Debt Rattle October 25 2022

Rembrandt van Rijn Self portrait 1642

The master masters…

The ‘War of Terror’ May Be About To Hit Europe (Escobar)
I assume that the readers of TAE know that Escobar is employed directly by the Chinese Communist Party
as a writer for The Global Times based in Hong Kong , the CCP’s major English speaking propaganda platform?
“Fuck off Australia, stick to killing your own people with a few more death jabs.”
We are waiting for Putin to send us more of that good Russian goo , that is if Putin hasn’t taken it all himself.
The idea that Russia is prolonging the war as a tactical advantage is so dumb , illogical that is . If Putin wanted to prolong the war they would just dig in , create a really strong defensive line bring in the artillery and hold it. Why would you retreat from territory it took months of combat with heavy cost in time , money and treasure to take knowing you are going to have to do it all over again? That is nonsensical.
The fact is that the Russians do not have the capability to hold the line and all this talk of 5D chess is just BS conjured up to mask the truth , it is the sinking of the Kursk again. Russian military dickheads are making excuses for their failings. Remember the West had to come in and save the day then , that the Navy lied to the Russian people and Putin to cover their own arses?….for months they claimed the sinking was the result of a collision with a US sub? How dumb would you be to think that a US sub could sail away from a collision that registers in Norway as 3.5 on the Richter scale and then keep on telling the Russian people that BS for months after the event when every one already knew it was BS?

Meanwhile the Chinx have blown a real estate bubble that would make Wall st . blush.

Some people think Russia should go all in. Empty out Russia, use the bombs, finish off Kiev in a day.

…While knowing NATO is waiting for them. Waiting for them to be depleted, waiting to be overextended, waiting for any escalation that can mobilize NATO and Western Europe.

If they don’t do this, but keep most of their arms to defend their OWN country, sending only 1/3 of the numbers that the Ukrainian army has, then they’re failures for being too slow and not winning enough. …Although the winning already has revealed NATO’s hand and their intent.

Okay, well, I guess they’re all useless weaklings then, fighting Ukraine with 1/3 the recommended forces just cause they can’t count to ten. No, I’ll stick with my present theory, thanks. Yeah it sucks to be advancing when the defenders outnumber you 3:1 AND the home field advantage is commonly considered 3:1. So 6:1 against. With 1,000km front. And wars are the creators of phrases “SNAFU”, “FUBAR”, and “BOHICA.” — If things are going well, the enemy isn’t doing their job. With the most advanced satellites ever created on planet earth reporting on you.

No, things are going as well as can be expected. Maybe Ukraine held out a little longer, but for what gain? Fewer men and fewer countrymen for generations? Oh well. And what’s the other side? Kiev’s going to occupy Moscow? Where’s this going? A country the size of France thinks they can occupy 12 time zones?

“30 House Dems Urge Dramatic Shift in Biden’s Ukraine Policy: ‘Get Serious about Diplomacy or Risk Nuclear Miscalculation’”

Wha Wha Wha Wha? Watching, ‘cause surely this can’t be real. There is no anti-war alarm. There are no anti-war protests. What’s the point? We’re not in a democracy, and didn’t work the last 30 years. 50 years, since Vietnam? Can see how nations are shoved into war if they burrow long enough. And history will report “we the people didn’t care.” No, but historians are brown-nosers who’ll believe anything the Government PR releases say. We did care, but aren’t wasting our time either.

“Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,”

So those 30 Congressmen seem to think the U.S. is running the war or they would ask Ze and not Biden. I guess those Congressmen don’t know what they’re talking about except Biden said “Support the war” “We’re in the war” “We’ll support the war to the end” and sent $50B War dollars there, no questions asked.

But: Silly Russia! We’re not in the war that the President and Congress say we’re in! When you’re bombed, it’s them, not us!

Oh and also: They sent a strongly-worded letter? Uh-huh. Oh no, Karen, whatever shall we do? They spoke to the manager.

