Puppet MastersS


Magic Wand

A Christmas Parable

mirror
© yankeetherebel.com/KJNThrough-a-glass darkly
As the Yule log burns down, and the trivialities of the season melt into air, the nation might ask itself how the authorities who run things went to war against the citizens of this land. I will tell you, and, it will probably make you angry:
It started when the women of the professional and managerial class watched their avatar, Hillary Clinton, lose the 2016 election against a man who seemed the quintessence of everything they hated about Daddydom.
Donald Trump, flawed to perfection, wrecked the chance of the amalgamated successful women of America to run the national household. Out came the pussy-hats, the shrieking Wiccans, and the celebrities threatening to "blow up the White House." Out came a savage animus against men generally, and a campaign to feminize them in retaliation — and then punish them for objecting to it. Up rose a social movement, Wokery, that had the earmarks of a histrionic religious mania, with Satanic overtones. Up rose the demons, the Antifa louts, the BLM arsonists, the drag queens.

Thus unrolled a national psychodrama that continues to spool out as every system, every business, every institution in our country now wobbles and flies apart. In 2016, the men embedded in the professional and managerial class tried to chivalrously protect their women's avatar and her steadfast followers and, failing ignobly that grim November day, then turned to actually attack their adversary, Donald Trump, with the explicit intent to destroy him by all means necessary. In the years-long process, they devolved into criminality, and in so doing they entered a vicious cycle of lying about everything they did to escape the consequences of their ostensible exercise in gallantry.

X

Censor or else: Democratic members warn Facebook not to 'backslide' on censorship

4 politicians
© The Hill/Greg Nash/Tom WilliamsCQ Roll-CallNewscom/Jacquelyn Martin/AP/KJNSheldon Whitehouse • André Carson • Kathy Castor • Adam Schiff
With the restoration of free speech protections on Twitter, panic has grown on the left that its control over social media could come to an end. Now, some of the greatest advocates of censorship in Congress are specifically warning Facebook not to follow Twitter in restoring free speech to its platform.

In a chilling letter from Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), André Carson (D-Ind.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Facebook was given a not-so-subtle threat that reducing its infamous censorship system will invite congressional action. The letter to Meta's president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, is written on congressional stationery "as part of our ongoing oversight efforts."

With House Republicans pledging to investigate social media censorship when they take control in January, these four Democratic members are trying to force Facebook to "recommit" to censoring opposing views and to make election censorship policies permanent. Otherwise, they suggest, they may be forced to exercise oversight into any move by Facebook to "alter or rollback certain misinformation policies."

Stock Down

'Slow-motion train wreck': Economist Dr. Doom is extra gloomy as he warns of a 'deep and protracted' recession—says World War III has already begun

Dr. Doom
© Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesNouriel Roubini 'Doctor Doom'
There's nothing like a doomsday prediction to start the week. And don't worry, Nouriel Roubini has plenty of them.

The economist, professor emeritus at New York University's Stern School of Business, and CEO of Roubini Macro Associates, has even earned the moniker "Dr. Doom" for his pessimistic forecasts.

And on Sunday, Roubini — once again — warned that the global economy is heading for disaster. He told the Financial Times.
"I think that really the world is on a slow-motion train wreck. There are major new threats that did not exist before, and they're building up and we're doing very little about it."
Roubini has been sounding the alarm about a coming economic crisis of the ages for over a year now.

In his new book, MegaThreats: 10 Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, and How to Survive Them, he breaks down how challenges like climate change, competition between economic superpowers, and rising global debts are all combining to create a nightmare scenario for the world.

Roubini even told Fortune in November that "another variant of a Great Depression" was possible if policymakers don't act to stop these "MegaThreats. There may be severe financial crises and debt crises," he warned. And even though the U.S. is in a better place than many nations, according to Roubini, Americans can expect a recession too.

"This is not going to be a short and shallow recession, it's going to be deep and protracted," he said on Sunday.

Magic Wand

Delusional Zelensky thinks 'reconquest' of Crimea has started

Zelensky
© Global Look Press/President of UkraineUkraine President Volodymyr Zelensky
Ukrainians are now psychologically ready to retake the Crimean Peninsula from Russia by force, President Vladimir Zelensky told French broadcaster TF1 in an interview on Sunday. "The Reconquest" of Crimea has supposedly already started in Ukrainians' heads, the president claimed, hinting that he could visit the "de-occupied" peninsula as early as 2023.

When asked about Kiev's plans for Crimea, Zelensky said:
"The operation itself has not started yet. When it starts, you will definitely hear about it."
According to Zelensky, it was not enough for Kiev to just repeatedly state that the peninsula is a part of Ukrainian territory. Ukraine should be ready to retake it by force, he said, adding that Russia would hardly give up on it.
"One should be ready and go [to Crimea]. No one would just surrender Crimea for no particular reason. Reconquest always starts with society: with its will and readiness. I believe the start has been made."
Zelensky didn't provide any details about the timing of the purported operation but said that he "loves Crimea" and would be "glad to come to our de-occupied Crimea," adding that it would be "nice" to get there in summer 2023.

Comment: When reality doesn't work, fantasy does.


Bizarro Earth

Ukraine becomes even darker in most recent NASA satellite photo

ukraine light blackout power
The photo is dated December 17th. The picture shows that Ukraine plunged into complete darkness. All around you can see bright spots from the light of cities and infrastructure in neighboring countries.

On December 16, the Russian Armed Forces dealt a massive blow to the military command and control systems, the military-industrial complex and the energy facilities of Ukraine that provide them. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the strike was carried out by high-precision long-range air and sea-based weapons.

