"Curious how often you humans manage to
obtain that which you do not want."
- Mr. Spock
So, we rise from the rubble...
StatCounter
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
"Over The Past Week We Have Gotten Several Steps Closer To A Nuclear War With Russia"
"Over The Past Week We Have Gotten Several
Steps Closer To A Nuclear War With Russia"
by Michael Snyder
"I am so horrified by what is going on in Ukraine right now. The world desperately needs peace in Ukraine, but instead both sides are going for the throat. The Russians and the western powers are both absolutely determined to win in Ukraine, and so now we are witnessing a very dangerous game of “chicken” that could ultimately lead to nuclear conflict. Western leaders seem quite sure that the Russians are bluffing and that there is no possibility that they would actually use nukes if backed into a corner. Meanwhile, Russian leaders seem to believe that there is a limit as to how far NATO powers will go to support Ukraine. But what if both sides are wrong?
A series of miscalculations led up to this war, and another miscalculation scuttled a peace agreement that the Russians were ready to agree to back in April…"Most Americans are unaware how close Russia and Ukraine came to ending the current war in April. Last March 27, Ukraine president Zelensky told his people “Our goal is obvious – peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible.” He was hinting at what went unsaid: Ukraine and Russia, brokered by NATO member Turkey, reached a tentative fifteen-point peace plan to end the month old war.
Key points were Russia withdraw from all Ukraine except for breakaway Donbas and Crimea. Ukraine would pass on future NATO membership, pledging neutrality between Russia and NATO. Donbas and Crimea would undergo political transition based on self-determination to be recognized by both combatants. Ukraine security would be guaranteed by neighboring countries but no foreign troops would enter Ukraine.
The Biden administration and the other western powers convinced Ukraine to reject the agreement. They wanted this war and they thought that they could win it. For months things looked quite grim. The Russians were steadily taking territory and the number of Ukrainian dead bodies just kept piling up. But now the Ukrainians have suddenly found a huge source of new manpower, and they have launched a stunning counter-offensive that has successfully taken a tremendous amount of territory that the Russians had previously captured…"The Ukraine military’s stunning offensive gained momentum Monday, reclaiming several more northeastern villages and forcing the retreat of overwhelmed Russian troops from the region.
A Russian-installed official in the Kharkiv region said Ukrainian forces outnumbered Russian troops by 8-to-1 and had broken through to the Russian border. Vitaly Ganchev told the state-owned Rossiya-24 television channel on Monday “the situation is becoming more difficult by the hour.”
After suffering such staggering losses over the course of the war, how could the Ukrainians suddenly find enough bodies to outnumber the Russians by 8 to 1 in that area of the front? Some Russian pundits are claiming that this new counter-offensive is being led by “Western mercenaries”…"The Rossiya-24 news channel on Monday interviewed Vitaly Ganchev, a Russian-appointed official in the Kharkiv region, who said that Russian troops in the province had been outnumbered “eight times over.” He also said, without providing evidence, that Ukrainian forces had been bolstered by “Western mercenaries”.
And right now social media is filled with videos of fighters that are involved in the counter-offensive that appear to have very strong American accents…"more and more videos of foreign fighters in the kharkov counteroffensive coming out. it seems that the reports that a significant amount of mercs were used as the tip of the spear there were mostly true pic.twitter.com/zjQMJc8sQV
- Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) September 12, 2022
From the very beginning of the war, there have always been some western fighters in Ukraine. But now there seems to be tens of thousands of them. Certain Russian sources have been alleging that special operations units from the U.S., the UK and other NATO powers are at the tip of the spear of this new counter-offensive. Of course western leaders would completely deny this. So the truth is that we don’t really know what is going on.
But what we do know is that Ukraine suddenly has large numbers of highly trained and highly competent soldiers that are giving the Russians all they can handle. If military units from western powers have been secretly deployed in Ukraine, that would represent a massive escalation. In response to the counter-offensive, the Russians have hit power plants all over Ukraine with cruise missiles…"A shocking new video is believed to show a massive explosion at a Ukrainian power plant after a Russian missile strike which plunged the region into darkness. The video shows the blast at Kharkiv’s CHPP-5 power plant, which is followed by a devastating shockwave that ripples out in all directions, rattling the house the person filming is standing in."
Other videos show strikes on several power stations, which collectively shut off power to almost one third of Ukraine. Up to this point in the war, the Russians had avoided going after critical civilian infrastructure such as power plants. These strikes also represent a massive escalation.
Following the attacks on Ukrainian power plants, all of a sudden Azerbaijan started shelling Armenia…"Large clashes broke out between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces along the border between the two countries on Monday night, according to Azerbaijani and Armenian Defense Ministries. Azerbaijani artillery and UAVs reportedly targeted sites in Vardenis, Goris, Sotk and Jermuk in eastern Armenia."
