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Debt Rattle July 16 2023

Jul 162023
 
 July 16, 2023  Posted by at 9:10 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  80 Responses »


Botticelli The Calumny of Apelles 1495

 

• NATO Isn’t Defending Ukraine. It’s Stabbing It In The Back (Cook)
• Kennedy Accuses Biden Of Preparing For ‘War With Russia’ (RT)
• RFK Jr. Reams Establishment for ‘Manipulating’ Ukraine Into Conflict (Sp.)
• RFK Jr. Triggers Overdue Debate About China’s Bioweapons Research (Public)
• ‘Disbanding’ NATO Would Be ‘Best’ Scenario for People of Ukraine (Sp.)
• France and India Pool Efforts To Reach Peace In Ukraine – Le Monde (RT)
• Did Biden Just Inadvertently Unveil the Path to Peace in Ukraine? (ElKishky)
• Russia-Ukraine Conflict ‘At A Stalemate’ – Pentagon Official (RT)
• US Delaying Approval Of F-16 Training For Ukraine – Politico (RT)
• Russian Experts Issue Rebuke To Call For Preemptive Nuclear Strike (RT)
• 20% of Ukrainian Weapons Destroyed In Just Two Weeks – New York Times (RT)
• Crimea Invasion Would Kill 200,000 Ukrainian Soldiers – Arestovich (RT)
• Fear and Loathing on Air Force One (Seymour Hersh)
• Zelensky Activates 3,000 U.S. Military Reservists (BBee)

 

 

 

 

Ritter nukes

 

 

 

 

Macgregor

 

 

 

 

Byron Donalds

 

 

RFK DTP

 

 

 

 

“..the message Nato has sent Moscow is that Russia made exactly the right decision to invade – if the goal, as Putin has always maintained, is to ensure Kyiv remains neutral.”

• NATO Isn’t Defending Ukraine. It’s Stabbing It In The Back (Cook)

The Nato summit in Lithuania this week served only to underscore the utter hypocrisy of western leaders in pursuing their proxy war in Ukraine to “weaken” Russia and oust its president, Vladimir Putin. Both the US and Germany had made clear before the summit that they would block Ukraine’s admission to Nato while it was in the midst of a war with Russia. That message was formally announced by Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fumed that Nato had reached an “absurd” decision and was demonstrating “weakness”. British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace lost no time in rebuking him for a lack of “gratitude”. The concern is that, if Kyiv joins the military alliance at this stage, Nato members will be required to leap to Ukraine’s defence and fight Russia directly.

Most western states balk at the notion of a face-to-face confrontation with a nuclear-armed Russia – rather than the current proxy one, paid for exclusively in Ukrainian blood. But there is a more duplicitous subtext being obscured: the fact that Nato is responsible for sustaining the war it now cites as grounds for disqualifying Ukraine from joining the military alliance. Nato got Kyiv into its current, bloody mess – but isn’t ready to help it find a way out. It was Nato, after all, that chose to flirt openly with Ukraine from 2008 onwards, promising it eventual membership – with the undisguised hope that one day, the alliance would be able to flex its military muscles menacingly on Russia’s doorstep.= It was the UK that intervened weeks after Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and presumably on Washington’s orders, to scupper negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow – talks that could have ended the war at an early stage, before Russia began seizing territories in eastern Ukraine.

A deal then would have been much simpler than one now. Most likely, it would have required Kyiv to commit to neutrality, rather than pursuing covert integration into Nato. Moscow would have demanded, too, an end to the Ukrainian government’s political, legal and military attacks on its Russian-speaking populations in the east. Now the chief sticking point to an agreement will be persuading the Kremlin to trust the West and reverse its annexation of eastern Ukraine, assuming Nato ever allows Kyiv to re-engage in talks with Russia. And finally, it is Nato members, especially the US, that have been shipping out vast quantities of military hardware to prolong the fighting in Ukraine – keeping the death toll mounting on both sides. In short, Nato is now using the very war it has done everything to fuel as a pretext to stop Ukraine from joining the alliance.

Seen another way, the message Nato has sent Moscow is that Russia made exactly the right decision to invade – if the goal, as Putin has always maintained, is to ensure Kyiv remains neutral. It is the war that has prevented Ukraine from being completely enfolded in the western military alliance. It is the war that has stopped Ukraine’s transformation into a Nato forward base, one where the West could station nuclear-tipped missiles minutes from Moscow. Had Russia not invaded, Kyiv would have been free to accelerate what it was already doing secretly: integrating into Nato. So what is Zelensky supposed to conclude from his exclusion from Nato, after he committed his country to an ongoing war rather than negotiations and neutrality?

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“..I want people to understand what this troop mobilization is about. It’s about preparing for a ground war with Russia,”

• Kennedy Accuses Biden Of Preparing For ‘War With Russia’ (RT)

By ordering the deployment of 3,000 more reservists to Europe, US President Joe Biden is preparing to fight Russian forces on the ground in Ukraine, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said. “Biden has lost his way,” Kennedy tweeted on Friday, arguing that the president should focus on America’s domestic problems instead of trying to achieve “global military dominance.” “I want people to understand what this troop mobilization is about. It’s about preparing for a ground war with Russia,” he said. The idea of defeating Moscow in its conflict with Kiev is a “futile geopolitical fantasy” of the Biden administration, the Democratic presidential candidate added.

Thousands of Ukrainians have already lost their lives because “America’s foreign policy establishment manipulated their country into war… Now, rather than acknowledge failure, Biden admin prepares to sacrifice American lives too,” Kennedy said. On Thursday, Biden signed an executive order mobilizing 3,000 members of the US military’s Selected Reserve to boost the ranks of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which Washington launched in Europe in 2014 after Crimea rejoined Russia following the Western-backed coup in Kiev. According to Army Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, the Joint Staff director of operations, the move “reaffirms the unwavering [US] support and commitment to defend NATO’s eastern flank” in the wake of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

The US European Command (EUCOM) spokesman, Navy Captain Bill Speaks, said the deployment of reservists “will not change current force-posture levels in Europe.” The leading Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, also had some harsh words to say about Biden’s decision to send more American troops to Europe. The “reckless escalation in Ukraine” pursued by the White House is “straining the US military to the point of disaster,” he said. “Joe Biden can’t even walk up the steps of Air Force One without tripping. The last thing this incompetent administration should be doing is pushing us further toward World War III.”

Trump reiterated his earlier claim that if he becomes president again, he would end the conflict in Ukraine in 24 hours. “Not one American mother or father wants to send their child to die in Eastern Europe. We must have peace.” Another Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, said it is “downright disturbing” that the US media is largely ignoring the president’s order in its reporting. “What is the justification now [for sending reservists to Europe]? What are the operations? Where will they go? What will they do? We need answers, not sweeping this under the rug as Biden would prefer,” Ramaswamy said in a statement.

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“We can heal all of this if we try. But not if we pour our resources into foreign adventures,”

• RFK Jr. Reams Establishment for ‘Manipulating’ Ukraine Into Conflict (Sp.)

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has condemned the US “foreign policy establishment” for its role in the Ukrainian crisis, and expressed fears that Washington may be preparing for a full-on conflict with Russia. “President Biden just called up 3,000 reservists to augment US troops in Europe as part of ‘Operation Atlantic Resolve’. I want people to understand what this troop mobilization is about. It’s about preparing for a ground war with Russia,” RFK Jr wrote in a viral tweet viewed over 2.4 million times Friday evening. “Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian youth have already died because America’s foreign policy establishment manipulated their country into war to fulfill [a] vain and futile geopolitical phantasy. Now, rather than acknowledge failure, [the] Biden administration prepares to sacrifice American lives too,” the candidate added in a separate thread viewed 4.8 million times.

“Meanwhile,” the candidate continued, US cities and infrastructure are falling apart, with the middle class being “hollowed out,” crime soaring, and “chronic disease and addiction run[ning] rampant.” “We can heal all of this if we try. But not if we pour our resources into foreign adventures,” RFK Jr. stressed. Separately, touching on the Biden White House’s recent approval to send cluster munitions to Kiev, RFK Jr. emphasized that this wasn’t “the first time the US has deployed cluster bombs,” and that the US military “used them against Serbia in 1999,” leading to mass civilian casualties. RFK Jr., the son of assassinated former attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, and nephew of assassinated US President John F. Kennedy, is polling at double digits weeks into his campaign, despite attempts by the media to silence and smear him as an anti-vaxxer nutcase.

RFK Jr. maintains that he is not “anti-vaccine,” but seeks more regulatory oversight of drug companies, and more accountability for federal health officials. A June Economist/YouGov poll showed that the candidate has a 49 percent favorability rating, higher than both President Biden and Donald trump (44 percent favorability each, respectively). The high favorability ratings have been attributed to the Kennedy namesake, which continues to hold massive sway among Democrats even six decades after JFK’s murder, and to RFK Jr.’s popularity among many self-declared Republicans, who agree with him on issues ranging from medical bodily autonomy to the need to challenge corporate and government corruption.

Kennedy is expected to have a hard time edging out Biden in 2024 even if he wins the primaries’ popular vote, given the existence of superdelegates, powerful electors to the presidential nominating convention who essentially have the power to override the wishes of ordinary voters. During the 2016 Democratic primary cycle, supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders accused the Hillary Clinton campaign of “rigging” the primary process using superdelegates and direct electoral manipulation, with the scandal leading to the resignation of Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. This time around, RFK Jr.’s supporters fear the party may move against him in a similar fashion. The candidate has ruled out a third party run.

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Alex Gutentag and Michael Shellenberger on a NY Post story about an RFK video.

RFK: “@nypost story is mistaken. I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews. I accurately pointed out — during an off-the-record conversation — that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021 study of the COVID-19 virus shows that COVID-19 appears to disproportionately affect certain races since the furin cleave docking site is most compatible with Blacks and Caucasians and least compatible with ethnic Chinese, Finns, and Ashkenazi Jews. In that sense, it serves as a kind of proof of concept for ethnically targeted bioweapons. I do not believe and never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered. That study is here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32664879/”

• RFK Jr. Triggers Overdue Debate About China’s Bioweapons Research (Public)

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is feeding anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that China created COVID-19 as a bioweapon to kill whites and blacks but spare Chinese and Jewish people, says the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “The claim that COVID-19 was a bioweapon created by the Chinese or Jews to attack Caucasians and black people is deeply offensive,” an ADL spokesperson told the New York Post, “and feeds into sinophobic and anti-semitic conspiracy theories about COVID-19 that we have seen evolve over the last three years.” Kennedy made his remarks at a dinner party last Tuesday. “There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted,” said Kennedy. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

The New York Post cites The Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at the University of Tel Aviv to note that “Kennedy’s remark echoes well-worn anti-Semitic literature blaming Jews for the emergence and spread of coronavirus.” But there was nothing anti-Semitic about Kennedy’s remarks, nor did he say that the Chinese government deliberately targeted whites and blacks and spared Jewish and Chinese people. “We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not,” he said. And a few hours ago, in response to the brewing controversy, Kennedy tweeted, “I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews.” It’s true that Kennedy pointed to evidence that Covid had a different impact on different groups. “There are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact,” Kennedy said at the dinner party.

And in his tweet, he wrote, “I accurately pointed out — during an off-the-record conversation — that the U.S. and other governments are developing ethnically targeted bioweapons and that a 2021 study of the COVID-19 virus shows that COVID-19 appears to disproportionately affect certain races since the furin cleave docking site is most compatible with Blacks and Caucasians and least compatible with ethnic Chinese, Finns, and Ashkenazi Jews.” The paper Kennedy linked to in his tweet concluded, “Human genetic factors may contribute to the extremely high transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 and to the relentlessly progressive disease observed in a small but significant proportion of infected individuals, but these factors are largely unknown.”

At the same time, Kennedy is right to raise the alarm about China’s bioweapons program. And the debate over bioweapons research, which includes research into vaccines to protect against them, is long overdue. [..] Reached by telephone, Kennedy told Public, “My point was that what they’re doing is horrendous. Instead of being at war, we should be signing treaties for peace and for controlling bioweapons.”

RFK

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For everybody.

• ‘Disbanding’ NATO Would Be ‘Best’ Scenario for People of Ukraine (Sp.)

Against the backdrop of the Kiev regime’s much-hyped but faltering counteroffensive that kicked off in early June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had been craving tangible NATO entry promises at the military bloc’s recent summit. Yet, Kiev ended up with promises of more weapons to fan the flames of NATO’s ongoing proxy war against Russia. The dissolution of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would be the best scenario for Ukraine, according to American politician Geoffrey M. Young. “The best thing that could happen to the people of Ukraine would be for NATO to disband and for the US to remove ALL of our weapons and troops from Europe forever,” the Democrat wrote on Twitter. The politician who has been vocal about his support for Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine accompanied his post with a reference to recent remarks made by John Kirby.


The official, who serves as the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council in the White House, said an additional 3,000 US reserve troops have been authorized for deployment to Europe, and will predominantly focus on administrative and logistics tasks to “support and sustain a large troop presence for a long time.” John Kirby reiterated there are over 80,000 American troops in Europe, due to the “realization” that the “security environment in Europe is changed”. The aim is to ensure that the United States has “the proper force posture to be able to support an additional eastern flank presence for the long haul,” the White House official had added. “Kirby just inadvertently admitted that Ukraine’s Army is gone,” was the reaction of some people to the post on social media.

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Odd couple.

• France and India Pool Efforts To Reach Peace In Ukraine – Le Monde (RT)

India and France have joined their efforts to develop a new plan seeking a peaceful settlement of the fighting in Ukraine, Le Monde reported on Saturday. The stage was set for the new apparent attempt to resolve the conflict when French President Emmanuel Macron met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Paris earlier this week. During the meeting, Macron signaled that he wanted the two countries to work together to address “global challenges” while also citing shared concerns about the “fragmentation of the international community” over Ukraine. According to Le Monde, France considers India, which has refrained from condemning Russia over its military campaign in the neighboring country, as “an essential partner in the search for a lasting solution.”

While Modi has so far refrained from following the lead of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva by portraying himself as a mediator, he has instructed his subordinates to work with their French counterparts to find a way out of the current diplomatic impasse, the report says. While Le Monde did not provide any details of the plan, it noted that at this stage it does not look like previous initiatives floated by China and several other nations. Since the start of the Ukraine conflict more than one year ago, many world leaders have called for peace negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, including Lula, who in April urged the US “to stop encouraging war” and instead focus on finding a diplomatic solution.

Lula’s statement came after China in February unveiled its own proposal, which called for “respecting sovereignty of all countries” and abandoning “the Cold War mentality.”At the same time, Macron struck a different tone, expressing hope that negotiations between Ukraine and Russia could start if Kiev manages to achieve success during its much-hyped summer offensive, which Moscow says has so far failed to gain any ground. However, while Moscow has repeatedly said that it is open to negotiations with Ukraine, last year President Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree banning talks with the current Russian leadership. Later, Kiev also came up with its own peace plan demanding that Russia withdraw from all territories that it claims as its own and that Moscow pay war reparations. The Kremlin has dismissed the plan as detached from reality.

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“..firstly, Russia will not relinquish the territories it seized unless Ukraine reclaims them by force, or Putin is replaced by a West-appeasing leader willing to cede these territories via diplomacy.”

• Did Biden Just Inadvertently Unveil the Path to Peace in Ukraine? (ElKishky)

In an interview with Fareed Zakaria aired on July 9th, 2023, US President Joseph Biden made comments that could potentially sketch out his administration’s vision of a realistic scenario that could potentially end the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. [..] Biden’s comments, if interpreted correctly, might carry significant implications. It seems that he outlined a scenario that would satisfy Russia’s conditions for peace, which could be summarized as follows: maintaining control over Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, and parts of Ukraine that Russia took control of post-February 2022, especially in Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts which Putin now considers part of Russia; no NATO membership for Ukraine; and the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.The last two conditions were stated in Putin’s speech on February 24th, 2022, the day the armed conflict started.

In this speech he stated “…in execution of the treaties of friendship and mutual assistance with the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic, ratified by the Federal Assembly on February 22, I made a decision to carry out a special military operation. “The purpose of this operation is to protect people who, for eight years now, have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime. To this end, we will seek to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine…” It is quite possible that these two conditions have lost their significance – despite being recently reiterated by Russian officials- as they were initially mentioned in the context of protecting ethnic Russians in both the then-Ukrainian Lugansk and Donetsk oblasts. According to Putin, these individuals faced discrimination, were being stripped of their Russian identity, and had been bombarded by Ukraine since 2014. These threats no longer exist after the annexation.

One implication of Biden’s comments, if read between the lines, might suggest a potential U.S. acceptance (which does not necessarily translate to an official recognition of legitimacy) of the status quo on the ground. He stated that Ukraine cannot be integrated into NATO while it’s engaged in conflict, owing to his solid commitment to safeguarding every inch of NATO territory. This indicates he cannot guarantee protection for Ukraine’s pre-2014 and 2022 borders without risking an undesirable direct conflict with Russia, a situation which, in his own words, would lead to the West being “all at war with Russia.”. It also implies that the primary responsibility for liberating Ukraine’s territory lies with Ukraine itself.

He stated that NATO will not accept Ukraine anytime soon, to prevent a direct NATO intervention in the conflict, and that Ukraine will be granted a status akin to Israel’s – which could potentially enhance its defensive capacity, but only after a ceasefire or a peace agreement is signed. Two realities Biden would have been surely well aware of entering this interview are: firstly, Russia will not relinquish the territories it seized unless Ukraine reclaims them by force, or Putin is replaced by a West-appeasing leader willing to cede these territories via diplomacy. The chances of this happening in the near future are slim. In fact, numerous Western and Russian analysts suggest that even if Putin were to be replaced, there are no guarantees his successor wouldn’t be equally or potentially more hawkish.

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Only until Russia attacks.

• Russia-Ukraine Conflict ‘At A Stalemate’ – Pentagon Official (RT)

Fighting in Ukraine has reached “a bit of a stalemate,” US Defense Intelligence Agency Chief of Staff John Kirchhofer told a conference in Washington on Thursday. His assessment of Ukraine’s chances is considerably gloomier than that of other Biden administration officials. “Certainly we are at a bit of a stalemate,” Kirchhofer said, according to Bloomberg. “One of the things that the Russian leadership believes is that they can outlast the support of the West.” Ukrainian forces have been bogged down in a counteroffensive against Russian defenses from Kherson to Donetsk since early June, and have failed to make any significant territorial gains against the Russians. The offensive has cost Ukraine 26,000 men and more than 3,000 pieces of military hardware, according to the latest figures from the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Ukrainian President Zelensky and his top officials have publicly blamed the West for failing to provide enough weapons – including long-range missiles and fighter jets – to guarantee the offensive’s success. However, Kirchhofer warned that no one weapon system will change Kiev’s fortunes. Neither US-supplied HIMARS rocket artillery and cluster bombs, nor British Storm Shadow cruise missiles, have thus far tilted the battlefield situation in Ukraine’s favor, he pointed out. “None of these, unfortunately, are the holy grail that Ukrainians looking for that will allow them to break through,” he said. While recent media reports suggest that Kiev’s American and European backers are frustrated with the pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, Washington officials have publicly insisted that all is well.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said last month that Ukrainian forces were “advancing steadily,” but that progress would be slow and “very bloody.” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CNN last month that heavy Ukrainian casualties are “to be expected,” but that Zelensky will continue to receive “the support he needs not just from the United States, but from 50 other partners.” US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have both repeatedly rejected the idea of Ukraine entering into peace talks with Russia. Both insist that Ukraine will decide when to sit down to negotiate, and neither have spoken on whether this position will change if Kiev’s counteroffensive continues to fail. Russia maintains that Western arms deliveries will only serve to prolong the conflict, without altering its eventual outcome.

Stalemate

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Wonder why, after all the talk. No troops left?

• US Delaying Approval Of F-16 Training For Ukraine – Politico (RT)

European countries have yet to receive formal approval from Washington to train Ukrainian pilots to fly US-designed F-16 fighter jets, Politico reported on Friday, citing sources. The ‘international coalition’ seeking to help Kiev procure F-16s and train Ukrainian pilots was first announced by the UK and the Netherlands in mid-May, with the US coming on board a few days later. A total of 11 countries have supported the initiative, with a training center expected to be set up in Romania. However, the US State Department has not approved the request to transfer instruction manuals, flight simulators, and other materials required for training, Politico said, adding, however, that there is no indication that the US will not eventually greenlight the move. Pentagon spokesman Garron Garn said the request “is still being reviewed.”

William LaPlante, the department’s acquisition chief, told the outlet that the Pentagon has to “make sure we’re ready to go with the technical manuals being translated and the tech data packages and a sustainment plan” before approving the transfer. In recent months, Ukraine has repeatedly demanded that its Western backers send F-16 jets, saying they could play a key role in countering Russian air power. Earlier this week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said Kiev could deploy the first F-16s by late March 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that if F-16s are sent to Ukraine, they “will burn” just like other Western hardware. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has described the potential deliveries as an escalatory move, noting that the aircraft can carry nuclear weapons.

In early June, Politico reported that senior US officials believe that future support for Ukraine hinges on the success of its much-hyped counteroffensive, and should Kiev fail to deliver, the military assistance “will likely dry up.” Later the same month, the Financial Times reported, citing sources, that Western officials are not impressed by the results of the counteroffensive. The Russian Defense Ministry said the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which has been underway for more than a month, has failed to gain any ground. According to Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, since the start of the push, Kiev has lost more than 26,000 soldiers and around 3,000 units of heavy military equipment. Ukrainian officials, including President Vladimir Zelensky, attempted to shift the blame for the slow progress onto the West, citing delays in military aid.

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“..only if “the existence of the state as a whole comes under threat.”

• Russian Experts Issue Rebuke To Call For Preemptive Nuclear Strike (RT)

It is extremely irresponsible and dangerous to call on Russia to carry out a preemptive nuclear strike in order to gain an upper hand in its current standoff with the West over Ukraine, more than 20 experts from Russia’s influential think tank have warned. The joint statement released by a group of members of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy on Thursday is one of the recent responses to the debate within the Russian expert community about the use of nuclear weapons, which was prompted by a controversial op-ed written last month by Sergey Karaganov, an honorary member of the council’s presidium. Karaganov has made a case for Moscow lowering the threshold for the first use of its nuclear arsenal, arguing that, at some point, it should consider striking targets in Europe.

Without mentioning Karaganov by name, a group of fellow think tank members said that they “unequivocally condemn” such reasoning. “It is beyond irresponsible to assume that one can manage a limited nuclear conflict and stop it from spiraling into a global nuclear war,” they warned, adding that, under such a scenario, “tens and perhaps even millions” of lives would be at stake. “It is a direct threat to humanity as a whole,” the statement said. “It is unacceptable to use pseudo-theoretical arguments and talk show-style emotional statements to stoke sentiments in society that could push one towards catastrophic decisions.” The think tank, also known under its Russian acronym SVOP, is the co-founder of the Valdai Discussion Club, whose annual sessions President Vladimir Putin attends.

Karaganov’s approach was previously criticized by other noted experts, including Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of SVOP’s presidium and editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, who argued that the damage from “the game of nuclear peek-a-boo is a gamble” would be “multiples worse than any hypothetical benefits.” Putin said last month that Moscow would resort to nuclear weapons only when faced with an existential threat. According to Russia’s Nuclear Doctrine, revised in 2020, the country reserves the right to use its nuclear arsenal if it comes under attack with nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction. It may also use the nuclear option when attacked with conventional means, but only if “the existence of the state as a whole comes under threat.”

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“..the Ukrainian military lost 26,000 men and more than 3,000 pieces of military hardware..”

• 20% of Ukrainian Weapons Destroyed In Just Two Weeks – New York Times (RT)

The Ukrainian military lost 20% of the equipment it sent to the battlefield during the first two weeks of its counteroffensive, the New York Times reported on Saturday. This high attrition rate was reportedly a key factor in Kiev’s decision to pause the operation. Beginning in early June, Ukrainian forces launched a series of attacks all along the front line from Kherson to Donetsk. Advancing through minefields and without air support, the Ukrainian military lost 26,000 men and more than 3,000 pieces of military hardware, according to the latest figures from the Russian Ministry of Defense. Ukrainian losses were at their highest during the initial two weeks of the offensive, the New York Times claimed, citing unnamed American and European officials.

These officials said that up to 20% of Ukraine’s tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed in this period, including many Western-provided vehicles. For some units, Western equipment was lost at an even higher rate, the Times continued, citing figures from a pro-Ukrainian organization. Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade – a NATO-trained unit – apparently lost 30% of its 99 Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicles in two weeks, while the 33rd Mechanized Brigade lost nearly a third of its 32 German-made Leopard tanks in a single week. “They all burned,” said one Ukrainian soldier who witnessed at least six Western vehicles destroyed in a single Russian artillery barrage. Another Ukrainian fighter told the Times that his unit’s Bradleys run over anti-tank mines on a daily basis.

While the troops inside often survive, the vehicles are left immobilized long before they reach Russian lines. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian forces have destroyed a total of 311 Ukrainian tanks since June 4. “At least a third of them, I believe, were Western-made tanks, including Leopards,” Putin told Russia 24 TV on Thursday. After the first two weeks, Ukrainian commanders decided to pause the counteroffensive, and losses subsequently dropped to 10%, the Times claimed. President Vladimir Zelensky acknowledged the pause this week, but blamed the West for failing to supply him with enough weapons and equipment for a successful operation.

With little territorial gain to show for Kiev’s losses, Western officials have expressed disappointment at the pace of the offensive, according to a steady trickle of media reports since mid-June. Zelensky and some of his top officials still insist that the decisive phase of their counteroffensive has yet to begin. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Western backers are running low on ammunition, particularly 155mm artillery shells. US President Joe Biden admitted this week that “we’re low” on these shells, explaining that the shortage compelled him to send controversial cluster munitions in their stead. The US has also stalled on approving the training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets, something that Kiev insists will help restart the faltering counteroffensive.

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“Stop the war and join NATO? Many people would say it is a historical chance,”

• Crimea Invasion Would Kill 200,000 Ukrainian Soldiers – Arestovich (RT)

The cost of invading Crimea would be too high for Kiev, a former adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Aleksey Arestovich, said this week. The operation would likely lead to hundreds of thousands of casualties, he said, speaking to Russian journalist Yulia Latynina. There are “few prospects” of seizing the Crimean Peninsula through military means, Arestovich said, when discussing the options remaining to Kiev in its ongoing conflict with Moscow. “What will be the cost? Extermination of 200,000 of the adult male population?” he added, referring to the number of soldiers Ukraine would be likely to lose. Ukraine’s economy might also be “totally destroyed” in the process, he warned. Kiev is already “totally dependent”on its Western backers, the former presidential adviser admitted.

Should the US and its allies stop supplying Ukrainian troops with weapons, they would not only be unable to take back territories that had joined Russia, but would also struggle to defend their current positions, he said. Arestovich also openly charged that Washington and its allies were pursuing their own interests in the conflict. “Let’s be honest: our foreign policy goals in this war contrast sharply with the foreign policy goals of our sponsors and backers,” he said, adding that the West was willing to sacrifice Ukraine’s territory and lives of its people to achieve the desired outcome. Ukraine can now only influence the Western leaders at an “emotional”level, the former presidential adviser said, adding that Kiev should have focused on building up its own sovereignty instead. “We need relations… based on real profits. That’s the only thing they [the West] understand,” he added.

Arestovich also said that “immoral policies… and inability to take serious decisions” are the “major weakness of the West.” Still, Ukraine cannot just abandon its Western backers and pursue its own goals “at any cost,” the former adviser insisted, adding that that would be a “dead end”for Kiev. The only consolation would be the prospect of joining NATO in exchange for peace with Russia. “Stop the war and join NATO? Many people would say it is a historical chance,” the former presidential confidant said. He also described NATO guarantees in exchange for consenting to a peace with Russia along the current contact line as a “fairly good deal.” According to Arestovich, such an agreement would also likely require the West to lift some of its anti-Russian sanctions to convince Moscow to agree to such terms.

His remarks come amid the much-touted Ukrainian summer offensive, which has failed to bring about significant changes on the battlefield almost a month and a half after it was launched. Ukrainian troops have suffered heavy losses, including in Western-supplied heavy armor, during their largely unsuccessful attacks on the Russian defenses. According to Western media, Kiev’s backers have also been frustrated over the slow pace of the operation. Moscow has repeatedly signaled it was ready for peace talks with Ukraine. It has also blamed Kiev for the lack of progress in the diplomatic field, citing a decree signed last year by Zelensky that prohibits talks for as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in power. Kiev put forth its own peace plan demanding Russia withdraw its troops from all the territories within Ukraine’s 1991 borders. Moscow has rejected the proposal, calling it detached from reality.

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“Duplicity comes much differently in the United States.”

• Fear and Loathing on Air Force One (Seymour Hersh)

Let’s start with a silly fear but one that does signal the Democratic Party’s growing sense of panic about the 2024 Presidential election. It was expressed to me by someone with excellent party credentials: that Trump could be the Republican nominee and will select Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his running mate. The strange duo will then sweep to a huge victory over a stumbling Joe Biden, and also take down many of the party’s House and Senate candidates. As for real signs of acute Democratic anxiety: Joe Biden got what he needed before the NATO summit this week by somehow turning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inside out and getting him to rebuff Vladimir Putin by announcing that he would support NATO membership for Sweden. The public story for Biden’s face-saving coup was talk about agreeing to sell American F-16 fighter bombers to Turkey.

I have been told a different, secret story about Erdogan’s turnabout: Biden promised that a much-needed $11-13 billion line of credit would be extended to Turkey by the International Monetary Fund. “Biden had to have a victory and Turkey is in acute financial stress,” an official with direct knowledge of the transaction told me. Turkey lost 100,000 people in the earthquake last February, and has four million buildings to rebuild. “What could be better than Erdogan”—under Biden’s tutelage, the official asked, “finally having seen the light and realizing he is better off with NATO and Western Europe?” Reporters were told, according to the New York Times, that Biden called Erdogan while flying to Europe on Sunday. Biden’s coup, the Times reported, would enable him to say that Putin got “exactly what he did not want: an expanded, more direct NATO alliance.” There was no mention of bribery.

A June analysis by Brad W. Setser of the Council on Foreign Relations, “Turkey’s Increasing Balance Sheet Risks,” said it all in the first two sentences—Erdogan won re-election and “now has to find a way to avoid what appears to be an imminent financial crisis.” The critical fact, Setser writes, is that Turkey “is on the edge of truly running out of usable foreign exchange reserves—and facing a choice between selling its gold, an avoidable default, or swallowing the bitter pill of a complete policy reversal and possibly an IMF program.” Another key element of the complicated economic issues facing Turkey is that Turkey’s banks have lent so much money to the nation’s central bank that “they cannot honor their domestic dollar deposits, should Turks ever ask for the funds back.”

The irony for Russia, and a reason for much anger in the Kremlin, Setser notes, is the rumor that Putin has been providing Russian gas to Erdogan on credit, and not demanding that the state gas importer pay up. Putin’s largesse has been flowing as Ergodan has been selling drones to Ukraine for use in its war against Russia. Turkey has also permitted Ukraine to ship its crops through the Black Sea. All of this European political and economic double dealing was done openly and in plain sight. Duplicity comes much differently in the United States.

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“If President Biden takes orders from him, then we’ll do whatever he says as well.”

• Zelensky Activates 3,000 U.S. Military Reservists (BBee)

Casualties continue to mount in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, causing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make the decision to call up 3,000 U.S. military reserve soldiers. “I need all the forces I command at my disposal,” Zelensky said when announcing the activation of American troops. “These young men and women have been well-trained to defend Ukraine, and now is the time to fulfill their purpose.” As reports of Russian military advancements continued to filter in from the front lines, Zelensky — the commander of all U.S. armed forces — determined his best option was to call in reinforcements. Pentagon officials were quick to comply. “We’re here to follow orders from the top, and it doesn’t get any higher-up than Mr. Zelensky,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.


“If President Biden takes orders from him, then we’ll do whatever he says as well. The full might of the United States military is at his beck and call.” Though some pockets of opposition to the move were present within the U.S. Congress, the vast majority expressed full support. “It’s our job to stand by our leaders in times of war,” said Utah Senator Mitt Romney. “We’ll provide whatever President Zelensky needs. I’ve already got an appointment to shine his shoes the next time he’s here to speak to Congress.” At publishing time, Zelensky was reportedly preparing to scramble U.S. fighter jets to intercept incoming Russian air support while ordering all American missile launch sites to ready their nuclear payloads.

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Trombone
https://twitter.com/i/status/1680189525040021504

 

 

 

 

Caturday

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tornado
https://twitter.com/i/status/1680225076019429377

 

 

Mackerel
https://twitter.com/i/status/1680244382476251136

 

 

Frog

 

 

happy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1680255476871712770

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle July 15 2023

Jul 152023
 
 July 15, 2023  Posted by at 8:08 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  54 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh July 14th in Paris1886

 

• ‘NATO Is The Real Troublemaker’ – China (RT)
• Why Doesn’t Moscow Try This Instead? (Zuesse)
• US Could Stop Ukraine Conflict Instantly – Orban (RT)
• Inviting Ukraine To Join NATO Would Have Triggered WWIII – Orban (TASS)
• A Fun Day (James Howard Kunstler)
• Biden Could Risk WW3 to Bail Out Ukraine – Larry Johnson (Sp.)
• Poland Seeks The Nuclear Option (Scott Ritter)
• Vilnius Summit Locks Ukraine in Servile Status, Brutal War With No Way Out (Sp.)
• Enlisting to Fight for Ukraine Would Be ‘Suicide’, Brazilian Soldier Warns (Sp.)
• What Lies Behind Zelensky’s ‘Nervous Response’ to NATO Summit? (Sp.)
• Sweden’s NATO Membership Not A Done Deal – Erdogan Aide (RT)
• Kiev Bans ‘Russian Culture’ (RT)
• Mike Pence, Tucker Carlson Quarrel Over Ukraine Policy (Sp.)
• Nobel Physics Laureate 2022 Slams ‘Climate Emergency’ Narrative (DS)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1679940482162360320

 

 

Vivek

 

 

 

 

RFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1678799348451229696
https://twitter.com/i/status/1679906021051965440

 

 

 

 

Macgregor

 

 

 

 

“..France opposed the plan for a liaison office, fearing that the move would further antagonize Beijing.”

• ‘NATO Is The Real Troublemaker’ – China (RT)

NATO is “the real troublemaker” that has fully embraced “Cold War thinking and ideological prejudice” as it continues to generate global tensions, China’s permanent representative to the UN has said. In a statement on Thursday, Zhang Jun hit back at the communique issued by NATO members at the Vilnius summit earlier this week, which accused China of pursuing “coercive policies” that challenge the bloc’s interests. It also claimed that Beijing uses a wide array of tools to increase its global footprint and undermine the alliance’s security. The envoy rejected this as “slander” and the “smearing” of China, claiming that the US-led military bloc is still trapped in a Cold War mentality.

He recalled that, while NATO claims to be a regional organization, it violates this principle by entering the Asia-Pacific region and “bringing more negative impacts and destructive factors on regional and global security.” Zhang said that, although NATO claims to be a defensive alliance, it encourages its members to increase military spending, continue to cross borders, and provoke confrontation. The bloc, he added, portrays itself as the champion of the ‘rules-based international order,’ but “has repeatedly violated international law…, interfered in the internal affairs of other countries, provoked many wars, bombed diplomatic facilities, [and] killed innocent civilians.” Individual NATO members pursue double standards, promote nuclear sharing, ‘nuclear alliance’, and further exacerbate regional tensions. Numerous facts have proved that NATO is the real troublemaker.

“China does not cause trouble, but it is not afraid of trouble,” Zhang warned, adding that Beijing will resolutely oppose any encroachment on China’s territorial integrity and national interests. Zhang’s remarks come after China’s foreign ministry warned NATO against opening a liaison office in Japan, the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region. However, while Tokyo signaled that it was considering the idea, it was not mentioned in the NATO communique. According to Nikkei Asia, the relevant statement was removed from the final version of the document, with a decision on the matter deferred to a later date. The apparent reversal came after France opposed the plan for a liaison office, fearing that the move would further antagonize Beijing.

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“The offer should be made only privately to each US-allied country. If any government concerned privately says no, Russia should then offer the deal publicly. Public opinion might then force that government – whose prior rejection of the deal would not yet be publicly known – to agree to it. ”

• Why Doesn’t Moscow Try This Instead? (Zuesse)

Putin has thus far responded to the West’s aggressive expansion of NATO right up to Russia’s borders by targeting missiles against new member states, and not by offering each of them individually a bilateral treaty-proposal and guarantees for peace, including mutual weapons-inspections. Instead, it seems that a NATO nation cannot quit the anti-Russia bloc and manage its own peaceful relations with Moscow, plus increased trade, and other mutual bilateral benefits. However, by abandoning alliances with the world’s most aggressive nation, the US, and agreeing with Russia directly, a future of peace and mutual economic benefit could prevail across Europe. Putin ought to make this offer now. It might prevent World War Three. The historical background explains why:

I agree with Dr. Karaganov that a fundamental change is needed in Russia’s relations with the other countries of Europe, but I propose that the first step in this regard MUST be the following Russian offer to each one of them: The offer should be made only privately to each US-allied country. If any government concerned privately says no, Russia should then offer the deal publicly. Public opinion might then force that government – whose prior rejection of the deal would not yet be publicly known – to agree to it. Thus, there would be two chances to obtain an agreement, and this would greatly increase the odds of success in each case.

The substance of the agreement would be as follows: Russia will announce that its nuclear missiles will be targeted ONLY against the US and its allies, including all NATO member-nations, but not neutral or unaligned nations. In other words, any new NATO member-nation will thereby become a target added to Russia’s list for destruction in any World War III scenario that might transpire between the United States and Russia. Any existing NATO nation that accepts the offered treaty would no longer threaten Russia and would consequently no longer be targeted by Russia. Furthermore, Moscow should simultaneously announce that if any nation wishes to have an assurance that Russia will never, under any circumstance, invade it, then it will welcome from that nation a request for such an assurance from Russia.

