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Sri Lanka PM quits as violence kills 3, injures 150
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Page 4: Opinion
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5 12:52 Abu Uluque [3] 
6 09:12 magpie [2] 
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Page 6: Politix
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
You didn't invent that Military Industrial Complex
[American Thinker] Supplying uniforms to the German empire, textile magnate Gunther Quandt made millions during World War I. Shortly after, when electrification was booming worldwide, he gained control of one of the world's largest battery-makers. He soon acquired one of Germany's primary arms and ammo manufacturers. This was just the beginning. He went on to gain stupendous wealth and power through deals with the Nazis. The story of Quandt, as told in David de Jong's Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties, evokes awe and dread. For it is about soulless profiteering and participation without any qualms in the enslavement and massacre of millions of Jews.

It is well known that many dynastic German companies owe their standing to their complicity — even willful participation — in Nazi evil. De Jong investigated five key industrialists who funded Adolf Hitler's rise to power, were complicit in horrendous crimes, and reaped billions from that cold-blooded investment: Quandt, automaker Ferdinand Porsche, Richard Kaselowsky of the Dr. Oetker Group, financier August von Finck, and industrialist Frederick Flick. His book details their deals and post-war cover-ups. It also tells how they were virtually absolved of all wrongdoing because the West needed Germany as a bulwark against Russia and its East European satellites.

Quandt's first engagement with Nazism happened in the early 1920s. On a visit to the U.S. with his wife Magda, they were approached by Kurt Ludecke, an ardent German nationalist raising funds for the fledgling, cash-strapped National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Rejected by the anti-Semite Henry Ford, he hoped to convert Quandt to the Aryan cause. Quandt was noncommittal, but Magda was swayed. By the time the couple divorced in 1929, with a generous settlement for her, she was mingling socially with the Nazis. She devoured Mein Kampf and joined the party, where she worked for her future husband, Joseph Goebbels, later chief of propaganda minister for the Reichstag. Quandt, who remained friendly with Magda and Goebbels, came under their influence. He began to believe, like many in post-WWI Germany, that Jews and communists were responsible for all the country's ills.

World War II and Hitler's atrocities would not have happened without the millions Quandt and the other industrialists pledged for arming the stormtroopers who ensured his election. In turn, the plutocrats profited hugely when he began the war in Europe: there was an insatiable demand for uniforms, ammo, fighter planes, and batteries for torpedoes and rockets. The financiers of Hitler's rise were now the hardware merchants of his war effort.

Quandt gained a seat on the board of Daimler-Benz in 1933 and was soon producing arms, besides batteries and textiles. He became a key supplier to the Luftwaffe. Auto engineer Porsche, who had served in the SS, wired the Fuhrer that he and his staff were putting their "will and ability at the disposal of the German people." His firms produced advanced tanks, the V-1 flying bomb, and other weapons systems. In 1934, Hitler gave him the contract to design a people's car — the Volkswagen. August von Finck, who acquired a financial empire that included the Merck Finck bank and insurers Allianz and Munich Re, believed that G-d had sent the Fuhrer to save the German people. Kaselowsky, who married the widowed daughter-in-law of the founder of the Dr. Oetker group and became its chief executive, had a portrait of Hitler in his office suite. He'd gift signed copies of Mein Kampf to new employees. The company was a major supplier of food to frontline soldiers. (His stepson, Rudolf August Oetker, who ran the company and turned it into a household name after Kaselowsky's death in a 1944 air raid, was a former SS officer and ardent Nazi.) Frederick Flick profited handsomely from the army's demand for weapons-grade steel, acquired several mines and heavy industries, and was the Reich's top producer of light machine guns.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2022 01:38 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In turn, the plutocrats profited hugely when he began the war in Europe

This is hand-waving. In conditions of total war, corporations are squeezed until they scream. I suspect the major contributor to their post-war prosperity of their connections to the Nazis was their continued survival during the war, a time when scarcity of labor and materials squeezed every single private enterprise. If you did not use slave labor, you went out of business, because everyone else did. The US won the war, and its corporations did not enjoy significant inflation-adjusted gains in profits.

