News & views related to Ukraine …
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March 6, 2022
Ukraine Open Thread 2022-22
Comments
@Roger #201
Barry Ritholz posted, around the middle of February, a graphic from a McKinsey report on alternative fuel vehicles (as well as electricity generation).
The summary: so-called environmentally friendly hybrids and EVs replace CO2 emissions with massive increases in materials needs ranging from aluminum and copper to platinum group metals and battery materials.
The same applied to solar PV and wind.
The one exception was hydrogen – but of course, there are an endless array of issues with hydrogen supply and distribution.
So the materials impact of these so-called alternatives is enormous and could very well offset the end-use reductions in emissions, never mind the environmental impact of so much more mining and the waste disposal.
Furthermore: while I cannot speak for the UK or EU, the United States is utterly unable to handle a significant changeover of its motor transport fleet from ICE to EV from an electricity transmission standpoint.
The conversion of just US automobiles from ICE to EV would require increase of reliable electricity generation by 60%. If the goal was to switch all motor transport to net zero emissions by 2035, for example, it would require building 215 nuclear power plants… or one every month until 2035.
It would also require the upsizing of the entire US electrical grid by 60%.
Not gonna happen.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 7 2022 10:49 utc | 401
@Roger #203
No, you are wrong. Changing US transportation to net zero would have to include all the trucks: long haul as well as local/short haul delivery systems.
As for China: China is already having problems generating enough electricity just to support the organic wealth increase of its population. That’s why they’re building 228 new nuclear reactors – so they at least will do the work to try and support carbon free (or more specifically in their case, energy import reduction).
Europeans today can’t even keep their electricity generation stable enough (and affordable enough) to supply their own farmers with fertilizer, so I can’t say I’m terribly impressed with your assertion that Europe “has the problem addressed”.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 7 2022 10:54 utc | 402
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 7 2022 9:08 utc | 372
That about origin of Ukie jets shoot down few days ago bugs me too. I don’t think they come from neighboring countries, too great of a risk. There probably is few Ukie planes hidden around bombed airports (or even stretches of freeway) and they use good timing to clear/fix runways and put them in the air. It is not unheard of. But it is question I would like to get answer soon.
Posted by: Abe | Mar 7 2022 10:56 utc | 403
@Sushi #248
Despite all the global warming/climate change talk – the shipping route above Russia is still extremely unreliable and/or impassable for significant portions of each year.
There’s a reason why Russia has built their enormous nuclear powered icebreakers.
The new ones Russia is building are even bigger.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 7 2022 11:01 utc | 404
Posted by: Hidari | Mar 7 2022 10:00 utc | 384
IMO thats too bleak assessment. Russia has not time imperative, except in relation to opinion of its own people back home.
US and europe will get only more weaker and discouraged as time pass by. US is military-technologically too far back and there is no time to fill the gap. Propaganda they spill now only get exposed as empty words as reality proves them wrong. All chest thumping and resolution to hurt evil Russians weaken and wither away as prices and every day troubles increase because in US and europe itself due to their actions.
So, this will be very protracted, depressing, mundane and demoralizing few years for US and europe, and it plays into hands of Russia, because it will only get stronger and more resolved to change this sick world.
Posted by: Abe | Mar 7 2022 11:04 utc | 405
@pretzelattack #330
Heh that might be a strategic mistake.
I like poutine, but a lot of people don’t.
Quebecois don’t need to lose any more of their culture…
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 7 2022 11:06 utc | 406
S.O. et.al. Yes, it is ridiculously difficult if not impossible. The notion that people are very distinct has been well proven to be the opposite. I recall a genetic study done in Europe and everyone is really a conglomerate of varying degrees. So, the old Nazi idea of being a pure Aryan was in fact ridiculous.
But, I will say it again, bioweapons are not good weapons for anything except terror. Even then it is the thought(or belief framed as a part of a larger PSYOP), not the deed that causes the problem. If you make the assumption (no one knows by the way) that COVID was a bioweapon attack on China (the Chinese believe it completely which is very important when you examine what is happening today), then its effectiveness against China was very poor. If it was a deliberate US attack, as many believe, then it wildly backfired. This would be my argument against it being deliberately released although Bolton and Pompeo are IMHO pathologically insane individuals so it isn’t impossible to conceive. I mean someone shot down MH-17 and I am pretty certain it wasn’t the Russians. Any people who would deliberately shoot down a civilian air plane to rescue military forces being boiled in a cauldron are pretty much capable of anything. That decision could only have been made in one place. The western nations and in particular the US are obviously insane now and have been so for a long time but it seems to be getting a lot worse under “The Biden”.
Posted by: Old Microbiologist | Mar 7 2022 11:12 utc | 407
On the financial sanctions, arent they meant to help the crypto go up again after ppl and states realized it was a scam (boosting the energy bill up for the lemmings)?
Posted by: Anon | Mar 7 2022 11:23 utc | 408
Posted by: Old Microbiologist | Mar 7 2022 11:12 utc | 401
Absolutely. people are way, way too mixed up for their to be any sort of genetic purity. Sure there are zones where 1 set of genetic criteria are dominant, but even there it will be found that there is 10-20 % of the population that has a different genetic makeup.
Perhaps scarily you could design a genetic weapon for an individual ie find some specific weakness and develop a poison or some sort of infective agent that injured them, but it would be very unreliable.
Another possibility is of course to select for infectious agents where there is little herd immunity and spread that. This could be devastating if the attacking country DID have herd immunity. Measles is an example where this accidentally did happen, smallpox too. However this would really only work where there is a very, very isolated population. North Korea could conceivably be targeted in this way. More probably it could be used for animal diseases, since animals do not usually travel internationally.
Thinking rationally you are right about COVID as a US bioweapon but then there as you say the question of sanity in the USA is an open one. I recall reading that the USA trid to use cats as surveillance tools ie spy cameras!!!!!. Cats FFS. Dogs perhaps but cats!!!!! (AHA now I understand why all those Russian kitty cats have been banned!!!!)
Posted by: watcher | Mar 7 2022 11:32 utc | 409
If the price for oil and gasoline dont go down, Germany’s car manufacturers are fucked. Wolfsburg, Hanover, and Brunswick, all of the south of Lower Saxony, depend on VW and the samll parts suppliers that feed off of VW. How will VW keep going in its home region with these prices? Germany’s heating relies heavily on gasoline. R
Posted by: Arne Hartmann | Mar 7 2022 9:25 utc | 375
German car manufacturers plan a switch to electric cars. Apart from lithium problem — cost of batteries may increase a lot, there is electricity problem. Affordability of kilowatts decreased sharply. Recently I was comparing economics of hybrids (all energy from gasoline, but regenerative breaking equalizes efficiency of city and highway driving, and you can run gasoline engine (or diesel?) at its optimal setting) and electric. In California and Massachusetts hybrids are more economical per mile, and sharply cheaper when you purchase.
From global warming point of view, push to electric cars seems misguided if you do not remove carbon from the making of electricity.
Other thing to ponder if you are green: the global conflict pushed by USA and vassals will wreck “clean fuel transition”, diverting investments to arms and separating the needed technologies and resources (like metals) between the warring camps. Exhibit one is sanctioning Chinese solar panel industry.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 7 2022 11:33 utc | 410
More Scott Ritter: starting 3:17:00
Some notes: The “defensive” launchers in Poland and Romania are repurposed Aegis systems, originally designed for ships.
They are dual capable to launch both Tomahawk cruise missiles (a la Iraq 2003) and the SM-3 – an air to air missile.
They have since been upgraded to also handle the SM-6 – which has air to ground capability.
1 month after the systems were installed, there was a test where a Tomahawk was fired from such a ground-based Aegis system – so the dual use is not just a theory.
