- Where Poverty Risk Is Rising Fastest In Europe
Where Poverty Risk Is Rising Fastest In Europe
New initial estimates by Eurostat have revealed the potential effect the pandemic year 2020 had on the most economically at-risk in the European Union.
The losses in employment income were largely due to the unprecedented rise in the number of workers absent from work or working reduced hours. However, the usual government transfers and taxes as well as temporary policies helped to offset the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on disposable household income.
As Statista’s Martin Armstrong shows in the infographic below, increases in working age adults at-risk-of-poverty were measured in Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria and Sweden.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Elsewhere, the situation remained more or less static, while Estonia record a decrease.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/14/2021 – 02:45 - US Deploys F-16s To Bulgaria For Yet Another Black Sea Exercise
US Deploys F-16s To Bulgaria For Yet Another Black Sea Exercise
Authored by Rick Rozoff via AntiWar.com,
Eight US F-16 multirole combat aircraft arrived at the Graf Ignatievo Air Base in Bulgaria on July 9 for this year’s iteration of the Thracian Star military exercise. The joint American-Bulgarian air force exercise is being conducted to, according to US Air Forces in Europe and Air Force Africa, “enhance the ability to rapidly deploy to remote locations and provide credible force to assure stability for the region.”
The region is the Black Sea, where what the US and NATO consider “temporarily-occupied territory,” Crimea, and the Russian Black Sea Fleet are located. Not far beyond are the South Caucasus, the Donbass and the Middle East (for example, Syria and Iran).
Image via Atlantic Club of Bulgaria/Lockheed Martin The F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft arrived from the Aviano Air Base, Italy, which was employed for NATO’s bombing campaigns in Bosnia and Kosovo, and airmen from the 435th Combat Training Squadron and the 4th Combat Training Squadron deployed from Ramstein, Germany where both US Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa and NATO Allied Air Command have their headquarters. The latter two share a commander, as do NATO as a whole (Supreme Allied Commander Europe) and US European Command and US Naval Forces in Europe and Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO.
As with other US-led air combat drills, Thracian Star 21 will provide the American Air Force the opportunity of engaging in mock combat encounters with Russian-designed aircraft. Bulgaria is providing Sukhoi SU-25 ground attack aircraft and Mi-24 helicopters for the purpose; in the past it has also supplied MiG-29 jet fighters, but will not do so this year because the crash of one last month which killed a Bulgarian pilot. But the host nation will provide anti-aircraft missile units. Maneuvers will occur in the air space of Bulgaria, Greece and Romania. Another description of the exercise states it will “include offensive counter air and defensive counter air, protection of high value assets, and close air support in a contested environment.”
In the past the exercise has included as many as 32 F-16s.
The Graf Ignatievo Air Base also hosts the regular Thracian Viper air force exercises. Last year’s version was described by its director of operations as “important because it gives us the opportunity to strengthen our relationship with Bulgaria and NATO.”
.@PentagonPresSec: In Bulgaria, Exercise Thracian Star 21 kicked off today. pic.twitter.com/Fx3aenNPAT
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) July 12, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The current exercise follows on the heels of several other U.S. activities and actions in the region:
- The US and 31 allies and partners completed the two-week Sea Breeze war games in the Black Sea on July 10.
- The Pentagon led the Swift Response airborne exercise in Bulgaria and Romania (as well as Estonia) in May with over 7,000 troops from 11 nations as part of the mammoth DEFENDER Europe 21 exercises.
- Five American warships, including four guided-missile/interceptor-missile destroyers and cruisers, have been deployed to the Black Sea this year independent of the series of U.S./NATO exercises held there.
- In June US B52 strategic bombers flew over the Black Sea escorted by Turkish F-16s.
- The US announced it is funding a $152-million construction project in Romania to transform the air base in Câmpia Turzii into a “new major hub for NATO aircraft in the Black Sea region.“
- In May the U.S. participated in the Trojan Footprint special operations forces exercise in Black Sea nations Bulgaria, Georgia and Romania as well as in Montenegro and North Macedonia.
Bulgaria and Romania were inducted into NATO at its summit in Turkey in 2004. The following year the US signed an agreement with Romania to secure the use of five military bases, including the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, Babadag Training Range, Cincu Training Range and Smârdan Training Range.
Earlier this year the US announced it was going to base both surveillance and combat drones (MQ-9 Reapers) at the Romanian Air Force Base 71 at Câmpia Turzii.
The Mihail Kogălniceanu base was used for the US’s attack against Iraq even before Romania joined NATO, and since for the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. It serves as the home of NATO Enhanced Air Policing in the Black Sea region and hosts the U.S. Army Europe’s Black Sea Area Support Group.
In 2006 the U.S. signed a complementary military agreement with Bulgaria for the deployment of American troops and equipment to the Bezmer Air Base, Graf Ignatievo Air Base, Novo Selo Range and Aitos Logistics Center in Bulgaria.
The Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base and the Graf Ignatievo Air Base are among the most important American military bases outside the US. They have been expanded and upgraded since Washington gained access to them 15-16 years ago. They were the first military bases the Pentagon gained access to in former Warsaw Pact nations. They have not been the last.
The Deveselu airbase in Romania, closed in 2003 but reopened by the U.S. in 2015, now contains U.S.-NATO Standard Missile-3 Block IB interceptor missiles.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/14/2021 – 02:00 - Escobar: New 'Great Game' Gets Back To Basics
Escobar: New ‘Great Game’ Gets Back To Basics
Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times,
Russia-China-Iran alliance is taking Afghanistan’s bull by the horns…
The Great Game: This lithograph by British Lieutenant James Rattray shows Shah Shuja in 1839 after his enthronement as Emir of Afghanistan in the Bala Hissar (fort) of Kabul. Rattray wrote: ‘A year later the sanctity of the scene was bloodily violated: Shah Shuja was murdered.’ Photo: Wikipedia
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is on a Central Asian loop all through the week. He’s visiting Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The last two are full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, founded 20 years ago.
The SCO heavyweights are of course China and Russia. They are joined by four Central Asian “stans” (all but Turkmenistan), India and Pakistan. Crucially, Afghanistan and Iran are observers, alongside Belarus and Mongolia.
And that leads us to what’s happening this Wednesday in Dushanbe, the Tajik capital. The SCO will hold a 3 in 1: meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group, and a conference titled “Central and South Asia: Regional Connectivity, Challenges and Opportunities.”
At the same table, then, we will have Wang Yi, his very close strategic partner Sergey Lavrov and, most importantly, Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar. They’ll be debating trials and tribulations after the hegemon’s withdrawal and the miserable collapse of the myth of NATO “stabilizing” Afghanistan.
Let’s game a possible scenario: Wang Yi and Lavrov tell Atmar, in no uncertain terms, that there’s got to be a national reconciliation deal with the Taliban, brokered by Russia-China, with no American interference, including the end of the opium-heroin ratline.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi chats with guests after the opening ceremony of the Lanting Forum in Beijing on June 25. Photo: AFP / Jade Gao
Russia-China extract from the Taliban a firm promise that jihadism won’t be allowed to fester. The endgame: loads of productive investment, Afghanistan is incorporated to Belt and Road and – later on – to the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).
The SCO’s joint statement on Wednesday will be particularly enlightening, perhaps detailing how the organization plans to coordinate a de facto Afghan peace process farther down the road.
In this scenario, the SCO now has the chance to implement what it has been actively discussing for years: that only an Asian solution to the Afghan drama applies.
Sun Zhuangzhi, executive director of the Chinese Research Center of the SCO, sums it all up: the organization is capable of coming up with a plan mixing political stability, economic and security development and a road map for infrastructure development projects.
The Taliban agree. Spokesman Suhail Shaheen has stressed, “China is a friendly country that we welcome for reconstruction and developing Afghanistan.”
On the Silk Road again
After economic connectivity, another SCO motto encouraged by Beijing since the early 2000s is the necessity to fight the “three evils”: terrorism, separatism and extremism. All SCO members are very much aware of jihadi metastases threatening Central Asia – from ISIS-Khorasan to shady Uighur factions currently fighting in Idlib in Syria, as well as the (fading) Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
The Taliban is a way more complex case. It’s still branded as a terrorist organization by Moscow. Yet on the new, fast-evolving chessboard, both Moscow and Beijing know the importance of engaging the Taliban in high-stakes diplomacy.
Taliban fighters have taken large swathes of Afghanistan in the past two weeks. Photo: AFP / Aref Karimi
Wang Yi has already impressed upon Islamabad – Pakistan is a SCO member – the need to set up a trilateral mechanism, with Beijing and Kabul, to advance a feasible political solution to Afghanistan while managing the security front.
