Feb 17

Today’s News 17th February 2023

  • Rickards: The Horrifying Endgame In Ukraine
    Rickards: The Horrifying Endgame In Ukraine

    Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

    In yesterday’s issue, I addressed the biggest and most complex topic on the geopolitical landscape today — China.

    But today I’m discussing what is by far the most alarming topic on the geopolitical landscape today. That’s the war in Ukraine and the dangers of escalation.

    I’ve written extensively about two facets of the war in Ukraine that you don’t hear from legacy media in the United States or U.K.

    The first is that Russia is actually winning the war.

    U.S. outlets such as The New York Times (a channel for the State Department) and The Washington Post (a channel for the CIA) report endlessly about how Russian plans have failed, about how incompetent they are about how the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have pushed back Russians in the Donbass, and how NATO weapons such as U.S. Abrams tanks, U.K. Challenger tanks and German Leopard tanks will turn the tide against Russia soon.

    This is all nonsense. None of it is true.

    Reality Check

    First off, the Ukrainian advances that took place in late summer were against lightly defended positions that the Russians quickly conceded to conserve forces. The Russians were willing to give up the land so that they wouldn’t lose valuable men and materiel.

    The Russians withdrew to more defensible positions and have been badly mauling Ukrainian attacking forces ever since. Ukraine has wasted incredibly large amounts of men and equipment in these futile and ill-advised attacks.

    In all, credible reports indicate that AFU casualties are nearing 500,000 and are increasing at an unsustainable rate. On the other hand, reports of 100,000 Russian dead are almost certainly wild exaggerations put out by Ukraine. The BBC attempted to verify these numbers and could only find about 20,000 confirmed Russian dead based on extensive searches on funeral notices, public records, etc.

    Send in the Tanks — Eventually!

    What about the tanks NATO is supposedly sending? Well, the tanks have not been delivered yet and most won’t be for months or longer. Our own M1 Abrams tanks might not even arrive for a year or more.

    We actually have to custom build these tanks so that they don’t have the special armor and other advanced systems that our own M1s have. The Pentagon doesn’t want them falling into Russian hands if they’re destroyed or captured. Besides, we’re only sending 31 tanks anyway.

    When the NATO tanks do arrive, they’ll likely quickly be destroyed by Russian artillery, anti-tank weapons and precision missiles. They’re good tanks, but far from invincible. For decades, the Russians have been developing powerful weapons specifically designed to destroy these NATO tank models. The Russians aren’t particularly worried about them.

    Aside from that, tanks rely on effective air cover for protection, which Ukraine lacks. They’ll be sitting ducks on the battlefield. It doesn’t really make sense to send tanks to Ukraine unless you send combat aircraft to give them cover (more on that below).

    Russia’s Winning on the Battlefield

    Meanwhile, Russian forces have nearly encircled the city of Bakhmut, which is a major transportation and logistics hub, with several key roads and rail lines passing through it. It’ll probably fall to the Russians within weeks.

    Losing Bakhmut will be a major blow to Ukraine, despite claims in the western media that it really isn’t very important. Ukraine’s entire 800-mile defensive line would probably begin to crumble, and they don’t have heavily fortified positions to fall back on. Ukrainian troops, while brave and competent soldiers, are exhausted and running out of supplies as it is.

    On top of that, it appears likely that Russia is preparing a devastating offensive with massive amounts of men, tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, helicopters, drones and fixed-wing aircraft.

    This Russian army is not the same army that invaded Ukraine a year ago. It’s much better trained, led and equipped. It’s learned from the mistakes it made during its initial invasion last February. Ukraine shouldn’t expect them to repeat those mistakes.

    Does all this mean I’m cheering on a Russian victory in Ukraine? No, I’m just observing the facts on the ground and consolidating them to perform an objective analysis.

    That analysis leads me to believe that Russia will win the war militarily. Western military assistance may prolong the fighting but won’t affect the ultimate outcome. It’ll just delay the inevitable and get a lot more people needlessly killed.

    The Much Greater Risk

    The second facet of this war not reported in the media, or at least downplayed, is the growing risk of nuclear war.

    This risk increases with every escalatory step by both sides. The U.S. is the leader in reckless escalation by supplying long-range artillery, Patriot anti-missile batteries, intelligence, surveillance, and now the tanks. Russia responds at each step.

    There’s a number of steps before the two sides arrive at the nuclear level, but neither shows a willingness to step back.

    By the way, Russia has every legal right to attack those NATO countries supplying arms to Ukraine. By supplying arms to a party to the conflict, they’ve given up their neutrality and have become, in effect, combatants. Russia hasn’t done this because it doesn’t want to bring NATO directly into the fight. But legally, it can.

    Gimme, Gimme, Gimme

    Ukraine’s demands on the U.S., UK and the rest of NATO for advanced weapons to fight Russians know no limits. The West began by supplying Ukraine with cash, intelligence and anti-tank weapons such as the Javelin missile. Soon we were supplying long-range artillery, drones, and more cash.

    As Russian advances continued, Zelensky demanded and got Patriot anti-missile batteries that can destroy incoming Russian missiles. The U.S. artillery was aimed at Russian Crimea. Several drones struck inside Russia at sensitive air bases with nuclear weapons nearby.

    The next demand for more weapons involved advanced tanks that are in the process of being supplied by the U.S., UK, Germany, and Poland. In the latest move, that comes as no surprise, Ukraine is now demanding F-16 fighter jets from the U.S., one of the most advanced aircraft in the world.

    But Russia has the most sophisticated air defense system in the world and is very capable of shooting down F-16s in large numbers.

    Biden has denied Zelensky’s request so far, but he previously ruled out sending tanks before finally giving in. The same thing will probably happen with the planes. But they won’t turn the tide against Russia.

    Once these advanced systems show they can’t help, what’s the Ukrainian’s next demand? Russia can escalate just as quickly and lethally as the U.S.

    This entire scenario is a long slow march toward nuclear war or the complete disintegration of Ukraine.

    Is Anyone Really Prepared for This?

    The U.S. won’t end the weapons deliveries because Joe Biden is afraid of losing face and his closest advisors such as Victoria Nuland have an irrational hatred for Russia and are total warmongers.

    Now, we can add a new danger, resulting from desperation. This is the fact that the U.S. itself may be the biggest loser in the war.

    As Ukraine disappears under a massive Russian onslaught, the U.S. will grow increasingly desperate. Its credibility is on the line after committing so much money, materiel and moral weight to Ukraine’s defense.

    The Biden administration has essentially turned the war in Ukraine into an existential crisis for the U.S. and NATO, when it never should have been. Ukraine has never been a vital U.S. interest. But the war is existential for Russia, and won’t give up.

    Is the U.S. just going to throw up its hands and concede Russian victory? NATO may actually disintegrate in the face of such spectacular failure. So, we’ll probably double down.

