Pivot To Reality

Empiricists,

  Was October 7th a Hamas or Israeli massacre?
  Israel's controversial military policy of killing its own citizens to preserve national security may be its defining mistake of 7 October. Would there have even been a 'massacre' that day if Israel had not employed the Hannibal Directive?   A farewell ceremony was recently held for 12-year-old Liel Hezroni, an Israeli girl from Kibbutz Be'eri who died during the Hamas-led Al-Aqsa Flood military operation on 7 October. There was no traditional burial, just a ceremony, because her body has never been found.
  Israeli officials initially claimed that the Palestinian resistance killed 1,400 Israelis that day, including 112 in Be’eri. Though Liel died on “Israel’s darkest day,” no government official attended the farewell ceremony to offer condolences to her family. Nor has the Israeli government investigated her death or told her relatives how she died.
  This is because Leil was likely not killed by Hamas, but by the Israeli army.
Liel died when Israeli military forces fired two tank shells into a home in Be’eri that held 15 Israeli hostages and the 40 Hamas fighters who had taken them captive. https://new.thecradle.co/articles/was-october-7th-a-hamas-or-israeli-massacre

  Scott Ritter: Hamas Winning Battle for Gaza [Ceasefire for Thanksgiving weekend is good for Israeli PR, though.]   One of the reasons Israel eschewed a ceasefire was that it was confident that the offensive operation it had launched into northern Gaza was going to neutralize Hamas as a military threat, and that any ceasefire, regardless of the humanitarian justification, would only buy time for a defeated Hamas enemy to rest, refit, and regroup. That Israel signed on to a ceasefire is the surest sign yet that all is not well with the Israeli offensive against Hamas... ..The October 7 attack by Hamas was not a stand-alone operation, but rather part of a strategic plan possessing three main objectives—to put the issue of a Palestinian state back on the front burner of international discourse, to free the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and to compel Israel to cease and desist when it came to its desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest place. The October 7 attack, on its own, could not achieve these outcomes. Rather, the October 7 attack was designed to trigger an Israeli response which would create the conditions necessary for Hamas' objectives to reach fruition.
  The October 7 attack was designed to humiliate Israel to the point of irrationality, to ensure that any Israeli response would be governed by the emotional need for revenge, as opposed to a rational response designed to nullify the Hamas objectives. Here, Hamas was guided by the established Israeli doctrine of collective punishment... ..Hamas knows that it cannot engage Israel in a classic force-on-force encounter. Instead, the goal was to lure Israeli forces into Gaza, and then subject these forces to an endless series of hit-and-run attacks by small teams of Hamas fighters who would emerge from their underground lairs, attack a vulnerable Israeli force, and then disappear back underground. In short, to subject the Israeli military to what is the equivalent of a death by a thousand cuts.
And it worked... ..While Israel may have been able to garner the support of the international community in the aftermath of the October 7 attack by Hamas, its gross overreaction has instead turned world public opinion against it—something Hamas was counting on... ..Having declared that victory is defined by Hamas’ total defeat, the Israelis have set the stage for a Hamas victory, something Hamas achieves simply by surviving. https://sputnikglobe.com/20231123/scott-ritter-hamas-winning-battle-for-gaza-1115160045.html

  The Eviction Notice is being written. And it will come in four languages. Russian. Farsi. Mandarin. And last but not least, English...  Pepe Escobar ..The Unthinkable, in the form of a genocide conducted live, in real time on every smartphone in the third decade of the millennium – which I called the Raging Twenties in a previous book – has acted like a particle accelerator, concentrating hearts and minds...  For the first time in ages, via President Xi Jinping, China has been more than explicit geopolitically (a true Sovereign cannot hedge when it comes to genocide). China’s unmistaken position on Palestine goes way beyond the geoeconomics routine of promoting BRI’s trade and transportation corridors.
  All that while President Putin defined sending humanitarian aid to Gaza as a “sacred duty”, which in Russian code includes, crucially, the military spectrum.
  For all the maneuvering and occasional posturing, for all practical purposes everyone knows the current UN arrangement is rotten beyond repair, totally impotent when it comes to imposing meaningful peace negotiations, sanctions or investigations of serial war crimes...
..The current order of business in the New Great Game is to organize the expulsion of the Hegemon from West Asia – as much a technical challenge as a civilizational challenge. https://strategic-culture.su/news/2023/11/24/the-eviction-notice-is-being-written-and-will-come-in-four-languages/