Note this is before the installation of the “Dark Eagle” hypersonic missiles that are supposed to come in 2023.
Russia’s military went into Ukraine soft – no artillery prep, no masses of tanks. Negotiating with mayors and city councils: let us pass through and we’ll leave you alone to govern, fly Ukraine flag etc.
Russian military kill ratio: 1:6
Russian military advancing faster than Nazi blitzkrieg in the beginning of the attack on Russia.
Russia now starting to deploy artillery.
Most of the weapons promised by the West haven’t been bought yet. The ones that have been bought, are sitting on the border because it is too dangerous to try and transport them into Ukraine.
US and UK troops in Poland are temporarily deployed. It would cost multi-billions to keep them there – and US/UK can’t afford it nor have arrangements been made so far.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 7 2022 11:39 utc | 411
@Anon #402
If the sanctions were to help crypto go up – they’re doing a really poor job of it.
The primary use case for crypto in the early days was enabling currency control evasion – that’s why China banned all of them, completely.
One thing I didn’t mention in my seminar writeup was the recurring mention of stablecoins. The speakers and audience were clearly of the view that stablecoins were going to be a thing in the US private sector once regulation was imposed – even in the presence of an e-dollar.
Again, the US clearly sees finance as being split between government and private sector whereas China clearly wants the government to retain all control.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 7 2022 11:44 utc | 412
I’ll believe bio-labs are for prevention when they’re not opaquely run by the FUCKING PENTAGON.
Posted by: BadNews | Mar 7 2022 11:45 utc | 413
Dr. Michael Hudson noting the speed at which US/EU own-goal-ism via economic sanctions is accelerating de-dollarization
America Shoots Its Own Dollar Empire In Economic Attack On Russia on Naked Capitalism
For more than a generation the most prominent U.S. diplomats have warned about what they thought would represent the ultimate external threat: an alliance of Russia and China dominating Eurasia.
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American economic and financial power was expected to avert this fate.
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The resulting Treasury-bill standard has enabled America to finance its foreign military spending and support its deindustrialization-driven chronic trade deficits by creating dollar IOUs that other countries accept. U.S. balance-of-payments deficits end up in the central banks of payments-surplus countries as their reserves, while Global South debtors need dollars to pay their bondholders and conduct their foreign trade.
This monetary privilege – dollar seignorage – has enabled U.S. diplomacy to impose neoliberal policies on the rest of the world, without having to use much military force of its own except to grab Middle Eastern oil.
The recent escalation of U.S. sanctions blocking Europe, Asia and other countries from trade and investment with Russia, Iran and China has imposed enormous opportunity costs – the cost of lost opportunities – on U.S. allies. And the recent confiscation of the gold and foreign reserves of Venezuela, Afghanistan and now Russia, along the targeted grabbing of bank accounts of wealthy foreigners (hoping to win their hearts and minds, along with recovery of their sequestered accounts), has ended the idea that dollar holdings or those in its sterling and euro NATO satellites are a safe investment haven when world economic conditions become shaky.
So I am somewhat chagrined as I watch the speed at which this U.S.-centered financialized system has de-dollarized over the span of just a year or two.
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I thought that de-dollarization would be led by China and Russia moving to take control of their economies to avoid the kind of financial polarization that is imposing austerity on the United States.[1]But U.S. officials are forcing them to overcome whatever hesitancy they had to de-dollarize.
I had expected that the end of the dollarized imperial economy would come about by other countries breaking away. But that is not what has happened. U.S. diplomats themselves have chosen to end international dollarization themselves, while helping Russia build up its own means of self-reliant agricultural and industrial production.
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The U.S. confiscations thus may finally lead Russia to end of neoliberal monetary philosophy, as Sergei Glaziev has long been advocating in favor of MMT.
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But the effect of making Russian dollar, sterling and euro holdings hostage has been to make the City of London too risky a venue in which to hold their assets. By imposing sanctions on richest Russians closest to Putin, U.S. officials hoped to induce them to oppose his breakaway from the West, and thus to serve effectively as NATO agents-of-influence. But for Russian billionaires, their own country is starting to look safest.
For many decades now, the Federal Reserve and Treasury have fought against gold recovering its role in international reserves. But how will India and Saudi Arabia view their dollar holdings as Biden and Blinken try to strong-arm them into following the U.S. “rules-based order” instead of their own national self-interest? The recent U.S. dictates have left little alternative but to start protecting their own political autonomy by converting dollar and euro holdings into gold as an asset free of political liability of being held hostage to the increasingly costly and disruptive U.S. demands.
U.S. diplomacy has rubbed Europe’s nose in its abject subservience by telling its governments to have their companies dump the Russian assets for pennies on the dollar after Russia’s foreign reserves were blocked and the ruble’s exchange rate plunged. Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and other U.S. investors moved quickly to buy up what Shell Oil and other foreign companies were unloading.
Nobody thought that the postwar 1945-2020 world order would give way this fast. A truly new international economic order is emerging, although it is not yet clear just what form it will take. But “prodding the Bear” with the U.S./NATO confrontation with Russia has passed critical-mass level. It no longer is just about Ukraine. That is merely the trigger, a catalyst for driving much of the world away from the US/NATO orbit.
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What foreign countries have not done for themselves to replace the IMF, World Bank and other arms of U.S. diplomacy, American politicians are forcing them to do. Instead of European, Near Eastern and Global South countries breaking away out of their own calculation of their long-term economic interests, America is driving them away, as it has done with Russia and China. More politicians are seeking voter support by asking whether they would be better served by new monetary arrangements to replace dollarized trade, investment and even foreign debt service.
The energy and food price squeeze is hitting Global South countries especially hard, coinciding with their own Covid-19 problems and the looming dollarized debt service coming due. Something must give. How long will these countries impose austerity to pay foreign bondholders?
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But the final breakaway from NATO’s adventurism must come from within the United States itself. As this year’s midterm elections approach, Republicans are likely[certainly!] to harp on price inflation led by gasoline and energy as a Biden failure. It’s not clear if the pro-Ukraine propaganda will have lost its effectiveness due to over-exposure. But if Russia wins the war in short order, the Republicans could hammer on Biden for relying on costly, arguably ill thought out, and ineffective economic sanctions America needs Russian oil and gas exports. Gas is necessary not only for heating and energy production, but to make fertilizer, of which there already is a world shortage. That has been exacerbated by blocking Russian and Ukrainian grain exports to send U.S. and European food prices soaring.
Even Hudson is seeing a potential Red Wave in November.,,
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 7 2022 12:01 utc | 414
A Window into the USA reaction.
Bernie is angry (& worried) — A bit late now.
A good effort, but badly flawed and dripping in US-double standard hypocracy.
[And his mandatory ad hominem of V. Putin could equally be applied to Bush I; Clinton; Bush II; (& I’d include Obama); …]
https://www.c-span.org/video/?517862-2/senators-sanders-durbin-russia-ukraine
Obvious USA domestic distortions aside, and rolling the old man out for the requisite mid-terms fan-rally, could it be he is begining his race to the Whitehouse once they ditch the senile Biden?
Btw, I don’t personally agree with many things he says about Russia/Putin. 100% projection and clearly false in numberous points — BUT it is a useful window into the American psyche at the moment.
Posted by: imo | Mar 7 2022 12:02 utc | 415
karlof1 @97 – Poland’s membership in NATO will be The Big Issue…
Goddamn karlof1 your predictions are so often wrong I don’t know why you even bother. There is no way in hell Russia is getting Poland out of NATO without starting world war 3. Jesus Fucking Christ pal.
