The Automatic Earth

Paul Cézanne River Bend (Coin de rivière) 1865

 

• The Pentagon Leaks Charade (Pepe Escobar)

• Explosive Pentagon Leak May Be An Insider Job – Reuters (RT)

• Secret Pentagon Documents First Surfaced On Internet In January – WSJ (TASS)

• Leaked Documents A ‘Serious Risk’ – Pentagon (RT)

• What’s Known So Far From The Leaked Intelligence Files (ZH)

• US Military Pilots Apparently Told To Fly Farther From Crimea – WaPo (RT)

• US Spying On Zelensky – CNN (RT)

• Leaked Pentagon Documents: Scenarios For Israeli Arms Pipeline To Kiev (TASS)

• Ukrainian Air Defense Missiles To Run Out By May – WSJ (RT)

• Zelensky Losing Control Of Intelligence Agents – Media (RT)

• The Future of US Nuclear Strategy (Scott Ritter)

• London Wants To ‘Scorch’ Ukraine Earth With Uranium Shells – Zakharova (TASS)

• The Tik Tok President (SN)

• India and China To Drive Half Of World’s Economic Growth – IMF (RT)

• Musk Responds To Criticism Over Medvedev Tweet (RT)

• Lawmaker Proposes To Unblock Twitter In Russia (TASS)

• A Nervous Hiatus (Jim Kunstler)

• The Three Most Important Lessons from Three Years of Hell (Kory)

 

 

 

 

We must win

GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pledges his full-scale support for Biden's war policies in Ukraine, says "we" must win there. Some more sweet bipartisanship:pic.twitter.com/GOH9gS2Iqo

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 10, 2023

 

 

 

 

WEF

Reminder – World Economic Forum calls for end to private car ownership
Source: Fox Business (YouTube) pic.twitter.com/fKcVj7GwQj

— Wittgenstein (@backtolife_2023) April 10, 2023

 

 

 

 

Zelenko

This was a video that Dr Zelenko made before he died.

His brother asked me to post it.

It may be one of his most important pieces, as when we live in a world where bioterrorism is a real threat and Covid has reminded us of the true depth of evil that man can descend into -… pic.twitter.com/UR2EbMzaB9

— Craig Kelly (@CKellyUAP) April 10, 2023

 

 

Lacalle

'There's going to be more episodes like Silicon Valley Bank, but I'm more worried about the European banking system'

– @dlacalle_IA gives a dire warning for
Western banking systems

FULL INTERVIEW: https://t.co/fznLdlX6bK pic.twitter.com/SLmiPxgKsi

— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) April 10, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots about the leaked files today, inevitably. Are they real? Who leaked them? What does it mean that they were first leaked 3 months ago? Why didn’t anyone say something then? Let’s start with Pepe.

“It oozes the impression it was redacted based on open data, and not actual intel. And all that packaged by some quite shoddy work.”

• The Pentagon Leaks Charade (Pepe Escobar)

The script reads like a spoof straight out of legendary Mad magazine 1960’s cartoon “Spy vs. Spy”: Secret Pentagon Documents Fall in the Hands of Malign Russia. Well, actually in the hands of millions accessing Twitter and Telegram. So here, at face value, we have a major leak essentially detailing Pentagon planning for the next stage of the NATO vs. Russia proxy war in Ukraine: the interminably debated Spring “counter-offensive” that may, or may not, start in mid-April, as well as war plans shared with FVEY – the Five Eyes. The leaked intel might – and the operative word is “might” – be advantageous to Russia were this not to be misdirection: and the possibility is quite real.

The inestimable Ray McGovern, who knows one or two things about the CIA, noted whether the Pentagon is “falsifying kill-ratio to gild Easter lilies in Kyiv? Recent leak of an apparently official NATO document shows 71,500 Ukrainians KIA and only 16,000 to 17,500 Russians, a far cry from earlier Pentagon ‘estimates’. All sounds so Vietnam-déjà vu!” So this may be Vietnam all over again – never count on the Pentagon learning from their mistakes – but could be something way more alarming, according to a top Beltway intel source, retired: “Our interpretation of this breach is that intel sources in the United States have released critical intel data in order to avoid a nuclear war with Russia.”

As it stands, the only certainty is that the spin war has gone berserk. So the leaker may have been a – disgruntled – U.S. insider. No, wait: the whole thing may be fake, as the Pentagon insists. In spin speak, that would be an attempt to “spread false information that could harm the U.S.”. Tweaked or not, the “secret” Pentagon comparative war dead ratio between Russians and Ukrainians still does not make sense. The numbers appear to reflect Bakhmut/Artemovsk casualties, where Russian casualty ratios were highest. Yet reliable on the ground Russian military correspondents assure the ratio is really 10 to 1, with the Russians employing the snail technique combined with a formidable artillery mincing machine.

