington. Why worry, some ask, mutual assured destruction means neither the US nor Russia would initiate a nuclear attack. Perhaps not, but the greatest danger of nuclear armageddon comes from false alarms from warning systems. During the Cold War there were many such alarms. The false alarms did not result in mutual destruction because both governments were working to defuse, not exacerbate, the situation, and there was time for the validity of the alarm to be verified before a fatal pushing of the button. Today the situation is entirely different. Washington and the NATO puppets have a policy of provoking Russia, with the 2014 coup in Ukraine and its consequences being the worst to date.

Moreover, the hypersonic speeds of the Russian missiles and the closeness of US missiles to Russia’s border cuts time before impact to 5 or 10 minutes, which means no time to verify or confer. The extraordinary insulting hostility shown toward Russia by the US, NATO and the Western media has convinceds the Kremlin that the West intends Russia’s destruction. Russia’s President Putin has stated many times that the West has led him to this conclusion. A couple of days ago at the Valdai Discussion Club Putin expressed concern that the West’s belligerence toward Russia could end in nuclear war. If President Biden were a responsible leader, he would have said that the Russian president is right, and we must stop the escalation of threats. Instead, Biden sent B-2 stealth bombers, aircraft specifically designed for a nuclear first-strike, to European bases, thus escalating the threat, a mindless and irresponsible response to President Putin.

In the US the constant propaganda against Russia (and now China) has convinced many Americans that they face the danger of nuclear attack. This is not a situation in which a false alarm is likely to be recognized. The risk of not believing the alarm is much higher in the environment created by the American neoconservatives, who have controlled US foreign policy in the 21st century. In US foreign policy and military ranks there are some, especially among the military/security-funded think tanks, who believe, automatically it seems with no evidence required, that the US, being the greatest and most powerful country ever, would win a nuclear war. This belief exists despite the total absence of any US preparation for surviving a nuclear war, assuming such a war is survivable. The most likely outcome would be nuclear winter, a situation in which dust from the massive explosions block the sunlight and the entire world starves to death.

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Two months ago I wrote: No US Presidential Election in 2024.

“It is clear that the Biden regime and security agencies regard half or more of the US electorate as domestic terrorists. In other words, the FBI is now a political police, no longer a criminal police.”

• Will There Be a 2024 Presidential Election? (Paul Craig Roberts)

This question arises from the FBI’s designation of Donald Trump and the half or more of the American electorate that supports him as “domestic terrorists” who constitute a “persistent, evolving, and deadly threat” to the United States. As a senior official put it, “Trump’s army constitutes the greatest threat of violence domestically, politically, that’s the reality.” Here we have the FBI causing disunity by splitting the US population into half. The good half are the Democrats. The bad half is comprised of traditional Americans who want their country back from the special interests and support Donald Trump. It is the FBI that has made this division, not the people who want their country back. The FBI has proved itself to be a dangerous domestic terrorist that has created disunity among the population and gone to war against the traditional American population.

How can the FBI permit such a deadly threat to America, as the FBI declares Trump and his supporters to be, to win the election? How can an army of domestic terrorists be allowed to vote Trump into office? The FBI has equated Trump’s election with an insurrection, that is, with the overthrow of the government. This would seem to commit the FBI to preventing Trump’s election, and the FBI is applying “counterterrorism methods developed over the past decade in response to Al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups” to Trump supporters. In other words, the FBI doesn’t differentiate between Trump and his supporters and Muslin terrorists. It is reasonable to conclude that if the Democrats’ political prosecutions of Trump fail to prevent him from running for president, the Biden regime will declare a national emergency and suspend the election. Biden’s Homeland Security also equates Trump supporters with “the use of violence to pursue political ends” and “a threat to our national security.”

Attorney General Garland says “attacks by domestic terrorists are attacks on all of us collectively.” What attacks is Garland talking about? The ones the FBI is about to orchestrate? It is clear that the Biden regime and security agencies regard half or more of the US electorate as domestic terrorists. In other words, the FBI is now a political police, no longer a criminal police. The FBI and Homeland Security are geared to protecting Washington from the American electorate. Attorney General Garland has made it clear that the “Justice” Department will validate whatever unconstitutional methods are used. The position of the FBI and Homeland Security is that if you disagree with an official narrative, you are a domestic terrorist. I do not believe that Trump will be permitted to be President. If he wins, it will be said that he lost, or he will be assassinated, or a state of emergency will be declared. The Establishment will do whatever it takes to keep Trump out of the White House.

I think that the Democrats and their security agencies are demonstrating their Nazi inclinations for no real purpose. If Trump regains the White House, he still doesn’t have the government. Who can he appoint to help him? Who are they? Those who helped him in the past, such as his lawyers, are all indicted by a black woman in Fulton County, Georgia. If Trump is reelected, it will be a repeat of his first term–constant accusations against him repeated endlessly by the presstitutes, constant investigations, more impeachments. Any cabinet secretary who helps him will be a social outcast. His career will be over. When white Americans themselves are demonized as “aversive racists” and “white supremacists” in US universities and public schools and are investigated by the FBI for protesting the brainwashing of their children at school board meetings, what can anyone do?

Insouciant Americans have been asleep for too long, and they have lost their country. How are they going to get it back? Consider that those who vote Democrat actually believe that the other half of the electorate are dangerous white supremacist domestic terrorists. They believe this despite the absence of any buildings blown up by Trump supporters, by the absence of assassinations, by the absence of rioting and looting as practiced by the Democrats’ agents, Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Democrats are so indoctrinated that they believe the propaganda in the absence of evidence. The wedge that has been so successfully driven between Americans makes white people a minority in their own country. They are so divided that they cannot defend themselves or the Constitution that is the shield of their liberty.

Now that the FBI has declared the 85 million Americans who twice elected Trump president to be domestic terrorists, the FBI will have to organize some domestic terrorists events, like it had to organize Muslim terrorist events, in order to validate its proclamation of domestic terrorism from Trump supporters. Will federal agents blow up buildings, stage rioting and looting events, and assassinate Democrats in order to incriminate Trump supporters? Is this the playbook for the Democrats to win the next election? What do we make of Hillary Clinton’s statement that Trump supporters have to be officially deprogrammed? Are we being set up for reeducation camps? In America today, all of this is possible.

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A Chinese newspaper..

• Ukrainians Desert En Masse Due to Rising Casualties, Mental Fatigue (Sp.)

According to a Chinese newspaper, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) are grappling with a surge in desertions caused by increasing casualties and mental exhaustion among soldiers. The news outlet cited “emerging reports of ever-increasing stress and mental health issues, with soldiers reluctant to take to the battlefield as they feel they do not have enough time to recover from their traumatic experiences.” The newspaper added that “numerous” UAF servicemen “have gone the entire year with only a handful of days spent at home, with many being thrust back onto the front line, leading to a spike in suicides.” The media outlet cited Romanian immigration authorities as saying that “6,200 Ukrainian men of military age have crossed their border illegally, while some 20,000 have fled with special permits, though these are often falsified documents such as medical certificates and exemptions.”

On top of that, the newspaper added that the UAF struggles with a shortage of ammunition due to “inconsistent donations and varying arms types.” “This leads to the inefficient use of supplies due to shells, and to rockets being unreliable in their accuracy, which can result in equipment being damaged and soldiers injured. This contributes to low morale in the Ukrainian troops,” per the newspaper. With the assistance of NATO instructors, the Ukrainian forces have been trying to make progress on various front lines since the beginning of June. Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that the UAF has been unable to achieve any significant success on the fronts, already suffering the loss of over 90,000 soldiers and 557 tanks.

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“..Rome is considering ways to bring the two sides to the negotiating table, while continuing to arm Kiev..”

• Military Solution To Ukraine Conflict Unlikely – Italian Defense Minister (RT)

It is unlikely that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict will be resolved on the battlefield, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has predicted. He also revealed that Rome is considering ways to bring the two sides to the negotiating table, while continuing to arm Kiev. In an interview with Corriere della Sera published on Sunday, Crosetto acknowledged that no matter how much Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government wants to support Ukraine indefinitely, the policy is simply not realistic. He pointed out that the hostilities there have dragged on for over a year and a half, adding that the “more time passes, the more the possibility of helping Ukraine with resources that are not unlimited decreases.” The official emphasized that this does not indicate a change in Italy’s policies but rather the finite nature of the country’s stocks.

According to the official, the “situation in Ukraine is getting worse,” with Kiev having “great difficulty in regaining lost ground,” and Moscow being unable to “conquer” the nation. “We are witnessing the impossibility of resolving the conflict on the field,” Crosetto argued, adding that Italy was busy looking for ways to “build dialogue tables, achieve peace.” He concluded by claiming that if Russia prevails in Ukraine, its tanks will be rolling toward European borders, making the prospect of World War III more likely. Late last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated that Moscow is ready for peace talks with Kiev in principle, adding, however, that it has yet to see any “serious proposal.” The diplomat dismissed Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s peace formula as a “pure ultimatum,” which Russia would never accept.

