- The Need For COVID Reparations
The Need For COVID Reparations
Authored by Adam Coleman via The Epoch Times,
I’m no different from many Americans who still possess anger at how people were mistreated for questioning narratives, forced into struggling economic positions, and repeatedly lied to about the efficacy of lockdowns and vaccines by the most powerful people and institutions in the world.
I still possess animosity toward the formerly respectable so-called experts who’ve become compromised by their political biases and the fear of losing their high status in society if they were to divorce from the narrative and marry objectivity. How can I trust again a media apparatus that guilted an entire population of people into getting an experimental vaccine while simultaneously being sponsored by Big Pharma?
We all want a way to move forward, because anger only breeds more anger, not forgiveness. But it’s also not advisable for us to gloss over the damage that was done to appease the conscience of the people who are now remorseful for their participation in perpetuating falsehoods and who cheered on the social demise of dissenters.
Despite the call for a blanket amnesty discussed in the Atlantic’s op-ed titled “Let’s declare a pandemic amnesty,” I believe we should strive for something that’s more succinct in providing a form of justice that would relieve much of the bitterness that we’ve been carrying for years: COVID reparations.
Often when we discuss reparations, it’s with the concept of throwing an arbitrary amount of cash at people in hopes that it satisfies enough of them in the process, but what I’m advocating for is a reparation that’s socially restorative, fair, and directly benefits the people who were impacted by the injustice.
First, there needs to be a satisfactory acknowledgment of guilt and an apology directly aimed at the American public who were unjustly harmed. For example, there needs to be a recognition of the people who are vaccine injured, and while they’re the minority, their situations are disregarded by people, including medical professionals, who continue to cling to the fallacy that COVID-19 vaccines provide no side effects.
There needs to be a national recognition of the mental damage inflicted upon our children due to seemingly indefinite isolation because of extended lockdowns and school closures, causing youth suicide attempts to soar.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2020, the proportion of mental health-related emergency department visits among adolescents aged 12–17 years increased by 31 percent compared with 2019. From Feb. 21 to March 20, 2021, emergency department visits due to suspected suicide attempts were 50.6 percent higher among girls aged 12–17 years than during the same period in 2019.
You can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge, and we can’t move forward without public acknowledgment of all the negative consequences that stemmed from an overreaching and politically blinded governmental apparatus and how they encouraged the private sector to mimic their approach.
There should be restitution for the citizens who were forced out of their jobs and other opportunities for refusing to get vaccinated, because this action was motivated by the falsehood of the vaccination stopping the spread, which was overtly stated by many bureaucratic figures, including the CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
In cities such as New York City, people, like my wife, were forced into an unfair predicament of taking a vaccine that they weren’t fully comfortable being injected with or losing their income, all based on the falsehood of it being the extinguisher of the spread of this virus.
As part of the restitution, every employee who was negatively affected by this should be allowed their positions back or given financial severance compensation directly from their employer, and there should be the immediate reenlistment of military members who were forced out due to this refusal.
Any small business owners who were forced out of business while corporate conglomerates like Amazon, Target, and Walmart were permitted carte blanch operational status should be allowed to file lawsuits against their local government that used edict to choose the economic winners and losers.
Lastly, there should be guarantees of non-repetition by removing all unelected bureaucratic figureheads who perpetuated vaccine falsehoods on behalf of Big Pharma, advocated for lockdowns without regard for our economic survival or impact on our children’s health, and fostered an environment where questioning medical decisions for yourself made you a dissident instead of normal.
Laws should be created to prevent the federal government from providing blanket immunity from lawsuits to pharmaceutical companies, because those companies will undoubtedly put more emphasis on the speed of production and profits over ethics and safety for the American public.
There are countless actions that could be made to show actual repentance for the irreverence shown toward the American public, but there needs to be conscious action alongside the rhetoric of progressing forward.
We haven’t truly learned the lessons from our recent mistakes if we’re willing to continue to pretend that the wounds that were created by our overzealousness aren’t still infected with unresolved acrimony.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 23:40 - Watch: Boston Dynamics' Creepy Humanoid Robot Learns More Tricks
Watch: Boston Dynamics’ Creepy Humanoid Robot Learns More Tricks
Boston Dynamics’ latest video of its six-foot-tall bipedal humanoid, Atlas, shows it has acquired new skills that enable it to operate in complex terrain.
Boston Dynamics’ Atlas team, led by Scott Kuindersma, told The Verge that the video is “meant to communicate an expansion of the research we’re doing on Atlas.”
The video shows Atlas operating autonomously, working in a makeshift construction site. A worker asks the bipedal robot for his tool bag while high up on a scaffold. The robot retrieves the bag and successfully delivers the bag to the worker.
“We’re not just thinking about how to make the robot move dynamically through its environment, like we did in Parkour and Dance.
“Now, we’re starting to put Atlas to work and think about how the robot should be able to perceive and manipulate objects in its environment,” said Kuindersma.
Since Hyundai Motor Group acquired a controlling interest in Boston Dynamics for $1.1 billion in 2021, there’s been a notable change in messaging from the robotics company that appears to push these bipedal robots closer to commercialization for real-world applications.
What bothers us is the military-industrial complex’s dream of humanoid warfighters could be realized via Atlas.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 23:20 - Escobar: Gold-Backed Currencies To Replace US Dollar In Global South
Escobar: Gold-Backed Currencies To Replace US Dollar In Global South
Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,
The adoption of commodity-backed currencies by the Global South could upend the US dollar’s dominance and level the playing field in international trade…
Let’s start with three interconnected multipolar-driven facts.
First: One of the key take-aways from the World Economic Forum annual shindig in Davos, Switzerland is when Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan, on a panel on “Saudi Arabia’s Transformation,” made it clear that Riyadh “will consider trading in currencies other than the US dollar.”
So is the petroyuan finally at hand? Possibly, but Al-Jadaan wisely opted for careful hedging:
“We enjoy a very strategic relationship with China and we enjoy that same strategic relationship with other nations including the US and we want to develop that with Europe and other countries.”
Second: The Central Banks of Iran and Russia are studying the adoption of a “stable coin” for foreign trade settlements, replacing the US dollar, the ruble and the rial.
The crypto crowd is already up in arms, mulling the pros and cons of a gold-backed central bank digital currency (CBDC) for trade that will be in fact impervious to the weaponized US dollar.
A gold-backed digital currency
The really attractive issue here is that this gold-backed digital currency would be particularly effective in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of Astrakhan, in the Caspian Sea.
Astrakhan is the key Russian port participating in the International North South Transportation Corridor (INTSC), with Russia processing cargo travelling across Iran in merchant ships all the way to West Asia, Africa, the Indian Ocean and South Asia.
The success of the INSTC – progressively tied to a gold-backed CBDC – will largely hinge on whether scores of Asian, West Asian and African nations refuse to apply US-dictated sanctions on both Russia and Iran.
As it stands, exports are mostly energy and agricultural products; Iranian companies are the third largest importer of Russian grain. Next will be turbines, polymers, medical equipment, and car parts. Only the Russia-Iran section of the INSTC represents a $25 billion business.
And then there’s the crucial energy angle of INSTC – whose main players are the Russia-Iran-India triad.
India’s purchases of Russian crude have increased year-by-year by a whopping factor of 33. India is the world’s third largest importer of oil; in December, it received 1.2 million barrels from Russia, which for several months now is positioned ahead of Iraq and Saudi Arabia as Delhi’s top supplier.
‘A fairer payment system’
Third: South Africa holds this year’s rotating BRICS presidency. And this year will mark the start of BRICS+ expansion, with candidates ranging from Algeria, Iran and Argentina to Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor has just confirmed that the BRICS do want to find a way to bypass the US dollar and thus create “a fairer payment system not skewed toward wealthier countries.”
