© AFP 2023 / STR

Sputnik International

[…]

China sold off a record $53.3 billion of Treasury and agency bonds in the first quarter of 2024, a move seen as part of Beijing’s drive to diversify from US dollar assets. This comes as gold’s share in China’s official reserves rose to 4.9% in April, the highest on record.

“It is a wise decision to diversify away from USD and to hold physical gold in your own country instead,” Claudio Grass, an expert on monetary history, economics and an independent precious metals advisor based out of Switzerland, told Sputnik.

He called US bonds “a bad investment” because “they have not worked, especially since 2022, and are guaranteed to lose money.”

“Gold outperformed USD bonds by 75% since 2020. In addition, the USD has been used for decades already as a political weapon and with the arbitrary confiscation of assets due to pressure from the US government, the Chinese seem to be aware of the risk that their property could also be confiscated at any time,” the expert said.

Dwelling on a common trend of countries seeking to cut Treasury holdings and buy more gold, he said that “by now it should be obvious that the US government is the world bully today.

“In addition, there is the BRICS alliance which is gaining track and challenging the current world order. Also, emerging markets are buying up the gold because of these geopolitical changes and uncertainties. On top of it, they contribute today almost 50% to the world GDP vs only 19% in the year 2000; there is more capital available to exchange for physical gold,” according to the expert.

Asked how the latest developments could affect the greenback on the global markets, Grass argued that “it will lead to the collapse of the USD and the current system.”

He recalled that history shows that mankind has had “a major global economic crisis and major wars every 80 years.” Per Grass, the global community currently is “in the transit period and we don’t know yet what will come out of it. Physical gold, however, will shine and protect the people who own it.”

Bloomberg News earlier reported that China selling off Treasury bonds is “garnering renewed investor attention amid signs that tensions between the world’s largest economies may worsen.”

This comes as Beijing vowed to retaliate against the Biden administration’s tough new levies on a wide array of Chinese-made goods, ranging from semiconductors and solar power cells to electric cars – the latest move in the escalating trade war between China and the US.

The PRC’s Commerce Ministry warned that it would “take resolute measures to safeguard its own rights and interests” in response to the US’s 25-100% tariff hikes, accusing Washington of turning economic and trade issues into an instrument of “domestic political considerations.”
The developments were preceded by a spate of restrictive measures imposed on China by the Trump administration after it launched a trade war with Beijing in 2018, with Team Biden declining to roll back any of the restrictions put in place by its predecessors. China responded to the Trump-era measures with tit-for-tat restrictions on American exports, ranging from food goods to major American brand name products like Harley Davidson motorcycles and Jack Daniels whiskey.

In stark contrast, Beijing continues to deepen a comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction with Moscow, which was confirmed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent talks with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as part of his two-day visit to China earlier this week.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the eighth Russian-Chinese Expo and the fourth forum of inter-regional cooperation in Harbin on Friday, Putin underscored that Moscow supports Beijing’s intention to localize production on Russian soil and is ready to provide Chinese investors with privileges.

“Large-scale joint projects are also being implemented in the field of industrial cooperation, Chinese automakers are actively entering the Russian market… I would like to emphasize that Russia not only welcomes the attitude of Chinese business to localize production on our territory, but is ready to provide investors from China with economic benefits, assistance and support, as well as access to a unique Russian technological base, our highly qualified personnel,” Putin said.

He added that the Russian-Chinese “indissoluble partnership directly contributes to the growth of the economies of both countries, reliably ensures energy security, stimulates the creation of new industries and high-paying jobs, as well as improves the well-being and quality of life of our citizens.”

[…]

Via https://sputnikglobe.com/20240518/china-sells-off-record-amount-of-dollar-assets-as-us-remains-the-worlds-bully-1118514205.html

Massie strongly believes that the Federal Reserve is responsible for the current inflation crisis gripping the nation. He argues that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve printed trillions of dollars and loaned them to the Treasury Department, fueling unprecedented deficit spending. According to Massie, this process of debt monetization has devalued the dollar and led to the high inflation rates observed today.

In Massie’s view, debt monetization is a collaborative effort between various entities, including the White House, Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, Congress, Big Banks, and Wall Street. He claims that this coordinated effort disproportionately benefits the wealthy and connected while adversely affecting retirees whose savings are eroded by inflation. Massie asserts that the most effective means of combating inflation is the elimination of the Federal Reserve.

