Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 465
January 27, 2023
Hidden History: Unpacking the Origin of the Deep State, the Trump Coup, Covid and Climate Change
The Clash of the Two Americas Vol 4: The Anglo Venetians Roots of the Deep State
By Matthew Ehret and Cynthia Chung (2023)
Purchase link: https://canadianpatriot.gumroad.com/l/Clashoftwoamericas4
Book Review
This final volume of The Clash of the Two Americas is my favorite. In it, Ehret provides more historical examples, both from North America and elsewhere, to illustrate his views on Malthusianism, colonialism, oligarchy, multipolarity, globalizaiton and the historic role of British intelligence in undermining US sovereignty. See review of volumes 1,2 and 3 at Hidden History: The Clash of the Two Americas, How British Bankers Shaped America’s 20th Century and How History Helps Us Understand What Russia and China Are Up To
Ehret also uses Volume 4 to comment on contemporary events, including the 2020 electoral coup that defeated Donald Trump, COVID, the debate over anthropogenic global warming and the Great Reset.
My favorite sections include his commentary on the Trump legacy, the historical Venetian role in the Anglo-Venetian/Anglo-Dutch Deep State and the role of faulty computer modeling in both the Covid lockdowns and “catastrophic” climate change debate.
The 2020 Electoral Coup that Defeated Trump
Although I have issues with a number of Trump’s policies (especially his promotion of vaccines and Zionism,) I agree with Ehret’s observations that Trump was the first “nationalist” president in 60 years and posed to the globalist forces that control the Deep State. To this end, Trump adopted numerous positive policies aimed at improving the US economy and the well being of Americans, including:
Programs to re-industrialize the (by bringing factories back from the Third World)Gutting the National Endowment for Democracy (CIA-funded program to destabilize foreign governments)Ending CIA support for Syrian rebelsIncreasing economic cooperation with Russia and ChinaEnding decades of US involvement in World Trade Organization (WTO) financial programs,Reducing US involvement in NATOWithdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO)Cancelling US involvement in 2016 Paris Climate AccordsMaking the US energy self-sufficient for first time in decadeIn describing the 2020 electoral coup that awarded the presidency to Trump’s opponent Biden, Ehret documents the long involvement of Dominion and sister company Smartmatic voting machines in electoral fraud in Mexico, Venezuela, the Philippines and the US (including the 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections).
The Venetian Roots of the Deep State
The Venetian empire, founded by Roman oligarchs fleeing the Visigoths and Huns in the 5th century AD, lasted a little over 1000 years. By 1350, they controlled world finance through their control of the world’s gold and silver bullion, their monopoly on maritime trade, the 120-180% loans they made to European leaders and their wide reaching intelligence networks.
During the 16th century, the Venetians (the first to establish a private central bank in 1507), shifted their power base from Venice to Amsterdam. After Amsterdam first gained independence from Spain in 1581, a Venetian-Dutch alliance formed enabling Venetian Bankers to create a similar private Central Bank in Amsterdam in 1619. In 1688, this alliance would work with English protestants seeking to dethrone the Catholic king James II, to “invade” England and install Dutch merchant William and his wife Mary II (daughter of James II) on the English throne. In 1694, William would create the Bank of England, granting it the express power to loan out gold certificates in excess of its bullion holdings (in other words, granting them control of money creation).*
Covid, Climate Change and Stochastic Statistical Modelling
The section on Covid looks mainly at the work of Neil Ferguson, the British epidemiologist who achieved global prominence through predictive modeling leading to the 2020 global lockdowns.
Ferguson confidently predicted 500,000 deaths from COVID in the UK and 2 million in the US.
Given his past record, it’s astonishing anyone took him seriously, especially when he prevented other statisticians from reproducing his results by refusing to release an unredacted copy of the code he used. .
In 2002, he predicted 50,000 people would die of Mad Cow Disease, which subsequently resulted in only 177 deaths.In 2005, he predicted 150 million people would die of Bird Flu. Only 282 died between 2003-2008.In 2009, he predicted 65,000 deaths due to Swine flu, which ended up killing 457 people.Ehret goes on to explain the stochastic or Monte Carlo Method Ferguson uses to produce such outlandishly erroneous results.* Apparently climate scientists use a similar stochastic (random sampling) approach to predict catastrophic climate change. Ehret’s 2021 paper In Defense of CO2 (which he includes in his appendix) enumerates a number of problems with stochastic modelling to predict climate change:
Because the physical space-time shaping the discoverable universe is intrinsically non-linear, it can’t be expressed (or graphed) as linear equations, as many climate scientists have done.It’s too easy for totally random data sets to be skewed by computer programmers who aspire to shape government policy. Specifically Ehret has concerns this modelling is being used to promote artificial scarcity, depopulation and corporate backers of the Great Reset and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, rather than ending colonialism, poverty and war.Global temperature charts reveal global warming tapered to a near standstill between 1998-2013, despite IPCC predictions they would increase in tandem with atmospheric CO2 concentrations.Medieval ice cores reveal global temperatures were were significantly warmer than today (the Vikings grew wheat in Greenland) despite much lower atmospheric CO2 concentrationsPrehistoric ice core records reveal that increases in atmospheric CO2 tend to follow (rather than precede) warming temperatures.*The stochastic or Monte Carlo method of statistical modeling is used to estimate potential outcomes where randomness or uncertainty is present. It relies on repeated random sampling.
