A post from a commentator on another thread mentioned that the New Zealand cricket team playing the second test against England in Wellington had become only the second team to win a test by one run in all of cricket history, and only the fourth to win after ‘following on’, which is the manner in which a team is forced to repeat their innings after a low score in the previous one – an innings being that of the entire team having been ‘got out’ due to the loss of the 10th player.
I’m commenting on this here as the earlier comment called attention to one star player on the Black Caps team – his name happens to be Wagner. He’s an attack bowler, so the name fits.
Here are the scores for each innings :- Eng 435/8 out, so they ‘declared’ -thought they had enough runs to win; NZ 209, everyone out so were asked to ‘follow on’; NZ again, 483; Eng 256 all out.
I looked for a link to the commentary for all four innings. Here is what I found, for any who may be interested:
https://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/live-commentary/
new-zealand-vs-england-2nd-test-wellington-
nzen02242023213913
And yes, I’m a fan. 😉

Posted by: juliania | Mar 1 2023 18:01 utc | 3

Posted by: juliania | Mar 1 2023 18:01 utc | 3
I was watching live TV coverage of that and it was very tense towards the end. I thought England could win if Ben Foakes had stayed in, but once he was out they were relying on Leach and Anderson, neither of whom are in the team for their batting prowess…
As for Test match cricket generally, people either ‘get it’ or they don’t and if they don’t there is no point in trying to explain it, especially to today’s ‘instant gratification’ generation!

Posted by: West of England Andy | Mar 1 2023 18:17 utc | 5

i know nothing about crickets, or the game of cricket…it is all a mystery to me! but i am sure the cia is an authority on it all, lol..

Posted by: james | Mar 1 2023 18:36 utc | 7

“Ahhh crickets! Not again!” – Tom Peter’s, 2004

Posted by: Molok | Mar 1 2023 18:57 utc | 9

GoFast | Mar 1 2023 18:41 utc | 8
I’m actually wondering about the “abilities” of those “Linky” electrical control grids.
ie. Installations (In france they are called Linky) They “talk” to each other via microwaves, all the time, and relay electrical consumption instantly. We are immersed in a permanent microwave environment – day and night.
At the moment they are said to be only used for gathering information about the habits of the occupants. Could they also be used as broadcasters towards the inhabitants? One theory has it that in the case of graphene in the blood, they could be used to give “instructions”. A bit on the wild side as theory. Your explanation for a real result on neurogical processes, opens up the possibility of a larger and deliberate process that has not yet been used.
I’m just asking from curiosity as the obvious Governmental pressure seems vastly out of scale to the desired effect. (Ie. multiple telphone calls over a period of nearly a year, attempts to simply enter and install without asking etc. threats that it is “obligatory” etc. Simply to change an electrical counter?
If there hadn’t been a one-way lock on the front door, at least four groups would have entered without any right to do so. ALL the outside electrical boxes in the area were changed.

Posted by: Stonebird | Mar 1 2023 19:09 utc | 11

Diplomats/country/people so far removed from actual life on this planet. Glory be the day they reveal their N-P-K values and finnaly give back.

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Mar 1 2023 19:27 utc | 13

Anytime the Amerikastan government goes (big) out of its way to make an effort, know its a cover up. They are too many examples to even bother recalling them (Russian election meddling). To learn of the huge circus that was put on to investigate crickets and migraines is a head scratcher. Amerikastanis I truly great circus ringmasters.

Posted by: Gankanas | Mar 1 2023 19:57 utc | 15

james@7
You couldn’t be more wrong: cricket (even bodyline) and the CIA are in different universes.
Opport Knocks@14
Surely “b” is right in suggesting, what I firmly believe, that there was absolutely no reason for the US to complain. There was no ‘secret weapon’ aimed at them. It was all made up.
Canada’s role in the affair confirms it- the US was looking for an excuse to make trouble with the Cuban government. And Canada automatically confirmed that its Boss had been telling the truth.

Posted by: bevin | Mar 1 2023 20:05 utc | 17

I dunno about those harmless crickets. SOMETHING happened to derange Blinkey, Jakey, and the rest of the diplomatic staff.

