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Debt Rattle September 16 2024

Sep 162024
 
 September 16, 2024  Posted by at 9:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  31 Responses »


Vincent van Gogh Autumn landscape with four trees 1885

 

• New ‘Assassination Attempt’ Against Trump (RT)
• Would-Be Trump Assassin ‘Obsessed’ With Ukraine (RT)
• Doom Is the West’s Future (Paul Craig Roberts)
• US Has Declared War On Free Speech – Russia (RT)
• Attacks on RT Reveal The Sad Truth About The West (Amar)
• US Journalist on Ukraine, Western Lies, Roots of Russian Invincibility (Sp.)
• PA Supreme Court Rules to Disqualify Undated, Misdated Mail-In Ballots (ET)
• Blinken Brags Over Gershkovich, Pretends Gonzalo Lira Didn’t Exist (Cosgrove)
• The Transition from Democracy to Unaccountable Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Ukraine Ready For Ceasefire In Certain Areas – Bild (RT)
• Russian Electronic Warfare Makes GPS Useless for Ukraine’s Guided Missiles (Sp.)
• 9/11: The American Illness Which Still Has No Cure (Jay)
• IRS Whistleblowers Sue Hunter Biden Lawyer Abbe Lowell for Defamation (Turley)
• Hillary Clinton Derides Palestinians, College Students in New Book (Miles)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tucker on Harris

 

 

RFK Tulsi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1835279419100819529

 

 

Walz wife

 

 

Vivek managerial class

 

 

 

 

Trump is still not properly protected. No perimeter monitoring, because he’s not the president. The guy had an AK-47, right next to the golf track. They swept one hole ahead of where he was playing, and happened to see the gun barrel.

Trump got very lucky, again. But there are still people who want him dead. This is not over.

• New ‘Assassination Attempt’ Against Trump (RT)

The FBI is treating a shooting incident at Trump International Golf Club in Florida as an assassination attempt against former US President and Republican nominee Donald Trump. Federal agents are investigating “what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump,” the FBI confirmed on Sunday. The incident occurred shortly before 2pm local time, when a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle barrel sticking through a fence surrounding the resort. The agent “engaged” with the threat, firing four to six rounds, according to West Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. The suspect fled the scene, but was later arrested.

Senior advisor to Donald Trump’s campaign Dan Scavino Jr. has posted a comment from the Republican presidential candidate on X, thanking the public for their “concern and well wishes.” “It was certainly an interesting day!” he added. Trump thanked the Secret Service, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his office for the “incredible job done.” [..] Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, has said he is relieved Trump was not injured. “I’m glad President Trump is safe. I spoke to him before the news was public and he was, amazingly, in good spirits. Still much we don’t know, but I’ll be hugging my kids extra tight tonight and saying a prayer of gratitude,” Vance wrote on X. [..] Tech mogul Elon Musk has reacted to the news of yet another attempt on Donald Trump’s life by wondering why “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” in a post on his social media X.

[..] Federal agents are conducting a search of a North Carolina residence linked to the detained suspect, named by Ryan Routh in media reports, but still not officially identified by authorities. [..] Vice President Kamala Harris has issued a longer statement condemning political violence and praising the Secret Service agents who thwarted the attempted assassination of her rival. “I am deeply disturbed by the possible assassination attempt of former President Trump today. As we gather the facts, I will be clear: I condemn political violence. We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence,” she said. “I am thankful that former President Trump is safe. I commend the US Secret Service and law enforcement partners for their vigilance. As President Biden said, our Administration will ensure the Secret Service has every resource, capability, and protective measure necessary to carry out its critical mission,” she added.

[..] Donald Trump has praised the Secret Service and other law enforcement agents for doing an “absolutely outstanding” job in keeping him safe. “It was certainly an interesting day! Most importantly, I want to thank the US Secret Service, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his Office of brave and dedicated Patriots, and, all of Law Enforcement, for the incredible job done today at Trump International in keeping me, as the 45th President of the United States, and the Republican Nominee in the upcoming Presidential Election, SAFE,” he wrote in a new post on Truth Social. “I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes,” he added, stating that he feels “very proud to be an American.”

[..] The suspect remained silent when he was detained by law enforcement, according to State Attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, David Aronberg. The state attorney said the suspect had a “rap sheet,” but did not confirm his identity. “He knew enough to stay silent,” Aronberg told CNN. “He did not apparently speak to officers, he was calm. So, it looked like a person who has done this before, not necessarily this crime, but someone who has had repeated interactions with law enforcement.”

Eric Prince

Sheriff


https://twitter.com/i/status/1835428406026232159

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And yes, they knew him…

“..with the alleged Trump shooter’s personal and public participation in military activity in Ukraine, it is hard to imagine this White House’s agencies can claim zero contact – ’clean hands.’”

• Would-Be Trump Assassin ‘Obsessed’ With Ukraine (RT)

The man behind a botched assassination attempt against Donald Trump at his Florida golf club has been identified as Ryan Wesley Routh by multiple media reports citing anonymous law enforcement sources. Authorities have yet to officially confirm the suspect’s identity. The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon while the former US President and Republican nominee was playing golf at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. A Secret Service agent apparently spotted a rifle barrel sticking through the resort’s fence and fired several rounds at the threat. The suspect fled the scene, leaving behind an AK-style rifle with a scope and a GoPro camera, but was later arrested. ”He was not displaying a lot of emotions. He never asked, ‘What is this about?’” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told a press conference.

The suspect was reportedly “relatively calm” when the authorities detained him. Fox News has obtained a photo of the suspect moments after his arrest, while New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz has shared another photo of him being pulled out of his vehicle. While the man’s identity and motive have not yet been officially confirmed by authorities, law enforcement sources told AP, CNN, and Fox News that the detained man’s name was Ryan Wesley Routh. A man by that name appeared to be a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its conflict with Moscow, according to US media and internet users who analyzed his social media accounts before they were deleted. Routh’s social media profiles were filled with posts highlighting his “self-proclaimed involvement” in the Ukraine conflict and attempts to recruit soldiers to fight against Russia, according to CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller.

Routh repeatedly voiced staunch support for Kiev in dozens of often nonsensical posts in 2022, saying he was willing to fight and die for Ukraine and that “we need to burn the Kremlin to the ground,” according to CNN. “I would like to buy a rocket from you,” he wrote in a message to Elon Musk, according to NYPost. “I wish to load it with a warhead for Putin’s Black Sea mansion bunker to end him.” Routh spent several months in Kiev in 2022 and told the New York Times about his efforts to recruit former Afghan soldiers to fight in Ukraine. He also spoke with Newsweek about his attempts to enlist volunteers for the International Legion Defense of Ukraine. According to the New York Post, Routh frequently criticized politicians, including Trump and current President Joe Biden, and “touted his do-gooder credentials while championing left-wing causes.”

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene stated that if the suspect’s identity is confirmed, it is clear he is “obsessed with the Ukraine war, which is funded by the US.” NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has questioned whether US intelligence agencies had any “contact” with the attempted shooter, pointing to his alleged connections to Ukraine and vocal support for Kiev. ”We know little so far, but with the alleged Trump shooter’s personal and public participation in military activity in Ukraine, it is hard to imagine this White House’s agencies can claim zero contact – ’clean hands.’ Something of an Oswald vibe here. Congress should get answers,” Snowden wrote on X. Meanwhile, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. labeled the suspected would-be shooter a “psychopath” who probably “spends a lot of time watching leftwing propaganda.”

Poso
https://twitter.com/i/status/1835467674106912888

Kirk

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“When the election is stolen, what will Americans do about it? Nothing. They will accept tyranny before they will fight.”

• Doom Is the West’s Future (Paul Craig Roberts)

Putin has been at war with NATO since the 2007 Munich Security Conference when Putin announced that a multi-polar world was replacing Washington’s uni-polar order. In other words, he threw down the gauntlet to the neoconservatives and their agenda of Washington’s hegemony. Putin possibly did not comprehend how determined neoconservatives are about hegemony, as a hegemonic agenda undoubtably seems unrealistic to Putin. He did not foresee that his challenge would lead directly to Washington’s overthrow of the Ukrainian government and move to make Ukraine a member of NATO. Once Washington had Ukraine, Washington began building a large Ukrainian army with which to embarrass Putin by suppressing the Donbas Russians. Putin was like a babe in the woods. For eight years while Washington built a Ukrainian army, Putin put his trust in the Minsk Agreement and remained unprepared for the easily predictable war on the horizon.

When Putin was finally forced to intervene, he did so in a foolish way that guaranteed increasing Western involvement, and by never enforcing any of his red lines now has his back to the wall and cannot ignore NATO/US missile strikes into Russia. Finally, he is forced to acknowledge the truth: “the United States and European countries are at war with Russia.” If Putin had been realistic instead of lost in liberal delusions, the war that seems ready to break loose could have been avoided. As the cautious Gilbert Doctorow wrote four days ago, “a Third World War fought at least initially with conventional weapons is now just days, at most weeks away.” And this is just the Ukraine scene. Another major war is brewing in the Middle East. Whether or not war is that close, Doctorow’s point is well taken. War can’t be far off when the US and UK governments are discussing firing missiles at Russia.

