Transformers,
Please consider again that the tensions between global power blocs and their elite owners are primarily caused by a contracting base of production of material wealth in a world where debts owed to these owners exceed what might ever be paid by the productive economies many times over. The Ponzi scheme of borrowing more to pay debt service is so strained, and complicated by hidden movements of debt, like "shadow banking", and especially by interlocking unregulated derivatives contracts across the financial world. These contracts were stabilized after 2008 by making their holders, gamblers in capital markets, Super-senior to all other financial system participants, such as people with bank accounts and "holdings" of stocks and bonds.
The primary political problem for societies to manage is the looming "Great-Reset", which is an "assignment of losses" of something like 90% of financial portfolios across all classes, notably financial service behemoths like BlackRock, all banks and shadow-banks, retirement and insurance sectors. All the liquidity of daily business deals and shipping are managed through credit, and credit will collapse with the collapse of unstable, over-leveraged, $US-based global finance,
The shutting down of normal economic activity is the shutting down of the process that produces and distributes, food, water, fuel and all of the necessary goods and services of our economic life support systems. Emergency powers are always declared, and some other fiction is desired to pretend that climate-emergency or pandemic, or even a terrorist attack on banking or electrical systems is the cause. Some external-enemy other than bankers, powerful family dynasties and their corrupt political servants is urgently "needed" to preserve the hierarchy of debt slavery which now exists. Power rivals to the western oligarchs include Russia and China, and their heads of state, Putin and Xi, who are clearly not attacking the western financial system as it bleeds to death from self-inflicted wounds.
Individual humans need to avoid getting killed or starving to death in this coming reset. It has long been progressing gradually, but the "financial crisis" may begin this year.
Individual humans are at a great disadvantage, however, against the corporate, government, police and military machinery which serves the current "ownership" dynasties. Human cooperation in productive work is the core of all economy and all "wealth". Humans are well equipped to cooperate for the common good. This core trait of humanity has been somewhat hijacked in modernity by the effectiveness of monetary economy and bureaucracies at providing food, water, shelter, fuel and transportation through industrialized economy. People have been atomized out of their families as working-parents, out of their extended families to keep a job or advance a career, and out of civic engagement by being too busy. Enabling all of this atomization of human-relationships has been the direct financial lifeline to corporate and government bureaucracies.
It is humanly prudent now to make relationships, consider how to live for a month without your bank or the internet, maybe without electricity, and to practice friendship. I continue to practice prayer and meditation, inner-work, which may also benefit our world.
Alastair Crooke, The Beast of Ideology Lifts the Lid on Transformation
The Transformation is accelerating. The harsh, often violent, police repression of student protests across the U.S. and Europe, in wake of the continuing Palestinian massacres, exposes sheer intolerance towards those voicing condemnation against the violence in Gaza.The category of ‘hate speech’ enacted into law has become so ubiquitous and fluid that criticism of the conduct of Israel’s behaviour in Gaza and the West Bank is now treated as a category of extremism and as a threat to the state...
..Today’s stifling of any criticism of Israel’s conduct – in blatant contradiction with any western claim to a values-based order – reflects desperation and a touch of panic. Those who still occupy the leadership slots of Institutional Power in the U.S. and Europe are compelled by the logic of those structures to pursue courses of action that are leading to ‘system’ breakdown, both domestically – and concomitantly – provoking the dramatic intensification of international tensions, too.
Mistakes flow from the underlying ideological rigidities in which the ruling strata are trapped: The embrace of a transformed Biblical Israel that long ago separated from today’s U.S. Democratic Party zeitgeist; the inability to accept reality in Ukraine; and the notion that U.S. political coercion alone can revive paradigms in Israel and the Middle East that are long gone.
The notion that a new Israeli Nakba of Palestinians can be forced down the throats of the western and the global public are both delusional and reek of centuries of old Orientalism...
Mistakes flow from the underlying ideological rigidities in which the ruling strata are trapped: The embrace of a transformed Biblical Israel that long ago separated from today’s U.S. Democratic Party zeitgeist; the inability to accept reality in Ukraine; and the notion that U.S. political coercion alone can revive paradigms in Israel and the Middle East that are long gone.
The notion that a new Israeli Nakba of Palestinians can be forced down the throats of the western and the global public are both delusional and reek of centuries of old Orientalism...
..Frank Furedi writes: "Today, the anticultural exercises a powerful role in western society. Culture is frequently framed in instrumental and pragmatic terms and rarely perceived as a system of norms that endow human life with meaning. Culture has become a shallow construct to be disposed of – or changed.
“The western cultural elite is distinctively uncomfortable with the narrative of civilisation and has lost its enthusiasm for celebrating it. The contemporary cultural landscape is saturated with a corpus of literature that calls into question the moral authority of civilisation and associates it more with negative qualities.
“De-civilization means that even the most foundational identities – such as that between man and woman – is called into question." ...
“The western cultural elite is distinctively uncomfortable with the narrative of civilisation and has lost its enthusiasm for celebrating it. The contemporary cultural landscape is saturated with a corpus of literature that calls into question the moral authority of civilisation and associates it more with negative qualities.
