GOV/MIL Main "Great Reset" Thread

marsh

On TB every waking moment

iPal smart AI for robots for children's education are displayed at the AvatarMind booth at the CES 2019 consumer electronics show at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 8, 2019. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)
iPal smart AI for robots for children's education are displayed at the AvatarMind booth at the CES 2019 consumer electronics show at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 8, 2019. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

UN Warns Artificial Intelligence May Pose ‘Negative, Even Catastrophic’ Threat to Human Rights

By Katabella Roberts
September 17, 2021 Updated: September 17, 2021

The United Nations has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) systems may pose a “negative, even catastrophic” threat to human rights and called for AI applications that are not used in compliance with human rights to be banned.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Sept. 15 urged members states to put a temporary ban on the sale and use of AI until the potential risks it poses have been addressed and adequate safeguards put in place to ensure the technology will not be abused.

“We cannot afford to continue playing catch-up regarding AI—allowing its use with limited or no boundaries or oversight and dealing with the almost inevitable human rights consequences after the fact,” Bachelet said in a statement.

“The power of AI to serve people is undeniable, but so is AI’s ability to feed human rights violations at an enormous scale with virtually no visibility. Action is needed now to put human rights guardrails on the use of AI, for the good of all of us,” the human rights chief added.

Her remarks come shortly after her office published a report that analyzes how AI affects people’s right to privacy, as well as a string of other rights regarding health, education, freedom of movement, and freedom of expression, among others.

The document includes an assessment of profiling, automated decision-making, and other machine-learning technologies.

While the report notes that AI can be used for good use, and can help “societies overcome some of the great challenges of our times,” its use as a forecasting and profiling tool can drastically impact “rights to privacy, to a fair trial, to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention and the right to life.”

According to the report, numerous states and businesses often fail to carry out due diligence while rushing to incorporate AI applications, and in some cases, this has resulted in dangerous blunders, with some people reportedly being mistreated and even arrested due to flawed facial recognition software.

Meanwhile, facial recognition has the potential to allow for unlimited tracking of individuals, which may well lead to an array of issues surrounding discrimination and data protection.

Epoch Times Photo

An AI robot (L) by CloudMinds is seen during the Mobile World Conference in Shanghai on June 27, 2018. (-/AFP/Getty Images)

Epoch Times Photo
Visitors look at an AI smart city system by iFLY at the 2018 International Intelligent Transportation Industry Expo in Hangzhou in China’s eastern Zhejiang province in December 2018. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

As many AI systems rely on large data sets, further issues surrounding how this data is stored in the long-term also poses a risk, and there is potential for such data to be exploited in the future, which could post significant national security risks.

“The complexity of the data environment, algorithms and models underlying the development and operation of AI systems, as well as intentional secrecy of government and private actors are factors undermining meaningful ways for the public to understand the effects of AI systems on human rights and society,” the report states.

Tim Engelhardt, a human rights officer in the Rule of Law and Democracy Section, warned that the situation is “dire” and that it has only become worse over the years as some countries and businesses adopt AI applications while failing to research the multiple potential risks associated with the technology.

While he welcomes the EU’s agreement to “strengthen the rules on control,” he noted that a solution to the myriad of issues surrounding AI won’t be coming in the next year and that the first steps to resolve these issue need to be taken now or “many people in the world will pay a high price.”

“The higher the risk for human rights, the stricter the legal requirements for the use of AI technology should be,” Bachelet added.

The report and Bachelet’s comments come following July’s revelations that spyware, known as Pegasus, was used to hack the smartphones of thousands of people around the world, including journalists, government officials, and human rights activists.

The phone of France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire was just one of many being investigated amid the hack via the spyware, which was developed by the Israeli company NSO Group.

NSO Group issued a statement to multiple outlets that did not address the allegations, but said that the company will “continue to provide intelligence and law enforcement agencies around the world with life-saving technologies to fight terror and crime.”

Speaking at the Council of Europe hearing on the implications stemming from the Pegasus spyware controversy, Bachelet said the revelations came as no surprise, given the “unprecedented level of surveillance across the globe by state and private actors.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Joe Biden: “We’ve Set a Goal That by 2025 Our Power Sector will be Free of Carbon” (VIDEO)
By Cristina Laila
Published September 17, 2021 at 7:04pm
IMG_5464-1.jpg


Joe Biden vowed to make the US’s power sector “free of carbon” by 2025 during a virtual bilateral meeting of the Major Economies Forum (MEF) on Energy and Climate on Friday.
Biden returned the US to the Paris Agreement and committed to reducing US emissions 50% – 52% lower than 2005 levels by 2030.

Joe Biden however has very ambitious goals to take us back to the dark ages by 2025.

“We’ve set a goal that by 2025 our power sector will be free of carbon.” Biden said struggling to read his teleprompter.

Of course this only affects the peasants of society.

Joe Biden, Barack Obama, John Kerry and other globalist elitists will still be living in their beachfront mansions, flying around on private jets and driving around in gas-powered limousines/motorcades.

VIDEO:
View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1438978819898036224
.39 min

Joe Biden’s remarks come just a few days after he traveled to Golden, Colorado to tour the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to promote his “Build Back Better” agenda.

Biden said junk wind turbines are the answer to combating climate change.

IMG_5351.jpg


Earlier this year, a winter storm in Texas caused power outages and nearly half the wind turbines froze.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Doug Casey On The Next "Crisis" The Global Elite Have 'Planned'

FRIDAY, SEP 17, 2021 - 06:20 PM
Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,

International Man: Every year, the international ruling class—the most influential world leaders, CEOs of big corporations, top academics, and even celebrities—come together at Davos. They discuss topics that interest them and prescribe their preferred policies.
What’s your take on the Davos crowd and what they are doing?


Doug Casey: The Davos crowd has become the most visible element of the ruling class. Although, they overlap with lots of other groups who are pushing the same agenda—Bilderberg, CFR, and Bohemian Grove among them.

A couple of years ago, I wrote an article after I attended the Concordia, which is very similar, with exactly the same people. I don’t plan on going back. It was disturbing and depressing listening to soulless bigshots natter about the best way to rule the plebs.

These people are all part of what you might call the “World Deep State.” They all know each other. They go to the same conferences, and more often than not, they’ve attended the same universities, belong to the same social clubs, and have kids in the same schools.

But most importantly, they share the same worldview. They live in their own little silo, where the rest of 7.9 billion people in the world are outsiders. So it’s only natural that people in such a relatively close-knit—albeit informal—group conspire.

Adam Smith famously observed that whenever two men from the same occupation get together, they always conspire against the interests of the public. It’s a perfectly normal and natural thing.

But these people aren’t just merchants contriving to make a few extra shekels. These people are the top dogs in all of the world’s governments, NGOs, corporations, universities, and media organizations. They have contempt for the little people, whom they treat as either useful idiots or useless mouths. They’re interested in power more than anything else.

As they’ve recently shown in this COVID exercise, they pretty much control the world. They’re very dangerous; I despise them.

International Man: In 2019, well before the first case of COVID was reported, the World Economic Forum (WEF), which hosts the annual Davos conferences, held an event to discuss the possibility of a worldwide pandemic.

In fact, they ran a simulation exercise for how the scenario could play out and how governments, large corporations, and the media should handle the situation.

What do you make of this? Was it a coincidence?

Doug Casey: These people are quite bold. They believe—correctly—that 90% of the public will basically eat whatever they’re fed and accept whatever they’re told.

I have no doubt that these people have an informal understanding with each other as to how the world ought to reset to their benefit. It’s not a formal conspiracy, per se, just a natural consequence of what inevitably happens when people of the same class, worldview, and philosophy are in a position of power.

The problem is that worldwide conflagrations over the last century have gotten much more serious each time around. World War 1 was unbelievably nasty. World War 2 was even nastier.

We dodged the bullet of a global thermonuclear war with the Soviet Union. But that doesn’t mean that World War 3 isn’t going to occur. It’ll just be different than it would have been 40 or 50 years ago.

So, based on the trend in motion, if World War 1 killed 20 million people and World War 2 killed 60 or 80 million people, anything could happen in whatever turns out to be World War 3.

Maybe 500 million or a billion. Think big, like the people who put together the Deagel report.
As I’ve said before, this war will have little to do with obsolescent junk like Abrams tanks, F-35s, and Ford-class carriers. Those toys serve little purpose beyond bankrupting the US while enriching the Deep State. This will be primarily a cyber and biological war.

I’m just surprised that more people aren’t watching and referring to the movie V for Vendetta, which also revolves around a virus called the St. Mary’s virus. The world desperately needs a real V.

There are really a lot of parallels today. I wonder if the “little people” know that the elite have been planning or playing with the idea of a virus for years. Probably not—it’s hard to imagine anyone could be as evil as the Nazis, Soviets, or Chicoms because that was ancient history and human nature has obviously changed. A great virus to smite humanity has been the subject of lots of sci-fi novels and movies over the years. And now, as usual, life is imitating art.

Let’s fantasize for a moment. Perhaps the elite, who mostly masquerade as philanthropists, will rationalize their plan as a way to cleanse the gene pool, reducing the population by 80 or 90%. I have no doubt these people could justify a viral plague as a way to save Gaia from a human plague. Perhaps the vaccine will actually be the real vector, killing some after a time and sterilizing the rest. Perhaps it will serve as a catalyst for the vaccinated, the obedient 80%, to put the independent unvaccinated 20% in camps. Perhaps the current virus is just the first gambit, and after the Delta and Mu strains a genuinely serious Zeta variant will present itself.

Anything is possible. We’re living in a science-fiction world at this point.

Even if things just go along more or less as they are, there are lots of advantages to the COVID-19 virus from their point of view. The collapse of the economy, the Greater Depression, won’t be blamed on central banking, inflation, and the State. They’ll be sold as heroes in the fight against the virus. The depression will be blamed on COVID—a Deus ex machina device—as opposed to the real causes. It’s really quite perverse.

International Man: Earlier this year, the WEF started making a lot of noise about cyberattacks disrupting global supply chains.

Klaus Schwab, the WEF founder, has been calling for the internet to be vaccinated preemptively—presumably meaning more controls, regulations, and less freedom and privacy.

Are they foreshadowing the next real or manufactured crisis? How could it play out?

Doug Casey: There’s no question in my mind at this point that the US, and in fact many countries, are turning into genuine police states. It’s happening right before our eyes with Australia—the entire country is locked down. People, masked at all times, of course, can’t go more than a couple of miles from their homes without suffering draconian penalties. No one can enter Australia, and—this is really shocking—no one can leave. And it’s not even questioned. If it can happen in Australia, New Zealand, and in parts of Canada, it can happen anywhere.

Apparently, it’s starting to happen here in the US with Biden having laid down not-so-subtly veiled threats against people that don’t get vaccinated. It was ominous to hear the senile old scumbag say that he, and the righteous vaccinated, were starting to “lose patience” with Americans who think they control their own bodies.

I have no plans to get vaccinated. At best, the vaccine is unproven—and possibly, we won’t know how risky it is for several years. Which is why in the past, radical new therapies have always had to be tested for years. But that hasn’t happened in this case.

But the vaccine psychosis is just one aspect of this war. As much as the elite want to sell the January 6th event in Washington, DC as the equivalent of the Reichstag fire, I don’t think the average American buys it. Therefore, perhaps something real or imagined will transpire to allow them to designate a whole class of American citizens as domestic terrorists.

We now have genuinely crazy people in control of the apparatus of the state. They’re exactly the same psychological and philosophical profile as the Bolsheviks or the Jacobins. They’re not going to let go of power voluntarily. Anything is possible at this point; we’re still in the early days.

As we enter the trailing edge of the Greater Depression, there’s actually something much more serious to consider in looking at the world situation. Things are similar to 1914 or 1939. Who knows exactly what happens next?

International Man: The COVID hysteria worked out exceptionally well for power-hungry politicians around the world. The public has now accepted an unprecedented level of government control over their everyday lives.

If there is a so-called “cyber pandemic” as the elites are hinting at, what would the consequences be for personal freedom?

Doug Casey: As I said earlier, World War 3 won’t be about nuclear weapons or conventional armies, but biology and computers. The cyber war aspect will be huge because the entire world now runs on computers. In fact, the world is starting to run on artificial intelligence. I don’t doubt that robotics will come into its own soon.

As far as a cyber pandemic and closing down the Internet is concerned, I’d say that’s a near certainty. They definitely want to do that, because the fact of the matter is that you’re only as alive as you can communicate with others.

If you can’t get your thoughts or news of what’s going on out to other people, you might as well be sealed in a tomb. It makes sense that people who want to control other people want to cut down on popular means of communication. They’ll find excuses to keep what they consider to be unsound views off the internet. It’s already happened in regard to the so-called pandemic. Contrary views, no matter how well-reasoned and factual, even from renowned sources, are quashed. Dissent, or even discussion, isn’t tolerated. You’ll find that spread to all other areas of intellectual and political discourse.

We already can’t travel easily; domestic flights are inconvenient, and international flights are down about 85%. Vaccine passports are on the way. In many places, we can’t gather, even in small groups. And of course, the next big thing—the big thing—is a heavily controlled internet.

At that point, all you’ll have is what you’re told officially and what you can see in your own little local area. These people are all about quashing communication. It’s a great formula, critical, really, for control. They don’t want people organizing to challenge them.

In Biden’s recent speech, he several times made out the unvaxxed as a potential enemy—a domestic danger.

It’s no coincidence that the people who don’t want to take the jab correlate strongly with people with conventional right-wing views, Trump voters, and cultural conservatives. The battle lines are drawn. It’s really turned into a class and ideological war.

They’re playing the health card with this COVID nonsense. They’re playing the race card and domestic terror card. They’re succeeding in delegitimizing American values and history, as well as masculinity in general and white males in particular. Next will be a reemphasis on the Global Warming scam. You plebs won’t be allowed to do anything, and most will go along with it because they’ve been indoctrinated over several generations to believe it’s right. The elite are doing everything in their power to ramp up fear. Fear for your health, fear of domestic terror, fear of the non-compliant, and fear of the climate destroying the planet.

As I discussed previously, fear is the most powerful tool that governments have to control the people. That’s what governments are all about. They thrive on fear. Fear is the health of the State.

International Man: What can the average person do to protect themselves from these disturbing trends?

Doug Casey: In Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, he talks about how, when they’re all together in the Gulag under the worst possible conditions, they said, “If we had only known, when they came to round us up as individuals… if we’d only grabbed a frying pan, or a pipe, or a rock and attacked these criminals…” But they were afraid. And they didn’t think that things could possibly be as bad as they turned out to be.

It’s understandable that they were hesitant to attack the state apparatchiks when going off to the Gulag, just as the Jews rarely attacked the Gestapo when they were rounding them up to take them off to camps.

You naturally might think, “These people can’t be that serious. These people can’t be that bad….” And you’d be wrong.

It takes a lot of physical courage to even think about these things.

Why didn’t any of the nomenklatura around Stalin simply kill him? They all knew the odds were good he was going to kill them eventually. You’d think that any of the rats around him would have cut his throat.

But everybody’s afraid to take physical action because we tend to be optimists. We tend to hope for the best, as we do right now. We hope that this will blow over, and maybe it will. But it boils down to what will you do, maybe five minutes from now, when you’re confronted one-on-one with an apparatchik from the State who gives you an order.

What will you do?

It’s too dangerous to take physical action against the guy because it may bring down the whole weight of the State organization on you.

So how do you resist? Well, unless you want to be a hero, the only thing I can think of is to have enough assets to insulate yourself from the bad guys or to move yourself physically to a different location.

We’re headed into a very rough patch in US history, especially for the next three or four years.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Riding Post-Recall Mandate, Newsom Bans Most Single-Family-Only Zoning In California

By Jeffrey Cawood
Sep 17, 2021 DailyWire.com

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 15: Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to the press while visiting Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. On Tuesday, Newsom prevailed in the California Gubernatorial Recall Election to keep his post as governor.

Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images

Less than 48 hours after squashing an attempt to oust him from office, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed sweeping housing legislation on Thursday that reportedly bans single-family-only zoning in most neighborhoods across the state.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, Newsom “essentially abolished single-family zoning in California – and green-lighted a series of bills intended to bolster the state’s housing production.”


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According to The Chronicle, Senate Bill 9 “will establish a streamlined process to split lots and convert homes into duplexes, potentially creating up to four units on property that had just one before,” and:
Under the law, local governments will have to approve the applications if the projects meet size requirements and local design standards, fall outside historic and environmentally sensitive districts, and do not require the demolition of housing that is rent-restricted or has been occupied by tenants in the past three years.
Senate Bill 10 “will allow cities to rezone some parcels in urban areas, including those near public transit, for up to 10 units,” the outlet reported.

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“The housing affordability crisis is undermining the California Dream for families across the state, and threatens our long-term growth and prosperity,” Newsom said in a statement.

“Making meaningful impact on this crisis will take bold investments, strong collaboration across sectors and political courage from our leaders and communities to do the right thing and build housing for all.”

