Oct 21

Today’s News 21st October 2022

  • NATO Speeds Up Ukraine Arms Transfers To Prepare For Winter Warfare
    NATO Speeds Up Ukraine Arms Transfers To Prepare For Winter Warfare

    Authored by Kyle Anzalone & Will Porter via The Libertarian Institute, 

    The United States and its NATO allies are accelerating transfers of arms, warm clothing and anti-drone technology to Ukraine in preparation for months of bitter combat through the winter. Washington believes shoring up frontline forces before mud and ice set in will help Kiev to hold ground over the coming season. 

    Speaking on condition of anonymity during a recent NATO summit in Berlin, a Western official told reporters that the alliance had already started providing winter gear, claiming “The Ukrainians are on their front foot, and they certainly feel prepared for the winter campaign,” and that foreign aid is currently “very much [focused on] the winter.”

    Image via AP

    While top officials acknowledge that the snow, mud and ice of winter will slow troop movements, they believe Kiev can continue to push counter-offensives to reclaim territory now occupied by Russian soldiers despite the frigid temperatures. 

    “I expect that Ukraine will continue to do everything it can throughout the winter to regain its territory and to be effective on the battlefield,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after a meeting in Brussels last week.

    Ukraine has gained ground from Russian forces over the last two months, and is advancing into regions which Moscow now claims as its own territory. President Vladimir Putin has vowed to use his entire arsenal to defend all of Russia, including four recently annexed regions of Ukraine which voted to join the Russian Federation in (internationally disputed) referendums last month.

    NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has echoed Austin’s optimism about Ukraine’s chances to make progress against the Russians during the cold season. 

    “Our task is to enable them to also be able to conduct meaningful operations throughout the winter and continue to supply them with everything from fuel, winter clothing, tents to advanced weapons systems,” he said. 

    Kiev has heavily depended on the West to train its soldiers and supply arms, ammunition and battlefield intelligence since Russian forces invaded in late February. In that time, the White House has approved at least $70 billion in aid to Kiev, much of that devoted to heavy weapons and vehicles, including long-range multi-launch rocket platforms, artillery pieces, shoulder-fired rockets, helicopters and drones. 

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    Though US arms stockpiles have become increasingly depleted after countless rounds of arms shipments, the flow of aid appears set to carry on at the present pace, with Secretary Austin recently declaring that Washington will continue to “do everything we can to make sure that they have what’s required to be effective.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/21/2022 – 02:00

  • Biden Admin Weighs Blocking Twitter Deal On "National Security" Grounds… Just As Musk Wanted
    Biden Admin Weighs Blocking Twitter Deal On “National Security” Grounds… Just As Musk Wanted

    One month ago we joked that should the Delaware judge force Musk to buy Twitter, then none other than the US government would step in and prevent the South African from gaining control over the blue-checkmark echo chamber of record, the one social media network which congressional testimony after congressional testimony has argued it can manipulate the outcome of elections.

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    Well, that prediction is about to come true, because according to Bloomberg, the Biden administration is discussing whether the US should subject some of Elon Musk’s ventures to national security reviews, including the deal for Twitter and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, citing people familiar with the matter.

    In short, not only is the deep state government preparing to block Musk’s acquisition of TWTR on national security grounds (unlcear what that would achieve as the stock would crater to single digits, especially after today’s SNAP earnings, and so many of its employees have already quit), but it may “expropriate” Musk’s satellite pet project too, all for daring to ask a question about the US involvement in Ukraine, and what exactly the endgame there is.

    As Bloomberg adds, “US officials have grown uncomfortable over Musk’s recent threat to stop supplying the Starlink satellite service to Ukraine — he said it had cost him $80 million so far — and what they see as his increasingly Russia-friendly stance following a series of tweets that outlined peace proposals favorable to President Vladimir Putin. They are also concerned by his plans to buy Twitter with a group of foreign investors.”

    The discussions are still at an early stage, the people familiar said on condition of anonymity. Officials in the US government and intelligence community are weighing what tools, if any, are available that would allow the federal government to review Musk’s ventures.

    One possible legal pathway is through the law governing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to review Musk’s deals and operations for national security risks. The CFIUS was used extensively in the Trump admin to block and undo numerous Chinese deals, arguing they could pose a national threat to the US. Now, it’s none other than Musk who has emerged as the deep state’s biggest nemesis.

    As a reminder, the interagency panel known as CFIUS reviews acquisitions of US businesses by foreign buyers. That said, it is not clear if a CFIUS review — which would involve assessments by the Departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security, among others — would offer the government a legal way to conduct a review.

    But one may not be necessary: just like the infamous FISA courts, the CFIUS panel operates in total secrecy, behind closed doors, and rarely confirms when it is conducting reviews. CFIUS also holds the power to review deals that have already been consummated… such as Musk’s acquisition of twitter.

    What apparently provoked the government into stepping in, is that Musk was reportedly chatting up a firestorm with persona non grata #1. Recall that ten days ago Vice reported that “Elon Musk Spoke to Putin Before Tweeting Ukraine Peace Plan“, which followed Musk’s frequent, and high abrasive to bluechecks and those with a ukraine flag in their profile, tweeted proposals to end Russia’s war and threats to cut financial support for Starlink internet in Ukraine. His tweets and public comments “have frustrated officials in the US and Europe and drawn praise from America’s rivals” as Bloomberg put it.

    Musk later backed down from his threat to stop deploying Starlink and said he would continue to bear the costs of the service. Starlink has become an essential tool for communications in Ukraine during the Russian invasion. Musk has been providing the service for free but has said SpaceX loses $20 million a month providing it to Ukraine and he cannot be responsible for that cost indefinitely.

    In short, Musk created just enough “pro-Putin” innuendo around himself – ostensibly even telling Ian Bremmer that he spoke directly with Vladimir Putin (Musk naturally denied this after it was published)…

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    …  to provoke the US government to intervene on security grounds. After all, you can’t have the world’s most valuable public forum in the hands of a pro-Putin fanatic.

    Which… may have been precisely what Musk wanted, as we said ten days ago when news of Musk’s Putin phone call first emerged, there is “No easier way to kill the Twitter deal than have DOJ step in and prohibit it.“

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    Indeed, when Delaware Chancery court is about to rule that you must consummate your $44 billion acquisition of a company that, as SNAP today showed, is worth less than $10 billion, your best… no, your only bet is to force the government to step in and demand the deal falls apart. And how do you do that? Why demand the judge pushes back the court case by a few weeks in which you blast out what to the Biden admin seems to be unhinged pro-Putin propaganda.

    Well, Elon old chap, golf clap to a beautifully executed plan.

    And while the world’s richest man would never come out and confirm any this, he did the next best thing late on Thursday when in response to a fellow reader’s reaction to the Bloomberg article, that “It would be hysterical if the government stopped Elon from over paying for Twitter”, Musk responded simply “💯🤣”… Because the collapse of the deal would be just what Musk wanted (and intended) from the very beginning. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 23:55

  • Escobar: China's Xi Gets Ready For The Final Countdown
    Escobar: China’s Xi Gets Ready For The Final Countdown

    Authored by Pepe Escobar,

    President Xi Jinping’s 1h45min speech at the opening of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing was an absorbing exercise of recent past informing near future. All of Asia and all of the Global South should carefully examine it.

    The Great Hall was lavishly adorned with bright red banners. A giant slogan hanging in the back of the hall read, “Long Live our great, glorious and correct party”.

    Another one, below, functioned like a summary of the whole report:

    “Hold high the great flag of socialism with Chinese characteristics, fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, carry forward the great founding spirit of the party, and unite and struggle to fully build a modern socialist country and to fully promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

    True to tradition, the report outlined the CPC’s achievements over the past 5 years and China’s strategy for the next 5 – and beyond. Xi foresees “fierce storms” ahead, domestic and foreign. The report was equally significant for what was not spelled out, or left subtly implied.

    Every member of the CPC’s Central Committee had already been briefed about the report – and approved it. They will spend this week in Beijing studying the fine print and will vote to adopt it on Saturday. Then a new CPC Central Committee will be announced, and a new Politburo Standing Committee – the 7 that really rule – will be formally endorsed.

    This new leadership line-up will clarify the new generation faces that will be working very close to Xi, as well as who will succeed Li Keqiang as the new Prime Minister: he has finished his two terms and, according to the constitution, must step down.

