18 Dec, 2023 11:39

EU states threw away €4 billion worth of Covid vaccines – Politico

Over 200 million coronavirus jabs were reportedly sent to landfills simply because they were no longer needed

The EU has reportedly sent at least 215 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to the dumpster since they were first purchased at the height of the pandemic, an analysis by Politico has revealed. In an article on Sunday, the outlet estimated that the junked jabs cost the bloc’s taxpayers as much as €4 billion ($4.37 billion).

Following the approval of the first coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, in 2021 theEU hastily entered a contract with the US pharmaceutical giantto purchase 1.1 billion doses - a decision that was applauded at the time butlater turned out to have been excessive and untimely. That contract effectively forced EU countries to buy the doses despite the fact that the pandemic was already winding down. As noted by Politico, efforts to donate the excess to developing countries had also failed due to logistical issues and falling demand.

Over the course of the pandemic, theEU ultimately received at least 1.5 billion doses; an estimated 3 jabs per person. However, the member states, according to Politico’s calculations, ended up discarding an average of 0.7 jabs for every member of the population, with Estonia and Germany being the most wasteful, throwing away nearly one dose per inhabitant.

The outlet admits that its calculations are only estimates because governments have been reluctant to actually report or reveal the scale of the waste. However, Politico insists that its calculations are likely underestimated, if anything.

The EU’s wastefulness and questionable deal with Pfizer have also come with political blowback. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been under fire ever since it emerged that she had privately communicated with the pharmaceutical giant’s CEO Albert Bourla via text messages and phone calls while the deal was still being negotiated.

The Commission has refused to comment on the issue and has claimed thatVon der Leyen’s text messages with big pharma on deals worth multiple billions of dollars could not be found.

Meanwhile, Poland and Hungary, which have refused to accept any more vaccines, are now being sued by Pfizer for non-payment, while in Romania, prosecutors are looking to try the country’s former prime minister and two health ministers for causing over €1 billion in damages to the state through unnecessary vaccine purchases.

Despite the reported wastefulness,the jabs will continue to flow to the EU under the Pfizer contract at least until 2027. The bloc was previously set to receive an additional 450 million doses in 2023 but under a revised deal in May, that total was brought down and spread over the next four years. Brussels, however, has not clarified how many doses are still yet to be received or how many each country will have to buy.

(Landfills? Won’t they break and get into the land and water? That doesn’t sound safe at all. I thought the EU was for green policies. As bad as the US is right now, Thank God we are not in the EU.)

https://www.rt.com/news/589256-eu-threw-away-vaccines/

18 Dec, 2023 09:24

Former (delusional) Ukrainian PM suggests how West could pressure Russia

The US and its allies should demonstrate “political will” and insist on Kiev’s NATO membership, Arseny Yatsenyuk has said

Meaningful negotiations between Ukraine and Russia will only bepossible if the West demonstrates readiness to fight Russiaand secure NATO membership for Ukraine, former Ukrainian prime minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has said. (Another looser past PM of Ukraine demanding more from the West. None of the EU countries have enough soldiers to protect their own states, so that means American soldiers fighting for the EU. It’s not our fight.)

In an interview with Espreso TV on Saturday, Yatsenyuk, who headed the government in the first two years after the Maidan coup in 2014, acknowledged that negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the current format are “unrealistic.”

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has insisted that the conflict should be settled based on his so-called ten-point peace plan, which calls for Russia’s withdrawal from all territories claimed by Kiev, reparations from Moscow, and a war crimes tribunal. Zelensky also officially banned any talks with Putin last year.

Yatsenyuk, who now chairs the Kiev Security Forum, said he can “hardly imagine” a scenario in which talks between Kiev and Moscow would lead to Russia’s withdrawal of its troops and the payment of reparations, while Ukraine joins NATO and the EU at the same time.