As I wrote two or three days ago, “as talk has been forbidden, war is now a certainty.” Unlike during the Cold War, the West no longer has independent foreign policy experts. With very few exceptions, such as Scott Ritter, Mearsheimer, Doctorow, and myself, the Western “foreign policy community” speaks with one voice: “US good, Russia bad.” That’s about it. Those few of us who are independent of think tanks and university faculties funded by the military/security complex and neoconservative foundations are labeled “Russian agents/dupes” and worse. We are gradually being criminalized. Scott Ritter on his way to a conference in Russia was taken off the flight by the Washington Gestapo. His passport was confiscated, and his home was invaded. Currently, charges are being made against Americans accused of cooperating with “Russian disinformation,” by which is meant reporting a fact or expressing an opinion that is inconsistent with the official narratives.

As one thoroughly experienced with the 20th century Cold War, I know that talk between Americans and Russians was the solution, not the problem. When talk is defined as the problem, as Washington defines it today, war is the result. And that is where we are headed. Even the cautious and understated Doctorow sees in Washington an “insane recklessness” that threatens life on earth. What is the point of it? Ukraine’s fraudulent borders while our own go undefended. Americans, Europeans, Russians, indeed the entire world need to understand that in the government in Washington there is not one ounce of intelligence or integrity. The American president is senile. The National Security Council is a collection of morons. Not a single one of them has achieved any distinction other than being a mouthpiece for the military/security complex. The military’s officer ranks have been purged to make room for sexual perverts, women, and “racial minorities.”

The notion among conservatives that the US military is going to save us is laughable. The military is tamed with fangs pulled and has been forced to accept zero promotions for white Americans until the military has achieved in the officer ranks “equity” for sexual perverts, women and “racial minorities.” The ruling establishment is determined to install their puppet Kamala in the White House. She has always prostituted herself to move ahead, and now is her big chance. Unless Democrats get a surprise from Trump winning in blue states, the 2024 election will be stolen in the swing states exactly as it was in 2020. Indeed, as local news reports have made clear, many of the theft mechanisms used in 2020 have been legalized. It is now legal in swing states for the Democrats to steal the election. When the election is stolen, what will Americans do about it? Nothing. They will accept tyranny before they will fight.

Fighting requires belief, but Americans’ beliefs have been destroyed by decades of liberal/left “education” that has undermined Western civilization by presenting it as a racist, misogynist scheme of exploitation of women and “minorities” by white supremacists. White kids go to taxpayer-financed schools funded by their parents to learn that they have been born into the wrong body and that they, their parents and grandparents are racists who owe reparations to “suppressed minorities.” They are being prepared to pay an additional round of taxes to those declared to be their victims. They are being sexualized at an early age and prepared for pedophiles. We must be honest. This is a correct portrayal of America and the entire West today. Every Western government is on the side of immigrant-invaders against the ethnic citizens who comprise the countries. Now, tell me, how can a social, political, belief system this weak go to war with real people such as Russians, Chinese, Iranians? They cannot. The only future the Western world has is Doom.

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“The idea that you can’t achieve results without being part of the intelligence service has exposed them for what they are..”

• US Has Declared War On Free Speech – Russia (RT)

The US crackdown on Russian media amounts to a declaration of war on free speech, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday. She described the new sanctions against RT and other news outlets as “repressions unprecedented in scale.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new sanctions against RT on Friday, accusing it of engaging in “covert influence activities” and “functioning as a de facto arm of Russian intelligence.” Earlier in September, Washington imposed sanctions on RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and three other senior RT employees over alleged attempts to influence the 2024 US presidential election. “The US has declared war on freedom of speech throughout the world, turning to open threats and blackmail against other states in an effort to set them against the domestic media and establish sole control over the global information space,” Zakharova said, promising that the punitive measures Washington was using to target Russian media would not go unanswered.

She added that accusations of attempts to influence the elections are a mere “witch-hunt” and “spy-o-mania” introduced to manipulate public opinion and bar its citizens from any information that is inconvenient for the state. The head of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), James Rubin, told reporters on Friday that the “broad scope and reach” of RT was one of the reasons many countries around the world did not support Ukraine. The GEC has funded propaganda games aimed at children and forced Twitter to censor pro-Russian content. Rubin admitted last year that he wanted to use the GEC to shut down Russian media outlets around the world.

“We are going to be talking… in Latin America, Africa and Asia… to try to show all of those countries that right now broadcast – with no restrictions or control – RT and allow [RT] free access to their countries,” Rubin said, arguing that its presence has “had a deleterious effect on the views of the rest of the world about a war that should be an open and shut case.” Reacting to the new restrictions, Simonyan argued that Washington’s claims about RT collaborating with Russian intelligence are a “classic case of projection.” “The idea that you can’t achieve results without being part of the intelligence service has exposed them for what they are,” she said.

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“It has dawned on some troglodytes in the US State Department that RT is not relying on mechanical typewriters and the telegraph but has a “cyber” capability!”

• Attacks on RT Reveal The Sad Truth About The West (Amar)

The US and its ever-loyal followers Canada and Great Britain have launched a fresh information war offensive. If “fresh” is the word: In a new season of the long-running, apparently never-ever ending Russia Rage show (aka “Russiagate”) that at least the American “elites” simply cannot get enough of, it is again – drum roll – RT that is the target. This time, it stands accused not “merely” of spreading “disinformation” (that is, any information Western governments do not like) but of intelligence work as well. And then some. Such as trying to influence the American elections (yaaawn) and somehow being linked to collecting volunteer contributions for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine – a form of outreach, by the way, which is exactly the same as what Ukrainian organizations do. There also is an even more terrifying revelation. It has dawned on some troglodytes in the US State Department that RT is not relying on mechanical typewriters and the telegraph but has a “cyber” capability!

Or something. That charge really seems to boil down to being internet-literate, a very special skill set that must appear fiendishly futuristic to some in the US administration. And who can blame them? Can you imagine its – official – leader, Joe “Kind-of-Still-President-When-he-Can-Remember” Biden handling even something as almost antediluvian as a laptop? That is better left, as we know, to his son Hunter “The-Naked-and-The-Paid” Biden. And even then, the consequences tend to be dire. Of course, the whole performance comes with more sanctions, too. Because sanctions are to American policy on Russia as popcorn is to a really bad B movie: indispensable yet also not making things any better.

Inevitably, this latest US initiative has attracted ridicule, with very good reason. In essence, it is yet another piece of self-owning, sad cringe from a regime struggling – and never making any progress – to come to terms with its steadily declining power, authority, and relevance. It is also easy to spot that, once again, these self-appointed guardians of the “rules-based order” and its “values” have dialed the hypocrisy up to eleven. Seriously? You want to talk about “disinformation”? While Western media, from American CNN, via British BBC, to German ZDF, have become complicit through silence, bias, and even the spreading of outright Israeli propaganda in the by now almost year-long genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza and increasingly the West Bank, too?

Of course, we could look back and name one example after another of Western flagrant lies with horrific, often mass lethal consequences. Indeed, so many that we can’t, actually, do that here. So, just recall two: the brutal campaign of government lying and media propaganda that the same powers used to “justify” their unjustifiable war of aggression against Iraq in 2003. By March 2023, the Costs of War project, based at the prestigious Brown University in the US, put the losses among Iraqi civilians alone at, as a very conservative minimum estimate, between almost 281,000 and over 315,000 “killed by direct violence since the US invasion.”

Note the word “direct.” If we add, as we realistically have to, those killed “indirectly,” that is by avoidable malnutrition, disease, infrastructure destruction etc., then the real death toll, so the Costs of War project, was “likely much higher” again. Keep in mind also that those who were killed are only the tip of a dark iceberg of the ruined, injured, amputated, displaced, physically and psychologically scarred for life and over generations. Those are the real, countable results of brazen Western lies. And now the US and its accomplices are here to preach about “disinformation.” What’s left to say? Except perhaps that Western “elites” are not only literally mass-murderous but absolutely shameless and tone deaf, too.

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Donbass: “I love how extremely patriotic they are there,” he noted. “The flags [are] everywhere, the patriotism. It’s extremely heartwarming.”

• US Journalist on Ukraine, Western Lies, Roots of Russian Invincibility (Sp.)

On his arrival in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), American journalist Tofurious Maximus Crane, together with other war correspondents, came under Ukrainian fire at a local cafe.”As we were sitting in a restaurant eating, we had mortars incoming, people took cover and then, when the mortars stopped, they just went back to eating lunch. Like, to me, it kind of blew my mind because I thought everybody would just be living in fear,” Crane told Sputnik. According to Crane, that incident showed him how resilient everybody was. He has travelled a lot around the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and other Russian regions, and what struck him the most was the high morale and patriotism of people living there. “I love how extremely patriotic they are there,” he noted. “The flags [are] everywhere, the patriotism. It’s extremely heartwarming. How would I compare the real situation with Western media? You know, Western media doesn’t report about any of this.”