For years now, Yaroslav Lissovolik, head of the analytical department of Russian Sberbank’s corporate and investment business has been a proponent of closer BRICS integration and the adoption of a BRICS reserve currency.
Lissovolik reminds us that the first proposal “to create a new reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of BRICS countries was formulated by the Valdai Club back in 2018.”
Are you ready for the R5?
The original idea revolved around a currency basket similar to the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) model, composed of the national currencies of BRICS members – and then, further on down the road, other currencies of the expanded BRICS+ circle.
Lissovolik explains that choosing BRICS national currencies made sense because “these were among the most liquid currencies across emerging markets. The name for the new reserve currency — R5 or R5+ — was based on the first letters of the BRICS currencies all of which begin with the letter R (real, ruble, rupee, renminbi, rand).”
So BRICS already have a platform for their in-depth deliberations in 2023. As Lissovolik notes, “in the longer run, the R5 BRICS currency could start to perform the role of settlements/payments as well as the store of value/reserves for the central banks of emerging market economies.”
It is virtually certain that the Chinese yuan will be prominent right from the start, taking advantage of its “already advanced reserve status.”
Potential candidates that could become part of the R5+ currency basket include the Singapore dollar and the UAE’s dirham.
Quite diplomatically, Lissovolik maintains that, “the R5 project can thus become one of the most important contributions of emerging markets to building a more secure international financial system.”
The R5, or R5+ project does intersect with what is being designed at the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), led by the Macro-Economics Minister of the Eurasia Economic Commission, Sergey Glazyev.
A new gold standard
In Golden Ruble 3.0 , his most recent paper, Glazyev makes a direct reference to two by now notorious reports by Credit Suisse strategist Zoltan Pozsar, formerly of the IMF, US Department of Treasury, and New York Federal Reserve: War and Commodity Encumbrance (December 27) and War and Currency Statecraft (December 29).
Pozsar is a staunch supporter of a Bretton Woods III – an idea that has been getting enormous traction among the Fed-skeptical crowd.
What’s quite intriguing is that the American Pozsar now directly quotes Russia’s Glazyev, and vice-versa, implying a fascinating convergence of their ideas.
Let’s start with Glazyev’s emphasis on the importance of gold. He notes the current accumulation of multibillion-dollar cash balances on the accounts of Russian exporters in “soft” currencies in the banks of Russia’s main foreign economic partners: EAEU nations, China, India, Iran, Turkey, and the UAE.
He then proceeds to explain how gold can be a unique tool to fight western sanctions if prices of oil and gas, food and fertilizers, metals and solid minerals are recalculated:
“Fixing the price of oil in gold at the level of 2 barrels per 1g will give a second increase in the price of gold in dollars, calculated Credit Suisse strategist Zoltan Pozsar. This would be an adequate response to the ‘price ceilings’ introduced by the west – a kind of ‘floor,’ a solid foundation. And India and China can take the place of global commodity traders instead of Glencore or Trafigura.”
So here we see Glazyev and Pozsar converging. Quite a few major players in New York will be amazed.
Glazyev then lays down the road toward Gold Ruble 3.0. The first gold standard was lobbied by the Rothschilds in the 19th century, which “gave them the opportunity to subordinate continental Europe to the British financial system through gold loans.” Golden Ruble 1.0, writes Glazyev, “provided the process of capitalist accumulation.”
Golden Ruble 2.0, after Bretton Woods, “ensured a rapid economic recovery after the war.” But then the “reformer Khrushchev canceled the peg of the ruble to gold, carrying out monetary reform in 1961 with the actual devaluation of the ruble by 2.5 times, forming conditions for the subsequent transformation of the country [Russia] into a “raw material appendage of the Western financial system.”
What Glazyev proposes now is for Russia to boost gold mining to as much as 3 percent of GDP: the basis for fast growth of the entire commodity sector (30 percent of Russian GDP). With the country becoming a world leader in gold production, it gets “a strong ruble, a strong budget and a strong economy.”
All Global South eggs in one basket
Meanwhile, at the heart of the EAEU discussions, Glazyev seems to be designing a new currency not only based on gold, but partly based on the oil and natural gas reserves of participating countries.
Pozsar seems to consider this potentially inflationary: it could be if it results in some excesses, considering the new currency would be linked to such a large base.
Off the record, New York banking sources admit the US dollar would be “wiped out, since it is a valueless fiat currency, should Sergey Glazyev link the new currency to gold. The reason is that the Bretton Woods system no longer has a gold base and has no intrinsic value, like the FTX crypto currency. Sergey’s plan also linking the currency to oil and natural gas seems to be a winner.”
So in fact Glazyev may be creating the whole currency structure for what Pozsar called, half in jest, the “G7 of the East”: the current 5 BRICS plus the next 2 which will be the first new members of BRICS+.
Both Glazyev and Pozsar know better than anyone that when Bretton Woods was created the US possessed most of Central Bank gold and controlled half the world’s GDP. This was the basis for the US to take over the whole global financial system.
Now vast swathes of the non-western world are paying close attention to Glazyev and the drive towards a new non-US dollar currency, complete with a new gold standard which would in time totally replace the US dollar.
Pozsar completely understood how Glazyev is pursuing a formula featuring a basket of currencies (as Lissovolik suggested). As much as he understood the groundbreaking drive towards the petroyuan. He describes the industrial ramifications thus:
“Since as we have just said Russia, Iran, and Venezuela account for about 40 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves, and each of them are currently selling oil to China for renminbi at a steep discount, we find BASF’s decision to permanently downsize its operations at its main plant in Ludwigshafen and instead shift its chemical operations to China was motivated by the fact that China is securing energy at discounts, not markups like Europe.”
The race to replace the dollar
One key takeaway is that energy-intensive major industries are going to be moving to China. Beijing has become a big exporter of Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) to Europe, while India has become a big exporter of Russian oil and refined products such as diesel – also to Europe. Both China and India – BRICS members – buy below market price from fellow BRICS member Russia and resell to Europe with a hefty profit. Sanctions? What sanctions?
Meanwhile, the race to constitute the new currency basket for a new monetary unit is on. This long-distance dialogue between Glazyev and Pozsar will become even more fascinating, as Glazyev will be trying to find a solution to what Pozsar has stated: tapping of natural resources for the creation of the new currency could be inflationary if money supply is increased too quickly.
All that is happening as Ukraine – a huge chasm at a critical junction of the New Silk Road blocking off Europe from Russia/China – slowly but surely disappears into a black void. The Empire may have gobbled up Europe for now, but what really matters geoeconomically, is how the absolute majority of the Global South is deciding to commit to the Russia/China-led block.
Economic dominance of BRICS+ may be no more than 7 years away – whatever toxicities may be concocted by that large, dysfunctional nuclear rogue state on the other side of the Atlantic. But first, let’s get that new currency going.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 23:00 - China Now Grows More Corn Than Rice
China Now Grows More Corn Than Rice
Chinese and other Asian cuisines are highly associated with the consumption of rice as a part of many meals. It may therefore come as a surprise that China today is actually producing more corn than rice.
As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, in 2021, the country primary cereal production consisted of 43 percent corn and 34 percent rice, as data from the Food and Agriculture Organization shows.
You will find more infographics at Statista
This doesn’t mean that Chinese people are necessarily eating a lot more corn but rather that their livestock is hungry for the grain as much as some of their vehicles and machines are to consume corn in the form of ethanol fuel.
Corn does make its way into Chinese processed foodstuffs in the form of high-fructose corn syrup and starch, however, according to an article by University of North Carolina professor Peter A. Coclanis in Aeon.
