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We have been told that intermittent electricity from wind and solar, perhaps along with hydroelectric generation (hydro), can be the basis of a green economy. Things are increasingly not working out as planned, however. Natural gas or coal used for balancing the intermittent output of renewables is increasingly high-priced or not available. It is becoming clear that modelers who encouraged the view that a smooth transition to wind, solar, and hydro is possible have missed some important points.
Let’s look at some of the issues:
[1] It is becoming clear that intermittent wind and solar cannot be counted on to provide adequate electricity supply when the electrical distribution system needs them.
Early modelers did not expect that the variability of wind and solar would be a huge problem. They seemed to believe that, with the use of enough intermittent renewables, their variability would cancel out. Alternatively, long transmission lines would allow enough transfer of electricity between locations to largely offset variability.
In practice, variability is still a major problem. For example, in the third quarter of 2021, weak winds were a significant contributor to Europe’s power crunch. Europe’s largest wind producers (Britain, Germany and France) produced only 14% of installed capacity during this period, compared with an average of 20% to 26% in previous years. No one had planned for this kind of three-month shortfall.
In 2021, China experienced dry, windless weather so that both its generation from wind and hydro were low. The country found it needed to use rolling blackouts to deal with the situation. This led to traffic lights failing and many families needing to eat candle-lit dinners.
In Europe, with low electricity supply, Kosovo has needed to use rolling blackouts. There is real concern that the need for rolling blackouts will spread to other parts of Europe, as well, either later this winter, or in a future winter. Winters are of special concern because, then, solar energy is low while heating needs are high.
[2] Adequate storage for electricity is not feasible in any reasonable timeframe. This means that if cold countries are not to “freeze in the dark” during winter, fossil fuel backup is likely to be needed for many years in the future.
One workaround for electricity variability is storage. A recent Reuters article is titled Weak winds worsened Europe’s power crunch; utilities need better storage. The article quotes Matthew Jones, lead analyst for EU Power, as saying that low or zero-emissions backup-capacity is “still more than a decade away from being available at scale.” Thus, having huge batteries or hydrogen storage at the scale needed for months of storage is not something that can reasonably be created now or in the next several years.
Today, the amount of electricity storage that is available can be measured in minutes or hours. It is mostly used to buffer short-term changes, such as the wind temporarily ceasing to blow or the rapid transition created when the sun sets and citizens are in the midst of cooking dinner. What is needed is the capacity for multiple months of electricity storage. Such storage would require an amazingly large quantity of materials to produce. Needless to say, if such storage were included, the cost of the overall electrical system would be substantially higher than we have been led to believe. All major types of cost analyses (including the levelized cost of energy, energy return on energy invested, and energy payback period) leave out the need for storage (both short- and long-term) if balancing with other electricity production is not available.
If no solution to inadequate electricity supply can be found, then demand must be reduced by one means or another. One approach is to close businesses or schools. Another approach is rolling blackouts. A third approach is to permit astronomically high electricity prices, squeezing out some buyers of electricity. A fourth balancing approach is to introduce recession, perhaps by raising interest rates; recessions cut back on demand for all non-essential goods and services. Recessions tend to lead to significant job losses, besides cutting back on electricity demand. None of these things are attractive options.
[3] After many years of subsidies and mandates, today’s green electricity is only a tiny fraction of what is needed to keep our current economy operating.
Early modelers did not consider how difficult it would be to ramp up green electricity.
Compared to today’s total world energy consumption (electricity and non-electricity energy, such as oil, combined), wind and solar are truly insignificant. In 2020, wind accounted for 3% of the world’s total energy consumption and solar amounted to 1% of total energy, using BP’s generous way of counting electricity, relative to other types of energy. Thus, the combination of wind and solar produced 4% of world energy in 2020.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) uses a less generous approach for crediting electricity; it only gives credit for the heat energy supplied by the renewable energy. The IEA does not show wind and solar separately in its recent reports. Instead, it shows an “Other” category that includes more than wind and solar. This broader category amounted to 2% of the world’s energy supply in 2018.
Hydro is another type of green electricity that is sometimes considered alongside wind and solar. It is quite a bit larger than either wind or solar; it amounted to 7% of the world’s energy supply in 2020. Taken together, hydro + wind + solar amounted to 11% of the world’s energy supply in 2020, using BP’s methodology. This still isn’t much of the world’s total energy consumption.
Of course, different parts of the world vary with respect to the share of energy created using wind, hydro and solar. Figure 1 shows the percentage of total energy generated by these three renewables combined.
As expected, the world average is about 11%. The European Union is highest at 14%; Russia+ (that is, Russia and its Affiliates, which is equivalent to the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States) is lowest at 6.5%.
[4] Even as a percentage of electricity, rather than total energy, renewables still comprised a relatively small share in 2020.
Wind and solar don’t replace “dispatchable” generation; they provide some temporary electricity supply, but they tend to make the overall electrical system more difficult to operate because of the variability introduced. Renewables are available only part of the time, so other types of electricity suppliers are still needed when supply temporarily isn’t available. In a sense, all they are replacing is part of the fuel required to make electricity. The fixed costs of backup electricity providers are not adequately compensated, nor are the costs of the added complexity introduced into the system.
If analysts give wind and solar full credit for replacing electricity, as BP does, then, on a world basis, wind electricity replaced 6% of total electricity consumed in 2020. Solar electricity replaced 3% of total electricity provided, and hydro replaced 16% of world electricity. On a combined basis, wind and solar provided 9% of world electricity. With hydro included as well, these renewables amounted to 25% of world electricity supply in 2020.
The share of electricity supply provided by wind, solar and hydro varies across the world, as shown in Figure 2. The European Union is highest at 32%; Japan is lowest at 17%.
The “All Other” grouping of countries shown in Figure 2 includes many of the poorer countries. These countries often use quite a bit of hydro, even though the availability of hydro tends to fluctuate a great deal, depending on weather conditions. If an area is subject to wet seasons and dry seasons, there is likely to be very limited electricity supply during the dry season. In areas with snow melt, very large supplies are often available in spring, and much smaller supplies during the rest of the year.
Thus, while hydro is often thought of as being a reliable source of power, this may or may not be the case. Like wind and solar, hydro often needs fossil fuel back-up if industry is to be able to depend upon having electricity year-around.
[5] Most modelers have not understood that reserve to production ratios greatly overstate the amount of fossil fuels and other minerals that the economy will be able to extract.
Most modelers have not understood how the world economy operates. They have assumed that as long as we have the technical capability to extract fossil fuels or other minerals, we will be able to do so. A popular way of looking at resource availability is as reserve to production ratios. These ratios represent an estimate of how many years of production might continue, if extraction is continued at the same rate as in the most recent year, considering known resources and current technology.
A common belief is that these ratios understate how much of each resource is available, partly because technology keeps improving and partly because exploration for these minerals may not be complete.
In fact, this model of future resource availability greatly overstates the quantity of future resources that can actually be extracted. The problem is that the world economy tends to run short of many types of resources simultaneously. For example, World Bank Commodities Price Data shows that prices were high in January 2022 for many materials, including fossil fuels, fertilizers, aluminum, copper, iron ore, nickel, tin and zinc. Even though prices have run up very high, this is not an indication that producers will be able to use these high prices to extract more of these required materials.
In order to produce more fossil fuels or more minerals of any kind, preparation must be started years in advance. New oil wells must be built in suitable locations; new mines for copper or lithium or rare earth minerals must be built; workers must be trained for all of these areas. High prices for many commodities can be a sign of temporarily high demand, or it can be a sign that something is seriously wrong with the system. There is no way the system can ramp up needed production in a huge number of areas at once. Supply lines will break. Recession is likely to set in.
The problem underlying the recent spike in prices seems to be “diminishing returns.” Such diminishing returns affect nearly all parts of the economy simultaneously. For each type of mineral, miners produced the easiest-t0-extract materials first. They later moved on to deeper oil wells and minerals from lower grade ores. Pollution gradually grew, so it too needed greater investment. At the same time, world population has been growing, so the economy has required more food, fresh water and goods of many kinds; these, too, require the investment of resources of many kinds.
The problem that eventually hits the economy is that it cannot maintain economic growth. Too many areas of the economy require investment, simultaneously, because diminishing returns keeps ramping up investment needs. This investment is not simply a financial investment; it is an investment of physical resources (oil, coal, steel, copper, etc.) and an investment of people’s time.
The way in which the economy would run short of investment materials was simulated in the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth, by Donella Meadows and others. The book gave the results of a number of simulations regarding how the world economy would behave in the future. Virtually all of the simulations indicated that eventually the economy would reach limits to growth. A major problem was that too large a share of the output of the economy was needed for reinvestment, leaving too little for other uses. In the base model, such limits to growth came about now, in the middle of the first half of the 21st century. The economy would stop growing and gradually start to collapse.
[6] The world economy seems already to be reaching limits on the extraction of coal and natural gas to be used for balancing electricity provided by intermittent renewables.
Coal and natural gas are expensive to transport, so if they are exported, they primarily tend to be exported to countries that are nearby. For this reason, my analysis groups together exports and imports into large regions where trade is most likely to take place.
If we analyze natural gas imports by part of the world, two regions stand out as having the most out-of-region natural gas imports: Europe and Asia-Pacific. Figure 4 shows that Europe’s out-of-region natural gas imports reached peaks in 2007 and 2010, after which they dipped. In recent years, Europe’s imports have barely surpassed their prior peaks. Asia-Pacific’s out-of-region imports have shown a far more consistent growth pattern over the long term.
The reason why Asia-Pacific’s imports have been growing is to support its growing manufacturing output. Manufacturing output has increasingly been shifted to the Asia-Pacific Region, partly because this region can perform this manufacturing cheaply, and partly because rich countries have wanted to reduce their carbon footprint. Moving heavy industry abroad reduces a country’s reported CO2 generation, even if the manufactured items are imported as finished products.
Figure 5 shows that Europe’s own natural gas supply has been falling. This is a major reason for its import requirements from outside the region.
Figure 6, below, shows that Asia-Pacific’s total energy consumption per capita has been growing. The new manufacturing jobs transferred to this region have raised standards of living for many workers. Europe, on the other hand, has reduced its local manufacturing. Its people have tended to get poorer, in terms of energy consumption per capita. Service jobs necessitated by reduced energy consumption per capita have tended to pay less well than the manufacturing jobs they have replaced.
Europe has recently been having conflicts with Russia over natural gas. The world seems to be reaching a situation where there are not enough natural gas exports to go around. The Asia-Pacific Region (or at least the more productive parts of the Asia-Pacific Region) seems to be able to outbid Europe, when local natural gas supply is inadequate.
Figure 7, below, gives a rough idea of the quantity of exports available from Russia+ compared to Europe’s import needs. (In this chart, I compare Europe’s total natural gas imports (including pipeline imports from North Africa and LNG from North Africa) with the natural gas exports of Russia+ (to all nations, not just to Europe, including both by pipeline and as LNG).) On this rough basis, we find that Europe’s natural gas imports are greater than the total natural gas exports of Russia+.
Europe is already encountering multiple natural gas problems. Its supply from North Africa is not as reliable as in the past. The countries of Russia+ are not delivering as much natural gas as Europe would like, and spot prices, especially, seem to be way too high. There are also pipeline disagreements. Bloomberg reports that Russia will be increasing its exports to China in future years. Unless Russia finds a way to ramp up its gas supplies, greater exports to China are likely to leave less natural gas for Russia to export to Europe in the years ahead.
If we look around the world to see what other sources of natural gas exports are available for Europe, we discover that the choices are limited.
The United States is presented as a possible choice for increasing natural gas imports to Europe. One of the catches with growing natural gas exports from the United States is the fact that historically, the US has been a natural gas importer; it is not clear how much exports can rise above the 2022 level. Furthermore, part of US natural gas is co-produced with oil from shale. Oil from shale is not likely to be growing much in future years; in fact, it very likely will be declining because of depleted wells. This may limit the US’s growth in natural gas supplies available for export.
The Rest of the World category on Figure 8 doesn’t seem to have many possibilities for growth in imports to Europe, either, because total exports have been drifting downward. (The Rest of the World includes Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas excluding the United States.) There are many reports of countries, including Iraq and Turkey, not being able to buy the natural gas they would like. There doesn’t seem to be enough natural gas on the market now. There are few reports of supplies ramping up to replace depleted supplies.
With respect to coal, the situation in Europe is only a little different. Figure 9 shows that Europe’s coal supply has been depleting, and imports have not been able to offset this depletion.
If a person looks around the world for places to get more imports for Europe, there aren’t many choices.
Figure 10 shows that most coal production is in the Asia-Pacific Region. With China, India and Japan located in the Asia-Pacific Region, and high transit costs, this coal is unlikely to leave the region. The United States has been a big coal producer, but its production has declined in recent years. It still exports a relatively small amount of coal. The most likely possibility for increased coal imports would be from Russia and its affiliates. Here, too, Europe is likely to need to outbid China to purchase this coal. A better relationship with Russia would be helpful, as well.
Figure 10 shows that world coal production has been essentially flat since 2011. A country will only export coal that it doesn’t need itself. Thus, a shortfall in export capability is an early warning sign of inadequate overall supply. With the economies of many Asia-Pacific countries still growing rapidly, demand for coal imports is likely to grow for this region. While modelers may think that there is close to 150 years’ worth of coal supply available, real-world experience suggests that coal limits are being reached already.
[7] Conclusion. Modelers and leaders everywhere have had a basic misunderstanding of how the economy operates and what limits we are up against. This misunderstanding has allowed scientists to put together models that are far from the situation we are actually facing.