    There are also 2,296 delegates present at the Great Hall representing the CPC’s over 96 million members. They are not mere spectators: at the plenary session that ended last week, they analyzed in-depth every major issue, and prepared for the National Congress. They do vote on party resolutions – even as those resolutions are decided by the top leadership, and behind closed doors.

    The key takeaways

    Xi contends that in these past 5 years the CPC strategically advanced China while “correctly” (Party terminology) responding to all foreign challenges. Particularly key achievements include poverty alleviation, the normalization of Hong Kong, and progress in diplomacy and national defense.

    It’s quite telling that Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was sitting in the second row, behind the current Standing Committee members, never took his eyes off Xi, while others were reading a copy of the report on their desk.

    Compared to the achievements, success of the Xi-ordered Zero-Covid policy remains highly debatable. Xi stressed that it has protected people’s lives. What he could not possibly say is that the premise of his policy is to treat Covid and its variants as a US bioweapon directed against China. That is, a serious matter of national security that trumps any other consideration, even the Chinese economy.

    Zero-Covid hit production and the job market extremely hard, and virtually isolated China from the outside world. Just a glaring example: Shanghai’s district governments are still planning for zero-Covid on a timescale of two years. Zero-Covid will not go away anytime soon.

    A serious consequence is that the Chinese economy will most certainly grow this year by less than 3% – well below the official target of “around 5,5%”.

    Now let’s look at some of the Xi report’s highlights.

    Taiwan: Beijing has started “a great struggle against separatism and foreign interference” on Taiwan.

    Hong Kong: It is now “administered by patriots, making it a better place.” In Hong Kong there was “a major transition from chaos to order.” Correct: the 2019 color revolution nearly destroyed a major global trade/finance center.

    Poverty alleviation: Xi hailed it as one of three “major events” of the past decade along with the CPC’s centenary and socialism with Chinese characteristics entering a “new era”. Poverty alleviation is the core of one of the CPC’s “two centenary goals.”

    Opening up: China has become “a major trading partner and a major destination for foreign investment.” That’s Xi refuting the notion that China has grown more autarchic. China will not engage in any kind of “expansionism” while opening up to the outside world. The basic state policy remains: economic globalization. But – he didn’t say it – “with Chinese characteristics”.

    “Self-revolution”: Xi introduced a new concept. “Self-revolution” will allow China to escape a historical cycle leading to a downturn. And “this ensures the party will never change.” So it’s the CPC or bust.

    Marxism: definitely remains as one of the fundamental guiding principles. Xi stressed, “We owe the success of our party and socialism with Chinese characteristics to Marxism and how China has managed to adapt it.”

    Risks: that was the speech’s recurrent theme. Risks will keep interfering with those crucial “two centenary goals”. Number one goal was reached last year, at the CPC’s 100th anniversary, when China reached the status of a “moderately prosperous society” in all respects (xiaokang, in Chinese). Number two goal should be reached at the centenary of the People’s Republic of China in 2049: to “build a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious.”

    Development: the focus will be on “high-quality development”, including resilience of supply chains and the “dual circulation” economic strategy: expansion of domestic demand in parallel to foreign investment (mostly centered on BRI projects). That will be China’s top priority. So in theory any reforms will privilege a combination of “socialist market economy” and high-level opening, mixing the creation of more domestic demand with supply-side structural reform. Translation: “Dual-circulation” on steroids.

    “Whole-process democracy”: that was the other new concept introduced by Xi. Translates as “democracy that works”, as in rejuvenating the Chinese nation under – what else – the CPC’s absolute leadership: “We need to ensure that people can exercise their powers through the People’s Congress system.”

    Socialist culture: Xi said it’s absolutely essential “to influence young people”. The CPC must exercise ideological control and make sure the media fosters a generation of young people “who are influenced by traditional culture, patriotism and socialism”, thus benefitting “social stability”. The “China story” must go everywhere, presenting a China that is “credible and respectable”. That certainly applies to Chinese diplomacy, even the “Wolf Warriors”.

    “Sinicise religion”: Beijing will continue its drive to “Sinicise religion”, as in “proactively” adapting “religion and the socialist society”. This campaign was introduced in 2015, meaning for instance that Islam and Christianity must be under CPC control and in line with Chinese culture.

    The Taiwan pledge

    Now we reach the themes that completely obsess the decaying Hegemon: the connection between China’s national interests and how they affect the civilization-state’s role in international relations.

    National security: “National security is the foundation of national rejuvenation, and social stability is a prerequisite of national strength.”

    The military: the PLA’s equipment, technology and strategic capability will be strengthened. It goes without saying that means total CPC control over the military.

    “One country, two systems”: It has proven to be “the best institutional mechanism for Hong Kong and Macau and must be adhered to in the long term”. Both “enjoy high autonomy” and are “administered by patriots.” Xi promised to better integrate both into national strategies.

    Taiwan reunification: Xi made a pledge to complete the reunification of China. Translation: return Taiwan to the motherland. That was met with a torrent of applause, leading to the key message, addressed simultaneously to the Chinese nation and “foreign interference” forces: “We will not renounce the use of force and will take all necessary measures to stop all separatist movements.” The bottom line: “The resolution of the Taiwan issue is a matter for the Chinese people themselves, to be decided by the Chinese people.”

    It’s also quite telling that Xi did not even mention Xinjiang by name: only by implication, when he stressed that China must strengthen the unity of all ethnic groups. Xinjiang for Xi and the leadership mean industrialization of the Far West and a crucial node in BRI: not the object of an imperial demonization campaign. They know that the CIA destabilization tactics used in Tibet for decades did not work in Xinjiang.

    Shelter from the storm

    Now let’s unpack some of the variables affecting the very tough years ahead for the CPC.

    When Xi mentioned “fierce storms ahead”, that’s what he thinks about 24/7: Xi is convinced the USSR collapsed because the Hegemon did everything to undermine it. He won’t allow a similar process to derail China.

    In the short term, the “storm” may refer to the latest round of the no holds barred American war on Chinese technology – not to mention free trade: cutting China off from buying or manufacturing chips and components for supercomputers.

    It’s fair to consider Beijing keeps the focus long-term, betting that most of the world, especially the Global South, will move away from the US high tech supply chain and prefer the Chinese market. As the Chinese increasingly become self sufficient, US tech firms will end up losing world markets, economies of scale, and competitiveness.

    Xi also did not mention the US by name. Everyone in the leadership – especially the new Politburo – is aware of how Washington wants to “decouple” from China in every possible way and will continue to provocatively deploy every possible strand of hybrid war.

    Xi did not enter into details during his speech, but it’s clear the driving force going forward will be technological innovation linked to a global vision. That’s where BRI comes in, again – as the privileged field of application for these tech breakthroughs.

    Only this way we can understand how Zhu Guangyao, a former vice minister of finance, may be sure that per capita GDP in China in 2035 would at least double the numbers in 2019 and reach $20,000.

    The challenge for Xi and the new Politburo right away is to fix China’s structural economic imbalance. And pumping up debt-financed “investment” all over again won’t work.

    So bets can be made that Xi’s third term – to be confirmed later this week – will have to concentrate on rigorous planning and monitoring of implementation, much more than during his previous bold, ambitious, abrasive but sometimes disconnected years. The Politburo will have to pay way more attention to technical considerations. Xi will have to delegate more serious policymaking autonomy to a bunch of competent technocrats.

    Otherwise, we will be back to that startling observation by then Premier Wen Jiabao in 2007: China’s economy is “unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated and ultimately unsustainable”. That’s exactly where the Hegemon wants it to be.

    As it stands, things are far from gloomy. The National Development and Reform Commission states that compared to the rest of the world, China’s consumer inflation is only “marginal”; the job market is steady; and international payments are stable.

    Xi’s work report and pledges may also be seen as turning the usual Anglo-American geopolitical suspects – Mackinder, Mahan, Spykman, Brzezinski – upside down.

    The China-Russia strategic partnership has no time to lose with global hegemonic games; what drives them is that sooner rather than later they will be ruling the Heartland – the world island – and beyond, with allies from the Rimland, and from Africa to Latin America, all participating in a new form of globalization. Certainly with Chinese characteristics; but most of all, pan-Eurasian characteristics.

