Oct 112024
 


Jean-Francois Millet The Young Shepherdess 1870-73

 

They’re Just Not That Into You (DeMartino)
‘Too Late’ For Harris Rematch – Trump (RT)
Dem Strategist Claims Trump Vowed To EXTERMINATE People With Eugenics (MN)
‘Total Killer’ – Trump on Modi (RT)
Global Denuclearization Deal Was Close – Trump (RT)
Russia Rubbishes Trump’s Nuclear Arms Claim (RT)
Nearly 3 Million Americans Have Voted So Far. Here’s What We Know. (ET)
Delayed Ramstein Meeting Speaks Volumes About Zelensky Regime’s Failure (Sp.)
Capitulation to Save Lives Only ‘Victory’ Left to Ukraine (DeMartino)
Netanyahu’s ‘God Complex’ Caused Cancellation of Defense Chief’s US Visit (Sp.)
Does Israel Wag America or Does America Wag Israel (Paul Craig Roberts)
The Fall of Israel (Scott Ritter)
US Elites Inclined to Cover Up P. Diddy Sex Scandal (Sp.)
Russia Calls Out US Deep State on Covering Up P. Diddy Sex Scandal (Sp.)
EU Committing ‘Energy Suicide’ – Gazprom CEO (RT)

 

 

 

 

RFK Trump legacy

RFK critical thinking

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“Volodymyr Zelensky is willing to kidnap his own people and send them to die simply to hold off his defeat until after the US presidential elections.”

They’re Just Not That Into You (DeMartino)

As Hurricane Milton is nearing landfall, victims of Hurricane Helene are still waiting for supplies and rescue. Meanwhile, FEMA says it doesn’t have enough funding to last the hurricane season and taxpayers in the affected areas are undoubtedly having buyer’s remorse over all the funds Congress has allocated to Ukraine and Israel. The issue, it seems, is the American people don’t really do anything for the elite in this country. Sure, everyday people make up the tax base and quite literally are the economic engine that led to the 1%’s great fortunes, but that’s expected. Ukraine and Israel are new and exciting. Big bombs and bigger contracts, that’s the way to a president’s heart. Volodymyr Zelensky is willing to kidnap his own people and send them to die simply to hold off his defeat until after the US presidential elections.

Benjamin Netanyahu is genociding a population so the West can have a forward operating base in the Middle East. What has North Carolina done for America recently? They’ve been coasting on that “first in flight” tagline for far too long. Last week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre admitted that only $4 million had been sent directly to hurricane victims. That number has likely increased in the week since but it is still a pathetically paltry sum a full week after Hurricane Helene hit. Meanwhile, FEMA keeps touting its top-line number of $286 million, which has primarily been given out to well-connected aid organizations that filled out the organization’s “Vendor Profile Forum,” enabling it to engage in “business with FEMA” (their words) if approved.

And even that number pales in comparison to what the government spent on previous major hurricanes, like Katrina and Andrew. Maybe it is time for Americans to accept the facts. When it comes to the ruling elite and the Biden administration, they just aren’t that into you.

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“..he is “leading in the polls, with the lead getting bigger by the day – and leading in all swing states.”

‘Too Late’ For Harris Rematch – Trump (RT)

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said that he is not going to debate his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris again before the November 5 election, and outlined his rationale for the decision. Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, a few hours after Fox News reported that it had made a final pitch to host a televised face-off between the two US presidential candidates in Pennsylvania on October 24 or 27. “It is very late in the process, [early] voting has already begun – there will be no rematch!” he wrote in an all-caps. The former president implied that he had been victorious in his first and only debate with Harris on September 10. “The first thing a prizefighter does when he loses a fight is say that he ‘demands A Rematch,’” he said of his rival in the race for the White House.

A poll commissioned by CNN suggested that 67% of registered voters who watched that debate believed Harris to be the winner. “Besides, Kamala stated clearly, yesterday, that she would not do anything different than Joe Biden, so there is nothing to debate,” Trump pointed out. He was referring to the vice president’s appearance on ABC’s program ‘The View’ on Tuesday, during which the hosts pressed Harris to name a decision she would have made differently if she had been the US president instead of Joe Biden. “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” the Democratic nominee replied. Harris joined the presidential race in June as Biden stepped down as his party’s candidate after a poor performance in his debate with Trump on June 27.

Another reason presented by the Republican contender for not needing to debate his opponent again is because he is “leading in the polls, with the lead getting bigger by the day – and leading in all swing states.” According to polling averages provided by ABC News on Thursday, Harris is actually in the lead, on 48.4%, with Trump 2.5% behind. The former president previously declined the offer by Harris to hold a debate on CNN on October 23. Instead, he suggested another face-off on Fox News on September 4 or on September 25 on NBC News, but the vice president never confirmed her participation.

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“While she was saying all this, CNN’s chyron read “Trump Links Migrants to Murderers: ‘It’s In Their Genes.’”

Dem Strategist Claims Trump Vowed To EXTERMINATE People With Eugenics (MN)

A deranged Democrat strategist appeared on CNN and claimed that Donald Trump has promised to “exterminate” people with “bad genes,” suggesting that she is at risk because she is a “black lesbian.” Yes, it really has gotten that crazy. Aisha Mills seriously argued that Trump, should he be elected, will engage in a eugenics program to eliminate black people and gay people. “Listen, this isn’t the first time we heard this kind of talk from Donald Trump, and it reeks of authoritarianism,” Mills stated, adding “It also harkens back to a time of Hitler who used the same exact language that Donald Trump is now quoting to talk about the people who he thinks are poisoning the blood of the nation.”

She continued, “You know, all of this smells like an affinity towards eugenics, which really should give us all pause, because when we remember the last person, the last awful authoritarian dictator who believed in eugenics, it was someone who really wanted to exterminate an entire people because they thought that they didn’t have good genes and because they were trying to create a certain type of race.”

Republican strategist David Urban, who was also on the segment, attempted to point out how completely bat shit Mills’ assertions are, urging that it is “just shameful to compare Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.” Mills charged that Urban is “doing Donald Trump’s bidding” and then claimed that she is “at risk of being exterminated” by Trump for being a “black lesbian.” When Urban asked her to provide any evidence of Trump saying such a thing, she shouted back “I’m not going to be lectured by some white man who has no idea what he’s talking about and is trying to rewrite history here.” “I am afraid as an American of a Donald Trump presidency, and his actual quotes don’t lie because I take him seriously and I think that he believes what he says. And that is why he is a danger and a threat to America,” she further blathered.

While she was saying all this, CNN’s chyron read “Trump Links Migrants to Murderers: ‘It’s In Their Genes.’” This all stems from Trump positing that illegal immigrant murderers, 13,000 of them convicted under the Biden Harris administration, people who have come into the US illegally and have killed Americans, might have “bad genes.” He never talked about “exterminating” anyone, only about securing the border and preventing thousands of murderers and violent criminals getting in. Mills is clearly mentally unstable, yet another example of a rabid leftist engaging in this bizarre fantasy about Trump throwing them in detention camps or even worse, executing them, and contributing to the vile rhetoric that has almost gotten him assassinated twice.

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“On the outside, he looks like he’s your father. He is the nicest and a total killer..”

‘Total Killer’ – Trump on Modi (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump has expressed his admiration for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him a “friend of mine” and the “nicest human being.” Speaking on the Flagrant podcast hosted by Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh, the Republican presidential candidate claimed that India’s political landscape had been “very unstable” before Modi took office in 2014. “On the outside, he looks like he’s your father. He is the nicest and a total killer,” Trump stated. In fact, Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh of the Congress Party, had held power from 2004 to 2014. Trump also reminisced about Modi’s [visit] to the US in 2019, when he participated in the grand ‘Howdy, Modi’ rally in Houston, Texas, addressing the Indian diaspora. The event was attended by tens of thousands and was described as the largest gathering ever for a foreign leader in the US.