The economy operates as an integrated whole, just as the body of a human being operates as an integrated whole, rather than a collection of cells of different types. This is something most modelers don’t understand, and their techniques are not equipped to deal with.
The economy is facing many limits simultaneously: too many people, too much pollution, too few fish in the ocean, more difficult to extract fossil fuels and many others. The way these limits play out seems to be the way the models in the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth, suggest: They play out on a combined basis. The real problem is that diminishing returns leads to huge investment needs in many areas simultaneously. One or two of these investment needs could perhaps be handled, but not all of them, all at once.
The approach of modelers, practically everywhere, is to break down a problem into small parts, and assume that each part of the problem can be solved independently. Thus, those concerned about “Peak Oil” have been concerned about running out of oil. Finding substitutes seemed to be important. Those concerned about climate change were convinced that huge amounts of fossil fuels remain to be extracted, even more than the amounts indicated by reserve to production ratios. Their concern was finding substitutes for the huge amount of fossil fuels that they believed remained to be extracted, which could cause climate change.
Politicians could see that there was some sort of huge problem on the horizon, but they didn’t understand what it was. The idea of substituting renewables for fossil fuels seemed to be a solution that would make both Peak Oilers and those concerned about climate change happy. Models based on the substitution of renewables for fossil fuels seemed to please almost everyone. The renewables approach suggested that we have a very long timeframe to deal with, putting the problem off, as long into the future as possible.
Today, we are starting to see that renewables are not able to live up to the promise modelers hoped they would have. Exactly how the situation will play out is not entirely clear, but it looks like we will all have front row seats in finding out.
Choosing to be fat is dumb, apparently getting fat makes you even dumber.
https://www.spring.org.uk/2022/02/bodily-iq.php
“Our results suggest that strategies to prevent or reduce having too much body fat may preserve cognitive function.”
Hen, chicken both?
🤔
The Boosters turn MOREONS into Hyper MOREONS
Hey norm… stop chewing on that pencil!
Apparently the Germans are arming the Russians?
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/devastating-move-us-weighs-sanctions-russias-central-bank-germany-backs-targeted
“The German government said in a statement Saturday that it has agreed to the supply of 400 German-made rocket propelled grenades to Ukraine via the Netherlands, along with 14 armored personnel carriers, as well as 1000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles.”
Exactly how is this gift to be handed over if Ukraine is overrun with Russian panzers and MIG’s? Unless they want to encourage Putin to continue the escapades up north with some freebies?
🤔
Oil may rise to $150 this summer. Fossil fuel production cannot match demand, which will raise energy prices and increase general inflation toward 10% in some countries. The FT may be optimistic?
> The new energy shock: Putin, Ukraine and the global economy
The Russian invasion has led to sharp rises in worldwide energy prices, increasing the risk of higher inflation and reduced growth
Even before Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine on Thursday, western governments were struggling with rising energy prices that threatened to derail economies emerging from two years of pandemic. Vladimir Putin’s aggression could now turn that threat into a reality.
From crude oil to diesel to natural gas, the fossil fuels that power the global economy are trading at or towards record levels, threatening to redraw geopolitical relations between producers and consumers, drive up inflation and potentially even disrupt the fight against climate change.
On Thursday, Brent crude, the international benchmark, almost hit $106 a barrel, its highest price since 2014, as traders digested the news that the world’s second biggest oil exporter had gone to war with a country at the centre of a web of energy export infrastructure.
European natural gas prices also spiked this week, reflecting fears that Russia could retaliate by withholding exports accounting for about a third of the continent’s gas needs in retaliation for new sanctions and Germany’s decision to indefinitely suspend certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Putin, Russia’s president, has not only led Europe into one of its worst conflicts since the second world war, but also worsened an unfolding energy crisis.
“The next stage is an economic war,” says Daniel Yergin, vice-chair of IHS Markit and author of The New Map, a recent book on energy politics. “The ultimate consequence of this can be a big negative shock to the global economy.”
Oil and gas-exporting autocracies in the Middle East are likely to gain, as they did in the great oil market bull run of 2005-08, which underpinned the Gulf’s economic and construction booms and entrenched the region’s autocracies. Russia also stands to benefit, as surging oil revenue fills the Kremlin’s coffers and enriches anew many of the same oligarchs that are now under western sanctions. Russia’s national wealth fund, worth $32bn in 2008, had a value of $175bn at the start of February, or about 10 per cent of gross domestic product — a useful buffer as western economic sanctions tighten.
…. The Russian offensive may have been the trigger for Brent’s leap above $100 a barrel — but deeper supply and demand fundamentals are behind the more than doubling of oil prices in the past 15 months.
…. Consumption in the US is running at record highs of near 23mn barrels a day, almost a quarter of the global total. The International Energy Agency says the world will burn 100.6mn b/d this year, a new high.
…. Supplies of oil and gas are not keeping up. Between 2016 and 2019, spectacular growth in US oil output more than met the world’s extra annual demand. That is no longer the case. The 2020 oil crash slammed into an American shale patch from which investors were already fleeing. To win them back, companies have promised to prioritise profits over new drilling — a capital discipline mantra that is repairing balances sheets but slowing production growth.
…. US production is rising, but remains 11 per cent below its pre-pandemic high and is far from matching global needs. ExxonMobil, BP and other oil groups have also held back capital spending — a reaction to shareholder pressure, in some cases, but also to models, such as last year’s 2050 net zero road map from the IEA, which said big new oil projects would not be needed in a decarbonising world.
“Against that backdrop oil companies are saying, ‘are we really going to build a 20 to 30-year oilfield for the next three years? Clearly not’,” says Martijn Rats, a managing director at Morgan Stanley.
Some analysts wonder if Opec is able to restore all the oil supply that was cut over the past 18 months in a bid to prop up prices. In earlier years, the cartel’s problem was producers busting through their quotas. Now some west African countries and even Russia and Iraq are struggling to pump enough.
This is troubling an oil market that always banked on Opec maintaining an ample buffer of spare capacity in case of emergency. Christyan Malek, an analyst at JPMorgan, reckons that buffer could shrink to about 4 per cent of total global capacity, “well below the 10 per cent comfort level sought by consumers”.
The lack of spare production capacity has left the oil market exceptionally tight, say traders, as reflected in the steep backwardated structure of its futures curve, with contracts for oil to be delivered immediately trading at a steep premium to those for delivery months hence.
“The market is paying a huge premium for prompt barrels,” says Ben Luckock, co-head of oil trading at Trafigura. It would be “nigh on impossible” for the industry to supply enough oil in time to stop further inflation. “There are plenty of scenarios where oil, come summer, is $150/b,” he adds.
Some analysts argue that a nuclear deal with Iran would allow the return of its oil to the market. They also predict that high crude prices will coax shale producers to pump more quickly than planned.
But Luckock, Rats, and others say today’s market dynamics — including the raging thirst for diesel and other “middle distillates” — echo those of 2008, when Brent hit an all-time record of $147/b.
Another lesson from 2008 — when Moscow’s preparations to invade Georgia added bullish momentum to crude prices — is that geopolitical eruptions, such as Russian tanks entering Ukraine, can take on outsized importance in a jumpy market.
US officials have so far tried to downplay the physical threats to energy infrastructure in Ukraine. Biden explicitly spared Russia’s energy trade from the latest raft of “severe” sanctions announced on Thursday in what looked like an uncomfortable non-aggression pact with an industry that bankrolls the Kremlin. The US’s own modest imports of Russian oil have risen in the past two years, but the White House’s main concern is the global market. The sanctions concession pushed prices back below $100 a barrel on Friday.
Traders remain concerned that the targeting of Russian banks involved in the oil trade will create counterparty risk. Trading in Urals, Russia’s main exported crude, was said to be “complete chaos” on Thursday, forcing barrels to trade at a record discount to Brent this week to entice buyers, according to pricing agency Platts.
“The tightening of supply and demand made this a crisis-prone market,” says Yergin. “And the crisis is now here.”
Supply too tight to mention
The same may be true for natural gas. Such is Europe’s dependence on Russian imports — which account for about a third of the continent’s gas needs — that European gas futures jumped almost 70 per cent to €142 per megawatt hour after the invasion began. A year ago they were €16.
Tom Marzec-Manser, head of global gas analytics at consultancy ICIS, says that for now he expects Russian supplies to Europe to continue, saying the Kremlin has signalled that long-term contracts with customers in the continent would be honoured.
But sharp reductions in its exports last year drove prices to record highs — and appeared politically motivated to some analysts. On Tuesday, after Germany cancelled its certification of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russia president and currently deputy chair of its security council, tweeted a thinly veiled threat about a forthcoming natural gas price shock.
Any disruption of Russian supplies could not easily be fixed. As prices soared last year, liquefied natural gas shipments arrived in Europe from Australia, the US, Qatar and elsewhere. But those export plants are now running flat out.
One new American project, Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu Pass, is due to start exporting in the coming days, with most of its gas heading to Europe, including Poland. But as in the oil market, under-investment in new LNG output capacity in recent years has now left supplies trailing fast-rising demand, especially in Asia.
…. Europe has also lagged behind Asia in building new terminals to receive more shipments, hindering importers’ ability to secure more LNG if Russian pipeline exports were to be cut, say people in the industry. Qatar, another big producer, is also expanding its export capacity. But its new megaprojects won’t be online until around 2026.
Inflationary pressure
The rise in oil and gas prices comes at a difficult time for the global economy. Advanced economies in Europe, North America and Asia have grown much faster than expected since the worst moments in the pandemic, helped by unprecedented government support and vaccine rollouts.
Rapid growth, a reconfiguration of spending towards goods and efforts to limit the burning of coal had already raised gas and oil demand in 2021, pushing inflation higher in most advanced economies to levels not seen in more than 30 years and creating the need to slow growth to control price rises.
The IMF forecast in January that growth rates in advanced economies would drop from 4.4 per cent last year to 3.5 per cent during 2022.
Those predictions were based on oil prices declining almost 5 per cent this year and averaging $77 a barrel. This week’s sharp rise in oil and gas prices will amplify the already difficult trade-offs between growth and recovery, especially in Europe, which is a significant net importer of oil and gas.
Neil Shearing, chief economist of Capital Economics, says oil at $120 to $140 a barrel this year with corresponding increases in gas prices could raise inflation in advanced economies by a further 2 percentage points — pushing rates in many countries close to 10 per cent….
https://www.ft.com/content/5a7ea3b8-c446-46a9-a836-fce811a97069
At the moment I have the impression that US and Europe are going into the wrong direction…
Following the strategy indicated below it is like pouring gasoline on a fire.
A couple of titles:
– Germany supplies weapons from Bundeswehr stocks to Ukraine..
https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/ukraine-krieg-bundesregierung-genehmigt-weitergabe-deutscher-waffen-an-ukraine/28109986.html
– Weapons are arriving to Ukraine…
https://notizie.virgilio.it/guerra-in-ucraina-da-usa-ed-europa-arrivano-le-armi-contro-la-russia-1522853
supplying Ukraine with arms now is innsane.
it looks like many desire more suffering.
is Zelensky a brave hero or a foool?
he should sacrifice himself by surrendering today.
take the fall, and limit the suffering of his people.
I agree with you, but have a look at what German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz has just said about it…
https://twitter.com/Bundeskanzler/status/1497632817450266632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1497632817450266632%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fvoxnews.info%2F2022%2F02%2F26%2Fgermania-gioca-col-fuoco-inviati-missili-in-ucraina%2F
Why in the world would he surrender after gaining advantage? Dig a little and you’ll find logistics nightmares on Russian side, abandoned columns of vehicles, shot down transport carriers etc in what looks like a terrible strategic plan in this invadion. There are any others but scrolling through links on this Twitter feed tells a different story than you may be reading.
https://twitter.com/sentdefender
My wife’s family and friends in Ukraine cannot believe the interest in signing up to fight. Even in their town of 30k, the line to register was hours long. Arms support continues from other countries. And Zeke sky should surrender?
Zelensjy
How are arms going to get there in any meaningful time frame? Rail? Trucks? Those routes will be knocked out when Russia decides to make that happen.
Who will use them? Will guerrilla tactics take hold after Zelensky surrenders or is dispatched? Who will they be fighting at that point?
You better opt for transfer to a civil legacy media news site. You want make any money trolling here and lately paying jobs have been tight and we are hard audience.
Just watched a tank drive over a car then a fire fight that ends with a couple of militia guys executing a Russian soldier… all on Telegram (Tommy Robinson)…
There’s no good MSM watching … they are cowards and they don’t want to mess their hair so they stay well away from the action .. f789ing clowns
Putin seems to have severely underestimated the ukrainian resistance. Will this war really end up benifitting Putin? Looks like it will be an unpopular, expensive mess. He is also consolidating ukrainian resentment of Putin/russia. Whatever long term plans he has for Ukraine, he will find them uncooperative.
That being said, this war will surely be harmful to Europes import of gas and oil from russia. The winner may be other oil/gas importers like China and maybe US. Europe will have a hard time finding a comfortable chair in the next round of musical chairs…
The first part of this comment is the exact sentiment of many here in Russia. I continue to be torn between the kabuki interpretation (globalist elites in cahoots, war effectively replaces the poor vaccine depopulation strategy, QR codes forever, ready made explanation for coming financial crash and blackouts) and the walked into a trap interpretation.
Going in without all the personnel, and going out of their way to avoid civilian casualties, seems to be something they will soon stop doing. Specially in Mariupol. OTOH, Chechnya was resurrected rather quickly, and oil money is pouring in. Speaking of them, it will probably be Chechens who will clean up Mariupol. But yes, there are a lot of convinced people in Ukraine. 8 years of massive propaganda bore fruit, and not just that, the Right Sector is now a fully functioning network, although who knows how they are communicating. war is messy.