[..] From the point of view of valuable military information, the indispensable Andrei Martyanov summed it all up: these “documents” contain none, apart from confirming that the Pentagon is absolutely clueless on the SMO: why is it happening, what is the modus operandi and what it plans to achieve. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov did cut to the chase: “We don’t have the slightest doubt about direct or indirect involvement of the U.S. and NATO (…) it cannot influence the final outcome of the special operation.” As Martyanov stresses, Russia maneuvers an extremely advanced ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) complex, including human intel on the ground, electronic warfare and satellite constellations: “In terms of war correlates and combat statistics – I wouldn’t touch anything coming from Pentagon with a long stick.”

There are indeed several serious issues with the Pentagon “top secret” intel. It oozes the impression it was redacted based on open data, and not actual intel. And all that packaged by some quite shoddy work. For instance, the insistence to “re-equip” Ukrainian air defense with missiles is not supported by data on where such missiles will be coming from. The name of the NASAMS – the middle range, ground based air defense system co-developed by Raytheon – is misspelled. In official NATO documents, weapons from the USSR and from Russia are indicated in NATO codification. There is no style uniformity: it’s a messy mix of official code designations and transliterations from Russian into English.

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They range from a “disgruntled employee to an insider threat who actively wanted to undermine US national security interests..”

Couldn’t have been someone who doesn’t like the risk of a nuclear war…

• Explosive Pentagon Leak May Be An Insider Job – Reuters (RT)

The Pentagon suspects that a US citizen rather than a foreigner may have been responsible for the apparent leak of classified information containing several bombshell revelations, Reuters has reported. Officials offered several explanations of what may have motivated the leaker. Photos of documents appearing to originate from the Pentagon, with many marked as highly classified, were posted online in March. However, Western media reported that they may be authentic only last week. There are four of five theories on why the person or the group behind the leak did it, one of the US officials interviewed by Reuters said on condition of anonymity. They range from a “disgruntled employee to an insider threat who actively wanted to undermine US national security interests,” the news agency said on Sunday. Part of the ongoing investigation focuses on looking into how widely intelligence is shared internally to limit the sample of possible culprits, according to the sources.

Reuters stressed that it could not independently authenticate the leaked materials. US investigators claimed they could not rule out that some of the documents could have been doctored to mislead the inquiry or to disseminate false information. Media outlets produced a number of explosive reports based on the leak, some of which indicate that the US is spying on its closest allies, such as South Korea or Israel. One story asserted that the Israeli spy agency Mossad was fueling protests against Benjamin Netanyahu, a claim that the serving prime minister rejected as false. Several of the documents purportedly show the Pentagon’s perception of and actions regarding the conflict in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, was one of the targets of US espionage, CNN has reported. Another story by The Washington Post claimed that in late September 2022 Russia “almost shot down” a British spy plane.

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Wait. They’re 3 months old?! What happened in the meantime?

• Secret Pentagon Documents First Surfaced On Internet In January – WSJ (TASS)

The classified Pentagon and US intelligence documents that recently appeared on the Internet first surfaced online in January, weeks before setting off alarms in the international community, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. According to the newspaper, the documents were posted “to a small group on a messaging channel that trafficked in memes, jokes and racist talk.” In January, an anonymous member of the chat posted files containing info on the Ukrainian conflict and intercepted messages on US allies, including Israel and South Korea, most of which were marked as classified. Hundreds of documents remained available to a narrow group of users of the Discord platform until early last month, when one of them posted some files to platforms with a wider audience. As soon as the leaked files attracted wider attention, the users rushed to delete their accounts and wipe the servers, fearing prosecution by US authorities or scrutiny from foreign intelligence agencies, the WSJ added.

US media reported earlier that the departments of Defense and Justice were investigating a leak of secret documents revealing American and NATO plans to build up Ukrainian forces before a counteroffensive. Numerous tranches of documents disclosing sensitive information about weapons delivery timeframes and troop strengths were posted on Twitter and Telegram. On Friday, the New York Times reported that another batch of classified US documents on Ukraine had been leaked on the Internet. The materials include sensitive briefing slides on the Middle East and China, the newspaper said. Those documents that appeared on the Internet may have been doctored, Reuters said. According to the news agency, the leak is seen as one of the biggest breaches of secret data since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables were released through WikiLeaks in 2013.

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“..the photos circulating on various social media platforms “appear to show documents similar in format to those used to provide daily updates to our senior leaders..”

• Leaked Documents A ‘Serious Risk’ – Pentagon (RT)

In the first official comment on the online publication of classified military intelligence documents, a spokesman for the US Department of Defense said on Monday that this represented a “very serious risk” to Washington. The documents pose “a very serious risk to national security and have the potential to spread disinformation,” Chris Meagher told reporters. A Pentagon team is working to assess whether the documents are genuine, but the photos circulating on various social media platforms “appear to show documents similar in format to those used to provide daily updates to our senior leaders on Ukraine and Russia-related operations, as well as other intelligence updates,” Meagher added, while insisting that some “appear to have been altered.”

While the initial revelations concerned the Ukraine conflict, the latest batch of files that appeared on Friday contained information about China, South Korea, the “Indo-Pacific military theater,” the Middle East, counter-terrorism operations, and Israel. “We’re still investigating how this happened, as well as the scope of the issue,” Meagher said, adding that “there have been steps to take a closer look at how this type of information is distributed and to whom.” The crackdown has restricted the flow of intelligence at the Pentagon and indicates “a high level of panic” at the military, the Washington Post reported over the weekend, citing anonymous sources inside the DoD. One official told Reuters there were four or five theories as to who could have been a source, ranging from a “disgruntled employee to an insider threat.”