”It was me and him, and it was beautiful. There were around 80,000 people, and it felt crazy. We were walking around. Today, maybe I wouldn’t be able to do something like that,” Trump added, seemingly alluding to the recent assassination attempts against him. Trump recounted conversations with Modi regarding India being “threatened” by a “certain country.” “I said, let me help; I am very good with those people,” the former president remarked, before appearing to impersonate Modi, by altering his tone and saying: “I will do it; I will do anything necessary. We have defeated them for hundreds of years.”

“He was talking about a certain country; you can probably guess which one,” Trump continued, apparently referring to Pakistan, India’s nuclear-armed neighbor with which it has had longstanding border disputes and has accused of sponsoring cross-border terrorism. Ahead of Modi’s visit last month to the US for the ‘Summit of the Future’ conference at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, as well as the Quad summit of leaders from the US, Japan, India, and Australia hosted by President Joe Biden in Delaware, Trump suggested that he would meet with the Indian prime minister. “He (Modi) happens to be coming to meet me next week,” Trump stated during a town hall meeting in Flint, Michigan, referring to Modi as a “fantastic man.”

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“Nuclear weapons are “the biggest threat we have in the world today,” Trump argued. “It’s not global warming, where the oceans are rising 1/8 of an inch in the next 500 years.”

Global Denuclearization Deal Was Close – Trump (RT)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said Washington almost reached an agreement on nuclear weapons with Russia and China during his time in the White House. The former president made the claim during a two-hour interview with comedian Andrew Schulz, posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday. “We were close to a deal for getting rid of nuclear weapons. It would be so good,” Trump said. “I’m talking about Russia, ourselves, and China. We would then bring everyone else into it.” Nuclear weapons are “the biggest threat we have in the world today,” Trump argued. “It’s not global warming, where the oceans are rising 1/8 of an inch in the next 500 years.” Neither Russia nor China have yet commented on Trump’s claim about a denuclearization treaty being in the works during his administration.

Trump’s remarks came during a discussion of Iran’s alleged nuclear program, in which he criticized US President Joe Biden for being reluctant to confront Tehran. Biden has publicly urged Israel to refrain from striking Iranian nuclear and oil facilities. The five nuclear-armed members of the UN Security Council struck a deal with Tehran in 2015, under which Iran would not enrich uranium beyond a certain level, and therefore be unable to build atomic weapons. Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the arrangement in 2018. Though Biden promised to reinstate the deal, his diplomats have failed to get any traction on the issue over the past four years. In 2019, Trump also pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) Treaty, accusing Russia of being in breach of it. That left the New START as the last remaining arms control deal between Russia and the US.

Trump initially sought to get China to join the treaty, but Beijing declined, and it appeared as if New START might expire at the start of Trump’s second term. The Biden White House extended the treaty in February 2021, but it now seems likely to expire in 2026. Russia suspended its participation in New START in February 2023, citing the illegal and illegitimate US sanctions preventing its reciprocal enforcement, as well as US support for Ukrainian attacks on Russian strategic airbases. Trump officially lost the 2020 election to Biden but has questioned the vote’s legitimacy ever since. He won the 2024 Republican nomination and will face current Vice-President Kamala Harris – nominated by the Democrats after Biden withdrew from the race in July – in the November 5 election.

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Or maybe not…

Russia Rubbishes Trump’s Nuclear Arms Claim (RT)

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has denied a claim that Moscow, Beijing and Washington were at one point close to reaching a denuclearization agreement, a claim made earlier this week by former US President Donald Trump. “No, that is not true. It is well-known that attempts by the Trump administration to put a Chinese delegation at the negotiations table with us [Russia and the US] did not end in a success,” the official said on Thursday. Any hypothetical nuclear reduction talks will have to involve “nuclear allies of the US, meaning the UK and the French Republic, which, naturally, showed no desire to join the negotiations too,” Ryabkov added. Trump, who is running for a second term in office, has regularly raised –on his campaign trail– the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons.

In an interview with comedian Andrew Schulz posted on X on Wednesday, the Republican candidate claimed that Russia, the US and China were “close to a deal for getting rid of nuclear weapons,” with “everyone else” potentially brought into it at a later time. The US under Trump pulled out of a number of nuclear-arms-related agreements, including the bilateral Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) with Russia, which it quit in 2018. Washington accused Moscow of violating its terms but Western press reported that the US was concerned that the agreement imposed no restrictions on its rising strategic rival, China. The INF treaty used to ban the US and Russia from developing and deploying certain types of land-based nuclear-capable missiles. It was signed in the late 1980s and was meant to prevent an accidental nuclear war.

The scrapped weapons had flight times of mere minutes, which gave the rival sides of the Cold War a very short window to decide whether to disregard a detected launch as a false positive or to order retaliation, before any incoming weapons reach their targets and the ability to respond is diminished. New START, the last surviving US-Russian bilateral agreement on nuclear reduction, is set to expire in 2026. Ryabkov told journalists that Moscow sees no basis for talks about its prolongation, or any other issues of strategic stability, as long as the US maintains its hostile policy towards Russia. This will remain the case “regardless of who becomes the next president of the US,” he stressed.

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Time flies…

Nearly 3 Million Americans Have Voted So Far. Here’s What We Know. (ET)

Nearly 3 million Americans have cast early ballots either in person or by mail with under four weeks to go until Election Day, an election tracking site shows. As of 6:43 p.m. on Oct. 9, 2,877,590 people had cast ballots in states that report early voting data, according to an update from the University of Florida’s Election Lab website. Of that figure, nearly 504,000 people had voted early in person, and more than 2.37 million had voted by mail, the tracking site found. About 47.5 million mail-in ballots have been requested so far. In comparison, more than 92 million mail-in ballots were requested through the 2020 election, according to the university. In the states reporting how people voted by party, 56.3 percent of people who had returned early ballots were Democrats, representing about 732,378 people. Another 27.4 percent were Republican, representing 356,797 voters, and 16.2 percent, or 210,980, were independent or members of a third party, according to the website.

When broken down by age, nearly 60 percent of early voters were over 65, the tracking site found. Another 28 percent were age 41 to 65, while 9 percent were age 26 to 40, and only 3.2 percent were aged 18 to 25. Slightly more than 54.4 percent of people who returned early ballots were female, and roughly 44.6 percent were male, the site found. The remaining 1.1 percent were marked “unknown,” according to the site. Among early voters, about 72 percent were white, 8.6 percent were black, 2.2 percent were Hispanic, 2.4 percent were Asian, and 14.3 percent were marked “unknown,” the site stated. Early in-person voting started on Oct. 9 in Arizona, making it the earliest of this year’s presidential battleground states to enable residents to cast a ballot at a traditional polling place ahead of Election Day.The start of in-person voting in the closely contested state is also drawing the presidential tickets, with both campaigns scheduling visits in the state this week.

The Oct. 9 start date for early voting overlaps with campaign stops by both vice presidential nominees, Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who are each holding events in Tucson, Arizona, on that day. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, is scheduled to host a rally in Phoenix on Oct. 10, while former President Donald Trump will hold an event on Oct. 13 in Prescott Valley, north of Phoenix. Early voting, particularly by mail, has long been popular in Arizona, where nearly 80 percent voted before Election Day in 2020, according to the secretary of state’s office. Each of Arizona’s 15 counties is required to open at least one site for in-person early voting, which runs until the Friday before the Nov. 5 general election. In Maricopa County, a dozen voting centers are scattered around the metro Phoenix area. Early in-person voting has been underway in some states for several weeks now. It begins next week in four more swing states: Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Nevada.