The more arms that NATO supplies to Ukraine, and the more ongoing military intelligence that NATO gives to Ukraine in the conflict, the longer the conflict will be drawn out, all the more Ukrainians will be killed, and NATO can ‘moral’ grandstand against Russia all the more.
NATO is effectively getting more Ukrainians killed, so that it can ‘moral’ grandstand. Their main hope is that Russia will be forced to use larger weapons, like thermobaric rockets, to end the conflict, so that NATO can thus force an anti-Russian backlash in the international community.
All of NATO’s acts are entirely will to power and the employment of various strategies to that end. Of course, there will be no mention of the USA state use of nukes on Japanese cities, and the continuing failure of USA state to condemn that. All narratives are will to power, and all states well understand that.
I think you are right Mirror.
They want to rise the level of brutality.
So the more the blood is flowing the more they can establish a worldwide media debate on this.
But even if they will obtain anything, I think that we (Nato Countries) are entering into a period of pain, because Russia will not be in a good mood to give us energy.
I don’t know if it is even worse like this than phiscally entering the confilct.
Let’s see what happens.
Maybe, US (NATO) know very well what they are doing. Europe has to be sacrificed that is put on ration mode. (energy saving mode), more left for the US? At the same time Russia is given a decent hit.
Sorry, but I think that we have entered a situation like the one expressed in previous post some days ago, which can be described like:
Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.”
I agree with you, Student, and Mirror. A well designed, well executed psyop. But psyops have serious limits. The final outcomes will be an impoverished Europe, many dead civilians (although I think the number will be comparable with the LDR/DPR civilian casualties, 2014-2022, that is, of order 10000), and a more energy secure China. One thing I want to see is how well Russia will be able to move away from the current system, which most certainly favors oligarchs, and has produced zero growth for 5 years.
Chaos!
great
This is not wrong at all.
The more people die, the better it sells.
You can bet that the West will do absolutely everything possible to make Russia suffer the worst and the western public fear like hell.
Fear is what all people in the est love most!
Fear seems to be what leaders really want!
After the last two years of endless cynical lies and covert murder of the civilian population in the West, I tend to fear only the actions of my own government.
Collapse is inevitable and must be accepted; and God, as the Arabs say, is Compassionate and Merciful.
But our ‘trusted global leaders’ are quite another story.
Draghi promises to Zelensky to get Russia out of Swift to crush Putin…
https://www.secoloditalia.it/2022/02/che-cose-codice-swift/
It is interesting to see how soccer/ football (and sports generally) are a geopolitical weapon. The ‘architecture’ of the geopolitical world order extends throughout everyday life. Even ‘footie’ is geopolitical ‘will to power’.
As Nietzsche wrote, ‘the will to power is the essence of reality’, and that includes ball games. They function as a public ‘court of opinion’, to apply pressure and inconvenience on actors, to sway publics, and potentially to constrain actors.
(Football has long been highly politicised in Europe with ‘anti-racist’ campaigns like ‘Kick It Out’, and more recently with ‘Black Lives Matter’, and the ‘taking of the knee’ on the pitch before games. European states badly need to expand their labour forces to grow GDP, and to keep capitalism going, so it suits the material interests of the state.)
Russia and China were dragged into ‘world sport games’ long ago, and they made their own geopolitical calculations as to the pros and cons of that. Whether that was ‘wise’ in hindsight is their own evaluation, and presumably they do.
It must always be tempting to simply say, ‘oh, stick your silly games where the sun does not shine’, but they seem to be willing/ forced to still play them, while they can….
> Poland and Sweden announce they will REFUSE to play against Russia in next month’s World Cup play-offs, after UEFA stopped short of kicking them out over the invasion of Ukraine
UEFA took one match away from Russia following the invasion but stopped short of kicking them out of qualifying for the World Cup.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10554331/Poland-announce-REFUSE-play-against-Russia-months-World-Cup-play-offs.html
“Poland and Sweden announce they will REFUSE to play against Russia in next month’s World Cup play-offs”
Virtue signaling is Will to Power by the inept.
Just Nuke that place which gifted “us” the Stockholm syndrome and call it a day.
When one is wearing one’s “will to power” sunglasses, everything on sees is bathed in a rosy “will to power ” glow. But when everything is will to power, nothing is will to power. Thus the concept of will to power explains nothing, and therefore, we must look elsewhere for answers.
Just because Nietzsche said it was so doesn’t make a thing so. His conclusions were, presumably, the result of his singular way of analyzing the world based to a significant degree on his own ways of thinking. Accordingly, his conclusions may say quite a bit more about Nietzsche than about the world.
Someone more philosophically inclined than I am wrote on Quora that:
“Heidegger dismissed Nietzsche’s will to power as the ultimate outcome of the subjectivity that has dominated modern philosophy since Descartes. The metaphysics of our modern world, our Gestell, is that everything that exists manifests itself as raw material for human manipulation. This is the ultimate oblivion of Being; the furthest falling away from the pre-Socratic experience of physis.”
To which I would like to add the following quotation from Bertrand Russell, who sums up my own feelings on this issue:
“The love of power is a part of human nature, but power-philosophies are, in a certain precise sense, insane. The existence of the external world… can only be denied by a madman… Certified lunatics are shut up because of the proneness to violence when their pretensions are questioned; the uncertified variety are given control of powerful armies, and can inflict death and disaster upon all sane men within their reach.”
This Ukraine thing is theater. Deadly theater, no doubt. But coordinated at the top. We can have our strong suspicions regarding the play, but due to insufficient information and a surfeit of misinformation, disinformation and trivia in the media, we can only speculate as to who at the top is doing the coordinating and why they are doing it.
I am quite intrigued that the Americans and British signaled that they were at least half expecting this to happen by pulling their people out of Kiev ahead of time.
“But when everything is will to power, nothing is will to power.”
According to Heidegger, philosophy is concerned with the characterisation of being qua being. So if you do not understand everything in its basic common structures then you do not understand anything. Ontology has always been a central discipline of philosophy, and Aristotle’s Metaphysics are a milestone of ontology, and the basis of the medieval scholasticism that dominated Europe. Indeed, ontology goes back to the very beginnings of philosophy with the Eleatics, and it is the common thread throughout Greek thought. Hegel arranged his History of Philosophy in those terms, and his own Logical system is a dialectical representation of the logical development of Being. Heidegger stood entirely in that ontological tradition with his own Being and Time, and he saw Nietzsche’s will to power as the culmination of all Western philosophy. So the entirety of philosophy is the antithesis to your statement.
I have Heidegger lecture books on Nietzsche, and he was a massive devotee of the doctrine who spent years teaching it to his students. I can give you a link for the pdfs if you like.
> Friedrich Hölderlin and Friedrich Nietzsche were both important influences on Heidegger,[133] and many of his lecture courses were devoted to one or the other, especially in the 1930s and 1940s. The lectures on Nietzsche focused on fragments posthumously published under the title The Will to Power, rather than on Nietzsche’s published works. Heidegger read The Will to Power as the culminating expression of Western metaphysics, and the lectures are a kind of dialogue between the two thinkers. (wiki)
> If in Nietzsche’s thinking the prior tradition of Western thought is gathered and completed in a decisive respect, then the confrontation with Nietzsche becomes one with all Western thought hitherto. (MH)
Frankly, the biological and social realms are the easiest in which to understand the universality of the will to power. It may take a certain honesty and abstraction of thought, to comprehend, that is simply not given to all. The will to power has simply not taken that form in their intellect, and they rely on the non-disclosure of Being in its universal teleological aspects in order to advance their personal interests. They represent one evolutionary experiment of the will to power, as do non-sentient species; it is not necessarily a permanent one, and certainly not the main drift of what it is to be homo sapiens – which is perhaps a future goal of moral and political philosophy. It is like someone who denies that the world has a universal quantitative aspect – your brain either gets it or it does not, and like logic, some things just cannot be taught if people do not get them.
“The will to power has simply not taken that form in their intellect, and they rely on the non-disclosure of Being in its universal teleological aspects in order to advance their personal interests.”
Nothing wrong with advancing personal interests if it is universally aligned with evolutionary process.
But “they” couldn’t resist, now could “they”. Within temptation is the truth of a species.
Let’s go *boom* *boom*
💣
“The metaphysics of our modern world, our Gestell, is that everything that exists manifests itself as raw material for human manipulation.”
Yeah, I have been nagging on the fact that life is a process that turns mineral into complexity powered by energy.
The use of power tools, computers, CNC machines is exactly just that which turns mineral into complexity. A reflection of life itself as a tool making species.
The Power to Will (or power of life) is using energy to transform mineral into complexity.
The Power to Will is being in control of the rapacious primate tendencies of MOARonity and tryhard to climb the ‘ego’ spawned fantasies of prestige and dominance hierarchies.
At the end of the day its “stuff” that matters, as in food, the tools, substances and energy to make it happen. Shit just doesn’t materialize no matter how loud you shout if there isn’t:
1. Energy
2. Mineral
3. Craftsmen of all ranks (blue and white collar)
Nietzsche was stuck in his own hope and cope that ultimately brought him to the mental asylum.
It may have been posted here. Interesting Read.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-party-of-chaos-blows-its-cover/
The Party of Chaos Blows Its Cover
The Ukraine blow-up is more a humiliation for “Joe Biden” and his faction than for the US per se, for the truth is that we have scant interest in that corner of the world and what goes on there is none of our business, and never was….
As soon as I read that Joe Biden let this happen I turn off. Yes Biden is an idiot but he is a figure head. The powers that be can do nothing….short of killing Putin. Ukraine and Russia are both to blame for this situation. I am so sick of the boomers sitting in their lazy boy and second guessing this like they actually now wth is going on. The markets are controlled digitally and everything is manipulated. Even Gail only has 1/4 of the information she needs to truly analyze our current predicament. It’s funny how commentators vasilate between their is a world conspiracy to individuals leaders making dumb decisions. You can’t have it both ways! It’s either political diatribe or…
Boomer brains 🧠🙄! I don’t think they can rationalize anymore….
Conspiracies, or any group effort, do not preclude dumb decisions, whether by individuals or groups. In fact, group decisions, especially if hierarchies are involved, may be more prone to error than individual ones.
Ukrainians fleeing to neighbouring countries: border with Slovakia
https://spravy.pravda.sk/domace/clanok/618242-z-ukrajiny-prichadzaju-matky-s-detmi/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnCDPhDpf48
Other borders:
The Western media is heavily doing the ‘humanitarian’ angle to rally opinion against Russia, and potentially to constrain its acts or to hinder their effect. Even the ‘sympathy’ of the states is will to power.
Ineptitude is Will to Power.
Or rather, ineptitude is the consequence of WtP.
Just look at the ‘west’.
PtW on the other hand, now that’s a couple of standard deviations extra for free.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, experts warn that the conflict could impact the global chip industry and exacerbate current chip shortages.
According to research firm Techcet, Ukraine supplies more than 90% of the U.S.’s semiconductor-grade neon, a gas integral to the lasers used in the chip-making process, while Russia supplies 35% of the U.S.’s palladium supply, a rare metal that can be used to create semiconductors.
https://venturebeat.com/2022/02/24/ukraine-supplies-90-percent-of-us-semiconductor-grade-neon-what-it-means-to-chip-supply-chain/amp/
Also, Bloomberg reported panic buying of Gas at Stations in Poland!
Let the games begin!
Semi-conductor grade neon! Something most of us don’t think about. We need an economist to magically wave his/her substitution wand.
Am I the only one not seeing the problem with cutting out Russia from SWIFT?
Yes! Let’s DO this.
We need the tryhard bourgeoisie sanctimonious hypocrisy to show some ba115 against Putin. Who’s first to ship guns ‘n ammo + people to the Ukraine? The Baltic banana republics?
Let’s go Sweden! Join NATO and ship all of those 50 operational Gripens and some 120 Leopards over to Ukraine. A few hundred Carl Gustavs as well.
Yes indeed, lets declare war on Russia!
DO IT!!!!!1!!1!!
I want to see some literal fallout in the city of Stockholm syndrome.
Mockering and drifting with the infirm is called “lyteskomik” here, and it is considered as very rude. Please avoid it in the future.
Yes. Sorry.
They’ve got a too many a screws loose and too few torque wrenches to right those idiosyncratic “intellectual” rattlings.
But it is jolly fun to heckle the halfwits.
🤔
During University, teacher of Economics used to say that demand and offer curves when enters crisis time are solved by substitute goods.
If no substitute goods are available the free market will make a new one available!
He was fully inside a sort of ‘ideology’ of economics.
When Tony Blair was asked, as PM, about the UK’s future energy supply after the N Sea fields depleted he said:
‘Norway!’
When further asked, what happens when Norway runs out, he had an answer for that too:
‘Innovation!’
Do we buy this?
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has apologized for mistakes made during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and its aftermath, but has insisted that he was right to take the decision to lead the U.K. to war.
In an emotional press conference following the publication of the Chilcot report into the war on Wednesday, Blair conceded some errors, including that some of the intelligence on which the decision to go to war was based later turned out to be wrong, and that planning for the aftermath of the invasion could have been better.
“For all of this I express more sorrow, regret and apology than you may ever know or can believe,” Blair said.
In a passionate pitch to the nation, Blair urged Britain to reject the “conspiracy theories” common in modern politics and, however they view the war, at least accept that he embarked upon it “in good faith.”
“I only ask with humility that the British people accept that I took this decision because I believed it was the right thing to do, based on the information I had and the threats I perceived,” he said.
Would it be possible to distill the BS spouted by Tony Blair and his likes into petroleum product?
Now that’s something that wouldn’t deplete. The growth vector would be immaculate.
