"Reject New Energy Taxes With Prices Already Soaring"
by Phil Kerpen
"Energy prices are up 32 percent in the past year, causing pain at the pump, paying monthly utility bills, and buying everything that's grown, shipped, or manufactured. And yet, staring at this painful reality, many of America's largest corporations are elevating green wokeness over economic and business logic by calling – in the midst of record high energy prices – for new taxes on energy.
The major oil and gas producers themselves have been shopping a "tax our customers, please" slide deck around town in Washington, DC. According to the Wall Street Journal, "The nation’s biggest oil industry trade group has drafted a proposal urging Congress to adopt a carbon tax, which would put a surcharge on gasoline and other fossil fuels to discourage greenhouse-gas emissions. The draft proposal was approved by the American Petroleum Institute’s climate committee last month."
The assumption here is that becoming tax collectors for Washington politicians will somehow cause them to loosen their regulatory grip. There is a certain perverse logic here, perhaps modeled on the tobacco industry, which secured its long-term future by becoming one of the major revenue sources for state governments. But it unmistakably means higher costs for customers and more economic pain.
It's not just the oil and gas industry. The Business Roundtable, a group of corporate CEOs from across ever sector of the economy, published a "roadmap for U.S. energy policy," ostensibly to lower prices. But plank number six of their plan is to "establish a price on carbon," that is, impose an energy tax on fossil fuels. It is absolutely insane to call for higher taxes on energy in a plan to lower energy prices.
House Republican energy leaders Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahaoma fired back: "At a time when skyrocketing inflation is hammering American families, it is shocking and tone-deaf that The Business Roundtable’s latest energy policy proposal calls for a new energy tax that would increase energy costs… We strongly oppose the BRT’s proposed energy tax that will hit lower-income families, small businesses, and those on fixed incomes the hardest while doing nothing to confront China, the world’s largest emitter of carbon… Advocating for an energy tax while soliciting massive government handouts for special interests is destructive, ineffective, and unaffordable."
That is a near-unanimous sentiment among House Republicans, but unfortunately Senate Republicans may be more susceptible to industry-lobbying for higher energy taxes. Several are in a bipartisan working group that appears to coalescing around on a plan to impose carbon taxes only on imports, seizing on the Trump-era GOP's friendliness toward tariffs. Bloomberg reported the plan "would place tariffs on fossil fuels and products such as cement and steel to prod countries that are moving too slowly to cut their greenhouse gas emissions."
Such a tax would directly raise costs for Americans on top of the budget-busting prices they are already experiencing – and it would likely spur other countries to retaliate, eventually leading to global carbon taxation. It should be a nonstarter.
Voters should demand candidates for office this year take crystal clear positions on new energy taxes, rejecting them in favor of real solutions. America needs a Congress that will scuttle the Biden administration's anti-energy regulatory agenda, find a way to reverse the de facto Wall Street ban on investing in new fossil fuel production, and greenlight stalled pipeline projects all over the country."
"In today's vlog we are at Big Lots, and are noticing some strange price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
"Welcome To The Greatest Energy Crisis In History –
Things Will Only Get Much More Painful From Here"
by Michael Snyder
"Just as the western world was accelerating the transition away from traditional forms of energy, the COVID pandemic caused the most epic supply chain crisis in history, and now the largest land war in Europe since World War II has thrown global energy markets into a state of complete and utter chaos. And if you think that things are bad now, just wait until a huge war erupts in the Middle East. Energy prices are ridiculously high now, but they will eventually go much higher than this. Needless to say, skyrocketing energy prices will have a catastrophic impact on worldwide economic conditions during the troubled months and years ahead of us.
Do you remember when Joe Biden promised that he would do all that he possibly could to drive down the price of gasoline? Yeah, that isn’t exactly working out too well…Retail gasoline prices in the United States rose on Tuesday and hit another all-time record, surpassing one set in March, as global refineries grappled with a bottleneck that has sent prices soaring ahead of driving season. The average cost of a retail gallon of gasoline hit $4.374 early Tuesday, according to the American Automobile Association, surpassing the former record of $4.331."
Ultimately, it really is a matter of supply and demand. We need more drilling, we need more refineries, and we need less regulation on traditional forms of energy all over the western world. But with the leaders that are currently in place, you shouldn’t expect any significant changes any time soon. So the price of gasoline will continue to rise.
And actually the price of diesel has been going up even faster…"Tom Kloza, head of global energy research at OPIS, said that in years past a barrel of diesel typically sold for $10 above the price of crude oil. Today, that differential – known as the crack spread – has surged to a record high above $70. “It’s become untethered, unmoored, a little bit unhinged. These are prices we’re not used to seeing,” he said, adding that there are large price differences across the U.S."
