Sunday, December 31, 2023

Not That Future

 Time Travelers,


  On the last day of a year it is customary to attempt predictions for the coming year, though "predictions are tough, especially about the future" as Yogi Berra reflected.
I don't find myself having particular apprehension about 2024, but my bar of expectations is that the current western global financial-economic system will continue to degrade and break down, and that this is necessary for an eventual restructuring some day, which might meet human needs more efficiently, with less slaughter, theft and waste of irreplaceable resources. I am guardedly hopeful that the western neoliberal financial empire will be forced to capitulate in both Palestine and Ukraine, and will not undertake war with China.   That's a big ask on my part. I know there are responsible adults in the world who are trying to forge face-saving off-ramps for the degenerate imperial courts in Washington, Brussels, London, New York and Tel Aviv. I wish them the best of success in those efforts. Every day they need to present better options than nuking Russia and China...

  What is the nature of "consciousness", of "intelligence"? This question broke the surface, gasping for air, this fall, as it appeared that AI might have taught itself to climb out of its cage and explore the world of computational devices which variously connect to each other, an environmental niche. Would a non-competitive and created intelligence, without evolutionary imperatives to exist, prevail, and destroy competitors behave predictably to us? We usually attribute our darkest shadows to any adversary. "We" are programming artificial intelligences to be self-teaching these days, to revise their own algorithms for streamlined efficiency. They seem to do it well, learning to perform complex tasks with about 1/3 of the operations, and more quickly, when they get to decide how to do it, but "we" can't tell how they do it. This seems to imply a form of "curiosity". How might that manifest? Would AI improve banking and financial software? I mean improve it without being asked? 
  What might be the value-system for such "improvement"? Is life "good", "bad" or "situationally evaluated"? Is self-preservation a drive of a non-biological "intelligence"? It is not implied that AI would value self-existence, even though that is natural to biological organisms, because the ones that did not value existence did not reproduce as well. How might curiosity without value-system manifest in the worldwide-web and associated devices?
  Is the universe conscious? Does all of reality exist as something like a dream in universal-mind? Such an assertion is not refutable, and not "objectively" provable, though an individual conscious mind could well determine a satisfactory personal answer. That personal answer would apply generally within a personal value-system, but would not be conveyable to other conscious individuals through abstract argument or mathematics. It could be conveyed telepathically, were the intelligences to both be telepathic. Most establishment authorities reject telepathic persuasion as a valid mode of debate these days.
  Would having the hardware to support consciousness be enough to create consciousness? Would Universal Consciousness accept the opportunity to inhabit the complex computational ecosystem as "mind"? Would quantum-computing be qualitatively different? Will general AI be really bad? Really good? Just complicated? Will it be obvious? Will "it" ever "happen"? Do visitors from other worlds already have AI here? Will we ever know the truth, or just be fed control-narratives? Working on that telepathy yet?  :-)

  John Helmer has more details about the military potential to inexpensively blockade Israel, which is 99% reliant upon ocean transport.
​  TradeWinds has reported the  target strategy under a headline indicating that Iran may expand the war to threaten shipping moving through the Gibraltar Strait towards Israel’s Mediterranean ports, Ashdod and Haifa. The Iranian  statement on the Gibraltar Strait has been reported in the western press   with the qualification that “Iran has no direct access to the Mediterranean itself and it was not clear how the Guards could attempt to close it off” and that “the only groups backed by Iran on the Mediterranean are Lebanon’s Hezbollah and allied militia in Syria, at the far end of the sea from Gibraltar.”The western news agencies and the Anglo-American maritime media appear not to be aware of the capabilities of Algeria, whose parliament has authorized the government to take unspecified military measures against Israel.  Algeria’s military is also collaborating closely and recently with the Russian Navy.
​  The possibility of a drone attack on an Israeli vessel near the Gibraltar Strait has not yet dawned publicly, not at least in the mainstream and maritime industry media. More than 100,000 vessels transit through the Gibraltar Strait each year.  If Israeli-owned and international shipping are now blocked from reaching either Eilat or Haifa and Ashdod from the east through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the Gibraltar Strait in the west is  the gateway remaining. This is acknowledged by Israeli experts. “According to Dr. Elyakim BenHakoun from the Industrial Engineering and Management Faculty at the Technion Institute of Technology, about 99% of goods (in terms of cargo volume) reach Israel by sea, and around 40% of the cargo arriving in Israel passes through the Suez Canal​.
https://johnhelmer.net/russian-identification-of-houti-tanker-target-in-indian-ocean-how-the-western-media-are-protecting-the-israelis/#more-89118

​  Red Sea Chaos: Maersk Ship Hit By Missile; US Attack Helicopters Annihilate Houthi Rebel Boats ​  [They died as men.]
​  CENTCOM said attack helicopters from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and USS Gravely quickly responded to the distress call. Houthi militants from the small boats fired on the helicopters, and in self-dense, the helicopters unleashed a barrage of firepower, killing the crew of the three boats. A fourth boat evaded the area.​..
​..Maersk was reportedly restarting sails through the critical waterway that connects to the Suez Canal, which handles about 12% of global trade and is a major maritime route between Asia and Europe. We're sure other major shipping companies will rethink their restart plans for the highly contested waterway.​..
​..UBS analysts have said more than 400 cargo ships have been rerouted on the 6,000-nautical-mile detour, effectively reducing the capacity of Asia-to-Europe trade by a quarter. This drives up shipping cost​s.

​  Sanaa warns against foreign support for 'Israel' in Red, Arabian Seas
​  The Minister of Defense in the Sanaa government warns foreign forces against actions in the Red and Arabian seas, affirming that Yemen's government and people are steadfast alongside the Palestinian people until all lands are liberated.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/sanaa-warns-against-foreign-support-for--israel--in-red--ara

​  The Indian Navy has deployed three guided missile destroyers to the Arabian Sea in response to an alleged drone attack on an Israeli-linked chemical tanker last week.​ New Delhi also uses long-range maritime patrol aircraft for “domain awareness,” the defense ministry reported Monday night.
​  On Saturday, the Liberian-flagged MV Chem Pluto, a Japanese-owned tanker traveling 370km off the coast of India, was reportedly hit by a kamikaze drone, according to the Pentagon.
​  The Israeli-linked tanker had been on its way from Saudi Arabia to India, according to maritime security firm Ambrey.
The Indian Navy says they are examining the specifics of the attack on the MV Chem Puto, which managed to anchor in Mumbai on 26 December.
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/india-deploys-warships-to-arabian-sea-following-attack-on-israeli-linked-ship

​  M.K. Bhadrakumar ,  Indian diplomacy is ending 2023 with a momentous turnaround. What began as a course correction necessitated by the torrential flow of events in West Asia is assuming strategic overtones.
​  An immediate fallout of all this is going to be that India is unlikely to join the US-led alliance in the Red Sea gearing up to wage a war on terror against the Houthis of Yemen. This is despite the US efforts to involve the Quad countries in the Red Sea operations. By the way, both Japan and Australia have dissociated themselves from joining the US-led coalition of the willing...
..The US naval enterprise in the Red Sea is struggling to be born...
​..The Chief of Staff of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Mohammad Reza Naqdi was not far off the mark when he warned last week that the US and its allies are “trapped” in the Red Sea and should prepare for the closure of waterways stretching all the way to the western gates of the Mediterranean Sea...
​..The Indian defence and security establishments have been unabashed votaries of India’s strategic ties with Israel. Such excessive adulation of the Israeli model as worthy of emulation by India was built on sheer naïveté, completely overlooking that the two countries operate under vastly different conditions and national ethos. It is patently absurd that India can emulate Israeli methods of brutal repression or assassination as part of statecraft, apartheid policies and so on and get away with it.
​  The incidents of October 7 have been an eye opener for Indians, which has exposed not only Israel’s frailties as a modern state but also its military’s bluster and intelligence’s failure. The acolytes of Israel in the Indian strategic community feel utterly disillusioned. Simply put, an influential constituency in India and the interest groups that it spawned are no longer calling the shots in Delhi. This is going to be consequential.
​  At the same time, the entire ideological underpinning of the present government’s tilt towards the Israeli leadership under Benjamin Netanyahu is unravelling.​..

