ericbj

Black propaganda. But a useful post. Because the reactions to it reveal a growing awareness of the psychological games being played upon us by the hacks of the power-mongering financial elites.

The Republic of Ireland is an EU member state. If you have/had an Irish parent (born on either side of the border) you are automatically an Irish citizen. You will need a copy of your and your parent's birth certificates and your parents' marriage certificate to obtain the passport. If you have/had an Irish grandparent you can obtain Irish citizenship.

Another example of interference in US elections by a foreign (UK) agency, likely with official approval if not actual support: https://greenmedinfo.com/content/exposed-ccdh-ceo-imran-ahmed-orders-black-ops-against-rfk-jr-shocking-memo-lea Of course "western" countries in general think nothing of themselves interfering in the politics of other countries. A tactic little appreciated in other parts of the world.

Have the proposers of the legislation done their homework? The question of healthy living covers far more than salt and fats. Much of the medical profession remains under the totally false belief, that began with a study in the 1950s, latterly shown to be erroneous, that the traditional saturated animal fats (e.g. butter) are dangerous and should be replaced with solvent-extracted unsaturated oils (i.e. with carbon-to-carbon double bonds) obtained from seeds. Modern research shows the opposite to be the case. Excessive consumption of omega-6 fatty acids relative to omega-3 is one of the adverse factors induced by high seed-oil consumption. The body needs natural salt - not the 'refined' sodium chloride offered by the food industry after it has extracted and sold off the trace elements. Sodium needs to be balanced with potassium, deficient in many modern diets, otherwise hypertension can result. Other common deficiencies in modern diets include magnesium (essential to balance calcium), iodine, and zinc. Even when consumed in the required amounts there can be malabsorption of trace elements caused by chronic poisoning by heavy metals. E.g. mercury, from amalgam fillings, causing iodine deficiency by sitting of the cells' uptake sites for iodine. Sugars that have been extracted and concentrated and are no longer associated with the co-factors that exist for example in fruit, are one of the worst causes of ill-health. Leading to type 2 diabetes, which in turn leads to a multiplicity of further diseases, including hypertension. Perhaps worst of all is the growing adoption by the food industry of fructose syrup synthesized from maize starch. Dysbiosis - disruption of intestinal flora by food preservatives, agricultural chemicals, and medicines given to humans and livestock - is yet a further factor in the proliferation of modern 'degenerative' diseases. Increasing exposure to high levels of man-made e.m. radiation yet another. Unnaturally sedentary life-styles, another. Lack of exposure to the Sun's broad-band visible and invisible radiation, another. Vitamin D, synthesized by exposure to sunlight, participates amongst many other tasks in calcium metabolism. (preferably in association with K2) Education rather than taxation must be the principal road to better health. For the benefit of both individuals and of society. Better overall health of the population means less cost to society.

I started buying gold and silver in late 2014 after realising the trend the global economy was taking, which bade ill for the future. Initially 50-50 gold-silver by value. But I dumped silver bullion for gold after a while because silver was going nowhere and the storage/insurance charges were about triple that of gold. But kept a bit in silver shares in view of a potential rally yielding leverage… Recently, seeing growing demand for silver and diminishing supplies, I switched a modest amount of gold bullion back into silver. I agree with your opinions expressed here. Except where you say "Gold and silver coins I bought nine years ago have more than doubled in value." I think you mean doubled in terms of USD (a bit more so for gold, less for silver). I.e. they have held their purchasing power, which confirms their usefulness as a "store of value". Bullion is not an 'investment' in the ordinary sense of the word. But I believe gold and silver could go MUCH higher in terms of both exchange for fiat currency and possibly also purchasing power. Their values have been deliberately and artificially depressed by market manipulation (short-selling in the 'paper' markets). So they have some way to go to catch up. Asian countries are happy to profit on the backs of myopic western financial institutions, and are steadily cornering the market in p.m.s (and other commodities). The time will come when they push for revaluation.

