- Germany's (And Europe's) Self-Inflicted Upcoming Energy Crunch
Germany’s (And Europe’s) Self-Inflicted Upcoming Energy Crunch
Authored by Weimin Chen via The Mises Institute,
At the end of September 2021, the Nord Stream 2 project was a reality after many years of uncertainty. At that time, there were only a few more regulatory hurdles remaining for Germany and Russia to seal the deal on the long-awaited and highly controversial natural gas pipeline. Achieving such a feat would have been a milestone in energy cooperation between the two countries. Sadly, the regional order has tilted hard and quick off that track, and Europe has plunged into a perilous future of uncertainty.
In the first weeks of the Russian-initiated war in Ukraine, Germany, along with the rest of Europe, found itself backed into a corner regarding its energy sourcing as Western sanctions cut off routes and links in the established regional energy and financial infrastructures. There has been no perceptible success in breaking out of this bind. Instead, Germany has watched time tick by. Russia’s Gazprom recently cut gas flow for Nord Stream 1 to 20 percent of capacity.
German nuclear power plants remain mostly idle, with three facilities providing 13 percent of the country’s electricity compared to France’s 69 percent. Coal power plants have now ramped up output, with the inevitable approach of the fall and winter seasons in the near term.
Reality Sets In
Germany, and indeed the rest of the world, has operated on the expectation that the general uptrend of development and growth experienced in Western countries would continue alongside the increasing global ties that have created a landscape of abundance and increased the overall standard of living. But now the largest economy in Europe finds itself facing a serious precipice as the danger of significant hardship in the near term looms.
Public opinion reflected in a poll from mid-July shows that nearly one in two Germans are concerned that Germany is hurting itself more than it is impacting Russia’s political aims through tough sanctions. The layman’s gut feeling about this may well capture the reality that Germany’s sanctions on natural gas and energy in particular, as well as Western sanctions in general, have disproportionately self-harming effects. In a competitive enterprise as serious as war and national security, this would be nothing short of paramount negligence and self-sabotage.
Pain in Regression
Rising energy costs would inevitably hit the poorer and lower-income segment of the population and would certainly spell a difficult winter, indeed. The government has already started to encourage people to cut back and save energy in anticipation of energy shortages. In the face of the stark realities, some Germans are even turning to stockpiling wood, regressing from a modern energy infrastructure to seriously planning on engaging in the preindustrial practice of burning wood for warmth this winter. This is no trivial blow to the standard of living in one of the most developed countries in the world.
Leaders of the major industries that power the German economy have warned of serious problems for output in the absence of the established but now vulnerable energy infrastructure. The head of technology and engineering company Bosch has said that production could be halted at their factories.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Siemens explained that the steady flow of natural gas is existential to some industries such as glassmaking. The head of BASF has made similar comments regarding its manufacture of critical chemical products involved in the already squeezed areas of agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnologies around the world. This would in turn jeopardize the employment of all those who work in these industries, in a far-reaching ripple effect.
Flailing Policy Directions
Starting in October, Germany is set to implement a levy on all gas consumers to offset the difficulties energy providers in the country are facing as they pivot to alternative sources. According to German economy minister Robert Habeck, the levy would amount to between 1.5 and 5 euro cents per kilowatt hour, or about an additional €1,000 per year for a four-person household.
In the German government, criticism and doubt of the ruling coalition’s hardline stance against Russia is mounting. Chancellor Olaf Scholz adheres to the Western consensus of being unequivocally tough on Russia, while his former political opponents Annalena Baerbock and Christian Lindner, now foreign minister and finance minister, respectively, carry out Germany’s political, military, and financial backing of Ukraine in this conflict.
The realities of the harm that these anti-Russia policies have caused Germany have provided an opening to political opponents to take the contrary position, advocating an easing of Russia policy to ease the pressure that threatens to throttle the energy security of Germany and the rest of Europe. A pivot in Germany’s Russia policy would also represent a pivot away from Washington’s policy.
It can be seen as an opportunity for Germany to assert its decision-making and leadership position at the political level in Europe, not to mention as a stakeholder in its own sovereignty. Perhaps in this way, Germany can choose to spare Europe the economic pain brought about by this largely US-driven hawkish stance toward the East.
Even if Germany can find viable energy alternatives, reverse the closure of its nuclear power plants, or come to an agreement on gas delivery with Russia, the long-term East-West relationship has been damaged. The implications of this new geopolitical and regional order are severe, to say the least. A German crisis would be a crisis for all of Europe, one that would rock the entire European Union and the many economies that surround it.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/20/2022 – 02:00 - Why The World Economic Forum's Plutocracy Should Be Dissolved
Why The World Economic Forum’s Plutocracy Should Be Dissolved
Authored by JB Shurk via The Gatestone Institute,
A previous essay highlighted the serious threats posed by the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” to individual liberty, human innovation, and general prosperity. It is important to expand discussion of these threats by examining the inherent dangers to free nations when so much wealth is concentrated in the hands of so few.
No matter how noble its stated intentions, the “Great Reset” is at its heart a program for driving political power away from individual citizens and toward the controlling interests of a small international class of financial elites. This shift in society’s balance of power has fundamentally changed the relationship between Western citizens and their national governments.
For citizens to reclaim power, they must not only embrace the basics of free markets once again but also rekindle a fondness for questioning the motivations of political authorities.
Of all Lord Acton’s persuasive defenses of individual liberty as the highest end of human civilization, one observation remains most memorable: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” As well-known as these words are, the universality of their meaning is often ignored.
It is not just kings, generals, and popes who possess great power. Wherever a person, group, or institution is capable — through enticement, coercion, or brute force — of bending an individual’s free will, the structures and instruments of power exist. A local school board, after all, may well have more immediate and intimate influences over a person’s family than the United Nations Human Rights Council and its revolving door of despots who tend to promulgate international resolutions shielding their own crimes. A wealthy landowner who exerts hefty influence over agricultural or cattle markets influences the pocketbook fortunes of more modest farmers, too. The small number of multinational corporations that control most television and print news sources around the globe also control the sociological levers capable of manufacturing or shifting public opinion. Power in any form — political, economic, cultural, spiritual — is an abiding challenge to human liberty, and in this way, must always be guarded against as a potential foe.
It is also true that those with power have little incentive to check what they possess and have every incentive to grow and strengthen the powers already in their grasp. Rare, indeed, is the Cincinnatus or Washington who has gained near total control over a nation state only to relinquish such tremendous authority voluntarily and return with humility to the life of an ordinary farmer. Examples of virtuous self-restraint are historic exceptions to power’s innate tendency to become all the more coveted once obtained. So, too, is it uncommon to find those in possession of raw power who ruthlessly or bombastically proclaim their dominance over others. Instead, people and institutions with power prefer to remain somewhat in the shadows, exercising authority in the name of ideas, causes, or populations beyond themselves.
“The welfare of the people,” Albert Camus succinctly noted, “…has always been the alibi of tyrants.”
The great mass murderers of the twentieth century attest to this truth. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and Mao killed tens of millions, but they did so, they assured the world, not for their own glory but for the benefit of “the people.” Castro and Guevara executed tens of thousands of political prisoners while absurdly claiming they did so in the name of “freedom.”
“Most of the evil in this world,” T.S. Eliot is said to have coldly warned, “is done by people with good intentions.” So when people or institutions wrap themselves in the garments of “good intentions” and proclaim loudly to be working for “the people’s best interests,” that is precisely the time when individual liberty is most at risk.
Today in the West we are confronted with an uncomfortable paradox. At the same time as national leaders defend vague notions of “democracy” against “authoritarian” threats beyond their borders, power and influence continue to rapidly amalgamate into the hands of a small few. It is no secret that money influences politics, no matter how profusely politicians may assert their civic independence from the lobbyists and benefactors filling their campaign war chests. With organizations such as the World Economic Forum openly working to direct the legislative programs and executive actions of nation states across the globe, however, wealthy patrons of elite economic societies have become increasingly vocal about their ambitions toward remaking the world according to their own “Great Reset” designsת while flexing their political muscles within the domestic affairs of discreet nation states for ordinary citizens to see.
Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, appeared with David Gergen in 2017 at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and openly boasted of his influence over many national leaders:
“I have to say when I mention names like Mrs. Merkel, even Vladimir Putin and so on, they have all been Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, but what we are really proud of now is the young generation like Prime Minister Trudeau, the President of Argentina and so on. So we penetrate the cabinets. So yesterday I was at a reception for Prime Minister Trudeau, and I know that half of his cabinet or even more are Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum…. It is true in Argentina and it is true in France now….”
When the chairman of an international economic body publicly brags about his leverage over the leaders of sovereign nation states, he can hardly be mistaken as defending the merits of “democracy.”
In a somewhat farcical display of the World Economic Forum’s control over individual nations, it has become eerily commonplace these last two years to hear the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States all parroting the same “Build Back Better” slogan propagated by Klaus Schwab’s economic club. With wealth and political power bonded densely into such haut monde cabals, the insular prerogatives of the WEF have succeeded in dominating government policies throughout the West.
