German 1 year fwd. baseload electricity prices up more than 10x, French also. Either cooking and heating will be a luxury in Europe in 1 year or the current administrations will be swept away and energy trade with Russia will pick up again. I’m betting on the latter.

Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 4 2022 13:19 utc | 3

I can see the world erupting into a world war within the next few years.
Increasing tensions, rapidly worsening economies and very poor quality leaders.
China v usa
Russia v usa v nato/europe
Serbia v Kosovo
Romania v Moldova
Greece v turkey
Middle East war against Israel
Iran v Israel
China v Taiwan
China v Japan
India v China
India v Pakistan
Turkey v Syria
I’m sure I’ve missed a lot off the list.

Posted by: Ray | Aug 4 2022 14:18 utc | 5

My @6 – One more link to consider: some turbine reporting by Reuters from July 26.
https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/business/kremlin-nord-stream-1-turbine-not-arrived-yet-a-second-has-defects-100757039/
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking during a visit to Uganda, also said on Tuesday that Gazprom will have to switch off that turbine at the Portovaya compressor station of Nord Stream 1 due to security reasons. He did not clarify what he meant.”
I didn’t remember that he said that.

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Aug 4 2022 15:18 utc | 7

So Giner caught a 9 year sentence fo having cannabis oil in the luggage, she should have tried with a sub machine gun, thet do not take that seriously:
you: Sir I forgot it was there
Officer: Sure no problem, is it Lbreeeemmmmmmmmm!
Officer: Grigory, are you ok
You: I think he is dead Sir!
Officer : No he is not he is just resting!e is just resting
You: he looks dead to me Sir!
Officer: he is just resting!!
You: those holes in his chest looks suspiciously like bullet holes….
OFFicer: Now you be on your way and let me clean up here
You: ok Sir have a nice day!

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Aug 4 2022 15:48 utc | 9

@Paco 10

The German government needs to go, otherwise we are in deep trouble all over Europe.

I agree, but I don’t trust ze Germans to get rid of Scholz and company. Anyway, we in Europe should get rid of most of the Davos puppets.

Posted by: Idiocrates | Aug 4 2022 16:22 utc | 11

Lavrov’s in Cambodia for the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting and made this statement from which I’m posting this excerpt:
“I hope that today we will discuss in detail ways to further unlock the impressive potential of cooperation. Russia has always been and will remain a reliable, stable and interested partner for the Association.
“We are convinced that the entire system of our cooperation, including its multilateral and bilateral components, objectively contributes to strengthening the regional architecture of security and sustainable development. It is important that we are united by a firm commitment to the formation of a more just and democratic multipolar world order based on international law and, above all, on the principles of the UN Charter.
“In this context, I propose to analyze in detail the key aspects of the evolution of interstate relations both in the Asia-Pacific region and in the Eurasian space. To see what can be done to preserve the ASEAN-centric system in the face of the challenges associated with the imposition of bloc approaches in the spirit of the Cold War by some colleagues. It is obvious to us that in the current geopolitical realities, it is not new dividing lines that are in demand, but the building of ‘bridges’ and the unification of efforts.
“Russia has consistently advocated various integration platforms and projects and harmonised their efforts in order to promote a unifying, forward-looking agenda. Moreover, we have already accumulated useful experience in moving towards each other between such structures as ASEAN, the SCO, and the EAEU.” [My Emphasis]
As noted by myself and others elsewhere, many ASEAN members want to join SCO and EAEU. The emphasis placed by Russia and China that they are non-Bloc Blocs–that all members are entitled to their own separate, independent polices, not Cold War Bloc alignment as with NATO and EU and based on UN Charter is very important. As long as the Outlaw US Empire continues to act Unilaterally and outside the law, it will be shunned and isolated by an increasing number of nations.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 4 2022 16:55 utc | 13