The US corporate press still keeps on the hush facts about Ukrainian neo-Nazis, downplays or altogether ignores the significance of the Donbass referendums, and claims that the ongoing conflict was “unprovoked” and the Russians have no right to be there, according to the journalist. In the wake of the beginning of the special military operation, Russian media, including Sputnik and RT, were banned in the EU and labeled as “disinformation” on US social media. On September 4, the US stepped up sanctions against the Rossiya Segodnya media group. Crane says he has never seen any falsehoods come out of Russian media. In contrast, the Western press usually quotes anonymous sources that can’t be corroborated. “Western media is just about control and deception,” he said. While in Moscow, Crane attended the Russian Defense Ministry’s exhibition of NATO weapons and equipment captured from the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the special military operation at Poklonnaya Hill.

“When I visited the exhibition, it was ironic, because that hill there is where Napoleon was waiting for the keys to the city,” Crane said. “For me, it was double comical. You know, it was like the last time, I guess you could say, the West tried to take Russia – we saw what happened. And then right below the hill, there’s these vehicles from the West. So it was kind of like a 2.0. And that’s what we’re seeing.” The West has not learned the lessons of the French and Nazi German invasions of Russia in 1812 and 1941, respectively, according to Crane. The French and Nazis also thought that they were invincible and could take on Russia, he said. History is repeating itself, and now NATO-trained Ukrainian troops and Western mercenaries are being obliterated in the special military operation. Vaunted US-made Abrams tanks, destroyed by the Russian military and put on display at Poklonnaya Hill, are a symbol of the West’s arrogance and enormous waste of money, the journalist pointed out.

“I was just laughing. I could hardly even keep a straight face, because in America, they believe that the Abrams is the most powerful tank in the world, and they cannot be destroyed,” the journalist noted. “It was like the greatest troll Russia could have ever done by bringing those vehicles here for all of us just to kind of point and laugh at.” The ongoing conflict hasn’t made the Russian people callous, and they treat Ukrainian prisoners of war (PoW) humanely, Crane said, referring to interviews with Ukrainian captives. The Russians are eager to forgive if one really repents of the malicious things one has done, per the journalist. According to Crane, that attitude stems from the traditional Orthodox Christian values shared by many Russians.

“Russia is the largest country still embracing traditional values. The traditional values work,” he said. “And in the US and Europe – they’ve rejected traditional values. And look at their economies right now, look at their people. Look at the amount of homeless people on the streets, look at the amount of drug addicts, etc. They’re rejecting moral values right now in the West. And now we see a massive decline in Western societies.”

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It’s too f**ked up to straighten out.

• PA Supreme Court Rules to Disqualify Undated, Misdated Mail-In Ballots (ET)

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a decision on Sept. 13 that upholds a requirement in the key battleground state that voters must include accurate dates on the exterior envelopes of their mail-in ballots for the votes to be counted. The split 4–3 ruling vacates a previous Commonwealth Court decision that had halted enforcement of the legal requirement under Pennsylvania law that disqualified mail-in ballots if they were undated or featured incorrect dates. The Commonwealth Court found that the date requirement was unconstitutional when enforced against voters who submit their ballots by deadline. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that the Commonwealth Court did not have the authority to review that case because the plaintiffs did not include all 67 county election boards as defendants. Even though they included Al Schmidt, the secretary of the Commonwealth, as a defendant, that alone wasn’t enough to give the Commonwealth Court authority to decide the case.

The high court also declined a request by the plaintiffs to use extraordinary jurisdiction powers (under 42 Pa.C.S. § 726) that allow the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to take over cases from lower courts when there is a significant public interest or an urgent issue needing immediate resolution. In a dissenting statement, Justice David Wecht argued that the court should have ruled on the constitutional question presented in the appeal rather than vacate the lower court’s decision on technical grounds. “A prompt and definitive ruling on the constitutional question presented in this appeal is of paramount public importance inasmuch as it will affect the counting of ballots in the upcoming general election. Therefore, I would exercise this Court’s King Bench authority over the instant dispute and order that the matter be submitted on the briefs,” wrote Wecht in dissent, with Chief Justice Debra Todd and Justice Christine Donohue joining.

King’s Bench authority is a broader and more powerful tool than the plaintiffs’ extraordinary jurisdiction request. It allows the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to step in and rule on urgent matters of public importance at any stage of a case, even if procedural hurdles exist. Wecht and the other dissenting justices also argued that the case should have been decided based on the written legal documents already filed rather than on the basis of potentially newly scheduled oral arguments, highlighting their view that it is important to settle the constitutional question of whether Pennsylvania’s mail-ballot date requirement violates the Free and Equal Elections Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution, ahead of the fast-approaching Nov. 5 presidential election.

The case was brought by a coalition of nine advocacy groups, including the Black Political Empowerment Project, League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh United, with co-counsel from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania. The groups challenged the legality of enforcing the date requirement for mail-in ballots, arguing that it violated the Pennsylvania Constitution’s provision for “free and equal” elections. The Commonwealth Court initially ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, suspending enforcement of the dating rule in two key counties—Philadelphia and Allegheny. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to reverse this ruling allows enforcement of the rule that mail-in ballots with date errors can be invalidated. The decision could affect thousands of votes in what is expected to be a highly competitive presidential election in Pennsylvania, a key swing state.

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“I ask for justice in this violent world, Gonzalo expressed his political views without violence, never threatening, nor advocating violence. Gonzalo Lira Sr.”

• Blinken Brags Over Gershkovich, Pretends Gonzalo Lira Didn’t Exist (Cosgrove)

While speaking to “journalists” during a Friday press conference, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken patted himself on the back for securing the release of the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich – telling them “Maybe the most striking part of spending time with Evan, is simply how wonderful it feels to see him free. Home where he belongs.” “Evan’s freedom is also a reminder of all Americans who are still held hostage or wrongfully detained,” Blinken continued. “We will not forget you, and we will not rest until we get you home.” It’s hard to overstate what an egregious display of sanctimonious hypocrisy this is when Blinken’s department wittingly neglected Gonzalo Lira — the California-born writer for mainstream financial outlets like Business Insider, Seeking Alpha, and even ZeroHedge — as he was tortured in a Ukrainian dungeon for eight months until his eventual death at the start of this year. State Spox Matthew Miller was aware of Lira being tortured for at least five of those months.

Lira’s father has accused Biden administration of greenlighting the arrest of his son, pointing to a video published to Lira’s YouTube days before his arrest in which he was uncharacteristically critical of Biden and Kamala. The video, interestingly enough, is titled “Joe Biden Will Be Removed—Kamala Will Be President.” That such a greenlight was given is not far-fetched considering Ukraine’s massive incentive to curry favor with the American government that had approved more than $100 billion already by this point (now at $175 billion). Would the Ukrainians risk the political backlash of arresting a U.S. citizen unless first given the go-ahead? Regardless, the State Department’s Miller acknowledged to me that he was aware of Lira’s arrest in May of 2023. Three months later, Miller then — after being made aware of allegations that Lira’s prison guards had tortured him with severe beating and having his cornea scraped with a toothpick — said he wanted to investigate the torture claims.

Yet, despite near-constant email correspondence between Lira’s father and State Dept officials, nothing was done and Lira died of pneumonia, an infection commonly treatable with antibiotics. A story that slid under the radar this July: Natsya Umka, a Kyiv-based fashion blogger with 600k followers, made an Instagram post, saying “people want peace” and that Ukraine does not need “the border of 1991” (which would include Crimea). For doing so, she was promptly called in to the offices of the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) for “talk”. Umka posted videos before and after the meeting, appearing noticeably shaken up in the latter video where she claims to have been unable to eat for three days. Most notably… in the video after her “meeting” with the SBU, Umka suddenly supports the war effort: “Everything is fine and we will definitely win.”

Is this the liberal democracy we are risking nuclear war to maintain? Hundreds of billions of dollars and the possibility to destroy life on Earth so we can pay the pensions of these thugs who intimidate mothers into silence, who imprison and torture Americans to death? From an email Lira’s father sent Friday morning, coincidentally a few hours before the Blinken presser: “I ask for justice in this violent world, Gonzalo expressed his political views without violence, never threatening, nor advocating violence. Gonzalo Lira Sr.”

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“The tyranny that has been created in the West is worse than the tyrannies imagined by writers of dystopian novels.”

• The Transition from Democracy to Unaccountable Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)

Former British Ambassador Craig Murray reports that in Britain honest news reporting of Israel’s destruction of Palestine is a felony for which journalists are arrested and face long prison sentences. In the US universities are gearing up to prevent any student protests of Israel’s destruction of Palestine. It is becoming ever more impossible to acknowledge reality. Official narratives have taken reality’s place. Manifestations of moral conscience are to be prohibited. In America the Biden regime has characterized RT’s new reporting as “Russian disinformation” and amounts to espionage. For reporting news that the US presstitutes carefully keep from the people, sanctions designed to shut down RT have been imposed. A September 13 report from a NY Times presstitute, “U.S. Accuses Russian TV Network of Conducting Covert Intelligence Acts,” establishes Washington’s false narrative. Honest information is “Kremlin-friendly content.”

