September 9 - 11 will go down in history as a period of great significance in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Both belligerent parties crossed very important thresholds, which taken together suggest that the war is entering a new phase. On the 9th and 10th, Ukraine achieved its first concrete success of the war by retaking all the Russian-held territory in Kharkov Oblast west of the Oskil river, including the western bank of Kupyansk and the transit node of Izyum.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin convened an emergency meeting of his national security council, which precipitated Russia's own escalation on the 11th, when Ukrainian infrastructure was at long last subject to attack, plunging much of the country into darkness.

It seems clear that the war is entering a new phase, and it seems highly likely that both parties will attempt to take decisive action in the near feature. For now, let's try to parse through the developments of the past week and get a handle on where the war is heading.

In the first major defeat for rebel Donbass and Russian forces since the war began in February, Ukrainian and NATO forces actually won a battle and reclaimed a significant amount of territory in the eastern region of Kharkov. Surprising most, even Ukrainians it seems, the offensive has Ukraine supporters gushing about the imminent collapse of the entire Russian front.

In this NewsReal, Joe and Niall remind listeners that Russia is fighting in Ukraine with one arm (and leg) tied behind its back, so if its leadership decides it needs to untie those 'limbs' in order to achieve its goals in Ukraine - which have been planned over many years - then it will do so. Absent the crazies in Washington and London nuking Moscow, Russia is still going to win in Ukraine!

In the second hour, they take in the latest genocidal moves by Western governments to cut off food and energy supplies to their own populations, and comment on the queer reactions to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.


Running Time: 01:50:28

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Arthur Versluis is back to discuss his recent book 'Conversations in Apocalyptic Times' (a dialogue with Robert Faas), and his forthcoming 'American Gnosis.' Tune in for a wide-ranging discussion on our current spiritual malaise, the hidden theosophic tradition within Western Christianity, continuity of consciousness, the mystery of mysteries - the Holy Grail, and Arthur's new and upcoming courses with the Hieros Institute. Keep listening: Arthur also recommends a handful of mind-blowing books you may never have heard of.


Running Time: 01:25:42

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Heavy rain, floods, and huge hail continued to wreak havoc worldwide in August. The solar minimum has triggered three consecutive years of La Niña and stronger monsoons in Asia, bringing wetter and colder conditions in some parts of the world, and drier and hotter conditions in others. Yet, this pattern also predicts a significant impact in the northern hemisphere during the winter, with colder temperatures and more snow precipitation.

One-third of Pakistan has been hit with non-stop rains and floods for the most part of this summer. The catastrophic monsoon rain and floods are unprecedented in scale and scope. So far, 33 million people have been affected and the country's agriculture, a pillar Pakistan's economy, has been overwhelmed. Nearly half the cotton crop has been lost.

In Afghanistan, several provinces across the eastern, central, southern, and western regions were also hit by heavy rains, resulting in flash floods and landslides that caused the deaths of more than 180 people, displaced at least 8,000 others, and damaged at least 3,000 houses.

As much as 15 inches of rain fell in 24 hours in parts of northern Texas, triggering flash floods across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Meanwhile, heavy rain and floods took their toll in parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Las Vegas got its second mayor flood in the span of 2 weeks caused by an unusually wet monsoon season for the desert city.

In West Virginia, the Governor declared a state of emergency after heavy floods caused damage to dozens of homes in Fayette and Kanawha counties. Some residents had to be rescued and evacuated from flooded areas. Roads and bridges were also damaged.

Massive hail hit parts of China, South Africa and France, causing widespread damage to buildings, cars, and crops. At least a dozen people sustained significant injuries.

In Catalonia, a 20-month-old girl died after being struck by a large hailstone as fierce storms raged across parts of the northeastern Spanish region. It was the largest hail seen in two decades.

Hailstones rarely poses a safety threat to people, but it has happened:

The World Meteorological Organization reported that the highest mortality associated with a hailstorm happened near Moradabad, India, on April 30, 1888. The deadly storm killed 246 people with pieces of hail as large as "goose eggs, oranges and cricket balls."

And:

In spite of the enormous crop and property damage that hailstorms cause, only three people are known to have been killed by falling hailstones in modern U.S. history: a farmer caught in his field near Lubbock, Texas on May 13, 1930; a baby struck by large hail in Fort Collins, Colorado, on July 31, 1979; and a boater on Lake Worth, Texas, on March 29, 2000.

And last but not least, an unseasonable and sudden bout of heavy snow hit multiple mountainous areas in Altay Prefecture, northwest China. A rare sight for this time of the year.

All this and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for August 2022:

Looking into the Effective Altruism movement feels a bit like the intellectual equivalent of witnessing a giant car accident: the only reasonable reaction is to avert your eyes, slowly shaking your head, mumbling something like "oh dear, oh dear."

