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Media outlets tend to make it sound as if all our economic problems are temporary problems, related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In fact, world crude oil production has been falling behind needed levels since 2019. This problem, by itself, encourages the world economy to contract in unexpected ways, including in the form of economic lockdowns and aggression between countries. This crude oil shortfall seems likely to become greater in the years ahead, pushing the world economy toward conflict and the elimination of inefficient players.
To me, crude oil production is of particular importance because this form of oil is especially useful. With refining, it can operate tractors used to cultivate crops, and it can operate trucks to bring food to stores to sell. With refining, it can be used to make jet fuel. It can also be refined to make fuel for earth moving equipment used in road building. In recent years, it has become common to publish “all liquids” amounts, which include liquid fuels such as ethanol and natural gas liquids. These fuels have uses when energy density is not important, but they do not operate the heavy machinery needed to maintain today’s economy.
In this post, I provide an overview of the crude oil situation as I see it. In my analysis, I utilize crude oil production data by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) that has only recently become available for the full year of 2021. In some exhibits, I also make estimates for the first quarter of 2022 based on preliminary information for this period.
[1] World crude oil production grew marginally in 2021.
Crude oil production for the year 2021 was a disappointment for those hoping that production would rapidly bounce back to at least the 2019 level. World crude oil production increased by 1.4% in 2021, to 77.0 million barrels per day, after a decrease of -7.5% in 2020. If we look back, we can see that the highest year of crude oil production was in 2018, not 2019. Oil production in 2021 was still 5.9 million barrels per day below the 2018 level.
With respect to the overall increase in crude oil production of 1.4% in 2021, OPEC helped bring this average up with an increase of 3.0% in 2021. Russia also helped, with an increase of 2.5%. The United States helped pull the world crude increase down, with a decrease in production of -1.1% in 2021. In Section [5], more information will be provided with respect to crude production for these groupings.
[2] The growth in world crude oil production shows an amazingly steady relationship to the growth in world population since 1991. The major exception is the decrease in consumption that took place in 2020, with the lockdowns that changed consumption patterns.
Figure 2 indicates that, up through 2018, each person in the world consumed an average of around 4.0 barrels of crude oil. This equates to 168 US gallons or 636 liters of crude per year. Much of this crude is used by businesses and governments to produce the basic goods we expect from our economy, including food and roads.
A big downshift occurred in 2020 with the COVID lockdowns. Many people began working from home; international travel was scaled back. The reduction of these uses of oil helped bring down total world usage. Changes such as these explain the big dip in crude oil production (and consumption) in 2020, which continued into 2021.
Even in 2019, the world economy was starting to scale back. Beginning in early 2018, China banned the importation of many types of materials for recycling, and other countries soon followed suit. As a result, less oil was used for transporting materials across the ocean for recycling. (Subsidies for recycling were helping to pay for this oil.) Loss of recycling and other cutbacks (especially in China and India) led to fewer people in these countries being able to afford automobiles and smartphones. Lower production of these devices contributed to the lower use of crude oil.
On Figure 2, there is a slight year-to-year variation in crude oil per capita. The single highest year over the time period shown is 2005, with 2004 not far behind. This was about the time many people think that conventional oil production “peaked,” reducing the availability of inexpensive-to-produce oil.
[3] Crude oil prices dropped dramatically when economies were shut in, beginning in March 2020. Prices began spiking the summer and fall of 2021, as the world economy attempted to open up. This pattern suggests that the real problem is tight crude oil supply when the economy is not artificially constrained by COVID restrictions.
An analysis of price trends suggests that most of the recent spike in crude prices is due to the tightness of the crude oil supply, rather than the Ukraine conflict. The Brent oil price dropped to an average of $14.24 in the week ending April 24, 2020, not long after COVID restrictions were enacted. When the economy started to reopen, in the week ending July 2, 2021, the average price rose to $76.26. By the week ending January 28, 2022, the average price had risen to $90.22.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The Brent spot price on February 23, 2022, was $99.29. Brent prices briefly spiked higher, with weekly average prices rising as high as $123.60, for the week ending March 25, 2022. The current Brent oil price is about $107. If we compare the current price to the price the day before the invasion began, the price is only $8 higher. Even compared to the January 28 weekly average of $90.22, the current price is $17 higher.
Saying that the Ukraine invasion is causing the current high price is mostly a convenient excuse, suggesting that the high prices will suddenly disappear if this conflict disappears. The sad truth is that depletion is causing the cost of extraction to rise. Governments of oil exporting countries also need high prices to enable high taxes on exported oil. We are increasingly experiencing a conflict between the prices that the customers can afford and the prices that those doing the extraction require. In my view, most oil exporting countries need a price in excess of $120 per barrel to meet all of their needs, including reinvestment and taxes. Consumers would prefer oil prices under $50 per barrel to keep the price of food and transportation low.
[4] Food prices tend to rise when oil prices are high because products made from crude oil are used in the production and transport of food.
History shows that bad things tend to happen when food prices are very high, including riots by unhappy citizens. This is a major reason that high oil prices tend to lead to conflict.
[5] Quarterly crude oil data suggests that few opportunities exist to raise crude oil production to the level needed for the world economy to operate at the level it operated at in 2018 or 2019.
Figure 5 shows quarterly world crude oil production broken down into four groupings: OPEC, US, Russia, and “All Other.”
Figure 5 shows four very different patterns of past growth in crude oil supply. The All Other grouping is generally trending a bit downward in terms of quantity supplied. If world per capita crude oil production is to stay at least level, the total production of the other three groupings (OPEC, US, and Russia) needs to be rising to offset this decline. In fact, it needs to rise enough that overall crude production growth keeps up with population growth.
Russian Crude Oil Production
The data underlying Figure 5 shows that up until the COVID restrictions, Russia’s crude oil production was increasing by 1.4% per year between early 2005 and early 2020. During the same period, world population was increasing by about 1.2%. Thus, Russia’s oil production has been part of what has helped keep world crude production about level, on a per capita basis. Also, Russia seems to have made up most of its temporary decrease in production related to COVID restrictions by the first quarter of 2022.
US Crude Oil Production
Growth in US crude oil production has been more of a “feast or famine” situation. This can be seen both in Figure 5 above and in Figure 6 below.
US crude oil production spurted up rapidly in the 2011 to 2014 period, when oil prices were high (Figure 3). When oil prices fell in late 2014, US crude production fell for about two years. US oil production began to rise again in late 2016, as oil prices rose again. By early 2019 (when oil prices were again lower), US crude oil growth began to slow down.
In early 2020, COVID lockdowns brought a 15% drop in crude oil production (considering quarterly production), most of which has not been made up. In fact, growth after the lockdowns has been slow, similar to the level of growth during the “growth slowdown” circled in Figure 6. We hear reports that the sweet spots in shale formations have largely been drilled. This leaves mostly high-cost areas left to drill. Also, investors would like better financial discipline. Ramping up greatly, and then cutting back, is no way to operate a successful company.
Thus, while growth in US crude oil production greatly supported world growth in crude oil production in the 2009 to 2018 period, it is impossible to see this pattern continuing. Getting crude oil production back up to the level of 12 million barrels a day where it was before the COVID restrictions would be extremely difficult. Further production growth, to support the growing needs of an expanding world population, is likely impossible.
OPEC Crude Oil Production
Figure 7 shows EIA crude oil production estimates for the total group of countries that are now members of OPEC. It also shows crude oil production excluding the two countries which have recently been subject to sanctions: Iran and Venezuela.
If Iran and Venezuela are removed, OPEC’s long-term production is surprisingly “flat.” The “peak” period of production is the fourth quarter of 2018. The fourth quarter of 2018 was the time when the OPEC countries were producing as much oil as they could, to get their production quotas as high as possible after the planned cutbacks that took effect at the beginning of 2019.
Strangely, EIA data indicates that production didn’t fall very much for this group of countries (OPEC excluding Iran and Venezuela), starting in early 2019. The 2019 cutback seems mostly to have affected the production of Iran and Venezuela. It was only later, in the first three quarters of 2020, when COVID restrictions were affecting worldwide production, that crude oil production for OPEC excluding Iran and Venezuela fell by 4 million barrels per day. Production for this group then began to rise, leaving a shortfall of about 900,000 barrels a day, relative to where it had been before the 2020 lockdowns.
It seems to me that, at most, production for the group of OPEC countries excluding Iran and Venezuela can be ramped up by 900,000 barrels a day, and even this is “iffy.” Iraq is reported to be having difficulty with its production; it needs more investment, or its production will fall. Nigeria is past peak, and it is also having difficulty with its production. The high reported crude oil reserves are meaningless; the question is, “How much can these countries produce when it is required?” It doesn’t look like production can be ramped up very much. Furthermore, we cannot count on continued long-term growth in production from these countries, such as would be needed to keep pace with rising world population.
Figure 8 suggests that, indeed, Iran might be able to raise its production by perhaps 1.0 million barrels a day when sanctions are lifted.
Venezuela looks like a country whose crude oil production was already declining before sanctions were imposed. The cost of production there was likely far higher than the world oil price. Also, Venezuela has oil debts to China that it needs to repay. At most, we might expect that Venezuela’s production could be raised by 300,000 barrels per day in the absence of sanctions.
Putting the three estimates of amounts that crude oil production can perhaps be raised together, we have:
- OPEC ex Iran and Venezuela: 900,000 bpd
- Iran: 1,000,000 bpd
- Venezuela: 300,000 bpd
- Total: 2.2 million bpd
The shortfall of crude oil production in 2021, relative to 2018 production, was 5.9 million bpd, as mentioned in Section [1]. The 2.2 million barrels per day possibly available from this analysis gets us nowhere near the 2018 level. Furthermore, we have nowhere to go to obtain the rising crude oil production required to support the rising population with enough crude oil to supply food and industrial goods at today’s consumption level.
[6] Eliminating, or even reducing, Russia’s crude oil production is certain to have an adverse impact on the world economy.
Figure 9 shows the step-down in crude oil production that occurred in early 2020 and indicates that the world’s oil supply is having difficulty getting back up to pre-COVID levels. If Russia’s crude oil production were to be eliminated, it would make for another step-down of comparable magnitude. Major segments of the economy would likely need to be eliminated.
[7] When there isn’t enough crude oil to go around, the naive belief is that oil prices will rise and either more oil will be found, or substitutes will take its place. In fact, the result may be conflict and elimination of segments of the economy.
Our self-organizing economy will tend to adapt in its own way to inadequate crude oil supplies. Eventually, the economy may collapse completely, but before that happens, changes are likely to happen to try to preserve the “better functioning” parts of the economy. In this way, perhaps parts of the world economy can continue to function for a while longer while getting rid of less productive parts of the economy.
The following is a partial list of ways the economy might adapt:
- Fighting may take place over the remaining crude oil supplies. This may be the underlying reason for the conflict between NATO and Russia, with respect to Ukraine.
- COVID lockdowns indirectly reduce demand for crude oil. A person might wonder whether the current COVID lockdowns in China are partly aimed at preventing oil and other commodity prices from rising to absurd levels.
- Some organizations may disappear from the world economy because of inadequate funding or lack of profitability.
- Additional supply lines are likely to break, allowing fewer types of goods and services to be made.
- The world economy may subdivide into multiple pieces, with each piece able to make a much more limited array of goods and services than is provided today. A shift toward the use of other currencies instead of the US dollar may be part of this shift.
- World population may shrink for multiple reasons, including poor nutrition and epidemics.
- The poor, the elderly and the disabled may be increasingly cut off from government programs, as total goods and services (including total food supplies) fall too low.
- Europe could be cut off from Russian fossil fuel exports, leaving relatively more for the rest of the world.
[8] Countries that are major importers of crude oil and crude oil products would seem to be at significant risk of reduced supply if there is not enough crude oil to go around.
Figure 10 shows a rough estimate of the ratio of crude oil produced to crude oil products consumed in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. On an “All Liquids” basis, the US ratio of crude oil production to consumption would appear higher than shown on Figure 10 because of its unusually high share of natural gas liquids, ethanol, and “refinery gain” in its liquids production. If these types of production are omitted, the US still seems to have a deficit in producing the crude oil it consumes.
Perhaps all that is needed is the general idea. If inadequate crude oil is available, all of the countries at the left of Figure 10 are quite vulnerable because they are very dependent on imports. Russia and the Middle East are prime targets for countries that are desperate for crude oil.
[9] Conclusion: We are likely entering a period of conflict and confusion because of the way the world’s self-organizing economy behaves when there is an inadequate supply of crude oil.
The issue of how important crude oil is to the world economy has been left out of most textbooks for years. Instead, we were taught creative myths covering several topics:
- Huge amounts of fossil fuels will be available in the future
- Climate change is our worst problem
- Wind and solar will save us
- A fast transition to an all-electric economy is possible
- Electric cars are the future
- The economy will grow forever
Now we are running into a serious shortfall of crude oil. We can expect a new set of problems, including far more conflict. Wars are likely. Debt defaults are likely. Political parties will take increasingly divergent positions on how to work around current problems. News media will increasingly tell the narrative that their owners and advertisers want told, with little regard for the real situation.
