A propos of absolutely nothing, Gazprom releases an eerie two-minute video showing how a cold winter will freeze Europe to death pic.twitter.com/3KSmbhWe59
he intent of the political harangue that Zhou Baidan inflicted on America last night was to foster a politics of paranoia—to get Americans to scrutinize their neighbors with a view to identifying the enemy within our nation, using the handy Prog identikit for “extremists”. The strategy behind it, as nearly as one can discern, appears to be the strategy that the political Establishment and its proxies in the media have been following since 2016, at least: the strategy of the Big Lie.
Conrad Black provides what amounts to a brief history of the Big Lie in contemporary America: Can This Be Happening In America? Donald Trump, the most investigated man in American history, has been falsely accused of any number of offenses, ranging from the mundane all the way up to treason and espionage. These charges have been thoroughly debunked, but the chilling reality behind the Russia Hoax, the two faux impeachments, the falshoods surrounding the J6 insurrection narrative and the military occupation of our national capital, and now the Mar-a-Lago Raid by a political police force in the guise of the FBI is that these false accusations have been advanced by our core national security and criminal justice agencies for political ends:
We now know that there has never been one scintilla of evidence remotely hinting that Donald Trump was guilty of any such offense, or that he had any inappropriate relations or even a particular regard for the government of Russia. Yet for over two years it was endlessly bandied about that Trump had been “groomed” by Russian agents like the Manchurian Candidate to debase the presidency of the United States into boot-licking subordination to the national interest of Russia. The former directors of the National and Central Intelligence Agencies, James Clapper and John Brennan, solemnly told national audiences that Trump was a Russian intelligence agent and was guilty of treason in favor of the Russians.
…
And at the end of his term, he was impeached again for having allegedly fomented an insurrection even though the FBI director had already testified that there was no evidence that Trump or his campaign organization or his administration were connected in any way to the trespass and the vandalism that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump requested and offered extra security, but this was declined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Washington mayor Muriel Bowser.
…
But there seems to be no doubt the current president and his family were engaged in improper activity [in connection with the governments of Ukraine and China] that not only allegedly involves substantial lawbreaking by family members but also seems to have been suppressed rather than investigated by the FBI. The allegation that the FBI seems to have suggested to Facebook that the allegations against Hunter Biden were likely Russian disinformation and requested that they not publicize them would have been unthinkable six years ago.
The political harangue last night—which would have been grotesque even at a political convention—was a tissue of lies, both big and small, that falsified not only the history of America but, worse, demonized fully half or more of Americans as hate and anger filled people who want “everyone else … to fail.”
Of course, we’ve been prepared for this—that prep began as far back as Hillary’s sneer at the “basket of deplorables” and Obama’s at the “bitter clingers.” But the most immediate prep meme was only days ago when the WH spokeswoman defined “extremism” as … disagreeing with the majority:
“when you are not with where a majority of Americans are, then that is extreme, that is an extreme way of thinking”
In keeping with the ideology of the Big Lie, the spokeswoman’s example of disagreeing with a majority of Americans was: abortion. In fact, for two generations poll after poll has shown that the majority of Americans are in fundamental agreement with the SCOTUS decision overturning the judicial diktat of Roe and are in fundamental disagreement with the Prog sacramentalization of abortion on demand. The wierdly ahistoric nature of this definition was also on full display last night with Zhou’s assertion that “equality” is at the heart of who we are as Americans, and yet if any group of Americans were demonstrably NOT where a majority of Americans were in 1860 that would have been the abolitionists.
Moreover, one cannot escape the impression that the Big Lie is not a one issue Lie—the last years have seen the demonization of all dissent from Prog orthodoxy, not only on abortion but on transgender self mutilation, climate change ideology, experimental gene based injections … The list goes on, but government involvement in attempts to suppress dissent or exposure of inconvenient facts—including FBI efforts to suppress political speech on social media during the recent election
But that Big Lie of extremism was repeated at least five times last night. Never mind the Left’s previous championing of Free Speech absolutism and dissent from the current wisdom. The boilerplate about respecting “political differences” is, of course, qualified with the word “legitimate”. What is IL-legitimate in Prog thinking is defined every time Nancy Pelosi opens her mouth. The pious condemnations of politically inspired violence mouthed by Zhou last night have been exposed as no more than hypocritical lip service by almost daily exhortations to violence by Dems—against anyone outside their mainstream, punctuated by assassination attempts against GOP congressional members and a Supreme Court justice, by forcing other justices to go into hiding to escape harassment egged on by mainstream Prog figures in Congress. The list is too long. The rhetoric is too well known—it is now our daily experience.
However, as much as anything else, the atmospherics of Zhou’s harangue were perhaps the most chilling aspect of the entire performance. The blood red background and, above all, the presence of two uniformed Marines in the background sent a chilling message. Having condemned the Republican party and asserted that “the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and [people who are] a threat to this country,” can there be any doubt that the jawdroppingly unprecedented presence of uniformed Marines behind a POTUS during a transparently political harangue strongly suggests that military force is one the table in dealing with people who are “extremists”, who “are not with where a majority of Americans are”?
Now, one might argue that Zhou, having made repeated calls to action, offered nothing but conceptually empty political bromides laced with standard Prog hate-speech against anyone who is alleged to dissent from such bromides:
America is an idea — the most powerful idea in the history of the world. …
And un-American embrace of ideology.
“The idea that America guarantees that everyone be treated with dignity. It gives hate no safe harbor. ….
Except, that is, when it comes to MAGA Republicans, who—and these are all direct quotes:
do not respect the Constitution.
do not believe in the rule of law.
do not recognize the will of the people.
refuse to accept the results of a free election.
are determined to take this country backwards
promote authoritarian leaders,
fan the flames of political violence
are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.
stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th
brutally attacking law enforcement
placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy
“That’s who we are. That’s what we stand for. That’s what we believe. And that is precisely what we are doing: opening doors, creating new possibilities, focusing on the future. And we’re only just beginning.
Cue Karen Carpenter?
“Our task is to make our nation free and fair, just and strong, noble and whole.
“And this work is the work of democracy — the work of this generation. It is the work of our time, for all time.
“We can’t afford to have — leave anyone on the sidelines. We need everyone to do their part. So speak up. Speak out. Get engaged. Vote, vote, vote.
Nevertheless, the truth of modern communication is that the medium is the message. Atmospherics, theatrics, presentation all count as part of the message. And, tellingly, that’s what disturbed even CNN commentators the most, that’s what they focused on. The presence of the military backing up a hate filled diatribe demonizing half the country, a call to division and civil strife. Count on this—it was all thought out and done deliberately to send a message. Listen up, America!
I don’t know how Biden’s speech reads in the original German, but I believe the title translates to “My Struggle” in English. https://t.co/3pUNsqsG9X
This report examines a range of possible means to extend Russia. As the 2018 National Defense Strategy recognized, the United States is currently locked in a great-power competition with Russia. This report seeks to define areas where the United States can compete to its own advantage. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from Western and Russian sources, this report examines Russia’s economic, political, and military vulnerabilities and anxieties. It then analyzes potential policy options to exploit them — ideologically, economically, geopolitically, and militarily (including air and space, maritime, land, and multidomain options). After describing each measure, this report assesses the associated benefits, costs, and risks, as well as the likelihood that measure could be successfully implemented and actually extend Russia. Most of the steps covered in this report are in some sense escalatory, and most would likely prompt some Russian counter-escalation. Some of these policies, however, also might prompt adverse reactions from other U.S. adversaries — most notably, China — that could, in turn, stress the United States. Ultimately, this report concludes that the most attractive U.S. policy options to extend Russia — with the greatest benefits, highest likelihood of success, and least risk — are in the economic domain, featuring a combination of boosting U.S. energy production and sanctions, providing the latter are multilateral. In contrast, geopolitical measures to bait Russia into overextending itself and ideological measures to undermine the regime’s stability carry significant risks. Finally, many military options — including force posture changes and development of new capabilities — could enhance U.S. deterrence and reassure U.S. allies, but only a few are likely to extend Russia, as Moscow is not seeking parity with the United States in most domains.
Key Findings
Russia’s weaknesses lie in the economic domains
Russia’s greatest vulnerability, in any competition with the United States, is its economy, which is comparatively small and highly dependent on energy exports.
The Russian leadership’s greatest anxiety stems from the stability and durability of the regime.
The most promising measures to stress Russia are in the realms of energy production and international pressure
Continuing to expand U.S. energy production in all forms, including renewables, and encouraging other countries to do the same would maximize pressure on Russia’s export receipts and thus on its national and defense budgets. Alone among the many measures looked at in this report, this one comes with the least cost or risk.
Sanctions can also limit Russia’s economic potential. To be effective, however, these need to be multilateral, involving (at a minimum) the European Union, which is Russia’s largest customer and greatest source of technology and capital, larger in all these respects than the United States.
Geopolitical measures to bait Russia into overextending itself are likely impractical, or they risk second-order consequences
Many geopolitical measures would force the United States to operate in areas that are closer to Russia and where it is thus cheaper and easier for Russia than the United States to exert influence.