Here, from China’s point of view, it’s all about the multi-layered China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), to which Beijing plans to incorporate Kabul. Here is a detailed CPEC progress update.
Building blocks include the deal struck between China Telecom and Afghan Telecom already in 2017 to build a Kashgar-Faizabad fiber optic cable system and then expand it toward a China-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan Silk Road system.
Directly connected is the deal signed in February among Islamabad, Kabul and Tashkent to build a railway that in fact may establish Afghanistan as a key crossroads between Central and South Asia. Call it the SCO corridor.
All of the above was solidified by a crucial trilateral meeting last month among China-Pakistan-Afghanistan Foreign Ministers. Team Ghani in Kabul renewed its interest in being connected to Belt and Road – which translates in practice into an expanded CPEC. The Taliban said exactly the same thing last week.
Wang Yi knows very well that jihadism is bound to target CPEC. Not Afghanistan’s Taliban, though. And not the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), as quite a few CPEC projects (fiber optics, for instance) will improve infrastructure in Peshawar and environs.
Afghanistan in trade connectivity with CPEC and a key node of the New Silk Roads could not make more sense – even historically, as Afghanistan was always embedded in the ancient Silk Roads. Crossroads Afghanistan is the missing link in the connectivity equation between China and Central Asia. The devil, of course, will be in the details.
The Iranian equation
Then, to the West, there’s the Iranian equation. The recently solidified Iran-China strategic partnership may eventually lead to closer integration, with CPEC expanded to Afghanistan. The Taliban are keenly aware of it. As part of their current diplomatic offensive, they have been to Tehran and made all the right noises towards a political solution.
Their joint statement with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif privileges negotiations with Kabul. The Taliban commit to refrain from attacking civilians, schools, mosques, hospitals and NGOs.
Tehran – an observer at the SCO and on the way to becoming a full member – is actively talking to all Afghan actors. No fewer than four delegations were visiting last week. The head of Kabul’s team was former Afghan Vice President Yunus Qanooni (a former warlord, as well), while the Taliban were led by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who commands their political office in Doha. This all implies serious business.
There are already 780,000 registered Afghan refugees in Iran, living in refugee villages along the border and not allowed to settle in major cities. But there are also at least 2.5 million illegals. No wonder Tehran needs to pay attention. Zarif once again is in total synch with Lavrov – and with Wang Yi, for that matter: a non-stop war of attrition between the Kabul government and the Taliban could lead only to “unfavorable” consequences.
The question, for Tehran, revolves around the ideal framework for negotiations. That would point to the SCO. After all, Iran has not participated in the snail-paced Doha mechanism for over two years now.
Aerial view of Mashhad. Photo: Wikipedia
A debate is raging in Tehran on how to deal practically with the new Afghan equation. As I saw for myself in Mashhad less than three years ago, migration from Afghanistan – this time from skilled workers fleeing the Taliban advance – may actually help the Iranian economy.
The director general of the West Asia desk at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Rasoul Mousavi, goes straight to the point:
“The Taliban yield” to the Afghan people. “They are not separated from Afghanistan’s traditional society, and they have always been part of it. Moreover, they have military power.”
On the ground in western Afghanistan, in Herat – linked by a very busy highway corridor across the border to Mashhad – things are more complicated. The Taliban now control most of Herat province, apart from two districts.
Legendary local warlord Ismail Khan, now in his mid-70s, and carrying an overloaded history of fighting the Taliban, has deployed militias to guard the city, the airport and its outskirts.
Yet the Taliban have already vowed, in diplomatic talks with China, Russia and Iran, that they are not planning to “invade” anyone – be it Iran or the Central Asian “stans.” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen has been adamant that cross-border trade in different latitudes, from Islam Quilla (in Iran) to Torghundi (in Turkmenistan) and across northern Tajikistan will “remain open and functional.”
That non-withdrawal withdrawal
In a fast-evolving situation, the Taliban now control at least half of Afghanistan’s 400 districts and are “contesting” dozens of others. They are policing some key highways (you can’t go on the road from Kabul to Kandahar, for instance, and avoid Taliban checkpoints). They do not hold any major city, yet. At least 15 of 34 regional capitals – including strategic Mazar-i-Sharif – are encircled.
Afghan news media, always very lively, have started to ask some tough questions. Such as: ISIS/Daesh did not exist in Iraq before the 2003 US invasion and occupation. So how come ISIS-Khorasan emerged right under NATO’s noses?
Within the SCO, as diplomats told me, there’s ample suspicion that the US deep state agenda is to fuel the flames of imminent civil war in Afghanistan and then extend it to the Central Asian “stans,” complete with shady jihadi commandos mixed with Uighurs also destabilizing Xinjiang.
This being the case, the non-withdrawal withdrawal – what with all those remaining 18,000 Pentagon contractors/mercenaries, plus special forces and CIA black op types – would be a cover, allowing Washington a new narrative spin: the Kabul government has invited us to fight a “terrorist” re-emergence and prevent a spiral towards civil war.
The protracted endgame would read like win-win hybrid war for the deep state and its NATO arm.
Well, not so fast. The Taliban have warned all the “stans” in no uncertain terms about hosting US military bases. And even Hamid Karzai is on the record: enough with American interference.
All these scenarios will be discussed in detail this Wednesday in Dushanbe. As well as the bright part: the – now very feasible – future incorporation of Afghanistan to the New Silk Roads.
Back to the basics: Afghanistan returns, in style, to the heart of the 21st Century New Great Game.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/14/2021 – 00:05 - Super Mario 64 Video Game Sells For "World Record" $1.5 Million At Auction
Super Mario 64 Video Game Sells For “World Record” $1.5 Million At Auction
It was only last week when auction house Heritage Auctions sold The Legend of Zelda for the old Nintendo Entertainment System for a “world record” sum of $870,000. Days later, the record has been beaten with the sale of a $1.56 million sealed copy of the video game Super Mario 64.
We said: “the high demand for old-school consoles and cartridges is driving up prices, and it’s only a matter of time before a video game is sold for a million-plus.”
But didn’t believe the world record would be shattered in a matter of days…
Heritage Auctions said video game collectible firm Wata graded the Super Mario 64 cartridge at a 9.8 A++ rating, a rating that means it’s in a near-perfect state or “like new.”
According to the auction house, there were “fewer than five” copies in this state. Here are other Super Mario 64 cartridges with lower ratings, selling between $38,400 to $2,400.
However, Kelsey Lewin, a director at California’s Video Game History Foundation, tweeted: “despite a lack of population reports, there are many known sealed Super Mario 64 first prints”.
It’s only a matter of time before a video game cartridge sells for more than $2 million.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 23:45 - Six Facts The Left Doesn't Want You To Know About Global Warming
Six Facts The Left Doesn’t Want You To Know About Global Warming
Authored by David Simon via RealClearMarkets.com,
President Biden implores us that climate change is an “existential threat” to humanity.
Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry preaches to us that “[t]he climate crisis as a whole is a national security threat because it is disruptive to the daily lives of human beings all over the world.” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warns us that in 2030, “the world is going to end … if we don’t address climate change.”
Hold on to your wallet.
The Left’s global warming Chicken Littles insist that the sky is falling but don’t want you to know six key facts.
First, in his new book “Unsettled,” Obama Administration Department of Energy chief scientist Steven Koonin shows that the models relied upon by the Left to predict future global warming are so poor that they cannot even reproduce the temperature changes in the 20th century.
If these models cannot reproduce past temperatures already known when the models were developed, how can they possibly reliably predict temperatures decades into the future?
Second, Koonin’s book also documents that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s own analysis indicates that any negative economic impact that global warming eventually may have will be so modest that it warrants no action.
Third, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the UN IPPC do not claim that a link has been established between global warming and natural disasters.
In 2020, the NOAA stated: “it is premature to conclude with high confidence that increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities have had a detectable impact on Atlantic basin hurricane activity,” and “changes in tropical cyclone activity … are not yet detectable.”
The UN IPPC, the Wall Street Journal reported, “says that it too lacks evidence to show that warming is making storms and flooding worse.”
Fourth, as the earth’s temperature has risen, natural disasters have become far less deadly.
Since 1920, the planet’s temperature has risen by 1.29 degrees Celsius and world population has quadrupled from less than two billion to over seven and half billion – yet EM-DAT, The International Disaster Database, reports that the number of people killed by natural disasters has declined by over 80 percent, from almost 55,000 per year to less than 10,000 per year.
Fifth, some of the world’s best scientists believe that global warming will be beneficial rather than harmful.
In 2017, a group of eminent scientists – such as Richard Lindzen of MIT, William Happer of Princeton, and Judith Curry of Georgia Tech – wrote that “[o]bservations [over the last] 25 years … show that warming from increased atmospheric CO2 will be benign.”