Posted by: c | Mar 1 2023 20:41 utc | 19

Sociopathic gobshites and dumbfucks
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/china-needs-to-accept-u-s-is-a-leader-ambassador-burns-says-164164165750
Nicolas Burns, US Ambassador to China, said that Washington was not seeking confrontation with Beijing but that…”[China needs to accept] that the U.S. is staying in the [Asia-Pacific] region, we’re the leader in this region”

Posted by: Irish | Mar 1 2023 20:49 utc | 21

NAFO phony (NAFOny?): “…rebuttal of everything I didn’t say…”
The phony said: “…Surely the effects would be more widespread…”
Why would locals panic over crickets? They grow up hearing crickets, rather than growing up in bug-sprayed gated communities with manicured lawns (and no bugs). Indeed, why would anyone who wasn’t a paranoid freak with “generalized anxiety disorder” and “impostor syndrome” and who believed to [insert appropriate pronoun here] core that the Cubans are “out to get them” confuse crickets for secret Soviet brain rays? Only pathetic fools like the CIA and their NAFO trolls here are delusional and cognitively damaged enough to believe that foolishness. CIA and NAFO mental disorders are actually not that widespread outside those occupations (the work self-selects damaged individuals) so why would psychosomatic illnesses from hearing crickets be widespread among the general population?

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 1 2023 20:54 utc | 23

aye, myself & me #30

Reiner Fuellmich interview with Barrie Trower, one can learn how they’ve been controlling minds with them since then.
Go to rumble and search for the above interview. You might wanna move somewhere else.

Ahhh yes THAT Reiner Fuellmich :/
Whatever happened to his Nuremburg trials for covid vaxes and bio lab leakers. Nothing. So he moves on to some other exotic decoy trick.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 1 2023 21:16 utc | 25

Scott Ritter on Chinese Weather Balloon Hysteria (7 min)
https://youtu.be/watch?v=S3sj0c1audI

Posted by: Browser | Mar 1 2023 21:31 utc | 27

I am thoroughly revising my chapters on the history and political economy of China , the US and Russia, before I start flogging the book to publishers. I am putting them on my substack in digestible chunks. I will link to each as its get published on my site. Hopefully, they will provide some useful background to the Cold War II that we are in. Here is the first chunk China: from the Shang to the Century of Humiliation

Posted by: Roger | Mar 1 2023 21:42 utc | 29

I have been watching the 10-year government bond rates across Europe and they do seem to have put in a higher low and now ready to set a higher high. With inflation still well above the 10-year rate and that inflation already “sticky” and about to be exacerbated by reductions in European consumer energy subsidies (e.g. retail energy bills going up by 50% in April in the UK) a new higher high may very well be set. This is incredibly toxic for the European economies as their interest rates were set so low for so long and haven’t had the scale of jump that the US has had (the 10-year could easily go to 5%+ in the US).
Germany: Below one percent interest rates from 2014 to 2019 and then negative interest rates from 2019 to the end of 2021, now 2.71% and going up.
UK: Near zero interest rates during the COVID emergency, now 3.84% and going up
Italy: Near zero interest rates during the COVID emergency, now 4.57% and going up
Spain: Near zero interest rates during the COVID emergency, now 3.68% and going up
Germany is the standout with incredibly low, even negative rates, for seven years. That is a lot of years for an economy to become dependent upon incredibly cheap debt (part of the reason for the big jump in property prices in Germany in the past decade) and with such a low base the “rate shock” will be exacerbated. The inflation rate is expected to be 8.7% in Germany in February, which means massively negative real interest rates and the need to raise them significantly higher.
The ECB base rate, to which all European nations are yoked to through the single currency is set at only 3% and forecast to rise to 3.5%. Thats with an overall EU inflation rate of 10%! What we can assume is that the ECB rate will rise higher than 3.5%, but still not enough to deal with inflation. The mix will be stagflation, with a new European debt crisis thrown in. All the more reason for Russia to stretch out its war in Ukraine and keep squeezing the European economies. We could easily have a rerun of the 1970s stagflation in Europe with the “misery index” (unemployment rate plus inflation) rising to high levels.

Posted by: Roger | Mar 2 2023 0:04 utc | 31

“…It could be non-digital light signals sent over fibre optic cables….”
What kind of retard thinks that would be audible, much less damaging to people’s brains?
Oh, it’s the NAFO (North American Fatties Online?) troll we are dealing with. That’s an exceptional kind of stupid.
A “hypothesis” isn’t just some smelly chunk you pull out of your ass. It takes a little work before some ignorant notion that pops into your vacuous cranium rises to the level of a hypothesis.
It was crickets. The people you worship were sufficiently stupid to freak out to the point of exhibiting psychosomatic symptoms over crickets. Deal with it.

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 2 2023 0:39 utc | 33

Left-wing darling Lula forges ahead.
New ZH article:
Title: Brazilian President And WEF Member Lula Da Silva Pressures Population Into Total COVID Vaccination
He’s a WEF darling.
Like most lefties.
And people keep getting fooled by the aspirational rhetoric….
meanwhile ignoring what they actually do once in power….