January 26, 2023
Kari Lake: Freedom of information request reveals some 200k FAILED votes occurred on election day in AZ
By J D Heyes
News Target
Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake refuses to concede to now-appointed Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs because she keeps finding evidence that the election was a hot mess and likely skewed the outcome.
Her latest discovery, thanks to a freedom of information request: Some 200,000 votes in Maricopa County, which skews red, were not properly tabulated and actually failed.
“Officials sabotaged Election Day. On November 8th (when 75% of votes were for @KariLake) nearly 1/4 of a MILLION voting attempts FAILED, according to the system log files that were obtained via FOIA. This is huge, folks. Huge,” she tweeted on Monday.
Officials sabotaged Election Day. On November 8th (when 75% of votes were for @KariLake) nearly 1/4 of a MILLION voting attempts FAILED, according to the system log files that were obtained via FOIA.
This is huge, folks. Huge. pic.twitter.com/68YHR4LvTp
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) January 23, 2023
The Kari Lake War Room added in another tweet: “Shelby Bush confirms after reviewing the system log files from the tabulators on election day, nearly a quarter-million ballots were misread. With 446 tabulators across the county, there’s no doubt the integrity of the election in Maricopa County was compromised.”
?Breaking?
Shelby Bush confirms after reviewing the system log files from the tabulators on election day, nearly a quarter-million ballots were misread.
With 446 tabulators across the county, there’s no doubt the integrity of the election in Maricopa County was compromised. pic.twitter.com/GKyW8kFNQz
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) January 23, 2023
Lake also updated supporters that she has filed a new lawsuit challenging the results of the obviously fraudulent election, which she ‘lost’ by about 17,000 votes; Hobbs was in charge of overseeing statewide elections in her previous job as secretary of state.
Now, however, Hobbs is moving to shut down the lawsuit because, as Lake notes, Hobbs knows that her ‘victory’ is illegitimate.
“Yesterday, @katiehobbs filed to get our lawsuit thrown out. Today, records revealed nearly a quarter of a million ballots were rejected on Election Day in Maricopa County in a race that came down to just 17K votes. She’s illegitimate & she knows it. More evidence to come,” Lake tweeted.
Yesterday, @katiehobbs filed to get our lawsuit thrown out.
Today, records revealed nearly a quarter of a million ballots were rejected on Election Day in Maricopa County in a race that came down to just 17K votes.
She’s illegitimate & she knows it.
More evidence to come. pic.twitter.com/Z4jFSVQjIx
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) January 24, 2023
But there’s more: Lake’s team also found evidence that nearly 40,000 ballots were not legally counted.
“Today’s Senate Testimony CONFIRMS nearly 40,000 ballots illegally counted (10% of the signatures reviewed). I think all the ‘Election Deniers’ out there deserve an apology,” she noted of the “bombshell discovery” this week.
? BOMBSHELL DISCOVERY ?
Today’s Senate Testimony CONFIRMS nearly 40,000 ballots illegally counted (10% of the signatures reviewed).
I think all the “Election Deniers” out there deserve an apology. pic.twitter.com/3g2x5zgd2c
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) January 23, 2023
In a tweet poll published this week, Anthony DeWitt asked if the public believes Kari Lake’s race for Arizona Governor was stolen from her. He said, “This is a serious poll. I want to see how many people believe that the 2022 Arizona Governor’s election was stolen from Kari Lake.” The results so far show that 91.1 percent believe the election was stolen, 3.6 percent are unsure, and 5.2 percent believe it was a fair election.
This is a serious poll.
I want to see how many people believe that the 2022 Arizona Governor’s election was stolen from @KariLake.
— Anthony DeWitt (@AnthonyDeWitt7) January 24, 2023
Last week, Lake addressed rumors that she was planning to run for the U.S. Senate after a survey found that she likely could win.
“I’m told Kari Lake is considering running for the US Senate seat held by Kyrsten Sinema in 2024,” CNN political reporter Kate Sullivan posted on Twitter.
In a statement to the Becker News, Lake’s campaign said, “Kari is hyper-focused on winning her court case as she is the duly elected Governor and her Election Case proves that.” Lake is currently attempting to legally address November election issues she says cost her a victory against then-Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who was sworn in as Arizona’s new governor earlier this month.
“It is true that dozens of people have reached out to Kari suggesting she run for US Senate,” the campaign’s statement continued. “There have been several polls showing she is the strongest candidate and could win. The corruption in DC is as bad as it is in AZ and we need to root out that corruption, but Kari’s focus is on her election case and saving the good people of Arizona from a fraud named Katie Hobbs who is dead set on destroying State 48.”