Both Russia and Ukraine have brushed off the documents’ significance. According to the Kremlin, Moscow has long known about Washington’s direct involvement in the conflict. Meanwhile, Russian military analysts speculated the information in the Pentagon briefings may have been falsified to mislead Russia about the upcoming Ukrainian “spring counteroffensive.” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s adviser, Mikhail Podoliak, had initially dismissed the documents as fake and accused Russia of spreading disinformation. By Sunday, however, CNN was reporting that Kiev had already changed some of its military plans in response to the revelations. Aleksey Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, tweeted on Monday that there was no “magic date” for the Ukrainian attack, and that it was actually taking place “every day” on the battlefield.

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More on the way.

• What’s Known So Far From The Leaked Intelligence Files (ZH)

Here are 14 more major revelations contained within the leaked intel document trove based on various media sources:

• Locations of CIA recruitment efforts focused on human agents which have access to closed-door conversations of world leaders
• Russia’s Wagner Group tried to obtain weapons from a NATO member: Turkey. Also, some of the internal future plans of Wagner are apparently known to US intelligence
• Details of sensitive satellite technology used to track Russian forces, namely the “LAPIS time-series video” – described as an advanced satellite system, which up until now has been a closely guarded secret
• Ukraine battlefield assessments prepared by the Pentagon
• The Guardian: “One slide suggested that a small contingent of less than a hundred special operations personnel from NATO members France, America, Britain, and Latvia were already active in Ukraine.”
• Descriptions of intelligence collection activities by the CIA, NSA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, law enforcement agencies and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
• One Feb. 23 review of the battlefield situation in Ukraine’s Donbas forecasts a “grinding campaign of attrition” by Russia that “is likely heading toward a stalemate, thwarting Moscow’s goal to capture the entire region in 2023.”
• WaPo: “The U.S. intelligence community has penetrated the Russian military and its commanders so deeply that it can warn Ukraine in advance of attacks and reliably assess the strengths and weaknesses of Russian forces.”
• WaPo: “A single page in the leaked trove reveals that the U.S. intelligence community knew the Russian Ministry of Defense had transmitted plans to strike Ukrainian troop positions in two locations on a certain date in February and that Russian military planners were preparing strikes on a dozen energy facilities and an equal number of bridges in Ukraine.”
• WaPo: A summary of analysis from the CIA’s World Intelligence Review, a daily publication for senior policymakers, says that Beijing is likely to view attacks by Ukraine deep inside Russian territory as “an opportunity to cast NATO as the aggressor,” and that China could increase its support to Russia if it felt the attacks were “significant.”
• Ukraine’s robust Soviet-era air defenses — which have thus far minimized the participation of Russian aircraft – could run out of ammunition in next several weeks.
• A purported CIA intelligence update — claims Israel’s Mossad supported protests against Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Supreme Court reform scheme.
• One report says internal discussions show that South Korean officials are wary of requests to hand over artillery shells to the United States to replenish American stockpiles, out of concern they’d end up in Ukraine.
• Another report says that Ukrainian Air Defense is in peril if it’s not reinforced by Western allies

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“The MOD stated that the MQ-9 crashed on its own after going “into uncontrolled flight.”

• US Military Pilots Apparently Told To Fly Farther From Crimea – WaPo (RT)

The US has apparently instructed its military to fly surveillance aircraft much farther from Crimea, Russia than they are allowed by international law, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing a leaked Pentagon document. The report comes after a trove of US classified files on the Ukraine conflict was dumped online last week. According to the newspaper, one document contains a map of an area where US spy planes may fly. It reportedly shows a boundary that starts around 12 miles (19.3 km) off the coast of Crimea, which is in accordance with international law, and a second line about 50 miles (80.4 km) from the shore marked as ‘SECDEF Direct Standoff’.

The map indicates that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “may have ordered US pilots to keep aircraft farther from the peninsula,” the Post wrote. On March 14, the US European Command (EUCOM) said Russian fighter jets forced it to bring down its own MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone that was flying in international airspace above the Black Sea. According to EUCOM, Su-27s dumped fuel on the UAV and one of the Russian planes struck its propeller. The Russian Defense Ministry said the drone had entered a restricted area outlined by Moscow for its military operation in Ukraine.

The MOD stated that the MQ-9 crashed on its own after going “into uncontrolled flight.” Moscow also denied that there was physical contact between the drone and the planes dispatched to intercept it. Last week, the Pentagon and the Department of Justice launched separate probes into the leaks of top-secret files. One document circulating on social media appears to be a daily dispatch from the battlefield and shows the disposition of Ukrainian forces, as well as their training schedule. Another document seen by the Post claims that Russian jets nearly shot down a British reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea in September 2022.

