Debt Rattle June 1 2022

If I can get just one of you to read this wonderful story, my day is good.

I read it. Wonderful story.
I had initially read about Justo Gallego Martínez many years ago…I’d forgotten about him…thanks for this update… 🙂

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Riding in the Bois de Boulogne (Madame Henriette Darras or The Ride) 1873

A vanity portraiture?
I don’t much like it; Madame Henriette Darras’ horse is poorly drawn…IMHO…

“Chicago ‘Mass Shootings’? 52 Shot, 10 Killed over Memorial Day Weekend”

No interest. Another decade goes by, one deadly weekend at a time. Hey, maybe they should try gun control! I hear that’s working great in Baltimore, NYC, and L.A.

Same thing in Toronto. A couple cidiots can’t hold their liquor and guns are outlawed for every rural Canuck who’s been responsible for generations. When Trudeau posted it, the immediate comment was the video of a snowmobiler being charged by a bull moose in Canada. Gee, why does a nation filled with grizzy bears, polar bears, and bull moose need handguns? Not being a man, Trudeau will never know.

And why would they need to be 9mm and above, Biden asks. No one needs that for personal defense. So the Secret Service is changing out to .22lr and BB guns. I mean, if they are too much for personal protection, it starts at home, right?

<sigh>

Typical, garden variety tyranny. Rules don’t apply to me, I’m special. If one person does something, everybody gets punished. Thinking of France’s Nazi occupation, where a couple Resistance attacks then had whole towns shot in a ditch. Great for morale, but totally expected. Stupid is as stupid does. People won’t believe until it happens to them personally, then they’re too down low to fight.

Russians finish taking Luhansk, which will shortly free up thousands of more men for use elsewhere. If I were them, I’d put out “we’re losing” narratives to the press on purpose. They’re so far up each other’s -sses, they sniff their own farts and it makes them astonishingly complacent and disoriented. It’s like Kryptonite to narcissists to pretend you’re weak to them while mining and tunneling, they can’t stop preening and talking about how great they are like Dr. Evil. Keep them talking about their master plan…

It’s really amazing these guys win anything with such glaring weaknesses. What does that say about the rest of us that we play along?

Oh, and on the war front, “Massive Fire Breaks out at Poultry Farm that Supplies Eggs to Major Supermarkets” Probably hit by a small plane after a train derailed.

Every action hits only the food system. Protect yourself.

On the other front, EU says they’re looking into Price Controls on Russian energy. Uh, sure! If you don’t want the energy. Russia isn’t going to give it to you for free. …Watch their actions, is “We’re going to get this for free” not their go-to assumption for a year now? If not 3 decades? “Yeah, sorry, we’re useless and broke, can’t pay/won’t pay, too busy playing on our iPhones. …Whaddya mean you won’t ship gas and nickel to us for free??? We’re going to attack you with the army we don’t have since we were too busy going broke and playing on our iPhones to notice.” …Thank God. Or there actually WOULD be a war.

Janet Yellen: “I was wrong.” Okay then, you’re fired and we’re clawing back your back salary and donating it to the poor. And arresting all the Fed officials for insider trading. What, no? I guess nobody is actually mad then.

And no discussion at all about how it’s really Covid that killed all these people. That is, their unnecessary lockdowns that the WHO and CDC say didn’t work. …Which is why they’re doing them again. Lockdowns required printing…well, who can count the trillions, really? And that printing caused hyperinflation like every other time in history. Hyperinflation then causes death like every other time in history, so the lockdowns that didn’t work killed more people than Covid itself.

…Like I said, although taking huge red X on being wrong with the timing. YEARS delay. Nevertheless, here we are, “Covid” causes supply chain breaks, no supplies, shortages, high prices, and…pretty shortly here, death. Mostly via crime, I expect, not starvation per se.

It was all completely illegal. No laws were passed. So I’m more after St. Fauci right now than Yellen, although dozens of easily proven felonies and even broad civil rights violations were committed by both.