“De-civilization means that even the most foundational identities – such as that between man and woman – is called into question." ...
..(Polonyi) Prior to the 19th century ... the human way of being had always been ‘embedded’ in society, and that it was subordinated to local politics, customs, religion and social relations i.e. to a civilisational culture. Life was not treated as separated into distinct particulars, but as parts of an articulate whole – of life itself.
Liberalism turned this logic on its head. It constituted an ontological break with much of human history. Not only did it artificially separate the ‘economic’ from the ‘political’, but liberal economics (its foundational notion) demanded the subordination of society – of life itself – to the abstract logic of the self-regulating market. For Polanyi, this “means no less than the running of society as an adjunct to the market”. https://strategic-
Liberalism turned this logic on its head. It constituted an ontological break with much of human history. Not only did it artificially separate the ‘economic’ from the ‘political’, but liberal economics (its foundational notion) demanded the subordination of society – of life itself – to the abstract logic of the self-regulating market. For Polanyi, this “means no less than the running of society as an adjunct to the market”. https://strategic-
Surplus Energy Economics, At the limits of monetary possibility
Simply stated, the financial system has been allowed to grow far more rapidly than the underlying economy itself, and this creates a wholly unsustainable set of trends which will lead to a drastic reset of the relationship between the economy and the financial system...
..We could, at some later date, explore the process of credit creation within the regulated banking and the unregulated “shadow banking” (NBFI) sectors. But it suffices, for now, to know that we have long been fabricating economic “growth” by allowing the stock of credit, and therefore of money, to drastically out-grow any meaningful measure of the flow of value within the economy.
Together, the scale and complexity of the bloated credit system mean that – probably at some esoterically-technical level – something is going to break, forcing the central banks into trying to prop up the system by flooding the economy with money.
But we can’t “print” our way to monetary stability, any more than we can borrow our way to prosperity. https://
Together, the scale and complexity of the bloated credit system mean that – probably at some esoterically-technical level – something is going to break, forcing the central banks into trying to prop up the system by flooding the economy with money.
But we can’t “print” our way to monetary stability, any more than we can borrow our way to prosperity. https://
Richard C. Cook (RCC): I began to study monetary reform in 1979-1980 when I worked for the Carter White House in the office of consumer affairs. I had discovered the ideas of British engineer C.H. Douglas who explained the chronic gap in developed economies between GDP and national income, which meant that society never had enough money to purchase what their economies were able to produce. Some very notable people like Winston Churchill and Henry Ford were also aware of this. The system of Keynesian economics was developed to address the problem through government borrowing. But all this accomplished was to ‘kick the can down the road’ by creating debt that eventually had to be paid off, usually through war or hyperinflation.
A decade later I found myself working for the US Treasury Department, when I was able to carry out an in-depth study of the history of the US monetary system. I learned that the banking system existed to fill the GDP-income gap but that the debt it created in doing so led to massive profits to the banks but ruin for the nation at large. I also learned that the only successful alternative had been the spending of Greenbacks by the government during the Civil War. I then came into contact with Stephen Zarlenga who had founded the American Monetary Institute and was studying the same problems. Together we wrote the American Monetary Act which became Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s NEED Act introduced in Congress in 2011 but not yet passed. This would create a modern version of Greenback money. So one thing led to another, and I am still writing about these things...
A decade later I found myself working for the US Treasury Department, when I was able to carry out an in-depth study of the history of the US monetary system. I learned that the banking system existed to fill the GDP-income gap but that the debt it created in doing so led to massive profits to the banks but ruin for the nation at large. I also learned that the only successful alternative had been the spending of Greenbacks by the government during the Civil War. I then came into contact with Stephen Zarlenga who had founded the American Monetary Institute and was studying the same problems. Together we wrote the American Monetary Act which became Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s NEED Act introduced in Congress in 2011 but not yet passed. This would create a modern version of Greenback money. So one thing led to another, and I am still writing about these things...
..RCC: Our Declaration of Independence states that every person has a right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Of course along with these rights come responsibilities. One is that we act with kindness and compassion in accepting the rights of others. Our predatory financial system does not do this. The system is based on putting people into debt. That’s how money is generated in the economy. But this is wrong...
..The system should assure that people can earn enough that they can live decently and respectably as well as save for the future. Naturally, the work of some will support the lesser financial contributions of others, but this is part of life. If people are dissatisfied with their opportunities for work they should be free to seek elsewhere or be able to improve their skills so as to earn more. But all of this requires a monetary system that supports individual freedom and initiative. We do not have such a system today. What we have is debt slavery where the 1% make out like bandits and the 99% struggle to survive. Such a system also promotes crime and war, where people and nations feel they must steal from their neighbour in order to get by...
..The system should assure that people can earn enough that they can live decently and respectably as well as save for the future. Naturally, the work of some will support the lesser financial contributions of others, but this is part of life. If people are dissatisfied with their opportunities for work they should be free to seek elsewhere or be able to improve their skills so as to earn more. But all of this requires a monetary system that supports individual freedom and initiative. We do not have such a system today. What we have is debt slavery where the 1% make out like bandits and the 99% struggle to survive. Such a system also promotes crime and war, where people and nations feel they must steal from their neighbour in order to get by...