According to Coclanis, corn is among the most versatile grains in the world while being relatively easy to grow, supporting its success in China as the country’s ever-growing middle class is upping its meat consumption.
Additionally, China is importing at times huge quantities of corn from the United States – the world’s biggest producer – in order to supply its massive livestock industry.
In the U.S., corn is now making up 85 percent of primary cereal production, up from 62 percent in 1981. Another country with a prolific lifestock industry, Brazil, has seen an increase from 66 percent to 79 percent over the same time period.
2012 was the first year when China grew more corn that rice. In other Asian countries, rice still dominates cereal production. In 2021, it made up more than 90 percent of cereal crops in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Malaysia, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam and upwards of 85 percent in Japan, Myanmar and Thailand. India and Nepal grow a more diverse bunch of grains (also reflected in their cuisines), with rice only making up half of cereal crops and wheat another 20-30 percent.
In Asia as a whole, 48 percent of primary cereal production was made up of rice in 2021, down from 57 percent in 2018. Over the same time period, the prevalence of corn doubled from approximately 13 percent to around 26 percent.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 22:40 - SHOT Show Exhibitors Promote Gun Safety, Suicide Prevention
SHOT Show Exhibitors Promote Gun Safety, Suicide Prevention
Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times,
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is as committed to promoting gun safety as it is to gun rights, Bill Brassard, senior director of communications and director of the Child Safe program for the NSSF, told The Epoch Times.
“It’s about much more than firearms,” Brassard said.
According to Brassard, the firearms industry is working to do its part to promote gun safety and mental health.
There are at least seven organizations committed to gun safety, suicide prevention, and mental health services among the more than 2,400 exhibitors at the event.
“Attitudes are definitely changing,” Brassard said.
“Five years ago, they would not have had a presence here.”
Brassard spoke from the Project ChildSafe booth at the NSSF’s 45th Annual SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. SHOT stands for the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade show.
(Right) Ken Stacy, (North American representative for Lokaway safes) and (Left) Corkey Whempner (Lokaway sales representative) display one of their company’s gun safes during the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s 45th annual SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 18, 2023. (Michael Clements)
One of the exhibitors Brassard referenced is Hold My Guns (HMG), a non-profit that arranges temporary gun storage. Whether for a military deployment, a mental health crisis, or the need to prevent unauthorized firearms access, HMG connects clients with federal firearms license (FFL) holders who can legally store their guns so they are ready to be returned.
Sarah Joy Albrecht is the founder and executive director of HMG. She said that in an era of red flag laws and increased attempts to restrict gun ownership, HMG was started to help gun owners temporarily create distance from their firearms without government involvement.
“This is a non-legislative approach,” Albrecht told The Epoch Times.
“This is our community helping our own.”
According to Albrecht, HMG arranges a transfer of firearms to an FFL. Since it is a legal transfer, the owner must be able to pass a federal background check. The guns are logged into the FFL’s records and kept in their secure storage until they are returned to the owner. She said HMG partners with FFLs, who will store the firearms for a nominal fee. The FFL partners require that the storage is legal, but other than that, no questions are asked.
Albrecht said one of HMG’s main objectives is suicide prevention. Her family has been directly affected by suicide, and she started HMG to prevent such tragedies. She pointed out that more than half of all gun-related deaths are suicides. But news reports list those with gun crime statistics. This compounds the stigma of suicide, she said.
Dustin Culbreth (vice president for product development of Vaultek) demonstrates the modular features of one of his company’s long gun safes during the National Shooting Sports Foundations 45th annual SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 18, 2023. (Michael Clements)
“How much more likely is that person to seek help?” Albrecht asked. “(HMG) empowers people to make good decisions during a crisis. This is an option that serves our community.”
Brassard said HMG and other safe storage options are essential in suicide prevention by creating time and distance between the person and the guns.
“It gives the person a chance to find help,” Brassard said.
NSSF has also partnered with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Walk the Talk America in addition to starting programs like Project ChildSafe and NSSF Have a Brace Conversation. These organizations are working to educate the public and firearms retailers on recognizing warning signs that a person may be dealing with mental health issues and how to help them find assistance.
Brassard said the programs have been well received.
Along that line, NSSF and the American Foundation for Suicide prevention develop materials for firearms retailers, ranges, and manufacturers to make it easier for their customers to find the support they need when they need it. All the materials are free.
NSSF provides educational materials and services through its Have a Brave Conversation program. The program offers a free toolkit containing brochures, posters, counter cards, and window clings for firearms-related businesses and organizations that want to prevent suicide.
NSSF Suicide Prevention Partners
Walk the Talk America (WTA) has been operating for nearly five years. It hosts free and anonymous mental health screenings in addition to educating clinicians about gun culture, promoting responsible gun ownership, and protecting Second Amendment rights and psychological well-being. WTA works with manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, ranges, veterans’ groups, community groups, and government agencies.
In addition to suicide prevention, NSSF has made protecting children a priority. This is why NSSF began its Project ChildSafe program, Brassard said. NSSF has provided more than 40 million gun locks to gun owners through local police departments. Brassard said the locks are provided free of charge and come with information on safe gun handling and storage.
NSSF has partnered with 15,000 law enforcement agencies around the United States through the Project ChildSafe program. He said that NSSF safety programs are almost always welcomed by gun owners and those in the firearms industry. He said that as gun ownership has increased in the past several years, so has the desire of gun owners to do what is right.
“It’s really a matter of responsible gun ownership,” Brassard said.
Brassard said proper storage is a big part of responsible gun ownership. The quandary is how to prevent unauthorized access while maintaining availability.
High Tech Storage
Dustin Culbreth told The Epoch Times that safe manufacturers are bridging the gap between secure storage and easy access. Culbreth is vice president for product development at Orlando, Florida-based Vaultek.
“We manufacture smart safes with built-in, cutting-edge technology,” Culbreth said.
In addition to biometric technology, Culbreth said Vaultek safes are programmable. Vaultek’s small pistol safes can be programmed for up to 20 sets of fingerprints, meaning family members, friends, and others who may need access to the firearm will have it. They also come with a smartphone app that will alert the gun owner if someone tries to move or break into the safe.
The app keeps a log of when and how the safe is accessed so the owner can always know what is going on with his firearms. In addition, he said Vaultek safes have backup methods of opening the safes if the technology fails.
Tamper Resistant Latch
Ken Stacy is the North American representative for Lokaway, an Australian safe manufacturer. In addition to incorporating high tech into its safe designs, Stacy said Lokaway has developed a unique pry-resistant latch system.
“This latch system is much more secure,” Stacy told The Epoch Times.
Stacy said Lokaway works to keep its products affordable while focusing on security. He said that anyone shopping for a gun safe should remember they are investing in their family’s safety as well as secure gun storage.
“If you’re going to spend any money on a security device, buy one that works and protects your kids,” Stacey said.
SHOT show runs through Jan. 20 at The Venetian Expo and Caesar’s Forum in Las Vegas, Nev. It features over 2,400 exhibitors on 800,000 net square feet of floor space. This is the 24th SHOT Show to be held in Las Vegas.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 22:20 - Davos Plans For The Next Pandemic – Suggests National Digital Infrastructures To Track Vaccination
Davos Plans For The Next Pandemic – Suggests National Digital Infrastructures To Track Vaccination
The World Economic Forum’s Davos discussions often require some “reading between the lines” to understand what is really being said by the globalist participants, but not much interpretation is needed these days. Ever since the pandemic event along with the lockdowns and the attempts to introduce vaccine passports, establishment representatives have been far more open about their agenda and their intentions for the future.