That is really bad news, because our economy runs on diesel fuel. As I pointed out yesterday, our trains and our trucks are powered by diesel, and so rapidly rising diesel prices are going to have a huge economic impact.
In addition, most farm equipment uses diesel as well, and this is yet another factor that is putting an enormous amount of financial stress on America’s farmers. One farmer that was asked about this admitted that he is “really concerned how bad it can get this next year”… “My family is preparing now and stocking up our freezers and pantry because we are really concerned how bad it can get this next year.” He estimates that fertilizer prices near him have increased 200 or even 300 percent, “dependent on what program you are running.” The rise in diesel prices has hurt him the most. “Farm equipment runs on diesel,” he pointed out."
According to AAA’s gas price website, diesel in Texas is running at an average of $5.231, up from $2.820 a year ago. Needless to say, you should be stocking up too, because things are going to look completely different a year from now than they do today.
Of course things are already getting quite crazy. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal warned that widespread electricity shortages in the U.S. could be coming as early as this summer…"From California to Texas to Indiana, electric-grid operators are warning that power-generating capacity is struggling to keep up with demand, a gap that could lead to rolling blackouts during heat waves or other peak periods as soon as this year. California’s grid operator said Friday that it anticipates a shortfall in supplies this summer, especially if extreme heat, wildfires or delays in bringing new power sources online exacerbate the constraints."
I am stunned that things have gotten this bad already. And the Ukrainians have decided to make things even worse for the western world by cutting off a key source of Russian natural gas that Europe depends upon…"Ukraine’s state-owned gas grid operator GTSOU said May 10 it had declared force majeure on the transit of Russian gas entering the Ukrainian system at Sokhranivka and would not accept gas at the entry point from May 11. The force majeure declaration, the first of its kind since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, sent European gas prices sharply higher."
As energy prices rise, so will prices for everything else, because it takes energy to produce and transport virtually everything that we buy and sell. So the inflation spiral that we are currently enjoying is likely to intensify even more in the months ahead.
At this point, economic conditions are already shifting so rapidly that some restaurants have decided to put stickers on their menus so that they can be easily changed…"It’s not the prices on the menu so much that’ll shock you. They’re actually still very cheap (and the tacos really good). It’s the fact that the prices were scrawled in pen on stickers slapped on the menu. Those stickers are a tell-tale sign that prices are going up at such a rapid-fire clip that the staff is struggling to print new menus fast enough. Rewriting prices on old menus is easier and cheaper, too.
A quick scan of the restaurant’s Facebook posts lays out the increases. The special, offered every Wednesday and Friday, had been $1 per taco for years. That changed in February of last year, when it was raised to $1.25. A month later, it went to $1.50. This January, it shot up to $1.75. And now it’s $2.00."
This is the sort of thing that happens in Venezuela. And now it is happening in the United States of America.
BIDEN: “The number one threat is the strength, and that strength that we’ve built is inflation.” pic.twitter.com/BfaJB8U6dC
In a desperate attempt to get inflation under control, the Federal Reserve has recklessly raised interest rates. This is going to absolutely crush the housing bubble, and financial markets appear to be poised to repeat history.
They say that every 90 years humans repeat the same behavior. 1916-1929 vs 2000-2022:
When I bring up the years 1929 and 2008, what do you immediately think about? The answer to that question is obvious. Now we stand on the precipice of another major financial disaster, but this time around there will not be a “return to normal”.
The entire western world has been on a suicidal path for decades, and now a day of reckoning has finally arrived. And since the U.S. and Europe are the two core pillars of the global economy, the whole world will feel the pain of the coming collapse. So I would encourage you to buckle your seatbelts, because the road ahead is going to be exceedingly bumpy."
"House Passes Bill For $40 Billion In New Ukraine Aid"
by Dave DeCamp
"On Tuesday night, the House passed a nearly $40 billion bill for new Ukraine aid as Washington continues to escalate its role in supporting Kyiv in its war against Moscow. The measure passed in a vote of 368-57, with only Republicans voting against the bill. The legislation now moves to the Senate, which could hold a vote this week. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said the Senate will “move swiftly,” although some Republicans in the chamber have complained that the massive aid package is not large enough.
President Biden asked Congress for $33 billion for the new Ukraine aid package, but congressional Democrats ramped it up to $39.8 billion. The package includes $11 billion in presidential drawdown authority, which allows President Biden to send Ukraine military equipment from US stockpiles.
The aid also includes $6 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding, which enables the US government to buy weapons from arms makers and send them to Ukraine. The Pentagon will receive $8.7 billion to replenish weapons stockpiles that have been to Ukraine, and $3.9 billion to pay for troop deployments in Eastern Europe.
