>DOUGH
https://spearswms.com/opinions/rothschilds-conspiracy-theories-fixated/
February 1, 2024
What’s behind conspiracy theorists’ enduring fixation on the Rothschild family?
By Mike Rothschild
If the two things that you know about me are that: 1) I have written a book about Rothschild banking family conspiracy theories and 2) my own last name is Rothschild, you might imagine the topic has been a lifelong obsession. It’s not the case, however. When I was growing up, I knew I wasn’t related to ‘The Rothschild Family’. And nobody else assumed I was either. It was only once I got into journalism and started debunking conspiracy theories – some of which revolved around those Rothschilds – that the link started to be drawn, mostly by a certain kind of person on the internet: ‘A Rothschild debunking conspiracy theories? How stupid do they think we are?’
So I decided to dig a little deeper, and to explore why antisemitic conspiracy theories continue to drive their own special genre of myth and prejudice. My recent book, Jewish Space Lasers: the Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories, is the result.
As I say, I already had some experience in the field. My previous book, The Storm Is upon Us, was about the QAnon conspiracy theory, which essentially held that ‘a group of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media’. Such theories depend on ideas about shadowy organisations and secret societies running things behind the scenes. These groups have had many names throughout history – from the Illuminati to the New World Order to today’s ‘deep state’ – but they all have a few things in common. Many are at least based on real organisations, such as the Bavarian Illuminati of 1776. They are said to have unimaginable power and hoard endless wealth. But, above all, the key concept is this: someone must be controlling the controllers. And that someone, as often as not, is a Jewish banking cabal – specifically the Rothschilds.
>What’s behind conspiracy theorists’ enduring fixation on the Rothschild family?
The rise and fall of the Rothschilds
Like all durable conspiracy theories, there are grains of truth in the slop of lies about the Rothschilds. The legendary bankers once really did have the ear of royalty, the ability to lend vast sums on a whim, and control over mining, manufacturing, textiles, transportation, and agriculture. Coming from the Frankfurt Jewish ghetto, the Rothschilds redefined what it was to be wealthy and powerful. If Rothschilds decided to broker peace between nations, defuse blood libel panics against other Jewish communities, or make a vast purchase of land or resources, it often happened. They were, as pamphlets of the time put it, the ‘Kings of Jews and the Jews of Kings’.
But it wouldn’t last for ever; times changed and the balance of power in the banking industry shifted. The Rothschilds might have funded the war against Napoleon, but a century later it was JP Morgan that organised the $500 million loan to the Allies in the early days of the First World War. By then, the image of the family as prophets and powerbrokers had curdled. The conspiracy theories were starting to emerge and the family’s power and wealth decreased. America, in particular, had little Rothschild presence but an outsized appetite for myths about them.
The Rothschilds are still wealthy today, of course, but have been actively ‘downsizing’ since at least the 1970s, when the family gave away many of their most well-known properties, including the Château de Ferrières near Paris. More recently, the Austrian branch of heirs sold off vast tracts of the massive forest parcel their ancestors had bought in 1875. And last October the French section of the clan auctioned off some of the family’s art collection, with sales at Christie’s New York totalling $62.6 million.
Wouldn’t the myths be more convincing if the family’s wealth and power hadn’t declined as obviously as it has? Well, the Rothschilds have at least begun to be replaced or substituted by another target in recent years: George Soros. But they still get plenty of the wrong kind of attention, which has been reinforced every so often by nonsensical antisemitic tropes about Jews controlling the world, such as the 1920s-era translation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
A more recent phenomenon has been the grifters who have taken on fake personas as Rothschild heirs. And the theories can be found powering the West’s current lurch into antisemitism – the Rothschilds and Soros have been accused of nefariously funding everything from Covid-19 to the Black Lives Matter movement.
One of the saddest things I learned writing Jewish Space Lasers is that all this mythmaking and scapegoating obscures a real legacy – one of philanthropy toward Jewish causes, outsized success in global banking and finance at a time when most doors remained closed to Jews, serving as a beacon of aspiration for Jews around the world, and a fingerprint on almost all the major events of Europe in the 19th century. It’s not my family history. But it’s a family history to be proud of, nonetheless.
>This feature is published in Spear’s Magazine Issue 90.
Vanguard's march to $7 trillion
https://spearswms.com/
https://spearswms.com/wealth/vanguard-investment-rise-uk/
A rising tide: how Vanguard is making its presence felt in the UK
Vanguard’s ‘passive’ investing approach made it a big hitter in the US. But there could be choppy waters ahead
Vanguard founder Jack Bogle named the firm after one of Admiral Nelson’s flagships, HMS Vanguard – seen here (back left) behind HMS Elephant and alongside HMS Victory in Nicholas Pocock’s 1807 painting Nelson’s Flagships at Anchor
Sean Hagerty’s accent marks him as unmistakably American. But the roots of the softly spoken head of one of Britain’s fastest-growing investment companies are British: Hagerty’s mother was born in London, and his great-grandfather Sir Ninian Comper designed some of the stained-glass windows in Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament.