Ideological measures to undermine the regime’s stability carry significant risks of counter escalation
Many military options — including force posture changes and development of new capabilities — could enhance U.S. deterrence and reassure U.S. allies, but only a few are likely to extend Russia, as Moscow is not seeking parity with the United States in most domains.
It’s a crazy world—we’re getting bombarded with information and disinformation at an incredible pace. Nowhere is this more true than with regard to the war on Russia. The latest example of disinformation about Ukraine is the so-called Ukrainian “counter-offensive” toward Kherson. In reality, most knowledgeable military commentators regard this as a failed attempt at a tactical advance—failed, because not only have the Ukrainians failed to make any sustainable advance, but in the process of being defeated they have suffered horrendous losses of their best trained and armed forces. Yesterday, beyond the Russian official claims and stats regarding Ukrainian KIAs, I heard Scott Ritter state that hospitals in the nearby city of Nikolaev are overflowing with many thousands of wounded Ukrainian soldiers. In effect, as Ritter and others have maintained, this was the cost of what was in effect a PR offensive—a desperate attempt to gin up more support in the West by presenting some very limited effort as proof that Ukraine is not defeated.
Thanks for reading Meaning In History! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.✓
Today The Saker has a worthwhile article that addresses this whole disinformation campaign—not, however, from a media standpoint but from the hard realities of warfare. It’s a detailed presentation, so I’ll break it down into its sections and urge readers to follow the link.
The article is broken down, substantively, into six topics.
The Ukrainian counter-offensive tactical attack in the south:
First the Ukrainian losses are presented, from Russian official sources. Then:
But this does not tell the full story. 1’700 KIAs might not sound like much, but in reality this is a huge deal for the following reasons:
These 1’700 soldiers were supported by armor, artillery and even some aviation and the USA/UK had huge hopes that this much announced “counter-offensive” would yield some good PR. The Brandon administration is absolutely desperate to show at least something vaguely successful, yet this so-called “counter-offensive” resulted in only a few tactical attacks which brought no tangible results whatsoever.
The size of this force shows that this operation was mostly about PR. The Ukrainians never had a chance, not on the tactical level and, even less so, to develop tactical attack into an operational counter-offensive. Considering that it took them months to prepare this rather modest operation, this shows how much the Ukrainian armed forces have been degraded over the past months.
Even worse for the Nazis and their US patrons is the fact that now the entire southern front just lost a lot of its best soldiers and hardware. Considering that the Russians are reinforcing their southern forces (see below), this is an especially dangerous development for the regime in Kiev.
What the author is suggesting is that this ill-advised PR effort has opened up the Black Sea coast between Kherson and the Romanian border, making Russian advances much easier when they come.
Western weapon deliveries to the Ukraine
Here the author focuses on planned deliveries of ex-Soviet aircraft to replace the destroyed Ukrainian airforce—but the same considerations apply to other weapons systems. These considerations explain why Western weapons cannot change the inevitable full defeat of Ukraine, in detail.
… Like with ANY advanced weapons system, combat aircraft need all of the following things to be effective:
They need to be fully integrated into a combined arms operation.
They need to be operated by a highly trained crews.
They need to be used in sufficient numbers to achieve any meaningful effect, [requiring massive infrastructure, much of it already destroyed].
They need to be maintained/supported by a complex and advanced supply chain and qualified specialists.
Since none of that can happen, …
In reality, it takes MANY YEARS to form a capable military pilot, and there is no substitute for this. …
Rumors of a major Russian offensive
These rumors remain rumors, but the assembled Russian forces—up to two army corps—are stationed to be used in two directions: either up north toward Dnipropetrovsk, or west toward Odessa. Or both. The Ukrainian losses in this failed attempt at a counteroffensive will only enable whatever Russia decides on next.
Will Russia declare a full mobilization?
The short answer is no. Furthermore, this question is based on a flawed assumption: that Russia’s so-called “slow progress” is due to lack of manpower (about the “slow progress” see here). That assumption, in turn, is based on two major mistakes: the first it conflates overall manpower with manpower available at any specific moment in time on a specific sector of the line of contact. What matters is not overall numerical superiority, but local superiority, superiority on your main axes of attack/defense. …
Second, the Russians have been fighting this entire SMO with less than 10% of the Russian military and with a 3:1 advantage for the Nazi forces almost everywhere. You could say that the Ukrainians are fighting a positional war while the Russians are fighting a mobile war, counting on their qualitative superiority (in most fields, with a few exceptions – such as counter-battery radars and squad level need for commercial quad-copters similar to the famous DJI Mavic series, see below – and these limited disadvantages are now being quickly addressed).
Is it possible that Russia might buy some Iranian UAV?
I would say that it is not very likely, but quite possible. Why? First, Russia and Iran are (informal but strong) allies and the Iranians would probably love to test their gear in real, modern, warfare conditions (Syria, Iraq or Yemen do not qualify). Second, the Iranians have superb UAVs, not necessarily better than Russian ones (it really depends on the mission and what the rest of the forces are doing), but very good ones indeed. Since Russia is flush with cash thanks to the western sanctions, Russia could do worse than purchase an X number of Iranian UAV and use them (or even give them to the LDNR). Again, I don’t think that this will happen because … the more advanced a UAV is, the more it needs to be able to “talk” to a lot of highly specialized networks and equipment, most of which are secret to begin with.
Conclusion:
Initially, the Russians got absolutely destroyed in the propaganda war, … Now this entire narrative is tanking …
…
… All the recent developments further show that Russia will methodically achieve all of her objectives in the coming months (though the denazification of Europe will, of course, take longer, not to mention the need to denazify the USA itself).
Now, in case you’re wondering whether this is just pro-Russian happy talk, consider this article, which hasn’t received a lot of attention in the MSM, even though it was carried by Reuters:
Striking as that title is, check this assessment out:
“The bulk of the Russian land forces may be tied down in Ukraine at the moment but, even so, we should not underestimate the Russian land forces’ potential to open a second theatre of war,” General Eberhard Zorn, the highest-ranking soldier of the Bundeswehr, told Reuters in an interview.
Beyond the army, Russia also has a navy and air force at its disposal, he added.
“Most of the Russian navy has not yet been deployed in the war on Ukraine, and the Russian air force still has significant potential as well …
“As concerns its military, Russia is very well capable of expanding the conflict regionally,” the general said. …
Referring to the military situation in Ukraine, Zorn said the dynamic of Russia’s attack had slowed down but Russia was still pressing steadily ahead.
….
He also suggested that Russia was not about to run out of ammunition any time soon.
And there’s more. Count on it—this guy knows what the real situation is.
Meanwhile, here’s what the German population—which is scrambling for firewood for the winter, with major industries shutting down—is hearing from their government:
German FM: I will put Ukraine first “no matter what my German voters think” or how hard their life gets. pic.twitter.com/GwAqIZ2jL7
— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) August 31, 2022
But just as interesting are the dynamics we’re seeing between Poland and Germany. The Russians must be chuckling over this development. Recall that I’ve repeatedly remarked upon the extraordinary patience that Putin and Lavrov have shown toward Poland, given how extreme some of the Polish rhetoric has been. The energy crunch could make for some interesting realignments:
🇵🇱🇩🇪Poland has decided to officially demand reparations from Germany for World War II.
This statement was made by the leader of the Polish ruling party Kaczynski. Poland will demand 6.2 trillion zlotys (about $1.3 trillion) from Germany as reparations, leader Kaczynski said. pic.twitter.com/UWz2QzHC2J
Recall also that Tom Luongo spoke of Russian policy being directed at breaking Germany. This next item isn’t from Germany, per se, but it wouldn’t be happening without German support. At some point will the Poles realize they’re being set up to be an EU colony—which means, dominated by Germany? Zerohedge has the full article,
but the tweet below tells the story—just as the Euros are telling Russia, ‘We really, really hate you,’ so too they’re telling the Poles the same thing:
Verhofstadt is also very keen on voicing his opinion about Poland on social media. Let us note that despite the unprecedented support Poland provides to war refugees from Ukraine, it still has not received any new funds from the EU.
Now, the Belgian politician has appealed to not unfreeze the EU recovery funds as well.
Welcome to the start of the new political year, where Europe’s old political problems remain on the table…
Whatever vital role Poland is playing to help Ukraine, it will NOT get EU recovery funds unless it fully restores the rule of law ! 👇🏻 https://t.co/0cShHNDRZv
He is currently attending Campus Polska, a left-wing conference, where he appears together with Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and Radosław Sikorski, the former Polish foreign minister. They will discuss “a Europe of shared healthcare standards, law mechanisms, security policies, protection of civil rights, and energy.”
In other words, they’re discussing Poland’s surrender of its culture and history and national sovereignty. I’m willing to bet that Putin and Lavrov will find a way to put out feelers.
Can the origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic be found within one of the most ancient Biblical stories?
“And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.” -Hebrews, 11:28
As the COVID-19 Pandemic rages outside all of our doors, and the billionaires puppeteering most of the world’s most powerful governments and the entire legacy media act like they can still somehow contain what they’ve unintentionally unleashed in their attempt to become gods, perhaps it’s a reasonable time to take a little stroll back through history.