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Aug 4 2022 15:48 utc | 9
So Giner caught a 9 year sentence fo having cannabis oil in the luggage ……….
https://singaporelegaladvice.com/law-articles/what-are-singapores-laws-on-drug-consumption/
Apart from Singapore’s notorious ban on chewing gum, foreigners also associate Singapore with her draconian drug laws, known to be one of the strictest around the world.…..
….not only in Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam or Malaysia… but, but, but… certain ASEAN countries the Customs can be bought for a few $$…but dun try it! You’re end up heavier penalties… If you are a Chinese except for white skinned passing Indonesia’s customs is a real pain in the arse… every time I went into Indonesia… I always placed inside my passport at least SGD$10 otherwise I’ll be questions or in desperation the Custom officer will…… Than I got smarter…. I sandwich myself between white skinned…. dun believe me?… ask any Indonesians…
M’sian, 31, due to be hanged in S’pore on Jul. 7 morning, granted an appeal
https://mothership.sg/2022/07/singapore-scheduled-norasharee-kalwant-execution/
Oops Mothership is Singapore autocratic Govt……websites beside Straits Times…… BTW Singapore voted with the US to condemned Russia……

Posted by: JC | Aug 4 2022 17:43 utc | 15

Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Aug 4 2022 14:48 utc | 6:

Yesterday, Germany’s Annalena Baerbock was in Montréal to meet with Canada’s Mélanie Joly. The two held a news conference and a “fireside chat” that was hosted by the Chamber of Commerce for Metropolitan Montreal

.
Fire side chat! In early August! I know Montreal is pretty far north, but still, this is August. I presume Baerbock wants to soak up all the heat that she gets access to before the coming Winter!

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Aug 4 2022 18:37 utc | 17

Oriental Voice@17
Its the cargo cult that these idiot politicians all belong to: anything that sounds vaguely American is good. FDR (who most of these turkeys know absolutely nothing about) had ‘fireside chats’ on the radio ninety years ago, so that is what they call their banality swapping performances today.
Everything about those people is so fake and contrived, stage managed and scripted. In a sense Zelensky’s Ukraine is a perfect encapsulation of the ‘western culture’ and certainly the timeless values that these giggling young actresses claim to be defending. And then there is EU President von der leyen, whose grand-dad knew a thing or two about Kiev and silly Justin sucking up to the latest incarnation of FDR himself Joe Burisma Biden and Nancy Pelosi who thinks that Ben Franklin was President…

Posted by: bevin | Aug 4 2022 19:10 utc | 19

CNN: “Brittney Griner was found guilty in a Russia court of drug smuggling with criminal intent.” Nine years in a penal colony!
This decision of a Russian court is so stupid that it only makes whatever sense if it is used as a political ploy. (Putin steps in, demands a prison exchange, Brittney goes home. Putin scores again.)
Regardless, to consider using cannabis oil as some kind of criminal activity in the 21st century is preposterous and grotesquely silly now that even the US is decriminalizing cannabis, even for recreational purposes. But, as I said, such decisions are always political, not medical, not scientific. I hope Putin does what he can do and will let the girl go home and play again.

Posted by: Robert Konrad | Aug 4 2022 19:27 utc | 21

@Robert Konrad, the US is not decriminalizing weed. Multiple states have broken federal law by legalizing it at the state level. Joe Biden promised to legalize if federally but he was lying (because it’s who he is). There are people all over the US still serving time for the same weight and you’d get arrested trying to bring it into the US. It’s morally wrong and I disagree with it (been breaking those laws most of my life), but Russia isn’t an outlier.

Posted by: Lex | Aug 4 2022 19:55 utc | 23

Couldn’t help noticing that our Best Friends Forever, the OWNERS of the West’s gasoline Gravy Train, DOUBLED their profits in the first quarter to $100 Billion.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 4 2022 21:18 utc | 25

