Thursday, April 20, 2023

After Liftoff

 Counting Down,


  Archdruid, John Michael Greer talks about the late decay of empire, specifically the American Empire, but other empires, too:
  Dancing On The Brink
  The core project of this blog, like its predecessor The Archdruid Report, is the quest for ways to lead a meaningful human life in harmony with nature during the decline and fall of a vast and profoundly unnatural civilization...
 ​..​​Roughly five per cent of the human race currently live in the United States of America. That very small fraction of humanity, until quite recently, got to enjoy about a third of the world’s energy resources and manufactured products and about a quarter of its raw materials... It happened because as the world’s dominant nation, the United States imposed unbalanced patterns of exchange on the rest of the world, and these funneled a disproportionate share of the planet’s wealth to this one nation.​.. America’s empire came into being in the wake of the collapse of the British Empire during the fratricidal European wars of the early twentieth century...
..The ascendancy of one empire simply guarantees that other aspirants for the same status will begin sharpening their knives.  They’ll get to use them, too, because empires invariably wreck themselves: over time, the economic and social consequences of empire destroy the conditions that make empire possible. That can happen quickly or slowly, depending on the mechanism that each empire uses to extract wealth from its subject nations...
​  ​The mechanism the United States used for this latter purpose was ingenious but even more short-term than most. In simple terms, the US imposed a series of arrangements on most other nations that guaranteed that the lion’s share of international trade would use US dollars as the medium of exchange, and saw to it that an ever-expanding share of world economic activity required international trade. (That’s what all that gabble about “globalization” meant in practice.) This allowed the US government to manufacture dollars out of thin air by way of gargantuan budget deficits, so that US interests could use those dollars to buy up vast amounts of the world’s wealth.  Since the excess dollars got scooped up by overseas central banks and business firms, which needed them for their own foreign trade, inflation stayed under control while the wealthy classes in the US profited mightily from the scheme...
..The problem with this scheme is the same difficulty faced by all Ponzi schemes, which is that sooner or later you run out of suckers to draw in...
​..​Fast forward to last year. When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States and its allies responded not with military force but with punitive economic sanctions, which were expected to cripple the Russian economy and force Russia to its knees. Apparently nobody in Washington DC considered the possibility that other nations with an interest in undercutting the US empire might have something to say about that. Of course that’s what happened. China, which has the largest economy on Earth in purchasing-power terms, extended a middle finger in the direction of Washington DC and upped its imports of Russian oil,  gas, grain, and other products. So did India, currently the third largest economy on Earth in the same terms; so did more than a hundred other countries.​..
​..At this point the sanctions are hurting the United States and Europe, not Russia, but the US leadership has wedged itself into a position from which it can’t back down. This may go a long way toward explaining why the Russian campaign in Ukraine has been so leisurely. The Russians have no reason to hurry. They know that time is not on the side of the United States...
..For many decades now, the threat of being cut out of international trade by US sanctions was the big stick Washington DC used to threaten unruly nations that weren’t small enough for a US invasion or fragile enough for a CIA-backed regime change operation. Over the last year, that big stick turned out to be made of balsa wood, and snapped off in Joe Biden’s hand.  As a result, all over the world, nations that thought they had no choice but to use dollars in their foreign trade are switching over to their own currencies, or to the currencies of rising powers.  The US dollar’s day as the global medium of exchange is thus ending.​..
..When the British pound lost a similar role in the early years of the Great Depression, no other currency was ready to take on its role either.  It wasn’t until 1970 or so that the US dollar finished settling into place as the currency of global trade. In the interval, international trade lurched along awkwardly using whatever currencies or commodity swaps the trading partners could settle on: that is to say, the same situation that’s taking shape around us in the free-for-all of global trade that will define the post-dollar era...
..The United States of America is bankrupt. Our governments from the federal level on down, our big corporations, and a very large number of our well-off citizens have run up gargantuan debts, which can only be serviced given direct or indirect access to the flows of unearned wealth the United States extracted from the rest of the planet. Those debts cannot be paid off, and many of them can’t even be serviced for much longer. The only options are defaulting on them or inflating them out of existence, and in either case, arrangements based on familiar levels of expenditure will no longer be possible. Since the arrangements in question include most of what counts as an ordinary lifestyle in today’s United States, the impact of their dissolution will be one for the record books.
​  ​In effect, the five per cent of us in this country are going to have to go back to living on about five per cent of the planet’s wealth, the way we did before 1945. If we still had the factories, the trained work force, the abundant natural resources, and the thrifty habits we had back then, that would have been a wrenching transition but not a debacle. The difficulty, of course, is that we don’t have those things any more.​..
​..The good news is that there’s a solution to all this. The bad news is that it’s going to take a couple of decades of serious turmoil to get there. The solution is that the US economy will retool itself to produce earned wealth in the form of real goods and nonfinancial services. That’ll happen inevitably as the flows of unearned wealth falter, foreign goods become unaffordable to most Americans, and it becomes profitable to produce things here in the United States again.  The difficulty, of course, is that most of a century of economic and political choices meant to support our former imperial project are going to have to be undone.
​..​The most obvious example?  The metastatic bloat of government, corporate, and nonprofit managerial jobs in American life...
​..​What will happen ... is that the middle and upper middle classes in the United States, and in many other countries, will face the same kind of slow demolition that swept over the working classes of those same countries in the late twentieth century...
..All the businesses that make money catering to these same classes will lose their incomes as well, a piece at a time. Communities will hollow out the way the factory towns of America’s Rust Belt and the English Midlands did half a century ago, but this time it will be the turn of upscale suburbs and fashionable urban neighborhoods to collapse as the income streams that supported them go away.
​  ​I want to stress that this is not going to be a fast process.  The US dollar is losing its place as the universal medium of foreign trade, but it will still be used by some countries for years to come. The unraveling of the arrangements that direct unearned wealth to the United States will go a little faster, but that will still take time.  The collapse of the cubicle class and the gutting of the suburbs will unfold over decades.  That’s the way changes of this kind play out.​..
​..We are dancing, we Americans, on the brink of a long slippery slope into an unwelcome new reality.