Both in their immediate handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and their planned response to the harsh economic repercussions dovetailing from prolonged lockdowns, Western nation states have taken many of their cues directly from the World Economic Forum’s policy edicts. Whatever vestige of “democracy” still casts a shadow across North America, Europe, and the South Pacific, it has become unmistakable that plutocracy — rule by a wealthy elite — is fast assuming total control over the West’s future.
Notably, today’s plutocrats have little interest in truly free markets. Unlike J.D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and other late-nineteenth-century industrialists and business magnates who made their fortunes in the heyday of economic growth before the massive expansion of the regulatory State, those with great wealth today often champion government intervention in markets. The World Economic Forum, for instance, demands governments take urgent action to combat or address climate change, cybersecurity, online misinformation, artificial intelligence, overpopulation, the use of hydrocarbon energy, farm ownership, food supplies, the elimination of private vehicle ownership, and the imposition of citizen-control protocols to defend against future pandemics. Regulation of people and markets is now of paramount importance to those with wealth and power.
By their nature, regulations (which are indistinguishable from taxes in this effect) make the cost of doing business more expensive and benefit the deep-pocketed monopoly Goliaths at the expense of any upstart Davids threatening their market positions. When the uber-elite successfully influence politicians to enact laws that benefit their personal financial interests — a corrupt practice known as “regulatory capture” — they distort the normal dynamics of any free market. When governments mandate more expensive forms of “clean” energy across the market, for instance, wealthy corporations capable of enduring these added costs reap the ancillary benefits of gobbling up the market share abandoned by smaller competitors unable to survive. This is by design.
By utilizing law and regulation as a sword and shield to prevent potential competitors from entering the market while expanding monopoly power, plutocrats use political patronage and fashionable policy goals disguising self-interest to maintain their own wealth and control. Climate change, public health, sustainable food supplies — the public policy issue is never anything more than an expedient stalking horse for the wealthiest in the West to use cynically in an effort to maintain economic control.
This fusion between monied interests and government power has created a type of reverse fascism. Instead of some charismatic political leader in the mold of a Benito Mussolini demanding that titans of industry follow his commands for the benefit of the State and in the interests of the people, a new class of plutocrats now steer the direction of national policies and pay the politicians to make sure the people will comply.
Notably, today’s plutocrats take a nearly identical position as traditional communists in asserting that the “economic pie” is only so big and can therefore only be divvied up among a growing population in smaller and smaller portions but never actually enlarged. When economic wealth is seen as finite, preventing others from acquiring personal prosperity is necessary for maintaining political power’s status quo. When market competition is permitted to grow wealth in perpetuity, however, not only does a growing share of the population increase its wealth, but also political power becomes spread out more diffusely.
When the “rising tide” of free markets is allowed to “lift all boats,” neither the plutocrat nor communist politburo holds as much sway. For this reason, both communists and plutocrats share a similar goal — minimizing the prosperity of the majority of citizens, while maximizing the political power of a small minority of government officials. Under communism, this type of power arrangement takes the form of an oligarchy, or rule by a small few. Under the World Economic Forum’s brand of oligarchyת where the West’s wealthiest manipulate centrally-controlled governments, the result is demonstrably plutocratic.
For plutocrats, actual free markets are a threat to their habitual control over political power. When real markets exist, endless human innovation regularly upends the market position of any one firm. Yesterday’s industry leader can go bankrupt fast if today’s upstart inventor designs a better or cheaper competing product. Creative destruction is at the heart of free market growth. When product innovation is understood as the single greatest variable for generating long-term economic success, it is easy to understand how difficult it is to stay ahead of the market for any length of time. Rare is the company that manages to innovate so effectively year after year that it survives for decades or longer.
This is, of course, why so much capital is sunk into research and development in constant pursuit of the “next big thing.” It is also why corporations and private investors diversify their holdings so that they may still benefit financially, even when successful innovation occurs far from their domains. When corporate behemoths adeptly forestall their own impending financial deaths through political influence and regulatory capture, however, they cheat the markets at the larger public’s expense. When this alternative, yet corrupt, path to permanent wealth becomes the model for economic “success,” creative innovation takes a permanent back seat to raw political clout. “Absolute power,” in other words, still “corrupts absolutely.”
For individual liberty to flourish, competing forces must always counterbalance concentrated power in any form. When economic monopoly is used to create plutocratic control over government policy, then it becomes imperative for society to unleash the full potential of market forces to destroy protracted power and wealth and encourage more widespread prosperity.
The steps for achieving such a result are no different today than they were when Adam Smith first published The Wealth of Nations in 1776. Cheap and abundant energy sources reduce the entry costs of building a business. Minimal taxation that seeks neither to confiscate wealth nor to punish successful innovation produces an endless supply of creative talents and energies. Limited regulation keeps the costs of market transactions low. Respect for private property and fair and impartial application of commercial laws encourage capital investment. Refraining from taxing the fruits of an individual’s labor fosters an exponentially more productive labor force. Providing populations with the tools to pursue and obtain knowledge and skills at minimal expense promotes not only an educated workforce but also politically competent citizens.
It seems no coincidence, then, that every one of these policy prescriptions is today either stymied or subverted. Political interventionism has precipitated a Western energy crisis. When campaigning for the U.S. presidency in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that he would raise taxes even if doing so ultimately decreased total public revenues because pursuing such a policy was only “fair.”
Regulatory agencies and taxing authorities claim jurisdiction over every element of industry, production, and product distribution. Tens of thousands of laws, rules, and regulations make it nearly impossible for any entrepreneur to navigate markets without inadvertently committing infractions or becoming a future target of an ever-growing army of regulatory code enforcers. Citizens are taxed on their wages, incomes, purchases, property, investments, improvements, sales, etc., and should they still possess anything of worth upon their ultimate demise, some agent of the State is likely to take one final cut of their bequeathed estates. The same unit of labor is thus taxed repeatedly along the government’s conveyor belt of confiscation.
Lastly, in an age of rampant political correctness and “woke” cancel culture, indoctrination and political dogma have supplanted basic education. Math, science, history, and philosophy have been watered-down to make room for ideological fluff often meant to divide students against each other. The combined and natural effect of all this government-sponsored malfeasance has been that intergenerational social mobility in the United States, once impressively robust, has absolutely plummeted.
Who benefits when the most basic foundations for creating prosperity are denied to the majority of citizens? Well, those in power benefit because, by rigging the system in their favor and institutionalizing destructive habits, very few people who might challenge their dominion ever rise high enough to do so. The plutocracy wins. The insular and selfish cabal of wealthy elites who populate the World Economic Forum ultimately win. The vast majority of Western citizens, however, lose substantially… over and over again.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 23:40 - Biden Declares The COVID Pandemic "Is Over" Despite Continued Use In Policies & Programs
Biden Declares The COVID Pandemic “Is Over” Despite Continued Use In Policies & Programs
About a year and a half too late to the game, Joe Biden finally admitted in a Sunday broadcast interview with 60 Minutes that the covid pandemic is over, stating:
“We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lotta work on it. It’s — but the pandemic is over. if you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing. And I think this is a perfect example of it.”
Apparently, in the ever teetering mind of Joe Biden the prevalence of masks was a measure of the prevalence of covid. Of course, this all depends on where in the US or the world you have been living. In red states, masks have been gone for around two years with the majority of people not wearing them. And despite the predictions (and fantasies) of many on the political left, conservatives were not dropping dead in the streets; far from it.
In fact, red states that ended shutdowns and mandates well ahead of blue states enjoyed far superior economic recovery including superior job and business recovery numbers, and virtually no difference in terms of death and infection rates occurred. In fact, studies now show that there was little to no positive effect made by the covid lockdowns and the usefulness of mask mandates is also in question.
Furthermore, infection and fatality rates for covid began to drop long before the covid mRNA vaccines were introduced widely to the public. The facts and the science show that covid stopped being a major threat not long after it spread to the US. The official median IFR (Infection Fatality Rate) according to dozens of peer reviewed studies stands at mere 0.23%. Meaning, over 99.7% of the population is not under threat from covid.
The lockdowns didn’t work, but they weren’t needed. The mask mandates didn’t work, but they weren’t needed. And, the rates started dropping dramatically for the original covid strains before even 5% of the US population was vaccinated. All in all, every single government policy that interfered in the lives and freedoms of millions of people ended up being pointless.
Biden’s recent declaration means nothing, because he is in no position to determine the current state of the pandemic. The American people already did that, and we declared the thing over a long time ago.
Immediately after Biden’s remarks, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie insisted that the administration should now relinquish all the emergency powers it has grabbed by hyping the threat of the virus.
“If ‘the pandemic is over’ as Biden says, then all of the President’s emergency powers predicated on a pandemic, all COVID vax mandates, the emergency powers of every governor, Emergency Use Authorizations, and the PREP act should all be voided tomorrow,” said Massie.
With the pandemic officially over, now it’s time to end all vaccine mandates. https://t.co/WnYxfTEykc
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) September 19, 2022
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Additionally, as Jonathan Turley so coherently explains, the President’s sudden announcement that the pandemic “is over” may have taken some people by surprise, including Administration lawyers still using the pandemic as a basis for policies and programs. This includes a major appellate case this week.