Critics of the legislation predict the measures could ultimately increase the cost of housing because of massive profit potential, especially if investors and developers end up outbidding each other when single-family lots go on the market. They say buyers could purchase a house, tear it down, and construct multiple dwellings on the same lot. However, property owners who apply for a lot split are required to sign an affidavit that they plan to reside in one of the homes for at least three years, according to the law. It remains to be seen how that stipulation will be enforced.

An official with the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has long advocated on housing issues, opposed the bills and indicated “the organization is considering filing a lawsuit or qualifying a referendum for the ballot,” according to The Chronicle.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported, “Newsom signed a pair of bills that promote what supporters call a ‘light density’ approach, loosening zoning rules to make it easier to build out existing neighborhoods with small apartment buildings.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

The Tale of Transhumanism Could Be Why Elite Push the Vaxx onto the Entire World

ByBrooke McGowan
18 September 2021
https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php...hy-elite-push-the-vaxx-onto-the-entire-world/


Nutty headline, yeah?

Well. These are definitely the Twilight Zone days in America 2021.
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The following is only an exercise in theory. Keep that in mind as we explore some of the corners of this perpetrated evil.

We saw a recent meme that said “I’m gonna need some new conspiracy theories, because all of mine are coming true.”

And here we go.

I’ll posit these ideas as I have many questions based on various observations, and hope to jog your critical thinking muscles, which have collectively grown dormant these last few years.

Facts we can’t dispute.

The elite want to live forever. The leaders of dark money societies, secret cabals, and the like, those people have grown old now, cresting the end of their natural lives, and as such they are facing their mortality, and the frenzy for eternal life (physical, not spiritual) has become paramount on their minds.

Pfizer Scientist Whistleblower Karen Kingston has expressed in several interviews her discovery of graphene oxide, a nanoparticle ingredient in the injections, but listed on the patent at “trade secrets.”

She claims this particular ingredient has a feature that holds a charge in the hydrogel. They are delivered as a neutral charge, but may become activated at a later time.

From pandemictimeline.com:

“Graphene oxide is also capable of hosting a magnetic field. So even if the graphene oxide is not magnetic when injected, the possibility exists that it could become magnetically charged later. Graphene oxide in the charged state is toxic and can destroy whatever it comes in contact with. Graphene oxide has the potential to connect to the internet.”

In her interview over the summer, Karen was visibly shaken and expressed how heartbroken she was at the macabre discovery. But if one sees this from the vantage of the elites’ historic interest in eugenics, depopulation, experimentation and transhumanism, one can put the pieces together that the powers that be are pushing this thing to the limit. All for a chance to live forever.

Don’t believe me? Watch this BBC Ideas video and note the happy chimes and cheerful animation as they describe what they want to be the innocuous idea of transhumanism.

View: https://youtu.be/RVmuU04-X5E
2:34 min

The injections today are an experiment to witness how much of the electromagnetic conductor the human body can tolerate, build up a resistance and effectively, one day become connected to the internet. That’s why the second dose, and subsequent boosters are necessary. With each dosing, more of the conductor will be injected into the human body.

Could the powers that be be watching these experiments and studying the human body abilities? Just to live forever?

This all sounds like a B rated 1970s sci-fi and that’s exactly what we are all now living through. Or maybe the cult classic The Matrix.

We hope you are continuing to red pill your loved ones, as the survival of humanity could depend on it.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

A windfarm near Palm Springs, Calif, on Dec. 30, 2006.  (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)
A windfarm near Palm Springs, Calif, on Dec. 30, 2006. (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

California’s Green Illusion

By Jim Phelps
September 19, 2021 Updated: September 19, 2021

Commentary
As California accelerates to a clean energy future state, officials are running into a stark reality: The transition to green energy is spawning an increasing frequency of blackouts and potential blackouts. Consumers read “Flex Power Alerts” on highway and freeway signs, but have little idea how precarious the problem has become, or why it is spreading.

The tip of the iceberg resides almost completely with the issue of renewable energy’s “intermittency,” which refers to the unpredictable and erratic electric production by wind and solar resources whose power output fails to match California’s minute-to-minute electricity demand variations. The resulting voltage imbalances across California’s electric grid manifest as blackouts.

Allowing for declining hydroelectric production attributable to drought, the last of which ended 2016, today’s blackout issue was all but non-existent until California began transitioning away from a steady flow of energy produced by base load generators such as gas-fired power plants (pdf).

However, the days are numbered for these greenhouse-gas (GHG) emitting sources, ushered toward extinction as climate change sets the “clean” energy agenda. The blackout situation promises to worsen with Governor Newsom’s executive order mandating all new passenger vehicles sold in the state be zero-emission by 2035, ramping up the electric load on an already stressed system.

Local government-operated Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs, also known as Community Choice Energy), which are energy procurement agencies such as upstart Orange County Community Choice Aggregation, Los Angeles’s Clean Power Alliance, and CCA patriarch Marin Clean Energy, are large contributors to California’s growing problem, driving ungainly legislation and leaving the state short of reliable generation as Sacramento edicts push our electric infrastructure further into jeopardy.

CCAs are growing throughout the state via their opt out mechanism where consumers are automatically switched into these so-called clean energy programs and then receive hybrid service—electrons from the CCAs, as well as transmission and distribution (including billing on behalf of CCAs) from the Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs). The switch is often so subtle, even covert, that many consumers are unaware that they are in a CCA program unless they scrutinize their monthly electric bill.

The opt out feature was challenged many years ago in Sacramento with an attempt to change it to opt in (Bradford: AB 2145), but the CCA lobby complained that having to earn and build a customer base was a costly and unfair roadblock to the CCA agenda of taking over energy procurement and planning from California’s three IOUs: PG&E, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric.

Extrapolated data reported by National Renewable Energy Laboratory indicates that by the mid-2020s CCAs will have taken 50% – 80% of IOUs’ energy service (production of the electrons), a range that is assured to grow because IOUs remain under the state’s thumb where anything remotely construed as negative marketing about CCAs is all but nonexistent (pdf).

IOUs are closely monitored by CCAs to assure the agencies’ continued inroads amid minimal competition. And even if you opt out, each time your house is resold or re-rented it is re-enrolled into the CCA until the occupant opts out.

Nevertheless, regulatory leaders saw the coming trouble years ago (pdf) and raised their first red flag. Few consumers could be bothered.

The advent of CCAs has created a myriad of issues, including instability of California’s electric system due to lack of capitalization and ability to bring generating resources to market, jeopardizing California’s continued flow of reliable electric power.

On July 1, 2021, thirty-eight days after the industry’s first CCA bankruptcy (pdf), regulators had had enough.

California grid operator, CAISO, stepped out of its lane and took emergency action (pdf), procuring 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity to keep the lights on in California. Energy procurement is typically the purview of load serving entities such as IOUs and CCAs. In late July, Governor Newsom, no longer able to ignore the electric reliability problem that grew under his tenure, declared a state emergency (pdf), looking for reliable (gas-fired) power wherever it might be found while giving hall passes to GHG emitting power plants whose carbon is reportedly causing climate change.

Most people care about how clean their energy is … until they have no electricity in their homes or business, especially when their refrigerated food spoils. At that point they just want the lights to work.

2 Million Acres
Part of Newsom’s emergency action included suspending retirement of California’s coastal power plants that originally fell out of favor because they use once-through-cooling (OTC), drawing ocean water into their equipment to cool off components that are warmed during production of electricity, before sending warmed water back into the ocean.

Newsom remains committed to closing PG&E’s 2,200 MW Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in 2024 and 2025, which is also an OTC plant. When Diablo closes, land use comparisons of wind farms throughout the U.S. reveal that a replacement wind farm occupying nearly 500,000 acres will be required, plus another 2 or 3 same-size wind farms to charge batteries (that are currently technologically incapable of operating as needed to keep California’s power flowing over the course of several days, such as when the wind stops blowing).

Where are those 2 million acres? This is not to disregard the multiple duplicates of similar wind farms and solar farms that will be required as California forges ahead with its green energy vision, as California closes gas-fired generation because of GHG emissions and OTC concerns.

Lithium-ion batteries have their own “pollution” including human rights issues involved in mining, battery toxicity during manufacturing, and battery disposal and recycling 8 or 10 years later, after batteries expire. According to Mining.com, China controls more than 80 percent of the world’s cobalt refining, a critical element in lithium-ion batteries.

California’s electricity future is bleak, and more so as the state becomes increasingly dependent on energy resources that even China dismisses in favor of its own coal-fired and nuclear-powered generation, most of which is designed as OTC. According to the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, China has constructed 246 gigawatts of coal-fired power—the equivalent of 123 Jim Bridger-sized power plants (pdf), the largest coal plant in the western U.S.

Shooting Fish in a Barrel—the $370 Million Secret
It has been said that the fossil-fired industry’s greatest customer is the clean energy industry.

Green cannot fully carry the electric grid’s demand without base load generation (fossil-fired and nuclear) spinning in the background, ready to pick up slack when clouds cast shadows over solar panels, or when the wind stops blowing. Evolving battery technology is cited as the savior to renewables’ intermittency problems, yet those in-development technologies do not exist on a commercial scale nor do they have an in-service track record.

That reality is already seeping into CCAs … without a whisper to outsiders. The collective conscience of California has, to a great extent, embraced clean energy with unquestioned acceptance in the name of climate change. Insiders know that tipping that apple cart would needlessly upset the protected incomes of energy developers, lawyers, lobbyists, consultants, contractors, and CCA staff leaders—who reap financial windfalls from California’s new energy order, lubricated in large part by the billions of dollars that collectively flow through the state’s 24 (and growing) CCAs each year.

Green electricity champion, Marin Clean Energy (MCE), was California’s first CCA to successfully launch in 2010. MCE is cited as a glowing success to which all other CCAs should aspire. Ironically, part of that success is MCE’s stealth ability to control and recast what is happening.
In actual terms, MCE’s original Business Plan’s commitment to displace gas-fired generation is not occurring (pdf). The agency’s reliance on gas-fired power has boomeranged and accelerated in the opposite direction.

The situation is caused by two issues: first, California legislation such as SB 100 and SB 350, which result in a higher percent of renewables being pushed into service at a pace faster than they can be integrated and dispatched onto the electric grid, and second by CCAs’ desire to outpace California’s annual clean energy mandates wherein brown power is rebranded as “clean energy,” achieved by slapping renewable energy certificates onto deliveries (pdf), a practice now largely halted by AB 1110. In both cases, a steady flow of electrons is required to keep the lights on, and that “steady flow” is system power (brown power).

Since mid-2015 MCE has executed more than $370 million of system power (brown power) contracts to make up, fill in, insure, hedge, and otherwise assure its steady supply of electricity. Brown power is the glue that keeps MCE’s boat afloat. MCE’s individual contract amounts and source documents are compiled here (pdf).

If “successful MCE” is having problems weaning itself from gas-fired power, it is reasonable to conclude that all CCAs are struggling with the same issue. MCE and its brethren of “clean” CCAs may advertise (pdf) that they are putting renewable energy onto the grid, but they are not doing so without the giant crutch of fossil fuels (and suborned silence from their leadership).

For perspective, $370 million for system power purchases (pdf) is enough power to:
  • run MCE’s entire electric load throughout its core Marin County service area for 9 years, or alternately; [1]
  • run MCE’s entire electric load throughout its Marin, Napa, Solano, and Contra Costa counties service area for 1.5 years; [2]
  • both of which result in 7.6 billion pounds of GHG emissions. [3]
The Writing Was on the Wall
In 2015, MCE CEO Dawn Weisz executed a gas-fired power contract in the midst of claiming to ramp up MCE’s clean energy content. Weisz said the gas-fired power would “reduce greenhouse gas emissions” and “support local jobs,” the same promises (pdf) made years earlier when lobbying on behalf of renewables while telling everyone MCE would unhook from dirty and dangerous fossil fuels (pdf).

MCE flourished under the cover of positive editorials (pdf) written by a press incapable of addressing clean energy’s technical shortcomings, effusing about the agency’s substantial inroads against brown power (while MCE was busily executing millions of dollars of brown power contracts). MCE’s positive image fueled the launch of all other CCAs and perpetuated the carbon-free story. More to the point, per the compiled brown power contracts table’s footnote 4 (here (pdf)), the timing of MCE’s behind-the-scenes purchases of dirty power was at odds with its represented image to the public and to regulators.

Brown power is a required component of electric reliability. That truism combined with the reality of clean energy’s dirty supporting infrastructure, including the manufacturing & disposal of batteries, solar panels, and windmills, needs to be acknowledged and embraced. There are no free lunches. Otherwise we are self-deceived by a very expensive and wasteful green energy illusion.

[ 1 ] MCE’s Marin-based electric load = 896,393 MWh, per Marin Energy Authority Joint Powers Agreement, Amendment No. 15, dated November 19, 2020. At assumed $46 per megawatt-hour (MWh), $370,676,880 buys 8,058,193 MWhs. 8,058,193 / 896,393 = 8.99 years.

[ 2 ] MCE’s total annual electric loads may be found in its calendar year 2020 Power Source Disclosure, Schedule 1, filed with California Energy Commission: Light Green 5,070,881 MWh + Deep Green 190,816 MWh + Local Sol 513 MWh = 5,262,210 MWh in 2020. 8,058,393 / 5,262,210 = 1.5 years.

[ 3 ] $370,676,880 for system power contracts. Average system power price throughout year is about $46 per megawatt-hour (MWh). Each MWh has a standard emission rate, per CARB regulation, of 943.58 lbs CO2/ MWh. Therefore, ($370,676,880 / $46 per MWh) x 943.58 lbs CO2 / MWh = 7,603,549,792 lbs of greenhouse gas emissions.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Quinn: It's A 'Fourth Turning', What Did You Expect?

MONDAY, SEP 20, 2021 - 04:41 PM
Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“Reflect on what happens when a terrible winter blizzard strikes. You hear the weather warning but probably fail to act on it. The sky darkens. Then the storm hits with full fury, and the air is a howling whiteness. One by one, your links to the machine age break down. Electricity flickers out, cutting off the TV. Batteries fade, cutting off the radio. Phones go dead. Roads become impossible, and cars get stuck. Food supplies dwindle. Day to day vestiges of modern civilization – bank machines, mutual funds, mass retailers, computers, satellites, airplanes, governments – all recede into irrelevance. Picture yourself and your loved ones in the midst of a howling blizzard that lasts several years. Think about what you would need, who could help you, and why your fate might matter to anybody other than yourself. That is how to plan for a saecular winter. Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted.” – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe



“In retrospect, the spark might seem as ominous as a financial crash, as ordinary as a national election, or as trivial as a Tea Party. The catalyst will unfold according to a basic Crisis dynamic that underlies all of these scenarios: An initial spark will trigger a chain reaction of unyielding responses and further emergencies. The core elements of these scenarios (debt, civic decay, global disorder) will matter more than the details, which the catalyst will juxtapose and connect in some unknowable way. If foreign societies are also entering a Fourth Turning, this could accelerate the chain reaction. At home and abroad, these events will reflect the tearing of the civic fabric at points of extreme vulnerability – problem areas where America will have neglected, denied, or delayed needed action.” – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe
I’ve been pondering this Fourth Turning in articles since its spectacular onset in September 2008, with the Wall Street/Federal Reserve initiated global financial implosion. The description above is apt, as this ongoing two-decade long storm gains intensity and our freedoms, liberties and rights are slowly extinguished as the electricity flickers and our modern civilization reverts to a more brutish state of antipathy among competing tribes, based on race, gender, class, party, geographic location, and now medical status.

We are in the midst of a saecular winter that is guaranteed to become more violent and bitter, as the malevolent forces propelling this Crisis have decided to ramp up fear propaganda to implement their global reset, using authoritarian methods to compel the masses to comply.

I’ve intellectually understood we would be faced with trials and tribulations that would threaten the continuation of our way of life and survival as a unified nation. The reality is proving to be far worse. The core elements of debt, civic decay, and global disorder are most certainly propelling this Crisis towards its bloody climax. I knew there was no way to sidestep or escape this Fourth Turning.
But I didn’t expect a Deep State coup against a sitting president; a stolen presidential election through the collusion of the surveillance state, Big Tech, Big Media and billionaire oligarchs; a weaponized flu used as cover for an imploding financial system; an authoritarian global lockdown which has destroyed small businesses and impoverished the working class, while enriching mega-corporations and the elite ruling class; and now a Big Pharma experimental gene therapy disguised as a vaccine used to divide America into hostile tribes spewing hate online, with a strong possibility of violence because Biden and his handlers are attempting to provoke those refusing his vaccine mandate into committing acts of aggression.

Those trapped in their self-induced stupor of normalcy bias, with an ample helping of cognitive dissonance, do not or will not see the coming storm as it wipes out all vestiges of their modern techno-consumption society. Supply chains are imploding as we speak., creating shortages, soaring prices, and possibly empty food shelves in the near future.


I find it both fascinating and disturbing to observe the level of madness engulfing our world, as the sociopath class of mind manipulators and propaganda specialists use their well-honed psychological techniques to scare the masses into subservience and implement their diabolical Great Reset plan where we own nothing, they own everything, and our future is a boot stamping on our faces forever. They are using our willful ignorance, technological bread and circuses, inability to understand risk, and susceptibility to fear exploitation, to increase their power and control over governmental, financial, and societal levers.