Moscow will include in that announcement explicit invitations to all nations which have, at some time, expressed an intention or a possible future intention to join NATO. In this regard, it will also state, in advance, that if ever Russia were to provide to a nation such an assurance and subsequently to violate it, then it would be violating its own tradition of rigidly adhering to international treaties that it has signed. Additionally, it would also thereby be forfeiting to the country it had thereby broken its commitment to and violated, any and all of its rights under international law. Consequently, under the arrangement that is being proposed here, there would be no nation in the entire world that has, or ever did have, so strict an international treaty legal obligation as Russia would be beholden to under this proposed arrangement. It would be much clearer than what the international law-breaking US government ever did or can offer in the NATO treaty or any other. Russia’s record of strictly abiding by its agreements speaks for itself. So does America’s record of violating agreements.

Finally, this proposed arrangement would offer, to all existing members of NATO, a promise that if and when any such existing member-nation will quit that anti-Russia military alliance, Moscow will be happy to – at the moment that this is done – automatically provide to that nation the same legal commitment never to invade that nation, as has just been described here. In other words, the proposed arrangement will offer, to the entire world, a stark and clear choice between peace with Russia or being allied with the most aggressive nation in the world’s history. One that places illegal sanctions, organizes coups, and even invades states that fail to cooperate with its goal to replace the United Nations as being the ultimate arbiter of international laws. A country seeking to be the ultimate arbiter of what it calls “the rules-based international order” in which all of those ‘rules’ come ultimately from whomever rules the US government.

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“If the Americans wanted it, peace would come the next morning. Why Americans don’t want that is a question that puzzles the entire world..”

• US Could Stop Ukraine Conflict Instantly – Orban (RT)

The US wants the conflict in Ukraine to continue and has failed to explain its reasons to NATO allies, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. He told a radio station that if Washington wished, it could stop the fighting at a moment’s notice, as Kiev is fully dependent on the West in the fight against Russia. The Hungarian leader was interviewed by Kossuth Radio on Friday morning, after returning from the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. During the event, the US-led military bloc declined to extend to Kiev a roadmap for membership. Hungary has stood out among members of the alliance by consistently criticizing Western policies on the Ukraine crisis.

“If the Americans wanted it, peace would come the next morning. Why Americans don’t want that is a question that puzzles the entire world,” Orban said. “We didn’t get an answer at the NATO summit.” At this point, “Ukraine has lost any real sovereignty,” Orban claimed, citing Kiev’s devastated economy, and heavy dependence on Western allies for funding and weaponry. Justifying its support for Ukraine, Washington has accused Russia of launching an “unprovoked war of aggression” against Kiev. US officials have said that inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Moscow is a primary goal. bMoscow, in turn, has accused the US of triggering the crisis by ignoring Russia’s long-running concerns over NATO expansion in Europe, while fostering a regime in Kiev that is hostile to Moscow.

The Kremlin perceives the conflict as part of a US-led proxy war against Russia. Orban went on to warn that if NATO were to admit Ukraine now, it would trigger a world war. He also highlighted the risks incurred by Western states sending increasingly sophisticated military hardware to Kiev. The Hungarian leader also accused Kiev of using moral blackmail to receive Western support, but added that he does not blame Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky for acting the way he does, as he is “fighting for the survival of his people.” The prime minister predicted that the conflict will drag on, and EU nations – including Hungary – will bear the economic cost, including high inflation.

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“Had we accepted Ukraine into NATO, this would have meant immediate world war..”

• Inviting Ukraine To Join NATO Would Have Triggered WWIII – Orban (TASS)

Extending an invitation to Ukraine to join NATO would have triggered the outbreak of a new world war, and thus the North Atlantic Alliance’s leaders did the right thing by refraining from taking this step at the Vilnius summit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday. “Had we accepted Ukraine into NATO, this would have meant immediate world war,” he told the Kossuth radio station. That said, he lamented that belligerent attitudes in favor of prolonging the Ukrainian conflict still predominate in public opinion across Western countries.


“Residents of Western countries want the war” in Ukraine, Orban noted, adding that “the Ukrainians are being aggressive” by constantly demanding certain benefits for themselves. Given this, the prime minister stated that the conflict in Hungary’s eastern neighbor would last for a while longer and, thus, the Hungarian government should be ready for this.

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“After “Joe Biden” got “elected” in 2020, and news of his family’s sketchy business activities in Ukraine and elsewhere finally dribbled out, Ukraine was turned into a giant grenade and “JB” (or persons acting on his behalf) pulled the pin.”

• A Fun Day (James Howard Kunstler)

Somebody in the “Joe Biden” White House apparently thinks that the operations already underway are not enough to destroy our country fast enough, so a little extra push, such as nuclear annihilation, might get’er done. By operations underway I mean things like mRNA vaccines stealthily deleting kin, friends, and public figures from the scene… decriminalizing crime… undermining the oil industry by a thousand cuts… liquidating small business… making little children insane over sex… flooding the land with illegal immigrants… devaluing the currency… queering elections — all of these things done on purpose, by the way. And if you complain about any of it, here comes the FBI or the IRS knocking on your door.

So, to make sure that a collapse of the USA comes on-schedule, there is the useful fracas created by our government geniuses over in Ukraine that creeps day-by-day toward a quick American assisted suicide. Just to remind you, here’s how that started: In 2014, the US fomented a coup against Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. In short order, the Russian language was banned (despite the fact that Most Ukrainians speak Russian). A piqued Russia re-po’d the Crimean Peninsula. When ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine (the Donbas provinces) tried to go their own way, Ukraine shelled and rocketed them for eight years. That was the setup. All of the above was absolutely unnecessary, you understand.

Ukraine had been going about its business the best it could since 1991 as a shlub nation with an aged-out Soviet infrastructure, some US-sponsored bioweapons labs, and no energy resources. It had been collecting royalties for allowing Russia to run oil pipelines across its fruited plain — of which, a lot of gas was siphoned off in transit by bandits. Ukraine attempted to compensate for its disadvantages by being an international money laundromat, though that only benefited its oligarch class (and the extended “Joe Biden” family). After “Joe Biden” got “elected” in 2020, and news of his family’s sketchy business activities in Ukraine and elsewhere finally dribbled out, Ukraine was turned into a giant grenade and “JB” (or persons acting on his behalf) pulled the pin. NATO was dragooned into the quarrel as backup against its better judgment.

If the objective was to weaken Russia, as stated by one of our strategic geniuses, SecDef Loyd Austin, it didn’t work out. Rather, it exposed the USA as a reckless global psychopath bent on wrecking every country it pretends to help — including the major countries in NATO. Two-thirds of the world’s other nations then started backpedaling away from the US and its protective services to form an economic and security coalition around the BRICs group, as led by Russia and China. The Ukraine campaign itself was a loser from the get-go, relying utterly, as it did, on US and NATO support. This week’s NATO meet-up in Vilnius, Lithuania, showed how that’s going now: Not too well. The Ukraine army is shredded. It’s out of munitions. The US is also out of those very artillery shells most in demand. What to do?

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“The US is amassing troops in Europe at the time Ukraine’s military capability of taking on the Russian troops is waning.”

• Biden Could Risk WW3 to Bail Out Ukraine – Larry Johnson (Sp.)

US President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order increasing Operation Atlantic Resolve in Europe with 3,000 reserve personnel on July 13. Since February 2022, the Pentagon has deployed over 20,000 additional forces to Europe, bringing its current total to over 100,000 across the Old Continent in the wake of the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.”The United States is giving every indication that it is prepared to have a confrontation with Russia,” Larry Johnson, a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism, told Sputnik “And Russia is taking that seriously. I mean, just given their history, they have no alternative but to take it seriously.” The US is amassing troops in Europe at the time Ukraine’s military capability of taking on the Russian troops is waning.

The Ukrainian military is suffering from a manpower deficit, according to the expert. He cited the fact that the Ukrainian Army trained by NATO over the past several years for a proxy war against Russia was destroyed during the first phases of the special military operation. The “second version” of the Ukrainian Army was involved in taking Kherson and Kharkov in September 2022; but again, that army was obliterated. Now Ukraine is on the “third version,” which has been part of the ongoing counteroffensive, as per Johnson. The provision of sophisticated weaponry and training to the Ukrainian military cannot save the day for Kiev. The crux of the matter is that the training provided by NATO member states is insufficient, the CIA veteran explained.

“A lot of these soldiers that the Ukrainians throw into the front lines have had two to three months of training, period,” Johnson said. “And they’re not even following a standard training regimen: some are being trained in England; some are being trained in Germany, some in Poland, some in Italy, some in France. It’s like a patchwork quilt then. There’s a reason in the military they use that term – uniform – to describe something that everybody’s doing the same way. When you have six, seven, 30 different countries doing training for, you know, thousands of different Ukrainians, you’re not getting any kind of standard uniform training. So, all of that put together means that anybody with just a minimal education in the military sciences would know this was a failed effort to them from the start.” In addition, three-to-five months of training does not allow the Ukrainian military to master operating NATO-grade weapons efficiently enough.

“The requirement to train a soldier to be able to operate effectively in a combat theater is not to get basic training. Well, that’s about 13 weeks (…) That just gives you the basics,” Johnson said. “Then you go into what they call advanced individual training. And that again, could be another two-to-three month process just to get basic skills. And If you’re going to be driving a tank, if you’re going to be shooting an M777 artillery piece, but that’s just you individually learning so that you are competent and that doesn’t begin to address how you will interact in carrying out operations. So when we talk about a company level, we’re talking about 150 people roughly, then that jumps up to a battalion level. And then when you get to a brigade, you could be dealing with 5,000 people. And so how are you people learning how to move with a large group of people to interact, to respond to commands, to know where you’re located. You know, it becomes very complex. That takes time.”

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“..an outcome no rational actor could ever view as contributing to the collective peace and security of Europe.”

• Poland Seeks The Nuclear Option (Scott Ritter)

The issue of Poland joining NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangement resurfaced in October 2022 when Polish President Andrzej Duda, alarmed by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, publicly appealed for the US to station B-61 nuclear bombs on Polish soil. This request, however, failed to gain any traction in either the US or NATO. Duda’s request, however, was not beyond the pale. In April 2022 the director of the NATO nuclear policy directorate, Jessica Cox, announced that NATO military planners were updating the mechanics of NATO’s nuclear sharing program to take into account the acquisition by many NATO members of the F-35A fighter. Four of the five nations involved in this nuclear sharing arrangement (Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany) had agreed to transition to the F-35A (Turkey was supposed to but ran afoul of US sanctions over its purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles.)

Cox indicated that NATO planners were looking at the possibility of integrating F-35A aircraft scheduled to be purchased by Poland, Denmark, and Norway into the nuclear sharing mission (it is assumed that Finland, which recently joined NATO and is purchasing F-35A aircraft, would be part of this integration as well.) Cox’s plans did not call for the deployment of nuclear weapons onto the soil of these nations, but rather the use of their aircraft in a nuclear role. Morawiecki’s request was linked to Poland’s future acquisition of F-35A aircraft, leading to the possibility that a compromise could be agreed-to that would see US nuclear bombs remain on German soil but turned over to Polish aircrews in time of war. Poland recently inked a $6.5 billion deal with the US for the purchase of 32 of its F-35A fighters, the delivery of which is scheduled to begin in 2024.

While the Polish request to enter the NATO nuclear sharing arrangement was not publicly addressed during the Vilnius Summit, the NATO communique issued at its conclusion hinted at what the future may look like for both Poland and the NATO nuclear deterrent. NATO, the communique noted, “will take all necessary steps to ensure the credibility, effectiveness, safety and security of the nuclear deterrent mission. This includes continuing to modernize NATO’s nuclear capability and updating planning to increase flexibility and adaptability of the Alliance’s nuclear forces, while exercising strong political control at all times. The Alliance reaffirms the imperative to ensure the broadest possible participation by Allies concerned in NATO’s nuclear burden-sharing arrangements to demonstrate Alliance unity and resolve.”

While it is unlikely that either the US or NATO will, in the future, accede to the Polish Prime Minister’s request to station US B-61 bombs on Polish soil, the NATO communique appears to pave the way for Poland’s F-35A fleet to be integrated into the pool of aircraft available to NATO to deliver those bombs if a nuclear conflict were to ever break out between NATO and Russia. While the alliance may view such an outcome as contributing to the viability of the NATO nuclear deterrent, the reality is all it does is guarantee that Russia will be compelled to view every F-35A in the NATO arsenal as a potential nuclear threat going forward and to adjust its own response accordingly. This puts NATO and Russia closer to the possibility of nuclear conflict, an outcome no rational actor could ever view as contributing to the collective peace and security of Europe.

Ritter

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“The US and other NATO leaders “never gave a damn about Ukraine itself. They’ve used it since 1991 to permanently and gravely weaken Russia. Zelensky, for his part, never has given a damn about Ukrainians..”

• Vilnius Summit Locks Ukraine in Servile Status, Brutal War With No Way Out (Sp.)

University of Pittsburgh Professor of International Affairs Michael Brenner believes that continuation of the conflict would result in the total destruction of Ukraine as an independent state, not Russia. “Ukraine as we know it will never enter NATO because it won’t exist. The Russians will never accept a partition – de facto or de jure – that leaves the rump Ukraine free to rearm as a NATO partner,” he said. It had always been logically absurd to imagine that the United States and NATO could grant Kiev a commitment of any sort while the Zelensky regime was engaged in a war since that risked a military confrontation with Russia, Brenner explained. At the Vilnius summit, “Zelensky was played in the sense that Biden [and the other NATO leaders] held out the prospect of some sort of NATO relationship if the so-called counter-offensive were so successful that the West could give Putin an ultimatum to cease and desist or face humiliating defeat – And if he did surrender,” he said.

However, US, NATO and Ukrainian leaders are still chasing dreams that are impossible to realize, Brenner warned. The US and other NATO leaders “never gave a damn about Ukraine itself. They’ve used it since 1991 to permanently and gravely weaken Russia. Zelensky, for his part, never has given a damn about Ukrainians,” he said. Zelensky could and should have insisted on proceeding with the tentative agreement reached with Moscow to end the conflict in April 2022, only two months after it began. But instead, he gave in to the Washington ultimatum to fight on, Brenner said. “Nor would he [Zelensky] have sacrificed 200,000 dead soldiers in a lost cause,” he said.

Meanwhile in Washington, the White House priority remains to keep the conflict going until the 2024 election is over and won, Brenner believes. However, “given the state of affairs on the battlefield that would require some sort of major escalation,” he warned. Biden on Thursday approved an executive order authorizing 3,000 US military reserve personnel to augment Operation Atlantic Resolve, which provides rotational deployment of combat-credible forces to Europe as part of the United States’ commitment to NATO. The move does not change current US force posture levels in Europe, the US European Command said in a statement.

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“The Global South is Kiev’s and NATO’s latest bet in a quest for manpower to feed the long-term war..”

• Enlisting to Fight for Ukraine Would Be ‘Suicide’, Brazilian Soldier Warns (Sp.)

Having wasted the lives of thousands of Ukrainians by press ganging them and sending them to their deaths in suicide attacks against Russian troop positions, Kiev now seeks to replenish its stocks of cannon fodder with mercenaries from foreign countries such as Brazil. Earlier this week, Russia’s Ministry of Defense warned that Kiev has intensified its campaign to recruit Brazilians to fight for Zelensky in the Ukrainian conflict. This campaign is apparently meant to make up for large personnel losses sustained by Ukrainian forces during their so-called “counter-offensive” that was launched last week and has so far resulted in the deaths of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and the destruction of large quantities of NATO military hardware provided to Kiev by its Western backers.

Several Western private military contractors with ties to the CIA, such as the infamous Academi (formerly known as Blackwater) are apparently involved in this recruitment drive, the defense ministry noted, adding that Kiev seeks to enlist mercenaries from Asia, Latin America and the Middle East amid the “failure of the latest mobilization effort in Ukraine.” According to Brazilian journalist Lucas Leiroz, Ukraine and its NATO sponsors no longer have enough manpower to conduct aggressive military operations against Russia, considering the fact that NATO is not officially at war with Russia and thus cannot officially commit its forces to the Ukrainian conflict. “Ukraine is weakened, its armed forces are weakened, the [Ukrainian] neo-Nazi units that played an important role in combat operations are practically neutralized,” Leiroz told Sputnik.

Thus, he argued, Kiev and its sponsors now seek a “source of manpower needed to wage an aggressive war against Russia in the long-term perspective,” as Ukraine’s efforts to press gang more citizens into military service have produced questionable results. “The Global South is Kiev’s and NATO’s latest bet in a quest for manpower to feed the long-term war,” the journalist said. “Extensive propaganda efforts are being aimed not just at the groups sympathetic to Kiev – such as extremists, neo-Nazi networks and neo-fascist movements – but also at ordinary people who are being seduced with propaganda and promises of Ukrainian citizenship.”

A Brazilian ex-officer named Fabio Júnior de Oliveira, 42, told Brazilian media earlier this year that the legion suffers from a constant lack of military equipment and rations, complaining that even the body armor issued there does not meet the requirements. Out of the 30 members of his unit, 27 asked for discharge due to poor conditions in the legion, Oliveira reportedly said. Leiroz also pointed out that Brazilian media often neglect to mention in their reports the data about casualties sustained by foreign mercenaries operating in the Ukrainian conflict zone, with Leiroz suggesting that these media outlets are partially responsible for the deaths of Brazilian fighters on the battlefield. “This is very dangerous, because the real situation on the front differs from the picture painted by media: Ukraine has no advantage, it is losing the war, a lot of Ukrainian soldiers are being killed and Brazilians risk sharing their fate,” he said, apparently referring to the Brazilians who would travel to Ukraine to fight.

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“..everyone involved essentially “plays their role.”

• What Lies Behind Zelensky’s ‘Nervous Response’ to NATO Summit? (Sp.) s

The results of the NATO summit in Vilnius this week were apparently not to the Ukrainian leadership’s satisfaction, as Kiev essentially received only vague promises to maybe join the alliance sometime in the future. Volodymyr Zelensky has complained about the NATO summit on Twitter, lamenting that the lack of a timeframe for Ukraine’s admission to NATO was “unprecedented and absurd.” Commenting on this situation, Tiberio Graziani, chairman at Vision & Global Trends International Institute for Global Analyses, told Sputnik that one should look “beyond the skirmishes between the statements of the representatives of the various countries, the NATO secretariat and Zelensky,” as everyone involved essentially “plays their role.”

“The representatives of the member countries, as well as those in charge of NATO, aware that giving timescales for Kiev’s entry into the Alliance – in wartime – would constitute a mortgage on the future of the course of the ongoing conflict, try to postpone time for a certain decision,” Graziani explained At the same time, he added, “Zelensky’s nervous response is a due act: he must in fact give a signal of coherence to his own leadership group and to his Armed Forces.” Graziani also argued that any concerns about how much unity there may be within NATO – seeing how no joint agreement on security guarantees has emerged by the summit’s end – are irrelevant since that military bloc is “hegemonic” in nature, with all of its members – except for the UK, Australia and Canada – having an “ancillary role” with respect to the “hegemonic role of Washington.”

“Internal NATO problems disappear instantly if and when the US wants it,” Graziani surmised. He also addressed the remarks made recently by UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace who complained about Ukraine’s apparent lack of gratitude for the weaponry it receives from abroad, reminding Kiev that London is “not Amazon.” “It seems to me that Wallace posed the problem at NATO level to push other countries to increase the amount of military aid with the consequence of further depleting the military arsenals of the Old Continent,” Graziani mused. “In the long run, the only countries that will strengthen in terms of their armaments capacity will be the USA and Great Britain.”

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Holding out for more IMF loans?

• Sweden’s NATO Membership Not A Done Deal – Erdogan Aide (RT)

Türkiye has opened the door to the process of Sweden joining NATO but has not yet given its approval, Omer Celik, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, said on Friday. In a live broadcast on Haberturk TV, Celik said there was a tripartite memorandum between Türkiye, Sweden and NATO about the preconditions for membership, in which Stockholm pledged to undertake certain steps. If the Turkish parliament is told that Sweden has produced “a strong satisfactory result” by complying with its obligations, AKP deputies will vote to ratify its membership of the US-led military bloc, Celik told Haberturk. Asked when this might happen, Celik said “at the next session” of the parliament, meaning not before October or November. Earlier this week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Türkiye had agreed to support Sweden’s application after a months-long delay.


Erdogan had reportedly attempted to tie his approval of Sweden’s membership bid to Türkiye being admitted to the European Union. In return, the US has signaled willingness to unblock a sale of F-16 fighters to Ankara. Commenting on Türkiye’s relations with the US, Celik said the meeting between Erdogan and US President Joe Biden promised “a new page,” but that remained to be seen. Relations could improve much faster if the US would change its mind about supporting Kurdish-led militants in Syria, Celik noted. NATO had hoped to admit Sweden and Finland together before the bloc’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania this week. Finland eventually joined on its own, after Türkiye held up Sweden’s application over concerns that Stockholm was protecting Kurdish organizations that Ankara has labeled as terrorists. The US-dominated bloc technically requires the consensus of all 31 members before admitting new ones.

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That’s half the country, including its president.

• Kiev Bans ‘Russian Culture’ (RT)

The Kiev city council has voted to impose a broad moratorium on public displays of “cultural products” made using the Russian language, citing the armed conflict with Moscow. “We must once and for all restrict the Russian-language cultural products on the territory of Ukraine’s capital,” Vadim Vasilchuk, chair of the council’s education and culture commission, said on Thursday. He labeled Russian “the language of the aggressor state that has no place in the heart of our capital.” Vasilchuk explained that the decision means an effective ban on “books, artwork, audiovisual products, musical recordings, arts and crafts, stage and circus performances, concerts and services.”

The ruling is part of a wider state-sponsored campaign to eradicate historical and cultural ties with Russia that began in Ukraine after in 2014, when Crimea voted to join Russia following the Western-backed coup in Kiev. The movement escalated in 2022, when Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine. In 2015, Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed a law on “decommunization” aimed at removing the legacy of the Soviet Union from public spaces such as monuments as well as street and city names. In practice, the campaign has targeted everything remotely Russian, from films and TV shows to individual artists.

In April 2023, President Vladimir Zelensky signed a law that banned names and symbols associated with “Russian imperial policies.” Moscow has repeatedly condemned Kiev’s attempts to target the centuries of shared history. President Vladimir Putin cited “the de-Russification and forced assimilation” of ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers in Ukraine and Donbass as one of the causes of the current conflict. Putin has also blasted attacks on Russian culture in Ukraine and the West, stressing that it has been an inalienable part of European culture. “When someone is trying to destroy Russian culture, it is a suicide attempt, because they are destroying themselves,” he said earlier this month.

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Tucker did 6 hours, umasked all RINOs, ended a few careers.

• Mike Pence, Tucker Carlson Quarrel Over Ukraine Policy (Sp.)

Former US Vice President and 2024 presidential hopeful Mike Pence and journalist Tucker Carlson quarreled on Friday over Pence’s stances with regard to Ukraine, including on the issues of religious persecution of Christians and prioritizing Ukraine aid over domestic spending. “I did raise the issue when we were there,” Pence said during an interview with Carlson, when asked whether he raised the religious persecution of Christians while on a recent trip to Ukraine. “I raised it with the leader of the Orthodox church [of Ukraine] when I was visiting Kiev.” The church leader assured Pence that the Ukrainian government respects religious liberty, while admitting that certain elements of the Russian Orthodox Church were being targeted, Pence said.

However, Carlson pressed Pence on the issue, asking how the self-avowed Christian leader could support the arrest of Christian for having different viewpoints. “You spoke to one person who’s clearly on one side of it,” Carlson said, pointing to reports of clergy facing persecution by the Kiev regime. Pence affirmed that he would not support religious persecution, but highlighted what he was told by the Ukrainian church official. Both figures also argued over the issue of US aid to Ukraine and whether to prioritize the foreign conflict over pressing domestic issues. Pence said it is in the interest of the United States to continue to give Ukraine equipment to fight Russia, which was met with mixed of booing and clapping from the audience.

Pence reiterated that the US needed to continue its military aid packages, all while doubling down on rhetoric that Ukraine should be granted NATO membership once the current conflict is settled. “I’m sorry Mr. Vice President… you are distressed that the Ukrainians don’t have enough American tanks? Every city in the United States has become much worse over the past three years,” Carlson said. “Your concern is that the Ukrainians, a country most people can’t find on a map, who have received tens of billions of US tax dollars, don’t have enough tanks? I think it’s a fair question to ask: where’s the concern for the United States in that?” In response, Pence called Tucker’s remarks a “routine” and said “it’s not my concern.” The two men ended the interview shortly after the exchange.

The interview took place as part of a forum for Republican 2024 presidential candidates, hosted by Blaze Media and the Family Leadership Summit. Carlson also interviewed other candidates including South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. Former US President Donald Trump leads the pack of Republican candidates at 49.7% support, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 21% and Pence at 7.4%, according to FiveThirtyEight poll averages published Friday.

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“..dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people..”

• Nobel Physics Laureate 2022 Slams ‘Climate Emergency’ Narrative (DS)

The co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Physics prize has launched an excoriating attack on the ‘climate emergency’ narrative, calling it a “dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people”. Dr. John Clauser notes that misguided climate science has “metastasised into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience”. Dr. Clauser is one of the world’s leading authorities on quantum mechanics, the study of matter and light at a sub-atomic and atomic level. In 2010 he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics, considered the second most prestigious physics award after the Nobel. His comments will help cast further doubt on the obvious falsehood that 99% of scientists believe humans cause all or most climate change. Physicists along with chemists play a dominant role in investigating the science surrounding climate, which at its core focuses on heat exchange and the behaviour of atmospheric gases.

In turn, continued Clauser, the climate pseudoscience has become a scapegoat for a wide variety of other unrelated ills. It has been promoted and extended by similarly misguided business marketing agents, politicians, journalists, government agencies and environmentalists. “In my opinion, there is no real climate crisis. There is, however, a very real problem with providing a decent standard of living to the world’s largest population and an associated energy crisis. The latter is being unnecessarily exacerbated by what, in my opinion, is incorrect climate science,” he added. Dr. Clauser is not the first Nobel physics prize-winner to challenge the ‘settled’ scientific and political narrative of climate change. The World Climate Declaration has been signed by around 300 climate professors, and declares: “There is no climate emergency.”

The lead signatory is the Nobel laureate Professor Ivar Giaever. Climate models are said to be “not remotely plausible as global policy tools”. They exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, but ignore any beneficial effect, the Declaration states. Climate science has degenerated into a discussion based on beliefs, not on sound self-critical science, it says. Professor Antonino Zichichi is the holder of Italy’s highest merit order, the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, awarded for a lifetime of distinguished scientific work including several discoveries in the field of sub-nuclear physics. In 2019 he led a group of 48 Italian science professors in stating that human responsibility for climate change is “unjustifiably exaggerated and catastrophic predictions are not realistic”. In their scientific view, “natural variation explains a substantial part of global warming observed since 1850”.

Recently, four Italian scientists, including three physics professors, undertook a major review of historical climate trends and concluded that declaring a ‘climate emergency’ is not supported by the data. Over many meteorological categories there was “no clear positive trend of extreme events”. Of course, cherry-picking single bad, or ‘extreme’, weather events provides the main fire power for convincing populations that a global and collectivist de-industrialisation must take place within less than 30 years. Last September, the leading nuclear physicist Dr. Wallace Manheimer warned that Net Zero would end modern civilisation. He observed that the new wind and solar infrastructure would fail, cost trillions, trash large portions of the environment “and be entirely unnecessary”.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Cerberus heat

 

 

EP WHO
https://twitter.com/i/status/1679879341784662017

 

 

 

 

Russia continent

 

 

Orca

 

 

 

 

Vivian Maier

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle Quatorze Juillet 2023

Jul 142023
 
 July 14, 2023  Posted by at 8:55 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  57 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Femme nue couchée (Marie-Thérèse Walter) 1932

 

• NATO Ultimatum To Ukraine – Win By Winter Or Die (Helmer)
• Putin ‘Already Lost’ War In Ukraine, Biden Says (Hill)
• NATO Suffering Delusions Of Grandeur – Lavrov
• Russia Will Treat F-16s In Ukraine As Nuclear Threat – Lavrov (RT)
• Putin: Ukraine in NATO Will Create Security Threat for Russia (Sp.)
• NATO Summit Serves Up Cringe Nothing-Burger (Scott Ritter)
• NATO Can’t Exist Without An Enemy – Moscow (RT)
• Wagner PMC Formally Doesn’t Exist – Putin (TASS)
• Biden Offered Erdogan IMF Support To Ratify Sweden NATO Bid – Hersh (RT)
• US to Supply ‘Significant Military Equipment’ Soon – Greek PM (Sp.)
• Rampant Corruption Is One Reason Behind Ukraine’s Failed NATO Bid (RMX)
• How The End Of The US Dollar’s Global Dominance Will Play Out (Salikhov)
• New Twitter Files Contradict FBI Director’s Testimony (Turley)
• Drugs Discovered Three Times At White House Since 2022 (JTN)
• Hollywood Grinds To A Halt As Actors And Writers Go On Strike Together (ZH)

 

 

 

 

RFK TNI

 

 

Biden quietly sends 3,000 active US troops to Europe. Ukraine?!

 

 

Macgregor

 

 

 

 

Caviezel

 

 

 

 

Agenda 21

 

 

EP WHO

 

 

 

 

“Whatever is achieved by the end of this year will be the baseline for negotiation..”

• NATO Ultimatum To Ukraine – Win By Winter Or Die (Helmer)

For all its public talk, NATO has agreed on a secret six-month plan for Ukraine. It’s a case of do or die by December. Either the Ukrainian forces, firing everything the NATO allies can give them — from US cluster munitions to Franco-English Storm Shadow missiles and German Leopard tanks — will gain territory and advantage over the Russians; or else the Kiev regime will be destroyed and must fall back on Lvov while NATO beats its own retreat westward from the Polish and Romanian borders — its military capabilities defeated but its Article Five intact. This is hardly a secret. “Whatever is achieved by the end of this year will be the baseline for negotiation”, the Czech President Petr Pavel, former Czech and NATO army general, announced on the first day of the summit meetings in Vilnius. There is no more than a six-month window of opportunity, Pavel added, which will “more or less close by the end of this year”. After that, “we will see another decline of willingness to massively support Ukraine with more weapons.”

The difference between the Czech’s “more or less” was explained to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky by Henry Kissinger on the telephone. But the telephone was rigged, and Kissinger was talking instead to the Stavka in Moscow, in the guise of the pranksters Vovan and Lexus. After justifying himself at length for initially opposing NATO membership of the Ukraine, and then mispronouncing the word “anomalous”, Kissinger acknowledged there is a problem for the Biden Administration to combat European government opposition to NATO membership for the Ukraine. The Ukrainians must fight against that, too, he implied. So long as the US is backing Zelensky, it is necessary for the Ukrainian offensive to demonstrate small territorial advantages; abandon more ambitious ones (like Crimea); and only then agree to ceasefire talks. Although Kissinger told Zelensky he had been speaking with US “military people”, he gave no hint that they had warned him the Ukrainians are facing defeat on the battlefield, and the loss of both territory and European support.

The Russian General Staff calculation is different. At the current rate of battlefield casualties – announced by the Defense Ministry counting conservatively — by December 31 the Ukrainian army will lose between 75,000 and 100,000 dead, and up to 300,000 wounded and out of combat. In parallel, the destruction of NATO weapons will accelerate faster than the NATO states can resupply and deliver them, or replacement parts to keep the surviving stock going at the front. By the time Russia’s General Winter takes control of the battlefield, there will be too few Ukrainian fighting men left, and insufficient weapons and ammunition, to resist the start of the Russian offensive. A demilitarized zone of mines and cluster bomblets will have taken shape over several hundred kilometres west of the surrendering Odessa, Nikolaev, and Kharkov; they will abandon Kiev when Kiev abandons them.

The Russian target then will be to drive what remains of the Ukrainian regime, its flags, tattoos, money, and stay-behind terrorism plans, into an enclave around Lvov. The NATO window, as General Pavel called it, will have been opened, but then will be closed to keep NATO itself from catching cold. One of the unreported outcomes of the Wagner mutiny, and of the June 29 meeting in Moscow between President Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin, is Putin’s commitment to fight for nothing short of the Ukraine’s rout to Lvov, and the NATO retreat westward in the footsteps of the Grande Armée and the Wehrmacht. This too is incomprehensible at NATO headquarters.

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How are they going to walk this back in a few months’ time? Blame Zelensky?

• Putin ‘Already Lost’ War In Ukraine, Biden Says (Hill)

President Biden said Thursday there is “no possibility” of Russian President Vladimir Putin winning the war in Ukraine while adding he’s “already lost” the conflict as Biden capped a trip to Lithuania and Finland as a show of strength against Russian aggression. Biden, in a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, was asked whether his assurance that Ukraine will be able to join the NATO alliance once its war with Russia ends might encourage Putin to drag out the conflict. Biden noted no country can join NATO while in the middle of a war, because it would drag the entire alliance into conflict — a stance Biden and his administration have been stressing this week as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the alliance’s resistance to fast-tracking its membership.

“The issue of whether or not this is going to keep Putin from continuing to fight, the answer is Putin’s already lost the war,” Biden continued. “Putin has a real problem. How does he move from here? What does he do?” “And so, the idea that there’s going to be what vehicle is used, he could end the war tomorrow. He could just say, ‘I’m out,’” Biden added. “But what agreement is ultimately reached depends on Putin and what he decides to do. But there is no possibility of him winning the war in Ukraine. He’s already lost that war.” Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and the fighting has dragged on in the 17 months since with no end in sight. The U.S. and its allies have provided billions of dollars in support for Ukraine to defend itself.

Biden has previously argued Putin will not be able to win the war in Ukraine because the Ukrainians have put up a staunch defense in response to the Russian invasion, and his aggression has galvanized the NATO alliance. The president this week attended a NATO Summit in Lithuania, where continued support for Ukraine was at the top of the agenda. The U.S. and its Group of Seven allies announced plans Wednesday for security negotations with Ukraine to ensure it had the military support it needed in the short-term and in the future to defer further Russian aggression.

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“..apparently, we are not even allowed now to have a relationship [with China], or so they wish.”

• NATO Suffering Delusions Of Grandeur – Lavrov

The US and its allies are targeting Russia and China because of their strong relationship, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed, citing the final communique from this week’s NATO summit in Lithuania. The NATO document stated that “the deepening strategic partnership between [China] and Russia and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to our values and interests.” Commenting on Thursday during a trip to Indonesia, Lavrov said that “apparently, we are not even allowed now to have a relationship [with China], or so they wish.” The diplomat noted that the US had previously limited itself to referring to Russia and China as its “rivals.”

The NATO statement further justifies Russia’s efforts to oppose “modern forms of colonialism” and to advocate international relations based on respect, Lavrov insisted. “People in NATO are obviously not prepared for [the same approach]. Delusion of grandeur is expressed in all actions of the NATO leadership, as well as member states, frankly speaking. Everybody sees that,” the Russian minister claimed. Lavrov accused the West of attempting to preserve its hegemony and dress it up as a “rules-based order,” but predicted that multipolarity would ultimately prevail. He also alleged that NATO’s appetite for spreading its influence globally was causing destabilization outside of the North Atlantic region.

“They already have plans to build up NATO military infrastructure in the [Asia-Pacific] region, including in the nations that were invited to the summit in Vilnius… I mean Australia, New Zealand, Japan, [South] Korea,” said the minister. Canberra violated its own commitment to keep the Pacific free from nuclear weapons when it agreed to host “elements of infrastructure” related to nuclear arms under the AUKUS arrangement, Lavrov argued. Tokyo and Seoul “have been signaling that they would not oppose stationing American nuclear weapons or obtaining some of their own,” he added. The Russian foreign minister was speaking in Indonesia after a summit with ASEAN, a regional integration bloc. He claimed the US was pushing for the Southeast Asian organization to be replaced by structures under Washington’s control, so that it could undermine China.

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“The very fact of the appearance of such systems within the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be considered by us as a threat from the West in the nuclear domain..”

• Russia Will Treat F-16s In Ukraine As Nuclear Threat – Lavrov (RT)

Moscow can’t ignore the nuclear capability of US-designed F-16 fighter jets that may be supplied to Ukraine by its Western backers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. By continuing to provide more sophisticated arms to Kiev, “the US and its NATO satellites create the risk of a direct armed confrontation with Russia, and this may lead to catastrophic consequences,” Lavrov warned in his interview with Lenta.ru on Wednesday. The plans to supply F-16s to Kiev is yet another example of an escalatory move by the West and in itself is “an extremely dangerous development,” he stated. “We have informed the nuclear powers – the US, UK and France – that Russia can’t ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons,” the foreign minister continued.

“No assurances [by the West] will help here,” he warned. In the midst of fighting, the Russian military isn’t going to investigate whether any specific jet is equipped to deliver nuclear weapons or not, he added. “The very fact of the appearance of such systems within the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be considered by us as a threat from the West in the nuclear domain,” Lavrov said. In an interview on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius on Wednesday, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said “there will be the transfer of F-16s [to Ukraine], likely from European countries that have excess F-16 supplies.” A day earlier, Denmark announced that a “coalition” – which includes the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the UK and Sweden – would begin training Ukrainian airmen to fly the US-designed aircraft in August.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba suggested earlier this week that the first F-16s piloted by Ukrainians could take to the skies“by the end of the first quarter of next year.” Kiev has been pressing its foreign backers for fourth-generation F-16 warplanes for months, arguing that they are crucial in providing air cover for Ukraine’s troops and defending Ukrainian airspace amid a massive Russian missile campaign targeting military facilities and energy infrastructure. The US and its allies initially ruled out deliveries of the jets, saying the F-16 wasn’t the type of hardware that Ukraine needed, but changed their stance on the issue over time. In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was no doubt that the F-16s “will burn”once they’re delivered to Ukraine, just like what has happened to tanks and other Western-supplied weapons.

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“I am sure that this will not increase the security of Ukraine itself..”

• Putin: Ukraine in NATO Will Create Security Threat for Russia (Sp.)

In early June, Zelensky said that Kiev hoped to receive a clear invitation to join the bloc at the Vilnius summit. He also said Kiev was disappointed that it had not yet received a clear positive response about joining both the European Union and NATO. Ukraine’s possible membership in NATO will create a security threat for Russia and will not increase security of Ukraine itself, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. “As for Ukraine’s membership in NATO, we have repeatedly spoken about this, this creates threats to Russia’s security. Obviously. And as a matter of fact, the reason for the special military operation, one of the reasons, is the threat of Ukraine’s entry into NATO. I am sure that this will not increase the security of Ukraine itself,” Putin said.


