- Airbus Reveals Three "Carbon-Free" Commercial Aircraft For 2035 Flight
Airbus Reveals Three “Carbon-Free” Commercial Aircraft For 2035 Flight
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/23/2020 – 02:45On Monday, Airbus revealed three visual concepts for “zero-emission” commercial airliners powered by hydrogen, which could enter service by 2035.
The planemaker’s push for the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft is part of a much larger ambition for emission-reducing airliners as non-governmental organizations, such as the OECD, are urging industries and countries to begin the transformation to a green economy to power the recovery following the virus-pandemic downturn.
Three carbon-free commercial aircraft were unveiled, including a turbofan design, turboprop design, and “blended-wing body” design. Airbus said it’s “leading the way in the decarbonization of the entire aviation industry.”
“This is a historic moment for the commercial aviation sector as a whole, and we intend to play a leading role in the most important transition this industry has ever seen. The concepts we unveil today offer the world a glimpse of our ambition to drive a bold vision for the future of zero-emission flight,” said Guillaume Faury, Airbus CEO. “I strongly believe that the use of hydrogen – both in synthetic fuels and as a primary power source for commercial aircraft – has the potential to significantly reduce aviation’s climate impact.”
Turbofan Design
A turbofan design (120-200 passengers) with a range of 2,000+ nautical miles, capable of operating transcontinentally and powered by a modified gas-turbine engine running on hydrogen, rather than jet fuel combustion. The liquid hydrogen will be stored and distributed via tanks located behind the rear pressure bulkhead.
Turboprop Design
A turboprop design (up to 100 passengers) using a turboprop engine instead of a turbofan and also powered by hydrogen combustion in modified gas-turbine engines, which would be capable of traveling more than 1,000 nautical miles, making it a perfect option for short-haul trips.
“Blended-Wing Body” Design
A “blended-wing body” design (up to 200 passengers) concept in which the wings merge with the main body of the aircraft with a range similar to that of the turbofan concept. The exceptionally wide fuselage opens up multiple options for hydrogen storage and distribution, and for cabin layout.
Faury continued:
“These concepts will help us explore and mature the design and layout of the world’s first climate-neutral, zero-emission commercial aircraft, which we aim to put into service by 2035.
“The transition to hydrogen, as the primary power source for these concept planes, will require decisive action from the entire aviation ecosystem. Together with the support from government and industrial partners, we can rise to this challenge to scale-up renewable energy and hydrogen for the sustainable future of the aviation industry.”
While it’s no secret the airline industry is attempting to find a way to remedy its carbon footprint, challenges still persist for storing volatile liquid hydrogen during flight. Airbus has dismissed concerns that hydrogen is a risky substance and has called for new investments in energy infrastructure.
Global aviation accounted for about 2.4% of all emissions in 2018.
Paul Stein, chief technology officer for engine maker Rolls-Royce, told the AFP in early 2020 that the industry is “under significant pressure to improve its sustainability image.”
Airlines are “working with us to find pathways to increase the availability of sustainable fuels, look at how electrification can impact them… and also looking to more and more efficient engines and airframes,” Stein said.
And along with hydrogen, the airline industry is also attempting to revive supersonic flight.
- "No Medical Justification For Emergency Measures" – Open Letter From 100s Of Doctors, Health Pros Urges End To Lockdowns
“No Medical Justification For Emergency Measures” – Open Letter From 100s Of Doctors, Health Pros Urges End To Lockdowns
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/23/2020 – 02:00AIER reports that the following letter has made an impact on public health authorities not only in Belgium but around the world. The text could pertain to any case in which states locked down their citizens rather than allow people freedom and permit medical professionals to bear the primary job of disease mitigation.
So far it has been signed by 435 medical doctors, 1,439 medically trained health professionals, and 9,901 citizens.
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Open letter from medical doctors and health professionals to all belgian authorities and all belgian media.
We, Belgian doctors and health professionals, wish to express our serious concern about the evolution of the situation in the recent months surrounding the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We call on politicians to be independently and critically informed in the decision-making process and in the compulsory implementation of corona-measures. We ask for an open debate, where all experts are represented without any form of censorship. After the initial panic surrounding covid-19, the objective facts now show a completely different picture – there is no medical justification for any emergency policy anymore.
The current crisis management has become totally disproportionate and causes more damage than it does any good.
We call for an end to all measures and ask for an immediate restoration of our normal democratic governance and legal structures and of all our civil liberties.
‘A cure must not be worse than the problem’ is a thesis that is more relevant than ever in the current situation. We note, however, that the collateral damage now being caused to the population will have a greater impact in the short and long term on all sections of the population than the number of people now being safeguarded from corona.
In our opinion, the current corona measures and the strict penalties for non-compliance with them are contrary to the values formulated by the Belgian Supreme Health Council, which, until recently, as the health authority, has always ensured quality medicine in our country: “Science – Expertise – Quality – Impartiality – Independence – Transparency”.
We believe that the policy has introduced mandatory measures that are not sufficiently scientifically based, unilaterally directed, and that there is not enough space in the media for an open debate in which different views and opinions are heard. In addition, each municipality and province now has the authorisation to add its own measures, whether well-founded or not.
Moreover, the strict repressive policy on corona strongly contrasts with the government’s minimal policy when it comes to disease prevention, strengthening our own immune system through a healthy lifestyle, optimal care with attention for the individual and investment in care personnel.
The concept of health
In 1948, the WHO defined health as follows: ‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or other physical impairment’.
Health, therefore, is a broad concept that goes beyond the physical and also relates to the emotional and social well-being of the individual. Belgium also has a duty, from the point of view of subscribing to fundamental human rights, to include these human rights in its decision-making when it comes to measures taken in the context of public health.
The current global measures taken to combat SARS-CoV-2 violate to a large extent this view of health and human rights. Measures include compulsory wearing of a mask (also in open air and during sporting activities, and in some municipalities even when there are no other people in the vicinity), physical distancing, social isolation, compulsory quarantine for some groups and hygiene measures.
The predicted pandemic with millions of deaths
At the beginning of the pandemic, the measures were understandable and widely supported, even if there were differences in implementation in the countries around us. The WHO originally predicted a pandemic that would claim 3.4% victims, in other words millions of deaths, and a highly contagious virus for which no treatment or vaccine was available. This would put unprecedented pressure on the intensive care units (ICUs) of our hospitals.
This led to a global alarm situation, never seen in the history of mankind: “flatten the curve” was represented by a lockdown that shut down the entire society and economy and quarantined healthy people. Social distancing became the new normal in anticipation of a rescue vaccine.
The facts about covid-19
Gradually, the alarm bell was sounded from many sources: the objective facts showed a completely different reality.
The course of covid-19 followed the course of a normal wave of infection similar to a flu season. As every year, we see a mix of flu viruses following the curve: first the rhinoviruses, then the influenza A and B viruses, followed by the coronaviruses. There is nothing different from what we normally see.
The use of the non-specific PCR test, which produces many false positives, showed an exponential picture. This test was rushed through with an emergency procedure and was never seriously self-tested. The creator expressly warned that this test was intended for research and not for diagnostics.
The PCR test works with cycles of amplification of genetic material – a piece of genome is amplified each time. Any contamination (e.g. other viruses, debris from old virus genomes) can possibly result in false positives.
The test does not measure how many viruses are present in the sample. A real viral infection means a massive presence of viruses, the so-called virus load. If someone tests positive, this does not mean that that person is actually clinically infected, is ill or is going to become ill. Koch’s postulate was not fulfilled (“The pure agent found in a patient with complaints can provoke the same complaints in a healthy person”).
Since a positive PCR test does not automatically indicate active infection or infectivity, this does not justify the social measures taken, which are based solely on these tests.
Lockdown.
If we compare the waves of infection in countries with strict lockdown policies to countries that did not impose lockdowns (Sweden, Iceland …), we see similar curves. So there is no link between the imposed lockdown and the course of the infection. Lockdown has not led to a lower mortality rate.
If we look at the date of application of the imposed lockdowns we see that the lockdowns were set after the peak was already over and the number of cases decreasing. The drop was therefore not the result of the taken measures.
As every year, it seems that climatic conditions (weather, temperature and humidity) and growing immunity are more likely to reduce the wave of infection.
Our immune system
For thousands of years, the human body has been exposed daily to moisture and droplets containing infectious microorganisms (viruses, bacteria and fungi).
The penetration of these microorganisms is prevented by an advanced defence mechanism – the immune system. A strong immune system relies on normal daily exposure to these microbial influences. Overly hygienic measures have a detrimental effect on our immunity. Only people with a weak or faulty immune system should be protected by extensive hygiene or social distancing.
Influenza will re-emerge in the autumn (in combination with covid-19) and a possible decrease in natural resilience may lead to further casualties.
Our immune system consists of two parts: a congenital, non-specific immune system and an adaptive immune system.
The non-specific immune system forms a first barrier: skin, saliva, gastric juice, intestinal mucus, vibratory hair cells, commensal flora, … and prevents the attachment of micro-organisms to tissue.
If they do attach, macrophages can cause the microorganisms to be encapsulated and destroyed.
The adaptive immune system consists of mucosal immunity (IgA antibodies, mainly produced by cells in the intestines and lung epithelium), cellular immunity (T-cell activation), which can be generated in contact with foreign substances or microorganisms, and humoral immunity (IgM and IgG antibodies produced by the B cells).
Recent research shows that both systems are highly entangled.
It appears that most people already have a congenital or general immunity to e.g. influenza and other viruses. This is confirmed by the findings on the cruise ship Diamond Princess, which was quarantined because of a few passengers who died of Covid-19. Most of the passengers were elderly and were in an ideal situation of transmission on the ship. However, 75% did not appear to be infected. So even in this high-risk group, the majority are resistant to the virus.
A study in the journal Cell shows that most people neutralise the coronavirus by mucosal (IgA) and cellular immunity (T-cells), while experiencing few or no symptoms.
Researchers found up to 60% SARS-Cov-2 reactivity with CD4+T cells in a non-infected population, suggesting cross-reactivity with other cold (corona) viruses.
Most people therefore already have a congenital or cross-immunity because they were already in contact with variants of the same virus.
The antibody formation (IgM and IgG) by B-cells only occupies a relatively small part of our immune system. This may explain why, with an antibody percentage of 5-10%, there may be a group immunity anyway. The efficacy of vaccines is assessed precisely on the basis of whether or not we have these antibodies. This is a misrepresentation.
Most people who test positive (PCR) have no complaints. Their immune system is strong enough. Strengthening natural immunity is a much more logical approach. Prevention is an important, insufficiently highlighted pillar: healthy, full-fledged nutrition, exercise in fresh air, without a mask, stress reduction and nourishing emotional and social contacts.
Consequences of social isolation on physical and mental health
Social isolation and economic damage led to an increase in depression, anxiety, suicides, intra-family violence and child abuse.
Studies have shown that the more social and emotional commitments people have, the more resistant they are to viruses. It is much more likely that isolation and quarantine have fatal consequences.
The isolation measures have also led to physical inactivity in many older people due to their being forced to stay indoors. However, sufficient exercise has a positive effect on cognitive functioning, reducing depressive complaints and anxiety and improving physical health, energy levels, well-being and, in general, quality of life.
Fear, persistent stress and loneliness induced by social distancing have a proven negative influence on psychological and general health.
A highly contagious virus with millions of deaths without any treatment?
Mortality turned out to be many times lower than expected and close to that of a normal seasonal flu (0.2%).
The number of registered corona deaths therefore still seems to be overestimated.
There is a difference between death by corona and death with corona. Humans are often carriers of multiple viruses and potentially pathogenic bacteria at the same time. Taking into account the fact that most people who developed serious symptoms suffered from additional pathology, one cannot simply conclude that the corona-infection was the cause of death. This was mostly not taken into account in the statistics.
The most vulnerable groups can be clearly identified. The vast majority of deceased patients were 80 years of age or older. The majority (70%) of the deceased, younger than 70 years, had an underlying disorder, such as cardiovascular suffering, diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease or obesity. The vast majority of infected persons (>98%) did not or hardly became ill or recovered spontaneously.
Meanwhile, there is an affordable, safe and efficient therapy available for those who do show severe symptoms of disease in the form of HCQ (hydroxychloroquine), zinc and AZT (azithromycin). Rapidly applied this therapy leads to recovery and often prevents hospitalisation. Hardly anyone has to die now.
This effective therapy has been confirmed by the clinical experience of colleagues in the field with impressive results. This contrasts sharply with the theoretical criticism (insufficient substantiation by double-blind studies) which in some countries (e.g. the Netherlands) has even led to a ban on this therapy. A meta-analysis in The Lancet, which could not demonstrate an effect of HCQ, was withdrawn. The primary data sources used proved to be unreliable and 2 out of 3 authors were in conflict of interest. However, most of the guidelines based on this study remained unchanged …
We have serious questions about this state of affairs.
In the US, a group of doctors in the field, who see patients on a daily basis, united in “America’s Frontline Doctors” and gave a press conference which has been watched millions of times.
French Prof Didier Raoult of the Institut d’Infectiologie de Marseille (IHU) also presented this promising combination therapy as early as April. Dutch GP Rob Elens, who cured many patients in his practice with HCQ and zinc, called on colleagues in a petition for freedom of therapy.
The definitive evidence comes from the epidemiological follow-up in Switzerland: mortality rates compared with and without this therapy.
From the distressing media images of ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) where people were suffocating and given artificial respiration in agony, we now know that this was caused by an exaggerated immune response with intravascular coagulation in the pulmonary blood vessels. The administration of blood thinners and dexamethasone and the avoidance of artificial ventilation, which was found to cause additional damage to lung tissue, means that this dreaded complication, too, is virtually not fatal anymore.
It is therefore not a killer virus, but a well-treatable condition.
Propagation
Spreading occurs by drip infection (only for patients who cough or sneeze) and aerosols in closed, unventilated rooms. Contamination is therefore not possible in the open air. Contact tracing and epidemiological studies show that healthy people (or positively tested asymptomatic carriers) are virtually unable to transmit the virus. Healthy people therefore do not put each other at risk.
Transfer via objects (e.g. money, shopping or shopping trolleys) has not been scientifically proven.
All this seriously calls into question the whole policy of social distancing and compulsory mouth masks for healthy people – there is no scientific basis for this.
Masks
Oral masks belong in contexts where contacts with proven at-risk groups or people with upper respiratory complaints take place, and in a medical context/hospital-retirement home setting. They reduce the risk of droplet infection by sneezing or coughing. Oral masks in healthy individuals are ineffective against the spread of viral infections.
Wearing a mask is not without side effects. Oxygen deficiency (headache, nausea, fatigue, loss of concentration) occurs fairly quickly, an effect similar to altitude sickness. Every day we now see patients complaining of headaches, sinus problems, respiratory problems and hyperventilation due to wearing masks. In addition, the accumulated CO2 leads to a toxic acidification of the organism which affects our immunity. Some experts even warn of an increased transmission of the virus in case of inappropriate use of the mask.
Our Labour Code (Codex 6) refers to a CO2 content (ventilation in workplaces) of 900 ppm, maximum 1200 ppm in special circumstances. After wearing a mask for one minute, this toxic limit is considerably exceeded to values that are three to four times higher than these maximum values. Anyone who wears a mask is therefore in an extreme poorly ventilated room.
Inappropriate use of masks without a comprehensive medical cardio-pulmonary test file is therefore not recommended by recognised safety specialists for workers.
Hospitals have a sterile environment in their operating rooms where staff wear masks and there is precise regulation of humidity / temperature with appropriately monitored oxygen flow to compensate for this, thus meeting strict safety standards.
A second corona wave?
A second wave is now being discussed in Belgium, with a further tightening of the measures as a result. However, closer examination of Sciensano’s figures (latest report of 3 September 2020) shows that, although there has been an increase in the number of infections since mid-July, there was no increase in hospital admissions or deaths at that time. It is therefore not a second wave of corona, but a so-called “case chemistry” due to an increased number of tests.
The number of hospital admissions or deaths showed a shortlasting minimal increase in recent weeks, but in interpreting it, we must take into account the recent heatwave. In addition, the vast majority of the victims are still in the population group >75 years.
This indicates that the proportion of the measures taken in relation to the working population and young people is disproportionate to the intended objectives.
The vast majority of the positively tested “infected” persons are in the age group of the active population, which does not develop any or merely limited symptoms, due to a well-functioning immune system.
So nothing has changed – the peak is over.
Strengthening a prevention policy
The corona measures form a striking contrast to the minimal policy pursued by the government until now, when it comes to well-founded measures with proven health benefits such as the sugar tax, the ban on (e-)cigarettes and making healthy food, exercise and social support networks financially attractive and widely accessible. It is a missed opportunity for a better prevention policy that could have brought about a change in mentality in all sections of the population with clear results in terms of public health. At present, only 3% of the health care budget goes to prevention. 2
The Hippocratic Oath
As a doctor, we took the Hippocratic Oath:
“I will above all care for my patients, promote their health and alleviate their suffering”.
“I will inform my patients correctly.”
“Even under pressure, I will not use my medical knowledge for practices that are against humanity.”
The current measures force us to act against this oath.
Other health professionals have a similar code.
The ‘primum non nocere’, which every doctor and health professional assumes, is also undermined by the current measures and by the prospect of the possible introduction of a generalised vaccine, which is not subject to extensive prior testing.
Vaccine
Survey studies on influenza vaccinations show that in 10 years we have only succeeded three times in developing a vaccine with an efficiency rate of more than 50%. Vaccinating our elderly appears to be inefficient. Over 75 years of age, the efficacy is almost non-existent.
Due to the continuous natural mutation of viruses, as we also see every year in the case of the influenza virus, a vaccine is at most a temporary solution, which requires new vaccines each time afterwards. An untested vaccine, which is implemented by emergency procedure and for which the manufacturers have already obtained legal immunity from possible harm, raises serious questions. We do not wish to use our patients as guinea pigs.
On a global scale, 700 000 cases of damage or death are expected as a result of the vaccine.
If 95% of people experience Covid-19 virtually symptom-free, the risk of exposure to an untested vaccine is irresponsible.
The role of the media and the official communication plan
Over the past few months, newspaper, radio and TV makers seemed to stand almost uncritically behind the panel of experts and the government, there, where it is precisely the press that should be critical and prevent one-sided governmental communication. This has led to a public communication in our news media, that was more like propaganda than objective reporting.
In our opinion, it is the task of journalism to bring news as objectively and neutrally as possible, aimed at finding the truth and critically controlling power, with dissenting experts also being given a forum in which to express themselves.
This view is supported by the journalistic codes of ethics.
The official story that a lockdown was necessary, that this was the only possible solution, and that everyone stood behind this lockdown, made it difficult for people with a different view, as well as experts, to express a different opinion.
Alternative opinions were ignored or ridiculed. We have not seen open debates in the media, where different views could be expressed.
We were also surprised by the many videos and articles by many scientific experts and authorities, which were and are still being removed from social media. We feel that this does not fit in with a free, democratic constitutional state, all the more so as it leads to tunnel vision. This policy also has a paralysing effect and feeds fear and concern in society. In this context, we reject the intention of censorship of dissidents in the European Union!
The way in which Covid-19 has been portrayed by politicians and the media has not done the situation any good either. War terms were popular and warlike language was not lacking. There has often been mention of a ‘war’ with an ‘invisible enemy’ who has to be ‘defeated’. The use in the media of phrases such as ‘care heroes in the front line’ and ‘corona victims’ has further fuelled fear, as has the idea that we are globally dealing with a ‘killer virus’.
The relentless bombardment with figures, that were unleashed on the population day after day, hour after hour, without interpreting those figures, without comparing them to flu deaths in other years, without comparing them to deaths from other causes, has induced a real psychosis of fear in the population. This is not information, this is manipulation.
We deplore the role of the WHO in this, which has called for the infodemic (i.e. all divergent opinions from the official discourse, including by experts with different views) to be silenced by an unprecedented media censorship.
We urgently call on the media to take their responsibilities here!
We demand an open debate in which all experts are heard.
Emergency law versus Human Rights
The general principle of good governance calls for the proportionality of government decisions to be weighed up in the light of the Higher Legal Standards: any interference by government must comply with the fundamental rights as protected in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Interference by public authorities is only permitted in crisis situations. In other words, discretionary decisions must be proportionate to an absolute necessity.
The measures currently taken concern interference in the exercise of, among other things, the right to respect of private and family life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association, the right to education, etc., and must therefore comply with fundamental rights as protected by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
For example, in accordance with Article 8(2) of the ECHR, interference with the right to private and family life is permissible only if the measures are necessary in the interests of national security, public safety, the economic well-being of the country, the protection of public order and the prevention of criminal offences, the protection of health or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others, the regulatory text on which the interference is based must be sufficiently clear, foreseeable and proportionate to the objectives pursued.
The predicted pandemic of millions of deaths seemed to respond to these crisis conditions, leading to the establishment of an emergency government. Now that the objective facts show something completely different, the condition of inability to act otherwise (no time to evaluate thoroughly if there is an emergency) is no longer in place. Covid-19 is not a cold virus, but a well treatable condition with a mortality rate comparable to the seasonal flu. In other words, there is no longer an insurmountable obstacle to public health.
There is no state of emergency.
Immense damage caused by the current policies
An open discussion on corona measures means that, in addition to the years of life gained by corona patients, we must also take into account other factors affecting the health of the entire population. These include damage in the psychosocial domain (increase in depression, anxiety, suicides, intra-family violence and child abuse)16 and economic damage.
If we take this collateral damage into account, the current policy is out of all proportion, the proverbial use of a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
We find it shocking that the government is invoking health as a reason for the emergency law.
As doctors and health professionals, in the face of a virus which, in terms of its harmfulness, mortality and transmissibility, approaches the seasonal influenza, we can only reject these extremely disproportionate measures.
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We therefore demand an immediate end to all measures.
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We are questioning the legitimacy of the current advisory experts, who meet behind closed doors.
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Following on from ACU 2020 https://acu2020.org/nederlandse-versie/ we call for an in-depth examination of the role of the WHO and the possible influence of conflicts of interest in this organisation. It was also at the heart of the fight against the “infodemic”, i.e. the systematic censorship of all dissenting opinions in the media. This is unacceptable for a democratic state governed by the rule of law.
Distribution of this letter
We would like to make a public appeal to our professional associations and fellow carers to give their opinion on the current measures.
We draw attention to and call for an open discussion in which carers can and dare to speak out.
With this open letter, we send out the signal that progress on the same footing does more harm than good, and call on politicians to inform themselves independently and critically about the available evidence – including that from experts with different views, as long as it is based on sound science – when rolling out a policy, with the aim of promoting optimum health.
With concern, hope and in a personal capacity.
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- Chinese Property Tycoon Sentenced To 18 Years In Prison After Calling President Xi A "Clown"
Chinese Property Tycoon Sentenced To 18 Years In Prison After Calling President Xi A “Clown”
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/23/2020 – 01:00President Xi’s intolerance for criticism is widely known to the outside world – and feared within China.
The Chinese internet was scrubbed of practically all references to the children’s cartoon “Winnie the Pooh” because some Chinese dissidents mocked Xi over his alleged ‘resemblance’ to the character, even using it as a code word (for the record, they call Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam “piglet”).
And in the latest example of the heavy handed punishments that await anybody who dares criticize the ‘dear leader’, a former Chinese property tycoon who openly mocked Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has just been sentenced to 18 years in prison on corruption charges.
The sentence was handed down after Ren Zhiqiang, former chairman of the state-owned real estate group, disappeared in March after publishing an essay where he apparently called President Xi “a clown”. It was published after Xi unveiled plans for combating the virus.
Of course, the official charges against Ren included embezzlement and accepting bribes, since Xi typically removes his detractors under the auspices of his anti-corruption drive.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court found 69-year-old Ren guilty of embezzlement, bribery, misuse of public funds and abuse of power at a state-owned business, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the court. A real-estate developer for most of his career, he was known as a “big cannon” for his outspokenness and even earned the nickname “China’s Donald Trump.”
The court accused Ren of embezzling $7.3 million in public money, and accused him of accepting bribes of more than $180,000, while misusing around $9 million. He also alleged abused his power and caused losses of more than $17 million at the state-owned enterprise, while he personally profited.
- Hyperinflation, Fascism, & War: How The New World Order May Be Defeated Once More
Hyperinflation, Fascism, & War: How The New World Order May Be Defeated Once More
Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/23/2020 – 00:05Authored by Matthew Ehret via the Saker Blog,
While the world’s attention is absorbed by tectonic shifts unfolding across America as “a perfect storm of civil war, and military coup threatens to undo both the elections and the very foundations of the republic itself,” something very ominous has appeared “off of the radar” of most onlookers.
This something is a financial collapse of the trans-Atlantic banks that threatens to unleash chaos upon the world. It is this collapse that underlies the desperate efforts being made by the neo-con drive for total war with Russia, China and other members of the growing Mutlipolar Alliance today.
In recent articles, I have mentioned that the Bank of England-led “solution” to this oncoming financial blowout of the $1.5 quadrillion derivatives bubble is being pushed under the cover of a “Great Global Reset” which is an ugly and desperate effort to use COVID-19 as a cover for the imposition of a new post-covid world order operating system. Since the new “rules” of this new system are very similar to the 1923 Bank of England “solution” to Germany’s economic chaos which eventually required a fascist governance mechanism to impose it onto the masses, I wish to take a deeper look at the causes and effects of Weimar Germany’s completely un-necessary collapse into hyperinflation and chaos during the period of 1919-1923.
In this essay, I will go further to examine how those same architects of hyperfinflation came close to establishing a global bankers’ dictatorship in 1933 and how that early attempt at a New World Order was fortunately derailed through a bold fight which has been written out of popular history books.
We will investigate in depth how a major war broke out within America led by anti-imperial patriots in opposition to the forces of Wall Street and London’s Deep State and we will examine how this clash of paradigms came to a head in 1943-1945.
This historical study is not being conducted for entertainment, nor should this be seen as a purely academic exercise, but is being created for the simple fact that the world is coming to a total systemic meltdown and unless certain suppressed facts of 20th century history are brought to light, then those forces who have destroyed our collective memory of what we once were will remain in the drivers seat as society is carried into a new age of fascism and world war.
Versailles and the Destruction of Germany
Britain had been the leading hand behind the orchestration of WWI and the destruction of the potential German-Russian-American-Ottoman alliance that had begun to take form by the late 19th century as foolish Kaiser Wilhelm discovered (though sadly too late) when he said:
“the world will be engulfed in the most terrible of wars, the ultimate aim of which is the ruin of Germany. England, France and Russia have conspired for our annihilation… that is the naked truth of the situation which was slowly but surely created by Edward VII”.
Just as the British oligarchy managed the war, so too did they organize the reparations conference in France which, among other things, imposed impossible debt repayments upon a defeated Germany and created the League of Nations which was meant to become the instrument for a “post-nation state world order”. Lloyd George led the British delegation alongside his assistant Philip Kerr (Lord Lothian), Leo Amery, Lord Robert Cecil and Lord John Maynard Keynes who have a long term agenda to bring about a global dictatorship. All of these figures were members of the newly emerging Round Table Movement, that had taken full control of Britain by ousting Asquith in 1916, and which is at the heart of today’s “deep state”.
After the 1918 Armistice dismantled Germany’s army and navy, the once powerful nation was now forced to pay the impossible sum of 132 billion gold marks to the victors and had to give up territories representing 10% of its population (Alsace-Loraine, Ruhr, and North Silesia) which made up 15% of its arable land, 12% of its livestock, 74% of its iron ore, 63% of its zinc production, and 26% of its coal. Germany also had to give up 8000 locomotives, 225 000 railcars and all of its colonies. It was a field day of modern pillage.
Germany was left with very few options. Taxes were increased and imports were cut entirely while exports were increased. This policy (reminiscent of the IMF austerity techniques in use today) failed entirely as both fell 60%. Germany gave up half of its gold supply and still barely a dent was made in the debt payments. By June 1920 the decision was made to begin a new strategy: increase the printing press. Rather than the “miracle cure” which desperate monetarists foolishly believed it would be, this solution resulted in an asymptotic devaluation of the currency into hyperinflation. From June 1920 to October 1923 the money supply in circulation skyrocketed from 68.1 gold marks to 496.6 quintillion gold marks. In June 1922, 300 marks exchanged $1 US and in November 1923, it took 42 trillion marks to get $1 US! Images are still available of Germans pushing wheelbarrows of cash down the street, just to buy a stick of butter and bread (1Kg of Bread sold for $428 billion marks in 1923).
With the currency’s loss of value, industrial output fell by 50%, unemployment rose to over 30% and food intake collapsed by over half of pre-war levels. German director Fritz Lang’s 1922 film Dr. Mabuse (The Gambler) exposed the insanity of German population’s collapse into speculative insanity as those who had the means began betting against the German mark in order to protect themselves thus only helping to collapse the mark from within. This is very reminiscent of those Americans today short selling the US dollar rather than fighting for a systemic solution.
There was resistance.
The dark effects of Versailles were not unknown and Germany’s Nazi-stained destiny was anything but pre-determined. It is a provable fact often left out of history books that patriotic forces from Russia, America and Germany attempted courageously to change the tragic trajectory of hyperinflation and fascism which WOULD HAVE prevented the rise of Hitler and WWII had their efforts not been sabotaged.
From America itself, a new Presidential team under the leadership of William Harding quickly reversed the pro-League of Nations agenda of the rabidly anglophile President Woodrow Wilson. A leading US industrialist named Washington Baker Vanderclip who had led in the world’s largest trade agreement in history with Russia to the tune of $3 billion in 1920 had called Wilson “an autocrat at the inspiration of the British government.” Unlike Wilson, President Harding both supported the US-Russia trade deal and undermined the League of Nations by re-enforcing America’s sovereignty, declaring bi-lateral treaties with Russia, Hungary and Austria outside of the league’s control in 1921. The newly-formed British Roundtable Movement in America (set up as the Council on Foreign Relations) were not pleased.
Just as Harding was maneuvering to recognize the Soviet Union and establish an entente with Lenin, the great president ate some “bad oysters” and died on August 2, 1923. While no autopsy was ever conducted, his death brought a decade of Anglophile Wall Street control into America and ended all opposition to World Government from the Presidency. This period resulted in the speculation-driven bubble of the roaring 20s whose crash on black Friday in 1929 nearly unleashed a fascist hell in America.
The Russia-Germany Rapallo Treaty is De-Railed
After months of organizing, leading representatives of Russia and Germany agreed to an alternative solution to the Versailles Treaty which would have given new life to Germany’s patriots and established a powerful Russia-German friendship in Europe that would have upset other nefarious agendas.
Under the leadership of German Industrialist and Foreign Minster Walter Rathenau, and his counterpart Russian Foreign Minister Georgi Chicherin, the treaty was signed in Rapallo, Italy on April 16, 1922 premised upon the forgiveness of all war debts and a renouncement of all territorial claims from either side. The treaty said Russia and Germany would “co-operate in a spirit of mutual goodwill in meeting the economic needs of both countries.”
When Rathenau was assassinated by a terrorist cell called the Organization Consul on June 24, 1922 the success of the Rapallo Treaty lost its steam and the nation fell into a deeper wave of chaos and money printing. The Organization Consul had taken the lead in the murder of over 354 German political figures between 1919-1923, and when they were banned in 1922, the group merely changed its name and morphed into other German paramilitary groups (such as the Freikorps) becoming the military arm of the new National Socialist Party.
1923: City of London’s Solution is imposed
When the hyperinflationary blowout of Germany resulted in total un-governability of the state, a solution took the form of the Wall Street authored “Dawes Plan” which necessitated the use of a London-trained golem by the name of Hjalmar Schacht. First introduced as Currency Commissioner in November 1923 and soon President of the Reichsbank, Schacht’s first act was to visit Bank of England’s governor Montagu Norman in London who provided Schacht a blueprint for proceeding with Germany’s restructuring. Schacht returned to “solve” the crisis with the very same poison that caused it.
First announcing a new currency called the “rentenmark” set on a fixed value exchanging 1 trillion reichsmarks for 1 new rentenmark, Germans were robbed yet again. This new currency would operate under “new rules” never before seen in Germany’s history: Mass privatizations resulted in Anglo-American conglomerates purchasing state enterprises. IG Farben, Thyssen, Union Banking, Brown Brothers Harriman, Standard Oil, JP Morgan and Union Banking took control Germany’s finances, mining and industrial interests under the supervision of John Foster Dulles, Montagu Norman, Averill Harriman and other deep state actors. This was famously exposed in the 1961 film Judgement at Nuremburg by Stanley Kramer.
Schacht next cut credit to industries, raised taxes and imposed mass austerity on “useless spending”. 390 000 civil servants were fired, unions and collective bargaining was destroyed and wages were slashed by 15%.
As one can imagine, this destruction of life after the hell of Versailles was intolerable and civil unrest began to boil over in ways that even the powerful London-Wall Street bankers (and their mercenaries) couldn’t control. An enforcer was needed unhindered by the republic’s democratic institutions to force Schacht’s economics onto the people. An up-and-coming rabble rousing failed painter who had made waves in a Beerhall Putsch on November 8, 1923 was perfect.
One Last Attempt to Save Germany
Though Hitler grew in power over the coming decade of Schachtian economics, one last republican effort was made to prevent Germany from plunging into a fascist hell in the form of the November 1932 election victory of General Kurt von Schleicher as Chancellor of Germany. Schleicher had been a co-architect of Rapallo alongside Rathenau a decade earlier and was a strong proponent of the Friedrich List Society’s program of public works and internal improvements promoted by industrialist Wilhelm Lautenbach. The Nazi party’s public support collapsed and it found itself bankrupt. Hitler had fallen into depression and was even contemplating suicide when “a legal coup” was unleashed by the Anglo-American elite resulting in Wall Street funds pouring into Nazi coffers.
By January 30, 1933 Hitler gained Chancellorship where he quickly took dictatorial powers under the “state of emergency” caused by the burning of the Reichstag in March 1933. By 1934 the Night of the Long Knives saw General Schleicher and hundreds of other German patriots assassinated and it was only a few years until the City of London-Wall Street Frankenstein monster stormed across the world.
How the 1929 Crash was Manufactured
While everyone knows that the 1929 market crash unleashed four years of hell in America which quickly spread across Europe under the great depression, not many people have realized that this was not inevitable, but rather a controlled blowout.
The bubbles of the 1920s were unleashed with the early death of President William Harding in 1923 and grew under the careful guidance of JP Morgan’s President Coolidge and financier Andrew Mellon (Treasury Secretary) who de-regulated the banks, imposed austerity onto the country, and cooked up a scheme for Broker loans allowing speculators to borrow 90% on their stock. Wall Street was deregulated, investments into the real economy were halted during the 1920s and insanity became the norm. In 1925 broker loans totalled $1.5 billion and grew to $2.6 billion in 1926 and hit $5.7 billion by the end of 1927. By 1928, the stock market was overvalued fourfold!
When the bubble was sufficiently inflated, a moment was decided upon to coordinate a mass “calling in” of the broker loans. Predictably, no one could pay them resulting in a collapse of the markets. Those “in the know” cleaned up with JP Morgan’s “preferred clients”, and other financial behemoths selling before the crash and then buying up the physical assets of America for pennies on the dollar. One notable person who made his fortune in this manner was Prescott Bush of Brown Brothers Harriman, who went onto bailout a bankrupt Nazi party in 1932. These financiers had a tight allegiance with the City of London and coordinated their operations through the private central banking system of America’s Federal Reserve and Bank of International Settlements.
The Living Hell that was the Great Depression
Throughout the Great depression, the population was pushed to its limits making America highly susceptible to fascism as unemployment skyrocketed to 25%, industrial capacity collapsed by 70%, and agricultural prices collapsed far below the cost of production accelerating foreclosures and suicide. Life savings were lost as 4000 banks failed.
This despair was replicated across Europe and Canada with eugenics-loving fascists gaining popularity across the board. England saw the rise of Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists in 1932, English Canada had its own fascist solution with the Rhodes Scholar “Fabian Society” League of Social Reconstruction (which later took over the Liberal Party) calling for the “scientific management of society”. Time magazine had featured Il Duce over 6 times by 1932 and people were being told by that corporate fascism was the economic solution to all of America’s economic woes.
In the midst of the crisis, the City of London removed itself from the gold standard in 1931 which was a crippling blow to the USA, as it resulted in a flight of gold from America causing a deeper contraction of the money supply and thus inability to respond to the depression. British goods simultaneously swamped the USA crushing what little production was left.
It was in this atmosphere that one of the least understood battles unfolded in 1933.
1932: A Bankers’ Dictatorship is Attempted
In Germany, a surprise victory of Gen. Kurt Schleicher caused the defeat of the London-directed Nazi party in December 1932 threatening to break Germany free of Central Bank tyranny. A few weeks before Schleicher’s victory, Franklin Roosevelt won the presidency in America threatening to regulate the private banks and assert national sovereignty over finance.
Seeing their plans for global fascism slipping away, the City of London announced that a new global system controlled by Central Banks had to be created post haste. Their objective was to use the economic crisis as an excuse to remove from nation states any power over monetary policy, while enhancing the power of Independent Central Banks as enforcers of “balanced global budgets”. elaborate
In December 1932, an economic conference “to stabilize the world economy” was organized by the League of Nations under the guidance of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and Bank of England. The BIS was set up as “the Central Bank of Central Banks” in 1930 in order to facilitate WWI debt repayments and was a vital instrument for funding Nazi Germany- long after WWII began. The London Economic Conference brought together 64 nations of the world under a controlled environment chaired by the British Prime Minister and opened by the King himself.
A resolution passed by the Conference’s Monetary Committee stated:
“The conference considers it to be essential, in order to provide an international gold standard with the necessary mechanism for satisfactory working, that independent Central Banks, with requisite powers and freedom to carry out an appropriate currency and credit policy, should be created in such developed countries as have not at present an adequate central banking institution” and that “the conference wish to reaffirm the great utility of close and continuous cooperation between Central Banks. The Bank of International Settlements should play an increasingly important part not only by improving contact, but also as an instrument for common action.”
Echoing the Bank of England’s modern fixation with “mathematical equilibrium”, the resolutions stated that the new global gold standard controlled by central banks was needed “to maintain a fundamental equilibrium in the balance of payments” of countries. The idea was to deprive nation states of their power to generate and direct credit for their own development.
FDR Torpedoes the London Conference
Chancellor Schleicher’s resistance to a bankers’ dictatorship was resolved by a “soft coup” ousting the patriotic leader in favor of Adolph Hitler (under the control of a Bank of England toy named Hjalmar Schacht) in January 1933 with Schleicher assassinated the following year. In America, an assassination attempt on Roosevelt was thwarted on February 15, 1933 when a woman knocked the gun out of the hand of an anarchist-freemason in Miami resulting in the death of Chicago’s Mayor Cermak.
Without FDR’s dead body, the London conference met an insurmountable barrier, as FDR refused to permit any American cooperation. Roosevelt recognized the necessity for a new international system, but he also knew that it had to be organized by sovereign nation states subservient to the general welfare of the people and not central banks dedicated to the welfare of the oligarchy. Before any international changes could occur, nation states castrated from the effects of the depression had to first recover economically in order to stay above the power of the financiers.
By May 1933, the London Conference crumbled when FDR complained that the conference’s inability to address the real issues of the crisis is “a catastrophe amounting to a world tragedy” and that fixation with short term stability were “old fetishes of so-called international bankers”. FDR continued “The United States seeks the kind of dollar which a generation hence will have the same purchasing and debt paying power as the dollar value we hope to attain in the near future. That objective means more to the good of other nations than a fixed ratio for a month or two. Exchange rate fixing is not the true answer.”
The British drafted an official statement saying “the American statement on stabilization rendered it entirely useless to continue the conference.”
FDR’s War on Wall Street
The new president laid down the gauntlet in his inaugural speech on March 4th saying:
“The money-changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit”.
FDR declared a war on Wall Street on several levels, beginning with his support of the Pecorra Commission which sent thousands of bankers to prison, and exposed the criminal activities of the top tier of Wall Street’s power structure who manipulated the depression, buying political offices and pushing fascism. Ferdinand Pecorra who ran the commission called out the deep state when he said “this small group of highly placed financiers, controlling the very springs of economic activity, holds more real power than any similar group in the United States.”
Pecorra’s highly publicized success empowered FDR to impose sweeping regulation in the form of 1) Glass-Steagall bank separation, 2) bankruptcy re-organization and 3) the creation of the Security Exchange Commission to oversee Wall Street. Most importantly, FDR disempowered the London-controlled Federal Reserve by installing his own man as Chair (Industrialist Mariner Eccles) who forced it to obey national commands for the first time since 1913, while creating an “alternative” lending mechanism outside of Fed control called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) which became the number one lender to infrastructure in America throughout the 1930s.
One of the most controversial policies for which FDR is demonized today was his abolishment of the gold standard. The gold standard itself constricted the money supply to a strict exchange of gold per paper dollar, thus preventing the construction of internal improvements needed to revive industrial capacity and put the millions of unemployed back to work for which no financial resources existed. It’s manipulation by international financiers made it a weapon of destruction rather than creation at this time. Since commodity prices had fallen lower than the costs of production, it was vital to increase the price of goods under a form of “controlled inflation” so that factories and farms could become solvent and unfortunately the gold standard held that back. FDR imposed protective tariffs to favor agro-industrial recovery on all fronts ending years of rapacious free trade.
FDR stated his political-economic philosophy in 1934:
“the old fallacious notion of the bankers on the one side and the government on the other side, as being more or less equal and independent units, has passed away. Government by the necessity of things must be the leader, must be the judge, of the conflicting interests of all groups in the community, including bankers.”
The Real New Deal
Once liberated from the shackles of the central banks, FDR and his allies were able to start a genuine recovery by restoring confidence in banking. Within 31 days of his bank holiday, 75% of banks were operational and the FDIC was created to insure deposits. Four million people were given immediate work, and hundreds of libraries, schools and hospitals were built and staffed- All funded through the RFC. FDR’s first fireside chat was vital in rebuilding confidence in the government and banks, serving even today as a strong lesson in banking which central bankers don’t want you to learn about.
From 1933-1939, 45 000 infrastructure projects were built. The many “local” projects were governed, like China’s Belt and Road Initiative today, under a “grand design” which FDR termed the “Four Quarters” featuring zones of megaprojects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority area in the south east, the Columbia River Treaty zone on the northwest, the St Laurence Seaway zone on the North east, and Hoover Dam/Colorado zone on the Southwest. These projects were transformative in ways money could never measure as the Tennessee area’s literacy rose from 20% in 1932 to 80% in 1950, and racist backwater holes of the south became the bedrock for America’s aerospace industry due to the abundant and cheap hydropower. As I had already reported on the Saker, FDR was not a Keynesian (although it cannot be argued that hives of Rhodes Scholars and Fabians penetrating his administration certainly were).
Wall Street Sabotages the New Deal
Those who criticize the New Deal today ignore the fact that its failures have more to do with Wall Street sabotage than anything intrinsic to the program. For example, JP Morgan tool Lewis Douglass (U.S. Budget Director) forced the closure of the Civil Works Administration in 1934 resulting in the firing of all 4 million workers.
Wall Street did everything it could to choke the economy at every turn. In 1931, NY banks loans to the real economy amounted to $38.1 billion which dropped to only $20.3 billion by 1935. Where NY banks had 29% of their funds in US bonds and securities in 1929, this had risen to 58% which cut off the government from being able to issue productive credit to the real economy.
When, in 1937, FDR’s Treasury Secretary persuaded him to cancel public works to see if the economy “could stand on its own two feet”, Wall Street pulled credit out of the economy collapsing the Industrial production index from 110 to 85 erasing seven years’ worth of gain, while steel fell from 80% capacity back to depression levels of 19%. Two million jobs were lost and the Dow Jones lost 39% of its value. This was no different from kicking the crutches out from a patient in rehabilitation and it was not lost on anyone that those doing the kicking were openly supporting Fascism in Europe. Bush patriarch Prescott Bush, then representing Brown Brothers Harriman was found guilty for trading with the enemy in 1942!
Coup Attempt in America Thwarted
The bankers didn’t limit themselves to financial sabotage during this time, but also attempted a fascist military coup which was exposed by Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler in his congressional testimony of November 20, 1934. Butler had testified that the plan was begun in the Summer of 1933 and organized by Wall Street financiers who tried to use him as a puppet dictator leading 500 000 American Legion members to storm the White House. As Butler spoke, those same financiers had just set up an anti-New Deal organization called the American Liberty League which fought to keep America out of the war in defense of an Anglo-Nazi fascist global government which they wished to partner with.
The American Liberty league only changed tune when it became evident that Hitler had become a disobedient Frankenstein monster who wasn’t content in a subservient position to Britain’s idea of a New World Order. In response to the Liberty League’s agenda, FDR said “some speak of a New World Order, but it is not new and it is not order”.
FDR’s Anti-Colonial Post-War Vision
One of the greatest living testimonies to FDR’s anti-colonial vision is contained in a little known 1946 book authored by his son Elliot Roosevelt who, as his father’s confidante and aide, was privy to some of the most sensitive meetings his father participated in throughout the war. Seeing the collapse of the post-war vision upon FDR’s April 12, 1945 death and the emergence of a pro-Churchill presidency under Harry Truman, who lost no time in dropping nuclear bombs on a defeated Japan, ushering in a Soviet witch hunt at home and launching a Cold War abroad, Elliot authored ‘As He Saw It’ (1946) in order to create a living testimony to the potential that was lost upon his father’s passing.
As Elliot said of his motive to write his book:
“The decision to write this book was taken more recently and impelled by urgent events. Winston Churchill’s speech at Fulton, Missouri, had a hand in this decision,… the growing stockpile of American atom bombs is a compelling factor; all the signs of growing disunity among the leading nations of the world, all the broken promises, all the renascent power politics of greedy and desperate imperialism were my spurs in this undertaking… And I have seen the promises violated, and the conditions summarily and cynically disregarded, and the structure of peace disavowed… I am writing this, then, to you who agree with me that… the path he charted has been most grievously—and deliberately—forsaken.”
The Four Freedoms
Even before America had entered the war, the principles of international harmony which FDR enunciated in his January 6, 1941 Four Freedoms speech to the U.S. Congress served as the guiding light through every battle for the next 4.5 years. In this speech FDR said:
“In future days, which we seek to secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
“The first is the freedom of speech and expression–everywhere in the world.
“The second is the freedom of every person to worship God in his own way–everywhere in the world.
“The third is the freedom from want–which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants–everywhere in the world.
“The fourth is freedom from fear–which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world.
“That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
“To that new order, we oppose the greater conception–the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.
“Since the beginning of American history, we have been engaged in change–in a perpetual peaceful revolution–a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly, adjusting itself to changing conditions–without the concentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.
“This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or to keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.”
Upon hearing these Freedoms outlined, American painter Norman Rockwell was inspired to paint four masterpieces that were displayed across America and conveyed the beauty of FDR’s spirit to all citizens.
FDR’s patriotic Vice President (and the man who SHOULD have been president in 1948) Henry Wallace outlined FDR’s vision in a passionate video address to the people in 1942 which should also be watched by all world citizens today:
Churchill vs FDR: The Clash of Two Paradigms
Elliot’s account of the 1941-1945 clash of paradigms between his father and Churchill are invaluable both for their ability to shed light into the true noble constitutional character of America personified in the person of Roosevelt but also in demonstrating the beautiful potential of a world that SHOULD HAVE BEEN had certain unnatural events not intervened to derail the evolution of our species into an age of win-win cooperation, creative reason and harmony.
In As He Saw It, Elliot documents a conversation he had with his father at the beginning of America’s entry into WWII, who made his anti-colonial intentions clear as day saying:
“I’m talking about another war, Elliott. I’m talking about what will happen to our world, if after this war we allow millions of people to slide back into the same semi-slavery!
“Don’t think for a moment, Elliott, that Americans would be dying in the Pacific tonight, if it hadn’t been for the shortsighted greed of the French and the British and the Dutch. Shall we allow them to do it all, all over again? Your son will be about the right age, fifteen or twenty years from now.
“One sentence, Elliott. Then I’m going to kick you out of here. I’m tired. This is the sentence: When we’ve won the war, I will work with all my might and main to see to it that the United States is not wheedled into the position of accepting any plan that will further France’s imperialistic ambitions, or that will aid or abet the British Empire in its imperial ambitions.”
This clash came to a head during a major confrontation between FDR and Churchill during the January 24, 1943 Casablanca Conference in Morocco. At this event, Elliot documents how his father first confronted Churchill’s belief in the maintenance of the British Empire’s preferential trade agreements upon which it’s looting system was founded:
“Of course,” he [FDR] remarked, with a sly sort of assurance, “of course, after the war, one of the preconditions of any lasting peace will have to be the greatest possible freedom of trade.”
He paused. The P.M.’s head was lowered; he was watching Father steadily, from under one eyebrow.
“No artificial barriers,” Father pursued. “As few favored economic agreements as possible. Opportunities for expansion. Markets open for healthy competition.” His eye wandered innocently around the room.
Churchill shifted in his armchair. “The British Empire trade agreements” he began heavily, “are—”
Father broke in.
“Yes. Those Empire trade agreements are a case in point. It’s because of them that the people of India and Africa, of all the colonial Near East and Far East, are still as backward as they are.”
Churchill’s neck reddened and he crouched forward.
“Mr. President, England does not propose for a moment to lose its favored position among the British Dominions. The trade that has made England great shall continue, and under conditions prescribed by England’s ministers.”
“You see,” said Father slowly, “it is along in here somewhere that there is likely to be some disagreement between you, Winston, and me.
“I am firmly of the belief that if we are to arrive at a stable peace it must involve the development of backward countries. Backward peoples. How can this be done? It can’t be done, obviously, by eighteenth-century methods. Now—”
“Who’s talking eighteenth-century methods?”
“Whichever of your ministers recommends a policy which takes wealth in raw materials out of a colonial country, but which returns nothing to the people of that country in consideration. Twentieth-century methods involve bringing industry to these colonies. Twentieth-century methods include increasing the wealth of a people by increasing their standard of living, by educating them, by bringing them sanitation—by making sure that they get a return for the raw wealth of their community.”
Around the room, all of us were leaning forward attentively. Hopkins was grinning. Commander Thompson, Churchill’s aide, was looking glum and alarmed. The P.M. himself was beginning to look apoplectic.
“You mentioned India,” he growled.
“Yes. I can’t believe that we can fight a war against fascist slavery, and at the same time not work to free people all over the world from a backward colonial policy.”
“What about the Philippines?”
“I’m glad you mentioned them. They get their independence, you know, in 1946. And they’ve gotten modern sanitation, modern education; their rate of illiteracy has gone steadily down…”
“There can be no tampering with the Empire’s economic agreements.”
“They’re artificial…”
“They’re the foundation of our greatness.”
“The peace,” said Father firmly, “cannot include any continued despotism. The structure of the peace demands and will get equality of peoples. Equality of peoples involves the utmost freedom of competitive trade. Will anyone suggest that Germany’s attempt to dominate trade in central Europe was not a major contributing factor to war?”
It was an argument that could have no resolution between these two men…
The following day, Elliot describes how the conversation continued between the two men with Churchill stating:
“Mr. President,” he cried, “I believe you are trying to do away with the British Empire. Every idea you entertain about the structure of the postwar world demonstrates it. But in spite of that”—and his forefinger waved—”in spite of that, we know that you constitute our only hope. And”—his voice sank dramatically—”you know that we know it. You know that we know that without America, the Empire won’t stand.”
Churchill admitted, in that moment, that he knew the peace could only be won according to precepts which the United States of America would lay down. And in saying what he did, he was acknowledging that British colonial policy would be a dead duck, and British attempts to dominate world trade would be a dead duck, and British ambitions to play off the U.S.S.R. against the U.S.A. would be a dead duck. Or would have been, if Father had lived.”
This story was delivered in full during an August 15 lecture by the author:
FDR’s Post-War Vision Destroyed
While FDR’s struggle did change the course of history, his early death during the first months of his fourth term resulted in a fascist perversion of his post-war vision.
Rather than see the IMF, World Bank or UN used as instruments for the internationalization of the New Deal principles to promote long term, low interest loans for the industrial development of former colonies, FDR’s allies were ousted from power over his dead body, and they were recaptured by the same forces who attempted to steer the world towards a Central Banking Dictatorship in 1933.
The American Liberty League spawned into various “patriotic” anti-communist organizations which took power with the FBI and McCarthyism under the fog of the Cold War. This is the structure that Eisenhower warned about when he called out “the Military Industrial Complex” in 1960 and which John Kennedy did battle with during his 900 days as president.
This is the structure which is out to destroy President Donald Trump and undo the November elections under a military coup and Civil War out of fear that a new FDR impulse is beginning to be revived in America which may align with the 21st Century international New Deal emerging from China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Eurasian alliance. French Finance Minister Bruno LeMaire and Marc Carney have stated their fear that if the Green New Deal isn’t imposed by the west, then the New Silk Road and yuan will become the basis for the new world system.
The Bank of England-authored Green New Deal being pushed under the fog of COVID-19’s Great Green Global Reset which promise to impose draconian constraints on humanity’s carrying capacity in defense of saving nature from humanity have nothing to do with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and they have less to do with the Bretton Woods conference of 1944. These are merely central bankers’ wet dreams for depopulation and fascism “with a democratic face” which their 1923 and 1933 efforts failed to achieve and can only be imposed if people remain blind to their own recent history.
- 80% Of Americans Say Post-Pandemic Food Inflation Is Impacting Their Budgets
80% Of Americans Say Post-Pandemic Food Inflation Is Impacting Their Budgets
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 23:45With its Beige Book, the Federal Reserve and its regional banks frequently gauge business owners’ subjective impressions of the overall economy. Recently, these reports have shown signs of permanent economic scarring, though the September report emphasized a different angle: That the economic revival – while not a straightforward “V” – was unfolding more rapidly than they had anticipated.
Unfortunately, the central bank doesn’t focus on surveying consumers with as much diligence. This could be one reason why some economists have slammed the central bank for being “out of touch”. Not only does the central bank welcome inflation (just not too much of it), it relies on gauges of the phenomenon that have – falsely – suggested that consumer prices aren’t rising. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the PCE numbers, exclude medical bills and other costs.
However, after years of “low” inflation, the virus has pushed prices of food and consumer goods higher. That’s why Powell tweaked the central bank’s inflation target to create more room for inflation to overheat – since that’s what it seems to be doing.
While central bankers walk around with their heads in the clouds, a team at C+R Research has surveyed more than 2,000 American consumers to find out how they have “adjusted” to these higher prices, which have come amid a surge in unemployment. Their findings aren’t all that surprising: 85% of consumers said that their budgets had been impacted by having to pay more for groceries. Milk, eggs and meat are the top staples that Americans are paying more for.
But food isn’t the only source of rising prices: household goods like toilet paper and cleaning products have seen prices soar with the surge in demand. 75% of respondents said that these increases had impacted them.
What might be surprising for some is that more than 75% of Americans are still having trouble finding cleaning products and certain food products that were readily available before the pandemic.
Finally, with millions of professionals (at least, those who still have jobs) still working from home, more than 2/3rds of respondents said they have been buying fewer hair-care products since the start of the pandemic, while 61% of people say they’ve been spending less on deodorant.
With nearly 90% of respondents saying they’re worried that prices for groceries will continue to climb, here’s what weekly grocery budgets are looking like since the pandemic.
As shoppers try to navigate life during hard economic times, more than half say they’re spending less on food, or have changed their diet, while more than 70% of respondents say they have been “stress eating” more often.
Somebody should probably tell them to relax; don’t they know interest rates will be anchored to the zero-bound until 2023?
- Canada's Speech From The Throne
Canada’s Speech From The Throne
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 23:25Written by Keith Oland, Global Strategist at IceCap Asset Management
On August 18th, 2020, the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau asked Governor General Julie Payette to prorogue Parliament.
This means all parliamentary activity stops until a new session of parliament is opened with what is called a Speech from the Throne. This also means that all business conducted by the House of Commons must be restarted in the new session. A Speech from the Throne is where the government introduces its direction and goals.
The Speech from the Throne is currently scheduled for September 23rd, 2020.
It is our belief that the Liberal Government of Canada may introduce significant new spending programs in the upcoming Speech from the Throne, setting a precedent for other countries to implement similar programs.
In the past few years there has been a major shift, particularly amongst western countries, towards expanded fiscal deficit spending. The current environment of historically low interest rates encourages borrowing to fund these programs. Canada has positioned itself to be one of the first major countries to rapidly expand spending, regardless of fiscal anchors such as the net national debt, and debt to GDP ratio. We could see the first indication of this shift in the Speech from the Throne on September 23rd, 2020.
If major spending initiatives are announced without accompanying sources of income to fund them, we can infer that the national debt will surge. Markets will be watching closely, and if reactions to the anticipated shift are muted then this will give tacit permission for other comparable countries and sub sovereigns to do the same. This could also be a major step in bringing modern monetary theory (MMT) into the mainstream.
The Speech from the Throne is significant because we will hear in detail what the Liberal Government plans to do with their time in government. We believe there is a real possibility of a significant shift to the left in government policy, accompanied by increased deficit spending. The reasons for this are as follows:
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The coronavirus pandemic, and the resultant need to stimulate the economy.
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Low interest rates where the cost of money is essentially free (0.25% nominal interest rates, and negative real rates).
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The need to shift attention away from the WE Charity scandal.
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The ability to displace the New Democratic Party on the political spectrum and position the Liberals in a place where they can expect to have success in the next election.
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Leaks to the media demonstrating the Trudeau government’s preference for increased spending, although messaging from the Liberals has become more mixed in recent days.
This paper will give a brief overview of how the Canadian system of government works, what we expect to happen with the Speech from the Throne, and the impact on the national debt and the economy.
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- Iran Will Not Renegotiate Nuclear Deal If Biden Wins Presidency, Demands Compensation: FM Zarif
Iran Will Not Renegotiate Nuclear Deal If Biden Wins Presidency, Demands Compensation: FM Zarif
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 23:05There’s little doubt that Iran’s leadership is quietly hoping that Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins the US presidency in November, given at the current rate of Trump’s maximum pressure campaign there seems no ‘off ramp’ or sanctions relief for the Islamic Republic.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif issued some interesting statements on this subject Monday, saying of the 2015 nuclear deal previously brokered under Obama and his VP Biden, that Tehran will never renegotiate the deal even if Biden takes the White House.
He said at a virtual Council on Foreign Relations event that Washington must immediately return to the JCPOA agreement “without condition”.
Via Newsweek Biden has promised that he would re-adopt the agreement, thus reversing Trump’s May 2018 pullout; however, he’s previously added just enough nuance to worry Iran, saying this would be conditioned on Tehran returning into complete compliance with its regulations. This is in reference to Iran ramping up enrichment following the US pullout from the deal.
Zarif told the Western think tank audience in his remarks this week:
“The United States first must come clean, must get its act together, must come back to be a lawful member of the international community, start implementing its obligations, and then talk about the rest of the deal,” he said.
“It’s immaterial for us who sits in the White House. For us, what is important is how they behave, and the United States has behaved extremely, irresponsibly, dangerously in the international community,” Zarif said.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the remarks were related to the lasting impact of US-led sanctions, which are seeking to gut Iran’s economy, also after the Islamic Republic was among the earliest countries hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Zarif laid out that sanctions have resulted in multiple billions of dollars lost, and that upon re-entry to the deal any future American administration must provide appropriate compensation.
Frank convo @CFR_org. Emphasized:
– Total US isolation as it fails in UN Security Council
– Iran has no preference for outcome of US vote
– Only option for any US president: Gain trust to reenter JCPOA
– Iran always ready for inclusive regional dialoguehttps://t.co/NeSkUXZ5j9— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 21, 2020
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“I think it is the United States that has to show that it’s committed to this deal that it will not violate it again, that it will not make demands outside the scope of the deal, that it will compensate Iran for the damages,” Zarif added.
However, this issue of compensation would be a high bar for any administration, even if Biden were to take the White House, and thus extremely unlikely.
- Taiwan's Military Says It Has The Right To Counterattack Chinese Warplanes
Taiwan’s Military Says It Has The Right To Counterattack Chinese Warplanes
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 22:45Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
With tensions between Taiwan and mainland China on the rise, Taiwan’s military redefined its rules of engagement and said its forces have the right to “self-defense” and a “counter-attack” against Chinese warplanes. The statement came after Beijing flew fighter jets over the Taiwan Strait’s median line in response to a high-level US visit to the island.
“In the face of high-frequency harassment and threats from the enemy’s warships and warplanes recently… the military clearly redefined the contingency handling regulations concerning the first strike as our right to self-defense and counter-attack,” Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Monday.
The ministry also said the military will follow guidelines to prevent the “escalation of conflict” and “triggering events.” It is not exactly clear from the statement if Taiwan’s military can now fire first at mainland warplanes, but sources have indicated to Taiwan’s press that this is the case.
Military sources told the Taiwanese newspaper Liberty Times that defining the “first strike” as the right to “self-defense” and a “counter-attack” means Taiwan’s military would be able to fire first if they believed mainland forces intended to attack.
The median line has served as an unofficial dividing line between Taiwan and China that Beijing usually avoids crossing. Official Beijing policy is that this line doesn’t exist, and Taiwan is Chinese territory, which was the response they gave to Taipei’s protests over the recent incursion.
The display from Chinese warplanes coincided with a visit to Taiwan by US Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach, the second high-level visit from a US official in recent months. US Health Secretary Alex Azar visited the island in August, making him the highest-level US official to visit Taiwan since Washington broke formal relations with Taipei in 1979.
Taken together, the repeated incursions, which came from multiple directions and involved a combination of sophisticated fighter jets and heavy bombers, is without modern precedent and marks a significant escalation in cross-strait tensions https://t.co/CRP0n5aq2l
— CNN International (@cnni) September 21, 2020
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Besides warming diplomatic ties, the US is making moves to increase its support for Taipei militarily. Recent reports say the Trump administration is preparing a major arms sale to Taiwan that would include up to seven types of weapons systems.
The US military has also increased activity in the region, with aircraft carriers drilling in the South China Sea, and an increase in flights from US military aircraft. US spy planes are cloaking themselves as civilian aircraft near China’s coast, and experts warn, the practice poses a significant danger to actual civilian planes.
- Delaware Police Seize Enough Fentanyl To Kill At least 75% Of State's Population
Delaware Police Seize Enough Fentanyl To Kill At least 75% Of State’s Population
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 22:25On Monday, Delaware State Police and the FBI announced a two-year, multi-jurisdictional investigation that led to the arrest of more than two dozen people connected with a significant drug organization operating in Deleware, reported local news station WDEL.
Delaware State Police said the crackdown on the criminal gang resulted in the “largest seizure of fentanyl in state history.”
A total of 28 people were arrested and are now charged with 252 felonies, including criminal racketeering, conspiracy, and drug dealing.
Lt. Robert Jones of the Delaware State Police, who spoke at the news conference at Troop 2 station in Newark, said law enforcement seized seven-and-half kilograms of fentanyl. He said, given the potency of the drug, “it was enough fentanyl to kill 750,000 Delawareans.”
Delaware State Police Superintendent Colonel Melissa Zebley said it would be “hard to measure the full gravity this criminal organization could have had in our state.”
Representatives from other police agencies, including the FBI Baltimore Field Office, and the Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings, also attended the press conference on Monday.
Jennifer Boone, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, said:
“Included in these results was the largest fentanyl seizure by Delaware law enforcement in the state’s history, making a major dent in the supply of fentanyl that would have been distributed on the streets of Newark and surrounding areas,” said Boone. “Alone, the quantity of fentanyl seized could have killed thousands and thousands of people.”
Law enforcement officers also seized a quarter-million dollars in cash, 20 firearms, millions of dollars worth of cocaine, heroin, crack, and marijuana, and five vehicles during the July raids of seven houses in Delaware and Philadelphia.
Readers may recall, the Trump administration recently announced a large meth bust that had operations spanning across the entire US.
President Trump continues to hold his promise to the American people in his campaign against illegal drugs that continue to flow from foreign countries onto the streets of US communities.
- Did Global Warming Play A Significant Role In The Recent Northwest Wildfires?
Did Global Warming Play A Significant Role In The Recent Northwest Wildfires?
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 22:05A number of groups and individuals are claiming that the recent major wildfires in the Pacific Northwest are predominantly or significantly the result of climate change produced by increasing greenhouse gases.
In fact, many have called these conflagrations “climate fires.” Did global warming (a.k.a. climate change) have a significant impact on the Northwest wildfires of the past few weeks?
Consider the key fires in the Northwest U.S. this month: the huge, rapidly expanding fires on the western slopes of the Oregon Cascades.
The fires that not only burned hundreds of thousands of acres, but produced most of the smoke that engulfed the region for over a week. As I will demonstrate, the catastrophic Oregon Cascade fires of the past weeks were forced by strong easterly winds, and such winds may well weaken under global warming. And I will show that the weather of the past summer was relatively normal.
Thus, although global warming will undoubtedly produce substantial changes in our climate in the future, the impacts of global warming on the recent Oregon fires were probably quite small.
Smoke reaches Portland. Image by Tedder.
I should note that BEFORE the recent fires I had been working on research and a paper on the meteorology of western Cascade fires and have a NSF grant to examine California wildfires. Furthermore, I have worked closely with the Washington State Departments of Ecology and Natural Resources, as well as the USDA Forest Service, on Northwest wildfire meteorology and prediction.
Fires on the Western Slopes of the Oregon Cascades and their Historical Context
A series of major fires exploded on September 7-8, 2020, ranging from the Big Hollow Fire northeast of Portland, the Riverside, Beach Creek and Lionshead Fires east of Salem, the Holiday Fire near Eugene, and the Archie Creek, South Obenchain and other fires to the south. Several of the western Cascade Range fires, which have spread over more than 350,000 acres, had been initiated by lightning in mid-August, smoldering until strong easterly winds caused rapid expansion.
Fires along the western slopes of the Cascades are infrequent but regular, with research studies using proxy information (such as charcoal remnants in the soil and tree ring/scaring data) finding stand-killing fires occur roughly every 250 years (e.g. this reference). Importantly, during the past century, few major fires has burned over western slopes of the Oregon Cascades, with the most prominent being the Yacolt Burn (1902, 500,000 acres) and the Eagle Creek Fire (2017, 50,000 acres), both near the Columbia Gorge east of Portland. Interestingly, there has been far more fire activity over the coastal mountains of Oregon than along the western slopes of the Cascades during the past 120 years. Thus, many of the recent fires along the western Cascades slopes were burning across terrain that had not experienced major fires in over a century.
Fires and their sizes since 1900 over Oregon. Image created by Lynne Palombo of the Oregonian.
Strong Easterly Winds Are Necessary for Major Wildfires on the Western Slopes of the Cascades
It has long been known that major wildfires over the western slopes of the Oregon Cascades have been limited to periods of sustained, strong easterly winds (from the east). To quote a classic paper (FREQUENCY of DRY EAST WINDS OVER NORTHWEST OREGON and SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON, Cramer 1957):
The history of forest conflagrations in the Northwest is, for the most part, a history of the simultaneous occurrence of small fires and severe east winds.
Most of the biggest fires along the crest and western slopes of the Oregon Cascades started with small fires, either natural or human-initiated, which without winds would smolder or very slowly grow. But add strong easterly winds and they can explode as seen on September 8th.
As part of my research, I determined every major fire on western side of the Oregon and Washington Cascades since 1900, and then examined the meteorology of each using observations, newspaper accounts, and the reanalysis grids (gridded analyses based on observation that go back to the 1860s). EVERY such major fire, without exception, was associated with strong easterly winds.
The Tillamook Burn included a series of fires starting in 1933 that torched over 350,000 acres
Why are strong easterly winds required for the megafires on the Oregon western slopes?
First, easterly winds tend to be very dry and usually warm, which helps desiccate surface fuels. Westerly winds off the ocean are generally cool and moist, not only bringing high relative humidity but often moving fog and low clouds over the western Cascade slopes, both negatives for fires. Easterly winds are from the dry, warm interior of the continent, and as the air sinks along the western slopes it is compressed and thus warmed as it moves to lower elevations (where pressure is higher). Because of the warming, the relatively humidity plummets as the air sinks. Very favorable for fires.
Furthermore, strong easterly winds not only facilitate warming and drying but also provides oxygen to fires, allowing them to expand rapidly. In addition, strong winds push superheated gases ahead of fires (which helps then move quickly) and strong winds loft firebrands and embers that produce spot fires ahead of the main fire line.
The bottom line: strong easterly winds are very important for starting fires on the western Cascade slopes, which are typically resistant to fire because of their relatively moist surfaces and extensive shading.
So the questions you must be asking at this point: were the recent Oregon wildfires associated with strong easterly winds? Is there a climate connection with such winds? Are easterly winds increasing as the earth has warmed the last 40 years? And do climate models suggest that global warming will increase easterly winds over the western slopes of the Cascades?
The answer to the first question is an emphatic YES. The September event was associated with powerful and sustained easterly winds over the Cascades, with some gusts reaching 50-70 mph (see map below of maximum gusts on September 8th in mph). Enough to cause large numbers of power outages in Oregon.
Maximum winds on September 8 over western Oregon
The balloon-launched sounding at Salem, Oregon for 5 AM Tuesday, September 8th showed strong northeasterly and easterly winds though the entire lower atmosphere (shown up to roughly 10,000 ft in the figure).
Bottom line: strong easterly winds occurred over the lower atmosphere of western Oregon from late on September 7, peaking on Sept 8th, and continuing in weakened form during the event.
Strong easterly winds are relatively unusual during the summer over western Oregon So how unusual was this easterly flow event? It turns out EXTREMELY unusual.
To examine this, I searched gridded weather data (the NCAR-NCEP reanalysis) for a grid point on the western slopes of the Oregon Cascades. Specifically, I examined the strength of the daily average zonal (east-west wind), looking for the days of strongest easterly wind. For example, I checked surface wind (10-m above the surface) from 1950 to today for July through September–the relevant months– and found the top ten cases.
The grid point I used for this analysis
The results show that September 8 had the strongest easterly surface wind over the period examined (more negative means more easterly), substantially exceeding second place (Sept 17, 1971). And Sept. 9 was also on the list. Only one other multi-day sequence was on the list (Sept. 16-18, 1971) and there were major fires that period as well.
Results of one of my analyses
What produced this record-breaking easterly wind event starting Sept. 7th? An extraordinarily area of COLD temperatures and associated high pressure area that moved southeastward to the east of our region, coupled with an unusual low pressure offshore.
Below is the pressure analysis at 5 AM on Sept. 8, with the solid lines indicating pressure (isobars) and the colors indicating differences from normal). Strong high pressure was over Montana, while a trough of low pressure was along the coast. Between these two features there was a large difference in pressure. The colors indicate that the high pressure, centered in Montana was very unusual, with the difference from normal (the anomaly) being very unusual (4-5 standard deviations from normal for those of you knowledgeable about statistics)
Looking at winds at 925 hPa (about 2500 ft above sea level) at the same time, the strongest winds were over western Oregon, reaching over 6 standard deviations from normal. Unprecedented conditions for this date.
Let me underline something I noted above: the anomalous high pressure was associated with very unusually cold air, air that would bring snow to Denver in the subsequent day.
Is there a trend of more easterly winds over Northwest Washington in the operational record?
If one is interested in climate change, one MUST look at trends over time. Below is a plot of the top 10 cases of easterly wind at the grid point noted above–there is no evidence of an upward trend over time. So with increasing temperatures as the planet has warmed, there is no apparent increase of easterly wind occurrence over the region. This is a serious strike against the global warming/wildfire contention.
But let’s not stop there. My group, in concert with Professor Eric Salathe of UW Bothell, are running a high-resolution climate model forced by increasing greenhouse gases–probably the most sophisticated local climate modeling in the country. And we are doing this with an ensemble of many ultra-high resolution climate runs. And we drove our regional climate model with global models forced with a very aggressive (and undoubtedly larger than expected) increase in CO2 (RCP 8.5).
In these model how did the easterly flow near the crest of the Cascades change over time (we picked a point near Washington’s Stampede Pass, but that is close enough)?
The answer is found below. The figure shows the number of days per year during July through September that the winds exceed a certain speed (6.6 knots) from the east. The simulations extend from 1970 through 2100 and the black line provides the mean of all the simulations.
Wow. The number of strong easterly events….the kind that start fires…DECLINES under global warming. Let me say that again, it declines.
This makes a lot of physical sense and is consistent with results found by others in California. As the planet warms, the interior of the continent warms more rapidly that the ocean. Warms results in less dense air and pressure falls. Thus, pressure falls more rapidly in the interior than on the coast, which increases westerly flow and decreases easterly flow. Warming would also lessen the amplitude of the cold highs, like the one that occurred two weeks ago.
So we have observational data that shows that summer easterly flow over the Cascades did not increase during the last 70 years as the planet started to warm. Furthermore, the gold standard in climate simulations shows late summer easterly flow declining under global warming.
So the absolutely key driver of major west side of Cascades wildfires–strong easterly winds– does not appear to be strengthened by global warming. In fact, the OPPOSITE appears to be the case. It appears to weaken.
These findings profoundly undermines the hypothesis that the Oregon fires are “climate fires” forced by increasing greenhouse gases. As a popular TV series might say, this hypothesis is “busted.”
But let me take this one step further to completely address the “climate fire” claims. To put the proverbial “final nail” into the “climate fire” coffin.
How Unusual Were the Climate Conditions in the Months Before the Fire?
Were the weather conditions in the months leading the September fires highly unusual? And has there been a significant observed trend towards considerably worse (dry/hot) conditions as would be expected if climate change was contributing to the Oregon fires?
To answer these question, let’s examine the precipitation over crest and western slopes of the northern Oregon Cascades—the region where many of the big fires originated and grew. Below is a plot of the June to August precipitation over the region from the NOAA/NWS climate divisions data (Division 4 of Oregon) for 1900 to 2020. The summer 2020 values is not exceptional at all (indicated by small arrow and the horizontal dashed line). And there is little overall trend in the precipitation for that region.
Clearly, precipitation in this region does not appear to be changing much with global warming. Climate models suggests a small decline in summer precipitation (and an increase in overall precipitation) by the end of the century if we continue burning fossil fuels with abandon.
Temperature? As shown below, the summer 2020 temperature for the western slopes of the Oregon Cascades was neither a record nor even exceptional. One notes a modest upward trend during the past 30 years of approximately 1F. That could be the global warming signal. In any case, such a small warming hardly explains the catastrophic wildfires of this summer.
Finally, let me show you the Palmer Drought Severity Index (produced by NOAA) for September 12th. The Palmer Index combines temperature and precipitation to evaluate whether drying/drought conditions are present. This index indicates normal conditions over the western slopes of the north Cascades.
The bottom line: this summer was not one of significant drought or very unusual. Until the September 7-8 fire initiation by the strong winds, the area encompassing fire was below normal in both Oregon and Washington.
Thus, considering observations and modeling, both strongly supporting each other, the major fire/smoke outbreak this month was the result of very, very unusually strong easterly winds, NOT global warming or climate change.
Those pushing the climate change narrative, including some politicians, activist groups and media are simply misinforming the public.
Such deceptive information undermines society’s ability to deal with wildfires in an effective way, such as improved forecast management (e.g., thinning, proscribed fires), more aggressive extinguishing of fires before dangerous situations like this month, and better warnings to move people out of harm’s way.
Short Comment on Washington Fires and Global Warming
Some individuals and groups have suggested that the explosive fires in Washington State that proceeded the Oregon fires, were the result of climate change. This is also without any foundation. Nearly all of the Washington State fires were grass fires (e.g., Cold Springs Fire–190,000 acres, Pearl Hills Fire–224, 000 acres) that were spread by extreme and highly unusual northerly winds. Grass fires do NOT correlate well with climate, since grasses and small bushes inevitably dry out sufficiently to burn by early summer. Even if the grass was not initially dry, it would dry out within hours under strong winds. Such fires are controlled by the availability of ignition sources (often manmade) and strong winds and very powerful (50-70 mph) and unusual winds occurred on September 6th.
Grassland after fire in Eastern Washington this month.
Courtesy WA State Department of Ecology
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Starting September 30th I will be teaching Introduction to Weather (Atmospheric Sciences 101) online. If you are over 60, you can audit the class at very little cost through the UW Access Program. More information on the class is here.
KNKX Surrenders to Cancel Culture. My blog on this is found here.
- China Says US Spy Planes Posed As Airliners "Over 100 Times" & Put Civilians At Risk
China Says US Spy Planes Posed As Airliners “Over 100 Times” & Put Civilians At Risk
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 21:45Earlier this month Chinese and Russian media began highlighting what was reported as a significant uptick in US spy planes changing their transponder codes in order to disguise themselves during operations near China. One known recent instance involved a US Air Force RC-135S Cobra Ball out of Okinawa attempting to observe Chinese PLA missile tests being conducted in the Yellow Sea by presenting itself on radar as a Malaysian plane.
And Beijing has blasted the alleged US practice, now saying it’s caught the United States military doing this at least 100 times this year alone, and says it has radar evidence of spy planes attempting to conceal their identity in the region’s skies.
Airliner file image China says the radar evasion practice is incredibly dangerous given the ability of missile defense tracking on the ground to “confuse” threats, such as happened with the Ukrainian airline ‘accidental shootdown’ tragedy over Iran last January.
China’s foreign ministry has called the concealment of American aircraft in the region a “serious security threat,” with Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin issuing the following statement:
“It’s a common trick for the US Air Force to impersonate the transponder code of civilian aircraft from other countries … It is of a vile nature,” the FM spokesman said earlier this week.
“We urge the US to immediately stop such dangerous provocations, to avoid accidents from happening in the sea and air.” Wang described Chinese records of American spy plane activity in the area as “incomplete.”
It was a Chinese think tank called the South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI), based at China’s Peking University, that first observed the strange behavior of a plane which appeared on tracking radar on Sept.9 as a “mysterious Malaysian plane” soon after an Air Force jet “went dark” by allegedly switching off its transponder.
This open source discovery drove headlines around the world at the time, and apparently Beijing is now confirming it has data showing this actually happens frequently.
Regional media has warned about an untick in incidents this past summer, with SCMP saying: “Cases of mistaken identity have led to passenger planes being shot down in the past, observers warn.”
US spy planes in South China Sea ‘creating risk’ for civilian aircraft https://t.co/m6sZWMw18a
— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) August 12, 2020
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“This undoubtedly added up to great risk and uncertainty to international flight safety, which could lead to misjudgment (by ground air defence systems) and probably bring danger to civilian aircraft especially those being impersonated,” SCSPI stated previously in a public report based on open source radar.
Earlier this month the communist-run country’s senior diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said charged the United States with “directly intervening in territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea due to its own political needs,” according to Reuters.
- New Jeffrey Epstein Flight Log Subpoena To Reveal Every Passenger On "Lolita Express"
New Jeffrey Epstein Flight Log Subpoena To Reveal Every Passenger On “Lolita Express”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 21:25Rich associates of deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein are about to receive some (or more) unwanted attention, after the Attorney General for the US Virgin Islands, Denise George, subpoenaed the logs for every single flight made by Epstein’s four helicopters and three planes between 1998 and his death in 2019, according to The Mirror.
Epstein’s estate was named in a lawsuit filed by George which alleges 22 counts of illegal activity – including rape, child abuse, neglect, human trafficking, forced labor and prostitution.
George is also seeking any “complaints or reports of potentially suspicious conduct,” along with any personal notes made by Epstein’s longtime pilots – and the contact information for anyone who worked for them and may have “interacted with or observed” Jeffrey Epstein or any passengers.
In 2009, pilot David Rogers provided logs revealing that Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Kevin Spacey, Naomi Campbell and others were among Epstein’s high-profile passengers.
A separate set of logs exist, however, from chief pilot Larry Visoski, Epstein’s pilot of 25 years.
According to a legal source who spoke with the Mirror, “The records that have been subpoenaed will make the ones Rodgers provided look like a Post-It note,” adding “There is panic among many of the rich and famous.“
According to the subpoena, Jet Aviation Holdings USA Inc. must hand over the documents within 30 days of being served, which reportedly happened on September 3rd.
- House Passes Funding Bill, Averting Government Shutdown
House Passes Funding Bill, Averting Government Shutdown
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 21:05After several days of terse negotiations, on Tuesday evening House Democrats readers a deal with Republicans on a stopgap funding bill to keep the government operating after restarting talks over disputed farm assistance. Shortly after, just after 8pm ET, lawmakers passed the bill in a bipartisan vote of 359-57.
With government funding set to run out on Sept. 30, leaders of both parties had been working on legislation to continue funding most programs at current levels and thus avoid a government shutdown in the middle of a pandemic, and with the Nov. 3 elections fast approaching.
House Democrats announced Monday they had filed the stopgap funding legislation to last until Dec. 11, which however angered Republicans by leaving out some farm money that Trump wanted. The Monday version did not include the $21.1 billion the White House sought to replenish the Commodity Credit Corporation, a program to stabilize farm incomes, because Democrats considered it a blank check for political favors.
Republicans had been furious at the omission. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Pelosi’s resistance to including farm aid in the bill had been “basically a message to farm country to drop dead.”
In response House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a subsequent statement announcing a deal with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Republicans on the continuing resolution, or CR, which included the farm relief as well as nutritional assistance sought by Democrats. Trump had promised more farm aid last week during a political rally in Wisconsin, a key battleground state in the Nov. 3 elections.
The agreement struck between the two parties adds $8 billion in nutrition assistance programs and allows for the farm aid distributed through the CCC to continue, but with measures sought by Democrats to prohibit payments to fossil fuel refiners and importers.
“We have reached an agreement with Republicans on the CR to add nearly $8 billion in desperately needed nutrition assistance for hungry schoolchildren and families,” Pelosi said in a statement, adding that “we also increase accountability in the Commodity Credit Corporation, preventing funds for farmers from being misused for a Big Oil bailout.”
Separately, the funding deal prohibits financial aid to oil refiners that have been denied waivers from having to comply with biofuel mandates. The bill prohibits the Commodity Credit Corporation or the Department of Agriculture from “providing payments or otherwise supporting fossil fuel refiners and importers.” This comes after Trump administration officials had been developing a plan to help small refiners who may have suffered financial damage after the EPA denied waivers they sought to avoid complying renewable fuel standard requirements
The rest of the bill generally continues current spending levels. It would give lawmakers more time to work out spending through September 2021, including budgets for military operations, healthcare, national parks, space programs, and airport and border security.
The Senate is likely to take up the bill – which will now set up a clash over government funding in the lame-duck session after the November elections – as soon as this week.
Senate Republicans hoped to avoid a damaging potential government shutdown and instead are focusing on filling the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday.
- Tesla Tumbles After Underwhelming Battery Day As Musk Promises $25,000 EV In Three Years
Tesla Tumbles After Underwhelming Battery Day As Musk Promises $25,000 EV In Three Years
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 20:45Tesla shares tumbled 12% in after hours trading after the much awaited Battery Day event showcasing the company’s technology on Tuesday evening, despite CEO Elon Musk promising a $25,000 vehicle that will be built as a result of advancements in battery technology.
“In about three years from now, we are confident we can make a compelling $25,000 electric vehicle that is also fully autonomous,” Musk said at the event. “This has always been our dream from the very beginning.”
Yesterday brought a solid hint that Battery Day would be a disappointment for Tesla fanatics after Elon Musk broke character and – dare we say it – offered up a bit of reality and reason as it related to timelines he would be discussing at today’s event.
Maybe Musk was paying extra close attention the hot water Nikola CEO Trevor Milton has gotten himself into as a result of aggressive timelines and misstatements about products that may or may not exist – ironically, a move Milton likely took out of Musk’s playbook. That’s because Musk felt the need to set timeline expectations on Monday when he Tweeted: “This affects long-term production, especially Semi, Cybertruck & Roadster, but what we announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022.”
Important note about Tesla Battery Day unveil tomorrow. This affects long-term production, especially Semi, Cybertruck & Roadster, but what we announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2020
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Thus the fate of battery day was sealed before it even began.
Perhaps market participants, after watching the Nikola One roll down a hill in the desert all week, are asking themselves where the Tesla Semi is? Perhaps instead of being excited about what likely would have been an aggressive timeline for the new $25,000 vehicle, traders are drinking a cold glass of reality about Musk’s three year timeline for the cheaper vehicle. Perhaps they are wondering where the $35,000 Model 3 is? And perhaps these same participants are asking themselves where the Roadster, Cybertruck, Full Self Driving and Solar Roof Tiles are, when they forked over deposits for them years ago.
Or maybe they recall that Musk already promised a $25,000 EV within 3 years – back in 2018 on a YouTube interview.
Regardless, the market didn’t seem to take to battery day where the theme was getting the cost of batteries down: “One of the things that troubles me the most is that we don’t yet have a truly affordable car, and that is something that we will make in the future. But in order to do that, we’ve got to get the cost of batteries down,” Musk said, in what appears to be admission that demand for the “cheap” Model 3 is waning.
The company said new “tabless” batteries and new materials inside its cells would allow them to “halve” the cost of their batteries, which would essentially put EVs on the same cost playing field as internal combustion engine cars. As the Verge notes:
The price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the unit of energy most commonly used to measure the capacity of the battery packs in modern electric vehicles. Those prices have been falling dramatically over the last decade, from $1,100/kWh in 2010 to $156/kWh in 2019, a drop of 87 percent.
Tesla is aiming to take packs that cost between $10,000 and $12,000 and reduce the cost to less than $6,000.
Musk also predicted Tesla could produce 20 million cars per year. That’s about twice what companies like GM and Volkswagen are producing currently.
At the company’s annual general meeting, which took place before the battery day event, Musk said he expected 30% to 40% growth in 2020. He also said: “The future is looking very promising from an annual profitability standpoint,” leading many to wonder if that was a tacit admission that a quarterly profit for the upcoming quarter is unlikely.
Recall, Musk proudly declared back in January: “Battery Day people. Wait until Battery Day. It’s gonna blow your mind. It blows my mind, and I know it!”
Judging by the stock reaction, minds were not blown.
We can’t help but wonder: if the Nikola fiasco hadn’t taken place what wild promises would have been made at battery day. Would a $25,000 vehicle have had a more aggressive timeline? Would deposits have opened up already?
Regardless, for a stock that is fueled almost exclusively by hype, today’s reality check – even despite the muted promises – may reverse what has been a truly historic ascent.
- Air Force Two Carrying Pence Strikes Bird Forced To Land "Over Engine Issues"
Air Force Two Carrying Pence Strikes Bird Forced To Land “Over Engine Issues”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 20:25CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reports Vice President Pence’s plane has returned to the airport in Manchester after a bird strike during takeoff.
“Reporters traveling with Vice President Pence were just told Air Force Two turned around after taking off from New Hampshire because of an issue with the plane’s engine. Pence and staff are now taking a cargo plane back to Washington,” Collins tweeted.
She said, “WH official tells me Air Force Two hit a bird and they returned out of an abundance of caution.”
Here’s a video of Air Force Two striking a bird after takeoff at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
*Developing
- Inflation & "Socialism-Lite" Are Just What The Billionaires Want
Inflation & “Socialism-Lite” Are Just What The Billionaires Want
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 20:05Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
After a bout of inflation and “socialism-light”, we could end up with even more extreme inequality when the whole rotten structure collapses.
Imagine owning a Buffett-Bezos fortune of bilious billions, or even 10% of these mega-fortunes, i.e. between $5 billion and $20 billion. Heck, imagine owning 1% of these mega-fortunes, i.e. $500 million to $2 billion.
You’re extremely rich so you can buy the best advice. Your capital is mobile, and so are you. You can live anywhere and shift your capital anywhere.
Your advisors have noted an increase in media chatter on inequality, for example: The Bill for America’s $50 Trillion Gluttony of Inequality Is Overdue, and they’re busy preparing plans to weather the storm and preserve your fortune come what may.
It’s all too obvious that a claw-back of the trillions plundered by America’s 0.1% is now inevitable as the pendulum has swung to extremes of looting and parasitic predation that have destabilized the social and economic orders. So Job One is managing this claw-back politically and financially to leave the fortunes of the super-wealthy either unscathed or even more magnificent after the dust settles.
The super-wealthy have two key weapons at their disposal: inflation and “socialism-light.” Once the world’s governments borrow and spend enough money supporting all the insiders, bread and circuses for the masses (Universal Basic Income) and giveaways to industry and construction (under the happy rubric The New Green Deal), inflation will be roaring higher in no time.
What happens in runaway inflation? Tangible assets soar: land, timber, railroads, gold, mining companies and stocks of truly profitable enterprises (not zombies propped up with debt and bogus “profits” ginned up by accounting tricks).
What do the super-wealthy own? Land, timber, railroads, gold, mining companies and stocks— all the tangible assets that will maintain or increase their value in runaway inflation.
(Recall that “inflation” is not one dynamic; many are protected and others actually gain while the masses are impoverished: “Inflation” and America’s Accelerating Class War 9/18/20.)
“Socialism-light” is equally beneficial to the super-wealthy. “Socialism-light” is my term for the Aristocracy’s management of the extreme inequalities of wealth, income, power and privilege. The basic idea of “socialism-light” is to spread a thick layer of gooey PR over the same old system of legalized looting, parasitic exploitation and neofeudal predation and then have the government borrow endless trillions to fund bread and circuses for the masses (Universal Basic Income).
The irony will not be lost on the super-wealthy. As the state borrows endless trillions to send every household $1,000 a month, this borrow-and-spend orgy will push inflation higher, stripping away the purchasing power of the household’s income.
In no time at all the $1,000 in “free money” will only buy $500 of goods and services. The cries for “more stimulus” will reach a crescendo and the bread and circuses will double to $2,000 a month.
But this money-printing-to-the-moon will only increase real-world inflation (as I explained in This Is Why Inflation Will Rip Everyone’s Face Off 9/17/20), so the end result will be the $2,000 only buys $200 of goods and services.
Meanwhile, the super-wealthy are minting fortunes as everyone desperately seeks a hedge against inflation, which is wiping out cash, low-interest bonds, etc.
Banks–a core source of wealth and power for the super-wealthy–also anticipate this, which is why they immediately sell all the loans they originate to pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other bagholders whose losses will be stupendous once inflation shreds the value of low-interest rate debt.
Banks won’t be able to survive unless they 1) grab the most valuable collateral underlying their loan portfolios and 2) move their lending into short-term debt so they can jack up interest rates to match inflation.
Meanwhile the gooey, easily digestible PR will include a “wealth tax” that ends up being a pinprick on the total wealth of the super-wealthy who have sequestered their wealth in philanthro-capitalist foundations that are nothing but power grabs by other means, and various other forms of legalized looting.
The “wealth tax” will end up stripmining professionals and entrepreneurs, not the super-wealthy. Those earning $1 million with a net worth of $20 million will be gutted, while those worth $5 billion will pay a pittance. This is the inevitable result of the best government money can buy.
Eventually the entire house of cards collapses and if there is no replacement of the current political power structure that actually changes the way currency is created and distributed, the pathways to ownership of capital and labor’s share of the economy, then the system will simply return to the existing inequality with a new currency.
As I often say: if you don’t change the way money is created and distributed, you’ve changed nothing. If you don’t change the means of acquiring capital and political power, you’ve changed nothing. If you don’t change labor’s share of the economy, you’ve changed nothing.
Money-printing, inflation and “socialism-light” are just what the super-wealthy ordered: so by all means spark runaway inflation with “free” (heh) bread and circuses, provide trillions in “stimulus”to corrupt insiders, industry giveaways (New Green Deal, carbon credits, etc.), and slap a feel-good “wealth tax” that mysteriously misses the super-wealthy but guts the tattered remains of the productive class.
After a bout of inflation and “socialism-light”, we could end up with even more extreme inequality when the whole rotten structure collapses. Be careful what you wish for and cui bono–to whose benefit? To answer that, look beneath the gooey layer of PR.
It doesn’t have to be this way. My new book outlines a much different way of organizing capital, labor and the creation of money: check out the free bits: Excerpts of the book (PDF) The Story Behind the Book and the Introduction.
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My recent books:
A Hacker’s Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Shrinking Planet (Kindle $8.95, print $20, audiobook coming soon) Read the first section for free (PDF).
Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World
(Kindle $5, print $10, audiobook) Read the first section for free (PDF).Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($5 (Kindle), $10 (print), ( audiobook): Read the first section for free (PDF).
The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake $1.29 (Kindle), $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF)
Money and Work Unchained $6.95 (Kindle), $15 (print) Read the first section for free (PDF).
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If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.
- Tom-Tom Traffic Data Of Top US Metros Suggests "Sluggish" Recovery
Tom-Tom Traffic Data Of Top US Metros Suggests “Sluggish” Recovery
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 19:45High-frequency economic indicators suggest “V”-shaped recoveries touted by the Trump administration across major US metro areas could be overhyped; after all, President Trump has an election to win – so pump away…
Given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, where certain economic activities, such as travel and tourism, going to restaurants, and or just traveling to local shops, have been hampered not only by social distancing restrictions but also by consumer choices.
Without a vaccine, nevertheless, who in their right mind will take a drug with expedited clinical trials, the ability to convince the public to rush back to restaurants, movie theaters, and or retail stores will be a significant challenge for late 2020. More than likely, people will stay home this holiday season, adding to the increased downward pressure on the economy.
Conventional economic indicators do suggest unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus, in the trillions of dollars, was able to floor the crash in early spring – but now, heading into fall, the recovery is waning as a fiscal cliff enters the 49th day on Saturday (Sept. 19).
For more color on what high-frequency data suggests, TomTom Traffic Index data for the most populated US metro areas continue to show a sluggish recovery.
Analyzing traffic data of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia, the most populated cities in the US, a recovery in traffic congestion to post-virus levels has yet to be recognized.
New York City
Los Angeles
Chicago
Houston
Philadelphia
Readers may recall, we shared a KPMG International report in July specifying “an unprecedented decline in travel” is ahead with “14 million fewer cars” expected on US highways.
For further clues on the recovery shape, high-frequency data from Goldman Sachs’ latest Activity Tracker points to a recovery that has stalled, not just in the US, but elsewhere.
Movie theater box office revenues show some signs of life in the US and other countries but remain below pre-virus levels. China appears to be an anomaly.
US Department store sales remain on a virus low.
US labor market recovery has stalled. Increasing permanent job loss is causing deep economic scarring.
The virus pandemic is a defining event, more or less, a transitional period for the country, one where society, politics, and business will be reshaped, and the deep economic scarring today will result in a paralyzed economy, with the need for structural reform.
- China Is Spying On Millions Of People: And They Aren't In China
China Is Spying On Millions Of People: And They Aren’t In China
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 19:25Authored by Robert Wheeler via The Organic Prepper blog,
After years of constant media fear-mongering, a sizeable number of Americans continue to believe in the disproven “Russiagate” conspiracy theory.
Putin, the story goes, owns Donald Trump and engaged in a massive propaganda campaign via social media, hacking elections, and other collusion forms to ensure that Trump was elected. Now, Putin sits like Cobra Commander in the Kremlin, directed Trump’s actions, and Trump does what he is told.
Yet these same Americans harbor little fear of China, the nation to which America’s economy was sold decades ago and the only real aggressive empire (though admittedly the Russian bear is beginning to wake up) outside of the United States.
Despite China’s imperial ambitions, leftists all across the United States reacted in outrage and mockery when Donald Trump announced plans to ban TikTok, the Chinese owned social media firm. According to them, the idea that China may be using TikTok for nefarious purposes is beyond the scope of reality. It is yet one more conspiracy theory conjured up by Trump and QAnons…
Except…
Trump might not be so wrong after all.
In a new report from VICE (not a Trump or Q sympathizer by any means) “China has Been Doing ‘Mass Surveillance’ on Millions of Citizens in the US, UK, Australia, and India,” Gavin Butler writes:
A Chinese technology company with links to Beijing’s military and intelligence agencies has been compiling personal information on millions of people from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, India, and Japan.
The database was put together by the private firm Zhenhua Data: a Shenzhen-based company that lists the People’s Liberation Army and Chinese Communist Party among its main clients.
Contained therein were the names and personal details of some 2.4 million people, including 35,000 Australians, 40,000 Britons, and many high-profile figures such as senior politicians, royal family members, religious leaders, and military officers.
Those details included dates of birth, addresses, marital status, relatives, political associations, and social media IDs. While a lot of data has been “scraped” from social media and other open-source material, some appears to have been sourced from confidential bank records, job applications, and psychological profiles and is believed to have been acquired via the dark web.
According to the ABC, one intelligence analyst described the giant global database as “Cambridge Analytica on steroids,” At the same time, the Telegraph reported that intelligence sources described the scale of information as “frightening.” Both publications were among the international consortium of media outlets that the database was shared with, including others in Australia, the UK, the US, Canada, Italy, and Germany.
Professor Christopher Balding, the US academic and cybersecurity expert to whom the database was initially leaked, described the revelation as “something akin to discovering the Holy Grail.
“What cannot be underestimated is the breadth and depth of the Chinese surveillance state and its extension around the world,” Balding wrote in a statement on Monday. “The world is only at the beginning stages of [understanding] how much China invests in intelligence and influence operations using the type of raw data we have to understand their targets.”
The intended use of the information contained in the database is not entirely clear. Still, Zhenhua Data—whose official website has since been taken down—claims it provides “services for military, security and foreign propaganda” and describes its mission as influencing the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
The company’s chief executive Wang Xuefeng has also previously used the Chinese social media app WeChat to endorse waging “hybrid warfare.” A term that refers to unconventional methods such as cyber attacks, fake news, and electoral intervention to disrupt and disable an opponent without engaging in open hostilities.
Is China using Psychological warfare?
There are legitimate concerns here for those who sneer at the idea that China has amassed the deeply personal data of so many individuals outside of its borders. Note that China maintains the personal data of elected officials and that of “regular” citizens.
The issue here is that China can use that data to manipulate those individuals through a professional understanding of their psychology (their desires, drives, biases, etc.). Even more so, it allows China access to data that those officials do not want out. In other words, it makes those officials susceptible to blackmail..
Even “ordinary” citizens could be recruited as Chinese agents to keep some of their most private thoughts or actions secret.
Don’t understand how this could happen? Just watch Black Mirror’s episode, “Shut Up And Dance.”
Given America’s constant kowtowing to China and the American industry’s shipping to that country over the past 40 years, it appears someone is already dancing.
- "I Was Truly Alone": Florida Waiter Laid Off Due To COVID Winds Up Homeless, Living In A Tent
“I Was Truly Alone”: Florida Waiter Laid Off Due To COVID Winds Up Homeless, Living In A Tent
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/22/2020 – 19:05Waiters and food service worker have arguably been hit the hardest by the pandemic, alongside of those who work in hospitality and tourism. Not only have their industries been the slowest to re-open, many who work as bartenders, waiters and waitresses often live day to day and have few benefits.
While the government has been bickering with itself in an attempt to figure out how many more trillions it wants to print out of thin air and call a “stimulus package”, the rank and file restaurant workers continue to struggle mightily. And now, heading from summer to fall, outdoor dining will likely start to pare back.
AP told the story of one such waiter, who went from working at a steakhouse chain restaurant – always with enough money for groceries and his car – to now being homeless.
42 year old Jeff Lello, who had been waiting tables his whole life, was laid off back in March as a result of the pandemic. He was clearing about $100 per night in cash at his job and “often picked up extra shifts”. He never had to rely on food stamps or unemployment his whole life, the article notes.
But while he watched his savings dry up and he waiting for Florida’s backlogged unemployment system, he eventually couldn’t afford rent or his car. He went from living in an apartment with a roof over his head to literally living in a tent that he “purchased with his last $75”.
He had been living in his tent “deep in the woods” near “other homeless campers”. He had a cot with a sleeping bag and a shelf for food and belongings. He keeps one corner of his tent for clean clothes and the other for dirty. Most days he would wake up around 7AM and find a bathroom at a local store to freshen up and wash a shirt. From there, he would go to the food bank and grab a bag of pasta and sauce. Most of the food he would give away, since it required pots and electricity – but he would keep the peanut butter and granola bars.
He spent his days begging for money, food or jobs. “6 weeks with no help. Please,” his sign he would hold on the side of the road reads. He said people weren’t exactly eager to help: “I think the most I ever got was one dollar and a bag of oranges.”
He said: “I was truly, truly alone. I was going back to no one.”
He spent most days of summer in the library, charging his phone, applying for jobs – and checking on the status of his unemployment claim. On his inability to get government benefits, Lello said: “I don’t understand what I did wrong. Why me? I had just lost all hope in everything.”
One of his closest friends supported him by bringing him all of her spare change, allowing him to forward his mail to her and allowing him to shower at her home. Finally, at the end of July, she called him to inform him that his unemployment check had finally arrived: it was $4800 in back pay. Lello took her out to Dennys, then bought a van with AC, a roof, doors and an alarm to live in.
“When you’re homeless, the hardest thing is to get something hot,” he said.
His experience is a microcosm of the rest of the country right now. There are 20 million people currently living paycheck to paycheck that spend more than 30% of their income on rent, AP notes. These people are “likely to experience homelessness at some point, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless”.
Florida’s situation has been disproportionately worse. In fact, by June, the state had not paid 40% of its 2.2 million outstanding unemployment claims.
The National Coalition for the Homeless also predicts the number of people would could experience homelessness could rise by 45% due specifically to the effects of Covid.
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