Defenders,
The entire American political set-up – with or without a FARA indictment, and with the 2024 elections looming – is fragile, Alastair Crooke writes.
..For the sake of clarity, what is being expressed here is that this [latest Trump] indictment is part and parcel of the ongoing western ‘culture war’ – just as scientists were cancelled, dismissed from their professions and ostracised for expressing a view about mRNA science; just as views on human biology are subject now to official negation; just as ‘misgendering’ has become a potential criminal offence (hate speech), so ideological and institutional capture is being extended to the political sphere...
..This [Biden bribery scandal] might argue for an early exit from Ukraine, or contrarily, the Clinton stratagem in respect to ‘imploding the Lewinski scandal’ – war on Serbia. The reaction against the 'politics of negation’ (as Chris Rufo terms it in his book, America’s Cultural Revolution) or cancellation in today’s vernacular has come to Europe too. In the UK, the scandal arising from the banking world’s blacklisting of Nigel Farage for his political views (the former leader of a pro-Brexit party), revealed the hitherto unknown fact that more than 1,400 companies are members of a corporate lobby ‘diversity scheme’ – one that insists corporate members stand against “all forms of oppression” and “dismantle racist systems, policies, practices, and ideologies”, and align with the interests of ‘wider society’.
Farage’s bank was accredited to the scheme, with the bank citing its ‘B Corp’ membership to contend that pro-Brexit Farage did not conform with the bank’s ‘diversity commitment’, or those of ‘wider society’, as cause for closing his account.
Behind the scenes then, it transpires, there is B Corp pursuing diversity correctness, and Stonewall (the LBGTQ charity) overseeing employment guidelines in the UK. With no bank account (as all other banks conformed to the blacklisting), Farage would have been ‘cancelled’ from society.
The point that Rufo makes in his book is that a political programme rooted in “negation” can offer no positive programme that won’t swiftly fall victim to its own politics of critique (as the Farage case illustrates). The result, Rufo argues, has not been utopia, but a harvest of “failure, exhaustion, resentment, and despair, and a proliferating class of peevish bureaucrats bickering about symbols and ephemera”.
The point that Rufo makes in his book is that a political programme rooted in “negation” can offer no positive programme that won’t swiftly fall victim to its own politics of critique (as the Farage case illustrates). The result, Rufo argues, has not been utopia, but a harvest of “failure, exhaustion, resentment, and despair, and a proliferating class of peevish bureaucrats bickering about symbols and ephemera”.
"When he stepped outside the door, he was met with gunfire," a member of Villavicencio's campaign team said of the candidate. "There was nothing to be done, because they were shots to the head."
Villavicencio, a legislator in the National Assembly, has been tireless in speaking out against organized crime, drug trafficking, and government corruption. Among his talking points on the campaign trail has been that Ecuador is a "narco state" being led by the "political mafia".
This is why in the aftermath of his killing, it's being widely blamed on those very criminal elements. He was by far the most vocal candidate against the drug traffickers and corrupt dealings with the state. He was also a former investigative journalist, having years ago exposed government corruption and bribery deals related to the oil industry.
The suspected gunman died in police custody after being wounded at the scene in a shootout with security personnel. The attack additionally injured nine people and two police officers.
Villavicencio, a legislator in the National Assembly, has been tireless in speaking out against organized crime, drug trafficking, and government corruption. Among his talking points on the campaign trail has been that Ecuador is a "narco state" being led by the "political mafia".
This is why in the aftermath of his killing, it's being widely blamed on those very criminal elements. He was by far the most vocal candidate against the drug traffickers and corrupt dealings with the state. He was also a former investigative journalist, having years ago exposed government corruption and bribery deals related to the oil industry.
The suspected gunman died in police custody after being wounded at the scene in a shootout with security personnel. The attack additionally injured nine people and two police officers.
