Saturday, April 5, 2025

From Unexpected Quarters

 Surprised Again,


  Pepe Escobar, Unconquerable Yemen
  Ansarallah won’t back down, staring down the Empire in the Red Sea: “When American soldiers are killed in the Red Sea, what will they say to their people and families? Will they claim they were killed for the liberation of their country, or will they say they were killed to protect the Zionist terrorists?”
  Unconquerable.

  Yemeni Missiles Hit US Warships! Middle East on Edge!
   Pepe Escobar talks with Nima about Yemen disabling the carrier-based command, control and surveillance AWACS plane of the USS Truman battle group, an A2 Hawkeye, and the reduced activity of the group in the past few days. The USS Carl Vinson carrier battle group is now going to join it off the Yemeni coast. 
  Escobar had a week or so in Yemen, as above, with high and mid-level meetings. Yemen has been under attack for 10 years and is taking it in stride, sustained by spiritual morality, which would be destroyed by flinching, so they remain resolute and positive, despite 20 bombings per day, mainly on residential areas, because the US does not have good intelligence on the ground
  He takes the stance that the US may actually be gearing up to obliterate Yemen, not Iran, which would still serve Zionist interests well, further isolating Iran by destroying Iran's last intact ally in the Axis of Resistance. This is a very real concern for him. 
  Escobar disparages the clownlike-team-Trump, which I see as analytical weakness. Team Trump is inscrutable in some ways, but wholeheartedly pushing Israeli Zionist agendas now.  He thinks Trump is trying to clear the deck in Ukraine so that he can enact Israel's "final solution", which is what Trump seems to be doing, and which may be the case.
  He makes a strong point about Iran declaring that a major US attack would "force it to do what it does not wish to do", make and use nuclear weapons.
(I have seen analysis that Iran would likely use such a weapon as an EMP device about 30 miles above the Israeli-Palestinian coast, to knock out Israel's electric grid. My own understanding is that Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt could not really be spared from that attack.)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iukLgeNRApU

  Russia calls US threats of war against Iran 'unacceptable'
US President Donald Trump said over the weekend that ‘there will be bombing’ if Iran does not ‘make a deal’ on the nuclear issue   
https://thecradle.co/articles/russia-calls-us-threats-of-war-against-iran-unacceptable

Sanders Leads Charge To Block Arms To Israel, Senate Votes Down Overwhelmingly​   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/sanders-leads-charge-block-arms-sales-israel-senate-votes-down-overwhelmingly

Israel Seizes Rafah In Expanded Operation, Hundreds Of Thousands Flee   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-seizes-rafah-expanded-operation-hundreds-thousands-flee

Hamas Ready To Free All Hostages At Once For Permanent Truce   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/hamas-ready-free-all-hostages-once-permanent-truce

​  Gail Tverberg's prescient analysis from December 4, 2024, the last days of "Biden":  The world economy needs to simplify
Economic growth and added complexity sound like they would be good, but at some point, the combination gets to be too much–simplification is needed.
​  Too much of the world’s income starts going to non-working individuals and to high-earning workers in privileged fields. Ordinary working citizens start to say, “Wait a minute, there is not enough left for my everyday expenses. The system needs to change.” Elections lead to the selection of politicians who want war, or who want to overturn the current system. The system then changes in a way that leads to less spending on healthcare and other complexities.
​  In this post, I will try to explain a bit of the underlying problem and give some hints at what the simplification might look like. Part of the problem is too little energy supply. This is a problem that cannot be told to the public; it would be too distressing. In this post, I present the result of a recent academic study that has attempted to recalibrate the findings of the 1972 Limits to Growth study with updated data.​..
​..Uranium is in short supply, as well. The issue for uranium is that the world’s supply of nuclear warheads that could temporarily serve as a supplement to currently mined uranium is running short. These warheads belonged primarily to the US and to Russia, but Russia has sold a substantial amount of its warheads to the US, to be down-blended for use in nuclear power reactors.​..
..Without enough energy resources per person, the world will likely need to produce fewer goods and services in total. Some uses for energy products, and for the goods and services that can be made with energy products, need to disappear...
..The self-organizing economy tends to push the world in the direction of contraction. How this will work is not at all clear. Most people didn’t understand the response to Covid-19 as a way to cut back oil consumption. It is possible that future changes will, to some extent, come from cutbacks directed by government organizations that are as difficult to understand as the Covid-19 restrictions.​..
..The book The Limits to Growth, published in 1972, modeled when world resources would run short, relative to growing world population...​ The original 1972 analysis, in its base model, suggested that resources would start to run short about now. An article called, “Recalibration of limits to growth: An update of the World3 model” by Arjuna Nebel and others was published earlier this year in the Journal of Industrial Ecology. ​ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13442  The summary exhibit of their findings is shown here as Figure 8.​     

