Mar 042023
 
 March 4, 2023  Posted by at 10:20 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  38 Responses »


Frans Hals Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer 1626

 

Worst-Ever Economic Crash Coming – Nouriel Roubini (RT)
Prepare For 10 Years Of Global Destruction (Egon von Greyerz)
Russian Mercenary Boss Says Bakhmut Effectively Surrounded (Az)
Wagner Chief Calls On Zelenskiy To Abandon ‘Encircled’ Bakhmut (G.)
EU Must Shift To Wartime Economy – Industry Commissioner (RT)
Beijing Calls US World’s ‘Primary Nuclear Threat’ (RT)
New Biden Cyber Strategy Takes Aim at China as ‘Most Persistent Threat’ (ET)
One Year Later in Ukraine: Washington and NATO Got It Very Wrong (Mises)
Power Shortages Coming Soon to America (ET)
WHO Wants Proof Behind US Claims Of Covid Origin (RT)
Blinken Lied About Exchange With Lavrov – Moscow (RT)
Russian Diplomats Mock US Official Over Country Name Gaffe (RT)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr Ponders Bid For 2024 White House Nomination (Fox)

 

 


57 people died in the March 1 Greek train disaster

 

 

Prighozin

 

 


“Any State can be recognized as a participant in hostilities if, in addition to supplying weapons, this State trains the personnel of the belligerent side to handle these weapons (the Briand–Kellogg Pact of 1928, the Budapest Resolution to the 1934 Pact).”

 

 

Flags cemetery

 

 

Kurten
https://twitter.com/i/status/1630325751395282957

 

 

 

 

Kucinich

 

 

 

 

Does Roubini have any credibility left?

Worst-Ever Economic Crash Coming – Nouriel Roubini (RT)

The world is facing the “perfect storm” of high inflation, rising interest rates and a recession in 2023, with people who are currently employed likely to be hit hardest by the crisis, famed economist and New York University professor Nouriel Roubini told Australia’s ABC on Thursday. One of the first economists to predict the financial crisis of 2008-09, Roubini has been warning now for months of a stagflationary debt crisis, which would combine the worst elements of 1970s stagflation and the 2008 debt crisis. “I do believe that a stagflationary crisis is going to emerge this year,” he said, pointing out that the debt ratio in advanced economies was only 100% of GDP in the 1970s while currently it is 420% of GDP, in private and public debt.

“So, in this case, if we have those shocks to, say, oil prices, not only do you get inflation, not only do you get recession and stagflation, but you get what I call a great stagflationary debt crisis, because with interest rates so high, then that [debt] ratio has become unsustainable,” he explained. Dubbed ‘Doctor Doom’ by Wall Street for his dire economic predictions, Roubini suggested that all of this would force the US Federal Reserve and other central banks to keep hiking interest rates until their economies fell into recession. “I think that the Fed funds rate will have to be certainly above 6% to achieve a 2% inflation target,” he said. “But if you raise interest rates to 6% then you’re going to have a real hard landing.”

According to the economist, this will precipitate a harsh correction in equity markets, bond yields going higher, credit spreads for private sector debt widening, and will eventually lead to severe financial distress. “That financial distress is going to make the recession more severe, and a more severe recession by having a contraction of income and output is going to increase the number of defaults by households, businesses, corporates, and even some financial institutions and some governments in poor countries that have serious debt problems,” Roubini warned. He also said that people who are currently employed would likely be hit hardest by the looming crisis, including those who kept their jobs. “Stagflation is the worst of all worlds for workers,” he stressed.

Read more …

“..the United States has acted more boldly to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, pursue, maintain and abuse hegemony, advance subversion and infiltration, and wilfully wage wars, bringing harm to the international community.”

Prepare For 10 Years Of Global Destruction (Egon von Greyerz)

The final stages of major economic cycles are always accompanied by the maximum amount of bad news as well as heinous events. This time is no different as the West is in the process of committing Harakiri (Seppuku). As Elon Musk said: “My mentality is that of a Samurai. I would rather commit Seppuku than fail.” Sadly, the problem for the West is that it is both committing Harakiri and failing. For at least half a century, the world has been in a process of self-destruction. As the decline accelerates, the next phase of 5-10 years will include major political, social, economic as well as wealth – destruction. What can be more heinous than a total economic and financial collapse accompanied by a potential World War III that at worst could destroy the world totally.

A recent article of mine discussed global fragility due to War, Debt and Energy Depletion. In this article I outline the major risks today, financial and geopolitical and also discuss the best way to protect against these risks. Physical Gold is of course the ultimate wealth preservation investment. The next major move up in gold is not far away. See further on. Biden’s recent visit to Ukraine and whistle stop tour of Europe confirmed that there is no desire to make peace but only war. More support of weapons and money from the US is forthcoming. And whatever the US dictates, Europe follows without considering the consequences. At the end of his Warsaw address Biden stated about Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power”. Hmmm…. Hardly the talk of a peace maker.

China on the other hand is trying to act as peacemaker but their proposal last Friday was cold shouldered by the West. More importantly, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an important policy document this week which is a very strong attack on the US hegemony called: “US Hegemony and Its Perils”. The attack starts in the introduction: “Since becoming the world’s most powerful country after the two world wars and the Cold War, the United States has acted more boldly to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, pursue, maintain and abuse hegemony, advance subversion and infiltration, and wilfully wage wars, bringing harm to the international community. It then goes on in detail to attack all the areas of US Hegemony like: Political – Throwing its Weight Around, Military – Wanton Use of Force, Economic – Looting and Exploitation, Technological – Monopoly and Suppression, Cultural – Spreading False Narratives.

The document exemplifies in detail the hegemonic policies and attacks of the US. Although US politicians will totally reject its contents, it is difficult to argue with the facts put forward by China. As I mention regularly, I very much like America and its people but have difficulties accepting the policies of the Neocons who dominate US politics.

Read more …

It’s gone. But how do you admit it?

Russian Mercenary Boss Says Bakhmut Effectively Surrounded (Az)

Russian troops and mercenaries were closing off the last access routes to the besieged Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Friday, on the cusp of Moscow’s first major victory in half a year after the bloodiest fighting of the war.
The head of Russia’s Wagner private army said the city, which has been blasted to ruins, was now almost completely surrounded, with only one route out left open for Ukraine’s troops. Reuters journalists west of the city saw Ukrainians digging new trenches for defensive positions there, while the commander of a Ukrainian drone unit inside the city for months said he had been ordered to withdraw.


Victory in Bakhmut, with a pre-war population of about 70,000, would give Russia the first major prize of a costly winter offensive after it called up hundreds of thousands of reservists last year. It says it would be a stepping stone to capturing the surrounding Donbas region, a major war aim. Ukraine, which recaptured swathes of territory in the second half of 2022 but whose forces have been on the defensive for three months, says the city has little strategic value but that the huge losses there could determine the course of the war. In a video filmed on a rooftop in an undisclosed location, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, dressed in a combat uniform, said he was calling on President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to order the evacuation of Bakhmut to save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.

Read more …

The Guardian says “..in the battles for Bakhmut its defenders had inflicted casualties on the Russian attackers at a ratio of 7:1..”

Wagner Chief Calls On Zelenskiy To Abandon ‘Encircled’ Bakhmut (G.)

The chief of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner has said his fighters have “practically encircled” Bakhmut, the eastern Ukraine city the Kremlin has been trying to seize for months. Only one road remains under Ukrainian control, Yevgeny Prigozhin added in a video posted online in which he called on the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to abandon the city. While the claims by the head of the mercenary group could not be confirmed, the situation in the embattled city appeared to be extremely precarious, amid evidence Ukraine was preparing extensive new defensive positions, including around the nearby city of Kramatorsk. Large amounts of military traffic were seen on nearby roads on Friday, and there were claims that several bridges near the city had been destroyed.

Video posted online showed the blowing up of a railway bridge over the Bakhmutka River to the east of the city, while other footage purported to show damage to a small road bridge. Russian shelling was seen hitting routes leading west out of Bakhmut, in what appears to be an attempt to block Ukrainian forces’ access in and out of the city. Amid mounting speculation that Ukraine’s defenders might be preparing to withdraw, Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the national security and defence council of Ukraine, said that in the battles for Bakhmut its defenders had inflicted casualties on the Russian attackers at a ratio of 7:1. “It is difficult there, but keep in mind that every day our boys and girls send hundreds of them to where they are supposed to go, given that they came here to kill us,” Danilov said.

Volodymyr Nazarenko, a deputy commander in the National Guard of Ukraine, told Ukrainian NV Radio the situation was “critical”, with fighting going on “round the clock”. The commander of a Ukrainian drone unit active in Bakhmut, Robert Brovdi, who goes by the name “Madyar”, said in a video posted on social media that his unit had been ordered by the military to withdraw immediately. He said he had been fighting there for 110 days. On a visit to the western city of Lviv to see wounded soldiers recuperating in hospital, Zelenskiy thanked those who had been injured during the “heroic defence” of Bakhmut. Statements on social media issued by Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the Bakhmut area appeared to suggest they were holding their positions, although under intense pressure.

“Friends, at the moment there is no withdrawal of troops from Bakhmut,” said one soldier from the 93rd mechanised brigade on Twitter. “Fighting continues in all areas of the city, the 93rd stands and continues to perform the tasks assigned to it. The situation is actually complicated, but trust only official sources and do not panic.” In the video posted by Prigozhin, recorded on a building’s rooftop four miles north of Bakhmut, the Wagner chief claimed his forces were increasingly fighting against old men and children rather than the professional Ukrainian army. The footage showed what looked like three captured Ukrainians – an older man and two young boys – who looked frightened and asked to be allowed to go home. They appeared to be talking in what looked like a choreographed appearance under extreme stress.

Read more …

Much easier to further curtail your freedoms.

EU Must Shift To Wartime Economy – Industry Commissioner (RT)

The European Union’s industry chief has said the bloc will have to shift to a “wartime” economic model if it hopes to meet Kiev’s battlefield needs, with senior Ukrainian officials voicing hopes for a massive influx of shells from their foreign sponsors. Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton discussed plans to bolster arms and ammo shipments to Ukraine during a sit-down with the Financial Times, saying he is working with the EU’s foreign policy head Josep Borrell to expand industrial capacity in Europe, slash supply bottlenecks and pressure banks to boost their lending to facilitate military transfers to Kiev. “I believe it is time that the European defense industry moves to a wartime economy model to cater for our defense production needs,” he told the outlet on Friday, adding that he and Borrell are “fully determined to support the production ramp-up of the European defense industry to face the realities of a high-intensity conflict – starting with the question of ammunition.”

Though unnamed diplomats voiced their doubts to FT – with one asking “How are we going to pay for this?” – the efforts to speed deliveries to Kiev and replenish Europe’s own domestic stocks come after Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov pleaded with the bloc for 250,000 artillery shells per month, vastly outpacing any existing EU plan. In a letter to European defense chiefs on Friday, Reznikov spoke of the “crucial role” played by artillery on the battlefield, claiming Ukrainian troops burn through 110,000 155mm shells every few weeks. Ukrainian troops are “limited by the amount of available artillery shells” and need at least 356,400 rounds per month to “successfully execute” their tasks – or a whopping 594,000 shells monthly to use their artillery power to full capacity, Reznikov claimed.

According to the Times, Borrell is aiming at a “less ambitious” scheme, instead hoping to disperse €1 billion over “the next few months” to partially cover the bill for donated shells from allies. With costs soaring amid growing shortages on the continent, 155mm shells produced in Europe could run as much as €3,300 for a single round, a recent weapons contract inked between EU members suggests. Based on that estimate, the ammunition sought by Kiev could cost the bloc some €825,000,000 for just one month, though officials have yet to confirm any specific figures. It is hard to trace how many shells Ukraine has been getting from the armories of its European backers, but over the past year the United States alone sent “over 1,000,000 155mm artillery rounds,” according to the Pentagon’s latest data.

Read more …

Are they wrong?

Beijing Calls US World’s ‘Primary Nuclear Threat’ (RT)

The United States is the top “nuclear threat” in the world, China has said, accusing Washington of seeking to maintain “military hegemony” over other nations after US officials declared the need to reign in Beijing’s much smaller weapons program. Speaking to reporters for a press briefing on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was asked to respond after a top security adviser to US President Joe Biden stated the White House must “invest China in work to diminish nuclear threats.” “Calling China a ‘nuclear threat’ is a convenient pretext for the US to expand its own nuclear arsenal and keep its military hegemony,” she said, insisting China has maintained a “prudent and responsible” nuclear policy, in stark contrast to Washington’s.