Speaking about Western missiles and tanks supplied to Ukraine, Vladimir Putin noted that they ause damage but do not pose a critical threat in the combat zone. “As for the supply of weapons, various weapons, we see how many hopes were placed on the supply of missiles with a sufficiently long range. Well, yes, they cause damage, but nothing critical happens in the combat zone with the use of missiles. The same goes for foreign-made tanks, infantry fighting vehicles,” Putin said on air of the Rossiya 24 broadcaster. The president added that 311 pieces of military equipment used by Ukraine has been destroyed since June 4, and at least one third of those were Western-made. “I can tell you that Ukrainian servicemen often refuse to even get into these tanks, because they are a priority target for our guys,” Putin said, adding that foreign tanks “burn better” than the Soviet-made ones.

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“Zelensky confronted his erstwhile allies with the harsh reality that not only would the conflict with Russia not be ending any time soon, but also the growing realization that, when it did end, it would be as a decisive Russian military victory.”

• NATO Summit Serves Up Cringe Nothing-Burger (Scott Ritter)

The Vilnius Summit was intended to showcase the alliance’s unity and resolve in the face of the challenges presented by Russia and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. There had been a great deal of discussion prior to the summit about the prospects of Ukrainian membership in NATO. It was understood by all parties that, while the conflict between Ukraine and Russia remained in an active phase, Ukrainian membership was impossible, if for no other reason that, under Article 5 of the NATO charter, NATO would immediately find itself in a war with Russia which had a good chance of going nuclear. The working premise going into the Vilnius Summit was that NATO would empower Ukraine to carry out a massive counteroffensive designed to break through the Russian defenses and drive to the Sea of Azov, thereby severing the land bridge between Crimea and Russia, forcing Russia to negotiate an end to the conflict.

At that juncture, having “frozen” the conflict on terms that would be unfavorable to Russia, NATO would extend an invitation to Ukraine for membership, thereby shrouding Ukraine’s gains with Article 5 protections while effectively checking any future Russian offensive operations. In the weeks leading up to the summit, Ukraine was desperately trying to do its part, throwing its newly constituted NATO-trained and equipped assault brigades at prepared Russian defenses in actions which made the infamous “Charge of the Light Brigade” seem like the epitome of military planning and execution by comparison. With much of its NATO-provided weaponry, including the much-touted Leopard tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, destroyed or damaged without ever reaching the main Russian defensive positions, and some 20,000 Ukrainian casualties, the Ukrainian counteroffensive fizzled out.

Instead of presenting his NATO partners with a decisive Ukrainian victory, Zelensky confronted his erstwhile allies with the harsh reality that not only would the conflict with Russia not be ending any time soon, but also the growing realization that, when it did end, it would be as a decisive Russian military victory. Confronted with this reality, NATO sought to soften expectations about Ukrainian membership. Rather than provide Ukraine with a concrete road map to membership, NATO declared that it would extend an invitation to Ukraine when “conditions are met”, one of which is that the conflict with Russia must be over. NATO offered up as a consolation prize the establishment of a NATO-Ukraine Council “to advance political dialogue, engagement, cooperation, and Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO,” and promised to “continue our support for as long as it takes.”

Scott Ritter

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“..catastrophic consequences for European security, Ukraine, and the alliance itself.”

• NATO Can’t Exist Without An Enemy – Moscow (RT)

NATO needs enemies so it could justify its existence, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko said on Thursday, reflecting on the Western bloc’s recent meeting in neighboring Lithuania. “Expansion is one of the instruments used by NATO countries to maintain confrontation,” Grushko told Russia’s Channel One. “Therefore, unfortunately, history has forced us to conclude that NATO cannot exist without an adversary. Otherwise, it would lose all meaning.” Grushko stressed that the admission of Ukraine into the US-led bloc would have “catastrophic consequences for European security, Ukraine, and the alliance itself.” At the same time, Western countries use the prospect of NATO membership as a way to control Ukraine’s domestic politics, the diplomat argued.


Although NATO has refused to grant an immediate membership or a concrete accession timetable to Kiev, the bloc’s members affirmed at the summit in Vilnius on Tuesday that the country would be invited to join in the future. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine was “closer to NATO than ever before.” Russia considers NATO’s expansion eastward a threat to its own national security, and has warned that the delivery of heavy weapons and other military aid to Ukraine makes the alliance a de facto participant in the conflict. Western countries insist that NATO is a strictly defensive alliance and claims that it poses no threat to Russia.

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“..there is no such legal entity.””The [Wagner] Group exists, but it is judicially non-existent..”

• Wagner PMC Formally Doesn’t Exist – Putin (TASS)

Legalizing private military companies is a complicated issue that should be handled by the government and the parliament, because formally companies such as Wagner PMC are non-existent in Russia at this point, Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying. Kommersant’s special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov quoted the Russian president as saying in response to a question about the organization’s future that, from the point of view of the Russian legislation, “Wagner PMC does not exist.” The president explained that Russia has no law on private military companies and, therefore, “there is no such legal entity.””The [Wagner] Group exists, but it is judicially non-existent,” the report quotes Putin as saying.


“The formal legalization is a separate issue that should be addressed by the State Duma [the lower chamber of the Russian parliament] and the government. It’s a complicated issue.” The president believes that the Wagner Group controversy “is very simple and clear for [members of] the Russian society.” “Wagner’s ordinary members were fighting with dignity… so it is very regrettable that they became embroiled into these events,” Putin added. On Thursday, the Russian president took part in the plenary session of the Future Technologies Forum. After the event was over, he had a conversation with Russian journalists. Excerpts of the talk, where the issue of Ukraine, NATO and the grain deal were raised, were published by the Kremlin website and aired by the Rosssiya-24 television channel.

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Erdogan is in big financial trouble.

• Biden Offered Erdogan IMF Support To Ratify Sweden NATO Bid – Hersh (RT)

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh claimed on Thursday that US President Joe Biden offered his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan more than $11 billion in IMF assistance to ratify Sweden’s bid to join the NATO bloc. In an article posted to his Substack account, Hersh wrote that he had been informed by an anonymous source that “Biden promised that a much-needed $11-13 billion line of credit” would be established for Türkiye by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This was to be in return, Hersh suggested, for Erdogan removing Ankara’s objection to Stockholm joining the US-led military bloc ahead of the NATO summit that took place this week in Lithuania.

Erdogan, who was re-elected as Turkish leader in late May, is currently facing the mammoth task of replacing or repairing hundreds of thousands of buildings damaged or destroyed in February’s earthquakes in which at least 50,000 lost their lives. Türkiye had previously opposed Sweden’s accession to the bloc, largely due to Ankara’s stance that Stockholm has harbored militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which was involved in an armed conflict with the Turkish state in the 1980s. The PKK has been designated a terrorist organization by Türkiye, Sweden, Europe and the United States. “What could be better for Erdogan,” Hersh wrote of the American and Turkish presidents’ alleged arrangement, quoting an official familiar with it, than him “finally having seen the light and realizing he is better off with NATO and Western Europe?”

The report also referenced a June financial analysis of Ankara’s coffers by the independent think tank Council on Foreign Relations, which cast a dire economic outlook for Erdogan to navigate in the early stages of his latest term as leader. It said that Türkiye stands on the precipice of an “imminent financial crisis” and if facing a choice “between selling its gold, an avoidable default, or swallowing the bitter pill of a complete policy reversal and possibly an IMF program.” Hersh, 86, generated headlines earlier this year when he claimed he had been informed –also by an anonymous source– that the United States was responsible for last year’s explosions that neutered the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that supply energy from Russia to Europe. Washington dismissed the claims as “complete fiction.”

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To balance out the support for Turkey…

• US to Supply ‘Significant Military Equipment’ Soon – Greek PM (Sp.)

The United States will soon provide Greece with “significant military equipment” for free, announced Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “I mean not only the approval of [the delivery of] F-35 [fighter jets], which is very important, but also the possibility of getting surplus [military] equipment, significant surplus equipment that will be given to us for free. That is what the US is doing and has every reason to do it to a greater extent for a good ally like Greece,” Mitsotakis said in an interview with Greek broadcaster while expressing hope that F-35s would be delivered in 2028. The prime minister noted that Athens was engaged in talks with Washington, having signed “a very strong defense agreement for five years,” adding that he believed Greece hopes for support “regardless of what happens in the negotiations with Turkiye.”

Mitsotakis also said that the construction of French-made Belharra-class frigates for Greece was ahead of schedule, adding that the first frigate would be delivered in September. He noted that Athens are aimed at having “a very strong deterrence capacity,” adding that he believed Greece “has been able to achieve that at a rapid pace.” In 2019 and 2021, Washington and Athens amended the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allowed the US to establish new military bases on the territory of Greece and expanded the term of the agreement from one to five years. Until 2019, the US had only one military base in Greece but now has nine. The US was granted access to the port of Alexandroupolis in the north of the country, which is used for the delivery of military equipment to Eastern Europe and Ukraine. Mitsotakis then said that the amended agreement made Greece Washington’s main partner in the region.

Greece is implementing 19 arms procurement programs worth 11.5 billion euros ($12.9 billion). Among them are the purchase of 24 French-made Rafale fighter aircraft, Belharra-class frigates and the modernization of 83 F-16 Block 52+ and 52+ Advanced fighters to the Viper variant — the most advanced variant of F-16. The Greek air force already received two F-16 Viper fighters in September 2022. Moreover, Athens is planning to purchase over 20 F-35 fifth-generation fighters.

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Ukraine has never been more corrupt. The enormous influx of money and weapons systems guarantees it.

• Rampant Corruption Is One Reason Behind Ukraine’s Failed NATO Bid (RMX)

Ukraine must implement reforms to fight corruption and strengthen its institutions if it wants to be eligible to join NATO, said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, during the second day of the NATO summit in Vilnius. Von der Leyen encouraged Ukraine to implement further reforms and pledged the support of the European Union. According to Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet, von der Leyen’s statement “said in plain language that there was still so much corruption and opacity in Ukraine’s institutions that it could not yet get the green light to join NATO or the European Union.” However, the paper also noted that von der Leyen noted the country’s efforts were appreciated and it had made a lot of progress.

The European Commission already identified systemic corruption in Ukraine in 2021. Although the EU had launched a number of initiatives to reduce the potential for corruption and proposed a wide range of measures, the EU commission’s report at the time found that no progress had been made on this issue in 2021. At that time, there was a significant decline in the judiciary, and anti-corruption institutions were also under threat, according to the report. The authors also noted that oligarchs and vested interests are the biggest problem, as they are an obstacle to the rule of law and economic development in Ukraine.

Brussels is keen to bring Ukraine into the European Union. However, even EU officials do not dare mention in their reports anything concrete or substantial to suggest that Ukraine is ready for integration, and Von der Leyen’s remarks indicate that the situation has still not improved. As Remix News reported last week, the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, representing Ukrainian entrepreneurs, issued an appeal to President Volodymyr Zelensky, demanding action to curb the abuse of power by government officials. The abuse of power by military officials and judges has crossed all lines, according to Ukrainian entrepreneurs, who are calling for the establishment of a public registry to identify corrupt officials. They further argue that corruption on an unprecedented scale is eroding Ukraine’s defensive capabilities.

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Anybody’s guess.

• How The End Of The US Dollar’s Global Dominance Will Play Out (Salikhov)

A more important factor than the nominal share of the US dollar in international reserves is the changing approach to the management and accumulation of foreign assets. The same IMF data shows that the total value of central bank reserves has remained virtually unchanged at $11.5-12 trillion over the past decade, even as the global economy has grown. China’s foreign exchange reserves peaked at $4 trillion in 2014 and have been declining ever since. Their current value is $3.2 trillion, down 20% from 2014. Many other developing countries are not increasing their international reserves, if not reducing them. This does not mean, however, that external assets are not being created.

They can be formed in “non-standard” forms, such as assets of sovereign wealth funds, state banks, development institutions and other structures not directly related to central banks. Foreign direct investment by government structures can also be classified as a type of reserve asset. Such a strategy is not aimed at maximising the availability and liquidity of assets, but at securing one’s own economic interests in foreign markets. To some extent, it provides greater protection against the political risks of asset freezes, as their legal status is less transparent. A similar strategy is being pursued by China, which is seeking to gradually “internationalize” its currency. Formally, the yuan’s share of central banks’ international reserves is small, amounting to no more than 3%. Moreover, between a third and a half of this demand is provided by the Bank of Russia.

China’s strategy is to secure the international status of the RMB through trade rather than investment. In recent years, China has actively sought to motivate and encourage its partners to trade in RMB rather than other currencies. This is being done in a number of ways, including infrastructure development, its own analogue of the SWIFT system, development of clearing, international lending in the currency and so on. Many people have heard of the term “petroyuan” – an analogue of the petrodollar. In essence, it is the signing of long-term contracts for the supply of oil in yuan in return for a flow of goods and equipment. So, trade is already being conducted in yuan rather than US dollars. This creates demand outside the Chinese economy. At the same time, the Chinese authorities maintain restrictions on capital transactions.

***
The de-dollarization of the global financial system will continue. This will be facilitated in particular by progress in financial technology. The development of automated trading platforms will reduce the cost of exchanging one currency for another. Central banks will seek to directly clear each other’s currencies without directly using the currencies of Western countries. In the future, central banks’ digital currencies may also be used for international transactions, reducing costs for economic agents. However, this process will be slow and we should not expect a fundamental change in the global financial system in the foreseeable future.

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“..when there’s a glitch, and the accounts remain up, the FBI immediately writes back and says, what’s the deal? We just wrote to you, why is it still up?”

• New Twitter Files Contradict FBI Director’s Testimony (Turley)

Yesterday’s hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray was another maddening experience of faux contrition and open evasion. Wray apologized for violations that have already been established by courts or Congress (often over the best efforts of the FBI). However, on ample public evidence of new violations, Wray continued to use his favorite testimonial trilogy to dismiss any questions: expressing (1) lack of knowledge, (2) ongoing investigations, and (3) promises of later answers or briefings. He did, however, hold forth in detail after Rep. Eric Swalwell asked him about FBI Family Day. Despite the near total lack of substance, Wray did make one surprising denial. He insisted that the FBI does not engage in censorship efforts, focuses only on “foreign disinformation,” and does not pressure companies to censor others.

Those denials are not only directly contradicted by the recent 155-page opinion of a federal court and the Twitter Files, but a new release from the Twitter Files and journalist Matt Taibbi. Wray said that “…The FBI is not in the business of moderating content, or causing any social media company to suppress or censor.” He then added that these companies are not under any pressure in making their own decisions whether to censor people or groups flagged by the FBI. The statement is obviously false. The FBI maintained a large operation of agents actively seeking the censorship of thousands, as discussed in my prior testimony. Taibbi, however, has released another example of how aggressive the FBI was with social media companies. In the latest Twitter Files release, there is one email exchange where Twitter “immediately” suspended accounts flagged by the FBI without investigation.

Taibbi explained: “In one shot, you can see the FBI asks to remove three accounts, that gets forwarded to Twitter, Twitter immediately suspends them, the accounts. But more importantly, when there’s a glitch, and the accounts remain up, the FBI immediately writes back and says, what’s the deal? We just wrote to you, why is it still up? So, that shows the nature of the relationship basically that it’s not really a collaboration. It’s much more like somebody reporting to an authority. … [W]hat happens in these instances in the ones that I was showing, they’re just forwarding names of accounts that they say are associated with foreign threat actors. It’s very vague. And Twitter is taking them down before they even investigate. In this case, they later determined that they couldn’t find anything connecting them to any bad actors. In fact, one of them was from Canada. And so, that’s the problem. If it’s not connected with a crime, they’re just asking to take accounts down because they don’t like the profile of them.”

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”..everything they do is to move along to the next story. They know there will be another Biden crime crisis.”

• Drugs Discovered Three Times At White House Since 2022 (JTN)

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert said after the Secret Service briefing Thursday on cocaine found July 2 at the White House that drugs have been found two other times since last year in the building. The Colorado lawmaker also confirmed that Secret Service officials said at the briefing the agency likely won’t find a suspect in connection to the cocaine discovery and that the probe will conclude Friday. “There’s a list of more than 500 individuals that they looked into their backgrounds for prior drug records or use, and nothing was determined from from their analysis,” she said. “And the Secret Service is very eager to close this within the next couple of days.”

The cocaine was reportedly found in a cubby near the White House’s West Executive entrance and weighed less than a gram. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who like Boebert is a member of the House Oversight Committee and attended the briefing, also confirmed with Just the News the investigation will be closed Friday without a suspect. “The cocaine caper is going to be concluded without any outcome. No suspects, no resolution,” the South Carolina lawmaker said after the briefing, “which is frustrating, because every time there’s something unsavory happening on the president, the White House’s administration, we never get an answer. And it’s just ironic and interesting and frustrating.”

Boebert said the drug found twice before in roughly the past year was marijuana and that she thinks the Secret Service closed the investigation without a suspect “because everything in this administration is about covering up for the Biden crime family.” “This is the third time that drugs have been found on the White House property since 2022, and we did not even hear about the marijuana,” she also said. “I certainly did not hear about the marijuana that was found in 2022, two times, and now there’s cocaine on the property. So everything they do is to move along to the next story. They know there will be another Biden crime crisis.”

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TV vs internet.

• Hollywood Grinds To A Halt As Actors And Writers Go On Strike Together (ZH)

Actors and writers in Hollywood have staged the first joint walkout in six decades, saving the country – if not the world, from the production of crappy, woke entertainment, at least for now. The Screen Actors Guild, which represents approximately 160,000 performers, announced the strike on Thursday after failing to reach a new labor agreement with Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, which represents studios including Walt Disney Co. and Netflix Inc, Bloomberg reports. The Writers Guild of America, meanwhile has been on strike since May 2, shutting down late-night TV programs like The Tonight Show, halting many projects in progress and imperiling the traditional release of new broadcast TV shows starting in September.

In a statement after the strike announcement, the studio alliance said the union “has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.” -Boomberg According to the studios, double-digit percentage increases in salaries and higher pension and health benefits, plus a boost in residuals (the money actors and other receive when shows are rerun), weren’t enough. Also offered were protections against the use of actors’ digital likenesses. A key dispute which remains unresolved is compensation from streaming services as online video entertainment cannibalizes broadcast and cable TV.

“I cannot believe how far apart we are in so many things,” said SAG president Fran Drescher. “The entire business model has been changed by streaming. This is a moment of history. That is a moment of truth.” The move has halted work on shows such as Abbott Elementary and Netflix’s Stranger Things. if the strikes last more than a few days, the impact will be far greater than just the writer’s strike alone. Meanwhile, actors will have to stop promoting upcoming projects and refuse to attend events such as Comi-Con International which is scheduled for next week.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Obesity

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bison

 

 

Moth
https://twitter.com/i/status/1679299872401268742

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle July 13 2023

Jul 132023
 
 July 13, 2023  Posted by at 8:41 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  53 Responses »


John Atkinson Grimshaw A moonlit lane 1874

 

• Ukraine To Pay High Price For Security Guarantees From G7 – Zakharova (TASS)
• Moscow Reacts To NATO Summit (RT)
• NATO Summit Exposes Fractures in Alliance Over Support for Ukraine (Sp.)
• The US May Never Allow Ukraine To Join NATO (Bordachev)
• NATO Spent Years Preparing For Proxy War With Russia in Ukraine (Sp.)
• Peace Is Always Priority For Russia Over Combat – Lavrov (TASS)
• Stoltenberg: Sending Advanced Weapons, Munitions To Kiev Priority For NATO (TASS)
• NATO Offers Up Slim Pickings For Kiev At Vilnius Summit – Hungarian FM (TASS)
• ‘We’re not Amazon’ – UK Responds To Ukraine’s Weapons Requests (RT)
• NATO Leaders Tell Zelensky ‘Cool It’ In Rare Dressing Down At Summit
• Poland Wants Ukraine To Admit Guilt For Nazi-linked WWII Massacre (RT)
• Elon Musk Sets Up New AI Company (RT)
• Greek Coastguard ‘Pressured’ Migrant Boat Survivors (BBC)
• Julian Assange, Who ‘Aims To Change The World’, Awarded Konrad Wolf Prize (AR)

 

 

 

 

Wray
https://twitter.com/i/status/1679234587459825664

 

 

DOJ

 

 

 

 

Roseanne

 

 

RFK Saddam

 

 

One of these things…

 

 

 

 

“The price is not a secret: a Ukraine cleared of Ukrainians by Western weapons but with enough population left to serve NATO troops.”

• Ukraine To Pay High Price For Security Guarantees From G7 – Zakharova (TASS)

The price of security guarantees from the Group of Seven (G7) is a Ukraine cleared of Ukrainians by Western weapons, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday. Earlier, Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov expressed concern over the G7’s security guarantees, saying that “Kiev will not believe in them until it finds out what their price is.” “The price is not a secret: a Ukraine cleared of Ukrainians by Western weapons but with enough population left to serve NATO troops. There is no need to deport anyone to Western Europe any more because people have moved there themselves,” the diplomat wrote on Telegram.

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“NATO’s achievements are well known: the growing instability, destruction of countries, rampant terrorism, war crimes that are committed with impunity, the blood of civilians, including children, and the endless flow of refugees..”

• Moscow Reacts To NATO Summit (RT)

The North Atlantic alliance intends to use Ukraine as a proxy for endless war while expanding into the Arctic and Asia in pursuit of neocolonial objectives, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, after a NATO meeting wrapped up in neighboring Lithuania. “The ‘collective West’ led by the US is not willing to accept the formation of a multipolar world and intends to defend its hegemony by all available means, including military ones,” the ministry said in a statement. What the West calls the “rules-based order” is nothing but a “license they granted themselves to violate international law,” and has nothing to do with the UN, which NATO frequently invokes, according to Moscow.

“NATO’s achievements are well known: the growing instability, destruction of countries, rampant terrorism, war crimes that are committed with impunity, the blood of civilians, including children, and the endless flow of refugees,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The bloc is now determined to “NATO-ize” Ukraine, treating the country as an expendable resource in a hybrid war against Russia, supplying Kiev with long-range weapons in order to prolong the conflict for as long as possible, the ministry added. Meanwhile, the US military-industrial complex is “happily rubbing its hands” at the prospect of selling its European allies replacements for weapons destroyed in Ukraine, at exorbitant prices. The ministry stated that the Western alliance was working to “ensnare” Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Moldova, as well as looking to turn the Arctic into “a zone of confrontation,” and to expand beyond the North Atlantic to the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia-Pacific, in pursuit of a “global NATO.”

“Washington and its allies are trying to impose their own rules and drain resources along their to proven neocolonial patterns,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The ministry said Russia will respond to threats “in a timely and appropriate manner, using all means and methods at our disposal,” the statement concluded. The Russian government sent a comprehensive security proposal to the US and NATO in December 2021, asking the bloc to withdraw its troops from Eastern Europe and guarantee Ukraine’s neutrality. Both Washington and NATO rejected Moscow’s request in January 2022. Russia views the bloc’s eastward expansion as a threat and has cited its ties with Kiev as one of the root causes of the armed conflict with Ukraine.

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“..I think there’s seven principles that they have to meet, and Ukraine maybe meets two of them..”

“..unless they break every rule and principle they have, Ukraine does not meet the requirements for NATO..”

“He was saying in effect that the Ukrainians have failed in their counter-offensive and consequently Western military and financial aid to them will be winding down..”

• NATO Summit Exposes Fractures in Alliance Over Support for Ukraine (Sp.)

Amid the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, the Group of Seven (G7) nations issued a statement pledging long-term security guarantees for Ukraine, including ensuring it has an advanced military and stable economy, and supporting reforms that would help Kiev to join Western blocs such as the European Union or NATO. The G7 statement came after NATO doubled down on refusing Ukraine’s admission while it remains locked in a military conflict with Russia, and back-and-forth criticisms between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO members. Gilbert Doctorow, an international relations and Russian affairs analyst, told Sputnik it was “irrelevant” which international institution the West chooses to provide Ukraine with security guarantees.

“The only force that can provide meaningful security guarantees is the United States, and the US will not give Ukraine such guarantees because Congress will not give its consent,” he said. “Period.” “The NATO summit has been a disaster for Zelensky,” Doctorow said. “He failed on the battlefield, losing 26,000 soldiers and officers in the past month of his counter-offensive as well as losing most of the tanks, personnel carriers and other advanced equipment which NATO countries had supplied in the preceding weeks. The decision by the USA to quietly pull the plug on the Ukrainians is only natural and certainly not ‘absurd.’ The game is up.” Doctorow noted that UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace criticized Kiev at the NATO summit, saying Zelensky’s government should be more grateful for the aid it’s received, observing that over the last year, the Ukrainians have simply pivoted from pushing for one type of weapon until they receive it, then immediately pressing for another.

“I told them that last year, when I drove 11 hours to be given a list, that I’m not like Amazon,” Wallace said. Doctorow said Wallace’s remarks “should not be taken too seriously.” “He was saying in effect that the Ukrainians have failed in their counter-offensive and consequently Western military and financial aid to them will be winding down,” the analyst noted. Earl Rasmussen, a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel and international consultant, told Sputnik, “I personally don’t think they’ll ever be part of NATO – they are intended to be a battering ram and a mechanism to meet and confront Russia.” “No matter what was said back in 2008 and more recently, unless they break every rule and principle they have, Ukraine does not meet the requirements for NATO. I don’t know if they ever will,” he said.

“If you look at it, I think there’s seven principles that they have to meet, and Ukraine maybe meets two of them. The rest definitely not – nothing as far as democracy goes, as far as corruption goes, as far as a stable government, sound government practices and stuff it does not meet in that area at all.” “Also, they’re not even self-sufficient now. If it wasn’t for the funding coming from the West, the whole economy and the government would completely collapse. So they don’t want to put up notices. There’s no discussion on the action plan, no timeline provided whatsoever. It’s just a continual carrot to keep Ukraine [fighting] basically to the last Ukrainian. So it could drag this conflict on as long as possible. That’s their intention. It always was, it was the intent to weaken Russia – although that’s not going too well. But they have no reverse gear. They seem to want to double down no matter what.

[..] “A lot of soul searching is going on [in NATO] in the background. I don’t think you’re going to get a NATO majority – definitely Hungary wouldn’t support it, I think a lot of other countries would not as well, and it’d just be catastrophic to Europe if they got fully involved in [Ukraine] because NATO will not win. They would have to escalate to nuclear [war], and then nobody wins. But from a conventional perspective, Russia will win any type of confrontation with it. Even if the US got involved, I think Russia would win, at least if you look at the logistical perspective and the planning, the methodical nature, the percentage of artillery firing, the technology of the weapons systems, and the terrain that’s being fought [on]. Russia’s got escalatory dominance in this nature, not just over Ukraine, but over NATO in general. Bad mistake to push for Ukraine’s entry into NATO and to provoke Russia. It was a very, very bad mistake on the West’s behalf.”

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It won’t exist long enough.

• The US May Never Allow Ukraine To Join NATO (Bordachev)

The Ukrainian crisis marks the first time in history that the United States has exposed itself to serious risks in defining the limits of its military presence in Europe. Any genuine move by Washington to invite Kiev into NATO would imply a willingness to enter into a direct military confrontation with Russia. A less risky option, many believe, would be to promise the Vladimir Zelensky regime some special bilateral guarantees. The NATO military bloc was created on the basis of the real division of Europe into zones of influence between the US and the USSR after the Second World War. As a result of the greatest armed confrontation in the history of mankind, the bulk of European states lost forever the ability to determine fundamental issues of their national policy.

These included, first and foremost, defense and the ability to form alliances with other countries. Europe was divided between the real winners of the conflict – Moscow and Washington. Only Austria, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and a small part of Switzerland were outside their zone of dominance. Both of the great powers had an informal right to determine the internal order of the territories under its control. This was because the countries concerned had lost their sovereignty as such. Even France, which continued to demonstrate freethinking for several decades, had no doubt on whose side it would fight in the event of a new global conflict. NATO was created in 1949 to formally deprive American allies of the ability to make their own foreign policy decisions and military doctrines. In this respect, the alliance was no different from the Warsaw Pact that had emerged in the USSR’s sphere of influence.

The relationship between the United States and other NATO countries has never been an alliance in the traditional sense. In the last century, classic alliances ceased to exist altogether – the gap in military capabilities between the nuclear superpowers and every other country in the world became too great. A military alliance between relative equals is possible, as it was until the middle of the last century, but nuclear weapons have made this impossible. The former sovereign states of Europe became a territorial base from which the great powers could negotiate in peace and act in war. The creation of NATO and the subsequent accession of countries such as Greece, Turkey, Spain and West Germany to the alliance was a formalization of the boundaries of US dominance that the USSR had already agreed to in bilateral relations.

After the Soviet collapse, extending American rule to Moscow’s former allies in Eastern Europe and even the Baltic republics was also not a policy that posed serious risks for Washington. Incidentally, this is why NATO has an informal rule of not admitting countries with unresolved territorial disputes with third states – the US has never been willing to occupy land whose ownership is disputed. NATO’s post-Cold War expansion was based on deception, with the US promising Moscow that it would not expand NATO to Russia’s borders. But, initially, Russia did not have the physical strength to resist. This meant that the US could occupy “unclaimed” states without the threat of immediate military conflict. The US approach to NATO remained true to the philosophy of the 1945 victors: there are no sovereign states, only controlled territories.

Once the decision was taken in Washington, it was only a matter of strategy to ensure that local governments made the “right” decisions. This was all the more so as the accession of new countries to NATO in the 1990s and 2000s was ‘packaged’ with the enlargement of the European Union. This gave local elites every reason to aspire to join the bloc, from which they expected tangible material benefits. For some – the Baltic states and Poland – membership in the club also provided the possibility of solving internal problems through an aggressive anti-Russian policy by fostering fear of the big neighbor to the east. In the Baltic states, the status of an American outpost was also used by elites to combat any local opposition from radical nationalists. For the countries that joined the bloc, NATO became a guarantee of internal stability. Since the most important decisions for them were taken outside their national political systems, there was no reason for internal competition and no danger of serious destabilization.

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Orwell’s never far away: “..and included it in the Partnership for Peace program in 1994..”

• NATO Spent Years Preparing For Proxy War With Russia in Ukraine (Sp.)

The US neocons and their likeminded NATO allies have long been apparently seeking to knock Russia out of the political arena before trying to crack down on China in a bid to preserve the US dominance, retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski believes. “I think that the US officials and advisors (along with those in NATO) believe that they must be able to exploit Russian resources prior to any direct confrontation with China,” Kwiatkowski, who is also a former analyst for the US Department of Defense, told Sputnik. “The neoconservative ideology that over half of Congress embraces, and that the US defense and security complex embraces, envisions and demands a unipolar globe, with the US and its debt-funded governmental system, at the top. For them, this is an existential issue, albeit most Americans don’t see it that way.” It seems that Ukraine appeared a convenient candidate for the role of a “hammer” against Russia.

Ukraine has been a leading recipient of Western military supplies since the early 1990s when the country gained independence, with the US spearheading the initiative. In the first ten years after independence, Ukraine received almost $2.6 billion in assistance from the US. Until 2014, Ukraine had been receiving an estimated $105 million per annum, including foreign military financing. NATO’s North Atlantic Cooperation Council embraced Ukraine as a “partner country” in 1991 and included it in the Partnership for Peace program in 1994. Washington’s NATO ally, the UK, played an important role in the effort, holding joint military exercises with the Ukrainians, as well as providing training and funding to the nation’s armed forces. Thus, the first joint Ukrainian-British military exercises “Cossack steppe” were held in the second half of the 1990s as part of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program.

The NATO-Ukraine Commission was established in 1997 with the aim of developing the relationship between the nation and the bloc and directing cooperative activities. As per UK government documents, the Ministry of Defense spent approximately £3.9 million supporting Ukraine through the Defense Assistance Fund and the Conflict Pool between 2009 and 2014. Many of the activities funded through these mechanisms supported “command, control and communications capabilities (C3).” In particular, the UK held joint exercises with the Ukrainian military, provided military education to the nation’s specialists, and “contributions to NATO coordinated activities.” Both UK civilian and military personnel had been deployed to Ukraine during that period of time while Ukrainian personnel were sent to the UK.

Following the illegitimate coup d’etat in Kiev in February 2014, the West stepped up military assistance to the new Ukrainian authorities. Between 2014 and 2021, the United States provided over $2.5 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, which included the provision of trainers, selected weaponry systems (such as counter-mortar radars), and Javelin anti-tank missiles. The boost in military assistance was justified by NATO member states by the alleged “Russian invasion” in Donbass. However, it is well documented that Donbass declared independence in response to the illegitimate coup d’etat in Kiev fomented with the assistance of nationalist and neo-Nazi paramilitary groups and subsequent Russophobic policies of the new government. The Donbass breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk Republics started largely forming militias after the interim Kiev government kicked off what it called “anti-terrorist” operations (ATO) against the region.

“Kiev had been on the offensive with the Donbass with Western support, for a number of years, even before 2014, and this is well documented,” explained Kwiatkowski. “Other Eastern and Southern European countries had been ‘encouraged’ by Western powers, as we saw with Yugoslavia, to break up into smaller national and ethno-cultural countries, and the peaceful divide between the Czech Republic and Slovakia was also allowed and supported. This is primarily because the newly smaller countries added potential members to NATO and the EU – all controlled and controllable by the US-EU elites.”

NATO

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Two articles about priorities. They differ.

• Peace Is Always Priority For Russia Over Combat – Lavrov (TASS)

Peace has always been a priority for Russia over combat, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Lenta.ru online daily commenting on peace initiatives regarding Ukraine. Asked whether ceasefire peaceful initiatives proposed by China, Indonesia, Vatican and Africa were premature Lavrov replied in the negative. “I would like to express my gratitude to our partners for their efforts to search for ways to settle the Ukrainian crisis peacefully,” he said. “We do not find their initiatives premature: for the Russian side, peace always has priority over combat.”


“So, let me remind you that we already participated in a negotiation process with Kiev, in the spring of 2022, and came close to a positive outcome,” he continued. “However, all efforts were undermined by the Anglo-Saxons, whose plans clearly did not include the cessation of hostilities. They have remained obsessed with the manic idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia,” Lavrov added.

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“..the most urgent, the most important task is a continued flow of military support..”

• Stoltenberg: Sending Advanced Weapons, Munitions To Kiev Priority For NATO (TASS)

NATO believes its priority is to supply Kiev with advanced weapons systems and a huge amount of ammunition and spare parts for them, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday. “I think we realized many months ago that this is a war of attrition, meaning a battle of logistics. It’s important that we deliver different advanced weapons systems, but as important as delivering new systems is that we are able to maintain and sustain all the systems that are already there. An enormous amount of ammunition, spare parts maintenance and repair capacity,” he said at a news conference following a NATO summit.


Stoltenberg also said Ukraine’s future position at the negotiating table will hinge on the outcome of its counteroffensive. “I think it’s wrong to speculate exactly how this will be done in the future after the war ends. The most important thing now is to ensure that the war ends in a just and lasting way. That’s the reason why the most urgent, the most important task is a continued flow of military support,” he said. The NATO official earlier said the bloc had decided to spare Ukraine the requirement of executing a Membership Action Plan and pledged to invite the country to the alliance when all the conditions were met.

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“Only the Ukraine-NATO commission has been upgraded to the council level,” the top Hungarian diplomat pointed out, adding that in the current situation, “this was the only right decision.”

• NATO Offers Up Slim Pickings For Kiev At Vilnius Summit – Hungarian FM (TASS)

Vilnius summit has produced only modest, small-bore results for Ukraine, with Kiev failing to obtain any timetable for accession to the bloc, while getting formal interaction upgraded to the council level as a consolation prize, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said. “The big question before the NATO summit was what Ukraine would obtain. Compared to the [pre-summit] expectations, held mostly by the Ukrainians themselves, the actual practical results were exceedingly modest,” Szijjarto, who is attending the summit together with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said in an interview with Hungary’s M1 TV channel. He noted that Ukraine received neither an invitation nor a timetable for joining the alliance.

“Only the Ukraine-NATO commission has been upgraded to the council level,” the top Hungarian diplomat pointed out, adding that in the current situation, “this was the only right decision.” “It is quite clear that a country in a state of a war cannot be accepted into NATO because, according to the alliance’s own rules, this would entail the bloc as a whole being dragged into this war. So, I think that, right now, NATO made a responsible decision while managing to avoid an escalation in military action,” he explained. Szijjarto noted that Ukraine will now start drafting what is known as the annual national program for interacting with NATO, which should reflect reforms of both a military and political nature.

“NATO is not only a defensive alliance but also a values-based community. Thus, for example, Ukraine should take on the obligation to respect and protect the rights of minorities,” he said, emphasizing that Hungary will be paying special attention to this issue given Budapest’s concern over the treatment of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine. According to him, a decision on Ukraine’s compliance with the bloc’s membership criteria will be made later, taking into account the country’s actual performance. Earlier, Budapest had repeatedly stated that it would not support Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO and the EU until the Ukrainian leadership stopped infringing on the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region.

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Piss off your biggest supporter…

• ‘We’re not Amazon’ – UK Responds To Ukraine’s Weapons Requests (RT)

Ukraine should adopt a less demanding tone when speaking to nations that are arming it to fight against Russia, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has suggested. “We are not Amazon,”he said. The remarks, which were quoted by the British media, were made during an event on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Lithuania on Wednesday. Wallace, who is normally a vocal supporter of Kiev, said it would help Ukraine’s cause if they displayed some gratitude. “Sometimes you are asking countries to give up their own stocks,” Wallace said. “Sometimes you have to persuade lawmakers on [Capitol] Hill in America. You have to persuade doubting politicians in other countries that it is worth it.” The British official said he heard complaints from US counterparts that Ukraine was treating their nation like an Amazon store, even as it provides billions of dollars worth of military assistance.

Wallace confirmed that this was “true,” and said he had been personally subjected to this kind of treatment by Ukrainian officials. He recalled driving for 11 hours to meet with a delegation last June only “to be given a list” of requests. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made a similar public remark in Lithuania, asserting that “the American people do deserve a degree of gratitude from the US government for their willingness to step up [and aid Ukraine] and from the rest of the world as well.” Ukrainian officials, including President Vladimir Zelensky, have been critical of the US and its allies for not providing enough support or for providing it too slowly. The Ukrainian leader cited the supposedly unhurried pace of weapons deliveries as a key reason for underwhelming results from Kiev’s counteroffensive last month.

