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Debt Rattle September 29 2024

Sep 292024
 
 September 29, 2024  Posted by at 8:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  32 Responses »


Mestre da Família Artés The Last Judgment and the Mass of Saint Gregory 1500-1520

 

• Most Ukrainian Soldiers Last Only A Few Days – FT (RT)
• Nasrallah’s Death ‘Devastating Blow’, Will Trigger Escalation of Violence (Sp.)
• Hezbollah Military Leadership Nearly Wiped Out – Israel (RT)
• Zelensky’s Hopes for Long-Range Missiles Slow-Walked by Washington (Sp.)
• Lukashenko Predicts Russia-Ukraine Healing (RT)
• ‘Friends of Peace’ Issue Russia-Ukraine Statement (RT)
• Ukraine Shrinks Each Time Talks With Russia Are Disrupted – Lavrov (TASS)
• Trump Threatens To Prosecute Google (RT)
• Joe Rogan Warns Censorship Will Get Much Worse if Kamala Harris Wins (MN)
• Trump’s Authentic Anger Versus Kamala’s Phony Joy (Noel S. Williams)
• US Offers $20 Million for Info on Iranian Accused of Plot to Kill Bolton (ET)
• Militarism vs Statecraft, Empire vs Democracy, Debt vs Prosperity (Kucinich)
• Dollar A ‘Dangerous Currency’ – Former IMF Director (RT)
• Musk To Pay Another Fine To Restore X In Brazil (RT)
• Those Published “17,000 Hydroxychloroquine Deaths” Never Happened (Gortler)

 

 

 

 

Keep the peace

 

 

Murder

 

 

RFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1839747791037632827

 

 

Vivek

 

 

Treason

 

 

Roseanne

 

 

Vote

 

 

ID
https://twitter.com/i/status/1839752346643083339

 

 

Gutfeld

Secure

Harris border

Watters

 

 

Bill Maher
https://twitter.com/i/status/1839873192095097049

 

 

 

 

This immensely sad picture is brought to you by your own tax dollars.

• Most Ukrainian Soldiers Last Only A Few Days – FT (RT)

The Ukrainian military has been so depleted by attrition that new infantry troops are often unfit for combat and flee at the first sign of fighting, the Financial Times reported on Friday. In some units, around two thirds of soldiers are reportedly killed or wounded within days of arriving at the front. Manpower shortages have plagued the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) for well over a year, according to reports in Ukrainian and Western media outlets. After multiple rounds of conscription, the average age of a Ukrainian soldier is now 45, and many of those sent to the front are unfit for combat, multiple commanders and soldiers told the British newspaper. “When the new guys get to the position, a lot of them run away at the first shell explosion,” a deputy commander fighting near Ugledar in Donetsk Region said.

Another commander whose unit is attempting to hold the nearby town of Khurakove said that “some guys freeze [because] they are too afraid to shoot the enemy, and then they are the ones who leave in body bags or severely wounded.” The commanders estimated that 50-70% of new infantry troops are killed or wounded within days of starting their first rotation. Russian forces have gained ground near Ugledar, Khurakove, and the key logistics hub of Povrovsk in recent weeks. Many of the AFU’s most experienced troops were pulled from this sector of the front in August to take part in the invasion of Russia’s Kursk Region, an operation that has cost Kiev more than 17,750 servicemen, over 130 tanks, and hundreds of other combat vehicles, according to the latest figures from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Experienced soldiers “are being killed off too quickly” and replaced by older and less fit men, another commander told the Financial Times. “As infantry, you need to run, you need to be strong, you need to carry heavy equipment,” he said, adding: “It’s hard to do that if you aren’t young.” As of May, the Ukrainian military has been drafting 30,000 soldiers per month. However, AFU Commander-in-Chief General Aleksandr Syrsky admitted earlier this month that these new recruits are often sent to fight with as little as six weeks’ training. The commanders who spoke to the Financial Times said that they consider this training worthless, as many of the AFU’s instructors haven’t seen combat themselves. “Some of them don’t even know how to hold their rifles,” one officer said. “They peel more potatoes than they shoot bullets,” he complained, explaining that he had bought paintball guns in order to teach his new men how to shoot without wasting ammunition.

