Tag: EU

EVs Are Not the Answer

Switzerland contemplates banning electric vehicles this winter.

Switzerland may become the first country to limit the use of electric vehicles (EVs) in a bid to ensure energy security this winter, German daily Der Spiegel reported on Thursday. Under the proposed action plan, which is yet to be adopted, the use of EVs in the country could be banned except in cases of “absolutely necessary journeys.” The government also plans a stricter speed limit on the highways. The harsh restrictions are being discussed as the government fears a power shortage in the coming months, due to the country’s high dependence on imports.

And for good reason. Electric vehicles already cost more to operate than internal combustion engines, even though gasoline is heavily taxed in Europe and electric vehicles are subsidized.

“Due to rising energy prices, in some cases, refueling an electric car is more expensive than a traditional one. And if you are recharging not at home but at a public rapid station, the prices would be even higher,” the report stated.

Experts have calculated that the previous cost of charging an electric car in the country was 50-70% lower than for refueling gasoline or diesel models. Now, a full battery of a ‘green car’ can cost more than a full tank of petrol.

The study highlighted that, for small B-segment cars, gasoline for a mileage of 1,000 kilometers would cost the owner €83 ($83). For a diesel car, the cost would be €71 ($71). Meanwhile, with an electric motor, it would cost €85 ($85) to drive the same distance, even though it was only €33 ($33) just a year ago.

It’s time for Europe to surrender to Russia. This is an economic war the EU cannot win.

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Winds of Change

I don’t think The Scorpions will be writing any ballads if the rumors that Germany is attempting to break free of US hegemony are true:

Solid German business sources completely contradict the “message” delivered by the German Council on Foreign Relations on the trip to China. According to these sources, the Scholz caravan went to Beijing to essentially lay down the preparatory steps for working out a peace deal with Russia, with China as privileged messenger.

This is – literally – as explosive, geopolitically and geoeconomically, as it gets. As I pointed out in one of my previous columns, Berlin and Moscow were keeping a secret communication back channel – via business interlocutors – right to the minute the usual suspects, in desperation, decided to blow up the Nord Streams.

Cue to the now-notorious SMS from Liz Truss’s iPhone to Tony Blinken, one minute after the explosions: “It’s done.”

There’s more: the Scholz caravan may be trying to start a long and convoluted process of eventually replacing the US with China as a key ally. One should never forget that the top BRI trade/connectivity terminal in the EU is Germany (the Ruhr valley).

According to one of the sources, “if this effort is successful, then Germany, China and Russia can ally themselves together and drive the US out of Europe.”

Another source provided the cherry on the cake: “Olaf Scholz is being accompanied on this trip by German industrialists who actually control Germany and are not going to sit back watching themselves being destroyed.”

The borders of the Great Bifurcation may not be what the rulers of the neo-liberal world order believe they are going to be. They’ve already discovered that 87 percent of the global population are on the other side of the fence, and that 87 percent may be growing as Europeans realize that their US-imposed “freedom and democracy” is actually nothing more than a long-term societal suicide pact.

The remarkable truth of the matter is that it would probably be less economically painful for Europe to cut ties with the USA than with both Russian and China. So, the real question would appear to be how intent is China on undercutting the global dominance of the USA.

I wish it were needless to say that a peaceful transition to a bifurcated global economy would be a much better outcome than Europe needing the Sino-Russian Alliance to militarily defeat the USA in order to remove Europe’s subordination to the globalist elite. But history suggests that at least some amount of direct war between the forces of the Nationalist Alliance and the US military in service to the Neo-Liberal Empire will be necessary before the latter accepts the situation.

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French Government Isn’t Vaccinated

Isn’t that just a tremendous surprise…

« Je me suis fait vacciner car je ne voulais laisser le sentiment que je n’accomplissais mon travail en tant que député. Je ne savais pas qu’Emmanuel Macron n’était pas vacciné ainsi que la plupart des membres du gouvernement. Et je ne savais pas qu’un nombre important de mes collègues ne l’était pas non plus. Et lorsque j’ai dis que j’étais malade après la vaccination lors de la campagne électorale, personne ne m’a écouté et on a voulu me faire taire. »

La bombe de Jean Lassalle, 10 October 2022

Translation:

“I got vaccinated because I didn’t want to leave the feeling that I was not doing my job as a deputy. I didn’t know that Emmanuel Macron was not vaccinated and neither were most members of the government. And I did not know that a significant number of my colleagues were not vaccinated either. And when I said that I was sick after the vaccination during the election campaign, nobody listened to me and they wanted to silence me.”