Judge calls California’s medical misinformation law “nonsense,” blocks it on First Amendment Grounds
By Christina Maas
Reclaim the Net
A federal judge questioned the new California law that penalizes doctors for sharing COVID-19 “misinformation.”
The new law, which came into effect on January 1 this year, prohibits doctors from spreading what the state deems to be misinformation to patients, or risk being penalized for “unprofessional conduct,” which could result in their licenses being revoked.
Here’s a summary of the case so far if you’re not up to date.
The law has been challenged through separate lawsuits filed by two organizations and a group of doctors on the grounds of First Amendment violations. They filed a motion at the US District Court of Sacramento to hold the law until the cases are concluded.
In a hearing, Senior Judge William Shubb described the law’s definition of misinformation as “nonsense.”
We obtained a copy of the order for you here.
“Because AB 2098 [the misinformation law] implicates [plaintiff’s] First Amendment right to receive information, she has standing,” the court wrote.
“Vague statutes are particularly objectionable when they involve sensitive areas of First Amendment freedoms because they operate to inhibit the exercise of those freedoms,” the court added, referring to a 2001 case, California Teachers Association v. State Board of Education.
“When the challenged law implicates First Amendment rights, a facial challenge based on vagueness is appropriate.”
The court granted the plaintiffs a hearing to challenge the law and blocked the enforcement of the law until the case is decided.
The law defines misinformation as “false information that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus contrary to the standard of care.”
Shubb noted that “standard of care” is not a new principle, but argued, “contemporary scientific consensus” is.
According to Deputy Attorney General Kristin Liska, who is representing Gov. Gavin Newsom, a medical professional has to violate all three aspects of the definition of misinformation for punishment to be applicable; share misinformation, contradict scientific consensus, and go against the standard of care.
However, she refused to give examples of statements that would fit the definition, saying that it would depend on the circumstances. Shubb then asked how she expects medical professionals to know what would violate the law.
[…]
Via https://reclaimthenet.org/judge-blocks-californias-medical-misinformation-law/
Did Germany just officially declare war on Russia?
Drago Bosnic
Info Brics
During a debate at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock bluntly stated that Germany and its allies are at war with Russia. The unexpected admission, although essentially true, is quite shocking given the fact that many Western officials have been insisting they aren’t directly involved in the conflict with Moscow. Baerbock made the statement during a discussion over sending “Leopard 2” heavy tanks to the Kiev regime. Most mainstream media conveniently ignored her words, but numerous experts were alarmed and warned that Berlin just essentially declared war on Russia.
This stands in stark contrast to claims of other German officials who have been extremely careful with their statements for nearly a year, insisting that their country is not directly involved in the Ukrainian conflict and citing uncontrollable escalation as their primary concern. However, this official stance is now in serious question, as one of the country’s top officials just effectively nullified all of their efforts. Annalena Baerbock started her statement at PACE with the following:
“And therefore I’ve said already in the last days – yes, we have to do more to defend Ukraine. Yes, we have to do more also on tanks. But the most important and the crucial part is that we do it together and that we do not do the blame game in Europe, because we are fighting a war against Russia and not against each other.”
Ironically, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his now former defense minister Christine Lambrecht have been accused of being “weak” on arming the Neo-Nazi junta. They have frequently insisted that it would be dangerous to get more directly involved in NATO’s proxy war against Russia. However, it seems that the much more hawkish Baerbock is willing to say the quiet part out loud. Moscow immediately reacted to the comments, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying this is yet another proof that the political West was planning a war on Russia for quite some time now.
“If we add this to Merkel’s revelations that they were strengthening Ukraine and did not count on the Minsk agreements, then we are talking about a war against Russia that was planned in advance. Don’t say later that we didn’t warn you,” Zakharova said.
Baerbock’s comments come on the heels of nearly a year of direct Russophobic narrative, including openly declared plans for war with Russia. In mid-November, Der Spiegel published leaked German Defense Ministry documents, revealing that the Bundeswehr is preparing for war with Russia. The secret draft titled “Operational guidelines for the Armed Forces” was authored by none other than the German Chief of Staff, General Eberhard Zorn himself. He stressed the need for a “mega-reform” of the German military and clearly identified Russia as an “immediate threat”.
The claim makes little sense, as Germany is now over 1,500 km away from Russia, with Belarus, Poland and Ukraine standing between the two countries. While such assertions made some sense at the height of the (First) Cold War, when the Soviet Union had over half a million soldiers stationed in East Germany alone (in addition to other Warsaw Pact member states), the situation is effectively reversed nowadays. NATO is the one encroaching on Russia’s western borders, with the crawling expansion including coups and other interventions in various Eastern European and post-Soviet states. After decades of this creeping aggression and Moscow’s futile attempts to build a comprehensive partnership with the political West, Russia was forced to launch its counteroffensive.