..The fact is that the Federal Reserve is a black hole.
No one but the bankers themselves know what they are doing or why. At the present time banks like JP Morgan Chase are making record profits while the economy is moving toward a recession and ordinary people increasingly cannot afford food, housing, education, or transportation.
The US federal government is now $33.1 trillion in debt. State and local governments are $3.17 trillion in debt. Private sector debt is over $30 trillion.
This is just within the US.
It means that every individual is $211,000 in debt on average. According to the Federal Reserve, the average net worth of American families in 2019 was $746,820, with the median $121,760. We can deduce that a large majority of American families literally own nothing. It’s no different in most other countries. And with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, mainly to attract overseas investment and shore up the dollar, the debt continually grows even if no new debt is added...
No one but the bankers themselves know what they are doing or why. At the present time banks like JP Morgan Chase are making record profits while the economy is moving toward a recession and ordinary people increasingly cannot afford food, housing, education, or transportation.
The US federal government is now $33.1 trillion in debt. State and local governments are $3.17 trillion in debt. Private sector debt is over $30 trillion.
This is just within the US.
It means that every individual is $211,000 in debt on average. According to the Federal Reserve, the average net worth of American families in 2019 was $746,820, with the median $121,760. We can deduce that a large majority of American families literally own nothing. It’s no different in most other countries. And with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, mainly to attract overseas investment and shore up the dollar, the debt continually grows even if no new debt is added...
..ADA: Ultimately, dialogue with other nations and communities is vital. Is it possible, in your opinion, for nations and leaders to conciliate a focus on their own national interests and at the same time consider what is best for the world at large?
RCC: Is a multipolar world possible? Only if the people of the West, acting through their own governments, take back the unconstitutional power of the banks. The US banking system, going back to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and beyond, is in fact an ongoing insurrection against the U.S. Constitution. It’s the Constitution that gives Congress, not the banks, the authority to create and oversee the monetary system of the nation. In Russia and China, the central banks report to the government.
In the US, the Federal Reserve reports only to the wealthiest 1%. This is what has to change. Until then, there can be no peace in the world. Of course, we also need a spiritual renewal. https://www.
RCC: Is a multipolar world possible? Only if the people of the West, acting through their own governments, take back the unconstitutional power of the banks. The US banking system, going back to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and beyond, is in fact an ongoing insurrection against the U.S. Constitution. It’s the Constitution that gives Congress, not the banks, the authority to create and oversee the monetary system of the nation. In Russia and China, the central banks report to the government.
In the US, the Federal Reserve reports only to the wealthiest 1%. This is what has to change. Until then, there can be no peace in the world. Of course, we also need a spiritual renewal. https://www.
Israeli officials insisted that the new agreement contained "many new elements" that were not part of the deal that was presented to Hamas by the US, Egypt and Qatar ten days ago with Israel's approval.
But a senior US official retorted that "American diplomats have been engaged with Israeli counterparts. There have been no surprises." A source familiar with the talks told the website that on Monday morning, CIA director Bill Burns held talks with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant... Axios sources further alleged that Washington invited Israeli officials to Cairo over the weekend but Tel Aviv refused to send a team...
.."All indications are that there's tremendous pressure on Israel now to accept the peace process. The Americans, the Egyptians, the Qataris, the European Union, everybody's on board and Hamas is on board, except Israel," Kamrava said... "The Israelis have refused to accept any responsibility," he said. "They have laid the responsibility squarely at the feet of Hamas. I don't think they would accept any responsibility for humanitarian aid for Palestinians that are into Rafah." But a senior US official retorted that "American diplomats have been engaged with Israeli counterparts. There have been no surprises." A source familiar with the talks told the website that on Monday morning, CIA director Bill Burns held talks with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant... Axios sources further alleged that Washington invited Israeli officials to Cairo over the weekend but Tel Aviv refused to send a team...
According to the academic, Israel has "told the Palestinians that they need to move into an area that is uninhabitable. It's been absolutely, completely destroyed." https://sputnikglobe.com/20240507/did-netanyahu-trash-ceasefire-deal-agreed-by-hamas-to-continue-war-1118316128.html
Israel and its supporters are frightened by the public outpouring of support for and solidarity towards the Palestinian people living in Gaza at American college and university campuses – so much so that they just sent a letter to the United States Congress demanding the passage of a new censorship law.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in coordination with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is demanding that Congress renew special provisions in the controversial FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) to allow for the silencing of anyone who in any way criticizes Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Infamously described as "the biggest expansion of domestic surveillance since the Patriot Act," the new FISA bill being pushed by the Jewish lobby contains added language that would basically criminalize free speech that upsets Zionists. It also compels "an enormous range" of U.S. businesses to start acting as NSA (National Security Agency) spies on behalf of Israel...
..According to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, protesting in solidarity with the people of Gaza means you are an "accomplice" in the Hamas false flag attack. This is how the entire Jewish lobby thinks of you if you do not support Israel's genocide, by the way.
