My book “The Financial Jigsaw” has now been accepted and published at my academic network. Scroll down and Hit: ‘View Full Text’ button for the complete book: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358117070_THE_FINANCIAL_JIGSAW_-_PART_1_-_4th_Edition_2020 I will be pleased to email a free PDF on request to: [email protected].
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” Edward R Murrow
NOTE to READERS: I am upgrading my computer networks this weekend so I may be a little slow replying to comments for a day or two. Thank you for bearing with me while I dump my old WIN 7 and move into the 21st century with increased security due to current conditions.
BREAKING NEWS: Russian-backed news channel RT has disappeared from all broadcast platforms in the UK. UK access to the TV network RT, formerly known as ‘Russia Today’, has been affected by a ban imposed by the European Union. Although the UK is no longer in the EU, the bloc applied sanctions to satellite companies in Luxembourg and France, which provided the RT feed to Sky, FreeSat and Freeview..
RT is owned by (ANO) TV-Novosti (Under Russia Today TV UK Limited). However, RT can still be viewed on the internet (via FireFox at https://www.rt.com/news/ ) thank goodness, because I use RT to fact-check the rubbish propaganda disseminated by the BBC and HMG on the basis that if our government were ready to attack their own people using military grade PsyOps over two years, why should I trust them now?
UPDATE(1) – On day nine of Putin’s war against Ukraine, Luke Harding tells this morning how demoralised Russian soldiers captured by the Ukrainians have told of their anger at being “duped” into war. “Frankly speaking, they tricked us,” an officer says under questioning. “Everything we were told was a fake. I would tell my guys to leave Ukrainian territory. We’ve got families and children. I think 90% of us would agree to go home.”
The BBC’s website may have been blocked in Russia and it has brought back its shortwave radio service in Ukraine and Russia to ensure civilians can access news from outside. The BBC’s shortwave radio broadcast can be found on 15735 kHz from 6pm to 8pm and on 5875 kHz from midnight to 2am, Ukraine time. BBC Russia reported that Meta/Facebook also appeared to be blocked, and the US government-funded broadcaster Radio Liberty, among others.
UPDATE (2) – Now UK is on an unofficial ‘war footing’ but not yet at general emergency, we are being reminded of “email hygiene”: “‘Patch those servers’ – Employees should report suspicious emails rather than delete them and firms must step up vigilance against cyber-attacks in the face of a heightened threat from Russian hackers, as well as the general threat of cybercrime, the UK’s information commissioner, John Edwards, has said.
Outside the Ukraine conflict, there had been a “steady and significant” increase in cyber-attacks against UK businesses over the past two years, he said. “It is a time for vigilance, for checking security settings and making sure those servers are patched and up to date, reminding staff of basic email hygiene and of scepticism to phishing attacks. And of the need of not just to curl your lip and hit delete but to notify your IT department and get these things blocked so one of your colleagues doesn’t inadvertently open the organisation to vulnerability.”
THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM (WEF): As readers know, WEF is often supported by the Guardian UK, which is probably one of the least influenced of the UK MSM – although their ownership is hidden by front covers – their ultimate owners are Globalists as in everything else in this world.
Klaus Schwab explained his plan for all our futures, as he imagines it, without any democratic representation which for me is a virulent form of fascism in any language. Here is a recent interview in which he gives a window into his disturbed and psychotic mind. As Sun Tzu advises – “stay close to your enemies”; which is why I survey ‘The Guardian’ and also catch the BBC on occasion.
“Improving the State of the World: A Conversation with Klaus Schwab” If you are short of time start at 30 mins for the punchy stuff (the earlier discourse is a bit of flannel IMHO): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TdiND82vFg
HERE IS the Guardian’s ‘Promo’ – make of it what you will: “The truth, they say, is the first casualty of war. But with correspondents on the ground on both sides of the Ukraine-Russia border, in Kiev, Moscow, Brussels and other European capitals, the Guardian is well placed to provide the honest, factual reporting that readers will need to understand this perilous moment for Europe and the former Soviet Union.
The Guardian has an illustrious history of persistent, independent reporting in the region. We know there is no substitute for being there, and were on the ground at all the critical moments – from the 1917 revolution and the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s, to the collapse of 1991 and the first Russo-Ukrainian conflict in 2014. And we will stay on the ground through this frightening period as well. Since we started publishing 200 years ago, tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian’s fearless journalism, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope” [Yeah – right!]