    Maybe a desperate Biden orders troops into western Ukraine as a buffer against a complete Russian takeover of the country. You can imagine what could go wrong. That situation may quickly devolve into a direct war between the U.S. and Russia rather than the proxy war that it is now.

    The American people and investors in particular are not prepared for any of this. They should be. It’s becoming increasingly likely.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 23:40

  • "This Ain't Your Daddy's Playboy": US States Move Towards Mandatory Age-Verification For Pornhub
    “This Ain’t Your Daddy’s Playboy”: US States Move Towards Mandatory Age-Verification For Pornhub

    After Louisiana required porn websites to verify users are 18 or older last month, several states are considering introducing age-verification measures so minors cannot access sites. 

    In Louisiana’s case, verification can be done using a government-issued ID. Websites like Pornhub prompt users in the southern state with a “check my age” verification page before accessing the main site. 

    According to Free Speech Coalition, a non-profit trade association of the adult industry, their ‘Age Verification Bill Tracker‘ shows Arkansas, Virginia, Florida, South Dakota, West Virginia, Kansas, and Mississippi are quickly moving toward passing age-verification laws. 

    Oregon, Texas, South Carolina, Minnesota, Utah, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arizona have introduced or planned to introduce age-verification laws. 

    Pornhub owner MindGeek, who also operates Brazzers, YouPorn, and Redtube, is required under the law to ask Louisiana-based users to verify their age.

    “Louisiana law now requires us to put in place a process for verifying the age of users who connect to our site from Louisiana. The privacy and security of the Pornhub community is our priority, and we thank you for your cooperation,” the Pornhub website tells Louisiana-based users. 

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    The movement to protect children appears to be driven by social conservatives. Rep. Laurie Schlegel pushed Louisiana’s age-verification law. In December, she tweeted:

    “Online pornography is extreme and graphic and only one click away from our children. This is not your daddy’s Playboy. And if pornography companies refuse to be responsible, then we must hold them accountable. This law is a first step.” 

    Finally, lawmakers are stepping up a campaign to block unfettered access porn websites. But shouldn’t the minor’s parents be responsible for internet-blocking software on devices? 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 23:20

  • NFL Players' Association Urged To Screen for Heart Issues Over Vaccine Side Effects
    NFL Players’ Association Urged To Screen for Heart Issues Over Vaccine Side Effects

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The NFL Players’ Association is being urged to offer players cardiac screening in light of the growing concern over COVID-19 vaccines causing heart inflammation.

    A nurse administers a COVID-19 vaccine during an event held by the San Francisco 49ers and other groups in Santa Clara, Calif., on April 8, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    The Health Freedom Defense Fund urged the association in a recent letter to implement screening because the vaccines can cause myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation. Young males are the most at risk.

    Most NFL players received a COVID-19 vaccine under pressure from teams and the league.

    “Safety signals illustrate that the near and long-term health outcomes of the COVID-19 vaccines remain uncertain,” Leslie Manookian, president and founder of the fund, told DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the association (NFLPA), in the missive.

    “A multitude of adverse reactions to these injections, including myocarditis, are wide ranging and confirmed, and as such, prudence dictates that the NFLPA investigate the extent to which the COVID-19 shots may have resulted in injury, compromised health or death of players,” Manookian said.

    She pointed out that Damar Hamlin, a safety for the Buffalo Bills, suffered a cardiac arrest on the field during a Monday Night Football game in January. The reason for the incident remains unknown; Hamlin declined to convey what his doctors told him during a recent televised interview. Former NFL players have also suffered heart attacks and strokes following vaccination.

    The NFLPA should introduce “a testing and screening program to determine whether players have been adversely affected by the injections and to develop a set of functional medical protocols and treatments in order to address and heal any deleterious effects of the vaccines,” Manookian said.

    The NFLPA declined to comment to The Epoch Times.

    The association has not responded to the letter, which was sent via email and regular mail, Manookian told The Epoch Times.

    Former NFL player Ken Ruettgers, who started the Voices for Medical Freedom podcast, previously warned an associate who works for the NFLPA of post-vaccination cardiac events and offered to connect the group with doctors with knowledge of the issues.

    The associate thanked Reuttgers but did not accept the offer, Reuttgers told The Epoch Times.

    “The challenge is, it’s almost like a fighter pilot that, ‘I don’t want to be tested because if I come up positive, I don’t want to be grounded,’” Reuttgers said.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 23:00

  • Navigating Contrived Catastrophes
    Navigating Contrived Catastrophes

    Authored by Terrence Keeley via RealClear Wire,

    “Nothing so focuses the mind,” Samuel Johnson once wrote, “as the sight of the gallows.” Perhaps this explains why political leaders repeatedly fabricate existential crises in lieu of governing responsibly. Without the sword of Damocles overhead, policymakers just can’t seem to get the adulation they so desperately crave.

    Take the fake debt ceiling crisis.

    The U.S. federal debt cap was first enacted in 1917 when our national debt stood at $5.7 billion. Congress has since raised it more than 90 times with broad bipartisan support. There is ZERO chance they won’t do so again, yet we are told we must quiver and quake until they do. For some reason, a $31.4 trillion limit just isn’t enough to run the greatest country on earth properly.

    Or better yet, consider the much-ballyhooed “Net Zero by 2050” time bomb. There was no science behind its selection of the 1.5 degree above pre-industrial temperature target. It was intentionally contrived so politicians and pundits could insist we spend hundreds of trillions of dollars reconfiguring every personal and industrial process to mute it, possibly by a degree or two. Anthropogenic activities are clearly taxing our air, water, and lands. Depending upon tradeoffs like affordability and reliability (and what China, India, and Russia decide to do), less carbon-intensive energy sources may well be preferable, too. Convincing our younger generation they will all die unless the globe urgently reduces its net carbon footprint to zero is another matter altogether. Being more mindful about our consumption patterns while preparing our communities for the probability of more violent weather would be too simple. Better to scare everyone out of their wits so we can get on with doing witless things.

    Great societies thrive on consistent policy competence. Failing ones lurch from crisis to crisis. Contriving catastrophic scenarios all but ensures hysteria will supplant sober, reasoned analysis.  

    Some will argue extreme threats are needed to force modest, salutary changes. After all, a handful of U.S. debt ceiling votes brought about useful policy changes, like the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings breakthrough and the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Similarly, threats of impending climate doom have led many individuals and corporations to examine their energy use, seek cleaner alternatives, and eliminate unnecessary waste.

    But have these modest advances been worth the price of the abject delirium that has accompanied them? And are recurrent, contrived catastrophes somehow producing better policy outcomes?