Carbon dioxide, they noted, “is not a pollutant but a major benefit to agriculture and other life on Earth.”
Sixth, global warming saves lives. A study published in 2015 by the British medical journal The Lancet found that cold kills over 17 times more people than heat.
This study by 22 scientists from around the world – which examined over 74 million deaths in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States in 1985-2012, “the largest dataset ever collected to assess temperature-health associations”– reported that cold caused 7.29 percent of these deaths, while heat caused only 0.42 percent.
And small changes in the temperature matter: “moderately hot and cold temperatures” caused 88.85 percent of the temperature-related deaths, while “extreme” temperatures caused only 11.15 percent.
We must not let the Left bully us into draconian action with unfounded claims of a looming climate catastrophe. Know the facts. Global warming is not a problem.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 23:25 - Democrats Strike Deal On $3.5 Trillion "Human Infrastructure" Package
Democrats Strike Deal On $3.5 Trillion “Human Infrastructure” Package
Months after the Biden Administration and its Congressional allies leaked the first details of President Biden’s massive two-part “Build Back Better” infrastructure plan, Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, just announced that Democrats have united behind a $3.5 trillion “infrastructure” spending package, which they can now pass using special budget rules allowing them to circumvent the filibuster.
In a late-night announcement Tuesday, Schumer said the Budget Committee had reached an agreement to allot $3.5 trillion for a spending package that would complete President Biden’s infrastructure plan.
“The Budget Committee has come to an agreement,” Sen. Schumer told reporters Tuesday night following a closed-door meeting with Democratic lawmakers.
The deal adds to the $600 billion package of infrastructure measures that Biden has struck with Republicans.
“You add that to that the $600 billion in a bipartisan plan and you get to $4.1 trillion, which is very, very close to what President Biden has asked us for,” Schumer said. “Every major program that President Biden has asked us for is funded in a robust way.”
The package will include such “infrastructure” priorities like expanding Medicare, addressing climate change, expanding childcare (after the administration just approved a new $300 handout for couples with children) and education. The Democrats have famously deemed all this “human infrastructure”, which Republicans have vowed to reject.
Democrats will meet with Biden Wednesday, the majority leader said following the closed-door meeting.
“We are very proud of this plan. We know we have a long road to go. We’re going to get this done for the sake of making average Americans’ lives a whole lot better,” Schumer said
Previously, Schumer has promised to hold votes on both pieces of legislation before the Senate breaks for its August recess, which amounts to a pretty aggressive timeline, especially since some Republicans might rethink their support for the earlier measure now that Democrats are pushing ahead with the bigger multi-trillion-dollar package.
To be clear, the bipartisan deal struck by Biden authorizes a total of $1.2 trillion in spending over eight years. Meanwhile, the budget resolution necessary to pass the Democratic-only bill will require some more maneuvering.
Senate Democrats want to bring the bipartisan infrastructure bill to the floor as soon as next week, though negotiators have warned that is an ambitious pace. Democrats didn’t say on Tuesday night when specifically they would be ready to take the budget resolution to the floor. To pass both the budget resolution and a subsequent $3 to $5-trillion infrastructure bill through the Senate Democrats will need total unity from all 50 of their members. Democrats declined to say on Tuesday night if they had unified support.Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 23:03 - Cry-Babies In Search Of Meaning
Cry-Babies In Search Of Meaning
It used to be the family, but nowadays young people delay having a family or do not want to have one at all.
It used to be the struggle for mere survival, but nowadays the affluent state takes good care of anybody, so you do not need to work at all.
It used to be patriotism, but – again – the word has been tarnished and replaced with the negatively charged nationalism.
It used to be the strong sense of identity, but then European identities are frowned upon to say the least and European people are made to feel guilty and ashamed of themselves.
It used to be the care about religious salvation, hence a preoccupation with a virtuous life, but Christianity has died out.
For all the vacuum that has been created, man needs a purpose, man needs meaning.
This purpose, this meaning has been duly suggested to the young, and these are:
[1] environment protection – climate change – sustainable development;
[2] veneration of non-Europeans – migrations – anti-racism, and
[3] gender mainstreaming.
Yes, these goals have been whispered into the ears of the impressionable minds, then reinforced and eventually imposed by the three powerful tools that shape the human mind: education, media and entertainment.
Why do we say that these goals are by no means spontaneous but have been suggested?
Simply, because they are all recognized, endorsed and backed by governments, mainstream media and main organizations. On the other hand, the things that have disappeared – patriotism, religious salvation, the family – are glossed over, critiqued, ridiculed or banned as topics of acceptable conversation.
Make a thought experiment like this one: students cut classes and instead join street demonstrations in support of environment protection (Fridays For Future). Do you think the students will be expelled from school? Perhaps they will be disciplined otherwise? No, you don’t think so.
Now picture to yourself the same students cutting school for the purpose of joining a demonstration against the ever rising numbers of immigrants. The school authorities would be very quick to act. You know they would. The students would be denounced as insensitive, xenophobic racists and what not. How about media coverage? Well, those protesting against environment pollution would receive warm attention. The few comments pointing to the controversies of such actions would only serve the purpose of making the reader, listener or viewer believe that the protesters are evaluated objectively. How about those who would dare to express their indignation at the changing ethnic composition of the society they live in? Do you think they would be spared any harsh criticism?
The three pillars of today’s white man’s civilization – environment protection, veneration of non-Europeans, and gender mainstreaming – fit the definition of a religion. Reason need not apply. The more things become topsy-turvy, the more they are “rationalized” by university authorities and… protected by law. Dissenting opinion is labelled as hate speech, fake news or conspiracy theories, so now young, impressionable minds are on the hunt for haters, climate change deniers and rednecks. They have the religious fervour of their forefathers. They have something to believe in, they have someone to fight against, they have their set of virtues tro be practised and their list of sins to be avoided. Young impressionable minds, to repeat the epithet, will not devote themselves to engineering, the sciences or economy. These are too demanding, too rational, with no use for fancy language offered by gender studies, race critical theory or sustainable economy. These leave no room for nonsense language of equality or equity, for “building bridges” and tearing “down walls”. These branches of knowledge teaches us that the world is founded on conflict, inequality, on the complementing feelings of likes and dislikes, of love and hate with many shades of the two in between. A world without conflict is unthinkable but try telling it to all those snivelling young women and sissy men who have lost contact with reality and live in the substituted world that is impressed on their minds through the triad of the media, education and entertainment.
Communists in the Soviet Union and later in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Cuba also came up with new dogmas for young people to follow. Equality or equity – whichever term you prefer – were also among them. Nothing new under the sun. One of the dogmas of the communist bosses was to deprive the peasantry of their plots of land by forcing them to unite in agricultural production communities. No need to say that peasants resisted the idea very strongly. In response, the communists would brainwash young people and then send them to particular villages where their task was to agitate among the dwellers for the idea of giving up on their property. Of course, all this was done in the name of the future happiness of the whole nation and then humankind. Those who resisted were classified as enemies of the people and their lives were made miserable. Not infrequently schools managed to turn children’s minds against the world view of their parents. Young sons and daughters would preach to their fathers and mothers about the advantages of the new socialist economy. Does that not evoke the picture of Greta Thunberg?
Socialist economy failed on all counts. Individuals who saw that coming right from the start were denounced as wicked or evil as are the individuals who dare to dissent from the three dogmas listed above. They, too, see what is coming. Not that they are exceptionally brilliant minds. All they do is use common sense coupled with but a cursory knowledge of the past and reality.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 22:45 - China's Banned Bitcoin Miners Flee In Search Of Cheap Electricity
China’s Banned Bitcoin Miners Flee In Search Of Cheap Electricity
After the Chinese government banned cryptocurrency mining in last month, hundreds of fellow miners gathered in a luxury hotel in Western China to discuss their next steps; specifically – where to find abundant, reliable, and cheap electricity to power their sprawling operations, according to Bloomberg.
The miners sat in rows of white chairs in a hall at the Gran Melia Chengdu Hotel and listened intently to the executives at Bitmain Technologies Ltd., the world’s largest mining-equipment maker. In between presentations about Texas energy fundamentals and crypto mining in Kazakhstan, the attendees nibbled cupcakes, drank cocktails and discussed the dismal outlook for their local industry.
Many of the miners at the meeting had massive operations set up in rural areas of the country – such as the Hengduan mountains of Sichuan province, where giant warehouses packed full of mining equipment were powered by cheap electricity, often supplied via hydropower from nearby dams or from thermal plants associated with the country’s ubiquitous coal-powered plants. According to Tyler Page, CEO of Cipher Mining Technologies, electricity makes up around 80% of a miner’s operating cost.