I am convinced that Azerbaijan was encouraged by the Biden administration to do this. Russia is committed to protecting Armenia, and if this conflict were to flare up it would force the Russians to divert resources from Ukraine.
🔥🇦🇿🇦🇲Azerbaijani resources publish footage of a missile salvo on the territory of Armenia. It is not yet possible to confirm the authenticity of the video."
— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZmilitary1) September 12, 2022
Both sides just keep escalating matters, thinking that the other side will eventually be forced to back down. But what if that never happens?
Numerous top U.S. politicians have publicly stated that the only acceptable end to the war is the full liberation of Ukraine. And Russian politicians are saying similar things. For example, Dmitry Medvedev just said that “the total surrender of the Kyiv regime on Russia’s terms” is the goal…"A former president and prime minister of Russia on Monday dismissed reports of Ukrainian gains and warned the Kremlin might ultimately demand “total surrender” of the Kyiv regime. Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of his nation’s Security Council, alluded to Zelenskyy’s refusal to conduct a dialogue “with those who put forward ultimatums.” “The current ‘ultimatums’ are a warm-up for kids, a preview of demands to be made in the future,” Medvedev said. “He (Zelenskyy) knows them: the total surrender of the Kyiv regime on Russia’s terms.”
Why does it have to be this way? Both sides are determined to go down a road that could very easily lead to nuclear war. This is madness. Why can’t both sides sit down and come up with a peace agreement that is similar to what was almost agreed to back in April? Countless lives would be spared and it would be a tremendous boon to the global economy.
Unfortunately, such a peace agreement is not going to happen. Both sides are now completely obsessed with victory, and so we continue to march ever closer to a cataclysmic nuclear showdown."
"Banks are Holding Deposits and Not Releasing the Funds"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 9/13/22:
"Banks are Holding Deposits and Not Releasing the Funds"
"The banking problem just continues to escalate. Banks are withholding deposits from their customers. They’re adding extended hold times and then not releasing the funds to their customers."
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, “Alert! MMRI Hits All Time High!; Inflation Rages, Stocks Poised To Crater”
Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/13/22:
“Alert! MMRI Hits All Time High!;
Inflation Rages, Stocks Poised To Crater”
Link To The MMRI (Mannarino Market Risk Indicator),
FREE Downloads And More! Click Here
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Update at Market Close, 4 PM EST 9/13/22:
Monday, September 12, 2022
"35 Things We Know About The Coming Food Shortages"
Full screen recommended.
"35 Things We Know About The Coming Food Shortages"
by Epic Economist
"We’re on the cusp of a catastrophic food crisis, and massive food shortages are emerging all over the world. Things are going to get far worse than what they’re telling us. Over the past few months, we have been reporting a series of facts and stats that show that global food production is set to collapse to perilously low levels this year. In other words, the food that isn’t being grown in 2022 won’t be available at the stores in 2023. Unfortunately, most people out there don’t seem to realize the real extent of the food shortages that we’re about to experience. And it’s not only in the US.
Earlier this year, UN Secretary-General António Guterres publicly stated that he believes that it is likely that there will be “multiple famines” in 2023. Similarly, UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid noted that the organization’s ability to respond to these issues has been compromised. “Frankly, we were already falling short of meeting our food-security targets, prior to 2020. However, the situation is now critical,” he said. “The shocks of multiple global crises have weakened our institutions, our economies, and challenged our ability to effectively respond.”
Unfortunately, as global food supplies continue to shrink, the risk of civil unrest keeps on rising. In many places, this is already happening. A new analysis released by Verisk Maplecroft, a UK-based risk consulting and intelligence firm highlighted that “the risk of civil unrest has surged this year in more than half of the world’s countries, signaling a coming period of heightened global instability fueled by inflation, geopolitical conflicts, and shortages of essentials”. Researchers noted that 101 of the 198 countries tracked on its Civil Unrest Index saw an increase in their risk of civil unrest between the second and third quarters of this year.
In recent weeks, we have seen major demonstrations erupting in cities all over the world. But conditions are not as extreme as they are going to get in the coming months. It’s safe to say that when it finally becomes undeniably clear that there simply will not be enough food for everyone in 2023, we’re going to see a lot more chaos emerging all across the planet.
