Puppet MastersS


Quenelle - Golden

Forked tongue: Macron urges Putin to 'return to table' on Ukraine while supplying more weapons

Macron
© AFP/Ludovic Marin
French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Moscow to negotiate at the same time pledging additional military support for Kiev amid the ongoing escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Speaking to France 2 broadcaster on Wednesday, Macron condemned the large-scale missile attack launched by Russia against Ukraine's critical infrastructure, launched by Moscow in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the crucial Crime bridge, blamed on Kiev. The large-scale missile strikes have shown that the conflict has entered "an unprecedented stage," Macron asserted, claiming that "for the first time all over Ukraine civilians have been killed ... and electricity and heating facilities have been destroyed."

"We're going to deliver ... radars, systems and missiles to protect them from these attacks," Macron said, adding that France is also negotiating delivery of six additional Caesar self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine. The artillery pieces were originally built for Denmark.


Comment: The West is getting desperate and keeps sending weapons to Ukraine to no avail, at the same time telling Russia to come to the negotiating table. The conditions from the West though is for Russia to surrender all new territories and basically go back. That is not going to happen.


Comment: Russia is open to negotiations, but Ukraine is not and importantly the US/UK handlers are quite happy for the war to go on. The US admits that it is happy to just spend $66 billion to fight Russia at a distance using Ukrainians as cannon fodder.

What is also happening is that Russia is not only demilitarizing Ukraine but also Europe as the stockpiles in Europe is getting systematically depleted.


Propaganda

President Biden inaccurately claims that his son 'lost his life in Iraq'

joe biden shades
© Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
President Joe Biden inaccurately said during remarks in Colorado on Wednesday that he had a son who died in Iraq.

Biden appeared to be referring to his late son Beau Biden when he described himself as the "father of a man who won the bronze star, the conspicuous service medal, and lost his life in Iraq."

Comment: See also:


Light Sabers

Is the US shutting down power to Europe?

Nordstream
© Nord Stream
September 26, 2022, massive "leaks" were detected in two Russian pipelines, Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, which deliver natural gas from Russia to Europe underneath the Baltic Sea.

Within a couple of days, several countries, including Russia, agreed the leaks were the result of intentional sabotage or, to quote Fox News host Tucker Carlson (above), "an act of industrial terrorism." Obvious questions include who did it? Why? And why now?

Incidentally, just one day after the Nord Stream sabotage, a new Polish pipeline was inaugurated. As reported by the Pipeline Technology Journal, the Baltic Pipe will "help Poland and Europe reduce their longstanding dependency on Russian natural gas" by transporting gas from Norway via Denmark to Poland and neighboring nations.1


Comment: See also:


War Whore

West did not supply weapons to India for decades: Jaishankar

Jaishankar
© APJaishankar was asked whether India should reduce its reliance on Russian weapons systems and rethink its relationship with Russia, given what is going on in Ukraine.
After holding talks with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong in Canberra, Jaishankar also said that India and Russia have a long-standing relationship that has certainly served India's interests well.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday that India has a substantial inventory of Soviet and Russian-origin weapons because Western countries opted a military dictatorship in the region as its "preferred partner" and did not supply arms to New Delhi for decades, in a thinly-veiled reference on US' ties to Pakistan.

After holding talks with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong in Canberra, Jaishankar also said that India and Russia have a long-standing relationship that has certainly served India's interests well.

Comment: See also:


Health

China's zero-Covid policy key to Xi Jinping's efforts to cement authority

Xi Jinping
© RTHK screenshotXi Jinping.
Throughout the pandemic, Xi Jinping has dug in his heels, declaring zero-Covid China's most "economic and effective" path forward, while maintaining policies that have deepened the state's control over the lives of its 1.4 billion people.

For many in China, years of gruelling lockdowns and privacy invasions aimed at extinguishing Covid have caused misery.

For President Xi Jinping, the virus curbs are a triumph.

Comment: This is the western perspective on what's going on in China, but let's think about this a bit more. Xi and the ruling party in China aren't stupid. They likely know that the true nature of Covid is a NothingBurger™ and that the senseless lockdowns are causing great economic losses and suffering among the populace. So perhaps they know something the rest of us don't. Perhaps they aren't actually worried about Covid, but something more sinister coming from their less-than-friendly western neighbors. If the Wuhan Games incident taught China anything, it was how susceptible they are to outsider viruses spreading through their population. It's possible that "zero-Covid" is a front for protecting their country from the other shoe-drop.

See also:


Bad Guys

The curious silence surrounding the Baltic gas bubbles

europe us nord stream attack
Of course, they know. They know who did it​, b​ut the Euro-élite won't say.
​Many are confused. Europe has just lost a key source of cheap energy needed as the resource base to run any modern society and economy. It comes at the very moment too, that Britain and the Euro Zone have entered into an inflationary financial crisis.

​What happened? A giant bubble of gas roiled the surface of the Baltic Sea, marking the demise of any putative Nord Stream supply to Germany -​-​ thus 'facilitating' what Secretary of State Blinken has called a "tremendous opportunity" for the US. Curiously, the sabotage coincided with reports suggest​ing​ that secret talks were afoot ​between Germany and ​Russia to resolve all Nord Stream issues and to restart supply.

And what do we hear from Europe? Silence -- apart from perfunctory and formulaic condemnations of Russia.