Following a foreign minister’s meeting in New Delhi earlier on Friday by the four-way QUAD alliance – consisting of the US, Japan, Australia and India – officials also issued a statement deeming the “use or threat of use” of nuclear weapons “inadmissible.” Though the remark was not explicitly aimed at Beijing, the QUAD grouping, at times dubbed an ‘Asian NATO,’ has frequently pointed to alleged threats posed by China in the Indo-Pacific region. “China has stated our position on QUAD on multiple occasions. We believe that state-to-state cooperation needs to be consistent with the trend of peace and development,” rather than about creating “exclusionary” regional alliances, Mao continued, going on to note the upcoming nuclear technology transfer from the US to Australia under the separate AUKUS pact.

“The US has also built small blocs reminiscent of the Cold War by bolstering extended deterrence and conducting nuclear submarine cooperation,” she said. Further steps for the trilateral AUKUS agreement, which also includes the UK, are set to be revealed later this month, with officials hoping for a “seamless transfer” of nuclear propulsion technology from Washington to Canberra. Beijing has previously slammed the deal for advancing “nuclear proliferation” around the world, given that Australia lacks its own domestic capability for the sensitive tech.

Read more …

“China in particular is threatening U.S. interests and dominating emerging technologies critical to global development with the intent of reshaping the world order..”

New Biden Cyber Strategy Takes Aim at China as ‘Most Persistent Threat’ (ET)

The Biden administration’s new cybersecurity strategy takes aim at China’s communist regime and other authoritarian powers for subverting the international order through malign cyberactivity. The 2023 National Cyber Strategy, released on March 2, says that communist China and other regimes are attempting to export their own forms of authoritarianism through the use of technology. “The governments of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and other autocratic states with revisionist intent are aggressively using advanced cyber capabilities to pursue objectives that run counter to our interests and broadly accepted international norms,” the strategy states. “Their reckless disregard for the rule of law and human rights in cyberspace is threatening U.S. national security and economic prosperity.”

China in particular is threatening U.S. interests and dominating emerging technologies critical to global development with the intent of reshaping the world order, the document states. “[China] now presents the broadest, most active, and most persistent threat to both government and private sector networks and is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do so.” “Having successfully harnessed the Internet as the backbone of its surveillance state and influence capabilities, [China] is exporting its vision of digital authoritarianism, striving to shape the global Internet in its image and imperiling human rights beyond its borders.”

Given the threat posed by authoritarian powers like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the strategy outlines an aggressive posture that the administration seeks to take to defend the United States and its interests from foreign interference. This new posture, according to the strategy, will integrate cyber, diplomatic, military, intelligence, law enforcement, and other capabilities to target threat actors and remove them from play. “The United States will use all instruments of national power to disrupt and dismantle threat actors whose actions threaten our interests,” the strategy states. “These efforts may integrate diplomatic, information, military (both kinetic and cyber), financial, intelligence, and law enforcement capabilities.”

Read more …

“..a whiff of Munich..”

One Year Later in Ukraine: Washington and NATO Got It Very Wrong (Mises)

It’s been a year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In spite of claims from the regime and its media allies that Russia was the next Third Reich and would soon roll through half of Europe, it turns out that was never even remotely true. In fact, things have unfolded more or less just like we predicted here at mises.org: the Russians aren’t even close to occupying any place in Europe beyond eastern Ukraine. It’s not Munich 1938. Economic sanctions have not crippled the Russian regime. Most of the world remains ambivalent on the conflict. The conflict will likely end with a negotiated settlement—contrary to what the Washington wants. The fact is that in spite of the United States’ and NATO efforts to turn Ukraine into World War III, the war in Ukraine remains a regional conflict.

It seems most of the world is uninterested in making sacrifices to carry out US policy in Ukraine and that many see the inherent hypocrisy behind US talk about respecting national sovereignty. There’s also an important lesson here about listening to the war maximalists who incessantly promote full-scale war as the “solution” to every international crisis. The US clearly wants to fight the war to the last Ukrainian, in what the US is packaging as a global crusade in the style of World War II. But, it seems now that more pragmatic thinkers—i.e., the French and the Germans—recognize that negotiations are the more humane solution. Within days of the Russian invasion, the Western global hegemonists got to work claiming the invasion was essentially a war of global conquest. For instance, Matthew Kroenig in Foreign Policy stated that Vladimir Putin had shown a clear interest in “resurrecting the former Russian Empire, and other vulnerable Eastern European countries—Poland, Romania, or the Baltic states—might be next.” Kroenig immediately concluded that the US’s military budget should be doubled.

Another writer insisted the Ukraine invasion contained “a whiff of Munich.” John Storey at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute claimed that “the forgotten lesson of Munich” had allowed “Putin is [to do] his best impression of German dictator Adolf Hitler.” Storey ominously asked, “Will the Baltic states and Eastern Europe be next?” dutifully repeating the party line that Russian tanks might soon roll into central Europe. Yet the “lesson of Munich”—which is invoked incessantly and certainly not “forgotten”—has never been appropriate for conceptualizing the war in Ukraine. That sort of thing has even led some pundits to proclaim that global nuclear war is “worth it.” The real lesson to be learned here, however, is the lesson of 1914: that we should not allow military alliances to lead major powers into overreactions that lead to global disasters. The “Munich” crowd wanted mass mobilization against Russia in early 2022. They didn’t get it, and thank goodness.

Read more …

“..the reserve margin could fall from 26 percent in 2023 to 15 percent by 2030 even in the best-case scenario..”

Power Shortages Coming Soon to America (ET)

Existing power plants are projected to retire at a faster pace than installations of new units, and dependence on renewable projects are threatening widespread power shortages, according to a new report by regional power transmission company PJM Interconnection. PJM analysis shows that 40 gigawatts (GW) of existing power generation is at risk of retirement by 2030, accounting for 21 percent of its current installed capacity. Meanwhile, 290 GW worth of new power supply is seeking to connect to PJM’s grid. But 94 percent of this power supply is made up of renewable energy projects that tend to only have a completion rate of 5 percent. This casts doubt on the ability of new power supply to replace old supply. PJM covers 13 eastern states and the District of Columbia.

PJM also forecasts power demand growth of 1.4 percent annually over the next decade. Certain individual zones might even show demand growth as high as 7 percent per year due to the expansion of clusters of data centers as well as overall electrification. The retirement of existing power generation combined with the growing demand for power will create a supply gap. According to the report, the pace of new power generation addition will likely be “insufficient” to fill this supply gap by 2030. As such, the completion rates of upcoming projects will have to “increase significantly” to maintain necessary reserve margins, it said. Reserve margin refers to the amount of unused available power capacity of an electric power system.

A reserve margin of 10 percent would mean that an entity has excess capacity amounting to 10 percent of peak demand. According to PJM projections, the reserve margin could fall from 26 percent in 2023 to 15 percent by 2030 even in the best-case scenario. Reserve margins are critical during times of adverse weather conditions and periods of high demand. A decline suggests less reliability of power. “The lopsided energy transition is resulting mainly from Biden’s energy policies and state mandates driving fossil fuel generation to shut down as renewable and storage projects are being developed. These are policy choices by political leaders and utilities are responding as directed,” stated a Mar. 2nd analysis of the PJM report by the Institute for Energy Research (IER).

Read more …

Not done enough damage yet?

WHO Wants Proof Behind US Claims Of Covid Origin (RT)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged the United States and every other country to release their intelligence on the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic, cautioning against unsubstantiated speculations and “politicization” of the issue after Washington claimed the pathogen “likely” leaked from a Chinese laboratory. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke at length about the need to identify the ultimate starting point for the global health crisis during a media briefing on Friday, calling it a “scientific” and “moral imperative.” “If any country has information about the origins of the pandemic, it’s essential for that information to be shared with WHO and the international scientific community,” he said, noting he was in touch with Chinese officials on the matter as recently as a few weeks ago.

The agency’s Covid-19 technical lead – Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist – also stated that the WHO has reached out to Washington’s embassy in Switzerland for more information of Covid’s origins, after FBI Director Christopher Wray claimed the virus “most likely” escaped a Chinese lab in comments to Fox earlier this week, citing a bureau assessment that has not been made public. “It remains vital that that information is shared,” she said, adding that the US has so far not offered access to its data. Beijing has vocally denied suggestions the pathogen may have escaped from its high-security virology laboratory in the city of Wuhan – among the first sites Covid-19 was detected in late 2019 – with PRC officials dismissing the theory as an attempt to smear China.

Tedros went on to warn against “the continued politicization of the origins research,” saying that sparring between rival nations has turned the issue into a “geopolitical football, which only makes the task of identifying the origins more difficult. And that makes the world less safe.” Until there is greater transparency from world leaders on the question, he said “all hypotheses” on the origins of the virus “remain on the table.”

Read more …

They prefered the stoned basketball girl.

Blinken Lied About Exchange With Lavrov – Moscow (RT)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was lying when he claimed that he and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, discussed a jailed American citizen during a brief recent exchange, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow has said. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Blinken revealed that he and Lavrov “spoke briefly” on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in India. Among other things discussed with Lavrov, the American official said he had “raised the wrongful detention of Paul Whelan,” a former US Marine currently serving a 16-year prison term in Russia for espionage. “The United States has put forward a serious proposal. Moscow should accept it,” Blinken added.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denied those claims on Friday, saying she had asked Lavrov about the exchange with Blinken. The top Russian diplomat told her that his American counterpart had not brought up Whelan’s case, with Zakharova branding Blinken’s statement “lies” and an example of “astounding” behavior by the US government. Whelan is a Canadian-born former US Marine, who in 2020 was sentenced to a 16-year prison term in Russia for spying. He claimed he was framed while on a trip to the country. The administration of President Joe Biden has called on Russia to release Whelan, branding his sentence unfair.

The proposal to which Blinken referred matches those that Washington has previously made to Moscow, State Department spokesperson Ned Price claimed on Thursday. US officials reportedly tried to include Whelan in a prisoner exchange last year involving American WNBA player Brittney Griner and Russian businessman Viktor Bout, although the two sides ultimately freed just one convict each. Griner was serving a term for a drug crime in Russia, while Bout was imprisoned in the US on gun trafficking charges.

Read more …

“must be a foe of [the] United American Emirates and the British Confederation!”

Russian Diplomats Mock US Official Over Country Name Gaffe (RT)

Russian diplomats have poked fun at White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre after she made a mess of the country’s official name during a press briefing on Friday. Jean-Pierre made the gaffe while previewing the upcoming meeting between US President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the White House. The press secretary said the leaders would discuss “our work together to address the challenges posed by the People’s Republic of Russia.” The country’s official name is the Russian Federation. According to the official transcript from the briefing, Jean-Pierre misspoke and was actually referring to the People’s Republic of China.


Nevertheless, the clip of Jean-Pierre’s blunder made its way to social media. Dmitry Polyansky, the deputy head of Russia’s mission to the UN, tweeted that the non-existent state “must be a foe of [the] United American Emirates and the British Confederation!” Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, shared the clip on her Telegram channel, writing “zombie apocalypse.” In March, Biden mixed up Ukraine with Russia during a conversation with historian Heather Cox Richardson. He claimed that President Vladimir Putin had decided “that he’s going to just invade Russia.” Biden later corrected himself. In a speech in November, Biden said “the war in Iraq” when referring to the Ukraine conflict, before correcting himself.

Read more …

They’ll eat him alive.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr Ponders Bid For 2024 White House Nomination (Fox)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering running for president in 2024, challenging President Biden for the Democratic nomination, and he says his wife approves. “I am thinking about it yes. I have passed the biggest hurdle, that my wife has greenlighted it,” Kennedy told a crowd in New Hampshire on Friday, according to reports. Kennedy’s wife, actress Cheryl Hines, was reportedly attending the speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, which for nearly a quarter-century has been a must stop in the Granite State for potential or actual White House contenders. Kennedy, the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, describes himself as a lifelong Democrat and has faced criticism for his activism against the COVID-19 vaccine.

In his speech, he called the Democratic National Committee (DNC) decision to upset the presidential nominating calendar wrong, as it moves New Hampshire’s primary from the first place into the third. New Hampshire, which prides itself on its well-informed electorate and its emphasis on small-scale and grassroots retail politics, has for a century held the first primary in the race for the White House. While Republicans are making no changes to their presidential nominating calendar in the 2024 election cycle, the DNC last month voted overwhelmingly to approve a new top of the calendar, pushed by Biden, that upends the traditional schedule. New Hampshire will now vote second in the DNC’s calendar, along with Nevada, three days after South Carolina, under the new schedule.

