Debt Rattle April 29 2023

 

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  • #134337

    Fayum mummy. Portrait of a boy, with a golden pendant. between 50 BCE and 250 CE   • On War and Wars (James Howard Kunstler) • Russia Won’t Play
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 29 2023]

    #134338
    Dr. D
    Participant

    First Republic goes down in the standard Friday Night Special. Forced merger, shotgun wedding. So now vertical consolidation with less competition every day. No 13th bank, no 20th bank, lost 99% of their value in 2 months. I have the sense that this one is more important than the SVB and FTX runs.

    “When on Thursday the US Navy announced that Iranian commandos had seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, conveniently absent from the narrative was the fact that just days prior the United States seized a ship laden with Iranian crude, identified as the Suez Rajan which was destined for China.
    “US authorities ordered a tanker of Iranian crude oil to redirect towards the US in recent days, in a move officials believe was the trigger for Iran’s decision to capture a US-bound tanker on Thursday,” the FT reports.”

    Ya think? So we’re already in soft war, and naturally the U.S. are the thieves and pirates. This is our fifth? Act of open piracy for supertankers? We need the money and Saudi told Joe to GTFO about refilling the Strategic reserve. Obviously, the answer is to rob a liquor store. Like all ex-rock stars on coke.

    That’s Cray-Cray! What does Congress think of us just going around stealing things?

    “House Rejects Rep. Gaetz’s Bill To Withdraw US Troops From Somalia”

    Somalia? I’ll phrase Americans and say “Dafq where?” We can’t even not rob the third kindergartner for lunch money? That’s just a bridge too far for these guys? “I’m sorry fellows, but we find we simply MUST keep bombing black people in Somalia for…um…reasons…that escape me right now, we’ve never told the U.S. People about, and must keep doing it illegally without any oversight or Act of War. Somalia might invade and…oh what’s that? Too late? With the war Obama flew them all here and there are 10,000 Somali men of fighting age in Lewiston, Maine? Carry on then, that’s not enough.”

    “Trans Mascot Dylan Mulvaney Says It Should Be Illegal To Misgender People”

    Strangely, I can call them “-sshole”, “Thing”, “It”, and “Daisy-Mae” and that would be okay. So it’s not about being mean at all, is it? Because that wouldn’t be a lie. It’s about making YOU tell the lie. It’s about POWER. Socialism is the politics of power, from the end of a gun. I’m not making that up, at least in the New World, it’s exclusively and universally discussed in terms of power and victim, oppressor and oppressed, Capital and Labor.

    Other forms might talk about the condition of your soul and the brotherhood of man. What is Justice, etc. With them, it’s only who has POWER and how do I get some? Then I will make them all pay.

    “Agenda 2030 suffered setbacks from major negative impacts of climate change.”

    Uhhh. Like what? It would obviously HELP the installation of A2030. And speaking of, somebody want to put bullet points on what Agenda 2030 is?

    Russia: so it seems like a different faction of Jews are in Russia than the West. Huh.

    “Let’s hope Europe does not become again the slaughterhouse it was in the last century.”

    If we don’t look out, something bad might happen. Like a nation the size of France repeats WWI with 300,000 dead men per year. No, I understand he means ‘Western Europe’, and ‘generally’, but still…

    Russia is currently enduring “economic aggression” from the collective West, Putin stated,”

    Yes. A Blockade is a clear Act of War. We just pretend it isn’t, like everything else in the universe.

    “• Western Arms May Not Be Enough, Ukrainian Troops Tell NYT (RT)
    “I don’t know where the Russians are getting so much artillery,”

    Um, because Russia is 10x your size. Let’s ballpark and say that’s like me UFC Boxing a 2,000 pound opponent. Sure, I’ll use my super Brazil ju-jitsu moves on this here Brahma Bull. 5 of 5 stars for bravery. 0 of 5 stars for brains. Or winning.

    “his men had high morale and wanted to go on the offensive, despite the numbers not being in their favor. “We lost our best people”

    Both a lie and showing the problem: “I’m sure if we just keep rushing the machine gun nests and losing our best people we’ll win!” Okay man, you do you. I prefer results to Ego.

    He is the only one in his company who knows how to properly use a US-made Mk-19 grenade launcher,”

    Following perfectly the Harvard Business School failure here. Humans are always to be erased ruthlessly. Without questions. If they exist, we erase them, fire them, I don’t care what, it bores me to see their stupid faces. We always replace them with any random capital equipment that’s handy and we can get into crippling, compounding debt for. No men to RUN the equipment? I do not understand these words coming out of your mouth. Does not compute. Equipment doesn’t work for ANY purpose? Software can’t run anything, makes call center documentation 10x HARDER, costs a million-billion dollars per year in licensing for the privilege of being10x slower and collapsing constantly? …I don’t understand this blahblahblah, that’s #Winning. …At least to us at Harvard MBA I can’t see it from my office over the sound of how awesome I am.

    Now exported to the war field. Zero men. Rumsfeld-style. How’s that working out for ya?

    “ISW: Ukraine Can Expel Russian Troops From Country With Counteroffensives (Az.)

    I’m sure they can. With about 5 million mobilized men and 10x the equipment NATO presently has. Or make that 50 million?

    Reznikov: If Russia Capitulates, Ukraine Is Ready To Start Negotiations (Az.) “

    This happens so regularly, I forgot where I saw it. Hong Kong? Korea? “All you have to do to end the war is surrender unconditionally, to our destroyed, losing troops, then do whatever we say forever. I do not understand your objections.”