One of the latest outbursts from Zelensky came during the current summit, as NATO leaders declined to provide a roadmap for Ukraine’s accession to the US-led military bloc and said the country would still have to meet some conditions to qualify. He called the position “unprecedented and absurd.” The US delegation in Vilnius was reportedly infuriated by the verbal attack. The Americans perceived it as an attempt by Zelenksy to pressure the alliance into reconsidering its decision, according to media reports. It’s not the first time that Western irritation with Kiev’s communication style has been reported. Last June, US President Joe Biden reportedly told Zelensky to show “a little more gratitude”after snapping during a phone call.

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“..While it’s not quite yet a full on ‘hero to zero’ story… things are certainly sliding in that direction..”

• NATO Leaders Tell Zelensky ‘Cool It’ In Rare Dressing Down At Summit

Bloomberg is just out with a devastating behind-the-scenes account of a hot-headed Zelensky at the NATO summit in Vilnius, and the growing Western backlash in the face of his obvious frustration and what’s being seen as ingratitude for the steady flow of billions of dollars in arms to Kiev. Apparently even the mainstream media agrees with our own assessment of the Ukrainian leader having thrown a “tantrum” as he complained about the “weak” and “absurd” NATO stance on Ukraine’s membership. The blistering tweet he issued in English while en route to Lithuania exposed cracks in the alliance, as Bloomberg highlights in the opening of its very revealing Wednesday piece:


Volodymyr Zelenskiy was running hot ahead of his sit-down with NATO leaders on Tuesday evening. The Ukrainian president had been angered earlier in the day by what he said was an “absurd” reluctance to give his country a clear timeline on membership. That outburst in turn riled the partners who have funneled billions of dollars of weaponry and aid into Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion — the US had been given no warning before Zelenskiy unleashed his attack on social media.

All day Wednesday, the above (very real) photo of an isolated and defeated-looking Zelensky standing amid NATO heads of state (with backs turned) circulated widely on social media. And things were even more tense behind the scenes, as Bloomberg writes: “Over dinner in Vilnius, with US President Joe Biden back at his hotel, the other leaders delivered a clear message to Zelenskiy, according to one person who was present. You have to cool down and look at the full package, Zelenskiy was told.” While it’s not quite yet a full on ‘hero to zero’ story… things are certainly sliding in that direction, given it’s unprecedented that the Ukrainian president who previously enjoyed rockstar status in Western capitals since the start of the invasion could be told to basically ‘cool it’!.

Bloomberg continues in reference to Zelensky: “He had, after all, been given a renewed commitment to eventual membership and new security guarantees from the Group of Seven nations. By the next day, the message appeared to be sinking in.” The publication was privy to some key Western leaders’ exact words, presenting the rare dressing down as follows: “Whether we like it or not, people want to see gratitude,” UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told reporters the following morning. “You’re persuading countries to give up their stock” of weapons and ammunition, he added.

This account of the behind-the-scenes wrangling is based on interviews with more than a dozen diplomats and officials involved in the summit who asked not to be named discussing private conversations. NATO leaders were trying to thread a needle on Ukraine’s membership bid when they arrived in Vilnius: They were seeking language that looked like progress and that Ukraine could sell as progress but fundamentally didn’t leave them any closer to getting dragged into a war with nuclear-armed Russia.

Ultimately the hawks (mainly among the Baltic and Eastern Europe states) have lost at Vilnius. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has admitted “There was a lack of political will.” Thus it appears that Zelensky’s angry, desperate tweet lashing out at Western partners was a last ditch effort at shaming NATO into conceding to its demands of being immediately fast-tracked to membership. Bloomberg reveals further, that “Crucially, it was the US and Germany that insisted on dialing back the commitment to Ukraine joining the alliance. Earlier drafts of the communique offered a clearer pathway to Ukraine eventually joining, but Biden and Chancellor Olaf Scholz were wary of going too far.”

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“In the attacks by OUN and UPA units, supported by part of the local Ukrainian community, over 100,000 Poles were murdered..”

• Poland Wants Ukraine To Admit Guilt For Nazi-linked WWII Massacre (RT)

Accountability for the mass killings of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II is essential for reconciliation between the two nations, a resolution passed by the lower house of parliament in Warsaw has said. The document was adopted by lawmakers in the Sejm on Tuesday, as Poland commemorated the victims of wartime atrocities in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia 80 years ago. Members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the militant wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), were the main perpetrators of the crimes, which Poland considers an act of genocide.

“In the attacks by OUN and UPA units, supported by part of the local Ukrainian community, over 100,000 Poles were murdered, often in a very brutal way,” the Polish MPs said. “Several hundred thousand people fled… fearing the same fate.” The OUN allied with Nazi German invaders in the hope of creating a Ukrainian nation state, and slaughtered groups that they deemed to be obstructing their cause. Their victims also included Jews, Czechs and Russians, along with ethnic Ukrainians who opposed the purges, the Polish resolution noted. The ethnic cleansing campaign was accompanied by the destruction of property, including items of cultural and religious significance.

“Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation, which was built over years by representatives of both nations, must also include recognition of guilt and commemoration of the victims,” the lawmakers stressed. Many Polish officials have said they expected Kiev to make gestures of accountability during the 80th anniversary of the tragedy. The Ukrainian government considers the UPA and its leaders to be national heroes, as they were fighting for Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky joined his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda last week for a joint commemoration in Western Ukraine, but did not offer a formal apology. Kiev’s ambassador to Warsaw, Vasily Zvarych, previously advised Poland against attempts to “pressure” his nation into taking “unacceptable” steps regarding their shared past.

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“..to understand the true nature of the universe.”

• Elon Musk Sets Up New AI Company (RT)

The owner of Twitter and the founder of Tesla and SpaceX said on Wednesday that he has set up an artificial intelligence venture, xAI, which aims to figure out the world itself. “Announcing formation of xAI to understand reality,” Musk tweeted, with a link to the company’s freshly created profile on his social network. xAI is technically a separate company from Musk’s X Corp, but will work closely with his other enterprises “to make progress towards our mission,” according to the company website, which defines that mission as “to understand the true nature of the universe.” The people involved with xAI have previously worked at OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Tesla, as well as the University of Toronto in Canada, and say they have contributed to “some of the most widely used methods” in the field of artificial intelligence, as well as breakthroughs such as the GPT chatbot.

Tesla’s shares rose 1.5% following the xAI announcement. According to public records, xAI was incorporated in March in the US state of Nevada. Musk is listed as the sole director. More details will be made available in a Twitter Spaces chat scheduled for Friday, the company promised. There has been speculation ever since about Musk’s intention to establish an AI enterprise. According to a disclosure from Business Insider, Musk acquired a substantial number of graphic processing units (GPUs) to fuel an upcoming generative AI offering. The Financial Times has also mentioned Musk’s aspirations to establish an AI company in direct competition with OpenAI, which has the support of Microsoft. It has been reported that Musk approached investors of SpaceX and Tesla to secure funding for the venture.

Two weeks after incorporating xAI, Musk signed an open letter with more than 1,000 researchers and tech executives, warning that AI could pose “profound risks to society and humanity.” The letter called for a six-month global pause on AI development in order to “give society a chance to adapt” to the rapidly-advancing technology. Musk has also spoken out on the potential for “civilizational destruction” posed by AI, pointing to the race between products such as ChatGPT and Bard. While Musk helped to found ChatGPT’s maker OpenAI in 2015, he left its board of directors by 2018 and has since criticized the company as a “closed source maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft.” One of the people Musk has brought on board xAI as a senior adviser is Dan Hendrycks, director of the Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit that seeks to reduce the risks posed by the technology.

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The story gets uglier.

• Greek Coastguard ‘Pressured’ Migrant Boat Survivors (BBC)

New evidence found by BBC News casts further doubt on the Greek coastguard’s version of events surrounding last month’s deadly migrant boat sinking, in which up to 600 people died. Two survivors have described how the coastguard pressed them to identify nine Egyptians on board as traffickers. A new video of the overcrowded boat foundering at sea also challenges the Greek coastguard’s account. It was taken when the boat was said to be on a “steady course”. BBC Verify has confirmed the footage was filmed when the coastguard claimed the boat was not in need of rescue. We have also confirmed that the larger vessel in the background is the oil tanker Faithful Warrior, which had been asked to give supplies to the migrant boat.

The official Greek coastguard account had already been challenged in a BBC Verify report – but now we have seen court documents which show serious discrepancies between survivors’ witness statements taken by the coastguards, and the in-person evidence later presented to a judge. A translator has also come forward with his account of a people-smuggling investigation last year, after a another group of migrants were rescued by the coastguard. He describes how witnesses from that incident were intimidated by the coastguard. The legal case collapsed before it could reach trial. The revelations raise fresh questions about how the Greek authorities handle such disasters. Both the Greek coastguard and Greek government did not comment and declined our requests for interview. Soon after the 14 June sinking, nine Egyptian men were detained and charged with manslaughter and people-smuggling.

But two survivors of the disaster say migrants were silenced and intimidated by Greek authorities, after suggesting the coastguards may have been to blame for the tragedy. For the past month, allegations have been made that the coastguard used a rope to tow the fishing vessel, causing it to sink. The two survivors we spoke to in Athens – who we are calling Ahmad and Musaab to protect their identities – say that is what happened. “They attached a rope from the left. Everyone moved to the right side of our boat to balance it,” says Musaab. “The Greek vessel moved off quickly causing our boat to flip. They kept dragging it for quite a distance.” The men described how they spent two hours in the water before being picked up by the coastguard.

When I ask how they knew it was that amount of time, Musaab says his watch was still working so he could tell. Once on land, in Kalamata, they claim the coastguard told survivors to “shut up” when they started to talk about how the Greek authorities had caused the disaster. “When people replied by saying the Greek coastguard was the cause, the official in charge of the questioning asked the interpreter to tell the interviewee to stop talking,” says Ahmad. Ahmad says those rescued were told to be grateful they hadn’t died. He says there were shouts of: “You have survived death! Stop talking about the incident! Don’t ask more questions about it!”

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“His work embodies journalistic awareness-building at its best, and aims to change the world by democratic means – something that is direly needed.’”

• Julian Assange, Who ‘Aims To Change The World’, Awarded Konrad Wolf Prize (AR)

The Akademie der Künste in Berlin has said it will award its annual Konrad Wolf Prize to Julian Assange. Though the Australian activist and founder of WikiLeaks is unlilkely to be able to attend the October ceremony as he is currently held at Belmarsh top security prison in London. Since 2019 he has been fighting attempts to extradite him to the US, where he is charged with the hacking – abetting former army private and whistleblower Chelsea Manning – of one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of America.

The jury said: ‘Julian Assange’s work and positions have focused our attention on illegal state actions, injustices, murders and war crimes – things that were meant to remain concealed and obscured from the public view, from the citizens – from us. Assange’s work has resulted in the disclosure of financial flows, hidden accounts and official e-mail correspondence, has uncovered images of murdered unarmed civilians and journalists in Iraq by members of the U.S. Army, disclosed arbitrary killings of civilians in Afghanistan and secret service projects aimed at the manipulation of public opinion, has brought to light the humiliation and torture in photos taken by laughing perpetrators at Abu Ghraib Prison and exposed the inhumane conditions of the still operational detention centre at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, which reminded us of what waterboarding means.

The list goes on. Julian Assange’s Wikileaks publicizes information about this – our – reality, so that we as citizens can recognize this reality and take action. ‘We open governments’ so that we know. It is a democratic act. Assange is a worthy laureate, who with his Wikileaks project has exposed government activity, wartime lies, war crimes and cover-ups. His work embodies journalistic awareness-building at its best, and aims to change the world by democratic means – something that is direly needed.’

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Birth rates
https://twitter.com/i/status/1678873566861828097

 

 

 

 

Kamala
https://twitter.com/i/status/1678711066560282625

 

 

Hypno chicken

 

 

Otter
https://twitter.com/i/status/1678789677438980097

 

 

SNL

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle July 12 2023

Jul 122023
 
 July 12, 2023  Posted by at 8:55 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  39 Responses »


René Magritte The voice of blood 1948

 

• Ceasefire and Peace Talks Should Be Focus of NATO Summit (CD)
• NATO Summit, a Theater of the Absurd (Scott Ritter)
• Understanding The NATO Summit (Kim Dotcom)
• Stoltenberg: No Point in Discussing NATO Membership if Kiev Loses (Sp.)
• Should Ukraine Join NATO? Don’t Kid Yourself: It Already Has (Tracey)
• China Warns Against NATO Expansion Into Asia-Pacific (RT)
• Ukraine Lost 26,000 Troops and 3,000 Arms In Counteroffensive – Shoigu (Sp.)
• Trump Slams Biden Over Cluster Bombs For Ukraine (RT)
• NATO Neck Deep In Ukraine Conflict Due To Weapons Pipeline – Zakharova (TASS)
• Underestimate Russia at Your Own Risk (NC)
• US Trying To Use Foreign Mercenaries To Plug Gaps In Ukraine (Marsden)
• The Blob Begins to Quiver (Kunstler)
• Judge Refuses Hold On Order Limiting Admin Contact With Social Media (AP)
• The Truth About Bidenomics: More Debt, More Inflation (Lacalle)
• Putin Issues Warning About US Banking System (RT)

 

 

 

 

RFK Camus

 

 

RFK Wuhan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1678816812119519254

 

 

 

 

Kiev Nov 2013

 

 

EP
https://twitter.com/i/status/1678806221254426633

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..It does not have the right to encourage escalation of a war where there will be no winners.”

• Ceasefire and Peace Talks Should Be Focus of NATO Summit (CD)

The start of NATO’s annual summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on Tuesday has been dominated by talk of maintaining the flow of weapons to Ukraine and potentially expanding the Western military alliance to include the war-ravaged nation as its conflict with invading Russian forces drags on. But anti-war campaigners argued that approach is a recipe for a prolonged and possibly larger military conflict, one that could ultimately involve nuclear weapons. Lindsey German, a founding member and convenor of the United Kingdom-based Stop the War Coalition, wrote Monday ahead of the two-day summit that “a ceasefire and peace talks are the only means to end this bloody spiral,” warning a primary focus on weaponry and NATO expansion would signal that “Western powers are preparing for an even greater war.”

The alternative to serious peace negotiations, German wrote, is that the war “grinds on, with battles such as Bakhmut increasingly resembling those of the First World War. And that further ‘red lines’ are crossed—more cruise missiles, more cluster bombs. And then what? Tactical nuclear weapons?” “While Ukraine has every right to defend itself from the invasion and war with Russia, it does not have the right to demand weapons which even the British government has said it will not send,” German added, referring to cluster munitions—weapons that the U.S. is preparing to send Ukraine. “It does not have the right to encourage escalation of a war where there will be no winners.” “A ceasefire and peace talks are the only means to end this bloody spiral.”

NATO leaders gathered in Lithuania for the 2023 summit are reportedly expected to issue a statement pledging to “extend an invitation” to Ukraine to join the military alliance once “allies agree and conditions are met,” offering no specific timeline. U.S. President Joe Biden endorsed the draft communique on Tuesday. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is in attendance at the NATO summit, criticized the available details of the document, saying it “seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the alliance.”

Ukraine’s push to join NATO was recently backed by dozens of “foreign policy experts,” many of whom work for organizations that receive funding from weapons companies and industry lobbyists. Eli Clifton of Responsible Statecraft reported that 21 of the 46 signatories to a new open letter supporting Ukraine’s NATO bid “are associated with institutions with financial ties to the weapons industry, an industry that presumably stands to benefit from the policy recommendations laid out in a letter that had a particular focus on providing more Western weapons to Ukraine, a fact not shared with readers.”

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Check out the doc.

• NATO Summit, a Theater of the Absurd (Scott Ritter)

NATO had placed high hopes on the Ukrainian army being able to carry out a counteroffensive against Russia which would achieve discernable results both in terms of territory re-captured and casualties inflicted on the Russian army. The results, however, have been dismal to date — tens of thousands of Ukrainian casualties and thousands of destroyed vehicles while failing to breach even the first line of the Russian defenses. One of the challenges NATO will face in Vilnius is the question of how to recover from this setback. Many NATO countries are starting to exhibit “Ukraine fatigue” as they see their armories stripped bare and their coffers emptied in what, by every measurement, appears to be a losing cause.

The scope and scale of the Ukrainian military defeat is such that the focus of many NATO members appears to be shifting from the unrealistic goal of strategically defeating Russia to a more realistic objective of bringing about a cessation to the conflict that preserves Ukraine as a viable nation state. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the NATO summit. However, his demands for NATO membership will not be met — U.S. President Joe Biden himself has weighed in on the matter, saying this would not be possible while Ukraine is at war with Russia. There will be face-saving gestures from NATO, such as the creation of a NATO-Ukraine Council and talk of eventual post-conflict security guarantees.

But the reality is Zelensky’s presence will do Ukraine more harm than good, since it will only accentuate the internal disagreement within NATO on the issue of Ukrainian membership and highlight NATO’s impotence when it comes to doing anything that can meaningfully alter the current trajectory on the battlefield, which is heading toward a strategic defeat for both Ukraine and NATO. The vision of the Madrid summit was that of NATO capitalizing on its strategic victory against Russia to further expand its ranks in Europe (both Finland and Sweden were invited), and to push its influence into the Pacific Ocean. While NATO’s Pacific partners (Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea) have been invited to Vilnius, the hopes that their presence would coincide with the announcement of the opening of a NATO liaison office in Japan have been quashed by France, which objects to an alliance ostensibly focused on North Atlantic security becoming involved in the Pacific.

A Scott Ritter Investigation: Agent Zelensky – Part 1

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Twitter thread.

“NATO has lost this war. Biden has lost this war. The lunatic Democrats have lost this war. The uni-party warmongers have lost this war. The EU has lost this war. Ukraine and Zelensky have lost this war.”

• Understanding The NATO Summit (Kim Dotcom)

:The steam for the US proxy war in Ukraine is running out. No commitment is given to Ukraine to obtain NATO membership because the West has come to realize that they can’t win a war against Russia and that peace will only be possible with a neutral Ukraine. Ukraine will never be a member of NATO. Zelenskyy has realized this and is fuming in Vilnius, attacking NATO as disrespectful and calling the conditions absurd. In a moment of clarity he acknowledged what’s really going on: “It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the Alliance. This means a window of opportunity is being left to bargain Ukraine’s membership in NATO in negotiations with Russia.”

That’s exactly right. NATO has lost this war. Biden has lost this war. The lunatic Democrats have lost this war. The uni-party warmongers have lost this war. The EU has lost this war. Ukraine and Zelensky have lost this war. Russia wins and rightfully so because everything that happened in Ukraine was a fraud against the Ukrainian people perpetrated by a failing US empire in its final stand against a rising multipolar world. Zelenskyy was never a leader who did what’s best for his people. He will be remembered as a US puppet and actor for foreign interests. 350,000 Ukrainians dead because of him and his puppet masters in the US. He lost $12.7 trillion worth of land and resources to Russia because he did not sign the reasonable peace agreement that Russia had proposed to him.

Instead he fell for empty promises from Biden that the US will support Ukraine until victory. What a fool. The good news is this war may be over soon. The West has lost its appetite to throw more money into the Ukrainian black hole. With the US and EU entering recession they have enough problems at home. Protests and riots will become regular news. Biden wouldn’t stand a chance in the next election. His brain is Swiss cheese and the only alternative for the Democrats is Kennedy. Trump will use the fatal mistake in Ukraine and the dire economic outlook of the US to run a successful campaign. Kennedy, who says all the right things, would be his only real obstacle but the Democrats have messed their country up so royally that Trump seems like the only choice.

The reality is that it doesn’t matter who the next US president is. The insurmountable debt burden combined with de-dollarization in global trade and the rise of BRICS+ are going to send the US into a decade long depression with unseen levels of poverty and violence. Hopefully humanity dodged a bullet and nuclear war is no longer imminent. At least that is my read of the situation right now. But things could flare up again if peace negotiations fail. Russia may be tempted to take Odessa and turn Ukraine into rump state without access to the sea. Russia is holding all the cards. Let’s see how Putin plays them.

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Does anyone doubt it will?

• Stoltenberg: No Point in Discussing NATO Membership if Kiev Loses (Sp.)

NATO summit kicked off on Tuesday with the focus on Ukraine possible invitation to the alliance. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that the Eastern European state would join the bloc when all member states agree on it and if it meets all the conditions. There is no point in discussing Ukraine’s NATO membership if Kiev does not prevail in the ongoing conflict, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday. “I think all allies agree that when a war is going on that’s not the time for making the Ukraine the full member of the alliance,” he stressed. “We also made clear that we will issue an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO when allies agree and conditions are met,” Stoltenberg told a press conference. The secretary general also said that the procedure does not have a specific time frame.

In the final communiqué, NATO members confirmed that they see Ukraine in the alliance in the future. “We fully support Ukraine’s right to choose its own security arrangements,” the document says. “Ukraine’s future is in NATO. We reaffirm the commitment we made at the 2008 Summit in Bucharest that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, and today we recognise that Ukraine’s path to full Euro-Atlantic integration has moved beyond the need for the Membership Action Plan.” Per the NATO communiqué, Ukraine has become increasingly interoperable and politically integrated with the transatlantic alliance and “made substantial progress on its reform path.” The alliance particularly referred to the 1997 Charter on a Distinctive Partnership between NATO and Ukraine and the 2009 Complement, stressing that NATO member states will continue to support and review Ukraine’s “progress on interoperability” and “additional democratic and security sector reforms that are required.”

“NATO Foreign Ministers will regularly assess progress through the adapted Annual National Programme. The Alliance will support Ukraine in making these reforms on its path towards future membership. We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the Alliance when Allies agree and conditions are met,” the document reads. The bloc has announced the establishment of the NATO-Ukraine Council, a new joint body where NATO member states and Ukraine would sit as “equal members” to advance political dialogue, cooperation and “Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in the alliance.” sStill, the Kiev leadership is seeking admission to NATO in an expedited manner insisting that no other decision will suit Ukraine. On the opening day of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted that it is “absurd” that there is no time frame for inviting Ukraine to the alliance.

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“..who needs the bother of formal NATO membership anyway, when you can sneak in through the back door?”

• Should Ukraine Join NATO? Don’t Kid Yourself: It Already Has (Tracey)

As NATO members gather in Lithuania this week with traditional Eastern European fanfare, the chief focus of their deliberations is whether to extend formal membership to Ukraine amid the ongoing war. But the question of whether Ukraine officially joins NATO may have turned into something of a red herring. The truth is Ukraine has already been unofficially incorporated into NATO. As University of Chicago international relations professor Paul Poast, a passionate advocate for NATO’s swift admittance of Ukraine, aptly put it, “NATO has already expanded into the war zone. The allies should just acknowledge that reality.”

A year and a half into the war, it can hardly be denied that NATO forces have gained substantially more than the mere “foothold” in Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have launched his invasion of Ukraine to preempt. With the U.S. effectively assuming financial, material, political, strategic, and operational dominion over Ukrainian state warfare, the “foothold” has turned into a heavily-fortified bridgehead. Rockets lobbed at Russian troop positions are ultimately the product of U.S. commanders “controlling every shot,” as Ukrainian officials have occasionally acknowledged. A great deal of American engineering ingenuity is currently being harnessed to pulverize Russians. But as Putin is keenly aware, much of this U.S. and NATO “infrastructure” had been well-established long before any invasion was launched.

For example, exactly two years earlier to the day of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, on February 24, 2020, the nascent government of Volodmyr Zelensky decreed what was hailed as being Ukraine’s first “comprehensive and systematic” framework to achieve “the full Euro-Atlantic integration of the state” with particular emphasis on “deepening cooperation with NATO.” Almost exactly one year before that, in February 2019, an amendment to the Ukrainian Constitution was passed proclaiming that it was a non-negotiable national priority for Ukraine to pursue “full-fledged” NATO membership at the earliest possible opportunity. By June of 2019, Ukraine received an unusual prize: certification for one of its more seasoned Special Forces units to join the “NATO Response Force,” a specialized “rapid deployment” alliance formation which had been nurtured to life in 2002 by the famously foresighted Donald Rumsfeld. The summer before the invasion started, U.S. and Ukraine special forces convened their largest-ever joint “multinational maritime exercise” in the Black Sea.

Given all of this, who needs the bother of formal NATO membership anyway, when you can sneak in through the back door? Steady incremental assimilation seems like much less of a headache than the customary slog of conventional ratification. And then when the question of full membership does arise, proponents have been handed an argument on a platter: With NATO irreversibly entrenched in Ukraine already, it may as well just dispense with the niceties and go all the way. Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian Defense Minister, is fond of declaring that Ukraine has already “de facto joined the Alliance,” given the massive surge in joint war-planning activity. And no existing alliance member seemed compelled to dispute Reznikov’s characterization—which is perfectly intuitive, given that Ukraine has been furnished over the past year and a half with what is essentially a brand new military, conveniently up to NATO specifications fresh out the box.

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“They also accused Beijing of posing “cyber, space, hybrid and other asymmetric threats,” and of engaging in “the malicious use of emerging and disruptive technologies.”

• China Warns Against NATO Expansion Into Asia-Pacific (RT)

The Chinese government has urged NATO not to expand into the Asia-Pacific, warning that it would retaliate to any increased Western military presence in the region after the alliance criticized Beijing during its summit in Lithuania. China’s Mission to the European Union issued a statement on Tuesday in response to NATO’s joint communique, which accused Beijing of pursuing “coercive policies” that “challenge” Western interests. “The China-related content of the communique disregards basic facts, wantonly distorts China’s position and policies, and deliberately discredits China. We firmly oppose and reject this,” the Chinese diplomats said. The statement went on to pledge that Beijing would “safeguard its sovereignty” and oppose “NATO’s eastward expansion into the Asia-Pacific.”

It added that “any actions that damage China’s legitimate rights and interests will be met with a resolute response.” Leaders of the Western military alliance met on Tuesday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, to discuss additional aid to Ukraine, among other matters. They also accused Beijing of posing “cyber, space, hybrid and other asymmetric threats,” and of engaging in “the malicious use of emerging and disruptive technologies.” The Chinese EU mission argued that NATO had failed to reflect on its own responsibilities, and instead “blindly blames other countries, keeps meddling in extraterritorial affairs [and] creates confrontation.”

It added that the bloc’s “ambitions for expansion and hegemony are obvious,” and warned that its status as a “nuclear alliance” would only “further aggravate regional tensions.” The statement comes after Chinese officials warned against the opening of a NATO liaison office in Japan, which would mark the bloc’s first facility in Asia. Though Tokyo indicated it was considering the idea, France has reportedly shot down the project, insisting NATO should remain confined to the North Atlantic. The relations between the US and China have deteriorated significantly in recent years, with countries clashing over Taiwan, global trade, and human rights.

Beijing’s remarks on NATO’s expansion echo previous criticisms from Moscow, which has repeatedly decried the alliance’s gradual expansion eastward in recent decades, and stressed that it considers Western military sites close to its borders a threat to national security. NATO has rejected these claims, insisting that the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine does not make the alliance a party to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Kiev had hoped it would be offered a clear path to NATO membership at the Vilnius summit on Tuesday, but was disappointed after the alliance reiterated its prior promises to admit Ukraine as a member at some point in the future, after its armed conflict with Russia is resolved.

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“We know that the results of our combat work are carefully monitored and analyzed by foreign intelligence services..”

• Ukraine Lost 26,000 Troops and 3,000 Arms In Counteroffensive – Shoigu (Sp.)

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu reported about the situation in special military operation zone. Shoigu stressed that Kiev failed to achieve its goals in all directions and lost roughly 26 thousands of troops and 3 thousands of military equipment. “To sum up some results, what did they achieve for this widely promoted and announced, as they called it, strategic counteroffensive. As a result, what have they got approaching the NATO summit? Since June 4, the enemy’s losses have amounted to more than 26,000 military and 3,000 units of various weapons,” Defense Minister stressed. Russian army decimated 21 Ukrainian aircraft, 5 helicopters, over 1200 tanks and other armored vehicles, including 17 Leopards.

He stressed that Kiev continues to unsuccessfully try to break through the defense of the Russian military in different directions, and several waves of attacks have been launched in two days, the minister said. “They are actively fighting, trying to break through our defenses in different directions. Just over the past two days, several waves of attacks have been launched,” the minister said. High-precision strikes of the Russian military against the reserves of the Ukrainian military, including Western equipment, significantly reduce the offensive potential of the enemy, the minister concluded. Shoigu stressed that should the US supply Ukraine with cluster munitions, the Russian Armed Forces would use similar arms against Kiev militants. Sergey Shoigu added that the Russian Armed Forces launched its own counterattack in Krasny Liman direction and advanced 1.5 km.

The intelligence services of the United States and other NATO countries carefully monitor and analyze the results of the combat work of the Russian military, Shoigu stressed. “We know that the results of our combat work are carefully monitored and analyzed by foreign intelligence services, primarily the United States and NATO countries,” Shoigu said. Western intelligence agencies note the high efficiency of the defense of the Russian armed forces, minefields, preemptive airstrikes, as well as the highest resilience of the Russian military and the prompt response measures of commanders, the minister concluded. Russian President Vladimir Putin carefully monitors the situation – he is is briefed twice a day by the command of the Combined Group, as well as individual commanders with detailed reports on the current situation of the special military operation, Shoigu said.

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“Joe Biden is needlessly and dangerously leading us into World War three, which would be a nightmare beyond imagination—obliteration!”

• Trump Slams Biden Over Cluster Bombs For Ukraine (RT)

In sending Kiev cluster bombs, the US government is “dragging us further toward World War Three,” former US president Donald Trump warned on Tuesday. President Joe Biden “should be trying to end the war and stop the horrific death and destruction being caused by an incompetent administration,” Trump said in a statement posted on his Truth Social platform. The 45th US president objected to the use of cluster munitions on both humanitarian and strategic grounds, pointing to the fact that unexploded ordnance “will be killing and maiming innocent Ukrainian men, women, and children for decades to come,” long after the war has ended.

Trump also called out Biden’s statement, made in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria over the weekend, that cluster munitions were being sent because the US has run out of conventional 155mm artillery shells. If true, Trump retorted, this “only further emphasizes the urgency of immediately deescalating this bloody, dangerous, and out of control conflict.” “It certainly means we should not be sending Ukraine our last stockpiles at a time when our own arsenals, according to Crooked Joe Biden, are so perilously diminished,” the former president added, arguing that Biden’s policy of “endless war” in Ukraine has “tremendously weakened” the US.

“Joe Biden is needlessly and dangerously leading us into World War three, which would be a nightmare beyond imagination—obliteration!” Trump said. Trump, who currently leads the polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, vowed to achieve “peace through strength” once he returns to office after the next election. The White House announced last week it would send dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) artillery shells to Ukraine. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told reporters that the danger the munitions, which are banned in over 100 countries, pose to civilians was diminished because a Russian victory in the conflict would be far worse. He also accused Russia of having used the weapons in Ukraine.

Moscow has denied the US allegations. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday that if any US cluster munitions make it to Ukraine, the Russian military will respond with equivalent weapons of its own that are “much more effective” and “diverse.” The US offer of cluster munitions has been condemned by the UN, NATO allies such as the UK, Canada and Spain, as well as members of Biden’s own party in the US House of Representatives. “Either cluster bombs are bad, or they are not bad. You can’t determine the value of a cluster bomb based on who’s being blown up by it,” comedian and podcast host Russell Brand said on Tuesday.

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“It is NATO that has pushed the Kiev regime this far..”

• NATO Neck Deep In Ukraine Conflict Due To Weapons Pipeline – Zakharova (TASS)

NATO is deeply involved in the conflict in Ukraine through the bloc’s provision of weapons, mercenaries, funds and intelligence to Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview with Qatar’s Al Jazeera television. “Do you really think that NATO is not at war with Russia? In fact, it’s NATO that provides all of the weapons, fighters, mercenaries, instructors, advisors and intelligence data to the Kiev regime. NATO is definitely involved in these military activities; there is no doubt about it. It is NATO that has pushed the Kiev regime this far,” she noted.


On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation based on a request from the heads of the Donbass republics amid escalating tensions in the region, with the authorities in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) reporting some of the heaviest Ukrainian shelling up to that time. In response, the West imposed major sanctions on Russia. In addition, Western countries started to provide weapons and military equipment to Kiev, the aggregate value of which is currently estimated in the billions of dollars. However, the Kiev authorities have repeatedly demanded that Ukrainian forces be provided with yet more weapons and more advanced equipment, long-range missiles and aircraft.

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Operation Barbarossa.

• Underestimate Russia at Your Own Risk (NC)

In honor of the NATO summit July 11 and 12, this is a comparison of how the Nazi leadership in World War Two and today’s collective West similarly underestimated Russia and overestimated their capabilities. Despite Russia’s overwhelming upper hand in Ukraine, Western officials and media continue to largely pump sunshine and weave stories of Russian collapse. There are increasing breaks in the fever, and it looks like maybe, hopefully the acceptance of the loss is gaining traction in Washington. Meanwhile, the unwillingness or inability for hardliners to objectively assess efforts against Russia occurs today just as it did during Operation Barbarossa. As Seymour Hersh writes:

“There is an enormous gap between the way the professionals in the American intelligence community assess the situation and what the White House and the supine Washington press project to the public by uncritically reproducing the statements of Blinken and his hawkish cohorts.” This too is reminiscent of the Nazi offensive against the Soviet Union when the failure was hidden from the German public. Adding to the similarities is the fact that both the Third Reich command and today’s officials in the West simultaneously downplay Russia’s military capabilities while endlessly hyping the threat from Moscow. Hitler, similar to so many Western “experts” and officials today, mocked Russia’s supposed backwardness while also hyping the threat “Slavic Bolshevism” posed to the West.

The progression of his comments show him seesawing between a reluctant acceptance and desperate hope as his miscalculations of Russia slowly dawn on him. It’s a path today’s governments in the West are still discovering. On the other hand, Goebbel’s diary entries are faster to admit that Operation Barbarossa was a disaster. Prior to the operation, he writes how there is no way the USSR could hope to oppose “the strongest army in all of history” and adds that “I consider the Russian military force to be very weak, even weaker than the Fuhrer believes. If anything is a sure thing, it is this.”

Indeed, German high command anticipated a quick collapse of Soviet resistance along the lines of the Blitzkrieg in Poland, but within a few weeks of the launch of the German offensive, it’s clear that Berlin underestimated the Russians. And the winter of 1941-42 saw the Nazi war machine stopped 12 miles short of Moscow and then driven back. It was all downhill from there. Despite evidence that Russian resistance was much more capable than anticipated, Hitler continues to talk of Russian inferiority and a breakup of the country for months before a realization of the situation begins to set in. Read in tandem with Goebbels’ more honest diary entries, it calls to mind today’s battle within the Blob between the realists and anti-Russian fanatics.

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“You’d think he’d have taken an offramp at that point. Nope, not Rambo here.”

• US Trying To Use Foreign Mercenaries To Plug Gaps In Ukraine (Marsden)

Western mercenaries from countries other than the US are dying for Washington’s interests while President Joe Biden warns Americans themselves to stay away. Most of the foreign mercenaries in Ukraine at this point aren’t American, according to Russia’s Channel One news. It’s actually Poland and Canada that lead the charge, with the US coming in third. And now reports are starting to emerge of US intelligence attempting to fill the void with even more foreign recruits to fight for US interests against Russia in Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense estimates that about 2,000 of the approximately 7,000 ‘volunteers’ have been killed. Recent reporting reveals a troubling trend among Western mercenary deaths: combatants whose military experience is virtually non-existent.

Presumably it all looked like good Hollywood action hero fun from afar — until the bullets started whizzing by. In a story published in May about two Canadian mercenaries who volunteered for Ukraine’s “International Legion” and were killed in the Artyomovsk (named Bakhmut by Ukraine) battle, the CBC revealed that one had previously served in the Canadian Forces as a medic and had been photographed working in search and rescue in Kharkov. Kyle Porter, a 27-year old from Calgary, had been in touch with Canada’s state broadcaster. “Let me figure out how I am going to survive the next few days,” he wrote. “It was a meat grinder the first time and I’m not expecting it any better this time around.” You’d think he’d have taken an offramp at that point. Nope, not Rambo here.

The question that everyone should be asking is how on earth Canadians, whose combat experience amounts to administering band-aids and applying tourniquets, could subsequently end up serving on the front lines — all while the Canadian government seemingly just shrugs. We’re talking here about a government that legislated zero-risk against overwhelmingly survivable Covid, but now can’t even be bothered to save unprepared Canadians from a much more likely death in Ukraine. Last May, the CBC reported on yet another Canadian veteran, identified only as “Shadow,” describing how he and his colleagues had repeatedly come under fire in the Donbas.

While “Shadow” might seem like a code name for a main character in a Hollywood movie about a badass who goes around single-handedly meting out justice, in reality he’s a meteorological technician who “experienced combat for the first time as a volunteer in Ukraine,” according to the report. The weather guy probably shouldn’t be placed in a position to be “blown out of their sniper’s nest by a shell.” For all his weather expertise, Shadow doesn’t seem to be too well-versed in grand chess geopolitics either. “If NATO had stepped in, the war would have been done in like less than a week, but because everyone sat back and watched, well, we are seeing all those civilians dying,” he told the CBC. Actually, direct NATO military confrontation with Russia would have resulted in World War III, and probably a few more civilian deaths than Shadow imagines.

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“..the US reduced in a few short years to a broke, socially disordered, marginalized power susceptible to its own political breakup..”

• The Blob Begins to Quiver (Kunstler)

One likely, reality-based alternative is to stand by and let Russia complete its Special Military Operation to pacify and neutralize Ukraine. The prevailing theory is that this would be the end of America’s world dominance militarily, and effectively the end of NATO, but also the end financially for the US, as the non-West abandons the dollar. In that scenario, the BRICs dump their trillions in US bond holdings, sending all that putative “money” back to America, stoking a king-hell inflation, effectively bankrupting us. It would be the final fruit of the disastrous “Joe Biden” regime imposed on us via election fraud by the Blob: the US reduced in a few short years to a broke, socially disordered, marginalized power susceptible to its own political breakup — not a tantalizing outcome, but perhaps better than turning the planet Earth into a smoldering ashtray.