I have long reported that truth was being criminalized throughout the Western world. The process has now been completed. It seems that analysts and commentators of foreign policy developments will have to terminate interviews with Russian journalists. As I previously warned, stopping communication between nuclear powers and limiting the narrative to one side’s version enhances the acceptance and likelihood of nuclear war. Neither truth nor freedom can exist without free speech, and free speech is being everywhere suppressed in the Western world. The “free” media itself has abandoned it. The tyranny that has been created in the West is worse than the tyrannies imagined by writers of dystopian novels. It will take time for the full impact to be felt, but it is on its way. With the US and Russia at the point of war, why is Washington stirring the pot with aggressive steps toward Russian media? The charge that RT and Sputnik are committing espionage by reporting differently from the official US narrative is unsupportable.

Such atrocious judgment by Washington seems to indicate a death wish for humanity. At this critical time we need maximum communication, not a cut-off of communication. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Washington is intentionally driving the world to war. As a “free American” I cannot read the Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement on the actions Washington has taken against RT and Sputnik published in Telegram because “this channel can’t be displayed because it violated local laws.” So, we seemed to have reached the point where official statements of the Russian government violate local laws. What is meant by “local laws?” There is certainly no such law in my town or state. Censorship and controlled narratives are tools tyrannies use to protect lies from truth. That Washington uses these tools so extravagantly indicates that Washington’s agenda requires suppression of the truth.

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A useless idea that was promptly denied.

• Ukraine Ready For Ceasefire In Certain Areas – Bild (RT)

Ukraine could be ready to freeze hostilities with Russia on certain parts of the frontline, the German tabloid newspaper Bild has reported, citing what it claims to be Vladimir Zelensky’s revised strategy. The Ukrainian leader’s plan for the conflict also reportedly hinges on Western backers allowing Kiev to use the long-range missiles they have provided, to hit targets deep inside Russia. Back in July, Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear that Moscow was not interested in a “ceasefire or some kind of pause that the Kiev regime could use to recover losses, regroup, and rearm.” “Russia is in favor of a complete and final end of the conflict,” Putin said at the time. A month earlier, the Russian head of state proposed an immediate ceasefire on the condition that Ukraine give legally binding guarantees that it will not seek to join NATO, and withdraw its troops from all territories claimed by Russia.

Kiev and its Western backers were quick to dismiss the roadmap. sIn an article on Saturday, Bild claimed that Zelensky plans to travel to the US in the coming weeks and present his revised strategy to President Joe Biden as well as Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her Republican rival, Donald Trump. According to the German media outlet, the main points include a “demand to be allowed to deploy Western long-range weapons deep inside Russia, as well as Ukraine’s readiness to accept local ceasefires along certain portions of the front, and thus a provisional freezing of the situation.” Last month, Zelensky revealed his intention to present his “victory plan” to the US head of state in September. He suggested that the plan likely involved asking the US for more funds and weapons, saying that victory would depend on whether Washington gives Kiev “what is in this plan.”

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed European diplomats, reported that earlier in the day US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy had told Ukrainian officials behind closed doors that a “full Ukrainian victory would require the West to provide hundreds of billions of dollars worth of support, something neither Washington nor Europe can realistically do.” Kiev is allegedly being urged to “come up with a more realistic plan.” Since the start of the conflict in February 2022, Zelensky has publicly insisted on the restoration of Ukraine’s 1991 borders, which would include Crimea, either through military or diplomatic means. Moscow says that Kiev must accept the “reality on the ground,” and that the issue of Crimea is “not up for discussion.”

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“Russia believes that arms supplies to Ukraine hinder the settlement, directly involve NATO countries in the conflict and are “playing with fire.”

• Russian Electronic Warfare Makes GPS Useless for Ukraine’s Guided Missiles (Sp.)

Electronic warfare (EW) used by the Russian army has made Ukraine’s attempts to use the GPS system to guide missiles useless, the Times reported on Sunday, citing a British military source. “You could absolutely fire it unilaterally, but it probably wouldn’t survive in the contested, electronically jammed environment that the Russians have,” the source told the newspaper. “Russian electronic warfare has rendered GPS useless. They jam it. So it has to use another type of data set instead, which is American owned.” Russia believes that arms supplies to Ukraine hinder the settlement, directly involve NATO countries in the conflict and are “playing with fire.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine would be a legitimate target for Russia. According to Lavrov, the US and NATO are directly involved in the conflict, including not only by supplying weapons, but also by training personnel in the UK, Germany, Italy, and other countries. The Kremlin stated that pumping weapons into Ukraine by the West did not contribute to negotiations and would have a negative effect.

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“..what Americans really need to heal what is probably the most traumatic experience they have had since Pearl Harbor: a second investigation.”

• 9/11: The American Illness Which Still Has No Cure (Jay)

We tend to think of America as a pretty whacky place. The internet is full of mad, stupid, weird and hilarious stunts that Americans carry out every day captured on film. What we haven’t seen though is anyone go to an abandoned steel frame building and flood its upper floors with gasoline and set it alight. If someone were to do that in the name of democracy how would CNN and Fox report that fire when, ultimately it would become apparent that the building was not going to fall down? Steel frame buildings don’t fall down due to fires. The level of heat generated by burning gasoline isn’t anywhere near enough to bend or break the vertical columns which hold them together. This is 3rd grade science class stuff. And despite planes being sent to the 13 graveyards – or ‘boneyards’ as they are called – in the U.S. every day, no one in America has yet to fly one of these planes into an empty steel framed skyscraper as part of an experiment – not the deep state, not private individuals. No one.

If either of these experiments were to be carried out, the American people who hunker down and refuse to be drawn into the conspiracy theory zone would have no choice but to face their most ghoulish demon. Planes did not bring down the Twin towers. Nor the fire which they created. The evidence to prove it is pretty over-whelming as there has never been a single steel framed building before 9/11 to burn down. And not one since. The most extraordinary aspect of 9/11 is the sheer extent of the cover-up. Those who carried it out made sure no genuine investigation could be carried out. Within days of Bush standing on the rubble and posing for photos with firemen, the steel beams which held the building together and which gave it is characteristic unique strength were removed from the site and sent to China on boats. It was critically important that investigators could not take them and examine them as part of an investigation.

The steel beams could not break at the low temperatures that aviation fuel burns at, particularly starved of oxygen. Those beams needs to burn at a much, much higher temperature of around 1300 degrees Celsius before they finally buckle and then break. To get to this temperature and to break the main vertical support beams, thermite is needed which was found on the site in abundance. There was literally tones of it in the dust. And as the hundreds of architects and engineers have all said, to achieve the ‘freefall’ of the building, a certain ‘zero resistance’ from each floor has to be mastered, which can only be done by a controlled demolition on each floor timed perfectly. This is not conspiracy theory. These are facts proven by history, supported by professionals all around the world.

But the mainstream media isn’t going to get anywhere close to acknowledging these points. Nor even for that matter the scores of accounts of firefighters who spoke of hearing explosions shortly before the towers came down. Most Americans believe otherwise and that suits the mainstream press and the elite which controls it. Americans believe in the collapsing pancake theory which is that one floor collapsed onto the other as the support beams buckled and could no longer hold them. And the compounded weight alone made them all fall in perfect succession.

And most Americans chose to believe that an act of terrorism so horrific couldn’t have had the fingerprints of George W Bush and his cronies on it, despite the fact that he secured a second term easily and the ambitions of his father were realized: get into Iraq and Afghanistan where you will loot and plunder everything. Iraq had a lot of oil. Afghanistan was ripe for a 5 trillion dollar gas pipeline deal which had been a blueprint of a Californian energy company which the Bush family was connected to. Who masterminded it though? The Israelis can’t be ruled out as they also stood to gain by using 9/11 as a way of fuelling western hatred against Muslims – something which has worked very well since the U.S. invasion of Iraq lead to the creation of ISIS which then spurned a number of terror attacks in western countries. Indeed, the Israeli genocide of today possibly could not have been carried out if it weren’t for the number of horrific killings in Europe by terrorists their seeking an allegiance to the group. Join up the dots.

But historical context is not on offer by western media on the 9/11 anniversary. Media knows that we are possibly decades away from even being close to exposing the tawdry truth about the twin towers attacks. And possibly even 50 years away from getting what Americans really need to heal what is probably the most traumatic experience they have had since Pearl Harbor: a second investigation.

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“..if allowed significant discovery, the case may shed light on the media reports of a scorched Earth strategy of the Biden team targeting critics and witnesses..”