[…]

Via https://www.redvoicemedia.com/2024/05/end-the-fed-thomas-massie-introduces-bill-to-abolish-the-federal-reserve/

By Sharyl Attkisson

The following is an excerpt from MedPage Today via Wall Street Journal.

Fraudulent studies have infiltrated top scientific journals, “leading to thousands of retractions and millions of dollars in lost revenue,” the Wall Street Journal  reported.

“Although this large-scale fraud represents a small percentage of submissions to journals, it threatens the legitimacy of the nearly $30 billion academic publishing industry and the credibility of science as a whole,” the article stated.

Wiley, a 217-year-old publisher based in Hoboken, New Jersey, which is slated to close 19 journals, has taken the largest hit, WSJ reported.

The problem is due to paper mills — entities that, “for a price, will list a scientist as an author of a wholly or partially fabricated paper,” WSJ noted. The paper mills then submit the work, “generally avoiding the most prestigious journals in favor of publications such as one-off special editions that might not undergo as thorough a review and where they have a better chance of getting bogus work published.”

And, on the other side, there are motivating factors at play, WSJ noted.

“World-over, scientists are under pressure to publish in peer-reviewed journals — sometimes to win grants, other times as conditions for promotions,” WSJ wrote. “Researchers say this motivates people to cheat the system. Many journals charge a fee to authors to publish in them.”

At Wiley, closures are due to multiple factors, WSJ reported. Though a spokesperson for Wiley confirmed to WSJ that some of the journals were affected by paper mills, they declined to provide an exact number.

Link to article here.

[…]

Via https://sharylattkisson.com/2024/05/fake-scientific-studies-forcing-closures-of-medical-journals/

A Midwestern Doctor

Story at a Glance:

•Repeatedly forcing the public (e.g., through mandates) to use unsafe and ineffective therapies (that injured millions) has created a public relations disaster for the establishment.

•One of the mysteries of the COVID-19 response is what could have possibly justified breaking the public’s trust in the medical institutions our society revolves around. Here I will review the most compelling explanations we’ve come across after three years of investigating this commonly asked question.

For decades, I’ve noticed propaganda campaigns in the media will subtly signal what is in the works and it’s been a longstanding challenge for me to see if I can use those signals to accurately predict the future (e.g., this is how I predicted the course of the pandemic at the end of 2019).

In organic chemistry, one of the common subjects students are tested on is chemical synthesis. In synthesis problems, students are given a set of chemical reactions that can be performed, and are then expected to deduce how a combination of those reactions can be sequentially performed to transform a starting chemical to the desired final product.

The reason it’s essentially possible to “predict” the future by studying a public relations (propaganda) campaign is that like the synthesis problems, the PR field has a fairly limited number of tools to accomplish its agenda, and as a result, if you see one step being enacted, it often cleanly fits into a 10-step campaign you’ve seen conducted before (e.g., if it matches the 4th step of the previous campaign, you can reasonably infer the 10th step will likely to come to pass in the future).

As a result, I tend to view many media campaigns as “synthesis” problems. I consider their sponsors’ likely goals, the sequential steps that would need to be taken to enact those goals, and then see if what I’m currently observing fits into one of those sequences.

In turn, I’ve been amazed at how frequently this process has allowed me to know what’s in the pipeline, and over the years, I’ve reached a few key conclusions:

1. Synthesis problems are something college students typically struggle with (while not that complicated, they differ from the typical “first-order” thinking students are typically tested on, where they are just expected to memorize things and then regurgitate them). I believe this same blind spot is what prevents people from recognizing that when the same propaganda “synthesis” campaigns are conducted in the media again and again.

2. While propaganda is incredibly effective and appears monolithic (e.g., consider the complete insanity it made people unshakably believe throughout COVID-19), the majority of people who orchestrate it typically aren’t that intelligent or creative. Instead, they tend to use the same proven steps again and again, which while not optimal, are effective enough to accomplish their goals because they always have the weight of the mass media behind them.

Note: one of the best illustrations of this was Trump’s interactions with the media, as he regularly gave the response which effectively countered the current PR campaign against him. Yet rather than adapt and effectively respond to Trump’s response, the entire media would double-down on its initial message, frequently leading to their PR campaign boosting rather than undermining Trump’s popularity. Yet, despite this approach clearly not working, the media kept on doing it, which I took as a sign their adaptability within their campaigns was actually quite limited.