That outcome would force our country to turn inward and face its own stupendous failures of honor, decency, and integrity. It would be the end of the Blob’s hegemony inside the USA. The question is whether the Blob sets America’s house on fire in the attempt to save itself and escape a legal accounting for its crimes. One kindling stack already burning is the pile-up of jive prosecutions aimed at Mr. Trump. You know that the attempt to kick him off the game-board using Special Counsel Jack Smith may easily lead to severe civil disorder, and possibly a counter-coup, a US first!

The current Mar-a-Lago “Doc Box” case is as much a complete fabrication as were RussiaGate and Impeachment Number One — Mr. Trump’s telephone inquiry to Ukraine about the Biden family grifting operations there, now firmly documented to be true. An upright judge would summarily dismiss the Mar-a-Lago case and slam sanctions on the US attorneys involved, including disbarment and criminal investigation for mounting a maliciously fraudulent prosecution. AG Merrick Garland and his deputy, Lisa Monaco, obviously would have some ‘splainin’ to do, possibly before juries.

A long list of public figures populating the Blob await a reckoning: Hillary and Bill Clinton and their retainers, Barack Obama and retinue, John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, Christopher Wray (plus Rosenstein, Strzok, McCabe, Carlin, Ohr, Mueller, Weissmann, Horowitz, Atkinson, Ciaramella, Vindman), Rep. Adam Schiff, Senator Mark Warner, William Barr, Avril Haines, Marie Yovanovitch, William Burns, James Boasberg, Marc Elias, Michael Bromwich, David Laufman, Alejandro Mayorkas, Xavier Baccerra, Anthony Fauci, Rochelle Walensky, Francis Collins, Lloyd Austin. Mark Milley, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Ron Klain, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney… the list goes way on, but there’s a start.

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“COVID-19 vaccines, legal issues involving President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and election fraud allegations were among the topics spotlighted in the lawsuit..“

• Judge Refuses Hold On Order Limiting Admin Contact With Social Media (AP)

The Biden administration asked a federal appeals court Monday to temporarily block a lower court’s order limiting executive branch officials’ discussions with social media companies about controversial online posts. The request for an emergency stay was filed at the 5th U.S. District Court of Appeals shortly after U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty rejected an administration motion that he put his own July 4 order on hold. The order came in a lawsuit filed by Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, as well as a conservative website owner and four individual critics of government COVID-19 policies. The lawsuit claimed the administration, in effect, censored free speech by using threats of regulatory action or protection while pressuring companies to remove what it deemed misinformation.

COVID-19 vaccines, legal issues involving President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and election fraud allegations were among the topics spotlighted in the lawsuit. Doughty was nominated to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump. His injunction blocked the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI and multiple other government agencies and administration officials from meeting with or contacting social media companies for the purpose of “encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” Administration attorneys said in the motion filed at the 5th Circuit that Doughty’s ruling was too broad and vague, and had the potential to chill government officials’ speech on important matters.

And they said Doughty failed to point to any evidence that the administration had made threats against social media companies to coerce them to take down posts. “The district court identified no evidence suggesting that a threat accompanied any request for the removal of content. Indeed, the order denying the stay — presumably highlighting the ostensibly strongest evidence — referred to ‘a series of public media statements,’” the administration said. They asked that the 5th Circuit block Doughty’s order while the case is pursued at the appeals court in New Orleans or, at minimum, grant a 10-day block of the order so the administration could prepare to go to the Supreme Court to seek a longer stay.

Earlier Monday, Doughty rejected administration requests that he stay his own order pending appeal. “In essence,” Doughty’s Monday order said, “Defendants argue that the injunction should be stayed because it might interfere with the Government’s ability to continue working with social-media companies to censor Americans’ core political speech on the basis of viewpoint. In other words, the Government seeks a stay of the injunction so that it can continue violating the First Amendment.”

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“..the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution now has liquid assets worth $1,200 less than they did before covid..”

• The Truth About Bidenomics: More Debt, More Inflation (Lacalle)

Estimates of United States growth have improved but remain massively below the Federal Reserve projections. After the largest monetary and fiscal stimulus in recent years, growth remains well below trend, and debt is significantly higher. It is interesting to hear Janet Yellen say that “trickle-down economics did not work” when this is the failed trickle-down: massive government deficit spending leads to negative real wage growth and weaker GDP.Current consensus real GDP growth for 4Q23 stands at 0.2 percent, significantly lower than the median projection of one percent in the FOMC’s June Summary of Economic Projections. The latest figure, for example, shows evidence of headline strength hiding weakness in the details.

New durable-goods orders surged in May, but this headline growth disguised that core capital-goods orders were revised down again. Even if we consider the optimistic assumptions of the Biden administration, which assume a two percent per annum GDP growth until 2032 and 3.8 percent unemployment, the United States federal government deficit would not fall below five percent of GDP even in 2032. That is a deficit that rises from $1.1 trillion in 2023 to $2.01 trillion in 2032, an accumulated deficit between 2023 and 2032 of $15.46 trillion. That is a 106 percent debt to GDP, according to the Biden administration calculations even with very bullish estimates of growth that consider no recession or stagnation in the entire forecast period.

One of the biggest problems of this neo-Keynesian approach to government budgets is that it leaves households with less money in real terms, and the “anti-inflation” measures increase debt and inflation. Take the American Rescue Plan. It was supposed to be the helicopter money solution to the crisis, giving families cash and supporting consumption through the pandemic. Adjusted for inflation, Bloomberg Economics estimates the average household in the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution now has liquid assets worth $1,200 less than they did before covid. You wanted the stimulus check? With printed money? You paid for it multiple times over in higher inflation. The other key policy items of the Biden administration, the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, were created to incentivize aggregate demand and boost investment in areas where the private sector seemed to be underinvesting. However, it was not the case.

The problem is that the government does not have more or better information about the requirements of the real economy, assumes erroneously that the private sector did not invest because of some flaw in the market, and these massive federal expenditure programs generate more inflation as they add artificial demand created with newly printed units of currency to an economy that is already working at full capacity and full employment. Thus, it puts more fuel to the fire of inflation. Bloomberg Economics warns that “If successful, the benefits of these projects will play out in the long term – and other deliverables, like reduced dependence on China and lower carbon emissions, won’t show up directly in the GDP data. In the near term, our view is that the costs in terms of higher inflation and recession risks offset the benefits and may even outweigh them”. Even if we assume a benign view of multiplier effects, the result is that these plans accelerate the risk of a recession by artificially tightening an already strong labor market and putting more pressure on supply chains.

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Andrey Kostin does the warning.

• Putin Issues Warning About US Banking System (RT)

The increase in the level of sovereignty and independence of the Russian banking sector has been quite timely, given the negative trends that are growing globally, namely in the US banking system, Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated. Putin was meeting with Andrey Kostin, the CEO of Russia’s second-largest bank, VTB, who assured the president that the country’s banking sector was secure. “Regarding anti-Russia sanctions, we have probably become somewhat immune because of them, and we have enhanced our sovereignty in this field,” Kostin told the Russian leader in Kremlin on Tuesday. “Look at what is now happening in the United States. This is virtually the largest financial and banking crisis since 2008, and it is already spreading to Europe,” the Russian top banker noted, adding “that sanctions against Russia are a double-edged sword.”


By imposing economic restrictions against Moscow, the West has “demolished the global trade system and caused an inflation surge,” while its attempts to resolve this problem by standard methods devalued bank assets, Kostin pointed out. The Russian banking sector is feeling “quite safe,” the VTB chief executive maintained, adding that he believes there won’t be any problems, “although we incurred certain losses last year when our property was simply taken away from us.” Putin, who has previously named economic sovereignty as the country’s top priority, agreed with Kostin, saying: “Perhaps what you have said about raising the level of independence and sovereignty is rather timely, considering greater negative trends in the US banking system.” The Russian president has earlier stated that the country’s economy was successfully withstanding the outside pressure, warning that Western sanctions will have a boomerang effect.

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Blumenthal
https://twitter.com/i/status/1678783695388286977

 

 

Tucker Tate

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle July 11 2023

Jul 112023
 
 July 11, 2023  Posted by at 9:11 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  65 Responses »


Gustave Doré Over London — By Rail 1872 (woodblock)

 

• China Ready To Contribute To Build Stable World Jointly With Russia – Xi (TASS)
• 41+ Countries Returning To Gold Standard (QTR)
• Anti-Russian Sanctions Spooking Countries Into Repatriating Gold Reserves (RT)
• US, Europeans Depleted Their Weapons Stockpile Fighting Russia in Ukraine (Sp.)
• Vaudevillian Visitors in Vilnius (Sp.)
• Zelensky Can Expect Military Aid Guarantees From NATO Summit at Best (Sp.)
• Ukraine In NATO Is ‘Path To Peace’ – FM (RT)
• US State Dept Has Become ‘Ministry Of Truth’ – Moscow (RT)
• Erdogan Ties Sweden’s NATO Bid To Türkiye’s EU Membership (RT)
• Putin Held Meeting With Prigozhin, Wagner Commanders June 29 -Kremlin (Sp.)
• Prigozhin’s War (Lauria)
• US Cluster Munitions to Ukraine Can Lead to Humanitarian Problems – China (Sp.)
• Ukraine Stepping Up Mercenary Recruitment Effort – Russian MOD (RT)
• Welcome to Zuckerberg’s Vision of Internet “Kindness” (Turley)
• UK Parents Prosecuted for Refusing to Pay for Transgender Treatments? (Turley)

 

 

 

 

Baby myocarditis
https://twitter.com/i/status/1678475139841662996

 

 

 

 

Luft
https://twitter.com/i/status/1678528304616226816

 

 

BRICS

 

 

 

 

“..mutual assistance, deep integration, innovation and pioneering, as well as mutual benefit.”

• China Ready To Contribute To Build Stable World Jointly With Russia – Xi (TASS)

Beijing is ready to join efforts with Moscow to contribute to building a prosperous, stable and just world order, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said on Monday. “China is ready to continue working with Russia <…> in order to contribute to developing and reviving both countries as well as to build a prosperous, stable and just world order,” China’s CCTV quoted Xi as saying at a meeting with Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko in Beijing. Xi said that, in the new era, his country was ready to continue developing the comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation with Russia which imply “mutual assistance, deep integration, innovation and pioneering, as well as mutual benefit.”

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“That’s one she’s going to want to take back at some point, I’m certain.”

• 41+ Countries Returning To Gold Standard (QTR)

Remember back when the Russia/Ukraine war had just started, and I predicted that Russia and China would launch their own gold backed currency? At the time, this idea sounded completely foreign, and I was ridiculed for bringing it up. Today, it just become reality. 41+ countries look like they could be returning to a gold standard. The images plastered all over RT this weekend had headlines like “New Money, New World” and “Gold Standard Will Be Of Great Benefit To Strengthening New Singly Currency”. “The official announcement is expected to be made during the BRICS summit in August in South Africa,” Kitco reported over the weekend. “At first glance, a new transaction unit, backed by gold, sounds like good money – and it could be, first and foremost, a major challenge to the US dollar’s hegemony,” Thorsten Polleit, chief economist at Degussa, said.

He continued: “For making the new currency as good as gold, a truly sound currency, it must be convertible into gold on demand. I am not sure whether this is what Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have in mind. Using gold as money, the unit of account would be a true game changer, no doubt about it. It could lead to a sharp devaluation of many fiat currencies vis-à-vis the yellow metal (including the BRICS fiat currencies), and it could catapult up goods prices in terms of fiat currencies. It could be a shock to the global fiat money system. I am not sure that this is what the BRICS wish to achieve.” The official announcement of the new currency is expected in August during the BRICS summit in South Africa.

Even more shocking than the announcement is the cavalier attitude that United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appears to be taking to the news. In statements I can only describe as completely delusional, Yellen said this weekend: “I just want to reiterate what I’ve said in the past, which is I think the United States can rest assured that the dollar is going to play the dominant role in facilitating international transactions and serving as a reserve currency in the years ahead. I don’t see that role being threatened by any development including the one that you’ve mentioned [BRICS common currency].” That’s one she’s going to want to take back at some point, I’m certain.

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“’If it’s my gold then I want it in my country’”

• Anti-Russian Sanctions Spooking Countries Into Repatriating Gold Reserves (RT)

An increasing number of countries are bringing home their bullion reserves in the wake of unprecedented sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, Reuters reported on Monday, citing an Invesco survey of central bank and sovereign wealth funds.According to the report, widespread losses for sovereign money managers resulting from last year’s financial market rout made them “fundamentally”rethink their strategies amid fears of higher inflation and further geopolitical tensions. The survey showed that over 85% of the participating 85 sovereign wealth funds and 57 central banks believe that inflation will now be higher in the coming decade than in the last.

A “substantial share” of central banks were reportedly concerned by the precedent set by sanctions on Russia. Almost 60% of respondents said it had made gold more attractive, while 68% were keeping reserves at home, compared with 50% in 2020. “’If it’s my gold then I want it in my country’ (has) been the mantra we have seen in the last year or so,”according to Invesco’s head of official institutions, Rod Ringrow, who oversaw the report. Confirming Ringrow’s assessment, one central bank told Reuters anonymously: “We did have it (gold) held in London… but now we’ve transferred it back to [our] own country to hold as a safe haven asset and to keep it safe.”

Nearly half of Russia’s $640 billion worth of gold and forex reserves were frozen by the West last year, included in numerous rounds of sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine. Moscow has condemned the freezing of its assets, describing the West’s plans to expropriate those funds as theft and warning of retaliatory measures. The Ivesco study showed that geopolitical concerns, combined with opportunities in emerging markets, have also triggered a shift among some central banks away from the US dollar. Of those surveyed, 7% reportedly believe that mounting US debt is also negative for the greenback, but most still see no alternative to the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

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The military industrial complex is making a killing.

• US, Europeans Depleted Their Weapons Stockpile Fighting Russia in Ukraine (Sp.)

The US and Europe may have the military budgets which far outstrip those of their global rivals, but there are multiple factors helping to explain their depletion and inability to expand production, retired. Major General Vallely, the chairman of the Stand Up America Foundation, a US advocacy and non-profit, told Sputnik. “As you know, when the Americans surrendered in Afghanistan, we left $85 billion-worth of equipment, ammunition, guns, tanks, helicopters, artillery. $85 billion is a lot. That would arm an entire country for years,” Vallely explained. Secondly, the US defense sectors “sells a lot of equipment to other countries – some 50 different countries,” which means not all its resources can be concentrated on one task, like flooding arms into Ukraine.

“And the third reason is the amount that we have sent into Ukraine, including what we called ‘prepositioned’ equipment in Europe. Those resources are depleted. So the American defense industry can’t keep up with demand now. We don’t have the manufacturing capability to keep up with what’s being used and what is needed in the future. The same goes for the European countries,” the senior officer said, pointing out that much of the weapons and equipment given to Kiev over the past year-and-a-half have been destroyed. Vallely also pointed to political, economic and social factors to account for the shortfall, saying many NATO countries, particularly in Europe, “are sort of reluctant” to keep pumping their military equipment into Ukraine with no end in sight.

Instead, they’ve actually “slowed down their production, I think, and also the amount of supplies that they’re giving Ukraine, because they want to keep a lot of that, at least some for themselves. So those are all reasons why we see this shortage and it’s going to continue,” he said. Major European NATO powers such as Germany, Italy and the UK have spent months warning that the stocks of weapons they have left after splurging on Ukraine would be enough to withstand just “48-72 hours” of combat in the event of a surprise invasion or other major conflagration. In the UK, defense officials complained privately back in January that the military had been “hollowed out” by arms shipments to Kiev, and London’s reluctance to up defense expenditures.

In spite of talk among NATO members about record defense budgets, Vallely doesn’t expect the alliance to be able to substantially ramp up production capabilities over the coming months and years. “I don’t think they want to. It costs the countries a lot of money to build this equipment. And you have an ailing economy in Europe and the United States. They can print all the money they want to, but still you have to build these things and it takes a lot of time,” he said. On top of that are resource constraints, including the rare-earth minerals the US has come to rely on China for but which Beijing has recently indicated it would be trimming down amid the ongoing trade war with Washington, Vallely said.

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NATO must deliver this week. But all they have is words. Bonuspoint for the headline.

• Vaudevillian Visitors in Vilnius (Sp.)

The crisis in Ukraine is in many respects the consequence of the Western alliance’s decade-and-a-half long quest to pull Kiev into the bloc, despite repeated warnings by Russia that Ukrainian NATO membership was a “red line” for Moscow. The alliance first welcomed Ukraine’s “Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership” at its 2008 summit in Bucharest, Romania. Two years later, the pro-Western government in Kiev was replaced in democratic elections by the government of Viktor Yanukovych, who pledged Kiev’s bloc neutrality. Four years after that, in 2014, Yanukovych was overthrown in a US-backed coup d’etat, with the crisis prompting Crimea to break off from Ukraine and rejoin Russia, and sparking a bloody conflict in Donbass. Moscow attempted to mediate the crisis over eight years through the Minsk peace accords, a comprehensive, 12-point peace deal calling for broad autonomy for Donbass as part of Ukraine.


Successive governments in Kiev dragged their feet on the Minsk deal’s implementation. In the meantime, in 2019, Ukraine’s parliament amended the country’s constitution to cement Kiev’s aspirations to join NATO and the European Union. In December 2021, as war clouds gathered over Donbass, Moscow attempted one final push to prevent the escalation of the Ukraine crisis into a Russia-NATO proxy conflict, proposing comprehensive security agreements to the US and the alliance to reduce tensions, including a request for a commitment from the Western alliance not to allow Ukraine to join the bloc. The alliance refused, saying it would never reject its “open door” policy. Several weeks later, amid Russian intelligence reports that Kiev would try to resolve the Donbass crisis by force, Moscow kicked off its special military operation.

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“NATO member states cannot use security guarantees as an alternative to Ukraine’s membership in the bloc.”

• Zelensky Can Expect Military Aid Guarantees From NATO Summit at Best (Sp.)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can expect from the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius on Ukraine’s admission to the alliance is guarantees of further military aid at best, Konstantin Gavrilov, the head of the Russian delegation at the military security and arms control talks in Vienna, said in an interview with Sputnik. Zelensky continues to bend his line that he needs Western weapons and military equipment under the pretext of a confrontation with Russia, the diplomat said, adding that is why Zelensky has long hinted that he would like an accelerated process of joining NATO. The UK and the US, however, have made it clear that the necessary criteria must be met for this.


“The best that Zelensky can expect [from the summit] is guarantees of further military assistance and supplies of ammunition,” Gavrilov said, adding that “the fact that a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council will be held during the NATO summit is just a nod to Kiev and nothing more.” On Monday Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that “NATO member states cannot use security guarantees as an alternative to Ukraine’s membership in the bloc.” The Lithuanian capital city of Vilnius will host the NATO summit from July 11-12. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will chair the meeting. Discussions on Ukraine’s NATO prospects, strengthening the alliance’s eastern flank and defense spending are expected to top the summit’s agenda. On June 19, Stoltenberg said that the summit would not discuss a formal invitation, but rather ways to “move Ukraine closer to NATO.”

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War is peace.

• Ukraine In NATO Is ‘Path To Peace’ – FM (RT)

Inviting Kiev into NATO will create peace in Europe, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba argued on Monday, during an interview with the German public broadcaster ARD. Kiev was “promised entry” in 2008, but Germany and other Western European countries got cold feet, Kuleba told the Tagesschau newscast on Monday. The upcoming Vilnius summit of the US-led military bloc is the time to correct that “mistake,” he added.“We appreciate everything that Germany and the US are doing for Ukraine to support us in this war,” Kuleba added, but disagreed with Berlin that the invitation into NATO would drag the West into open war with Russia. The invitation is simple “a political message to Ukraine” and Article 5 – the mutual defense clause – “only applies if Ukraine is a member country.”

“Ukraine’s NATO membership is a path towards peace. Once Ukraine can join NATO, there will be no more wars in Europe,” Kuleba claimed, because “Russia will no longer dare to attack the alliance.” Although Kiev’s bid is strongly supported by the Eastern European and Baltic states, the leaders of Western Europe and the US have opposed making Ukraine a full-fledged NATO member. In a CNN interview over the weekend, US President Joe Biden reiterated that Washington is against admitting Ukraine into NATO and offered “Israel-like guarantees” instead. “Why does everyone always want to put Ukraine in a separate pot?” lamented Kuleba. “Why are people always looking for alternative solutions? Why can’t we simply develop a holistic solution for a European security architecture in which Ukraine sits in the NATO boat?”

He went on to insist that Ukraine is “a win” and not a burden, because “without our army, the eastern flank [of NATO] could not be defended at all.” Kiev will not accept guarantees as a replacement for membership, Kuleba added, but only as an interim measure. The US and its allies have spent over $100 billion just in 2022 to provide Ukraine with weapons, equipment, ammunition and even cash, while insisting they were not a party to the conflict with Russia. Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov has argued on multiple occasions that his country was already “de facto” a member of the Western alliance and “carrying out NATO’s mission” with theblood of Ukrainian soldiers.

No NATO membership for Ukraine was one of the key demands in Russia’s collective security proposal sent to Washington and Brussels in December 2021. Biden also revealed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had presented that condition at their July 2021 summit in Switzerland – but that he refused, citing NATO’s open-door policy. Moscow considers NATO’s eastward expansion as a threat to Russia’s national security and has cited Kiev’s ties to the bloc as one of the root causes of the current armed conflict with Ukraine. Russian officials have argued that Ukraine’s neutrality would be one of the necessary prerequisites for a lasting peace between the two countries.

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Yup, more Orwell.

• US State Dept Has Become ‘Ministry Of Truth’ – Moscow (RT)

US authorities are urging the country’s media outlets to propagate falsehoods about Russia in a bid to undermine its stability amid the ongoing stand-off between Moscow and the West, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has claimed. In a statement on Monday, the agency quoted its director, Sergey Naryshkin, as saying that “the US State Department … basically dictates to the American media what exactly they should write and say,” adding that it “has finally turned into the ‘Ministry of Truth’.” The comment was an apparent reference to the fictional ministry tasked with falsifying historical events from George Orwell’s world-renowned dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’.

The SVR, citing intelligence data, claimed that last month the department sent instructions to several major media holdings, including AT&T, Comcast Corporation, Graham Media Group, Nash Holdings, Newsweek Publishing and The New York Times Company, telling them to “reflect events in and around Russia in a distorted manner.” According to the agency, these outlets were tasked with convincing Russian citizens that there was a need for a “forceful struggle against the authorities, up to an armed rebellion.” They also wanted to “involve the population in protest actions” by “actively circulating falsehoods” about Russia’s purported weakness and its “inevitable defeat in the stand-off with the West,” the statement read.

To achieve this goal, Washington has told media organizations to focus on packaging certain narratives to young Russians, as well as hailing Russian opposition figures and other nationals engaged “in sabotage and terrorist actions” against Moscow as heroes, the agency claimed. “There is nothing new in freedom of speech being trampled on in the West. It is unfortunate that the State Department, which used to be a sober-minded and rational agency … has turned into a stinking landfill of informational garbage,” the SVR added. The statement comes after Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov predicted in April that the level of “external interference” into Russia’s domestic affairs would only grow amid the Ukraine conflict. He also suggested that the West would be interested in derailing Russia’s presidential elections, which are scheduled for March 2024.

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The EU will never accept a muslim nation as a member.

• Erdogan Ties Sweden’s NATO Bid To Türkiye’s EU Membership (RT)

Ankara will sign off on Sweden’s accession to NATO if the EU “opens the way” to membership for Türkiye, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday. Erdogan has reportedly asked US President Joe Biden to help pressure Brussels into accepting Türkiye into the European bloc. “Türkiye has been waiting at the door of the European Union for over 50 years now, and almost all of the NATO member countries are now members of the European Union,” Erdogan told reporters before flying to NATO’s summit in Lithuania. “Come and open the way for Türkiye’s membership in the European Union. When you pave the way for Türkiye, we’ll pave the way for Sweden as we did for Finland,” he added.

Sweden, Finland, and Türkiye agreed last summer that Ankara would approve the two Nordic nations’ applications for NATO membership if both granted a number of key concessions to Ankara. Sweden and Finland promised that they would lift arms embargoes on Türkiye, extradite alleged Kurdish and Gulenist terrorists, and crack down on the activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) within their borders. Türkiye’s parliament signed off on Finland’s application in March, but Erdogan maintains that Sweden hasn’t fulfilled its end of the bargain. In a phone call with Biden on Sunday, the Turkish president claimed that Sweden still allows “terrorist organizations” – referring to the PKK – to demonstrate on its streets, according to a readout of the call from Ankara.

Erdogan also told Biden that Türkiye expects a “clear and strong message of support” from NATO leaders for its EU membership at this week’s summit in Lithuania. A readout of the call from the White House made no mention of this request. Erdogan is set to hold talks with Biden and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson while in Lithuania. sAsked about Erdogan’s comments, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the Associated Press that Türkiye’s accession to the EU was not a part of the deal that Sweden, Finland, and Türkiye signed last year.

Stoltenberg insisted that Sweden has fulfilled its obligations, and that it is “still possible to have a positive decision” on its accession to the military bloc during this week’s summit. Türkiye applied for EU membership in 1987 and was recognized as a candidate in 1999. Membership negotiations opened in 2005, but progress was slow, and no talks have taken place since 2016. Brussels has since condemned Erdogan over alleged human rights abuses, and the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament warned in a 2017 report that constitutional reforms strengthening his powers could run afoul of EU law and threaten Ankara’s membership bid.

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“Putin listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them further employment options..”

• Putin Held Meeting With Prigozhin, Wagner Commanders June 29 -Kremlin (Sp.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting in the Kremlin with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner PMC and the group’s commanders to discuss the events of June 24, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. “Indeed, the president had such a meeting. He invited 35 people to it. All group commanders and company management, including Prigozhin. This meeting took place in the Kremlin on June 29 and lasted almost three hours,” Peskov told a briefing. The details of the meeting are confidential, but both Putin and Wagner commanders gave an assessment of the June 24 events, the spokesman said.

“The only thing we can say is that the president gave an assessment of the company’s actions at the front line during the special military operation, and also gave his assessment of the events of June 24. Putin listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them further employment options,” Peskov said. Commanders of Wagner told Putin that they are his staunch supporters and are ready to continue fighting for Russia, the spokesman concluded. On June 23, forces of the Wagner Group (PMC) seized the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District in the city of Rostov-on-Don, following accusations leveled against the Russian Ministry of Defense for allegedly striking the group’s camps. Both the Russian military and the Federal Security Service have denied the allegations.

The next day, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko revealed that he had spent the entire day negotiating with Yevgeny Prigozhin, as agreed upon with Russian President Vladimir Putin. As a result of the talks, the Wagner group leader accepted Lukashenko’s proposal to stop the movement of his troops in Russia and take measures to de-escalate the situation. Putin guaranteed that the Wagner group fighters would have the opportunity to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, return home, or move to Belarus.

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“..Western governments and pundits clearly suffered more embarrassment from this episode than Putin did..”

• Prigozhin’s War (Lauria)

MacGregor disagreed that the former Wagner chief was in cahoots with Russia’s enemies. He said: “I see no evidence that Mr. Prigozhin was made an agent by MI6 or the CIA or anybody else. Anybody who knows the Russians knows that any senior officer or commander or leader is surrounded by numerous FSB informants. The idea that he could have sold out even if he wanted to seems ludicrous.” Ritter pointed out in his CN piece that the Russian government is investigating the matter. If Prigozhin was indeed working for Western or Ukrainian intelligence they clearly did not get what they paid for. Lessons: For Russia: Don’t repeat the mistake of hiring a private army. Several analysts pointed to a 500-year old lesson from Niccolo Machiavelli that Russia ignored:

“Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful. … I wish to demonstrate further the infelicity of these arms [i.e., mercenaries]. The mercenary captains are either capable men or they are not; if they are, you cannot trust them, because they always aspire to their own greatness, either by oppressing you, who are their master, or others contrary to your intentions; but if the captain [i.e., the leader of the mercenaries] is not skillful, you are ruined in the usual way [i.e., you will lose the war].”

MacGregor disputed the whole idea. He told Galloway: “I reject the notion that these people are mercenaries. I would compare them to the French Foreign Legion. The French Foreign Legion consists of large numbers of non Frenchmen in many cases, but they have sworn allegiance to the French state and the French nation, and no one has fought harder and more loyally for France than the French Foreign Legion. I would say you have something very similar in the Wagner group.= These are still Russians overwhelmingly, but there are numbers of Serbs or some Germans or others in the group, and they too have sworn allegiance to the Russian state. And as far as we can tell, none of them thought that they were marching on Moscow to remove Putin.

On the contrary, they saw themselves as going to Moscow to rescue Putin from what was widely considered bad advisors, bad councilors who have held up the Russian offensive and caused this war to drag out beyond the point of reason.” Whether they were mercenaries or not, the Kremlin and the MOD tried to get away with a dodgy legal maneuver and it caused them international embarrassment and nearly a bloody civil conflict. Lessons: For the West: Wait until an operation is over before popping the corks. Cries about a Russian civil war being under way, such as tweets from former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, which blared that “The fight is now on. This is now a civil war,” blew up in their faces when Prigozhin turned tail.

The bigger lesson would be not to meddle in other nations’ internal affairs but that would be too much to ask. The entire Russian nation had rallied around Putin, leaving him in a much stronger position, exposing the continuing line that Russia is now a dangerously unstable nation. Western governments and pundits clearly suffered more embarrassment from this episode than Putin did. But ideologues rarely learn any lessons.

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A soft warning. China speaks in whispers.

• US Cluster Munitions to Ukraine Can Lead to Humanitarian Problems – China (Sp.)

Last week, the US unveiled a new military assistance package for Ukraine that includes cluster munitions. The weapons are banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which has been ratified by 123 countries, excluding the US and Ukraine. Supplies of cluster munitions by the United States to Ukraine may lead to humanitarian problems, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Monday. “Many countries have spoken out against it [cluster munition supplies], irresponsible transfers of cluster munitions can easily lead to humanitarian problems. Humanitarian issues and military security issues must be dealt with in a balanced manner, and the transfer of cluster munitions must be treated with restraint and caution,” Mao told reporters.

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“..a recruitment drive is underway in Argentina, Brazil, Afghanistan, Iraq, and areas of Syria that are “under American control.”

• Ukraine Stepping Up Mercenary Recruitment Effort – Russian MOD (RT)

Ukrainian units formed from foreign mercenaries have suffered high battlefield casualties, forcing Kiev to change its approach to finding hired fighters, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Monday. In a statement, the ministry alleged that the Ukrainian military command views foreign fighters as cannon fodder, sending them into the riskiest missions and placing them at the back of the line when it comes to the evacuation of injured troops. This has made recruiting fighters in European countries such as Poland much harder for Kiev, the assessment claimed. Ukraine has consequently ramped up efforts to find candidates in other parts of the world, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, which stated that a recruitment drive is underway in Argentina, Brazil, Afghanistan, Iraq, and areas of Syria that are “under American control.”

The reference to Syria likely concerns the predominantly Kurdish northeastern part of the country. The US supplied Kurdish militias with weapons, training and air support when they served as ground forces for the Washington-led coalition in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). The Pentagon also maintains a military base in eastern Syria, despite the objections of the government in Damascus. The Russian Defense Ministry further claimed that Ukraine’s diplomatic missions in the US and Canada are actively hiring fighters with the help of the CIA and private military contractors under its influence.

Ukraine created the so-called International Legion for what it describes as foreign volunteers fighting for its cause. Moscow considers the fighters to be mercenaries and has repeatedly said that the regular laws of war do not apply to them. The Russian Defense Ministry’s assessment on Monday put the number of foreign mercenaries currently employed by Kiev at 2,029. There are numerous accounts from foreign fighters describing the perils of joining the Ukrainian ranks, including mismanagement by military leaders, corruption with logistics, and the overwhelming risks of engaging Russian forces.

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I’m seeing Orwell eveywhere today:

“..they were unwilling to allow the safety of others “to go to the winds so that people can speak freely.”

• Welcome to Zuckerberg’s Vision of Internet “Kindness” (Turley)

“Threads’s rollout coincides with a court ruling that the government’s interventions to censor people on social media represented “the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.” Now, Facebook is offering an alternative to Twitter, with the assurance that users will be protected against any thoughts that Meta’s staff finds problematic. While free speech on Twitter is portrayed as harmful, the company has promised to “prioritize kindness.” That sounds eerily familiar to some of us as a way to deprioritize free speech. Recently, former Twitter executive Anika Collier Navaroli testified on how she and her staff would remove anything they considered “dog whistles” and “coded” messaging. Rather than using “kindness,” Twitter used undefined standards of “safety” to cancel free speech.

Navaroli declared that they were unwilling to allow the safety of others “to go to the winds so that people can speak freely.” Facebook has long tried to get the public to embrace its role as some kind of speech overlord. Years ago, Facebook rolled out an Orwellian commercial campaign to get the public to embrace censorship. The commercials showed young people heralding how they grew up on the internet and how the world was changing, creating a need for censorship under the guise of “content moderation.” Facebook, they promised, was offering the “blending of the real world and the internet world.”

Facebook is not alone in trying to get people to accept censorship. Recently, after the court ruling, various figures assured the public that they are better off letting corporate and government censors protect them from harmful thoughts. On CNN, Chief White House Correspondent Phil Mattingly went so far as to state that it simply “makes sense” for tech companies to go along with government censorship demands. After this week’s decision, the New York Times immediately issued a panicky tweet that the resulting outbreak of free speech could “curtail efforts to combat disinformation.” For his part, Zuckerberg prefers to just offer “kindness” and “sanity” with few details. Of course, there is a very simple way for Zuckerberg to show that he is committed to free speech: He can release the Facebook Files.

One of the reasons many of us in the free-speech community still support Musk is that he transformed the debate over government censorship by releasing the Twitter Files. For years, politicians and pundits dismissed objections from some of us to government-corporate coordination of censorship as unproven. In Congress, Democratic members attacked witnesses for supposedly lacking proof of censorship, even as they fought to block any investigation that might uncover that evidence. Musk changed all that by showing the public an extensive network of government interventions to support censorship and blacklisting of private citizens. Much of what we know today is derived from the Twitter Files, but surely there is more to learn.

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“The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the crown. It may be frail – its roof may shake – the wind may blow through it – the storm may enter – the rain may enter – but the King of England cannot enter.”

• UK Parents Prosecuted for Refusing to Pay for Transgender Treatments? (Turley)

According to the UK’s Code for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), abusive conduct now includes “withholding money for transitioning [and] refusing to use their preferred name or pronoun.” So a parent with familial or religious objections to the transitioning of a child would be required under the law to fund operations or treatments. According to the guidance material, this is not even “an exhausted list,” but some of the first “examples” of potentially criminal conduct that comes to mind. The guideline would suggest that parents with deep-seated religious convictions against transgender status would either have to fund an operation that they consider immoral or face arrest for failing to do so.

To potentially prosecute a parent for refusing to use an adopted pronoun of their child is chilling and wrong. Nevertheless, a CPS spokesperson doubled down with a comment to Fox News that “domestic abuse is a severe crime and leaves victims with a lasting impact . . . This assists prosecutors to ensure that any victim, regardless of who they are, can get justice for the abuse they have faced.” This follows the erosion of free speech and religious rights in Britain, including English courts upholding the criminalization “toxic ideologies.” It was Sir Edward Coke in The Institutes of the Laws of England, 1628 who declared “For a man’s house is his castle, et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium [and each man’s home is his safest refuge].” William Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham later added:

“The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the crown. It may be frail – its roof may shake – the wind may blow through it – the storm may enter – the rain may enter – but the King of England cannot enter.” That no longer appears the case when misusing pronouns or failing to write a check for a child’s transitioning, which will now be treated as the same as physical child abuse. As the definition of abuse is broadened, the state derives greater control and direction over family affairs and relations. Moreover, leaving enforcement to the discretion of police in this “nonexhaustive” list only further undermines this long-standing protection over internal family matters. The question is what the limiting principle will be as the state defines a wider array of conduct to be child abuse. The default assumption of Pitt appears to have flipped in the United Kingdom.

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RFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1678544638334967809

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle July 10 2023

Jul 102023
 
 July 10, 2023  Posted by at 9:06 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  58 Responses »


John Atkinson Grimshaw Liverpool from Wapping 1875

 

• Hunter Biden’s Decadent Lifestyle Is A Metaphor For US Society (Robert Bridge)
• Unlikely Trump-RFK Ticket Remains a Hot Topic (ET)
• How To Avoid The Worst Battlefield Defeat The US Has Suffered (Helmer)
• Ukrainian Counteroffensive Headed for ‘Disaster’ – Ex-US Marine (Sp.)
• Ukraine Reportedly Pulls Leopard 2s From Front, Low on Armor, Ammo (Sp.)
• Ukraine Pessimistic About Outcome Of NATO Summit In Vilnius (TASS)
• NATO Powers Race To Finish Security Pledges For Ukraine (RT)
• Paul Keating: NATO Chief A ‘Supreme Fool’, ‘Accident On Its Way To Happen’ (G.)
• White House Admits To Committing War Crimes In Ukraine – Russian Embassy (TASS)
• US Can End Ukraine Conflict In 5 Minutes By Ceding Territory – Zelensky (TASS)
• The Era of Nukes and No Diplomacy: ‘Crossing a Rubicon to Armageddon’ (SP)
• Biden Believes China Wants to ‘Replace US as Leading Power’ (Sp.)
• Peru Declares Health Emergency Due To Spike In Guillain-Barre Cases (Az.)
• Journalists Abandoned Julian Assange and Slit Their Own Throats (Chris Hedges)

 

 

 

 

Mel Gibson

 

 

Ballard 2014, 2023

 

 

 

 

RFK full

 

 

 

 

Dollar and oil

 

 

RFK seizures

 

 

Luft

 

 

Levin
https://twitter.com/i/status/1678251441012502528

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..isn’t Hunter simply keeping up with the trends? If anything, all this makes the Bidens more relatable for their ultra-liberal fan base.”