Posted by: Scorpion | Mar 2 2023 1:03 utc | 35

So the main topics today are (a) crickets (b) cricket (c) balloons.
About (c), what puzzles me is why Biden Administration did not issue medals yet to still anonymous heroes who prevailed over this menace. Americans can sleep soundly again, but they do not know who saved them — apart from masterful tactics of Biden. First, lull the enemy into complacence — let it fly over USA from Idaho to South Caroline (or was it North), make the short work of it when it relaxes with USA behind it, and when emboldened numerous followup arrived, tra-ta-ta-ta! All dead.
But how we can explain the lack of medals?
About (a), I like the theory than many American and Canadian diplomats in Havana had pre-damaged brains.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 2 2023 2:06 utc | 37

James @ 7:
The only cricket-related issue that the CIA may claim any expertise -if that is the right term – on, is trying to keep former Pakistani allrounder and captain Imran Khan away from politics.

Posted by: Jen | Mar 2 2023 2:49 utc | 39

@Stonebird | Mar 1 2023 19:09 utc | 12
Humans should be used to it by now. After all the nuclear power source at the center of the solar system has been producing enormous quantities of microwaves for billions of years.
There are a lot of things to worry about, but unless you live in front of a radar antenna, or talk to yourself on a powered up 90s flip-phone, this is not one of them. In the US about half as many people die of brain or upper spine tumors a year (from all causes) as die in firearm related deaths (ditto), and we don’t worry about the former, so why be concerned about the latter?

Posted by: Hermit | Mar 2 2023 3:04 utc | 41

The second part of Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson’s Geopolitical Economy Hour presentation on de-dollarization is available. They cover only three of the last five questions on their de-dollarization talk agenda, so more next time, in a fortnight. Transcript available. Hosted Ben Norton at Geopolitical Economy dot com.

RADHIKA DESAI: Today we are continuing our discussion of de-dollarization. As many of you know we have structured our discussion around some ten questions, and last time we dealt with the first five.
1 What is money?
2 What is the relation between money and debt?
3 Is money a commodity?
4 What is the theory of how the dollar serves as world money?
And then because this theory so much relies on the sterling system we discussed the sterling system.
5 What is the sterling system?
What was this real basis not gold but actually empire etcetera.
And then we decided that in this show we will discuss the next five questions which are,
6 How did the sterling system end?
7 What really happened between the world wars?
something on which Michael has written an enormous amount and he knows a great deal.
Then we will discuss the dollar system between 1945 and 1971 which is the year when the dollar’s gold link was broken.
8 How did the dollar system actually function during this time[1945-1971]?
Because we are always told that this was the time when everything was hunky-dory and the dollar system was fine until 1971; but the reality is quite different.
And then we are told that after the dollar’s gold link was broken, that this was not somehow some kind of a great disaster. On the contrary, the United States kind of pulled a fast one on the rest of the world and managed to get the dollar to function as the world’s money without the burden of linking it to gold. Is that really the case?
9 What really went on [after 1971]?
And then we finally come to the crisis of today.
10 What are the main dimensions? What are the forms that de-dollarization takes?
https://michael-hudson.com/2023/02/trade-theo

Posted by: suzan | Mar 2 2023 3:09 utc | 43

Cicadas not crickets, much louder, very noisy bug, common in Cuba.
As for scrambled egg brain, directed micro wave devise common in spy craft. The Russians perfected one. In Moscow, didn’t matter who stayed at the US embassy there, they kept getting really sick. Took uncle Sam a while to figure it out.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Mar 2 2023 3:53 utc | 45

@aye, myself & me | Mar 2 2023 1:12 utc | 49
A microwave oven causes heating by vibrating water molecules. Infrared does something similar but less selectively.
You really shouldn’t allow physics to worry you so much.
Book recommendation: Science for the Citizen by Lancelot Hogben. Look for the 1956 fourth edition or later. It is the most accessible adult science book ever written.

Posted by: Hermit | Mar 2 2023 4:56 utc | 47

@ Roger | Mar 1 2023 20:52 utc | 28 & Mar 1 2023 21:42 utc | 38
@ bevin | Mar 2 2023 0:59 utc | 46
Well said. Roger, thank you kindly for the link. Cheers.
@ Opport Knocks | Mar 1 2023 21:27 utc | 35

Any foreigner stationed in Cuba (and I live with one) …

Oh, you’re in Cuba ? How are you finding the Cricket/s ?