About all we can do is enjoy each day we have and try not to be disturbed by the increasing conflict around us. It becomes clear that many of us will not live as long or well as we previously expected, regardless of savings or supposed government programs. There is no real way to fix this issue, except perhaps to make religion and the possibility of life after death more of a focus.
Nausea Rules by JHK https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/nausea-rules/
Excerpt: “What’s out there, rather, is a model of breakdown and collapse which the Woked-up, globalist neo-Jacobins are doing everything possible to hasten. US-inspired sanctions on Russia have quickly blown-up in America’s face. How’s that ban on Russian oil working? Do you understand that US shale oil — the bulk of our production — is exceptionally light in composition, meaning it contains not much of the heavier distillates like diesel and aviation fuel? ‘Tis so, alas. Truckers just won’t truck at $6.49-a-gallon, and before long they’ll be out of business altogether, especially the independents who have whopping mortgages on their rigs that won’t be paid. The equation is tearfully simple: no trucks = no US economy.
The strange parallel question has been raised: might laizzez-fair abortion be a cover for the evident new problem that Covid-19 vaccines have made a shocking number of birthing people incapable of reproducing? There’s a buzz about it, anyway. It’s a fact that Pfizer excluded pregnant and breastfeeding women from all phases of its mRNA trials. Among the various harms now ascribed to the mRNA shots are infertility, miscarriage, and newborn abnormalities. But, of course, that sort of rumor — in this case coming from cases among vaccinated military personnel and not so easily hushed up
According to Zero Hedge, twenty-six globalist NGOs with ties to George Soros signed a letter saying, “Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter will further toxify our information ecosystem and be a direct threat to public safety, especially among those already most vulnerable and marginalized.”
They are, as usual, projecting — since what is a greater threat to public safety than inducing tens of millions of frightened citizens to accept multiple shots of a poorly-tested pharmaceutical cocktail that can kill you six ways to Sunday? The folks in-charge (and others who would like to be the boss-of-you) don’t want you to know any of this. The pharma companies, the doctors, the hospital administrators, and the politicians must be frantic with terror of being found out.
Altogether, the scene looks like a multi-dimensional nightmare. Broken economy… sinking Western Civ… police state tyranny… starvation…. So, there it is. Oh, look, those markets… they’re puking again!”
One part that caught my attention was this:
This latest piece from Kunstler is very good.
East Coast diesel market a growing concern as inventories plummet
Stocks in the region down almost 50% since the start of the year; prices soar above Gulf Coast levels
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/east-coast-diesel-market-a-growing-concern-as-inventories-plummet?p=425578
Information about oil storage is by PADD district. This is a link to an article about these districts.
https://kendrickoil.com/padd-maps-what-are-they-and-why-are-they-important/
According to the article,
By far the biggest diesel storage area is the Gulf Cost (PADD3). Its level is low, but not terribly low for this time of year.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WDISTP31&f=W
The part that seems to be in worst shape is New England (PADD 1A). https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WDIST1A1&f=W
I expect that it relies primarily on imported diesel, since it is distant from the Gulf Coast and Midwest. New England, historically, has burned a lot of diesel to heat homes in the winter. This makes its storage level vary with the time of year. But there is not much diesel in it, for the huge population in this area.
Central Atlantic (PADD 1B) seems to be in pretty dreadful shape as well. It also gets its diesel from imports.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WDIST1B1&f=W
Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C), which is where I live, is doing reasonably well:
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WDIST1C1&f=W
We get most of our diesel by pipeline from the Gulf Coast, rather than from imported diesel, the way the Northeast and Central Atlantic do.
Can we see the effect of the lockdowns of 2020 in the inventory levels? They were actually able to build some cushion as everyone languished at home, but when we try to open up the inventory levels trend down.
Total US stocks of distillate crude oil (diesel) were at a low point at the time shut-ins took place (March 2020) and there was a big jump with the shut ins You can see this from this chart.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MDISTUS1&f=M
The wide variations in early years were related to storing oil for burning in the winter to heat homes. With higher prices for oil, the practice of burning oil (pretty close to diesel) for fuel has mostly disappeared.
This is monthly crude oil, stored at tank farms. It doesn’t show as clear a pattern and the diesel. Crude oil in storage was already climbing at the time of the shut ins, and climbed some more with the shut ins.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRSFUS1&f=M
FDA Limits Use Of Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Due To Blood Clot Risk
Zachary Snowdon SmithForbes Staff
Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine is now only authorized for U.S. adults who are unable to receive other vaccines, the Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday, citing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine’s risk of potentially life-threatening blood clotting side effects.
KEY FACTS
Due to the vaccine’s risk of causing thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), a blood-clotting disorder that can cause stroke or heart attack, it should not be used unless other vaccines are unavailable or determined to be clinically inappropriate, the FDA said.
TTS is rare, affecting about 1 person in 250,000 who takes Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, but it is far more serious than the usually mild heart inflammations sometimes associated with Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines.
Hahahahah..Hi Everyone….put on the TV local news and saw this on a ticket tape news feed and the talking heads gave it a couple of lines mentioned and on to SPORTS coverage.
So, it is RARE….hahaha
As an adenovirus vaccine, I am wondering if Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine isn’t “less unsafe” than the mRNA vaccines.
Randomised Clinical Trials of COVID-19 Vaccines: Do Adenovirus-Vector Vaccines Have Beneficial Non-Specific Effects?
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4072489
All cause mortality is shown to be much higher with the mRNA vaccines than in the adenovirus-vector vaccines, in this paper. The high mortality from mRNA vaccines would explain the big increase in mortality as mRNA vaccines are rolled out (US, Israel, Iceland), without a corresponding increase in deaths in countries that primarily use other types of vaccines.
Hopefully, airline pilots passed over the J&J version as well as those that have to do tons of air travel each year.
Very sad report from Igor Chudov: Fully Vaccinated Gorilla Dies of Multiple Organ Failure
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/fully-vaccinated-gorilla-dies-of?
At least before he died, he didn’t go Apes.
Fewer animals to feed in zoos, if they are killed off by the COVID vaccines. Helps (to a tiny extent) with the world food problem. Looks like officials are doing something, to protect zoo patrons.
“South African railways grind to a halt as gangs plunder power cables”
https://twitter.com/ClarkeMicah/status/1522493239667965953?s=20&t=yLHWhT5AO4GXV1hhbxIfUw
Reminds me of the people who steal catalytic converters or steal pipes out of a house. They will cause $1000s in damage to get $20 in scrap. This is probably why public executions for petty crimes is a thing in various times and places because a society can’t afford the waste and disruption when resources are limited.
it is the value of the complexity of civilization that allows the theft of that complexity
but only in the very short term
ultimately complexity cannot be replaced
Ultimately complexity can be replaced with simplicity. It looks like this is about to happen. By 2030, our lives are going to be simpler, although not necessarily easier. And we are going to be happy, although not necessarily joyful.
‘complexity replaced with simplicity” is not a replacement
a 40 ton truck cannot be replaced with a horse and cart
40 horse and carts can be substituted for a 40 ton truck
a man running with a message in a cleft stick can be substituted for a telephone
the are not replacements for complexity
Simply the stuff in the 40 ton truck won’t be used any more.
Simple.
no one said enjoyable or easy.
you are quite right
unfortunately there is the certainty that bau can go on when we dont have trucks any more
Norman, you are speaking with your headmaster’s mortarboard on again.
You need only consult the Oxford English Dictionary that is doubtless gathering dust on the staffroom bookshelf and it will inform you that substitute is a synonym for replace and substitution is a synonym for replacement.
On Google, “was replaced by a substitute” gets 326,000 hits, while the less popular “was substituted by a replacement” gets 19,000 hits.
Etymology:
replace (v.) 1590s, “to restore to a previous place or position,” from re- “back, again” + place (v.). Meaning “to take the place of” is recorded from 1753; that of “to fill the place of (with something else)” is from 1765.
substitute (vt.) 14th/15th century, 1a: to put or use in the place of another
1b: to introduce (an atom or group) as a substituent
also: to alter (something, such as a compound) by introduction of a substituent
2: to take the place of : REPLACE
(vi.) to serve as a substitute
Good points!
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/79c153ca-cc6e-11ec-b225-ba85b2bd8624
“The power cables on railway lines around Cape Town have been looted for their copper, which is then sold for scrap.”
Not too surprising. This may happen, worldwide, if wires are accessible and not guarded.
This is happening with oil pipelines in South America, so I’ve heard.
I have been thinking about how easy it is to sabotage oil and gas pipelines and how difficult it is to secure them and to have to constantly repair them if an enemy chose this as an attack vector.
Srely this would become a major issue if conflict escalates between east and west. I can see the Eurasian pipeline projects becoming more and more difficult to defend if NATO chose to squeeze Russia in this way.
I can see Putin being removed at some point and replaced by a western puppet. That would change the dynamic somewhat opening Russia up to exploitation by the west. For a while anyway… for what it’s worth.
Water pipelines are also vulnerable.
The Russian Urals heavy oil brings big margins after sanctions:
The discount before the invasion was USD 2, now USD 36 to Brent.
https://index.sme.sk/c/22902879/slovnaft-tazi-z-ruskej-ropy-ruku-nad-nim-drzi-matovic-i-sulik.html?ref=trz
Apply the revaluation of the Ruble from over 150 to about 65 and this means the heavy oil has probably held its value pretty well.
Mathematics and MG are not mixing well. Math is just ideologically bland for his taste
You mean that getting less money for one of the key products of Russia sounds like the deflation?
There are various types of energy embedded in the products bought by Russia from the warmer countries, not just oil or natural gas which Russia exports.
A disproportionate share of the diesel comes from heavy oil, such as that from the Oil Sands in Canada and from the Russian Urals.
In contrast, oil from shale formation in the US tends to be quite “light.” It tends to give quite a bit of natural gas liquids relative to more useful crude oil. Reports say that it is tending to get lighter over time.
MG is obviously a shale product; a very light distillate
You mean the text before your eyes entitled MG?
The ability of the brain to reflect reality declines with the ageing.
Interesting point! My view of reality is changing over the decades. My sensory inputs are not what they were. Eyes, ears and nose are all performing more poorly that they used to when I was young, but taste seems to be holding up well—perhaps because I have slowed down long enough to pay more attention to what I am eating.
Whether my brain or the common or garden average human brain ever reflected reality well is a debatable question. I am sure Mirror would have something interesting to say about that.
Russia should resist giving away cheep heavy fuel to nations that have a commercial maritime fleet or military and that are also imposing sanctions or embargo’s against it. This will not serve long term interests. In fact it is a very easy way to strike back, as it will drastically limit diesel and aviation fuel as well as shipping in such nations. They should only supply friendly nations. It’s called leverage and limits how much such nations can wage war against Russia if it comes to it
What are the friendly nations?
Those that produce useful products or those that you like?
It’s a little more complex than defining friendly nations as those that make ‘useful stuff’’ or are attributed ‘personal preference’ I’m afraid.
Friendly Nations: The ones resisting sanctioning or implementing embargo’s so the world economy remains functional. The ones brave enough to keep relations mutually beneficial and not exhibiting non-purposefully self defeating, self harm, The ones with enough autonomy not to be slaved or zombied to the whims of the cartels pushing, facilitating or supplying materials and media to promote a wider escalating war or attempting to break up Russia for it’s resources, because of lack of said there of.
In others words ‘Friendly, independent, reasonable and or just sane nations, as well as Restraint, Reflective, Informed, Peace Loving Citizens of the World. These are the World’s Guardians and Keepers, Ones who Know, it is the vulnerable and innocent that suffer most in war and therefore who act for the Grater Good. Heard of that?
Russia has got a history of friendly nations, which it subsidized, but were/are of technological zero value.
Russias friends Were / are of technological zero value?
…Like independent and Nuclear capable Iran, China and India?
Yes that’s right, Iran may well have ‘undeclared capabilities’ similar to Israel’s position. Ever wonder why the US been afraid to go in, running the weapons of mass ‘distraction’ gag?
Also please recall so called inferior, technologically lacking nations like Afghanistan, North Korea and Vietnam remain nations because of their ‘other proven strengths’
It’s a healthy thing when the village bullies is put in check occasionally.
Russia is not like the USA, but like Canada. With a disadvantage of a too high population for the worse accessability of its resources. Everything in Russia is far from the markets. Without the nuclear power, Russia does not exist anymore.
Canada and Russia have low population densities which prevent them to be important civilization centers. It is the high population density which creates a civlilization center, i.e. the place where various resources from various directions meet.
MG, are you happy about Slovakia’s position in the current hierarchy? As a sovereign nation inside and somewhat subservient to the European Union, which is in turn allied to and somewhat subservient to the United States of America, which is ruled by a secret government that runs puppet government composed of intellectually vacuous human puppets?
Comparing the current state of affairs with past ones—such as a province of Hungary, of Poland, or of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or part of Czechoslovakia either independent in the 1920s and 30s or as a member of the Warsaw Pact between the late 1940s and 1989—do you think Slovakia is doing well these days?
Or were things better when the jolly Carpathian peasants used to bolt their doors at night and hang garlic from the windows to guard against vampires?