    Evidently not. Three essential U.S. social programs – Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – are barreling along towards insolvency. Just as the retirement age in France must rise to reflect longer life expectancies and taxation tipping points, so too must U.S. retirement programs respect demographic realities. Maintaining peace through strength in an increasingly dangerous world requires that the U.S. spend more on defense, not less. Unless the current debt ceiling crisis leads to an honest reckoning about our most urgent tax and spending priorities, heightened hysteria serves no useful end. Worse, all the faux debt ceiling dynamics convince politicians they’ve somehow done their jobs when instead, they’ve abrogated them entirely.

    Similarly, we speak about an “energy transition,” but no realistic projection of future fossil fuel consumption shows any meaningful decline in the century to come. Rising populations, improved living standards, reliability needs for the three billion humans who are still energy insecure, and the first order demands of national security reveal oil and gas will remain crucial sources of our energy mix for as far as the eye can see. The most logical response would be to prioritize energy reliability while recalibrating our emissions mitigation spending towards more climate adaptation priorities. Why spend $100 trillion or more on something that has been entirely contrived and is all but certain to fail when you can spend $50 trillion or less on something that would demonstrably save human lives while improving their livelihoods?

    History is festooned with countless ruses about the end of time, some more disruptive than others. They include those of French Bishop Martin of Tours in 375 A.D., and Jim Jones in 1967. Many thousands believed the so-called Y2K cliff would crash every computer, triggering global economic ruin and the rise of the Antichrist. Yet, remarkably, here we all still are, higher in number than ever.

    In time, trillions of dollars of investment products now priced against Net Zero 2050 deadlines will need to be abandoned. Similarly, the U.S. debt ceiling will be lifted multiple times before responsible members of both parties finally put our tax and spending trajectories into sustainable balance. Panic, like blackmail, compromises sensible thinking. Calm acceptance of measurable risks and their reasonable mitigation are the essence of wise decision-making.

    The next time a politician tells you Armageddon is nigh, remind them it’s their only job to make sure it isn’t. If you’ve got the patience for it, you can also show them how easy it would be to avoid.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 22:20

  • China Hits Lockheed Martin, Raytheon With Retaliatory Sanctions Amid Balloon Saga
    China Hits Lockheed Martin, Raytheon With Retaliatory Sanctions Amid Balloon Saga

    China has made good on its prior threats to retaliate and introduce “countermeasures” against the United States following the ‘spy’ balloon shootdown incident a week-and-a-half ago, and has done so in relation to Washington arming Taiwan.

    On Thursday Beijing has unveiled new sanctions against Lockheed Martin Corporation and Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies Corp – both of which are now banned from either importing, exporting and investing in China. 

    They are now on China’s “unreliable entities list” of companies deemed a threat to national sovereignty and security, and so will have their activities restricted, along with punitive fines.

    “Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Missiles will not be allowed to invest within China and they will be fined an amount equivalent to twice the value of their contracts related to the sale of arms to Taiwan island since the implementation of China’s Unreliable Entity List rules,” writes China Daily.

    While the move is seen as most immediately connected with Raytheon and Lockheed’s major weapons contracts with the self-ruled island of Taiwan brokered under US government approval, the catalyst appears to be the US shootdown of the Chinese balloon off South Carolina on Feb.4 and ensuing war of words and accompanying accusations. 

    While neither companies have done military equipment deals with China, especially since the US long ago banned such transfers with China, the sanctions might be felt to a limited degree by the civilian aviation industry in China: 

    Raytheon Missiles and Defense, part of Raytheon Technologies Corp, was awarded a $412m contract in September to upgrade Taiwan’s military radar as part of a $1.1bn package of US arms sales to the island. Lockheed Martin has supplied Taiwan’s military with radar, helicopters and air traffic control equipment.

    In China, Lockheed Martin has sold air traffic control equipment for civilian airports and helicopters for commercial use.

    Last week, the US slapped punitive sanctions on six Chinese entities believed connected to the alleged Chinese spy balloon breaching American airspace.

    China had promised to send a strong message back, while also pointing out that the US has breached Chinese airspace ten times in the last year with balloons. China’s foreign ministry has maintained the object was a weather balloon which blew off course, and that the situation is being exploited by the Biden administration to attack Beijing.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 22:00

  • WHO Convenes 'Urgent' Meeting Over Marburg, One Of World’s Deadliest Viruses
    WHO Convenes ‘Urgent’ Meeting Over Marburg, One Of World’s Deadliest Viruses

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The World Health Organization (WHO) convened an “urgent meeting” this week amid an outbreak of the Marburg virus, which causes one of the world’s deadliest diseases, in Africa.

    A hazmat worker is seen in a file photo. (LM Otero/AP Photo)

    Health officials say Marburg, first seen in the late 1960s, is related to Ebola. However, WHO officials say it’s far more deadly, killing upwards of 88 percent of people who contract it.

    The virus has been detected in several African countries over the past several months, including recently in Equatorial Guinea. A small number of Marburg cases were found in Ghana late last year.

    “WHO on Tuesday convened an urgent meeting of the Marburg virus vaccine consortium (MARVAC) to discuss the outbreak,” a news release from the United Nations-backed health agency said on Tuesday, adding that Equatorial Guinea has confirmed its first-ever case of the virus. WHO officials say the virus is responsible for nine deaths in the tiny African nation.

    Doctor Mark Katz, a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO), takes an oral sample from patient Feliciana suspected of having Marburg hemorrhagic fever in Kinguangua, near Uige, on May 6, 2005. (Christopher Black/WHO/AFP via Getty Images)

    The Marburg outbreak was centered around Kie Ntem Province, located in western Equatorial Guinea. The deaths occurred between Jan. 7 and Feb. 7, WHO said, citing reports.

    “Surveillance in the field has been intensified,” George Ameh, WHO’s country representative in Equatorial Guinea, was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail during Tuesday’s meeting. “Contact tracing, as you know, is a cornerstone of the response. We have … redeployed the COVID-19 teams that were there for contact tracing and quickly retrofitted them to really help us out.”

    In its release, WHO said it sent “advance teams” to impacted districts in the West African country to provide medical care and perform contract tracing. “Health authorities sent samples to the Institut Pasteur reference laboratory in Senegal, with support from WHO, to determine the cause,” Tuesday’s release added. “Eight samples were tested, one of which turned out positive.”

    Cases of the virus, however, are considered rare. Annual global figures released by WHO indicate that cases tend to be in the single digits worldwide.

    And although it remains “a very rare disease in people,” says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “when it occurs, it has the potential to spread,” and can be highly deadly. “Health care staff and family members who care for the patient” infected with the hemorrhagic fever are most at risk, the CDC says (pdf) in a fact sheet.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 21:40

  • Second Russian Aircraft Intercept Over Alaska Within 48 Hours
    Second Russian Aircraft Intercept Over Alaska Within 48 Hours

    NORAD on Thursday has belatedly acknowledged a second Russian aircraft intercept incident this week, after earlier confirming the initial one involving four inbound Russian planes, which happened Monday.