  On Figure 8, Recalibration23 is the name given to the new model output. The BAU dotted line shows the indications from the base (business as usual) 1972 model. I found the coloring a little confusing, so I added the labels “Industrial Output” and “Population” to better mark what I consider the two most important model outputs. Food Production per capita is the green line, which is also important. The calculations are all made in terms of the weight of physical quantities of materials used, for the world as a whole. The financial system is not modeled...
​..I find this forecast disturbing. Industrial output per capita (which would include things like automobiles, farm machinery, and computers) is shown as already steeply declining by 2025 in the updated model. This trend is much clearer than in the 1972 model. By 2050, industrial output per capita is a small fraction of the amount it was at peak.
​  Food output per capita is shown to start dropping about 2025. Based on my understanding of the 1972 Limits to Growth analysis, this change might reflect a shift away from meat-eating, rather than simply fewer total calories per person.
​  World population follows a curve similar to that of the 1972 Limits to Growth analysis with a peak in world population at perhaps about 2030.​..
​..Figure 8 indicates that world industrial production is expected to be the first type of output to drop. This makes sense if energy supply is quite limited or is high-priced. Without adequate inexpensive energy supply, a country is likely to cut back on manufacturing its own goods. Instead, it tries to buy from countries with less expensive sources of energy supply.
​  For example, US industrial production per capita has been falling since 1973. The year 1973 was the year when oil prices first spiked.​..  A larger share of manufactured goods needed to be imported from countries with lower-cost fuel supply. Oil needed to be used sparingly because of its high cost. Coal, used heavily in Asia, was typically much cheaper.​..
..China took the lead in industrial production after it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, but now it is running into obstacles... A... great deal of China’s growth was financed by debt. As long as China’s exports were growing very rapidly, this was not a problem. But as growth has slowed, China’s debt has become difficult to repay with interest.​.. The level of conflict between China and other countries has grown...
​..The world is increasingly operating in a “not enough to go around” mode for scarce resources. At the same time, countries need to somewhat get along. So we get strange narratives in the press giving rationalizations for actions by both sides, without mentioning the shortage issue.
​  Figure 8 shows that once industrialization drops, food production also begins to fall, but not as quickly. This makes sense because everyone recognizes that food is essential. The falling calories likely reflect people increasingly moving from meat to vegetable products.
​  Somehow, world population becomes poorer, but the level of population does not drop nearly as rapidly as the drop in industrialization.​                               Simplification is likely to take place in significant steps, perhaps at the time of strange events, such as those occurring in 2020.
These are a few ways simplification might take place​: [list] ​   https://ourfiniteworld.com/2024/12/04/the-world-economy-needs-to-simplify/

​  President Trump Ends Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Chinese Goods
​  Congress in 2015 ... raised the de minimis threshold from $200 to $800. However, the e-commerce world exploded, and Chinese companies began using the de minimis loophole to ship cheap goods (ex. Temu and Shein) into the USA direct to consumers without paying any customs duty...The de minimis exemption has been cancelled for all products coming out of China. The rule change only targets China and Chinese shippers. No one else.
​  The minimum duty is $25, and the tariff rate is 30% for all products mailed from China into the USA that previously qualified under the de minimis rule.
Beyond tariffs or sector specific countervailing duties, the removal of China to use the $800 de minimis exemption will destroy their economy.  There is no way for manufacturers in China, marketed into the USA, to be able to survive if they are forced to collect and organize the requirements for U.S. custom and import duties. They will simply dissolve.​   
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/04/03/president-trump-ends-duty-free-de-minimis-treatment-for-all-chinese-goods/#more-270731

There will be negotiations... China Strikes Back: Slaps 34% Tariff On US Goods After Trump's 'Liberation Day'   https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/china-strikes-back-slaps-34-tariff-us-goods-after-trumps-liberation-day

Everything Is Crashing After China Retaliates With 34% Tariffs On US Goods   https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/everything-crashing-after-china-retaliates-34-tariffs-us-goods

Stocks Reverse Plunge, Jump After Trump Says Open To Deal With Vietnam, Tells Powell To Cut Rates   https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stocks-reverse-plunge-jump-after-trump-says-open-deal-vietnam-tells-powell-cut-rates

Trump Says China "Played It Wrong" On Retaliatory Tariffs — Now Beijing Faces Three Options   
Concede defeat to whatever terms Trump demands
Devalue the yuan by 20-40%
Unleash biggest fiscal stimulus in its history (talking $2-3 trillion) which will push its debt off the chart   
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/china-strikes-back-slaps-34-tariff-us-goods-after-trumps-liberation-day

  The Trump administration was sued by a nonprofit civil rights group on April 3, with the organization saying that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority when he imposed tariffs on Chinese imports.   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-admin-sued-over-chinese-import-tariffs

  ​Even Israel... A ‘blow’ to the global economy: World leaders react to Trump’s tariff onslaught
The US president has levied duties ranging from 10% to 49% on virtually all of the country’s trading partners​   https://swentr.site/news/615178-trump-tariffs-global-reaction/

  Simplicius,  Trump's "Liberation Day": Another PR Gag, or Global Reorientation Turning Point?  
  Many believe Trump’s grandiose vision to be too little too late, but a counterargument is that the world is now in a race to the bottom, with European nations well ahead of the pack. Trump may not rekindle an American golden age, but his bold and drastic actions will likely tighten the yoke around European vassals, ensuring American supremacy in that quarter of the world for years to come.
  The big question that will remain is how competitive can America ever realistically become against China...
..Russia was not included amongst Trump’s tariffs because sanctions on Russia have resulted in little trade that can be measurably tariffed. Several outlets rebutted this explanation...  If true, this would be an interesting development, as it would mean the US-Russia rapprochement is much deeper than assumed, and Trump could be banking on ingratiating himself to Russia as a way to truly turn the world on its head with an unprecedented eventual partnership between the two superpowers.
  This comes amidst Putin’s personal presidential economic development envoy Kirill Dmitriev landing in D.C. today, along with full media circuit: Video 1, Video 2. Dmitriev is a Kiev-born, US-raised, Goldman Sachs-trained financier who’s got a unique handle on the lay of the land. His recent rise to prominence clearly indicates the coming together of Russian and American business interests and thawing of relations, which could be a positive sign for Trump’s long term global reorientation strategy.   
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/trumps-liberation-day-another-pr