The Administration relied on the pandemic to justify the massive loan forgiveness program at a cost of as much as $1 trillion. The move will be the subject of challenges and defended under the HEROES Act of 2003 as tied to a national emergency, ”when significant actions with potentially far-reaching consequences are often required.”
The pandemic is also being used by states continued crackdowns on those who refuse to get vaccines. New York is moving to fire hundreds of teachers and school administrators.
Private companies like T-Mobile are also moving this month to fire unvaccinated workers.
The President also heralded the removal of masks recently despite the continues requirement for some schools and other locations under pandemic rules (including at my own George Washington University). While at the Detroit Auto Show, Biden declared “If you notice, no one’s wearing a mask, everybody seems to be in pretty good shape.”
Biden’s statement on the end of the pandemic is likely to be cited in a variety of briefs in cases challenging emergency powers and policies used by the Administration. It was just a year ago, in September 2021, that the President imposes such rules to “ensur[e] the health and safety of the Federal workforce and the efficiency of the civil service.” President Biden announced a similar requirement for federal civilian employees. Exec. Order No. 14,043, 86 Fed. Reg. 50,989 (Sept. 14, 2021).
One such example could be the appeal now being considered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The issue of the sweeping pandemic authority being claimed by the Biden Administration is now going before the full court in an en banc rehearing.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown previously issued a nationwide injunction against the vaccination mandate in January. That was stayed and has resulted in a series of conflicted moves on appeal.
Yet, the Justice Department is still citing the pandemic authority and insisting that “if an employee chooses not to receive a COVID-19 vaccine (and is ineligible for an exception), he simply may no longer be permitted to continue in federal employment, just as an employee would be subject to termination if she chose to stop performing her job or chose to violate workplace policies.”
Here is one such recent brief: DOJ Fifth Circuit brief
Now the President is declaring that the pandemic is over as the Justice Department is defending pandemic policies in various courts. Even if one were to argue that the policy should be reviewed as supported at the time, the continued viability of the policy can now be questioned in light of the President’s own statements. The President’s comments also highlight the fluidity of pandemic policies. While we often look to the CDC on such status statements, it is the President who ultimately decides federal policies on pandemic measures.
If the pandemic “is over,” some may question the continued uncertain status of military personnel and federal employees on vaccine status as well as lingering mask mandates being used in some states and by certain businesses.
What we must never forget, however, is how close we came to full-on medical authoritarianism under the supervision of the Biden Administration and men like Anthony Fauci. Numerous agenda driven institutions also pushed hard for the erasure of our freedoms, declaring that we would “never go back to normal again” and that personal liberties had to be sacrificed under the new pandemic construct.
If Biden’s vaccine passport executive orders had been enforced instead of blocked, rest assured the US would be like China is today – Still dragging out the lockdowns and pretending covid is an ongoing threat. Anyone refusing to vaccinate would have been denied employment and participation in the general economy, essentially starved into compliance or compelled to join black market systems and become criminals. Millions of citizens stood against these orders and won the day, but now we have to reverse course and ensure such an attempt to dismantle our rights never happens again.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 23:32 - "Don't Touch Foreigners" – Chinese Officials Warn Public After First Monkeypox Case
“Don’t Touch Foreigners” – Chinese Officials Warn Public After First Monkeypox Case
China has just confirmed its first case on monkeypox, and has an ‘unusual’ public health warning for its citizens (who remain in and out of ZeroCOVID lockdowns anyway): Don’t touch foreigners!
“To prevent possible monkeypox infection and as part of our healthy lifestyle, it is recommended that 1) you do not have direct skin-to-skin contact with foreigners,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention posted on his official Weibo page on Saturday.
Wu proudly proclaimed that the country’s COVID restrictions and tight border controls had thus far prevented the spread of monkeypox, until a case “slipped through the net.”
That case was detected in the southwest municipality of Chongqing. CNN reports that an “international arrival” was under mandatory Covid-19 quarantine when the infection was discovered, according to local authorities.
Reuters reports that the infected person was a 29-year-old Chinese national who flew to Chongqing on Sept. 14 from Spain, the Center for Disease Control said later.
While some were open to Wu’s advice, others found it inflammatory and discriminative.
“It’s good to open the country’s door, but we can’t just let everything in,” one Weibo user wrote.
Several drew parallels to the wave of xenophobia and violence Asians overseas faced at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic... and don’t call it “Wuhan Flu”!
“This is a bit like when the pandemic began when some people overseas avoided any Chinese people they saw out of fear,” a Weibo user wrote.
“I don’t believe these two things have any scientific basis, they are too broad and will exacerbate public panic.”
Where is the uproar from global progressives proclaiming this warning as disgustingly bigoted, xenophobic, racist, and homophobic?
Remember, it’s not racist when ‘they’ do it… and never, ever, criticize China!
Chinese experts say it’s unlikely monkeypox will wreak such chaos, with state media Global Times reporting on Friday the disease “poses little threat,” citing a hospital director.
However, they have also urged continued vigilance, with some experts highlighting the need for “strict surveillance” and countermeasures, according to Global Times.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 23:20 - Russia Publicizes Beijing's Supportive Statement, While China's State Media Keeps Silent
Russia Publicizes Beijing’s Supportive Statement, While China’s State Media Keeps Silent
Authored by Jessica Mao via The Epoch Times,
A top Chinese official has expressed support for Russia’s war in Ukraine during his visit to Moscow, apparently believing it was a closed-door meeting. But the Kremlin released the footage to make his remarks known to the entire world.
Li Zhanshu, the third most important Chinese Communist Party (CCP) figure and a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, visited Russia from Sept. 7 to 10 before Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Uzbekistan on Sept. 15.
Li met with Putin in Vladivostok and later with Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma, and Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of the Federation Council, in Moscow, along with leaders of the five political parties of the State Duma.
His low-profile visit to Russia did not attract much attention until a video went viral on social media platforms such as Twitter, causing public outcry.
“With the United States and NATO now at Russia’s doorstep, it has become an issue concerning Russia’s national security and the lives of its people,” Li claimed.
“Under such circumstances, Russia takes some measures that it deems appropriate, and China fully understands the necessity of all the measures taken by Russia aimed at protecting its key interests. We are providing our assistance.”
As Li is also a close ally of Xi, his statement is considered to represent the CCP leader’s stance. It is widely believed that this is Beijing’s strongest and most explicit statement supporting Moscow.
Li’s remarks were first published in a text on the official website of the State Duma on Sept. 9. Shortly afterward, footage with the mark “Duma” in Russian was released.
In contrast, Chinese state media kept mum on Li’s remarks supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine and merely reported that Li “thanked Russia for its firm support to China on the Taiwan issue.”
Analysts believe that Moscow deliberately publicized Li’s remarks ahead of the Xi-Putin meeting in a bid to pressure the CCP to voice its support of Russia, thus putting Beijing in an embarrassing position.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for photos on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders’ summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Sept. 15, 2022. (Alexandr Demyanchuk/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
Seeing Through the China-Russia Alliance
Yang Si, a Japan-based current affairs commentator, told The Epoch Times on Sept. 16 that Beijing and Moscow are exploiting one another.
“There is no doubt that the CCP is supporting Russia, but it has never said so publicly,” Yang said.
“Li’s statement this time was not a public statement either; it was behind closed doors. I guess Li did not expect Russia to make it public. Russia probably thought written reports were not enough, so they directly released the original video, which is tantamount to forcing the CCP to openly state its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russia and the CCP are two gang groups. They have no common beliefs, nor do they have any morality. In short, they just exploit each other.”
Current affairs commentator Lu Tianming shared similar views.
“The CCP has done a lot of things behind the scenes, but now they are all exposed. The Russian army invaded Ukraine, and the CCP’s support for this war will naturally make other nations believe that the CCP may take similar actions against Taiwan. They will be on high alert watching the CCP’s actions in the Taiwan Strait,” Lu said.
She believes some countries on the sidelines will see the CCP clearly through Li’s remarks. “It will accelerate the pace of a global rejection and deterrence of the CCP,” she said.
US and Europe Pass Bills to Support Taiwan
China expert Chen Pokong said in a YouTube program on Sept. 16 that the exposure of Li’s statement would help the United States and the European Union pass bills to support Taiwan and fight against the CCP.
On Sept. 15, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution denouncing China for continued military action and provocations against Taiwan and calling for the EU to “assume a stronger role when it comes to the situation in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific as a whole.”
The resolution, jointly sponsored by five major parties in the European Parliament, contains 26 propositions. It commended the Taiwanese government and political leaders for their prudent and responsible response to the CCP’s provocative actions. It urged the EU to strengthen its political engagement with Taiwan. Furthermore, the European Parliament will continue to send representatives to Taiwan on official visits to deter the CCP’s ambition to attack Taiwan.
The European Parliament also asked the EU’s European External Action Service (EEAS) to begin preparations for negotiations on a mutually beneficial supply chain resilience agreement with Taiwan as soon as possible to strengthen Taiwan’s “silicon shield” —referring to the chip industry—and to safeguard Taiwan’s security.