Because while some scientists are busy signing letters and looking to cover what Jesus rode into Bethlehem on, meanwhile someone else’s grandmother is choking to death on her spit – and that never would have happened if these “scientists” had been transparent about what they’d helped unleash on the world in the first place – maybe like all the way back in January 2020 when the cover-up first began?
Since in many ways the millions of bodies piling up and tens of millions more waiting to join them are simply fodder for one of humanity’s oldest follies: Acting like the accumulation of wealth and titles are somehow a display of wisdom. It wasn’t true in Ancient Egypt, and it’s even less true in our modern world.
In America, this illusion began to encompass our national identity after Nixon closed the gold window and the American dollar transitioned into a fiat currency – ready to be printed into infinity and beyond.
And in the wake of this watershed financial shift, over the coming decades Wall Street would become deregulated to the point where it’s now ready to teeter over into oblivion once again. All the while, in the background giant corporations have been shedding their regulations and cannibalizing each other for decades – efforts which only trickle-down as worse pay and substandard working conditions for the average employee. Slowly but surely, as the rich got even more insanely richer, the disparity in CEO pay rose from 20-1 in 1965 to somewhere around 300-1 for much of the past generation.
Somewhere along the way, an era began where someone being able to game America’s financial regulatory system and ruthlessly cut-down their competition became mistaken for genius, or wisdom, or heroic. Or anything other than wealthy, educated, far-more-dangerous sociopathy. Because there is nothing the least bit heroic about the way men like Bill Gates and Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos built their wealth – when your riches are built on the suffering of others, they will turn to ashes in your mouth.
Sometimes it just takes a little bit.
After all, the Lord works in mysterious ways – and sometimes, the tenth plague is the charm.
The Biblical saga of the Israelites’ exodus from Egyptian bondage is both the story of the beginning of the Jewish faith, as well as recorded history’s first instance of a persecuted minority successfully not only escaping oppression – but crushing it in the process.
Since contrary to the modern stereotypes, the Jewish people actually got their start not by controlling Hollywood or just out-lawyering everyone else – but by defying the greatest Empire the world had ever seen, and drowning it in Yahweh’s will.
Culminating in the Passover feast and their early-morning exodus from the Lands of Goshen, the story of the Ten Plagues of Egypt tells the fantastical tale of blood-tides and horizons darkened by locusts, of staffs that turn into snakes – well, water-dragons to be exact, but we’ll get back to that – and finally its most enduring etymological legacy: The Angel of Death.
After all, that’s what the ritual feast of Passover is referring to, the final night before their journey into darkness, when the Israelites huddled in their homes, bright red faith drying along each of their mantles so that the Lord’s avenging angels might pass over their homes and spare their first-born sons from the fate that they would visit upon the Egyptians.
And spare the Lord did, as following this last night of bondage – staring at the stone walls they’d see for the last time before heading out into the wilderness – the protection provided by the ritual of the Passover feast, the Pesach, would hold fast against Azrael and the other angels of death who descended to slaughter Egypt’s first-born sons. And so this feast commemorating the passing over of the Angel Death, the Pesach, has become the central tradition of the Jewish faith.
Even among traditional Christians, Episcopalians and others also hold Passover feasts that follow as many of the exact protocols as they possibly can. For Christians the story is extended by the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the lamb sacrificed for all of our sins so that humanity might again get another crack at freedom, and be cleansed of our sins. So the story of Exodus and the birth of the Israelite nation is instantly recognizable to almost everyone who’s ever heard stories be told, whether you celebrate its implications or not.
And it’s been such an enduring story that around the end of the 20th century, as red-tides began to occur in pockets of the industrialized world, that modern scientists put their heads together and realized that there may be far more fact than fiction to this story than anyone appreciated.
As the theory muses, the Ten Plagues of Egypt might well be dramatically recounting a cyclic environmental catastrophe: A red-tide kicked off by an eruption or sandstorm to blacken the sky, killing off all the fish and forcing the frogs to flee and die – kicking over the first domino of ecological decline. As without their predators the insect population explodes, leading to boils on livestock and loved-ones alike, and then a monsoon that created the conditions for grasshoppers to metamorphize into locusts – the predictable and inevitable result of grasshopper overpopulation.
Since it took scientists a good long while, but they’ve finally figured out the alchemy which transforms everyday grasshoppers into ravenous plagues of locusts – simply tickling their hind legs too much, to mimic their neighbors continually nudging them.
When this stimulation hits a certain threshold, it sends the signal that the grasshopper is surrounded by too many of its relatives, a signal that propagates across the entire crowded swarm. This signal starts an epigenetic cascade inside these crowded grasshoppers, and after methylation flips its genomic switches, what was once a group of largely solitary grasshoppers can become a swarm of ravenous locusts in literally just a matter of hours.
Curiously the main messenger of this metamorphosis seems to be serotonin, which has effects on humans which aren’t all that terribly different.
However after these swarming locusts and some accompanying meteorological miracles, the scientific explanations around the Ten Plagues of Egypt seems to pull up a bit short once it’s time for Azrael to appear. Perhaps its inherently holy nature of the Passover Pesach, Judaism’s most sacred night of ritual, or perhaps it’s wariness around tangling with the Angel of Death himself, since Azrael and his hosts seem to have a bit of propensity to hold a grudge throughout the Old Testament.
So although some have mused lightly about first-born sons getting extra rations of food tainted by moldy toxins leading to their death, for the most part the rituals of the final night of oppression for the Israelites has remained an empirical enigma. But there are certainly hints.
Perhaps the best place to start is a physical description of Azrael, who in the Bible isn’t depicted as an angel in any sort of popular model. Actually to be fair Azrael isn’t described in the Bible at all, however in the Quran we are told that this is not an angel we should think about in any sort of personified sense.
Since the Old Testament and the Quran tell many of the same stories, in the centuries since each of their births it’s become fairly common practice to swap major figures between each eschatological text. And so the Angel of Death of the Quran appears as nothing even remotely resembling humanity, but instead is described as cosmic in size – there Azrael is a massive multiplicity of thousands and thousands of wings all fluttering and flittering, supporting his mercurial jumble of eyes and tongues arrayed over his four faces, with every soul alive being represented by what he says and sees, numbered by Azrael’s miasmatic eyes and tongues.
And so it is this swarming mass of cosmic death who in Islamic tradition stands astride the bridge between Heaven and Hell, which Azrael guards as he waits for humanity to call out for him again.
Bad news for us, is that we never seem to realize when we’ve been doing it until he’s already knocking on our doors.
There are myriad rules and traditions that regulate the Passover ritual, however Pesach is most literally a feast, one which is regulated by dietary restrictions during it, and fasting around it. It’s only at the finale of the night of ritual does the most symbolic moment arrive, when the blood of a young and healthy lamb is spread across every Israelite doorframe, marking it so that Azrael will know to pass by, sparing the first-born sons inside.
However this can’t be done with just any implement, on Pesach the blood of the lamb must be spread with hyssop, a bitter minty little shrub that doesn’t appear all that special at first, although it’s been traditionally used for medicinal folk remedies for millennia.
Turns out, this likely wasn’t a coincidence.
As hyssop has additional Biblical applications after Passover, of cleansing leprosy and cleansing the dead’s taint, as well as being used to deliver Jesus’s crucifixion wine into his mouth. And then, a little bit before the turn of the 20th century, scientists discovered that it’s actually a very potent antiviral: Containing acids, tannins, as well as a third mysterious compound with a unique molecular weight which also distinctly inhibits HIV’s activity.
This immediately invokes the widely explored belief that Kosher laws were largely public health concerns, a theory that’s only been derided by academics without any practical experience in actually implementing public health policy. Because of course Kosher laws are not perfect pinpoint rules that all make complete and entire sense to the modern world as public health regulations, however in broad strokes the separation of possible bacterial growth media and the avoidance of trichinosis from swine – among countless other parallels – all make perfect sense as public health policy.
But the potent antiviral nature of the hyssop shrub alone doesn’t an immunological miracle make, and so the rest of the ritual is going to have to fit within some kind of medically-related protocol if this theory in fact has any wings.
And it turns out that historically speaking, there is only one other phenomenon that fits the wanton, sudden, unrestricted slaughter of healthy young men en masse, especially during a very specific set and setting. So when Azrael manifests as a quasispecies mutant swarm, there is only one way to be spared from being called to accompany him into the afterlife.
Modern Judaism has preserved an enormous number of dietary rules and restrictions over the eons, however there is only one instance when a discrete segment of the population is instructed to fast, and not the entire community as a whole.
Every year the day before Pesach, the Fast of the Firstborn is observed by those Jewish children who would’ve been targeted by Azrael if the Passover rituals hadn’t been properly observed. And although fasting has an enormous number of physiological impacts and possible immune benefits, its single most direct consequence is an empty stomach.
The importance of what exactly is being eaten is also echoed by Passover’s other main culinary feature in addition to the evening feast: Following this sedar, once their exodus out of Egypt begins, the Israelites are strictly instructed only to eat bread that hasn’t been colonized by yeast, and so without the gas they provide remains unleavened.
Eating this flat matzo bread is commanded for the entire first week of the journey, and its preparation is so strictly regulated against any yeast contamination and subsequent rising, that only 18 minutes is allowed between mixing and baking, and holes are ritualistically poked in it to prevent any yeast-friendly pockets from forming.