​  ​Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu Claims "The Whole World Hates America"
​  ​Soylu's characterization of Europe as an American pawn suggests that he believes the continent lacks independence and is heavily influenced by the United States. By stating, "There is no such thing as Europe. There is America. Europe is a trend in the Americas column," Soylu implies that Europe's actions and policies are primarily driven by American interests rather than its own. This perspective further underscores Soylu's negative view of the United States and its global influence.
https://bnn.network/world/turkey/turkish-interior-minister-suleyman-soylu-claims-the-whole-world-hates-america/

M. K. BHADRAKUMAR​  ​China, Russia circle wagons in Asia-Pacific​  
  ​Last Wednesday, US Commerce Department announced the imposition of export controls on a dozen Chinese companies for “supporting Russia’s military and defence industries.” The Global Times hit back defiantly that “as China is an independent major power, so is Russia. It’s our right to decide with whom we will carry out normal economic and trade cooperation. We cannot accept the US’ finger-pointing or even economic coercion.” ...
​..​Putin had disclosed in October 2019 that Russia was helping China to create an early missile warning system that would drastically enhance the defensive capacity of China. Chinese observers noted that Russia was more experienced in developing and operating such a system, which is capable of identifying and sending warnings immediately after intercontinental ballistic missiles are launched.
​  ​Such cooperation demonstrates a high level of trust and requires a possible integration of Russian and Chinese systems. The system integration will be mutually beneficial; stations located in the North and West of Russia could provide China with warning data and, in turn, China could provide Russia with data collected at their Eastern and Southern stations. That is to say, the two countries could create their own global missile defence network.
​  ​These systems are among the most sophisticated and sensitive areas of defence technology. The US and Russia are the only countries which have been able to develop, build and maintain such systems. Certainly, close coordination and cooperation between Russia and China, two nuclear-armed powers, will profoundly contribute to world peace in the present circumstances by containing and deterring US hegemony.​..
​..​Again, exercises of US aviation and fleet forces have been increasingly noticed in the immediate vicinity of Russian borders or in regions where Russia has geopolitical interests. On April 5, B-52 Stratofortress circled over the Korean Peninsula allegedly “in response to nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.” At the same time, South Korea, the US and Japan conducted trilateral naval exercises in the waters of the Sea of Japan with the participation of aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.  
​  ​Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev recently drew attention to Japan’s growing capability to conduct offensive operations, which, he said, constituted “a gross violation of one of the most important outcomes of the Second World War.” Japan plans to purchase around 500 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US, which can directly threaten most of the territory of the Russian Far East. The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is working on developing Type 12 land-based anti-ship missiles “in order to protect the remote islands of Japan.”
​  ​Japan is also developing hypersonic weapons designed to conduct combat operations “on remote islands,” which Russians see as options for Japan’s possible seizure of the Southern Kuriles. In 2023, Japan will have a military budget exceeding $51 billion (on par with Russia’s), which is slated to increase to $73 billion.​..
​..Surveying the regional alignments, Yuri Lyamin, Russian military expert and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a leading think tank of the military-industrial complex, told Izvestia newspaper:
​  ​“Considering that we have not settled the territorial issue, Japan lays claim to our South Kuriles. In this regard, checks are very necessary. It is necessary to increase the readiness of our forces in the Far East…
​  ​“In the context of the current situation, we need to further strengthen defence cooperation with China. In fact, an axis is being formed against Russia, North Korea and China: the USA, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and then it goes to Australia. Great Britain is also actively trying to participate… All this must be taken into account and cooperation should be established with China and North Korea, which are, one might say, our natural allies.”
​  ​In highly significant remarks at a Kremlin meeting with Shoigu on April 17 — while Li was in Moscow — Putin noted that the current priorities of Russia’s armed forces are “primarily focusing on the Ukrainian track… (but) the Pacific theatre of operations remains relevant” and it must be borne in mind that “the forces of the (Pacific) fleet in its individual components can certainly be used in conflicts in any direction.”
​  ​The next day, Shoigu told Gen. Li, “In the spirit of unbreakable friendship between the nations, peoples, and the armed forces of China and Russia, I look forward to the closest and most successful cooperation with you…”​ ...
​..Russia, is turning attention to the Asia-Pacific theatre. Suffice to say, Li’s visit shows that the reality of Russia–China defence cooperation is complicated. Russia–China military-technical cooperation has always been rather secretive, and the level of secrecy has increased as both countries engage in more direct confrontation with the US.
​  ​The political meaning of Putin’s 2019 statement on jointly developing a ballistic missile early warning system extended far beyond its technical and military significance. It demonstrated to the world that Russia and China were on the brink of a formal military alliance, which could be triggered if US pressure went too far.

Russia Threatens To Give North Korea Advanced Weapons If Seoul Arms Ukraine

​  It turns out that the whole US rocket & missile-munitions industry has choke points at rocket-motor production that prevent increased production before 2026.​
https://www.azerbaycan24.com/en/us-military-industry-struggling-to-meet-ukraine-demand-wsj/

​  ​Japan Signals an Attitude Shift to the Growing Power of the Global South
​  ​In mid-April, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released its Diplomatic Bluebook 2023, its most important guidebook on international affairs. Japan’s foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, wrote the foreword, which begins: “The world is now at a turning point in history.”​ ...
​..​Despite all the talk of sanctions, Japan continues to import energy from Russia. In 2022, 9.5 percent of Japan’s imported liquefied natural gas came from Russia (up from 8.8 percent in 2021). Most of this energy came from Russia’s Sakhalin Island, where Japanese companies and the government have made substantial investments. In July 2022, Hayashi was asked about Japan’s continued imports from Sakhalin-2. His answer was clear: “Sakhalin-2 is an important project for energy security, including the stable supply of electricity and gas in Japan.” Since July, Japan’s officials have continued to emphasize Japan’s national interests—including through the Sakhalin-2 natural gas project—over its obligations to the G7 and to its own statements about the war.​..​
​..​The Diplomatic Bluebook 2023 makes three important points: that the post-Cold War era has ended, that China is Japan’s “greatest strategic challenge” (p. 43), and that Global South countries must be taken seriously. The Bluebook highlights Japan’s confusion, caught between its reliance upon Russian energy and the growing confidence of the Global South.​..
​..​Anxiety about the growing role of China in Asia is not new for Japan, which has long contested the Diaoyu (China)/Senkaku (Japan) islands. But now, there is a much more pronounced—and dangerous—assessment of the situation. The Bluebook 2023 notes the close alignment between China and Russia, although it does not focus on that strategic partnership. Rather, the Japanese government focuses on China, which it now sees as Japan’s “greatest strategic challenge.” Even here, the Japanese government acknowledges that the two countries “have held a series of dialogues to discuss common issues.” The “efforts of both Japan and China” are important, says the Bluebook, to build a “constructive and stable” relationship (p. 43).
https://countercurrents.org/2023/04/japan-signals-an-attitude-shift-to-the-growing-power-of-the-global-south/

​  ​The new chief of the BRICS bloc’s New Development Bank, Brazil’s leftist ex-President Dilma Rousseff, revealed they are gradually moving away from the US dollar, promising at least 30% of loans in local currencies of members.

​  ​Russia-Brazil Relations: Lavrov’s Visit to Brasilia​ , Andrew Korybko
  ​Lavrov’s trip showcased the significant role that Russia attaches to Brazil when it comes to the Latin American dimension of Moscow’s grand strategy. Both parties’ rhetoric was positive, but it remains to be seen if anything of tangible substance ultimately comes from it, which will be greatly determined by whether or not Lula attends this year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in less than two months’ time like he was just invited to do.

​  ​The White House has accused Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of repeating Russian and Chinese propaganda. While visiting China, Lula said that the US should stop “encouraging” the war in Ukraine and seek peace instead.
​  ​Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, the White House’s National Security Council’s Spokesperson, John Kirby, lashed out at Lula. “Brazil has substantively and rhetorically approached this issue by suggesting that the United States and Europe are somehow not interested in peace or that we share responsibility for the war,” Kirby said. “In this case, Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts.”
​  ​The spokesman went on to call Lula’s statement “simply misguided” and “deeply problematic.”​   [Psst ... Go to St. Petersburg in June, Lula.]

