It’s a smart move by Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Facing financial sanctions and economic pressures from the U.S, NATO, EU and western allies, Putin stated today that all oil and gas payments must be made in Russian rubles.

The EU has few options as they are reliant upon Russia for energy products oil and gas.  If Putin organizes payment in rubles, his currency will automatically increase.  This sets the stage for other less hostile countries like the BRICS alliance to assist Putin ideologically and financially by transacting in rubles through the Russian central bank.

(Oil and Gas) – […] Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would start charging the countries it considers “hostile” in rubles for its natural gas.

“I have taken a decision to switch to ruble payments for our natural gas supplies to the so-called hostile states, stop using the compromised currencies in such transactions,” Putin said, per a transcript published on the Kremlin website as carried by Bloomberg.

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If it seems like only a few weeks ago when Australia was kicking out an international tennis star for not being vaccinated, that’s because it was only a few short weeks ago.

However, with a massive surge in COVID-19 cases ongoing, and heeding urgent instructions from the WEF group, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces the land down under is now going to launch a new and improved tourist campaign.

Apparently, the Aussie government is concerned their modern ‘prison camp‘ island image might have a negative impact on visitors.

In an effort to overcome the global image of Australia forcibly locking people in quarantine camps, conducting manhunts for the escapees, shooting people with rubber bullets for not wearing masks and beating people in the streets for non-compliance, the Morrison team is going to spend $60 million on a ‘Happy Oz‘ media campaign to get tourism back with no vaccinations required.

We can only imagine the new two-year ad campaign:

“Come to the New Australia, We Won’t Shoot Now – Swear”.   Or…

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We have written a great deal about the sheer insanity of the response to the COVID-19 global pandemic over the past two years; however, nothing showcases the COVID madness like what New Zealand is doing right now.  Consider:

♦ In late March 2020, New Zealand recorded 5 cases of COVID-19 infection and immediately shut down everything, locked down borders and citizens, and instituted the most severe restrictions on formerly free citizens in global history.

♦ In late March 2022, New Zealand recorded 20,000 cases of COVID-19 infection (yesterday), and announces they are dropping almost all COVID restrictions, removing vaccination mandates and eliminating COVID passports.

Nothing shouts ‘scamdemic‘ louder than the government’s own behavior in this example.

Was COVID-19 ever more concerning than a severe flu, which was then weaponized by government to induce a global fear and trigger mass formation psychosis as a gateway for a new model society?

That question is for the history books. However, the changed political landscape, in combination with the Florida result, appear to hold the answers.

(SKY NEWS) – Vaccine passes are being axed in New Zealand, with mandates being removed in almost all industries. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the changes on Wednesday as she unveiled the country’s post-Omicron peak plan. 

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The 40-year deindustrialization of America, and the subsequent destruction of jobs and the U.S. middle class, did not happen accidentally. It happened as an intentional outcome of selfish multinational business interests chasing profit, combined with the willingness of congress to accept bribes -via lobbying payments- in order to facilitative corporate greed.

The only disruption in the collective economic manipulation was the forced intermission by the American middle class when Donald J. Trump was elected.

President Trump’s tariffs, countervailing duties and protectionist policies against transnational dumping of steel and aluminum into the U.S. marketplace, was a major impediment to the corporate agenda, and it quickly resulted in the biggest economic resurgence in U.S. history.

As a result, people started demanding Congress take a new approach toward Chinese transnational shipping schemes as Beijing attempted to manipulate markets and avoid the Trump-era policies.   A few in Congress assembled legislation that would prevent companies from evading tariffs by rerouting their products through another country (i.e. transnational shipping).  That legislation has triggered the multinational business groups who are now lobbying congress to remove it.

The business groups opposed to the anti-dumping legislation are the same familiar voices who decry tariffs.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and the usual list of lobbying interests are all lining up once again to demand the U.S. remains a ‘service driven economy’, so they can continue their business models and exploit the U.S. market while profiting from cheap imported goods.

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Wheat is an essential grain harvest in the overall food chain.  Winter wheat is planted in October and harvested the following June and July, however, the U.S. crop this year is in a tenuous position because of severe drought in the plains.  Kansas represents about a quarter of the U.S. harvest and is currently suffering through an extended dry season.

Last week, “Kansas Governor Laura Kelly declared a drought emergency, warnings and watches for every county in Kansas on Thursday due to dry conditions causing high fire danger.” (link)

We need to keep an eye on this, and it would be wise to make proactive preparations now for the possibility of a severe shortage.  This potential is what has driven the price of wheat futures, and when combined with the issues in Europe’s largest wheat producer, Russia, there’s a very real possibility of a global shortage of wheat.

The early March warnings are beginning to become more important.  “The world has grown hugely dependent on Ukraine and Russia for their wheat, a crop used in everything from bread to couscous and noodles. The nations account for a quarter of global trade. They are also cheap suppliers, which makes their exports favorites for importers in the Middle East and North Africa, including in Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat buyer.” (link)

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You might wonder what the ruling class thinks of how inflation is hitting middle America.   For insight into their perspective, Bloomberg News just published some suggestions for all the unwashed masses – as defined as those who don’t earn $300,000 per year.