Dear Tim Groves,
Slovakia is a cold country, but at least it is not on the perifery as a whole.
The too big countries with big distances have worse problems than smaller ones.
The colder the country is, the lower the population density and the higher the costs for the infrastructure maintanance (freezing destroys roads, the landslides need controlled).
The life in the mountains is harsh, that is why there are some people in Slovakia who think that Russia is doing good when attacking neighbours.
Slovakia with its minerals mining history of a resource provider with investments from the West has got various common features with Russia besides the cold clmt of the mountains.
This zeitgeist of ours reminds me of the memorable lines from Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1855):
“Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.”
yes, the corrrrupt innnsane psssycho woketard USA leadership is ready and willing to send weapons to Ukraine until the last Ukrainian soldier is dead.
never give up, never surrender!
such noble leadership we have.
the world surely must look on in awe.
The British still retained a certain prestige when their empire crumbled: even those who longed for them to go in Africa and India, etc, admitted that they had finally learned to govern reasonably justly, having started out as plundering pirates and speculators.
But the US now stands devoid of even the smallest shred of respect or prestige, only able to threaten and spread destruction beyond her borders, while rapidly disintegrating internally, and emitting only a corrupt and decadent culture which no sane person could ever wish to emulate.
So, yes, one looks on in a certain kind of awe at the appalling spectacle.
Well put.
Dennis L.
As one looks on in a certain kind of awe, would you recommend one stock up with popcorn or would would you go for peanuts and raisons? Actually, peanuts can be bad for the liver, so walnuts or cashews might be a better choice.
I think history will show that the damage done by the ‘True Believers in The Science’ will dwarf any previous religion.
‘Religion is the entire collection of beliefs, values, and practices that a group holds to be the true and sacred.’
‘The Science’ has such followers; do or die is common theme. Faucis’ word has become sacred to many. Here in ‘sad’ NZ a dude Bloomfield has avid adherents who hang on his every word.
Putting aside ones logical inclination is core to becoming a follower. It seems a trance-like condition of subservience to the message and eventually the messenger. Stockholm isn’t just a place in Europe, its a state of mind.
This does not include people who see value in the message when going about their life, but instead, those for whom the content is unassailable truth.
Somewhere I picked up an observation that religions which last generally have some internal process to keep the fruitcakes from going off the rails along with the congregants.
Dennis L.
This trance-like belief that “The Science” must be right, and the word of Fauci is the word of God, has astounded me.
It is just incredible. A new, stronger religion, in some sense.
It would actually be a cult not a religion. Leaders of such psychosocially conditioning and controlling constructs are inevitably psychopathic or intense sociopaths. They control by administrating actual and subconscious reward or punishment systems by group or on mass coercion or exclusion. Avoid at all costs …’Oh I mean come on team 5 million do your bit to flatten the curve’
Even more strange is that Fauci lacks – as well as logical consistency in his pronouncements – any kind of charisma:
Naomi Wolf wrote amusingly about his repugnant personality, including the dreadful Brooklyn accent.
the ‘True Believers in The Dwarf’ will science any previous religion
It almost works.
US natural gas at $8.80 has more than doubled in 2022.
what?
European leaders thought they could get cheap gas from the USA?
when Putin turns off the taps, $8.80 will look like the good olde days.
how fast can the entire EU implode?
ruble update: 64 per USD.
I think “sanction” should be voted the Best Word of 2022.
Is self sanction a thing?
https://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/cartoons-s3/styles/product_detail_image/s3/Booemarang%20sanctions%20russia.jpg?itok=1JZCCSCX
By the time natural gas at $8.80 is shipped to Europe, it will be a lot more expensive than $8.80.
It seems like business buyers would start becoming very unhappy about the high US natural gas price. Also, marketing companies that resell natural gas to homes may have difficulty, because they often have guaranteed a lower fixed rate. At this time of year, I would think that residential demand for natural gas for heating would be very low. So even if rates aren’t capped, homeowners won’t necessarily notice the higher price at this time of year.
Spring is normally a “low demand” time of year for natural gas. Having a price of $8.80 per mcf at this time of year is pretty incredible.
Despite the Kremlin saying full-scale mobilization rumors are “nonsense,” Russian state agencies (from the post office to the tax inspectors) have started flooding online job portals with listings for “mobilization experts.”
https://twitter.com/KevinRothrock/status/1522277544791322624
the US was praising Ukraine for winning the “Battle of Kiev”.
US leadership is a joke.
if the Russian army mobilizes against Kiev again, I think that will be just another strategic military head fake to keep much of the Ukrainian forces occupied with defending the city.
the minimum goals for Russia still seem to be taking the eastern Donbas region and taking the south thus having control of the northern coast of the Black Sea and leaving rump Ukraine landlocked.
my bet is that Russia attains these goals.
I don’t get why Russia would want to occupy Kiev, though the thought of that is quite pleasant, considering how corrrrupt Ukrainian leadership is.
anyway:
does Putin really have cancer or is that just western propaganda?
I did think in the most recent photos I’ve seen of Putin that he is starting to get the same kind of fat face Norm MacDonald got from cancer treatment. Could be nothing, or even my imagination but I thought it was interesting considering that rumor.
If we go on analyzing the situation about Putin’s health of Biden’s health I think that we don’t make big steps towards our comprehension of the situation.
In my view it is the current American ruling class and the current Russian ruling class that have decided to do so.
I did think Putin is looking puffy, but he’s still Putin. Perhaps he’s going through the male menopause? Or more likely proceeding from middle age to old age. It happens to aging people.
On the other hand “Biden” is not Biden. The word on the street is that he’s actually Arthur Roberts. But regardless of who we see gaffing around the Oval Office mockup on teevee, an actor of some kind is definitely playing the role of Biden.
This was from last September:
https://verumetinventa.wordpress.com/2021/09/30/arthur-roberts-the-crisis-actor-who-plays-joe-biden/
>>I don’t get why Russia would want to occupy Kiev
Russia does not want to occupy Kiev, in the long-term. But they have stated clearly that two of their main aims are to cleanse Ukraine of the nazees, and ‘make-safe’ the Ukraine military. They cannot do either of these unless they take Kiev, and the rest of Ukraine for that matter.
If they take the left bank, they will have increased the distance between NATO bases and Moscow by 200 km. This might be a reasonable compromise.
5/5/22
By WarNews 24/7
For the first time in its recent history, Russia has announced that it has simulated nuclear attacks against EU and NATO countries.
All indications are that Russia’s political and military leadership has decided to go further in Ukraine, risking the application of the “escalation for de-escalation” doctrine.
Putin’s landmark speech: “The decision has been made” – Public commitment to “lightning attack using nuclear weapons”
“Nuclear simulation from Kaliningrad”
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the nuclear strike was simulated by Iskander-M ballistic systems that park the Kaliningrad pocket.
From there, Russia could hit Poland, Sweden, the Baltic states and Berlin.
According to the statement, Russia has launched “electronic launches” of Iskander mobile ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads near the Russian border with EU members Lithuania and Poland.
“Russian forces have exercised single and multiple strikes against targets such as missile systems, airports, defense infrastructure, military equipment and command posts,” the statement said.
The units involved also carried out “actions in conditions of radioactivity and chemical contamination”…
“We will strike NATO arms transfers”
Yesterday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Russian army would consider a goal that should be destroyed the transfer of weapons from NATO to Ukraine.
“The United States and NATO continue to send weapons to Ukraine.
“I want to point out that any transfer from NATO to the Ukrainian Army is a legitimate goal and must be destroyed,” said the Russian Defense Minister.
“Drop nuclear”
What is the possibility of escalating a Third World War that is already raging on Ukrainian soil, to nuclear?
On April 25, 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the threat of a nuclear war between Russia and the United States has not disappeared, is real and should not be underestimated.
The next day, on the air of Kremlin’s official propagandist Vladimir Soloviev’s television show, Margarita Simonyan said that in her opinion, President Putin would prefer to use nuclear weapons. in Ukraine rather than losing to it:
“In the end, all this will end with a nuclear strike,” he said.
Two days later, it was also broadcast live on Russian television how the latest generation RS-24 Sarmat ICBM intercontinental ballistic missile could hit the capitals of leading European countries in 106 to 200 seconds. The representative of the LDPR faction in the State Duma, Alexei Zhuravlev, commented:
What is the problem; A “Sarmat” rocket and the British Isles will not exist.
On the same day, April 28, Margarita Simonyan, in her profile on a popular social network, threatened Kyiv with a nuclear strike in response to the attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Russian territory:
“What choice do you give us, idiots?” Complete destruction of the rest of Ukraine? Nuclear strike? ” he said characteristically.
On April 29, Sergei Mironov, leader of the Just Russia faction in parliament, spoke of the possibility of a nuclear attack in the United Kingdom:
“Someone tell Lisa Trace that a Sarmat rocket is enough to destroy the island of Britain.”
On April 30, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed concern that Ukraine might want to acquire a nuclear arsenal, which could pose a deadly threat to Russia.
The conflict is out of control – Russian television: “Putin wiped Britain off the map – fired the torpedo of the” Apocalypse “”..
In the new military doctrine of the Russian Federation, 4 types of armed conflict were identified:..
..Moscow has now included the limited use of nuclear weapons not only in the fourth but also in the THIRD level of the conflict. Its aim is to force the adversary to stop hostilities that have already begun with the threat of further nuclear escalation…
The most shocking finding is that according to Russian dogma, the entire legal basis for Russia’s use of nuclear weapons exists in this conflict.
The question is, will he dare to use nuclear weapons and if so where will he strike.
If Russia does not formally declare war on Ukraine in order to have a legal basis for the use of nuclear weapons.. then there is only one option left:
To strike a NATO weapons convoy first and in case of a counterattack to use nuclear weapons.
The No. 1 target seems to be a “European country” that helps Ukraine.
For example it could be Poland or Romania.
Let us not forget that Russia claims that Ukrainian fighters are taking off from Romanian airports. Through its territory and neighboring Moldova, fuel and lubricants are supplied for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Romanian military may be directly involved in the sinking of the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship.
But again, in order for that to happen, Russia must formally declare war on Ukraine, only to later claim that “Romania is helping Ukraine and therefore actively engaged in the war against Moscow.”
Russia is oriented towards such a choice. This is probably why the Iskander-M simulation was chosen.
(excerpts)
source:
https://warnews247.gr/prasino-fos-se-periorismeni-pyriniki-epithesi-i-rosia-prochorise-stin-teliki-prova-pyrinikou-pligmatos-poia-einai-i-chora-stochos/
Everyone seems to be thinking nuclear, now.
Russia: NATO Not Taking Nuclear Threat Seriously
Russia’s ambassador to the US said on Thursday that NATO leaders are not taking the threat of nuclear war seriously enough.
“The current generation of NATO politicians clearly does not take the nuclear threat seriously,” ambassador Anatoly Antonov told Newsweek. While it’s widely believed that a direct war between NATO and Russia would quickly turn nuclear, the danger doesn’t appear to be factored into the Western approach to the war in Ukraine.
https://news.antiwar.com/2022/05/05/russian-ambassador-to-us-says-nato-not-taking-threat-of-nuclear-war-seriously/
On Wednesday, the weather at mid afternoon over Marlborough (nz) suddenly turned from blue sky to dark low overcast mist, It may have been due to a dramatic pressure change or a cool front hitting coastal areas of the region, but the effect was distinct and pronounced, our little remote isle seemed suddenly gloomy and cold. Was almost a sign. I felt it; at least would be an implication of the unthinkable. The inner Heart pang felt was one of intense irreversible sadness and aloneness. Enjoy your Blue sky’s wherever you are OFW’rs, nothing is a given or promised, remember that.
Just waiting for the mass death to start…
You know how on financial news the guests sometimes reveal if they have a position on a stock that they have just discussed… the assumption is if they have no position then their opinion is not intended to drive the stock one way or the other (notice they don’t say if their wife has a position though…)
Anyhow – when a doctor prescribes a drug should the doctor not be required to reveal what they get in return?
Offering a “prescription solution” gets a patient coming back frequently, for life.
Offering a “lifestyle solution” or a “cheap supplement” solution, means that that patient will not be coming back very often.
I copied this comment from ZH :
There is a person in an important position at work. She has at least a master’s degree. She went to get her most recent booster. But she forgot whether it was her second or third. So she doesn’t know if she’d had four or five shots all told without checking her records.
Also worthy of consideration is the possible addiction to the injection process itself. This is no doubt a form of needle fixation – when people become addicted to being part of the ritual of having the vaccine drawn up into the needle and to experiencing the act of having it injected into their arm.
My rule of thumb these days is that commonsense is inversely proportional to the number of degrees. Masters = no clue, MBA braindead true believer.
EPISODE 266: GEERT VANDEN BOSSCHE: ‘MY FINAL CALL’
https://thehighwire.com/watch/
Must Watch from 2:03:00
https://www.bitchute.com/video/v8A7TM6MmK57/
Geert Vanden Bossche certainly makes it sound like a problem with serious variants is very close at hand, and it will hit the vaccinated much harder than the unvaccinated.