Back in early March, the German government announced a dramatic increase in defense spending, including a €100 billion budget for the Bundeswehr, essentially double in comparison to 2021. Although this will inevitably put additional pressure on the already struggling German economy, ravaged by the sanctions boomerang from its failed economic siege of Russia, Berlin’s suicidal subservience to Washington DC seems to take precedence. Much of Germany’s prosperity was based on access to cheap Russian energy, now a thing of the past thanks to Berlin’s resurgent Russophobia.
In addition, Germany also uniquely holds historical responsibility on a scale virtually no other country in the world does, especially towards Russia. During the Second World War, it launched a brutal invasion of the Soviet Union, killing nearly 30 million people and destroying virtually everything in its path. Worse yet, after approximately 80 years of denazification in the aftermath of its WWII defeat, Berlin still decided to support the Neo-Nazi junta in Kiev, effectively renouncing its own official postwar political position. This also includes German weapons that are killing Russians, both soldiers and civilians.
Alarmed by the dramatic shift in rhetoric, many in Germany are already pointing out the fact that the country is repeating the same historical mistake by antagonizing Russia. Petr Bystron, an AfD (Alternative for Germany) member of the German Parliament, reminded his colleagues in the Bundestag of the consequences of sending German tanks to fight Russia in Ukraine:
“It’s an interesting approach you’re taking here. German tanks against Russia in Ukraine. By the way, your grandfathers have already tried to do it then with the Melnyks and Banderas [Ukrainian Nazi collaborators during WWII] and what was the result? Untold suffering, millions of deaths on both sides, and in the end, Russian tanks here in Berlin. And two of them are still here, in front of the Bundestag. You should pass by them every morning and remember it!”
[…]
January 25, 2023
The ‘Great Food Reset’: Who’s Behind Plan to Reengineer the Global Food Supply?
By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D.Journalist James Corbett identifies the cast of characters driving the Great Food Reset, a plan to reengineer the global food supply under the guise of a fake food crisis.
The world’s food supply is being reengineered under the guise of a fake food crisis, according to journalist James Corbett.
“From cricket powder dumplings and bug burgers to GMOs and glyphosate to bioreactors and designer microbes to nutrigenomics and 3D printed material, the future of ‘food’ is shaping up to be radically different from anything you’ve eaten before,” the author of the “The Corbett Report” said.
Food, Corbett noted a week earlier on his Substack, has been leveraged throughout human history as a “powerful tool of control.”
But it’s not too late to “start formulating our own plans for counteracting this agenda” of control, Corbett said.
What’s the first step? Look closely at who’s behind the agenda.
According to Corbett:
“In order to truly do something to derail the runaway train that is the Great Food Reset, we must first understand it. And in order to understand it, we have to know something about the people behind this agenda.”
Corbett provided an information-packed rundown of the groups and individuals he believes are the drivers — historically and today — of the Great Food Reset.
The Rockefeller Foundation
According to Corbett, the Rockefellers and their namesake foundation — who “are in many ways the progenitors and the architects of the Great Food Reset” — are pushing for further centralization of control over the food supply, including “a new, integrated nutrition security system.”
“From the beginning of the so-called ‘Green Revolution’ to the so-called ‘Gene Revolution,’ the Rockefellers have been there,” Corbett said, “helping to move things along with their ‘philanthropic’ donations.”
Corbett cited the Rockefellers’ recent work in Africa, which operates under the name Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. The alliance’s stated goal — to “elevate the single African voice” — “sounds nice and fuzzy, until you learn that 200 organizations have come together to denounce the alliance and its activities,” Corbett said.
Corbett said the 200 critics of the alliance “claim that the group has not only ‘unequivocally failed in its mission,’ but has actually ‘harmed broader efforts to support African farmers.’”
Bill Gates
Corbett pointed out that Bill Gates, Sr., in 2009, admitted he had looked to the Rockefeller Foundation as an example to follow when he helped his son set up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — so it comes as “no surprise” that Bill Gates is heavily invested in the Great Food Reset.
Gates is “literally invested” in the food reset through his financing of the fake meat industry, Corbett said.
“Gates was, infamously, an important early backer of ‘Impossible Burger’ and its lab-grown synthetic biology food substitute,” Corbett said. “He also provided capital to Impossible rival Beyond Meat . . . until Beyond’s stock began to crumble.”
“Miraculously, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust was able to divest itself of its Beyond Meat stock right before the shares tanked in 2019,” Corbett said, adding, “The Gateses must be super-shrewd investors!”
Corbett also noted that Gates invested millions into “hacking your microbiome” to reengineer humans’ gut bacteria.
Gates became the biggest owner of U.S. farmland in 2021.
“Gee, I wonder why someone who’s so obsessed with completely reengineering the food supply and making us dependent on the lab-grown synthetic food substitutes he funds would be buying up farmland?” Corbett said.
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is behind many different aspects of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, including “Great Reset” food initiatives, Corbett said.
Among other goals, the WEF wants more people to eat more insects.
“[Klaus] Schwab’s desire to get humans off of traditional sources of protein and nutrients is very much a part of that Great Reset plan,” Corbett said.