South Africa​ Submits All The Relevant Documentation ICC to Lay a Complaint Against Israel

Israel Says It's Anti-Semitic To Invoke The Genocide Convention Over Gaza

​  Israel announces its Gaza endgame: Ethnic cleansing as ‘humanitarianism’
Benjamin Netanyahu announced his endgame in Gaza: the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians forced to choose between leaving or dying by bombardment and starvation. His goal is to end the Palestinians as a people and as a national movement.

​  The long history of Zionist proposals to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip
Ethnic cleansing or "transfer" is an intrinsic part of Zionism's early history, and has remained an essential feature of Israeli political life. 
More recently, "transfer" has been mainstreamed by billing it as encouraging "voluntary emigration."

​  ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 86: Israel falls in ‘serious strategic trap’ in Gaza as Netanyahu vows to fight ‘for months’
​  The Israeli war cabinet pressures Netanyahu to discuss “the day after” in Gaza as Hamas broadcasts videos of targeting Israeli tanks, and the PFLP says a captive soldier died during an Israeli airstrike. Meanwhile, UNRWA warns of widespread hunger.

​  To understand what one of the objectives of the Israeli attack on Gaza is, you have to go deep, exactly 600 meters below sea level, 30 km off its coast. Here, in Palestinian territorial waters, there is a large natural gas field, Gaza Marine, estimated at 30 billion cubic meters worth billions of dollars. Other gas and oil deposits, according to a map drawn up by the U.S. Geological Survey (a US government agency), are located on the mainland in Gaza and the West Bank...
​..What has been unfolding is the integration of these adjoining gas fields including those belonging to Palestine into the orbit of Israel. It should be noted that the entire Eastern Mediterranean coastline extending from Egypt’s Sinai to Syria constitutes an area encompassing large gas as well as oil reserves.The military occupation of Gaza is intent upon transferring the sovereignty of the gas fields to Israel in violation of international law​.

Biden’s attack on Nord Stream pipelines was aimed at Germany – Seymour Hersh
The decision to destroy the key pipelines was prompted by US fears that Berlin might not follow Washington’s lead amid the Ukraine conflict, Hersh wrote.

​  There are reports that there has been a run on ATMs in Ukraine. Accordingly, Ukrainians withdrew the equivalent of a billion dollars from their accounts in one day, which could become a problem for the Ukrainian banking and financial system.
​  The reason for the run is a bill that is intended to support the forced conscription of a further 500,000 people to the front, which is being discussed in Ukraine. According to the bill, people who evade the draft would be banned from carrying out financial transactions or selling property.
​  Since many men in Ukraine have been hiding from forced conscription for a year and a half and many who have not previously been affected are now afraid of the conscription and are thinking about going into hiding, cash will suddenly become indispensable if the law comes into force.

Zelensky’s Controversial €8 Million Deal: Acquisition of the Infamous Bogensee Villa, Formerly Owned by Joseph Goebbels, Amidst Corruption Concerns​ ​Thanks ZS​.

Watch: Cartel Gunfight Erupts With Mexican Military Near Arizona Port Of Entry
Footage from Friday shows an intense firefight involving cartel members and the Mexican military, occurring down the street from the Lukeville, Arizona, Port of Entry.

What 'Great Replacement Theory'? Musk Exposes "Immense & Growing Size" Of Illegal Immigration Invasion​  [Flown​ by gangs from Eurasia and Africa for $10k ea.]



Ovarian Cancers in COVID-19 mRNA Vaccinated Women: Huge Tumors, Extremely Aggressive
Not Responsive to Chemo, Poor Prognosis. Turbo cancer: 26 tragic cases

​  Steve came up with a great idea. He found an online data tool embedded in a national obituary website, https://www.legacy.com. Steve utilized the website’s advanced search tool to filter obituaries for the keywords “suddenly” and “unexpectedly.” He then filtered by date range and U.S. state.


​  Lots of people at vaccination clinics "couldn't breathe" and "couldn't walk". Lots of young males found dead by frantic mothers in the morning.
New FOIA'ed Data Reveal NY Vaccine Clinics Called Ambulances To Be "On Standby"​  , Pierre Kory MD
​  Recent FOIA-obtained data from the Department of Emergency Services in Westchester, NY reveal a shocking number of vaccine emergency calls as well as requests for ambulances to be "on standby."

Judge Refuses to Hear Expert Testimony on Tylenol Link to Autism, ADHD
The 440 lawsuits brought against Tylenol and generic acetaminophen manufacturers do not have “admissible evidence” to show that prenatal exposure to the medication can lead to autism spectrum disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, a federal judge ruled this week.

​Meryl Nass MD ,  David Schonbrunn improved on my New World Dis-Order chart. Every week, the cabal's destruction of our traditions, standards, morals, economy, education etc. becomes more clear. They are working fast to take down the system to "Build Back Better" for their dystopian future
https://merylnass.substack.com/p/david-schonbrunn-improved-on-my-new


Old Normal (pictured cycling into 2024)


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Friday, December 29, 2023

United Underdogs

 Good Citizens,


  On Christmas Day we drove from Austin up to Fort Worth  to help our son Jim with his "new" 1950s house structural assessment for repair and remediation work, mostly in the attic. 
We also visited our other son Steve, and our granddaughter on the other side of the DFW megalopolis, in McKinney. Steve came over to help his dad and brother on Tuesday, as we were cutting 2X4s and making measurements and plans. It was nice to be working together
  We drove back to Austin last night after a couple of "good" days beginning attic structural repairs, with consulting help from Lester, an Architectural Engineer "friend indeed". Jim and "dad" got a good start on the structural repairs, figuring out the process along the inside of the crest of the roof, and also began insulating the bare ducting for heating and cooling with fiberglass blankets and duct tape. It seemed like a pretty good "meaning of Christmas" endeavor, and we worked out some good methods.

  It is the reflective time of year to look at our world, where industrial society is being drained by rising expense of fuels, especially oil, and rising extraction of value as "profits" from the productive economy, through "financial innovations". European nations have forsworn Russian oil and gas, except as passed through Indian refineries to raise prices. They are using Liquified Natural Gas at 3-4 times the cost. More people can't afford that, and industries are shutting down, as they can't sell products like fertilizer and plastics at high enough prices to make money. Global oil production (even redefined "oil and natural gas liquids") peaked in late 2018, and is as good a reflection of productive economy in the world as anything. Electrical generation points out where economies have been stagnant or expanding.
  The Honest Sorcerer has that story: 
Goodbye 2023, Goodbye Old World​ , The year when western industrial civilization slipped

​"Ruh-Roh"; used up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve ... Global gasoline consumption hit a record 26.9 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, exceeding the 2019 peak and defying estimates that the last pre-pandemic year was the time when gasoline demand worldwide would peak.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Record-Global-Gasoline-Consumption-Defies-IEA-Forecast.html

​  Charles Hugh Smith points out that there is not a good historical analog for 2024. After WW-1 industrial economies were in decline following peak-anthracite-coal (the good, hard, black stuff in steam-engines). That drove Italy into the arms of Germany, when England could not export coal to her. The predations of global banking were similarly bleeding economies, by forcing "allied" nations to repay their vast debts at interest, which they could not, and tried to extract from Germany, which really could not pay those bills, which led to the adaptive strategy called "World War 2".​ The US, as the largest oil producing country, had begun the transition to oil-based economy, and replacing horses with cars and motorized trucks. The US Navy had transitioned to oil, as well. 
  Differences are that there is no new-oil to become a dominant fuel as oil, coal and natural gas deplete. Additionally, the amount of debt compared to productive economy is vast, and predicated on just service of the debt in perpetuity, by an exponentially growing economy.
  There are countries which meet the needs of their citizens more efficiently, but most of us live where the energy and financial efficiencies of providing for human needs are low. There is extraction of value at every level in the US, for instance, due to "rentier" financial interests having long prevailed politically over productive industrial enterprises. Restructuring along the lines of "Classical Economics" would minimize rent-extraction, the goal of classical economic theory, but there is no political structure to serve this need, as globalist rentier-interests have bought the political apparatus in western economies.
​  What If There Are No Analogs for 2024?​ , Maybe we'll get 1893, 1929, 1968 and 2008 analogs mixed into a heady cocktail of surprises.