They want us under-educated and over-medicated. That is how they broaden their wealth, power and control. None of what has happened since the Fall of 2019 has occurred by accident or due to bad luck. It has been scripted, according to the plan agreed upon by the global elites (Gates, Soros, Schwab, Bloomberg, Zuckerberg) and implemented by corrupt politicians (Biden, Cuomo, Newsom, Whitmer), captured bankers (Powell, Dimon), corporate shysters (Bezos, Musk), and of course the compliant fake news propaganda media (CNN, MSNBC, NYT, Washington Post).

When overnight repo rates began hitting 10% in September of 2019, Jerome Powell was ordered to start cutting rates and restart QE. The global elite were in danger of seeing a reduction in their ungodly level of wealth. In an amazing coincidence, Event 201 took place in October 2019, simulating a global pandemic, and run by Bill Gates, the World Economic Forum (Schwab), Johns Hopkins, and members of the MSM.

It just so happened a bio-weapon lab in Wuhan, working on gain of function viruses, funded by Anthony Fauci, accidentally or purposely released a highly transmissible but relatively non-lethal (to anyone under 80 or not weighing 275 pounds) virus in November 2019. It appears the Chinese covered this up for at least two months, while allowing it to spread across the globe. The WHO, WEF, Fauci and the Trump hating media covered up the facts about China’s creation of this pandemic of fear.

An over-hyped pandemic with a scary name and an unlimited marketing campaign was just what the doctor ordered to set the Build Back Better Great Reset plan in motion. It gave Powell and the Fed cover to unleash trillions in electronic money printing to sustain and enrich their Wall Street owners, billionaire oligarchs, and politicians spending trillions to prop up an economy they purposely shut down. It gave Democrat governors and mayors the cover to implement their “steal the election” plan through massive mail-in ballot fraud, because it was too dangerous to stand in line to vote, but not too dangerous to stand in line 50 deep at Costco, Wal-Mart, or Target.



The mandatory lockdowns and mask mandates were tests to see how far they could push the masses before they pushed back. The oligarchs were delighted to observe millions of losers who had no meaning in their worthless earthly existence thus far, believe they were now brave noble heroes by cowering in their basements, ordering takeout from Taco Bell, watching Netflix, and putting on a face diaper in public, even though Fauci and every scientific study ever done proved masks are worthless against viruses.

The campaign of fear, aided and abetted by Hollywood, the corporate media propaganda networks, the Big Tech social media censorship police, teachers’ unions, and tyrannical left-wing governors, worked to perfection as decades of government school socialization and indoctrination has created a nation of terrified sheep easily ruled by loathsome Machiavellian wolves.



The arrogance and hubris of the malevolent globalist oligarchy has attained epic heights, as they successfully stole a presidential election and completed their four-year coup against Trump. They have flogged the January 6 unarmed selfie insurrection to death with their media lapdogs to keep the Trump forces on the defensive. They have installed a dementia ridden empty vessel Trojan horse as president, with a vacuous hateful kackling hyena as vice president, as a means to implement their master plan of destroying what remains of a once great nation.



I wrote an article two weeks after Biden’s installation called Illegitimate President, laying out the case this was a coup by the Deep State and billionaire oligarchs, and still stand by ever word I wrote, as my worst fears have been exceeded during Biden’s first eight months in office. This Chinese controlled, child fondling, teleprompter reading, senile, divider in chief is not my president. I will never recognize him as my president.

We are in the midst of a civil war, with only the bad guy’s waging battle against the Constitution, our freedoms, our liberties, and the societal norms which have formed the foundation of our country since 1776. Thus far, there has been little to no push back from the good guys. The outcome of this Fourth Turning hinges upon the willingness of a minority of like-minded, critical thinking, dissenting Americans to stand-up and stop these evil men from turning our country into tyrannical techno-gulag of oppression.

The specific events that drive a Fourth Turning are never the same, as technology advances, empires rise and fall, and global interconnectedness increases. What doesn’t change is human nature, with all its downsides of greed, envy, hubris, murder, and hate. Throughout history sociopaths have risen to power, showing no empathy for their fellow man, seeking power and control over their people, attempting to conquer and destroy other countries, and prone to commit atrocities on a grand scale against their own citizens. This Fourth Turning is no different.



It rhymes with aspects of our previous three Fourth Turnings, but has its own distinctive facets, not experienced before. The American Revolution Fourth Turning featured a tyrannical despot as the provocateur. The Civil War Fourth Turning saw a divided nation, with half the population going to war against the other half. The Great Depression/World War II Fourth Turning contained a global financial crisis, creation of the welfare state, authoritarian edicts from a dictator-like president and the bloodiest conflict in human history.

Characteristics of all these Crisis periods can be seen during this Fourth Turning, as a global financial crisis triggered its onset, government bailouts and a vast expansion of the welfare state has taken place, and the president and politicians across the land have trashed the Constitution and assumed dictatorial powers over their subjects. Does a bloodier war await? Or will it be a technological war that destroys our modern world?

The twist in this Fourth Turning has been the emergence of the Deep State, in collusion with Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Media, Wall Street, and the globalist billionaire cabal to strip the people of their rights while convincing a huge swath of willfully ignorant frightened sheep they are doing it for their own good. This is how evil wins. This is how a society devolves into tyranny and dictatorship. The immense level of unpayable debt underlies everything happening. The actions taken by central bankers at the behest of their Wall Street owners and captured politicians are an act of desperation to keep this debt pyramid scheme from imminent collapse, but virtually assures a far worse outcome of hyperinflation and depression.

The decades of civic decay, initiated and encouraged by those pulling the levers behind the scenes, have hollowed out our society and created animosities which are now irreconcilable and fatal. It’s only a matter of time until the shooting begins. The global disorder seems contrived and planned as part of the globalist Great Reset scheme to create a new world order, where the plebs will own nothing, and the elites will run the show and reap the riches.

Part 1 of 3
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment


In March 2020, at the outset of this plandemic, I was already skeptical, suspicious, and convinced the globalist oligarchy were using this virus as a means to implement their diabolical plan to reset the world in the method of their choosing. In my article at the end of March – P for Pandemic – I predicted a vaccine would be miraculously discovered and everyone would be forced to take it or be arrested. Little did I know Gates and Fauci already had a “vaccine” waiting in the wings, in collusion with their Big Pharma co-conspirators. It seems the plot from V for Vendetta has been playing out just as V stated during his speech to London.

“Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance, and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame?

Well, certainly, there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. They were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic, you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.”
V speech to London
Everything in this speech applies to our current state of affairs. Just replace the name Adam Sutler with any combination of Biden, Fauci, Gates or Schwab. But there is no super-hero in the wings ready to inspire the nation towards revolution against the dark forces who have taken the reins over our society. We have now entered one of the most dangerous periods in the country’s history. We have been continuously lied to by so called “experts”. Are they just incompetent or do they have another agenda? The rollout of the experimental gene altering therapies by Big Pharma was touted by Fauci, Biden, Walensky and their media mouthpieces as a miracle cure for Covid which would eradicate this virus and save the world.



This was before the Orwellian doublespeak campaign of revisionist history was implemented with haste, due to the vaccine narrative collapsing under the weight of facts, data, doctors and journalists brave enough to speak out and warn the public. Most have been disappeared from social media by the Silicon Valley thought police. Prior to this scamdemic, the definition of a vaccine was well defined and unquestioned by the scientific community. A vaccine was designed to prevent a disease from occurring. The polio vaccine and smallpox vaccine didn’t lessen the symptoms of those diseases. They protected you from ever getting them.

At minimum a vaccine provides immunity against the disease. As these mRNA “vaccines” have been jabbed into over 1 billion people on the planet, it seems they don’t make you immune from the virus, don’t protect you from getting the virus, don’t keep you from spreading the virus, and don’t even protect you from being hospitalized or dying from the virus. Even their latest re-definition of vaccine, changed by those controlling the narrative doesn’t apply.



The fact these “vaccines” are a complete and utter failure, as new “cases” using the purposely faulty and FDA recalled PCR test surged to 170,000 per day in early September with 180 million Americans fully vaccinated versus 45,000 per day last September with ZERO Americans vaccinated, is not allowed to be spoken. Deaths “with Covid” are averaging 2,000 per day now versus 800 per day last September with no one vaccinated. How can this data not be interpreted as a complete failure of the vaccines? The data has proven, any effectiveness wanes after a few months. Boosters for eternity would certainly benefit Pfizer’s bottom line and keep Fauci on the left-wing Sunday propaganda outlets.

But Twitter always has a blurb in the upper right corner under “What’s Happening” saying Covid Vaccines are Safe & Effective. I’ve also seen 5,000 TV commercials where famous athletes, pop singers, and Hollywood stars tell me the same thing. They wouldn’t lie, right?

Twitter also has Experts Say Masks are Safe & Effective in Preventing Spread of Covid-19 at the top right every day. Lastly, Twitter and the MSM consistently post articles and commentary saying Ivermectin is Not Approved by the FDA for Treating Covid-19 and is only for cows and horses.

We wouldn’t want to eat into the billions of Big Pharma profits by actually promoting a safe, effective, and cheap drug which has virtually eradicated Covid in India. It’s funny, but if you Google Israel covid cases versus India covid cases, you cannot find this graph. I guess proof the most vaxxed country in the world is experiencing the largest surge in cases in the world versus one of the least vaxxed countries in the world, who distributed mass quantities of ivermectin to its people, is experiencing no surge might be an inconvenient truth to the Covid vaccine narrative police.



They do make it easy to distinguish their lies, misinformation, and propaganda from the truth. It is a scientific fact masks don’t work. A vaccine that doesn’t keep you from getting the virus is not effective. A vaccine that has caused at least 650,000 adverse reactions, 86,000 serious injuries and 14,000 deaths, according to the VAERS database, doesn’t sound “safe” to me. But what do I know? I’m one of those unvaxxed domestic terrorists Biden thinks should wear a yellow star and have my livelihood destroyed as punishment for my non-compliance with his demands.

The potential long-term consequences of these gene therapies are completely unknown, but many renowned doctors (censored by Twitter & Facebook) worry ADE (antibody dependent enhancement) will wreak havoc in the not-too-distant future. Real fact checkers, not the current batch of Orwellian thought police, would conclude these vaccines are anything but safe and effective.



If these vaccines are clearly not doing what they were advertised to do, and natural immunity is proving to be 20x as effective in fending off the Delta variant, why is Biden and Fauci doubling down with vaccine mandates, vaccine passports, forcing vaccinations on people who already have natural immunity, and shaming those who choose not to be lab rats in this Big Pharma experiment, where they have ZERO liability for injuries or deaths caused by their concoctions?

One of the inventors of the mRNA therapies, who has been a thorn in the side of Fauci and his fellow Big Pharma whores, has similar questions and doubts about the true purpose and agenda behind these mandatory jabs.



It should be clear to any open-minded critical thinking individual this has never been about your health, but about their insatiable appetite for power and control over how our society functions, who benefits, and who reaps the financial rewards. Always follow the money. Big Pharma generates a huge portion of advertising revenues for Big Media and the Medical Industrial complex of hospitals, doctors, and researchers. We are fighting a corporate fascist Deep State behemoth, aided, and abetted by Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Gates, Soros, and numerous other sociopaths in government, media, and the corporate world.

Their chosen medium to compel obedience is fear. It has proven to be tremendously effective in herding the sheep towards the slaughterhouse. Imagine convincing tens of millions to quiver in fear, locked in their homes, wearing face diapers for months on end, and volunteering to be the research in a Big Pharma money making scheme over a virus with a 99.7% survival rate, that only kills the very old, very sick and very obese.

A virus so scary most people don’t know they have it until they get a positive test result from a purposely flawed test. Now the fear has turned to loathing, as those who believed their patron saint of covid – Anthony Fauci – are embarrassed by the fact they were convinced to get jabbed under false pretenses and now look like fools for believing they would be protected from the dreaded Rona. A basic risk/benefit analysis tells the true story.



Bertrand Russell captures the reaction of the vaxxed perfectly.
“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.” ― Bertrand Russell
The herd was corralled by fear into believing the vaccines would protect them. At first, they virtue signaled their intellectual superiority and contributions to mankind by getting the jab.

Only foolish stupid Trumpers would resist this miracle drug, even though it was Trump that allowed Big Pharma to skip about three years of trials to rush the vaccines to market. The covid vaxx cultists thought they could shame the immune system reliant into following them down the path of forlorn hope.

Part 2of 3
 
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marsh

On TB every waking moment
Part 3 of 3




Now that the vaccines have proven to be useless, dangerous, and possibly a way to cull the herd over time, the herd has turned their anger on the unvaxxed with a ferocity usually reserved for a DeSantis or Trump press conference. The vaxxed are angry because the unvaxxed are putting them at risk because their vaxx doesn’t work. Got it? And this anger is being stoked by Biden and his minions, as they attempt to create chaos, havoc, and violent upheaval in this country.

The initial reaction to that last statement would be doubt and resistance to the thought of a sitting president and his handlers purposely trying to destroy the underpinnings of our nation.

But, as proof human nature does not change, the inimitably observant, skeptical, and cynical about government writer, H.L. Mencken, couldn’t have described the forces at play any better than he did 95 years ago.

“Yet behind the majority, often defectively concealed, there is always a sinister minority, eager only for its own advantage and willing to adopt any device, however outrageous, to get what it wants. We have a puppet in the White House, pulled by wires, but with dangerous weapons in its hands. Law Enforcement becomes a new state religion. A law is something that A wants and can hornswoggle B, C, D, E and F into giving him – by bribery, by lying, by bluff and bluster, by making faces. G and H are therefore bound to yield it respect – nay, to worship it. It is something sacred. To question it is to sin against the Holy Ghost.” – H.L. Mencken, 1926
There has always been a sinister minority operating in the shadows pulling the wires of whoever is in the White House. If they do not comply with the orders of those pulling those wires, they receive the JFK treatment. Trump’s non-compliance resulted in the Deep State coup which removed him from office. With an avalanche of extra-judicial executive orders, mandates, and un-Constitutional actions, Biden is doing the bidding of those who installed him to take down America.

Those controlling Biden believe they are intellectually superior and must use psychological manipulation and Bernaysian propaganda techniques to achieve their goal of one world government in which they rule over us with an iron fist and technological surveillance.



These sociopaths believe their evil means justify ends which benefit themselves. Freedom, liberty, free speech, choice about medical treatments, and the rights granted under the Constitution are antiquated notions in the minds of these maniacal tyrants. This Fourth Turning hinges on the coming conflict between this sinister minority and a thus far silent, but heavily armed majority.

This is a revolution initiated by those at the top of the pecking order in a bold attempt to increase and consolidate their power, control, and wealth. This revolution will not bring prosperity to the people but is designed to benefit a brazen few who care not for the average American. This oligarch revolution heralds immense death and destruction, either through medicinal methods or violence in the streets. Widespread impoverishment of the masses is a certainty once the underpinnings of this financial system give way. If they succeed, the degeneration of our society into a dystopian nightmare is a distinct possibility.

But here is where hope enters the picture. There are far more of us than them. They attempt to give the appearance of superiority and strength, but their hold over the levers of power is tenuous. Once a few brave dissenters begin to stand up and resist, the masses will hesitantly begin to follow. We are approaching a crucial point where we either bow down to the sinister minority or make our last stand.



I have been trying to figure out the path of this Fourth Turning for the past thirteen years. What I do know is it keeps getting worse as time passes, with 2020 initiating the next leg down and 2021 devolving into a battle between the forces of oligarch evil and the majority of good people just trying to live their lives. I don’t know what happens next, but I do know the next few years will herald much pain, acrimony, bloodshed, and sacrifice on the part of many good people, if we are to retain any semblance of the nation we once celebrated.

“The risk of catastrophe will be very high. The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule. If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum risk and effort – in other words, a total war. Every Fourth Turning has registered an upward ratchet in the technology of destruction, and in mankind’s willingness to use it.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning


“History offers no guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong – the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high-tech dictatorship. We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin. Losing in the next Fourth Turning could mean something incomparably worse. It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence – perhaps even our nation – might never recover.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning
Our goal should be to act in a way that would make the Founding Fathers, who initiated our first Fourth Turning, proud of our deeds and actions. The enemy currently holds the high ground, but we are the many. The storm has arrived, and our very survival hangs in the balance. I hope there are enough of us willing to sacrifice our lives for the restoration of the Republic, given to us by Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin and the rest of the Founders.

Good luck and Godspeed.
 
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marsh

On TB every waking moment

AI (artificial intelligence) security cameras with facial recognition technology are seen at the 14th China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing on Oct. 24, 2018. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images)

AI (artificial intelligence) security cameras with facial recognition technology are seen at the 14th China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing on Oct. 24, 2018. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images)

VIEWPOINTS

The Rise of AI: Why Are so Many American Companies Helping the Chinese Regime?