  A ‘temporary ceasefire’ means realizing how much we’ve lost
For the people of Gaza, the four-day truce has only afforded them the chance to fully comprehend what they went through: "Only today have we realized that they’re gone. Only today do we feel death’s presence here." https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/a-temporary-ceasefire-means-realizing-how-much-weve-lost/

  Israeli soldiers have opened fire at Palestinian civilians who attempted to return to their homes in northern Gaza shortly after the start of the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas, an AP journalist has reported from the scene. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had earlier warned the displaced residents of Gaza against attempting to move to the north of the enclave.
  At least two people were killed and 11 others were injured. https://www.rt.com/news/587905-israel-gaza-ceasefire-civilians/

  More than one million people are taking refuge in facilities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said.  "UNRWA records more than 1 million people now sheltering in our facilities across the Gaza Strip. This is more than half of the total number of people displaced. They live in over 150 UNRWA schools and buildings." https://tass.com/world/1711561

  Craig Murray ,   No Ceasefire in the Propaganda War   I have had BBC News on in the background for the last two hours. In that time there have been three lengthy interviews with different relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. There has not been a single interview with a Palestinian relative of a Palestinian prisoner held by Israel...
..Of the 300 Palestinian women and children prisoners on the list possibly to be released during the ceasefire, 252 have never been charged with any crime. 23 were charged with stone throwing.
  Since October 8 over 200 Palestinian children have been taken prisoner, none of whom had anything to do with the October 7 attacks. That rather puts the possible release of 33 children and six women today into perspective. But it is not a perspective the BBC would ever give you.
  Over 2,000 Palestinians are held by Israel in “administrative detention”, without charge or trial. Some for over twenty years... ..The BBC simply does not treat the Palestinians as human, whereas the emphasis on Israeli personal victimhood is incessant and unrelenting. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/11/no-ceasefire-in-the-propaganda-war/

​  Bassem and Ahed Tamimi are in Israeli prison because they stand for Palestinian freedom​ , ALISON AVIGAYIL RAMER   I am a Jewish American Israeli, and in Palestine, they call me Alison Tamimi, the chosen sister of Bassem Tamimi, whose own sister was killed by an Israeli translator who pushed her down a flight of stairs in an Israeli military court in 1993... ..When I first met Ahed Tamimi, she was focused on a Rubik’s cube she was playing with in a field during a violent incursion of the Israeli military in her village. She was eight years old. A few months later, she tagged along to the photography class that I organized for 12-14-year-old children with the international humanitarian organization World Vision. Over the course of the six-week class, every single one of the students was abducted by the Israeli military. Most of them were tortured. It is rare to find a child in the West Bank who has not been arrested by the Israeli military at least once, if not multiple times, during their childhood. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/bassem-and-ahed-tamimi-are-in-israeli-prison-because-they-stand-for-palestinian-freedom/

IDF Knew Real Hamas HQ While Lying About al-Shifa While telling the world that Hamas HQ was under al-Shifa Hospital, the IDF had already found the actual command center 8.5km away, reports Gareth Porter. https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/23/idf-knew-real-hamas-hq-while-lying-about-al-shifa/

​  Israeli genocide in Gaza death toll 14,854, among them +6000 children

​  In addition, more than 36,000 people have been injured as a result of the bombardment.
The government media office of Gaza also announced that more than 207 doctors, nurses, and paramedics have been martyred by the Israeli aggression.
The death toll of journalists martyred has surpassed 65.​ ​ [Palestinians pray over bodies from Al Shifa Hospital before burial in mass grave.] https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-genocide-in-gaza-death-toll-14-854--among-them--6000