Those who survive often go AWOL after their first rotation, while others are so shell-shocked and exhausted that they are checked into psychiatric wards, the newspaper reported. With the AFU under no legal obligation to demobilize troops, joining the army or getting conscripted is viewed by recruits as “a one-way ticket,” a ten-year veteran told the Financial Times. While the Ukrainian military does not publish casualty figures, the Russian Defense Ministry estimates Kiev’s losses since February 2022 at around half a million men. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, however, maintains that with more Western weapons and money, Russia can be “forced into peace.” Moscow considers Zelensky’s belief in military victory “delusional,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week.

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Nasrallah spent 30 years building up Hezbollah. He knew it could never count on just one person leading it. It has to be by committee.

• Nasrallah’s Death ‘Devastating Blow’, Will Trigger Escalation of Violence (Sp.)

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination marks “a devastating blow to Hezbollah” and the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance alliance, and will inevitably mark a major uptick in tensions and violence in the region, veteran Lebanese Middle East affairs observer Dr. Imad Salamey says. “Nasrallah was not only the face of Hezbollah, but also a figure of immense symbolic and strategic importance within the broader Iranian-led regional alliance. He has been instrumental in Hezbollah’s military and political successes against Israel, its support of [President Bashar Assad’s Syria], and its backing of the Houthis in Yemen. His death represents a major moral and leadership setback, leaving a vacuum that’s difficult to fill,” Salamay, an associate professor of political science and international affairs at the Lebanese American University, told Sputnik.

Nasrallah’s death also comes against the background of the “substantial” damage done to Hezbollah in last week’s pager attacks, the professor said, noting that these attacks “disrupted Hezbollah’s command and control capabilities, creating significant challenges for the group to regroup and reestablish its operational structure.” While Hezbollah “remains a potent force, it will take some time for it to recover from these setbacks, both materially and strategically,” the observer believes. Dr. Salamay expects Nasrallah’s assassination to result in a sharp spike in attacks on Israel by Hezbollah and its allies to try to exact revenge, and more broadly, to potential “shifts in regional alliances, a recalibration of Iran’s strategies in Lebanon, and possibly more aggressive Israeli policies aimed at capitalizing on Hezbollah’s weakened position.”

The IDF’s decision to code-name Friday’s attack on Nasrallah “New Order” is also an obvious reference to Israel’s ultimate goal of reshaping “the political and security dynamics in Lebanon and the broader region” to a political and security arrangement “more favorable” to Tel Aviv, according to the academic. Salamay believes Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, the chief of Hezbollah’s executive council, Nasrallah’s “number two” and the late leader’s maternal cousin, is the most likely candidate to succeed him, presuming he himself hasn’t yet been targeted by Israel. “While he lacks the same public charisma as Nasrallah, his close ties to both Nasrallah and Iran make him a natural successor. However, his ability to command the same level of trust and authority among Hezbollah’s base and the broader Shiite community remains uncertain,” according to the professor.

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Also something Nasrallah will have foreseen. The strength will be in the collective.

• Hezbollah Military Leadership Nearly Wiped Out – Israel (RT)

Nearly all of Hezbollah’s military leaders have been eliminated in recent Israeli strikes, officials in West Jerusalem have claimed, after the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in a bombardment of a compound in Beirut. In a post on X on Saturday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry released a diagram of what it said was Hezbollah’s military chain of command. All of the 18 high-ranking members – including Nasrallah and Ali Karaki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern front, and the heads of several units – are said to have been “eliminated.” A separate post by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) listed 11 senior Hezbollah members, ten of whom were also described as “eliminated.” Only Abu Ali Rida, the commander of the Bader unit, has survived so far, according to the list.

The IDF list largely mirrored the ministry’s, but included two additional names – Ibrahim Muhammad Qabisi, the commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile force, and Hussein Srour, the head of the Aerial Command – both of whom are also presumed dead. Israel appeared to have trumpeted its successes against Hezbollah after announcing that Nasrallah had been killed in a powerful air strike in Beirut. Nasrallah, who led the group for more than 30 years, was widely regarded as an icon of resistance to Israel who oversaw the growth of Hezbollah’s power and influence. Hours after West Jerusalem said it had killed the group’s leader, Hezbollah confirmed the death, pledging to continue “its jihad in confronting the enemy, in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defense of Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people.” At the moment, it is unclear who will succeed Nasrallah.

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“Zelensky gives his ‘victory plan’ a hard sell in the US – did the pitch fall flat?” the BBC asked..”

• Zelensky’s Hopes for Long-Range Missiles Slow-Walked by Washington (Sp.)

