Digital Authoritarianism: AI Surveillance Signals The Death Of Privacy
Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
“There are no private lives. This a most important aspect of modern life. One of the biggest transformations we have seen in our society is the diminution of the sphere of the private. We must reasonably now all regard the fact that there are no secrets and nothing is private. Everything is public.”
- Philip K. Dick
Nothing is private.
We teeter on the cusp of a cultural, technological and societal revolution the likes of which have never been seen before.
While the political Left and Right continue to make abortion the face of the debate over the right to privacy in America, the government and its corporate partners, aided by rapidly advancing technology, are reshaping the world into one in which there is no privacy at all.
Nothing that was once private is protected.
We have not even begun to register the fallout from the tsunami bearing down upon us in the form of AI (artificial intelligence) surveillance, and yet it is already re-orienting our world into one in which freedom is almost unrecognizable.
AI surveillance harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and widespread surveillance technology to do what the police state lacks the manpower and resources to do efficiently or effectively: be everywhere, watch everyone and everything, monitor, identify, catalogue, cross-check, cross-reference, and collude.
Everything that was once private is now up for grabs to the right buyer.
Governments and corporations alike have heedlessly adopted AI surveillance technologies without any care or concern for their long-term impact on the rights of the citizenry.
As a special report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace warns, “A growing number of states are deploying advanced AI surveillance tools to monitor, track, and surveil citizens to accomplish a range of policy objectives—some lawful, others that violate human rights, and many of which fall into a murky middle ground.”
Indeed, with every new AI surveillance technology that is adopted and deployed without any regard for privacy, Fourth Amendment rights and due process, the rights of the citizenry are being marginalized, undermined and eviscerated.
Cue the rise of digital authoritarianism.
Digital authoritarianism, as the Center for Strategic and International Studies cautions, involves the use of information technology to surveil, repress, and manipulate the populace, endangering human rights and civil liberties, and co-opting and corrupting the foundational principles of democratic and open societies, “including freedom of movement, the right to speak freely and express political dissent, and the right to personal privacy, online and off.”
The seeds of digital authoritarianism were planted in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, with the passage of the USA Patriot Act. A massive 342-page wish list of expanded powers for the FBI and CIA, the Patriot Act justified broader domestic surveillance, the logic being that if government agents knew more about each American, they could distinguish the terrorists from law-abiding citizens. ... Continue reading >>>
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According to a new report “An increasing number of businesses are investing in advanced technologies that can help them forecast the future of their workforce and gain a competitive advantage”. Almost every day we see more bollocks being written by supposedly intelligent people who believe that by using things called ‘Data Science’, ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ and ‘Big Data’, machines can already be relied on to make better decisions than humans, and that soon computers will equal or even surpass us in actual intelligence. ...
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Proof That The Alarmist Claptrap You Are Hearing And Seeing At COP26 Climate Conference Is A Load Of Bollocks
The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places, the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consul Ifft, at Bergen, Norway. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions in the Arctic zone. Expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met with as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm ... Continue reading >>>
Bill Gates running deadly global “vaccine empire” that can only exist through extreme censorship Bill Gates – wannabe Dr. Death? (picture: NewsTarget.com) The reason why Microsoft co-founder and billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates is being given so much airtime amid the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis is because Gates is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, as well as the money … Continue reading
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German politician calls on facebook to abolish free speech
A German politician has given the clearest indication yet that the political elites of the free world are ideologically much closer to Adolf Hitler's National Socialists than the social liberalism they claim to support. Free speech is the basis of all liberal democracy. Heiko Maas, the German justice minister has has written to the Facebook it removes “xenophobic and racist” anti-migrant posts from its website and apps., has written to the company to demand an urgent review of its policy over hate messages.
Free Speech Is Being Murdered By The Media And Left Wing Authoritarianism Without free speech there is no democracy. Without democracy there is no freedom. But all over the developed world free speech is under attack from politically correct politics. It is time to start resisting, do not believe the propaganda published by mainstream media, question everything and make up your own mind. as The Buddha said, "Believe nothing you read or are told unless it agrees with your own experience and common sense."
