Pierre-Auguste Renoir Dance at Bougival 1883
RFK jr CIA
https://twitter.com/i/status/1648841214521663491
Hrnaffnson
Latest from Sy on corruption in Zelensky circles (siphon $400m off US aid) judged fake news by Facebook. Rationale: “Independent fact-checker”, a Ukrainian org, partly funded by Foreign Offices of two NATO countries, says so. Their evidence: White House and Pentagon denials. pic.twitter.com/oXDShlRLto
— Kristinn Hrafnsson (@khrafnsson) April 20, 2023
Tucker My Pillow
Tucker: “The other channels took hundreds of millions of dollars from big Pharma companies and then they shield for their sketchy products on the air. And as they did that they maligned anyone who was skeptical of those products. At the very least it was a moral crime. It was… pic.twitter.com/rAd4YK3rJM
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) April 20, 2023
Mahbubani
Singaporean diplomat and scholar Kishore Mahbubani on the main reason for the Ukraine war:
"The absence of the culture of pragmatism in European cultures.
ALL they had to do was reach a compromise with Russia" pic.twitter.com/0LqnqKj3fZ— Richard (@ricwe123) April 20, 2023
“Nenner is predicting “30% of the people on Earth will die in the next war cycle. . . . We are like at the end of civilization of the United States.”
• Dollar Finished – America in Danger – Charles Nenner (USAW)
Renowned geopolitical and financial cycle expert Charles Nenner has been warning his war cycles are going up. Nenner also predicted a few years back that, at some point, the U.S. dollar cycle would be headed down—way down. The future is here, and Nenner explains, “We have known each other for many years, and I said the dollar is going to hold up, but not anymore, not anymore. It is really in trouble. There is actually no reason to be in the dollar. They especially underestimate this BRICS situation, and all the countries will be forming an anti-dollar. . . . Saudi Arabia is coming onboard, and that means the end of the dollar as the reserve currency.” Nenner says his cycles see, “The dollar going down to 70 on the dollar index.” It’s a bit over 100 now, but it gets worse.
Nenner points out, “I don’t want people to get depressed, but I am really worried. If the U.S. does not rule the world any more. . . . They think they can still tell the world what to do. Physically, the Americans are in danger, and they don’t seem to understand that. . . . The economy is really going to suffer. If the dollar goes really low, we could have a small bounce in the economy because it’s good for exports. That’s just a fooling bounce for people. Longer term, it’s just finished.” Nenner says the signs are clear in the cycle that “America is at the end of empire. . . . The United States is going backwards, and it is not number one anymore.” On the war cycle, Nenner has been forecasting a huge loss of life coming. Nenner is predicting “30% of the people on Earth will die in the next war cycle. . . . We are like at the end of civilization of the United States.
It’s not that we are all going to drop dead, but it’s the end of civilization. The same issues that finished other countries like bad education, too many outstanding loans and people will become too lazy to really do hard work. That usually means the end of an empire.” Nenner also talks about the top in the real estate market and why commercial and residential are on their way down for a long time. Nenner also talks about a “coming Great Depression style crash” in the no-so-distant future. Nenner also brought up that big banks are contacting him to consult on buying physical gold because “they want to survive what is coming.” Nenner says big banks are building their own vaults to make sure governments do not confiscate their yellow metal. Nenner gives a sign to look for when the economy is going into a recession that has a 100% track record.
Finally, Nenner predicts, “We are going to have a bad dollar. That usually means people are going to dump their securities. . . . If you have China and Russia dumping their U.S. bonds, you are going to have a problem. What I see on my cycle is . . . . The rates that went up stop in June. . . . I am getting very worried because there might be a run for safety.” Nenner is worried about war, and not just in Ukraine. Nenner is looking at war in Taiwan, South Korea, and the Middle East with Iran. Nenner says, “I think you could have all these wars at the same time. . . . It’s endless possibilities. . . . I think they will all act at the same time. Wouldn’t you? You are waiting for the right moment, and if the United states get weaker and busy. . . . That’s the time to do whatever you want.”Nenner points out, “Warren Buffett sold most of his Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing shares last week.”
This is a declaration of war.