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Duh…

• US Spying On Zelensky – CNN (RT)

The US has been spying on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, CNN reported on Sunday, citing alleged intelligence reports that were leaked online last week. The supposed classified files are related to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, including a daily dispatch from the battlefield. The US allegedly surveilled the Ukrainian leader using signals intelligence, which the National Security Agency defines as communication intercepted from electronic devices. A source close to Zelensky was quoted as saying that the news is “unsurprising,” adding that officials in Kiev are “deeply frustrated” about the leak. According to CNN, a US intelligence report said that in late February, Zelensky “suggested striking Russian deployment locations in Russia’s Rostov Oblast” with drones because Kiev does not have long-range weapons that can hit targets that far.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last year that Kiev promised not to use American-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to strike targets deep inside Russia. Several newspapers reported at the time that, in order to avoid additional escalation with Moscow, Washington modified the launchers delivered to Ukraine so they could not fire longer-range projectiles. Drones have been used to attack airfields, oil depots, and other targets inside Russia after Moscow launched its military operation in the neighboring state in February 2022. The Russian Defense Ministry said last month that a Ukrainian modification of a Soviet-made Tu-141 Strizh (Swift) UAV was downed in Tula Region, 250km from the border with Ukraine.

Moscow claims that Kiev has used HIMARS and Western-supplied howitzers to kill civilians in Russia’s newly incorporated territories, which most countries still consider parts of Ukraine. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, joined Russia after holding referendums in September. Other leaked documents show that the US has also been spying on state officials in South Korea and Israel, two key allies of Washington. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s office said Seoul plans to discuss the “issues raised” as a result of the leak with the US. The Israeli government, meanwhile, rejected the “mendacious” claim from a leaked Pentagon document that the country’s intelligence agency, Mossad, was encouraging its staff and citizens to participate in street protests against the planned judicial reform.

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Trying to draw in israel… as China and Russia are uniting the Arab world…

• Leaked Pentagon Documents: Scenarios For Israeli Arms Pipeline To Kiev (TASS)

The classified Pentagon and US intelligence documents that were recently leaked and appeared on the Internet sketch out potential scenarios in which Israel would supply Ukraine with lethal weapons, CNN reported. According to the media outlet, one of the documents, titled “Israel: Pathways to Providing Lethal Aid to Ukraine,” says that the Jewish state “likely will consider providing lethal aid under increased US pressure or a perceived degradation” in its relationship with Russia. NBC News, in turn, specified that a February 28 document assessed hypothetical situations that might drive Israel to provide military aid to Ukraine, as well as the types of weapons that could make up such deliveries to Kiev.

The so-called Turkish model is regarded as the most likely scenario, wherein Israel “sells lethal defense systems or provides them through third-party entities,” while openly advocating for peace and “offering to host mediation efforts.” Under an alternative scenario, Moscow’s support for Iran and Syria may prompt Israel to provide Ukraine with lethal aid. Earlier, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh stated that the US Department of Defense “continues to review and assess the validity of the photographed documents that are circulating on social media sites.” According to her, “an interagency effort has been stood up, focused on assessing the impact these photographed documents could have on US national security and on our Allies and partners.”

According to Reuters, the leaked documents may have been doctored. They concern plans by the US and NATO to prepare the Ukrainian armed forces for a counteroffensive. Numerous files revealing information about weapons supply schedules and the number of troops were posted, particularly to Twitter and Telegram. The news agency points out that this could be the biggest leak since over 700,000 files, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the Wikileaks website in 2013.

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“..Ukraine needs 16 Iris-T or NASAMS batteries and 12 Patriot or SAMP-T batteries. US President Joe Biden has authorized the deployment of one Patriot battery, while Germany has pledged another..”

• Ukrainian Air Defense Missiles To Run Out By May – WSJ (RT)

Ukraine will run out of most of its anti-air missiles by May, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing classified Pentagon documents leaked on social media. Facing the prospect of Russian air superiority, Kiev has been asking for more air defense systems from the West for months. According to a purported Pentagon presentation dated February 28, Ukraine is expending around 69 Buk missiles and 200 S-300 missiles per month, the newspaper reported. At this rate of fire, Kiev’s forces will be out of Buk ammunition by the end of this week, and will deplete its S-300 stockpile by May 3, it said. Sourcing missiles for these Soviet-built platforms is proving difficult for Kiev and its Western backers.

In their place, Ukraine has received three German Iris-T and eight American NASAMS anti-air systems. However, these systems consume around 64 missiles per month, and their limited number cannot cover as much territory as Ukraine’s S-300s, according to the document. To cover the shortfall, American military planners reportedly estimate that Ukraine needs 16 Iris-T or NASAMS batteries and 12 Patriot or SAMP-T batteries. US President Joe Biden has authorized the deployment of one Patriot battery, while Germany has pledged another and France and Italy have promised one SAMP-T system. None of these have reached Ukraine yet, a Ukrainian military spokesman told the Wall Street Journal.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been asking the US and its allies for more air defense systems since last year, calling this equipment his “number one priority.” Zelensky and his aides have also pleaded for Western-made fighter jets like the American F-16, and while some European countries have said they are open to the idea, the US has thus far refused. The Pentagon has not yet confirmed the authenticity of the presentation, which is part of a trove of secret documents leaked and posted on social media over the last week. Other files in the leak detail the US’ war plans in Ukraine, its surveillance of its allies, and other “sensitive” material related to Ukraine, China, the Middle East, and terrorism.