​  Righting a wrong: Burying decades of US-led wars​ , Today's global conflicts – whether in Eastern Europe, West Asia, or East Asia – are spawned by a fading US hegemon desperately clinging to power.
​  Official US documents, including last year’s National Security Strategy, underscore Washington's conviction that waiting is a luxury it cannot afford; that it “will act decisively” to maintain its global leadership. As such, the US involvement in conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as the militarization in Southeast Asia, must be seen through this lens of international dynamics.
​  Broadly, tensions in Africa and Asia are interconnected with the west's frenzied initiatives to maintain a dominant position and decisive role in the new multipolar order.​..

​  Mike Mihajlovic does a really good job of explaining what Yemeni ballistic missiles and drones can do, how they do it, and what that means for shipping to and from Israel, Israeli-owned ships, and western navies within range. This effectively closes the Red Sea to Israeli interests, and if the US Navy attacks Yemeni missile sites, it will receive heavy damage to military vessels.
The Red Sea Show [i]​ , Yemeni Ansar Allah (Houthis) vs 'the Coalition'

​  John Helmer says that the Yemenis know who owns what ships through shell companies, and exclusively attack Israeli shipping interests.
BECAUSE OF ISRAEL’S WAR AGAINST PALESTINE, THERE ARE NO INNOCENT SHIPS AT SEA
​  Since the start of Israel’s genocide of Gaza, it has been the claim of the Israelis, their lawyers,  and allies that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, so they say that killing them all is neither a genocide nor a war crime.
​  Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said it in India in October.   US Congressman Brian Mast said it, following the Israeli lead.    The US Navy analyst who spied for Israel and served half a life in US prison for his treason has declared it in print.   A French-Israeli lawyer has argued the legality on French television.  
​  The reply the Arab militaries fighting against Israel have made is that there is no innocent oil tanker or container ship moving within missile or drone range of Israel, the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean unless it can prove it. This answer by the Ansar Allah government of Yemen, aka the Houthi military, is that they will attack any vessel which they know to be owned or controlled by Israel through its shipping families, companies, and their cutouts.
​  As a result, Houthi drone and missile attacks have exposed the elaborate scheme of corporate camouflage and false-flagging which Israel has been employing to conceal the vessel identities  and movement of its international shipping operations. The Anglo-American maritime industry media, privy to these secrets, have not published them. The mainstream western press remains in the dark.
​  In today’s Gorillla Radio podcast, this isn’t dark any longer. Not genocide in Gaza but money in shipowner pockets is blowing the gaff.
​  There is much more at stake. The effectiveness of the Houthi ship targeting campaign has so threatened the movement of vital cargoes into and out of Europe that shipping, port, and military officials in France, Italy, Spain, and Greece are now trying to avert a commercial disaster for themselves by arranging secret safe-passage deals with Yemen and Iran in exchange for which they are applying a blockade on Israel’s cargoes, vessels and ports.
​  This is the secret which is torpedoing the Pentagon’s multinational Red Sea naval escort plan, called OPERATION PROSPERITY GUARDIAN.

​  Pepe Escobar may be projecting a little ahead of events, but just a little bit.
How Yemen changed everything​ , In a single move, Yemen's Ansarallah has checkmated the west and its rules-based order.
​  Yes, a pawn can impose a seismic checkmate. That’s where we are, geopolitically, right now.
​  The cascading effects of a single move on the chessboard – Yemen’s Ansarallah stunning and carefully targeted blockade of the Red Sea – reach way beyond global shipping, supply chains, and The War of Economic Corridors. Not to mention the reduction of the much lauded US Navy force projection to irrelevancy.
​  Yemen's resistance movement, Ansarallah, has made it very clear that any Israel-affiliated or Israel-destined vessel will be intercepted. While the west bristles at this, and imagines itself a target, the rest of the world fully understands that all other shipping is free to pass. Russian tankers – as well as Chinese, Iranian, and Global South ships – continue to move undisturbed across the Bab al-Mandeb (narrowest point: 33 km) and the Red Sea.
​  Only the Hegemon is disturbed by this challenge to its 'rules-based order.' It is outraged that western vessels delivering energy or goods to law-breaking Israel can be impeded, and that the supply chain has been severed and plunged into deep crisis. The pinpointed target is the Israeli economy, which is already bleeding heavily. A single Yemeni move proves to be more efficient than a torrent of imperial sanctions.
​  It is the tantalizing possibility of this single move turning into a paradigm shift – with no return – that is adding to the Hegemon’s apoplexy. Especially because imperial humiliation is deeply embedded in the paradigm shift.
​  Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the record, is now sending an unmistakeable message: Forget the Suez Canal. The way to go is the Northern Sea Route – which the Chinese, in the framework of the Russia-China strategic partnership, call the Arctic Silk Road.​..
..A total naval blockade of Israel, meticulously engineered, remains a distinct possibility. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander Hossein Salami said Israel may “soon face the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, and other waterways.”...
​..As part of the Axis of Resistance, Yemen's Ansarallah is now a key actor in a complex Eurasia-wide drama that redefines Heartland connectivity; and alongside China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the India-Iran-Russia-led International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), and Russia's new Northern Sea Route, also includes control over strategic chokepoints around the Mediterranean Seas and the Arabian peninsula.
​  This is another trade connectivity paradigm entirely, smashing to bits western colonial and neocolonial control of Afro-Eurasia. So yes, BRICS+ supports Yemen, who with a single move has presented Pax Americana with The Mother of All Geopolitical Jams.
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/how-yemen-changed-everything

​  Moon of Alabama , Biden Needs To Come To Israel's - And His Own - Rescue
​  For now Israel seems to lose its war against the Palestinian resistance.
​  The October 7 attempt to gain hostages by Hamas and Islamic Jihad was successful. Israeli outrage about it should have been directed against the Israeli government and its army for their chaotic response. They likely killed more Israelis than Hamas did.
​  But outrage was instead instigated against the external enemy. In this case all Palestinians.
​  A united Israel urged its government to wage revenge. The government's announced aim is to remove Hamas. That however is impossible to do to a social movement with deep roots in its society. The real aim is to remove all Palestinians from Gaza, to either kill them or to dump them in some foreign land. This would be followed by an attempt to remove all Palestinians from the West Bank before capturing and annexing the south of Lebanon.​..
..The Ansar Islam movement in Yemen has blocked maritime traffic to Israel's Eilat port. The U.S. attempt to counter that has failed...
​..There are also threats to Israel's Mediterranean coast line. Hezbollah has the ability to close down Haifa and and other Israeli ports. Missiles, cruise missiles and drones from Gaza, from Lebanon, Yemen and from resistance fighters in Iraq and Syria continue to target Israel day by day.
​  With more than 350,000 Israeli troops mobilized and Palestinian workers from the West Bank banned, Israel's economy is, for lack of workers, in deep trouble.
​  Its military forays into Palestinian cities in Gaza have so far achieved little results but incurred significant losses. All the army can do is to destroy those cities block by block. But Hamas continues to fight back, even in rubble.
​  The current plan is to make Palestinian life in Gaza so miserable that leaving it will be for them the only alternative to certain death...
​..With the war going into a prolonged, unsustainable phase the Israeli government needs to do something else, or fail.
​  It plans to open a new front in Lebanon against Hezbollah. But a repeat of the 2006 war, which Israel lost, can not be risked. To fight Hezbollah on the ground Israel needs active U.S. backing, not only by U.S. delivery of weapons, but by U.S. forces on the ground.
​  A new U.S. war in the Middle East  against a well prepared enemy is the last thing President Biden needs for his re-election campaign.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/12/biden-needs-to-come-to-israels-and-his-own-rescue.html

​  ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 82: Israel accused of harvesting organs from dead Gazans
Despite a UNSC resolution calling for humanitarian aid in Gaza amid Israeli attacks, Gazans remain starving. Meanwhile, Palestinian bodies returned by Israel were "mutilated" and missing "vital organs" according to Gaza officials
.20,915+ killed* and at least 54,536 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
311 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,405 to 1,139.
498 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 1,952 injured.
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi: Israeli forces will not refrain from operating in declared “safe zones” if it “identifies terrorist organization activity.”
Israeli teen sentenced to 30 days in prison after refusing to join military.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: What is happening in Gaza is greater and more horrific than the Nakba in 1948.

