Heinrich Hofmann Christ and the Rich Young Man 1889
Pentagon controlled Covid – Whole FDA approval process was theater.
https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/1613316088690876418
Tucker RFK jr
Robert F Kennedy Jr announces Covid censorship lawsuit pic.twitter.com/T4nUs01mkJ
— Wittgenstein (@backtolife_2023) January 11, 2023
Trust the science
When Fauci said ‘trust the science, he was in effect saying ‘trust the psychopath’ – it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why that was a very bad idea https://t.co/XVzfymIf54 pic.twitter.com/r4Phq9xOBy
— Dr Aseem Malhotra (@DrAseemMalhotra) January 11, 2023
Good video.
• Is Coincidence Now The Leading Cause Of Death? (Emerald)
Vaccinated people around the world are now dying of “sudden cardiac events” according to the latest data we have from the CDC. Just comb through the data published by the Ethical Skeptic on Twitter if you don’t believe me.
But you knew that already — if you watched what happened to NFL player Damar Hamlin. The situation was so bad that our corrupt corporate media actually pulled the arch-villain Dr. Fauci out of exile to defend the experimental COVID vaccines — thus implicating his “Wuhan baby” in Hamlin’s medical case of course. CBS News’ Major Garrett completely disgraced himself with this abject display — he might as well retire now to the Dan Rather Rest Home for Disgraced Journalists after he takes his next booster and prays to his pocket Dr. Fauci bobble-head doll. Big Pharma had already deployed its Twitter bots and its paid media shills to defend their products in the Damar Hamlin incident — only to discover that former NFL player Uche Nwaneri had died of a heart attack (aged 38) at home on the same day. That should be one coincidence too many for most people.
In fact, Damar Hamlin and Uche Nwaneri were just the tip of the iceberg. Two days later, pro surfer Marcio Freire died of a “sudden cardiac event” while surfing. (He was 47.) The next day, a 16 year-old girl died of the same thing while playing flag football at a Las Vegas school and an 18 year-old girl died of a “sudden cardiac event” while playing basketball in the Bahamas. The day after those tragic deaths, pro soccer player Modeste M’Bami died of a heart attack as well. (He was 40.) Two days later, a coach at Devine Middle School died of a heart attack in front of his students while teaching class. (He was 35.) Then a 21 year-old student at the Air Force Academy died of a “sudden cardiac event” while walking to class — and a boy at Western Brown High School in Ohio died of the same thing on the same day at his school.
It was getting hard to keep track of all these “sudden cardiac events” killing young and healthy people. Our corporate media was not keeping track of the deaths — so much as claiming that literally anything could have caused those deaths other than the experimental vaccines. You might call it Sudden Invented Syndrome Syndrome: our political elites and Big Pharma and MSM were creating new medical syndromes to cover up the biggest failed medical experiment in human history. You know it’s true. It could be Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS)! It could be commodio cordis! It could be climate change! It’s all a coincidence, you understand — and you should definitely not doubt the COVID vaccines, or Big Pharma, or your doctors, or your government. This situation was captured perfectly in the best video of 2023.
Coincidence
Are You Suffering From a Medical Coincidence?
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 11, 2023
“..NATO wants to fight Russia down the the last Ukrainian while Russia does not want to fight NATO down to the last Russian…”
• The City Of Soledar Has Been Liberated By The Wagner PMC (Saker)
I do not have access to Russian plans, but I do not believe that the liberation of Soledar by itself will have a major impact for the planned “Big Offensive” the Russian forces are ready to execute. Yes, time is of the essence in warfare, but that means that, like in chess, sometimes that critical feature of time means that waiting is the correct use of that time. That being said, the liberation of Soledar will have a major effect on NATO supply lines, both on roads and railways. Again, the idea here is to transform the once unified NATO forces into smaller “chunks” unable to help each other. By all signs, this has been an extremely effective Russian tactic. Another location which NATO tried really hard to exploit is Kherson, yet all the NATO attacks failed and have now petered down to almost nothing (mostly UAV recon flight and regular artillery strikes).