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“..a bunch of rogue elements inside the [Ukrainian] government that are basically doing whatever they want..”

• Zelensky Losing Control Of Intelligence Agents – Media (RT)

The US believes that elements of Ukraine’s intelligence service carried out a cross-border attack on a Russian spy plane in Belarus without approval from the Ukrainian government, Breaking Points journalist Saagar Enjeti reported on Monday, citing leaked documents. The attack saw a drone inflict minor damage to a Russian A-50 early warning and control aircraft stationed at the Machulishchy air base in Belarus last month. Belarusian authorities arrested a number of suspects, one allegedly linked to the Ukrainian secret police organization, the SBU, which Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused of orchestrating the attack with help from the CIA. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry “categorically” denied any involvement by Kiev, while Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podoliak blamed the attack solely on “local partisans.”

The Pentagon, however, assessed that the SBU carried out the attack without seeking the approval of President Vladimir Zelensky or his officials, Enjeti said in a video report on Tuesday. The alleged Pentagon documents containing the assessment were leaked on social media last week, and have since received considerable media attention. The report on the plane attack raises the question of “how much control does Zelensky actually have” over his own intelligence apparatus, Enjeti said. “Perhaps this lends credence to the idea that there are a bunch of rogue elements inside the [Ukrainian] government that are basically doing whatever they want,” he continued, citing a string of terrorist attacks within Russia as potential SBU operations. The Kremlin has repeatedly blamed Ukraine and its intelligence services for these attacks, which include the bombing of the Crimean Bridge and the assassinations of journalist Daria Dugina and military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky.

“Whenever Ukraine does something, who is doing it?” Enjeti asked. “Zelensky presents himself as the leader … but obviously there are elements of the government there that don’t listen to him. Who knows what they’re going to drag us into.” The US Department of Defense has not confirmed the authenticity of the leaked documents, although a department spokesman told reporters on Monday that the files posted on social media were “similar in format” to those used in Pentagon briefings and intelligence updates. The leak presents “a very serious risk” to Washington, he added. Other files in the leak detail the US’ war plans in Ukraine, its surveillance of its allies, Kiev’s rapidly depleting ammunition situation, and other “sensitive” material related to Ukraine, China, the Middle East, and terrorism.

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“Any man who draws upon the wisdom and patience displayed by President Kennedy to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis would be on the right track when it comes to arms control.”

• The Future of US Nuclear Strategy (Scott Ritter)

The harsh reality today is that neither of the two potential sources of viable presidential candidates for the 2024 election — Democratic National Committee or MAGA Republicans — are positioned to effect meaningful, positive change regarding either U.S. nuclear posture or underlying arms control policy. That leaves the American people, and the world as a whole, with the inevitability of a massive nuclear arms race between the U.S. and Russia, which will unfold unconstrained by meaningful arms control treaty-mandated limitations. This is nothing short of a recipe for disaster, a witch’s brew of ignorance-based fear magnified by the lack of inspections designed to mollify concerns over the respective nuclear threats posed by two nations no longer willing to engage in meaningful dialogue and, as a result, perched on the precipice of an apocalyptic abyss.

In short, a vote for either Biden/the Democratic establishment or Trump/MAGA Republicans is a vote in favor of continuous nuclear-armed Russian roulette, where there exists only one certainty — eventually the pistol will go off. But in this case, it’s not a pistol, but a nuclear weapon that leads to general nuclear war and the termination of life on planet earth as we currently know and understand it. The rally held in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 19 provided a platform for some voices of sanity who have presidential potential, either as independent candidates, or rogue outliers within their respective party establishments. Tulsi Gabbard, Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, and Jimmy Dore all addressed the threat posed by nuclear weapons and the need to control them through meaningful arms control.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1645331162687053824

But none who spoke have put anything in writing that would remotely constitute an arms control “standard” that could compete with either Biden or Trump — or their proxies — on the public stage. Moreover, other than Dore, a comedian, none of these individuals has announced an intention to run, making moot, for the moment at least, the notion of a third option on arms control and American nuclear posture. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, has announced his intention to challenge Biden for the Democratic nomination. While Kennedy, at this juncture, appears to be a long-shot, the likely mental and physical deterioration and possible incapacitation of Biden between now and November 2024, combined with the inadequacy of Vice President Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate, means the Democratic field could be thrown open.

Kennedy’s announcement puts him in position to be either the candidate himself, or to challenge whatever establishment figure the Democratic Party selects for the job. The question is whether Kennedy is willing or able to articulate a new American standard on arms control, one that embraces the best of the Trump Standard without the pugilistic arrogance Trump brings with it. Kennedy has not published a detailed position on arms control and the U.S. nuclear posture. But in a recent conversation with me, he spoke about the legacy of his uncle, Jack Kennedy, and how he took guidance from that legacy. Any man who draws upon the wisdom and patience displayed by President Kennedy to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis would be on the right track when it comes to arms control.