Volodymyr Zelensky left Washington on Thursday without approval to launch long-range strikes at targets deep inside Russia using NATO missiles, prompting observers to suggest his “star power” has faded as Americans grow increasingly tired of or indifferent toward the conflict. A former DoD insider explains told Sputnik what’s really going on. Ukraine’s self-proclaimed president made last-ditch pre-election appeals to President Biden, Vice President Harris and lawmakers on Capitol Hill during his trip to Washington this week to sell his so-called “victory plan” – aimed at forcing Russia to sue for peace by greenlighting Ukraine’s use of long-range NATO strike systems to attack Russia, and applying for membership in NATO “within months,” rather than years. US and European legacy media proved surprisingly cool in their coverage of the visit by Zelensky, who until recently was treated with rock star status in Western capitals.

“Zelensky’s Star Power Fades on Capitol Hill,” the New York Times wrote of the trip, contrasting Zelensky’s raucous reception in Washington two years ago to his “muted” visit this week, which saw just “a few dozen lawmakers huddl[ing] with him behind closed doors while the speaker of the House snubbed him.” “Zelensky gives his ‘victory plan’ a hard sell in the US – did the pitch fall flat?” the BBC asked in its own post-trip analysis, pointing to the faux pas Zelensky made during the visit, from his attacks on possible future president Trump and his running mate in an interview with a liberal news magazine, to a trip to a Pennsylvania ammunition factory which Republicans decried as blatant election interference. President Biden sought to breath life into the visit by announcing $8 billion in additional military aid for Ukraine, including Joint Standoff Weapon glide bombs, drones, and Patriot air and missile defenses.

But the main publicized goal of the trip: approval for strikes deep into Russia, was nowhere to be found in summaries of Zelensky’s talks with US officials amid warnings from Moscow that such a step would put NATO and Russia in a state of war. “I think Zelensky had a ‘pie in the sky’ goal of trying to get the US to give committed support, militarily, financially to get long-range missiles approved. I don’t think he fared very well,” ex-senior DoD security policy analyst Michael Maloof told Sputnik, commenting on the trip. Zelensky’s hosts “were polite and listened to him, but there’s too much at stake at this point,” Maloof suggested, stressing that granting Kiev’s request would require direct US involvement in the conflict, something the DoD appears to be wary of providing.

A big part of the problem for Zelensky is that the US is now so deep into the 2024 presidential campaign “that everybody is distracted by it,” according to Maloof, with the Biden-Harris White House likely seeking to avoid making “any decisions that will have long-term impact,” or prove unpopular among voters as support for additional Ukraine aid fades. “Clearly, Trump has an entirely different idea and approach than Harris and Biden have toward support for Ukraine. And I think that if he were to win, it would have a dramatic impact on…any future decision-making toward what arms Ukraine does have,” Maloof said. “Trump agreed to meet with [Zelensky], but he made it clear that he would be talking to President Putin. And he has a relationship there.”

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“Don’t think that Americans and Europeans are one family. Americans do not need a strong Europe..”

• Lukashenko Predicts Russia-Ukraine Healing (RT)

Russia and Ukraine will eventually overcome their animosity after the conflict between the two neighbors comes to an end, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday. The two sides need to start looking for a negotiated solution right now, he added. “We need to find common ground with Ukrainians to stop this war,” Lukashenko told students from the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radio Electronics. Neither side should “go any further,” he said, as they have already done “more than enough.” The Belarusian leader predicted that Russia and Ukraine will eventually restore good relations, pointing to his own country’s relations with Germany after World War II. “Belarus was entirely destroyed,” he said, referring to the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Republic of Belarus, which was part of the USSR at the time.

“Yet… your generation, even mine, were already talking normally to the Germans,” he explained. ”Human memory… heals these wounds,” Lukashenko said. He also stated that Minsk maintains contact with Kiev, all while being a close ally with Moscow. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “does not want to hear” about peace only because “Americans are pushing him towards war,” the Belarusian president said. According to Lukashenko, Washington is the only party that is benefiting from the conflict, and is doing so at the expense of Ukraine and even its allies in Europe. The US is using Ukraine to develop its own defense industries by pouring money into weapons production for military aid to the country.

Europe could also be stronger if it worked with Russia instead of simply following the US, Lukashenko said. The combination of European technology and Russian resources could give the continent a boost in development, he said, arguing that instead of this, German companies have been deprived of cheap Russian energy and are shutting down. “Don’t think that Americans and Europeans are one family. Americans do not need a strong Europe,” he warned.

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More optimism.