Greenblatt is leading the charge to create an entire legal framework that will allow for pro-Palestine protesters to be charged with providing material support to "terrorists," allowing them to be jailed despite the existence of the First Amendment. https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-05-07-adl-calls-for-scrapping-1a-protect-israel.html
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in coordination with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is demanding that Congress renew special provisions in the controversial FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) to allow for the silencing of anyone who in any way criticizes Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Infamously described as "the biggest expansion of domestic surveillance since the Patriot Act," the new FISA bill being pushed by the Jewish lobby contains added language that would basically criminalize free speech that upsets Zionists. It also compels "an enormous range" of U.S. businesses to start acting as NSA (National Security Agency) spies on behalf of Israel...
..According to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, protesting in solidarity with the people of Gaza means you are an "accomplice" in the Hamas false flag attack. This is how the entire Jewish lobby thinks of you if you do not support Israel's genocide, by the way.
Greenblatt is leading the charge to create an entire legal framework that will allow for pro-Palestine protesters to be charged with providing material support to "terrorists," allowing them to be jailed despite the existence of the First Amendment. https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-05-07-adl-calls-for-scrapping-1a-protect-israel.html
An Israeli captive was killed as a result of a direct Israeli military attack on an area where she was being held, the spokesperson for Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, announced on Tuesday.
Judih Weinstein, 70, was identified as the captive who died as a result of an Israeli strike in which she was critically injured around a month ago. Abu Obeida revealed that due to the Israeli occupation's destruction of Gaza's health sector, Judih did not receive the necessary medical attention and died after succumbing to her wounds. https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-captive-dies-due-to-own-forces--destruction-of-gaza
Judih Weinstein, 70, was identified as the captive who died as a result of an Israeli strike in which she was critically injured around a month ago. Abu Obeida revealed that due to the Israeli occupation's destruction of Gaza's health sector, Judih did not receive the necessary medical attention and died after succumbing to her wounds. https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-captive-dies-due-to-own-forces--destruction-of-gaza
Israel Captures Rafah Border Crossing, Cutting Off Aid
The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that its ground forces captured the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, cutting off a vital aid route as Palestinians are facing starvation. Israeli tanks and troops entered Rafah late Monday, and Israeli strikes pounded the city throughout the night, hitting residential homes. According to AP, hospital records show that at least 23 Palestinians were killed in the bombardment, including six women and five children. https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/07/israel-captures-rafah-border-crossing-cutting-off-aid/
Report: Private US Security Firm To Take Control of Rafah Border Crossing , According to Haaretz, Israel, Egypt, and the US have agreed on the plan.
Biden Withholds Shipment Of Boeing-Made Precision Bombs From Israel Over Rafah Offensive (Did Boeing even finish them yet?)
China and France have called for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, according to a joint statement issued during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s two-day official visit with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. The so-called two-state solution, a plan to create a Palestinian state within territory occupied by Israel since 1967, is supported by the UN and a raft of individual nations, including Israel’s key ally the US. If implemented, it would likely require the Jewish state to remove its settlers from the occupied territories. https://www.rt.com/news/597145-france-china-call-palestinian-state/
The intelligence agency said that the Russian plot relied heavily on identifying and recruiting perpetrators from among Zelensky’s larger security detail, “who could take the head of state hostage and then later kill him.”
The two Ukrainian colonels who were eventually tasked with the job were members of the country’s State Security Administration (UDO), Kyiv’s domestic counterintelligence service. They are also accused of leaking classified information to Moscow.
The two officers have been detained and are charged with treason and attempted assassination, both of which carry life sentences in prison.
The plot also involved eliminating two other high-ranking targets: SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk, and the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR), Kyrylo Budanov.
According to the SBU, Budanov’s assassination was planned to take place just before the Orthodox Easter (celebrated on May 5th this year). While the FSB agents were tracking Budanov’s movements, one of the now-detained UDO colonels was allegedly supplying the network with FPV drones, warheads for portable missile launchers, and even anti-personnel mines. The plan was to first use a missile to hit Budanov’s location, then use drones to kill any remaining people at the site one by one. Finally, there was supposed to be another missile strike to clean up the evidence of the drone attacks, the SBU said. https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/kyiv-foils-assassination-attempt-on-zelensky-from-the-inside/
Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia’s president on Tuesday, signaling the start of what former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector-turned political commentator Scott Ritter expects to become the final stage of Russia’s complete restoration of its self-identification and status as separate from and equal to the West. “In his inauguration speech, Vladimir Putin made it clear that the security of Russia and the Russian people are his top priority. Why would he have to say this? Because as we speak, Russia finds itself under attack from many nations around the world – nations that seek the existential extermination of Russia, if not through violence, then through economic strangulation,” Ritter said. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240507/scott-ritter-putins-inauguration-began-final-stage-of-russias-purge-of-malign-western-influence-1118313611.html
(Understatement) Putin Sent Message to West That Russia is 'There to Stay' as Major Power
As for the US-driven calls in the Western capitals and mainstream press to delegitimize the Russian presidential election process, “It is the continuation of the historic confrontation of Anglo-Saxon powers against Russia,” Raffone explained.