Ritter US Army

Former UN weapons of mass destruction inspector and American expert Scott Ritter:
Our army is not as strong as it was in the Cold War era, and we will not be able to fight a land war in Europe, Joe Biden… You are giving checks that Americans cannot pay with cash! ….. pic.twitter.com/IIR5dE9IvY

— Spriter (@Spriter99880) April 10, 2023

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“The Serbs were the first victims and the Italians second in line, studying how depleted uranium affects the personnel using it..”

• London Wants To ‘Scorch’ Ukraine Earth With Uranium Shells – Zakharova (TASS)

The United Kingdom wants to turn the territory of Ukraine into a “scorched earth” by supplying Kiev with depleted uranium munitions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. The diplomat drew attention to statements from the UK Ministry of Defense, which said the day before that the impact of depleted uranium munitions on the health of military personnel and the environment would likely be “small.” “The UK, by supplying depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine, wants to turn its territory into a scorched and desolate land. No Russian will be spoken there, no Ukrainian will be spoken there, there will only be silence. Like in Pripyat and Chernobyl,” she wrote on her Telegram channel on Monday.

Zakharova recalled that depleted uranium munitions were mass-produced and used in NATO operations. “To a large extent, operations with such munitions in the NATO contingent were carried out by Italian servicemen. <…> Italian soldiers’ area of responsibility in Yugoslavia included territories where more than half of all the depleted uranium munitions were fired,” she added. “The Serbs were the first victims and the Italians second in line, studying how depleted uranium affects the personnel using it,” Zakharova said. She pointed to the growing number of lawsuits filed by Italians against the country’s defense ministry. “The underlying reason is the same – cancer. Cancer from handling depleted uranium munitions,” she said.

British Parliamentary Secretary of State Baroness Annabel Goldie said in a written response to a question by a member of the House of Lords in March that the United Kingdom would supply Ukraine with shells containing depleted uranium and having increased efficiency in destroying armored vehicles. The British Defense Ministry described depleted uranium as a standard component of armor-piercing ammunition, which has been used for decades. Commenting on the decision of the British authorities, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would be forced to respond accordingly to the fact that “the West is already starting to use weapons with a nuclear component.” The Russian embassy in the UK warned London against transferring depleted uranium ammunition to Kiev. The diplomatic mission’s commentary stressed that the move was fraught with an escalation of the conflict, while the use of such munitions in Ukraine would affect the health of the local population.

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“The White Host brought more than a dozen influencers to a State of Union watch party and was asked by one “when are we going to get press briefing passes?”

• The Tik Tok President (SN)

According to an Axios report, Joe Biden’s campaign team is readying an “Army” of social media influencers and intends to station them within a briefing room at the White House. Biden’s handlers have apparently decided that the only way he’s going to win another election against Donald Trump is by securing the youth vote, a tough task given that he’s the oldest President ever. Deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon said, “We’re trying to reach young people, but also moms who use different platforms to get information and climate activists and people whose main way of getting information is digital.” Going after the brainwashed Tik Tok obsessed woke crowd then, essentially. The report further notes that in February The White Host brought more than a dozen influencers to a State of Union watch party and was asked by one “when are we going to get press briefing passes?” prompting the administration to become “actually very responsive to it.” It’s like something out of Idiocracy:

Biden’s handlers have done this before, back in March last year they hosted around 30 TikTok stars and gave them a briefing on events in Ukraine. White House director of digital strategy, Rob Flaherty decried that the influencers should be getting information from “an authoritative source.” The news also comes amid revelations that George Soros’ son is a regular visitor to the White House, having been invited 14 times since Biden took office. Why? As we highlighted last week, Biden is drowning with voters on every issue, and only one third want to see him win another term. When it comes to Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents, a majority, 54 percent, said they would prefer a different candidate, with only 44 percent giving approval of Biden as the nominee. Among voters under the age of 35, Biden is favoured as a candidate by just 26 percent

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It won’t come from the EU. Or the US.

• India and China To Drive Half Of World’s Economic Growth – IMF (RT)

The global economic slowdown will continue this year, but Asia will remain “a bright spot,” says the International Monetary Fund (IMF). India and China will account for half of the global growth, with “some momentum” expected to come from emerging economies, according to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. The IMF chief forecast the world’s economy to grow at less than 3% in 2023, in line with the fund’s January estimate of 2.9%. Georgieva said the pattern would remain over the next five years, since the period of slower economic activity should be prolonged. She stated that the projections represent the IMF’s “lowest medium-term growth forecast since 1990, and [are] well below the average of 3.8% from the past two decades.”

Some 90% of advanced economies are expected to witness a decline in their growth rates in 2023, Georgieva said. She also said that low-income nations were being handicapped by sluggish demand for their exports, with their per-capita income growth remaining below that of emerging economies. According to IMF projections, poverty and hunger, which measurably increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, could still grow further. Georgieva’s comments come ahead of this week’s spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, where policy-makers will convene to discuss the global economy’s most pressing issues.

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“All news is to some degree propaganda. Let people decide for themselves..”

