- The Left's Righteous Tyrants
The Left’s Righteous Tyrants
Authored by Julie Kelly via AmGreatness.com,
They sure don’t make tyrants like they used to.
Tyrants once rose to power the old-fashioned way: defeating the opposition on the battlefield or at the faux ballot box. Despite their atrocities, these despots at least had some swagger—perhaps a way with the ladies, a good sense of humor, strong persuasive abilities, commanding verbal skills, pride in their appearance.
Not so with modern-day martinets. Our 21st-century tyrants possess nothing more than useless degrees from woke institutions and deep contempt for at least half the country, likely born out of a lifetime of social isolation. History, after all, shows that outcasts often seek revenge against their childhood tormentors later in life.
Such appears to be the case with the former Twitter executives who testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. Unimpressive by every measure—looks, personality, intellect, persuasiveness, grasp of the facts—the Twitter Four should serve as a reminder of what the defenders of freedom are up against. Thankfully, our enemies, while powerful for now, have the mental, physical, and emotional appeal of overcooked spaghetti.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
James Baker, Vijaya Gadde, Yoel Roth, and Anika Collier Navaroli took the quasi-stand this week at a House Oversight Committee hearing to explain their roles in colluding with the government to suppress free speech during an election year, particularly related to the New York Post’s coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story in October 2020. Baker, the former general counsel for the FBI when the bureau used fabricated political opposition research to defraud a secret federal court and obtain a warrant to spy on Donald Trump, was fired by Elon Musk as Twitter’s general counsel after it was discovered Baker was vetting company files made available to independent journalists.
Roth, Gadde, and Navaroli were considered the “custodians of the internet,” Roth boasted in a New York Times opinion column published in November, shortly after he resigned. “The work of online sanitation is unrelenting and contentious,” Twitter’s former head of “trust and safety” lamented. Roth then outlined a series of steps the government, private companies, and Big Tech oligarchs should pursue to rein in Musk.
“In the longer term,” Roth warned, “the moderating influences of advertisers, regulators and, most critically of all, app stores may be welcome for those of us hoping to avoid an escalation in the volume of dangerous speech online.”
That sort of hubris was on full display this week as the Twitter Four defended their crusade to censor users on the Right, including the suspension of Trump in January 2021. In the process, these self-proclaimed warriors of truth and integrity revealed themselves to be nothing short of petulant foot-stompers unfit for employment anywhere outside of Silicon Valley or the government. Further, all four were clearly guided by their hatred for Trump and his supporters, contrary to their solemn assurances that decisions were based on unbiased considerations to protect the site from insidious content.
For example, Gadde retweeted a Nicholas Kristof piece in 2016, emphasizing Kristof’s conclusion that he had “never met a national politician in the U.S. who is so ill informed, evasive, puerile and deceptive as Trump.” She, like 98 percent of people working in Silicon Valley, is a generous contributor to Democratic Party officials and candidates.
She reportedly cried when she learned Musk had acquired the company.
But Gadde’s attempts to hide her partisan stripes failed this week. In a nonsensical explanation only an Ivy Leaguer could love, Gadde told committee members about the inner workings of the social media giant.
“Defending free expression and maintaining the health of the platform required difficult judgment calls,” claimed Gadde, who was largely responsible for the decision to ban Trump’s account after January 6, 2021. “Most applications of Twitter rules were fact-intensive, subject to internal debate, and needed to be made very quickly. We recognized that after applying those rules, we might learn that some of them did not work as we had imagined and that we would need to update them. At times, we also reversed course.”
Coincidentally, just like occurrences in the traditional media, those rules and course reversals only affected one side: the Right. But when challenged to explain the imbalance, Gadde played dumb. She said she could only “make a guess” as to the application of a “search blacklist,” a tool that was frequently used by Twitter to hide the accounts of conservative influencers.
Vaccine-injured Representative Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) angrily confronted Gadde about Twitter’s censorship of contrary views on COVID-19, especially vaccine efficacy. After forcing Gadde to admit she did not graduate from medical school, Mace presented tweets with CDC data on vaccine side effects that Twitter nonetheless labeled “misleading.”
Gadde told Mace she was “not familiar with those particular situations,” to which Mace snarked, “Yeah, I bet you’re not.”
Roth, a big talker behind the scenes and on the op-ed pages of regime-friendly newspapers, sheepishly confessed he “regret[s] the language he used” in some tweets including one that referred to the president and his administration as “actual Nazis.” He then complained that he was subjected to threats after Musk shared what Roth insisted was a “defamatory allegation that I support or condone pedophilia.” Roth said he was forced to sell his house in the aftermath.
Anika Collier Navaroli perhaps best portrayed the emotional fragility and overall duncery of these social media tyrants. The “safety policy team senior expert” worked for months before January 6 to “minimize the threat of violence that we saw coming.” Part of the looming danger, Navaroli claimed, was Trump’s comment for the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by”—a remark not made on Twitter but during a presidential debate in September 2020.
Navaroli, now a fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies, sprang into action. “We crafted what we called a coded incitement to violence policy to address dog whistles like this,” she told the committee. Rather than follow her orders, Navaroli complained, Twitter “bent over backwards to find ways not to approve it.”
She continued her pressure campaign to remove Trump until the events of January 6. “Two days later, when it looked like it was going to happen all over again, I asked management whether they wanted more blood on their hands,” Navaroli said. “Only then did they act.”
Navaroli seemed to detect danger in everything Trump said. “The former president said he liked to send out his tweets like little missiles. To me, that sounded like weaponization of a platform in his own words and yet Twitter was not concerned.”
She left Twitter in March 2021 after her paranoid fantasies got the best of her. Navaroli told the January 6 select committee she “could no longer be complicit in what I saw to be a company and a product that was wantonly allowing violence to occur. [The] platform was going to continue to allow people to die, and I could not be a part of that.”
Just like the tyrants of old, this current crop hides its lust for power behind a cloak of fairness and the “common good.” No, they’re not cutting off food supplies or building labor camps but these modern-day tyrants seek the same ends: crush the opposition and control the masses.
Just with a lot less talent.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 23:40 - Secretive Russian Satellite Breaks Apart In Orbit, Creating Debris Cloud
Secretive Russian Satellite Breaks Apart In Orbit, Creating Debris Cloud
A secretive Russian satellite launched nearly a decade ago has experienced a “breakup” in outer space, according to a tweet published by the US Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron.
The Space Force said the Kosmos 2499 spacecraft disintegrated on Jan. 4 and unleashed a hazardous cloud of debris orbiting the planet.
#18SDS has confirmed the breakup of COSMOS 2499 (#39765, 2014-028E) – occurred Jan 4, 2023 at appx 0357 UTC. Tracking 85 associated pieces at est 1169 km altitude – analysis ongoing. #spacedebris #space @SpaceTrackOrg @US_SpaceCom @ussfspoc
— 18th Space Defense Squadron (@18thSDS) February 7, 2023
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The military branch that conducts operations in outer space did not explain why Kosmos 2499 broke apart. However, one person on social media asked a good question.
Did they blow it up or failed to vent the tank and popped? At 1169km that junk is going to be there for a looooong time.
— Arcadiy Ivanov (@arcivanov) February 7, 2023
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Business Insider and Space.com cited RussianSpaceWeb.com’s Anatoly Zak, who said Russia launched a rocket in late 2013, supposedly carrying three military communications satellites into orbit. But it wasn’t until space trackers found a fourth and very mysterious spacecraft (Kosmos 2499) that was also released into orbit.
Zak said the head of Roscosmos in 2014 assured world leaders that Kosmos 2499 wasn’t a “killer satellite.” Roscosmos never revealed the satellite’s mission.