Ditto for the Kharkov oblast were Ukie attacks mostly stopped. Finally, here is another important marker: the size of the NATO offensives. Remember how in the first months of the war the Ukrainian counter-attacks typically involved several brigades? Then much of what we saw were battalion-size attacks. Now most of what we see are very small, company-level, engagements. Such, engagements are futile by definition: why bother with a company-level attack which, even if fully successful you won’t be able to develop even tactically, nevermind operationally? The ONLY reason for such attacks are optics and PSYOPs. Period. The Russians won’t fight that way, because that way implies sending wave after wave after wave of bodies through into the Russian meat grinder for the sole purpose of taking a photo, making a video or claim another absolutely huge “peremoga” (all the NATO victories are huge, didn’t you know?).
Right now the KIA/MIA ratio between NATO and Russia is roughly about 10:1 and that is exactly how the Russians like it, even if they now have several hundred of thousand of soldiers in the South, East and North. Simply put, NATO wants to fight Russia down the the last Ukrainian while Russia does not want to fight NATO down to the last Russian. This is why NATO fights with bodies and Russia with (mostly) artillery shells. Conclusion: let’s not start acting like NATO and Ukie airmchair generals and declare that the liberation of Soledar is a “huge” victory. It is, however, very good news as it strongly suggests that the NATO first and second line of defense have been breached forcing NATO to regroup. Could that be the “first crack” in the NATO defenses? Maybe, maybe not, we need to see how NATO will respond before coming to conclusions.
Russian winter
https://twitter.com/i/status/1613153895638863876
“..Russian control of the town now threatens to unravel the entire Ukrainian front in Donbass..”
• Wagner Comments On Ukrainian Casualties In Soledar (RT)
Ukrainian soldiers surrounded in Soledar have either surrendered or been killed, Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Wednesday. Fighters of the private military company completely surrounded the Donbass town the day prior and are now clearing the extensive tunnel network in the salt mines underneath. “I want to repeat that Soledar has been fully liberated and cleared of Ukrainian army units,” Prigozhin said in a statement on Wednesday evening. “The Ukrainian troops that refused to surrender have been destroyed.” Prigozhin estimated that around 500 Ukrainian troops have been killed after Wagner forces closed the encirclement of Soledar. “The entire town is littered with the bodies of Ukrainian servicemen,” he said. Wagner fighters first circulated a video taken in downtown Soledar on Tuesday, as proof the town administration was under their control.
Later in the day, Prigozhin was filmed touring the salt mine tunnels as well, which he said Wagner was starting to clear as well. The tunnel network is approximately 300 kilometers (186 miles) long and reaches hundreds of meters below the ground level. Prigozhin also quashed rumors, circulating due to a meeting of Russian and Ukrainian officials in Türkiye on Wednesday, that some kind of evacuation was being arranged. “There can be no word of any humanitarian corridor,” he said, noting that all civilians have already been evacuated from the town. Soledar had around 10,000 residents before the conflict. The Ukrainian army turned it into a strongpoint after being pushed out of Popasnaya in mid-2022. Russian control of the town now threatens to unravel the entire Ukrainian front in Donbass. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky had acknowledged on Sunday that the situation in Soledar was “very difficult” but vowed that Ukrainian troops would continue to hold “no matter what.”
And while -at least- 100s of his people are dying, Frankie goes to Hollywwod.
• Zelensky Tries To Reassure Hollywood: “There Will Be No Third World War” (ZH)
When we first heard that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would make a virtual appearance at 80th annual Golden Globe Awards Tuesday night in order to update the audience and American public on the status of the conflict, we thought it was a joke. It should be remembered too that the Oscar Awards rejected efforts for a Zelensky appearance last year (though he did give an emotional speech at the Grammys last April). But like with much else connected with Zelensky and the unprecedented pandering of American institutions for a foreign leader, it was all too absurdly real. He told the audience of Hollywood A-listers that “there will be no third World War” – citing Ukraine’s momentum on the battlefield. “The war in Ukraine is not over yet, but the tide is turning and it is already clear who will win,” Zelensky said after being introduced by friend and actor Sean Penn. “There are still battles and tears ahead.”