​  ​U.S. Invests $1.5 Billion to Spur 5G Rollout Despite New Evidence of ‘Devastating’ Health Issues
​  A new study from Sweden showed that a previously healthy woman developed symptoms of “microwave syndrome” shortly after a 5G cell tower was installed 60 meters — nearly 200 feet — from her apartment.
  According to the study, published April 10 in the Annals of Clinical and Medical Case Reports, the 52-year-old woman developed “severe health problems” — including “unbearable” pain, headache, dizziness, loss of immediate memory, confusion, fatigue, anxiety, nose bleeds and issues with her lungs, stomach and urinary system.
​  ​The woman temporarily relocated to another home with low radiation levels and no 5G exposure, at which point almost all of her symptoms disappeared. When she moved back to her apartment, the symptoms returned.
​  ​The study’s findings mirror the results of two prior case reports, conducted by the same researchers, which showed that non-ionizing radiation from 5G — well below levels allowed by authorities — can cause health problems in individuals with no prior history of electromagnetic sensitivity, the authors said...
..“These measurements are very alarming,” said Nilsson, managing director of the Swedish Radiation Protection Foundation. “They confirm the concerns raised by hundreds of scientists that 5G would lead to an increase in exposure to microwave radiation — which has already been proven harmful at levels lower than governmental limits.”
  It’s not just 5G’s high radiation levels that are problematic — it’s the highly repetitive nature of the pulsating 5G signal that harms people’s health, the authors said.
  “In medicine, you have a recovery period,” Hardell said. “It takes [the] cellular system time to recover from something that’s bad for it.”
  For instance, he said, research on radiation treatment for fighting cancer has shown that the radiation has a stronger biological effect when one treatment is given in the morning and one in the afternoon — rather than just once a day — because cells do not have time to recover.

​  Space X Starship took off from Boca Chica Texas this morning, successfully lifting the largest and heaviest rocket ever into the sky. 
There was a failure of separation of the Super Heavy Lifter first stage, from the Starship , so the entire assembly was blown up in the sky in a "rapid disassembly". If you cue-up to 44 minutes, you will cut to final-countdown (the chase).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1wcilQ58hI

​  ​Combined Vitamin D, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and a Simple Home Exercise Program May Reduce Cancer Risk Among Active Adults Aged 70 and Older: A Randomized Clinical Trial​  Thanks Charles, 100-200 mcg of vitamin K-2 helps vitamin-D to benefit immunity, and the cardiovascular system​, also.

Healthy Earthling (took this picture of Jenny after we picked green beans)


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Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Banker's War

 Un-banked,


  Christine LaGarde speaks in English to "Volodymyr Zelensky" (phone prankster) in this video from March 17, 2023, explaining that the decision to release the digital Euro will be made this "October 23", which appears to mean October 2023. 
  She says that there will be "controls" on transactions, though they might be waived under 300-400 euros. It is easy enough to watch the short video. One presumes she saw "Volodymyr" on her screen as she spoke.
  LaGarde claims that Germans and Dutch are fine with digital currency, sidestepping the question about "people not wanting to be controlled".
(I am chagrined to have not heard of this sooner. It was on social media, but I'm not...)
https://cointelegraph.com/news/cbdc-will-be-used-for-control-ecb-president-admits-in-vid-chat-with-fake-zelensky

   ECB President LaGarde's official statement from Monday is reviewed again in this light. It was unusually frank.
​  ​The tectonic plates of geopolitics are shifting faster. We are witnessing a fragmentation… into competing blocs, with each bloc trying to pull as much of the rest of the world closer to its respective strategic interests and shared values...
​..​Under the hegemonic leadership of the US, rules-based international institutions flourished, and global trade expanded. This led to a deepening of global value chains and, as China joined the world economy, a massive increase in the global labour supply. As a result, global supply became more elastic to changes in domestic demand, leading to a long period of relatively low and stable inflation. That in turn underpinned a policy framework in which independent central banks could focus on stabilising inflation by steering demand without having to pay too much attention to supply-side disruptions.​ ​​ [That means they just suppressed wages to control inflation.]​ ...
​..​But that period of relative stability may now be giving way to one of lasting instability resulting in lower growth, higher costs and more uncertain trade partnerships. Instead of more elastic global supply, we could face the risk of repeated supply shocks.​..​
​..​Insofar as geopolitics leads to a fragmentation of the global economy into competing blocs, this calls for greater policy cohesion…behind a strategic goal…
​  ​Achieving the right policy framework will not only determine how our economies fare at home, but also how they are viewed globally in a context of greater “system competition.”
…For Europe, long-delayed projects such as deepening and integrating our capital markets can no longer be viewed solely through the lens of domestic financial policy. To put it bluntly, we need to complete the European capital markets union. This will be pivotal in determining whether the euro remains among the leading global currencies or others take its place.
​  ​Central banks also have an important role to play here – even as protagonists. For example, the manner in which swap lines are used could influence the dynamics of major international currencies…. We have already seen the PBOC set up over 30 bilateral swap lines with other central banks to compensate for the lack of liquid financial markets in renminbi. How central banks navigate the digital era --such as innovating their payment systems and issuing digital currencies-- will also be critical for which currencies ultimately rise and fall.
​  ​So, we need to be ready for the new reality that may well lie ahead. The time to think about how to respond to changing geopolitics is not when fragmentation is upon us, but before. Because, if I may paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, fragmentation can happen in two ways: gradually, and then suddenly. Central banks must provide for stability in an age that is anything but stable. And I have no doubt that central banks will measure up to the challenge.”

​ The head of the ECB announces a divergence in global finance, implies that there will be competing currency-coalitions, preferentially trading internally, which will lead to supply-chain disruptions and uncertainty. This will cause price-inflation through restriction of supply. She advises against paying labor more, which will be inflationary. She advises getting cheap fuel and resources for the economy. (Well, that's bad for CO2, we hear.) The upshot is that she thinks central banks will manage this, but must be careful not to let workers get better wages in the process.
  She does say that ​"issuing digital currencies" may be part of a solution, but how? Nobody wants to say that restrictions on spending and elimination of account-assets are how that will "help".
  She says that we should act before there is a problem, which means that the problem already exists. 
  Since the central-bank solution is always to impoverish workers and retirees, we should resist it if we are in those demographics. 
  Withdraw cash. Spend cash. Write checks. Avoid online transactions and use of credit cards when feasible. Get/stay out of debt, and assure food, water, fuel and shelter security as much as possible. Can you grow vegetables? It may take a couple of years to work it out. 
https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/chd-tv/events/the-attack-on-food-symposium/attack-on-food-john/
  Investigate the stability of your community under stress. Do you have a way to do that? Does it have a history? Has it grown suddenly? Does it have strife between factions in the community? Does it have a lot of debt and high taxes? 