He weighed in on the fact that representatives of Western countries stayed away from the ceremony. While the UK, Canada, and most European Union nations opted to boycott the swearing-in, France, Hungary, and Slovakia sent their ambassadors [as did Greece, Cyprus and Malta], Raffone pointed out, noting that the "tone is set by the US that is faced with tremendous domestic and external challenges in the months ahead of the November elections."
“Despite the US/UK-imposed boycott, there is no united Western front against Russia… The reaction of Anglo-Saxon powers against Russia is a weak representation of the relativization of their global standing, a process with which their political elites have difficulty to come to terms. Despite their bellicose rhetoric, there is mounting sentiment that the relations with Russia cannot be eased without fresh diplomatic initiatives,” Raffone concluded. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240507/putin-sent-message-to-west-that-russia-is-there-to-stay-as-major-power-1118313466.html
China's Xi In Serbia Says 'Never Forget' This Unprecedented US Atrocity (Greek port, Piraeus through Serbia to Budapest is a Chinese economic corridor, as below.)
To review of what we've featured in a previous post called "America's Benevolent Bombing of Serbia," President Bill Clinton commenced bombing Belgrade in the name of human rights, justice, and ethnic tolerance. Approximately 1,500 Serb civilians were killed by NATO bombing in one of the biggest sham morality plays of the modern era. As British professor Philip Hammond has noted, the 78-day bombing campaign “was not a purely military operation: NATO also destroyed what it called ‘dual-use’ targets, such as factories, city bridges, and even the main television building in downtown Belgrade, in an attempt to terrorise the country into surrender.” https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/chinas-xi-serbia-says-never-forget-unprecedented-us-atrocity
There’s a careful plan behind Xi’s European tour , China wants to preserve and strengthen its foothold in and around the EU and is investing diplomatic effort where it is worth it. Chinese President Xi Jinping is on a state visit to Europe. On what is his first trip to the EU since 2019, he has visited France and Hungary and concluded the tour in Serbia.....It is not politically convenient for Xi to visit Germany, and thus he chose France, where opinions seem more comfortable with its “maverick” role.
His second destination, Hungary, under Viktor Orban has carved out a niche as being the most pro-Beijing state in the whole EU. Orban has an even more maverick foreign policy which also seeks healthy ties with Russia. However, its small size means it cannot steer the entire bloc’s agenda. Despite this, Budapest is a very important partner for Beijing because it serves as a gateway for Chinese investment and other projects to amplify themselves on the continent when doors are being shut elsewhere. Such as, building an overseas campus for Fudan University, or a Chinese electric car factory, which is critically important if the commission is wielding the threat of tariffs.
But not only that, Hungary occupies a strategic position in central Europe above the Balkans which is the terminus of a Chinese economic corridor that starts with the port it owns in Piraeus, Greece. And between Greece and Hungary lies Serbia. Although Serbia is not part of the EU, it is a critically important nation in the Balkans which has stormy relations with the West owing to the massive bombing campaign NATO waged against it in the 1990s... Serbia’s well being depends on its ability to court relationships with third-party powers such as Russia and China to secure geopolitical clout. For China, Serbia thus becomes another focus point, or safe-haven, to project influence into Europe...
..Hence, Xi is reportedly going to try and upgrade relations with Serbia. After all, it is a place where China can invest and thus, sell to Europe, without EU and NATO interference. It is also hoped Serbia will join BRICS eventually.
Thus, while Xi’s visit to France, one of the EU’s leading states, is to ensure the bloc does not unite against Beijing, his visit to Serbia and Hungary is strategic by design in using them as projection points in ensuring China’s commercial ties with Europe can be upheld amidst resistance by powerful individuals such as Ursula von der Leyen. https://swentr.site/news/597183-xi-france-hungary-serbia/
US independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has challenged former President Donald Trump to a debate at this month’s Libertarian National Convention. Trump insists that Kennedy is “not a serious candidate.”
“I’d like to make you an offer. We’re both going to be speaking at the upcoming Libertarian convention on May 24 and 25,” Kennedy wrote in an X (formerly Twitter) post on Tuesday addressed to Trump. “It’s perfect neutral territory for you and me to have a debate where you can defend your record for your wavering supporters.”
Asked last week whether he would debate Kennedy, Trump said that the former Democrat is “not a serious candidate” and would have to “get his numbers a lot higher before he’s credible.”
In his post on Tuesday, Kennedy claimed that a poll commissioned by his campaign showed that he would “crush” President Joe Biden in a two-way contest, and would defeat Trump “in a nail-biter” in a similar matchup. Polls published last month by CNN and Quinnipiac both showed Kennedy at 16% in a contest involving him, Trump, Biden, and other independents, a result that he argued puts him “above the 15% debate threshold.” https://swentr.site/news/597182-rfk-trump-debate-challenge/
Fauci Ignored Early Reports of Vaccine Injuries, Emails Obtained by CHD Reveal
Dr. Anthony Fauci knew COVID-19 vaccines were causing serious injuries, including myocarditis, neurological conditions and death, within days of the vaccines’ rollout in December 2020, according to documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/fauci-ignored-covid-vaccine-injuries-emails-chd/
In summary, developed economies have been stripped of secure, well-paid manual-labor work, the purchasing power of wages has declined, prices of assets such as homes have skyrocketed out of reach and the mass overproduction of elites (those with college diplomas and advanced degrees) has created a winner-take-all competitive pressure cooker with few winners and an abundance of also-rans...