• NATO Chief: Ukraine’s ‘Rightful Place’ Is In The Alliance (AP)
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg defiantly declared Thursday that Ukraine’s “rightful place” is in the military alliance and pledged more support for the country on his first visit to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion just over a year ago. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Stoltenberg, who has been instrumental in marshaling support from NATO members, to push for even more from them, including warplanes, artillery and armored equipment. The Kremlin has given various justifications for going to war, but repeated Thursday that preventing Ukraine from joining NATO is still a key goal of its invasion, arguing that Kyiv’s membership in the alliance would pose an existential threat to Russia.
NATO leaders said in 2008 that Ukraine would join the alliance one day, and Stoltenberg has repeated that promise throughout the war, though the organization has established no pathway or timetable for membership. “Let me be clear, Ukraine’s rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family,” Stoltenberg told a news conference. “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO.” Zelenskyy said he was grateful for an invitation to a NATO summit in July in Vilnius, Lithuania, but said his country needs a roadmap for becoming a member. “The time has come for the (alliance’s) leaders to define the prospects of Ukraine’s acquisition of NATO membership, to define the algorithm of Ukraine’s movement towards this goal, and to define security guarantees for our state for the period of such movement — that is, for the period before NATO membership,” he said.
Stoltenberg said he and Zelenskyy discussed a NATO support program for Ukraine. “This will help you transition from Soviet-era equipment and doctrines to NATO standards and ensure full interoperability with the alliance,” Stoltenberg said. “NATO stands with you today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes.” He noted an announcement Thursday by Denmark and the Netherlands that they plan to provide Ukraine with at least another 14 refurbished Leopard 2 battle tanks by early 2024. He added that he expected countries to “make new announcements of concrete military support to Ukraine” at a meeting Friday in Germany.
“That such a prominent paper as the Times found itself under “serious pressure” to remove the article shows the extent of censorship in the UK..”
• British Depleted Uranium A ‘Terrible Thing’ For Ukraine – Ambassador (RT)
London’s decision to supply Kiev with depleted uranium (DU) ammunition will hurt the Ukrainian people the most, as they will have to live with the consequences of the toxic metal for generations, Andrey Kelin, the Russian ambassador to the UK, told RT on Wednesday. In addition to sending Ukraine main battle tanks, the British government has promised to deliver armor-penetrating ammunition made with DU, and has already trained some Ukrainian troops in its use. Ambassador Kelin told RT that he will “continue to explain” the harmful effects of the ammunition, including the drastic increase in cancer rates, birth defects, and the contamination of the water and the soil “for at least six generations.” “This is a terrible thing, and if it happens in Ukraine, it will be big trouble, for the agriculture and for the people that are living over there,” Kelin told RT. He admitted there is little chance that London will change its mind, because that would mean admitting a mistake.
Kelin made headlines recently when The Sunday Times published an extensive interview with him, only to quietly delete it several days later, without an explanation. The Russian Embassy subsequently published a copy of the article in full, to protest the censorship. “I have very controversial experience with dealing with British journalists,” the ambassador told RT, noting that sometimes they are “very aggressive” and ask loaded questions. The Times sent “a very experienced political observer”who spoke with him for an hour, and produced an article “reflecting in fact what I have said, without distortions or phrases taken out of context.” That such a prominent paper as the Times found itself under “serious pressure” to remove the article shows the extent of censorship in the UK, Kelin said.
Relations between Russia and the UK were dismantled by London, and Moscow intends to wait for the British to come to their senses before attempting to rebuild them. Normalization of contacts “is not an issue for today or tomorrow,”Kelin told RT, but for some point in the future. Anglo-Russian relations go back 450 years, he noted, and the full disruption “happens only when two countries are in a state of war.”This is not yet the case, even though the UK is getting more involved in the Ukraine conflict by the day “So far we haven’t seen any revelations of common sense on the part of official London,” Kelin said. However, even the British authorities recognize that it is important to maintain channels of communication, so the embassy’s work continues.
“..Putin has likened the bloc’s attempts to cut itself off from Russian fossil fuels to economic “suicide.”