Corbett told readers that a quick search of the word “insects” on the WEF website reveals the organization has been regularly spouting ideas such as, “5 reasons why eating insects could reduce climate change,” and “Insects could soon be appearing on restaurant menus in Europe.”
“The fat cats are now unwinding after their hard week at Davos,” Corbett said. “You can bet they’re not snacking down on cricket croquette or mealmoth flambé . . . though they may expect you to.”
The EAT Forum (Davos for Food)
Describing itself as the “Davos for food,” an organization called the EAT Forum — cofounded by the Wellcome Trust — says it is a “science-based global platform for food system transformation.”
Corbett pointed out that according to a Feb. 17, 2022, analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola, the EAT Forum’s largest initiative — FReSH — aims to transform the food system as a whole and features project partners including Bayer, Cargill, Syngenta, Unilever and Google.
Moreover, the EAT Forum, he said, also works with “nearly 40 city governments in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America and Australia, and helps the Gates-funded United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) create updated dietary guidelines.”
USAID
Corbett discussed a working paper — “Systemic Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Agriculture, Nutrition, and Food Systems” — released in 2022, by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Board for International Food and Agricultural Development in conjunction with “Feed the Future,” the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative.
“The whole document is couched in the bland bureaucratic doublespeak of ‘equity,’ ‘inclusion’ and ‘sustainability,’” Corbett said. “But, if you know how to read between the lines, it isn’t hard to understand what the report is really saying.”
“USAID’s ‘leverage’ over developing countries — specifically referenced no less than 125 times — gives an insight into the Kissingerian food-as-a-weapon mentality that is the very basis of USAID and its mission,” Corbett said.
He added:
“The entire enterprise reeks of a neocolonial landgrab masquerading as ‘philanthropy’ — the kind of territorial taking that people in Africa and elsewhere have been warning about for decades.”
[…]
Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/great-reset-global-food-supply/
Goodbye Empire? US Sanctions Failing in Face of Multipolarity
By Felix Livshitz
RT
FILE – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, right, reviews a military honor guard with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, June 8, 2018. © Greg Baker/Pool Photo via AP, FileForeign Affairs, a highly influential US magazine – effectively a US empire house journal – has published an article detailing how sanctions are quickly losing their efficiency as a weapon in Washington’s global arsenal.
Published by the Council on Foreign Relations NGO, Foreign Affairs provides space for officials within the US military industrial complex to communicate with one another on matters they believe to be of the utmost significance. Therefore, it is important to pay attention when the magazine makes major pronouncements on any issue.
It recently published an appraisal of US sanctions – the conclusion being that they are increasingly ineffective, have prompted Beijing and Moscow to create alternative global financial structures to insulate themselves and others from punitive actions, and that Washington and its acolytes will no longer be able to force countries to do their bidding, let alone destroy dissenting states, through such measures in the very near future.
The article begins by noting that “sanctions have long been the US’ favored diplomatic weapon,” which “fill the void between empty diplomatic declarations and deadly military interventions.” Despite this, it predicts “the golden days of US sanctions may soon be over.”
These “golden days” were the immediate post-Cold War era, when Washington was “still an unrivaled economic power,” and therefore could at the press of a button cripple each and every overseas economy, in theory. This was due to “primacy of the US dollar and the reach of US oversight of global financial channels.”
As international trade was overwhelmingly conducted using dollars, Washington could stop any country from exporting or importing any and all goods it wished, whenever it liked. Even then, Foreign Affairs recalls, US leaders themselves worried if sanctions were applied too liberally. In 1998, then-President Bill Clinton claimed his government was “in danger of looking like we want to sanction everybody who disagrees with us.”
The Foreign Affairs article says Clinton’s fears were “overblown,” but this is precisely what came to pass. Governments, and the countries they represented, have been sanctioned for pursuing the wrong policies, refusing to be overthrown in US-backed coups and military interventions and showing any degree of independence in their domestic or foreign dealings whatsoever. In the process, millions have died, and even more lives have been ruined for no good reason.
This approach has backfired, and badly. In response, states “have begun to harden their economies against such measures.” For example, after the US cut off Iran from the SWIFT global banking system, many other countries took note. Restricting China’s access to numerous technologies as part of the new Cold War has also served to place both Washington’s allies and adversaries alike “on notice their access to crucial technology could be severed.”
Beijing and Moscow lead the way in the push to create “financial innovations that diminish US advantage,” creating a raft of “currency swap agreements, alternatives to SWIFT, and digital currencies” that serve as “preemptive measures” against any “potential penalties” down the line.
Currency swaps, which connect central banks directly to each other and eliminate the need for trades between them to be dollar-backed, have been eagerly embraced by China. It has signed deals of this kind with more than 60 countries across the world, thereby enabling its companies “to circumvent US financial channels when they want to.”
In 2020, Beijing settled more than half its annual trade with Moscow in currencies other than the dollar, making the majority of these transactions totally immune to US sanctions, and that figure has only risen ever since. In March that year also, the China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization officially prioritized development of payments in the local currencies of its members.