In a spiritual sense, spending a week consuming only this dry unleavened matzo in modern times is meant to invoke humility and memories of past bondage, however in a practical sense unleavened bread certainly would’ve kept better during the long initial scramble out of oppression. Thing is though, matzo bread isn’t meant to be consumed on an empty stomach, but instead comes after the finale of one sacred night: the feast of the Pesach.
This is no celebratory feast however, and its rules and regulations don’t appear to mesh with any other element of the Jewish tradition or current public health practice. Passover occurs in synchrony with the seasons, and so it wouldn’t have taken the Egyptian’s mastery of animal husbandry to ensure that lambs were available for the ritual, since lambs have always been predictably born in the springtime, after the long dark winter.
And although it’s not emphasized as playing a role in the Biblical tale, this is also the time of year when sheep are regularly shorn. They spend winter growing their coats, and then are shorn in the spring before it gets hot enough to attract flies. Which, of course, also play an important role in the story of the Ten Plagues.
So it’s unlikely to be a coincidence that the lamb intended for the Pesach is chosen four days prior to the feast, and inspected for any outward sign of disease, and then cooked with bitter herbs across a fire that billows against the lamb’s blood smeared around your mantle.
Blood that was sacrificed so that we might live, blood that saves the children of Israel and gives birth to a nation after she passes across it. Since once you put all of the pieces together, it becomes apparent that Passover and its accompanying rituals and traditions are recorded history’s first instructions for inoculation against Azrael’s wrath – the quasispecies mutant swarms which emerge in overcrowded exploitative industrial farms and factories.
Since although the Egyptians weren’t industrialized in the modern mechanized sense, their Empire functioned on the same type of society-wide systemic oppression – Exodus is very directly the story of an escape from slavery and suffering run by a massive coordinated bureaucracy. And the leader of the incipient Israeli nation, a lisping orphan found floating in a basket, first carries out Yahweh’s will by slaying an ornery slave-driver.
The Torah doesn’t actually say that the slaughtered Egyptian was forcing the Hebrew slave he was tormenting to do something like pee in a bottle in the middle of his shift or defecate in his work-truck, however the inescapable reality is that those are the exact sort of conditions that Azrael seems to have a bit of a problem with.
Drawing any sort of parallel between a fable that nominally occurred many millennia ago is never going to lead a direct-one-to-one translation into modern times, however it really doesn’t take much interpretation to understand Passover as a warning against oppression, the description of how Yahweh will sort things out if His will is ignored for too long, and guidance to your next destination.
The general concept of inoculation, using a weakened version of a disease-causing agent to prime the body’s immune response against it, doesn’t formally show up in recorded history until at least a millennium after the events depicted in the Book of Exodus, with some Chinese sources claiming that inoculation was practiced against smallpox as far back as 200BC.
However there’s no description of systemic societal inoculation until about 1000AD, but whether it’s one or two-thousand years earlier than any other record – the idea that the Passover Pesach may in fact have been humankind’s first live-attenuated vaccination protocol would take it a step even beyond simple direct-contact inoculation, and move it into the realm of becoming an orally-administered live-attenuated vaccine (LAV).
A strategy that humanity thinks it didn’t master until the middle of the 20th century, when Army Major Dr. Albert Sabin perfected his LAV for polio, to complement the existing vaccine which used a completely inactivated strain. The inactivated vaccine was effective, but not enough for military purposes, and so Sabin’s LAV went on to nearly eradicate polio from the globe.
Nearly, but not all the way. And in just the past few years the cases of poliomyelitis, polio’s terrible paralytic curse, have begun to emerge from vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) across parts of the underdeveloped world. And by 2019, there were far more cases of paralysis due to VDPV than actual wild polio, with the rate of VDPV growth exploding by over 500% year-over-year.
For inoculation against smallpox, all that’s required is exposure to some cowpox pus – an infection similar enough to train the human immune system to be prepared to fight off smallpox – a sharp stick, and a sick animal is all you need. However the practice of vaccination with an orally-administered live-attenuated virus is a far more complex process, as witnessed by the traditions around Pesach.
Since smallpox’s zoonotic origins are still unknown, one of its ancestors may well have been Azrael’s chariot the first time around, something Moses might have observed as a shepard: The quasispecies phenomenon of highly-pathogenic strains of virus emerging from animals packed into especially crowded conditions, strains which are able to jump from their original host species and into a new one.
Oftentimes humans are the new host, since our industrial animal husbandry is generally responsible for other species’ unnatural population densities in the first place. These industrial settings lead to the emergence of highly-pathogenic species-jumping strains since there’s too much crowding without enough ventilation, which results in too many transmission events and eventually the signal to become highly-pathogenic. Not so different than grasshoppers mutating into locusts, and witnessed constantly on modern poultry farms by the highly-pathogenic avian influenzas that are constantly jumping into human farmworkers.
And although contact inoculation has worked against some historical versions of smallpox, the virus has a distinctly nebulous genome, so the administration of a full LAV may have been necessary, especially if the virus achieved a highly-pathogenic state, as they often do in commercial settings.
The restriction against risen bread, effectively against yeast, is probably the least sexy but most important element of this possible LAV, if for no other reason than it extends for several weeks and requires a massive transition in food-preparation. Tellingly, our immune systems are highly reactive to many forms of yeast, to the extent that they’ve been considered as vehicles for vaccines. However it turns out that although our immune cells are tuned to target and latch onto yeasts, attempting to use them to convey vaccines only results in a ten-fold reduction in vaccine efficacy.
So if the plan was to apply a LAV as effectively as possible without access to modern medical technology, cutting out yeast entirely after its application makes a tremendous amount of sense, especially considering the Fast of the Firstborn. Firstborn Israelite children needed additional protection, since they too would’ve been working among the flocks with the firstborn Egyptians and exposed to all the pathogens hosted by the sheep and rodents inevitably attracted to the food and warmth of the barns.
And although the blood across Hebrew mantles has come to signify protection and safety from the Angel of Death, that’s not the only place the magic happens. And so the Fast of the Firstborn the day before Passover helped provide additional short-term protection by increasing short-term immune-cell responsiveness as well as allowing for white-blood cells to return to our bone marrow, where they’re able to regenerate and supercharge themselves, and wait for the next infection.
Since death isn’t actually going to descend form the heavens, but instead will always begin to emerge wherever humanity has decided to interfere a bit too much with the laws of Nature.
Whenever large populations of complex animals – humans, cows, pigs, poultry, rodents, or otherwise – are crowded together in commercial settings which limit airflow and circulation, RNA viruses begin to strengthen and emerge, eventually leading to infections and death if they aren’t controlled. This phenomenon, of quasispecies swarming behavior, doesn’t follow the same roughly linear model of modern disease theory which expects strains to move from one place to another in a somewhat predictable and controlled fashion.
Instead, quasispecies swarm theory sees hosts becoming infected not in a binary sense of being symptomatic or not, or pinging a PCR or not, but instead takes into account the nebulous and mercurial nature of RNA viruses. The next time a scientist tries to convey the sense that you’re an idiot for questioning their eternal and sage wisdom, ask them to explain what happened to the seasonal flu in 2020?
The seasonal flu never actually goes away, it just goes into hiding when there aren’t enough transmission events due to environmental conditions – demonstrated by this recent study that concluded nearly half of all symptomatic influenza infections are caused by asymptomatic transmission, meaning the virus has no trouble at all spreading from people who don’t even know they’re infected.
Because quasispecies theory simply and elegantly explains that the same thing happened to the seasonal flu as happens to mono – the kissing disease – after someone’s infected. Some 90% of adults in the modern world are infected with the EBV virus that causes mono, however many never know it at all, and others carry the virus dormantly for years before they have an outbreak of sores.
However, whether or not you’re expressing cold sores, once you’re infected with the EBV virus you become at risk of expressing cold sores at some future point – just like the seasonal flu. In case this all seems very speculative and circumstantial, keep in mind that after scientists actually took the time to randomly screen wild, domestic, and research animals for viruses, they found nearly 1,000 hidden viral infections. And many of these novel viruses appeared to closely mimic human pathogens, with many individual hosts containing as many as five novel viruses.
So although many of the scientists who spent 2020 telling you how a laboratory engineered virus is a conspiracy theory might roll your eyes at this concept, luckily there are people who can actually think for themselves who have been publishing peer reviewed work explaining exactly why this virus looks engineered since August 2020, and attempting to get ahead of the impending tsunami that’s building due to public policy being shaped directly by Big Pharma.
The same quasispecies reality which causes the seasonal flu to go mostly dormant until the wintertime, is the same one that caused it to disappear almost entirely for 2020, and which causes STDs like mono to flare up after transmission events increase. Because RNA viruses don’t exist as discrete strains or organisms like parasites and other infections agents, instead they exist as a swarm within and around their hosts:
Just like one gas acting as an accelerant for another’s combustion can be modeled mathematically by looking at their relative binding tendencies to different elements and how they react at different concentrations, the mathematical inevitability of quasispecies mutant swarms fully exploring their mutational spectrum and finding variants to fuel their spread isn’t any different. It’s only the language that varies, as the literature currently describes the positive selection quasispecies mutant variants resulting in “hitchhiking” between mutations on variants in the same swarm, the exact same concept as different variants and their mutations acting as accelerates for each other during gaseous chemical combustion.