​  ​Massive Strike Hits Canada As Inflation Discontent Spreads Around The World

​    The title is inflammatory, but in a time of supply chain stress, external dependencies should be reduced or eliminated. Also, the lifetime environmental impact of cars is pretty well reflected in their lifetime price, including purchase price and fuel/electricity cor=st for 200,000 miles. Electrics and hybrids are more wasteful than fossil fuel economy vehicles.​
  Since "the purpose of legislation is what it does" the purpose of this legislation is to reduce personal ownership and use of vehicles in the US. There is not the grid capacity or wealth to transfer to electric vehicles at par, so there will be a vast reduction in car/truck ownership and use, especially among poorer and middle class people. 
  That covertly concurs with the espoused goal of CO2 emission-reduction. 
  In my view, the real problem is that net-oil production is already in terminal decline, and they can't admit the truth. "When it is important you have to lie."
​  ​"This Is Industrial Suicide": Biden’s EV Plan Could Be Key To China’s Global Economic Dominance
The agency anticipates that with the new standards, two-thirds of new light-body vehicles will be electric by the model year 2032, up from less than six percent today...
​..​“This is industrial suicide,” said James Kennedy, a U.S. mine owner and rare earths expert, in an April 17 interview with The Epoch Times.
​  ​“By design, their goal is to wipe out, to destroy, to effectively terminate the massive economic investment that the auto companies have made in the internal combustion engine,” he said.
​  ​He outlined China’s long-range, strategic plan to dominate the mining and refining of rare earths, as well as the production of downstream technologies.
​  ​“No one in the West will accept the reality that China has total domain control at every level,” he added.
​  ​The rare earth metals terbium, holmium, and dysprosium are one key choke point for Chinese control over EV production.
​  ​Kennedy explained that the elements enable neodymium magnets to function at the high temperatures found in the motors of electric cars.
“China is the only country in the world, period, exclamation point, that can separate those materials,” he said

​  This has been known for years, but now it is official. The most prosperous country in Africa, with the highest standards of living and education, was destroyed to support the $US​ oil-trade-monopoly.
​  ​An investigation by the United Nations has concluded that money provided by the European Union to state entities in Libya has facilitated crimes against humanity ranging from forced labor and sexual slavery to torture.

​  ​Doubled Pregnancy Loss Rate, Raised Foetal Abnormality Rate and Concentration of Lipid Nanoparticles in Ovaries – How Could They Call This Vaccine ‘Safe’?

​  Fewer shots to avoid, same principle...
​The FDA has declared that only bivalent shots are authorized for use in US - April 18, 2023
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/psa-the-fda-has-declared-that-only

​  ​The Canadian Freedom Convoy and the Fate of Our Universities​ , Professor Anthony Hall​
​  ​The Truckers Freedom Convoy that converged on Ottawa and other sites along the Canada-US border in February of 2022 continues to be a flash point of strident disagreement in Canada. Even as the the Truckers’ parking protest in Ottawa was unfolding, there seemed to be a clear split developing. Working class people both formed and massively supported the process of applying significant democratic pressure to bring about a needed reality check in our nation’s complacent capital...
​..​It didn’t seem to dawn on the urban professionals of Ottawa how onerous and disgraceful the federal handling of the manufactured COVID crisis had become. The epic scale of the federal ineptitude that was literally killing and injuring large numbers of people in our national version of a ghastly worldwide phenomenon that is still unfolding and is still being obsessively covered up...
​..​The well-publicized campaign to defame, smear and bury the Truckers movement is becoming increasingly rabid as we build towards a show trial that will take place in Southern Alberta this summer or fall. Four Truckers face Kafkaesque charges that they conspired to kill RCMP officers. These four individuals have been held in jail now for more than a year without having been convicted of anything.

​   You can't say anything Russians like or it's a crime. You are free to say things Russia would not like. We will judge that fairly.
​   Biden DOJ Indicts Four Americans For "Weaponized" Free Speech
​  ​Omali Yeshitela, the founder and chairman of the African People's Socialist Party and one of the four Americans named in the indictment, has adamantly denied ever having worked for Russia. Earlier this month before charges were brought against him, the Tampa Bay Times quoted him as saying, "I ain’t ever worked for a Russian. Never ever ever ever. They know I have never worked for Russia. Their problem is, I’ve never worked for them.”​ ...
​..T​he US government is constantly engaging in foreign influence operations with outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy, which was set up to help foment coups and color revolutions and advance US information interests overtly in ways the CIA used to do covertly.
​  ​As commentator Brian Berletic noted on Twitter, "The US through the National Endowment for Democracy has created armies of organizations carrying out malign influence operations around the world including here in Thailand. When the Thai government attempts to stop this activity, the US embassy shouts 'free speech.'

​  I'd like a double global warming methane-burger with oil-fries, please.  Uh, can I pay cash?
​  New York City to Track Personal Food Choices Using Credit Card Data
This is needed to fight climate change, NYC mayor says
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/new-york-city-to-track-personal-food

Fixing Carbon and Nitrogen (pictured with 2 green tomatoes I'm watching)


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Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Real World Problems

 ​Practical People,​


The Fed Cannot Fix Today’s Energy Inflation Problem​ , Gail Tverberg​
​  ​There is a reason for raising interest rates to try to fight inflation. This approach tends to squeeze out the most marginal players in the economy. Such businesses and governments tend to collapse, as interest rates rise, leaving less “demand” for oil and other energy products. The institutions that are squeezed out range from small businesses to financial institutions to governmental organizations. The lower demand tends to reduce inflationary pressure.
​  ​The amount of goods and services that the world’s economy can produce is largely determined by fossil fuel supplies, plus our ability to use “complexity” in many forms to produce the items that the world’s growing population requires. Adding debt helps add complexity of various types, such as more international trade, more advanced education, and more specialized tools. For a while, the combination of growing energy supplies and growing complexity have helped pull economies along.
​  ​Unfortunately, the world’s oil supply is no longer growing. Without an adequate oil supply, it becomes difficult to maintain complexity because complex solutions, such as international trade, require adequate oil supplies. Inasmuch as we seem to be reaching energy and complexity limits, nothing the regulators try to do to change the debt and money supplies–even reeling them back in–can fix the underlying oil (and total energy) problem.
  I expect that the rich parts of the world, including the US, Europe, and Japan, are in line to be adversely affected by high interest rates this time. With their high levels of complexity, they are among the most vulnerable to disruption when there is not enough oil to go around...
..With their high per capita oil consumption, the combined oil consumption of Europe, Japan, and the United States amounted to almost 38% of total oil consumption in 2021.​..​ If this consumption could be brought to zero, the rest of the world could consume about 60% more than they would otherwise.​  [Note that US  per capita oil consumption is 15X that of India.]