He recalled howRussia submitted proposals for long-term security guarantees to the US and NATO in December 2021, shortly before the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine. Moscow’s demands included preventing the further eastward expansion of NATO, denying accession to the alliance of the former USSR states, and limiting the bloc’s military activities close to Russian borders. However, the West refused to discuss the Russian proposals. (All of those proposals were agreed upon originally with GHWB’s Admin, and then the US broke everyone of them.Reminder Putin had 8-10 years to plan this operation)

According to the former prime minister, NATO and EU member states should play the “very same game” as Russia did back then and tell Moscow that “we’ve made a political decision, Ukraine will be a member of NATO. Full stop. We are not discussing this decision with you.”

“Within this decision, we invite you to sign a new agreement between Russia and NATO, a new agreement on conventional arms control in Europe, a new START agreement on the limitation of strategic nuclear weapons, a new agreement on cybersecurity,” Yatsenyuk continued. (No wonder Ukraine lost, they have the stupidest leaders in history!)

He agreed when the host pointed out that Moscow would never agree to such terms, but insisted that the move would still put Kiev and the West in a stronger position.

“To the world’s publicity, we will say this: ‘We wanted exactly this kind of negotiation with Russia, we offered them what we could, and Russia refused it too,’” the former PM explained. (propaganda, not publicity)

Yatsenyuk then said peace talks would only make sense “if the West was ready to demonstrate such political will,” calling it “the establishment of a new world order.”

“I want the West to theoretically agree to this model and reaffirm the readiness to fight for the new member [Ukraine],” he concluded. (NO, AND HELL NO!)

Moscow has repeatedly indicated that it is ready for a dialogue with a view to ending the conflict in Ukraine, so long as Russia’s core interests are respected.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said any talks would have to account for “Russia’s legitimate interests,” and must mean “putting an end to attempts to build [one’s] own security at the expense of others,”referring to Ukraine’s efforts to join the NATO bloc.

(NATO would only want Ukraine in because Kiev has shown they don’t care how many of their soldiers they send to be slaughtered and Ukraine are terrorists not soldiers! The Kiev council is off their rocker because Ukraine has failed in every way and metric with their war against Russia, why would they be offered any membership in any thing? Seriously NATO & EU leaders are insane trying to invite Ukraine into any alliance. How do they not get that Ukraine is a demolished, Welfare and terrorist, incapable state to accomplish anything, except corruption and chaos?)

https://www.rt.com/russia/589231-west-must-deal-with-russia/

18 Dec, 2023 07:09

Ukraine probes wiretapping of top general’s office

The device was found at a facility slated for use by General Valery Zaluzhny, Kiev’s security service has said

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has launched a criminal investigation after a covert listening device was discovered in an office linked to the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny.

The bug was found on Sunday and was constructed from components of an unknown origin, making it impossible to identify the installer, RBK Ukraine reported, citing a source. (KEK that means the components were made in Ukraine, and Zelensky ordered it, or this is a propaganda story to blame Russia)

According to an SBU statement on Telegram, the device was in a “non-operational state”and no means of information storage or remote transmission of audio recordings was found.

The authorities emphasized that the device had been discovered “not directly in [Zaluzhny’s] office but in one of the premises that could have been used by him in the future for work.”

Former Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar reacted to the developments by saying that leaks of classified information from the country’s military headquarters had happened “more than once” in the past.

“I don’t know who wanted to wiretap the Commander-in-Chief and what they wanted to hear,” Malyar wrote on Telegram on Sunday. However, she stressed that the possibility of bugs is “always taken into account during verbal communication” by Ukrainian commanders and Defense Ministry officials.

Zaluzhny is widely reported to have fallen out with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, after the general told The Economist in October that the conflict with Russia had entered “a stalemate”. The Ukrainian president’s office publicly rebuked the commander over his claims about the frontline situation, while Zelensky went on to sack one of the general’s top deputies. The Ukrainian leader further warned his top commander to stay out of politics, claiming it is a “huge mistake” when a military figure “behaves as a politician.”

According to a report by Ukrainskaya Pravda earlier this month, Zelensky’s men, including chief of staff Andrey Yermak, have been escalating tensions due to Zaluzhny’s perceived political ambitions since at least April 2022. A public opinion poll conducted for the president’s office indicated that in a hypothetical election,Zelensky would lose to Zaluzhny in a second-round vote, the news outlet added.