For anyone still following this rather overworn thread, the following long article (which incidentally ends with a sales pitch for an expensive investment newsletter, which could be good value for those with a deep pocket) may be found thought-provoking. You don't have to subscribe to the newsletter! https://financialunderground.com/the-top-gold-stock-to-own-right-now/

Having established, I hope, that I am an expatriate here in Thailand by force of circumstance rather than design, I seek to address your other questions. I do not believe that precious metals will become valueless. They might well be seized by governments, once they have abolished cash (as they intend to do) in favour of CBDCs. I.e. as a necessary stage in the establishment of the neo-feudal society. When the ordinary citizen "will own nothing and be happy". Ask yourself "Who will own everything?" Retain only a minimum value of p.m.s at home in your country of origin or of residence. Choose a country that is as neutral as possible and with a reputation for probity in financial matters. And ideally fairly accessible from where you are living. A storage facility of repute with regular independent audits. And your p.m.s should be allocated and segregated, i.e. they belong to you, you do not have a claim on something that belongs to someone else. I do not believe that food will become valueless. Produce your own if you can, and produce a surplus to meet the needs of others. And if you cannot, invest in the schemes of those that can and do. Energy has never been valueless in any of its constantly developing forms. Raw materials, the technologies needed to utilize them, and technical know-how, all have intrinsic value. Of course there will always be ups and downs. Economic cycles have always existed. One problem with our present global civilisation has been the constant intervention of governments to annihilate cyclical economic downturns, which correct excesses. We are just beginning to see the results of misguided policies. Misguided, that is, for the ordinary citizen. The mega-financiers have got wealthier with each successive crisis. [Check out the figures] How? They use their hoards of fiat currencies to invest in hard assets. Real assets. All the more so when a crisis is in full swing and there are "fire sales". I think this answers the question "Who will own everything?" [i.e. if we sit around and do nothing] Do we really have government of the people, by the people, for the people? I have my doubts. Civilisations are built upon food production, energy, and synergy. Not upon diktats, control-freaks, and warfare. When the balloon goes up, a person's ability to survive on informal work may depend upon their degree of integration into the local community. A question of mutual advantage. Admittedly not so easy for a westerner living in an Asian country. And I make no claims to qualifying. P.S. Regarding the SEL des Pyrénées, the French authorities hated it. The Social Security people [the "charges sociales" in France are a killer of employment opportunities] took a number of members to court for doing "black work", i.e. undeclared work, for another member on whose house they had done some work. The accused maintained that what they were doing was in the tradition of rural society in France: helping out a neighbour on a mutual-help basis. The court upheld their claim and dismissed the case. We all breathed a sigh of relief. I, for instance, made and installed a window-sash in someone else's house, and a flue for a wood-burning stove in yet another house.