John Mac Ghlionn
John Mac Ghlionn


September 19, 2021 Updated: September 20, 2021

Commentary
When you think of artificial intelligence (AI), what images spring to mind? Murderous robots kicking down your door, enslaving you and your loved ones? If so, you’re not alone. According to the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), more than 80 percent of Europeans believe that AI is poorly regulated. Going forward, almost 60 percent of Europeans fear relevant authorities will fail to control the technology. Are their fears warranted?

Before delving into the specific risks, it’s important to differentiate between AI and artificial general intelligence (AGI). The former refers to a system that is capable of rivaling or surpassing human cognitive abilities. However, in order for the machine to perform the function, a human must first program it. Then, as it’s fed more and more data, the “machine” becomes a more proficient problem solver. In other words, AI machines are pre-programmed. We see this with speech processing and image recognition devices, both of which are excellent at performing one dimensional tasks.

With AGI, a subset of AI, things are a little different. Whereas AI is pre-programmed to do very specific things (like identify facial features), AGI focuses on machines that are not just more efficient than humans, but are also capable of “reasoning, planning, and problem-solving.”

Now, if you happen to be thinking of sentient, robotic soldiers, you’re on the right track.

Although AGI is not yet here, it’s coming. And when it does, these machines will be self-aware; they will be able to carry out a whole host of tasks, from beating humans at chess to beating humans to death. The threats posed may prove to be existential in nature.

Aiding the Enemy
Speaking of existential threats, Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, recently wrote a piece describing China’s investment in all things AI. According to Schmidt, “China is now a peer technological competitor. It is organized, resourced, and determined to win this technology competition and to reshape the global order to serve its own narrow interests. AI and other emerging technologies are central to China’s efforts to expand its global influence, surpass the economic and military power of the US, and lock down domestic stability.” Obviously concerned, Schmidt continues, “China funds massive digital infrastructure projects around the world, while seeking to set global standards that reflect authoritarian values. Its technology is being used to enable social control and suppress dissent.” If Schmidt, a man I have previously discussed, is indeed correct, why are so many American research labs, specifically dedicated to AI research, currently situated in mainland China?

According to a rather interesting report published by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM, and Microsoft “spend over $76 billion on R&D annually.” As for their “collective market capitalization,” it stands well “above $5 trillion.”

However, according to the report, the six companies “receive less than half of their total revenue from the U.S. market.”

China plays a major role in providing the other half of their total revenue. This is bad news for the United States. On Sept. 1, the Chinese regime introduced a new Data Security Law. Officials in Beijing now have complete access to data held by all companies in China, including foreign-owned companies. Under the new law, all data is now considered “core state” data.

Epoch Times Photo

Huang Yongzhen, CEO of Watrix, demonstrates the use of his firm’s gait recognition software at his company’s offices in Beijing on Oct. 31, 2018. A Chinese technology startup hopes to begin selling software that recognizes people by their body shape and how they walk, enabling identification when faces are hidden from cameras. Already used by police on the streets of Beijing and Shanghai, “gait recognition” is part of a major push to develop artificial intelligence and data-driven surveillance across China, raising concern about how far the technology will go. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

In a commentary piece for Defense One, Klon Kitchen and Bill Drexel, two researchers intimately familiar with security threats, discussed the very real dangers of conducting AI research in China. In one particularly striking section, the authors focus on Microsoft’s Beijing-based Research Asia Lab, one of the biggest facilities in Asia; in fact, “over the past two decades,” it has become “the single most important institution in the birth and growth of the Chinese AI ecosystem.”

With the world understandably fixated on events in Afghanistan, it’s important that we remain focused on China, the United States’ biggest competitor. Of course, traditional terrorism, in the form of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, poses a genuine threat. But the biggest threat comes from technologically-enhanced terrorism. As we have seen with the likes of bitcoin and ethereum, the two most popular cryptocurrencies in existence, bad actors benefit from emerging technologies, largely because they are under-regulated and poorly understood by those in positions of political power. AI is no different. Advancements in technology are occurring at breakneck speeds; regulators simply can’t keep up. The Chinese regime, hidden behind its great wall of secrecy, is busy working on the weapons of tomorrow. The goat herders with kalashnikovs in Kabul are menacing, but the Chinese regime poses a far bigger threat to the Western world.

According to the aforementioned Schmidt, the United States is “playing catch-up in preparing for this global tech competition.” Now, with the troops out of Afghanistan, can President Biden get the American “AI troops” out of China? Call me a pessimist, but I highly doubt it. In March, as you may recall, the Chinese regime orchestrated an attack on Microsoft Exchange servers.

The information harvested, according to reports, was used to train AI systems. Yet Microsoft continues to conduct business in China. I am familiar with the concept of profit over people, even profit over national loyalty, but profit over basic common sense is a first.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
 

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
The long term death toll from this pandemic (5-10 years) will take us back to CIVIL WAR technology. It takes millions of people to make a modern society MORE than are apparant to almost everybody. The lack of glue makers and elevator mechanics and mail men and battery manufacturers, toolmakers, electricians, garlic farmers, just everything you see will disappear. The farmers will be stock brokers and PHDS.
The doctors will be those that refused the shot, erego a remnant. We will see lawyers planting corn.

The ONE THING we will have plenty of is HOUSING.
We wont be worried about "global warming" or "climate change",
Or science, the Mars mission, the space station, the telescopes on the stars will all fall to ruin. There wont be enough people to pursue robotics. The FBI, CIA,, NSA and all the alphabet organizations will be needed to actually work for a living.
the FDA and even CDC will be gutted with a skeleton crew if at all.
.
Lawbreakers will be dealt with harshly. Welfare and unemployment will be non-existent along with food banks. Processed food will be rare, mostly just jams and canned vegetables.. youll eat what is in season where you are.
 
Last edited:

marsh

On TB every waking moment
https://kunstler.com/cluster****-nation/and-then-everything-happens-at-once/
CLUSTER**** NATION – BLOGSeptember 20, 2021

And Then Everything Happens at Once

Cluster**** Nation - James Kunstler

Joe and Dr. Jill Biden having a nice, relaxing weekend at the beach

This is a very nervous country, and for a good reason: the collective sense of reality has commenced a momentous shift, the compass is spinning wildly, things are shaking loose in the national brain-pan, the gaslight has lost its sheen, and the once-solid narrative is turning to vapor, starting with the unspooling riddles of Covid-19.

The numbers don’t add up, starting with the fact that when you combine the official registered Covid cases (people with acquired natural immunity) with the people who already had some kind of immunity from previous life-long coronavirus encounters, with the number of people vaccinated, you have a population supposedly way beyond herd immunity. Who’s getting sick now? Mostly people who are all vaxed up.

Contrary to the behavior and statements of public health officials and politicians, the news is out that the spike proteins produced by the vax’s mRNA genetic reprogramming are toxic agents that create disorder in the major organs and blood vessels. The news is also out, despite strenuous suppression, that early treatment of Covid-19 with a kit of cheap drugs defeats the disease. People must conclude that there is a malevolent purpose behind the suppression of early treatment. They may also conclude that the vaxes are poison.

Mandating the vaxes was an easily-predicted tactical blunder. Did “Joe Biden” and company not realize that threatening the livelihoods of a hundred million people might generate a whole lot of anger and resentment? Especially since those people have good reasons to believe the vax is harmful to them? Last week, an FDA advisory panel ruled against distributing mRNA booster shots among the general population over age 16 — with exceptions for the vaguely-defined “high risk” individuals over 65.

In spite of that, Covid czar Dr. Anthony Fauci keeps pushing for boosters. On Sunday, he told NBC’s Jake Tapper: “We’re waiting for data on natural immunity. We know that if you have natural immunity and also get the shot, immunity dramatically increases.” Oh, really? Even though it’s known for sure (i.e., established in science) that natural immunity is way more potent, comprehensive, and permanent than anything the vaccine pretends to offer, while it is becoming clear that the vaxes disable people’s immune system — hence, the impressive number of the vaxed getting sick.

Is Dr. Fauci desperate or just plain crazy? The question may be moot, because it looks like he’s out of running-room on his whole crusade, Covid-19, vaxes, authoritative bullshit, and all. The story has fallen apart. It looks an awful lot like the government is trying to harm people health-wise, while it destroys jobs and small business and ruins households financially, and that counter-story is spreading faster now than Covid-19. It’s fair to ask whether all that has destroyed the legitimacy of the people in charge — but that is only one of several issues converging to detonate the people’s faith in their own government.

It appears that the first results of the Arizona 2020 election will finally come out this week. Word is the results are not just eye-opening but devastating; they will show appalling mischief in the balloting that indicates “Joe Biden’s” victory was concocted nefariously — bad “optics,” a little bit, when “Joe Biden’s” government already has its heel on the neck of a hundred million people to get a dangerous vax or lose their jobs and incomes.

The crisis on the US / Mexican border has suddenly gotten so bad that even the mainstream media had to report on it. The shanty town of Haitians and other foreign nationals moiling under the freeway bridge at Del Rio, Texas, grows by thousands each day, to around 15,000 as of Sunday. “Joe Biden” owns the open border, and everybody knows it, and the actual citizens of the USA are getting alarmed and sore about it. On Sunday night, the White House announced “plans” to fly at least 10,000 of the Haitians to Haiti, despite the fact that most of them had been living in Brazil, Chile, and other nations before entering the USA. Haiti, of course, is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and only recently suffered a massive earthquake, not to mention the assassination in July of its president. Does this airlift sound like a plan? Maybe check the “no” box on that. US citizens might have also registered that “Joe B” unloaded 37,000 Afghanis in five states since we bailed on that country August 31, and plans to bring in almost 100,000 by the end of 2022 (Yahoo News). All this at a time when millions of Americans have lost their businesses, lost their jobs, and are under threat of losing more jobs for not getting vaxed.

Think this is enough to cause a national attitude adjustment? China’s financial system has tripped into a liquidity crisis with the insolvency of its colossal Evergrande real estate Ponzi. As I write, US equity markets are down over one percent at the Monday open. Several European markets are down over two percent at their close. Isn’t this a great time for a global financial crisis? Maybe you’re saying, no, not so much. That’d probably be a good call.

Events, you see, are closing in on all the fraught mendacious fakery that permeates the world, and the USA especially, in this time of the proposed “great re-set.” This is the week that will be the week that was. Try to keep your head together while other heads are exploding around you, and see what kind of country we are on Friday. Maybe not quite the same place.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Climate Lockdowns: New CO2 monitoring credit card enables tracking of ‘carbon footprint on every purchase’ – ‘Monitors & cuts off spending when we hit our carbon max’ – Mastercard & UN join forces

DO. Everyday Climate Action – Doconomy

The World Economic Forum praised Doconomy. "While many of us are aware that we need to reduce our carbon footprint, advice on doing so can seem nebulous and keeping a tab is difficult. DO monitors and cuts off spending, when we hit our carbon max."
#

Climate Depot's Marc Morano: "This CO2 monitoring credit card will begin as a 'voluntary' measure with no 'mandate.' But how long until this CO2 card will be mandated by big corporations in collusion with governments? Given how the climate activists are aping the COVID lockdowns, expect this credit card to be mandatory under a 'climate emergency.'" See:Journal Nature: COVID lockdowns are key to begin ‘personal carbon allowances’: ‘Restrictions on individuals…that were unthinkable only 1 year before’ have us ‘more preparedto accept tracking & limitations’ to ‘achieve a safer climate’

By: Marc Morano - Climate DepotSeptember 13, 2021 12:06 PM with 0 comments
Get ready for a Chinese-style social credit system scoring when it comes to your personal spending habits and how they impact “climate change.” A new credit card called Doconomy, has launched that is “working in tight collaboration with Mastercard” and an alliance with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is now available so you can monitor your personal CO2 budget on every purchase you make.

The new CO2 monitoring Mastercard called Doconomy debuted in order to enable “all users to track, measure and understand their impact by presenting their carbon footprint on every purchase.” The credit cards feature the slogan on them reading “DO. Everyday Climate Action” and have a personal pledge on the rear of the card boasting: “I am taking responsibility for every transaction I make to help protect the planet.” The Mastercards feature the UN “Global Climate Action” logo on them as well.

DO. Everyday Climate Action – Doconomy
.
Doconomy climate change credit card


The World Economic Forum praised Doconomy. “While many of us are aware that we need to reduce our carbon footprint, advice on doing so can seem nebulous and keeping a tab is difficult. DO monitors and cuts off spending, when we hit our carbon max,” the World Economic Forum wrote on the Doconomy CO2 monitoring website.



The Doconomy credit card website explains: “With fat, sugar and salt levels labeled on food we buy, why shouldn’t our CO2 emissions be just as visible?” asks the Doconomy website. “This type of information shouldn’t be a premium or luxury that consumers pay for, but rather an essential part of every shopping journey.” The website details how the credit card will help consumers “understand their impact by presenting their carbon footprint on every purchase.”

Mathias Wikström, the CEO of Doconomy, explained, “Reducing carbon emissions needs to be prioritized by all parties. At Doconomy we are proud to engage and educate around our lifestyle’s impact on the planet…The financial sector has developed a tremendous efficiency.

Now that same force can address the planetary fragility.”

This new CO2 monitoring credit card follows on the heels of the new study in the Journal Nature in August 2021 calling for “personal carbon allowances” that would monitor individuals’ CO2 emissions through smart meters and tracking apps.
Doconomy’s new CO2 monitoring card boasts that it has started “providing 90 million consumers with carbon footprint insights.” The credit card was launched with the aim of “educating all consumers around climate impact information as a first step towards driving awareness around the climate crisis.” The Doconomy CO2 credit card website claims it is the “largest initiative ever taken by a bank in educating its users on the impact of consumption.”

“Working in tight collaboration with Mastercard, setting a global standard for carbon calculations on everyday transactions, and other frontrunners like Klarna in banking, Doconomy aims to reach 1 billion users by COP26 in November,” the Doconomy CO2 credit card website explains.

“Companies, consumers and communities must work together to make the significant changes needed to effectively address climate change” said Jorn Lambert, Mastercard Chief Digital Officer. “The Mastercard Carbon Calculator informs consumers about the carbon footprint of their purchases, so that they can make more mindful spending decisions and contribute to forest restoration. By embedding sustainability in the very fabric of our business, we can unlock the power of our network, reaching billions of consumers and partners, to create positive change for the environment,” Lambert added.

Niclas Svenningsen, Manager, Global Climate Action at the UN Climate Change secretariat praised the CO2 monitoring credit card. “What’s really key here is the availability of information.

One certainly can’t expect people to change their behaviors and take climate action if they do not know what their climate footprint is or what their consumption represents. With this data now easily accessible thanks to the partners’ excellent work, citizens are empowered to make smart decisions and act responsibly, and it can provoke a significant cultural shift around climate action.”, Svennigsen wrote.

UN_quote_new.jpg


 

vestige

Deceased

Climate Lockdowns: New CO2 monitoring credit card enables tracking of ‘carbon footprint on every purchase’ – ‘Monitors & cuts off spending when we hit our carbon max’ – Mastercard & UN join forces

DO. Everyday Climate Action – Doconomy

The World Economic Forum praised Doconomy. "While many of us are aware that we need to reduce our carbon footprint, advice on doing so can seem nebulous and keeping a tab is difficult. DO monitors and cuts off spending, when we hit our carbon max."
#

Climate Depot's Marc Morano: "This CO2 monitoring credit card will begin as a 'voluntary' measure with no 'mandate.' But how long until this CO2 card will be mandated by big corporations in collusion with governments? Given how the climate activists are aping the COVID lockdowns, expect this credit card to be mandatory under a 'climate emergency.'" See:Journal Nature: COVID lockdowns are key to begin ‘personal carbon allowances’: ‘Restrictions on individuals…that were unthinkable only 1 year before’ have us ‘more preparedto accept tracking & limitations’ to ‘achieve a safer climate’

By: Marc Morano - Climate DepotSeptember 13, 2021 12:06 PM with 0 comments
Get ready for a Chinese-style social credit system scoring when it comes to your personal spending habits and how they impact “climate change.” A new credit card called Doconomy, has launched that is “working in tight collaboration with Mastercard” and an alliance with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is now available so you can monitor your personal CO2 budget on every purchase you make.

The new CO2 monitoring Mastercard called Doconomy debuted in order to enable “all users to track, measure and understand their impact by presenting their carbon footprint on every purchase.” The credit cards feature the slogan on them reading “DO. Everyday Climate Action” and have a personal pledge on the rear of the card boasting: “I am taking responsibility for every transaction I make to help protect the planet.” The Mastercards feature the UN “Global Climate Action” logo on them as well.

DO. Everyday Climate Action – Doconomy
.
Doconomy climate change credit card


The World Economic Forum praised Doconomy. “While many of us are aware that we need to reduce our carbon footprint, advice on doing so can seem nebulous and keeping a tab is difficult. DO monitors and cuts off spending, when we hit our carbon max,” the World Economic Forum wrote on the Doconomy CO2 monitoring website.



The Doconomy credit card website explains: “With fat, sugar and salt levels labeled on food we buy, why shouldn’t our CO2 emissions be just as visible?” asks the Doconomy website. “This type of information shouldn’t be a premium or luxury that consumers pay for, but rather an essential part of every shopping journey.” The website details how the credit card will help consumers “understand their impact by presenting their carbon footprint on every purchase.”