Germany, which lost, would presumably have seen its postwar government welsh on large amounts of payables to the corporations that made war materials. There's a reason businesses hate war - much as people are drafted and fed into the meat grinder, private capital is requisitioned and incinerated in the fires of war, whether through horrendous wartime inflation or outright seizure through unprofitable contracts.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 05/10/2022 9:27 Comments || Top||

#2  'Cold Wars' are where the Big Money is at. There is an anecdote in William Manchester's "The Arms of Krupp" where the government minister bitterly complains about the large caliber coastal artillery that were newly sold to foreigners. Krupp gallantly replied "...as a truly patriotic German he has even larger artillery ready to sell to Germany!"
Posted by: magpie || 05/10/2022 9:38 Comments || Top||

#3  With assists to IBM, FoMoCo, and GM (Opel).
Posted by: DooDahMan || 05/10/2022 12:39 Comments || Top||

#4  'Cold Wars' are where the Big Money is at.

More like proxy wars like the one we're fighting now in Ukraine or chickenshit little wars against piss ant countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. Gotta get kinetic to destroy some of that hardware so you can sell more of it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/10/2022 12:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Either that or leave it behind when you bail.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/10/2022 12:52 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Avatar sequel trailer
Posted by: badanov || 05/10/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Unless the human's win, I'm not watching this one either.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 05/10/2022 6:05 Comments || Top||

#2  I tried to watch the first 1, never could make it through. This will be a flop too.
Posted by: Chris || 05/10/2022 9:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Predicated on humans not dropping ice bolides from orbit to genocide the annoying natives -- they own the orbitals, right? and the only objective is mining the Unobtanium...
Posted by: magpie || 05/10/2022 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Just send the Chinese with some mobile kitchen platforms.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/10/2022 10:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Avatar is interesting. Biggest movie in history (at the time) and yet once it left theaters it was basically forgotten. I think it was a mediocre (and preachy) story carried by new 3d tech and the 3d faded quickly as well.

It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out. Trailer has meh all over it but Cameron often surprises his nay-sayers.
Posted by: ruprecht || 05/10/2022 10:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Just another franchise that doesn't understand that's it's already in the ground.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 05/10/2022 12:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Pandorians look like the kind of folks who would do well on the SATs so I think the libs didn't like them as much as they could have
Posted by: Lord Garth || 05/10/2022 15:34 Comments || Top||

#8  "We have this really cool new rendering software and kick ass hardware....what should we do with it?"

"I got it: Dances with Wolves meets Thunderheart.....in Spaaaaace!"

"Bit of a stretch, isn't it?"

"Nah, we'll through in Segourney Weaver, smoking, like what the kids' parents saw in Aliens."

---------today----------

"Didn't we miss the sequel window?"

"Nah, all those butterheads who saw the original probably have 6 year olds. Perfect for talking about how people can be born in the wrong bodies."

Trailer has all the markings of ho hum, and with 5 films slated I'm sure James Cameron will do for Avatar the legacy building he did for Terminator.

Should have just gone VR gaming. Nothing really more complicated than CandyLand, just a nice walk through the park with the smurf-elves.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/10/2022 16:02 Comments || Top||

#9  Don't even need VR, just off phone to tablet like with Pokeman Go!, watch group of 6 or whatever, can look around but little cursors show where the action is/will be, shit even dress up your own Poopoo or whatever they were called so your watch group can see you, I See You!, bobbing and weaving. Add a couple places where group decision changes the ending, but not too many, just enough to get everyone to watch it four times, get hooked. Use best data to assist the third movie.

Wait, sorry, got off topic of pronouns and genders, making sure the orange Poopoos are properly represented even though totally not from that environment of blue water and sky.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/10/2022 16:10 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Briefly about Ukraine. 05/09/2022
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin

[ColonelCassad] 1. Mariupol.
Shelling and a gradual cleansing of Azovstal continue. From the cellars they continue to demand salvation, which will not be.

2.Zaporozhye.
On the line Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyaipole without major changes. The fighting went south of Orekhov and southeast of Gulyaipol. Fighting continues in the villages between Gulyaipole and Velikaya Novoselovka.