    A flurry of news again this week, all Ukraine needs is to drive Russia entirely out of Ukraine with the “no men” they (don’t) have, and then they can sit down and talk. Start negotiations. Lavrov pointed that, in the miracle that Ukraine would push Russia back, Russia would feel LESS safe, and have to ESCALATE, not negotiate and demobilize. But that’s letters from #OppositeLand. Take up one lie and like a cancer it steadily flips each thing it contacts until the entire organism is in #Opposite of health and reason, or the lie is removed and the cancer cut out. Your choice: no judgment. You can live or you can die. And we’re a world-wide death cult.

    That’s #Logos. You can adhere to it and have Life, or oppose it and have Death. That is how the universe is constructed.

    “the reason for the war in Europe. “Complete restructuring of power within Europe”

    That is, there is some remnant of Democracy and belief in consent remaining in Europe that must be eliminated. They’re doing a good job.

    “the White House and the Pentagon would have 14 days to send the House “copies of all documents indicating any plans for current or future military assistance to Ukraine”

    Yes, but they won’t do it, will lie, and you’ll do nothing.

    “You Can’t Taper A Ponzi Scheme (John Rubino)”

    No, but you can collapse Europe’s first. Then you can retain enough power to dictate what happens after. He’s also said this for 25 years, just as I have, so take a big fat “L” for time and prediction.

    Are you all as astonished as I am at the resiliency of all markets in the face of that M2 plunge? I believe that’s unprecedented in the history of the world. Maybe the collapse of all Egyptian Wheat to Rome, or the Worldwide crop fail in 500AD, but way back.

    “This is the Centennial Light, the world’s longest-lasting light bulb, burning since 1901.”

    But we need LEDs because they last longer! Those primitive neanderthals before the majesty that is ME, Progress, didn’t know how to do anything. Progress proves I’m evolutionary the smartest person in the history of the world! And I’m only in the 6th grade with my first TikTok account! That’s Science! Out of 10 LEDs I bought, 2 were dead in 6 months, yet cost 5x more than previous incandescents. So they, and their toxic circuit boards, are thrown away, to have China dump them in the Pacific Ocean.

    Like other people, Ike has his good and bad, and I’m well aware of the Bonus Army attempt attack on women and children, with Patton and somebody else I forget. My point is two: one, that he sounds like the middle left, or even Antifa sometimes. And two, that this was considered stodgy, center, normal behavior, going back to 1950, even 1930 or before. And although politicians always do the opposite of what they say, it’s more that we aspire to values, then struggle to reach or uphold them, they were willing to SAY this is the good and right.

    Anyone seen AFKTT? I know we put on him regularly for our differences, but hope his health is okay. As winter comes on there, he should be around more, not less.

    #134339
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Don’t join the book burners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower

    Only Americans can hurt America.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower

    Lincoln said the same thing. The only way would be for someone to burrow in and topple them from within. By reversing all the values that make America great, or at least functional. Challenge accepted.

    “America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” –de Tocqueville

    #134340
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Empire of Lies collective Media Whore Brain Trust (MWBT) condensed to a single image

    .

    #134341
    Oroboros
    Participant

    You can’t bring your dog on the NYC subway unless it’s in a bag, fine for small dogs, not so much for larger ones

    Bureaucratic work around.

    Necessity is the Mother of Invention.

    .

    .

    .

    #134343
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Mr Kennedy is making far too much sense to be taken seriously in clown world so he will be ignored. Sorry, but that is how it goes.
    Tucker’s comment on herd behaviour being a stronger motivator than food or sex holds for this eventuality. People will not want to feel outside the group – which doesn’t exist in the way we think it does but the media makes us believe it is there so we act as they wish us to act so as not to feel outside the group.

    Cue hollow laughter.

    #134344
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    @Dr. D

    On Dwight D. Eisenhower:

    A guy sophisticated enough and brave enough to maneuver his way into 5-stars, Supreme Allied Commander and POTUS wasn’t able to find his way to “a combat zone” (like Tulsi) during the war of his youth, World War I.

    Reconcile with me the juxtaposition of WWI and WWII in Ike’s life.
    I’ll take the first stab at reconciliation.
    Ike’s talent to avoid combat in World War 1 and spend 16 years as a Major/O-4 IS EXACTLY the talent required to maneuver his way to Brigadier general/O-7 by WWII’s inception, the success being avoiding combat while deflecting the political fallout for having done so.

    Or maybe Eisenhower’s enormous potential just hadn’t been discovered and that enormous potential was just too valuable to waste on an ordinary combat assignment during WWI.

    #134345
    zerosum
    Participant

    Immature logic ……. thinking that they have the right answer.

    NATO’s essential mission is to oppose Russia on everything, as a winning strategy.
    ———-
    Hidden problem – “The manuals were only in English and in the Ukrainian military few speak English.”
    =========
    Believe it or not.

    the U.S. are the thieves and pirates. This is our fifth? Act of open piracy for supertankers? We need the money and Saudi told Joe to GTFO about refilling the Strategic reserve. Obviously, the answer is to rob a liquor store. Like all ex-rock stars on coke.

    #134347
    zerosum
    Participant

    Maybe …. its all about USA and Russia

    Russia and Sudan set to finalize agreement on naval basing rights


    Russia and Sudan set to finalize agreement on naval basing rights
    Kazim Abdul by Kazim Abdul February 11, 2023 in Naval

    #134348
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    There is an idea that the public is to blame for the products being sold, because the public is purchasing the products — if the public didn’t desire them, the corporations wouldn’t produce them.