"You can’t find baby formula in the United States right now but Congress is voting today to send $40 billion to Ukraine. Let’s put America First for a change."
In March, $13.6 billion for Ukraine aid was included in a spending bill signed by President Biden. The new $39.8 billion plan will bring total US aid for Ukraine in 2022 alone to over $53 billion.
The 57 House Republicans who voted against Ukraine aid package.
"On March 28, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration submitted to Congress a proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Budget request of $813.3 billion for national defense, $773.0 billion of which is for the Department of Defense (DoD)."
$813.3 billion for national defense... $40 billion more for Ukraine, $53 billion total...And how about you, Good Citizen? What? Lost your job, lost your home, inflation's eating you alive, can't afford gas or food anymore? Well, besides absolutely begging for a nuclear war, the psychopaths running the government have a message for you if you were desperately hoping for help: F**K YOU... and you better believe they mean it, too... - CP
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Related, highly recommended:
Meanwhile, The Chinese have been quite busy...
"China Accelerates Nuclear Buildup, Military Modernization;
"Maybe we're not supposed to be happy. Maybe gratitude has nothing to do with joy. Maybe being grateful means recognizing what you have for what it is. Appreciating small victories. Admiring the struggle it takes to simply be a human. Maybe, we're thankful for the familiar things we know. And maybe, we're thankful for the things we'll never know. At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate."
"We’re about to experience the worst energy supply shortage this country has ever had in modern times. We’re already feeling the pain of sky-high prices for energy. But on top of everything else that is going wrong in this country, the US aging power grid cannot keep up with demand anymore, and extensive power outages are expected to occur as we head into the summer. Even worse, reserves of other energy supplies, including diesel, jet fuel, gasoline, and heating oil are already hitting the lowest levels on record, and a widespread shortage of such fuels is threatening to bring the U.S. economy to a halt. These are serious issues that are reaching crisis levels and that are going to impact our collapsing domestic supply chains as soon as next month. We must expose what is truly going on right now before it’s too late.
“We are looking at a nightmare in terms of global diesel shortage that will shock people starting June,” one industry insider warned on Sunday when diesel inventories on the east coast were at 18 million barrels, which represented about 3 days of demand. However, on that very day, diesel supplies ran down to less than 10 million barrels, and they continue to decline further and further with each passing day, leaving the US in a very risky position.
Without diesel and other middle-distillate fuels, our trains and trucks can’t run, and the lack of transportation services can push domestic supply chains over the edge in a matter of days but cause damages that can last for months or even years. Even a moderate shortage of fuels would be paralyzing for the U.S. economy. Already, soaring prices for fuels have been contributing to inflationary headwinds due to their vital role in the American and global economy. At this point, retail prices for gasoline in the U.S. are up 45% compared to a year ago, while diesel used by American truckers skyrocketed 75% over the past 12 months, and just hit another all-time high a few days ago.
The fuel is not only essential for tankers, trains, and trucks, but also for many industries, such as farming, manufacturing, metals, and mining. In essence, “diesel is the fuel that powers the economy,” as explained by Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. Higher prices for fuels are “certainly going to translate into more expensive goods,” he said, given that these increased costs will surely be passed along to consumers. “Especially at the grocery store, the hardware store, anywhere you shop,” he added.
At the same time, electricity shortage warnings are spreading across the country. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, which operates in 15 states across the US Central region, is alerting that capacity shortages due to soaring summer demand might result in outages. Power grids have started to retire conventional power plants fueled by natural gas, coal, diesel, and nuclear power to green forms of energy, such as solar power and wind. But that transition is happening without the establishment of a stable green energy system, so things are not working as well as planned. When we take a moment to think about it, why are we racing to retire conventional power facilities in the midst of a growing global energy crisis? It doesn’t make any sense.
The convergence of all of these factors means that there is not going to be enough energy supplies for exports, nor to power up our industries and meet consumer demand. This is going to affect each and every one of us, but unfortunately, the vast majority of the population still does not understand what is happening, and so they aren’t taking any steps to get prepared for the horror that is coming."
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
"Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65. It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portrait, though.
Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy sports characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. Remarkably, this deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in gigantic bubble-like shells. The shells are likely tidal debris, streams of stars torn from satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the distant past."
“If there is one word that should not be uttered, it is the name of – no, I will not say it. Any name diminishes. In the face of whatever it is that is most mysterious, most holy, we are properly silent. It is appropriate, I think, to praise the creation, to make a joyful noise of thanksgiving for the sensate world. But praising the Creator is another thing altogether. When we make a big racket on His behalf we are more than likely addressing an idol in our own image. What was it that Pico Iyer said? “Silence is the tribute that we pay to holiness; we slip off words when we enter a sacred place, just as we slip off shoes.” The God of the mystics whispers sweet nothings, as lovers do.