    The final countdown is already on.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 23:40

  • DOJ Won't Reveal How It’s Complying with Biden’s Voter Registration Drive: Rep
    DOJ Won’t Reveal How It’s Complying with Biden’s Voter Registration Drive: Rep

    Authored by Frank Fang and Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) is demanding answers from the Department of Justice (DOJ) after the agency refused to release all documents regarding how it intended to implement a 2021 executive order on expanding voter access. Republicans have opposed this order as an unlawful exercise of federal power over elections.

    Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) speaks at a news conference on the infrastructure bill with fellow members of the House Freedom Caucus, outside the Capitol Building in Washington on Aug. 23, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

    In March last year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order (EO 14019) directing the head of every federal agency, including the DOJ, to come up with a strategic plan on how to “promote voter registration and voter participation.” Their plans should be submitted to Susan Rice, the president’s domestic policy advisor.

    The executive order also mandates these agencies work with “approved” third-party organizations to provide voter registration services on federal agency premises.

    Since then, Republican lawmakers have questioned whether the administration has constitutional and statutory authority to enact such an order. Meanwhile, government watchdogs, including Florida-based public policy think tank the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), have filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with federal agencies seeking documents relating to Biden’s order.

    On Oct. 18, Norman, who sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, demanding to know why the DOJ has failed to properly respond to FGA’s FOIA request, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Epoch Times before its public release.

    “The U.S. Constitution makes it clear that states must manage their own elections, without meddling by the federal government,” Norman told The Epoch Times in an email.

    “We’re looking at a Department of Justice that appears to be overstepping that Constitutional boundary at the direction of President Biden, and then deliberately defying court orders. Add that to the list of problems we have with the DOJ,” he added, referring to a July district court ruling that ordered the DOJ to produce the documents under the FOIA request.

    The federal government, Norman said, should “keep their hands out of our election process” and modify the voting policies so that they are “easier for citizens to vote, and harder to cheat.”

    “The DOJ’s reputation with public trust is already minimal at best. What could the DOJ have to gain from hiding their plan to promote voter participation from the public?” Norman said.

    Other signatories to the letter include Reps. Randy Weber (R-Texas), Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Fred Keller (R-Pa.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Ben Cline (R-Va.).

    Legality Challenged

    In his letter, Norman argued that Biden should not have issued such an order in the first place.

    “[T]he President has no legal basis to order all federal agencies to engage in voter registration, nor does he have the authority to order any federal agency to engage in efforts to promote voter participation,” the letter stated. “Yet, that is precisely what he is seeking to do through this EO.”

    The U.S. Constitution doesn’t grant the president authority to “transform all federal executive agencies led by his political appointees, including DOJ, into get-out-the-vote machines for the left, paid for by federal taxpayers,” according to the letter.

    Norman warned that federal officials following Biden’s order run the risk of violating the Hatch Act, which bans federal government officials from taking part in certain political activities.

    In carrying out the order, the DOJ could also violate the Antideficiency Act, the letter says, which prohibits federal agencies from “spending funds Congress has not authorized or accepting volunteer services from ‘approved’ third-party organizations as EO 14019 directs.”

    The FGA came to a similar legal conclusion. Aside from referencing the two U.S. laws, the group argued that Biden’s order “oversteps the limited federal agency involvement in voter registration allowed under the National Voter Registration Act.” As a result, the FGA concluded that the executive order “is illegal, unethical, and unconstitutional.”

    Additionally, the FGA argued that the Biden administration is using the executive order to benefit Democratic candidates.

    “With the lack of oversight and transparency, there is a genuine concern that this effort will primarily target Democrat strongholds to help turn out voters that the Biden administration believes are more likely to vote Democrat,” the FGA wrote in a May report.

    FGA

    The FGA filed its FOIA request with the DOJ on July 30, 2021. After the DOJ failed to turn over a single document for over 200 days, the group filed a lawsuit against the department in April. A federal district court ruled in favor of the FGA in July, ordering the DOJ to disclose all requested documents under the FOIA before the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 23:00

  • CDC Votes To Add COVID-19 Vaccines To Childhood Immunization Schedule
    CDC Votes To Add COVID-19 Vaccines To Childhood Immunization Schedule

    Update: As expected, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 15-0 on Thursday to add Covid-19 shots to the children’s recommended vaccine schedule.

    As the Post Millennial notes,

    Speaking earlier in the morning, Dr. Patricia Wodi said that the Covid-19 vaccine has been placed as a recommendation from 6 months of age and older.

    During a question period, one member of the committee raised questions over the vaccine being included on the schedule when it’s been recommended for use under an Emergency Use Authorizations, to which Wodi said they spoke with the Office of General Counsel, who said that it would be okay to add.

    The vote comes after the committee approved 15-0 to add the vaccination to the federally funded Vaccine for Kids program, which provides vaccines to children at no or low cost to families.

    *  *  *

    A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory committee is set to vote on Thursday over whether to add the Covid-19 vaccine to the recommended schedule of vaccines for children.

    And while left-wing fact checkers were quick to point out that this doesn’t automatically mean schools will require students to take the jab – a decision made at the local level – even ABC News admits; “If the CDC does update its list of suggested vaccinations to include the COVID vaccine, which is available to anyone 6 months or older, that will open the door for states to begin making those calls, too.“

    The CDC also pushed back, stating that it’s Thursday meting is an annual gathering to simply update which vaccines doctors should recommend to their patients – with no acknowledgement that most doctors are going to follow it.

    “Thursday, CDC’s independent advisory committee (ACIP) will vote on an updated childhood immunization schedule. States establish vaccine requirements for school children, not [the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] or CDC,” the agency wrote in response to a segment by Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson, who reported that the updated childhood vaccine schedule would soon mean that kids “will not be able to attend school without taking the COVID shot.”

    “State laws establish vaccination requirements for school children. These laws often apply not only to children attending public schools but also to those attending private schools and day care facilities,” the CDC writes on its website, adding “All states provide medical exemptions, and some state laws also offer exemptions for religious and/or philosophical reasons.”

    Tucker responds:

    On Wednesday, a CDC advisory committee separately decided to add the COVID vaccine to the Vaccines for Children program, which provides government-funded jabs to children who aren’t insured or can’t afford to pay. 

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    “Equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all ages and populations remains critically important,” said the CDCs Dr. Sara Oliver at the meeting, ABC News reports. “This includes now, while the vaccines are being supplied by the federal government, and in the future, when we one day move to a commercial program.”

    Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) slammed the decision, calling it “Appalling!”

    Paul had more to say on the topic:

    And as Summit News notes, Paul responded recent revelations from Boston University, which recently made headlines for genetically engineering a strain of Covid with an 80% mortality rate in mice.

    Others noted that there’s little to no data on how the Omicron strain of Covid-19 affects children. 

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    So – while adding the Covid-19 vaccine to the list of recommended childhood immunizations does not automatically mean kids will be forced to get it if they want to attend school – it’s nothing more than a game of semantics when it’s clear that most schools will follow the guidance.

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    As Alex Berenson writes in The Burning Platform;

    If I were a Republican candidate in a blue state, I would have ads about school Covid vaccine mandates ready to go today, assuming the the CDC vaccine committee is foolish enough to throw this chum in the water. At a time when countries all over the world are now rejecting mRNA shots for kids, can our public health “experts” really be this stupid? Or this beholden to the mRNA companies?

    Experience suggests the answer is yes.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 22:45

  • Oakland Police Want 'Terminator Style' Robot With Shotgun
    Oakland Police Want ‘Terminator Style’ Robot With Shotgun

    The Oakland Police Department is pushing for robots with a potentially lethal shotgun-like attachment, according to The Intercept. 

    Oakland Police and Oakland Police Commission subcommittee, a civilian oversight body, discussed rules surrounding the city’s use of military-grade police equipment in September. According to California state law, local police must be authorized by city leaders before they can deploy military equipment. 

    Most of the meeting on Sept. 21 concentrated on modern policing, with the commissioners and police heads debating the use of tear gas and flash bangs. But two hours into the meeting, the conversation shifted to a gun-shaped accessory for robots called the “percussion actuated nonelectric disruptor,” a tool used by bomb squads at war and for domestic operations. 

    The accessory can be loaded with explosive forces ranging from blanks to pressurized water to even shotgun shells. This is a concerning new development in the potential use of weaponized robots against the American people by police across the country. 