​  ​Of course, the US currently produces most of its own oil, so its oil cannot be obtained unless the US economy collapses to such an extent that it cannot access the oil that it now extracts and refines. As indicated in the introduction to this post, the US is very dependent upon imported goods. Even goods used in the extraction of oil, such as steel pipe used to drill wells, and computers, are imported. Furthermore, whether or not problems with imported goods occur, financial problems seem likely in the near future, either caused by collapsing debt, or by the issuance of excessive new governmental debt to try to offset the problem of collapsing debt. Such financial problems are likely to make imports of required foreign goods difficult. Problems such as these might be one way the US loses access to its own oil.
​  ​A loss in a “hot” war could also reduce the ability of the US to access its own oil. Poor countries most likely covet the US’s oil resources. In my opinion, the more oil the US leaves in the ground related to climate concerns, the more vulnerable the US becomes to other countries’ trying to access its resources. For most of the world, adequate food supply has priority over climate concerns.
​  ​If total world oil supply is shrinking, as seems likely with OPEC cutting its output, poorer countries around the world are now becoming concerned about finding workarounds for this expected oil supply shortfall. One workaround would be for oil exporting countries to reduce their exports to countries that are not their close allies. Another approach would be for the poorer nations of the world to reduce the quantity of oil now used for international transport by cutting back on exports of all types of goods to richer countries...
..​When the rate of growth of the energy supply is constrained, the system starts encountering more debt defaults and banking crises. I think that this is where we are today.
​  ​In a way, the economy with all its debt is like a Ponzi Scheme. It depends on a growing supply of energy and other resources to continue to be able to pay back its debt with interest. The higher the interest rate, the more difficult it is to keep the whole arrangement operating.
​  ​Something will have to “give,” as the growth in oil supply turns to shrinkage.

​  Mish Shedlock observes new candor from ECB President, but she does not mention the "weaponized dollar", which is fundamental to the 10 points he agrees with. Is global finance now opening for frank re-negotiation?
​  ​Christine Lagarde Made 10 Key Points Today and I Agree With All of Them.
https://mishtalk.com/economics/as-amazing-as-it-sounds-ecb-president-christine-lagarde-is-making-some-sense

​  ​Putin Makes Surprise Visit To Troops Near Frontline In Ukraine
​  That should read "visits to front lines"​. Putin is shown landing in Kherson and Luhansk battle zone-oblasts, now members of the Russian federation​, walking openly with Generals outside and inside in both headquarters, and engaging in substantive meetings to be informed by the General staff. This is a bold statement to Russians, Chinese and Americans alike. This is a national leader.

Christine sends this from Gilbert Doctorow:   Russia in the world news today: visit of Chinese defense minister, high alert naval exercises in the Pacific and charm offensives in Brazil and India
​  ​The significance of cooperation in defense of these two superpowers is news too big to ignore... Li was responsible for acquiring military hardware, and he signed the contracts to buy Russia’s world beating air defense system, the S-400, and its most advanced fighter jets. It would not be surprising if during his 4-day visit Li continued his pursuit of other world-beating Russian equipment that could be very useful in any pending military clash with the United States over Taiwan. It would also be logical for Li to be discussing which Chinese hardware could be supplied to Russia if and when the clash with NATO over Ukraine escalates to a new order of risk and China decides to abandon its present caution and throw in its fate with Russia. None of these questions, of course, figure in the reports of Western media today.​..
..On Russian television today it was a very different ongoing event which took center stage: the snap high alert exercises of the Russian Pacific fleet...TASS today has the most informative text account... We are told that the exercises involve over 25,000 personnel, 167 combat ships and support vessels, including 12 submarines, 89 aircraft and helicopters.
​  ​However, the television coverage of the military exercises on Vesti tell a far more interesting story. We were taken aboard the ships, which are nearly all newly constructed, compact, with a sharply reduced radar profile, packed with the latest design cannon and rapid fire artillery such as we otherwise see daily on the battlefields of Donbas. And they are carrying Russia’s hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, which proved their worth in the devastating attack on a bunker used by NATO officers near Lviv on 9 March. We were told today that the Kinzhal also serves as an unstoppable and highly accurate destroyer of enemy aircraft. That it sinks ships to the scale of aircraft carriers was never in doubt.​..​..Russians decided to call their Pacific Fleet exercise, which operates in particular near the Kuriles and in close proximity to Japan, at the very moment when the G7 foreign ministers are meeting near Hiroshima. Nor can one ignore the close sequence between the Russian exercises and China’s massive show of naval strength last week in the waters around Taiwan...
​..​Today’s Vesti carries video reportage of the arrival of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Brazil for the start of his Latin American tour that will also include visits to Venezuela and Cuba...
​..​We may assume they have a great deal to discuss following President Lula’s visit to Beijing last week. Topics may well include the Brazilian position with respect to China’s 12 point peace plan for Ukraine, the question of creating a new BRICS currency for trade between its member states and the plans for further growing the New Development Bank in Beijing. The NDB is the BRICS’ answer to the IMF and World Bank. It is part of the new architecture of global institutions that China, and Russia, are building to underpin multipolarity.  It is relevant to Lavrov’s discussions that Lula’s former protégé Dilma Rousseff was recently elected as the Bank’s president by its Board of Directors. Since 2021 the NDB has among its members Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay. There surely will be many more members to come.
​  ​Lastly, Russian news today is carrying extensive text and video reports on the talks that Denis Maturov, RF Minister of Industry and Trade, is having in Delhi, where he heads a substantial Russian corporate delegation. The Indian Foreign Minister is shown warmly receiving Maturov with words to the effect that Russia and India share the ambition to establish multipolarity in global governance.
​  ​Per Rossiiskaya Gazeta, one of the key tasks of Manturov’s delegation is to sway the opinion of the Indian government in favor of granting Russia a further contract to build a second atomic power station. The online news agency AEX tells us that Manturov is in talks to expand direct air links between the two countries to better facilitate business exchanges and tourism. Vechernaya Moskva informs that Russia and India are working to create a reinsurance company to provide coverage for oil deliveries by ship.
​  ​In the latter regard, if I properly caught the figure given by Vesti on the fly, Russian deliveries of oil to India are now running at the extraordinary volume of 1.5 million barrels a day. This has driven up the level of bilateral trade by 50% versus a year ago. To date the figure is 45 billion dollars.
​  ​Other subjects for trade talks include closer ties in the pharmaceutical and automotive industries. An agreement for a free trade zone is under discussion, as are legal protections for capital investments.