The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, claimed last week thatNATO foreign ministers had discussed a replacement for Zelenskyin November, with Zaluzhny supposedly among the leading contenders. (Uh oh, another color revolution incoming)

https://www.rt.com/russia/589232-ukraine-probs-wiretapping-top-general/

Big win for the “right” in Germany!

18 Dec, 2023 14:05

Right-wing German party secures ‘historic’ win

An AfD candidate has been elected as town mayor for the first time

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) partyhas won a mayoral election for the first time, with candidate Tim Lochner making history in the Saxon town of Pirna. The victory comesless than two weeks after regional authorities designated the AfD as “extremist.”(so citizens know extremists are needed and is no longer a smear. The left should rethink their stupid strategies.)

The AfD has enjoyed rising support among German voters in recent months, at a time when the approval ratings of all three parties in the country’s ruling ‘traffic light’ coalition have hit record lows.

Lochner, an independent candidate who represented the AfD,garnered 38.5% of the votein the second round of voting on Sunday, ahead of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) contender Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth on 31.4%.

The AfD candidate had won 33% of the vote in the first round of polling on November 26, although none of the five candidates secured the absolute majority necessary to win outright, sending the vote to a second stage.

Two of the original contenders exited the race before the second round and urged their supporters to vote for Dollinger-Knuth. The Green and Left parties also backed her in the December vote, although their support proved insufficient to propel the CDU into first place.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), AfD co-leader Alice Weidel described Lochner’s victory as “historic.”

Free Voters party candidate Ralf Thiele, who came in third with 30.1%, said there is a “countrywide trend” that shows the AfD is “becoming stronger.”

The Green party branch inSaxony said it was “dismayed”by the election outcome in Pirna, while the Left party called on “all democratic parties” to unite against the AfD.

Earlier this month, the president of the Saxon branch of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Dirk-Martin Christian, announced that the AfD had officially been deemed extremist over its “anti-constitutional agenda.”

The new legal status allows the BfV to deploy surveillance and intelligence means to gather information about the right-wing party’s activities without restriction.

Saxony became the third German region to take action against the AfD, after Thuringia and Sachsen-Anhalt.

The party previously garnered 27.5% of the vote in the last regional election in Saxony in 2019.

In October, the AfD recorded its best-ever performance in a western German state, receiving 18.4% of the vote in the Hesse regional election.

(German political leaders tried to ban this party, the AfD leaders were physically and politically attacked constantly. Now they will be surveilled and condemned, but the people have spoken! Pray for their protection. The Nazi DS lost in Germany.)

https://www.rt.com/news/589261-afd-candidate-wins-first-mayoral-election/

17 Dec, 2023 21:14

Western firms lost $103 billion from Russia exits – NYT

Moscow has ensured that local buyers get massive discounts when foreign companies sell their assets

Efforts by Ukraine and its Western backers to convince, shame, and sanction companies into leaving the Russian markethave backfired, placing lucrative enterprises in Russian handsat discount prices and pumping more than a billion dollars’ worth of exit taxes into Moscow’s coffers,the New York Times has reported.

Within days of Russian troops entering Ukraine last February, a host of Western corporations began pulling out of the Russian market. Ukrainian activists and officials hounded those who refused to leave, while US and EU sanctions prohibited the export of goods from, and import of raw materials to, Russia.

Companies that sold up their Russian operations lost a combined $103 billion, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing financial records. These firms have also handed over at least $1.25 billion in exit taxes to the Russian state, the newspaper added.

As of last March, Western companies looking to sell their assets in Russia must have the sales approved by a Russian government commission, which often works to ensure that local buyers snap up these assets at bargain basement prices.

Citing the minutes from a commission meeting, the NYT claimed that the commission had rejected the sale of factories owned by Honeywell, an American electronics firm,until the company agreed to sell at a 50% discount, in line with Russian law.