Gilbert Doctorow on Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's recent speech:
Very few in the West have questioned the logic of expansion being a plus and only a plus. One such person was Professor Stephen Cohen, when he pointed out nearly twenty years ago that NATO is not a fraternity house. It is supposedly guided by the national security interests of its member states, and admission of the Baltic States was a net negative for the alliance. I have updated that critique with today’s remarks on how Finland’s joining the Alliance is another ‘own goal’’ by the NATO team. Now let us proceed with this debunking of U.S. security considerations by taking a look at the often cited author of Washington’s Ukraine strategy as from the administration of Barack Obama to today, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Many promoters of U.S. and allied support for Ukraine in its war effort now cite Brzezinski’s “prescient” remarks in his widely sold and read book of 1997, The Grand Chessboard. This was written at a time when Americans were still looking for a new global strategy given that they had, as they believed, won the Cold War and seemed to lack a replacement national purpose.
We all know today where pursuit of Brzezinski’s road map has brought us. Russia is arguably stronger than ever now that its society has been consolidated behind a patriotic mission, now that its armed forces have mastered the arts of high-tech ground war and its military industry has expanded production multifold. In this context, we may say that Brzezinski’s advice to his compatriots and their leadership was harebrained. For anyone who cares to look into this question further, I urge them to consult my several chapters critiquing Brzezinski’s writings in the ‘90s and early in the new millennium in my collection of essays entitled Great Post-Cold War American Thinkers on International Relations (2010).
Brzezinski’s efforts to contain Russia went beyond his writings to active participation in plans laid by his former protégé Madeleine Albright, who became Secretary of State, to wage ‘pipeline wars’ against Russia. This was a two-pronged effort: to stymie Russia’s planned gas pipelines to Europe like South Stream and to promote alternative pipelines from Central Asian and Caucasus gas producers which would run outside the borders of the Russian Federation and so would be free of Kremlin interference. The various actors and developments in the multi-year ‘pipeline wars’ are discussed in my 2013 collection Stepping Out of Line.
The end result of that policy was the imposition of a ban on importation of Russian hydrocarbons into Europe as punishment for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the destruction of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline last year. As we know today this is resulting in the deindustrialization of Germany, Europe’s lead economy and exporter, in high inflation across the Continent and in a widespread decline in European living standards.
Moral of the story: be careful what you wish for.
The end result of that policy was the imposition of a ban on importation of Russian hydrocarbons into Europe as punishment for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the destruction of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline last year. As we know today this is resulting in the deindustrialization of Germany, Europe’s lead economy and exporter, in high inflation across the Continent and in a widespread decline in European living standards.
Moral of the story: be careful what you wish for.
The coup in Niger could lead to the deployment of Wagner forces in the country.
Media concern has focused on the fact that Niger is a supplier of uranium, and is a key supplier to France.
One thing that got halted, however, is the $13 billion USD, 5,600-kilometer Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline.
Media concern has focused on the fact that Niger is a supplier of uranium, and is a key supplier to France.
One thing that got halted, however, is the $13 billion USD, 5,600-kilometer Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline.
Tom Luongo eventually makes the case that the ECB is losing assets that it can leverage to conjure more euros, as currency-crisis looms.
Collateral Damage As Alex Krainer taught me a few years ago, it’s all about collateral. Europe cut itself off from its energy collateral. It tried through the Iran Nuclear deal to get some collateral by investing in Iran. Who was the first to belly up to the trough in 2016 after the deal was signed? No less than France’s Total, with a $4+ billion deal.
Trump killed that when he tore up the JCPOA. That Total contract went to China.
The Syrian invasion was all about bringing in cheap Middle East energy into the EU, bypassing Russia. Russia killed that. Now they’ve outmaneuvered Europe in N. Africa.
While you see the Biden administration acting quickly to isolate Niger’s coup, mostly through the Davos-controlled State and Treasury departments did we see the Pentagon rush into action?
Not really. It’s the same kind of mealy-mouthed pablum Zelensky complains about daily. This is another tell.
Niger may further expose the rift at the top of the US power structure, especially while the walls are closing in on “Joe Biden.” The sheer number of stone walls going up around Capitol Hill to protect Biden and his people tell me there’s a bull market in bricks and mortar somewhere. But as fast as they erect them, their lies are getting exposed and a different wall is torn down. So, it’s all a mess right now.
Leverage is stacking up all over the place and this is now getting very interesting.
Expect the full court press into US political clown show over the next six to nine months, feeding the ratings game and the global perception of the US descending into anarchy.
In my mind, S&P and Moody’s will ultimately do what they are told to do. S&P put France on ‘credit watch negative in June, so by September they will have to make a new decision.
