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Most people have a simple, but wrong, idea about how the world economy will respond to “not enough energy to go around.” They expect that oil prices will rise. With these higher prices, producers will be able to extract more fossil fuels so the system can go on as before. They also believe that wind turbines, solar panels and other so-called renewables can be made with these fossil fuels, perhaps extending the life of the system further.
The insight people tend to miss is the fact that the world’s economy is a physics-based, self-organizing system. Such economies grow for many years, but ultimately, they collapse. The underlying problem is that the population tends to grow too rapidly relative to the energy supplies necessary to support that population. History shows that such collapses take place over a period of years. The question becomes: What happens to an economy beginning its path toward full collapse?
One of the major uses for fossil fuel energy is to add complexity to the system. For example, roads, electricity transmission lines, and long-distance trade are forms of complexity that can be added to the economy using fossil fuels.
When energy per capita falls, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the complexity that has been put in place. It becomes too expensive to properly maintain roads, electrical services become increasingly intermittent, and trade is reduced. Long waits for replacement parts become common. These little problems build on one another to become bigger problems. Eventually, major parts of the world’s economy start failing completely.
When people forecast ever-rising energy prices, they miss the fact that market fossil fuel prices consider both oil producers and consumers. From the producer’s point of view, the price for oil needs to be high enough that new oil fields can be profitably developed. From the consumer’s point of view, the price of oil needs to be sufficiently low that food and other goods manufactured using oil products are affordable. In practice, oil prices tend to rise and fall, and rise again. On average, they don’t satisfy either the oil producers or the consumers. This dynamic tends to push the economy downward.
There are many other changes, as well, as fossil fuel energy per capita falls. Without enough energy products to go around, conflict tends to rise. Economic growth slows and turns to economic contraction, creating huge strains for the financial system. In this post, I will try to explain a few of the issues involved.
[1] What is complexity?
Complexity is anything that gives structure or organization to the overall economic system. It includes any form of government or laws. The educational system is part of complexity. International trade is part of complexity. The financial system, with its money and debt, is part of complexity. The electrical system, with all its transmission needs, is part of complexity. Roads, railroads, and pipelines are part of complexity. The internet system and cloud storage are part of complexity.
Wind turbines and solar panels are only possible because of complexity and the availability of fossil fuels. Storage systems for electricity, food, and fossil fuels are all part of complexity.
With all this complexity, plus the energy needed to support the complexity, the economy is structured in a very different way than it would be without fossil fuels. For example, without fossil fuels, a high percentage of workers would make a living by performing subsistence agriculture. Complexity, together with fossil fuels, allows the wide range of occupations that are available today.
[2] The big danger, as energy consumption per capita falls, is that the economy will start losing complexity. In fact, there is some evidence that loss of complexity has already begun.
In my most recent post, I mentioned that Professor Joseph Tainter, author of the book, The Collapse of Complex Societies, says that when energy supplies are inadequate, the resulting economic system will need to simplify–in other words, lose some of its complexity. In fact, we can see that such loss of complexity started happening as early as the Great Recession in 2008-2009.
The world was on a fossil fuel energy consumption per capita plateau between 2007 and 2019. It now seems to be in danger of falling below this level. It fell in 2020, and only partially rebounded in 2021. When it tried to rebound further in 2022, it hit high price limits, reducing demand.
There was a big dip in energy consumption per capita in 2008-2009 when the economy encountered the Great Recession. If we compare Figure 2 and Figure 3, we see that the big drop in energy consumption is matched by a big drop in trade as a percentage of GDP. In fact, the drop in trade after the 2008-2009 recession never rebounded to the former level.
Another type of loss of complexity involves the drop in the recent number of college students. The number of students was rising rapidly between 1950 and 2010, so the downward trend represents a significant shift.
The shutdowns of 2020 added further shifts toward less complexity. Broken supply lines became more of a problem. Empty shelves in stores became common, as did long waits for newly ordered appliances and replacement parts for cars. People stopped buying as many fancy clothes. Brick and mortar stores did less well financially. In person conferences became less popular.
We know that, in the past, economies that collapsed lost complexity. In some cases, tax revenue fell too low for governments to maintain their programs. Citizens became terribly unhappy with the poor level of government services being provided, and they overthrew the governmental system.
The US Department of Energy states that it will be necessary to double or triple the size of the US electric grid to accommodate the proposed level of clean energy, including EVs, by 2050. This is, of course, a kind of complexity. If we are already having difficulty with maintaining complexity, how do we expect to double or triple the size of the US electric grid? The rest of the world would likely need such an upgrade, as well. A huge increase in fossil fuel energy, as well as complexity, would be required.
[3] The world’s economy is a physics-based system, called a dissipative structure.
Energy products of the right kinds are needed to make goods and services. With shrinking per capita energy, there will likely not be enough goods and services produced to maintain consumption at the level citizens are used to. Without enough goods and services to go around, conflict tends to grow.
Instead of growing and experiencing economies of scale, businesses will find that they need to shrink back. This makes it difficult to repay debt with interest, among other things. Governments will likely need to cut back on programs. Some governmental organizations may fail completely.
To a significant extent, how these changes happen is related to the maximum power principle, postulated by ecologist Howard T. Odum. Even when some inputs are inadequate, self-organizing ecosystems try to maintain themselves, as best possible, with the reduced supplies. Odum said, “During self-organization, system designs develop and prevail that maximize power intake, energy transformation, and those uses that reinforce production and efficiency.” As I see the situation, the self-organizing economy tends to favor the parts of the economy that can best handle the energy shortfall that will be taking place.
In Sections [4], [5], and [6], we will see that this methodology seems to lead to a situation in which competition leads to different parts of the economy (energy producers and energy consumers) being alternately disadvantaged. This approach leads to a situation in which the human population declines more slowly than in either of the other possible outcomes:
- Energy producers win, and high energy prices prevail – The real outcome would be that high prices for food and heat for homes would quickly kill off much of the world’s population because of lack of affordability.
- Energy consumers always win, and low energy prices prevail – The real outcome would be that energy supplies would fall very rapidly because of inadequate prices. Population would fall quickly because of a lack of energy supplies (particularly diesel fuel) needed to maintain food supplies.
[4] Prices: Competition between producers and customers will lead to fossil fuel energy prices that alternately rise and fall as extraction limits are hit. In time, this pattern can be expected to lead to falling fossil fuel energy production.
Energy prices are set through competition between:
[a] The prices that consumers can afford to pay for end products whose costs are indirectly determined by fossil fuel prices. Food, transportation, and home heating costs are especially fossil fuel price sensitive. Poor people are the most quickly affected by rising fossil fuel prices.
[b] The prices that producers require to profitably produce these fuels. These prices have been rising rapidly because the easy-to-extract portions were removed earlier. For example, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, “Frackers Increase Spending but See Limited Gains.”
If fossil fuel prices rise, the indirect result is inflation in the cost of many goods and services. Consumers become unhappy when inflation affects their lifestyles. They may demand that politicians put price caps in place to somehow stop this inflation. They may encourage politicians to find ways to subsidize costs, so that the higher costs are transferred to a different part of the economy. At the same time, the producers need the high prices, to be able to fund the greater reinvestment necessary to maintain, and even raise, future fossil fuel energy production.
The conflict between the high price producers need and the low prices that many consumers can afford is what leads to temporarily spiking energy prices. In fact, food prices tend to spike, too, since food is a kind of energy product for humans, and fossil fuel energy products (oil, especially) are used in growing and transporting the food products. In their book, Secular Cycles, researchers Peter Turchin and Sergey Nefedov report a pattern of spiking prices in their analysis of historical economies that eventually collapsed.
With oil prices spiking only temporarily, energy prices are, on average, too low for fossil fuel producers to afford adequate funds for reinvestment. Without adequate funds for reinvestment, production begins to fall. This is especially a problem as fields deplete, and funds needed for reinvestment rise to very high levels.
[5] Demand for Discretionary Goods and Services: Indirectly, demand for goods and services, especially in discretionary sectors of the economy, will also tend to get squeezed back by the rounds of inflation caused by spiking energy prices described in Item [4].
When customers are faced with higher prices because of spiking inflation rates, they will tend to reduce spending on discretionary items. For example, they will go out to eat less and spend less money at hair salons. They may travel less on vacation. Multiple generation families may move in together to save money. People will continue to buy food and beverages since these are essential.
Businesses in discretionary areas of the economy will be affected by this lower demand. They will buy fewer raw materials, including energy products, reducing the overall demand for energy products, and tending to pull energy prices down. These businesses may need to lay off workers and/or default on their debt. Laying off workers may further reduce demand for goods and services, pushing the economy toward recession, debt defaults, and thus lower energy prices.
We find that in some historical accounts of collapses, demand ultimately falls to close to zero. For example, see Revelation 18:11-13 regarding the fall of Babylon, and the lack of demand for goods, including the energy product of the day: slaves.
[6] Higher Interest Rates: Banks will respond to rounds of inflation described in Item [4] by demanding higher interest rates to offset the loss of buying power and the greater likelihood of default. These higher interest rates will have adverse impacts of their own on the economy.
If inflation becomes a problem, banks will want higher interest rates to try to offset the adverse impact of inflation on buying power. These higher interest rates will tend to reduce demand for goods that are often bought with debt, such as homes, cars, and new factories. As a result, the sale prices of these assets are likely to fall. Higher interest rates will tend to produce the same effect for many types of assets, including stocks and bonds. To make matters worse, defaults on loans may also rise, leading to write-offs for the organizations carrying these loans on their balance sheets. For example, the used car dealer Caravan is reported to be near bankruptcy because of issues related to falling used car prices, higher interest rates, and higher default rates on debt.
An even more serious problem with higher interest rates is the harm they do to the balance sheets of banks, insurance companies, and pension funds. If bonds were previously purchased at a lower interest rate, the value of the bonds is less at a higher interest rate. Accounting for these organizations can temporarily hide the problem if interest rates quickly revert to the lower level at which they were purchased. The real problem occurs if inflation is persistent, as it seems to be now, or if interest rates keep rising.
[7] A second major conflict (after the buyer/producer conflict in Item [4], [5], and [6]) is the conflict in how the output of goods and services should be split between returns to complexity and returns to basic production of necessary goods including food, water, and mineral resources such as fossil fuels, iron, nickel, copper, and lithium.
Growing complexity in many forms is something that we have come to value. For example, physicians now earn high wages in the US. People in top management positions in companies often earn very high wages. The top people in large companies that buy food from farmers earn high wages, but farmers producing cattle or growing crops don’t fare nearly as well.
As energy supply becomes more constrained, the huge chunks of output taken by those with advanced degrees and high positions within the large companies gets to be increasingly problematic. The high incomes of citizens in major cities contrasts with the low incomes in rural areas. Resentment among people living in rural areas grows when they compare themselves to how well people in urbanized areas are doing. People in rural areas talk about wanting to secede from the US and wanting to form their own country.
There are also differences among countries in how well their economies get rewarded for the goods and services they produce. The United States, the EU, and Japan have been able to get better rewards for the complex goods that they produce (such as banking services, high-tech medicine, and high-tech agricultural products) compared to Russia and the oil exporting countries of the Middle East. This is another source of conflict.
Comparing countries in terms of per capita GDP on a Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) basis, we find that the countries that focus on complexity have significantly higher PPP GDP per capita than the other areas listed. This creates resentment among countries with lower per-capita PPP GDP.