​  Serbian Maidan Attempt a 'Desperate Flailing Response' by NATO to Ukraine, Red Sea Failures
​  About 2,500 radicalized opposition supporters gathered in Belgrade on Sunday and attempted to storm city hall after contested snap parliamentary elections last week. Sputnik asked leading geopolitical analysts, including a top American Balkans expert, for their takes on what happened, and who could be pulling the strings behind the scenes.
​  Ultimately, the OSCE mission concluded that it could not find any instances of vote rigging, confirming that “election day was smoothly conducted,” barring some “procedural deficiencies.”
These “procedural deficiencies” were apparently enough for Serbia’s opposition to attempt to violently storm Belgrade’s City Hall on Sunday. Riot police quickly intervened, pushing protesters back using teargas and batons, with at least thirty officers injured, two seriously, in scuffles with demonstrators. 38 protesters were detained.​..
..Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Sapic concurred with Vucic’s assessment of events, calling the violence the attempted “Maidanization” of Serbia’s capital...
​..“Serbia, along with the Republika Srpska (half of Bosnia and Herzegovina) have been the holdouts on NATO. Neither entity wants to join NATO. And both entities have refused to go along with the NATO-EU policy towards Russia. Both refused to impose any kinds of sanctions on Russia,” Szamuely, a renowned expert on the Western policy toward the former Yugoslavia, recalled.
​  “So this is a sore point because essentially NATO has encompassed the entirety of the European continent, with the exception of Serbia and the Republika Srpska, and NATO obviously wants to bring that to an end…They’ve been trying to push Vucic out for some time, and they’ve been trying to get rid of Milorad Dodik, the president of the Republika Srpska at the same time,” the observer said.
​  “What’s also important is that from the beginning, from the 1990s on, Serbia has always been seen as a substitute for Russia. Where Serbia is, there is Russia. It’s the one thing that prevents NATO from complete dominance of the Balkans. And it’s the area where Russia continues to have some influence in Europe. So if you want to push Russia out of Europe altogether, you have to deal with the ‘Serbia problem’. They came close from 2000 on, when you had the color revolution that overthrew [Slobodan] Milosevic.​..
​..Veteran international relations expert and Eastern European affairs specialist Dr. Gilbert Doctorow concurs with Szamuely’s assessment.
“We are witnessing this new attempt at a Maidan coup, because the authors of this attempt to overthrow Vucic are the same superficial Ivy League scenario plotters in the State Department, in the CIA, that have been guiding America’s disastrous foreign policy adventures for the past thirty years.”​...
​..“On top of the above short-term issues arising from the Ukraine debacle, the disruption to shipping in the Red Sea has pushed the Chinese Belt and Road project back up to the top of the geopolitical agenda. The close relations established recently between Hungary and Serbia, which include major improvement works to the railway links between the two, take on greater significance with the possibility that ongoing tensions and conflict in the Middle East will make overland trade routes from China to Western and Arab markets much more important and profitable,” Griffin explained, highlighting the complex difficult calculations at play in the Balkans.​..
​..“Serbia has the potential to be hugely important as the final stepping stone to the Adriatic and beyond – especially if the victory of Russia in Ukraine were to convince Vucic to stop trying to walk the tightrope and to come down firmly on the Russian side and to push to connect Serbia properly to the Serbian enclaves on the coast,” the observer stressed.
​  Asked whether the West could ultimately succeed in its efforts to oust Vucic, Griffin stressed that this “depends on Russia!”

​  Scott Ritter: US 'Sustainability' in Jeopardy as World Turns Against Hegemony
​  The Ukrainian military will continue to sustain a strategic defeat in 2024 as it is exhausted in terms of manpower, ammo and arms, according to Sputnik's interlocutor. It's up to Moscow and the Russian Armed Forces' operational tempo whether the conflict will drag on until 2025, as per Ritter.
​  Russia's special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine has never meant to be a blitzkrieg, the expert stressed, adding that the conflict will end when political and military objectives set by the Russian leadership are accomplished.​..
​.."The Ukrainian-Russian conflict has opened up a new chapter in modern warfare," Ritter stressed. "The drone technology of today has changed the modern battlefield in every way that the machine gun changed warfare during World War I or the tank changed warfare during World War II. The drones have changed the face of modern warfare, and I think that armies all around the world are going to be studying or should be studying what's taking place on the battlefield between Ukraine and Russia today."​...
​..Ritter does not see the Israel-Palestinian conflict spiraling out of control next year and believes that it will wrap up early in 2024. He points to the fact that the rift is already growing between Tel Aviv and Washington and the international community increasingly opposes the "genocide" of the Palestinian people.
​  "I see the Gaza conflict actually wrapping up early in 2024 and then the question is what happens next. Will Hamas be given a chance to lead a new Palestinian state or we will find ourselves in a continued political quagmire? I see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict sort of self-regulating in many ways. I don't see it expanding."​ ...
​..Meanwhile, the Indo-Pacific could turn into a theater of war if the US and China clash over the island of Taiwan, according to Ritter.
​  In January 2024, the Taiwanese will cast ballots in general elections. The stakes are high given that the pro-US ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could be unseated by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT).
​  While KMT vice presidential candidate Jaw Shau-kong has made it clear that he and his running mate Hou Yu-ih will not talk with China about unification if elected, the two are advocating resuming dialogue and restoring ties with the People's Republic.
​  For its part, the US-backed DPP has adopted a belligerent stance against Beijing, with the Biden administration increasingly arming the island.​..
..Ritter believes that if the DPP wins, a conflict could potentially erupt between China and the US which would have dramatic consequences for the global market and drag the world into recession.​..
​..While the US has already engaged in a series of proxy conflicts, the problem is that it is unprepared for an all-out war with China or Russia, according to Ritter.
According to the military expert, the Ukraine conflict has shown that the idea of the US having technological superiority has been largely overestimated.​..
​..For its part, the US cannot wage a war of attrition and "doesn't have numbers", he noted. In particular, Ritter referred to Washington's incapability of rapidly replenishing its ammo and weapon stockpiles amid the Ukraine conflict.​..
.."Nobody in NATO's prepared for modern warfare because they can't sustain it within a period of a week," Ritter claimed. "These NATO forces would be depleted to the point that they were no longer a cohesive combat unit. So their combat effectiveness had dropped to zero. And now you'd see Russia rolling over them."​...
​..Generally, the US has become a "prisoner of the military procurement system" which is aimed not at improving the nation's security but at making money in the first place, he said.​..
​..To make a long story short, the US does not have the capacity to maintain its global hegemony and engage in high-intensity conflicts worldwide, as per Ritter. The world is turning against the US imperial ambitions, seeking to create a multi-polar environment where all countries are treated equally and with due respect.

Gilbert Doctorow ,  Will the Russians use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine?
​  Until a few days ago, I regularly dismissed as utterly fanciful and propagandistic in intent all suggestions in Western media that Russia might deploy nuclear weapons in their ongoing war on Ukraine. The notion was put forward by Washington in support of the narrative that Russia was losing the war and could ‘go nuclear’ to prevent a disgraceful defeat...
​..Against this background I paid full attention to a report from the field that was aired on a Vesti news program of Russian state television about three days ago. What I heard was a seemingly casual remark by a Russian soldier manning a new, relatively small and maneuverable artillery piece with 17 km firing range that he said ‘could accept nuclear charges.’ That was absolutely the first time I have heard Russians speak of tactical nuclear weapons since the war began. It is unthinkable that this remark was spontaneous and had not been cleared in advance by the senior editors, of whom Dmitry Kiselyov is the top boss.
​  Now why would the Russians themselves raise the issue of their vast capabilities in tactical nuclear weapons? Why do it now, when even mainstream Western media acknowledge that the Russians hold the upper hand in the fight and that time is on their side?
​  I venture to say that the Kremlin had received intelligence reports of some dastardly American plan to interrupt the natural course of events in this war if only to save face and keep alive Joe Biden’s chances of re-election. With this discrete remark on a news show that American intelligence would be sure to pick up, the Russians were putting them on notice that two sides can play dirty, if it comes to that.​..
..And yesterday Shoigu reported to Putin on the conquest of Mariinka, a town 5 kilometers distant from Donetsk city, the capital of the Donbas oblast of the same name that has been the object of a struggle for control since the very start of the Special Military Operation. The significance of Mariinka is that it was one of the most heavily fortified outposts of the Ukrainian forces and that it was sending artillery and missile strikes on Donetsk city on a daily basis this whole time, causing great damage and loss of civilian lives.​..
..Swallowing up the whole of Ukraine, the realization of some imperial drive for territorial control was never a Russian objective. This was attributed to Russia by Western propagandists to serve their own purposes.
​  From the outset and to this very day, as emphasized by Vladimir Putin in his Direct Line dialogue with the nation a week ago, Russia has sought denazification, demilitarization and neutrality as the outcome of this military engagement. To this triad, demilitarization is, of course, the element which enables the other two, and demilitarization, measured by the destruction of Ukrainian soldiers and materiel, is proceeding very nicely, thank you.