• Musk Responds To Criticism Over Medvedev Tweet (RT)

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has rejected calls to crack down on the account of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev after the latter posted that Ukraine would eventually vanish from the world map. One user asked the billionaire why he allowed “Russian leaders back on the platform” and why he did not abide by the Western sanctions while attaching Medvedev’s tweet. In a post, the ex-Russian president claimed that Ukraine would sooner or later disappear because neither the global community nor its own citizens have a need for it. “All news is to some degree propaganda. Let people decide for themselves,” Musk replied on Sunday. Later, he also tweeted that the social media platform “will neither promote nor limit their [Russian officials’] accounts, but we will rapidly address any attempts at gaming the system.”

“It is a weak move to engage in censorship just because others do so. Letting our press be free when theirs is not demonstrates strength,” he added. In April 2022, after Moscow started its military campaign against Ukraine, Twitter slapped restrictions on Russian state-affiliated accounts, including the Kremlin official account. At the time, the social media platform said it would “not amplify or recommend government accounts belonging to states that limit access to free information and are engaged in armed interstate conflict.” Russia blocked Twitter in early March 2022 after the nation’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, accused the platform of spreading misinformation about the Ukraine conflict.

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“I think it’s time to review this measure, given the new policies of the new leadership..”

• Lawmaker Proposes To Unblock Twitter In Russia (TASS)

Anton Gorelkin, deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, suggested looking into the possibility of unblocking Twitter in Russia after the social network reinstated the accounts of a number of Russian state agencies. On Friday, Twitter once again restored the accounts of the Kremlin, the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry and other ministries, as well as Russian embassies abroad. “As for lifting restrictions on government agencies, many of them are in no hurry to reactivate their accounts, especially since Twitter is officially blocked in Russia. But I think it’s time to review this measure, given the new policies of the new leadership,” the lawmaker wrote on his Telegram channel on Monday.

According to him, if the social network is now aimed at neutrality, it is necessary to resume dialogue with it and continue working within the framework of the legislation of the Russian Federation. “For our government departments, Twitter can once again become a convenient platform to explain Russia’s position to Western audiences,” Gorelkin added. Access to twitter.com was restricted in Russia by order of the Prosecutor General’s Office dated February 24 [2022] .

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“..they are carrying out plans that were made years ago when conditions and assumptions were different. Those plans have implacable momentum. You can see how all this is going to end badly.”

• A Nervous Hiatus (Jim Kunstler)

[..] my more pertinent point du jour is about the journey from where I live in upstate New York to Washington DC and back. I made the trip by car because the affordable airplane routes all involved absurd hours-long connecting layovers in far-flung cities at fantastic prices, and there were no seats left on the soviet-grade Amtrak train service at any times that worked. It’s been a while since I traveled the New York to Washington corridor on-the-ground in a car, and the experience was maximally horrifying. The various Departments of Transportation of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland are working out there at heroic scale to upgrade their stretches of the interstate highways involved. The amount of concrete, steel, and asphalt getting laid down now boggles the mind, considering the essential bankruptcy at all levels of government. But more to point, they are doing this at the very time when the age of mass-motoring is drawing to close.

Government itself is now militating against it, with its poorly thought-out crusade against the internal combustion engine and its promotion of electric cars that Americans can’t afford to buy, while the electric grid can’t possibly support all that proposed battery-charging at the mass scale. (Let’s leave aside for now whatever nefarious influence the World Economic Forum exerts on all this). In any case, the standard of living is crashing in Western Civ now. Incomes are down, or lost altogether, inflation is up, and with it the price of cars. The car industry has reached its limit for trick loan schemes that enable the tapped-out middle-class to regularly replace their vehicles. Not to put too fine a point on it, the system is fucked.And yet, here we are, building ever more motoring infrastructure as if none of this is happening. The reason, naturally, is that immense bureaucracies like the DOTs have minds of their own. They are not responding to conditions as they are; they are carrying out plans that were made years ago when conditions and assumptions were different. Those plans have implacable momentum. You can see how all this is going to end badly.

Now, I planned my return trip with a layover night outside Philadelphia, so I could leave before the crack-of-dawn Easter Sunday, when few other cars would be on the road. That proved to be the case. But even nearly alone on the highway, and with pretty good navigational skills of my own, plus the help of GPS, I made several wrong turns. This was mostly because the signage contradicted the lady robot’s voice issuing instructions, as well as my own geographical heuristics, especially in the long stretch north up the whole length of New Jersey. There were a few times I felt I barely escaped getting killed making last-second turns. There were extended moments when I thought: I’m in Hell.

Anyway, I made it home alive and undamaged. I’d never want to do that trip again, and the way things are going, I may not have to. The Easter holiday was a strange hiatus in a year that promises fantastic turbulence in public affairs, including especially American politics and our wobbling economy. Financial markets and banks managed to levitate through the first weeks of springtime, but there is a bad odor of imminent failure in the air, at the same time that government’s war against its own citizens shows signs of hardening into the threat of digital currency, renewed efforts at censorship, persecution of political opponents, and a growing awareness of “vaccine” caused death. The natives are restless, the animals are stirring. Events creep toward criticality.

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“This risk of a treatment is unprecedented in the history of modern medicine.”

