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European antiwar protests gain strength as NATO’s Ukraine proxy war escalates – The Grayzone

Posted by M. C. on March 3, 2023

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/02/27/europeans-protest-natos-proxy-war/

STAVROULA PABST AND MAX BLUMENTHAL

Europeans are storming the streets in unprecedented numbers to protest NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine and their own declining living standards. The Grayzone has covered demonstrations and interviewed protest leaders in several countries since the war erupted.

Athens, Greece –– This February 21, several thousand Greeks filled Athens’ streets to denounce NATO and the United States in the wake of Antony Blinken’s Greece visit, where the US Secretary of State applauded the Mediterranean country for being amongst the first European countries to support Ukraine, thus leading to way for “the support of democracy.”

It was just one action among many protest actions across the continent as the NATO proxy conflict in Ukraine approached  its first anniversary. European citizens are growing agitated as their leaders appear set on extending the war at least another year: they’ve approved several rounds of sanctions on Russia, provided billions of euros in assistance to Ukraine, and have agreed to train thousands of Ukrainian soldiers. 

Such actions have blighted living standards for average Europeans. Although the continent has avoided a widely feared energy collapse thanks to successful efforts to secure energy alternatives and unseasonably warm weather, European governments had already prepared for possible power outages and mobile blackouts earlier this winter due to the severing of Russian energy.

As the war escalates, so too are protest actions in core NATO states, from Greece to Britain to the Czech Republic to France and Spain. The recent wave of demonstrations builds on sizable displays of opposition to the war throughout the winter in cities from Chișinău to Paris to Brussels to Tirana to Vienna.

In Germany, where Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has declared that “we are at war with Russia” amid reports that the US military destroyed the country’s Nord Stream pipeline connecting it to Russia’s gas supply, demonstrations against the NATO proxy war are surging as well.

The rising tide of protests across the continent appear to have have rattled European leaders, triggering police repression, demagogic denunciations, and even prosecution of protest leaders for publicly criticizing their governments’ military support to Ukraine.

Unlike Western mainstream media, which has treated the protests with contempt when it has not ignored them altogether, The Grayzone attended several protests and interviewed the labor and antiwar activists who have mobilized their fellow citizens against NATO’s proxy war.

Popular resistance builds in Europe as leaders grovel to Washington

By the arrival of the February 24, 2023 anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a growing number of German citizens had begun to bristle at their government’s submissive attitude to Washington. Not only had Chancellor Olaf Scholz acceded to US demands to send Leopard tanks to the Ukrainian military, setting up what could be the first confrontation between German and Russian armor since World War Two, he seemed studiously disinterested in determining who was responsible for destroying the Nord Stream pipelines.

An antiwar manifesto authored by Sahra Wagenknecht of the Die Linke (Left) party and feminist writer Alice Schwarzer has provided a vehicle for German outrage at their government’s military support for Ukraine. Calling on Scholz to “stop the escalation in arms deliveries” and “lead a strong alliance for negotiations,” the open letter had garnered over 700,000 signatures at the time of publication.

On February 25, Wagenknecht and Schwarzer summoned supporters of the manifesto to rally in central Berlin. Over 15,000 protesters, and possibly many more, heeded their call, flooding Brandenburg Gate to hear speeches by the two authors and speakers including Jeffrey Sachs and former German Brigadier General Eric Vad.

Wagenknecht framed the delivery of German tanks to Ukraine against the ghosts of country’s past, proclaiming, “We don’t want German tanks firing on the great grandchildren of Russian women and men. This is complete historical amnesia! Have you forgotten German history?”