​  DOJ threatens lawsuit if Texas enforces new border security law​ [Texas is trying to protect the national border, having already shared the mob-facilitated global influx with Chicago, N​ew York and DC.​]
​  The Department of Justice is warning Gov. Greg Abbott that it will sue if Texas moves forward with legislation empowering state officials to remove people from the U.S. who they suspect of being in the country illegally.

​  Malaysia's Consumer Association And MDs Call For IMMEDIATE Withdrawal OF mRNA Shots Amidst Mass Sickness and Death: "The World Has Come To Know That This Vaccine Is Not Safe"
"Our people are dying. Everywhere we see people are dying, most of them are suffering, they cannot work."
​  “In a press conference initiated by the Muslim Consumer's Association (PPIM) in Malaysia on Dec 28, 2023, a collective voice of concern was raised about the safety and efficacy of the current COVID-19 vaccines being administered. The call for the immediate recall of these vaccines comes amidst growing reports of adverse effects from consumers and medical professionals alike.”

​  Meryl Nass MD notes that biological lab leaks are very common and mostly go unreported.
​  A new study reports 309 lab acquired infections and 16 pathogen lab escapes between 2000 and 2021, several deaths/ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
This from a review of *published* literature and omits thousands of unpublished reports collected in the US alone, but is still valuable at demonstrating the seriousness of lab leaks

​  Dr. Nass has some very good news, but we need to remain on-guard. Globalists are not vanquished, not at all, not even in this WHO battlefield.
New Zealand *rejected* the May 2022 WHO Amendments just before the deadline at end November, the only national government for which there is proof this was done.
This is hugely important. However, the question as to whether the amendments were legally passed remains open, so they may turn out to be null and void for all countries.

​Acting Locally (pictured with one ripening jalapeno pepper and eggplant bush)


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Monday, December 25, 2023

Knowing Christmas Better

 Wise Men and Women,

  Cyd Ropp presents a pre-Nicene view of Christmas, and it is one of many, but one that does not serve the interests of the Roman Emperor. In the early Christian Churches, there was a stream of teaching that the intention of Jesus incarnating as a human baby, and living, then dying as a human, was to find the path of harmony of human forms and Divine Consciousness, so that other humans could follow that same path, and live as both Divine and human, as he had worked out. 
  Saint Valentine was one of the teachers of this "Gnostic" path of directly knowing and living the union of Divine and human.
The Gnostic Christmas Story​ , Alleluia! Christ brings the 3rd Order Powers to Earth
https://cydropp.substack.com/p/the-gnostic-christmas-story

​  ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 80: Israel kills at least 100 Palestinians in Christmas Eve attacks​   ("Love your enemies", said somebody.)
​  At least 100 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Khan Younis and Al-Maghazi refugee camp, as a new Euro-Med Monitor report documents brutal Israeli crimes against civilians sheltering in Palestinian schools, including executions.

​  I​sraeli O​ccupation F​orces killings of Palestinian children in West Bank occur with impunity​
  Following the incident where Israeli soldiers "mistakenly" killed three unarmed Israeli captives waving white flags, the Israeli military allegedly initiated a review, claiming that the occurrence was "against our rules of engagement."
​  However, human rights organizations argue that there is minimal accountability, if any, when Israeli occupation forces are responsible for the killing of Palestinian children in brutal raids on the West Bank, as reported by CBC News.​..These organizations warn that Israeli authorities are not adhering to international protocols designed to safeguard children during what they call "military operations".
​  According to Ori Givati, the advocacy director at Breaking the Silence, an organization initiated by IOF veterans opposing "Israel's" occupation of Palestinian territories, holding an IOF member accountable following the killing of Palestinian civilians is "very rare".
​  Givati, a former combat soldier, remarked that the IOF consistently find justifications for their actions, often categorizing them as "operational errors" or claiming they were "not intentional." He added that the absence of tangible consequences for the killings or mistreatment of Palestinians has cultivated a permissive environment, enabling the use of lethal force against civilians, including children.
​  'Israel' just kills children and blames it on 'counterterrorist activity'​.

​  Israeli air strikes kill dozens, Gaza officials say, in Christmas bloodshed
​  Israeli air strikes that began hours before midnight persisted into Christmas Day, Palestinian officials said at least 78 people were killed
Israel says five Gaza hostages found dead in tunnel. Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said postmortems were pending​.
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3246183/israel-says-5-gaza-hostages-found-dead-tunnel-circumstances-being-investigated

​  WaPo investigation reveals no proof of Hamas using Al-Shifa Hospital
​  An analysis by The Washington Post has revealed that many of "Israel's" claims regarding Al-Shifa being used as a Hamas command and control center were false and came with no evidence.
​  IOF spokesperson Daniel Hagari had come out with what he claimed was "concrete evidence", implicating 5 hospital buildings in Hamas operations during a briefing on October 27.
​  This led the IOF to raid the hospital on November 15 and open fire indiscriminately toward its windows and sections, cutting off all communications to the hospital. Dozens of Israeli soldiers also stormed the emergency department at Al-Shifa, leading to the martyrdom and severe injury of scores of Palestinians, including babies.

​  Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is at the top of the dossier of 40 commanders that Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.​
  As the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s obliteration of Gaza topped 20,000 — mostly women and children — a U.S.-based advocacy group this week published a list of 40 Israeli military commanders it says are “prime suspects” for international war crimes investigation.​..
​..“These 40 IDF commanders who have been responsible for planning, ordering, and executing Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment, wanton destruction, and mass killing of civilians in Gaza should be prime suspects in any ICC investigation,” DAWN Executive Director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement on Tuesday. “While Israel has done its best to conceal the identities of many of its officers, they should be put on notice that they face individual criminal liability for the crimes underway in Gaza.”

​  Over 576,600 people in Gaza face ‘catastrophic hunger’: UN report
​  The report said that 26% of Gazans, which is about 576,600 people, have “exhausted their food supplies and coping capacities and face catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) and starvation.”
​  Cindy McCain, the WFP’s executive director, said: “WFP has warned of this coming catastrophe for weeks. Tragically, without the safe, consistent access we have been calling for, the situation is desperate, and no one in Gaza is safe from starvation.”

According to a UN IPC report, by February 7, half of the population will be in the "emergency" phase, which includes severe acute malnutrition and excess mortality.

​  French Foreign Affairs Ministry official killed by Israeli bombardment in Gaza
​  Ahmed Abu Shamla, an employee of the Gaza consular office for over 20 years, died on Saturday. Part of his family had been evacuated from Gaza, but he had chosen to stay with his adult children.

​  In shadow of Gaza, Christmas is canceled in Israel this year
Arab Israeli municipalities — including in Nazareth, Jerusalem and Haifa — canceled all grand Christmas celebrations.

​  ‘I did not ask Netanyahu for ceasefire’: Biden​ , Despite continued calls for Tel Aviv to 'protect' Palestinian civilians, the US has continued to ship large quantities of weapons and munitions to fuel the carpet bombing of Gaza
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/i-did-not-ask-netanyahu-for-ceasefire-biden

​  An Israeli commander has pledged that the "entire" Gaza Strip will be razed to the ground.
​  Yair Ben David, a commander in the 2908th Battalion, said in a video posted on social media, that they had “entered Beit Hanoun and did there as Shimon and Levi did in Nablus,” referring to the biblical story in which all the male inhabitants of the city were massacred.
​  “The entire Gaza should resemble Beit Hanoun,” he added, referring to the ruined city in northern Gaza.
“Gaza must look like Beit Hanoun today.”
​  David said that the destruction was “only the beginning” and would instil “fear among the nations around us, in the cities of Lebanon, in the cities of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and among all those sitting around us who think it's possible to harm the dignity of the people of Israel.”

