The “news” from the collective West (led by the United States) is a complete “cluster fuck”. It’s one set of ugly “news” after the other. It’s so very difficult to gleam truth amidst all the lies. Here’s some selected (more accurate) “news” items that describe what’s going on, as well as some trivial subjects to interrupt the paid trolls and software compliance ‘bots. I hope you enjoy it.
Russia has made a decisive break with the West and is ready to help shape a new world order
Russia is now focusing on developing its ties with Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
By Russia Today
Just before the G7 leaders met at Elmau Castle in Bavaria, last week, their counterparts from the five BRICS countries held an online summit under the Chinese Presidency. Russia had been discussed as a threat at the G7 gathering but was a key participant in the latter.
Long gone are the days when Moscow could straddle the divide between the West and the non-West. Following the 2014 Ukraine crisis, the G8 reverted to its previous G7 format; in the wake of the Russian military action in Ukraine last February, Russian-Western confrontation degenerated into a full-blown “Hybrid War,” complete with an actual confrontation – if so far a proxy one.
Having tried, after the end of the Cold War, to become part of the new West, and having failed at that endeavor, Russia is now focusing on developing its ties with Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
This is both a difficult and a necessary task, for a number of reasons. First, there is a powerful inertia from the past. At least since the days of Peter the Great, Russian elites have looked westward, adopting western ways of appearance and behavior (while remaining distinctly Russian beneath the garb and manners); adapting western institutions (even if often only superficially); borrowing western patterns of thinking (while creatively developing them, as with Marxism); seeking to become a great European power; then, in Soviet days, a global superpower; and, more recently, a key component of a greater Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok.
This is a pathway hard to wean off from. Yet, now, for the first time ever, Russia is facing a united West, from North America, the European Union, and Britain, to Japan and Australia. What’s more, there are no allies in the West that Moscow can turn to – even notionally neutral states such as Finland, Sweden, Austria, and Switzerland, have all ditched their neutrality. Russia’s political rupture with the West is thus complete, and any new norm of relations between them can only emerge as a result of the “Hybrid War,“ which will take years, if not decades, to fight out.
Second, Moscow’s economic relations have been largely built with the West. Historically, Russia has been a resource for Western European industry; a breadbasket of the continent; and a major importer of industrial products and technology. Until recently, Russia’s trade with the European Union alone accounted for more than half of Russia’s foreign commerce, and Germany was the lead exporter of machinery and technology to Russia. Since the early 1970s, oil and gas pipelines from Russia to Western Europe have formed the backbone of economic ties and provided for general stability on the continent, even in the dangerous decades of the Cold War and in the turbulent times of the disintegration of the Soviet Union itself. This, too, is on the way out, however.
The severe sanctions imposed on Russia by the US, EU and the UK will not be lifted even when the actual fighting in Ukraine stops, and the painful experience of foreign exchange and asset seizures will leave a huge imprint on any future Russian approach to economic ties with the West.
Third, in cultural terms, Russians have traditionally identified themselves with the rest of Europe. Christianity; the legacies of Ancient Greece and Rome; the ideas of French Enlightenment and German philosophy; European literature and the arts, music, and dance – all of this helped shape and form Russia’s own culture, giving it a powerful stimulus for self-development. Despite the recent political rupture and the geo-economic shift, the foundations of Russian culture remain definitely European.
However, a number of elements of today’s cultural scene in the West, particularly the dominant cult of individual self-expression, runaway liberalism that is turning increasingly oppressive, the erosion of family values and the proliferation of genders, jars with the more traditional cultural code of the majority of the Russian population.
That said, the obvious necessity for Russia to now look beyond the West means it can probably overcome the historical inertia, the legacy of previous geo-economic priorities, and cultural affinities. With the West shunning Russia, trying to isolate and sometimes “cancel” it, Moscow has no choice but to kick its old habits and reach out to the wider world beyond Western Europe and North America. In fact, this is something that successive Russian leaders vowed to do repeatedly, even when relations with the West were much less adversarial, but the Europe-oriented mindset, the apparent ease of trading resources for Western goods and technologies, and the ambition to be accepted into Western elite circles prevented that intention from turning into reality.
It has been noted, however, that people start doing the right thing only when there are no other options. And certainly, capitulating to the West is no option for Russia, at this point. Things have gone too far.
Beyond the necessity of an overhaul of Russia’s foreign relations there are real opportunities to pursue. Since the end of the Cold War, the leading countries of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America have risen spectacularly in all respects, from economically and politically to technologically and militarily.
Even before the outbreak of the “Hybrid War,” China had overtaken Germany not only as Russia’s principal trading partner, but also as the leading exporter of machinery and equipment to Russia. India, a traditional importer of Soviet and Russian weapons, is now emerging as a major technology partner for Moscow. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are Russia’s principal partners in regulating oil output in the OPEC+ format.
Turkey and Iran are major independent players in a key strategic region. The fact that the vast majority of non-Western countries refused to condemn Russia for what it is doing in Ukraine – many of them despite strong US pressure – is most encouraging for Moscow. In the sense that those who are not against us could be considered to be with us.
From Indonesia to Brazil, and from Argentina to South Africa, there are many dynamic and ambitious countries that Moscow is seeking to engage.
To be able to do that, Russia’s foreign policy needs to come up with an appropriate strategy. Above all, it needs to give relations with non-Western countries priority over the de facto firmly frozen ties with the West. Being an ambassador to Indonesia should be more prestigious than an ambassadorship in Rome, and a post in Tashkent should be viewed as more important than one in Vienna.
There needs to be an audit of potential economic and other opportunities for Russia in the BRICS countries, and a plan to work on them. Apart from economics, student exchange programs should be expanded, and Russian tourism encouraged to move east, and south. The Russian media would be right to increase coverage of developments in the key non-Western nations, educating the Russian elite and the broader public about the economic realities, politics, and culture of those nations.
Monkeypox Outbreak DOUBLES in NYC . . . One Week After “Gay Pride” Parade
The number of confirmed monkeypox cases in New York City has doubled in the past week, according to data from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. This increase in cases comes after the NYC “Gay Pride” Parade on June 26.
The department said in a tweet on Tuesday that 111 people had tested positive in New York City so far, up from 55 a week prior. The tweet states that the city is expecting to receive additional doses of the monkeypox vaccine in the coming days and will make appointments available soon.
The department announced last month that men who have sex with men and have had sex with multiple partners or anonymous partners in the past two weeks would be eligible to receive the vaccine. The vaccine, the Jynneos smallpox vaccine, is administered in two doses four weeks apart from each other.
The city’s health department website states that most people infected with monkeypox in New York City have had mild illness, have not been hospitalized and have recovered on their own.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that monkeypox cases have been confirmed in 33 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
When it became blatantly obvious around the world that this outbreak was taking place in the Gay community, because 99% of cases have been Gay men, the CDC was asked if people should avoid Gay Events and the CDC said “no.” So here we are, on July 6, just ten days after the NYC Gay Pride Parade . . . and the outbreak has doubled.
It’s not that Gay people can’t control their behaviors . . . it’s that they won’t.
Why the West has failed to get the rest of the world on board to support its confrontation with Russia
The US-led bloc no longer offers the only viable model for development, which means its ability to impose its will is fading.
By Fyodor Lukyanov
The recent festival of big Western politics – which began with a meeting of the European Council, continued with the G7 Summit, and ended with a major NATO gathering – provides plenty of food for thought about the fate of the world.
On the surface, what we have seen is impressive: The West is showing unprecedented unity in the face of the Russian campaign in Ukraine.
America has gathered almost all of its allies. Right now, from Australia to Norway, from Singapore to Portugal, and from Japan to Iceland, the agenda is the same – to prevent the success of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who represents a rejection of the so-called ‘rules-based order’.
The brutality and irreversibility of what is happening in Ukraine gives the situation the character of a moral choice. Almost all statements from Western leaders refer to a confrontation between “civilization and barbarism”. Accordingly, they believe, there should be no doubt about which side to take.
The Western community has now reached maximum capacity – its European flank (EU and NATO members plus Ukraine and Moldova), its Asian club (South Korea, Japan, and Singapore stopped wavering and took the ‘right’ side), the Oceania pairing, and of course, North America. The ‘free world’ has never been so vast.
This raises a serious question, however. Has the West reached its natural limit beyond which expansion is no longer possible? And if so, what does it mean?
In fact, the topic of the limits of Western influence stems from the notorious concept of the ‘end of history’, which is already so worn out that it is even inconvenient to bring it up. Nevertheless, it is appropriate in this context. Francis Fukuyama’s reflections (he was recently banned from entering Russia, as it happens) led him to conclude that with the collapse of the communist alternative, the only question that remained was how soon and how painlessly the Western economic and socio–political model – which had proved its virtues in the showdown with the USSR – would spread to the rest of the world. The author admitted that it would not be without snags, but in general, the direction was determined once and for all.
How things actually played out after the collapse of the USSR is well known, and despite the fact that numerous crises in developed countries have dimmed the view of the expected path of development, the system has been preserved – and no one has yet come close to the Western world in terms of well-being and comfort. And the Western media still has a near-monopoly on determining the picture of what is happening on a global scale. This means it has a huge head start. But the limit seems to have been reached.
Perhaps the main surprise resulting from the events of recent months is that the West has failed to engage so much of the world in a united front against Russia – the exceptions being those who are already part of the West and a few who passionately want to join the club.
This is unexpected, since few people approve of Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Moscow is dealing with problems that are seemingly irrelevant to anyone but itself, and the harsh methods and humanitarian consequences of the conflict do not elicit much sympathy from outside. In other words, objectively, the West has an excellent chance to win over most of the rest of the world by taking the line that its cause here is about opposition to barbarism.
But this is not happening. Why? There are perhaps three main reasons.
Firstly, the non-Western world knows perfectly well that wars on the planet have never stopped, including in the last 30 years, and statements from the EU states about the era of ‘harmony and prosperity’ that Putin interrupted are perceived as both selfishness and hypocrisy. Telling people in the Middle East, for example, that Russia has violated every conceivable moral standard is, to put it mildly, difficult in light of what the region has experienced since the Cold War ended.
Secondly, most in the former third world see the current events as the culmination of a long-standing conflict related to the assertive policies of the US and its allies regarding the territories directly adjacent to Russia. Their attitude is something like: ‘What did you expect would happen when you provoked the tiger?’
Finally, the reaction of the majority of the planet illustrates their irritation with the West as a whole. It is perceived as a hegemon with a colonial history which is always abusing its powers. The reason is not support for Russia’s actions, but opposition to the West’s attempts to impose its will on others, which often harms their own interests. Also, schadenfreude over America’s failed attempts to impose its will compensates for any doubts about the legitimacy of Moscow’s actions.