IS THIS BRITAIN’S MARK of ‘Progress’? Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) have published an official paper released recently, entitled “The Benefits of Brexit”. “It boasted of being able to have blue passports and a crown stamped on pint glasses. It would be funny if it was not also economically ruinous.”
So opines one Natale Labia – born in Cape Town, he lives in Milan, Italy, and writes on the economy and finance. He is a partner of private equity firm Lionhead Capital Partners, and has an MBA from Università Bocconi, which I suspect is of dubious benefit to someone who writes for a living. His father was Prince Natale Labia. He was a renowned collector and died in 2016 at the age of 92.
So clearly we have here a chap born with a ‘silver spoon’ and obviously pursuing his father’s proclivities but in high finance in his Private Equity firm. And we all know what these financial predators do, don’t we? I mention all this nausea because he extolls his view of the failure of Brexit.
I am a committed Brexiteer and cannot agree with him, but in the interests of free speech, unlike our captured Globalist-owned MSM, I felt that my readers should at least hear the other side of this monumental argument, writing for the South African ‘Maverick’, but in my view no less worthy of the Guardian, with my adds/corrections [ ]:
“The perennially dubious benefits of leaving the EU were recently clarified in an official government paper released last week, entitled “The Benefits of Brexit”. It boasted of being able to have blue passports and a crown stamped on pint glasses. It would be funny if it was not also economically ruinous.
The promise of a free trading, regulation-lite, low-tax UK sold by Brexiteers is no closer to materialising than it ever was. Meanwhile, the ongoing stasis over what to do about that region on another island to the main part (which includes a country which may vote to leave the [Union]) and shares a border that cannot exist for political reasons, across a sea on which there must now be a border but which is now unconstitutional, and which is also inhabited by two religious groupings who have a history of mutual violence and antipathy with few equals, seems further than ever from being resolved.
The issue of a post-Brexit Northern Ireland is indeed a conundrum which may get a lot worse before it gets easier. Winston Churchill’s musing on Russia – “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” – could not be more accurate.
On top of this situation of political and economic no-return comes a prime minister who increasingly looks catastrophically incapable of leading. Boris Johnson’s unfounded allegations [two weeks ago] about the leader of the opposition, Labour chief [Sir] Keir Starmer, having played a role in defending paedophile Jimmy Savile – which resulted in Starmer being attacked by a violent mob – is just the latest failure of an administration rocked by waves of “PartyGate” and associated crises. Johnson’s team of advisers have now largely departed, leaving him wounded and only still in power because it seems no one dares challenge him for fear of inheriting a lethally poisoned chalice.
The fact that the Metropolitan Police Force, [The Met] once a bastion of respectability and indeed a symbol of everything that was once great about Great Britain, is facing a blizzard of crises, from the covert surveillance of murder victim Stephen Lawrence’s family to allegations of corruption, bribe-taking and covering up fatal police errors related to the Hillsborough Massacre, seems an oddly metaphorical testament to a country losing its way. The rule of law, at one time more essential to the UK’s DNA than any other, has seemingly been misplaced. To call it farcical would be an understatement.
And then, finally, as if to add insult to injury, the son of the Queen is implicated in charges of sex with minors after his close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. A litany of crises such as these would be unfortunate in any country. However, they are particularly damaging when combined with an economy which also finds itself in the rough.”
Read on for his take on Britain’s general demise, bearing in mind that he doesn’t include yet another arrow in the heart of the ‘Mother of all Parliaments’ stand-off on the Chagos Archipelago – or Chagos Islands, a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean – where Mauritius recently reclaimed its sovereignty to the chagrin of America and its puppy dog, HMG, because it has strategic importance as one last vestige of Britain’s colonial days; but that’s another story for later as events here unfold: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2022-02-14-the-plight-of-the-uk-after-its-historic-economic-social-and-political-self-harm
SO – HOW COME BRITAIN can manage to keep paying her bills when it obvious that there is little substance under the hood? However, in typical old-boy fashion, it is so well camouflaged away from the prying eyes of Joe Public – enabled by centuries of raping the resources of the Monarch’s colonies. But, without the unquestioned nefarious financial network endemic in the City of London, HMG would be all at sea with no way to go but to slide into the abyss. Don’t believe me? Have a look at this prescient illustration.