Beijing and Moscow are also, Foreign Affairs reports, “busily preparing their own alternatives” to various Western-dominated international systems. Their alternative to SWIFT, the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, isn’t yet a match in terms of transaction volume, but that’s not the point. It prevents them, and any state or organization enrolled in the framework – 1,300 banks in over 100 countries already – from being unable to make international financial transactions, should they be cut out of SWIFT.Similarly, China is expanding the reach of the digital renminbi, the currency issued by Beijing central bank, at home and overseas. More than 300 million of its citizens already use it, and a billion are forecast to by 2030. The currency is completely sanctions-proof as the US has no ability to prevent its use, and Beijing has encouraged several countries to pay for its exports exclusively using it – “other such deals will probably follow,” Foreign Affairs predicts.
The American empire’s obsessive reliance on sanctions has now created a Catch-22 situation, by the magazine’s reckoning. The already hostile relations between the USA, China and Russia mean Moscow and Beijing are pushing ahead with this revolutionary effort no matter what. If “things get worse,” they’ll simply “double down on their sanctions-proofing efforts,” taking more and more countries with them.
“These innovations are increasingly giving countries the ability to conduct transactions through sanctions-proof channels. This trend appears irreversible,” the article bitterly concludes. “All this means that within a decade, US unilateral sanctions may have little bite.”
It is all these developments, along with Moscow’s economic pivot eastwards after the 2014 Ukraine coup, and move towards self-sufficiency in energy and food and in other vital resources, which account for the embarrassing failure of US-led sanctions against Russia.
Western leaders, academics, journalists, pundits and economists promised when these sanctions were imposed that they would soon lead to Russia’s total political, economic and military collapse. They have not, demonstrating that elites in Europe and North America do not understand the global economy they claim to rule. They should get to grips with the new reality they inhabit in short order, though – for a multipolar world has begun to emerge in 2022, and it is here to stay.
[…]
Via https://swentr.site/news/569926-us-sanctions-not-work/
Latest resignation scandal reveals massive scope of Kiev regime’s corruption
Drago Bosnic
InfoBrics
It’s hardly news that the Kiev regime is one of the most corrupt in the world. This issue was raised by many in the political West after NATO and EU governments decided to prop up the Neo-Nazi junta regardless of the cost or consequences. Experts, politicians, journalists and others repeatedly warned that the funds, weapons and other assets sent to Kiev should be subjected to extensive scrutiny. And yet, these audits weren’t only flatly rejected in most cases, but those requesting them were even accused of being “Russian shills” or “Putin apologists”, supposedly supporting Russia’s “unprovoked aggression” in Ukraine. The deeply corrupt oligarchs running the country couldn’t have possibly hoped for a better chance to essentially steal tens of billions of dollars of Western “aid”.
However, the scale of the theft has become so massive that not even the Kiev regime could turn a blind eye, forcing it to simultaneously fire over a dozen high-ranking officials. The media are already calling it the biggest mass resignation and corruption scandal in recent history, including allegations such as bribery, embezzlement and mismanagement of “aid” funds for purchasing food, etc. The now-former officials were also caught buying sports cars, throwing lavish parties and going on expensive vacations while regular Ukrainian citizens suffer the consequences of the Neo-Nazi junta’s suicidal subservience to Euro-Atlantic “values”. The scandal involves a top adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky and four deputy ministers, including two defense officials. In addition, governors of at least five oblasts (regions) were fired, including those in Zaporozhye and Kherson.
Oleg Nemchinov, head of the Secretariat of Cabinet of Ministers compiled a list of officials who were forced to resign:
– Deputy Prosecutor General Oleskiy Symonenko
– Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories Ivan Lukeryu
– Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories Vyacheslav Negoda
– Deputy Minister for Social Policy Vitaliy Muzychenk
The list also includes the governors of Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Kiev, Sumy and Kherson oblasts, while the defense ministry confirmed its deputy minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov was fired. He was in charge of logistics for the Kiev regime forces and was accused of signing food contracts at inflated prices. Shapovalov used public funds (most of which are now provided by the political West) to purchase military rations, enabling extra profits for contractors and himself. The Kiev regime is still trying to downplay the scandal, calling it a “technical error”, but even some mainstream media are unconvinced. On January 24, Politico published the details of Shapovalov’s scheme:
“An exposé from the Ukrainian news website ZN.UA revealed last week that the defense ministry purchased overpriced food supplies for its troops. For instance, the ministry bought eggs at 17 hryvnias per piece, while the average price of an egg in Kyiv is around 7 hryvnias. According to ZN.UA, a contract for food procurement for soldiers in 2023 amounted to 13.16 billion hryvnias (€328 million).”
And yet, the now-former deputy minister insists his resignation is purely altruistic and that he’s stepping down so as “not to pose a threat to the stable supply of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a result of a campaign of accusations related to the purchase of food services.”