There is a small cadre of regulars here who take wishful thinking to new heights and karlof1 is one of the prime examples. He forgets that his posts become part of the public record and that his past predictions can be compared to how events actually played out.
You might as well make V. Putin your God and Russia the Kingdom of God. I mean he’s smarter than any human and Russia is invincible and can use its arsenal of experimental hypersonic missiles and its nuke arsenal to force the West into submission and lead us to the promised land. His buddy “William Gruff” even thinks Russia will launch a nuclear first strike to usurp NATO, no big deal, easy peasy, piece of cake.
Radiation poisoning and nuclear winter are, like climate change and Covid 19, hoaxes perpetuated by Globalists, Klaus Schwab and the Zionists. So relax! What if the US retaliates and the US and Russia mass launch all their nukes in an apocalyptic final blow out? Never gonna happen because one glimpse of an incoming Russian missile and the US/NATO war machine will fold like a cheap suit and the new world order can peacefully begin.
But wait, aren’t these guys and others like them clowns, ridiculous men well past their prime who live only to reinforce and confirm their own biases? Well yes, duh, and they’ve led coddled and comfortable lives and have never had to worry about paying rent or where their next meal is coming from. Because only such a person can write the things they do with a straight face and actually believe it too.
Sadly they are not unique. Many like them exist, and to be fair not all are male or old. But this blog is supposed to be about dispelling falsehoods and focusing on truth is it not? Well if you’ve been doing what they do for years, or following them for years, and never seriously challenging the assumptions they put forth, congratulations you’ve built yourselves one hell of a formidable echo chamber.
Posted by: Henry Rollins | Mar 7 2022 12:07 utc | 416
Posted by: Old Microbiologist | Mar 7 2022 7:05 utc | 346
Re the “Holy Grail”
Interesting information on the potential function of bio labs, thanks. This makes good sense to me too and I also can see how it would be almost impossible to prove. So it’s useless as support for war in the eyes of the world, especially our western world that is blind, deaf and dumb, but it would surely have been yet another reason why Russia could not afford to wait.
LOL I knew I was onto something with Indiana Jones, who knew those movies were so rich with factual Nazi insights? The holy grail in that context now makes perfect sense. And funny how in the end when they found the Grail, it killed the bad guys.
Posted by: K | Mar 7 2022 12:10 utc | 417
China’s FM today made clear that they were backing Russia. This was a big surprise for German MSM. They thought Russia was isolated and sanctions were working (they never checked that outside of West, nobody follows them).
The German twitter bubble is now raging against China, they wont buy Chinese products and the West must decouple from China as well. The Western liberals dont understand that the global village has already moved on: We rely on commodities and production from outside the West to keep our standards of living high as they are. The West is in no position whatsoever to dictate to other countries what to do. Its like the Trump derangement syndrome all over again: The dissonance between reality and what they believe reality to be, being heavily propagandized by our MSM.
Posted by: Arne Hartmann | Mar 7 2022 12:10 utc | 418
German DAX index went from 16500 to 12500 from January.
Posted by: Milos | Mar 7 2022 12:18 utc | 419
Russia just announced they’re going state-filtered internet in five days. All Russian companies and websites must register for a .ru domain name within that space of time.
There is no coming back from this disaster.
Posted by: WJ | Mar 7 2022 12:18 utc | 420
Posted by: WJ | Mar 7 2022 12:18 utc | 414
That’s been predicted. The global Internet is over. There will be a Balkanized Internet – one for China, one for Russia, one for the Western powers, one (or more) for other national blocks. I don’t think it will be completely successful, and I suspect the hacker world will come up with some workarounds.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 7 2022 12:32 utc | 421
Russia is contesting the veracity of the above claim.
— 🇷🇺 Russian journalist Vladimir Soloviev on Telegram:
“⚡️⚡️⚡️
The Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation refutes rumors about alleged plans to disconnect Russia from the global Internet
Russian websites are constantly being attacked by cyberattacks from abroad. We are preparing for different scenarios to ensure the availability of Russian resources. It is not planned to turn off the Internet from the inside”
🔗 Source:
Posted by: WJ | Mar 7 2022 12:32 utc | 422
@Arne Hartmann | Mar 7 2022 12:10 utc | 412
A correct assessment, imo.
Traditionally, the global (colonizing) North has had the technology advantage to dictate terms of trade and development.
That rope has been sold and braided into the noose that will hang those who do not have primary industry self-sufficiency.
The global South is now on effectively equal terms thanks to China and Russia — the low-levels of differential means they are coming to dinner at the top table. Make room or move out, basically.
Unless matters calm down soon, and the new world paradigm being ushered in at this moment is accepted, then the risk of accelerated escalation is real. I’m sure the shareholders of the military industrial complexes are rubbing their hands as they always do with mass war. But the rest of us should be demanding that our elected representatives act in the common good and common wealth. Not their party-political fund donors who pay to play.
We now have a choice only in our respective types of suffering.
And without effective systems of accountability these parasitical criminal classes will simply carry on with their self-serving show.
When Julian Assange is released and free, and the likes of Tony Blair and Boy-Bush (and Australia’s complict little Johnny Howard) are in prison as war criminals, then I’ll believe the tipping point is here. Until then, it’s criminal-business as usual. Cui bono? …. Follow the money to the top.
Posted by: imo | Mar 7 2022 12:33 utc | 423
Posted by: Arne Hartmann | Mar 7 2022 12:10 utc | 412
They might as well boycott the rest of asia, Indians, Pakistanis, middle easterns, latam and Africans too.
Actually let me make it easier for them, boycott and sanctions all the non white countries (both Japan and Koreans are wannabe “whites of Asia”).
Let em eat cake!
Posted by: A.L. | Mar 7 2022 12:43 utc | 424
Wake up Arioch. The bar will not tolerate apologists for evil.
Posted by: Sushi | Mar 7 2022 1:50 utc | 281
I can hardly believe this can be said in the bar with straight face.
Because it literally i what said about doubts in Skrypal narative, EuroMaidan narrative and other “good” narratives.
You to turn MOA into a place where doubts are not allowed, proofs are tabooo word, and everyone should be a private in ideological drones army ready to believe and regurgitate everything that was ordered.
Problem is, MOA turned into anti-CNN would loose any point of existing. MOA can not hope even reach the sacle of RT less so the scale of BBC/CNN. It would not be focusing or enhancing or make more efficient for infowar – it would mean end of MOA.
So, i stand my ground. There are plausible suspicions, and there are proofs, and those are not the same.
If anything, this distinction is what made scientific progress possible, from Hagia Sophia and to Kinzhal.
The lack of this distinction is what turned West into a wilderness with virtue signalling mobs competeing in loudness of their throats.
Posted by: Arioch | Mar 7 2022 12:46 utc | 425
@Posted by: Arioch | Mar 7 2022 12:46 utc | 419
No one said you cannot stand your ground. But you’ll need to also take the flak or convince the readers of otherwise.
Comes with the territory.
This ain’t no playschool and you’re not in Kansas anymore…
Posted by: A.L. | Mar 7 2022 12:57 utc | 426
Posted by: WJ | Mar 7 2022 12:18 utc | 414
There is no coming back from this disaster.
That bus left the station many years ago.
The day America declared the internet a ‘Warfighting Domain’ and warned the world that cyberattacks could lead to kinetic responses was the day the golden age of the Internet was laid in it’s grave.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 7 2022 12:58 utc | 427
@Posted by: Arioch | Mar 7 2022 12:46 utc | 419
Oh one more thing, there’s no need to post the exact same things on multiple boards. A lot of us frequent those same places anyway and by coming across as attention seeking will not help your cause.
