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Aug 2, 2023
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grr's avatar

It wasn't worth mentioning. Just a minor inconsequential annoyance that won't change anything.

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Aug 2, 2023Edited
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grr's avatar

How long do you want an article to be? 1,100 klm front, geopolitical events happening at lightening speed all over the world and Simp is meant to cover every event?

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Feral Finster's avatar

The drone attack did exactly what it was intended to do, which was give the MSM an opportunity to change the subject to a Ukrainian victory.

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I don't like sand's avatar

At least nobody was injured. I think the more interesting one is the S-200 missile attack on a Russian art museum. the MOD claims they shot it down but it looks like it exploded.

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Aug 4, 2023
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I don't like sand's avatar

It was on Simplicius's Bitchute channel

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Aug 2, 2023
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Jack Dee's avatar

Sorry to hear that.

Personally I think the guy's a bit of a loud mouth dick and his Coach Red-pill manosphere stuff was cringe, but if what he said about Victoria Nuland knowing about him and hating his guts is true then he has risen in my estimation, “You can judge a man by the quality of his enemies”. That’s a lot better than “He has no enemies and none of his friends like him”.

He did stick around in a hotzone and spoke his piece long enough and well enough to be arrested by the secret police and tortured in prison, he’s no Dostoevsky or Solzhenitsyn but that counts for something.

I hope he makes it out alive.

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Aug 2, 2023
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grr's avatar

Black don't crack.

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Gerrard White's avatar

? what? go talk to Ibrahim Traoré or Assimi Goïta in this way and find out....

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Victor's avatar

I am not going to do this childish "First" thing again.

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Aug 2, 2023
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Anja's avatar

😂

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33db's avatar

Even at the beach?

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I don't like sand's avatar

I don't like sand, it is coarse and irritating and it gets everywhere

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Aug 3, 2023Edited
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I don't like sand's avatar

*that was a star wars quote btw*

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TruthwinsOut's avatar

Saw these articles today. US cluster munitions will bring more pain and death to Donbass civilians, and Washington doesn't care Kiev will use its newly received weapons to target residential areas, just as it has for the past nine years - Canadian Journalist

Kremlin ‘inspired’ by Russian troops in one-vs-seven armor standoff. My comment follows. "One for the books, Russian Tank Crew was courageous in the face of the enemy, and when you're in a fight with patriotism like that, no way can you win. Got that, NATO Warmongers?"

The TRUTH of the matter is, with the morally bankrupt, warmongering, traitorous globalist rot in our government, with their diabolic rules that trash everything that is good in the world that must be obeyed, or the gulag for you, we're on the WRONG SIDE! Thank God the Russia isn't! They are the hope for the world to get out the darkness that our Government has embraced! I'm a Vietnam War Navy Vet of the Security Group Command (68-72). I don't recognize our Military anymore that has been turned into a group of Woke Perverts promoting every kind of perversion and making a priority of the biggest con that is man-made climate change that exists for making a fortune for the Gore Green Goblins, the rest of us be damned! Pray God save us from this evil, and, IMO, the Russian Armed Forces are HIS MIGHTY HAND at work doing it as every victory they win on the battlefield is a dagger to the heart of the Globalist Rot that wants to enslave the world!

Regarding the War Reporting, you must remember that the Uke Army currently being destroyed piecemeal by the Russian Armed Forces indiscriminately shelled Civilians to especially include women and children in the Donbass since the Maidan Coup instigated by the Criminally Insane Victoria Nuland, the morally bankrupt warmongering witch in the US State Department, who wants to see Russia Destroyed. So as far as I'm concerned, what's happening to that Uke Army is well deserved!

The Uke Armies continue to be attrited in the field at an ever-increasing rate with their fantasies of storming Crimea going down the drain as their miniscule gains resulting in the cannon fodder of their soldiers attest to in spades! This was is over. It only continues because of the Western Hegemon dreams of destroying Russia when, in fact, they are destroying themselves. Take that, Nuland and the rest of ur US State Dept garbage prolonging this war to please your MIC donors, the cost in lives be damned. Karma is coming for you all!