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Saudi Arabia’s Quandary: The End of the Petrodollar | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on March 3, 2023

The good news is that Washington’s plans for world domination are bound to fail as China and Russia have a revived alliance, which also appeals to and is open to other powers. The bad news is that this will lead to the drawn-out collapse of the dollar, which Washington will attempt to parlay into a new central bank digital currency to accompany an increased crackdown on opposition within the dwindling empire.

https://mises.org/wire/saudi-arabias-quandary-end-petrodollar

J.R. MacLeod

In 1971 Richard Nixon took the US off the last feeble vestiges of the gold standard, otherwise known as the Bretton Woods Agreement. That system had been a bizarre gold-dollar hybrid where the dollar was the world reserve currency but the US agreed to keep the dollar backed by gold. Henry Hazlitt’s book From Bretton Woods to World Inflation explains the consequences of this situation well.

The end of this system left a vacuum at the heart of world financial affairs, one that needed to be filled quickly. The dollar, now unmoored by gold, remained the default currency for international trade, but without the confidence derived from its former gold backing, the US needed to bolster its credibility lest other more enticing options appeared to displace the dollar’s hegemony.

During the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had gained leverage by imposing an oil embargo, which caused serious disruptions in the global economy. In 1974 Henry Kissinger brokered a deal: Israel would back off its territorial ambitions, the Arab states would end the embargo, and oil would be traded in dollars. Thus, the petrodollar was born.

Every economy needs energy, and Saudi Arabia supplies plenty of oil, meaning that the dollar was backed up by a valuable commodity that would always be the recipient of demand. Everyone wants oil, and the Saudis would only trade it for dollars, so the dollar became unavoidable in international trade, reaffirming its status as the world reserve currency.

Even if others would have preferred a neutral, market-based currency not subject to manipulation, the opportunity cost of foregoing oil was far higher than the cost of having to use the dollar. A global medium of exchange selected by the market would have been more economically efficient, but given that the US and the Saudis possessed the ability to impose a politically motivated system, nobody was willing to bear the costs to create an alternative as long as the dollar was managed fairly sensibly.

Washington and the Gulf States benefit enormously from this situation. The petrodollar gives the Fed extreme license to print currency and export its inflation. If other countries are forced to use your currency, that gives you a lot more room to debase it. Imports are made cheaper with the high purchasing power of the dollar, and exports are propped up because the easiest way to spend dollars is to buy American products.

All this amounts to Washington essentially taxing world trade. The Gulf States benefit in the same ways by having enhanced access to the world reserve currency. Their oil is given priority in world markets compared to competitors opposed by Washington, such as Iran. They are also just simply given financial aid by Washington for participating in this scheme.

However, there are consequences for the countries involved. Even if the US has largely avoided extreme domestic consumer price inflation by circulating dollars around the world, the business cycle consequences of inflation are unavoidable. For example, the 2008 recession was severe yet unaccompanied by extreme inflation before or after. Holding the world reserve currency has also given the US a free ride with far less need to produce valuable goods and services. The dollar holds its value because there has always been global demand for it, so it has been possible to print money to prop up the US economy by consumer spending without an extreme loss of value in the dollar. But there is now very little worth in the underlying US economy.

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Dailywire Article-Merrick Garland Hungry For Expanded DOJ: ‘We Don’t Have Enough’

Posted by M. C. on March 3, 2023

Is this the same Merrick Garland who calls parents, that protest again$t his $on-in-law$ Panorama CRT $chool program$, terrorists?

The FBI is part of the DOJ :>( The DOJ houses both the enforcers and those that judge the enforcers.

Why am I not feeling safer?

https://www.dailywire.com/news/merrick-garland-hungry-for-expanded-doj-we-dont-have-enough

By  Daniel Chaitin

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Attorney General Merrick Garland talked a lot about the Justice Department’s “resources” during his appearance Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Congress provided the Justice Department with “critical resources” to strengthen its national security and law enforcement capacities, Garland testified in his opening statement.

But there were a number of times during the hearing when the attorney general invited the prospect of receiving more resources, which appeared to be more about funds and personnel rather than legislative tweaks, to better address matters ranging from antitrust issues and combating drug cartels trafficking fentanyl into the United States.

At one point, during an exchange with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Garland pushed back on the assertion that prosecutors are encouraged to avoid certain charges to get around certain mandatory minimum sentences approved by Congress.