The European Parliament also believes that the EU should seek joint investment cooperation with Taiwan’s New Southbound program to counter the CCP’s global gateways—the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as “One Belt, One Road”).
In addition, the European Parliament suggests that the European Commission change the name of the European Economic and Trade Office (ETO) in Taiwan to reflect the broader relationship between the two sides.
Before that, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. Congress passed the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022 on Sept. 14. The bill is considered the most comprehensive reorganization of U.S. policy toward Taiwan since the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.
It proposes $4.5 billion in military assistance to Taiwan over four years and an increase of $2 billion in the fifth year. The bill also includes a congressional proposal to rename the Taiwan Representative Office to the United States and designate Taiwan as a “major non-NATO ally.”
The bill also proposes that the United States establish “a robust sanctions regime to deter further PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan,” along with detailed sanctions plans.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 23:00 - DHS Spends $700,000 In Taxpayer Money To Study "Extremism In Video Gaming"
DHS Spends $700,000 In Taxpayer Money To Study “Extremism In Video Gaming”
As many Americans are well aware, the narrative surrounding what constitutes “extremism” or “terrorism” is ever evolving. The focus of the DHS used to be foreign threats including Islamic extremism. If you are old enough to remember the early 2000s, many people were warning back then that the constitutional trespasses being developed in the name of fighting Al-Qaeda would one day be flipped around on the American people.
And here we are…
Today, the DHS is far more interested in “domestic extremism,” and their definition is particularly focused on anyone that expresses conservative ideals and constitutional principles. Almost no attention is paid to the political left, despite the fact that it was leftists that caused billions of dollars in property damage across the US during the BLM riots.
By extension, leftists have taken an obsessive interest in controlling entertainment media and using these platforms to spread their propaganda. In 2014-2015 the gaming community dared to point out and criticize the politicization of their hobby as well as the ongoing attacks against their community by gaming journalists. This led to the “Gamergate” controversy. You’re not allowed to reveal the man behind the curtain when it comes to leftist agendas in popular entertainment, and when you do, the standard operating procedure is for the propagandists to go on the attack.
And so they did, claiming rampant racism, sexism and widespread harassment perpetrated by gamers. According to the media, the gaming world was a breeding ground for monsters, though they were rarely able to provide any proof to back up these claims.
Government agencies have become increasingly and openly biased against anyone outside of the leftist ideology in recent years, with social justice cultism and critical race theory narratives invading institutional language and training. A perfect example would be the CIA, which happily produced and defended this bizarre recruitment ad:
Clearly, the goal of the current government is to go woke as fast as possible. The DHS is no different, and it’s not surprising that they have decided to give around $700,000 of taxpayer funds to groups like Logically, a company committed to the issue of “bad” online behavior, Middlebury Institute’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC), and Take This, a nonprofit that specializes in mental health in video gaming. These groups are tasked with identifying extremist influences in gaming and create solutions to stop it.
There is no legitimate threat presented by video gaming because there is no legitimate “extremism” to find. Rather, what the DHS is pursuing are ways to demonize non-leftist groups and artificially link them to the concept of extremism. Much like their now defunct Disinformation Governance Board, the mission is to paint opposing views as dangerous and thus subject to control and censorship. The mission is also to uncover dangers and dragons that are not really there to justify government intrusions into free market arenas.
At bottom, this is about the political left taking over federal agencies and using them as weapons against movements and groups that have had the audacity to stand against them in the past. One might think that the world of video games would be far below the interests of the DHS, but it’s important to remember that the video game industry is now bigger and more influential than the film industry. It also has a community building dynamic, and when totalitarians see a mode of communication and organization that sits outside of their control, they will stop at nothing to chain it down or destroy it.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 22:40 - DOJ Internal Misconduct Shrouded In Veil Of Secrecy
DOJ Internal Misconduct Shrouded In Veil Of Secrecy
Authored by Eric Felten via RealClear Wire,
Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz was busy this week, releasing three separate reports on Monday alone. Each detailed misconduct by a different assistant United States attorney: One finds a federal lawyer trying to use his position to avoid a drunk driving charge; another finds a government attorney getting drunk and physically belligerent at a meeting with foreign officials; the third, and most disturbing, finds an assistant U.S. attorney exposing his genitals “in a public place,” and sexually assaulting a “civilian” on a date.
Courtroom One Gavel Joe Gratz Who were these federal prosecutors? The summary reports don’t say. A spokesperson for the Office of the Inspector General told RealClearPolitics that it could not release their names. RCP has filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking for their identities.
The Justice Department doesn’t hesitate to publicize the names of those it accuses of wrongdoing. At least when those accused do not work for Justice. Last Friday, for example, the DOJ office of Public Affairs issued a press release announcing that the department had filed a discrimination lawsuit against the owner and managers of a Milwaukee rental property. Though a court has yet to rule against those accused of harassing a gay, disabled tenant, the DOJ press release named them.
Compare that with “Investigative Summary” number 22-104, in which the inspector general determined that an assistant United States attorney was driving under the influence when he (or she) was pulled over by police. The investigation found that the prosecutor had tried to pull rank on the local cops, “referring to the AUSA’s title in an attempt to influence local police officers.” When that didn’t work, the drunk federal lawyer shouted obscenities and kicked the door of the police car.
These were violations of federal ethics regulations according to the IG, who found the assistant U.S. attorney’s actions also ran afoul of the standards of conduct required of federal employees, including that they “not engage in criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct, or other conduct prejudicial to the Government.” The AUSA remains unnamed.
Also anonymous is the federal prosecutor whose belligerent behavior is detailed in the OIG’s Investigative Summary number 22-105. The inspector general’s office states it “substantiated” an allegation that an AUSA behaved “unprofessionally” while detailed to a foreign country. The AUSA was accused of “inappropriate physical contact” with a foreign local working for the State Department: The IG found that the attorney, inebriated, grabbed the Foreign Service National by the chin and aggressively forced the State Department employee to pay attention to the AUSA. When the inspector general asked about this behavior, the IG was told about the many other official events at which the AUSA was intoxicated. On those occasions, the prosecutor was in the habit of telling foreign government officials what the lawyer thought of them, what the IG described as “offensive and demeaning remarks.”
Investigative Summary number 22-103 describes behavior more serious. In that investigation, the Justice Department IG found that, on a date with a “civilian,” an AUSA’s “genitals were exposed in public.” According to the inspector general’s report on the incident, “the AUSA forced the civilian’s hand to touch the AUSA’s genitals.” This was not only a violation of federal regulations governing off-duty conduct, the OIG found it to be against state law. And yet, “Criminal prosecution of the AUSA was declined.”
During the course of the investigation, the Office of the Inspector General interviewed the prosecutor and found that he “lacked candor in discussing this incident.” That’s the Inspector General’s way of saying he lied. Again, however, the DOJ inspector general declined to provide the name of the AUSA. As for the DOJ itself, “Criminal prosecution of the AUSA was declined.”
Often when Justice chooses not to prosecute (or even identify) an employee of the department – including those who work for the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, or another element of the department – it is because the employee has resigned or retired.
Last September, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report criticizing the FBI’s practice of locking away the findings of internal investigations when an agent or official accused of misconduct packed his or her desk “prior to or during the adjudication process.” The names of those accused of misconduct are kept secret even when the allegations have been fully investigated and the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility “could make a substantiation decision based on the available evidence.” According to the inspector general, “this practice fails to hold accountable former FBI employees who separate while under investigation.”
That policy may protect federal employees who abuse their office, but it doesn’t do any favors for the FBI agent falsely accused of misconduct. Failing to “fully document an adjudication,” Horowitz said last September, “fails to clear former employees whose misconduct allegations were unsubstantiated.”
The IG’s recommendation notwithstanding, the Justice Department continues to shroud wrongdoing by its own in a system of secrecy. It is a policy that does little to restore confidence in a department viewed by many Americans with suspicion.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 22:20 - Queen Elizabeth's (Predicted) Funeral Ratings In Perspective
Queen Elizabeth’s (Predicted) Funeral Ratings In Perspective
Queen Elizabeth’s funeral today is forecast to pull in more than four billion viewers worldwide today, breaking the record for the “most watched broadcast of all time”, according to media reports. As Statista’s Anna Fleck notes, if industry experts’ predictions are accurate, then the funeral will nearly double the UK’s previous most watched royal broadcast – the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 with a viewership of 2.5 billion people.
You will find more infographics at Statista
The UK royal family’s televised events have historically brought in huge audiences from the world over. Where William and Kate’s wedding saw 162 million people tune in worldwide in April 2011, Harry and Meghan’s saw an estimated 1.9 billion in 2018.
Music events such as the Live 8 charity concert of 2005, and sporting events including FIFA World Cup finals also bring in peak figures, with the most watched broadcast event in history reportedly the Atlanta Olympics opening ceremony of 1996, where U.S. boxing legend Muhammad Ali lit the torch to kick off the games.
The late queen’s funeral attracted some two million people to join the state funeral procession in person, including more than 70 heads of government. It was the UK’s biggest ever security operation, with over 10,000 police personnel on duty.