The only decent thing Trudeau has done was to legalize pot. Come to think of it, he soon “forgot” to end the FPTP election system, but that’s another rant.
Funny thing, the sky hasn’t fallen, the sun still rises in the East and Canadians are happier and healthier for it.
For one example, my niece’s husband has been confined for years to a wheelchair with several debilitating and painful conditions. He can basically talk and eat, and has some use of arms/hands. He was on a list of medications that could choke a horse, including opioids. He always looked like death warmed over. He gets a prescription for medical cannabis and withing a couple months was 100% off the opioids and a few other meds, and looks healthier than I have seen him in the 20 years I have known him.
Cannabis is not the demon weed the government and “medical experts” have claimed since the early 1900s. It was all BULLSHIT. I am NOT saying anything goes, but REALLY? The War on Drugs worked out SO well.
Gee, can anyone think of anything else gov’ts and their compatriots in the medical mafia have lied about to control us and put money in their pockets?
The prohibitionism moralists of all stripes need to get over themselves.

Posted by: Old canadian | Aug 4 2022 21:48 utc | 27

Hoarsewhisperer @25–
Yes, the quarterly reports are proving my earlier assertion that the rise in prices was 100% gouging disconnected from all reality expect that of Monopoly pricing power. Did you read the very silent announcement by the Saudis that their extraction rate would peak at 13.5 MB/D in 2027, way sooner and well below that predicted by many experts. I suggest taking a look at proven reserves of natgas and oil for some shocking surprises related to how much the Outlaw US Empire has remaining. When looking at how long extraction at current rates can continue, recall that reservoir depletion rates don’t allow for straight mathematical outcomes.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 4 2022 21:53 utc | 29

Schroeder left his cover. Some other site than Stern, in German: https://www.boerse-online.de/nachrichten/aktien/altkanzler-schroeder-moskau-will-im-ukraine-krieg-verhandlungsloesung-1031642002

Posted by: C | Aug 4 2022 22:13 utc | 31

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 4 2022 21:53 utc | 29
And keep in mind that OPEC(+) production/extraction rates are based on stated reserves. It is quite likely that the published reserve numbers are on the generous side (in order to garner more revenues). No country would want to inform its peoples that the reserves are going to run out quicker lest panic ensue. Un-truths have a tendency to be as dangerous as trying to catch a running chainsaw, with your teeth.

Posted by: Seer | Aug 4 2022 22:26 utc | 33

Oriental Voice | Aug 4 2022 19:02 utc | 18
thanks. yeah i suspected a few around see thru the medical industry. a person going into certain specialties could wind up w/a million in debt after 15 years. i’d be bitching and partying too, if i could get away with it. i have a MD friend who teaches some and he constantly whines about how privileged today’s kids are. w/all the zeros on his paycheck, he gets zero sympathy from me.
so lovely to see all the jellyfish in the marina, so much more pure and natural than natural gas. the city took down the only warning sign for the boaters that matters: “oil and water don’t mix”.
and what did they replace it with? twenty smaller signs made by kids in bilingual Hispanix/Englishx (yeah, i guess the native language(s) around here don’t get none), celebrating the magic of friendship on the playground and the importance of maintaining single-stream recycling.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Aug 4 2022 23:10 utc | 35

are you more easily entertained than a cat?
my main complaint about the Griner affair is that Russia didn’t grab the top NASCAR driver instead. USDOS doesn’t realize that more hissing might emerge from the declawed and spayed and exit polled pussy cats in the US homeland if it wasn’t such an athletic snoozefest involved?
and americans at peak outrage over a random victim in the US-run global drug war? to quote Bill and Ted: no way. maybe if the US hadn’t started WW3, Russia would simply send such a person home? nah, not those velvet-soled Slavic savages. Ukraine could bomb the prison Griner’s being held in and Americans would blame Moscow, not Kiev, not DC. if Griner is a lesbian or in some chrysalis stage of transitioning from this to that, butterfly to cankerworm or what have you, all the better. Moscow hates fags, we all know. I heard it from Snookie during Sochi.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Aug 4 2022 23:59 utc | 37

Posted by: jared | Aug 4 2022 15:26 utc | 8
Did you get a copy of it? Archive ? Pdf? I’d like to see it if I could.
Did a quick search and on archive.is and found no RT article copy.