I heard today that someone’s daughter – late 20’s – who works as a paramedic and is fully-vaxxed (although no mandate in the NHS, most submitted voluntarily), is constantly coming down with ‘Covid’.
So lots of time off work, somewhat defeating the object of being a protected health worker!
Also, before the vaxxes she didn’t catch a thing……
Geert convinced mega-death soon, in the highly vaxxed countries.
In the next month or two, but only amongst the vaccinated. Phew!
That would pretty much bring civilisation to an end. At last!
That would pretty much bring civilisation to an end. At last!
Something I agree with Mike.
No more vax worshippers. What WOULD we do without them?
It would be just us Cranks and the upper echelons of the Global Elite.
The sooner the better. End the Nightmare
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/barbaric-footage-shows-australian-cattle-slaughtered-illegally-in-indonesia-20200818-p55mnt.html
REMDESIVOR for babies as young as 28 days old and as small as 7 lbs; this in my words is MURDER, this is CRIMINAL, FDA’s approval of this Gilead drug is dangerous as will KILL children; it kills!
https://palexander.substack.com/p/remdesivor-for-babies-as-young-as
PR Team – uptake involving infants is extremely low —- any ideas?
Ya – give the Rem Death is Near like we do with everyone else — kill a few hundred — you watch the uptake accelerate
Done
Same folks who think a 1/4 pounder is bigger than a 1/3 pounder.
I dedicate this to norm … who just had a Spring Booster! hahahahaaha
Increased deaths in England for the age-range given the spring booster dose of Covid vaccine.
I’ve mentioned previously that the roll out of a dose of vaccine has been associated with an increase in excess deaths (eg, here), and we seem to have seen the same effect in March.
At around the 21st March (week 12) England started to roll out the spring booster doses for those aged over 75 (and other vulnerable individuals). By the 7th April (week 14) the NHS had congratulated itself with the announcement that over 1 million doses had been given.
Here’s the data (from Euromomo) for excess deaths in England for those aged 75-85 since the start of the year:
https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5cecc711-b04b-403b-90c1-329c2960af6f_817x313.png
I’ve highlighted the period where the million booster doses were delivered.
I note that we managed to get through the Omicron wave in the UK with normal levels of excess deaths in those aged 75-85, but as soon as the booster doses were rolled out we rapidly hit the threshold for a ‘substantial increase’.
Of course, it might be a coincidence — we have had rather a lot of coincidences over the last 15 months.
https://bartram.substack.com/p/increased-deaths-in-england-for-the
Hey norm … why are deaths increasing?
one unit of z-score in the UK, 75-85, is probably close to 30 excess deaths. so you are pointing at some 150 extra deaths a week, and the data are naturally noisy due to clumping of death events (not just the flu but also pollution and weather events). It is a really tiny increase. The pension system will become insolvent long before sufficient people die.
I know of no better example of this than the case of Dr. Tess Lawrie and Dr. Andrew Hill. In Profiles in Courage: Dr. Tess Lawrie, I share excerpts from a Zoom meeting in which Hill admits to intentionally altering his paper to obscure the fact that ivermectin can reduce COVID fatalities by 80%. He acknowledges this deception will kill at least 500,000 people in six weeks (it’s been over a year now, so that figure is much higher in reality, especially when combined with financially incentivized hospicide) and that he’s being pressured to do this by his sponsor, Unitaid (a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation vehicle that gave $40 million to the university where Dr. Hill works).
Please watch this 19-minute video to see the evidence of this corruption:
https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/dialogue-with-a-curious-injectee
A direct link to the video is here:
https://rumble.com/vwfia3-a-letter-to-andrew-hill-dr-tess-lawrie-oracle-films.html
We live in a very strange world now.
Wanna bet norm won’t watch this… or mike.
Andrew Hill is a BAU hero and should be given a medal for doing the hard work of saving resources while not spooking the sheep. All these sick old people should pass quickly and quietly instead of lingering for years wasting resources we can no longer afford. It’s a first step back to the golden age when if someone was too weak or unhealthy to contribute then it was time to let them expire, mourn, and move on with life.
And when you say “the global medical consensus,” understand that you are seeing what is presented by the media as the consensus—the same media that received a billion dollars to push the vaccine; the same media that gets 70% of its advertising funding from pharmaceutical companies (75% of their total budgets in 2020).
Because they have been censored, deplatformed, and smeared, you are not seeing the million+ (also see this and this) ethical physicians, scientists, medical professionals, and independent thinkers around the globe who are questioning the narrative.
Instead, you are seeing the representatives who 1) are knowingly deceiving the public; 2) have fallen under the same mass hypnosis as the majority of the public; or 3) are consciously committing scientific fraud because their paymasters have pressured them to do so.
https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/dialogue-with-a-curious-injectee
notice how norm was sucked in by another mass formation – orange man bad hahahahahaha… and no matter how pathetic biden is .. biden good.. biden good .. democrats good…
Meanwhile one of the biggest mass formations in History – is democracy hahahaha… it does not exist.
After I looked into this, I am not convinced that there really data backing up the statements about pharmaceutical companies providing 70% or 75% of media funding.
This is the link supporting the “media gets 70%of its funding from advertising:
https://www.trueactivist.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-says-70-of-news-advertising-revenue-comes-from-big-pharma-t1/
The article is from June 1, 2015.
When I look for a reference within it, it links to a video featuring John F. Kennedy Jr.
http://www.ora.tv/offthegrid/2015/5/18/grid-robert–kennedy-jr-takes-big-pharma–vaccine-industry-0_6ck7ne6j25bv
There is a somewhat more useful link for 75% of media’s budget in 2020 (the year of the COVID epidemic), but it doesn’t sound to me as if it is really saying what Kennedy is saying it is saying. It sounds to me that what the article is saying is that within Big Pharmaceutical’s budget, 75% of its advertising is used for television, and the rest is used for non-TV purposes.
https://www.fiercepharma.com/special-report/top-10-ad-spenders-big-pharma-for-2020
The article then lists the spending for a number of big pharmaceutical companies buying ads, but nowhere does it talk about total advertising revenue. I would never quote these percentages of media revenue.
norm got sucked into taking an experimental injection that is deadly and does not stop covid…
norm – you should ask for your money back – you got ripped off… oh right – it was Free haha…
Nothing in life is free… you’ll pay the price yet
Shot 5 – end June?
Thank you,
Dennis L.
Dialogue with a Curious Injectee
It Happened! It Finally Happened! An Open-Minded Pro-Vaxxer Asked a Question! + Updates Galore, Including Twitter Locking My Account!
Something happened that I was beginning to think was as unlikely to occur as Bigfoot soaring in on a pegasus, sliding down a rainbow, and distributing the leprechauns’ gold stash to the 99 percent: a person who has been quadruple-jabbed and believes in the safety and efficacy of the injectable gene therapy product honestly asked me a question and engaged in a good-faith dialogue.
The question came up in the comment thread of Are You a Good German or a Badass German?, and I asked his permission to share our dialogue with you guys as I thought you could use a positive counterpoint to contentious encounters like this one.
He kindly granted permission but asked that I refer to him as ‘B,’ explaining, “I do live & work in wokeland (where even TALKING to the other side can get me ex-communicated).”
So, without further adieu, here is our congenial exchange.
B: Don’t know how I stumbled onto this Substack. I’m a somewhat “anti-woke” pro free speech Democrat. I think my fellow liberals are a bit nuts about masks. (Masks don’t help fight Covid very well). But I’m convinced that the imperfect vaccines are amazing and literally help save us from societal collapse. I’m over 50 and have taken all four shots as recommended. I didn’t vote for Trump & never will, but it’s great that he helped get the vaccines done so fast. I thin[k] everyone should take the vaccine and if more of us had we might actually be out of the pandemic. But maybe not. Covid is gonna Covid. But I trust the global medical consensus. Most of you don’t. Why?
I’m NOT ideological. Trans women aren’t women. Black lives have always mattered, and we didn’t need nightly protests about it. Free speech is the most sacred thing in our democracy. I think Elon owning Twitter would be a net good. I often listen to Joe Rogan.
Just letting you know who I am before you slam me. Just honestly tell me why you think the global medical consensus is wrong?
https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/dialogue-with-a-curious-injectee
norm wants a 5th shot … norm wants a fifth shot hahahaa
“Supreme Court of India: “No One Can Be Forced To Get Vaccinated”
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/05/05/supreme-court-of-india-no-one-can-be-forced-to-get-vaccinated/
Hello everybody, today I went to an important Italian B2B exhibition.
Green pass and masks were not mandatory in closed spaces and it was extremely funny to see that everybody just applied the new rules without using mobile phones with green pass and without wearing masks in a disciplined way.
They made just the opposite, even if just few days ago it was exactly the other way around.
It makes no sense for me, but it happened.
It is incredible how humans behave like a herd ruled by a sheperd and alternative thinkers (and actors) are very few.
Having said that, I’ve just read an interesting article by Ugo Bardi which, in similar ways, touches these aspects
You can find it here:
‘The Shanghai Lockdown: a Memetic Analysis’
It gives some more insights on the Chinese approach and ours too.
https://thesenecaeffect.blogspot.com/2022/04/china-and-covid-memetic-analysis.html
Nice find.
‘A “meme” is a small unit of information that can easily move from one human mind to another. It is the virtual equivalent of a virus in the sense that it “infects” people and influences their behavior.’
‘….. Colin Powell, in 2003, showing a vial of baby powder while claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed largely on the basis of a meme that turned out to be completely false.’
It is so easy to infect peoples minds because they have the new G@d, ‘The Science’ as their pied piper.
Science is fine, it’s ‘The Science’ that sucks people into mindless subservience.
The same suckers fall for the same garbage time after time after time after time….
You’d think they’d figure out that the MSM is a lie machine… not to trust it…
But nope…. even if they are exposed as a lie machine as they were with WMD … this time is different
right norm? Why don’t you set up on Substack and regurgitate the OFW articles and see if anyone will subscribe hahahahaha
This is indeed a very fine post by Ugo Bardi. The first lockdown in China was termed a huge success, in that the virus stopped circulating. The virus was attacked in China in an extreme way, as if it were a bioweapon. The approach was tried nearly everywhere else, and it didn’t work well at all. China could hold itself up as being superior, in being able to stop the epidemic.
Now we are back to China using the same approach in Shanghai.
In other words,I think that we could recap that:
Europe goes on with ‘meme’ of vaccines and China goes on with ‘meme’ of lockdowns.
It is not clear to if ‘meme’ of vaccines has been completely incorporated and accepted in US society.
If ‘meme’ of vaccines will be completely incorporated in US society, we are all done in the western world.
Next time westen world will impose even worse mandates and even worse experimentation on humans.
I don’t like China, but I have to admit that it is better to be closed at home than receive a forced experimental therapy…
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-09-29/forced-vaccinations-china-ethics-covid
I know where I’d rather be, and it isn’t China.
If we go on blaming China and we dont’ see our US, European, Australian or NZ terrible strategy about vaccine mandates we deceive ourselves.
We already know that we don’t like China, there is no need to discuss it, but we have to realize that if we don’t become aware of what we have done in the western world, ‘they’ will do it again.
And next time will be worse.
Please listen to what Obama has recenly said about it at time 24.48 of this link:
USDRUB is now back down to 65 from a high of ~150 a few weeks ago. Feels good to have some money outside of USD. I’ve gone from the village idiot to an idiot savant in a short time!
Good job!
The effect of the sanctions on where the ruble floats relative to the dollar hasn’t been what the folks imposing the sanctions expected.
WW3 Headlines:
Russia said Wednesday its forces had carried out simulated nuclear missile strikes in the western enclave of Kaliningrad on the border with the European Union.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/05/05/russia-simulates-nuclear-capable-strikes-near-eu-a77586
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman: Finland and Sweden will turn into an arena of confrontation between NATO and Russia if they join NATO.
Finland and Sweden’s formal request to join NATO will be ready for the alliance’s next meeting in late June, US Senate member Tom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said.
NATO HAS DOUBLED ITS FORCES IN EASTERN EUROPE, STRIKE GROUPS CAN BE CREATED NEAR THE BORDERS OF RUSSIA AND BELARUS IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME – GENERAL STAFF OF BELARUS
British Prime Minister’s Office: Johnson discussed, in a call with Zelensky, providing Ukraine with long-range weapons to protect civilians.
Chinese Ambassador to Moscow: We will continue military-technical cooperation with Russia at a higher level and on a larger scale.
Close enough… Latitude and longitude coordinates are: -45.031162, 168.662643.
Queenstown, NZ.
U.S. intel helped Ukraine sink Russian flagship Moskva, officials say
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-intel-helped-ukraine-sink-russian-flagship-moskva-officials-say-rcna27559
Let’s not forget that the Russians helped too — if you are going to fake a war you have to have a little big of real damage
The reporters on that article seemed to have an average age of about 18.
Bright young stars no doubt.
Head hunters for chip designer are going wild. Used to be memory chip were boom and then bust. Now it looks like ASIC chips are bust then BOOM.
NATO is not the only one who wants war
“On Thursday, during a debate with Shadow Defence Minister Brendan O’Connor at the National Press Club ahead of Australia’s 2022 federal election, Dutton openly warned that the country must get ready for war as he complained over China’s “phenomenal” influence across the globe.