• EU ‘Done’ With Russia Sanctions – Official (RT)
The European Union has exhausted its options for further economic restrictions against Russia, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing EU officials. The bloc has so far adopted ten rounds of sanctions in response to the Ukraine conflict and is currently working on an eleventh package of punitive measures against Moscow. Meetings between the European Commission and member state officials to informally discuss new actions will start on Friday, FT wrote. Officials working on further sanctions told the outlet that they are likely to be limited to expanding the list of individuals subject to asset freezes and travel bans, as well as steps to scale up existing measures by closing loopholes.
Most officials reportedly admitted that those parts of the Russian economy that were left unsanctioned are parts that one or more EU member states “can’t live without,” and thus measures targeting them would be vetoed. “We are done,” one of the officials told FT, adding: “If we do more sanctions, there will be more exemptions than measures.” New restrictions could reportedly target Russia’s nuclear fuel and services exports, but those would be opposed by some member-states, such as France, Hungary, and others. Sweeping EU sanctions have targeted various sectors of the Russian economy as well as individuals and entities. According to FT, almost 1,500 people and more than 200 entities are currently subject to asset freezes and travel bans.
The report indicated that the bloc’s restrictive measures have banned bilateral trade flows worth more than €135 billion ($148 billion), including energy imports from Russia, as well as exports of technology, machinery, and electronic goods. Some €21.5 billion worth of assets belonging to sanctioned individuals and entities has been frozen, alongside €300 billion of Russian central bank reserves. Many economists and politicians, however, have argued that the embargos harm the West more than Moscow. Hungarian President Viktor Orban has repeatedly called for “the failed policy of Brussels” to be changed, noting that the sanctions “didn’t fulfill the hopes that were pinned on them,” while Europe is “slowly bleeding.” Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has likened the bloc’s attempts to cut itself off from Russian fossil fuels to economic “suicide.”
Soylu is campaigning for Erdogan.
• Europe is American Pawn – Türkiye (RT)
Europe’s influence is waning and it is nothing but a “pawn” of the US, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has claimed. The official delivered the remarks as he met members of a youth association in Istanbul on Tuesday. Soylu argued that European leaders are becoming more and more discredited, while the continent is facing numerous issues, ranging from an aging population to dwindling economic output. He also alleged that Europe lost any international clout long ago, and has become nothing more than an American pawn. Known as an outspoken critic of Washington, Soylu asserted that the US itself continues to lose credibility. Washington is universally “hated” all around the globe, while Europe is facing a similar attitude – largely due to its subordination, according the minister. Europe is now particularly “hated” all across Africa, as local nations justifiably despise those who exploit them, Soylu claimed.
Ahead of a general election in Türkiye scheduled for May 14, the minister also criticized the Western model of democracy, insisting it has been damaged by ongoing turmoil in numerous Western countries. Soylu specifically pointed to political upheaval in the UK, which saw three prime ministers in quick succession last year. “We’re seeing that the [democracy] paint of Europe and America has peeled off,” Soylu stated. The dominance of the collective West no longer exists, yet the US and Europe are still trying to persist with old habits, Soylu claimed, before praising Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s efforts to secure “full independence” for his country.
“What our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is doing is to turn the history of the world,” the minister asserted. “Türkiye’s biggest goal is full independence, and Türkiye will reach that goal together with Erdogan.” Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003, first as prime minister and later as president from 2014,is seeking to secure a third term in May’s elections. He is opposed by Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who was selected by a broad alliance of six opposition parties. The incumbent president and his ruling AK Party are expected to face a stern challenge, particularly in the wake of the devastating earthquake that killed over 50,000 people across Türkiye’s in early February.
MEP Mislav Kolakušić tells the EU Parliament: "Three decades ago Europe was a world power… back then it was led by strong national politicians and today is led by men in dresses… and the EU is completely irrelevant on the world map, except as a tourist destination." pic.twitter.com/jbk7rGEJ7e
— Mark Alan Pearce (@PearceAlan1962) April 20, 2023
“They are an example of loyalty to the Motherland and its interests and are now defending our historical territories..”
• People In New Regions Fought For Many Years To Be Part Of Russia – Putin (TASS)
People in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions have fought for many years for the right to be a part of Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. People in the new territories “have fought for many years for the right to be with Russia,” he said at a meeting of the Local Self-Government Council. “For many years they have lived in absolutely different conditions of regional and municipal government, which are not like the conditions in Russia,” he went on to say.