Posted by: A.L. | Mar 7 2022 13:00 utc | 428
@Posted by: Arioch | Mar 7 2022 12:46 utc | 419
“So, i stand my ground. There are plausible suspicions, and there are proofs, and those are not the same.
If anything, this distinction is what made scientific progress possible, …”
Well expressed. And necessary. The plandemic narrative lives from intentionally disregard this important difference. Any science is dead then.
Posted by: Hausmeister | Mar 7 2022 13:04 utc | 429
Arne Hartmann ( 375)
Certainly hope so ! Idiot regime in Berlin imposed CO2 levy on fuel in Jan 2022 driving up costs and now panics. Interesting to see what is flying off the shelves in shops – pasta, pickled produce, tinned meat and what is ignored – sliced meats pre-pack, dairy –
Just saw a newspaper stating psychologists find Zermurbung among people after 2 years of Covid lockdown now fear of war…….funny that……wonder why ?
These clowns have lost the plot and I have never seen “The West” look as precarious as today – even in 1970s it had rock solid societal foundations – but now no-one trusts the regime in power or the media
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 7 2022 13:13 utc | 430
Anyone have a reasonable explanation why two B-52’s from the UK cirled over Romania for a while, headed south and then turned North towards Sevastopol or Odessa (?).
They have since turned off their transponders, but it was noticable that one flew precisely above the other to try to appear as only one plane.
Presumably they have the usual nukes on board. If so then these *******’s are going to get us all killed.
(Also note a FalseFlag Nuclear episode is forcast for today or tomorrow. (Russians to be blamed for the bombing or “shelling” of a nuke plant)
**
Sorry to spoil such a lovely day.
Posted by: Stonebird | Mar 7 2022 13:43 utc | 431
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 7 2022 13:13 utc | 424
These clowns have lost the plot and I have never seen “The West” look as precarious as today – even in 1970s it had rock solid societal foundations – but now no-one trusts the regime in power or the media
Oh but they are… Pretty much every one i know in the west have bought into the narrative.
I can sympathize with the grass roots, i pity them for they were told what to believe. Worse are the “educated”, who knowingly or unknowingly abused their position as intellectuals amongst their circles to regurgitate the narrative without due processing, just because they are able to consume western news.
May be they’re lazy, may be they’re just stupid, but most likely, it’s just mordern tribalism. Education and intellect are very different but the mistake in our society has been we often see them as the same. So we have an echo chamber feedback loop.
Sad thing is that right now, their collective voice is still overwhelmingly strong. And listened to by the masses.
My greatest fear is that most will not be able to handle the deprogramming when it all comes crumbling down. Continents (europe, NA and aus) full of Baghdad bobs playing like the bands on the titanic. It’s not gonna be pretty.
Posted by: A.L. | Mar 7 2022 13:48 utc | 432
Natgas market action – TTF (europe) and JKM (east Asia) have now convincingly diverged! Dec’22 TTF around $55/MMbtu, Dec’22 JKM around $40/MMbtu … If this holds, aside from these market prices being flat-out insane, East Asia has an energy cost advantage over europe. That relative effect getting reflected into contracts signed while the insanity is happening, is a big deal – looks like it’s finally happening
Posted by: ptb | Mar 7 2022 13:48 utc | 433
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 7 2022 13:13 utc | 424
—
Ever so rarely meat futures turn strongly negative ’cause rising finishing costs from grain inputs. Lean times.
Posted by: too scents | Mar 7 2022 13:49 utc | 434
Stonebird, thanks for the update and no apology necessary!! It may have something to do with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s visit to London today. His itinerary —
Private meetings
9:50 a.m. The Prime Minister will hold a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson.
Northolt Royal Air Force Base
Officers’ Mess
Note for media:
Pooled photo opportunity at the start of the meeting
10:20 a.m. The Prime Minister will hold a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte.
Northolt Royal Air Force Base
Officers’ Mess
Note for media:
Pooled photo opportunity at the start of the meeting
10:50 a.m. The Prime Minister will visit members of the Royal Air Force with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte.
Northolt Royal Air Force Base
Officers’ Mess
Note for media:
Pooled coverage
12:15 p.m. The Prime Minister will have an audience with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Windsor Castle
Closed to media
2:45 p.m. The Prime Minister will hold a trilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte.
10 Downing Street
Note for media:
Pooled photo opportunity
3:55 p.m. The Prime Minister will hold a joint press conference with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte.
10 Downing Street
Note for media:
Pooled coverage
8:15 p.m. The Prime Minister will depart for Riga, Latvia.
Inflite Jet Centre
London Stansted Airport
Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Mar 7 2022 13:50 utc | 435
Piotr Berman | Mar 7 2022 11:33 utc | 404
“push to electric cars seems misguided”
I think actually the concept of every man his own car is misguided, and a switch to electric doesn’t change that at all.
—
Posted by: BadNews | Mar 7 2022 11:45 utc | 407
“I’ll believe bio-labs are for prevention when they’re not opaquely run by the FUCKING PENTAGON.”
I want to thank you for this clear-cut sentence. My sentiments exactly.
If it’s really for the good of the country, public health and all that, one or two biohazard labs would be enough for a country the size of Ukraine (40 mio people and steeply declining every day). And for Ukraine, by far the most severe and urgent issue with infectious diseases isn’t anthrax or the plague, but tuberculosis. It’s one of their export bestsellers besides wheat and sunflower oil, I might say, and has been for decades. And as for anthrax and the plague, of course you wouldn’t want anybody to catch it, but they’re in fact treatable (antibiotics). Viruses are a whole different matter and research on those may be justifiable (then again, like you said, the FUCKING PENTAGON), but from what I’ve been reading here, those labs were mostly about anthrax and the plague?
—
I’m beginning to suspect that Mrs von der Leyen’s violent and desperate push to ban Russian news sources so quickly wasn’t about Russia’s point of view per se, or because Russia would argue that the invasion is OK, but much more precisely about the things now coming to light about Ukraine: Nazis, NATO, biolabs and nuclear stuff, for which both the EU and NATO are responsible. They knew they would face very specific accusations based on factual evidence.
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Mar 7 2022 13:52 utc | 436
Somewhat OT, but —
People can do whatever they like in their lives as long as they don’t push it on others.
The point regarding the Zelensky video is to present the clown. It is a paid puppet, not a politician.
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 7 2022 8:48 utc | 368
–it all depends on what “pushing it on others” means. Consider the following:
(1) a pre-op M-to-F transsexual, complete with copious body hair and dressed as a woman, is teaching twelve-year-olds about sexual behaviors
(2) a gay couple asks a baker for a wedding cake with the names of two guys on it
(3) a married gay male wears a wedding ring and feels obliged to answer truthfully when asked by a colleague to “bring your wife along to my cookout this weekend.”
Different people will draw the “pushing it on others” line differently.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 7 2022 13:55 utc | 437
K 269; Agent Orange and Napalm and Glyphosphate are not Bio Weapons; they’re chemical weapons. Also, a bit of perspective, Bio-Chemical weapons are pretty useless in war; they only serve a terror element. In WW1 one person was killed for each ton of Chem/bio weapons deployed. So, how many people would a drone with bio weapons/ or chemical weapons kill? ONE? And, that/those affected troops may be yours, may be enemy, may be innocents; it’s a pretty useless weapon.
On EV’s, Toyota is developing a solid state battery that will utterly change the game; Tesla was outsold in EVs in Europe by Conventional car makers; Tesla’s quality is poor, their tech pure off the shelf. Tesla made EV’s sexy/desired, that’s something, but building a profitable car company is far more difficult. Tesla is no more important than Tucker.
