Sunday, October 29, 2023

A Warning for Americans - Vox Popoli

And for everyone else who just wants to be left alone. Sometimes, being left alone isn’t an option. Sooner or later, you may be forced to make a choice regarding for whom you will fight, like the people of Ukraine who now fight themselves conscripted and forced to fight for Clown World, NATO, and the Kiev regime. Simplicius quotes a letter from an award-winning Russian writer who volunteered for the Russian Army and is now fighting on the front lines at Avdeevka:

Do I feel sorry for them? No. They killed and injured my friends, they want to kill me every day. I don’t feel sorry for them. Although, for the most part, the people who stand against us are not rabid Nazis, but ordinary Hataskrayniks who were forcibly driven to slaughter.

But if you look at everything in its entirety, it was they who brought Ukraine to its current state. That same silent majority who don’t care about Bandera, or the Russians, or the USA – as long as their farm, kindergarten, pigs are not touched, as long as they don’t run out of vodka and lard.

They didn’t care about the Maidan, about the shelling of Donetsk and Lugansk, about the genocide of the Russian population, about the murders of children, women and the elderly, about Azov’s torture, about language bans, about the split in faith… And then it turned out that they couldn’t sit it out, that you have to take a machine gun and die for the interests and goals of NATO.

And then they hated us, with a fierce, terrible hatred. Because their little farmstead world collapsed. Because this war reminds them every day of their cowardice, weakness and silence. And in their anger they blame us for everything, because they are afraid to look in the mirror and ask themselves uncomfortable questions.

These reluctant Ukrainian soldiers would have been wiser, and they would have had a much better chance of surviving, if they had stood against the Kiev regime instead of doing nothing until they found themselves forced to fight for it. Because, as enemies from Japan to France and Germany have learned over the centuries, Russia very seldom loses its wars.

It all sounds a little too familiar, doesn’t it, as the USA goes to undeclared war again in defense of Israel and the collapsing Clown World Order.

DISCUSS ON SG

https://voxday.net/2023/10/28/a-warning-for-americans/

SITREP 10/27/23: Ukraine's Prospects Dim as Russian Gains Grow - SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER

 There are several important Russian breakthroughs in Avdeevka, which are now being bitterly confirmed by Ukrainian sources. It’s now without doubt that both sides have gone “all in” and Avdeevka has in fact become the de facto central battlefield to define the latter part of this year.

Before I wasn’t certain whether Avdeevka may just be a ruse or misdirection from Russian command, or perhaps even a ‘testing of the waters’ just to see if it’s worth committing a large force there, sort of how Ugledar was in early 2023. They never meant Ugledar to be a massive “all in” committed operation, unless the early tests proved that Ukrainian defenses there were weak.

But here, it has become clear that Russia has gone all in and will not stop until it’s captured, no matter how stiff the Ukrainian defense is. In short, Avdeevka is set to become the new Mariupol, Lisichansk-Severodonetsk, and Bakhmut.

But some have correctly pointed out that there’s actually another, more distant battle which Avdeevka resembles much more closely. That of 2015’s Debaltsevo—famed for its unprecedented defeat of Ukraine’s JFO/ATO troops in what became one of the first big ‘cauldrons’ which placed the term on the map for a new generation of would-be armchair generals and war historians..................

......The Russian channel Vozhak Z who has been updating from the front writes another detailed post. By the way, it turns out this fighter is actually an award winning Russian writer named Dmitry Fillipov, who volunteered for the SMO.

Now he fights in the southern quarters of the ‘Royal Hunt’ section of Avdeevka. From today:

DAY SEVENTEEN

There was a thick fog from the very morning and all day. At 50 meters you can no longer see anything. The weather gave us all a break. There was a calm in our area, so unusual that it was a little annoying.

For two weeks in a row, even going to the toilet was an adventure, but then you go out into the street - and there is silence... Only in the north did heavy art continue to work somewhere in the Koksokhim area.

Today was time to think about everything that was happening. Objectively, the situation is such that from the north the railway is in a gray zone. Delivery of BC through it is impossible. The road through Lastochkino is under our fire control.

I think we'll get them. It is already clear to everyone that we will not stop. This is clear to us. This is clear to the enemy. They still have enough strength, the battle will be difficult, but deep down the crests already know that they will lose Avdeevka. And we know that they will not give up, they will not leave on their own. Therefore, we will encircle them and kill everyone who resists. And they will kill us as much as they can. This is how this war goes.

Do I feel sorry for them? No. They killed and injured my friends, they want to kill me every day. I don't feel sorry for them. Although, for the most part, the people who stand against us are not rabid Nazis, but ordinary Hataskrayniks who were forcibly driven to slaughter.