3. One of the biggest “red flags” for me is seeing a propaganda campaign unfold that is structured in a significantly different way from the baseline I’ve come to expect from watching previous iterations of those campaigns.

For example, I am used to the media whipping up hysteria about an inconsequential infectious disease (e.g., bird flu) every few years. The key thing which told me COVID was going to turn into a global disaster was the fact during the first few months (November 2019-March 2020) the media instead downplayed it as much as possible (e.g., the “it’s just a flu bro” meme was everywhere and anyone who raised concerns about it was accused of being racist towards Chinese people). Given that the entire biosecurity apparatus has been begging for something like COVID-19 for decades to justify their existence (and funding), the fact that they were downplaying it signaled that something much more nefarious was in the works.

[…]

Via https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/dissecting-the-new-york-times-plea

Climate the Movie: The Cold Truth (2023)

Directed by Martin Durkin and Martin O’Toole

Film Review

The main focus of this superbly produced film is an investigation of the historic causes of climate variability. Traditionally this has been the domain of astrophysicists, geologists and meteorologists. In the 21ast century, these scientists have been systematically marginalized by governments and corporate interests who (via selective grant funding and publishing) have created a new generation of climate scientists who only do studies supporting the hypothesis that industrialization and burning fossil fuels is causing dangerous increases in both CO2 levels and global temperatures. All the scientific data presented in the film originates with these blackballed astrophysicists, geologists and meteorologists, all with decades of research experience into the causes of climate variation.

They all take issue with

1. the deeply flawed approach of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  (a fundamentally political, rather than scientific, body) to measuring average global temperatures. More accurate temperature measurements reveal the Earth is still recovering from the Little Ice Age (1300-1900 AD)
2. a fundamental misunderstanding by IPCC-approved climate scientists about what historically constitutes a “normal” atmospheric CO2 concentration. The IPCC also fails to take account of ice core and other evidence about the 100-year lag between significant global warming and increased CO2 concentrations (instead the IPCC claims that high CO2 levels CAUSE global warming).
3. the extremely minor role minor greenhouse gasses such as CO2 and methane play in climate erroneous variation, in contrast to condensed water vapor (ie clouds).
4. the IPPC’s claim that extreme weather events are increasing.

At the end of the film, the filmmakers also interview policy analysts and African political activists activists who discuss the working class perception that the climate movement is directed against them and the phenomenon known as “climate colonialism, ” which would deny Africans the right to develop in order to save the planet.

1. IPCC Temperature Measurements Are Flawed – More Rigorous Measurements Suggest the Earth Is Still Recovering from the Last Little Ice Age.

IPCC scientists take most of their temperature measurements in so-called urban islands in the Northern Hemisphere. Meteorologists who do monitor rural temperatures reveal that global temperatures are still lower than the extreme heat records set in 1930-40 (the main cause of the US Dust Bowl), before industrially produced CO2 began to increase in the 1940s.. The period 1940-1970 was followed by marked cooling, leading journalists to write about a new Ice Age, with the period 1970-2000 exhibiting mild recovery. Temperatures have yet to return to the records set in the 1930s. Records from merchant ships reveal that ocean temperatures followed the exact same pattern. As do tree rings, weather balloons and satellites that measure surface temperatures at a distance.

66 million years ago mammal species took over the earth, in part because dinosaur competer were wiped out, but mainly because mammals thrive in a warm climate.

50 million years ago, the Earth began to experience a series of Ice Ages.

In the last two thousand years, the Earth experienced a long warming period during the Roman republic and empire, followed by a little ice age during the so-called Dark Ages (5th to 10th century), followed by brief warming, followed by the official Little Ice Age (14th-19th century), which ushered in crop failures, malnutrition and Europe-wide outbreaks of plague. According to many well-respected meteorologists and geologists who study ice cores, the Earth is still recovering from the last Little Ice Age (1300-1900), which is why there is still ice at the poles.

In fact (properly measured) average global temperatures are still much lower than those of the last major warming period (1930-40).

2. What Constitutes Normal CO2 levels?

During most of the 3 billion years since life first appeared on earth, CO2 levels have averaged several thousand ppm even after advanced mammals appeared. In fact mammals thrive with CO2 levels in the thousands. Biodiversity always increases with higher CO2 levels, owing to the stimulus it provides plant life.