And although this swarm only really exists within a host in the case of STDs which need organ-hiding and fluid-swapping to transmit, and often only become virulent if the host is being especially promiscuous or interacting with someone already infected with a robust swarm, in the case of airborne RNA viruses these swarms also exist in swarms that surround their hosts so long as they’re still breathing.
The simple fact that there was any sort of debate over whether or not SARS-CoV-2 is in fact airborne, should tell you all you need to know about the state of modern virology. China instantaneously locked-down hundreds of millions of its citizens and this virus spread not only across the entirety of humanity, but also created a second pandemic in a different species – among populations of farmed mink across multiple continents in just a matter of months.
You don’t need a microscope to realize that only an airborne virus could possible spread that fast and that prolifically among not one but two different species, nor do you need a fancy degree to realize that if superspreader events are easily categorizable by having a lot of people in an enclosed space respiring aggressively – obviously this is an airborne virus. In fact there’s a strong argument that SARS-CoV-2 is the most prolific airborne virus in human history, and it can be cultured literally out of thin air, unlike even tuberculosis and measles – two of the most contagious airborne pathogens ever previously studied.
And not just spreading through singing or coughing or yelling, there’s been peer-reviewed work around since at least July 2020 that explains in detail that COVID-19 can spread through simply everyday tidal breathing. Although a host with a typical viral load may not shed a lot of virus, if you’re in a room next to someone singing or yelling together for several hours – it doesn’t take much.
So as Pigpen has been trying to warn humanity for decades, each of us carries around the quasispecies swarm of whatever airborne viruses we host whether we notice it or not. Pretty much no one reading this would be diagnosed with influenza right now, but take enough healthy readers and stick them in a closed environment for a long enough time – and the swarm always wins.
This was demonstrated most clearly on an Antarctic research base after seventeen weeks of complete isolation. This mysterious outbreak struck half of the dozen men isolated at the bottom of the world, and strangely scientists were never able to isolate and identify the causative agent:
However this phenomenon is simply the other end of the spectrum from the disappearance of the seasonal flu in 2020: RNA viruses have the ability to lie dormant in their hosts until a threshold of transmission events are reached following interactions with swarms from other hosts, at which point they can strengthen and create symptomatic infections. And since every human adult alive has been exposed to the common cold, stick a dozen guys in a closed environment for long enough, and even that swarm will grow and strengthen.
This is a simple and consistent explanation for everything from the disappearance of the seasonal flu in 2020 to the above haunting Antarctic infection, and also explains historical mysteries like the English Sweat as well as the origins and fate of the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic, and pretty much everything about RNA virus behavior in between. Quasispecies mutant swarm theory, which views these infections not as stable linear strains that jump from person to person, but as swarms of infectious virions which shift and move based on the surrounding environment.
Azrael did not target the first-born Egyptian sons by mistake, and eons later the young men most exposed to crowded industrial environments who would again be targeted – in the case of the English Sweat and the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic it was due to military activity, for the Egyptians it was proto-industrial farming that put their first-born sons is Azrael’s sights.
And the swarms these angels of death use aren’t composed of any one strain, quasispecies mutant swarms depend on blends of complimentary strains working together as they attempt to infiltrate different cell and tissue types. So whether its thousands of people crowded together in a closed arena, dozens of people singing in a church, or just a handful of researchers marooned in the Antarctic: Given enough time, closed environments will always result in the strengthening of the swarm.
After all, Azrael is very specifically described not as a solitary wrath, but instead the Tenth Plague of Egypt appears as a massive miasmatic mass of speaking and seeing, simultaneously accounting for each and every soul on Earth. As humanity’s numbers have risen through the billions, so has Azrael’s visage and body, awaiting his moment of descent.
In Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh was literally a god down from heaven: His word was law, and his will directed the course of an entire civilization. Now that humanity has diversified a bit and managed to organize ourselves into societies that are orders-of-magnitude more complex and interconnected, there no longer seems to be a place for any one man to become a god-king on Earth.
However there is something close, since after Citizens United decided that corporations were in fact people as far as hundreds of millions of dollars of annual campaign donations were disguised as “free speech,” starting in 2010 every American corporation gained the ability to donate infinite amounts of money to as many political campaigns as they wanted.
And donate they did, several billions worth that would cause Congress to reshape the legal medical landscape to the point that over the next decade American healthcare costs would continue to balloon so much that insulin is marked up thousands of percent, and medical insurance costs have exploded to the point where fully two-thirds of bankruptcies in America are related to medical expenses.
But not only has Big Pharma grown into a financial leviathan which regularly swallows up hopes, dreams, and livelihoods, it was also responsible – along with the help of medical doctors all across the entire country happily writing carbon-copy prescriptions to help pay their mortgages – for the Opioid Epidemic. Arguably an extension of the patently insane and openly exploitative War on Drugs, the Opioid Epidemic ripped through the American heartland in the years leading up to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and has only accelerated since.
In many American cities including San Francisco, more died of overdose deaths than SARS-CoV-2. Drug abuse does not emerge as a result of damaged individual souls, it emerges just like violent crime does – as an inevitable outcome of communities that are in crisis and in pain. Targeting individual people for drug offenses makes about as much sense as only treating one host who emerges from a superspreading event.
So if you’re wondering why this current Presidential Administration seems to be much more interested in vaccine sales than the preservation of human life – that’s because our government is currently owned and operated by Big Pharma. The mainstream media might want you to be impressed by folks with fancy pedigrees and a bunch of letters after their names signing a letter, but the reality is that all of them have been actively engaged in suppressing the work of a father-son team responsible for highlighting how obviously engineered this virus has been since January 2020, and the dangers that entailed.
They don’t care if you know the truth or not, they just want you to think they all still deserve the trust and accolades that our society heaps on accomplished scientists, and the reverence and money they get in return. The time for that ended with the Opioid Epidemic, the entire American medical community showed itself to be exactly what it was during that, and just because the push for universal vaccination seems more pervasive and accepted – doesn’t make it any less Evil.
Why blindly trust a community that was more than happy to profit off of the Opioid Epidemic, and then accept no accountability whatsoever for the suffering they sowed?
So despite the fact we’re both American citizens previously cleared for security clearances, and neither of us have ever accepted a shiny nickel from Big Pharma, foreign governments, or hedge funds – Big Pharma doesn’t want you to know the Truth we’ve been warning about exists, and has out in the open for over a year.
Irish Times
Airborne RNA viruses have never once been contained on commercial poultry farms, even with full-genome vaccines and full surveillance of each and every bird – highly-pathogenic strains continually emerge so long as there are enough transmission events.
Commercial buildings without proper ventilation create superspreading events by definition once enough live hosts are present and breathing, not just spreading among the population but also blowing entirely through the temporary protection provided by vaccines. And since it’s not the children of the wealthy and privileged who get packed into factories and warehouses for grinding 12-hour shifts – history knows that there’s only one fate that awaits a country that treats Big Pharma and its representatives like Pharaohs, allowing them to force the downtrodden and unfortunate into wage-slavery.
Instead of stripped nemes draped across their heads they have slicked-back $500 haircuts, and instead of heavenly authority they act as if the letters after their names mean they should somehow have authority over you. They shouldn’t, and they don’t.
So long as Americans are being forced back into warehouses and factories just to be able to ensure their loved-ones survive and they aren’t forced to watch them slowly waste away, Azrael will be with us.
In Ancient Egypt, Azrael was able to coalesce within Egyptian houses and drain the life out of the first-born after exposure to herds of thousands and thousands of sheep, stuck together in shelters during the winter months, experiencing the exact architectural and behavioral framework of increased transmission in a crowded commercial setting that leads to the emergence of the seasonal influenza every winter, and its puzzling disappearance when the dynamics markedly changed in 2020.
And so every spring, the sheep would’ve been gathered together for the labor-intensive shearing and breeding by the most active able-bodied young men in society. Certainly the hardest parts of the labor would’ve been done by the Hebrew slaves, however the nature of airborne viruses means that everyone present – including the supervisors – would’ve been exposed to whatever quasispecies swarms emerged from the flock and its rodent squatters, and likely many Egyptian first-born would’ve been working alongside the Israelites.
This annual cycle of rebirth and death was only broken by Moses and the Israelites, who knew how to make sure they were protected against the quasispecies swarming Angel of Death – with the immunological protection imbued by the Passover feast, since the Pesach describes an orally-administered LAV protocol, symbolized and explained by strokes of bloody hyssop.
The significance of this blood wouldn’t be hinted at until 1880 when Louis Pasteur accidentally left some samples out in the elements during a vacation, and came back to find they worked in that weakened form as a vaccine against that pathogen. In the same way, smearing the blood of a visibly healthy animal whose immune system has handled whatever winter swarms emerge within its flock and rodent hobos, after first burning and consuming its flesh, would help assure that you got an oral dose of whatever viruses the lamb was hosting – possibly some already vectored out of the rodents, such as monkeypox, which actually uses rodents as a reservoir.