Ahead of the DNC’s final approval of the schedule, Kennedy wrote an open letter to the committee, urging members to keep New Hampshire in the first spot because of the state’s long history advocating for civil rights and election transparency. The DNC changed the nominating calendar in an effort to reflect more diversity in the Democratic Party, but Kennedy said that New Hampshire already showcases the diversity in America. As a swing state, Kennedy said, New Hampshire’s “four electoral votes could decide the 2024 election.” “Most importantly, New Hampshire runs the most secure and transparent election in America. It should be a model for our country at a time when we need it most,” Kennedy wrote.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Located in the de Young Museum’s Sculpture Garden in San Francisco, this statue’s head (depicting a crouching woman by the Japanese sculptor Tobari Kogan) is covered by a beehive — occupied by a live colony of bees

 

 

Rebirth

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Feb 132023
 


John French Sloan Backyards, Greenwich Village 1926

 

Medvedchuk Sees No Prospects For Minsk-3 (TASS)
US Officials Basically Admit They Blew Up Nord Stream – Lavrov (RT)
JP Morgan Reaches Agreement With Zelenskyy On Rebuilding Infrastructure (Fox)
Hungary Slams EU Push To Arm Ukraine (RT)
Samantha Power is in Hungary, Seeding Another Color Revolution (CTH)
Elon Musk Explains Purpose Of Starlink In Ukraine (RT)
Big Oil Rakes In Record Profits (RT)
Europe’s Spend On Energy Crisis Nears 800 Billion Euros (RT)
Ray McGovern Comments on Sy Hersh (Garland Nixon)
Cashless Society? Not in Switzerland (R.)
Homo implacatus (Jotwani)
UK Holds ‘Secret’ Cross-Party Brexit Summit (RT)
The Pain of Listening To Twitter Censorship Testimony (Naomi Wolf)
I’m forming a Super PAC to Draft RFK Jr. To Run For President (Steve Kirsch)

 

 

 

 

Berlusconi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1624894337283723266

 

 

 

 

Ohio


https://twitter.com/i/status/1624938064207290368

 

 

 

 

Campbell

 

 

 

 

Canberra
https://twitter.com/i/status/1624874491141824512

 

 

A Message to Germans—Nord Stream Bombing

 

 

 

 

If Ukraine were a democracy, Medvedchuk would have a loud voice.

Medvedchuk Sees No Prospects For Minsk-3 (TASS)

Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the Opposition Platform For Life party, which is outlawed in Ukraine, said on Sunday that he sees no perspectives for signing the third Minsk agreements.”As for possible Minsk-3, I see categorically no perspectives. Regrettably, the Minsk agreements have sunk into oblivion,” he told Belarus’ STV television channel.According to Medvedchuk, peace settlement in Ukraine “is possible only when several conditions are met.” But, in his words, “Ukraine has practically ceased to exist as a state.” “It is impossible to say now what can happen and how, whether there will be any peace talks,” he stressed.The Zelensky regime “has armed itself with a policy of neo-Nazism,” he said.

“The Western ideology, which has been imposed on the Ukrainian people, its authorities since 2005, when [Viktor] Yushchenko came to power, has been fed for all these years by Western money, ideology and democracy, which has led, as we see, to tens of thousands of human deaths, the destruction of Ukraine and the fighting Zelensky continues at the head of criminal authorities, until the last Ukrainian.” These actions, in his words, are evidently geared to create an “anti-Russia.” “To create and popularize the policy of anti-Russian hysteria, untamed Russophobia. And it is not easy to destroy it all,” he said, “Today, it is necessary to explode the myth that this neo-Nazism is supported by Ukrainians. It is not supported by those from nine to twelve million Ukrainians who have fled the country. It is not supported by millions staying in Ukraine, who, regrettably, have been driven under the bench, have been intimidates, threatened with repression, criminal prosecution, torture and violence,” Medvedchuk stressed.

According to the politician, the Other Ukraine political movement has been set up to tell the world community that many Ukrainians want normalization of relations with Russia. “So that, the voice of other Ukraine is heard in the world and is not represented by Zelensky who is traveling around the globe, using all possible venues with only one goal: to show that the Ukrainian people is allegedly consolidated and he is representing this people,” he said. He noted that “millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee the country because of the policy of Zelensky’s criminal regime.” “Today, it is necessary to consolidate those Ukrainians who are against Zelensky’s criminal policy. We want his criminal regime to sink into oblivion. And it implies enormous work we have begun and will do to break the information space which has misted the thoughts and conscience of the Ukrainians filling it with anti-Russian hysteria,” he explained.

Read more …

And that will have connsequences.

US Officials Basically Admit They Blew Up Nord Stream – Lavrov (RT)

US officials are basically admitting that they were behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which was perpetrated to prevent rapprochement between Moscow and Berlin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. “The US decided that we [Russia] have been cooperating too well with Germany over the past 20 or 30 years; or rather, the Germans cooperated with us too well,” he said in an interview published on the Foreign Ministry’s website on Sunday. The “powerful alliance” based on Russian energy resources and German technology “began to threaten the monopoly position of many American corporations,” Lavrov explained. So, Washington decided to destroy this alliance between Moscow and Berlin, and did it “literally” by attacking the pipelines, which were built to deliver Russian gas to Europe through Germany, he added.

“American officials are basically admitting that the explosions that occurred at Nord Stream 1 and 2 were their doing. They even speak about it with joy,” the foreign minister stated. Lavrov was likely referring to a confession made by US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland during a Senate hearing in late January. “I am, and I think the administration is, very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now… a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea,” she said at that time. “The vileness of Western politicians is well known,” Lavrov continued, suggesting that “the plan, which is now being implemented through ‘inciting’ Ukraine against Russia and waging a war by the entire West against Russia by means of Ukraine, is to a large extent aimed at preventing a new rapprochement between Germany and Russia.”

The comments by Russia’s top diplomat come just days after iconic American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh released a bombshell report, blaming Washington for sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines last year. According to an informed source who talked to Hersh, explosives were planted at the pipelines in the Baltic Sea back in June 2022 by US Navy divers under the guise of a NATO exercise. They were detonated in late September, rendering the key European energy infrastructure inoperable. US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson denied the report by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, calling it “utterly false and complete fiction.” No one among high-ranking American officials has even commented on the accusations made by Hersh.

For months, the Russian authorities have been pointing to the fact that the only side to benefit from the destruction of Nord Stream was the US, which has seen supplies of its more expensive liquefied natural gas to Europe increase massively since the explosions.

Read more …

He’s selling his country by the pound.

JP Morgan Reaches Agreement With Zelenskyy On Rebuilding Infrastructure (Fox)

J.P. Morgan, the nation’s largest bank, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy with the eye on attracting private capital for a new investment fund to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure that has been destroyed in its war with Russia, FOX Business has learned. J.P. Morgan bankers spent most of last week meeting with Zelenskyy and his senior staff in Ukraine where they discussed the creation of a fund seeded with $20 billion to $30 billion in private capital, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Other ideas discussed with the Ukrainian president were the creation of a bank administered by Wall Street firms that would make investments in oil refineries, roads, bridges and other pieces of economic infrastructure destroyed in Vladimir Putin’s year-long campaign to annex the country and rebuild the old Soviet Union, these people add.

J.P. Morgan bankers were on the ground in Kyiv and other cities, dodging bombs, and witnessing firsthand how the war has crippled the country’s economy. After a series of meetings with various ministers, they met directly with Zelenskyy on Friday night. As a gesture of goodwill on the eve of Sunday’s Super Bowl, the bankers also presented Zelenskyy with a New England Patriots jersey with the number “91,” to signify the year Ukraine gained independence from the old Soviet Union, these people say. FOX Business is the first to report the possible creation of an investment fund and bank to help rebuild the country. People with knowledge of the matter say the plans for a fund or a bank are in the nascent stages and subject to change. J.P. Morgan declined to comment. The big bank is expected to make an announcement about its work in Ukraine on Monday.

[..] Privately, J.P. Morgan bankers met with Zelenskyy for hours last week, providing him with ideas on how to attract private capital. They also recommended that he invite major CEOs, like Apple’s Tim Cook, to the country to discuss economic development and that he meet with GOP lawmakers, such as the new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Some Republicans are skeptical about the billions in US aid being sent to the country, these people add. They also said that weeding out corruption and eliminating graft in government will be key to attracting private capital. Zelenskyy was said to be receptive to the advice and understood that at some point the vast amounts of western aid to the country will come to an end and that private capital – which will demand a return for its investment – will be needed to rebuild, these people say.

Read more …

“..the tenth sanctions package will only be suitable for causing further damage to us Europeans, similar to the previous nine ones.”

Hungary Slams EU Push To Arm Ukraine (RT)

The European Union’s calls to keep supporting Ukraine with arms shipments will only prolong the conflict with Russia, the Hungarian foreign minister said on Sunday. Speaking to radio Kossuth, Peter Szijjarto commented on recent remarks by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, who pushed for fighter jets and long-range weapons to be sent to Kiev. According to the minister, EU lawmakers’ decisions on Ukraine “have generally caused damage to Europe,” and further weapons deliveries will only worsen the hostilities. He went on to blast the EU legislature, claiming that its “credibility is practically zero.” Szijjarto pointed to a recent graft scandal as proof that the EU parliament is “one of the most corrupt organizations in the world.”


He was referring to the recent arrest of the parliament’s former vice president, Eva Kaili, who has been charged with taking bribes from Qatar in exchange for illegally lobbying the interests of the Gulf state. Szijjarto noted that in Western countries, war rhetoric sounds “incomparably louder than the rhetoric of peace,” while nations outside “the transatlantic bubble” tend to prefer peace to a deadly conflict. The minister went on to question the West’s anti-Russia sanctions. He argued that they have failed to force Moscow to end the conflict, while Europe’s economy has “faced incredible difficulties,” and that “the tenth sanctions package will only be suitable for causing further damage to us Europeans, similar to the previous nine ones.” Since the start of large-scale hostilities in Ukraine almost a year ago, Hungary, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy, has been critical of Western sanctions against Moscow. It has also refused to support Kiev with weapons, or allow arms transfers across its border with Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1624791254553841665

Read more …

And that’s why Samantha Power is in Budapest. They should throw her out.

Samantha Power is in Hungary, Seeding Another Color Revolution (CTH)

Hungary has been in the crosshairs of the Biden/Obama administration ever since Prime Minister Viktor Orban refused to align with the WEF Western Democracies in their quest for regime change in Russia. As the NATO led western alliance assembled to use Ukraine as a proxy war against Russia, Hungarian Prime Minister Orban would not join. In early April 2022, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was overwhelmingly reelected, despite the massive efforts against him by the European Union, western and euro-centric multinational globalists. As a result of the victory, Brussels was furious at the Hungarian people. Associated Press – […] “Orban — a fierce critic of immigration, LGBTQ rights and “EU bureaucrats” — has garnered the admiration of right-wing nationalists across Europe and North America.”

Within the statements reported from his 2022 victory speech, Prime Minister Orban warned citizens of the NATO and western allied countries about the manipulation of Ukraine and how he views the Zelenskyy regime: […] “while speaking to supporters on Sunday, Orban singled out Zelenskyy as part of the “overwhelming force” that he said his party had struggled against in the election — “the left at home, the international left, the Brussels bureaucrats, the Soros empire with all its money, the international mainstream media, and in the end, even the Ukrainian president.”This put Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the crosshairs of the western alliance, specifically the EU and U.S. bureaucrats who use their power, position and intelligence apparatus to manipulate foreign nations. A year later and now we see USAID Administrator Samantha Power in Hungary openly discussing her seeding of the NGO’s and political activist systems in order to generate yet another color revolution.

Samantha Power, the wife of Cass Sunstein, is well known as the Obama/Biden administration’s advance operative who uses her position in U.S. government to influence activism in targeted nations. Hungary is now her target. Why is eliminating Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban now the goal of the Biden administration. Well, a reminder: • Hungary warned citizens of the west about the New World Order, created through Ukraine. • Hungary continued to purchase Russian oil and natural gas. Zelenskyy and the Western alliance were furious. • Hungary said they would continue energy purchases in Rubles if that is what Russia demanded.

Read more …

We will not enable escalation of conflict that may lead to WW3.”

Elon Musk Explains Purpose Of Starlink In Ukraine (RT)

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has revealed the rationale behind the company’s decision to restrict the use of its Starlink internet system by the Ukrainian military. He doesn’t want the conflict to escalate into World War III, he said. The explanation was part of Musk’s response to astronaut Scott Kelly, who is a vocal supporter of the Ukrainian cause. Kelly urged restoration of full functionality of the system. The restriction announced last week bars the Ukrainian military from using Starlink to pilot drones, which SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell described as “weaponization” of the product. Musk said Kelly was “smart enough not to swallow media & other propaganda bs” and pointed out that Starlink remained available for military communications in Ukraine, even though as a private company SpaceX had the right to switch the terminals off.

“We’re trying hard to do the right thing, where the ‘right thing’ is an extremely difficult moral question,” Musk stated. “We will not enable escalation of conflict that may lead to WW3.” The Starlink system was hailed by US officials as a gamechanger for the Ukrainian military, providing a reliable communication system that Russia allegedly could not disrupt through hacking. But Musk has provoked the ire of Kiev on several occasions, including by proposing a peace plan in October that would have required Ukraine to make concessions to Russia. He faced criticism and insults from Ukrainian officials in response.

