Post Truth Era
Reality Oriented,
Dr. Tim Morgan at Surplus Energy Economics has posted this clear assessment:
The post-truth economy , Posted on September 18, 2023
THE UNTENABLE SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF
There’s a plausible case to be made that we’re living in a “post-truth” age, and have been doing so since well before that term was “word of the year” for 2016 in the Oxford English Dictionary.
This is certainly true of the economy. The consensus narrative – propounded by decision-makers in government and business, supported by the economic orthodoxy, seldom questioned by the mainstream media and seemingly accepted by a majority of the general public – is that we can rely on an infinite continuity of economic growth.
Today’s economic problems, we are told, stem from the simple bad luck of a pandemic and a war in Eastern Europe. There is, then, no connection to a quarter-century of economic deceleration which we have tried to counter with ever more reckless financial policies.
It’s important to note that, whilst increasing numbers of people question the fairness, and indeed the honesty, with which the proceeds of growth are distributed, few seem to doubt the supposed underlying reality of economic growth itself.
This ‘consensus narrative’ is based on four propositions, each of which is false. The first of these ‘props’ is the assurance of the economic orthodoxy that sustained (as opposed to temporary) economic contraction not only isn’t happening, but can’t happen. The second prop, backing up the first, is the assertion that, aside from temporary interruptions, we’ve been experiencing near-continuous growth for as long as anyone can remember, and are still enjoying this same growth today.
The third prop is that renewable energy will carry on getting cheaper almost indefinitely, enabling us to transition away from climate-harming fossil fuels without any impairment to economic prosperity. Much of this assurance rests on the fourth prop, which is unbounded faith in the limitless potential of technology...
-Big Middle Part-
..Analysis of the material and the financial economies points in two directions. At the material level, managed contraction is feasible, at least in theory. The trends which are driving prosperity downwards – and which, through rises in the real costs of energy-intensive necessities, are simultaneously undermining the affordability of discretionary (non-essential) products and services – are developing in ways which, though relentless, are comparatively gradual.
The financial system, on the other hand, is incapable of gradual contraction, because it is entirely predicated on the presumption of growth in perpetuity. The moment at which we realise that infinite growth is mythical is the same moment at which we recognise that our gargantuan financial commitments can never be honoured.
We can only hope that this moment – one at which defaults cascade through the system, and asset prices crash – won’t occur until we’ve arrived at two decisions. One of these is a political and social arrangement which can manage economic contraction. The other is the development of a financial system which does not depend for its viability on the myth of infinite economic growth. [BRICS+ and Islamic Finance might be a workable combination going forward.]
At the top-down level, collectivism failed in the Soviet Union, whilst market capitalism has been suspended because its essential predicates – real returns on capital, and unfettered price discovery by the markets – no longer apply. Those who propose replacing the top-down with the bottom-up may have a valid case.
All that the individual can really do is to develop an understanding, informed by material realities and backed up by statistical analysis, of why and how “post-truth” economics is destined to succumb to reality. https://surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com/2023/09/18/261-the-post-truth-economy/
"We'll pay you back with interest."
US Debt Rises Above $33 Trillion For The First Time, Soars By $1 Trillion In 3 Months https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-debt-rises-above-33-trillion-first-time-surges-1-trillion-3-months
Gold is over $100 US per ounce higher in Shanghai than in the west now. Western gold prices have long been suppressed. Silver is even more divergent. This is accelerating.
The Widening Gap Between Shanghai and London Benchmark Gold/Silver Prices https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2023-09-18/continually-widening-gap-between-shanghai-benchmark-and-londonnew-york-benchmark
The BRICS Commodity Powerhouse: Can It Force a New Economic ‘Order’? Alastair Crooke
The collective Non-West was able to coalesce around their urgent demand for radical reform of the global system. They want change in the global economic architecture; they contest the structures (i.e. the voting systems that lie behind those institutional structures such as the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF) – and above all they object to the weaponised dollar hegemony.
The demand – to put it plainly – is for a seat at Top Table. Period...
..This is a truly radical agenda. Again, the ‘watershed’ is that the Non-West, even without Presidents Xi or Putin being present, showed it has the ‘heft’ to wrestle the G7 to a ‘fall’...
..Then there is the issue of the ‘Two Spheres’. Both the BRICS and G20 statements insist that their aim is not to supplant the existing ‘Order’, but to inhabit it on equitable terms, after major reconstruction and re-orientation...