Russian officials have previously pointed out that President Zelensky effectively ruled out negotiations when he signed a decree last October prohibiting dialogue with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Earlier this month, POLITICO reported, citing a European official, that EU member states have reached their limit in terms of weaponry they can provide to Ukraine without compromising their own defenses. “We cannot keep on giving from our own stockpiles,” the anonymous official told reporters. In a separate story around the same time, the media outlet claimed that support for funding the Ukrainian government was “showing more cracks than ever,” citing the recent failure of the US Congress to allocate more aid money in its stopgap budget, as well as the election victory of former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who vowed when he was campaigning that he’d stop assistance to Kiev.

Meanwhile, on Friday, POLITICO alleged that the Biden administration is looking for “creative” ways to secure further military aid for Ukraine, amid mounting opposition at home. The supposed workarounds under consideration include using the State Department’s foreign military financing program as well as a three-way swap of air-defense systems involving Poland, the media outlet claimed.

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“..The last effort was a major operation involving hundreds of troops, including foreign fighters…”

• Ukraine Admits Repeated Failures To Capture Europe’s Largest Nuclear Plant (RT)

Ukrainian commandos have failed on three occasions to gain a foothold in Energodar, the city in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region where Europe’s largest nuclear plant is located, Kiev’s military intelligence chief has confirmed. Kirill Budanov and some of the people involved in the botched operations were interviewed by the Ukrainian news outlet NV, which published an article on Sunday about the activities of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR). The first attempt to seize control of land in Energodar, which took place in August 2022, involved commandos crossing the Kakhovka water reservoir on civilian speedboats, according to the interviews. The last effort was a major operation involving hundreds of troops, including foreign fighters.

Budanov and his subordinates explained that the GUR troops had been repelled by Russian forces on each occasion, but claimed that the failures had some value. Surviving troops and planners gained experience in amphibious operations, which has since been used to attack Crimea, they said. Meanwhile, Kiev’s overarching goal of preventing Russia from supplying electricity generated by the Zaporozhye plant to the region was achieved thanks to moles, according to Ukrainian sources. Russian officials reported several Ukrainian attempts to seize Energodar last year, the largest of which took place in mid-October. Kiev deployed 37 speedboats for the amphibious assault and lost some 90 troops to Russian retaliation, they said at the time. People in Zaporozhye Region, formerly a part of Ukraine, voted to join Russia in September 2022.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, has repeatedly warned about the risks that hostilities near the Zaporozhye plant may pose to its safety. It has failed to mediate an agreement between Russia and Ukraine for a no-fighting zone around Energodar. Last week, Ukrainian commandos were killed or captured during a landing in Crimea after their watercraft were attacked by Russian warplanes. The Russian security service, the FSB, claimed that survivors had said the goal of the operation was to film troops holding a Ukrainian flag on Russian soil.

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“..the annual cost of providing care for the millions of illegal migrants entering the US is $150.7 billion..”

“..it’s just another day in the discombobulated American empire, which, much like its ancient Roman precursor, could learn the lesson of overexpansion and overspending in the most brutal way imaginable – with its total and complete dissolution.”

• Americans Get Poorer As Washington Throws Cash At Ukraine And Migrants (Bridge)

The poverty rate in the US exploded last year, the first increase in 13 years, according to the Census Bureau. In 2022, the rate was 12.4%, up 4.6 percentage points from 2021, according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), a method for tallying government welfare programs and tax credits designed to assist low-income families. Meanwhile, the Expectations Index, determined by consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions, sunk to 73.7 in September. That follows a drop to 83.3 in August. The worrisome part is that an Expectations Index below 80 generally indicates an impending recession. An economic tragedy is already quietly happening for millions of American consumers who are now living paycheck to paycheck precariously and who have been forced to use the payment method of last resort to make ends meet: the almighty credit card, with its exorbitant interest fees.

On this score, the US economy has broken yet another record, although not in a way that could be considered something to cheer about. “US credit card debt rose by $45 billion to $1.03 trillion in the second quarter from the first quarter, a 4.6% quarterly increase,” The Street reported. “It’s the first time in US history that household credit card balances topped the $1 trillion mark as the number of credit card accounts expanded by 5.48 million to 578.35 million in the quarter.” When consumer debt suddenly equals the amount the US spends on its military-industrial complex, you know there’s a problem. Clearly, the US has some serious domestic issues that need to be resolved, but instead, it would rather fund a totally senseless proxy war against a nuclear power halfway around the world. Washington has given Ukraine close to $100 billion in aid, with more in the pipeline, since Moscow launched its military operation in February 2022.

The cash, however, has not only been used to fund Ukraine’s military. Billions of dollars have subsidized participants of the Ukrainian economy, like farmers and small business owners, market players whose counterparts in the US desperately need help, too. A recent study conducted by the Council on Foreign Relations shows that more than $30 billion – around 40% of total US aid to Ukraine as of July 31 – has been financial or humanitarian assistance that is not directly connected to military support. Military funding comes out to around $50 billion. As if that were not enough, the Biden administration continues to welcome illegal migrants at a price that is more than what is being spent fighting a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. Yes, you read that right; the annual cost of providing care for the millions of illegal migrants entering the US is $150.7 billion, according to the Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers (FAIR).

In August, US Border Patrol recorded 232,972 migrant encounters along the southwestern border, a jump from 183,494 in July. The number of crossings for September is predicted to be higher than the previous month. So here we have two concurrent events – a disastrous military conflict in Ukraine and a leaky US border – that are sucking away precious funds from the American taxpayer. It’s important to note that the king’s ransom that is being handed over to support these deranged Democratic agendas will never be returned, not in our lifetime. Instead, it will just be added to the unsustainable US national debt load, which is currently at $33 trillion, according to the US Debt Clock. That is an astronomical sum of money that we or future generations will someday be forced to deal with, and probably sooner rather than later.

What American citizen could possibly believe that any of this government funding has been a good investment for the American people? Well, they’re representatives in Washington, DC, for one. In May, ‘conservative’ US Senator Lindsey Graham, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev, pronounced joyfully that “the Russians are dying” and aid to Ukraine is “the best money we’ve ever spent.” Aside from discounting the chances that such an “investment” could have towards unleashing World War III, Graham never thought for a second that such funds could have gone far at rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure, like that non-existent wall on the US-Mexico border. It would have been a wonderful work program for the US economy. In short, it’s just another day in the discombobulated American empire, which, much like its ancient Roman precursor, could learn the lesson of overexpansion and overspending in the most brutal way imaginable – with its total and complete dissolution.

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“There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.”

• Blue States Turn On Biden Over Border Crisis (ET)

President Joe Biden is facing significant backlash from Democratic elected leaders, particularly in northern U.S. cities that are struggling to deal with the surge in illegal immigration. They accuse the president of not doing enough to curb the influx of illegal immigrants, which is putting enormous strain on their resources. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is the latest Democratic politician to voice strong criticism of the federal response to the crisis. In a letter to President Biden on Oct. 2, Mr. Pritzker said that his state was in an “untenable situation” and urged the president to take “swift action.” In August, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and business leaders asked President Biden to address the “humanitarian crisis” that has overwhelmed New York City following an influx of more than 100,000 illegal immigrants from the southern border.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued a state of emergency in August in response to the state’s illegal immigrant crisis. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, she wrote that her state has taken action “to address what sadly has been a federal crisis of inaction.” Officials at the White House are scrambling to respond to this criticism with statements that appear to indicate the administration is making a U-turn on its border policies. Some claim that the recent measures by President Biden are increasingly looking like the policies of the Trump administration. Before taking office, President Biden declared, “There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre attempted to defend the move, arguing that the government is following Trump-era laws but still doesn’t believe in the wall’s effectiveness. “We believe that we need border technology that is modernized and land ports of entry. And that’s what we want to see,” Ms. Jean-Pierre told reporters on Oct. 5, adding that the president’s stance on the border wall hasn’t changed. “He does not believe it is effective. He has been very clear about that.” She added that the funding for the wall is from a 2019 appropriations bill signed by President Donald Trump. “We asked Congress to reappropriate the funds,” she said. “But they’ve refused, and so now we’re moving forward.”

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“Several members of the Trump legal team don’t have the appropriate security clearances to review the evidence..”