    “For the second time this week, NORAD has scrambled fighter jets on Valentine’s Day to intercept Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers off the coast of Alaska, it claimed”, according to fresh reports.

    Like in first incident, NORAD dispatched a pair of fighter jets, both F-35s, to intercept the Russian planes as they they approached Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone, officials said Thursday.

    “This is the second intercept of Russian aircraft over two days. This Russian activity near the North American ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative,” NORAD added in the fresh statement.

    Interestingly, NORAD called both of this week’s incidents “routine” – given it has happened an estimated six to seven times a year on average over the past decade or more. Additionally, no breach of actual US airspace was reported by the Russian planes, just the outlying ADIZ.

    But such breaches coming twice within a 48 hour period has been extremely rare. Also, Russian state media appears to be actively publicizing these maneuvers off Alaska, including with videos.

    Monday’s statement had emphasized that “Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace. This Russian activity in the North American ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative,” it continued.

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    Heightened tensions are ongoing with Russia related to the Ukraine war, but the intercepts also come following the unusual spate of ‘unidentified object’ shootdowns by US fighters over the past week-and-a-half, two of which were in far northern regions, including northeastern Alaska and Canada’s Yukon territory.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 21:20

  • Audio Of US Fighter Pilot Who Shot Down Chinese Spy Balloon Reveals Lake Huron Strategy
    Audio Of US Fighter Pilot Who Shot Down Chinese Spy Balloon Reveals Lake Huron Strategy

    Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Audio recordings of radio chatter taken during the United States’ shoot down of a Chinese spy balloon earlier this month may provide insights into how the military later shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron.

    A U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter flies during an aerial display at Farnborough Airshow, Hampshire, on July 14, 2008. (Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images)

    In over 20 minutes of radio chatter, U.S. pilots and ground teams can be heard discussing their approach and shoot down of the Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina.

    The audio was captured by aviation radio enthusiast Ken Harrell and first published by The Drive. The Air Force declined to share its own audio files but confirmed the authenticity of the recordings to The Epoch Times.

    In one exchange, the lead fighter pilot and his wingman can both be heard preparing their missiles to fire on the balloon, suggesting that the wingman was prepared to take down the balloon immediately following a failed attempt by the lead pilot.

    The primary players you will see in the transcript and hear in the audio are:

    FRANK01 is the lead F-22 that took the kill shot. FRANK02 is its wingman. As we reported Saturday, those call signs were an homage to World War One flying ace and U.S. Army Air Service First Lieutenant Frank Luke Jr, a Medal of Honor recipient better known as the “Arizona Balloon Buster” who destroyed 14 German balloons and four aircraft.

    HUNTRESS is the U.S. Air Force’s Eastern Air Defense Sector, or EADS, part of the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which was controlling the operation from the ground in Rome, New York.

    EAGLE01 is an F-15C and EAGLE02 is its wingman. The Eagles backed-up the F-22s and used their SNIPER targeting pods to record the shootdown and mark areas of debris for recovery.

    TIGER09 is a Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. 

    TOI is Target Of Interest, in this case the Chinese spy balloon.

    Author’s notes are seen in italics. -The Drive

    “FRANK01 is switches hot,” the lead pilot says.

    “FREANK02 is switches hot,” the wingman follows.

    The two F-22 stealth fighters’ call signs, FRANK01 and FRANK02, were named after World War I flying ace Frank Luke Jr., who earned the epithet of “Arizona Balloon Buster” for his successful shootdowns of 14 German balloons during the conflict.

    Notably, the brief exchange may reveal exactly what happened during the United States shoot down of an unidentified object over Lake Huron on Feb. 12.

    During that encounter, the lead pilot fired an AIM-9X missile at the object, the same type of missile used on the Chinese spy balloon and two other unidentified objects this month.

    In one portion of the recording, an F-15C pilot can be heard expressing frustration over actually locking onto the balloon.

    “I’m having trouble keeping a radar lock for any more than a second on him,” said the pilot, adding “I will keep trying.“

    Read the entire transcript here via The Drive.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 21:00

  • NATO Chief Admits: "War Didn't Start In February Last Year, The War Started In 2014"
    NATO Chief Admits: “War Didn’t Start In February Last Year, The War Started In 2014”

    With the one-year anniversary of Russia’s Feb.24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine just around the corner, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg this week issued some surprising words regarding the history and origin of the conflict. In essence he finally admitted an important truth, which is of course extremely rare among top Western officials these days.

    Whereas prior to these fresh remarks by Stoltenberg, US and NATO officials including major media, have framed the invasion exclusively as merely one man’s (Putin) ‘unprovoked’ naked aggression bent on enlarging an ‘expansionist Russia’, Stoltenberg now much belatedly admits “the war didn’t start in February last year. The war started in 2014.“

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    Here’s what the NATO chief said during a briefing to reporters, and in front of cameras, as also transcribed and published to NATO’s official website…

    “The other thing I will say is that the war didn’t start in February last year. The war started in 2014. And since 2014, NATO Allies have provided support to Ukraine, with training, with equipment, so the Ukrainian Armed Forces were much stronger in 2022, than they were in 2020, and 2014. And of course, that made a huge difference when President Putin decided to attack Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.

    And of course, a central reason for the war articulated by President Putin both in the lead-up to the invasion and after has consistently been that the West was waging an anti-Russia proxy war right at its doorstep, namely in the war-torn Donbass. 

    It also bears recalling that throughout last year, and especially in the opening months of the major Russian invasion, any independent voice daring to point out that the conflict in fact originated in 2014 – and that the current fighting is an extension and escalation of the ‘long war’ – was denounced as somehow ‘pro-Kremlin’ or else a ‘Putin puppet’ in mainstream discourse. 

    Image via Reuters/DW

    Below are some essential facts and a much-needed trip down memory lane concerning the lead-up to Feb 2022 to understand what we and other independent voices have been saying for years, and what Stoltenberg has just now very belatedly and reluctantly admitted:

    In the Russian view, the United States has the ability and willingness to unilaterally destroy or overthrow any government that does not do its bidding. The experience of Serbia (1999), Iraq (2003), Syria (2011), Libya (2011), and most recently Ukraine (2014) and the attempt in Belarus (2021) seem to support their perspective.

    Those who are going on about Russia’s “imperial ambitions” under “Communist dictator Vladimir Putin” have little knowledge about any of this, or why the Russians might feel legitimately threatened by having a US-sponsored and NATO-aligned regime for a neighbor.

    Below: a rare past instance of what real journalism looks like, often completely missing in the administration’s press briefing rooms…

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    Consider: for over two hundred years, the American “Monroe Doctrine” has stated that no foreign power will be allowed to form a military alliance with any nation in the entire Western Hemisphere. This is the bedrock principle of American foreign policy.