..But isn’t it a tad naïve though, to expect the West to recant its stealth colonialism?
Western primacy hangs on the pillars of the threat of financial and sanctions war; the monopoly of tech patents, regulatory standards and protocols, and in holding and keeping a global ‘technological edge’. Does Prime Minster Modi truly think that the West can be induced simply to relinquish these assets because the Global South asks it?
It seems ‘a stretch’ (though no doubt Xi and Putin have explained some of these financial ‘facts of life’ to Modi).
Well, these ‘facts of life’, which some BRICS members are not yet ready to internalise, are precisely the reason why both Russia and China are preparing an alternative Economic Sphere, totally severed from the dollar and the dollar-linked banking and financial system. It is a plan ‘B’, which can easily become plan ‘A’.
This debate (one single trading sphere, or two) possibly will become the key issue facing the BRICS and the West. It rests with the Western reaction: Will it be possible to compel the U.S. to make such radical reforms to the present U.S.-aligned Institutions and Structures, such that a quite separate Non-Western economic sphere becomes not required?...
..Frankly put, the hard reality is that were the U.S. to yield up its grip over the global financial architecture, Americans’ standard-of-living may be expected to fall significantly as demand for dollars withers (with increased global own currency trading). The dollar demand, of course, will not wholly disappear.
The timing of this collective demand for a new financial architecture – a new ‘Bretton Woods’ Accord – could not have come at a more delicate moment for the West. Serendipitously for Russia and China? ...
..Crude markets began to tighten earlier this summer after the Opec exporters’ cartel agreed to withhold oil supplies in a bid to raise prices, and Halligan tartly observes: “Anyone who downplays the power of Opec knows nothing about worldwide energy markets and even less about geopolitics”. (Emphasis added.)
Is it happenstance that a quiet financial war, triggered by the drip-drip of de-dollarisation and higher energy costs, might finally give BRICS the leverage to coerce a change of policy in the West? And should western reluctance to re-structure persist, might the BRICS leadership ratchet higher? The newly expanded BRICS, after all, is now a Commodity Powerhouse. https://strategic-culture.su/news/2023/09/18/the-brics-commodity-powerhouse-can-it-force-a-new-economic-order/
Paul Craig Roberts , The Nazi Biden Regime Takes Its Claim that it Has a Right to Impose Censorship on Media to Supreme Court
The Biden Regime hopes to convince the Supreme Court that “national security” requires abandoning the US Constitution and to coerce the court into reinstating the Biden regime’s cancellation of the US Constitution.
It is impossible for a country to survive when the values on which the country is founded are abandoned by its leaders. America is so far gone that not even the media believes in free speech and has happily accepted the role as Ministry of Propaganda.
Certainly corporations do not respect the First Amendment. Employees must take “harassment training” to remain employed. Failure to use “Woke pronouns” constitutes harassment and grounds for firing. In other words, employees do not have freedom of speech. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/09/17/the-nazi-biden-regime-takes-its-claim-that-it-has-a-right-to-impose-censorship-on-media-to-supreme-court/
Pakistan was coerced by the US to secretly produce and sell munitions to Ukraine in order to get an IMF loan, which they badly needed. First they had to get rid of Prime Minister Imran Khan somehow, which they promptly did... https://theintercept.com/2023/09/17/pakistan-ukraine-arms-imf/
Gilbert Doctorow presents , News relating to missiles used or about to be used in Ukraine and about “Russian” ICBMs in North Korea
It is widely expected that in the coming week American president Joe Biden will announce the decision to ship American medium range missiles ATACMS to Ukraine. Discussions of this subject have been widespread in both US and European media. The focus has been on the range of missiles and whether their delivery will enable Ukraine to attack across the border into the Russian Federation itself for the purpose of destroying supplies and command centers there...
..It has occurred to our journalists that North Korea presently possesses ICBMs capable of reaching the North American heartland, and as they pored over the technical characteristics of these missiles they noted that one seems to be very close in design to Soviet era missiles that were once the mainstay of the Russian strategic arsenal. I am speaking of the Korean rebranded Topol-M.
It is not surprising, therefore, that some folks in the States are wondering how is it that the Russians were able to get away with supplying the designs of the Topol-M to Pongyang without the United States raising a hullaballoo.