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Kun Bela's avatar

For me, as a person born behind the Iron Curtain, there was a time when we believed that the USA was an excellent defender of the Free World, but we reached the time when we saw the reality behind the empty fake smile that what Ronald Reagan once said about the "Evil Empire" was indeed true, but the USA valid for ! We can already see that it is like a cancerous tumor parasitizing the body of the planet ! We pity the hard working decent American people, more than one of whom I can call my friend, that such a despotic military industrial power rules over them!

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The Elder of Vicksburg's avatar

As Robert E Lee said, the "consolidation of the states into one vast republic," which was the actual "war aim" of Lincoln and the Republicans in 1860, has created an empire "aggressive abroad and despotic at home." And needless to say, completely evil.

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Kun Bela's avatar

And let's add that, having bought up most of the media on the planet, they successfully lie whatever they want. Of course, more and more people are opening their eyes to the fact that Lord Palmerston's old saying, which he said in the days of the British Empire, "We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.", the new hegemon took it over perfectly and uses it to this day! The fact that the new one throws its former allies like a snotty handkerchief is exemplified by the last picture of the South Vietnamese clinging to the roof of the Saigon embassy, but the image of the ugly escape from Afghanistan is still vividly alive in us when the image of the Afghans clinging to the wheel of the C17 plane and then falling to their deaths , presumably this fate awaits the Ukrainians !

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ThermalVision's avatar

What a load of anti-historical rubbish. MSNBC or CNN ought to hire you for your ability to spin false narratives. The US Empire started with the founding of the Office of Strategic Services in 1942 by former MI5/MI6 (same thing at the time) agents which reorganized into the CIA in 1945. The actual roots of the US Empire and why the American elite welcomed the cream of the British Empire with open arms in order to revive their empire in a new host country are in the Business Plot, which was a plot by the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and all other ruling families in the US to overthrow FDR's socially democratic government to instead install a Mussolini-style fascist regime. When that plot failed after it was exposed to the public by a mole, building the US Empire with the help of President Trueman was the next best thing.

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ASensibleMan's avatar

"a plot by the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and all other ruling families in the US to overthrow FDR's socially democratic government to instead install a Mussolini-style fascist regime."

Lol! What a hot take. FDR was a psychopathic murderer, the man more responsible than anyone for starting and continuing WWII. He ran roughshod over the Constitution and any petty legalities getting in the way of his tyrannical government. His administration was riddled up and down with Communist Jews, and was the start of turning America into the Jewish controlled satrapy that it is today (just like Ukraine, btw). After Lincoln, he is the worst American President, but then Biden's not done yet.

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Xcalibur's avatar

Pretty much, the Anglo Empire never ended -- its center of gravity crossed the Atlantic, from London to DC. I think this process began during WWI, and was completed after WWII. We're now living through no less than the dismantling of the post-1945 order. And honestly, even though I'm American, it's justified at this point. Between the endless debt & inflation, the cultural rot & decay, and the increasing tyranny of the oligarchic regime, the West no longer deserves to win at this point; it's sad but true. I was hoping Trump would set things right, but the Swamp is too deep to drain, even for him. Now I want no less than the military defeat of NATO by China & Russia, only that will provide the needed systemic shock.

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pyrrhus's avatar

Evil is as evil does...The fact that the regime supports child trafficking, both in the US and the Ukraine, is reason enough for it to be totally destroyed by history...

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Raphael's avatar

Germany and the Netherlands have brothels, where pregnant women are kept, kidnapped from Eastern Europe, 1-12 yrs old. Clientele, European and Middle Eastern.

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Barbara P's avatar

It is becoming clear as a bell. There are so many countries in the world, large and small, that have a big supply of a particular resource that the world needs. Either one country controls the whole world, or we all get along enough to maintain a complex trade network. Zero sum or win/win. We've had over 1,000 years of one way of doing things, but it's the 21st century and the world is slowly shifting. It is a dangerous, but exciting time.

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marcomartim's avatar

You don't understand, do you?

We live in a world with limited resources, the goal of globalists is to ensure that these resources last as long as possible.

To do this, first they will use the allies to try to dominate and subjugate and eliminate the entire world, then they will eliminate the allies as well.