Following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, the state’s election board this week approved an emergency measure that changes voting rules. The rule changes apply to 13 counties that saw infrastructure, voting sites, and mail delivery impacted by Helene, which made landfall in late September. One change approved by the board includes enhancing in-person early voting by allowing county boards to modify early voting sites, dates, and hours. It will also allow a county election board for one county to open a polling site in another county, depending on the circumstances, the state election board stated. Voters in affected counties can now request an absentee ballot in person up until Nov. 4, the day before the general election, according to the election board.

Completed ballots can be dropped off by Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at a polling location. Voters who were displaced are also allowed to turn in ballots to another county’s elections board by the same deadline, the state said. Previously, voters could turn in absentee ballots to early voting sites only in their county or to their county elections board by Election Day. South Carolina took action earlier this month to extend its voter registration deadline to Oct. 14, while Georgia elections officials have said they do not expect major disruptions from Helene. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order allowing election supervisors in 13 counties impacted by Helene to make voting-related changes. The state is bracing for a major hurricane, Milton, which is expected to hit Florida’s Gulf Coast on the night of Oct. 9.

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“..money follows a winning hand, not a losing one..”

Delayed Ramstein Meeting Speaks Volumes About Zelensky Regime’s Failure (Sp.)

President Joe Biden’s decision to remain in the United States – resulting in the postponement of a summit in Germany organized by Ukraine’s NATO allies – is not due to Hurricane Milton, asserts ex-DoD analyst and retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski. “The risk is high that Biden is not current on his understanding of this situation, and will say something that will embarrass or overly commit the US in the region,” Kwiatkowski said, adding that the Biden administration sees “the US must… minimize US policy failures that led to the destruction of Ukraine as a functioning and potential EU state.” According to the pundit, the Biden administration sees “the US must solve a new problem in Ukraine, and to minimize US policy failures that led to the destruction of Ukraine as a functioning and potential EU state.”

“The NATO game in Ukraine has run its course, and money follows a winning hand, not a losing one,” she said, referring to the Zelensky regime’s failed 2023 counteroffensive and Kiev’s “compound strategic miscalculation” in the Kursk region, that cost the Ukrainians even more loss of territory and depletion of manpower. Kwiatkowski continued that Washington’s allies vis-a-vis Ukraine “already understand that a miracle of military prowess and productivity in the West isn’t coming in time to save Ukraine.” In the meantime, NATO war planners don’t seem to be ready to talk about a post-war Ukraine plan yet, she said, presuming that “it must be made ready soon.”

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“The mayor of Dnepropetrovsk today spoke out that there’s a problem, there’s hardly any men in the city, so they have no one to defend the city..”

Capitulation to Save Lives Only ‘Victory’ Left to Ukraine (DeMartino)

On Saturday, US President Joe Biden indefinitely delayed his meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, citing the dual crisis of Hurricane Helene and Milton. However, the delay was also seen as a slight against Zelensky, who planned to press Biden to support his so-called victory plan. Sports are often compared to war. NFL Films are full of flowery prose about the soldiers of the gridiron battling to the finish. And it is often said that there are no symbolic victories, no half-measures, no capitulation in sports. A win –and nothing else– is a win. But life isn’t a sport. There is no timer in real life, except for death, and that can hit zero at any moment. Every day it does for scores of people, some in incredibly gruesome and violent ways, more so in recent years. The elite play with our lives like a sport, but it is not a game. Reality is a shared continual experience that lasts as long as we do, all you can do is work to improve it while you are on the field.

Enter Volodymyr Zelensky, the man ostensibly able to make decisions in Ukraine but one seemingly without the ability to do anything. I imagine Zelensky was proud of himself when he morphed from a comedian with an unusual method of playing the piano, to the NATO-backed and installed “leader” of Ukraine. I imagine that the first night he slept in Marie Palace, he stayed up late thinking about all the things he would do with his newfound power. I also presume he woke up sometime between then and now and found out that power was nothing but a dream. Maybe it was in 2019 when an Azov battalion fighter embarrassed Zelensky while he was allegedly attempting to get them to abide by the Minsk agreements. Or maybe he woke up when Ukraine had a peace treaty signed with Russia, only to have then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson come and tell him to scrub the whole thing and condemn his country to a bloody and fruitless fight with a much larger and more powerful country.

Or maybe it was this morning, when he found out the Ramstein conference, where he planned to ask Biden for more assistance and permission to strike deep inside Russia, had been delayed to an unspecified date. Zelensky’s so-called “victory plan” will go unheard. “There is no victory plan for Zelensky. Everybody understands that. His days are numbered,” explained whistleblower and former Ukrainian diplomat Andrii Telizhenko on Sputnik’s The Final Countdown. “We’re going to see how many days there are. [Is he] going to stay afloat until New Year’s? Or [is he] going to stay afloat until November 5th – the [US] elections? Or until January [when the new term begins]? This is Zelensky’s timetable now.” Zelensky is beset by enemies on all sides. Not just on the battlefield but internationally and domestically. The West is no friend to Zelensky. They assured him he could win with their help. They assured him that they’d stick by him “for as long as it takes.”

Anyone with a knowledge of US history could have told him that the US has a history of chewing up and spitting out its supposed allies, but Zelensky was a mere actor, what qualification did he have to doubt the leaders of the West? Since they never blame themselves, the US will blame Zelensky for losing to Russia in a fight they never expected him to win and will look to replace him as Ukraine transitions to a rump state, but they’d prefer that he holds on until after the election in November. “They need to sustain themselves. The deep state, the Biden administration, Kamala Harris, [the] Obamas, they need to show that they are still fueling this war, that they’re fighting Russia to stay afloat until the elections. That is the main goal for them, and until then they will decide what’s going to happen next,” explained Telizhenko.

“Kamala or Trump, they’re going… to blame Europe and Zelensky and the Nazis in Ukraine. [Say] that they didn’t do their job, even though they were given all the money that the world could give them, they didn’t win.” There is also Azov, who never respected Zelensky to begin with and would be furious if he asked for peace. His political rivals are also salivating at Zelensky’s perilous hold on power. “The [Petro] Poroshenko people, the neo-Nazi radical groups, which Zelensky thinks he controls but they’re controlled by the Ukrainian intel and law enforcement, together with the United States [Ukrainian People’s Deputy of Ukraine] Yulia Tymoshenko, [Kiev Mayor Vitali] Klitschko, that crowd, they are going to eat him alive like spiders,” Telizhenko said. Lastly, the people of Ukraine themselves are increasingly turning on Zelensky. Those that wanted, or could be forced to fight in Ukraine have already been sent to the frontline. “The mayor of Dnepropetrovsk today spoke out that there’s a problem, there’s hardly any men in the city, so they have no one to defend the city,” Telizhenko explained.

Over the summer, the anti-war underground in Ukraine started to grow, with multiple videos showing the vehicles used by mobilization officers being burned with gasoline. Without the support of his people, his military, his government, or his nominal allies in the West, Zelensky has one option left: turning to Russian President Vladimir Putin and requesting capitulation. It’s not the end he wanted, but nearly a million Ukrainian men have been killed trying to secure his vision of victory. This is not a game. Zelensky should not worry himself with what he could have had, even though what he was offered by the Russians in Istanbul is far better than he can hope for now. Instead, he needs to look forward and make the only move he can to end the bloodshed. “A win for Ukraine is saving more lives,” argued Telizhenko. “As [many] lives as they can save, as [many] men they can save, women and children to rebuild Ukraine in the future, that’s going to be a win for Ukraine.”