The answer, my friends, is in the inconvenient fact that those responsible for providing North Korea with production plans and technology for manufacturing the Topol-M were not Russians; they were Ukrainians. This story is discussed in an article on a Russian news portal a couple of days ago. See https://life.ru/p/1349991
According to the authors, the Ukrainians sold to the North Koreans part of the technology but not all. For example, they held back the secrets of the solid fuel used in this missile, which the Koreans had to develop on their own. Moreover, for the guidance system, the Koreans were assisted or copied a system developed by the Chinese. What this tells us is that if the Koreans should agree with the Kremlin on the purchase of one or another missile-related technology, its integration into their own production will be done by the Koreans themselves. https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2023/09/17/news-relating-to-missiles-used-or-about-to-be-used-in-ukraine-and-about-russian-icbms-in-north-korea/
Ukraine could have avoided hundreds of thousands of deaths and lost less land if it had reached a peace deal with Russia before the conflict began last February, former US President Donald Trump told NBC News in an interview aired on Sunday.
The loss of Ukrainian territory to Russia is “something that could have been negotiated,” Trump told NBC host Kristen Welker, adding that “a lot of people expected” Kiev to abandon its claims to “Crimea and other parts of the country” in exchange for peace.
“So they could have made a deal where there’s less territory [lost] than Russia has already taken,” Trump continued. “They could have made a deal where nobody was killed…they would have had a Ukrainian country. Now nobody even knows if Ukraine is going to be totally taken over.” ...
..Trump then repeated his claim that if elected next year, he would have a peace deal worked out within 24 hours.
“I’d get [Russian President Vladimir Putin] into a room, I’d get [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky into a room, then I’d bring them together and I’d have a deal worked out,” he told Welker.
“It would have been easier if the war didn’t start, and you’d have hundreds of thousands of people living, most importantly,” he noted. “But I can get it done and I can get it done quickly.” https://www.rt.com/news/583113-trump-ukraine-avoid-war/
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in fresh statements made to reporters has said the Untied States in waging war against Russia through the Ukraine proxy war.
Lavrov in the Russian-language comments described that Washington is not only transferring some $100 billion in military aid to Kiev, but is actually controlling its decision-making. He further said this is in order to try and inflict a "strategic defeat" on Russia.
The top Russian diplomat was speaking on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum on Sunday morning. "No matter what it says, it [the US] controls this war, it supplies weapons, munition, intelligence information, data from satellites, it is pursuing a war against us," he said, according to a translation. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-united-states-war-against-us
EU's Ukraine Grain Policy Fractures Europe: Poland, Hungary & Slovakia Remain Defiant
The European Union's Friday announcement effectively ending its import ban on Ukrainian grain in five member states has once again put Brussels on a collision course with some key eastern and central European members. "Existing measures will expire today," the European Commission stated, reportedly based on verbal promises that Kiev will control exports.
Soon after the Russian invasion, the EU sought control measures by placing quotas and tariffs on Ukrainian foodstuffs; however, the flood of cheap Ukrainian grain into European markets threatened the survival of farmers in places like Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Some of these very countries - Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia - have now said they aren't playing ball, and have announced in unison they will defy the EU decision and are extending the temporary ban. https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/poland-hungary-slovakia-extend-ban-ukrainian-grain-exports-hitting-out-eu-leadership
Ukraine initially moved ahead quickly in the war to use combat drones, especially repurposed consumer "racing" drones with First Person View capabilities for the operator.
‘Upyr’ ('Vampire'): Advanced Russian Drone Wreaks Havoc on Ukrainian Army Across Frontline
The Upyr drone was designed to help the Russian Army stage attacks on the enemy deep in the front line to halt the supply of ammunition and destroy armored vehicles in masked positions.
The UAV can carry RPG-7 mortar grenades, such as the PG-7VL and the RKG-3M, as well as anti-tank hand grenades. Additionally, the drone can be armed with high-explosive fragmentation bombs made directly in a combat zone.
A Russian company making the Upyr drones recently announced that the UAV’s flight range has been doubled thanks to the development of the “Udlinitel” transponder. The company added that the upgraded Upyr drone was equipped with a new video transmitter and a new video receiver, which helps it tackle electronic warfare (EW) systems aimed at jamming drones. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230915/upyr-advanced-russian-drone-wreaks-havoc-on-ukrainian-army-across-frontline-1113396662.html
This Military Summary report from Sunday morning discusses the rapid Russian advances in use of battlefield drones. This is a new generation of warfare. Humans are so readily killed by machines.