But if you look at everything in its entirety, it was they who brought Ukraine to its current state. That same silent majority who don’t care about Bandera, or the Russians, or the USA - as long as their farm, kindergarten, pigs are not touched, as long as they don’t run out of vodka and lard, and at least the grass doesn’t grow.

They didn’t care about the Maidan, about the shelling of Donetsk and Lugansk, about the genocide of the Russian population, about the murders of children, women and the elderly, about Azov’s torture, about language bans, about the split in faith... And then it turned out that they couldn’t sit it out that you have to take a machine gun and die for the interests and goals of NATO.

And then they hated us, with a fierce, terrible hatred. Because their little farmstead world collapsed. Because this war reminds them every day of their cowardice, weakness and silence. And in their anger they blame us for everything, because they are afraid to look in the mirror and ask themselves uncomfortable questions.

And we, of course, will win. We know that. And they know it. And this makes them hate us even more.

My call sign is Leader!

Victory will be ours!

PS. Frequency 149.200, call Volga, you will stay alive. Otherwise, we will come and kill everyone who holds weapons in their hands......................

...................... I recommend for everyone to read the very detailed piece. However, I’ll pull from this good Twitter thread on the article which summarizes the best points:

No matter how bad you might think the situation is with the United States and key munitions for the US, Israel and Ukraine... it is actually worse. Much worse. Stock valuations trump national defense. It isn't even close. And it is not being fixed.

As explored in the linked analysis - which is very much worth reading - in the fat and happy days since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Pentagon and US government have allowed Wall Street and Wall Street practices to take over defense manufacturing.

And why not? It isn't as if the US was ever going to fight a peer war again, right? In the meantime, money talks. Wall Street does not maximize wealth by maximizing economic output, or quality, or innovation, or any of those quaint factors. The real money is made through oligopolies and "moat" construction. Limit competition. Get down to one or two big players. Have a "moat" which prevents the entry of new competitors. Then gouge the customers to create a high and growing cash flow, that never stops, because of lack of competition

Unfortunately, if the customer is US National Security, that means we are all in very bad shape - as we are. The Pentagon is talking about increasing arms production. They haven't yet, not even 1.5 years after the invasion of Ukraine. It's a complicated process - because genuinely boosting national security conflicts with cash flow maximization for Wall Street. High profits mean ruthless cost cutting. Shut down all production lines that don't have a current contract. Make no effort to maintain machinery or labor - that would waste money.

Through monopoly or oligopoly pricing make the US pay through the nose if any more ammunition or vital missiles are to be made. And a non-trivial point - the entire US defense industry is in the hands of multinational oligopolies. They have defense interests on multiple continents. They have to consider all factors. And the Pentagon and Congress, the MIC, have absolutely no problem with this situation. The MIC was never set up to maximize national security - what a quaint and naive idea! If you've been doing this your whole career - what's the big rush to change things?

The world is on fire. That is irrelevant from a Wall Street and MIC viewpoint. It simply doesn't matter - until the entire world changes because of it.

In short, the U.S. economy has been parasitized by Wall Street, and it’s nearly impossible to be competitive or get anything done anymore, between the vast financializations and endless capitalizations of everything, and the impenetrable bureaucracies that have sprouted up as guardians of this esoteric science.

Ironically enough, several MSM majors have noted this week that Biden’s team is looking for a big ‘rebrand’ on Ukraine aid, particularly now that the House has gotten a new Speaker and things could potentially move forward prior to end of the year shut downs.



Read the sub-headline above. The new narrative shift will be to push the angle that continuing the Ukraine war will be a boost to U.S. jobs, manufacturing, and the economy as a whole.

And like clockwork, as soon as this narrative shift was sussed out, the talking heads on Capitol Hill have already begun monotoning it out, like Mitch the Glitch McConnell here:

Read full text: https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-102723-ukraines-prospects


Clowns in Congress - Vox Popoli

The “new” foreign policy of the newly elected Republican Speaker of the House

  • “We can’t allow Putin to prevail in Ukraine”
  • US “boots on the ground” may be required to “stand with Israel”
  • Supports Israel directly attacking Iran
  • Russia, China, and Iran are “the new Axis of Evil”

The longer Clown World rules, the more observably retarded it becomes.

DISCUSS ON SG

 https://voxday.net/2023/10/28/clowns-in-congress/

One Mistake Before Armageddon - by Paul Craig Roberts

 Each of us faces each day threats to our health, happiness, and life. Overarching it all, we collectively face death from nuclear weapons.