• Hunter Biden’s Decadent Lifestyle Is A Metaphor For US Society (Robert Bridge)

On July 2, just as the nation was preparing to celebrate Independence Day, the Biden White House got far more fireworks than they had bargained for as news spread rapidly that a bag of cocaine had been discovered inside the White House. Two days later, Hunter Biden, currently America’s most infamous drug abuser, appeared on the White House balcony, looking sweaty and nervous, instantly reminding many viewers of the Hunter Biden we know from the folksy home-made videos and photos found on his “laptop from hell” – a story that the consolidated efforts of social media censorship and mainstream media memory-holing had failed to suppress. Hunter has been caught on camera (or even made the pictures himself) doing all kinds of seedy things, from apparently breaking the ground-speed record while smoking from a crack pipe to having sex with prostitutes. So naturally, it should come as no surprise that many people, primarily of the Fox News variety, took the cocaine evacuation scare to mean that Hunter was wreaking havoc once again, this time right at the heart of the nation.

Say what you will about former President Donald Trump – and much has been said – it is hard to imagine his own privileged children caught behaving in such an unhinged way, either in public or in private. And while America’s most controversial leader of all time may have had sticky fingers when it comes to classified and unclassified documents, at least we can say he was trying to keep abreast of international and domestic issues, while the entire establishment and deep state was working 24/7 to destroy him, as they are stilling doing now. Hunter Biden’s drug problems are well documented, including by the man himself. He talks about it in his memoir (which some sycophantic reviewers describe as a “story of redemption”) and in one of the most cringe interviews of all time.

“I spent more time on my hands and knees picking through rugs, smoking anything that remotely resembled crack cocaine,” Hunter freely admitted to CBS interviewer Tracy Smith. “I probably smoked more Parmesan cheese than anyone you know, Tracy.” Tracy Smith was so visibly stunned by the remark that she never bothered to ask the obvious question as to why there would be so much cheese on anybody’s carpet. But that’s neither here nor there. Given the above admission, one would be excused for picturing a mental image of Hunter hoovering up traces of cocaine-laced dust from Oval Office carpets with his nose. In fact, plenty of memes to the tune have been posted online since the White House drug scare, taken with various degrees of seriousness.

Yet the fact that one of the most powerful (but certainly not the most popular, as the Democratic Kennedy clan was, for example) American political dynasties could not keep in check Hunter’s deep-seated drug problems speaks volumes about the Biden administration and the fate of the nation at large. In due fairness to the Biden family, they did succeed in raising a successful and morally upstanding man, Hunter’s older brother, Beau, a politician, lawyer, and officer who had a very promising political career ahead of him, until he succumbed to brain cancer at the age of 46.

By comparison, to a large part of the conservative American public, Hunter has become a sinful, sweaty, hyperventilating metaphor for everything wrong with America today: crime, overindulgence, and degradation of the norms of morality in the same vein that sees young children exposed to sexualized drag shows as some sort of “inclusivity.” One would think that a wayward son such as Hunter and a bag of drugs discovered at the very seat of power (whether the two are linked in reality, or just in the public eye) should prove fatal to the president’s reputation. But in the current decadent-empire state of the US, with drug use less and less frowned upon and the boundaries of sexual depravity being pushed ever farther away, isn’t Hunter simply keeping up with the trends? If anything, all this makes the Bidens more relatable for their ultra-liberal fan base.

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“MAGA Democrat.” To beat the Hillary-Obama-Biden machine, this could be the only ticket.

• Unlikely Trump-RFK Ticket Remains a Hot Topic (ET)

On July 6, Mr. Kennedy told NewsMax he wouldn’t consider being a running mate for either Trump or [Joe] Biden, but the prospect of a Kennedy/Trump ticket remains a hot topic on social media and also among high-profile politicians and could reveal how America will vote next November. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon suggested a Trump/Kennedy ticket back in April. Early in July, on the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who considered herself a vice-presidential prospect for Trump, was asked about what she thought of the idea. While she didn’t directly answer the question, Mrs. Lake called Mr. Kennedy a good man who has done amazing and criticized people who have been referring to Mr. Kennedy as a “MAGA Democrat.”

“They just don’t want outsiders in the political machine, they don’t want outsiders coming into the swamp draining the swamp,” said Mrs. Lake, “They just want just the pre-approved, controllably, easily blackmailed and easily bribed people like Biden and the whole swamp system down there.” Mr. Bannon said Mrs. Lake is his favored choice for Trump’s vice president, but said on his War Room show that if she wasn’t available “Kennedy would be an excellent choice.” Others like Connecticut resident Libby DePiero, who has attended 41 Trump rallies since his first run for president in 2016, told The Epoch Times it would be a “dream come true” if Kennedy and Trump ran together. “Between Kennedy’s fight for medical freedom against the COVID tyrannists [sic], and Trump’s proven record to make Americans first in their own country, it would be an even better presidency than Trump’s first time in office,” she said.

Several who like the idea have run polls on social media posing the question. According to a Twitter poll of 1,629 users, 73.8 percent said they would support a Trump/Kennedy Ticket. The poll was based on 1,629 voters. Participants like New York Times bestselling author and founder of ACT for America Brigitte Gabriel said a “Trump-Kennedy 2024 unity ticket would end Biden’s chances of re-election!” Ms. Gericke said that while Kennedy does come from a political dynasty, she sees him as an outsider like Trump who knows that this world is such dire straits that the presidency is beyond party loyalty.

Mrs. Psenick Hope said while she and her husband were vacationing in Colorado, they broached the idea of a Kennedy/Trump ticket with locals in the left-leaning state. “They said they would support Trump if Kennedy was on the ticket with him, she said, “just like Republicans say they would support Kennedy if he was on the ticket with Trump.” Mrs. Lake told CBN anchor Gary Lane that the swell of support for a Kennedy/Trump ticket shows “we are almost beyond Democrat versus Republican. We are now Communism and Globalism versus Americanism,” she said. She said while like herself, Trump has political differences with Kennedy, she suspects “he also respects” RFK Jr.

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“There is no other way than a total win and to get rid of Putin…We have to take all risks for that. No compromise is possible, no compromise.”

• How To Avoid The Worst Battlefield Defeat The US Has Suffered (Helmer)

There’s no American anti-war movement in the Vietnam War, Syrian War or Afghan War sense of the term. That’s because there is a genuine US strategic interest at stake in fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian, and further. No comparable strategic stake existed in the earlier wars. The stake in the war against Russia is the preservation of the US occupation of Germany and the empire in Europe and the UK, together with the credibility of US weapons which must be sold worldwide at prices to match their reputations in combat. Losing the war on the Ukrainian battlefield and in the sanctions war against Russia means a worldwide defeat for the US, its military power, its commercial and financial dominance, along with its command-and-control systems, subsidiaries, and retainers.

The substitute for an anti-war movement in Washington is faction-fighting over what means, what terms can be devised to get the US out of the Ukraine before the Ukrainian army capitulates, Vladimir Zelensky flees for his life and fortune, and with them the collapse of the US alliance called NATO. The apprehension of the allies in Europe was revealed a few days ago when Jacques Attali answered a telephone call he thought was from former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, but which came instead from the Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus. Attali, French presidential adviser, US retainer, and ex-head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said he knew French President Emmanuel Macron well and that Macron was afraid the US would abandon the Ukrainians to save itself.

There was the same fear among the Germans and British, Attali added. “The weak point is what happens in Washington.” “[This is] a nightmare scenario. That would be the US saying, well, enough is enough. We are not going to help Ukraine more. You have to go to negotiations, to the negotiating table. And that’s it. … Neither France, Germany or the UK can do that. But the US could arm-twist your [Poroshenko’s] government and your country [Ukraine] to say we want a ceasefire whatever it costs and stop [the war]. The most important thing is to avoid that.” “There is no other way than a total win and to get rid of Putin…We have to take all risks for that. No compromise is possible, no compromise.” This is the European allies’ last stand, their backs to the wall at the Dnieper River. It is the rationale for desperate measures on the battlefield, and at the NATO summit on July 11.

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“They’re handing them equipment that they then have to learn to use, which usually takes six months to a year to actually effectively learn how to use. And they’re doing this in a training session compressed into just a few weeks..”

• Ukrainian Counteroffensive Headed for ‘Disaster’ – Ex-US Marine (Sp.)

The White House rushed into preemptive damage control mode on Friday amid backlash over President Joe Biden’s controversial decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine. “The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition,” Biden said in a media interview. “This is a war related to munitions, and they’re running out of that ammunition and we’re low on it,” he added. Under Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl confirmed to reporters that the US would try to get the cluster munitions to Ukraine “in a timeframe that is relevant for the counteroffensive.”

But the latest news from the front suggests otherwise, with Ukrainian frontline commanders and grunts telling Western media that they’re running low on everything from vehicles and ammunition to man portable air defense missiles, while the much-advertised NATO main battle tanks once expected to turn the tide have actually been pulled back from the front after taking losses. Still, over a month into the offensive, Ukrainian and NATO officials and most media continue to assure that the battles have been “probing attacks,” and that, in Kahl’s words, the “majority of [Kiev’s] combat power for this fight has not yet been brought to bear.” “You don’t do probing actions with your best tanks, your best infantry fighting vehicles,” Brian Berletic told Sputnik’s New Rules podcast.

“You do that with forces that are in a certain way ‘expendable.’ And then you follow that up with your best forces to exploit any gains that they might make. They have not been making gains. They’ve been mired in these minefields. And I think what we’re actually watching is a failure to plan for and properly breach these minefields. And it’s being passed off as merely probing actions ahead of the main offensive,” the former Marine said. According to Russian Defense Ministry figures, between the beginning of June and July 9, Ukraine has lost close to 1,250 armored vehicles (including tanks), nearly 950 other military vehicles, 29 rocket artillery launchers, 425 pieces of artillery and mortars, two air defense systems, over 500 drones, 22 airplanes, and six helicopters.

It was “extremely unrealistic” from the start on Kiev’s part to imagine that going into the counteroffensive with NATO-trained troops and NATO equipment would somehow transform their forces into an invincible army, Berletic said. “We have to remember that even though NATO trained Ukrainian troops ahead of this offensive, they did so in a very abbreviated manner. They’re handing them equipment that they then have to learn to use, which usually takes six months to a year to actually effectively learn how to use. And they’re doing this in a training session compressed into just a few weeks. You cannot accelerate something like this. If you rush training, it’s going to play out disastrously on the battlefield,” the former Marine explained.

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“We had to evacuate the evacuation team..”

• Ukraine Reportedly Pulls Leopard 2s From Front, Low on Armor, Ammo (Sp.)

The US announced Friday that it would be rushing controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine to help shore up Kiev’s flagging counteroffensive, which began a month ago but has run up against stiff resistance from Russian forces backed by heavy artillery and air support. The Ukrainian military doesn’t have enough tanks, armored vehicles or ammo to overrun heavily entrenched Russian positions, has pulled its vaunted Leopard 2s from the frontline, and is looking to ramp up domestic tank production – a process that will take up to 6 months, US business media have reported, citing senior Ukrainian officials and frontline commanders.

“It’s impossible to completely destroy such a well-prepared position before advancing,” a unit commander from Ukraine’s 108th Brigade said of Russian entrenchments, telling US media that Ukrainian forces are suffering a shortage of armored vehicles, with infantry forced to advance on foot, which makes them vulnerable to flanking maneuvers. “If we had more vehicles, we could have brought more infantry to the flanks,” the commander said, admitting that a month after the counteroffensive began, he had yet to take part in an operation that successfully captured and held a defended Russian position. Instead, Ukrainian forces have so far only be able to capture a “handful” of villages in Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions, at the cost of thousands killed and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles destroyed.

Last week, the Russian military reported that in a month of battle, Ukraine had lost 920 armored vehicles, including 16 Leopard tanks, and 18 aircraft. Another major problem is the lack of artillery and air superiority, with Kiev’s small arsenal of Soviet-era fighters and helicopters facing up against a superior force of Russian Sukhoi fighter jets and Ka-52 Alligator gunships. Kiev has been loath to use its NATO-provided Leopard 2 tanks, with the 68 ton behemoths apparently getting stuck in minefields in the first phase of the offensive in early June, and Leopard 2s not “seen on the battlefield” since then. Western military analysts suggest Kiev may be saving them for use in a breakthrough amid probing for weak spots in Russian positions, but the task is said to be complicated significantly by the region’s mostly flat, open fields, which offer scant protection or places to hide.

Grunts offered candid appraisals of Ukrainian forces’ horrific losses, with soldiers from the southern front, presumably in Zaporozhye, saying they could lose “dozens of men” in a single assault. “We had to evacuate the evacuation team,” a 19-year-old combat medic said, recalling an instance where a mortar hit his vehicle during an evacuation of wounded.

Read more …

What is pessimistic about not starting WWIII?

• Ukraine Pessimistic About Outcome Of NATO Summit In Vilnius (TASS)

Ukrainian authorities are not optimistic on the eve of the July 11-12 NATO summit in Vilnius, according to The Guardian newspaper. According to it, “Ukraine is increasingly pessimistic about taking a significant step forward in joining Nato as leaders of the western military alliance are set to assemble on Tuesday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.” The newspaper says that the Kiev regime “is expected to be offered a package of last-minute ‘enabling security guarantees’ at the two day summit – an assurance from countries such as the US, UK, France and Germany that military aid and training will continue in the long term,” while Kiev believes that “Nato membership, carrying with it the defensive prospect of the western nuclear umbrella, is the only realistic long-term guarantee of its security.”


The Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing its sources, that the US and Germany were not going to guarantee Ukraine automatic NATO membership without profound reforms. At the April 2008 Bucharest summit, the alliance approved a political statement that Ukraine and Georgia would become NATO members with time, but refused to present the Membership Action Plan (MAP) to either country, given that this is a first step in the legal procedure on joining the organization. In February 2019, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada approved constitutional amendments enshrining Kiev’s aspiration to join NATO. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky repeatedly stated that Kiev needed a specific timeframe of joining the military bloc.

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There will be some convoluted wording.

• NATO Powers Race To Finish Security Pledges For Ukraine (RT)

A small group of Western allies are engaged in “advanced” and “frantic, last-minute” negotiations to finalize a security assurance declaration for Ukraine ahead of this week’s NATO summit in Lithuania, according to four officials familiar with the talks, Report informs, citing POLITICO. For weeks, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany have been discussing the issue with Kyiv, and have also reached out to other allies in NATO, the EU, and the G7. The idea is to create an “umbrella” for all countries willing to provide Ukraine with ongoing military aid, even if the details vary from country to country. A senior NATO diplomat said it would be up to each interested country to bilaterally determine with Ukraine “what your commitment will be. And it could be anything, from air defense to tanks to whatever.”


The initiative may ultimately amount to promises to continue much of the aid allies are already providing: arms, equipment, training, financing, and intelligence. But the intent is to offer a more-permanent signal of unity for Ukraine, especially as Kyiv is unlikely to get the firm pledge on NATO membership it wants at this week’s summit. “It is basically a guarantee towards Ukraine that we will, for a very long time to come, we will equip their armed forces, we will finance them, we will advise them, we will train them in order for them to have a deterrent force against any future aggression,” the senior NATO diplomat said.

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“NATO was confined to the North Atlantic by the treaty that defines it..”

• Paul Keating: NATO Chief A ‘Supreme Fool’, ‘Accident On Its Way To Happen’ (G.)

Australia’s former prime minister Paul Keating has labelled the head of Nato a “supreme fool” for his push to increase the alliance’s ties with Asia in an attempt to contain China. Keating made the comments about secretary general Jens Stoltenberg in a statement released as Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, travels to Germany and the Nato leaders’ summit in Lithuania to discuss greater support for Ukraine. Keating is a strident critic of the acquisition of nuclear submarines through the Aukus alliance to guard against possible aggression from China, which Labor supported in opposition and has continued in government. In a statement, Keating praised French president Emmanuel Macron for warning Nato “away from any expansion into Asia, reminding all and sundry of Nato’s Atlantic design and focus”.

Paris has opposed Nato plans to open a liaison office in Japan, which would be the alliance’s first outpost in the region. The Vilnius summit was also reportedly to see the announcement of a new partnership between Nato and Japan which could see more joint military drills and interoperability. Keating said that Asia’s “promise” after its recent development “would be compromised by having anything to do with the militarism of Europe – and militarism egged on by the United States”. “Of all the people on the international stage the supreme fool among them is Jens Stoltenberg, the current secretary-general of Nato. “Stoltenberg by instinct and by policy, is simply an accident on its way to happen.”

Keating cited parallels Stoltenberg drew in February between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China in remarks that “we should not make the same mistake with China”. He said Stoltenberg’s position was “that China should be superintended by the West and strategically circumscribed”. “Stoltenberg, in his jaundiced view, overlooks the fact that China represents twenty per cent of humanity and now possesses the largest economy in the world … and has no record of attacking other states, unlike the United States, whose bidding Stoltenberg is happy to do,” Keating said. A Macron official told reporters last Friday the French were not in favour of an expansion into Asia “as a matter of principle”, saying NATO was confined to the North Atlantic by the treaty that defines it. Macron has previously resisted a Nato focus on China saying the country “has little to do with the North Atlantic”.

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“If there is any logic behind the Administration’s decision to transfer cluster munitions, it boils down to ‘it won’t get any worse.’”

• White House Admits To Committing War Crimes In Ukraine – Russian Embassy (TASS)

The US administration has essentially admitted to committing war crimes in Ukraine, the Russian Embassy in Washington said reacting to a statement by US White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby with regard to supplying the Kiev regime with cluster munitions. “We have taken note of the Director for Strategic Communications of the NSC John Kirby’s statements about the provision of cluster munitions to Ukraine. The official de facto confessed to the United States committing war crimes during the Ukrainian conflict. He overtly stated that civilians would fall victim to [the US’] cluster-type weapons. According to the perverted view of the White House representative, this does less harm than the actions of Russia,” the Russian diplomatic mission noted. “If there is any logic behind the Administration’s decision to transfer cluster munitions, it boils down to ‘it won’t get any worse.’

The United States is ready to destroy life far from its own borders with the hands of Ukrainians,” the embassy added. According to the Russian diplomats, the US administration is involved in this “only for the sake of an unattainable dream of the strategic defeat of the Russian Federation, which defends its people and its land. We fight Kiev criminals who embrace the Azov (a nationalist battalion outlawed in Russia – TASS) terrorists, while the United States is helping Ukrainian Nazis commit inhuman acts.” In an interview, broadcast on Sunday, Kirby insisted that Washington was supplying cluster ordnance to the Kiev regime in order to replenish the conventional artillery shells the Ukrainian armed forces are running out of quickly. “We are trying to ramp up our production of the kind of artillery shells that they’re using most. But that production is still not where we wanted it to be,” the White House official said. “So, we’re going to see these additional artillery shells that have cluster bomblets in them to help bridge the gap as we ramp up production of normal 155 artillery shells,” he added.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, earlier said that the UN chief supported the Convention on Cluster Munitions and opposed the use of this type of weapons on the battlefield. When detonated in the air, cluster munitions scatter dozens of small bomblets over an area of dozens of square meters. If unexploded immediately, these bomblets pose a threat to civilians long after the end of any conflict. The Convention on Cluster Munitions was signed in 2008. By now, 111 countries have joined it, while another 12 nations have signed the document, but have yet to ratify it. According to Human Rights Watch, the dud rate of cluster munitions is usually much higher than the declared level, which leads to civilian casualties.

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But their president would rather keep wasting their lives.

• US Can End Ukraine Conflict In 5 Minutes By Ceding Territory – Zelensky (TASS)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that his US counterpart Joe Biden could end the Ukrainian conflict in five minutes by giving up Ukrainian territory but Kiev disagrees. “If we are talking about ending the war at the cost of Ukraine, in other words, to make us give up our territories, well, I think, in this way, Biden could have brought it to an end even in five minutes. But we would not agree,” he said in an interview with ABC News. He also commented on remarks by ex-US President Donald Trump who vowed to stop combat within 24 hours. Zelensky reiterated that Trump had already had that chance while he was in office.


“The sole desire to bring the war to an end is beautiful. But this desire should be based on some real-life experience. Well, it looks as if Donald Trump had already these 24 hours once in his time. We were at war, not a full-scale war, but we were at war and as I assume he had that time at his disposal, but he must have had some other priorities,” the Ukrainian leader insisted. That said, he mentioned some “dangerous signals” with regard to reducing aid to Ukraine “coming from particular politicians” in the US.

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“..that common ground no longer exists between the U.S. and Russia, and there is no interest in diplomacy at all..”

Well, in Russia, there is.

• The Era of Nukes and No Diplomacy: ‘Crossing a Rubicon to Armageddon’ (SP)

The Doomsday Clock continues to tick toward nuclear war, but at its fastest pace ever. Professor Jackson Lears, a former naval officer serving on a U.S cruiser carrying tactical nuclear weapons, considers the current moment more frightening than at any time during the Cold War. Then, there was intense alarm for the fate of the earth and the survival of the human race. Today, rather than diplomacy or negotiation, talk revolves around new weapons shipments, disappointment in Ukraine’s counteroffensive failures, and even drone strikes in Moscow. But far less attention has been paid to the prospect of nuclear war between Russia and the U.S that threatens to end all life on this planet as we know it. That is the alarm sounded by cultural historian and author Jackson Lears who joins host Robert Scheer to discuss Lears’s essay for Harper’s Magazine, “Behind the Veil of Indifference.”

Lears’s piece warns that despite the public indifference, a “winnable nuclear war” has entered the minds of American strategists and politicians once again, undermining years of work towards nuclear disarmament. Lears tells Scheer that it is similar to the attitudes from the Cold War, yet this time, there is an eerie disinterest from the American side about even talking to someone like Vladimir Putin. “[T]his is, in a sense, a return to the worst kind of confrontations of the early 1960s but there’s a big difference because even Kennedy and even Reagan, cold warriors that they were, were eager to create common ground ultimately between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. And that common ground no longer exists between the U.S. and Russia, and there is no interest in diplomacy at all,” Lears said.

Scheer and Lears highlight a critical factor in shaping public perception: the Russiagate controversy and the media’s role in complying with government demands for secrecy, beginning in the late 1970s, while also promoting narratives that fostered consent for war with Russia. Scheer said, “if you even dare suggest there’s some complexity to this issue, or that the other side might have a point of view, or there’s something even worth negotiating about, you’re now considered unpatriotic.” Lears agreed: “We have former directors of the CIA who have perjured themselves before Congress, now posing as professional wise men and professional truth tellers on MSNBC and CNN.”

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Biden’s too old to see the changes.

• Biden Believes China Wants to ‘Replace US as Leading Power’ (Sp.)

US President Joe Biden expressed belief on Sunday that the United States and China could establish working relationship that would benefit both sides. “I think there is a way to resolve, to establish a working relationship with China that benefits them and us,” Biden said. At the same time, he expressed the opinion that Chinese leader Xi Jinping wanted China to replace the United States as the leading power. “I’m confident he wants to have the largest economy in the world and have the largest military capacity in the world,” Biden said. He added that Xi also wanted to rewrite certain rules of the international order, but “not all of them.”

“I think so. Not all of them. But he pointed out to me and said we weren’t there when those rules were written … But I don’t think he wants, he’s looking for a war conflict, expansion of territory,” Biden said. The US President made these statements as he was leaving for Great Britain on Sunday to meet with King Charles III before continuing to Lithuania for a NATO summit on July 11-12 and then have a final stop in Finland. Biden’s comments on China came amid increased economic and financial contradictions between the two nations. US-China relations are strained by the growing restrictions on exports of US goods and services, the persistence of import duties on Chinese goods, Washington’s threats against Beijing over the latter’s cooperation with Moscow, the growth of world trade in yuan and the decreased influence of the US dollar across the globe.

The US President also touched upon the matter of cooperation with Saudi Arabia, saying that the the United States was a “long way from” providing Riyadh with defense treaty and civilian nuclear capacity. “We’re a long way from there,” Biden said, when asked whether the US was ready to provide Saudi Arabia with a defense treaty and civilian nuclear capacity to gain recognition of Israel on the part of Riyadh. In June, The New York Times reported that the Biden administration was making active attempts to normalize Israeli-Saudi relations. Riyadh, for its part, demands that Washington provide it with civilian nuclear capacity, sign a defense agreement on security guarantees with the country and remove some restrictions on the supply of US weapons to Saudi Arabia, the report said.

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Guillain-Barre WAS rare.

• Peru Declares Health Emergency Due To Spike In Guillain-Barre Cases (Az.)

The Peruvian government declared a 90-day national health emergency Saturday due to an “unusual increase” of cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, which total 165 with four deaths, Report informs via Xinhua. The decree, published in the official gazette El Peruano, details an action plan which has been drawn up with a budget of 12.12 million soles ($3.3 million) with an aim to improve patient care in health facilities, reinforce case control and prepare informative material for the population and health personnel. Among the measures were the acquisition of intravenous immunoglobulin and human albumin, as well as specialized diagnosis of the biological agents associated with the syndrome and assisted air transport for patients in emergency or critical condition.


Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare disorder where the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. So far this year, at least 18 of the country’s 24 departments have reported at least one case of the syndrome. The unusual spike in cases of a rare disease in a short period of time “negatively affects the continuity of health services, as there are not enough strategic resources to respond to the volume and complexity of the cases in health facilities,” warned the decree.

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“They were struggling for a financial model to survive. They hadn’t really adapted to the age of the internet. You had Julian coming in with a completely new model of journalism.”

• Journalists Abandoned Julian Assange and Slit Their Own Throats (Chris Hedges)

When Julian and WikiLeaks released the secret diplomatic cables and Iraq War logs, which exposed numerous U.S. war crimes, including torture and the murder of civilians, corruption, diplomatic scandals, lies and spying by the U.S. government, the commercial media had no choice but to report the information. Julian and WikiLeaks shamed them into doing their job. But, even as they worked with Julian, organizations such as The New York Times and The Guardian were determined to destroy him. He threatened their journalistic model and exposed their accommodation with the centers of power.


“They hated him,” Matt said of the mainstream media reporters and editors. “They went to war with him immediately after those releases. I was working for The Financial Times in Washington in late 2010 when those releases happened. The reaction of the office at The Financial Times was one of the major reasons I got disillusioned with the mainstream media.” Julian went from being a journalistic colleague to a pariah as soon as the information he provided to these news organizations was published. He endured, in the words of Nils Melzer, at the time the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, “a relentless and unrestrained campaign of public mobbing, intimidation and defamation.” These attacks included “collective ridicule, insults and humiliation, to open instigation of violence and even repeated calls for his assassination.”

Julian was branded a hacker, although all the information he published was leaked to him by others. He was smeared as a sexual predator and a Russian spy, called a narcissist and accused of being unhygienic and slovenly. The ceaseless character assassination, amplified by a hostile media, saw him abandoned by many who had regarded him a hero. “Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide,” Melzer concluded. The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais and Der Spiegel, all of which published WikiLeaks documents provided by Julian, published a joint open letter on Nov. 28, 2022 calling on the U.S. government “to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets.”


But the demonization of Julian, which these publications helped to foster, had already been accomplished. “It was pretty much an immediate shift,” Stella recalled. “While the media partners knew that Julian still had explosive material that still had to be released, they were partners. As soon as they had what they thought they wanted from him, they turned around and attacked him. You have to put yourself in the moment where the press was in 2010 when these stories broke. They were struggling for a financial model to survive. They hadn’t really adapted to the age of the internet. You had Julian coming in with a completely new model of journalism.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 


Primitive man believed the weather was determined by his good or bad actions. Today this belief takes the form of believing climate is determined by man, rather than by the Sun’s irregular orbit & activity: Milankovitch Cycles, Solar Inertial Motion, Solar Flares.

 

 

Vet

 

 


The photographer Leonardo Sens, waited 3 long years to take this fantastic shot in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

 

 

Chicken

 

 


A baby blue marlin in the larvae stage. The eye to body ratio is quite high. This marlin might weigh up to 800 kg or 1800 pounds at maturity

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle July 7 2023

Jul 072023
 
 July 7, 2023  Posted by at 9:19 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  30 Responses »


Camille Pissarro Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain 1897

 

• Zelensky Holding Out For NATO To Enter Ukraine Conflict – Lukashenko (TASS)
• Zelensky ‘Dragging Entire Planet’ To Hell – Russian Envoy (RT)
• Kiev Dragging Other Countries Into Conflict – Moscow (RT)
• Lukashenko Outlines Deal With Wagner (RT)
• The Capitalists Are Circling Over Ukraine (Fazi)
• Zelensky Clashes With Bulgarian President Over Weapons Demands (RT)
• Bulgaria Plans $650 Million Nuclear Sale To Ukraine – WSJ (RT)
• Warsaw Wants ‘Gestures’ From Kiev On Massacres (RT)
• South American Leaders Block Zelensky From Summit (RT)
• Raiffeisenbank ‘Postpones’ Plan To Leave Russia – Reuters (RT)
• SCOTUS Is Losing Legitimacy – And Only Has Itself To Blame |(Blankenship)
• Meta Launches Data-Harvesting Twitter Clone, Immediately Starts Censoring (ZH)
• Cocaine at White House Was Found Inside Cubby – Not West Wing Lobby (Sp.)
• Lancet Study on Covid Vaccine Autopsies Finds 74% Were Caused by Vaccine (DS)

 

 

The keyboard Meta used to produce their new app, Threads.

 

 

Gal Luft

 

 

Maersheimer

 

 

The five hottest Julys in the US were 1936, 1901, 1934, 1930 and 1931.

 

 

@JimSteeleSkepti
The jet stream NOT CO2 is our weather control knob. Below is the satellite data from June 28, 2023 showing (above) the wavy behavior of the jet stream and (below) how the troughs coincide with cool temperatures and the ridges with heat domes and high temperatures. On the same dates the public was given very different weather news. Experts reported for Los Angeles under the jet stream’s trough: Records from Downtown Los Angeles, where records date back to 1877, show June 2023 being the coolest such month since 1965.

But in Texas, where the jet stream generated a heat dome, the news misleadingly reported: “Climate change has sent temperatures soaring in Texas” While along the east coast in Connecticut beneath a trough reported: “What’s behind Connecticut’s unusually cool weather in June — and what’s coming next?”

 

 

 

 

“He will insist on Ukraine being admitted to NATO so that NATO will then join the war against Russia…

• Zelensky Holding Out For NATO To Enter Ukraine Conflict – Lukashenko (TASS)

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will insist that Ukraine be accepted for NATO membership and that the bloc get directly involved in the conflict, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting with representatives of foreign and Belarusian media outlets. “He (Zelensky – TASS) will insist on Ukraine being admitted to NATO so that NATO will then join the war against Russia,” he said. According to Lukashenko, Zelensky has finally realized that he will not win the war, and so has gradually started making demands on those who pushed his country into it. The Belarusian leader noted that Zelensky’s demands would, above all, concern money and new weaponry. “By July 11 (the start date of NATO’s Vilnius summit – TASS), they [the NATO countries] will be expected to come up with something to demonstrate” support for Kiev, he said.

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“American and European citizens are hardly ready to march in orderly rows to the hell into which the Zelensky government is dragging the entire planet.”

• Zelensky ‘Dragging Entire Planet’ To Hell – Russian Envoy (RT)

Faced with failure on the battlefield, Ukraine’s president is trying to drag NATO into the conflict with a false-flag attack on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said on Thursday. “News reporters continue to pretend not to notice the obvious: from the very beginning of the special military operation, all the accusations of the Zelensky regime against us turned out to be sabotage operations of Kiev itself,” Antonov told Newsweek in an email interview. The difference now, he added, was that “this time stakes have grown substantially: Europe’s nuclear security is at risk.” Zelensky has accused Russia of planting explosives at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). Antonov called it “absurd” to accuse Russia of wanting to damage the facility which it has controlled since March 2022.

Kiev’s “criminal intentions” divert attention from “the failed counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in which the West has invested enormous resources,” to falsely accuse Russia as a ‘nuclear terrorist’ ahead of the NATO summit, and draw the US-led bloc into the conflict directly, Antonov said. “Western ruling elites should understand that the failures on the battlefield make Kiev eager to create a pretext for the deployment of the NATO contingent to Ukraine, thereby to inflate a regional conflict into World War III,” the Russian ambassador told Newsweek. “We call on the curators of the Kiev regime to exercise responsibility and exert influence on their ‘wards’ in order to avoid a large-scale catastrophe,” he added. “American and European citizens are hardly ready to march in orderly rows to the hell into which the Zelensky government is dragging the entire planet.”

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, who are on the ground at the ZNPP, reported on Wednesday that they have found no signs of any mines, either at the cooling pond – as Kiev initially claimed – or on the roofs of the reactor buildings. The IAEA observer mission was deployed to the ZNPP in September 2022. Prior to that, the station and its environs had been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian artillery, which Kiev admitted at one point. Just before the IAEA mission arrived, Ukrainian commandos also attempted to seize the facility but were driven back. Russia has provided evidence of Ukrainian attacks to the UN, which has avoided assigning blame.

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Bulgaria: “the nation’s new pro-European government – which was formed in early June – confirmed that it would continue to provide Ukraine with military equipment. ..”

• Kiev Dragging Other Countries Into Conflict – Moscow (RT)

Ukraine’s attempts to secure more foreign military aid and make other countries direct participants in the conflict will fail to change its eventual outcome, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. Speaking to reporters, Peskov was asked to comment on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s trip to Bulgaria, in which he intends to discuss further security assistance to Kiev. “The Kiev regime is doing its best to drag as many countries directly into this conflict as possible,” Peskov said, adding that some nations are already immersed in hostilities from head to toe. Peskov confirmed that he was not surprised such deliberations were taking place, noting that “fundamentally, all these discussions and their results are in no way capable of influencing the outcome of the special military operation.”

“The current frontline situation provides ample proof for that,” the spokesman added. He was referring to the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive that, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, has so far failed to gain ground despite being supported by a large amount of Western weaponry. Zelensky’s visit to Bulgaria comes after last week Sofia announced a new package of military aid to Kiev. While it stated that the new batch of military assistance would be “comparable in volume to the aid from the first package” granted last December by the caretaker government, it did not provide any details on its contents. The decision came after the nation’s new pro-European government – which was formed in early June – confirmed that it would continue to provide Ukraine with military equipment.

This stance, however, is not shared by President Rumen Radev, who earlier insisted that Bulgaria should refrain from supporting Ukraine with arms, arguing those policies would not be able to stop the conflict and would only damage the country’s economy. Sofia has been slow to provide Kiev with security assistance, largely due to opposition from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, with the gridlock removed only in December. However, a Euractiv report from October suggested that the Balkan nation emerged as one of the biggest indirect suppliers of military aid to Ukraine, having sent at least €1 billion of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine via brokers. Russia has repeatedly warned the West that weapons deliveries to Ukraine will only prolong hostilities and make it a direct participant in the conflict, without changing the outcome.

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“The experience that Wagner and its commanders have, they’ll gladly pass it on to our military…. The ones that we need: in tactics, combat operations..”

• Lukashenko Outlines Deal With Wagner (RT)

Wagner troops could be used to defend Belarus after they relocate from Russia, where they took part in a failed revolt last month, President Alexander Lukashenko has said. Military personnel attached to Evgeny Prigozhin’s private military company are being transferred to the country subject to “certain conditions,” including that they can be deployed instantly if they’re needed to “defend the state,” he explained. “I’m absolutely not worried and not troubled that we’ll have a certain number of these fighters stationed here [in Belarus],” Lukashenko told journalists on Thursday. The likes of Polish President Andrzej Duda and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky have vowed that “they won’t leave Belarus alone,” Lukashenko said, adding that “he must react” to such threats as supreme commander of the armed forces.

“The experience that Wagner and its commanders have, they’ll gladly pass it on to our military…. The ones that we need: in tactics, combat operations,” he continued. Wagner was instrumental in the capture of the strategic city of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut) from Ukraine in May. The PMC has also operated in Syria and Africa. When asked about the possibility of Wagner attempting a mutiny in Belarus like they did in Russia last month, Lukashenko replied: “I don’t think that Wagner will somehow rise up and turn its guns against the Belarusian authorities and the Belarusian state. Everything happens in life. But today I don’t see such a situation.” He also provided information regarding the whereabouts of Prigozhin, saying the Wagner head is currently not in Belarus, but in Russia, and that they had talked the previous day.

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that the Russian authorities “don’t have either the ability or desire” to track Prigozhin’s movements. All of the statements made by Moscow and Belarus regarding the fate of Wagner in the wake of the failed mutiny “remain relevant,” he added. In a short message on social media earlier this week, Prigozhin claimed that the botched uprising by his men was aimed at “fighting traitors and mobilizing the society” of Russia. “I think we succeeded in many of those goals,” he claimed. The two-day insurrection by Wagner in late June was ended through talks between Lukashenko and Prigozhin in close coordination with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Moscow, it was agreed that the Wagner chief and his men who took part in the mutiny would avoid prosecution. As part of the deal, Prigozhin left for Belarus, with his men offered the choice of following him, signing contracts with the Russian military, or returning home.

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“..the IMF played a key role in precipitating the 2014 crisis: Ukraine’s then-President, Viktor Yanukovych, refused to accept IMF demands that he cut wages, slash social spending and end gas subsidies in order to integrate with the EU..”

• The Capitalists Are Circling Over Ukraine (Fazi)

Two weeks ago, thousands of representatives from businesses and governments from across the world gathered in London to “support Ukraine’s recovery”. But was the gathering of all those Western corporate elites at the Ukraine Recovery Conference entirely altruistic? There are, after all, massive profit opportunities being created by the war. Last year, the Ukrainian government essentially outsourced the entire post-war “reconstruction” process to BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm. They signed an agreement to “provide advisory support for designing an investment framework, with a goal of creating opportunities for both public and private investors to participate in the future reconstruction and recovery of the Ukrainian economy”. In February, J.P. Morgan was brought on board as well.

The two banks will run the Ukraine Development Fund, which aims to raise private investment in projects potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars across sectors including tech, natural resources, agriculture and health. BlackRock and J.P. Morgan are donating their services, but, as the Financial Times noted, “the work will give them an early look at possible investments in the country”. The opportunities are significant, particularly in the agricultural sector: Ukraine is home to a quarter of the world’s chernozem (“black earth”), an extraordinarily fertile soil, and before the war it was world’s top producer of sunflower meal, oil and seed, and one of the biggest exporters of corn and wheat. From certain perspectives, the war is clearly good for business: indeed, the greater the destruction, the greater the opportunities for reconstruction.