“This is a question of allocating our resources and focusing them on violent crime,” Garland said. He insisted that conflicting views on policy are not to blame, but rather, “it’s a question of the resources.”

Pressed on whether this meant the Justice Department does not have enough money, Garland shared a list: “Not enough people. We don’t have enough money. We don’t have enough jails. We don’t have enough judges.”

This amounts to “cherry-picking,” Cornyn argued, a point which Garland countered by saying, “If we apply it to every single crime, we will not be able to focus our resources on violent crime, significant drug trafficking, on the cartels, on the people who are killing people with fentanyl.”

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A Defense of Business

Posted by M. C. on March 3, 2023

Luis Rivera

By Walter E. Block

https://open.substack.com/pub/walterblock/p/a-defense-of-business?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android

Did you ever wonder how businesses first started? From scratch, I mean. I’m not talking about nowadays. That’s easy. I’m now contemplating the very first one to grace the planet.
 
There had to be some such occurrence. Companies did not always exist. There were no employers or employees zillions of years ago when our species was located in the trees, or in the caves. Yes, we then worked in groups, and there was typically a headman, but this was not at all the employer – employee relationship we are now defending.
 
Let us posit, then, that during this far off time, there were only individual proprietorships. Each person worked on his own, for himself. There was no such thing as anyone hiring anyone else. Employment was completely missing from humankind. Everyone was employed alright, but only working for himself.
 
We now simplify matters and assume equal productivity on the part of everyone. They could each produce 10 units each of apples, bananas and chicken. All their earnings consisted of 30 food units. No one saved anything for a rainy day, nor to enable him to hire anyone else. It was a hand to mouth existence.
 
Nevertheless, one day, someone got up on his hind legs; call him Charlie. He went to his buddy, Bob, and said, “Hey Bob, come work for me. You’ll be my employee. You’ll follow my orders (within reason). I’ll pay you 35 food units every day. Bob, no fool, took up Charlie on this offer. His mathematics ability enabled him to calculate that 35 was greater than 30.
 
On the basis of which economic phenomenon was Charlie able to make Bob this offer, and actually carry through on it? Out of which rock did he draw the blood, amounting to 5 food units? For the non-cognoscenti, it is called specialization and the division of labor.  Two people, Charlie and Bob, working together, can produce more than double the amount that each could accomplish, working alone. Perhaps it is because Charlie is better at harvesting fruit, while Bob could preside over our clucking friends with greater efficiency. Maybe it is due to the fact that some stones or trees are impervious to the efforts of one man, while succumb to those of two, working together. In any case, the two of them, as a team, can produce 75 food units; Charles pays Bob 35 of them, and keeps 40 for himself.
 
Did Charlie exploit Bob? The Marxists, economic illiterates and lacking any shred of logic, would say yes, and necessarily so. Why? Well, capital always exploits labor. But there is no capital in our little scenario. (In any case, capital emanates from savings. In our example, Charlie either saved up to be able to hire Bob or borrowed it from someone else. The bottom line is that this enabled the productivity of both to rise. This can hardly justify the Marxist claim of exploitation.) There is just the Adam Smithian specialization and the division of labor. Yes, Charlies’ share was boosted by 10 (40-30) while Bob only benefited to the extent of 5 (35-30). Heck I would have awarded Charlie lots more; it is my numerical example. But no matter how you slice it, Charlie was Bob’s benefactor. Indeed, they each improved the economic welfare of the other. We can deduce this from “drop dead” theory. If Charlie had dropped dead, or for any other reason never made that employment offer to bob, would the latter be better or worse off. Obviously, worse off, by 5 units daily.

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China’s Turn – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on March 3, 2023

So, the question is: Aren’t we blaming China for policies that were pushed through by powerful corporations and their plutocrat bosses?