    The pharmaceutical giant awarded grants to public health organizations, civil rights groups, as well as consumer, medical, and doctors’ groups. Most of these groups did not disclose the funding from Pfizer. The lack of transparency regarding the grants allowed Pfizer to secretly fund efforts to force the public into using their products.

    I find discussions about the idealistic versions of capitalism, feudalism, (some versions of) socialism, familial economic models, mercantilism, models of nature, etc., useful to help us get an idea of what is possible in human economic activity. At the same time, we must realize that our current, “really existing” economy doesn’t fit ANY of our idealistic models. So, no, consumers are not directly responsible for the multitude of problems in our markets. What if, instead of advertising that appealed to our base desires (sex, gluttonous foods, violence), flattered us, and stoked our fears, we had uplifting ideas from the world’s religions, myths, and philosophers? How would the populace respond? How quickly would the economic environment change? As it is, apparently Amazon and other retailers are sitting on warehouses stuffed full of things that people are not buying as before because of the effect of inflation and other related economic indicators. So, the masses *can* restrain their impulses to buy, buy, buy. All it takes is for something to garner their attention, to adjust their priorities. It is no great surprise then that the powers that be are desperately trying to control the information flows around the world. The easiest way to control the masses is for them to quiescently stay within the space outlined for them by authority, outlined by their own beliefs.

    #134349
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Thank you, oroboros for the dogs-in-bags photos. I needed a laugh. I found out yesterday that a friend of my daughter from elementary school (they’d had limited contact since 2000) committed suicide last week. We don’t know the impetus. Good family; intact family. Highly intelligent girl. Mother was over-protective…based on comments from my daughter talking about interactions from a couple of years ago, it sounded like her friend was chafing a bit…but we were too far removed from the situation to have any idea of what was going on for this girl in the past year — she and my daughter were minimally in touch through electronic means. I knew this girl. I grieve for her and her family.

    #134350
    Dora
    Participant

    Mark Crispin Miller. News from the underground.

    Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s speech last week has shown that “our free press” is a state-backed association of programmed assassins
    https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/robert-f-kennedy-jrs-speech-last

    #134351
    kultsommer
    Participant

    There is an idea that the public is to blame for the products being sold, because the public is purchasing the products — if the public didn’t desire them, the corporations wouldn’t produce them.

    I remember the push back against an onslaught of telemarketing. In defense of the practice their “key man” described the business model as: Potential buyer does not know that he/she may need the product (long pause) yet!
    Most of those products purchased went straight to the dumpster, never fulfilling the promise.
    Most people want the quality appliance or device that lasts longer but it is not offered for the most part.
    Most people would love cheap car with bare bone basics. Again not offered. I suspect that myriad of gadgets that new cars are equipped with (and buyer forced purchase in the package) is to keep the expansion of jobs for the jobs sake – which are entering the realm of “bullshit jobs”.
    Anybody remembers the “Music club” from the three decades ago? Club that kept one’s mailbox staffed with unwanted cassettes and close to impossible to unsubscribe from.
    I could go on….

    #134352
    John Day
    Participant

    Rejecting Reality https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/rejecting-reality

    A Tale Of Two Economies, Dr. Tim Morgan, Surplus Energy Economics, looks at the financial economy and the physical economy. The financial economy is supposed to be an accurately workable representation of the physical economy, but with some time flexibility on the use of money, and the risk and reward relationship over time, which is “investing”. The flexibility afforded by the parallel economies is of great advantage to the working of the physical economy because most trades are not equal and are not even in the same place or the same time, like trading harvests of beans for harvests of corn.
    The managers of the financial economy have more leeway than farmers who grow corn and beans. They can use things like fractional-reserve-lending to create money, as long as they hold 10% of the value they create in deposits, to back it up, so that routine withdrawals of cash are covered. Over time, this leeway begets more leeway, and “financial innovation”, so that claims on future prosperity greatly exceed the actual potential for future prosperity, even with robust economic growth presumed. Over time the claims keep assuming lots of growth, and keep getting rolled forward, greatly exceeding actual prosperity/wealth, as long as there is not a run on the financial system, as long as the music does not stop, as long as faith in the system persists. This is the same as a Ponzi scheme.
    Physical economy is contracting, since about the second half of 2019, based on various assessments, including oil consumption, CO2 production and financial statistics. Growth has been less than projected for at least 2 decades. Many novel mechanisms have been employed to maintain faith in the system, to keep it operating. It is a global financial system and a global real economy. It is all being nibbled away at every corner, both financially, and in terms of global trade, and the cheap fuel that runs the system is being withdrawn here and there for various “reasons”. The ECoE, energy cost of energy, is subtracted from prosperity, as it must be paid first, before energy is made available.
    GDP is more than physical/real economy, debt is more than GDP, and “financial instruments” greatly exceed debt. Since physical economy will actually contract going forward, all of the claims upon it need to be reduced to meet it, somehow. This is done through inflating the money supply to make it worth less, so that debts may be repaid in the financial economy with money that buys much less of the real economy.