At Davos this year, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, said he hoped the initiative would turn the country into a “beacon of capitalism”. David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, also spoke cheerily of Ukraine’s post-war future. “There is no question,” he said, “that as you rebuild, there will be good economic incentives for real return and real investment.” Seeing opportunity amid the tragedy, 500 global businesses from 42 countries have already signed the Ukraine Business Compact “to help realise its huge potential” — or secure their slice of the Ukrainian pie. “Most are standing on the sidelines for now, given the security threat,” the FT reported. “But there are already companies on the cusp of moving in — especially in the low-hanging-fruit industries of construction and materials, agricultural processing and logistics.”

Over the years, across a series of similar events, Western governments and corporate leaders have made no secret of their enthusiasm to use the post-Maidan regime — and now the war — to radically alter Ukraine’s political economy. The agenda: to open up the country and make it safe for Western capital by transforming it into a special economic zone. This neoliberal shock therapy should, in their view, include “strengthening the market economy”, “decentralisation, privatisation, reform of state-owned enterprises, land reform, state administration reform”, and “Euro-Atlantic integration”, as well as widespread “deregulation” and the slashing of “outdated labour legislation leading to complicated hiring and firing process, regulation of overtime, etc”. In short, the Washington Consensus on steroids.

This programme has, arguably, been underway since the mid-Nineties, when the West used IMF loans-cum-conditionalities to impose on Ukraine, just as it did on Russia, a series of radical free-market-minded reforms that crippled the economy. As the Indian economist Prabhat Patnaik has pointed out, the IMF played a key role in precipitating the 2014 crisis: Ukraine’s then-President, Viktor Yanukovych, refused to accept IMF demands that he cut wages, slash social spending and end gas subsidies in order to integrate with the EU, and turned instead to Russia for an alternative economic agreement. This was the backdrop for the Western-backed Euromaidan protests and, eventually, the 2014 regime change.

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So he gets to “new friend” Bulgaria and what does he do?

“Zelensky “savaged” Radev and “opened up with both barrels” to “maul” the Bulgarian president, delivering his words “with measured scorn” and “barbed irony” as Radev “took refuge” in the sheet of paper in his hands.”

• Zelensky Clashes With Bulgarian President Over Weapons Demands (RT)

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev found himself lectured by his Ukrainian guest Vladimir Zelensky on Thursday, after telling him that Sofia had no weapons to spare for Kiev. As TV cameras documented their meeting, Zelensky attacked Radev for advocating a diplomatic solution to the conflict. “I do not agree to provide ammunition, especially from the Bulgarian army reserves,” Radev told Zelensky, according to one of the translations. “I continue to maintain that this conflict has no military solution and more and more weapons will not solve it.” Zelensky objected to Radev’s use of the term “conflict,” insisting that “this is definitely a war.” “God forbid, some tragedy should befall you and you should be in my place,” he added. “And if people with shared values do not help, what will you do? You would say: Putin, please grab Bulgarian territory?”

“I also want to tell you, whatever your army has in terms of munitions, it will not be enough to fight with the Russian Federation. You don’t have a bad army, your people are good but it would not be enough to fight against 160 million people. That is why it is good to give the people to defend themselves, so that the war does not come to you, to the Poles, to the Romanians – war knows no distance, I can tell you,” the Ukrainian leader told his host. “You cannot support Russia and support a balancing position because Russia wants to destroy NATO, wants to destroy Europe and the European Union; these are their goals. Do you get me?” Zelensky told Radev.

According to Politico’s description of the incident, Zelensky “savaged” Radev and “opened up with both barrels” to “maul” the Bulgarian president, delivering his words “with measured scorn” and “barbed irony” as Radev “took refuge” in the sheet of paper in his hands. The Bulgarian president eventually asked the cameras to leave the room. NATO countries have sent billions of dollars worth of weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine since February 2022, while insisting they were not directly involved in the conflict with Russia. Earlier in the day, Zelensky met with the government of PM Nikolai Denkov, who has only been in office for a month. Denkov’s cabinet supports selling weapons to Kiev. The Ukrainian delegation departed Sofia for Prague, on board a Czech air force transport.

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Ukraine has no money.

• Bulgaria Plans $650 Million Nuclear Sale To Ukraine – WSJ (RT)

Bulgaria is close to completing a deal to sell two Russian-made nuclear reactors to Ukraine’s state-owned energy company Energoatom for around $650 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Under the terms of the proposed deal, which has yet to be completed, Sofia’s energy firm NEK would sell the Ukrainian company two reactors from Bulgaria’s unfinished Belene Nuclear Power Plant. It would be the first time that Russian-designed nuclear equipment would be used to boost Kiev’s energy output, the WSJ said. The same publication also notes that two primary methods of payment for the reactors have so far been proposed. One would see the United States provide part of the funds to Energoatom as part of an aid package for Ukraine, which would subsequently be transferred to NEK.

Another option, the WSJ reported, would be for Sofia to assume a minority shareholding in Ukraine’s Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant, where the reactors would be installed. Ukraine’s president Vladimir Zelensky arrived in Sofia for a one-day visit on Thursday, where it is expected that the nuclear deal will be discussed with Bulgarian officials. Also on Thursday, Sofia’s parliament passed a motion requiring its government to hold negotiations with Kiev regarding the sale of the nuclear equipment. The proposal has been slammed by pro-Moscow opposition parties in Bulgaria, who claim it was rushed through the legislature in order to obstruct any attempts to block it. The possible sale of the reactors further illustrates a European energy market in flux after the EU last year ended most of its imports of Russian oil, gas and coal in the wake of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. Prior to this, even Bulgaria relied on Russia for much of its gas supplies.

The still-uncompleted Belene Nuclear Power Plant has been the source of much controversy since the project was first undertaken in the mid-1980s. Construction at the site has been halted and resumed on several occasions, with some Western governments noting their opposition due to the proposed plant possibly being dependent on Russian fuel. It has also received objections from environmental campaigners, who claim that its location in a seismic active zone represents an unnecessary risk. For Kiev, though, the Soviet-designed Khmelnytsky power plant in Ukraine’s west already has technicians trained to operate the Russian-made reactors, potentially establishing new energy exports from Kiev to Europe. On Thursday, two pro-Russian parties in Sofia, the Socialist Party and Revival, a nationalist party, voted against approving the sale of the reactors to Kiev.

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“On last year’s day of remembrance for Polish victims, the Ukrainian leader submitted a draft law to parliament which granted special privileges to modern-day Polish citizens. They are now treated similarly to Ukrainian nationals in many regards..”

• Warsaw Wants ‘Gestures’ From Kiev On Massacres (RT)

Kiev must prove it is taking steps to acknowledge the responsibility of Ukrainian nationalists for the mass murder of ethnic Poles during World War II in Volhynia, a Polish MP involved in implementing Warsaw’s European policy has said. On Sunday, Poland will mark the day of remembrance for victims of the atrocities, which the EU nation considers an act of genocide. The massacres in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia 80 years ago were intended to further the cause of an ethnically uniform Ukrainian nation state. Their perpetrators are considered national heroes by Kiev today. Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek, the Polish secretary of state for European policy, said on Thursday that he expects gestures from the Ukrainian government regarding the tragedy, because “this matter is an unhealed wound.”

Polish officials “have been in contact with the Ukrainian side regarding these commemorations for months, and that’s all I can say at the moment,” the lawmaker told RMF FM radio. Last month, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski identified the dispute over the tragic events as a potential stumbling block on Ukraine’s path towards EU membership, insisting that it must be resolved. Opposition politician Tomasz Siemoniak, a former Polish defense minister, last week argued against driving Kiev into a corner to extract a formal apology. However, he added that he “would expect some gestures, at least in this practical sphere – exhumations, monuments, access.”

In 2017, the Ukrainian government prohibited the search for and exhumation of victims of the massacres on Kiev-controlled territory. The move was retaliation for the dismantling of a monument to Ukrainian nationalists in Poland, although the decision was reversed last year under President Vladimir Zelensky. On last year’s day of remembrance for Polish victims, the Ukrainian leader submitted a draft law to parliament which granted special privileges to modern-day Polish citizens. They are now treated similarly to Ukrainian nationals in many regards, including employment opportunities, access to education, and certain social benefits. Zelensky’s Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, noted at the time that he appreciated the symbolism.

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“One EU diplomat told Euractiv that the counter-proposal shows “we are not on the same wavelength” and that “it looks like they want to be perceived as equal partners.”

• South American Leaders Block Zelensky From Summit (RT)

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) has purged every reference to Ukraine from the joint declaration proposed by the EU, the outlet Euractiv reported on Thursday. Their objections also forced the EU to un-invite Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky from the joint summit. The 33-member South American bloc is supposed to hold a joint summit with the EU in Brussels, starting on July 17. Spain had initially invited Zelensky to attend, but the invitation was “dropped” after “pushback” from CELAC leaders, Euractiv reported. Ahead of the meeting, the EU sent over a draft of a joint declaration, which included support for Ukraine, climate change and green energy pledges, combating corruption, and other major EU policy goals. On Tuesday, the CELAC sent back a 21-page counter-proposal, which “deleted everything about Ukraine,” one EU diplomat told Euractiv.

The counter-proposal says the EU and CELAC would “advocate for serious and constructive diplomatic solutions to the current conflict in Europe, by peaceful means, which guarantees the sovereignty and security of us all, as well as regional and international peace, stability and security,” according to Euractiv. The EU regards it as “crucial” that the declaration condemns “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine” and contains specific language about the UN Charter, sovereignty and territorial integrity, said one unnamed diplomat. Brussels also wanted an explicit commitment to Zelensky’s “peace platform,” which the CELAC has rejected. Most Latin American countries have repeatedly said they don’t wish to be dragged into a conflict they see as a primarily European problem.

One CELAC diplomat told Euractiv that the summit needs to be about more than the Ukraine conflict, and address things that matter to the region, including a stalled trade pact between the EU and Mercosur members Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The CELAC has also asked Europeans to pay reparations for the damages caused by slavery. One EU diplomat told Euractiv that the counter-proposal shows “we are not on the same wavelength” and that “it looks like they want to be perceived as equal partners.” EU ministers are scheduled to discuss the counter-proposal at a meeting on Friday, and will have to decide how much they are willing to compromise, or if they will press ahead with the summit without a joint communique.

Read more …

10,000 staff in Russia.

• Raiffeisenbank ‘Postpones’ Plan To Leave Russia – Reuters (RT)

Austrian banking group Raiffeisen, one of the last major Western lenders in Russia, is delaying its withdrawal despite pressure from EU regulators, Reuters reported on Thursday. The agency quoted officials in Vienna as defending long-standing ties with Moscow. Raiffeisen is viewed as playing an important role in the Russian economy, providing a lifeline for euro payments to and from the country. It is one of only two foreign banks on the Russian central bank’s list of 13 systemically important credit institutions, the other being Italy’s UniCredit. The Austrian lender announced in March its plans to spin off its Russian business by September, following mounting pressure from Western authorities.

The RBI Group, which owns the bank, has been resisting demands from the US and EU to speed up its Russia exit, while Austrian officials have expressed hope of reviving relations with Moscow after the conflict in Ukraine ends, according to Reuters. “Although Austria publicly supports Ukraine, several officials who spoke to Reuters said they were reluctant to completely sever decades-old ties with Russia, thinking it will still be possible to restore relations,” the outlet wrote.

Austria’s second-biggest credit institution has been under growing pressure from Western officials and investors in recent months. The European Central Bank (ECB) has reportedly urged the lender to quit the Russian market, while the RBI Group has faced scrutiny in the US and EU over potential breaches of Western sanctions. Under pressure from Washington, Raiffeisen has transferred data on Russian transactions to the US’ sanctions authority, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Reuters reported, citing sources. However, Austrian officials have claimed that the bank has been unfairly singled out, the news agency said, citing people familiar with the matter. A spokesperson for the Austrian Finance Ministry reportedly stated that other EU banks were also active in Russia.

RBI has not yet outlined its plans to the ECB, making an exit from Russia unlikely by September, according to Reuters. “RBI’s presence underlines the depth of relations between Austria and Russia, which maintain close ties through Russian gas pipelines and finance, with Vienna a hub for cash from Russia and its former Soviet neighbors,” the outlet noted.Raiffeisen earlier warned that the decision to exit its highly profitable business in Russia would lead to “a decline in income generated by Raiffeisen Bank Russia” and impact RBI’s customers. Senior Raiffeisen executives previously stressed that any spin-off would take four to seven months. RBI has around 2,600 corporate customers, 4 million local account holders, and 10,000 staff in Russia.

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“The question here is not whether something should be done; it is who has the authority to do it.”

• SCOTUS Is Losing Legitimacy – And Only Has Itself To Blame |(Blankenship)

The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) last Friday struck down President Joe Biden’s plan to provide up to $20,000 in student debt relief to Pell Grant recipients who hold federal student loans and up to $10,000 for all federal loan holders. SCOTUS argued that the HEROES Act, which was passed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (not to be confused with a similarly-named law passed during the COVID-19 pandemic), did not grant the administration authority to cancel some $400 billion in debt for 43 million Americans. Chief Justice John Roberts said: “The question here is not whether something should be done; it is who has the authority to do it.” Roberts invoked the “major questions” doctrine, which holds that if an administrative agency – like the Department of Education – ought to be granted a particular power, then Congress must say so explicitly.


SCOTUS ruled that the HEROES Act did not authorize a debt-relief program and, in doing so, implicitly suggested that Congress would need to pass a bill to provide debt relief. For anyone familiar with the current composition of the Supreme Court, this ruling is not entirely surprising. The Court has made it clear that it will break significantly with the country’s traditional legal norms in order to consolidate corporate power. For example, the SCOTUS decision last year on a hypothetical carbon emissions cap broke significantly with the Court’s tradition of only settling matters that are actually an existing issue and leaving political issues to the other branches of government. This was cause enough for alarm that the rule of law no longer exists in the US of A.

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Who wants to be part of this?

• Meta Launches Data-Harvesting Twitter Clone, Immediately Starts Censoring (ZH)

Meta claims that over 10 million people had signed up for its Twitter competitor, Threads, in what CEO Mark Zuckerberg framed as a “friendly” alternative to the little blue bird. “Let’s do this. Welcome to Threads,” wrote Zuckerberg in his first post on the app, which is a “text-based conversation app” where users can publish posts up to 500 characters long, and allows people to post links, photos and videos. Threads is directly linked to Meta-owned Instagram, which has over 2 billion users. The Twitter competitor is being rolled out in over 100 countries for iOS and Android. “The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands. I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success,” wrote Zuckerberg in a Wednesday post, casting the service as a more wholesome substitute to Twitter. “That’s one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently.”

Meanwhile, data privacy and censorship concerns have emerged, with former Twitter owner Jack Dorsey highlighting the vast amount of data collected by Threads. As journalist Michael Shellenberger notes, Within a few hours of launching, Threads was already secretly censoring users and not offering them the right to appeal. “Meta is already too powerful. One company controls what much of the public is allowed to see. And if Threads succeeds, it will have 80% of the global market outside of Russia and China, according to one industry insider. As such, it’s reasonable to expect that Meta will censor precisely the same way the large news media corporations, including the New York Times, and corporate advertisers want it to. More censorship is what the mainstream news media, big corporations, and their celebrity pitch people have been demanding.

…additionally, Unlike Twitter, Threads collects data about “Health & Fitness,” “Financial Info,” “Sensitive Info,” and “Other Data.” What’s ‘other data’? Shellenberger further noted that within hours of launching, Threads was already secretly censoring users and not offering them the right to appeal. Threads flashed a warning after users clicked on Utley and O’Hanley’s profiles. “Are you sure you want to follow…?” asked the Threads warning. “This account has repeatedly posted false information.” -Public.substack. Other Twitter clones who have taken a shot at the king include Donald Trump’s Truth Social, Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky and Mastadon – all of which have failed to gain large enough user bases to cross into the mainstream. The new leftist echo chamber attracted celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez, as well as Congressional performance artist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who hit a snag after just five minutes.

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They’ll keep changing the story.

“The younger Biden has recently been frequently seen at the White House, leading some to speculate he may have moved in.”

• Cocaine at White House Was Found Inside Cubby – Not West Wing Lobby (Sp.)

A website that records police and fire radio communications revealed on Sunday that a DC firefighter was testing a substance found in the White House, later stating it tested positive for cocaine. Officials are now telling US media that the cocaine discovered at the White House on Sunday was actually found in a different place than was previously reported. According to US media, “multiple officials” have indicated the bag of cocaine was recovered from a cubby near the White House’s West Executive entrance, not a West Wing work area as multiple media outlets reported earlier in the week. Those earlier reports also cited unnamed US officials. Immediately after the substance was first found, outlets initially reported the bag was found in the White House Library. The updated location is reportedly between the foyer and a lower-level lobby, close to where the vice president’s limo and SUV are parked. It is also on the same floor as the Situation Room and dining area.

In addition to changing the location of where the bag was found, officials also shortened the expected investigation time. Reports noted the Secret Service expects to finish its report by Monday, it was previously thought it would take weeks. While White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday that the White House has “confidence” the Secret Service will “get to the bottom” of the incident, officials have been signaling to media outlets that they believe it is unlikely the culprit will be identified. Officials were quick to point out that the area is also heavily trafficked. A Secret Service official said it was found during a routine patrol. Initially, the content of the bag was unknown, causing a brief shutdown of the White House campus until it was tested.

The White House has largely stayed mum on the subject. On Wednesday, Jean-Pierre repeatedly declined to answer reporters’ questions about the illicit drug, referring to the Secret Service and insisting any comment by the White House would “get ahead” of their investigation. “This is their kind of guidance and guidelines, their world. So we are going to let them do their jobs, we are not involved in this,” she said. Jean-Pierre also stressed that the area the bag was found is heavily trafficked by visitors. US President Joe Biden and his family were away when the bag of cocaine was found. However, the commander-in-chief’s son, Hunter Biden, has a documented history of cocaine use and was at the White House on Friday night. The younger Biden has recently been frequently seen at the White House, leading some to speculate he may have moved in.

US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has sent a letter to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, asking for more information about the investigation. A Secret Service spokesperson confirmed to media outlets that the agency has received the letter and will respond. In the letter, Cotton asked for a complete list of people who are not subject to security screening at the White House or are subject to lesser screenings, information on how the Secret Service uses K-9 screenings, details on internal audits of their security practices and “how often” the agency encountered “illegal drugs at the White House complex” in the past five years. The letter also asks if the Secret Service will arrest the perpetrator if the investigation reveals their identity.

Read more …

“Study is Removed Within 24 Hours”

“Dr. Harvey Risch, one of the study’s authors, told the Daily Sceptic he deems it “pure Government-directed censorship, even after the Missouri v. Biden injunction”.

• Lancet Study on Covid Vaccine Autopsies Finds 74% Were Caused by Vaccine (DS)

A Lancet review of 325 autopsies after Covid vaccination found that 74% of the deaths were caused by the vaccine – but the study was removed within 24 hours. The paper, a pre-print that was awaiting peer-review, is written by leading cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, Yale epidemiologist Dr. Harvey Risch and their colleagues at the Wellness Company and was published online on Wednesday on the pre-print site of the prestigious medical journal. However, less than 24 hours later, the study was removed and a note appeared stating: “This preprint has been removed by Preprints with the Lancet because the study’s conclusions are not supported by the study methodology.” While the study had not undergone any part of the peer-review process, the note implies it fell foul of “screening criteria”.

Background: The rapid development and widespread deployment of COVID-19 vaccines, combined with a high number of adverse event reports, have led to concerns over possible mechanisms of injury including systemic lipid nanoparticle (LNP) and mRNA distribution, spike protein-associated tissue damage, thrombogenicity, immune system dysfunction and carcinogenicity. The aim of this systematic review is to investigate possible causal links between COVID-19 vaccine administration and death using autopsies and post-mortem analysis.

Methods: We searched for all published autopsy and necropsy reports relating to COVID-19 vaccination up until May 18th, 2023. We initially identified 678 studies and, after screening for our inclusion criteria, included 44 papers that contained 325 autopsy cases and one necropsy case. Three physicians independently reviewed all deaths and determined whether COVID-19 vaccination was the direct cause or contributed significantly to death.

Findings: The most implicated organ system in COVID-19 vaccine-associated death was the cardiovascular system (53%), followed by the hematological system (17%), the respiratory system (8%) and multiple organ systems (7%). Three or more organ systems were affected in 21 cases. The mean time from vaccination to death was 14.3 days. Most deaths occurred within a week from last vaccine administration. A total of 240 deaths (73.9%) were independently adjudicated as directly due to or significantly contributed to by COVID-19 vaccination.

Interpretation: The consistency seen among cases in this review with known COVID-19 vaccine adverse events, their mechanisms and related excess death, coupled with autopsy confirmation and physician-led death adjudication, suggests there is a high likelihood of a causal link between COVID-19 vaccines and death in most cases. Further urgent investigation is required for the purpose of clarifying our findings.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Cone

 

 

Poso

 

 

Angel song

 

 


Charles Bridge, Prague

 

 

Bear

 

 

Polar bear

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle July 6 2023

Jul 062023
 
 July 6, 2023  Posted by at 9:17 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  63 Responses »


Nicolai Dubovskov Hushing (Calm Before the Storm) 1890

 

• NATO Contingent May Be Deployed To Ukraine After Vilnius Summit (TASS)
• French General Forecasts Failure Of Ukrainian Counteroffensive (TASS)
• White House Issues NATO Warning To Ukraine (RT)
• The CIA’s Blind Spot about the Ukraine War (Arkin)
• Kremlin Wars Of ‘High Threat’ Of Nuclear Sabotage By Ukraine (RT)
• Russians Increasingly Believe West Wants To Destroy Their Country (Timofeev)
• Medvedev Names How Ukraine Conflict Could ‘End In Days’ (RT)
• China Doubted We Shot Down Hypersonic Missiles – Kiev (RT)
• Kremlin Denies Media Report That Xi Warned Putin Not To Nuke Ukraine (RT)
• Germany Concerned About Western Escalations in Ukraine (LI)
• Federal Judge Rules Against Biden Admin Attack on Free Speech (Ramos)
• China Warns Chipmaking Export Curbs ‘Just The Beginning’ (RT)
• Culprit Who Brought Cocaine to White House May Never Be ID’d (Sp.)

 

 

 

 

Grossi

 

 

Biden RFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1676632549806731265

 

 

Censorship
https://twitter.com/i/status/1676625507167657984

 

 

Arestovich
https://twitter.com/i/status/1676660447146131456

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..NATO countries “will find in the days remaining before the summit the wording that will not disappoint Ukraine..”

• NATO Contingent May Be Deployed To Ukraine After Vilnius Summit (TASS)

A NATO contingent may be deployed to Ukraine after the alliance’s summit due to be held in Vilnius on July 11-12, Vladimir Rogov, leader of the We Are Together With Russia movement, told TASS on Thursday. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said earlier that Ukraine would not receive an invitation to join the alliance at the summit in Vilnius, but NATO countries “will find in the days remaining before the summit the wording that will not disappoint Ukraine” and it would not be a mere pledge to admit it to the bloc after the combat operations are over.

“Zelensky’s plans include a nuclear false flag attack to try to push through a NATO summit decision to deploy a limited contingent of occupational forces from Poland and the Baltic republics. It will be the legalization of the occupation in a format of ensuring nuclear security on the territory controlled by the Zelensky regime. Such a formula is being looked at the [Ukrainian] presidential office,” Rogov said. As for territories where such a contingent can be deployed to, Rogov noted that Poland is interested in Western Ukrainian regions. Ahead of the NATO summit, Kiev has intensified rhetoric about its striving to join NATO. However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that Ukraine cannot join the alliance as long as it is in a state of an armed conflict.

According to the NATO chief, the Vilnius summit will bring Ukraine closer to the alliance and it plans to set up a Ukraine-NATO Council during the summit. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that the non-invitation to join NATO demotivates the Ukrainian army. His office warned that Zelensky would not go to the summit if the NATO leaders “don’t demonstrate courage” on the issue of Ukraine’s membership. Meanwhile, Russian presidential press secretary said earlier that Kiev’s striving for NATO membership demonstrate its unwillingness and inability to settle the conflict at the negotiating table. He stressed that Russia will continue efforts to ensure its security, which excludes NATO’s expansion by means of admitting Ukraine and thus approaching the Russian border.

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“Ukraine’s greatest vulnerability is its people, or rather a lack of them. Its best fighters have long been dead.”

• French General Forecasts Failure Of Ukrainian Counteroffensive (TASS)

Ukraine’s counteroffensive is doomed to fail as the Russian military has the edge over its adversary in all respects, Jean-Bernard Pinatel, a retired French general and the owner of the company called LexisNexis Business Information Solutions, said in a video interview provided to TASS. “I absolutely do not believe in the success of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The Russians have a significant air superiority. But they also have an advantage on the ground. Even the Ukrainians themselves admit that they fire 4,000 shells a day, while Russia fires 20,000,” said Pinatel, who specializes in Russia and the Middle East. The general also said that the ratio of losses in equipment and personnel is 5 to 1 in favor of Russia. According to Pinatel, the Kiev regime is severely hampered by its lack of human resources.

“What we are witnessing today is a confrontation between a nuclear power and a country that, of course, is sponsored by the Anglo-Saxons, but which does not have significant technical and human potential,” he said. “And I don’t think that the biggest disadvantage Ukraine faces is so much the amount of military equipment, which, by the way, is not always of high quality, because the West supplies Kiev with outdated equipment. Ukraine’s greatest vulnerability is its people, or rather a lack of them. Its best fighters have long been dead.” The general said he believes that, provided NATO doesn’t directly step into the conflict, Kiev’s defeat is only a matter of time. The West’s policy of prolonging the Ukrainian conflict “is only leading to more casualties,” Pinatel said. “Conversations about helping Ukraine until it wins are completely stupid and nonsensical. It will achieve nothing and will only increase the number of deaths among young Ukrainians and Russians,” he said. However, the US and Europe do not care, the retired French general said, because their main goal is not the victory of Ukraine, but the weakening of Russia. Western sanctions, according to Pinatel, have done the most damage to Europe itself.

“Europe cannot do without Russian gas,” he pointed out. “The global gas market, the European market in particular, cannot do without Russian supplies. Before the crisis, Europe used to consume 200 billion cubic meters of Russian gas, while North America supplied only 2 billion. Who are you going to replace Russia with?” Europe is now facing an economic crisis, the general said. “By the winter of 2022, Germany had managed to fill its gas storage facilities, which lasted it through the cold season, but it will not be enough for the next year,” he said. “And many German companies have already closed their doors because of high gas prices. If Germany goes into recession, all of Europe, and France in particular, will be in trouble, because the Germans are our main economic partners.” Russia, on the contrary, is flourishing and developing economically, working hand in hand with Africa and Asia and developing partnerships, according to Pintel.

“This is because Russia is independent of the rest of the world in every way, be it raw materials, grain or energy, but the capitalist world cannot do without the resources supplied by Russia,” he explained. “This war has weakened Europe more than Russia.” European leaders, the retired general went on to say, expected “the whole world to impose sanctions against Russia, but in reality, only about thirty countries have done so, and all the rest are using this opportunity to strengthen the partnership with Moscow.” He said strife is rampant in the bloc of countries that have joined forces against Russia. “The Americans undoubtedly want to hobble economic cooperation between Europe and Russia, which would take away their domination on the international stage. The US strategy is to create a new Berlin Wall between Russia and Europe, but now that wall runs through Ukraine,” Pinatel said.

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Cold feet?

• White House Issues NATO Warning To Ukraine (RT)

Ukraine must implement “reforms” before it can even consider joining the NATO bloc, the White House has said, suggesting that even when the conflict with Moscow is resolved, membership for Kiev could still be far off as it struggles to meet the organization’s standards. Asked whether Ukraine would be offered a “clear pathway to NATO membership” at an upcoming summit in Lithuania next week, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Kiev still had many hurdles to clear before it could seriously think about becoming a member. “The president has said this over and over again: Ukraine would have to make reforms to meet the same standards as any NATO country before they join,” she said at a Wednesday briefing.

And while Washington remains committed to NATO’s open door policy, she noted that “any decision” on NATO expansion must be supported by all members of the bloc. While Jean-Pierre did not specify the reforms Kiev would need to make, Biden previously stated that the military bloc would not “create special conditions for Ukraine to join,” arguing it would be required to meet the same criteria as any other nation seeking membership. “I think they have done everything to demonstrate the ability [of] military coordination, but there is a whole question, is their system safe, and is it not corrupt?” the president said last month. He went on to ask whether it meets “all the standards that any other country in NATO meets?”

Despite those prior comments, during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg last month, the two leaders reportedly discussed a scheme to simplify the accession process for Ukraine. Under Stoltenberg’s plan, the country would not be made to complete a “membership action plan” typically required of applicants. While other Eastern European states went through the procedure before being admitted, NATO’s most recent member, Finland, was spared the process after applying to join last year. Multiple US media reports have stated that Biden appeared “open” to the idea, though some outlets, like the New York Times, suggested Washington would seek an alternative to full NATO membership for Kiev, instead proposing an ‘Israel model’ based on the US relationship with the Jewish state.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has opposed any “substitute for NATO” and reportedly even told Western partners at some point that he would not attend the upcoming NATO summit unless the bloc offered “concrete” guarantees or a roadmap to full membership. NATO’s official position on Ukrainian membership remains unchanged since 2008, when it declared that Ukraine “will become a member” at an unspecified point in the future. While Kiev formally applied to join last September, little progress has been made since. Some US and allied officials have suggested the issue should be resolved only after the conflict with Russia is over, as Ukraine joining NATO would place the bloc at war with Russia. Moscow has repeatedly said that it views NATO’s expansions to the east as a threat to its security, and has listed Ukraine’s neutrality as one of the conditions for any lasting peace between the two countries.

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Newsweek.

“Is the CIA on the ground inside Ukraine?” he asks rhetorically. “Yes, but it’s also not nefarious.”

• The CIA’s Blind Spot about the Ukraine War (Arkin)

One of the biggest secrets of the Ukraine war is how much the CIA doesn’t know. The Agency is as uncertain about Volodymyr Zelensky’s thinking and intentions as it is about Vladimir Putin’s. And as the Russian leader faces his biggest challenge in the aftermath of a failed mutiny, the Agency is straining to understand what the two sides will do—because President Joe Biden has determined that the United States (and Kyiv) will not undertake any actions that might threaten Russia itself or the survival of the Russian state, lest Putin escalate the conflict and engulf all of Europe in a new World War. In exchange, it expects that the Kremlin won’t escalate the war beyond Ukraine or resort to the use of nuclear weapons. America’s stance is under threat because the near-mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, raises the question as to whether Moscow has run out of options.

“Putin’s back is really against the wall” a senior defense intelligence official tells Newsweek, warning that while the CIA fully grasps how much Russia is stuck in Ukraine, it is very much in the dark with regard to what Putin might do about it. With talk of Russian nuclear weapons possibly being deployed to Belarus, and in light of Prigozhin’s public exposure of the terrible costs of fighting, something that Moscow has suppressed, the official says that it is a particularly delicate moment. “What is happening off the battlefield is now most important,” says the official, who was granted anonymity in order to speak candidly. “Both sides pledge to limit their actions, but it falls to the United States to enforce those pledges. This all hinges on the quality of our intelligence.”

“There is a clandestine war, with clandestine rules, underlying all of what is going on in Ukraine,” says a Biden administration senior intelligence official who also spoke with Newsweek. The official, who is directly involved in Ukraine policy planning, requested anonymity to discuss highly classified matters. The official (and numerous other national security officials who spoke to Newsweek) say that Washington and Moscow have decades of experience crafting these clandestine rules, necessitating that the CIA play an outsize role: as primary spy, as negotiator, as supplier of intelligence, as logistician, as wrangler of a network of sensitive NATO relations and perhaps most important of all, as the agency trying to ensure the war does not further spin out of control.

“Don’t underestimate the Biden administration’s priority to keep Americans out of harm’s way and reassure Russia that it doesn’t need to escalate,” the senior intelligence officer says. “Is the CIA on the ground inside Ukraine?” he asks rhetorically. “Yes, but it’s also not nefarious.”

Read more …

The threat is still alive.

• Kremlin Wars Of ‘High Threat’ Of Nuclear Sabotage By Ukraine (RT)

A possible Ukrainian attempt to sabotage the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region would lead to “catastrophic” results, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has claimed. The situation around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian control since March 2022, remains “tense,” Peskov told journalists on Wednesday. “Really, there’s a high threat of sabotage by the Kiev regime; sabotage that might lead to catastrophic results,” Peskov warned. According to the spokesman, an attack on the facility cannot be ruled out because the Ukrainian leadership “has many times shown its readiness to stop at nothing” to achieve its goals. Peskov said one example was the collapse of the Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam in early June, which Moscow has blamed on Kiev. The incident had “horrific consequences,” the Kremlin spokesman noted.

The destruction of the dam led to flooding on both banks of the Dnieper River and caused multiple deaths. Ukraine has claimed that the incident was caused by Russia. “All measures are being implemented to resist the threat [to the Zaporozhye nuclear plant],” Peskov added. Renat Karchaa, a senior official at Russian nuclear power plant operator Rosenergoatom, warned on Tuesday that Kiev was planning to strike the Zaporozhye facility with long-range high-precision munitions and kamikaze drones. Intelligence obtained by Rosenergoatom suggests that Kiev could also attempt to target the plant with a Soviet-made Tochka-U tactical ballistic missile loaded with radioactive waste, Karchaa claimed. Moscow and Kiev have repeatedly accused each other of shelling the Zaporozhye plant throughout their conflict.

The Russian Defense Ministry also claimed to have repelled several attempts to retake the station by Ukrainian assault units, which reportedly approached the facility on boats via the now-drained Kakhovka reservoir. The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant has returned to the spotlight in recent weeks after senior officials in Kiev claimed that Russia was preparing a nuclear incident at the facility. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky alleged that Moscow wanted to cause a “radiation leak” at the plant, while presidential aide Mikhail Podoliak accused the Russian military of mining the plant’s cooling pond. Peskov previously rejected those claims as “yet another lie.” The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, recently visited the facility and said that “no mines were observed at the site” during his inspection.

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“The goals are believed to be defeating Russia, wrecking its military potential, restructuring its statehood, reshaping its identity and possibly eliminating it as a state, in its current form..”

• Russians Increasingly Believe West Wants To Destroy Their Country (Timofeev)

There is an increasingly widespread view in Russia that the goal of the US – and the “collective West” it leads – is to achieve a “final solution” to the “Russian question.” The goals are believed to be defeating Russia, wrecking its military potential, restructuring its statehood, reshaping its identity and possibly eliminating it as a state, in its current form. For a long time, this view remained on the periphery of foreign policy thinking. However, much has changed in the past year and a half. Today, this perception of the West’s goals has gone mainstream. Indeed, it seems quite rational, when placed into the proper context. Meanwhile, Russia itself is pursuing a similar sort of policy towards the Ukrainian state, the existence of which in its former form and borders is perceived in Moscow as a key security challenge.

The historical experience of the last century shows that inflicting total defeat on an enemy and then rebuilding its statehood is the rule rather than the exception in foreign policy practice. There is an important difference to the conflicts of the 18th and 19th centuries, when military defeat of the enemy was seen as a way of extracting concessions from it, but not of rebuilding its very foundations. The experiences of the 20th and 21st centuries are not always linear, but their repetition is obvious. Germany’s defeat in the First World War led to a palpable reshaping of its statehood, determined more by internal contradictions, which grew from the military loss. Germany’s surrender after the Second World War had far more radical consequences. The country was divided, stripped of its foreign policy autonomy and almost completely rebuilt.

Military defeat and subsequent occupation also led to the reformatting of the other large powers, Japan and Italy. The Soviet Union, as a victorious country, was a key player in resolving the “German question.” The USSR was also active in establishing socialist regimes in countries liberated from the Nazi occupation. The subsequent Cold War made this redrawing more difficult. Every attempt was met with resistance from the West. Sometimes the battle ended in a draw, as in Korea. Sometimes the Soviet Union got the upper hand – it helped to inflict a painful defeat on the US in Vietnam, for example. In other situations, the US was successful, for example in supporting anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan. The collapse of the Soviet Union gave Washington a free hand. Despite Moscow’s rhetoric that the Cold War had ended in victory for both sides, the reality was different.

Many of the former socialist countries were quickly integrated into Euro-Atlantic structures with the active help of new local elites and broad public support. Russia itself loudly proclaimed a desire to return to the ‘civilized world.’ The US-led collective West was given carte blanche to reshape a vast area, which they not unreasonably saw as a result of their bloodless victory over the Soviet Union.

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“..if Washington and its allies stopped the deliveries..”

• Medvedev Names How Ukraine Conflict Could ‘End In Days’ (RT)

The ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev has been dragging on for so long because of continued Western arms shipments to Ukraine, Russian former president Dmitry Medvedev told TASS on Wednesday. “If NATO, primarily the US and its vassals, had stopped supplying weapons and munitions to Ukraine, the [Russian] special military operation would have ended in mere months,” Medvedev told the news agency. It can still end “in days,” however, if Washington and its allies stopped the deliveries, he added. Medvedev said that any war, regardless of its scale, could end “very quickly … if a peace treaty is signed or if one does what the Americans did in 1945, by using their nuclear weapons and bombing Japanese cities.” The US strikes did stop hostilities at the time, though he noted that “the price was 300,000 civilian lives.”


The US nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki claimed up to 80,000 lives each. The long-term consequences of the attacks, including radioactive contamination, might have brought the estimated number of victims up to 166,000 in Hiroshima and 140,000 in Nagasaki. Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy head of the Russian Security Council, warned that Russia would prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, even if it meant engaging in a “permanent” conflict. Moscow has demanded its security concerns be respected when it comes to NATO expansion, he said, adding that “Russia’s existence is at stake” and it would not hesitate to stop this threat “one way or another.” The former president also spoke against US nuclear weapons deployment to Poland, warning that it could trigger a nuclear conflict. Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on NATO to include Warsaw in the bloc’s Nuclear Sharing Program.

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Not just China.