The advice includes, shut up about the price of food, and eat lentils instead of meat. Quit bitching about gasoline prices, and just ride the bus, and the coup de grâce, “If you’re one of the many Americans who became a new pet owner during the pandemic, you might want to rethink those costly pet medical needs.”

Yeah, they said that.  Us pesky proles and our pets are just mucking up the planet for the rest of them.

[ Tweet Source Link – Article Link ]

The ‘inflation sucks, but that’s your issue, not ours’ article is authored by Teresa Ghilarducci.  According to her self-described bio, she “is the Schwartz Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. She’s the co-author of “Rescuing Retirement” and a member of the board of directors of the Economic Policy Institute.”

So, the think-tank economists who shape policy have a solution for all the complaining scrubs earning less than $300,000/yr who are now dealing with the inflation that leftist policy has created.  The elitist arrogance, in the “no one said this would be fun” approach, is quite remarkable.  However, it does show the snob-set no longer feel the need to filter their elitism.

The class gap has always existed, and whenever leftist policies are in place, that gap gets wider every second.

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Forty years ago, a rock band named Pink Floyd had a hit song, The Wall, describing the institutions of education as indoctrination machines generating thought controls.   In the era of the internet, the thought control mechanisms metastasized, but the intents of the gatekeepers remain the same.

In his weekly monologue, Neil Oliver frames new internet safety legislation in the U.K. around the issues of government-controlled speech, free thought and the recent examples of weaponized outcomes in the example of our COVID era.  [The transcript is HERE, and the internal citation he mentions from Alana Newhouse is HERE].  Oliver’s perspective is thoughtful.  WATCH:

[Transcript] – […] “Moving faster and faster, from the 1970s onwards, the online culture enabled the tiny, ideologically driven elite that created it to win and take all. The online safety bill now making its way through parliament feels a whole lot like yet another move from a playbook that is well worn by now – make us, the little folk, feel we’re in danger from something we cannot see, and promise to make us feel safe by assuming yet more control over our lives.

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A report in the AP shows the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) trade alliance seems to remain strong despite western sanctions.  India admitted to purchasing 3 million barrels of Russian oil at a 20% discount rate this week.

There’s no mention of how the purchase will be transacted, what currency they would use; however, the top-line story of India refusing to follow western trade sanctions reflects the BRICS alliance is delivering economic results.

[Via AP] – […] NEW DELHI — The state-run Indian Oil Corp. bought 3 million barrels of crude oil from Russia earlier this week to secure its energy needs, resisting Western pressure to avoid such purchases, an Indian government official said Friday.

The official said India has not imposed sanctions against buying oil and will be looking to purchase more from Russia despite calls not to from the U.S. and other countries.

The United States, Britain and other western countries are urging India to avoid buying Russian oil and gas. Indian media reports said Russia was offering a discount on oil purchases of 20% below global benchmark prices.

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We could all see this coming.  The Ukraine-Russia conflict creates the opportunity for the Build Back Better initiatives to get triggered.  None of this is happening organically.  All of this is opportunism based on a series of dominos purposefully triggered.  Three government solutions to rising oil prices surface simultaneously in an effort to exploit the crisis they created.

Keep in mind, this economic roadmap was strategically outlined in the World Economic Forum “Build Back Better” initiative, and that was built upon the economic ‘climate change‘ opportunity that COVID-19 created.  The U.S. version of BBB was called the Green New Deal.

First, Biden proposes to trigger a useful “Climate Change Emergency” (LINK).  Second, the International Energy Agency proposes a “Ten Point Plan” to change energy use in the modern society (LINK).  Third, comes AOC and Bernie Sanders with the “Executive Action Agenda” (LINK).

All of this is the fundamental change represented by western government in the agenda of ‘building back better’.

(IEA) In the face of the emerging global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, practical actions by governments and citizens in advanced economies and beyond can achieve significant reductions in oil demand in a matter of months, reducing the risk of a major supply crunch, according to new analysis released by the International Energy Agency today.

These efforts would reduce the price pain being felt by consumers around the world, lessen the economic damage, shrink Russia’s hydrocarbon revenues, and help move oil demand towards a more sustainable pathway.

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Keep in mind the cunning geopolitical perspectives of Beijing’s dragon that wears the panda mask.  Recently a person attempted to dismiss the strength of China by saying they had not won a war in a thousand years, to which I replied, “tell that to U.S. workers in the rust belt.”

There are two geopolitical battle spaces in the modern era to gain superiority without kinetic warfare, economics and information; China’s arsenal in the former is massive, the U.S. strategy has been reduced to using big tech in the latter.  This is why western propaganda and censorship control over the Ukraine narrative is so important.  This statement from the White House is weak:

WHITE HOUSE – President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The conversation focused on Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. President Biden outlined the views of the United States and our Allies and partners on this crisis. President Biden detailed our efforts to prevent and then respond to the invasion, including by imposing costs on Russia. He described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians.

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