    One can look at the graphics and imagine that “enough” inflation might cover debts in this way over time, but not financial-assets. Financial assets will need to collapse to a large degree. Somebody will pick the losers, which will be corporations, big financial institutions, wealthy individuals, and especially retirement plans.
    Picking the biggest losers is a political decision. This is the current core problem as I see it. The owners need to extinguish claims on future wealth while maintaining enough faith in the system to keep it functioning, which is necessary to maintain their wealth. When a financial system collapses, nobody works for the money they are proffered, so “wealth” ceases to exist.
    This economic divergence would sure be easier to settle if a lot of retirees died pretty soon, and if there was a big enough emergency to make everybody just follow orders until the real and financial economies could be organized to match each other better.
    Different groups of owners appear to have different plans for how to manage this. Each alliance of owners/oligarchs would like to impose more losses on the other oligarchic alliances, as well as the retirees. Some countries are fairly unified under an executive, such as Russia, China, Turkey, India, Iran and even Hungary. Oligarchs within the “western financial empire” are mostly divided and unwilling to accept the massive losses necessary to stabilize the western financial system and real-economy.
    Western finance stagnates, awaiting collapse.
    #254: A tale of two economies

    Moon of Alabama (German) U.S. Argues For More Protectionism And Subsidies Thanks Christine. Does this seem realistic?
    Last week Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen gave a speech on the U.S.-China economic relationship. I called it a declaration of war.
    Yesterday National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held a speech on ‘Renewing American Economic Leadership’ which touched on some of the same themes as Yellen’s speech.
    Sullivan argues that the U.S. must change course from opening markets and liberalization to targeted protectionism and subsidies for specific sectors. The main argument for it is ‘national security’ but the real aim seems to be the suppression of competition from others…
    ​..​The U.S., by pressing its ‘allies’ in Europe and Asia, is trying to deny China the ability to acquire or produce computer chips. The newest lithographic machines The Dutch company ASML produces are now prohibited from export to China. Its CEO says that if the restrictions are held up others will build similar machines​…
    ​..​Computer chips are not a ‘narrow slice of technology’. They are used in many daily products. A modern car has some 1,400 of them. China has been importing chips for $300 billion per year. Confronted with U.S. attempts to block it from access to chips it has ramped up its own production and its imports of chips are now in steep decline​…
    ​..​Sullivan’s whole speech is an argument against free markets and for protectionism and sector subsidies. It does away with the economic framework the U.S. had build after the end of the second world war. This is supposed to be replaced it with bilateral and block wise agreements that are to the advantage of the U.S., to the disadvantage of its agreement ‘partners’ and which exclude China and other ‘hostile’ economies.
    ​ ​The so called ‘decoupling’ or ‘de-risking’ from China is actually an attempt to isolate it. It creates a dynamic that will lead to import replacements in China.
    ​ ​This will lower exports to China from the U.S. and its allies.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/04/us-argues-for-more-protectionism-and-subsidies.html#more

    ​ Michael Hudson on the same topic:
    ​ “We must maintain as large of a lead as possible” in high tech sectors like microchips, Sullivan said, previewing new Commerce Department rules released in October that sought to grind Chinese chip development to a halt.
    Spelling the U.S. plan in detail, the Politico article points out that U.S. “policymakers last year considered including up to five major Chinese industries — microchips, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology and clean energy.”
    This has nothing to do with national security. The U.S. plan is to use a national security umbrella as an an excuse for economic warfare.
    Martin Sandbu, “Europe has to be much clearer when it comes to China,” Financial Times, April 24, 2023, points out that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen gave a speech before her trip to China describing it as a systemic rival simply because it is an efficient economic competitor. “But she went much further in threatening to block China’s economic opportunities with Europe if Beijing stays on its current course.”
    “But something is changing,” Mr. Sandbu noted: “‘Access to China’ for EU corporations increasingly means expanding production in China itself, not exporting 5 Yellen and China, April 25, 2023 Europe-made goods and services there. Before the pandemic, EU carmakers shipped about half a million cars to China — but they built 10 times as many European-branded cars there. Some will even con- sider it easier to build electric vehicles there to ship back to Europe than to expand production at home.”
    “The gains from such trade will mainly benefit corporate shareholders in the EU and not the workers, small companies and countries currently tied in to Germany’s car supply chain. Eventually politicians will wake up to the fact that the benefits are not broadly dispersed. Only then are we likely to see economic considerations firmly conditioned on geostrategic interests in EU-China policy. … It is time for Europe to learn that what is good for VW is not necessarily good for Europe.”
    So the anti-China trade strategy is to appeal to labor to support America’s New Cold War against China and the rest of the Global Majority.
    In the U.S. view, socialism is the enemy of labor, not its means of raising its living standards. That is the upside-down logic of what America’s economic students are taught.
    The problem is that America cannot reverse time and undo the enormous burden of debt, privatized monopolies (including health care) and a dysfunctional financial system.
    Korea is being promised a wider U.S. market if it will stop exporting chips to China. It is being forced to choose. The U.S. diplomatic tactic is to say, “You’re either with us or against us.” The US will impose sanctions this autumn if Korean companies continue to produce chips in China. They are being told to close down their factories. (Samsung is building a $30+ billion chip factory near Austin, a strategic industrial center to make all kinds of chips, including those previously made for the US military in Taiwan.)
    https://vk.com/@580896205-dr-hudson-yellen-declares-economic-war-on-china