• Judge Hands Trump a Win in DC Election Case (ET)

A federal judge in Washington partially granted a request by former President Donald Trump’s attorneys to allow for extra time to file motions in the federal election obstruction case ahead of his March 2024 trial. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issued the order on Oct. 6, representing as a partial win for the Trump legal team. In court papers filed last week with the court, they had wanted additional time to craft arguments in the case, which was brought by special counsel Jack Smith. The judge granted President Trump some additional time to file motions, although she mostly rejected his lawyer’s requests to delay the trial deadlines. In her order, she rejected the former president’s request to order a declassified version of some of the government’s court filings regarding classified evidence.

“Lengthy deadline extensions for the defense’s anticipated dispositive motions—like motions to dismiss—are not warranted,” her order said. “If the court were to extend the briefing schedule for these motions by the requested sixty days, they would not be fully briefed until January 2024.” Although the former president requested a 60-day extension to file pre-trial court motions, Judge Chutkan only allowed a two-week extension. Motions to dismiss the case and several other types of motions have to be filed by Oct. 23. The judge also granted a request from the Trump legal team to file objections regarding classified evidence in the case. It came days after President Trump’s lawyers wrote in court papers that more time is needed to consider procedures for reviewing classified evidence in the case, adding his team is “seeking a fair opportunity for reasonable adversary proceedings” regarding the materials.

They said that lawyers were able to review classified evidence that was provided by Mr. Smith’s office for the first time on Tuesday, but it was too short. “Our review was brief and preliminary,” the motion stated. “But it it is clear that President Trump is entitled to additional materials possessed by the U.S. intelligence community” and other portions of the executive branch. Several members of the Trump legal team don’t have the appropriate security clearances to review the evidence, it also said. “Third, as noted above, in light of restrictions on one of the central documents in the classified discovery, we are presently foreclosed from making applications to the Special Counsel’s Office or the Court relating to the substance of the document,” his lawyers wrote. “Thus, although we anticipate transmitting discovery requests and motions to compel, we are not in a position to pursue those mechanisms as of this filing.”

Responding to the former president’s motion, federal prosecutors said it was an attempt to “delay the proceedings” and claimed the amount of classified materials in the case was relatively small. His team also failed “to provide a basis for any extension” regarding pre-trial motions in the case, prosecutors said. President Trump is charged with four federal felonies in the case alleging that he tried to obstruct the 2020 presidential election. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and said it’s part of a longstanding effort by Democrats and federal bureaucrats to imperil his 2024 presidential campaign. Last week, President Trump’s team filed a motion that sought the dismissal of the case, citing what they described as immunity. Judge Chutkan has not ruled on that dismissal motion, and the special counsel lawyers have not responded.

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Threads has been an utter failure..

• The Father of Facebook Doesn’t Understand Social Media Anymore (RM)

In the world of social media business, where revenues are on the decline and the social media industry faces pressing commercial challenges, a fundamental principle comes to the fore: Adapt or risk fading into obscurity, reminiscent of MySpace’s fate. To everyone’s surprise, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, chose to launch two new platforms amidst the shifting sands of the social media world. Was it a personal vendetta against Elon Musk, or did he simply bypass the innovation that typically fuels platform success, opting instead to replicate the ideas of others? The results, alas, were far from stellar. In this realm, where new social media players perpetually strive to challenge established giants, Meta, under the leadership of the somewhat uncharismatic Mark Zuckerberg, has consistently sought to redefine the game. However, recent endeavors, notably Threads and WhatsApp Channels, have cast doubt on Meta’s strategy and Zuckerberg’s approach.

Threads, initially positioned as a potential rival to Twitter (or X now), appeared promising at first glance. But upon closer inspection, a familiar pattern emerged – Meta’s tendency to replicate rather than innovate. Threads seemed to mimic Elon Musk’s Twitter presence, but struggled to retain its users. While Threads did rocket to 100 million users within five days of its early July launch, it hemorrhaged more than half of them within two weeks. Zuckerberg himself acknowledged this precipitous decline, expressing a desire for sustained user engagement. Despite being hailed as the “fastest-growing app in history,” the platform’s true source of users, possibly re-routed from Instagram, raises questions about its validity as the “fastest-borrowed” app. This fleeting hype left Threads unlikely to have a lasting impact beyond generating media headlines. Its fundamental issue lies in its unclear purpose, or perhaps its lack thereof.

Threads introduced no novel features or competitive advantages and debuted in a somewhat incomplete state, missing essential functions expected on a social media platform. It felt more like Zuckerberg’s personal jab at Musk, stemming from their longstanding feud, rather than a genuine effort to innovate. The absence of spontaneous, controversial subjects – censored to the point of resembling a Twitter feed from North Korea – further detracted from Threads’ appeal. However, the core challenge with Zuckerberg’s platforms lies in censorship. It extends beyond content moderation to the accessibility of the platforms themselves. Threads was initially unavailable in Europe and other parts of the world outside the United States for months following its launch – a significant misstep. Zuckerberg seems to be repeating this mistake with his latest endeavor, WhatsApp Channels. Here, too, Meta chose imitation over innovation, blatantly replicating Telegram’s Channels feature.

Both Threads and WhatsApp Channels are emblematic of a more substantial issue – Meta’s heavy-handed censorship. While their aim may have been to curate a “nice” and “woke” environment, they inadvertently created exclusive clubs where only the chosen few could thrive. Contacting the customer support or service teams at these social media projects often leads to automated bot interactions, which raises questions about the involvement of human personnel at Meta’s headquarters. As we examine the outcomes of these Meta ventures, a valuable lesson emerges: In the realm of social media, authenticity and originality should be paramount. Meta’s penchant for imitation, coupled with stringent censorship, has yielded lackluster results. Threads and WhatsApp Channels serve as stark reminders that replication without innovation leads to initial hype followed by inevitable disappointment. The essence of social media should be creativity, enthusiasm, and open dialogue, rather than mere imitation and exclusivity.

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How Far West Are the BRICS?

Aug 172023
 
 August 17, 2023  Posted by at 12:47 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  3 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Quay with Men Unloading Sand Barges 1888


A topic we can have nice discusssions about ahead of next week’s BRICS+++ meeting in South Africa. As I said recently, BRICS have momentum, and they can’t stop that, not even China could if they wanted. The desire to create a space NOT controlled by US/EU/NATO is just too great. That said, the tentative “bloc” has plenty issues to solve.

How do all the 50+ or so countries who want to join, end up satisfied with their place in the order? If they establish a currency, will it be gold based? And what will that mean for countries who don’t have much gold but still want to join? I think they will announce a schedule next week for Pakistan, Argentina, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria, the real “big brothers”, to join, in some capacity, and take it from there.

That would add another 1-2 billion people to their team of already 3,5 billion. And then we will talk about PPP GDP.

Andrew has his thoughts, just as valuable:

 

 

Andrew Korybko:

“Alt-Media Was In Shock After The BRICS Bank Confirmed That It Complies With Western Sanctions” last month, and now the Alt-Media Community (AMC) just got hit with two more truth bombs after other leading officials confirmed that it doesn’t want to de-dollarize and isn’t anti-Western. South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana told Reuters earlier this month in an interview that the group’s focus is on expanding the use of national currencies rather than de-dollarization.

That outlet also quoted New Development Bank (NDB, popularly referred to as the BRICS Bank) Chief Financial Officer Leslie Maasdorp in the same article, who told them that “The bank’s operating currency is dollars for a very specific reason, U.S. dollars are where the largest pools of liquidity are…You cannot step outside of the dollar universe and operate in a parallel universe.” The official confirmation that BRICS doesn’t want to de-dollarize directly led to the next clarification about it not being anti-Western.

South African Ambassador to BRICS Anil Sooklal corrected false perceptions about the organization’s global role in an interview with Bloomberg several days back where he told them that “There’s an unfortunate narrative being developed that BRICS is anti-West, that BRICS was created as competition to the G7 or the Global North, and that is incorrect. What we do seek is to advance the agenda of the Global South and to build a more inclusive, representative, just, fair global architecture.”

In connection with this purpose, he also confirmed what Godongwana and Maasdorp said earlier in the month about how BRICS has no desire to de-dollarize. In Sooklal’s words, “Trading in local currencies is firmly on the agenda (but) There is no agenda item of de-dollarization on the BRICS agenda. BRICS is not calling for de-dollarization. The dollar will continue to be a major global currency — that’s a reality.” These revelations about BRICS might understandably overwhelm the average member of the AMC.

After all, many of them were misled by top influencers into imagining that this group is plotting to deal a deathblow to the dollar out of hatred for the West, but nothing could be further from the truth after what leading officials revealed in the last three weeks. President of the BRICS Bank Dilma Rousseff confirmed that it complies with the West’s anti-Russian sanctions; Godongwana, Maasdorp, and Sooklal confirmed that it doesn’t want to de-dollarize; and the latter also confirmed that it isn’t anti-Western.