It works like in the movie Highlander, there can only be one...

Ultimately they will exterminate a large portion of the population itself to extend the duration of the resources to the maximum, hoping that the advancement of the technique will give them time to exploit resources in space to maintain themselves indefinitely.

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Way Back Joe's avatar

What resources are limited.

Everything that this planet was made of in that swirling cloud that evolved into planet earth is still here. Water evaporates or condenses, or it can freeze into a solid. Changing state is natures great trick. If I throw my last gallon of water on the hot desert sand it is not wasted it still exists by changing into a vapour. I may die of thirst but I and the H20 will still be here. I will simply be reduced to the elemental compounds mostly water which constituted my living body and are now returned to the earth upon my death. The idea that oil is a fossil fuel which we are rapidly depleting is a bald faced lie promoted by old man Rockefella back in the nineteen twenties. NO. oil like water is a compound originating in the formation of the planet. The crust of the earth in simplistic terms moves on it like a shaft on a roller bearing. When oil under great pressure along with gas is found at great depths 25K to 35K inside the mantle it is not made from dead dinosaurs or vegetation. That oil is abiotic.

The globalists, I call them what they really are the Khazarian Zionists want this planet for themselves. Now that they have most of the planet in their grasp they no longer need these large human herds of prey. Besides with the misery about to befall many nations it may become known as it has in other times that these Khazars are the source of the misery and degradations befalling humanity. Better to kill them off as soon as possible... wars and diseases. Look around... every government agency or department at its head has a Zionist Khazar. All the major drug companies manufacturing the clot shots are operated by Khazar Zionis CEOs. The Hill ( Washington ) is in the grip of Neo Con Khazar Zionists. The CDC top 6 positions al Khazar Zionist. I could spend the rest of the night and next week talking about how everything is in Khazar Zionist lock up. In fact if you have the ears ( tuned in ) to hear it they themselves will tell you that they have a special right to anything they demand including exclusive ownership of this planet with or without you. They decide.

It's time to really wake up.

WBJ

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Gravelrash's avatar

The thing about karma that many misconceive is that it is simply a natural impersonal force that doesn't judge or seek vengeance, it simply restores balance. It is the twin of reincarnation, you can't have one without the other. Committing evil on a personal or national level indeed will see a response, it can be shorter term but more likely it will occur in a latter cycle when events are suitable. As we reincarnate roughly 500 to 2000 years between depending on populations at a given time, those suffering now do so for events from antiquity, as it will be for those engaged in wrong action now. Karma is why most religions say to not seek vengeance, it is a pointless endeavor that adversely affects those seeking it, balance is always restored. Pedantic and irrelevant to the discourse I know, however as instant karma or calling for karmic retribution are catch phrases these days...

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Morfei's avatar

I think it's more correct to say that karma is not a force, but something like a fundamental law or attribute of the universe, which says that every action or event has a cause and effect. Karma does nothing, it just determines how things in the universe relate to each other. There is also another fundamental law of the universe - the law of conservation of energy or balance. And since everything in the universe is energy, just in different forms, everything in the universe strives for balance. These two things at a basic level determine everything that happens or will happen in the universe.

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Mike Hampton's avatar

Further affect of the instability in Northern Africa is that the EU will not be able to go ahead with the gas pipeline it wanted. It will be interesting to see how Nigeria and Algeria respond to Western pressure agains Mali etc. I wonder if Germany's AfD will be seeking Russian gas next year.

Regards sanctions, South Africa was under them for 40 years. I just mentioned that on Larry Johnson's site. But everyone still got their gold, coal and strategic minerals (used for big weapons). It's nice to see a pattern of reverse, a consequence for hypocrisy.

The Jeddah peace conference nonsense is next on the USA's agenda which is probably why no one is meaningfully discussing the results of the recent Russia-Africa Summit. If you're interested, check out the press statements by those involved in the latter - on the Kremlin's site, or pop over to my page for some highlights.

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Aug 2, 2023Edited
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Mike Hampton's avatar

Thanks for the meaningful comment and the map.