• The Three Most Important Lessons from Three Years of Hell (Kory)

Three years after COVID-19 hijacked the world, Hollywood celebrities are mocking the vaccine on “Saturday Night Live,” Bernie Sanders is hauling Moderna’s CEO before Congress, and a member of the Kennedy family is launching a primary challenge to President Joe Biden by railing on the vaccines that the White House continues to promote. How times have changed. In 3 short years, many perspectives dismissed as “fringe” or “anti-science” in 2020 have become obvious and even mainstream. As a doctor whose livelihood has been threatened for challenging some of these points of view, these developments give me no pleasure. Wherever else we may disagree, we must look to the future and prepare for the next public health emergency. Here are three places to start.

First, when a crisis hits, public health leaders should prioritize transparency and promote open debate. Throughout the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) restricted the flow of information and only published data that supported its narrow political objectives. But as we’ve seen, facts will eventually come to light, and the cover-up is always worse than the crime. Nowhere is this principle clearer than the origins of the COVID virus. Dr. Anthony Fauci is still saying it’s “very tough to tell” if the FBI and Energy Department are correct about the lab-leak theory. He is standing by his claims of “natural occurrence,” and lashing out at those who disagree as “insane.” Fortunately, his days of running amok with no accountability are over. The House of Representatives voted 419-0 to force the Biden administration to declassify all information about COVID’s origins. Former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield has called for a moratorium on gain-of-function research. These are two important places to start.

24,000 pages
https://twitter.com/i/status/1645578142923345925

Second, don’t pretend there is a silver bullet. Complex public health problems demand complex solutions — every time. Biden, Fauci, and crew hung their entire COVID strategy on lockdowns followed by vaccines. In doing so, they made promises they could not keep and used absurd claims — like CDC Director Dr. Walensky insisting that vaccinated people couldn’t spread COVID or even get sick — to force an agenda that only set Americans against one another. Of course, Walensky was forced to admit she was wrong on this (and plenty more). Yet the US still requires international visitors to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and the world number one tennis player (Novak Djokovic), my favorite athlete, cannot enter our country to participate in upcoming tournaments. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis deserves credit for suggesting he could “run a boat from the Bahamas” for Djokovic to compete in the Miami Open tennis tournament that took place month, but it should not come to that. There are other options to treat COVID, including repurposing existing generic drugs. This is no longer a fringe cause. Russell Brand generated national headlines for taking the mainstream media to task for dismissing drugs like ivermectin, which have been promoted by the likes of Joe Rogan and Aaron Rodgers.

Third, policymakers must recognize that snap crisis decisions can leave people hurt. No one expects a perfect public response, but there must be safety net for those who get caught up in the single-minded approach. Consider vaccine associated enhanced disease (VAED), the ghastly scenario where a vaccine not only fails to prevent transmission but creates a more serious illness in a vaccinated person than one who is unvaccinated. According to the CDC’s “V-safe” safety monitoring system, 33 percent of people who received a COVID vaccine experienced severe adverse effects, and 7.7 percent have required hospitalization. I have never in my career prescribed any medicine or administered any therapy which even came close to a 1 percent risk of requiring medical attention as a result of that therapy. This risk of a treatment is unprecedented in the history of modern medicine.

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BBee

Sponsor A Liberal For Just $8 A Month https://t.co/gLGqfSLsNW pic.twitter.com/B8GNTfGWGm

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) April 10, 2023

 

 

SNL

SNL perfectly ROASTS CNN and every Trump-deranged lib obsessing over Trump's "arrest" in most hilarious 2 minutes of TV ever broadcast pic.twitter.com/s4QxAeHy1w

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 10, 2023

 

 

This is a 200 kilogram preserved blue whale heart

 

 

Aus 🇦🇺 Australian Geoscientist Ian Plimer dropping 𝘾𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙃𝙤𝙖𝙭 𝙏𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝘽𝙤𝙢𝙗𝙨 🔥 To put it simply, the Climate changes in cycles…It always has and it always will…..🔥 pic.twitter.com/3pZfICElCh

— 𝙍𝙄𝙎𝙀𝙈𝙀𝙇𝘽𝙊𝙐𝙍𝙉𝙀 (@Risemelbourne) April 11, 2023

 

 

 

 

Australian geologist, Ian Plimer: Governments are guilty of uncritically accepting the claims of alarmist climate pseudoscientists, based on climate models which don't correlate with the actual evidence.#NetZero #ClimateScam #ClimateCult #Agenda21 #Agenda2030 #GreatReset pic.twitter.com/NkxAbBQYYz

— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) April 10, 2023

 

 

 

 

Photographer Wu Yung-sen has been deep sea diving and photographing marine life for four years. On a recent blackwater dive—unable to see the bottom and surrounded by impenetrable space—he chanced upon a rare larval Wunderpus octopus, totally transparent

 

 

Monkey tree frog

The waxy monkey tree frog limits water loss, including reducing water loss through the skin by lipid secretions, spread over the surface of the skin by the legs in a complex sequence of wiping movements

[video: https://t.co/TFlhIkSzWr]pic.twitter.com/wRmLZKeoro

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 10, 2023

 

 

 

 

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