Crimes Without Punishment

Special Investigators,

  John Ward, the Slog, now relocated to The Gambia for reasons of freedom and sanity, which are in short supply in contemporary rural France, has posted about Tucker Carlson's silencing, postulating that it may be due to his digging in the Kennedy & Nixon years. G. Gordon Liddy was a "Watergate Burglar" who did a little time for it, but he was also, always CIA. 

Ward explores that, but this is what riveted my attention:

​  ​On June 23, 1972, Nixon met with the then–CIA director, Richard Helms, at the White House. During the conversation, which thankfully was tape-recorded, Nixon suggested he knew “who shot John,” meaning President John F. Kennedy. Nixon further implied that the CIA was directly involved in Kennedy’s assassination, which we now know it was. Helms’s telling response? Total silence, but for Nixon, it didn’t matter because it was already over. Four days before, on June 19, The Washington Post had published the first of many stories about a break-in at the Watergate office building.” [Little things often tell us a lot. For example, TV crews for the Nixon/Kennedy debates are on the record as saying that Dick Nixon was hugely impressed by Kennedy’s performance, and chatted with him afterwards, ALWAYS referring to him as ‘John’ not Jack. Nixon did indeed have a good idea who’d shot JFK: the CIA Plumber G Gordon Liddy.​..] https://therealslog.com/2023/05/14/explosive-tucker-carlsons-earthquake/

​  The Durham Report ("Special Prosecutor" should just be called "special investigator", it seems.) politely says that all of the "Crossfire Hurricane" evidence on Trump-Russian-collusion never, ever existed, except for complete fabrications, which were always known by the NSA and FBI to be complete fabrications since before the 2016 election.​ John Leake (with Peter McCullough MD) has this in closing.  

  In other words, in its Russian-Collusion reporting, the New York Times published assertions from “four unnamed current and former U.S. intelligence officials” that were entirely false. Thus, the practice of using “unidentified sources”—a practice that was once heavily frowned upon by respectable journalists—enabled the commission of a giant deception that inflicted untold damage to our political system.
  Even at that time (in early 2017) I told anyone who would listen that if it was possible to take down a sitting President of the United States by publishing the assertions of anonymous sources from within the state bureaucracy, then our government by elected officials was over, and our true masters were the “unnamed intelligence officials.”

Special Counsel John Durham's Report Released

  Pepe Escobar has an analysis of the Ukrainian "counter-offensive" (which it is not; it's just a line of tactical counterattacks), which can be summarized as, "nobody anywhere seems to know what is going on in the Ukraine war these days".

​  ​This is as serious as it gets. Because it’s linked to a key question posed across several educated silos in Moscow: if Russia is widely known to be the strongest military power in the world with the most advanced defensive and offensive missiles, how come they have not wrapped up the whole deal in the Ukrainian battlefield?
​  ​A plausible answer is that only 200,000 members of the Russian army are currently fighting, and about 400,000 to 600,000 are waiting in reserve for the Ukraine attack. While they wait they are in constant training; so waiting works to Russia’s advantage.
​  ​Once the famous “counter-offensive” peters out, Ukraine will be hit with massive force. There will be no negotiated settlement. Only unconditional surrender.

(​Though, I'll point out that this has been one of the common predictions since early March of 2022. Russia is prepared to counterstrike any NATO attack.) https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023/05/12/cries-and-whispers-along-the-russian-watchtowers/

​  Moon of Alabama has an update today about extensive Russian missile strikes on Ukraine again last night. It looks like Russia took out a Patriot missile-battery.​

Nothing can shoot down these hypersonic missiles. The claim last week that Ukraine shot down a Kinzhal was refuted by the pieces of wreckage, which were consistent with a much smaller bunker-buster missile, nothing speedy at all.

​  ​I counted 30 Patriot PAC-3 MSE launches here.
The FY2024 costs of these per missile is about $$5,275,000
That was $158,250,000 fired in about two minutes. And as we see, the battery or something else likely got blown up. So it failed in its mission.​..