Farage Reckless Facing Rabid Left Wing Fanatics
Following the defection to UKIP of Conservative MP Mark Reckless, who yesterday shocked the media and political establishment (everyone else knew it was on the cards.) by announcing his switch from con to Kipper from the podium at the closing session of UKIP's conference, the Kippers latest recruit and his new leader yesterday faced angry but ineffectual protests.
Obama administration ‘blocking' information from the press
Uncovering information that should be available to the public has become increasingly difficult under the presidency of Barack Obama, an Associated Press bureau chief says. In some cases, it surpasses the secrecy of the George W. Bush administration. The White House's penchant for secrecy does not just apply to the federal government, according to AP's Washington bureau chief, Sally Buzbee.
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German Government Admits Covid Vaccines Cause Serious Injury for One in 5,000 Doses – But its Own Data Show the Real Rate is One in 300 Doses
by Will Jones, Daily Sceptic, 21 July 2022
The German Government publicly acknowledged on Wednesday that the Covid vaccines cause serious side effects for one in every 5,000 doses.
A tweet from the Ministry of Health stated (via Google translate): “One in 5,000 people is affected by a serious side effect after a COVID19 #vaccination. If you suspect #sideeffects, get medical attention and report your symptoms to @PEI_Germany.” It later added a correction that the figure related to the reporting rate and to doses rather than individuals: “Correction: According to @PEI_Germany, the reporting rate for serious reactions is 0.2 reports per 1,000 vaccine doses.”
This is an unusual and welcome admission from a Government, and perhaps the beginning of governments properly acknowledging the scale of injuries caused by the novel Covid vaccines.
However, the one in 5,000 figure is certainly on the low side. The correction tweet clarified that it was a reporting rate of serious reactions, and it appears from the PEI website to refer to the rate of adverse event reports to the German equivalent of the Yellow Card and VAERS passive reporting systems. Assuming this is correct, then we might expect an under-reporting factor of around 10, meaning the true number of serious side-effects may be 10 times higher.
The Germans are actually very good at monitoring vaccine safety. In
addition to their passive reporting system, the German medicines
regulator, the PEI, runs an active vaccine safety monitoring app called SafeVac 2.0. The data from this monitoring tool were included in a Europe-wide report
on vaccine safety published last month; they showed that 0.3% of
vaccine recipients in Germany reported at least one serious adverse
reaction to the first dose of the vaccine. ... Continue reading
Cancer expert says U.K. seeing spike in “non-covid deaths,” nobody willing to call out vaccine elephant in the room
Excess mortality in the United Kingdom is off the charts, and yet nobody is willing to call out Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccines” as the culprit. Cancer expert and Prof. Carl Heneghan describes the current situation in Great Britain as a “national scandal.” A shocking 9,300 more people than usual have died in the U.K. over the past several months, and officials are blaming everything else except the injections.
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In A Fit Of Honesty Italian Institute Of Health Reduces Official COVID Death Toll By 97%
Italian newspaper Il Tempo has published a shock report, claiming that the country's Institute has reduced the official figure for the number of people who have died from COVID from 130,000 to under 4,000. This may surprise many people who bought into the "killer virus" narrative and unleashed torrents of pure hatred on those of us who declined vaccination, having studied the figure for reported "COVID related deaths," and the methodology used to arrive at that figure ...
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A newly published study from researchers in Sweden reveals that the immunity to COVID gained from vaccination, is dissipated by natural biological processes within months. Immunity, although it would be more honestly called temporary respite, from Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) injections is short term at best, and completely gone within months, this confirming the doubts raised by vaccine sceptics (or Conspiracy Theorists as mainstream media likes to call us
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Surge in Emergency Hospital Admissions from Vaccinated People Suffering Acute Organ FailureThe USA's taxpayer funded broadcaster National Public Radio (NPR) is claiming to be mystified by a siginficant increase in hospital emergency admissions across the United States but does not find the fact that these medical emergencies are all among people already vaccinated against COVID-19 and also all due to people experiencing symptoms consistent with the acknowledged side effects of the vaccines.