Where working class jobs in factories once offered security, community and a positive identity of being a productive, valued worker, now the physical-labor jobs are viewed as demeaning and those doing the work find their work isn't validated or respected...
State Department spokesman Matt Miller was asked about the report and said he wasn’t aware of any plan for Israel to transfer control of the border crossing.
Under the reported arrangement, American mercenaries would take responsibility for overseeing the border crossing, which would include monitoring goods coming into Gaza and preventing Hamas from taking control. Vital deliveries have been cut off since Israel took control of the crossing early Tuesday.
The Haaretz report said the arrangement was part of an effort by Israel to “win agreement” from the US and Egypt for a Rafah operation. https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/07/report-private-us-security-firm-to-take-control-of-rafah-border-crossing/
Under the reported arrangement, American mercenaries would take responsibility for overseeing the border crossing, which would include monitoring goods coming into Gaza and preventing Hamas from taking control. Vital deliveries have been cut off since Israel took control of the crossing early Tuesday.
The Haaretz report said the arrangement was part of an effort by Israel to “win agreement” from the US and Egypt for a Rafah operation. https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/07/report-private-us-security-firm-to-take-control-of-rafah-border-crossing/
We noted earlier that Israel's Rafah ground offensive currently in progress constitutes a glaring instance of Netanyahu's willingness to blow past Biden's 'red line' which was repeatedly verbalized in the last weeks and months. It now appears that Biden is ready to belatedly get 'tough'. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israeli-ground-forces-enter-rafah-tank-unit-shuts-down-vital-border-crossing
Gilbert Doctorow Interview, WION, India’s premier English-language global broadcaster, takes a stand on Israel’s assault on Rafah
It is precisely to avoid paying that price that Biden is reportedly telling Netanyahu, “The game is up. And if you proceed with this offensive that you are talking about so loudly, you will not have American weapons, which means you will fail badly.” The reason for Mr Biden’s position has nothing to do with humanitarian concerns. The man is callous and is morally in the same camp as Mr Netanyahu. The issue is political survival, and the recent student university demonstrations have shown that Biden cannot win the election if this continues as it has, and if he is not showing some resistance to the atrocities of the Israelis. https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2024/05/08/wion-indias-premier-english-language-global-broadcaster-takes-a-stand-on-israels-assault-on-rafah/
Former Indian Diplomat MK Bhadrakumar, Dialing down expectations on a US–Saudi security pact
Expect a ‘less-for-less’ outcome from any forthcoming US–Saudi security pact. Israel’s war on Gaza has hampered Washington’s plans to push normalization with Tel Aviv and pull Riyadh away from the Russia–China sphere of influence. https://thecradle.co/articles/dialing-down-expectations-on-a-us-saudi-security-pact Climbing the 'Escalation Ladder': French, British Threats Provoke Russian Warning
Moscow responded aggressively to claims that Kiev may use British weapons to strike within Russia, claiming such an attack would force the country to target UK military installations in Ukraine and beyond. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240507/climbing-the-escalation-ladder-french-british-threats-provoke-russian-warning-1118299465.html
Russia to hold nuclear drills to ‘cool hot heads’ in West Russia’s upcoming exercises to test its tactical nuclear weapons should be viewed in light of the “belligerent statements” made by some Western officials and NATO’s “destabilizing actions,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday. https://swentr.site/russia/597090-russia-nuclear-drills-cool-heads-west/
(It's working...) NATO 'No Boots on the Ground' Ukraine Strategy Meant to Silence West's 'Loudmouths'
The rationale behind NATO's new “no boots on the ground” in Ukraine strategy is to silence belligerent “loudmouths” in the West, international relations analyst Gilbert Doctorow told Sputnik. The alliance’s decision was designed to “shut up Monsieur Macron, to shut up the prime minister of Lithuania and other loudmouths who have been calling for the dispatch of NATO troops to Ukraine to save the Kiev regime from imminent military defeat,” Doctorow said. “No boots on the ground” in Ukraine is a key phrase contained in a draft document set to be approved by the NATO summit in Washington in July, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240508/nato-no-boots-on-the-ground-ukraine-strategy-meant-to-silence-wests-loudmouths--1118336759.html
Consider the source... The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), Ukraine’s main intelligence agency, reported on Tuesday that it had uncovered a plot by a network of Russian FSB agents to assassinate Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and several other high-ranking Ukrainian officials...
..According to SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk, the planned attack was directly supervised by Russia’s FSB from Moscow, and it “was supposed to be a gift to [President] Putin for his inauguration,” which took place on Tuesday, May 7th. The intelligence agency said that the Russian plot relied heavily on identifying and recruiting perpetrators from among Zelensky’s larger security detail, “who could take the head of state hostage and then later kill him.”