Mr. Potato

Discord among the elite? A reeling Europe lashes out at the Fed for 'bringing us to a world recession'

Joseph Borrell
Joseph Borrell, the EU Foreign minister. The two sides have not reached an agreement on Pristina's plans to ban Belgrade's license plates.
As a result of the Fed's relentless tightening blitz, which on November 2 will have hiked rates by 75bps on four occasions in just 96 trading days, the fastest tightening campaign since Volcker, both US capital markets (the S&P 500 is down -24%, for the 4th worst year on record, only 1931, 1974, and 2002 were worse; and 10Y TSYs are down -17% for the worst year on record... 1987 second worse, and bonds were down -10%) and the US economy have been left reeling.

However, the damage in the US - whose economy is relatively isolated from the knock-on (or is that out) effects of the soaring global reserve currency - are nothing compared to the devastation unleashed by the Fed in the form of the soaring dollar and exploding interest rates. And yet the outcry against either the Soros Biden administration, or chair Powell has been relatively muted (excluding the occasional scathing oped in China's Global Times and fake populist rage-tweet by everyone's favorite "native American", Liz Warren). To be sure, this was to be expected: after all, the last thing central banks need, when they are seeking to effect an extremely unpopular global economic recession that will leave millions without a job (think inflation is bad? just wait until you have no job and inflation is still bad) is growing discord among the ranks of the technocrats who have a simple script: no matter how unpopular or stupid a given policy is, you never, never, disagree in public, as this risks sparking popular outrage and toppling the entire house of cards at the hands of a suddenly very angry public.

At least that was the case until now: because today, in a startling outcry breaching the unspoken protocol of "no dissent, never dissent", Josep Borrell, the high representative of the 27-member EU bloc, lashed out all too publicly at the Fed when he said that central banks (across Europe where the recession will be far, far worse than in the US) are being forced to follow the Fed's multiple rate rises to prevent their currencies from slumping against the dollar, and compared the US central bank's influence to Germany's dominance of European monetary policy before the creation of the euro.

Comment: It is an economic war going on. Those least exposed to the vulture capitalism of the West, will be the best off. At the moment cracks are starting to appear in the unity of the Western elite as some are discovering that their allies are actually their enemies. Some in Germany discovered that with the US blowing up Nordstream 1 & 2.

See also:


Oil Well

Oil cuts: A perfect storm in US foreign policy

PutinBiden
The Biden administration's poor dealings with oil producing countries will have major political and economic ramifications for the West. The old adage is that a good foreign policy is the reflection of the national policy. In this sense, a perfect storm is brewing on the foreign policy front in the US, triggered by the OPEC decision on 5 October to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day.

On the one hand, this will drive up the gas price for the domestic consumer and on the other, will expose the US administration's lop-sided foreign policy priorities.

At its most obvious level, OPEC's move confirms the belief that Washington has lost its leverage with the cartel of oil-producing countries. This is being attributed to the deterioration of the US' relations with Saudi Arabia during the presidency of Joe Biden. But, fundamentally, a contradiction has arisen between the US interests and the interests of the oil producing countries.

Comment: Global blinders are off. Can't blame OPEC for facing reality and acting accordingly.


Bad Guys

The madness of America's ruling class

flag
© AJC.comOld Glory
The ruling class has failed immensely. The last two years are proof, but with each passing day, one wonders: Are America's elites plunging into madness? That's a dead serious question. With their madness may go our lives. That's dead serious, too.

Joe Biden spoke the other day about the possibility of nuclear "Armageddon." With cataclysm in mind, Biden's Department of Health and Human Services spent $290 million on anti-radiation drugs. Uncle Sam makes plenty of wasteful expenditures, but is this one?

Said our doddering president, AP, October 7:
Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser, Biden said Thursday night that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "a guy I know fairly well" and the Russian leader is "not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons."
Is Biden sounding the alarm to try to rally Americans and stave off midterm election losses for congressional Democrats? Crass politics from Biden wouldn't surprise, yet...

Jordan Schachtel, writing at The Dossier on Substack, says that Volodymyr Zelensky's call to bomb Russia (now being walked back by the Ukrainian government) has no support from NATO.

But what if a direct attack on Russia isn't what ignites major conflict with the Russians?

Comment: It's a crap shoot. 'Madness' doesn't even cover it. Biden has put the US in the crosshairs by tempting the trigger.


Bomb

NATO mine destroyer was discovered at Nord Stream 1 in 2015, says Gazprom

NS 1&2
© ReutersGazprom Nord Stream
After the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines were rocked by explosions, the stakeholders launched a probe. While the majority have pointed fingers at Russia for self-sabotage - Gazprom, which maintains the pipeline has dropped a bombshell.

Reportedly, the Russian energy major on Monday said that nearly seven years ago, a mine destroyer was discovered at the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, belonging to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Sergei Kupriyanovm, the Gazprom spokesperson told the Russian state media that "munitions object" which was fished from a depth of 40 metres was cleared by the Swedish Armed Forces without providing much detail about its discovery at a suspicious location. "Gas transportation, halted because of the incident, was restored," added Sergei.

The Nord Stream website has an official account of the incident where it details that the pipeline was halted briefly before the Swedish forces carried the munitions away. The statement read:
"The piece of munitions was found in close proximity to the Nord Stream Line 2 on November 6, 2015 during routine survey operations as part of annual integrity assessment activities of the Nord Stream offshore pipeline system. The location of the object was in the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) approximately 120 km away from the island of Gotland. The relevant Swedish Authorities were informed and stayed in a direct contact with Nord Stream until the object was successfully cleared."