It certainly looks that way. And, if that is the case, then we can assume that Washington’s drive to war is not fueled by anxiety over which country’s economy will be bigger than the others, but by the Chinese government’s resistence to the political meddling and machinations of foreign oligarchs.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/03/no_author/chinas-turn/

By Mike Whitney
The Unz Review

Americas Hyper-Financialized Economic System Is No Match for China’s Government-Directed Investment Model. Regrettably, China’s Explosive Growth Is Pushing a Desperate Washington Closer to War.

Ukraine is the first flashpoint in a great power struggle between the United States and China. After years of shifting its industries to low-wage locations around the world, the US finds itself steadliy losing market-share to a faster-growing and more resourceful China. By most estimates, China’s economy will overtake the United States by 2035 at which point, Beijing will be in a much better position to shape international trade relations in a way that promotes its own interests. With growth, comes power, and that rule will certainly apply to China as well. China has emerged as an industrial powerhouse that sits at the very epicenter of the most populous and fastest growing region in the world. It is for that reason that the United States has initiated a series of provocations on the island of Taiwan and in the South China Sea. The US has abandoned all hope of prevailing over China through conventional free market competition. Instead, the US plans to engage China militarily in a desperate attempt to drain its resources, garner broader support for economic sanctions and isolate isolate China from its regional trading partners. It is a risky and disruptive plan that could backfire spectacularly, but Washington is moving forward regardless. US foreign policy mandarins and their globalist allies will not accept an outcome in which China is the world’s biggest and most powerful economy. This is from an article at China Macro Economy:

Although the pace of China’s economic rise has slowed in recent years, it appears on track to end the United States’ lengthy run as the world’s largest economy by around 2035, according to the latest projection by economists at Goldman Sachs.

The new estimate is 10 years later than the investment bank had predicted in 2011. But economists Kevin Daly and Tadas Gedminas said that potential growth in China still remains significantly higher than in the US.

“China has already closed most of the gap with US GDP,” they said in a report published on Tuesday, adding that China’s gross domestic product has risen from 12 per cent of the US’ in 2000 to a little under 80 per cent.

China’s annual economic growth will be around 4 per cent from 2024 to 2029, compared with 1.9 per cent in the US, according to the report, which projects what the global economy will look like through 2075….

The US dollar’s exceptional strength over the past 10 years is another reason for the 10-year revision in when China’s economy will become No 1, Daly added… But the US dollar’s strength versus the Chinese yuan is likely to diminish over the coming decade, providing more ground for China to overtake the US, according to the report.

The report also projected that the weight of global GDP will shift more towards Asia over the next 30 years, and that the world’s five largest economies in 2050 will be China, the United States, India, Indonesia and Germany.” (“China GDP to surpass US around 2035, years later than previously expected, Goldman Sachs predicts”, China Macro Economy)

Naturally, the financialization of the US economy has greatly impacted America’s prospects for the future. The rise of Wall Street has led to a myriad of debt-leveraging scams that have enriched a handfull of wealthy bankers while diverting trillions in capital to unproductive activities. At the same time, the absence of any coherent industrial policy has triggered the flight of tens of thousands of businesses and factories that relocated to countries that offer an endless supply of low-wage labor. The problem, of course, is that mounting policy errors eventually lead to a drop-off in productivity which allows other, more ambitious countries to fill the void. In short, the Chinese Miracle is largely attributable to financialization and the short-sighted policies that allowed US corporations to move their industries elsewhere rather than provide incentives for them to stay in America. Bottom line: China’s economy is overtaking the US and there is nothing short of nuclear war that can reverse that situation.

In recent weeks, there has been a steady uptick in negative coverage of China in the media along with the predictable attacks on President Xi Jinping. Americans have seen this show many times before and should have a clear understanding of what it means. The demonization of foreign leaders is always the first step towards war. The media led the charge against Saddam, Qaddafi, Milosevic, Putin and countless others. Now China’s Jinping is in the imperial crosshairs. The names change, but the process remains the same. Already, the provocations, sanctions and slanders have begun to pile-up even while brainwashed Americans are led by-the-nose to another bloody conflict.