Many populations will deeply suffer as we enter the later stages of 2022. In 2023, there will be famines and social uprisings all over the globe. This is not a drill. A critical global food crisis has already begun, and we would like to encourage you to get prepared for what is ahead while you still can. We’re on the verge of an absolutely unprecedented worldwide food crisis that could start as soon as next year. But still, the vast majority of the population doesn’t seem very alarmed about this. Perhaps they just don’t understand what’s truly going on, so we would like to encourage you to get this warning out by sharing this list with as many people as you possibly can. As you’re about to discover, we now have a large amount of data indicating that it is impossible to deny what is coming."
"Warning! People Have No Idea What's Happening As FED Slams The Brakes; Credit Cards Are Loan Sharks"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/12/22:
"Warning! People Have No Idea What's Happening As
FED Slams The Brakes; Credit Cards Are Loan Sharks"
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"No, hamburgers are not this big. What is pictured is a sharp telescopic view of a magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628, a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this deep galactic portrait puts some astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, The Hamburger Galaxy.
The tantalizing island universe is about 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in the northern springtime constellation Leo. NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the local Universe with two other large spirals M65 and M66 in a grouping otherwise known as the Leo Triplet. Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely responsible for the extended flare and warp of this spiral's disk.”
"One Summer Night..."
"One summer night, out on a flat headland, all but surrounded by the waters of the bay, the horizons were remote and distant rims on the edge of space. Millions of stars blazed in darkness, and on the far shore a few lights burned in cottages. Otherwise there was no reminder of human life. My companion and I were alone with the stars: the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of the constellations standing out bright and clear, a blazing planet low on the horizon. It occurred to me that if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century, this little headland would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of nights in any year, and so the lights burned in the cottages and the inhabitants probably gave not a thought to the beauty overhead; and because they could see it almost any night, perhaps they never will."
- Rachel Carson
Canadian Prepper, "Warning: Emergency In Russia - General Mobilization Is Coming!"
Canadian Prepper, 9/12/22:
"Warning: Emergency In Russia -
General Mobilization Is Coming!"
"No one is analyzing the situation from all angles,
let's attempt to do that."
Comments here:
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Related:
Full screen recommended.
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 9/12/22:
"Scott Ritter - Ukraine Sept. Counter Offensive"
Comments here:
“True Story: Streets of Philadelphia"
Full screen recommended, if you can stomach it.
kimgary, 9/10/22:
“True Story: Streets of Philadelphia"
"Violent crime and drug abuse in Philadelphia as a whole is a major problem. The city’s violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. Also alarming is Philadelphia’s drug overdose rate. The number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50% from 2013 to 2015, with more than twice as many deaths from drug overdoses as deaths from homicides in 2015. A big part of Philadelphia’s problems stem from the crime rate and drug abuse in Kensington.
Because of the high number of drugs in Kensington, the neighborhood has a drug crime rate of 3.57, the third-highest rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia. Like a lot of the country, a big part of this issue is a result of the opioid epidemic. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed over the last two decades in the United States and Philadelphia is no exception. Along with having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% percent of Philadelphia’s overdose deaths involved opioids and Kensington is a big contributor to this number. This Philly neighborhood is purportedly the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast with many neighboring residents flocking to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high number of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have zoned in on this area to try and tackle Philadelphia’s problem."
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"The 3200 block of Shelbourne St in Kensington is CRAZY. Dealers/lookouts on both ends of the block. You can hear the lookout shout to announce our presence."
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Full screen recommended.
Bruce Springsteen, "Streets of Philadelphia"
"America is the Empire of Debt"
"America is the Empire of Debt"
"This week on TWS: Bill Bonner advances his “Modest Theory of Civilization.” Funny story: When Bill and I wrote our first book together, "Financial Reckoning Day," we were sitting across from each other in the office on Rue de la Verrerie in Paris. We’re both old school writers; passing physical manuscripts back and forth was easy. I would hit ‘print’... hand Bill the pages… he’d get out his red pen… Mark it up… hand it back to me.
When we wrote our second book, "Empire of Debt" … ooh la la. Things changed. Bill was still living in Paris. I had relocated to Baltimore. Bill was also trying to manage a business in London. And had just bought several apartments in Buenos Aires. Instead of hitting print and handing the pages to him. I hit print… Then I had to triangulate to figure out where in the world Bill was going to be next so I could Fedex him the pages. If I knew he was going to be in Buenos Aires on such and such a date, I could send the pages there. And wait until I got his red ink scratches back.
Thing is, Bill has his own way of doing things. He would write things like “Move A to page 42.” With a circle around a couple of paragraphs. So… I’d grab the paragraphs circled, physically cutting the paper sometimes, and look on page 42. On page 42, it might say something like “insert C1 here.”
No invectives. Just a bit of confusion. I like word puzzles, anyway. Lather, rinse, repeat. Triangulate. Solve mystery edits. Write new stuff. You get the picture. We were six months late on our deadline using this method.