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Analyst Reports ‘Hundreds of Thousands’ of COVID Vaccine Injury Reports Backlogged in VAERSThe latest episode of “Doctors and Scientists” on CHD.TV, features regular host Brian Hooker, Ph.D., P.E., interviewing Jessica Rose, Ph.D., a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) analyst and computational biologist who specializes in biomathematics and molecular research. OK, I know this publication does not have much time for mathematical modelling, but that is because so much of it is obviously rigged to support propaganda narratives. We will always give an honest scientist a fair hearing even if we do not agree with their contribution to debate.
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Boris’ Government Trying To Bypass Parliament, Introduce Vaccine Passports By Back Door
We warned you this authoritarian government would not let the idea of vaccine passports go and here they are, reported by Summit News (well you didn't expect to see it in mainstream media did you?} tyring to bring in their wretched "Papers Please" legislation by the back door.
Vaccine shocker From Germany: "Out of ten autopsies, five deaths would be “very probably” linked to vaccines
A shocking report from respected German scientists claims out of 10 autopsies carried out on people who tested positive for COVID, five of the deaths were somehow linked to vaccines and the many observed side effects that occur soon after beople have been injected with COVID vaccine.
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1:52pm
![Germany is at Russia’s mercy](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"/>)
While Britain bakes in a heatwave, politicians in Germany are worrying about the winter. The Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom has notified its European customers that it can no longer guarantee the supply of fuel due to ‘extraordinary’ circumstances. In Berlin, politicians and regulators are preparing for an ice-cold Christmas, drawing up lists for rationing priorities and emergency plans to stop the population freezing.
Entertainment and frivolities will be the first things to go, while newspapers and medical production will be prioritised alongside households and hospitals. Mothballed coal power plants are being prepared for reactivation. Some local governments are planning to turn public buildings into ‘warming halls’ for those unable to heat their homes or turn off traffic lights, setting up ‘industrial-scale dormitories’.
The most heated debate is whether the government should prioritise residential consumption over the economy. While current plans aim to sacrifice economic output in favour of keeping homes warm, industry groups are pushing back, claiming a shutdown would be the ‘worst crisis since the second world war’. The charity Caritas has also come out against the plans, warning that gas is needed ‘to produce basic foodstuffs like milk and essential medicines’, and ‘blood reserves for the gravely injured’. One set of estimates reckoned a full shutdown would cost Germany 2 per cent of GDP and 400,000 jobs; another put the cost closer to 12 per cent of output.
Take a step back and appreciate the insanity of these paragraphs. A 21st century European country is warning households to prepare for rolling power cuts as the state attempts to keep the economy functioning without fuel. Housing associations are already rationing hot water and heating as prices rise; a full shut-down would be exponentially worse.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline carrying gas from Russia to Germany is currently down for scheduled maintenance, with supplies scheduled to resume on Thursday. The concern in European capitals is that the tap won’t be turned back on. Prior to the shutdown, Gazprom had already cut flows significantly, claiming that the absence of a replacement turbine – held up by sanctions – was to blame. German sources rejected this claim, pointing out that the new part wasn’t intended for use until September. Instead, the disruption looks like a reminder: push us too far, and we will turn off the taps.
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Germany faces its greatest economic crisis since the Second World War, thanks to the unrelenting idiocy of our political and media classes.
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As EU energy ministers EU wait with bated breath to see if Russia restarts the pumps that pusg gas through the NordStream1 pipeline on after their 10 days downtime for scheduled maintenance on 22nd of this month, the European Commission, while publicly reiterating its committment to wind and solar as the future of electricity generation, has approved a 5.4 billion euro package for the research and development of hydrogen power.
Hydrogen is often wrongly hailed as the solution to “climate change” and carbon emissions (which are not a legitimate threat to the planet in any way, as shown by the NOAA's own temperature data and the mere 1 DEGREE Celsius rise in world temps in the past century).
Hydrogen is a notoriously difficult and expensive fuel to produce in terms of efficiency.
For hydrogen to be completely green, it must be produced by
electrolyzing water, which splits into the H2 and O that its molecules of. Hydrogen fuel
cells consistently prove to be substandard and lose 30% their energy in
the process of splitting H2 from Oxygen, on top of the 26% energy loss
from transporting the electrolyzing water. Not looking good so far is it?