    More from Christine, Gilbert Doctorow , Meeting of the Defense Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Delhi
    ​ ​The SCO is one of the two principal bodies that bring together the nations that are today challengers to the US-dominated world order. The other such body is BRICS.
    ​ ​Whereas BRICS is primarily an economic fraternity with focus on commercial relations among its members, meaning a platform of Soft Power, the SCO is primarily a Hard Power fraternity focusing on the security of its member states. It is also more limited geographically, concentrated on Eurasia. Its founding members were China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Today it also includes Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan. Among the states accorded “observer” status are Afghanistan, Mongolia and Iran. And at its edges as “dialogue partners” are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Egypt, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Turkey.​
    ​ ​There were a couple of outstanding and newsworthy developments at the SCO gathering in India today. One was the speech delivered by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Several minutes from this speech were carried on Russian news channels and what we heard was Shoigu declaring that from the start of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine the Collective West was throwing all of its military assets against Russia.
    ​ ​The other noteworthy development was the side meeting of Shoigu and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu. They were shown on television walking side by side to that meeting. Russian news tells us that Li used their meeting to extend an invitation to Shoigu to visit him in Beijing, and that Shoigu accepted.​..
    ..​ Among other things, this spells the end of opportunities for Central Asian states to play Russia off against China in obtaining favors, as Western media believed they were doing. It completely vitiates all efforts by U.S. Secretary of State Blinken over the past several months to pressure these same Central Asian countries into loosening or breaking ties with Moscow. These states are now all caught between a rock and a hard place.
    ​ ​The drama of the Russian-Chinese entente also will bear on the future conduct of India and Pakistan.
    Meeting of the Defense Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Delhi

    #134353
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ From March 9, an important consideration. NATO is reorganizing Europe around a Greater-Poland with western Ukraine, Baltic and Scandinavian states, according to Hungarian PM Viktor Orban’s assessment. Russian energy and minerals will be eschewed by industry.
    ​ ​PM Orbán: Europe’s power and economic architecture is being reshaped by the current war
    ​ Viktor Orbán started out by saying that the current war is also about restructuring Europe’s fabric of power and economy and warned that with Europe disconnected from the Russian economy “one dependence has only been replaced by another”.
    ​ ​On this, PM Orbán added that with the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU and NATO in the future, a “previously unseen Central European hub will rise up” that will be Polish-Ukrainian centered.
    https://abouthungary.hu/blog/pm-orban-europe-s-power-and-economic-architecture-is-being-reshaped-by-the-current-war

    ​ We know it is “yours”, but we feel like it is OURS…​ Unease in Israel as US depletes reserve stockpiles to fuel Ukraine war
    https://thecradle.co/article-view/24110/unease-in-israel-as-us-depletes-reserve-stockpiles-to-fuel-ukraine-war-report

    Pepe Escobar points out that the use of a currency in trade is different from holding a lot of it as a “financial reserve”.
    ​ ​De-dollarization kicks into high gear​ ​The US dollar is essential to US global power projection. But in 2022, the dollar share of reserve currencies slid 10 times faster than the average in the past two decades.
    ​ ​When corporate western media begins to attack the multipolar world’s de-dollarization narrative in earnest, you know the panic in Washington has fully set in.
    ​ ​The numbers: the dollar share of global reserves was 73 percent in 2001, 55 percent in 2021, and 47 percent in 2022.
    https://thecradle.co/article-view/24080/de-dollarization-kicks-into-high-gear

    Yuan overtakes dollar in China’s cross-border payments
    The Chinese currency was used in 48.4% of Beijing’s international settlements, figures have shown
    https://www.rt.com/business/575380-china-yuan-dollar-international-transactions/

    #134354
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Decide now whether you can openly support such a tarnished champion. There will be relentless attacks from every direction.​
    ​ ​’Too much baggage.’ How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s history of drug addiction, womanizing and self-described ‘lust demons’ makes his run for president a long shot – as even his own powerful family is unlikely to support him, source claims
    ​ ​Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent anti-vaxxer and son of RFK, is officially challenging Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination
    Insiders say he has too much baggage to have a realistic chance of winning due to his history with drugs, womanizing and ‘lust demons’
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11982895/RFK-Jrs-history-drug-addiction-womanizing-makes-run-president-long-shot.html

    ​ Bobby Jr. flew with Jeffrey Epstein an undisclosed number of times, on undisclosed dates, to undisclosed destination(s). “Pedo Island”?​
    https://www.newsweek.com/who-flew-jeffrey-epstein-lolita-express-plane-full-list-people-named-1654827

    ​ ​ABC News Liberally Censors RFK Jr. Interview Over Vaccine Comments
    ​ ​ABC News openly censored presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in an interview that aired Thursday and was later released online.
    “We should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines,” ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis said toward the close of the 14:46 minute interview segment.
    ​ ​”Data shows that the COVID-19 vaccine has prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease. He also made misleading claims about the relationship between vaccination and autism. Research shows that vaccines and the ingredients used for the vaccines do not cause autism, including multiple studies involving more than a million children, and major medical associations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the advocacy group Autism Speaks. We’ve used our editorial judgment in not including extended portions of that exchange in our interview.”
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20230428/abc-news-liberally-censors-rfk-jr-interview-over-vaccine-comments-1109925269.html