• ‘Friends of Peace’ Issue Russia-Ukraine Statement (RT)

China, Brazil, and more than a dozen other members of the ‘Friends of Peace’ group have called for an immediate end to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, with Beijing’s top diplomat declaring that peace “is the only realistic option” for the two nations. Convened by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Brazilian presidential adviser Celso Amorim, the Friends of Peace initiative held its first ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday. Described by Wang as a forum for “objective and rational” dialogue on the conflict, the meeting was attended by 18 countries, mostly from the Global South. Hungary and Türkiye were the only NATO members to send diplomats to the conference. In a joint communique signed by China, Brazil, and 11 other attendees, the group called for a “comprehensive and lasting settlement by the parties to the conflict through inclusive diplomacy and political means based on the UN Charter.”

This settlement should be achieved by following a six-point plan published by China and Brazil earlier this year, the communique recommended. The plan calls for both sides to refrain from escalation or provocation, increase humanitarian assistance and prisoner of war exchanges, refrain from nuclear threats and attacks on energy infrastructure, and attend an international peace conference in which all peace proposals will receive a “fair discussion.” “Russia and Ukraine are neighbors that cannot be moved away from each other and amity is the only realistic option,” Wang said during Friday’s meeting. ”All members of the ‘Friends of Peace’ are peace-loving countries. We are not the creator of the Ukraine crisis, or a party to it,” he said. “We have no self-interest or geopolitical considerations on the Ukrainian issue. We gather here to voice our support for peace and to be partners for peace between Russia and Ukraine.”

Wang’s statement fell on deaf ears in the West. Speaking to reporters shortly after the meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned China for declaring that it wants peace, while allegedly allowing its companies to sell components for military hardware to Russia. “That doesn’t add up.” he said.”The United States should stop smearing and framing China,” Wang responded, adding that Beijing “has always insisted on promoting peace and dialogue, and has made its own efforts to promote a political solution.” In a speech to the assembly on Wednesday, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed that “alternatives, half-hearted settlement plans, so-called sets of principles” would only benefit Russia, and that only his own ten-point ‘peace plan’ can resolve the conflict.

Zelensky’s plan – which calls on Russia to hand control of Crimea to Ukraine, pay reparations, and turn over its own officials to war crimes tribunals – has been dismissed by the Kremlin as “detached from reality.” Moscow is willing to discuss “really serious proposals that take into account the situation on the ground,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week. Any plan, she added, must involve Kiev withdrawing troops from Russia’s Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye Regions and committing to military neutrality.

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“And there can be only one result – a settlement of this problem on the basis of eliminating the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis..”

• Ukraine Shrinks Each Time Talks With Russia Are Disrupted – Lavrov (TASS)

Ukraine shrinks every time proposed talks with Russia are upset, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference following his participation in the high-level week of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly. “Each time an agreement Russia always goes for is derailed, Ukraine shrinks,” he said, citing Ukraine’s refusal to implement the Minsk agreements and Kiev’s disruption of the negotiations in 2022 as an example. Lavrov recalled how Ukraine’s chief delegate to the talks with Russia in 2022, David Arahamiya, said that then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had come to Kiev and advised Ukraine to go on fighting. “If Ukraine continues along the same path, if it continues to use some gimmicks again in order to buy time, it will not succeed,” Lavrov emphasized. Ukraine has “forever undermined” its legitimacy, at least as long as the current regime is in power.

“I very much hope that our Chinese and Brazilian friends and all those who have joined this group of ‘friends of peace’ will fully take into account the manners and ways of the current Ukrainian leadership and its endless attempts to lure everyone by deception on their very quick and shifting sand,” Lavrov pointed out. Lavrov also noted that Russia is glad to see any initiatives concerning the Ukrainian settlement, including the one proposed by former US President Donald Trump, provided they will help eliminate the root causes of the crisis. “Trump said some time ago that he would need 24 hours. Now the wording is different,” Lavrov recalled. “We will welcome any initiatives that will bring about the desired result.” “And there can be only one result – a settlement of this problem on the basis of eliminating the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis,” Lavrov stated.