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Surferket's avatar

And just for insurance sake let's have some "Ukrainian extremists" blow it up from their rented yacht!

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Gerrard White's avatar

Thanks for the map very useful

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Oliver Singer's avatar

Algeria is one of the more important applicants to BRICS. May or may not have an effect on their position concerning energy cooperation with the EU. Certainly giving the EUcrats something to worry about..

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Oliver Singer's avatar

Nigeria has limited control over their northern provinces. Boko Haram are very likely to target Nordstream...err Trans Sahara.

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Steghorn21's avatar

Didn't Boko Harem write "A whiter shade of pale"?

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Steghorn21's avatar

As a European facing a cold winter without fuel, I'm trying to stay ahead of the game. I'm off to the local forest to collect wood.

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Mike Hampton's avatar

I was going to respond a bit more but kept on browsing one step away until I felt that I had to write an article which then drained my whole day. Hopefully this adds info for people who are interested in the Niger situation - https://mikehampton.substack.com/p/is-the-cold-war-heating-up-africa

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Gerrard White's avatar

Thanks for raising this gas pipeline angle - the anglo MSM are talking about Putin's revolution in Niger and the terrible effect it will have on EU inflation and immigration - scant a word about uranium or this pipeline

It may be that the Algerians 'side with', even if very quietly, the anti imperialist revolt in Niger, along with Burkina Faso and Mali

That leaves the remaining stretches of French Equatorial Africa to.....

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Mike Hampton's avatar

I started writing about it yesterday, awoke to continue but found 3 links in my inbox to articles about it - not MSM but we can usually rely on the 'alternative' community.

https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-mainstream-medias-new-narrative

https://sonar21.com/a-dire-situation-in-west-africa-is-a-new-war-in-the-offing/

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2023/08/02/russia-and-the-military-putsch-in-niger/

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Gerrard White's avatar

Thank you for the links- it is very plausible to read the MSM comments as huff and puff, being ordered to stir the jingo pot in the absence of any realistic war plans on the part of the EUUSNATO blob - Libya this is not

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Mike Hampton's avatar

Libya, is sure isn't. But its a hotbed for fundamentalist terrorists that the USA created, so they will want to try keep them there. Plus there's the graft involved in military spending and sending $100m in annual aid. The corporations will want to try hang onto that. They will first use EWOCAS for pressure, and hope to stay out of it so that the average American doesn't have to learn another location on a map.

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Gerrard White's avatar

The US supposes that the Nigerian régime and other ECOWAS's are quite as corrupt and as stupid as the Ukrainian - but this time to take on not only one neighbouring country but many - it's impossible to be that stupid

And risk, in the case of Nigeria, reviving the activities of Boko

Africa in general, the Sahel in particular, have been quick to understand and to react to the significance and the already lessons of the EUUS failed war by proxy on Russia

Apart from one or two neo-colonies, Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco, Rwanda, Kenya - it's probable that there are more countries than not determined to break loose from USEU exploitation corruption and poverty

(Maybe add Ghana to the list of the of the enslaved)

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Steghorn21's avatar

It doesn't help the French that before sanctions, they got a lot of their uranium from...Russia. They are committing energy suicide in the same way as Germany. They really can't be that stupid, can they?

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Gerrard White's avatar

Correct- but, remarkably, the French, as the Germans etc, proclaimed the inherent virtue in abstaining from the use of Russian gas and almost everything

They have 360°d with regard to Niger, where they find virtue in keeping that country as the poorest in the world while they increase their dependence on products they rip from that country at very convenient cost

It is stupid, if you are Russian, and it is neo slavery if you are Nigerien, but if you are part of the French or the EU élite it is too late in the endgame to even start to think about what can otherwise be done

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Gareth Richmond's avatar

Typical western chauvinism blaming Russia for the coup in Niger as if Africans are incapable of having their own agency. No wonder a lot of Africans dislike the west that makes sense to me.

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dornoch altbinhax's avatar

Shaman's video Я РУССКИЙ (https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxYBRgbNU81olI6WGiirIP9HZLlcI6O-Ow) has an interesting ending (but is set in the "USA") that echos to your comment.