Posted by: Brother Ma | Aug 5 2022 0:59 utc | 39

Melaleuca, I believe Hunter Biden helped funnel money to Metabiota. He wasn’t, I don’t believe, on their board (like with Burisma). BUT, it’s all still the same stuff: Clintons, Bidens helped rape the post-Soviet countries (the tide had turned).

Posted by: Seer | Aug 5 2022 1:11 utc | 41

why do the health protocols change if a disease escaped or was released from a lab vs evolution outside the lab? the whole world is a capitalist lab. there is no “natural” evolution any longer. why do people use their legit concern over the origins of the virus to argue for abandoning public health measures, rather than making those measure as absolutely as strong as humanly possible?
i never bought the lab-origins of the virus b/c the people pushing this idea use it for evil ends, specifically abandoning public health measures against the virus. as if the supposed human origins of the virus make it less urgent to protect ourselves (our selves, the collective body) against it, not more!

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Aug 5 2022 1:26 utc | 43

Metabiota + Biden search term yields results:
>Hunter Biden + RSTP, Rosemont Seneca Partners and Rosemont Realty are offshoots of Rosemont Capital, an investment fund founded in 2009 by Hunter Biden and Christopher Heinz, John Kerry’s stepson. In 2015 24 investors financed Metabiota to the tune of $30 million with RSTP being lead financial backer.
> Financial reports reveal that RSTP led the company’s first round of funding, which amounted to $30 million. Former Managing Director and co-founder of RSTP Neil Callahan – a name that appears many times on Hunter Biden’s hard drive – also sits on Metabiota’s Board of Advisors. Since 2014, Metabiota has been a partner of EcoHealth Alliance.
> Nathan Wolfe, the CEO of Metabiota, has connections to the NIH, Biolabs in Ukraine and Hunter Biden.
> Metabiota was a subcontractor for Black & Veach, which signed contracts for the construction and operation of biolabs in Ukraine, Georgia and elsewhere. Google was also involved, having contributed at least $1 million to the effort.
> In April 2021, Joe Biden’s USAID launched a new program to detect emerging infectious illnesses with pandemic potential, coordinated by EcoHealth Alliance. Metabiota, whose researchers have been named as authors on articles linked to coronavirus surveillance in Africa since June 2021, is also cooperating on the taxpayer-funded endeavour.
> Federal contracting records show Metabiota also received $18.4 million from DTRA between 2014 and 2017, under a competitively bid contract.
> The US “Department of Defense Threat Reduction Agency” (DTRA), awarded Metabiota $18.4 million in federal contracts in 2014 for ‘consulting’ services to DTRA Labs in both Georgia and Ukraine. DTRA outsources to private companies such as Technology Management Company (TMC).
> Emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop show he “helped secure millions of dollars of funding for Metabiota, a Department of Defense contractor specializing in research on pandemic-causing diseases that could be used as bioweapons,” according to new communications also obtained by DailyMail.com.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Aug 5 2022 2:07 utc | 45

Phil Butler at neo calls a farce
https://m.journal-neo.org/2022/08/04/at-last-the-eu-wakes-up-and-finds-out-it-s-doomed-anyhow/
A short sharp read.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 5 2022 4:13 utc | 47