“If history has taught us anything, it is that when dictators are on the march, you can only preserve peace by preparing for war,” Dutton stated. “As we’re seeing right across the region, in fact right across the world, China’s influence into Africa, their influence into broader Asia, their influence into even Europe is quite phenomenal.”
https://www.rt.com/news/555017-australia-drone-subs-missiles/
There is way too much debt in the system that can never be repaid. Hence the big players know this and the little fish in the system are now coming to realize that as well. Hence everyone one who doesn’t have enough is calling out those that have more.
This is how wars get started.
Those who have more would like to win, however, so we have the likes of Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci throwing their weight around. Also Elon Musk and the people behind the World Economic Forum.
“If history has taught us anything, it is that when dictators are on the march, you can only preserve peace by preparing for war,” Dutton stated. ”
Really? does that apply to ALL dictators, or just the curated dictators, namely, Hitler?
Methinks there have been a goodly number of dictators who were not “on the march” and more or less stayed home. Like, African dictators, Romanian dictators, Southeast Asian dictators, Hungarian dictators, to name just a few.
In fact, seems like crowned heads of Europe, historically, are more likely to have been “on the march” than dictators.
Correct, Jane: emperors, sultans, caliphs, kings, princes, dukes and counts were always starting wars to expand territory and get loot or nobble rivals, but dictators are not inherently bellicose expansionists.
off off off topic
I believe robots will wear clothes when they go out in public. Because cloths convey a signal of class and purpose. Rich or poor, service worker or white collar.
I can picture five self driving taxis arriving at a downtown office building. Each with a self directing robot in it. They step out wearing black business suits. They walk inside. They go to a conference room and begin to talk. Talk because it is harder to eavesdrop on. Security is the whole reason for a in body physical meeting. What they discuss could be viewed as a violation of anti trust laws but their legal team is prepared to argue that point.
I think you have been imagining too much. Self-driving taxis aren’t going anywhere, as far as I can see. We have a semiconductor shortage, for one thing.
Gaill,
A robotic, driverless trolley system goes around the Mayo Campus now.
Semiconductors will be prioritized if necessary.
My guess is things go forward. Elon is a long way along in robotics and AI. Mars doesn’t need people, robots can do the job, AI can run the place.
If I understand correctly(please correct me if wrong), Tesla collects real time data as its cars move, it is a learning system in real time.
Some are starting to wonder if networks are becoming self-aware; there are serious discussions regarding the meaning of conscious.
Dennis L.
Denis,
I guess you haven’t heard of Yandex Taxis in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Elon (as the case with space X) will just pay some hefty sum to the ruskies and have his driverless taxis.
Dennis, excellent idea robot mars!No air, no water, no complex food needed. Mars a place of palaces and industry for Family Musk. Complete with 20000 robot slaves per Musk family member.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM2CCGW1_6M
Elon promises 2023 for robo taxi. Elon always over commits on dates so let’s say January 2024 as a safe bet for robo taxis in San Francisco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O69YEWpSacU
Robo taxi in China
I think the liability issues would be too great for robo taxis on US streets to scale up. The owner would likely get sued, when things went wrong. If it is a big corporate owner, the damages awarded could be very high.
He also promised Mars colonies before 2025, so lets say may 2027.
Robo taxi by Israeli firm for use in Germany by next year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM2CCGW1_6M
Elon promises 2023 for robo taxi. Elon always over commits on dates so let’s say January 2024 as a safe bet for robo taxis in San Francisco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O69YEWpSacU
Robo taxi in China
well that did not work the way I thought it would
“Security is the whole reason for a in body physical meeting. ” Never thought of it that way, makes sense.
So the offending robot is sentenced to jail time, meanwhile his/her clone goes to the next meeting.
Question: My guess is farm equipment becomes smaller, more numerous, completely robotic and, gasp, electric. I am guessing smaller due to the complexity of modern machines and from what I see the main reason for size being limitation of what one operator can do in 24 hours. Thoughts?
Do you have experience with opensource AI?
Dennis L.
Dennis, you make a great point jail time means nothing to a machine that can move its mind.
I agree. A group of 30 smaller machine versus one big machine allows for failure if two or three fail the work goes on. completely self directed while carrying out there order task because chips and software have gotten to that level. Electric with swap in swap out battery packs. The most important robot will be the battery swapping robot.
John Deere seems to figure out e-machine last too long. Deere needs to go to a plow as a service. Then customer always needs the service. If the farmer owned the seldom breaks model what is left for Deere?
E-cars may have the same issue. Maybe that is why we can not find cars for sale. Moving to an uber model, car as service?
JD, Ahhh. JD Dealerships are consolidating, larger and larger machines mean fewer of them.
Nice idea on JD owing the machines, providing a service. Currently farmer may own the machine, but not the codes to dx and service them.
Dennis L.
This is such an old story!
During my study times in Germany a manager from a huge company making electirc drills in germany was quoted:
“Why do we sell drills when what the people need is holes?”
Be careful: that is awfully close to “you will own nothing and will be happy”. Rent a Service.
SaaS: Software as a Service is already done
TaaS: Transportation as a Service: in the making.
The smaller units thing is currently being labelled as “swarm”. For military Drones ? Done!
Any digital transaction leaves digital traces.
You will be perfectly monitored and known.
After the Uber drive yestarday tomorrow you see bonus for “fittness club” visit on your “scorecard adivisory app”…
Last but not least: When you have no way to run any machinery “independently” you will finally understand what
S. Sustainability.
M. Monitoring
A. Assessing
R. Rating
T. Tracking
means.
Thanks to Rosa Koire and her legacy at
https://www.democratsagainstunagenda21.com
And thanks to the people who keep her work up.
MM it is exactly own nothing and “be happy”. It is who has ownership of the means of production.
Time for farmers to open source farm equipment. Maybe start in the third world with simpler smaller machines. Farmers need to put their foot in the door before JD gets nasty and refuses to rent to anyone who owns a machine.
@Ed.
Check this out :
https://www.opensourceecology.org/gvcs/
MM thanks very interesting
Alice Friedmann had a recent post on this topic: https://energyskeptic.com/2022/the-latest-electric-tractor-the-john-deere-sesam-2-gridcon-2/
Check out the numerous comments from farmers in response to a John Deere electric tractor demo. Talk about a company not knowing its market or customer!
Electric tractors are a long ways away!
DB you are right the farmers comments are convincing. Gail, you are right a long ways to go if ever.
How about microwave beamed power fro the tractor? Less weight by a factor of 100.
i still think you’re on a wind up Ed
My favorite is the spindly machine that see weeds and kills then with a laser pulse or by dripping herbicide on it.
Apart from the overtly sci-fi nature of your post, you appear to follow the “build humanoid robots and a use for them will magically appear” camp.
This is the dominant position of futurists and technocrats wallowing in their technodeterminism. Create anthropomorphic robots and then find jobs for them to do. This kind of thinking is all backwards and fails basic rules of product development.
As humans, we detect problems and attempt to come up with solutions. Take for example… illegal immigration. If you are in the contruction business and you love building walls… you will find a way to make wall building the solution to every problem even when it’s not a good fit or completely unnnesary. Alternatively, you could simply remove incentives for illegals to cross borders.
How long do the batteries last in your humanoid robots?
Half an hour? Maybe an hour at most? Depending on how much of the thorax cavity you are preapred to give up for power supply.
That’s a lot of battery swapping you’re looking at with current cells. Even with small improvements, constant battery swapping and recharging for persistent function will be incredibly impractical.
Look at the most successful practical application of biomimetic robotics to date… Boston Dynamics Spot… a dog-like four-legged inspection robot of sorts. I imagine it can only perform short routine operations before returning to base to recharge for hours before the next operation.
Robo taxis and robo delivery vehicles (if fully viable) may cater to specific clients in specific circumstances, but they ignore other very important functions that human drivers provide to most of their clients whether it’s helping someone enter and exit the vehicle on a hospital visit or loading luggage or carrying deliveries up flights of stairs etc etc.
For most applications in our world and the way things are heading in the sort term… we’re looking at good old manpower to get most things done.
if they built lady robots to my specifications, without clothes they could liven up the street scene a bit.
They already do! Not very successful in the department you’re probably looking to satisfy though … apparently. So they say.
Not sure about walking down the street but if lying there and wiggling around a bit is what you’re looking for then norm’s paradise is only a google search away!
If robots could be built with the same looks and vocabulary as the Asian “girl” in Ex Machina, plus a programmed aversion to expensive jewellery, I’d consider an exchange:
https://odysee.com/@C%C3%AF%C3%91%C3%A9M%C3%A1D%C3%BF%C5%A0t0p%C3%AF%C3%85:8/Ex.Machina.2015.1080p.BluRay.x264.YIFY:a
Stepford wives here we come!
Also Westworld.
None had happy endings!
batteries in the lower leg, low center of gravity. Induction changing in the soles of the feet.
Even less space than the thorax! And induction not very useful or practical outside of controlled environments.
Back pack arangement ala Asimo and Atlas fairly successful but balancing issues.
Tethers for everything else.
The prices of corn tortillas rose at an annual clip of 17.42 percent in the first half of April, or more than double México’s overall inflation rate of 7.72 percent (a 21-year high).
Fresno Bee
México’s tortilla bakeries hit hard by high inflation
Pedro Pablo Cortes
Isaac Sánchez, La Morena’s manager, said the price of tortillas had long remained unchanged but has risen between 20-25 percent over the past two years.
A kilo of tortillas cost 15 pesos (around $0.75) in 2020 but has since climbed to 20 pesos, meaning that a family now receives between 10 and 12 fewer tortillas for the same amount of money spent, he said.
Sánchez said the price situation is largely out of the tortilla bakers’ hands and that all they can do is try to reason with their frustrated customers.
“There’s no doubt whatsoever that we’re selling a little less because people also are consuming less. Perhaps we could offer them other alternatives, but at the end of the day nothing can replace the tortilla,” he added.
In response, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday announced that his administration will unveil an inflation control plan on May 4 that will offer “price guarantees” for 24 staple products, including corn and tortillas, and negotiated agreements with business leaders.
He also is urging small farmers to plant more corn and beans to reduce shortages and bring down inflation.
But Blanca Mejía, representative of the Traditional Mexican Tortilla Governing Council that comprises tortilla and tortilla dough makers, expressed skepticism about the plan.
“We’re very nervous in the industrial sector because we don’t know what measures they’re going to take. We’re very afraid of price controls,” she said, adding that producers need freely fluctuating tortilla prices to face the price-hike situation.
Mejía said the main challenge facing tortilla makers is the price-per-ton of corn, which has risen from 6,900 pesos ($345) in early January, prior to the war in Ukraine, to 8,900 pesos at present.
Higher prices of corn are a major bread-and-butter issue in a country where 98 percent of the population consumes tortillas and per-capita consumption of that flat bread stands at around 75 kg per year, according to the Institute of Ecology, a public strategic research institute.
But even if consumption falls in the short term, Sánchez said he is convinced Mexicans will remain loyal to corn tortillas, which accompany most Mexican dishes and are a basic ingredient for making a variety of traditional foods such as tacos, tostadas and enchiladas.
“We could say that without tortillas you practically can’t eat. The Mexican diet needs them,” he added.
Just add some added salt and sugar and grind up cardboard to the mix….
See, there is a solution… sarcasm
Looks like we’ll need a bigger 🧱 wall…
We are in trouble….went food 🛒 shopping today and not happy.
North Africa also seems to import a lot of corn. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1294293/import-volume-of-corn-in-africa/
I am sure that there are other places that use a lot of imported corn as well.
Okay: I awoke, the world is still here, lights are on, computer is working.
Tesla:
Current diesel trucks are very difficult to maintain: 1. Owner operators sometimes delete(tune) their engines resulting in large fines, 2. It is common(at least 1/trip) to see semi’s pulled over, emergency lights flashing in the 78 mile stretch between Rochester, MN and St. Paul, I assume emission related. 3. Basically it seems they are leased as long as covered under warranty and returned.
Tesla’s new truck looks very efficient, $150-180K/unit, 300-500 mile range, pollution control off sited to a power plant. 1m mile guarantee on powertrain, same on brakes, regenerative breaking. Bonus, the damn thing will drive it self, not jack knife, it can run 24/7. So less resource use? Resources not sitting idle while driver sleeps.
Interesting trucking fact: UPS programs drivers’ routes, tries to avoid left turns, more efficient. Who would of thought?
I see electric, self driving tractors coming. Modern farm equipment is a nightmare to maintain and given the narrow windows for planting/harvesting down time is not an option. Charge the things with photovoltaic and avoid transmission loss. Sort of like a horse which required pasture to recharge.
Now, we can go back to awaiting the end of the earth in 2022, or was it 2016 and I missed it?
Sorry, no sarcasm, I recognize there will be issues; I expect solutions, or “They will think of something.” That last quote is a bit of humor.
Dennis L.
You got one thing right.
The horse and the pasture part.
Speaking as someone who has driven heavy rigs ( large 4 wheel drive field cultivators and highway tractors) as well as walked behind a plough horse.