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 2 2023 5:47 utc | 49

@ Stonebird | Mar 2 2023 7:30 utc | 65 with the reported close frequency proximation….
I suggest finding out what frequencies they transmit/receive on, figure out what size wire mesh would attenuate the signal, acquire and decorate creatively.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 2 2023 7:44 utc | 51

Iran is exercising freedom of navigation rights at American shores:

The government of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has allowed a flotilla comprised of two Iranian warships to dock in Rio de Janeiro, ignoring mounting pressure from the United States to bar them.
The Iranian Navy’s Makran and Dena warships, which together form the Islamic Republic’s 86th flotilla of military vessels, berthed in Rio on Sunday, the port authority was quoted by Reuters as saying in a statement.
Vice Admiral Carlos Eduardo Horta Arentz, the deputy chief of Brazil’s Naval Staff, approved the Iranian ships to dock in Rio between February 26 and March 4, following Lula’s recent visit to Washington.
On January 28, Rear Admiral Hamzeh Ali Kaviani, the Iranian Navy’s second-in-command, had said that the vessels were sailing along Latin America’s western shores and were to drop anchor in Rio within a few days.

source: https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/02/27/699019/Iran-warships-dock-Brazil-Rio-de-Janeiro
This is BIG news. Can you imagine the fear and loathing spewing about in the USA right now? The hegemon will be anxious that they will launch cricket balloons.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 10:36 utc | 53

Stonebird #52
Be sure to well connect two or more earth wires to the wire screen and run them to a secure earthing rod in the ground. If you are in a dry environment a slow water drip near the earthing rod will assist.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 10:55 utc | 55

Here’s one for the brainwashed anticommunists, Vijay Prashad on the Health Care system built by the German Democratic Republic in the worst of conditions-a country devastated by war and crippled by international sanctions.
“…. “Socialism Is the Best Prophylaxis,” comes from a statement made by Dr. Maxim Zetkin (1883–1965), the son of the communist and international women’s rights activist Clara Zetkin (1857–1933).
“Zetkin’s words became a widely propagated slogan in the DDR and the leitmotif for the public health care system that the DDR sought to build with and for its population, emphasising that health care must be preventative, or prophylactic, and not reactive, or merely concerned with treating illness and injury after they occur.
“Truly preventative care did not reduce health to medical treatment but focused on the general well-being of the population by continuously improving living and working conditions.
“The DDR recognised that health must be understood as a social responsibility and a priority in all policies, from workplace safety to women’s universal access to reproductive care, nutrition and check-ups in kindergarten and school, and the need to guarantee holidays for the working class.
“Zetkin’s quote also highlights how preventive care can only be realised by a system that eliminates the profit motive, which inevitably results in the exploitation of care workers, inflated prices, patents on life-saving medication, and artificial scarcity.
“The DDR created a network of medical institutions that worked to improve diet and lifestyle as well as to identify and treat ailments early on rather than wait for them to develop into more severe illnesses.
“All of this had to be built in a heavily sanctioned country where the physical infrastructure had been destroyed by the war and where many doctors fled to the West (largely because roughly 45 percent of German physicians had been Nazi Party members, and they knew that they would be treated leniently in the West while they would likely be prosecuted in the DDR and in the Soviet Union).
“The DDR’s commitment to comprehensive health care was based on the idea of social medicine (Sozialhygiene), developed by the founder of modern pathology Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902) to examine the socio-political determinants of health, and on the Soviet Semashko “single payer” health care system, developed by Nikolai Semashko, people’s commissar for health in the Soviet Union from 1918 to 1930.
“Among the key aspects of the DDR’s health care system detailed in our study are polyclinics and the community nurse system. When a person in the DDR felt sick, that person would go to a polyclinic, which would be located within their neighbourhood or workplace.
“Any person could walk into the polyclinic, inform the staff of their ailment, and see a doctor, who would, in turn, direct them to one of the clinic’s many specialist departments (such as internal medicine, oral medicine, gynaecology, surgery, paediatrics, and general medicine).
“Medical professionals were publicly employed and remunerated and could thus focus on healing the patient rather than on prescribing unnecessary tests and medicines simply to overbill insurance companies or the patients. The different medical professionals and specialists who worked in a single polyclinic consulted each other to find the best course of treatment. Furthermore, on average, 18-to-19 doctors worked in each clinic, allowing for extended hours of operations….”
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/03/02/east-germany-the-true-test-of-a-civilization/

Posted by: bevin | Mar 2 2023 17:09 utc | 57

Lavrov at G-20 FM’s Meeting in India opened with the following remarks some of which IMO are crucial:

Dear colleagues,
We are grateful to our Indian friends for their warm welcome and effective leadership of the G20 and for strengthening its ties with the countries of the global South. We join in our condolences to the Governments and peoples of Turkey and Syria in connection with the devastating earthquakes.
We agree with New Delhi’s call to build a common future for humanity, which is especially important in the context of the growing geopolitical confrontation. We share the practical tasks set by the Indian Presidency – strengthening multilateralism and overcoming crises in the global economy.
I would like to apologize to the Indian Presidency and colleagues from the countries of the global South for the obscene behaviour of a number of Western delegations that have turned the work on the agenda of the G2015 into a charade in an attempt to shift their responsibility for failures in economic policy to others, primarily to Russia. It is funny that representatives of those countries whose leaders admitted that since <> they had sabotaged the UN Security Council resolution and pumped Ukraine with weapons for the war against Russia tried especially hard.
Aggressive Russophobia looks especially wild when you remember that never have the Western members of the G20 lamented at its meetings about the many hundreds of thousands of victims of Washington’s adventures in the Middle East under the pretext of threats to national security ten thousand miles from the US borders.
We see no alternative to the only legitimate world order embodied in the basic principles of the UN Charter. We would like to emphasise its core principles – the sovereign equality of states, strict adherence to international treaties, including universal conventions on the rights of national minorities, which were trampled by the Kiev regime to the applause of its Western masters. Russia has consistently opposed attempts to destroy the supporting structure of international law and its replacement by voluntaristic “rules” and “double standards.”
The emergence of a polycentric world requires the recognition of civilizational diversity and mutual respect for interests. It is necessary to abandon the flawed logic of domination, dictate and sanctions. We welcome the rise of new centres of influence in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
Integration processes continue in the regions of the Eurasian Economic Union. Prospects are opening up for combining its potential with other multilateral associations and initiatives on our common continent – the SCO, the BRI, AND ASEAN. To this end, we intend to actively use the possibilities of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin’s initiative to create a broad integration contour , the Greater Eurasian Partnership.
We will strive to democratize economic governance. We support the membership of the African Union in the Group of Twenty. We are in favour of increasing the role of developing countries in the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, and for the elimination of the Western monopoly in environmental and human rights organisations.
We observe the degradation of international economic relations provoked by the West, their transformation into weapons, including in the energy sector. Shocked by the unpunished sabotage against the Main Gas Pipelines of Nord Stream in the zone of responsibility of NATO and the EU. We insist on an honest and prompt investigation of this act of terrorism with the participation of Russia and other interested parties. We stand for ensuring energy security and access of all needy countries to energy resources at affordable prices, eliminating unfair competition. The promotion of the Green Agenda and the successful energy transition should be carried out without imposing costly models on countries with expensive technologies that carry an additional burden at the expense of national socio-economic development plans. Illegitimate sanctions, any form of violation of the freedom of international trade, market manipulation, arbitrary imposition of price ceilings and other attempts to appropriate other people’s natural resources must be thwarted.
It’s time to stop playing the food card. The causes of the crisis are in the actions of the West, which at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic printed trillions of dollars and euros, feverishly buying up food reserves around the world. Today, the lion’s share of grain supplies from Ukraine goes at dumping prices for fodder to the European Union, and not to the poorest states. The export of Russian agricultural products is being openly hindered around the world, no matter how much EU representatives convince everyone of the opposite, who are no strangers to telling lies. Consignments of gratuitous cargoes of Russian fertilizers, in particular for Africa, are still blocked in European ports. The West shamelessly buries the well-known humanitarian initiative of the UN Secretary-General.
Against this background, Russia is diversifying economic ties and expanding trade with negotiable partners. We participate in the creation of a gas distribution hub in Turkey. In July, we are holding another Russia-Africa summit. Within the framework of BRICS, the SCO and the EAEU, we are committed to the formation of reliable transport corridors, independent payment systems, and the expansion of settlements in national currencies.
We will continue to make a significant contribution to ensuring economic stability. We are open to an equal dialogue in the G20. We hope that the Delhi summit in September this year will at least partially offset the risks created by the Selfish Policy of the West.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 2 2023 18:34 utc | 59

I’ve translated Lavrov’s G20 presser and combined it with the remarks I posted above which can be read here.
////////
NC @60–
I looked at Substack and it seems the best choice given the spectrum of opinion presented there.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 2 2023 19:52 utc | 61

bevin #57
Another of your welcome delights bevin. Thank you.
I was reminded of Ken Loach film Spirit of ’45.
Therein are great interviews with English folk and medical professionals and the creation of the National Health System and the rush of access to broadly available and affordable medical care for the majority.
Sound and adequate funding of public health is a right of all people and a primary responsibility of all elected people.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 21:25 utc | 63

karlof1 #59
Thank you, Lavrov is good with words. Those are mighty fine words to read and to see Russia finally setting out the terms and detailed designs for a world of respectful human relationships is a great way to start my day.
Its good news week 🙂

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 21:51 utc | 65

Orban sure is a square peg in the EU round hole.