While the exact cost of the funeral has not yet been reported, estimates for the entirety of the proceedings following the queen’s death have been placed anywhere between £8 million and £6 billion, expected to be part-funded by taxpayers and part by the royal family. This has raised debate in the UK over the use of public funds as the country faces a cost of living crisis.
However, as Charlotte Allen wrote at The Epoch Times, in today’s Britain, and indeed in much of the West, churchgoing is in steep decline, and it’s common to regard the monarchy as a taxpayer-supported fossil with a dim future. Indeed, when Diana died in 1997, there was a surge of populist contempt for her former husband, then Prince Charles and heir to the throne, and for the royal family in general, believed to have mistreated the young princess. Revelations about Charles’s younger brother Prince Andrew’s alleged dalliances with an underage girl on Jeffrey Epstein’s island added fuel to the fire, and many predicted that the monarchy would not outlive Elizabeth.
Yet when King Charles III formally ascended the throne at St. James’s Palace on Sept. 10, two days after his mother’s death, huge crowds gathered outside to sing “God Save the King” and give three cheers. There seemed to be an instinctive understanding that monarchy was an institution that transcended individual monarchs and that it was an institution worthy of honor.
Even in our secular age, people yearn for faith and ritual and ceremonial meaning that derives from something outside the ordinariness of daily life. It’s not surprising that the ceremonies of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral resonate so deeply with billions of people.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 22:00 - China Sanctions CEOs Of Raytheon, Boeing Over Sales To Taiwan
China Sanctions CEOs Of Raytheon, Boeing Over Sales To Taiwan
Authored by Cathy He via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The Chinese regime said on Sept. 16 that it is sanctioning top executives of two U.S. arms firms in retaliation for recently selling arms to Taiwan.
Military personnel stand next to Harpoon A-84, anti-ship missiles and AIM-120 and AIM-9 air-to-air missiles prepared for weapons loading drills in front of an F16V fighter jet at the Hualien Airbase in Taiwan, on Aug. 17, 2022. Taiwan is staging military exercises to show its ability to resist Chinese pressure to accept Beijing’s political control over the island. (AP Photo/Johnson Lai) The sanctions were imposed on Gregory J. Hayes, CEO of Raytheon Technologies Corporation, and Theodore Colbert, CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, for the involvement of their companies in the deal, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular briefing on Friday.
The move came after the State Department on Sept. 2 approved a potential $1.1 billion sale of military equipment to Taiwan. The package includes 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air-to-air missiles, of which the principal contractors are Boeing Defense, a division of Boeing, and Raytheon, respectively.
Ning did not provide details on what the sanctions entailed or how they would be enforced. Previous sanctions on Western individuals have barred them from entering China or doing business there. Such restrictions are unlikely to significantly affect Hayes or Colbert.
The Chinese regime routinely reacts aggressively and punitively against U.S. measures in support of Taiwan, a self-ruled island that the regime considers to be its own and if necessary, to be taken by force. Taiwan, however, has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party and has been a separate entity for more than 70 years.
In August, in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) trip to Taiwan—the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Taipei in 25 years—the regime launched its largest-ever military drills around the island, launched cyberattacks on Taiwanese infrastructure, slapped import bans on Taiwan products, canceled military communications with the United States, and suspended cooperation with Washington in several areas including climate.
The Chinese regime also slapped unspecified sanctions on Pelosi in retaliation for her visit.
The United States is Taiwan’s largest arms supplier and is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.
The Chinese regime has previously sanctioned Raytheon, Boeing Defense, and unspecified individuals involved in arms sales to Taiwan. But Friday’s announcement marks the first time China has named individuals from those companies as targeted by sanctions.
Earlier this week, a Senate committee approved a key bill that would significantly boost U.S. support for Taiwan. It includes $4.5 billion in additional security assistance over four years and support of Taipei’s participation in international organizations.
While the move drew protest from Beijing, bipartisan lawmakers hailed the legislation, which they said was needed to solidify the United States’ relationship with Taiwan.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 21:40 - Americans Drowning In Long-Term Credit Card Debt: Survey
Americans Drowning In Long-Term Credit Card Debt: Survey
In June we reported that consumer credit – particular revolving credit – was through the roof, as tapped-out consumers relied on credit cards to make ends meet. This has only gotten worse..
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios Acccording to an Aug. 30 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, credit card balances increased by $46 billion from last year, becoming the second-biggest source of overall debt last quarter.
While both student and car loans hit all time new highs at the end of the 1st quarter.
And so it comes as no surprise from Bloomberg that more US consumers are saddled with credit card debt for longer periods of time. According to a survey by CreditCards.com released on Monday, 60% of credit card debtors have been holding this type of debt for at least a year, up 50% from a year ago, while those holding debt for over two years is up 40%, from 32%, according to the online credit card marketplace.
And while total credit-card balances remain slightly lower than pre-pandemic levels, inflation and rising interest rates are taking a toll on the already-stretched finances of US households.
About a quarter of respondents said day-to-day expenses are the primary reason why they carry a balance. Almost half cite an emergency or unexpected expense, including medical bills and home or car repair.
The Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates for the fifth time this year next week. Credit-card rates are typically directly tied to the Fed Funds rate, and their increase along with a softening economy may lead to higher delinquencies.
Total consumer debt rose $23.8 billion in July to a record $4.64 trillion, according to data from the Federal Reserve. -Bloomberg
The Fed’s figures include credit card and auto debt, as well as student loans, but does not factor in mortgage debt.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 21:20 - Why So Many Cling To COVID Panic
Why So Many Cling To COVID Panic
Authored by Mark Oshinskie via The Brownstone Institute,
When I was 10, I had a 12-year-old sister, Denise, and two brothers. Lenny was 14 and Danny was 5. We boys slept in the same room in a small, single-story house in a modest, riverside neighborhood known as Pleasureland.
The neighborhood’s name derived from a nearby park with two swimming pools and many picnic tables. On weekends, people from all over North Jersey and even New York City went there and to the adjacent, similar Muller’s Park, where I got my first job, at 15, as a garbageman. Both parks closed in 1985 after two were killed and nine more were wounded in an assault rifle shootout during a late Sunday afternoon, late summer Brooklyn/Jamaican gang picnic. I had swum and dived off the high board there at twilight on Friday, two days prior.
In the week before our last Pleasureland Christmas, in 1967, my Mom expressed to me her concern that Danny no longer believed in Santa Claus. She thought that one of the neighborhood kids had told Danny that Santa wasn’t real. The prospect of having no more Santa-believing kids saddened her. She made me swear not to tell Danny what I knew. I kept my word.
Our bedroom on the back side of the house had only one longish, narrow window near the top of the wall. A streetlight cast faint light into our otherwise darkened room. I slept in the bed next to Danny’s bed. At bedtime on that snowy Christmas Eve, just as we were trying to sleep, and at my mother’s prompting, our Dad ran from the far side of the backyard toward, and then past, our bedroom window, yelling “Ho, Ho, Ho!” As he passed beneath the window, my hidden father held aloft a Santa hat on a stick. The bouncing hat was all we could see from our beds.
Knowing the event was fake, I looked at Danny’s face to gauge his reaction. Having heard Santa’s voice, Danny sat up in the bed and looked up just as the hat passed the window. Upon seeing the hat, Danny was awestruck. I can still see his glowing, wide-eyed face in my mind’s eye. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so amazed.
No matter what other kids might have told him or what he might have suspected on his own, at that magical moment, my parents’ theater convinced Danny for one more Christmas that Santa was real and that we had this hoary, superhuman visitor from the North Pole to thank for the presents under the tree. It was a worthwhile lie.
The government and media have spent the past 30 months disingenuously building Corona fear and implementing a range of talismanic measures like lockdowns, school closures, masks, tests and shots to convince us that they were magically—yet always “Scientifically!—” protecting us all from death.
Just as any thinking six-year-old figures out that Santa simply can’t put all of that toy freight into one sleigh, any thinking adult should have known that none of the hoary Corona crew: neither the elfin Fauci’s, Birx’s nor Biden’s rhetoric or theater made any sense, either in theory or in real-life outcomes; nor did similar alarmism or interventions by younger, hipper “liberal” governors, mayors and prime ministers.
But just like my parents’ efforts to preserve the Santa myth, governments won’t let go of the Corona theater—especially the shots—and the media desperately continues to portray as experts those who “masterminded” the mitigation.
All of the empirical data have corroborated what was known on Day 1 of the lockdowns—namely that this virus threatens almost no one but the very old and infirm, that none of these interventions works and that each of these have caused–and will continue to cause–widespread, terrible secondary and tertiary damage.
Instead of admitting this, governments and media persist in their campaign of terror, lies and bogus zero-Covid measures.
Because to stop lying now would be to admit that it’s all been a delusion. And politically and morally, they can’t bring themselves to do that.
A five-year-old might not know a scam when they see it. But even a ten-year-old does. Or at least should. They’re counting on adults to be like five-year-olds.
It might work.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 21:00 - DHS Intel Report Indicates Venezuela Emptying Prisons, Sending Violent Criminals To US Border
DHS Intel Report Indicates Venezuela Emptying Prisons, Sending Violent Criminals To US Border
Since President Biden assumed office nearly two years ago, his ‘open border’ policies have allowed 4.9 million illegal aliens, or about the entire population of Ireland, to cross into the US.