Thank you on one thing right. Huberman and others say being wrong 30% of the time means one is learning a challenging subject. Current energy situation seems to fit that definition.
Your first line is pretty funny.
Dennis L.
Glad to see recognition of sarcasm is not quite dead in this ridiculous world.
I have followed the peak oil story for 25 years. I remember Gail posting on the oil drum and watching the housing market stateside collapse with the peaking of conventional crude back i. 2007/2008.
I read Catton (overshoot) as a younger man and followed Greer from his initial musing on catabolic collapse.
I honestly don’t even think the plough horse analogy will hold true, it’s to far gone for that.
I posit that Seneca was correct and this collapse is now following his model. We will see a global nuke war and we will see complete failure of industrial civilization over the next 20-30 years. Calhoun Model has much to support it.
If hominins are lucky we may get to hunt wild horses on the regrowing grasslands and pain images in charcoal on highway abutments. I see no way forward technologically at all. Such musings are faith based and not reflecting this simulations parameters…..
Unless of course as you say, the simulation ended a while back and we avatars have not yet noticed (I would blame CERN personally).
I haven’t read Calhoun (who he/she?) but have read Catton. I honestly don’t see a way forward for humans that is based on “new technology.” Seems to me we will be going back to human labor. Of course, have to feed the humans. but that might be more straightforward than generating enough electricity to drive robots that cavort around in the fields so that eventually do-nothing human couch potatoes get to eat something. Seems like Rube Goldberg contraption!
We have huge amounts of land in the USA that could be cultivated for crops. All of the suburban front yards, for starters. All of the land under the electric lines. All of the land in the center and side strips on the freeways. Once the world drives e-cars there will be no reason not to use the nearby verges etc. for agriculture. Plant orchards and food forests. Erect greenhouses on this land.
Calhoun was a social scientist who did landmark studies in population dynamics…..Calhoun Rat Experiment.
Land is not the issue actually. With collapse of oil infrastructure ( fertilizer and diesel) we will get rapid human population collapse…
With this we get ( initially) medieval society ( warlords and serfs…..
On the now low fertility lands it will take many generations to recover robust fertility,….. to long for intact non tribal humans,…..
Thus return to hunter gatherer or at best dark ages societies.
It is, what it is.
We get 8B people with ZERO food… tearing each other to pieces… then we get 4000 spent fuel ponds billowing toxic shit for centuries… killing the war lords…
https://www-newsweek-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-putin-decree-sanctions-1702935?amp_js_v=a6&_gsa=1&=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#aoh=16517638918329&_ct=1651764021527&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Frussia-ukraine-putin-decree-sanctions-1702935
Russia will ban trade with unfriendly nations in 10 days…every European nation that has provided arms to Ukraine will be cut off from Russian raw materials and products in 10 days
Blackouts are coming to Europe
I’m good, I have Bitcoin and gold and sacks of coffee…
Plus I don’t live there
It is possible. We will see.
I still say, they should do it for one week, or maybe two weeks, and see what happens.
Don’t tie themselves down. Keep options open.
Where did you get this link from ?
This is the original article:
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-putin-decree-sanctions-1702935
Please do not send (some of) us to www-…..org -encoded Links- sites….
Opps, I will have to go shopping this weekend. Just refill some of the stocks that I took out in -lazyness- of course….
oops.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-begins-buying-back-oil-refill-strategic-reserve-will-send-gas-prices-back-record
Any action by a president can be “spun” in a positive direction. Just find the right analyst to talk to.
I wonder if the DHS, Military etc., suddenly “realized” that they don’t have enough oil for a war? The question is, whether a war in NATO/Europe, Taiwan, or here domestically, as in civil unrest?
Since the FED has raised the Fed Funds rate, then how “concerned” can Biden et al really be about driving the price up for the citizens? And it’s not that the amount in the SPR, whether building or drawing down, will be a mjor factor in the long run.
“Bank of England raises interest rates as it warns of recession and 10% inflation.
“The Bank of England has warned that the cost of living crisis could plunge the economy into recession this year, as it increased interest rates to tackle soaring inflation that is expected to rise above 10% in the coming months.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/05/bank-england-raises-interest-rates-inflation-cost-of-living
“In the red: loan defaults rise as cost of living crisis bites [UK]…
“…around a third of us spend some of each month in the red, according to research from Hargreaves Lansdown. One in 10 also spend at least half of the month in the red and one in 20 are trapped in a never-ending cycle of debt.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/money/loan-default-cant-pay-help-debt-stepchange-arrears-b2070415.html
Loan defaults are part of what cause the debt bubble to collapse. Also, if short term interest rates too high relative to long term interest rates, discouraging banks from lending. A third thing that might cause the debt bubble to collapse is a lack of new places to profitably invest, because of supply problems and the high cost of commodities.
What happens to spending power as mortgage rates double … and discretionary spending cash goes towards paying the mortgage?
So where will Liz Trash get the cash needed to pay for this big new war to defend Ukraine plus Sweden plus Finland? Plus the Baltic statelets? Plus Taiwan?
I keep looking for the collapse like watching a pot boil . I need to look away so it can happen….., when? When? At least the market collapse
You can see what is happening in this chart that Yoshua put up:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FR3XZXuXwAECR3f?format=jpg
The situation is already trending downward.
There is now a schedule out of all of the reductions in the holdings of the Federal Reserve. These will make the situation worse.
This is another link of Yoshua’s, suggesting that the Federal Reserve interest rate can’t be raised to more than 1.5%, before some kind of discontinuity occurs.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FR5lbUFXsAEJh2k?format=jpg&name=large
I presume the result will be collapse, but I suppose World War III is another possibility.
A war can lead to the winning country (or countries) coming out ahead, in the question of who gets the resources. If some users–who account for a significant share of total consumption now, such as Europe–can be cut off from consumption, perhaps there will be closer to enough to go around for the rest of the world. But things are going so poorly, in so many places, we don’t know how this will turn out.
This is an interesting interview Nate Hagens and risk expert Chuck Watson, he explains why any war could quickly go Nuclear, he is extremely concerned the crazies totally under estimate the situation. Nates other interviews with Chuck are also enlightening and terrifying. I don’t think there will be any winners.
https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/17-chuck-watson-nuclear-war
I listened to parts of this. The prospect of nuclear war certainly is frightening. Nate Hagens has a list down the side of what topics are discussed when in this 98 minute interview. This way, a person can only listen to the parts of it that they choose.
To some extent, I feel as if humans somehow need to leave this earth, all “going at once” (or close to once) is not necessarily a terrible outcome. The self-organizing ecosystem will work around the radiation and other issues. We don’t need to fix the ecosystem ourselves. It is self-healing, in a few million years, or however long it takes. Perhaps the radiation will make possible some new types of beings that can dissipate more energy.
I would not bet that some “bloodlines” will let the planet being killed.
I mean besides the topic that we touched recently that “we” do not really “know” what consequences such an event would really have.
If you look up the posh website at the WEF and the WHO for Agenda 2030 I do not think that they wasted 100+ years to flush it shortly before the finish line with nukes.
Well, you never know. Maybe some guys are “not under their control”. mad as they are….
Gail said:
“To some extent, I feel as if humans somehow need to leave this earth, all “going at once” (or close to once) is not necessarily a terrible outcome. The self-organizing ecosystem will work around the radiation and other issues. We don’t need to fix the ecosystem ourselves. It is self-healing, in a few million years, or however long it takes. Perhaps the radiation will make possible some new types of beings that can dissipate more energy.”
Well expressed. This is pretty much my view of things now. When I look around at the struggling earth, struggling to do its natural thing, and being assaulted at every level and in every way, it is clear to me that Homo sapiens’s gotta go! Best would be in one blast, to clear the field for the healing to begin. AFAIK or believe there is no other place like Earth in the universe. We don’t have the right to wreck this miracle, regardless of whether Someone is watching or not.
During the first lock-down here, spending a lot of time in the open air, I was aware of nature somehow relaxing: deer wandering further afield in the open , even the birds seemed calmer, hedges free of being ruthlessly trimmed, etc. All from practically no traffic and so much less machine-generated noise an destruction.
We wouldn’t be missed one bit.
‘Misfires, undershoots and premature ruptures’: does this remind anyone of their sex life?
‘How’s the war for you so far, baby?’ asked Boris, lighting up a fag….
collapse is relative
if you are living in a tent under a motorway bridge, collapse has happened for you
if you are commenting on ofw–then you still have the means to do so, and collapse hasn’t reached you yet
just a matter of time
To quote US President Ronald Reagan: “A Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A Depression is when you lose your job and a Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his”
“China meets banks to discuss protecting assets from US sanctions…
“Chinese regulators have held an emergency meeting with domestic and foreign banks to discuss how they could protect the country’s overseas assets from US-led sanctions similar to those imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine…”
https://www.ft.com/content/45d5fcac-3e6d-420a-ac78-4b439e24b5de
“U.S. Considers Unprecedented Sanctions on China Tech Giant Hikvision…
“Shares of Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. tumbled by as much as 10% as the U.S. considers imposing new sanctions on surveillance-technology giant, potentially the harshest measures so far against a major Chinese company.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-05/u-s-mulls-unprecedented-sanctions-on-china-tech-giant-hikvision
“Covid lockdowns hammer China’s services sector…
“The Caixin China services purchasing managers’ index, which asks companies whether they experienced an increase or decrease in business activity compared with the previous month, fell to 36.2 in April from 42 in March, the second-sharpest fall since the survey was launched in 2005.”
https://www.ft.com/content/71b7fa2f-1158-4e4c-b6cd-b0ab309593a6
“China’s yuan ‘far from a top global reserve’, as investors dump assets amid Ukraine war…
““We think a combination of Covid lockdowns, depreciation, and perceived risk of investing in countries whose relationships with the West are complicated explain capital outflows from China. As a corollary, the yuan still seems far from a top global reserve asset,” said the IIF.”
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3176476/chinas-yuan-far-top-global-reserve-investors-dump-assets-amid
What, at one time, were inflows of funds can easily become outflows.
Sanctions against a service producer can “work” a whole lot better than sanctions against a fossil fuel producer, especially if those providing the sanctions are dependent on fossil fuels.
When there is not enough to go around, fighting invariably starts.
… sound like The Oil Drums are speeding up the beats…
(machine translation)
> Events in Ukraine at 12:00 on May 5: expired grenade launchers for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, release of Troitsky
The international edition of the Federal News Agency tells about the main events in the framework of the special operation of the Russian Armed Forces to denazify Ukraine and protect the civilian population of Donbass by this hour.
The Russian Aerospace Forces hit aviation equipment at the Kanatovo military airfield near Kirovograd, a large artillery depot in Nikolaev and a fuel storage facility in Zhovtneve, as well as the forward command post of the 17th separate tank brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU ), four concentration areas of manpower and military equipment, two warehouses of military equipment at a military airfield near Kramatorsk.
Army aviation hit 93 areas where enemy forces were concentrated, and rocket and artillery troops hit 403 strongholds, areas of concentration of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 51 positions of Ukrainian artillery, 32 command posts, five ammunition depots, two launchers and one transport- loading vehicle of a tactical missile system “Point-U”. At the same time, over 600 Ukrainian nationalists and 61 units of weapons and military equipment were liquidated.
Russian air defense systems shot down a Ukrainian Su-24 in the area of Snake Island, Su-27 near Ingulets (Kherson region), Su-25 near Koshevoy (Dnipropetrovsk region). In addition, 14 drones were destroyed over the settlements of Verbovka, Velyka Kamyshevakha, Brazhkovka, Vesele, Peremoga, Bolshie Prohody (Kharkiv region), Barvinok (Kherson region), Avdiivka, Dolya, Kamenka (DPR), Severodonetsk (LPR). A Bayraktar-TB2 was shot down over Snake Island, and two Smerch multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) projectiles were shot down over Tarasovka and Vasilyevka.
Events in Ukraine at 12:00 on May 5: expired grenade launchers for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, release of Troitsky
In total, since February 24, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost 149 aircraft, 112 helicopters, 726 drones, 288 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,834 armored vehicles, 325 MLRS, 1,306 field guns and mortars, as well as 2,646 units of special military vehicles.
On the morning of May 5, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are shelling Zhuravlevka and Nekhoteevka in the Belgorod region, as reported by the governor Vyacheslav Gladkov .
“A house and a garage were destroyed in Nekhoteevka. There were no casualties among the civilian population. The shelling continues,” he said.
Ukraine
During the night, Russian troops entrenched themselves on the left bank of the Oskol reservoir in the southeast of the Kharkov region and continue the offensive.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine do not stop trying to force the Seversky Donets and hit the flank of the Izyum grouping of the RF Armed Forces, advancing on Barvenkovo and Slavyansk. For the strike, 2.5 thousand soldiers and about 80 pieces of equipment are concentrated, reinforced by a certain amount of cannon artillery and MLRS. During the night, the Russian army destroyed several Ukrainian pontoon crossings over the river.
Air raid alert sounded in all regions of Ukraine tonight, local sources reported explosions in the vicinity of their own cities. In the morning, the corresponding signals come from Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, Rivne.