Here’s the best part of the story. On one draft, Bill drew a red line through roughly thirty pages of material I had written on the U.S. Dollar. To me, a red line through my work meant “cut this material.” Which, at the time, was a reasonable assumption given the conventions of copyediting those days. I “cut” the pages, but didn’t delete them. Kept them in my swipe file. Then turned them into the book that would become "The Demise of the Dollar." This book – my third – was published by John Wiley & Sons in a few months… ahead of the deadline… for a book the publisher didn’t expect.
The punchline: When Bill read the final manuscript of "Empire of Debt" he asked me, “Where’s that whole section I highlighted on the U.S. dollar?” “Highlighted?! Oops. I thought you wanted me to delete it!” Sometimes mistakes become the most unpredictable blessings.
Bill and I have both since matured enough to use electronic devices to do our writing. E-mail, it turns out, is cheaper, faster and more efficient than paper, ink and Fedex. Who'da thunk? And get this: We even conducted this interview over Zoom! A long way from handing hard copy to one another face to face."
"Follow your bliss,"
"Relax..."
"Relax. They're not going to kill us. They're going to
TRY and kill us. And that is a very different thing. "
- Steve Voake, "The Dreamwalker's Child"
Jim Kunstler, "Is War What You Asked For?"
"Is War What You Asked For?"
Beware: Ukraine’s touted Kharkov offensive is probably
not what the US news media cracks it up to be….
by Jim Kunstler
"Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception. "
- Carl Sagan
"The Russians called their move into Ukraine last February a “special military operation” for a reason. The description was precise. It was not a “war” prosecuted on the people of Ukraine. Russia could have completely disabled the Zelensky regime in an afternoon with air power, but they did not want to smash up the country’s vital infrastructure and foreclose the peoples’ future. The operation was designed to expel Ukrainian military forces from their forward dug-in positions along the Donbas frontier, where they had been shelling, harassing, and killing the Russian-speaking population for eight years - ever since the 2014 CIA-backed Maidan “color Revolution” brought Ukraine under American control.
The precipitating event of the operation begun last winter was the renewed threat to bring Ukraine into NATO, for the purpose of putting bases on Russia’s border. Russia would not tolerate that any more than America would tolerate Russian bases planted across our border with Mexico. The special operation was mounted to reestablish firm boundaries, both geographically and in geopolitical psychology, for an adversary, the West, who displayed an increasingly psychotic drive to smash all boundaries that make civilized life possible, even in their own countries.
Since then, the US has poured money into Ukraine at the rate of about $10-billion a month for the purpose of prolonging the struggle in Ukraine. We’re doing this at a moment in history when the US faces grave financial breakdown, along with the countries of the European Union and the UK. Nothing about our involvement in Ukraine is in the interest of the American people. Our foreign policy establishment has shown a blind animus toward Russia for no apparent good reason.
At this point reasonable people might conclude that it is for a bad reason. Increasingly it looks like a desperate diversion from the technocrat coup perpetrated by a supranational cabal emanating out of Davos, as led by the megalomaniacs at the World Economic Forum (WEF). The coupsters also happen to be intriguing behind America’s Democratic Party and the White House regime of the obvious tool, “Joe Biden.”
To digress from Ukraine for a moment, let’s consider the perilous condition of “Joe Biden’s” regime just now. All the “narratives” - the miasma of lies the regime has generated in its campaign to wreck our country - are falling apart. Much of this centers on the criminal misbehavior of the FBI, the regime’s clean-up crew, which has lost control of the clean-up. If the conservative opposition seizes majority control of the US House of Representatives on November 8, all the US players in this coup will be called to testify.
This includes the perpetrators of RussiaGate (of which the Ukraine mess is a continuation); the perps of the Covid-19 bioweapon op that will end up killing more Americans from the “vaccines” and the economic blowback of lockdowns as died from the virus itself; the backstage perps of the censoring and cancellation initiative run through the news and social media; the perps who arranged the ballot shenanigans in the 2020 elections; the perps who supported the Antifa and BLM riots of that same year; the perps behind the Mar-a-Lago raid; and, most threatening of all to the regime, the perps who concealed the Hunter Biden laptop evidence of international bribery and treason committed by the current President of the United States. He knows it, he can sniff the danger, as do the rogues and degenerates behind him. Hence, his recent mendacious fulminations against “MAGA Republicans [being] a threat to our democracy” and his ramped-up FBI police-state antics against Donald Trump and his associates. “Joe Biden” must sense that he is going down.