After all, it was Klaus Schwab that called covid a “rare but narrow window of opportunity” to implement the “Great Reset” of the current economic and political order. The past few years have shown that the Davos crowd still clings to the fading pandemic panic as the “good old days” when they could have had anything they wanted, including total centralization.
The globalists continue to refuse to address their many failures, but panels like the following say it all – They realize that the truth has hit the mainstream and far too many people are now questioning the validity of the restrictions, mandates, masks and the mRNA vaccines. All of these measures have proven to be mostly useless in preventing viral spread, and now the negative side effects of the vaccines are being admitted to, at least to a point. All in all, the pandemic was not the golden opportunity that Klaus Schwab and the WEF expected.
Their hopes and dreams now turn to a future pandemic, perhaps one with a far higher death rate that creates more exploitable public fear.
Of special note in this panel, which includes former British PM Tony Blair and current head of Pfizer Albert Bourla, are comments made about the lack of unified agreement on political response – They do not go into detail here, but they may be referring to the refusal of some governments to pursue ongoing mandates and vaccine passports. Public resistance to such actions led directly to apprehension among government officials as to how far they could push their luck. Clearly, they decided they were playing with fire because many of these leaders backed off. It was as if someone flipped a switch and the covid doom mongering suddenly slowed to a mere flicker of its former intensity.
The group concludes that global institutions in the future need to put constant pressure on governments and, ostensibly, constant pressure on national populations in order to get the results they desire.
By extension, Africa is mentioned a few times during the panel as an example of the need for “equity” in pandemic response. What they don’t talk about is Africa’s lack of covid deaths despite around 65% of the continent being unvaccinated according to the New York Times world vaccine tracker. The African example as a control group for the unvaccinated has been a thorn in the side of globalists for the past couple years and obviously they want to change that.
Another very interesting comment is made by Tony Blair, who calls for national digital infrastructure for tracking vaccinations. Blair suggests that to keep various national governments on board with the agenda, they would have to be convinced pandemic issues are “continuing issues.”
Albert Bourla addresses the possibility and challenges of producing vaccines in an even faster time frame to respond to new viral events. His conclusion? That regulators need to continue to keep doors open for Big Pharma in terms of expediency even when there is not a pandemic in play. The average vaccine takes at least 10 years of study for safety and long term side effects; the covid vaccines were developed and administered in less than a year under emergency authorization. This new standard of minimized safety obstacles is what Big Pharma and the WEF want for all vaccines and drugs in the future.
Bourla then admits to something, in a offhanded way, that many people have suspected; that the biggest challenge in the enforcement of mandates and widespread vaccination was public skepticism. Bourla and others refer to this as the “politicizing” of the mandates, but it was really just resistance to authoritarianism, and it is something that frustrated globalist planning at every step. This can only be a good thing.
At no point do the panel participants acknowledge the numerous studies showing the ineffectiveness of masking, the ineffectiveness of the lockdowns, the ineffectiveness of the vaccines, and the risks they entail. The reasons for public resistance are not important to them, only the ways in which they can gain greater compliance during the next viral event.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 22:00 - The Schools We Need For The New "Cognitive Economy"
The Schools We Need For The New “Cognitive Economy”
Authored by Charles Lipson via RealClear Wire,
We are in the midst of a post-industrial revolution as profound and disruptive as the tectonic changes that launched the West’s rise to prosperity, providing ordinary people with a cornucopia of goods and services. The latest economic revolution – built on tiny computer chips, enormous data, and ubiquitous connectivity – differs from its predecessors in at least one crucial way. Unlike the first revolution (cotton spinning) and the second (heavy industry, from oil and steel to autos), this one relies on a highly educated work force. The least skilled are being displaced by smart machines, which are built and programmed by a skilled and adaptive workforce.
This rapidly changing environment might be called a “cognitive economy.” It requires workers who are not only literate but numerate. That means effective training in math and science and the skills to continue that learning over a lifetime. In the United States, we simply don’t have the schools to meet those needs.
Our failing public education system doesn’t prepare enough students for this cognitive economy, whether the jobs involve writing code, analyzing data, developing artificial intelligence, or operating sophisticated machines. In city after city, our public schools are consigning most students – the ones who don’t get into selective, magnet schools – to the scrap heap of this job market. Soon, the only way to support them will be never-ending transfer payments. If students from the least-advantaged households are to grasp the American Dream, if our economy is to lead this global transformation, then these dismal results have to change.
Bad schools are not solely responsible for students’ shortcomings. Their families and neighborhoods share the blame. Too many children are raised by single parents, who are poorly educated themselves. They live in neighborhoods where violence is pervasive, nutrition is spotty, and educational achievement is mocked. They enter school with serious deficits. All too often, they leave the same way.
Instead of compensating for these deficits, our public schools often compound them with unruly classrooms, low standards, and lousy instruction. Standardized testing shows just how bad the results are. In Illinois, for instance, only 1 in 5 students performs at grade level in either math or English. In Chicago, the results are even worse, and those for black students are worst of all. Among Chicago’s African American students, only 1 in 10 performs at grade level. These results would have been damaging 50 years ago. In today’s economy, they are devastating.
What can be done? The easy answer – more funding – is wrong. According to one study, Chicago spends $29,000 per student annually, which is not unusual for a big city. The problem is not how much we spend per student but how little we get for the money.
The obvious solution would be for our schools to imitate the most successful parts of our economy. Our economy – the richest in human history – has historically been premised on the belief that competition is good, monopolies are bad, and failing organizations should either adapt or pay the price. Where there is genuine competition, consumers will choose the best options, and businesses will strive to provide them – or go under. Public schools don’t face those incentives and don’t pay a price for their failure. The rest of us do, especially the ill-served students, who will pay a terrible price for the rest of their lives.
The best way to change this mess is to introduce competition and choice. Lots of it. That means letting school funding follow each student and letting families choose where to educate their children. For that to work well, state legislatures and local school districts must provide enough money to fully fund a student’s education. Otherwise, poor families are left out and richer ones will simply use the extra funds to top up their private tuition payments. It means students with special needs should be given extra funding.
Equally important, full funding is necessary to create a vibrant marketplace, where new schools (both non-profit and for-profit) compete for those dollars. That funding should be flexible enough to permit parents to spend some money for tutoring and online courses, such as language training or advanced math. They should be allowed to roll over their unspent money into next year’s tuition and, eventually, into community college or four-year universities.
The argument here is not that new schools or older parochial ones are inherently better. They may or may not be. The point is that competition forces all schools, public and private, old and new, to strive to improve so they can compete in the marketplace. It weeds out those that don’t provide what parents demand, just as competition killed off Yugo cars and Detroit’s old clunkers. Consumers turned to better-built Japanese cars and forced GM and Ford to improve – or go bankrupt.
Competition will do the same for schools. To survive and prosper, they will be forced to provide what parents demand, whether that is advanced math or after-school activities (for parents with 9-to-5 jobs). Some will seek competitive advantage by hiring the best teachers, paying them accordingly, and firing the worst. In short, a competitive market will force schools to innovate, improve, and adapt to what parents want for their children.
The biggest obstacle to these changes is obvious: the entrenched power of teachers unions and their leverage over politicians who control education policy. Political scientists have long known that concentrated, well-organized groups, like these public-sector unions, typically wield more power than diffuse groups, like parents. They know that highly motivated, single-issue constituencies, like these unions, typically wield more power than groups concerned with many issues, like all families.