Haha! Lets substitute neon with carbon dioxide. Will save a lot of money. Or water vapor – will save even more money. Economists are magicians!
Vaporware instead of hardware.
not to forget the isotope pure lead for semiconductors. The radioactive isotopes emit alpha particles that disrupt the memory cell of a semiconductor memory. So for important compute like banks need isotope pure non-radioactive lead for the solder bumps.
Oh by the way that comes from Russia.
Strategically this war is over.
All which remains is whatever trouble the existing regime can sow for the post war settlement.
Tanker Rates On Russian Crude Routes Triple
By Tsvetana Paraskova – Feb 25, 2022, 8:45 AM CST
Amid a general unwillingness of tanker owners to send their vessels to Russian ports, the freight rates for a medium-sized tanker to load Russian crude jumped nearly threefold on Thursday from Wednesday, shipbrokers and traders told Bloomberg.
The freight rate to hire an Aframax tanker on the Baltic Sea to Europe route surged after Russia invaded Ukraine, while owners of oil tankers had already started to avoid Russian ports because of both the military invasion of Ukraine and apprehension that sanctions for oil could also come soon.
As a result of the surging Baltic-Europe tanker rates, the Middle East to Europe rates also rose.
Two-thirds of Russia’s crude oil exports are seaborne, from ports in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. The Russian flagship Urals crude grade loads from ports in the Baltic Sea, and most of it is sold in Europe.
While international benchmark oil prices were soaring on Thursday, the Urals grade was offered at the deepest discount in at least 11 years—$11.60 a barrel below Dated Brent, as traders feared sanctions on Russian oil, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Owners of tankers have become reluctant to offer their vessels to load crude from Russia for fear that their future cargo could be breaching potential sanctions if the West decides to deploy the harshest sanctions against Russia after it invaded Ukraine early on Thursday.
Buyers in Asia, the key crude importing region, were also alarmed that they could soon struggle to procure enough crude. The general perception among Asian oil traders is that the situation is “quite complicated,” one trader told Energy Intelligence on Thursday.
The latest round of sanctions against Russia—latest as of late Thursday—continues to allow energy trade and bank settlements for energy flows and does not cut off Russia from the SWIFT global banking system.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
Any sanctions, or higher costs of exporting goods, associated with this war makes the world economy worse off. More supply line problems.
“It is a pandemic of energy, let’s put all our eggs in nuclear fusion basket, abandoning nuclear fission.
Let’s join forces as we did for vaccines” (…well, actually everyone has gone on its own way…).
That is what physicist Rossi Alberti declares to the press.
Without entering in the concept, there are some words on these phrases that appear – at least – weird and embarassing when put together.
Having said that, I would also like to know if what he declares can be feasible or it is just wishful thinking..
https://www.adnkronos.com/ucraina-fisico-rossi-albertini-e-pandemia-energetica-uniamo-sforzi-come-per-vaccino_50y8nsnclBYVUIR4b2H8tS?refresh_ce
questo e’ matto.
Translation: It’s crazy.
specifically, Rossi Alberti, not Student.
🙂
I expect he is a fine guy but there is no reason to believe fusion can be done quickly.
I fear a global project would be large and slow. Better global funding for 20 small and fast projects. Like the high strength magnets at MIT for smaller fusion machine. Or, the funky mechanical piston driven fusion, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Fusion
or, muon catalyzed fusion a long shot
or, mass driver fusion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver I just made this up mass driver on mass drive for fusion at say 1 gram on 1 gram
A fast global effort for good new ideas for fusion, great idea. A global effort to make an ITER that cost 500 billion dollars and takes 60 years to build, bad idea.
https://www.iter.org/
Student you tell me which way will Euro bureaucrats take such a pile of money?
https://www.psfc.mit.edu/news/2021/mit-designed-magnet-is-a-major-advance-toward-fusion-energy
the MIT effort
The fusion delusion stories are coming fast and furious now…
Probably cuz the gas situation is making the MOREONS nervous… any day now they’ll be heating their homes with fusion energy… any day…
Hahaha… it’s possible to convince the MOREONS that the vaccines are a miracle cure… even though they are actually making the situation worse…
But not quite so easy to fool them with energy… if the miracle does not allow them to plug in the TEEVEE and the heater… without going bankrupt … they’ll eventually work out that this is bullshit
They are quite stuuuupid beasts… but not quite that stuuuupid.
keeping working on those vowels eddy
i think there’s a few less than usual in that post
Currently listening to this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3GkmdCaBECs&feature=youtu.be
This guy Ritter seems to grasp reality as it is. Usa gov should hire him immediately
The title of this is “NATO Too Weak to Face Russia.” I can believe this, even without seeing the film. I need to find time to see the video (38 minutes). The speaker is Scott Ritter.
William Scott Ritter Jr.
(born July 15, 1961) is a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998. He later became a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East.
Occupation: United Nations weapons inspector (resigned)
Born: William Scott Ritter, Jr. July 15, 1961 (age 60); Gainesville, Florida
Back when I lived in Boston I went to hear Mister Ritter on his talking tour concerning the fact that Iraq did NOT have the weapons of mass destruction the Bush administration accused it of.
Following his resignation from UNSCOM, Ritter continued to be an outspoken commentator on U.S. policy toward Iraq, particularly with respect to the WMD issue. He became a popular anti-war figure and talk show commentator.[2] wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ritter#:~:text=William%20Scott%20Ritter%20Jr.,policy%20in%20the%20Middle%20East.
A whole page for us activities
It’s called nuclear weapons!!!!!! Yea boomer wake up! No one can do anything!! So dumb! If you take nuclear off the table Russia could be destroyed easily. You are so naïve!!! Has this site been taken over by Russian bots??? What’s next green liberals bots???
Excellent interview. Scott Ritter seems to be one of the few commentators who knows what he is talking about.
Amongst other things, he talks about the extent to which Nazis took over Ukraine. He expects the war to be finished within a week. He astutely points out that Europe is committing economic suicide and will be abruptly sent back to the dark ages if Russia is excluded from Swift (the only international payment system, run by the USA), which should be bleedin obvious.
Great to see you’re still blogging Gail. Seems like most of the posters from 2019 when I last visited ofw are still here, which is also great.
Russia will be increasing its exports to China in future years. Unless Russia finds a way to ramp up its gas supplies, greater exports to China are likely to leave less natural gas for Russia to export to Europe in the years ahead.
Probably much sooner than future years. Y’know, given recent events. Although, the rift between UK and France/Germany isn’t emphasised as much as it should be. Germany has “halted” Nordstream 2 approval but if they were so committed to NATO why did they even want a second pipeline? I’m sure lots of back channel chatterings are going on right now.
Still, the EU+UK are as scared of a post-unipolar world as the US. I think probably everyone with any stake in the first world lifestyle is scared of that albeit within the context of different politics. A multipolar world means a renewed spirit of Bandung in the global south. No more colourful revolutions devoid of ideology. Instead, developmentalist/economic nationalist if not outright socialist policies resorted to out of some combination of desperation, dysfunction and upheaval (or fear thereof). I mean, Russia is in the semi-periphery and it basically said F U to NATO in no uncertain terms and kinda got away with it. That alone is a turning point for pretty much everyone.
But the Western World has itself to blame for mismanaging its affairs and wasting its resources on war toys trying to dominate its enemies. The Western World is revisiting how the Soviet Union collapsed. The Soviets got played by Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars system, so they spent vast energies and resources trying to one up Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars system. They spent themselves into bankruptcy.
The West has made the same mistake EXCEPT there were no real enemies. They were all conquered so the West kept creating boogeymen so as to justify their War Toys.
But hey at least the Banksters were happy funding all those War Toys.
There never has been a single “The West”. There were two world wars in the 20th century, which were in reality two phases of a European civil war fought over colonies and control of territory within Europe itself.
War industry may be expensive, but it’s also very useful and profitable. If you want to continue having western living standards you should support it. The feudal lord did not enserf the peasant to justify having an army. Rather, he created an army because he was dependent on the peasant to keep himself and his family fed, his own lands tilled, his infrastructure maintained. The army allowed him to dominate, dehumanise and extract surplus from peasants. It was vital to his well-being and survival.
“If you want to continue having western living standards you should support it.”
Yeah, and those who object to that statement can start their “protest” by handing back their Internet connection and all conveniences and luxuries that integrate semiconductors and other MIC derived tech gizmos.
But hey, why not open the flood gates to the third world instead of having the latest military doohickeys?
I mean; why advance tech and defense capability when “we” can consume to “bolster” GDP?
I.e. the survival of the inept.
“There never has been a single “The West”
It’s a figurative Geopolitical phrase. “The West” is made up of the United States and all its puppet allies which includes the UK, France, Germany etc.
‘All naming is will to power…’
“Heinz Baked Beans” is will to power?
I can’t quite see it myself.
Mirror’s just ridiculing the concept of WtP since ‘most’ MOARons and tryhard schmucks have it as their copiate to persist in folly.
It is a means to justify one’s actions even though it ultimately is detrimental to the wellbeing of individuals and the species as a whole being mesmerized such delusions.
If a species collectively decides upon its evolutionary unfitness, you do the thinking what ultimately awaits.
I.e. survival of the inept wielding unfair advantage for absurd reasons.
‘Beans means Hienz.’
If you do not realise that the whole idea of marketing is to sell stuff then you must be pretty thick.
yes, and it’s really interesting how that was accomplished in Poland and Ukraine. It was ‘farmed-out’, so to speak via the Arenda System of leasing land and the peasants living on it. Once it’s studied thoroughly, it’s no wonder there were some pogroms throughout the centuries. There’s only so much abuse people are willing to tolerate. Their abusers generally go too far in their greed and hubris.
https://romaninukraine.com/matvy-shestopal-on-ukrainian-jewish-relations-during-feudalism-ie-the-arenda-system/
Strangely enough, Nord Stream 2 runs exactly side by side, next to Nord Stream 1. It is not clear to me that there are pipelines that connect up at receiving countries (and, even more importantly, storage space) that could use the much higher natural gas capacity exports that could be available, if Russia really has enough natural gas to fill both pipelines simultaneously. I think this may be a big issue.
The reason I understood Putin to give for Nord Stream 2 is that the original natural gas pipelines to Europe, which go through Ukraine (Soyus and Brotherhood) were put into place in the 1970s and 1980s, using the technology of the day. Furthermore, they have degraded with long use. They tend to leak natural gas (methane), which is a global warming gas. They cannot be very highly pressurized. Russia needs a more modern, efficient way of getting natural gas to Europe.
I am sure that an equally large reason is they didn’t want the never-ending conflict with Ukraine about transit fees, and “stealing” the gas that was intended for other customers. Ukraine desperately needs the natural gas from these pipelines. Cutting Ukraine out of the picture was perhaps an equal reason for building Nord Stream 2.
A third reason would be to act as a backup to Nord Stream 1, if a problem should develop with it.
I remember a fourth reason given by one analysts. Building Nord Stream 2 was basically a “jobs” program for Russia. It indirectly gave money to many of Putin’s oligarch friends. Whether or not the pipeline was actually used was less important the the role it played in keeping the economy going.
“Ukraine crisis could hit Argentina LNG imports, double energy deficit.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could have an effect thousands of miles away on debt-laden Argentina’s fiscal balance, with a price spike for its natural gas imports set to more than double the South American country’s energy deficit to as high as $4 billion this year, analysts said on Friday.”
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/ukraine-crisis-could-hit-argentina-lng-imports-double-energy-deficit-2022-02-25/
“Pakistani PM Khan meets Putin amid Ukraine invasion…
“Before the visit, Pakistan’s foreign office said the two leaders’ talks would focus on… a major gas pipeline deal that Pakistan is seeking to finalise with Russia.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/25/pakistan-imran-putin-russia-ukraine-invasion
Guess, when you’re as close to the edge as Pakistan is, you can’t afford to be squeamish or care too much about appearances.
“Pakistan gets bids for only one of two March LNG tenders… Pakistan LNG did not receive any offers to import a cargo for March 2-3 delivery, the source said.”
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/pakistan-gets-bids-for-only-one-of-two-march-lng-tenders-source/
“Farmers vowed to continue their protest against exorbitant hike in petroleum prices, unavailability of fertiliser and higher prices of the compost as police thrashed and arrested hundreds of them at the southern entrance of the Lahore city…”
https://www.indiablooms.com/world-details/SA/33489/pakistan-farmers-continue-their-protest-in-lahore-over-unavailability-of-fertiliser-other-issues.html
Russia will sell gas to Pakistan, too, besides China.
The way I understand the article, it is the fact that natural gas prices are spiking, more than anything else, that is the problem. They want to import the same quantity as before, but with the high prices (and, I suppose, more of the US’s LNG going to Europe), they have to pay a very high price for any LNG they import.
“Sobering budget speech [by South African’s Finance Minister] assesses debt, grants and failing SOEs…
“Worryingly for the country, debt is forecast to rise to R5.4 trillion over the medium term from R4.3 trillion, which is already incurring debt-servicing costs of R330 billion a year, which is more than the government spends on health, police, or basic education.”
https://www.miningreview.com/base-metals/sobering-budget-speech-assesses-debt-grants-and-failing-soes/
“Another blackout looms in Kenya as Kenya Power workers threaten strike.
“The workers are protesting against Kenya Power’s plan to lay off as many as 2,000 staff, or 20% of the company’s workforce. Local media reported that the company resorted to this course of action in a desperate bid to cut cost and make up for lost revenue following a 15% reduction in electricity tariff back in January.”
https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/another-blackout-looms-in-kenya-as-kenya-power-workers-threaten-strike/jnjy6tt
in general terms, modern humankind employs itself (ie pays itself wages) by converting one energy form into another
when that conversion process slows or ceases, our employment and wages slow or stop in tandem
It is like stating if you’re not tending the potato field during spring, summer and autumn you’ll starve until the next harvest season.