    ​ ​Megyn Kelly, who left Fox News in 2017​…, weighed in on Carlson’s sudden abdication from the reigning top cable news TV show.
    Speaking on “The Megyn Kelly Show” on SiriusXM, the former Fox News anchor spoke about Carlson’s sudden departure from the network.
    ​ ​”I want to, I think break some news for you. Tucker Carlson hasn’t actually been fired,” Kelly said on her podcast.
    ​ ​”He’s still an employee of the Fox News Channel,” Kelly stated. “What happened was Suzanne Scott called him, she’s the CEO, on Monday morning and said he was not going to be allowed to do any more shows and that he had been kicked out of his company email.”
    She added, “And now they’re going to have to negotiate an exit, some reporting, to me, suggests that she said it’s going to be an amicable parting.”
    She said that the departure caught Tucker “completely off guard.”
    According to Kelly, Carlson inquired as to why he was being let go from the cable news network and that they refused “to tell him why.”
    ​ ​Kelly noted that Carlson is “not free to launch a podcast or a digital show or negotiate with other employers at all,” adding that he is “still under contract.”
    Kelly said that Fox News fired Carlson’s executive producer, Justin Wells.
    https://www.theblaze.com/news/tucker-carlson-megyn-kelly-fox

    #134356
    John Day
    Participant

    I have long been interested in this, having lived in most of these regions. ​How about you?​
    The American Nations: The United States is Actually 11 Nations​
    https://mapstack.substack.com/p/the-eleven-nations-of-the-united
    https://mapstack.substack.com/p/the-american-nations-data-breakdown
    American Nations

    #134357
    John Day
    Participant

    Pfizer & FDA knew about safety concerns for pregnant and nursing women from day one
    ​ ​The eight-page confidential document was dated April 20, 2021, but tracked 458 pregnant women and 215 lactating women from the time the shots were released until February 28, 2021. That was the same date that Pfizer already recorded over 1,200 deaths and over 1,000 categories of serious adverse events. Here are the gory details, courtesy of Trial Site’s Sonia Elijah.​..​
    54% of the 458 pregnant women reported adverse events. These included symptoms in line with AEs experienced by others who took the shots.
    ​ ​53 of the women (11.6%) experienced miscarriages, which is definitely on the high end of what we should expect.​[Most vaccinated after the first trimester, so should have low rate of pregnancy loss.]
    ​ ​Most notably, six of the babies experienced serious AEs that Pfizer admitted were caused by the vaccine transferring “transplacentally.” This likely caused them to be born prematurely. So Pfizer knew from day one not only that the shots do not remain in the shoulder muscle and do indeed spread throughout the body, but that the spike protein could spread to​ [through]​ ​the placenta.
    https://www.conservativereview.com/horowitz-earth-shattering-document-shows-pfizer-fda-knew-about-safety-concerns-for-pregnant-and-nursing-women-from-day-one-2659920647.html

    ​ Dr. Marian Laderoute gave expert testimony, which is presented here. It is technical, but clear to a layperson.​
    ​ ​The Important Differences Between Innate and Adaptive Immunity for Pandemics​ ​
    The adaptive immune response to a pathogen never seen before is not very useful. It typically takes 2 to 3 weeks for its full activation whereas the pathogen could have killed the host long before this. That is where the innate immune system, “the first responders” comes in.
    ​ ​D​r. Laderoute points out data suggesting that the single best support to immune function may be keeping serum vitamin-D levels in the upper half of the normal range.​
    https://hervk102.substack.com/p/the-important-differences-between

    #134358
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Veracious Poet, I read your posts from yesterday 3x, because I had asked you – one of those ancient dead Greek dudes said “Do not ask for that which you will not want” so I figured it behooved me.

    You said I was fairly new here. As I’ve said many times in response to AFKTT’s ad hominems that I am an igonrant newb, I am a Doomer, a Peak Oiler, started with LATOC in 2005, have been reading TAE since its inception, was reading TAE every day, practically all the comments every day, since the pandemic started. LATOC, Peakoil.com, Olduvai, Dimitri Orlov, Zerohedge, Chris Martensen, Charles Hugh Smith, Tickerforum, shtfplan, Mish Shedlock, GLP, TAE etc. All The Things. Or I’ve done a few deep dives on Taoism and Zen Buddhism in my life if exposure to eastern mysticism is what you’re looking for here. The poetry of Chuang Tzu and translations by Red Pine are at my bedside as we speak. What do you WANT, man?

    I could not find any specific THING you wanted. Specific action, message, belief, etc. If you had simply posted a video of you singing Imagine, I would not have had less information. My experience is that when someone makes demands WHILE not saying the thing they want, it’s because they believe the specific thing they want from someone is only achievable if the person being asked is kept UNAWARE of it. (as a call center worker, this was one of several standard approaches I regularly fielded by customers wanting something they expected to be denied. keep pressing for it while never naming it)

    One element of what you said was to teach your grandmother to suck eggs. To reply with information I and everyone at TAE already know. If this wasn’t simply to position you as One Who Knows and me as One Who Does Not Know, then I’d expect to see some kind of connect-the-dots to some new insight, concept, etc.

    Implicitly in an admonishment that TAE is filled with comments that are “negative” and to admonish others to be spiritual or loving, is to take ALL the spiritual, philosophical, or loving things that TAE commenters HAVE been saying and look them in the eye while throwing them in the garbage saying “what you said? that’s nothing.

    Anyone who posted helpful, spiritual, philosophical, loving things didn’t say the right things. If, before your eyes, I’ve efforted to save just one person from a solipsistic, corrosive, self-defeating, nihilistic, parasitic memeplex for months on end well, that’s just not the right loving or Spiritual Thing to do, is it? Like if I were laboring to clean the Augean Stables for the past 4 months and you started admonishing me to “Get a broom!!!!”

    This is my takeaway. Especially in the absence of any specificity on your part. We’re all being helpful here. AFKTT is being helpful. I’m doing my best to help him right back, but I acknowledge at least that this is what he is doing.