​  The Indonesian hospital on the edge of the Jabalia refugee camp, which had been hit by Israeli air strikes, was partly evacuated on Monday, said Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
​  "There were bodies everywhere. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it," said Umm Mohammed al-Ran, a woman evacuated from the Indonesian hospital towards Rafah in the south.
"Wounded people died in front of us as they bled out," she told AFP.
"The stench of death was everywhere in the hospital. The wounded were crying out for painkillers, but the doctors didn't have any to give them."
​  She held up her phone to show a video she had taken. It showed worms crawling from the infected wound on a patient's leg.
It's a similar situation at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the territory's largest.
On November 14, that hospital's director Mohammad Abu Salmiya said 179 bodies had been buried in a mass grave inside the complex. https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/11/gaza-dozens-unidentified-bodies-buried-mass-grave

Gaza workers stranded in Israel were tortured, interrogated
Workers from Gaza who were stranded in Israel after October 7 were summarily arrested, interrogated, beaten, and tortured, before being declared illegal by Israeli authorities. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/gaza-workers-stranded-in-israel-were-arrested-beaten-and-tortured/

​  Minimum of two months imprisonment for ‘illegal’ Palestinian workers​ [They became "illegal" on October 8, and had no way to return home. Catch-22]
Israeli police are setting up roadblocks to catch "illegal" Palestinian workers and shutting down businesses that employ them. But this isn't a new story, and the "Bread Prisoners" have always been forgotten. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/minimum-of-two-months-imprisonment-for-illegal-palestinian-workers/

​I don't have a burro and a cart; do you?   Carts have become the main mode of transport for civilians to move around areas in search of food, daily necessities or to flee Israeli bombardment https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-people-replace-cars-carts-fuel

​  Approximately 1,000 boats have gathered in Türkiye on Wednesday before heading toward Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade in a similar attempt from over a decade ago.
​  In an interview with Turkish news website Haber7, Volkan Okçu, one of the organizers of the protest, indicated the boats will carry 4,500 people from 40 countries, “including anti-Zionist Jews.”​ Among the 1,000 vessels would be 313 boats filled with Russian activists, and 104 filled with Spanish activists, he said. Only 12 Turkish vessels will join the flotilla​. However, Okçu said in a later tweet that he expected the number of Turkish vessels to be much higher. https://english.palinfo.com/news/2023/11/22/1-000-boats-to-leave-T-rkiye-for-Gaza-in-new-Freedom-Flotilla

MIT students undeterred by looming suspension over pro-Palestine rally
In a matter of days, a solidarity rally for Palestinians in Gaza was met with a concerted campaign to paint protesters as antisemitic https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-facing-suspension-mit-university-students-continue-pro-palestine-advocacy

Iraq’s government on Wednesday blasted US airstrikes launched in the country against Shia militias, calling them a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.
https://news.antiwar.com/2023/11/22/iraqi-government-vehemently-condemns-us-airstrikes-as-violation-of-sovereignty/

First group of 39 Palestinian women and children released from Israeli prisons as part of Israel-Hamas truce deal.
Mediator Qatar says 13 Israelis, including dual nationals, 10 Thais and one Filipino released in Gaza. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/11/24/israel-hamas-war-live-israel-continues-gaza-attacks-ahead-of-truce

US Warship Downs Several Attack Drones In Red Sea As Hijacked Vessel Standoff Continues https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-warship-downs-several-attack-drones-red-sea-hijacked-vessel-standoff-continues

​  The Ukrainian Armed Forces are clearly having trouble replenishing their ranks. People are unwilling to die for the Kiev regime and actively avoid mobilization or desert. https://sputnikglobe.com/20231123/soldiers-going-crazy-ukraine-has-no-one-left-to-fight-because-of-desertion-1115159209.html

​  The US military presence on the Japanese island of Okinawa has long been controversial, with servicemen escaping punishment for numerous crimes. Geopolitical analyst Brian Berletic said the Pentagon was ramping up its presence there as it saw the window of opportunity to contain China was closing. https://sputnikglobe.com/20231124/usaf-sending-f-35s-to-okinawa-for-future-fight-with-china--former-us-marine-1115188510.html

South Korea Urges US to Boost Defense Cooperation After North's Satellite Launch https://sputnikglobe.com/20231124/south-korea-urges-us-to-boost-defense-cooperation-after-norths-satellite-launch-1115187331.html