Work is always required in the extraction process which enables more work to be performed sometimes later. Etc.
Work is that means which enables evolutionary progress through natural selection of competence within a habitat.
Destroying the habitat (the biosphere) is of course the inevitable outcome of the default primate unbound desires and fantasies enabled by the collective subconscious as exploitation of unfair advantage.
I.e. a hegemony of the inept.
Have a look around, how many in your ‘circles’ understand how the modern world operates or got any rudimentary concept of it?
I assume an IQ north of 130 is required to formulate some form of conceptual understanding of it. Perhaps approaching 140 to be decisive enough to quench all that which defines you as a stereotypical ‘human’ in terms of being grounded in fantasy.
Kow
you reinforced my point
society used to be 98% agriculture based. Which meant that the average peasant was needed for planting and harvest—ie converting one energy form into another.
between those times were the ‘hungry months’. Yes, people did go hungry. The common practice in rural society was the ‘hiring fair’–where the farm owner would select the fittest for labour, (short term) while those less fit got no work.
They did not enough to plan any kind of future. As a result they tended to die early.
Dock workers were the last to cease this method of work relatively recently–then containers took over.
which is where we are heading right now—perhaps you could point out the difference between the ‘hiring fair’ of the 18th c and the ‘gig economy’ of the 21st c??–They too do not earn enough ‘surplus’ to cover old age.
There will not be enough in the ‘communal kitty’ (otherwise known as our pension fund) to support them.
you are quite correct in saying very few understand how it works.
i dont think you do either.
“you are quite correct in saying very few understand how it works.”
Perhaps I understand it good enough to integrate it into my life. As in adapting to the circumstances instead of continuing the folly.
How about that Norman? Do you? How about posting that “wastrel calculation” of yours? Yes or no?
Do you understand the difference between work that enables work and “work” that simply enables nothing except waste? Yes or no?
“They too do not earn enough ‘surplus’ to cover old age.”
That entirely depends on their skill set. I doubt the craftsmen and artisans of the past went hungry as compared with the usual stooge (slave) of the past? True or not?
IC can be conceptualized as a machine that ingests energy and mineral while outputting complexity and waste. Do you agree on this statement? Yes or no?
In thermodynamic terms it is simply running piss-poor as the usual productivity gains is missing due to its inherent technological complexity (machinery, software, hardware) that renders most people incapable of advancing it further. Yes or no?
My understanding is that, in the past, everyone worked pretty much their entire life. There was nothing such as retirement benefits. Perhaps grandmothers helped raise grand children, or helped with the garden and laundry.
Having fossil fuels is what has enabled the idea of retirement benefits.
Kow
i will try to answer your somewhat interrogatory post in a balanced manner if i can.
if you’d read my comment instead of leaping for the ‘post’ button, you would have read ‘average peasant’.
i mistakenly granted you the intellect to recognise that the blacksmith (etc) would be busy year round. An error i keep making. please accept my apologies.
Ive been lucky enough to have a skill set that’s provided for my old age–maybe you have too.
try not to demean those who have not. The stooges, as you put it, deliver your food and remove your trash. Remember that.
not sure what my ‘wastrel calculation’ is–please remind me.
work that enables work is a perpetual motion machine. Work cannot enable work. All wages have an energy base somewhere–no matter how far removed.
Bezos’ wages are paid by the energy base of millions of schmucks–but that doesn’t change the basic law of it.
If our energy base is removed, Bezos goes bust.
work is not possible without energy input from an external source. That input must, by definition, produce waste. Schoolroom physics.
An IC engine inputs energy and outputs waste and pollution. Agreed. But In your haste to press ‘post’ you forgot the work we get out of such an arrangement. That’s the bit that created a century or two of our current economic prosperity.
The folly which neither you nor I can escape from, whether we like it or not.
Try not to construct your thoughts around the ‘black and white’ yes or no. Makes you sound like a third rate lawyer. Things are never that simple. Especially when your analysis falls short of the concept in question.
hahaha… this is norm… the clown who refuses to answer questions…
“Having fossil fuels is what has enabled the idea of retirement benefits.”
Spot on. Retirement benefits for the masses going to vanish, however things turn out.
pensions started in the UK in 1908, when we could ‘afford’ it
it was at the peak of fossil fuel output
The old retirement system was living with your grown children and doing as much work as you are able. Far cheaper to live in a small room at the back of the house then to run the whole farm.
but that presumes the existence of a ‘farm’
on a farm one more mouth to feed isn’t a problem
problem arises when you have a two room hovel and ten kids already, and a wage that depends on someone else’s production schedule
“Spot on. Retirement benefits for the masses going to vanish, however things turn out.”
Which is a good reason for keeping in shape all throughout life and not becoming an overweight/obese rambling geriatric mess wanting to persist in the fantasy than doing something about it.
Yes, I know a few.
Norm, yes, if one does not own the means of production you are screwed. Just a slave to be exploited by the owners.
Right.
No energy, no (modern, drawdown-based) economy.
At what point does humanity fall back on human-generated energy?
broadly speaking, that will happen when surplus energy falls below the level needed to support our current way of living—which is where we are headed right now
The world is beyond bankrupt at this point. For far too long global financial wizardry and financial bumbo-jumbo kept this from falling apart. We are at the point where stress cracks are beginning to show on Humpty Dumpty.
South Africa doesn’t want to more than partially utilize the windfall from today’s high commodity prices to solve its budget problems.
South Africa’s fundamental problem is that its government and institutions are terminally corrupt. The ANC and all its cronies are sucking the life out of the system.
Any plans and initiatives are wasted because the skim is too high, therefore nothing works correctly. Their grid is on its last legs in no small way because of “racially balanced/equal opportunity” purchasing policies.
Thus they’ll collapse faster than they would otherwise.
Then again green cultists are trying to turn off Australia’s remaining coal fired stations, but at least we’re not as far along the insane green road as Germany and the UK.
My home batteries are not close to technologically mature and I’m having to hassle the vendor to fix the bugs, but I bought them now whilst I still can before supply chains really seize up.
“Vietnam Grapples With Fuel Shortages…
“The tight fuel supply in Vietnam was the result of the limited production at Nghi Son refinery… Due to a cash crunch and disagreements among shareholders over how to pay for procuring crude, the refinery has been operating at reduced capacity since the middle of January.”
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Vietnam-Grapples-With-Fuel-Shortages.html
“Fuel Shortages Hit Parts of Myanmar Due to Road Closures, Global Price Hikes.
“A Putao resident who requested anonymity said, “We couldn’t buy fuel even if we had the money and were able to afford it.” One bottle of petrol holding around 0.75 to 1 liter costs 10,000 kyats ($5) and 1 gallon costs 60,000 kyats ($30) according to the Putao resident.”
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/fuel-shortages-hit-parts-of-myanmar-due-to-road-closures-global-price-hikes.html
Viet Nam can’t afford crude, at today’s high cost.
“China on the Verge of Energy Crisis…
“Researchers at ANBOUND would like to point out that the deterioration of global energy security caused by geopolitical factors will not only affect Russia and the EU, but also affect China due to changes in the global energy supply and demand pattern.”
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2022/02/26/china-on-the-verge-of-energy-crisis/
“China’s Plans for Coal Could Be Upset by Surge in Energy Prices.
“The surge in international coal prices could upset China’s policy of linking its electricity rates more directly to the cost of its mainstay fuel, risking another blow to growth for the nation’s sluggish economy.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-25/china-s-plans-for-coal-could-be-upset-by-surge-in-energy-prices
“The number of Chinese developers seeking debt forbearance from offshore creditors is expanding as Zhenro Properties and Jingrui Properties highlighted an ongoing credit crunch amid the worst industry slowdown in a decade…
“The latest troubles suggest efforts by policymakers to pump liquidity and ease borrowing costs have not come fast enough…”
https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3168292/evergrande-crisis-distressed-exchanges-default-waivers-build-chinese
“Losses in Chinese debt markets are spreading beyond the battered real estate sector…
“Renewed concerns about the Chinese government’s crackdown on tech companies are compounding worries about everything from rising U.S. rates to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and weak consumer spending.”
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/china-crackdown-leaves-bond-investors-with-few-places-to-hide-1.1728480
High coal prices make electricity rates unaffordable.
I bet China would love to have a do-over with building all those Ghost Cities and Factories. That was a lot energy wasted they could have used right now to keep the world’s factories operational.
Hey everyone. Don’t know if anyone remembers me but just wanted to say hi. I think I last posted here around 1 BR (before rona). How time flies eh?
It does! Nice to see you again, as it were, Jupiviv.
Nice to see you again Harry. Hope you’ve been doing well. And nice to see you’re still covering the collapse news! Not that collapse is news anymore, everyone seems to agree it’s happening one way or another. :\
It seems like more are seeing what is really happening. The COVID response helped keep oil consumption down, and energy consumption in general down. Now, it is not possible to open up, because it is really an energy problem, a great deal more than a COVID problem.
COVID is manmade; there are several common drugs that work toward curing it. The self-organizing economy allowed leaders to use COVID to scare people to staying at home and following orders. Now the COVID excuse is running out.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2022-02-24/wheres-it-gonna-come
Stop staring at your gains from the energy stocks for a second here. Take a seat in a nice quiet place and ask yourself this one really simple question: if oil demand continues to grow at ~1 million b/d for the next 8-10 years, where is the oil supply coming from to meet it?
Rystad Energy, along with many others, including my friend Tracy Shuchart as well as the work of Josh Young over at Bison, show that US oil production will peak in 2023/2024. Outside of OPEC’s core members, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Kuwait, there’s no spare capacity (with the exception of Iran).
Part of the reason we’re in this situation is because of the shale boom. If it wasn’t for the Permian back in 2016, we would already be deep into an oil supply crisis. We need another Permian, and that’s unlikely. Furthermore, we also know that shale as an industry never produced a profit. Those investors who got in and didn’t get out in time (most) all lost their shirts. Trying to kick that dead horse back to life will require horse-sized steroids. They will come with higher oil prices, but it’s not gonna happen for some time and it’s not gonna solve the immediate problem.
“Europe’s Energy Bill Will Near Record $1.2 Trillion in 2022, Citi Says.
“Based on current forward prices, the region’s total primary energy bill is now set to approach $1.2 trillion this year, Citigroup Inc. said in a report. That reflects Europe’s enduring reliance on imports to meet demand, with its swift expansion of renewable power so far causing little dent in that dependence.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-25/europe-s-energy-bill-will-near-1-2-trillion-in-2022-citi-says
“Italian Premier Mario Draghi said Friday that his government was getting ready for an eventual energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…
“”The emergency measures include greater flexibility in gas consumption, suspensions in the industrial sector, gas-consumption rules in the thermoelectric sector.”
https://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/energy/2022/02/25/ukraine-govt-preparing-energy-crisis-plans-says-draghi_d6210dfa-82a4-4979-9b2d-5ba9784a3a27.html
“Fruit and vegetables jammed by truckers’ strike in Italy.
“The hauliers’ protests, which began in Sicily and the Puglia region on Monday 21 February with spontaneous blockades of loading/unloading and handling of goods, also seem to be expanding to other Italian regions and are having their first effects on supplies. The cause of the strikes are fuel price increases…”
https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9403706/fruit-and-vegetables-jammed-by-truckers-strike-in-italy/
And please let me add this one, because it is particularly funny:
Draghi: we can open again coal power plants to compensate the missing gas from Russia.
https://www.huffingtonpost.it/politica/2022/02/25/news/draghi_possiamo_riaprire_le_centrali_a_carbone_per_compensare_il_gas_russo_la_realpolitik_del_premier_sull_energia-8839499/
Where do you get the coal from?
Getting ready for an “eventual” energy crisis. Maybe it is already here, but not named properly.
“Key [US] inflation gauge hit 6.1% in January, highest in 40 years…
“An inflation gauge that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve jumped 6.1 percent in January compared with a year ago, the latest evidence that Americans are enduring sharp price increases that will likely worsen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/2/25/key-inflation-gauge-hit-6-1-in-january-highest-in-40-years
“UK households face biggest fall in living standards since 1950s, say experts.
“UK households could suffer the biggest annual decline in their living standards since the 1950s as the Russian invasion of Ukraine pushes up global energy prices, experts have warned.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/26/uk-households-face-biggest-fall-in-living-standards-since-1950s-say-experts
Blame Russians! There are plenty of others, making the situation worse.
“Chernobyl isn’t the biggest nuclear risk. Ukraine’s active nuclear power plants are.
“… four power plants, located near towns and cities in western and southern Ukraine, contain 15 operating nuclear reactors. The concern is that a nuclear disaster could occur if during the conflict they were accidentally damaged, left unmaintained or cut off from the power grid needed to cool the reactors.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/chernobyl-isnt-biggest-nuclear-risk-ukraines-active-nuclear-power-plan-rcna17697
“Ukraine Swaps Signal 90% Chance of Default as Russia Attacks.
“Signs of distress in Ukraine’s debt markets deepened after Russia attacked, with credit-default swaps signaling about 90% probability of default within five years… Meanwhile, the cost of insuring Russia’s government bonds surged on Thursday to the highest since at least 2009…”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-24/ukraine-debt-swaps-signal-80-chance-of-default-as-stress-mounts
I read that Russian and Ukr soldiers together have secured and are guarding Chernobyl.
Russians are not stupid! Certainly not those who planned this brilliantly executed (per Scott Ritter) operation.
Therefore my supposition is that Russian military, perhaps in concert with Ukr military, have made it a priority to secure and defend those installations.