    “But God forbid something does happen where it’s the only option,” a member of the Oakland Police Commission said at the meeting. “Which is, I hate to say it, a robot with a shotgun may be our only hope.”

    For now, Oakland police and commissioners agreed that robots could only be armed with pepper spray, though conversations from the meeting suggest armed robots with shotguns might be deployed sometime in this decade. 

    The future of American policing in liberal cities could very well be armed robots. This dystopic nightmare is only possible due to city leaders, not just in Oakland but across the country, who identify as “progressive” and far left-leaning that have ushered in social justice reform that has tremendously backfired, unleashing a tsunami of violent crime while also hellbent in banning guns from law-abiding citizens. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 22:40

  • Criminals Spent COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits On Drugs, Weapons: Department Of Labor OIG
    Criminals Spent COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits On Drugs, Weapons: Department Of Labor OIG

    Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has said that criminals stole billions of dollars in unemployment money that was issued during the COVID-19 pandemic, and used some of it to purchase drugs and weapons.

    The entrance to the Labor Department is seen near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 7, 2020. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

    Congress in March 2020 launched an unemployment aid program for Americans who were unable to work as a result of lockdowns, under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

    However, the OIG has found that multiple states failed to protect some of the funds from improper payments, including fraud, and that Pandemic Unemployment Assistance was granted to individuals who were not actually eligible.

    In a report (pdf) published on Sept. 30, the OIG said that among the four states it focused its research on—California, Georgia, Kentucky, and Michigan—a total of $30.4 billion of the $71.7 billion in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation that was granted was paid improperly, making up 42.4 percent of the payouts.

    An estimated $9.9 billion was likely paid to fraudsters in those states, including “criminal enterprises” that discovered that unemployment insurance fraud is a “low-risk, high-reward crime,” according to the report.

    “They have invested fraudulent UI [Unemployment Insurance] proceeds to further other criminal activity, such as purchasing guns and drugs. Individuals who we find are central to this conduct have been indicted on charges including racketeering conspiracy,” the report states.

    The report focused on unemployment benefit payments made between March 28, 2020 and March 14, 2021.

    In California alone, an estimated $20 billion in unemployment money was stolen by criminals, according to the California Employment Development Department (pdf).

    ‘Significant Portion Attributable to Fraud’

    The OIG blamed the fraudulent payments on a number of issues, including that states failed to perform eligibility testing, initially allowed claimants to self-certify their eligibility, and that the Employment and Training Administration had been slow in providing oversight with regard to the payments.

    Earlier this year, the OIG told Congress (pdf) that “at least $163 billion in pandemic UI benefits” could have been paid improperly to Americans, “with a significant portion attributable to fraud.”

    Amid mounting reports of fraud, Attorney General Merrick Garland established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force in 2021 to help identify, investigate, and prosecute COVID-19 pandemic stimulus fraud.

    Authorities have bought charges against a number of criminal enterprises relating to unemployment insurance fraud, including the Robles Park gang in Tampa, Florida, who allegedly made off with over $420,000 and used the money to purchase drugs and weapons in an effort to further increase their dominance, according to court filings (pdf).

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 22:20

  • Oil Will Surge By More Than $30/bbl To "Well Over $100" After The Midterms
    Oil Will Surge By More Than $30/bbl To “Well Over $100” After The Midterms

    With everyone obsessing over UK lettuce and the Fed blowing up the US economy, there was not enough digital ink to discuss the supreme irony of Biden unleashing another release of oil from the Midterm Petroleum Reserve and… oil surging.

    Unfortunately for the ever more addled president, this is just the start.

    On Wednesday, Amrita Sen, co-founder and research director at consultants Energy Aspects, said on Bloomberg TV that the market risks losing Russian barrels in December as EU restrictions on imports and shipping potentially dissuade tanker owners from moving that country’s crude. 

    As a result, oil prices “are going to be headed well over $100” going into December while near-term prices are pressured by strikes in France and lockdowns in China that suppress demand. However, once those wear off, Europe will have to stop importing 1m to 1.5m b/d of Russian crude when embargo on seaborne shipments takes effect in December; those barrels – as Zoltan Pozsar explained all the way back in March and April – will have to be shipped to more distant markets with transport times of 30-50 days vs only 3-4 days to Europe, causing surging costs and substantial delays.

    Separately, if shipowners decide that the risk of sanctions is too high to move Russian crude “you will lose some shipping and that will tie up more oil.”

    This reminds us of something Goldman flow trader Rich Privorotsky wrote in this morning’s market wrap (available to pro subs), when we cautioned that hs is “getting increasingly concerned about oil market supply beyond the midterms. This proposal from the EU is not helping my anxiety as the proposed oil cap could have some pretty major consequences in the shipping market” Here’s why as Bloomberg noted earlier:

    “In the event that a vessel under the flag of a third country has transported Russian crude oil or petroleum products purchased at a price above the price cap, it should be prohibited to provide technical assistance, brokering services, financing or financial assistance, including insurance, related to any transport in the future by that vessel of crude oil or petroleum products”

    That will certainly spark a profound chilling effect across the entire industry.

    But what about Biden’s SPR drain – is it really that useless, and won’t it help at least a little? Well, according to Sen, limits on how low stocks can be drawn mean sales won’t be as large as some expect (analysts are expecting a release of as much as 100m bbl; with 26m bbl to be released between December and February).

    But the clearest explanation why Biden’s last-ditch SPR release won’t do jack, comes from Goldman’s commodity strategists led by Jeff Currie who published a note late on Thursday (and also available to pro subs), in which they write the following: 

    Following OPEC+’s surprise 2mb/d cut on October 5, the Biden administration was quick to imply a policy response, concerned about rising gasoline prices fact sheet into November 8 midterms. On October 18, the White House released an energy policy . The speech highlights various ahead of President Biden’s speech concerns and actions taken by the administration to “strengthen energy security, encourage production, and bring down costs.

    The 15 mb SPR drawdown (the final tranche of the 180 mb Spring announcement) drew headlines, but of more interest was the plans to refill the SPR at fixed prices for future delivery “at or below about $67-72/bbl”, offering some support to crude prices below the ‘shale band’. This truncation of the price distribution should encourage investment in growing production – if only marginally. We find marketing and refining margins in the US to be elevated, but the latter is a function of exorbitant international energy prices as well as structurally tight refining markets.

    Additional headlines since the OPEC+ meeting have highlighted other policy options available to the Administration. We find incremental SPR sales as the most likely action (16mb is available from FY2023 Congressionally mandated sales), although this remains price dependent: requiring higher prices than present, and likely closer to $125/bbl following the midterms. Such a release is likely to have only a modest influence (<$5/bbl) on oil prices however.

    All options have trade-offs. Product export bans in particular could send wholesale global distillate/gasoline prices up $150/$50/bbl respectively (to $300/150/bbl) and still risk shortages and higher prices domestically – especially in coastal regions. All responses leave the ultimate cause of energy underinvestment unaddressed.

    We continue to expect headlines into next month’s midterm elections as the US administration attempts to exert downward pressure on retail prices. However, we think action at current price levels remains unlikely. This policy reflexivity is reflected in our current forecasts ($115/bbl Brent in 1Q23 ), as the deficits we expect, following OPEC+’s decision to cut, look unsustainably bullish given scarce inventories and our balance outlook. The risk of inventory depletion and price spikes requiring demand destruction as a rebalancing of last resort could yet move prices $30+/bbl higher.

    There is more in the full Goldman reports, including an analysis on why a product export ban will exacerbated the global shortage of refining capacity, why a gasoline federal tax holiday would be modest in impact, why easing sanctions on Venezuela is not a quick fix, and why the “NOPEC” bill has only very limited upside.

    For once, we completely agree with Goldman. More in the full note available to pro subs.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 22:00

  • Trudeau And Scholz Enter Into "Bizarre" Energy Pact
    Trudeau And Scholz Enter Into “Bizarre” Energy Pact

    Authored by Doomberg via substack,

    “The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity.” – Douglas Horton

    In August, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz led a delegation of senior political and business leaders on a trip to Canada. Desperate for every joule of primary energy he could get his hands on, Scholz’s primary mission was to beg Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to consider fast-tracking the approval of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities along Canada’s Atlantic Coast, something Trudeau has consistently been loath to consider.