Am reluctant to publicise in detail my life. But briefly: First visited Thailand for about a fortnight in April 1967. Bangkok & environs, bridge over the Kwai (which my step-father unwillingly helped build), train to Singapore. Bangkok a VERY different place in those days. Returning to TPNG from my first leave in the UK. Worked in the New Guinea bush as a native affairs officer from '64 to '69. February 2000, shocked to learn of the betrayal of the Karen by the British govt. in the aftermath of the '39-45 War. Became active in trying to spread info in France about what was happening in Burma and garnering signatures to boycott TotalFinaElf (as it then was). Illegal to call for a boycott, but not much risk because Total wished and was succeeding in sweeping news about the Yadana pipeline under the carpet. What little news there was about Burma in the French media concerned merely DASSK and the NLD. A diversion from harsh realities. Became active on Burma-centred yahoogroups. Initially on "freeBurma" where I crossed swords with some Burmans, obvious stooges of Burmese M.I., who clearly sought to create antagonism and mistrust between ethnic groups, especially between Burman and non-Burman. Later, on "Democracy4Burma", when it was launched by Henry Soe Win in Perth, W.A., and where, upon request, I drafted a petition condemning the Depayin Massacre which was rapidly approved and put on line, on I think 2nd June 2003. In March 2001, launched my own web-site about the struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma. Stopped updating it about nine years later. And took it down some years later still, as it was costing money in annual fees and was way out-of-date. Came out to Thailand for the second time in my life in November 2001, as an unpaid volunteer teacher of English to refugees from Burma. Quite a shock to see the changes in Bangkok. Was taking classes for roughly half of each year for about eleven years, at which moment volunteering to teach English on the border became popular with recently qualified Western school-teachers who "fought one another" to get classes, so I heard. I dropped out of teaching, except occasionally helping to improve the English of someone's younger brother, daughter, or adopted son, and to assist a young Karen woman obtain her Australian Open University degree. I continued coming to the border every year for roughly the same period, to see old friends, and to avoid Europe's colder seasons. And so it was that I arrived on the 31st October 2019, and was due to leave on the 14th May 2020. But owing to the coronavirus scare, travelling decreased and British Airways cancelled one of flights back and invited me to book another. This I did. But several weeks later they cancelled that flight. I booked a third flight, departing Suvarnabhumi on 30th June 2020. But later that too was cancelled. And from the following day, 1st July, all international passenger flights were banned. And the borders were closed. I thought to myself "OK, I go back next year." But in 2021 travel restrictions were still in place. And to make matters worse, from January of that year my health took a major turn for the worse with the development of painfully incapacitating ankle ulcers. This health problem has continued despite numerous hospital visits including a major operation. None of which is covered by my accident-only, in-patient-only medical insurance whose premiums eat up four months of my UK State Pension towards which I fortunately made about 20 years of voluntary contributions while living in France, after discovering I could do so. The UK Pensions Service considers me to now be expatriated to Thailand. So for several years there has been none of the annual increment to which I was entitled in France. Consequently, urgent that I get back to France, despite huge difficulties on getting there. Too numerous to enumerate. But one hopeful factor is I am still an EU citizen, as holder of an Irish, as well as British, passport. My father, whom I never knew (1/RUR, kia Deauville 22/08/44) was from Co.Down. My birth certificate, his birth certificate, and my parents' marriage certificate sufficed to obtain the passport. Maybe not the info you were counting on. But gets it off my chest, and gives you something to read. 🙂

My opinion, which you may well disagree with. Yes, the day may come when people will have no desire to acquire scrap paper in the form of promissory notes that effectively promise nothing. Not even by the barrow-load as with Weimar Republic Germans purchasing their groceries. However, it is my belief that they will still accept gold and silver, especially if in a form that is recognisable as guaranteeing purity. Gold, for obvious reasons I shall not go into, will be the more valuable of the two metals as it always has been. Perhaps in the old relationship of about 1:15, ounce to ounce. Not as at present about 1:80. More practical than barter. Or cowrie shells and the like. Although barter will likely become more common. On a local scale we may see the widespread development of Local Exchange Trading Systems [LETS] using hand-filled paper tokens whose details are then entered into a digital accounting system. Just over thirty years ago I became one of the earliest members [#121] of the first LETS to be formed in France, the SEL [Système d'Echange Locale] des Pyrénées, where we traded in "graines de sel" [grains of salt]. Such a system works on a local basis, owing to the trust that can develop between people who can get to know one another. SEL markets were held from time to time in different towns. The SEL covered mostly the Ariège and, at that time, part of the Aude Deparments. Later the Aude developed its own SEL. When last in France, in 2019, a local currency was being developed for the Haute Vallée of the Aude. But I was not involved so can tell you nothing about that. A local currency was already in use in Toulouse.