Sixteen of the reactors in Ukr were all built by the Soviet Union (per Wiki).
My point: to reinforce Putin’s point, which is that it is the USSR that invested in and built up and subsidized much of the infrastructure in the Ukraine.
PS
Scott Ritter interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GkmdCaBECs
Highly recommended.
Nuclear power plants being cut off from the power grid is a huge issue that people should be thinking about everywhere.
When thinking of risks to nuclear power plants, getting cut off from grid electricity should be near the top of the list.
“Ukraine Crisis Sparks Frenzy in Global Agriculture Trade.
“A dramatic rally in crop prices this week sparked by the Russia-Ukraine crisis is signaling more pain ahead for grocery shoppers already feeling the strain of soaring food costs. Prices of staples from wheat to edible oils have rocketed to fresh highs…”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-02-25/supply-chain-latest-ukraine-agriculture-trade-frenzy
“In North Africa, Ukraine War Strains Economies Weakened by Pandemic.
“Egypt imports most of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine, and is looking for alternative suppliers. And Tunisia was struggling to pay for grain imports even before the conflict… In a region where bread keeps hundreds of millions of people from hunger, anxiety at the bakeries spells trouble.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/world/middleeast/in-north-africa-ukraine-war-strains-economies-weakened-by-pandemic.html
“Ukraine crisis worries Lebanon over its wheat reserves.
“Lebanon has wheat reserves sufficient for one month at the most, with Ukraine accounting for up to 60 percent of the crisis-hit country’s wheat market, the economy minister said on Friday.”
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ukraine-crisis-worries-lebanon-wheat-reserves-83110790
“Iran, Iraq, Egypt rely on Ukraine for sunflower oil.
“Middle Eastern sunflower oil imports could soon be affected by the Russian attack on Ukraine. Ukraine was the largest exporter of sunflower seed and the related safflower oil in 2019, accounting for 45.8% of global exports.”
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/02/iran-iraq-egypt-rely-ukraine-sunflower-oil
International trade of food is a huge issue. None of us understand all of the interconnections.
“Global oil tanker rates jolt higher on high fuel prices, risk premiums.
“Oil tanker rates are soaring globally as traders scramble to cope with jitters over possible disruption in Russian supplies, as well as war risk premiums for ships plying the Mediterranean region following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.”
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/global-oil-tanker-rates-jolt-higher-high-fuel-prices-risk-premiums-2022-02-25/
“Ships Shelled in Black Sea as Invasion Sparks Shipping Chaos…
““I’ve been a shipbroker for more than 30 years and nothing in that time compares to the chaos we’re seeing now,” said Halvor Ellefsen, a tanker broker at Fearnley A/S in Oslo. “I just hope it resolves as peacefully as possible.””
https://gcaptain.com/ships-shelled-in-black-sea-as-invasion-sparks-shipping-chaos/
More and more problems!
https://www.rintrah.nl/yes-the-vaccines-are-gene-therapy/
Insurance companies will implode
I was thinking the same a few weeks ago. They have got to be NERVOUS having to pay out all those early life insurance claims.
And then there are all those millions of vax injuries hahaha…
This article is interesting. We see denials that the nRNA viruses are gene therapy, but the others definitely are.
Thus, these vaccines, as well as some other vaccines, are definitely “gene therapies.” Also,
“The world is bracing for a global cyberwar as Russia invades Ukraine.
“As Russia steps up its cyberattacks on Ukraine alongside a military invasion, governments on both sides of the Atlantic are worried the situation could spill over into other countries, becoming an all-out cyberwar.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/25/will-the-russia-ukraine-crisis-lead-to-a-global-cyber-war.html
“Hacking group Anonymous has declared ‘cyber war’ against Vladimir Putin’s government after he mounted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“The elusive computer experts issued the stark announcement on their Twitter account on Thursday evening.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10549849/Hacking-collective-Anonymous-declares-cyber-war-against-Vladimir-Putins-government.html
All we need is a cyber war!
“Russia’s War and the Global Economy… a global stagflationary recession is now highly likely.
“Analysts are already asking themselves if the Fed and other major central banks can achieve a soft landing from this crisis and its fallout. Don’t count on it.
“The war in Ukraine will trigger a massive negative supply shock in a global economy that is still reeling from COVID-19 and a year-long build-up of inflationary pressures. The shock will reduce growth and further increase inflation at a time when inflation expectations are already becoming unanchored.”
https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/russias-war-and-the-global-economy-by-nouriel-roubini-2022-02
“How will Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hit the global economy? Soaring energy prices alone could tip the world into a second recession in three years…
“A conflict that could develop into Europe’s biggest since the second world war has shattered hopes of a strong global economic recovery from coronavirus at least in the short term.”
https://www.ft.com/content/a6227910-751b-443c-883f-2ed41a828426
“Global central banks were on the same page. Ukraine may reshape that.
“The well-scripted turn by global central banks towards tighter, post-pandemic monetary policy has been thrown into doubt by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a geopolitical upheaval likely to be felt differently across the world’s major economic centers.”
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/global-central-banks-were-same-page-ukraine-may-reshape-that-2022-02-24/
“shattered hopes of a strong global economic recovery from coronavirus at least in the short term”
Is such a “recovery” even possible?
Was corona enacted to provide a few years’ breathing space?
Does the Ukr situ achieve the same? provide a cover for lowered activity and expectations?
covid wasn’t ‘enacted’
it was a derivative of human greed
ukraine hasn’t been ‘enacted’ either
it too is ultimately human greed
Oh it wasn’t – why do they keep injecting people including children when:
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?facet=none&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=~ISR&Metric=Confirmed+deaths
A recession is clearly not far away.
Moderna co-founder, mRNA developer says he’s not completely surprised by vaccine hesitancy
FRANK GLUCK | FORT MYERS NEWS-PRESS | 19 hours ago
The co-founder of Moderna and a developer of the foundational technology behind the COVID-19 vaccine says he’s not completely surprised people are skeptical about the shots, since revolutionary medical advances have always been controversial.
But Robert Langer, one of the scheduled Imagine Solutions Conference speakers on March 7 in Naples, said the science behind the inoculations could lead to breakthrough treatments in HIV, cancer, heart disease, respiratory afflictions and a host of other ailments in the coming years.
Langer, 73, a billionaire who now sits on the pharmaceutical giant’s board of directors and teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, blames widespread misinformation online for some of the vehement opposition to life-saving vaccinations and the mRNA science underlying them.
Moderna co-founder Robert Langer, among the world’s top researchers in biotechnology, is scheduled to speak March 7 in Naples at the Imagine Solutions conference.
Langer did not comment at length on vaccine mandates and opposition to them, saying that’s an issue for policymakers.
“I’m not a politician, so I’m not the best person to answer that,” he said. “I just feel that it’s sad that everybody’s not pulling together to knock out COVID.”
Langer’s work on mRNA technology began in the 1970s when he published his first paper demonstrating large molecules like RNA or DNA could be put in and delivered by nanoparticles. Langer, in addition to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman won the prestigious BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine this year for that early work.
“People were skeptical of that. It kind of went against what people thought you could do,” Langer said. “They thought these molecules were too big.”
Today, Langer has 250 major awards in science, including the 2006 U.S. National Medal of Science and the Charles Stark Draper Prize, considered the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for engineering.
Langer also served as a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s SCIENCE Board from 1995 to 2002.
Looking to the future, he said mRNA technology could soon deliver a whole host of groundbreaking treatments, including vaccines for HIV, more effective flu vaccines, personalized treatments for certain cancers, and treatments for respiratory diseases and heart disease.
https://amp.news-press.com/amp/6898312001
Groundbreaking treatments—like, yeah, “gene therapy.”
Check this out this little vid of Stefan Oelrich (apologies if this was posted previously):
https://www.gettr.com/post/pmomwc31a5
The idea that gene therapies comparable to such speculative treatments for cancer should be indiscriminately and coercively jabbed into the bodies of billions of healthy people is . . . I am at a loss for a word, actually.
They believe – and have stated it explicitly – that neither public opinion nor ethics should act as restraints on this Great Leap in genetic therapies and human augmentation they have planned.
Unscrupulous and insane.
Die !!!! suckers https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/worst-fears-realized-pfizer-mrna
Vaxxed females producing infertile offspring…
Wouldn’t that be poetic?
Imagine the attaboy tryhards going absolutely bonkers trying to locate unvaxxed females.
I’m sensing that the wheel of folly is accelerating.
Nulands 2014 “f*** the EU” phone call planning the violent cou that occured one week later deposing the democratically elected government and installing the nazis that have a 900 year blood feud with russia.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Ydt7K5sgEBYc/
Bidens phone calls to get the honest prosecutor fired that was investigating hunters burisma position. Biden bragged about it later in public the dementia fool. Burisma was the company that was supposed to get its hands on the russian gas fields right next to ukraine sooner or later.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Ydt7K5sgEBYc/
The USA overthrew a democratically elected government installed nazis that have a 900 year blood feud with russia armed them to the teeth and now we are about to watch the childrens eyes get melted in a nuclear war but hey its all cool.
“The USA overthrew a democratically elected government installed nazis that have a 900 year blood feud with russia armed them to the teeth and now we are about to watch the childrens eyes get melted in a nuclear war but hey its all cool.”
What did you expect from a hegemony of inept? It is the exploitation of unfair advantage at play here. What would you prefer:
1. A perpetual tyranny ruled by the inept (guvmint, politicos) with their mandates, lockdowns, etc., similar to Canada, USSR ultimately ending up as North Kora due to depletion, or
2. The nuclear option.
If I would be Putin, I’d nuke (tactical nuke “starter kit” at first) every country that sends gear and personnel to Ukraine. Starting with, say Sweden and the Baltic states. A nice glowing “suntan” would be quite sobering from the delusion and fantasies of “our” “elites”.
Igor’s Newsletter
Truth Nukem replied to Igor Chudov’s comment
Igor, I’m very impressed with your work as a layman. I’m a medical doctor with a biochemistry degree and you’re very close to being on the money in your write-up. One thing I will clarify for you though, is that from the descriptions of the MSH3 gene, it appears to be a mismatch repair (MMR) mechanism protein – when these are mutated, they usually become non-functional, failing to do their job, and thus allowing cancer to start when mutations happen that aren’t repaired. This is also known as a “tumor suppressor gene”.
You generally need to knock out both copies of this gene in a human cell (we have two copies of every gene) in order to cause cancer. Transfecting this mutant gene into humans via the covid vaccine would not likely cause cancer by itself, as your cells will still produce their own effective MMR proteins. This does NOT mean that the vaccine won’t cause cancer: as you’ve mentioned elsewhere, the spike protein itself is blocking our own natural MMR mechanisms… this is very dangerous.
If this happened very briefly and then the mRNA was destroyed, it would likely have little effect on our cancer risk – I’m not sure to what degree. BUT, if it is reverse-copying itself into our genome and producing an endless supply of spike protein that blocks MMR… then you will very likely get cancer, everywhere in your body, with enough time.
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/moderna-patented-cancer-gene-is-in
hahahahaha
Placing a stranglehold on Russia’s $1.5-trillion economy will not be easy, especially since it began trying to buffer itself from international sanctions after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia has sidelined growth to pare down its debt and built up its reserves of foreign currency and gold — so much so that it reached record levels this year at over $640 billion.
The reserves help soften the financial blowback of Russia’s invasion. On Thursday, the Russian central bank pumped liquidity into the country’s banking system and sold foreign currency for the first time in years to prop up the ruble, which plunged to its weakest level since 2016.
President Biden announced Thursday that U.S. and European allies would sanction five Russian banks holding about $1 trillion in assets and block high-tech exports. Russian oligarchs, said to be members of Putin’s inner circle, were also targeted by sanctions.
On Friday, Biden said he would join the European Union in sanctioning Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. His administration later announced it would sanction the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund.
As it stands, those measures are highly unlikely to inflict enough pain on Moscow to trigger a reversal in Ukraine, analysts said, noting that any sanctions imposed now are likely to be too little, too late.
“Sanctions in this case, where Putin was clearly driven to expand the Russian empire, would have to be truly draconian to have had a chance of success,” said Gary Hufbauer, a sanctions expert and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Russia has spent years preparing for international sanctions
David Pierson, Sam Dean
Fri, February 25, 2022, 12:22 PM EST
LATimes
The effects of harsh sanctions tend to fall disproportionately on the populace of a country, as opposed to its political and financial elite, to the extent that Hufbauer likened them to economic carpet bombing, and noted that economy-wide sanctions have sometimes had the unintended effect of consolidating power in the existing regime. He cited the entrenched leadership of the Castro and Kim families in Cuba and North Korea, respectively.
“Sanctions enable the ruling group to better control the whole economy, and when you better control the whole economy you can really induce or compel a lot of people to support you,” Hufbauer said.
If the Russian economy can now function without too many inputs from the rest of the world, that is in some sense an advantage for Russia. International trade is already stressed. Cutting off trade will tend to hurt the rest of the world more than Russia. Russia has some willing partners (China, other countries in the Far East) who would be more than happy to get Russia’s exports, if the West doesn’t want them.
Analysis of the Ukraine ‘situation’.
https://youtu.be/JrMiSQAGOS4
“John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in Political Science and Co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, assesses the causes of the present Ukraine crisis, the best way to end it, and its consequences for all of the main actors. A key assumption is that in order to come up with the optimum plan for ending the crisis, it is essential to know what caused the crisis. Regarding the all-important question of causes, the key issue is whether Russia or the West bears primary responsibility.”
In summary: The usual suspects wanted to set up a lucrative little banana republic to embezzle “foreign aid”, the obligatory money laundry, unfair advantage mostly exploited through Ericsson gear and what have you, and to use NATO as mob style “insurance” enforcement agency.