The president said municipal officials working in the new territories should be treated with warmth and consideration and provided with “all the necessary assistance for the integration of the new regions into the unified system of Russia’s public government.” Putin also said “there are many volunteers among the municipal community, who decided for themselves to be there (in the area of the special military operation – TASS), where things are tough.” “They are an example of loyalty to the Motherland and its interests and are now defending our historical territories, protecting people in these territories,” the president continued.
“The US juggernaut is lurching to war. Once pivoted to Asia, it does not appear to be equipped with a steering wheel, let alone brakes.”
• Whither Multipolarity in a Changing World Order (CP)
A majority of the world’s population has remained neutral in the Ukraine conflict, despite strong US/western pressure. A host of non-western-aligned economies are making tentative steps to transacting commerce in currencies other than dollars, pounds, yens, or euros. A so-called Pink Tide in Latin America has replaced a number of conservative regimes. China is emerging not only as an economic power, but diplomatically has helped broker closer relations between traditional adversaries Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as floated a peace proposal for Ukraine. All these favorable developments foreshadow a change in the geopolitical climate. The vision of a multipolar world informs the progressive impulse for a better world. Such a world is possible only if the centrality of US imperialism is replaced by a new order.
Such a reordering is a necessary pre-condition for a better world. Currently a realignment is being led by major counter-hegemonic powers such as China and Russia and more regional powers such as Brazil and Iran (and before its dismembering by Libya in Africa). Multipolarity is not the ultimate goal, but it is an intermediary step in the struggle against imperialism. More than just a reshuffling of the deck of world power relationships is needed. Overarching the interregnum is the specter of US preparations for a war with China, perhaps as soon as the turn of this decade. The quasi-governmental RAND Corporation prepared the strategic planning document, War with China – Thinking the Unthinkable, commissioned by the US Army. Released in 2016, such a confrontation does not appear so unthinkable today. Even some mainstream sources recognize that the Ukraine conflict is but a prelude to war with China.
The US juggernaut is lurching to war. Once pivoted to Asia, it does not appear to be equipped with a steering wheel, let alone brakes. Opposition to such a confrontation is virtually absent at the elite level. Both parties of capital compete with each other over which can be more Sinophobic. The Democrats, in particular, used to have dissenting voices, but now have embraced neo-conservatism. They exhibit an imperialist unity that is the envy of the Tea Party Republicans. Meanwhile, a mass peace movement is AWOL. Oddly, the libertarian right is sounding more like peaceniks than some putative liberals who are shrieking “Slava Ukraini.” War with China is not inevitable; China could be blackmailed into accommodation. The US, meanwhile, is crazy enough to precipitate a nuclear apocalypse. Remember that just two days after Hiroshima came the capricious genocide of Nagasaki.
Sue them all. Start with the 51 former intelligence officials, then work your way up.
• Blinken Played Central Role In Covering Up Hunter Biden Laptop Story (SAC)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is being investigated by the Committee on the Judiciary and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for his prominent role in persuading 51 former intelligence officials to falsely discredit the “New York Post story regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop as supposed Russian disinformation” during the 2020 Presidential election. The intelligence assessment led to a nearly blanket censorship of investigative stories exposing the alleged corruption of President Joe Biden and his family and kept the truth hidden from the American people before the election, according to a letter released Thursday night by the committees and obtained by SaraACarter.com. During the campaign, Blinken was a senior campaign advisor to then former Vice President Joe Biden and recruited the direct assistance of then former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell, who was one of the 51 signatories of the public statement.
Biden used this false letter signed by former senior intelligence officials, including five former heads of the CIA, from both parties, on October 22, 2020 to disparage President Donald Trump During the final presidential debate. Biden used the intelligence assessment that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation against President Trump during the campaign. Despite legitimate calls by Trump to have the FBI investigate Biden’s deeply concerning family business ties with China and Ukraine, as well as other allegations contained in the laptop that did belong to his son Hunter Biden, the Biden campaign used its connections within the intelligence apparatus to cover up the evidence, the truth and keep it from the American people. Biden used the assessment signed by the intelligence officials to target Trump during the campaign’s last debate.