For millenia gold and silver have both been appreciated as a medium of storage of value and a convenient substitute for barter. For reasons that should be too obvious to require detailing here. Their values [purchasing power] have fluctuated up and down, in line with supply and demand. But within quite narrow limits, when judged by modern experience. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution They can be regarded as safe havens against the devaluation of fiat currencies caused by deliberate over-supply ["money-printing"]. However, they are not safe against seizure by the issuers of fiat currencies, notably those in the West, who have successfully lulled their populations into a disregard for "pet rocks". The U.S. government seized private holdings of gold in 1933 (for reasons other than apply today). So beware! In times of so-called "high inflation", i.e. devaluing fiat currencies, the value of precious metals as a store of value (although perhaps not of market exchange) becomes increasingly difficult to hide. E.g. by massive short-selling on futures markets such as the Comex. Think carefully about where in the world you wish to store your precious metals, and with whom. Not with the dealers you bought it through. [Some Thais came unstuck because their gold was with the dealers when the latter went bankrupt in the 1997 crisis]. Make sure your precious metals are "allocated" and "segregated". The latter is not so with BullionVault, but I think they are quite a safe bet nonetheless. And extremely convenient. Never all the eggs in one basket. Essential raw materials will always retain value. And the less their availability relative to demand the greater that value will be. Food is an obvious need. As well perceived by Bill Gates who is now the largest owner of agricultural land in the U.S. Silver is not much used as a store of value these days. But there is huge demand for its use in modern electronic technology and the like. 90% is used industrially (and very little recycled) while supplies are likely to prove very inadequate in the near future. Copper is in a somewhat similar situation. Barring total economic meltdown. And then there is uranium.

There's no hard-and-fast rule for intermittent fasting. As a general rule though it means eating only within an 8-hour window every 24 hours. Generally 2 meals per day. Avoid eating shortly before going to bed. And snacking between meals seems to be discouraged. For professional advice consult someone like Dr Eric Berg on YouTube. It is said that, after you eat, about 80% of the immune system is mobilised to survey what enters the blood-stream through the intestinal walls. Not eating for a while gives the immune system some breathing space to deal with cleaning up other problems. And after a while autophagy kicks in to cannibalise defective cells with a view to their replacement. Do not exercise strenuously when fasting; you risk losing muscle mass. Physical exercise is necessary and the best forms of it are aerobic: they oxygenate the tissues. If you cannot speak normally during your exercise you are no longer in aerobic mode. A certain amount of fat is normal. It provides reserves for lean times. Our ancestors tended to live on a feast-and-famine basis. What is dangerous to health is the widespread modern phenomenon of abdominal fat. This latter arises from excessive blood-glucose caused by modern diets. Refined sugars and fast-digesting starches (e.g. wheat, potatoes, etc.). Starch breaks down into glucose, and sucrose into glucose + fructose. Glucose must be quickly removed from the blood, which it can poison, and be placed in the cells where it helps generate energy. Insulin does this. But when the cells have enough they resist. They are then "insulin-resistant". The pancreas must then produce ever increasing amounts of insulin to force the glucose into the cells. As the cells cannot use all this glucose they store it as visceral fat. This stage is known as "pre-diabetic". Hospitals are usually not much interested in pre-diabetes. They are waiting for your pancreas to reach the limit of its insulin-producing capacity. Then they can tell you "You have diabetes. It is incurable. But we can provide you with life-long treatments to keep it under control." In the light of modern research, neither of these two latter statements is strictly correct. The experience of my now-dead friends is the medics do not fully keep it under control. It is a stepping-stone to hypertension, kidney disease, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic neuropathy, inguinal hernia, etc. Your fate is in your hands. What you need to know is this. When a doctor says "I am going to test your blood-glucose", say to him "I want you also to test my insulin levels." Pre-diabetes can be rectified relatively easily by life-style changes. According to modern research, diabetes can be cured in about 95% of cases (not what most doctors will tell you). But the cure can be a major struggle. Fructose is not digested in the intestine but in the liver. Excessive doses of "high-fructose-corn-syrup" found in much industrial food and drink can end up damaging the liver. I suggest investigating also the link between a healthy gut-microbiome (relatively rare in the modern world) and overall health. Physical, mental, etc. The assault on the gut microbiome comes from many quarters: antibiotics (pharmaceutical, in foodstuffs, in water) and food preservatives widely used in industrially processed foods. Glyphosate was originally patented as an antibiotic. Note that its use is not restricted to GMO crops. It is used in 'conventional' agriculture to kill off seed-bearing crops such as grains and beans when they are reaching maturity. The seeds all ripen together, leading to higher yields. Above are a few leads for Internet searches.