Among these root causes the Russian foreign minister singled out the threat to Russia’s security from the West, which has been dragging Ukraine into its military bloc, while “security is essential not as some abstract term, but as a basic human need.” Another root cause of the conflict, he stated, was discrimination against the Russian-speaking population, including through laws banning the use of the Russian language and even the canonical Orthodox Church. “If Mr. Trump succeeds in overturning these laws we are talking about, it will be a stride forward,” Lavrov said. “It’s the easiest thing to do – just hold a vote.”. “Our position is crystal clear: we need to eliminate the root causes [of the conflict]. Everyone knows what they are,” Lavrov said. The minister recalled the Ukrainian presidential decree that prohibits negotiations with Russia. “[President Vladimir] Zelensky’s decree prohibiting negotiations with Russia is still in force there, so I am not even going to speculate on how they are going to sort things out,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov said he had asked China and Brazil about the contents of their peace initiatives on Ukraine. “My colleagues and I <…> discussed their plans. I asked them about practical aspects of their initiative, because the five-or six-point Chinese-Brazilian plan has correct ideas, such as calls for peace, for justice, for compliance with the international law. No one objects to that, but no one has spoken on how exactly they are planning to achieve peace. All I know is that this matter is only at the stage of consideration,” Lavrov said at a news conference to sum up the results of his participation in the High-Level Week of the 79th UN General Assembly. China and Brazil have not yet drafted their plan on resolving the crisis in Ukraine, they only made declarations of intention, Lavrov added.

“I saw no action plan in the document. I only saw a declaration of intention,” he said. Earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced at a meeting with Celso Amorim, chief advisor to the Brazilian president, that China, Brazil and other countries of the Global South were creating a platform to facilitate a peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky criticized the plan, calling it “destructive.” The Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, replied that Zelensky was not in a position to criticize it, because it the West who is making all decisions for Kiev.

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He has Elon Musk in his corner now.

• Trump Threatens To Prosecute Google (RT)

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has vowed to take Google to court if he is reelected this November, accusing the tech giant of deliberately showing negative stories about him and favoring his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. In a post on Truth Social, Trump expressed hope that the Department of Justice will criminally prosecute Alphabet’s Google for the “blatant Interference of elections,” adding that he will “request their prosecution” if he is reelected. “It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris,” the former president said in the post.

Earlier this month, the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog, released a study suggesting that Google has featured Harris’ campaign website in a more favorable location in its search results than the Trump campaign’s official site. The tech giant dismissed the findings, saying it does not manipulate search results to benefit a particular party. A Google spokesperson told Fox News Digital at the time: “Both campaign websites consistently appear at the top of Search for relevant and common search queries.” Trump previously attacked the tech company, claiming that it prioritizes “fake news” in its search results, which are “rigged” against him and other conservatives. Google denied the allegations.

In July, US tech billionaire Elon Musk accused the company of being biased against the Republican candidate. He shared a screenshot of a page in which the query ‘President Donald’ was typed into the search bar. The capture demonstrated how Google’s autocomplete feature, which provides suggestions based on the words typed, did not offer ‘President Donald Trump’, but instead showed ‘President Donald Duck’ and ‘President Donald Reagan’. At the time, a Google representative told NBC News that the autocomplete feature was experiencing issues that day, adding that the company was “looking into these anomalies and working on improvements.”

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No doubt.

• Joe Rogan Warns Censorship Will Get Much Worse if Kamala Harris Wins (MN)

Joe Rogan has warned that if Kamala Harris gets into office the First Amendment will be at risk and online censorship will only get much worse. Rogan pointed out that X and Rumble were the only remaining major platforms where true free speech was somewhat protected. Asked by his guest, former Navy Seal Shawn Ryan, whether he’d faced any significant censorship on audio only streams, Rogan said that he hadn’t, despite Spotify removing 70 of his shows in 2022. “Audio is like, they’re leaving that alone for now, I think it’s probably because it’s not as easily shared,” said Rogan, prompting Ryan to predict, “That’s what’s coming next.” “I don’t think it turns around if Kamala Harris gets into office, I think they clamp down more, I think the same stuff they tried to do with Twitter they’ll try to do with other things, they’ve already openly discussed it,” said Rogan.

In 2019, Kamala Harris demanded that Twitter shut down Donald Trump’s account, two years before the president was suspended following the January 6 riot. “We’re talking about a private corporation, Twitter, that has terms of use, and as far as I’m concerned and I think most people would say, including members of Congress who he has threatened, that he has lost his privileges and it should be taken down,” Harris told Jake Tapper at the time. Rogan also made reference to Harris’ running mate Tim Walz asserting that certain kinds of speech are not protected under the First Amendment. Back in August, Walz claimed that there was, “No guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy.”