BRICS can still “advance the agenda of the Global South and to build a more inclusive, representative, just, fair global architecture” exactly as Sooklal clarified is its intent in spite of the ‘politically inconvenient’ facts that were just shared, but it’ll be at a gradual pace, not an accelerated one. Therein lies the crux of the misperceptions about it, which Russia sought to correct earlier in the month after finally realizing that its soft power interests are threatened by supporters’ unrealistic expectations.

A critical mass of the AMC came to be convinced that BRICS was something that it’s not through a combination of well-intentioned but naive influencers pushing their wishful thinking about it and others maliciously doing the same to generate clout, promote their ideology, and/or grift. In parallel, some of this camp’s Mainstream Media (MSM) rivals scaremongered about BRICS for the ulterior purpose of galvanizing Westerners against it, but which also extended false credence to the AMC’s populist claims.

Taken together, it’s easy in hindsight to understand why so many people fell for the false narrative that BRICS is plotting to deal a deathblow to the dollar out of hatred for the West, which is why the organization’s officials decided to set the record straight in recent weeks ahead of its next summit. They didn’t want their supporters’ unrealistic expectations leading to deep disappointment that in turn makes them susceptible to hostile suggestions, nor did they want to spook the West into overreacting either.

The first potential outcome that could have come to pass had the previously mentioned clarifications not been made risked filling its supporters with such despair that they might either become apathetic towards BRICS or possibly even turn against it after feeling that they were duped. Regarding the second, some among the West might have ramped up their pressure campaigns against BRICS and its partners, including through blackmail, political meddling, and sanctions threats, all to stop the bloc in its tracks.

After debunking the disinformation that’s been spewed about their organization by the AMC and MSM alike, each in advance of polar opposite agendas but still suspiciously relying on practically identical narratives, BRICS officials are now more confident that these worst-case scenarios can be averted. This reality check sobers their supporters up and prepares them to expect a prolonged transition to multipolarity while also reducing the chances that the West will overreact to their group’s goals.

To elaborate on the last observation, the events of the last eighteen months since the start of Russia’s special operation convinced the West that the global systemic transition to multipolarity is irreversible, which is why they’re now willing to entertain reforms to their hegemonic models. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, former Director for Europe and Russia at the US National Security Council Fiona Hill, and Goldman Sachs’ President of Global Affairs Jared Cohen all suggested this on the same day in mid-May.

They believe that the West must engage with the Global South on a more equal level, which necessitates scaling back some of its most blatantly exploitative practices in order to not lose more hearts and minds to the Sino–Russo Entente. To that end, they’re positively inclined towards accepting gradual changes to the global financial system such as those that BRICS’ officials confirmed that they have in mind, but will resolutely respond to any revolutionary developments that risk drastically accelerating this transition.

Simply put, BRICS wants to “play it safe” because all of its members apart from Russia are in relationships of complex economic-financial interdependence with the West, which isn’t expected to overreact to their piecemeal reforms since their own policymakers now believe that they’re inevitable. Among those four members, two schools of thought predominate as represented by China and India, whose respective differences of vision were explained at length here.

In brief, China wants to speed up the yuan’s internationalization and integrate BRICS into the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), while India wants to prioritize national currencies and keep BRICS officially separate from BRI. Both agree that changes to the global financial system must be gradual, however, in order to avoid provoking a mutually detrimental overreaction from the West with whom all of them apart from Russia are in relationships of complex interdependence.

Everyone has the right to their own opinion about this reality that was just described, but the facts that were shared throughout this analysis in support of associated observations can’t be denied. Any top influencers among the AMC who still push the debunked narrative about BRICS plotting to deal a deathblow to the dollar out of hatred for the West are dishonest. Those among their audience who now know better should politely fact-check them under their posts to prevent others from being misled.

 

 

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Debt Rattle April 8 2023

Apr 082023
 
 April 8, 2023  Posted by at 8:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  46 Responses »


John William Waterhouse It’s Sweet Doing Nothing / Dolce Far Niente 1879

 

• Iran and Saudi Arabia: A Chinese win-win (Pepe Escobar)
• Xi Divides And Conquers During Macron’s China Visit (Fomenko)
• The Hero’s Journey (Kunstler)
• More Classified US Documents Shared In New Leak – NYT (RT)
• The Leaked ‘Secret Plan’ For A Ukrainian Military Offensive Doesn’t Add Up (MC)
• NATO Should Not Be Near Russian Borders – Lula (TASS)
• West Didn’t Allow Time For Peace In Ukraine – Lula (RT)
• West In No Position To Issue Instructions On Ukraine To Beijing – Envoy (TASS)
• Moscow Reacts To Blinken’s Counteroffensive Claim (RT)
• Kiev Prepares Provocation To Discredit Russia – Russian Defense Ministry (TASS)
• US Resumes Biolabs Program In Ukraine – Russian MOD (RT)
• How Was ERIC Used to Steal Elections? (Emerald)
• Attack of the Censorship Karens! (Shellenberger)
• Proud Boys Attorney Wants to Unmask Informants During Jan. 6 Trial (NW)
• ‘A Silver Lining’: How Covid Ushered In A Vaccines Golden Era (G.)
• Cancer And Heart Disease Vaccines ‘Ready By End Of The Decade’ (G.)

 

 

 

 

Habba


Byron Donalds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get MAD

 

 

 

 

Gonzalo

 

 

 

 

Pepe on Twitter:
“5,000 years of civilization. Against a bunch of upstart barbarians. BRIICSS is already on. Led by RICs. With Iran and Saudi close to the front seat. Bring it on, suckers.”

• Iran and Saudi Arabia: A Chinese win-win (Pepe Escobar)

The idea that History has an endpoint, as promoted by clueless neoconservatives in the unipolar 1990s, is flawed, as it is in an endless process of renewal. The recent official meeting between Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Beijing marks a territory that was previously deemed unthinkable and which has undoubtedly caused grief for the War Inc. machine. This single handshake signifies the burial of trillions of dollars that were spent on dividing and ruling West Asia for over four decades. Additionally, the Global War on Terror (GWOT), the fabricated reality of the new millennium, featured as prime collateral damage in Beijing.

Beijing’s optics as the capital of peace have been imprinted throughout the Global South, as evidenced by a subsequent sideshow where a couple of European leaders, a president, and a Eurocrat, arrived as supplicants to Xi Jinping, asking him to join the NATO line on the war in Ukraine. They were politely dismissed. Still, the optics were sealed: Beijing had presented a 12-point peace plan for Ukraine that was branded “irrational” by the Washington beltway neocons. The Europeans – hostages of a proxy war imposed by Washington – at least understood that anyone remotely interested in peace needs to go through the ritual of bowing to the new boss in Beijing.

Tehran-Riyadh relations, of course, will have a long, rocky way ahead – from activating previous cooperation deals signed in 1998 and 2001 to respecting, in practice, their mutual sovereignty and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. Everything is far from solved – from the Saudi-led war on Yemen to the frontal clash of Persian Gulf Arab monarchies with Hezbollah and other resistance movements in the Levant. Yet that handshake is the first step leading, for instance, to the Saudi foreign minister’s upcoming trip to Damascus to formally invite President Bashar al-Assad to the Arab League summit in Riyadh next month. It’s crucial to stress that this Chinese diplomatic coup started way back with Moscow brokering negotiations in Baghdad and Oman; that was a natural development of Russia stepping in to help Iran save Syria from a crossover NATO-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) coalition of vultures.

Then the baton was passed to Beijing, in total diplomatic sync. The drive to permanently bury GWOT and the myriad, nasty ramifications of the US war of terror was an essential part of the calculation; but even more pressing was the necessity to demonstrate how the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, had become irrelevant. Both Russia and China have experienced, inside and out, how the US always manages to torpedo a return to the JCPOA, as it was conceived and signed in 2015. Their task became to convince Riyadh and GCC states that Tehran has no interest in weaponizing nuclear power – and will remain a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Then it was up to Chinese diplomatic finesse to make it quite clear that the Persian Gulf monarchies’ fear of revolutionary Shi’ism is now as counter-productive as Tehran’s dread of being harassed and/or encircled by Salafi-jihadis. It’s as if Beijing had coined a motto: drop these hazy ideologies, and let’s do business.

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“Beijing is by no means out of the game, because as much as the US can play divide and conquer against EU countries, so can China – and the outcome of the visit demonstrates that very well..”

• Xi Divides And Conquers During Macron’s China Visit (Fomenko)

French President Emmanuel Macron has wrapped up a three-day visit to China, accompanied partly by European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen, who went home a day earlier. The dual visit came at a time when EU nations, worried about a growing Sino-Russian partnership, are looking for ways to strengthen their own diplomatic engagement with Beijing. Von der Leyen’s presence on the trip was widely seen as a “check” on Macron, there to ensure he complied with “European unity” on the matter of the EU’s relationship with China. Before the visit, she gave a hawkish address warning China against supporting Russia in the Ukraine conflict and slamming Beijing for becoming “more repressive at home and more assertive abroad.”