3. Ugledar.
There is no significant progress on the Novomikhailovka-Ugledar-Velikaya Novoseloveka line.

4. Marinka.
No significant changes. Fights are positional in nature.

5. Avdievka.
In the Avdievka industrial zone, no changes. There is no promotion. Fighting continued in the area of ​​​​Troitsky and Novoselka-2.

6. LPR.
The RF Armed Forces crossed the Seversky Donets and entered Belogorskoye. The Armed Forces of Ukraine launched counterattacks throughout the day. Fighting in the area of ​​the village continues. The loss of the village will pose a threat to the communications of the Severodonetsk grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Fighting also continued in the Voevodovka area. Popasnaya has been completely cleared.

7. Izyum.
Bolshaya Kamyshevakha was taken. Fighting continues north of the Barvenkovo-Slavyansk highway, as well as near Krasny Liman. The enemy is preparing for encirclement battles in Slavyansk and Kramatorsk.

8. Kharkov.
The enemy advanced near Stary Saltov in the direction of Rubizhny. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation take up defense here on the line Kazachya-Lopan-Liptsy-Veseloe-Ternovaya Staritsa. Attempts to attack Lipcy were not successful.

9. Nikolaev.
Positional battles continued in the Nikolaev and Nikopol directions. The positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Nikolaev continue to be subjected to systematic strikes. The enemy periodically tries to shell Kherson.

10. Odessa.
Attempts to attack Zmeiny Island and land troops there ended in heavy losses for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in people and materiel.
In addition, this activity caused an intensification of attacks on the military infrastructure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Odessa, which also led to losses in people and equipment.

Posted by: badanov || 05/10/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
Home Loan interest rates rising - 'Beware the Popping of the Housing Bubble'
[Townhall] Washington never learns. Never. Politicians are like collective Alzheimer's disease patients. They have no short-term memories.

Does anyone remember 2008? It was only 14 years ago. Then, America suffered through one of the most significant and most painful financial crises in our nation's history -- and the worst losses since the crash of 1929. Millions of people lost their jobs. Hundreds of thousands defaulted on their mortgages and lost their homes.

Trillions of dollars of lifetime savings and wealth evaporated. Central billion-dollar banks and investment houses that were thought to be invincible were swept away like straw huts in the face of a tsunami.

The calamity resulted from government policies that intentionally inflated a housing bubble year after year. Few saw the bursting of the bubble coming. When it popped, the carnage was everywhere and felt from coast to coast.

Now there are many of the same flashing signs of a housing bubble -- and again, no one is paying attention.

A well-respected housing affordability index fell last month to near the lowest level ever as home prices surged.

Mortgage interest rates now exceed 5.2% -- up from 3.6% just two years ago. In some markets, rates are nearing 6%. And the Fed is raising rates again, as it should, but this too will likely further inflate mortgage rates.

The average mortgage payment is now $1,800 a month -- 70% higher than before COVID-19 hit. Many people live paycheck to paycheck and are already financially squeezed due to prices rising faster than paychecks. The only other time home payments were as high as they are today was in 2007. Yes, on the eve of the Great Financial Crisis.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2022 02:08 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
YES! I remember 2008-2010 painfully well.
We were comfortably in 2,400 Sq/ft 5/3 brick valued at $185K + near Lawrenceville Ga. that could not be sold for even $150K nor rented to cover the mortgage payment.

NOTE:
Housing Sales are still slowing in our Mid-Eastern GA area. The House Time on Market has increased from around 21 days before offer, to 30+ days.

We are now seeing more selling price reductions of around $5K per month on 30+ day listings.

BTW: Checkout REDFIN's housing market data

Posted by: NN2N1 || 05/10/2022 7:52 Comments || Top||

#2  The current housing bubble is part & parcel of what you could reasonably call the "unpayable debts bubble". There is no way the USA could ever pay off its national debt (public and private), short of a collapse of the US economy and of the dollar. At least the US financial situation is the least horrible of all other nations.
Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 || 05/10/2022 11:31 Comments || Top||

#3  The calamity resulted from government policies that intentionally inflated a housing bubble year after year.