“Tim Walz said that the First Amendment doesn’t apply to misinformation or hate speech, okay, well, it certainly does,” responded Rogan. The podcast host said the entire point of the First Amendment was to allow unrestricted speech and then allow it to be corrected by someone else if it’s wrong. Commenting on so-called “misinformation,” Rogan pointed out that, “So much of it turns out to be true, how about masks don’t work? You would get screamed at for ‘masks don’t work’ – well guess what? They don’t fucking work. They don’t work.” Rogan highlighted how Dr. Anthony Fauci gave an interview at the start of the COVID pandemic telling Americans that masks were useless. “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,” Fauci said in remarks made on March 8, 2020.

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“How dumb can they be? How dumb do they think we are?”

• Trump’s Authentic Anger Versus Kamala’s Phony Joy (Noel S. Williams)

Harris’s handlers try to portray her as joyful, and Trump as angry. How dumb can they be? How dumb do they think we are? Harris’s supposed joy is sickeningly fake, but Trump’s anger is righteous. Emotions of anger are often viewed negatively; in fact, change agents often experience anger, and they are also optimistic. Those traits are not mutually exclusive, but often mutually dependent. Indeed, angry people are often more optimistic. Trump is well known for his negotiating strategies; his book The Art of the Deal is a bestseller — multiple times. Well, it turns out that anger can also be a shrewd negotiating strategy. As this research indicates, “Viewing angry negotiators as formidable opponents, we respond to their demands by making concessions.” In addition to being more optimistic and stimulating formidable negotiating tactics, anger is, when channeled constructively, a motivating force.

So if Trump is angry, according to Harris, then bring it on! Optimism, strength in negotiations, and motivation are what America needs right now. What we don’t need is another village idiot in the White House. They can be mistaken as “joyful,” but that’s just a case of ignorance being bliss. How dumb do they think we are? Our Founders were angry at times. They were also motivated and optimistic, though Benjamin Franklin intimated some concern about the fragility of republics. In reply to a question about what the constitutional delegates had crafted, he said: “A republic, if you can keep it.” Keeping a representative republic sometimes requires anger, and its accompanying traits, rather than wanton, incongruous joy.

Given the anti-American policies and anti-republic demagoguery the disdainful Dems have wrought, we need some authentic anger to restore American exceptionalism. We need some grit and passion to assert our rightful place as the last great hope of Earth. We need an “angry” negotiator like Trump to keep our republic, and that’s an optimistic and motivational point of view. The current village idiot in the White House is angry, but without the positive synergetic traits; for the sake of our republic, we don’t want to replace him with a “joyful” village idiot. To play on the clarion call from the great Patrick Henry: Give me liberty, or give me joy. The latter could be the death knell of our great republic. Harris’s fake joy is a euphemism for blissful ignorance. She can’t stand alone, so the Dem and MSM apparatus are propping her up, but we are not as dumb as their joyless village idiot. How dumb can they be?

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Got to be a joke..

• US Offers $20 Million for Info on Iranian Accused of Plot to Kill Bolton (ET)

The U.S. State Department announced on Thursday a reward of up to $20 million for information leading to the arrest of an Iranian man charged with plotting to assassinate John Bolton, a former national security adviser to President Donald Trump. Shahram Poursafi, 45, from Tehran, is believed to be working on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF)—a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization—to arrange a murder-for-hire scheme against Bolton, according to a State Department statement. A criminal complaint by the Justice Department in August 2022 said the alleged plot was likely in retaliation for the death of IRGC-QF commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in January 2020. Poursafi allegedly tried to hire “criminal elements” within the United States to kill Bolton in Washington or Maryland between October 2021 to April 2022 in exchange for $300,000, the department stated.

He allegedly provided material support and resources to facilitate the attempted murder and told the potential assassin that there would be a “second assassination job” for him after Bolton’s murder was completed. The potential assassin later became a confidential source for U.S. investigators, the department said. Poursafi allegedly asked a U.S. resident identified only as “Individual A” to take photographs of Bolton, claiming that the photos were needed for a book he was writing, according to the criminal complaint. The U.S. resident then introduced Poursafi to a covert government informant who could take the photographs for a price. Investigators said Poursafi contacted the informant on an encrypted messaging application in November 2021 and offered the person $250,000 to hire someone to “eliminate” Bolton, an amount that would later be negotiated up to $300,000.

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Kucinich means peace.