Responding to the Starlink change, Mikhail Podoliak, an aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, declared that Musk and Shotwell had only two options: they could either be on Ukraine’s side and not seek “ways to do harm” or be counted as pro-Russian. The same official previously claimed that the Musk-owned social media platform Twitter was limiting the reach of Ukrainian government accounts and helping “Russian propaganda.” Podoliak offered no evidence to support the claim, but threatened regulatory action.

Read more …

And if you tax us on them, we will refuse to invest.

Big Oil Rakes In Record Profits (RT)

Oil giants Shell, BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and TotalEnergies posted a combined profit of $196.3 billion last year, according to the companies’ earnings reports. A record-high result for the oil industry, the sum tops the economic output of most countries. French oil giant TotalEnergies was the last to report on its earnings, announcing on Wednesday that its full-year profit in 2022 was $36.2 billion, double its total for 2021. US oil major Chevron and British giants BP and Shell also reported record-high results earlier this month, while Exxon’s $56 billion-profit marked a historic high for the entire Western oil industry. The record-setting earnings came as a result of a spike in fossil fuel prices last year. However, criticism of the industry for hoarding money while consumers are struggling to pay soaring energy bills has intensified.

“Given that we’re entering a global recession and that most of us know people who are struggling, we must all call out profiteering like this,” Alice Harrison from advocacy group Global Witness, told CNBC, calling for “an increased windfall tax to help those struggling to pay their bills.” Human rights group Amnesty International said the oil majors’ profits are “patently unjustifiable” and “an unmitigated disaster.” “The billions of dollars of profits being made by these oil corporations must be adequately taxed so that governments can address effectively the rising cost of living for most vulnerable populations,” said the group’s secretary general Agnes Callamard. US President Joe Biden called Big Oil’s record earnings “outrageous” in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. The head of state noted that the companies invested “too little of that profit” into efforts to stem the surge in energy prices, and proposed raising the tax on corporate stock buybacks four times to boost long-term investment.

Oil companies, however, have been arguing that windfall taxes could hinder investment. “Windfall taxes or price caps simply erode confidence in that investment stability and so I do worry about some of the moves being made. I think there is a different approach that needs to be had which is to really draw investment capital at a time when we need to be able to embed energy security into the broader energy system here in Europe,” Shell CEO Wael Sawan said last week. This opinion was mirrored by Amin Nasser, head of the world’s largest energy company Saudi Aramco, who told CNBC that higher taxes are “not helpful for [the companies] in order to have additional investment.” “They need to invest in the sector, they need to grow the business, in alternatives and in conventional energy, and they need to be helped,” he added.

Read more …

These are Big Oil’s record profits.

Europe’s Spend On Energy Crisis Nears 800 Billion Euros (RT)

European countries’ bill to shield households and companies from soaring energy costs has climbed to nearly 800 billion euros, researchers said on Monday, urging countries to be more targeted in their spending to tackle the energy crisis. European Union countries have now earmarked or allocated 681 billion euros in energy crisis speding, while Britain allocated 103 billion euros and Norway 8.1 billon euros since September 2021, according to the analysis by think-tank Bruegel. The 792-billion-euro total compares with 706 billion euros in Bruegel’s last assessment in November, as countries continue through winter to face the fallout from Russia cutting off most of its gas deliveries to Europe in 2022.


Germany topped the spending chart, allocating nearly 270 billion euros – a sum that eclipsed all other countries. Britain, Italy and France were the next highest, although each spent less than 150 billion euros. Most EU states spent a fraction of that. On a per capita basis, Luxembourg, Denmark and Germany were the biggest spenders. The spending earmarked by the countries on the energy crisis is now in the same league as the EU’s 750-billion-euro COVID-19 recovery fund. Agreed in 2020, that saw Brussels take on joint debt and pass it onto the bloc’s 27 member states to cope with the pandemic. The energy spending update comes as countries debate EU proposals to loosen state aid rules further for green technology projects, as Europe seeks to compete with subsidies in the United States and China.

Read more …

“Now, this was an act of war, pure and simple. Curiously enough, it was against Germany.”

Ray McGovern Comments on Sy Hersh (Garland Nixon)

I know him to be a meticulous reporter, winner of five Polk Awards, Pulitzer Prize, you name it. Back in the day when honest reporters were so honored. This piece has all the earmarks of Sy’s meticulous approach, and he clearly has a very good source who felt a, well, he felt a constitutional obligation to honor his or her oath to the Constitution of the United States, which is the supreme oath any of us take. And that is to make sure that you tell the truth, especially when the Constitution is being violated. Now, this was an act of war, pure and simple. Curiously enough, it was against Germany. And curiously enough, President Joseph Biden, at a press conference in the presence of the chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, said this is going to happen if Russia invaded Ukraine. And, of course, he was asked, well, how do you do this? I mean, how can you how can you be so confident that Nordstrom will be killed and Biden said, well, just, you know, trust me, it’s going to happen.

And so she, bilingual, the Reuters reporter, turned to Scholz – and this is not widely available now for obvious reasons – and she said, well, I mean, do you agree with that? I mean, hello, how do you feel about this? And this hack, this political hack said: we do everything together. We do everything together. We will be together on this now. So that’s available now. It’s available. Not Sy Hersh’s piece yet, but that interview is available in Germany. You know, I describe Olaf Scholz as kind of the epitome of the abused spouse. Stands there and is abused not only by his master, Joe Biden, but also by this hack that he has as foreign minister. Her name is Baerbock. She is the the most vociferous of all the people saying that we are at war. That’s what she said. We are at war with Russia.

So the question will be: it has been 90 years, count them, nine zero years since the Nazis were making a push for power in Germany. What happened? The Reichstag, the German parliament building was burned down at the end of January, 1933. What happened? The Germans caved. The Nazis didn’t have a majority, but they scared the living daylights out of German citizens. First of all, Social Democrats gave in. Next to fall, the Zentrum party, the Catholic Party. No one spoke up. We know the rest of the story. All right. Now, sometimes history is replete with ironies. Here it is exactly to the month, 90 years later. Will the German people acquiesce in their industry, and then their bodies being frozen out this winter? Or will they rise up and say: “Look, Mr Scholz, you don’t know what the hell you’re doing, and neither does Baerbock. Get out of here!”, and replace that government?

Read more …

“It is clear that… getting rid of cash not only touches on issues of transparency, simplicity or security… but also carries a huge danger of totalitarian surveillance..”

Cashless Society? Not in Switzerland (R.)

Swiss citizens will get the chance to try to ensure their economy never becomes cashless, a pressure group said, after collecting enough signatures on Monday to trigger a popular vote on the issue. The Free Switzerland Movement (FBS) says cash is playing a shrinking role in many economies, as electronic payments become the default for transactions in increasingly digitised societies, making it easier for the state to monitor its citizens’ actions. It wants a clause added to Switzerland’s currency law, which governs how the central bank and government manage the money supply, stipulating that a “sufficient quantity” of banknotes or coins must always remain in circulation.

There is no evidence of moves towards a cashless society by Swiss authorities. FBS said it had garnered over 111,000 signatures in support of the measure, above the 100,000 needed to trigger a popular vote. Under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, the proposal would become law if approved by voters, though government and parliament would decide how that law was implemented.

“It is clear that… getting rid of cash not only touches on issues of transparency, simplicity or security… but also carries a huge danger of totalitarian surveillance,” FBS president Richard Koller said on the group’s website. He also views Switzerland as a European standard-bearer for the defence of cash, as pushing through such guarantees in the European Union would entail the “almost impossible” process of securing approval from all 27 member states. Accelerated by the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns, the trend towards increased cashless payments was evident as far back as 2017, when an Ipsos study found more than a third of Europeans and Americans would happily go without cash and 20 per cent pretty much did so already.

Read more …

“Madness born of greed gets classified as ‘a higher form of civilization’..”

Homo implacatus (Jotwani)

A fairer economy would avoid excessive exploitation and extremes of inequality; it would also avoid any systemic negligence in the upbringing of the next generation. Such an economy would be in harmony with the living economics of nature, which has sustained life on earth from ‘day one’. Sadly, that worthy goal remains out of reach as long as people proclaim loudly that ‘greed is good’. We may consider a specific recent example. The subprime mortgage crisis in the US was caused by the fact that greedy but naïve people were cheated and exploited by greedy and cunning people. Naturally, the former were in much larger numbers, since that is a characteristic of economic exploitation.

That entire episode of ‘mega-greed’ – including the ensuing government bailouts – damaged the overall economy of the country and worsened the deep schisms running through the society. After studying such episodes of ‘mega-greed’, it would be difficult to argue that ‘greed is good’. The so-called ‘modern science’ of Economics is totally out of sync with living economics, which is the true economics of Mother Nature. The ‘fake science’ of Economics keeps inconvenient costs out of its books of accounts, and always comes up with wrong diagnoses and wrong prognoses. Nonetheless, because of the ignorance and greed of political leaders, this ‘fake science’ rules the roost.

We must hope for a smooth transition from the economics of death to living economics. However, far too much psychic energy has already been invested in the unnatural theories which justify exploitation of nature, exploitation of fellow human beings, and economic gain through bloody conflict. A painful denouement, or catharsis, is therefore inevitable – as has happened many times in human history. As before, such periods of violent house-cleaning are followed by rationalizations, often based on hoary books. A competition ensues among ‘scholars’ to show who is cleverer, or which hoary books have been proved right. Madness born of greed gets classified as ‘a higher form of civilization’.

Read more …

The damage becomes too large to ignore…

UK Holds ‘Secret’ Cross-Party Brexit Summit (RT)

High-ranking officials from opposite ends of the UK political spectrum have held ‘secret’ discussions designed to navigate a path out of various economic and strategic problems posed by Brexit, according to a report by The Observer. Documents from the meeting obtained by the British newspaper say that the talks were held under the primary topic: “How can we make Brexit work better with our neighbours in Europe?” The newspaper quoted a source who stated it to have been a “constructive meeting” which discussed at length economic problems presented by Brexit which come at a time of rising inflation and energy prices. “The main thrust of it was that Britain is losing out, that Brexit is not delivering, our economy is in a weak position,” the source said.

The summit, which reportedly took place on Thursday and Friday, was attended by members of both the ‘Leave’ and ‘Remain’ campaigns, including senior Tory Michael Gove and several members of Keir Starmer’s Labour shadow cabinet. It also included figures from investment banking company Goldman Sachs and Angus Lapsley, the NATO assistant secretary general for defense policy and planning. Gove, who was a central voice in the ‘Leave’ movement in 2016, is also understood to have been “honest” about problems presented as a result of the vote, though he maintained a position that Brexit will prove to be a good choice long-term. The documents detailing the summit also said that “rejoining the EU will not be on the agenda” but noted that the UK and EU share common goals when it comes to the energy and technology sectors, the relationship with Washington, and “containing Russian aggression”.

They also raised questions about the benefits of closer links between the UK and the 27-member European bloc. The Northern Ireland protocol, which aims to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without affecting trading ties between the UK and EU, is currently a central issue in Brussels and was also prominently discussed at the summit, The Observer wrote. The matter remains unresolved several years after Brexit came into effect. The nature of the talks reflects wider concerns from within the UK political ecosystem that Brexit will continue to damage the UK economy, as well as its strategic influence across the globe. The Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted that Brexit will reduce the UK’s GDP per capita by a factor of 4% over 15 years from 2016.

Read more …

Character murder.

The Pain of Listening To Twitter Censorship Testimony (Naomi Wolf)

It is incredible to me, as someone who was raised in an American meritocracy, and who has until very recently believed in American meritocracy, that a group of nonentities in Twitter, in collusion with nonentities at CDC (hi there, Carol Crawford), the White House and the US Dept. of the Census — were able thus so simply, and at such immediate, nuclear scale, to destroy the reputation of someone identified since 1990 as a major American voice. So: this can happen to any American voice. These ill-dressed, ill-spoken, banal careerist ciphers, cost me so much. I re-trained for almost a decade, in the middle of my life, to teach. It is all I had ever really wanted to do with my life. Now I will never be able to be the only thing I ever wanted to be — a Professor of English Literature at a university.

I am now sixty. It’s too late for me. Twitter, in collusion with the Biden administration, cost me my hard-won lifelong dream. I’ve been maligned and censored by Twitter since 2021. Even if the company eventually settles my lawsuit against it, and even though Mr Musk has “let” me back on the platform, that would be, this is, no victory. Twitter has not sent an advisory to all of the news outlets around the world that depicted me, at Twitter’s own direction, as crazy, that they were wrong to have done so; there has been no press release stating that they erred, and that I was right, and that they are sorry for wrongly abusing my reputation — and for destroying women and babies. No, forever I will remain “deplatformed from Twitter for misinformation” in the cybersphere, even though it is finally being established that sadly I was deplatformed for telling God’s truth.