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“..The closer the US election nears, the more unhinged Netanyahu gets and the more “outrageous actions” he performs..”

Netanyahu’s ‘God Complex’ Caused Cancellation of Defense Chief’s US Visit (Sp.)

The sudden cancellation of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s visit to the US may be related to his complicated relationship with Israel’s PM Netanyahu, suggests Tel Aviv-based international relations expert Dr. Simon Tsipis. According to Tsipis, Netanyahu is afraid that Gallant may be gunning for him and would immediately start plotting against him upon arriving in the US. “Netanyahu is paranoid, he has a king syndrome, a god complex,” says Tsipis. “He constantly fears that someone might overthrow or supplant him. This paranoia of his grows more acute with each passing day. He sees traitors everywhere, he sees enemies inside his inner circle.” Seeing how the potential Israeli strike on Iran was the very issue Gallant and Austin were supposed to discuss in the US, Netanyahu basically ended up “holding hostage the entire Middle East, including Israel’s population and Iranian society,” argues Tsipis.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that Netanyahu is essentially trying to blackmail the US by threatening to start a major conflict right on the eve of the US presidential election, the expert adds. “The relations between the US and Netanyahu are quite strained. Neither Democrats nor Republicans can hold the election normally if there is a big war raging in the Middle East,” Tsipis explains. “This is Netanyahu’s biggest leverage and the primary instrument of blackmail.” The closer the US election nears, the more unhinged Netanyahu gets and the more “outrageous actions” he performs, Tsipis notes.

He also suggests that the upcoming phone call between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden is going to be related to the security situation in the Middle East: namely, Netanyahu will likely seek the United States’ support in case of a war with Iran, whereas Biden will probably demand from Netanyahu to not start such war in the first place. Finally, Tsipis points out that one should not necessarily equate Benjamin Netanyahu with Israel. “Netanyahu does not represent the entire Israel,” he insists, arguing that the Israeli prime minister currently “acts as a dictator.”

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“We are approaching Armageddon from two directions, and the word can’t get out.”

Does Israel Wag America or Does America Wag Israel (Paul Craig Roberts)

Americans who pay attention are critical of Israel for its control not only of US foreign policy but also US domestic policies, such as those regulating speech, and even tenure decisions of Catholic universities. CIA personnel have complained that attempts to rein-in Israeli spying on America have been politically blocked. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in their book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, reveal Israel’s power over America. It is hard to see it any other way when American universities, such as Harvard, prevent students from protesting Israel’s genocide of Palestine, and when in the middle of the genocide, the US Congress shows its support for the genocide by inviting Israeli prime minister Netanyahu to address Congress and reward his war crimes with 53 standing ovations. How can Washington be any more subservient to Israel than that?

[..] Michael Hudson and Richard Wolfe are credible witnesses, because they, especially Hudson, participated in the formation of Washington’s policy to use and direct Israel in behalf of US hegemony in the Middle East. Israel is Washington’s proxy against the Muslims, just as Ukrainians are Washington’s proxy against Russia, just as Georgians were when Washington sent them to invade South Ossetia, and just as the British and Europe are by serving Washington’s hegemony at the risk of their own destruction. Looking at it from this standpoint, the view that Israel controls Washington serves as a cover to protect Washington from responsibility for Israel’s actions that serve Washington’s agendas.

Instead of choosing between the two explanations, I would say both are true. The cover has been in place for 50 years, and during that time due to belief in it, acquired its own power. The consequence is that whereas Israel has as much power over Americans’ First Amendment rights as the US Supreme Court, Israel continues as Washington’s proxy against the Arabs. The Hudson-Wolfe explanation originated as an interview hosted by Nima Alkhorshid on October 6, 2024. At places it seems there are errors in the transcription that result in confusion, but if you attend to the confusing passages you can figure out what is being said.

In the last part of the interview, Hudson and Wolfe seem to agree with my position that the Russians, Arabs, and Iranians are miscalculating when they rely on threats of wider war and demonstrations of ability to strike Israel to bring the Washington hegemon to his senses. What they are actually doing is giving away their strategic advantage to Washington and to Israel without getting credit for trying to stop the widening of the wars. Hudson and Wolfe support the point that I have often made. No one with a wide audience, money, or clout from a think tank, university, or major foundation is saying a word about the risks of two wars spinning out of control into nuclear war. Those few of us speaking are isolated individuals denounced as Russian agents, anti-semites, and purveyors of disinformation. This should scare the world to death. We are approaching Armageddon from two directions, and the word can’t get out.

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“..a propensity for violence against innocents which defines the Israeli way of war and, by extension, the Israeli nation..”

The Fall of Israel (Scott Ritter)

I have previously written about Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, calling it “the most successful military raid of this century.” I have described the Hamas action as a military operation, while Israel and its allies have called it a terrorist action on the scale of what transpired against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. “The difference between the two terms,” I noted, “is night and day — by labeling the events of October 7 as acts of terrorism, Israel transfers blame for the huge losses away from its military, security, and intelligence services, and onto Hamas. If Israel were, however, to acknowledge that what Hamas did was in fact a raid — a military operation — then the competency of the Israeli military, security, and intelligence services would be called into question, as would the political leadership responsible for overseeing and directing their operations.”

Terrorism employs strategies that seek victory through attrition and intimidation — to wear an enemy down and create a sense of helplessness on the part of the enemy. Terrorists by nature avoid decisive existential conflict, but rather pursue asymmetrical battle which pits their strengths against the weaknesses of their enemies. The war that has gripped the Levant since Oct. 7, 2023, is not your traditional anti-terrorism operation. The Hamas-Israeli conflict has morphed into a conflict between Israel and the so-called axis of resistance involving Hamas, Hezbollah, Ansarullah (the Houthi of Yemen), the Popular Mobilization Forces, i.e. militias of Iraq, Syria and Iran. It is a regional war in every way, shape, or form that must be assessed as such. The Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz noted in his classic work, On War, that “war is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.”

From a purely military perspective, the Hamas raid on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was a relatively minor engagement, involving a few thousand combatants from each side. As a global geopolitical event, however, it has no contemporary counterpart. The Hamas raid triggered a number of varied responses, some of which were by design, such as luring the Israeli Defense Forces into Gaza, where they would become trapped in a forever war they could not win, triggering the dual Israeli doctrines governing military response to hostage taking of the “Hannibal Doctrine” and the Israeli practice of collective punishment, the “Dahiya Doctrine.” Both of these doctrines put the IDF on display to the world as the antithesis of the “world’s most moral military” by exposing the murderous intent ingrained into the DNA of the IDF, a propensity for violence against innocents which defines the Israeli way of war and, by extension, the Israeli nation.

Prior to Oct. 7, 2023, Israel was able to disguise its true character to the outside world, convincing all but a handful of activists that its actions in targeting “terrorists” were proportional and humane. Today the world knows Israel as the genocidal apartheid state it really is. The consequences of this new global enlightenment are manifest.

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“..federal authorities possess “several terabytes of electronic data from P. Diddy and his empire”..”

US Elites Inclined to Cover Up P. Diddy Sex Scandal (Sp.)

US media earlier reported that federal authorities possess “several terabytes of electronic data from P. Diddy and his empire” as part of the prosecution of the 54-year-old hip-hop mogul. Speaking to Sputnik, US constitutional historian and political commentator, Dan Lazare, said that it remains to be seen how the sex scandal surrounding American rapper Sean Combs, better known as P. Diddy, will further unfold. The scandal shows “the really ugly underside of the US entertainment industry, where one man, a billionaire, was able to run wild and essentially engage in a lot of sex crimes of a really horrific sort, against women,” Lazare underscored. He recalled that there are “a lot of very big name celebrities who are there, including Donald Trump, Al Sharpton, many Hollywood stars, etc.”