20,000 year ago at the height of the Ice Age cycle CO2 levels were 180 ppm. If they had dropped below 50 ppm life on Earth would have been left out. Even at 180ppm thee was evidence of severe plant deprivation.

Fossilized gingko trees (2hidh experience growth spurts with high CO2 levels), like ice cores, provide an excellent record of CO2 levels. They reveal that current CO2 levels are still far lower than the historical average. Before our current cycle of ice ages began 50 million years ago, CO2 levels averaged between 2,000 and 7,000 ppm. At present they average 425 ppm.

3. CO2 and Methane Play Extremely Minor Role in Climate Variation Compare to Water Vapor.

Condensed water vapor (aka clouds) have far more effect on climate than CO2 because they radiated 100% of the sun’ rays. A group of Harvard astrophysicists have collected substantial evidence that the primary determinant of cloud formation is cosmic rays formed from super nova explosions in outer space. Short term solar activity (magnetic solar winds) can block these cosmic rays and reduce cloud formation.

4. Contrary to IPCC Claims, Extreme Weather Events Aren’t Increasing

The average number of wildfires hasn’t increased – they were five to ten time worse during the 1930s. The trend in wildfire is slightly down over the last 150 years. There’s no decrease in polar bear population, nor increase in typhoon, hurricanes and droughts.

Is Climate Change a Class Issue?

The policy analysts featured towards the end of the film discuss concerns expressed by blue collar workers that the climate change movement represents an attack on the working class. Many working people have the perception that climate change activists, who tend to be fairly affluent (eg Greta Thunberg – see Greta Thunberg’s parent, and that they’re more concerned about nature and whales than the welfare (and survival) of low income people. They feel that by trashing current fossil fuel and nuclear energy systems in the name of “degrowth,” they’re really trashing mass consumption, ie the extension (thanks to cheap energy) of comfortable lifestyles to previously marginalized populations..

Climate Colonialism

The filmmakers also feature African activists concerned about the demand by first world climate activists to curtail African development in the name of saving the planet. Given the impossibility of running heavy industry on wind mills and solar panels, Africa needs fossil fuels, not only to industrialize, but to guarantee food security for their marginalized population, through farm machinery, packaging and refrigerated trucks.

*In France, for example, average temperatures in Paris are 5 degrees C higher than the surrounding country side.

Ekaterina Blinova

The US, EU and NATO have slammed the newly-passed foreign agents law in Georgia, while the foreign ministers of Iceland, Lithuania and Estonia took part in protest rallies against the legislation in Tbilisi. Sputnik’s pundits called these actions foreign meddling in Georgia’s affairs.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis expressed support for the “European” aspirations of Georgian protesters at a protest rally in Tbilisi on May 15.

“In a democracy, the government owes it to you, the Georgian people, to follow the direction your moral compass is showing,” Landsbergis told the crowd. “I am speaking out because I am… on the side of a European Georgia.”

But Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, the secretary-general of the ruling Georgian Dream party, called their actions hostile and aimed at dividing Georgian society.

“This is not friendship, this is enmity, this is an attempt to deepen polarization in our country,” Kaladze told the Rustavi 2 TV channel. “Could you imagine our minister of foreign affairs going to Yerevan and speaking at an [Armenian] opposition rally?”

Direct Foreign Interference in Georgia’s Affairs

It was not the first time that Lithuanian officials have fanned public protests in a foreign state, according to Dr. Eduardas Vaitkus, Lithuanian politician who was an independent candidate in the 2024 Lithuanian presidential election.

“This is direct interference in the internal affairs of the sovereign state of Georgia,” Vaitkus told Sputnik.

Vaitkus cited earlier precedents for Lithuania’s meddling in the domestic affairs of Ukraine and Belarus. Vilnius has spent millions of euros supporting Belarusian self-declared opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, backed by the West, who advocates for a coup d’etat in Minsk.

He recalled that the Lithuanian foreign minister’s grandfather, then-European Parliament member Vytautas Landsbergis, was spotted during the 2013 Euromaidan events in Kiev calling for a wider revolt in Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, this is the position of the Lithuanian state. My opinion is that traitors in our state are leading Lithuania in a way that creates a threat to all residents of Lithuania,” Vaitkus said.