  ​This means the end of the $US as global reserve currency. Bitcoin? Gold?    Here's Why Trump Will Win the Tariff Standoff
  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made it clear in an interview with CNN that the era of trade imbalances is over, and under President Trump, the U.S. will no longer tolerate unfair treatment...
..“Remember that the history of trade is, we are the deficit country. The deficit country has an advantage,” he explained. “[The others] are the surplus countries. The surplus countries traditionally always lose any kind of a trade escalation.”​   https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/04/03/heres-why-trump-will-win-the-tariff-standoff-n4938553#google_vignette

​  Putin Envoy In D.C. Hails Trump's Tariff Strategy: 'Shift Toward Economic Sovereignty'
​  Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund and special Putin envoy who was sent this week to meet with top US officials in Washington, has said his two-days of meetings went well and that positive steps were made.
​  "I would say that today and yesterday, we made three steps forward on a large number of issues," Dmitriev said after meeting with Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, who has also been deeply involved in Ukraine negotiations.​..
​..Dmitriev told CNN in a fresh interview that he conveyed to the Trump administration that Moscow is ready to do business again with American companies.
​  "At this point, we are not asking for any sanction relief. We are just discussing that if America wants to have more business with Russia... then of course US can do so," he said.
​  He warned that both sides must overcome the lack of communication which marked the opening three years of war in Ukraine. "Therefore, the process of dialogue, the process of resolution will take some time, but it is definitely positive and constructive," he described.
​  Dmitriev was in the US during the 'Liberation day' tariff rollout, praising a policy that reflects "a growing shift toward economic sovereignty and national interest."​...
..He additionally stated in a separate interview while in D.C., "If President Putin commits to something, it gets done. Putin is a historic leader. Trump is a historic leader. They can work together to make history happen. If they cannot achieve major progress, few leaders can."​    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-envoy-dc-hails-trumps-tariff-strategy-shift-toward-economic-sovereignty

  Gilbert Doctorow,   Jeffrey Sachs and the nonsense of our best known economists with respect to the Trump tariffs  
  The reforms are only partially about economics. I insist that their basic driving force is exactly the same as drives Donald Trump’s wrecking ball approach to U.S. foreign policy, namely to bring back sovereignty by withdrawing from all alliances of every kind – economic, defense – and reordering the world around relations between the three or four Great Powers on this planet, the United States, China, Russia and India. The guiding principle will be national interest, not ideology, not democratic versus authoritarian countries and the other hogwash that has passed for guiding principles these past decades under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
  Trump talks about putting an end to the rip-off of the United States by its friends as well as by its foes through long acquiescence in their unfair trading practices that are obstacles to U.S. exports and feed into the presently unsustainable trade deficits each year, which this year are well in excess of one trillion dollars. In effect, he is proposing to end the subventions and overly favorable trade concessions to allies to buy their loyalty which explain U.S. indulgence up to now. Their loyalty is no more a matter of interest to Washington, which will deal only with its peers, the Great Powers. Though one may object that the highest tariffs will be applied precisely to a ‘foe,’ the Great Power, China, I believe that in this one case the parties will enter into negotiations to arrive at a less punitive tariff system for the sake of their other common interests as fellow members of the world’s governing board.   
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/04/04/jeffrey-sachs-and-the-nonsense-of-our-best-known-economists-with-respect-to-the-trump-tariffs/

​Jeffrey Sachs. thanks to Zerosum:  Trump’s Absurd Trade Policies Will Impoverish Americans and Harm the World   https://www.unz.com/article/trumps-absurd-trade-policies-will-impoverish-americans-and-harm-the-world/

​  Canada will lead the world – PM
Ottawa is ready to fill Washington’s “global economic leadership” role, Mark Carney has said​   
https://swentr.site/news/615252-us-canada-world-leader/

  More Doctorow,  News X World (India): Russia launches deadly drone strike  
  As I began to say, when Finnish president Stubb visited Trump for a round of golf in Mar-a-Lago and spent 7 hours with the President, I assumed that this did not look good for the Russians, since Stubb has been one of the most Russophobic leaders in the EU. However, within a couple of days it became clear that Trump had given Stubb a good lesson on what's what and who's who in this world, not the other way around. Stubb was now quoted by journalists as saying that Europe should prepare for normalizing relations with Russia. Then yesterday he added to this, saying someone among the European leaders should take the initiative and make contact with Putin. He specifically named Britain and-or France as the best candidates for the job.   https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/news-x-world-india-russia-launches

Zelensky Says NATO Membership Still In Ukraine's Future, Contradicting Trump   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/zelensky-says-nato-membership-still-ukraines-future-contradicting-trump

​    What's he know?  ​ United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio surprised NATO counterparts by telling them on Friday that it will become clear within "weeks" if Russia is "serious" about actually reaching a ceasefire in Ukraine.
​  The statement was issued at the close of a two-day meeting of the Western military alliance's foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium. "We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not. I hope they are," Rubio said.​   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/were-giving-putin-weeks-not-months-decide-ceasefire-rubio

​  Let them talk, please.​  Trump’s inner circle opposes new Putin call – NBC News
​  US President Donald Trump’s advisers are urging him to not call his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, before Moscow commits to a full ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict, NBC News reported on Thursday citing two anonymous officials.
​  The US leader previously told the media outlet that he intends to talk with Putin again, potentially as soon as this week, following their previous conversation on March 18. Trump, who is trying to mediate a truce between Moscow and Kiev after more than three years of hostilities, stated on Tuesday that Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky are “ready to make a deal” thanks to his efforts.​   
https://swentr.site/news/615224-trump-putin-phone-call/