​  Christine also sends this piece from John Helmer​, where he asserts that the Pentagon-Paper leaks signify the approaching death of the "Emperor, Not the Empire" in Washington DC. The general staff are practical, have accepted the inevitable losses of US power and prestige in the world, and want to save what is left of their military forces, and the nation. Helmer sees this as the beginning of military coups d'etat in the US, similar to what Rome had after Caligula.
https://johnhelmer.org/the-pentagon-papers-are-the-death-rattle-of-the-emperor-not-yet-of-the-empire/

 Also from Christine.  US Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced a bill that would force the White House to seek Congressional approval before ordering a nuclear strike, insisting the president should not have unilateral authority to start a nuclear war.
  Introduced by Senator Ed Markey and Representative Ted Lieu on Friday, the ‘Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act’ would prohibit any US president from “launching a nuclear strike without prior authorization from Congress,” as well as reaffirm lawmakers’ war powers under the US Constitution.
https://www.rt.com/news/574780-democrats-president-nuclear-powers/

The 21-year Old Leaker — Something Is Not Right , Larry Johnson
​  ​Before you join the mob eager to lynch the poor kid, let me share what some of my friends who are veterans of the CIA and the Air Force have said about this affair in the past few days.
​  ​Both men say that the story and alleged facts smell to high heaven. One longtime buddy, a veteran of the CIA, still provides consulting services to the U.S. Government and holds the same high clearances that he had prior to his retirement. He is an experienced operations officer. He has recruited foreigners to spy on behalf of the United States, managed highly classified programs and planned and executed many covert actions. In other words, he is no desk jockey...
..During our 18 years of working on these highly classified exercises we have never seen a E3 (i.e., an Airman First Class) anywhere in the SCIF. The enlisted personnel who worked on these TOP SECRET exercises were at least a Staff Sergeant (E5). So what is a lowly E3 doing in a SCIF with TOP SECRET material and no supervision? That is the first red flag.
​  ​Another red flag, as I noted in my previous piece, is the partial copy of the CIA Operations Center Intelligence Report. Both of us have had access to CIA systems available on the military servers and we have never seen the CIA Ops Center report on any of those systems. Never! How did this 21 year old kid get his hands on that?

​  ​American-made smart bombs are failing in Ukraine, based on successful Russian electronic jamming measures, according to a Pentagon document connected to alleged leaker Jack Teixeira.
​  ​The highly-classified document not only reviews use of effective Russian countermeasures to make the smart bombs ineffective, but also says that in some cases technical problems are resulting in failure to detonate.

​  ​It seems that European countries are going to pay for their attempts to profit on cheap Ukrainian grain, which, instead of feeding the starving African countries, is being transferred to quite well-fed Europe. Ukrainian grain has already brought farmers in Eastern Europe to the brink of bankruptcy, it also turned out that it is dangerous for its consumers.
​  ​On April 13, the Slovak authorities banned the processing and sale of Ukrainian grain and flour made from it on the territory of the country. The Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development of Slovakia stated that it found multiple excess of the maximum permissible concentration of pesticides​ 
​  ​In a 1.5 thousand tons batch of wheat from Ukraine, which was sent for threshing, “the presence of a pesticide that is not allowed in the EU and has a negative impact on human health was confirmed.” ​[Chlorpyrifos, banned in EU and US for serious medical risks including neurological, developmental and teratogenic.]​ ​The Minister of Agriculture of Slovakia explained that three independent accredited laboratories confirmed the increased content of pesticide residues.

​  ​EU slams Poland and Hungary’s ban on Ukrainian food imports as other countries threaten to join blockade
​  ​If Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Poland all block the transit of Ukrainian food products, it would effectively result in a geographical blockade in Europe

​  The same evildoers who invested heavily in Ukrainian farmland, intending to break the laws and pay some bribes.
  ​Big Ag Panicking Over Bill to Require Labeling of Gene-Altering Products
Missouri House Bill 1169 would require labeling of products that can alter your genes. Big Ag lobbyists strongly oppose it, because it would mean labeling livestock injected with mRNA vaccines
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/big-ag-gene-mrna-vaccines-livestock-cola/

  From Christine: Mexico’s government already faces the threat of international dispute settlements over its energy reforms and proposed ban of GM corn. It now wants to radically change the rules of the game for its huge mining sector.
  Mexico is the world’s largest silver producer, accounting for roughly one out of every five metric tons of the precious metal mined in 2021. It is also among the top ten global producers of 15 other metals and minerals (bismuth, fluorite, celestite, wollastonite, cadmium, molybdenum, lead, zinc, diatomite, salt, barite, graphite, gypsum, gold, and copper). For the past 31 years the country has functioned as a veritable paradise for global mining conglomerates, serving up some of the laxest regulations in Latin America. But that could all be about to change...
​..One thing that sets Mexico apart from most, if not all, other resource-rich countries in Latin America is the extreme preferential treatment it grants to the mining industry. In the country’s 1992 Mining Law, mining activity took precedence over all other industries and activities. Article 6 of the law reads:
​  "​The exploration, exploitation and beneficiation of the minerals or substances referred to in this Law are public utilities and will have preference over any other use or utilization of the land, subject to the conditions established herein, and only by a Federal Law may taxes be assessed on these activities.​"​ ...
​..​In total, 11% of Mexico’s territory (20,853,928 hectares) has been licensed for mining exploration and exploitation. Of that, some 188,320 hectares are actually being actively mined by a grand total of 874 mining projects, according to a study carried out by the non-profit civil organization CartoCrítica. More than 80% of those projects operate without reporting the damages they cause or the pollutants they emit into the water, air, or land as a result of their operations, according to the study. Also, many do not report the volumes of minerals they extract from each project or how much water they use.
​  ​“Given the potentially toxic nature of contaminants associated with metal mining, such as cyanide and heavy metals, these results are especially alarming,” said Manuel Llano, a geographer with CartoCrítica.
​  ​The AMLO government’s new mining reforms are supposed to change this. The president insists that the reforms are not about expropriating mining companies’ assets but rather looking after the environment. But they also represent a rebalancing of power between the government and mining companies. They also form part of a growing resurgence of resource nationalism, not just in Mexico but across Latin America, that could have major repercussions for global supply chains.

  ​An informative interview with the Argentine Finance Minister who negotiated their last debt restructuring with the IMF. 
​  ​A Debt Crisis Looming in the Global South?​ 
 ​People are waking up to discover that another international debt crisis of enormous proportions looms on the horizon of a scale not seen since the early 1980s, after which Latin America and Africa slogged through a “lost decade.” Implosions of this magnitude can wipe out years of progress in health, education, and social stability. Yet not many people understand why and how this is happening.
​  ​As a new crisis gains momentum, economist Martin Guzman, former Minister of the Economy of Argentina and co-president of Columbia University’s Initiative for Policy Dialogue offers his perspective on what has gone wrong and what can be done to address it. In his view, you can’t understand debt crises without confronting the power dynamics at play.​ [Those dynamics will be renegotiated.]

​  Peter McCullough MD , ​ Novel Vaccine Technologies in Veterinary Medicine: A Herald to Human Medicine Vaccines
Explosion of Genetic Vaccines in Animals Gets Human Attention

​  Professor Anthony Hall,  ​Canadians Organi​z​ing to Seek Accountability for COVID Crimes
The National Citizens Inquiry on Cross-Canada Tour to Investigate "Canada's Response to COVID-19"
https://anthonyjhall.substack.com/p/canadians-organizing-to-seek-accountability
​
Seeking Justice (pictured with Chairman Mao t-shirt before cooking curry with fresh green beans)


