- The World Is Getting Increasingly Dumber, Study Finds
Western Europe is home to a cluster of developed economies that boost some of the highest standards of living in the world. But that could soon change. Because as Evan Horowitz writes on NBC News’s new “Think” vertical, IQ scores in France, Scandinavia, Britain, Germany and even Australia are beginning to decline.
The trend has been well-documented across Western Europe, and could soon carry over to the US as well. Which means the data have confirmed what millions of Americans who have watched cable news or logged on to twitter over the past three years probably already suspected: The world is getting dumber.
And just like that, another sign of the ‘Idiocracy’ apocalypse has emerged. Though, unlike the movie, which posits that the population of Earth will become steadily dumber as stupid people outbreed their more intelligent compatriots, the cause of the trend in Europe has yet to be determined, because even the children of relatively intelligent Europeans are getting dumber.
Details vary from study to study and from place to place given the available data. IQ shortfalls in Norway and Denmark appear in longstanding tests of military conscripts, whereas information about France is based on a smaller sample and a different test. But the broad pattern has become clearer: Beginning around the turn of the 21st century, many of the most economically advanced nations began experiencing some kind of decline in IQ.
One potential explanation was quasi-eugenic. As in the movie “Idiocracy,” it was suggested that average intelligence is being pulled down because lower-IQ families are having more children (“dysgenic fertility” is the technical term). Alternatively, widening immigration might be bringing less-intelligent newcomers to societies with otherwise higher IQs.
However, a 2018 study of Norway has punctured these theories by showing that IQs are dropping not just across societies but within families. In other words, the issue is not that educated Norwegians are increasingly outnumbered by lower-IQ immigrants or the children of less-educated citizens. Even children born to high-IQ parents are slipping down the IQ ladder.
Possible explanations include: The rise of smartphones and other devices, which have worn away at our ability to focus, the rise of lower-skill service work that isn’t as intellectually stimulating and less-nutritious food.
Whatever the cause, the trend seems to portend a decline in long-term productivity and economic success, factors that have long been correlated with IQ.
But for now, at least, readers can find contentment in the knowledge that it’s not just us: Everybody really is getting dumber.
- UK Deep State Plots To Thwart Brexit
Authored by George Callaghan via The Duran,
Decades ago the British deep state hatched a nefarious plot against the British people. The elite wanted to foist European unity on an unwilling populace. The notion of the conceited Whitehall elite was that the peasants were stupid and the mandarins knew best. In late 1940s the United Kingdom politely declined offers to join the proposed European Coal and Steel Community. This was an embryonic European Economic Community. As Churchill said ‘we are with Europe but not of it.’ One Labour MP sagely said of joining the European project ‘the Durham miners won’t wear it.’ Those were the days when MPs quaintly cared about serving their constituents.
Harold Macmillan sought British accession to the European Economic Community. The French President de Gaulle rightly rejected the British application. De Gaulle was doing the British a favour. He correctly surmised that the United Kingdom would never be fully committed to the EEC and that the bulk of the British people were adamantly opposed to such a venture. Charles de Gaulle was a visionary perhaps 70 years ahead of his time. He said that if the UK were admitted it would be forever sticking its oar in. These were prophetic words!
In the late 60s Harold Wilson’s Labour Government sought British membership of the EEC and was again rebuffed.
In the early 1970s Edward Heath’s Conservative Government applied to the EEC for a third time. On this occasion Heath’s efforts were crowned with success. It only succeeded through subterfuge of the grossest character. Heath was warned by civil servants that the United Kingdom would have to sublimate itself to European sovereignty. Nevertheless Heath would not let the truth get in the way of his vaulting ambition. He released an official statement that ‘this involves no loss of essential national sovereignty’. Edward Heath did that in full knowledge of this being an outrageous falsehood. The public were assured that the idea there would one day be a single currency was a preposterous scare mongering tactic. In 2002 Heath was asked whether in the early 1970s he had envisaged the UK joining a single European currency. ‘Yes, of course’ he chortled.
As one judge said European law was like ‘an incoming tide’ in changing British law. You might consider all this desirable. Fair enough but Europhiles should at least have told the truth about it. The Big Lie has become the standard tactic of the Europhile extremists. In 2002 the proposed European Constitution was hotly debated. The UK’s Minister for Europe was an egregiously dishonest politician named Keith Vaz. Keith Vaz MP had the nerve to say that the European Charter of Fundamental had ‘as much constitutional significance as the Beano’. Vaz claimed that the said charter was not justiceable: it would not influence court cases. Vaz is a Cambridge educated solicitor but pretended to know nothing about law. This is the sort of shrieking lie that characterizes Europhile discourse. Only days after making this grossly dishonest statement Vaz acknowledge that the charter was in fact legally impactful. Tony Blair denied that the European Battle Group was a nascent army. There is a clue in the word ‘battle’. The President of the European Commission Romano Prodi said ‘if you are not going to call it an army call it Mary Jane!’
Many people in the Republic of Ireland were anxious about the EU compromising the traditional Irish policy of neutrality. The Irish Government continues to maintain the flagrant falsehood that the Republic of Ireland is a neutral country despite participation in an increasingly militarized EU and its Battle Group.
The Danes rejected the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992. They people of Denmark were then made to vote again next year until they gave the Europhiles what they wanted.
The Maastricht referendum in the Irish Republic saw the government misusing taxpayers’ money to fund Europhile propaganda. The Irish Supreme Court ruled that this was illegal. Despite this gross abuse of democracy the result was allowed to stand. An unfair plebiscite was not restaged.
In the Republic of Ireland we rejected the Treaty of Nice in a plebiscite. We were made to vote again until we ‘got it right’ according to our masters in Brussels. Likewise when we said no to the Treaty of Lisbon we were again forced to vote a second time until the elite got the answer they wanted. The eurofanatics have a rapist’s attitude: ‘no means yes.’
The European Constitution was rejected by a referendum in France. Even in the Netherlands the most passionately Europhile country the people voted against the proposed constitution. Despite this the Europhile elite were hellbent on having their way. They would not let the will of the people stop them. The Strasbourg and Brussels fat cats scarcely conceal their contempt for ordinary people. The Europhile conspirators simply rebranded the rejected constitution ‘the Treaty of Lisbon’. This barely disguised reworking of the constitution was then passed without a referendum in most countries.
One of the many totally unfair aspects of the EU is l’aquis communutaire. That is the one way ratchet. A competence once ceded to the EU can never, ever be repatriated. All these referenda are held to be irrevocable – if the EU elite gets it way. But if the common people have the temerity to assert their rights and vote against orders from Brussels then woe betide them. There will be threats of being cast into the outer darkness. These member states might have to become like Norway or Switzerland: the richest, freest and most peaceful countries on earth!
The peoples of Switzerland and Norway have both twice rejected referenda on closer links to the EU. Well done them! They were told they would face economic meltdown if they did this. It turned out to be yet another EU Big Lie. The Norwegians said no the EEC partly to keep their fishing rights. By contrast the United Kingdom’s territorial waters are almost devoid of certain fishes. The UK’s fishing fleet has been all but wiped out by EU overfishing.
The EU started a war of aggression against Libya in 2011. It was not just NATO policy it was EU policy. This was despite the EU having feted Gaddafi’s sons some years before. Gaddafi had achieved economic development and stability for his country. He was preventing illegal immigration into the EU. He also stood athwart Al Qa’eda. The EU could not possible stand for that. The EU then bombed Libya till it was a shattered state. The tens of thousands of Libyans killed since lie on the EU’s door. All EU member states are required to support this ‘in a spirit of loyalty and solidarity’ as the Treaty of Lisbon says.
The Liberal Democrats used to be referenda enthusiasts. That was because they lost every election. Nick Clegg when Lib Dem leader called for a referendum on EU membership. When Clegg helped to front the Remain campaign to an ignominious defeat he called for the result to be disregarded. It speaks volumes about the arrantly and arrogantly anti-democratic attitude of the Remain ruling class. They only consider referenda results valid when the result favours their side. The EU has called for and got referenda to break up other countries such as Yugoslavia. It is one rule for the EU and another rule for other polities.
In 2016 we all know that the British people voted for independence. This was despite the despicable threats of the EU elite. Europhile politicians campaigned for their side. No one denies them that right. What was scandalous was the misuse of the civil service and other public bodies to campaign for a highly contentious cause. The Europhiles had the full might of the state on their side.
The British civil service was once the envy of the world. The Northcote-Trevelyan reforms ensured that the civil service was impartial and meritocratic. Civil servants were not named as being behind policies. They offered candid and disinterested advice to politicians who decided on policy based on that advice. Two arch-europhile prime ministers deliberately abolished the political neutrality of the civil service. The rot set in under John Major. Under Tony Blair the politicization of the civil service became flagrant.
In the 2016 referendum the civil service was misused for blatantly partisan ends. Likewise the Bank of England lent is very considerable prestige to the Remain cause. The Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney warned of the horrific consequences of a Leave vote. Note, it was not actually leaving the EU that was needed to bring mass unemployment. A mere vote to Leave would cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs. Carney should have stayed in his lane. His nakedly partisan intervention was an attempt to help the failing Remain campaign. Carney should be sacked for gross stupidity or outright dishonesty. Unemployment has fallen to its lowest ever level since the 2016 referendum.
George Osborne said that there would be an emergency budget if there was a Remain vote. This jeremiad proved to be yet another blatant falsehood. Osborne’s real name is Gideon. Never trust a man who cannot even tell the truth about his own name.
Predictably Tony Blair was a passionate Remainer. Blair is surely the most mendacious British PM of all time. Even his own party called him ‘Bliar’. Blair being on the Remain side tells you all you need to know. Such was his hubris and vanity that this man wanted to be ‘President of Europe. ‘
The Remain campaign knew that their message was failing to intimidate proletarian voters. They enlisted the support of other globalists. Leader after leader lined up to frighten the British people into submission. The leaders of Germany, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and India all weighed in on the Remain side. Barak Obama and other world leaders openly interfered in domestic British politics. It makes a mockery of the Democrats in the US complaining about other countries potentially meddling in American elections.
When Nigel Farage went to the Republic of Ireland to campaign against Lisbon he was met with Anglophobic bile. Why is it that a British politician cannot campaign in another EU state? Remainers tell us ‘we are all Europeans’. Yet if a eurorealist campaigns for his cause in another EU state the Europhiles turn into xenophobes.
The Brexit issue is one of the rich against the poor. The working class voted for Brexit. Shockingly, the Labour Party is now a weapon of the billionaires against the workers. The wealthy adore the EU because mass migration allows them to pay poverty wages to their workers.
Cameron vowed to put the Treaty of Lisbon to a referendum if he became PM. He reneged on that electoral promise. He really was the new Blair. Cameron promised to stay as PM if Remain lost the referendum. It was yet another stinking lie.
The foundational myth of the European Union is that it is democratic. The Eurofanatic elite in the UK and other member states was full cognizant that European unification was unacceptable to the broad mass of the people. Therefore, it must be disguised and only proceed through stealth. The European institutions would issue directives which would then be transposed into national law with each member state being about to do so in a slightly different manner. This lent such legislation the appearance of being legislation by national parliaments. Politicians in the UK seldom to never stated that they were in fact implementing legislation imposed by the European institutions.
The EU has never and shall never support democracy. The denizens of Europe must vote the way their masters tell them ‘because we say so.’ The EU is run for the benefit of corporate fatcats, indolent civil servants and mendacious politicians. They do not care one iota for the wellbeing of those whom they regard as serfs.
The EU is not a rechtstaat. That claim is another one of the core fallacies of eurofanatic propaganda. The EU regularly breaks its own laws with impunity. In 2001 France and Germany were breaking the Growth and Stability Pact on a huge scale. They were not forced to pay a fine as the law mandated. The Schengen Agreement is supposed to provide a common migration policy for states that are signatories of it. In 2015 Germany tore up Schengen by admitting over a million illegal immigrants. Once in Germany they could effectively go anywhere in the EU. The EU does not believe in the rule of law. It is secretive and often has political decisions made by bureaucrats. It also hugely overrepresents the smallest member states.
In 2017 the UK held a general election. All three major parties said they would give effect to Brexit. In total 95% of the vote went to pro-Leave parties. Even the Lib Dems said they would implement Brexit albeit after a second referendum. Why did this Europhile party say they would do Brexit? They knew that Brexit was so popular that if they did not espouse such a policy they would suffer a defeat even more crushing than the one before.
In 2017 the people of Catalonia voted for independence in a referendum for the second time. The Catalans had also voted for a pro-independence government not long before. The democratic case for Catalan independence is unanswerable. The Catalan nationalists even say that want independence within the European Union. That is an oxymoron if ever there was one. But nonetheless they are ‘good Europeans’ from an EU perspective. Despite all this the EU and the Spanish Government set its face against self-determination for the people of Catalonia. Catalan politicians have been sent to prison for holding a vote. Nothing is more peaceful or democratic than holding a vote! Why is this such an appalling crime?
In the UK there are dangerous extremists. They are called Europhiles. They are hellbent on destroying democracy. All three main parties voted to hold the Brexit referendum. It was the largest referendum anywhere ever. This splendid exercise in democracy produced a crystal clear result. Against a ballot box decision the EU plotters plan to prevent the British people deciding their own future.
I hear people say – but Parliament must decide. Parliament has decided! The whole point of holding the referendum was for Parliament to do what the people wanted. Why else are referenda ever held? Parliament has never gone against a referendum result. If the Remainers had won can you imagine Parliament voting for the UK to leave the EU anyway? It would be unthinkable.
As for Parliament deciding: Parliament voted for the EU Notice of Withdrawal Act. Parliament voted for the EU Withdrawal Act. The UK should simply have left by now. Three times Theresa May has failed to get her departure agreement with the EU ratified by Parliament. The United Kingdom could have simply left the EU in March. Remainers have not abandoned hope of overturning the Brexit result.
The ultra Europhiles have not given up. They are delaying and delaying Brexit in the hope that they can prevent it. Such economic slowdown that the UK has experienced is due to the Europhiles talking the UK down. They have destroyed the feel good factor.
Corporates with fat government contracts like the EU. EU regulations make life all but impossible for small businesses. Corporations have the lobbyists to write legislation to keep it that way. Civil servants are ardent Europhiles because the EU is all about a bloated public sector of non-jobs. These sinecures are only for Europhiles naturally. Lawyers tend to like the EU due to its legislative hyperactivity. The more laws there are the more work there is for lawyers. These three classes are leagued with the liberal media to demonise Brexiteers and to defeat democracy. The Judiciary are overwhelmingly drawn from the most pro EU demographic. The police are also used to besmirch the reputation of Leavers.
The UK Government published a document in February setting out what Brexit would entail. The British public was informed that the Brexit process would take years and cause instability. Cameron stressed that Brexit was irrevocable. In full knowledge of this the British people had the courage to vote for independence. Many countries have achieved independence over heaps of dead. The UK is achieving independence through voting. The eurofanatic elite finds this unacceptable and will stop at nothing to frustrate the popular will.
There is much talk about extremism in the UK. It is the Remainers who are the dangerous extremists: foam flecked and swivel eyed. They are hellbent on overthrowing democracy. Make no mistake: the British deep state is striving to thwart the settled will of the British people. It is lugubrious to note that the deep state may yet succeed.
- India Launches "Eyes In The Sky" Satellite For All-Weather Surveillance Of Country's Borders
India has successfully launched a new satellite, capable of radar imaging, that will be used by the country’s military, according to RT.
The “Earth observation satellite” will use imaging that is capable of penetrating dense cloud cover and it is believed that the country will be using the technology primarily for border control.
The satellite is called the RISAT-2B, and it was launched early Wednesday morning from the space center on the Sriharikota island in south-eastern India.
The Times of India reported that around 15 minutes after lift-off, the four-stage rocket successfully placed the satellite in a 555km circular orbit. The mission is supposed to last for 5 years and the satellite is equipped with synthetic aperture X-band radar, which reportedly has “special imaging capabilities” and allows for “all-weather surveillance”, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The satellite also houses an Indian made Vikram processor for the first time. The processor will “become the workhorse for all computers in the future,” said Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre S Somanath. India’s Defense Minister Chowkidar Nirmala Sitharaman called the satellite the country’s “eyes in the sky above”.
Well done @isro. You make us proud, again and again. They shall be our eyes in the sky above – all weather. https://t.co/WGHe7xFchB
— Chowkidar Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) May 22, 2019
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The ISRO did not disclose photos of the satellite, since it will potentially be involved in military operations outside of monitoring the country’s borders.
Meanwhile, imaging continues to be an issue of public concern as tensions escalate near the disputed area of Kashmir. In February, the Indian Army did not provide images or video of its air raid into Pakistani territory that targeted an alleged terrorist camp run by the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group.
Experts have predicted that thick cloud cover prevented current satellites from capturing the raid.
- Rand Corp.: 'How To Destroy Russia'
Authored by Manlio Dinucci via VoltaireNet.org,
The conclusions of the latest confidential report by the Rand Corporation were recently made public in a « Brief ». They explain how to wage a new Cold War against Russia. Certain recommendations have already been implemented, but this systemic exposure enables us to understand their true objective.
Force the adversary to expand recklessly in order to unbalance him, and then destroy him. This is not the description of a judo hold, but a plan against Russia elaborated by the Rand Corporation, the most influential think tank in the USA. With a staff of thousands of experts, Rand presents itself as the world’s most reliable source for Intelligence and political analysis for the leaders of the United States and their allies.
The Rand Corp prides itself on having contributed to the elaboration of the long-term strategy which enabled the United States to win the Cold War, by forcing the Soviet Union to consume its own economic resources in the strategic confrontation. It is this model which was the inspiration for the new plan, Overextending and Unbalancing Russia, published by Rand. According to their analysts, Russia remains a powerful adversary for the United States in certain fundamental sectors. To handle this opposition, the USA and their allies will have to pursue a joint long-term strategy which exploits Russia’s vulnerabilities. So Rand analyses the various means with which to unbalance Russia, indicating for each the probabilities of success, the benefits, the cost, and the risks for the USA.
Rand analysts estimate that Russia’s greatest vulnerability is that of its economy, due to its heavy dependency on oil and gas exports. The income from these exports can be reduced by strengthening sanctions and increasing the energy exports of the United States. The goal is to oblige Europe to diminish its importation of Russian natural gas, and replace it by liquefied natural gas transported by sea from other countries.
Another way of destabilising the Russian economy in the long run is to encourage the emigration of qualified personnel, particularly young Russians with a high level of education. In the ideological and information sectors, it would be necessary to encourage internal contestation and at the same time, to undermine Russia’s image on the exterior, by excluding it from international forums and boycotting the international sporting events that it organises.
In the geopolitical sector, arming Ukraine would enable the USA to exploit the central point of Russia’s exterior vulnerability, but this would have to be carefully calculated in order to hold Russia under pressure without slipping into a major conflict, which it would win.
In the military sector, the USA could enjoy high benefits, with low costs and risks, by increasing the number of land-based troops from the NATO countries working in an anti-Russian function. The USA can enjoy high probabilities of success and high benefits, with moderate risks, especially by investing mainly in strategic bombers and long-range attack missiles directed against Russia.
Leaving the INF Treaty and deploying in Europe new intermediate-range nuclear missiles pointed at Russia would lead to high probabilities of success, but would also present high risks. By calibrating each option to gain the desired effect – conclude the Rand analysts – Russia would end up by paying the hardest price in a confrontation, but the USA would also have to invest huge resources, which would therefore no longer be available for other objectives. This is also prior warning of a coming major increase in USA/NATO military spending, to the disadvantage of social budgets.
This is the future that is planned out for us by the Rand Corporation, the most influential think tank of the Deep State – in other words the underground centre of real power gripped by the economic, financial, and military oligarchies – which determines the strategic choices not only of the USA, but all of the Western world.
The « options » set out by the plan are in reality no more than variants of the same war strategy, of which the price in sacrifices and risks is paid by us all.
* * *
- The SEC Never Collects On Nearly Half Of The Fines It Levies
It used to be bad enough that the SEC wouldn’t show up to “regulate” until schemes like Madoff and Enron had already collapsed on their own. Now, the inefficiency at the agency looks to have gone one step further, as we are finding out the SEC “never collects” much of the money that it seeks in fines from wrongdoers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The SEC took in just 55% of the $20 billion in fines it sought through settlements or judgments in the five years that ended September 2018, according to agency statistics. In the five years prior to that, the SEC collected on just 60% of the $14.6 billion in fines it issued. And 2018 has been far worse. The commission took in just 28% of the almost $4 billion that it fined, marking the lowest rate in a decade, resulting from a $1.7 billion settlement with Petrobras that “may never require payment to the SEC”.
Instead, the settlement allows the company to give the money to Brazilian authorities and other regulators.
Those who were behind ponzi schemes or those who went to prison on criminal charges are the unlikeliest to pay fines. And the main challenge for the SEC is that they don’t have the right to seize property or assets to get payment. Instead, they have to rely on filing liens against defendants or going to court to get contempt orders.
Brad Bennett, a former enforcement director at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said: “It’s difficult, and they have to be especially persistent to get the numbers up.”
The Government Accountability Office criticized the SEC in 2014 for lapses in its recordkeeping that understated the amounts owed by defendants by “at least $42 million”. But don’t worry, according to the report, the commission has been “building a new computer system to track unpaid fines” since then. Ignoring that this was more than a half decade ago, perhaps someone could have informed the SEC that electronic spreadsheets have been around for nearly 4 decades.
Instead, the agency has written off more than $10 billion in fines since 2019, including monetary penalties and disgorgement. At the end of 2018, the agency was owed about $1.5 billion but only expected to collect $228 million, according to its financial statements.
John Nester, an SEC spokesman, said: “We have a committed group of attorneys and paralegals in the dedicated office of collections who work hard to collect these funds, many of which will be distributed to harmed investors.”
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The SEC often measures its success by how much it can levy in fines and how much it can collect. In the case of the Petrobras settlement, the SEC is taking credit for a fine that it will likely never collect. Excluding the case from 2018 data, the SEC’s collection rate would’ve been closer to about 51%.And it is an arduous process. For example, in April the SEC asked a federal judge in Georgia to enforce a five-year-old judgment against an advisor who is required to pay more than $360,000. The defendant, Ernie Montford, has been paying the SEC monthly from his Social Security income, but that has only yielded about $21,000 so far.
Montford, 71 years old, said: “The SEC stomps on little firms like mine. If I could have paid more, I would have paid them.”
The CFTC, for comparison, boosted its recovery rate in 2018 after years of volatile performance. It collected $857 million in 2018, topping 90% of the fines that it issued. That amount collected may include cash tied to cases that were concluded in prior years, according to the way the CFTC reports its numbers. In 2016, the agency reported collecting about 479 million, or 37% of the fines that it ordered.
Michael Shaub, a professor of accounting and accounting ethics at Texas A&M University, concluded: “From a public-policy perspective, people would rather see bad guys fund the SEC than good guys.”
- "Research": US Navy Wants To Archive 350 Billion Social Media Posts
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
The United States Navy wants to archive 350 billion social media posts in order to conduct “research.”
What exactly does the military want to study? “Modes of collective expression.”
The Department of the Navy has posted a solicitation asking contractors to bid on a project that would amass a staggering 350 billion social media posts dating from 2014 through 2016. The data will be taken from a single social media platform – but the solicitation does not specify which one. -RT
“We seek to acquire a large-scale global historical archive of social media data, providing the full text of all public social media posts, across all countries and languages covered by the social media platform,” the contract synopsis reads. The Navy said that the archive would be used in “ongoing research efforts” into “the evolution of linguistic communities” and “emerging modes of collective expression, over time and across countries.”
This is simply spying and the research will be used for propaganda purposes, and that is blatantly obvious at this point. The intentions are far from benign.
The archive will draw from publicly available social media posts and “no private communications or private user data” will be included in the database. However, all records must include the time and date at which each message was sent and the public user handle associated with the message. Additionally, each record in the archive must include all publicly available meta-data, including country, language, hashtags, location, handle, timestamp, and URLs, that were associated with the original posting. -RT
So basically, most of your information is going to be stored by the U.S. military. The data must be collected from at least 200 million unique users in at least 100 countries, with no single country accounting for more than 30 percent of users, according to the contract.
The U.S. government has previously expressed interest in collecting social media data for more tracking and spying on Americans. Last year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a notice asking contractors to bid on a database that tracks 290,000 global news sources in over 100 languages. The contract also mentioned the ability to keep tabs on“influencers,” leading some reports to speculate that theproposed database could be used to monitor journalists.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? DHS Is Compiling A Database Of Journalists And ‘Media Influencers’
Without propaganda and brainwashing, leftist policies would have died decades ago. People are born wanting freedom from tyranny. It takes an effective campaign starting in childhood to change their minds and support their masters willingly while decrying those who seek actual freedom from oppression.
There is no way anyone could say we live in the land of the free anymore. It’s delusional to think we have any power at all. Freedom of speech is almost gone, gun rights are on the chopping block, and journalists will soon be punished by the military for not toeing the line and reporting on the official narrative (some have already been.) Censorship and manipulation are completely out of control. We are rapidly heading toward the dystopian nightmare George Orwell warned about.
- USPS Starts Testing Self-Driving Trucks For Long Hauls
The US Postal Service (USPS) has awarded TuSimple, a global self-driving truck company, a contract to haul mail across the country with self-driving trucks, a move that could save the money-losing government agency millions of dollars per year if implemented, reported a TuSimple press release.
The two-week pilot started Tuesday will haul USPS trailers about 1,000 miles between USPS’s Phoenix, Arizona, and Dallas, Texas distribution facilities. The 22-hour trip is often outsourced to third-party trucking companies that use multiple drivers.
During the test, a safety engineer and driver will monitor TuSimple’s autonomous truck as it traverses I-10, I-20 and I-30 corridors through Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
“It is exciting to think that before many people will ride in a robo-taxi, their mail and packages may be carried in a self-driving truck,” said Dr. Xiaodi Hou, Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer, TuSimple. “Performing for the USPS on this pilot in this particular commercial corridor gives us specific use cases to help us validate our system, and expedite the technological development and commercialization progress.”
The USPS, which has been a money pit for taxpayers, lost nearly $4 billion in 2018, could finish 2019 with a $7 billion loss. With letter volume in terminal decline, the agency is trying to automate its transportation fleet as one way to cut expenses.
“We are conducting research and testing as part of our efforts to operate a future class of vehicles which will incorporate new technology to accommodate a diverse mail mix, enhance safety, improve service, reduce emissions, and produce operational savings,” a postal service spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal in an email.
Several years ago, autonomous mobile robots caught the attention of the USPS Office of Inspector General, who said autonomous vehicles have the potential to cut costs, increase efficiency, and enable new services. While delivery robots are still technologically immature to be fully scalable across major cities, autonomous long-haul trucking could be more realistic in the next several years.
Automation has the potential to reshape the US economy in the 2020s. The rapid adoption of new automation technologies across the entire economy could eliminate 20% to 25% of current jobs, hitting the middle class the hardest. The automation wave has started, middle America should be absolutely terrified that robots could soon replace them in the next 10 years.
- Schumer: Americans' Jaws Would Drop If They Knew What Happened In White House Meeting
Update: Trump has hit back in a series of Wednesday tweets, saying it’s “So sad that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer will never be able to see or understand the great promise of our Country,” adding “They can continue the Witch Hunt which has already cost $40M and been a tremendous waste of time and energy for everyone in America, or get back to work….”
Trump also accused Democrat leadership of “tearing the United States apart,” adding in response to Pelosi’s promise to “pray” for Trump, “Nancy, thank you so much for your prayers, I know you truly mean it!“
….But they really want a do-over! You can’t investigate and legislate simultaneously – it just doesn’t work that way. You can’t go down two tracks at the same time. Let Chuck, Nancy, Jerry, Adam and all of the rest finish playing their games….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 22, 2019
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….Democrat leadership is tearing the United States apart, but I will continue to set records for the American People – and Nancy, thank you so much for your prayers, I know you truly mean it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 22, 2019
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Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (NY) said that President Trump ‘threw a temper tantrum’ on Wednesday, storming out of a meeting with he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) to instead hold a press conference in the Rose Garden, according to Bloomberg.
Schumer added that what happened in the White House meeting would make Americans’ “jaw drop.”
“To watch what happened in the White House would make your jaw drop,” Sen. Chuck Schumer says after clash at meeting with Pres. Trump on infrastructure. https://t.co/Ul9OUxLrzx pic.twitter.com/HEiEdQjrkv
— ABC News (@ABC) May 22, 2019
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Trump, meanwhile, took to the Rose Garden to blame the Democrats’ “phony investigations,” explaining that he walked into the meeting with Pelosi and Schumer and told them that the ongoing probes have hampered bipartisan infrastructure negotiations – and that Democrats could not legislate and investigate at the same time.
When she and Senator Chuck Schumer arrived at the White House, Mr. Trump was loaded for bear. He walked into the Cabinet Room, did not shake anyone’s hand or sit in his seat, according to a Democrat informed about the meeting. He said he wanted to advance legislation on infrastructure, trade and other matters, but that “Speaker Pelosi said something terrible today and accused me of a cover-up,” according to the Democrat. –NYT
“I walked into the room and I told Sen. Schumer, Speaker Pelosi: I want to do infrastructure, I want to do it more than you want to do it… But you know what, you can’t do it under these circumstances.”
Trump says he told Pelosi and Schumer that he won’t work on an infrastructure deal until they stop investigating him pic.twitter.com/pqoaqPKxXM
— Axios (@axios) May 22, 2019
The Wednesday barbs began after Pelosi emerged from a meeting with Congressional Democrats, annoncing that they believed Trump was involved in a “coverup” in regards to the administration’s efforts to prevent former White House Counsel Don McGahn from testifying Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee.
The confrontation came on a day when pressure over a possible impeachment effort raised temperatures on both sides of the aisle. Ms. Pelosi arrived at the White House for a session with the president set to talk about infrastructure shortly after meeting with restive House Democrats to talk about impeachment. She emerged from that meeting with Democrats accusing Mr. Trump of a “cover-up.” –NYT
JUST IN: Speaker Pelosi says “we believe the president of the United States is engaged in a cover up” by stonewalling testimony for ongoing congressional investigations. pic.twitter.com/7ILMb95vZM
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 22, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttps://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
- Luongo: Sanctions Are A Bitch – US Refiners Importing Russian Oil Like Mad
It’s a headline so funny I literally ruined a keyboard spitting out my coffee yesterday.
Working off a stub from Bloomberg, Sputnik took a lot of joy in amping up the irony.
The market needs to be fed. And refiners will buy whoever has the best cargo at the best price. It is only politicians who don’t understand that you can’t dictate to the markets.
Now refiners in the U.S. have been under pressure with rising oil prices but Russian oil isn’t brought in to supply the tight gasoline market. Russian Urals grade is considered heavy-sour which is better for refining into diesel and other heavier grades.
Source: Bloomberg
And it is being sent right to the refineries that normally process Venezuela’s very heavy crude (PADD 3 – Gulf Coast).
Don’t think for a second that this is some kind of Trumpian quid pro quo or anything. That he promised Putin a few ducats to look the other way in Venezuela. I know stupid libs of the Young Turk variety will think this. So will the Q-tards in the MAGA crowd.
But, no. This is simply normal market action that a bunch of clueless morons in D.C. can’t control. Refiners need feedstock to refine or they go out of business.
Russian Urals regularly trades at a discount to Brent crude because there is no good benchmark for it. Remember, both West Texas Intermediate and Brent are light-sweet grades.
Only the Dubai and Shanghai oil futures exchanges list contracts for deliveries of heavy sour.
So, it’s no surprise to me to see it being a direct substitute for Venezuelan crude while the U.S. embargoes it.
If the Russians gain the market share lost by Venezuela while, at the same time, providing the financial infrastructure — payment clearing, insurance, etc. — for Venezuela to sell their oil to other markets, like India, what, in the end is the net effect of all this sanctioning and war-mongering?
Nothing, of course. But you can’t tell that to insane authoritarians like John Bolton. These are men who can only think in terms of primary effects and overly-discount the market’s ability to overcome obstacles. And so, they get frustrated by secondary effects, like the simple substitution of Russian oil for Venezuelan oil by domestic refiners.
Wait a couple more months and you’ll see Ted Cruz (R – Exxon/Mobil) introduce new sanctions via CAATSA against the Russian shipping companies bringing the oil to the Gulf Coast as a matter of ‘national security.’
He’ll be joined by Lindsay Graham and the rest of the braying Repuglican jackals and it’ll be used to force Trump to cave on some other issue of the day.
You can’t reason with insane people. And the longer they are in power the more they force sane people to act stupidly to do rational business. We’ll see more stories like this as Trump’s war on markets continues until he either breaks them or they break him.
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