Kash Patel has a smile.

—–

Steve Inman:

Classic NEC Moment

Furgle me ..! Davy, like Luigi, has come a long way from his “houso ” roots .. Engage a designer for your Chrissie tree .. a Chrissie snap at a mere $4 000
.. LOL! https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14147193/Candice-Warner-expensive-Christmas-tree.html

meanwhile from the Shatterzzz “houso” …….

From Jim Rickards, “Strategic Intelligence Australia” (Jim writes about economic trends, but is a savvy commentator)Biden’s Viking Funeral Biden’s warmongering with regard to Ukraine is not only reckless, it’s almost unprecedented. The US transition from one administration to another is unusually long. It’s established by the US Constitution and is currently about 76 days from Election Day (first Tuesday in November) to Inauguration Day (20 January). Most parliamentary systems do the transition overnight since a “shadow government” of party leaders and cabinet members is always in waiting.
Notwithstanding a long transition, the process usually goes smoothly. Even when the opposing party has won, the party leaving power goes out of its way to make things easy. Outgoing officials meet with incoming officials to show them the ropes. Orientation sessions are held to acquaint newcomers with the office layouts, routines and open issues being handed off from one administration to the other. We saw these kinds of transitions from LBJ to Nixon and from Carter to Reagan.
Recent handoffs have been less friendly. Departing Clinton staffers removed the ‘W’ key from their keyboards (to mock George W. Bush) and ripped hard drives out of computer systems. The transition from Obama to Trump in 2016 was not only unfriendly, but it also included a secret meeting of Obama, Susan Rice, James Comey and the Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to plot the entrapment of Trump appointee General Michael Flynn and of Trump himself using the Russia hoax as a pretext.
The 2024–25 transition will be remembered not just for Biden hindering the Trump team, but for Biden escalating the ongoing war in Ukraine to the point of nuclear war.
How we got to the brinkTo understand the nuclear escalatory dynamic and why nuclear war in the next 50 days could happen, it’s useful briefly to review the history of how we got here. That review in important for context, but it’s also important because the American people have been lied to by the legacy media about this story for the past sixteen years.
On 3 April 2008, at the Bucharest NATO Summit, George W. Bush endorsed the final declaration that stated, ‘NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s …aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will becomes members of NATO.’ Four months later, in August 2008, Russia invaded Georgia and de facto annexed parts of that country. Bush and NATO had crossed a red line by proposing Ukrainian and Georgian membership and Putin made that clear when he invaded Georgia.
The West didn’t get the message.
In November 2013, the CIA and MI6 precipitated the Maidan Uprising in Ukraine. The purpose was to overthrow the duly elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. He had chosen to sign a trade agreement with the Russian sponsored Eurasian Economic Union instead of the European Union (EU).
The so-called revolution, which was really a coup d’état, gained support from neo-Nazi Bandera factions who provided snipers who shot over 100 innocent civilians in Maidan Square in Kyiv. Yanukovych fled Ukraine and a US-backed puppet government was installed. This turn of events makes a mockery of claims that the US is supporting “democracy” in Ukraine. The US was instrumental in destroying democracy.
In March 2014, following the Maidan coup d’état, Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine and annexed that territory to Russia. Again, Putin was making it clear that NATO membership for Ukraine was a red line and that movement in that direction would prompt Russian military action.
Again, the West did not listen and continued the escalation.
From 2014 to 2022, Ukraine (backed by the US and UK) waged a relentless war against its own Russian-speaking population in the Donbass region of Ukraine. Peace negotiations took place in 2014–2015 and the Minsk Agreements were signed, aimed at achieving a ceasefire and demilitarised zone.
However, the West negotiated in bad faith and the agreements failed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel later admitted that the West had no intention of living up to their promises under those agreements. In 2019, President Donald Trump was impeached by the US House of Representatives led by Nancy Pelosi for merely suggesting that aid to Ukraine might be held up.
Finally, in February 2022, Russia launched a special military operation (SMO) to rescue the Russian-speaking areas from Ukrainian-US ethnic cleansing. The war in Ukraine continues to this day.
Russia has annexed four former Ukrainian territories — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia — to the Russian Federation. Other territories of Ukraine, including Sumy and Odesa, may ultimately be annexed to Russia if Ukraine does not seek peace terms soon.
The escalation continuesFrom the beginning of the SMO, the war in Ukraine has been characterised by continual escalation. The US and NATO allies provided Stinger missiles, HIMARS rocket launchers, heavy artillery using 155mm shells and other weapons in addition to intelligence and satellite targeting information. The Russians defeated all of those systems with sophisticated jamming of geolocation signals and air superiority.
The US and NATO next supplied Challenger, Leopard and Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Patriot anti-missile batteries. The tanks and fighting vehicles were left burning on the battlefield from Russian mines and drones while the Patriot systems were destroyed by Russian hypersonic missiles.
Among these are the Kinzhal (flies Mach 4 to Mach 10), the Avangard (Mach 27), and the Zircon (Mach 8). The latest Western wonder weapons are F-16 fighter jets, which are easily shot down due to poorly trained Ukrainian pilots and highly advanced Russian anti-aircraft systems and Russia’s Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet (Mach 2+).
The war on the ground is moving rapidly in Russia’s favour. Russia will effectively control all of Ukraine east of the Dnipro River and the entire Black Sea and Sea of Azov coastlines from Rostov-on-Don to Odesa. Ukraine will be left as a landlocked rump state operating on Russian terms.
Biden’s blind climbBefore turning to the latest escalation and the likelihood of World War III, it’s important to review some classical work on nuclear war fighting and how nuclear wars will actually begin. The leading scholar in this field is Herman Khan. His thesis is that nuclear wars do not emerge out of the blue (although that is possible). The most likely path is when two antagonists climb what he called the escalatory ladder.
The climb up the ladder begins when one antagonist aims a provocative action at the other. The target of that action then initiates the escalation with a more forceful response. The first party doubles-down on its provocation with an even more aggressive act. The second party responds in kind, and so on. It’s like a poker game where each party sees the other and raises the bet. Except in nuclear escalation, you don’t win the pot — you end the world.