Posted by: ScottinDallas | Mar 7 2022 13:57 utc | 438
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Mar 7 2022 10:17 utc | 389
Yeah, the realization that Israelis basically can’t be genetically distinguished from Palestinians
Only if you’re half blind and tone deaf.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 7 2022 10:40 utc | 392
Ashkenazim might — I repeat might — be distinguishable from Palestinians on the genome level. Sephardim less so.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 7 2022 13:57 utc | 439
Other thing to ponder if you are green: the global conflict pushed by USA and vassals will wreck “clean fuel transition”, diverting investments to arms and separating the needed technologies and resources (like metals) between the warring camps. Exhibit one is sanctioning Chinese solar panel industry.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 7 2022 11:33 utc | 404
When it comes to tribalist anomosity, the Green movement, like the international socialist movement in 1914, exposes itself as powerless or, to put it less kindly, fraudulent.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 7 2022 14:00 utc | 440
@ Posted by: imo | Mar 7 2022 12:02 utc | 409
Bernie is one of the most egregious phonies to ever set foot in the Capitol. Any publicity he receives should be met with a tidal wave of derision and contempt.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 7 2022 14:06 utc | 441
On EV’s, Toyota is developing a solid state battery that …
Posted by: ScottinDallas | Mar 7 2022 13:57 utc | 432
—
Sure thing Scott. Flying taxis for everyone as soon as these batteries are more practical than smokeless whale oil in lamps.
Posted by: too scents | Mar 7 2022 14:07 utc | 442
Mr Suchkov has a twitter thread on more Russian commodities the West relies on that are not yet talked about:
– export of methanol derivatives for polymers
– export of fertilizers for crops
– exports of sapphire substrates – thin plates made of artificial stone, which are used in opto- & microelectronics to build up layers of various materials, such as silicon. RUS accounts for almost 100% of the world’s supply of some rare earth elements.
https://twitter.com/m_suchkov/status/1500815250685190144?cxt=HHwWgICjqZrh-9MpAAAA
Russia has drafted a list of unfriendly countries
Russia has approved a list of foreign states commit unfriendly actions against Russia, including:
Australia, UK, EU countries, Iceland, Canada, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, SKorea, San Marino, Singapore, USA, Taiwan, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, Japan
— RIA
Russia says all deals with companies and individuals from non-friendly countries will now have to be first approved by a government commission
https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1500786876172713986
Guess what will happen to exports of Russian commodities to unfriendly countries.
Posted by: Arne Hartmann | Mar 7 2022 14:15 utc | 443
Posted by: Arne Hartmann | Mar 7 2022 12:10 utc | 412
Could you point me to some of these tweets/accounts? I would love to drink their tears.
Posted by: Unnamed | Mar 7 2022 14:15 utc | 444
Could you point me to some of these tweets/accounts? I would love to drink their tears.
Posted by: Unnamed | Mar 7 2022 14:15 utc | 438
—
So, nachdem Chinas Außenminister Wang Yi Russland offiziell den Rücken stärkt, heißt es: Russland + China gegen USA + EU. Der Rest der Welt wird sich, je nach politischer Färbung, entsprechend zuordnen. Eine neuer Eiserner Vorhang entsteht. Falls der Krieg nicht alles niederreißt
https://twitter.com/rc_schneider/status/1500796619352068097
Wir werden auch bald unsere Beziehungen zu China prüfen müssen:
https://twitter.com/CeglarM/status/1500803793088307204
Blanker Hohn! Eine Kooperation zwischen #China u #russland als Beitrag für Frieden u Stabilität in der Welt. Frieden ohne Freiheit u Selbstbestimmung hieße das. Die freie Welt wird gerade extrem herausgefordert
https://twitter.com/RadtkeMdEP/status/1500799298916782084
Just search for latest tweets with “China” and location Germany. Some with vew followers and some with many.
Its always “Der Rest der Welt gegen China und Russland” oder die “freie Welt wird herausgefordert”.
Posted by: Arne Hartmann | Mar 7 2022 14:23 utc | 445
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 7 2022 10:49 utc | 395
The conversion of just US automobiles from ICE to EV would require increase of reliable electricity generation by 60%. If the goal was to switch all motor transport to net zero emissions by 2035, for example, it would require building 215 nuclear power plants… or one every month until 2035.
It would also require the upsizing of the entire US electrical grid by 60%.
Agree.
If any state was really serious about CO2 emissions they would issue an edict that the only available vehicle for sale would be a 4 cylinder Yugo or Fiat Punto.
After some 120 years of development the ICE is extremely effcient. The idea of an EV Hummer is insane given the high CO2 emissions associated with the production of a vehicle which sits idle for 90% of its service life.
Posted by: Sushi | Mar 7 2022 14:24 utc | 446
@397 An unnamed US defence official says the Ukrainian air-force is doing fine. That was 3 days ago.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/4/us-ukraine-has-significant-majority-of-its-military-aircraft
Posted by: dh | Mar 7 2022 14:25 utc | 447
Posted by: Henry Rollins | Mar 7 2022 12:07 utc | 410
Well said. Don’t hear those views often enough on this site. No need to get personal later in your post – it detracts from a point well taken – but venting is good for you.
The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. When I read the Russia/ China cheerleading I’m reminded of the scene in the movie Independence Day. All the people on the skyscraper rooftop welcoming the aliens – shortly before the aliens wipe them out of existence.
Posted by: Don’t Flayme | Mar 7 2022 14:31 utc | 448
Bruised Northerner | Mar 7 2022 13:50 utc | 429
Could be.
Johnson to Latvia and Black face amusing the crown? The truckers have returned to Ottawa – which possibly explains why Trudeau is in the UK.
******
too scents | Mar 7 2022 14:07 utc | 436
“Sure thing Scott. Flying taxis for everyone…”
I’m opening up a start-up selling second-hand flying carpets soon. Very few miles and several careful (lady or gender doubtful) owners guarantee that they will join the Muskmobile as the transport of reference.
Easy to park; Just roll them up and throw over the shoulder.
Posted by: Stonebird | Mar 7 2022 14:34 utc | 449
Posted by: Don’t Flayme | Mar 7 2022 14:31 utc | 448
“Cheerleading?” Rather analysis of who wields the bigger stick (provider or the buyer of essential commodities) that you put a negative spin on without refuting the facts.
What a nonsensical analogy to “Independence Day”. Its not like the “West” could have avoided being locked out: The US just couldnt agree to Ukraine’s neutrality and Ukraine renouncing to seek NATO membership. Ukraine was suppose to be free to chose her own path, Russia’s security interests were non-existant. Then the bombs startet flying. Then the West sanctioned Russia claiming to represent the rest of the world, while actually nobody besides us went along with sanctions.
Posted by: Arne Hartmann | Mar 7 2022 14:46 utc | 450
Pretzel, ban “ban poutine?” What? how? I just don’t get it. This makes a ban on freedom fries seem sound as banning high explosives, stupid as that was, at least France’s position was what was being objected to; I just don’t get a ban on “poutine?” I mean banning borscht, Russia dressing and Russian cats even sounds like reasonable policy by compare; I just don’t get it
Posted by: ScottinDallas | Mar 7 2022 14:48 utc | 451
@IronForge | Mar 6 2022 20:13 utc | 134
@Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 7 2022 8:11 utc | 367
Ben made a legitimate critique of the pervasive gay bashing here under the guise of anti-wokeism. Actually, IronForge described a stalking incident and Peter Aul, a sexual assault. These are offenses no matter the gender of the perpetuator. If it were done by a female, would they be crying that a hetero agenda is being pushed on them? What a laugh.
Posted by: Jun | Mar 7 2022 14:56 utc | 452
Don’t Flayme | Mar 7 2022 14:31 utc | 448
“When I read the Russia/ China cheerleading I’m reminded of the scene in the movie Independence Day. All the people on the skyscraper rooftop welcoming the aliens – shortly before the aliens wipe them out of existence.”