“They have said this has all the characteristics—four—five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani,” said Biden during the debate and reiterated in Jordan’s letter to Blinken. The committees letter was sent to Blinken on Thursday and it contains transcribed parts of a recent interview the lawmakers had with Morell. [..] Former CIA chief Morell stated during his testimony to the lawmakers that he worked with Blinken in the hopes that then Vice President Biden would be elected to the presidency and not former President Trump.
“The Biden campaign and Anthony Blinken put together the bogus Hunter Biden letter and then used it during debates to ‘prove’ that the Hunter Biden story was fake. Have American voters ever been more blatantly lied to?” stated the Senior GOP Aide. The transcribed interview with Morell is stunning. According to sources who spoke with this reporter, Morell frequently had spoken both publicly and privately against former President Trump and according to one source, “his actions don’t surprise me in the least. It’s disgusting how someone of his stature and Blinken’s have trashed the American people and the Constitution.”
“The authorities can and will collect information about anyone who sends money to your wallet, who you send money to, how much money you spend, when you spend it, where you spend it, and on what.”
• The Digital Euro Could Usher In Total State Control (Glavinic)
I recently heard one of the most bizarre remarks by European Central Bank (ECB) chief Christine Lagarde that gave me migraines. She said that the eurozone could not go bankrupt, that this is technically impossible because the ECB can provide unlimited liquidity at any time. In plain English, when we run out of money, we print what we need. I admit I am probably a bit oversensitive. Counterfeiting is the very basis of our financial system, and the fact that the money we have right now is losing more and more purchasing power due to newly printed money need not concern me because I have none anyway. CBDC stands for “Central Bank Digital Currency.” PR consultants and journalists prefer to use the term “digital euro,” which is easier to remember and sounds nicer, but the trivialization of the term does not change the fact that behind all of this, total surveillance awaits.
The ECB’s planned digital euro works like Bitcoin on the basis of blockchain technology, but with a few key differences. Provided you have some, you can protect your money from inflation by holding it in the form of Bitcoin, you just need to have some tolerance for volatility. The Bitcoin blockchain is public and resistant to censorship because it is managed in a decentralized manner by a worldwide network of tens of thousands of computers, with no need for a central authority. Thus, unlike the fiat system, the amount in circulation cannot be increased by command. Bitcoin is transparent because every transaction is recorded in the public blockchain and can be viewed by anyone on the network. At the same time, the anonymity of the sender and receiver is preserved, as transactions are only tied to public addresses, not to individuals.
In contrast, the blockchain on which the digital euro is based is not public and is managed centrally. All transactions go through the European Central Bank (ECB) network, which means there is no transparency whatsoever. Already, no one really knows how many euros are in circulation because they can be printed at will by the ECB. The digital euro will not change this. Since almost all transactions already take place digitally, the question arises as to what benefit a euro on a private, centrally managed blockchain will have for the population. It is unclear who will benefit from the digital euro at all. Well, if you think about it a bit, it’s not so unclear anymore.
In the future, each of us will have a personally assigned account with the central bank. Every transaction can be tracked by the central bank and its associated authorities. The authorities can and will collect information about anyone who sends money to your wallet, who you send money to, how much money you spend, when you spend it, where you spend it, and on what. The authorities will know how often you go to the hairdresser, whether you have a subscription to the gym, whether you like to eat bananas, and how much money you spend on cat food.
“The Western media outlets object to these tags being applied to them because they’ve long accepted the negative connotation that such tags carry..”
• Western Media Suddenly Hates Twitter’s ‘Government-funded’ Labels (Marsden)
Recently, some media outlets have quit Twitter over what they see as unjust labeling, which leads to the question – where was their outrage when the same rules were being applied to their competition? Where was the Western fury when the social media platform was slapping labels of state affiliation or funding on media linked to Russia and China, like RT? Nowhere to be found. How about when the platform was extending that same labeling to individual journalists contributing to those platforms? Again, silent. It’s only now that they can’t object strongly enough. So what changed? The platform’s ‘newish’ owner, Elon Musk, woke up one morning recently and decided to level the playing field by slapping Western media recipients of state funding with the “government funded” label.