In other words, it’s not about sympathy for Russia, but antipathy to the West.
Western leaders are both surprised and alarmed by this situation. If the initial calls to join the boycott of Russia amounted to orders, now the demands have been replaced by exhortations and attempts to promise something in return. The selection of the G7 Summit guests – the presidents of India, Indonesia, Senegal, Argentina, and South Africa – is indicative.
The invited parties were warmly welcomed. Everyone was in a hurry to tap Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the shoulder and give him attention. But apart from general statements, nothing happened. And almost in parallel with the events in Europe, Modi participated in a virtual BRICS summit, and Argentina, it seems, together with Iran, has applied to join this emerging association.
The position of non-Western states is dictated not only by anti-colonial instincts, although they do exist. More importantly, in the new conditions, it is difficult for the West to offer the leading countries of the rest of the world anything that would force them to radically change their positions. There are now alternative sources of resources for development – a number of members of the former third world today have money, skills, and to some extent, technology. The West is still ahead of them in many ways, but – and this is fundamentally important – it has now completely lost the desire to share its advantages.
Simply because it now fears competition from them – the experience of American support for the development of China is considered a mistake by the current elites.
Developing countries are of course interested in Western investment, but the nature of interaction is also changing. To put it mildly, the former third world is becoming more demanding and picky, and the West’s ability to impose its own conditions has weakened amid large-scale global changes.
The series of meetings in Europe was intended to show that the West is still the undisputed vanguard of the world, which has both the right and responsibility to lead others. For instance, NATO is once again attempting to become a global organization rather than regional.
The bloc’s most recent experience of this kind – in Afghanistan – ended in embarrassment. But now the approach is more natural – opposition to Russia.
As they see it, Russia is a threat to Western European security (as it was in the glory days of NATO), but it is also a dangerous pariah for all mankind, so opposing it will help expand the US-led club globally. Moreover, the specter of China looms – a systemic competitor to the West and, even better, an accomplice of ‘the Russians’.
How much the Western world itself is united for the full implementation of such a mission is a topic for another article. There are a lot of nuances here. However, even assuming that this is the case, there is no reason to think that NATO’s ambition will meet with understanding beyond its borders.
As a consequence, the broad refusal to recognize the right of the West to lead means there will no longer be a world order based on Western rules.
So People Are Buying Inflatable Jesus Now…
In today’s epizode of “Weird stuff people buy” we have Inflatable Jesus blow-up doll that people are actually buying (for some strange reason). Maybe they choosing to have Jesus in their lives in a more literal way…
Easy to inflate, Jesus is 50cm (19.6 inches) tall, looks super lifelike with long locks, hipster beard and flowing white robe. He promises not to punish you with flood or famine if you do something remiss.
He’s very friendly and will serve as a reminder to go out and do good in the world. If you need proof that he’s the messiah he even floats (walks) on water! This Jesus also deflates for easy storage when you need a break from the Lord.
This might be a pretty good gag gift for someone who is not afraid to burn in hell, or for your Christian friend you wish to piss off. As you can see from the Instagram posts below, people are really spending their hard-earned money on this thing, and hanging out with it:
U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Being EXPORTED – We are Being Sold-Out
More than 5 million barrels of oil that were part of a U.S. emergency oil reserves release aimed at lowering domestic fuel prices . . . were exported to Europe and Asia last month, according to data and sources, even as U.S. gasoline and diesel prices touched record highs.
The export of crude and fuel is blunting the impact of the moves by U.S. President Joe Biden designed to lower record pump prices. Biden on Saturday renewed a call for gasoline suppliers to cut their prices, drawing criticism from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
About 1 million barrels per day is being released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) through October. The flow is draining the SPR, which last month fell to the lowest since 1986.
U.S. crude futures are above $105 per barrel and gasoline and diesel prices above $5 a gallon in one-fifth of the nation https://gasprices.aaa.com/. U.S. officials have said oil prices could be higher if the SPR had not been tapped.
The fourth-largest U.S. oil refiner, Phillips 66, shipped about 470,000 barrels of sour crude from the Big Hill SPR storage site in Texas to Trieste, Italy, according to U.S. Customs data. Trieste is home to a pipeline that sends oil to refineries in central Europe.
Atlantic Trading & Marketing (ATMI), an arm of French oil major TotalEnergies, exported 2 cargoes of 560,000 barrels each, the data showed.
Phillips 66 declined to comment on trading activity. ATMI did not respond to a request for comment.
Cargoes of SPR crude were also headed to the Netherlands and to a Reliance refinery in India, an industry source said. A third cargo headed to China, another source said — even though China is buying oil directly from Russia and ignoring US Sanctions upon Russia!
At least one cargo of crude from the West Hackberry SPR site in Louisiana was set to be exported in July, a shipping source added.
“Crude and fuel prices would likely be higher if (the SPR releases) hadn’t happened, but at the same time, it isn’t really having the effect that was assumed,” said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at Kpler.
The latest exports follow three vessels that carried SPR crude to Europe in April helping replace Russian crude supplies.
HAL TURNER EDITORIAL OPINION
The United States of America is being intentionally weakened and drained of resources vital to our survival and to our national security.
Almost one-third of our military weaponry/ ammunition, and armor, has been exported to either Europe (for NATO) or donated to Ukraine.
Now we find that OUR emergency oil reserves are not being used here in the USA, but instead, being shipped OUT OF THE COUNTRY.
If the U.S. is attacked or, God forbid, invaded, we won’t have enough weapons or ammunition, and now, we won’t even have enough of OUR OWN OIL!
This is an intentional weakening of the nation; perhaps to make us ripe for takeover.
Remember who the people are in charge, who are doing these things, so they can be held personally accountable.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions at a joint news conference with Foreign Minister of Belarus Vladimir Makei following talks, Minsk, June 30, 2022
Esteemed Mr Makei,
Ladies and gentlemen,
As my colleague and friend has just said, our talks took place in a truly friendly atmosphere of trust and were very substantial, as they should be between allies and strategic partners. First, I would like to thank our Belarusian friends once again for their traditional hospitality in the wonderful city of Minsk and for the brilliant, streamlined organisation of our work.
The visit is timed to an important historical date – 30 years of diplomatic relations (June 25). Of course, this is just one more, albeit important, landmark in the centuries-old history of our truly fraternal nations. To mark this occasion, we have just cancelled postal envelopes specially issued for this date and signed an anniversary joint statement that I hope you will read. It is worth it.
We emphasised that in the past few years we have traversed a long road in developing our integration. The foreign ministries of Russia and Belarus provide diplomatic support for implementing 28 union economic integration programmes endorsed by the Supreme State Council of the Union State in November 2021.
Today, we reviewed topical bilateral issues. We also discussed the schedule of forthcoming contacts, including preparations for a joint meeting of the foreign ministry collegiums of Russia and Belarus, scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. We reviewed implementation of the plan for foreign ministry consultations in 2022-2023.
We believe we have managed to achieve remarkable success in trade, and economic and investment cooperation. Last year, bilateral trade reached about $40 billion. Major joint projects, such as, for example, the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, are underway. Industrial cooperation is on the up and up, paving the way for new industrial and logistics chains.
We have a high opinion of the vigorous and broad development of interregional ties. Today, the 9th Forum of Russian and Belarusian Regions is to kick off in Grodno, where contracts worth an estimated $1 billion, a record-high amount, are expected to be signed.
We spoke at length about regional and international matters and agreed to continue enhancing foreign policy coordination and stand up together for the interests of our two countries in the world arena, in keeping with the two-year programmes on coordinating our actions in foreign policy.
We supported further steps towards more active cooperation in multilateral associations, primarily, in the EAEU, CSTO and the CIS. We have almost identical views on how Eurasian cooperation should develop in the future.
We agreed that we would also continue to coordinate our approaches in other multilateral formats, first and foremost, at the UN and the OSCE. We discussed the progress on the projects that are being carried out in Belarus under the auspices of the United Nations, many of which are being funded by the Russian side. We will vigorously continue to oppose any attempts to politicise human rights issues. We see hopeless attempts like this being made at the UN and the OSCE. The West keeps making them with enviable persistence.
We are seriously concerned about NATO’s activities in close vicinity to our borders, primarily in the Baltic states and Poland. We share the opinion that these activities are openly confrontational and tend to lead to more tensions, as well as the division of the European security and cooperation space, that is, they are producing the results which the establishment of the OSCE was supposed to help prevent. Now they are dismantling all this with their own hands, waiving, among other things, the principle of indivisible security, which was publicly declared at the highest level in the OSCE in the late 1990s and in 2010, when it was said that no country should enhance its security at the expense of others. The West’s actions have buried this principle.
In the light of the manifestly unfriendly steps taken by the United States and its satellites towards our countries, we reaffirmed that we are firmly determined to further preclude any attempts by the West to interfere in our domestic affairs. We agreed to continue to join efforts to oppose illegitimate unilateral actions by Washington, Brussels and their allies in the international arena.
We advised our colleagues of our assessments of the special military operation in Ukraine. We maintain regular dialogue on these issues. Our presidents discussed this topic at a top-level meeting in St Petersburg on June 25.
We are grateful to our Belarusian allies for completely understanding the causes, goals and tasks of the special military operation. President Vladimir Putin discussed these issues in his remarks yesterday concerning the results of the Caspian Five Summit in Ashgabat.
We focused on biological security, while exchanging opinions on strategic stability and arms control. We agree that US activities on post-Soviet space are quite dangerous and non-transparent. The activities of Pentagon’s biolabs in Ukraine highlight the risks they bear. We exposed these facts but failed to obtain a US response. So, we initiated a process, stipulated by the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, in full compliance with its Article 5. We sent inquiries to countries, parties to this important international treaty. We perceive threats to the national security of Russia and Belarus, the reluctance of the United States to ensure the transparency of its military-biological activities in many countries on post-Soviet space, primarily those around Russia and Belarus. We have an agreement, within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, to establish close and transparent interaction on these issues, in order to counter attempts to advance such projects (that cause concern in our countries) behind the scenes and without due transparency.
We are also cooperating in order to counter the dirty information war unleashed by the collective West against our countries. We agreed to expand and upgrade Russian-Belarusian media cooperation, and you should be particularly interested in this issue.
We are satisfied with the results of the talks. They help advance our foreign policy coordination still further on the basis of allied and strategic partnership for the benefit of our countries and fraternal nations.
Question: A risky redivision of the world’s energy sector is taking place. What are the United States and the EU counting on, while renouncing Russian imports?