It’s long been crystal clear that neither Russia nor China have any intention of wiping anyone out, unlike your own US empire and your own nazified police.
Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Mar 7 2022 14:56 utc | 453
@Piotr Berman | Mar 7 2022 11:33 utc | 410
From global warming point of view, push to electric cars seems misguided if you do not remove carbon from the making of electricity.
It is misguided regardless.
– CO2 does not warm the atmosphere as it is claimed.
– The Sun is a variable star, it causes slight changes
– Variation in CO2 is a result of temperature variation (outgassing from the oceans), not the other way around
Anthropogenic global warming does not exist. It is a scam.
But even if you do not accept this, the push to electric cars is misguided from a pure energy density point of view.
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 7 2022 15:06 utc | 454
@Scotch Bingeington | Mar 7 2022 13:52 utc | 436
I’m beginning to suspect that Mrs von der Leyen’s violent and desperate push to ban Russian news sources so quickly wasn’t about Russia’s point of view per se, or because Russia would argue that the invasion is OK, but much more precisely about the things now coming to light about Ukraine: Nazis, NATO, biolabs and nuclear stuff, for which both the EU and NATO are responsible. They knew they would face very specific accusations based on factual evidence.
You are beginning to suspect this? Welcome to the club … :-O This is the cause for the hysteria.
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 7 2022 15:18 utc | 455
@malenkov | Mar 7 2022 13:55 utc | 437
Different people will draw the “pushing it on others” line differently.
Such is life and you have to deal with it. When you are in Rome, do as the Romans.
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 7 2022 15:21 utc | 456
Such is life and you have to deal with it. When you are in Rome, do as the Romans.
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 7 2022 15:21 utc | 456
No arguing that. It’s all a matter of which Rome.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 7 2022 15:28 utc | 457
regarding Scott Ritter’s comments; it seems China may decide to move on Taiwan later this year; let this round of sanctions weaken the resolve of a nation that gets upset at the idea of wearing a facemask in public; (which is probably a good idea in grocery stores, mass transit and crowded places–seemed to really suppress flu numbers which are a significant health threat to many as well) Anyway, after the sanctions have their effect on butt-sensitive US/NATO partners, then will be the time to consolidate Taiwan. We won’t do anything; and it will present an opportunity for a peace dividend, simplify our borders if we are smart enough to focus our energies developing our economies and not on foreign threats/empire expansion
Posted by: ScottinDallas | Mar 7 2022 15:54 utc | 458
@458 Any idea exactly how China will ‘move on Taiwan’? It’s not clear what pressure they can use short of military action.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/05/china-taiwan-ukraine-report/
Posted by: dh | Mar 7 2022 16:03 utc | 459
Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Mar 7 2022 14:56 utc | 453
It’s long been crystal clear that neither Russia nor China have any intention of wiping anyone out…
I don’t think anything is ‘crystal clear’. I’ve never been able to see black and white – I only see gray. Two sides to each coin. Devil’s advocate.
I’m a longtime lurker here and have learned a lot about Empire and long time Imperial goals and exploitations. I fact I quite agree with your depiction … nazified police. I’ve spent a good deal of time reading the material cited at MOA regarding Chrystia Freeland, SS Waffen and Canadian Gov’t training mission of Ukrainian military (including neo-nazi elements). It is informative, eye opening and discouraging. I am grateful to the contributors.
I see the encroachment of NATO towards Russia over the years while promising the reverse. I see the MSM bias to the point where I can’t watch the news any more. I see the US/Empire bullying militarily and economically around he world.
I’ll continue to come to MOA for insight into world events with an open mind.
Posted by: Don’t Flayme | Mar 7 2022 16:12 utc | 460
dismiss all you want, but Toyota isn’t a company with a history of hyping out of it’s ass. When they say they’re perfecting something, they’ve typically been a step or two beyond what they release. I’d put Ed Wallace’s coverage of cars and oil among the top independent voices in the US. I get to listen every week. http://www.insideautomotive.com is his news agg. page, he is a voracious reader and often applies 4th grade math to cull the reality from the hype. His Saturday show, “Wheels w/ Ed Wallace” can only be streamed live, he’s selling cars, but includes, “The Backside of American History” “Second Hand News” the Oil Report, we’re 5% over the 5 year average in crude supply and an accounting trick wiped out 120 million barrels from our supply (“in transit,” all the oil in the pipelines are no longer counted in our supply) but nothing actually changed.
The recent spike in oil prices has West Texas humming, fracking is coming back on-line in earnest, and these price spikes will increase demand. We are mere months from tankers sitting off-shore just holding unwanted fuel, (the Houston ship channel never backed up due to Covid, but demand was that low.) so there is oil that will come out of the “ether” Again, Iran, Venezuela represent available proven reserves that can be tapped; we’re a long way from peak oil. But, those who cry Peak Oil are as accurate as those crying about the coming Rapture.
I’m not saying the EU will be ok, I’m not saying the price spikes won’t be very disruptive; I DO think Wall St sees this as a wonderful avenue in a played out market; and, once these sanctions are lifted (Which for domestic political reasons will be quicker and riddled with exemptions than many might suppose) the bubble will pop; those absurd futures contracts will called and no one will want to loan them the money, unless the Fed can do it. This last week, the interest rate on the 10 year T note fell to 1.7% so, at present we can paper over these loses; presumably a multipolar world will make that harder and harder to pull off. I suspect the sanctions will end in reality far sooner, so that the entire matter can be blamed on Putin. This bubble was gonna pop, needed to pop; We now have our scapegoat, and we need not worry about ending the Fed Sugar-high.
This represents a great off-ramp for everyone; Putin gets his reasonable concessions, the West get to paper over their bubble, the Financiers get to slink back with their guilt to chastise them (do they feel guilt?) the military complex has a threat to drive weapon’s sales, and screw the Ukrainians, they were always fodder here. A narrative that all can sell is more important than reality; only a few will really talk about the facts on the ground; even if reported, most don’t care. Kim K and Pete Davidson will break-up, Kanye will be triggered, NBA playoffs, the weather will warm up, cops will shoot a poor kid, we’ll learn the Neo-Nazis were screwed by NATO caving to Putin, NFL starts, then we have an election, and so it goes. We’ll bitch about the status quo and re-elect the incumbents…and so it goes.
Posted by: ScottinDallas | Mar 7 2022 16:50 utc | 461
Johnathan W 382,
“as we have seen over the past couple of years, bioweapons are part of psychological warfare”
Succinctly put. Psychological warfare is always the first option of the People Farmers. The Herders.
Biolabs represent the annealing of tip of the psychological spear that is Germ Theory. Germ Theory is THE greatest psyop in human history, and it is not of European origin. There is no native European history of Germ Theory. Hippocrates was one of the wisest recorded men of all time, and he knew that germs did not exist.
Germ Theory has it’s origins, surprise surprise, in the Old Testament. Pasteur was an elite Jew. On his deathbed he said it was all a bunch of moneymaking horseshit.
You all need to wake up.
Posted by: reante | Mar 7 2022 16:59 utc | 462
@ScottinDallas #461
Toyota’s announcement was to start selling a hybrid with a solid state battery … in 2025.
Nor do we know what the cost is.
Would a solid state hybrid that costs $50,000 (in today’s dollars) really make any difference, for example?
Let’s also not forget that electricity prices are also going up. As noted elsewhere – a full conversion of the entire US ICE transport system would require an increase of electricity production by 60%. 1 new nuclear every week until 2035 if the goal is net zero transport emissions by 2035.
