In a statement today from the White House, Joe Biden has pledged “to continue providing Ukraine with the support needed to defend itself, including advanced air defense systems.” [link]  The statement comes as a result of a phone call between Biden and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Two days ago, a bridge between Russia and Crimea was bombed by Ukraine causing a section of the bridge to collapse.  Yesterday, Vladimir Putin retaliated with missile strikes against several cities in Ukraine and key infrastructure for energy.

The U.S. State Dept and CIA are continuing to lead and coordinate the Ukraine war effort with U.S. personnel in place to organize operations. [link]

Like the bombing of the Nordstream pipeline, it is highly likely the Kerch Strait bridge targeting was planned by Ukraine and the United States.  However, we are not permitted to speak about these coordinated efforts. The bottom line is the U.S. Biden administration going further toward direct engagement with Russia via the proxy state of Ukraine.

KYIV, Ukraine — President Vladimir V. Putin unleashed a far-reaching series of missile strikes against cities across Ukraine on Monday, hitting the heart of Kyiv and other areas far from the front line, in the broadest assault against civilians since the early days of Russia’s invasion.

Mr. Putin said the strikes on almost a dozen cities were retaliation for a blast that destroyed sections of a bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, though they also seemed intended to appease hard-liners in Russia who had been openly critical over the prosecution of the war.

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Tucker Carlson accurately outlined the most likely suspect of the sabotage against Russia’s Nord Stream I and II pipeline today.  When you consider the media blitz by Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, last weekend (ABC, CNN, NBC and CBS); specifically pointing out the U.S. position against Russia; it is almost a certainty that U.S. action was behind the underwater detonation of explosives to take out Nord Stream pipeline system.  WATCH:

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GREAT NEWS – Looks like the Italians have decided to Make Italy Great Again and voted overwhelmingly to support Giorgia Meloni and the nationalist coalition.  With an anticipated 45% of the exit polls, this outcome will almost certainly make Giorgia Meloni the first female prime minister in Italy.

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Appearing on CBS Face the Nation today, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan proudly boasted of the $15 billion in weapons the U.S. has shipped into Ukraine, while restating the official position of the Biden administration that the U.S. will never permit Russia to hold the eastern part of our proxy state.

Ukraine is to the United States as North Korea is to China. WATCH:

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Good morning to you, Jake. Thank you for joining us.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR JAKE SULLIVAN: Thanks for having me.

MARGARET BRENNAN: President Zelenskyy told us that if this annexation happens, it will make diplomatic talks with Vladimir Putin impossible. They need artillery in Ukraine, he says, more air defense systems and tanks. Will they get it? And how significant of an escalation is this?

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It took an extra 12-hrs before the powers that be permitted the full video of Neil Oliver’s remarks from this week to be presented for replay (yesterday only a 4-minute segment was available).  However, that said, Mr Oliver speaks for many people when he outlines the nature of the political turmoil between the ‘elites’ and those they consider the ‘proles.’  WATCH:

[Transcript] – Those who speak out are shouted down until they are proved right. Again and again, and again we are made to watch, or to endure the crude, bullying tactics of the school playground. Reasoned debate and argument have long since gone over the hill into history. Now it’s just one long slanging match, in which the loudest, angriest and most effectively insulting voices seek to win by volume alone, so often echoed by mainstream media who hold reasoned voices in contempt … apparently preferring to ridicule and diminish rather than provide courteous space for those who merely have questions in need of answers.

Again and again, those shouted down are, however, revealed as having been right all along.

Those who spoke out against lockdowns were shouted down until they were proved right about irreparable harm done, the harms that confront us now in every aspect of our lives.

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The bizarre part, from the perspective of normal democracy, is the open admission by EU Commissar Ursula von der Leyen that she intends to punish the Italian people if they elect the wrong political leadership to run their country.  Yes, she literally threatened to punish Italy if the voters elect an Italy-first candidate tomorrow.

Having previously sanctioned Hungary and Poland for electing heads of state that are nationalist minded, Ursula von der Leyen warned the Italian people she will take the same action if Italians defy the will of the European Union collective. When asked about EU citizens demanding their elected leaders listen to their specific and unique economic needs, the EU President Stated {Direct Rumble Link}:

“We will see the result of the vote in Italy. If things go in a difficult direction — and I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland — we have the tools.”

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The remarks come from Commissar von der Leyen because a rising nationalist star in Italy named Giorgia Meloni is anticipated to win victory.  Meloni is an unapologetic nationalist who believes in Italy-first.  As a result, the EU media consider Meloni an ultra-far-right-wing politician.   However, the scale of public support for Meloni has positioned her to become Italy’s first female prime minister in the election tomorrow.

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This is epic. This is like listening to Grandpa rail against the Federal Reserve and central banks without realizing the motive behind what the Federal Reserve and central banks are doing.   This is the best example to date of the misconception behind ‘The Great Pretending.’