He launched into a bit of a history lecture, akin to his December in-person Congressional speech, reminding the television viewing audience that the Golden Globe Awards first got its start during WWII, and compared the current Russian invasion to “the struggle for the right of the new generations to know about the war only from movies.” That’s when Zelensky sought to assure Americans against what’s become a legitimate overarching concern – uncontrollable escalation between the US and Russia: “The First World War claimed millions of lives. The Second World War claimed tens of millions of them. There will be no third World War. It is not a trilogy,” Zelensky said, promising that Ukraine “will stop the Russian aggression” with the help of the free world.
“The war in Ukraine is not over yet, but the tide is turning and it is already clear who will win… We will make it together with the whole free world and I hope that all of you will be with us on the victorious day the day of our victory,” Zelensky said. For anyone worried that the world is inching toward nuclear Armageddon, these words are not cause for comfort – but quite the opposite… after all, it’s 2023 and a foreign head of state just appeared at a Hollywood awards show to tell celebrities he’s not expecting World War 3 to break out. But Kiev wants to combat growing global skepticism regarding the war’s outcome, in order to keep the Western weapons pipeline flowing of course. He also just pledged “victory” over nuclear armed super power Russia, and that a Ukrainian “win” is becoming “clear”… so let that sink in.
Sean Penn introduces Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the #GoldenGlobes2023 pic.twitter.com/wpF3QlryIL
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 11, 2023
“..there’s still much that needs to be done to secure Russia’s “absolutely … sovereign independent development despite all the external pressure and threats.”
• Nothing That Our Adversaries Predicted Has Happened – Putin (RT)
None of the gloomy forecasts the West made about Russia’s fate in 2022 have come to pass, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the government on Wednesday as he commented on the West’s failure to disrupt the national economy. “Nothing that our adversaries predicted has happened to us,” Putin said as he thanked the government for its effective work throughout 2022, which helped Russia withstand international pressure amid unprecedented sanctions imposed by the US and its allies. “In no small way, that was the result of the government’s work,” he added. The president then said that there’s still much that needs to be done to secure Russia’s “absolutely … sovereign independent development despite all the external pressure and threats.”
He highlighted the fact that more efforts should be aimed at supplying the Russian forces involved in the conflict in Ukraine. Russia should also expand the technological capacities of its economy and encourage the creation of new industries and workplaces, he said, while strengthening the financial sector, the agriculture industry and some other economic fields. Following the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in late February, the US and its allies in Europe and beyond imposed unprecedented sanctions against Moscow, targeting entire sectors of its economy, including finances and banking as well as aviation and space industries. In December, the EU, along with the G7 countries and Australia, introduced a price cap on Russian seaborne oil, set at $60 per barrel.
Last spring, many Western officials and media outlets predicted that the Russian economy would collapse under the pressure of sanctions and military expenditures, only to admit that Moscow managed to defy all of those predictions. In May, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic admitted that the Western sanctions were not working, as The Economist reported that the Russian economy proved to be “surprisingly resilient” amid high oil and gas revenues. In August, Bloomberg and the Washington Post reported that the sanctions failed to bring about the economic collapse that Western leaders had hoped for. In December, Putin said that Russia was outperforming many of the G20 nations despite sanctions. Earlier the same month, the Russian Finance Ministry said that oil and gas budget revenues exceeded the full-year target in the first 11 months, bringing an additional $9 billion to Russia’s coffers.
Putin 2016
Putin in 2016: Russia accepts America’s global supremacy, and the world needs U.S. leadership; we just don’t want them meddling in our affairs. pic.twitter.com/FtkfkmXsRX
— Putin Direct (@PutinDirect) January 10, 2023
“Moscow says Washington and its allies are waging a proxy war at the expense of the Ukrainian people.”