Random extracts from twit verse:
[Back to the 70s… is this why hippies didn’t bathe?[
COLUMN: The world is facing its gravest energy shock since the 1970s oil crisis.
Four decades ago, only the oil market was hit; this time, oil, natural gas, electricity and thermal coal — the world’s top sources of energy — are being hit simultaneously.
…~ The energy price shock for British households is going to be 5 times as big as it was in the 1970s, says Bank of England Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent.
Yes. In the 1970s it was only oil.
Now it’s oil, gas, coal and above all — and still no discussed enough — electricity.
>> After 20 years in the UK, I still struggle with British social conventions. So help me out. Please.
Having heard from the Bank of England we are heading into a one-year long recession and 13% inflation, do I need to stick to the “keep calm and carry on”?
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1555168660704169984?cxt=HHwWgMC8sYjqiJUrAAAA
> One of Germany’s largest energy companies, RheinEnergie Köln yesterday announced that it was raising gas prices for consumers by 133%.
> Germany’s Uniper Warns Of Possible “Irregular Operation” At Major Power Plant As Rhine River Runs Dry
> Uniper warns it may need to cut output at a key coal-fired plant in Germany as the company struggles to get fuel supplies along the Rhine River
> Uniper updates this to two coal stations not getting supplies of coal along the Rhine equal to 1.5GW
> OUCH! German 1y ahead Power Price just hit fresh ATH >€400/MWh. #EnergyCrisis
> The level of the hydropower storage in Portugal is incredibly low. The grid operator says this is the worst #drought in 100 years, the Portugues metservice says that 2022 is the driest year since 1931.
> China has rolled over a $2bn loan to Pakistan for 12 months.
> Saudi Arabia has raised all oil prices for the US for September
> CHART OF THE DAY: Saudi Aramco raises the official selling price (OSP) for its flagship Arab Light to a record of +$9.8 a barrel above the Asian benchmark.
> “In June, for the first time in history, U.S. LNG contributed more gas supply to Europe than pipeline gas from Russia.”
RTRS-European gas storage on track to meet targets but at a cost

Posted by: Melaleuca | Aug 5 2022 6:55 utc | 49

It’s beginning to look like China is slowly imposing sanctions on the west, Taiwan for starters, after Pelosi’s visit instead of imposing Western-mandated sanctions on Russia. The Chinese “unrestricted warfare, which includes economic warfare, will be amplified with a kind of economic lawfare.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Aug 5 2022 7:18 utc | 51

Further to my previous comment: the United States would do well to engage in introspection and simultaneously prepare for descent into a low-energy future, rather than delude itself that it’s still emperor of lands.

Posted by: Nathan | Aug 5 2022 8:20 utc | 53

@ Melaleuca | Aug 5 2022 6:55 utc | 49
So I still consider the energy crisis from the economical point of view:
– the mining and extraction costs of carbon containing energy sources did not suddenly raise (only by few %),
– the world wide amount auf mined and extracted hydrocarbons has not suddenly dropped to almost zero (only by few %),
– the costs of distribution did not suddenly explode (only by few %),
but the prices go skyrocketing.
Put your eyes on the mechanisms of profit making, and how the consumers are forced to obey them sheep-like.

Posted by: EasternHedgehog | Aug 5 2022 9:31 utc | 55

UNESCO SAYS:
#ThinkBeforeSharing – Stop the spread of conspiracy theories
https://en.unesco.org/themes/gced/thinkbeforesharing
Image: Fact/Fake…

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a worrying rise in disinformation and conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories can be dangerous: they often target and discriminate against vulnerable groups, ignore scientific evidence and polarize society with serious consequences. This needs to stop.
Conspiracy theories cause real harm to people, to their health, and also to their physical safety. They amplify and legitimize misconceptions about the pandemic, and reinforce stereotypes which can fuel violence and violent extremist ideologies.
~…UNESCO Director-General
A new campaign helps you learn how to identify, debunk, react to and report on conspiracy theories to prevent their spread.
Check out the infographics and social media pack below and help spread the word that facts matter and no one is to blame. Thinking critically and being informed about conspiracy theories is key to challenging them.
This UNESCO campaign is implemented jointly with the
European Commission
Twitter and the
World Jewish Congress
~~| Infographics[download]
Social Media Pack
Video
Cc Peter AU1 | Aug 5 2022 10:25 utc | 143 (Ukraine thread)

Posted by: Melaleuca | Aug 5 2022 10:32 utc | 57

Taiwan has been used by Japan as an unsinkable aircraft carrier. (
~China will never allow the US to use it for the same purpose
Posted by: Melaleuca | Aug 5 2022 7:06 utc | 50
this is the bottom line to me, and especially in regard to allowing us nukes “excuse me defensive weapons cough cough” on Taiwan. the US wants to encircle both China and Russia with them.
anybody got some recent insights on what is going on in Pakistan? the US apparently instigated a successful coup, but I know Imran Khan was pushing back.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Aug 5 2022 10:49 utc | 59

Ray no 5
“I can see the world erupting into a world war within the next few years.”
Few years? Add in droughts, climate/society breakdown, recession. Any good news ray?

Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Aug 5 2022 12:23 utc | 61

Domestic politics in the US is more important in the US than geo-politics, WW3 not withstanding. Poke the Bear, poke the Panda, …
Posted by: Ant. | Aug 5 2022 13:02 utc | 63
Perhaps the visit to Taiwan was clever from that point of view. Some verbal salads aside, it nicely confused Trumpian rhetoric about “weak on China” as he instantly criticized, and plucky Pelosi faced the danger and was resolute. Trump himself is not overly lucid and coherent when he speaks, perhaps it becomes an accepted norm.
And Pelosi does not look THAT bad with her high quality facelift (look better after 80!) and elegant feminine gestures when she explains her interpretation what “Franklin presidency said”. Biden looks like a poorly maintained robot.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 5 2022 13:17 utc | 63

@62 Anonymous
Here’s the thing. The Lancet (an arguably respected medical journal) does not have a proper peer-review process. Any paper that is published by the Lancet does not have to go through a pre-print process where any of the expert peers have the opportunity to review and criticize the paper.
Instead it just goes to a board that themselves get to approve/disapprove, which generally is a set of experts which I suspect are approved because of their attitudes:
https://www.thelancet.com/lancet/international-advisory-board
https://www.thelancet.com/laninf/advisory-board
All very clever people, I’ve no doubt, but not necessarily experts in any particular subject. There to approve a paper because it sounds good, and does the thing for the political process (control).
Now… I believe the Lancet paper that justifies the use of masks and social distancing to combat Covid-19 is this one:
I won’t go into the social distancing thing, whis to my rationality should be more like five metres, but that obviously doesn’t work.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31142-9/fulltext
If you have been sufficiently educated in the proper scientific process and understanding of statistics to understand, you will know this paper should never have been published.
This is my critique…
1) The authors admit they reviewed some 244 studies (172 observational, no randomized controlled trials) and 44 relative comparison studies. The latter, they don’t mention, contains a control group or placebo group. None of the latter made their analysis;
2) They used ‘frequentism’, an arguably bogdy statistical technique that allows the author to prefer certain datasets, with statistical bias. They attempted to justify this with references to ‘Cochrane’ and ‘GRADE’ approaches… look them up;
3) For their study, they chose just 29 of those 244 studies to conduct their analysis on masks. You may ascertain for yourself if that is justified, with the data weighting they used.
It seems clear to me that the authors of this paper chose their data, and manipulated it to produce a pre-supposed conclusion to justify a convenient political attitude. That is not science, and if this paper went through a proper peer-approved process it should not have been published.
Here’s another paper I’m sure Lancet is very proud of, they rejected a paper they published from much earlier which advertised vaccines containing aluminium/magnesium as a buffer caused autism… Big Pharma did not like that.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673605756968/fulltext
Again: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20142376/
So what would you prefer to believe? What your told to? Buy the placebos? Be a pleb? Told what to think? Or learn? The internet can tall you, if you can look that far. The5re is truth out there, but you need to recognize facts when they are undeniable, no matter how uncomfortable, and take them onboard.

Posted by: Ant. | Aug 5 2022 14:36 utc | 65

@EasternHedgehog #55
You are completely ignoring the real reason for price increases:
increased demand and no corresponding present or future supply increases.
2020 saw a worldwide, multiyear low in demand due to lockdowns; 2021 and 2022 demand is accentuated at least partly from demand recovery from those lows. But the real problem is that the structural decline in capex spending – both from COVID and ESG – is not going to increase supply any time soon (or at all, at the moment).
Which in turn is why the US and EU are both focusing on demand destruction…

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 5 2022 14:52 utc | 67

Here’s PMC on full display:
I don’t feel the pain of inflation anymore – Mary Daly, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank president – NewYorkPost.com

“You know I have to say that I live … I don’t feel the pain of inflation anymore. I see prices rising, but I have enough that I can make substitutions, that I can do things. So I’m not immune to gas prices rising, food prices rising. I sometimes balk at the price of things,” she said. “But I don’t find myself in a space where I have to make tradeoffs, because I have enough, and many, many Americans have enough.”