• IRS Whistleblowers Sue Hunter Biden Lawyer Abbe Lowell for Defamation (Turley)

Last January, I received a letter threatening me with a defamation lawsuit if I continued my criticism of Hunter Biden, including allegations of criminal conduct. It all seemed part of a “Legion of Doom” defense hatched by Biden supporters reportedly to target critics and even potential witnesses. I proceeded to write three more columns repeating the claims, but did not hear again from the Biden team. Now, it is the Biden defense that is being targeted with defamation lawsuits. IRS investigators Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler are suing attorney Abbe Lowell over public allegations of criminal conduct on their part. Lowell was hit with a $20 million defamation lawsuit that alleges “clear malice” in public allegations of criminally leaking grand jury material and other offenses. Due to their extensive public interviews, Shapley and Ziegler would be considered “public figures” for the purposes of defamation.

That will make the case challenging, particularly because Lowell will argue that he was zealously defending his client. The case will also trigger massive fights over attorney-client privilege and other defenses. However, if allowed significant discovery, the case may shed light on the media reports of a scorched Earth strategy of the Biden team targeting critics and witnesses. The whistleblowers claim, however, that Lowell “falsely and maliciously” accused them of “the illegal disclosure of grand jury materials and taxpayer return information — despite the fact that they never publicly discussed return information that was not already public.” Those constitute per se categories of common law defamation, which include allegations of criminal conduct. The alleged misconduct would constitute federal felonies.

One of the allegations is that Lowell or the team accused them of leaking information to the press revealing that an investigation was taking place, apparently in violation of federal law. However, months earlier, they allege, Hunter himself publicly disclosed that he was the subject of a criminal tax investigation. Lowell will likely argue that he was seeking congressional action on allegations to establish if his client was the subject of unlawful conduct by the government. He will argue that such defamation lawsuits chill communications with government. There is an obvious irony in that defense given the scorched Earth tactics of the Biden team to target those of us who have written on the corruption of the First Family. The suing of Lowell may offer another opportunity to review the standard for public figures, which I have previously questioned.

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Who?

• Hillary Clinton Derides Palestinians, College Students in New Book (Miles)

Former US Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sparked controversy this week when leaked excerpts from her upcoming book criticized pro-Palestine campus protesters and Palestinian political leadership. Clinton described a Columbia University campus “tense with shock and grief” after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel last year. The former first lady has lectured on the Ivy League campus since January 2023 and described seeking advice from the university’s School of International and Public Affairs Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo, who grew up in Israel and served as an intelligence officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Clinton also described a tense environment during classes after the event, claiming she was “troubled” by a student who asked why Hamas is considered a terrorist organization but the IDF is not. The IDF has killed an estimated 41,118 Palestinians amid its military operation in Gaza and traces its roots to self-avowed Zionist terrorist groups such as Lehi, Irgun, and Haganah.

The former secretary of state also claimed campus protesters lacked an understanding of the history of the region, an attack she made earlier this year on liberal cable television channel MSNBC. “A lot of young people… don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East, or frankly about history, in many areas of the world, including in our own country,” Clinton chided in comments that provoked significant criticism on social media. A group of students walked out of Clinton’s class at Columbia in November to protest the school’s response to pro-Palestine activism on campus, while earlier this year demonstrators disrupted her appearance at her alma mater Wellesley College. Opinion surveys show a significant age divide on perceptions of the Palestine-Israel conflict in the United States, with younger Americans – increasingly including young Jews – more likely to express sympathy for the Palestinian cause.

Some 48% of people from 18 to 29 years old say Israel is intentionally killing civilians, while 55% oppose further US aid to Israel. There is broad support among the age group for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Clinton also took the opportunity in her new book to repeat a common line of attack against former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom she blames for the failure of peace talks organized by her husband former President Bill Clinton at Camp David in 2000. But Arafat had warned Clinton that “the two sides were not ready” before finally agreeing to take part in the discussions after the former president assured him he would not be blamed if talks failed. “Clinton put enormous pressure on Arafat to come [to the peace talks],” recalled international relations scholar John Mearsheimer of the discussions.

“Arafat said, ‘I’ll go to Camp David, but I want to be clear that I don’t think this is going to work out, and if it doesn’t work out, I don’t want you to blame me. In other words, I don’t want you to stab me in the back.’” “So they went to Camp David, they negotiated,” he continued. “It was a very dysfunctional negotiating process… And of course, the negotiations failed, right? Camp David broke up and, of course, Bill Clinton stabbed Arafat in the back. He blamed Arafat for the failure. And the story that Hillary is now telling is the story that Bill told after Camp David failed.”

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First place

 

 

Croc eye
https://twitter.com/i/status/1835286189735108939

 

 

Otter
https://twitter.com/i/status/1835230779355304308

 

 

Bees

 

 

Raise

 

 

Baby goat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1835234818646302747

 

 

Rubber dog

 

 

Lynx

 

 

 

 

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Debt Rattle September 9 2022

Sep 092022
 
 September 9, 2022  Posted by at 8:11 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  63 Responses »


Andy Warhol Queen Elizabeth, Reigning Queens Series 1985

 

• The Price Of Poker (Denninger)
• Putin: The West is Failing, the Future is Asia (Celente)
• Asia’s Future Takes Shape In Vladivostok, The Russian Pacific (Escobar)
• Putin’s 12,000 Ton Gold Hoard Sets The Stage For Asian Bretton Woods (Macleod)
• Six Months In, What Exactly Does Russia Hope To Achieve In Ukraine? (Trenin)
• The Coming Victory of Native Europeans in the UK and the EU (Batiushka)
• A Dirty Joke: Ukraine’s Hero Comedian President Zelensky (Celente)
• Ukraine Planned To Use IAEA Experts As A Tool For Blackmail (Ritter)
• Pentagon Sent GPS-Guided Rounds To Ukraine (RT)
• Italy’s Berlusconi Believes He Can Help Resolve Ukraine Crisis (RT)
• Germany’s Energy Suicide: An Autopsy (Escobar)
• We the Silent Majority (AT)
• Fell Asleep A Princess, Awoke A Queen (CD)
• Hillary Plays The Victim Despite History Of Avoiding Criminal Charges (Turley)
• Greece Warns Of Ukraine-style War With Turkey In East Mediterranean (MEE)

 

 

London Bridge is down.

 

 


“Can’t believe they are going to make a MAN queen. This woke nonsense has gone too far.”

 

 

Ghana TV
https://twitter.com/i/status/1567873066260172800

 

 

 

 

Draghi

 

 

 

 

 

 

“For those who claim Russia is waging an “energy war” well, perhaps they are, but let’s not forget the west is attempting to wage an economic one! ”

• The Price Of Poker (Denninger)

It appears that Putin’s government has announced that Nordstream I will not be restarted until western sanctions are lifted. “Russian natural gas supply via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany will remain shut until the Western sanctions that impede gas turbine repairs are lifted, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. The gas crisis in Europe took a turn for the worse at the end of last week, when Russian gas giant Gazprom said after three-day maintenance ended on Friday that Nord Stream would remain shut until “operational defects in the equipment are eliminated,” upping the ante in its gas war against Europe.” As a reminder the pipeline had only one operational gas-turbine driven pump which, according to Gazprom, requires maintenance.

There are usually five of them available for service with a sixth held in reserve as a spare at that specific station through which the gas flows. As things stand now there are no spares and one sort-of-operating one that was shut down as a result of a fault discovered during an inspection. There are people saying that Russia could operate the one with the leak anyway but why does anyone believe there is any sort of duty to do so and shave the margins of safety? There clearly is no such duty and, further, the gas is Russia’s so if you think you have the right to sanction a nation and then demand they trade with you its rather obvious to me that your IQ is smaller than your shoe size. For those who claim Russia is waging an “energy war” well, perhaps they are, but let’s not forget the west is attempting to wage an economic one!


I’ve never in my life seen a “war” in which the people backing one side of it demand that the party on the other side continue to trade with them and not only that, but then attempt to put in price controls such that they demand not only the product but also what they pay for it. Putin obviously thinks that’s crazy. Now the West and Europe in particular get to choose: Either drop the sanctions or you get no gas. I fail to understand how this cannot be viewed as an entirely-reasonable position unless your view is that Russia has no right of national sovereignty at all, including the natural resources that lay within her border and those that transit same. If that’s your position — that the West has the right to impose a political and economic structure on a sovereign government then just come out and say it.

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“Beijing has been clear that it believes the world arrived at this point due to Washington’s interference in Kyiv.”

• Putin: The West is Failing, the Future is Asia (Celente)

Russian President Vladimir Putin took an unveiled swipe at the U.S. Wednesday and said “Western nations” are hurting everyone — including their own people in their effort to maintain global order. “The West is failing,” Putin said. “The future is Asia.” Putin will meet with his Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan next week, according to Russian media. Russia sees China as an economic lifeline. China is Russia’s top trade partner with total trade last year jumping 35.9 percent to a record $146.9 billion. Reuters said trade between the two countries jumped 50 percent after the 2014 annexation of Crimea. That trend has continued. During the first five months of the year, trade between the countries hit $65.81 billion, up 28.9 percent from 2021.