The two Ukrainian colonels who were eventually tasked with the job were members of the country’s State Security Administration (UDO), Kyiv’s domestic counterintelligence service. They are also accused of leaking classified information to Moscow.
The two officers have been detained and are charged with treason and attempted assassination, both of which carry life sentences in prison.
The plot also involved eliminating two other high-ranking targets: SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk, and the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR), Kyrylo Budanov.
According to the SBU, Budanov’s assassination was planned to take place just before the Orthodox Easter (celebrated on May 5th this year). While the FSB agents were tracking Budanov’s movements, one of the now-detained UDO colonels was allegedly supplying the network with FPV drones, warheads for portable missile launchers, and even anti-personnel mines. The plan was to first use a missile to hit Budanov’s location, then use drones to kill any remaining people at the site one by one. Finally, there was supposed to be another missile strike to clean up the evidence of the drone attacks, the SBU said. https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/kyiv-foils-assassination-attempt-on-zelensky-from-the-inside/
"Hype" wins. The US and Germany just can't make a meaningful fraction of the current Russian artillery usage, let alone current Russian production.
Simplicius, Crunching Numbers: Ukraine Munitions "Ramp-up" Buzz, Real or Hype? https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/crunching-numbers-ukraine-munitionsThese Nepali mountain-men were always the shock-troops of the British Empire: 15,000 Gurkha allegedly join Russian forces amid Ukraine conflict https://bulgarianmilitary.com/2024/05/07/15000-gurkha-allegedly-join-russian-forces-amid-ukraine-conflict/
As for the US-driven calls in the Western capitals and mainstream press to delegitimize the Russian presidential election process, “It is the continuation of the historic confrontation of Anglo-Saxon powers against Russia,” Raffone explained.
He weighed in on the fact that representatives of Western countries stayed away from the ceremony. While the UK, Canada, and most European Union nations opted to boycott the swearing-in, France, Hungary, and Slovakia sent their ambassadors [as did Greece, Cyprus and Malta], Raffone pointed out, noting that the "tone is set by the US that is faced with tremendous domestic and external challenges in the months ahead of the November elections."
“Despite the US/UK-imposed boycott, there is no united Western front against Russia… The reaction of Anglo-Saxon powers against Russia is a weak representation of the relativization of their global standing, a process with which their political elites have difficulty to come to terms. Despite their bellicose rhetoric, there is mounting sentiment that the relations with Russia cannot be eased without fresh diplomatic initiatives,” Raffone concluded. https://sputnikglobe.com/20240507/putin-sent-message-to-west-that-russia-is-there-to-stay-as-major-power-1118313466.html
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been in France since Sunday where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron to talk about range of topics but especially the Ukraine war and trade between China and the European Union. But on Tuesday he traveled to Serbia, and importantly the trip falls precisely on the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, which came in the midst of NATO’s bombing of the Serbs of Yugoslavia during the 1999 Kosovo war...
..His emphasis on the line "never forget" is interesting given it is a common line used by Americans when it comes to remembering the 9/11 terror attacks, as well as in the West when it comes to Holocaust remembrance days. To review of what we've featured in a previous post called "America's Benevolent Bombing of Serbia," President Bill Clinton commenced bombing Belgrade in the name of human rights, justice, and ethnic tolerance. Approximately 1,500 Serb civilians were killed by NATO bombing in one of the biggest sham morality plays of the modern era. As British professor Philip Hammond has noted, the 78-day bombing campaign “was not a purely military operation: NATO also destroyed what it called ‘dual-use’ targets, such as factories, city bridges, and even the main television building in downtown Belgrade, in an attempt to terrorise the country into surrender.” https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/chinas-xi-serbia-says-never-forget-unprecedented-us-atrocity
..Despite von der Leyden’s blatant pro-US bias, it is quite obvious that the loyalty of EU nations has become the subject of a battle between Washington and Beijing for influence in the emerging geopolitical struggle. Although of course the EU is in theory aligned with the US, through its dominance of institutions such as NATO, China’s foreign policy for many years now has focused on attempting to exert all influence to prevent the EU from fully aligning itself with Washington’s goal of containing Beijing, instead seeking to preserve open economic ties with the continent. To this end China has devoted an extensive diplomatic effort to Europe, an effort it doesn’t feel worth making towards the US, or even the UK...
His second destination, Hungary, under Viktor Orban has carved out a niche as being the most pro-Beijing state in the whole EU. Orban has an even more maverick foreign policy which also seeks healthy ties with Russia. However, its small size means it cannot steer the entire bloc’s agenda. Despite this, Budapest is a very important partner for Beijing because it serves as a gateway for Chinese investment and other projects to amplify themselves on the continent when doors are being shut elsewhere. Such as, building an overseas campus for Fudan University, or a Chinese electric car factory, which is critically important if the commission is wielding the threat of tariffs.