…Apparently we’re now buying Russian oil in bulk. Oh wait: it’s okay since they rebranded it “Chinese” oil. …Who we are also at war with. Why? Because Brandon already stole the multi-billion dollar SPR kitty and blew it on election rigging. So he’s both stealing, AND election tampering AND giving aid and comfort to the enemy. No charges. Give Russia and China all the money you want, THEN give Ukraine and Taiwan all the money you want. …Because it’s not their money. It’s ours. And no price it too high to pay when somebody else is footing the bill.

“Israel Destroys Iranian Drone-Making Plant in Syria”

…But it’s not an act of war when WE do it. Surely Iran should blow up a Jerusalem pharmaceutical plant just to be fair, right?

Glad you covered the “Biden Passed the Student Loan Bill” quote. That’s just…beyond. And it’s jsut like his lifetime of plagiarism and lies: somehow nobody cares. It’s always okay when he does it and gets the most black men imprisoned in the history of the world.

Gas: that is not a stable chart. Are there derivatives attached to these markets? Because it’s hard to see how somebody doesn’t go under and take a cross-default chain with them. Like Credit Suisse? But never DeutscheBank, well known to be the largest and worst shape, also in the direct center of both bankruptcies and energy markets. With no Fed swapline. No, never. This is fine. Everything’s fine.

““..the UK “rejected Russia’s allegations that Ukraine is planning actions to escalate the conflict.”

Shoigu would not have called if he didn’t have the names and addresses of the people in the plan. And their MI6 connections. So, do we get to hear any of it? Nope. They just “rejected it”. Trust your government’s war department: when have they ever lied? Yellowcake, mushroom clouds, WMD and ties to al-Qaeda, they’ll greet us with flowers, dominoes, Agent Orange is safe as water, remember the Maine, the Indians attacked us, and we never cracked the Japanese code in the Pacific.

“Ukraine is facing its harshest winter,”

This seems unlikely unless they’re putting babies in pots. However, I have to say that was back when population was low and everyone collected firewood, which is no longer true. So lacking even the infrastructure and tradition…that’s pretty bad. What do you do, ship and build 12 million kachelofens at 500 kilos a piece? So Europe has granted refugee status to all 43 million Ukrainians, right? Surely they have a better claim than a 5 million migrants that crossed 10 safe countries but thought the job prospects were better in Denmark than India.

I could say the same about pot-bellied stoves here. Most places we have enough wood for a township lying around in old lots and roadsides, unused, but there’s no social or physical mechanism to use it. Nor can there be when U.S. law is broken.

“The Ukrainian government employs the same tactics as Al-Qaeda in its conflict with Moscow,”

Normally this is over the top. State entities are not the same as non-state entities, and yes, governments are foundationally a local mafia and protection racket from the get-go. But in this case, both Ukie and Al-Q are expressly run by the same people: Langley. The guys who just nuked Germany. Openly. In fact, better than nuked them, via energy. And made them shut up about it, too.

“If Russia alleges that Ukraine is preparing something, it means only one thing: that Russia itself is preparing it,” Zelensky said”

Wow, you guys are geniuses! “I am rubber, you are glue…” Um, back in the real world, we provide a thing called “evidence”? To support your allegations? Anyone remember that? It’s written into every news department, every embassy, and every court of law worldwide. No? Well, carry on then: we haven’t needed evidence in 50 years and aren’t going to start now.

“We cannot keep the station safe without guarding it,”

Sure you can! That’s the same argument we have here about outlawing guns! If all the good people are unarmed, all the bad people will suddenly become good and not like violence anymore! You can see we believe it since we’re disarming our own military right now!

““…the idea that Russia and the US will just fight an infantry war and cordially accept the results is ridicu-fucking-lous..”

But everyone told me – Petreaus, Graham, Senators, CIA directors, generals – that we can just nuke the Russian Army and they’ll just sit around and take it? What fresh hell is this? And we really REALLY are a-gonna win with a 10,000 mile, trans-ocean supply chain and zero manufacturing against Russia with a 0 mile supply chain and open mines and factories. “Always fight your wars across two continents at the end of a 10,000 mile supply chain,” –Lao Tsu.

“I’d vote for fucking AOC if she vowed to not give another dime to Ukraine and push for a peace settlement.”

She already did promise that. Then she already lied and voted for Ukraine anyway. Then cried “victim”, “Color”, “women”, “feared for my life” when her district yelled at her about it.

