Saturday, January 22, 2022

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https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/01/22/lunatic-pundit-says-its-all-but-certain-were-on-the-cusp-of-a-massive-war-with-russia/

Lunatic Pundit Says It’s “All But Certain” We’re On The Cusp Of A Massive War With Russia

The Ukrainian-born MSNBC favorite Alexander Vindman, best known for his role in the Trump impeachment, has informed the network’s viewership that we are almost certainly on the cusp of a war with Russia comparable to World War II.

“I think we’re basically just on the cusp of war,” the retired lieutenant colonel told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Friday. “I think it’s all but certain in my mind that there’s going to be a large European war on the order of magnitude of World War II, with air power, sea power, massive ground force offensives, and my concern right now is making sure that the United States is postured for that outcome. I think there’s little to be done to avoid it at this point.”

Rather than yell and scream like a normal human being at Vindman’s incendiary claims about a near-certain world war against a nuclear superpower, Wallace merely asked Vindman to clarify that he did indeed believe it’s a foregone conclusion that there is going to be a military confrontation with Russia on the level of the second world war. Vindman maintained throughout the appearance that there was going to be a war with Russia, that it would be large, that it would involve Ukraine, and that Russia would be the aggressor.

“I hope to God I’m wrong,” Vindman said at the end of the segment. “But I’m willing to go ahead and raise this alarm, put my credibility on the line, to make sure that people are paying attention.”

This massive claim should be treated very seriously. It should be treated seriously not because it’s well-founded (Moon of Alabama explains that Moscow has no good reason to launch an unprovoked attack on Ukraine and war is entirely avoidable, and Kiev is telling the public to stop worrying about a Russian invasion), but because there’s no way for this claim not to be a big deal.

Think about it. If Vindman’s claims are true then we should all be running around like our hair is on fire demanding our governments move heaven and earth to prevent this horror from being unleashed upon our world. If his claims are not true then a US news network just aired brazen disinformation about a matter of unparalleled importance, and ironically did so right after the US State Department published a lengthy report on the dangers of Russian disinformation on RT and Sputnik (which was in turn ironic because, as The Dissident explains, the report is itself packed full of disinfo).

Fellow virulent Russia hawk Michael McFaul appeared in the same MSNBC segment as Vindman but took a less hysterical approach, saying he doesn’t know what Putin is going to do. McFaul said that between doing nothing and launching a full-scale ground invasion Putin also has options like “cyber attacks, limited aircraft attacks, artillery attacks, seizing Donbass, attacking and then retreating without bringing any soldiers in.” McFaul later claimed that Biden was too focused on opposing China during his first year in office, causing the Russia situation to get out of control.

“I am very prepared to just flat-out state that we are on the cusp of war,” Vindman countered in disagreement with his fellow propagandist, citing as evidence a movement of Russian troops into western Russia while conveniently omitting the fact that thousands of them have since withdrawn from the area.

Nothing either of these clowns say should be taken as true; any random schmuck off the street would be better-qualified to offer opinions on Russia than dopey mainstream liberal pundits who’ve spent the last five years being consistently wrong about that nation. But we should take very seriously the fact that they are working to insert these narratives into public consciousness.

To my knowledge Russian state media have not been telling Russians that a world war between nuclear-armed nations is “all but certain”. To the best of my knowledge only western propagandists are indoctrinating westerners with such madness. You can learn a lot by simply watching who is pushing what narrative.

The idea that it’s already too late to stop a world war-level conflict with a nuclear superpower is profoundly dangerous. If the public can be manipulated into accepting this as fact then their priorities shift from insisting that their leaders prevent this unthinkable event from being inflicted upon our world to supporting whatever might protect them and their loved ones from being destroyed by it. We collapse into the same learned helplessness we’re trained to sink into when we’re told that a given political candidate is inevitable or a given grassroots effort is doomed to fail.

And if that mind virus does take hold we may be certain that the same brainwashed human livestock who’ve been scoffing at us for warning that all the cold war escalations over these last few years can lead to hot war will be the very first to doublethink their way into a complete cognitive 180 and begin assuring us that hot war is inevitable so there’s no use trying to prevent it.

Someone benefits from all this, and it isn’t you.

This comes as withered gerontocrats in the US government bravely proclaim that it’s time to give Putin a “bloody nose” over the latest tensions. It comes as tons of US-supplied weapons pour into Ukraine, and it comes as the US president himself announces that he believes a Russian invasion of Ukraine is likely. These people are playing games with the lives of everyone on our planet, and they don’t even seem to understand that that’s what they’re doing.

This is so, so dangerous, and there don’t seem to be any adults behind the wheel. We’re being pied pipered off a precipice from which there is no return by blind men with their hands in their pants.

We the citizens of this planet cannot allow this to continue. We’ve got to find some way to stop these pricks.