Sergey Lavrov: I believe that everyone understands what they are counting on. They have no misgivings about openly discussing this issue. They noted this once again yesterday, at the NATO summit in Madrid. They are expecting all other states to unfailingly obey their will, reflecting their selfish interests, primarily those of the United States. We have repeatedly been convinced that modern Europe, in the form of the EU, is losing its independence or even the signs of independence that it once had. Europe completely obeys positions that the United States imposes on it, including those in the sphere of economic sanctions. It is renouncing Russian imports and demolishing logistic and financial chains that had taken decades to create.
Look at the current list of sanctions. I suggest that you conduct this interesting analysis. Compare restrictions that European countries are imposing on Russia and Belarus with the relevant US restrictions. The United States is sparing itself and is trying not to encroach on various spheres that could seriously damage its own economy. Yes, the United States is also experiencing negative effects from this activity, but Europe is suffering much more. I believe that, apart from “punishing” our countries, the United States wants to weaken the European Union as its rival.
Question: At the Madrid summit, NATO stated that Russia was the main threat to the Alliance according to its new strategic concept. Following this statement and their decision to fortify the eastern flank, does Moscow consider itself bound by its commitments under the Russia-NATO Founding Act, or has this document lost its validity?
Sergey Lavrov: In the legal sense, the Founding Act continues to exist. We did not initiate the procedure for terminating this agreement. In the run-up to the summit, NATO had lengthy and vocal discussions about whether they still needed the Act or whether they would be better off abandoning it. As a result, they decided to let this matter be, but their decisions grossly violate the Founding Act, primarily with regard to NATO’s commitment not to permanently deploy significant combat forces on the territory of new (Eastern European) Alliance members.
We will analyse the situation and decide on our further moves depending on how and in what form NATO will move forward with the decisions it adopted and announced.
Question: Will it be possible to restore more or less acceptable political and diplomatic relations with EU countries in the future? Will there be another Iron Curtain? Do we have a bloc like NATO or the EU?
Sergey Lavrov (adding after Vladimir Makei): I agree with almost all of that. As for our relations with the EU, Russia has not had them since 2014. Brussels swallowed the humiliating move by the opposition forces which perpetrated a coup in Ukraine in defiance of EU guarantees. In response, the Crimea residents refused to live in a neo-Nazi state. Ukraine’s eastern regions did the same, and the European Union failed to muster enough courage to talk sense into the putschists who carried out an illegal power grab, and in fact began to support them in their attack, including physical, on the people of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. When the referendum took place in Crimea and the DPR and the LPR were proclaimed, the European Union, instead of pushing for compliance with the agreements between President Yanukovych and the opposition it had co-sponsored, sided with the ultranationalist and deep down neo-Nazi regime which proclaimed fighting the Russian language and culture as its goal. In the years that followed, the regimes led by Poroshenko and Zelensky proved Kiev’s loyalty to this particular course.
In 2014, when it all happened, the EU, feeling powerless and aware of its own inability to enforce implementation of its own proposals, said the Russian Federation was to blame. It imposed sanctions on our country and cancelled the Russia-EU summit planned for June 2014, destroyed every other mechanism that it took us decades to create, such as biannual summits, annual meetings between the Russian Government and the European Commission, four common spaces that underlay four road maps, 20 sector-specific dialogues, including a dialogue on visa-free travel and much more. All of that was ruined overnight. Relations have been non-existent since then. There were occasional technical contacts, but nothing major. No wonder there are no relations now, but we never close ourselves off. From now on, we will never trust the Americans or the EU. We are doing our best not to depend on them in the sectors that are critically important for survival of the state, the people and our security. When and if they get over their obsession and come back with some kind of a proposal, we will see what exactly it is about. We will not play along with their self-serving plans. If it comes to resuming the dialogue, we will push for a level playing field for everyone and a focus on balancing the interests of all participants on an equal footing.
With regard to the Iron Curtain, it is already on its way down. They should make sure they don’t get anything caught in it as it goes down. In all other matters, we have a straightforward position: we are for things being fair.
In 2014, our “partners” refused to hold a summit amid serious events, including a coup, a referendum in Crimea, and a radical change in the situation in the Black Sea region. If you were serious about searching for solutions, this meeting was the way forward. It could have been used to have a candid discussion about the complaints and the counter questions the partners in the Russian Federation had for the EU. The withdrawal from all contacts that took place after March 2014 only goes to show that the EU is not interested in a dialogue, and does not want to understand our interests or listen to what we have to say. What it wants is for everyone to agree with the Brussels’ decisions which are a carbon copy of the decisions made in Washington. We have been able to see that in recent years.
Question: Norway has refused to allow Russian cargo, including food, medicines, and necessary equipment, to Spitsbergen. What steps will be taken to resolve this issue? What might our response be, if any?
Sergey Lavrov: First, we want to see Norway respond to our reaction that immediately followed the incident. We sent an official request demanding clarification as to how this move aligns with Norway’s commitments under the Spitsbergen Treaty of 1920. I hope they will respond promptly. Then, we will analyse the situation. And we will act quickly.
Russia Demands Israel Stop Sovereignty-Violating Airstrikes on Syria
Russia issued a statement Monday, warning such attacks are “categorically unacceptable.”
By Jason Ditz
Over the weekend, Israel carried out attacks against a poultry farm on the Syrian coast, wounding two civilians. Russia issued a statement Monday, warning such attacks are “categorically unacceptable.”
Russia has positions on the Syrian coast, and has warned Israel away from the area before. The latest attack came from the coast, and conspicuously Russia didn’t comment when it happened.
The Russians say it violates Syrian sovereignty, and is against international norms. Those are plainly true things, but have never stopped Israel before.
Israel has shown time and again they’re willing to keep attacking over objections. If Russia decides to flat out stop them militarily, they clearly could, but so far that’s not been the case.
Instead Russia has tried to deter further attacks with air defenses. That’s allowed Syria to intercept more Israeli missiles, but not stop them outright. This warning sounds serious, but so did the last few without any action to stop the attacks.
EURO CURRENCY PLUNGING AGAINST U.S. DOLLAR
The EURO currency is plunging in value against the U.S. Dollar all day Tuesday, as the world realizes what absolutely must happen as a result of Russia’s announcement they will no longer sell vital commodities to “unfriendly nations.”
At the start of currency trading in the world Tuesday, it took 92 “EURO cents” to buy one U.S. Dollar. As the day wore on, the value of the EURO plunged so that it now takes 105.552 EURO cents to buy one U.S. dollar. That’s a plunge in value of 14.47% in one day!
The chart below shows the plunge of the EURO in trading today:
The reason this is happening has to do with a Decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, July 4. In that Decree, Russia declared it will no longer sell vital commodities to “unfriendly nations.”
Since March, Russia decided that they would allow European countries to deposit EUROS into Russia’s GAZPROM Bank, the bank would convert the money into Rubles (Russia’s national currency) and those Rubles would be sent into Russia to pay for goods and services.
The reason Russia did that was because Europe SEIZED / CONFISCATED upwards of $285 BILLION in Russian Sovereign Wealth Funds that had been held on deposit in European Banks. The money was grabbed by Europe as “Sanctions” against Russia for entering Ukraine militarily.
Put simply, Europe stole Russia’s money.
The Russians, unwilling to be robbed again, then established the trade policy outlined above, depositing EUROS in GAZPROM Bank branches IN EUROPE, having them converted into Rubles, and then sending the Rubles into Russia to pay. Through this method, Europe was unable to seize any more Russian money.
In the ensuing months, the Europeans have literally doubled-down on Sanctions, grabbing the yachts of Russian wealthy oligarchs, cutting off transit of goods from Russia into its exclave state (oblast) of Kaliningrad.
So now, Russia has decreed that they will no longer sell vital commodities — at all — to unfriendly nations.
This means, among other things, no gas, no oil, no wheat, no barley, no chemical neon gas, etc.
Well, Europe NEEDS those things to exist. Without Russian oil and gas, European industry won’t be able to operate. Plants will shut down. Jobs will be abolished. Products won’t be manufactured.
Without gas, European power plants won’t be able to generate enough electricity to keep businesses running. There also won’t be enough gas for common citizens in Europe to heat their homes this coming winter.
Without Russian Wheat and other agriculture, Europeans will go hungry.
This is the future of Europe: Cold, hungry, no jobs, no industry.
Europe thought they could literally break Russia’s economy with Sanctions over Ukraine. Instead, what actually happened was Russia’s economy got through a tough hit and survived, but now Europe’s economy is the one being actually destroyed; by their own Sanctions.
Because the money class sees that Europe cannot survive economically, or agriculturally, they realize the European Currency will likely collapse and be worthless. So they’re SELLING EUROS to get rid of them while they still have value.
The chart below show the gains by the U.S. Dollar against the EURO today:
Thus, today’s plunge in value of the EURO versus the U.S. Dollar.
Trouble is, as Europe goes . . . so goes the United States about two or three weeks later.
Of course, the US has it’s own oil and natural gas, so while it will be amazingly expensive, we’ll still be able to get it.
And the US is a large producer of Agriculture, despite the fed Gov doing it’s best to order farmers to plow-under their fields due to greenhouse gases, carbon emissions, and environmental concerns. So while food will get stunningly expensive, there will still be food in America.
There may not be, in Europe.
The real impact upon the U.S. will come as European industry closes. THAT is what will hit U.S. industry very hard, and whether it survives . . . is a real question.
As of today, what Europe absolutely, positively, without doubt and without fail, WILL SUFFER, can only be compared to the Great Depression and conditions during World War 2.
They WILL suffer this, by the end of 2022. No way to avoid it. At all.
What the U.S. will end up suffering will be somewhere between the great depression and the 2008 financial crisis. Closer, though, to the Great Depression. Because without products and services from Europe, the US will see wide swaths of its industry, crippled.
Thank all those people who pushed “free trade” in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. They are personally to blame for what’s coming because they outsourced so much production to foreign entities, so they could personally pocket the money saved by reduced labor costs of foreign lands, while keeping prices for goods the same as they had previously been.
They sold out America to line their own pockets. THAT is what the “free trade” crowd did.
The Question of Ancient Kings: Cerdic of Wessex, First Saxon King of England?
Historians of the ancient world face a myriad of challenges when studying the past. Centuries of legends and myths become intertwined with recorded facts, leaving behind a complex web of mystery. Such is the case with Cerdic of Wessex. Was he an ancient Saxon conqueror, or a British ealdorman? Did he do battle with King Arthur, or was he the legendary wielder of Excalibur himself? Did Cerdic of Wessex even exist?