Hungarian Prime Minister Orban’s idea of calling for a European NATO without the US is unlikely to go down well with Washington. Orban suggested this in an interview with Switzerland’s Weltwoche.

HO HO That will be well received by Blinken’s idiots. He is also sending 10 of his useless Migs to Ukraine and the final 11th one to a museum.
Orban has a sense of humour.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 22:06 utc | 67

The godfather of capitalism (or is that Doge) has a banking problem.

The one thing a depositor never wants to hear from a bank that is holding his or her life savings is that it has doubts about its “ability to continue as a going concern.” Unfortunately, those very words appeared in a filing made yesterday by Silvergate Capital with the Securities and Exchange Commission – which pretty much guarantees that the ongoing run on deposits at Silvergate will continue with an added sense of urgency.
Silvergate Capital is the owner of the federally-insured and taxpayer-backstopped bank, Silvergate Bank, which decided several years back that it would be a cool idea to become the go-to depository bank for crypto companies. One of those outfits was Sam Bankman-Fried’s now collapsed house of fraud. Accounts at Silvergate Bank included Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, FTX; his hedge fund, Alameda Research, which prosecutors say looted his FTX crypto exchange customers; and North Dimension, a fake company promoting itself as an online seller of mobile phones, when it was actually laundering money for Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto enterprises, according to federal prosecutors.
Once the word got out about Silvergate’s ties to FTX and Bankman-Fried, a bank run ensued. On November 11, when FTX announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Silvergate CEO, Alan Lane, released this statement:
“In light of recent developments, I want to provide an update on Silvergate’s exposure to FTX. As of September 30, 2022, Silvergate’s total deposits from all digital asset customers totaled $11.9 billion, of which FTX represented less than 10%. Silvergate has no outstanding loans to nor investments in FTX, and FTX is not a custodian for Silvergate’s bitcoin-collateralized SEN Leverage loans. To be clear, our relationship with FTX is limited to deposits.”

source: https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/03/silvergate-a-federally-insured-bank-just-blew-up-from-ties-to-crypto/

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 22:23 utc | 69

Two Indicted Masterminds of the FTX Fraud Were Clients of Big Law Firm Sullivan & Cromwell
That is the banner headline in this report at Wall Street on Parade.
Warren Buffett called crypto ‘rat poison squared” :))

On January 17, Sullivan & Cromwell law partner Andrew Dietderich filed a declaration in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware that acknowledged – after much prodding by the U.S. Trustee – the more than 20 legal engagements Sullivan & Cromwell had been involved in with Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Group before it filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022. According to the declaration, the law firm’s legal work began 15 months prior to the collapse of the firm. (See our previous report, Sam Bankman-Fried, BlockFi and Sullivan & Cromwell: A Viper’s Nest of Conflicts and Intrigue.)
This does not look good for the 144-year old law firm because the Securities and Exchange Commission is now charging that FTX was a fraud from the very beginning and Sam Bankman-Fried illegally used FTX customer funds from the very beginning. Making the situation even more dicey for Sullivan & Cromwell, its former law partner, Ryne Miller, was employed as General Counsel at FTX US as this fraud was expanding.
Raising reputational risk not only to Sullivan & Cromwell but also to the federal court system, none of the above information stopped the presiding judge in the FTX bankruptcy case, Judge John Dorsey, from signing an order making Sullivan & Cromwell the lead law firm overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings of the more than 100 companies involved in Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto house of cards. Sullivan & Cromwell has already billed more than $20 million in legal fees in the bankruptcy case along with more than $239,000 in expenses – including more than $20,000 for “Conference Room Dining” and “Meals – Overtime.” (See Judge John Dorsey Has Effectively Privatized Justice in the FTX Bankruptcy Case.)

Yes I did post this a few days ago but it is a vital context here today so that we can grasp the enormity of this hemorrhage in trust.
The vampire squid has its tentacles wrapped around the testicles of the USA banks like we saw back in 2008. Here is a quote from the report in my post at #69:

Another way that Silvergate apparently met the run on the bank was to obtain $4.3 billion in advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco – a program meant to support housing for the poor. (See Four Crypto-Friendly Banks Are Being Bailed Out with Billions from a Federal Housing Program.)
There were more troubling phrases in Silvergate’s revelations to the SEC yesterday, such as the fact that Silvergate can’t file its annual report for the full year of 2022 (Form 10-K) on time; it needs more time to “record journal entries.” Equally troubling was the phrase that “its independent registered public accounting firm” needs more time “to complete certain audit procedures, including review of adjustments not yet recorded and the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.”
You can read Silvergate’s full statement to the SEC at this link.
In after hours trading yesterday, following the news of Silvergate’s statement to the SEC, its stock price fell by another 30 percent. Based on its closing price at 4 p.m. yesterday, it has lost 90 percent of its market value over the prior 12 months.
Silvergate has other troubles as well. It’s under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice; it’s being sued by multiple plaintiffs seeking class action status; and Reuters reported in February that another crypto exchange kingpin, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, had suspiciously moved $400 million at Silvergate Bank.