Today, Sir Ninian’s descendant runs the London-based European arm of the Vanguard Group, the second-biggest investment group in the world, with nearly $8 trillion of assets under management. That is roughly the equivalent of the GDP of the UK and Germany combined, and makes Vanguard one of the biggest owners of virtually every major listed company on the planet.
It has also become an increasingly large and disruptive presence in the UK’s own investment industry. Vanguard has been quietly present on the isles since 2009 – selling its funds to big pension plans and ordinary British investors through a smattering of platforms – but in 2017 it announced it would be mimicking its US approach by offering its wares directly to Brits as well.
The news that the US investment behemoth was setting up its stall in the country helped send a shiver of fear through swathes of the UK financial industry. The shares of investment managers such as Schroders, Jumper and Ashmore quivered markedly on the day it was announced, but worst affected were wealth manager platforms Hargreaves Lansdown and St James’s Place, which suddenly faced a formidable new competitor in their domestic market.
‘We don’t pay attention to other people’s stock prices,’ deadpans Hagerty, an avuncular Pennsylvanian with square black glasses and side-parted salt-and-pepper hair. ‘We always just think about what we do.’
For fans of the ‘passive’ investment style that Vanguard is best known for – so-called index funds that do nothing but track a broad financial market benchmark such as the FTSE 100 or the S&P 500, as cheaply as possible – its arrival was as thrilling as it was unnerving for its rivals.
‘For years there were very few of us in the UK advocating the use of index funds. So I remember being really excited about Vanguard’s decision to come here,’ says Robin Powell, the founder and editor of the Evidence-Based Investor. ‘The UK fund industry was even more powerful in those days than it is now, and active managers like Neil Woodford were being heavily promoted in the media, so we were crying out for disruption.’
A move into financial advice was quickly aborted, but Vanguard’s UK business remains healthy and growing. It has now amassed about $168 billion of assets from UK investors and $21 billion on its personal advice platform, also making it one of the fastest-growing wealth managers in the country. In the process it has also helped bring down the cost of investment funds across the industry – a phenomenon that some have dubbed the ‘Vanguard effect’.
>parties
The main legal consequence is that the ruling now sets a clearer — and possibly higher — bar for future governments to invoke the Act, according to experts.
“It wasn’t clear, and you want (the moment) when an emergency meets the definition such that you can invoke these extreme powers to be very freaking clear,” West said.
She added that Mosley’s ruling will also prevent any future “clever stretching” of the application of the Act in future potential emergency situations.
>Sammy_the_Bull_Gravano_says_Donald_Trump_is_incorruptible
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Gravano
What was deleted?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy_seed_paste
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy_seed_paste
Pastries featuring poppy seed filling are associated with holidays in several cultures. In Ashkenazi Jewish culture, poppy seed-filled hamantashen (translated as "Haman's ears" or "Haman's pockets") are a traditional pastry eaten during Purim, and are one of the most well-known uses of poppy seed filling.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said, “This was an extremely tense time. The safety of individual Canadians was under real threat.”
Freeland said the protests threatened both “national security” and “economic security.”
The case is not over.
https://t.me/ResistanceTrench/24067
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/saudi-state-tv-says-kingdom-officially-begins-membership-brics-bloc-2024-01-02/
Saudi Arabia officially joins BRICS bloc - state TV
DUBAI, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Saudi state TV said on Tuesday that the kingdom had officially joined the BRICS bloc of countries.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister had said in August the kingdom would study the details before the proposed Jan. 1 joining date and take "the appropriate decision".
Prince Faisal bin Farhan had said the BRICS group was "a beneficial and important channel" to strengthen economic cooperation.
The BRICs bloc previously included Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, but is set to double with Saudi Arabia joining the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iran, and Ethiopia as new members.
Saudi Arabia's entry comes amid geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China, and the expansion of China's influence within the kingdom.
Despite continued strong ties with the U.S., Saudi Arabia has increasingly pursued its own path out of concern that Washington is less committed to the Gulf's security than in the past.
China, Saudi Arabia's biggest oil customer, has led calls for the BRICs to expand to become a counterweight to the West.
The expansion could amplify the group's declared ambition to become a champion of the Global South, although Argentina signalled in November it would not take up an invitation to join.
If this war ends with the Israelis agreeing to a real two-state solution - which looks increasingly like what the actual settlement is shaping up as given recent American moves talking it up and sanctioning Israeli settlers in the West Bank - then Hamas has just… won?