Vanessa Beely , Greece in NATO and Zionist crosshairs Thanks Eleni in Athens. (Greeks are very suspicious about their ongoing neo-colonization.)
The Thessalia plains floods are a catastrophe of biblical proportions - deliberate or 'climate change'?
We have covered the fires in Greece that serve NATO expansion and the installation of wind farms to provide energy for the EU. Now, we have the devastating floods in Thessalia north of Athens which is one of the three main bread baskets of Greece, now reduced to a sea of pollution, livestock carcasses and dead fish.
There is some diplomatic conflict between Canada and India, which is showing up as Canada declaring that India murdered a Canadian Sikh (wanted in India) and India holding Justin Trudeau on the tarmac for 36 hours for drugs found by sniffer dogs, which would not typically be anywhere near a state aircraft carrying diplomats.
Justin Trudeau Accuses India Of Extrajudicial Killing On Canadian Soil https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/justin-trudeau-accuses-india-extrajudicial-killing-canadian-soil
Was Trudeau Delayed Because He Was "Busted For Drugs" in India , Anthony James Hall
This detailed account based on investigative reporting in India presents an explanation that the bought-and-paid-for media in Canada are concealing from the public.
Canadian COVID vaccines neither "Safe" nor "Effective"
COVID-19 vaccines were authorized in Canada during 2020 and 2021 without being subjected to the country’s safety tests as required under established drug regulations, revealed an accountability watchdog.
“Canadians are relying on representations as to the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines,” which Health Canada has never determined, the letter said. “Some might draw the conclusion that the misrepresentation to Canadians of proven safety is intentional, made while knowing it to be false and intending it to be relied upon.”
“As a matter of common sense, the objective falsity of the ‘proven safe’ claim brings into question the basis for informed consent to the administration of the injections, creating potentially enormous liabilities.”
In the current context, the organization pointed out that the population immunity has increased along with the latest variants being “milder.”
“In the face of your government’s reported intention to promote booster injections in coming months, the urgency now lies in telling the truth to Canadians and taking corrective action.”
The NCI asked the prime minister to withdraw COVID-19 vaccines “until the normal rigorous evaluation can be completed” and to reinstate the traditional objective test for safety. https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/covid-19-vaccines-revealed-be-neither-safe-nor-effective-watchdog
Family Opposes Motion to Dismiss Lawsuit Against DOD Over Death of 24-Year-Old From COVID-Vaccine-Related Myocarditis
The family of a 24-year-old man who died of complications from COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis today contested a motion to dismiss its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), which oversaw the development and distribution of the vaccines under Operation Warp Speed.
Ray Flores, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) outside counsel, is representing the estate of George Watts Jr.
Flores filed the memorandum in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. CHD is funding the lawsuit filed on May 31.
The Watts family alleges Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin engaged in “willful misconduct” by exaggerating the safety of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine authorized for emergency use and then exclusively allowed distribution of the stockpiled version of the vaccine even after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to a different vaccine, Comirnaty...
..Responding to DOD’s assertion that it did not engage in “willful misconduct,” the plaintiff wrote:
“[The] Defendant’s Motion improperly attempts to shift the focus away from DOD’s indisputable liability for hornswoggling Americans into participating in its deadly mass human experiment — one that far surpassed the reach of the lethal medical experimentation that led to the U.S. Military Tribunals of Nazi doctors in Nuremberg some 75 years earlier.
“DOD’s experiment pushed several hundred million free vaccines on a trusting American public with an intentionally deceptive promise that the vaccines were safe and efficacious, while Operation Warp Speed (‘OWS’) kept detailed records and an ongoing tally of the severely injured and the dead.”
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/dod-willful-misconduct-pfizer-covid-vaccine-death-george-watts-chd/
Your Wi-Fi Can See You (Really, moving images of humans in every room in real time, radar in every house.)
Apart from putting CCTV cameras in everyone’s living spaces, this technology offers a comprehensive and supremely surreptitious way of putting eyes in every room of your house and place of work. Indeed, this just may become the norm. https://bombthrower.com/your-wifi-can-see-you/
Revealed (pictured after planting oak seedling last Friday evening)
IMHO, the "Post Truth Era" began on 11/22/1963, and was pushed over the cliff on 9/11/2001.
Years ago a friend insisted drones would be used for good things like to deliver medicine. I laughed and said really? He and his nurse wife and 2 beautiful kids are all jabbed up, and we don't talk anymore.