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Feral Finster's avatar

Because the coup in Niger is the first time a coup ever has happened in Africa, LOL. Only Russians could do such a heinous thing, compared with the peaceful and scrupulously law abiding events in Chile in 1973, Iran in 1955 or Ukraine in 2014.

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Steghorn21's avatar

Yep. And of course, the neocons have never, ever instigated any coups. Anywhere. Ever!

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I don't like sand's avatar

Ok Russia probably did have a hand in it but screw the West anyway.

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Argo's avatar

The power challenge is heating up, and chips from other players are slowly coming onto the table. I hope someone folds soon, before they start considering pushing in more chips and trying to double or nothing.

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Mike Hampton's avatar

On the SitRep section, sheer mastery as always but with me being horrified the most. I'm glad that I've not become desensitised to Ukraine's leaders killing their youth. Whereas I used to hope for a real peace negotiation, both sides in agreement and benefiting, we're now at the stage where Russia has to win for the war to end. It's interesting to watch the pressure cracks, such as the Colombian mercenaries being attacked. Hopefully the Ukrainian Public will crack sufficiently to remake themselves into a protest yelling "NO MORE".

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Feral Finster's avatar

From what I am hearing, the people in Kiev at least remain all in. Of course, I don't press the issue too closely, as I don't want to attract the attention of the secret police on the people I talk with.

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Scott's avatar

They're more insulated there, ... so far.

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Mike Hampton's avatar

Insulated - padded by propaganda, but less sheets the further they move East.

Then there's that video of the Ukrainian and his girlfriend who were so happy because he filmed a missile hitting his street. Then there was the video of him being conscripted.

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Steghorn21's avatar

I still can't believe that so many Ukr soldiers play along. They need to shoot the Azov enforcers and walk away. Let Z and his neocon friends do the real fighting.

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ann watson's avatar

awesome article - I will see how much a paid subscription is - thanks...will watch that new footage of the lone rangers - I saw another video yesterday of some guys inside a tank laughing and putting giant

bullets in the cannon and shooting them. I wonder if that was them ?

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Sam's avatar

Ha! Remember when people in America were laughing at Russia for having to take chips out of washing machines to make their tanks go even though it never happened? Well if Russia and China keep effing America and making it hard for them to make chips maybe it will be America who will be stripping washing machines of their chips. Who’s laughing now?

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Andyes's avatar

The Russian missiles always go in circles looking for their targets, because the missile's chips come from washing machines )

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Steghorn21's avatar

I watch a lot of Russian films, and even there, you can see how far Putin has brought the country since Soviet times. I'm sure there are some backwaters that haven't changed much, but the main places look clean and modern.

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Luke's avatar

Gotta come back tomorrow and finish. Another barn burner of a piece S. Love to see this stuff materialize. Me knowing very little about it last year was still aware enough to determine what scared the Empire. I am also aware that much pain awaits me if Globohomo fails. Still I want to see these bastards squirm and fall on their faces.

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Anthony's avatar

me too!

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Anthony's avatar

Being an econ-finance nerd, extra enjoyed the opening section regarding the budding currency angle in all this. I didn't know about the rare earth ban kicking in today, so thanks for that. More importantly I kept thinking about the 2 TRILLION the US Treasury will be adding to the national debt, BEFORE yrs end. I strongly suspect China's turning the future price-inflation screws, especially on commodities, exacerbating our own fiscal inflation. After watching that African-Russian Conf clip I'm nearly certain of it. Never mind all of the Undeclared Gold by Russia, and China, that far as I can tell only Alistair Macleod has made mention of. IF China & Russia declared their undeclared gold, and went full 100% gold backed monetary system, that'd be the nuclear kill shot upon the US/5 Eyes/EU financial system. Would likely be the global Release the Nukes moment too. Game Over. So why do all that when China/Russia can sit back, turn up the pressure our wobbly financial system, and continue to watch us spin and flail about.

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GO4MXE6's avatar

US got a ratings downgrade by Fitch today. To AA I think.

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Anthony's avatar

Yup dropped from AAA to AA+. Yellen's angry statement was laughable.