And now, Chinese mining operations have run ‘dry’ – dragging the already-plummeting global Bitcoin hashrate to new lows.
As The Economist notes: “across Sichuan, the fans have stopped whirring. In May, a government committee tasked with promoting financial stability vowed to put a stop to bitcoin mining. Within weeks the authorities in four main mining regions—Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Xinjiang and Yunnan—ordered the closure of local projects. Residents of Inner Mongolia were urged to call a hotline to report anyone flouting the ban. In parts of Sichuan, miners were ordered to clear out computers and demolish buildings housing them overnight. Power suppliers pulled the plug on most of them.”
Where to go?
At the gathering of miners – put on by Bitmain Technologies, the world’s largest mining-equipment manufacturer, employees offered to serve as matchmakers – “hooking miners up with data centers in the U.S., Central Asia, and Europe, according to the report. They also cautioned that a headlong rush into new markets would undoubtedly lead to higher costs for all of them.
“Hold Together for Warmth, Say No to Vicious Competition,” read one slide at the event.
Just hours after the conference, the urgency of the situation came into full view. Alex, a Chinese miner who didn’t want his last name published for fear of government retribution, was out singing karaoke with some of his fellow miners when he called to check in on his machines in the mountains outside Chengdu. His colleague told him that local authorities had just shut off the power to his facility, leaving the mine silent and potentially worthless.
“All my money is gone,”: he said, cursing as he chugged a beer. “Every day I’m losing money by not running those machines.” -Bloomberg
One top destination for miners has been nearby Kazakhstan – which has over 22 gigawatts of electric power capacity, primarily derived from coal and gas-fired plants. It’s also right over the border from the Xinjiang region – which once accounted for more than one-third of the world’s bitcoin mining. Electricity costs roughly 3 cents per kilowatt-hour in the former Soviet nation, according to Dmitriy Ivanov, sales director at Almaty-based Enegix LLC. The country is also sufficiently cold enough that the data centers don’t require supplemental air conditioners to keep them from overheating – which can add as much as 30% to a miner’s power needs.
Approximately 10,000 mining machines – a combination of Bitmain’s S19Pro and Whatsminer M21S models from China’s MicroBT, are being sent to Kazakhstan via plane from Enegix’s clients. While transporting them via land would be cheaper, trucks can get held up for weeks at the border, making the extra expense for air freight worth the time savings.
“So many Chinese are reaching out to us and asking for help to relocate the equipment,” said hosting company CEO Didar Bekbauov. “They ask every Kazakh they know to help them with electricity.”
Power in Kazakhstan is already booked up, however, as the country’s electric grid is near capacity – only having added 3 gigawatts in the last 20 years, leaving little room for miners to connect. Bekbauov says he’s had to turn customers away.
“Every spare kilowatt is already booked,” he said.
Going green?
According to the report, some of the booted Chinese miners are using the opportunity to explore cleaner energy, despite the fact that the vast majority of the world’s electricity comes from burning fossil fuels – leading Tesla’s Elon Musk to suspend payments in bitcoin until the industry can clean up its carbon footprint (while Teslas themselves remain largely coal powered, of course).
While a reported 76% of miners already use renewable energy, 39% of overall energy used for crypto mining is renewable.
Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2021
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Crypto miners are coming up against a much bigger drive to decarbonize power to combat climate change. The percentage of energy from renewable sources would need to increase to about two thirds of supply by 2050, up from around 12% in 2020, to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, according to the International Energy Agency. Countries around the world, including China, the U.S. and the EU will have to ramp up construction of wind farms and solar parks to come close to hitting their targets.
Renewable energy sources like wind and sunshine may be abundant at times, but demand for them is set to surge as cars, home heating and heavy industries increasingly shift to electricity. The Nordic region, which has long been a popular Bitcoin mining spot because of its ample hydropower, began running out of excess electricity earlier this year as industrial users ramped up production. “There’s a more noble use of renewable power than Bitcoin mining,” said Peter Wall, chief executive officer of London-listed mining company Argo Blockchain Plc. “But the fact is people are going to mine Bitcoin full stop. It’s not going away.”
Miners also want confidence they won’t wake up one morning to news that their business has been outlawed again. Bit Digital Inc., a Nasdaq-listed mining company, began moving some of the 30,000 machines it operated in China to North America back in October. By the time Beijing cracked down, Bit Digital was able to keep mining with as little disruption as possible. -Bloomberg
Meanwhile, some miners looking to set up shop in the United States are having to navigate regulatory differences between grids. For example, Cipher Mining Technologies – the US arm of Netherlands-based Bitfury Holding BV, is working to expand in Texas due to it being the only state with a deregulated power grid, as well as Ohio -0 due to the state’s cheap power prices and low-carbon power sources.
New York, on the other hand – where lawmakers had previously proposed harsh limitations on mining, is far less attractive.
Other locations for miners include: Kearny, Nebraska and El Salvador – which announced last month that it would be the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, while the state-run geothermal electric company has been ordered to come up with a plan for volcano-powered Bitcoin mining. Late last month, one Chinese logistics firm has been airlifting mining equipment to Baltimore, Maryland.
“Every conversation we have starts with the the site’s potential power source,” according to BitOoda’s Chief Strategy Officer, Sam Doctor. “They’re looking for renewables. That’s a really important step in the greening of Bitcoin.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 22:25 - Jamaican Government Wants Billions In Reparations From UK Over Slavery
Jamaican Government Wants Billions In Reparations From UK Over Slavery
The Jamaican government is set to demand billions of pounds in reparations over the slave trade, and will send a petition directly to the Queen from the country’s attorney general in order to initiate the request, according to Reuters.
British Colonel Guthrie and Jamaican Maroon Colonel Cudjoe exchanged hats as a sign of friendship and sign the Treaty of 1738 ending the First Maroon War in Jamaica 1803 engraving with modern color. The UK formerly abolished slavery in 1834, after which former slave owners were paid 20 million pounds – a large sum at the time. Jamaica’s petition is based on a private motion from Jamaican lawmaker Mike Henry, who says the country is owed some 7.6 billion pounds (US$10.5 billion), which he calculated to be roughly equivalent to the payout UK slave owners received nearly 200 years ago.
“We are hoping for reparatory justice in all forms that one would expect if they are to really ensure that we get justice from injustices to repair the damages that our ancestors experienced,” said Culture minister Olivia Grange, adding “Our African ancestors were forcibly removed from their home and suffered unparalleled atrocities in Africa to carry out forced labour to the benefit of the British Empire.”
“Redress is well overdue,” she added.
Jamaica was a centre of the slave trade, with the Spanish, then the British, forcibly transporting Africans to work on plantations of sugar cane, bananas and other crops that created fortunes for many of their owners.
…
An estimated 600,000 Africans were shipped to toil in Jamaica, according to the National Library of Jamaica.
Seized from Spain by the English in 1655, Jamaica was a British colony until it became independent in 1962. The West Indian country of almost three million people is part of the Commonwealth and the British monarch remains head of state. –Reuters
“I am asking for the same amount of money to be paid to the slaves that was paid to the slave owners,” said Henry, the petitioner and a member of the ruling Jamaica Labor Party, adding “I am doing this because I have fought against this all my life, against chattel slavery which has dehumanized human life.”
The petition, with approval from Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations, will be filed pending advice from the attorney general and three legal teams, Grange said. The attorney general will then send it to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, she added.
The initiative follows growing acknowledgement in some quarters of the role played by slavery in generating wealth in Britain, with businesses and seats of learning pledging financial contributions in compensation.
They include insurance market Lloyd’s of London, pub owner Greene King and the University of Glasgow.
No word on whether Jamaica will hit Kamala Harris up for reparations after her father acknowledged that their family owned slaves.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 22:05 - 67 Wildfires Spread Across 10 States In US West
67 Wildfires Spread Across 10 States In US West
The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reports 67 large wildfires burn across ten parched Western states on Tuesday, and the largest is in southern Oregon, already threatened to cut power to California.
Nearly 918,000 acres have burned in 67 large fires across the United States. New large fires were reported in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. Type 1 and Type 2 Incident Management Teams are assigned to 24 large fires or complexes. And, more than 14,200 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to incidents.
As record temperatures continue across many states, it’s important to remember that we all play a valuable role in wildfire prevention. –NIFC
The fires erupted as much of the Western half of the US is plagued with a megadrought and back-to-back heat waves. This has created the perfect storm of conditions that are fueling dangerous fires.
The largest fire is the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon. As of Tuesday 1200 ET, the fire has burned 202,000 acres and threaten major transmission lines that feed power into northern California.