Russia and the Arab World, with all their energy supplies, come out behind. Ukraine does particularly poorly.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is between two countries that are doing poorly on this metric. Ukraine is also much smaller than Russia. It appears that Russia is in a conflict with a competitor that it is likely to be able to defeat, unless NATO members, including the US, can give immense support to Ukraine. As I discuss in the next section, the industrial ability of the US and the EU is waning, making it difficult for such support to be available.
[8] As conflict becomes a major issue, which economy is largest and is best able to defend itself becomes more important.
Back in 1990, the EU had a greater PPP GDP than did either the US or China. Now, the US is a little ahead of the EU. More importantly, China has come from way behind both the US and EU, and now is clearly ahead of both in PPP GDP.
We often hear that the US is the largest economy, but this is only true if GDP is measured in current US dollars. If differences in actual purchasing power are reflected, China is significantly ahead. China is also far ahead in total electricity production and in many types of industrial output, including cement, steel, and rare earth minerals.
The conflict in Ukraine is now leading countries to take sides, with Russia and China on the same side, and the United States together with the EU on Ukraine’s side. While the US has many military bases around the world, its military capabilities have increasingly been stretched thin. The US is a major oil producer, but the mix of oil it produces is of lower and lower average quality, especially if obtaining diesel and jet fuel from it are top priorities.
Huge pressure is building now for China and Russia to trade in their own currencies, rather than the US dollar, putting pressure on the US financial system and its status as the reserve currency. It is also not clear whether the US would be able to fight on more than one front in a conventional war. A conflict with Iran has been mentioned as a possibility, as has a conflict with China over Taiwan. It is not at all clear that a conflict between NATO and China-Russia is winnable by the NATO forces, including the US.
It appears to me that, to save fuel, more regionalization of trade is necessary with the Asian countries being primary trading partners of each other, rather than the rest of the world. If such a regionalization takes place, the US will be at a disadvantage. It currently depends on supply lines stretching around the world for computers, cell phones, and other high-tech devices. Without these supply lines, the standards of living in the US and the EU would likely decline quickly.
[9] Clearly, the narratives that politicians and the news media tell citizens are under pressure. Even if they understand the true situation, politicians need a different narrative to tell voters and young people wondering about what career to pursue.
Every politician would like a “happily ever after” story to tell citizens. Fortunately, from the point of view of politicians, there are lots of economists and scientists who put together what I call “overly simple” models of the economy. With these overly simple models of the economy, there is no problem ahead. They believe the standard narrative about oil and other energy prices rising indefinitely, so there is no energy problem. Instead, our only problem is climate change and the need to transition to green energy.
The catch is that our ability to scale up green energy is just an illusion, built on the belief that complexity can scale up indefinitely without the use of fossil fuels.
We are left with a major problem: Our current complex economy is in danger of degrading remarkably in the next few years, but we have no replacement available. Even before then, we may need to do battle, in new ways, with other countries for the limited resources that are available.
What if long covid+everythingelse causes so many casualties that America will NEED outside help?
From where?
Can you think of any country that would be capable and has a gigantic population?
Don’t worry, I’ll let myself out. 🙂
Maybe it’s that America does everything too big. If so, what it needs is very tiny amounts of help from small, “weak” countries that see their interests linked to America’s. Better the evil you know…
What we have here now is simply unworkable. Sure, we need to hang on to much that is here now, just so as to handle the unfathomable difficulties wrought by having so many people in a finite world. But we need to hang on with a great deal more intelligence than prevails.
Artleads
we can apply no more intelligence that available energy allows us to
Chinese farmers give up on making a living from the land despite government focus on food security
https://youtu.be/jXOj5tRUs9o
That was worth watching MG…let’s do the math this one farmer owns about 2 acres and rents the other 8 acres….the drought has stunted his two crops and the cost of fertilizer has shot up….doubt he can make a living out of that tract of land.
Oddly, sometimes I see food in the store like can goods coming from China.
Read they are pushing food exports…go figure..export or die and in this case starvation
Example of food imported from China?
Dennis L.
MG, thanks it is a good video. Seems we are all stuck in a system that does not serve people just abstract metrics like GDP.
So, Trump may be charged for allegedly paying an adult hooker 130k hush money, but this is acceptable? (as evidenced by the complete lack of interest in the MSM)
https://twitter.com/bobchou07/status/1347166195787718657
Welcome to Westworld 2.0, aka ‘Clownworld’. Very, very weird…
Biden’s behavior is at the upper edge of “normal,” I suppose.
Pedo behaviour is almost normal now … luxury brands and even norm are promoting it as an acceptable way of life
Joe is the post child — norm’s hero
The Russians say there will be an oil shortage in three to five years.
https://www.rt.com/business/573463-russia-oil-supply-shortage-warning/
No surprise when governments attack fossil fuels then hyping Green Energy. Let’s see how well that works. South Africa has an energy crisis and no, green energy will NOT save the day. It will only make the energy problems much worse.
Elect, Homer Simpson President in 2024
Russia warns of future global oil shortage
I think a big issue has been prices that have not been high enough to encourage needed reinvestment. Lure of subsidized green energy investments led to ill-advised investments, but it kept the system going.
So I just read that 19 yr old Boxing Champ Jude Moore, died suddenly, with baffled doctors trying to figure out what the possible cause could be. I know it’s definitely not the vaccines because they are safe and effective.
Can anyone tell me which of these headlines is real … https://www.wsj.com/ also those that are being published with some sort of agenda aimed at confusing the reader…
I’d half to guess they all qualify as one or the other…
We may as well not bother looking at CNNBBC other than to see how they are trying to play us.
Same goes for Substack… what’s real and what’s con… impossible to know
The Elders have literally tens of thousands of circus animals making stuff up ….
Recall how they planted ‘experts’ on CNNBBC during the Gulf War to push their position… it’s like that only far more comprehensive
When AI can make ‘shtuff up’ for the hordes faster and more efficiently than biological minds process thought, even imagination becomes redundant.
It’s been mentioned before; We’ve become like the soccer’s apprentice, captured buy the wonder of our own creations works, a truly deluded state.
In fact it’s hard to ignore the ironically similar parallels and potential validation of revelations, or am i just drawing lines between dots?
.. They worshiped the dragon who had given authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?”…
Pure speculation here, but Is the prophesy true? Or was this outcome (twiddling with AI), simply inevitable ( predestined) or is this just an infinity Wiser Mind just saying ‘Gott Ya’
The Mind is the battlefield, now that is a fact to ponder.
May as well use your instinct. It may not be full-proof, but if you smell a rat, there is probably one somewhere around.
Like I was saying https://www.zerohedge.com/political/usa-today-again-picks-biological-man-woman-year
Given the video supplied by dkinbj above (a montage of the current USA president being far too familiar with various children – very uncomfortable watching), this is not surprising.
Strange world!
It’s just at the upper edge of “normal” according to a trustworthy actuary…
Perhaps I am being too generous. Older men seem to think some kinds of activities are more appropriate than young people raised today would think.
Today, the Fed confirmed the new regime: It hiked by 25 basis points, bringing the top of the range to 5.0%, and QT continues as before, while it is also providing liquidity support to the banks.
Some people call this principle stepping on the brake with one foot (QT and rate hikes) while stepping on the gas with the other foot (“QE”).
https://wolfstreet.com/2023/03/22/powell-explains-the-feds-new-regime-rate-hikes-qt-to-fight-inflation-while-offering-liquidity-to-banks-to-keep-them-from-toppling/
https://www.motoringexposure.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/C7-GIF.gif
Hmmm.. taking out ads? https://www.zerohedge.com/
THE COVID AND SPIKE DETOX FAUCI DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT!
teaser image
While Fauci was lining the pockets of big pharma peddling dangerous and experimental mRNA vaccines, Dr. Peter McCullough has been hard at work determining safe, scientific ways to combat spike protein effects.
Sponsored Content By The Wellness Company
https://www.twc.health/pages/dr-peter-mccullough
I hear banjo music … or is it guitar… maybe piano… feels like some playin goin on …
End of the world and this is what the leaders of the movement do?
The PR Team plays games within games within games within games… and they cheat. What is real – what is fake?
Who knows .. Fast Eddy might be … on the PR Team… anyone could be…
You have no way of knowing. Assume you are completely clueless – cuz you are..
They can turn you inside out side in side out side in side out then string you along then f789 with you then start all over again … and you’d not know
“You have no way of knowing. Assume you are completely clueless – cuz you are..”
You have a point. I like it. But we have to operate off something! We are not jelly fish.
Yes – we have to operate off of something … that’s the matrix… we are in the matrix…
Even if one is aware of that … what does one do about it?
Remain plugged in and just live with it – pretend it’s real…. there are fringe benefits – you get constant inflight entertainment — sports – music – movies – Tee Vee – etc….
Or completely unplug and live in shack in the remote bush.
They have total control.
Recall they were fencing off NYC to stop protests when Trump was to be arrested…
More fakery … just to unsettle the MOREONS
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/unprecedent-inquiry-manhattan-da-fires-angry-letter-blaming-trump-arrest-rumors
1 in 36 Kids Have Autism, CDC Says
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/autism-rate-increase-cdc/
Maybe they want this outcome?
5th gen warfare, 3% of population maimed by autism 3% maimed by vax that gets us to 6% maimed.
Collateral damage from the medicine business. What do they care. One of these days they’re going to come out with a vaccine against autism and all the idi0tic parents will want to inject it into their children, with the result that the latter will have less chance of living long enough to become as idi0tic as their parents. Everything is good.
I think it was on the Automatic Earth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a couple of weeks ago was discussing this. Used to be 1 in 10,000, something like that, in the 1970s?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fr7L3akWcAcC2St?format=png&name=large
In the US the Bank Index has tanked and is close to hitting a critical trend line
It must bounce of the trend line…and probably will after hundreds of billions of dollars injected into the banks?
We can hope it will bounce. We haven’t had any problems with derivatives, yet.
Only a guess:
The best one can do now is match liabilities with a fixed rate with incomes with a fixed rate on a close duration. Somehow, allowance needs to be made for liquidity, but with inflation that liquidity need increases.
Dennis L.
https://twitter.com/Schuldensuehner/status/1639014379713708033?cxt=HHwWgoC-yZ-5-b4tAAAA
It looks like Deutsche Bank is the next target in Europe
It seems that it is the large banks in Europe that are insolvent?
DB?
Barclays?
Societe Generale?
the shortsellers are zeroing in on their next big target.
one per month or two, brighten up the spring and summer.
Unicredit
Big Italian bank. Very shaky.
We haven’t heard much about Deutsche Bank recently. Its share price has been sliding since Feb. 1.
A January article from the Economist says:
Discussing Deutsche Bank’ s health without mentioning its Derivatives trading is suspicious. I can’t tell how old this article is (paywall) but it suggests the Economist is trying to hide something:
Wall Street Journal
Understanding Deutsche Bank’s $47 Trillion Derivatives Book
Size of figure can be misleading, but some of those assets are hard to value, stoking concern among investors
https://www.wsj.com/articles/does-deutsche-bank-have-a-47-trillion-derivatives-problem-1475689629
https://archive.ph/0oEYW
Keep in mind — when the financial situation gets really serious — they won’t report on it…
Unless they have some agenda that does not involve total collapse — and reporting on a grim situation — furthers the agenda
They will never attempt to just inform you …. particularly if it’s headed down the shitter.
The fall of DB really would shock and shake Europe.
Some inappropriate humour:
All banks are insolvent.
A new deadly pathogen, candida auris, a.k.a. black fungus, raises eyebrows, the experts are baffled, as usual.
