102 Comments

  1. BRAVO to the Japanese public health specialist. smiling now. how can I get a link to that clip?

  4. Catherine is right in thinking that the territory of Ukraine is being emptied of Ukrainians. In the middle of the war, the Ukrainian government has the time to conduct “economic reforms” and is selling agricultural land, which is the best in Europe, to foreign investors.

    2. For what it’s worth, I openly opposed the Ukraine fraud from long before the hot war started, for the VERY REASON that it was CITIZENS who would suffer, not the actors who portray heroes in the conflict. I am part Ukrainian by heritage but I do not “Stand with Ukraine” like all the fools who jumped on the bandwagon. It’s my cousins who would be killed and driven away from this true cradle of civilization.

    3. Well, if they are selling this land to foreign investors it will be interesting to see what they do when Ukraine is fully occupied by the Russian army, which is a scenario that, especially since Merkel’s gloat that she never had any intention to support Minsk, is increasingly likely, as Russia now considers the West as impossible to trust.

      1. Well, lets see. I assume the people who intend to create a new Ukraine have a deal with Putin as to where the Russian lines will shift – and did so before this started. If I were the Russians, I would not want responsibility for the entire Ukraine which has a very low per capita and now will require significant investment.

        1. Yes, that seemed very plausible to me up to about a month ago, why would Russia want to deal with the cost of reconstruction and the difficulty of maintaining governance over a likely hostile population or segment thereof? However, while recognizing that all of this is based on pure speculation on not enough information, a partial incorporation of the territory of Ukraine would require that some kind of buffer zone negotiation would be needed to guarantee Russia’s security…say between the new border of Russia on the Dnieper and possibly including Odesa and what is now Western and parts of central Ukraine… and whatever is left of new Ukraine. The “rump state” scenario. But if the Russians have lost complete faith in the sincerity of the West in any negotiation, why would they trust that this buffer zone would be maintained, and why would they want to leave any part of Ukraine able to reconstitute their ultra-nationalist agenda? Which is a polite way of saying that killing ALL of the soldiers and members of the power structure there, destroying all of their military equipment might appear a better goal. But who knows, so many factors involved!

  5. To add to my prior comment, I just tried to pay another utility bill by dialing the ‘Pay by Phone’ number on the bill. It goes through the account information, tells me they service charges a fee and then says Press 3 to use the service. I press 3 and it loops to the main number that asks if I have an emergency, pay a bill, etc. but reminds me that I can do lots of simple things online. I select pay a bill and It loops back to where I started. I thought I did something wrong so I go through the entire process again, only to be looped back to the main number who then tells me to connect to where I started! Is this deliberate incompetence to force people online?

    2. Why did it take five months for the IRS to process my tax return filed in paper form? Why self-checkout machines in my grocery store do not issue cash anymore, as they used to do? Have they received the same memo?

  6. Another mechanism they’re using to force people onto their digital platforms.
    I just tried to pay a bill by phone, as I’ve done in past. A message said. “Due to an ongoing 3rd party issue with their payment service they can’t take payment. While we expect this service to be restored soon, it may take several weeks. In order to avoid late payments you can make your payment online.”
    All of this is supposed to be convenient but by the time I finish one call I could have written 5 checks and balanced my checkbook at the same time.
    To pay, I had to go online and use a credit card because I forgot my password and to use Bank, one had to login and create an account…?

    2. Writing a check or a money order to pay a bill is my way to send the same kind of message as “paying cash” as often as possible. I think it’s really important to do what we can, in large of numbers as we can, to avoid the trap which is:
      CONVENIENCE = SLAVERY!

      1. Definitely! However, in July I had thousands of $$ of checks stolen from a USPS blue box. The crime has been rampant all over the US but a huge percentage, I recall over 80%, happened in the Philadelphia area. Personally, I think it’s the USPS in cahoots with the Banks. I had 2 separate mailings stolen. They call it check washing. All the checks were then deposited to accounts via cellphone apps. Ironically, all of the thieves deposited to Bank of America. They desperately want to get rid of USPS / snail mail. My Bank told me to stop using mail and use digital, like online or pay by phone. My response was, “Why?! This whole crime was digital! If they had to walk up to a Teller this never would have happened!” They didn’t know what to say so they blamed it in the USPS. One would think with all the surveillance they’d have captured the crimes on video. So, I’ve been using the phone and hand delivering checks. It’s all very inconvenient.

        1. One thing I’ve done and you might consider depending on cash flow is to prepay bills and run a positive balance. If cash ever disappears overnight, or we have a bank freeze or bail-in etc. it would be nice to not have to worry about having to figure out what to do at a moment’s notice. The electric company and phone bill are both OK with having a positive balance. Also can reduce the number of checks you have to write.

          1. That’s a good idea. Usually the recommendation is to hold on to your money, but in this climate, that’s a really good idea. Thanks.

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