“Kazakhstan’s former dictator, Nursultan Nazarbayev – a notorious autocrat used the UK to help safeguard a multibillion-dollar business empire built during his three-decade rule. Documents from October 2021 showed ‘Jusan Technologies’ at the centre of a sprawling corporate operation with private interests held by well-connected members of the Kazakh elite. The revelations add to the growing perception that the UK is advertising itself as a jurisdiction where oligarchs, dictators and also kleptocrats can readily do business with little oversight. {Update: Russian oligarchs also seem to be in focus now}
Last month, an outgoing minister claimed the government had delayed the planned economic crime bill, which would have, among other measures, beefed up Companies House, the UK’s corporate registry. Dame Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP, recently claimed in Parliament that Nazarbayev had used charitable foundations to “secretly control” a string of assets, which were part-owned through Jusan Technologies. She said the UK had turned a blind eye to suspect wealth and claimed a string of Kazakh elites had become wealthy through crony capitalism under the Nazarbayev regime.
“Britain has opened our borders, our property market, our financial structures to the Kazakh ruling class, enabling them to launder their illicit wealth and to spend it,” Hodge said in Parliament. “Worse, we don’t even enforce our existing laws against any of this wrongdoing.”
During his 29 years in office Nazarbayev won elections with more than 90% of the vote, accrued enormous wealth for his family and fostered a cult of personality. It was first reported last month by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, three educational foundations, including the Nazarbayev Fund, controlled Jusan Technologies. Nazarbayev oversaw the foundations. Boies Schiller Flexner, lawyers for the Nazarbayev Fund in London, said the company’s ownership was handed over to a US non-profit organisation as a charitable donation before the end of 2021. As a result, they said, neither Nazarbayev nor the fund owns or controls Jusan Technologies.” This is but one of countless examples that point to the growing opportunities for Britain to silently orchestrate a safe haven for the oligarchs’ ill-gotten bullions under the freedom of Brexit.
“Another notable figure with links to Jusan Technologies is Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the half-brother of the UAE president and son of the country’s founder. Among other companies, Sheikh Tahnoun chairs Group 42, an artificial intelligence business which held a 3% stake in Jusan Technologies as recently as last year via an investment vehicle called QAZ42. He is also one of the UAE’s most powerful officials, acting as the country’s national security adviser.” The prevalence of these clandestine worldwide networks shows that Britain, and especially the City of London, is at the very heart of the elites’ global web of corruption: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2022-02-17/kazakh-ex-dictator-used-uk-company-to-help-protect-8-billion-business-empire
Perhaps this video will give the reader all the background required to assess the implacable tentacles of this financial octopus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8
BUT BREXIT hasn’t really affected the energy crisis in UK which in fact is quite resilient as far as supplies go. But the ancient British infrastructure, having survived the ravages of WW2 fairly intact (unlike Germany) is having a serious negative economic impact on the many occupiers of pre-war homes.
“It’s very draughty and cold,” said Rahimah Baccass, 68, who lives in one of the hundreds of three-bedroom semis built in the 1930s after a slum clearance in Upney, east London. Recently her gas heating broke down for three days and she was “absolutely freezing”, wrapping up in layers of jumpers and hot-water bottles.
The retired civil servant is one of millions of people living in interwar housing – from Blackpool to Barking – which the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has identified as in urgent need of overhaul. Many homeowners have already tried to fix the problems with uPVC double glazing and loft insulation, but the biggest problems – uninsulated walls and cash and carbon-guzzling boilers – are harder to crack.
“We have double glazing, but it’s difficult to keep warm,” said Baccass. “I tried to go for cavity wall insulation but it was too expensive.”
With rising gas heating and food bills, she is now considering switching the heating on only once instead of three times daily. More worryingly, she has to rethink what food she buys, a particular problem as she is diabetic.” Read on for more examples of the current energy crisis in Britain: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/11/absolutely-freezing-life-in-englands-draughty-1930s-homes:
COLLAPSE MONITOR: States and empires fail when they are no longer the solution, they are the problem. As the book The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization explains, when the dissolution of the state / empire becomes the pain-reducing solution, the inhabitants withdraw their support and the empire loses its grip and expires. http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/02/how-empires-die.html
THE NARRATIVE BATTLE: This is truly frightening. Two U.S. Senators this week introduced a bill to provide tech companies cover via legislation that could make it possible for Congress to “legalize” censorship and criminalize First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. Here’s a press release describing the bill: Here is the article in full. Stay alert and lobby your representative: feds-tech-companies-turn-over-covid-19-misinformation
HERE IS MY MANTRA: “If I don’t know, I can’t act”. I believe that information and knowledge should be freely available to everyone. Those less fortunate, who are unable to pay, are often those in most need.