    Compare this to Europe. Kiev and Moscow are separated by a mere 470 miles of flat land. What Russian leader in their right mind would allow an “anti-Russia” to be created and then armed in its own back yard? 

    It’s not like any of this is a new concern. The Russians have been straight forward about this concern for thirty years, right up to the last ditch public appeal they delivered in December. Recall that ideological fanatics occupying our foreign service responded by sending massive shipments full of weapons into Ukraine, and then tweeted out photos of the cargo aircraft flying them in.

    Well, as the last year of horrific death and destruction in Ukraine has shown, the necons and wokesters finally got their war. Now they’re making sure it gets fought down to the last Ukrainian, resulting in very sad and tragic spectacles like the following…

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 20:40

  • Jordan Subpoenas Big Tech CEOs In House 'Weaponization' Probe
    Jordan Subpoenas Big Tech CEOs In House ‘Weaponization’ Probe

    Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) says he has subpoenaed the CEOs of top U.S. Big Tech firms as part of Republicans’ ongoing investigation into the weaponization of the federal government.

    U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, delivers remarks during a business meeting prior to a hearing on U.S. southern border security on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 1, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    In November, House Republicans unveiled a 1,050-page report detailing whistleblower findings from FBI agents.

    Since then, the House majority authorized the creation of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which held its inaugural hearing on Feb. 9.

    Now, Jordan has sent subpoena requests to several major tech executives asking for documents and testimony.

    “Today, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan subpoenaed the chief executive officers of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft for documents and communications relating to the federal government’s reported collusion with Big Tech to suppress free speech,” Jordan’s office said in a statement emailed to the Epoch Times.

    “The House Judiciary Committee has repeatedly attempted to engage with the five companies since last December,” the release continues. “Unfortunately, the companies have not adequately complied with our requests.”

    Jordan was referencing a series of Dec. 14, 2022, letters his office sent to various tech executives.

    The CEOs—Alphabet’s (Google) Sundar Pichai, Amazon’s Andy Jassy, Apple’s Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella—have until March 23 to provide any communications between them and the federal government’s executive branch on the subject.

    “Big Tech is out to get conservatives, and is increasingly willing to undermine First Amendment values by complying with the Biden Administration’s directives that suppress freedom of speech online,” Jordan wrote, in excerpts from the letter to the executives posted to his website.

    “This approach undermines fundamental American principles and allows powerful government actors to silence political opponents and stifle opposing viewpoints,” he continued. “Publicly available information suggests that your companies’ treatment of certain speakers and content may stem from government directives or guidance designed to suppress dissenting views.

    “Big Tech’s role in shaping national and international public discourse today is well-known. In some cases, Big Tech’s ‘heavy-handed censorship’ has been ‘use[d] to silence prominent voices’ and to ‘stifle views that disagree with the prevailing progressive consensus.’

    “Because of Big Tech’s wide reach, it can serve as a powerful and effective partisan arm of the ‘woke speech police.’ Although the full extent of Big Tech’s collusion with the Biden Administration is unknown, there are prominent examples and strong indications of Big Tech censorship following directives or pressure from executive branch entities.

    “These examples raise serious concerns about how and why tech companies suppress, silence, or reduce the reach of certain political speech and speakers. The collusion of Big Tech and Big Government to advance censorship undeniably undermines liberty and jeopardizes our country’s First Amendment values and protections.”

    Jordan cited long-held concerns among conservatives that their viewpoints are disproportionately stifled on social media platforms through outright bans, removal of certain posts, and “shadow banning,” which dramatically reduce a person’s reach on most social media platforms.

    President Donald Trump considered the issue a concern as early as 2019, and attempted at the end of his presidency to gut the legal liability protections currently enjoyed by Big Tech platforms.

    With Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and the release of documents from the platform’s previous management, it’s become clear that these concerns were well-founded, and have been proven that the firms were engaging in censorship of certain viewpoints.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 20:20

  • Ukraine Shoots Down 'Decoy' Russian Balloons As Moldova, Romania Report High-Altitude Objects
    Ukraine Shoots Down ‘Decoy’ Russian Balloons As Moldova, Romania Report High-Altitude Objects

    Following last week’s balloon shootdown incidents over the United States, there have been a slew of fresh reports involving high-altitude balloon activity over eastern Europe, including incidents involving objects over Moldova, Romania, as well as potential ‘weaponized’ balloons over Ukraine. 

    “Ukraine’s army has said Russia fired 36 cruise missiles on Thursday, a day after six apparently radar-reflecting balloons were spotted over Kyiv,” BBC reports. Ukraine authorities have said the balloon activity is related to a change in Russian tactics, which have of late included sending wind-propelled reflective balloons over the capital and other cities in order to provoke an anti-air response. 

    Illustrative: A Russian military high-altitude balloon being launched. Source: The Drive/TV ZVEZDA

    “These objects could carry radar reflectors and certain reconnaissance equipment,” Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said. “The balloons were launched to detect and exhaust our air defense forces.”

    The military further described that most balloons had been shot down, and they are intentionally designed to be picked up on radar as decoys. 

    “Balloons with reflectors have also been spotted over the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk in recent days,” BBC continues, also referencing photographs which surfaced on social media in recent days.

    Tiny Moldova was among those earlier this week to close its airspace due to an unidentified object, now believed to be a balloon, and Romania even scrambled fighter jets in response to “an object resembling a weather balloon was spotted at a height of around 11,000 ft (3,350m),” according to official statements.

    In a briefing, Romania’s defense ministry said the object wasn’t a threat upon closer review, and the it had “characteristics similar to a weather balloon” – but had been picked up on radar and warranted investigation. 

    Via Telegram: deflated balloon tied to a reflector, believed used by the Russian military to trigger Ukrainian air defense.

    The dispatched jets had surveyed the area for about 30 minutes, but “did not confirm the presence of the aerial target, neither visually nor on the onboard radars,” and afterward returned to base without incident, defense officials said.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 20:00

  • Wall St. Journal Report Says You Should Stop Eating To Save Money
    Wall St. Journal Report Says You Should Stop Eating To Save Money

    Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

    The Wall Street Journal published a report today that suggests Americans should combat economic strife by only eating two meals per day.

    It sounds like a Babylon Bee story, but less amusing.

    Eggs, cereals, fruit and coffee are among the foods that have rocketed in price the most, and so perhaps breakfast should just be consigned to the dustbin of history, according to the report.

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    The report notes “Egg prices increased 8.5% in January from a month earlier and are up 70.1% over the past year, the highest annual rate since 1973.”

    It continues, “The deadliest avian-influenza outbreak on record has devastated poultry flocks across the U.S., leading the price of eggs to rise more than any other grocery item in 2022, according to Information Resources Inc. U.S. egg inventories were 29% lower in the final week of December 2022 than at the beginning of 2022, according to the USDA.”