Cerdic of Wessex and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , Cerdic of Wessex did, indeed, exist. The Chronicle was the first attempt at an official record of English history, written around 890 AD and edited up until 1100 AD. It tells us that Cerdic was a Saxon (referring to people of Germanic descent who occupied central and northern Germany) chieftain who landed at modern-day Hampshire in 495 with five ships full of warriors.
- The Reign of Aethelwulf, King of Wessex: Between Realm and Religion
- King Egbert of Wessex Conquers all to Become Bretwalda, the First King of a United England
By 519, Cerdic and his son, Cynric, had laid claim to swathes of land through a series of battles with the Britons. After his victory at the Battle of Cerdic’s Ford, Cerdic established the Kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex) with himself as king.
Cerdic is thought to have died in 534, yet his influence lasted for centuries. Some genealogies of the English monarchy claim that every monarch of England except for Canute, Hardecanute, the Harolds, and William the Conqueror descended from Cerdic.
South Britain in the early 6th century, which more or less corresponds to when Cerdic of Wessex lived. (my work / CC BY-SA 3.0 )
Cerdic of Wessex: King or Ealdorman?
Here is where the historical record becomes complicated. First, scholars have noted that “Cerdic” is a British name , not Saxon. Additionally, the Chronicle refers to Cerdic and Cynric as ealdormen, not kings. If they were leaders of an invading party from the continent, why the title of ealdormen, which suggests they were appointed officials in some capacity?
Finally, ancient sources differ and conflict in their account of Cerdic’s life, reign, and lineage, and the Chronicle, our primary source of evidence regarding Cerdic, was written 350 years after the events described.
Still, while the accuracy of the record cannot be completely trusted, Cerdic is referenced in numerous works. Additionally, three locations in England bear his name: Cerdicesford, Cerdicesleaga, and Cerdicesbeorg. We can presume that these places were named after an influential person, and that that person was Cerdic.
Theories Regarding Cerdic’s Name
Rodney Castleden, author of numerous well-respected history books, posits that Cerdic may have been a Briton whose family was entrusted by the late Roman Empire to defend a portion of the Saxon Shore (a series of fortifications put in place along both sides of the English Channel). Cerdic may have decided to expand his territory and initiated his invasion from his family’s holding. This would explain the title of ealdormen as well as the British etymology of the name and is supported by the lack of Saxon architecture in the area.
Castleden further argues that Cerdic may have been neither Germanic nor a local of what would later be called Wessex; he may have come from Sussex as an advance party. Cerdic’s arrival along the Southampton coast in 495 coincides with Aelle’s (King of the South Saxons) consolidation of his kingdom and would be a logical strategic maneuver. The name “Cerdic” may have been a nickname given by other residents of Sussex and adopted by Cerdic, as Saxons taking on British names was not unprecedented (Castleden points to Caedbaed, an Anglo-Saxon king who took a British name). But while these are historically logical explanations of some aspects of Cerdic’s aura of mystery, what of his relation to King Arthur ?
Arthurian Legend and Cerdic, King of Wessex
First, historical consensus is that there is no evidence King Arthur was a real person. The two primary descriptions of Arthur, Nennius’ history of Arthur’s 12 battles and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the King’s of Britain, are based primarily on poetry or a long-lost manuscript that Monmouth supposedly had access to. Each presents a series of physical impossibilities. For example, Nennius’ 12 battles were so geographically widespread it is unlikely Arthur could have participated in all of them. Additionally, the only surviving contemporary historic record of a battle between the Saxons and Britons (Badon Hills) does not describe Arthur at all. How, then, did Cerdic become involved in the myth and legend of Arthur?
Details regarding the life and exploits of Cerdic are hardly available, which likely lead to historians “filling in the blanks” over centuries of writing. In his 1862 book, The Manual of Dates, George H. Townsend references a battle fought in 520 between Cerdic and Arthur. Yet, if Arthur, who supposedly never lost a fight, won a resounding victory over Cerdic of Wessex, why was Cerdic allowed to conquer so much territory and establish a kingdom? While much of Arthur’s supposed life is shrouded in total mystery, at least portions of Cerdic’s are accepted as fact, including his successful invasion of the Isle of Wight in 530, just a few years after he was supposed to have been defeated by Arthur. Thus, even if Arthur existed, it seems highly unlikely the two ever met on the battlefield.
Silent Hill Promotional Event In Tokyo
Models dressed as bandaged nurses take part in a promotional event for the film “Silent Hill” on June 22, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan.
Are Cerdic and King Arthur One in the Same?
Historians John and Joseph Rudmin noted a number of similarities between the Arthur of legend and the Cerdic of history (who they posit was also known as Ceredig Vreichvras). They examined several writings regarding both figures and created a table comparing them side-by-side, revealing striking parallels. The paper makes for fascinating reading and argues that King Arthur and Cerdic were actually the same person, which the authors claim resolves a number of the problems surrounding Arthur’s potential presence in history. Others, however, have pointed out that these conclusions rest on the shaky foundations of assumption and lack the kind of hard historical evidence necessary to draw a firm conclusion.
Ultimately, modern historians must grapple with the fact that history has often been used as a political tool. For centuries (and yes, even today) historical narratives served to bolster nationalism, to push political ideals, to boost the reputation of leaders, or to minimize dark deeds.
This fact, when combined with the often ill-recorded details of the ancient world, leads to figures like King Arthur and Cerdic of Wessex, people shrouded in mystery whose lives were mythologized by successive chroniclers of history weaving stories to suit their needs.
We may never know the actual truth of who Cerdic was, why he was so influential, or whether he may have inspired Arthurian legend, but to be honest, the mysteries of history are half the fun.
This is what “Diversity” Actually Is . . .
The politically-correct, and the weak-minded have, for years, told us that “Diversity is our strength” when reality shows it is just the opposite. Want proof? Watch the two minute video of “Diversity” attacking in New York City . . .
The video below is from Bel Fries in New York City. The three women were told that the fries they ordered would cost $1.75 more for the extra sauce they wanted. The women didn’t want to pay the $1,75 . . . . so they did this:
THIS is what “Diversity” actually is:
The New York City Police Department has confirmed the arrests of the three women: Pearl Ozaria , 27, Chitara Plasencia , 25, and Tatiyanna Johnson , 23.”
Ahhhhhh “Diversity.” Had enough yet?
The U.S. is welcoming Finland and Sweden to NATO. That’s a mistake.
When NATO alliance members meet in Madrid this week, one of the featured agenda items is Finland and Sweden’s request to officially join the alliance. The NATO leadership has welcomed their ascension, with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg saying the two countries’ “membership in NATO would increase our shared security.” Though member state Turkey originally signaled it objected to the idea, it lifted its opposition after a breakthrough on Tuesday that clears the way for the Nordic states.
While enlarging NATO might seem like a wise thing to do in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it doesn’t take much sober analysis to conclude that adding yet more NATO members is likely to have the opposite effect of what the secretary general hopes.
Instead of lowering the chances of war, the membership of Finland and Sweden would increase the risk of future conflict for the entire alliance; adding two more triggers for Article 5 — the provision in the NATO charter that stipulates that an attack on one is an attack on all — would add to the risk of war for the entire alliance. That would be an unwise course in any case, but it’s particularly ill-advised given that it would make Finland and Sweden more vulnerable, as well.
Have Breakfast Ready in 60 Seconds Each Morning with these Freezer Friendly Breakfast Burritos
This is a SUPER IMPORTANT video. Check it out.
“Partnership in Blue Pacific” to Turn Pacific Islands into Anti-China War Zone
If world war III in Europe isn’t enough, they want it to also occur in the Pacific.
Finland and Sweden’s joining NATO is the ‘opposite of what President Putin wanted,’ says former Ambassador Bill Taylor
June 29, 202200:42
Russia poses no realistic threat to Sweden or Finland. Since World War II, Russia hasn’t exhibited the slightest interest in territorial acquisition in either country, and in fact, Finland and Russia were on friendly terms during the Cold War. In contrast, Russia was consistently and emphatically clear for 15 years that it regarded any NATO expansion along its border in either Ukraine or Georgia as an existential threat that it would use force to prevent — and in fact has done so twice (Georgia 2008 and Ukraine 2014). Thus Georgia and Ukraine had reason to fear a Russian attack. Finland and Sweden don’t.
Extending NATO membership to these two countries wouldn’t only burden the U.S., which would be expected to go to war on behalf of these two Nordic states if they are attacked. It would saddle Helsinki and Stockholm with troubles, as well. Up to now, if a war ever broke out between NATO and Russia, both Finland and Sweden would have been protected by their neutral status. If membership were extended to both, that protection would be gone.
If the two became NATO members and the alliance went to war with Russia in the future, both countries would be thrust almost immediately into an armed conflict whether they wanted to be or not — and even if their national interests weren’t otherwise threatened. Given their status as NATO members, the Kremlin would almost certainly attack airfields and ports in both countries to prevent other allies from using their facilities to stage attacks against Russia.
Federal Agents Personally Delivering “Cease and Desist” Letters for Social Media Postings about Gov’t
It's American "freedom" don't you know!
Four (4) federal Agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, paid a personal visit to Madeline Walker of Texas, to warn her, in writing, that her “harassing and threatening” social media posts about government ” are unnecessary and unwelcome” and if she doesn’t stop, they will arrest her under 18 USC 115.
Now, Ms. Walker is a radical leftist, pro-abortion person. In a recent social media post on Twitter about the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, she wrote:
“Burn every fucking government building down right the fuck now. Slaughter them all. Fuck you god damn pigs.”
Ms. Walker then found four federal agents banging on her Texas home’s front door early this morning. Among those agents was:
Joshua H. Henry, Special Agent, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, National Protection and Programs Directorate, Federal Protective Service out of Houston, TX, who questioned her about her posting and handed her this letter:
For what it’s worth, the Statute they cite is the precise statute under which I was personally convicted, after THREE trials in US District Court back in 2009 and 2010.
First trial in December, 2009, resulted in a Hung Jury. Second trial in March, 2010 also resulted in a Hung Jury. By the third trial, I was Bankrupt from having been held without Bail for writing an Editorial they didn’t like, filed bankruptcy because I could no longer afford to pay my attorneys – or anyone else- having been held in jail for 119 days without bail, and was given a public Defender. He did such a poor job that, at trial three in August, 2010, I was convicted.
I was Sentenced to 33 months in federal prison, for including in my Editorial about a Gun Control case in Chicago, my opinion that “these judges deserve to be killed.”
I was held in the Communications Management Unit (Terrorist Unit) at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana. Tighter security and fewer privileges than Super Max!
So, in short, I said someone “deserves” to be killed and got 33 months federal terrorist prison. She told the world: ““Burn every fucking government building down right the fuck now. Slaughter them all. Fuck you god damn pigs.” and she got a hand delivered cease and desist letter.