“The FBI Maintains a Workspace Inside the Law Firm of Perkins Coie (CTH) “

Yup. And were acquitted of even the smallest wrongdoing.

“ Who Is John Durham Targeting Next? (ET)”

Did he target them the first time? Or “Oopsie” the trial to make sure it would fail? With no double-jeopardy. Why would I assume a guy plays patty-cake and won’t can’t convict is the good guy?

“Ukraine Official Fired over Handling of Russian Sexual Assault Claims (NW)”

No wonder Ukraine is the 51st state: they spoke, therefore they lied. How American of them.

“Europe Now Cheats or Suffers (Vilches)”

So Europe is going to cut the gas on themselves going into the winter. Good plan. Of course they are genociding the poor. Which was their plan all along, so it’s #Winning. And they can blame Russia. Death everywhere, what’s not to like?

Reminding I’m sure you all know, refineries are very specific and it takes huge time and stunning money to adjust them. So refusing Urals will likely sideline the refineries, perhaps permanently. Then it’s inefficient to buy in the completely wrong crude, so Europe will buy in finished petrol and diesel instead. That will backlog every other refinery on earth. China then gets the world’s biggest discount, while Europe pays 5x for what they used to get at market. With certain shortages. This will then pile on according to money, so Europe may drain itself overpaying for no reason, not hurting Russia in the slightest, but will shut off fuel throughout Africa and the 3rd world, or what remains of that former institution, now evolving into the Global South.

So: Lose, lose. Lose lose lose. And Lose Ukraine, which is lost already. Europeans will take anything, though. Like any alcoholic, abusive family, we just don’t discuss. They will die for the lie, rather than admit. Let things get to continent-wide crisis, as they do every 80 years for generations long before Napoleon. They love it! Or they wouldn’t keep doing it with such murderous dedication.

Oh and two things you also know: Oil is the master resource. It isn’t like losing the hazelnut market. Two, Energy is like 99% correlated with national GDP. Energy = GDP. So no energy in Germany? That’s right, no GDP. No factories, no business, no bread as Finland found out. No food on lorries, no down comforters moving ‘cause your house won’t be heated from October to May. What is “money” going to do for you then? Almost nothing.

Complete. Civilizational. Suicide.

You do you. We’ll be smoking crack and shooting guns and won’t notice. Don’t put yourselves out on our account.

“Inside a Biden White House Adrift (NBC)”

Speaking of smoking crack. But the news here is NBC reports it. That hasn’t happened since I was a child. Probably the day after Project Mockingbird. Oh: Most popular President in American history! 80 million votes, 4 million more votes than voters.

Their solution, and the sole focus of NBC? “No woman or person of color has ever been the White House chief of staff since the position was created after World War II.”

That’s right, Behold the power of Melanin!!! One person of melanin, and Poof! 20% inflation and no baby formula, losing WWIII after blowing $60B in weapons to goatherders, all gone!!!

Because: race! Some races are superior to others. And what sort of people, parties, news organizations advocate choosing, promoting, thinking about people based solely on race and not merit? Would that be, “racist ones”? I’m just saying if you flap your arms and quack like a duck…

“47 African Nations Have Blocked the WHO Amendments (SB)“

5 of them had instant mysterious deaths last time. But they have melanin so nobody listens to what they say, their opinions don’t matter, and their Science isn’t real. In fact, we should probably kick them out of the White House Press Corp. So say the Administration!

Interesting,

Peak to trough ~90 days
Peak to peak ~180 days

Brief trip back into Covid data today:

Promising news from South Africa, where the BA.4 / BA.5 variant wave has passed quietly, with high levels of immunity meaning this wave has had little impact on rates of severe illness or death pic.twitter.com/C5W6iZzDLK

— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) May 30, 2022

4/1 – Izyum (retreated)
4/18 – Kremennays (retreated)
5/8 – Popasnaya (retreated)
5/12 – Rubezhnoye (retreated)
5/20 – Mariupol (surrendered)
Soon- Severodonetsk (in retreat)

With the battle for Severodonetsk becoming a lost cause, the Ukrainians seem determined to get as much ranged weaponry as possible for a significant attempt to degrade Russian forces from a distance. Then what, guerrilla style warfare behind the Donbas line?