• Kremlin Explains Why There Are No Peace Talks On Ukraine (RT)
Russia would prefer peace talks with Ukraine over fighting, but sees no potential for them due to the positions taken by Kiev and its Western backers, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. The official reminded journalists on Wednesday that Ukrainian law “forbids the president of Ukraine [from having] any dialogue with us.” “Under the circumstances, in which Westerners are apparently not prone to allow Kiev to show any flexibility on the issue, we cannot say that there is any potential [for negotiations] at the moment,” he added. In October, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed into law an order by the Security and Defense Council, which banned any talks with Russia while its President Vladimir Putin remains in office.
Senior Ukrainian officials declared that talks with Moscow may only be possible after Kiev seizes control of all the land it considers to be under its sovereignty, including the Crimean Peninsula. Moscow said it was on the verge of signing a truce with Kiev in early April, after a breakthrough was achieved during Türkiye-mediated talks in Istanbul. The Ukrainian government made a U-turn, however, which Russia believes to have been the result of Western meddling. The US has declared “strategic defeat” of Russia in Ukraine as its policy goal and pledged to help Kiev “for as long as it takes” to achieve military victory. Moscow says Washington and its allies are waging a proxy war at the expense of the Ukrainian people.
“Achieving such an objective would indisputably require a prolonged war in Ukraine – regardless of the consequences to the Ukrainian people.”
• Using Ukraine as a Bloodied Pawn (Antiwar)
US and NATO officials routinely contend that assisting Ukraine in its war against Russia is a moral as well as a strategic imperative. Ukraine is supposedly on the frontlines of a global struggle between democracy and freedom on one side and brutal authoritarianism on the other. That justification lacks credibility for two reasons. First, Ukraine itself is a corrupt, repressive autocracy, not a freedom-loving democracy, even if one uses the most flexible, expansive definition of “democracy.” Second, the Russia-Ukraine war is a nasty turf fight over mundane stakes, not part of an existential global confrontation between good and evil.
It is hard to determine how much Western political leaders and their media mouthpieces actually believe their own moralistic propaganda. Some likely have drunk the Kool Aid, but others clearly have more practical (and less savory) reasons for wanting Washington to wage a proxy war against Russia. First and foremost, the financial benefits to the military-industrial complex are enormous. The United States has already provided more than $100 billion in aid to Kyiv, and a major portion of those funds are going to pay for Ukraine’s purchases (now or in the near future) of weapons systems from Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, or other manufacturers. Those firms also will benefit from the destruction of weapons already provided to Kyiv, since US stockpiles supposedly must be replenished. The usual collection of hawks already are sounding alarms that the arsenals of the United States and its NATO allies have become significantly depleted.
However, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin may have inadvertently disclosed a broader, ignoble motive for the proxy war. An April 2022 statement that he issued in Poland at the end of his stealth visit to Kyiv emphasized that Washington’s goal was not merely to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion, but to “weaken Russia” to the point that it could no longer pose a threat to any other country. Achieving such an objective would indisputably require a prolonged war in Ukraine – regardless of the consequences to the Ukrainian people.
What kind of people hold and purchase these shares?
• Share Prices Of NATO Weapons Makers Surge (RT)
The largest military and defense corporations of NATO member states have seen a 21.5% boost in market value in 2022 amid the military operation in Ukraine and the rearmament in Europe, Vedomosti newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing data from Defense News and Tradingview analytics. Their combined market capitalization increased from $579 billion in December 2021 to $703 billion in December 2022, according to the estimates. The ranking included 25 companies with a capitalization of over $1 billion which are traded on the stock market and have military products dominating in their revenues, and are also actively involved in arms supplies to Ukraine.