So right-wing conservatives like me get prison, while left-wing maniacs get a cease and desist letter. Same criminal statute! How’s THAT for “equal protection of the law?”
Oh and about the letter above, this is how they intend to intimidate Americans into shutting up. Calling protected speech “Harassment/threats” is deliberate intimidation by them.
Such is the state of “liberty” in the USA.
Pathetic.
Rationing Has Already Started In Europe As The Entire Globe Plunges Into A Horrific Economic Nightmare
If countries in Europe are already beginning to ration certain things due to “supply problems”, how long will it be before it starts happening in the United States? Up until the past couple of years, many of us in the western world always considered shortages to be something that only “unsophisticated” poor countries on the other side of the planet had to deal with. But the last couple of years have shown us that painful shortages can happen to wealthy countries in the western world too. At first we were told that they were “just temporary”, but the months went by and we just kept having more shortages. In fact, in 2022 “supply problems” have become so serious that many supermarkets in Europe have been forced to strictly ration essential items at various times. For example, it was being reported that due to the war in Ukraine flour, sunflower oil and sugar were all being rationed by stores in Greece…
After limiting the sale of some flours and sunflower oil online, Greek supermarkets are turning to rationing the sale of sugar as well, now including in their stores, over supply problems. The AB Vassilopoulos is setting a maximum limit on the purchase of all brands of corn and sunflower oil and of flour per customer while Mymarket put a ceiling on sunflower oil purchases and Sklavenitis has added sugar to the rationed sales of corn oil through its online store, with a maximum of four packs, the products in high demand from restaurants, some of which said they have to stop selling french fries and other fried foods.
Over the past few months we have seen similar measures implemented in other major European nations as well. For example, the war in Ukraine prompted some pretty severe rationing in Spain…
Sporadic shortages of products like eggs, milk, and other dairy products also hit Spain since the war in Ukraine began. And major supermarkets including Mercadona and Makro began rationing sunflower oil earlier this month. Now, stores will temporarily be allowed to limit “the number of goods that can be bought by a client,” according to information in the Official State Gazette published on Wednesday.
Looking forward, natural gas rationing is the next big thing that many people in Europe are talking about. The flow of Russian natural gas into Europe has been cut back, and it appears that this may soon cause widespread rationing in Italy…
Italy may start rationing natural-gas consumption to certain industrial giants, after Russia’s Gazprom halved supplies on Friday. On the weekend, the newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that the Italian government and energy industry would meet Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the crisis, with the likely outcome being the introduction of a state of alert under the country’s gas emergency protocol.
And CNN is reporting that Germany is “one step closer to rationing supplies” now that Russia has decided to reduce the flow of natural gas going to that country…
Europe’s biggest economy is now officially running short of natural gas and is escalating a crisis plan to preserve supplies as Russia turns off the taps. Germany on Thursday activated the second phase of its three-stage gas emergency program, taking it one step closer to rationing supplies to industry — a step that would deliver a huge blow to the manufacturing heart of its economy.
Of course there are other parts of the globe that are dealing with problems that are far, far more serious than what Europe is facing right now.
As I discussed in an article that I posted earlier this week, significant numbers of people are starting to literally drop dead from starvation in portions of eastern Africa. Global food supplies just keep getting tighter, and the head of the UN is openly telling us that the world is heading into an “unprecedented global hunger crisis”.
So if you have plenty of food to eat tonight, you should be thankful.
Here in the United States, economic conditions are deteriorating fairly rapidly, and most Americans are completely and totally unprepared for any sort of a major economic downturn. Earlier today, I came across yet another survey that shows that about 60 percent of all Americans are currently living paycheck to paycheck…
“We find that consumers in all income brackets — including those who make more than $100,000 annually — are living paycheck to paycheck. PYMNTS’ research finds that 61% of U.S. consumers were living paycheck to paycheck in April 2022, marking a 9 percentage point increase from 52% in April 2021, meaning that approximately three in five U.S. consumers devote nearly all of their salaries to expenses with little to nothing left over at the end of the month.”
So what is going to happen when those people start losing their jobs in large numbers?
Already, we have seen the number of tech layoffs greatly accelerate over the last couple of months.
Sadly, the layoffs will get much worse in the months ahead.
And as inflation continues to systematically eat away at our standard of living, Americans are turning to credit cards at a record pace…
As Americans grapple with the highest inflation in 40 years, the number of new credit cards have surged as more Americans rely on them to keep up with high prices. According to a recent report from the Federal Reserve, revolving credit (credit cards and lines of credit) increased by 19.6% from the previous year to $1.103 trillion.
Going into credit card debt is not a solution.
At best, it can buy you a little bit of time.
And it is especially a bad idea to go into credit card debt as we plunge into a recession.
At this point, almost everyone realizes that things are going to get bad. According to one recent poll, a whopping 85 percent of all Americans believe that the U.S. is “headed in the wrong direction”…
The national dissatisfaction is bipartisan. Most Americans, 85%, say the country is headed in the wrong direction. A majority of Republicans have been unhappy with the direction of the country since Biden’s election. Democrats had been positive about how things were going, but now 78% say the country is headed in the wrong direction.
I was astounded to see that 78 percent of Democrats believe that the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction with a Democrat in the White House.
I have never seen a number like that ever before.
But this is just another indication that the hour is late and that things are about to start getting really crazy out there.
For the moment, life is still at least somewhat normal in the western world.
Sadly, it won’t stay that way for long, and so I would recommend using your time wisely.
Neil Oliver: This supposed utopia we’re having rammed down our throats isn’t working
Well said. I really like Neil.
Pfizer fraud admitted
In an interview with The Defender, the lawyer representing whistleblower Brook Jackson said Pfizer is arguing the court should dismiss Jackson’s lawsuit alleging fraud in Pfizer’s COVID-19 clinical trials because the U.S. government knew about the wrongdoings but continued to do business with the vaccine maker.
A lawsuit filed by whistleblower Brook Jackson alleging Pfizer and two of its contractors manipulated data and committed other acts of fraud during Pfizer’s COVID-19 clinical trials is paused following a motion by the defendants to dismiss the case.
In an interview with The Defender, Jackson’s lawyer said Pfizer argued the lawsuit, which was filed under the False Claims Act, should be dismissed because the U.S. government knew of the wrongdoings in the clinical trials but continued to do business with the vaccine maker.
Under the False Claims Act, whistleblowers can be rewarded for confidentially disclosing fraud that results in a financial loss to the federal government.
However, a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded the scope of a legal principle known as “materiality” resulted in a series of federal court decisions in which fraud cases brought under the False Claims Act were dismissed.
As interpreted by the Supreme Court, if the government continued paying a contractor despite the contractor’s fraudulent activity, the fraud was not considered “material” to the contract.
Pfizer is a federal contractor because it signed multiple contracts with the U.S. government to provide COVID-19 vaccines and Paxlovid, a pill used to treat the virus.
“Pfizer claims they can get away with fraud as long as the government would write them a check despite knowing about the fraud,” attorney Robert Barnes said.
The other two defendants in the case are Ventavia Research Group, which conducted vaccine trials on behalf of Pfizer, and ICON PLC, also a Pfizer contractor.
In an attempt to strengthen the False Claims Act’s anti-retaliation provisions and install new safeguards against industry-level blacklisting of whistleblowers seeking employment, Congress in July 2021 introduced the False Claims Amendments Act of 2021.
In December 2021, Pfizer hired a well-connected lobbyist, Hazen Marshall, and the law firm Williams & Jensen to lobby against the bill.
Pfizer previously was heavily fined in connection with the False Claims Act. As part of a 2009 settlement, the company paid $2.3 billion in fines — the largest healthcare fraud settlement in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice — stemming from allegations of illegal marketing of off-label products not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“Pfizer, one of the most criminally fined drug companies in the world, wants to weaken the laws that hold them accountable,” Barnes told The Defender.
Congress has taken no action on the False Claims Amendments Act since November 2021, when the bill was added to the Senate’s legislative calendar.
Barnes said the outcome of Jackson’s case against Pfizer is significant not just for his client, but also for the American public.
“This case will determine if Big Pharma can rip off the American people using a dangerous drug that harms millions without any legal remedy because they claim the government was in on the scam.”
Jackson was a regional director for Ventavia for a brief period in 2020 but was fired after she notified the FDA about issues with Pfizer’s vaccine trials.
After she was fired, she gave The BMJ a cache of internal company documents, photos and recordings highlighting the alleged wrongdoing by Ventavia.
The documents she provided contained evidence of falsified data, blind trial failures and awareness on the part of at least one Ventavia executive that members of the company’s staff were “falsifying data.”
Jackson’s documents also provided evidence of administrators who had “no training” or medical certifications, or who provided “very little oversight” during the trials.
Jackson filed her complaint in August 2021, in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division, alleging Pfizer, Ventavia and ICON “deliberately withheld crucial information from the United States that calls the safety and efficacy of their vaccine into question.”
A district court judge in February unsealed Jackson’s complaint, which included 400 pages of exhibits.
According to the complaint, Jackson, who had more than 15 years of experience working with clinical trials, “repeatedly informed her superiors of poor laboratory management, patient safety concerns and data integrity issues” during the approximately two weeks she was employed by Ventavia.
“Brook [Jackson] brought a Qui Tam action and a retaliatory discharge case against Pfizer and others for fraud on the people concerning Pfizer’s false certifications to the U.S. Department of Defense about the safety and efficacy of their COVID-19 vaccine,” Barnes said.
A Qui Tam case refers to a provision under the False Claims Act that allows individuals and entities with evidence of fraud against federal programs or contracts to sue the wrongdoer on behalf of the U.S. government
“She was part of the clinical trials, witnessed extraordinary malfeasance, blew the whistle, and was quickly fired after she blew the whistle.”
Barnes said his legal team will in August file its opposition brief to Pfizer’s motion to dismiss, and the judge may rule on the motion to dismiss by fall 2022.
Full article HERE
We Are Witnessing A Stunning Breakdown Of Law And Order, And The Overwhelmed Police Seem Powerless To Stop It
Violent crimes are on the rise in six of America’s major cities and set to outpace the already historic levels of 2021 violent crime. Baltimore, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, and New York City are all on pace to break their 2021 levels of violent crime halfway through this year, with the nation’s largest city leading the group, according to crime data reviewed by Fox News.
At this point, violent crime is up 25.8 percent in New York City compared to the first half of last year.
That is staggering.
Of course New York City still has a way to go before it gets as bad as Chicago.