Britain’s BBC has protested its tagging, America’s National Public Radio rage-quit the platform over its new designation, and Canada’s CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) suspended posting. “Twitter can be a powerful tool for our journalists to communicate with Canadians, but it undermines the accuracy and professionalism of the work they do to allow our independence to be falsely described in this way,” CBC spokesman Leon Mar said. The Western media outlets object to these tags being applied to them because they’ve long accepted the negative connotation that such tags carry when they are exclusively applied to media or journalists linked to Russia or China. They didn’t care that the integrity of those journalistic competitors was smeared by a scarlet letter. They didn’t appreciate or support the coverage offered by those labeled platforms that offer alternative information and analysis to the mainstream Western establishment agenda and related narratives.
It apparently never occurred to the Western press – even to the CBC, which received $1.24 billion in 2021-2022 from the Canadian federal government – that they could be next in line for this kind of labeling. At least not enough for them to stand up against such labels. Why? A likely explanation is that they felt that social media platforms like Twitter would always fall in line with the Western establishment agenda and narrative. Also, that it was just an extension of the ongoing efforts to marginalize geopolitical competitors and alternative sources of information that might challenge them. Labeling of Western media makes no sense in that context, so they likely presumed that they were safe. However, Musk came along and opened Pandora’s Box, with Western media now haggling with him over precisely how much funding they ought to be able to get from the state without being slapped with a “state-affiliated” moniker. “Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they’re ‘less than 70% government funded,’ so we corrected the label,” Musk tweeted, stating that he had amended CBC’s label to “69% Government-funded media.”
Musk has also managed to make Western politicians denounce the tags, which they previously supported when it was used against press sources that they didn’t like. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hysterically played the class warfare card in defense of the CBC, accusing Conservative Party opposition leader Pierre Poilievre of cozying up to US billionaires (an obvious reference to Musk). Poilievre had written a letter to Twitter drawing attention to the fact that the CBC shouldn’t be left out of the labeling spree.
“After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU almost immediately unveiled ‘Farm to Fork’ pollution targets..”
• “Why Does Brussels Hate Us?” Livid EU Farmers Hit Back At Green Agenda (ZH)
European farmers are furious over a bullshit plan by the European Union which would force then to be treated as industrial plants, similar to steel mills or chemical works, in order to force them to cut greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution, the Financial Times reports Greek farmer Takis Kazanas, 66, and his four sons run a 230-acre ranch with 300 cattle ranch in the mountains overlooking the Thessalian Plain. While the farmers already capture biogas from cow dung, and use homemade manure vs. chemical fertilizer, Kazanas is one of many farmers up in arms over environmentalist bureaucrats who want to impose crippling new rules on them in order to cut emissions by 55% by 2030 vs. 1990 levels. “That’s what the EU says and that’s what I do,” says Kazanas, regarding the ‘earth-friendly’ measures he already employs. “Today, everyone blames cattle for methane production and pollution . . . I have a different opinion.”
“The sheer scale of the transformation that the European Commission is asking for in its Farm to Fork strategy — halving the amount of pesticides applied by 2030, cutting the use of fertilisers, doubling organic production and rewilding some farmland — would be remarkable even in less urgent times. Yet it comes as the war in Ukraine has upended global food markets, and as farmers face a cut in subsidies in the Common Agricultural Policy, the €55bn-a-year programme that has underwritten Europe’s food security since 1962. The EU argues that the agriculture sector is badly in need of environmental reforms. One senior EU official working on climate policy calls it “our problem child”. -FT According to Brussels, nitrous oxides found in fertilizer, as well as animal urine and poop, are a large part of the problem.
One problem facing farmers is thin margins between organic producers who survive on local trade, to pig farmers whose profits are being whittled away by international competition. As the Times notes, “even a small increase in the price of feed can wipe out annual profits.” After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU almost immediately unveiled ‘Farm to Fork’ pollution targets. According to a senior commission official, “the debate has changed.” The goals of the program, via FT, are to: • Cut the use of chemical and hazardous pesticides by 50% by 2030 • Reduce fertiliser use by 20% by 2030 • Lower by 50% the sales of antimicrobials for farmed animals and in aquaculture • Increase the amount of land devoted to organic farming to 25% in 2030 from 9.1% in 2020 • Bigger livestock farms to comply with clean air and water regulations that apply to heavy industry That said, farmers have banded together – and thanks to organized, well-funded campaigns, EU governments have softened their tone over what is becoming a new battleground over green ambitions.