The politician condemned the Lithuanian government’s “double and triple standards” in its unwillingness to recognize the will of the Crimean people to reunite with Russia — while rushing to embrace the self-declared independence of Kosovo alongside the West.

“Politics must have moral values. And [the Lithuanian government] demonstrates that duplicity is its main imperative in foreign policy,” Vaitkus said.

Russian Senator Konstantin Dolgov believes that Vilnius’ political agenda is not independent, but is dictated from the West.

“What can you expect from Lithuania and Estonia? These are countries that have long lost their independence and have become ‘appendages’ of Washington and Brussels,” Dolgov said, arguing that foreign ministers Iceland, Lithuania and Estonia could be sent by their Western patrons to fan unrest in Georgia.

Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Dmitry Polyansky noted that the foreign ministers’ presence at Georgian protests is reminiscent of US and European politicians’ conduct during the 2013-2014 Euromaidan unrest in Kiev.

US Trying to Exert Pressure on Georgia as Its Hegemony Wanes

The US, EU and NATO have criticized the newly-passed foreign agents bill in Georgia, with US Assistant Secretary of State Jim O’Brien announcing on May 14 that Georgian MPs could be subjected to sanctions for “undermining democracy”.

While attacking the bill, which obliges Georgian media and NGOs to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive over 20 percent of their funding from abroad, US policy-makers avoid mentioning that the Georgian legislation is reminiscent of the US’ own Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

FARA requires individuals acting on behalf of foreign governments, organizations or persons foreign to the US to register with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and to disclose their relationship, activities, receipts, and disbursements in support of their activities.

Under to US law, such individuals are described as “foreign agents” while the FARA Unit of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES) is responsible for the Act’s enforcement.

The fierce US opposition to the Georgian bill under the guise of the “protection of democracy” and sanctions threats is an attempt to keep Tbilisi in line with the collective West’s agenda, according to Tiberio Graziani, chairman of Rome-based think tank Vision and Global Trends.

“The so-called defense of democracy, as promoted and implemented by the US-led West, falls within the context of the hybrid, cognitive and psychological war against those countries considered enemies, for geopolitical and geostrategic reasons,” Graziani told Sputnik.

“Any [country] that attempts to operate and act in the international context to responsibly promote the defense of its national interest is demonized by the US. Examples of this practice include, just to give a few examples, the so-called color revolutions,” he continued.

The US is believed to be behind a series of color revolutions in the former Soviet Union, including the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004, the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan in 2005 and the failed Jeans Revolution in Belarus in 2006.

According to the expert, the threat and use of sanctions against foreign politicians pursuing national sovereignty constitutes a form of long-term US hybrid warfare.

Now that the world is becoming multipolar, the US is feeling the loss of its role as hegemon and could act irrationally with dramatic consequences for the rest of the world population, Graziani warned.

[…]

Via https://sputnikglobe.com/20240516/is-west-fanning-euromaidan-style-public-protests-in-georgia-1118481393.html

Zero Hedge

Defying large domestic protests and condemnation from the United States and other Western governments, the Republic of Georgia’s parliament on Tuesday adopted a “foreign agents” law that would impede foreign nongovernmental organizations’ (NGOs’) ability to operate in the country — and put Georgia’s European Union and NATO ambitions in jeopardy.

Georgia’s president, Salome Zourabichvili, has vowed to veto the measure, but the parliament approved the law by a 84-30 margin, only needs 76 to override a veto. After the law’s passage, Biden Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters:

“We’re deeply troubled by Georgia’s Kremlin-style ‘foreign agents’ legislation...we have been outspoken about our concerns with the legislation, which runs counter to democratic values and would move Georgia further away from the values of the European Union and, let’s not forget, also NATO.”

Under the Georgia law, which is modeled after one adopted in Russia, organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from outside the country would have to register as “agents of foreign influence,” under threat of fines. While Western governments officially scoff at the notion, NGOs have been a major vector of Western interference in foreign countries, up to and including regime change campaigns. NGOs played roles of varying significance in the so-called “Colour revolutions” in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

Ironically reinforcing the idea that the law would thwart foreign interference, the German Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael Roth and Lithuanian legislator Zhigimantas Pavillionis visited the protest rally outside the parliament — conjuring images of late US Senator John McCain and Sen. Chris Murphy joining anti-government protesters in Kiev as the Ukraine revolution gained momentum.

[…]