  South Korea's Top Court Ousts Impeached President Yoon Over Martial Law Declaration  
  While some hope the decision will end the country's biggest political crisis in decades, South Koreans must now choose a new president at a time of intense internal discord, alongside an economic shock in the form of President Trump's 25% tariff.   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/south-koreas-top-court-ousts-impeached-president-yoon-over-martial-law-declaration

  Media Eviscerated For Claiming Jailing Marine Le Pen Is ‘Good For Democracy’   Democracy does not include imprisoning the likely winner
TIME Magazine is facing backlash for declaring that the conviction of French populist politician Marine Le Pen on a trumped up bureaucratic charge “was a good day for French democracy.”   https://modernity.news/2025/04/02/media-eviscerated-for-claiming-jailing-marine-le-pen-is-good-for-democracy/

‘Free Le Pen’ – Trump to France
US President Donald Trump has accused the French political establishment of employing lawfare against right-wing figure Marine Le Pen, urging Paris to “free” her.​ On Monday, a Paris court sentenced Le Pen to four years in prison and imposed a five-year ban on her eligibility for public office, effectively preventing her from running in the 2027 presidential election.​   https://swentr.site/news/615221-trump-le-pen-sentence/

​  Jim Kunstler,  You Wouldn't Want to Be Him on That Dreadful Day
John Roberts has been found listed on the Jeffrey Epstein flight logs of the “Lolita Express” bound for Little St. James Island in the US Virgin Islands, Epstein’s supposed party shack for the celebrity elite.​   https://www.kunstler.com/p/you-wouldnt-want-to-be-him-on-that   


  EU could fine Elon Musk’s X $1B over illicit content, disinformation
X's Global Government Affairs team said that if the reports about the EU's plans are true, it’s an “unprecedented act of political censorship.”   
https://cointelegraph.com/news/eu-could-fine-elon-musk-x-based-on-tesla-space-x-revenue

Not managing control-narratives well:  "It's Un-American" - 19 Democratic State AGs Sue To Stop Trump Blocking Non-Citizen Voting   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/its-un-american-19-democratic-state-ags-sue-stop-trump-blocking-non-citizen-voting

Spartacus,  USAID - The Devil Incarnate:  How did the mainstream media manage to lionize one of the most objectively evil organizations in existence?   https://iceni.substack.com/p/usaid-the-devil-incarnate

  A Midwestern Doctor looks into institutional psychology, misunderstanding what would lose your job, and "groupthink":  Why Did The FDA Hide Vaccine Injuries?
How Peter Marks' role in the COVID vaccine debacle exposed the flaws in America's toxic health bureaucracy   https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/why-did-the-fda-hide-vaccine-injuries

  Meryl Nass MD has some really good visuals and graphics:  What globalist strategies have been postulated for centralizing control?
A context for evaluating our changing world   https://merylnass.substack.com/p/what-globalist-strategies-have-been

  Dr. Nass has hopeful news. Notice what's not getting cut.  WHO is in much worse financial shape than it admitted just days ago
WHO had been spending over $4 Billion per year recently, but now it only has $2.4 Billion (or less) for the next two years (2026 and 2027)   https://merylnass.substack.com/p/who-is-in-much-worse-financial-shape

  Sasha Latypova on the public-health battlefield, continues AMD's theme:  Meltdown at the FDA while 23 States, 2 Governors +DC Sue HHS/Sec Kennedy
In the meantime, the PREP Act declaration for covid pandemic remains in place   https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/meltdown-at-the-fda-and-25-states

  Spike-protein inflames arteries and makes blood clot. COVID-19 mRNA Injection Spike Protein Expressed in Cerebral Arteries of Stroke Patients for Up to 17 Months
Vaccine mRNA and Spike protein found in hemorrhagic stroke patients' brains — confirming human biodistribution to vital organs   https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-study-covid-19-mrna-injection

  And furthermore...  "Surge in brain tumours among nurses at Boston hospital triggers urgent inquiry"
Was an especially oncogenic hot lot delivered to hospital?   https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/surge-in-brain-tumours-among-nurses

  This reflects autoimmune disease. Peter McCullough MD,  Spike Protein Induces the Antinuclear Antibody (ANA)
Autoimmune Conditions Explained by Analysis of Spike Protein, Strong Impetus for Spike Detoxification   https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/spike-protein-induces-the-antinuclear

  Measles Vaccine Death in Previously Healthy Baby after Leukemia Develops  Future Immunocompromise Cannot be Predicted, Vaccine Virus Mutates to Kill Girl
The measles vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine. In this case, the vaccine measles virus hypermutated to a fatal strain that invaded the brain and killed the child. Chances are if the child was unvaccinated, the AML would have been treated in the usual fashion with a good chance at survival. The 5-year survival rate for children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) diagnosed before age 2 is around 60-70%, with some subtypes having higher survival rates...
..Very rare deaths with measles must be weighed with equally rare cases of vaccine deaths. It is exceeding difficult for the human mind to factor in any event occurring less than one percent of the time.   https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/measles-vaccine-death-in-previously

​Linoleic acid content in seed oils accelerates breast cancer growth.  Direct sensing of dietary ω-6 linoleic acid through FABP5-mTORC1 signaling   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40080571/

  The effect of aspartame and sucralose intake on body weight measures and blood metabolites: role of their form (solid and/or liquid) of ingestion
..All rats had free access to food and water for 7 weeks. Energy intake, body weight and body composition were monitored and blood metabolites were determined. Results showed that aspartame ingestion significantly increased body weight and fat mass mainly due to an increase in energy efficiency. The effect was related to the amount rather than the form of ingestion. Additionally, aspartame ingestion was associated with glucose intoleranceSucralose ingestion had a similar impact to that of aspartame though to a lesser extent. In conclusion, 7-week ingestion of aspartame and sucralose had adverse effects on body measures that were not related to the form of ingestion.  ["Nutra-Sweet" & "Splenda"  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9301525/