[..] the US has long been pushing very aggressively to undermine China’s prospects in the EU. It has been waging a public opinion war against Beijing, using its own state-sponsored think-tanks, and pushing issues such as human rights to create negative sentiment and to block engagement, such as on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), which was proposed back in 2013 and is still pending ratification a decade later. Similarly, the US uses bilateral and unilateral diplomacy to undermine China’s relationships with specific European countries in a bid to wreck its attempts to engage with the bloc as a whole. For example, the US explicitly supported Lithuania in undermining the ‘One China’ principle by opening a “Taiwan representative office.” It also forced the Netherlands to agree to new export controls on sending advanced lithography machines (used for making computer chips) to China.

Similarly, because the EU could never agree to a comprehensive ban of Huawei’s application in 5G networks in 2020, the US simply resorted to bilaterally approaching countries one by one, making them agree to the ban until those states that were not on board, such as Germany, were effectively isolated and could not drive the EU agenda. Ultimately, the EU is a bloc which can only operate by consensus between all of its member states, but if the US can undermine that consensus, it can throw a spanner in the works and break the entire machine. This is why it is so difficult for Europe to truly create an “autonomous” foreign policy capable of serving coherent “European interests.” This means when nations such as France and Germany declare their desire for engagement with China, they of course have influence, but the overall effect is never truly consistent.

The bloc is being subjected to a constant tug of war in its foreign policy direction, which ultimately shows that Europe remains more of a passenger, rather than a player, in the world of US-China competition. However, despite the traditional dominance of the US over Europe, Beijing is by no means out of the game, because as much as the US can play divide and conquer against EU countries, so can China – and the outcome of the visit demonstrates that very well. Having given von der Leyen and her message of “unity” a noticeably cooler reception, the Chinese hosted a cordial tea ceremony for Macron, after signing a joint communique that spoke at length about improving trade, economic and cultural ties, but made barely any mention of the main political sticking point between China and the EU – Beijing’s good relations with Moscow and Xi’s refusal to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine crisis.

For China, this is a clear win. For France, this is a win in terms of enduring business and economic relations with China, but a loss in that all of Macron’s attempt to change Xi’s mind on Putin and Ukraine were comprehensively stonewalled. For von der Leyen, whose mission in Beijing was purely political, it was a complete failure. Not only did her message fall on deaf ears, the wooing of France continued unabated under her nose. But perhaps most importantly, the result of this visit dealt a blow to US agenda, showing that positive relations between China and the EU are worth working towards and Washington’s attempts to drive wedges between them are, so far, futile.

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“I’m aboard for the ride. It’s going to be goshdarn interesting and I hope the bastards don’t try to kill him, because that will really be the end for us.”

• The Hero’s Journey (Kunstler)

There is a deep, primal wish in the American psyche to correct the damage to our country caused by the murders of John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert. November 22, 1963 was exactly when this nation went off the rails, and many Americans understand that. RFK, Jr. has stated unambiguously that he believes the CIA killed his uncle, the president. And he recently supported the parole of his father’s killer, Sirhan B. Sirhan, suggesting that there was a whole lot more to Bobby’s assassination than that patsy. Here’s the heart of the matter: that wish to correct the abominations of history is a sentiment much stronger than anything else currently whirring in the fog of emotion that grips a nation in extremis, certainly stronger than all the bullshit embedded in equity, diversity, and inclusion and the bad faith aspirations of the climate change / Great Reset claque. RFK, Jr., represents a way out of all that. He may be strong enough and honorable enough to make that our new national reality.

Then there is Mr. Trump. He’s been on his own even stranger hero’s journey, considering his origins in real estate and showbiz, and his personal peccadillos. Mr. Trump also recognized the evil afoot in our country and he set out to correct all that. He was attacked unfairly and incessantly by people of bad character and ill intent, even to this day as he faces an absurd political prosecution in Manhattan. You have to admire his fortitude and resilience in the face of such massed official bad faith. His first time around in the White House, though, Mr. Trump kind of muffed the job. He had many opportunities to disarm and fire antagonists like Christopher Wray and the perfidious generals who kept backstabbing him, but he just didn’t do it. He got played on the whole Covid fraud and still hasn’t renounced the killer “vaccines” developed in the Warp Speed flimflam.


While I consider the New York case brought by DA Alvin Bragg to be a disreputable shuck and jive, over which Mr. Trump will prevail, and while I recognize him as the current leader in the battle against a Globalist putsch, I think Mr. Kennedy would be a far better choice to clean up the mess that has been made of us. I was particularly unnerved by Mr. Trump’s speech at Mar-a-Lago the night of his indictment. I know many find his manner charming, but to me his mode of speaking seems childish and weirdly inarticulate — and the last thing this country needs is more rhetorical confusion. And I’m also disturbed by the histrionic trappings that went with it — the grandiose music, the myriad flags and seals. It actually has a banana republic flavor. Mr. Kennedy, on the other hand, brings a solemn humility to the scene. Even in his quavering voice, he speaks clearly and with insight. He’s an excellent writer. He reminds me much more of what was good about our country and the men it once produced than the flamboyant Golden Golem of Greatness. I’m aboard for the ride. It’s going to be goshdarn interesting and I hope the bastards don’t try to kill him, because that will really be the end for us.

RFKjr Camus

Watters RFK jr

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“..the new leak does not stop with Ukraine and covers a variety of other subjects, including “sensitive briefing slides on China, the Indo-Pacific military theater, the Middle East and terrorism..”

• More Classified US Documents Shared In New Leak – NYT (RT)

Scores of secret US national security files have appeared online after another major leak, the New York Times reported, noting that the new documents include “sensitive” material related to Ukraine, China, the Middle East and terrorism. The breach comes just one day after other “top secret” papers showing US and NATO war plans in Ukraine made the rounds on social media. The new trove of documents was spotted on Twitter and other sites on Friday afternoon, in what one senior US intelligence official described as a “nightmare” for Western security services, according to the Times. While the full scope of the leak has yet to be determined and the authenticity of the files remains unverified, the outlet suggested the latest breach could include “more than 100 documents” in total.

Similar to another classified disclosure first reported on Thursday, some of the files detail intelligence related to the conflict in Ukraine. One “top secret” document shows a US assessment of the situation in the city of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), which has largely come under Moscow’s control after months of bitter fighting. However, the new leak does not stop with Ukraine and covers a variety of other subjects, including “sensitive briefing slides on China, the Indo-Pacific military theater, the Middle East and terrorism,” the Times added, stating that the scale of the breach appears to have caught the White House “off guard.”

The Pentagon said on Thursday that it would investigate the matter, while the Justice Department later announced its own separate probe. It said it was in communication with military officials, but neither have shared any additional details. Following the prior leak earlier this week, officials said they were working to remove the material from the internet, though those efforts appear to have been unsuccessful so far, as many of the documents remain accessible on social media. According to one unnamed official cited by the Times, determining the source of the breach would begin with “identifying which officials had access to them.” Staffers at several national security agencies described a “rush” to find the leaker, voicing concerns that this week’s disclosures would turn into a “steady drip of classified information” published online.

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A “processed”, “prepared” leak?

From ‘Military Chronicle’ Telegram channel.

• The Leaked ‘Secret Plan’ For A Ukrainian Military Offensive Doesn’t Add Up (MC)

On Friday, photos appeared of a document allegedly containing details on a planned imminent Ukrainian offensive on territories controlled by Russia. The ‘leak’ coincided with suggestions that the NATO Defender 2023 exercises – planned for the end of this month – could be a cover for an operation to supply and support Ukrainian units. However, upon closer examination, doubts arise concerning the document’s authenticity. When did it appear? The supposed secret plans to support an offensive by Kiev’s forces hit the internet the day before Anthony Blinken made a statement on the subject. The US Secretary of State said the operation will begin “within a few weeks.”

What information does it contain?There hasn’t been a leak of this nature since Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine began, over 13 months ago. It is noteworthy that the published plans contain not only a schedule for supplying Ukrainian units with NATO weapons and ammunition, but also information about the structure of the brigades and battalions allegedly preparing for the offensive. The document, dated March 1, says Kiev’s brigades need 253 tanks, more than 380 infantry fighting vehicles and APCs, 480 vehicles, 147 artillery pieces, and 571 HMMWV armored vehicles to carry out the offensive.