“’Last Of Us’ black fungus with 60% death rate spread rapidly during Covid pandemic” (Mirror, 2023.03.23):
Nearly half of patients who contract C. auris die within 90 days as it predominately targets elderly people with weakened immune systems, according to the the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2018 to 2019, cases rose by 44% from 330 to 476, then by 59% to 756 in 2020. There was another 95% rise reported, increasing to 1,471 cases in 2021. Researchers at The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said it represented a “dramatic increase” in transmissions of C. auris. The fungus is now in half of the 50 states.
The fungus is not a threat to young healthy people who can fight it off with their immune systems but it can be transported on skin and clothing.
According to health officials, case numbers more than tripled across the US between 2020 and 2021 during the covid pandemic with antibiotic-resistant strains increasing.
The fungus is thought to have a death-rate of 60 per cent of the people it infects.
How’s that for a mortality rate!
https://live2fightanotherday.substack.com/p/black-death-to-centre-stage
Won’t spread far with that death rate, I expect. It needs live victims that can carry the disease to others.
It is only 60% for the serious ill. It is near harmless for healthy people.
60% for people who had multiple c19 jabs.
“… it predominately targets elderly people with weakened immune systems…”
Sudden death black fungus among us lord humongous
Yep them immune vulnerable watched too much Netflix on VPN
excellent point weakened immune system
Count Lev Tolstoy, when he wrote Vonia i Mir (better known as War and Peace in the English Speaking World), ends the book in a state of Mir.
The direct translation of Mir is “Peace” but it actually means “Harmony”, meaning that everything is now back to place, at the right positions, in silence.
However, Tolstoy did feel some kind of uneasiness about how Russia was going in the 1860s when he wrote the book, which is why he began to write that tome to begin with (it was originally about the Decembrist uprising of 1825 but he decided that it was too blunt and not good for his future career), and he ends the book with an uneasy feeling, about the young Nikolushka, the last of the Volkonsky ducal line, having a premonition of him getting killed in a great cause. (The Sergei Bondarchuk version omits this episode for obvious reasons.)
Tolstoy was a Count (an Earl in English speaking world) but he realized what was coming so he tried to befriend peasants, and his line survived and that kind of awareness is why his great-great-grandson is now a good toady of Putin, instead of being forgotten or destroyed without a trace during the tumultuous 20th century.
Kulm, the moral of this story contradicts your “the aristocracy should treat the peasants terribly” principle, does it not?
Fast Eddy, I have a movie for you. New Order. In it the poor rise up briefly and then the rich do their thing.
It was a comedy for me, given the implausibility of the characters’ behaviors.
There were the two moronic mother and son who tried to defend the rich woman. They are like Donna Maria and her followers in Tlaxcala who helped Cortez. The Tlaxacalans were not really liked by the rulers of Mexico after independence and many of them migrated to what is now USA, anglicizing their names and erasing their origins.
The people who did the uprising disappear without explanation. It could have been done better, but like The Admirable Crichton by James Barrie (Peter Pan is the story of what would have happened if Crichton chose to stay in the island instead of returning back to servanthood in England) , the director had to re-assure the elites of Mexico that everything would be back to normal in the end if he wanted to avoid a violent response himself.
Bob Moran … this is how I felt when I was in Toronto
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fde579b6b-e996-4d3d-ada6-9f1b393b8a8b_2500x1815.jpeg
Canada and Canadians used to be nice. Note the bland word nice. What happened.
Minds trapped in an empathetic leftism are the easiest to manipulate. To enlist them, it’s only necessary to play their emotional chords, claiming that all sacrifices (political, economic, etc.) are essential for the alleged common good. This is how you get people who call themselves anti-capitalists (as some sub-morons i know) to root for Pfizer and censorship. Idealism is the most dangerous form of stupidity.
Just a couple days remaining on this post and I don’t think we will see a new one till April.
Human destiny after peak oil was to be managed , more or less, by intelligent people who introduced all these stuff to reduce unnecessary consumption and lead the world to a contracted society in an orderly way.
However, Russia refused to go along, and it created whatever is going on Donbass. Whether it is real or not does not matter anymore.
Which means Eddy’s UEP might not progress as orderly as possible, since forces beyond the control of WEF alumni Putin got involved.
It might become a huge rout, not seen from the days of Elphinstone’s retreat from Kabul, which would basically kill any chance for an advanced civilization for the next 100,000 years at least.
Putin attended some WEF meetings just to spy out what they are all about.
feeblemindedAnalSchwab playing checkers and Putin playing 4D chess.
woketardWesternElitards have seriously declining mentalabilities.
Putin the Magnificent.
Vlad the Great.
Pangolins are sooooo 2020
Its 23.
Get with the program!
Racoon dogs.
Yeah baby racoon dogs tonight!
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00827-2
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/slYDJDaO0nc
Spin the peasants heads until they pop off.
How to fake a war – easy with tech https://t.me/downtherabbitholewegofolks/70315
The Ukraine War is fake. I knew that when the first clip I saw was a presstitute in full battle gear interviewing people on the subway who appeared completely unconcerned… then I saw a ‘war correspondent’ cowering behind a building in mortal danger — but in the background an old woman was walking with her shopping bag …
Then there’s the Ghost of Kiev…
It is all fake … totally fake … if it was real Russia would have 1. blow the place to pieces in a week or 2… they would just SHUT off energy supplies to Ukraine and provided a range of conditions that would need to be met otherwise you freeze
It is so f789ing beyond obvious… but folks are wedded to BBCCNN… even though they know it’s a lie machine
and btw – in addition to culling out the comments from the nobody’s on OFW – Fast Eddy also filters Russia Ukraine and Putin … and hits delete
Time is increasingly precious
The point that I make is: why the channel ‘downtherabbit’ tries to convince people of that, while on vaccines seem to show all the problems about ?
I think that it could be probably in order to disinterest US people of that war (for the ones who follow that channel, who are probably on the Conservative side) and avoid any debate on that.
If you think that also Desantis, who is against vaccines, said the Putin is a criminal, one can understand.
Probably both political parties agree on a war against Russia, maybe they have some difference on how to manage it.
”So, as we have to do it, better you don’t think about that…then, if Russia will ever attack US, it is because Putin is crazy… you see? I told you…”
For someone incapable of nuance, nuance in others is incomprehensible…
Russia sees Ukraine as a ‘brother nation’ that has been essentially co-opted by Western interests. Despite what we hear from our news outlets, there are in fact plenty of Russian sympathisers in UKR, especially the Eastern and Southern regions.
The way they’re prosecuting this war then is to minimise civilian casualties and wear the Ukrainian combat ability down, cutting through defensive lines in the Donbass with mercenaries and Donbas-recruited militia. Actual Russian Federation forces see very little combat in Ukraine, and are largely lined up at the borders in case NATO try something.
This is to say that the war is certainly not fake, but is simply a ‘special military operation’, as they’ve said- clinical and focused on particular areas, not the whole country.
As Brian Berletic on his New Atlas you tube channel has said many times, Russia’s immediate concern is to wipe out the UKR military capacity thru attrition rather than brute costly offensives to occupy land. This strategy seems like is has been working although the media ties to spin this as the Russian attack has stalled. It is the military version of rope-a-dope. Let UKR exhaust itself trying to fight an offensive war.
This Russian strategy indeed may be working for now. The problem is if the war drags on too long, and United States and NATO were somehow able to provide Ukraine with additional weapons, troops and shells, then the tide could slowly turn against Russia. According to Brian Berletic, though, this is not really possible for at least another year, because of the depletion of of all the weapons previously supplied to UKR and the lack of production capability the US and NATO have to replenish. Plus the logistics of having to ship worn out 155mm horitzer barrels and repair of remaking tanks 2000 KM round trip to Poland.
But the US and Western Europe must be getting concerned about the tightening of the Russian and Chinese alliance, especially that involving use of the Yuan in place of the dollar which may spill over into outright military Chinese support for Russia.
Basically, China and Russia are really getting tired of the US and NATO BS
The West cannot manufacture ammo . A key component is nitrocellulose ( something like nitroglycerine used to make dynamite or TNT ) . Ammonia is needed to make this . About 70 % of Ammonia production in the EU has shutdown due to high gas prices . Adios Amigo .
It’s a CGI war… with some real stuff involving crisis actors…but for the most part it’s fake
Please explain to me why Putin doesn’t just shut the power off… do it for a couple of days to start.. if they keep f789ing with him .. a week… and so on
If they can fake the moon landings, they can certainly fake the current Russia-Ukraine war. However, pro-wrestling fans are just as excited when watching a bout even if they know its fixed or faked. It seems that different parts of the mind are at work.
I’m watching the Military Summary channel almost daily as Dima follows the almost glacial pace of the action along the frontlines. Real or fake, this is as exciting or as boring as listening to a five-day test match on the radio. Long periods of nothing much happening from the spectator’s viewpoint, but occasional bursts of action when the lines on the map move from side to side.
Today, Zelensky has assembled an 80.000 army which is ready to storm the Wagners in Bakhmut. I’m very much hoping it’s fake, because if it’s real the carnage is going to be off the scale. All these Eurasians killing and maiming each other when they should be uniting in opposition to their real permanent enemy—the Oceanians.
https://rumble.com/v2eh3iq-zelenskys-80.000-army-is-ready-to-storm-wagner-in-bakhmut.-military-summary.html
Does Ukraine even have a properly trained army? Is this even a country?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeoiFL7VuG8
Odd that Russia didn’t turn off the gas in the middle of winter… really strange
FE, it is a pity that we lose you on Ukraine war.
You have good intuitions and you bring interesting news, but if you go on thinking that the war is fake, the problem is that we lose your considerations.
Maybe as you are in NZ you have a strange perception, but here in Italy it is full of Ukraine people that bring direct witness and we feel the war very close.
Surely it is not a war like Iraq, where US planes raze everything to the ground.
Russia needs to eliminate the army fanatics who follow Zelensky, Russia cannot kill the population indiscriminately, they would never forgive it to Russia.
That is the point, independently by the side one wants to support.
Feel free to explain why Russia doesn’t bring Ukraine in line by halting or throttling back the energy they supply to Ukraine.
Oh and it’s not about $$$
They weren’t paying their bills:
EU unlikely to pay Ukraine’s gas bills
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-unlikely-to-pay-ukraines-gas-bills/
They’ve but the supply before https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-cuts-gas-to-ukraine/
And surely the ‘war’ would cost more than what they would be paid for energy from Ukraine (if Ukraine actually paid them).
Keep in mind billions were enthralled watching Neil walk on the moon – they believed that was real… and there was no CGI then.
Feel free to explain why Russia doesn’t cut the gas supply to Ukraine.
I don’t expect an explanation .. just as I do not expect an explanation as to how there was front and back lighting on the photos from the moon – when there was only one source of light and no reflectors were carried on the mission.
Because it is not so simple without killing thousands per time
Russia cuts gas to Ukraine
https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-cuts-gas-to-ukraine/
No need to completely shut it down … you just squeeze them a little… kinda like twisting someone’s arm… you don’t need to break it for them to give in.
Why don’t they throttle it back for a few days… say 80%…. then turn it back on … then do it again in a couple of weeks?
It’s the obvious thing to do … supposedly lots of Russians are dying in this ‘war’…
You let your people die… when all you have to do is throttle back and it would stop rather quickly.
