Society's Child

Claudio Grass: Death knell tolls for the euro as more European nations repatriate gold

RT
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 13:03 UTC

The latest trend among European countries of bringing home their gold reserves has been raising concerns in Brussels. RT talked to Claudio Grass of Precious Metal Advisory Switzerland to understand what's behind that trend.

According to Grass, the process means disintegration, which usually comes with instability, unrest, more government intervention and control.

"The central banks started the repatriation already a few years ago, meaning before we had Brexit, Catalonia, Trump, AFD or the rising tensions between the Politburo in Brussels and the nations of Eastern Europe," he said.

Grass explained that these are all symptoms that are evident today and "therefore the central banks might have seen this coming long before the public realized it."

Comment: Also read:

Trans propaganda today

Rod Dreher
American Conservative
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 12:57 UTC

Eastern Europeans asked me how on earth Westerners are succumbing to the transgender insanity. I told them that a steady diet of media propaganda has a big role in it. For example, this from New York magazine's website.

Comment:

Poll: 19 years after NATO bombed Serbia, most Serbs won't accept apology from alliance

RT
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 12:52 UTC

A majority of Serbs today would not accept an apology from NATO for its 1999 military intervention in Kosovo. Only 10 percent would wish to see their country become a member of the trans-Atlantic defense bloc, recent poll shows.

The continued animosity towards NATO in Serbia was highlighted by an opinion poll conducted by the Belgrade-based Institute for European Affairs in mid-March. According to the poll, only 10 percent of Serbs support membership of the military bloc while 84 percent oppose it. The mood is particularly strong in the Serbian capital, where the level of support for NATO membership is 5.8 percent, and among young people aged 18 to 25 (7.7 percent). Only 18 percent believe that becoming an ally would be beneficial for Serbia.

Former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic and his policies are perceived as the main reason for the bombings by 17.4 percent of Serbs. The second-most mentioned reason was that the US and Western powers were simply pursuing their interests. It was cited by 15.2 percent of respondents. Other popular explanations included a goal to push ethnic Serbs out of Kosovo (12.6 percent) and to remove Kosovo from Serbia (10.5 percent)

Russian MoD: Unlike US-led coalition, Russia not hitting civilian homes in Syria with incendiary bombs

RT
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 09:48 UTC

Russian Air Forces are not carrying out airstrikes on residential areas in Eastern Ghouta and don't use incendiary bombs, Russia's Defense Ministry said, refuting reports by Syrian pro-opposition activists as "glaring falsehoods."

"Russian aviation doesn't strike residential areas in Eastern Ghouta and, moreover, it doesn't use incendiary ammunition, unlike the US-led international coalition," the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The damning reports by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the White Helmets group are a "glaring falsehood," the ministry added, calling the two groups "swindlers" who are taking advantage of the sorrow of the Syrian people.

Earlier, the UK-based Observatory claimed that "Russian air strikes and incendiary weapons killed the civilians in a basement from burning or suffocation" in Arbin town in Eastern Ghouta on Thursday. The controversial "humanitarian" group White Helmets has released the footage of what it said was the aftermath of a Russian airstrike.

No one was safe: Even Putin slept with a shotgun beside his bed in the 1990s

Matfey Shaheen
Russia Feed
Thu, 22 Mar 2018 07:49 UTC

Vladimir Putin is the LAST person I would imagine could be intimidated, and even if he wasn't afraid, he was concerned enough for the safety of his loved ones, to sleep with a pump-action shotgun beside his bed during those dark times of the 1990s. He explained he had two young daughters when he even considered a job as a taxi driver, so as a result, his concern was not only for himself, as he explained:

"In my country home, I had to put a pump-action shotgun near my bed, this is true. But these were the times back then - better to be safe than sorry,"

...

"I thought about what to do, thought about maybe seeking work as a taxi driver. I am not joking, I had to do something, I had two small kids. So, when they offered me legal work in Moscow on the presidential staff, I agreed and moved."

The 1990's were among the four worst periods in Russian history, which collectively were

The Mongol Invasion of 1240
1. Including all the events that went with it, the fall of Kiev, the sundering of Ukraine and Belarus from the territory of modern Russia, their partition into Lithuanian Rus', and later Rzeczpospolita (Poland-Lithuania).
The Time of Troubles 1598-1613
The Bolshevik Revolution (1917) and events that followed
the 1990s (which happened in the 1990's believe it or not)

Comment: What people in the West tend to forget is how bad things were in Russia during those times. It's still fresh enough in people's minds that it was under Putin that Russia is where it is today, a far cry from the shattered remains in the 90s. Margarita Simonyan explains here.

For more on "shock-therapy" reforms: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Documentary)

Northern Brazil hit by massive power outage affecting tens of millions of people

Luciano Costa, Leonardo Goy
Reuters
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 23:38 UTC

A power outage struck large swaths of Brazil on Wednesday, affecting tens of millions of people, especially in the country's northern and northeastern regions where the system remains "practically collapsed," according to an official.

The outage began at about 3:40 p.m. (1940 GMT) and had not been resolved by late evening, according to the country's state grid operator.

The blackout was due to the failure of a transmission line near the massive Belo Monte hydroelectric station, authorities said. Some 22.5 percent of the grid's total output, or 18,000 megawatts, have been affected.

"That line was inaugurated recently and was not yet operating at full capacity," the country's mining and energy minister, Fernando Coelho Filho, told journalists in Brasilia. "There was a surge in power ... and the line fell out of operation."

The transmission line that failed is the responsibility of state-run utility Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA, commonly known as Eletrobras, and China State Grid Corp Ltd. Neither company responded to requests for comment.