    They really don’t want you eating eggs.

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    The report also blames the “continued effects from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” for rampant inflation.

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    This even goes beyond the disgusting ‘eat ze bugs’ propaganda. Just don’t eat anything at all in order to survive. Genius.

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    Meanwhile, Joe Biden claimed again today that his economic plan is working:

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    Biden said yesterday that the latest inflation report was good and that prices are down, a complete lie.

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    Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

    In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 19:40

  • Senator John Fetterman Checks Into Walter Reed Medical For Depression Days After Leaving Hospital
    Senator John Fetterman Checks Into Walter Reed Medical For Depression Days After Leaving Hospital

    It was no sooner that Senator John Fetterman left the hospital after feeling “lightheaded” last week than he has checked back in to an institution. He has now checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center seeking treatment for clinical depression, according to AP. 

    His chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, said: “While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks.”

    Fetterman was reportedly evaluated on Monday by the attending physician of Congress, Dr. Brian P. Monahan, AP noted. It was Monahan who recommended inpatient care at Walter Reed. 

    His chief of staff added: “John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis. After examining John, the doctors at Walter Reed told us that John is getting the care he needs, and will soon be back to himself.”

    “After what he’s been through in the past year, there’s probably no one who wanted to talk about his own health less than John,” his wife, Gisele said on Twitter. Those sentiments were echoed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who aid Fetterman “is getting the help he needs”.

    Recall Fetterman was also hospitalized after feeling “lightheaded” last week and had a stroke while running for election last year.

    Prior to his election, Fetterman’s televised debate performance against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, had become a talking point due to his inability to articulate himself. Those who questioned Fetterman’s ability or health were labeled as “ableist”. 

    During the debate, Fetterman’s health became one of the first issues discussed. Fetterman supposedly, at the time, got a letter from a doctor giving him the “all clear for full duty” to work in office, but avoided the request of releasing his full medical records surrounding his stroke.

    Additionally, as was noted last October, Fetterman had numerous members of the media running interference for him for the better part of the five months leading up to the debate. Several mainstream media reporters, like Kara Swisher, chimed in, claiming that Fetterman was recovering well from his stroke and hadn’t had any issues communicating.

    People like Swisher stepped in to do damage control when other members of the media, like Dasha Burns, had the true courage to point out what were likely very inconvenient facts for her employer, MSNBC, and their political affiliation: that it “wasn’t clear” Fetterman was understanding their conversation at the time. 

    We genuinely hope Fetterman emerges from care for the better – but we’d be lying if we didn’t say we thought Democrats were due some of the blame for encouraging Fetterman through a rigorous Senate campaign despite his health issues.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 19:20

  • Free Speech Is Futile: Gates Goes Full 'Borg' On AI Censorship
    Free Speech Is Futile: Gates Goes Full ‘Borg’ On AI Censorship

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    Below is my column in the New York Post on the call of Bill Gates to use Artificial Intelligence to combat “political polarization” on the Internet. It turns out the problem on the Internet is those pesky humans “who want to believe … things” that they should not. Enter the new AI Overlords to bring collective peace and tranquility through content assimilation.

    Here is the column:

    “We are the AI.”

    That Borg-like greeting could be coming soon to the internet in the form of new AI overlords. In a recent chilling interview, Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates called for the use of artificial intelligence to combat not just “digital misinformation” but “political polarization.”

    He is only the latest to call for the use of either AI or algorithms to shape what people say or read on the internet. The danger of such a system is evident where free speech, like resistance, could become futile.

    In an interview on a German program, “Handelsblatt Disrupt,” Gates calls for unleashing AI to stop certain views from being “magnified by digital channels.” The problem is that we allow “various conspiracy theories like QAnon or whatever to be blasted out by people who wanted to believe those things.”

    Gates added that AI can combat “political polarization” by checking “confirmation bias.”

    Confirmation bias is a term long used to describe the tendency of people to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms their own beliefs. It is now being used to dismiss those with opposing views as ignorant slobs dragging their knuckles across the internet — people endangering us all by failing to accept the logic behind policies on COVID, climate change or a host of other political issues.

    This is not the first call for AI overlords to protect us from ourselves. Last September, Gates gave the keynote address at the Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy. He told his fellow billionaires that “polarization and lack of trust is a problem.”

    The problem is again … well … people: “People seek simple solutions [and] the truth is kind of boring sometimes.”

    Not AI, of course. That would supply the solutions. Otherwise, Gates suggested, we could all die: “Political polarization may bring it all to an end, we’re going to have a hung election and a civil war.”

    Others have suggested a Brave New World where citizens will be carefully guided in what they read and see. Democratic leaders have called for a type of “enlightened algorithms” to frame what citizens access on the internet. In 2021, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) objected that people were not listening to the informed views of herself and leading experts. Instead, they were reading views of skeptics by searching Amazon and finding books by “prominent spreaders of misinformation.”

    Warren blamed Amazon for failing to limit searches or choices: “This pattern and practice of misbehavior suggests that Amazon is either unwilling or unable to modify its business practices to prevent the spread of falsehoods or the sale of inappropriate products.” In her letter, Warren gave the company 14 days to change its algorithms to throttle and obstruct efforts to read opposing views.

    Social media responded to such calls and engaged in widespread censorship of those who held opposing views of mask mandates, vaccine safety, school mandates, and the origin of COVID-19. Many of those criticisms and views are now acknowledged as plausible and legitimate, but scientists were banned and censored. There was no “polarization” allowed. The public never was allowed to have that full debate on social media because such views were declared disinformation.

    President Biden joined in these calls for censorship, often sounding like a censor-in-chief, denouncing social media companies for “killing people” by not blocking enough. Recently, he expressed doubt that the public can “know the truth” without such censorship by “editors” in Big Tech.

    They found an eager body of censors at companies like Twitter. After taking over as CEO, Parag Agrawal pledged to regulate content as “reflective of things that we believe lead to a healthier public conversation.” Agrawal said the company would “focus less on thinking about free speech” because “speech is easy on the internet. Most people can speak. Where our role is particularly emphasized is who can be heard.”

    That view was echoed last week in the first hearing on Twitter’s censorship program. Former Twitter executive Anika Collier Navaroli testified on what she repeatedly called the “nuanced” standard used by her and her staff on censorship. She explained that they did not just balance free speech against public safety in deciding whether to allow someone to speak. Rather censorship depended on the persons involved: “Whose free expression are we protecting at the expense of whose safety and whose safety are we willing to allow to go the winds so that people can speak freely?”

    All of that could be much easier with an AI Overlord that can protect us against our own doubts and divisions. Currently, Microsoft, the company Gates founded, uses NewsGuard, a self-described arbiter of misinformation, which rates sites and has been widely criticized for targeting conservative media.