(Et tu, Stevia?)  Not Sweet Nothings: Why Splenda and Stevia Can Make You Gain Weight   https://www.forksoverknives.com/wellness/artificial-sweeteners-can-make-you-gain-weight/

​Sick of Fakes (pictured pulling a weed in the bean row)


Thursday, April 3, 2025

Tariffs, Bitcoin Standard And Resource Wars

 Private Citizens,


  The "Unipolar World" of $US global financial hegemony is deeply fractured and must be reset before it breaks completely in Derivatives Counterparty Chaos.                        Peak oil + condensates was November 2018, and since oil is 90% correlated with physical economy, exponential economic growth is over, as exponential growth of debt-based-money has far outpaced it, and is inherently unstable, poised to rapidly collapse in the next panic. 
  That is our context for all of the drama and intrigue.

  Eleni has sent 3 articles from March which present the pending imperial $US financial system collapse as the core issue on the global stage.
March 11, discussing the secret "Mar A Lago Accord"​ of January 21-22:  Is Donald Trump managing the possible collapse of the “American empire”?​ by Thierry Meyssan
​  However, it is possible that the diplomatic summits are hiding another issue: the prevention of a major economic crisis in the West. In this case, Washington must terrorize its allies to force them to pay off its debts.​   https://www.voltairenet.org/article221903.html

​  March 20,  After Ukraine, Iran?  by Thierry Meyssan
For the "revisionist Zionists"
 (that is, the successors of Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Benzion Netanyahu—not to be confused with Theodor Hertzl’s "Zionists"), the time has come, after the victory over Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Assads, to crush Iran. On the contrary, for Donald Trump, after the pacification of the Ukrainian conflict, the priority must be to pacify the one surrounding Iran.   
https://www.voltairenet.org/article221951.html

  March 25,  Western Europeans Deprived of Defense​  by Thierry Meyssan
The possible withdrawal of the United States from its preeminent position in NATO, even if it does not withdraw from the Atlantic Alliance, sends the political West back to its own devices. How can peace be ensured on the continent?​...
​..The current situation is radically different. President Donald Trump must cut spending immediately: his country has accumulated a staggering debt and would be bankrupt if its creditors demanded repayment. I explained two weeks ago that "Donald Trump is trying to manage the possible economic collapse of Joe Biden’s ’American empire’ the way Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko, and Mikhail Gorbachev tried to manage that of Leonid Brezhnev’s ’Soviet empire’.​   https://www.voltairenet.org/article221970.html

​  March 19,  Yanis Varoufakis,  Crypto’s role in Trump’s economic masterplan  
Explains the Trump Strategy to get Japan to spend it's $US Treasury reserves to buy Bitcoin, and $US backed "stablecoins" to drive up the bubble valuations, after which the global financial system may transition to cryptocurrency, variously backed by $US at some fractional reserve. US borrowing costs would drop and much financial risk would shift to those who accepted cryptocurrency, should the internet or the financial system fail.
The more dollars go into stablecoins, the lower the yields on US Treasury bills and the stronger the stablecoin issuers’ incentives to invest in riskier assets – even to issue additional tokens without backing them with additional dollar-denominated safe assets.​   https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2025/03/19/cryptos-role-in-trumps-economic-masterplan-with-special-emphasis-on-stablecoins-unherd/

​  March 24,  White House Says Gold Reserves May Be Used to Purchase Bitcoin
Hines referenced the Bitcoin Act of 2025, proposed by Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), which advocates for the US to acquire 1 million Bitcoin, approximately 5% of the total Bitcoin supply, over a span of five years. This acquisition would be funded through the sale of Federal Reserve gold certificates.​   https://finance.yahoo.com/news/white-house-says-gold-reserves-213421472.html

​  April 1 (the evil Larry Fink),  BlackRock CEO: Bitcoin Might Dethrone US Dollar as Global Reserve Currency   https://sputnikglobe.com/20250401/blackrock-ceo-bitcoin-might-dethrone-us-dollar-as-global-reserve-currency--1121724448.html

  Josh Stylman on pervasive global narrative-control:  USAID and the Architecture of Perception
  The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long portrayed itself as America’s humanitarian aid organization, delivering assistance to developing nations. With an annual budget of nearly $40 billion and operations in over 100 countries, it represents one of the largest foreign aid institutions in the world. But recent disclosures reveal its true nature as something far more systematic: an architect of global consciousness...
​..USAID revelations show a staggering reach of narrative control. Take Internews Network, a USAID-financed NGO that has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive network, ‘working with’ 4,291 media outlets. In just one year, they produced 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and ‘trained’ over 9,000 journalists. This isn’t just funding – it’s a systematic infrastructure of consciousness manipulation.
​  The revelations show USAID funding both the Wuhan Lab’s gain-of-function research and the media outlets that would shape the story around what emerged from it.​..
​..No domain is untouched – markets, tech, culture, health, and obviously, media – and you’ll find the same design. Intelligence agencies are deeply embedded in each domain because shaping how we perceive reality is more powerful than controlling reality itself
​  Just as fiat currency replaced real value with declared value, we now see the same pattern everywhere: fiat science replaces inquiry with predetermined conclusionsfiat culture replaces organic development with curated influencefiat history replaces lived experience with manufactured narratives. We live in an era of fiat everything – where reality itself is declared, not discovered.​   
https://brownstone.org/articles/usaid-and-the-architecture-of-perception/