Kahn’s analysis published in 1965 showed 44 steps on the escalatory ladder ending in total nuclear war or what he called ‘Spasm/Insensate War.’ Kahn’s advice for avoiding nuclear war given this escalatory dynamic was straightforward.
Step 1 is to realise that you and your adversary are climbing the ladder. Step 2 is to take a beat and stop climbing. Step 3 is to climb down. This sounds simple, but it cuts against human nature and the desire to strike back at an adversary. It requires steady nerve and common sense. Both qualities are missing in Joe Biden and his cohort of warmongers.
The classic case of parties climbing down from escalation toward nuclear war is the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Several other cases played out in the early 1980s where the Russian Soviet KGB and NATO militaries misread each other’s intentions. In these and other cases, nuclear war was avoided because one or both parties took steps to deescalate at great risk to themselves.
Now we find the world closer to nuclear war than at any time in the past forty years, perhaps the closest ever. This is due to Joe Biden’s bitter desire to defeat Russia in Ukraine and to destroy Donald Trump’s presidency before it even begins.
Biden is using the interregnum between Election Day and Inauguration Day not to accomplish a smooth transition, but to push the world to the brink of nuclear war. The danger for all of us is that he will go past the brink because he is too blind and too dumb to understand how escalation works and what’s at stake.
On 16 November, 2024, Biden authorised the use of long-range ATACMS missiles to be launched from inside Ukraine and aimed at targets deep inside Russia. ATACMS have a range of about 190 miles. This was quickly followed by permission from the UK and France to use their Storm Shadow and SCALP cruise missiles also to attack inside Russia. Those cruise misses have a range of about 160 miles.
The New York Times lied that permission to use of these weapons was justified by the presence of North Korean troops in the Kursk region adjacent to Ukraine. In fact, there is no evidence than any North Korean troops are closer than Siberia — about 4,800 miles away from Ukraine. Use of ATACMS, Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles against Russia was a reckless escalation and another step up the ladder to nuclear annihilation.
The missile attacks on Russia began on 19 November. They were aimed at the Bryansk region of Russia, further evidence of the lie that their use was because of North Korean troops in the Kursk region. Bryansk is some distance from Kursk. The attack failed. Russia shot down five of the six missiles. The sixth missile was damaged and crashed causing minor damage and no casualties. Still, another red line had been crossed by the West.
‘It was like God sent us his arrows’Russia’s response shocked the world. Russia fired a new weapon at the Yuzhmash defence plant in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro that was unlike any weapon ever seen. It was a missile that was initially mistaken for an ICBM, a weapon reserved for strategic use with nuclear warheads. It was soon identified by the Russian Defence Ministry as a new Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) called Oreshnik. The Oreshnik appears to be an updated version of the RS-24 and RS-26 Rubezh IRBMs developed in the 2010s.
The capabilities of the Oreshnik are astounding. It travels at Mach 10 (about 7,000 miles per hour, 92 miles per minute or 2 miles per second). It can strike London in 20 minutes from its launch in Sary Shagan, Russia. Its warhead carries six multiple independently targetable vehicles (MIRVs), which means a single missile can strike six targets. Each MIRV can take the form of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), so that even after releasing the MIRVs, the warheads continue at hypersonic speed.
The Oreshnik fired at Dnipro was not armed with nuclear warheads, but it could easily be adapted to do that. Instead, the warheads contained a new explosive with a metallic instead of chemical base. It is estimated to have enormous penetration power. That may be why no fireballs were seen when the warheads struck.
The warheads went deep into the earth before detonation. The destruction was no less complete than a surface explosion. One eyewitness said, ‘Yuzhmash is gone. It hit so hard that everyone just threw up their hands. It was like God sent us his arrows. People went to the plant to find out what happened — but it simply wasn’t there. There were no workshops, only dust remained.’