Somehow, I doubt it’s only the French government officials who weren’t vaccinated.

UPDATE: In COVID hearing, #Pfizer director admits: #vaccine was never tested on preventing transmission. “Get vaccinated for others” was always a lie.

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A Forward and Fragile Defense

The Germany Army has been effectively disarmed:

The German Army has enough ammunition for only one or two days of warfare, the German edition of news website Business Insider (BI) reported on Saturday, citing defense industry and parliamentary sources. According to BI, Berlin is significantly lagging behind the NATO requirement of maintaining stocks for at least 30 days of fighting. It was said that the problem “has been known for years,” as military drills have suffered from insufficient stores.

Stockpiles were further depleted after Germany, together with many other Western countries, began sending weapons and ammunition to Ukraine after Russia launched its military operation in the neighboring state in February. The deliveries included 53,000 rounds for self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, 21.8 million rounds for firearms, and 50 bunker-buster missiles, according to the German government.

The situation with the shortage “will not improve if ammunition is removed from the Bundeswehr stocks, while corresponding orders are not placed on the defense industry at the same time,” Hans Christoph Atzpodien, CEO of the German Security and Defense Industry Association (BDSV), told BI. The outlet’s sources, meanwhile, were quoted as saying that there have been “no significant orders” for defense companies to produce more armaments.

It appears Russia can roll over not only Ukraine and Eastern Europe, but Western Europe as well, if it happens to see fit once the inevitable winter offensive starts.

Duolingo has a Russian option, right?

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Unequivocal Motive

The US State Department publicly threatened to destroy Nord Stream 2 back in January 2022, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine even began.

State Dept vows Nord Stream 2 will be a ‘hunk of metal at bottom of the ocean’ if Russia invades Ukraine

The State Department on Thursday unequivocally warned that if Russia invades Ukraine the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will sit unused at the bottom of the ocean.

By Caitlin McFall

Updated Jan. 27, 2022 08:24 PM

The State Department on Thursday unequivocally warned that if Russia invades Ukraine the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will sit unused at the bottom of the ocean.

The controversial pipeline has become the U.S. and NATO’s biggest bargaining chip in its attempts to preserve Kyiv’s sovereignty.

But reporters questioned the diplomatic agency on whether Germany, which would profit from the functioning pipeline, is on the same page when it comes to countering a Russian incursion.

“We continue to have strong, clear communication with our German allies,” Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said. “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”

Her comments echoed those made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this week, but reporters pushed back on the ability to enforce this threat given the pipeline’s physical completion.

It’s 100-percent certain that the pipelines were destroyed on the orders of the US government, and most likely, by US military forces. And this unprecedented action unequivocally provides a legitimate basis for a declaration of war on the United States by Russia and by Germany.

And just to add to the gravity of the situation, Germany is on the hook to pay for the gas whether it receives it or not.

Germany is contractually obligated to purchase at least 40 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year until 2030. Just say no? They can’t: Gazprom is legally entitled to get paid even without shipping gas. That’s the spirit of a long-term contract. And it’s already happening: because of sanctions, Berlin does not get all the gas it needs but still needs to pay.

Suspect Identified

It appears that the Russians not only know that the USA sabotaged the two natural gas pipelines to Germany, but they know which US Navy ship was responsible and how the attack was carried out.

An expeditionary detachment of US Navy ships led by the universal amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge days ago was in the Baltic Sea. It was 30 km from the site of the alleged sabotage on the Nord Stream-1 gas pipeline and 50 km from the threads of Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline.

On September 2, interesting maneuvers performed by an American helicopter with the call sign FFAB123. Then it was assumed that this board was from the USS Kearsarge air wing, and today more details were looked. According to the website http://ads-b.nl , this call sign was used by 6 boards that day, of which we managed to establish the side numbers of three. All of them are Sikorsky MH-60S.

By superimposing the FFAB123 route on the scheme of yesterday’s accident, we get a rather interesting result — the helicopter either flew along the Nord Stream-2 highway, or even between the points where the accident occurred.