In the country's poor north and northeast, the system had "practically collapsed," Luiz Eduardo Barata, head of national grid operator ONS, told journalists.

Elsewhere in the country the impact was less severe, he said, and service had been resumed in the country's southern and southeastern region's shortly after 4 p.m., where spotty outages were reported.

Hong Kong's massive money giveaway: 2.8 million residents to get $510 each

RT
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 19:45 UTC

The government of Hong Kong has announced its decision to share the city's record $18 billion surplus with more than one-third of its residents.

"[We are] trying to cover more people who may not directly benefit from the budget," said Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po at a press conference on Friday.

According to him, the handout was meant for Hong Kong residents who are 18 years old and over; who do not own a property; do not receive any government allowances; and will not pay income tax for the financial year ending next week.

Those who meet the above criteria but have to pay income tax can still get some cash, he said. If the tax concession they receive is under $500, they will receive the difference between the two amounts.

More than 10% of people have traces of drugs on their fingertips - study

RT
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 02:03 UTC

More than 10 percent of people who don't use drugs may still have traces of banned drugs on their fingers, new research suggests. The astonishing figures are a stark reminder of the prevalence of cocaine and heroin in society.

Scientists from the University of Surrey in the UK collected samples from the hands of 50 people who claimed not to use drugs and from 15 confirmed cocaine or heroin users. Traces of cocaine were found on around 13 percent of fingertips of those who said they have never used drugs. A metabolite of heroin was found on one percent of non-drug users.

"We were quite surprised. We thought there might well be cocaine knocking around in the environment, but we did not expect to pick up these drugs at the fingerprint level," lead author Melanie Bailey, a lecturer in forensic analysis, told the Guardian.

How the new FDA policy to take nicotine out of cigarettes will fuel terrorism

David Marcus
The Federalist
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 20:44 UTC

The United States has never been a rich market for terrorists' international tobacco trafficking. A new FDA policy will make it one

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, has announced plans to reduce to non-addictive levels the level of nicotine in cigarettes sold in the United States. The hope is that without the chemical that produces the pleasure of smoking, these cigarettes will appeal to fewer people, and therefore fewer people will smoke.

It is a terrible idea for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it deprives adults of the choice to use tobacco as they see fit. But there are other unintended consequences to this policy that must be seriously considered, perhaps most importantly the effect on cigarette smuggling in the United Sates.

By making all sales of effective cigarettes with normal nicotine levels illegal, the FDA will be opening a huge illegal cigarette market in this country that has barely existed before. Among the prominent groups profiting off global illicit cigarette trade are Islamic terror organizations.

Comment: See also:

Jordan Peterson: The Kwakwaka'wakw controversy

Jordan B.Peterson
jordanbpeterson.com
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 20:01 UTC

Last week, Pankaj Mishra @nybooks offered his opinions about my life and my work in the New York Review of Books. He also touched upon my affiliation with Kwakwaka'wakw artist Charles Joseph (www.charlesjoseph.ca). Other journalists have since jumped on the bandwagon, so I thought I better set the story straight, insofar as I am capable of doing so.

Mishra's essay is by no means laudatory, but that's beside the point. Like everyone else, he has the right to his opinion. Furthermore, I have been criticized continually for the last two years by people who regard themselves as my enemies and, while I haven't precisely become accustomed to that, a single addition to the large stack of such commentaries is not in and of itself notable. It wasn't even his assertion that I am a fascist-a term that should used judiciously, given its history-that was bothersome. But it is in the interest of idiot radicals everywhere to insist that every person who thinks that their policies and ideologies are reprehensible must be an extremist. After all, if reasonable people arise to object, perhaps something unreasonable is actually occurring....

Here's a conundrum for the radical types, unmitigated egalitarians included: obviously, things can be taken too far on the right. It is equally obvious (although stubbornly unacknowledged) that things can be taken equally too far on the left. Aren't the totalitarian horrors of the twentieth century sufficient indication of that? So, exactly when has the left gone too far? It's not so easy to say, and this is a big problem. On the right, you can point to claims of racial superiority, or to the desire for racial segregation, say without hesitation "you've gone too far" and separate yourself from those making the claim, even if you're a conservative. What do you use for a similar marker on the left? I've suggested DIE: Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity, with "equity" (the demand for equality of outcome) as the most reliable red flag. I'm open to other suggestions, but I don't see them pouring in from the unreasonable or even the reasonable left. This is part and parcel of the leftist ideologues' refusal to deal directly with the mayhem and bloodshed of the communist era and the indisputable relationship between that mayhem and the ideology itself.

New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer neighborhoods, safer communities, and our children are going to get a good...

parzival

Bill Gates is going to be the one with the uncertain future,,, * New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer...

parzival

The more we hear about adverse affects the more we will merely shrug. It's a catch 22. Is that an asteroid trail in the photo?

sass

Welcome to the new normal. The more sensory exposure we have about such things, the less it is an issue.

sass

more misbehaving phuqqin' jewzskies starring on the sott; speaks for itself

Jibrish

Society's Child

Claudio Grass: Death knell tolls for the euro as more European nations repatriate gold

Trans propaganda today

Poll: 19 years after NATO bombed Serbia, most Serbs won't accept apology from alliance

Russian MoD: Unlike US-led coalition, Russia not hitting civilian homes in Syria with incendiary bombs

No one was safe: Even Putin slept with a shotgun beside his bed in the 1990s

Northern Brazil hit by massive power outage affecting tens of millions of people

Hong Kong's massive money giveaway: 2.8 million residents to get $510 each

More than 10% of people have traces of drugs on their fingertips - study

How the new FDA policy to take nicotine out of cigarettes will fuel terrorism

Jordan Peterson: The Kwakwaka'wakw controversy

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