As for space debris, Brian Weeden, an expert in space junk at the Secure World Foundation, told Ars Technica this is likely not a catastrophic event.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 23:20 - Escobar: The Big Stiff – Russia-Iran Dump The Dollar And Bust US Sanctions
Escobar: The Big Stiff – Russia-Iran Dump The Dollar And Bust US Sanctions
Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,
News of Russian banks connecting to Iran’s financial messaging system strengthens the resistance against US-imposed sanctions on both countries and accelerates global de-dollarization.
The agreement between the Central Banks of Russia and Iran formally signed on 29 January connecting their interbank transfer systems is a game-changer in more ways than one.
Technically, from now on 52 Iranian banks already using SEPAM, Iran’s interbank telecom system, are connecting with 106 banks using SPFS, Russia’s equivalent to the western banking messaging system SWIFT.
Less than a week before the deal, State Duma Chairman Vyachslav Volodin was in Tehran overseeing the last-minute details, part of a meeting of the Russia-Iran Inter-Parliamentary Commission on Cooperation: he was adamant both nations should quickly increase trade in their own currencies.
Ruble-rial trade
Confirming that the share of ruble and rial in mutual settlements already exceeds 60 percent, Volodin ratified the success of “joint use of the Mir and Shetab national payment systems.” Not only does this bypass western sanctions, but it is able to “solve issues related to mutually beneficial cooperation, and increasing trade.”
It is quite possible that the ruble will eventually become the main currency in bilateral trade, according to Iran’s ambassador in Moscow, Kazem Jalali: “Now more than 40 percent of trade between our countries is in rubles.”
Jalali also confirmed, crucially, that Tehran is in favor of the ruble as the main currency in all regional integration mechanisms. He was referring particularly to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), with which Iran is clinching a free trade deal.
The SEPAM-SPFS agreement starts with a pilot program supervised by Iran’s Shahr Bank and Russia’s VTB Bank. Other lenders will step in once the pilot program gets rid of any possible bugs.
The key advantage is that SEPAM and SPFS are immune to the US and western sanctions ruthlessly imposed on Tehran and Moscow. Once the full deal is up and running, all Iranian and Russian banks can be interconnected.
It is no wonder the Global South is paying very close attention. This is likely to become a landmark case in bypassing Belgium-based SWIFT – which is essentially controlled by Washington, and on a minor scale, the EU. The success of SEPAM-SPFS will certainly encourage other bilateral or even multilateral deals between states.
It’s all about the INSTC
The Central Banks of Iran and Russia are also working to establish a stable coin for foreign trade, replacing the US dollar, the ruble, and the rial. This would be a digital currency backed by gold, to be used mostly in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of Astrakhan, in the Caspian Sea, already very busy moving plenty of Iranian cargo.
Astrakhan happens to be the key Russian hub of the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), a vast network of ship, rail, and road routes which will drastically increase trade from Russia – but also parts of Europe – across Iran to West Asia and South Asia, and vice-versa.
And that reflects the full geoconomic dimension of the SEPAM-SPFS deal. The Russian Central Bank moved early to set up SPFS in 2014, when Washington began threatening Moscow with expulsion from SWIFT. Merging it with the Iranian SEPAM opens up a whole new horizon, especially given Iran’s ratification as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and now a leading candidate to join the extended BRICS+ club.
Already three months before the SEPAM-SPFS agreement, the Russian Trade Representative in Iran, Rustam Zhiganshin, was hinting that the decision “to create an analog of the SWIFT system” was a done deal.
Tehran had been preparing the infrastructure to join Russia’s Mir payment system since last summer. But after Moscow was hit with extremely harsh western sanctions and Russian banks were cut off from SWIFT, Tehran and Moscow decided, strategically, to focus on creating their own non-SWIFT for cross-border payments.
All that relates to the immensely strategic geoeconomic role of the INSTC, which is a much cheaper and faster trade corridor than the old Suez Canal route.
Russia is Iran’s largest foreign investor
Moreover, Russia has become Iran’s largest foreign investor, according to Iranian Deputy Finance Minister Ali Fekri: this includes “$2.7 billion worth of investment to two petroleum projects in Iran’s western province of Ilam in the past 15 months.” That’s about 45 percent of the total foreign investment in Iran over the October 2021 – January 2023 period.
Of course the whole process is in its initial stages – as Russia-Iran bilateral trade amounts to only US$3 billion annually. But a boom is inevitable, due to the accumulated effect of SEPAM-SPFS, INSTC, and EAEU interactions, and especially further moves to develop Iran’s energy capacity, logistics, and transport networks, via the INSTC.
Russian projects in Iran are multi-faceted: energy, railways, auto manufacturing, and agriculture. In parallel, Iran supplies Russia with food and automotive products.
Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, is fond of reminding anyone that Russia and Iran “play complementary roles in global energy and cargo transit.” The Iran-EAEU free agreement (FTA) is nearly finalized – including zero tariffs for over 7,500 commodities.
In 2022, the EAEU traded more than $800 billion worth of goods. Iran’s full access to the EAEU will be inestimable in terms of providing a market gateway to large swathes of Eurasia – and bypassing US sanctions as a sweet perk. A realistic projection is that Tehran can expect $15 billion annual trade with the five members of the EAEU in five years, as soon as Iran becomes the sixth member.
The legacy of Samarkand
Everything we are tracking now is in many ways a direct consequence of the SCO summit in Samarkand last September, when Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, in person, placed their bet on strengthening the multipolar world as Iran signed a memorandum to join the SCO.
Putin’s private talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Samarkand were all about deep strategy.
The INSTC is absolutely crucial in this overall equation. Both Russia and Iran are investing at least $25 billion to boost its capabilities.
Ships sailing the Don and Volga Rivers have always traded energy and agricultural commodities. Now Iran’s Maritime News Agency has confirmed that Russia will grant their ships the right of passage along the inland waterways on the Don and Volga.
Meanwhile, Iran is already established as the third largest importer of Russian grain. From now on, trade on turbines, polymers, medical supplies, and automotive parts will be on a roll.
Tehran and Moscow have signed a contract to build a large cargo vessel for Iran to be used at the Caspian port of Solyanka. And RZD logistics, a subsidiary of Russian railway RZD, operates container cargo trains regularly from Moscow to Iran. The Russian Journal for Economics predicts that just the freight traffic on INTSC could reach 25 million tons by 2030 – no less than a 20-fold increase compared to 2022.
Inside Iran, new terminals are nearly ready for cargo to be rolled off ships to railroads crisscrossing the country from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf. Sergey Katrin, head of Russia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is confident that once the FTA with the EAEU is on, bilateral trade can soon reach $40 billion a year.
Tehran’s plans are extremely ambitious, inserted in an “Eastern Axis” framework that privileges regional states Russia, China, India, and Central Asia.
Geostrategically and geoeconomically, that implies a seamless interconnection of INSTC, EAEU, SCO, and BRICS+. And all of this is coordinated by the one Quad that really matters: Russia, China, India, and Iran.
Of course there will be problems. The intractable Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict might be able to derail the INSTC: but note that Russia-Iran connections via the Caspian can easily bypass Baku if the need arises.
BRICS+ will cement the dollar’s descent
Apart from Russia and Iran, Russia and China have also been trying to interface their banking messaging systems for years now. The Chinese CBIBPS (Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payments System) is considered top class. The problem is that Washington has directly threatened to expel Chinese banks from SWIFT if they interconnect with Russian banks.
The success of SEPAM-SPFS may allow Beijing to go for broke – especially now, after the extremely harsh semiconductor war and the appalling balloon farce. In terms of sovereignty, it is clear that China will not accept US restrictions on how to move its own funds.
In parallel, the BRICS in 2023 will delve deeper into developing their mutual financial payments system and their own reserve currency. There are no less than 13 confirmed candidates eager to join BRICS+ – including Asian middle powers like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.