Why is EU leadership continuing to pursue fairy tale technologies when they have access to CO2 free energy production in the form of nuclear power? While nuclear power is often demonized by environmentalists, it is an actual “zero emissions” source that is already developed and waiting to take over from coal and gas (fossil fuels.). If they actually cared about an immediate reduction in carbon output, governments would stop wasting their time and taxpapers money on terribly inefficient windmill farms and dream technologies like hydrogen and focus on “clean” energy sources that are already proven.
Hydro electric power is great so long as the green lobby don't mind a few valleys being flooded, tidal barrages could be great if the green lobby were willing to sacrifice the habitat of an endangered species of two toed toad or something. And nuclear is great so long as we understand the difference in danger level between a nuclear power station fuel rod and weapons grade plutonium.
The main downside to nuclear power in reality is the cost, which is around $15 billion per plant. But the EU has already spent $232 billion from 2014 to 2020 on climate change initiatives that have apparently been useless because they are still spreading hysteria about global warming to this day and are still having to burn coal and gas because their beloved windmills and solar panels have failed miserably to live up to expectations. They could have built dozens of nuclear plants across Europe in that time and been done with it.
But,
they won't do that, because climate change movements are not about
science, they are about ideology, and part of their ideology is about
bringing down industry and undermining capitalism. Nuclear power
doesn't fit the image and works a little too well from industry's point of view, so, they
ignore it.
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"Our Country Is Facing The Biggest Crisis The Crisis We Ever Had": German Employers' Association Warns Over Russian Gas Cut
With the Nord Stream 1 pipeline closed for maintenance, with the possibility that President Putin will not allow it to reopen at the end of the scheduled 10 days downtime in retaliation for the EU's continued support or Ukraine in their conflict with Russia, Germany is facing an unprecedented crisis that could erase the prosperity Germans have grown accustomed to, warned Rainer Dulger, head of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations.
Net Zero Is A Dangerous Fantasy, But Scientists Believe In Fairies It Seems
With oil and gas prices rocketing and the highly propted sustainable energy sources performing way befow expectations the energy crisis currently gripping Europe (with worse to come as food shortages start to bite, polticians still seem more intent on pandering to the green lobby and chasing the dream of a fossil fuel free world rather securing the energy and food supplies needed by the people they serve.
A Mostly Wind- & Solar-Powered US Economy Is A Dangerous Fantasy
When President Biden and other advocates of wind and solar generation speak, they appear to believe that the challenge posed is just a matter of currently having too much fossil fuel generation and not enough wind and solar; and therefore, accomplishing the transition to "net zero" will be a simple matter of building sufficient wind and solar facilities and having those facilities replace the current ones that use the fossil fuels.
Europe's biggest economy would suffer a 6.5pc contraction if Russian energy is suspended, experts warn
Even though the sanctions already imposed on Russia in respondse to the invasion of Ukraine are hitting the nations that imposed then harder that their intended target, the EU is preparing to committ economic suicide in an orgy of virtue signalling ...
We need energy security – not Net Zero
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Net Zero Gone With The Wind - Boris Johnson Plans Seven New Nuclear Plants And Shelves Wind Expansion
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We The Good Guys Versus They The Bad Guys Reporting Does Not Make Sense For The Ukraine Crisis
Mainstream media reporting of the conflict in Ukraine has disappointed. Perhaps I was naive to suppose that lessons might have been learned from the hits their print sales and online traffic rates took as a result of their handling the COVID pandemic But instead of focusing on the most obviously newsworthy aspect of the build up to and escalation of the war, Russia’s view of NATO expansion into Ukraine and even further to Georgia and Kazakhstan, news reports have simply demonised Russia and portrayed Ukraine as the good guys.
Debunked: The Great Renewable Green Delusion
The war in Ukraine has not caused the global energy crisis of early 2022 byt merely exacerbated it. Currently the nations currently in conflict with Russia over its incursion into Ukraine are those which are most dependent for their energy needs on Russian oil and gas. And now their loonytoons 'net zero' green energy policies have failed they are biting the hand that feeds them.