​..Ukraine does not have an integrated air defense that can attack all air targets at all levels. Russia though has such an integrated system of systems. It makes for a huge difference. https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/05/ukraine-air-defense-lessons-.html#more

​  John Helmer has much more on "The Imitation Offensive​", saying that the UK "Cloud Shadow" cruise missiles, apparently accompanies by HIMARS radar-jamming missiles to interfere with Russian air defenses, are only being used (successfully at first, then later with some shoot-downs) against civilian targets in cities, which are not specifically defended with local missile emplacements.  Thanks Christine.

  George Eliason, reporting from Lugansk, confirms in the broadcast that the Ukrainian missile, rocket and artillery attacks are targeting undefended civilian targets, and avoiding Russian military targets whose defences include counter-battery targeting and fire units like the Zoopark. In the case of the two British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, Eliason confirms they struck unoccupied civilian factories in Lugansk. The blasts from the two strikes blew out windows and inflicted superficial injuries in neighbouring apartment buildings. The area was not defended by main Russian or Lugansk air and anti-missile defence units.
  In a follow-on statement from the Defense Ministry in Moscow, issued after the broadcast went to air, the aircraft which fired the two British missiles have been identified. “On May 12, at about 18.30 Moscow time, combat aircraft of the air forces of Ukraine launched a missile attack on the polymer products enterprise Polypak and the Milam meat processing plant in the city of Lugansk. Storm Shadow aviation missiles supplied to the Kiev regime by the UK were used for the strike, contrary to London’s statements that these weapons would not be used against civilian targets. As a result of the strike, a fire started on the territory of the Lugansk food and chemical industry enterprises. There is destruction of nearby residential buildings. Civilians were injured, including six children. Fighter aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces shot down the Ukrainian aircraft which had launched the missile strike
https://johnhelmer.org/the-imitation-offensive/

  Thanks Christine. Controlling the world's food supply to "control the people" was Kissinger's Idea as Secretary of State under Nixon. The legacy is threatened.

​  ​US Corn Industry Faces Tough Times In Its Two Largest Export Markets, China and Mexico

​  ​After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China has sought new suppliers, including fellow BRICS members Brazil and South Africa, to reduce its dependence on US producers, while Mexico is determined to push through with its partial ban on GM corn

​  Between them China and Mexico accounted for just over half of all overseas purchases of US corn in the last crop marketing year (Sept. 1 2021- Aug. 31 2022)...

​..​China has been gradually reducing its corn imports from the US due to a combination of weak domestic demand and cheaper supplies from Brazil. Until recently, China imported roughly 70% of its corn from the US and roughly 30% from Ukraine, according to Brazilian grain exporters group Anec. But after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has, unsurprisingly, tried to find new suppliers to reduce its dependence on US and Ukrainian producers. Two of the countries it has turned to are fellow BRICS members Brazil and South Africa, Africa’s largest corn grower.
​  ​The results are already being felt. As Reuters reported in early May, Chinese buyers cancelled  832,000 tons of orders in the last three weeks of April alone. That was enough to push US corn exports to their lowest weekly total on record.
​  ​“China has made a strategic decision that rather than deal with the United States and our political differences, they will just buy from Brazil,” said Jim Gerlach, president of broker A/C Trading in Indiana.
​  ​Brazil is not only providing China with cheaper corn but is on track to overtake the US as the world’s largest corn exporter this year.​..​