Air-con buses? Some are refrigerated! Cold-storage of passengers. Moreover in the more northerly parts of Thailand during the cool-dry season, if arriving or departing in early morning, temperatures can be decidedly chilly. Although my impression is they are nothing like as chilly these days as a couple of decades ago. Some years ago I made the six-hour journey to Chiang Mai on a bus with a thermometer on the windscreen that proudly displayed in large digits the outside and inside temperatures. Outside 37°C. Inside 16°C. Things may have improved in some cases since then. Perhaps because the driver now sometimes has a separate compartment to himself. I suspect drivers may dial a low temperature in order to keep themselves awake and alert. Not necessarily what the passengers want on a long journey. Moreover, air-conditioning impacts fuel consumption; and fuel prices are rising. So lower temperatures could mean substantial extra costs on a monthly basis for a company running a fleet of buses. When travelling on an unduly cold bus when ambient temperatures are high, it is necessary to have supplementary clothing that is put on at the start of the journey, can be unzipped when one emerges into sweltering heat on brief halts, and is easily removed at journey's end. (So no thermal underwear and the like). My personal preferences of clothing for a long bus journey: loose-fitting canvas ankle-boots and thick socks windcheater with full-length zip, with neck-collar, of closely-knitted fine wool anorak with full-length zip, also with neck-collar, of lightweight cotton canvas, unpadded, with zip-closure pockets (if the above-listed do not close around the neck, a scarf may be useful) A soft hat with a decent brim is not only useful in bright sunlight but can be pulled down as an eye-shade when seeking to sleep. A supermarket carrier-bag, which when empty folds down into nothing, holds the supplementary clothing before and after the bus journey. The rather thin blanket issued by the bus company is used to help keep the legs warm. If the air-vent overhead does not close effectively, it can be temporarily blocked with paper-tissue.

I fully agree.

To clarify the matter, you are not commenting on the article because you have not read it. Instead you are commenting on a web-site which re-posted it from the original source.

THe U.S. has two lousy candidates for President. Neither of them are giving significant attention to the greatest problem facing the nation: the run-away debt coupled with progressive loss of the international reserve status of the dollar. Trump sent the U.S. debt through the roof, similar to what many governments did that had the misfortune to be in power at the time of the plandemic. But he also boosted such things as military spending. And kicked off, in a big way, currency warfare. The Biden-Harris team has, by one decision after another, undermined the dollar's international reserve status - established in 1944, and which has persisted well beyond 1971 thanks to the introduction of the petro-dollar. The dollar and U.S. Treasury bills are what have enabled the U.S. consumer to live well beyond his productive means. But owing to the huge and ever-growing national debt, foreign creditors are becoming increasingly reluctant to buy Treasury bills. The theoretical answer is to raise interest rates, to attract foreign buyers. But the problem to this is the size of the debt: interest payments due on the debt then start to rise exponentially, and the lure of the higher interest rates are offset by the possibility of a dollar default. Circumstances change and systems fail eventually. But the actions of the Biden-Harris team seem to illustrate a desire to collapse the dollar's reserve status as rapidly as possible. Due to wilfulness? Or to blindness? Blindness perhaps on the part of Biden and Harris. But unlikely in the case of their manipulators. There is no simple answer to this problem of voters having such an appalling choice of candidates. But two things stand out. 1. The selection process must be changed; and 2. Information sources readily available to the mass of the citizenry must no longer be owned by a handful of financial conglomerates. People must be informed, so as to form their own opinions. Rather than indoctrinated with an agenda that sidesteps vital issues.

I have read the article to which I refer. Anyone else who wishes can do the same. The rest of what you write displays a hyper-emotional attitude rather than a critique of the opinions put forward.