The good news is that the pendulum is finally swinging toward parents, as school failures become painfully obvious and political candidates seize the issue, as Glenn Youngkin did so effectively in Virginia. Some states, like Florida, Wisconsin, and Arizona, have moved aggressively to increase school choice, both to please current voters and to attract young families. If these “laboratories of democracies” succeed, other states will follow. Let’s hope so, both for the students’ sake and the country’s growth.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 21:40 - Pentagon Already Sees Ukraine War Going Well Past 2023
Pentagon Already Sees Ukraine War Going Well Past 2023
We’ve not so much as reached one full month into 2023, and the United States’ top ranking general is already predicting the war in Ukraine will surely not end this year.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley issued a broad view assessment on the state of the battlefield while attending a US-hosted meeting in Germany at Ramstein airbase among allied defense ministers, which had as its focus sending more arms to Ukraine. Gen. Milley said: “From a military standpoint I still maintain that for this year it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject the Russian forces from all, every inch of… Russian-occupied Ukraine.”
Image: AP Milley in his comments said that currently there’s a mostly “static” front line, which the exception of the (Russian) offensive in the area of Soledar and Bakhmut.
Despite officials at the meeting pledging more weapons to Ukraine, no significant decisions were made on the controversial question of sending Western-made heavy tanks.
Instead, the Biden administration says it’s sticking by the decision to not send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukrainian forces. At the same time this may translate into Ukrainian forces holding back on any major attempt to push Russian forces back from current frontlines, particularly the now raging Bakhmut fighting.
“Senior US officials are urging Ukraine to hold off on launching a major offensive against Russian forces until the latest supply of weaponry is in place and training has been provided, a top Biden administration official says,” according to one international report.
“For this year it would be very very difficult to militarily eject Russian forces from every inch of Russian-occupied Ukraine”
General Mark Milley says ‘Putin should and could end this war today’https://t.co/X3flQUBL0r
📺 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/TirCuJTZ3M
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 20, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
This was followed by: “Speaking to the Reuters news agency on the condition of anonymity, the official said the US was sticking to its decision not to provide Abrams tanks to Ukraine.”
Again, 2023 has barely started, and here we are… the Pentagon expects this war to be stalemated and keep grinding on well into 2024.
Sadly, the casualties on either side will continue to mount. The Western allies will inevitably for the time being continue to embark on a massive expansion of their respective defense budgets…
⚡️France’s defense budget will be increased by a third, to 400 billion euro, in the period from 2024 to 2030, French President Emmanuel Macron said pic.twitter.com/Axnacww12A
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) January 20, 2023
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 21:20 - Supreme Court Again Refuses To Halt New York Gun Restrictions
Supreme Court Again Refuses To Halt New York Gun Restrictions
Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The Supreme Court on Jan. 18 turned away an emergency request from firearms dealers to halt a months-old New York law that imposed new restrictions on gun purchases and dealers that the dealers say adversely affected sales and violated their rights.
New York Attorney General Letitia James presents the findings of an investigation on Aug. 3, 2021, in New York City. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images) The ruling comes as challenges to gun laws across the nation have escalated since the high court struck down previous New York rules on guns in June 2022. In the same opinion, the court also held that there’s a constitutional right to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense, leading states such as New York and Illinois to respond by doubling down on firearms restrictions.
The new state law in question, New York’s sweeping Concealed Carry Improvement Act, has been hotly litigated in the federal courts since it was approved by lawmakers in Albany. Some state law enforcement officials previously condemned the law, which took effect on Sept. 1, 2022, saying it would be difficult to enforce and may be unconstitutional. The New York State Sheriffs’ Association said the law was a “thoughtless, reactionary action.”
The Supreme Court rejected the application in Gazzola v. Hochul, court file 22A591, in an unsigned order (pdf) on Jan. 18. No justices dissented from the order.
The dealers said in court papers (pdf) that the new law treats “state licensed dealers in firearms as if they are ‘a highly selective group inherently suspect of criminal activities.’” The dealers said they were “urgently [seeking] a preliminary injunction to keep their doors open, while fighting to restore their civil rights through this lawsuit.”
“Petitioners are risking everything to try to stay in business in support of civil rights under the Second, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, and to keep the doors open and the lights on while they pursue this case, but we can’t seem to find a judge in district or circuit court who will back them up,” they said in the brief.
One of the dealers’ complaints was that New York was making what they characterized as an unprecedented demand that all federally licensed firearms dealers and New York state-licensed dealers “surrender their federal firearms compliance records” on pain of “incarceration and license revocation.”
“Until now, no federal, state, or municipal government in this country has attempted to grab the federal firearms compliance records of [a federal firearms dealer],” they said.
The decision came after the Supreme Court similarly declined to block the New York law in an order on Jan. 11 in Antonyuk v. Nigrelli, which was brought by New York residents. Despite turning down the request to stay a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reinstating the law, Justice Samuel Alito issued a statement, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, suggesting this wasn’t the high court’s final word on the matter.
“The New York law at issue in this application presents novel and serious questions under both the First and the Second Amendments,” Alito wrote (pdf).
The justice encouraged the Second Amendment advocates involved in the lawsuit to continue fighting the law.
“Applicants should not be deterred by today’s order from again seeking relief if the Second Circuit does not, within a reasonable time, provide an explanation for its stay order or expedite consideration of the appeal,” Alito wrote.
Before the Supreme Court acted on Jan. 11, the 2nd Circuit stayed an order by Syracuse-based U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby, who blocked sections of the law on Nov. 7, 2022, in a case brought by Gun Owners of America. The law imposed “unprecedented constitutional violations,” Suddaby wrote.
Suddaby enjoined the new requirement that a carry applicant demonstrate “good moral character” and produce the names and contact information of spouses and other adults in the applicant’s home. He blocked the rule forcing applicants to submit social media accounts for review by government officials.
Suddaby also enjoined the restrictions on carrying in public parks, zoos, places of worship, locations where alcohol is served, theaters, banquet halls, conferences, airports and buses, and lawful protests and assemblies, as well as the blanket ban on carrying on private property without the consent of the owner.
New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act was rushed through the state legislature in the summer of 2022 and signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul after the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen invalidated the state’s requirement that a carry permit applicant demonstrate a special need for self-defense.
Hochul denounced the high court ruling at the time, calling it “a reckless decision … senselessly sending us backward and putting the safety of our residents in jeopardy.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 21:00 - Multiple Suicide Drones Attack Remote US Base In Syria
Multiple Suicide Drones Attack Remote US Base In Syria
In the second such incident involving a US base in the region already in 2023, multiple suicide drones struck an American base in Syria on Friday morning, leaving two US-backed Syrian fighters injured.
“This morning, three one-way attack drones attacked the At Tanf Garrison in Syria,” a CENTCOM statement began. “Two of the drones were shot down by Coalition Forces while one struck the compound, injuring two members of the Syrian Free Army partner force who received medical treatment.”
Drone launch as part of Iranian exercise, file image via Reuters. The statement noted no American troops or personnel were injured. “Attacks of this kind are unacceptable – they place our troops and our partners at risk and jeopardize the fight against ISIS,” a CENTCOM spokesman added.
The al-Tanf Garrison has since 2016 been the most southerly US-occupied spot in Syria, lying near the border with Iraq and Jordan.
The Pentagon and prior Trump and now Biden administrations have justified the US presence there as key to the ‘counter-ISIS’ mission, despite the Islamic State terror group having long been driven underground. Some 800 to more than 1,000 US troops still occupy the oil-and-gas rich northeast of the country, denying Damascus and the Syrian population vital resources.
Citing the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the regional outlet The Cradle described that it was the first attack on that particular Syria-Iraq border facility in five months:
SOHR sources stated that the drones carried out several strikes on the base, triggering a state of panic among US occupation forces and injuring members of the CIA-trained Maghawir al-Thawra (MaT) armed group, a US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) faction formed to ‘fight ISIS.’