However not only is blood smeared and left to dry, but as the lamb is cooked with bitter herbs – many of which have antiviral properties especially against respiratory viruses – the smoke from the fire would’ve been billowing across it, subjecting any viruses within to the traces of antiviral compounds in the smoke. And keep in mind this blood already would’ve had a branch of hyssop soaking in it, starting the attenuation early as the ceremonies got started.
And in addition to being used as cooking fuel, these bitter herbs are also consumed as an appetizer to start the night off. Although the Old Testament doesn’t name a specific plant, the bitter herbs composing the maror as part of the Passover meal were thought to include chicory, sweet clover, milkthistle, a wild carrot, and lettuce – all of which contain potent antiviral compounds.
After their delicious inoculation of bitter maror herbs and roasted lamb, the Israelites would’ve inevitably brushed against the attenuated blood on their doorframes, leading to their eventual exposure to the attenuated viruses within as they touched their eyes or mouth with the blood containing the attenuated strains within, introducing the weakened virus to their bloodstreams and immune systems. And without yeast around, these attenuated viruses would’ve combined with those present in the burnt meat also consumed, and allowed for the inoculation against any viruses attempting to form full-blown quasispecies swarms within the population.
And so on their last night in bondage, the Israelites were protected from the Tenth Plague of Egypt and all the angels of death – the quasispecies mutant swarm that emerged from cramped commercial farming conditions in Ancient Egypt, just as they do in a Des Moines meatpacking plant or a Baltimore Amazon warehouse.
However America’s new Pharaohs have decided that you will either drink from their vaccines, or be shunned from society – excluded and left to starve and die.
Luckily for us, human societies can only be pushed so far. There’s a certain point where it becomes obvious to absolutely everyone that the Pharaohs are not only stark naked, but the only clothes they’re wearing are made from a fiat currency that’s already on its way to being useless. And so at a certain point, once enough grandmothers have been drowned in their own spit and enough children buried, the coercive power a government has over a society will shatter, and all trust in any sort of central authority will be abandoned.
And when that happens, there’s only one fate that waits for our modern Pharaohs, since after profiting from the exploitation and predation of others, there is always a price to pay. Sometimes you pay it, and sometimes your bloodline does later – but Azrael is waiting, and he will arrive on the desperate backs of broken souls who have nothing left to lose, and all your pride and arrogance and hubris will slip from your grasp as your spine is pulled out of your throat.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Citizens of Russia, friends,
I consider it necessary today to speak again about the tragic events in Donbass and the key aspects of ensuring the security of Russia.
I will begin with what I said in my address on February 21, 2022. I spoke about our biggest concerns and worries, and about the fundamental threats which irresponsible Western politicians created for Russia consistently, rudely and unceremoniously from year to year. I am referring to the eastward expansion of NATO, which is moving its military infrastructure ever closer to the Russian border.
It is a fact that over the past 30 years we have been patiently trying to come to an agreement with the leading NATO countries regarding the principles of equal and indivisible security in Europe. In response to our proposals, we invariably faced either cynical deception and lies or attempts at pressure and blackmail, while the North Atlantic alliance continued to expand despite our protests and concerns. Its military machine is moving and, as I said, is approaching our very border.
Why is this happening? Where did this insolent manner of talking down from the height of their exceptionalism, infallibility and all-permissiveness come from? What is the explanation for this contemptuous and disdainful attitude to our interests and absolutely legitimate demands?
The answer is simple. Everything is clear and obvious. In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union grew weaker and subsequently broke apart. That experience should serve as a good lesson for us, because it has shown us that the paralysis of power and will is the first step towards complete degradation and oblivion. We lost confidence for only one moment, but it was enough to disrupt the balance of forces in the world.
As a result, the old treaties and agreements are no longer effective. Entreaties and requests do not help. Anything that does not suit the dominant state, the powers that be, is denounced as archaic, obsolete and useless. At the same time, everything it regards as useful is presented as the ultimate truth and forced on others regardless of the cost, abusively and by any means available. Those who refuse to comply are subjected to strong-arm tactics.
What I am saying now does not concerns only Russia, and Russia is not the only country that is worried about this. This has to do with the entire system of international relations, and sometimes even US allies. The collapse of the Soviet Union led to a redivision of the world, and the norms of international law that developed by that time – and the most important of them, the fundamental norms that were adopted following WWII and largely formalised its outcome – came in the way of those who declared themselves the winners of the Cold War.
Of course, practice, international relations and the rules regulating them had to take into account the changes that took place in the world and in the balance of forces. However, this should have been done professionally, smoothly, patiently, and with due regard and respect for the interests of all states and one’s own responsibility. Instead, we saw a state of euphoria created by the feeling of absolute superiority, a kind of modern absolutism, coupled with the low cultural standards and arrogance of those who formulated and pushed through decisions that suited only themselves. The situation took a different turn.
There are many examples of this. First a bloody military operation was waged against Belgrade, without the UN Security Council’s sanction but with combat aircraft and missiles used in the heart of Europe. The bombing of peaceful cities and vital infrastructure went on for several weeks. I have to recall these facts, because some Western colleagues prefer to forget them, and when we mentioned the event, they prefer to avoid speaking about international law, instead emphasising the circumstances which they interpret as they think necessary.
Then came the turn of Iraq, Libya and Syria. The illegal use of military power against Libya and the distortion of all the UN Security Council decisions on Libya ruined the state, created a huge seat of international terrorism, and pushed the country towards a humanitarian catastrophe, into the vortex of a civil war, which has continued there for years. The tragedy, which was created for hundreds of thousands and even millions of people not only in Libya but in the whole region, has led to a large-scale exodus from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe.
A similar fate was also prepared for Syria. The combat operations conducted by the Western coalition in that country without the Syrian government’s approval or UN Security Council’s sanction can only be defined as aggression and intervention.
But the example that stands apart from the above events is, of course, the invasion of Iraq without any legal grounds. They used the pretext of allegedly reliable information available in the United States about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. To prove that allegation, the US Secretary of State held up a vial with white power, publicly, for the whole world to see, assuring the international community that it was a chemical warfare agent created in Iraq. It later turned out that all of that was a fake and a sham, and that Iraq did not have any chemical weapons. Incredible and shocking but true. We witnessed lies made at the highest state level and voiced from the high UN rostrum. As a result we see a tremendous loss in human life, damage, destruction, and a colossal upsurge of terrorism.
Overall, it appears that nearly everywhere, in many regions of the world where the United States brought its law and order, this created bloody, non-healing wounds and the curse of international terrorism and extremism. I have only mentioned the most glaring but far from only examples of disregard for international law.
This array includes promises not to expand NATO eastwards even by an inch. To reiterate: they have deceived us, or, to put it simply, they have played us. Sure, one often hears that politics is a dirty business. It could be, but it shouldn’t be as dirty as it is now, not to such an extent. This type of con-artist behaviour is contrary not only to the principles of international relations but also and above all to the generally accepted norms of morality and ethics. Where is justice and truth here? Just lies and hypocrisy all around.
Incidentally, US politicians, political scientists and journalists write and say that a veritable “empire of lies” has been created inside the United States in recent years. It is hard to disagree with this – it is really so. But one should not be modest about it: the United States is still a great country and a system-forming power. All its satellites not only humbly and obediently say yes to and parrot it at the slightest pretext but also imitate its behaviour and enthusiastically accept the rules it is offering them. Therefore, one can say with good reason and confidence that the whole so-called Western bloc formed by the United States in its own image and likeness is, in its entirety, the very same “empire of lies.”
As for our country, after the disintegration of the USSR, given the entire unprecedented openness of the new, modern Russia, its readiness to work honestly with the United States and other Western partners, and its practically unilateral disarmament, they immediately tried to put the final squeeze on us, finish us off, and utterly destroy us. This is how it was in the 1990s and the early 2000s, when the so-called collective West was actively supporting separatism and gangs of mercenaries in southern Russia. What victims, what losses we had to sustain and what trials we had to go through at that time before we broke the back of international terrorism in the Caucasus! We remember this and will never forget.
Properly speaking, the attempts to use us in their own interests never ceased until quite recently: they sought to destroy our traditional values and force on us their false values that would erode us, our people from within, the attitudes they have been aggressively imposing on their countries, attitudes that are directly leading to degradation and degeneration, because they are contrary to human nature. This is not going to happen. No one has ever succeeded in doing this, nor will they succeed now.
Despite all that, in December 2021, we made yet another attempt to reach agreement with the United States and its allies on the principles of European security and NATO’s non-expansion. Our efforts were in vain. The United States has not changed its position. It does not believe it necessary to agree with Russia on a matter that is critical for us. The United States is pursuing its own objectives, while neglecting our interests.
Of course, this situation begs a question: what next, what are we to expect? If history is any guide, we know that in 1940 and early 1941 the Soviet Union went to great lengths to prevent war or at least delay its outbreak. To this end, the USSR sought not to provoke the potential aggressor until the very end by refraining or postponing the most urgent and obvious preparations it had to make to defend itself from an imminent attack. When it finally acted, it was too late.