    Despite historic spreads between the price of natural gas in North America and the rest of the world, the drama-teacher-turned-cosplay-Prime-Minister professed to be unable to find a compelling business case for the proposal (although he did leave the door open for further consideration). In Trudeau’s fossil fuel-free vision of the future, such multi-billion-dollar investments will be obsolete before they could generate an economic return. How embarrassing it must have been for members of the European elite to submit themselves to the whims of the ultimate “legacy” admission to the political arena.

    Instead, the two countries entered into a bizarre agreement to develop a “transatlantic hydrogen supply chain” (emphasis added throughout):

    “Canada and Germany say a new hydrogen pact will kick-start a transatlantic hydrogen supply chain, with the first deliveries expected in just three years. Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck signed the deal on Tuesday in the port town of Stephenville, N.L., where they attended a hydrogen trade show along with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

    The five-page agreement is a ‘declaration of intent’ to create a hydrogen alliance between the two countries. ‘The world is going to need energy in the coming decades,’ Trudeau said. ‘It also is going to need to make sure that that energy is net-zero.’”

    Trudeau and Scholz | Reuters

    We were a little dumbfounded when saw these headlines. Surely, this must be a joke? Alas, like much of what emanates from the current slate of Western leaders, the two countries appear to be as serious in intent as they are unserious in understanding. While we could write an entire piece demonstrating why this effort is destined to be just another multi-billion-dollar boondoggle, we’ll dispatch with those particulars rather quickly and, instead, propose a practical yet superior alternative for Germany. Let’s dig in.

    To understand why the hydrogen alliance between Canada and Germany is all but guaranteed to be an epic flop that incinerates any and all subsidies lavished onto the initiative, we must first understand what is actually being proposed. While many important details are left murky, information in the public domain reveals four stages envisioned for this centrally planned green energy utopia.

    First, the plan calls for a massive deployment of new wind farms along the Island of Newfoundland’s western coast. The area is ideal for capturing energy from intense west-to-east winds coming off the Atlantic Ocean – Newfoundland is the windiest region in Canada, and the jet stream passes right over the island. Second, the electricity thus generated is to be transmitted to centralized hubs, which will require significant investment in new infrastructure. Once the wind farms are up and running and their electricity can be harvested, the third step is to produce hydrogen on a massive scale via electrolysis. Here, Germany contributes significant technological expertise. Engineering giants like Siemens AG have been investing large sums to perfect the technology, and they are undoubtedly at the cutting edge.

    But now comes the hard part.

    Even assuming the above scheme produces hydrogen at a globally competitive price (color us skeptical), by what means are large volumes of hydrogen supposed to be transported from Newfoundland to Europe? Certainly not directly, although many reports and press releases imply as much, falsely assuming that shipping hydrogen will be as “simple” as shipping LNG –itself no easy task. According to a report out of Australia, the inherent differences between hydrogen and natural gas make direct shipping  of the former extremely challenging, and one should only “expect that the transport of hydrogen in bulk by sea will be commercially viable sometime in the 2030s.”

    Hydrogen vs Natural Gas | Allens

    Others are even more pessimistic. Bloomberg New Energy Finance founder Michael Liebreich sees no scenario where it makes economic sense for hydrogen-laden vessels to float across the seas:

    “’If we transport hydrogen long-distance, it will be by pipeline. And if we cannot do it by pipeline, we aren’t going to do it.’

    Hydrogen’s lower volumetric energy density compared to liquid hydrocarbon fuels means three times as many vessels would be needed to ship the same amount of energy as LNG, and energy loss from cooling and liquefying it would push that up to four.

    It can be done technically, but economically there is no point in producing hydrogen at a cost of $1 to $2 per kg and transporting it round the world at a cost of $3 to $5 per kg, Liebreich said.”

    We concur.

    With no realistic ability to ship hydrogen directly anytime soon, aspiring grifters green hydrogen proponents intend to transform hydrogen to ammonia and ship that, a concept we’ve had fun ridiculing in a prior piece. While the notion of using carbon-free energy to produce hydrogen to produce ammonia is indeed seductive – and one we wholeheartedly endorse in the right setting – making ammonia using hydrogen derived from wind energy in Newfoundland, where no Haber-Bosch plants exist, for ultimate use in Germany, is insane. There is a better way.

    Let’s consider that Germany is interested in being a global leader in the new, “carbon-free” hydrogen economy. Ammonia is easily one of the most important industrial chemicals manufactured today. Its production currently relies on either coal or natural gas to make hydrogen, which is then combined with nitrogen from the air to produce the fertilizer. Roughly 2% of total global carbon emissions can be traced to the direct production of ammonia, which vastly understates its importance when you consider that nearly all our food production depends on it.

    While Germany has finally relented, agreeing to keep its three remaining nuclear power plants running, it is still in possession of three others it foolishly shut down last year. The country also has several ammonia production plants that have been made globally uncompetitive because of elevated natural gas prices. If the goal is to land “carbon-free” ammonia in Germany, simply turn back on the retired nuclear power plants and dedicate them to the production of ammonia!

    Compare the capital costs and technology risks associated with the Canada-Germany deal to the elegant simplicity of what we propose here:

    This is an intelligence test.

    The benefits are plentiful. First and most importantly, the project would serve as a useful demonstration that green ammonia can be produced at industrial scale. It would de-risk the buildout of massive hydrogen production plants and their associated infrastructure – assets that could easily be repurposed if and when the nuclear plants were again retired.

    Doomberg subscribers can read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 21:40

  • This Cadillac Escalade Is Ready For The Apocalypse
    This Cadillac Escalade Is Ready For The Apocalypse

    The threat of nuclear war and/or widespread social unrest is a significant risk. And if there was an apocalypse, instead of hunkering down in an underground bunker, wouldn’t it be better to ride around in a luxurious armed Cadillac Escalade? 

    California custom truck builder Rezvani’s latest creation takes the Escalade and transforms it into a futuristic military vehicle that almost looks like the “Warthog” truck from the video game Halo. 

    “The goal was to put a science fiction video game concept car in people’s driveways,” Rezvani CEO Ferris Rezvani told Fox News. 

    The personal security vehicle starts at $249,000, but once you add the military package (armor plating), night vision systems, rifle compartment, tire inflation and deflation kit, and massive supercharged V8 engine — the cost is bumped up to a half million dollars. 

    Here are some of the add-on features: 

    A more in-depth view of the $95,000 military package add-on reveals “armored bodywork and underbody protection against explosives, bulletproof glass, run-flat tires, a heavy-duty suspension, a ram-capable steel front bumper, electromagnetic pulse protection for its electrical systems, a host of lights and sirens, gas masks and a body armor kit for where those are legal,” Fox News said. 

     

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 21:20

  • Victor Davis Hanson: Who Denies Election Results?
    Victor Davis Hanson: Who Denies Election Results?

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

    A Democratic myth has arisen that former President Donald Trump’s denial of the accuracy of the 2020 vote was “unprecedented.”

    Unfortunately, the history of U.S. elections is often a story of both legitimate and illegitimate election denialism.

    The 1800, 1824, 1876, and 1960 elections were all understandably questioned.

    In some of these cases, a partisan House of Representatives decided the winner.

    Presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000 did not accept the popular vote results in Florida. He spent five weeks futilely contesting the state’s tally – until recounts and the Supreme Court certified it.

    The ensuing charge that former President George W. Bush was “selected not elected” was the Democrats’ denialist mantra for years.

    In 2004, Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. and 31 Democratic House members voted not to certify the Ohio election results in their unhinged efforts to overturn the election.

    Those denialists included the current sanctimonious chairman of the January 6 select committee, U.S. Representative Benny Thompson, D-Miss.

    After 2016, crackpot Democratic orthodoxy for years insisted that Trump had “colluded” with Russia to “steal” certain victory from Hillary Clinton.

    Clinton herself claimed that Trump was not a “legitimate” president. No wonder she loudly joined #TheResistance to obstruct his presidency.

    The serial denialist Clinton later urged Joe Biden not to concede the 2020 election if he lost.

    Also after 2016, left-wing third-party candidate and denialist Jill Stein vainly sued in courts to disqualify voting machine results in preselected states.

    A denialist host of Hollywood C-list actors in 2016 cut television commercials begging members of the Electoral College to violate their oaths and instead flip the election to Hillary Clinton.