Yeah, and now they're doing it with student loans too. Can't wait to see the universities in trouble and laying off academics.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/10/2022 12:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Won't happen, they will still give out the student loans for bullshit degrees to a greater degree with all the idiots getting said degrees knowing they will not have to pay them back. In other words this is a way for us to continually pay for them to be indoctrinated by the university system, which seems to be churning out plenty of leftist shit.
Posted by: Chris || 05/10/2022 13:08 Comments || Top||

#5  back in 2006-2008 the banks were coersed into giving out under capitalized loans without even much of an appraisal

I think now there are fewer of these so the bubble should not be as big

Posted by: Lord Garth || 05/10/2022 18:29 Comments || Top||

#6  A home in San Diego that sold for $650,000 a few months ago sold for $1,000,000 yesterday.
Posted by: crazyhorse || 05/10/2022 23:06 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Biden's Disinformation Board is a Gift to Republicans
[NEWSWEEK] If you worked really hard, you might be able to come up with an idea as unappealing as a government disinformation board. Voters already distrust the government and are especially concerned about its excessive intrusion and unchecked regulatory power.

If you worked even harder, you might find as bad a person to lead it as Nina Jankowicz, a self-styled "disinformation expert" whose real specialty seems to be spreading disinformation to support her left-wing views.

If you tried hard to justify this mess, you might come up with a defender as ineffective as Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security. The secretary, already in deep trouble because of the porous southern border, faced a hostile Senate hearing and admitted he knew nothing about Ms. Jankowicz's dismal history of ideological fulminations and partisan statements. He refused to say whose bright idea it was to hire her—only that he was clueless about her background. Still, Mayorkas refused to apologize, refused to replace her and refused to back down from creating this ill-conceived (and ill-defined) board.

If you did all these things, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has, you would be committing political malpractice. You would be mocking the Constitution's fundamental protection of free speech, encoded in the First Amendment. Although a few ideologues might applaud you, you would hear only groans from moderate Democrats running for reelection. This ill-conceived board would lash them, at their peril, to a high-profile effort to monitor private speech, conducted by a very unpopular administration. That's dangerous constitutionally and incompetent politically.

Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2022 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Banditti




#4  So much of this idiocy is so pathetic I don't think we could do it even if we tried.

And this broad J[u]nkowicz...the perfect clown.
Posted by: DooDahMan || 05/10/2022 8:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Only if the ThoughtCrime Disinformation Board fails...
Posted by: magpie || 05/10/2022 9:10 Comments || Top||

#6  ...and I would like to say that I cringe at the thought of another unelected 'Czar' having power
Posted by: magpie || 05/10/2022 9:12 Comments || Top||



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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2022-05-10
  Sri Lanka PM quits as violence kills 3, injures 150
Mon 2022-05-09
  At least 11 Egyptian soldiers killed in armed attack in Sinai
Sun 2022-05-08
  Islamic Emirate Announces Rules for Women’s Covering
Sat 2022-05-07
  Taiwan’s air force scrambled to warn away 18 Chinese aircraft that entered its air defense zone
Fri 2022-05-06
  Russia's Admiral Makarov warship 'on fire after being hit by Ukrainian missile'
Thu 2022-05-05
  ISWAP Terrorists Kill Three In Borno As @UN Chief Visits Maiduguri
Wed 2022-05-04
  Oil depot on fire in occupied Makiivka
Tue 2022-05-03
  Russian Army’s Chief Of Staff Wounded In Ukraine, Other Officers Feared Killed
Mon 2022-05-02
  Russia's offensive along a broad front in Ukraine’s east has been stalling
Sun 2022-05-01
  Russia will quit the International Space Station due to economic sanctions over war in Ukraine
Sat 2022-04-30
  Nigerian Troops Killed ISWAP Commander, Dan-Buduma, Over 100 Other Terrorists
Fri 2022-04-29
  Russian Military Attacks Ukrainian Capital During UN Secretary-General's Visit
Thu 2022-04-28
  Antifa Riot in France Following Macron Victory
Wed 2022-04-27
  Putin meets UN Secretary-General in Moscow, denies hostilities in Mariupol, atrocities in Bucha
Tue 2022-04-26
  Vice President Kamala Harris tests positive for COVID-19

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