It’s debatable (could be intentional) but the Russians have not been able to dominate the air over the battlefield so by and large we have witnessed a reliance on massive artillery barrages to take these towns and cities.

Did Russia really plan for this bloody war of attrition? Russia may be counting on to a long war to test the West’s true commitment to Ukraine’s defense & ability to reclaim its territory.

It’s seems like a frozen conflict is a probability and then east/west Ukraine? Somehow I suspect Putin wants more than that, maybe not all of Ukraine, but certainly Kyiv, preferably in tact not reduced to rubble.

Russia has complex and ongoing frenemy relationships with Israel and Turkey. Right now, Syria is getting clobbered as these countries see how far they can push the bear and gain advantage while Russia is occupied in Europe.

Israel is not the only foreign power escalating against Syria. Turkey is also attempting to take advantage of the Ukrainian conflict, which is keeping Russia busy and the US in need of all of its NATO allies.
On May 23, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara will launch a new military operation in Syria against Kurdish forces, mainly the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in an effort to link up two areas already under Turkish control in the northern and northeastern regions of the country.
Erdogan said the operation would aim to resume Turkish efforts to create a 30 kilometers “safe zone” along its border with Syria.
SDF-held Minaq will likely be one of the main targets of any upcoming operation against the SDF, along with the towns of Tell Rifaat and Manbij in the northern Aleppo countryside and the town of Kobane in the governorate’s northeastern countryside. Several units of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the Russian Military Police are present near all of these towns.
On May 25, the Turkish military deployed massive reinforcements in the areas held by its proxies.
On the same day, a series of Turkish artillery strikes targeted towns and villages held by the SDF in the northern Aleppo countryside, the northern Raqqa countryside and the northern countryside of al-Hasakah.
A new operation against the SDF in Syria could boost the chances of Erdogan and his party, the Justice and Development party, in the upcoming Turkish elections in 2023.
Overall, it appears that Syria will experience a new phase of violence this summer as regional powers are attempting to secure points in the war-torn country before the conflict in Ukraine reaches its end. https://southfront.org/israel-and-turkey-escalate-against-syria/

“Freeing the slaves”? Russia supports African peoples in their demand for complete decolonization — Lavrov
Russia played a leading role in the decolonization of Africa and it supports the Africans in their demand for the full liberation of the continent from colonialism, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a reception on the occasion of Africa Day for the ambassadors of African countries accredited in Russia in Moscow on Wednesday. https://tass.com/politics/1455785?utm

In a rare show of African power and solidarity, several African member states objected to proposed International Health Regulations amendments, discussed at the World Health Assembly 75 this week – a move many believe might shake up the World Health Organization’s dominance.
A well placed source shared: “The resolution on IHR amendments was not passed at the WHA, as African countries were concerned that there was inadequate consultation amongst member states, and the process was being rushed. Botswana read the statement on behalf of the 47 AFRO members and I was personally present.”
Africa objects to US proposal on controversial IHR (WHO) amendments

@Chooch: Russia is de-Nazifying and de-militarizing Ukraine as long as the Nazis and military keep presenting themselves to Russian artillery. It’s a sad form of cooperation, with many middle-aged conscripts sitting in trenches in the meat-grinder.

John,

That’s certainly what Putin would want everyone to believe. Just changing my focal length. It appears there are Nazis being lead by war criminals on both sides.

In Luongo recent commentary he asks, “What would you do to survive? To protect your family? Your position? Your conception of yourself? Everyone’s morality has limits.”

When I was “doom scrolling” the other day I came across a video of a line Ukrainian soldier pinned down in a trench being fired upon by a group of Russian soldiers. All human, someone’s brother?son? father? Yet all convinced the other is less than human.