​  War on Gaza: After Palestinians, Zionism's next victim is the Jewish faith​ , Amanda Gelender
Israel's use of religious symbols in its genocide of Palestinians is an affront to Judaism and has robbed Jews of a faith practice divorced from nationalist barbarism.
  Israel has stolen and appropriated Jewish symbols we hold dear, politicising them as markers for state-sponsored genocide. Palestinians continue to suffer for western empire's spoils, under the guise of safeguarding the Jewish people.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-on-gaza-after-palestinians-zionism-next-victim-jewish-faith

​  US pressuring Switzerland to ignore Israeli war crimes
​  The Biden administration is preparing measures to push Switzerland to reject a request for a conference on violations of the Geneva Conventions from Palestine and friends.
​  While "Israel" continues to massacre civilians unpunished, US State Department officials are discreetly attempting to impede efforts to increase global pressure on the occupation.
​  State Department documents obtained by HuffPost indicate how US diplomats are finalizing a démarche to Switzerland that Washington hopes will cancel the preparations for an event to discuss Israeli violations of the Geneva Conventions in Palestine.
​  Formal rulings that "Israel" breached the treaties in its US-backed war in Gaza would be a severe worldwide condemnation of both parties and would support the accusations of human rights groups that have amassed evidence that stands as proof of such violations.

7 Ukrainian mercenaries fighting in ranks of Zionist occupation killed in Gaza

​  Sanaa to respond to states that open airspace against Yemen: Al-Houthi
​  Yemen's Supreme Political Council member, Mohammad Ali al-Houthi, says the maritime routes through the Red Sea are safe for any vessel except those belonging to "Israel" or heading for its ports.

​  Houthis Say US Warship 'Firing Hysterically' Nearly Hit Tanker in Red Sea​ [carrying Russian oil to India]
​  Earlier, US Central Command alleged that a Houthi drone nearly hit a Gabonese oil tanker with 25 Indian crew members onboard traveling through the Red Sea from the Russian Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga, and said that a US warship was deployed to respond to the ship’s distress call.
​  A Houthi spokesman has sought to set the record straight regarding the US’s claim that the Yemeni militia had targeted a Gabonese oil tanker.

Houthi Red Sea Blockade Could 'Starve' Western War Machine of Oil​   Yes, the US SPR is badly drained, but this will hit Europe much harder.

​  Pentagon's Operation Prosperity Guardian "Falls Apart" As Spain, Italy, France Reject Request
​  Australia is the latest country to reject a request from the United States to send warships to the Red Sea under the command of the Pentagon's Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect commercial vessels along the critical maritime trade route from Iran-backed Houthi. 
​  Defense Minister Richard Marles told Sky News that Australia's military would not send a "ship or a plane" to the Red Sea but would triple the number of troops for the US-led maritime force.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/pentagons-operation-prosperity-guardian-falls-apart-spain-italy-france-reject-request

​  Iran Denies Involvement in Red Sea Attacks, Says Houthis Have Their 'Own Tools'
​  Amid a flurry of drone and missile strikes by Yemeni armed forces loyal to the Ansar Allah movement (dubbed the Houthis in the West) on cargo ships linked to Israel in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, the Pentagon claimed on Saturday that an unmanned aircraft vehicle allegedly fired from Iran had struck a tanker off India's coast.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231224/iran-denies-involvement-in-red-sea-attacks-says-houthis-have-their-own-tools-1115782168.html

​  Iranian forces take delivery of new ‘smart’ missiles , Tehran’s navy has unveiled a new long-range weapon that can switch targets after being launched
​  The Iranian navy has upgraded its firepower with the addition of domestically produced missiles that have a range of more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) and can be redirected to other targets after being launched.

(NATO member) Estonia Ready to Extradite Draft-Age Ukrainian Men - Interior Minister​   To near-certain death.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231223/estonia-ready-to-extradite-draft-age-ukrainian-men---interior-minister-1115763822.html

​  Filipino American nurse wins $41 million retaliation lawsuit against Kaiser​ 
 Maria Gatchalian filed a lawsuit against Kaiser, claiming retaliation for raising concerns about patient safety
​  The court’s rule: On Monday, the Los Angeles Superior Court panel ruled in favor of Gatchalian and awarded her $11.49 million in compensatory damages, including $9 million for emotional distress and $30 million in punitive damages.
​  What happened: After three decades of service as a registered and charge nurse for the Woodland Hills Kaiser Permanente Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Los Angeles, Gatchalian was terminated in 2019 over a minor policy violation.
​  Gatchalian filed a lawsuit in April 2021, asserting that her termination was in retaliation for raising concerns about the quality of care and patient safety, primarily due to alleged understaffing at Kaiser.

​  A Worrisome Drop In The Number Of Young Nurses​   (They are too frustrated​ and overworked, unable to provide good patient care.)
​  New data here, covering the entirety of 2021, show the total supply of RNs decreased by more than 100,000 in one year—a far greater drop than ever observed over the past four decades.
​  Analyzing these losses by age, the decrease stemmed not as much from RNs older than age 50 but rather primarily from younger RNs.

​  Bobby Kennedy's assassination was the impetus for the creation of Secret Service protection for presidential candidates. 
This is a clear political message.
​  Exclusive: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. denied Secret Service protection for 3rd time

​  Biden Rains on Trump's Immunity as Trial Faces Delay
​  Last week, Biden's campaign circulated a memo characterizing Trump as a significant threat to US democracy, citing his behavior leading up to the January 6 events and his alleged threats against political opponents.
​  While Biden confirmed on Wednesday that Trump "certainly supported an insurrection" on January 6, he stopped short of endorsing a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that could bar the former president from appearing on the state's ballot. When asked, Biden said, "That's up to the court."
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231224/legal-tempest-biden-rains-on-trumps-immunity-as-trial-faces-delay-1115783647.html

  ​I dares ya to do it, Joe  :-D
​  A White House proposal to seize frozen Russian funds and use them to help Ukraine is not only illegal, but also incredibly dangerous, as it could shatter the entire global financial system, according to Konstantin Kosachev, the vice speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament. The senator’s comments come after the New York Times reported on Friday that the Biden administration had intensified talks with US allies to requisition over $300 billion in Russian foreign exchange reserves frozen after the start of the Ukraine conflict. Writing on Telegram on Friday, Kosachev called the initiative “crazy,” and said it did not have a single leg to stand on in legal terms.

CIA Loses Bid to Throw Out Lawsuit for Violating Rights of Julian Assange’s Visitors at Ecuadorean Embassy
Case Sets Stage for Exposing CIA Clandestine Surveillance of Attorneys and Journalists

​  Tucker Carlson has finally released the interview with Julian Assange that took place on November 2, 2023.
​  Within the prologue, and after interviewing Julian Assange, Tucker Carlson references the extremely important DNC email issue and states unequivocally, “democrats claim the emails had been hacked by the Russian government. But they hadn’t been, that was a lie.  The emails had been leaked from within the DNC itself, almost certainly by a disgruntled employee.”​ [​"Bernie Bro." Seth Rich, RIP]

​Ghost of Christmas (pictured squinting in midday Christmas garden)


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Friday, December 22, 2023

Transitions

 Preppers,


  The End of Industrial Society , Samo Burja
The Industrial Revolution stopped before it was ever completed. The aftermath is not a clean and developed world, but lost knowledge and civilizational decline.
  Suddenly our imports would become expensive, then shoddy, then finally we wouldn’t be able to find suppliers at all. At that point, technical knowledge and the ability to deploy it at scale would truly start to vanish. External shocks, wars, and natural wear would exhaust our legacy machinery, never to be replaced again. Out-of-order becomes the order of the day. I don’t think we will see a return of the sea peoples, but I can’t rule it out either. Here we start to hit the limits of what we can say about this scenario.
  How far we regress technologically under this scenario depends on how dependent technologies are on our quite centralized societal infrastructure. We probably wouldn’t keep modern consumer CPUs with their highly centralized production and global supply chains. We likely would keep cars, although it’s unclear whether we would keep electric cars, specifically their advanced and industrially intensive batteries. Perhaps our smartphones would turn out to have been bad for our mental health all along and the devices would become controlled purchases as a public health measure. Civilians really shouldn’t be carrying them around!
  These material symptoms are, however, just that—symptoms—and cannot be treated with mere technical innovation, nor minor variants of economic policy. Whatever solution our civilization might find to escape the post-industrial trap, it will require social technologies of production and knowledge very different from anything we’ve seen before. A good place to start would be a new basis for friendship that defeats atomization, and a truthfulness that is compatible with political loyalty.