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Monday, April 17, 2023

I Don't Know Jack

 Not In Kansas,


  Craig Murray, Snowden and Texeira: Ten Years of Disaster
​  ​Ten years ago Edward Snowden was helped to escape by Wikileaks and to publish his revelations by The Intercept, Guardian, New York Times and others.
  I​n 2023 Jack Texeira is tracked down by UK secret service front Bellingcat in conjunction with the New York Times and in parallel with the Washington Post, not to help him escape or help him publish or tell people his motives, but to help the state arrest him.
​  ​Those outlets have accessed a cache of at least 300 additional secret documents in doing so – and have kept them secret, with the exception of a couple of snippets that forward the official state narrative.
​  ​That contrast with ten years ago tells a very real and glaring truth. The idea that the legacy media in any way serves the truth or the public interest is now completely buried. The legacy media serves the state, and the state serves the billionaires.​..
​..These attacks were particularly important as the message that came over clearly from these Texeira leaks was precisely the same as that which came over from Daniel Ellsberg’s original Pentagon Papers leak 50 years ago – that the public is being lied to about how the war is going.
(It is worth reflecting that in today’s world the NYT and Washington Post would have condemned Ellsberg and emphasised those bits of the Pentagon Papers which reflect badly on the VietCong).​..
​..There remains the mystery that the sources of these documents seem particularly diverse – in particular some being apparently internal CIA – for an intelligence officer in the Air National Guard to access, but it is not impossible...
​..​Jack Texeira is at the centre of this puzzle but remains the missing piece. We have heard nothing from him. A rather unconvincing interview with a suspiciously fluent, pixeled out acquaintance grassing him up to the Washington Post stated that he was a right wing patriot.
​  ​Texeira has been portrayed both as some kind of rampant Trump supporter incensed at the state, and as an inadequate jock revealing documents just to boast to fellow gaming nerds. We should remain suspicious of attempts to characterise him: I am acutely aware of media portrayals of Julian Assange which are entirely untrue.


  There has been much speculation about how a 21 year old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, on active duty for 2 years, in an intelligence unit, came to have so much classified information from both military and CIA sources , and came to reveal it at a time when there is a schism in the halls of power with how to deal with the US/NATO proxy war in Ukraine, now that "winning" it seems to not be a realistic option. What is the exit-strategy?
  Teixeira was quiet in high school, a military history buff, wore camo, and was not popular. He has been Air National Guard active-duty since being called-up shortly after high school graduation. He was still living at home with his family doing the same job his stepdad had done, with the same Unit. He moderated about 20 high school geeks on an invitation-only chat site where he was the senior guy.  He seems to have been markedly idealistic and disappointed with the misuse of American power, particularly against the interests of the American people.
  This is the sort of young man who could be fed information without strict safeguards, and who could be expected to share it with his geek-patriot-confidant friends. The level at which such a plan was decided would never be apparent, and plausible deniability of any intention would always be maintained.

Guardian UK, Jack Teixeira’s arrest has exposed a system weakened by the legacy of 9/11 and caught off guard by an enemy that is increasingly within
​  ​His family history is the epitome of conservative patriotism. His stepfather served in the same unit, the 102nd intelligence wing of the Massachusetts air national guard, and his mother, who worked for years for veterans’ charities, celebrated the fact that her son was following the same path. The young recruit was an observant Catholic, who would pray with other members of his online chat group.
​  ​But Teixeira’s outlook had taken the same dramatic turn as much of American conservatism, becoming conspiratorial and distrustful of the very institutions earlier generations revered. Friends quoted in the Washington Post said he had come to regret joining up, as his view of the military dimmed.
​  ​His motive for allegedly sharing hundreds of top secret documents among the 20 or so young men and teenage boys on the Discord gaming server he moderated, at least as he explained it to them, was to alert them to shadowy forces driving world events. He reportedly posted the documents, photographed unfolded and laid on his family’s kitchen counter alongside glue and nail clippers, without commentary or any apparent underlying logic.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/15/pentagon-leaks-matter-of-time-jack-teixeira-9-11

Zombie War: Plan B for Ukraine
​  ​Voices on all sides—U.S., Ukraine, Russia—assure us that a major break in the military situation in Ukraine is imminent. Even as the Russian forces (RF) advance steadily in the area of Bakhmut and Avdivka, the Ukraine army (UA) is said to be poised for a last-ditch major offensive, driving toward Crimea on the southern front, which it must launch and must win.
​  ​It’s impossible to know what’s true and what’s feint about all this, and one can never be certain of the outcome once armies start blowing each other up, but I feel comfortable saying that: 1) There will be a Ukrainian offensive. The Ukrainians will throw everything they have into it and will make immediate territorial advances. 2) It is very unlikely that Ukraine will advance far enough to seriously threaten to re-take Crimea, and impossible that it will drive Russia to capitulate. 3) It is likely that the UA will exhaust itself, that enormous, irreplaceable, quantities of its manpower and materiel will be destroyed, and that the massive Russian force that has been held back until now will begin its own offensive that will be able to advance at will. It will be evident and undeniable that there is no longer any military impediment to the RF moving as far west in Ukraine as it wants.
​  ​I understand that surprises can come from many directions—incompetence of key commanders, political pressure from citizens in various countries, immediate NATO intervention, etc.—but I think it’s important to address the predicament that last outcome—a decisive military defeat of Ukraine—will create. That outcome will be an urgent crisis for the US/NATO/Kiev, requiring immediate decision and action. It’s also the outcome they expect and fear, and for which they are already considering their choices...
​..​Sometime this year, probably before the end of summer, the Ukrainian army will be decisively defeated, Russia will establish full control of the four oblasts (Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia) and there will be no Ukrainian force left capable of reversing that or of stopping a Russian advance to Kiev.
​  ​At that point, in order to avoid either accepting a world-changing defeat or entering into direct war with Russia, all the U.S./Western voices who have been adamantly excluding the possibility of a ceasefire, Antony Blinken included, will suddenly start calling for one. They will be joined, they hope, by other global actors (by China, they especially hope) and antiwar voices, who will, without strong objection from the West’s Blinkens, see this as a welcome concession to those antiwar activists’ sincere and long-standing demands to stop the killing.
[​The author goes on to explain that neither Russia nor the US/NATO can really deal with a Nazi rump-Ukraine in the long term, so Russia will have to take all of Ukraine and de-Nazify it. I am not so sure of that at all. Russia's first interest is the avoidance of massive damage to Russia, like nuclear war. Russia does not want to "trigger" NATO. Russia can declare victory  in Novorussia and rebuild​, while fighting against Ukrainian and Polish guerilla attacks. NATO can sit and stew.]