Despite attempts from the Biden administration, China has refused to speak out against the Russian invasion. There’s a theory that when Putin met with Xi at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, he got the Chinese leader’s blessing before the conflict. Russia would be sunk without China’s support. Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s top diplomat, has mentioned a new “world order.” “We, together with you [China], and with our sympathizers will move towards a multipolar, just, democratic world order,” Lavrov said in a video statement in April. President Joe Biden mentioned an emerging ‘new world order’ earlier that month and said it must be led by the U.S. Beijing has been clear that it believes the world arrived at this point due to Washington’s interference in Kyiv.


Shortly after the conflict started, Hua Chunying, the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, said the invasion of Ukraine could have been avoided. “China has taken a responsible attitude and persuaded all parties not to escalate tensions or incite war,” she said. “Those who follow the U.S.’s lead in fanning up flame and then shifting the blame onto others are truly irresponsible.” The Russian president said the ongoing economic global crisis was triggered by elites in the West “who would not, or even cannot, acknowledge objective facts” about changes in the world. He said they only see a “world order that benefits only them, forcing everyone to live under the rules, which they invented and which they regularly break and constantly change depending on the situation,” The Global Times reported.

Putin Western elites

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“Russia is ready for winter. There will be warmth and light everywhere.”

• Asia’s Future Takes Shape In Vladivostok, The Russian Pacific (Escobar)

Pavel Sorokin, Russian First Deputy Minister of Energy, dismissed the notion of a storm or typhoon in the energy markets: “It’s a far cry from a natural process. It’s a man-made situation.” The Russian economy, in contrast, is seen by most analysts as slowly but surely designing its Arctic/Asian cooperation future – including, for instance, the creation of a sophisticated trans-shipment infrastructure for Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov made sure that Russia will actually increase its gas production, considering the rise of LNG deliveries and the construction of Power of Siberia-2 to China: “We will not merely scale up the pipeline capacity but we will also expand LNG production: it has mobility and excellent purchases on the global market.”

On the Northern Sea Route, the emphasis is on building a powerful, modern icebreaker fleet – including nuclear. Gadzhimagomed Guseynov, First Deputy Minister for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, is adamant: “What Russia has to do is to make the Northern Sea Route a sustainable and important transit route.” There is a long-term plan up to 2035 to create infrastructure for safe shipping navigation, following an ‘Arctic best practices’ of learning step by step. NOVATEK, according to its deputy chairman Evgeniy Ambrosov, has been conducting no less than a revolution in terms of Arctic navigation and shipbuilding in the last few years.


Kniessel, the former Austrian minister, recalled that she always missed the larger geopolitical picture in her discussions when she was active in European politics (she now lives in Lebanon): “I wrote about the passing of the torch from Atlanticism to the Pacific. Airlines, pipelines and waterways are moving East. The Far East is actually Pacific Russia.” Whatever Atlanticists may think of it, the last word for the moment might belong to Vitaly Markelov, from the board of directors of Gazprom: Russia is ready for winter. There will be warmth and light everywhere.”

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“There is the Chinese one kilo bar four-nines standard, which is widely owned, has already been adopted throughout Asia, and is traded even on Comex.”

• Putin’s 12,000 Ton Gold Hoard Sets The Stage For Asian Bretton Woods (Macleod)

Unreported by western media, there are some interesting developments taking place in Asia over the future of currencies. Earlier this summer, it emerged that Sergei Glazyev, a senior Russian economist and Minister in charge of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EAEU), was leading a committee planning a new trade currency for the Eurasian Economic Union. [..] Logic suggests that a gold-backed currency will be the outcome of Glazyev’s EAEU committee’s trade currency deliberations after all, because of a subsequent announcement from Moscow concerning a new Russian bullion market.

In accordance with western sanctions, the London Bullion Market refused to accept Russian mined and processed gold. It was then natural for Russia to propose a new gold market based in Moscow with its own standards. It is equally sensible for Moscow to set up a price fixing committee, replicating that of the LBMA. But instead of it being the basis for a far larger unallocated gold deposit account offering by Russian and other banks, it will be a predominantly physical market. Based in Moscow, with a new market called the Moscow International Precious Metals Exchange, the Moscow Gold Standard will incorporate some of the LBMA’s features, such as good delivery lists with daily, or twice daily fixings. The new exchange is therefore being promoted as a logical replacement for the LBMA.


But could that be a cover, with the real objective being to provide a gold link to the new trade currency planned by Glazyev’s EAEU committee? Timing suggests that this may indeed be the case, but we will only know for sure as events unfold. If it is to be backed by gold, the considerations behind setting up a new trade currency are fairly straightforward. There is the Chinese one kilo bar four-nines standard, which is widely owned, has already been adopted throughout Asia, and is traded even on Comex. Given that China is Russia’s long-term partner, that is likely to be the standard unit. The adoption of the Chinese standard in the new Moscow exchange is logical, simplifying the relationship with the Shanghai Gold Exchange, and streamlining fungibility between contracts, arbitrage, and delivery.

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The focus is gradually shifting.

• Six Months In, What Exactly Does Russia Hope To Achieve In Ukraine? (Trenin)

Putin’s latest comments reveal that Moscow’s thinking has shifted and compromise is no longer on the agenda Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to Ukraine as an “anti-Russian enclave” which has to be removed. He also said that the Russian soldiers taking part in the military operation there were fighting for their “own country.” These statements carry important implications. Over the last six-plus months, the mantra of the Russian officialdom has been that all aims of the offensive will be reached. On purpose, however, the specific objectives, such as how far Moscow’s forces plan move into Ukraine, have never been spelled out. This cannot but raise speculation about what the Kremlin is actually hoping to achieve. The only person who can authoritatively answer that question, however, is the president, and second-guessing him makes no sense.

Yet, two things cannot escape close attention. One is the radicalization of Moscow’s position on Ukraine as a result of both Western policies and Kiev’s actions; two is the widening gap between the minimum result of the military campaign that Russia can be satisfied with, and the maximum amount of what the US and its allies can accept. [..] Shortly after the start of hostilities Russia and Ukraine began peace talks. In late March 2022 at a meeting in Istanbul, Moscow demanded that Zelensky’s government recognize the sovereignty of the two Donbass republics within their constitutional borders, as well as Russia’s own sovereignty over Crimea, which was formally incorporated into the Russian Federation in 2014, plus accept a neutral and demilitarized status for territory controlled by Kiev.

At that point, Moscow still recognized the current Ukrainian authorities and was prepared to deal with them directly. For its part, Kiev initially appeared ready to accept Moscow’s demands (which were criticized by many within Russia as overly concessionary to Ukraine), but then quickly reverted to a hardline stance. Moscow has always suspected that this U-turn, as on previous occasions, was the result of US behind-the-scenes influence, often aided by the British and other allies. [..] As the fighting in Ukraine quickly became a proxy war between Russia and the US-led West, Russia’s views on Ukraine’s future radicalized further. While a quick cessation of hostilities and a peace settlement on Russian terms in the spring would have left Ukraine, minus Donbass, demilitarized and outside NATO, but otherwise under the present leadership with its virulently anti-Russian ideology and reliance on the West, the new thinking, as Putin’s remarks in Kaliningrad suggest, tends to regard any Ukrainian state that is not fully and securely cleansed of ultranationalist ideology and its agents as a clear and present danger; in fact, a ticking bomb right on Russia’s borders not far from its capital.

Dmitry Trenin is a Research Professor at the Higher School of Economics and a Lead Research Fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. He is also a member of the Russian International Affairs Council

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“Johnson’s unelected replacement, MissTrust..”

• The Coming Victory of Native Europeans in the UK and the EU (Batiushka)

A spectre is haunting Europe – it is the spectre of poverty. The bets are now on as to which European country will collapse first. Among the front runners you will find Portugal, Latvia, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Moldova, Spain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Bulgaria, France and Slovakia. But perhaps none of them is more likely to fall first than the UK. For it has a new Prime Minister, who, unthinkably, is an even greater clown than the last one and even threatens to press the nuclear button. Let me digress for a moment with a visit to the islands off the coast of North-Western Europe.

My visit to the UK, after Wiesbaden in Germany, came at a time when the English peasants were revolting, but the governing elite did not yet know it. In one last Marie-Antoinette farewell moment the unlate, unlamented Mr Johnson advised the revolting peasants of the UK to spend £20 buying a new and more economic kettle, so that after two years (if the Chinese-made kettle lasted that long) they could save £10 a year on their £2,500 + annual energy bills. ‘Let them eat cake’, he may as well have shouted to the breadless masses. The effete and wealthy Tory Party never understood the people. Johnson’s unelected replacement, MissTrust, for whom we should beg the CIA (which has long funded Nobel Prizes) to fund a Nobel Prize for Geography (after all Mr Obama won a Nobel Prize for Peace), faces many challenges:

Firstly, there is the self-inflicted mess Mr Johnson made of Brexit, notably by separating Northern Ireland from Great Britain as regards imports and exports and failing to impose any laws for necessary immigration and against unnecessary immigration. It was the Tory Party that imposed on the British people the then Common Market (later becoming the EU) in 1973. The people never asked to join – they were never consulted. Secondly, there is the self-inflicted covid chaos. Tory-imposed lockdowns bankrupted many and were hated by even more. The much-vaunted vaccines turned out to be useless after three months, and even extremely harmful to some. Today a million vaccinated Britons have covid week in, week out. The people never asked for lockdowns and false vaccines – they were never consulted.