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pyrrhus's avatar

Yellen is a seriously dumb person...wonder how (((she))) got promoted to such high positions?!

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Anthony's avatar

Indeed, she's a true legend of incompetence. One should trade the exact opposite of her calls. There'll never be another financial crisis in her lifetime again. She's a WEF/Davos loyal servant. Applies to the entirety of Team Brandon. Not that Team GOP is any better. They gave these clowns and themselves this post-debt ceiling blank check of debt. 2T thru yrs end. Absolutely insane.

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Scott's avatar

Perfect contrarian indicator so far.

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Rigpig's avatar

She was friends in school with Alexander Hamilton.

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Scott's avatar

And almost immediately saw an article title to the effect that those who buy Treasuries don't pay attention to ratings. Had a good morning laugh at that! This may be the start of a spiral in percentage of debt that is interest and further downgrades.

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Anthony's avatar

Yeah lol that's pretty stupid. I think the avalanche of downgrades & defaults is incoming. But then COVID & CARES Act taught me the powers that be are far more crafty and insane than I ever imagined. They will do Whatever It Takes! To keep this beast system going.

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Scott's avatar

Such is the way when all empires crumble. I mean a good indicator of that is the way the culture is imploding, the quickening descent of morality and the fact that those that watch/listen to/readead mass media don't recognize their product as cartoons aimed at the mental capacities of school children.

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Anthony's avatar

Indeed I think it's true traditional inflation-the artificial creation of currency and credit, that's overtaken and overwhelmed all previous empires. Such is the timeless fate of this empire too. And it leads to all the cultural collapse. In hyperinflation, it becomes useless to invest in business and production. Speculative Mania, is what's encouraged and rewarded. The financialized economy. When the economy is contracting, issuing more currency only leads to more speculation and FOMO chasing. such is what we've seen a lot of since 2020 CARES Act. And it gets harder to find true adults, and TV/Movies/Hollywood are virtually devoid of them.

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Steghorn21's avatar

Yep. A key indicator of decline is the attempts to normalise perversion and pedophilia. We are there.

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pyrrhus's avatar

Yep, AA+...more downgrades coming in the future as the US budget blows up next year...

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Kristi O'Sullivan's avatar

My thoughts exactly. Reading regular econ/finance stuff I keep hearing that in markets when everyone thinks one thing will happen, it’s often another that does happen. I can’t help asking myself - they all think the US dollar as a reserve is safe. So using their own logic. . . And I also have wondered when will China just flush the system with US treasuries - painful for China too, but worse for the US. Slay the beast.

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Anthony's avatar

That's a good observation, when everyone's on 1 side of the boat. I was, and still am in the US recession-hard landing camp. It's coming, we have to create 2T of currency to keep the whole payment system afloat thru yrs end. I may be dead first, but math will win out eventually!

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Kristi O'Sullivan's avatar

The other assumption I question is the presumption that there will be (or needs to be) another single reserve currency (at least in the short term) - why do people rule out a menu of currencies between trading countries - especially between those countries who have products both trading partners want so there’s symbiotic benefits. The US seems to only export its debt (and arms) so stands to be left out of the equation. The additional liquidity of dollars sloshing around the system which would result from less dollar denominated transactions I would think would be enough to cause significant loss of purchasing power/inflation as the US prints to fill the gap - if so, Hemingway’s famous quote comes to mind - first slowly, then all at once - debt spiral anyone?

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Anthony's avatar

I like how you think! There's an argument that Powell first raised the Reverse Repo Rate, a measly 5 bps on 6-15-21 I believe, to begin the process of soaking up those overseas dollars rather than them sloshing thru and help inflate our system. And Powell agrees w/you, he stated awhile ago that there's room for more that 1 reserve currency. Powell sees the handwriting on the wall. Unfortunately there's many forces at work trying to bend the Fed to it's will. Powell's done a commendable job, but he's only 1 man in heavily shark infested waters. And I'm a big Gold guy. But I'm rooting hard for Powell to kill the Fed Put, and to put us back on a more realistic fiscal track. It's a tall order, and the fight continues. I wish Powell much luck, and hope he's really well protected!