    Now, this work could be turned over to an AI Overlord. Of course, the intelligence remains artificial. A human has to program what is truth and what is intolerable “polarization.” It would be a ramped-up version of ChatGPT, the popular AI service that Microsoft just incorporated into its Bing search engine. It censors “offensive” content and bars certain viewpoints because it was told to do so.

    AI enforces the collective truth that needs to be amplified for a greater good as determined by figures like Gates.

    We are clearly not facing a giant menacing cube circling our planet (No, the Chinese balloons don’t count). Yet, after years of censorship, you would be forgiven if it all sounds chillingly similar to “Lower your shields and surrender … Resistance is futile.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 19:00

  • LA Woman Backs Over And Kills Man Underneath Her Ford Trying To Steal Its Catalytic Converter
    LA Woman Backs Over And Kills Man Underneath Her Ford Trying To Steal Its Catalytic Converter

    Karma appears to have everyone’s address.

    Just a couple of days ago we wrote about the unthinkable: someone had stolen the catalytic converter off the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, to which we asked at the time: “Is nothing sacred anymore?”

    But this week, some thieves received the ultimate dose of justice when a woman in California accidentally ran over and killed a man that was in the process of attempting to steal her catalytic converter, the New York Post wrote. 

    The woman had been sleeping inside of her Ford Excursion in the parking lot of a shopping center when four thieves pulled up – two hispanic men and two hispanic women. One man laid under the SUV and started sawing off the catalytic converter, the report reads. 

    The LA Sheriff’s Department said: “The victim woke up from the sound, turned the car on, put the vehicle in reverse, and felt a bump like she ran something over.” 

    When Sheriff’s arrived at the scene, they found the Ford partially moved and the man still underneath the vehicle. He was then rushed to a nearby hospital where he was found dead and later identified as a Grand Theft suspect. The other members of his party were detained and the case has been classified as a homicide. 

    Recall, about the Wienermobile, we wrote last week that the iconic vehicle was parked at a Sonesta Suites when “thieves apparently made off with the catalytic converter”, according to CBS 8 Las Vegas. Mechanics were forced to install a “temporary” catalytic converter, the report says, in order to get the vehicle started. 

    Mechanics that worked on the vehicle expressed their surprise. “A hot dog truck, no way. Imagine like a huge hot dog in the middle of your bay. There’s all these other trucks and you got to work on this,” one told CBS. 

    Joseph Rodriguez, parts administrator for the Penske shop the vehicle was towed to, spoke about the catalytic converter theft problem: “It’s been going on for a couple of years now. Last summer especially, it was like two to three months to get one.” 

    My bologna has a first name, it’s J-U-S-T-I-C-E.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 18:40

  • Ron Paul: How We Can Stop The Coming War With Russia
    Ron Paul: How We Can Stop The Coming War With Russia

    Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute,

    Twenty years ago this spring the US government was finally successful in lying us into war with Iraq. Administration after administration had sanctioned and bombed and even invaded the country, but finally 20 years ago next month the Bush Administration unleashed “shock and awe” to flatten a country that did not and could not threaten the United States.

    After eight years of battle in Iraq perhaps as many as a million innocent people died, either directly or indirectly, from Washington’s aggression. No one was brought before a tribunal over the lies and destruction. No one even apologized. Washington’s puppet of the day, Ahmed Chalabi, brushed off the lies about Iraq’s WMDs by proclaiming that the war promoters were “heroes in error.” They got their regime change and that’s all they cared about.

    The propaganda machine pushing the Iraq war seemed overwhelming at the time. At that time several fellow Members of Congress began to open communication across party lines to look for way to stop the war. From conservatives like the late Rep. Walter Jones and Rep. John Duncan, to progressives like Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Rep. Jim McGovern, and so many more, we began to organize and strategize.

    One tool we used to our advantage was the idea of an “improbable” coalition of left and right uniting to oppose the war. The media may not have been interested in our antiwar views, but they could not help themselves when presented with this “man bites dog” story. Time and again this “unlikely” group held press conferences, introduced various legislative tools, and communicated behind the scenes to try and grow the movement against the Iraq war.

    Unfortunately with the 2008 election of Barack Obama, who ran as an antiwar candidate but then launched numerous military attacks abroad, that old coalition fell apart. Some progressives excused Obama’s militarism and lost interest in cooperating with conservatives. Some conservatives were driven by their personal dislike of Obama and lost sight of the target.

    Suddenly, as we face the once-unimaginable prospect of a direct military conflict with nuclear-armed Russia over Ukraine, a beyond Left-Right coalition is emerging from its long slumber.

    This Sunday, February 19th, a broad and very diverse group will assemble in Washington, DC at the Lincoln Memorial to denounce Washington’s sleepwalking into World War III.

    The “Rage Against The War Machine” rally promises to be the first large-scale rally against Washington’s aggressive war lobby in many years. I am looking forward to sharing the stage with my good friends and former House colleagues Dennis Kucinich and Tulsi Gabbard, as well as my good friend and fellow libertarian Judge Andrew Napolitano, and so many more speakers from a broad political spectrum.

    Many of us have watched with alarm as the Biden Administration – with the enthusiastic backing of many Congressional Republicans – has continuously escalated involvement in the Russia/Ukraine conflict and now sits dangerously close to a direct, hot war with the largest nuclear superpower on earth.

    How did we get here? Where are the sane voices and cooler heads? Just when it seemed they were nowhere to be found, here we are! I hope as many people as possible will join us and continue to come together for this important cause. We must join together while we still can. No war with Russia!

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 18:20

  • US Military Readiness Under Scrutiny After Aerial Incursions
    US Military Readiness Under Scrutiny After Aerial Incursions

    Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Over eight days and using five missiles, U.S. forces shot down four objects flying above U.S. and Canadian airspace.

    US F-22 stealth jets intercepted four Russian bombers and two Russian Su-35 fighter jets off the coast of Alaska, according to a statement from North American Aerospace Defense Command,on May 20, 2019. (Sr Master Sgt ThomasMenegiun/DOD)

    Those objects include a Chinese spy balloon and three unidentified objects, one roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and another an octagonal black-metallic object.

    It’s a historic time for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the joint American–Canadian organization responsible for overseeing North American airspace and its defense, which in its 65-year history had never before shot down an aerial object over North America.

    The United States’ encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) over the past two weeks, as well as pilots’ hardships in identifying and engaging with them, highlight glaring weaknesses in U.S. military readiness, according to several defense and security experts.

    Such shortcomings included an apparent inability to detect one of the objects until it had already entered U.S. airspace, as well as a failure to track and engage another object that lingered near sensitive U.S. nuclear silos in Montana before evading further detection by fighter jets.

    Paul Crespo, a former Marine officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency and now president of the Center for American Defense Studies, believes that the problem is largely due to the size, heat, and speed of the UAPs encountered in recent weeks, all of which factor into the ease with which they could be seen on radar.