But nope – instead Putin threatens to launch his nukes if they push him to far…
Uh… how many do you think that would kill? He’s apparently willing to do that … but he doesn’t want to upset the Ukey’s by making them uncomfortably cold for a few days…
https://redshirtsalwaysdie.com/files/2020/01/10_Spock.jpg
I think that when Russians open to the possibility of nuclear bombs, they don’t mean nuclear bombs to Ukraine people, but a nuclear bomb directly to those who are arming them…
Additionally, a nuclear bomb to Ukraine people will create problems also to Russian people as they are very close one to the other.
Again, I think that they don’t want all Ukraine people to die, that’s why they keep gas going at the minimum level needed.
Can you point me to where they have throttled back on the gas supply to the Ukeys?
And why threaten with nukes when you have a nuclear option that has no effect on your own people?
Just shut the gas off — for a day. It’s so obvious what you would do.
It’s not fake, Fastly. On a hobbyist forum of which I’m a member, we have two Ukrainians. One fled from Kyiv to Germany, where he now works. The other has stayed put in Zaporizhia. Both often comment in the off-topic pages. Gusev from Zaporizhia posted this on 22 March:
Today, two hours ago, I’m drinking coffee on my balcony and I hear explosions, there were about ten of them within an hour. One of the explosions was caught on video, I heard this house collapsing because it’s not far from me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSwVPuoHk14
whatever eddy says is fake—is fake
moon landings
WTC
Covid and vaccines,
School; shootings–plus lots more
you name it—eddy puts a fake label on it. Just to draw attention to himself. He even screams ‘fake’ at 3 am. (draw your own conclusions there)
Makes OFW itself look foolish.
No idea about school shootings… don’t care one way or the other… hopefully they are real… the only good human is a dead human
Everyone should be allowed to carry — and use… over the slightest provocation.
How do you know they are not fake? The PR Team has a big budget…
As Wolf Richter mentioned — MMT was being plastered all over his site a few years back… he contacted one of the trolls who revealed that he was a paid troll making a few bucks by posting this stuff.
It would make sense to seed a range of online platforms with fakes.
As for the explosions … if you wanted people to think there was a full on war happening across the border… you’d blow some shit up near the border — to convince people that there is a full on war going on in Ukraine… very strategic to make this happen near the border.
I have no doubt that there is some actual fighting happening in Ukraine — but an all out war as we are being told
That is bullshit. Russia would crush Ukraine in a week
And nobody seems to want to address the obvious – why doesn’t Russia simply throttle back on Ukraine’s energy?
If you cannot answer that then you lose
They’re not fake. You saw the windows blown out and pedestrians scatter. How do you know Russia controls all or most of Ukraine’s energy? Where’s your evidence?
Evidence and Eddy have just one thing in common
the letter E
You’ve seen the unpaid bills…
Russia’s Energy Giant Turns Up The Heat On Ukraine
May 14, 20143:49 PM ET
If Russia was aiming to target one of Ukraine’s vulnerabilities, natural gas would be the bull’s-eye. Ukraine gets about 60 percent of its gas from Russia.
In March, the total was put at $2 billion; this month, Gazprom officials say it’s more than $3.5 billion. Now, the Russian energy company has handed the Kiev government an additional bill for more than $1.5 billion for natural gas, and has threatened to cut off supplies if Ukraine fails to pay by June 2.
https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/05/14/312446581/russias-energy-giant-turns-up-the-heat-on-ukraine
Strange – Putin was willing to shut the f789er down if the Ukey’s didnt pay the bill in 2014…. but he won’t do that to end a war…. strange … no?
Looks real ya… it’s not…
https://youtu.be/k2Sb7tlMDNs
Nor is this
https://youtu.be/oPnpfOKfEUU
Now the moon thing doesn’t look real… technology for fakery has advanced dramatically since then though .. if only they had the tech they used on The Martian movie… nobody would have questioned the moon landings.
Ukraine couldn’t afford to pay in 2014; it can’t afford to pay now. It is the deadbeat countries of the world that have problems as the world economy hits limits.
It’s like this ….
You have this distant cousin – let’s call him….’norm’…. norm is a deviant who blows all his cash Out Back the Dumpster with the Dirty Women and the dope pushers…
norm is always in hock — and the bad guys are always threatening to beat his face in … so norm comes to you cuz you have $$$$ and begs for some cash to pay off the bad guys…
You give norm some cash .. but only if he promises to mend his ways…
norm trots off and heads Out Back the Dumpster… pays off the bad guys … using what’s left for more dope … and a session with the Dirty Girls.
He runs out of $$$ on the mega bender … and runs up another bill with the bad guys…
They threaten to bust his face — he comes back to you for more … you get upset with him and norm slaps you in the face and says give me more…
Did I mention norm is a drug-addled burned out husk of a man .. and you are a 100kg powerful beast who could clobber norm to death in seconds? Well now I did…
Now you could beat norm to death for slapping you but nope — you just shove him away and then you give him more $$$$!!!!
And he goes back to the Dumpter … rinse repeat rinse repeat…
Surely anyone with any sense would 1. refuse to give norm any more $$$ and 2. if norm kept slapping you then you would hit him with a hay maker and knock him into the cheap seats…
Giving him more $$$ does not change his behaviour … not bashing his face in will not stop him from slapping you
Are you f789ing stooopid or something??? Why do you keep giving him $$$ and taking those slaps in the face?
lol eddy
i skim over most of your rants, and delete them, but sometimes i need a laugh, and i open one, knowing it will be obsessing about ”norm and se x”.
eddy—it’s not me who’s up at 3 and 4 am screaming about norm and se x.—or deviant whatever.
and always se x that has to be paid for. No wonder you’re up at 4 am.
now, eddy—stop and think about that for a moment—you’re up in the middle of the night, obsessing about s ex—nobody else on ofw is….just you.
Gail deletes most of it, and has done for years now, ….You get banned elsewhere…..doesn’t that tell you something?
Accusations being confessions? Skool yard faux swearing—afraid to actually use certain words?… do you ever read back on your stuff before pressing ”post”.
As I said, it’s been years since I took my doctorate in psychiatry, and I’m a bit rusty now, , but you really are a textbook case.
Yes but norm FE is not up at 4am… https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/new-zealand
Keep shooting the Rat Juice… soon you won’t even know your name
Britain couldn’t afford to fight the Second World War, but it did. It was then in hock to the USA until 2006.
Clearly, the US wanted and wants Ukraine to keep going as a counterbalance to Russia. It’s an easy enough matter for the owner of the USD to finance this, hide it, and keep it secret. Remember that the day before 9/11, Cheney revealed that 9 trillion USD of the military and / or CIA budget was unaccounted for. The following day, the buildings where the relevant files were kept were destroyed. Very convenient.
Ho hum… so nobody is going to explain why the Russians don’t use the energy card to get what they want from Ukraine…
Ho hum… another day … another scalp…
Another friend was telling me how terrible he feels … can’t work out what’s wrong .. brain fog… just ‘doesn’t feel right’ … GP says possible pre-diabetic… he is not the type … lives a healthy lifestyle… early 40s…
Oh did I mention … two shots of Rat Juice..
Did anyone see the study I posted indicating Rat Juice can cause diabetes? My friend in Canada also has diabetes – healthy fit – 50’s… his brother had a heart attack – also fit — fully boosted both of them…
I do wonder how many Rat Juicers don’t feel right – but say nothing… cuz that would be betraying the Rat Juice cause.
I betcha it’s a lot!
FYI
https://youtu.be/UO2F8nUi3oA
https://youtu.be/kmAr-nWFfG0
Yes, young Fast, I do know that propaganda occurs during wars. But still real war does take place.
How do you know it’s real?
This is not real either … they just set a few things like this up to help with the unhinging theme https://t.me/downtherabbitholewegofolks/70299
Likewise the bug eating thing… that’s not going to happen … it’s another component of Operation Unhinge… along with the tranny stuff
Operation Unhinge is working well I would give them 3% maimed as in trans mutilations and other mental illness.
I think it is https://t.me/downtherabbitholewegofolks/70246
More on pedo joey b (norm’s hero btw) – from his daughter’s diary https://t.me/downtherabbitholewegofolks/70281
Crawling along the ground … unhinging society https://t.me/leaklive/13000
Uranium core armor perpetrators are nuclear devices. Listening to Col MacGregor who describes them as highly incendiary. How can they be high incendiary? The uranium spike down the middle is compressed by impact and become nuclear critical producing massive amounts of heat melting its way though any steel armor. Having gone nuclear it is now radioactive much more so than virgin uranium. It is a health hazard for centuries.
Not my area, but I’ll hazard that your speculation about criticality is incorrect and the reason that it is highly incendiary (assuming his statement is true) is that the uranium alloy is very dense, which offers not just better penetration, but more kinetic energy discharge.
Here is Chinas version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X56z3i1CXII
Ritter, Macgregor and Martynov are all poo poo ing Putins statement of “will react”.
Russia just teamed with China. They hold the cards. If someone is desperate and does something stupid it will be the west. Russia is 28 points up. They sit on the ball and run out the clock. Looks like I was wrong. No strategic nuclear exchange. The USA fades away- goes quietly internationally. Internally maybe not so much.
Putin getting his panties in a twist would be stupid.
He is not stupid.
Bond market doom approaches.
Putin runs the clock out.
Developing story.
🙂
Appearances can be deceiving. I still think we’re in for a big nuclear scare. There’s too much value in it for them to not take advantage of it.
I think and hope you are right. I and mine would all be dead in a nuclear exchange. Putin just needs to wait the US is dying under the 5th gen attack.
Maybe the next president will be a black trans woman. With Kamal as VP again.
More theatre … of course FB Google etc… Do No Evil with the data…
Rep. Cathy Rodgers (R-Wash) to TikTok CEO: ‘Your platform should be banned’
“TikTok collects nearly every data point imaginable…We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values, values for freedom, human rights, and innovation.”
https://twitter.com/UngaTheGreat/status/1638956882240110594
I wonder how many tens of thousands of people work in the PR Department — it must take a lot of effort to create a completely fake world
A cop is down … https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/46129
When the start to burn every car on the street… then it’s really bad https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/46132
Surely this is an actor … it has to be https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/46133
Good time to visit France – cheap hotels!
https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/46128
I hope this is only a local, temporary occurrence. Things can’t be going well.
Been going on for over a month now … most nights…
Hopefully it escalates
I hope Robinson is paying you well as his PR agent
18 yr student dies in sleep https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/46123
And now some serious SCHAD…
Watch this collapse on the Tee Vee hahaha https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/46124
DOD Data: Myocarditis Cases Went Up 130% in 2021
https://catherinesalgado.substack.com/p/dod-data-myocarditis-cases-went-up
Not enough
Pilot (flying for WestJet Canada) dies SUDDENLY: Benjamin Paul Vige suddenly DIED in Calgary, Alberta on March 17, 2023, he was only 39; based on his company’s vaxx policy, it is likely he took vaxx
https://palexander.substack.com/p/pilot-flying-for-westjet-canada-dies
Try searching that on CNNBBC – there is a total ‘news’ blackout … zero coverage
What does norm think? norm cannot think so feel free to speculate on what is going on when norm reads this
Conspiracy theory
I am sure Huff will debunk it with a Fact Check before form awakens
Looking at the overall changes in Russia’s reserves between February 2022 and March 2023, total volume fell 8.9% to $574.247 billion. Total currency reserves decreased 11.9% to $438.683 billion, and gold reserves rose 2.5% to $135.564 billion. The share of gold in reserves rose to 23.6% from the 21% reported a year ago, the country’s central bank said.