Not at all clear to me that I spout Russian propaganda. But then one is not always objective in judging oneself. However quite a few contributors to this discussion seem to have closed minds that deal in often meaningless clichés, such as this comment: "Garbage pro autocracy axis propaganda source" to dismiss the well-researched article I linked to here https://thegrayzone.com/2021/01/28/alexei-navalny-myth-wests-russian-opposition-figure/ Off the immediate subject but relevant to the discussion:

On the question of Navalny, some sources of information diverge from what is commonly encountered in western MSM. E.g. https://thegrayzone.com/2021/01/28/alexei-navalny-myth-wests-russian-opposition-figure/

This news item evokes a potential dénouement of the seemingly insoluble problems arising from the West's proxy war with Russia on the soil of the Ukraine : https://youtu.be/iFLSsectyNs Will doubtlessly be strongly denounced by many. Including, most likely, NATO governments. But negotiations, and a search for peace, are surely long overdue.

No harm in treaties of mutual defence. But NATO has ceased to meet that definition. NATO (essentially the U.S.) now feels the need to 'defend' itself throughout the world. Even in the Far East. To understand this one must realise that 'defence' has come to mean protecting the revenue-streams of the hyper-wealthy at the expense of the ordinary citizenry; and at the expense of the inhabitants of far away countries, who then seek to escape their destroyed economies where mere survival has become a challenge. From the point-of-view of a potential new member, NATO provides savings on expensive matériel. There are cost benefits in joining an organisation that collectively accounts for over 60 percent of the world’s total 'defense' spending. Overall spending by a new member may increase, as in the case of Sweden, or decrease, as in the case of Finland. But whatever, they get more for their buck. Paradoxically, the drain on the U.S. exchequer is something that Trump wishes to eliminate, despite the profligate spending on 'defence' during his term in office. [Was the increased 'defence' budget an unsuccessful attempt to seduce Deep State actors? Seems to have been one of his ploys.] U.S. taxpayer spending on 'defence' fits in well with the Deep State's agenda of transferring wealth from the average U.S. citizen to those heavily invested in the 'defence' sector. Thanks to a requirement for standardisation of matériel. Ethnic Russians lived in the Ukraine centuries before the Soviet famine. In fact since the expulsion of the Ottomans. Check out western media bias by searching for Prince Potemkin and discover how the Russians "Stole His Bones" from Kherson. NATO drools over the prospect of taking control over the Ukraine not only as a major leap forward in their insane desire to break up the Russian Federation (on an even more fragmented basis than planned for Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc.) but also because of the Ukraine's mineral and agricultural value, notably in the eastern part. [Check out: Blackrock and Zelensky. You may need to read between the lines of the results] "Putin is kidnapping Ukrainian children". Do your homework and see that this is nonsense spewed out by western black-propagandist media. But if you prefer to believe it, just carry on believing. Illusions lead to dead-ends. "The Russian annexation of Crimea and invasion of the Donbas are both illegal." And U.S./NATO invasions of diverse countries are not? Where is the so-called "Rules Based Order" invoked so often by U.S. government spokesmen? [Oh! I forgot. It does not apply to the "exceptional people"]

Making pronouncements upon Russia's right of incursion into the Ukraine is incompatible with self-declared ignorance of the massacres in Odessa, Mariupol and elsewhere, and the eight years targeting of civilians in the Donetsk and the Lugansk by snipers, artillery, and missiles. Often spewing cluster munitions and sowing swarms of butterfly mines in town centres where there was no military presence. The legality or illegality of the Russian incursion into the Ukraine needs to viewed in the context of US/NATO incursions into sovereign nations in the Middle East, North Africa, and South-East Europe. "R2P" was often the bogus justification claimed then. The Russians can claim the same, but on more solid grounds. Putin is not Stalin, although it is understandable that many Ukrainians should still feel strongly about the Holomodor. But the starvation of the 1930s affected all grain-producing areas of the USSR, "including Kazakhstan, Northern Caucasus, Kuban Region, Volga Region, the South Urals, and West Siberia." "The Kazakh famine of 1930–1933, also known as the Asharshylyk, was a famine during which approximately 1.5 million people died in the Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic, then part of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in the Soviet Union, of whom 1.3 million were ethnic Kazakhs. An estimated 38 to 42 percent of all Kazakhs died, the highest percentage of any ethnic group killed by the Soviet famine of 1930–1933. Other research estimates that as many as 2.3 million died. … The famine began in the winter of 1930, a full year before the famine in Ukraine." Not all Ukrainians had clean hands. The liquidation of the Jewish population is well known. But perhaps less well known is this: "The massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia were carried out in German-occupied Poland by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army with the support of parts of the local Ukrainian population against the Polish minority in Volhynia, Eastern Galicia, parts of Polesia and the Lublin region from 1943 to 1945." Incidentally, I am not some pro-Russian stooge. I am wholeheartedly opposed to Russian support for Min Aung Hlaing's regime. And was pleased to see that they had to buy back some of the AFVs they sold him; because they needed them for spare parts.