    So I again invite you, instead of vaguely admonishing or inviting others to do… something. Exemplify it then. Show me.

    I don’t mean this to sound as confrontational as it probably comes off. I really did read what you had to say 3x. I paused after each reading and thought about it. I made an honest attempt, really. I cannot tell what specifically you are asking of us here, but it seems that by demanding we change to what you vaguely reference, you’re throwing a LOT of contribution from a lot of people into the trash – that fits that category – with a wave of the hand. But ok, not mad, just slightly annoyed, amused, curious, interested. Show me then.

    Incidentally, there certainly IS a generational difference in communication style. I’ve noticed boomers often seem to, whatever their political, religious, philosophical, or other affiliation, seem to all agree that ideas ought to be expressed in a certain style. The GenX sardonic, sarcastic, cynical approach, EVEN IF they are on the same side, horrifies, disgusts, offends the sensibilities of boomers. This is a broad brush stroke of course, but Strauss & Howe weren’t totally wrong in a general sort of way. Dunno if that factors in somehow.

    #134359
    zerosum
    Participant

    caught between a rock and a hard place.
    Complexity will open doors that are hidden.

    #134360
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    @jb-hb

    Ten points to Gryffindor for referencing the Labors of Hercules!

    I’ve come to appreciate your comments, and find myself reading them with more attentiveness the past few months. There have been many times this past winter when I’ve found myself warming the comment bench. Mostly, this seems to be because Ilargi and the TAE commentariat have had matters well in hand. At other times, I’ve had the urge to contribute, but lack of time and or health has prevented me.

    I don’t understand why AFKTT has adopted a tone of condescension, which seems to have intensified over the past year. It seems totally ineffective at helping anyone advance from point A to B in their level of awareness or understanding. Correct me if I am wrong. If I were planning to insult someone, for their improvement of course, Wouldn’t it be better to do it with humor or even sarcasm? I’ve never come across a master yet who taught by throwing his arms up in the air in exasperation because the student was beyond all hope.

    If AFKTT truly lives his life on a higher plane, we would all benefit if he would exercise some patience by meeting us where we are at, instead of expressing frustration because we are unable or unwilling to join him in the lofty heights.

    #134361
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    So I again invite you, instead of vaguely admonishing or inviting others to do… something. Exemplify it then. Show me.

    For “Us” to stand against tyranny a shift of consciousness desperately needs to happen, which is already happening for some of “Us” (as you noted, several members of TAE are “spiritually” minded), this “shift of consciousness” has to grasp the attention of a significant percentage of humanity, to their very core, re-instilling “morals” aka “values” that loosely define good vs. bad, before the sociopaths addicted to GlobalCap are acknowledged en masse as the dangerous monsters they are & have been for 50+ years…

    Tucker Carlson (a leading voice of sanity) stated that “We” should Reassess Terms We Use. Are you unable to hear & comprehend what he said?

    Yesterday I answered you very *lucidly* with (among other things):

    Obviously if a solution is to be secured, “We” are going to need as many hands-on-deck (hearts & minds) to restore Peace, Love & Understanding as “We” can muster…

    Wouldn’t you say that’s a fair assessment & goal to work towards?

    Your response, obviously hostile & adversarial, included the ad hominem falsehood that stated, “One element of what you said was to teach your grandmother to suck eggs.”

    How is this attitude helpful to build a shift of consciousness, not only on TAE, but among our brothers & sisters across the world, some of which are searching for answers & hope (perhaps even reading our potss) in this dark time?

    Eastern mysticism is *not* what I’m looking for here, other than it exhibits the *one* message across history & many cultures ~ There is *one* Truth, everything else is illusion created by EG0.

    Perhaps what I’m espousing is a bridge too far, as the Internet to date only seems to magnify EG0ic madness, but shouldn’t we try to state the Truth with Love, give voice to the wanton suffering of humanity that is wrought upon planet Earth by a small minority of the EG0icly insane?

    Perhaps, just perhaps, enough of “Us” will turn off the ultra-violent video games, films & video, stop being victimized by propaganda spewed by controlled media, stop engaging in selfish hubris & vanity on social media et al., rise once again to identify, understand & stand against *evil*…

    If “We” decide enough is enough, achieving that blessed shift of consciousness, anything is possible 🙂

    Really, what’s so funny about Peace, Love & Understanding? 😐

    If you don’t still understand what I’m saying, please just ignore my words & move on…

    #134362
    Celticbiker
    Participant

    With all due respect, Mr. Day, there’s no voting our way out of this.. Its too far gone, their machines count the votes, hence, Pedojoe, Neworldorder minions, no one else need apply.

    #134363
    chooch
    Participant

    Dr. D wrote,

    “Are you all as astonished as I am at the resiliency of all markets in the face of that M2 plunge? I believe that’s unprecedented in the history of the world. Maybe the collapse of all Egyptian Wheat to Rome, or the Worldwide crop fail in 500AD, but way back.”

    Not really, it seems relative to trendline there is quite a long way left to go. Plotting it as a percent change, YoY masks the pop due to Covid bucks. Without this context it creates a really scary chart, one for the got gold crowd. Though, Buffet and Zell seem to have that “come to papa” look in their eyes.

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL

    #134364
    zerosum
    Participant

    delusional thinking,
    I’m right. You’re wrong.
    Look …. Sudan, US, Russia,
    All useful expats evacuating/leaving/ Sudan flapping in the wind.