It is unlikely that any university at this point would see past the grotesque imprint on my bio that Twitter, via the White House, CDC and perhaps the FBI, has taken care to embed in my bio, and in articles about me, around the world. It is unlikely, too, that I will ever recoup the six figure investments that investors withdrew from my company when Twitter, colluding with the government, was orchestrating the shredding of my reputation. It is unlikely that a 35 years career and legacy online of what had been seen until very recently as a life of significant accomplishment, can ever be re-established. I try never to complain in public. I try never to show self-pity or weakness, at least not to my enemies. But Twitter’s attacks on me are not over, and I am simply sick of the damage these mediocrities have done to me, and continue to try to do.

Read more …

President Kennedy?!

I’m forming a Super PAC to Draft RFK Jr. To Run For President (Steve Kirsch)

The federal agencies are so brain damaged it will take major surgery to fix them. Congress clearly isn’t up to the task. We need new leadership in the White House. I can’t think of anyone more qualified to clean up the mess and unite the country than RFK Jr. So I’m putting together a Super PAC to encourage him to run for President on the Democratic side against Biden. If you’d like to help out, please fill out the form here. There will be both volunteer and paid opportunities available. If you have worked for a Super PAC before, it’s especially helpful to me if you register, even if your time is limited.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Romania
https://twitter.com/i/status/1624682043555852289

 

 

Distraction

 

 

O’Keefe
https://twitter.com/i/status/1624882242202787842

 

 

 

 

Shrooms

 

 

Seal nose
https://twitter.com/i/status/1624720584243351552

 

 

Octopus

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Feb 182022
 


Pablo Picasso Portrait de femme au col d’hermine (Olga) 1923

 

Civil Liberties Group Files Court Action Against Use of Emergencies Act (CP)
Ottawa May Euthanize Truckers’ Pets As Punishment (Bexte)
Unvaccinated Truckers Delivering Vaccines, Covid Devices Exempt From Rules (TS)
Canada Reveals the Core Conflict of Our Age (McGrogan)
American Truckers to Drive From California to DC in ‘The People’s Convoy’ (ET)
‘Russiagate’ Is Indeed Worse Than Watergate (Malic)
Australia Starts Vaccine Injury Payouts (RT)
Kulldorff: ‘Science and Public Health Are Broken’ (ET)
RFK, Jr.’s ‘The Real Anthony Fauci’ Is a Record-Smashing Bestseller (CHD)
Ukraine Invasion Scheduled for Wednesday Canceled (McGovern)
Harris Flies To Europe To Help Secure Ukraine Border, Biden Stays Behind (NYP)
German Central Bank Doesn’t Rule Out Gold Revaluation (GO)

 

 

 

 

Edward Dowd

 

 

 

 

Bank accounts have already been frozen and people have been arrested, under the Emergencies Act. Which the House of Commons and the Senate must vote on first. If they vote it down, it’s null and void. But then the damage will have been done.

Civil Liberties Group Files Court Action Against Use of Emergencies Act (CP)

The federal government faced a constitutional challenge Thursday over its historic invocation of the Emergencies Act, as police began to move on protesters with large trucks paralyzing the heart of the national capital. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said using the emergencies law was a measure of last resort to bring an end to the illegal and undemocratic blockades that had harmed Canadians for nearly three weeks. He made the remarks during debate in the House of Commons over his government’s decision to use the law for the first time since its introduction in 1988. The Conservatives accused the prime minister of failing to try to de-escalate the conflict before turning to emergency powers. Trudeau said using the act was not the first, second or even third choice of the government.

“We did it to protect families and small businesses, to protect jobs and the economy,” the prime minister said. “We did it because the situation could not be dealt with under any other law in Canada.” Hours later, the federal government was told it would face court action over its decision, as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association announced it was seeking a judicial review of the government’s invocation of the act. The group said at a Toronto news conference it did not want to minimize the effects of the protests across the country, but added it was unclear that the demonstrations endanger the lives, health or safety of Canadians so seriously that they constitute a national emergency.

“The government has brought in an extreme measure that should be reserved for national emergencies, a legal standard that has not been met. Emergency powers cannot and must not be normalized,” said Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, the civil liberties association’s executive director. Police deal with complex law-enforcement issues every day and have cleared multiple border blockades across the country without emergency powers, the association said. The group’s criminal justice director, Abby Deshman, said the Emergencies Act orders do not apply only in Ottawa and actually affect the rights of every Canadian. The group believes the measures are clearly unconstitutional and it will be asking the courts to step in to defend the rule of law and the constitutional rights of all people across the country, she said.

“Local police across this country have cleared several highly disruptive border blockades and are successfully managing numerous other protesters in communities across the country, all without emergency powers,” Deshman said. Through the Emergencies Act, new powers have been granted to freeze bank accounts of protest participants and bar people from assembling in specific places or joining protests that threaten trade, critical infrastructure, individuals or property. It is also now illegal to bring children to within 500 metres of the blockades or provide supplies or property to participants. The new powers took effect earlier this week but the House of Commons and the Senate must both vote to confirm use of the emergencies law. The House debate will continue through the weekend and Monday with a vote planned for 8 p.m. ET that day. If the motion fails, the act will be suspended immediately.

[..] Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said at a news conference bank accounts had already been frozen and more will be put on hold in the coming days. But she refused to say how many, or even declare if accounts could be frozen for people who aren’t participating in the blockade but who donated to the convoy’s various online fundraisers.

Tow truck
https://twitter.com/Resist_05/status/1494497012234219523

Read more …

Not even surprising anymore.

Ottawa May Euthanize Truckers’ Pets As Punishment (Bexte)

The same day that videos emerged of Ottawa and Quebec police gearing up to go after peaceful Convoy supporters in the capital, the Ottawa government has warned protesters that their pets may be confiscated following their arrest. Moreover, position statements issued by the Ottawa Humane Society reveal that they may unilaterally euthanize any animal that they deem to be “not suitable for adoption.” Arbitrary behavioral and health tests would be used to make the call. These decisions about the life of a trucker’s pet would, thus, be made without their consent or knowledge while they are imprisoned for indefinite periods of time via the Emergency Powers of the Trudeau regime.

“Attention animal owners at [the] demonstration,” Ottawa By-law writes in a Tweet. “If you are unable to care for your animal as a result of enforcement actions, your animal will [be] placed into protective care for 8 days, at your cost. After 8 days, if arrangements are not made, your animal will be considered relinquished.” As anyone with experience in pet care or animal shelters will know, “relinquishment” means that ownership of pets will be handed over to animal shelters, where the pets will be housed while awaiting a prospective owner to adopt them or to be euthanized. As Adopt-a-Pet explains, “When shelters run out of kennel space, sometimes even healthy adoptable dogs are put to sleep.


Some shelters simply don’t have the manpower to spend time with each dog, so they spend most of their time alone in a small cage… What is true at every shelter is that when you surrender a dog, what happens to him is completely out of your hands.” It isn’t clear what length of time Convoy supporters may face if arrested for peacefully protesting, but the government has been clear that it could be up to one year in prison, in addition to a possible $100,000 fine.

Read more …

“..this exemption requires a ministerial invitation and had been “rarely used.”

Unvaccinated Truckers Delivering Vaccines, Covid Devices Exempt From Rules (TS)

Unvaccinated truckers bringing COVID-19 vaccines and medical devices into Canada to combat the pandemic are exempt from testing and quarantine requirements at the border, a government order says. The exemption is due to the “urgent public health necessity” of the supplies they are transporting, Health Canada states. The government has given exemptions from testing and quarantine rules for certain people crossing the border into Canada to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. They include unvaccinated and vaccinated people invited by the health minister to help with the COVID-19 “response.”

A spokeswoman for Health Canada said in a statement that this exemption requires a ministerial invitation and had been “rarely used.” She said it had been used, for example, to help with the supply of ventilators. The exemption is one of a number set out in an order-in-council published last month that outlines decisions made by cabinet, such as regulations or appointments. Drivers dropping off students on either side of the U.S.-Canada border at a college, school or university are also exempt from quarantine and testing requirements, the order says.

The order makes clear that unvaccinated truckers are not exempt from the testing and quarantine requirement in other circumstances. They must obtain a pre-arrival COVID-19 test, quarantine and undergo COVID-19 molecular testing in Canada. The restrictions on unvaccinated cross-border truckers have caused much political debate in Canada and are ostensibly a major sticking point for the protesters camped outside Parliament Hill. But the order reveals that unvaccinated truckers can avoid the border requirements if they are transporting medical supplies, including products with a drug identification number, such as medications and vaccines authorized for use in Canada.

Read more …

“It is only the state’s power that saves and secures. And since only the state can save, it is the only legitimate source of authority..”

Canada Reveals the Core Conflict of Our Age (McGrogan)

Justin Trudeau’s confrontation with the Canadian truckers may be the single most significant event of the Covid pandemic – not because of its eventual outcome, whatever that may be, but because of what it symbolises. It captures, in perfect microcosm, the tensions between the competing imperatives of the age: freedom versus security; the rule of law versus flexible ‘responsive’ governance; the priorities of the workers versus those of the Zooming bourgeoisie; the need for real-world human interaction and belonging versus the promises of splendid online isolation; the experiences of the common man, who knows where it hurts, versus those of the professional expert class, who know nothing that cannot be expressed as a formula.

More than all of that, though, it gives us a lens through which to view a much deeper, much older conflict of much larger scope – one which underlies not just the struggles of the Covid age, but of modernity itself. On the one hand, the state, which seeks to make all of society transparent to its power. On the other, alternative sources of authority – the family, the church, the community, the firm, the farm, and the human individual herself. For centuries, the state has waged a quiet war against those competitors, and bent them to its will. It has done this not through conspiracy or deliberate strategy but merely through the single-minded pursuit, across generation after generation of political leaders, of one goal: legitimacy. Governments and other state organs derive their legitimacy, and therefore their positions of rulership, from convincing the population that they are necessary.

They do this by suggesting that without their intervention, things will go badly; left to their own devices, ordinary people will suffer. The family, the church, the community, the firm, the farm, the human individual – these are inadequate to the task of securing human well-being. That task, only the state is equipped to achieve, for only the state can keep the population educated, healthy, safe, prosperous and satisfied. Since this is the case, only the state is fit to deploy power – and only those who govern the state are fit to rule. The logic of this argument is writ large, of course, in the Covid response across the developed world. What will keep us ‘safe?’

Certainly not traditional sources of succour, such as the church or the family. Certainly not individual people, who cannot be trusted to behave responsibly or assess risks for themselves. No – it is only the state, first with its lockdowns, then with its social distancing, its mask mandates, its vaccine programs, and lately its vaccine mandates and ‘passports.’ It is only the state’s power that saves and secures. And since only the state can save, it is the only legitimate source of authority – along, of course, with its leaders.

Read more …

“I think that the truckers, when they hit the Capitol, may well wake up a large number of our representatives and senators that are kind of a little bit asleep right now,” Malone said.

American Truckers to Drive From California to DC in ‘The People’s Convoy’ (ET)

California truckers fed up with the federal government’s endless emergency powers mandating masks and vaccines are gearing up for what they hope will become a Canadian-style “freedom convoy” to Washington, D.C., and are set to roll on Interstate 40 heading east from Barstow on Feb. 23. A national group, called The People’s Convoy, is organizing the truckers who will hit the road for the nation’s capital city to demand the Emergency Powers Act be lifted, ending the mandates, according to Chris Marston, chairman of the American Foundation for Civil Liberties, a non-profit that advocates for civil liberties issues and is helping coordinate the trucker’s protest. Though previous news reports stated the convoy wouldn’t depart California until March 7, organizers now say the convoy will leave earlier than planned.

“Freedoms can’t wait,” Marston told The Epoch Times. The group said it is calling on the American people to join the “call to freedom” in the spirit of “our brave and courageous neighbors to the north—our Canadian brothers and sisters who led the charge.” The Freedom Convoy in Canada has captured international attention the last handful of weeks as hundreds of truckers have parked in protest outside Parliament in Ottawa, the nation’s capital, demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation and an end to mask and vaccine mandates. A map of the convoy’s expected route will be posted to the group’s website, Maureen Steele, a The People’s Convoy organizer, said Feb. 16 on “War Room,” a streaming political talk show and podcast hosted by former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon.

To ensure donations for the truckers won’t be frozen or routed to other causes—a problem the Canadian truckers encountered with the crowdsourcing platform GoFundMe—The People’s Convoy is taking donations directly on their website. Peter Navarro, Trump’s former economic adviser—and a regular on Bannon’s show—praised Canadian truckers for leading the charge against what he called government tyranny. “They are like the Boston Tea Party. They’re the fountainhead of a worldwide movement, which is basically on the right side of both science and economics. And we have to thank those Canadian truckers,” Navarro said. Dr. Robert Malone, a virologist, immunologist, and inventor of mRNA vaccines, who has been an outspoken critic of the federal government’s handling of the pandemic and mandates, also suggested on the show that Washington may soon see a new kind of “woke”—that supporters have called an “awakening.”