California and other surrounding states are plagued with a megadrought, continuing heat waves, water shortages, fears of rolling blackouts, and a fire season that could be one for the record books.
The current US wildfire map shows dozens of fires spreading across Western states.
Twitter account “HRRR Smoke Bot” shows near-surface smoke encompassing the West.
Start: Jul 12 4AM PDT
End: Jul 12 11PM PDT pic.twitter.com/hvncWkNu1z— HRRR Smoke Bot (@HRRRSmokeBot) July 12, 2021
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With no relief in sight, the number of wildfires across the West will likely continue to increase.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 21:45 - China Mega Investment Deal With Iran Blows US Out Of The Picture
China Mega Investment Deal With Iran Blows US Out Of The Picture
Authored by Martin Jay via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
A new world in the East is amalgamating as a direct result of American’s delusional views about where it thinks it is in the world…
China has just announced that it will invest 400 bn dollars in Iran over a period of 25 years in exchange for a great deal on Iran’s oil – in the latest move of absolute defiance against the U.S. and its secondary sanctions. Where’s this all heading?
400 bn dollars is a considerable amount of money to invest in Iran, which, since Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA (otherwise called the ‘Iran Deal’) we can certainly say is a poor country. In exchange, China gets rock bottom prices on oil, while both sides enjoy the double-whammy of sending a vociferous message to Washington: your days are up as a super power who can bully countries with sanctions.
The deal was really the last thing that Joe Biden needed in barely his six month in office, where he has been weak on Russia and China and arguably pathetic in the Middle East when it comes to delivering on the ‘America is back’ rhetoric. ‘America is back’ to what, we might all wonder, given that Iran is commissioning drone strikes against U.S. forces, Afghanistan is rapidly heading towards a Taliban takeover and the Iran talks in Vienna have more or less ended with a draft of what the Guardian euphemistically calls a ‘roadmap’.
China’s investment deal with Iran sends a stark, lucid message to Joe Biden that it intends to take advantage of America’s lame ‘soft diplomacy’ geopolitics and move in with real policies, which in practical terms means investment. With GCC countries squabbling amongst themselves about oil productivity, during a six-year high on the price per barrel and an Iran deal more unlikely than ever taking shape, the region more confused than ever about how much of a two-way street America’s hegemony is in the region, the Middle East is tilting ever so slightly towards the East. It’s not just that Assad became the new friend with GCC leaders because he masterly used the Russians as a guarantor of staying in power which is driving Gulf Arab elites to look towards China as a potential new partner, but Arabs put so much more trust in China as a longer-term partner which they can rely on. Stability.
One of the reasons why a new re-worked Iran Deal is so unlikely to happen is for the same reason. How long could Washington even guarantee a sanctions-free deal? One term of Joe Biden?
Middle East leaders, as well as those in the MEMA region like Egypt are looking for a solution to an impending Arab Spring 2.0 and they don’t see any point in investing in Biden for help there, which is why they are getting closer to Assad and hedging their bets that when the brown stuff hits the fan, Russia (and perhaps even China) could be behind them to keep them in power.
For such an arrangement to happen, you have to have deals which go beyond simply rockets and guns – that is assuming that the Biden administration will eventually let a 23 bn dollar deal for F35s to even go through to the UAE, with obvious fears that technology could be shared with the Chinese if Bejiing makes the moves in the region to buddy up with GCC countries.
But this massive deal with Iran sends a message to Gulf Arab states which Washington might note. The message is that the Chinese are long-term players who are looking for long-term partners and many GCC countries’ elites will look at the deal and wonder why they are not looking at China for more partnerships in construction, energy, telecoms and even defence.
The news of the China-Iran deal came more or less with the announcement to the UAE blocking an OPEC idea to boost oil production. It gave many western media hacks the opportunity to go big on the UAE-Saudi “rift” angle to their stories. In reality though, these two GCC super states have not been on the same page for quite some time and the lack of a Big Brother (i.e. Uncle Sam) has not helped. In reality, they disagree on Iran, Qatar and even Yemen, so a war of words about 2 million barrels of oil a day is hardly anything to get hot and bothered by.
But the China deal with Iran should shake them up and make them realise that there is disarray in the Middle East which can’t be blamed entirely on the U.S. taking a step back and playing geopolitics by numbers. Biden’s understanding of the region and its nuances is often overplayed by hacks, simply because he was on a committee in Washington for years which covered the region and he was VP under Obama. He is remarkably ignorant of what it really important and is not at all able to understand the sensibilities of its leaders. For this, we can understand why he falls into traps easily set by Iran (which in reality sees a sanctions-free deal with the U.S. as hardly worth the effort), whose leaders are looking to other Big Brother models to embrace. The China deal shows the region and Washington that the U.S. is no longer the superpower who can expect so much leverage from so little action. The world is changing and the Trump move in 2018 to remove the U.S. from the Iran deal merely enhanced and emboldened a new world in the East which is amalgamating as a direct result of American’s delusional views about where it thinks it is in the world. With Iran selling so-called “illegal” oil already to China (and probably to India at the end of the year), the secondary sanctions which Trump imposed will no longer be worth the paper they’re written on. Invest in Iran.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 21:25 - Afghan Special Forces Frustrated By Taliban Deadly Hit & Run, Ambush Tactics
Afghan Special Forces Frustrated By Taliban Deadly Hit & Run, Ambush Tactics
By many accounts from international correspondents on the ground in Afghanistan, Taliban militants are continuing to make rapid gains – particularly through unpredictable hit-and-run tactics – also in places that airstrikes prove difficult to deploy given fighting sometimes erupts in urban areas.
Especially on the outskirts of the southern province of Kandahar, a mere few hundred Taliban insurgents have kept exhausted and stretched thin US-trained Afghan commandos guessing through ambush tactics. A detailed Reuters report capturing action as it unfolded on the ground this week begins by describing:
The highly trained troops had been called in to flush out insurgents who attacked regular forces and local police hours earlier, only to find that the Taliban had disappeared into the darkness leaving behind a few civilians and wounded soldiers.
“We received a report that the enemy had infiltrated here and wanted to overthrow the district,” Major Mohammad din Tasir, a member of the special forces unit deployed in the Taliban’s former stronghold of Kandahar, told Reuters after the operation. The report had suggested up to 300 Taliban fighters were present in the area, he said.
Afghan special forces, via AP The experience of heavily armed Afghan commandos showing up to an area only to find that moments earlier the Taliban presence had “melted away” has led Kabul officials to tout this as proof last week’s claim from Taliban leadership that the terror group controls 85% of the country to be greatly exaggerated and misleading.
This experience is being replicated across the country, suggesting the national military is in for a frustrating, possibly losing battle against a disciplined Taliban insurgency set on weakening the national forces’ resolve, also as Kabul is under pressure given Biden and other defense officials’ recent urging Afghan forces to stand up and take control of the country for themselves (ironically something the US could hardly do throughout much of the over two-decade long war and occupation).
A similar account published Tuesday by a war correspondent details a harrowing ambush, also in Kandahar:
Minutes after returning from a mission on Tuesday before dawn, a convoy of exhausted Afghan commandos were speeding back out of their base to try to extract a wounded policeman trapped by Taliban insurgents on the outskirts of Kandahar.
As they approached the checkpoint where policeman Ahmad Shah had been holed up alone for 18 hours, some 30-40 special forces soldiers in a line of Humvees came under automatic weapons fire, according to a Reuters reporter travelling with them.
A gun battle erupted as the convoy forced its way to Shah’s position, and he was hurriedly loaded into one of the vehicles. Then came a series of loud explosions; the first three of eight Humvees were struck by rockets and too badly damaged to continue. In the ensuing confusion, commandos inside the disabled vehicles rushed to switch trucks. Gunfire appeared to be coming from all around; from a cemetery to the left and the heavy cover of Eucalyptus trees to the right.
The ambush reportedly resulted in no deaths among the commandos, only a police injury, yet it underscores how easily the Taliban can quickly move with ease in a number of contested provinces to quickly hit thinly stretched army units in civilian areas, and then disappear just as fast.
Brutal Taliban Massacre: Taliban executes 22 Afghan Commandoes after asking them to surrender in Afghanistan. This is just a glimpse of how Taliban is going to operate in the coming weeks and months. Disturbing visuals. pic.twitter.com/UBAY5VLefV
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) July 13, 2021
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The episode also highlights another pressing problem: American-trained security forces (that Washington has spent billions if not trillions propping up over many years) including police and army units are abandoning their posts in droves often at the first hint of a Taliban offensive.