All eyes will be on whether – and how – the $30 trillion-plus indebted US will threaten to expel BRICS+ from SWIFT.
It’s enlightening to remember that Russia’s debt to GDP ratio stands at only 17 percent. China’s is 77 percent. The current BRICS without Russia are at 78 percent. BRICS+ including Russia may average only 55 percent. Strong productivity ahead will come from a BRICS+ supported by a gold and/or commodities-backed currency and a different payment system that bypasses the US dollar. Strong productivity definitely will not come from the collective west whose economies are entering recessionary times.
Amid so many intertwined developments, and so many challenges, one thing is certain. The SEPAM-SPFS deal between Russia and Iran may be just the first sign of the tectonic plates movement in global banking and payment systems.
Welcome to one, two, one thousand payment messaging systems. And welcome to their unification in a global network. Of course that will take time. But this high-speed financial train has already left the station.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 23:00 - Ominous Sign: Internet Searches For "Cancel Golf Membership" Jump
Ominous Sign: Internet Searches For “Cancel Golf Membership” Jump
Is golf still booming?
Let’s provide some context. Before the pandemic, many private golf courses were in a slump. Then Covid came along in early 2020, and by that spring, as the draconian government lockdowns expired, people raced to the courses. Private courses saw a boom as new members soared. But nearly three years later, perhaps the boom is fading.
Before we speculate why, the key phrase on Google, “cancel golf membership,” has catapulted above pre-Covid highs.
Some private courses tell us in the Mid-Atlantic region that contract renewal periods for members who joined in the early days of Covid are coming due. Some folks aren’t renewing their membership as long waitlists wither down or, in some cases, slots open up. This could be a sign that the great golf boom of the pandemic is waning.
Why did some members who joined exclusive golf courses that paid an initiation fee of more than $20,000 with monthly dues of around $1,000 opt out of renewing their contracts?
Well, we’re not entirely sure. It could be wealthy households are cutting back on expenses as the inflation storm, and recession risks spark vast uncertainty about the economy.
For our long-time readers, remember during the GFC when private courses were battered as members walked off courses due to the precarious state of the economy.
A Reuters headline from 14 years ago.
The spike in the search term “cancel golf membership,” as well as the Fed-induced slowdown in the economy, is an ominous sign rich people are beginning to pull back on spending. After all, the working poor is already maxed out.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 22:40 - 'Sickening' Account Of Mutilations, Sterilizations Prompts Sen. Josh Hawley To Investigate Transgender Clinic
‘Sickening’ Account Of Mutilations, Sterilizations Prompts Sen. Josh Hawley To Investigate Transgender Clinic
Authored by Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
After reading a whistleblower’s “sickening” revelations about a pediatric gender clinic, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said his office was launching an immediate investigation of its practices.
“This is a sickening account of forced sterilization and child abuse,” Hawley said in a tweet on Feb. 9, attaching the lengthy whistleblower account of a former employee of The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital,
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) speaks during a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight on Capitol Hill in Washington on Aug. 3, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) In an article posted by The Free Press, ex-case manager Jamie Reed calls for a nationwide halt to the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for transgender-identifying minors—practices that American lawmakers have attempted to ban in a number of states.
The Epoch Times attempted to reach a spokesperson at the St. Louis hospital, but a receptionist said that the media line was “busy”; the call then disconnected.
The hospital calls itself “the guardians of childhood.”
But Reed’s article, entitled “I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids. Now I’m Blowing the Whistle,” asserts that children are being harmed at the gender clinic.
Reed’s article includes screenshots of emails in which she repeatedly expressed concerns over parents and children lacking full awareness of the possible consequences of these medical interventions. Reed was scorned for raising alarms.
‘Stop Questioning’
She describes doctors telling her and a colleague that they had to “stop questioning the ‘medicine and the science’ as well as their authority.”
Reed said she left her job at the clinic in late 2022 because she couldn’t stomach the “morally and medically appalling” effects on children.
During Reed’s four-year stint at the clinic, about 1,000 distressed youths came there seeking help; most of them were prescribed hormones “that can have life-altering consequences–including sterility,” Reed wrote.
She thinks a nationwide halt to transgender procedures for minors is necessary “given the secrecy and lack of rigorous standards that characterize youth gender transition across the country.”
Reed said she wanted to go on with her life after she changed jobs. But she but felt compelled to disclose the truth about her experiences after reading an October 2022 article from Reuters News Service.
Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender person who ranks highly at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “said that clinics are proceeding carefully and that no American children are receiving drugs or hormones for gender dysphoria who shouldn’t,” according to Reuters.
Reed’s response to the article: “I felt stunned and sickened. It wasn’t true. And I know that from deep first-hand experience.”
She said she began documenting everything she could about her experience at the Transgender Center. Then, a couple of weeks ago, she shared her account with Missouri’s attorney general. “He is a Republican. I am a progressive. But the safety of children should not be a matter for our culture wars,” she wrote.
The Epoch Times is seeking comment from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. The Free Press article included a link to a letter that Reed wrote to Bailey.
In the letter, Reed states that she witnessed treatments continuing on children despite adverse effects.
Reed concluded her Free Press article by stating that some people refer to transgender procedures being done on minors as “experimental.” She said that’s a misnomer because experiments should be ethical and well-thought-out—unlike these treatments for children.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 22:20 - Top Gun Rights Groups And Two Dozen States All Rush To Stop ATF Rule Against Pistol Braces
Top Gun Rights Groups And Two Dozen States All Rush To Stop ATF Rule Against Pistol Braces
America’s largest gun rights advocacy groups are suing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF’s) new regulations on pistols with stabilizing braces. President Biden recently called these gun accessories “especially dangerous” weapons.
On Thursday, the National Rifle Association (NRA) filed a federal lawsuit in North Dakota that argues the ATF’s new pistol brace rule is “arbitrary” and an “abuse of power,” according to Fox News.
“The bureau is declaring that they will effectively decide on a case-by-case basis whether a firearm is subject to the NFA. Every American gun owner is in danger of potentially facing felony charges at the whim of these bureaucrats and without any new statute in place,” said Jason Ouimet, executive director, NRA Institute for Legislative Action.
NRA is joined in the lawsuit by 25 states led by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley, including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
Simultaneously, Gun Owners of America (GOA), the Gun Owners Foundation (GOF), and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the ATF on the pistol brace rule, according to Breitbart.
GOA has told us that the ATF pistol brace rule “could result in serious criminal charges for owners of up to 40 million guns if they do not register their braced firearms with ATF. ”
Use the link below to help GOA and our Congressional 2A Champions fight the ATF ⤵️https://t.co/hUdMB7aWvg
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) February 9, 2023
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GOA’s senior vice president, Erich Pratt, told Breitbart:
“Millions of Americans are facing a very tight deadline to destroy or register their lawfully owned property under this draconian new rule. We hope the court will hear the pleas of gun owners across the country who will be irrevocably harmed by this rule, and GOA stands ready to fight it at every turn.”
GOF’s Sam Paredes said:
“This rule will have some of the most wide-reaching impacts nationwide in the tyrannical history of gun control. We the People will not tolerate this abuse.”
Paxton told Breitbart:
“This is yet another attempt by the Biden Administration to create a workaround to the U.S. Constitution and expand gun registration in America. There is absolutely no legal basis for ATF’s haphazard decision to try to change the long-standing classification for stabilizing braces, force registration on Americans, and then throw them in jail for ten years if they don’t quickly comply. This rule is dangerous and unconstitutional, and I’m hopeful that this lawsuit will ensure that it is never allowed to take effect.”
Here’s more from GOA on the lawsuit.