Comment:

The first image that revealed the extent of Ukraine's supply issue was released on November 24th: Satellite images show Ukraine plunged into darkness after Russia takes out energy terminals


Gear

Sanctions against Russia 'boomeranged' - Lukashenko

Lukashenko
© Sputnik / Pavel BednyakovBelarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Minsk, Belarus.
Belarus and Russia have mostly managed to mitigate the effects of "primitive" Western sanctions, which have hurt the common people of the EU instead, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in Minsk on Monday.

"Thanks to steps we've taken together, we generally managed to overcome the possible negative effects of the sanctions pressure," Lukashenko said at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, complimenting the sanctions specialists from both countries on a job well done.

Flashlight

Newly released docs shed light on FBI's attempts to influence Twitter

twitter logo
© Idrees Abbas / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
The FBI constantly pressured Twitter for evidence of foreign influence campaigns and prodded it into sharing more data, newly released internal company communications show. At times, the social media platform pushed back against the Bureau's claims of widespread disinformation campaigns by outside actors, according to excerpts from conversations between former Twitter executives and the FBI.

The seventh batch of Twitter documents was published on Monday by author Michael Shellenberger with the blessing of the company's new owner, Elon Musk. The release was part of Musk's effort to provide transparency about Twitter's past decision-making.

According to Shellenberger, the files provide insight into how the FBI "primed" Twitter throughout 2020 towards the eventual decision to block the story about Hunter Biden's business dealings with China, which were found on his laptop and reported on by the New York Post in October of that year.

The Post broke the story in the weeks leading up to the presidential election, which was won by Joe Biden, Hunter Biden's father.

War Whore

US-made missiles destroyed over western Russia - Moscow

AGM-88 HARM missile
© WikimediaAn AGM-88 HARM missile

Four US-made AGM-88 HARM aircraft-fired anti-radar missiles have been shot down over Russia's Belgorod Region, which shares a border with Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Monday.

It added that Russian air defenses in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and the Zaporozhye Region also intercepted six rockets fired by US-made HIMARS launchers and Soviet-designed Uragan systems.

The news came after Ukrainian troops shelled the city of Belgorod and other areas in the eponymous region on Sunday, killing one person and injuring ten others, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

He wrote on his Telegram channel that 75 residential and industrial buildings were damaged, as well as around 40 cars.

Pirates

Poland and Germany make 2023 application for Russian oil via Druzhba pipeline

Druzhba pipeline
Druzhba pipeline
The Russian company Transneft has received applications from Germany and Poland for pumping oil for next year through the Druzhba pipeline.

Earlier, these countries stated that by the end of the year they intend to completely abandon pipeline oil supplies from Russia, however, they submitted applications for pumping for the next 2023.

Berlin and Warsaw intend to extend import supplies of oil from Russia in significant volumes. Poland expects to supply 360 thousand tons of oil during December of the outgoing year and 3 million tons - during the next year, 2023. Germany has also already received an application for pipeline oil supplies during the first quarter of next year.

Comment: And this is Poland that just the other day declared Russia to be a 'state sponsor of terrorism'.

RT reports:
According to Tokarev, Warsaw expects to receive 360,000 tons of Russian crude this December and 3 million tons more in 2023. He added that Berlin has also placed an order for the first quarter of next year, but did not specify the volume requested.

"They announced that they would not take oil from Russia as of January 1. However, we have already received requests to pump it through the Druzhba pipeline from Poland and Germany next year," Tokarev stated.

The EU embargo on Russian oil, which came into force on December 5, does not apply to the Druzhba pipeline, targeting only seaborne shipments. The southern leg of the pipeline delivers oil to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, which are heavily reliant on Russian supplies.
As we can see above, the West claims to be 'abandoning' Russian energy supplies but because currently it has no viable alternatives it's instead paying for it at an even higher price, secretly, via intermediaries.

That said, do Poland and Germany foresee the NATO-instigated conflict ending in 2023? Or does its leadership realise that, whatever happens, by that point it will need a reliable and affordable energy source or risk unimaginable upheaval at home? Europe's energy bill hits $1 trillion, marks just the beginning of crisis - Bloomberg




Bullseye

Pepe Escobar: News from the NATOstan-imposed 'meat grinder'

russia tanks ukraine
© Anton Vergun TASS via Getty ImagesA column of Russian military vehicles is seen near the village of Oktyabrsky, Belgorod Region, near the Russian-Ukrainian border, on February 26, 2022.
Somewhere in her private pantheon, Pallas Athena, Goddess of Geopolitics, is immensely enjoying the show.

No one ever lost money capitalizing on the unlimited nonsense spewed out by the collective deer-caught-in-the-headlights also known as Western mainstream media - complete with showering Person of the Year awards on a megalomaniac, cocaine-fueled lousy actor impersonating a warlord.

The non-stop trashy parade of Western military analysts is now "assessing" that the first targets of an incoming, joint Russia-Belarus attack on the 404 black hole formerly known as Ukraine will be Lviv, Lutsk, Rivne, Zhytomyr, and why not throw Kiev in the mix straight out of a second axis.

The Russian General Staff is attentively monitoring all the action and may even follow the advice of such "analysts".

And then there's outright panic, as the Ministry of Defense announced that the Strategic Missile Forces have loaded two Yars ICBMs into their intended silos. Cue to widespread shrieks of horror of the "Russia Readies Nuclear Missile Capable Of Striking Deep Into US" variety.