America is facing a historic crisis at its southern border. White House officials could care less and have welcomed illegals (though not welcomed in white liberal elite towns, such as Martha’s Vineyard).
US Border Czar, Vice President Kamala Harris, has yet to visit the border while Democrats downplay the invasion of illegals.
The endless flow of illegal aliens has concerned the Department of Homeland Security detailed in an intelligence report received by the Border Patrol (obtained by Breitbart), which specifies the Venezuelan government, under the leadership of Nicolas Maduro, is releasing violent criminals from jail and embedding them within migrant caravans headed to the US-Mexico border.
Here’s more from Breitbart’s story, citing the intelligence report:
The intelligence report warns agents the freed prisoners have been seen within migrant caravans traveling from Tapachula, Mexico toward the U.S.-Mexico border as recently as July. The source, not authorized to speak to the media, told Breitbart Texas the move is reminiscent of a similar action taken by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro during the Mariel boat lift in the 1980s.
The report does not state whether the released prison inmates were traveling as a cohesive group but does state it was commonly shared knowledge among migrants traveling to the United States within a caravan in July that many of the Venezuelan migrants in the group were convicts and included hardened criminals.
The report does not specify that the release of the convicts — understanding they would head to the United States — could be a purposeful geopolitical move specifically intended to impact US national security. Another information gap cited in the report acknowledges the unknown role the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), Venezuela’s equivalent to the CIA, may have played in the deliberate releases.
The source says the task of identifying Venezuelans who have criminal records in their home country is nearly impossible. Of the thousands of Venezuelan migrants surrendering along the U.S.-Mexico border daily, most, according to the source, are being released into the United States. Without effective diplomatic relations with Venezuela, the source says access to criminal databases in that country simply does not exist.
The source says it is unknown how many have already been released into the interior of the United States to pursue asylum.
Most of these migrants come from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Venezuela, but growing numbers now come from all over the world. Many of these illegals cross the border with little skills and almost no personal wealth to better the US but act as a massive burden.
Congressman Troy Nehls (R-TX-22) appears to have confirmed the report in a tweet:
🚨BREAKING🚨
DHS confirms that Venezuela empties prisons and sends violent criminals to our southern border.
President Trump warned us about this years ago.
— Congressman Troy Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) September 18, 2022
“What we are witnessing is the Third Worldization of the USA,” Pat Buchanan recently opined.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 20:40 - Martha’s Vineyard Newspaper Lists 50 Job Ads Despite Claims Of No Work On Island
Martha’s Vineyard Newspaper Lists 50 Job Ads Despite Claims Of No Work On Island
Authored by Alice Giordano via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
While some locals have claimed that the illegal immigrants who arrived on this wealthy island should go elsewhere since there wouldn’t be work for them with the summer rush gone, the local newspaper has listed 50 help wanted ads in a recent issue, and the local supermarket chain has been known to need help all year long.
A sign outside Martha’s Vineyard Community Services on Sept. 18, 2022. (Alice Giordano for The Epoch Times) The classified section of the Vineyard Gazette listed more than 50 jobs in the same issue that ran a story about the illegal aliens, referring to them as “stranded migrants.” The job ads included positions for laborers, custodians, landscapers, bakers, cooks, dishwashers, technicians, library assistant, and several retail positions.
The local YMCA also listed several job openings, including housekeepers, ice arena workers, and a front desk administrator. The spacious Y, located near where the illegal immigrants spent the night at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, shares a complex with Martha’s Vineyard Community Services (MVCS), which also ran a help wanted ad in the paper, including a job for administrative assistant, “bilingual preferred.”
MVCS didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time. The outreach center and the island’s homeless shelter told the media that they didn’t have room for the illegal aliens.
In the afternoon of Sept. 17, a Saturday, the large MVCS complex had several doors to its buildings wide open, but no staff could be found. One of the open buildings consisted of two floors with several empty rooms, including rooms with full kitchens and couches.
A group of friends enjoying an outdoor lunch at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport told The Epoch Times that while the plume of summer jobs is over, there are still enough job opportunities on the island.
The women, year-round residents who grew up on the island, pointed to Stop & Shop, a grocery store chain with three locations on the island. According to the women, the stores are always looking for help and they have worker dormitories, which they said are “now empty” with most of the summer help gone.
“Martha’s Vineyard is a tale of two cities,” said one of the women, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
But Charles Rus, music director at St. Andrew’s, the episcopal church in Edgartown where the illegal immigrants were housed, told The Epoch Times there weren’t any jobs for them on the island.
“There’s space, but there’s no job,” he said.
Rus had offered to put some of the illegal immigrants up in his two-bedroom apartment.
“If they had come four months earlier, every one of them would have had a $20 per hour job,” he said.
In response to criticism that the illegal aliens were forced off the island, Rus said the Venezuelans had to leave the island for “practical reasons,” including the need to attend scheduled court hearings.
According to a Sept. 16 story in the Vineyard Gazette, the Island Counseling Center provided each of the 50 illegal immigrants with individual legal counseling by an immigration attorney.
The Baker Call
The seemingly ample availability of jobs on Martha’s Vineyard isn’t the only point of contradiction to the narrative spun by some locals and picked up by establishment media outlets.
Some locals questioned whether local officials were unaware of the two planes of illegal aliens chartered by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and speculated about who had called on Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to remove the uninvited visitors.
“I don’t think Baker woke up in the morning, said, ‘Hey, I think I’ll take those 50 immigrants off the hands of Martha’s Vineyard,’” Richard Rooney, who lives and owns a real estate agency on the island, told The Epoch Times.
Less than 24 hours after their arrival to Martha’s Vineyard, a self-proclaimed sanctuary community, Baker approved the transfer of the illegal immigrants, mostly Venezuelans, off the island to a military base in Bourne, which is located within minutes of the ferry terminal to Martha’s Vineyard. In Bourne, the group was given shelter, food, clothing, and other supplies. Baker committed 125 members of the Massachusetts National Guard as part of the transfer.
Rooney, a Republican who has been active in local government on Martha’s Vineyard for about 30 years, also joined others who pointed to the notification requirements by Martha’s Vineyard Airport for unscheduled flights.
Democrats have attacked DeSantis, a Republican, for sending the illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard in what they have characterized as an ambush.
“We were given no notice,” Massachusetts state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, a Democrat representing Martha’s Vineyard, told a TV news outlet the day the illegal immigrants arrived on Martha’s Vineyard.
Massachusets Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy, appointed by Baker in 2021, also called their arrival on Martha’s Vineyard “unexpected” in a Sept. 16 press release announcing the Baker administration’s plans to take the illegal immigrants.
The island airport’s flight notification requirements state that 24-hour notification before takeoff is required for any plane with more than nine passengers, and suggest that a passenger list must also be provided in advance. Video footage from Fox News shows the illegal aliens disembarking from a plane shortly after arriving on Martha’s Vineyard.
Rooney wonders why someone was at the airport filming the debarkation, especially if the plane was “secretly” sent.
On Sept. 18, a man answering the phone line for airport operations refused to provide general information about the airport’s notification requirements, initially telling The Epoch Times that there were no notification requirements. When The Epoch Times stated the 24-hour notice policy for flights with nine or more passengers, the man said he wasn’t permitted to speak to the press.
Martha’s Vineyard Airport is funded with tax dollars and receives sizable state and federal subsidies.
The airport received $1.2 million in federal COVID-19 aid in 2020. In 2019, Dukes County, the county-level government on Martha’s Vineyard, gave the airport $1.2 million for “improvements.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 20:20 - Less Than Half Of Manhattanites Are Back In The Office Despite 'Pandemic Being Over'
Less Than Half Of Manhattanites Are Back In The Office Despite ‘Pandemic Being Over’
“The pandemic is over,” President Biden declared in a CBS’ “60 Minutes” interview Sunday, in an attempt to optically please Americans just how great his administration is working to restore a sense of normalcy ahead of the midterm elections.
But one segment of the economy has yet to return from the brink: commercial real estate. Even though the pandemic is over in Biden’s eyes and quite honestly could’ve been over a long time ago — remote and hybrid working has forever scarred commercial real estate that’s still in a big fat ugly bubble.
Manhattan has no sense of normalcy, where the Partnership for New York City surveyed 160 major firms only to find that 49% of office workers are back in their cubicles. This was a notable increase from 38% in April. However, due to hybrid work models, only 9% of workers are in the office five days a week.
About 77% of employers maintain a hybrid office schedule to accommodate employee preferences.
Another metric, and perhaps the gold-standard measure of office-occupancy trends, is the card-swipe data provided by Kastle Systems. The NYC office occupancy rate is only 38% and has bounced between 30-40% for much of this year.
The slow return to the office where levels are barely over occupancy rates seen right before the start of the omicron wave last November comes as a slew of companies from Better.com to Ford to Peloton to Carvana to Zillow to Coinbase, among many others, have laid off workers because of the incoming Fed-induced economic downturn. A declining workforce will mean smaller corporate footprints.