So that’s two gun advocacy groups, the NRA and GOA, and a whole bunch of states countering the ATF pistol brace rule that affects millions of Americans.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 22:00 - Researchers Look To Turn Decommissioned Mines Into Batteries
Researchers Look To Turn Decommissioned Mines Into Batteries
Authored by Brian Westenhaus via OilPrice.com,
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Researchers are studying a new energy storage technique using decommissioned mines.
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The technique called Underground Gravity Energy Storage aims to turn abandoned mines into long-term energy storage solutions.
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The deeper and broader the mineshaft, the more power can be extracted from the plant, and the larger the mine, the higher the plant’s energy storage capacity.
Renewable energy sources are central to the energy transition toward a more sustainable future. However, as sources like sunshine and wind are inherently variable and inconsistent, finding ways to store energy in an accessible and efficient way is crucial. While there are many effective solutions for daily energy storage, the most common being batteries, a cost-effective long-term solution is still lacking.
In a new IIASA-led study, an international team of researchers developed a novel way to store energy by transporting sand into abandoned underground mines. The new technique called Underground Gravity Energy Storage (UGES) proposes an effective long-term energy storage solution while also making use of now-defunct mining sites, which likely number in the millions globally. The study paper ‘Underground Gravity Energy Storage: A Solution for Long-Term Energy Storage.’ has been published in the journal Energies.
Underground Gravity Energy Storage system: A schematic of different system sections. Image Credit: © Hunt et al. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. More information and images at the study paper link.
UGES generates electricity when the price is high by lowering sand into an underground mine and converting the potential energy of the sand into electricity via regenerative braking and then lifting the sand from the mine to an upper reservoir using electric motors to store energy when electricity is cheap. The main components of UGES are the shaft, motor/generator, upper and lower storage sites, and mining equipment. The deeper and broader the mineshaft, the more power can be extracted from the plant, and the larger the mine, the higher the plant’s energy storage capacity.
Julian Hunt, a researcher in the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program and the lead author of the study explained, “When a mine closes, it lays off thousands of workers. This devastates communities that rely only on the mine for their economic output. UGES would create a few vacancies as the mine would provide energy storage services after it stops operations. Mines already have the basic infrastructure and are connected to the power grid, which significantly reduces the cost and facilitates the implementation of UGES plants.”
Other energy storage methods, like batteries, lose energy via self-discharge over long periods. The energy storage medium of UGES is sand, meaning that there is no energy lost to self-discharge, enabling ultra-long time energy storage ranging from weeks to several years.
The investment costs of UGES are about 1 to 10 USD/kWh and power capacity costs of 2,000 USD/kW. The technology is estimated to have a global potential of 7 to 70 TWh, with most of this potential concentrated in China, India, Russia, and the USA.
Behnam Zakeri, study coauthor and a researcher in the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program offered the conclusion, “To decarbonize the economy, we need to rethink the energy system based on innovative solutions using existing resources. Turning abandoned mines into energy storage is one example of many solutions that exist around us, and we only need to change the way we deploy them.”
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This might be the furthest reach for the gravity method of storing electricity. Pumping water back above the generators has some merit as well. One might note that the mechanical losses are mentioned in the study paper for this idea, but hard to locate for the water method.
So far engineering hasn’t really started in on innovations to gain efficiency. That is a area in this field in dire need of attention.
The production costs are not covered in the press release. For those curious the study paper (Not behind a paywall at posting date.) offers much more information.
Both this type of idea and the hydro idea have yet to see a concerted effort in application. The tech isn’t at a high level and the “interesting” perspective isn’t terribly interesting.
This is simple, doable and fairly practical. One wonders why it isn’t being done. Oh, its not really needed, except where politics have cut the power supply. Good luck getting those places motivated to store some power at low cost. This is way cheaper than buying batteries even though the operation losses are noteworthy. Then getting personnel might be quite a problem as well.
It good to know it can be done. Maybe it will when politics pay more attention to practical needs than special interests’ hysterics and cash contributions.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 21:40 -
- What's At Stake In The Fresh Battle For Search Dominance
What’s At Stake In The Fresh Battle For Search Dominance
The release of OpenAI’s conversational chatbot ChatGPT late last year set off the alarm bells at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, as the company’s management viewed the nascent technology as a serious threat to its core search business. To make things worse, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is working closely with Microsoft, one of Google’s last remaining competitors in the search market (if you can even call it competition).
And sure enough, as Statista’s Felix Richter reports, Google’s worst fears with respect to ChatGPT became reality on Tuesday, when Microsoft announced a new Bing running on a next-generation OpenAI model that is “more powerful than ChatGPT” and customized specifically for search.
“AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the largest category of all – search,” Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement, calling the AI-powered versions of Bing search and Edge browser “an AI copilot for the web.”
That announcement was arguably the most obvious attack on Google and its search business since the launch of Bing in 2009. And while one could argue that Bing’s arrival hardly made a dent in Google’s dominance, this time things feel differently, as technological shifts have often coincided with shifts in the balance of power – just ask Nokia. But even if Google successfully manages to defend its dominant position in the search market, losing just a couple of percentage points in market share would translate into billions of dollars in lost advertising revenue.
You will find more infographics at Statista
According to estimates from Statista’s Digital Market Insights, global search advertising revenue amounted to $260 billion last year and could climb to $400 billion by 2026.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 21:20 - 43% Of Rural Hospitals Are In The Red: 6 Things To Know
43% Of Rural Hospitals Are In The Red: 6 Things To Know
By Andrew Cass of Becker’s Hosptial Review
With the end of pandemic-era relief programs, the rural health safety net is under renewed pressure, according to a Feb. 7 report from healthcare advisory firm Chartis Group.
Six things to know:
1. Forty-three percent of rural hospitals have negative operating margins. More than half (51 percent) of rural hospitals in non-Medicaid expansion states have negative operating margins, compared with 39 percent in expansion states.
2. There have been 143 rural hospital closures in the past 13 years, and Chartis research shows another 453 are vulnerable for closure.
3. Rural hospital closures fell from 19 in 2020 to two in 2021, but crept up to seven in 2022.
4. Between 2011 and 2019, 198 hospitals ceased to provide obstetrics. That number has since increased to 217 as of the time of the report’s release.
5. Between 2014 and 2019, 311 hospitals stopped providing chemotherapy. That number has since increased to 353.
6. Conversion requirements and other considerations make it unlikely the new rural emergency hospital designation that went into effect Jan. 1 will deliver widespread relief to the rural safety net. Of the 389 hospitals most likely to consider conversion, a Chartis data model identified 77 that are ideal candidates.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 21:00 - US State Department Funding Secret 'Disinformation' Crusade To Blacklist Conservative Media
US State Department Funding Secret ‘Disinformation’ Crusade To Blacklist Conservative Media
The US Department of State has been funding a “disinformation” tracking group through its Global Engagement Center (GEC), which reportedly works at demonetizing sites it accuses of disseminating “disinformation,” – which are overwhelmingly conservative news outlets, the Washington Examiner reports.
Graphic via the Washington Examiner The Global Disinformation Index, a British organization with two affiliated U.S. nonprofit groups, is feeding blacklists to ad companies with the intent of defunding and shutting down websites peddling alleged “disinformation,” the Washington Examiner reported. This same “disinformation” group has received $330,000 from two State Department-backed entities linked to the highest levels of government, raising concerns from First Amendment lawyers and members of Congress.
GDI through its website maintains a “dynamic exclusion list” of the worst offenders of disinformation online, which it then distributes to ad tech companies – such as Microsoft’s Xandr – in order to try and “defund and downrank these worst offenders,” and deprive said sites of ad revenue.
According to The American Conserviative executive director Emily Doak, “They might consider TAC a ‘high-risk’ publication because we have consistently taken on the bipartisan establishment’s sacred cows, whether it’s the war in Iraq, nation-building in Afghanistan, or the harm done by free trade and open borders — and we’ve been proven right time and time again,” adding “They know they can’t say we’re wrong, only that we’re biased and ‘high-risk,’ so we will wear that designation as a badge of honor.”