Authors of the report name German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall as the top gainer over the last 12 months, with a 122% surge in share price. French drone and missile producer Thales saw its market value rise 54%. American defense contractor Northrop Grumman was up 44%, while stock in HIMARS rocket launchers maker Lockheed Martin gained 42%. Other notable mentions in the report include BAE Systems (+40%), Kongsberg Gruppen (+37%), General Dynamics (+24%), and Raytheon Technologies (+19%). The report pointed out that the value of NATO’s military giants was soaring while the overall Western corporate sector sank by 16% last year, according to the S&P 1200 index, suggesting that arms manufacturers were likely the main beneficiaries of the political crisis in Europe.
Garland knew of the “Biden files” on Nov. 2, said nothing. But did order the raid on Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 16. There is no excuse.
• Why Biden and Trump Are Treated Differently in Classified Document Cases (ET)
As Republican lawmakers such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) express concern that President Joe Biden’s retention of classified materials from his vice presidency may be “[swept] under the rug,” legal experts told The Epoch Times why Biden and former President Donald Trump appear to have been treated very differently in two strikingly parallel cases. FBI agents executed a search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, in August 2022. The warrant said there was probable cause to believe there were “additional documents that contain classified NDI [national defense information]” or “presidential records subject to record retention requirements” at Mar-a-Lago.
By contrast, neither the Penn Biden Center nor any other address associated with Biden has been raided after classified materials were reportedly found at the center’s Washington office, which is located in a nondescript building about a mile from the White House. “What’s the difference in what President Trump did versus what we now know President Biden did?” asked House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), as reported by CBS. Biden’s attorneys have said that the materials were identified on Nov. 2, just days before an underwhelming midterm election performance by Republicans. Yet, the public wasn’t told of the existence of those materials until Jan. 9, two months after those elections took place.
That delay is indicative of “a political cover-up,” says Mike Davis, former chief counsel for nominations to then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and the founder of the Article III Project. He sees it as part of a pattern under the Biden administration. “There’s a clear political double standard at the Biden Justice Department, which has been politicized and weaponized against Republicans,” Davis told The Epoch Times on Jan. 10. An expert on administrative law had a similar perspective. “The fact that this has happened really creates a rule of law: if you’re a Republican, you have to meet certain exacting standards when it comes to records, and if you’re a Democrat, you don’t,” according to the expert, who requested anonymity because company policy doesn’t allow employees to speak to the media.
“A Republican president must operate in a fishbowl. If you’re a Republican president, the presumption is you have to preserve everything. And you just have to be extra careful. If you’re a Democrat, rest assured, you’re going to have different procedures applied.” Under a more consistent system, he added, the standard set by Trump’s case would also have applied to Biden’s case. “The Justice Department shouldn’t have said, ‘Let’s negotiate. You guys review and tell us what you find.’ The Justice Department should have immediately had the FBI raid the offices. Why? How do we know, without documenting and creating an inventory, whether the documents were classified or top secret?”
Tucker Biden files
Joe Biden — fresh from lecturing us about how Donald Trump is a criminal because he had unauthorized possession of secret documents — that very same Joe Biden, himself had unauthorized possession of secret documents. But don’t worry. It’s no big deal.https://t.co/4ZEs6xwGkn pic.twitter.com/g0F0EoT0RB
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 11, 2023
“Clinton was also “surprised” by the discovery of the documents . . . after they could not be used as part of the earlier investigation.”
• Biden’s ‘Surprise’: Classified Documents Were Moved At Least Twice (Turley)
With the reported discovery of a second batch of highly classified documents connected to President Biden, the decisions of Attorney General Merrick Garland are fast moving from the inexplicable to incomprehensible. Garland was presumably briefed that classified documents were discovered in Joe Biden’s old office on Nov. 2. He also presumably knew about the Biden documents when he appointed a special counsel to investigate the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago 16 days later. At the time of the appointment of Jack Smith, some of us noted the inexplicable refusal of Garland to appoint a special counsel to look into alleged Biden influence peddling and other crimes. Garland continued to refuse such an appointment even as he justified the appointment of Smith on the basis that Trump was running for the presidency.