The New York Times today is ballyhooing the Ukraine military’s “lightning advance” east of Kharkov. I’d argue that what The Times wants you to see is not exactly what is happening. Rather the Russians appear to have made an orderly, tactical retreat from the outskirts of Kharkov, inducing the NATO-trained Ukraine forces eastward across the Siverskyi Donets River and out into the flat, open country where they will be cut off, cauldroned, and slaughtered. Everything that NATO and the US have done in this conflict has been a stupid move. Why should this one be an exception?
At the same time, Russia has hit a number of power generation plants around Ukraine, leaving many Ukrainians without lights, hot water, communications - in short, what’s needed to remain civilized. This was exactly what Russia had hoped to avoid the past eight months, but the obdurate pathological idiocy of our country’s leaders has forced Russia to send a harsher message to provoke some rational thought here about ending this conflict. There is even chatter on the web that Russia is about to declare that the special military operation is now a war, with all that implies about targets.
The US may be crazed beyond redemption, but the people of the NATO member countries might have had a clarifying experience lately watching their governments barter away the natural gas they desperately need to run industry and heat their homes this winter - in the foolish gesture of jumping on America’s sanctions bandwagon. Will Germany, France, Italy, and the rest now leap into a war against Russia on the plains of Ukraine in winter? I think they will sooner overthrow their own WEF-directed governments. This appears to be just what has happened in Sweden’s election on Sunday where a bloc of center-right parties has ousted the left government led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.
The question for now is this: Will the US jump stupidly into World War Three over Ukraine? If not, how much does Russia have to disrupt life in the rest of Ukraine outside the Donbas to drive the US and NATO into serious peace talks? It better happen soon because otherwise the West will be completely preoccupied with the collapse of its financial markets, currencies, and economies - and probably before the November elections here."
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Before you chant slogans and wave your cute little Ukrainian flags while knowing nothing about the true situation, you really should get the facts and not just accept all the lies and propaganda they're feeding us. Know where your $65 billion in "military assistance" is really going? It's not the Ukrainian troops. Really want to fight the Russians? You'd better factor this into the decision if you do... Reposted from 4/18/22:
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, PM 4/18/22:
"Oh S#!%... "SATAN" Nuclear Missile is Being Prepared"
"We are so close to the brink... Russia is reported to have conducted a test launch of the RS-28 (15A28) Sarmat ICBM, which will replace the Soviet R-36M2 Voyevoda missile. This is the worlds largest nuclear missile that includes 15 warheads each with high nuclear yield. According to Russian information, on April 24, a Sarmat ICBM test launch took place from Plesetsk in the Arkhangelsk region with the final destination being the Kura training field in Kamchatka. It is worth noting that this information was leaked to the Russian media immediately after the loss of the Moskva cruiser. The Russians note that there is no reason to follow the example of the US, which canceled the test launches of Minuteman III twice in March and April of this year under the fictitious pretext of "non-escalation" of the situation. Launch is only necessary for a complete re-equipment."
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RS-28 Sarmat
15 warheads per missile, 11,000 mile range,
hypersonic speed of 15,880 mph.
Do we really want to do this?
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This from Russian state TV...
Full screen recommended.
It would be wise to hear this, but they won't...
Meanwhile, 9/12/22:
"Elon Musk Issues a Dire Warning About the Economy - Do You Care?"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 9/12/22:
"Elon Musk Issues a Dire Warning
About the Economy - Do You Care?"
"Do you take it seriously when a business professional tells you that things are going to go up or going to go down? The latest is Elon Musk who has told us that we are headed for a devastating recession if interest rates are raised at all."
Comments here:
Bill Bonner, "Death by Government"
"Death by Government"
Millions await the fallout from
The State's grandest experiment of all...
by Bill Bonner
Youghal, Ireland - "For all the hand-wringing about Europe’s energy and economic crisis… Paris seemed calm last week. The restaurants were full. People walked around as usual. It felt like a city that had been taken over by the lizard people, all pretending to be human. Everything looked normal. People acted normal. But, as they say on TV, winter is coming.
Already, on our trip back to Ireland, crossing the English Channel and then the Irish Sea, the clouds came in from the North Atlantic. The sea was not as tranquil or as blue as it had been a month ago. Instead, it was like an old man, starting to turn gray and grumble; his best days are behind him. Fastened to a dying animal… he must bear the bad weather ahead. After all, the autumnal equinox is only 3 days away.
As to the ‘scientific’ claims of the ‘green’ lobby, we are agnostic. But suspicious. Every time the elite sets its sights on a Great Campaign, it enlists ‘science,’ religion and the press… and the result is almost always a catastrophic scam. We have no reason to believe this time will be different.