In the Windy City, there are hundreds of thousands of “high-priority emergency service calls” each year, and last year there were no police available to respond to those calls 52 percent of the time…
New data uncovered by Wirepoints through public records requests to the Chicago Police Department (CPD) reveal that in 2021 there were 406,829 incidents of high-priority emergency service calls for which there were no police available to respond. That was 52 percent of the 788,000 high-priority 911 service calls dispatched in 2021.
So if you are the victim of a violent crime in Chicago, your odds of having a police officer available to help you are about the same as guessing a coin flip correctly.
The following is a partial list of “high-priority emergency service calls” for which no police officer was available in 2021…
- 14,955 – assaults in progress.
- 17,828 – batteries in progress.
- 16,350 – person with a gun.
- 5,210 – person with a knife.
- 12,787 – shots fired (reports from people, not the city’s automated “Shotspotter”)
- 1,352 – person shot.
- 887 – person stabbed.
- 14,265 – domestic battery.
Despite numbers such as these, there are lots of people out there that are relentlessly calling for the police to be “defunded”.
Do they want total anarchy?
Because that is what would happen.
Our streets are already bad enough. As you can see from this video, police in Chicago are having a really difficult time even protecting themselves at this point.
But Chicago actually doesn’t have the highest murder rate in the nation.
That honor goes to New Orleans…
It’s no secret that New Orleans struggles with violent crime, but new statistics paint a grim picture of the Crescent City being on pace to be the murder capital of the United States if trends don’t change in 2022. According to data from AH Datalytics, compiled using the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, New Orleans has a per capita year-to-date homicide rate of 72 per 100,000 residents. The next three U.S. cities behind New Orleans are Birmingham with a per capita homicide rate of 59 per 100,000 residents and Baltimore and St. Louis, each with a per capita homicide rate of 58 per 100,000 residents.
So far this year, the murder rate in New Orleans is up 44 percent.
But the corporate media is trying to convince us that all of this is perfectly “normal”, aren’t they?
Do you believe them?
One man that will never be fooled is World War II veteran Carl Spurlin Deke. He just turned 100 years old on June 29th, and when he was interviewed by a local news outlet he boldly declared that the U.S. “is going to hell in a handbasket”…
Deke’s gratitude for his life quickly turned into an emotional confession about his concern about the entitlement and ungrateful grievance erupting from younger generations saying, “People don’t realize what they have. They b*tch about it. And then nowadays, I am so upset because the things we did, the things we fought for, and the boys that died for it, it’s all going down the drain.” Deke began weeping as he added “Our country is going to hell in a handbasket. We haven’t got the country we had when I was raised, not at all.” The 100-year-old WWII vet cried for those growing up in America today saying, “Nobody will have the opportunity I had. It’s just not the same. That’s not what our boys, that’s not what they died for.”
Sadly, he is 100 percent correct.
We are in an advanced state of decline, and it is getting worse with each passing day.
If things are this bad now, what will this country look like once economic conditions deteriorate quite a bit more?
Previous generations of young Americans were equipped to handle adversity.
This generation of young Americans is not.
The thin veneer of civilization that we all used to be able to take for granted is steadily disappearing, and our society is evolving into a horror show that would have been unrecognizable to previous generations.
If we would have done things differently, we could have gotten much different results.
Our choices have consequences, and now most of our major cities are being transformed into crime-infested hellholes right in front of our eyes.
Are there any old “Mad Magazine” fans out there?
Buying FLOODED Supercars at Salvage Auction for CHEAP!
Oh My God! Don’t ejaculate on your screen!
U.S. Generals Have Been Wrong on Ukraine. We Shouldn’t Be Shocked
Frederick B. Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army-Europe, claimed last month that Ukraine’s forces would soon slow Russia’s advance and, the New York Times reported, begin “to roll back its gains by late summer.” Hodges said his confidence was based on his belief that “the Ukrainian logistical situation getting better each week while the Russian logistical situation will slowly degrade.”
Such claims, however, are in contradiction to observable reality on the battlefield – and continue a disturbing, decades-long trend of poor and misleading advice given by America’s top military officers.
Listening over the past four months to what America’s retired generals and admirals have said on TV, one would be forgiven for believing that Ukraine is winning its war with Russia, that Putin’s troops and leaders are incompetent, and that soon Ukrainian troops will begin rolling the Russians back.
Such belief, however, would be badly misplaced, as substantial evidence indicates virtually the opposite.
A Rosy Look at the Brutal Battle in Ukraine
Rosy, optimistic – and inaccurate – assessments from U.S. flag officers have unfortunately become the norm over the past few decades. While some current and former generals give excellent and accurate assessments, there are far too many that don’t. The consequence to American policy has often been severe. It is time to reassess how much credibility we should place with American generals and admirals.
As I have chronicled on these pages, the conditions and military fundamentals clearly evident for years have strongly suggested that Ukraine could not win a war with Russia, and that both Kyiv and Washington should have made different policy choices based on that reality, both before and since Russia’s illegal invasion. But as graphically detailed below, active and retired flag officers have continually claimed that – ignoring clear evidence to the contrary – Ukraine has a chance to win the war.
Encouraging Ukraine to Keep Up the Fight
Such unwarranted assertions have led policymakers and the American public to believe, improperly, that we should continue encouraging Ukraine to maintain its fight against Russia. American official policy has been to provide Kyiv with substantial armaments to defend itself and overwhelming emotional support.
If the generals were right, if Ukraine were indeed close to winning the war, and if the aid we have offered could tip the scales in Kyiv’s favor, then our policy might make sense. But it doesn’t. Ukraine isn’t winning the war and isn’t even close to parity, much less superiority, to Russian forces.
In my most recent piece at 19FortyFive, I detail many of the practical, military reasons Ukraine is losing the war and is likely to continue losing. In my assessment, if Kyiv continues refusing to seek a negotiated settlement with Russia – something that is understandably repugnant to many Ukrainian citizens and government – they are in danger not merely of sliding into a long-term stalemate, but of outright losing the war.
I do not hesitate to admit that I can’t guarantee an outcome in this war. There are too many variables and information I don’t have, and do not have access to the secret council of either the Russian or Ukrainian general staff, or that of the western NATO leaders. A number of things could change the dynamics and trajectory of the war, which are not publicly known. Of course events that have yet to happen could result in major course changes.
But as I have laid out in detail, the current trends and military fundamentals reveal Ukraine is unquestionably losing this war. For the conditions to change dramatically enough to make an eventual Ukrainian military victory possible, as many generals continue to claim, would require a radical shift from today’s realities. Beyond mere rhetoric, there is no evidence such a radical shift is forthcoming. It is therefore irresponsible, I argue, to tell the American people that the desired outcome is possible when all evidence screams that it’s not – and downright cruel to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and civilian population, to foster a belief that they have a chance.
Should Washington Change Course?
To have the best chance to protect America’s vital national interests and save as many Ukrainian people as possible from being killed, Washington must change course and begin to form policy based on a frank and honest assessment of the combat, economic, and diplomatic realities of this war. It will be hard to get to that rational place, however, unless we first recognize the consistently rosy pictures painted by America’s flag officers over the past few decades have been atrocious.
My 21 years of active service in the U.S. Army, including four combat deployments, has put me in a position to personally observe many of the mistakes and bad judgments of both active and retired generals. The cumulative result of their frequently flawed advice has been uniformly bad for our country, resulting in some of the worst military and foreign policy decisions our country has made.
Whether it was routine claims, made over a 20-year period, of success in the Afghan War when events conclusively proved it was always a disastrous failure, or perpetual claims of success during and after the 2003 Iraq war – before the Iraqi Security Forces the U.S. trained melted away at the first contact with the Islamic State – senior American military leaders have consistently misled the American public on the true state of affairs.
Since virtually the beginning of the Ukraine-Russian war, American active and retired generals have consistently claimed that Russian troops were incompetent, that their troops were ill-disciplined, arrogant, unmotivated, and sometimes rebelled against their leaders and refused to fight. The Russians, many generals claimed, could not win, with Gen. Hodges claiming that Ukraine would begin rolling back Putin’s troops before the end of this summer.
Yet Russia controls more than 20 percent of Ukrainian territory and continues conquering urban center after urban center in the Donbas, killing upwards of 200 troops per day, wounding another 500 in the process.
Russia outguns Ukraine 20-1 in howitzers, 40-1 in artillery shells and Rockets, and has a significant advantage in air power. There is no rational basis upon which to claim that Ukraine can stop the Russians, much less roll them back.
It is appropriate, in light of the awful record active and retired general officers have amassed over the past few decades, that both the media and public should give more scrutiny to future claims made by generals. It is understandable why many would give blanket trust to the word of a senior commander: they typically have 30-plus years of experience and have served at the highest levels. But evidence confirms that this trust has been misplaced and it is up to the generals to earn that trust back. Telling the truth and giving honest assessments would be a good place to start.
Unboxing & Testing My Chinese “$2,000” ELECTRIC Truck!
A great fun and interesting video.
Some important Jeff Brown transcripts
TRANSCRIPT: USDems + Ukraine + BW + BigRx + BLPM = Evil squared.
HERE
TRANSCRIPT: Evidence in Ukraine is piling up against Westerners for the anticipated Moscow War Crime Trials. HERE
TRANSCRIPT: Does Ukraine equal Taiwan? Do they mean World War III?HERE
TRANSCRIPT: More war crimes uncovered in NATO’s Ukraine: organ harvesting behind the Red Cross.
HERE
TRANSCRIPT: $40 billion to arm Ukraine? It couldn’t happen before 1950. How the military-industrial complex took over the USA. HERE
TRANSCRIPT: Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh – Why they won. HERE
How to make French Baguettes at home
So very inspirational!!!!
Conversation with American Mercenary, DPR POW: “Be Better Informed”
NEW YORK, JUNE 28TH, 2022- Last week, two Americans who came to fight for the Ukrainian International Legion were widely reported as having been captured by the forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the breakaway republic in Eastern Ukraine which is allied with Russia in the ongoing conflict in the region. Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, both residents of Alabama, were apparently captured amidst fighting in the outskirts of Kharkov, and to this point, had not had any contact with American press.
This afternoon, my phone rang as I was driving home out in Eastern Long Island, and a Russian number appeared on my Caller ID. It was a number that had previously been used by British POW Aiden Aslin to contact me, as the DPR administration had my information from my time reporting in Donbass. Mr. Aslin, a British national who had been living with a family in Ukraine and was a regular in the Ukrainian marines, was sentenced to death in the DPR, for the crimes of being a mercenary and killing civilians, and is currently waiting to see if a prisoner exchange can be facilitated for his release, though current reports do not look good for him. The DPR, unlike the Russian Federation, has not banned capital punishment, and per my discussions with Mr. Aslin, the lack of footwork on his behalf on the part of Ukrainian and British authorities is the reason his exchange has not been prioritized.