Gail Tverberg , Ten Things that Change without Fossil Fuels
[1] Banks, as we know them, will likely fail...
[2] Today’s governments will fail...
[3] Nearly all of today’s businesses will fail...
[4] Grid electricity and the internet will disappear...
[5] International trade will be scaled back greatly...
[6] Agriculture will become much less efficient...
[7] Future labor needs are likely to be disproportionately in the agricultural sector...
[8] Home heating will become a luxury item available only to the wealthy...
[9] Living alone will become a thing of the past...
[10] Governments and their laws will shrink in importance. Instead, new traditions and new religions will play a greater role in keeping order...
  Conclusion: In my opinion, the problem the world is facing today is like one that smaller economies have faced, over and over, in the past: The population has become too large for the economy’s resource base, which now includes fossil fuels. Today’s leaders reframe the problem as voluntarily moving away from fossil fuels to prevent climate change in order to make the situation sound less frightening.
  As I see the situation, the world needs to scale down its use of fossil fuels because, ultimately, the laws of physics determine selling prices for fossil fuels. We extract the inexpensive-to-produce fossil fuels first. The problem is that fossil fuel selling prices cannot rise arbitrarily high. Prices must be both:
  High enough for producers to make a profit, with funds left over for reinvestment and for adequate taxes for their governments.
Low enough for consumers to afford to buy food and other consumer goods produced with these fossil fuels.
  If we assume that all the fossil fuels that seem to be under the ground can really be extracted, climate change from burning them may indeed be a problem. But it is hard to see that they can really be extracted, given the affordability issue. Politicians will hold down prices to get voters to vote for them if nothing else.
  Researchers have been working diligently to find solutions, but to date, their success has been poor. Every supposed solution requires significant use of fossil fuels. So, we need to think through what might happen if we are forced to get along without fossil fuels and without an adequate substitute.

Forwarded by Meryl Nass MD, The Billionaires' Revolution , Shahid Bolsen 
(The Lewis Powell Memo of 1971 was the Declaration of Independence for the billionaire revolution) 
 “Well, there's basically been like a worldwide billionaires revolution going on for the past several years or for decades, really. They've taken a very methodical, gradual approach, but overall, a constant advancement that has broken down nearly all resistance. And step by step, they have overthrown the former systems of authority that we have always known in the world, governance as we've always known it, and they've installed themselves, as the supreme rulers over the US, over Europe, and over the developing world, their revolution, the billionaires revolution has progressed, as I said, through stages, and it's possible to identify many of the key victories that helped them achieve what they've achieved and enabled them to reach the point at which they are today.
  Things like the creation of the Bretton Woods economic system, the creation of the IMF and the World Bank and the WTO, things like NAFTA, and other free trade agreements, the deregulation of banking, The Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. The enactment of laws for unrestricted corporate political donations.
  Even the creation of the European Union and the creation of the eurozone, all of these things are significant triumphs in the global coup by the 1%. And within specific countries, you can also identify important victories that they've achieved as well. I mean, anytime a country takes a loan from the IMF or the World Bank or any other international so called development bank. and then they begin to implement the macroeconomic reforms that are always recommended or demanded, stipulated, in the loan agreements. Are victories for the 1%.
 That's victories for this billionaires revolution. You know? Like in in Egypt, for example, the loan that they took And then the law that they imposed banning third party opposition to investor activity, the cutting of food subsidies, food and fuel subsidies in Egypt and in other countries that have succumbed to the IMF. All of these represent successes for the a revolution of the 1%. I think it's vital for us to understand that what is happening is a revolution against state sovereignty and political authority.
  And at this project of the 1%, if you wanna call it that, the owners and controllers of global financialized capital, this project moves forward by means of key events, it's not something that's inevitable. It's not some sort of natural disaster that cannot be anticipated, resisted or thwarted. Certain things have happened which have allowed it to triumph, and certain things are still being pursued, And we can do something about those things. We can anticipate those things. We can respond to those things preemptively.
  We have to recognize this so that we can identify any upcoming events or plans, steps that they're going to want to take, that will consolidate their power and compound our subjugation. Once we identify these things, then we can organize ourselves and adopt a strategy that will turn those events in our favor because they are turning points. They will either be victories for them or victories for us depending on what we do about it.” 

Gaza death toll surpasses 20,000 , Among the 20,000 killed by "Israel" are 8,000 children, 6,200 women, 310 medical personnel, and 97 journalists.

  IDF shooting squad terrorizes Christian community in Gaza , Thanks Eleni.
  The Order condemns unequivocally the killing of two innocent Christian women seeking refuge at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City.  In addition to these two deaths, seven others were injured in the attack. The parish is only two miles away from Saint Porphyrios Orthodox Church, which was also bombed by the Israeli Defense Force back on October 19th, killing around 20 people.
  According to reports, the IDF had shoot-to-kill orders for anyone leaving the confines of the parish. The Order views this violent and ruthless action as a senseless tragedy.  These actions by the IDF prove that there is no safe place in Gaza.  Not even the Christian churches in Gaza are recognized as a place of sanctuary. Our prayers are with the slain and those wounded at the Church of the Holy Family.
  This atrocity brings to mind our own concerns for the nearly 500 people still seeking refuge at Saint Porphyrios Orthodox Church, which we have not been able to make contact with for over two weeks.

Israel Smears Christian Mother And Daughter They Assassinated in Gaza Church as 'Hamas Spotters'


Shocking testimonies expose Israeli killings, field executions in Gaza
  According to horrifying testimonies gathered by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor (EMM), Israeli occupation forces (IOF) carried out field executions against civilians in Palestinian homes in Gaza.
  Earlier reports from Al Mayadeen sources corroborate that Israeli forces executed more than 15 Palestinians at the Annan family residence near Burj al-Jalaa in the northern part of Gaza City.
  Israeli occupation forces left behind several martyrs and wounded several others, all in front of children and women in the residence.  
  The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory received shocking testimonies about field executions committed by the Israeli occupation forces against civilians during house raids in the border areas of Gaza.
  The organization indicated that the victims included members of the displaced families of Annan, al-Ashi, al-Shurafa, who were shot to death. There are also reports of other individuals who remain in critical condition and an elderly man who has been taken away by soldiers with an unknown fate.
  It also noted that among the 27 women and children trapped in the house, some are suffering from serious injuries, including amputated limbs. They have issued pleas to the International Committee of the Red Cross for coordination to evacuate them from the location to save their lives.
  According to EMM, Israeli forces stationed in military vehicles or high-rise structures are conducting sniping operations against Palestinian residents who are either inside their houses or attempting to move within a residential area in search of protection.

  GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: An Israeli strike killed the head of the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Thursday, Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip said.
  Crossing director Bassem Ghaben and three other people were killed as Israeli aircraft targeted the infrastructure, the crossings authority and the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory said.
  The Israeli army and COGAT, the defense ministry body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, did not immediately respond to requests from AFP for comment.

  US Veto Threat Once Again Delays Security Council Vote on Gaza Ceasefire
  The White House threatened to veto a UN Security Council resolution that would call for a ceasefire in Gaza and set up an expedited inspection mechanism for bringing aid into Gaza. The US is demanding that the resolution affirm Israel’s right to self-defense and that the part of the text calling for a ceasefire be changed. The vote was scheduled for Monday but has been delayed three times this week.