We keep an open mind. But right now, the Old World seems to be leading the way into the new disaster. Eager to cut off fossil fuels in order to save the planet… and keen on supporting the Ukraine in order to save democracy… the frogs, krauts, and wops have cut off their own fuel supplies. Ahead: gloomy months of cold contemplation and regret. Bloomberg: “The current crisis is leaving businesses facing a stark choice,” [from a survey of British manufacturers]… “Cut production or shut up shop altogether if help does not come soon.”
Reuters: "Germany faces the “bitter reality” that Russia will not restore gas supplies to the country, the German economy minister said on Monday, ahead of planned halt by state energy giant Gazprom of exports to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. “It won’t come back … It is the bitter reality,” Robert Habeck said in a panel with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen."
But wait. Maybe it doesn’t matter.
Another Grand Experiment: So what if the Dutch have to turn down their thermostats? Who cares if you can no longer sit under a warm gas radiator on a sidewalk in Paris? And really, wouldn’t we all be better off if the smokestacks smoked a little less?
We don’t know. It’s another grand experiment… a “teachable moment” in human history. But are humans really teachable? Aren’t the TV shows of 2022 full of the same wickedness and errors committed 2,000 years ago? Are our judges today wiser than Solomon? Are our lovers more artful than Cleopatra or more faithless than Delilah? Do our deciders make better decisions than Pontius Pilate?
But this is something new. Never before did a people deliberately strangle the goose that laid the basis of its whole economy. That is the “Great Transition,” from fossil fuel to un-fossilized fuel, that western leaders believe will save us from the apocalypse. What the ‘transition’ will mean in the long run, we don’t know. But in the short run, the damned bird is likely to be missed. From Zerohedge: "European Crop Yields Collapse Amid Worst Drought In 500 Years"
"Besides the news of record high electricity prices, a troubling new crop failure report about Europe's upcoming harvest was published Monday. The bloc's Monitoring Agricultural Resources forecasted corn yields could drop by nearly a fifth due to a devastating drought, according to Bloomberg.
Before we dive into the crop report, Europe's centuries-old 'hunger stones' were recently revealed in the Elbe River, which runs from the mountains of Czechia through Germany to the North Sea. The stones date back to a drought in 1616 and read: "Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine." That translates to "if you see me, then weep." The warning on the stones appears correct because the new crop report forecasts corn yields will drop 16% below the five-year average. That compares with a July forecast of an 8% decline.
Supermarket prices for meat in the EU jumped 12% in July versus a year earlier. Milk, cheese, and eggs are also skyrocketing at record rates. This leaves us with the idea that inflation in Europe will remain sticky, as explained by Germany's central bank chief Joachim Nagel: "The issue of inflation will not go away in 2023."
270 Million Dead: A drought is an act of nature. Heat waves, storms, plagues and pestilence – they still happen too, recurring episodically. In the past, these natural disasters were much more deadly than they are today. The Industrial Revolution – powered by fossil fuels – gave humans a much larger margin for error. If crops failed in one area, prices rose, drawing in produce from other areas. If a hurricane threatened the coast, people had plenty of warning; they could stock up on toilet paper… put plywood over their windows (using portable electric drills)… or pack up the car and head for higher ground.
We all take precautions to protect ourselves. We store up grain for the “seven lean years” that might come. We save money to give ourselves a ‘margin of error.’ We put on a pair of suspenders, just in case the belt fails. Since the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to the widespread use of fossil fuel, the death toll from natural disasters has been relatively low. Now, it is the unnatural disasters, the ‘errors’ made by the ‘deciders,’ we have to worry about.
R.J. Rummel wrote a marvelous book in which he spelled it out. WWI… revolution… purges… pogroms… intentional starvation… ubermensch… gulags… concentration camps… the killing fields of Cambodia… Mao’s famine – “Death by Government,” says Mr. Rummel, cost the world 270 million lives in the last century. How many will die in the 21st century? We wait to find out."
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For the five-volumes of "Understanding Conflict and War,"
by R.J. Rummel, read online here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Expect Industry Wide Bailouts And Much Higher Inflation"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/12/22:
"Expect Industry Wide Bailouts And Much Higher Inflation"
Comments here:
"Economic Market Snapshot 9/12/22"
"Economic Market Snapshot 9/12/22"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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Latest Market Analysis, Updated 9/12/22
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A comprehensive, essential daily read.
September 12th to 13th
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Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
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Job cuts and much more.
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Commentary, highly recommended:
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"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
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And now... The End Game...
Sunday, September 11, 2022
Musical Interlude: Sharon Lewis & Texas Fire, “What’s Really Going On?”
Sharon Lewis & Texas Fire, “What’s Really Going On?”