.​..​Mexico’s dependency on US staples is largely the result of NAFTA, which eliminated the Mexican government’s protection mechanisms for Mexican farmers while preserving U.S. corn subsidies for US farmers. Two years after NAFTA, the Clinton Administration’s Farm Bill dismantled the last vestiges of U.S. government policies designed to boost prices by limiting overproduction.
​  ​The result was as predictable as it was brutal: the US flooded Mexico with staple foods at prices Mexican growers could not possibly compete with, forcing many of them out of business while discouraging others from trying to expand production. According to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), in 16 of the 28 years since NAFTA took effect, the U.S. exported corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton at prices 5-40% below what it cost to produce them.
​  ​Mexico’s President Andrés Manual Lopéz Obrador (aka AMLO) is determined to reverse this trend by reducing Mexico’s dependence on imported foods, though he faces an uphill challenge in actually pulling it off.
​  ​“We are going to produce in Mexico what we consume,” he during his presidential campaign. “We are in a tremendous crisis because we depend on foreigners for what we consume. There is no food sovereignty.”..On December 31, 2020 AMLO issued a presidential decree calling for all imports of GMO crops, including corn, as well as the “probably” carcinogenic weedkiller glyphosate to be phased out by the end of January 2024. Crucially, the decree enjoyed the support of Mexico’s Supreme Court, which in 2021 ratified the Precautionary Measure that bans permits to sow genetically modified corn in Mexico.​..​
​ ..But the ban would also hurt US farmers, global Big Ag companies and global biotech behemoths. More than 92% of the corn grown in the States is GMO. Domestically, almost all of it is used as animal feed or to produce ethanol and processed food such as corn syrup. The rest is exported, roughly a quarter of which goes to Mexico where it is predominantly used as animal feed. And the US government is determined to ensure that none of this dynamic changes changes.
​  ​Amid ratcheting pressure from the US side, including the threat of counter-sanctions, AMLO’s government earlier this year issued a new presidential decree that, among other things, exempted feed corn, which counts for the overwhelming majority of U.S. exports, from the restrictions. The new decree only applies to GM corn used in tortillas and corn-dough, which is supplied almost exclusively by Mexican producers of white and native corn varieties. Only four percent of US corn exports are white corn, and most of that does not go into tortillas.
​  ​In other words, the new decree will have minimal impact on US growers. Yet even that did not placate the US government. One reason for this is that the decree still retains plans to prohibit use of glyphosate, the deadline for which was brought forward to March 31, 2024. Plus, if Mexico were to actually ban some GMO imports of corn without suffering huge consequences, it would send a message to other countries in Latin America, one of the biggest markets for GMO crops, that there are alternatives available... https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/05/us-corn-industry-faces-nightmare-scenarios-in-its-two-biggest-export-markets-china-and-mexico.html

​  From Meryl Nass MD: ​"Can We Reboot the Environmental Movement — So It Protects Freedom, Too?" The Defender

​  ​Finally, common sense on how we can retake the environmental movement from the climate changeologist Henny Pennies and focus on what we really need: clean air, water--our commons--and food.

​  ​Backlash against the COVID-19 fiasco of the last three years is building among a public that is slowly waking up to the unprecedented power grab and wealth transfer that took place under cover of a pandemic.
​  ​The environmental left is deeply worried about climate change, but the backlash against climate policy also is building.
​  ​People across the political spectrum are concerned about a top-down, authoritarian response to climate change using the COVID-19 response as the blueprint.
​  ​But there’s also a palpable longing for healthier, more sustainable ways of living.​..

​..​“As a Davos-dropout,” Bendell writes, “I know how their belief in the myth that their power and wealth are an invitation to shape the world makes them susceptible to overlooking the basic rights of ordinary people like us.”
​  ​Bendell was one of the few environmentalists to vigorously criticize authoritarian COVID-19 policies over the last several years, enduring abuse from his fellow greens who were fully invested in official narratives about the pandemic.
​  ​Bendell sees climate policy going down a similar path:
​  ​“The ideas and policies emerging at Davos primarily focus on accessing more public money for private ventures with dubious ecological credentials and creating digital infrastructures for the control of ordinary people.”

"Can We Reboot the Environmental Movement — So It Protects Freedom, Too?" The Defender

​  ​The 2000 Year Old Food Forest in Morocco​ , Geoff Lawton returns yet again to a site he and friends discovered long ago, one day when the surf gave out. ​

​Relatively Free Environmentalist (pictured rinsing onions going-to-seed in rain puddle for cooking use, not storage)​