Joe Biden is the president. What is the difference? President Biden, meanwhile, is feigning ignorance, simply saying he was “surprised” the documents were there. By not discussing the content of the documents, Biden minimizes his vulnerability to charges of obstruction or false statements. He can simply declare “surprise,” knowing that many in the media will welcome his silence as they spin the scandal. Despite the lack of information, the press and pundits have already declared there is no real national security danger and certainly no comparison to Mar-a-Lago. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, declared “There is no comparison. They were in a locked closet. They were not accessible.” So that is the standard? A locked closet? The Mar-a-Lago storage room was locked and later the security was enhanced at the request of the FBI.
It is fair to note that Trump and his staff are accused of false statements and obstruction. However, that does not change the same alleged crime of unlawful removal and possession. Biden is taking a page from the Hillary Clinton playbook. Recall the long-sought Whitewater documents. After the case was effectively over, they suddenly appeared. The New York Times called the documents “elusive,” as if they moved by free will. Clinton was also “surprised” by the discovery of the documents . . . after they could not be used as part of the earlier investigation. There are some obvious explanations for the documents being present in the office, particularly given Biden’s work on a book that discussed his work in some of the referenced countries like Ukraine. However, even that explanation raises more questions.
For example, Biden left office as vice president in 2017 and had an office at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia after finishing his term until 2019. On February 8, 2018, the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement says that it opened its doors in Washington, D.C. So if these documents were removed when Biden left office, where were they in the prior year and were they moved repeatedly before they ended up in the Washington office? This does not appear a “one-and-done” mistake. Rather documents may have been at various locations over a five year period. None of this could be clarified with Biden simply expressing “surprise.”
“McCarthy has the power to block Schiff and Swalwell. But the House will need to act against Omar serving on Foreign Affairs.”
• Top Dems Fume As Kevin McCarthy Boots Them From Key Committee Positions (AW)
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has just made good on another promise Tuesday to remove Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the Foreign Affairs Committee and Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) from the Intelligence Committee. The Daily Mail is contending that it is payback from former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) stripping GOP Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) from their committee assignments during the 117th Congress. However, Republicans are asserting it is a promise kept to clean the House of radical leftists who they see as a national security threat. Republicans warned Democrats this was coming. Although conservatives won back the House with a slim majority, it is just enough to give them control and allow McCarthy the power to boot leftists from powerful committees.
Normally, the new Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries would present names for the committees to McCarthy, but the Speaker had already made it clear who would be blocked, which includes the three far-left representatives, according to Punchbowl News. “It’s not like it’s anything new,” McCarthy informed the media outlet. “Remember, this is what Nancy Pelosi – this is the type of Congress she wanted to have.” “Swalwell can’t get a security clearance in the private sector,” he noted of the California lawmaker who was allegedly honey potted by a Chinese spy named Fang Fang. “I’m not going to give him a government security clearance.” The woman helped Swalwell raise money for his 2014 campaign and many suspect he was sleeping with her.
The California Democrat claimed that he cut all ties to the alleged spy, but it was shown that he remained friends with her on Facebook long after an FBI briefing on her connection to China. “Schiff has lied too many times to the American public. He should not be on Intel,” McCarthy bluntly asserted. And then there are Omar’s antisemitic outbursts and anti-American sentiments. She even made conciliatory comments at the last moment, but it didn’t save her committee assignment. [..] McCarthy has the power to block Schiff and Swalwell. But the House will need to act against Omar serving on Foreign Affairs. With a Republican majority and numerous Jewish Democrats who don’t care for her, it should be no problem making sure she’s off the Foreign Affairs Committee.
“At the beginning of 2022, Russia’s share of India’s oil imports amounted to just 0.2%. By the end of last year, it had grown to nearly one million barrels per day, reaching more than 20% of the country’s oil import basket.”