In a diary entry for “M.”, near the end of his too-short life, Thomas Merton wrote: “I cannot have enough of the hours of silence when nothing happens. When the clouds go by. When the trees say nothing. When the birds sing. I am completely addicted to the realization that just being there is enough.” The natural world was for Merton the primary revelation. He listened. He felt a presence in his heart, an awareness of the ineffable Mystery that permeates creation. It was this that drew him to the mystical tradition of Christianity, especially to the Celtic tradition of creation spirituality. It was this that attracted him to Zen.
There come now and then, perhaps more frequently in late life than previously, those moments of being (as Virginia Woolf called them) when creation grabs us by the shoulders and gives us such a shake that it rattles our teeth, when love for the world simply knocks us flat. At those moments everything we have learned about the world – the invaluable and reliable knowledge of science- seems a pale intimation of what is. In Virginia Woolf’s novel “The Waves”, the elderly Bernard says: “How tired I am of stories, how tired I am of phrases that come down beautifully with all their feet on the ground! Also, how I distrust neat designs of life that are drawn upon half sheets of notepaper. I begin to long for some little language such as lovers use, broken words, inarticulate words, like the shuffling of feet on the pavement.”
In moments of soul-stirring epiphany, it is reassuring to feel beneath our feet a floor of reliable knowledge, the safe and sure edifice of empirical learning so painstakingly constructed by the likes of Aristarchus, Galileo, Darwin and Schrodinger. But at the same time we are humbled by our ignorance, and more ready than ever to say “I don’t know,” to enter at last the great silence. Erwin Chargaff, who contributed mightily to our understanding of DNA, wrote: “It is the sense of mystery that, in my opinion, drives the true scientist; the same blind force, blindly seeing, deafly hearing, unconsciously remembering, that drives the larva into the butterfly. If the scientist has not experienced, at least a few times in his life, this cold shudder down his spine, this confrontation with an immense invisible face whose breath moves him to tears, he is not a scientist.”
The whole thrust of the mystical tradition, the whole thrust of science, is toward the great silence- an awareness of our ignorance and a willingness to say “I don’t know.” A lifetime of learning brings one at last to the face of mystery. We live in a universe of more than 2 trillion galaxies. Perhaps the number of galaxies is infinite. And the universe is silent. Achingly, terrifyingly silent. Or, rather, the universe speaks a little language such as lovers use, broken words, inarticulate words, like the shuffling of feet on the pavement.”
"Your thoughts, opinions, beliefs, and worldviews are based on years and years of experience, reading, and rational, objective analysis. Right? Wrong. Your thoughts, opinions, beliefs, and worldviews are based on years and years of paying attention to information that confirmed what you already believed while ignoring information that challenged your preconceived notions. If there’s a single lesson that life teaches us, it’s that wishing doesn’t make it so."
"I'd been in hairier situations than this one. Actually, it's sort of depressing, thinking how many times I'd been in them. But if experience had taught me anything, it was this: No matter how screwed up things are, they can get a whole lot worse."
"There's only one question that matters, and it's the one you never get around to asking. People are capable of varying degrees of truth. The majority spend their entire lives fabricating an elaborate skein of lies, immersing themselves in the faith of bad faith, doing whatever it takes to feel safe. The person who truly lives has precious few moments of safety, learns to thrive in any kind of storm. It's the truth you can stare down stone-cold that makes you what you are. Weak or strong. Live or die. Prove yourself. How much truth can you take?"
"A lot of people out there have been waiting for this stock market bubble to implode for a really long time. Well, the wait is now over. Stock prices have been falling for months, but what we have witnessed within the past couple of weeks has been absolutely breathtaking. Trillions upon trillions of dollars worth of paper wealth has been suddenly wiped out, and many investors are panic selling in a desperate attempt to lock in profits before the market completely collapses.
On Monday, the Dow lost another 600 points, but the really big news continues to be the staggering declines for both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq… "The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 653.67 points to 32,245.70, or 1.99%. The S&P 500 fell 3.2% to settle at 3,991.24, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 4.29% to 11,623.25."
It has been stunning to see these sorts of numbers day after day. One long-time market veteran actually used the word “violent” to describe what we have been witnessing… “I’ve been in the markets for 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO and chief strategist for Quill Intelligence, a Wall Street and Federal Reserve research firm. “It’s violent not just volatile.”
Sadly, she is right on target. Things have already gotten really crazy, but many believe that the most chaotic chapters of this market implosion are still ahead of us. The S&P 500 just dropped below 4,000 for the first time in more than a year, and I am already seeing people talk about what will happen when it falls to 3,000. As for the Nasdaq, it has already plummeted 27 percent from the all-time record high. Needless to say, that puts the Nasdaq well into bear market territory.