The development of nuclear weapons was a human stupidity. They cannot be used, but their existence threatens the life of the planet.  So why have them?  Accident, emotional response, loss of reason are all human faults that can come into play at any time.  

During the 20th century Cold War these dangers were underlined by the Cuban Missile Crisis.  President Nixon led the way to sanity with arms control agreements with the Soviet Union and his opening to China. Presidents Carter and Reagan kept the momentum going for reduced tensions and peaceful coexistence.  

The turnaround came with the Soviet collapse.  The neoconservatives took advantage of Russian weakness and prevailed on President Clinton to break the promise given by the George H.W. Bush administration to Gorbachev not to move NATO to Soviet borders if Gorbachev permitted the reunification of Germany.  The George W. Bush and Obama administrations continued the hostile policy that Clinton renewed.  

Today all the arms control agreements that reduced tensions and the danger of nuclear confrontation are erased.  The last one–never ratified by the US–was revoked by the upper house of Russia’s parliament last Wednesday https://tass.com/politics/1696519 .  Tass, the Russian news agency, reported that “Achieving the goal of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons is not deemed possible in the current international situation, given the destructive position of the United States.”

Also last Wednesday Gilbert Doctorow reported from the Russian media that Russia had just completed a successful test of its land, sea, and air launched nuclear missile triad. “Considering the location of the missile launches and the radius of possible strikes, it does not take much imagination to conclude that the enemy being attacked was the U.S. of A.  . . . The capability being tested was for a massive retaliatory strike.” https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/breaking-news-russia-tests-its-nuclear?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1203055&post_id=138284634&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=dx5km&utm_medium=email 

The White House fool, his insane neoconservative regime, mindless European puppets and whore Western media have convinced Russia that there is neither intelligence nor reason to be found in the Western World and Russia has no alternative but to prepare for war.  I have long warned that this was the conclusion toward which our irresponsible leaders were driving the Russians.  What this means is that the slightest mistake, the slightest false warning can now ignite nuclear Armageddon.

Meanwhile the media focuses on political gossip, Americans scroll their cell phones and complain about inflation, and the threat to the existence of life on earth goes unremarked.

 

The War Begins

US Launches Strikes in Syria

Washington is illegally in an act of aggression occupying a part of Syria and calls an attack on its occupying forces “terrorism.”

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231027/us-launches-strikes-in-syria-after-targeted-attacks-against-american-troops-1114515416.html

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/10/27/one-mistake-before-armageddon/

End Fiat Money, End Forever Wars - By J.B. Shurk

 Mark Jeftovic wrote a wonderful essay arguing that WWIII has been in the works ever since industrialized nations jettisoned the classical gold standard at the outbreak of WWI.  Drawing from Ferdinand Lips’s insightful book, Gold Wars, Jeftovik recounts how everything changed once governments abandoned sound money in order to finance long wars.  From the mid-1600s all the way to 1914, the gold-linked British pound remained remarkably stable — even increasing its value relative to gold over those two and a half centuries (no doubt because of its proven resilience through myriad crises).  

Quoting Lips, Jeftovic soberly notes:

In 1914, at the beginning of World War 1, the gold standard was thrown overboard within a few weekends.  In order to finance wars, the world resorted to deficit spending and paper money.  Had the gold standard not been given up, the war would not have lasted more than a few months.  Instead, it lasted more than four years and ruined most of the major economies in the world and left millions dead in its wake.

Furthermore, had WWI “lasted only six months, currencies would not have been destroyed.  There would have been no Versailles Treaty and no German hyperinflation.”  Neither Hitler nor Lenin nor Stalin would have ever come to power.  “There would never have been a WWII” or a half-century Cold War that left the prospect of nuclear Armageddon hanging over an anxious world like an atomic-tipped sword of Damocles.

Instead of viewing today’s chaotic global events as the depressing prologue to WWIII, Jeftovic argues that the world has been in a constant state of war since 1914 — a war over who can legally possess gold, made possible only by the intentional destruction of sound money.  “[N]one of it would be possible without the ability to print value ex nihilo.  Fiat currency is a monumental fiction, one that can asset strip the productive segments of the economy, hollow out the middle class, while enriching the Cantillionaire class, the military-industrial complex and the Deep State.”

By abandoning the gold standard and instituting a financial system predicated on inherently worthless fiat monies, governments have constructed the “most effective and ruthless manner of enslaving whole populations while enriching the elite.  If there is a far-reaching, multi-generational global conspiracy — it is one that brainwashes the masses into trading their time, wealth and property for meaningless chits backed by nothing.”