Which information is most suspect? The probable locations of Russian units, indicated on the combat map in red, appear to have been collected from open sources. Several pro-Kiev resources that track military operations contain almost identical information. Also, the ratios of killed and wounded for the Ukrainian and Russian Armed Forces which initially appeared in these ‘secret plans’ have since been changed. When first posted, the losses for the Ukrainian side were underestimated at about 16,500 –17,000 people. Then (probably to be more realistic), they increased almost fivefold, up to 65,000 – 75,000. At the same time, the numbers given for Russia’s purported losses of vehicles and equipment coincide with data published by Kiev’s Ministry of Defense.

What else is wrong with the published AFU offensive plans? The blatant falsification of data on the readiness of Ukrainian military formations catches the eye. The document states that, of the nine supposedly to be trained up to US and NATO standards by March 31 and April 30, five of Kiev’s brigades have had zero training: these are the 82nd Airborne, the 32nd, 117th, and 118th Territorial Defense, as well as the 21st separate mechanized. Even if only two or three companies in these brigades were trained, and self-preparation wasn’t completed, their level of training couldn’t be zero. At the same time, the highest percentage of readiness was recorded only in the 47th mechanized(40%) and the 46th airborne assault (60%).

What’s the upshot? The plan also gives perplexing figures for military equipment. For example, out of 109 M2 Bradley BMPs sent to armed forces, for some reason only 99 are to participate in the offensive. Moreover, the vehicles are not distributed among the brigades and only assigned to one formation – Kiev’s 47th mechanized brigade, which doesn’t have heavy tanks. Rather than Soviet T-72s or T-64BVs, this grouping has only Slovak T-55Ss with 105mm guns, which are difficult to use in a large-scale offensive. The small, but important, errors and inaccuracies in the calculations of equipment, the adjusted accounting of losses, as well as the presence of units with ‘zero’ readiness, indicate that this document, which was issued as a ‘secret plan,’ was probably prepared and distributed not by the military but by a group of civilians, probably pro-Kiev analysts.

The purpose of this planted misinformation may be to underreport the actual number of combat-ready Ukrainian units to be deployed for the offensive or to distract attention from other events related to the real operation.

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“Lula da Silva said that Russia was the guarantor of a long-lasting peace in the world..”

• NATO Should Not Be Near Russian Borders – Lula (TASS)

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insists that the North Atlantic Alliance should not be close to Russia’s borders and that this issue could be a provision at peace talks on Ukraine. “NATO should not be able to deploy [its forces] on [Russia’s] borders,” he said at a press breakfast on Thursday. However, he said, all parties to the conflict should make concessions. According to him, the ownership of Crimea, “perhaps, must not be discussed at all,” while the new Russian regions are worth understanding. “But [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky may not count on anything he wants,” the politician argued. Earlier, Lula da Silva said that Russia was the guarantor of a long-lasting peace in the world. He has come up with an initiative to develop a new international format for the potential Moscow-Kiev talks, as he stressed he was ready to mediate direct negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky, if need be.

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“We think that the developed world, especially the EU and the US, had the option not to enter the war the way they did, so fast, without spending time trying to negotiate..”

• West Didn’t Allow Time For Peace In Ukraine – Lula (RT)

Neither Ukraine nor Russia can achieve every goal they’ve set in their conflict, but they need a mediator to facilitate peace talks, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has told journalists. The EU and the US were too quick to back Kiev, he has concluded, instead of trying to deescalate the situation. “It is not necessary to have a war,” Lula said on Thursday, during a media breakfast at the Palacio do Planalto, the official presidential workplace. He also criticized the US and its allies for their role in the conflict. “We think that the developed world, especially the EU and the US, had the option not to enter the war the way they did, so fast, without spending time trying to negotiate,” he explained. “Negotiating peace is very complicated.”

The Brazilian leader is set to travel next week to China, a nation with a similar position on Ukraine to his own. He said he hoped that his contacts with President Xi Jinping will help bring about a conversation “that we should have had a year ago.” India and Indonesia may have a role, too, he added. Explaining his view on how the hostilities could end, he suggested that the status of Crimea should be excluded from the discussion, but stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot keep the land in Ukraine.” Citizens in Crimea voted in 2014 to break away from Ukraine and rejoin Russia, after an armed coup in Kiev. A similar drive for independence arose in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, but Moscow urged the breakaway Donbass to remain part of Ukraine. Kiev deployed military force in an attempt to quash the rebellion but failed.

Moscow has cited continued Ukrainian military attacks against the then-self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kiev’s stonewalling of an EU-brokered reconciliation plan, as key reasons for the deployment of troops against Ukraine in February 2022. Later in the year, the two Donbass regions, along with the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, held referendums on rejoining Russia. Kiev dismissed the ballots, which voted to rejoin, as “sham,” but Moscow said the status of its new parts was not subject to negotiation. Lula believes that Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky “can’t want everything either.” Kiev has declared a military victory over Russia and a return of all lands, including Crimea, as preconditions for entering peace talks.

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“What China is doing can be described in a single phrase: calling for peace and facilitating negotiations. We will continue to stand steadfastly for peace, dialogue and historical justice..”

• West In No Position To Issue Instructions On Ukraine To Beijing – Envoy (TASS)

The West is not in any position to give instructions to Beijing concerning the situation in Ukraine, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui said in an interview with the Izvestia daily, published on Friday. “The West is in no position to be issuing instructions to China, the more so since it doesn’t have any authority to shift responsibility over to Beijing. Since the crisis began, China has consistently put forward [for discussion] ‘four needs,’ ‘four commonalities’ and ‘three topics for consideration,’ as well as a position paper titled ‘China’s Position on a Political Solution to the Ukrainian Crisis,’ [and has] actively been promoting efforts to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiations,” the envoy pointed out, commenting on the West’s accusations that China is supporting Russia in the conflict in Ukraine.


The diplomat also stressed that Beijing had not provided weapons to any party to the conflict. “China does not have its own interests in the Ukraine issue, but it is not merely an outside observer and certainly does not seek to add fuel to the fire, or seize an opportunity to benefit from the situation. What China is doing can be described in a single phrase: calling for peace and facilitating negotiations. We will continue to stand steadfastly for peace, dialogue and historical justice,” the Chinese ambassador noted.

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“..Blinken’s remarks appeared to be “a statement that is a subject for examination by our military.”

• Moscow Reacts To Blinken’s Counteroffensive Claim (RT)

The Russian military will likely scrutinize comments made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken after he predicted a potential timeframe for a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. In an interview on Friday with Ouest-France and German media group Funke, Blinken stated that the US and its allies should “do everything… to help Ukraine reconquer the territories taken by Russia, including through a counteroffensive, expected in the coming weeks.” In response, Peskov noted that Russia uses all available information in planning its operations in the conflict with Ukraine, and that Blinken’s remarks appeared to be “a statement that is a subject for examination by our military.” “They thoroughly track all the relevant information and take it into account when planning the continuation of the special military operation,” the presidential spokesman explained.

Kiev and its Western backers have increasingly talked up a major counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces, supposedly set to take place sometime during the spring. The operation will reportedly involve tanks and other hardware provided by the West, as well as Ukrainian troops trained abroad. The advance would purportedly be aimed at restoring Ukraine’s borders as they were before 2014. This includes the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, which all voted to become part of Russia in referendums last autumn, as well as Crimea, which reunited with Moscow nine years ago.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy head of the Security Council, previously cast doubt on Ukraine’s ability to carry out such a large-scale operation, arguing that the claims by officials in Kiev were merely “propaganda.” On Thursday, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon had launched an investigation after a trove of classified data on US and NATO activities to prepare Kiev for a counteroffensive were leaked online. The papers, whose source is unclear, assessed areas such as troop strengths, timelines for arms shipments, and ammunition expenditure. However, they did not state when exactly the operation was scheduled to start.

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“..to divert the attention of the international community from the facts of numerous war crimes published by the UN, committed by the Ukrainian army and militants of nationalist groups.”

• Kiev Prepares Provocation To Discredit Russia – Russian Defense Ministry (TASS)

Kiev is preparing a large-scale information campaign to discredit Russia on the international arena. A representative of the interdepartmental coordination headquarters of Russia for humanitarian response in Ukraine said this to reporters on Saturday. “According to available data, confirmed by several independent sources, a large-scale provocation aimed at discrediting the Russian Federation on the international arena is being prepared under the leadership of the office of the President of Ukraine,” the headquarters said. They specified that the Kiev regime would hold a special information campaign to divert the attention of the international community from the facts of numerous war crimes published by the UN, committed by the Ukrainian army and militants of nationalist groups.

Lavrov
https://twitter.com/i/status/1644286793057968130

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What a surprise. Maybe they should hire Fauci.