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Kristi O'Sullivan's avatar

You are a lone voice re Powell in my reading - I admit I never considered him ‘fighting against’ ulterior forces - there’s something odd in the Fed - I’m aware of the criticisms yet I can’t believe that many PhDs are ‘so stupid’. Nothing is as it seems these days. The question I had is why did Powell pivot back in 2018? Only for the temper tantrum on Wall Street? Is breaking the financial system an objective? This is where the ‘Great Reset’ rabbit hole appears lol! I have gold too (not enough I keep thinking). Feels like we are watching a slow-motion train wreck.

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Sam McCommon's avatar

It could be as simple an answer as social pressure. The PhD's at the Fed don't like getting yelled at during cocktail parties, and while they may go pout about it together, they don't have the spine to stand up to powerful market players...or govt officials. Combine that with the junkie mentality of "oh, just one more and then I'll stop" and the picture comes into focus. Cowardice is just as dangerous as malevolence.

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Anthony's avatar

I'm not at all sold on Powell, but he appears to be working against the will of WEF/Davos. Most of what I cite about Powell comes from Tom Luongo and his Gold Goats & Guns blog, and I Patron him too. It's Tom who cited the 6-15-21 RRR 5 bps raise as a major inflection point. This was the 1st salvo of the Powell Fed retaking the initiative, and it's independence.. He did fold like a cheap suit in 2018. We've all been waiting for him to fold now. And he well could still. Trumper though I was, among his biggest mistakes (Covid Lockdowns!) was signing the CARES Act. The Fed didn't want it, and it's signing did box in the Fed for a whiles. Of course, Brandon's done far, far more damage to the current situation. Tom makes a great point, there's many rivalries and factions within the halls of the power, money, and war mongers. It's why Communism ultimately fails. there's no stopping Civil War!

PS I feel the same way. One can never have enough GOLD!

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Ozark's avatar

I agree with most of your post. I think the export of any arms after this mess is over will drop quite a bunch. Countries are seeing are shit is not very good in real wars.

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Kristi O'Sullivan's avatar

Good point. We’ve hardly covered ourselves in glory - what did Ron Paul say - we don’t have the best military equipment, only the most expensive

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Vasilios's avatar

No doubt the 10th Corps was intended as the breakthrough element, to be released after the 9th was depleted. Of course, the point was to breach the defenses before the 9th lost combat effectiveness! To commit them now makes little sense, certainly a desperate throw of the dice.

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I don't like sand's avatar

Lol they may as well reform the 2nd SS Panzer Corps

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mahalo321's avatar

"...the West can only throw sticks and twigs in the path of the rolling boulder, hoping to marginally slow it down." That's good writing. A beautiful mental image.

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mahalo321's avatar

Every military professional must know that Ukraine's "offensive" is pre-meditated mass murder of its own people. Zero chance of success. Why do it?

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Priscilla's avatar

This is what I do not get. For the life of me, this is confusing, upsetting, enigmatic. Is the west this delusional? Did they actually think this offensive would work after the mounting losses for Ukr before it was underway? The West is evil.

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GO4MXE6's avatar

Short answer, YES.

As someone who has liberals in their family (and liberals are both the party in power and control the deep state in the US) and has worked in a company dominated by them, they are absolutely 100% f*cking insane delusional. Like run away as fast as you can delusional.

Here is just one thing they told me at our company seminars. They said, "You have to get rid of a mentality of scarcity, there is infinite everything in this world if you really believe in it." Of course me and the other sane people just looked at each other and asked, "Then why don't they pay us more?" That is just one gold nugget, but every seminar was a whole gold mine filled with more like that.

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Patrick Powers's avatar

I'm glad I got out of the USA before this corporate indoctrination thing got going. I can't tolerate stuff like that.

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Scott's avatar

Likewise. Although when I left 15 years ago, it was more out of a sense of adventure than political. I remember clearly, however, a shopper at our last garage sale telling me he thought we were getting out just in time ...

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Sam's avatar

Daily Kos covers the war from the pro Ukraine side and they are saying that Ukraine is kicking Russian butt because their military is so much better than Russia’s is. And every time a Russian general gets killed they absolutely fcking cheet. This site was formed as opposition to the Iraq war and used to be anti war, but their blood lust now is just sickening.