Reuters cited Shah, the wounded policeman who was pinned down, who explained: “We were 15 people (policemen), and all my comrades surrendered (to the Taliban) except me.” He added: “I told myself that I’m not going to do that, and as long as I have a gun, why I should give up?”
‘261 Taliban Killed’ in Past 24 Hours: MoDhttps://t.co/icgihtGN7E pic.twitter.com/ObcrHVQp4e
— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) July 13, 2021
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Given we’ve not even yet reached Biden’s stated “military mission complete” date of August 31, the proverbial writing is on the wall in terms of the expected Taliban offensive of Kabul, after US intelligence recently warned the collapse of the US-backed Afghan government could come as early as six months.
However. that estimate itself is looking increasingly optimistic as the Taliban is said to still be making rapid gains.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 21:05 - Maine Bans New Wind Power Projects In State Waters
Maine Bans New Wind Power Projects In State Waters
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,
Maine’s governor has signed a bill that bars any new offshore wind projects in waters under state jurisdiction, about a week after the state legislature approved the legislation.
The bill, which became effective immediately because it was introduced as an emergency measure, says that offshore wind power projects “may provide significant economic and environmental benefits to the State by generating renewable energy” but that siting them in Maine’s waters “may adversely affect resources, including scenic and aesthetic resources, and recreational and economic uses, including commercial fishing.”
“Maine is uniquely prepared to grow a strong offshore wind industry, create good-paying trades and technology jobs around the state, and reduce our crippling dependence on harmful fossil fuels. This legislation cements in law our belief that these efforts should occur in Federal waters farther off our coast through a research array that can help us establish the best way for Maine to embrace the vast economic and environmental benefits of offshore wind,” Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, said in a statement after signing LD 1619 last week.
The state Senate and state House both approved the measure on June 30. The measure received the required two-thirds support in each chamber.
Democrats control both chambers in addition to the governor’s mansion, one of 15 so-called Democrat trifectas in the United States.
Maine Sen. Mark Lawrence, a Democrat who sponsored the bill, said that the moratorium on developing wind projects in state waters “will protect Maine’s fisheries and coastal waters and maintain Maine’s status as a leader in developing clean energy and fighting climate change.”
The legislation drew support from the Maine Renewable Energy Association, the Northeast Clean Energy Council, and Maine Audubon.
Lobstermen who opposed development in state waters also backed the legislation.
Another recently signed bill, LD 336, also sponsored by Lawrence, pushes the creation of the first floating offshore wind research array in the United States in the Gulf of Maine.
The gulf is controlled by the federal government. The project has not yet been approved by federal officials.
The array, which is slated to be built by New England Aqua Ventus, would have a capacity of up to 144 megawatts. Government officials plan to enter a contract of 20 years or more for the array. The project will produce some 160,000 jobs, including planning, construction, and operations and maintenance, the state said in its 10-year economic plan.
Maine laws call for making the state a hub for floating offshore wind projects, with a focus on the Gulf of Maine.
The gulf “represents one of our state’s largest untapped clean energy resources,” according to Mills’s office.
Nearly a quarter of the electricity produced in Maine in 2019 came from wind turbines, according to the Energy Information Administration. Maine ranks sixth in the nation in the share of electricity generated from wind.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 20:45 - Japanese Government Accused Of "Strong Arm Tactics" As Tokyo Rebels Against Alcohol Ban
Japanese Government Accused Of “Strong Arm Tactics” As Tokyo Rebels Against Alcohol Ban
Apparently, Japan’s decision to ban people drinking in groups at restaurants and bars has finally pushed the people of Tokyo to their breaking point.
Because after an association of liquor retailers complained to representatives of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party about a demand from a government bureaucrat that distributors stop working with restaurants who continued to serve booze during the pandemic, it looks like the government has abandoned that request.
The news was broken by the English-language media outlet the Mainichi:
The All Japan Liquor Merchants Association demanded the LDP revise the request by economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of Japan’s coronavirus response, saying that his remark was “outrageous.”
The association’s chairperson Kiyotaka Yoshida told Shimomura that liquor retailers were being targeted and added, “There is heavy criticism in the industry (over the request). I want you to tell the central government.” Shimomura apparently responded, “We recognize the current harsh conditions and will make an effort.”
Though Nishimura on July 9 retracted his request for financial institutions to ensure restaurants follow the ban on serving alcohol, he has not withdrawn his July 8 administrative circular for liquor retailers, which stated, “Please suspend providing alcohol to such eateries.”
The Mainichi followed up the news with an editorial accusing the Japanese government of “strong arm tactics” in trying to force restaurant and bar owners to comply with all COVID restrictions, including no longer serving alcohol until the current state of emergency ends on Aug. 22.
Tokyo is now under its fourth COVID-19 state of emergency, scheduled to run until Aug. 22. The capital’s bars and restaurants have been asked to stop serving alcohol until then.
What has caused a problem is the government plans announced by economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, which included calls on financial institutions to pressure their clients in the hospitality industry not to sell alcohol. This provoked an angry reaction from the restaurant sector, as well as criticism from within the ruling parties. The policy was reeled back in the next day.
However, the plans also included for government bodies, such as the National Tax Agency (NTA), to demand alcoholic beverage businesses to cease dealing with restaurants serving booze during the state of emergency, and that element was not withdrawn.
Japan’s pandemic special measures law allows authorities to issue orders to businesses failing to follow infection prevention measure requests, and to fine those that still do not comply.
However, there is no legal basis for calling on businesses to pressure their clients or for these demands from government agencies like the NTA.
To sum up: Tokyo residents will need to go through all the trouble of hosting the Olympics while being barred from watching any of the events live (since the government and IOC have agreed to bar spectators at all Olympic events. And they can’t even enjoy a cold Sapporo at their favorite Izakaya.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 20:25 - Can The Dollar Survive Both Cryptocurrencies And China?
Can The Dollar Survive Both Cryptocurrencies And China?
Authored by Alexander Herborn and Gunther Schnabl via The Mises Institute,
In his book Denationalisation of Money, F.A. Hayek argued that governments have never devoted their power to providing proper money over time. They “have refrained from grossly abusing it only when they were under such a discipline as the gold standard imposed.”
The gold backing of the US dollar as the global reserve currency was lifted in the early 1970s, and paper currencies, so-called fiat currencies, have since become the norm.
Following this decision, the paper currencies have dramatically lost value against gold (figure 1). Since the turn of the millennium, this process has substantially accelerated.
Figure 1: Gold Price in US Dollars
Source: Reuters.
For the past twenty to thirty years, the Federal Reserve and other major central banks have been steadily lowering interest rates and purchasing large amounts of government bonds as well as other assets such as corporate bonds and asset-backed securities. This has undermined the confidence in the US dollar and the euro as the world’s leading reserve currencies. A flight into tangible assets has set in, such that stocks, real estate, and precious metals have risen sharply in price. Competitors for the “exorbitant privilege” (Giscard d’Estaing) of the reserve currency have appeared, as those who issue the global reserve currencies benefit from virtually unlimited borrowing opportunities and immense profits from money creation. The competition has three dimensions.
Firstly, decentralized private digital currencies have emerged in contrast to the public monopolies on creating money. Anyone can create (mine) the pioneer bitcoin, but the supply is credibly limited. The exchange rates to paper (fiat) currencies float. Unlike the fiat moneys, which are based on the traditional banking system, payments are cryptographically legitimized and do not require a central intermediary. Other cryptocurrencies (decentralized or centralized) such as ether, ripple, tether, and dogecoin have been created (“altcoins”), but they are considered only more or (mostly) less equal to bitcoin in terms of credibility. The sharp increase in the value of cryptocurrencies measured in fiat currencies (figure 2) indicates that—despite strong fluctuations—many people trust in their store-of-value function.
Figure 2: Price of a Bitcoin in US Dollars
Source: Reuters.
Secondly, a consortium of private companies around the internet giant Facebook intends to join in the competition for the money monopoly. In contrast to many cryptocurrencies, diem (formerly libra) is to be pegged to the US dollar (or the euro). It is therefore referred to as a “stablecoin.” The credibility of this peg is essential for the credibility of stablecoins, akin to bank deposits and money market fund shares. The popularity of Facebook could provoke a rapid spread of diem. The advantage of diem could be that international payments require no intermediaries and are cheaper. Especially for many people in developing countries who do not have a bank account, diem could be attractive. If one day the currently announced fixed exchange rate were to be relaxed in favor of a gradual appreciation path, the incentive to exchange US dollars or euros for diem would be great. Part of the seigniorage of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB), and other central banks could then go into the pockets of Facebook and Co.