With the 2024 US presidential election race now in full swing, the photograph of P. Diddy with the former POTUS and his wife Melania could have been released “in an attempt to get Trump, to embarrass Trump,” Lazare said. According to the analyst, “some members” of the American elites “are so inclined to cover up” the brouhaha over the P. Diddy case. “Certainly, he was buying influence, and he was eagerly sought out by some of the most famous names of the day, all of whom are now acutely embarrassed to be associated with him. It reminds me of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. And Epstein made a big point of cultivating the most prominent people in America. So it’s very similar,” Lazare pointed out.

The analyst didn’t rule out that further information on the scandal, and the possible involvement of the US deep state, including its intelligence agencies such as the FBI “will come out” soon. “How far this scandal will go is impossible to say,” the analyst concluded. P. Diddy, who was arrested at a New York hotel on September 16, is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution, among other felonies. Combs has been denied a $50 million bail after pleading not guilty to all the charges.

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“..a smokescreen and a distraction from the bottomless decline of a society whose elite rapes children.”

Russia Calls Out US Deep State on Covering Up P. Diddy Sex Scandal (Sp.)

54-year-old Sean Combs, also known as P. Diddy, was charged earlier with sex trafficking, racketeering, conspiracy and other felonies. US political elites knew perfectly well about the crimes committed by P. Diddy, but they turned a blind eye to it, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, told Sputnik when commenting on the scandal surrounding the US rapper. She stated that the scandal is not merely a problem, but a catastrophe, and what’s been revealed is just “the tip of the iceberg.” For many years, P. Diddy’s “white parties” were highly exclusive and not all Hollywood stars were given access. Participation at this level of crime was reserved for the highly exceptional business elites only, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.

US law enforcement agencies and special services were involved in all this media blackmail, as well as “thousands of people” who were engaged in the “criminal network,” Zakharova said. She also noted that many US experts believe the content of those “freak-offs” was recorded. The records enabled the creation of an “elite network” which has been spreading information to manipulate public opinion for years. Zakharova also made the topic-related remarks on her Telegram page: “Now it is clear why the American deep state is interested in foreign policy, the Ukrainian agenda, hacking accusations against Russia, the “remlin hand,” and purported interference in US elections – all this is a smokescreen and a distraction from the bottomless decline of a society whose elite rapes children.”

The idols of the American show business have collapsed, and continue to do so, dragging neoliberal values into the abyss with them.” “It’s funny and terrifying that a show business big shot has been accused of all the sins of modern America, camouflaged by its political establishment as the new normal.” “All of America knew about these ‘white parties.’ They were discussed so widely that they became memes. A unique situation: everyone talked, but kept mum on the main thing,” Zakharova concluded.

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“..the “deindustrialization of Europe” will continue..”

EU Committing ‘Energy Suicide’ – Gazprom CEO (RT)

The EU economy is suffering without cheap Russian gas and its industrial production has slumped to record lows, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller has said. His comments came after the German government warned that the EU’s economic powerhouse is facing a second consecutive year of recession in 2024. The EU gas market is seeing ‘demand destruction’, Miller told the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum on Thursday. The term refers to a situation in which persistently high prices or limited supply of a certain commodity lead to lower demand for it and trigger a search for alternatives. “Some [experts] say that [the situation] may be described as Europe’s energy suicide,” the head of the Russian state-run energy giant said. Others say that the “economic locomotive” has turned into “the sick man of Europe,” Miller added, in apparent reference to Germany.

The EU’s largest economy contracted 0.3% last year, with the slowdown being attributed partly to a sharp drop in pipeline gas imports from Russia. Germany’s GDP is expected to decline by a further 0.2% this year, Berlin’s Ministry for Economic Affairs announced on Wednesday. That would mark the second straight year of recession for the country. Miller argued that the “deindustrialization of Europe” will continue, as well as increasing volatility in the gas market, warning that the trend could lead to “a new price shock for gas and supply disruptions.” According to the Gazprom chief, EU policies have resulted in a nearly 10% decline in industrial production in the bloc, to the lowest levels in a decade. European industry will not become more competitive, Miller argued, saying that industries in the US spend up to five times less on energy.

The EU previously received the bulk of its Russian gas via the Nord Stream pipelines, but supplies stopped indefinitely after the under-sea infrastructure was damaged in a sabotage attack in September 2022. According to EU statistics, Russia’s share in EU gas supplies plunged from 45% in 2021 to 15% in 2023. Russian gas is currently delivered to Western and Central Europe via Ukraine, based on a contract signed by Gazprom and Naftogaz in 2019. Kiev, however, has said it has no intention of extending the agreement when it expires at the end of this year.

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Dems drove Elon away

 

 

Elon Obama
https://twitter.com/i/status/1844045138177192180

 

 

Friedman
https://twitter.com/i/status/1844259132926534118

 

 

Stray

 

 

Night train
https://twitter.com/i/status/1844219708440281390

 

 

Pineapple

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Feb 282019
 


René Magritte The endearing truth 1966

 

Trump Says Deal With Kim Thwarted By North Korea’s Sanction Demands (R.)
Michael Cohen Predicts Revolution If Trump Loses In 2020 (RT)
Michael Cohen’s Explosive Allegations Spell Danger For Trump On Two Fronts (G.)
Why Trump Will Likely Be Reelected, And What It Means For Global Security (F.)
Regime Change is Urgently Needed…in Washington (OffG)
Venezuela Set For More False Flags (Cunningham)
Disintegration Of Global Capitalism Could Unleash WWIII (Nafeez Ahmed)
China Factory Activity At 3-Year Low, Export Orders Worst In A Decade (CNBC)
Denmark Government Wants Stores To Stop Accepting Cash (RT)
Chinese Dam Project In Guinea Could Kill Up To 1,500 Chimpanzees (G.)
Kenya Announces Death Penalty for Poachers (SAI)
The Endless Sunshine of Planetary Death (HmmD)
World’s Deepest Waters Becoming ‘Ultimate Sink’ For Plastic Waste (G.)
How To Live Happily With The 5,000 Other Species In Your House (G.)

 

 

No, not even that headline is true. Trump wants full denuclearization, and Kim wants full lifting of sanctions. That is complex, that takes trust, that will take a lot more talk. And that’s fine, as Trump recognizes. These meetings should become so common they don’t make the news anymore.

Trump Says Deal With Kim Thwarted By North Korea’s Sanction Demands (R.)

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had walked away from a nuclear deal at his summit with Kim Jong Un because of unacceptable demands from the North Korean leader to lift punishing U.S.-led sanctions. Trump said two days of talks in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi had made good progress in building relations and on the key issue of denuclearization, but it was important not to rush into a bad deal. “It was all about the sanctions,” Trump said at a news conference after the talks were cut short. “Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that.” The United Nations and the United States ratcheted up sanctions on North Korea when the reclusive state undertook a series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests in 2017, cutting off its main sources hard cash.

Both Trump and Kim left the venue of their talks, the French-colonial-era Metropole hotel, without attending a planned lunch together. “Sometimes you have to walk, and this was just one of those times,” Trump said, adding “it was a friendly walk”. Failure to reach an agreement marks a setback for Trump, a self-styled dealmaker under pressure at home over his ties to Russia and testimony from Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer who accused him of breaking the law while in office. Trump said Cohen “lied a lot” during Congressional testimony in Washington on Wednesday, though he had told the truth when he said there had been “no collusion” with Russia.