Over the past year there have been sporadic rocket attacks on the US-occupied Conoco gas field in Syria’s eastern city of Deir Ezzor, and other locations.
Map via Google Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has meanwhile been engaged in intense talks mediated by Moscow, demanding that Turkish forces withdraw from all Syrian soil. Both the Turkish and Syrian sides ultimately want to see the US occupation squeezed out – something which Russia would like to see through as well. But it would require some level of rapprochement and coordinated strategy between Damascus and Ankara.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 20:40 - The Global Energy Crisis Is Redrawing Geopolitical Maps
The Global Energy Crisis Is Redrawing Geopolitical Maps
Authored by Haley Zaremba via OilPrice.com,
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The global energy crisis is redrawing geopolitical maps.
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Some experts are saying that the global south is increasingly gaining influence in geopolitics on the world stage as climate change is rewriting the rules of trade and consumption.
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While the lesson to be learned from the European energy crisis should be to diversify, diversify, diversify both trade partners and forms of energy,n the global north is instead opting to narrow their trading options even further.
We are currently living through a “global energy crisis of unprecedented depth and complexity,” according to this year’s annual energy outlook from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which warns that “there is no going back to the way things were” before Covid-19 and Russia’s war in Ukraine rocked the globe. Together, these events have already reconfigured energy trade worldwide, but the shockwaves to the global economy and geopolitics in general are just getting started.
Everyone seems to agree that we’re living through a large-scale reconfiguration of global geopolitics, but there is less consensus as to what is in store for world trade once the dust has settled. Some experts are saying that the global south is increasingly gaining influence in geopolitics on the world stage as climate change is rewriting the rules of trade and consumption, while others argue that reactionary protectionist practices in the developed world will only further marginalize and alienate less developed nations.
A recent opinion piece by Ravi Agrawal, the editor in chief of Foreign Policy, claims that “the most meaningful trend in global politics for 2023” is that “the global south is becoming more visible—and influential—in every arena.” As evidence, Agrawal cites that the most developed countries made major concessions to historically silenced and sidelined poorer countries a few months ago at COP27, including the landmark “loss and damage” fund to help the developing world contend with climate-related crises – a major turnaround from COP26.
Agrawal also points to the fact that the balance of power has clearly shifted away from the United States, which was unable to convince many countries in the developing world to mirror U.S. sanctions against Russia. “Leaving aside the thorny issue of ethics in foreign policy,” Agrawal writes of the failed attempt to foster solidarity against the Kremlin, “leaders from New Delhi to Nairobi exhibited a growing confidence in asserting their own strategic interests instead of the West’s.”
While Agrawal may be right that these “younger and faster-growing” parts of the planet are becoming more assertive on the global stage, it’s less clear if he is correct in his assertion that “policymakers and businesses in the West will need to adapt.” Certainly he is correct to some extent, but the shift may not be as seismic as his op-ed would lead readers to believe. In fact, at the same time that these oft forgotten nations are gaining recognition and influence in some key geopolitical debates, their invisibility and outsider status is also being shored up in other arenas.
The unprecedented energy crisis was kicked into overdrive by the West’s misguided reliance on a volatile and despotic regime, and now the United States, Europe, and its key allies are responding to that critical error by circling the wagons. Instead of following the ideals of free trade and the mandates of the World Trade Organization, protectionist policies are taking over which are sure to shut out poorer nations.
While the lesson to be learned from the European energy crisis should be to diversify, diversify, diversify both trade partners and forms of energy, nations in the global north are instead opting to narrow their trading options even further. “Staking out spheres of influence and assessing the reliability and trustworthiness of suppliers and countries is the order of the day,” read a recent analysis from Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, the German Institute of International and Security Affairs.
Indeed, Western leaders such as US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen are openly calling for a shift of strategy, away from free market trading to the concept of “friend-shoring”, in which countries shift supply chains to “trusted countries” with similar values and political allegiances. The European Commission’s Strategic Foresight Report 2022, too, has called for a similar shift in trade networks.
This does not bode well for the global south. As the richest nations in the world increasingly trade only with each other, any viable pathway to economic development becomes much, much harder to navigate for the least developed countries. While it’s all well and good that wealthy nations have agreed to create a disaster fund for the nations that will be hit hardest by climate change, that measure is a drop in the bucket compared to what these nations actually need in terms of climate mitigation and adaptation. More to the point, these nations don’t need endless charity – they need their own robust economies and growth trajectories. That’s what really gives a nation any kind of voice or influence on the global stage, not a check cut by emissions guilt.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 20:20 -
- Cardano Founder Considers Bailing Out CoinDesk, Says $200 Million Is "Overpriced"
Cardano Founder Considers Bailing Out CoinDesk, Says $200 Million Is “Overpriced”
CoinDesk Inc., a cryptocurrency news website whose parent company is financially troubled Digital Currency Group Inc., reached out to investment bankers at Lazard Ltd. for a potential sale.
“Over the last few months, we have received numerous inbound indications of interest in CoinDesk,” CoinDesk CEO Kevin Worth told WSJ.
One interested party in CoinDesk is Cardano blockchain founder Charles Hoskinson.
On Thursday, Hoskinson tweeted a video explaining the price of the crypto-focused media outlet is around $200 million, adding it might be overpriced if the valuation is based on “a 2021 number when everything was on the cocaine and hookers era, and everyone was making great money.” He then asked if the valuation had been readjusted for 2022 numbers during the crypto bear market.
“At $200 million, I believe it’s a bit overpriced,” he said. “I could afford it if I really wanted to.”
Hoskinson said his goal is to revive “journalistic integrity” in the crypto news race. He noted Cardano had a bunch of bad press from various media outlets with agendas — citing how FTX funded The Block.
He said it might be cheaper to build a “more decentralized organization” with $5 to $10 million.
He pointed out that CoinDesk doesn’t have a good video unit yet and lacks a metaverse component.
Here’s Hoskinson talking about CoinDesk:
Buying Coindesk https://t.co/YNJYjKhIlx
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) January 19, 2023
And the news of a potential sale comes as Genesis Global Capital filed for Chapter 11 on Thursday night. Genesis and CoinDesk are both parent companies of Digital Currency Group, which Barry Silbert operates. Perhaps Silbert’s crypto empire is in a liquidity crunch.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 20:00 - US Expands Training Of Taiwanese Military By Sending National Guard Units
US Expands Training Of Taiwanese Military By Sending National Guard Units
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The US has expanded its training of the Taiwanese military to include a program involving the US National Guard, Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday.
A source told Nikkei that the training began sometime before spring 2022. In May 2022, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen announced cooperation with the National Guard while hosting Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) in Taipei. “The US Department of Defense is now proactively planning cooperation between the US National Guard and Taiwan’s defense forces,” Tsai said. “We look forward to closer and deeper Taiwan-US cooperation on matters of regional security.”
Image source: Stars & Stripes. A Taiwanese marine prepares to launch a drone over the Taiwan Strait. The report said that the training already began before Tsai made the announcement during Duckworth’s visit. Since the training started, the National Guard has trained Taiwanese troops in both Taiwan and inside the US.
National Guard training overseas typically involves a unit from a single state, but the report said the training in Taiwan involves units from multiple US states, including Hawaii. The US and Taiwan rarely acknowledge their military cooperation, and a Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the National Guard Training.
“We don’t have a comment on specific operations, engagements or training, but I would highlight that our support for, and defense relationship with, Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China,” the Pentagon told Nikkei.