Tech stocks were crushed once again to begin the week, with some of the biggest names leading the way…"Rising rates continued to crush technology names such as Meta Platforms and Alphabet, which lost 3.7% and 2.8%, respectively. Amazon, Apple and Netflix all fell more than 5%, 3% and 4%, respectively, while Tesla and Nvidia plunged more than 9% each."
Ouch! And check out these numbers for all of 2022 so far…
Of course Palantir has them all beat…"Palantir Technologies, which went public in September 2020 via a direct listing amid enormous hype and hoopla, has now earned a much coveted spot in my Imploded Stocks column. Today, Palantir reported another huge loss, this time $101 million, on $446 million in revenues, bringing its total loss over the past four years, to $2.86 billion. Its revenue outlook for Q2 was below what Wall Street expected. Shares [PLTR] kathoomphed 22% so far today, and 84% from the peak in January 2021, to $7.40 a new all-time low."
Investors are starting to figure out that trendy “tech companies” that regularly lose hundreds of millions of dollars are not actually good investments. Cryptocurrencies have been falling dramatically as well. Bitcoin and other cryptos were hammered really hard once again on Monday, and at this point Bitcoin is down almost 55 percent from the all-time high… "Bitcoin is off nearly 55% from its November peak, and 40% of holders are now underwater on their investments, according to new data from Glassnode. That percentage is even higher when you isolate for the short-term holders who got skin in the game in the last six months when the price of bitcoin peaked at around $69,000."
Those that bought Bitcoin low and got out in time ended up making a killing. But those that got in at or near the top of the market and just kept holding on are going to get absolutely eviscerated. Of course that is how the market works. You either eat or you get eaten.
As for what is ahead, many of the experts are fearing the worst. Here is just one example… “We expect markets to remain volatile, with risks skewed to the downside as stagflation risks continue to increase,” wrote Barclays’ Maneesh Deshpande. “While we cannot discount sharp bear market rallies, we think upside is limited.”
In the short-term, you would think that things should stabilize at some point. The fact that the Fed recklessly raised interest rates last week really shook a lot of people up, but that wave of panic should soon subside. The much bigger issue is the outlook for the U.S. economy moving forward. Interestingly, even corporate media outlets are now adopting a very negative tone about what is coming…"Inflation is at a 40-year high. Stock prices are sinking. The Federal Reserve is making borrowing much costlier. And the economy actually shrank in the first three months of this year.
Is the United States at risk of enduring another recession, just two years after emerging from the last one? Even without another unexpected “trigger event”, the U.S. economy should get progressively worse throughout the remainder of 2022. But as I have detailed in my last couple of books, I believe that we have entered a time in history when unexpected “trigger events” will come fast and furious.
Keep a close eye on the Middle East for the rest of this year, and we will all want to carefully watch how the global food crisis develops. When people don’t have enough food, violence tends to erupt. We saw this during the Arab Spring of 2011, and we will undoubtedly see similar eruptions in the months ahead. Only this time around, the food shortages that we are facing threaten to develop into a long-term phenomenon.
In all my years of writing, I have never been more concerned about what is in front of us. We have already been hit by crisis after crisis so far in 2022, but it looks like the second half of this year is going to be even crazier than the first half."
"The Great Collapse is Finally Here - Cryptos, Stocks and Housing"
"There is an amazing collapse happening in every single industry. It doesn’t make a bit of difference if you’re into crypto’s or stocks they are finally falling. From supply chain issues to inflationary spikes, it’s going to get worse."
"Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told- and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their 'beliefs.' The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion."
"As a teacher of history, the topic of Nazi Germany is always one which generates numerous questions from students. How were the Nazis able to convince the public to vote for them? How did they convince the people to go along with their fascist agenda and barbaric policies? How was the Holocaust allowed to take place?
Despite discussing the role of propaganda and censorship, as well as the fear of opposing the Nazi regime, one still finds students often somewhat bemused. Moreover, many invariably argue that nowadays, due to social media, the Internet, and other methods of communication, the evils of Nazism could never succeed in flourishing again.
However, that is about to change. One only has to look at the manner in which the Azov Battalion, a fully-fledged Ukrainian Nazi militia, with significant influence, has been whitewashed in the space of ten weeks. Whereas prior to February 24th 2022, they were recognized as a neo-Nazi battalion, these fascists are now being portrayed as valiant defenders of an oppressed people, fighting bravely against insurmountable odds.