In 2018, the GEC began funding Disinfo Cloud, a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. The GEC awarded roughly $300,000 to an investment group called Park Advisers, which fights “disinformation, terrorism, violent extremism, hate speech” to manage Disinfo Cloud, the spokesperson said.
Park Advisers implemented Disinfo Cloud “to provide the U.S. government and its partners with a database of the tools and technologies available to help push back against foreign propaganda and disinformation,” according to its website, which links to Disinfo Cloud’s former landing page that has since been pulled off the internet. -Washington Examiner
One State Department-funded group which supports GDI is the nonprofit National Endowment for Democracy, which receives nearly 100% of its funding from congressional appropriations ($300 million in 2021), which critics have argued is essentially giving money to a government grantmaking body despite its status as a private entity.
In 2020, $230,000 went from the NED to the AN foundation, a GDI group that also goes by the Disinformation Index Foundation. The grant was to “deepen understanding of the challenges to information integrity in the digital space” in Asia, Africa and other foreign countries, and to “assess disinformation risks of local online media ecosystems.”
The Global Engagement Center notably appeared in the Twitter Files reported by @mtaibbi https://t.co/M3LM3PkkrX
— Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) February 10, 2023
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Meanwhile in September 2021, the GEC hosted the US-Paris Tech Challenge – an event which sought to “advance the development of promising and innovative technologies against disinformation and propaganda” in Europe and the UK. The event was a “collaboration with U.S. Embassy Paris, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)” and several other organizations.
Civil rights experts are appalled.
“Any outfit like that engaged in censorship shouldn’t have any contact with the government because they’re tainted by association with a group that is doing something fundamentally against American values,” said Jeffrey Clark, former acting head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division in a statement to the Examiner. “The government or any private entity shouldn’t be involved with this entity that’s engaged in conduct that is either legally questionable or at least morally questionable.”
In addition to Park Advisers and Disinfo Cloud, partners for the Paris challenge included the Atlantic Council, a major think tank, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and others, according to the State Department.
— Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) February 10, 2023
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Meanwhile, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) said: “Last year, under tremendous bipartisan pressure, I refused to reauthorize the Global Engagement Center because such a step seemed premature,” adding “The most recent allegations, if verified, confirm the need for a strict accounting of all U.S. taxpayer funds going to the GEC.”
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) says that the Biden administration is “knee deep” in left-leaning efforts to “crack down” on speech – telling the Examiner: “House Republicans will be hauling these bad actors before Congress, and I absolutely support legislation to ban federal funding of anti-free speech groups.“
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 20:40 - GoFundMe Takes Down Campaigns For Arizona Rancher Accused Of Shooting Illegal Alien
GoFundMe Takes Down Campaigns For Arizona Rancher Accused Of Shooting Illegal Alien
Authored by Lorenz Duchamps via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The GoFundMe fundraising website removed multiple campaigns that were set up to support and raise money for a 73-year-old Arizona rancher who was arrested in late January and charged with first-degree murder after allegedly shooting and killing an illegal alien who reportedly trespassed on his property.
Photo of rancher George Alan Kelly, provided by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office in Nogales, Ariz. (Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office via AP) A spokesperson for the platform told NTD in an emailed statement that the company’s terms of service “explicitly prohibit campaigns that raise money to cover the legal defense of anyone formally charged with an alleged violent crime.”
“Consistent with this long-standing policy, any fundraising campaigns for the legal defense of someone charged with murder are removed from our platform,” the spokesperson said, noting that people who donated to the fundraising campaigns for George Alan Kelly’s legal expenses “have been fully refunded.”
On Jan. 30, authorities proceeded with the arrest of Kelly after finding the body of 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Butimea, an illegal immigrant who lived in Nogales, Mexico, and allegedly crossed onto Kelly’s land. Cuen-Butimea was identified from a Mexican voter registration card he carried.
According to reports, Cuen-Butimea had entered the United States illegally on multiple occasions and was deported repeatedly.
Full details about the shooting have not been made available yet, and it is unknown whether the rancher and the deceased knew each other.
Kelly is being held at the Santa Cruz County Jail in Nogales, Arizona, and his bail was set at $1 million by Justice Emilio Velasquez. Kelly requested the judge to lower his bail in order to go back home and take care of his wife, but this motion was denied by the judge, who told Kelly that his lawyer had to file a request, which has yet to be done.
“She’s there by herself … nobody to take care of her, the livestock, or the ranch,” he said, according to Nogales International. “And I’m not going anywhere. I can’t come up with a million dollars.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 20:20 - Republican Senator "Can’t Rule Out" Revelations In Explosive Hersh Report
Republican Senator “Can’t Rule Out” Revelations In Explosive Hersh Report
Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah is a lone Congressional voice this week who admitted that Seymour Hersh’s explosive report How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline has given him serious pause.
He wrote on Twitter that he “can’t immediately rule out” the idea that the US was behind the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline sabotage. Importantly, he inquired of fellow Senators over whether they had been tipped off or notified by the Biden administration of any covert ops related to the Nord Stream pipelines.
I’m troubled that I can’t immediately rule out the suggestion that the U.S. blew up Nord Stream. I checked with a bunch of Senate colleagues. Among those I’ve asked, none were ever briefed on this. If it turns out to be true, we’ve got a huge problem. https://t.co/DG0dYTByPI
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) February 8, 2023
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He had retweeted The Daily Mail’s coverage of the bombshell Hersh article while commenting: “I’m troubled that I can’t immediately rule out the suggestion that the U.S. blew up Nord Stream.”
He added: “I checked with a bunch of Senate colleagues. Among those I’ve asked, none were ever briefed on this. If it turns out to be true, we’ve got a huge problem.”
Importantly, the Hersh report asserted that Congress wasn’t notified of the secret plan carried out by the CIA utilizing an elite team of Navy deep-sea divers because it was intentionally downgraded from being deemed a covert operation (which would require Congressional notification). Hersh had cited a source “with direct knowledge of the operational planning.”
Instead, says the Hersh report, the sabotage operation became formally a “highly classified intelligence operation with US military support” and that the change meant that there was “no longer a legal requirement to report the operation to Congress.”
A Daily Mail graphic presenting the operation as revealed in the Hersh report:
Despite Sen. Lee highlighting the revelations, the White House press pool has remained silent in terms of pressing the Biden admin. on the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist’s findings.
However, on Thursday a reporter in the State Department’s daily briefing room did inquire of the Hersh report. State Dept spokesman Ned Price tried to bat it down and move on, dismissing Hersh’s reporting “utter and complete nonsense” and which should “be rejected out of hand by anyone looking at it through an objective lens.”
Watch the tense exchange below:
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 20:00 - Concentrate Where The Murders Are Concentrated
Concentrate Where The Murders Are Concentrated
Authored by Gary Galles via The Mises Institute,
One of the principles of good public policy is to focus efforts on understanding social problems and searching for effective responses where those problems are serious, not where they are minor or missing. Local problems justify locally focused and decided policies, problems that have effects that are more widely spread justify geographically broader policies, and the broadest problems justify national policies, as illustrated by the federalism of the US Constitution, particularly the Tenth Amendment.
That such a principle is well established is illustrated by Edgar K. Browning and Jacquelene M. Browning’s textbook, Public Finance and the Price System, which I used when teaching my first such class over four decades ago and which said, “The key issue here is the geographic area over which persons necessarily benefit [or are harmed],” which requires that “care is needed in determining what types of policies are more suitable for local governments.”
However, that principle is often honored in the breach today, as politicians at higher-level governments are always trying to regulate and legislate issues that are more local in character. Why? It lets politicians in areas where the problems are greatest pretend they are a national problem rather than ones tied to their jurisdictions and policies. Further, the power to vote on national-level plans gives politicians representing other areas the leverage to “rent” their support for such programs in exchange for more of what they want through the legislative pork barrel.
