Catastrophic...

 

Nord Stream 2 also was shut down at Biden request.

Inflation in the euro zone has hit a record high for the sixth consecutive month, sparking further questions over how the European Central Bank will react.

Headline inflation in the 19-member region reached 7.5% in April, according to preliminary estimates by Europe's statistics office released Friday. In March, the figure came in at 7.4%

Earlier this week, Russia's energy firm Gazprom halted gas flows to two EU nations for not paying for the commodity in rubles. The move sparked fears that other countries may also be cut off.

Analysts at Gavekal, a financial research firm, said that if Gazprom were to also cut supplies to Germany, "the economic effects would be catastrophic."

"We should be rather clear: in the short run, it will be very difficult for Europe, if not impossible, to substitute the Russian gas flows. So, this can be a medium-to-long term debate … but in the short run, I think we need to stay focused and make sure that we keep also European industry, European households supplied with gas," Stern said.

And with that, the west lead by USA is pushing to expand the Ukranian war. Just a thought.

Sound Decisions....

 

Stocks tumbled into the closing bell today, with all three major equity indexes shedding more than 2.7% to end an ugly week and month on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA fell about 938 points, or 2.8%, ending the session near 32,977. Continued carnage in technology-related stocks left the S&P 500 index SPX down 3.6% on Friday, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP lost 4.2%. 

It also marked the worst month for the Dow and S&P 500 since March 2020, but the 13.3% monthly skid for the Nasdaq was its biggest drop since October 2008, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Investor were digesting disappointing quarterly results from Amazon.com Inc. AMZN , which reported its first loss in seven years. 

The Federal Reserve next week is expected to pull the trigger on its first half-percentage point interest rate increase since 2000, as it looks to potentially tighten financial conditions dramatically to fight inflation that's been running at 40-year highs. 

The central bank also could begin reducing its near $9 trillion balance sheet, reversing its large-scale asset purchases used to help stabilize markets during the COVID crisis.

Thank you Mr. President. Your executive decisions of "Day One" in the office as promised is taking the world to bankruptcy intensified by our reaction to the war in the Ukraine.

Goose Step..

 

And when it's not bombs at home, it's bombs away. Or perhaps in Joe Biden's case, both.

The current president is perhaps the leading exemplar of American banditry, coupling treachery with an infallible instinct for doing the wrong thing. 

His own former boss, President Barack Obama, is said to have remarked upon his Vice President's "ability to f*** things up." And that ability has not diminished with time.

So, of course, to war. Whether in lock-step or goose-step, the rest of the ruling class amplifies Biden's thirst for something, anything that provides respite from domestic catastrophe.

 We are just days away from front-page headlines dubbing the tent cities across America "Bidenvilles." Something must be done. And that thing, to paraphrase Vice President Kamala Harris, is the thing they have been doing, every day: point at Russia.

"Putin is the devil and Russia subverted American democracy" has become a moralistic mantra for every Biden booster and Foggy Bottom staffer. 

But flaccid, obfuscatory jaw-jawing over the moral turpitude of Russia's dealings with Ukraine has also whet the appetites of the long-benched war lobby.

Goose step for some, the Rockets for others.

Boot..

 

Gov. Kathy Hochul is urging state lawmakers to help boot her embattled former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin off the Democratic ballot in the upcoming June 28 Democratic primary.

Benjamin — indicted in a pay-to-play bribery scandal — resigned from office in disgrace but his name will still appear on the primary ballot due to election laws. The governor, however, believes that Albany can pass a law to fix the ticket.

Governor Houcle choose Benjamin to be her running mate as lieutenant governor. 

What's up with the Democrats? What kind of choices they are making?

Hope..

 

Oleg Shuplyak is a famous Ukrainian painter who uses hidden images to turn his artwork into optical illusions

In this particular painting we can see a face made up of reeds [any of various tall grasses with slender often prominently jointed stems that grow especially in wet areas] but you may have spotted that the eyes and nose resemble a unique bird.

For many, the stork symbolises joy and reminds us that there is a bright future on the horizon.

Storks are said to most importantly represent hope, which is why they are commonly associated with new-born babies.

Hunger Cliff..

 

Families across America are precariously perched on the edge of a hunger cliff. With inflation on the rise and supply chain backlogs, more families have been turning to food banks, forcing programs nationwide to ration supplies and cut services. 

And now the war in Ukraine is leading to more food shortages and driving up prices even further.  

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that as many as 30 million adults and 12 million children are living in food-insecure households.

 And the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey found that in the last seven days, 10.3% of respondents sometimes or often did not have enough to eat. Local food aid organizations are essential community resources for families during this crisis, but they cannot do it all by themselves.

With that in mind, the secretary of defense said "The Biden administration’s aim in the Ukraine war is to see Russia’s military capabilities degraded and Ukraine’s strengthened, to prevent Moscow from attempting to conquer territory by force in the future.

Ignoring the hungry children worldwide, and fuel the destruction of the Ukraine, a small price for this Biden administration just to inflame hate towards the Russian people.  Just athought.

Receded..

 

The United States is out of the Covid-19 pandemic phase, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"We are certainly, right now, in this country, out of the pandemic phase," Fauci said on PBS NewsHour Tuesday.

"Namely, we don't have 900,000 new infections a day.

Covid-19 cases in the US have tumbled dramatically over the past couple of months as the Omicron wave receded.

Fewer people are dying of Covid-19 now than during most of the pandemic, but with more than 400 deaths a day, the past two months of Covid-19 have been more deadly than most recent flu seasons.

So the virus did what it did, then morphed and moved out. All those who claimed Science, knowledge, life savers techniques and mandates have been all for their own self advancement.

No one said the cause of death with Covid-19 associated illness. Just a thought.

Faces..

 

Most people either saw a pair of faces in silhouette or the stark outline of a tree when they first looked at the picture.

"If the first thing you paid attention to was a couple looking at each other, then you're a romantic at heart," the narrator explained.

You really value the people in your life. Love and understanding mean a lot to you.

"Not to mention, you have a positive and friendly personality," he continued.

If you saw the faces, you probably also have strong reasoning abilities that can calm down your friends when they're nervous or agitated.

On the other hand, if you saw more natural elements in the image, you probably value solitude.

"If your attention was instantly drawn to a tree, you're the type who occasionally needs to be on their own," the narrator said.

"You love nature and solitude but don't mind spending time with your loved ones as well."

But just because you like solitude doesn't mean you're callous.

"You're a tactful person who avoids hurting others' feelings by all means."

Fault..

 

Blind..

 

In this new century of war, Americans have lost their way. We have become existentially unmoored. The very language we use to describe war with strangely disconnected words like “asymmetric” or “hybrid” tells the world how confused and uncertain we feel when it comes to using military power effectively. But war has not changed in 10,000 years. 

We seem to think “real war” is about something else entirely: tank-on-tank, airpower resplendent, forces moving majestically on the field of battle. Other wars are somehow lesser and unworthy.

Hence even as we assault the walls or trenches right in front of us, our psychic energy is still flowing to the battles we yearn to fight. Our war-desire always overcomes reality. Because we are always dreaming of the war we want, we are blind to the war we have. Thus our failures have not been defeats necessarily on the battlefield, but deeper defeats: defeats of the mind.

This is not a problem of simply seeing war wrongly, but rather that in seeing it wrongly, there are almost immediate negative effects — on our warfighting, our strategy, and our society. We have lost wars because fighting the war we wanted was more important to us than winning the war we had. — as in Vietnam, as in Iraq.  

ARE WE BLIND TO AN ENDURING REALITY OF WAR?  MICHAEL VLAHOS -AUGUST 20, 2014