​FBI election tampering by suppression and denial of criminal evidence in public domain:  Unearthed FBI Chat Logs Reveal 'Gag Order' On Biden Laptop Exposé   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/unearthed-fbi-chat-logs-reveal-gag-order-biden-laptop-expose

  Gilbert Doctorow discusses Team Trump Time Pressures:  Why is Donald Trump in such a rush to conclude a cease-fire in Ukraine?
  While it is tempting to place 20 April in the context of the Christian holiday of Easter, which this year is celebrated on the same date by both the Eastern and Western churches, that misses the point. The point is that 20 April marks the end of Trump’s first 100 days in office, the end of the relative ‘honeymoon’ period of any new administration after which he can expect heavy attacks from his opponents on both sides of the aisle in Congress.   https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/04/02/why-is-donald-trump-in-such-a-rush-to-conclude-a-cease-fire-in-ukraine/

  Gilbert Doctorow,  Transcript of Press TV interview on Chinese military exercises
​  I do not take at face value Beijing’s remarks that these are to frustrate the president of Taiwan for his remarks recently that are condemnatory towards China, and condemning him for independence policies.
​  Now, these present exercises, I would link directly to the situation in and around Iran. But my point is, the question has been raised among commentators in the United States, in groups that I participate in, how would Russia and China react if the United States and Israel were to make bombing raids on Iran? And it’s generally viewed that Russia will not react directly, because it’s very occupied in this European conflict today.
​  As regards China, the situation is rather different. China would be much more affected economically by any attacks on Iran, which has a consequence of the cessation of shipments of oil from the Gulf and from Iran in particular, to China, which as I understand, receives 30 percent of its oil imports from Iran at present. China has a way of reacting, and we are watching it right now. Just as the Americans positioning their B-2 bombers on the island of Diego Garcia, seemingly prepared for attacking either the Houthis with massive bombing or Iran to bomb its nuclear facilities. I think that what China’s now doing is a direct signal to Washington that if you should proceed to attack Iran, you will lose Taiwan the next day.​   
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/04/03/transcript-of-press-tv-interview-on-chinese-military-exercises/

  ​Hal Turner,  RUSSIA WARNS OF “CATASTROPHIC” CONSEQUENCES AFTER TRUMP THREATENS TO BOMB IRAN
Moscow has condemned Trump’s warning to bomb Iran if it refuses a new nuclear deal, calling it an unacceptable “ultimatum.”  Iran is now considering a PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE at Diego Garcia!
​  Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure would destabilize the entire region and urged Washington to de-escalate.
Trump’s message was clear: no deal means unprecedented bombing and renewed sanctions.​   
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news-selections/world-news/russia-warns-of-catastrophic-consequences-after-trump-threatens-to-bomb-iran

​  Dennis Kucinich,  Trump: “Very Bad Things are Going to Happen.” Netanyahu Wants the U.S. to Destroy Iran.
​  The U.S. Intelligence community, in its annual Global Threat Assessment, refuted Netanyahu’s oft-repeated claim about Iran building a nuclear weapon stating, "Iran is not building a nuclear weapon."​   https://kucinichreport.substack.com/p/trump-very-bad-things-are-going-to

They have apparently hit the command & Control Surveillance Plane.  Yemen's Houthis Strike USS Harry S Truman in Red Sea: A Significant Military Escalation | WION​   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y5O4Pja41U

Very good 5 min update. US Sends USS Carl Vinson, The Ship That Dumped Osama Bin Laden's Body On Sea​ - WION   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx9RlqrHCdA

Rehearsing Iran Scenario: US Uses B-2s to Attack Houthis​   https://en.topcor.ru/58242-otrabotka-iranskogo-scenarija-ssha-zadejstvovali-b-2-dlja-udarov-po-husitam.html

US airstrikes kill 2, injure 7 in fresh raids on northern Yemen, say Houthis​   https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/us-airstrikes-kill-2-injure-7-in-fresh-raids-on-northern-yemen-say-houthis-3700464

Updates: Israel kills 77 Palestinians, declares it will seize land in Gaza​   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/4/2/live-israels-gaza-blockade-reaches-one-month-forcing-bakeries-to-close

Palestinian journalist, his family killed in Israeli airstrike on apartment in Gaza​   https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/palestinian-journalist-his-family-killed-in-israeli-airstrike-on-apartment-in-gaza-3700479

​  "We'll beat you up if you investigate​ the ​Israeli genocide."   US lawmakers threaten sanctions if UN body creates special powers to target Israel
Two US lawmakers on Monday threatened sanctions if the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) creates special investigatory powers to target Israel.​   https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/us-lawmakers-threaten-sanctions-if-un-body-creates-special-powers-to-target-israel-3700475

​  T-Day  By Michael Every of Rabobank
​  Apologies to Winston Churchill for misusing his D-Day speech: “We shall tariff on the beaches, we shall tariff on the landing grounds, we shall tariff in the fields and in the streets, we shall tariff in the hills; we shall never surrender,” would have been snappier, but historically, the above is the correct one for today.
​  Because it’s T-day, or “Liberation Day”, or Make America Wealthy Again (MAWA) Day.​   
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/t-day

​  Charles Hugh Smith,  The Global Trade Game: Jokers Are Wild​  
  Every nation can impose tariffs or limit imports by other means. Tit for tat tariffs, concessions, grand deals, side deals--everyone has access to the same deck of cards. Who wins each round of play is an open question, as is who wins the game.
​  There are several time-tested strategies in the game for Global Domination (tm). One is domination gained by exporting far more than you import, building up treasure in the form of vast trade surpluses.
​  The problem with this strategy is eventually the nations being stripped by your mercantilist strategy wise up and limit your exports. There is only one way to get around this: military force...