Just think how many times a single event in one place starts trending, then immediately gives rise to proposals for new state or national policies as “the solution,” as is so common with issues of crime. The Monterey Park mass shooting is a good illustration. The same day it was reported in the Los Angeles Times, they ran an editorial about mass murder shootings becoming “a sickeningly frequent occurrence in America” arguing that mass shootings “have one thing in common: They have guns” and asserting that we must limit the Second Amendment in the US Constitution—not only federal law, but the highest law of the land—because “national suicide is not the compulsory price of freedom.”
The result of such broad, national responses is also poor “target efficiency,” because too little attention focuses on the more local reasons for where the problems are worse.
An excellent example of this is provided by recent research on the US murder rate by the Crime Prevention Research Center, and its president, John R. Lott Jr., whom I have known since we overlapped many years ago in the UCLA Economics PhD program. I would note that John’s work is often controversial, which also makes him a frequent subject of ad hominem attacks, because the empirical data he develops can strongly contradict what others are “selling” as the truth in some area, particularly with regard to crime. However, I have never seen him abuse logic and statistics to get a particular answer he set out to find (or was paid to, as many “researchers” are). His focus, which strongly reminds me of the work of Harold Demsetz, who taught both of us, is on designing empirical tests to differentiate among alternative explanations, then following where the evidence leads, rather than torturing evidence to create the “right” wrong answer.
Increases in homicide rates tend to be treated by state and federal politicians as if they are broadly distributed national problems to scare Americans into supporting overly broad-brush “solutions.”
But Lott’s research shows instead that “homicide rates have spiked, but most of America has remained untouched.”
Or as David Strom summarized the results, “There are vast swathes of the country where violent crime is very, very rare, and small areas of the country where it is common.” If that is true, we should focus our attention on those small areas, not on national policies poorly focused on where the actual problems are most severe.
Lott’s research, which used 2020 homicide data, examined the concentration of homicides in particular areas to see whether America’s increasing homicide problem is national or local. He let that data tell its story.
First, he focused on county-level data rather than national data. Some of the dramatic results he found:
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The worst five counties (Cook, Los Angeles, Harris, Philadelphia, and New York) accounted for about 15 percent of homicides.
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The worst 1 percent of counties (31), with 21 percent of the US population, accounted for 42 percent of the homicides.
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The worst 2 percent of counties (62), with 31 percent of the population, accounted for 56 percent of the homicides.
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The worst 5 percent of counties (155), with 47 percent of the population, accounted for 73 percent of the homicides.
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In contrast, over half of US counties (52 percent) had zero homicides in 2020, and roughly one-sixth of the counties (16 percent) had only one.
Continuing his investigation, Lott looked at even finer-scale zip code data for Los Angeles County. He found that the worst 10 percent of zip codes in the county accounted for 41 percent of the homicides, and the worst 20 percent accounted for a total of 67 percent of the homicides.
From such data, Lott concluded that: “Murder isn’t a nationwide problem.” Instead, “It’s a problem in a small set of urban areas, and even in those counties murders are concentrated in small areas inside them, and any solution must reduce those murders.”
Despite the constant political and media drumbeat to portray homicides as a national problem that threatens everyone everywhere, and thus demands national solutions in line with what the political Left wants, the evidence points us in a far more local direction.
That may well explain the political reason for the volume and persistence of that drumbeat. It provides camouflage for those whose policies (and those who support them) would come under far greater scrutiny if people recognized just how concentrated homicides are and then asked what is different in those places, rather than the “blame America first” bromides they are routinely misdirected toward today.
But that means if we really cared about those most harmed by the murder rate, rather than imposing broader-than-necessary restrictions on Americans, it is important to follow the evidence so many would prefer to keep hidden.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 19:40 -
- First LNG Tanker Arrives At Freeport's Texas Terminal Since 2022 Explosion
First LNG Tanker Arrives At Freeport’s Texas Terminal Since 2022 Explosion
About one day after federal energy regulators approved Freeport LNG’s request to return vessels to its loading docks, the second-largest US LNG export plant on the Gulf Coast received its first LNG tanker.
For more on today’s developments. Here’s what Houston-based energy firm Criterion Research emailed clients:
Freeport LNG made a significant step forward this afternoon with the arrival of its first LNG tanker since June 2022. The Kmarin Diamond is now onsite and at Dock 1, just a day after the FERC gave Freeport permission to return Loop 1 back online, and use Dock 1 for ship loading.
The ship may or may not load down a full cargo, and we believe that the tanker will allow Freeport to offload LNG that has been stored in Tanks #1 and #2 since the terminal shut down.
Last week, they were granted approval to “commence commissioning, including cooldown, of the LNG rundown piping system and LNG train 3 (Unit 13).” Freeport is reportedly working through cooldown on Train 3 and rundown work on the line to Tank 2. There is a chance that they start flowing liquefied gas over the weekend as part of that process.
Clearly, they have been flowing at very low rates, with cumulative flows into the terminal since January 1, 2023, totaling 596 Mmcf if you count Coastal Bend and TETCO’s Stratton Ridge station, which both feed directly into the terminal. If you also include the indirect TETCO-BIG station, that total increases to 1,403 Bcf.
The terminal still has not requested approval from the FERC to reinstate service of the liquefaction trains, including rundown piping to tanks, so they are not yet bringing in feed gas for liquefaction. They will need to make that request and receive approval before the resumption of commercial service can start.
Some analysts do not expect a partial restart of the LNG export facility until the end of this month.
Traders want to know how US natural gas prices reacted to this news. Well, NatGas futures are up about 5% late in the cash session. Though we should note a combination of a warm winter, soaring production, and adequate supply has led to a 74% plunge in prices since August.
And for a full restart, Freeport still has to ask federal energy regulators for approval.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 19:20 - Without Subsidies, How Many People Will Buy An EV?
Without Subsidies, How Many People Will Buy An EV?
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,
Sales in Germany plunge after subsidies were reduced…
Think Twice About Electric Vehicles
The Wall Street Journal reports Germans Think Twice About Electric Vehicles
Sales of fully electric vehicles (EVs) fell 13.2% in January compared to January 2022, Germany’s Motor Transport Authority reports. Sales of hybrids declined 6.2%. This compares to an increase of 3.5% in the number of new gasoline-powered cars sold, and a modest decline of 1.2% for diesel.
The main explanation is the end of Berlin’s subsidies for EVs and hybrids at the new year. Until December the subsidy had offered up to €9,000 split between consumer and producer for EVs with a net list price below €40,000. Hybrids in that price range received €6,750. Berlin has ditched the subsidy for hybrids entirely, and cut the payout to €4,500 for EVs below €40,000.
This year will thus be a market test for electric vehicle demand in the Vatican of climate-change belief. Politicians in the West have used subsidies and mandates to drive EV sales, no matter that they aren’t as green as their advertising. The cars are only as carbon-friendly to operate as the power grids they refuel from, and Berlin’s refusal to embrace nuclear power means Germany is burning more coal to cover for the end of natural-gas imports from Russia. Then there’s the environmental cost of mining for all that cobalt, copper and lithium for EVs and their batteries.
If consumers want to buy EVs, go for it. But what does it say about their appeal if people need subsidies to buy them?
Can the Power Grid Handle a Wave of New Electric Vehicles?
Also consider the question Can the Power Grid Handle a Wave of New Electric Vehicles?
Experts believe EVs will make up a third or even half of all light vehicles sold annually in the U.S. by 2030, up from about 7% in 2022.
If those predictions are correct, that leaves a big question: Will the power grid be capable of charging the batteries in those tens of millions of vehicles?