Gregory Mannarino, "Markets, A Look Ahead: The Key To The Market"
Gregory Mannarino, 9/11/22:
"Markets, A Look Ahead: The Key To The Market"
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"Banks are Closing Accounts If They Don't Like You"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, 9/11/22:
"Banks are Closing Accounts If They Don't Like You"
"What is your business deal? We don’t like that. We’re going to close your account because we don’t like landscapers and painters and anything else that we seem as questionable."
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"Get Out Of The Matrix Now, The System Is About To Crash; Be Very Careful, This Is About To Get Bad"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/11/22:
"Get Out Of The Matrix Now, The System Is About To Crash;
Be Very Careful, This Is About To Get Bad"
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"A Look to the Heavens"
"Braided, serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest this nebula's popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21, this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula is associated with a dramatic transformation.
The planetary nebula phase represents a final stage in the evolution of low mass stars like the sun, as they transform themselves from red giants to hot white dwarf stars and in the process shrug off their outer layers. Ultraviolet radiation from the hot star powers the nebular glow. The Medusa's transforming star is near the center of the overall bright crescent shape. In this deep telescopic view, fainter filaments clearly extend below and to the left of the bright crescent region. The Medusa Nebula is estimated to be over 4 light-years across.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121025.html
"Be Like The Bird..."
"What matter if this base, unjust life
Cast you naked and disarmed?
If the ground breaks beneath your step,
Have you not your soul?
Your soul! You fly away,
Escape to realms refined,
Beyond all sadness and whimpering.
Be like the bird which on frail branches balanced
A moment sits and sings;
He feels them tremble, but he sings unshaken,
Knowing he has wings."
-Victor Hugo
Mark Twain, “On The Damned Human Race”
“On The Damned Human Race”
by Mark Twain
“I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the lower animals (so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that the theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.
In proceeding toward this unpleasant conclusion I have not guessed or speculated or conjectured, but have used what is commonly called the scientific method. That is to say, I have subjected every postulate that presented itself to the crucial test of actual experiment, and have adopted it or rejected it according to the result. Thus I verified and established each step of my course in its turn before advancing to the next. These experiments were made in the London Zoological Gardens, and covered many months of painstaking and fatiguing work.
Before particularizing any of the experiments, I wish to state one or two things which seem to more properly belong in this place than further along. This, in the interest of clearness. The massed experiments established to my satisfaction certain generalizations, to wit:
1. That the human race is of one distinct species. It exhibits slight variations (in color, stature, mental caliber, and so on) due to climate, environment, and so forth; but it is a species by itself, and not to be confounded with any other.
2. That the quadrupeds are a distinct family, also. This family exhibits variations (in color, size, food preferences, and so on; but it is a family by itself).
3. That the other families (the birds, the fishes, the insects, the reptiles, etc.) are more or less distinct, also. They are in the procession. They are links in the chain which stretches down from the higher animals to man at the bottom.
Some of my experiments were quite curious. In the course of my reading I had come across a case where, many years ago, some hunters on our Great Plains organized a buffalo hunt for the entertainment of an English earl. They had charming sport. They killed seventy-two of those great animals; and ate part of one of them and left the seventy-one to rot. In order to determine the difference between an anaconda and an earl (if any) I caused seven young calves to be turned into the anaconda’s cage. The grateful reptile immediately crushed one of them and swallowed it, then lay back satisfied. It showed no further interest in the calves, and no disposition to harm them. I tried this experiment with other anacondas; always with the same result. The fact stood proven that the difference between an earl and an anaconda is that the earl is cruel and the anaconda isn’t; and that the earl wantonly destroys what he has no use for, but the anaconda doesn’t. This seemed to suggest that the anaconda was not descended from the earl. It also seemed to suggest that the earl was descended from the anaconda, and had lost a good deal in the transition.
I was aware that many men who have accumulated more millions of money than they can ever use have shown a rabid hunger for more, and have not scrupled to cheat the ignorant and the helpless out of their poor servings in order to partially appease that appetite. I furnished a hundred different kinds of wild and tame animals the opportunity to accumulate vast stores of food, but none of them would do it. The squirrels and bees and certain birds made accumulations, but stopped when they had gathered a winter’s supply, and could not be persuaded to add to it either honestly or by chicane. In order to bolster up a tottering reputation the ant pretended to store up supplies, but I was not deceived. I know the ant. These experiments convinced me that there is this difference between man and the higher animals: he is avaricious and miserly; they are not. In the course of my experiments I convinced myself that among the animals man is the only one that harbors insults and injuries, broods over them, waits till a chance offers, then takes revenge. The passion of revenge is unknown to the higher animals.