With the last century’s monetary destruction laid bare, Jeftovic asks dryly, “Who needs global Communism?”  By manipulating the value of currencies in ways that empower the “ruling class” while impoverishing the middle class, privately controlled central banks have conquered the world.  Where Bolshevism failed, Marxist globalism has regrettably succeeded.

Lips’s and Jeftovic’s thesis is remarkably convincing.  If correct, then today’s looming financial crisis, drumbeat for new wars, and resurgence of Western totalitarianism can all be linked to that fateful moment in history when governments and private central banks adopted policies that all but guaranteed a necessary transition from gold-backed currencies to worthless paper alternatives.

Oh, those inherently worthless fiat currencies might have the full-faith backing of powerful nation states and their militaries, but when has a politician’s (or government’s) word stood for much of anything?  After all, when basic accounting meant that governments did not have the money to finance last century’s wars, pork barrel largesse, and expanded welfare State, they simply decoupled from the gold standard and started madly printing paper bills!  A century of IOUs now sit atop bank vaults filled with next to nothing.  At some point, the cost of funny money becomes deadly serious.

The lesson of the last century is simple: end fiat money and end forever wars.  End fiat money and end central bank oligarchy.  End fiat money and end the ever-growing bureaucratic Leviathan that rules over the people against their will.  End fiat money and end Western totalitarianism.  Big Government cannot stay big for long if it loses its power to print money and pay for its sins by stealing from every person’s pockets.

That’s impossible, you say?  Only powerful governments and their central bank masters can create reliable money?  We common serfs must do what our financial feudal lords command?  Not so!

Before the “ruling class” destroyed sound money, it was the common people who erected gold-backed currency for use in trade.  They did so because it made intuitive sense.  As Lips notes in Gold Wars:

By 1900, approximately fifty countries were on a gold standard, including all industrialized nations.  The interesting fact is that the modern gold standard was not planned at an international conference, nor was it invented by some genius.  It came by itself, naturally and based on experience.  The United Kingdom went on a gold standard against the intention of its government.  Only much later did laws turn an operative gold standard into an officially sanctioned gold standard.

Keep this historical fact in mind when the financial system goes belly-up and Western governments’ pathological need to “never let a crisis go to waste” leads them to implement freedom-killing central bank digital currencies.  You may not have any interest in gold, bitcoin, or commodity-backed cryptocurrencies today.  When the SHTF, though, communities will have every incentive to disregard federal authorities (and international regulations) and consider trading at a municipal or regional level with local scrip based on local resources and needs.

Normal people developed a system of gold-backed trade because it naturally stored value over distance and time better than any alternative.  Once the Federal Reserve gangsters and their money-laundering congressional co-conspirators finally pop the dollar’s inflated bubble, normal people will again have a choice: should they remain financial slaves to a monetary system that has stolen their savings through government-created inflation and funny money, or should they learn from their ancestors and take charge of their lives and fortunes by eliminating the central banks’ predatory program of Marxist globalism?  

That stark choice is coming whether you like it or not.  As Matthew Pipenburg wrote in an essay entitled “Debt, Currency Debasement, & War — The Timeless Pillars of Failure”: 

Debt, once it passes the Rubicon from extreme to just plain madness, destroys nations.  Just ask the former Spanish, British or Dutch empires.  Or ask the inter-war Germans.  Ask the Yugoslavians of the 1990’s or ask a historian of Ancient Rome or a merchant in modern Argentina.  It’s all pretty much the same story, just a different stage or curtain call.

The dollar’s “curtain call” is rapidly approaching.  Its unique status as a global reserve currency maintained by the most powerful nation the world has ever known will allow it to limp along like a wounded animal — angry and violent toward anything that gets in its way.  In the end, though, it will croak.  No currency can survive the poison of its own debasement.  

Pipenburg warns that government malfeasance has become so catastrophic that those with power today will be forced to distract the public with wars, pandemics, and other manufactured “emergencies” that might hide their culpability for the coming economic meltdown.  Quoting Ernest Hemingway, he concludes: “The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war.  Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin.  But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”

Yet we know exactly what to do.  We ordinary human beings, as powerless as we might feel, are equipped with the knowledge and strength to take back control of our financial freedom.  We the People are capable of building a future without the tyranny of central bank despots or the censorship-happy governments that do their bidding.  

“The world is a fine place and worth fighting for,” Hemingway also wrote.  We need only the grit and determination to defend it.

Furthermore, I consider that Marxist globalism must be destroyed.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/10/end_fiat_money_end_forever_wars.html