Some grid operators already are struggling to keep up with demand in certain areas and at certain times—California power authorities, for example, asked residents to avoid charging electric cars in the evening during a heat wave last September to help avoid overloading the grid, while utility officials in other areas have warned at times of possible rolling blackouts to prevent system collapses.
First, the good news: Many experts think the utility industry will be ready to generate enough power for the coming EV wave, thanks to planned capacity increases costing hundreds of billions of dollars.
But that isn’t the whole story. The potential for much more serious bottlenecks looms in the local legs of the grid that transmit electricity to individual homes and businesses. Expensive upgrades could be needed for these neighborhood power-distribution systems. Additional spending will be needed to bolster the wires and transformers serving commercial sites as electric trucks and delivery vans become common.
Combined, all these investments likely would result in higher electric rates, many industry analysts say. “The more they invest in the grid, the more those costs go back to consumers,” says Brad Stansberry, U.S. energy advisory leader at audit and consulting firm KPMG.
Let that last sentence paragraph in. Utilities will have to spend a lot of money to add capacity. It will cost even more if the capacity is a clean energy input source.
Cleaner energy will eventually come from solar, but how do we get that energy to Chicago? At what price?
I still wonder how the heck an evacuation of Florida happens when everyone needs to drive hundreds of miles to escape a hurricane.
Are you convinced we have enough lithium, nickel, and other materials to make enough batteries? I am not. The more EVs we do build, the more metals we need. At what cost, and at how much pollution mining them?
Distance and Convenience
For me, it’s all about distance and convenience.
It’s convenient to charge at home, provided you don’t go anywhere. I dive long distances and to the middle of nowhere frequently.
It is not so convenient to have to stop whatever you are doing to charge a vehicle (assuming you can find a charger in the middle of nowhere) or to rent a car if you want to drive five hours straight.
EV Sales Spiked in California
For a different take, Wolf Street reports EV Sales Spiked in California. First Uptick in Electricity Sales after 13 Years of Decline
But what about subsidies and the extraordinarily high price of gasoline in California?
* * *
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 19:00 - So Much For Billionaires: Joe Biden's IRS Is Now Coming For Waiters And Waitresses' Tips
So Much For Billionaires: Joe Biden’s IRS Is Now Coming For Waiters And Waitresses’ Tips
The Biden administration’s lip service about new IRS enforcement only being targeted toward the country’s wealthiest appears to be just that: lip service.
Instead, while we have been distracted with rhetoric about billionaires paying their fair share, the Biden Administration’s IRS is actually looking to stock its coffers with the tips of waiters and waitresses across the country. This newly planned targeting of middle-class Americans was proposed this week.
Earlier this week the IRS proposed a new procedure to “improve tip reporting compliance”, as they so brilliantly put it. Fox News reported:
As part of the program, which wouldn’t go into effect until after a multi-month public comment period, the IRS could withdraw liability protection related to “rules that define tips as part of an employee’s pay” from employers that don’t cooperate.
The program can’t go into effect until it makes it through a multi-month comment period, Fox News reported.
Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., the chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax, told Fox this week: “Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Now, the IRS is going after middle-income families and working moms and dads who are just trying to make ends meet and put food on the table.”
“My colleagues and I have warned for months that the IRS would start targeting hardworking Americans in the Biden administration’s quest for more taxpayer dollars. Now, we’re starting to see some of these concerns come to fruition,” he continued.
Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., another senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, agreed.
Smith said: “Bank surveillance efforts, 1099-Ks, 87,000 new IRS agents to target taxpayers, and now a new program to go after service industry workers’ tips are all a direct result of the Biden administration’s desire to tax working families and small businesses as much as possible.”
Smith continued: “Make no mistake: the administration’s many attempts at raising revenue are because they are unwilling to come to the table to address the debt crisis, which would require curbing their spending addiction.”
“The days of one-party rule are over, and House Republicans will use our majority to ensure hardworking families are not subject to higher taxes and more government mandates, especially not as they struggle under soaring inflation. Accountability is here – the Biden administration has some explaining to do.”
Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Calif, commented: “When the IRS comes after you, it’s not voluntary. Families across the country are struggling with record inflation and fighting to make ends meet. The last thing waitresses and waiters need is to be targeted by their own government.”
Steel continued: “The House’s first order of business this year was to pass my bill to defund President Biden’s army of 87,000 IRS agents that were ready to increase audits on middle- and lower-income American families. This new rule doesn’t add up with President Biden’s claim that he will never come after anyone earning less than $400,000 a year. I strongly oppose this proposed rule and I urge President Biden to reverse course immediately.”
Mike Palicz, federal affairs manager at Americans for Tax Reform said the IRS’ goal is “to go and grab as much revenue as possible and from whoever they can.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 18:40 - 9 Things You Need To Know About Paxlovid
9 Things You Need To Know About Paxlovid
Authored by Dr. Yuhong Dong via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Do you know when Paxlovid should be used to treat COVID-19? Are you aware of the reasons for the mixed results of its phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trial data versus its real-life studies? Do you know what the most significant concern about Paxlovid is for its future application in treating COVID-19?
Reputed as a so-called “game-changer” oral antiviral pill to treat COVID-19, Paxlovid can prevent hospitalization and death in people who are at high risk of severe COVID-19. However, you should know that the research findings on Paxlovid are not always what they seem to be.
We will provide a balanced, unbiased review related to Paxlovid’s development history, clinical trial and real-world effectiveness data, and the drug’s advantages and limitations. We will also clarify the connection between oral antivirals and human immunity.
Summary of Key Facts
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Paxlovid Is Not Yet Approved by the FDA
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Paxlovid Should Be Used Soon After Virus Infection
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Clinical Trial: 89% Efficacy With Side Effects of Dysgeusia and Diarrhea
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Paxlovid Doesn’t Work in Younger Patients
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In a Real-World Study, Paxlovid Has Shown Limited Effectiveness
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Finding “Treatable” Patients Has Proven Challenging
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Drug Resistance Is a Major Concern
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Another Major Concern Is Paxlovid’s Interaction With Other Drugs
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Natural Immunity Influences the Success of Paxlovid and Other Antivirals
Pfizer’s Paxlovid contains two active ingredients. The first is nirmatrelvir (PF-07321332), a protease inhibitor that interrupts the viral replication cycle.
The action of viral protease is like a pair of scissors in the hands of a tailor. The protease can cut the long synthesized viral protein (like a piece of cloth) into various fragments with different functions. The virus will combine these protein fragments into a complete virus particle.
When the protease of the virus is inhibited, the virus is not able to replicate successfully; thus, protease is often treated as a therapeutic target by the pharmaceutical industry.
The other active ingredient of Paxlovid is an old HIV drug, ritonavir. Ritonavir is an HIV protease inhibitor that can help slow down the metabolism or breakdown of nirmatrelvir, thus maintaining nirmatrelvir’s effective concentrations.
1. Paxlovid Is Not Yet Approved by the FDA
On Dec. 22, 2021, the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir tablets co-packaged with ritonavir tablets) to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19.
On June 30, 2022, Pfizer filed a New Drug Application (NDA) with the FDA, seeking approval for Paxlovid. As of today, however, it has not been approved by the FDA for the treatment of COVID-19.
2. Paxlovid Should Be Used Soon After Virus Infection
A group of researchers, mainly from Pfizer Worldwide Research, published an article in Science on Nov. 2, 2021, about the discovery and characterization of Paxlovid. In vitro antiviral activity of Paxlovid has been evaluated in multiple cellular models. In vitro testing showed that Paxlovid demonstrated potent antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and other similar coronaviruses.
However, the researchers noted that Paxlovid should be given very soon after a subject is infected with COVID-19.