message to self – plant potatoes, make sauerkraut, hatch chickens…
Good luck westies 😉

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 22:56 utc | 71

uncle tungsten @ 71
Fascinating, thanks. It’s going tits up like 2008 only this time they won’t tell you, but you’ll find out anyway when you’re out on the street begging for a dollar for a cup of coffee.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Mar 2 2023 23:18 utc | 73

LightYearsFromHome #73
“begging for a dollar for a cup of coffee.”
I am unlucky enough to have to pay five times that for a coffee at the store. Home coffee is maybe a dollar thankfully. I love fresh ground coffee the rest is just freeze dried boot polish.
It will be interesting to watch the economic fallout through these days. If the westies have lost the plot with their frankenstein capitalist model then the multipolar world order and new alliances outside of the $US will experience a rush of members from across the non-westie world.
I must look at data on trade volumes between nations as we have to recognise that the USA does not make so much stuff any more and a crash there may be not so bad for some other westies (UK excluded) other than banks being burned. Nationalised economies on the horizon perhaps?
It could save us from military adventurism led by the USA.
I look forward to China being saved from strenuous military response to repeated insults and provocations.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 23:49 utc | 75

Uncle Tungsten and karlofi.
re coffee. Buy the green beans- at half the price of roasted. Roast them yourself in a skillet on an open flame. Just roast enough for a few days- roast coffee deteriorates very quickly.
You can tell by the colour if they are done
Its easy, if it wasn’t and if it didn’t taste much better, I wouldn’t do it. My wife came back from Cuba where she’d seen coffee growing peasants doing it. We’ve done it ever since

Posted by: bevin | Mar 3 2023 0:47 utc | 77

I always keep my (roasted) coffee in the freezer, if I have room, beans or ground. Keeps it from going rancid. YMMV. Most important thing, sometimes I think only thing, with coffee is ‘fresh’, not gone rancid, although how it is roasted means a lot. But even crappy roasted beans, if fresh, will beat the pants off anything that has been oxydized and gone “off”.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 3 2023 1:13 utc | 79

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Metro#Statistics
Posted by: West of England Andy | Mar 1 2023 17:41 utc | 2
For subway/train buff, the statistics of Moscow Metro are interesting, offering damning contrasts with New York subway, unlike the latter, the Moscow Metro is at par with largest and most up-to-date system.
Number one, timetable fullfilment 99.96%. If you rely on Moscow Metro, you have 1/2500 chance of being late.
Number two, check the projected completion dates of expansion project. Big Circle line, in blue, is mostly dashed line on the map you can see, initial stations were completed in 2018, and the final completion was pencilled for 2023. And it DID happen. And this is not the only infrastructure project in Russia, or a foreign project of RosAtom that is completed on time — and within budget.
Number three, Moscow metropolitan area keeps expanding, and it is not just administration, schools and offices, but a lot of industry as well. Keeping it together, requires infrastructure, and road congestion, including divided highway, is reputed to be nighmarish. But the subway runs the same brisk speed from before dawn till midnight (?) and ON TIME, and it is well connected to local buses, so any longer ride is best done on subway.
St. Petersburg also has extensive subway system, other cities, not so much, but that does not mean that they lack public transit.
Of course, with new technologies and in industries more affected by sanctions, this is not always the case.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 3 2023 2:37 utc | 81

London No2Nato No2War event:
The anti-Nato event they tried to stop (33 min)
https://youtu.be/watch?v=MtNmgyOpINI

Posted by: Browser | Mar 3 2023 4:42 utc | 83

Regarding “Havana Syndrome”: These accusations were, from the very first, obviously a case of popular hysteria magnified by national security delusions. What is slightly interesting to note is that in all Western media outlets, none was more enthusiastic at promoting it than the BBC. I feel certain that the BBC had a desk dedicated to pushing the story. On average they produced a new hysteria amplifying story on the subject once every three weeks. This went on for more than a year. The fact that their last story promoting the idea that Cuba had some Bond villain like microwave weapon was just before the Russian SMO (and no more after that) shows that it’s likely the same propagandists are too busy with their new focus to keep pushing up the Havana Syndrome nonsense.
6 Dec 2020
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55203844
17 July 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57875322
25 August 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58322593
9 Sept 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58396698
9 Sept 2021
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09vfr0l
21 Sept 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58632145
24 Sept 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58675144
9 Oct 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58852437
13 Oct 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58893344
13 January 2022
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59986297
20 January 2022
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60068483
2 Feb 2022
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60237839

Posted by: promptcritical | Mar 3 2023 5:44 utc | 85

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 2 2023 23:00 utc | 72
Dr John Campbell forced to apologise yet again.
…………………………………………….
Sad to see him swallowing whole and regurgitating the US media recycling of the China Virus propaganda, highlighted by b a couple of days ago (The Context Of The New Anti-China Campaign, Feb 28). He was going well before on the vaccine damage story, but that was difficult to sit through.