Not going to happen.
I also noted that McKinsey reported that EV and hybrid vehicles require huge amounts of additional physical commodities – more aluminum, more copper, more battery mats, more platinum group metals etc – the prior links noting the enormous weights of batteries are not isolated examples.
So while the PMCs in the US and EU overtly think that high gas prices are good because they force electrification – the sad reality is that:
The economics/cost isn’t there.
The electricity production capability isn’t there.
The transmission capacity isn’t there.
The raw materials supply isn’t there.
Furthermore the notion that these problems will all be resolved by “technology” is utter bollocks.
Superior technologies don’t need massive subsidies – which EVs, solar PV and wind turbines all enjoy.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 7 2022 17:02 utc | 463
Posted by: ScottinDallas | Mar 7 2022 13:57 utc | 438
I think projections based on WWI mustard gas are probably rather outdated, even though I agree bioweapons are probably not much use in a conflict situation.
I suspect that the main use of bioweapons research has been into animal/plant diseases and I know that there are allegations that some of the epidemics in the pork industry in China may have been deliberate spread by US drones. I am not saying I accept this but since the allegations have been made, you need to at least recognise their potential. Wiping out food sources for a country is a powerful way of destroying their potential as a rival.
I guess you are aware of British efforts re anthrax in WWII. The plan was to drop anthrax all over Germany to make the place unlivable or at least useless for livestock. Google Anthrax Isle which was a test centre for this – it is in Northern Scotland and even 75 years on is uninhabitable. This is now public information. I must admit learning about this has seriously changed my view of the UK, which I once foolishly regarded as more moral than the USA. It is more than possible that the British also planned to use this weapon against Russian/Ukrainian agriculture, but this plan ended with the Cold War and MAD.
Posted by: watcher | Mar 7 2022 17:37 utc | 464
ScottinDallas | Mar 7 2022 14:48 utc | 451
Ive seen Canadian Twitter comments on this. ‘Putin’ sounds same as ‘poutain’ in Quebecois, meaning whore and in a derogatory sense. So decades ago, out of respect for a world leader, Putin’s name in Cyrillic was translated as ‘poutain’; sounds the same as soggy mass of chips gravy and melted cheese, somehow non-derogatory. Linguistics.
Posted by: TDeL | Mar 7 2022 17:42 utc | 465
Posted by: reante | Mar 7 2022 16:59 utc | 462
Tell you what reante. This is a challenge for you. Get yourself nice and healthy (if disease is a product of malnutrition) then go search in the poorest area of your city. Find a child with a nasty sore on the face – or ask a local health centre to find you a kid with impetigo (if in the US should find plenty amongst the homeless) and maybe another with ringworm. Then give yourself a couple of small cuts in your skin in areas that are difficult to clean and often moist – under breasts in female or under fat layers or underarm and use your fingers to transfer some of the fluid from the children’s open sores into your wounds (not the same one obviously). Take no medication and do not put salt or alcohol or honey on the sores or anti antibiotic creams. Then after two weeks come back and deny the germ theory if you dare. Now while after a few weeks the ringworm will be irritating but not lethal, do get treatment for the impetigo sore, since the strep/staff infection can have serious consequences. Failing that go to Africa and hug an Ebola patient.
Posted by: watcher | Mar 7 2022 17:54 utc | 466
K 372,
“I do agree with you that healthy cells usually can repel attacks from unfriendly organisms. But very few people are truly healthy these days, and some populations are very unhealthy, hence your argument does not apply to a good portion of the planet.
I have zero knowledge about weaponised pathogens, so I cannot engage in any useful dialogue with you on this topic, I am open minded that it can be done since it seems to have happened already, but that’s all I can say about it.
You said: ” no one, including myself, can explain how an anaerobe can eat healthy tissues no matter how intensively they have been bred or genetically modified in a lab, and no one here can explain either how a ‘virus’ which is just a strand of amino acids can DO anything. you or anybody else can’t prove that anaerobic cells can” doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
Clearly you also can’t prove that they can’t. right? Perhaps the mechanism is not yet understood by us.”
K thank you for the great reply. I apologize for being rude.
You are still not getting your weapons categorization right, FTR.
Yes, the average health profile of this commentaries is in all likelihood quite pathetic. Physical weakness and health degeneracy goes hand in hand with psychological weakness and degeneracy. Nobody here will argue against this common sense statement. Germ Theory feeds on fear and neuroses and nothing else.
Fear and neuroses create positive feedback loops of disease. Almost all of you wash your underarms and assholes with soap, because you don’t know what you’re doing. And then you slather your armpits with caustic , either synthetic or ‘natural,’ but whichever they are, each of the chemicals weakens your innate immune system which is largely composed of your microbiome. The armpits and asshole are the two main distribution sites for our external microbiome which is the symbiotic microbial layer that envelops the surface of all healthy living multicellular organisms.
Even if you just use baking soda under your arms you are weakening yourself because baking soda has a pH over 8, and hardly anything can live in that environment. Water suffices.
But then there’s the water! Almost everyone here regularly drinks chlorinated water! The preferred water of Germ Theory. Chlorine at municipal concentrations is an acute stressor to both the internal and external microbiomes. And it’s toxic to our own cells.
So yes, K, few people are healthy these days, largely because of the cumulative psychological warfare, and the biggest psyop if which is germ the theory. But on what planet does that mean that my argument that
anaerobes can’t be bioweapons isn’t valid? Not this planet, K.
If we have chronic disease it means that we have a larger population of anaerobes at work inside all the time than that which is the baseline level of anaerobic activity when in good health. And those anaerobes are cleaning out the stream of dead cells that died from the disease. And this detoxification process generates symptoms because our filter system filters out the toxic metabolites.
What antibiotics do is kill the microbes in our body and thereby halting the detoxification which, of course, halts the symptoms. Antibiotics, by name and by definition and by function, stops Life from performing many necessary functions. If one of those chronic disease functions is so acute that the necessary detox function puts your life at risk, then antibiotics may be able to save your life by suspending that process for a period of time.
Our bodies are always trying to restore themselves to health. Health is to the body what Truth is to the radically honest: you’re willing to die for it if necessary.
“Clearly you also can’t prove that they can’t. right? Perhaps the mechanism is not yet understood by us.”
It HAS been proven that anaerobes can’t eat healthy cells and the mechanics are COMPLETELY understood. I’ve already detailed the proof, which is based on the scientific method. It’s one of the founding fundamentals of biology: anaerobes cannot occupy aerobic ecological niches nor, even, can functional anaerobes be active when surrounded by aerobic tissues.
Anybody can take some well water and put a bit of dirt in it and keep it aerated. Put a drop under a microscope and no active anaerobes will be present. Let the water become stagnant and all the aerobic microbes will die or go dormant from suffocation, and the anaerobes will wake up and eat them, and when you put a drop of the water under the microscope, there the anaerobes will be.
If we stand for the fundamentals of Life, we’ll fall for anything.
Posted by: reante | Mar 7 2022 17:55 utc | 467
c1ue | Mar 7 2022 10:49 utc | 395
A study claimed that the oil industry is a major consumer of electricity, so we would have some extra if we shut down FF.
Posted by: Keith McClary | Mar 7 2022 17:58 utc | 468
watcher,
don’t be so infantile. Disease is the cumulative product of either poor choices or the inability to make good choices.
You say get yourself healthy (which I am) and then hurt yourself with a cut, and then test that site of trauma with different bogeymen (famous anaerobes).