And of course shenanigans with the Russian gas. The Germans putting an official halt on NS2 sealed the deal.
Putin went *kaboom*.
WEF 2018 AI
https://www.bitchute.com/video/wGRMkpi7EmA3/
The deconstruction of the Russian narrative:
R: We are a big country, one sixth of the world!
World: Your country is s piece of terribly cold landmass, unsuitable for the living of the human species without high energy inputs. There is not much energy left for the civilization.
R: We will show you!
World: The clothes you are wearing, the make-up on your face, your underwear, your car, the medicine you take, the production line that produces your food, the machines that cultivate your crops and harvest your fields are made thanks to the inputs from warmer climates outside of your f…..g cold territory.
R: We will teach you manners!
World: You have no manners, you shiver from unbearable cold and are in a desperate need of help…
Off the top of my head, the principal exports from Russia, pre-fossil fuel days, were leather, furs, honey, resins, and slaves.
I think the Baltic kingdoms did a roaring international trade along the same lines, plus timber. England imported timber at a very early date, due to the great size and high quality of Baltic trees.
There’s an excellent book, ‘The Muslim Discovery of Europe’, which talks about this: basically Europe was a raw commodity exporter, compared to finished luxuries from Islam and China.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/mark-stroman-dies-award-winning-former-fox-and-endeavor-marketing-executive-was-58/ar-AAUjtDx?ocid=msedgntp
“Stroman died February 22 of complications from Covid, according to a family spokesperson. He was 58.”
VAIDS.
boof!
And I thought the Russians had built their Military only to march in parades and such, silly me!
PS. Remember AdolfH saying the same about his buildup…What did you think…I was only to use them for parades and shows?
Well, we already used nucs and perhaps when things get really bad …. temptation will be too great not to.
The USA state is the only human actor ever to use nukes – when the Japanese cities were destroyed. Other states threaten their use only as a deterrence.
The official USA position remains that USA state was correct to use them, because they saved lives overall, mainly USA soldiers.
Which is exactly the argument that is usually considered to be unacceptable – to sacrifice civilians to save soldiers – but it is OK when USA state does it, or has done it.
Usually, the biggest weapons are used only against those who are considered to be ‘morally’ beyond the pale. Which raises the question of whether their use on Japanese civilians was actually a racist act in which they had already been ideologically stripped of ‘humanity’ – the ‘yellow peril’ and all that.
If so, then USA state committed racist genocide on the Japanese civilians – and still justifies it. But USA state is powerful and influential enough that it can stop the ‘gossip’ and still pose as the ‘good guys’ in WWII and in the world generally.
They nuked Japan for the fun of doing so… revenge. And because humans enjoy killing.
New York times reports that CDC has been withholding information regarding injection deaths and injury.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/cUwjgGIPcRi4/
“Urging CDC scientists to speak out, Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Ryan Cole reacted Monday to the news reported by the New York Times that agency officials admit they have withheld COVID data broken down by age, race and vaccination status because the American people might misinterpret it.”
the age and race parts are a smokescreen.
the real issue is vaccination status, where the CDC is hiding the data because, like most other countries, the data shows that the “vaccines” have worse and worse efficacy over time.
the interpretation that the “vaccines” now have NEGATIVE efficacy would not be a misinterpretation.
1. there has never been a successful coronavirus vaccine.
2. there never ever will be.
3. the current vaccines cause VAIDS.
Why American Cities Are Broke – The Growth Ponzi Scheme [ST03]
This is the 3rd video in the Strong Towns series, and is probably the most important core topic: the fact that American car-dependant cities and suburbs are financially insolvent, and function like a Ponzi scheme. This is the reason most American cities are bankrupt.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7IsMeKl-Sv0
Lays out the lowdown on how and why we built our American dream and it is built to fail…no matter what energy type we attempt.
PS. This channel has other topics to watch that explains a lot on the misguided notion of growth
Maintaining all of the infrastructure of a suburban town is terribly expensive. Federal and state programs tend to pay for the first set of roads and maybe some other infrastructure, but cities are left with the high cost of maintaining roads. The problem comes when roads need replacing. The issue is also true for all kinds of other infrastructure.
Interesting video.
Also, suburban roads and pavements here are constantly being torn up for utilities – upgrades and repairs – which then need to be filled in and resurfaced to be functional again. Hugely expensive and wasteful.
Yep, that’s what’s happening right now where I reside. The City props up billboards espousing the improvements and the costs of the project(s), always pointing out the Federal monies covering most of these.
As Neil Young sings ..Rust Never Sleeps..
Well, kicking the can down the road works until there ain’t no more road.
PS The Asphalt Roads here are sub par construction and deteriorate rapidly in a few years time, with cracks visible and later pot holes.
Gail is correct, when the oil base is no longer available for products…the system collapses. Green energy doesn’t cut it
After thinking about the situation, I think that a big part of the problem relates the relative cost of paving roads now, compared to when oil was less than $20 per barrel (pre-1970), in inflation adjusted terms.
When oil was very cheap, asphalt was even cheaper. It was the bottom of the barrel; it didn’t even have to be refined. It made sense to use asphalt on roads. When I visited Russia, it looked like most (or very many) sidewalks were made out of asphalt.
As oil has depleted, and as the production of concrete has also become more expensive, the cost of replacing worn roads has increased astronomically. When oil prices are high, it makes economic sense to “crack” long molecules that might have gone into creating asphalt roads to make diesel fuel. So the rise in price in asphalt is disproportionate to the rise in the price of oil.
Thus, the way cities and suburbs were designed in the 1946 to 1970 period no longer makes sense. But 1946 to 1970 was when population was rapidly growing, due to the baby boom (with low oil price). Also, the higher energy consumption encouraged school integration near the end of this period. This encouraged many people to move to the suburbs because they did not want their children to be in the new integrated schools. They needed two cars to live in the suburbs, but with cheap fuel, this was affordable.
Thus, this was a time when suburbs were exploding and the pattern of building was established. Once the houses were built and the roads were built, there is little that can be done about the situation. (New infill housing can be more dense, but not much more can be done.) It is the fact that maintenance of existing systems becomes too expensive that tends to pull the entire system down.
Thanks, Gail, good call again..ticking time bomb.
Home owners will be stuck with a stranded asset and may only have one alernative…. literally walk away!
Most di not realize how quickly the infrastructure can deteriorate and become unusable in short order…
A analysis of what is happening. Deescalate. Please . Pretty pretty please.
Pray. This could go nuclear in a heartbeat.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Nkdr8l915Rih/
there has been much praise for the courage of Zelensky.
his bravery is only prolonging the suffering and adding to the Ukrainian death toll.
he should surrender now.
this is not the first time in history where a leader has led their country on to further death and destruction.
(very low chance of nukes, but it would be quite exciting, as I have never lived during a nuclear war.)
On Twitter Ukraine is winning the war. Last night on Twitter Ukraine shot down a transport plane full of 1,000 Russian paratroopers.
In reality Ukrainian forces are very sensibly not fighting for the most part.
This video shows a 15 km stretch of road with abandoned Ukrainian vehicles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR8BVr_B338
16 trucks
11 tow
1 firetruck with tow
6 fuel+tow
15 truck-based personnel transport
4 4×4 APC
2 BM-21
3 T64/T80
2 command/communication vehicle
1 EW+Tow
1 Ambulance MBLT
7 civilian heavy tow
4 Jeep(Ural or Mitsubishi or LC-Typed?)
1 AA?
1 URAL Wagon
3 DUKW Amphibious
4 BRDM
I’d pray for it to go nuclear if I thought it would help.
Think for yourself, don’t get your views from random American guys on bitchute. This person doesn’t know any more than you or I.
Will Russia get tired of ‘mucking about’ with the ‘little toys’, that NATO has already flooded into Ukraine, and let off some bigger ones? It has been a day and a half, and the suspicion is that Russia is already getting a ‘bit tired’ of it.
Russia has already moved thermobaric rockets into Ukraine, and they are ready for use. It has used them elsewhere before, so they are a normal part of the game plan.
It looks like Russia may be happy to have a bit more ‘drama’ first. They may be ‘looking at their watches’, and saying, ‘hmmm, it has only been one day, what do you reckon, leave it a bit longer?’
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/02/25/vladimir-putin-poised-unleash-terrifying-new-weapon-battle-kyiv/
> Vladimir Putin poised to unleash terrifying new weapon in battle for Kyiv
Western leaders fear Vladimir Putin could unleash devastating thermobaric rockets on Ukraine after fierce resistance slowed the Russian army’s advance, The Telegraph can disclose.
Citizens in the capital, Kyiv, were armed with thousands of machine guns and crude bombs as they fought back against the Russian president’s gathering forces. On Friday night, the city was under fierce bombardment after a day in which the army failed to make enough progress to topple the government.
Western officials on Friday briefed their serious concern that Mr Putin would order the deployment of thermobaric weapons, which can reduce cities to rubble and would cause huge loss of life.
Thermobaric missiles contain a highly explosive fuel and chemical mix and send out supersonic blast waves that can rip buildings and bodies apart. Officials said their use would cause “indiscriminate violence”.
The Russian Tos-1 Buratino weapons are understood to have crossed into Ukraine, although they have yet to be used. Moscow has previously employed them in Chechnya and Syria.
Armies exist, in part, to use force against another countries armies. This protects non military citizens, usually a majority of the population, from being indiscriminately killed. Once one army defeats another, the citizens are no longer free. This is the most humane way to fight a war. If the citizens are armed and fighting back, they should be considered part of the military and targets for destruction. This is why it is stupid to resist once the enemy has breached your boundary, so to say. If the city is completely destroyed, it will be due to the choice of these citizens. I personally think it is stupid to got down fighting to the last man and child. Makes for good stories though, like the Alamo. Of course this opinion assumes the conquering army will not kill, rape, and pillage once victorious.
I’ll just leave this one here:
https://youtu.be/A-9_TUpYHbc
There’s NO reason you show off any new weapons when the enemy has already been defeated. You save those new advanced weaponry when it really counts.
The paramil forces (aidar, azov, right sector etc) who are just bunch of nazis is being operationally 3ncircled in Donetak. Those are 60k steong SS type batallions. The thermobaric bombs will be used if the SS don’t lay their weapons down.. The same way they used them against the cia foreign legion in syria.
I suppose that weapons could be used for ‘moral’ grandstanding instead of for their effectiveness in the conflict or for saving the lives of the Russian troops lost in the ‘drama’ with smaller weapons in Kiev.
(I really do not know about this idea that civilian lives matter more than soldiers. I doubt that their families feel the same way. But I suppose that it is important to put on the ‘correct’ ‘moral’ image, even if it really entails more loss of life. Otherwise people might say nasty things – which they are going to do anyway. Gossip is a powerful weapon of its own – it even gets soldiers killed.)
graphic ! :
Paramilitary shoots civilians trying to flee on a road out of Mariopol:
https://twitter.com/aleksandrov_76/status/1497648814232121354?s=20&t=Uxmadp4vZivbJDp82aN5DQ
Dunno, could be staged, but the guy speeding away seems to be really terrified.
Haha… it’s really great to be able to watch this stuff… we get to see the wicked nature of humans…
Bring on the CEP… you don’t want to be on the receiving end … it really is a compassionate plan
We will see how handing out thousands of AK47 and a million rounds to just about anybody coming to the shop will play out.
1. Some people have open bills with state sponsored thugs
2. some looting has already been reported
3. there are rumoours of increased gang warfare.
Let it loose!
Handing out automatic weapons that way is utterly criminal and irresponsible.
Murder, robbery and serial rape of the civilian population can be the only result.
The Russians will also be entitled to shoot any such armed civilians out of hand under the laws of war, if I recall correctly (possibly mistaken about that, it’s years since I went to those lectures).
Well recently I claimed that Georgia is housing US military facilities for bioweapos research.
It was somewhat dismissed on OFW.
So here we have an investigation by a Bulgarian journalist on this topic:
https://peertube.virmat.de/w/5C4o7uGdw9dXgAapT9UkUT?start=2s
There also seems to be a coincidence of RUS strikes in Ukraine and locations of these labs.
It has been a long term issue of RUS to ask for international investigation of what is going on there.
j bet these labs will be secured and investigated and then shown to the world.
Of course this is just some Russina disinfo.
Some really sick shit going on with those labs. Just setting them up like that, in those places – why would they do that? It took some serious planning and some serious money to get there also. Really sick shit.
If my name was Peter Daszak, I would answer:
managers manage!
Extinction is messy business.
BTW – Fast Eddy has set up a campaign on Givesendgo if anyone is interested in contributing to a fund a 250m high statue of HIS Highness…
“Each one of us would like to be master over all men, if possible, and best of all God.” (Plato, Theages)
I want men to become masters of themselves and be buddies with god. Not because they want anything from her, rather out of curiosity.
The rapacious primate might have gotten the cart before the horse.
Will it shoot flames?
Thats a big Hiney ass!
There is a Level 4 (High Security) bio lab in Atlanta that I have driven past many times. This is an article from 2003 about it.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2003/02/17/story1.html
It may have bioweapons research going on; I don’t know.
Travel upwind Gail. Distrust winds that blow from the west.
I live 27 miles northwest of the lab.
The material would tend to be blown away from me, but the distance isn’t very far.
Distance is just like currency, how fast can you run?
For too much time most people of the world has been unaware of all these labs around the world which are preparing bioweapons.
Unfortunately we all are realizing this too late.
One of the discussion that is missing after this pandemic is about what these labs are doing and if people want to accept all this.
And the discussion shuld be at global level as we have been discussion about atomic armory for all these years.