    #134365
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    I’d like to clarify:

    What “We” are trying to achieve within humanity at large is *not* A Call To Arms; IT is *not* A Religious War. Absolutely not!

    What “We” are praying, meditating & working to-ward is:

    A Call To Spiritual Sanity

    I’m am not the only “awakened” spirit that knows what “time” it is, no far, FAR from it…

    Tolle published that Shift Of Consciousness is needed ASAP via his 2005 book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. Tucker appears to have (firmly) arrived as well (“We” should Reassess Terms We Use), during his Heritage Foundation speech (funny how GlobalCap pulled the plug before his next broadcast), along with many, MANY other spiritually awake children of the Loving, Healing, Creative Power of The Infinite.

    As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.

    So in Truth, “We” are not alone, but it remains to be seen whether enough of “Us” will abandon our self-induced trances, identify the GlobalCap ruses, in time to turn the tide…

    If “We” decide enough is enough, achieving that blessed shift of consciousness, anything is possible…

    If you don’t have “awareness” that something has/is changed, look deep within yourself ~ The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit some- thing you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with The Great Spirit is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. 🙂

    And now these three remain: Faith, Hope & Love. But the greatest of these is Love.

    Speak The Truth With Love.

    #134367
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    On a wall in the bathroom of a pub:
    To be is to do…
    To do is to be…
    Dobedobedobe………….

    #134378
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    If AFKTT truly lives his life on a higher plane, we would all benefit if he would exercise some patience by meeting us where we are at, instead of expressing frustration because we are unable or unwilling to join him in the lofty heights.

    I suffer the curse of being 10 or 20 years ahead of the crowd. That has been the case for at least the past 40 years.

    When we have only 20 years of habitability left because of the actions of the crowd and actions of the corrupt governments that are hostage to banks and corporations which are seeking only short-term gains at the expense of the future –everyone’s future- and the actions of corrupt governments that work incessantly the make everything that matters worse, that is a double curse.

    I have decided to go ahead with the report to The Auditor General [of New Zealand] and am in the process of laying it all out, in detail, including the failure of Audit NZ to act on obvious fraud and complete lack of systems or accountability.

    I am not in hurry to complete the report because each week that passes results in another ‘wheel’ of the behemoth of corruption and lies falling off. Therefore, my first priority is the completion of my own preparations for the multi-faceted meltdown.

    That said, no preparations can be made for the inevitable imposition of martial law and mass murder of civilians that the psychopaths will undoubtedly attempt, as ‘the Titanic’ sinks beneath the waves…arguably within 3 years.

    Nor can any preparations be made for the extraordinarily high temperatures likely to prevail once the various positive feedbacks already being triggered kick in ‘big time’. -everything from methane burps as clathrates on sea floors are destbilised to the positive feedback of higher moisture content of the atmosphere driving other positive feedbacks in a self-reinforcing cycle.

    It is particularly -‘interesting’ (disturbing), that temperature records are already being broken across the Northern Hemisphere; it’s not even summer yet.in the NH.

    Airstrip Five is about to be hammered by yet another overheating-induced storm system, though this one is unlikely to do as much damage as the other two events earlier this year -supposedly ‘one-in-100′-year’ events. Yeah Right! Two in a matter of 3 months and the next on its way.

    Denial of reality is a fine thing. That’s why it’s so popular.

    I don’t know whether knowing what is happening and knowing why it is happening and being the only person in the country to draw attention to the corruption and lies and scams and Ponzi schemes and rorts and fabrications and incompetence of central government and its agencies, and detailing all that in a report to The Auditor General puts me ‘on a higher plane’ .

    I’ll let others decide that.

    I just do what I know to be right with the very limited resources I have available, as I have been doing for decades.

    And now I am being vindicated on all counts -energy, finance, economy, environment, ecology…as ‘The System’ unravels as a direct consequence of all the lies, fabrication, scams, rorts and deceits and gross incompetence that have characterised governance and commerce in ‘Oceania’ since before I was born.

    It’s a loot-and-pollute system founded on violence and fraud, and can only loot and pollute and promote violence and fraud for a limited time before the effects of looting and polluting and violence and fraud begin to hit home, i.e. now.

    Life in this sector of the ‘concentration camp’ is somewhat better than in most other sectors, which is why so many ‘refugees’ from ‘Orcland’ are fleeing here…that is the ones who managed to sell their properties before the ‘Orcland’ housing meltdown -house prices being down around 21% from peak in ‘Orcland’, as opposed to being down only a few percent in this region. So far.

    We must assume that the value of apartments in ‘Orcland’ will trend towards zero over the next year or two, depending on the rate at which the saboteurs in government decide to kill off the population and demolish the economy. Just announced: the worst balance of payments deficit in all of history. And the base rate interest rate slated to be raised yet again ‘to reduce inflation’. Yeah Right!!

    I was thinking earlier today: The [human] carrying capacity of the concrete and asphalt jungle of central ‘Orcland’ will arguably be around 1,000 once all the imports that keep the population fed stop arriving. It will certainly be substantially less than the population that the natural systems supported 200 years ago, before ‘development’ fucked up everything.

    So, in that matter, the key question is, when will the imports (from both within Airstrip Five and from overseas) stop arriving?

    Oceania going to war with Eastasia (specifically China) will sure be ‘interesting’, since the retail sectors of all the Airstrips will implode about one week later.

    ‘Nate’, CP, has some very interesting (not ‘interesting’) observations on the nature of people:

    #134383
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ AFKTT
    Complexity is a random generator

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