Thirdly, there is the self-inflicted energy crisis and the spiralling energy and food prices, caused by illegal Tory government sanctions against the Russian decision to rescue Russians from Kiev’s genocide and persecution. The people never asked to be cold and hungry – they were never consulted. Fourthly, there are the self-inflicted dramatic problems of always underfunded national infrastructure, whether that of the Health Service (people dying in their homes and in ambulances because the hospitals are so full that they have to wait for many, many hours before they can be admitted), the ‘privatised’ electricity, gas, water and telecom companies, airports and railways, which are all breaking down. The people never asked for public services which are appalling because they are private – they were never consulted.

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“Zelensky ignored four draft notices on 15 April 2015, 23 June 2014, 15 August 2014, and 10 October 2015…”

• A Dirty Joke: Ukraine’s Hero Comedian President Zelensky (Celente)

During the 2019 campaign, Zelensky’s history of draft-dodging became a focal point that former President Petro Poroshenko tried to scrutinize. On April 13, 2019, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry took to Facebook to confirm that Zelensky ignored four draft notices on 15 April 2015, 23 June 2014, 15 August 2014, and 10 October 2015. “Citizen Zelensky V.O. did not arrive at the military commissariat at his call,” the post read. [..] Zelensky has been criticized since the start of the invasion for not allowing fighting-aged men to leave the country and using the strategy of issuing military summonses at gas stations and other public areas. The New York Times reported that young men in Ukraine are required to do military service “unless they fall into an exempt category, like being enrolled in a university, having a disability or having at least three children.”

The European Court of Auditors released a special report in September that found “grand corruption and state capture” were still widespread in the country despite 20 years of European Union efforts to intervene and help in its reform agenda. “The EU has long been aware of the connections between oligarchs, high-level officials, politicians, the judiciary and state-owned enterprises. However, it has not developed a real strategy for targeting grand corruption,” the auditors said in a statement. Up until the Russian invasion, the EU has been the largest donor to Ukraine. The European Commission has committed around €5.6 billion to macro-financial assistance programs and €2.2 billion to assistance programs since 2014, the statement said. The Commission also guarantees European Investment Bank loans of €4.4 billion.


Juhan Parts, the member of the European Courts of Auditors responsible for the report “despite varied support the EU has offered to Ukraine, oligarchs and vested interests continue to undermine the rule of law in Ukraine and to threaten the country’s development.” Freedom House’s 2022 report lists Ukraine as “partly free,” with a score of 61 out of a possible 100.

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No, Russia will not leave.

• Ukraine Planned To Use IAEA Experts As A Tool For Blackmail (Ritter)

On August 29, Grossi’s team travelled to Kiev, where the next day they met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Zelensky told Grossi that Ukraine believed it was critical for the IAEA to press home its demands for a demilitarized zone, which would enable Ukraine to take control of the plant. On September 1, Grossi and his team set off for the Zaporozhye facility. Prior to their arrival, they were stopped by Ukrainian officials, who warned Grossi that military activity in and around the facility had picked up that morning. According to Russian military sources, the Ukrainian army had attempted to seize the power plant in a commando raid that was thwarted by Russian forces.

As Grossi’s 14-man team arrived at the power plant, the sound of nearby combat could be readily heard. The deteriorating security situation at the facility prompted Grossi to withdraw the bulk of his team later that day. A six-person sub-team was tasked with remaining on-site for a few days longer, after which four inspectors would depart, leaving behind a two-person element, who would provide a permanent presence, on a rotational basis, at the facility. Afterwards, Grossi stated that the mission had been valuable. “We knew a lot before too, but of course it is being inspected now. We are trying to do a thorough assessment of the current situation.”


As to the security of the plant, Grossi noted that “[t]he physical integrity of the facility has been violated not once, but multiple times. This is by no means acceptable.” In addition to their personal observations, the team was presented with a petition signed by 20,000 residents from Russia-controlled parts of the Zaporozhye region demanding that the IAEA condemn the attacks on the nuclear power plant, which the signatories said were conducted solely by the Ukrainian forces. This was not the result either the Ukrainian government or its Western backers could have envisioned when they were pushing for the mission’s dispatch in mid- to late-August.

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Dangerous.

• Pentagon Sent GPS-Guided Rounds To Ukraine (RT)

The Pentagon is spending over $90 million to acquire new M982 Excalibur munitions, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The department is replacing a stockpile previously sent to Ukraine, according to budget documents cited in the article. The 155mm shells, each of which costs tens of thousands of dollars and may go well over $100,000, depending on the variant and year they were manufactured, are designed to strike within two meters of the GPS coordinates of a target. The munitions were developed by Raytheon and BAE and are certified to be used with a number of NATO artillery pieces, including American M777 howitzers and German PzH2000 howitzers, which Ukraine possesses.

A document issued last month says that the Pentagon will spend $92 million to purchase “replacement M982 Excalibur munitions transferred to Ukraine in support of the international effort” to undermine Russia’s military operation, as quoted by Bloomberg. The money buys roughly 900 projectiles, a military analyst estimated for the news agency. The funds come from more than $40 billion in emergency spending authorized by the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Act, which US President Joe Biden signed into law in May. The Pentagon was allocated at least half of the sum, including $9 billion to replenish US military stocks.


The US did not officially announce the delivery of Excalibur munitions to Kiev. But Ukrainian troops have shared videos on social media in which they apparently fired the shells on the battlefield. In one video, reposted by a Russian war correspondent as proof that the precision rounds were being used by the Ukrainian side, a Ukrainian soldier jokingly remarked that his unit will “throw to the wind a heap of money” before loading the munition into a gun and firing it. Canadian media reported in April that their country was quietly shipping Excalibur shells to Ukraine to complement the declared deliveries of the US-made M777 howitzers.

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“..his dream is to one day see Russia become a member of the EU..”

• Italy’s Berlusconi Believes He Can Help Resolve Ukraine Crisis (RT)

Western attempts to force Russia to change course regarding Ukraine with economic sanctions are backfiring, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said. The conflict must be resolved through diplomacy, he added, offering himself and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel as potential mediators. Berlusconi, who is currently running for a seat in the Italian Senate, offered his diplomatic services on Wednesday night on the TV program Porta a Porta. Discussing the situation in Ukraine, he argued that Russia will not be swayed by sanctions from the US and its allies. The recent G7 initiative to enforce a price cap on Russian oil will also fail, since there will be high demand for Russian crude in countries like China and India, he added.


Berlusconi lamented the fact that Russia is being pushed into allying itself with China, while his dream is to one day see Russia become a member of the EU. Host Bruno Vespa asked if Berlusconi could leverage his personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The politician said the hostilities in Ukraine have to end with diplomacy, so someone will eventually need to be the mediator between Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. “There is a person who could do that instead of me or together with me. It’s former German Chancellor Angela Merkel,” he said. “With Merkel, I feel I could try to mediate and put an end to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.”

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“It was Berlin and Brussels – mere messengers of Big Finance – which weaponized the supply of European energy on behalf of a financial racket, and against the interests of European industry and consumers.”

• Germany’s Energy Suicide: An Autopsy (Escobar)

On the interminable soap opera involving the Nord Stream 1 turbine, the crucial fact is that Canada deliberately refused to deliver the repaired turbine to Gazprom – its owner – but instead sent it to Siemens Germany, where it is now. Siemens Germany is essentially under American control. Both the German and Canadian governments refuse to grant a legally binding sanction exemption for the transfer to Russia. That was the straw that broke the (Gazprom) camel’s back. Gazprom and the Kremlin concluded that if sabotage was the name of the game, they couldn’t care less whether Germany received zero gas via Nord Stream 1 (with brand new Nord Stream 2, ready to go, blocked by strictly political reasons).

Kremlin spokesman Dmity Peskov took pains to stress “problems in [gas] deliveries arose due to sanctions that have been imposed on our country and a number of companies by Western countries (…) There are no other reasons behind supply issues.” Peskov had to remind anyone with a brain that it’s not Gazprom’s fault if “the Europeans (…) make a decision to refuse to service their equipment” which they are contractually obligated to do. The fact is the whole Nord Stream 1 operation hinges on “one piece of equipment that needs serious maintenance.” Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who knows one or two things about the energy business, cleared up the technicalities:


“The entire problem lies precisely on [the EU’s] side, because all the conditions of the repair contract have been completely violated, along with the terms of shipping of the equipment.” All that is inscribed into what Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov describes as “a total war declared against us”, which is “being waged in hybrid forms, in all areas”, with “the degree of animosity of our opponents – of our enemies” being “enormous, extraordinary.” So none of this has anything to do with “Putin weaponizing energy”. It was Berlin and Brussels – mere messengers of Big Finance – which weaponized the supply of European energy on behalf of a financial racket, and against the interests of European industry and consumers.