Mathias Wikström, the CEO of Doconomy, explained, “Reducing carbon emissions needs to be prioritized by all parties. At Doconomy we are proud to engage and educate around our lifestyle’s impact on the planet…The financial sector has developed a tremendous efficiency.

Now that same force can address the planetary fragility.”

This new CO2 monitoring credit card follows on the heels of the new study in the Journal Nature in August 2021 calling for “personal carbon allowances” that would monitor individuals’ CO2 emissions through smart meters and tracking apps.

Doconomy’s new CO2 monitoring card boasts that it has started “providing 90 million consumers with carbon footprint insights.” The credit card was launched with the aim of “educating all consumers around climate impact information as a first step towards driving awareness around the climate crisis.” The Doconomy CO2 credit card website claims it is the “largest initiative ever taken by a bank in educating its users on the impact of consumption.”

“Working in tight collaboration with Mastercard, setting a global standard for carbon calculations on everyday transactions, and other frontrunners like Klarna in banking, Doconomy aims to reach 1 billion users by COP26 in November,” the Doconomy CO2 credit card website explains.

“Companies, consumers and communities must work together to make the significant changes needed to effectively address climate change” said Jorn Lambert, Mastercard Chief Digital Officer. “The Mastercard Carbon Calculator informs consumers about the carbon footprint of their purchases, so that they can make more mindful spending decisions and contribute to forest restoration. By embedding sustainability in the very fabric of our business, we can unlock the power of our network, reaching billions of consumers and partners, to create positive change for the environment,” Lambert added.

Niclas Svenningsen, Manager, Global Climate Action at the UN Climate Change secretariat praised the CO2 monitoring credit card. “What’s really key here is the availability of information.

One certainly can’t expect people to change their behaviors and take climate action if they do not know what their climate footprint is or what their consumption represents. With this data now easily accessible thanks to the partners’ excellent work, citizens are empowered to make smart decisions and act responsibly, and it can provoke a significant cultural shift around climate action.”, Svennigsen wrote.

UN_quote_new.jpg


Bullshit
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Wife of John Kerry has Million in China-Based Investments
By Human Events Staff | September 21, 2021

New government documents show that John Kerry’s wife, heiress of Heinz Ketchup, has millions of dollars in Chinese investments, leaving Biden’s climate change envoy facing an ethical dilemma.

Kerry’s latest filing with the Office of Government Ethics in March shows his wife benefits from an investment of “at least $1 million” in a hedge fund that specializes in private partnerships and investments with Chinese government-controlled funds, the Daily Mail reports.

Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz, is the widow of late senator John Heinz and heiress to the Heinz family fortune, which is estimated to be worth over $750 million.

Kerry often meets with Chinese leaders and diplomats to negotiate with the industrial superpower to cut deals on reducing its carbon footprint.

The former chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, Richard Painter, expressed concerns that the Chinese government could use this as a threatening tactic to pressure Kerry.

“As soon as anyone even hinted that the Chinese government would try to do anything to pull the rug from those companies if he didn’t do what they wanted, at that point it would create a problem for him under US code 208.”

Through her family trusts, Kerry has an over a million dollar interest in Teng Yue Partners, an investment firm specializing in equity investments in China.

One of its major holdings, Transcenta, is a Chinese biotech company recently backed by two Chinese state-owned private equity firms.

SEC filings show 97 percent of the money Teng manages is from “non-United States persons.”
Kerry’s filings say his wife’s holding is over a million, however, a majority of Teng’s funds have a minimum investment of $5 million.

“Whenever you’re negotiating with a country to try to get something done and you have investments in that country, there is that risk that negotiators could try to threaten to hold those investments hostage in the course of the negotiations,” Painter told the Daily Mail. “It could go either way. The Chinese could promise to help those companies if he took it easy on them.”

“I think it would be reasonable for him to be asked on a periodic basis whether he has any awareness of any risk to any of those companies. If he does, either she sells the companies or he stands down from climate negotiations. I think that’s absolutely critical,” Painter added.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGNHeTbzDWs
14:19 min

How U.S. economy decisions are giving CHINA worldwide CONTROL

Sep 21, 2021


Glenn Beck

\
Glenn breaks down today’s inflation, explaining what it is and the proof that those at the top — politicians and world elite — continue to take advantage of our declining economy. PLUS, a recent decision by Citi Bank and powerful investment management company, BlackRock, not only puts the U.S. further behind but allows for China to gain WORLDWIDE control too….


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oec2HXSGTzo
13:09 min

How radicals are RUINING our economy to TAKE DOWN the west

Sep 22, 2021


Glenn Beck



Glenn says he’s just as nervous about America’s future today as he was in 2007, except this time it’s not just the economy he fears is near collapse: ‘it’s the whole thing.’ And the changes that are coming, Glenn says, are ‘going to hit you financially like nothing will ever hit you.’ It’s all happening because radicals — both within our Democrat party and world elites — WANT to take down America and the west. So, they’re working to dismantle FIVE institutions that once made America great.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biVOqyISk0c
Pemiering

United States of Venezuela: How to Prepare for the Economic Collapse | Glenn TV | Ep 138

Premiere in progress. Started 40 minutes ago


BlazeTV
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

America 2021: Inequality Is Now Baked In

WEDNESDAY, SEP 22, 2021 - 04:40 PM
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

This complete capture of all avenues of regulation and governance can only end one way, a kind of hyper-stagflation.



Zeus Y. and I go way back, and he has always had a knack for summarizing just how insane, disconnected from reality, manipulative and exploitive the status quo narrative has become.

I've occasionally published his commentaries and essays here since 2008 Imaginary Worth, Empire of Debt: How Modern Finance Created Its Own Downfall (October 15, 2008), not coincidentally, in the midst of the previous debt-fueled speculative bubble popping.
Here is Zeus's recent commentary on my opting out essay:
1) The sock puppet theater assumption among the technocrats that economies ebb and flow, go bull and bear, and have moments of advancement and retraction is now irretrievably disproven. We have gone past "too big to fail, too big to jail" and escalated to "so big as to fail upward always and to get away with everything no matter how venal".
When the Fed decided to buy up non-investment grade junk bonds for the first time in its 107-year history, we now have no semblance of the (always iffy and now absurdly irrelevant) "self-regulating" economy. More and more extreme intervention on behalf of the super-rich (even as the real economy is tanking) will mirror the vaccine mandates on behalf of Big Pharma, even as their vaccines are tanking. "Draining trillions of dollars and stashing them in offshore accounts? You deserve a tax break!"

We have gone far past "moral hazard" and a "rigged game," where the super-rich will make out like bandits, even if they cause a crash. We are in the next phase where it becomes profitable to cause hyperinflation and crashes (which you control by your monopoly powers), and then simply "siphon" (the apt term from this article) whatever is left of the savings and sweat of Jose and Maria American. Inflate and crash. Inflate and crash. Quick money. Guaranteed government bailouts. Manipulated markets (including cybercurrency by the way-- can you say JPMCoin?).

There is only one way out. Refuse the sordid mess, which has gotten so absurd, and the myths so hollow (educating yourself into massive debt, and working hard, only to be "rewarded" with some downsized employee's work being loaded on you) that there can be no other ultimate option but non-violent civil market disobedience.

2) What is the future of the developing juggernaut called predatory global capital, and their preferred cocaine called "zero interest rate, infinite money printing (ZIRIMP?)?
a. The super-rich will continue to borrow unlimited sums of money at near zero interest rates, so they can claim this new "debt" as a deduction and pay no income tax whatsoever (while vacuuming up every tangible good with this funny money)
/QUOTE]

b. The super-rich will use the same value-free money to buy stocks (of their own companies and others) sending those valuations and options soaring on nothing other than an artificial and infinite "demand", while being assured of special treatment and no prosecutions.



c. The super-rich will circle wagons around one-another-- Big Legacy Media, Big Social Media, Big Pharma, etc. This can be seen in Big Social Media's promotion to disinformation by the Biden administration and censoring of real and critical scientific pushback because the billions of taxpayer-funded government contracts Big Everything knows they can get if they play along. Again, we will see acceleration toward rebellion, as people are finding ways to move away from these monopolies like YouTube and Facebook into Telegram, Rokfin, and Rumble.



d. Not only have the "little people" had $50 trillion of their productivity stolen, but many trillions more for having an effective savings interest rate of 0% for the past 12 years. What are we "saving up for" when our money in savings has literally no growing power at all? Who needs workers anyway when you can ship every productive asset and manufacturing to China, and have them holding both the strings and the bag of the global economy?



e. This complete capture of all avenues of regulation and governance can only end one way, I can see, a kind of hyper-stagflation, i.e. plummeting (real) growth and hyperinflation as both Fed and government "stimuluses" only supply trillions of dollars more to the richest while the little guys gets screwed over and over under the guise of helping them (where "paycheck protection programs" fund hedge funds on Wall Street and somehow manage to miss mom-and-pop businesses on an increasingly shuttered Main Street).
This growing gap will reach a critical point when we have supply line collapses and unpredictable events around credit. Perish forbid if we have an interruption of the internet. We are headed to that station, GBOAT, the Greatest Bubble Of All Time alright, and it is just a matter of how long it's going to take for this runaway train to get there."
by Zeus Yiamouyiannis, Ph.D.

Consultant, Learning transformation, leadership, and design
Citizen Zeus (http://citizenzeus.com) "Learn to Transform"
Transforming Economy: From Corrupted Capitalism to Connected Communities
Thank you, Zeus. Well said: inequality is well and truly baked in.
 

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
People are thinking INFLATION when they see a pound of Rice or butter,or gallon of milk go to $10.
But when it first goes to $100 then $1,000 for a pound, then they will understand what hyperinflation is and that it could and did happen in AMERICA.

They will starve when their savings run out and the prices will still be rising to $10,000.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Kerry: Protecting Planet ‘First and Foremost’ in Dealings with China, Not Human Rights, Life Is ‘Full of Tough Choices’

IAN HANCHETT22 Sep 202181

During an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry responded to a question on how the U.S. trades off human rights concerns with concerns about climate change with China by stating that “life is always full of tough choices” and “first and foremost, this planet must be protected.”

Host David Westin asked, “Another issue related to China is the importing of solar panels.

Because, clearly, a priority of the Biden administration is really addressing climate. But it’s not the only priority. There are other things as well, such as the Uyghur situation in the west. What is the process by which one trades off climate against human rights?”

Kerry responded, “Well, life is always full of tough choices in the relationship between nations. Ronald Reagan thought the Soviet Union was the evil empire, and he continually directed a lot of energy at getting the Soviet Union to change. He then went to Reykjavik, met with Gorbachev, and decided together…you know what? This doesn’t make sense that we’re aiming 50,000 warheads at each other, that we’re always on the brink of potential conflict. And so, they turned that around. … But the point I’m making is that, even as there were egregious human rights issues, which Ronald Reagan called them out on, we have to find a way forward to make the world safer, to protect our countries, and act in our interests. We can do and must do the same thing now. Yes, we have issues, a number of different issues. But first and foremost, this planet must be protected. We all need to do that for our people.”

Kerry further stated that the hope is that if there is cooperation on climate with China, it could lead to cooperation on other issues.
(h/t Fox Business)
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Elites at the IMF Suggest Banks Will Soon Be Using More than Credit History When Underwriting Consumer Loans

By Joe Hoft
Published September 23, 2021 at 12:15pm
IMF.jpg

You be a good little boy or girl and you will get candy. You be bad and you get nothing.

We’ve been warned about this for years. The elites in charge of the world community may soon set loan rates and other variables based on more than your financial activity. In the future, these items will be based on your social score as well. Facebook had the ability to do this years ago.

1632431883333.png

This spring Merrill Lynch was reported as dealing in social scores.

1632431816183.png

Others have pointed out how digital currencies could have this mechanism as well.

1632431772577.png

Now elites at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have posted research on their site describing a social score used to rate your ability to apply for a loan.
In the not-too-distant future, your internet habits could help determine how much house you can buy and the rate on your next auto loan.

Sounds ridiculous? Right now, your credit score — that three-digit number that tells lenders how responsible you are — is based on simple financial information, like your payment history and debt level.

But research posted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) website suggests companies will soon be looking at a lot more data to get an accurate picture of the risk you pose as a borrower…

…Lenders could soon use data from your browsing, search and shopping history to create a more accurate credit score, researchers say.

Much of that information is publicly accessible, while some might need to be provided to credit bureaus. Taken together, that data forms your “digital footprint.”

The working paper cites other studies showing that combining credit information and your digital footprint “improves loan default predictions.”
Surely your credit score would never be impacted by your politics would it?
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpDGM2gVChc
13:37 min

It’s time to prepare for lower living standards in America

Sep 23, 2021


Glenn Beck


Thanks to the radical left’s goal to destroy our economy, it’s time to prepare for shortages in several industries — not just energy and food. In fact, Glenn worries that living standards in America could mirror those in Venezuela within the next FOUR YEARS. In this clip, he explains what to expect and how you should prepare…. To watch Glenn dive further into this topic, check out his latest Wednesday Night Special at the chalkboard — “United States of Venezuela” — available now on BlazeTV.com.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

US Congress Quietly Sneaks In Crypto-Bill Amendment Authorizing Central Bank Digital Currency

THURSDAY, SEP 23, 2021 - 03:20 PM
Authored by Wesley Thysse via DecentralizedLegalSystem.com,

The future of money is here; will the Federal Reserve Board be authorized to use distributed ledger technology for the creation, distribution and “recordation” of all the transactions of a Digital Dollar?



On July 28, 2021, a new bill was introduced in the US House of Representatives. This bill, sponsored by Congressman Don Beyer,1) aims to regulate crypto-currencies. But it does more…

The bill is called the “Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act”2) (“Digital Asset Bill”). And for the majority, it sets out future rules for crypto. However, hidden in this bill, changes to the foundation of the Dollar are proposed.

And because nobody outside crypto (and frankly, few inside crypto) actually read the bill, these amendments have so far largely gone unnoticed.

<Changing the Nature of Money_
Crypto-currencies have been making waves. Fans of crypto think they have the new medium of exchange. However, in the current proposed regulations, Congress clearly takes a strict approach towards crypto and its various use cases. The following article provides an overview of these new US crypto regulations.

Included in the Digital Asset Bill, amendments to the Federal Reserve Act and the definition of legal tender are proposed. These amendments drastically expand the powers of the Federal Reserve, and change how money is created and distributed in the US.

<The Dollar and the Federal Reserve_
Instrumental in the creation of the US Dollar is the Federal Reserve. It was set up in 1913 as a reaction to the 1907 financial crisis. During this crisis, Finance mogul J.P. Morgan, who had bailed the government out of a financial crisis in 1895, had to organize private sector investments and lines of credit to stabilize the banking system.

The original idea behind the Federal Reserve was for private bank deposits to be combined in a reserve. This could provide an emergency line of credit in times of economic stress.

<What The FED Does: Creation of Digital and Physical Dollars_
Contrary to what is widely understood, the Fed does not “print money.” It can only manage the money supply indirectly.

It is the private sector that “creates” most of what we use as money in the modern banking system. They do this by issuing credit to the market.

It is with the supply of credit by private banks that the monetary supply is inflated. Conversely, with the reduced demand for credit, the money supply deflates. The FED does not have as much direct influence on this process as it wants the market to believe.

In addition, the FED is responsible for the distribution of Federal Reserve Notes (those little papers we know and use as Dollars). Currency departments at each of the 12 Federal Reserve banks make recommendations about future currency needs. The banks then place orders with the Comptroller of the Currency. After reviewing the requests, the Comptroller forwards them to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which then produces the appropriate denominations of currency notes. The Federal Reserve distributes these through its member banks.

To summarize: the Federal Reserve does not directly create digital money. And, it also doesn’t create physical money (notes and coins).

<Introducing the Central Bank Digital Dollar_
After looking at what the FED is and isn’t allowed to do, we can look at how their authority is to be expanded. According to the Digital Asset Bill, section 11 of the Federal Reserve Act is to be amended to provide the Federal Reserve Board with new powers:
“(d) To supervise and regulate through the Secretary of the Treasury the issue and retirement of Federal Reserve notes (both physical and digital), except for the cancellation and destruction, and accounting with respect to such cancellation and destruction, of notes unfit for circulation, and to prescribe rules and regulations (including appropriate technology) under which such notes may be delivered by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Federal Reserve agents applying therefor.”
So far so good. But the next section, contains the real story. According to the Digital Asset bill, Federal Reserve notes will in the future also be issued digitally:
“Federal reserve notes, to be issued at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for the purpose of making advances to Federal reserve banks through the Federal reserve agents as hereinafter set forth and for no other purpose, are authorized. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is authorized to issue digital versions of Federal reserve notes in addition to current physical Federal reserve notes. Further, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, after consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, is authorized to use distributed ledger technology for the creation, distribution and recordation of all transactions involving digital Federal reserve notes. The said notes shall be obligations of the United States and shall be considered legal tender and shall be receivable by all national and member banks and Federal reserve banks and for all taxes, customs, and other public dues. They shall be redeemed in lawful money on demand at the Treasury Department of the United States, in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, or at any Federal Reserve bank.” 7)
<Creation, Distribution and Recordation_
As we saw, the Federal Reserve does not have the power to create Dollars directly. It seem like this power is now to be granted to them. Given that these new Reserve Notes are digital, this strangely merges two distinct forms of money as well.