Even though big Wall Street firms demanded their employees back in the office after Labor Day, there was no meaningful increase in Kastle card-swipe data trends across NYC.
Meanwhile, public transit in NYC is well below pre-pandemic levels as commuters shun riding the subways, perhaps because violent crime in the metro area is out-of-control.
Maybe there’s a more significant trend at play due to the mass exodus of people and companies post-Covid and remote work trends, signifying substantial challenges for the city’s economic recovery.
In October 2020, Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, said NYC could be in a downturn until 2023.
The pandemic could be over, but NYC’s economy is in turmoil.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 20:00 - Inflation Has Plenty More In Store For Equities
Inflation Has Plenty More In Store For Equities
By Michael Msika and Joe Easton, Bloomberg markets live analysts and reporters
Inflation isn’t done rattling investors, leaving some sectors at risk of further downside as monetary tightening ramps up and recession risks mount. But not all sectors are necessarily losers.
Soaring prices and risks of an economic downturn are making positioning difficult, while central-bank hawkishness has sent bond volatility higher, with the risk of that extending to stocks.
“Equities have been hopeful of a decisive fall in inflation, but the new reality is that it may take time and some economic pain to materialize,” say Barclays strategists led by Emmanuel Cau. “The easy money era is over and market instability is to be expected.”
While Cau says the direction of inflation will most likely be lower in coming months, it’s the high current level that matters for central banks, so more tightening seems inevitable. This favors value stocks over growth, even if recession risk complicates positioning, he says.
“Inflation is secular, not transitory,” say Bank of America strategists led by Michael Hartnett, citing pay rises, low strategic oil supply, governments trying to control energy prices and nationalizing utilities, European fiscal packages and military spending, among other things.
As a consequence, investors continue to favor stocks with pricing power, as well as energy shares. Commodities and banks are the current winners of rising prices and interest rates, while expensive growth sectors like tech are being hurt. Meanwhile firms whose products are most at risk of a cost squeeze such as retailers, leisure providers and homebuilders are viewed as being most susceptible to slowing economies.
Retailers are the worst-performing industry group in Europe this year, and inflation has a lot to do with it. With budgets crimped by the cost of everything from food to energy to mortgages, consumers don’t have a lot left for shopping, while rising costs are eating into profitability too.
It’s “a gloomy picture for retail stocks,” says Charles Hepworth, investment director at GAM Investments. “Disposable incomes of most consumers have been massively squeezed, and trade-down substitutions into cheaper brands is hardly the best fillip for any hope of a consumer-led recovery,” he writes.
As a core part of the growth category, tech stocks have been at the forefront of this year’s global equity rout due to surging bond yields. And despite underperforming, the sector “remains very expensive,” says Barclays’ Cau. “With burgeoning signs of lower demand coming from semiconductors, demand destruction may be the next shoe to drop,” he says.
Still, market positioning is so negative at the moment, that other bear-market rallies could be seen in the event of further easing of prices. “It’s the direction of inflation that matters for share prices,” says Liberum Capital strategist Joachim Klement. “Every decline in inflation reduces some of the cost pressures companies face.”
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 19:40 - Migrant Arrests Top 2 Million For The First Time Ever After Kamala Declares 'Border Secure'
Migrant Arrests Top 2 Million For The First Time Ever After Kamala Declares ‘Border Secure’
Just one week after VP Kamala Harris declared that the southern US border is “secure,” the number of illegal migrants arrested topped 2 million in just 11 months – an all-time record.
First, the woman who’s one heartbeat away from the Oval Office.
NBC’S CHUCK TODD: “[The US] will have 2 million people cross this border for the first time ever.”
VP HARRIS: “We have a secure border.”
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 11, 2022
The adults are back in charge?
According to the latest figures from US Customs and Border Protection, 203,598 migrants were detained in August, putting the total number of illegals arrested at 2.3 million for the 2022 fiscal year which ends Sept. 30.
And those are just the ones who were caught.
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The historic migration wave this year has been driven by soaring numbers of border-crossers from outside Mexico and Central America, the two largest traditional sources of illegal entries. Migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba accounted for more than one-third of those taken into custody along the southern border last month, according to Customs and Border Protection, a 175 percent increase over August 2021. -WaPo
“Failing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are driving a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, including the recent increase in encounters at the southwest U.S. border,” said CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus, in a politically charged statement. “Those fleeing repressive regimes pose significant challenges for processing and removal.”
If only some type of barrier, or ‘wall’ could be erected to stop massive illegal inflows of migrants?
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 19:20 - EU Threatens To Suspend €7.5BN In Hungary Funding Amid Charges Of 'Cozying Up' To Putin
EU Threatens To Suspend €7.5BN In Hungary Funding Amid Charges Of ‘Cozying Up’ To Putin
The EU’s patience with Viktor Orban’s Hungary is running extremely thin after years of wrangling and threats from Brussels of triggering the “rule of law” mechanism, despite recently announced efforts of Budapest to establish an anti-graft agency.
It seems Russia’s war in Ukraine is hastening a confrontational and fractured ending to the standoff, with the EU on Sunday threatening to freeze 7.5 billion euros which had been earmarked for Hungary, citing persisting corruption and fraud.
It’s been no secret that Orban has been a thorn in the side of European efforts to punish and isolate Putin’s Russia. While Hungary has demanded exemptions from EU energy sanctions on Russia, and has meanwhile enjoyed cheap gasoline and other energy at a moment prices in the rest of Europe have gone steadily up over the course of the war – and into what’s sure to be a tough winter – the belief among leading EU states is that joint bloc anti-Russia actions have been largely blunted. The timing of the fresh EU threats is not going unnoticed.
File image: Reuters Bloomberg in a fresh report has put the dilemma as follows: “But while most member states have been engaged in a desperate scramble to secure alternative gas supplies ahead of the winter, Orban has deepened his country’s ties to the Kremlin, exploiting the exemptions he demanded from EU sanctions to secure increased imports of gas from Russia.”
Poland has remained a powerful impediment thus far to Brussels triggering any significant rule of law penalties, despite Warsaw remaining at the forefront of denunciations of Russia’s invasion.
“During years of frustration at the Hungarian government, Orban has been shielded from the EU’s main disciplinary machinery, known as the article 7 procedure, by the support of the nationalist government in Warsaw — because that mechanism too requires the endorsement of all the other members,” Bloomberg recounts. “The war in Ukraine has soured Orban’s relationship with the Polish government, which has been among the most ardent supporters of firm action against Putin, but for now the Poles are standing by Orban.”
Orban has cast efforts to “punish” his country in terms of a war on traditional values. For now, Poland seems to agree… the vast divergence in rhetoric on the Russia-Ukraine conflict notwithstanding.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Sunday, “Poland will strongly oppose any action of European institutions that intend to unduly deprive any member states of funds, in this case Hungary.”
Interestingly (given the timing of the EU’s threat to freeze funds), just days ago PM Orban reportedly told a closed-door meeting of officials from his ruling Fidesz party that he would fight efforts to extend EU sanctions on Russia:
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban expects European Union leaders to start talks on extending sanctions on Russia in the autumn but Budapest would try to block the move, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, citing unidentified sources.
Orban, a harsh critic of EU sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, made the remarks at a closed meeting to party members in the western village of Kotcse last week, RFE/RL said on its Hungarian website on Friday.
He also appeared to once again blame the West for the Ukraine conflict spiraling out of control, and continued his theme of anti-Russia sanctions ultimately blowing back on populations at home, or shooting the European economy in the foot.
Meloni ‘unfit to govern Italy’ for defending Orban, critics say https://t.co/GmQ9BPIZLX
— Alan Friedman (@alanfriedmanit) September 18, 2022
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Russian media too has been featuring recent quotes of Orban’s lambasting collective Western policy: “The Hungarian leader allegedly told his supporters that he believed Ukraine may end up losing between one third and one half of its territory due to the conflict with Russia, RFE/RL reported on Friday, citing participants of the meeting in the village of Kotcse.”
Budapest has meanwhile lashed out at the European Parliament’s (EP) recent move to approve a resolution stating that Hungary is no longer a “full democracy.” That nonbinding EP vote from last week cited Hungary’s failures to uphold “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities” – as the text reads, in repetition of prior EP statements.
A Fidesz statement said in response: “It is unforgivable that, while people are suffering from the severe economic effects of wartime inflation and misguided sanctions, the European Parliament is attacking Hungary again.”
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 18:40 - Kass: Who Feels Safe In Chicago?
Kass: Who Feels Safe In Chicago?
Authored by John Kass via JohnKassNews.com,
Do you feel safe in Chicago?
The great city by the lake was once famed for its toughness and unbreakable will. But now it curls up into the fetal position as uncontrolled violent crime and legitimate concerns over the Democrat Safe-T Act–which will do away with cash bail on Jan. 1–bleed the city dry.
Democratic political leaders are on the defensive before the mid-term elections. Some like Gov. J.B. Pritzker have been reduced to babbling. Others like Mayor Lori Lightfoot go into hiding. More than a dozen city council members have resigned. They look to the chaos from the mayor’s office and begin turning away.