Boris and Biden Can't Blame Ukraine War For Energy Crisis
With typical arrogance and condescension towards the people who elected them Boris Johnson, Joe Biden and their respectiive presstitutes are trying to spin the energy crisis Europe and North America are currently facing as somehow being linked to the conflict in Ukraine and therfore blame is being attactched to Russia and Vladimir Putin. Do they really think we are stupid enough to believe such unmitigated bollocks? ...
Europe's Depleted Gas Storage Might Not Get Refilled Ahead Of Next Winter
While mainstream news reporting of the conflict in Ukraine continues to pump out a torrent of anri - Russia, pro - war propaganda the catastropic effects of this war that could so easily have been avoided are not mentioned. Well why would warmongering governments admit they have inflicted an energy crisis, food shortages and soaring living costs on their people for no good reason ...
We Told You So - Government-funded Report Confirms World’s Largest offshore Wind Farm is UnprofitableA report commissioned by the Norwegian government has contradicted Boris Johnson’s recent claim that offshore wind costs have fallen by 70% in a decade. The report also blows a huge hole in Johnson's grandiose pledges to the COP26 conference that offshore wind power would propel Britain to its net - zero target for Carbon Dioxide emissions well before 2050, the target set by the climate conference for achieving that target.
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COP26 Climate Conference - Just Another Elitist Scam To Steal Your Money
If you are one of the people who still relies on mainstream media for information, the 'on - message' news reports coming from the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow this week, and during the build up to the conference, might have convinced you that the entire world (barring a few crazy conspiacy theorists,) is signed up to the 'net zero' agenda and believes that destroying the economies of the developed nations while exporting our jobs, business and prosperity to places like India and China is the only way to save the planet.
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Green Dreams Menu
It may be driven by virtue signalling or self hatred but the urge to destroy civilisation in order to save the planet and the ideological agenda that drive the gree movement are too far removed from the realities of life to ever achieve their aims.
Ukraine War - west santions backfire
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What Isn't Being Talked About
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BORIS Johnson is accusing Vladimir Putin of war crimes in the Ukraine after describing air strikes which have killed civilians and hit the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial as barbaric and indiscriminate. The International Criminal Court at The Hague is already considering an investigation into the Russian president’s liability.
Would Putin ever stand trial? Unlikely but not impossible. The ICC successfully went after Serb leaders for their acts during the war in Yugoslavia, forcing the country to hand them over under threat of sanctions after peace had been restored.
Russia, however, is not Serbia. It is too big to defeat by conventional means and has a huge nuclear arsenal whereas Serbia was primitively equipped only to fight a Balkan war. Post-Soviet Russia has rebuilt itself as a superpower under Putin. It has already been hit with some of the stiffest sanctions the West can muster.
Strangely, Nato countries including the US are still importing the Russian oil and gas on which they depend. No western politician has explained the morality of trading with an enemy in wartime although we all know the reason.
It’s unlikely anyway that Putin went to war without being certain that any sanctions could be weathered once President Biden had signalled that the US and Nato would not get involved in the fighting. Nato has sent arms but has refused to deploy troops in Ukraine or to make its airspace a no-fly zone for the Russian air force.
In a sense, Johnson and the ICC are demanding victor’s justice before winning; we don’t know yet how the crisis will end.
Does Nato have any responsibility for what has happened? The answer is certainly yes. Biden could stop the fighting tomorrow and save Ukraine more suffering if he agreed to Putin’s demand for an East-West security settlement in central Europe which removed Nato from Russia’s western border. This is clear to ordinary people if not their leaders.
If Putin is a war criminal, what about George W Bush and Tony Blair, who lied their way into an unprovoked war against Iraq? Presidents Obama and Sarkozy and UK prime minister David Cameron destroyed Libya at the behest of anti-Gaddafi rebels after he unwisely scrapped nuclear weapons.
These elective wars cost hundreds of thousands of casualties. Perversely the Libyan rebels were anti-western Islamists who later murdered an American ambassador.
It appears that the western governments who created the ICC exempt themselves from accountability to its prosecutors, who sensibly recognise hypocrisy when they smell it and don’t ask.
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Germany Goes For Full Energy Policy Overhaul Amid Ukraine Crisis
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"Breadbasket Of World" Choked Off By Russian Invasion As Wheat Prices Soar
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Escobar: Follow The Money - How Russia Will Bypass Western Economic Warfare
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-follow-money-how-russia-will-bypass-western-economic-warfare
Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,
The US and EU are over-reaching on Russian sanctions. The end result could be the de-dollarization of the global economy and massive commodity shortages worldwide...