How do you get to be that guy in trench? The ones firing upon him? The guy holding the camera? Could I have found myself in such a situation had I made different choices in my youth? Will I find myself in such a situation in the future?

PRIVACY, FREE WILL, AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB
The greatest right is privacy.
It is the one most jealously guarded by the privileged: they have it- you don’t. This is why tyrants snoop, and why the snoops must be controlled by the tyrants. It was inevitable that the State and business would merge, as business collects data (aka: your private information).
Privacy is the right you gave up when you annexed a smart phone to your arm. It’s the one violated by “data collection”.
It is the one most viciously attacked by the plandemic; it’s the one digital currency most threatens.

Without privacy you can’t relax. If you can’t relax, you will be paranoid, anxious, depressed.
The Web filled a need to associate but- unlike old-fashioned human connection which implied loyalty and discretion- Web association is not private (unless you are privileged- this is why loyalty is so strong among the privileged).

The only solution I can see to the current situation- which is a dire as humanity has ever faced- is to detach that phone. At this juncture, you have the free will to do so- but it is fast slipping away.
Carry it only when you need it. Turn it off until you use it. Be wary around those who won’t detach from it. Be brave, and get rid of it altogether.

I lamented when I was required to have a credit card to do certain things. I saw what was coming. I still don’t own a smart phone, and my flip phone is now dead. The smartphone still gives carrots, which deplorables don’t deserve, so the embedded chip is coming soon. They will carry the sticks.

The coming civil wars will be the Connected vs the Unconnected.
Funny- it’s always been that way. It’s only the tech that has changed.

Okay- sorry this line of thought became a bit scrambled. This is when I would normally try to condense it into a ditty. I’ll work on it.

The extra legs are the legs of the larger horse- which is not well-drawn, as mentioned. Her horse is frothing- fix the damned bit, lady!

“So refusing Urals will likely sideline the refineries, perhaps permanently. Then it’s inefficient to buy in the completely wrong crude, so Europe will buy in finished petrol and diesel instead. That will backlog every other refinery on earth. China then gets the world’s biggest discount, while Europe pays 5x for what they used to get at market. With certain shortages…”

What I’d be interested in seeing is how the next World War between The West and The Rest goes. The West and its new All Electric Military should be a smashing success.

It is now [more] obvious that the EU politicians do not serve ‘the people’. Who do they serve? Is it the WEF, the US, oligarchs like Gates or Soros, or do they expect to be personally rewarded in the future?

If they can casually create a future where much of EU industry will fail putting millions out of work and making the coming depression even worse then they are dangerous. The EU could end up with an economy more like post-war Germany or post Soviet Russia.

Their method is bizarre. It is like threatening to put a shopkeeper out of business but expecting the shopkeeper to keep up essential supplies until they are ‘ready’, perhaps ignoring the idea that the shopkeeper will get customers elsewhere.

My mental image is imagining Russia and the EU as two rock-climbers. The EU is dangling from Russia on a rope, but the EU is trying to cut through the rope to ‘teach Russia a lesson’!

The owners can only visualize a world where they remain “the owners”.
They have to remain upon our backs as we sink and try to swim.
That position is bad for us.
We can visualize many other alternatives, and take baby-steps ourselves.
We will meet others taking baby-steps, and cooperate, and solve-problems in cooperative working groups,
our forte’.
What will “the owners” do if they can’t stay on our backs?

“ Biden is rattled by his sinking approval ratings and is looking to regain voters’ confidence that he can provide the sure-handed leadership he promised during the campaign, people close to the president say.”

I have a very difficult time believing that Biden is mentally capable of understanding his “approval ratings,” “voters’ confidence,” or remembering any of his campaign promises. Of course, that is why it isn’t BIDEN who says these things, but rather, “people close to the president” — i.e. Biden’s handlers. Because he is a puppet with a fading mind.