• US Resumes Biolabs Program In Ukraine – Russian MOD (RT)

The US has quietly resumed its controversial biolabs program in Ukraine and is focusing on the construction of secretive new facilities and the training of personnel, the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed. A new trove of documents on alleged US-funded biological programs in Ukraine was presented by the commander of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, during a media briefing on Friday. Kirillov cited the protocol from a meeting dated October 20, 2022, which was attended by representatives of the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and multiple Ukrainian officials, as well as figures from the Jacobs/CH2M engineering company. The meeting reportedly focused on the resumption of biological research in Ukraine, which was “paused” due to the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev.

“Now, the project has been resumed with focus on renewal of legislative support, revision of training schedule, as well as conclusion and resumption of construction work,” the Ukrainian-language protocol stated, citing Jacobs/CH2M’s David Smith. The program was previously known as ‘Joint biological research’ but has been rebranded as ‘Biological control research’, the document indicated. It cited concerns over an alleged “Russian disinformation campaign” on the issue. The US has engaged in damage control efforts to prevent potential leaks from Ukrainian specialists on the true nature of the biological research programs, Kirillov asserted. “Hiding from responsibility for participating in military biological projects, many suspects left the territory of Ukraine. To prevent a possible leak of information about the illegal activities of the Pentagon, the US administration is taking emergency measures to search for and return them,” the commander argued.

US damage control began shortly after the outbreak of the conflict in February 2022, another document suggested. The Russian military presented a draft memo titled ‘Reducing the Threat of Ukrainian Expertise Proliferating to US Adversaries’, penned by Laura Denlinger, a senior counterproliferation adviser with the US State Department. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has resulted in… the exodus of highly capable technical experts from Ukrainian facilities that produce missile components and advanced conventional weapons (ACW), as well as those with expertise that could be redirected and exploited by others for a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) weapon,” reads the memo, dated March 11, 2022. Moscow raised allegations of a sprawling network of secretive US-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine early in the conflict, and has since frequently published troves of documents on the matter. Russia took the issue of biolabs to the UN last October, requesting an international probe. The motion, however, was turned down by the UN Security Council, with the US, UK, and France voting against it.

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“In other words, ERIC was a Democrat activist group pretending to be a non-partisan voting rights organization.”

• How Was ERIC Used to Steal Elections? (Emerald)

Did you know that a system called the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) was used in America’s recent elections to subvert our democracy? What is ERIC, you ask?This is how its designers describe the system in a short video.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1625671317910441985

Seems helpful, doesn’t it? Keeping America’s voter rolls “up to date” seems a worthy mission for a non-profit. That’s why 30 states signed up (at one point) to use this supposedly “non-partisan” system.It turns out that ERIC was not really a “non-partisan” system of course — since it was used by Democrats to cheat in our recent elections. How was ERIC used maliciously in recent elections exactly?

In a bombshell report, Hayden Ludwig has uncovered records full of coordination between state election officials using ERIC and Mark Zuckerberg’s Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR) going back to 2020. Emails showed election officials in Georgia and Rhode Island sharing voter information from ERIC with Zuckerberg’s Democrat activists. Georgia elections officials actually sent ERIC data to CEIR to generate a list of eligible-but-unregistered individuals (to target with registration mailers) that was sent back to ERIC and then sent along to Georgia! In other words, ERIC was a Democrat activist group pretending to be a non-partisan voting rights organization. In fact, ERIC was apparently created by a Democrat lawyer named David Becker in 2012 — and that same David Becker left ERIC to work for Zuckerberg’s CEIR in 2016.


Convenient, isn’t it? Now you know why some blue states don’t want to clean up their voter rolls at all. In fact, election integrity groups have been forced to sue states like Michigan to clean up their rolls against the wishes of election officials. The good news is that Florida, West Virginia, and Missouri just announced they were leaving the ERIC partnership last month — following Louisiana, Alabama, Ohio, and Iowa out the door. That’s seven states. Texas and Alaska may soon follow.This groundswell of resistance has created a panic in the corrupt corporate media too. That should tell you everything you need to know. Election officials in notoriously corrupt Georgia and Utah (a mail-in ballot state!) vowed to keep using the system of course. South Carolina still won’t quit ERIC either. There’s still plenty of work to do — even in red states.

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Maybe Elon Musk should speak out on this.

• Attack of the Censorship Karens! (Shellenberger)

In the early afternoon yesterday, we heard from a whistleblower: “There will be a full court press coming up against the Twitter files and the reporters,” the person said. “The press will also be targeting each of you, your histories, and your personal and business connections. This by resistance network folks at the NGO’s and think-tanks.” Not exactly a message we were happy to hear. But we can’t say we were surprised, either. On Wednesday night, “disinformation researcher” Joan Donovan, who was forced to leave the Harvard Kennedy School earlier this year, hinted that an attack on us was imminent. It turned out that the counter-offensive had already begun.

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan tweeted out videos from an interview with Twitter Files reporter Matt Taibbi, who Hasan claimed had overestimated the number of tweets censored by the “Election Integrity Project” of the Stanford Internet Observatory. The actual number, Hasan claimed, was only 3,000 tweets, not 22 million tweets. Then, like clockwork, Stanford Internet Observatory’s Alex Stamos, who revealed that his colleague, Renee DiResta, had worked for the CIA, weighed in. “Taibbi’s claim is false,” Stamos tweeted. “The core role of the EIP was to document and analyze election misinformation. 22M is the number we calculated *after* the election of the number of Tweets regarding false claims.” But what Stamos said was “misleading” and thus “malinformation” of the exact same kind that he and DiResta seek to censor.

“Stamos & EIP worked to get entire NARRATIVES banned outright,” explained Mike Benz, the State Department official-turned-whistleblower. “Those narratives, by EIP’s own math, had millions of associated posts.” Taibbi pointed out that the 3,000 number was chosen to hide the full extent of the censorship. “They’re playing games with terms like ‘unique original URL,’” tweeted Taibbi, “where more than 1000 tweets can be “collapsed” into one ‘incident.’” Here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter how many posts they censored. No amount is acceptable. What’s more, trying to normalize censorship, as both Stamos and DiResta are constantly doing, is anathema to the letter and spirit of the First Amendment. Stamos, of course, insists that he and his colleagues did not violate the Constitution. “The EIP is an academic coalition with the 1st Amendment-protected right to analyze the election-related claims of others and to publish our findings, as we did, publicly, over and over again,” he said.

And if that were all they did, they might be okay, but it wasn’t. Instead, Stanford worked hand-in-glove with the Department of Homeland Security’s “Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency,” CISA, to pressure Twitter and Facebook to censor American citizens. Violations of the First Amendment by government proxy are still violations of the First Amendment, which CISA knows perfectly well, and is the reason the agency recently scrubbed its website of its description of its domestic censorship efforts.

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“..two other law enforcement agencies outside of the FBI had undercover agents at the January 6 riots [..] there were at least 40 undercover agents at the riots..”

• Proud Boys Attorney Wants to Unmask Informants During Jan. 6 Trial (NW)

An attorney for a member of the Proud Boys recently called on the U.S. government to unmask all of the informants and undercover agents involved in the January 6 Capitol riots. In a motion filed on Wednesday, the attorney for Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola compelled the government “to reveal all informants, undercover operatives and other Confidential Human Sources (CHSs) relating to the events of January 6.” “Pezzola recently learned that a federal agency other than FBI—the Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) unit—was handling and running undercover CHSs on Jan. 6,” the motion said. “The federal prosecutors in this case are refusing to disclose information regarding these non-FBI informants. The existence, and likely conduct of these CHSs is almost certainly exculpatory for Pezzola.”

The motion this week comes amid the ongoing trial for the Proud Boys, where members including Pezzola, as well as Ethan Nordean, Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl, have been accused of seditious conspiracy and several other charges, in connection to the January 6 riots at the Capitol. The trial has faced several hiccups over the past few months as the attorneys for the Proud Boys have filed numerous motions. Last month, the trial was halted after the government revealed that one witness scheduled to testify was an informant. “During this period of time, the CHS [Confidential Human Source] has been in contact via telephone, text messaging and other electronic means, with one or more of the counsel for the defense and at least one defendant. During this period of time, the CHS also participated in prayer meetings with members of one or more of the defendants’ families,” Carmen Hernandez, an attorney for Rehl, wrote in a motion on March 23.

Additionally, an attorney for Nordean previously filed a motion after “hidden messages” between two FBI agents were revealed. According to the motion filed in early March, government witness Special Agent Nicole Miller provided the court all digital messages related to her testimony; however, a further review of an Excel sheet showed additional messages that appeared to be hidden. In the motion filed this week, Pezzola’s attorney, Roger Roots wrote that two other law enforcement agencies outside of the FBI had undercover agents at the January 6 riots, including “13 undercover plain-clothes agents” with the Washington D.C. Metro Police Department. In total, there were at least 40 undercover agents at the riots, the motion said. “Some of these undercover Metro officers marched with the Proud Boy march. And some appear to have played roles of instigators, in that they are seen on body-worn videos chanting ‘Go! Go!,’ ‘Stop the Steal!,’ and ‘Whose house? Our house!’ on Jan. 6. Others generally followed demonstrators toward the Capitol,” the motion said.