But not only that, Hungary occupies a strategic position in central Europe above the Balkans which is the terminus of a Chinese economic corridor that starts with the port it owns in Piraeus, Greece. And between Greece and Hungary lies Serbia. Although Serbia is not part of the EU, it is a critically important nation in the Balkans which has stormy relations with the West owing to the massive bombing campaign NATO waged against it in the 1990s... Serbia’s well being depends on its ability to court relationships with third-party powers such as Russia and China to secure geopolitical clout. For China, Serbia thus becomes another focus point, or safe-haven, to project influence into Europe...
..Hence, Xi is reportedly going to try and upgrade relations with Serbia. After all, it is a place where China can invest and thus, sell to Europe, without EU and NATO interference. It is also hoped Serbia will join BRICS eventually.
Thus, while Xi’s visit to France, one of the EU’s leading states, is to ensure the bloc does not unite against Beijing, his visit to Serbia and Hungary is strategic by design in using them as projection points in ensuring China’s commercial ties with Europe can be upheld amidst resistance by powerful individuals such as Ursula von der Leyen. https://swentr.site/news/597183-xi-france-hungary-serbia/
“I’d like to make you an offer. We’re both going to be speaking at the upcoming Libertarian convention on May 24 and 25,” Kennedy wrote in an X (formerly Twitter) post on Tuesday addressed to Trump. “It’s perfect neutral territory for you and me to have a debate where you can defend your record for your wavering supporters.”
Asked last week whether he would debate Kennedy, Trump said that the former Democrat is “not a serious candidate” and would have to “get his numbers a lot higher before he’s credible.”
In his post on Tuesday, Kennedy claimed that a poll commissioned by his campaign showed that he would “crush” President Joe Biden in a two-way contest, and would defeat Trump “in a nail-biter” in a similar matchup. Polls published last month by CNN and Quinnipiac both showed Kennedy at 16% in a contest involving him, Trump, Biden, and other independents, a result that he argued puts him “above the 15% debate threshold.” https://swentr.site/news/597182-rfk-trump-debate-challenge/
Meryl Nass MD (State's Rights), We did it!!! 22 Attorneys-General in the US have told Joe Biden that the WHO will not be making public policy in their states!
For the thousands of people who have been making calls and writing letters--you are the best! Global governance will not be starting in the US! https://merylnass.substack.com/p/we-did-it-22-attorneys-general-in Meryl Nass MD, Oklahoma House passed a bill denying the WHO, WEF and UN jurisdiction in the state. Yet a few R Senators are blocking the bill in the OK Senate. The people are fighting back! This bill needs to pass to protect the people of Oklahoma from arbitrary WHO (etc.) declarations and mandates. https://merylnass.substack.com/p/oklahoma-house-passed-a-bill-denying
Dr. Anthony Fauci knew COVID-19 vaccines were causing serious injuries, including myocarditis, neurological conditions and death, within days of the vaccines’ rollout in December 2020, according to documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/fauci-ignored-covid-vaccine-injuries-emails-chd/
Charles Hugh Smith on not-competing in the rat-race, Hikikomori and Lying Flat: When "Making It" Becomes Hopeless
..Many individuals do not have the armor and weaponry needed to enter the arena and survive the competition. It's easy to dismiss them as "lazy," but that's not the issue. It's also easy to dismiss them as snowflakes, young people who have been shielded from life's rougher edges by overprotective parents, leaving them ill-equipped for the slings and arrows of modern life. But this isn't the issue, either. The real issue is the social and economic demands now exceed the carrying capacity of many people...
..How do humans respond when they're viewed as worthless and they feel hopeless? .....So they drop out of the competition. Maybe they take a part-time gig job, maybe they move back home to take care of a parent or grandparent, or they become a recluse.
Hikikomori--hiki, to withdraw--komori, inside--is an extreme form of voluntary social isolation from society. The term originated in Japan but the abandonment of conforming to the demands of society is not limited to Japan. Withdrawing from the demands of what passes for "normal life" is not limited to extremes of seclusion; it is a spectrum of withdrawal that includes giving up on striving for upper-middle class membership (which goes by terms such as lying flat and let it rot) to minimizing engagement with the world in a variety of ways...
..Those who are excluded have said the pain of loneliness is easier to bear than the pain of dealing with other people. Hikikomori--hiki, to withdraw--komori, inside--is an extreme form of voluntary social isolation from society. The term originated in Japan but the abandonment of conforming to the demands of society is not limited to Japan. Withdrawing from the demands of what passes for "normal life" is not limited to extremes of seclusion; it is a spectrum of withdrawal that includes giving up on striving for upper-middle class membership (which goes by terms such as lying flat and let it rot) to minimizing engagement with the world in a variety of ways...
Where working class jobs in factories once offered security, community and a positive identity of being a productive, valued worker, now the physical-labor jobs are viewed as demeaning and those doing the work find their work isn't validated or respected...
..Now working class jobs are characterized by insecurity and precariousness, a threadbare social circle of other workers and neighbors passing through and very little validation of being a contributing member of society. https://charleshughsmith.substack.com/p/hikikomori-and-lying-flat-when-making
Cooperative Gardener (took this picture of Jenny with gathered tomatoes and onions)
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