​The oil price war pits Russia against the west, with Saudi Arabia now entering the field on Russia's team. Angola and Nigeria are entertaining suitors, it seems. African members defy OPEC+ demand – Reuters
Angola and Nigeria are reportedly requesting that the organization allows them to produce more oil​  https://www.rt.com/africa/587916-african-opec-members-mutiny-cuts/

​  Tom Luongo has the story of how China saved Russia from oil-price-war sanctions in 2014, by lending Russia $US to pay bonds which came due, accepting payment later in pipeline output, using Yuan-Ruble swap-lines. Swap lines have now been set up with Saudi Arabia. China should be able to lend dollars to allow Saudi $US debt payments, support the Riyal, and break the Riyal-$US peg, which helps support the $US. This comprises an existential attack upon the $US, the wealth-extraction solvent for the western financial-military empire. What Are The Saudis Really Preparing For?   So, to summarize before I go any further:
China is using their US Treasuries and US dollar surpluses to loan them to Emerging Market trade partners of significance to CHINA!
They are asking for yuan in repayment.
This stabilizes the yuan/usd exchange rates while China can and is rapidly expanding the money supply to deal with their sagging property markets as a result of the Fed’s aggressively tight monetary policy.
In order for China to expand the yuan into the new dollar vacuum without also losing their gold (Luke Gromen’s point during the conversation), they have to create a demand cycle for their debt, keeping borrowing costs low.
Since they have cross-currency swap lines with their SE Asian partners and offshore yuan settlement around the region, i.e. in places like Singapore, this is how they manage the expansion without creating a runaway inflation problem.
Yuan replace dollars without a massive shift in exchange rates and/or bond yields.
The 2014/15 ruble/rollover crisis was the test run for this. https://tomluongo.me/2023/11/24/what-are-the-saudis-really-preparing-for/

  Javier Milei has been elected President of Argentina by an 11 point margin, much more than expected. He promises several things, to go onto a $US standard and to get rid of the Argentine Central Bank among them. He is "anti-communist", an economist by training, an avowed enemy of financial elites who parasitize the Argentine people, a tantric-sex practitioner and teacher, and a pro-Israel cabalist disciple, who is a big fan of Donald Trump. As President, he will be forced to prioritize among these preferences.

April 30, 2023, Argentina To Use RMB Yuan In Trade Settlements With China  [I don't think Milei can break ties with China. He should embrace the current swap-line deal.] Argentina is a major source of soy beans and sorghum to China, as well as beef products. In return, China exports mainly computers, and home broadcasting equipment. Argentina has also applied to join the BRICS and is a member of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2023/04/30/argentina-to-use-rmb-yuan-in-trade-settlements-with-china/#:~:text=Argentina%20is%20a%20major%20source,the%20Asia%20Infrastructure%20Investment%20Bank.

  With the Far Right candidate Javier Milei winning the Argentinian Presidential elections over the past weekend, Argentina’s invitation to join the BRICS grouping, given just three months ago, is now unlikely to be accepted.   [I assume that spirited negotiations are already underway.]
  During his campaign, Milei – who will take office on December 10 – vowed to abolish the Central bank, dump the Argentinian Peso as a currency and replace it with US dollars in order to overcome a financial crisis that has left 40% of Argentina’s 45 million citizens in poverty and pushed inflation to more than 140%. “I know how to exterminate the cancer of inflation” he has stated.
  Milei’s radical ideas have also included cutting ties with Argentina’s two biggest trade partners, Brazil, and China. Milei has said he will not maintain political ties with China or any “communist” country, limiting relations to the private sector. He has labelled the country an “assassin” and claiming that its citizens are not “free”. He has also promised to pull Argentina out of Mercosur, the South American trading bloc, and has described Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as a “socialist with a totalitarian vocation”.
  When it comes to economic reality it is uncertain if he will be able to follow through on these statements.​.. ​..Back in August, when Milei’s China views first surfaced, Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, responded to Milei’s statements by inviting him to visit China. “I believe that if Mr Milei can come to China and see the country for himself, he will find a totally different answer to the question of whether or not Chinese people are free and China is safe.”
https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2023/11/21/javier-mileis-presidential-win-means-argentina-probably-wont-join-brics/