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“Our political system is broken, our multicultural societies are in chaos, inflation is soaring, we’re bankrupt and awaiting possible mass civil protests in the near future..”

• We the Silent Majority (AT)

We the silent majority were laughing at the ‘Woke’ Cultural Revolution and diversity obedience training years before it became fashionable. It was already obvious what would happen way back in 1993, coincidently, shortly after the collapse of the USSR when the European Union emerged offering the gullible an unhealthy dose of Gramscian Cultural Marxism disguised as freedom. As the vocal minority now scratch their collective heads at the mess they’ve created, we’re the silent majority occasionally heard muttering “I told you so.” Likewise, we are not responsible for the current political, economic and moral decline around you. We did not support corporate fascism in minimum wage gig-economies, lock downs, non-existent alternative energy sources, or an unhealthy obsession with homosexuality believing it had anything to do with freedom and democracy.

As attention spans wane due to a lack of sensationalism and the Ukraine becomes just another ongoing news item, the next self-inflicted crisis is an energy one. We silent majority raise an eyebrow as we’re told that Russia is an unreliable energy supplier sanctioned from supplying the oil needed and the reason behind rising food prices is the fault of a European drought as we had two weeks of hot sun in the summer. In our brave new world, everyone’s smiling but no one’s happy. Moreover, when we glance around us we all know something is wrong. The only difference between us is who we point our fingers at. Currently, it’s all Biden’s fault but yesterday Trump was to blame. Today it’s Russia, tomorrow it will be China (again). Russian and Chinese societies aren’t collapsing, ours are and we’ve got nowhere to flee as the stupid lash out in all directions to prolong the agony of indoctrinated beliefs they’re hiding behind.


Our political system is broken, our multicultural societies are in chaos, inflation is soaring, we’re bankrupt and awaiting possible mass civil protests in the near future; that’s if the fools in charge don’t lead us into a nuclear conflict first. Yet whilst muttering “here we go again”, nevertheless we the silent majority are prepared to join the coming mass civil disobedience protests as the minority complain about the agents of social programming they not so long ago cheered for and are too stupid to realize they’re the cause of, but think more of it is the solution.

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“Rhinos all night”

• Fell Asleep A Princess, Awoke A Queen (CD)

Princess Elizabeth was deep in the Kenyan forest on the adventure of a lifetime, spotting wildlife from high up in the treetops, when her father died and she became queen. The world awoke on February 6, 1952, to the death of King George VI, who had succumbed during the night to lung cancer at the royal Sandringham residence in Norfolk. His 25-year-old daughter and heir to the throne only heard the news later the same day, when word reached Elizabeth thousands of miles from home in the wilderness of the Aberdare Range. Kenya, then a British colony, was the first stop on Elizabeth’s tour of the Commonwealth she had embarked upon with her husband, Prince Philip, in place of her ill father.

The royal couple had taken a night out of their official engagements to stay at a one-of-a-kind game-watching lodge perched in a tree in the Aberdares. It was during their night at the Treetops hotel that the king would die, and Elizabeth would become queen. Jim Corbett, the naturalist and hunter who accompanied the royal couple to Treetops, is credited with writing in the visitor book: “For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day a Princess and, after having what she described as her most thrilling experience, she climbed down from the tree next day a queen.” In fact, the Duke of Edinburgh broke the news to Elizabeth after they had left Treetops but the story stuck and the hotel became the fabled locale where a princess became a queen.


First opened in 1932 as an overnight stay for wealthy and intrepid visitors, Treetops overlooked a watering hole from its position in a giant fig tree. In its day, there wasn’t really anything like it. A private setting among branches, remote in the African bush, Treetops offered the privileged elite a chance to encounter wildlife up close, and in safety, as they grazed below. Elizabeth and Philip kept a handwritten tally of what they saw, recorded on a sheet of paper framed at Treetops. Large herds of elephant — “about 40” in one sighting — were spotted at the watering hole, along with baboons and waterbuck. “Rhinos all night”, read the list dated February 5/6, 1952, and signed by the Princess and Prince, and “in the morning, two bulls fighting”..

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“Virtually everything about that claim is breathtakingly untrue..”

• Hillary Plays The Victim Despite History Of Avoiding Criminal Charges (Turley)

“I can’t believe we’re still talking about this, but my emails. . .”: Hillary Clinton’s disbelief this week was shared by many critics left dumbfounded by her claim her private server contained “zero” classified documents. The expression of utter incredulity was classic Clinton — she’s selling hats reading “But her emails” for $30 a pop. But Hillary’s denial of what was found on her server exposes something far more serious than signature hypocrisy. It reflects establishment figures’ sense of license that they can literally rewrite history with little fear of contradiction by the media. While calling for limits on free speech over “disinformation,” Hillary has no qualms about falsely denying what published government reports detail.

“As Trump’s problems continue to mount, the right is trying to make this about me again. There’s even a ‘Clinton Standard.’ The fact is that I had zero emails that were classified,” her but-my-emails tweet continued. “Comey admitted he was wrong after he claimed I had classified emails. Trump’s own State Department, under two different Secretaries, found I had no classified emails.” Virtually everything about that claim is breathtakingly untrue. Let’s quickly deal with the light lifting before getting back to the “Clinton Standard.” A 2018 Department of Justice inspector general report revealed “81 email chains containing approximately 193 individual emails” were “classified from the CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET levels at the time.” Clinton is echoing her allies’ recent spin that there were only three documents with classification markings among 33,000 emails. It is utter nonsense.

The Clinton email scandal is a scandal because these were emails. There is no classification automatically stamped on text being typed out and sent within minutes. While attachments can have classification markings, the whole point of using secure servers is that emails are created in the moment with inevitable slips in referencing classified material. Nevertheless, the emails had classified information, including top-secret information tied to “Special Access Programs.” Yet some allies emphasize the inspector general also noted that in some cases there was “conscious effort to avoid sending classified information, by writing around the most sensitive material.” It failed. The emails still contained classified information.

That’s why she was reckless to use her own server: Such mistakes on private servers are more vulnerable to capture by foreign intelligence services. Indeed, according to the FBI, “hostile actors gained access” to some of the information through the emails of Clinton’s associates and aides. “Comey admitted he was wrong. It’s not clear what Hillary is referencing here. But Comey never said there was no classified information in her emails — he said the opposite. He condemned her handling of the classified material while saying it didn’t warrant prosecution. Comey did backtrack later, but not on this point. He said his “mistake” was in how he described her conduct: “I should’ve worked harder to find a way to convey that it’s more than just the ordinary mistake, but it’s not criminal behavior, and find different words to describe that.”

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For now it’s just words.

• Greece Warns Of Ukraine-style War With Turkey In East Mediterranean (MEE)

Tensions are boiling in the Eastern Mediterranean, with Greece saying the region risks falling into a war similar to that seen in Ukraine after Turkey raised the spectre of military action against its neighbour. Turkey and Greece have long been enmeshed in a series of disputes, including over maritime rights, the sovereignty of Aegean islands, natural gas and airspace boundaries. The Nato allies had a brief rapprochement after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis making a rare visit to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul. Relations have, however, since plummeted. On Tuesday, Erdogan reiterated a veiled threat, stating Turkey could “come all of a sudden one night,” in response to what he claimed were hostilities emanating from Greece.

“What I’m talking about is not a dream,” he said at a press conference in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. “If what I said was that we could come one night all of a sudden [it means] that, when the time comes, we can come suddenly one night.” The comments sparked an outcry in Greece, a country of 10 million people which fought a brutal war of independence from the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. Many parts of Greece remained under Ottoman control before the empire’s collapse after the First World War. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Greek-Turkish war of 1919-1922 and, on 30 August, Turkey celebrated Victory Day, when it drove Greek forces from Anatolia.


The war culminated in the population exchanges between the two countries known in Greece as the Catastrophe, and the battle over Greek-majority cities along the Anatolian coast, such as Smyrna, which is today the city of Izmir. On Saturday, Erdogan made a pointed reference to the city, stating “Greece, look at history, go back in time; if you go too far, the price will be heavy. We have one thing to say to Greece: Remember Izmir.” In response, Athens sent letters to Nato, the European Union and the United Nations slamming what it called Erdogan’s “openly threatening” and “inflammatory” statements. The letters called for the organisations to condemn Erdogan’s statements, which they said “imbue the Turkish people with hatred, enmity and contempt towards their Greek neighbors”.

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Tucker Glenn Beck

 

 

 

 

Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes
https://twitter.com/i/status/1567582404193173505

 

 


Green bee eater

 

 

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