The increase in the proportion of gold reserves is in line with the impact of Western sanctions, which limit Russia’s ability to manage its foreign currency exchange reserves. Russia has also boosted its exposure to the Chinese yuan over the past year.
This week, Russia’s central bank also announced new measures that make it more expensive for local commercial banks to hold liabilities in “unfriendly” currencies. This was done by increasing the reserve requirement for “unfriendly” currencies to 7.5% while cutting it for others to 5.5%.
“The Bank of Russia introduces differentiated required reserve ratios for liabilities in unfriendly states’ currencies,” the Bank said. “The goal of this is “to promote changes in the composition of credit institutions’ foreign currency liabilities towards a higher proportion of friendly states’ currencies, while maintaining the conditions for a further overall decrease in the share of foreign currencies on banks’ balance sheets.”
The rule comes into force on April 1, 2023.
Also, during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he supports the use of the Chinese yuan to settle trade between Russia, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
“Already two-thirds of the trade turnover between our countries is carried out in rubles and yuan. We are for the use of Chinese yuan in settlements between Russia and the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America,” he said during a joint statement this week.
https://www.kitco.com/news/2023-03-23/Russia-reveals-its-gold-stash-after-it-adds-1-million-ounces.html
This article makes it sound like the move away from the US$ as reserve currency is coming quickly.
Ok I will bet you on that….talk is cheap but reality…
It might take a while.
Nothing will replace the dollar. The players realize they cant insulate themselves from the fall of Rome completly.
The BRICS currency. Devil is in the details. The last thing China wants is the Yuan to quadruple in value at the same time as it loses USA and Europe as customers. Frankly I dont think they have a real plan. Its obviously going to be a hybrid. Certainly not a straight gold backed but certainly gold will be part of it. Russia China and India have enough gold to install that part. THey speak of establishing exchange rates based on resources but at the same time they know that doesnt work it has to have some float.
Despite the wars and the imperialism using the dollar has been very good to Russia and China. They find themselves in a bit of a sticky wicket. Russia has largly dollar divested but there are still bonds in its banks. Russia take rupees and yuan and can make do with a international flea market because it doesnt have a lot of import needs. China needs materials and energy imports and to provide jobs for all those children of the agrarian China of 30 years ago. It cant just drop out and hang at the flea market like Russia.
No the BRICS creation whatever it is wont just be a dollar replacement. What we are looking at is less of everything for all nations at the same time as Rome falls.
From a money creation standpoint its even more of a sticky wicket for the USA. Saudi and China aint going to be buying treasuries at any rate let alone Russia. Europe? HAH! This leaves domestic banks as the sole buyers using deposits and fed loans. This is getting pretty close to straight monetization of debt with its historical consequences. You see them battening the hatches. Killing the regional banks moving it all to the big boys that they can macro manage. The start of the crypto harvest/theft. Fednow. Because with the BRICS gone as treasury buyers EVERYTHING has to turn into a treasury buyer for the treasuries constantly coming due as well as to feed uncles spending habit.
You know Sam the dollar has constantly changed. Its not a fixed object. If you had a 20 bill from 50 years ago the banks wouldn’t recognize it. Are you familiar with Andrew Jacksons election with the pivotal issue being a establishment central bank? Central banking was a divisive issue with the American people largly rejecting the European central banks and wanting to retain autonomy. Not that old hickory was a saint. Trail of tears. Take a bill out. It says “federal reserve note” . Your allegiance to that federal reserve note as a function of patriotism differs from the idea of patriotism that isnt owned by a central bank. The bible had some things to say about worship of money. Not that I read it.
IMO ultimately the Government debt will be defaulted on. Ultimately standard of living must fall in the USA particularly since they have killed the golden goose of the reserve currency. Myself if I got food roof over my head a gal and a pup im happy. IMO the obvious thing to do is to turn in our badge as world police and radically cut military spending. Aint no one crossing the oceans to mess with us. We just dont have all that much desirable stuff to pillage for one thing. 100 billion a year would do just fine for a kick ass military minus the MIC toys that dont work worth a shit. Assuming we want to protect borders- now we dont apparantly. Try to figure out what we are going to do to get by. Just like the rest of the world. Thats kind of a relaxed viewpoint I know seeing as what we see advocated is a uber technological control system of “citizens” curiously similar to the CCP model. yah know the war on terrorism! When 100k are dropping dead from China fent a year and many more from the best injections the DOD can cook for us. But I digress.
The funny thing is IMO the USA will self destruct the dollar with its inability to come to terms with the debt and spending long before BRICS throws the dice on a hybrid system. The other funny thing IMO is if we turned in our world police badge and went to rehab for our spending habit the BRICS would probably just keep using dollars rather than roll the dice on a hybrid. I know crazy talk. I guess you wouldnt consider me a patriot because it seems clear to me that this ultra militarized dollar/federal reserve worship is contrary to the pursuit of happiness. If you dig a little deeper what you will find is that dollar in your wallet is not your dollar and not a US dollar. What is printed on it says federal reserve note and thats what it is. A note being a representation of debt. IMO an objective analysis will yield the conclusion that confusing debt with value creates significant problems. Its not an easy problem. If it was BRICS bucks would be up and running.
Don’t let NASA fool you: The next astronauts on the moon will not be wearing black spacesuits
https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-cannot-wear-axiom-black-spacesuit-on-moon-2023-3?amp
Morgan McFall-Johnsen; edited by Jessica Orwig Mar 23, 2023, 10:45 AM
NASA and Axiom Space revealed a new spacesuit for the Artemis moon missions last week.
The spacesuit is black, but astronauts have to wear white when they’re on the lunar surface.
Axiom put a black cover on the spacesuit to conceal its “proprietary design.”
Called the “AxEMY Next Generation,” it’s the spacesuit that will protect the first astronauts to walk on the lunar surface since 1972 — including the first woman and the first person of color to set foot on the moon, as soon as 2025, according to NASA’s plans.
The get-up includes new joints that will allow astronauts to move more easily than the Apollo spacesuits, and boots made for walking instead of hopping, for the first-ever human landing on the moon’s frigid south pole.
But one defining feature overshadowed the others: color. Stylish stripes of orange and blue are laid across a dark suit, as black as the void of space.
Astronauts can’t wear black on the moon
The Apollo moon suits were white for a reason.
The real look of the spacesuit for the first Artemis mission remains a mystery for now.
The white version will be provided directly to NASA. We are providing a fleet of training spacesuits to be delivered to NASA by late this summer,” Axiom spokesperson Meridyth Moore told Insider in an email.
As for a public reveal of the true white suit, Moore said, “We don’t have a current date, but that’s something we will continue to collaborate with NASA on.”
See Eddie..it’s all a show for a distraction to the military SPACE FORCE
Nixon interview of Ritter and Martynov.
Completely negates my analysis that we are approaching a strategic nuclear exchange.
Recommended
https://www.bitchute.com/video/d5lH3JElmZJa/
One of the things Scott Ritter says is that Russia is good at designing durable military equipment. With China’s help, Russia’s design capability could lead to huge production of military equipment.Of course, working together, their abilities may get better over time.
Russia is also very good at traditional warfare. It has well trained pilots who know what maneuvers to do.
If I understand Ritter, what China and Russia are not good at doing is delivering bombs at great distances from Russia. The United States has such good defenses that it could probably stop any attempts at delivery of nuclear bombs. So he seems to think that nuclear attacks of the US by Russia are unlikely at this time.
Russia had better not outsource military manufacturing to China. That’s one place Russia still has an edge: aircraft engines, composites, etc. That’s stuff with a long development arc and China is having difficulty replicating it, since US didn’t outsource it and espionage is more difficult in some of these areas. At least that’s my impression, but I’m no expert.
Russia and China are friends now, but in 10-20 years? Who knows.
Gail, I believe Ritter is saying the US has a big navy that protects it from conventional weapons attack. I think I heard him say nuclear attack is unlikely because of mutual assured destruction, no sane party wants to die.
I didn’t get to the end of the Ritter comments.
In the strange world we live in today, I am not sure that fear of mutual assured destruction can be counted on to prevent wars.
MAD is no defence whatsoever against madness
There was a very good critique at the end. Tough love.
Lower pensions, working untill 70 all around the world:
https://www.trend.sk/financie/penzie-kratko-pred-sedemdesiatkou-politici-zachranuju-dochodkove-systemy-ludia-su-strese?itm_brand=trend&itm_template=hp&itm_modul=trend_topbox&itm_position=6
Until recently this would have made sense, from an economic point of view. Average age in the UK being about 80, for what used to be called men and women, male and female:
“In 2017 to 2019, life expectancy at birth in the UK was 79.4 years for males and 83.1 years for females.”
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/bulletins/nationallifetablesunitedkingdom/2017to2019#life-expectancy-at-birth-in-the-uk
I am guessing it will not be long before the average age is once again below 70. I remember in my much younger years, in the 80s, people I knew who died whilst they were still working. It was not so unusual back then.
I remember back in the 80s my father, then in his 50s, lamenting that all his best friends from his younger days were dead and he had to make new ones.
What with the smoking, the drinking, the gambling (standing in smoke-filled betting shops and getting adrenaline rushes while listening to the racing commentary), the poor nutrition, the lack of physical exercise, the air pollution, and the always living in the red, a lot of the male working class were lucky to reach pension age.
I’m wondering whether the jabs are the PTB (Powers That Be)’s response to people adopting healthier lifestyles and countries adopting tighter pollution controls and health & safety rules?
“a lot of the male working class were lucky to reach pension age.”
That is my memory, women as well.
One country that has very interesting population trends now is Russia:
Birth rate: 9.8 births/1,000 population (2020)
Death rate: 14.6 deaths/1,000 population (2020)
Life expectancy: 71.54 years (2020)
• male: 66.49 years (2020)
• female: 76.43 years (2020)
Fertility rate 1.52 (2021)
Death rate in 2020 was already much higher than birth rate. Huge difference between male and female life expectancy.
Demographics of Russia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia
the original pension age was 70—few got there
as to the last paragraph tim—i assume you were joking—there are no powers that be ‘trying to kill us–
I might be joking, Norman—even I can’t always tell—but thanks for the reassurance that any killing of us by the powers that might be going on is just collateral damage.
just my impression…but
all these discussions and fights, for instance in France for the new retirement law, in Germany about giving tanks to Ukraine, in Italy about immigrants dying in the Mediterranean sea and about allowing people of the same sex to raise children, in UK about depleted uranium weapons, in Europe in general about the war on the verge of being nuclear and banks going bankrupt, it is wonderfully helpful to avoid talking about all the mess is coming out from official documents and researches about the experimental killer jabs that leaders have recently given to their own people…
The world is becoming a much poorer world. There is now a struggle to figure out how this downgrade will be shared. This is what is showing up in the strange world we are living in.
Is it not eye opening that in even standard biblical text so much of this has been foretold?
All is open to human interpretation but the more than “ general” thread is there!
Furthermore, there is increasing talk in general “scientific circles” that our worldview placing physics at the base of the known pyramid structure of reality is flawed. They posit that consciousness itself should underlying physics. The math works better that way.
I would have laughed at this in the eighties,…. Now I believe it to be the truth.
The ancient texts tell us what to do and also what to expect.
I personally believe the mark of the demiurge has already been applied. Cataclysm is almost here.
It has happened many times before.
“The ancient texts tell us what to do and also what to expect.”
Please elaborate.