That being said, it seems like this movement has gained some traction, and is somewhat supported by the likes of Peter Thiel and even Bill Gates. So let's have a look.

The idea of Effective Altruism is very simple: if you want to do good, spend your resources on the most effective cause: the one that leads to the greatest increase of well-being and the greatest decrease of suffering. Don't trust your instincts or your interests, but dispassionately look at graphs, calculate which cause (or program¹) is objectively the best bang for the buck, then execute. If it means you need to invest time and money into helping an African tribe fight deadly pandemics, so be it — even if your neighbor might desperately need some money to buy her child new shoes.

Oh dear, oh dear.

J.P. Sears has made a new addition to his bookshelf. Be like J.P. Sears. I'm no psychic, but perchance it inspired this recent video of his, which I recommend watching — and not only for the flowing ginger locks.


J.P.'s prologue reminded me of this, which I had just read in Henning Melber's book, Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nations and the Decolonisation of Africa:1

... in mid-June 1961, his friend Bo Beskow asked him — as he usually did when they met — if he still had faith in the individual. While previously the answer had always been positive, he now responded: "No, I never thought it possible, but lately I have come to understand that there are really evil persons — evil right through — only evil." (p. 46)

Today on MindMatters we delve into the mystery of mysteries, the unanswerable and inscrutable, the question of the ages: what is a woman? Many have tried, all have failed - until now.

With reference to Matt Walsh's documentary of the same name, an obscure work by Hervey Cleckley, and two of Luc's recent Substack articles, we provide a take you probably haven't heard anywhere else. So tune in.


Running Time: 01:20:45

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Summary

With the Russo-Ukrainian War now rolling on into its seventh month, I thought this might be as good a time as any to put together a more extensive analysis than the Twitter format allows. What follows will be my assessment of what exactly the Russian Armed Forces have achieved, why they made specific operational choices, and the general shape of the battlefield today.

But first, I will indulge in a brief paragraph about myself. Feel free to skip this and proceed to the first section heading below.

I am a luddite by nature and have never had any sort of social media presence. However, when the Russo-Ukrainian War began in February, I was alarmed by the amateurish, even clownish levels of analysis that were being amplified by the typical establishment channels. Public figures that contravened the collective wisdom, like Colonel Douglas MacGregor or Scott Ritter, were largely ignored. It seemed to me that the public was being memed into believing a story about cartoonish Russian incompetence, while what I saw was a lethal and locked-in Russian military waging an intelligent war. I will freely confess to having Russophilic tendencies, like many American Orthodox Christians. However, I will also bluntly say that when you've read as much military history as I have, you begin to see things a certain way - perhaps this is bragging, but I don't think so. I don't claim to be smarter than anybody else; I did spend the last fifteen years extensively reading in subjects that gave me a strong base of knowledge for the current moment, but it seems to me that I simply got lucky picking a hobby that would one day be so relevant.

So, I created a Twitter account hoping to contribute to the discussion however I could, as well as to capitalize on the current fascination with war to talk about military history. People seem to like it, so I'll try to keep doing it.

Now, let's talk about the war. A great deal has been said, and will be said, about the causes of the war and Russia's motives and aims in Ukraine, but I would like to skip this and proceed directly to discussing the operation itself.

It's time for another In The News show on Objective:Health where we bring you the latest health headlines and give you the O:H take.

This week we look at the legal dispute between Moderna and Pfizer. Moderna says Pfizer ripped them off for the mRNA technology in the vaccines. Pfizer says they didn't. Robert Malone says they both ripped him off and didn't give him his rightful credit.

We also look at the shocking statistic that 1 in 482 peoople died within 1 month of the Covid vaccine.

Plus we talk about the massive miscarriage rates among vaccinated pregnant women that were found buried in the Pfizer documents.

We talk about all of this and more on this edition of Objective:Health.


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Running Time: 00:40:19

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The release this week of a farcically redacted affidavit that granted the FBI its warrant to conduct an unprecedented raid on a former president's residence on August 8th underscores what most have intuited - that the move was politically motivated to thwart or prevent Trump from running for president again in 2024.

Trump's lawyers in March this year filed a RICO 'anti-conspiracy' lawsuit against the Clinton campaign team, the Democratic Party, the Department of Justice and the FBI itself, seeking restitution for the false allegations of 'Russian collusion' made against him. Whatever information Trump has against them, the raid on Mar-a-Lago was probably intended to forcibly remove from him.

This week on NewsReal, Joe and Niall discuss the likelihood of this rank 'political policing' translating into electoral success for Trump, the unravelling 'science of Covid vaccines', European leaders' warnings of 'the end of the age of abundance', and the possibility that the nuclear stand-off at Zaporozhye may expose a secret US-Ukrainian nuclear weapons program...


Running Time: 01:56:06

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