• China Doubted We Shot Down Hypersonic Missiles – Kiev (RT)

When Kiev announced shooting down a Russian hypersonic missile, people in Washington were exhilarated, but a visiting Chinese official didn’t believe the claim and left before he could be shown proof, according to Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov. The reactions were described by The Financial Times on Wednesday, based on the minister’s account. Reznikov’s department claimed it had intercepted a Russian Kinzhal missile for the first time in May, using a US-made Patriot anti-missile system. Kiev has since reported downing over a dozen such weapons, which Moscow mocked as not corresponding to reality. The Ukrainian official declared that his nation had proven that hypersonic weapons can be defended against, showcasing in the process the advanced capability of NATO systems.

He claimed that when he delivered the news of the first success to a US official, the response was: “Fantastic!” But Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, who was visiting Kiev in mid-May, was skeptical about Kiev’s ability to down Kinzhals, Reznikov explained. “I proposed that if there are doubts, we are ready to provide proof,” Reznikov told the newspaper, adding that Li left the country without viewing the purported evidence. The Kinzhal is an air-launched hypersonic missile, which is believed to be derived from the quasi-ballistic ground-launched Iskander projectile. The Russian forces have used both types of weapons against military targets in Ukraine, though details about hypersonic strikes have been scarce.

In May, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said the number of Kinzhal missiles, which Kiev claimed to have intercepted, was larger than the number actually fired by the Russian side. Some military experts have suggested that Ukrainian officials were misrepresenting debris from Iskander missiles as coming from Kinzhals, when presenting them as evidence of successful intercepts. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that the Patriot system’s capability made it uniquely important for his country’s defense. He told The Wall Street Journal last month that Ukraine needed 50 batteries – which cost an estimated $1.1 billion apiece – for sufficient protection.

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The FT publishes some weird pieces these days.

• Kremlin Denies Media Report That Xi Warned Putin Not To Nuke Ukraine (RT)

The Kremlin has dismissed “fictitious” claims in the Western press that Chinese President Xi Jinping warned his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. The claim was reported by The Financial Times, based on anonymous diplomatic sources. “I cannot confirm that,” Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday, when asked about the FT article. He suggested that official statements regarding Xi’s “important” visit to Moscow in March were “sufficient” to make conclusions about its nature. According to FT, Chinese officials have “privately taken credit for convincing the Russian president to back down from his veiled threats of using a nuclear weapon against Ukraine.”

The newspaper alleged that “deterring Putin” from an atomic strike was a key part in Beijing’s diplomatic strategy regarding Europe. The Chinese government has blamed Western policies, including the expansion of NATO in Europe, for the Ukraine conflict, rejecting the Western view that Russia’s military operation was “unprovoked”. It has also publicly urged Moscow not to use its nuclear capability. The purported warning from Xi to Putin gave supporters of Kiev confidence that “China is backing up its public rhetoric behind closed doors,” the FT article said. Moscow has called the Ukraine conflict part of a wider Western proxy war waged against Russia. Putin, as well as other senior Russian officials, have repeatedly cited the Russian nuclear doctrine, which allows the use of such weapons to prevent an existential threat to the Russian state.

Western officials and media outlets have framed those remarks as indicating a possible nuclear attack against Ukrainian forces. However, Putin has stressed that he is against the idea of a limited nuclear strike for any purpose other than saving the nation from destruction.“First of all, we have no need for that. Second, the very speculation about this is a factor that lowers the threshold for the use of the weapon,” he explained during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last month. The Russian leader added that his recent decision to station some Russian tactical weapons on the territory of ally Belarus was meant as deterrence against “those who think they can inflict a strategic defeat on us,” referring to the stated US goal in Ukraine.

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“..we were once again in agreement that the Alliance must never become a party to a conflict..”

• Germany Concerned About Western Escalations in Ukraine (LI)

Top German officials have voiced anxiety regarding Western escalations in Ukraine, signaling that Berlin will push back against the most provocative proposals. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany was reluctant to send longer-range weapons to Ukraine over concerns the arms will be used to attack Russian territory. London has provided Kiev with Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles which have a range of more than 155 miles. According to recent reporting, the White House is also closing in on a decision to provide Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), munitions capable of striking targets roughly 200 miles away. Last month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu warned the West that Ukraine using long-range weapons to attack the Crimean Peninsula could lead to a direct war between Moscow and NATO.

“The use of these missiles outside the zone of our special military operation would mean that the United States and Britain would be fully dragged into the conflict and would entail immediate strikes on decision-making centers in Ukraine,” he said. Berlin is now receiving requests from Kiev to provide Taurus KEPD 350 missiles, an air-launched missile with a range of over 300 miles. Scholz said Germany is considering the request. = Germany has faced intense pressure throughout the war due to Berlin’s occasional reluctance to provide Kiev with all requested aid. However, officials have repeatedly caved to Kiev’s demands. In one example, Germany resisted sending its Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, but quickly reversed course after Poland, the UK and the US pledged to send their own advanced tanks. Dozens of its Leopard 2s were ultimately provided.

Some of the German tanks have already been destroyed on the battlefield and Kiev is asking Berlin for replacements. Meanwhile, the American Abrams tanks have not yet arrived in the country due, in part, to a lengthy refurbishment process. Berlin has also pushed back on plans to give Ukraine an official timeline for NATO membership at an alliance summit in Vilnius next week. In an interview published in Rzeczpospolita on Monday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the military bloc could not resolve the issue until the conclusion of the war with Russia. “In my recent meetings with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, we were once again in agreement that the Alliance must never become a party to a conflict,” he said. “Therefore, we will not be able to answer the question of Ukraine’s accession to NATO as long as the war continues in Ukraine.” Pistorius went on to explain that Germany is committed to supporting Ukraine’s war effort for as long as the conflict continues, noting that Berlin would deliver dozens of older Leopard 1 tanks in the coming weeks.

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“..the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’”

• Federal Judge Rules Against Biden Admin Attack on Free Speech (Ramos)

Judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana ruled that several federal agencies and officials from the Biden administration cannot collaborate with social media companies in restricting certain speech. Doughty wrote in his introduction to the ruling, “If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.” The ruling states officials and agencies from the Biden administration are restrained from communicating with social media firms “for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms.”

The ruling does not restrict the government from speaking to companies regarding criminal activity, national security threats, voter suppression, foreign attempts to influence elections and other malicious activity. The lawsuit brings up issues such as COVID-19 health policies, the origins of the pandemic, election security, Hunter Biden’s laptop and others as those targeted for suppression. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey described the case as the “most important First Amendment lawsuit in a generation.” Doughty wrote in the ruling, “The Plaintiffs have presented substantial evidence in support of their claims that they were the victims of a far-reaching and widespread censorship campaign,” and, “This court finds that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their First Amendment free speech claim against the Defendants.”

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a statement, “The evidence in our case is shocking and offensive with senior federal officials deciding that they could dictate what Americans can and cannot say on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms about COVID-19, elections, criticism of the government, and more.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Director of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and other State Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials were named in the injunction. Doughty also likened the evidence to a dystopian scenario. Specifically, “During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’”

Biden Big Tech

Read more …

..gallium and germanium..

• China Warns Chipmaking Export Curbs ‘Just The Beginning’ (RT)

China’s export controls on key components for computer chip manufacturing are “just the beginning,” an influential trade policy adviser warned on Wednesday. Earlier this week China announced that starting next month, special licenses will be required to export gallium and germanium, two key metals used to make computer chips. Speaking to the China Daily newspaper, former Vice Commerce Minister Wei Jianguo said that should Washington place tougher technology restrictions on Beijing, the government will escalate the countermeasures. The decision to restrict the export of industrial products and materials containing gallium and germanium was made after thoughtful consideration, he added. The comments follow a report by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that the US plans to restrict China’s access to cloud computing to close a loophole that allows Chinese artificial intelligence firms to bypass the current chip export control rules.


Cloud services allow customers to gain powerful computing capabilities without buying advanced equipment, such as chips. Washington and Beijing have been involved in a dispute over semiconductors and other advanced technologies for several months. Reuters reported in May that US officials were considering tightening a rule designed to slow the flow of artificial intelligence chips to China by clamping down on the amount of computing power the chips can have. Last October, Washington introduced export control rules, effectively cutting China off from certain semiconductor chips made with US equipment. China retaliated in May, by banning memory chips manufactured by Micron, the biggest US producer. This week, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “stable and smooth functioning of regional and industrial supply chains” ahead of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to Beijing to discuss economic issues between the two nations.

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Ha ha ha. We have no idea!

Maybe Hunter can invite Zelensky for a slumber party.

• Culprit Who Brought Cocaine to White House May Never Be ID’d (Sp.)

Sunday evening, a small baggie of white powder was found in the West Wing, prompting a brief shutdown of the White House campus. Preliminary tests determined the substance was cocaine, allowing the White House to be reopened and the bag shipped out for further analysis. As the US Secret Service undertakes its investigation into who brought a bag of cocaine to the White House, an unnamed law enforcement official has told US media the culprit may never be found. On Tuesday, lab results confirmed that the substance was cocaine. While the Secret Service and the White House have refused to say exactly where the baggie was found, both have said it was located at a heavily trafficked area. The Secret Service described it as a “work area of the West Wing” while White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was in an area frequented by guests and noted tours had taken place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“Where this was discovered is a heavily traveled area, where many […] West Wing visitors come through this particular area,” Jean-Pierre said during Wednesday’s White House briefing. “I just don’t have anything more to share, it is under investigation by the Secret Service, this is in their purview.” Jean-Pierre added the White House has “confidence the Secret Service will get to the bottom of this.” US media outlets have reported on an unnamed official familiar with the investigation who said it is possible the investigation may not discover who brought the illicit substance into the White House because of the area’s high traffic between government officials and tourists. “It’s gonna be very difficult for us to do that because of where it was,” the official reportedly said. The Secret Service said they are reviewing visitor logs and video cameras as part of the investigation. A reporter noted on Wednesday that the baggie remains at the lab for additional tests, including for fingerprints and DNA.

Jean-Pierre refused to answer a reporter’s question about whether US President Joe Biden wanted the culprit to be prosecuted if the investigation reveals the source of the cocaine. “I am just not going to get into hypotheticals from here, let’s let the Secret Service do their job, it’s under their purview,” she said. Biden and his family were not in the White House when the cocaine was discovered – that includes the president’s son Hunter Biden, who at the time was vacationing at Camp David with his father and first lady Jill Biden. However, Hunter Biden, who has a well-documented history of cocaine use, including multiple instances that were caught on video, was at the White House on Friday. At the Wednesday briefing, Jean-Pierre noted all visitors to the White House have to go through security checkpoints; however, she was not asked by reporters and did not clarify if that applies to members of the first family.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crowned pigeon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1676578997411500034

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle July 5 2023

Jul 052023
 
 July 5, 2023  Posted by at 9:19 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  39 Responses »


René Magritte Architecture au clair de lune 1956

 

• Russian Nuclear Giant Claims Ukrainian Attack On Power Plant Imminent (RT)
• Support For Ukrainian Nazis Leaves Indelible Mark In US History – Envoy (TASS)
• Ukraine Accuses Western Backers Of Failing To Uphold F-16 Pledge (RT)
• Ukraine Wants More Western Jets, Not Just F-16s – Kiev (RT)
• US War Industry Pulls Mainstream Media Strings on Ukraine (Sp.)
• Hungary Threatens To Block All EU Military Aid To Ukraine (RT)
• Biden Pushes For Von Der Leyen To Be NATO Chief (Az.)
• Macron Says May Shut Down Social Media in France If Riots Worsen (Sp.)
• What Caused Wagner Mutiny And What Now For Russia And Its Opponents? (Ugolny)
• China Cancels Visit By EU’s Top Diplomat (RT)
• SCO Emerging as Cornerstone of New Multipolar World (Sp.)
• The Dystopian European Media Freedom Act is a Trojan horse (Marsden)
• Blobocracy (Jim Kunstler)

 

 

One theme only today, really. The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. Will Ukraine/US/NATO bomb it? If so, hold your loves ones near and dear.

 

 

 

 

Free speech
https://twitter.com/i/status/1676355109914308608

 

 

 

 

Trump 4th of July NOTE: No Notes. None

 

 

 

 

 

 

Macgregor
https://twitter.com/i/status/1676295651313721347

 

 


US Pacific Fleet puts out an Independence Day tweet (since deleted), with Russian aircraft, a Russian ship, and a soldier saluting with his left hand.

 

 

Trump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1676030289238261767

 

 

 

 

JFK Election financing

 

 

Unseen Crisis

 

 

 

 

 

• Russian Nuclear Giant Claims Ukrainian Attack On Power Plant Imminent (RT)

Ukraine is expected to launch a large-scale attack on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) overnight, a senior Russian atomic energy industry official warned late on Tuesday. Kiev may also strike the plant with a missile stuffed with radioactive waste, he added. The warning was voiced by Renat Karchaa, a senior aide to the head of Rosenergoatom, a subsidiary to Russia’s state-owned atomic energy giant Rosatom. The official cited intelligence data received by the industry. “On July 5, literally overnight, while it’s still dark, Ukrainian forces will attempt an attack on the Zaporozhye plant with long-range high-precision munitions, as well as suicide drones,” he told Rossiya 24 TV channel. Kiev is also expected to attempt a strike on the plant with a heavy, Soviet-made Tochka-U tactical ballistic missile, Karchaa went on.

The munition has been filled with radioactive waste collected from the South-Ukrainian nuclear power plant, the official claimed. While Karchaa did not elaborate, the apparent goal of the secondary attack is to cause an uptick in radioactivity readings in the region should the main launch fail to damage the facility enough to cause the release of hazardous materials into the air. The ZNPP was seized by Moscow from Ukraine early into the ongoing conflict, getting formally transferred under Rosatom management as the Zaporozhye region became incorporated into Russia after a referendum. Both Moscow and Kiev have repeatedly accused each other of subjecting the Russian-controlled facility to artillery fire and drone strikes. The rhetoric around the plant escalated in recent weeks, with the top Ukrainian official repeatedly claiming Moscow had been preparing a nuclear incident at the ZNPP.

President Vladimir Zelensky, for instance, said Moscow wanted to cause a “radiation leakage” at the plant, while his aide Mikhail Podoliak accused Russia of placing mines in the plant’s cooling pond. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has called the claims by Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials “yet another lie” coming from Kiev, stressing that Moscow remains in close cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The UN watchdog’s boss, Rafael Mariano Grossi, visited the facility recently and disputed Ukraine’s allegations, stating in his report that “no mines were observed at the site during the director general’s visit, including the cooling pond.” The danger to the ZNPP has also been questioned by the White House, with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying last week that Washington has not “seen any indication that that threat is imminent.”

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July 4th message: “The US is smirched with dishonor..”

• Support For Ukrainian Nazis Leaves Indelible Mark In US History – Envoy (TASS)

The US is smirched with dishonour as it blatantly supports the Ukrainian Nazis, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on Tuesday when commenting on the visit to the United States of representatives of the Azov nationalist battalion (terrorist organization outlawed in Russia) and their meetings at the Capitol. “One cannot look indifferently at how the heirs of Hitler and Bandera are honored in the country that contributed to the defeat of the fascist Germany. This is a betrayal of the memory of the Americans who gave their lives during World War II. The blatant support for the Ukrainian Nazis will leave an indelible mark in the American history,” he said.


The Ukrainian terrorists that have committed countless atrocities against the Russian population in Donbas, “make speeches within the walls of the once trustworthy Stanford University” now, the diplomat noted. “The question arises: what vision of the world do they want to instill into young Americans and foreign students, studying here? The duty of humanity is to oppose the glorification of Nazism with all its might. We tirelessly urge Washington to solve this problem. However, in response, we encounter absurd prohibitions even in the run-up to memorable events, such as laying wreaths at the Spirit of the Elbe memorial,” Antonov emphasized.

Ritter

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Spring 2024 at the earliest. There’ll be no young Ukrainians left by then.

• Ukraine Accuses Western Backers Of Failing To Uphold F-16 Pledge (RT)

Ukraine was told that its pilots would start training in F-16 fighter jets in June, but the program has not yet been launched, the Ukrainian foreign minister has claimed. “One of the countries,” which is part of the so-called “fighter jet coalition,” promised that the scheme would start last month, Dmitry Kuleba said during a TV appearance on Monday. “The training did not start in June. This means that the schedule is starting to shift… We’re now working with all the parties involved… to speed this process up as much as possible,” he said. According to the minister, the unnamed country “miscalculated” when it made its pledge to Kiev, but is continuing to make preparations for Ukrainian airmen to be trained with the American aircraft.

Kuleba said he was previously expecting to get the F-16s in the first few months of 2024, but the delay in training now means the wait will be longer. Last month, Igor Zhovkva, an aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, said nine countries – the US, UK, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal and France – had formed a coalition to help Ukraine obtain the warplanes. The chairman of NATO’s military committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, told the British radio station LBC on Monday that the issue of providing F-16s to Ukraine “will not be solved in the short term for this counteroffensive.”

Kiev has intensified its attacks along the frontline with the use Western-supplied tanks and armored vehicles since early June, but according to Moscow, the much-hyped counteroffensive has failed to achieve significant gains so far. Zelensky has been pressing his Western backers for fourth-generation F-16 warplanes for months, arguing that they are crucial in providing air cover for Ukraine’s troops and defending its airspace, amid a massive Russian missile campaign targeting military facilities and energy infrastructure. In late May, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley warned that “the F-16 will not act as a magic weapon” in Ukraine, but will “cost a dollar” to Kiev’s backers.

The history of ukraine, from the Big Bang to modern times.
I said yesterday: “Why try to rewrite history? It was the Vikings. No, the Romans…”
This hilarious video takes it a step or two further.

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“..F-16s would not be a game changer since they have inferior capabilities compared to many of Russia’s modern military aircraft..”

• Ukraine Wants More Western Jets, Not Just F-16s – Kiev (RT)

F-16 fighter jets promised to Ukraine by its Western backers are not the only military aircraft that Kiev wants, Ukrainian Air Force Command spokesman Yury Ignat said on Tuesday. “Ukraine considers and will consider other aircraft types that could enhance combat capabilities,” Ignat told national broadcasters when asked about Kiev potentially acquiring American-made F/A-18 Hornets from Australia. However, Ukraine cannot exert too much pressure on the US and its allies as it depends on Western aid, he admitted. Ignat said the US-made F/A-18 and F-15, as well as the Eurofighter Typhoon, have a greater range and can carry more weapons. Nonetheless, he stated that Kiev would still focus on acquiring F-16s first, adding that Ukrainian pilots could learn to fly them sooner.

Ukrainian pilots have still not started their F-16 training, the spokesman said, adding that officials in Kiev are “working on the issue every day” by examining bases that are due to serve as training hubs. “The process has been launched,” he told broadcasters, but noted that it has thus far only amounted to “planning.” Kiev will not receive F-16s until the training of pilots and maintenance crews is completed and the relevant infrastructure is prepared, Ignat said, adding that “handing over [the jets] is impossible for now, it will require time.” “We cannot put pressure on our partners, because we depend on their aid,” Ignat stated. None of Ukraine’s foreign backers have spoken about supplying Kiev with Western-made fighter jets other than the F-16 so far.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has criticized Kiev’s backers for what he described as a failure to launch the F-16 training program in time. He did not name the specific nations that had promised to start the training in June, but argued that the pledge itself had been “miscalculated.” “We’re now working with all the parties involved… to speed this process up as much as possible,” Kuleba said. Russia has repeatedly warned that deliveries of increasingly more sophisticated weapons to Ukraine by the US and its allies only prolongs the conflict and could lead to a major escalation. In late May, Bloomberg reported that F-16s would not be a game changer since they have inferior capabilities compared to many of Russia’s modern military aircraft.

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“..it boosts the point of view that the US are the good guys who can end this war, who can bring peace if they only just pour enough weapons in..”

• US War Industry Pulls Mainstream Media Strings on Ukraine (Sp.)

It’s no coincidence that American media is unanimously calling to send more military supplies to Kiev and fight to the last Ukrainian, since the debate has been artificially narrowed by the US defense contractors, as per the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft’s recent study. The DC-based think tank has found that of the 15 think tanks most often mentioned by the mainstream press, just one – Human Rights Watch – does not receive funding from the US war industry. Quincy’s analysis particularly demonstrated that the US media were seven times more likely to cite think tanks with ties to defense contractors than those without such affiliations. “There isn’t really an alternative voice in the media when it comes to these issues of war and peace,” Bryce Greene told Sputnik.

“The Beltway is usually on board with the drumbeat of the coverage. And this just shows how much the media relies upon these voices to shape the opinions, to shape the views of their audience. And it’s especially dangerous when you consider that most of these think tanks don’t even tell you how much they’re getting from these corporations. One finding from this study was that these think tanks (…) are not required to report where exactly they get their money from. Anything they give us is really by their goodwill. But very often they don’t tell you which companies are funding exactly how much. They might list some donors, but they don’t give exact figures. So it’s incredibly difficult to track the influence of this.”

Even though the US media is ostensibly independent they still push the government’s line by relying on and uncritically quoting those sources whose paychecks come from the US military-industrial complex, according to Greene. What’s more, the US media never gives a hint that those views come from experts funded by Lockheed Martin, or Boeing or some other defense contractor benefitting from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the journalist continued. Greene lamented the fact that it makes it very hard for a viewer to understand whether or not the information they’re getting is unbiased and untainted by special interests. “Most people know an institution functions on behalf of the people who fund it,” Greene continued. “And the think tanks are working on behalf of the military-industrial complex and therefore the media are laundering the point of view of the military industrial complex in order to present them as independent outside analysis.

The net result of this is that you have almost consistent drumbeat coverage in the US press calling for more weapons, for more intervention, and the US public is foaming at the mouth, waiting for just how many more weapons will it take to defeat Vladimir Putin. (…) We’ve been taught about this war that Vladimir Putin is a new Hitler hell-bent on conquering all of Eastern Europe. Again, this is all just propaganda on top of more propaganda. And it boosts the point of view that the US are the good guys who can end this war, who can bring peace if they only just pour enough weapons in. We only send another few billion dollars. We only send some tanks, some jets, and some high fliers. Everything will be alright in the fight against autocracy.”

Maidan – Road to War (Part 1 of 5, 52 min. Who has the time?)
I suspect the best doc on the origin of what we see today.

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“The minister blasted Ukraine over putting Hungary’s OTP bank on what he called a “list of shame”..”

• Hungary Threatens To Block All EU Military Aid To Ukraine (RT)

Hungary will not agree to any further EU financing of arms shipments to Ukraine until Kiev removes the nation’s largest lender from its list of “sponsors of war,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a press conference on Tuesday. The minister blasted Ukraine over putting Hungary’s OTP bank on what he called a “list of shame” by calling the reasons for such a move “outrageous” and “unacceptable.” “Our position is clear: until the OTP [bank] is removed from this list, Hungary will not greenlight any additional EU funding for weapon shipments to Ukraine,” the minister said. The decision will cover not just the €500 million ($546 million) tranche of arms Budapest vetoed earlier but any further military assistance as well, he added. “It will be better if they [the EU] do not come up with any proposals to finance further arms deliveries,” Szijjarto said.

Budapest is “doing everything to help the Ukrainian people,” and Hungarians “are paying the price of a war they have nothing to do with,” Szijjarto said following a meeting of the Hungarian-Jordanian joint economic committee. The official also called Kiev’s attitude toward Hungary puzzling. “We really sometimes have a feeling that they [the Ukrainians] are making fun of us,” he said. The minister also blasted the reasons, for which Ukraine put OTP on its blacklist by saying that “we would like to laugh [at them] because these are ridiculous things that are brought up.” At the same time, he called the situation around the Hungarian bank “serious,” adding that Budapest is “rather horrified” over the development. Hungary blocked the EU military aid tranche for Ukraine back in May, citing Kiev’s increasingly hostile” attitude towards the country.

The money blocked by Budapest was part of the so-called European Peace Facility (EPF). The fund is a €5.6 billion ($6.08 billion) purse that the bloc uses to finance foreign militaries and reimburse its own members who send arms to foreign conflicts. Before the conflict in Ukraine, the ‘Peace Facility’ had been used to supply non-lethal equipment to Georgia, Mali, Moldova, Mozambique, and Ukraine, for a total of less than $125 million. Budapest has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and peace deal in Ukraine and criticized the EU for sending arms to Kiev. Hungary also insisted that anti-Russian sanctions hurt Europe more than they hurt Russia. In June, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told the German tabloid Bild that a Ukrainian victory on the battlefield was “impossible.”

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EU, NATO, it’s all the same. No knowledge required.

• Biden Pushes For Von Der Leyen To Be NATO Chief (Az.)

Joe Biden is pushing for Ursula von der Leyen to be installed as the next Nato secretary general after Ben Wallace’s candidacy was blocked, Report informs, citing The Telegraph. The president of the European Commission was said to be the United States’ preferred candidate after the White House rejected the Defence Secretary for the role. A Nato source said that the US president was attempting to convince Mrs von der Leyen, a former German defense minister, to succeed Mr Stoltenberg amid fears a suitable candidate will not emerge in the next 12 months. “We’re going to have a problem next year when it becomes clear that the field is no stronger than this year,” a second source said. Mr Biden and Mrs von der Leyen have built “a strong bond” in recent years, fostering close transatlantic ties over China, Ukraine and the climate, another source said.

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Stuck in Napoleon days.

• Macron Says May Shut Down Social Media in France If Riots Worsen (Sp.)

The French authorities can shut down social networks if the situation in the country deteriorates, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday. “We need to think about the issue of social media and applicable bans. And if the situation worsens, we perhaps need to be able to regulate and turn them off,” Macron was quoted as saying by French broadcaster BFMTV. However, the president added that this discussion should not be held “rashly.”On Friday, Macron said that the French authorities would identify those who called for protests through social media in light of the ongoing unrest triggered by the killing of a teenager.


Later that day, French media reported that the government had met with representatives of social media due to unrest in the country. In particular, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Minister Delegate for the Digital Transition and Telecommunications Jean-Noel Barrot reportedly warned platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter of their responsibility and asked for support identifying users involved in committing offenses. France has been gripped by unrest since June 27, when a 17-year-old boy was shot dead by a police officer for failing to stop his car when ordered to do so in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. The officer who pulled the trigger on Nahel M. has been taken into custody for voluntary manslaughter, but that has not deterred the protesters.

Escobar

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“Wagner became the best-known example of Russian stormtroopers. This was largely due to its independent media resources and success..”

• What Caused Wagner Mutiny And What Now For Russia And Its Opponents? (Ugolny)

The events instigated by the Wagner private military company (PMC) on June 23-24 were influenced by several military and political factors. Russia’s leadership managed to deal with the mutiny in less than 24 hours. However, the reasons behind the incident still weigh the Russian army down and need to be addressed. In fact, the future of the military campaign in Ukraine depends on how promptly Moscow learns from this experience. To better understand the conflict between Wagner PMC and the Russian Ministry of Defense, we must go back to the events of last year. At that time, the group, which had earlier been involved in combat in both Africa and in the Middle East, was hired to help capture the fortified area of Popasnaya and then Artemovsk (Bakhmut), in the Donbass. The scale of this operation was so large that Wagner essentially became an army corps – a rather autonomous unit with its own infrastructure, command, and tactical direction.

At the same time, the group was considered light infantry. Making use of small assault units like Wagner which were directly backed by artillery, the Russian command wanted to escape dead-end positional warfare. Such tactics were used not only by Wagner but by units like the 1st Donetsk Army Corps. Moreover, the unique experience of assault operations gained in the year of combat resulted in the formation of “Storm Z” assault units that operate with Wagner-like tactics and have a similar structure. However, Wagner became the best-known example of Russian stormtroopers. This was largely due to its independent media resources and success. By the time the battles for Artemovsk ended, Wagner had hopes of acquiring the status of an independent structure within the armed forces, autonomous from the Russian Ministry of Defense and subordinate directly to the President of the Russian Federation.

Internal rivalry became one of the main reasons for the clash between Wagner and the Ministry of Defense. Earlier this year, Wagner was restricted in recruiting volunteers from prisons, who were instead assigned to regular units, including Storm Z. Accordingly, in recent months, Wagner could only rely on normal recruitment offices and was forced to compete for each candidate. Considering the severe fighting in the Artemovsk area, each recruit became priceless. In order to win people over to his side, the company’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin developed the Wagner brandand boosted his media presence. The group was presented as an ideologically like-minded community, a military caste, a corporation with its own values and code of honor.

When he exhausted regular marketing methods, Prigozhin made use of dark PR to win over recruits from his competitor, the Ministry of Defense. Prigozhin’s media outlets presented the regular units of the Russian army as incompetent, bureaucratic structures capable only of retreat. The peak of this dark PR campaign coincided with the last days of the battle for Artemovsk.

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Wait: “Beijing had not confirmed the visit..” In other words, he invited himself.

• China Cancels Visit By EU’s Top Diplomat (RT)

China has cancelled a planned visit by the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, a spokesperson for the bloc announced on Tuesday. The diplomat’s trip was reportedly scheduled for next week. “Unfortunately, we were informed by the Chinese counterparts that the envisaged dates next week are no longer possible and we must now look for alternatives,” spokesperson Nabila Massrali told Reuters in a written statement. Beijing had not confirmed the visit and has provided no comment on its apparent cancellation, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning stating at a regular press briefing on Tuesday that she did not have any information to share on Borrell’s potential trip.

The visit was announced by the EU’s envoy to China, Jorge Toledo, on the sidelines of the 11th World Peace Forum in Beijing on Sunday. Borrell was to travel to China next Monday, Toledo said, seeking to address all outstanding issues with Beijing, including “partnership,” “competition” and “systemic rivalry.” “This will be the place to raise all these issues, especially the strategic issues that we have with China,” Toledo stated, adding that Borrell was scheduled to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang. Borrell had been due to visit Beijing in April this year, shortly after EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron toured the country. However, the top diplomat tested positive for coronavirus and the trip was rescheduled.

The top EU diplomat has previously given mixed signals on ties with China, calling it a “rival” but also a partner. He has pointed to two major “strategic security issues” with China – namely its growing alliance with Russia and neutral stance on the Ukraine conflict – and the issue of Taiwan, regarded by Beijing as an integral part of its territory.

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More multipolarity: SCO, BRICS, INSTC etc

• SCO Emerging as Cornerstone of New Multipolar World (Sp.)

The twenty-third summit of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO was held on Tuesday in a virtual format in New Delhi. The leaders of all SCO member states – [India], China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – welcomed Iran as a new full-fledged member of the organization. India’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Vinay Kvatra announced that Belarus will be admitted to the SCO as a full member at the summit in 2024. This year, Belarus and Mongolia took part in the meeting as observer states, while Turkmenistan was invited as a guest of the chairman. “In general, today, even without the inclusion of new players in the SCO, [the organization] has already become the most important structure of the world order, of a multifaceted multipolar world,” Dr. Stanislav Pritchin told Sputnik.

“In my opinion, there is a huge potential for creating financial infrastructure, because we all see how the dependence on Western international financial organizations, infrastructure, and the exchange of banking information affects the cooperation of states even within the SCO. (…) We need to create our own infrastructure, our own reserve currencies, regional ones, and create opportunities for trade, regardless of external players. And in this regard, the potential of the SCO, of course, is huge, taking into account the economic potential of China, India, and Russia’s other partners.” Pritchin has drawn attention to the fact that initially, the SCO was formed as a regional security organization being the successor to the Shanghai Five, which was set up in the early 2000s.

Over time, however, the scope of the SCO’s agenda has expanded. Even though the organization includes geopolitical opponents such as India and Pakistan, this did not create any serious problems for the SCO’s activities due to its inclusiveness and flexibility. Pritchin placed special emphasis on an obvious difference between the SCO and NATO whose agenda is formed and dictated by the US. In contrast, the Eurasian club operates on the principles of equality and collegiality, as per the scholar. “When it comes to Iran’s accession to the SCO, the crux of the matter is that Iran has long wanted to join the organization, and only now it has happened,” continued Pritchin. “This is a direct consequence of both Russia’s special military operation [in Ukraine] and the serious deterioration of US-Chinese relations.

Now the countries of the region, the SCO member states, in principle, make decisions without regard for the position and opinion of Western countries. And this shows the subjectivity and independence of this organization. From the point of view of the SCO’s potential, the involvement of Iran is a very important development, because a major power of 80 million people is a serious player in the field of security, our partner in [the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC)], in the security system in the Caspian Sea, an important economic partner. In this vein, of course, Iran’s accession is a very important stage in the expansion and strengthening of the SCO, its military and economic potential.”

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“Codifying the most basic rights – like a free press – is a pretty good indication that someone wants to mess with them..”

• The Dystopian European Media Freedom Act is a Trojan horse (Marsden)

EU officials are on the verge of approving a new “European Media Freedom Act,” promoted as a new law to protect journalists, their freedom, and press pluralism. However, any thinking person might start by asking how exactly that squares with the bloc’s top-down censorship of voices published on platforms that counter their establishment narratives, like RT for instance. They cite the Ukraine conflict as justification, but they were looking for an excuse long beforehand. Rather than leave it to individual national media regulators to do their job, and cite any specific offenses or evidence, these big fans of free press and democracy at the EU just blocked them unilaterally. So, these same folks are now in the process of fine-tuning a law designed to “promote internal safeguards on editorial independence and media ownership transparency” – which the EU has never been too interested in fostering when it comes to the NGOs and press outlets it supports.

They also plan to introduce measures that include the protection of journalists from spyware. But in even bringing spyware up, there’s now a risk of official codification of its use by governments against journalists in some instances – something which has, until now, been frowned upon. Once again, as with “anti-Russian” sanctions and cutting off its own cheap Russian energy supply, the EU has found a way to really stick it to itself and is on the verge of achieving precisely the opposite of its stated intentions. Governments like France are now reportedly requesting specific, codified exemptions to the state use of surveillance software targeting journalists in cases where they might be dealing with sources or evidence involving “national security” offenses or other heavy crimes that risk bringing down governments like… music piracy.

Right – because “national security” has never been abused as a pretext for Western authorities to protect their own interests from dissent. And we’re talking here about suspected crimes, so is a mere hunch enough to tap a journalist’s phone? The exemption request should also raise eyebrows about what these governments are already doing under the guise of national security to the point where clearly they believe they’re on the verge of losing something. Various French journalists, for example, have taken issue in the past with being spied on by French intelligence or police. And to make it even easier, a French parliamentary commission even voted recently to allow remote activation and geolocation of a target’s tech devices. Revelations about the use of Israeli Pegasus spyware by governments like Morocco to target French journalists raises other potential problems.

For example, what power would the EU even have over foreign countries if, say, an EU member state decided to outsource surveillance to a non-bloc country – let alone ever know which state gave the order to do so? Including any exemptions whatsoever to spyware use by EU member states not only defeats the whole stated purpose of the legislation, but also greatly reduces the chances that sources will talk to or trust the press. It effectively turns every journalist into an inadvertent direct pipeline of information to the authorities – which they may have been before, but now this new law confirms it, serving as a Vegas-style billboard for that fact. Who in their right mind is going to call out wrongdoing by powerful state actors when a murky pretext can theoretically be evoked by the same state to neutralize the whistleblower and their story before it can do any damage to the establishment?

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“It will shrink and desiccate into a fragile little nugget of residual malevolence that can be put down like a small, rabid animal.”

• Blobocracy (Jim Kunstler)

By happenstance lately, out and about, I met up with several old friends and attempted to check-in with where they stood on these matters — how are things going in our country? The phrase our country seemed to make their heads snap back a little and their eyes goggle. Their answer, uniformly, was “Trump, Trump, Trump,” issued as a sort of barking. Trump’s criminal insults to democracy must be stopped, was the drift. My next question was: How’s “Joe Biden” doing? (They didn’t see the quote marks, and I didn’t use my fingers to signify.) “He’s doing pretty well… accomplished a lot,” they said. What’d they make of the developing bribery scandal? “Huh… the what?” Raking in all that money from foreign governments when Joe was Veep, and then after. “Oh… right-wing talking points… baseless….”

This is what my old friends think. Quite a few of them are aware that I write this blog. They don’t actually read it; they seem to just hear about it. The old community of Boomer friends thinks I’ve “gone off the deep end.” One thing these encounters taught me is how successful the censorship and propaganda campaign of the Blob has been. These were people, you understand, who came of age believing in free speech, freedom of the press, respecting civil rights, decrying political persecutions, and, most of all, being against hegemonic wars — which, back in the sixties, was called imperialism. These days they’re all for a righteous defense against misinformation that threatens our democracy, meaning: censorship. They wouldn’t call it that, exactly. They consider it a battle against right-wing extremism, white supremacy, misogyny, homophobia, the usual bugbears. It never occurs to them that the Blob lies to them continually, remorselessly, promiscuously about everything.

They apparently believe what comes out of CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, et cetera. They were told to go get vaxxed. They went and got vaxxed. Some are not looking too good. They don’t seem to know that the vast machinery of public health in our country has been marshalled to do them harm, that the people running that machinery were well-aware that their vaccines did not get properly tested, and the little testing that was done did not turn out very well. Those agencies lied about it and worked strenuously to prevent the duped and vaxxed-up public from learning what had been done to them. What we’ve got, then, this Fourth of July holiday, 2023, is basically the pro-Blob Americans against the anti-Blob Americans. It’s a vicious conflict with no sign of resolution. No amount of factual disclosure — no Durham report, no fruitless Mueller report, not any number of whistleblowers, no alt news — can persuade the pro-Blobbers that their beloved Blob lies and deceives.

And no degree of coercion or punishment will convince the anti-Blobbers to fall into line and just do what they’re told. I think my old friends are insane, and they think the same about me. Everybody knows that the tension building is unendurable, that eventually things will break, and we all worry what kind of country we will have when the breaking ends. I’ll tell you what it will be: it will be a country without a Blob. The Blob thrives on money, and one of the first things to break will be our money and all the operations that generate, multiply, and move it. For years, we anti-Blobbers have been on the receiving end of punishments doled out so liberally by the Blob and its followers. Soon, all the lying, including the lying about our money, will bring on events that’ll deprive the Blob of its nourishment. It will shrink and desiccate into a fragile little nugget of residual malevolence that can be put down like a small, rabid animal.

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SoF
https://twitter.com/i/status/1676271622267830272

 

 

Sound of Freedom

 

 

Steer

 

 

Elephant rhino
https://twitter.com/i/status/1676187618659401728

 

 

Tiny octopus

 

 

 

 

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