This time, however, when I answered, the caller identified himself as Alexander John-Robert Drueke, accompanied by his DPR state-provided lawyer, from his captivity site in Donetsk, DPR. Alexander is from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and served 12 years in the U.S. army reserve, including two deployments to Iraq, though neither put him into active combat. Above all, he is similarly seeking a prisoner exchange, but he described to me in relative detail how he ended up in his current predicament, and some of his perspective on the situation.
He said that early this year, he had extensively watched American and other western news reports on the developing conflict in Ukraine, and was particularly affected by images of Ukrainians fleeing their homes. He is retired, was living on VA benefits, and he said that he felt that he “had to do something to help, not necessarily fighting, but whatever I could do.” He had no prior arrangements with the Ukrainian Armed Forces or the regime in Kiev, before flying to Warsaw, Poland from Atlanta, GA on April 12th of this year, hoping to find his way to Ukraine.
On the 15th of April, he rode by bus over the border into Lvov, Ukraine without incident. There, he was quickly interviewed by the Ukrainian International Legion, who signed a contract with him to work in a training role with a unit in Lvov, an arrangement which only lasted 8 days. Alexander said he was “dissatisfied” with this unit, for reasons he’s not at liberty to share, due to a Non-Disclosure Agreement he signed in his contract, and by early June, he had signed paperwork to transfer to a recon unit across the country, in Kharkov. This unit was presumably overseen by the SBU, the primary Ukrainian Intelligence agency. Alexander and his friend, Mr. Huynh, arrived in Kharkov on June 7th, and on June 9th, they were sent into a combat mission, something Alexander said he didn’t expect to happen, and separated from the rest of their unit. They were both apprehended by a DPR patrol, and brought back to Donetsk for detainment; they have not been officially charged as of yet, but Alexander understands they are to be charged with being mercenaries, and presumably eligible to face the death penalty, though their charges are likely to be less severe than their British counterparts.
Mr. Drueke’s captivity, as he described it, has been calm, and he has been well-treated, given the obviously uncomfortable broader context. He says he has been provided with food and water regularly, is in a cell by himself, and has not had any contact with his fellow American POW or any other prisoners, though for over a week now he has had access to phone calls, including to his mother, Lois Drueke, and has been contact with his lawyer every other day. He maintains a very close relationship with his mother, and she appears to be working tirelessly on his case; I have reached out to her for her comment, and have yet to hear back.
The DPR authorities, per Alexander, are extremely willing to negotiate for his release in a prisoner exchange, and are generally motivated to secure safe return for their own people. While he has been in contact with the U.S. State Department (he named one Michael Abbott as his contact; I was not able to track this person down), and while the U.S. government has told Alexander and his mother that they are “doing what they can,” he told me that “the U.S. is not technically a combatant in this fight, and they have no one to exchange with the DPR, so what they can do is limited to pressuring Kiev.” Whether the Ukrainian authorities were working on his case was not clear to him, and he has had no contact since his capture with anyone in the Kiev government.
When I asked him about his perspectives on the conflict now, versus when he made the decision to come over, his repeated emphasis was that he had been “extremely uninformed” when he was still in Alabama and relying on the narrative being spun by western media. “I can tell you that I was very surprised to see most women and children still at home and living normally in all the major Ukrainian cities I went to, and when I was detained here in Donestk, it was the first time I had been able to speak to any Russians or Russian-speakers from Donbass. There’s a side of the story that we’re not getting in America.” He noted that even from his cell in Donetsk, he had been hearing constant explosions, every day, coming from Ukrainian shelling of the city, something he had never anticipated, adding that “nothing in the western media shows you that this is a Civil War, and one that’s been going on a long time.” He didn’t go as far as disavowing the Ukrainian state, or endorsing the Russian Special Operation, but he repeatedly said to me, “if I had known the truth about what was going on over here, I would never have made the decision to come. I regret it.”
While feelings of sympathy for a man in a life-and-death predicament, who at face value seems to have been duped into his decision, above all else, are completely understandable, some on the Donestk side of the conflict aren’t shedding many tears for him, or similar detainees. Russell “Texas” Bentley, an American-born veteran of the DPR armed forces since 2014, and a resident of Donetsk, shared with me his thoughts on Mr. Drueke and those like him: “Yeah, a lot of these punks were just too big for their britches, and that’s almost forgivable, but what they wanted to do was come here to kill, and if the shoe had been on the other foot, they wouldn’t have hesitated. I was behind Ukrop [Ukrainian] lines twice, and didn’t fire a shot either time. Every single battle I was ever in was defensive. We held a position, and the Ukrops came to attack us, and they’d have killed us all if they could have. So, it will be an educational experience for them, hopefully give them a bit of a head start in their next life.”
My inquiries to the U.S. State Department and Ukrainian Military press contacts have yet to yield any responses; Alexander remains adamant that the DPR is eager to arrange his release, and hopeful that his government is trying to facilitate that, but says that “time is starting to run out.” Portuguese journalist Bruno Carvalho, with whom I worked in Donetsk, and who remains there on assignment, suggested that one of the hold-ups in these prisoner exchanges with DPR may be that a foreign government, such as the UK or US, agreeing to negotiate such an exchange might be tantamount to a recognition of the Republic, which on a diplomatic level, could have major ripple effects. After all, Russian President Putin’s recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics proved to be the great harbinger of the recent escalation in what many see as a western proxy war against Russia.
Before we hung up, I assured Alexander that I would at the very least write about our conversation, and I asked him what he might say to others who were caught in the fever of U.S. propaganda, and might have the same instincts to fly across the ocean and sign-up to fight for Ukraine.
“As I said, I did not have a full understanding of what was going on, and if I had, I wouldn’t have made the decision that I did. What would I say to someone else? Do your research, look at sources outside of the West—be better informed.”
Are You Willing To Suffer Through A Recession For The Good Of “The Liberal World Order”?
How much are you willing to sacrifice for “the future of the liberal world order”? As you will see below, the Biden administration is trying to convince us that supporting the “liberal world order” is far more important than any short-term economic pain that we are experiencing right now. So are you willing to pay ridiculously high gas prices for the foreseeable future and suffer through a very serious economic downturn in order to put pressure on Vladimir Putin and Russia? Some Americans would be willing to do that, but most would not.
On Friday, we learned that the U.S. economy is heading in the wrong direction a lot quicker than most of the “experts” had anticipated. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model is currently projecting that economic growth for the second quarter of 2022 will be negative 2.1 percent…
The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2022 is -2.1 percent on July 1, down from -1.0 percent on June 30. After this morning’s Manufacturing ISM Report On Business from the Institute for Supply Management and the construction report from the US Census Bureau, the nowcasts of second-quarter real personal consumption expenditures growth and real gross private domestic investment growth decreased from 1.7 percent and -13.2 percent, respectively, to 0.8 percent and -15.2 percent, respectively.
U.S. GDP growth was negative during the first quarter, and if U.S. GDP growth is negative again in the second quarter that will mean that we are already in a recession right now.
The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model should be taken very seriously, because it has a very strong track record of accuracy…
“GDPNow has a strong track record, and the closer we get to July 28th’s release [of the initial Q2 GDP estimate] the more accurate it becomes,” wrote Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research.
If it is confirmed later this month that we are already in a recession, it won’t exactly be a surprise, but the good news is that so far this new economic downturn is not that severe.
Unfortunately, we continue to see more signs that things will soon get much worse.
The pace of layoffs is really starting to accelerate and this is especially true in the tech industry.
At this point, even Facebook is looking to thin the ranks…
In addition to the hiring freeze, Zuckerberg also noted the company was leaving some vacant positions at the company unfilled and “turning up the heat” on performance management to weed out staffers who are unable to meet certain KPIs. “Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here,” Zuckerberg said, adding, “Part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me.”
Meanwhile, we are seeing Americans cut back on their spending at a frightening pace.
In fact, one recent survey discovered that a whopping 83 percent of all Americans have “slashed personal spending due to soaring prices”…
Provident Bank, based in New Jersey, found that 83% of respondents slashed personal spending due to soaring prices of food and gasoline, with 23% indicating they had to make “drastic changes” to their spending for financial survival. According to the survey results of 600 adults, 10.5% of respondents eliminated all non-essential purchases, and nearly 72% said they made at least some changes to personal travel habits.
And Wall Street seems to have finally gotten the message that very hard times are ahead.
The first half of 2022 was the worst first half of a year for the S&P 500 since 1970, and the index has now plunged into bear market territory…
This all came a day after the S&P 500 posted a more than 16% quarterly loss – its biggest one-quarter fall since March 2020. For the first half, the broader market index dropped 20.6% for its largest first-half decline since 1970. It also tumbled into bear market territory, down more than 21% from a record high set early January.
The Biden administration is openly admitting that more economic suffering is on the way, but we are being told that it is necessary.
On Wednesday, CNN interviewed a key economic adviser to Joe Biden named Brian Deese, and what Deese said during that interview is making headlines all over the globe…
CNN anchor Victor Blackwell interviewed Deese on Thursday and cited that Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Wednesday the war between Russia and Ukraine could be a “grinding struggle” for years. Blackwell said, “I think everybody understands why this is happening, but is it sustainable? What do you say to those families who say, listen, we can’t afford to pay $4.85 a gallon for months, if not years? This is not sustainable.” Deese – who was formerly the global head of sustainable investing at BlackRock – replied, “What we heard from the president today was about the stakes. This is about the future of the liberal world order, and we have to stand firm.”
No thank you.
I don’t want anything to do with a “liberal world order”, and I am sure that most of you don’t either.
In the old days they called it a “new world order”, but that phrase now has so many negative connotations to it that they decided to come up with something new.
Will someone please tell them that “liberal world order” is even worse?
These guys really stink at branding.
Why do we even need to have a “world order” in the first place?
Why can’t we just try to get along with everyone instead of trying to force our twisted values on the entire planet?
I really wish that the U.S. and Russia would have just left Ukraine alone and would have allowed them to determine their own fate.
Needless to say, that was never going to happen, and now the U.S. and Russia are engaged in a horrifying proxy war and countless Ukrainians are being sacrificed like pawns on a chessboard.
If both sides continue to escalate this conflict, it could ultimately bring us to the brink of nuclear war.
But at least we will be supporting “the future of the liberal world order”, and isn’t that what is really important?
Many of us have been relentlessly warning about where all of this foolishness will eventually lead us, but most of the population doesn’t want to listen.
Sadly, many will just continue to support “the current thing” no matter what the consequences are.