Keeping it simple
Expect: “the earth laid waste and desolate” genesis and revelations…… this reality is a reset from earlier simulation and it will repeat.
“First by water then by fire”. We are due for solar outburst event ( it is time of fire)
Live as a Shepherd in the hills ( because they tend to survive)
Get OUT of all cities
Pull away from banks and non tangible investments: tribulations talks about increasing dangers of controlled/monitored money flows ( digital currencies)
Live rural lifestyle
Horticulture (Eden) and Herding/Ranching (Abel) are proper life ways for humans.
Try to live as though “ the world was not made for us”,……. Because it is not clear that it was,….
become attuned to the oversoul and be wary of the demiurge and its minions.
My humble 2 cents
Thanks.
Out of city check
Tangible investments check
Rural lifestyle too lazy could be our downfall
I often have a semi-urge … to drive to town and visit the VIP room
That made me laugh!
Holographic Reality is consciousness animating energy. Animism.
Is it not eyepopping that Socrates foretells much of the biblical theory of the soul?
… nope
I think it is a staging.
I see these all as symptoms of multi-scale systems dying from energy and materials depletion, from declining resources per capita and overpopulation, and flattening population pyramids. There’s no need to think up something zanier than the answer that’s already staring us in the face.
Although not an earth shattering result, if one is calculating a probability of multiple events without a model to hold them together, then you get:
P ( A B C D E … Z | Context )
And for this example, if a diversity of people start trying to analyze portions of this, thinking they have something, then one observer looks at P ( A | B Context) and another observer looks at P ( A | Z Context). Little does everyone realize that as more observers try to understand the pairwise consequences and report on them, the public listening to analysis of the “complexity” of all 26 events, are jacked into a confusion fed by 26 Factorial factorizations of how all 26 could be understood.
Collapse is not merely about what’s going on “out there”, it is also about the collapse of what’s going on in any shared understanding. It is combinatorically impossible.
Bayes, always Bayes.
Dennis L.
Our shared understanding in the past was that the future was predictable. People who worked hard could be ahead. Money was a store of value. People could depend on government pension programs; they didn’t have to work forever or depend on children. Religious beliefs seemed to make sense. We could depend on government officials to tell the truth and do what is best for most everyone. All of these shared understandings are going away.
from about 1900 onwards, the developed industrial world had an energy input increase rate of 6.9% per year
that meant our overall prosperity doubled about every 10 years
that growth rate ceased in the 1970s—and with it the “American Dream”
since they we have been spending borrowed money to pretend otherwise—ie we had 50 years of accruing debt,
Right now, the arithmetic is catching up with us, and most people are in denial about it and thinking its someone elses fault,
Just about everything thats ”wrong” and falling apart can be tracked back to that.
I agree with your analysis. Also, the situation has been getting worse in recent years, with more and more leveraged debt.
Easy to fix, cancel all debt and cancel seven of the eight billion people.
demographics, always demographics.
Many of the old do have wisdom gained by making bad decisions. The young have energy.
Dennis L.
The population reduction can be done equally to all age groups.
Russia deploys two TU-95 bombers with Sukhoi escorts over sea of Japan.
We are in the third stage where all parties start to desire a strategic nuclear exchange. It is the logical result of cultivating willingness to participate in a strategic nuclear exchange. The human fascination with power and military technology is indulged not shunned as a function of sanity and self preservation.
1.avoid strategic nuclear exchange
2 consider possibility of strategic nuclear exchange. Willingness cultivated. Victim status asserted as primary paradigm.
3 desire strategic nuclear exchange
https://www.bitchute.com/video/kTCePEeJ54bi/
I am afraid you may be right that a nuclear exchange may be in our future, because of the way the economy’s self-organizing system works. It might help fix the overpopulation of rich countries, for example.
My bet is still on the fabric of the universe, corny, but they will think of something.
Dennis L.
If the Universe was thinking about civilization it would have led Leopold Lojka, the one person most responsible for Sarajevo 1914, to remember the correct route.
Thanks to his fuckup we got the useless countries of Poland, Czechia, etc and also got the losses of 10m European youths which were never replaced
(Byoblu + Il Sussidiario)
”The newspaper ‘La Repubblica’ hosts today an article by Bill Gates that seems to aim to get readers be familiar to the idea of a perennial “pandemic task force” that would intervene as soon as ‘the experts’ will decide that is needed.”
from timing 06.00 of the following video:
https://www.byoblu.com/2023/03/23/tg-flash-byoblu-24-23-marzo-2023-edizione-1330/
And also here:
https://www.ilsussidiario.net/news/bill-gates-non-siamo-pronti-a-pandemia-dopo-covid-stessi-errori-oms-ha-fallito/2510008/
Preparation for more “scare the people to death” tactics.
(Byoblu)
more news about the official messages and chat among those who were in charge to manage Covid and vaccine in Italy.
”For a person who has been just injected with Covid vax, death is very likely. Shocking official documents from AIFA (Italian Agency for drugs).”
https://www.byoblu.com/2023/03/22/per-un-anziano-vaccinato-da-poco-e-molto-probabile-il-decesso-i-nuovi-documenti-choc-dellaifa/
(La Verità)
..and also:
”In the Covid Committee that decided on our lives for two years there were tensions and gang fights.
In April 2020 during a meeting Giovanni Rezza and Silvio Brusaferro confabulated and described the institution as a gang. ‘Make them slaughter each other. Who cares.”
https://www.laverita.info/le-chat-degli-esperti-il-cts-e-una-mafia-2659639186.html
or also:
”AIFA (Italian Agency for Drugs) deleted adverse reactions from the system.
New scoop from TV program ‘Fuori dal Coro’, Nicola Magrini deleted a phrase from a report: ‘probability of death of elderly persons after vaccine is very high’. On the safety of vaccines, a public servant said, ‘fragile people are also the ones there are no studies about.”
https://www.laverita.info/aifa-cancellava-dati-effetti-avversi-2659633121.html
(La Verità)
and also:
”A medical examiner had already talked about the, by now famous, ‘sudden deaths’.
That problem has been also confirmed by a well-known Forensics Doctor working in Milan (edit: one of the main Italian cities..), who is asking to us to remain unnamed.
Dr. Giuseppe Barbaro says that there are complications also to the eyes after the shots (edit: besides the main complication which is heart troubles..).”
https://www.laverita.info/parla-alla-verita-dei-casi-avversi-dottore-sospeso-senza-stipendio-2659639188.html
The heading of the article, as I translate it, includes the word elderly:
“DEATH IS VERY LIKELY FOR A RECENTLY VACCINATED ELDERLY”: THE NEW CHOC DOCUMENTS OF AIFA
The addition of the word elderly makes the story more believable.
Yes, it is reported also in the other news from the other newspaper. And it was also what I meant. Sometimes I have to make corrections from deepl or google automatic translations because they completely change or partially the meaning of the sentence, I probably forgot that word when I made the correction. That word is anyway present in the official article reported. Sorry.
It is anyway incredible that they were suggesting to elderly people to get the jabs and also fragile people about whom no studies were available.
Without mentioning the pure gamble on children…
Very interesting also the evidence from the Forensics Doctor.
Death is too kind… I prefer lingering severe disease…. there needs to be some penance for those who abused those who rejected the Rat Juice
I agree with you and I think that they were only talking in the chat about death cases, because they represent the minor part of the problem.
It would be a never ending discussion if they got into the injuries … gotta be 100 – 1 vs deaths
‘Nothing will make sense to your American ears, and you will doubt everything that we do, but in the end you will understand.
https://clip.cafe/sicario-2015/nothing-will-make-sense-your-american-ears/
“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors… and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
— Karl Rove – New York Times Magazine, Oct. 17, 2004
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”-William J. Casey, CIA Director.
Everything is fake … even most of the stuff you believe is not
Did everyone look at the photo of the bombing of Kiev… which was a photo taken during the bosnian war?
This link seems to be a problem for me.
Hmmmm… really… https://t.me/downtherabbitholewegofolks/70226
In a clown world yes
They were all ladies of the fight …. or so they looked?
Probably filmed in Poland.
Oh my my my .. what have we here… fake Ukraine again
https://t.me/downtherabbitholewegofolks/70170
Pentagon doctors say 7-year-olds able to consent to sex changes
https://thepostmillennial.com/pentagon-doctors-say-7-year-olds-able-to-consent-to-sex-changes?utm_campaign=64483
Can everyone see what they are doing?
Strange. If the world cannot hold as many people, and the net result is sterility, I suppose this could be the outcome of a self-organizing system. The medical procedures also generate income for the physicians doing them.
Jeez. Just offer a Iphone to tie tubes at 18. No need to go mid evil on their ass
revealing your obsessions again eddy with more clickbait?
No qualified doctor would say anything like that
obsessive rubbish eddy—attention seeking again.
Department of Defense (DOD) researchers argued for expanding gender transition treatments for children as young as seven who belong to military families in a journal article from March.
Legislative efforts in states have created a “gender affirming care crisis” for minors by restricting medical treatments and exacerbating alleged mental health issues associated with regulations on bathroom use and sports participation, the researchers argued in the latest issue of the American Journal of Public Health. DOD should “publicly declare a position” in favor of cross-gender treatments for military-affiliated youths and take steps to counteract what the doctors view as health-jeopardizing barriers to treatment, they said.
“Affirming care has only recently become politicized; protection of gender-affirming medical care for military-affiliated [transgender] youths may require a declarative position without tolerance for personal biases, as the DoD has historically achieved for other minoritized groups,” the authors wrote.
For example, DOD could use a program created to provide extraordinary medical services for dependents of military members with special needs. DOD could add provisions to the Exceptional Family Member Program ensuring that families with transgender children are prioritized for duty stations in states with more lax rules on transgender treatments and prevent relocation to areas unable to provide the desired services.
The researchers advocated for allowing families with transgender children to use a special funding program for temporary travel to other states for the desired treatment in a similar fashion to the Pentagon’s recently-created abortion travel allowance.
“Military dependent and nondependent [transgender] youths are at high risk for chronic stressors that may lead to poor mental health outcomes and risk-taking behaviors,” the researchers said.
Texas, Arizona, Alabama and Arkansas contain 13% of the active duty force and four of the largest military bases in the U.S. are in states that have passed or are considering a ban on insurance coverage for transgender treatments, according to the article.
While it’s unclear how many transgender youths are affiliated with DOD, at least 2,500 children actively sought gender dysphoria services through Tricare, the DOD insurance plan, after it began covering puberty suppression and cross-sex hormone treatment in 2017, according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics.
These factors together could degrade U.S. military readiness, the doctors said.
“These laws also assume that [transgender] adolescents and their parents are incapable of understanding the risks and benefits of gender-affirming medical care and then deciding what is in the youth’s best interest,” the article said, citing a 2022 study conducted by researchers at Yale University. Children as young as seven can have a say in decisions about their health, the researchers said.
Great presentations by @USUhealthsci Clinical Psych PhD students LTJG Exley & Lt Murray in @NatashaSchvey’s lab about gender based stigma and service members seeking sexual assault-related healthcare @ABCTNOW #ABCT2022 DrElsterUSUSoM
More https://dailycaller.com/2023/03/22/pentagon-researchers-urge-more-access-to-sex-change-hormones-for-military-kids/
I’d provide you with a link to this on Huff… but Huff only publishes fake news… they ignore truth.
It’s interesting that Eddy is denying the narrative of the Russia-Ukraine war and the moon landings while Norman is denying the narrative of children being given sex-change surgery in North America and I am in absolute denial about globbly wobbly. There is a lot of refusal to accept narratives about.