Destruction By Escalation Defined. Russia’s new Oreshnik missile was launched in response to Biden’s approval of ATACMS missile attacks deep inside Russia. Biden also gave the green light to attacks aimed at Russia using UK Storm Shadow and French SCALP cruise missiles. Biden’s escalation is consistent with his seeming desire to cause World War III. The Oreshnik travels at Mach 10+, delivers multiple warheads and can reach London from Russia in 20 minutes. There is no defense. 

The Oreshnik missile is so fast and so powerful that it may have made tactical nuclear weapons obsolete. Why use nukes when you can get massive, targeted destruction in minutes with no radiation and no collateral damage? We have just witnessed a revolution in offensive warfare. The West has nothing comparable and no defence against it.
We have also just witnessed another step up Herman Kahn’s ladder to nuclear war.
On 21 November, President Putin of Russia gave a lengthy statement in a televised address from the Kremlin. Putin reportedly used a desk once used by Stalin to announce important victories in World War II, a fact not lost on everyday Russians. Putin said that the war in Ukraine has now become a ‘global conflict.’
He also said that the Ukrainians were incapable of programming, targeting and launching ATACMS or the Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles. Such technical assistance must have come from the US, UK and France. He said Russia would hold those countries responsible for the attacks. He also said that US, UK and French military facilities located anywhere in the world are not off limits to Russian attacks. Finally, Putin said that the Oreshnik missiles are in ample supply and would be used again if NATO and Ukraine do not stop their escalatory attacks on Russia.
The point of no return?We are far past the point where steps toward de-escalation should have begun. We are close to the point where nuclear war will commence. Putin’s red lines have been ignored by the West for sixteen years since the 2008 Bucharest declaration.
If Biden and NATO continue to attack Russia, the Oreshniks could be used against US bases in Poland that control the ATACMS, Storm Shadows and SCALPS. Poland is a NATO member and an attack there could trigger the NATO Article V commitment of all NATO members to rise to the defence of Poland. The result would be World War III (exactly as Putin has warned) and nuclear annihilation that could end human life on Earth.
Biden has shown no capacity to understand any of this. He only knows how to escalate. In the words of noted analyst Alexander Cristoforou, Biden has ‘no reverse gear.’ He is determined to continue the attacks and escalation before Trump is sworn in. He views this as part of his world historical destiny.
Biden wants either to tie Trump’s hands (so-called Trump-proofing Ukraine policy) or continue the war just long enough so that when the inevitable collapse of Ukraine happens, Trump will get the blame.
These are mean-spirited and small-minded goals. Biden is risking the future of civilisation for some cheap political points. He will not change course. Pray that Putin has the patience and wisdom to wait out the provocations until Trump is sworn in and rationality returns to the White House and financial markets don’t collapse in the meantime. Otherwise, we may all perish under the rubble and radiation of nuclear war.

I went for a late night slash ( piss ) years ago and came across a Huntsman Spider on the wall above my bed head. My immediate thought was how the eff did you get in? I just went back to sleep knowing they are no threat.

reminds me of 1967, a 19 years old 10pound tourist from County Durham who never seen a “giant” cockroach in his life, sitting watching TV in Neutral Bay bedsitt and 3 “monster” creepy crawlies wandering around the ceiling .. Sat there terrified f& unmoving or an hour cos no idea what they were or if they were dangerous …..

@toddstarnes

Biden’s DOJ ordered a 75-year-old, pro-life Catholic grandmother to report to prison before Thanksgiving because she prayed outside an abortion clinic. Paulette Harlow was ordered to serve a two-year prison sentence.

Meanwhile, President Biden pardoned his son Hunter for crimes he committed or may have committed going back 10 years.

This is why the Deep State must be destroyed. Are you paying attention, America?

Dover, could you check why my surname keeps appearing? I am such a dope with digital – it is probably something I am doing.

Revolt at Volkswagen: Electric car crisis spreads to Germany as it plans to close factories for the first time in its HISTORY and 66,000 workers go on strike

What does a crack-head with expensive tastes, no skills and no access to people with power and influence do now?

Blackmail the rest of the members of the family?

Uhlmann

These are not energy generators, they are energy harvesters. 

No, they are subsidy harvesters.
And nearly all the harvest is being exported without the customary payment for said harvest.