To get idea how inverted, paradoxical, perverted (choose your term) the perspective can be, take a look at how the “other side”, the Emptywheel crew sees the Sussman thing:

“As to the Russian hack-and-leak, Sussmann’s team facilitated the process with a summary exhibit they included showing a selection of FBI communications pertaining to the investigation that either involve or mention Sussmann. Sussmann introduced these documents to show how obvious his ties to the Democrats would have been to the FBI, including to some people involved in the Alfa Bank investigation. A few of these communications refute specific claims Durham made, showing that meetings or communications Durham argued must relate to the Alfa Bank effort could be explained, in one case far more easily, as part of the hack-and-leak response. That is, some of these documents show that Durham was taking evidence of victimization by Russia and using it instead to argue that Sussmann was unfairly victimizing Trump.”

I think what Wheeler means is the FBI should have known Sussman was working for the Clinton campaign and not visiting FBI Hqtrs as a private citizen as he said to FBI Baker “I’m a concerned private citizen in this matter”. And now we know why Sussman’s attorneys took this position during the trial because those lawyers knew all along that the FBI had “offices” Sussman’s employer’s building that of Perkins Coie.
Wheeler goes on to argue like all good Wingwomen and Flying monkeys that Michsel Sussman, the man, was harmed by the alleged Alfabank, Russiagate, Trump kompromat imbroglio and not President Trump. That qualifies as Herculean effort in blame-shifting, deflection and psychological projection. Particularly she submits to the logic the FBI, the press, Durham and Trump all harmed poor Michael Sussman by not doing their jobs correctly BEFORE Sussman was ever prosecuted.

Renoir painting…going to have to show the 6 legged horse to my daughter who is learning to draw proportional people….

My parents said know:
Your words today got me to look up and notice that the smartTV was off but still connected to power. I walked over and flipped the surge protector switch that provides power to attached but turned off smart TV, computer, and Xbox. I made a mental note to remember to shut the WiFi off on the iPad I am using right now when I have finished my morning reading, and recalled my intention to eventually route my cell phone calls to my VOIP number when I am home…and then train myself to shut off the smartphone when I’m home. (Still need to find a way to get my text messages when phone is shut off.).

For this is how we are controlled and surveilled: by giving us aids that are so convenient, sparing us the trouble of remembering or understanding technology or walking across the room to flip a switch or look through the door’s peephole. (At the beginning of the pandemic, with my children home all day, the first thing I taught them was how to use their own computers — how the file system worked, the parts of a web browser. Schools do not teach these things — they throw them at the children and expect them to pick it up. And the children do just “pick it up” but most only understand on only a very surface level — missing out on the back story — getting used by the technology as it records their every digital move — and not understanding how to make the technology their servant.) To get out of this trap requires planning, thought, and *effort*!

Justo,, The human spirit. Literally!

@zerosum — “The elites believe that they will be able to escape the kill zone of an atomic blast/energy shortfall/failing distribution network/food shortfall/pandemic/etc and survive in the ruins of the remaining civilization.”

Well said, sir. Very well said
It does seem as if they are exactly that delusionally short-sighted. Perhaps that’s what is behind the “you will own nothing and you will be happy” schtick: the ruling elites will be served and provided for by those of us serfs (slaves) which they allow to remain alive. Hasn’t that been their plan through the entire recorded history of “civilization”?

Dr D Rich- I used to follow firedoglake back in the mid-naughties. I was sure it was where I first read moon of Alabama. I changed as the DFL was cannibalized by the DNC. To use a quote from those days: That was Clinton’s fault!”
I’ve mentioned before that Hillary’s russiarussiarussia slur -which had the ability to get www3 going- was one of the most evil things I’ve ever seen.
I think she’d like that. (shudder)
Phoenix- of all the changes that have happened these last two-plus decades, the “smart phone” is the most pernicious. It’s the “national ID” that everyone hated. It’s heroin on-call. It’s a false friend and a fake brain. And they’re going to be near-impossible to eradicate. A jammer would be a handy thing- I don’t even like going to parties anymore, ’cause I’ll end up in a photo or bored stiff by a scroller.
The day I’m told I have to carry one (or a smartwatch or get chipped), will be the day I go underground, one way or the other.