“ Potential Mass Layoffs At Twitter Could Cripple Content Moderation (ABC)”

Oh no: people might speak and hear things. Whatever shall we do? Surely we must expend all the energy in the country stopping people from existing as people.

“Cheney: Trump Won’t Be Allowed to Turn Jan. 6 Testimony into ‘Circus’ (Hill)”

Liz is the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t she? Never stop. The DNC funds all our campaigns, in huge amounts. Surely we’re funding hers, right?

“Hunter Biden’s Laptop Documents at Least 459 Legal Violations (DW) “

If anyone had doubts that the law only applies to the little people, us.

“Plastic recycling has turned out to be a “failed concept” used by global corporations as a “smokescreen,”

As us cynics said at the time. Greenpeace and others had gotten the edge on pollution, so corporations supported “recycling” therefore, all their useless consumerism and quadruple packaging – now octouple packaging thanks to Amazon – would be YOUR FAULT. You smelly consumers who didn’t recycle like slave-harvesting Coke and Foxconn told you to! “Do What You’re Told!!!” …Worked like a charm.

…Of course, here, Greenpeace only notices FORTY YEARS after they’ve been scammed. I’m sorry, Greenpeace: too soon? The news on recycle rates came in ONE YEAR after broad recycling began. We’ve known every year since then. Still consumering. Still quadruple packaging. Still not re-using, jars or coke bottles.

And if you think plastic is bad, try glass: it takes much more energy to re-cast it. Here’s the problem though: people have to be mature and responsible and not poison every bottle before returning it for refill. And we are not (social) agreement capable.

“It’s hard to escape the awful feeling that Western Civ has a death wish”

Yes. They are #AntiLogos. The opposite of #Logos is their god. The opposite of the “Way, the Truth, and the Light.” Therefore they are anti-Logic, anti-Reality, anti-Honesty, anti-Practical, and anti-Life. This is not hyperbole or slander, this is literal and accurate truth. They HAVE a death wish. They ARE Anti-Life. Abort your latest baby today! Kill 9 and the 10th is free! …What sort of people or culture think, feel and behave this way? One with a death wish, that worships and elevates holidays of death, fear, horror, and darkness like Halloween as their biggest day of the year.

And on Kunstler’s article, Yes, the Bank of England immediately attacked the Prime Minister. By attacking Britain as a country, the British currency, and the people of Britain themselves. And they won, so they put in the head of Goldman Sachs for themselves. Not even trying to hide it: Goldman Sachs now runs England. Any questions?

“I Hope People Can Imagine the Scale of What Is Happening Here (Hodkinson)”

Nope. Zero recognition here in these parts. They could kill 5-10x as many without alarm, I guess.

“La Nina Transforms Australian Desert Into Wetlands” Well that can’t be right. Climate Change is always a wind that blows nobody any good. There can be no positives at all. That’s Science. Not bias and propaganda a bit. Must. Stop. The Green. Don’t worry: if there are a few too many raindrops where the deserts are greening, they’ll complain and call disaster, we’re all gonna die.

“CNN says Reduce pets”

CNN also says if you want more food, get rid of cows. And be sure to make those varieties go extinct while you’re at it. When you’re #AntiLogos, cows are the #Opposite of food. So if you want #Life, choose #Death!

“The Moorish invention that tamed Spain’s mountains”

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221011-the-moorish-invention-that-tamed-spains-mountains

We must never install one of these. We must, must curse BOTH the rains, AND the droughts, and then God thereafter. If you have one of these where you live, ignore it and pretend all the landscape around you is natural. Never get a wooden stick and a pair of sandals and make one.

Self delusion. Okay, I should write this sober, but what the hell.

My wife and I are staying in Penghu, an island in the Taiwan Strait. We are staying with a boat captain who has a few B&Bs. It is the off season, the B&B has no other paying guests, it is very windy (we are here to windsurf, so that is good), and he has a lot of his mates staying for free. They are all boat captains, they all own their own boats, apart from one guy who is a business man, owns a machine tool company on the main Taiwan island, he’s worth a ton of cash, and he is taking the boat captain exams so that he can go fishing, he is going to the local school. The B&B owner is a senior, respected guy in town.