“I think that the truckers, when they hit the Capitol, may well wake up a large number of our representatives and senators that are kind of a little bit asleep right now,” Malone said.

Read more …

“..Trump-hater John Brennan actually briefed President Barack Obama in July 2016 that Clinton had signed off on a proposal to vilify Trump by “stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.”

‘Russiagate’ Is Indeed Worse Than Watergate (Malic)

On Friday, Durham filed an innocuously-titled Motion to Inquire into Potential Conflicts of Interest in the Sussmann case. The 13-page document pointed out that the legal firm representing Sussmann – Latham & Watkins LLP – previously represented his firm of Perkins Coie, its former partner Marc Elias, and the Clinton campaign, all in dealings with the Durham investigation. So far, so boring – except that the filing also lays out the role of a tech company that exploited access to Trump Tower, another Trump-owned building, a “healthcare provider,” and even “the Executive Office of the President of the United States” (EOP) in order to “mine Internet data to establish ‘an inference’ and ‘narrative’ tying then-candidate Trump to Russia.”

While the Durham documents do not name the company or the executive, they have since been identified by the New York Times as Neustar and Rodney Joffe, respectively. Durham says Neustar was hired by the Obama administration to “access and maintain dedicated servers for the EOP as part of a sensitive arrangement whereby it provided DNS resolution services,” and had access to these servers since at least 2014. Recall that Sussmann was accused of “coordinating” the tech company’s work with the Clinton campaign, including feeding the Alfa Bank story to the FBI. He allegedly also leaked the story to the press, which then ran multiple articles about the FBI investigation – which were promoted by Clinton herself as well as her aide Jake Sullivan, now President Joe Biden’s national security adviser.

According to Durham, Sussmann also packaged the false Alfa Bank story with another claim that came from Joffe and Neustar – that Trump and his aides used “Russian-made wireless phones” at the White House – and fed it to the CIA, on February 9, 2017, almost three weeks into Trump’s presidency. Durham “identified no support for these allegations” by Joffe. Now, the FBI is not supposed to spy on Americans without a warrant, while the CIA is not supposed to spy on US soil at all. So how did these two agencies respond to these attempts to weaponize them for political purposes? Well, we know that the FBI was instrumental in the ploy to pressure Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn to resign over allegedly lying about his perfectly legitimate conversations with the Russian ambassador to the US.

As for the CIA, its then-director and confirmed Trump-hater John Brennan actually briefed President Barack Obama in July 2016 that Clinton had signed off on a proposal to vilify Trump by “stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.” Three days later, the FBI opened a probe dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane” – targeting not Clinton, but Trump.

Read more …

Same MO as the adverse effects registration sites:

“..very complicated and very hard to navigate, particularly if you’re suffering an adverse health effect..”

Australia Starts Vaccine Injury Payouts (RT)

Australians who experienced adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccines have started receiving compensation, local media reported on Wednesday, though the number of people applying to the scheme is far lower than expected. Figures from Australia’s Health Department show that less than 10% of the more than 10,000 people who registered their interest in the government scheme before December have submitted claims. The no-fault indemnity scheme grants people a one-off payment ranging from AU$1,000 (US$720) to AU$20,000 (US$14,400) for lost wages or other expenses if they suffered bad reactions to Covid-19 vaccines. The conditions for application include having spent at least one night in hospital and having suffered at least AU$1,000 (US$720) in economic losses.

Services Australia has received 861 applications – including death claims – as of February 9, a Health Department spokesman told news.com.au. One case has been paid but 11 have already been withdrawn, they added. The authorities have requested further information from 225 claimants. A total of 849 “remain under consideration.” “With the indemnity scheme having only been opened for a short period of time, information on eligible claims and payment amounts is still being assessed,” the spokesman said. Shine Lawyers’ head of medical negligence, Clare Eves, said the number of claimants was “disappointing” and attributed some blame to the complex nature of the scheme’s application process.

The website the government had set up was “very complicated and very hard to navigate, particularly if you’re suffering an adverse health effect,” she said. As of February 6, Australia’s medicines regulator had registered a total of 108,000 total reports of adverse reactions, most of which were minor, believed to be as a result of receiving a Covid-19 vaccine. Nearly 51.2 million total doses have been administered.

Read more …

Canceled.

Kulldorff: ‘Science and Public Health Are Broken’ (ET)

Dr. Martin Kulldorff is one of the most qualified public health pandemic experts in the United States. To the narrative-shapers, he’s a pariah. As a prominent epidemiologist and statistician, Kulldorff has worked on detecting and monitoring infectious disease outbreaks for two decades. His methods are widely used around the world and by almost every state health department in the United States, as well as by hundreds of people at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Kulldorff has also worked on vaccine safety for decades, developing globally used methods for monitoring adverse reactions in new vaccines. His résumé on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website is 45 pages long and includes a list of 201 peer-reviewed published journal papers. His work has been cited more than 27,000 times.

Since 2003, Kulldorff worked at Harvard Medical School, first as an associate professor of population medicine and later as a professor of medicine. In November, Harvard and Kulldorff abruptly parted ways. Kulldorff prefers to keep the reasons private, but it’s hard to ignore that he placed himself in the crosshairs of the pandemic narrative early on in the “15 days to slow the spread” lockdown and has since paid the price. It’s quite something for a public health scientist at the top of his game to admit that “both science and public health are broken.” “For some reason, a public official narrative was established, and you weren’t allowed to question it—which, of course, is very detrimental, both to the pandemic and how to deal with the pandemic, because you have to have a vibrant discussion to figure out how best to deal with these things,” he told The Epoch Times.

The Swedish native said he tried to point out in March 2020 that there was a very steep age gradient on mortality for COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Kulldorff said he attempted to publish a paper both in U.S. medical journals and mainstream newspapers stating that while anyone could contract the virus, the focus should be on protecting the elderly and those at high risk. His paper was knocked back from all directions.

Read more …

…But Mainstream Media Pretends It Doesn’t Exist

RFK, Jr.’s ‘The Real Anthony Fauci’ Is a Record-Smashing Bestseller (CHD)

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s record-smashing bestseller, “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health,” demolishes the public images — piously promoted by corporate media — of Dr. Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates. Unfortunately, however, you won’t be able to read a review of Kennedy’s book in major media. That’s because the corporate establishment has circled the wagons to censor it — by pretending it doesn’t exist. But it does exist. The book surged to #1 on Amazon.com even before it hit the bookstores, and it swept the bestseller lists of the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY and Publishers Weekly — none of which will even mention that the book was published, let alone review it.


It seems we are witnessing a mind-boggling first in U.S. book publishing history — when the hottest runaway bestseller of the season can’t even get its name mentioned in any major newspaper, TV or cable news program anywhere in the 50 states. Say hello to a new kind of suppression: censorship by oblivion — brazen, vicious, ugly and cowardly. This type of censorship subverts your right to make up your own mind after hearing both sides of a controversy. Instead, it simply labels the side it doesn’t like as “misinformation” and keeps you from hearing it at all. Astonishingly, given how much establishment firepower was lined up to crush this book, it is not working. Against all odds, the disturbing portrait Kennedy paints in “The Real Anthony Fauci” led the book to sell a record-breaking 110,000 copies in its first week. Through word of mouth, sales have reached more than 900,000 copies.

Read more …

“Biden made this commitment to Putin during the telephone call of Dec. 3..”

Ukraine Invasion Scheduled for Wednesday Canceled (McGovern)

At yesterday’s press conference, Chancellor Scholz at times played straight man for Putin, calling the announcement of the Russian troop pullback a “good signal” and agreeing that diplomatic options are “far from exhausted”, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had reported to Putin on Monday. Here’s what’s important (and was given appropriate prominence in AP’s reporting). Putin at the presser with Scholz: “… as [Lavrov] reported yesterday, the [US and NATO] responses still contain a number of considerations that we are not only ready to discuss but that we have actually suggested to our partners over the years. I am referring to our proposals on European security, certain weapons systems, notably, intermediate and shorter-range missiles, and military transparency. We are ready to continue this joint work. …


So far, the NYT has omitted that statement by Putin, which, coming yesterday together with the troop pullback, is highly significant. That the Times “forgot” to include it is yet another sign that even the most sensible, rudimentary negotiations on key matters of concern to Russia will be resisted tooth and nail by the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank) complex in which the NYT is right there in the middle, the fulcrum – the key “M.” Still, some Times editor apparently insisted on slipping in the important acknowledgment by Mr. Biden today that: “Neither the US or NATO have missiles in Ukraine. We do not, do not have plans to put them there as well.” [Emphasis added.] Biden made this commitment to Putin during the telephone call of Dec. 30 that Putin had urgently requested. It amounts to a major concession and enabled Moscow to conclude that at least one or two of Biden’s retinue – or Biden himself – have their heads screwed on right.

Read more …

Try not to laugh..

Harris Flies To Europe To Help Secure Ukraine Border, Biden Stays Behind (NYP)

Vice President Kamala Harris set off Thursday on a peace mission to Europe as Russia appeared to accelerate preparations for an invasion of Ukraine — undeterred by her failure to resolve the ongoing US-Mexico border crisis as President Biden’s point person on illegal immigration. About two hours after Harris departed DC to attend the Munich Security Conference, Biden emerged from the White House and said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin will launch an invasion of Ukraine “within the next several days.” As Harris flew east to Germany, Biden traveled west to Lorain, Ohio, to talk about fixing Great Lakes pollution through his three-month-old bipartisan infrastructure law — prompting his aides to insist the jaunt wouldn’t distract him from the potential outbreak of the largest and deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.

“I doubt [Putin’s] sitting back at the Kremlin right now shaking because Kamala Harris is over there,” Rep Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in an interview with Newsmax TV Wednesday. “She couldn’t pour something out of a boot if there were instructions written on the heel,” Burchett added. “She can’t even find our southern border, much less the Ukrainian border. This is a joke, this is a travesty.” Biden tapped Harris in March to stem illegal immigration across the southern border, but the crisis only got worse, with a record-breaking 1.9 million arrests in 2021. Critics blame lax Biden administration enforcement policies, but Harris defended her work last month in Honduras, saying addressing the “root causes” of illegal immigration wouldn’t have an effect “overnight.”

The vice president’s performance on the US border crisis received bipartisan blowback, including from Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who said in December, “She was tasked with that job, [but] it doesn’t look like she’s very interested in this.”

Read more …

“[Banca D’Italia] can also continue to absorb debt, say, an additional €500 billion euros, and then revalue gold times ten.”

German Central Bank Doesn’t Rule Out Gold Revaluation (GO)

When the gold price rises the value of the gold on the asset side of a central bank’s balance sheet increases. At the same time, on the liability side of the balance sheet an equal increase will be recorded in what is referred to as a “revaluation account.” A gold revaluation account, which effectively has no limit, registers the unrealized gains on gold. An example: the German central bank owns 3,359 tonnes of gold, which was purchased for €8 billion euros. Currently the gold is worth €173 billion euros, creating a gold revaluation account of €165 billion euros (173 – 8).*

While researching this subject I asked the German central bank (the Bundesbank, or “BuBa” in short) if it’s possible to use gold’s revaluation account to write off bad debt. I tend to aim such questions at the Bundesbank because they always respond very quickly. I’m aware that Italy’s government debt is the elephant in the room, but these countries are part of the same monetary union and Germany is the main guarantor of the E.U. Recovery Fund (Next Generation EU). BuBa replied that according to the prevailing accounting rules any unrealized gains in gold can only be used for unrealized losses in gold, not for losses in assets such as U.S. dollars or European bonds.

[..] They could have just said no, but they didn’t. They replied that, “at this stage, we prefer not to speculate” about changing the accounting rules and revalue gold to write off bad debt. Meaning, they don’t rule out this possibility. Also note, BuBa writes that “in general” the accounting rules are set “by the ECB Governing council in accordance with the limits set by the European Treaties.” Implying that there are exceptions. Why did BuBa write this to me? Possibly, this was a signal for the market to revalue gold, saving BuBa the hassle of doing it themselves (printing money to buy gold). As a reminder, former Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann wrote in 2018 that gold is “the bedrock of stability for the international monetary system.” A comment that is anything but discouraging investors from buying gold and driving up its price.