The 11 (or 14) biolabs in Ukraine were targets destroyed in the first 40 min. They were part of the strategic sites painted fpr destruction asap.
Not sure if dropppinga bomb on a lab is a good idea. I bet they will be secured and investigated and then “made public”. But I am not the Russian Army 😉
The other thing that the CDC has not been telling the public and this has been happening for years, is that they have a parallel branch that investigates any and all breakouts of disease that tests and documents toxicity both natural and man made in and around the event.
I have heard from several people looking into this that there is a very strong correlation with disease and toxic/poisoning events especially with chronic disease.
It is much more profitable to treat the disease than to address the ongoing toxic poisoning of the population.
I should say …environmental toxicity…
Jim West is a lone fighter on this
:
https://harvoa-med.blogspot.com
We never heared about “Toxicology” in the last two years, did we?
It is just rational if our earth becomes toxic that we retreat into a digital cloud or other planets. That is just what the stakeholders aka you and me want, isn’t it?
hahaha https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/glyphosate-contamination-foods-whole-foods-amazon-walmart-target
@CTG:
From what I comprehend now, we are not in a simulation, we are in a script.
Is there hope? Well there is a slight hope:
People must understand that their “state systems” have morphed into a system of scripted eschatology. This has started with the gnostics and might have been a benelovent move but in the end, when you loose contact with good and bad you are doomed.
I do not know.
I go out in the morning at sun dawn to do my works.
I go to bed in the evening after I have done my works.
Nobody can ever apply any script on me.
Be it a green pass or what have you.
I am free to die any moment.
Thank god.
So who is God that you thank? A script?
I have not yet come to understand the whole thing….
Anyhow, I am here, having fun. Reason enough for me.
“I go out in the morning at sun dawn to do my works.
I go to bed in the evening after I have done my works.”
That sounds like a script. It may well be an excellent script.
I often envy people who are in tune with what their script is, and follow it faithfully. Their outcomes on average won’t turn out any better or worse than those of us who struggle or gnash our teeth, and they’ll’ve been more content.
Let me post an automatic translation of an article about the Polish government playing the Germans:
https://www-anderweltonline-com.translate.goog/klartext/klartext-20221/nord-stream-2-stoppen-laecherliche-symbolpolitik/?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Check it out: topic Yamal pipeline
It is all open for all to see
This is the first part of the story:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamal–Europe_pipeline#/media/File:Yamal-europe.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord_Stream#/media/File:Nordstream.png
“Nord Stream 2 runs alongside the original Nord Stream pipeline”
This has been my thinking as well, that Europe needs Russia more than the other way around. Putin knows this and is tired of playing games. The meeting with Macron probably sealed the deal…
It is never a mistake to review Gazprom’s map of its pipelines tlhat bring gas to Europe—especially which pipelines go through which transit states.
https://eegas.com/fsu.htm
See the big one that goes from the Yamal Peninsula through Belarus and Poland, to Germany?
We do not have a Russian invasion in Ukraine.
We have a war between delusions and reality. (or a crash at the end of the road…)
It will take a while to be comprehended for all players as the c9/11 thing had tro evolve.
I stated long ago that c 9/11 is just an evolving situation. It still is. (Hat Tip to Fast Eddy)
We are in year 2 of a complete reformatting of the Hard drive being “our believe in the state”
From what I see the sooner you abandon all hope, the more hope there is..,
Your last line is great! It applies to many topics we discuss here.
LOL ‘And very nice gas, oil and wheat, it is, too!’
China has stepped in to support its close strategic ally, Russia, through the sanctions imposed on it by NATO countries. If the West does not want Russian gas, oil, and wheat, then China is very happy to accept more of all that from Russia.
This entire, latest NATO debacle, of expanding NATO into Ukraine, and the inevitable Russian response, has pushed China and Russia ever closer together, and away from the West, all the more firmly. USA and NATO could hardly do a better job, than they already are, to reconfigure the geopolitical status quo, exactly what they supposedly want to avoid.
NATO has not got a clue what it is doing. The result of sanctions on Russia will be less gas, oil, and wheat for the West, and fewer investment opportunities in Russia. The West can expect astronomical energy and food prices, and massive inflation – while China says, ‘Thank you, very much! Very nice, it is, too!’ NATO is a total debacle now.
> China throws Putin another sanction-busting lifeline: Xi Jinping lifts wheat import restrictions – gifting Russia another economy boost as West [flounders]
– China will lift wheat import restrictions for Russia in a sanction-busting lifeline
– Experts believe China could help Russia weather the storm of financial sanctions
– Could mean Beijing buying more Russian oil and gas and lending Moscow money
China has thrown Russia’s Vladimir Putin another sanction-busting lifeline by lifting wheat import restrictions in an economic boost to Moscow.
Russia, the world’s largest exporter of wheat, exported more than 30 million tonnes of the product from January through November last year.
It comes after experts predicted yesterday that China could buy more Russian energy and lend Moscow cash to help Putin weather sanctions imposed over his invasion of Ukraine.
Experts yesterday said they believed China was likely to help Russia ‘behind the scenes’, with the level of support from Beijing potentially becoming an ‘influential factor in shaping an evolving crisis’.
China and Russia have moved closer in recent years as both have faced rising tensions with the West.
Rising tensions with the West are expected to quicken Russia’s ongoing pivot to the East when it comes to selling its oil and gas. Russian energy firms agreed new long-term supply deals with China at the start of February.
Russian gas supplies to China are reportedly set to hit 48 billion cubic metres a year but talks are ongoing over the development of a third route which would add another 50 billion cubic metres.
The oil company Rosneft agreed a deal to supply 100 million tonnes of crude oil to China within a decade, replacing an existing deal which is set to expire.
The expectation is that China’s demand for Russian energy will now surge in the coming years while European demand is likely to fall.
You do not throw a life support ring to a country invading another country.
Dunno who said this today but, hey. it’s just about we the f789ing people!
So let us die, dear leaders!
This “pivot toward China” is pretty much what we could expect to come out of this, after Russia has been mistreated for so long, relative to its true value. China, with Russia’s help, can keep its economy going a while longer. Europe and the rest of the world can increasingly flounder. The woke group will somehow get voted out of power, or will be overturned by force.
Increasingly, trade will be directly between Russia and China, bypassing the US dollar completely.
This is (was!) “SFA”: Short Fuse Anxiety.
For the moment it looks like the stock markets are doing fine.
I do not have the intel McGibbs has here but from what I see the people going shopping after work will be in for quite a surprise shortly.
Flatten the curve with lockdowns simply does not work in a connected economy. This is termed a discontinuity.
That it is: a discointinuity.
Some countries like Russia and China see it and they acted on it (at least in a way that was/is still possible)
Others put their faith in the spot market.
We will see how this will play out in the next 12 months.
I’m not a card player, but I would like to make this comparison.
Europe was making a bluff at poker game (with US saying: come on, let’s go) and Russia (with China’s support) said: I’m tired of your tricks, now let’s see your cards.
But the cards are not good…
https://pokerjournal.org/poker-bluffs/
Putin ups it a few notches by threatening Sweden and Finland. Good on him. I’ll bet it was rather irritating to watch the disgusting Swedish politicos and “elites” fuck around in Ukraine.
https://eurasiantimes.com/russia-sends-bone-chilling-message-to-sweden-threatens-with-military-implications-if-they-go-the-ukraine-way/?amp
“Amid the ongoing Russian military operations in Ukraine, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday that Moscow will have to respond if Sweden and Finland become NATO members.”
Just crawl in the goddamned tanks already, call it a day and make a republic of the cap of the north. Finland can disarm. Enough of these Finnish forest farmers.
” Moscow will have to respond if Sweden and Finland become NATO members. ”
No one helped out Ukraine when it was attacked, but it was not a NATO member. If Sweden and Finland join NATO, Russia will be able to prove what a toothless giant NATO really is.
NATO really serves no purpose other than to justify war toys. If one takes a look at the NATO map in 1960 and compares it to 2022, it clearly shows they are not the aggressor as Washington would have us believe. Russia feels threatened and surrounded by NATO and rightfully so.
Today I watched the noon news show on ARD, one of two main broadcasters in Germany (that have to be paid by mandatory fees by the public)
The message was: Germany did not spend enough momey for military purposes and they now do not even have the means to “build up forces at the NATO east flank”
Well guys, just take out more taxes from the hard working people in Germany to fuel your dreams of a blossoming Ukraine.
That with high FF prices will surely play out well!
They could send the immigrants (to Sweden) that Merkel wanted so badly to bolster the GDP together with the boon of some random war racket.
That should free up some monies for a few extra Leopards and Eurofighters ironically fueled on Russian petroleum product.
It is not as if there would be anything to stop it. Just load ’em up on ferries and choose any random spot for unloading along the Swedish coastline.
Like a hot potato being tossed around.
🤣👍👍
“We” are despeerately searching for some refugees drowned on a ship that burned out in the mediterranians recently.
So far we did not find any survivors.
But we try really hard!! hard , hard!
Actually someone chummed the water with ground up bodies of Vax Dead MOREONS and the sharks sorted it out
Hahaha! Handling Sweden would be easy enough – five guys with a backpack each would be enough to turn off the electric grid for several months. Not to mention five cruise missiles. Or even ten – then it would be dark for a year and most swedes would die from starvation. Not even me could prepare for this even if I know about the vulnerabilities.
“Or even ten – then it would be dark for a year and most swedes would die from starvation.”
Flip your shit and GTFO?
Why not just drop a heap of nukes on Finland? Backwards donkeys. Teach them a lesson…
Because you can
NOO! They are NOT “backwards monkeys”! We love the Finns! If you have not watched “Hydraulic Press Channel” and “Beyond the Press” on YT you can not understand. The Finns are everything we want to be. Period.
Let’s face it, what a mosquito infested shithole country Finland is. Chock full of obnoxious irritants. Perhaps there were some unfortunate interbreeding between the two species at some point in ancient history?
Obviously something went terribly wrong causing all sorts of mutilations. Yes, the Finns transcended bog standard mutation. It just wasn’t cool enough given the harsh winters there. After all, it’s the cold hellhole where Santa and Rudolf set about the journey to disappoint children all over the globe, delivering shit they don’t want, bought with money that doesn’t exist, just to impress other kids who don’t care. Annoying isn’t it?
Besides; nobody understands Finnish. I’m sure they crafted that language out of spite and vodka, yes you guessed correctly, to be as irritating and confusing as humanly possible. Now that I think about it; forget about human.
I’m not sure nukes would make much difference. The warhead would probably just lose hope of finding civilization, and out of despair unleash its fury in some of the millions of mosquito infested lakes, providing them with some warmth and opportunity for sauna and more mutilations adding irritation to injury.
https://youtu.be/8yHPvMA1BNE
Rumor has it they’re good at hockey and motor racing. Luckily nobody cares.
Yes yes, but do the operate the hydraulic presses using donkey power?
F789 em.. they talk funny … I reckon best to chuck dead plague infected bodies into Helsinki out of airplanes
The ‘Suomen maavoimat’ got the answer to zombie infested cars speeding out of Helsinki:
https://i.imgur.com/JN7c2b2.jpg
Russian forces are fighting inside Kiev now, and the Ukrainian forces are not doing much of a job to defend it, by the sound of it. No one seriously expected that they would. It cannot be long now before it is all over.
The Ukrainian leadership has been a complete disaster for that country, and it has suffered total invasion by Russia. NATO has to bear the main responsibility for putting them up to it, in the first place – and then dumping them, when it all went off. Shameless. NATO is an utter debacle now.
– Syria
– Afghanistan
– Ukraine
Three defeats in a row.
– Kurds
– Afghans
– Ukrainians
All strung along by NATO, and then dumped to suffer their fate. Shameless.
And what about us?
This entire debacle is going to cost us in the West dearly, with rocketing energy prices, and inflation – on top of an already spiralling ‘cost of living’ crisis. We can expect astronomical petrol, energy and food bills because of this, and rocketing inflation. Many households and businesses are already pushed to the limit, and beyond.
Even now, there is no sign whatsoever of Western governments taking any responsibility for their ridiculous expansionist NATO policies, and the complete disaster that has been for everyone concerned. They all line up to blame Russia, instead, as if it was not always inevitable that it would act to protect itself. Anyone with any sense would have seen that coming, in the first place. This is a total debacle.
> The fight for Kyiv: Russian forces enter Ukrainian capital
Tense atmosphere in city threatened from north-west and east in what appears to be a lightning attack
Russian forces have entered Kyiv and were threatening the Ukrainian capital from the north-west and east in a lightning attack apparently aimed at seizing the city.
The defence ministry in Moscow claimed its forces had taken control of the strategic Hostomel airfield to the north-west after a day of fighting, while Russian tanks were filmed by locals in the Obolon suburb about six miles north of the city centre in the morning.
Gunfire could be also heard close to St Sophia Cathedral, reporters said, creating an increasingly tense atmosphere in the capital, which many expected would have been better defended given its obvious strategic significance.
Konrad Muzyka, the president of Rochan Consulting, said the “situation does look dire at the moment” particularly regarding Kyiv. “It appears that the main goal is to take Kyiv, break the C2 [command and control], and ‘decapitate’ the political leadership.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/25/fight-for-kyiv-russian-forces-ukraine-capital-war
ouch the US is not even mentioned. Talk about multipolar world. Watch out the drag queen shows will start soon and then Russia will quake in its boots.
Hopefully a swift and elegant campaign which, although they won’t admit it, the military colleges will teach as a text-book example.
Let’s hope the ‘decapitation’ works, and the killing stops soon.
Then, if we are very lucky, Putin might get around to sending us Food Aid etc when we collapse…..
Sean Penn is on the scene. How can that not be helping?