    Clinton herself had hired foreign national Christopher Steele to concoct a dossier of untruths to smear her 2016 campaign opponent, Trump.

    The FBI took up Clinton’s failed efforts. It likewise paid in vain her ancillaries like Christopher Steele to “verify” the dossier’s lies.

    The bureau further misled a FISA court about the dossier’s authenticity. An FBI lawyer even altered a document, as part of a government effort to disrupt a presidential transition and presidency.

    The Clinton-FBI Russian-collusion hoax was a small part of the progressive effort to warp the 2016 election result.

    The Washington Post giddily bragged about various groups formed to impeach Trump in his first days in office, on the pretext he was illegitimately elected.

    Rosa Brooks, an Obama Administration Pentagon lawyer, less than two weeks after Trump’s inauguration wrote a long denialist essay in Foreign Policy outlining a strategy to remove the supposedly illegitimate president. She discussed the options of impeachment, the 25th Amendment – and even a military coup.

    When rioting exploded in the streets of Washington D.C. after the election results became clear, Madonna infamously shouted to a mass crowd that she dreamed of blowing up the White House, presumably with the Trump family in it.

    Was that not the most violent form of election denialism?

    The election denialist Stacey Abrams became a media heartthrob and left-wing cult hero. Abrams monetized her ridiculous denialism (“voter suppression”) by stumping the country from 2018 to 2021 claiming, without evidence, that the 2018 the Georgia gubernatorial election was rigged. In truth, she lost by over 50,000 votes.

    Time magazine’s Molly Ball in a triumphalist essay bragged that in 2020 a combination of Big Tech money from Silicon Valley – fueled by Mark Zuckerberg’s $419 million infusion – absorbed the balloting collection and counting of several key voting precincts weighed to help Biden.

    Ball bragged of careful pre-election censoring of the contemporary news by Big Tech. Most notably, that effort spread the lie that the Hunter Biden laptop scandal was “Russian disinformation.”

    Left-wing interest groups modulated the often-violent Black Lives Matter and Antifa street protests of 2020 in efforts to aid the Biden campaign.

    Ball summed up that left-wing election engineering effort as “a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes” and called it “the secret history of the 2020 election.”

    So, who exactly were those “secret” warpers of the 2020 election?

    As Ball put it:

    “A well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information.”

    It is entirely legitimate to question the probity and legality of those systematic left-wing efforts in key states to overturn long-standing voting laws passed by state legislatures.

    Then followed an even larger effort to render Election Day a mere construct for the first time in American history. Over 100 million ballots were not cast on Election Day, the vast majority of them (and by design) Biden votes. Somehow customary ballot disqualification rates of mail-in ballots in some states plunged – even as their numbers exploded.

    The scariest form of election interference was the 2020 “cabal.”

    The FBI, Silicon Valley, street protesters, and the media all conspired to work for the “right result.”

    Apparently, that “conspiracy” was the denialists’ response to the 2016 victory of Trump that they never accepted.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 21:00

  • All Of The World's Spaceports On One Map
    All Of The World’s Spaceports On One Map

    From Sputnik 1 to today’s massive satellite constellations, every object in space was launched from just a handful of locations.

    As Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley explains, the map below, from BryceTech, is a comprehensive look at the world’s spaceports (both orbital and sub-orbital) as well as ballistic missile test sites.

     In sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft reaches outer space, but it doesn’t complete an orbital revolution or reach escape velocity. In orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft remains in space for at least one orbit.

    The World’s Major Spaceports

    Though the graphic above is a detailed list of many types of rocket launch sites, we’ll focus on major sites that are sending satellites and passengers into sub-orbit, orbit, and beyond.

    Editor’s note: The above table includes all sites that are operational, as well as under construction, as of publishing date.

    The list above covers fixed locations, and does not include SpaceX’s autonomous spaceport drone ships. There are currently three active drone ships—one based near Los Angeles, and the other two based at Port Canaveral, Florida.

    Two of the most famous launch sites on the list are the Baikonur Cosmodrome (Kazakhstan) and Cape Canaveral (United States). The former was constructed as the base of operations for the Soviet space program and was the launch point for Earth’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. The latter was NASA’s primary base of operations and the first lunar-landing flight was launched from there in 1969.

    The global roster of spaceports has grown immensely since Baikonur and Cape Canaveral were the only game in town. Now numerous countries have the ability to launch satellites, and many more are getting in on the action.

    Wenchang Space Launch Site, on the island of Hainan, is China’s newest launch location. The site recorded its first successful launch in 2016.

    Location, Location

    One interesting quirk of the map above is the lack of spaceports in Europe. Europe’s ambitions for space are actually launched from the Guiana Space Centre in South America. Europe’s Spaceport has been operating in French Guiana since 1968.

    Low altitude launch locations near the equator are the most desirable, as far less energy is required to take a spacecraft from surface level to an equatorial, geostationary orbit.

    Islands and coastal areas are also common locations for launch sites. Since the open waters aren’t inhabited, there is minimal risk of harm from debris in the event of a launch failure.

    As demand for satellites and space exploration grows, the number of launch locations will continue to grow as well.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 20:40

  • 'Very Difficult': Electric Vehicle Owner Took 15 Hours To Drive 175 Miles
    ‘Very Difficult’: Electric Vehicle Owner Took 15 Hours To Drive 175 Miles

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

    The owner of a popular electric car said it took him about 15 hours to drive 178 miles from one Wyoming city to another, raising concerns about the widespread viability of electric vehicles.

    A charging device for the the new Nissan Leaf in a Nissan manufacturing plant in Melbourne, Australia on Jul. 11, 2019. (Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

    Alan O’Hashi, who drives a Nissan Leaf, said that driving long distances in an electric vehicle takes far longer than driving in a traditional, gas-powered vehicle.

    It’s only 178 miles from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Casper, Wyoming. In a gas-fuelled vehicle, that trip, on average, takes around 3 hours.

    But for O’Hashi, he told the Cowboy State Daily that it took “15 hours to get from Cheyenne to Casper,” adding, “It was very difficult.”

    O’Hashi said that trip took place in May 2022, noting that a month later, it took him 11 hours to travel between the two cities.

    Electric vehicles’ battery ranges are unpredictable because owners must factor in extra distances to charging stations, mountainous or hilly terrain, and winds, he explained.

    “What I’ve learned from driving this thing is patience,” O’Hashi said.

    During one part of his first trip, O’Hashi said that he stopped in the city of Wheatland to use a 220-volt plug-in charger at an RV park. He recalled that his Leaf was down to 1 percent battery life when he pulled into the charging station there.

    “So, I could sit there for two hours and get enough charge to get to Casper, but just barely,” O’Hashi said, adding that when he travels, he favors stopping at old motels. The reason, he explained, is that he can run an extension cord out a window to charge his electric vehicle overnight.

    While staying at the motel, O’Hashi said he could get enough charge for 40 miles of travel in one night.

    Oftentimes, while waiting for his car to charge, O’Hashi said he spends extra money shopping or eating. That’s in addition to the charging cost.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 20:20

  • US Mulls Joint Weapons Production With Taiwan As Deliveries Slowed By Ukraine War
    US Mulls Joint Weapons Production With Taiwan As Deliveries Slowed By Ukraine War

    In the latest move upping the ante of escalation with China, the US has said it is mulling a plan for joint weapons manufacturing with Taiwan, which would drastically speed up arms deliveries for the island. 

    Initial discussions have been revealed by Nikkei Asia, and crucially the report comes on the heels of Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning on Monday that China has accelerated its timeline for an invasion of Taiwan. “A fundamental decision [has been made] that the status quo was no longer acceptable, and that Beijing was determined to pursue reunification [with Taiwan] on a much faster timeline,” Blinken had said.

    Wiki Commons: Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen sits in an AIDC T-5 prototype at rollout.

    Weapons deliveries to Taipei have been considerably delayed and slowed, despite the US having approved some $20 billion total in arms sales for the self-ruled island since 2017. Defense News has cited a $14 billion backlog in sales from the US.

    According to Nikkei’s sources:

    A person with direct knowledge of the administration’s internal deliberation acknowledged that initial discussions on joint U.S.-Taiwan production had begun. It is likely for U.S. defense companies to provide technology to manufacture weapons in Taiwan, or to produce them in the U.S. using Taiwan-made parts. “This is going to take some time to really shake out,” said another source, adding that the process is likely to continue throughout 2023. 

    President of the US-Taiwan Business Council Rupert Hammond-Chambers has described the idea of joint production as being “right at the beginning of the process.”

    Ironically enough, Washington’s ‘all-in’ support for Ukraine is named as a major factor in slowing Taiwan’s weapons procurement, per Nikkei: 

    The rapid increase in arms provisions to Ukraine has made it difficult for the U.S. alone to meet the global demand for weaponry. In a mid-September report, Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that U.S. inventories of Stingers, a mobile air-defense system, and HIMARS, high-mobility rocket systems, were “limited.”

    American and Taiwanese officials themselves have repeatedly referenced the Ukraine crisis as demonstrating why the US needs to urgently equip the island with everything it needs.

    But one potential major roadblock in any joint manufacturing scheme would be Pentagon and State Department reluctance to issue special licenses, on concerns that classified and sensitive military technology could fall into the wrong hands.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 20:00

  • Pelosi Dismisses Call For New Democrat Leadership: "There's No Substitute For Experience"
    Pelosi Dismisses Call For New Democrat Leadership: “There’s No Substitute For Experience”

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

    Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Oct. 18 brushed aside calls by a member of her caucus for new leadership.

    U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attends a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, on Aug. 5, 2022. (Richard A. Brooks/AFP via Getty Images)

    The comments in question were made by Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who said during a TV appearance that the party needs “new blood” to lead it moving forward.

    “I have been very vocal, including with my own leadership in the House, that we need a new generation. We need new blood, period, across the Democratic Party, in the House, the Senate, and the White House,” Slotkin told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

    “I’ve said I think we need new leaders. I would love to see some Midwestern leaders in there, right? That’s been important to me, is to reflect the middle of the country,” she said. “We’re here too, and I do think new blood is a good thing.”

    During a later appearance on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchel,” Pelosi acceded the need for some “generational change,” but emphasized the importance of experienced leaders.

    “Yes, we need generational change,” Pelosi said. “Of course we do. But in some cases there’s no substitute for experience.”

    Asked what she would tell members of her caucus, particularly younger members agitating for a bigger role in the 118th Congress, Pelosi replied, “Win, baby. Just win.”

    “If that’s what you have to say to win, fine, and we will not in any way do anything but [be] totally supportive—mobilization-wise, message-wise, money-wise—for those people to win their races,” she added.

    Younger Members Feel Slighted

    Slotkin is only the latest Democrat to push for generational changes in leading the party forward.

    At the end of September, Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.)—another young, relatively new face among congressional Democrats—made similar calls.

    Specifically, Spanberger blasted her party for what she called “a failure of House leadership,” after Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) postponed a scheduled vote on a bill that would ban stock trading by members of Congress and their families. The legislation was the newest iteration of a bipartisan push that has ballooned over the past year, and Spanberger indicated that the delay in considering the bill spoke to larger issues with the party’s current leadership.

    Like Slotkin, Spanberger called for new leaders to take over.

    “This moment marks a failure of House leadership and it’s yet another example of why I believe that the Democratic Party needs new leaders in the halls of Capitol Hill, as I have long made known,” Spanberger wrote. “Rather than bring Members of Congress together who are passionate about this issue, leadership chose to ignore these voices, push them aside, and look for new ways they could string the media and the public along—and evade public criticism.”

    She added, “It’s apparent that House leadership does not have its heart in this effort, because the package released earlier this week was designed to fail. It was written to create confusion surrounding reform efforts and complicate a straightforward reform priority—banning Members of Congress from buying and selling individual stocks—all while creating the appearance that House Leadership wanted to take action.”

    Generational fractures between old guard Democrats and young lawmakers who won their seats during the blue wave in 2018 have begun to emerge in the party.

    Democrats’ caucus includes three of the five youngest members of Congress—including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.).

    Though the average age of House Democrats is 59 years old, according to data from FiscalNote, party leadership has an average age of almost 72 years old, including three octogenarians.

    Generational fractures between the party old guard and new Democrats first emerged as early as 2018, when Democrats extracted a pledge from Pelosi that she would not serve as speaker again. She later reneged on that promise, being reelected speaker in the 117th Congress.

    Pelosi also seems to be open to another term as House Democrats’ leader. Asked by reporters if she would seek another term as speaker or minority leader, Pelosi refused to commit to her past promise to step down.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 19:40

  • TikTok Parent Planned To Track Specific Americans' Physical Location
    TikTok Parent Planned To Track Specific Americans’ Physical Location

    TikTok parent company ByteDance assembled a China-based team which planned to use the popular social app to monitor the personal location of specific American citizens, according to materials reviewed by Forbes.

    The project was led by ByteDance’s Internal Audit and Risk Control department, headed up by Beijing-based exec Song Ye, who reports to ByteDance cofounder and CEO Rubo Liang.

    More via Forbes‘ Emily Baker-White (emphasis ours),

    The team primarily conducts investigations into potential misconduct by current and former ByteDance employees. But in at least two cases, the Internal Audit team also planned to collect TikTok data about the location of a U.S. citizen who had never had an employment relationship with the company, the materials show. It is unclear from the materials whether data about these Americans was actually collected; however, the plan was for a Beijing-based ByteDance team to obtain location data from U.S. users’ devices.

    TikTok spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said that TikTok collects approximate location information based on users’ IP addresses to “among other things, help show relevant content and ads to users, comply with applicable laws, and detect and prevent fraud and inauthentic behavior.”

    But the material reviewed by Forbes indicates that ByteDance’s Internal Audit team was planning to use this location information to surveil individual American citizens, not to target ads or any of these other purposes. Forbes is not disclosing the nature and purpose of the planned surveillance referenced in the materials in order to protect sources. TikTok and ByteDance did not answer questions about whether Internal Audit has specifically targeted any members of the U.S. government, activists, public figures or journalists.

    TikTok is reportedly close to signing a contract with the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which evaluates the national security risks posed by companies of foreign ownership, and has been investigating whether the company’s Chinese ownership could enable the Chinese government to access personal information about U.S. TikTok users. (Disclosure: In a past life, I held policy positions at Facebook and Spotify.)

    In September, President Biden signed an executive order enumerating specific risks that CFIUS should consider when assessing companies of foreign ownership. The order, which states that it intends to “emphasize . . . the risks presented by foreign adversaries’ access to data of United States persons,” focuses specifically on foreign companies’ potential use of data “for the surveillance, tracing, tracking, and targeting of individuals or groups of individuals, with potential adverse impacts on national security.”

    The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment.

    The Internal Audit and Risk Control team runs regular audits and investigations of TikTok and ByteDance employees, for infractions like conflicts of interest and misuse of company resources, and also for leaks of confidential information. Internal materials reviewed by Forbes show that senior executives, including TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, have ordered the team to investigate individual employees, and that it has investigated employees even after they left the company.

    The internal audit team uses a data request system known to employees as the “green channel,” according to documents and records from Lark, ByteDance’s internal office management software. These documents and records show that “green channel” requests for information about U.S. employees have pulled that data from mainland China.

    “Like most companies our size, we have an internal audit function responsible for objectively auditing and evaluating the company and our employees’ adherence to our codes of conduct,” said ByteDance spokesperson Jennifer Banks in a statement. “This team provides its recommendations to the leadership team.”

    ByteDance is not the first tech giant to have considered using an app to monitor specific U.S. users. In 2017, the New York Times reported that Uber had identified various local politicians and regulators and served them a separate, misleading version of the Uber app to avoid regulatory penalties. At the time, Uber acknowledged that it had run the program, called “greyball,” but said it was used to deny ride requests to “opponents who collude with officials on secret ‘stings’ meant to entrap drivers,” among other groups.

    TikTok did not respond to questions about whether it has ever served different content or experiences to government officials, regulators, activists or journalists than the general public in the TikTok app.

    Both Uber and Facebook also reportedly tracked the location of journalists reporting on their apps. A 2015 investigation by the Electronic Privacy Information Center found that Uber had monitored the location of journalists covering the company. Uber did not specifically respond to this claim. The 2021 book An Ugly Truth alleges that Facebook did the same thing, in an effort to identify the journalists’ sources. Facebook did not respond directly to the assertions in the book, but a spokesperson told the San Jose Mercury News in 2018 that, like other companies, Facebook “routinely use[s] business records in workplace investigations.”

    But an important factor distinguishes ByteDance’s planned collection of private users’ information from those cases: TikTok recently told lawmakers that access to certain U.S. user data — likely including location — will be “limited only to authorized personnel, pursuant to protocols being developed with the U.S. Government.” TikTok and ByteDance did not answer questions about whether Internal Audit executive Song Ye or other members of the department are “authorized personnel” for the purposes of these protocols.

    These promises are part of Project Texas, TikTok’s massive effort to rebuild its internal systems so that China-based employees will not be able to access a swath of “protected” identifying user data about U.S. TikTok users, including their phone numbers, birthdays and draft videos. This effort is central to the company’s national security negotiations with CFIUS.

    At a Senate hearing in September, TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas said the forthcoming CFIUS contract would “satisfy all national security concerns” about the app. Still, some senators appeared skeptical. In July, the Senate Intelligence Committee began an investigation into whether TikTok misled lawmakers by withholding information about China-based employees’ access to U.S. data earlier this year, following a June report in BuzzFeed News showing that U.S. user data had been repeatedly accessed by ByteDance employees in China.

    In a statement about TikTok’s data access controls, TikTok spokesperson Shanahan said that the company uses tools like encryption and “security monitoring” to keep data secure, access approval is overseen by U.S personnel, and that employees are granted access to U.S. data “on an as-needed basis.”

    It is unclear what role ByteDance’s Internal Audit team will play in TikTok’s efforts to limit China-based employees’ access to U.S. user data, especially given the team’s plans to monitor some American citizens’ locations using the TikTok app. But a fraud risk assessment written by a member of the team in late 2021 highlighted data storage concerns, saying that according to employees responsible for the company’s data, “it is impossible to keep data that should not be stored in CN from being retained in CN-based servers, even after ByteDance stands up a primary storage cetner [sic] in Singapore. [Lark data is saved in China.]” (brackets in original).

    Moreover, a leaked audio conversation from January 2022 shows that the Beijing-based team was, at that point, gathering additional information on Project Texas. In the call, a member of TikTok’s U.S. Trust & Safety team recounted an unusual conversation to his manager: The employee had been asked by Chris Lepitak, TikTok’s Chief Internal Auditor, to meet at an LA-area restaurant off hours. Lepitak, who reports to Beijing-based Song Ye, then asked the employee detailed questions about the location and details of the Oracle server that is central to TikTok’s plans to limit foreign access to personal U.S. user data. The employee told his manager that he was “freaked out” by the exchange. TikTok and ByteDance did not respond to questions about this conversation.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 19:20

  • Jill Biden Predicts Wave Of Cancer Diagnoses After COVID-19
    Jill Biden Predicts Wave Of Cancer Diagnoses After COVID-19

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

    First Lady Jill Biden on Monday evening predicted there will be an increased number of cancer diagnoses following the COVID-19 pandemic.

    First Lady Jill Biden leaves the Church of the Society of Jesus in Quito, Ecuador, on May 20, 2022. (Erin Schaff/Pool via Reuters)

    Biden did not say that there would be a specific cause in the uptick in cancer diagnoses, but she pointed out that a number of people did not get routine medical checkups because of the pandemic. The first lady encouraged people to catch up on cancer screenings that were delayed.

    Speaking to Newsmax, Biden said that “people are going back” to doctors “and they’re realizing, ‘Gosh, I forgot to get my colonoscopy; I didn’t get my mammogram; I didn’t get my skin screening.”

    “I think in the next couple of months you’re going to see more cancers,” added the first lady. “It’s not a red issue, a blue issue,” Jill Biden added. “Cancer affects every American.”

    President Joe Biden’s son, Beau, died from brain cancer seven years ago. During a recent event, the president claimed that his son “lost his life in Iraq” despite his son dying from a brain tumor at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.

    “I say this as the father of a man who won the Bronze Star, the conspicuous service medal and lost his life in Iraq,” Biden said during his speech in Colorado. It’s not clear why he made that comment, although some speculated it may have been in reference to Beau Biden having been allegedly exposed to toxic burn pits while stationed in Iraq.

    In 2018, Biden told PBS that his son was located near Iraqi burn pits when he served in the military and linked it to cancer.

    “We know now you don’t want to live underneath a smokestack where carcinogens are coming out of it,” Biden told PBS. “But there has yet to be, that I’m aware of, any direct scientific evidence that a particular person came back with higher instances, there’s a lot higher instances of cancer coming from Iraq now and Afghanistan than in other wars.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 19:00

  • Aide To New York Mayor Admits That Migrant Crisis Is Destroying The City
    Aide To New York Mayor Admits That Migrant Crisis Is Destroying The City

    Top aide to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Chris Baugh, is recorded on video by Project Veritas discussing the consequences of the Texas migrant strategy.  Baugh admits that New York is broke, with an anticipated $10 billion budget deficit by 2026 now that federal covid money has finally dried up (this is also further confirmation that covid stimulus has been keeping blue state economies alive).  To his credit, his observations on the migrant buses to NYC from Texas are correct – The city is being crushed by its own sanctuary laws and right to shelter laws, not Republicans and their buses.

    Baugh also admits that the housing situation for incoming migrants is a joke, and not as comprehensive as the media initially led the public to believe.  New York could in fact repeal these laws at anytime, as the aide notes, but they will not.  First and foremost because this would be admitting that leftist socialist policies are a failure.  Second, because many of the leftists in the city government would quit if the government backed out of said policies.  In other words, the leftists in New York are their own worst poison. 

    These admissions are interesting because the narrative within the mainstream media has been that red state conservatives are to blame for the NY and Washington DC homeless disaster.  Yet, the truth is that it is the ideology and laws of Democrats and sanctuary cities that are the real cause of their woes.  Texas has simply said “Okay, put your money where your mouth is.  You want us to take on the financial burden of your policies, but we’re going to make YOU do that now.  Let’s see how you react.” 

    If leftists don’t want to take care of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, they don’t have to (and they clearly don’t want to).  They can always send them back to their country of origin, which is the law and all that red states have been asking for, along with secure borders.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 18:40

  • US Health Officials Dumped Stocks In Jan 2020 (Before Declaring COVID An Emergency)
    US Health Officials Dumped Stocks In Jan 2020 (Before Declaring COVID An Emergency)

    Authored by Michael Senger via ‘The New Normal’ Substack,

    In a shocking new report from the Wall Street Journal, leading health officials began offloading stocks at truly unprecedented rates in January 2020 – well before the COVID-19 emergency was declared – with officials at the US Department of Health and Human Services selling 60% more stocks in January 2020 than average over the previous 12 months.

    One deputy to NIAID Director Anthony Fauci reported selling between $157,000 and $480,000 in stocks before the end of January.

    Weeks later, stock prices around the world went into freefall at the fastest rate since the Great Depression as word got round that officials were planning a complete shutdown of the global economy.

    The ensuing lockdowns were unprecedented in the western world prior to Xi Jinping’s lockdown of Wuhan and weren’t part of any democratic country’s pandemic plan. They weren’t given any official imprimatur as western policy until February 24, 2020, when WHO Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward—famous for later disconnecting a live interview when asked to acknowledge Taiwan—reported back about Wuhan’s lockdown from Beijing:

    What China has demonstrated is, you have to do this. If you do it, you can save lives and prevent thousands of cases of what is a very difficult disease.

    That leading officials were already privately planning to recreate China’s lockdowns across the western world by January 2020, however – and making stock trades based on those plans – further confirms the all-too-prescient stock tip by someone who claimed to have “friends and family in the medical industry and field, including at CDC and one close friend at WHO” on January 30, 2020, which proved to be a near-perfect foretelling of subsequent events:

    There are very high profile investors who’ve been silently pulling out ahead of time… the WHO is already talking about how ‘problematic’ modeling the Chinese response in Western countries is going to be, and the first country they want to try it out in is Italy. If it begins a large outbreak in a major Italian city they want to work through the Italian authorities and world health organizations to begin locking down Italian cities in a vain attempt to slow down the spread at least until they can develop and distribute vaccines, which btw is where you need to start investing.

    *  *  *

    Michael P Senger is an attorney and author of Snake Oil: How Xi Jinping Shut Down the World. Want to support my work? Get the book.

    The New Normal is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/20/2022 – 18:20

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