​  ​Economics and Empires 4​, ​Strategic Considerations about Developments in Asia​ , Aleks , Black Mountain Analysis Thanks Christine.
​  This analysis by ​Serbian analyst, Aleks​​ is part of a series, which awaits 2 more installments. Here he analyzes the power dynamics between the US, Russia, China, and other national and supranational "players", including "the owners", who remain unseen, client countries, and countries like Iran, Venezuela and Syria which maintain resistance to neo-colonization.​
  Russia fights for Russian existence, has a strong hand, is well prepared, with the most national self-sufficiency of any country, and the most vast and advanced military production industry. Russia is in a superior position to China. Russia is currently defeating the common-enemy for China, and for the other nations which would not be colonies. China will help in any way that it can, because if Russia falls, then China falls next. They currently have a symbiosis due to imperial threat.
  Both Russia and China want to move incrementally, to avoid triggering nuclear attack by the slowly degrading empire.
  All other countries are trying to assess the rapidly changing global power context, and what it means for their national interests. Israel is particularly wondering about this, as the rest of the Mideast moves towards Arab-unity and support for the Palestinian cause. The imperial foment of war between oil-producing countries, and the sales of weapons to them, will not continue to be a tool to suppress oil prices, and to destroy moves to independence (Iraq, Libya).
  The decisive battlefield is Ukraine, not Taiwan. China does not want to invade Taiwan. China wants Taiwan to decide to rejoin China peacefully in their common interests. 
  China, Russia and the rest of the world see the decay of "American" imperial power, which is exercised through the deep, broad and well-developed $US global financial system. It has no peer for investors, but it is extractive of value, and used as a bludgeon, as against Iran, Venezuela, and recently Russia. Their are structural problems with this financial system which assure another financial crisis soon. The other arm of control is the US/NATO/AUKU/etc. military might, which is waning. The US Navy can project power against countries that do not have hypersonic carrier-killer missiles, but not realistically against Russia and China, now.   The military enforces $US dominance, as does Saudi Arabia demanding payment n $US, and the rest of the world following suit. All of this is in gradual decay. Saudi Arabia and France are making deals with China in Yuan/Renminbi. Mexico is declaring non-colonial status. Brazil is declaring that a non-$US trade currency should be employed by South America.
  The United States of America may have a good future as an independent nation if the American Empire does not initiate nuclear war.

​ ​Slovakia has destroyed a 1,500-ton shipment ​of Ukrainian grain ​contaminated with a banned pesticide
​  ​Slovak authorities have banned the processing and sale of Ukrainian grain after discovering a dangerous pesticide in a shipment, the country’s Agriculture Ministry announced on its website on Thursday.
​  ​According to the statement, the ban will cover all grain of Ukrainian origin and flour made from it that is currently stored in the country.​  ​Earlier this week, ​​Slovak authorities discovered a 1,500-ton shipment of Ukrainian grain to be contaminated with chlorpyrifos, a pesticide subject to an EU-wide ban.
​  ​“The presence of a pesticide, which is not authorized in the EU and has a negative impact on human health, was confirmed in the controlled sample,” the ministry said. The country’s Agriculture Minister, Samuel Vlcan, said earlier on Thursday that the entire shipment would be destroyed.​ [This provides a potential tool against global multinational agribusiness corporations which have bought up Ukrainian farms.]
​​
​  ​“There is a risk when we use financial sanctions that are linked to the role of the dollar that over time it could undermine the hegemony of the dollar,” Yellen said on CNN.
​  ​“Of course, it does create a desire on the part of China, of Russia, of Iran to find an alternative,” she told the network’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview. “But the dollar is used as a global currency for reasons that are not easy for other countries to find an alternative with the same properties.”
​  ​The robust US capital markets and rule of law “are essential in a currency that is going to be used globally for transactions,” she added. “And we haven’t seen any other country that has the basic… institutional infrastructure that would enable its currency to serve the world like this.”​ [Straw-man argument that there must be a national currency that meets these requirements. Gold could work, as could a BRICS currency.]
​  ​Yellen noted that sanctions are an “extremely important tool,” all the more so when used by the United States and its allies as “a coalition of partners acting together to impose these sanctions.”​  [Financial shunning requires critical mass to assure success. Those days may be ending.]​
https://insiderpaper.com/yellen-says-sanctions-may-risk-hegemony-of-us-dollar/

  Expatriate Limey deplatformed journalist, John Ward, has a view from afar of the Robert Kennedy Jr. candidacy for the US presidency:
​  ​A simple trawl of Microsoft, Google, NY Times, Wapo and Twitter-troll references to the RFKJr bid for the White House is enough to spell out in a 128pt Arial Black typeface that the “idea” is is obviously to condemn him as a marginal looney anti-vaxxer which he very obviously isn’t: he told Tucker Carlson in a recent Fox interview, “I am not against vaccination, I believe simply that these products need far more strict safety checks and questioning of data validity as issued by Pharma companies”.
​  ​Again: is there anyone out there who seriously disagrees with that as an objective? Both Moderna and Pfizer have a lamentable history of honesty about ‘safety’ on every imaginable level.
​  ​Ignoring the risibly captive “mainstream” media, what other amplified “considerations” are likely to rain down upon Kennedy’s head?
​  ​It’s going to be a game of two halves overall. If RFK jr really is out to make sweeping and radical changes, then the first and biggest uphill climb he faces is getting his Party’s nomination. Even Bobby waited to see what LBJ would do in ’68 in order to assuage feelings of disloyalty: Biden has made it clear he will run, and the people around him will do everything in their power to smear, frame and altogether crucify Kennedy before he even starts to build any credibility in the Primaries.
​  ​On this subject alone, the polls could not be more difficult to read. Four days ago, the polling site Morning Consult said seventy per cent of democrats were for Biden, only ten per cent for Kennedy. Disaster? Not necessarily: just 24 hours later a Rasmussen Reports Survey gave Kennedy the lead among Democrat voters, recording that his candidacy is supported by 52% of Democrats, just 32% are opposed, and 16% aren’t sure. I haven’t seen the questionnaire, but I suspect the specific ask was about Kennedy’s right to run against the President – ie, that it’s a good thing to challenge the Biden Gang’s record. (A later question had 62% saying that Biden should run again – but an equal 62% said other Democrats should challenge him).

​  ​Maternal Death Rates in U.S. Rose Sharply in 2021 — CDC Should Make It a Priority to Find Out Why​, Peter McCullough MD​
​  ​While lockdowns, reduced access to prenatal care and a variety of factors could be related to maternal outcomes, the CDC report is willfully blind to major exposures:
​  ​Acute COVID-19, which could have played a role in 2020.
COVID-19 vaccination, which was prevalent in 65% of mothers in 2021.
​  ​The CDC must open up all data on COVID-19 cases and vaccination to researchers for urgent epidemiologic evaluation of these disturbing trends. Death among pregnant women should be a top priority for public health researchers.
​  ​Women of childbearing age and pregnant women should refrain from COVID-19 vaccination given its pregnancy category X status and the absence of any assurances on short or long-term safety.

Biden to Spend $5 Billion on New Coronavirus Vaccine Initiative Supported by Gates, Fauci and Republican Lawmakers
Project NextGen, a successor to Operation Warp Speed, has bipartisan support and will receive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations.

​  ​Nanoparticles Found in Many Foods Could Wreak Havoc With Your Gut Microbiome
​  ​A Cornell University study published in Antioxidants provided more evidence that titanium, silicon, zinc and iron nanoparticles present in many foods and supplements may cause serious disturbances to intestinal health and function, and to the gut microbiome.​..​
​  ​Titanium dioxide — the bad egg in the basket
​  ​Concerns over the safety of titanium dioxide have been gathering over recent years, with the EU and Northern Ireland imposing a ban on the compound effective as of Feb. 7, 2022​...​
​..​The safety concerns have been greatest with respect to inhalation risks of titanium dioxide, especially following its classification by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a potential human carcinogen.


​Mr. Natural (pictured with first handful of green beans)​


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