Next, we saw that the distribution of Dollars was done through member banks. It isn’t clear if this remains the case. It clearly says that these digital Dollars can be issued “in addition” to the current Federal Reserve notes. There is nothing, at least not in this law, preventing the Federal Reserve from taking a more centralized and direct role in distributing the digital Dollar. Perhaps during the next “emergency.”

And finally, the Federal Reserve Board is to be authorized to create and distribute a “ledger-based” digital Dollar that could be used for everyday transactions. There are a few technologies one could imagine, but let us for now assume this will be a blockchain. Blockchains are great for recording transactions; it is what they do.

Perhaps that is why the Federal Reserve will be authorized to do so? However, it is a bit hard to imagine that such a centralized structure would not lead to monitoring of all transactions. And what about privacy? What about security?


<Possible Outcome_
The Fed is currently not as powerful as it wants the market to believe; the Federal Reserve Act restricts a lot of its actions. This amendment, however, could drastically expand the powers of the FED, by allowing them to create and distribute a “digital USD” directly. It could change the entire structure of the financial system, with far reaching consequences.

And how are digital Federal Reserve Notes to be justified in terms of the origins and authority of the Federal Reserve? If the Digital Dollar is based on a blockchain, how can they also be based on reserves?

And what mechanism will determine how funds (and how much) are added to the economy?

And where and how will they be distributed? Will this all be under the control of a board of seven unelected bureaucrats? And how will they control a distributed ledger of such magnitude?

This amendment has the potential to change the way the Federal Reserve operates. It is not law yet, and can still be changed. This deserves a wider discussion by economists and financial experts outside the crypto-space as well.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Household Net Worth Hits Record $142 Trillion, Up $31 Trillion Since COVID, But There Is A Catch...

THURSDAY, SEP 23, 2021 - 01:13 PM

Another quarter, another record high in (1%er) household net worth.

The Fed's latest Flow of Funds report released at noon today showed the latest snapshot of the US "household" sector as of June 30 2021, which confirmed that one year after the biggest drop in household net worth on record when $8 trillion was wiped out in Q1, 2020, in the 2nd quarter of 2021 the net worth of US households soared by another $5.85 trillion, or 4.3%, rising to a new all time high of $141.7 trillion.

As has traditionally been the case, real estate ($34.9 trillion) and directly and indirectly held corporate equities ($47.0 trillion) were the largest components of household net worth. Meanwhile, household debt (seasonally adjusted) was $17.3 trillion.



This means that over the past 12 months, US household net worth has increased by:
  • Q2 2020: $7.92TN
  • Q3 2020: $4.26TN
  • Q4 2020: $7.9TN
  • Q1 2021: $5.1TN
  • Q2 2021: $5.85TN
... a grand total of $31 trillion. And since the bulk of this wealth goes to a fraction of the wealthiest 1% (see chart at the bottom), it means that the covid pandemic has been the biggest wealth transfer in history, making America's richest even richer.

Looking at the composition of the wealth change, $3.54 trillion came from a gain in stocks, $1.2 trillion was from an increase in real estate values - the biggest quarterly increase in housing values on record - and another $1.1 trillion coming from "other sources."



And visually:



It wasn't just housing and real-estate: net private savings grew at an annualized pace of almost $2.9 trillion in the second quarter after a $4.8 trillion surge in the prior quarter -- which while still a high number, suggests that almost $2 trillion in excess savings have already been spent. Excess savings have been a key driver of consumer spending, including last quarter, where consumer outlays jumped at one of the fastest paces on record.

Of course, in addition to assets, liabilities also grew, and in Q2 2021 household debt grew at a 7.9% SAAR, a more rapid pace than in previous quarters as home mortgages surged by 8.0%, spurred by rising home prices and sale activity as well as by the Fed keeping borrowing costs near zero. That’s led to record-low mortgage rates, which have bolstered demand for homes.

The median selling price for previously owned homes is at a record high. Homeowners’ real estate holdings minus the change in mortgage debt rose $879.7 billion (a positive value indicates that the value of real estate is growing at a faster pace than household mortgage debt).

Meanwhile, nonmortgage consumer credit increased by 8.6%, as credit cards, auto loans, and student debt all increased.



Nonfinancial business debt grew at a rate of 1.4%, reflecting continuing growth in commercial mortagages, nonbank loans, and corporate bonds and a decline in nonmortgage depository loans. Federal debt rose 9.6%. State and local debt increased 3.1%. As GDP continued to grow, the ratio of nonfinancial debt to GDP edged down a bit further. In the second quarter of 2020, the ratio had spiked, driven by the drop in GDP and the expansion in federal debt related to the fiscal stimulus.



Looking at the various components of nonfinancial business debt, nonmortgage depository loans to nonfinancial business decreased $143 billion in the first quarter. Contributing to the decline was the forgiveness of many loans extended under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which more than offset the extension of new PPP loans. However, nonmortgage depository loans declined even excluding PPP loans. More than 400 billion of PPP loans were on the lenders’ balance sheet at the end of the second quarter and thus are still included in our measure of nonfinancial business debt. However, a large fraction of them is expected to be forgiven.

In contrast to nonmortgage depository loans, commercial mortgages and nonbank loans continued to increase. Corporate bonds also increased, though at a slower pace than in the first quarter.

Overall, outstanding nonfinancial corporate debt was $11.2 trillion. Corporate bonds, at roughly $6.6 trillion, accounted for 59% of the total. Nonmortgage depository loans were about $1.0 trillion. Other types of debt include loans from nonbank institutions, loans from the federal government, and commercial paper.



The nonfinancial noncorporate business sector consists mostly of smaller businesses, which are typically not incorporated. Nonfinancial noncorporate business debt was $6.7 trillion, of which $4.7 trillion were mortgage loans and $1.6 trillion were nonmortgage depository loans.



And while it would be great if this wealth increase was spread across most Americans, there is - as usual - a catch as unfortunately, most Americans aren’t benefiting from recent gains in wealth, and while the pandemic has led to a surge in savings and opportunities for many to buy a home or invest while pushing up the financial assets of the "top 10%" to record highs, the downturn has disproportionately impacted low-income workers, many of whom rent and don’t participate in the stock market.

Indeed, the latest data as of Q1 shows that the top 1% accounts for over $41.5 trillion of total household net worth, with the number rising to over $90 trillion for just the top 10%. Meanwhile, the bottom half of the US population has virtually no assets at all. On a percentage basis, just the Top 1% now own a record 32.1% share of total US net worth, or $45.6 trillion. In other words, the richest Americans have never owned a greater share of US household income than they do, largely thanks to the Fed. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% own just 2% of all net worth, or a paltry $2.8 trillion. They do own most of the debt though...



A closer look at the percentile breakdown:



And the saddest chart of all: the wealth of the bottom 50% is virtually unchanged since 2006, while the net worth of the Top 1% has risen by 132% from $17.9 trillion to $41.5 trillion.



Bottom line: the data underscore how the government's fiscal scramble to speed up the "economic recovery" paired with the Fed's continued ultra easy monetary policy have helped to protect and grow the wealth of the richest Americans: those who own assets, and who have seen their net worth hit an all time high... unlike the bottom 50% of Americans who mostly "own" debt.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Banks Oppose Biden's New 'Total Financial Surveillance' Proposal On IRS Reporting

THURSDAY, SEP 23, 2021 - 10:00 AM
Authored by Emel Akan via The Epoch Times,

Opposition is growing to a new proposal aimed at curbing tax evasion that would be part of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package under consideration by Congress.



The proposal, which is being pushed by the Biden administration, would require banks and other financial institutions to report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) any deposits or withdrawals totaling more than $600 annually to or from all business and personal accounts.

The American Bankers Association (ABA), along with over 40 business and financial groups, sent a letter on Sept. 17 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) objecting to the “ill-advised” reporting proposal.
“While the stated goal of this vast data collection is to uncover tax dodging by the wealthy, this proposal is not remotely targeted to that purpose or that population,” the letter stated.

“In addition to the significant privacy concerns, it would create tremendous liability for all affected parties by requiring the collection of financial information for nearly every American without proper explanation of how the IRS will store, protect, and use this enormous trove of personal financial information.”
The Biden administration has been pushing Democrats to include the proposal in the $3.5 trillion spending bill in an effort to address tax evasion, mainly by wealthy people.

With the new reporting rule, “the wealthy can no longer hide what they’re making,”
President Joe Biden said on Sept. 16 during a speech on the economy.
“That isn’t about raising their taxes,” Biden added.

“It’s about the super-wealthy finally beginning to pay what they owe.”
The reporting regime aims to close the tax gap, according to the Treasury Department, which is the difference between taxes owed to the government and what’s actually paid.

A report released by the Treasury in May stated that the new reporting rule would help “raise $460 billion over the next decade.”

Almost every banking transaction and even transfers between one’s accounts would be aggregated and reported to the IRS, according to Paul Merski, group executive vice president at the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), which represents nearly 5,000 community banks in the United States.
“It’s a dragnet, it’s a collection of data in the scale that we’ve never seen before in the financial sector,” Merski told The Epoch Times.
ICBA is among the financial groups that strongly oppose Biden’s proposal, calling it an “overreach” by the federal government.



Banks already report a tremendous amount of data to the IRS. According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report, more than 3.5 billion information returns were received by the IRS for tax year 2018. A large number of these come from banks, ABA says. These include reporting interest paid on bank accounts, dividend income, brokerage transactions, mortgage interest, and more.

Under the Bank Secrecy Act, U.S. financial institutions also report to the government all wire transfers over $10,000 as well as suspicious cash transactions to prevent criminal activities such as money laundering.
“Banks are already reporting billions of pieces of information and you’re getting to the point where the banks are becoming the police force for the IRS,” Merski said.

“I don’t think people, small business owners know about this profiling that the IRS wants to put together,” he added.

“So, it’s basically a profiling; they want to see your transactions and create a profile on you, and if they don’t like what they see, then they can go after you.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) last week, asking Democrats to include a “sufficiently comprehensive” reporting provision in the bill “so that tax evaders are not able to structure financial accounts to avoid it.”

It is unclear whether some version of the proposal will make it into the final bill, but the Ways and Means Committee left out the administration’s proposal in the legislation approved by the committee due to the growing backlash.

Neal, however, indicated that the committee is in discussions with the administration on various proposals to increase reporting requirements.

According to Merski, the provision could be added back to the budget reconciliation bill at any stage in the process, especially at the last minute. The bill only needs a simple majority to pass in the Senate.
“Our fear is that this is so onerous that they’re waiting to the last second to put this in, but they’re dead serious about putting this proposal in,” he said.
An ICBA poll conducted by Morning Consult found that 67 percent of voters oppose the new IRS reporting proposal.
“The provision is a violation of Americans’ privacy rights and would be a crushing burden on community banks and credit unions struggling in the midst of the pandemic,” John Berlau, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told The Epoch Times.

“The IRS already gets plenty of data on taxpayers through forms such as 1099s, and does not need instant access to these small transactions to go after tax cheats,” he said.
According to the Treasury Department, Biden’s proposal is “integral to addressing evasion.”

The tax gap disproportionately benefits wealthy people because their income mainly comes from “non-labor sources where misreporting is common,” the Treasury report stated.

“The tax gap totaled nearly $600 billion in 2019 and will rise to about $7 trillion over the course of the next decade if left unaddressed.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

September 23, 2021
They Intend to Destroy America

By Jeff M. Lewis

If you’re thinking that Biden’s policies are destroying America, you’re right. And the worst part is that this is exactly what Democrats want.

Richard Andrew Cloward and Francis Fox Piven were both Columbia University professors and long-time members of the Democrat Socialist Party. They were the authors of the Cloward-Piven strategy (paraphrased from Cloward–Piven strategy - Wikipedia):
Overload the American public welfare system and create a crisis that will bankrupt the nation, leaving no choice but to adopt a socialist/communist system of government.
In addition:
The ultimate objective of this strategy is to wipe out poverty by establishing a guaranteed annual income.
There is ample information available via internet searches to validate the Cloward-Piven strategy as I have characterized it above. The essential takeaway is that the goal is to collapse the government and financial systems of the United States and then rebuild the United States into the ever-sought but never-achieved socialist utopia.

Perhaps the best thing about Barack Obama being elected President and serving two terms, along with Democrats’ deranged reaction to Donald Trump’s election is the radicals are no longer in hiding. They are now saying out loud, in public and in broad daylight, things that nobody in Bill Clinton’s administration would ever have said or admitted. Now, we can clearly identify the enemy in plain sight, who is not just inside the gate but entrenched throughout our vital national institutions.

These radicals are not slowing down, they are “pedal to the metal” and accelerating. Time is critical. We must resist them at every opportunity, locally and nationally, and let them know we will not shirk our duty to stand for Freedom.

Here is a short list of what they are doing to wreck the country (keep looking, and you will find there are more).

Big-Government Socialized Healthcare
Nearly every network evening news and local news broadcast begins with a “COVID-19 Update” and another sales pitch to get the vaccine or to scare and shame the unvaccinated. Government health agencies and bureaucracies focus only on vaccines of waning effectiveness, and that is killing people. Still, they insist we must get vaccinated or we’ll get lockdowns, masks, and every other mandated measure they can think of.

The installed administration is now exerting top-down control of preventative medicines and is aggressively seizing monoclonal antibody treatments from states that use them to distribute “equitably” to states that don’t.

It’s all meant to make us do as we are told, and it proves the long-held assertions among conservatives that socialized medicine equals rationing of medicine and care, and lets the government decide who lives or dies.

Resist.

Politicizing the Military
The United States Armed Forces and those who currently serve (or have served in the past) have been a perennial source of pride for Americans. The military has been one of America’s most well-respected institutions. In less than seven months, the installed regime has revealed just how politicized the military leadership has become. It is an understatement to say that the retired military community views with grave concern the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the reports of the “back channel’ communications General Milley had with his Chinese counterpart, and the purge of any officer in leadership who expresses a sincere concern for the “social justice” initiatives currently being taught.

Mr. Douglas Murray, a British political consultant commented on Tucker Carlson’s show recently that once you begin to politicize an agency that’s meant to represent the whole country, that’s a terribly self-destructive move.

Bingo! That’s exactly what Democrats intend: destroy the country by making its citizens unwilling to serve and unwilling to defend it.

Resist. The entire retired Veteran community needs to be heard on all of this as well.

Open Borders
Since the installed regime’s illogical, reflexive, and disastrous (some say illegal) repeal of every measure the Trump administration enacted to secure the border, the situation has continually degraded before our eyes (at least when the news media honestly reports what is happening).
The evidence of the humanitarian crisis is overwhelming: the number of illegal aliens found dead on South Texas brush country ranches has increased; fatalities on the border states’ roads and highways have also risen from illicit human traffickers’ attempts to evade border protection or law enforcement officers and the human toll exacted on those who cross the border, endure the elements, and face over-crowded processing facilities is impossible to calculate.

None of it is compassionate, and none of it is for the illegal aliens’ welfare because unknown numbers have become indentured servants to the criminal enterprises that brought them to the United States. They will likely never know freedom. The Democrat party, its apparatus, and the installed administration all want to change America’s demographics to have more “voters” who are dependent on government largesse and will vote Democrat, cementing its permanent political power. It is a sickening subjugation of the rightful, legal citizens of the United States.

Resist.

Politicizing and “packing the Court”
What leftists have never been able to do is legislate a radical transformation of the United States. Their strategy has been to infiltrate the legal/judicial system and to seat as many anti-American activist jurists in the judicial branch of our government.

These activist judges, once in place, legislate from the bench to support America’s radical transformation, enabling the government to intercede where the Constitution draws specific limits, stripping citizens of their constitutional rights, and granting rights unknown in centuries of Anglo-American legal precedent. These activist judges will be sure any legal challenge to the constitutionality of their agenda will fail.

Their attempts to “pack the court” are an attempt to legislatively re-structure the court system in a manner that enables them to install new judges or replace active judges with those who support their leftist transformation of America.

Resist.

Voting Rights Legislation
The inestimable, inimitable, and transformative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said of the Democrat party (and I’m paraphrasing from memory):

Democrats do not want to have to win your vote. They do not want to have to compete in the arena of ideas nor do they want to have to win elections. Keep a sharp eye, because they want to eliminate elections as they are currently held in the United States, and they want to remove any chance they will not win elections. They only want the political power necessary to be able to exert as much control of you as they see fit.

Rush would tell his listeners, “Don’t doubt me.” Do not doubt that Rush was right about the Democrats’ radicalization and their aim to secure for themselves a permanent majority and permanent power in our government.

Their “Voter Rights” bill currently making its way through Congress has nothing to do with voter rights; it’s about legalizing every method of cheating they used in the 2020 election. The current bill is an attempt to thwart the Constitution and the fifty states’ constitutionally derived powers to oversee their own elections.