“In all, [Russian President Vladimir]Putin has overseen one of the biggest transfers of wealth within Russiasince the fall of the Soviet Union. Huge swaths of industries – elevators, tires, industrial coatings and more – are now in the hands of increasingly dominant Russian players,” the NYT wrote.

“Those who are leaving are losing their position,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told the newspaper. “And of course, their property is being bought at a serious discount and taken over by our companies, which are doing it with pleasure.”

(This is funnyconsidering the West raped and pillaged Russia at the fall of the Soviet Union. They destroyed the country, people and society so bad it took decades to get back to balance. So the shithole Ukraine war by the West, has now made Russia more prosperous and stable then ever. While the US, UK, Canada and EU are reversing all prosperity.It was pretty smart for Putin to invite the NYTs. This article will only aggravate the West. But I do question why Bidan Admin allowed their mouthpiece of record NYTs, to go to Putin’s question and answer session.)

https://www.rt.com/russia/589229-western-companies-leave-russia-losses/

(Higgins told Lara said “we’ll see” if Johnson releases all video, she doubted he would.Well, we see!)

Speaker Mike Johnson releases J6 footage, but why are potential informants’ faces blurred?

December 17, 2023 (a day

Shortly after replacing disgraced and ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Mike Johnson agreed to make good with the base and release the J6 footage from Capitol security cameras that the Capitol police have kept under wraps, with some limited exceptions.

Johnson’s release of the J6 footage has done a great deal to re-introduce Americans to the falsity of the official narrative of January 6th. The latest release includes footage of Capitol police firing “flash bangs” unnecessarily at the crowd, as well as police opening doors and behavior of protestors inside the Capitol that fails to conform to any definition of “terrorism.” As a matter of reinforcing public awareness, such footage is important. For serious researchers of January 6, and for those fortunate enough to have been ahead of the curve by reading Revolver, such information is nothing new. Indeed, we already knew the Capitol Police opened the doors to the crowds in many cases, and that the Capitol Police engaged in egregious acts of unnecessary provocation of the crowd. What Revolver and other researchers are principally interested in is whether and how the newly available footage might advance our understanding of federal involvement in January 6, and help us to piece together identities and networks of informants and agents on the ground that day. Unfortunately such discoveries are made nearly impossible by the fact that Johnson’s team have decided to selectively blur the faces of some January 6 participants, and to simply cut out large swathes of surveillance footage in other cases.

January 6 researcher (and defendant) “Free State Will” laid out the problems with Speaker Mike Johnson’s tapes in two detailed, mega-viral threads on Twitter.

Free State Will points out thatCapitol cameras zeroed in on “tactical operations” trucksdriving near the Capitol early on January 6 at approximately 3-4 in the morning.

Still more interesting, Will reports how the Capitol cameras had zeroed in on activity near the Peace Monument early in the morning between 4:30 and 5. Recall that the Peace Monument is the site of the first and decisive initial breach of the Capitol perimeter—the breach that Ray Epps and the curious host of characters described in Revolver’s now classic series were involved in. Indeed, it is Revolver’s thesis that the Peace Monument was something of a meeting point for the fed provocateurs, many of whom were pre-positioned in that area well before Trump finished his speech nearly 20 minutes away by foot.

More bizarre activity at the Peace Circle

Still more bizarre activity

The most troubling issue with the released footage is that it is selectively blurred.

It would be one thing if all faces captured were blurred—far from ideal, but could be explained by some default decision to blur out of a misguided effort perhaps to protect participants from prosecution (the fact is the authorities have the same footage and they will prosecute whomever they wish). That the images are selectively blurred is not necessarily sinister, but it is stranger and requires some explanation. Speaker Mike Johnson is not an expert on January 6th, nor are his staffers — the question then arises as to who is making the decision s regarding blurring and what is the rationale behind those decisions?

Revolver will continue to follow this with interest.

Link to X

https://x.com/FreeStateWill/status/1735757861152555330?s=20

https://revolver.news/2023/12/speaker-mike-johnson-releases-j6-footage-but-why-are-potential-informants-faces-blurred/

>>20093707

Twitter anons are you able to download the videos he posted? Please