Enough said.

Posted by: c1ue | Aug 5 2022 15:04 utc | 69

Posted by: EasternHedgehog | Aug 5 2022 9:31 utc | 55
Markets and pricing are forward-looking. THE SYSTEM requires growth. If there is no additive growth then things get a bit wobbly. Now toss in a sure growth dampener such as Russian energy reductions on the world’s markets (well, for sure the Western markets) and you’re now going from a system that’s expecting at least around 2% growth to one that is nearer to NEGATIVE 2% growth- that is a 4% swing. And there’s little on the horizon that would appear to correct any of this. Toss in the “renewables” push, which were vastly oversold, and future profits for the energy sector (the largest sector in the global economy) looks weak: investment incentives shifted toward renewables and away from conventional energy. Energy sector is taking profits now while they can.
I am not defending any sector or energy source/producer here. Just stating the mechanisms by which things currently work. The System IS the conspiracy…

Posted by: Seer | Aug 5 2022 15:13 utc | 71

@68 crue
Nothing to do with Soros financing District Attorney’s political campaigns throughout blue states?

Posted by: Ant. | Aug 5 2022 15:29 utc | 73

May we be finding out China was Angela Merkelized some time ago?

Posted by: Lars Lansing | Aug 5 2022 15:59 utc | 75

Of course Pelosi’s trip covered up the Israeli build-up and preparations that have seen a senior Islamic Jihad assasinated today, just after another was captured.
I think there were about 45 “arrests” associated with the first, and 15 dead (including a 5 year old) for the second. Figures subject to change depending on the source.
The Israelis have been building up troops and Tanks around Gaza, and blocked it for at least the last three days, and have beeen threatening Lebanon, (about Oil rights in the Med), ie. Herzbollah. Where they have declared they will destroy/flatten a part of Beirut (East I think), if they don’t get Lebanese Oil rights transferred to themselves.
NOW you know why Pelsosi was in Taiwan, as a distraction. BUT, NOW we will find that the Chinese reaction has been understimated by the US and Israel.

Posted by: Stonebird | Aug 5 2022 16:25 utc | 77

@76 ACPAL
Tragically, I think you are correct.
There is only one way the current US-led western syndrome can win this clash of cultures, and that is the Thucydides Trap. Kill or be killed. They simply can’t think any other way. Domination or nothing.

Posted by: Ant. | Aug 5 2022 16:47 utc | 79

Thanks to Melaleuca | Aug 5 2022 2:07 utc | 45 for putting the spotlight on MetaBiota.

Posted by: juliania | Aug 5 2022 16:55 utc | 81

Note the western silence by EU and the US, now on Israel killing and destryoing Gaza. Now compare that with the rapid condemmnations they have given to Russia past months..

Posted by: Zanon | Aug 5 2022 17:59 utc | 83

Putin met with Erdogan in Sochi today and issued this Joint Declaration:

Despite the current regional and global challenges, the leaders reaffirmed their common will to further develop Russian-Turkish relations on the basis of respect, recognition of mutual interests and in accordance with their international obligations.
Within the framework of these understandings, the leaders of both countries held extensive consultations on the issues of the bilateral agenda of Russian-Turkish relations and agreed on the following: to increase the volume of bilateral trade on a balanced basis and achieve the set goals; to meet the expectations of the opposite side in the fields of economy and energy; To take concrete steps to increase cooperation on issues that have long remained on the agenda of both countries, in such sectors as transport, trade, agriculture, industry, finance, tourism and construction.
On regional issues, the leaders stressed the key importance of sincere, frank and trusting relations between Russia and Turkey in achieving regional and international stability.
In this context, the leaders recognized the important role of constructive relations between the two countries in the conclusion of the Initiative on the Safe Export of Grain from Ukrainian Ports. The need to ensure the full implementation of the Istanbul package deal in accordance with its spirit and letter, including the unimpeded export of Russian grain, fertilizers and raw materials for their production, was emphasized.
Recent developments in Syria were also among the issues raised. The parties confirmed that they attach great importance to the advancement of the political process. The importance of preserving the political unity and territorial integrity of Syria is indicated. The determination to work together and in close coordination with each other in the fight against all terrorist organizations was reaffirmed.
A firm commitment to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity of Libya was declared. The parties stressed the importance of holding free, fair and credible elections based on the broadest possible consensus and reaffirmed their support for the ongoing political process based on and under the leadership of Libyans themselves.
The heads of state agreed to hold the next meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council in Turkey.

The public portion of their meeting is published here and reflects what is stated in the above Joint Declaration.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 5 2022 18:45 utc | 85

P.S.: or would it be possible to use nuclear waste water, have it appear normal, fill a jacuzzi with it, and have people unknowingly soaking up a ton of radiation this way ? And possible effects and timeline ?

Posted by: Featherless | Aug 5 2022 19:12 utc | 87

This comment is is a Strategic Culture link describing the Devil I keep referring to as the God of Mammon cult.
I like at the end of the article he quotes Thoreau who said, “For every thousand men hacking at the branches of evil, there is one hacking at the root. ”
I like to think of myself hacking at the root.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 5 2022 19:36 utc | 89

The silence of EU about Palestine is so loud..as usual..shameless zionist accomplices.

Posted by: LuBa | Aug 5 2022 20:01 utc | 91

this is the kind of dilemma the US faces:
do we hand out fentanyl strips so addicts can avoid the most dangerous drugs?
or
do we hand out fentanyl strips so addicts can more easily find the most dangerous drugs?
hey, who wants your weapons made in China vs made in the US, if it comes to a shooting war in the Taiwan straits?
if you look at the US pyramid scheme from the bottom of the shitpile, you’ll have a chance to ponder a great mystery: how could there be so much corn, so many nuts?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Aug 5 2022 20:09 utc | 93

Nothing to do with Soros financing District Attorney’s political campaigns throughout blue states?
Posted by: Ant. | Aug 5 2022 15:29 utc | 73
Many Red States too. The prosecutor fired by de Santis yesterday was in Tampa Bay area and a Soros-supported official. Many like that in Texas and elsewhere.
The most interesting thing I find about Soros is that he is clearly given carte blanche to do what he wants. How come? How is this communicated? What sort of network runs within so much of the US body politic that he can keep doing such things (funding Antifa which burns down cities etc. and much more)?
Similarly all those FBI crooks that ran the Russia Russia hoax on Trump were absolutely fearless when testifying in public. How come? They knew nothing would happen to them just as FBI Director Wray and Comey and Mueller and Clinton all know too.H How come?
IMO it’s because the US is now only a Republic In Name Only (RINO) but it keeps up the pretense of being one so that decent people continue to believe that they are in a representative republic, that the people are fairly elected and then run things for their benefit to the best of their ability and in so believing will not organize any sort of resistance and rather keeping fighting amongst themselves for entirely irrelevant electoral crumbs.
So in this post-republic, post rule-of-law space Soros is free to keep funding the elections (and election tampering etc.) of those bent on undermining constitutionally honorable polity.
And so it goes…

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 5 2022 20:55 utc | 95

@karlof1 #84:

CIA/Mi-6 never cease their efforts. Another arrested scientist involved with lasers died in custody last month.

That scientist was accused of passing state secrets to China, not the West.

Posted by: S | Aug 5 2022 21:05 utc | 97

I saw very few reports on Orban’s important Transylvanian Speech delivered last Saturday where he challenged the EU’s status quo. It’s a short read.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 5 2022 21:51 utc | 99