When given to mice as early as four hours after infection with SARS-CoV-2, a 300 or 1,000 mg/kg treatment of Paxlovid was effective in reducing the SARS-CoV-2 viral load in the lungs.
This means Paxlovid should be taken as early as possible post-virus infection. That is also the rationale for the inclusion criteria: only patients within five days of symptom onset were recruited in phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials. In other words, if the viral infection is in a late stage and the illness is more severe, Paxlovid may not be as helpful as it is for early infection.
It is worth mentioning that the start time of giving Paxlovid treatment, four hours after the virus infected animals, was even shorter than another antiviral, molnupiravir, which was dosed at 12 hours and 36 hours after virus infection in animals.
3. Clinical Trial: 89% Efficacy With Side Effects of Dysgeusia and Diarrhea
The findings of phase 2–3 double-blind, randomized, controlled trial supported by Pfizer were published on Feb. 16, 2022, in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The trial involved 2,246 symptomatic, unvaccinated, non-hospitalized adult patients who were at high risk for developing severe COVID-19 symptoms, and symptom onset was no more than five days. They were randomly selected to receive either Paxlovid 300 mg with other standard care or a placebo with other traditional medicine twice a day for five days.
The final analysis, involving 1,379 patients, showed that Paxlovid reduced the risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization or death by 89 percent, compared to the placebo group when given less than five days after symptom onset.
The main side effects observed with Paxlovid vs. control were dysgeusia (a taste disorder, 5.6 percent versus 0.3 percent) and diarrhea (3.1 percent versus 1.6 percent), both higher than the placebo group. This indicates potential side effects on the neurological and gastroenterological systems.
Again, consistent with the development concept of this drug and aligned with its animal data, the drug has to be taken at an early stage of infection. Most patients (66.3 percent) received the first dose of the trial drug or placebo within three days after the onset of symptoms.
In the real world, not many patients can take the drug in the first onset days, especially during the current Omicron era, as most patients may view their symptoms as a common cold and may not be aware of having contracted COVID-19.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 18:20 -
- Sanctions Made India Indispensable To The Global Energy Market
Sanctions Made India Indispensable To The Global Energy Market
Authored by Andrew Korybko via The Automatic Earth blog,
Indian media revealed in mid-January that their country had been processing and re-exporting discounted Russian oil to the West, including the US, in a move that discredited the spirit of that de facto New Cold War bloc’s anti-Russian sanctions.
Most observers brushed off those reports since they went against their worldview wherein it was taken for granted that the US-led West’s Golden Billion wouldn’t ever relieve pressure on Russia by having India serve as the middleman in their oil trade.
According to an expert quoted by Bloomberg in their latest report titled “Oil’s New Map: How India Turns Russia Crude Into The West’s Fuel”, “India’s willingness to buy more Russian crude at a steeper discount is a feature, not a bug, in the plan of Western nations to impose economic pain on Putin without imposing it on themselves.”
Another one was cited as saying that “US treasury officials have two main goals: keep the market well supplied, and deprive Russia of oil revenue.”
That other expert added that “They are aware that Indian and Chinese refiners can earn bigger margins by buying discounted Russian crude and exporting products at market prices. They’re fine with that.” This insight from Bloomberg, which is held in high regard as one of the world’s premier business outlets, completely shifts the paradigm through which observers interpret the energy dimension of the Golden Billion’s anti-Russian sanctions.
The “official narrative” up until this point was that they were aimed bankrupting the Kremlin in the hopes that it would immediately stop its ongoing special operation and perhaps even “Balkanize” if the desired economic collapse catalyzed uncontrollable socio-political processes like during the late 1980s. The New York Times recently admitted that the anti-Russian sanctions failed, however, pointing to reputable evidence that this targeted state’s economy has stopped contracting and even began to grow.
In the face of these “politically inconvenient” facts, it was thus foreseeable in hindsight that the “official narrative” would have to more comprehensively change in an attempt for the Golden Billion to “save face” before its people, ergo Bloomberg’s latest contribution to this perception management end. The public is now being gaslighted into thinking that the sanctions were never meant to bankrupt the Kremlin, stop its special operation, or “Balkanize” Russia, but just erode a little bit of its revenue.
The reality is that the outcome reported upon by Bloomberg is indeed a “bug” and not a “feature” like they’re claiming in hindsight out of desperation to revise history for self-interested soft power reasons. The Golden Billion didn’t fully forecast the lasting consequences of their sanctions since they naively took for granted that they’d immediately bankrupt the Kremlin, stop its special operation, and subsequently “Balkanize” Russia, none of which ultimately transpired.
They can’t rescind their unilateral economic restrictions though since that would be an unprecedented soft power victory for Russia, hence why they began putting feelers out across the market to explore alternative workarounds for ensuring the reliability of their imports, albeit at a premium. India’s pragmatic policy of principled neutrality towards the Ukrainian Conflict in full defiance of US demands upon it to “isolate” Russia ended up being an inadvertent godsend for the West in this context.
Had that globally significant Great Power not ramped up its purchase of Russian oil to the extent that it did in order to withstand the systemic shocks caused by the West’s sanctions and which destabilized dozens of fellow Global South states, then there wouldn’t be excess supply for re-export. After helping them meet their needs, which wasn’t part of some “5D chess master plan” between India and the West but the organic outcome of how events unfolded, they reduced their pressure upon it as a quid pro quo.
It was difficult to explain late last year why the US noticeably began reducing pressure on India to distance itself from Russia, but it was thought at the time that this was simply a delayed recognition of geostrategic reality and was being done for pragmatism’s sake to retain their strategic ties. Now, however, it appears as though India’s indispensable role in the global energy market as the middleman in facilitating the now-taboo Russian-Western energy trade played a role in the US’ policy recalibration.
From this insight, it can be concluded that India succeeded not only in resisting US-led Western pressure upon it vis-à-vis its relations with Russia, but also unwittingly ended up doing the Golden Billion a favor in the process by placing itself in the position to ensure the reliability of their energy imports. This observation speaks to its newfound role as the kingmaker in the New Cold War, which will imbue it with increasingly more influence within the global systemic transition the longer that this struggle continues.
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 17:40 - Chinese Balloon's Large 'Reconnaissance Section' Located, But Still Hasn't Been Retrieved
Chinese Balloon’s Large ‘Reconnaissance Section’ Located, But Still Hasn’t Been Retrieved
US officials in Friday press briefings revealed that the large undercarriage of the Chinese balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast last Saturday has been located.
Officials are dubbing it the alleged spy balloon’s “reconnaissance section” – and are describing it as so large, at about 30-feet-long or more, that it will need a specialized crane or winch to recover.
Sailors assigned to Assault Craft Unit (ACU) Four during recovery efforts. Source: US Navy This means recovery efforts could take days longer, the officials explained, also given bad weather moving into the area.
“A second U.S official also told ABC News that while the main reconnaissance section of the balloon has been found, recovery operations have been suspended until Monday because of rough waters,” ABC reports. “The official said the rough weather was outside the window under which Navy divers could safely conduct operations.”
There’s now fear that some of the debris on the ocean floor could be moved by currents related to the bad weather, for which measures are being take to track the objects.
New photographs of the ongoing recovery efforts were also released Friday, showing a large-scale effort with specialized maritime equipment underway.
Given that the ‘reconnaissance section’ of the downed balloon has still not been recovered, as the new information confirms, this makes FBI statements issued within the last two days a bit dubious.
Via US Navy By mid-week, FBI and other US officials had been describing ‘surveillance’ equipment and antennas observed on the balloon; however, it was left vague whether this was based on direct forensic analysis of the recovered evidence or not, even while acknowledging the FBI was examining some of the debris.
Media headlines suggested that spy equipment had definitively been recovered, but clearly it hasn’t yet, given that the most important part of the balloon remains on the ocean floor.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 02/10/2023 – 17:20
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