Meanwhile, the American newspaper The Hill reports that the United States is stepping up training of Ukrainian troops in the use of Western weapons, including howitzers and attack drones.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian prisoners of war are criticizing Western-supplied NLAW and Javelin grenade launchers. It is noted that only one shot out of four fires correctly, while the rest of the servicemen are faced with misfires, undershoots of shells and their premature ruptures. The fact is that some of the supplied weapons have expired, as evidenced by the corresponding marks on the batteries and cases.
The National Guard defused more than 70 mines laid by the Armed Forces of Ukraine along the coast of Kherson. Because of this, the beach has become one of the most dangerous places in the city; locals are still afraid to approach the sea.
According to the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, Kyiv and London signed an agreement on the abolition of import duties and tariff quotas in bilateral trade. The agreement is valid for 12 months and can be extended. It is expected that this decision will help increase Ukrainian exports of grain, flour, poultry, honey, etc. Thus, the information that appeared earlier that Ukraine will pay the West with food for the weapons supplied to it is confirmed.
https://riafan.ru/23166096-sobitiya_na_ukraine_na_12_00_5_maya_prosrochennie_granatometi_dlya_vsu_osvobozhdenie_troitskogo
Geopolitical reality as ‘trap’?
(Brits are not generally familiar with that genre of hip hop, but it is massive in USA charts. I am just checking it out. I quite like the sparse percussion and the ‘large’ bass style, and the production – the lyrics tend to wash over me. The UK ‘drill’ offshoot has become legally controversial in Britain, and its production techniques have ebbed back into USA. Trap is also sometimes blended with heavy metal. This track is classic ‘trap’ if not necessarily the ‘very best’ offering – but it seemed to fit this thread.)
This is Pop Smoke.
> He was considered by many to be the face of Brooklyn drill… He often collaborated with UK drill artists and producers, who employed more minimal and aggressive instrumentation than drill artists from Chicago. (wiki)
Drill has similarities to dub, which Britain has a long culture of, and also UK dubstep. Check out the insane bassline in this. It really needs to be turned up. (Wow!)
This is another of his insane basslines. Wow!
CDC report admits 74.2 million people in the USA have not had a single dose of a Covid-19 Vaccine, & another 157 million have refused a 2nd or 3rd dose
“The American people have seen right through President Biden’s propaganda and lies on the effectiveness of the Covid-19 injections because according to CDC data, 70% of the entire population of the USA have not had either a first, second or third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine”…
https://dailyexpose.uk/2022/05/04/74million-unvaccinated-231million-not-boosted-usa/
FOI reveals Pfizer and Medicine Regulators hid the dangers of Covid-19 Vaccination during Pregnancy because Study found it increases risk of Birth Defects & Infertility
“A ‘Freedom of Information’ request alongside an in-depth dive into the only pregnancy/fertility study performed on the Pfizer Covid-19 injection has revealed that Medicine Regulators and Pfizer chose to publicly cover-up alarming abnormalities of the developing foetus and falsely downgraded the actual risk of Covid-19 vaccination during pregnancy by suppressing documented findings of the clinical data…”
https://dailyexpose.uk/2022/05/05/pfizer-hid-dangers-covid-vaccination-pregnancy/
Interesting way of framing the situation. I know one man I talked to said, “After I saw the bad reaction my wife got from her booster shot, I decided to raise my vitamin D intake instead. I don’t want our teenage daughter to get a booster, either.”
A couple of people I have spoken to in the hockey community have stepped off the Death Train and rejected boosters after seeing what happened to one of our mates who has a wrecked heart… I have no way of knowing how many others are not boosting because this is not discussed…
But they all are very much aware that one of the top scorers in the national league is not going to play this year — Mr DNA is no doubt alerted to the injuries in some people
Comedian Dave Chappelle Was Tackled On Stage Last Night By Armed Attacker After Trans Joke, Security Team Breaks Arm of Attacker
The man, armed with a knife and replica gun, ran up from the audience on to the Hollywood Bowl stage for the Netflix is a Joke event and tackled Chappelle, before the security team and Jamie Foxx chased him down and handled him.
He launched at Chappelle seconds after the comic had joked about needing additional security after his controversial comments about trans people last year.
Chris Rock came back on stage after the attack and joked: ‘Was that Will Smith?’
https://rumble.com/v13hjs7-dave-chappelle-tackled-by-armed-attacker-after-trans-joke-security-team-bre.html
JP Sears is furious over the SCOTUS leak
https://t.me/chiefnerd/3430
Dr. Mattias Desmet, Professor of Clinical Psychology, explains the mass formation manifesting a psychological response – not unlike hypnosis – to the unrelenting, single focus fear campaign.
What triggers and sustains this mass response, where it could ultimately lead us, why a minority somehow manages to remain unaffected, and whether there’s anything we can collectively do to break the spell before it’s too late.
https://youtu.be/uLDpZ8daIVM
Vaccinating Into a Pandemic Is Always the Wrong Answer: Dr. Mike Yeadon (http://t.me/robinmg)
“Vaccines have never been used to try and extinguish something like this in the past, and they never will be the right answer because [of] the time it will take to get longitudinal safety data [needed] for a public health intervention where you’re going to inject billions of healthy people, right? Before you do that, you need to collect longitudinal safety data, and that will always take longer than any pandemic will persist.”
Full Video: https://www.redvoicemedia.com/video/2022/05/vax-poisoning-worlds-children-with-new-form-of-hepatitis-and-interview-with-dr-mike-yeadon/
“No Compliance, No Food” – Dr. Mike Yeadon (http://t.me/robinmg) Breaks Down His Thoughts on the Sudden Disruption of the Food Supply
“Since this is not an accident… there is a plan to reduce the food supply to the point that you are dependent upon the state to be fed. So they don’t need to starve you; they just need to make the number of calories available a little bit less than you would want, and since that would give rise to food riots, then they will put in place either martial law or rationing, and rationing will be driven off digital ID. So this seems to me why they’re doing it because you have to eat, and they’ll say, ‘No compliance, no food.’ ”
Full Video: https://www.redvoicemedia.com/video/2022/05/vax-poisoning-worlds-children-with-new-form-of-hepatitis-and-interview-with-dr-mike-yeadon/
Blackout: Could the Internet Outage in Florida Foreshadow What’s to Come?
Dr. Mike Yeadon: (http://t.me/robinmg) “[A friend of mine] has spent their whole career building internet structures, and they said, ‘That cannot happen. Someone has turned that off.’ ”
Full Video: https://www.redvoicemedia.com/video/2022/05/vax-poisoning-worlds-children-with-new-form-of-hepatitis-and-interview-with-dr-mike-yeadon/
Fast Edwin and others will enjoy this clip
Mary Taylor Moore theme song video parody with Wear a Mask theme..
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OC5hQ_Ll0UM
Just for laughs and well done…you’re gonna make it after all
Eddy
knowing how hot you are on plagiarism—I wonder if you can advise me?
I wrote is article in 2019 about Roe vs Wade :
(There’s more to this than Roe vs Wade)
https://extranewsfeed.com/theres-more-to-this-than-roe-vs-wade-60190233b78c
Yesterday’s headline speech by Joe Biden:
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/joe-biden-maga-extreme-political-organization_n_62729ecce4b009a811be2ffb
President Biden: “This is about a lot more than abortion…
D’you think I have a case to sue the POTUS for plagiarism.? He didn’t call me, or give me a credit in the speech about it.
What do you suggest?
Thanks
Roe vs Wade – what’s that – who cares
Deal with this https://www.headsupster.com/forumthread?shortId=1621
Ha, you are so’ on-board’ with the narrative. Congratulations.
From you; ‘But the devout believer insists that his god must exist, and that one day he will return in human form.’
And the equally devout science believers are that human form…’The Science’, forming the basis of how you mis-interpret the world, has been fraudulent for so long its disorientating.
‘The Science’ will redefine whatever doesn’t suit. Look at all the word games around the definition of a Vax to suit the gene therapy (yes mRNA was called gene therapy not long ago) injection, herd immunity, and calling exactly the same shot a booster. Wow, you are so captured.
‘They want nothing less than a theocratic dictatorship, with all law subject to biblical interpretation.’
They ‘The Science’ has attempted a theo-mandate dictatorship to subject nature to ‘The Science’ misinterpretation.
Scientific enquiry is heavily dependant on statistical interpretation of data. Lies, (g@d-d@mn lies and statistics.
You are the classic mass-formation apostle.
one must accept the bible—or not
i had a jwitness uncle who accepted every literal word—with no question on any of it.
no debate was possible.
he was clearly bonkers.
but in the terms of his beliefs, it wasn’t possible to slip in ifs and buts to suit current conditions, or to suit this sect or that.
the ‘virgin birth’ is a ‘fact’..as is resurrection and the 2nd coming.–young earth creationism and all the rest.
a poll some time ago appeared to confirm that 46% of Americans believed the earth was less than 10k years old.
no one can ‘interpret the world’–it is far too complex.
hence religions do it for us.
>>>>>But the devout believer insists that his god must exist, and that one day he will return in human form.’<<<< that underpins the basic faith of billions of believers.
It has been twisted in our time to form a brand of theo-fascism, that people will accept, in the absence of anything else to latch onto in the face of imminent privation and collapse.
The danger now lies in non-believers being singled out as the culprits , responsible for the ills of society.
and yes–its happened before, witch burnings and suchlike. Womens bodies must be subject to control!!
Ever noticed that it tends to be women held responsible for social ills? Ever wondered why that should be?
Right back to Eve—hence the word evil.
basically brought about by men terrified of women.
And yes i am the apostle of mass formation.
Human beings are capable of doing terrible things once they are gripped by mass hysteria.
norm is what we shall now refer to as a Mass Formationist…
Whenever anyone rejects that the PTB have conspired to do something – with full complicity of the MSM (WMD, 911, Moon Landings etc…) respond with oh … not another Mass Formationist …
norm never met a mass formation he didn’t embrace and try to hump
How true: poor old Norman is a classic example of the syndrome.
We should, perhaps,cherish him for just that reason, a horrible warning to all: there but for the grace of God might we have gone.
To think, we too might have been just as complacent as he is about the mass genetic poisoning of children and all the vaxx-induced miscarriages……
Gail I know this topic is meant to be about energy and conflict, but OM(flipping)Goodness WT(flip on)Earth! This is much larger than the pesky military conflict taking place in Ukraine.
1223 deaths out of 29914 participants, all of them suffering adverse events in one of Pfizer’s own studies. Half a million adverse events in Germany alone. That ratio means 20 833 deaths.
Are 1 in 24 soldiers being killed in the Ukrainian conflict, don’t think so?
Not even total deaths on both sides combined.
‘Top German professor raises Covid vaccines alarm
After an estimated half a million cases of adverse effects’
Professor Harald Matthes called on doctors to “take action”
Matthes has been conducting a study entitled ‘Safety Profile of Covid-19 Vaccines’ for a year, and after surveying 40,000 vaccinated people, he has noticed that one in every 125 have struggled with “serious side effects,” Germany’s MDR television network reported on Tuesday.
The researcher, whose hospital is regarded as the best in Germany and has treated former Chancellor Angela Merkel, said that doctors need to take action and discuss the prevalence of such side effects “openly at congresses and in public without being considered anti-vaccination.”
In the US on Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released 90,000 pages of documents from vaccine manufacturer Pfizer relating to the safety and efficacy of its Covid-19 shot. Preliminary analysis of the document dump suggests that during the pharma giant’s own studies, 1,223 people out of 29,914 suffering adverse events died following vaccination, and that the jab reduced the absolute risk of dying from Covid-19 by less than one percent, a point that has already been highlighted by research published in The Lancet medical journal.
Mike, sorry but less tan 1%!
One sub comment from the link below
Amvet
My 80 year old wife suddenly lost her ability to finish a sentence after she had a covid booster. A year later she is 80% back to normal. Corruption rules. Has anyone checked to see if the Corona virus patented by the US government is the one we all have??
Amvet is onto it.
This by Pfizer is heinous and deliberate medical harm, deception and breach of trust.
https://www.rt.com/news/554976-vaccine-side-effects-pfizer/
There are a lot of reasons why this situation of “vaccines for COVID” situation is taking place.
Pfizer is making money off of the sale of vaccines.
Also, in theory, (and maybe in actuality), if a person catches COVID after being vaccinated, the length of the hospitalization is shorter. In the United States, employers are paying most of the hospitalization costs for people under age 65. So employers become a natural ally of pharmaceutical companies, and the one most likely to fire people if they are unvaccinated.
Hospitals are in favor of vaccinations, because if too many hospital beds are taken up by COVID patients, it squeezes out the more profitable elective surgery. Thus, vaccination makes hospitals money.
Politicians can use vaccination to make it look like they are doing something to “save” everyone the world from COVID, even thought the vaccine increases transmission, rather than reducing it. This makes politicians a natural ally.
The CDC is funded to a significant extent by the pharmaceutical industry and (perhaps others, such as Bill Gates’ foundation??). There are also elected politicians to please. As a result, whatever the CDC tells the world is heavily “spun.” In fact, the General Accountability Office wrote a report related to this issue.