Comment to article:

" I am a born US citizen. I can speak to the anger and frustration felt by many of my fellow-citizens as they watch an oligarch-controlled political duopoly continue to masquerade as a democracy while continuing to slop the largest hog at the trough of taxpayer funding. I cannot become a big-shot politician and even if I could my voice would be drowned by the beholden servants surrounding me; I cannot solve anything by writing letters to an editor or carrying around a sign. I cannot Believe that after Korea, Vietnam, El Salvador, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, not to mention quit a few others, my fellow Americans are allowing themselves to be led to yet another slaughter and failed attempt at propping up the empire. I also cannot place my faith in ‘journalists’ because for the most part they work for the Masters and if not are under tight control and financial obligation to their bosses that do. Journalists such as Caitlin Johnstone are few, far between, and much needed. And even here in comments on Caitlyn’s article about the foolhardiness of acquiescence in our own doom, we have cultists proclaiming that a different and overtly-narcissistic pervert of an oligarch named Trump is gonna save us. Jesus, I despair of humans. All I can say at this point is Good Riddance. Time for God or whatever to start over. Maybe cockroaches will have more common sense and decency toward their own kind. "

....

https://www.globalresearch.ca/dollar-entered-death-spiral-lot-more-inflation-way/5767376

The Dollar Has Entered a Death Spiral, and a Lot More Inflation Is on the Way

Did anyone out there actually expect things to turn out differently?  When the federal government kept borrowing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have, we were warned that this day was coming.  And when the Federal Reserve kept pumping trillions upon trillions of fresh dollars into our financial system, we were warned that this day was coming.  So why is anybody surprised by what is happening at this point?  On Wednesday, it was being reported that in December the U.S. consumer price index rose at the fastest pace in nearly 40 years…

Inflation rose at the fastest pace in nearly four decades in December, as rapid price gains fueled consumer fears about the economy and sent President Biden’s approval rating tumbling.

The consumer price index rose 7% in December from a year ago, according to a new Labor Department report released Wednesday, marking the fastest increase since June 1982, when inflation hit 7.1%. The CPI – which measures a bevy of goods ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents – jumped 0.5% in the one-month period from November.

They keep telling us that the consumer price index was actually increasing at a faster rate back in 1982, but whenever the corporate media makes such a claim they are not being honest.

The way that the consumer price index is calculated has been changed more than two dozen times since 1980, and every single time it has been changed the goal was to make the rate of inflation look smaller.

According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if the consumer price index was still calculated the way it was back in 1990, the official rate of inflation would be above 10 percent right now.

And if the consumer price index was still calculated the way it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation would be above 15 percent right now.

But 7 percent sounds a whole lot better than 15 percent, doesn’t it?

We can get a better picture of what is really going on out there when we start looking at individual categories.  The following category numbers were posted earlier today by Citizen Free Press

  • Gasoline up 56%
  • Heating oil up 42%
  • Used cars: 37.3%
  • Car rental: 36%
  • Natural gas up 31%
  • Hotels: 27.6%
  • Beef: 18.6%
  • Pork: 15.1%
  • Furniture: 13.8%
  • New cars: 12%

Unfortunately, it looks like the price of gasoline will soon go even higher.

In fact, Reuters is telling us that some analysts are projecting that the price of oil could soon exceed 100 dollars a barrel

Oil prices that rallied 50% in 2021 will power further ahead this year, some analysts predict, saying a lack of production capacity and limited investment in the sector could lift crude to $90 or even above $100 a barrel.

It takes energy to transport virtually all of the goods that we purchase on a regular basis, and so a higher price for gasoline will cause inflationary pressure throughout our entire economy.

Some companies are responding to this crisis by giving their customers less for the same price that they were charging before.

For example, if you order chicken wings from Domino’s Pizza you will only get a package of eight from now on

Domino’s Pizza customers ordering chicken wings will soon get fewer of them for the same price.

The pizza chain said it’s cutting the number of wings in its $7.99 carry out offer from 10 pieces to just eight because of rising food and labor costs. Wings will also become an online exclusive, meaning customers can no longer order them via phone.

All around us, there is evidence that our standard of living is rapidly going down.

The cost of living is increasing much, much faster than paychecks are, and that is an extremely alarming trend.  According to Zero Hedge, real average hourly earnings have now declined for 9 months in a row

Finally, and perhaps most importantly for Main Street, real average hourly earnings fell (down 2.4% YoY) for the 9th straight month…

So the next time a politician tries to tell you to be grateful that your wages are going up or you can move to a new higher paying job, just remind him that the surge in the cost of living is outpacing wage gains, thanks to The Fed’s money-largesse and Congress’ lockdown policies and helicopter money have crushed the quality of life for millions.

In other words, most Americans are getting poorer.

Meanwhile, the appalling nationwide shortages that have erupted continue to make headlines all over the nation.

According to USA Today, the following are some of the most severe shortages that we are witnessing right now…

  • Baby formula shortage
  • Cream cheese shortage
  • Aluminum shortage
  • Cat food, dog food shortages
  • Chicken tender shortage
  • Lunchables shortage
  • Toilet paper shortage
  • Beer shortage

And it turns out that fear of Omicron has also sparked a really bad shortage of cold medicine

Stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are facing cold medicine shortages as flu season picks up and the omicron variant of the coronavirus continues.

“The new toilet paper shortage,” an employee at an East Dallas pharmacy told Fox 4 of the empty shelves.

One pharmacist at a CVS location in East Dallas said that customers with symptoms appearing to be the coronavirus or flu have been buying up cold medicine and cough syrup, while others are coming in to just stock up.

So if you were thinking of stocking up on Benadryl for some reason, I would go out and grab some while you still can.

The corporate media seems absolutely stunned that our politicians in Washington and the magicians at the Federal Reserve have lost control of our economy.

But we were warned for years that what they were doing would kill the U.S. dollar, and the death spiral that we have now entered is going to become exceedingly painful.

What we are experiencing now is not just another short-term economic crisis.

This truly is the beginning of the end for the U.S. economy, and I would recommend that you prepare accordingly.

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