Posted by: Walt | Mar 3 2023 5:52 utc | 87

G20 in India:
“External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar highlighted “abnormal” state of ties and need for peace on the LAC in Thursday’s talks with Chinese counterpart Qin Gang”
Reply:
“Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar called on India to look at relations “in the context of once-in-a-century changes in the world” and to put the border issue “in the proper place”, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday.”
My translation: the border demarcation conflict between the two Asian giants since 73 years is of secondary importance to the CPC compared to the US animosity since 2 years vs the PRC.
If the PRC wants India’s support it should settle the border now! Surely a reasonable compromise can be found, which would benefit both sides. The only ones who like this old sore are the (ex?)colonial powers.

Posted by: Antonym | Mar 3 2023 10:20 utc | 89

Roscosmos tested the first krypton-powered electric rocket engine for the Sphere project
The SPD-70M engine was tested at OKB Fakel, demonstrating its stable operation and reliable launch parameters.
The engine meets all the requirements for the Project Sphere spacecraft!
Traditionally xenon has been used as the working substance for plasma engines. But in recent years its price on the market has increased, which has intensified scientific research for the use of more affordable propellants. A possible alternative – krypton, the cost of which, according to various estimates, 5-10 times less than xenon. At the same time it is possible to obtain acceptable parameters of plasma engines.
In December 2022 Roscosmos began research work (https://www.roscosmos.ru/38580/). The task is to investigate the possibility of using alternative working bodies to xenon in electric rocket engines

Posted by: hankster | Mar 3 2023 10:53 utc | 91

bevin #77
Thank you. I will charcoal roast some as soon as I find a source.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 3 2023 11:12 utc | 93

Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 3 2023 11:09 utc | 92
Very good explanation, Debsisdead. It gets to us all.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 3 2023 11:44 utc | 95

Walt #87 My post (Mar 2 2023 23:00 utc | 72) was tongue in cheek.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Mar 3 2023 11:32 utc | 94
I’m glad you clarified that Unc. I read that before my 2nd eye was open this morning and
felt like challenging. So OK, and thanks for posting the link. Campbell makes a sincere
apology with no half-stepping. In admitting he was wrong he rightly points out what I think
is a take-away quote, ‘That’s how science progresses’.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Mar 3 2023 12:53 utc | 97

juliania@96
Fight that instinct towards generosity! In capitalist society it has no place.
The story of the Second World war is rather simple: the British Empire paid for its economic costs, the Red Army won it at enormous human cost. And Wall Street lent the money at interest which it collected in full. America went back to work.
The story of Keynes at Bretton Woods meeting, in Harry Dexter White, the real face of the US ruling class is instructive. It took the economist a while to work it out but it soon became evident that, underneath the bonhommie and courtesy, the US felt that it had Britain exactly where it wanted it, ready to pay though it could only do so by sacrificing its industry, its working class and its colonies.
There was only one alternative for the British and that was revolution- throwing off the leadership of the right wing Labour government and pushing the reform agenda through to its logical conclusion, not just nationalisation but workers control. And, most important, a reversal of Britain’s role in suppressing communist uprisings across Europe and entering into a defensive alliance with the Soviet Union.
Had that been done (and there was almost no chance that it would have been attempted, or was even seen as a possibility) there would have been no NATO, the Soviet Union would have had the “thaw” its people, and the Red Army, desired with such fervour. No longer encircled and threatened it would have reversed course and rebuilt the ultra democratic soviets, Europe would have had the socialism that its people wanted, the empires would have been dissolved.
The lives of tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of victims of anti-communism of post war imperialism would have been saved, their productive value preserved, the world a far, far better place.
The satrapy that is so evident today in the relations between the UK and the USA began in the War. It was confirmed by the British government’s refusal to act on behalf of the people by refusing to tax them with the wartime debt (which in most countries, Germany for example, was written off). Once that step was taken the history of the era was written: the UK would become Wall Street’s subordinate, debt collector, enforcer, and its ruling class its pensioner.
That was the end of British history.

Posted by: bevin | Mar 3 2023 14:32 utc | 99