U of Penn, Wharton Business School professor of finance, Jeremy Siegel, rails against Jerome Powell and the central bankers for raising interest rates into a collapsing western global economy.  Everything, everything he outlines, is essentially accurate about the damage being done to western economies. …. Except the biggest realization and acceptance is missing…. It’s being done by design.  The people he outlines are not making a mistake, they are doing it on purpose.  First, WATCH:

The U.S, EU, CA, AU and western economic central bankers did not respond sooner to the inflation crisis (2021) because the central banks were waiting for the politicians in their systems to establish the energy policy that their pre-planned action was intended to support.  [<- Reread that if needed].

Once the collective Build Back Better/Climate Change energy policy was established (2021), and after the resulting inflation created the justification for the central bank action, then -and only then- did the central bankers trigger the next phase of raising interest rates (2022) to reduce western economic activity and support the Build Back Better agenda.

All of this was by design.  None of this was by mistake.  The process, strategy and timing were all part of the Build Back Better agenda.  Purposefully created inflation, the result of the energy policy, was planned and used by the central banks to justify the rate increases.  It was a self-fulfilling prophecy built into the Build Back Better roadmap.

Now these ‘bankers’ are trying to collapse the economy to meet the reduction in energy production.  The bankers are supporting the political motives of the politicians.  This is all intentional.  Jeremy Siegel misses this core and fundamental aspect.   However, some of the lesser ideological western leaders (politicians) are starting to get ‘cold feet.’

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The statistics behind the energy impact upon the German economy, the largest economy in the European Union, are almost unfathomable in scale.  There is no way for the German industrial economy to continue with this level of price pressure.  Stick a fork in the current creation of German industrial products and exports, the inflection point of feasibility for continued production has been crossed.  They are done.

According to release statistics from the German economic ministry, energy prices in August were more than double the same period last year, up 139%.  The monthly increase was more than 20.4% higher than July.  Additionally, producer prices for electricity rose 174.9% compared with August 2021 and by 26.4% in a single month.

This jaw-dropping increase in energy cost has resulted in German manufacturing prices for industrial goods jumping 7.9% in August alone, with a year-over-year increase in the cost to manufacture goods at 45.8%.  That is the highest rate of price increase since Germany began recording their statistics in 1939.

BERLIN, Sept 19 (Reuters) – German producer prices rose in August at their strongest rate since records began both in annual and monthly terms, driven mainly by soaring energy prices, raising the chances that headline inflation will surge even higher.

Producer prices of industrial products increased by 45.8% on the same month last year, the Federal Statistical Office reported on Tuesday. Compared to July 2022, prices rose 7.9%, it added.

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“Gaslighting” is essentially a term used to describe an abuser continually lying to victim in order to make the victim misbelieve reality.

Economic “gaslighting” is a process of lying about the nature of true cause in order to continue advancing the abusive policy.

Combine the economic gaslighting with the historic leftist approach of pretending not to know things, and you get this dynamic on CBS Face the Nation today.  In this brief segment describing inflation, we see all the classic strategies deployed by ideological media.

First, notice they blame: (1) the pandemic recovery, (2) consumer demand, (3) Ukraine, and (4) a supply chain ‘muddle’.  Not only are these issues ridiculous, but none of them are the cause of supply side inflation.  Blaming “consumer demand,” which has transparently collapsed for the last year, is beyond nonsense.  WATCH, and also pay attention to the graphics they use to manipulate the audience:

The true cause of inflation, and yes that includes ‘global inflation‘, is the collective western economy jump into climate change energy policy known as “build back better.”  Stopping the use of oil, gas and coal as the source for cheap energy, has resulted in every element of the inflation they outline.

As an outcome of their ideology, the central banks of the western economies are now trying desperately to lower economic activity to reduce energy consumption.  The goal is to lower human activity to the point where windmills and solar farms can sustain it.  Everything else is pretending.

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Welcome to the new “democratic norms” in the industrialized west as Germany seizes the private assets of Russian owned energy company Rosneft; because oil refining is critical to fuel prices and German has just realized their vulnerability.

Within this new Build Back Better system, driven by the policies of western nations, it appears things are changing quickly.  Democracy or capitalism in Germany is now quickly dispatched, as socialism -state control- becomes the priority.

Heck, I’m old enough to remember when everyone decried China’s authoritarian economic model for doing the exact same thing as Germany (a few months ago).  But, well, we must pretend not to notice these things comrades….

(Reuters) – BERLIN, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Germany took control of a major Russian-owned oil refinery on Friday, risking retaliation from Moscow as Berlin strives to shore up energy supplies and meet its European Union commitment to eliminate Russian oil imports by the end of the year.

The economy ministry said it was putting a unit of Russian oil firm Rosneft (ROSN.MM) under the trusteeship of the industry regulator and taking over the business’ Schwedt refinery, which supplies 90% of Berlin’s fuel.

“This is a far-reaching energy policy decision to protect our country,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz told a news conference to present the government’s plans to put the Schwedt refinery under the control of the Federal Network Agency regulator. (read more)

Who knew economic security was national security?

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