    “The recent flurry of unidentifiable aerial phenomena over the United States and Canada underscores our weakness in detecting and identifying nontraditional aerial threats,” Crespo told The Epoch Times in an email.

    “If it isn’t made of metal, super hot, and traveling hundreds if not thousands of miles an hour, our air surveillance and defense systems appear stymied.”

    Crespo’s comments highlight a problem addressed by the White House, which has acknowledged that the three UAPs had very small radar cross sections and were difficult to spot. It’s a small problem with big consequences.

    US in ‘New Strategic Era’

    The problem has been years in the making, according to Sam Kessler, a national security and geopolitical analyst with risk management firm North Star Support Group.

    Because U.S. forces are trained to use radar primarily to detect other fighter craft, much-related technology and intelligence gathering hasn’t been honed to find objects that otherwise look either benign on radar or don’t appear at all.

    “The detection issues are complicated since the sensing and radar technologies typically used for surveillance and detection purposes are usually set up under a different system of threats, such as the use of objects and vehicles that are typically fast-moving and carry a significant heat signature,” Kessler said.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 17:40

  • "We Just Want To Put It Behind Us": Crypto Exchange Binance Expects To Pay Fines To Resolve U.S. Regulatory Investigations
    “We Just Want To Put It Behind Us”: Crypto Exchange Binance Expects To Pay Fines To Resolve U.S. Regulatory Investigations

    Crypto exchange giant Binance, which has come under scrutiny since the implosion of FTX and the resultant “crypto winter” that followed, now looks like it may be able to escape its current regulatory scrutiny by paying fines. The news, which broke late in the day on Wednesday, appeared to help fuel a charge in the price of bitcoin, which was already rallying mid-week. 

    Among the regulators that are investigating the crypto outfit are the Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

    Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann told the Wall Street Journal this week that the outcome of settlement discussions with U.S. regulators would result in “likely a fine, could be more….We just don’t know. That is for regulators to decide.”

    Binance is “working with regulators to figure out what are the remediations we have to go through now to make amends for that,” he said. 

    He also said in an interview with BNN that the company had regulatory “gaps” that it has since closed. He blamed the initial gaps on a thin staff and little compliance, stating on Wednesday of this week: “It’s a tremendous burden. As a result, there were some gaps in our compliance system in the first two years.”

    He called “ongoing conversations” with regulators “very collaborative” and said the discussions and compliance fixes are “greatly to the benefit of users.” He said Binance is “highly confident and feeling really good about where those discussions are going.”

    All the while, regulators in the U.S. have been on a tear in going after other crypto-associated firms, as BNN notes:

    In January, Binance was named among counterparties to digital-asset platform Bitzlato, which has been accused of processing millions of dollars in illegal funds. 

    This month, a New York regulator told Binance’s partner Paxos Trust Co. to stop minting a Binance-branded stablecoin known as BUSD. The regulator told Paxos to halt new issuance over unresolved issues tied to Paxos’s oversight of its relationship with Binance. The SEC separately has sent Paxos a notice alleging that BUSD, the third-largest stablecoin, is an unregistered security.

    The company’s compliance department now numbers more than 750 employees, the BNN report noted. 

    “It will be a good moment for our company because it allows us to put it behind us,” Hillmann said. “We just want to put it behind us.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 17:20

  • WHO Suddenly Shelves Plans For Second Phase Investigation Into Origins Of COVID-19: Report
    WHO Suddenly Shelves Plans For Second Phase Investigation Into Origins Of COVID-19: Report

    Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

    More than three years after COVID-19 emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the World Health Organization (WHO) has shelved its plan for the second phase of a study into the virus’ origins, Nature reported Tuesday.

    In January 2021, a year after the initial outbreak, the WHO dispatched an international team of scientists and doctors from various disciplines to Wuhan, where they worked with Chinese experts to examine evidence about the virus. The phase one investigation yielded a report that only spawned more questions over the hypothesis that the virus might have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which was tinkering with bat coronaviruses. It was also criticized for ignoring China’s failure to hand over complete, original data and samples.

    In response to those concerns, the United Nations agency in July 2021 announced a plan for a more extensive second phase investigation. Specifically, it promised to find and review more data on “relevant laboratories and research institutions” in Wuhan, as well as data on wild animals sold at the city’s live animal markets in late 2019, to better understand whether it’s more likely that the pandemic began with human contact with an infected animal, or from a lab escape.

    The proposed probe never materialized.

    Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, told Nature that the plan “has changed.”

    “There is no phase two,” Van Kerkhove told the scientific journal.

    “The politics across the world of this really hampered progress on understanding the origins,” she said.

    In response to The Epoch Times’ request for further comments, a spokesperson for Van Kerkhove said Nature’s report was “incorrect” and that she has asked the publication for correction.

    Nature has yet to issue any correction at the point of this publication.

    CCP Pushback

    The mere discussion of a lab escape as a possible scenario in the first phase report irritated the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime, which turned it into an excuse not to allow another WHO mission into Wuhan.

    Just days after the WHO proposed a second phase investigation, the regime mounted a pushback, claiming that the lab breach hypothesis shouldn’t even be talked about, let alone be the focus of further scrutiny.

    Security personnel keep watch outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit by the World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 3, 2021. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

    The proposal, according to vice minister of China’s National Health Commission, Zeng Yixin, “did not respect common sense and violated science.” He also insisted that there wasn’t any “man-made virus” at the WIV, nor had the institute ever conducted gain-of-function experiments on the novel coronavirus.

    “It is impossible for us to accept such an origin-tracing plan,” Zeng said at that time.

    “We are opposed to politicizing the tracing work.”

    Zeng’s comments prompted Washington to call out Beijing for its “dangerous” and “irresponsible” behavior.

    “We are deeply disappointed,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “Their position is irresponsible, and frankly, dangerous. It’s not a time to be stonewalling.”

    Amid the tension between China and the United States, the WHO was still seeking “directly engage” with Chinese officials and trying to establish collaborations with Chinese scientists, according to Van Kerkhove.

    “We really, really want to be able to work with our colleagues there,” she told Nature. “It’s really a deep frustration.”

    WHO Leadership Change

    Nature’s report comes as Jeremy Farrar, a British pharmaceutical trust director involved in producing a paper arguing against the lab breach hypothesis, is set to take the helm of WHO’s science division.

    According to emails obtained and publicized by independent journalist James Tobias via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, Farrar had been working on a draft of the paper with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in as early as January 2020. At one point, the two appeared to discuss whether the virus could have been put in a serial passage between animals in lab experiments and then escaped.

    The paper in question, titled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” was published in Nature Medicine in March 2020. It has since been widely cited by government officials—Fauci himself included—and mainstream media outlets as the scientific basis for dismissing the possibility that COVID-19 might have come out of a lab.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 02/16/2023 – 17:00

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