In October 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported that a US special operations unit and a contingent of Marines were in Taiwan and had been training Taipei’s military for at least a year. Tsai later confirmed the report, marking the first time a Taiwanese leader acknowledged a US military presence in Taiwan since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979.
The growing US-Taiwan military ties anger Beijing, which views the policies as an affront to the one-China policy. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act President Biden recently signed into law includes measures to increase US and Taiwanese military cooperation even more.
The US is also encouraging Japan’s military buildup and is planning to expand its military facilities in the Philippines as part of its effort to counter China in the region. The top US Marine Corps general in Japan described the effort as “setting the theater” and said the US did something similar in Ukraine starting in 2014, after the US-backed coup that deposed former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
The US launched a similar National Guard training program for Ukraine in 2014, known as Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine, that rotated through units from different states. US military officials said 23,000 Ukrainians were trained under the program. The US withdrew its National Guard troops from Ukraine shortly before Russia’s invasion.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 19:40 - China's Biggest Oil Trading Firm Goes On A Buying Spree
China’s Biggest Oil Trading Firm Goes On A Buying Spree
One of the core pillars behind the bull case for oil in 2023 is that China, having permanently shelved its zero covid policies, will open the floodgates on oil buying as the Chinese economy recovery sharply and powerfully.
Today, we got the first indication of precisely that: Unipec, the largest oil trader in China and the trading unit of state-held refiner Sinopec, purchased 9 million barrels of Abu Dhabi’s Upper Zakum crude grade for March loadings, traders told Bloomberg, in a clear sign that Chinese oil demand will pick up pace in the second quarter as many expect.
18 cargoes of Upper Zakum crude is above the typical purchases of Unipec, OilPrice reported citing traders.
Still, traders aren’t sure whether the buying spree for Abu Dhabi’s crude is directly linked with expectations of a surge in demand. It may be because of the price of the crude linked to the Dubai benchmark prices, or part of the cargoes could be resold, according to various traders who spoke to Bloomberg.
At any rate, analysts and the market expect Chinese oil demand to rebound after the reopening of the world’s largest crude oil importer after nearly three years of Covid-related lockdowns.
Saudi oil giant Aramco expects the Chinese reopening and a pick-up in jet fuel demand to lead to a rebound in global oil demand this year, Amin Nasser, the CEO of the world’s biggest oil firm, told Bloomberg in an interview earlier this week.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) sees China’s reopening driving global oil demand to a record high of 101.7 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, up by 1.9 million bpd from 2022. That’s an upgrade of 200,000 bpd of the IEA’s demand growth estimate for 2023, from 1.7 million bpd growth expected in December. Almost half of the oil demand growth this year will come from China after Beijing lifted its Covid restrictions, the IEA said in its closely-watched Oil Market Report (OMR) for January earlier this week.
“China will drive nearly half this global demand growth even as the shape and speed of its reopening remains uncertain,” the IEA said.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 19:00 - Pantsir Air Defense Systems Erected On Several Moscow Rooftops
Pantsir Air Defense Systems Erected On Several Moscow Rooftops
Viral videos and photographs show that Russia has stationed missile defense systems on several Moscow building rooftops.
Taking note of some of the photos, The Drive writes that the “Russian military appears to have emplaced Pantsir air defense systems on top of at least two different government buildings in Moscow, including the Ministry of Defense’s headquarters.”
Pantsir-S1 SAM on the roof of the building of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Frunzenskaya Embankment. January 19, 2023 One video showed very large cranes lifting the entire surface-to-air battery from ground level to the top corner of a sprawling building. The Pantsir system can defend against everything from aircraft missiles to cruise missiles or drones.
The Drive continues, “The official reason for the apparent deployments is unclear, but Ukrainian forces have demonstrated their ability to conduct strikes at extended ranges using various types of drones. There could be other explanations, including this just being part of an ostensible exercise of some kind.”
Recent months have seen Ukraine send deadly drones an impressive 600km deep into Russia to attack the Engels military airfield. This suggests that other cities far from the Ukraine border could be vulnerable to attack.
Russians put Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft system to roof of building in Moscow. pic.twitter.com/AsMTdqJGVw
— ZOKA (@200_zoka) January 19, 2023
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The Moscow Times observed that “On Friday, reports emerged that another likely Pantsir-S1 system had been spotted 10 kilometers from President Vladimir Putin’s official residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow this month.”
The report added, “They follow sightings of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems at a national park and a testing ground in north and northeastern Moscow.”
The Kremlin has remained mum when asked about the anti-air systems being placed on buildings in Moscow on Friday.
⚡️Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft systems being placed on the roof of building in Moscow.
Is this the plan? pic.twitter.com/FLA96HXxrP
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) January 19, 2023
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Like with other countries and their most sensitive government facilities, it’s likely being done out of an abundance of caution, especially given the escalating war in Ukraine and growing showdown with NATO and the US.
On Friday the Russian military reported more gains in eastern Ukraine, announcing via TASS the capture of Klischiivka town, which lies on the outskirts of Bakhumut, which is the main strategic prize in the region now being fiercely fought for. There are reportedly heavy casualties on both sides amid the grinding fight for Bakhmut and the surrounding area.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 18:40 - "It's Shocking": California's Early Release Of Convicted Pedophiles Will Lead To More Victims: Former DA
“It’s Shocking”: California’s Early Release Of Convicted Pedophiles Will Lead To More Victims: Former DA
A former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney who worked in its sex crimes unit is warning early releases of pedophiles from California prisons—due to a series of recent progressive laws—will lead to more children being victimized and harmed, in part because such criminals are rarely rehabilitated.
Stock photo of a condemned inmate led out of his east block cell at San Quentin State Prison, in San Quentin, Calif. on March 13, 2019. (Eric Risberg/AP) Samuel Dordulian, who now heads the Dordulian Law Group out of Glendale, California, which specializes in such crimes, made the comments on a recent episode of EpochTV’s California Insider.
“It’s terrifying for me as a parent and it should be terrifying for every parent out there of a child,” said Dordulian, who worked in the DA’s office from 1995 until 2008.
During the 30-minute interview, Dordulian said he was surprised such criminals are released so quickly these days.
He said he only discovered such when a reporter from the Daily Mail reached out to him last year showing statistics that such criminals in California are, on average, being released in about 1 ½ years and sometimes within only months.
“It’s shocking,” he said.
Published in November of 2022, the story indicated “thousands of child molesters are being let out after just a few months, despite sentencing guidelines.”
The story reported that more than 7,000 inmates convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age” were released from prison the same year they were incarcerated.
The Daily Mail’s analysis was conducted using a database—created in 1994 after the federal Megan’s Law was passed—requiring law enforcement to make public information regarding registered sex offenders. The news organization examined data in California through July of 2019.
“Everyone should be really upset and frightened by this,” Dordulian said.
According to Dordulian, child molesters are the least likely of criminals to be rehabilitated and are four times more likely to commit the same crime again.
“Once they’re out,” he said, “they are going to re-offend and there’s going to be another child that is victimized by these people.”
According to Dordulian, the early releases are the result of a recent series of California laws, most specifically 2016’s Prop. 57, which allows prisoners earlier paroles, reduced time for good behavior, and sentences only for a criminal’s “base” crime, meaning additional charges can be ignored.
“And that is unthinkable,” he said.
He additionally said the policies of current Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón are a complete 180 from when he served in the DA’s office.
“That is not the way I used to prosecute crimes,” he said.
Today, he said, the focus is on helping the offender, not protecting the victim.
“[The] attitude has completely changed,” he said. Today, the ethos is “doing everything you can to see how you can help this poor criminal who committed this crime.”
In his day, he said, prosecutors looked for ways to maximize sentences to keep convicts away for as long as possible, in part because of high recidivism rates for child molesters.