Weidmann added that gold is a “major anchor underpinning confidence in the intrinsic value of the Bundesbank’s balance sheet.” If gold is underpinning confidence in BuBa’s balance sheet, why wouldn’t it underpin confidence in investors’ balance sheets? It’s impossible to furnish the Italian government substantial debt relief without revaluing gold. Italy’s government debt is €2.7 trillion euros, of which is €600 billion euros is held by the Italian central bank (Banca D’Italia, or BDI). BDI’s gold revaluation account is currently over €100 billion euros, so the gold price has to be multiplied by approximately five for BDI to be able to write off its domestic government bonds. Though, BDI can also continue to absorb debt, say, an additional €500 billion euros, and then revalue gold times ten.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

Jon Stewart Inflation

 

 

It used to be that everything gives you cancer. Now, everything gives you blood clots.

 

 

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

 

Jan 252022
 


Pablo Picasso Female bust 1922

 

A Real American Hero (Jim Kunstler)
‘Obscene’ COVID Policies Serve Big Pharma Not People, Experts Say (CHD)
Nervous System Disorders After The Jab – A Case Study (Beck)
BA2 Omicron Variant is Worth Discussing (Chudov)
Omicron Variant Breaks The Evolutionary Lineage Of SARS-COV2 Variants (GHA)
Omicron Showing Merits of Targeted Protection, Great Barrington Signers (NW)
Covid Still ‘Full Of Nasty And Cunning’ Surprises – WHO Official (RT)
Unvaccinated Staff Are Holding NHS Together Amid Staff Shortages (GBN)
New York Judge Strikes Down State Mask Mandate (R.)
“They Can Have [Joe] Rogan or [Neil] Young. Not Both.” (RS)
The Globalist American Empire (Revolver)
Russia Planning “Lightning War” To Take Out Ukraine’s Capital: UK’s Johnson (ZH)
Assange Granted Permission To Take Extradition Case To UK Supreme Court (Haddad)

 

 

 

 

Malone at hearing

 

 

 

 

Ryan Cole

 

 

 

 

Hodkins

 

 

 

 

“..poisoned hundreds of millions of Americans in a medical experiment that has only begun to kill possibly more people than the Nazis ever dreamed of murdering..”

You can try and make someone look bad for wearing a Star of David or using the word Nazis, but then there is a Jewish commentator.

A Real American Hero (Jim Kunstler)

Sunday, at the March Against Mandates in our nation’s capital, the resistance to Covid vaccine tyranny laid it out, none with plainer eloquence than Bobby Kennedy: “We love the United States Constitution. And we have witnessed over the past 20 months a coup d’etat against democracy and the demolition, the controlled demolition of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And starting with the censorship. James Madison, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson all said the same thing: we put freedom of speech in the first amendment because all of the other rights that we were trying to protect relied on that right. If you give government the license to silence its critics, you have given them the capacity to commit any atrocity they want, and to obliterate all the amendments and rights in the constitution.”

The message is getting through and the tyrants are running scared. They are perhaps having bad dreams involving torches and pitchforks. Naturally CNN took the lead in attempting to defame Mr. Kennedy as an anti-Semite for mentioning the name of Anne Frank in alluding to the Nazi insanity of the last century and people’s desperate efforts to escape it. CNN said: “The son of former Attorney General and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy has a long history of spreading vaccine misinformation…. Sunday’s event, billed as a protest against vaccine mandates, featured speakers repeatedly spreading misinformation about vaccines and showcased several bigoted comparisons to the Holocaust. At least one man was seen displaying a yellow Star of David, which Jews were required by law to wear as an identifier in Nazi Germany.”

So, wearing a Star of David now makes you an insurrectionist in the twisted logic of Wokery. How stupid and confused are they? Anyway, heroes emerge out of adversity. Let them pile it on, insulting history and reality. In fact, Bobby Kennedy stood in the cold at the Lincoln Memorial as a heroic figure for these times, giving a speech that carefully and succinctly denoted the stupendous criminality of the US public health bureaucracy and the corporate-government fascist partnership with Pharma Inc. that has poisoned hundreds of millions of Americans in a medical experiment that has only begun to kill possibly more people than the Nazis ever dreamed of murdering. There has not been a more important public utterance in this land than RFK Jr.’s since this century began.

Read more …

Long write-up of Ron Johnson Senate hearing yesterday.

‘Obscene’ COVID Policies Serve Big Pharma Not People, Experts Say (CHD)

Dr. Pierre Kory, pulmonary and critical care specialist and president and chief medical officer of the Front-Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance, called out the policies of U.S. health systems and their “failed response to this pandemic.” Kory said: “Some of the policies are “so obscene, absurd, illogical and nonscientific that they’re unscientific that they’re almost unspeakable — things like not testing the vaccinated, not recommending vitamin D, not checking vitamin D levels, things that are so fundamentally basic about science and medicine and that they’ve avoided. “If you look at these failed policies, there’s only one way to understand them. They are literally written by pharmaceutical companies. Almost every single policy serves the interest of a pharmaceutical company.”

Kory said there have been numerous successes outside the U.S. using a number of compounds he and his colleagues have identified for effective early treatment of COVID, almost all of which are repurposed or generic drugs, including ivermectin. Yet, in the U.S., ivermectin is regarded as a horse dewormer, horse paste, and is only used by the illiterate, ignorant or unvaccinated, Kory said. Kory pointed to many studies and locations around the world where hospitalizations and deaths were prevented by large percentages through the mass distribution of ivermectin. He said the inexpensive drug eradicated the virus entirely in Uttar Pradesh, India.


Information on ivermectin was buried and suppressed, Kory said. “U.S. health agencies’ structures and policies created over the last 50 years have tightly intertwined the pharmaceutical industry with public health institutions, resulting in repeated policies placing pharmaceutical industry interests ahead of the welfare of U.S. citizens,” he explained. Kory said the industry’s “capture of our health agencies combined with their increasing financial control of most major media, social media and medical journals has led to an ability to widely suppress and/or distort any information which supports the efficacy of repurposed low-cost off-patent medicines.”This “decades-long war on repurposed drugs waged with the ever-pressing goal of protecting the market for novel, patented, obscenely profitable and often barely tested and toxic medications has reached a pinnacle with COVID-19, its an absurdity, its an obscenity and its a crime,” Kory said. “It has to stop.”

Read more …

Scary.

Nervous System Disorders After The Jab – A Case Study (Beck)

NERVOUS system disorders following Covid vaccination are being recorded in shocking numbers, with reports to the UK’s Yellow Card Scheme of almost 300,000 injuries and 300 deaths. Despite this, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), who run the Yellow Card scheme and review all suspected injuries, are sticking with their mantra that Covid vaccines are ‘safe and effective’. Their message infuriates music manager Georgia-Rose Segal, 34, from Hertfordshire, a previously active fitness fan. Supremely healthy, and at low risk of contracting Covid-19, she was worried about getting the experimental jab, but decided to take it after being reassured by three GPs. She could then travel abroad for her job, about once a quarter, and visit family in Israel to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.

It is a decision she bitterly regrets as she is now a statistic, one of the 100,000 victims suffering with 300,000 neurological injuries reported up to January 5, 2022, which we have analysed in our special report below. After her adverse jab reaction, Georgia, who is articulate, down-to-earth and had clearly made the effort to be well informed, was admitted to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire – a spinal injury specialist – with symptoms which included lack of balance, dizzy spells, tremors, tics, short-term memory loss and brain fog. Georgia had her first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccination on May 13, 2021 at Hemel Hempstead pop-up vaccine centre. It wiped her out. ‘I felt like I could have slept for a year. I felt like that for a couple of days,’ she said. She had her second dose on June 29.

“Within four hours I felt dizzy and light-headed. I fainted that evening, then over the following days, I began fainting up to three times a day. ‘After ten days I developed neurological symptoms. My legs didn’t feel right. I was struggling to move them, and they felt heavy. ‘I was in Tesco, got to the checkout and couldn’t move my legs. My boyfriend Luke [boxing coach Luke Groves, 29] was outside. I went to phone him, but my brain wouldn’t engage with my hand. ‘I realised then I had a bit of a problem.’ Despite this, on Monday July 12 Georgia attended a wedding in Dorset, and realised there was something seriously wrong. ‘The day before the wedding I collapsed in my hotel room. Luke brought me round by splashing me with cold water and I got into bed, then my body went into its first tremor,’ she said.

‘I managed to go to the wedding the next day and got back to the hotel room. I fainted again and hit my head on the floor. My head began to tremor, and my body followed.‘Luke thought I might need food, so we went to the pub. When we got there my legs gave way underneath me for the first time, and that became my new normal.’ At 5am on the Wednesday morning Luke drove her to Stoke Mandeville hospital, where she spent ten days having ‘every test going including MRI and CT scans and blood tests’. They all came back clear, and doctors were sceptical when she told them she thought it was the vaccine. ‘We’re not sure. We don’t have enough information about it,’ they said.

Thomas Renz

Read more …

“..calling BA.2 a sub-variant of Omicron may be factually and genealogically incorrect and their relationship may be more sibling-like than parent-like.”

BA2 Omicron Variant is Worth Discussing (Chudov)

This post offers some news on what will be very important in the coming months. Like many other things, Omicron BA.2 is not on most busy people’s radar, but soon will be the only thing that people talk about. I made a decision to start writing about Omicron very early in the game, and want to write about BA.2 also to keep my readers abreast. Denmark, which was weeks ahead of the UK and US with its Omicron outbreak. Unlike the US and the UK, however, Denmark’s infections are not decreasing, but conversely are shooting up to the sky. The slowdown in Denmark that appeared around Jan 5-8, was quickly overtaken by a rapid rise that offers no signs of slowing down. The same thing happened in France 5 days later. A small drop, quickly overridden by another crazy and relentless case growth.

On a cases-per-million-people, Denmark and France are 2.5 times higher than the US and 3 times higher than the UK. What is going on? A new “variant”, called somewhat incorrectly “Omicron BA.2”, appeared around Christmas and is out-competing, out-infecting, and overall somehow generating even more cases than the original Omicron. In Denmark, Omicron BA2 is already over 50% of all cases, and rising. [..]

BA.2 is considered a sub-lineage of original Omicron (which is now referred to as Omicron BA.1), however these two genetic variants seem to have diverged months BEFORE Omicron actually appeared. BA.2 has 28 more mutations, than Omicron, with no intermediate variants seen between them. This is certainly a genetic oddity, just as Omicron is a genetic oddity with the ancestor that disappeared 1.5 years before Omicron appeared. Both of these oddities raise a possibility that both Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 do not have a natural origin. I said that Omicron (now known as BA.1) may be lab-made on December 2. As they diverged before either of them was introduced, calling BA.2 a sub-variant of Omicron may be factually and genealogically incorrect and their relationship may be more sibling-like than parent-like.

[..] The most disturbing issue here is that even by the time before BA.2 took off in Denmark a week ago, Denmark was likely running out of Covid-naive, uninfected people. What this means is that possibly, BA2 is especially good at REINFECTING Danes and Frenchmen. Not sure if the vaccinated people are more susceptible to reinfection, but it is possible and always seemed to be the case even before Omicron.

Read more …

Jean Claude Perez, Valère Lounnas, Pr Luc Montagnier.

Omicron Variant Breaks The Evolutionary Lineage Of SARS-COV2 Variants (GHA)

We analyzed 15 genomes and Spikes of the new OMICRON variant, on the one hand 7 from the very first 21K lineage (South Africa, USA, Belgium, Canada), on the other hand 8 from the later second sister-clade 21L (USA, Switzerland, UK). We applied, at the scale of the whole genome and the spike gene, the biomathematics method of Fibonacci meta-structure fractal analysis applied to the UA / CG proportions. There appears a total rupture of this variant with respect to all the previous variants, and a strong differentiation between these 2 OMICRON lines.We have evidenced the RUPTURE of OMICRON with respect to ALL the previous variants: D614G, ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA, DELTA. In particular, we suggest that the mRNA stabilizing secondary structure (“hairpin” conformation) in the spike of all variants is degraded in OMICRON, probably making its mRNA more fragile.

The loss of long-range fractal meta-structures in the OMICRON spike gene are in line with common knowledge on the mechanisms of epidemic ending, involving recombination of heavily mutated RNA fragments of the virus, with the possible inference of a distinct helper virus. This would indicate that the SARS-CoV2 is under very strong evolutionary pressure, possibly marking the end of the pandemic.Remarkably, it is observed that the density of OMICRON mutations in the SPIKE PRION region is more than 8 times that of the rest of the Spike protein. This high density of mutations of the Prion region in OMICRON appears to completely suppress this possible Prion function, unlike the Spikes of the various variants and mRNAs vaccines where this Prion function is observed.

“Science doesn’t tell us where we’re going – that’s the role of art -; it tells us where we are.” Alan TURING

Read more …

“The illusion was that to protect the vulnerable, we needed to control disease spread. The disease spread anyway and the vulnerable were exposed because we didn’t protect them.”