In the past, we have become only too well aware of the role played by the media and big tech in propagandizing and manufacturing consent. Whether it’s the mainstream media parroting establishment talking points, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube censoring dissenting views, or Paypal denying media outlets access to their own accounts apparently due to their political stances, Western disinformation full-spectrum dominance appears to be at its zenith.
Yet, the perennial Western purveyors of fake news, such as The New York Times, CNN and the BBC, declare themselves to be gatekeepers of truth, integrity and morality. And this, despite their lies which facilitated the slaughter and deaths of over a million men, women and children, in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
But still it goes on, right up to the present. From the Ghost of Kiev to Snake Island, the Collective Western media has acted as stenographers for the Western and Ukrainian regimes. The examples are too numerous to mention, but the media coverage of the air strike at a railway station in Kramatorsk provided a striking example of the overt and cynical propaganda role the western media has played throughout this conflict.
The missile strikes that killed over fifty people and injured more than one hundred were initially widely reported, with images on front pages across the Western media. However, within forty-eight hours the story had disappeared and barely received a mention. This was due to an Italian news team identifying one of the missiles as being of the type used by Ukrainian forces. The narrative of Ukrainians killing civilians obviously didn’t fit into the propaganda of the Collective West, and consequently, the dead and injured found instant irrelevance.
Now the Western media has turned its malevolent myth-making to the Nazi Azov battalion in the Ukraine. An overtly Nazi formation, descended from the Fascist Banderites of World War 2, it is now being staunchly defended by the Collective West.
Interestingly, it had been previously accepted that the Azov were a far-right, Nazi militia, and indeed, their presence and influence was widely viewed as a dark force within the Ukraine. It’s fascist rituals and regalia, worship of the fascist Stepan Bandera, and its adherence to Nazi ideology, left nobody in any doubt that these were committed fascists, and they were commonly described as neo-Nazis in numerous Western media outlets. However, since February 24th there has been a stunning shift.
Now, the fact that the Azov battalion is a Nazi organization is glossed over. The BBC, a propaganda arm of the British State, ran a nine-minute puff piece, arguing, almost pleading, that the Azov fighters were not fascists, but simply a battalion integrated into the Ukrainian army. Meanwhile, MSNBC interviewed Azov Nazis teaching elderly women how to use weapons, and newspapers from the Financial Times to the New York Times are now portraying the Azov as brave defenders of the Ukraine.
An obvious aim of this shameless media operation is to delegitimize the Russian claims of denazification, by arguing that there is no Nazi problem in the Ukraine. Even on the rare occasion that the media refers to the ideology of the Azov units, and indeed, the presence of other fascist and far-right groups such as C14, Right Sector and Svoboda, it claims they have minimal impact on the politics of the Ukraine, pointing to their weak electoral performances. What they fail to point out, is that the mainstream’ parties are implementing policies that the fascists support. Moreover, the notion that parliamentary representation is a metric of influence is absurd when one looks at the likes of Al Qaeda and Isis.
In fact, a leader of the fascist group C14, Yevhen Karas, described the 2014 Maidan coup as a ‘victory of nationalist ideas’. He went on to assert that without the influence of fascist groups, Maidan would have been nothing but a ‘gay parade’. But this is now an inconvenient truth for the Collective West. Consequently, Azov and their fellow travellers are no longer Nazis or fascists. Instead, they are merely ‘misunderstood patriots’.
Of course, this is nothing new. When it comes to hypocrisy, the Collective West has it in spades. Whether it’s supporting the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, ISIS and AL Nusra in Syria, or the fascists in Ukraine, the Collective West has shown itself to be devoid of any morality when it comes to serving their own interests. Now, just as Isis and Al Nusra are ‘moderate rebels’, the fascists of Azov are well-meaning nationalist warriors.
So, according to our so-called liberal democracies, even though there might be bad Nazis, there are also good fascists, whose adherence to Nazism is just an ideological quirk. Obviously, those who are on our side are the good Nazis. And it’s the Collective West that always gets to decide who is who. But one thing is now evident – the blatant manner in which Nazism has been made palatable due to an unrelenting, systematic propaganda campaign, will answer those questions posed by students regarding how German Nazis were able to attain power in 1933 and to subsequently pursue the policies that they did.
‘Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds’, I was once told many years ago. The events of the past months have proven just how accurate that old adage is."
Excerpt: "Earlier today, I read that the Russian ambassador to Poland was hit by a paint bomb while laying a wreath for WWII fallen soldiers, with the culprits chanting: “fascist, fascist”! And I thought that is rich, on the day that Russia commemorates the 25-40 million Russian lives lost in WWII fighting fascism.
I don’t know how many of you ever saw Claude Lanzmann’s 1980’s 8-hour documentary “Shoah”, but I did at some point. It shook all of me, every molecule, and I will never watch it again. I come from the land of Anne Frank. What it told me was that nazism wasn’t just a German thing, it was the region, not the nation, it was where most Jewish people lived before Hitler and Goebbels came along.