And finally, we need to pay attention to the June article in Sea Power, where the Americans brag about experiments in the field of underwater drones, which they put on exercises BALTOPS 22 — just in the area of the island of Bronholm. And YES,there was US military training there

Meanwhile, the Baltic Pipe project is going live, shipping natural gas from Denmark to Poland, and will be running at full capacity at the end of November.

On Saturday, September 24, 2022, Energinet notified the gas market that the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline can be commissioned at full capacity from the end of November 2022, a little more than one month before planned. Energinet planned to commission Baltic Pipe with partial capacity from October 1, 2022, and with full capacity of up to 10 billion cubic metres of gas annually from January 1, 2023.

The most logical explanation for the Nord Stream attacks is that the US Navy destroyed the pipeline in order to prevent Germany from surrendering to Russia, and making it dependent on Poland instead. And since all four referendums went Russia’s way, it would appear that we’ll find out what Russia’s response is within the next 3-4 weeks.

UPDATE: Some Eastern European countries are clearly expecting conflict in the near future.

Poland and Bulgaria’s foreign ministries are recommending all of their citizens leave Russia by any means possible.

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God, Country, and Family

It’s hard to beat that as a campaign platform:

An exit poll has found Giorgia Meloni is set to win Italy’s elections and become the country’s first female Prime Minister as it braces for its most right-wing government since Mussolini.

Italy lurches to the far-Right in political earthquake: Exit poll finds ‘anti-woke’ Giorgia Meloni is set to win elections and become the country’s first female PM as EU state braces for its most right-wing government since Mussolini.

Giorgia Meloni, 45, who ran on a motto of ‘God, country and family’, will become Italy’s first female PM

An exit poll for state broadcaster RAI said Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, in alliance Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, has won between 41 per cent and 45 per cent of the vote. The figure would be enough to guarantee control of both houses of parliament.

According to the poll, the closest contender, the center-left alliance of former Democratic Party Premier Enrico Letta, apparently garnered as much as 29.5 per cent.

We should find out soon how serious Meloni is, and if she’ll govern like Thatcher or if she’s an Italian Merkel. The two most pressing issues are a) the anti-Russian sanctions and b) the European Union. If she’s legitimate, she’ll rapidly end the former and begin laying the groundwork for a referendum about leaving the latter.

But the electoral trend is clearly in favor of the nations and against the globalist “progress” of the last 50 years.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this is not a good sign that the new Italian government will actually oppose globohomo. But, as always, let’s see what they do rather than overanalyze what they say.

Italian lawmaker Giorgia Meloni, the front-runner to become the country’s next prime minister, is expected to reverse course on Italy’s support for China’s Belt and Road Initiative and strengthen ties with Taiwan if a coalition headed by her party wins the country’s general election today. “Without any doubt, if there is a center-right government, it is sure that Taiwan will be an essential concern for Italy,” Meloni told the Central News Agency in an interview.

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Serbia Calls Out NATO’s Double Standard

It’s fascinating to see the same countries that bombed Serbia in its attempt to maintain its territorial integrity now claiming “territorial integrity” is the reason four pro-Russian provinces can’t be permitted democratic self-determination or to leave Ukraine:

Western countries have failed to explain why they have different points of view on Ukraine and Serbia’s territorial integrity, given that they support Kiev in its fight against Russia, but endorsed Kosovo’s independence, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday.

In an address to the UN General Assembly in New York, the Serbian leader stated that his state respects the territorial integrity of all countries, including Ukraine, and that many describe the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev as “the first conflict on European soil since WWII.” He said, however, that the truth about the violation of Serbia’s territorial integrity “is constantly unspoken.”

“We ask for a clear answer to the question I’ve been asking… for years – what is the difference between the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia, which was grossly violated,” Vucic said, referring to the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

According to Vucic, Serbia “has never [set] foot” on anybody’s territory, but this “did not prevent the 19 richest NATO countries from attacking a sovereign country without a decision by the UN Security Council.”

He also said that while NATO pledged to respect the full territorial integrity of Serbia, it did not stop many Western countries from unilaterally recognizing the breakaway province of Kosovo in 2008. NATO occupied Kosovo in 1999, after a 78-day bombing campaign against what was then Yugoslavia. The province declared independence in 2008 with Western support. While the US and most of its allies have recognized it, many other countries, including Russia and China, have not.