Nothing the Democrat party or its leftist, social democrat politicians want to do is good for America. They run to the same old playbook, and none of it has ever worked, anywhere, or any time it has been tried.

We are at a turning point. Don’t let them win. Resist!

232550_5_.jpg

[resistance.png]
 
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marsh

On TB every waking moment

Codevilla’s Final Work: Stopping The Decay Of Western Civilization Begins With A Great Educational Reset

Problems with education bespeak civilizational ones, of which the phenomenon of Davos Man is but one manifestation.

Angelo Codevilla

By Angelo Codevilla
SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

This introduction was written by Michael Walsh and published in The Pipeline on Sept. 22, 2021. Following Walsh’s commentary is an excerpt from Angelo Codevilla’s last written work.

America lost a great patriot and one of its foremost public intellectuals this week with the untimely death of Angelo Codevilla at the age of 78. Professor Codevilla, whose career spanned the Navy, the foreign service, the intelligence community, academe, think tanks, the blogosphere, and the literary world, was one of the sharpest and shrewdest observers of the contemporary political scene — hardly surprising, since the Italian-born scholar produced a notable 1997 translation of Machiavelli’s “The Prince.”

The core of his appeal — for his students, for those who heard him speak, for those of us who appeared with him on panels and at public events and had the thankless task of trying to match both wits and breadth of knowledge with him — was Angelo’s ability to cut quickly to the heart of any matter, instantly bolstering his fluent and elegant arguments with examples from history both ancient and modern.

It is therefore, with profound sadness, that we present what might be the last piece he ever wrote, which will appear in “Against the Great Reset,” a collection of some 16 essays by such luminaries as Prof. Codevilla, Conrad Black, Janice Fiamengo, Michael Anton, David Goldman, Roger Kimball, Victor Davis Hanson, Alberto Mingardi, Salvatore Babones, Martin Hutchinson, Jeremy Black, Harry Stein, Richard Fernandez, and others still to come. I have the honor of editing the essays, as well as contributing one myself, along with an overall introduction. We hope to announce the publisher soon.

What follows is an excerpt from “Resetting the Educational Reset.” Although its topic is necessarily specific to the parlous state of our educational system, it brims with characteristic aperçus, sparkles with the joy of intellectual combat, and positively revels in its defense of Western civilization. No happier warrior lived, fighting on the side of the angels — and now, surely, dwelling among them.


Resetting the Educational Reset
The closer one looks at education today, the more one sees that the dumbing down and perversion of America to which people object most strongly is the continuation of a century-old decay in our civilization. Problems with education bespeak civilizational ones, of which the phenomenon of Davos Man is but one manifestation.

Any civilization is the totality of the language, habits and ideas in which people live and move – the human reality that defines their practical limits. To see how grossly unequal to one another civilizations are, it is enough to glance at how much or little understanding of reality the languages they speak contain – what any given language enables, or not. We are accustomed to Greek, Latin, English, French, Italian, German, etc. with their massive dictionaries, full of definitions, pronouns, tenses, moods, and concepts, all tied together by grammar that flows from logic. When we speak these languages correctly, we hardly realize that we are wielding powerful tools of reason, developed over thousands of years.

But acquaintance with the languages that most of mankind speak shows that most contain few well-defined words, and almost no grammar. Little intellection. Almost no reason. Sometimes they lack even the plural. Here we must term those who speak a form of English, French, etc. that they barely grasp as superficially civilized, if at all. Monkeys with keyboards.

Without going to any depth in the debate between the human possibilities that nature and nurture provide, enough experiments have been carried out that show that nature does not limit babies born into primitive tribes to lives near the level of quadrupeds, just as it does not endow the offspring of Ph.ds’s with high I.Qs. Quantification is unnecessary for us to know that much of civilization depends on the habits of body, heart, and mind into which we are civilized.

We may never have heard of Plato’s prescription that the body and mind are best trained for reason by physical discipline, that the right kind of music enhances these and the wrong kind hinders it. We may no longer play musical instruments as much as earlier generations. And yet all who are part of Western civilization carry with us, among other things, a musical heritage based on mathematics and melody that also sets us apart from other civilizations.

Decline is a Top-Down Effect

What, then has education been doing to our civilization? The very concept of IQ, of Intelligence Quotient, of the Stanford-Binet test and things similar, is, as its critics argue, a cultural construct – less a measure of potential than of capacities already developed. No surprise that persons growing up in environments that stimulate and enable the development of human possibilities do in fact develop more of these. Some studies suggest that the complex of what each generation conveyed to the next made those generations more intellectually/morally potent than their predecessors through the early twentieth century, but that this process has reversed itself over about a half-century and average IQ has dropped by some 14 points. The decline seems to have come at the top of our civilizational pyramid. Speculation about the causes is less relevant than noting the effects.

But the deepest philosophical causes are not in dispute. After Descartes’ “Discourse on Method” reduced reality into something wholly comprehensible by truncating it, the very peaks of Western philosophy reversed the relationship between reality and the observer. Kant and Hegel’s “idealism” is neither more nor less than the further affirmation that the mind, for its own sovereign convenience, can take possession of what it perceives. From these philosophical peaks, any number of streams of far less sophisticated thought have flowed that effectively and explicitly place the mind’s product under the sway of man’s will, and hence of man’s various interests.

The intellectual mechanism is straightforward: presume to abolish the objective status of what you see, and presume to retake possession of what you then suppose to be reality, based on what matters to you.

From Ludwig Feuerbach’s injunction to worship Christianity as our own creation, to Karl Marx’s assertion of sovereignty over the mind’s products as “superstructural,” to class interest, to Sigmund Freud’s assertion of perceptions as reflections of sexuality, the main streams of latter-day high Western thought have de-valued reason and reality in favor of all manner of self-indulgence. Today, colleges teach students to disparage reference to facts and logic as “logism.”

Loosening our bounds to reality is attractive also because calling things by whatever names serves our immediate purpose liberates us from the hard work of understanding things not of our making, and gives us the illusion of mastery over our environment. It is especially attractive to those who have power over others, because it frees them from having to persuade the rest of humanity. For society’s mob of lazy under-performers, pleasing the leaders is an easier way of securing one’s place than competing for merit. Anyhow: intellectual/moral deterioration has ever been an easier sell than the hard acquisition of skills and virtues.

In our time as ever, there does seem to be a natural concurrence of interest in imprecision and lack of discipline between those who are happy enough to be barbarians and the despots who naturally dominate barbarians.

The Scam of Higher Education
Cutting the life support of higher-ed institutions requires exposing how little – if any – good they do by comparison with the price and opportunity costs of attending them. A little political action can go a long way in this regard by imposing on them the same requirements for transparency about the effects they have on those they serve as applied to other providers of goods and services.

Reputation, prestige, is literally the main product that they dispense. What do you get for four years at Old State U? What about at Old Ivy? These questions deserve empirical answers.

Institutions advertise the percentage of students they admit, and sometimes the entrants’ test scores, implying that they select the best and make them better. But the edu-class rejects categorically comparing students’ test scores (absolute and/or relative) before and after they attend. The rejection’s vehemence has increased as the amount of study required for graduation has fallen. Legislating transparency in educational outcomes is the most potent weapon against scams.

Fact-based challenges to established colleges’ hazy claims to beneficence can also help those who start up replacement institutions. What if, as is entirely possible, test figures bear out that the average student is not better able to think after four years at Old State or Old Ivy than before? Could it be that they did not demand more of the student? There is plenty of evidence that they demanded less than in previous decades. The new colleges can credibly pledge to improve students at the very least by requiring more work of them.

More important but beyond empirical demonstration is that the substance of what is being taught, the manner and ethos of education, especially as it flows down from the peaks of academe, have corrupted – are corrupting – America. All manner of corruption is so immanent from America’s commanding heights on down as to make superfluous the presentation of facts and arguments about it.

Whoever would reset education in America from its current path must begin by noting and denouncing its corruption of our civilization. Each new generation internalizes civilization as it does its maternal language. Restoring the integrity of the civilization into which we educate succeeding generations requires educators to pay attention to its language’s every word.

Angelo M. Codevilla is a fellow of the Claremont Institute, professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University and the author of To Make And Keep Peace, Hoover Institution Press, 2014.
 

glennb6

Inactive

US Congress Quietly Sneaks In Crypto-Bill Amendment Authorizing Central Bank Digital Currency

THURSDAY, SEP 23, 2021 - 03:20 PM
Authored by Wesley Thysse via DecentralizedLegalSystem.com,

The future of money is here; will the Federal Reserve Board be authorized to use distributed ledger technology for the creation, distribution and “recordation” of all the transactions of a Digital Dollar?



On July 28, 2021, a new bill was introduced in the US House of Representatives. This bill, sponsored by Congressman Don Beyer,1) aims to regulate crypto-currencies. But it does more…

The bill is called the “Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act”2) (“Digital Asset Bill”). And for the majority, it sets out future rules for crypto. However, hidden in this bill, changes to the foundation of the Dollar are proposed.

And because nobody outside crypto (and frankly, few inside crypto) actually read the bill, these amendments have so far largely gone unnoticed.

<Changing the Nature of Money_
Crypto-currencies have been making waves. Fans of crypto think they have the new medium of exchange. However, in the current proposed regulations, Congress clearly takes a strict approach towards crypto and its various use cases. The following article provides an overview of these new US crypto regulations.

Included in the Digital Asset Bill, amendments to the Federal Reserve Act and the definition of legal tender are proposed. These amendments drastically expand the powers of the Federal Reserve, and change how money is created and distributed in the US.

<The Dollar and the Federal Reserve_
Instrumental in the creation of the US Dollar is the Federal Reserve. It was set up in 1913 as a reaction to the 1907 financial crisis. During this crisis, Finance mogul J.P. Morgan, who had bailed the government out of a financial crisis in 1895, had to organize private sector investments and lines of credit to stabilize the banking system.

The original idea behind the Federal Reserve was for private bank deposits to be combined in a reserve. This could provide an emergency line of credit in times of economic stress.

<What The FED Does: Creation of Digital and Physical Dollars_
Contrary to what is widely understood, the Fed does not “print money.” It can only manage the money supply indirectly.

It is the private sector that “creates” most of what we use as money in the modern banking system. They do this by issuing credit to the market.

It is with the supply of credit by private banks that the monetary supply is inflated. Conversely, with the reduced demand for credit, the money supply deflates. The FED does not have as much direct influence on this process as it wants the market to believe.

In addition, the FED is responsible for the distribution of Federal Reserve Notes (those little papers we know and use as Dollars). Currency departments at each of the 12 Federal Reserve banks make recommendations about future currency needs. The banks then place orders with the Comptroller of the Currency. After reviewing the requests, the Comptroller forwards them to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which then produces the appropriate denominations of currency notes. The Federal Reserve distributes these through its member banks.

To summarize: the Federal Reserve does not directly create digital money. And, it also doesn’t create physical money (notes and coins).

<Introducing the Central Bank Digital Dollar_
After looking at what the FED is and isn’t allowed to do, we can look at how their authority is to be expanded. According to the Digital Asset Bill, section 11 of the Federal Reserve Act is to be amended to provide the Federal Reserve Board with new powers:



<Creation, Distribution and Recordation_
As we saw, the Federal Reserve does not have the power to create Dollars directly. It seem like this power is now to be granted to them. Given that these new Reserve Notes are digital, this strangely merges two distinct forms of money as well.

Next, we saw that the distribution of Dollars was done through member banks. It isn’t clear if this remains the case. It clearly says that these digital Dollars can be issued “in addition” to the current Federal Reserve notes. There is nothing, at least not in this law, preventing the Federal Reserve from taking a more centralized and direct role in distributing the digital Dollar. Perhaps during the next “emergency.”

And finally, the Federal Reserve Board is to be authorized to create and distribute a “ledger-based” digital Dollar that could be used for everyday transactions. There are a few technologies one could imagine, but let us for now assume this will be a blockchain. Blockchains are great for recording transactions; it is what they do.

Perhaps that is why the Federal Reserve will be authorized to do so? However, it is a bit hard to imagine that such a centralized structure would not lead to monitoring of all transactions. And what about privacy? What about security?


<Possible Outcome_
The Fed is currently not as powerful as it wants the market to believe; the Federal Reserve Act restricts a lot of its actions. This amendment, however, could drastically expand the powers of the FED, by allowing them to create and distribute a “digital USD” directly. It could change the entire structure of the financial system, with far reaching consequences.

And how are digital Federal Reserve Notes to be justified in terms of the origins and authority of the Federal Reserve? If the Digital Dollar is based on a blockchain, how can they also be based on reserves?

And what mechanism will determine how funds (and how much) are added to the economy?

And where and how will they be distributed? Will this all be under the control of a board of seven unelected bureaucrats? And how will they control a distributed ledger of such magnitude?

This amendment has the potential to change the way the Federal Reserve operates. It is not law yet, and can still be changed. This deserves a wider discussion by economists and financial experts outside the crypto-space as well.
There's a ironic quirk in this prospect of a CBDC / Fed Digi Dollar. If the FED says they can issue a CBDC then there's far less need for the commercial banking sector. Ooowww, that will piss of the banks and they may decide to back certain crypto currencies instead of CBDCs.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Wealth Without Work

FRIDAY, SEP 24, 2021 - 01:23 PM
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via DailyReckoning.com,

Allow me to summarize the dominant zeitgeist in America at this juncture of history:
Grab yourself a big gooey hunk of happiness by turning a few thousand bucks into millions — anyone can do it as long as they visualize abundance and join the crowd minting millions.
Beneath the bravado and euphoric confidence in our God-given right to mint millions out of chump change, a secret plea lurks unspoken: Please don’t pop our precious bubble!

The big gooey hunk of happiness available to all depends on one special form of magic spell: If we don’t call the bubble a bubble, it won’t pop.

And so Wall Street shills spew endless “research” (heh) proclaiming that the forward price-earnings ratio of 21.1 will only slightly exceed past norms, and so on — in summary:
If we don’t call the bubble a bubble, it won’t pop.



Everyone’s All in on the Everything Bubble
What differentiates this bubble from the 1720 South Sea Bubble, the 2000 dot-com bubble or the 2007–08 housing bubble is: This bubble includes every asset class and has sucked the entire populace and economy into its magic maw.

The bubble has swept up housing, stocks, junk bonds, commodities, cryptocurrencies, NFTs and numerous collectibles — the bulk of America’s household assets are now firmly lodged in the maw of the Everything Bubble.

Here is a sampling of recent headlines in America:
I Turned $10,000 Into $6 Million in 6 Months
My Cat Turned $6,000 in My Robinhood Account Into $6 Million by Walking on My Keyboard
I Turned $100 My Aunt Gave Me for My Birthday Into $6 Million in One Trade, Buying Way Out-of-the-Money Calls on a Meme Stock
I Turned $23 Into $6 Million So Easily I’m Going to Sleep My Way to $60 Million
OK, so these are slight exaggerations, but the zeitgeist is very real.

The Great Illusion
Of all the mass delusions running rampant in the culture, none is more spectacularly delusional than the conviction that we can all get fabulously rich from speculation while producing nothing.

The key characteristic of speculation is that it produces nothing: It doesn’t generate any new goods or services, boost productivity or increase the functionality of real-world essentials.

Like all mass delusions, the greater the disconnect from reality, the greater the appeal. Mass delusions gain their escape velocity by leaving any ties to real-world limitations behind and by igniting the most powerful booster to human euphoric confidence known, greed.

Lost in the mania of easy wealth from speculative trading is the absence of any value creation in the rotation churn of moving bets from one table to the latest hot game:

In flipping houses sight unseen, no functionality was added to the house. In transferring bets on one cryptocurrency to another or from one meme stock to another, no value to the economy or society was created.

In the mass delusion that near-infinite wealth can be generated without producing anything, creating value has no value: The delusion is that I can get rich producing nothing but speculative gains, and then I can buy all the stuff somebody else is making.

Work Is for Suckers
The fantasy powering the speculative frenzy is once I get rich, I’ll stop working and live off my wealth. It’s interesting, isn’t it, how everyone can get rich via unproductive speculation, quit their jobs and then live off the productive work of somebody else who failed to get rich off speculation? The Great Illusion.

Maybe that’s why all the containerships are lined up at Long Beach, waiting to unload the goodies made in China for American speculators to buy.

This is what happens when the incentive structure of the economy decays so that being productive has little upside (i.e., working is for chumps) while speculating is all upside (get rich quickly and easily).

Everyone knows great empires became great by transferring their critical supply chains to competing nations, living it up on borrowed/printed money, exploiting the highest bidder wins regulatory/governance system and incentivizing speculation while pushing wage earners into debt-and-tax servitude.

Bone up on your history, Bucko; all great nations got there by quitting boring, tiresome productive work to speculate on illusions of value with borrowed money.

A System That Optimizes Corruption
This is the result of monopolies and cartels becoming the financial and political power centers of the nation.

They end up treating employees as chattel to lower costs, offshoring critical supply chains to squeeze out a few more dollars of profits, engineering products to break down (planned obsolescence), buying regulatory barriers and “free passes” and tax breaks galore with all the billions showered on financiers and other fraudsters by the Federal Reserve.