Lanzmann interviewed scores of Polish people who were loudly proud of having pushed back Jews, trying to flee, onto the cattle trains bound for Auschwitz et al. That same mentality has prevailed in large parts of Ukraine as well over the by now 80 years or so. Just look at the map: that’s where this was happening. And the Russians defeated it in that part of the world, not western troops.
And when it was done, the role of the 25-40 million Russian deaths in it was denied in the west, because: communism vs capitalism. But of course Russia cannot just ignore or deny all those deaths, just because Hollywood wants to sell tickets to Saving Private Ryan. For Russia, WWII meant: never again. And for them that means something slightly different than for us. It’s not just never again fascism or nazism, it’s also that these two things are symbolic for having your motherland invaded from the west, and by the west. Never again. That is why Russia moved into Ukraine.
And they are convinced that NATO was getting ready, with the remaining nazis in Ukraine, to attack the Donbass and Crimea. Note: Russia has an excellent secret service. They’re not just guessing. 100s of 1000s of troops were amassing on their eastern border(s).
And now Zelensky is calling the Russians the nazis. That’s quite the about face. They lost all those lives fighting the nazis, only to become the nazis themselves. Labeled so by an actor who relies heavily on admitted, and tattooed, 2022 nazis to stay in power.
Western media, and governments, had a zillion predictions about what Putin would say yesterday, but still there was no mobilization of Russians, and no total war declaration. They were all wrong, again. But it helped get the clickbait up! Still, he would have said it if we did not announce his intentions!, us who have a direct line into his brain…
I’ll leave you with three full reports from today, so you can make up your own mind- something I always try to do. First, RT, for which I cannot provide a link (banned because it’s propaganda!), then Guardian and then BBC."
"Gonzalo Lira on the three forces in control of Ukraine’s “acting president”: the oligarchs who own him, the Nazis who will kill him if he doesn’t toe their line, and the State Department/CIA."
"In today's vlog we are at Meijer, and are noticing a lot of empty shelves! We are here to check out sales, and are also witnessing some massive price increases in food! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
"The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished. The name of Poet was almost forgotten; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists. A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste. This diminutive stature of mankind was daily sinking below the old standard."
- Edward Gibbon,
"The Decline And Fall of The Roman Empire"
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"Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you."
"In this video we are going to explore the most dangerous of all psychic epidemics, the mass psychosis. A mass psychosis is an epidemic of madness and it occurs when a large portion of a society loses touch with reality and descends into delusions. Such a phenomenon is not a thing of fiction. Two examples of mass psychoses are the American and European witch hunts 16th and 17th centuries and the rise of totalitarianism in the 20th century. This video will aim to answer questions surrounding mass psychosis: What is it? How does is start? Has it happened before? Are we experiencing one right now? And if so, how can the stages of a mass psychosis be reversed?"
"Historians analyzing the Covid-19 pandemic will one day consider what was going on in the minds of those who supported a narrative that only served profits and power. Looking back, they will greatly appreciate the analysis of contemporary experts, particularly Mattias Desmet, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University in Belgium. He is recognized as a leading thinker in his field, and has written over one hundred peer-reviewed academic papers.
Desmet has presented his understanding of human behavior in response to the pandemic and vaccine policies to forums and international media. His book on the topic, "The Psychology of Totalitarianism", will be published in June of 2022. It examines the emotional climate that has allowed a singular, focused, crisis narrative that forbids dissenting views and relies on destructive groupthink.
The central tenet of Desmet’s evaluation of the emotional response to the pandemic rests on the psychological concept of mass formation. It is a general term that applies to individual, group, and crowd behavior as influenced by the manipulations and conduct of dominant social forces. The concept is not new - nor is it in any way a stretch to apply it in analyzing the extensive anxiety driving the attitudes and demeanor of billions of people during the world-wide pandemic.
Mass formation can be associated with mass psychosis, a disturbance in the minds of small or large groups - to the degree where there is a loss of contact with reality - often with an eclipse of morality and objectification of an imagined enemy. The hostile and dismissive response to Desmet’s perspective on the pandemic’s emotional climate is both fascinating and revelatory.
Enter The Media: Desmet was interviewed by a number of prominent individuals in a variety of media outlets, with his views on the current rise of mass formation taken seriously by some of the public and medical professionals with open minds. Detractors quickly appeared in an attempt to minimize his impact.
The vast majority of criticism had little to say about the reasonable theory that government representatives, a huge portion of the medical profession and at least one-third of the general population had fallen into a trance. And most importantly, there was no willingness to consider that there might be a powerful psychological force skewing judgement and provoking irrational behavior.