NATO are not the good guys here. To the contrary, they are, and have been, the evil imperialists since 1990. The so-called “New World Order” that Bush the Elder announced on September 11, 1990, is the very Empire of Lies that Russia, China, and most of the rest of the world is now fighting.

Hence the demonic inversion that we witness on an almost daily basis these days. But it was there from the beginning.

Ours is a generation to finally see the emergence of promising, exciting new world order which we’ve sought for generations. And we are witness to the first demonstration of this new partnership for peace: a united world response to Iraq’s aggressive ambition.

George Bush, September 19, 1990

And now we know precisely whom had been seeking that “promising, exciting new world order” for generations, and what their real objectives are.

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Please Don’t Hit Us

The Eu declares it is not at war with Russia:

The European Union is not at war with Russia, but it will continue to support Ukraine in its fight against Moscow, EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano said on Wednesday. The statement came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of troops.

Speaking at a press conference, Stano was asked whether the EU is in a state of war with Russia, given that earlier Vladimir Putin had claimed that Russia is facing “the entire Western military machine” in Ukraine. The foreign policy spokesman replied in the negative.

“Of course we are not in war with Russia. We are supporting Ukraine’s legitimate, justified fight to defend its people and its territory,” he said, adding that Kiev is protecting not only itself, but also European democratic values.

And then promptly turned around and announced new sanctions – that will totally work this time – in response to Russia announcing it is willing to respect democratic self-determination in four former Ukrainian provinces.

The EU has agreed to slap new sanctions on Russia “as soon as possible” over plans to hold referendums in the Donbass republics and Russian-controlled regions in Ukraine on whether to unite with Russia, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said on Wednesday.

Apparently “European democractic values” mean “anti-democratic values”. But this preemptive refusal to accept the will of the Novorussian people isn’t a surprise, given the way the EU also refused to recognize the will of the Catalonian people.

Unfortunately for the EU, unlike tango, it only takes one to war.

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The End of Beer

It’s hard to imagine that the Germans, Belgians, and English are going to be willing to give up beer for Ukraine.

UK brewers are facing tenfold price increases for the CO2 they use to carbonate and package beers, the Financial Times reported on Friday, also citing supply disruptions that could threaten brewing ahead of the Christmas season.

According to the report, the market disruption follows a warning from US fertilizer group CF Industries last month that it would shut down a major UK ammonia plant that makes CO2 as a byproduct. The company said its decision was due to soaring natural gas prices, which have made production unviable.

The report also pointed out that gas suppliers have been struggling to source CO2 from international markets because of ammonia plant closures in Europe. The energy price spikes and shortages have come as brewers prepare to increase production for Christmas. According to William Lees-Jones, managing director at JW Lees brewery in Middleton, Greater Manchester, the CO2 that had cost £250 a ton ($284) in June was priced last week at £2,800 a ton ($3,187).

Meanwhile, in Italy, the best case scenario involves more than half-a-million people losing their jobs.

Italy is at risk of losing up to 582,000 jobs due to the energy crisis and the resulting economic downturn, national media reported on Sunday, citing a study by the Confindustria Association of Industrialists. According to the findings, if the gas price stays at its current level (the August average was €235 per megawatt-hour), Italy’s economy will shrink 2.2% next year and the country will lose up to 383,000 jobs in 2022-2023. However, if the price hits €298 per megawatt-hour, which is the predicted level based on current gas futures, Italy may suffer a 3.2% decline in GDP and lose hundreds of thousands of jobs.

If Europe isn’t allowed to surrender by the US neocons calling the shots, the price is going to go higher than the predicted €298 per megawatt-hour, which means the economic damage will be even more catastrophic.

UPDATE: Ach du Lieber! It’s getting worse than I thought, faster than I thought.

A German bakery was slapped with a €330,000 gas bill after a new energy company suddenly terminated their contract which guaranteed pricing until the end of 2023, Junge Freiheit reported, citing Bild.

“Are they crazy?” said owner Eckehard Vatter, who says he has 14 days to pay the bill. “A year ago, we paid €5,856 per month in gas costs for our large furnaces and heating,” he added. Vatter said his new energy supplier hasn’t given him a reason for the 1,200% price increase.

This crisis is also demonstrating the inherent falsity of what passes for “contract law”. The contracts are often loaded with one-sided fine print that renders them essentially irrelevant, thereby demonstrating that “consent” and “contract” are fundamentally immoral weapons in the con man’s arsenal.

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