As the current global financial and economic crisis deepens, all and sundry will need help, support and advice which is why “PROTECT & SURVIVE” provides vital, empowering knowledge to not only survive but also prosper in the New Emergent Global Economy bearing down upon each and every one of us. THE FOURTH TURNING IS NOW
YOU CAN HELP BY MAKING A DONATION energising knowledge, spreading far and wide, relieving suffering and lifting humanity out of their conditioned impotence. https://www.gofundme.com/f/fnahvp-free-book
UNTIL NEXT WEEK: Tell Your Truth– Gently; Don’t Comply – Gently: Laugh At Them – Gently: SPREAD THE WORD: YOUR DAILY COVID NEWS (cmnnews.org)
Thank you Peter for an excellent post. Not only does the misinformation (downright lies) appear to be growing in the West in what has been a psyops operation of amazing scale but, of more concern is the anger, bordering on hatred exhibited towards people who question and don’t choose to follow the government & MSM narrative. It is quite extraordinary.
Not sure how long these events will last or what will be the final outcome. It is easy to guess and make predictions but there are so many events happening on a global scale…I am just sure that it will not be a good ending.
Charles Hughes Smiths’ article on “How Empires Die” was worth the read. A long time ago I read a paper written by General John Glubb (Pasha Glubb of the Jordanian Arab Legion) on a similar subject. General Glubbs’s paper was written I believe while he was still at the Royal Military Academy (Sandhurst) and is very well worth the time to read.
The title is ‘The Fate of Empires’ and here is a link:
https://newworldeconomics.com//wp-content/uploads/2017/01/TheFateofEmpiresbySirJohnGlubb.pdf
On a side note, a neighbor of mine (long passed) served as a tank commander (rank of sergeant) initially with the British army and then with the Jordan Arab Legion. He, along with others of his regiment were to be inspected by General Glubb and so the tanks were cleaned and arrayed in perfect formation. An hour & a half under the Jordanian sun and no sign of Glubb or his entourage. Then on the horizon, a cloud of dust appeared, and two staff cars plus horses with pennants flying arrived and drove at ‘speed’ past the lines of tanks. They did not even slow down let alone stop. All the tanks and crews were covered with dust as the group passed. TBP is too polite a blog to repeat the words used by my neighbor
The biggest social event of my two years overseas at Headquarters Land SouthEast in Izmir Turkey (and hundreds of other guys) was to be the tour stop and show by Playboy Bunnies one night, only they never showed up because they got waylaid by our Commander, Gen Melvin Zais; the same POS ZOG general of Pork-Chop Hill fame. He then got his picture in the local paper shooting ducks from his helicopter. He took my units HF transceiver and put it on his yacht. He did several more stupid things and I wrote Sen Proxmire who wrote me back that he had forwarded my letter to the Pentagon. My next assignment was to North Dakota and I don’t write Congressmen anymore.
Wonderful stuff rhs jr, thank you and a lesson well learned. Although I must say that my many missives to my own MP have yielded some helpful and positive responses thus far. I still retain a smidgen of hope that the democracy of the ‘Mother of Parliaments’ does work sometimes here in UK but I am not holding my breath for the near future as yet!
Glubb’s essay is a revelation and explains the ‘Age of Decadence’ we are in.
Thank you CO – I am suitably incentivised to finally get around to reading Glubb’s work which you had kindly printed out for me and in the confusion of lockdown these last two years disappeared in the unfathomable depths of my library! 🙂
An excellent anecdote cannuck21 – thank you and the link is just right as it has reminded me of my good friend Major Niall Warry, retd., (Green Jackets) who kindly printed out the whole essay which I promised to read but somehow mislaid amongst all my papers. I can now get down to reading it with relish.
And so appropriate that you are upholding the high standard of TBP which others sometimes forget! You are an officer and a gentleman sir!
The 4th turning is where everything goes to hell. How it turns out is a crap shoot. If history is any indicator, it has a lot to do with sheer luck. It is a time when empires collapse and new powers arise. The last 4th turning was when England ceased to be an empire, and the US became one. It is a time when the children of the people who caused the collapse grow up in the hardship caused by their parents folly. They will, one day, become the innovators who will begin the rebuilding process. I feel sympathy for the younger people who will have their lives ruined by what is coming.