If there is a war between the two countries, the economic fallout is likely to be catastrophic. Consider, for a minute, how many American and European companies would be severely impacted by a US-China conflict. Here’s an excerpt from an article at Registration China:

By the end of 2020, a total of 1,040,480 foreign companies were registered in Mainland China, the Official data was provided by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM)…. According to the official data, China had established a total of 961,000 Foreign-Invested Enterprises (FIE) until the end of 2018, with the actual use of foreign capital of US $2.1 trillion…. The results show that the number of foreign-invested enterprises is keep on increasing in 2021… (“How many Foreign Companies in China?”, GWBMA

1 million foreign-owned companies in China? That is simply astonishing.

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The UN Discusses Darkening The Skies to Combat Climate Change

Posted by M. C. on March 2, 2023

Having been assured that sulfur dioxide was bad for us, we spent billions of dollars eliminating it from coal and oil-burning emissions and building sulfur-capture technology.

Now, it turns out that sulfur dioxide is good for us, and we need to spend even more untold billions to inject it into the atmosphere.

Remember those “Get US Out Of The UN” signs you used to see in people’s yards? Still think they were crazy?

Ukraine policy may solve the UN’s dark sky problem.

https://open.substack.com/pub/igorchudov/p/the-un-discusses-darkening-the-skies?utm_source=direct&r=iw8dv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Igor Chudov

A new report from the UN was just published. It proposes and discusses ways to cool our planet by restricting sunlight and darkening our skies.

Source: UNEP Document

What is this about? Why block sunlight, of all things? Let me explain.

The UN is worried about climate change. As the efforts to reduce CO2 emissions are faltering, the UN is looking for more ways to cool the Earth. The UNEP’s report details ideas called “Solar Radiation Modification,” the gist of which is to reflect sunlight and prevent it from heating the surface of our planet.

Here are the main ideas that the UN will consider:

  • Injecting reflective nanoparticles/sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere (stratospheric aerosol injection)
  • Brightening of low clouds over the ocean by seeding ocean clouds with submicron salt particles
  • Using space mirrors, that is, many giant mirrors launched into outer space to reflect sunlight.

The UN explains that should the “global stakeholders” decide to proceed, the skies could be darkened within only a few years:

SRM is the only option that could cool the planet within years. To be effective at limiting global warming, SRM would need to be maintained for several decades to centuries, depending on the pace of emissions reductions and carbon removal.

The report does pay lip service to what is undeniable:

  • This is an untested planetary intervention
  • There could be disparate effects on certain regions

However, you and I can guess we should not expect a careful, conservative review of such proposals by the UN if the “Covid vaccine” experience is any guide.

Injecting Sulfur Dioxide Into the Sky Was Bad for Us – Now It is Good Again

This picture introduces us to the sky-dimming technology being considered:

Source: UNEP Document

The report explains:

Major volcanic eruptions, which introduce large amounts of sulphate particles into the stratosphere, provide a natural analogue for SRM deployment (Figure 4). 

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RATO and NATO – The Future of Freedom Foundation

Posted by M. C. on March 2, 2023

https://www.fff.org/2023/02/27/rato-and-nato/

by Jacob G. Hornberger

Let’s engage in some imagining. 

Let’s imagine that Russia and China form a new organization, called the Russia Asia Treaty Organization, or RATO. One day they invite Nicaragua, Venezuela, Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico to become members. All of them agree. 

The U.S. government objects. “What is the purpose of extending RATO to our part of the world?” U.S. officials angrily ask. 

RATO responds: “You have nothing to worry about. RATO is an entirely peaceful organization, just like NATO.”

Russia and China ask Nicaragua, Venezuela, Chile, and Guatemala if it would be okay for RATO to install military bases, nuclear missiles, tanks, and troops in their countries. They enthusiastically say yes. 

“Wait right there, busters!” U.S. officials exclaim. “We don’t want RATO bases, nuclear missiles, tanks, and troops over here in our part of the world.”