Roosters keep harems, but it is by consent of their concubines; therefore no wrong is done. Men keep harems but it is by brute force, privileged by atrocious laws which the other sex were allowed no hand in making. In this matter man occupies a far lower place than the rooster. Cats are loose in their morals, but not consciously so. Man, in his descent from the cat, has brought the cats looseness with him but has left the unconsciousness behind (the saving grace which excuses the cat). The cat is innocent, man is not.
Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity (these are strictly confined to man); he invented them. Among the higher animals there is no trace of them. They hide nothing; they are not ashamed. Man, with his soiled mind, covers himself. He will not even enter a drawing room with his breast and back naked, so alive are he and his mates to indecent suggestion. Man is The Animal that Laughs. But so does the monkey, as Mr. Darwin pointed out; and so does the Australian bird that is called the laughing jackass. No! Man is the Animal that Blushes. He is the only one that does it or has occasion to.
Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. It is a trait that is not known to the higher animals. The cat plays with the frightened mouse; but she has this excuse, that she does not know that the mouse is suffering. The cat is moderate (unhumanly moderate: she only scares the mouse, she does not hurt it; she doesn’t dig out its eyes, or tear off its skin, or drive splinters under its nails) man-fashion; when she is done playing with it she makes a sudden meal of it and puts it out of its trouble. Man is the Cruel Animal. He is alone in that distinction.
The higher animals engage in individual fights, but never in organized masses. Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and with calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out, as the Hessians did in our Revolution, and as the boyish Prince Napoleon did in the Zulu war, and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel.
Man is the only animal that robs his helpless fellow of his country, takes possession of it and drives him out of it or destroys him. Man has done this in all the ages. There is not an acre of ground on the globe that is in possession of its rightful owner, or that has not been taken away from owner after owner, cycle after cycle, by force and bloodshed.
Man is the only Slave. And he is the only animal who enslaves. He has always been a slave in one form or another, and has always held other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another. In our day he is always some man’s slave for wages and does that man’s work; and this slave has other slaves under him for minor wages, and they do his work. The higher animals are the only ones who exclusively do their own work and provide their own living.
Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people’s countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns, he washes the blood off his hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man, with his mouth.
Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion, several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven. He was at it in the time of the Caesars, he was at it in Mahomet’s time, he was at it in the time of the Inquisition, he was at it in France a couple of centuries, he was at it in England in Mary’s day, he has been at it ever since he first saw the light, he is at it today in Crete (as per the telegrams quoted above) he will be at it somewhere else tomorrow. The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out, in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste.
Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal. Note his history, as sketched above. It seems plain to me that whatever he is he is not a reasoning animal. His record is the fantastic record of a maniac. I consider that the strongest count against his intelligence is the fact that with that record back of him he blandly sets himself up as the head animal of the lot: whereas by his own standards he is the bottom one. In truth, man is incurably foolish.
One is obliged to concede that in true loftiness of character, Man cannot claim to approach even the meanest of the Higher Animals. It is plain that he is constitutionally incapable of approaching that altitude; that he is constitutionally afflicted with a Defect which must make such approach forever impossible, for it is manifest that this defect is permanent in him, indestructible, ineradicable. I find this Defect to be the Moral Sense. He is the only animal that has it. It is the secret of his degradation. It is the quality which enables him to do wrong. It has no other office. It is incapable of performing any other function. It could never have been intended to perform any other. Without it, man could do no wrong. He would rise at once to the level of the Higher Animals.
Since the Moral Sense has but the one office, the one capacity (to enable man to do wrong) it is plainly without value to him. It is as valueless to him as is disease. In fact, it manifestly is a disease. Rabies is bad, but it is not so bad as this disease. Rabies enables a man to do a thing, which he could not do when in a healthy state: kill his neighbor with a poisonous bite) one is the better man for having rabies: The Moral Sense enables a man to do wrong. It enables him to do wrong in a thousand ways. Rabies is an innocent disease, compared to the Moral Sense. No one, then, can be the better man for having the Moral Sense. What now, do we find the Primal Curse to have been? Plainly what it was in the beginning: the infliction upon man of the Moral Sense; the ability to distinguish good from evil; and with it, necessarily, the ability to do evil; for there can be no evil act without the presence of consciousness of it in the doer of it.
And so I find that we have descended and degenerated, from some far ancestor (some microscopic atom wandering at its pleasure between the mighty horizons of a drop of water perchance) insect by insect, animal by animal, reptile by reptile, down the long highway of smirch-less innocence, till we have reached the bottom stage of development (namable as the Human Being). Below us, nothing.”
"Not Knowing..."
“Not knowing you can’t do something
is sometimes all it takes to do it.”
- Ally Carter
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