• India Won’t Support G7 Price Cap On Russian Oil – Analyst (RT)
The chances of India backing the G7 price cap imposed on Russian oil are almost zero, as the country will prioritize its own political and economic interests, an Observer Research Foundation (ORF) analyst told TASS on Wednesday. Nandan Unnikrishnan said India would not be targeted with secondary sanctions for rejecting the mechanism introduced by the EU, G7 countries and Australia in December. The measures target Russia’s seaborne crude, banning Western businesses from providing insurance and other services in respect of the country’s oil cargo unless it’s purchased at or below $60 per barrel. “At the moment, prospects of India joining the oil price ceiling are almost zero,” Unnikrishnan said in an interview with the news agency. His comments followed media reports suggesting that New Delhi could join the Russian oil price cap if crude costs go above $60 per barrel. “India will pursue its own interests – economic, political, strategic. It is currently interested in importing cheap crude from Russia and won’t give up on this, as the nation makes big profits,” added the ORF analyst.
Unnikrishnan also noted that 85% of the Indian economy relies on the private sector, stressing that Reliance Industries, the country’s largest buyer of Russian oil, has significant assets in the US, but it has not stopped imports. He said Indian companies would act purely in accordance with their business interests. India, the world’s third-biggest importer of crude oil after China and the US, has been steadily increasing purchases of Russian crude over the past several months, taking advantage of discounts Moscow offered to attract buyers. At the beginning of 2022, Russia’s share of India’s oil imports amounted to just 0.2%. By the end of last year, it had grown to nearly one million barrels per day, reaching more than 20% of the country’s oil import basket. India reportedly remained Russia’s top importer for three months in a row as of December.
“The 10-year bond yield has climbed above four percent (the level at which investors say panic sets in), nearly quadrupling the level of a year ago..”
• Italy and the EU Are on Collision Course as Economic Conditions Worsen (NC)
Despite NATO’s Ukraine war being the driver of Eurozone inflation, the European Central Bank is determined to keep hiking interest rates even if that means recessions for bloc countries and another debt crisis for Italy. The ECB raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points In December, but also signaled that more hikes would follow in the coming months, which triggered a sell-off of Italian government bonds. Italy’s borrowing costs have risen to over four percent and are causing alarm in Rome. Meloni said the ECB should avoid making “choices that make things worse.” Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini called the ECB’s decisions “unbelievable, baffling, worrying.” Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto criticized the ECB and its president Christine Lagarde for blindly following economic theory despite the harm it will inflict on businesses and workers.
“You have to justify this politically to your European citizens. You are not a Martian,” he said. Crosetto even resorted to accusing the ECB of aiding Russia with its rate hikes. The situation for Italy could worsen as growth slows and interest rates rise further. According to FT: “The new Italian government had “given little cause for concern for investors for now,” said Veronika Roharova, head of euro area economics at Swiss bank Credit Suisse. “But concerns may resurface if growth slows, interest rates continue to rise and [debt] issuance is picking up again.” Economists are now widely expecting all three of those to occur. Two-thirds of economists polled by FT predicted the ECB would start cutting rates in 2024 – likely after Italy and other states in the EU are in a recession. Again from FT:
“The ECB will start shrinking its €5 trillion bond portfolio by €15 billion per month from March by replacing only partially matured securities, putting further pressure on Italian borrowing costs. Ludovic Subran, chief economist at German insurer Allianz, said the eurozone risked a repeat of the 2012 bond market collapse “as fiscal options differ across countries without the heavy lifting of the ECB”.” Italy’s borrowing costs have already risen sharply since the ECB started raising interest rates over the summer. The 10-year bond yield has climbed above four percent (the level at which investors say panic sets in), nearly quadrupling the level of a year ago, and 2.1 percentage points above the equivalent yield on German bonds. According to Bloomberg, such conditions “threaten to unlock the same Pandora’s box that fueled the euro crisis of 2010-12, when the currency bloc nearly split apart as more-indebted countries faced a sudden, harsh tightening of financial conditions as investors sold off their bonds.”