Prior to the outbreak of hostilities Europe was in the throes of an energy crisis due mainly to the folloy of green energy obsessions leading to energy policies which entailed reliance on unreliable and intermittent sources such as wind and solar farms, with the only fallback being imported oil and natural gas from Russia. The USA, while not in as bad a position as their European allies, are experiencing problems of their own with rising energy costs driving millions of homes into poverty.
On top of that, and a few days behind this blog it has to be said, mainstream media seems to be catching on to the fact that Russia and Ukraine are key suppliers of wheat, maize and food - oil crops, supplying around a third of the total wheat exported around the world. It's unlikely Ukrain will be producing its usual quantities of these essential foods, it's rather difficult to tend and harvest crops when the bombs and shells are falling on your fields and the majority of the workforce have been conscripted into the military. And Russia? As sanctions hit, either nations will be barred from buying Russian wheat by sanctions imposed on trade, or Russia will stop exporting wheat and its other crops in retaliation for the sanctions. Either way this will force up food prices and the overall cost of living.
And then there is the impending fertilizer crisis, again this blog reported a week ago that Russia produces around two thirds of the world's ammonium nitrate, the main ingredient in commercial fertilizers. Foreseeing the imposition of western sanctions the Russian government blocked all exports of Ammonium Nitrate early in February. This will result in vast reductions in crop yields, with a knock on effect on food availability and prices in the shopes of European and American towns.
In spite ofg all this, government economists and economics correspondents in the west are still insisting these NATO sanctions , particularly removing several Russian banks from the SWIFT international finance system and confiscating a few mansions and luxury yachts owned by oligarchs will
will “ruin Russia financially,” As this does not align with the view of our own economics experts, Phil T. Looker, we looked for any analysis of the situation that owed more to facts than to a desire to remain in the safety of the herd. Michael Hudson, co - author of a revised edition of the must-read critique of American economic bullying, Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire. is one of the few economists to break ranks.
Hudson remarked how he is “simply numbed over the near-atomic escalation of the US.” On the confiscation of Russian foreign reserves and cut-off from SWIFT,observes he the main point is “it will force Russia to put in a new system, with China. The result will end dollarization for good, as countries threatened with ‘democracy’ or displaying diplomatic independence will be afraid to use US banks.”
In reality there is no need to speculate on how quickly a new Russia-China payment system bypassing SWIFT, and combining the Russian SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages) with the Chinese CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System), it is already in place. Hudson has no doubts “the Russian-China system will be expanded. The Global South, Africa where many nations are quietly supporting Putin and South East Asia where nobody wants to antagonise The Chinese, will seek to join and at the same time keep SWIFT – moving their reserves into the new system.”
This, Hudson says, leads us to “the great question: whether Europe and the Dollar Bloc will be able to buy raw materials controlled by Russia and China, not just food crops and fossil fuels but lithium, cobalt, palladium, rare earth metals etc, which are essential to high tech industries, particularlt the manufacture of batteries for electric cars which the powers that be have decided we must all be driving by the end of the decade and whether China will join Russia in a minerals boycott.” Again we see that western political and business leaders have not thought their policies through, while pursing a campaign of provoking Russia for the past ten years they have not given a moments consideration to the consequences of the confrontation the assiduously sought, hoping it would provide the pretext for recruiting Ukraine into the NATO alliance, thus continuing the encirclement of Russia.
Russia’s Central Bank has foreign bank assets and gold which it can use to prop up the Rouble in curreny exchange markets and defend the economy. The ruble has plunged in western markets but Russia has plenty of buyers elsewhere for its commodities. There will be new trade routes via proxies. It is up to Russia to decide whether to sell its wheat to the west where customers will pay top price or Asia and Africa where it is needed; or to stop selling oil, gas and fertilizer to Europe and the USA. The problem is Russia has very little trade with the west apart from in the commodities mentioned here. Sanctions imposed so far do not prevent European nations buying Russian gas and oil. China and the Arab state will no doubt be happy to act as middlemen for other commodities and charge an enormous premium for receiving an invoice and sending out a new one.