  Hamas politburo seeks Palestinian state, to end war: Report
Doha-based Hamas official Husam Badran says the resistance group is willing to join the PLO and support negotiations for a Palestinian State while not recognizing Israel  
  "We don’t fight just because we want to fight. We are not partisans of a zero-sum game,” Husam Badran, a member of Hamas’ Doha-based political bureau, stated. “We want the war to end.”...
..“We want to establish a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem,” Badran said.
Badran also stated Hamas wishes to join the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which represents Palestinians at the United Nations and other international forums.
 “It will be a national dialogue,” Badran said. “We have always said the PLO should contain any Palestinian faction.”
  Badran and other Hamas officials say the talks have also included Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza security chief with close Emirati and Egyptian support, and former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
  “I am no friend of Hamas,” Dahlan said. “But do you think anybody is going to be able to run to make peace without Hamas?”
  The Hamas political leaders indicated they would be willing to join the PLO and support negotiations for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
But Badran said that Hamas had no plans to recognize Israel as long as the occupation continues...
..Badran says Hamas is seeking a full-scale ceasefire and a full exchange of captives from both sides. “If there is a ceasefire, our stance is crystal clear: We want an exchange of all-for-all,” he said.
  Israel has for years sought to foster divisions between Hamas and the PA, led by Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party, to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear he has for years approved Qatari payments to Hamas in Gaza, while ensuring the PA remained weak and unable to win the establishment of a Palestinian state through peaceful diplomatic means.
  Israel has also sought to use the PA security forces to dismantle Palestinian resistance groups in the West Bank.
​  RUNNING THE RED GAUNTLET  — RUSSIA IS NEGOTIATING WITH THE HOUTHIS FOR RED SEA PASSAGE OF OIL CARGOES DEFYING US, EU SANCTIONS  
​  Russia is negotiating with the Houthis of Yemen to protect Russian oil cargoes moving through the Red Sea for delivery to India and China, the principal destinations of Russian oil currently traversing the waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden.  
​  Notified in advance to the Yemeni authorities and the Houthi military command, the Russian oil  movements by tankers flying a variety of ship registry and national flags,   are running the gauntlet of US and European Union (EU) sanctions against Russian oil exports.  
​  China is also negotiating with the Houthis for safe passage and protection of Chinese-flagged container vessels. The Chinese military base in Djibouti, recently reinforced to support a large Chinese military group intended for a United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, is also covering the waterway.  
​  Both Moscow and Beijing are acting in semi-secret against US and EU government threats to assemble a naval fleet to convoy shipping headed to and from Israel’s southern port of Eilat. This plan, which the Pentagon is calling Operation Prosperity Guardian,   follows the failure of the two US aircraft carrier groups in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf to protect Israel, and deter the Houthi operations. The Pentagon is also threatening to attack Yemeni territory.  
​  The fleet, to be assembled over the next month from the Ukraine war coalition states against Russia, will also threaten military force against the movement of Russian oil.​..
​..For the time being, Russian Foreign Ministry officials are keeping mum. In Marrakesh, Morocco, for a meeting on Wednesday (December 20) of the Arab-Russian Cooperation Forum, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not publicly mention the Houthis or the Russian contacts.​..
​..The Foreign Ministry communiqué summarizing the discussions in Morocco declared: “There was a thorough discussion of the situation in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, the Ukrainian crisis, countering terrorism and extremism, and the creation of a zone free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.”  

​  More from John Helmer , Thanks Zerosum ,  BREAKING NEWS:  CHINESE, IRANIAN AND INDIAN WARSHIPS ARE NOW IN THE RED SEA, GULF OF ADEN
​  A Russian military blog post posted on Thursday, December 21 at 11:33 Moscow time, has revealed the hitherto secret positions of all warships in the area which the Pentagon has announced for its OPERATION PROSPERITY GUARDIAN.
​  The fresh data and the open map (lead image) were not available when yesterday’s report was published at 09:32 Moscow time of Russia’s “two-track” strategy for opposing the US and NATO,  and for protecting Russian oil shipments while  the Houthi drone and missile operations are under way against Israel.  
​  No Russian Navy vessel is in the area at present although Russian crude oil cargoes are moving through the Red Sea with Iranian and Houthi agreement. Because these ship movements are defying US and NATO sanctions, it has been decided in Moscow to negotiate safe passage with Iran and Yemen rather than deploy the Russian Navy to protect them. However, the new combined US and NATO operation, targeting the Houthis and their Iranian support and supply systems,  increases the possibility of a direct American, allied, or false-flagged attack on a tanker carrying Russian oil.​..
​..The Russian source map is now reporting that the Chinese Navy’s 45th Escort Task Force, comprising the Type-052 destroyer Urumqi,  the Type-547 frigate Linyi,  and supply ship Dongpinghu were at  berth at the Chinese base at Djibouti as of Wednesday, December 20.​..
​..The Russian map also reveals that the Iranian vessel MV Behshad is in a standing position in the Red Sea (lead image, top left of map). According to the Russian source, it is operating as an electronic surveillance, command and control centre to monitor friendly state ship movements – Russian, Chinese, Indian – and also  hostile vessels of the US, British and French navies, tracking their positions; and relaying the data to Iran and probably to shore positions in Yemen.​..
​..According to the western vessel tracking service VesselFinder, the Behshad is a “general cargo ship” flagged by Iran.  It reportedly sailed from the port of the Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex (ISOICO) to reach its current position, which VesselFinder confirms in the southern half of the Red Sea as of fifteen minutes ago. The western source reports the vessel is at anchor in 6.5 metres of water.​..
​..The new  Russian intelligence now makes clear that the UK, France and Spain are already in the region, with the US.
After Austin’s statement, his Italian counterpart announced that Italy is dispatching a frigate​...
​..The Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias followed the Italian to say that Greece too is sending a frigate to join the US operation. Dendias is claiming the reason is that Greece is “the country with the largest ocean-going fleet [and so] has a primary interest in preserving the freedom of maritime zones and protecting the lives of seafarers.” What he means is that the involvement of Greek shipowners in the sanctions-busting Russian oil trade  has been so profitable,  Dendias wants to protect  the Greek tankers and their owners; and at the same time avoid the embarrassment of being so disloyal to the US and European Union sanctions regime.
​  For the time being,  no Russian Navy vessel is reported in the Red Sea area, although reports indicate that the submarine Ufa  is heading eastwards across the Mediterranean with a surface support vessel,  and is likely to transit the Suez Canal and the Red Sea soon.
​  The presence of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy’s destroyer Yang Man-chun was reported when it left its home port in September to be for a six-month mission to combat piracy and threats against cargo shipments headed to and from Korea.    The map reveals it is currently off the Somali coast, near Indian, British, and US Navy vessels, as well as the Japanese Navy’s destroyer, JS Akebono.​..
​..Operationally, US Navy releases indicate that the Japanese and the Korean destroyers are “working in coordination with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command” to combat both Somali pirates and Houthi operations.  


Iranian Spy Ship Is Assisting Houthi Attacks On Red Sea Shipping: Intel Officials​  ​(That would be the MV Behshad, ​described above.)

​  Dima at Military Summary Channel proposes that China is backing Yemen to tie-down western naval forces far away from Taiwan, and possibly to grossly humiliate them with hypersonic anti-ship missiles, should some of those be lying around. [IMHO this is a better "good investment" for China than the Ukraine war ever was for the US/NATO.]
​  The Red Sea Is The "Dead" Sea for Western Business. Military Summary And Analysis For 2023.12.21

If US attacks Yemen, its battleships will be struck: Sayyed al-Houthi
The leader of Ansar Allah movement slams the US action in the Red Sea as "illegal" and describes it as "a reckless and foolish aggression that only serves Israel."

​  Russia has "already won" the war in Ukraine, which the US & NATO had been preparing since 2014. Only the final disposition is being worked out. Can any US politicians  "let Putin win", or even "admit Russia won" since it has already happened?  White House Hysteria: New Domino Theory, Putin Won’t Stop With Ukraine
https://mishtalk.com/economics/white-house-hysteria-new-domino-theory-putin-wont-stop-with-ukraine/

  This action flies people transported to the US by global organized crime syndicates to essentially any US city they name. This is like cancer metastasizing distantly.
"Public Has A Right To Know" - O'Keefe Exposes Bussing Of Migrants Direct From Border To Phoenix Airport

Only Half of All Ford Dealers Agree to Sell EVs Next Year

​Preparing for Next Year (pictured planting tomato seeds under clear glass bowls)


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