That included charging them with every lewd touch they made on a child. Each, he said, allowed up to eight years of imprisonment.
“You would then be able to have [a] significant maximum sentence,” he said. “All that work we would put in to make sure [a molester] was going to get a high sentence is thrown out the window,” now.
Part of the reasons for the passage of Prop. 57 were overcrowding in prisons, the cost of over $100,000 a year to house an inmate, and a growing belief such funding could be better used for rehabilitation, he said.
But according to Dordulian, a 2018 state audit revealed money spent on rehabilitation has little impact on recidivism.
“It has little to absolutely no impact on criminals reoffending,” he said. “Rehabilitation is not working in California.”
He also said the recent trend since the 2020 death of George Floyd of defunding police and a decline of morale within the ranks, is not helping either.
“Why is anyone surprised that we’re having an incredible rise in crime?” he said. “No one feels safer today than they did several years ago.”
Today, he said, the state and elected officials are no longer holding criminals accountable for their crimes. Officials have shifted, instead, he said, to blaming society, the economy and racism.
“It’s everyone’s fault except for the person who is actually committing the offense,” he said.
Dordulian said he was once honored to work in the DA’s office and felt proud to help victims.
Today, he said, some are now choosing to hire him—at no cost—“to be their voice in criminal court,” instead of having their cases prosecuted by the DA.
“The DA is no longer the voice of the victim,” he said.
Things can change, he said, if people would tell elected officials “enough is enough.”
“If we don’t get the pendulum to swing back,” he said, “it’s going to be complete lawlessness out there.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 18:20 - Didi's App Is Officially Back On Chinese App Stores
Didi’s App Is Officially Back On Chinese App Stores
Ride sharing app Didi has officially returned to the main app stores in China, according to a Friday morning note by Bloomberg. It marks a definitive step forward for the company after it was throttled by Beijing years ago during a sweeping crackdown of Chinese technology names.
And this go-round, it looks like Didi has Beijing’s tradewinds at its back. Marking a potentially even closer relationship to the government, the report also notes that China will be launching a “government-backed app to integrate a variety of services”, including ride-hailing, that will incorporate Didi.
Recall days ago we noted when Beijing gave Didi the nod to start signing up new users again. Didi was made the poster child for a Beijing-led crackdown on China’s internet industry. The decision to allow Didi to continue operating is being hailed as a “clear sign” that Beijing is prioritizing re-starting the country’s economy after locking down for Covid.
Didi’s app had been removed from app stores in 2021. Didi has long been compared to Uber in China, but most recently became famous alongside of the halted Ant Group Co.’s IPO as a symbol of China’s crackdown on its internet industry.
The crackdown on Didi came after the company “pushed ahead with a $4 billion-plus US initial public offering against Beijing’s wishes”. It is being speculated that now, with the resumption of signing up users, the company may eventually list in Hong Kong.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Catherine Lim said in a report last weekend: “The relaunch of Didi apps supports earlier indications from Beijing that required reforms within local technology sector are near-completion. Disruptions to the operations of tech giants such as Alibaba, Tencent should be minimal in 2023.”
It may also see Didi stock – which had traded on the over the counter markets – once again attempt an uplisting in the United States.
Combined with recent concessions made regarding Ant Group, it sends a signal that the government may be easing up on the industry as a whole. Guo Shuqing, party secretary of the People’s Bank of China, has alluded to the regulatory clampdown drawing to a close, Bloomberg wrote.
Didi is the latest in a list of signs that show China is prepping to unleash its economy coming out of this round of Covid lockdowns. As Bloomberg noted, this week China also “released the first batch of 88 domestic game approvals in 2023” and said it will “‘moderately’ front-load infrastructure investment” this year.
Is it time to once again get bullish on China?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 18:00 - Trump To Host First 2024 Campaign Event With Graham, McMaster In South Carolina
Trump To Host First 2024 Campaign Event With Graham, McMaster In South Carolina
Authored by Lorenz Duchamps via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The campaign of former President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Gov. Henry McMaster will join Trump on Jan. 28 as the Republican will make the first public appearance of his 2024 White House run.
Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., on Nov. 15, 2022. (Alon Skuy/AFP via Getty Images) Last week, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung confirmed with the Associated Press (AP) that Trump will host an event in South Carolina later this month, but no specific details were immediately announced at the time.
Trump, 76, hinted at a 2024 run for more than a year and formally announced his presidential bid in a prime-time speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in November 2022.
The two well-known South Carolina Republicans will attend the Jan. 28 event at Columbia’s state capitol building, where the former president will unveil his campaign’s state leadership team, according to Tuesday’s announcement.
A person familiar with the matter speaking to AP on the condition of anonymity said the event will also include members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation, as well as state lawmakers.
Trump has not hit the campaign trail since he formally announced his presidential run on Nov. 15, 2022. Instead, he made occasional appearances before invited guests at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The event comes as two other South Carolina Republicans—former Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott—are both considered potential challengers for the Republican nomination.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks to guests at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nev., on Nov. 19, 2022. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) Haley, who will turn 51 on Jan. 20, said about a week after Trump announced his presidential bid in mid-November that she’s considering launching a 2024 presidential bid, reneging on a promise she made in 2021 that she would not run if Trump ran.
“A lot of people have asked if I’m going to run for president now that the midterms are over, I’ll look at it in a serious way and I’ll have more to say soon,” she said during an appearance at a Republican Jewish Coalition meeting. Haley was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations while Trump was in office.
Scott, recently reelected to what he has said will be his final Senate term, has been making visits in other early-voting states and launched a political action committee that could become a presidential campaign vehicle.
In 2016, when South Carolina was the third state after Iowa and New Hampshire, Trump’s statewide victory helped solidify his status as the GOP front-runner.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 17:40 - Facebook And Instagram Could Soon Allow Transgender And Non-Binary People To Show Their Breasts
Facebook And Instagram Could Soon Allow Transgender And Non-Binary People To Show Their Breasts
Just when we thought that there couldn’t possibly be more useless detritus floating around on Facebook and Instagram comes the news that both social media platforms could soon be “allowing transgender and non-binary users to flash their bare breasts”.
And in a real slap to the face for equality, women who were born biologically female will have no such option, according to a new report by the NY Post.
Regardless, Meta’s Oversight Board, which the company refers to as its “Supreme Court” for moderation and censorship policies, ordered both Facebook and Instagram to “lift a ban on images of topless women for anyone who identifies as transgender or non-binary,” the Post wrote.
The board’s decision stated: “The same image of female-presenting nipples would be prohibited if posted by a cisgender woman but permitted if posted by an individual self-identifying as non-binary.”
“Time to fire up the ole’ Facebook…” And hey, we’re asking for a friend, but we wonder how much the position of “breast content moderator” is going to pay. After all, the company is reportedly going to be relying on “human reviewers” to moderate such content, the report says.
Those reviewers are going to be tasked with “quickly assess[ing] both a user’s sex, as this policy applies to ‘female nipples,’ and their gender identity,” the Post wrote. And this isn’t some hastily thrown together initiative – the board has added the complex nuance that there will be “additional nipple-related exceptions based on contexts of protest, birth giving, after birth, and breastfeeding which it did not examine here, but also must be assessed.”
“We had reinstated this content prior to the decision, recognizing that it should not have been taken down,” the company told the Post. “We are constantly evaluating our policies to help make our platforms safer for everyone. We know more can be done to support the LGBTQ+ community, and that means working with experts and LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations on a range of issues and product improvements.”
“We welcome the board’s decision in this case,” the concluded. Yeah, but what about the rest of us?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 01/20/2023 – 17:20
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