They’re everywhere.
• TikTok: Chinese “Trojan Horse” Is Run By US State Department Officials (MPN)
For quite some time, TikTok has been recruiting former State Department officials to run its operations. The company’s head of data public policy for Europe, for example, is Jade Nester. Before being recruited for that influential role, Nester was a senior official in Washington, serving for four years as the State Department’s director of Internet public policy. Mariola Janik, meanwhile, left a long and fruitful career in the government to work for TikTok. Starting out at the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Janik became a career diplomat in the State Department before moving to the Department of Homeland Security. In September, however, she left the government to immediately take up the position of TikTok’s trust and safety program manager, a job that will inevitably include removing content and reshaping algorithms.
While there is no suggestion that Janik is anything other than a model employee, the fact that a U.S. government agent walked into such an influential position at the social media giant should be cause for concern. If, for instance, a high Chinese official was hired to influence what the U.S. public saw in their social media feeds, it would likely be the centerpiece of the TikTok furor currently gripping Washington. Janik is not the only former security official working on TikTok’s trust and safety team, however. Between 2008 and 2021, Christian Cardona enjoyed a distinguished career at the State Department, serving in Poland, Turkey and Oman, and was in the thick of U.S. interventionism in the Middle East. Between 2012 and 2013, he was an assistant to the U.S. ambassador in Kabul. He later left that role to become the political and military affairs manager for Iran.
In the summer of 2021, he went straight from his top State Department job to become product policy manager for trust and safety at TikTok, a position that, on paper, he appears completely unqualified for. Earlier this year, Cardona left the company. Another influential individual at TikTok is recruiting coordinator Katrina Villacisneros. Yet before she was choosing whom the company hires, Villacisneros worked at the State Department’s Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. And until 2021, she was part of Army Cyber Command, the U.S. military unit that oversees cyberattacks and information warfare online. Other TikTok employees with long histories in the U.S. national security state include: Brad Earman, global lead of criminal and civil investigations, who spent 21 years as a special agent in the Air Force Office of Special Investigation and also worked as a program manager for antiterrorism at the State Department; and Ryan Walsh, escalations management lead for trust and safety at TikTok, who, until 2020, was the government’s senior advisor for digital strategy. A central part of Walsh’s State Department job, his own résumé notes, was “advanc[ing] supportive narratives” for the U.S. and NATO online.
Twist: the vaccines were great, but the virus evolved. Don’t mention the injuries and deaths.
• CDC Director Rewrites History Of Covid Vaccines (JTN)
As the feds abandon a one-size-fits-all COVID-19 vaccine strategy in the face of plunging booster uptake, growing research on serious adverse events and the first government payments to victims of the novel therapeutics, the CDC’s director is trying to rewrite history. In a hearing Wednesday, Rochelle Walensky told the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds her agency that COVID vaccines only stopped preventing transmission of the virus due to “an evolution of science,” contradicting her own agency’s uncertainty about the products during the early mass vaccination campaign and its contemporaneous data.
The exchange was prompted by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) reminding Walensky that she told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow March 29, 2021 that CDC data suggest “vaccinated people do not carry the virus” or “get sick,” based on both clinical trials and “real-world data.” Walensky responded that the statement was true at the time, when the “wild-type” virus was dominant, but then revised it by saying “even if they got sick” infected people could not transmit COVID. Because of the “evolution of the virus” that’s no longer true, she told Clyde. Hearing watchers quickly noted the CDC pulled the rug out from Walensky three days after her Maddow interview in a statement to The New York Times. “The evidence isn’t clear” on transmission by “fully vaccinated” people, which is “possible,” the agency said.
Not only did Walensky falsely invoke the vaccine trials, which didn’t test for transmission, but the CDC may have been aware of breakthrough infections when its director denied they were possible. The CDC showed the Times a study that found “the vast majority” — not all — of nearly 4,000 vaccinated people remained uninfected two weeks after vaccination. It set up a breakthrough infection page as early as April 16 that reported about 5,800 cases “so far,” but didn’t tell CNN when it started receiving them. The number crossed 10,000 by month’s end. The FDA threw out a major pillar of its COVID strategy this week in its attempt to “simplify” vaccine recommendations, belatedly joining an international consensus that does not recommend vaccination across ages and risk levels.