They are the most welcoming people you could ever meet. The boss insists that every night we all eat together, on his tab in his dining room. We always eat loads of fish. We have been down the docks on a few mornings to select fish as the boats come in, then in the evening we eat them, usually at least three fish dishes plus a sashimi dish etc.

Anyway, today the topic moves to Xi Jinping and the congress and Hu jintao. When I asked them what they thought Xi would be remembered for, they unanimously said “Invading Taiwan” and when I asked them why they disliked Xi, they all said “because he is threatening Taiwan, flying his jets in our airspace etc”. When I asked them whether they wanted the USA to fight with them if China invades, they unanimously said “no, the Chinese kill other Chinese, we do not want outsiders to get involved”. Then they told me that they thought Xi would start a short war and Taiwan would beat back China. Yes, I was astonished that they would think that their 26 million could defeat 1.5 billion, but that is what they truely believe, and, some of them want the war to be sooner rather than later, to get it over with. They are all passionate about being independent, all willing to fight the Chinese to save their children (and for some, their grand children) from suffering under the Chinese.

Make what you will of that!

Re “Zero Covid Hell”
—————————————

Shortish snip from recent interview: Louis-Vincent Gave: The Xi Pivot vs. The Powell Pivot

… Xi Jinping having basically put himself in charge, put himself in a situation where A) of course nobody wanted to contradict him and B) there was really no turning back. And I think one of the big problems for China and I’m sure you’ve met people like this in the past couple years, is that it by all accounts, it looks like Xi Jinping is one of these people that is deeply COVID paranoid. And I’ve met a lot of people like this, of course. You know, colleagues, friends, and to some extent, the more people read about COVID, the more they became paranoid about it, right? Which makes sense, the more you read about a disease, the scarier it looks typically. So I think Xi Jinping decided I’m going to be in charge of this, I’m going to read everything there is about it. And the more you read, the more you freaked himself out. And so you get stuck in the situation we’re in. Now, the one sort of, perhaps, sort of silver lining to this pretty dark cloud, is that when you look at the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Communist Party is first and foremost in the game of providing social stability. […]

Link: https://macrovoices.podbean.com/e/macrovoices-346-louis-vincent-gave-the-xi-pivot-vs-the-powell-pivot/

… fwiw,

F.S.

Going Nuclear

Recently Russia claimed that a nuclear weapon would be exploded in Ukraine and blamed on Russia. Russia would know the weapon would have been supplied by the West and would assume it would be used as a pretext to send a nuclear strike against Russia. It would not be unlikely that Russia would decide to strike first. Instant WWIII!

A ‘Dirty Bomb’ could conceivably be created by the Ukraine without outside help so could be regarded as less threatening. If carried out it would depend on how severe the result was. It may be that Russia would feel the need to respond, perhaps by nuking Kiev. The West would then have a short time to decide whether to start WWIII or not.

If the result of the dirty bomb was extreme then Russia may feel the need to go further. Russia has claimed that the UK is involved and Russia promised their first nuke would be aimed at London, so they may feel the need to target London. Again the West would need to decide whether to sacrifice themselves to avenge an attack on London.

In Syria Russia often published details of planned false flag operations in order to make it suspicious if they still went ahead. I assume this is what they are trying to do here, hopefully with success.

It is incredible that any of the above is plausible. The risks far outweigh any possible rewards.

But I found it hard to believe that the Chinese, intelligent as they are, would not realize the mess in which they find themselves with their insistence on evidently ineffective “Zero Covid” policies.

This is a very interesting issue that needs further research. In China, all children are first taught to read and write, it takes many years for them to learn their language and the teaching method is memorisation through repetition. This mode of teaching is now everywhere in China.

As I mentioned earlier, I am staying at a B&B with some boat captains and a person going to “boat captain” school. Today the person went to the class, signed in at 17:30 (the class starts at 18:00) and then left and came back to the B&B. We quizzed him about what today’s lesson was about and he, a man in his fifties, told us that the classroom lessons only involved memorising previous exam questions. They are not taught the principles of navigation or anything like that, instead they are taught the navigation exam questions and the correct answers. You can miss a lesson and as long as you have the course work, you can memorise the exam questions at home. He told us that the absentee rate is enourmous and that about half the lessons are cancelled because only about 3 people turn up.