The propaganda we are fed in western news may suggest Ukrainian resistance is thwarting Russian advances everywhere but in the real economic battlefield it looks like Russia is winning hands down.
What they got instead was Russia’s deterrence forces bumped up to “a special regime of duty” – which means the Northern and Pacific fleets, the Long-Range Aviation Command, strategic bombers and the entire Russian nuclear apparatus on maximum alert.
One Pentagon general very quickly did the basic math on that, and mere minutes later, a Ukrainian delegation was dispatched to conduct negotiations with Russia in an undisclosed location in Gomel, Belarus.
Meanwhile, in the vassal realms, the German government was busy “setting limits to warmongers like Putin” – quite a rich undertaking considering that Berlin never set any such limits for western warmongers who bombed Yugoslavia, invaded Iraq, or destroyed Libya in complete violation of international law.
While openly proclaiming their desire to “stop the development of Russian industry,” damage its economy, and “ruin Russia” – echoing American edicts on Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Cuba, Venezuela and others in the Global South – the Germans could not possibly recognize a new categorical imperative.
They were finally liberated from their WWII culpability complex by none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin. Germany is finally free to support and weaponize neo-Nazis out in the open all over again – now of the Ukrainian Azov battalion variety.
To get the hang of how these NATO sanctions will “ruin Russia,” I asked for the succinct analysis of one of the most competent economic minds on the planet, Michael Hudson, author, among others, of a revised edition of the must-read Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire.
Hudson remarked how he is “simply numbed over the near-atomic escalation of the US.” On the confiscation of Russian foreign reserves and cut-off from SWIFT, the main point is “it will take some time for Russia to put in a new system, with China. The result will end dollarization for good, as countries threatened with ‘democracy’ or displaying diplomatic independence will be afraid to use US banks.”
This, Hudson says, leads us to “the great question: whether Europe and the Dollar Bloc can buy Russian raw materials – cobalt, palladium, etc, and whether China will join Russia in a minerals boycott.”
Hudson is adamant that “Russia’s Central Bank, of course, has foreign bank assets in order to intervene in exchange markets to defend its currency from fluctuations. The ruble has plunged. There will be new exchange rates. Yet it’s up to Russia to decide whether to sell its wheat to West Asia, that needs it; or to stop selling gas to Europe via Ukraine, now that the US can grab it.”
About the possible introduction of a new Russia-China payment system bypassing SWIFT, and combining the Russian SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages) with the Chinese CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System), Hudson has no doubts “the Russian-China system will be implemented. The Global South will seek to join and at the same time keep SWIFT – moving their reserves into the new system.”
I’m going to de-dollarize myself
So the US itself, in another massive strategic blunder, will speed up de-dollarization. As the managing director of Bocom International Hong Hao told the Global Times, with energy trade between Europe and Russia de-dollarized, “that will be the beginning of the disintegration of dollar hegemony.”
It’s a refrain the US administration was quietly hearing last week from some of its own largest multinational banks, including notables like JPMorgan and Citigroup.
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Uninteded Consequences - How Sanctions On Russia Will Hit The West
Ammonium Nitrate mine - not an environmentally friendly industry (Picture: https://www.orica.com/
A few days ago we posted on the impact a full trade embargo on Russia if a full scale war was launched against Ukraine, crippling that nation economically and logistically. Few people realise how much of the world's wheat, corn and edible oil producing crops are produced on the vast fertile plains of those nations and loss of Ukranian and Russian grain and edible oil exports to many North African, Middle Eastern and South East Asian nations will in the medium term have just as great an impact as the loss of Russian gas suplies to some EU member states.
For the longer term however, there is an even greater problem.
Russia produces roughly two-thirds of the world’s ammonia nitrate. And in February this year the Russian government, aware of the direction in which US and NATO emboldening of the puppet regime in Kiev was inevitably leading, the government of Russia did this:
Russia imposed a temporary ban on ammonium nitrate export for two months, until April. The Kremlin's the press service released this statement:
“This is a temporary measure. The remaining volume can be exported from April , when Russian companies will receive the ammonium nitrate in required volume and the demand for it on the domestic market will pass peak values,” First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov said.