In a word, a system that optimizes corruption.

This is how you hollow out a nation and guarantee collapse. The most rewarding “skill sets” are a sociopathological obsession with maximizing profits by any means available and speculating with Fed free money for financiers.

The millions of “retail” speculators are simply picking up the cues being given by the billionaires who gained their wealth by issuing debt to fund stock buybacks and other financial manipulations.

Working for monopolies and cartels is for chumps because monopolies and cartels have zero incentive to share profits with mere employees. Their profits are made not by taking care of their workforce but by regulatory capture, artificial scarcities and financialized destruction of competition:

First, borrow billions thanks to the Fed and Wall Street, destroy the competition (for example, the taxi industry) and then, once the competition has been wiped out, jack up prices because now consumers have no choice other than another member of the cartel.

Phantom Wealth
Speculative “wealth” is phantom wealth, a flickering illusion of prosperity. All speculative bubbles pop, and all speculative bubbles inflated by borrowed money and central bank manipulation pop even more ferociously than bubbles funded by actual savings.

By incentivizing speculation and corruption, reducing the rewards for productive work and sucking wages dry with inflation, America has greased the skids to collapse. As with all mass delusions, the incentives to continue believing are immense, and the incentives to reconnect with reality are few.

So in conclusion: The speculative gains to be made in the collapse of the mass delusion will be spectacular. There’s nothing like the collapse of a hollowed-out, completely corrupt economy to generate outsized profits for nimble speculators.

Just keep your speculative winnings on Number 22 on the roulette wheel. (A Casablanca movie reference….)
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyP0nYD6XWA
16:28 min

Our economy is collapsing BY DESIGN: ‘Everything is about to change’

Sep 24, 2021


Glenn Beck


Glenn continues to warn that soon you won’t recognize your country. Everything is about to change, he says, and especially in relation to our economy — which Glenn says is being pushed into a second-world type of economy BY DESIGN. Costco is limiting items to counteract supply chain challenges, rural roads soon may mirror those in Cuba, and a digital dollar is likely on the horizon. We’re in a war, Glenn says, and the longer it lasts, the less you’ll remember what our old ‘normal’ used to be…
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Major Italian media personality calls out vaccine passports, Great Reset, Pope Francis

Starting October 15, all Italian employees — private and public — will be forced to partake in the Green Pass framework in order to go to work.

Featured Image
Carlo FrecceroYouTube screenshot
Kennedy
Hall


Fri Sep 24, 2021 - 2:42 pm EDT

(LifeSiteNews) — Carlo Freccero is a tour de force in Italian media circles. On both national television and in print, he referred to the goals of what is known as the Great Reset, stating that Pope Francis himself is “a man of the reset.”

Freccero is a journalist, author, television critic, director and former executive. For years he worked for state broadcaster Rai in various roles of an executive and directorial nature. He headed up the national television channel Rai 2 between 1996 and 2002, and again from 2018 until 2019. He has been involved in Italian politics and has worked as a professor.
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Freccero has signed on to an Italian movement calling for a referendum on the proposed “Green Pass” legislation. Starting October 15, all Italian employees — private and public — will be forced to partake in the Green Pass framework in order to work. If they fail to comply, they could be suspended or lose their employment. Workers in Italy will have to show proof of vaccination, a negative test, or proof they have recovered from the virus.

The Green Pass is currently used for travel purposes in Italy, and was put in with the intent of allowing foreign travelers to support Italy’s massively important tourism sector. Currently, workers in health care and education already must show their Green Pass in order to work.

Carlo Freccero believes this is overreach on behalf of the government. In Italy, if 500,000 signatures are obtained, a referendum on a given issue must be held. Freccero and the others who have signed on to the petition to force a referendum believe that Italians are having their constitutional rights violated by the maneuvering from the Draghi government.

The website hosting the signature campaign states: “The Green Pass, in fact, excludes from the economic and social life of the nation those citizens who hold beliefs and evidence other than those imposed by the Government. For this reason, the legislation establishing the Green Pass is in stark contrast to Article 3 of the Constitution, according to which ‘All citizens have equal social dignity and are equal before the law, without distinction of sex, race, language, religion, political opinions, personal and social conditions. It is the task of the Republic to remove economic and social obstacles which, by limiting the freedom and equality of citizens, prevent the full development of the human person and the effective participation of all workers in the political, economic and social organization of the country.’”

Since publicly voicing his support for liberty in Italy, Freccero published an open letter in the newspaper La Stampa which garnered national attention. In the letter, he spoke directly of the Great Reset, and it his opinion that the Green Pass is a method of corralling citizens into discriminatory groups that set the stage for the eventual reset. He wrote: “My role is that of a communication expert and, as such, I could not help but notice the massive propaganda and disinformation campaign conducted by the mainstream media with a unanimity that is unprecedented in the history of the country.”

He believes Italian media are complicit in the plan to impose the goals of the Great Reset, which he described in a television interview as being consistent with the Chinese Communist system.

During the interview, which took place in prime time on major Italian network Mediaset, Freccero explained the outline of the Great Reset.
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He acknowledged that people might want to brush off talk of a reset as being a “conspiracy theory,” but insisted that the information was public by holding up a series of books written about the Great Reset by men like Klaus Schwab. The hostess agreed that it was not a clandestine conspiracy, and she herself held up pages of text pointing to the research she had read on the matter in order to prepare for the interview.

Freccero explained that the goal of the Great Reset is a future governed by “an elite … not by a political party but by an elite, a financial elite, a technocratic elite … after the American fashion of big tech and big pharma.” He added that the elite are creating a world “that we already find in the Orient, that is China.”

Palombelli agreed with Freccero and said “this is a project, this is very clear,” which means to say that she distinguished it from a secret conspiracy for which there is no evidence. She asked Freccero if Italy was destined for the same plight as China, and if there was anyone who could contradict the desires of the Great Reset advocates in Italy. He responded that there are “two worlds,” one of “reasonable and rational” people and another of people who accept government propaganda and participate in group-think. He stressed that the two worlds need to speak with one another somehow, and that the referendum on the Green Pass was a method by which Italians could come together and discuss the pertinent issues of degrading Italian rights and freedoms.

In the interview, Freccero also brought up Event 201, which simulated a fictional pandemic and took place only a few months prior to the real coronavirus pandemic. He believes this is evidence that the elite are using the pandemic as an excuse to implement globalist and elitist initiatives that they already planned for.

Freccero was also interviewed by Italian publication Il Foglio. In the interview he told journalist Salvatore Merlo, “I am not a conspirator. It is they who are plotting. I read and quote documents. I find out that the elite want to impose new forms of control on people, to turn the West into China through health policy. And then because I tell this conspiracy, trying to document it, I automatically become a conspirator. It’s an undue logical step.”

In the same interview he said that he believes Pope Francis is in league with the elites of Davos who want to impose the Great Reset. He said: “Not Benedict XVI but Bergoglio. He accepts this system, this contemporaneity. Everything is consequential. Everything holds together. It is clear.”

At the end of the television interview, a contributor relayed information that Italian Prime Minster Mario Draghi spoke to the U.N. and expressed his desire that the world implement a joint Economic and Health Board that would work to respond to and prevent pandemics on a global scale.
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Freccero and the hostess chuckled, and Freccero said: “Thank you Draghi, thank you. You see how they are moving forward with a world government?” Acknowledging that critics would say he sounded unhinged, he said: I am playing with my reputation … but I thank you for the invite, because the same Draghi, did nothing other than prove what I said.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Radical Greta Thunberg Rips ‘Hypocrisy’ of Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ Agenda at Climate Change Protest in Berlin
25
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks to demonstrators taking part in a Fridays for Future global climate strike in Berlin on September 24, 2021, two days ahead of the German federal election. - Activists of the movement demonstrate worldwide and in over 350 German cities to call for structural changes …
JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images
NICK GILBERTSON25 Sep 2021277

Radical climate change activist Greta Thunberg slammed President Joe Biden at a climate change protest in Berlin on September 24.

Thunberg scoffed at Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda and suggested that the President’s rhetoric is only meant to pacify far-left activists who want to enact climate change.

“And now, as we move out of the pandemic, many are talking about using this as an opportunity for a green, sustainable recovery, whatever that means,” she said. “And world leaders are talking about ‘building back better,’ promising green investments, and setting vague and distant climate targets in order to say that they are taking climate action.”

Her comments come on the heels of President Biden’s address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 21, in which Biden outlined his plan to achieve zero-net-energy emissions by 2050.

“In April, I announced the United States’ ambitious new goal under the Paris Agreement: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the United States by 50 to 52 percent, below 2005 levels by 2030, as we work toward achieving a clean energy economy with net-zero emissions by 2050,” Biden said. “And my administration is working closely with our Congress to make critical investments in green infrastructure and electric vehicles, that will help us lock in progress at home toward our climate goals.”

Though Biden explained his goals of an economic overhaul over the next three decades, his plan fails to satisfy Thunberg’s concerns. “The fact that we are in a crisis that we cannot build, buy, or invest our way out of seems to create some kind of collective mental short-circuit among the people in power,” Thunberg added. “And the longer that they pretend that we can solve the climate crisis within today’s system, the more invaluable time we will lose.”

“But even if we ignore that fact, when you look at what we are actually investing the money – the money that supposed to be building back better – it shows the hypocrisy of our leaders” she explained. “It turns out that the green recovery they are talking about isn’t so green after all.”

Thunberg went on to express that “no political party is doing close to enough, but it’s even worse than that. Not even their proposed commitments are close to being in line with what would be needed to fulfill the Paris Agreement.”

“If we want to ensure a safe presence and future on planet earth, we need to be active Democratic citizens and go out on the streets like we are doing today,” she said. “We must keep going into the streets and we must keep demanding our leaders to take real climate action.”
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Welcome To The Central Bank Hotel, Once Inside You Can Never Leave

SATURDAY, SEP 25, 2021 - 01:00 PM
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Central bank digital currencies are on the way. The German Central Bank just embraced a digital euro. Let's discuss the risks...



Fintech and Global Payments
Jens Weidmann, president of the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank gave the opening speech at the digital conference “Fintech and the global payments landscape – exploring new horizons

Exploring a Digital Euro
The title of Weidmann speech was Exploring a Digital Euro.

Emphasis mine with my thoughts in braces [ ]
Paper money, for instance, was first introduced in China about a thousand years ago. This innovation eventually transformed the payments system. Today, digitalisation is on the cusp of overhauling payments.

Central banks have to work out how to respond to this challenge. One possibility is the issuing of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). According to a survey by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the share of central banks conducting work on CBDC for general or wholesale use rose to 86% last year. Many of them have made significant progress.

Two months ago, the Eurosystem launched a project to investigate key questions regarding the design of a CBDC for the euro area. The aim of the investigation is to prepare us for the potential launch of a digital euro. Experiments have already shown that, in principle, a digital euro is feasible using existing technologies.

As my ECB colleague Fabio Panetta has stressed, a digital euro would have “no liquidity risk, no credit risk, no market risk,” in this way resembling cash.

[No Risk? Really]

The protection of privacy would thus be a key priority in terms of maintaining people’s trust. European data protection rules would have to be complied with.

Nevertheless, a digital euro would not be as anonymous as cash. In order to prevent illicit activities such as money laundering or terrorist financing, legitimate authorities would have to be able to trace transactions in individual, justified cases.

[Every Case]

But designing CBDC involves curbing its risks. In order to prevent excessive withdrawals of bank deposits, it has been suggested that a cap be placed on the amount of digital euro that each individual can hold. Or that digital euro holdings in excess of a certain limit could be rendered unattractive by applying a penalty interest rate.
[No Risk? I thought you said there was no risk.]

If a digital euro were accessible for non-residents, this could impact on capital flows and euro exchange rates. What this calls for is international and multilateral collaboration.

[Wait a second, is this another risk?]

Self-reinforcing loops and “lock-in” effects may tie users to one platform and exclude competitors. Some observers have been reminded of “Hotel California”, the famous song by the American rock band “The Eagles”: it’s such a lovely place, with plenty of room; but once inside you can never leave.

[Hotel Central Bank: Once inside you can never leave.]

The Eurosystem has no commercial interest in user data or behaviour. A digital euro could therefore help to safeguard what has always been the essence of money: trust.

[Ah yes, trust that interest rates won't go even more negative, money won't expire, and withdrawals won't be capped].

Central banks need to be at the cutting edge of technology. Otherwise, they cannot provide the backbone of payment systems and offer safe and trusted money for the digital age.
This has prompted all major central banks to start exploring issuance of CBDC. However, our success as a money creator will depend not so much on speed, but on the trust of those who are supposed to use the money.
Europe Moving Ahead
It appears Europe is moving ahead faster than the Fed.

The risks are obvious.
  • Expiring Money
  • Increasingly Negative Interest Rates
  • Withdrawals Capped
  • Withdrawals Taxed
  • Gifts Taxed
And once inside you can never leave.

Livin' it up at the Hotel Fedifornia has a nice ring to it. ECBifornia isn't as catchy.

View: https://youtu.be/FVsbvFkhzY4
6:41 min
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Buchanan: The Coming Climate Crisis Shakedown In Scotland

SATURDAY, SEP 25, 2021 - 09:20 AM
Authored by Pat Buchanan,

“Follow the money!”
The old maxim is always sound advice when assessing the motives of those advancing bold agendas for the benefit of mankind.

Invariably, the newest progressive idea entails a transfer of wealth from the taxpaying classes of Western nations to our transnational, global and Third World elites.

For the masters of the universe, establishing justice and equality for the world’s poor are rewarding exercises in every sense of the word.

Consider the 2015 Paris climate accords.

Its declared goal: Save the planet from the ravages of climate change, which is caused by carbon dioxide emissions, which are produced by industrial nations with too many of the world’s factories, farms, ships, planes and autos.

Under the Paris accords, wealthier nations of the West were to set and meet strict national targets for reducing their carbon emissions.

Together, these reductions were to prevent any rise in the planet’s temperature of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

This was presented as the world’s last best hope of preventing a climate catastrophe in this century.

Among the warnings the climate has been sending us:

The melting of polar ice caps, killer hurricanes, droughts, wildfires such as we had this year in California, river floods in Europe, rising sea levels, and the swamping of coastal towns, cities and islands like the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.

With the apocalypse thus laid out if we failed to act, there arose the inevitable question: How much hard cash would the global elites and their Third World clients be needing from the West — to grant the West an absolution for its past sins of carbon emissions?

Answer: The rich nations would fork over $100 billion yearly to repair damage done by climate change to the poorer nations and to compensate them for reorienting their energy dependence away from coal, oil and gas, to greener forms like sun, wind and water.

But in 2016, an inconceivable event aborted the Paris climate scheme. The Americans elected Donald Trump. Calling the Paris deal a rip-off of his country, Trump swiftly pulled the U.S. out of the accords.

Upon what grounds?

Put simply, America First.

Under the Paris accords, the U.S. was to cut back carbon emissions annually and contribute the lion’s share of the $100 billion annual wealth transfer for the developing world.

Meanwhile, China, the world’s number one polluter, if carbon dioxide is a pollutant, was to be permitted to increase its carbon emissions until 2030. Thus, today, China is responsible for 28% of world carbon emissions, while the U.S. contribution is half of that, and falling.



Came then President Joe Biden, who immediately reentered the Paris deal.
In April, he pledged to pony up $5.7 billion as a payment on our share of the $100 billion. At the U.N. last week, he pledged to double that contribution to $11.4 billion. Congress has yet to appropriate either sum.

China’s game? Beijing is suggesting that it wants to stay cooperative. “China will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad,” pledged Chinese President Xi Jinping in prerecorded remarks to the U.N. General Assembly.

Yet, as the New York Times writes, in 2020, China “built more than three times more new coal power capacity than all other countries in the world combined, equal to ‘more than one large coal plant per week.'”

Yet there are trade-offs here.

Those Chinese coal-fired plants in poorer nations do contribute to global carbon emissions. But such coal plants also enable the peoples of Asia and Africa to enjoy the benefit such plants produce — electricity, heat, light. These can make life far better for 21st-century Asians and Africans, just as coal and oil made life better for 19th- and 20th-century Americans.

In Glasgow from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12, the U.K.’s Boris Johnson will host the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26.

There, new demands will be made on the Americans, both for more money and new reductions in carbon emissions.

A paradigm, a pattern, has been long set.
Brand the U.S. as history’s great producer of carbon dioxide. Depict the Second and Third Worlds as victims of American self-indulgence. And get on with the shakedown. Demand more money. Castigate the Americans by calling Biden’s $11.4 billion a pittance, not enough.

One wonders: Among the climate elites, how many will be traveling to Glasgow on commercial and private jets, and how many will be battling climate change by arriving by boat, bus or bicycle?

If this New World Order crowd wanted both to set an example and cut the carbon footprint, why not do a virtual summit?

As for the Chinese, we should probably be prepared for one of those “offers they can’t refuse”:
“If you Americans want China’s cooperation on climate change, you might want to cut back your propaganda about the ‘Wuhan virus,’ Hong Kong, the South China Sea, Taiwan and those allegations of ‘genocide’ against the Uyghurs.”
 
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