• Militarism vs Statecraft, Empire vs Democracy, Debt vs Prosperity (Kucinich)

As of May 2024, the United States has committed over $175 (borrowed) billion to escalating the proxy war against Russia, and, as in the case of the Iraq and Afghan wars, with little regard for accountability pertaining to tracking military hardware, equipment, funding, or fraud prevention. One of the most grotesque moments in this bloody global Punch and Judy show preliminary to nuclear war, was the recent arrival of Vladimir Zelenskyy, former president of Ukraine, making a campaign stop at an ammunition factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where some of the three million 155mm artillery shells the US has given Ukraine are produced. Alongside Zelenskyy, in an incitement-op photo promising further escalation of war, the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania autographed one of the high-velocity artillery shells which will be aimed at Russia.

Pennsylvania, which is home to the City of Brotherly Love, was unwitting re-Christened by its top official, with a cursive flair, as the state of brotherly hate. The fervor of warmongering, fueled by machismo and high bravado illustrates the failure of leadership and a fatal ignorance of the diplomatic process. We should be exercising the science of human relations, not propelling a hubristic and ego-driven brinkmanship which accelerates the dialectic of war. For decades I have led opposition to war and advocated for the transformation of America’s prevailing policy of “Peace through Strength” to a forward-looking policy of “Strength through Peace.”

I challenged the Bush II Administration’s foreign policies, and introduced Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over Iraq and the lies which led us into war. Illegal and unnecessary, the Iraq war (debt-funded and authorized by both Democrats and Republicans) has cost our nation over $3 trillion, and the loss of 5,000 of our brave men and women who serve and injuries to countless more troops. The war caused the deaths of over one million Iraqis. Let that sink in. One million Iraqis perished in a war based on lies. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. The war further damaged America’s global reputation and set us upon a path where, since 9/11, America has borrowed $8 trillion to keep the war machine in tune as our own nation’s pressing domestic needs for housing, health care, education, child care, and retirement security have been set aside.

When I heard Vice President Harris brag about former Vice President Dick Cheney endorsing her candidacy, that put the exclamation point on the fact that the leaders of the Democratic party are for war. I am not. Why else would Vice President Harris become the front person for such virulent bravado, invoking lethality abroad? A paradox of this campaign is that the much-villainized former President Trump, (representing a party that has also taken us into unnecessary wars) is the one who speaks to the need to negotiate and to talk directly with potential foes in order to avoid war, or to end it.

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“..the US “is the main enemy of the dollar” ..

• Dollar A ‘Dangerous Currency’ – Former IMF Director (RT)

The US dollar has become a dangerous currency, a former Brazilian representative at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr., told RT in an interview at the outlet’s studio on Friday. The economist highlighted that trust in the greenback as the global reserve currency has been steadily declining as more and more nations seek alternatives in what has become a major de-dollarization push. “The dollar is a dangerous currency, let’s put it this way, see what happened to the Russian reserves,” Batista said, referring to the fact that some $300 billion worth of Moscow’s sovereign assets held in Western jurisdictions were frozen. The former IMF executive director emphasized that the US “is the main enemy of the dollar” as it has been increasingly weaponizing its national currency, thus forcing an increasing number of nations to “seek alternatives to the Western financial system.”

Batista admitted that the greenback will remain “a very important currency,” but stressed that the use of the dollar as a weapon against countries seen as hostile to the West inevitably reduces confidence in it. Speaking about the methods of coercion employed against “nations that are seen as hostile to the West and their interest,” Batista highlighted the role of the IMF, which, he believes does not function as a multilateral institution but rather as “as a political instrument largely of the West and the US.” He pointed out that “Ukraine had received immense amounts of loans with no financial program and no solid economic program.” Meanwhile, nations whose policies are not in line with the West do not get access to the fund, citing Serbia as an example.

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“X’s legal team in Brazil declined to comment on Moraes’ latest move. Musk has also kept unusually quiet on the news so far.”

• Musk To Pay Another Fine To Restore X In Brazil (RT)

Elon Musk has been ordered to pay another fine if he wants Brazil to lift a nationwide ban it placed on his X platform in August, local media reports, citing a Supreme Court filing out on Friday. The fine was ordered by Justice Alexandre de Moraes after X briefly became accessible in the country despite the previous ban, allegedly through Musk’s satellite internet provider Starlink. The dispute between Musk and the Brazilian authorities dates back to April when Moraes ordered X to delete several accounts that were claimed to have been spreading disinformation. Musk refused, saying the move would violate Brazilian law. On August 30, Moraes placed a nationwide ban on X.