As a result, the country was not prepared to counter the invasion by Nazi Germany, which attacked our Motherland on June 22, 1941, without declaring war. The country stopped the enemy and went on to defeat it, but this came at a tremendous cost. The attempt to appease the aggressor ahead of the Great Patriotic War proved to be a mistake which came at a high cost for our people. In the first months after the hostilities broke out, we lost vast territories of strategic importance, as well as millions of lives. We will not make this mistake the second time. We have no right to do so.
Those who aspire to global dominance have publicly designated Russia as their enemy. They did so with impunity. Make no mistake, they had no reason to act this way. It is true that they have considerable financial, scientific, technological, and military capabilities. We are aware of this and have an objective view of the economic threats we have been hearing, just as our ability to counter this brash and never-ending blackmail. Let me reiterate that we have no illusions in this regard and are extremely realistic in our assessments.
As for military affairs, even after the dissolution of the USSR and losing a considerable part of its capabilities, today’s Russia remains one of the most powerful nuclear states. Moreover, it has a certain advantage in several cutting-edge weapons. In this context, there should be no doubt for anyone that any potential aggressor will face defeat and ominous consequences should it directly attack our country.
At the same time, technology, including in the defence sector, is changing rapidly. One day there is one leader, and tomorrow another, but a military presence in territories bordering on Russia, if we permit it to go ahead, will stay for decades to come or maybe forever, creating an ever mounting and totally unacceptable threat for Russia.
Even now, with NATO’s eastward expansion the situation for Russia has been becoming worse and more dangerous by the year. Moreover, these past days NATO leadership has been blunt in its statements that they need to accelerate and step up efforts to bring the alliance’s infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders. In other words, they have been toughening their position. We cannot stay idle and passively observe these developments. This would be an absolutely irresponsible thing to do for us.
Any further expansion of the North Atlantic alliance’s infrastructure or the ongoing efforts to gain a military foothold of the Ukrainian territory are unacceptable for us. Of course, the question is not about NATO itself. It merely serves as a tool of US foreign policy. The problem is that in territories adjacent to Russia, which I have to note is our historical land, a hostile “anti-Russia” is taking shape. Fully controlled from the outside, it is doing everything to attract NATO armed forces and obtain cutting-edge weapons.
For the United States and its allies, it is a policy of containing Russia, with obvious geopolitical dividends. For our country, it is a matter of life and death, a matter of our historical future as a nation. This is not an exaggeration; this is a fact. It is not only a very real threat to our interests but to the very existence of our state and to its sovereignty. It is the red line which we have spoken about on numerous occasions. They have crossed it.
This brings me to the situation in Donbass. We can see that the forces that staged the coup in Ukraine in 2014 have seized power, are keeping it with the help of ornamental election procedures and have abandoned the path of a peaceful conflict settlement. For eight years, for eight endless years we have been doing everything possible to settle the situation by peaceful political means. Everything was in vain.
As I said in my previous address, you cannot look without compassion at what is happening there. It became impossible to tolerate it. We had to stop that atrocity, that genocide of the millions of people who live there and who pinned their hopes on Russia, on all of us. It is their aspirations, the feelings and pain of these people that were the main motivating force behind our decision to recognise the independence of the Donbass people’s republics.
I would like to additionally emphasise the following. Focused on their own goals, the leading NATO countries are supporting the far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis in Ukraine, those who will never forgive the people of Crimea and Sevastopol for freely making a choice to reunite with Russia.
They will undoubtedly try to bring war to Crimea just as they have done in Donbass, to kill innocent people just as members of the punitive units of Ukrainian nationalists and Hitler’s accomplices did during the Great Patriotic War. They have also openly laid claim to several other Russian regions.
If we look at the sequence of events and the incoming reports, the showdown between Russia and these forces cannot be avoided. It is only a matter of time. They are getting ready and waiting for the right moment. Moreover, they went as far as aspire to acquire nuclear weapons. We will not let this happen.
I have already said that Russia accepted the new geopolitical reality after the dissolution of the USSR. We have been treating all new post-Soviet states with respect and will continue to act this way. We respect and will respect their sovereignty, as proven by the assistance we provided to Kazakhstan when it faced tragic events and a challenge in terms of its statehood and integrity. However, Russia cannot feel safe, develop, and exist while facing a permanent threat from the territory of today’s Ukraine.
Let me remind you that in 2000–2005 we used our military to push back against terrorists in the Caucasus and stood up for the integrity of our state. We preserved Russia. In 2014, we supported the people of Crimea and Sevastopol. In 2015, we used our Armed Forces to create a reliable shield that prevented terrorists from Syria from penetrating Russia. This was a matter of defending ourselves. We had no other choice.
The same is happening today. They did not leave us any other option for defending Russia and our people, other than the one we are forced to use today. In these circumstances, we have to take bold and immediate action. The people’s republics of Donbass have asked Russia for help.
In this context, in accordance with Article 51 (Chapter VII) of the UN Charter, with permission of Russia’s Federation Council, and in execution of the treaties of friendship and mutual assistance with the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic, ratified by the Federal Assembly on February 22, I made a decision to carry out a special military operation.
The purpose of this operation is to protect people who, for eight years now, have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime. To this end, we will seek to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation.
It is not our plan to occupy the Ukrainian territory. We do not intend to impose anything on anyone by force. At the same time, we have been hearing an increasing number of statements coming from the West that there is no need any more to abide by the documents setting forth the outcomes of World War II, as signed by the totalitarian Soviet regime. How can we respond to that?
The outcomes of World War II and the sacrifices our people had to make to defeat Nazism are sacred. This does not contradict the high values of human rights and freedoms in the reality that emerged over the post-war decades. This does not mean that nations cannot enjoy the right to self-determination, which is enshrined in Article 1 of the UN Charter.
Let me remind you that the people living in territories which are part of today’s Ukraine were not asked how they want to build their lives when the USSR was created or after World War II. Freedom guides our policy, the freedom to choose independently our future and the future of our children. We believe that all the peoples living in today’s Ukraine, anyone who want to do this, must be able to enjoy this right to make a free choice.
In this context I would like to address the citizens of Ukraine. In 2014, Russia was obliged to protect the people of Crimea and Sevastopol from those who you yourself call “nats.” The people of Crimea and Sevastopol made their choice in favour of being with their historical homeland, Russia, and we supported their choice. As I said, we could not act otherwise.
The current events have nothing to do with a desire to infringe on the interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. They are connected with the defending Russia from those who have taken Ukraine hostage and are trying to use it against our country and our people.
I reiterate: we are acting to defend ourselves from the threats created for us and from a worse peril than what is happening now. I am asking you, however hard this may be, to understand this and to work together with us so as to turn this tragic page as soon as possible and to move forward together, without allowing anyone to interfere in our affairs and our relations but developing them independently, so as to create favourable conditions for overcoming all these problems and to strengthen us from within as a single whole, despite the existence of state borders. I believe in this, in our common future.
I would also like to address the military personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Comrade officers,
Your fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers did not fight the Nazi occupiers and did not defend our common Motherland to allow today’s neo-Nazis to seize power in Ukraine. You swore the oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people and not to the junta, the people’s adversary which is plundering Ukraine and humiliating the Ukrainian people.
I urge you to refuse to carry out their criminal orders. I urge you to immediately lay down arms and go home. I will explain what this means: the military personnel of the Ukrainian army who do this will be able to freely leave the zone of hostilities and return to their families.
I want to emphasise again that all responsibility for the possible bloodshed will lie fully and wholly with the ruling Ukrainian regime.
I would now like to say something very important for those who may be tempted to interfere in these developments from the outside. No matter who tries to stand in our way or all the more so create threats for our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history. No matter how the events unfold, we are ready. All the necessary decisions in this regard have been taken. I hope that my words will be heard.
Citizens of Russia,
The culture and values, experience and traditions of our ancestors invariably provided a powerful underpinning for the wellbeing and the very existence of entire states and nations, their success and viability. Of course, this directly depends on the ability to quickly adapt to constant change, maintain social cohesion, and readiness to consolidate and summon all the available forces in order to move forward.
We always need to be strong, but this strength can take on different forms. The “empire of lies,” which I mentioned in the beginning of my speech, proceeds in its policy primarily from rough, direct force. This is when our saying on being “all brawn and no brains” applies.
We all know that having justice and truth on our side is what makes us truly strong. If this is the case, it would be hard to disagree with the fact that it is our strength and our readiness to fight that are the bedrock of independence and sovereignty and provide the necessary foundation for building a reliable future for your home, your family, and your Motherland.
Dear compatriots,
I am certain that devoted soldiers and officers of Russia’s Armed Forces will perform their duty with professionalism and courage. I have no doubt that the government institutions at all levels and specialists will work effectively to guarantee the stability of our economy, financial system and social wellbeing, and the same applies to corporate executives and the entire business community. I hope that all parliamentary parties and civil society take a consolidated, patriotic position.
At the end of the day, the future of Russia is in the hands of its multi-ethnic people, as has always been the case in our history. This means that the decisions that I made will be executed, that we will achieve the goals we have set, and reliably guarantee the security of our Motherland.