No qualified doctor would say anything like that? Are you sure?
The article Eddy quotes seems legit and has quite a lot of links to legit-looking sources. And remember, lots of qualified doctors and nurses have been murdering their patients over the past three years by providing inappropriate treatments and withholding appropriate ones.
When Fast Eddy rejects something … the issue has been thoroughly considered…
With Ukraine :
1. CNNBBC lie – always
2. Ukraine is an excellent scapegoat for everything
3. There are many clips of crisis actors being used to fake the war
4. There are many clips and photos being used that were from other wars
5. There are many clips of ‘war correspondents’ in full battle gear pretending to be in the heat of battle — while civilians can be seen going about their business
6. There is the clip of tanks blasting away at half destroyed buildings with nobody inside and no bodies anywhere – while a drone circles taking footage
7. There is The Ghost of Kiev – total fakery
8. There is CGI (far more advanced than what Kubrick used to fake the moon landings)
9. There is the fact that Russia has a very powerful country with highly trained soldiers whereas Ukraine might have gifts of gear but a clown leader and untrained gangsters for a military – Russia could wipe them out in a week
10. Russia supplies Ukraine with energy – Russia does not need to fire a single bullet – they could simply shut the energy off or throttle it back with a warning — but they don’t
11. There is this documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaR1YBR5g6U
12. There is the fact that Fast Eddy did not inject the Rat Juice.
13. There is the fact that Fast Eddy has 1500HP powering his thought processes.
14. There is the fact that Fast Eddy is not norm
the last part has been proven to be true, because i dont feel the need to get up at 4 am to say otherwise
More ‘extreme’ positions on gender than we are accustomed to are possible in various directions, liberal or whatever else. We tend to assume that the culture that we are familiar with is the ‘norm’ but normality is relative.
USA takes its ‘liberalism’ as pretty fundamental to the society, in the constitution and stuff, and it frames it as the ‘right’ to the individual pursuit of ‘happiness’. Americans have not necessarily always been aware of the potential implications of that ideology.
A lot of Americans were previously Christians, and they assumed a theologically and traditionally informed view of ‘natural’ law that frames the pursuit of ‘happiness’, but that is not really ‘liberalism’ in its pure form as it implies the imposition of constraints on the individual.
From the Marxist perspective, liberal ideology reflects the individualism of the economic base, private ownership and initiative and the expansive choice of consumerism. It encourages a ‘make up your own mind, do your own thing’ culture, pretty much in contrast to feudalism.
In the real world, ‘liberalism’ tends to run into complexities like the responsibility of minors to mention but one. The older Christian view was that the ‘age of reason’ is about 7 years old (the age of catechism), but modern societies tend to take a different view, like 16/ 18. Likely there is not really any ‘cut off point’ between ‘minority’ and ‘majority’ but societies and law tend to fall back on such concepts if only for practical reasons.
Clearly, the ‘right’ is trying to weaponize the whole gender thing toward its own broader objectives, and to be fair it is not unusual for humans to act in that way, which obviously does not imply that humans necessarily go along with each other. Polls over time show that public opinion will tend to shift toward the liberal position as new trends become normalised, which tends to make the stance of the ‘right’ counterproductive, as it links itself to views that themselves soon become objectionable.
Anway, the initial point is that ‘normality’ is relative, and it requires a certain naivety to assume that the culture into which we were socialised is ‘normal’ in any general, non-local way or ‘correct’ in any absolute, non-ideological way. But to be fair, humans do tend to do that lol, which is a part of how societies function.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11895019/Ten-Saudi-Arabian-judges-face-death-penalty-soft-womens-rights-activists.html
Ten Saudi Arabian judges ‘face the death penalty after they were deemed too soft on women’s rights activists’
The judges have all been charged with high treason after signing confessions
One of the judges allowed a prominent women’s rights campaigner to walk free two months after she appeared before him in December 2020
Ten judges are facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia for being too soft on human rights campaigners and women’s rights activists, it has been claimed.
The men have all been charged with high treason – which is punishable by death – after signing confessions admitting they had been too ‘lenient’ is cases involving state security.
One of the judges, Abdullah bin Khaled al-Luhaidan, allowed the prominent women’s rights campaigner, Loujain al-Hathloul, to walk free two months after she appeared before him in December 2020.
Loujain, who once shared a One World stage with the then Meghan Markle, had two years and ten months of her six-year sentence suspended by al-Luhaidan meaning that – in addition to time already served – she was able to walk free in February 2021.
The Saudi authorities had arrested al-Hathloul, 31, in May 2018 along with over a dozen other women’s rights activists in a crackdown ahead of the lifting of the country’s ban on women driving….
We tend to assume that the culture that we are familiar with is the ‘norm’
That’s because it IS the ‘norm’ for us, although not necessarily for them.
Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘the norm’ thus:
noun
1
: an average level of development or achievement
She scored well above/below the norm in math.
2
: something (such as a behavior or way of doing something) that is usual or expected
Smaller families have become the norm.
On OFW, we can capitalize ‘the Norm’ as an alternative moniker for what Northerners would call ‘our Norman’.
Clearly, the ‘right’ is trying to weaponize the whole gender thing toward its own broader objectives
Are you implying that the ‘left’ isn’t doing this as well?
Anway, the initial point is that ‘normality’ is relative, and it requires a certain naivety to assume that the culture into which we were socialised is ‘normal’ in any general, non-local way or ‘correct’ in any absolute, non-ideological way.
‘Normality’ differs from one culture to another, BECAUSE cultures differ from one another. Also, as you indicate, ‘normality’ is a moveable feast. It will also tend to vary from time to time as well as from place to place, much as other elements of culture vary. And I agree with you that most people—let’s call them normies—tend to assume or feel at a gut level that their idea of what is ‘normal ‘is absolute, rather than relative, and that this is at best naive and at worst stewpid.
Back in the days when I still spoke to them, probably I spent half of my time speaking with my relatives in responding to arguments that rested on their assumption that one or other of their norms was universal, and that if the people living at some other time or place were not honoring this norm, then they were wrong, or wicked, or abnormal.
However, there may be some universal norms that all humans in all cultures would consider ‘normal’ due to the biological fact that all humans are humans and that certain abnormal behaviors threaten the welfare or survival of the community, and if they were permitted to continue then the community would not thrive or even survive.
Off hand I can’t think of any, but someone who has thought hard on the subject could probably come up with some.
The conditio humana? We eat. We mate. We raise kids. We establish certain constructions of trust. We fight over resources. By this we can already explain large parts of our economy, justice and politics. But of course a concrete culture is only one of more possible answers to the conditio humana.
There is something more that should not go unnoticed: We sing, we dance, we create poems, we tell stories and we laugh. And we fall in love.
Copied from a ZH comment :
LEAKED FDIC Video: Hide Market Collapse From The Public…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=833SRSJceqk
Seems like true (??)
New “Big Short” Hits Record Low As Focus Turns To $400 Billion CRE Debt Maturity Wall
BY TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, MAR 23, 2023 – 03:35 AM
Two weeks ago, when we re-introduced readers to the Big Short 3.0 in “As Hedge Funds Pile Into The New “Big Short”, The Next ‘Credit Event’ Emerges”, we also explained why small banks are in big trouble. We didn’t have to even wait days to be proven right: literally hours later Silicon Valley bank was shuttered and the regional banking system has been gripped by the worst crisis since Lehman, one which has seen over $550 billion (according to JPM calculations) in deposits drained from US banks (and a similar amount from European banks, as Credit Suisse learned the hard way).
Meanwhile, we also haven’t had long to wait to see results on the latest version of the Big Short, which we defined as the BBB- tranches of CMBX Series 15, due to its outsized exposure to office commercial real estate…
https://archive.ph/VqOAA#selection-641.0-671.220
It is easy to believe that derivatives related to commercial real estate, especially office space, are starting to fail. If more small retail businesses fail, I expect that derivatives related to retail space will have a similar problem.
Job cuts confirmed as profits tumble at The Warehouse Group
The Warehouse Group said net profit slumped in the six months to January 29, dropping 61 per cent to $17.3 million compared to $44.4m the same period a year ago.
The retail giant said increased business costs and a slow second quarter during the key Christmas trading period drove the decline in bottom-line profit.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/business/cost-of-living-takes-a-bite-as-profits-tumble-at-the-warehouse-down-60-in-first-half/
The Warehouse caters to low income people … it’s where I buy most of my clothing (to the chagrin of M Fast)
These are alarming numbers.
This chain of stores operates in New Zealand. This gives an idea of how poorly the low-wage people are doing in NZ.
“We Are Headed For Another Train Wreck”: Bill Ackman Blames Janet Yellen For Restarting The Bank Run
Commenting on our chart, Bloomberg’s Mark Cudmore noted it was Yellen who was “to blame for the stock slump”, pointing out that “the pessimistic turn in US stocks began within a minute of Janet Yellen starting to speak.”
The S&P 500 rose almost 1% in the first 47 minutes after the Fed decision. Powell wasn’t the problem either: the index was 0.6% higher in the first 17 minutes after his press conference started.
Why am I picking that exact timing of 2:47pm NY time? Because that is the minute Yellen started speaking at the Senate panel hearing. The high for the S&P 500 was 2:48pm NY time and it fell more than 2.5% over the subsequent 72 minutes. Good effort.
Picking up on this, Bloomberg’s Mark Cranfield writes that banking stocks globally are set to underperform for longer after Janet Yellen pushed back against giving deposit insurance without working with lawmakers. He adds that “to an aggressive trader this sounds like an invitation to keep shorting bank stocks — at least until the tone changes into broader support and is less focused on specific bank situations.” Earlier, we addressed that too:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bill-ackman-blames-janet-yellen-restarting-bank-run
Of course, the US government cannot really afford to subsidize every ridiculous scheme that anyone wants to borrow money for. This is the fundamental problem. Most of the new energy schemes are in this category; they can never pay back enough to make up for their huge complexity and high cost. Guaranteeing every deposit would make it so that banks could give out loans for anything and everything, with no fear of adverse consequences on the lending side of its book. The US dollar would “tank” however, if all of these guarantees were is place.
“The idea has been proposed, and often reappears, but is not credible, for two reasons. The first is that the indeterminism of quantum mechanics is governed by a rigorous probabilistic dynamics. The equations of quantum mechanics do not determine what will happen, but determine strictly the probability of what will happen. In other words, they certify that the violation of determinism is strictly random. This goes in exactly the opposite direction from human freedom to choose. If human freedom to choose was reducible to quantum indeterminism, then we should conclude that human choices are strictly regulated by the chance. Which is the opposite of the idea of freedom of choice. The indeterminism of quantum mechanics is like throwing a coin to see if it falls heads or tails, and act accordingly. This is not this what we call freedom to choose.”
The other main objection, as far as I can see, to the idea that quantum physics supports ‘free will’ (whatever that is supposed to mean, presumably not randomness that is strictly regulated by probability) is that it does not apply on the level of macroscopic objects, where classical physics remains true. I am no physicist, but it would seem that the complexity of the human brain actually works against any indetermination, as quantum probability relies on microscopic simplicity. The human brain has 100s of billions of neurons, and the human body trillion of molecules. Anyone?