Omicron Showing Merits of Targeted Protection, Great Barrington Signers (NW)

After it was dismissed as a dangerous theory with deadly consequences, the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration believe officials are coming around to the idea of targeted protection now that it’s clear stopping COVID from spreading is an unrealistic goal.Omicron, a highly infectious variant, is spreading rapidly throughout the United States, causing more than 10 million infections in less than a month. While vaccines are extraordinarily helpful at preventing COVID-19 deaths, the assumption that vaccines would make a significant dent in infections has been proven wrong and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, believes Omicron will find “just about everybody.” But officials have bucked a return to lockdowns.

Since the world has missed its opportunity to completely suppress COVID-19 transmission, the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration said policymakers are realizing they have to shift tactics away from population-wide measures. “There’s no question there’s been a sea change in thinking about this,” one of the declaration’s co-authors, Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, told Newsweek. “The illusion was that to protect the vulnerable, we needed to control disease spread. The disease spread anyway and the vulnerable were exposed because we didn’t protect them.”

The Great Barrington Declaration, which was signed in October 2020, called for a lifting of lockdowns to allow those who were at a lower risk of getting seriously ill from COVID-19, the young and healthy, to resume life as normal. Keeping the restrictions in place, the co-authors argued, would cause “irreparable harm” particularly with regard to the underprivileged. Many of those reentering the world would likely get infected with COVID-19, but being young and healthy, they were less likely to get seriously ill. Their infections would thereby lower the risk of infection to all, including the vulnerable, according to the declaration.

Read more …

A cunning virus?!

Covid Still ‘Full Of Nasty And Cunning’ Surprises – WHO Official (RT)

Speaking to Sky News on Monday, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Covid-19 special envoy, Dr David Nabarro, warned that the pandemic could still throw up “challenges and surprises” despite the progress that has been made in some parts of the world in tackling the coronavirus. Criticizing politicians who are playing down the threat still posed by the virus, Nabarro said they “should not suggest” that Covid be treated like the flu or that it “has suddenly got incredibly weak.”“We must go on treating it as though it is full of surprises, very nasty and rather cunning,” Nabarro stated, claiming that while “the end is in sight,” it is not known how long it is “going to take to get there” or “what sort of difficulties” will emerge along the way out of the pandemic.


“I do want everybody to do one thing, and that is to go on treating this virus with respect. It has not changed. It’s absolutely not suddenly become a soft thing – it is still very serious,” Nabarro added. Directly addressing UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid’s recent comments that Covid should be treated like flu, Nabarro said it is “amazing” that officials keep making predictions that “the WHO don’t know,” as “we know there are more [variants] not far away.”The comments appear to directly contradict the WHO’s Europe director, Hans Kluge, who claimed on Monday that the continent is “moving towards a kind of pandemic endgame,” as Omicron is milder than previous strains. Addressing the potential emergence of new Covid variants, Kluge expressed a different view to his colleague, arguing that, while fresh strains might emerge “towards the end of the year,” it won’t necessarily mean “the pandemic coming back.”

Read more …

British humor.

Unvaccinated Staff Are Holding NHS Together Amid Staff Shortages (GBN)

Dr Kate Goodman told Michelle Dewberry for GB News that after “talking to friends and colleagues around the country, it seems it’s the unvaccinated [NHS] staff that are holding services together” as staff shortages continue to plague the health service. On the evening that Michelle Dewberry launched the #OutdateTheMandate campaign against mandatory vaccinations for health care staff that have face-to-face contact with patients, Dr Goodman said that it was “a shame” that a viewer said they would not want an unvaccinated member of staff caring for their elderly relatives. She said: “I’m a very good doctor, I’m an elder care specialist.”


Dr Goodman went on: “I can understand that people are concerned about their loved ones.”But actually we need to talk more about this.” From 1 April 2022, all health and social care workers in England who have face-to-face contact with patients, will need to provide proof they have been fully-vaccinated, unless they are exempt. The policy applies to those working within the private sector as well as the NHS, and affects workers including doctors, nurses, dentists, porters and receptionists.The deadline for the first vaccination is February 1st 2022.

Read more …

The judge literally called it “null, void and unenforceable.” But Reuters doesn’t use that quote.

New York Judge Strikes Down State Mask Mandate (R.)

A New York judge struck down the state’s mask mandate on Monday, one week before it was due to expire, ruling the governor overstepped her authority in imposing a rule that needed to have been passed by the state legislature. Judge Thomas Rademaker of New York State Supreme Court on Long Island found that the state legislature last year curbed any governor’s ability to issue decrees, such as a mask mandate, amid a declared state of emergency. It was latest setback for executive branch officials at state and federal levels. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked President Joe Biden’s vaccination-or-testing mandate for large businesses. A judge in Texas last week ruled that Biden could not require federal employees to be vaccinated.

Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, vowed to fight back, saying in a statement, “We strongly disagree with this ruling, and we are pursuing every option to reverse this immediately.” “My responsibility as Governor is to protect New Yorkers throughout this public health crisis, and these measures help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and save lives,” Hochul said. Disagreements and court action over mandates in a number of states have become a flashpoint of the pandemic response in the United States, often dividing Democrats and Republicans. The requirements in New York state, home to around 20 million people, include wearing masks in schools, on public transit and other public indoor spaces.

Hochul declared a state of emergency almost immediately after the World Health Organization named Omicron as a variant of concern on Nov. 26. At the time, New York state’s seven-day average of new daily cases was around 6,400. That number rapidly rose until peaking at 73,815 on Jan. 10. It has since fallen to about a third of that.

Read more …

Easiest choice Spotify ever made.

“They Can Have [Joe] Rogan or [Neil] Young. Not Both.” (RS)

Neil Young posted a since-deleted letter to his management team and record label demanding that they remove his music from Spotify. “I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” he wrote. “Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.” “I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” he continued. “They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.” Young is referencing the steady stream of misinformation about vaccines that Joe Rogan has peddled on The Joe Rogan Experience. Last month, 270 doctors, physicians, and science educators signed an open letter asking Spotify to stop spreading Rogan’s baseless claims.

“With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence,” the letter reads. “Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.” Young removed most of his music from Spotify several years ago because he felt the sound quality on the service was too low, but he ultimately relented. “That’s where people get music,” he told Rolling Stone in 2019. “I want people to hear my music no matter what they have to get through to do it. I’m just trying to make it so they hear a lot more and enjoy it a lot more, but sell it for the same price because music is music.”

Young’s letter was addressed to his manager and a Warner executive. At press time, Spotify hadn’t responded to a request from Rolling Stone asking if they planned to remove Young’s music. It’s still available, but it might be smart to listen to Zuma and Rust Never Sleeps while you still can. They could disappear at any moment.

Read more …

“Russia’s population is half of what the USSR’s was 30 years ago.”

The Globalist American Empire (Revolver)

The NATO question is the only one that Russia has repeatedly insisted upon. If America were inclined to negotiate, it could. Instead, America has taken the position that Ukraine’s eligibility for NATO is entirely non-negotiable. In fact, basically everything about Ukraine is non-negotiable from the perspective of the State Department. The US State Department also insists it will “never” acknowledge Russian annexation of Crimea, even though Western media outlets admit the local population overwhelmingly supports union with Russia. America’s demand, in essence, is that Russia acknowledge a violent revolution (in the name of “democracy”), return Crimea to Ukraine against its will (again, in the name of “democracy”), and let Ukraine become a military satellite of the United States (in the name of of “peace”).

This is deranged. Adding Ukraine to NATO does nothing to improve the security of the United States, or any of its key allies. Even if Russia literally did conquer and annex all of Ukraine (something it has shown no interest in doing), America’s security interests would remain unchanged. Ukraine doesn’t supply the United States with any irreplaceable natural resources. It doesn’t sit alongside a critical trade route or geographical position. It isn’t physically proximate to the United States. Ukraine matters to America’s domestic security as much as Iraq, Syria, Libya, or Venezuela; i.e. not at all. Just like all four of those other countries, a war over Ukraine would have nothing to do with protecting America’s safety, its prosperity, or its values. Instead, it would be a product of a cloistered foreign policy elite that is not content with controlling one country and instead seeks to boss around the entire planet.

“B-but if we don’t stop him in Donetsk, Putin will drive all the way to the English Channel!” Bullshit. No, he won’t. Russia’s population is half of what the USSR’s was 30 years ago. Its military is smaller. Its economy is only the size of that of Texas. Russia’s frontline in any hypothetical war has shifted hundreds of miles to the east. Russia invading and occupying Europe is as plausible as Canada invading and occupying the United States. The idea of Vladimir Putin steamrolling all of Europe like Hitler or Napoleon would be absurd, even if he aspired to do that. But importantly, there is absolutely zero evidence Putin wants to invade. Putin’s Russia has no desire to ideologically control Western Europe. Its external interests have consistently focused on its immediate neighbors, and regions with Russian minorities. Crimea was Russia’s only land grab, and it only happened when the West sought to make Ukraine a satellite.

Tulsi Tucker
https://twitter.com/i/status/1485693277655343107

Read more …

No ground troops would be needed.

Russia Planning “Lightning War” To Take Out Kyiv: UK’s Johnson (ZH)

As we detailed earlier, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell during Monday statements to the press appeared to openly mock the UK and US for their dramatic announcements of embassy personnel evacuations due to threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. He said there’s no need to “dramatize” the situation given there’s high hopes that ongoing diplomacy will prevail. Moscow too has continued to condemn what it called “disinformation hysteria” prevailing in the West, which is fueling the crisis further. But it seems London is content to hype things further, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday citing “gloomy” intelligence from UK intel officials warning that Russia is planning a “lightning war” to take out Ukraine’s capital of Kiev.


Johnson said in a message directed at Russia that an offensive would be a “disastrous step” and “bloody business”. While confirming that some British diplomatic staff have begun to exit the embassy in Kiev and depart of the country, Johnson affirmed “We do think it prudent to make some changes now.” That’s when he said in dramatic fashion… “The intelligence is very clear that there are 60 Russian battle groups on the borders of Ukraine, the plan for a lightning war that could take out Kyiv is one that everybody can see.” “We need to make it very clear to the Kremlin, to Russia, that that would be a disastrous step.” He added during the comments that “from a Russian perspective, (it) is going to be a painful, violent and bloody business.” He concluded with: “I think it’s very important that people in Russia understand that this could be a new Chechnya.”

Read more …

The High Court bans the Supreme Court from taking a broader view?! Odd.

Assange Granted Permission To Take Extradition Case To UK Supreme Court (Haddad)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted permission to take his extradition case against the United States to the Supreme Court, a court ruled on Monday. In a short hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, also known as the High Court, Lord Chief Justice Ian Duncan Burnett refused to grant Assange leave to appeal—respecting the custom of allowing the Supreme Court to decide for itself which cases it hears—but did pave the way for the case to proceed to Britain’s highest court after “certifying” a point of law. Lord Chief Justice Burnett, Britain’s most senior judge, rejected two grounds on which Assange’s defence sought certification, but accepted that the issue of diplomatic assurances provided by the United States at a late stage of the hearing was of sufficient public importance for the upper-most court to consider.

In a written pronouncement explaining the finding, Burnett said: “The Respondent [Assange] sought certification in respect of three points of law, the first of which centred on the circumstances in which an appellate court may receive assurances from a requesting state concerning the future treatment of a requested person if extradited. “We do not consider that the second or third points raise certifiable points. So far as the first is concerned, although the law in this jurisdiction has long been settled it does not appear that the Supreme Court has considered the question. Assurances are at the heart of many extradition hearings.” Following the finding, Assange lawyers Birnberg Peirce Solicitors issued a statement in which they welcome the decision.

“The High Court found against Mr Assange in its ruling, and relied upon the late assurances, but has certified a point of law of general public importance on the question of the courts’ reception of assurances (frequently relied upon by requesting states in extradition proceedings to overcome defence evidence after it has established a bar to extradition) for the first time on appeal. “The identification by the High Court of the question above for the potential consideration of the Supreme Court, involves concepts of procedural fairness and natural justice. There has long been a general approach by the courts that requires that all relevant matters are raised before the District Judge appointed to consider the case in the Magistrates’ Court.

“What has underpinned a departure from those principles in practice is the categorisation of an assurance as an ‘issue’ as opposed to ‘evidence’ and the developing practice, potentially now consolidated in the decision in this case, whereby an assurance can be freely introduced by the requesting state and considered separately and later. “The defence argument is that despite being as demanding of close evidential scrutiny as the evidence already heard, and despite the content of the assurances being applicable to the testimony of witnesses already heard but not heard again, assurances has been afforded a different procedural position. This issue has become of considerable importance in the predictability and progression of extradition cases.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

The convoy is over 70km long.

 

 

It was reported that Biden called Doocy after calling him an SOB, but apparently that was not to apologize.

 

 

 

 

Yeah,. we had some snow. Paralysis ensues.

 

 

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