In a show of reflexive impulsive bias, media coverage claimed that the concept of mass formation did not exist. This response simply revealed how the process of mass formation blinds the minds of scientists and journalists.
Widely attributed press sources, including Reuters, quickly found experts who said that, “Mass formation psychosis is not an academic term recognized in the field of psychology, nor is there evidence of any such phenomenon occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic.” To ensure readers need not fear they were under any spell, they advised, “numerous psychologists have also told Reuters that such a condition is not officially recognized.”
Mass formation was also dismissed in a number of articles because it is not mentioned in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", a simplified clinical guide to individual psychiatric disorders that does not cover crowd psychology.
Not Necessarily The News: The blast of commentary was presented as objective news, yet the press response directly conflicts with the knowledge of prominent psychotherapists, including luminaries who enriched the modern understanding of the human psyche, such as Scipio Sighele, Gustave Le Bon, Elio Cannetti, and Hannah Arendt.
In his 1921 book on "Crowd Psychology and Ego Analysis", the founder of psychotherapy, Sigmund Freud, discusses mass formation and its ramifications, saying, “The strangest and at the same time most important phenomenon of mass formation is the increase in affectivity evoked in each individual (as) exaltation or intensification of emotion.”
The preeminent psychiatrist, Carl Jung, highlights mass formation in his prescient 1957 book, "The Undiscovered Self", on the state of mankind and the dangers of modern materialism. His perspective is foundational, relative to Desmet’s recent findings: “Under the influence of scientific assumptions, not only the psyche but the individual man and, indeed, all individual events whatsoever suffer a leveling down and a process of blurring that distorts the picture of reality into a conceptual average. We ought not to underestimate the psychological effect of the statistical world picture: it displaces the individual in favor of anonymous units that pile up into mass formations.”
Despite a wealth of historical precedents, the reaction to Desmet’s ideas was bizarre and unfounded. A renowned and respected psychotherapist had postulated that we might need to reconsider the unconscious response to lockdowns and mandates - and his ideas were summarily dismissed by the voice of the state.
The diagnosis is clear. Deriding mass formation and dismissing its influence during a global crisis is in itself a verification of the phenomenon. Mainstream media demonstrates how it perpetuates mass formation by indulging in another well-accepted psychological phenomenon: denial. Considering the degree of unwillingness to confront the reality of ineffectiveness and dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines, an evaluation of the news media’s response to the current plague can also be deemed delusional.
The Syndrome Persists: In recent decades, studies have shown that psychological problems are increasing geometrically. Rather than attempting to reverse this dysfunction, powerful forces in government and the corporate press continue to mislead and prey on an expanding susceptible population, who in the face of crisis, cling to authority. It is the vulnerability of dissatisfied populations that allows mass formation.
Desmet suggests that a number of factors, including; isolation, a sense that life is meaningless - and particularly free-floating anxiety, frustration and aggression - independently or in unison, can lead to mass formation and its repercussions.
Jung also viewed precursors to dysfunction in the context of a modern age where the “State” and “Scientific Rationalism” play critical roles in supporting mass formation, saying: “Science supplies us with, instead of the concrete individual, the names of organizations and, at the highest point, the abstract idea of the State as the principle of political reality. Apart from agglomerations of huge masses of people, in which the individual disappears anyway, one of the chief factors responsible for psychological mass-mindedness is scientific rationalism, which robs the individual of his foundations and his dignity. As a social unit he has lost his individuality and become a mere abstract number in the bureau of statistics. He can only play the role of an interchangeable unit of infinitesimal importance.”
The concept of mass formation and its relevance to the pandemic are undeniable when our current crisis is examined carefully, particularly when the inadequacies and inconsistencies of prevention and treatment are analyzed and understood.
Vaccines were initially presented as the only viable way to stem a deadly disease. A subsequent admission that they did not stop transmission was revealed in the context that they continued to be effective and safe. Any serious analysis of these claims confirms this also is a fabrication.
There is an important and viable inquiry asking how a false and deadly narrative continues to be accepted. Policies supporting repressive controls and ongoing vaccination have no foundation other than nonsensical dictates and support from a public bolstered with questionable data, prodded to near-hysteria.
The very forces that are responsible for the false narrative can only take a defensive position when light is shed on their methodology. The dogmatic negation of the idea that a mass formation is responsible for blind compliance and irrational acceptance of dangerous therapies is striking and revelatory.
As time passes, the induced fear and coerced consent will continue to be exposed as part of a scheme promoting selfish interests, and verifiably nothing to do with good health. Eventually this epoch will be recognized for its essential impetus; the nefarious entrancement of a vulnerable world."