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I watched quite a bit of the ‘testimony’ yesterday, increasingly wondering: what are we watching here? Why is this show put on? It was clear from the ‘leaked’ files that Cohen had nothing, as I said yesterday morning. In the Q&A session he had way less than nothing. So yeah, let’s go with the most absurd headline of the bunch.

Michael Cohen Predicts Revolution If Trump Loses In 2020 (RT)

Trump consigliere turned federal informant Michael Cohen shared his fear that there will “never be a peaceful transition of power” if his former boss loses the 2020 election during a congressional hearing some called a ‘circus.’ “You don’t know him! I do!” Cohen insisted plaintively during his testimony before the Oversight Committee of the House of Representatives, before predicting Trump would refuse to step down even if he was defeated in 2020. “He is a racist. He is a con man. He is a cheat,” declared Cohen, who pleaded guilty to charges he lied to Congress regarding the special counsel’s ongoing ‘Russiagate’ probe in November, months after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations and tax fraud. He has been busily feeding information to the various Trump probes ever since.

Despite promising big things – proof that Trump had instructed him to commit crimes, evidence of Trump’s racism, even the holy grail of Russian collusion – Cohen failed to deliver anything tangible to the salivating Democrats on the committee, admitting he had no “real examples” of collusion and instead filling his time on the stand with public displays of repentance over his ten years of service to Trump. “Everybody’s job at the Trump organization is to protect Mr. Trump. Every day most of us knew we were coming in and we were going to lie for him on something. And that became the norm, and that’s what’s happening right now in this country,” Cohen intoned. “This destruction of our civility to one another is just out of control.” Republicans, meanwhile, repeatedly reminded the committee that Cohen had already been convicted for perjury. Rep. Carol Miller (R-West Virginia) denounced the entire affair as a “circus.”

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Things don’t magically become ‘explosive’ or ‘bombshell’ just because opinionated reporters say so. And these lines from Cohen don’t exactly save the narrative:

“Trump’s former fixer cautioned that he could not prove the “collusion..”

“There are just so many dots that seem to lead in the same direction..”

Michael Cohen’s Explosive Allegations Spell Danger For Trump On Two Fronts (G.)

Michael Cohen on Wednesday delivered a sharp warning to Donald Trump and the Republican party that the president faces legal and political peril on at least two fronts. First, the Trump-Russia investigation. Cohen became the first Trump associate to allege that, in 2016, Trump knew in advance that his eldest son, Donald Jr, was meeting Russians promising dirt on Hillary Clinton – and that WikiLeaks would be releasing emails stolen from Democrats by Russian operatives. Moreover, Cohen hinted that Robert Mueller, the special counsel currently wrapping up a two-year inquiry into whether Trump’s team coordinated with Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, may have proof.

Cohen was asked by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida Democrat forced to resign as party chairwoman over the WikiLeaks disclosures, how they could corroborate his explosive allegations, which are based on remarks he says he overheard in Trump’s office. “I suspect that the special counsel’s office and other government agencies have the information you’re seeking,” Cohen said. Trump denied both allegations in his written answers to questions from Mueller. Cohen also reiterated that Trump lied repeatedly to the American public during the 2016 campaign by saying he had no dealings with Russia. In fact, Cohen has told prosecutors, Trump was keenly pursuing a lucrative tower in Moscow until June 2016.

Trump’s former fixer cautioned that he could not prove the “collusion” with Moscow that the president vehemently denies. Still there was, Cohen said, “something odd” about the affectionate back-and-forth Trump had with Vladimir Putin in public remarks over the years. “There are just so many dots that seem to lead in the same direction,” he said.

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The Democrats may be intent -again- on swamping the field with candidates, only to end up with the establishment candidate. That would mean they haven’t learned a thing in 4 years. Unless Ocasio rises to the occasion (get it? Ocasio->Occasion). But that’s doubtful, 1 year is short. So maybe they should chew on this a little:

Why Trump Will Likely Be Reelected, And What It Means For Global Security (F.)

Donald Trump’s presidency has been so widely derided in the national media that a casual observer might easily conclude his prospects for reelection are dim. However, that is not what the odds makers are saying. They give Trump a solid edge over any Democratic candidate in 2020. The odds makers are right. Trump will probably be reelected if he chooses to run. What follows is an explanation of why the odds favor Trump, and what eight years of his leadership would mean for global security. Let’s start with the factors favoring a second term. First of all, candidates who get elected to the presidency once tend to get reelected if they run. Only two chief executives seeking reelection over the last 50 years—Carter and Bush 41—failed in their bid for a second term.

Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama all won reelection, even though at least two of them were highly controversial. In fact, the most controversial presidents tend to roll up the biggest reelection victories. Second, Trump has presided over the strongest economy in living memory. Unemployment is at record lows, inflation is nearly non-existent, and new jobs are being created at a startling pace. Anyone who studies presidential politics knows that strong economies are the most important factor driving support for the incumbent. While growth may moderate between now and election day, few economists expect a recession anytime soon. Third, the nation is at peace. Trump has avoided involvement in new overseas adventures, and is pressing to scale back what is left of the operations he inherited from his predecessor.

Critics complain he is too eager to get out of places like Afghanistan and Syria, however the record shows that voters have little patience for foreign military intervention. Unpopular wars are the one issue that can eclipse a good economy in the minds of voters, but at the moment Trump seems to be delivering both peace and prosperity. Fourth, Democrats are busy reminding voters in the middle of the political spectrum why they voted for Trump in 2016. Ever since the Democrats drifted away from their blue-collar base in the 1970s, winning the party’s presidential nomination has required appeals to the Left. While many voters may resent the rich and want more government benefits, those sentiments become muted when the economy is strong.

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What if the entire third world unites against the west?

Regime Change is Urgently Needed…in Washington (OffG)

I am surprised that no one else is saying it, writing it, shouting it at each and every corner: It is not Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Iran that are in dire and crucial need of ‘regime change’. It is the United States of America, it is the entire European Union; in fact, the entire West. And the situation is urgent. The West has gone mad; it has gone so to speak, bananas; mental. And people there are too scared to even say it, to write about it. One country after another is falling, being destroyed, antagonized, humiliated, impoverished. Entire continents are treated as if they were inhabited by irresponsible toddlers, who are being chased and disciplined by sadistic adults, with rulers and belts in their hands yelling with maniacal expressions on their faces: “Behave, do as we say, or else!”

It all would be truly comical, if it weren’t so depressing. But… nobody is laughing. People are shaking, sweating, crying, begging, puking, but they are not chuckling. I see it everywhere where I work: in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. But why? It is because North American and European countries are actually seriously delivering their ultimatum: you either obey us, and prostrate yourself in front of us, or we will break you, violate you, and if everything else fails, we will kill your leaders and all of those who are standing in our way. This is not really funny, is it? Especially considering that it is being done to almost all the countries in what is called Latin America, to many African and Middle Eastern nations, and to various states on the Asian continent.

And it is all done ‘professionally’, with great sadistic craftsmanship and rituals. No one has yet withstood ‘regime change’ tactics, not even the once mighty Soviet Union, nor tremendous China, or proud and determined Afghanistan. Cuba, Venezuela, DPRK and Syria may be the only countries that are still standing. They resisted and mobilized all their resources in order to survive; and they have survived, but at a tremendous price.

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What a failure this has become in a few short weeks.