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/whistleblower-cdc-fda-altered-covid-guidance-and-suppressed-findings-amid-political
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104613
Various forces are leading to a situation where the media are increasingly being forced to tell the “politically correct story,” rather than the scientifically accurate story. If the CDC says something, it must be the final answer, in their view.
Once the wrong story has been told, it would be terribly embarrassing to go back and correct the story. In fact, there would be the temptation for citizens to retaliate against the leaders of the strange scenario.
Now, with the new spread of disease (facilitated by the fact that the vaccine really makes a person more vulnerable to COVID, over the long term), Pfizer is also making money off of its new pharmaceutical product, Pavloxid.
Sunk costs eliminate the reverse gear…
“Worldwide factory output falls for first time since June 2020 as supply conditions worsen…
“…China’s downturn, combined with disruptions caused by the Ukraine war, also led to a worsening global supply situation, which in turn pushed price pressures higher and led to a further drop in global business expectations for output in the year ahead.”
https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/worldwide-factory-output-falls-for-first-time-since-june-2020-as-supply-conditions-worsen-may22.html
“Global chemicals face negative growth on inflation, more logistics problems and a deep downturn in China…
“Inflation is also at levels that we haven’t seen since the 1970s. Even if supply is available of durable, non-essential goods made from chemicals and polymers (most finished goods are of course made in China), demand may well collapse because of rising costs. Or the collapse may have already started.”
https://www.icis.com/asian-chemical-connections/2022/05/global-chemicals-face-negative-growth-on-inflation-more-logistics-problems-and-a-deep-china-downturn/
and after China built all those tower cities to put their workers in too!!
“Worldwide factory output falls for first time since June 2020.” I wonder if this will ever turn around.
“Germany Says Ready to Halt Russian Oil After EU Agrees Embargo…
“Economy Minister Robert Habeck… said the main challenge is a refinery in Schwedt near the Polish borders, which is operated by Russia’s Rosneft PJSC and has little incentive to switch suppliers. Germany is preparing legislation that could pave the way for it taking control of the facility.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-04/germany-says-ready-to-halt-russian-oil-after-eu-agrees-embargo
“Swiss preparing for possible ‘severe’ electricity and gas shortages.
“The Swiss government is setting up a gas sector crisis intervention group and a monitoring system for early detection of an impending electricity shortage, it said on Wednesday, as it prepares for the possibility of “severe” power shortages.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/swiss-preparing-possible-severe-electricity-gas-shortages-2022-05-04/
The effects may be fairly different by country and by fuel. The countries that don’t have their own import facilities may be worse off.
It is being tried to frame it a success for the EU (6th packet) and never a success of Russia (decree, 10 days)
It looks like it is getting ugly shortly…
“…The Fed Can’t Fix Our Broken Banking System… the Fed tells us it can reverse course and unwind the emergency measures it first launched back in 2008… Unfortunately, given the underlying structure of our financial system today, the Fed is not likely to get very far…
“If legislators do not act soon, another 2008-level crisis (or worse) will eventually force their hand. When that happens, the economic, political, and social costs could be catastrophic.”
https://time.com/6173486/federal-reserve-broken-banking-system/
“Distressed debt levels double in US corporate bond market.
“Investors have started backing away from the riskiest corporate bonds in the US, with the amount of debt that trades at distressed levels doubling since the start of the year.”
https://www.ft.com/content/4153d2e3-af2b-43f3-b346-c83df0cdb690
“The Hot Housing Market Makes the Fed’s Inflation-Fighting Job Even Tougher.
“Federal Reserve officials are counting on higher mortgage rates to throw cold water on the frenzied housing market as they work to tame the highest inflation in decades. But the market may not cool fast enough.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-03/housing-market-prices-rise-worsen-inflation-dilemma
The banking system is a big worry.
“Fraying central bank consensus spurs dollar and market stress.
“The highest inflation in decades is unraveling whatever policy consensus there was between the world’s major central banks since the Great Financial Crisis and global markets could buckle under resulting waves of stress and volatility.”
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/fraying-central-bank-consensus-spurs-dollar-market-stress-2022-05-04/
The US stock market is way down today. I see that the Dow is -3.42%; NASDAQ is -5.27%.
“World Hunger to Worsen After Spiking 25% Before Ukraine War…
“Almost 193 million people across 53 countries or territories suffered acute food insecurity in 2021, meaning their lack of meals posed an immediate threat to their lives or livelihoods, the international alliance said in a report. That’s up from 155 million in 55 countries for the prior year…”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-04/world-hunger-spiked-before-ukraine-war-and-will-likely-get-worse
“Top Fertilizer Maker Nutrien Sees Market Chaos Beyond 2022.
“Fertilizer prices have soared to all-time highs as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions on Belarus have thrown a massive chunk of the world’s supply into disarray. The sanctions have the potential to create more long-lasting impacts…”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-03/top-fertilizer-maker-nutrien-sees-market-chaos-beyond-2022
The world’s food problems look to be permanent.
“A debt typhoon is set to engulf the world, and India won’t escape unscathed…
“Today, Indians are indignant at soaring prices of petrol and diesel. Opposition parties demand further duty cuts by the central government while the prime minister wants the states to cut their fuel taxes. Neither side dares broadcast the bad news that even today’s prices are unsustainably low and will soar much higher.”
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-commentary/a-debt-typhoon-is-set-to-engulf-the-world-and-india-wont-escape-unscathed/articleshow/91294496.cms
“India Turns to Expensive Foreign Gas to Ease Its Power Crisis…
“Torrent Power Ltd. and GAIL India Ltd. bought LNG for May delivery in the last week, with the fuel set to be used to help power plants boost generation, according to traders with knowledge of the matter. The utilities paid about triple the normal spot rate for this time of year, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbates a global supply crunch.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-05/india-turns-to-expensive-foreign-gas-to-ease-its-power-crisis
“India Mulls Wheat Export Curbs in Latest Food Supply Squeeze.
“India is considering restricting wheat exports as severe heat waves have damaged crops, exacerbating tight global supplies after the war in Ukraine sent food inflation soaring.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-04/india-considers-restricting-wheat-exports-as-heat-destroys-crops
Or, perhaps, natural gas supplies were already somewhat problematic. It is the fact that China has shut in quite a bit of its demand that is keeping natural gas prices from even higher.
They would never tell us the true story regarding what’s left… particularly if the situation was dire.
But we saw gas prices up 4x the norm in Europe pre Ukelele cover story war… so we know there was a problem … recall LNG tankers being rerouted… riding to the rescue…. desperate times… desperate measures.
These are definitely desperate times now
CaliforniaLost5 hr ago
“…the study funding was likely compromised…”
Hahaha, pot meets kettle.
I had a friend who is a researcher for a pharma company, we had a little chat at a BBQ a couple of weeks ago (lots of masks outside?!?!) about why the FDA-Pfizer needed 75 years to release a study. He said it was because Trumpers would not believe the science, so the FDA was protecting the vaccinated. When I reminded him Trump was responsible for Warp Speed, I could see his brain explode inside his skull. Ironically, he unfriendly me on FB, agter a huge tirade abiut how I was spreading misinformation. He didn’t name me, but went into great detail about the discussion, I just wish I had seen it before his wife made him take it down.
What a world.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/meanwhile-back-in-the-northeast/comments
What you mean by researcher? Certified physician who acts as investigator for clinical trial? Those guys and gals are the most dense human failures one can encounter. They are specifically picked up by pharma companies as investigators due to their mind faculties (more precicely the complete lack of it). I have conversations with at least couple of them on a weekly basis. In Tuesday I spoke with a UK Investigator for an ulcerative collitis trial who although board certified gastroenterologists didn’t know the criterias for UC diagnosis. He was telling me over and over that this definition wasn’t in the clinical trial protocol. I lost patience and told him that the protocol is only an operational manual. I followed up with the observation that for a board certified gastroenterologist he is lacking basic knowledge and that I will report his imeptitude to the pharma company with conclusion that he should be relieved of his duties of principal investigator. You can’t imagine the horror I unleashed. I was called pathetic eastern european so many times, I was told that if it wasn’t for the west I’d be working on potato farm and so on and so forth. Of course I reported this excuse of a physician to the pharma company with the bottom line that this guy is a risk to the tiral participiants’ safety (and he definetely is). In conclusion this guy will be relieved from his investigator duties and the whole clinical trial site in the hospital he is working will be suspended and the hospital will be blacklisted as a site for gastroenterological studies. I have scheduled phone conversation with this investigator for today (in less than an hour) where I will inform him of sponsor’s decision. Thing is that this excuse of physician will be fired from the hospital (his actions are deprieving the hospital of the ability to participate in clinical trials, i.e. income stream) and most probably won’t be hired in any capital, regional or university hospital. You see, Eddy, big pharma likes stupidos and loves to use them but even big pharma has a minimum requirments for the useful idiots
Maybe he can re-train as a Public Heath Policy expert, Geno Mir.
My impression, from the last two years, is that the bar can be quite low in that, too.
To clarify that’s a copy and paste from another site …
They are nothing more than highly trained circus animals… at the end of the day there is no real intelligence on display.. they are very specialized and are good at performing certain tricks… nothing more
Hold the line
Turdeau Refuses To Share Evidence Government Is Using To Justify Ongoing Vindictive Mandates
https://spencerfernando.com/2022/05/04/video-trudeau-refuses-to-share-evidence-government-is-using-to-justify-ongoing-vindictive-mandates/
Dear mike norm
meanwhile, back in the northeast
covid hospitalizations among the old were surging out of season
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/meanwhile-back-in-the-northeast
Why?
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6ab8e948-b2cc-4e7f-8585-37851fab5b18_1792x440.jpeg
COVID hospitalizations up, among those most likely to be vaccinated (older people in highly vaccinated states).
norm just got his ‘Spring Shot’ … hahaha….cuz he’s captured by the mass formation…
Soon it will be a Summer Shot … then when things start to go very sideways with this … it will be an August shot and a September shot … then October… cuz.
norm you should get some of this too https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/did-pfizer-know-that-paxlovid-will?s=r If enough people take this we’ll get to DC sooner and there won’t be any need for more boosters… covid will be ‘solved’
i just had to throw you that bone eddy
for the sheer delight in watching you catch it obediently, barking—and worrying at it
So… Hoolio kills another rabbit and he’s chomping away on it… I decide I’ll finish some deck staining… I go into the garage to get a bucket of stain… an hour+ I finish … Hoolio is not around… I beep his beep collar – nothing .. hmmmm… he never goes very far… One of the munchkins goes into the nearby vineyards with the beeper and I go up onto the hills looking for him on my bike…
Nothing… an hour goes by … we wander around the area hollering Hoolio you Muther F7899er!!!
I ride along the side of the nearby highway … hoping not to see him….
We were starting to think he’s been dog-napped… he is a very friendly dog and would invite thieves in to rob our house given the chance…
Finally … the munchkin can hear scratching on the door to the garage… it’s HOOLIO (must have got trapped when I closed the door)– Hurrah – he’s in the garage… it’s Hoolio … big dog reunion …
As for our other dog… she knew he was in there.. of course she did … but do you think she’d say anything…
All’s well that ends well.
Let’s get back to the business at hand
norm mike – I ask again — why https://www.headsupster.com/forumthread?shortId=1621
Germany has reportedly reduced its dependence on Russian oil from 35% to 12% in recent weeks.
It’s amazing that this has been possible so quickly, the only question is: how long will this work in the face of peak oil?
It is also interesting how suddenly things that used to be looked down upon are dripping into the new normal in homeopathic doses, e.g. the reports in the media about blackouts, or the recommendations for emergency stocks.
If you had mentioned this publicly 1 or 2 years ago, you would have been called a right-wing prepper or a conspiracy theorist.
That is the drama of our time, that we live in a total media democracy. If the media don’t report on something, it doesn’t exist.
Good for those who have already recognized the direction things are going in the last few years….
There was some switching around of who bought what from whom. It is not a long term solution, I am afraid.
I am not sure the report saying “Germany has reportedly reduced its dependence on Russian oil from 35% to 12% in recent weeks,” is really correct, either.
I heared the German contracts with Russia are of the sort “take or pay”
Meaning you get a stable price but you must take a certain amount or you pay for not.taken amounts in any way. Timeframe possibly 2030
Maybe Gail wants to elaborate a bit mor on this topic?
Indeed, that seems to be the case. A basic purchase quantity for each year has been agreed upon for the long term, and presumably this also makes perfect sense for the gas production companies.
If we stop buying the gas, we still have to pay the minimum purchase quantity.
But who knows what contracts are suddenly worth?
Should it really come to the worst case “empty gas” – which I do not hope – then I guess, at the latest after one or two cold winters with freezing and mass unemployment, people will stand on the street and call: please please Mr. Putin, send us some gas!
FDA Dismisses Paxlovid Concerns, Gaslights Recurrence Sufferers
Viral Rebounds are Extremely Rare, Says the FDA
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/fda-dismisses-paxlovid-concerns-gaslights
The FDA understands the outcome that politicians and drug companies want.
And that the Elders want… Chasing Devil Covid