I believe in your support and the invincible force rooted in the love for our Fatherland.
control the lending, control the schools; control the schools, control the students
we just saw a raft of student loan forgiveness run through as yet another goodie room special-interest appeasement to transfer the debt of those who took out loans for educations to those who did not. it’s classic “concentrated benefit, diffuse harm” electioneering.
it’s also a terrible idea as it creates about 900 kinds of perverse incentives, but this positively pales in comparison to what the department of education would like to try next.
not a lot of people seem to know this, but student loans have lots of payment cap provisions in them.
the current rule is that you cannot be required to pay more than 10% of your discretionary income (income above some locally calculated poverty rate that tends to be about $15k for single people, $22k+ for couples more if you have kids) per month over 20 years.
any balance left after a double decade is forgiven.
this already creates all manner of bad incentives, especially as most student loans are made without any rigorous consideration on ability to repay. this endless access to debt is what has driven the price of college into the stratosphere.
this happens in any market that gets access to leverage.
based on an emerging markets analysis i did years ago, when mortgages become available in a housing market for the first time, over the next 5-10 years the price of a home generally rises to about 4-5X what it was. what was the price of a home becomes the down payment for one as more and more money chases the same dwellings. we saw this all over the US in the 2002-8 period when mandated loans guaranteed by freddie and fannie came to dominate in the US and the age of the rampant liar loan emerged from the ill advised risk shifting colliding with mandates to lend to subprime borrowers at prime rates.
leverage and credit expansions drive explosive price level changes and student loans are no different. the more you offer them, the more people need them because the more the underlying price of tuition soars. colleges love this and it has led them down a primrose path of wild price expansions. when i graduated in the mid 90’s, my university was ~$22k a year. almost no one took out loans. it’s now $81k, WAY outside of middle class affordability. and now loans, grants, or scholarships are required for most people.
see how this 4-5X multiplier works? this program to “help people afford college” has made college unaffordable.
student loans outstanding have risen from $0.4tn in 2005 to $1.75tn today.
and the new student loan plan proposed by the department of ed is going to be worse. it will pretty much turn university pricing into a farce and require that EVERYONE get loans. it will, in fact, create a system where you’d basically have to be an idiot not to. and i fear this may be by design.
let’s look:
on the surface, this looks like it “helps affordability.” you’re cutting monthly payments, right? but this has not yet looked at what it will do to the price level and how that will affect everyone, especially those who did not previously want loans.
you’re basically doubling the effective leverage in the market. you can expect that to double prices over time. it’s like cutting interest rates in half AND giving out a 50% cut in principal amount on mortgages.
that’s financial dynamite.
i made this chart to demonstrate.
the blue line is the current 20 year cap on repayment set at 10% of discretionary income.
the red line is the new proposed line.
i then calculated the costs for 4 years of undergrad paid back monthly over 20 years using a 3% fixed interest rate (which is lower than current rates) as a total payback amount using the average cost estimates HERE for most schools and HERE for the ivy league. i used $20k as the DI deduction.
as can be readily seen, not many folks are paying back their full loans now but damn near no one would be paying back their full loans anymore under this new system.
this is what break even looks like under current and proposed systems. it’s the minimum amount of gross income you have to earn as an average over 20 years to make payments that will actually add up to what you borrowed.
these are some BIG percentile numbers.
under a 5% cap, you need to be 86th percentile to even pay back in state public college.
you need to be 97th percentile to pay back an average private college and 99th to pay back an ivy loan.
even with income growth over time, that’s just not going to happen for nearly everyone.
what you will get instead is trillions of dollars of write downs, maybe 10’s of trillions.
but what you will also get is explosive college price inflation because you’ve turned the whole thing into a buffet where once you pay, you might as well pig out on lobster.
let’s say you plan to go into a nice career with $100k in income. that’s 80k of DI, so your cap on loan payment is $4k per year X 20 years = $80k.
that means that all school costs over $80k are “free” to you. you do not need to care if college costs $20k a year or $100k a year. you will pay the same.
and what do you think THAT will do to your selection process? and what do you think that will do to the prices asked by universities, especially top ones for which competition is fierce?
creating a system where the customer does not care what the price of your good or service is because they do not pay it is a recipe for monstrous over-consumption. we see this all the time in healthcare. once you hit out of pocket max for a year, the buffet is open. go nuts.
this is not a way to allocate education efficiently. it’s a way to hand you uncle sam’s black amex and turn you loose in a miami beach lambo dealer. and trust me, lamborghini is not gonna cut you a sweetheart deal. they’re gonna sell you the anti-rust undercoating.
now think about grad school. yup. pile that one and start demanding a 5% rate there too.
and this problem just gets worse and worse as income drops. if you’re looking at a career that pays $50k you’re capped at a stunningly low $30k full payment over 20 years. that’s getting down into community college prices. you could NEVER justify spending $400k on education to get that job. well, not before. now you can. now you’re not facing the costs.
aventadors for everyone.
get in idiot, it’s free!
clearly, this is a deeply stupid plan. it will grossly misallocate educational investment, drive unaccountable overconsumption of a good that is almost certainly already over-consumed, and shift costs from those who get loans to those who did not. it will also blow prices into the stratosphere. supply of top schools does not really rise. more money chasing the same places can only end one way.
and this will create not only a situation where 98% of americans are priced out of college unless they take out loans (which will, of course, further increase prices) but will create an actual prisoner’s dilemma where you would be a fool not to take out loans because everyone else will and they are sure as sunrise gonna stick you with their bill so you better stick them with yours too. this is how a trillion in loan losses becomes $10 trillion and how every college kid in america gets fastened to the federal teat.
and that NEVER works out well.
leaving aside the investment misallocation and the financial calamity this will drop upon taxpayers (or savers if they just keep inflating it away) this has another really sinister feature: it places the state in total control of universities.
if you need to get loans to go to college and pretty much every loan comes from the government (or has their express backing) then they are now paying ALL the pipers.
guess who gets to call all the tunes?
this will make title IX and the tax break addictions look like mild suggestions of influence. this will make it total. once they get schools hooked, if the feds make them ineligible for these loans: it’s over.
this will be the defacto ceding of control to the state.
it will also form the basis of a social credit system. if we don’t like the things you say in high school or college: no loan for you. you’re out in the cold.
yeah, your parents too.
probably your siblings as well.
oh, and your friends of course. mustn’t follow dissidents on twitbook.
everybody around you better be good or no college for you.
if this sounds far fetched, it’s already happening in china. they are using exactly this sort of peer and family linked web of social credit. the social scores of your friends affect your own. it’s the kind of plan the WEF loves. and believe you me: it CAN happen here.
this is the thin end of a wedge that you’ll never get out.
control the systems of education, what they teach, and who gets access to them.
require and advance them as critical credentials for success in state and private jobs.
this is how you dominate a whole system. it’s the fascist/socialist/authoritarian playbook, chapter 1.
you’ll need to obey and compete to get access to the lending that you need to buy your future and leviathan will have a monopoly on funding you by deliberately mispricing a market and endlessly forgiving loans. pile on some ESG, DEI, and special loan jubilees for “people that take X kind of job” and now you’re shaping a whole society and workforce.
it’s not about efficient allocation or fairness.
it’s about buying dominance.
it’s also a nasty object lesson in leaving unchecked power lying around.
“just where in hell do they get the right to do this?” many have asked.
the answer, like so many other outrage origins of late finds its genesis in the realm of the patriot act and other such post 9/11 hysteria that abrogated so many rights “because crisis.”
it’s a classic trojan framing for a popular cause that then gets re-used for other purposes later.
the patriot act and its little siblings like this one really drove a stake into the heart of the american republic. they basically tossed the idea of limited and enumerated powers out the window in “emergencies.”
and if you grant near unlimited authority during emergencies, well, you can then expect near unlimited emergencies, can’t you?
because some things never change.
they just keep taking you mile after mile because you ceded the first inch and invited the vampire in.
and it’s going to keep grabbing.
i don’t know if these powers can be used to cut the income cap in half or if that takes actual legislation, but given the broadness of the power grant it sure seems like it could and the inclination to use executive fiat to push vast transformative agendas that cannot pass legislative muster certainly seems present.
we’ve spoken much here about eliminating the regulatory state, but the lending state is just as dangerous, perhaps more so. from farm loans to housing this has been a debacle. everything this firehose of cash has touched has boomed, bust, and wound up with 3 times the federal interference it had before. whole spaces are never the same.
the federal government now backs well over 50% of us mortgages.
the fed now owns $2.6 trillion of mortgage backed securities, roughly 1/3 of the total market. this is up from zero in 2009. see how fast that goes?
and see how vulnerable it makes any market under such thrall to domination by politicians and their pet peccadillos?
once the government needle goes in, it never comes out of these markets.
it creates desperate debt supplicants and serfs while breaking markets and misallocating investment and risk.
this is another activity from which we must remove the state. there should be no government lending. none. it almost never serves any useful purpose and winds up devastating those it sought to aid. it creates dependence and crowds out the development of systems that align incentives and generate sound choices by associating return to risk and demanding return on capital.
control of capital allocation and access to credit is control of a people.
this is not a friendly loan. it’s the worst kind of loan sharking, and the true vig is your agency and your liberty.
Econophysics2020 