Biological diversity, across all phyla, means that some species are more aggressive and competitive than others because they evolved in niches that rewarded those particular dispositions. So it is with anaerobes. Some anaerobes will reproduce faster and therefore create a more intense but shorter lived set of symptoms. Also, it stands to reason that, since we evolved as landraces that were adapted to localized ecologies, the global economy presents a minor health challenge to the system insofar as our bodies encounter ‘invasive’ species of anaerobes which produce metabolites that have slightly different (toxic) biochemical profiles than what our filter system is used to, which of course represents a stressor.
Disease is cumulative, and for every person there are multiple, personal tipping points.
Posted by: reante | Mar 7 2022 18:24 utc | 469
reante
I am not sure what your thinking is re bioweapons but if we just focus on anaerobes there is probably not much use EXCEPT firstly the production of lethal toxins and possibly in causing disease in ruminants. The common anaerobes of concern to human health are of course the Clostridium species. Now the danger from these is NOT the bacteria directly but rather the powerful neurotoxins that they generate. Take tetanus for example. If you suffer a puncture wound, because deep in the tissue anaerobic bacteria can grow, but the threat to human life is the TOXIN produced by the bacteria. This is a nerve toxin and causes paralysis including of the heart.
Similarly the risk from botulism – also a Clostridium species is not from the bacteria itself but because it produced an incredibly powerful neurotoxin. If any laboratories were working on this it would be more as a means of cheaply and secretly developing quantities of this powerful poison. I imagine that the military plans would be to contaminate water supply.
I imagine (I have no specific information) that anaerobic bacteria could be used to cause epidemics in animals, particularly in ruminants because they have a major anaerobic part of their digestive system.
Of course it is possible that there are weaponised variants of these (or others) that act differently. The key if targeting humans would be aerosolisation .
Posted by: watcher | Mar 7 2022 18:49 utc | 470
Posted by: reante | Mar 7 2022 18:24 utc | 469
I was not discussing anaerobes when I suggested you go expose yourself to infections. Ringworm is a fungal disease, usually found in crowded conditions where washing is less common, or living closely with infected animals. One of its relatives is of course athletes foot, which many who shower in gyms will have. Impetigo is a bacterial infection, most common around the mouths of children (or it was when I was young). I am not sure why you focus on anaerobes anyway – they are a relatively minor component of human disease.
Posted by: watcher | Mar 7 2022 18:58 utc | 471
@Keith McClary #465
That’s moronic in the extreme – right up there with saying we can kill all the cows but still get milk.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 7 2022 19:13 utc | 472
Most of those “Russian vodkas” were not actually from Russia. The distillers are working on less misleading labels.
Posted by: Keith McClary | Mar 7 2022 19:21 utc | 473
c1ue | Mar 7 2022 19:13 utc | 472
If your going to toss insults, at least get the target right.
Posted by: Keith McClary | Mar 7 2022 19:24 utc | 474
watcher 471,
You WERE discussing anaerobes, brother. You just didn’t realize it. Ringworm is ’caused’ by a family of fungi that are facultative anaerobes. They thrive on eating dead organic matter in dark, warm, moist, hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions. Fungi eat by digesting the food outside of themselves before ingestion of the predigested food. In order to digest the the food they secrete exoenzymes onto the surface of our skin where their food is. That food being dead skin cells, dead microbes, but especially toxic waste that we have sweat out of our skin that builds up. The caustic exoenzymes can damage our skin cells and we call than ringworm. Wearing nonbreathable plastic clothing doesn’t help matters.
Posted by: reante | Mar 7 2022 19:44 utc | 475
watcher 471
I focus on anaerobes and facultative anaerobes because they are 99pc of the ‘pathogens’ blamed for infectious disease. As such they are not “a relatively minor component of human disease” according to germ theory. Most of the few ‘disease causing’ ‘pathogens’ they call aerobes are in truth facultative anaerobes when you look closely at the literature. The only true aerobes that are ‘pathogens’ are gnarly bacterial families that live on the surface linings of our (highly oxygenated) respiratory system and eating pollution and dead organic matter.
Posted by: reante | Mar 7 2022 19:50 utc | 476
watcher 470
great comment, thank you for corroborating my initial comment on bioweapons. the only realistic biological weapons, which should properly be called biochemical weapons, are lab-grown concentrates of anaerobe metabolites. you refer to these metabolites as ‘neurotoxins’ and indeed they are toxic to neurons but that’s still just the language of scaremongering/warmongering; all that these metabolites really are is various biochemical variations of alcohols. alcoholic compounds. Alcoholic compounds are SOLVENTS. and nerves are fats…
Posted by: reante | Mar 7 2022 19:59 utc | 477
Posted by: reante | Mar 7 2022 19:50 utc | 476
Oh well if you want to change the debate and add in faculative anaerobes. Different story. Not the same thing at all.
Posted by: watcher | Mar 7 2022 20:40 utc | 478
no, watcher, that’s YOU bargaining with the situation. that’s you straw-manning. if you go back through this ‘bioweapons’ conversation you will see that I included facultative anaerobes from the very beginning precisely because, for all intents and purposes of this argument I’m making, the facultatives fit into the same category as the true anaerobes.
Why?
Because even facultative anaerobes can’t be around healthy, oxygenated tissues. Facultatives require aerobic organisms to be in a severely hypoxic state in order to be able to wake up from dormancy and start eating.
Inside of us, when the oxygen levels start dropping low enough as cell tissue is struggling with some type of trauma, and perhaps beginning to fail due to the inability to absorb enough oxygen, or perhaps the mitochondria have been injured, then facultatives can start going to work. If the trauma cannot be resolved soon enough then apoptosis takes place and now the true anaerobes can wake up and go to work.
Facultative anaerobes provide the seamlessness in the aerobic-anaerobic continuum that is the Life-Death cycle. They bridge the divide between the two fundamental ecological niches of carbon-based lifeforms.
Posted by: reante | Mar 7 2022 21:42 utc | 479
Arioch | Mar 7 2022 12:46 utc | 425
“Problem is, MOA turned into anti-CNN would loose any point of existing. MOA can not hope even reach the sacle of RT less so the scale of BBC/CNN.”
One thing you seem to miss. I do not believe b is or was striving for such a goal or scale…
MoA isn’t “that” place.
Posted by: Doesitreallymatter | Mar 7 2022 22:40 utc | 480
Arne Hartmann @ 418 said;”The West is in no position whatsoever to dictate to other countries what to do. Its like the Trump derangement syndrome all over again: The dissonance between reality and what they believe reality to be, being heavily propagandized by our MSM.”
Yep, no doubt….
Posted by: vetinLA | Mar 8 2022 2:41 utc | 481
Arne Hartmann @ 418 said;”The West is in no position whatsoever to dictate to other countries what to do. Its like the Trump derangement syndrome all over again: The dissonance between reality and what they believe reality to be, being heavily propagandized by our MSM.”
Yep, no doubt….
Posted by: vetinLA | Mar 8 2022 2:41 utc | 482
imo @ 418 said;”
“When Julian Assange is released and free, and the likes of Tony Blair and Boy-Bush (and Australia’s complict little Johnny Howard) are in prison as war criminals, then I’ll believe the tipping point is here. Until then, it’s criminal-business as usual. Cui bono? …. Follow the money to the top.”
Just another truth expressed well. Meanwhile, let’s all enjoy the therapy of self-expression..
Posted by: vetinLA | Mar 8 2022 2:46 utc | 483
Here’s the President of Ukraine as you’ve never seen him before! Someone please post it on Rumble. Youtube can’t be trusted!
Click on the video in this post:
https://thesaker.is/the-promised-map-after-all-one-more-question
Posted by: Bruce O'Hara | Mar 11 2022 22:49 utc | 484
I, always, have some thing to believe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj0LxFjgAjg
Posted by: Lur | Mar 15 2022 1:46 utc | 485