As the scandal grows in scope, some mainstream media are resorting to damage control and are trying to downplay the crimes. The deputy head of the presidential administration Kyrylo Tymoshenko, accused of using public funds for his lavish lifestyle, is now being whitewashed by Western state-run media, such as the BBC, which is claiming that “Tymoshenko was implicated in several scandals during his tenure, including in October last year when he was accused of using a car donated to Ukraine for humanitarian purposes.” However, in early December, local media presented evidence that Tymoshenko drove expensive sports cars to and from mansions which cost up to $25,000 per month in maintenance only.
Other Western state-run media are also trying to downplay the scandal and are even blaming Russia. The AFP claims that “Ukraine has long suffered endemic corruption, including among the political elite, but efforts to stamp out graft have been overshadowed by Moscow’s full-scale war that began in February,” adding that “Kyiv’s Western allies, who have allocated billions of dollars in financial and military support, have been pushing for anti-corruption reforms for years, sometimes as a precondition for aid.”
The scandal also includes luxury vacations abroad, with Deputy Prosecutor General Symonenko caught vacationing in Spain this winter while the vast majority of Ukrainians can’t afford basic necessities. Due to public outcry, the Kiev regime has even banned top officials to go abroad for vacations. In addition, mere days before the latest scandal, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Development Vasyl Lozynskiy was accused of receiving bribes to force the purchase of generators at greatly hiked-up prices. And to top it all, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov himself might be directly involved in the scandal.
It should be noted that the aforementioned officials are directly involved in overseeing tens of billions of dollars provided by taxpayers in the US, EU and elsewhere, people who are being impoverished as a result of the political West’s comprehensive aggression against Russia. The scandal could also explain why the Pentagon has been “unable” to track over $20 billion in weapons as the black market became flooded with Western-made arms. And yet, the Kiev regime frontman Volodymyr Zelensky is requesting a trillion dollars for the alleged “reconstruction” of Ukraine
[…]
Milling Grain in Ancient Greece and Rome
Lecture 18: Milling Grain with Water
Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: From the Catapult to the Pantheon
Dr Stephen Ressler (2013)
Film Review
Water in ancient Greece and Rome was mainly used to mill grans, which provided 70-75% of the average person’s calories. Nevertheless archeologists have discovered a water powered sawmill (used to cut marble) in ancient Gaul. During the late empire, there is also evidence of using water power to knead dough, cleaning wool and lifting hammers to crush mineral ores.
To process grain into flour, the husk must be broken so it can be ground into a fine powder. Prior to the classical age, the saddle quern (below) was the main tool used to grind wheat and other grains. The residue was passed through a sieve to remove the chaff. With this method, it took three hours to produce enough flour for one household for one day.
In the 5th century BC, the Greeks invented the hopper mill, consisting of a concave lower stone, a convex upper stone and a hopper in the middle.By adding a lever, the hopper mill provided mechanical advantage. It also saved time because the flour fell into the hopper as it was produced.
The portable rotary quern was introduced around the same. With this machine, the miller used a wooden handle to rotate the upper stone around its axle.
In the 3rd century BC, the rotary quern became the first mill to be operated by animal. Used in commercial bakeries, it consisted of a moveable cone shaped hopper that rotated on top of a lower stone fixed to the base. The former rotated on a wooden spindle connected to two wooden capstans. The miler only had to load the hopper and collect the flour. One or two donkeys would be yoked to the capstan arms.
Introduced around the 3rd century BC, water mills were widely adopted by the 1st century BC. Ressler describes three types of water mills: the undershot wheel (described by Vetruvius in De Architectura), the overshot wheel and the vertical shaft wheel.
With the undershot wheel, the grinding surface turns on a vertical axis, connecting to the water wheel via right angle gearing.
The overshot wheel supplied water to the top of the wheel via a head race and carried it away via a tail race. It, too, connected to the mill stones via right angle gearing. It was 30 times more efficient than the undershot wheel.
The gearing systems used in these water mills and elsewhere were developed in Alexandria during the third century BC.
Vertical shaft mills were much less common. They employed a horizontally oriented wheel to drive a vertical shaft. Developed during the 3rd century BC, it was the simplest, with water driving the mill shaft directly. Although it was probably too slow for effective milling, it was the world’s first true turbine, very similar to the turbines used in modern hydroelectric plants.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
January 24, 2023
Off Shore Wind Development Killing a Lot of Whales
By David Wojick, Ph.D.
PA Pundits – International
The recent deaths of seven whales off New Jersey, mostly humpbacks, got a lot of attention. The federal NOAA Fisheries agency is responsible for whales. An outrageous statement by their spokesperson got me to do some research on humpback whale deaths.
The results are appalling. The evidence seems clear that offshore wind development is killing whales by the hundreds.
Here is the statement as reported in the press:
“NOAA said it has been studying what it calls “unusual mortality events” involving 174 humpback whales along the East Coast since January 2016. Agency spokesperson Lauren Gaches said that period pre-dates offshore wind preparation activities in the region.” Gaches is NOAA Fisheries press chief.
The “unusual mortality” data is astounding. Basically the humpback death rate roughly tripled starting in 2016 and continued high thereafter. You can see it here:
But the claim that this huge jump in mortality predates offshore wind preparation activities is wildly false. In fact it coincides with the large scale onset of these activities. This strong correlation is strong evidence of causation, especially since no other possible cause has appeared.