This is the way China teaches their children and adult students. It all starts with learning thousands of characters of the language and, given that method of teaching, ends up being the same method used in University and other schools. The student captain already knows how to captain a boat, he has friends who are captains and shown him how to do it, but he needs the exam to get the license. There are also plenty of people out there with a captain’s license who have no idea how to navigate between two points on a map.

Zero Covid fits perfectly into this framework of people who have a little knowledge but really have no idea what they are doing. The Chinese scientists who advised government obviously have no idea that their ambition, to eradicate all copies of a virus, is so-far unheard of in the real world. Without a real understanding of your subject beyond knowing the pertinent facts, you are a useless student.

@Redneck

USS San Francisco

Washington State University system cancels mandate for most employees

WSU to eliminate vaccine mandate for employees, contractors, and volunteers in most settings

Remember, this is the university that fired their head football coach for not getting vaccinated. They fired a lot of people, and had one of the most strict mandates in the country.

With the mandate gone through the courts in NYC what’s next? As I said earlier, word has it only 10% of employees are getting the booster who work for the University of California, do they cave next? What does this mean for the thousands (millions?) affected?

I took a 50k a year paycut (amazing to think about really) because of the mandate at UC. I’ve lost 100k in income over the past 2 years in my new job. I’m not rich, this was 30% of my salary, and I only started making in that range over the past 7 years, in my late 40s. I’ve got no regrets really, but the impact to my retirement and future, not to mention globally with so many having suffered huge setbacks, is really staggering.

I need sufficient energy to survive

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/10/media-continue-to-push-us-officials-said-claims-even-when-those-are-obvious-lies.html#more

Media Continue To Push ‘U.S. Officials Said’ Claims Even When Those Are Obvious Lies

The real function of those false assertions is to project Russia as weak, to deceive the U.S. public to keep up the support for the U.S. proxy war against Russia. That may or may not work. But as long as ‘journalists’ are willing to write down such nonsense there are also no costs to any of the ‘U.S. officials’ producing it.

They will only stop making up shit when they are called out for it.

Despite knowledge that the U.S. government officials are lying to them ‘journalists’ at major U.S. media continue to report their ‘not rock solid’ claims as facts.

The New York Times reports on the northern Kherson region, where new Russia troops deployments prevent a long planned Ukrainian attack:
A look at the map will immediately throw the last assertion into doubt.

The northern Kherson region on the right side of Dnieper river is a strategic launching pad that allows for future attacks in several directions – Mykolaiv, Odessa, Kryvy Rih, Nikolaiev, Dnipro and beyond. No officer who has learned a bit about wars would want to give up such a strategic position. That is why the assertion that commanders requested a retreat from that area strikes me as obviously false.

aspnaz quoted: Noirette said,

Afaik no med. explanation ever linked being fatter to being more impacted by covid..?

aspnaz responded:

Stats clearly show that being fatter is less healthy as in you are likely to suffer more medical issues and die earlier. That is unlike being super fit which makes you much less likely to suffer medical issues but does not extend your life. A “medical explanation” is not needed to verify risk statistics. A medical explanation is needed to verify any theory as to why this happens.

Risk stats. are not the be-all or even an explanation of bad outcomes.

What about:

Stats clearly show that in the USA, being black (vs. white) means you are likely to suffer more medical issues (many undiagnosed, untreated, ignored..imho) and, certainly, as all stats show, to die *far earlier* than whites.

Is this the result of black skin or black hair or black genes? I don’t think even aspnaz would say so. The causes are clearly broadly sociological, higher poverty rates, less med. insurance / coverage, jobs that expose them to more risk, living in bad conditions, poorer diet, etc. The cause is historical, not part of the decription of the present. (Slavery, prejudice, etc.) No med. rationale exists.

COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Race/Ethnicity: Current Data and Changes Over Time

They die more because they are looked down on, poorer, more vulnerable, have less social defenses, advocates, are more ‘expendable.’ And so it goes. If aspnaz doesn’t agree with this, I’d be very surprised.