The bleeding continued Thursday with news that seven children had been shot in the street gang wars in separate incidents, including a 3-year-old shot at home while sleeping. Oh, and anti-violence activists were listed among the wounded at yet another Chicago mass shooting.
CWB Chicago reported that police warned about yet a third armed robbery crew working the city from the West Loop to Edgewater.
But don’t fret, Lightfoot has made sure that no repeat criminals—including violent muggers, robbers, shooters or murderers–will have to risk being hurt in a police chase.
And there had been no arrests in that infamous Sunday afternoon street mugging in the leafy Lakeview neighborhood, where a woman walking alone was attacked, pulled to the ground by thugs and robbed. The poor woman’s piercing screams were caught on a doorbell security camera. And those screams have cut deeply into Illinois politics and focused the people on the Democrat criminal justice centerpiece—the Safe-T Act signed and applauded by Gov. Pritzker.
And to all this comes Chris Kempczinski, the CEO of McDonald’s Corp. who spoke at the Economic Club of Chicago luncheon and delivered a series of body to Mayor Lightfoot’s reelection campaign:
The issue? Crime and her inability to handle it. Crime is up almost 40 percent in Chicago, though murder numbers have dropped slightly. Kempeczinski told his audience that violent crime makes it difficult to attract employees to Chicago.
“Everywhere I go, I’m confronted by the same question. ‘What’s going on in Chicago?” Kempczinski said.
“There is a general sense out there that our city is in crisis.”
A spokesman for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had no immediate comment when contacted by the Wall Street Journal.
No immediate comment Lori? What? Are you ill? That’s the Wall Street Journal calling, Madame Phallus Maximus. Business types read the Journal. For them to see Lightfoot in hiding invites negative judgement on her ability to handle the truth.
But most still in Chicago have already made that judgement about her. We made it years ago, when she turned the city over twice to Black Lives Matter rioters and looters, and then endorsed the Soros prosecutor, Kim Foxx for re-election as Cook County State’s Attorney which was seen as an olive branch to BLM and other hard-left political actors.
After Lightfoot endorsed Foxx and Foxx was re-elected–after the Jussie Smollett fiasco, after having gutted her office of hard minded prosecutors, I asked a longtime Democrat about it. He was a contemporary of the real original Mayor Daley, and I asked: By re-electing Foxx, what was the message the Cook County Democratic Party was sending?.
“The message?” he said. “The message is get the (bleep) out.”
Several large companies, including Citadel have left Chicago citing crime as a reason.
Foxx is the protégé of Lightfoot’s rival, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. Boss Toni is credited with shrinking the size of the Cook County Jail and protecting Foxx.
Lightfoot had been going around town whispering that she regrets endorsing Foxx, but it was another example of her inability to lead. Yes, it was bad policy, since the mayor was still pretending she wanted a working relationship with her police rank-and-file that loathes Foxx.
But it was also bad politics, the mark of an amateur who put her city’s safety at risk. The rookie mayor sent an unmistakable signal to her allies that she was willing to bend the knee to Boss Toni. The public picked up on it. And now she has few if any allies left.
Pritzker is also on the defensive on crime. He pushed the controversial Safe-T Act that does away with cash bail at the behest of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus and other leftists. Final debate in the Illinois House took place in the wee hours of the morning and legislators still hadn’t read the bill–I suppose not all have read it–though many knew police and prosecutors were adamantly opposed.
The Safe-T Act was seen as Pritzker’s political gift from Illinois Democrats to the BLM rioters and other anti-law-enforcement political groups.
A peace offering. His miscalculation? Of the 102 state’s attorneys in Illinois each representing a county, only two prosecutors support the Safe-T Act.
One hundred Illinois county prosecutors consider Pritzker’s Safe-T Act to be dangerous to the public.
And, before you allow partisan politics to get in the way of your analysis, remember that most victims of violent crime are black and Latino.
The other day Pritzker babbled on defensively as he often does in defending his Safe-T Act. He clumsily plays the race card to portray critics of the act as racists. The other day he tried a new cringeworthy tactic, this time trying to compare no cash bail for violent offenders with the plight of some poor woman jailed because she was in desperate need of diapers for her child.
Pritzker said he and others are ““making sure that we’re also addressing the problem of a single mother who shoplifted diapers for her baby, who is put in jail and kept there for six months because she doesn’t have a couple of hundred dollars to pay for bail,” Pritzker said. “So that’s what the Safe-T Act is about. Are there changes, adjustments that need to be? Of course, and there have been adjustments made and there will continue to be. Laws are not immutable.”
Diapers? Diapers, Gov. Commodius Maximus? Jean Valjean was said to have stolen a loaf of bread to feed his family. But the French didn’t have welfare or other government assistance. And welfare forms the bond between the Democrat Party and its minority partisans..
Reporters just went along with him as they usually do, just like they go along with Lightfoot when she shrieks like the red queen of hearts from Alice-in-Wonderland.
No one apparently bothered to ask Pritzker to produce the mother in his fantasy, the one who’d been kept in jail “for six months” for a $200 diaper “bill,” especially since Soros prosecutor Kim Foxx won’t prosecute shoplifting under a thousand dollars.
And I don’t think anyone asked him to explain, in detail, about the changes that must be made to the no-bail provision he eagerly, and excitedly, signed into law.
Pritzker and Lightfoot don’t really do much to address crime because the media already has their backs. They make pleasant urgent sounds about wanting to combat the rise in violent crime, but doing so would involve pushing for more arrests of violent criminals. And that would cost their politics since most violent offenders are black and brown, committing violence against black and brown, and it’s much easier to blame it all on “systemic racism.”
So they make their urgent sounds, and they’re excused by rapidly fading left leaning corporate media, which has little if any credibility. Especially the newspapers. When media is in concert carrying your political water and defending your policies, the pressure is off.
I know. I spent decades in the corporate media in Chicago that pretends it speaks truth to power, as long as the power isn’t of the left. Some are nice people who try to do a fair job, but many are weak and afraid of others who may be more radical than they.
It’s much easier for them to be political operatives masquerading as journalists. These are one-eyed jacks, and I’ve seen the other side of their face.
But who wants to ask impolite questions about elected officials actually doing something to deal with violent crime? Who wants to demand they do something? Demanding that something get done is risky, like asking voters to listen to that woman scream from Lakeview. People might get upset. Their Twitter followers might call your editor or executive producer
And many Democrats did become upset, demanding that some TV stations stop airing that TV spot known as “the scream” that vexes them so.
In Chicago and the rest of Illinois, the political formula has worked for decades. As long as they’re backed by media, And no one gets upset, except perhaps those victims of violent crime who are ignored, and those who are are concerned that they or their loved ones may become victims. They are dismissed and/or marginalized as racists.
The political class hasn’t been compelled to care about these victims. And as long as the politicians are not held to account on the Safe-T Act and other broken policy nothing really changes.
Have you ever heard this saying? The beatings will continue until morale improves. No one seems to know who said this.
But whoever it was, they understood Illinois and that city by the lake.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 18:20 - Russia Transfers Old St. Petersburg Defense Missiles To Ukraine Front: Report
Russia Transfers Old St. Petersburg Defense Missiles To Ukraine Front: Report
Finland’s Yle broadcaster said in a lengthy investigative report issued Sunday that Russia’s military has taken the unprecedented step of moving old anti-aircraft missile systems to its captured regions of Ukraine amid an ongoing shortage of advanced weapons.
Finnish military expert Marko Eklund was cited in the report as saying at least four anti-aircraft missile installations which surround St. Petersburg had been “emptied of equipment” as of August and early September.
S-300 file image: EPA/EFE The Yle report relies heavily on satellite imagery analysis which purports to show the transfers away from the Petersburg bases.
The Finnish expert explained “It is most likely that the equipment that has been removed is primarily from the old S-300 system.” Eklund further said that St. Petersburg air defense capabilities are still in tact given that all or most of the equipment moved included older, or less advanced technology:
There has also been a significant transfer of equipment from a base southeast of St Petersburg—about 10 firing platforms as well as other vehicles.
According to Eklund, in this case, new missile equipment may also have been removed, as the Russian armed forces said, that this regiment was using the newer S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, introduced about 15 years ago.
This comes amid an avalanche of speculation in Western sources over the past months saying that after over a half-year of war in Ukraine, Russian defense ministry supplies – especially missiles – have been severely depleted.
Yle report: “The area of this 500th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment battery appears to be completely abandoned. Source: Google Earth Aug. 2021 and Planet Labs 2 Sept. 2022.” Before…
After…
Last month, Ukrainian intelligence claimed that Russia had no more than 45% of its missiles left, but this is unverified and interestingly Kiev gave the same estimate as early as May.
There has also been much speculation that US and EU-led sanctions have had a great impact on disallowing Moscow from obtaining parts and necessary equipment needed to keep missile production on course.
Via Yle In the new Finnish report, Eklund warned that older systems being sent to the front lines in Ukraine doesn’t bode well for civilians. “These old missiles are used for ground targets in such a way that the greatest damage seems to be done to civilians,” he said.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/19/2022 – 18:00
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