I think they got their brains fried during the 4 years of Russia Russia Russia psyop democrats ran on them.

Has anyone heard anything about the Israeli vessel that went through the Russia blockade up the Danube? It was big news yesterday.

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Scott's avatar

God, the cognitive dissonance at DK must be excruciating.

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Sam's avatar

Oh it is. Remember when liberals despised cluster bombs, depleted uranium and other heinous weapons of war? Well not so much anymore because Ukraine is fighting the vodka sodden Russian 'orcs' so everything is fair in love and war. Here’s the latest 2 minutes of hate from Kos himself.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/2/2184803/-Ukraine-Update-Don-t-hold-Ukraine-to-NATO-standards-if-they-re-not-equipped-and-trained-to-them

If Biden had sent Ukraine everything they asked for earlier this war would have already been won by Ukraine. I’d love to post simplicius work there, but I got banned when Kos decided Hillary would be the candidate before half the country had voted. Anyone saying mean things (the truth actually) got kicked off the site. Free speech wasn’t important their way back then either. 😂

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marcjf's avatar

Having considered this, I genuinely think that western military leaders, intelligence agencies and thus politicians believed that the Russian troops had such bad morale that they would run away once attacked. Certainly (and I think it was here) there was a report that the UAF troops being trained in the 9th and 10th Corps were being indoctrinated by psychologists that this was going to happen. Now groupthink can be a powerful thing, but I guess any follower of Simplicus or similar would have told these western experts that this was total BS and a very bloody outcome was likely to arise from an attack on fortified positions where the enemy had fire and air superiority.

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Scott's avatar

They just need to watch that vid of the lone Russian tank taking on that armored column to dispel the bad morale myth.

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Scott's avatar

“Let’s use all this mobility and armored protection to mount a frontal assault on extensively fortified positions, the launch of which, and it’s objectives, we have telegraphed for months. It worked at Verdun! Didn’t it?! Did we mention that the combined arms attacks would be led and carried out by partially trained soldiers with no experience in such operations?”

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marcjf's avatar

The latest excuse seems to be that NATO training was fine as are the tactics but untrained Ukrainian officiers botched it as they could not understand it. Hmmm, so NATO "forgot" to train the officers? Bit of an oversight you might think??? Alas, there are people out there who will accept this guff.

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marcjf's avatar

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/02/ukraines-military-strategy-and-demands-have-tested-allies-patience.html

" The very worst outcome for Ukraine would be that they would take this uncommitted force and batter it to pieces on the front end of Russian fortifications they’ve not been able to break through." Retired British Gen. Richard Barrons

History is already being rewritten as USA organises peace talks in Saudi Arabia, but without Russia.

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Scott's avatar

It’s not clear if they mean “combined arms” at a strategic or at a tactical level. The use of the term “sequential not simultaneous” I think implies it is tactical?

The greatest combined arms victory ever was the German crossing of the Meuse in May 1940. Tanks firing from the opposite shore while the Stukas dive bombed and created chaos on the opposite bank at the same time that the infantry crossed the river on rubber rafts. Having all of these occur simultaneously was key to the success of the crossing, and once the river had been crossed the French were doomed.

Strategic Combined Arms Assault is less clear. Would just having the different forces available to commit as needed be the goal? Wouldn’t that be sequential?

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Feral Finster's avatar

Because nobody in Kiev, much less anybody in Washington, cares how many Ukrainians get killed. They don't care about the money, either. It's not as if Nuland personally lives a life of opulent luxury or is writing fat checks from her personal account.

The war affects them in no wise, so they can keep it going.

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Scott's avatar

They do it because they have to. The west has sent tanks, AFVs, artillery, missiles, cluster bombs. They expect a return on investment. We are supposed to be bleeding Russia dry, not just depleting our own arsenal. Western news reports are sure to only state estimated Russian casualties, never Ukrainian ones. But reality is breaking through. Zero headlines about triumphant captures of the rubble of what was once a small village. More and more recognition that victory is not just around the corner.

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