How does such an argument not apply to fatter / obese ppl? Particularly as it applies to covid, which is a specific infection, and has nothing to do with needing a ‘walker’ or help to climb stairs or getting less ‘exercise’, etc. For sure, fatties are ‘less fit’ in the sense of not going on mountain climbs, winning in amateur swim competitions, doing sexy pole dancing, and so on..but why are they more set to die from covid? What is the medical explanation, beyond the social stereotype? That is what I meant was missing.

Bats
What a delight for a father (I assume) to be showing this to his kids, listening to their chirpy questions, and the father’s answers: “Butterflies? I don’t know if they eat them.”

Recycling Plastic a ‘failed concept’ (RT, Greenpeace)

Just let all the serfs be born and fed with a plastic spoon (of dubious durability) in their mouth.
—
Recycling plastic is, or rather would be, kind’s play compared with recycling electronic components like capacitors, resistors, Printed Circuit Boards, Transformers(!)… You might be able to extract one or two precious materials like copper or gold, but most gets molten or burnt, producing some interesting side-dishes like dioxin or mercury fumes.

@Aspnaz: Thanks for the insights regarding the views of the Taiwanese fishing-boat captains, a significant demographic, making their own way in the world. They see Xi as invading Taiwan. They see Taiwan as repulsing that invasion, better without “help” from the “west”.
Memorization is key to homogeneity, but it is not good for problem solving, as you point out.
Lock-step compliance is that way.

@Dr.D. Rich: Yes, China is responding in civil-defense fashion to biowarfare attacks. It is not just response, but it is also training. They don’t speak this as such…

@Redneck: Where is “the war”? Who are the competitors?
Is it not the waning western financial-globalist-neoliberal-neocolonial extraction system against the rising BRICS+ system, not yet corrupted, more egalitarian, and promising debt-repudiation against the westerners? Americans once played such a role under FDR…
Different “interests” cast “the war” in different lights, with different timelines and different participating factions. What explanation do you find with the least inconsistency? Do you have to make your own model of “reality”?

@Noirette: Inflammation: Obesity and loss of sleep are pro-inflammatory conditions. COVID-19 in the original format, largely killed through inflammation within the circulatory system, the blood-side of the lungs, and other vascular organs, like kidneys, liver, heart and brain.
Anti-inflammatory measures include adequate/optimal vitamin-D, a diet high in fresh vegetables, minimal food additives and processed carbohydrates, healthful oils, a baby-aspirin, some vitamin-C, some vitamin K2, daily activity, and plenty of sleep.
You can see how poor, obese people in northern climes would have a lot of pro-inflammatory overlap.

Next time you find yourself stuck talking to a Ukraine supporter, ask them if England should have intervened in the US civil war.

I see that Nate at CP talks about the coming extreme censorship that is coming in ‘free and democratic’ nations.

Why haven’t the Chinese population been “given the treatment”? [the fake vaccines] Nor the Russians, according to CP.

Interestingly, the NZ Internet is getting very ‘wobbly’, as the NZ economy is progressively demolished by the totalitarian fascistic globalists, and food and other prices surge. It took 3 minutes for a routine transaction to process at a commercial premises yesterday. And another transaction I attempted would not proceed at all. Meanwhile, access to Internet at home is increasingly fragile.

I am very aware that we could be cut off from real reporting and real news with no notice, or cut off altogether, and left to rot or fight amongst ourselves, if ‘the controllers’ deem that to be to their advantage.

I have to fully agree with Nate when he says: “It’s sad how brainwashed and mind-warped and easily misled people are…”

US sponsorship of agitators via giant tech companies to bring about ‘regime change’ in blatant violation of the UN Charter, and then the ensuing catastrophe for the previously stable nations targeted. 1953 revisited in the case of Iran.

Convince people to rise up and destroy their own country.

But this isn’t 1953. I can’t see Russia, China, India etc. allowing the meddling to continue for much longer.

12% of the world versus 88% are not good odds. Especially when the 88% have most of the resources and better technology. And are not fat and lazy and dumbed-down.

John Helmer:

“THE US SIGNALS READINESS TO LAUNCH NUCLEAR STRIKE AGAINST RUSSIA”