RATO officials respond, “You have absolutely nothing to worry about. These are all defensive in nature. RATO, like NATO, is a peace-loving organization.”

U.S. officials reply, “Well, we don’t like it one bit. But to avoid war, we won’t stop you from installing those bases, nuclear missiles, tanks, weaponry, and troops in those countries. 

However, our Red Line is Cuba. We will not permit you to install bases, nuclear missiles, tanks, weaponry, and troops in Cuba. Do not cross our Red Line, or we will be forced to invade Cuba and effect regime change there in order to prevent this from happening. Remember: This is our Red Line. Do not cross it.”

One day, RATO announces that it is going to install bases, nuclear missiles, tanks, weaponry, and troops in Cuba, with the full consent of Cuba. RATO ships containing such items begin moving toward Cuba, with the full intent of crossing the U.S. Red Line. 

Immediately, the president of the United States orders a full-scale military invasion of Cuba in an attempt to effect regime change there and install a pro-U.S. regime into power. 

In accordance with the RATO treaty, RATO begins furnishing money and weaponry to Cuba.

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Watch “Why You Should Be Eating Fake Meat!” on YouTube

Posted by M. C. on March 2, 2023

https://youtu.be/YY0fSOIHHhE

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Covid: Senator Rand Paul Finally Getting Credit For Being Right All Along

Posted by M. C. on March 2, 2023

https://rumble.com/v2ba69m-covid-senator-rand-paul-finally-getting-credit-for-being-right-all-along.html

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Ohio train disaster: the blame game takes a VERY strange twist

Posted by M. C. on March 2, 2023

Nothing is easy.

Jon Rappoport

https://jonrappoport.substack.com/p/ohio-train-disaster-blame-game-strange-twist?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

“Hey, it wasn’t our fault! It was you!”

“That’s what you guys always say. You just want us to pay the damages.”

And around and around it goes.

Even assuming the Ohio train disaster was a terrorist attack, lurking in the background is the day-in day-out transport of highly dangerous chemicals by rail crisscrossing the country.

Who is responsible for THAT?

Here’s an excerpt of a vital article from 

Doomberg:

For its part, the freight rail companies are forced by the federal government to transport dangerous materials regardless of the peril such cargoes represent. In particular, they [the railroads] lament the substantial risk embodied by having to carry Toxic Inhalation Hazard (TIH) chemicals on their lines. Included on the TIH list are ammonia and chlorine, both of which are transported by rail in significant quantities. Here is how UP [Union Pacific Railroad] characterizes the situation from their perspective:

“Under the common carrier obligation, the federal government requires railroads to transport hazmat, whether they want to or not. Trucks and barges do not have this same obligation and may refuse to carry hazmat at their discretion. Union Pacific does not make Toxic Inhalation Hazard materials, own the tank cars that move TIH or decide the origin or destination to which it is shipped. However, the common carrier obligation requires Union Pacific to transport TIH.”

But wait. Are we really supposed to believe UP and other railroad giants would refuse to carry these chemical poisons if they could? And thereby sacrifice giant ongoing profits?

I don’t think so.

The railroads just want somebody to blame. And so does the federal government. And so do the chemical companies who manufacture the poisons and want them transported.

You could even say these three forces are doing THEATER. “You blame me and I’ll blame him and he’ll blame you.”

In my recent podcast about the Ohio Train Disaster, I emphasized the fact that most vinyl chloride is made at the same location where it is then turned into PVC pipe. But still, a great deal of the chemical is shipped long distances to the PVC factories.

Which should be forbidden. Which should be considered a crime.

However, the rail companies are pocketing major fees for carrying the chemical. The feds are mandating this transport. And the chemical companies want the vinyl chloride moved by rail. They’re all in it together.

Follow this bouncing ball: The braking systems for most of these huge freight trains are based on 19th century technology.

This means when the trains are suddenly stopped, the cars tend to bunch up, and you can get a derailment.

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