Ammonium nitrate, so what's the big deal if those ISIS goons can't make their IEDs for a while? you might well ask.
Well OK, ammonium nitrate is used in explosives, both legitimately and by terrorists so the world (apart from Ukraine,) might be a slightly safer place for a while. However the main use of this chemical compound is in agriculture where it is an essential component of commercial fertilizers
Usually sold in the
form of pellets which are coated with clay the compound is probably the most important of all growing aids from food crops apart from water. The high nitrogen amount in
this compound is the main reason why it is very popular in agriculture.
Nitrogen is an important plant nutrient that assists in the metabolic
processes and growth that the plant undergoes. But nitrogen is a gas so it must be put into the soil in captive form in order for the plant to absorb it.
And if there is a shortage of commercial fertilizers it means food prices will inevitably go up. And they will go up a lot as crop yields are reduced. This is mega - important. Any economist will tell you that when food costs increase to exceed 30% of disposable income, protests, riots, civil unrest and possibly regime change become highly probable. We have seen it recently in France where the Yellow Vests movement of 2018 and 2019 started as protests against rising fuel prices caused by President Macron's green energy policies, then expanded into riots over rising living costs and stagnant incomes.
There are deposits of Ammoinum Nitrate around the world, Australia, USA and Canada spring to mind, but as has become the norm. lobbying from the Green blob over environmental concerns has led to restrictions and taxes which make the industry economically unviable for operators in the developed nations. So once again Putin has us by the bollocks.
It seems that while Dementia Joe Biden, Bumbling BoJo the Clown and the rest of the western leadership have been blustering about imposing ball - crushing sanctions on Russia if Putin dared to move against Ukraine, old Vlad was busy gtting his retaliation in first by banning exports of this vital substance until we have passed the point at which it can be any use for this years crops. Which means by next winter there will be widespread food shortages and spiralling cost increases on staple food products.
Maybe not 2022, but at some point in the next few years we’re almost guaranteed a breakdown of law and order, and maybe regime change in countries whichone would expect only political stability. We are already seeing it in Canada, and as mentioned above in France without any additional stirring from Vladimir Putin.
The message everybody needs to take on board is thatwe’re going to have a food crisis and
resource nationalism as a substitute for armed conflict is going to become more popular than free fudge brownies.
Ammonium nitrate
Sticking with this part of the world..
Belarus bans transit of oil products, fertilisers from Lithuania
Belarus will ban oil and chemical products from crossing its territory from Lithuania, including fertilisers, in response to Lithuania’s decision to stop the transit of potash fertiliser from Belarus, the Belarusian foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
The ban comes into effect on Feb. 7, the ministry said, adding that the products in question amounted to 1.6 million tonnes a year, and were worth more than $1 billion.
Lithuania ceased transporting the potash, a major cash earner for Belarus, after the Vilnius government decided the transit goes against its national security interests.
Could it be that the market is waking up to what we’ve been hammering on about for two years now? That we’re going to have a food crisis and resource nationalism is going to become more popular than a “cancel Joe Rogan party” at Gavin Newsom’s place.
Here are two you should own if you don’t already:
Spanish Populists to Enter Government for First Time After Regional Deal
Spanish populist-conservative party VOX is set to enter government in Castile and León following a historic deal with the conservative People’s Party (PP) that will see VOX enter its first government in the party’s history.
Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, head of the PP in Castile and León, announced on Thursday that his party had come to a deal with VOX to form the next regional government, saying the parties had reached an agreement “that allows a stable and solid government with full respect for the constitutional order and the Statute of Autonomy of Castile and León.”
Juan García-Gallardo, who headed the VOX campaign in the region, confirmed the deal stating, “We celebrate today a sensible agreement, without winners or losers. Together, with a desire for dialogue and agreement, let us make a useful legislature for the citizens. Serving Castile and León must be our way of serving Spain.”
The agreement comes weeks after the regional election in Castile and León, which was held on February 13th and saw VOX surge from just a single regional seat with 5.5 per cent of the vote in the last election in 2019, to 17.6 per cent of the vote and 13 seats.
MORE posts on Spain's political chaos:
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