It withdrew authorization for the original Pfizer and Moderna two-dose mRNA vaccines and told “most” vaccinated and even unvaccinated people they “may receive” a single bivalent dose. Among those already boosted with a bivalent, only elderly and immunocompromised people for now can get another dose. Unvaccinated children up to age 5 can get a two- or three-dose bivalent, while the number of bivalent doses will depend on monovalent vaccination history for other children, the FDA said. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, cited the high rate of natural and vaccine immunity in the general public in explaining the revision, while still recommending everyone “consider staying current” with bivalent doses.
Fauci, on purpose, had no personal Twitter account.
• Twitter Files: Dr. Anthony Fauci “Lied Under Oath” (ZH)
“A lot of people are spouting out a lot of things about me and Twitter,” Fauci told Fox News. “I’ve never had a Twitter account. I don’t intend on having a Twitter account, and I’ve had nothing to do with Twitter. So I don’t know what they’re talking about when they say that.” Fauci made similar claims during an almost 7-hour deposition. While under oath, the then-medical advisor to President Biden denied using Twitter or even paying attention to social media. “I don’t do social media.” “Since I don’t have a Twitter account, I don’t see tweets.” “I’m so dissociated from social media … I’ve never gotten involved in any of that.” “The social media and Twitter, I told you, I don’t have a Twitter account. I don’t tweet. I don’t do Facebook. I don’t do anything.”
Not true according to a new Twitter File uncovered during a visit to Twitter’s San Francisco HQ that shows Anthony Fauci…taking over the White House’s Twitter account. “Dr. Anthony Fauci did an account takeover for @WHCOVIDResponse,” reads a Twitter internal COVID-19 monthly update. Twitter’s monthly update also documented work they did with Johnson and Johnson on “messaging strategy” to help market the pharma company’s COVID-19 vaccine—action that happened only months after Twitter began removing and labeling tweets that they deemed vaccine “misinformation.” By the summer of 2021, Johnson and Johnson began a full court press, marketing multiple pharma products on Twitter. In a separate Twitter File, a senior Twitter attorney, who interfaced with the FBI on enforcement and removal of “disinformation,” praised Fauci to Twitter’s lawyers as America’s “leading trusted voice” on COVID-19.
A peek behind the paywall… “The Louisiana and Missouri attorney generals sued the federal government in May 2022 claiming agencies were colluding with social media companies to “censor and suppress free speech—including truthful information—related to COVID-19, election integrity and other topics under the guise of combating ‘misinformation.’” After a fierce legal battle, Louisiana and Missouri were allowed to depose Anthony Fauci under oath, during which he constantly claimed he could not recall information. The Biden administration has sought to keep the legal proceedings secret. Emails show that when a reporter contacted Fauci to ask why he could not recall key details about his handling of the pandemic during his deposition, Fauci emailed NIH colleagues, “So much for confidentiality.” The states released Fauci’s deposition last December, noting that Fauci said “I don’t recall” 174 times, including when asked about emails that he sent, interviews that he gave, and important documents he was shown.”
Pandora
Earth is stranger than Pandora. pic.twitter.com/sgiV0Wi8eN
— Ezer (@EzerRatchaga) April 19, 2023
To avoid being heard by sharks (the reptile’s main predator), marine Iguanas can stop their own hearts for up to 45 minutes.
Bear cat
Bear wanders into cat's territory. pic.twitter.com/4SL8kGZdJy
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 20, 2023
Bradbury
As SpaceX tests Starship, the largest rocket ever built, we're one step closer to a future full of hope. Asked in 1974, “What is space travel going to do for man?”, Ray Bradbury gave the most mystical, mind-expanding, and strangely moving answer I could have imagined. pic.twitter.com/yhLHkJls6T
— Benjamin Carlson (@bfcarlson) April 20, 2023
Dad
https://twitter.com/i/status/1648904958052278272
Happy and free
https://twitter.com/i/status/1649124922256392211
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