This week, Fitch just gave away who they work for. The S&P 2011 downgrade was a Davos operation in hindsight, to bring on the coordinated CB policy and stay at the zero-bound forever.
When it failed, flip to CBDCs and expand the colonization strategy.
Oops.
"Until something breaks..."
The Greater Financial Crisis of 2024, Jim Rickards (Can't really pick the start date)
Meryl Nass MD, The timeline on this is really short. Next month is already pivotal. Nobody knows.
The United Nations Has Proposed Creating An “Emergency Platform” To Allow It To Rule During Major ‘Global Shocks’
Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, or cardiac MRIs, was performed on 39 of the 40 patients. Abnormal results came in for 26 of those who were imaged, including 19 who had late gadolinium enhancement, or signs of scarring.
The patients with abnormal results returned for follow-up cardiac MRIs at least five months after the initial tests and 15, or 58 percent, had residual late gadolinium enhancement (LGE). The one patient without an initial scan also had mild late gadolinium enhancement when scanned during a follow-up visit.
The RSV vaccine was the original poster child for negative efficacy of failed vaccines in the 1960s. Now officials want to take your newborn and, on top of the existing list of vaccines plunged into his body, administer a brand-new RSV shot that openly has safety concerns. Josef Mengele is smiling in hell.
What sort of government would rush RSV shots on newborn babies with numerous questions about the clinical trial data, especially after experiencing so much carnage from the rushed COVID shots? A country that values the biomedical security state and pharma grift more than the lives of children.
State of play with RSV shots
Despite Fauci himself warning that RSV shots were not ready for prime time, and despite no rationale to rush an RSV shot at pandemic speed, the FDA has already approved three versions. Officials have approved Pfizer’s shot both for seniors and for pregnant women and have approved GSK’s version for seniors. GSK’s shot for pregnant women was suspended because of safety concerns, but Pfizer’s was approved even though it has the same problems and is very similar.
According to FDA briefing documents, two people in the Pfizer RSV trial for those over 60 years old experienced the dangerous form of neuropathy known as Guillain-Barré syndrome. Also, in the Phase 1/2 trial for Pfizer’s RSV shot, among a younger cohort of 18- to 49-year-olds (which has not been approved yet), the trial reports one death among the 164 participants in the group getting 120 micrograms. As for GSK’s senior shot, members of the CDC’s advisory committee raised concerns that it “can overstimulate the immune system, which is why it is only used for the elderly or immunocompromised.” Gee, where have we seen that before? Autoimmune problems from a rushed vaccine?
What sort of government would rush RSV shots on newborn babies with numerous questions about the clinical trial data, especially after experiencing so much carnage from the rushed COVID shots? A country that values the biomedical security state and pharma grift more than the lives of children.
State of play with RSV shots
Despite Fauci himself warning that RSV shots were not ready for prime time, and despite no rationale to rush an RSV shot at pandemic speed, the FDA has already approved three versions. Officials have approved Pfizer’s shot both for seniors and for pregnant women and have approved GSK’s version for seniors. GSK’s shot for pregnant women was suspended because of safety concerns, but Pfizer’s was approved even though it has the same problems and is very similar.
According to FDA briefing documents, two people in the Pfizer RSV trial for those over 60 years old experienced the dangerous form of neuropathy known as Guillain-Barré syndrome. Also, in the Phase 1/2 trial for Pfizer’s RSV shot, among a younger cohort of 18- to 49-year-olds (which has not been approved yet), the trial reports one death among the 164 participants in the group getting 120 micrograms. As for GSK’s senior shot, members of the CDC’s advisory committee raised concerns that it “can overstimulate the immune system, which is why it is only used for the elderly or immunocompromised.” Gee, where have we seen that before? Autoimmune problems from a rushed vaccine?
Dr. Pierre Kory says ABIM is telling doctors to take orders from bureaucrats in Washington and from medical journals instead of basing treatment decisions on their training and expertise.
Scientific paper calculates that the 12,000 year interglacial period ended in 2020 and Earth has crossed a threshold into The Next Ice Age:
"Mission Iceland" Less than 2 minutes of fine cerebral humor and nobody gets hurt. Thanks Eleni!
Remembering Winter (pictured in garden last winter)
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