He also imposed a fine on the platform for failing to appoint a new legal representative in Brazil, and ordered the freezing of the accounts of X and Starlink, a subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX in the country, to ensure its payment. The court unblocked both accounts in mid-September, but withdrew 18.35 million Brazilian reais (around $3.3 million) from them in order to enforce the fine. Musk initially refused to comply with Moraes’ demands, calling him “an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge.” However, earlier this week, X’s legal team said the platform has fixed the issues noted by the court, including appointing attorney Rachel de Oliveira as its new legal representative. It requested the ban on the platform be lifted.

The court said on Friday that it received a report from Brazil’s telecommunications watchdog (Anatel) claiming that X became accessible for two full days the previous week despite the suspension. Moraes accused Musk of “deliberately and illegally” trying to “circumvent” the ban, and ordered him to pay an additional 10.3 million reais ($1.9 million) if he wants to restore the platform in Brazil. Oliveira was also ordered to pay a fine of 300,000 reais ($55,200). “The immediate return of X depends solely on the full compliance with Brazilian legislation and the absolute observance of the court orders in respect of national sovereignty,” Moraes said in the court order. X’s legal team in Brazil declined to comment on Moraes’ latest move. Musk has also kept unusually quiet on the news so far.

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“The Hill, Politico, Frontline News, Scripps News, the Guardian, KFF Health News, News Nation, Newsweek, AOL.com, Yahoo News, and Daily Kos, in addition to…”

“As of September 15, 2024, the above and other articles still show up very prominently (on the first page) of a Google search for “hydroxychloroquine deaths”…which never happened.”

• Those Published “17,000 Hydroxychloroquine Deaths” Never Happened (Gortler)

The CDC describes HCQ as “a relatively well tolerated medicine” and that “HCQ can be prescribed to adults and children of all ages. It can also be safely taken by pregnant women and nursing mothers” referring to its long-term use in chronic diseases. Basic logic dictates that, if a drug is safe for long-term use, it would also be safe for short-term use, including (and especially) in Covid-19 early treatment/pre-exposure prophylaxis type indications. These are pharmacology fundamentals that ought to be known by any pharmacist or physician – let alone to a professor serving as a Journal Editor-in-Chief at a taxpayer-funded state College of Pharmacy. Did not even one person on her editorial board of over 50 “peer-reviewers” and staff ponder the celebrated and storied history of HCQ (and its predecessors) and how incongruent this study’s findings were before choosing to publish data denigrating HCQ safety?

The correct answer to that might actually be: “no”… The publishing editorial board all seem to be laboratory bench (non-clinical) research scientists, per their biographies. Although the board does promote itself as meeting DEI requirements of being “gender diverse,” a more important question might be is if they have the appropriate credentials and experience to review and opine on clinically complex drug safety/epidemiology subject matters in the first place. Is just anyone now allowed to opine on specialty clinical pharmacology drug safety matters? In certain journals/news publications, the answer to that question seems to be: “yes”… Another point of confusion surrounded the interpretation and promotion of this little-known publication by the lay press.

To be exact: there were never “17,000 deaths;” it was always a hypothetical extrapolation of people that could have died, based on “unreliable” (eg, actually, fraudulent) databases on top of the previously mentioned, problematic late-stage RECOVERY-trial-type dosing and timing. Still, Josh Cohen, a Forbes.com PhD senior healthcare columnist, used this publication to headline an absurdly biased op-ed against HCQ, stating that Trump’s HCQ proposal was “Linked To 17,000 Deaths.” Forbes’ Tufts, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania- trained “healthcare analyst” misrepresented or appeared to not understand the now-retracted study methodology or projections.

It went downhill from there. Mere hours following the publication, very similar, now objectively inaccurate, highly politicized, and seemingly coordinated attacks on HCQ and Trump were published by: The Hill, Politico, Frontline News, Scripps News, the Guardian, KFF Health News, News Nation, Newsweek, AOL.com, Yahoo News, and Daily Kos, in addition to a multitude of prominent regional, international, and US federal news outlets, many falsely estimating that 17,000 deaths had already taken place and that the (imaginary) victims’ blood was already on Donald Trump’s hands. As of September 15, 2024, the above and other articles still show up very prominently (on the first page) of a Google search for “hydroxychloroquine deaths”…which never happened.

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G Zen
https://twitter.com/i/status/1839805234568155612

 

 

MJ
https://twitter.com/i/status/1839814961951904216

 

 

Maloney

 

 

Jackdaw

 

 

Chicken

 

 

Awoo
https://twitter.com/i/status/1840054649677557946

 

 

 

 

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