Thirdly, competition for the exorbitant privilege also seems to have emerged among paper currencies. Up to now, all major central banks had expanded their balance sheets in tandem with the Fed, such that competition among fiat currencies was de facto suspended. Yet China, which has long resented the US dollar’s reserve currency status, may now back out of this arrangement. Many trade and financial transactions in East Asia are settled in US dollars, and the currencies of the East Asian countries are still pegged to the greenback. Whenever the Fed expands the money supply through purchases of US government bonds, the central banks in East Asia are compelled to buy US dollars. In this way, they help finance US government spending—e.g., expensive bailouts on the financial markets. Ronald I. McKinnon spoke of a quasi-unlimited credit line for the US, which is increasingly viewed with suspicion in East Asia (“the unloved dollar standard”).
Figure 3: China’s Holdings of US Government Bonds
Source: US Treasury.
Since 2014, China has been gradually reducing its holdings of US government bonds (figure 3). Instead of holding US government bonds, investments were made in infrastructure in developing countries and, like Russia, China increased its gold holdings (figure 4). In addition, the balance sheet of the People’s Bank of China has been growing at a much slower pace than that of the Fed. This was especially true during the corona crisis, in which the Fed again greatly expanded its balance sheet to stabilize the US economy. For the past year, an appreciation trend of the renminbi against the US dollar has been observed, such that the incentive to exchange greenbacks for renminbi is growing. Similarly to Germany and Western Europe in the 1970s, China and the neighbors with which it is strongly intertwined economically could break away from the US dollar. Moreover, China has rushed ahead with the development of a digital renminbi whose payment system could undermine US supremacy in international financial transactions.
Figure 4: Official Gold Holdings of China and Russia
Source: World Gold Council. Note: there is controversy about the real gold holdings.
However, the major central banks will not stand idly by and watch this competition. The ECB and Fed are working intensively on the development of their own central bank digital currencies (CBDC), which may enable decentralized payments outside of commercial banks. If citizens were skeptical of digital euros and dollars, strict regulation or even a ban on private cryptocurrencies could foster the popularity of central bank digital currencies. Warnings from key central bank officials such as Christine Lagarde and Andrew Bailey that cryptocurrencies are used in shady transactions and carry the risk of total loss do not appear to be a sufficient deterrent. The People’s Bank of China has already banned cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.
The outcome of this race is uncertain. What is certain is that the credibility of the leading fiat currencies has suffered substantially. Their instability has fueled crises and weakened growth, so the demand for an alternative store of value is high. Who will hold up best against the public currency monopolies of the dollar and euro will likely depend on the quality of the underlying technology (bitcoin versus altcoins) and the influence of the institution behind it (Facebook versus People’s Bank of China). Among the prominent competitors only bitcoin seems to have a built-in stability and thereby a built-in credibility. The upcoming reduction of transactions costs could finally strengthen bitcoins function as medium of exchange.
But perhaps, in the face of growing competition, the major central banks will return to the virtue of monetary stability. At the end of the high inflation phase of the 1970s, Paul Volcker, as the new Fed chairman, broke the back of inflation with sharp interest rate increases. This also secured the international reserve currency status of the US dollar, which had become challenged by the German mark. Now bitcoin or the Chinese yuan could take over the role that the German mark had in the 1970s. If this were to happen now, it would be evidence of the disciplining effect of currency competition as suggested by Hayek.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 20:05 - Fed President Blames Neverending QE On High Incarceration Rates Of Blacks And Latinos
Fed President Blames Neverending QE On High Incarceration Rates Of Blacks And Latinos
Over the past year, Fed watchers have observed a deeply ironic and circular paradox: the Fed, which has been engaged in $120 billion in monthly QE ever since the covid crisis, has vowed it will continue to inject $120 billion in monthly liquidity – in the process making the rich richer, the poor poorer and decimating the middle class while pushing inflation higher – until such time as there is “substantial progress” on the employment front, meaning there will be no taper as long as the unemployment and labor participation rates remain elevated.
And yet, it is the Fed itself that is enabling this lack of “substantial progress” whatever it actually means, by monetizing the trillions in US deficit which makes it possible for Biden to send out periodic stimmy checks to the population, which eliminates the urgency for millions of Americans to go back to work, and also keeps the unemployment and labor participation rates artificially elevated even as there is a record number of job openings in the US at this moment.
Of course, the Fed knows this – it knows that most finance professionals (at least those who don’t merely play finance professionals as finance tv anchors) know this – but so far the Fed’s role in enabling this pernicious economic cycle has been kept out of the public view as the outcry would be vicious and would also risk a popular backlash against the central bank, something which the establishment needs to avoid at all costs, or else.
That’s why the Fed has been especially focused on finding diversions and distractions to its own role in perpetuating this circular scheme, distractions which include global warming, LGBTQ activism and now – minorities in jail.
In a lamentable excuse for economic analysis, today Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said that it was the high level of incarceration in the US especially among black, hispanics and indigenous people, that constrains the labor market and the economy’s ability to reach its full potential. Not the Fed, not the Fed’s monetization of trillions in stimmy checks. No – it’s criminals in prison that have caused the biggest labor shortage in modern US history.
“Incarceration is a drag on our ability achieve our maximum-employment goal,” Bostic said Tuesday at the start of the latest iteration of the Fed’s Racism and the Economy series, this one focused on the criminal justice system. And since it is the Fed’s inability to hit its maximum-employment goal that is greenlighting the Fed’s $120 billion monthly injections month after month indefinitely, Bostic effectively blamed the continuation of QE on minorities in prison.
What is bizarre about this argument is that the U.S. has – and has had long before covid struck – the world’s highest incarceration rate. Somehow this did not prevent unemployment from hitting 3% last January. But now it’s somehow different, and the formerly incarcerated people are less likely to find employment and have much lower lifetime earnings, factors that weigh on the economy at large, Bostic said, blaming minority crime for the Biden’s administration’s catastrophic labor crisis.
But wait, there’s more: it’s not just that minorities tend to end up in jail – according to Bostic it is the very criminal justice system that is broken and is forcing the Fed to keep injection trillions into the
economystock market.“Incarceration and how we execute criminal justice inhibits global competitiveness,” Bostic said. Incarceration and who it targets in the U.S. “can have the effect of exacerbating race-based employment, income and wealth disparities, which can limit economic mobility and resilience and ultimately constrain labor markets and compromise the performance of the overall economy.”
Bostic added that Black, Latino and indigenous Americans are overrepresented in the prison population and disproportionately targeted by the criminal justice system. It was unclear if Bostic substantiated his argument with facts demonstrating that blacks and latinos commit a minority of the crimes in the US.
The bigger question is why is a Fed president – an unelected career economist – discussing flaws in the US criminal justice system? The answer is simple: to deflect attention from the Fed’s own ruinous boom bubble bust track record, and certainly today’s soaring inflation which is happening in a time when 15 million Americans are collecting some sort of unemployment benefits.
It wasn’t just Bostic: his colleague, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, said that the U.S. may need to take a look at what it considers criminal offenses, especially when it comes to non-safety issues. With marijuana now legalized in many places, it may make sense to examine if other things can be decriminalized.
He said that disproportionate rates of incarceration have contributed to the difference between the White unemployment rate, at 5.2%, and the one for Black Americans, at 9.2%.
“Once you’ve gone through an experience with our criminal justice system, you’re permanently scarred by the labor market in a way that just can’t be justified from a society standpoint,” Rosengren said.
In other words, the Fed is gradually making the case that i) unless criminals are released on US streets, and ii) employers are mandated to hire felons, QE may never end.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 19:45 - Border Situation "Worst I've Ever Seen": Rep. Williams
Border Situation “Worst I’ve Ever Seen”: Rep. Williams
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,
The crisis at the U.S.–Mexico border has deteriorated sharply amid concerns the Biden administration will end a key Trump-era provision that enables speedy expulsion of illegal immigrants, Republican lawmakers told The Epoch Times.
The number of illegal immigrant captures at the border has soared in recent months, since President Joe Biden was sworn in. The United States is spending billions of dollars to deal with the repercussions, including hundreds of millions to shelter unaccompanied minors. More smuggling is happening, counties are running out of jail space, and deaths are rising as the hot summer weather kicks in.
“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it,” Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), who visited the border last month with former President Donald Trump, told The Epoch Times.
“You’ve got people that that are coming through here illegally, they need to be coming through the ports of entry, not between the ports of entry. We’ve got an administration that is actually inviting them to come. And some, many of them, think that they just touch the soil of the United States, they’re citizens,” added Williams, who oversaw the border while Texas secretary of state between 2004 and 2007.
Biden administration officials have claimed they’re altering the U.S. approach to immigrants to be “more humane.” They’ve said progress has been made since January, including faster processing of illegal immigrant children who arrive at the border without a responsible adult.
Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters in El Paso, Texas in June that American officials must help address what she described as the “root causes” of immigration, including a lack of economic opportunity and violence in their home countries.
“This has been a very important trip. This has been a trip that also is connected with the obvious point: if you want to deal with a problem, you can’t just deal with the problem, you have to deal with what caused it to happen,” Harris told reporters after touring a Customs and Border Protection central processing facility.
“This is why after taking a leadership role on root causes, one of the first trips I took was to Guatemala and Mexico, to see on the ground there what’s happening in terms of concerns about everything from corruption to food insecurity, to the lack of opportunity for indigenous people, women, seeing the challenges that they have faced,” she added.
Vice President Kamala Harris visits the Paso del Norte Port of Entry in El Paso, Texas, on June 25, 2021. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
Republicans counter that the correct response centers around a simple idea—strong border enforcement.
“This philosophy of open borders is going to be the destruction of our great democratic republic that we’re all so proud of and and have enjoyed the liberties and freedoms of past generations, and to pass it on to future generations we’ve got to have a secure border. If we don’t have that secure border, this country is in very dire straits and in grave danger of destruction,” Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times.
The worsening situation comes as the Biden administration reportedly considers ending Title 42, a rule that enables quick expulsion of illegal immigrants due to concerns they may be carrying COVID-19.
Ending the rule would mean abolishing “the last great tool that our border authorities have of turning back the caravans, the hordes of people,” Babin said.
Both Williams and Babin want to see construction on the border wall restarted. Biden halted construction after taking office. They also want a revision of policies like one that enables immigrants to enter the country and wait for a court hearing on their asylum claims. Former President Donald Trump was requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings, but Biden quickly changed that policy.
Democrats not taking action on the border will lead to Republicans flipping the House of Representatives and the Senate, Williams believes.
“This is going to be one of the things that will defeat them in 2022, is the lack of border security, and the lack of doing your job to secure the border, the sovereignty of our country,” Williams said.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 19:25 - Portions Of Mississippi River Nearing Record Low, May Jeopardize Barge Traffic
Portions Of Mississippi River Nearing Record Low, May Jeopardize Barge Traffic
In another sign, the megadrought is wreaking havoc across the Western half of the US. There are multiple portions of the Mississippi River that are nearing record low water levels that may inhibit commercial or private vessels from traversing the critical waterway.
The stretch of the Mississippi River at St. Paul, Minnesota, is around 3.2 feet Wednesday. That’s about six inches from the record low of 2.6 feet set in 1976.
A camera on the Wabasha Street Bridge that spans the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul shows the receding waterline.
Downstream, the Mississippi River at Red Wing is also near the record low of 1.8 feet, set in 2003. It’s about 2.2 feet today.
Further downstream, Lucy McMartin, City of Winona, located on the Mississippi River, told local news WXOW that “we actually see a lot of commercial activity in our harbor. What concerns me is the water levels are so low, that as the barges are assembled and put together and are proceeding up and down the river, they can run into issues if the water continues to drop in its levels.”
More downstream, at Dubuque Marina in Dubuque, Iowa, along the Mississippi River, water levels continue to drop to their lowest in more than eight years.
Rod and Pat Stalker, of Texas, told the Telegraph Herald that they sailed their 45-foot Carver yacht up the Mississippi River to Dubuque but are now stuck at a marina because the water in the main channel is less than 2.5 feet. The yacht requires 3.5 feet of water.
“Everyone here has been basically locked into the marina for the last two to three weeks,” Rod said. “We went out a couple of weeks ago and we were churning mud, so we decided not to go. Most people are choosing not to go out to avoid thousands of dollars of damage to the bottom of the boat.”
Others on Twitter have pointed out that parts of the Mississippi River are very low.
Well its not a good day for boating or fishing on Mississippi River in St.. Cloud MN with the very low water levels. Those rocks are the bottom of the river. pic.twitter.com/CVcLL9ypZW
— Peter Soregi (@PSoregi) July 2, 2021
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This is how low the Mississippi River is in Sartell, MN. During a normal year, it would be waist deep or higher where I took this pic from. Tagging my fave weather nerd, @svensundgaard pic.twitter.com/Wi3LnW4A2J
— Dorf (@TriviaDorf) July 10, 2021
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The Mississippi River is low. Not sure if I ever seen the water levels so low. Can see a Carp family In the weeds. pic.twitter.com/jMHU2LsMPF
— Smile E. Face (@realsmilyus) July 10, 2021
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Crossing the low Mississippi River today to an island had me wondering, if I break a leg on these rocks does the Hennepin County Sheriff Dept have to assist since it is a River or because it is dried up they do not assist. Newbie County Commish Question of the Day !! pic.twitter.com/ykAMBCFLYe
— Jeffrey Joneal Lunde (@JeffreyJLunde) July 10, 2021
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Not so mighty after all?
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 19:05 - Judicial Watch Asks Court To Order USPS To Disclose Social Media Snooping Documents
Judicial Watch Asks Court To Order USPS To Disclose Social Media Snooping Documents
Authored by Mark Tapscott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A non-profit government watchdog is suing in federal court to force the United States Postal Service (USPS) to produce copies of documents on its tracking of social media posts about planned political protests.
U.S. Postal Service headquarters at L’Enfant Plaza in Washington. (Coolcaesar/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA) The suit filed by Judicial Watch in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is based on the group’s April 28 U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and the failure of USPS to respond by the required deadline.
In its original request, Judicial Watch asked for all documents related to multiple aspects of the government’s activity that is reportedly known as the Internet Covert Operations Program (ICOP), including:
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All records from Jan. 1, 2020, to the present identifying criteria for flagging social media posts as “inflammatory” or otherwise worthy of further scrutiny by other government agencies.
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All records from Jan. 1, 2020, to the present relating to the ICOP database of social media posts.
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All records and communications from Jan. 1, 2020, to the present between any USPS official and any official from the FBI and/or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security regarding ICOP.
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All social media posts flagged under ICOP and forwarded to other government agencies.
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Any analyses outlining USPS authority to monitor, track, and collect Americans’ social media posts.
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All records concerning justifications for USPS to monitor, track, and collect Americans’ social media posts.
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All records of communication sent to and by Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale from Jan. 1, 2020, to the present concerning ICOP.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement announcing the suit that he wants to know, “Did the Biden administration weaponize the United States Postal Service to improperly spy on Americans?”
A USPS spokesman did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment on the Judicial Watch suit.
The USPS program first came to public attention earlier this year when its existence was reported by Yahoo News. As The Epoch Times then reported, the revelation prompted a request from a group of House Republicans to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
“If the reporting is accurate, ICOP raises serious questions about the federal government’s ongoing surveillance of, and encroachment upon, Americans’ private lives and discourse,” House Oversight Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), along with 30 other Republican lawmakers, wrote to DeJoy.
According to the bulletin, ICOP recorded the locations and times of protests. Social media websites Parler and Telegram are mentioned by name, described as “right-wing leaning” platforms on which people were coordinating events. Analysts with the USPS’ law enforcement arm were told to keep an eye out for “inflammatory” postings and share them with other government agencies.
“The type of amorphous, broad mandate under which ICOP is allegedly operating is particularly troubling because it is unclear why the USPS, of all government agencies and the only one devoted to the delivery of Americans’ mail, is taking on the role of intelligence collection,” the lawmakers wrote.
The Republicans asked DeJoy for a Members-Only briefing on the program, which was subsequently provided. Not long after the GOP members’ request, the oversight committee’s chairman, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) joined with Comer in a request to USPS Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb for “a comprehensive analysis of the program and its uses.”
Among much else, Maloney and Comer encouraged Whitcomb to examine the USPS’ justification for expanding ICOP from its uses in drug interdiction to general surveillance of political expression and protest planning on social media.
The IG was also asked to get answers from USPS to these questions:
“What vendor does USPIS use to search publicly available information? What information is the vendor storing about searches and results, and how is this information secured? What is the total awarded value of the contract, and what are USPIS’s obligated costs under the contract? When was the contract initiated, and when does it terminate?”
Comer told The Epoch Times July 12 that, “the United States Postal Inspection Service’s use of the Internet Covert Operations Program to spy on the First Amendment rights of the American people raises serious concerns and must be investigated.”
The Kentucky Republican said he is “pleased the Inspector General’s office agreed to investigate the use of this program and we look forward to reviewing its findings. We must ensure the American people have transparency about how this program has been used and how [USPS] will install safeguards to prevent abuses from happening again in the future.”
* * *
Congressional correspondent Mark Tapscott may be contacted at Mark.Tapscott@epochtimes.nyc
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/13/2021 – 18:45 -
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