​..There is another way to play for Global Domination (tm), and it's the exact opposite of mercantilism: run large, sustained trade deficits by importing more than you export, which beneath the surface is a remarkable flow of trade: the importing nation "exports" its currency in size in exchange for goods and services.
​  Once this currency is "exported" in sufficient quantities, it becomes the dominant currency simply from its ubiquity, its liquidity (i.e. its quantity and ubiquity make it easy to trade everywhere) and its trustworthiness due to its wide ownership across global markets: since the currency is spread across the globe, the issuing nation no longer controls its valuation; that's now set by the market.
​  This is Global Domination (tm) via financing trade rather than by running trade surpluses by exporting tangible goods. Pick one, as you can't have both​...
​..This is Triffin's Paradox, which I've addressed many times over the years: any currency--and the system for creating and distributing the currency--has two masters it cannot possibly serve equally: the domestic economy and the global economy. Any nation that wants to control the valuation of its currency cannot possibly achieve global financial dominance, as the only way to gain and maintain global financial dominance is to surrender control of the currency's valuation to the market via exporting currency in such vast quantities that the global market sets the value​...
...There may be no winners of the game of Global Domination (tm), and that is likely the best outcome. Any form of dominance generates its own undoing.​  https://charleshughsmith.substack.com/p/the-global-trade-game-jokers-are 

​  Futures Tumble As President Trump Delivers "Declaration Of Economic Independence"
Initially markets heard Trump's comments as 'better than expected' and futures spiked on the news, but then as he showed the chart of specific tariffs, futures plunged.​   https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trumps-liberation-day-live-blog-all-you-need-know

​  Gilbert Doctorow,  Trump and tariffs​  
  To my surprise, there was more acceptance in the media of Trump’s initiative on tariffs making sense than one might have expected.
​  First, so far no one has attacked the effective tariff rates that Trump’s economic advisers assigned to China, the EU, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, etc. That is of critical importance. Accordingly, we see that the injustice of the prevailing trade practices that have been accepted by a long succession of U.S. presidents is real.
​  Trump says it is time to end the robbery of the States by friends and foes through unbalanced trade. The question then is why did this go on for so long until a certain Mr. Trump said ‘enough is enough’?
​  Trump did not raise that question. I will, because it puts everything he is doing on trade in line with what he seems to want when he applies a wrecking ball to U.S. alliances in general as he seems to be doing.
​  The point is that the United States has been buying subservience from allies by turning a blind eye or even facilitating through multilateral trade agreements the depredations that Trump is now denouncing.

​  Obviously, the well is now running dry. Obviously, the de-industrialization has gone so far that it threatens the nation’s ability to produce weapons systems at home in the numbers required to remain the world’s number one bully.
​  The end result is that Trump is calling some of the country’s best allies robbers and is reversing course on globalism and free trade...
​..I note in passing, that for those of us who have taken the notion of a ‘special relationship’ between the USA and Britain to have been an empty phrase, it came as a surprise to see that Britain is the only country in the vast list posted by Trump yesterday which has a negative trade balance with the States and that it has only a 10% level of tariffs on American goods.
​  I conclude with the remark that the tariffs are viewed by Trump not only as a means of cutting the unsustainable negative trade balance but also as a means of raising revenue to the Treasury that may offset the sharp reductions in income taxes on companies and private persons that Trump intends to push through Congress now.​   
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/04/03/trump-and-tariffs/

Senate Votes To Block Trump Tariffs On Canada After Four Republicans Cross The Aisle​   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/senate-votes-slam-trump-tariffs-canada-after-four-republicans-cross-aisle

​  Andrew Korybko,  Here Are The Three Goals That Trump Wants To Achieve Through His Global Trade War
He hopes to strengthen the US’ supply chain sovereignty, renegotiate its ties with all countries with a view towards getting them to distance themselves from China, and shape the emerging world order.​   https://korybko.substack.com/p/here-are-the-three-goals-that-trump

​20% VAT, value-added-taxes:  The Cost of a German Car in Europe v. U.S.​  Same Mercedes model costs $38,000 more in Austria than in the U.S.​   https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/the-cost-of-a-german-car-in-europe

​No choice:  VW Among Several European Automakers To Halt Vehicle Shipments, Raise Prices, In Response To Tariffs   https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/vw-among-several-european-automakers-set-raise-prices-response-tariffs

Beijing Slams Trump's "Unilateral Bullying" Tariffs, Signals Retaliatory Action​   https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/beijing-slams-trumps-unilateral-bullying-tariffs-signals-retaliatory-action

"Immense Consequences" - EU Warns Of Countermeasures As World Leaders Respond To US Tariffs​   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/immense-consequences-eu-warns-countermeasures-world-leaders-respond-us-tariffs

Easing Anti-Russian Sanctions Will Actually Benefit Western Europe More Than Moscow​   https://www.globalresearch.ca/easing-anti-russian-sanctions-benefit-western-europe/5883027

Top German Politicians Are Calling For Resumption Of Russian Gas​   https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/top-german-politicians-are-calling-resumption-russian-gas

​  Germany to target ‘internal EU enemies’ – Politico
The thinly veiled threat reportedly refers to Hungary, which has blocked several of Brussels’ foreign policy decisions​   
https://swentr.site/news/615074-germany-eu-violators-punish/

​These revocations of immunity among lawmakers are for mundane, factual statements, or photos.   Brussels Revokes AfD Lawmaker’s Immunity Over a Tweet   https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/brussels-revokes-afd-lawmakers-immunity-over-a-tweet/

Trump's son says Le Pen's verdict proves Vance right about EU​  The US State Department declined to comment​   https://tass.com/world/1936861

Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Firing Federal Employees On Probation In 19 States​   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/judge-blocks-trump-admin-firing-federal-employees-probation-19-states

'DOGE Impact': Federal Govt Layoffs Dominate Biggest March Job Losses In 36 Years​   https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/doge-impact-federal-govt-layoffs-dominate-biggest-march-job-losses-36-years

​  "United States Institute For Peace":  Big Balls To The Rescue: DOGE Saves A Terabyte Of Data Destroyed By Exiting USIP Employees
It's been in bed with neocons, coupmeisters, and the Soros color revolution crowd for years. The quasi-government agency that runs like a private NGO is always sneaky and non-transparent.​  So it didn't surprise me a bit to learn that USIP showed unusual resistance to anyone poking into their spending from DOGE.​  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/big-balls-rescue-doge-saves-terabyte-data-destroyed-exiting-usip-employees

It did not seem to happen yesterday:  "Someone Will Be Arrested": Elon Musk's DOGE Finds Massive Social Security Fraud Scheme​   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/someone-will-be-arrested-elon-musks-doge-finds-massive-social-security-fraud-scheme

​  "Evil People": Organized 'Bankrupt Tesla' Group Tied To Formerly USAID-Funded Disinfo Queen
​  On Tuesday morning, former Biden administration "disinformation czar" Nina Jankowicz repeatedly refused to disclose who's funding her new gig - the 'American Sunlight Project' - which cropped up after a stint at the USAID-funded UK-based Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) - for which she registered as a foreign agent while serving as their Vice President.​   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/evil-people-organized-bankrupt-tesla-group-tied-formerly-usaid-funded-disinfo-queen

​Fewer Teslas were sold than anybody expected.  Kitchen Sink? Tesla Delivers 336,681 Vehicles In Q1, Missing Wall Street's Lowest Expectations   https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/tesla-deliveries-tktktktk-draft-do-not-publish

  The Future Looks Bright:  OpenAI Says Disciplining Chatbots for Lying Just Makes Them Worse
The company warns against applying strong supervision to chatbots, as they will continue lying and just not admit it.​   https://gizmodo.com/openai-says-disciplining-chatbots-for-lying-just-makes-them-worse-2000578608

​  US prosecutors to seek death penalty against CEO killing suspect Mangione
US Attorney General Pam Bondi says decision is based on President Donald Trump’s agenda to stop crime and ‘Make America Safe Again’.​   
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/1/us-prosecutors-to-seek-death-penalty-against-ceo-killing-suspect-mangione

​  'Luigi Mangione' Copycat Kills Pharmacy Worker In California
Narciso Gallardo Fernandez, shot and killed Erick Valasquez inside a Walgreens in Madera, California during Velasquez’s shift in what investigators describe as a random attack, Madera Police Chief Gino Chiaramonte said.
​  A chilling video widely shared on social media captured Gallardo Fernandez entering the Walgreens, waving his hands before firing at the camera.
He then targeted Valasquez, a husband and father of two young children
.​   
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/luigi-mangione-copycat-kills-pharmacy-worker-california

​  Celia Farber,  Christine Grady, Wife Of Dr. Anthony Fauci, Among Many Fired From NIH In Massive Purge--NYT
Grady Wrote "Yikes" When Her Husband Forwarded Her News That 23 Had Died In Norway After Receiving mRNA Shots For "Covid." NYT Says This Is Part Of A Trump Administration Plan To "Dismiss Thousands."​   https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/christine-grady-wife-of-dr-anthony

​  STUDY - Direct Smartphone Exposure Triggers Rapid Red Blood Cell Aggregation
Ultrasound imaging reveals potential cardiovascular risks from prolonged smartphone contact with the body.​   
https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/study-direct-smartphone-exposure

​  Jessica Rose Ph.D.  SARS-2 Spike Protein–Fibrinogen Interaction to block antibody effectiveness
Since fibrinogen can bind this site (Fibrin γC domain and spike-binding epitope γ364–395), then if it does bind, this would effectively block the ability of neutralizing antibodies to bind to spike and remove the virus via this route.
​  It would also cause clotting problems.
​  Fibrin[ogen] binds to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein → blood clots form → systemic thrombo-inflammation and neuropathology. So what about the shot spike? Isn’t it more than fair to assume this same pathology since the shot spike was mimicked after the SARS-2 spike? And furthermore, if SARS-2 was indeed made in a lab - as I and many others suspect it was - then how could it ever be possible to believe that the engineers didn’t know and/or anticipate these downsides (binding fibrin) to using the spike protein as the immune system activator?   
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/sars-2-spike-proteinfibrinogen-interaction

​  Nearly 1 Million American Babies Received the Latest COVID-19 mRNA Booster Shot
CDC data reveal 9 million American children—including nearly 1 million babies—have received the 2024-2025 COVID-19 booster shots, despite irrefutable evidence of serious harm.​   
https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/nearly-1-million-american-babies

  ​Nattokinase chews up spike protein in humans.  Biden Administration Dismissed Critical Nattokinase Research Opportunity for mRNA Vaccine Injury Syndromes
The new HHS administration has an opportunity to confront years of harm imposed on Americans by mandated COVID-19 genetic countermeasures.​   https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/biden-administration-dismissed-critical

​  Co-originator of the Biotic Pump Model, Anastassia Makarieva, further discusses the occult CO2 sink:  Nature is trying to fix our mess—it’s time to recognize its power
Lessons from the Global Biospheric Experiment​   https://bioticregulation.substack.com/p/nature-is-trying-to-fix-our-messits

Biospheric Micromanager​   (pictured with rows of onions, kale transitioning to tomatoes, and beans)