  "I’m not going to push for deals with communists because they don't respect the basic parameters of free trade, freedom, and democracy; it’s geopolitics,” Milei said in August, adding that “some countries are not along those lines.”
​  At the same time, the president-to-be pledged not to interfere with the country’s businesses that are dealing with the BRICS countries. He has also vowed to “dollarize” the Argentinian economy.
​  Joining the BRICS group was viewed as a chance to open up a “new scenario” for Argentina, outgoing President Alberto Fernandez said back in August after accepting the invitation.
​  The South American nation is currently struggling with the worst economic crisis in decades. Inflation surged 60% over the past year alone. The severely devalued peso forced the country’s government to refinance its $44 billion debt to the IMF.​  https://www.rt.com/business/587639-argentina-not-join-brics-milei/

 Who is Argentina’s Israel-loving president-elect, Javier Milei?
Milei says he wants to move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem and is a longstanding supporter of Israel​   A Jewish contact put the former economist in touch with Rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish, with whom Milei had a “cabalistic” encounter in which he was told he would lead a liberation movement in his home country.
​  The word “cabalistic” is a reference to Kabbalah, a mystic branch of Judaism. Milei is reported to have an interest in eastern mysticism and has worked as a tantric sex coach.
Milei’s has continued his relationship with Wahnish, with the latter serving as Milei’s Torah tutor.​ “He is my main rabbi today. He is a truly remarkable person, and obviously, along with my sister, they are my spiritual guides,” Milei said of Wahnish in an interview with the Times of Israel.​.. With regard to Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 13,000 Palestinians, including at least 5,000 children, Milei has said that Israel has the right to “defend its territory from terrorists”.
​  Milei also told the Times of Israel that he intends to designate Hamas as a terrorist organisation for its role in the 7 October assault on southern Israel, which killed around 1,200 people. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-argentina-javier-milei-president-elect-who

  Famed for his distinctive shaggy mop of gray hair and his tendency to burst into song during political rallies, Milei has been painted in the media as more of a “rock star” than a conventional politician. Milei has done little to dispel this image, boasting of his past as a “tantric sex instructor” and his involvement in several “threesomes” during a talk show appearance in 2020.
  Milei has never been married, and lives with five English Mastiffs, which he had cloned from a now-deceased dog named Conan, after Conan the Barbarian. Milei has described the 200-pound dogs as his “four-legged children,” and according to his unofficial biographer, Juan Luis Gonzalez, uses a psychic to consult Conan for political advice. https://www.rt.com/news/587675-javier-milei-argentina-explainer/

​  New Report: Young People Dying of Cancer at ‘Explosive’ Rates, UK Government Data Show
​  An analysis of U.K. government data shows an unprecedented increase in cancer deaths among 15- to 44-year-olds following the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new report by data analyst Edward Dowd. The report has prompted renewed calls for further investigation.

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/young-people-cancer-death-uk-edward-dowd-analysis/

Troops Discharged Over COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal Sue US Government For Billions In Lost Wages https://www.zerohedge.com/political/troops-discharged-over-covid-19-vaccine-refusal-sue-us-government-billions-lost-wages

A Midwestern Doctor ,​ Why do so many people hate VAERS?​  The government never wanted a public vaccine injury database—it was forced to make it.

Why do so many people hate VAERS?

​  The Biden Administration’s EV Goals Are an Expensive Fantasy​  [The lifetime-pollution per vehicle parallels the lifetime cost, including fuel/electricity.]   While EV proponents try to claim that EVs will soon be cheaper than gasoline vehicles, our new research demonstrates that EVs benefitted from hidden subsidies that total nearly $50,000 per EV.
​  Who is footing that bill? Gasoline vehicle owners, taxpayers, and utility ratepayers are. https://realclearwire.com/articles/2023/11/21/the_biden_administrations_ev_goals_are_an_expensive_fantasy_994010.html

​  The price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has crashed in the last 12 months. This downward pressure is attributed to oversupplied markets in Asia, primarily because the global adoption rate of electric vehicles has notably slowed amid high interest rates.
Since November 2022, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate in China plunged from $84,500 per metric ton to $18,630, or about a 78% decline. https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/lithium-crash-deepens-battery-metal-now-down-78-peak

​Self Propelled (pictured shovel-spreading compost onto cleaned-up garden rows)