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Two pieces from the Guardian on vaccines to show you how wide the divide is on the topic.

• ‘A Silver Lining’: How Covid Ushered In A Vaccines Golden Era (G.)

The Covid-19 pandemic has been awful for many reasons. But if there is a bright side to the past three years, it is vaccines. Development and testing has advanced at an unprecedented pace since the arrival of Covid-19, enabling technologies that might otherwise have taken another decade to undergo late-stage clinical testing, regulatory approval and manufacturing scale-up to prove their mettle in millions of people. These advances have set the stage for further breakthroughs in the next five to 10 years that could help to combat some of the greatest scourges of humanity, from common respiratory infections to cancer. “We were anticipating the arrival of a golden era for vaccines before the pandemic, but like during a war, technology tends to develops a lot quicker during a pandemic. I guess a silver lining has been the rapid development of different vaccine technology platforms,” said Prof Brendan Wren, a molecular biologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Much of the excitement centres on mRNA-based vaccines, which use the same platform as the Covid-19 shots developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. Unlike traditional vaccines, which are manufactured in biological systems such as yeast or chicken’s eggs, mRNA vaccines are synthesised chemically, similar to most drugs. “It’s a huge advance, because it is essentially the same synthetic process every time, which means we can scale it,” said Prof Sir Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccines Group at the University of Oxford. Although often sold as a new technology, companies had, in fact, been working on mRNA vaccines for about 20 years, mostly in the context of cancer. However, the pandemic provided the funding and political power to drive this technology over the finish line and prove its worth in hundreds of millions of people.

Since then, the number of trials exploring mRNA vaccines for other diseases has exploded. Last month, the National Institute of Health in the US launched early-stage trials of three experimental mRNA vaccines for HIV. BioNTech is already running trials of mRNA vaccines for malaria, shingles and influenza. Moderna is also testing mRNA vaccines against flu, plus RSV, Zika virus, cytomegalovirus (a leading cause of childhood birth defects) and Nipah virus, a potential pandemic threat. It is also planning clinical trials of an inhaled mRNA therapy for cystic fibrosis, in collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

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If you ask me, someone should file a complaint against the Guardian for these Big Pharma puff pieces. People wind up injured, disabled, dead.

• Cancer And Heart Disease Vaccines ‘Ready By End Of The Decade’ (G.)

Millions of lives could be saved by a groundbreaking set of new vaccines for a range of conditions including cancer, experts have said. A leading pharmaceutical firm said it is confident that jabs for cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, and other conditions will be ready by 2030. Studies into these vaccinations are also showing “tremendous promise”, with some researchers saying 15 years’ worth of progress has been “unspooled” in 12 to 18 months thanks to the success of the Covid jab. Dr Paul Burton, the chief medical officer of pharmaceutical company Moderna, said he believes the firm will be able to offer such treatments for “all sorts of disease areas” in as little as five years. The firm, which created a leading coronavirus vaccine, is developing cancer vaccines that target different tumour types. Burton said: “We will have that vaccine and it will be highly effective, and it will save many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives. I think we will be able to offer personalised cancer vaccines against multiple different tumour types to people around the world.”


He also said that multiple respiratory infections could be covered by a single injection – allowing vulnerable people to be protected against Covid, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – while mRNA therapies could be available for rare diseases for which there are currently no drugs. Therapies based on mRNA work by teaching cells how to make a protein that triggers the body’s immune response against disease. Burton said :“I think we will have mRNA-based therapies for rare diseases that were previously undruggable, and I think that 10 years from now, we will be approaching a world where you truly can identify the genetic cause of a disease and, with relative simplicity, go and edit that out and repair it using mRNA-based technology.” But scientists warn that the accelerated progress, which has surged “by an order of magnitude” in the past three years, will be wasted if a high level of investment is not maintained.

Ladapo

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Parrot

 

 

French revolution
https://twitter.com/i/status/1644081399304187905

 

 

CATTREE

 

 

Moose

 

 

 

 

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Iran-Saudi Rapprochement Will Deal A Deathblow To The Dollar

Mar 162023
 
 March 16, 2023  Posted by at 2:51 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  9 Responses »


Jacob Lawrence Struggle: From the History of the American People, Panel 8 1954

Andrew Korybko:

Eurasia’s geo-economic integration took a great leap forward as a result of the Iranian–Saudi rapprochement, which unlocks the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) trade potential with Russia and China. Its wealthy members can now tap into two series of Iranian-transiting megaprojects in one fell swoop through this deal, with the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) connecting them to Russia while the China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor (CCAWAEC) will do the same vis-à-vis China.

The bloc’s de facto Saudi leader has been prioritizing a comprehensive economic reform policy known as “Vision 2030” that was introduced by Crown Prince and first-ever Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) upon his rise to power in 2015. It regrettably stumbled as a result of the disastrous Yemeni War that he’s been waging since that same year, but everything is now back on track and more promising than ever after securing $50 billion worth of investments from China last December.

The People’s Republic regards Vision 2030 as complementary to its Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) due to MBS’ focus on real-sector investments for preemptively diversifying the Saudi economy away from its presently disproportionate dependence on oil exports. His country’s location at the crossroads of Afro-Eurasia also makes investments there extremely attractive from the perspective of China’s logistical interests, hence its massive commitment to his comprehensive economic reform policy.

Without last week’s Beijing-brokered deal, China would have had to rely on maritime routes under the control of the powerful US Navy to facilitate the forthcoming explosion in bilateral real-sector trade, but now everything can be conducted much more securely via the Iranian-transiting CCAWAEC. Looking forward, there’s also a theoretical possibility of Chinese energy investments in Iran connecting the Gulf to Central Asia and thenceforth to the People’s Republic, thus fully securing its strategic interests.

That’s still a far way’s off, if it even happens at all that is, but it nevertheless can’t be ruled out. Saudi Arabia’s desire to join BRICS and the SCO, which are the most influential multipolar organizations in the world right now, could turn this scenario into a reality a lot sooner than even the most optimistic observers might have expected. All of this in and of itself will herald a revolution in geo-economic affairs, and that’s even without Saudi Arabia having yet to throw its full support behind the “petroyuan”.

Once this major oil exporter begins to sell its resources in non-dollar-denominated currencies like China’s, then the petrodollar upon which the economic-financial aspect of the US’ unipolar hegemony is predicated will be dealt a deathblow. The global systemic transition to multipolarity and the impending trifurcation of International Relations that will precede the final inevitable form of this process would unprecedentedly accelerate once this happens, thus further hastening America’s ongoing demise.

About those aforementioned processes, they were already made irreversible by the special operation that Russia was forced to commence in defense of its national security red lines in Ukraine after NATO clandestinely crossed them there and subsequently rejected Moscow’s security guarantee requests for politically resolving their resultant security dilemma. Over the past year, the New York Times was forced to admit that not only did the sanctions fail, but even the plot to “isolate” Russia did too.

These outcomes were largely the result of Russia’s example inspiring the Global South to rise up against neo-colonialism by refusing to comply with the demands placed upon them by the US-led West’s Golden Billion to unilaterally sacrifice their own interests simply to serve that de facto New Cold War bloc’s. India played the leading role in this respect due to its status as the world’s largest developing country, which gave comparatively medium- and smaller-sized ones the confidence to follow in its footsteps.

That globally significant Great Power, which sits on the South Asian end of the NSTC that transits through Iran en route to Russia, also scaled up its purchases of discounted oil from Moscow to the point where its decades-long strategic partner is nowadays its largest supplier. Of crucial significance to the present analysis, a growing number of its deals are in non-dollar-denominated currencies, which sped up de-dollarization processes to such an extent that even Reuters felt compelled to write about this.

Considering this newfound financial context, there’s no doubt that upcoming Saudi moves in support of the petroyuan that are taken in coordination with Iran and Russia would catalyze the next natural phase of de-dollarization. Russian-GCC real-sector trade that’ll be carried out via Iran across the NSTC will be conducted in national currencies and thus prepare those three for the moment when they finally decide to deal a deathblow to the petrodollar.

All in all, it’s not hyperbole to declare that the dollar’s prior dominance is done for as a result of the Iranian-Saudi rapprochement. That Beijing-brokered deal makes this outcome an inevitability unless some subversive black swan event takes place such as a US-backed coup against MBS, though that’s unlikely to happen after he successfully consolidated his power in late 2017. With this in mind, it can confidently be declared that that last week’s development will be seen in hindsight as a game-changer.

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