“For all intents and purposes, anything with 10,000 atoms or above does have a classical position and momentum, and can be completely analyzed according to the classical laws of physics.”
https://www.quora.com/How-does-quantum-weirdness-disappear-in-a-macroscopic-world-no-mathematical-equation-just-explain-real-reasoning
> “The macroscopic world has the macroscopic properties we observe because of the law of averages. If you observe a single atom in isolation, it has an uncertain position and an uncertain momentum. But if you observe 10,000 atoms put together into one molecule, their average position has almost no uncertainty at all. Neither does their average momentum.
By analogy, consider what happens when you flip one coin. It may be heads or tails, and the uncertainty in which outcome you will observe is quite large. But if you flip 10,000 coins, you can be certain that you will observe very nearly 5,000 heads and 5,000 tails. The count of heads you observe in any trial will always be very close to 5,000 with very little uncertainty, because that is what always happens when lots of random events are averaged together. As the number of coins flipped increases, the ratio of the uncertainty in the outcome to the number of coin flips gets steadily smaller.
This is how macroscopic properties emerge from microscopic ones, through the averaging together of many individual random variables. The average position of all the atoms in our hypothetical 10,000 atom molecule, weighted by the atomic weight of each atom, is the molecule’s center-of-mass position. The average momentum of all the atoms in the molecule, multiplied by the total number of atoms, is the molecule’s total momentum. These are classical properties, and they emerge very naturally from the aggregation of quantum properties. By the time you put 10,000 atoms together, just like 10,000 coin flips, the uncertainty is so small that you can reasonably assume that the molecule will behave according to the classical laws of physics. When you observe such a molecule, you can measure its center-of-mass position and its momentum and be confident that your measurements correctly and certainly reflect the molecule’s aggregate physical state.
The same is true all the more of things that are large enough to see without a microscope. As you move up to larger-scale objects with many more than 10,000 atoms, the quantum uncertainty gets averaged out even more thoroughly and the overall uncertainty of position and momentum becomes so small that it is utterly unmeasurable. For all intents and purposes, anything with 10,000 atoms or above does have a classical position and momentum, and can be completely analyzed according to the classical laws of physics.”
The ability ‘to move up’ and see ‘larger-scale objects’ is called intelligence. To decribe the current state of the world as a consequence of hiding-deeper resources is one manifestation of that capability.
A consortium of public and corporate bureaucracies has institutionalized the falsification of reality under the pretense of saving the human race from a pack of hobgoblins led by climate change, racism, and normal sexual reproduction. They have been driven insane by the actual reality of pending economic collapse, which has only been accelerated by their own suicidal activities. What they apparently really want to save is their own positions, perquisites, and power. Their enabling mechanism is the digital computer and its many ways of assembling and controlling information, and thus controlling people, especially those who object to totalizing control. They do it because they can.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/this-has-got-to-stop/
Wrong. They are doing these things because the people running the show want to destroy societies so that when extermination time arrives – they go without a fuss
I suppose it’s essential for you to feed us another load of BS eddy
but at 4 30 in the morning???
Staggering.
https://bylinetimes.com/2023/02/24/brexit-britain-half-of-brits-would-choose-to-leave-uk/
Half of Brits Would Choose to Leave UK
Around half of all British people would choose to leave the UK and move themselves and their families to another country, if given the opportunity to do so, according to an exclusive new poll for Byline Times.
As recent polls suggest that most Brits are now unhappy with the direction the UK is headed in, pollsters Omnisis asked voters whether they would now prefer to live abroad.
45% of all respondents said they would take up the opportunity to leave, compared to just 35% who said they wouldn’t.
Once ‘don’t knows’ were excluded, 56% of all respondents said they would emigrate away from Britain if given the chance.
Voters were also asked which of a list of 12 countries they would choose to move to, if given the chance. Australia was the most popular choice for Brits to emigrate to, with 29% putting it as their first choice, followed by Spain, Canada and Italy. India, China and Russia were the least popular of the countries listed.
The poll also found that voters in different parts of Britain have widely differing levels of attachment to their British identity.
According to the poll, just 43% of voters would label themselves ‘British’ as their primary identity, as opposed to being either English, Welsh or Scottish. Voters in London and the south-west were the most likely to label themselves as British, with voters in Scotland the least likely.
The findings come as other polling suggests that most Brits have an increasingly gloomy view of the direction the country is now taking.
A poll by Ipsos this week found that 60% of British voters now believe the UK is heading in the wrong direction, compared to just 18% who said the opposite.
I don’t know what took them so long.
No sooner was Margaret Thatcher elected than I was making my plans.
And I have been warning my fellow Brits for about a decade now of the Deagel 2025 forecast for that unfortunate country.
I like to know that many of your countrymen have moved to my country recently, and even acquired a taste for following the channels of some of them on YT. For example,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LlpktJukJQ&t=425s
Portugal is undoubtly better than UK if not for living at least for dying, if only because it already has the shape of a coffin. Collapse for collapse, rather in the sun, I say.
Powell Explains the Fed’s New Regime: Rate Hikes & QT to Fight Inflation while Offering Liquidity to Banks to Keep them from Toppling
https://wolfstreet.com/2023/03/22/powell-explains-the-feds-new-regime-rate-hikes-qt-to-fight-inflation-while-offering-liquidity-to-banks-to-keep-them-from-toppling/
Hopefully inflation continues to rage even with the latest rate hike.
F789 the humans
According to Martin Armstrong who was called in again for the latest banking crisis, he says that if rates go higher, then inflation will follow.
“Examining the relationship between 3-month and 10-year benchmark rates and nominal GDP growth over half a century in four of the five largest economies we find that interest rates follow GDP growth and are consistently positively correlated with growth. If policy-makers really aimed at setting rates consistent with a recovery, they would need to raise them. We conclude that conventional monetary policy as operated by central banks for the past half-century is fundamentally flawed. Policy-makers had better focus on the quantity variables that cause growth.
Reconsidering Monetary Policy: An Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Interest Rates and Nominal GDP Growth in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800916307510
The Global Diesel Crisis Isn’t Over Yet
Consumption
When the EU and the U.S. were discussing oil sanctions against Russia, some analysts warned that while markets would shrug off the oil embargo, things would be different for fuels. Because every economy runs on diesel, and global diesel stocks were critically low.
Global diesel stocks remain critically low a month after the fuel embargo went into effect. U.S. crude oil exports to Europe are on a strong rise as a replacement for Russian barrels, but fuels production is in decline because of winter storms. There is one thing that has helped both the U.S. and Europe avoid a diesel shortage, and that, ironically, is the economic slowdown
And that is why interest rates will be increasing for the foreseeable future we will be definitely revisiting the paul Volcker days
I don’t think so, if there is nothing to purchase and if there is no growth in which to invest, little demand for investment funds.
TM thinks most businesses return about 2-3% per annum, that doesn’t support much growth nor much debt.
Dennis L.
“There is one thing that has helped both the U.S. and Europe avoid a diesel shortage, and that, ironically, is the economic slowdown”
Using less diesel IS the economic slowdown.
Yes, GDP == energy consumption. The meaningful part of GDP, anyways.
If rates go higher, there will be lots and lots of defaults.
Alternatively, if rates go higher, other countries will become more and more unhappy with the US dollar being the world’s reserve currency because it will make the price of commodities relatively higher for them, compared to the US cost. This is the kind of thing that can eventually lead to war and the loss of the US$ as reserve currency.
The battle now is for how long can they hold the financial system together with interest rates that have driven the world into insolvency… that is the immediate enemy…
The inflation enemy has not gone away…. is is punishing the MOREONS (see collapsing sales at The Warehouse.. Amazon layoffs)… but nobody is eating salted rice yet… so there is some breathing room on that front…
They must be very concerned about ROF now … and the failure of UEP to complete
I definitely am
The mob of MOREONS? They are oblivious to this — they are more concerned about the rising price of their Happy Meals…
BTW – been awhile since I had a beer — on the weekend I was charged $14 for a pint… not long ago it was 12 or 13….
This inflation thing feels like a Death March up the side of a mountain towards the cliff
I have never managed to understand inflation thouroughly.
Inflation is defined as wage-price-spiral. A currency area can only distribute what they have produced. Money printed plus credits on one side equal production on the other side with respect to time. If wages rise without production increases people are able to pay more for the same production, prices rise. If the central banks rise interest, companies have to pay more for their credits and cannot afford higher wages. The paid interest rates are in the end written off. Thus central banks can steer prices to some extend.
When prices rise because they contain energy which takes more efforts to extract as it hides deeper, the digging deeper is a growing part of all they have produced. It either adds to production or eats up cutting hair and producing fridges. There is less to distribute as the digging deeper is part of what is being distributed. Prices raise to pay this part.
When central banks raise interests because they mistake digging deeper as a wage-price-spiral, they cut wages and thus reduce the possibilities of production. It artificially slows down production under its resource limits. It does not reduce prices. It is a recessionary downsize program.
Perhaps I am missing something?
‘Come to Britain, have a swim at the seaside tourist hotspots.’ LOL
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11859587/70-beaches-Britons-warned-avoid-SEWAGE-dumped-waters-nearby.html
Revealed: The 83 beaches Britons are warned to avoid due to SEWAGE being dumped into waters nearby
Surfers Against Sewage have illustrated the widespread problem of discharge seeping into the water at seaside hotspots
Britons have been warned not to swim at dozens of beaches after heavy rainfall led to sewage being discharged into bathing waters.
Surfers Against Sewage have issued the warning which includes rivers as well as seaside hotspots. Swimming in these areas could lead to infections and illnesses caused by bacteria and viruses in the water.
The marine conservation charity monitors water quality across the nation to alert the public to areas affected by sewage.
Using an interactive map, Surfers Against Sewage have highlighted 83 spots to avoid.
A TripAdvisor favourite has been included in the list – Gorleston Beach in Norfolk – which was named the ‘best beach in the country’ only last month.
The little-known seaside town is bracing itself for an influx of visitors after Tripadvisor named its sandy beach top in Britain and number 12 in Europe.
Locals insisted today that they were not at all surprised by the accolade. But it seems that for now a visit to the hidden gem is off the cards due to a sewer overflow in the area.
The warning from the charity read: ‘Gorleston-on-Sea became popular in Edwardian times and is still a busy seaside resort. A number of sewer overflows discharge into the River Yare that flows to the sea at the northern end of the beach.’
Other beaches on the warning list include, Southend Jubilee Beach, Sheerness, Folkestone, Dymchurch, Camber, Bognor Regis and Cowes.
Brighton, Blackpool and Whitstable are among the tourist hotspots deemed hazardous.
Scarborough, Saltburn, Whitby, Spittal, Amble Links, Warkworth, Seaham, Walney Biggar Bank and Pendower are also on the list.
Sewage and agricultural pollution have put the UK at the bottom of the list in Europe for bathing water quality.
Pollution can make waters risky because bathers can contract harmful illnesses from viruses and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.
Water companies are allowed to release some untreated sewage into rivers and the sea to prevent Britain’s mostly Victorian sewers being overwhelmed by too much rainfall. But critics say too much is released and better infrastructure is needed.
Surfers Against Sewage estimates that ‘over 400,000 discharges of untreated sewage into UK rivers’ took place in 2020 and ‘almost 5,500 discharges into UK coastal bathing waters’.
Last August, it was revealed that water companies have spent more than nine million hours pumping raw sewage into Britain’s seas and rivers since 2016.
Environment Agency figures reveal the staggering amount discharged into areas including tourist and bathing hotspots.
As economies get poorer, we can expect more and more untreated sewage in waterways.
Most of the UKs oil platforms in the North Sea / West of Shetland will never be decommissioned. Could be a bonus for sea life.