Venezuela Set For More False Flags (Cunningham)

It seems obvious the whole scenario of delivering US aid into Venezuela from neighboring countries was really intended as a pretext for military intervention by Washington. The government in Caracas had warned of such a contingency in advance, as had Russia, which is allied to President Maduro’s administration. Moscow’s experience in Syria has no doubt given a lot of valuable insights into the American playbook of using false flags for justifying military aggression. The timing of the Lima Group summit – 12 Latin American states along with the US and Canada – was meant to capitalize on the false-flag incident over aid, as well as other deadly clashes at the weekend that resulted in dozens of casualties.

However, the provocation did not go to plan, despite Pence and Guaido’s grandstanding assertions. The other downside for the US regime-change objective in Venezuela is that the Lima Group has for the moment broken ranks over the military option. Pence and Guaido stepped up the rhetoric calling for “all options” on the table – meaning military intervention. But the Lima Group, including US allies Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, issued a statement after the summit Monday rejecting any military action. They are still functioning as lackeys by calling for a “peaceful transition to democracy” and are in favor of the dubious US-anointed opposition figure Guaido, recognizing him as the “interim president” of Venezuela, in accordance with Washington’s desires.

Nevertheless, repudiation of the military option by Washington’s regional allies will be seen as a damper to the momentum for using American force to overthrow the Maduro government. Brazil’s Vice President Hamilton Mourão repeatedly said in interviews that his government would not allow a US military incursion into Venezuela from its territory. The European Union also said it was opposed to any military force being used by the US against Venezuela. The emerging situation therefore puts the regime-change planners in Washington in a quandary. Their sanctions pressure for blackmailing defections in the Venezuelan political and military leadership has failed. So too has the much-vaunted spectacle of delivering US aid.

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So why is capitalism disintegrating? Maybe you should answer that first. Being deeply embedded in academia doesn’t impress me one bit. That same academia has helped lead us to this mess.

Disintegration Of Global Capitalism Could Unleash WWIII (Nafeez Ahmed)

A senior European Commission economist has warned that a Third World War is an extremely “high probability” in coming years due to the disintegration of global capitalism. In a working paper published last month, Professor Gerhard Hanappi argued that since the 2008 financial crash, the global economy has moved away from “integrated” capitalism into a “disintegrating” shift marked by the same sorts of trends which preceded previous world wars. Professor Hanappi is Jean Monnet Chair for Political Economy of European Integration -an European Commission appointment- at the Institute for Mathematical Models in Economics at the Vienna University of Technology. He also sits on the management committee of the Systemic Risks expert group in the EU-funded European Cooperation in Science and Technology research network.

In his new paper, Hanappi concludes that global conditions bear unnerving parallels with trends before the outbreak of the first and second world wars. Key red flags that the world is on a slippery slope to a global war, he finds, include: • the inexorable growth of military spending; • democracies transitioning into increasingly authoritarian police states; • heightening geopolitical tensions between great powers; • the resurgence of populism across the left and right; • the breakdown and weakening of established global institutions that govern transnational capitalism; • and the relentless widening of global inequalities. These trends, some of which were visible before the previous world wars, are reappearing in new forms. Hanappi argues that the defining feature of the current period is a transition from an older form of “integrating capitalism” to a new form of “disintegrating capitalism”, whose features most clearly emerged after the 2008 financial crisis.

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All the way back to 2008. Have we passed China’s peak already?

China Factory Activity At 3-Year Low, Export Orders Worst In A Decade (CNBC)

Factory activity in China contracted to a three-year low in February as export orders fell at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis, highlighting deepening cracks in an economy facing weak demand at home and abroad. The gloomy findings are likely to reinforce views that the world’s second-largest economy is still losing steam, after growth last year cooled to a near 30-year low. Even with increasing government stimulus to spur activity, concerns are growing that China may be at risk of a sharper slowdown if current Sino-U.S. trade talks fail to relieve some of the pressure. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell for the third straight month, dropping to 49.2 in February from 49.5 in January, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday.

The 50-mark separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast the gauge would stay unchanged from January’s 49.5. “Unless the trade war truly turns into an extended truce, the weakening trend may not end quickly,” Iris Pang, Greater China economist at ING, said in a note. “As such we expect March’s PMI to fall, too.” Manufacturing output contracted in February for the first time since January 2009, during the depths of the global crisis. Manufacturers also continued to cut jobs, a trend Beijing is closely watching as its weighs more support measures. New export orders shrank for a ninth straight month, and at a sharper rate, amid faltering global demand.

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Exactly what even the central bank in Holland has started warning against.

Denmark Government Wants Stores To Stop Accepting Cash (RT)

The Danish government is considering changing current laws which make it compulsory for the vast majority of stores to accept cash payments. The measure is part of Copenhagen’s push for a completely cashless society by 2030. The law change would allow petrol stations, convenience stores and clothing shops to choose to only accept card and online forms of payment. The anti-crime measure would provide additional security for stores, according to Denmark’s Business Minister Rasmus Jarlov. “Fewer people use cash today, so we think there should be a balance between the difficulty and security risks placed on business owners and the benefits of accepting cash,” Jarlov told the DR broadcaster.

A 2017 law enabled certain types of stores to apply for a dispensation to be cash-free between 10pm and 6am. The minister said that, “If you still want to use cash, I would advise saying so to the stores where you shop. I expect businesses to listen to their customers.” “We are not forcing anyone to stop using cash,” he added. Certain services, including supermarkets, postal services, doctors, pharmacies and other stores with “central societal functions,” will still be required to accept cash. Denmark’s endeavor to move towards a completely cash-free economy has been the subject of heated debate lately; with opponents saying the measure is aimed at placing citizens exclusively under state control. The government has “set a 2030 deadline to completely do away with paper money.”

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OK, this is easy. We get together, UN or something, to make sure such projects don’t happen anymore. We’ll make sure people get electricity from other sources, but we’re done destroying nature for it.

Chinese Dam Project In Guinea Could Kill Up To 1,500 Chimpanzees (G.)

Up to 1,500 chimpanzees could be killed by a new Chinese dam that will swamp a crucial sanctuary for the endangered primate in Guinea, experts have warned. The 294MW Koukoutamba dam will be built by Sinohydro, the world’s biggest hydroelectric power plant construction company, in the middle of a newly declared protected area called the Moyen-Bafing National park. The Chinese company is already facing similar criticism for building a dam in Indonesia that threatens the only known habitat of a newly discovered species of orangutan. Its executives signed a contract this week with local representatives eager to secure a power project that will bring energy and funds to one of Africa’s poorest countries. The flooding of swathes of the park is expected to force the displacement of 8,700 people.

It will also increase the pressure on western chimpanzees, which have declined by 80% in the past 20 years, and are now considered critically endangered – the highest level of risk – by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The highlands of Guinea are home to Africa’s healthiest remaining population of about 16,500 western chimpanzees. In most other countries, this subspecies is either extinct or perilously threatened in populations of less than 100 individuals. The Moyen-Bafing reserve was established in 2016 as a “chimpanzee offset” and funded by two mining companies – Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée and Guinea Alumina Corporation – in return for permission to open mineral excavation sites inside other territories of the primate.

Rebecca Kormos, a primatologist who has been researching the animal for decades, has warned that a dam inside the park would have the biggest impact a development project has ever had on chimpanzees. “I hope Sinohydro will reconsider engaging in a project that could drive the western chimpanzee into extinction. Once a species goes, it’s gone forever,” she said. She estimates 800 to 1,500 chimpanzees will die as a result of the project, either by having their habitats flooded or as a result of territorial conflicts if they try to move.

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Article’s a bit confused about timing, but the idea is one I’ve mentioned before. Stop trading with any country that trades in these materials, and shoot poachers on site.