The first half of 2022 has been full of surprises, but I am expecting global events to accelerate even more during the second half of this year.
So hold on to your hats, because I believe that things are about to start getting really, really crazy out there.
BOOM! Nordstream One Gas Pipeline Being Shut Down by Russia in 6 Days
BREAKING NEWS: In exactly six (6) days, Germany will be completely cut-off from Russian natural gas.
The Nordstream One pipeline will cease all natural gas flows into Germany in Six days.
By Presidential Decree signed by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, Russia will no longer sell any “vital commodities” to “unfriendly nations.”
Without natural gas from Russia, the German economy will . . . stop.
When Germany’s economy stops, the economies of other European countries, which also got their natural gas via the Nordstream One pipeline, will also . . . stop.
About two weeks after the European economy stops, the U.S. economy will be forced to shut down for lack of goods and services.
The West has reached “The End” thanks to its own Sanctions against Russia.
The only thing left for the West to do either lift all Sanctions from Russia and HOPE they respond favorably; or go to war against Russia.
The economies of western nations cannot now be saved from collapse without cheap Russian energy.
Lift the Sanctions or declare war. There are no other options.
Oh, and by the way . . . how would the west wage war without cheap energy to power it?
DUUUUHHHHHH.
The Sanctions imposed by the West against Russia have now backfired massively. They have destroyed the economy of the West.
Russia has won.
The west has lost.
The facts are not in dispute.
Brilliant Cross Stitches
When you think of cross stitch, you probably thing of Bible quotes hanging off the walls at your grandma’s house. There’s nothing wrong with that, but for those of you who want a little more from your embroidery, check out these hilariously brilliant examples.
The West is a Man with no Plan
They are just not serious.
For as long as I can remember (and that’s quite a while now) there’s always been a country or countries poised to eat the lunch of the Anglo-Saxons, and more recently of the West generally. And with Covid and Ukraine, we are now finding out that, apart from a few crumbs, the West has nothing much left worth eating. Why is that? How did it happen?
Let’s start with Italy. Yes, Italy. In the 1960s, there was excitement everywhere about what the Italians called Il Sorpasso: the overtaking of British GDP by Italy, according to some measures at least. Italy was admired then not just for its art, its history, its style, its cooking and its fashion, but for its engineering and industrial design. Above all, the Italians were rapidly modernising their country, with the new autostrade and train systems, while the British were just getting round to thinking about it. Later, it was the French, with their space-age TGVs and their prototype Internet, the Minitel. After the Oil Crisis, the French took a look around, and said, merde, we’d better go nuclear. The state-owned energy industry was just told to Do It, and reactors started coming on line every quickly, while the British regarded actually setting up a public enquiry into one as an achievement in itself.
Then, of course, the Japanese – they of the High Speed Trains – came along and effortlessly obliterated the European and American consumer electronics and motor industries, followed by shipbuilding and heavy engineering. In the nineties, the Koreans started to challenge the Japanese in some areas, and now, of course, just about everything is made in China, while western publics were stunned to discover that paracetamol and medical masks have to be imported from Asia. And just look: in Ukraine, western military technology and doctrine is being shredded by the Russians even as I write. Even organised crime is dominated by non-western groups these days. Can’t we do anything right?
It’s tempting, if not very intelligent, to try to relate this to the outcome of some Grand Plan. Films have been made over the last forty years about sinister asiatic conspiracies, although rather fewer these days, given where most of the world’s cinema-going population lives. But it’s actually a lot simpler than that, and in the simplicity actually lies the problem. The West has forgotten how to do simple things well, and has inevitably lost out to those who can. At bottom, economic and political success is about relative, not absolute, qualities. Just as wars are won by the side which makes fewest mistakes, so economic struggles and often won by those who are least inefficient.
But to succeed, you need some idea of what you want, and how to get there, and it’s at that point that western thinking has increasingly broken down. There’s nothing magical about it: mostly, it’s just applied common sense, and a willingness to do a bit of forward planning. So after 1945, the French looked at the wreckage of their country, and a ruined industry that had no incentive to invest, and said, right, what are the priorities? We need steel, so for that we need iron ore and coal, so let’s go and sort that out first. Other things can take their turn. The Japanese, with a culture of attention to detail and the most demanding consumers in the world, realised they could export quality products, some of them taken and improved from foreign models. From cameras to mopeds (where Honda started), to motor bikes, to small cars, to large cars, to luxury cars to heavy engineering equipment and trains, every step building off the previous one. They were devious and subtle enough to offer western consumers things that worked well, at prices they were prepared to pay. Then there were the Koreans (as I was once proudly told by a civil engineer in Seoul many years ago), wanting to get into the construction industry. First they sent unskilled workmen abroad who came back and trained others. Then they sent skilled workers abroad, who came back and trained others. Then they sent people abroad to study at university. Well, you get the idea.
So why couldn’t Anglo-Saxons ever do this? Why have most western countries stopped being able to do this? There isn’t a single, simple, answer unfortunately, but there are a few pointers. One is simply being first, or early, and not having to struggle. Britain was built on coal and iron ore, and had a banking and credit system before most other nations. The Industrial Revolution wasn’t inevitable, but it was easy. The United States had every natural resource you could ask for, effectively unlimited space, and a constantly growing population. It would be hard not to become a major industrial power in the circumstances. But the problem was precisely that all this was easy. In Japan, on the other hand, there were few resources, and there was barely enough food to go round. Britain was an island, and the United States was effectively one, as well. Neither was at any serious risk of invasion, or even interference. The Japanese, on the other hand, for all that they were islands too, realised in a sickening moment of clarity that unless they got themselves organised pretty sharply, they would become another western colony. So they got themselves organised. As did others. Prussia had no natural resources except coal, and no effective natural borders. It had to work hard to survive, and did so: by the time of the Great Exhibition off 1851, the British were already finding the Prussians snapping at their heels industrially.
In Britain, and later in the United States, survival was never an issue, except perhaps at certain moments in the two Wars of the Twentieth Century. So a national consensus around a need to survive, plan and implement never formed because it wasn’t necessary. The Empire and the Royal Navy kept Britain’s problems at arms length. After the Second World War, the United States wound up dominating much of the world, not because it was strong or clever, but because most of the rest of the world was in pieces. If you’ve never really had to work for something, you inevitably lose out to those who know what hard work is.
This consensus has to involve the elites, or it’s not going to be effective. And in Britain, which famously never had a revolution, elites never took any interest in planning, unless it was planning the family inheritance. As in any aristocratic society, social status came precisely from not working, because you had no need to. You could employ people to do actual physical tasks, while living off rents and dividends, and doing whatever it was that such elites actually did to pass the time. This attitude persisted right up to modern times: scientists enjoyed a certain wary tolerance, but engineers and craftsmen were distrusted and not allowed into polite company. To become an engineer as late as the 1960s in Britain was to accept a permanently lower status than that of, say, an accountant. (There are no more engineers today, of course, so the problem has solved itself).
If your income comes from land or inherited wealth, then planning is really a question of financial optimisation, and you can pay people to do that for you. Other than general political stability, which often means obstructing change, you have no real political objectives at all. In Britain, and then in the United States after a few generations, this was the mentality that triumphed. Planning, designing, building, maintaining … all this was difficult and complicated, took years and required specialist training. If you could generate the same profits by some clever financial engineering, why not do so?
What’s depressing is that this attitude has spread to countries where engineers and technology had a high social status. France is an especially bad case: the country’s finest engineers were trained at the Polytechnique , established by Napoleon (a very long-term thinker). These days they all seem to go into politics, like the current Prime Minister. Nobody makes things any more.
The result is a culture common to large parts of the western world which is ultimately Not Serious. Now by “serious,” I don’t mean the opposite of “frivolous”: or perhaps I do mean that as well, because the attitudes of the ruling classes of most western countries towards the problems of the present, never mind the future, could be described reasonably as “frivolous.” That’s to say the belief that they are not real problems, but essentially problems of news management and internal politicking, and don’t require actual practical solutions. But there’s also the more serious sense of “serious,” used as a compliment. Seriousness means taking the time to research and think about issues, and then deciding what to do and carry it through. No serious political system, for example, would have lurched into Brexit as the British did, without any thought for even the short-term consequences. No serious political system would have dealt with Covid as western ones did. For all the emotional attractiveness of conspiracy theories, it seems rather to be the case that most western governments hadn’t realised that medicines aren’t produced here any more. They hadn’t understood that the government capability to manage such crises no longer existed. Nobody told them that running down health services could lead to bad outcomes. And no serious political system, individually or collectively, could have staggered like a drunk into the mess that is Ukraine.
Ah yes, Ukraine. My point here is simple enough. The West was surprised because it never had a long-term plan for its relations with Russia, and didn’t realise that Russia had a long-term plan to reset those relations.
Let’s take those in order.
The Cold War ended too quickly for the West to understand what was happening, and to even begin to adapt to it. Not only did the strategic landscape change overnight, it also threw up a whole set of massive unexpected problems, and then became enmeshed with a whole variety of other issues, from the former Yugoslavia to Iraq to the future of Europe. The result was that there was never the time, or really the inclination, to develop a proper policy and think through the consequences. And too many actors and too many institutions were involved. Throughout the nineties, policy was entirely improvised, usually responding to the evanescent needs of the moment. NATO enlargement, one of the triggers of the current conflict, was never a real strategic plan: each case seemed to be individual, and had a different set of arguments. Same for the EU. So in typical fashion, we arrive somewhere we don’t like, and think: how did we get here?
The Russians know how we got here. But then they do unsporting things like develop long-term strategies, with the necessary economic and military components. They integrate these with a political strategy, and with clearly defined objectives. None of this is particularly difficult: it’s not they who are strange, it is us, for not thinking that way. And really, if you don’t understand Russian military-strategic thinking, or how they approach the operational level of warfare, then it’s a good idea to refrain from hopping between TV stations telling the world who’s winning and who’s losing.
The final irony is that most of the world actually doesn’t realise how unserious the West is. I can’t remember how many times, in Africa, in the Arab world or in parts of Eastern Europe, educated professional people have excitedly harangued me about the Master Plan of the West (sometimes just the US) to remake the world, destroy China or Russia, recolonise Africa or whatever. “Don’t you realise” they will say urgently, thrusting into my hand a poor photocopy of an obscure journal article from twenty years ago “it was all planned.” If only it was. If only we could.
10 unmistakable signs your cat really loves you
I hope this puts a smile on your face.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
New Beginnings 4.
Articles & Links
Master Index.
- You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
- You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
- You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
- You can find out more about the author HERE.
- If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
- If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.
.
Alvi cat melted my heart.