“..the EU is also working on making bypassing sanctions a criminal offence in all the member states.”
• Greece, Malta Lag Behind In Sanctioning Russian Assets – EU Official (RT)
Greece and Malta lag behind their European Union peers in freezing Russian assets sanctioned over Moscow’s war against Ukraine, according to an EU official and an internal document, as the bloc considers confiscating the funds to help Kyiv, Report informs via Reuters. The 27 EU countries have so far reported freezing some 20.3 billion euros ($22 billion) of sanctioned Russian assets, with Italy, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria each notifying actions totalling more than a billion euros. Almost every other EU country has frozen millions worth of assets, according to the document from the EU’s executive European Commission, which was seen by Reuters. By comparison, Greece had only notified the bloc of freezing assets worth 212,000 euros, and Malta 147,000 euros. “That is a bit surprising,” said the EU official, who spoke under condition of anonymity.
“Either they don’t have much, or they are not doing their job. Or they have done something but not communicated to us even though they had chances.” More than 10 months since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the EU currently has some 1,300 individuals and 120 entities blacklisted, as well as economic sanctions in place that include trade, transport, energy, banking, media and defence sectors. The EU’s attention turns this year to how and whether to confiscate the frozen Russian assets, and spend it on rebuilding Ukraine, an exercise where an estimated 300 billion euros worth of Russian central bank assets in Europe could also be at stake. There is little legal precedent and some member states voice major concerns about ensuing lawsuits, while others say turning the assets over to Ukraine’s benefit would be the right thing to do. Linked to that, the EU is also working on making bypassing sanctions a criminal offence in all the member states, which is not the case currently.
“it’s all part of the plan.”
• WEF Partner Behind Sudden Push to Ban Gas Stoves (GP)
The abrupt push by Democrats led by the Biden Regime to ban gas stoves has enraged and confused Americans across the country. The good news is we may have found the primary culprit behind the push and it’s connected to the World Economic Forum. RedState.com, which first broke this story, points out prominent Democrats and liberals never demonstrated an iota of concern over gas stoves before. Not even noted low-IQ Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who made an utter fool of herself by claiming a study shows gas stoves are dangerous to brain health. A major Twitter leftist named Max Kennerly also got in on the act pushing the supposed dangers of cooking with gas. Like AOC, he had never tweeted about gas stoves before. Look at this tweet by Libs of TikTok showing Kamala Harris, Jill Biden, Pocahontas, and AOC all cooking on gas stoves. Do they appear alarmed over the potential impact to their health?
So why the manufactured outrage over gas stoves? Where did this study AOC cited come from? RedState.com has the answer: “Regardless, it’s worth asking where this is all coming from, right? Why did Democrats all start moving in lockstep to ban gas stoves, seemingly with no prior concern at all? And sure enough, with a little digging, it’s been revealed that this isn’t just idle science taking place.” “The company behind the study is called “Carbon-Free Buildings.” That company is a partner of the World Economic Forum and has a true-believer CEO who wants to rid the world of all carbon emissions (which is impossible and would lead to mass extinction).” To no one’s surprise this all connects back to the World Economic Forum (WEF). The same megalomaniacs who years ago informed the masses that they “will own nothing and be happy.”
Certainly looks like the Regime and its fellow Democrats have received marching orders from their globalist masters. The WEF and the Democrats both share a common goal of eliminating fossil fuels for the commoners while they fly gas-guzzling private jets across the globe. The elimination of gas stoves qualifies another step toward completing their scheme. As the Joker from The Dark Knight once said, “it’s all part of the plan.” If you have not realized this until now, then you really have not been paying attention.
The most famous figure in human history, according to the ranking of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is Aristotle. (MIT) collected and analyzed data on history and culture around the planet from 4,000 BC. until 2010. There are six people from Greece in the top ten.
The green heron with its neck at rest vs. fully stretched
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