To begin with, offshore lease sales really geared up 2015-16, with nine big sales off New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Massachusetts. These sales must have generated a lot of activity, likely including potentially damaging sonar.
In fact 2016 also saw the beginning of what are called geotechnical and site characterization surveys. These surveys are actually licensed by NOAA Fisheries, under what are called Incidental Harassment Authorizations or IHA’s.
There is some seriously misleading jargon here. IHA’s are incidental to some other activity, in this case offshore wind development. They are not incidental to the whales. In fact the term “harassment” specifically includes injuring the whales. That is called “level A harassment”.
To date NOAA has issued an astounding 46 one-year IHA’s for offshore wind sites. Site characterization typically includes the protracted use of what I call “machine gun sonar”. This shipboard device emits an incredibly loud noise several times a second, often for hours at a time, as the ship slowly maps the sea floor.
Mapping often takes many days to complete. A blaster can log hundreds of miles surveying a 10-by-10 mile site. Each IHA is typically for an entire year.
Here is a list of the IHA’s issued to date and those applied for:
There are lots of ways this sonar blasting might cause whales to die. Simply fleeing the incredible noise could cause ship strikes or fish gear entanglements, the two leading causes of whale deaths. Of the whales could be deafened, increasing their chances of being struck by a ship later on. Direct bleeding injury, like getting their ears damaged, is another known risk, possibly leading to death from infection. So there can be a big time difference between blasting and death.
Note also that these deaths need not be in the immediate vicinity of the sonar blasting, so spatial correlation is unlikely. Humpbacks in particular are prodigious travelers. One group was tracked traveling 3,000 miles in just 28 days, over 100 miles a day on average. Another group routinely migrates 5,000 miles. Both are winter-summer migrations which can happen twice a year.
Thus a sonar blasting, site characterization in one place could easily lead to multiple whale deaths hundreds of miles away. If one of these blasters suddenly goes off near a group of whales they might go off in different directions, then slowly die.
The point is that the huge 2016 jump in annual humpback mortality coincides with the huge jump in NOAA Incidental Harassment Authorizations. It is that simple and surely NOAA Fisheries knows this.
Nor is this just about humpbacks. Some of the dead whales off New Jersey are endangered sperm whales. And of course there are the severely endangered North Atlantic Right Whales, on the verge of extinction.
Even worse, the IHA’s are about to make a much bigger jump. There are eleven pending IHA applications and eight of these are for actually constructing 8 different monster wind “farms”.
Driving the hundreds of enormous monopiles that hold up the turbine towers and blades will be far louder than the sonic blasters approved to date, especially with eight sites going at once. These construction sites range from Virginia to Massachusetts, with a concentration off New Jersey and New York.
For more on this noise see my https://www.cfact.org/2022/07/26/threat-to-endangered-whales-gets-louder/
[…]
Dilbert Creator Acknowledges Natural Immunity
By Freedom Through Natural Immunity
I’ve always loved the cartoon strip Dilbert, which follows the life of a cynical office worker dealing with the absurdities of corporate America. Other characters include Dilbert’s clueless, pointy haired boss, his equally cynical colleagues and of course Dogbert, a megalomaniac dog who dreams of conquering the world. I find it eerily similar close to real life in the workforce and just hilarious!
What isn’t so funny is Dilbert strip creator, Scott Adams’s, rabidly obnoxious pro Covid 19 vaccination stance and his demonization of “anti vaxxers” as stupid, immoral people. It’s always baffled the heck out of me how someone so creative and seemingly aware of the dark side of human nature could be so off the mark, but that’s been par for the course lately.
Anyway, it appears Mr. Adams has had a change of heart (or more likely is worried about his heart), as the video below makes clear.
“The anti vaxxers appear to be right. Now you’ve got natural immunity and you’ve got no vaccination in you. Can we all agree that was the winning path? The thing they’re not worried about is what I have to worry about, which is I wonder if that vaccine 5 years from now….“
This is not an “I told you so” post. Rather I wanted to commend Scott Adams for his public about face, I give him a lot of props for that. I also think it’s important that people see these testimonies as the mainstream surely the mainstream media will not publicize it.
Not yet anyway, but soon they will have no choice. The safe and effective narrative on Covid 19 vaccines is crumbling and many people are expressing regret. Those of you feeling the same way should know you are not alone.
For the record, I don’t feel like I’ve “won” anything either. To the contrary, this unprecedented scientific experiment on 3/4 of the worlds population, the bullying, the shaming, the mandates and atrocious gaslighting around the injuries it has caused; all of this has brought great societal harm. There are no winners here, but rectification will come at some point. The more people like Scott who come forth publicly with their regrets, the quicker it will happen.
Via https://freedomthroughempowerment.wordpress.com/2023/01/24/a-shifting-tide-on-covid-vaccines/
The Most Revolutionary Act
- Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's profile
- 11 followers