"How many of those warheads are actually functional? The corruption in the Russian military has exposed huge deficits in maintenance." The ultimate, anonymous source of this 'exposure' is perhaps the same as that which told us in 2022 that Russia was about to run out of artillery shells, that the Russian military was demoralised and about to disintegrate, and similar disingenuous 'intel'. "It is estimated one-third of the Russian defence budget went into Shoigu's pocket alone." Who estimated it? And how did they arrive at this figure? "Russia's only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, was launched in 1985. Thirty years on, it is still not operational. It is in drydock in Murmansk, for yet another round of repairs." Aircraft carriers are no longer the queens of naval combat. They make beautifully expensive targets for modern precision missiles, whether airborne or aquatic; and require a dense screen of smaller vessels to protect them. They are of use only to powerful nations that seek to project their military power far from their homeland, far across the oceans. [Study the case of US Navy versus Houthis] A land-based aerodrome can be better protected; can be put out of action for a while, until repaired; but it cannot be sunk. "The success of Russia's attempted modernization of its military is illustrated by a recent test firing, when the rocket blew up in its silo." Please explain why the U.S. government, until recent sanctions kicked in, was purchasing Russian-made rocket-motors for its missiles. https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2022/8/5/us-kicking-russian-rocket-engines-to-the-curb "IMO the sums spent on Ukraine are a good investment." An excellent investment for the mega-rentier-capitalists heavily invested in the armaments industry. As an example, their capital gains amounted to nearly 1,000% over the course of the Afghan War. They needed another war to replace it. But for the average American? Was this really so? "It would cost a lot more to have US boots on the ground, defending NATO countries." There was no need to defend NATO countries. The boot was on the NATO foot. That is, until Putin, increasingly regarded as a weakling by many of his countrymen for failure to take effective action against the ongoing massacre of ethnic Russians, did what NATO had been hoping he would do. But the outcome, to be achieved by sanctions, has not been what NATO expected. Circumstances have changed since the Soviet economy was destroyed by crushing the oil price.

Many taxpayers - which includes those paying with the 'hidden tax', inflation - are becoming thoroughly pissed off with the huge financial burden. Especially considering lack of productivity on the investment. Just for starters, consider the 5 billion USD spent on the Maidan Coup. You, and fellow-thinkers, need to consider coughing up substantial sums to further your war-aims. -------------------------- I am neither pro-Trump nor pro-Biden. But a negotiated peace seems better than an eternal war. And could have had a much more favourable outcome for the Ukraine if carried through two and more years ago. The real cost of this skilfully engineered conflict has been borne by the peoples of the Ukraine. Perhaps the widows, orphans, and cripples should have some say in this matter. It is true that Biden and others have been intimidated by Putin's threats. Empty threats? The Russian Federation possesses some 3,000 nuclear warheads and hypersonic missiles to deliver them. And recently, as you should know, they modified the circumstances which can lead to their being used.

I do not know if this will work against the West Nile virus, but in view of its broad-spectrum anti-viral properties, a web-search along this line: ClO2 anti-viral might suggest a potential cure.

Not sure what influence the Russians (taking a leaf out of a CIA guidebook) may have had in influencing the Brexit vote. But these articles may be of interest: https://www.essex.ac.uk/research/showcase/why-britain-really-voted-to-leave-the-european-union https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-referendum-donations-ten-wealthy-political-donors-make-up-half-vote-leave-remain-nigel-farage-arron-banks-leave-eu-vote-leave-political-parties-bankrolled-by-rich-financiers-superrich-billionaires-a7348321.html