Kenya Announces Death Penalty for Poachers (SAI)

Najib Balala, the tourism and wildlife minister of Kenya, recently announcedthat those who take the lives of innocent animals through poaching will soon face the death penalty in the African country. While this proposal hasn’t been officially enacted into law yet, Balala told China’s Xinhua news agency that wildlife poaching is on a fast track to becoming a capital offense. Sudan, Kenya’s last Rhino who was 45, lived at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya died last year. The species is now extinct due the Chinese demand for Rhino horn. While this measure may seem extreme, it is a last resort attempt to deter people from slaughtering Kenya’s rapidly decreasing wildlife population. Balala reportedly said:

“We have in place the Wildlife Conservation Act that was enacted in 2013 and which fetches offenders a life sentence or a fine of U.S. $200,000. However, this has not been deterrence enough to curb poaching, hence the proposed stiffer sentence.” As compared to recent years, poaching in Kenya is actually on the decline in the present day. According to the country’s tourism ministers, this decrease can largely be attributed to more serious wildlife law enforcement efforts and increased investment in conservation. “These efforts led to an 85 percent reduction in rhino poaching and a 78 percent reduction in elephant poaching, respectively, in 2017 compared to when poaching was at its peak in 2013 and 2012 respectively,” reported the ministry.

However, as Balala pointed out, wildlife poaching has not yet been completely eradicated in Kenya. The Independent reported, “Last year in the country 69 elephants – out of a population of 34,000 — and nine rhinos – from a population of under 1,000 – were killed.” Furthermore, a poacher killed two black rhinos and a calf earlier this month in Kenya’s Meru National Park.


An ‘ordinary’ ivory shop in Hong Kong

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No more clouds.

The Endless Sunshine of Planetary Death (HmmD)

We’re on course to destroy the clouds, they said now. Not just the coral, not just the insects, not just all the wild vertebrates living on land. The clouds. Quanta Magazine, writing about a new Nature Geoscience study on warming and clouds, described the temperature spike known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, when a sharp increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide led to an even sharper increase in temperature—along with “mass extinctions” of ocean life, immense dislocations of land animals, and “flash floods and protracted droughts.” How did the temperature jump out of normal boundaries into a lethal range? Clouds currently cover about two-thirds of the planet at any moment. But computer simulations of clouds have begun to suggest that as the Earth warms, clouds become scarcer.

With fewer white surfaces reflecting sunlight back to space, the Earth gets even warmer, leading to more cloud loss. This feedback loop causes warming to spiral out of control. In computer simulations, researchers found that at 1,200 parts per million of carbon dioxide, the level at which temperatures would be expected to be 4º C above the historical baseline, the atmosphere would become too warm and too turbulent to allow sheets of stratocumulus clouds to form. If the clouds fell apart, the extra sunlight could bring on an extra 8 degrees of warming—for a total increase of 12º C, or more than 21º F. Like the methane-spilling permafrost or the fracturing Antarctic ice sheet, the clouds can’t come back if they’re broken; the runaway heating effect would linger even after carbon dioxide levels dropped. We would have irrevocably ruined the sky.

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“If you contaminate a river, it can be flushed clean. If you contaminate a coastline, it can be diluted by the tides. But, in the deepest point of the oceans, it just sits there.”

World’s Deepest Waters Becoming ‘Ultimate Sink’ For Plastic Waste (G.)

The world’s deepest ocean trenches are becoming “the ultimate sink” for plastic waste, according to a study that reveals contamination of animals even in these dark, remote regions of the planet. For the first time, scientists found microplastic ingestion by organisms in the Mariana trench and five other areas with a depth of more than 6,000 metres, prompting them to conclude “it is highly likely there are no marine ecosystems left that are not impacted by plastic pollution”. The paper, published in the Royal Society Open Science journal, highlights the threat posed by non-biodegradable substances in clothes, containers and packaging, which make their way from household bins via dump sites and rivers to the oceans, where they break up and sink to the floor.

The impact of plastic in shallower waters – where it chokes dolphins, whales and seabirds – is already well documented in academic journals and by TV programmes such as David Attenborough’s Blue Planet. But the study shows this problem is far more profound than previously realised. Researchers baited, caught and examined subsea creatures from six of the deepest places in the world – the Peru-Chile trench in the south-east Pacific, the New Hebrides and Kermadec trenches in the south-west Pacific, and the Japan trench, Izu-Bonin trench and Mariana trench in the north-west Pacific. In all six areas, they found ingestion of microparticles by amphipods – a shrimp-like crustacean that scavenges on the seabed. The deeper the region, the higher the rate of consumption. In the Mariana trench – which goes down to the lowest point on earth of 10,890 metres below sea level – 100% of samples contained at least one microparticle.

The materials included polyester-reinforced cotton and fibres made of lyocell, rayon, ramie, polyvinyl and polyethylene. The breadth of substances and broad range of geographic sites prompted the authors to observe that increasing volumes of global plastic waste will find their way from surface gyres into these trenches. “It is intuitive that the ultimate sink for this debris, in whatever size, is the deep sea,” they noted. Once the materials reach these areas the waste has nowhere else to go, said Alan Jamieson of Newcastle University, the lead author of the paper. “If you contaminate a river, it can be flushed clean. If you contaminate a coastline, it can be diluted by the tides. But, in the deepest point of the oceans, it just sits there. It can’t flush and there are no animals going in and out of those trenches.”

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The other side of the spectrum: celebrate and understand what life is. Should have mentioned EO Wilson, though, I think.

“..we try to kill everything and fill our houses with stuff that’s totally terrible for us. We might kill 99%, but that leaves 1% – and that 1% is never the good stuff.”

How To Live Happily With The 5,000 Other Species In Your House (G.)

The good news is that I will never be home alone again. The bad news – well, it’s not in fact bad news, but it is slightly unsettling – is that I share my home with at least 5,000 other species: wasps, flies, spiders, silverfish and an exotic bunch of wild bacteria. All that information is apparently contained in a patch of grey dust I have just swabbed with my right index finger from a door frame in my living room. It’s like a DNA test of my house, says Rob Dunn, a 43-year-old American biologist who has come to my house in Copenhagen to hunt microbial life. He carries no lab gear and his blue crewneck jumper and striped Oxford shirt are hardly the combat suit of an exterminator. But with every discovery we make, with every spider we find lurking in the corner or each swab of dust, he displays an almost childlike sense of excitement.

He swears and smiles, even whoops with delight: “This dust sample contains bacteria, your body microbes, your wife’s body microbes, your child’s body microbes. If you smoke weed we would find marijuana DNA in there. Everything is visible, but it’s also present in every breath. Every time you inhale, you inhale that story of your home.” [..] When he began working as a biologist he went to the jungle to study wild beasts, but now his research is dedicated to species much closer to home: to the flies, spiders and bacteria hidden in every nook and cranny of our kitchens, bathrooms and basements. To the “jungle of everyday life”, as he describes it in his new book.

Never Home Alone tracks how we have been disconnected from the ecosystems of our homes. It’s a book of hard truths – I now know that I shed 50m flakes of skin every day, providing food for thousands of bacteria, and that cockroaches are basically our perfect interspecies Tinder-match. It also confronts our irrational relationship with cleanliness. Our modern instinct might be to swat a spider on the kitchen worktop or blitz creepy crawlies into oblivion with antimicrobial sprays, but we could be killing useful allies, according to Dunn: “The key thing is that your life is going to be full of life. And your only choice is which life. Our default is that we try to kill everything and fill our houses with stuff that’s totally terrible for us. We might kill 99%, but that leaves 1% – and that 1% is never the good stuff.”

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Celebrate life: