- The Real Reason Behind China's "Zero-COVID" Policy
The Real Reason Behind China’s “Zero-COVID” Policy
Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,
Most of the Western world is no longer in lockdown, some vaccine mandates are being loosened, mask wearers are distinctly the minority everywhere you look.
For now at least, and for want of a better phrase, we have largely “gone back to normal”…except, you know, now with a totally broken economy, more centralised financial power, dozens of alarming precedents set up for future deployment and millions upon millions of people injected with poison under false pretences.
But on the lockdown front at least, we’re normal…mostly.
Lockdowns are quickly becoming one of those embarrassing things that were only ever supported by other people, like wearing flares or voting for Thatcher. Politicians are feverishly passing the buck back and forth, claiming to have never wanted lockdowns in the firstplace.
…but not in China.
As the rest of the world “lives with Covid”, people in Chinese cities are still subject to dystopian levels of control and surveillance. Up to and including being welded inside their own homes.
Why?
Well, we can certainly rule out a few mainstream “explanations”:
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We know it’s not because Covid is a real disease or uniquely dangerous in any way whatsoever. The data has spoken on that.
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We know it’s not because lockdowns work to protect the health of the public or prevent disease outbreaks. The data has spoken on that too.
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We know it’s not because the Chinese government holds the lives of their citizens as more precious than their Western counterparts.
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And we know it’s not because they were the victim of some bio-engineered viral attack by the West. That idea was always absurd.
…so what’s the real explanation?
Well, there are really several answers to that, all of which come back to our old friend the fake binary.
1. HEEL VS FACE
If you accept that the Covid “pandemic” was in fact a global psy-op, carried out by most of the governments of the world working in concert at the behest of supra-national financial, corporate and political interests, then it de facto follows that any apparent differences in approach or attitude between those co-operating governments serve a role in the narrative.
In short, someone has to play “the bad guy”.
In this case, China’s brutal “zero-Covid” approach allows the Western governments to claim the “moderate” label simply by virtue of not being so cartoonishly “evil” as China.
Of course, this works in both directions.
“The West” can say to their citizens, “look how brutal China’s lockdown was, we would never go that far, because we care about your rights”.
Meanwhile, China can say “look how lax and disorganized the West’s Covid response was, we would never be that careless, because we care about your health”.It is – and here’s that phrase again – a fake binary.
Each side serves as the good guy in their own narrative, and the bad guy in the other, and in that fashion they actually support each other whilst corralling each other’s dissidents into a controlled “alternative opinion”.
2. PROMOTING VACCINES
In The Guardian two days ago, the now-ubiquitous Devi Sridhar actually defended China’s “tough decisions” on Zero Covid, coming at it from the angle that China has to be that harsh because their vaccines don’t work as well as ours do:
China’s population has a lower vaccination rate, with vaccines that appear less effective, than in most other countries. And many people don’t have any immunity gained from a previous infection either. If China gives up on containment and allows a large wave of infections, the country will take a huge loss of life given current vaccination levels
The entire column is really just a way of shilling “safe and effective” mRNA vaccines (as well as other agenda we’ll deal with below):
Rising concerns about the low effectiveness of the non-mRNA Chinese vaccines were also a concern: studies indicated that protection faded fast and was undetectable after six months […] China takes, it needs to improve its vaccines. But to do this it will need access to mRNA technology, and this has been stuck at an impasse. Moderna has refused to transfer its technology to Chinese firms for manufacturing, instead eager to sell directly to a large market. China has instead worked to develop a homegrown mRNA vaccine but this has caused delays in rollout […] China need to get mRNA vaccines to the biggest priority groups quickly
Again, the twin-sided narrative.
The West says, “see, we don’t need these brutal lockdowns, because we’ve got magical vaccines”, with the inevitable unspoken corollary of this being “we’ll need to go into lockdowns if you don’t get vaccinated enough” .
Meanwhile, China gets to lay the blame for their own lockdowns on Western selfishness, “the only reason we have these lockdowns is the mean selfish Western companies won’t share their technology”. This neatly turns ALL pro-Chinese voices in Western alternate media voices into pro-vaccine voices too.
3. FEEDS THE LIE THAT “LOCKDOWNS WORK”
Lockdowns do not work to halt the spread of diseases and, before 2020, were never suggested or used in that manner.
Then, in the spring of 2020, almost every world government seemingly simultaneously took the unprecedented decision to go into lockdown to fight Covid. To justify this the mainstream narrative was in need of some evidence lockdowns work.
Enter China.
Over and over and over again you will read apparent “condemnation” of China’s lockdowns alongside the qualification of their supposedly low Covid death numbers.
In mainstream sources, the clear implication is left unspoken, but prominent alternative voices are happy to say it out loud: “These lockdowns may appear unethical, but they saved millions of lives.”
Since ALL Covid “cases” are entirely the product of PCR testing programs, and ALL “Covid deaths” are subject to ludicrously tortured definitions, we can conclude China’s Covid statistics are a contrivance designed to sell the idea that lockdowns actually work.
More than just lockdowns, an undercurrent of the pandemic narrative has been a softening of the public attitude to authoritarian governence in general, usually through compliments to China.
As early as March 2020 we had “experts” on Channel 4 praising China’s approach, we had Neil Ferguson lamenting the UK government didn’t have the power to follow China’s gameplan, we had western news outlets claiming China had “triumphed” over Covid.
The message was clear, and not at all subtle: “Man, obviously having no regard for individual rights is bad, but that approach really does seem to work, doesn’t it? Clearly, we would never do that, but you can’t deny it’s effective, can you?”
That messaging still carries on today, and it has nothing to do with China per se, and everything to do with the slow-burn legitimisation of tyranny by virtue of the ends justifying the means.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, China’s “zero covid” approach forms a vital piece of the overall pandemic narrative, working in conjunction with Western governments as a deliberately stark contrast:
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It promotes the idea that vaccines work and helped prevent further lockdowns here.
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It shines a flattering light on Western governments, who appear less draconian by comparison.
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It serves as an argument for the effectiveness of lockdowns and other authoritarian measures.
Perhaps most importantly, the supposed difference works to corral and control public debate.
Traditionally leftwing critics of Western capitalism are forced to defend vaccines and lockdowns by their ideological loyalty to China.
Conversely, right-wingers have China’s “socialist” practices to point their fingers at, whilst praising Western capitalist pharmaceutical innovation for saving us from the need for tighter lockdowns.
Each side is controlled by their ideology, not realising their loyalties are being used to position them inside the permissible spectrum of opinion.
All the while, both sides claim the virus is real and dangerous, both sides use the same PCR tests and both sides shill vaccines made by the same companies. The superficial “differences” serve only to sell their many points of agreement.
In other words, the divide over Covid tactics is as real as the fight over Ukraine. It all serves the same purpose, promoting the great reset and the global technocratic government. A system neither communist nor capitalist, but absorbing the worst vices of whilst purging the virtues.
Zero Covid is just China working as the other side of the scissors.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 23:55 -
- Texting Is Alive And Well At 30
Texting Is Alive And Well At 30
30 years ago, on December 3, 1992, the English software engineer Neil Papworth used his computer to send a message to Vodafone director Richard Jarvis. The message simply read “Merry Christmas” but it became known as the first SMS message ever sent, because Jarvis received the slightly premature Christmas greetings on his clunky Orbitel 901 cell phone. He never replied.
As Statista’s Martin Armstroing notes, it took a while for text messages to really take off, but in the early 2000s texting really hit the mainstream and became a very lucrative side business for mobile carriers around the world.
At the time, operators typically charged a fee of $0.10 to $0.20 per SMS, which, considering the 160 character limit, quickly piled up for more chatty users.
As Armstrong shows in the chart below, text messaging (including MMS) in the United States peaked in 2011, when U.S. cell phone users sent a total of 2.4 trillion messages, up from 162 billion five years earlier. Over the proceeding few years however, the popularity of text messages, at least in the form of SMS, began to wane.
You will find more infographics at Statista
These days, smartphone users mainly text each other using free SMS alternatives such as iMessage or WhatsApp.
That said, the good old-fashioned SMS is still clinging on to its relevance, with somewhat of a reprisal in recent years in the U.S. and a solid 2 trillion sent last year.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 23:35 - The "Crazy, Right-Wing Shooter" Myth
The “Crazy, Right-Wing Shooter” Myth
Authored by John Lott Jr via RealClearPolitics.com,
If you only read the New York Times editorials, you’d believe that political violence in America is a “right-wing” problem. The Times has been warning of violence from the right for years, but on Nov. 19 and 26, they wrote two long editorials making these claims. The violence stems from the lies “enthusiastically spread” by Republican politicians. Democrats’ only complicity was their $53 million in spending on “far-right fringe candidates in the primaries.” The fringe candidates, it was hoped, would be easier to beat in the general election.
Both editorials mention the mass murderer in Buffalo, New York, as a political right-winger. But they have been doing that all year. In May, the Times claimed he was of the right because he was racist and listened to a video on a “site known for hosting right-wing extremism.”
The headline in the Times announced:
“Replacement theory, espoused by the suspect in the Buffalo massacre, has been embraced by some right-wing politicians and commentators.”
You wouldn’t know it from reading the Times, but the Buffalo killer was yet another mass murderer motivated by environmentalism.
In his manifesto, the Buffalo mass murderer self-identifies as an “eco-fascist national socialist” and a member of the “mild-moderate authoritarian left.” He expresses concern that minority immigrants have too many children and will damage the environment. “The invaders are the ones overpopulating the world,” he writes. “Kill the invaders, kill the overpopulation and by doing so save the environment.”
The murderer argues that capitalists are destroying the environment, and are at the root of much of the problem.
“The trade of goods is to be discouraged at all costs,” he insists.
Overpopulation and the environment are hardly signature conservative issues.
It’s certainly not something you’ll hear Donald Trump talk about at his rallies. And while some Republicans believe in limiting international trade, it’s certainly not for environmental reasons.
The Buffalo murderer’s manifesto has word-for-word similarities to those of the mass shooters in 2019 at a New Zealand mosque and at an El Paso Walmart.
But the New York Times has consistently referred to the New Zealand mosque attacker as “far-right,” and tried to link the murderer to President Donald Trump’s supposedly racist language. The Times describes the El Paso murderer as having “echoed the incendiary words of conservative media stars” who have spoken out against illegal immigration.
But conservatives don’t usually declare that “conservatism is dead” and that “global capitalist markets are the enemy of racial autonomists.” Nor do they call themselves “eco-fascist” and profess that, “The nation with the closest political and social values to my own is the People’s Republic of China.”
The El Paso murderer had the same sentiments.
“The decimation of the environment is creating a massive burden for future generations … The next logical step is to decrease the number of people in America using resources. If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can become more sustainable.”
All three of these deranged killers made minorities their principal target. But they’ve done so out of a crazy environmentalist determination to reduce the human population by whatever means necessary.
The news media and politicians who constantly warn about the world’s imminent end can’t bring themselves to acknowledge the environmentalist connection, even though climate activists time and again agree that overpopulation is part of the problem. “It does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question: Is it okay to still have children?” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2019. She also warned that the “‘world will end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.”
Similarly, President Biden fans the flames of alarmism when he claims that “climate change poses an existential threat to our lives … this is code red.”
Of the 82 mass public shootings from January 1998 to May 2021, 9% have known or alleged ties to white supremacists, neo-Nazis, or anti-immigrant views.
But many of those, such as the Buffalo murderer, are environmentalist authoritarians.
Another 9% of mass public shootings are carried out by people of middle eastern origin, despite them making up only 0.4% of the US population. Whites and Hispanics are underrepresented as a share of the population. Blacks, Asians, and American Indians commit these attacks at a slightly higher rate than their share of the population.
Seventy-one percent of mass public shooters have no identifiable political views.
Even violence against pro-life people and organizations this year has been over 22 times more frequent that violence against pro-choice groups.
The New York Times, like the Washington Post and other news outlets, is intent on construing any racist as a conservative, right-winger. But they aren’t. And if there’s any ideological cause that really is sparking violence, it’s environmental extremism.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 23:15 - Walmart CEO Warns Retail Thefts Will Lead To Price Hikes, Store Closures
Walmart CEO Warns Retail Thefts Will Lead To Price Hikes, Store Closures
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the massive wave of retail thefts at company stores will lead to higher prices or closed stores if the problem persists.
“Theft is an issue. It’s higher than what it has historically been,” McMillon told Squawk Box’s hosts.
“We’ve got safety measures, security measures that we’ve put in place by store location. I think local law enforcement being staffed and being a good partner is part of that equation, and that’s normally how we approach it,” he continued.
Squawk Box’s Rebecca Quick then pointed out how certain cities have changed shoplifting rules, making it harder for police to prosecute criminals. She asked McMillon: “Does that matter?”
He responded: “If that’s not corrected over time, prices will be higher, and/or stores will close.”
Besides Walmart, Target complained last month about an organized retail crime wave, resulting in a massive hit on profits this year. The retailer employed theft-deterrent merchandising strategies, but that wasn’t enough to stop criminals from running off with everything on the shelves.
Target’s latest earnings report revealed gross profit margins were reduced by $400 million this year due to shrinking, the industry’s term for theft and product loss.
Target CFO Michael Fiddelke said, “We know we’re not alone across retail in seeing a trend [crime wave] that I think has gotten increasingly worse over the last 12 to 18 months.”
Organized retail crime has exploded under the Biden administration while progressive-run cities implement social justice reform. Such policies have backfired and fueled a nationwide crime wave.
Walmart and Target blame thefts on organized crime gangs. Stores have deployed on/off duty police and shatterproof glass cabinets to guard high-value items.
US retailers have demanded Congress do something. The US Chamber of Commerce has described the looting as a “national crisis.”
Walmart could follow Walgreens Pharmacy’s playbook and begin closing stores in Democrat-controlled cities to mitigate theft.
Here’s the full interview:
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 22:55 - Democrat Warnock Beats Walker To Win Georgia Senate Runoff
Democrat Warnock Beats Walker To Win Georgia Senate Runoff
Update (2245ET): With 95% of votes counted, a number of mainstream media outlets have called the Georgia Senate Runoff election for incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock.
Well over 1 million people went to the polls Tuesday. That followed record-breaking early voting in the runoff, in which about 1.85 million in-person and mail-in votes had been tallied by Dec. 2, the last day of early voting.
Mr. Warnock’s victory means that Democrats will control the Senate 51-49 starting in January, slightly increasing their hold on the chamber they have controlled since early 2021, when Mr. Warnock was first elected, along with his Georgia Democratic colleague Sen. Jon Ossoff.
The win means Democrats will have control of Senate committees outright and will no longer have to adhere to a power-sharing agreement with the GOP.
* * *
Georgia voters will head to the polls on Tuesday to settle the final Senate contest in the country between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and football legend Herschel Walker, following a four-week runoff that has attracted a flood of outside spending.
The outcome of Tuesday’s vote will determine whether Democrats will have a 51-49 Senate majority, or will maintain the 50-50 control of the chamber which often resulted in the party kowtowing to centrist Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ).
Atlanta voters were greeted Tuesday morning with 40-degree weather with rain.
The contest between Walker and Warnock pits the state’s first black senator and senior minister against Walker, who has the support of former President Donald Trump. If Warnock wins, it would solidify Georgia’s status as a battleground state heading into the 2024 election, AP reports. If Walker wins, it would reflect limited Democratic gains in the state – particularly in light of Republicans marking wide-ranging victories across the state in last month’s midterm elections.
In that election, Warnock led Walker by about 37,000 votes out of almost 4 million cast but fell shy of a majority, triggering the second round of voting. About 1.9 million votes already have been cast by mail and during early voting, an advantage for Democrats whose voters more commonly cast ballots this way. Republicans typically fare better on voting done on Election Day, with the margins determining the winner.
Last month, Walker, 60, ran more than 200,000 votes behind Republican Gov. Brian Kemp after a campaign dogged by intense scrutiny of his past, meandering campaign speeches and a bevy of damaging allegations, including claims that he paid for two former girlfriends’ abortions — accusations that Walker has denied. -AP
On Monday Walker campaigned with his wife, Julie, where he thanked supporters and backed off the attacks on Warnock.
“I love y’all, and we’re gonna win this election,” he told supporters at a winery in Ellijay, adding “I love winning championships.”
As far as campaign spending, Warnock’s has spent around $170 million vs. Walker’s $60 million or so, according to federal disclosures. Their respective party committees have spent more, according to the report.
During the campaign Warnock attacked Walker’s rocky past – claiming the ex-NFL star paid for two former girlfriends abortions, while Walker was forced to admit during the campaign that he fathered three children out of wedlock whom he had never publicly acknowledged.
Walker, a multi-millionaire and successful businessman, has campaigned on his business achievements and philanthropic activities – though he was caught exaggerating, saying he employed hundreds of people and grossed tens of millions of dollars in sales, when in fact he employed eight people and had around $1.5 million in average annual sales.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 22:48 - Biden's Climate Change War Picks Up Steam In More Ways Than One
Biden’s Climate Change War Picks Up Steam In More Ways Than One
By Mish Shedlock of MishTalk
US allies are steaming mad at Biden for his climate change war. Let’s discuss who fired the first shot and who is escalating the war.
The Wall Street Journal comments Biden Starts a Climate Trade War
Wasn’t President Biden going to end Donald Trump’s destructive trade wars against allies? Apparently not. His “super aggressive” climate protectionism—to quote French President Emmanuel Macron—is infuriating U.S. friends and may set off a subsidy and tariff war.
U.S. allies are upset about the Inflation Reduction Act’s generous subsidies for domestically manufactured green technologies. In his trip to Washington last week, Mr. Macron said the U.S. subsidies may “perhaps fix your issue but you will increase my problem.” They’re really a problem for everybody.
The dispute involves tax credits for electric-vehicle and battery production. The IRA’s $7,500 consumer tax credit are restricted to EVs assembled in North America. Most foreign auto makers make EVs abroad and export them because the global and U.S. markets are still small.
The law also offers generous tax credits for domestic EV battery production, including a $35 per kilowatt-hour credit for U.S.-made battery cells, plus $10 per kilowatt-hour for domestically produced modules. These credits are expected to shave the cost of producing an EV battery by 30% to 40% and reportedly prompted Tesla to reconsider plans to make battery cells in Germany.
A Toyota spokesman in Canada spoke the truth: “While the IRA is being presented in many quarters as key legislation to fight climate change, in reality it is an act of trade protectionism.” The Canadian Steel Producers Association has warned that U.S. steel producers would also indirectly benefit from the climate subsidies without incurring carbon costs.
WTO Subsidy Violations
Under WTO rules, Biden is offering illegal subsidies. The EU’s game is illegal tariffs.
EU Tries to Convince Trading Partners Its Carbon Tax is Not a Tax
Please recall my July 6 post EU Tries to Convince Trading Partners Its Carbon Tax is Not a Tax
The EU wants to stop “carbon leakage”. Supposedly a carbon tax will do the trick.
In order to keep profits up in the EU, the EU resorted to CBAM, a carbon border adjustment mechanism designed to cut emissions by creating financial incentives for greener production and by discouraging “carbon leakage.”
The US way of doing business was to hand out subsidies to favored union businesses, especially GM.
Since direct handouts are more efficient at graft than tariffs, the EU is now steaming mad.
Inflationary Practices
Trump started trade wars with most of the world. Biden has escalated them.
Both the EU’s CBAM initiative and Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act are inflationary. They raise prices on the end consumer by shutting out foreign competition.
De-carbonization and deglobalization are both very inflationary. The Fed will have to kill a lot of demand to make up for competing idiotic trade and energy policies.
For more on the IRA please see my November 30 post The EU is Very Worried About Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 22:35 - US Army Selects Bell's V-280 To Replace Black Hawk Helicopters
US Army Selects Bell’s V-280 To Replace Black Hawk Helicopters
Late Monday evening, the US Army awarded Textron Inc’s Bell unit with the contract to build the next-generation helicopter, ending years of fierce competition between Lockheed Martin Corp.-Boeing Co. to replace the aging fleet of Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks by 2030.
The Army’s “Future Vertical Lift” award went to Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft, similar to the V-22 Osprey. The new aircraft can take off and land vertically like a helicopter but rotate massive props to fly like a fixed-wing aircraft at impressive speeds.
“The V-280’s unmatched combination of proven tiltrotor technology coupled with innovative digital engineering and an open architecture offers the Army outstanding operational versatility for its vertical lift fleet,” Bell said in a statement.
“We are honored that the US Army has selected the Bell V-280 Valor as its next-generation assault aircraft.
“We intend to honor that trust by building a truly remarkable and transformational weapon system to meet the Army’s mission requirements. We are excited to play an important role in the future of Army Aviation,” Scott C. Donnelly, Textron’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Shares of Textron jumped significantly on the news, back at their highest since April…
Textron didn’t release the terms of the contract. However, Bloomberg noted the contract was worth up to $1.3 billion, with development expected to take approximately 19 months.
The Army said V-280 will “provide transformational increases in speed, range, payload, and endurance to replace a portion of the Army’s current assault and utility aircraft fleet.”
Douglas Bush, Army assistant secretary for acquisition, told reporters at the Pentagon Monday that the selection of the V-280 “is our chance to move to the next step in this vital program.” Army officials said if all contract options were exercised, it could rise to $7 billion, including the first initial low-rate production of the next-generation helicopter.
The Army has been testing and evaluating another aircraft besides the V-280: A coaxial lift compound rotor helicopter called Defiant X, built by the Lockheed-Boeing team.
Lockheed-Boeing group released a statement that the fight to win the contract wasn’t over:
“We remain confident Defiant X is the transformational aircraft the US Army requires to accomplish its complex missions today and well into the future,” the group said. “We will evaluate our next steps after reviewing feedback from the Army.”
Rapid modernization efforts are underway for the US military. Last Friday, the Air Force unveiled the next-generation bomber called the B-21 Raider.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 22:15 - FTX Crypto Fraudsters Targeted Poor Black Neighborhoods In PR-Lobbying Effort
FTX Crypto Fraudsters Targeted Poor Black Neighborhoods In PR-Lobbying Effort
Authored by Michael Shellenberger via Substack,
Father of FTX CEO, Stanford Professor Joseph Bankman, oversaw intertwined philanthropic and regulatory efforts…
In the spring of 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, made Chicago its U.S. headquarters, drawing the applause of the city’s mayor.
“This is a mechanism and a tool to bring traditionally underrepresented and ignored populations into the world of crypto so they can take ownership and control of their own financial destiny,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the opulent, 9,000 square foot FTX headquarters in May.
“I think the sky is the limit.”
The reason FTX.US chose Chicago was, in part, to use the city to pilot a cash giveaway program aimed at poor African American residents.
FTX was essentially contributing to two ”guaranteed basic income” programs, one run by a nonprofit called Equity And Transformation (EAT), and the other by the city.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot cuts the balloon at FTX headquarters in Chicago. Next to her is Richard Wallace, founder of the Equity and Transformation (EAT) nonprofit which aimed to give cash to poor people of color.
Ostensibly a charitable exercise, the program, which FTX also ran in Florida, expanded the market for FTX’s app, and appears to have been a crucial part of a public relations and lobbying effort aimed at winning the support of Democrats for FTX’s agenda to effectively regulate itself.
Bankman-Fried was the second largest donor to both President Joe Biden in 2020 and to Democrats in 2022, after George Soros.
There is abundant evidence that Bankamn-Fried’s donations bought influence.
After Bankman-Fried testified in May to a Congressional committee chaired by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), she blew him a kiss.
The episode is a cautionary tale about how powerful financial interests use progressive social justice ideology to advance their business interests at the expense of the communities they claim to be helping.
“We, like most nonprofits, are shocked by this because they presented this ‘effective altruism’ model to everyone and seemed to push for racial equity,” said Richard Wallace, the co-founder and executive director of EAT, one of the cash-giveaway initiatives.
The whole strategy was overseen by Bankman-Fried’s father, Joseph Bankman, a Stanford Law professor.
I am the first to report that Bankman had been working for FTX from the very beginning.
“From the start [of FTX], whenever I was useful, I lent a hand,” said Bankman.
Bankman went on to describe the cash giveaway scheme.
“Like all FTX app users,” he explained, “you get a bank account with your app, if you want it. So in Chicago, for example, we’re working with justice-impacted families. A lot of poor families, especially people of color, have had family members spend time in prison. That’s what we mean by ‘justice-impacted.’ Almost none of these people have bank accounts.”
The connections between the Bankman-Fried family and Democrats ran deep…
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 21:55 - FBI Investigates Gun Attack On North Carolina Power Grid
FBI Investigates Gun Attack On North Carolina Power Grid
The FBI joined state and local law enforcement officials to investigate deliberate attacks on two power substations in North Carolina.
Shelley Lynch, a spokesperson for the FBI field office in Charlotte, told The Washington Post that agents are on the ground at the substations in Moore County. They’re investigating the “willful damage” of power systems brought down by gunfire on Saturday night. She declined to provide further details.
Duke Energy personnel inspect power systems damaged by bullets.
About 36,000 customers of Duke Energy in southeastern North Carolina were without power early Tuesday morning. Officials estimate service repairs could take several days to complete.
A state of emergency was declared over the weekend, with a countywide curfew from 9 pm to 5 am. Schools will remain closed for a second day.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told reporters in a news briefing on Monday, “this kind of attack raises a whole new level of threat.” He added safeguarding critical infrastructure must be a “top priority.”
“The person, or persons, who did this knew exactly what they were doing … not sure why they targeted Moore County,” Sheriff Ronnie Fields said at a news conference on Sunday.
Fields said the FBI was working with local authorities to determine who was responsible, adding someone rode up and “opened fire on the substation, the same thing with the other one.” There was no word on the type of weapon or caliber used in the incident.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 21:35 - Army Plans 'Dramatic' Hike In Ammo Production
Army Plans ‘Dramatic’ Hike In Ammo Production
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The US Army is planning a “dramatic” increase in the production of 155mm artillery rounds as the US has sent a staggering amount of ammunition to Ukraine over the past eight months.
According to a Pentagon fact sheet released at the end of November, the US has sent Ukraine 924,000 155mm artillery rounds to Ukraine since February 24. The US currently makes 14,000 155mm rounds each month, but the Army is set to ramp that up.
US Army image “Funding is already in place, contracts are underway to basically triple 155mm production,” Doug Bush, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, told Defense News. “There’s funding on the Hill, in the supplemental, to more than double that again. That would take a period of years.”
Bush said that the US wants to increase the amount of ammunition it has to higher than the levels it had before Russia invaded Ukraine. “We want to be able to build our stocks not just where we started the war, but higher. We’re posturing for a pretty ― over a period of three years ― a dramatic increase in conventional artillery ammunition production,” Bush said.
Bush said that the plan will use aid that has already been authorized for Ukraine but will require new funding that’s part of the $37.7 billion aid package the White House has asked Congress to approve.
Congress is also working to include an amendment to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that would give the Pentagon wartime purchasing power to accelerate arms production. Among other things, the authority would allow the Pentagon to offer multi-year contracts for purchases that are typically reserved for larger equipment, such as warplanes and naval vessels.
Regrettably, some of my congressional colleagues are more concerned about tracking that $600 Venmo payment you made than tracking $60,000,000,000 of your money they sent to Ukraine.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 5, 2022
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
According to Defense News, the Army has awarded contracts to three private companies to help in the production of 155mm artillery, including General Dynamics, American Ordnance, and IMT Defense.
The US policy of shipping tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine, led by former Raytheon board member Lloyd Austin, has been a boon for defense contractors. Last week, Raytheon was awarded a $1.2 billion contract to produce air defense systems for Ukraine.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 21:15 - Polestar Charges $17.50 Per Horsepower For Boost Package As Microtransactions Invade Car Industry
Polestar Charges $17.50 Per Horsepower For Boost Package As Microtransactions Invade Car Industry
We’ve come across what could be another automotive company intentionally detuning engines so it can offer performance packages to customers via an over-the-air update.
Swedish EV car company Polestar, a subsidiary of Volvo and Geely, is charging customers $17.50 per horsepower in an over-the-air software update for the long-range, dual-motor variant of the 2, reported Autoblog.
The upgrade adds 68 horsepower and 15 pound-feet of torque that boosts the 2’s dual-motor powertrain from 408hp and 487 lb-ft of torque to 476hp and 502 lb-ft. It will cost a one-time fee of $1,195.
What is intriguing about Polestar’s performance boost package blocked behind a paywall is that the power is already there and may suggest the company is intentionally detuning the vehicles to milk the customer for every last cent.
Polestar isn’t the only one doing this. Just weeks ago, Mercedes-Benz unveiled the “Acceleration Increase” package for its EV Mercedes-EQ models, which costs $1,200 for a yearly subscription and will boost horsepower.
And it gets worse. BMW recently sparked social media uproar by charging an $18 monthly subscription in some countries for owners to use heated seats already installed in the vehicle.
So far, Polestar, Mercedes, and BMW have embraced microtransactions, which force customers to make in-car purchases to enhance or unlock features.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 20:55 - Can A Deeply Unserious America Fix Its Economy?
Can A Deeply Unserious America Fix Its Economy?
Authored by Jeff Deist via The Mises Institute,
Does America simply lack the political will to face economic reality?
In the teeth of the Depression, Treasury secretary Andrew Mellon famously told President Herbert Hoover to “liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate”—in other words, to resist bailing out any industry through state intervention. This was a tough sell even in those days, and of course Hoover succumbed to politics and took the opposite approach, greatly and needlessly damaging the US economy for decades to come.
Less often quoted are Mellon’s follow-up words to Hoover: Liquidation would “purge the rottenness out of the system,” so “people will work harder” and “live a more moral life.”
Mellon, having lived most of his life in an America without a central bank, understood economic recessions as necessary cures rather than ills to be avoided. But he also understood the human price that would be paid in the aftermath of a period of phony economic prosperity. Only hard work and personal sacrifice, person by person and town by town, could get America out of its economic mess. Fiscal and monetary policy would provide no free lunch, as millions of Americans learned the hard way in the 1930s.
Fast-forward to 2022, and it’s hard to imagine Janet Yellen calling for liquidation or telling Americans to improve their moral fiber. Nobody votes for austerity or personal responsibility, and any politician or bureaucrat or central banker who even suggests it is doomed today.
Yet this mythology of austerity persists, that a stingy federal Treasury and reticent central bank don’t intervene enough in economic crises. Consider this howler from Paul Krugman back in 2011, apparently delivered with a straight face: “One thing is clear: Mellon-style liquidationism is now the official doctrine of the G.O.P.” Keep in mind he wrote this several years into the most “extraordinary” monetary intervention in the history of the world—one which ultimately saw the US Fed purchase several trillions’ worth of Treasury debt from the “market”! Yet for Krugman, it is never enough.
As the bruising midterm elections recently demonstrated, America is a deeply unserious country. A serious political discussion at the federal level would center on existential structural problems of war and peace, debt and the dollar, and entitlements. But these issues can be addressed only by real austerity and real pain. So instead, we distract and divert ourselves worrying about whether Donald Trump should be allowed on Twitter. We argue over flu viruses, guns, transgenderism, climate, and abortion (none of which the federal government has the slightest jurisdiction over) rather than the material standard of living we will leave our grandchildren.
This is possible only because millions of Americans, maybe a majority, are simply economics deniers. They either don’t believe economic laws exist or think economics can be overcome by legislation, regulation, or central bank actions. And there are plenty of deniers among the ranks of professional economists! The profession does itself no favors when it cheerleads for politics, providing an intellectual veneer for interventionism. Human nature makes us want to believe untrue things, but economics should help disabuse Americans of political fantasies.
Let’s face it: the US is not a free-market economy because we don’t much believe in markets, despite our lip service. Most Americans, and virtually all political, media, academic, corporate, and banking elites, believe economic intervention (fiscal and monetary stimulus) form the basis of our economy—not production and saving.
So, what would a serious America do to correct our disastrous economic path? This may seem like an academic or rhetorical question, but it’s worth laying out the actual steps necessary to build a real economy rather than a fake one dependent on monetary or fiscal interventionism. As Dr. Mark Thornton recently explained, these steps may be conceptually simple even as they are wildly beyond political imagination today:
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a wholesale adoption of laissez-faire economic doctrine by national politicians;
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immediate deep tax and regulatory reductions;
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immediate sharp reductions in government spending at every level (leaving federal spending well below federal revenue);
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rigorous entitlement cuts, using some combination of means testing and raising age eligibility for both Social Security and Medicare;
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rigorous defense spending cuts of at least 50 percent, combined with a radically reduced US military footprint overseas;
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cessation of new debt issuance by the US Treasury;
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cessation of active monetary “policy” by the Federal Reserve Bank, meaning no intervention with respect to the money supply, interest rates, or credit and debt markets (including US Treasurys);
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a radical reduction in the Fed’s balance sheet by letting existing Treasurys mature and roll off;
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an entirely hands-off approach allowing the US dollar to float freely relative to other currencies and commodities;
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an express policy against bailouts or subsidies of any kind to any industry or company, regardless of the severity of an economic downturn;
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allowing troubled industries or companies, no matter how big, to fail—through bankruptcy and asset sales; investor losses; and firing boards, management, and employees when restructuring is possible;
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actively encouraging business and individuals to save (through market/floating interest rates);
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elimination of any price ceilings or floors on prices, wages, and profits;
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elimination of any unemployment subsidies to individuals, along with abolition of minimum wage laws; and finally,
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the immediate sale of federal land and other assets to reduce debt service on the $31 trillion in Treasury obligations and to restore worldwide confidence in the US economy.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what a real program of austerity looks like. That these actions are politically unfeasible—complete nonstarters—shows how politics dominates economics in America. The profession charged with explaining how no free lunch is possible instead mostly operates as a handmaiden to the state and its bosses. But politics won’t fix this, and we won’t vote our way out of trouble.
The best path forward is at the state and local levels, attempting to build regional economies with less fragility in the face of the warring, borrowing, spending, and devaluing mania of Uncle Sam.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 20:35 -
- Hurricane In December? 50% Formation Odds In Atlantic As Storm Churns
Hurricane In December? 50% Formation Odds In Atlantic As Storm Churns
Nearly one week after the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season ended, an incredibly rare tropical disturbance formed over the central subtropical Atlantic.
The National Hurricane Center released a tropical weather outlook on Tuesday, explaining the storm has a 50% chance of becoming the 15th named storm of the season over the next two 2-5 days.
“Environmental conditions appear marginally conducive for development and a subtropical or tropical storm could form in the next couple of days,” NHC said. However, it added:
“By Thursday night or Friday, the low will move northeastward over cooler waters and interact with a mid-latitude trough, limiting subtropical or tropical development of the system.”
Christianne Pearce, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office, told Tampa Bay Times the storm doesn’t threaten Florida or the US as it moves northeast into even cooler waters.
“The probability of having a storm this late in the season is very low because the waters out there are a lot cooler.
“We just have different atmospheric phenomenon happening that kind of put a damper on those things developing,” Pearce said.
The Atlantic hurricane season begins on June 1 and concludes on Nov. 30. Tropical storms and hurricanes forming in December are rare. According to Fox 35 Orlando, data between 1851 to 2017 showed that 2% of tropical storms formed outside “off months” (December to May) of the season.
Keep an eye on the Atlantic’s tropical region over the next few days. If the storm does form, it will be named “Owen.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 20:15 - Canada To Increase Warship Presence In Taiwan Strait: Foreign Affairs Minister
Canada To Increase Warship Presence In Taiwan Strait: Foreign Affairs Minister
Authored by Peter Wilson via The Epoch Times,
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada is planning to increase its number of warships in the Taiwan Strait as a message to China that the waters are not its national property.
“We will continue to enforce the international rules-based order when it comes to the Taiwan Strait. And that’s why also we had a frigate going through the Taiwan Strait this summer, along with the Americans, [and] we’re looking to have more frigates going through it,” Joly told the Financial Times.
“We need to make sure that the question of the Taiwan Strait is clear and that it remains an international strait.”
The Taiwan Strait is a stretch of international waters less than 200 kilometres wide separating Taiwan from mainland China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin had said at a regular news briefing in Beijing on June 13: “There is no such thing as international waters in international maritime law. … Relevant countries claim that the Taiwan Strait is in international waters with the aim to manipulate the Taiwan question and threaten China’s sovereignty.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Joly’s comments come less than two weeks after she unveiled Canada’s new Indo-Pacific Strategy, during the announcement of which the Foreign Affairs Minister referred to China as an “increasingly disruptive” global power.
The new strategy also includes a pledge by the federal government to spend $2.2. billion on investments in the region over the next five years.
Joly said Canada will be “committing to new military assets” in the Indo-Pacific, and later told reporters in Bucharest, Romania, where she is attending a NATO foreign affairs ministers’ meeting, that Canada must “play a role in the security” of the Indo-Pacific.
“We need to invest in deterrence because we believe … it is the best way to, at the end of the day, respect international norms,” she said.
More Military
Before Joly announced the strategy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canadian Armed Forces will also be increasing its presence in the Indo-Pacific region, with additional investments by the federal government to support them.
“We’ll be making new investments to enhance the Canadian Armed Forces engagement in the region,” Trudeau told reporters in Bangkok, Thailand, on Nov. 18. “This will support our allies, Japan and South Korea, and all of us in the Pacific.”
Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy also says China continues to disregard “international norms” as a means toward becoming the region’s “leading power.”
“China’s assertive pursuit of its economic and security interests, advancement of unilateral claims, foreign interference and increasingly coercive treatment of other countries and economies have significant implications in the region, in Canada and around the world,” the strategy reads.
Joly previously said Canada will “challenge China when we ought to, and we will cooperate with China when we must” when speaking to reporters in Toronto, on Nov. 9.
“Its sheer size and influence makes cooperation necessary to address the world’s existential pressures,” she said.
However, while recently speaking to reporters in Bucharest, Joly also reacted to a report from the Pentagon released several days ago saying China is on pace to almost quadruple its number of nuclear warheads by 2035.
Joly said Canada is “taking note definitely” of China’s increasing nuclear capacity and said Canada will “make sure we have better intelligence capacity across the region” in the near future.
“We are a Pacific nation, we need to make sure that we play a bigger role,” she said, according to the Financial Post.
“Since this part of the world is so important for us, we need to be a reliable partner because for too long we weren’t.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 19:55 - Musk's Neuralink Suddenly Under Investigation Over Animal Testing
Musk’s Neuralink Suddenly Under Investigation Over Animal Testing
Knives are out for Elon Musk, after the richest man in the world bought Twitter, began reinstating the accounts of ‘political prisoners’ banned by wokelings for unpopular speech, and then began releasing evidence of 2020 election interference via the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Remember, the FBI and other official bodies went around warning Facebook and Twitter about a Russian hacking campaign right before the Hunter laptop story hit, and said companies appear to have gladly complied with said ‘tap on the shoulder.’
So now, Musk’s Neuralink – a medical device company, is now under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations (Anthony Fauci’s ‘cruel’ puppy experiments are just fine, by the by), according to information leaked to Reuters from somewhere.
Neuralink is developing a brain implant in the hopes of helping paralyzed people walk again (and probably put your Tesla in valet mode by just thinking about it). According to Reuters, the federal probe was opened months ago, but disclosed just now, for some reason.
The probe was opened by the US Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General at the request of a federal prosecutor, who alleges that Neuralink has committed violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
The investigation has come at a time of growing employee dissent about Neuralink’s animal testing, including complaints that pressure from CEO Musk to accelerate development has resulted in botched experiments, according to a Reuters review of dozens of Neuralink documents and interviews with more than 20 current and former employees. Such failed tests have had to be repeated, increasing the number of animals being tested and killed, the employees say. The company documents include previously unreported messages, audio recordings, emails, presentations and reports. -Reuters
In total, approximately 1,500 animals have been killed – including over 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys, since 2018 according to records reviewed by Reuters.
Why were so many animals killed? Because evil Elon demanded results, and fast!
Through company discussions and documents spanning several years, along with employee interviews, Reuters identified four experiments involving 86 pigs and two monkeys that were marred in recent years by human errors. The mistakes weakened the experiments’ research value and required the tests to be repeated, leading to more animals being killed, three of the current and former staffers said. The three people attributed the mistakes to a lack of preparation by a testing staff working in a pressure-cooker environment. -Reuters
Fauci’s puppies, meanwhile, had their heads locked in mesh cages with hungry sand flies so that the insects could ‘eat them alive,’ all to test an experimental drug.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 19:35 - Deglobalization And The End Of Trust-Based Money Set The Stage For National Bitcoin Adoption
Deglobalization And The End Of Trust-Based Money Set The Stage For National Bitcoin Adoption
Authored by Ansel Lindner via Bitcoin Magazine.com,
Breakdowns in global trade and credit call for money that doesn’t depend on trust. Bitcoin is the modern answer for international economics…
Two forces have dominated the globe economically and politically for the last 75 years: globalization and trust-based money. However, the time for both of these forces has passed, and their waning will bring about a great reset of the global order.
But this is not the global, Marxist kind of Great Reset promoted by Klaus Schwab and those who attend Davos. This is an emergent, market-driven reset characterized by a multipolar world and a new monetary system.
GLOBALIZATION IS ENDING
The first reaction I usually get to my claim that the age of hyper-globalization is ending is flippant disbelief. People have so completely integrated the environment of the dying global order into their economic understanding that they cannot fathom a world where the cost-to-benefit analysis of globalization is different. Even after COVID-19 exposed the fragility of complex supply chains, like when the U.S. very nearly ran out of surgical masks and basic medications or when the world struggled to source semiconductors, people have yet to realize the shift that is happening.
Is it that hard to imagine that the businessmen who designed such fragile, overcomplicated production processes didn’t properly weigh the risks?
All that is needed to break globalization is for risk-adjusted costs to change a few percentage points and outweigh the benefits. The pennies saved by outsourcing numerous tasks to numerous jurisdictions will no longer outweigh the possibility of complete collapse of supply chains.
These concerns about fragile supply chains did not disappear as horrible COVID-19 policies ended. Now, they have shifted to concerns about trade wars and real wars. U.S. trade sanctions against China, the Russian conflict with NATO-proxy Ukraine and subsequent sanctions, the seemingly-erratic U.S. position on Taiwan, the coronation of Xi Jinping and his Marxist revival, the Nord Stream sabotage, the clear split of international consensus in the UN and even the weaponization of these international institutions, and most recently, the Turkish ground offensive versus the Kurds — all these things should be interpreted as a rise in costs.
Gone is the time when complex supply chains were robust against typical risks. The risks today are much more systemic. Sure, there were skirmishes around the world and disagreements among parliaments, but great powers did not openly threaten one another’s spheres of influence. Risk-adjusted costs and benefits to globalization have radically changed.
CREDIT DOESN’T LIKE CONFLICT
Very closely related to deglobalization of supply chains is deglobalization of credit markets. The same factors that affect business peoples’ physical, risk-adjusted costs and benefits are also felt by bankers.
Banks don’t want to be exposed to the risk of war or sanctions wrecking their borrowers. In the current environment of deglobalization and rising risks to international trade, banks will naturally pull back on lending to those associated activities. Instead, banks will fund safer projects, likely fully-domestic or friend-shoring opportunities. The natural reaction by banks to this risky global environment will be credit contraction.
The deglobalization of supply chains and credit will be as closely linked on the way down as they were on the way up. It will start slowly, but pick up speed. A feedback loop of rising risk leading to shorter supply chains and less credit creation.
THE CREDIT-BASED U.S. DOLLAR
The prevailing form of money in the world is the credit-based U.S. dollar. Every dollar is created through debt, making every dollar someone else’s debt. Money is printed out of thin air in the process of making a loan.
This is different from pure fiat money. When fiat money is printed, the balance sheet of the printer adds assets alone. However, in a credit-based system, when money is printed in a loan, the printer creates an asset and a liability. The borrower’s balance sheet then has an offsetting liability and asset, respectively. Every dollar (or euro or yen, for that matter) is therefore an asset and a liability, and the loan that created that dollar is both an asset and a liability.
This system works extremely well if two factors are present. One, highly-productive uses of new credit are available, and two, a relative lack of exogenous shocks to the global economy. Change either of these things and a breakdown is bound to occur.
This dual nature of credit-based money is at the root of both the dollar’s spectacular rise in the 20th century, and the coming monetary reset. As global trust and supply chains break down, the comingling of assets in banks becomes more risky. Russia found this out the hard way when the West confiscated its reserves of dollars held in banks abroad. How is trust possible in that sort of environment? When credit-based money’s creation is based on trust… Houston, we have a problem.
BITCOIN’S ROLE IN THE FUTURE
Luckily, we have experience with a world that doesn’t trust itself — i.e., the entire history of man prior to 1945. Back then, we were on a gold standard for reasons which included all those that bitcoiners are very familiar with (gold scores highly in the characteristics that make good money), but also because it minimized trust between great powers.
Gold lost its mantle for one reason — and you’ve probably never heard this anywhere before: because the global economic, political and innovation environment post-WWII created an extremely fertile soil for credit. Trust was easy, the major powers were humbled and all joined the new international institutions under the security umbrella of the U.S. The Iron Curtain provided a stark separation between zones of trust economically, but after it fell, there was a period of roughly 20 years where the world sang “kumbaya” because new credit was still extremely productive in the old Soviet block and China.
Today, we are facing the opposite sort of scenario: Global trust is eroding and credit has exploited all productive low-hanging fruit, forcing us into a period that demands neutral money.
The world will soon find itself split between regions/alliances of influence. A British bank will trust a U.S. bank, where a Chinese bank will not. To bridge this gap, we need money that everyone can hold and respect.
GOLD VS. BITCOIN
Gold would be the first choice here, if not for bitcoin. This is because gold has several drawbacks. First, gold is owned mainly by those groups who are losing trust in one another, namely the governments of the world. Much of the gold is held in the United States. Therefore, gold is unevenly distributed.
Second, gold’s physical nature, once a positive holding profligate governments in check, is now a weakness because it cannot be transported or assayed nearly as efficiently as bitcoin.
Lastly, gold is not programmable. Bitcoin is a neutral, decentralized protocol that can be tapped for any number of innovations. The Lightning Network and sidechains are just two examples of how Bitcoin can be programmed to increase its utility.
As globalization of both trade and credit is breaking down, the economic environment favors a return to a form of money that doesn’t depend on trust between major powers. Bitcoin is the modern answer.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 19:15 - Josh Hawley Is Imploring White House To Prioritize Arming Taiwan Over Ukraine
Josh Hawley Is Imploring White House To Prioritize Arming Taiwan Over Ukraine
In a wholly expected development, given GOP leadership has of late expressed its unease over what’s been dubbed Biden’s “blank check” given to Ukraine at the expense of the American taxpayer, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was grilled Tuesday over why the US isn’t doing enough to help Taiwan instead.
Republican senator from Missouri Josh Hawley questioned Blinken in a signed letter over why the Pentagon is diverting arms intended for Taiwan to the Ukrainian government. Hawley argued that it’s actually staving off potential Chinese invasion of the democratic-ruled island that should be the highest priority.
“Seizing Taiwan is Beijing’s next step toward dominating the Indo-Pacific region,” Sen. Hawley argued in the letter. “If Beijing succeeds, it would have dire ramifications for Americans’ national security, as well as our economic security and freedom of action.”
Sen. Josh Hawley; Sipa USA via AP file Anticipating the Biden administration’s response, Hawley said that he expects Blinken to say that approved mechanisms differ for delivery of arms to Taiwan vs. Ukraine. That’s when the Republican senator pointedly stressed: “But this explanation does little to allay concerns,” writing further, “Regardless of the weapons’ source, if both Taiwan and Ukraine need them, they should go to Taiwan first.”
He additionally reminded Blinken of the top US diplomat’s own October assessment saying that Beijing is looking to achieve “reunification” of Taiwan on a faster timeline. According to the letter summarized in The Hill:
Hawley said the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, an independent government agency that submits annual reports to Congress on the U.S.-Chinese relationship, found that the direction of existing stocks of munitions and arms to Ukraine and supply issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic have caused a backlog in delivering weapons that were approved for sale to Taiwan.
Hawley referenced a Wall Street Journal report from days ago which estimated the current arms backlog to the island has reached $18.7 billion worth of defense supplies.
Taiwan and its Western backers have long feared that a Chinese blockade would come first, before invasion. But an effective blockade would eventually make successful invasion and occupation more likely. Hawley argued that US strategy should seek to prevent a blockade in the first place, which is why the approved arms flowing to the island unimpeded remains crucial, according to the letter.
Regrettably, some of my congressional colleagues are more concerned about tracking that $600 Venmo payment you made than tracking $60,000,000,000 of your money they sent to Ukraine.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 5, 2022
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Hawley’s letter also comes amid what some have called “Ukraine fatigue” among both officials and the Western public. There are also fears among hawks that the GOP takeover of the House starting next month could erode ‘necessary’ support needed to Ukraine’s armed forces, especially as anger grows over lack of Ukraine arms oversight coupled with the astronomical price tag.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 18:55 - Top Marine Corps General Admits COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Has Led To Decline In Military Recruitment
Top Marine Corps General Admits COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Has Led To Decline In Military Recruitment
Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,
A top general in the Marine Corps has acknowledged that the COVID-19 vaccine mandate is hampering its recruitment goals, but he credited the requirement with keeping military personnel healthy.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger made the comments during a panel discussion at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, on Dec. 3.
“Where it is having an impact for sure is on recruiting, where in parts of the country there’s still myths and misbeliefs about the backstory behind it,” Berger said, Military.com reported.
The general noted that the requirement for military personnel to be fully vaccinated has created recruitment issues in the south of the country in particular.
“There was not accurate information out early on and it was very politicized and people make decisions and they still have those same beliefs. That’s hard to work your way past, really hard to work,” he said.
However, Berger also credited the vaccines for preventing deaths among the Marines, stating that they were needed in order to “maintain a healthy unit that can deploy, on ship, ashore.”
Berger’s comments come as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has pledged not to pass the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) if the military COVID-19 vaccine mandate remains in place.
Military Not Meeting Recruitment Goals Right Now
Speaking on the “Ingraham Angle” on Monday, McCarthy, who looks set to be the next speaker of the House, said he has spoken with President Joe Biden regarding the bill and made it “very clear from the very beginning,” that the NDAA will not pass unless the vaccine mandate for military men and women is lifted, citing a decline in recruitment.
The vaccine mandate was announced by the Marine Corps in September 2021 and has faced multiple legal challenges.
“Why? They are not meeting the recruitment goals right now because of this. People are leaving,” McCarthy said.
“I told the president if we don’t have the lifting of the vaccine, I’ll do it in January.”
As of August, 3,299 Marines had been separated from the Corps for refusing to get vaccinated, Marine Corps Times reported. Separate data from the Defense Department peg that number at 3,717.
Meanwhile, roughly 96 percent of the Marines’ active-duty force is fully vaccinated, according to the latest monthly COVID-19 update from the Marines (pdf), while 99 percent are at least partially vaccinated.
A total of 96 percent of reserves are fully vaccinated and another 96 percent are partially vaccinated too, according to the update.
The White House has said Biden is considering dropping the mandate but that he ultimately supports Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recommendation to keep it in place.
“Discussions about the NDAA are ongoing,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Dalton said on Monday.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 18:35 - US Nuclear Submarine 'Buzzed By Underwater Object' Traveling 'Faster Than Speed Of Sound': Scientist
US Nuclear Submarine ‘Buzzed By Underwater Object’ Traveling ‘Faster Than Speed Of Sound’: Scientist
A scientist carrying out classified work onboard the USS Hampton nuclear submarine in the late 1990s says the sub was ‘buzzed’ by an unidentified object traveling underwater faster than the speed of sound.
USS Hampton at the North Pole in April 2004 In a YouTube interview with UFO researcher Chris Leto, scientist Bob McGwier said that the sub was “running deep and fast” when it was passed at extremely high speed by an object. According to McGwier, the encounter was confirmed by a member of the crew who was shocked at the speed of the Unidentified Submerged Object (USO), Daily Star reports.
“We were under way and all of a sudden I hear the sound. It’s really strange because it’s clear that what is going on is something is whizzing by us and it’s moving so fast I just can’t believe it,” said McGwier, adding “This thing blew by us like we were standing still.”
“A person with knowledge of onboard systems came out and said ‘this goddam thing is going faster than the speed of sound underwater – but that’s faster than the speed of sound in air’,” he continued.
According to McGwier, the crew “didn’t want to report it, didn’t want to tell anybody, didn’t want to cause any problems.”
Sound moves at 1,480 meters per second in water (3,355 miles per hour) vs. 331 meters per second in air.
Perhaps it was a ‘Tic Tac’ UFO, which have been seen emerging from the ocean at high rates of speed?
Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/06/2022 – 18:15
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